Small Nautica win

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

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

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

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

POY and no-max cash update

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

Jack T-way won the POY. Congrats sir.

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

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

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

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

Wooo! sold my Eclipse!

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

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

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

Oh the drama

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cash game at my place this weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guess who's back!

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

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

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

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

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

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

...just to name a few.

Ok, I'll check back ASAP.

last 2 weekends

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

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

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 :(

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

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!

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!

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

Holy smokes what a weekend!

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.