Diabl0's House

New toys

2012-01-19T20:49:00.007-05:00

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

2012-01-13T10:04:00.002-05:00

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

2012-01-12T15:28:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-10T15:54:00.002-05:00

Another tourney win

2012-01-09T09:40:00.004-05:00

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)

2012-01-03T10:50:00.004-05:00

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

2011-06-08T14:12:00.002-04:00

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

2011-05-31T14:05:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-27T11:33:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-26T01:01:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-05-19T11:23:00.004-04:00

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

2011-05-17T09:40:00.003-04:00

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...

2011-05-13T15:08:00.005-04:00

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

2011-04-11T14:42:00.003-04:00

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!

2011-04-05T15:08:00.002-04:00

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.

last 2 weekends

2010-12-06T14:28:00.003-05:00

OK, gotta make it short...

Thanksgiving weekend was great. Cooked an amazing bird with all the trimmings. Gravy was bad-ass. Garlic/cheddar mashed potatoes were a slice of heaven.

Hit up Rivers Casino on Friday with Caprice, TK, Eddie J, Meats, Grayday, and even Dohar rolled in from DC. Here's my report, posted on the CPMG board:

My numbers...

Poker: Up $447
Blackjack: Up $165
Slots: Down $40

My girlfriend was up $230 at blackjack on a $20 buy-in.

Most of my poker winnings were from 1 drunk guy that gifted 2 buy-ins to me. I had taken most of his first $300 when I look down at ACES. I raise to $12 UTG, get 1 caller until it gets to the drunk guy, and he shoves almost $80 on top. I call and I hold up against his 88. He also called someone another guy's $32 all-in with 7-10 sooted. He only re-bought for a hundo, added about $50 to it, then gave it all to me after I hit top-top, raise him after the flop, called his re-raise, then call his shove on the turn. He flopped bottom pair.

For the record, I only had quads once yesterday. Stacked some old lady.

I had a really timid/docile table. I kept playing above everyone's comfort level, throwing out hefty bets and raises. It worked well.

The buffet I kept hearing so many great things about was NOT worth $26.95.

So Saturday at Dave's, I drank too much, tilted out, and gave back a shitload of my profit from last week. Tried to bluff BC off top pair in the tourney. He has NEVER folded to me in a tourney. Some people cannot be bluffed.

The rest of the weekend was great too. Spent most of it with Caprice. Spent all week with her, and about 90% of this past weekend. We're pretty close these days.

Also this week I watched the Cavs get smoked by LeBron, watched the Browns win 2 in a row, had Caprice and her kids over for GLEE! on Tuesday (after her cable box died), went to the Bay teachers' Christmas party (which is always pretty lame), and went to hear centuries-old Christmas carols by Quire Cleveland. Good stuff. Me and caprice took our moms and her stepdad. Had some Christmas Ale at GLBC.

Tonight...Dentist at 6, then off to get $1 steaks and High Life's at Pearl Rd Tavern, provided the roads are OK. I'm still working on getting the Jeep into my name and getting plates on it. That will be sweet to drive this winter.

This weekend...my tourney. I'm gonna chef up some beef stew or other hearty winter fare.

Finally

2010-11-25T11:27:00.002-05:00

I'm about to get kicking in the kitchen, but wanted to get out an update. I was 2nd out of the tourney last night. QQ cracked by AK was the biggie, but I managed a $250 win at the cash game. I was $270 deep but got it together and fought my way back. Got AA a couple times. Busted DP's KK with them once. I didn't play well at first but managed to stay off tilt and keep my head straight. I really needed a win.

Something to be thankful for, certainly.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T08:56:00.009-05:00

Seems like the last few years, Thanksgiving has tossed some bad shit my way, and this year has been no exception, although things sort of worked out in the end. 3 years ago, my dad was diagnosed with cancer (which also led me to quit smoking), last year, my dad underwent a quad bypass the day before the holiday, and nearly died. That was also a bit of motivation for me to start eating a bit better and lose some weight, which I have managed to keep off for most of this year. I am down about 20 lbs.

Yesterday, I walked out to my car to go to work, and some fucking crackhead had popped the driver's side window and ransacked the inside, only taking the GPS that was in the glovebox, a cradle for my phone, phone charger, charging hub, and cables. They missed the GPS charger, those dumb fucks. I WISH they would try getting into the house while I'm home. They'll be in for a very bad day. So, I figured I would get the Jeep titled into my name and found out I can't do it without my ex wife's notarized signature, which is gonna be difficult seeing as how she has skipped the country. I am working on that, but she has been less than cooperative. Unreal. I'm saddled with a loan SHE abandoned and I'm the one putting putting her out.

So anyway, last weekend was a blast as usual. Drove to DC on Saturday and went out on the town with TK, Crina, and Dohar. Hit up some nice places and had a good time. Had brunch with everyone on Sunday and my oldest friend Sean and his wife joined us. I've known Sean since I was a baby. Cool dude. We headed home early Sunday afternoon. Next time we'll stay a weekend and see some sights. It was still fall down there too. They still had leaves on the trees and it was nice and warm. We stayed on Connecticut Ave in a really nice section of town. Great architecture.

This coming weekend I have a tourney at Dave's tonight, cooking dinner for the family tomorrow. Caprice is gonna stop by...she may be able to met my gramps if he's still hanging out with us. Cool! We want our grandparents to meet, they are both in their late 90's. Friday it's off to PIT for the day at Rivers casino. We're just gonna play some blackjack. I'd like to possibly check out downtown while we're there as well. There's another tourney at Dave's on Sat too...the deep stack. Looking forward to cashing at least once this weekend. I need the money that's for sure.

Weekend after that, on Saturday, me, Caprice, our moms, and a couple other of her family members are going to see Quire Cleveland's Christmas carol show at Trinity cathedral downtown. I went to this last year and it was pretty awesome. Check them out if you get a chance. How can you go wrong with 600 year old Christmas carols?

So, some things I am thankful for this year...
* My grandfather is still with us. He'll be 97 in a couple weeks. He's my hero.
* My dad is no longer suffering. It was pretty tough to see all the pain he went through over the past couple years.
* The rest of my family is in good health, and our relationships are strong. Pretty much anyway lol.
* I am still in the top 5 on the Player of the Year leaderboard.
* I have a fantastic girlfriend. We're in love and having a lot of fun. We're planning a future that looks very promising. She has 2 great kids that I really like. She is a breath of fresh air.

Farewell Sebring :(

2010-11-19T09:40:00.002-05:00

Sold my Sebring yesterday. Best car I ever owned. I got close to my asking price and I really needed the money for Christmas, so it works out, but I was a little bummed to see it drive off.

Upcoming weekend

2010-11-18T13:34:00.003-05:00

Looking to be another fun weekend. Harry Potter on Friday with Caprice and her kids. Movie is getting great reviews so far.

Leaving early on Saturday for DC. Gonna visit Dohar and my other friend Sean. Dinner/drinks Saturday night, Sunday brunch, maybe a little sight-seeing, then headed home. Sounds like I'll be getting football updates via the internet during the ride back.

I have put a $50 tourney on the CPMG calendar for my place on 12/11. Dave's taking Dec/Jan off, so I'll pick up a little slack. Already 5 on the wait list. Cash game to follow. Who knows if I'll even have a 'roll for it. Might have to float a loan just to play. I am due for a run though. Need to build something to play with.

I'm still wanting to have a very small stakes dealer's choice, and I am working with Dave on Chili Cookoff details. Looking like 2/5/2011...$50 tourney. We will surely need judges. I am hoping for 10 entrants again this year, that was a great turnout last year. Do I need to remind everyone who won?

We took my mom out for a birthday dinner this week. Went to Vieng's Asian Bistro at Crocker Park. Excellent Asian food. They pretty much cover all of Asia, from sushi to noodles to traditional Chinese stuff. Fresh ingredients. Good stuff.

Another great poker-less weekend!

2010-11-15T10:38:00.006-05:00

I'm starting to like NOT playing poker on the weekends. Not that I have the money to play lately anyway with the fucking extra car payment :( Lesson learned. Maybe it will be destroyed by some wonderful act of nature and I'll get out of it. Otherwise I'm gonna have to move into a cave soon, or talk MEATS into moving in to be my roommate. (JK on the latter option, sorry MEATS)

Anyway, I volunteered to help Caprice at her daughter's school lock-in event Friday night. 200+ middle schoolers beating the hell out of each other and running around. It wasn't much different than being at work actually lol. My office is outside the HS cafeteria and it's like that every day at lunch time. We didn't have to stay the entire time...her daughter hated it so we left to drop her off at her Grandmother's where we hung out for a bit, then headed back to her place.

Saturday, we left for C-bus before 2 PM and stopped by carmax to get an offer on my Eclipse, which turned out to be a joke. They didn't offer me half of what I owe on it. Ah well. We checked into the hotel then headed to Dave+Busters, right on time. Until we asked where the billiards room was that it is. Turned out we were at the wrong location. I was confident Graham would be late anyway (I've never once seen him on time for anything. Not that there's anything wrong with that), so we headed across town to the other location, and of course Graham wasn't there yet, so it all worked out. We surprised him, had apps and drinks, then played some games. Turns out I am MUCH better at basketball than Caprice is. Like 34-2. :) But she did beat me at the motorcycle racing game, just before I took all her chips at the electronic poker game. I got Graham a Barnes & Noble gift card and small bottle of Maker's, all in a nice little "Sassy Pants" gift bag. Very nice. We later stopped off at another bar to have a couple more... it was just Graham and Aaron.

Me and Caprice managed to get into the hotel jacuzzi around 1:30 after the clerk said the door was unlocked and it would be OK if we "didn't scream". We soaked and talked for about 45 min. Good times.

Got up early, yada yada, yada, (LOL) had some free hotel breakfast, and headed back home so we could head to the game. Great freaking game! Last minute CLE TD sent it to OT, where we were handed the win a few times, but got no love. We lost in the last 30 seconds...WTF!! Too many missed opportunities on both sides of the ball. Oh well it was a great game to watch and we had a lot of fun. Ran into a ton of people I knew. We met JC at the Lizard for some chow and a Christmas Ale before taking the rapid back to 117th. Got home after 8 and crashed by 9:30, totally exhausted.

All weekends should be as fun! One of these days I'll get back to the cash game. it would be great to put a 'roll together and make a nice run again, I can use the scratch. I'm growing weary of paying for stupid shit my ex has screwed me on. What a financial train wreck.

Someone buy this from me!

2010-11-11T15:59:00.003-05:00

$775 total a month in car payments makes jack a dull boy.

Holy smokes what a weekend!

2010-11-09T13:09:00.002-05:00

Good times, good times.

Had a great Friday night and Saturday morning/afternoon with Caprice. Just stayed in Friday night. Talked her into the HTC EVO and a new Sprint contract, and she seems pretty happy with it. Nice freaking phone. I'm pretty sure I'm going Android when my contract is up, provided I can still get my favorite podcasts.

Saturday, she and I met some of the CPMG gang for drinks at Quaker Steak before going to Dave's. She just kinda hung out and watched a while. I'll teach her how to play sometime soon and get her into the donkaments over there. I ended up making the final table and finished 8th or 9th. Played well overall. Got lucky once with 99 against Reigler's 10-10. I also called a huge river bet by Gary at my first table. I had AQ-high to his J-high. Ship it. He doesn't seem to have the ability to slow down.

I ended up going out with 10's vs JJ.

Went to a great Browns game Sunday. Great win. Good times. Christmas Ale.

Tonight... Melt Bar and Grilled in Lakewood! Graham's party and the Browns-Jets game this weekend. Caprice will be joining me for all the festivities. She'll get to listen to me and Graham tell 25-year old stories. Woo! We're having a blast together, she's very cool.

You've got mail!

2010-11-04T17:36:00.001-04:00

Got this in the mail recently..from Stan, the guy that helped open Kennedy's and Gemini club. Might have to check it out sometime.

Update, and weekend preview

2010-11-04T16:12:00.005-04:00

I am so freaking tired this week! My cold is winding down and almost gone, but that was the biggest reason I'm dragging, along with a general lack of sleep, but the lack of sleep has been for good reasons :) Caprice and I changed our Facebook status' too! Very exciting. Things are going well.

So Monday I went out with Slacks, Gross, BC, Hip, ...and maybe another 1-2 guys to watch MNF and eat $1 steaks at Pearl Rd Tavern in Clevetown. Not a bad place, but the neighborhood could be better. The cheap steaks were decent. If you get more than 1, you have to get a $3.50 side. I got the mash/gravy, which was damn good. They were real, and they were spectacular. The pic with the pissing chick is a huge 8' mural in the men's room. File that one under WTF???

So I got home late Monday night after stopping to see Caprice. We'd seen each other every day since our first date on the 22nd, and the streak just ended last night after 12 days. Stayed until pretty late on Tuesday night as well.

So Wednesday, I really wanted to stay home and veg, read my new book (I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, which is great so far. I have many similar stories, lol) and maybe catch up on some Netflix videos I have stacked up, but later in the day at work I was feeling a bit better so decided to join the gang for trivia. New gang this week too. Mr John Coleman was there along with Doug Poker and TK. Meats brought his friend Dave. We were in 2nd place going into the final question, bet it all, and came up busto. Ah well, we gave it a shot. Good times either way. Stopped by a packed Train Station on the way home and ran into Candy Weese-Simpson. Hadn't seen her in a while but we laughed about Rob's wedding story and my sweaty suit. Ask me to tell you the story sometime.

2 great weekends coming up! Get to hang with Caprice much of this weekend along with some poker and the Browns-Pats game on Sunday. Stag day at the stadium...Me, Ray, Mark, and Kurt. Game on!

Gonna cook for Caprice Friday night to show off my mad skills. We'll probably just stay in. Saturday we might go phone shopping for her, she wants to sign up with Sprint. I'm recommending an HTC EVO...sweet Droid phone.

Next weekend Caprice is coming to the Browns-Jets game with me. Should be fun.

Oh! The Black Friday Road Trip is returning! I set it up on the calendar and I think we have 8 people going so far, should be a blast. We're gonna hit up Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh. No way I'm driving if it snows! LOL, you've heard that story.

More poker news...I want to have a very low stakes, 6-drink minimum game at my place sometime in December while Dave is on break. I may even toss in a 2-table $50 donkfest as well.

That's about it for now. Life is good.

Misc pics

2010-11-01T14:48:00.008-04:00

Pics from this summer...that's Slacks dressed up as Ginger from Gilligan's Island.

New girlfriend, Halloween weekend, tourney cash

2010-10-31T11:38:00.004-04:00

So, I've met someone! We went out for the first time last Friday and have seen each other every day since, so I think it's safe to say that things are going well. We went to Pier W...fantastic restaurant. Get the Heller Estates organic Cabernet. Fucking yummy! Great moonlit night too.

Her name is Caprice, she lives in Lorain (not far from Dave's), she's a tutor in the process of getting her teaching certificate, she's smart, funny, cute, and actually laughs at the stupid shit I say. She is creative in a Martha Stewart kinda way and has a great place. She has 2 daughters, 14 and 10. She makes the best ham sandwich you've ever tasted. Even if you wanted turkey. She has an amazing smile. A few of the guys met her on movie night Thursday.

Poker... 2nd place at Dave's last night. Only 2 tables, but the rebuy structure, once the rebuys were over, allowed for some decent play. I rebought twice and added on. Quintupled after the last rebuy when I hit my open ender against a set, a wheel straight, and a flush draw. Went heads-up with MEATS and we were about even going in. He caught me on a bluff and called a river bet where I missed a draw and he had a pair. He later got me to lay down KQ on a AKx board where he had a flush draw, then we both caught pairs when I had KQ again vs his A9, and he took it down. I think we were heads-up for 30-45 min. Great game Meatsie. I didn't play the cash game.

I got my Sebring cleaned up and ready to sell. I've had 2 hits so far. I may also have someone to take over payments on the Jeep I've been saddled with. Decided to keep my Eclipse instead.

Oh! and I joined the Powerhouse Gym yesterday. Gotta get my gym on for the winter. $80 for 3 months for a gym within walking distance was a no-brainer.

What's up!!

2010-10-19T15:07:00.003-04:00

Well, not much to speak of poker-wise but...2 cashes (along with a 1st place win) at Dave's have put me on the leaderboard, and I won a couple buy-ins in Florida, where I went to vacation last week, but other than that I haven't really been playing much. There are so many other cool, new, and interesting things going on in my life right now that I barely even think about playing cards any more. It's just a game Focker!

No one in the CPMG has gone/is going pro, including me, and I came to realize that a very long time ago. The core players in the group are certainly above average, but no one is at the pro level. I am happy that I am no longer obsessed with the game. I can see it in so many other players, and I actually feel bad for them. Ease up! Take a non-Vegas, non-casino vacation! My Florida trip was great...I hit the beach, went jet skiing on the ocean, river, and swamp, ate some great meals, rolled through GA at around 100 MPH, yada yada yada... there is just so much more going on in this world than those same 52 cards, over and over! I am still going to play, but it's just not as important to me as it once was. Sure, I like the game more when I'm winning, who doesn't? I just refuse to let losses bother me. LUCK IS NOT PERSONAL!!

More to follow in the days/weeks ahead. I'll try to get some pics up from my trip, along with my "stranded in the swamp" report. That beat the fuck out of even the best of poker outings, lol. Oh, and I got a speeding ticket in VA on the way back...80 in a 65...gonna cost $150...ouch! Glad they didn't get me on the way down :)

Weekend

2010-08-22T21:23:00.002-04:00

Lost at TK's on Friday. Played for an hour. Fuck poker. I think I've missed something like 25 straight and flush draws during this run of shit.

Did 30 miles on the bike Saturday down on the towpath. That was much more fun and burned 1400+ calories.

Slacksfest, coming up next weekend, should be a great time. I'm not even playing cards. Just gonna fish and relax.

Camping pics

2010-08-17T10:41:00.003-04:00

Enjoy a few pics from last weekend...

What a ride

2010-08-16T14:57:00.010-04:00

First off, I played Julie's tourney on Friday. Folded a lot, missed some flops, doubled with a short stack, then shoved again a few hands later with 77 and lost to Colin's river Q, he had AQ. Ah well. Nothing too interesting to report. I love Julie's basement though, it's like a meat locker down there.

So Sat and Sunday I did the MS-150 Pedal to the Point bike ride. What a blast. Day 1 (75 miles each day), I pedaled along at my own pace, a little worried about my knee, which usually acts up around 20-ish miles. I stopped at every rest stop, which was about every 10-12 miles, and stretched out, ate a couple orange wedges, and re-hydrated. The ride was well-supported with cars/motorcycles up and down the route, checking intersections, watching for breakdowns, or helping with medical situations. The lunch break was at the LCJVS, and I rolled in around 10:30. Ate a good lunch, freshened up with more SPF-50 sunblock, and pedaled out. I had trailed behind my team by about a half hour by that point. They all had fantastic bikes or were in better shape, or both. A handful of our 20-person team opted for the 100-mile first day. Joe, a 56 year-old retired teacher and cross country coach, did the 100 miles and finished as fast as many of the fastest 75-milers. Just nuts. I was by myself just about the entire trip, but talked to many people along the way. I also had Jim Morrison, Eric Clapton, Janis Joplin, and Robert Plant to keep me company, even though my iPhone started the day with a 50% charge. It did die pretty quick, especially with the GPS app I was running to chart the ride. (SEE DAY2 MAP HERE) I lost GPS signal or the battery went dead around 60 miles. I averaged almost 13 MPH even with a few stops where I forgot to pause the app, which is pretty good, although the people with nice road bikes were doing like 18 MPH.

There were over 2500 riders, I am pretty sure. Our group raised the most in the "schools" category, with over $6300 in donations. There were riders of every type. I saw people on mountain bikes, beat-to-shit Huffy's, tandems, and even heard there was a guy on a unicycle, but didn't see him. He must have been going faster than me.

So after lunch, the heat really started to get to me. At around 50 miles, I was beginning to think I wouldn't make it. I began squirting water on my head, neck, and chest, which really helped, and I took a few impromptu rest stops where others had stopped. Many were at the top of big hills. I only walked up 1 hill where I got a slow start. I got passed by a guy with 1 pedal. Twice. He must have stopped ahead of me somewhere, because after he passed the 1st time, he rolled by again later. Nice bike, but he must have busted a pedal, or was just up to the 1-pedal challenge. I also saw a guy with 1 leg. You go man.

So, I finished day 1 at around 3:15, in the rain, which was a welcome relief. Didn't pour, but I got about 45 min of it. Most of my team was done 2 hrs earlier. I wasn't there to race, I just wanted to live through it and finish. I honestly thought there was no way I'd finish the 2nd day. It was supposed to be just as hot.

After the ride, we hung around the Rodeway Inn pool and drank a few. I got a ride back home because I had to take care of the dog. I washed my riding clothes and slept in my own bed, which was nice. Asleep by 9:00, I was up at 4:30 Sunday and back in Sandusky at 6 am. We all had breakfast at Jolly Donut. Mmmmm...

Just after starting, I immediately felt better than I had the first day. Partly mental I'm sure, but I was making killer time compared to the day before. I also wanted to kick out as many miles as possible before the heat turned up, which it seemed to early on Sunday, around 10:30, which is when I got to the lunch stop, which was about 10 miles further than day 1. I had a bruise show up out of nowhere on my left forearm, I'm guessing just from leaning on the handlebars so long.

I ate a smaller lunch, because I knew it would feel like my body temp was higher from the digestive process. I also shortened each break. Getting back on the bike after each break was a little scary. You feel wobbly and the road feels spongy. Takes a while to get your bike legs back.

So, feeling pretty good, I decided I was going for it. No way I was gonna quit. 2 stops after break, there was supposed to be another stop 2 miles up the road, so I decided to skip the closest and hit the next one in a few minutes. My water bottle was empty and it was getting HOT. Someone the day before said the road surface was 110 degrees. So after a couple miles, no rest stop. I asked another biker and he said they had changed it (and told no one) and set it up another 8 miles down. Ugh...no water. So I trudged along, and took my time. After finally getting there, I really soaked myself with water, drank a couple extra cups of Gatorade, and stretched out good, before applying more sunblock. With 11 miles to go, I rolled out of the last stop feeling pretty refreshed. The last leg wasn't bad at all, but I did run into a couple from the team who'd stopped to fix the 3rd flat between them that day. We hit the finish line around 2:30 pm. Woo! I really didn't think I'd do it. 2 days, almost 160 miles total ride miles. Sweet.

Now I'm hooked. I feel fine today, just a tad sore, but not bad at all. I'm gonna hit the bike path by my house and get a 20-miler in before going to the movies with the CPMG crew tonight. I'm also planning my next ride, probably 38 miles on the towpath this weekend, and another 75 miles in Sept for another charity. I raised over $400 for the MS Society.

Some other notes...I need new, quality riding gloves. The pair I have, I bought for my solo road trip to Vegas back in 2007, and they are in bad shape. I also need better riding shorts. I've washed this pair about 6 times and they are falling apart. They are padded, but boxer-style, which beats the spandex look. I also need some different shoes, even sneakers. My Keen sandals were fine for normal weather, but when they get damp, my feet really slide around on the pedals. Another thing...helmets suck! I understand the need for safety, but mine just cooked my brain all day.

There was a team called "Flight Options" that passed me a few times, and I even rode with for a while. They were mostly pilots from what I could gather, and they were crazy, cool, and having a ton of fun. They were in great shape. The fastest in their group would ride ahead, block intersections, let the group pass, and catch back up with them. Then it would be the next guy's turn. They did it well.

I also missed the team photo, along with 1 other team member. I was off filling up my water bottles.

My biking app says I burned well over 9000 calories over those 2 days, so I guess I can eat anything I want for the next few weeks :)

Nothing in the poker dept

2010-08-12T14:45:00.003-04:00

Not much happening poker-wise the last couple weeks. Went camping with friends last weekend, spent a few hours in the ER with what I thought at first were kidney stones, but ended up being nothing they could figure out. (I'm fine now BTW) Missed the CPMG shootup event as a result. I had the guns all packed in my car and ready to go.

This weekend, I'll be biking 150 miles over 2 days for the Pedal to the Point fundraiser. I've raised over $400 for the MS Society.

Other than that, work is kicking my ass, as it always does this time of year.

2 weeks until Slacksfest 2010!

Great weekend, but another loss

2010-08-02T09:11:00.002-04:00

Had 15 players over for my tourney on Saturday. Cooked some great wings on the grill and had a good time, but my KQ failed to hold up vs TK's AK in the tourney, and after a few too many Bud Lights, I got smacked in the cash game as well. Play ended just after 4 am. We even had a HA game going for a little while.

I had about 10 B's left when I shoved against TK, who took a while to call. I actually thought I was ahead when he finally pushed his chips in. Wrong.

Caveman and Matt S were 1st and 2nd, with Cheryl taking 3rd. Matt won Julie's the next day. He's pretty aggressive. I found in the cash game that playing back at him will get that under control. He seems to know when to fold.

Some notes after the tourney...I definitely need a new grill. The wings took forever to cook on the one small hot spot. My AC needs to be fixed as well. Calling the landlord today. It got pretty hot but the fan and open windows helped. I will also pick up that table that eRock has offered. I'll use the big table as a tabletop for the dining room.

Slacks has put a weekend of debauchery on the calendar for his place up on Johnson's Island for the weekend of the 27th. Should be fun.

The hurt continues

2010-07-26T10:28:00.002-04:00

Down a ton (not quite 2 full buy-ins) in $2-5 at nautica last night. Nothing is holding up. KK twice, JJ, and AK resulted in big losses. Lost with top-2. Flopped the stone cold nuts with 9-10, lost to a rivered full house.

The worst part is I was playing GREAT last night. Made laydowns when I knew I was beat, or I'd have either lost a lot more, or left much earlier. The $2-5 play down there is no better than the 1-2, they just donk it up with a lot more chips. I am looking forward to getting back there as soon as my roll allows. Will not be any time soon, I have to buy a new laptop. Ugh. I am hoping to get some $$ for the dead one on eBay. Fingers crossed.

Ouch

2010-07-24T23:39:00.004-04:00

I'm down almost 6 full buy-ins over my last 3 $1-2 sessions. 2 at Nautica and the other at Colin's. Colin's was the worst. I got 3 sets busted and lost with KK twice. Beat after horrible beat.

Oh well, Nautica always pumps my roll back up eventually. Just need to hit some open-enders and flush draws, which I've had very few of lately.

Just a bad day overall. First, my iPhone crashed during an update and I had to wipe and restore it. Then I get creamed at poker. I get home to find my laptop almost completely fried. I think it may have been juiced by lightning. It only boots intermittently and even when it does it flakes out occasionally. Time to put it on eBay and get a replacement.

Win at TK's

2010-07-19T09:21:00.002-04:00

Finished up $230 at TK's over the weekend, though I was up almost $600 at one point. Had a few hands cracked...another set of 2's, straight vs. bigger straight, and nut flush by a rivered full house. I did make a few great laydowns though.

At our 7-handed table, we had quads 5 times (twice for me) and a straight flush (Pyxis)

I should have left at midnight like my little man was telling me to do, but stuck around. A $500+ win is huge for a 1-1 game. Oh well, still a win. That puts me at 10 for 13 in wins lately.

Got in a couple of bike rides this weekend too. HOT outside! Took the dog swimming on Sunday as well. Tonight: Going to see Inception at Crocker Park with the gang.

Loss at home

2010-07-16T09:17:00.003-04:00

Had a great table last night, but through poor play I managed to dump $370. Grayday brought a friend that was spewing chips left and right, but I paid him off at least twice. He was a complete racist that dropped N-bombs all night, got pretty drunk, and even lit up a smoke in my apartment near the end of the night. He didn't quite realize he had lit it I guess, but I asked him to put it out.

I made a couple other terrible calls against Chan and Mike K, and also got a few good hands busted. The first big one was my top-2 (AJ) cracked by Meats' flush, and later a set of 2's by Grayday's runner-runner flush with 10-2 sooted. Ugh.

The pasta with meat sauce turned out great, and Hip brought some donuts. We had 1 strong table until almost 2 am. Overall it was a good time. I need to get some more red chips for the set I bought off Danny C. We ran out pretty early.

After everyone left, I took my dog out for a break, and walking back toward the house I could hear a bunch of yelling/screaming. Sounded like a brawl. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from an area across the river over by a few bars over that way. Here's the story.

Something violent happens just about every weekend at one of the bars over that way.

Trivia night win

2010-07-14T23:40:00.002-04:00

Me, MEATS, Caveman, Gross/Theresa, Slacks/Gail, and Laidman all went out for dinner/drinks/trivia at Parma Tavern and took 1st place. It was a total team effort.

Caveman and Gross celebrated with a warm embrace.

Limit poker

2010-07-12T12:54:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention that I played $2-2 limit on my last 2 Nautica trips, while waiting for a NL seat. I lost about $40 the first night and won $34 the 2nd. Those were factored into my wins too.

Either way, it's pretty excruciating when you can't get all your chips in with the nuts. You bet your $2, and get 6 callers though.

2 Nautica wins

2010-07-11T13:28:00.004-04:00

Up $22 on Thursday and $243 on Saturday, with a total of about 5 hours play. I have now won 9 out of my last 11 cash sessions, going back to my blog hiatus.

Went out to see Patton Oswalt at HOB Friday night, which was a great show. The opening guy was also funny as hell. I have to find his name.

Thursday, I was $520 deep and not playing well. Made a few awful calls, and also got top-2 cracked twice by gutshot chasers. I did make a great read, calling out a guy's pocket 10's when I C-bet the flop with AK and missed. He was cool enough to show his hand. I did make another decent call, but don't recall details. Colin was at my table, and he was running bad too. I saw him miss about half a dozen flush draws and open ender's.

There was a guy overplaying every hand. I saw him re-pop with like mid pair/8 kicker! So I get AQ and make it $17 to go UTG. He calls, along with a couple others. Flop is Q34/rainbow, and I lead out with $25-30. Overplaying guy raises something like $50 on top, and I call. Everyone else leaves. I check-call $50 on the bricked turn, and check the river. He shoves with about $180, and I have him covered. I insta-call, and he gives me the blank stare. I say "I called you". He mumbles "I have a queen", and turns over 1 card. I wait for him to flip his other card, which is a 7. He's got a pr of Q's with a 7 kicker! I exclaim "That's no good...ship it!" and table top-top. Buh bye. He decided not to rebuy. Smart move. That got me back into the black, so I got outta there.

Saturday, I got $600 on the table and managed to cash $843, most of it during the last half hour I played. I chased a gutshot with over cards on 1 of them, and hit an open-ender on another. Got a guy to shove with just a pair. Cashed as soon as I got back into some profit. My play was better than Thursday's session, but still not top notch. I managed to fold a J-high flush to a nut flush, which wasn't easy.

So, I am thinking about a weeknight cash game this week at my place. Details will be on the board.

RIP Dad

2010-07-08T16:30:00.002-04:00

My dad passed away last Friday, as many of you already know. He had been in the hospital for about a week, and we'd just moved him to a nursing facility for physical therapy. He was hoping to regain enough strength to come home, but he passed away later that night, his heart finally gave out. He had battled cancer for almost 3 years and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He had a quadruple bypass back in November. 50-ish years of smoking (and many years of drinking) are not good for you. My dad was only 67, but looked much older when he passed away.

Although he never played a huge role in my life, he was always fun to be around. He was a big influence when I was very young, and then also in my late 20's, when I got to work with him quite a bit doing side jobs for his drywall business. We got to do some great fishing as well. My brother and I got to see a lot of him over the last few years while helping out around he and my grandfather's.

We'll miss you dad.

Wed night at Dave's

2010-07-01T23:17:00.002-04:00

Up $112 after a nice roller coaster ride. Found myself $230 deep after some poor play and a couple hands where I was out-kicked. Got back on top in the last orbit when I turned a set of 3's, which gave THE MEATS 2 pr with A3. I doubled up there, and won another pot before last hand. I even played props and didn't miss a card.

RISK! and dealer's choice at the Den of Sin this weekend. Should be fun.

Oh yeah, and check out Tony Bourdain's "Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook". Great book if you've ever had anything to do with the food biz. I LOVED Kitchen Confidential. Fantastic read. I've even loaned it to a retiring teacher that asked me for advice when considering opening a restaurant. He smartly decided against it.

Home field advantage

2010-06-28T11:11:00.005-04:00

Hosted my first game at the apartment Saturday, and did GREAT. Cashed $1346 on a $120 buy-in. I seemed to hit everything, and made almost no mistakes as well. My stack just got bigger as the night went on.

Colin, Uncle Bob, MEATS, Fish, Steve, DP, Mike T, Chan...I think that was all. We had 1 solid table of 8 most of the night. I prefer 7-8 handed over a table of 10. We played until after 4. The jambalaya was pretty tasty too. Next up: spaghetti and meatballs or Coleman-style hot dogs slow cooked in a crock pot with 'kraut. I might host another cash game this Thurs night.

On a personal note...My dad's been in the hospital since Thurs or Fri of last week. Thanks for all the prayers from all of you. He spent the weekend in ICU and they found a blood clot that had been causing him a lot of pain, so it's better, but they also diagnosed him with congestive heart failure. Not a big surprise for a 50-year smoker. He was puffing away outside the emergency room before he went in last week. I just got a call from a hospice about getting him in there, but haven't talked to any of the doctors about his prognosis. He's really weak and has trouble breathing. Problem is, my 96-year-old grandfather lives alone and he needs help as well. My dad, up until a couple weeks ago, pretty much took care of him. My brother and I each stop in a couple times a week to help out, but it's tough to be there as often as needed. Either way, Gramps is still in better shape than my dad.

Craigslist find of the week...I got a 10-piece set of Calphalon hard anodized cookware for $75! Goes for $250+ new, and it's all in decent shape. Last week I got an HP DV7 laptop for $350, and sold it on eBay for $430. Not as big a profit as I was hoping, but still easy money. That's it in the pic.

I also picked up a new bike a few weeks ago, and sold the GT mountain bike. It's smooth as silk. Didn't get out much last week with dad in the hospital and all the storms. We had some killer lightning last night and a completely orange sky. Very cool.

Nuatica blues

2010-06-08T23:57:00.002-04:00

Spanked for 2 1/2 buy-ins the other night. Got AA cracked by KK for $350-ish. Got it all-in on the Q high flop...K on the turn. Gambled the rest off during bingo hour. What can you do.

Pics

2010-06-03T15:04:00.005-04:00

Enjoy a few pics from the past month and a half...

Back in business!

2010-06-02T16:14:00.002-04:00

OK, posting will resume again! Been on a roller coaster ride both at the poker table and life in general. It's nice to be back.

I'll throw out some poker news here asap. Just wanted to let everyone know that the blog is returning. I never had any intention of stopping. Actually, I probably could have kept posting, I just didn't want to post dollar amounts for various reasons.

More to come!

I shoulda checked out Kennedy's new place instead

2010-04-15T09:18:00.002-04:00

Down $150 at Nautica last night. Complete roller coaster. Bad cards, below average play. I was 3 buy-ins deep and down to my last $65 at one point, so I was happy with the comeback, most of it during bingo hour before closing.

The big cooler of the night was my 2nd nut flush crushed by the nut flush. I checked-raised the draw, hit the turn, and bet the rest of the way until the nuts check-raised me. Big pot. Well-played.

I did shape up near the end of the night and started to play a little better. I sometimes forget that no one folds anything down there. Lesson learned. I hope.

Great weekend!

2010-04-12T10:01:00.003-04:00

Summary:
Friday at Colin's...up $874
Saturday at Dave's...up $303

Hit some hands and played pretty solid both nights. Spanked Eddie J on a couple decent hands, and stacked him once after smooth-calling his pre-flop raise with KK, then check-raising all-in on the J-high flop. He started to tank, and after about 30 seconds, I told him that since he hadn't called me by now, I surely had him beat. He didn't believe me. He had QQ. Got him later with AK vs (I think) KQ.

Got Prowest on a few pots as well. I used to think he was a solid player. I was wrong. WAY wrong.

I don't recall bluffing at all on Friday. Maybe once or twice at a small pot that nobody seemed to want. Didn't need to.

Took MEATS for a bunch after flopping broadway (which was the nuts). He check-raised me $75 on top of my $25, and I shoved. He had almost $200. There were a couple clubs on the board, and I put him on either the flush draw, a set, or 2-pr, so I told him he was beat. He asked me to show, so I did. He had top-top, and would have hit top-2 on the turn. If I'd known he was that weak, I'd have let him keep betting, but was happy with the size of the pot with so many big draws out there. I cashed $1074 on a single buy-in.

Colin's place is great...in a safe location, and he has plenty of room and a nice house. It was a big game, with a lot of money on the table. Glad to see he'll be hosting regularly. Gibran, Uncle Bob, Kris Rao, and Eddie J were all there...hadn't seen many of them in a long time. I met Kris and JC for some grub at Fathead's in N. Olmsted. Salad and chicken fingers for me. I clocked in at 176 lbs over the weekend, my lowest yet, and I'm now down 27 lbs.

The usual in Dave's tourney. Enough said. Had $14k at the break, then couldn't hit after that. All luck.

Was up well over $400 for quite a while in the cash game, but gave some back. Took Rob M for $300 when I turned the nuts against his flopped 2-pr. I had the double-gutter with 8-9 and he had 10-6 on a Q-10-6 flop. Turn...7! Rob is one of the luckiest players I have ever seen. He was playing crap like J5 to decent raises, out of position, and flopping trips, or hitting his kicker against top-top...stuff like that. But the luck always runs out. I was just waiting to hit a hand on him. Most of the time I don't.

Oh...and I actually bluffed Dave off a decent pot! I had nothing, but he had better nothing. Don't remember exactly...I think it was my A7 vs his AK. For once, Dave didn't hit his hand on me.

Cashed out after MEATS shoved with the nut flush draw/pr against my wheel and caught. (I think that was the hand) My little man was telling me to hit it much earlier, but I refused to listen and hung around a couple more hours. Oh well, still booked a nice win.

So, over the last month and a half or so, I have generally been playing fairly well AND my hands are holding up more often that not, so I guess you can say that I'm running good.

I picked up a decent table that I found on Craigslist over the weekend. Big wide full-size table with removable padded rail. 1 small hole in the speed cloth. I might add some padding and new speed cloth later on if I feel the need, but this table will do nicely when I start hosting. Now I have to check out Danny C's chips. He's offering a pretty sweet deal on them.

Nautica

2010-04-07T15:47:00.003-04:00

Down a buy-in and a half last night in a couple hrs, after the movie. Still Donk City down there, I just didn't play well. Hadn't been there since November. Busy. The limit tables are using chips now, and they are raking, which is much better than the hourly rate. Most of the dealers gave a little break on the rake amounts as well. Still, the dealers suck and everyone has their hands on the money. I had one guy dealing about 10-12 hands an hour. Excruciating. I just got up and moved to an open seat. No questions asked.

Either way, I'll be back to reclaim my money.

Duke wins!

2010-04-06T09:52:00.001-04:00

Great game last night, and I am not even a big basketball fan.

The Kraken is released tonight. See you at Blake's.

Sat night

2010-04-05T12:46:00.003-04:00

Up $330 in the cash game. Still no tourney love. I can't remember the last time I had a made hand in the Sat tourney. September?

So anyway, I lost 2 buy-ins by getting popped by K6 suited at Kennedy's last week. Forgot to mention where/how much. Wooo! K6 is a fucking awesome hand to call big raises with.

Go DUKE!!! I filled out a $10 bracket and now I stand to win $145 if they win tonight. Took me about 2 min to fill in the bracket. Shows you how much luck goes into sports gambling.

I guess you can say that I am running good overall lately. I am something like 6 for 7 in wins and many hands are holding up. I also seem to have my head in the game.

New formula...

2010-04-01T11:32:00.001-04:00

Raise with great cards, get called by K6 suited. Lose huge pots. That's how I roll.

FL poker players are AWFUL!!

2010-03-29T11:13:00.010-04:00

Had a nice vacation. Got to see some friends, got in some R&R, and managed to play about 20 hrs of $2-2 and $2-5NL.

Summary:
* Day 1: 4-5 hours, up $506
* Day 2: 4-5 hours, up $183
* Day 3: 9 hours, up $512

Observations:
* FL players are just terrible. In the 3 sessions I was there, it was mainly regulars, but I only met 1 guy that seemed to really know what he was doing.
* Even the Asian players were terrible. There seemed to be fewer Asians playing, but the few I encountered were awful. No aggression whatsoever, which was a huge surprise.
* There are more old people per table. It's Florida, so I guess that should be expected, but I was surprised to see how many were playing NL. One lady was probably pushing 90. I stacked her twice. She could actually play poker though! Most of the other retirees were pretty typical. They just wanted to sit and throw in their $2 on every hand.
* The "sharks" were really just donks with money.
* They spread 2-2, 2-5, and 5-10 NL games, but for each game, the max buy-in is $100!!! WTF? The higher limit players would sit there with racks of chips on the table next to them until the shove-fest slowed down after the first couple hours.
* No one seemed to cash positive. I saw a couple people, including myself, but somehow most seemed to donk it off.

OK, so Day 1, I played great and was totally in tune. I didn't lose many hands at showdown and earned a ton of respect. Hit some hands, made some timely bluffs, yada, yada, yada.
I mixed up my play pretty well, and overheard 2 guys at the other end of the table say "he raised with a flush draw!"...the other said "you aren't supposed to do that". Pure heaven. I was playing way out of everyone's comfort level, being used to $300 $1-2 buy-ins. I took full advantage.

Day 2, I started out OK and was up $350 for quite a while, and was still playing well. They were running high-hand specials throughout the day, and during the $1000 hour, I folded J6 offsuit to a small raise while I was in the BB, and would have flopped trips and rivered quads, with my J kicker playing as well. Bummer. A's full ended up being the winner, which was at our table, so I got $25 out of that.

So a while later some drunk guy sits down next to me and immediately starts giving money away with some terrible play. Except for the hands I played against him. I gave him over $100 over a few hands where he called big bets with bottom pair only to trip up on the river. I stayed a while to get it back, but he gave it away to everyone else and then left, so I cashed out up only $183.

Day 3...UGH...Started the day great again. I think I was up a couple hundred after a few hours, and was about to leave, but the friend I was visiting had a side job go long, so I stuck around. A few people sat down that were obviously friends, and 1 couple were husband/wife. The husband cannot miss, and I suddenly can't hit a hand to save my life. Got a couple big hands cracked, then tilted out and spewed chips for a few hours. This couple would call ANY raise I made, then check down after I folded. The husband checked down a nut full house to her, and I called the floor over to complain, but they didn't say much. After getting $700 deep and giving back all the profit from the past 2 days, I decided to take off, but my friend still had a couple hours until he was free...so...what's one more buy-in, right? I decide to jump to a $2-5 table, seeing some nice stacks over there. I told the couple I was done playing bingo with them, and sat down with a single hundo a few seats away. 2nd hand, I double up with KK. I made it $20 preflop, got a couple callers, and shoved on the q-10 high flop. AK called $80 with a gutshot and bricked. Chipped my way up to $485 in just over an hour. Hit top-top with AK, flushed on another hand, etc.

So I get QQ in late position, and after a bunch of limpers, I make it $25 to go, and get 2 or 3 callers. Flop is J-7-3 or 4...something close...with 2 diamonds. They all check to me, so I toss out a hundo stack. About a pot-sized bet. Old Asian lady calls, and the big stack at the table also calls...last player folds. Turn is the 10 of hearts, and they check to me. I push in my last $359. Old Asian lady insta-calls for less (I think $250-ish), and the big stack, whom I found out only has me covered by $1, goes in the tank. While he's considering, the guy next to me wants to see my hand, and all I tell him is that I have an overpair, and can't be any good after grandma Nguyen called me so fast. I figure she's gotta have a set, 2-pair, something that beats me. So, the big stack finally calls. River pairs the low card on the board, is NOT a diamond, and the old lady tables A-10 of diamonds for a pr of 10's and busted flush draw, and the other guy, now with a $1 stack and asking for a chip runner, actually shows his K9 of diamonds, and they ship me a MONSTER pot.

I played a couple more hands and racked up. I got a few jeers and complaints about the hit-and-run, but politely told them I had been there for about 9 hours and had to leave. I wasn't there to make friends.

http://www.jaxpokerroom.com/

Nice room. Lots of tables, plenty of space, very attentive staff, and the high-hand jackpots make for a lot of fun. They do not allow chopping when down to the blinds, probably because all those old folks would just sit and fold all day. TVs everywhere running sports, dog/horse racing, etc. The games stay pretty full and there were probably 12-15 tables running. I never waited more than 10 min for a seat. They are only open from noon to midnight. The BB jackpot was up to $143k.

My only complaint would have to be the food. Best thing I had over the 3 sessions was a couple of hot dogs. The BLT, tuna sandwich, and fried rice were pretty bad. Even the coffee was awful. I couldn't find a decent cup of joe anywhere I went down south.

So, I spent about $650 on my trip and made about $1200 in poker, which is sweet. More than I can say about any of my Vegas trips.

Hung out with my buddy in Charleston for a night, and my other buddy in JAX for the rest of the week. Had a monster fish fry at his bro's house. Fresh-caught fish, shrimp, oysters, homemade cole slaw, etc. Great stuff. Fell off the diet all week, but didn't go nuts either. I actually can't eat as much as I used to now.

JAX is cool, but not sure I'd want to live there. I'd have to head further south if I was gonna kick it in FL. Miami is pretty cool. Still great to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while.

...oh, and I won $40 at Dave's the other night, despite being up well over $200 after a Grayday spew-fest. We combined tables and it changed everything. TK sat down and immediately took over a hundo from me with the nut flush against my K-high flush. Downhill from there. But I banked a win anyway.

Wed night at the G

2010-03-18T13:52:00.000-04:00

Stopped by Kennedy's in Lorain but there wasn't a game going on. I think I'll give Kennedy my # to txt me when they have an action game going.

Drove out to the G and sat down around 8:30. Was up almost a hundo, then back down to a $150 stack, when I get QQ. Guy 3-4 to my right makes it $12, gets 1 caller, and I make it $40 to go. Raiser calls, and the other guy moves in for about $30 more. He was short and was ready to shove with any live cards.

I call, raiser calls, and flop is QQ-10. I have the nuts. Last guy in checks, I check, and turn is a K. He shoves for less than a hundo, and I make the call and drag a very nice pot. I didn't even bother to see what they had, although judging by their play later in the evening, it probably wasn't much.

Played pretty tight the rest of the night, and pulled in a few more pots with decent hands. Folded a few other decent hands to big raises. I was pretty happy with my play, and managed to book a $301 win in about 3 hrs. I probably should have stayed, because the one serious sucker at the table (one of the guys I stacked with the quads and again later with the nut flush vs. 2nd nuts) had about $300 in front of him, but EVERYONE was out to get him and playing every pot he did, so I hit it. This guy was BAD. Almost as bad as the lucky lotto winner we had playing at Dave's last week. Anyway, I decided I needed the money for my road trip. Headed to SC and FL tomorrow night to visit some friends. Did I mention that already on here?

See you when I return.

Dave's and the rest of the weekend

2010-03-15T13:19:00.006-04:00

Won 1 tourney hand. Just once I'd like to hit a draw in a tourney. Straight. Flush. ANYTHING more than a single pair would be nice.

Down $60 in the cash game, despite being up almost $300 at one point. Gave Pyxis $150 when my KK didn't hold up against her AA. Paid off Mailman on one hand where I had something like middle pair with open-ender and flush draw and bricked out to his top-top. That's where most of my profit went, and I then gambled in the last hour and was down to my last $50 or so, but managed to triple up to soften the blow. Still up nicely for the day.

Another note...Dave W is 100% to win when on a gutshot draw against me. If he has any chance to win AT ALL, he will hit his hand. 3%'er? No problem! Just bet it. There's no shame is saying "check" Dave! Oh well, if you're gonna hit every hand against me, keep on shoving chips into every pot. Just watch out for when I call or raise, because I will never bluff you if we're heads-up. Dave later lost his stack with bottom-2 vs Matt G's top-2 on a flop of A74. Big pot.

Sunday, I met up with some guys from the North Coast Gamers meetup group to play Shadowrun. It's an RPG, think Dungeons and Dragons meets Bladerunner. Nice people, and although it took a couple hours to actually begin play (not uncommon for an RPG), we had a decent time. My character is a weapons specialist in Seattle, and has relocated there from San Antonio where he used to be in a bike gang and ran drugs. After a failed attempt on the life of the gang's president, he had to go on the run. We're now working for a tech company by day and doing covert shadow work at night. Our current assignment is to perform some bodyguard work for our boss Les Grossman (based on the character Les Grossman from Tropic Thunder) at a party. We stopped just as the real action got underway, and will pick up again in a couple weeks.

4 more days and it's off to FL for some R&R. Fishing, shooting, and hopefully a little poker. I'm glad to be down 25 lbs because I'm sure I'll be going way over my daily calorie allowance while I'm there.

Quick update between sessions

2010-03-13T19:30:00.003-05:00

Down almost 400 at Dave's on Wed...Grayday couldn't miss. Up $260 at Kennedy's today. Hit a couple flushes for most of the profit. Nice place. I'll add more comments later this weekend. Off to the Lorain tourney now...

A loss but bigger win

2010-03-08T12:42:00.001-05:00

Lost $300 at the G on Wed night, but got it back Sat at Dave's. Didn't play the tourney. Was up early then got sucked out by some donk Melissa. Called $30 on the flop with just a gutshot, then called off the last $48 with a gutshot and J high flush draw. Flush. I had top-top with AQ, and made it $12 preflop. She had J3. Donk.

This other guy, 2nd time there, and probably 2nd time playing ever, calls $15 preflop with 8-6 suited and nailed his flush. Wow.

I hung in there and got it all back and went on to profit $550. Got smacked with the deck for a while. I'll take it.

Quick update

2010-03-02T09:17:00.003-05:00

Played poorly in the Sat night shootout. Then lost a couple buy-ins in the cash game. Wooooo!!! I was showing Gross my cards all night at the cash table...just awful. I had J3, Q4, and K2 about a dozen times each. After 4 hours of that, J8 starts looking like AA.

Hoping to get it back at the G this week.

Movies and poker

2010-02-24T13:08:00.004-05:00

Met MEATS, Slacks, Hip, and my brother for burgers at Blakes, then went to see Shutter Island. MEATS saw Edge of Darkness by himself, Slacks didn't go to a movie, and Roland joined us for just the movie. Hip wanted to see Cop Out, but it's not in theaters yet.

Decent movie, but not fantastic. I had the plot figured beforehand, so no huge surprises. Visually very cool. Nothing about it creeped me out though. Very little suspense.

Got out around 10 and decided to catch some cards at Gemini. Sat down at a table with Paoli, Sadd, and Roland, and won $540 in about an hour and was home by midnight. Very little of it was from CPMG members. The rest of the table was a bunch of donks. One example...I called $8 from the button with Q9 suited and flopped the nut straight. 2 - $100+ all-ins ahead of me!! The $8 raiser had KK and the other caller had KJ for top pr. Played the players and caught a few hands, then cashed while I was ahead. I was tired anyway. My little man said to stick around, but with Sadd and Paoli there, some huge swings were certainly possible.

I am thinking that stopping in later in the evenings is a good idea. The place was PACKED, and although there were some regulars, there were still plenty of fish.

Poker weekend

2010-02-22T09:34:00.002-05:00

Stopped by Gemini for a short while on Sat while out and about, and finished down $19. I was up almost $200, then got AA busted, followed by a full house cracked, which put me down almost $300. OUCH! Managed to get AA then KK back to back to recoup and then got the hell outta there. They pulled me from a total gravy table to a MUCH better table full of seasoned players, so I took the small loss and ran. I would love to have stayed at that table. It was donk city.

Managed to get to Dave's as well. Again, no love in the tourney. A couple hands to note...Dave W can't resist calling a 5X raise with 9-10 suited to catch a pair against my AK. Then, after folding for 2 hours, I have about 8 BB left, and shove with A2 suited, and DP, who was doing his best to give away all his chips (and eventually succeeded in fine fashion, despite having a monster stack), calls with 9-7 suited, catching a pair. The MEATS took it down. NH sir, you are my hero! I need to get back up into the top 10, as I predicted. I am still ahead of Tina in our $100 finish-higher bet, despite barely playing this year.

Of course, there is always the cash game. Played decently and ended up $130 on the plus side.

Gemini

2010-02-20T00:55:00.002-05:00

Up almost $300 last night. Played until 2. Was ready to leave, up $200 at 11pm then got whacked and was down to my last hundo. Roland nailed me. I had A-10 hearts, flopped the nut flush draw and a pr of 10's. Turned 2-pr, but it gave Roland Broadway and I missed all those flush and full house outs.

Managed to get it all back plus a bit more. Played really well, probably the best I've played in a while.

Weekend fun

2010-02-08T10:57:00.003-05:00

Dumped $350 at Gemini in a couple hours on Saturday afternoon. 1 bad call cost me a ton. I had top-top and called down one of the degens, figuring him for nothing. He had nothing until the river gave him a straight.

Woooo!

This is my 250th post

2010-02-03T22:31:00.002-05:00

...I think.

Recap of the past 5 days

2010-02-03T20:22:00.007-05:00

Fri 1/29 - made chili
Sat 1/30 - won first place for chili.
Sun 1/31 - up $397 at Gemini Columbus
Tues 2/2 - up $475 at Gemini Columbus

Got through about half the field in the deeper stack at Dave's (58 people...wow) but folded myself out of contention down the stretch. No love. Lost 3 - $100 buy-ins in the cash game. I switched tables because Jamie had a monster stack, but he was getting some hands. I paid him off on a big pot where I had AQ and he had KK, and flop was Q high. He even rivered a K. I gave Chan my last hundo when his A had mine outkicked. I showed him the A, thinking he didn't have one. I am 0-3 when showing Chan cards, so that is not going to happen again.

Gemini in C-bus isn't nearly as nice and new as the Berea location, but their hours rock. They are open just about 24-7 and had been running a few days straight when I was there. The first night I made my $400 in about an hour off a couple Russians. I got JJ on my 3rd hand and he doubled up my $150 buy-in at the $1-3 (yes 1-3) table. I got his brother on a couple small pots and the first guy again later when I flopped a flush against his top-2.

Tuesday night was a tough table. There was a $2-5 Nautica regular there (little guy, looks like Rod Stewart, always wears a funny hat and girlie sunglasses) and he was sitting on about $4500, and pushing it around. Didn't mess with him much. Another Asian guy bought in for $2000 and I was sandwiched in between, and left shortly after that. Anyway, I managed to chip up about $400, lost it all back after this old fat lady called $25 preflop with 10-2 suited and flopped top pr vs my JJ. What is it with women in their 50's/60's and 2-pr? They seem to play any big/little suited hands and always hit 2-pr on me. It's either that or they play every A. I got a big chunk back from her later though after she missed the same straight I was chasing, but i had also hit a pr on the flop. I scraped it all back to a $475 profit and left at 4:30 am.

The 2nd session was certainly the best, not only because I cashed higher but I played well. I made a couple decent moves and laid down decent hands a couple times when I knew I was no good. I also managed to get up when my little man told me to. As soon as the Asian dude bought in for $2k, and started getting aggressive, I knew it was time to go.

...oh, and another cool thing about the C-bus Gemini...they have free wi-fi, and an ATM. There was also a coffee machine, which I didn't see at Berea.

I was down there for the annual education tech conference. Fell off the diet for a few days as you can see. Mon night went out with my coworkers for dinner, then Tues I met a couple friends from there in town. My friend's former frat bro is the GM at Hyde Park downtown C-bus, and he showed us some serious hospitality. He must have brought us about a hundred bucks worth of food, including the 10" high carrot cake. The chocolate cake was just as big and weighed 3 lbs. Nuts. Needless to say, I was a little over on the calorie count the last couple days.

We also went to see The Road, which is not playing in the Cleveland area. Pretty good movie. Very bleak and grim. Feel good movie of the year.

Hey Chan

2010-01-29T10:14:00.004-05:00

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

2010-01-29T09:18:00.003-05:00

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.

Wed night

2010-01-28T10:07:00.002-05:00

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.

No poker last week

2010-01-25T13:37:00.005-05:00

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.

Weight loss

2010-01-20T14:31:00.001-05:00

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

2010-01-20T14:21:00.002-05:00

* 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.

Back to running bad

2010-01-15T09:48:00.002-05:00

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.

Happy New Year

2010-01-12T09:26:00.002-05:00

...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.

No poker this week

2009-12-09T15:34:00.003-05:00

Looks like I cant make it out to play this week with the weather and taking care of my dad/grandfather. SOON!!!

See you on the felt. In the meantime, enjoy this sweet video

The donkeys that roared

2009-12-07T16:29:00.002-05:00

Sorry, been pretty busy lately. My dad was in the hospital and had open heart surgery the day before Thanksgiving, and we almost lost him. His blood refused to clot after the procedure and they pumped a bunch of blood into him. They managed to get him stabilized after a few tense hours.

Anyway, Tues before the holiday I went to Nautica and lost 4 freaking buy-ins. Riegler was at my table and I know he told the stories of these 2 lucky morons, so I am not going into it now, I don't have much time. Crazy night, and the 1 idiot left with nothing after building a $1600+ chip stack, a couple times! Ugh...

Then, Saturday, Jamie doesn't know how to lay down AJ high against my pocket 6's, and catches on the river. He is so bad. Hopefully he will never quit playing, because he is making no effort to improve. Lost a total of $250 or so Sat night. Ugh...gotta turn this around. Tomorrow.

The donkeys have to win eventually

2009-11-19T15:47:00.004-05:00

Played great poker all night, hovering around even with $400 on the table. No cards most of the night. At 11:00, I got AA busted by 99. One guy makes it $20 preflop, Mr Pocket 9's makes it $100, I push for almost $400. Mr 9's claims he cant fold now and he's sure he's beat, and calls off his last $160-ish. You guessed it.

A few hands later, the rest of my stack went in when I hit top-2 with my AK. I shoved post-flop in the dark after my idiot opponent said he wasn't going anywhere (with his 3-card straight and 3-card flush). Runner...Runner...Flush. NH idiot. This guy is there spewing chips all the time, so no biggie. I'll get it back.

Lost 2-buy-ins.

Weekend update

2009-11-16T13:09:00.002-05:00

Stopped by Nautica briefly on Friday while I had a minute, and won $267 in about a half hour. My AA held up against KK.

I later stopped by Colin's game and won $12 in about a half hour.

Another win at Dave's

2009-11-12T13:08:00.002-05:00

Cashed $700 for a $500 profit last night. I was actually over $900 at one point but gambled a bit in the last half hour or so.

Started off stacking Dave with Q4 of spades when he made it $4 preflop, and I was in the blinds. Flopped 2-pr to crack his AA. I cracked Danny C's AA later with Q9, hitting 2-pr on the river.

Busted Grayday a couple times, as always. Got him with a 7-high flush after I flopped a pair, and he bet out on the river with 4 spades on the board. I knew he was spadeless. Correct! Later, I re-raised him preflop with pocket 10's. Rob M bets the 9-8-2 board ($20), GD calls, and I make it $100. Rob folds, GD shoves for almost $300 more. I finally call, and he shows a flush draw. No good. He wasn't happy. There was a long stretch there where he only showed me good hands, and lately it's been nothing but bluffs, so until he shows me some hands, he's getting called. Actually, if he had raised Rob's initial $20 bet instead of calling, I probably would have laid it down. I almost folded anyway.

I showed Rob a couple of sweet bluffs to take a couple nice pots. He had me beat each time but I had a decent draw. He cashed big. He hit everything last night. He made a couple of HUGE calls with crap like bottom pair (he had 8-2!!!!!), and then hit runner-runner boat against Colin. He must have had a half dozen boats. In the 8-2 hand, he called something like $30 on the flop with just a 2 and an 8 kicker.

Me and Hip got into a sweet hand. I have QQ, and Hip is on my right. He makes it $12 preflop and I toss $20 on top of that. Flop is AQ-10. Don't remember the flop betting, but we got it all in right then and there. I knew he didn't have AA, so I said "please just dont show me KJ", and he shows AQ. Whew, crushed!...Turn...A. NH sir. Hip forgot to slow-roll me, which would have been an awesome move. Nice 2-outer donkey. :)

So I seem to be stringing together some decent wins lately. Hopefully I can keep it rolling.

Nautica win

2009-11-11T10:59:00.003-05:00

Cashed $517 on a single buy-in last night in 1 hour of play. No exciting hands to speak of, but there were a couple donks at the table. One guy was on tilt and tossing around no-look bets. I got a couple hundo from him. Called him once with bottom pair since I knew he hadn't looked at his cards. Love that guy.

RP's Wednesday tourney

2009-11-05T10:36:00.003-05:00

Played RP's tourney last night. It goes pretty fast with such a small starting stack, but was still a good time. 15 players. I came in 8th or 9th. Got crippled when Jack T-way hit his kicker on the river...I had AQ, he had KQ. I knew I had him and let him bet all the way. I also knew the K on the river screwed me but I called anyway. I actually got my last 800 chips back up to over 4000 then shoved with A-10 of spades and Jack called me with AJ.

Corrections

2009-11-03T10:13:00.003-05:00

It wasn't Jamie that crippled me in the tourney Saturday, it was BC that hit his boat when I hit my straight. Jamie WAS hitting everything early on though.

Also, in the hand with Grayday where he pulled back his bet, I had insta-matched his 2 previous bets, where he I counted out my chips along with him, and shoved them in at the same time he did. I did the same thing on the river, and he pulled his chips back and said he never set them down. In a casino, once you cross that line, it's a bet. Believe me, it was a bet. Just needed some clarification there.

After I called it a dick move, he says "you shouldn't have bet out of turn". Gross and Hip were right there. They agree it was a bet.

Redundant Data

2009-11-02T15:10:00.003-05:00

Had to post this here so I can link to it on the CPMG board...

Saturday night

2009-11-02T10:21:00.007-05:00

Had a great time Sat night. Gross and Hip's costumes were hilarious, as you can see below.

No love in the tourney. I won a couple tiny pots, then missed on a bunch of others where I had a pair with flush draw, pair with str8 and flush draw, etc. Another, where I was open-ended, gave Jamie a full house when I hit it. Jamie started off hitting everything and had a mountain of chips when our table broke. As usual, he played every hand and lost them all. He played the cash game for about 15 min, lost his hundo and left. Same old story there. He must play 90% of his hands. So anyway, my A9 lost vs Colin's A-10 when I shoved in my last 1000 or so chips.

Started off shitty in the cash game. Got a set of A's cracked by Gross' J2 sooted. Nice catch sir. Guess I should have bet huge on the flop, instead of HALF THE POT!!!

Got $385 deep after borrowing $100 each from TK and Grayday. We changed the clocks back at 2 and played on into the night. There was a ton of money on my table so I felt confident I could get it back. Plus, Grayday had about $1200 in front of him at one point, and he was doing his best to give it away, so I felt compelled to oblige.

Thankfully, he came through in fine fashion, and I chipped back up over the last 3 hours, turning the last $120 I had into $1140, for a $755 profit.

GD just loves to bet, and bet big. Most of the time he has nothing, so everyone started calling his raises. He is also pretty easy to tilt, so I did my best all night. Making him show hands where I knew I had him beat. I even slow rolled him once. Later, I called his every bet with bottom pair (2's!!!!), made him show, and then showed him my sweet pair of deuces. Ship it.

One hand, I had flopped top pr with KJ, called GD's bets to the river, where I hit my kicker for top-2. He counted out $40, extended his hand with the chips to the edge of the pot, and I immediately matched the stack. He pulled his fucking chips back, saying he never let them go, and then checked. I went all-in for the $60 I had in front of me, and he folded. NH Eskimo, you dick. (Not that my slow-rolling him wasn't a dick move, but it is completely legal, albeit pretty rude. And it really accomplished what I was trying to do) He must have forgotten that he had loaned me a hundo, because I simply told him that I was now only giving him $60 back after that move, and certainly would have, if not for the next-to-last hand of the night...

I get QQ and I think I smooth-called GD's $7 preflop bet. Flop is 893, and if I remember right, GD bet and I min-raised, or he checked and I bet. Either way, it was like $45. Turn is a Q. He checked, and I bet $50, wanting to keep him in, and also hoping to look weak so he'll raise. River is a J, and I am a little scared of the 10, but screw it. I bet another $50, and GD shoves. I have $401 left, I think. He has me covered by $61. I call, he shows 88. He cashes $61. I gave him back the full hundo I borrowed. It was after 5, even with the time change.

Everything worked out well. No security issues or anything. I had planned on going to the range before the game but no one wanted to join me, so I met TK, BC, and MEATS at Quaker Steak for some grub.

I'll probably play Nautica this week, or RP's tourney if a seat opens.

Movie night tonight! Come join us for Zombieland. 7:25 at Crocker Park.

Dave's Halloween blowout

2009-11-01T12:59:00.001-05:00

Details soon...

Woo hoo!

2009-10-28T13:10:00.002-04:00

Congratulations fellow $1-2 players, we are now considered "high stakes" poker players.

BTW, any black firearm should be considered a machine gun!

Wow, everything happens for a reason

2009-10-27T12:03:00.002-04:00

A couple of things kept me from going to the Monday night game this week. I had been sick and took the last 2 days off work, and I am still short on bankroll lately. Otherwise, I'd have been there for sure.

I am almost always armed when I play, but would likely have handed those assholes my little 7-shot .380. Tough to compete with multiple perps whilst carrying just a pea shooter.

I was also recently delayed in purchasing a Kel Tec 9mm for CCW, just a few days ago. I'd been thinking, after watching an episode of Cops where a guy took 2 shots from a .380 and ran away, that I should pack a bit more firepower. Either way, it's hard to say what I would have done in that situation.

One thing for sure, I am thankful that none of my friends were hurt. It could have ended very badly.

Monster hands

2009-10-22T13:05:00.003-04:00

Pulled off ONLY a $521 win at Motor City the other night, despite getting completely hit with the deck. $1-2 table. I had quad Q's, AA, KK, and QQ many times, big A's all night long, and hit about half a dozen sets. I did get KK and 2 sets of 8's cracked. Still, I was never up more than $600.

This was the wimpiest, most docile table I've ever sat at. I'd raise from the BB with KK, after 5-6 players limped in, and NO ONE called. This happened a lot. A $15 preflop bet had pocket Q's folding and running away like a frightened schoolgirl.

If I'd had these hands at Nautica, it would have been a $1500 win easily. With the quads and my first 2 sets, I netted about $100 total. Unreal. Almost seems like a waste of good cards.

Monday night win, DET tonight!

2009-10-20T10:30:00.003-04:00

I have no idea how, but I managed to profit $196 last night. Got some monster hands cracked early, losing with AA twice and a flopped nut straight. I got $600 deep after borrowing 2 buy-ins from LF (yeah, it was payday eve and I only took a single buy-in after losing last week and spending some of my 'roll). I also ran into a set of 4's with my KK, QQ beat my JJ, yada yada yada. You know the drill. Why can't I just win $900 in an hour like the good old days? I did manage to crack AA once with KK when we got it all in preflop.

Luckily, there were plenty of Nautica donks to keep me in the game. Lots of big action. There was one guy that did nothing but bet big, mostly with nothing. I caught him on a river bluff when he bet $35 into a $50 pot. I had KQ high, and knew it was good. Ship it.

I later flopped quad 9's on Uncle Bob. Flop was 997. UB had pocket 7's. Too bad he didn't have me covered. I got him a couple times last night. I actually got down to $55, and managed to chip back up to almost $800 before cashing out. I hit a couple of BIG draws to double up a couple times, which really helped. 2 open enders with flush draws actually hit. I was actually a favorite in 1 of them.

Aside from the lucky hands, I did play well. Calling with KQ high was a thing of beauty. I just knew that guy was stabbing at the pot. He had missed his gutshot.

Off to DET tonight, just for the night. Conference on cloud computing and virtualization tomorrow. Woo-hoo! Crazy!!

I am gonna hit Motor City first, there is usually a decent crowd there. Hopefully it's the same crowd that was there last time I played there.

Tournament cash

2009-10-15T09:45:00.003-04:00

Being light on bankroll this week, I decided to play the $75 tourney at Nautica last night, and took 5th place out of about 45, and made $50 profit. I should have finished at least a little higher, but my A9 got crushed by K-10 on my last hand, and there was a short stack that kept hanging on, in an amazing way. This guy was down to $300 in chips in the 2nd round, and still managed to cash. At the final table, he was all-in 9 times and won. Several of them were blind-outs where he was forced to play. Incredible.

I played well, so I guess I cant complain. Next week...Detroit!! I'll be there overnight for work, and plan to hit up Motor City.

Break time

2009-10-14T10:20:00.003-04:00

Didn't play at LF's game Monday. I may head downtown tonight.

The good news is, Lorain Charity Poker may get rolling in just a couple of weeks.

Night of the Donkeys

2009-10-09T16:22:00.003-04:00

Doug Poker said it just as he was leaving..."sometimes, the donkey gets you" At least he was smart enough to leave.

Ouch...lost a shitload last night. Started out by hitting a few hands and going up a hundo, then a few gamble-calls with flush/straight draws got me 3 buy-ins deep.

Here are a few examples of a few big hands where the donkeys reigned supreme:
tried to stack one guy when I flopped trip 5's with A-5. He had 2-5, I knew I had him kicked...deuce on the river.

Top pair, open-ender...tried to stack another idiot that was trying to give away his stack...he had bottom pair and a gutshot...calls off his stack and hits his 2nd pair. The list goes on.

Just an ugly night. Of course, the suckouts led to a bit of tilt, which cost me even more. Got my stack in with QQ and ended up against AA and KK. K on the flop, then running diamonds to give AA the nut flush, and I got 2nd nuts. Only the guy with KK had me worried. The other moron was calling HUGE bets with shit like J8 offsuit.

Didn't hit a single open-ender or flush draw either.

Just one of those nights.

Nautica delivers

2009-10-08T10:45:00.003-04:00

AS usual, a win downtown last night. Was up over $600 when I got top set cracked by the nut straight. I had 77, flop was 5-6-7. Huge pot, lost a ton on that one, then got popped a couple other times, to get $500 deep. Managed the win in the last few hands. Picked up AA in the last 20 min of play and stacked 3 players.

Up $446 on the night. Might be able to get back there tonight.

Colin, Chan, Matt G were there. I guess Monsignor stopped in for a minute. I still have to check out Chan's blog...should be interesting.

Big mistakes

2009-10-07T09:28:00.003-04:00

Built up a nice stack at LF's on Monday, only to donk most of it off on a couple hands. I was $500 deep, and walked away without a penny during the last orbit when I hit top pair but was outkicked.

Played great most of the night, then a HUGE stupid mistake calling Brian all the way with just top pair. He had top-2. Only reason I called was because I know be bluffs a lot. I have crushed him many times at Nautica.

Charlie Ha was at least a G deep, and probably got back about half of it.

Live and learn. Listen to the little man!! He was talking to me when I was up $600+.

Hopefully Nautica will hook me with a win tonight.

Lots of great cards, small profit

2009-10-01T09:39:00.003-04:00

Finished up $102 last night at Nautica, despite some great hands all night long. I just didn't play well.

I sat at the 2-2 limit table while waiting for my NL seat and won $70. I hit a boat, 2-pr, and a couple straights in about 40 min.

Started out great at the NL table pretty good, but made one bad call with AK when I hit the A on a board of AQJ. I KNEW the guy had at least 2 pr, but I called his all-in anyway. It was a pretty big pot, so I thought I'd give it a shot. He had QQ. Oops. Got another hand cracked later by the donkey to Hip's right. He couldn't give his money away fast enough, and I called with the best hand. I had J-10 and hit top pair, and this donk had AK. He shoved on the flop and caught running diamonds for the flush. He gave away about $700 in about an hour.

Later on, I called a huge shove by another guy after I had hit top-top with AQ. I put him on a flush draw, and he would have hit it, had he not already had a set of 9's. SHIT!! Terrible call.

I had $550 on the table which included the $70 profit from the limit game, and cashed $582. I walked in with $480, and also spent $80 total in seat fees. So technically at poker I won $182, but my profit was only $102. I always factor in the seat fees, but the math seemed fuzzy last night. Bottom line was I walked in with the $480 and left with 102 more.

So anyway, the table and cards did provide me with a win, although I did my best to donk it all off. Had I laid down those few hands, I would have been up over a grand for sure. All those great hands wasted...damn. I had QQ a few times that held up, 2 full houses with pocket 2's, a couple of other sets, flushes, etc.

Chan's people definitely made this

2009-09-29T12:55:00.004-04:00

lol...got this at lunch today.

LF's Monday night game

2009-09-29T09:52:00.002-04:00

Lil Fag is again hosting a $1-2 NL game, this time on Monday nights, which are good for me. It was like a CPMG old-timer reunion. In attendance were Charlie Ha, Uncle Bob, TK, Gross, CHAN!!! and a few players from Nautica as well, including james, the manager, who took my seat when I left. There was also Kai, Monty, and another guy that bluffs like crazy. It was a great mix of players. Gibran was supposed to be there as well as Felix, whom I haven't seen in ages. If he keeps this a regular game, it could turn into a great venue. Game started at 6:30. I like the earlier start time on a weeknight.

LF bought some new chips and tables, and although his place is tiny, we managed to get 2 tables going for a while without being too uncomfortable. He bought a few pizzas and had beverages available.

I started out OK, chipping up about a hundred, and called a hat-raise from Charlie Ha, which is standard for him. He invented the hat raise. I had K-10. Flop is 10-10-K...nice. I check, he bets, I just call. Turn is an A, and I am hoping he hit his gutshot or improved his flush draw. He bets again, and I bump it a bit. I had him covered BTW. I don't remember the river card, but I bet out, being first to act, and Charlie raises. I push, he insta-calls. He's got AA. OUCH!! I reload $130 and move on. NH sir. Charlie is good at disguising his big pairs like that. He got us later with KK too, but I got back a big chunk of that pot later on when I hit another boat with 9-10 that time, and Charlie had trip 9's. I busted Adam (well, I got his last buy-in) when I chased down my flush/straight draw to crack his set of 2's. Adam was first to leave, after about 3 buy-ins.

I hit some decent hands, and got paid off as usual. Didn't really bluff. Picked off LF on a huge pot where I had top pair and the flush draw, and hit the flush. He pushed, trying to represent. Most of that group never believes I have a hand.

I managed to cash $885 for a $555 profit and left at 10:30. Nautica tomorrow for a couple hours. Not looking like I'll make Ken's tourney this weekend. I'll be sure to update my RSVP.

Saturday tourney win!

2009-09-28T10:01:00.002-04:00

Got lucky and chopped for 1st Saturday at Dave's. I attribute this win to catching some good hands at several key points in the game. I also remained pretty patient, despite losing 3/4 of my stack when we were almost down to the final table. Luckily, the deeper stack allowed me to bounce back.

I did make a couple of great reads early on, against Colin, Dave W, and Tim (older Tim...forget his last name) when all I had was a pair. Just one of those gut feelings where the texture of the board screams "he didn't hit anything".

A-8 of clubs kept hitting for me early as well. I had 8's full and quad 8's with it.
I took out Gabe with AA against his QQ when the board flopped J-high. I just smooth-called his preflop raise, and knew I'd get all his chips if he hit the board. His overpair was un-foldable in that spot, and it worked out great for me.

Later, I just played tight and was very careful, but you have to hit some hands to win, and I was lucky to hit some flops. The final table took forever. We chopped for $470 each at 3am. Prowest offered the chop and he had me almost 2-1, so I jumped on it. He'd been hitting some hands all night as well. I used to think he was a tight player...not any more! He made some pretty questionable calls that had everyone wondering. But hey, if you are hitting everything, keep playing everything!

Gave back a hundo in an hour of cash game. Chased a couple of flush draws that didn't hit. No other crazy hands to speak of. Grayday raised every hand of course. All you have to do to counter his $7-8 preflop raise EVERY hand is re-raise him BIG. That'll slow him down.

Almost forgot...

2009-09-25T13:30:00.003-04:00

I forgot to add one of the hands of the night from Nautica the other night.

I raised to $15 preflop with AK suited and got 4-5 callers. This was at the loose table that I had moved to. I flop the flush draw, and 1 other guy leads out. I call, and (I thought) everyone else folded.

The turn is a brick for me, and the bettor leads again with something like $50. He doesn't have much left, maybe another $60 behind, so I just push, figuring I have the nut flush draw and over cards. The guy was a bluffer anyway. I had about $300 and change left in front of me at the time. I pushed out a hundo stack when I made the bet.

So...outta nowhere, the OTHER player, who I didn't even know was still in the hand, and had me covered, asks "you're all-in?" Shit! I didn't see his cards. I glance at his stack and then push the rest of my chips out in front of me and say yes, and start counting...PRAYING he folds. I did the best I could NOT to let him know I had just screwed up in a huge way. He looks at his hand about 5 times, checks his stack a few times, and finally mucks. Whew! So all I have left is the little stack...and HE folds! I pulled in a very nice pot on a total on-the-come bluff, and even showed it, and told the big stack that I didn't even know he was still in the hand. They claim they both had me beat. Not sure about the small that that folded...he had a lot invested.

I'm just glad I got out of that one without going busto...

Looking up

2009-09-24T10:23:00.003-04:00

Got down to Nautica last night, and finished up $385 on the night. It was a serious roller coaster ride all night long.

Got onto a new table just after 6pm, and Matt G and Colin were at my table. This was a tight table. Nary a donkey in sight. After about an hour, Colin was on his 2nd buy-in after getting AA cracked, and I was down about $40. I get JJ and put in a raise, and Colin and 1 other guy call. I forget the flop, but it was like 10-high, with 2 to a flush. The guy on my left is first to act, and shoves his last $35-ish into the pot, and Colin shoves for $128. I tell them I think they are both drawing, and call. Colin had a pair with the flush draw, and I don't know what the other guy had, but my jacks held up. That got me up over a couple hundo. Colin re-bought and I think he finished up a couple hundo. Not sure how Matt did. Hip was there and got no love. I also saw Linda E at the tourney and later at a 1-2 table.

A little while later, I jumped ship to another table with some action players and known donks. It was a dream table for a while, but I couldn't gain any traction. I was immediately back to even, back up a hundred, down 200, yada yada yada. I ended up getting stacked when my 2-pr got crushed by a set of A's. I built it back up to just over even, and sat down at TK's table after mine broke up in the last hour.

The last hour is usually pretty action-heavy, and can be pretty dangerous. I managed to win a few decent hands and made a little profit. Nautica continues to provide...

Awful week

2009-09-21T14:12:00.005-04:00

Work sucked last week. I spent all of Thurs/Fri completely failing at what I needed to get done.

Anyway, last Sat, I went back and forth between Nautica and Dave's a couple times, and ended up WAY down on the day. Started at Nautica, down $600. Nothing held up, I made bad decisions, yada yada yada. So I go to Dave's for the tourney and bust out first (I think?)...First off, Dave calls a pot-sized bet on a gutshot when I had flopped 2-pr...nailed it! He later claimed I bet 1/3 of the pot, which gave him odds to call. Ummmm...do the math on that one. I certainly don't play by math, but I know enough not to call a pot-sized bet with a gutshot.

The real cooler was a few hands later when I flop a boat with pocket 8's after calling a standard 3x raise from Mick (?) the foot doctor. Flop is JJ8. He leads out and I raise just over a min-raise to keep him in. Turn is a Q and completes a flush. We both check. He bets about half the pot on the river (which was a brick) and I raised him 5x. He shoves, I call...he has QQ. I cant see anything that may have won me that pot aside from shoving on the flop, which would have been stupid without knowing his cards and the cards coming up. Oh well. I still had a couple grand left and shoved with a 44. Got called by AK. Guess what. Tourneys are total luck-fests!! I guess it just means I am due to have a night where my hands actually hold up. In the last dozen or so tourney's I've played, I've put my $$ in good at least 90% of the time, only to get sucked out.

So...back to Nautica, where I got back $325 of what I lost earlier. I played until midnight, then back to Dave's, where I dumped about $500 and change. I was gambling way too much and playing too many hands, and Hip was at my table, whom I can never beat. He pulls hands out of his ass like David Copperfield. And I mean that with the utmost affection for Hip.

Didn't get to dave's this past weekend, not that it matters, but I did get to Nautica last night. I won almost $300 at 1-2, then decided to play the 7pm tourney ($60 freezeout) after the Browns game. (BTW, fuck the Browns) Matt "L'il Fag" Schultz does a decent TD job. He also lets people that bust out buy a dead stack if there are any available before the first break, which is cool and also pads the pot nicely. I played very tight and then busted with an open-ended SF draw with over cards where I could have quadrupled up. Totally bricked out. So I bought another stack and managed to build it up nicely. I made one MONSTER call against EC (the maniac 2-5 player) where I had pocket 4's and a board of 3-5-6-A with a flush possible. He had K-3. I've never seen that guy show a hand.

Later, I sucked out with 9-9 vs AA, flushing on the river. The flop was J-high and I was certain he missed the flop. He did, lol. I also put him on a big A. I was right about that as well. Oh well, a win for the good guys.

So I played very well all the way down to the final table, and finished 7th out of almost 50. They paid 6 spots. Ouch. I had a mid-stack and shoved with KQ suited and got called by QQ. Oops. One thing for sure, it's a fast tourney. Blinds are 20 min and you only start with 3500. I just wanted to sharpen my skills. I havent placed in a tourney since Dave's a long time ago, although that's really all I play. Used to be, ALL I played were tourneys, until I learned I could cash a lot more often and win a lot more money playing cash.

Upcoming weekend

2009-09-11T11:14:00.003-04:00

Looking forward to a great weekend. Lots of poker tomorrow and I'm going to the Browns game on Sunday.

Almost forgot to post these pics from the last Browns game...