Car problems

Ugh...first my brakes fail on a highway exit ramp, and now it seems my clutch is dying. I've had the Jeep in the shop most of the week. Managed to talk the mechanic down quite a bit on the brake job. Not a huge fan of Conrad's but they do good work. For only 71K miles, this Jeep is pretty awful mechanically.

I was able to sell my road bike yesterday, hopefully it will cover most of the repair.

You know what's funny? THIS

More poker wins, kickball win on opening day

I am now 3-0 at the new casino after about 16 hrs of play down there. Nothing exciting to report. I played terribly in my last session but managed to scrape up a win. Flopped a Q-high flush with QJ, bet it all the way after a flop of 7-8-x and then the board went 7-8 on the turn and river. Guy had K8 off suit, going runner runner for the boat. I actually didn't even see/recognize the 2nd pair on the river. He was first to act and shoved his last $136 on the river and I pretty much insta-called. If I had paid better attention, I think I could have gotten away from it. Oops.

We ate at the little food court. I had the cavatelli from Rocco's. Meh. Pasta was a tad doughy and they don't serve bread! At an Italian joint! Luckily it didn't cost me anything. The deli/sandwich place looks decent, and there's a B Spot for burgers. Have yet to see the buffet, but Meats says it's good.

Kickball was fun as always. I had a great game. Went 2 for 4 with an RBI and I caught a ton of fly balls, including what could have been a real game-changer in the last inning. It was a sweet sliding catch where I skinned my knee and everything. Awesome.

Pics: my pasta salad for a cookout Sunday, and the kickball team preparing for battle. We're talking about forming a 40+ league. Those young punks are tough to beat.

Horseshoe Casino CLE grand opening and weekend fun

Quick casino summary...

Only waited 20 min in line to get in, though we didn't actually get in line until 1:30AM. Headed right to the poker room, where there was open seating for $1-2. A few dealers were a bit green and very slow, but still better than Nautica. Got crushed at the table for about 6 hours. Went $740 deep. Went on a run, cashed out $971 at 9:30 AM.

Lots of Nautica regulars and about a dozen from the CPMG were there. Decent buffet review here

Card room is world class as far as comfort, size, and selection of games. Once the dealers and cashiers get up to speed it's gonna be fantastic. The entire place looks fantastic.

Saw an old co-worker on the way out. He owns a deli/restaurant across the street and was checking the place out.

Went to see Jim Gaffigan Saturday night. What a great comic. Totally clean comedy.

Took mom to Pier W for dinner on Mom's day. Lobster bisque is just outta this world. Had salmon cooked on a wood plank. Mom had lobster and pasta that was amazing too.

Week before, went to Put in Bay for the Spring Fling party. Saw some old HS friends, hopped from bar to bar, then got the last ferry (7PM) back to Tomon's on Johnson's Island. Caprice and I each put $25 on Derby horses and she picked the winner. Paid 16-1. Nice. Grilled steaks, celebrated Hip's birthday with a penis-shaped cake ala Caprice, watched the super full moon rise, and just relaxed. Good times. Looking forward to SlaxFest this year.

Misc pics from the last few months

POKER!

I actually played poker at Nautica last night! I think I've played like 5 times so far in 2012, and didn't even make it to the chili cookoff, though my chili did. People on the CPMG board are starting to treat me like Slacks and eRock, who almost never play. eRock does live in Chicago now anyway.

Banked a $314 win last night! Wanted to make it my last trip there, ever, and wanted to win. Played decent, got cocky, showed some bluffs, showed some nuts, and dragged some pots. Had a few beers with Grayday. Not sure how he did, I left well before closing.

Looking forward to the casino opening.

Not much else to report other than that. Kickball season starts soon, and we have practice tonight. Got to the gun range this week to test Caprice's new PT-22. Great looking little gun but it either needs some break-in or needs to be serviced. Had a few failure to feeds. We will see. It did shoot pretty straight though, as you can see.

New toys

Picked up a used Ruger LCR .357 last week. Got it for almost a hundo under retail in a private sale. Nice carry gun, lightweight, feels great in my hand, and I like the look of it. I didn't like its look when it was first introduced but it kinda grew on me. I wanted to replace the SP101 that got stolen last summer.

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

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

When a $9 win feels like $500

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

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

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

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

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

I dislike Shittsburgh and their fans

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

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





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

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

Misc pics from the last 6 months

Another tourney win

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year! (and happy birthday to me)

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

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

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

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

More to come...

DC Bound

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

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

Memorial Day weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Small Nautica win

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

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

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

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

POY and no-max cash update

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

Jack T-way won the POY. Congrats sir.

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

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

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

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