"Oh Yeah, I Forgot...the Rodeo's in Town" Pt. 2

Saturday

I finally had a chance to sleep, as Darsky was sleeping when Mitch and I got back to the hotel room after our blackjack run. I passed out, while Dar got up and went to go play the $5/10NL at the Bellagio, raking in a pretty good score while I was sleeping. Around 11AM I woke up and took a shower and saw that Dar had awoken.

I called up Uncle Pauly, and then Darsky and I took Mitch's car to go pick him up. When he had told me he was staying at the Circus Circus the week before I thought he was just joking around. But.....nope. If there's ever been a more horrible casino, I'd like someone to point it out to me. As soon as we walked inside it felt like a place of death.

When we found Paul he was in a $40 tournament, being dealt to the world's most crooked rejects by a 80 year old dealer who couldn't quite move the pot around without sweating, and suffering from what appeared to be a series of minor heart attacks. We had to wait around and fear for our personal health until he busted out and we could leave.

"What the hell is wrong with you Paul?"

"The cheapest room I could find for this weekend."

"Oh yeah, I forgot...the rodeo's in town."

"Oh is it? That's why I keep seeing all these cowboys, huh?"

"Let's get out of here before I puke. It smells like feces."

Of course I had to dump $80 bucks at the $5 Let It Ride table before we took off. Come on....how can you pass up a $5 table....

We sprinted back to the car and took off towards the MGM Grand. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I have a rabid affection for the Rainforest Cafe. I had it at the MGM with my dad the first time I ever went to Vegas when I was younger, and that might be why, but for whatever the cause may be I HAVE to go there every time I go to Vegas now. I've been to the one in downtown Disney, but it wasn't the same.

Unfortunately for them, Dar and Pauly don't like the Rainforest Cafe as much as I do. Oh well! It was my birthday.....errr month..... and we were going whether they wanted to or not! I ordered the usual Chicken Fried Chicken and a huge glass of iced tea. Ah god it was so good! If I were Homer Simpson (if only life were that good), the Rainforest Cafe would be my donuts.

After eating we headed across the floor to the poker "room". For anyone who hasn't been to the MGM, the poker room is a sectioned-off area in the middle of the casino floor. It's not in the middle of the slot machines or anything, it's actually conveniently away from the gaming tables and is surrounded by cafes and stores, so it's very secluded from the gaming floor noises that drive some players crazy. It's large enough to hold around 25(?) tables, and has the cage in the middle.

On this day I was really pleased to see the poker tables buzzing with action. Last time I had been there, they had just finished redoing the poker room and there was maybe three tables going total. When we were there after lunch, though, there were only about five tables not running games.

I was the first of the three of us to get in a game, opting to take the $4/8 while waiting on a decent interest list for a $6/12. There were plenty of $1/2NL games going, some $2/5NL, and a $5/10NL going. I wasn't in the mood to play NL, but going to Vegas I really wanted to get into a decent limit game, since the only thing that ever goes at Chumash is a $3/6, with an occasional $4/8. I wasn't too happy with only being able to play $4/8, but a seat was open and it was time to start trying to beat whatever game I was in as I was planning on playing poker for the rest of the trip.

I took the open seat while Dar sat at the $5/10NL and Paul eventually got a seat at the $1/2NL. After a few rounds the $6/12 finally started up and I started taking control of the table. I was talking it up, playing, and raking pots. I got into a verbal squash with a loudmouth, trash-talking kid who apparently lived in Vegas and was too cool for school. The guy was a total ass-clown and I made him feel like a little kid when I backtalked him off of the table within a half an hour of sitting down. The whole table was cracking up cuz for every word he had I had two more to throw back at him. He dropped about $50 and racked up and left, leaving the rest of us on the floor laughing at his rediculousness. The game only lasted for a little bit, but I was able to pick up $300 before the table broke.

We were able to fill the table back up by making it a $4/8, and I sat dead for a while while Dar was raking it up at the $5/10NL. I picked up another $50 and racked up. Dar and I took off, leaving Pauly and one of his buddies who had met him there to fend for themselves. We went back to the hotel room for a sec to see how much Mitch had learned to love the hotel room, and then it was off to see if anything was happening at the Palms. Of course the Palms was filled with tons and tons of hot women, but not even a glimpse of good poker. The Wynn was next on the list.

By this time Dar was starving so we needed to find food, and fast! As soon as we arrived at the Wynn we headed over to the Red8, a chinese food restaurant. It was friggin delicious, and I was starting to see a theme of good food in this wonderful city. I had the chicken chow mein, and I would have it every day for every meal if I could! If there's one thing I love more than poker in this world, it's food. I love eating, and I love enjoying a meal. I'm not a big guy (6'0" 190lbs), but I can sure put away some food, and I could see that the food was quickly becoming one of my favorite things about Vegas.

After the delicious self-gratification experienced at the Red8, we made our way over to the bustling poker room. I gotta say, I love the Wynn's poker room. They play ten-handed, which is normally a cramp. But the Wynn's poker tables are about foot wider than a normal 4.5' table (at least on the bottom level, Dar said the upper level tables were average). If there's one thing I hate when I'm playing cards, it's playing cards when there's no room for my legs to fit under the poker table thanks to the slobs and fat men sitting to either side of me. But thanks to wide tables and supremely comfortable chairs, the Wynn was completely awesome to play at.

I bought in to the $8/16 for $300 in brown chips and took a seat 6-handed. A couple hands after I sat in this Asian guy came into the 7s. Immediately he looked like someone who was gonna piss me off. I love it when I'm right. He bought in for one rack and within the first hour of play had turned it into just over three. He was not folding preflop, and seemed to be catching everything on everyone. I was glad it wasn't just me, but it was still very annoying.

The game finally filled up, and I was sitting on only $100. I rebought another rack to fill me back up, and quickly went on a small rush. I finally started winning pots against the jackass in the 7s, and was able to win a couple pots against the rest of the table as well. Just as I had pushed over the five-ball I was in for, Darsky had come up and said that his game was no good. I didn't wanna leave, as the game had just started to liven up, but I can't leave my best wingman hanging like that. Plus, there was money to be had wherever we went, it was Vegas baby.

Having been in a soft game earlier, Dar suggested we go back to the MGM. We went back but this time the action was less than optimal. So instead of staying to play cards, we decided to do the one thing we were equally good at: drink! We went back to the hotel to rescue Mitch from his hotel room jail cell and the three of us went downstairs to search out comfortable spots at the quarter machines at the bar.

I took an early lead in the drinks, taking on multiple rounds of Jack and Cokes. We were all involved in a heated session of Battle Keno, and Darsky was so involved that he fell to dead last in the drunk race. Being the best alcholer out of the three of us, I had expected him to come out strong. But he neglected his drinks at the beginning, and at the end of the night was the only one with any money left in the machine. He was also the only one getting free drinks after about an hour.

Bastard.

After a few hours of watching Darsky splitting two 10s against a 9 for a quarter at a time playing video blackjack, we retired to the room. When we got there I had this brilliant idea to order ice cream sundaes? It was probably around 1AM, and supposedly ice cream sundaes triple in price at that of the night, cuz it was like $40 for three of them.


That was the end of Saturday. I'm still sick, and I'm pretty tired at this particular morning, so I'm not gonna finish the whole trip right now. I'll write up Sunday and post a Part 3.

Watch Out for the Tissues on the Floor

No no......not those ones.

And don't trip over the empty box on the floor over there. That's my Tylenol Cold with "Instant Cool Burst Sensation". There's nothing instant about this crappy medication. I still feel like hell. And they only put 24 caplets in a package, can you believe that? I guess you're not supposed to eat them like M&Ms, but candy coatings are delicious so whatever.

All day my nose has been messed up. One minute it's blocked beyond all hope, and the next minute it's like a switch is clicked inside my head that opens my nasal passages to let a flood of snot and sickness come flowing out of my head. Back and forth and back and forth. I'm blowing through tissues in phases, and it is supremely annoying. Make up your mind dammit. Either be runny or be stuffy. Stop fuckin around, Nose.


I've half thought of pulling back and giving myself a swift punch to my face, in hopes to break my own nose and stop this apparent decisional dilemma it's encountering. Don't think I won't do it. But then I'd have to weigh the cost of getting my nose fixed to the cost of all these tissues that I'm using. Hmph.

Of course I could just skip the tissues and the broken nose altogether, and use my mitts. I could build up a dry, glistening trail of mucus across the back of my hands. The only problem there being that I'd have to look at it while I'm on the computer all day.

Bring back the tissues.

All day at work my nose has been suffering from this metronomic rythm of snot flow. It's damn annoying and, in my eyes, completely unneccessary. If my pussy immune system would just do its job and keep things like this out of my body then I would be fine. But nooooo. Although I guess all is fair in life. I got blessed with extremely good looks and an insanely awesome personality, yet my body can't defend itself against a cold virus. Sounds like a fair trade if you ask me.

I'm gonna go admire myself in the mirror for a little bit and then lay down and throw on the tube. Hopefully these 24 candy medicines will kick in soon and help me out. I'm taking a bucket and a drill with me to bed anyways, just to be prepared for the back and forth that's gonna occur in my nasal area all night.

And I have just about half of the rest of my Vegas trip already written up, so I should be able to complete it and post it tomorrow night. Have patience folks. Adios.

It's Cold!!

Anyone who's a blogger must already know about the Brandi Hawbaker story over at 2+2. No? Well if you haven't, imagine LonelyGirl15 taken off the webcam and thrown headfirst into the depths of the poker world. This one's got every character you need to make a good, old-fashioned suspense/mystery. A Captain with a pokey penis, a schizophrenic played by Dutch Boyd (what is it about this guy that I think is so badass, maybe it's the bandanna?), and a smokin hot petite brunette with a rack that'll send you to the stars. When I look at and listen to Brandi's story, I can't help but be reminded of Michelle Monaghan in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, only in the fact that she's a troubled, young, superbly hot female. I'm excited to see how this one ends.

And of course all this went down the weekend AFTER I was in Vegas. And unbeknown to me, the Bloggers' Convention was in town that very same weekend. Eh...whatever. But had this whole thing been uncovered two weeks earlier, I would've loved to have seen and heard the commotions and the going ons at the Bellagio when I was down there. Talk about good stuff...and especially if Brandi's gonna keep prancing around with her boobs hanging out. There's a good excuse to bust out my new camera. Bust out.......hmph.

I don't know what's wrong with my brain. I have some incomprehensible fascination with crazy chicks who just happen to be utterly attractive as well. Nobody wants to deal with crazy chicks. They're more trouble than you think they are at first, they'll take the life out of you, and in the end you end up just as crazy as they are for having to put up with their consistent insanity.

But I'll be damned if the craziest ones aren't the hottest. You can't tell me that if Harmony Faith Lane came up to you in person and wanted to take you to a hotel room, that you wouldn't take her hand and follow her to wherever it was that she wanted to go so that she could handle you. Well, you probably wouldn't, but I would. Maybe some people have that self-control, but I sure as shit don't. I would try to resist, I really would. But how could I manage to turn down that crazy broad if Robert Downey Jr. couldn't? EXACTLY, I don't think I could. Perhaps RDJ and I should form a club. But then again I'd have to get hopped up on a bunch of drugs first, or else our club wouldn't be real solidly founded would it?

Ok so scratch that.

I've noticed so far in life that this particular fascination is one that's bound to get me into trouble. It's that exact personality flaw that's gotten me into the situation I'm in now. The hot, petite dirty-blonde who I know is the worst news imaginable. She's the one who will crush my soul, yank my beating heart right out of my chest, and steal the wallet from my lifeless bloody corpse. Those eyes though! How do you not just fall in love with her the second you see her eyes?! She'll feed me lies, she'll feed me lines, and I'll unwillingly listen to every one. Damn me, damn me.......but I'm falling for her. Uh oh, wait a minute. I almost made myself throw up from that last line. I'll knock it off.

Anyways Winter's finally here now. As I'm writing this it's about 20 degrees in the office and I'm pretty sure that my feet are going to have to be amputated. I keep trying to turn on the floor heater that's right under my desk, but every time I hit the On button the power gets knocked out in this icy hell that is 406 Haley St. *Sigh*......fuck it's cold. Haha I don't know why I'm complaining though, I'd rather it be 20 degrees than 90 degrees. Sweaters go a lot further than fans do ya know!

Also, as is usual for this time of year, it's Tuesday and I haven't even started Christmas shopping yet. Worse yet there's no mega-malls in Santa Barbara, which means I gotta go downtown and hit up State St. Honestly, that doesn't sound too appetizing to me. I'll just hit up the mall in the valley when I go back to the family on Sunday night. Stores are open on Christmas Eve, I'll be fine.

If there's one thing I mastered in school, it was how to procrastinate like a champion. Although that was primarily in my English courses, but English...Christmas shopping...practically the same. Plus from what I hear, the longer you sit at work neglecting your job the better ideas you come up with for presents. And at this rate everyone's gonna love me come Christmas day.

Thankfully I'm getting my writing rhythm back. I stopped writing for a little bit of time, but I got some things in my life that inspire and require me to write now, so hopefully I'll be on this writing thing for a while.

Until next time.

PS - Vegas, P2 is coming, be patient with me

New Camera!! Yessss!!

I got my Casio EX-Z850 today in the mail. Thankfully I was able to get it shipped UPS, as I have two other packages waiting to come to me via USPS that will probably never make it here until after February sometime, nevermind the fact that they shipped out weeks ago. Shit I hate Santa Barbara's postal service.......

Oh yeah, and I'll have Pt. 2 of my Vegas trip up tomorrow, probably night time. There's poker in this one, you'll all enjoy it I swear :)

"Oh Yeah, I Forgot...the Rodeo's in Town" Pt. 1

Another gem from the quote machine......

After work on Thursday I packed up my bag and headed out to Ventura to meet up with Mitch, where we'd take off to LA to pick up Darsky on our way out to Vegas. For the past month or so Mitch had been complaining about not having enough money for this Vegas trip, his credit cards are maxed, blah blah blah. I walked into his room on Thursday night, and the first thing I see is a brand new PS3. Good job Mitch. He said he had opened up a Best Buy card the night before and got the PS with a bunch of BluRay DVDs. It's a friggin sweet lookin console....I'll give it to him....but self control man, SELF CONTROL!! My fault for bringing a broke, impulsive-buyer to Vegas?? Perhaps.......

After about half an hour of me playing Resistance: Fall of Man on his Samsung 56" 1080p DLP, I'd had enough and was ready for Sin City. He packed and we left. We stopped in the valley for a little bit first to stop by my dad's and we were at Dar's place at around 10PM. We started the trip with an extended conversation about TVs and resolutions. I like to think that I like electronics and that I know a little bit about the subject, but damn these guys are like tech gurus. I could sure use some advice from these guys along the road of purchasing electronics...

We stopped in FREEZING Baker for gas, and arrived in the city at about 5AM. First order of business: food! We went to a restaurant in the Bellagio for our first meal, which consisted of iced tea and $20 eggs benedict. We stared at the jumping water fountains in the plants for a couple minutes, then we decided to go on a trek to find a $5 blackjack table. We went to the Barbary Coast and found a table with one guy who was playing pretty by-the-book, which is great news cuz around here at Chumash the only people playing blackjack are retards who don't know what a blackjack is.

We all started off decently, but time took its toll on us in different ways. Darsky got reamed pretty hard pretty quickly, while Mitch started slow and was able to make a couple-hundred dollar score. Mitch had a total of $300 dollars for the whole four-day trip, which was hilarious in its own right, but he deserved the win and could have used the money more than Darsky or me. I broke dead even after like 2 hours, so....go me. That's a win in my book when it comes to blackjack.

By the time we were done it was only 9AM, and we didn't have check-in until 11AM. Unfortunately I was ass-tired, as I had to wake up at 7AM Thursday morning, and Mitch was pretty tired, too. Dar was good to go, and I knew I would end up in a card room with him before I even saw a pillow (priorities man!). Mitch was pretty dead so we decided to head to the hotel to get an early check-in. Then, as we stepped out of the door of the Barbary Coast, I noticed an oddity in the streets. Pretty much 80% of the people walking around were wearing flannels, spurred boots, and cowboy hats. Anyone who knows Vegas knows that it was definitely Rodeo time. I had totally forgotten about it since hearing about it weeks ago, but I wouldn't be allowed to forget for the rest of the trip, as I saw more hats and lassos this weekend than I'd ever seen in my life.

We got to the Aladdin to face a long line of check-in...ers? Thankfully the desk staff was competent and I didn't have to wait long. We got the obvious front desk upgrade, which was free when she noticed us getting the employee discount in the first place. Whether or not it would've been free is questionable, but we got for free in any case so that was just fine. It was a quarter to 10AM by this point, and John said that he might have been dealing the 10AM tourney at the Aladdin room, so Mitch went upstairs and Darsky and I headed straight to the poker room.

When we showed up there was only one 1/2NL game going with a noticably loud drunk foreign guy. There was three tables signed up for the tournament. It was a $60 buy-in, started with T1500 at twenty-minute levels. I was pretty dead, played a few small pots, and eventually pushed in with JJ for 1100 at 100-200 and got action from A10. An Ace on the flop and that was that. Nothing disappointing, actually almost expected. I was still feelin pretty tired, but noticed a small 3/6 waiting to get started. I bought a rack and took a seat, and we started playing shorthanded.

John had missed dealing the 10AM, but had come in to help set up for and deal the 1PM. He stopped by my seat and we had a quick chat. He made a few trips over to my table to watch me donk around in the 3/6, and I got a chance to thank him for the room.

After about half an hour I was down about $40 and Dar came over after he busted out. We started with our usual banter with each other when we sit at the same table. We made quick "friends" with Lisa, a middle-aged detective who was a pretty decent player. She maybe thought she was better than she was, either that or she was playing against Darsky and me, who eat 3/6 games for breakfast (it was about 11AM....that's about right).

Then the game died.

So we decided to play double-flop hold'em heads up. Lisa had sat out to wait for the game to fill, but dropped another rack to the two of us when we goaded her back into play. Then she left again, and we continued heads up. A short time later we had interest in starting back up the 3/6 and were glad to have the seats filled. I was still dead tired, but fell into my low limit limit hold'em drone. I started with Coronas and ended up at the end of our 5-hour session with coffee. We eventually had a full game going, with players and chips and everything. It was quite a welcome change to the earlier morning. Lisa was still in it, and still rebuying. I took multiple pots off of her with bluffs, and she ran into my nuts a few times (can I say that??) when she had the guts to call me down. GG Lisa.

Then there was this damn old guy in the 5s who kept pissin me off by catching his mediocre draws and backing into winning hands. It was nothing unusual, but pushing me on a 30-hour no sleep session was putting a frown on my face. At around 3PM we decided to go grab food, since we hadn't eaten since 5AM and I needed energy. As we were racking up, the dealer called over the floor person and had him comp us at the buffet for keeping the game together, and being pretty much the only players talking to and tipping the dealers since we had been there.

Around that time John was getting off his tiny shift, as he had really only come in to deal the 1PM, so he joined us and (obviously) got in on the comp. We headed down to the buffet, which was delicious. I saw seafood and was hesitant, but John insisted that it was good, and indeed it was! I had the seafood, the Italian, and a small bit of Chinese, and it was all very delicious. One thing that has me peeved about Vegas is the rising prices of foods and amneties. In the past, one of the bigger draws for Vegas was the $5.95 buffets, and if you want that now you gotta head to places that people don't wanna necessarily head to. Although the food is quite better in comparison, the prices are catching up with the quality. But we got a $75 trip for free, so I can't really complain.

The food was good, talking with John was better. I hadn't seen him since before he left Ventura for Vegas. He's a great guy and a fun person to hang around. I didn't get to see him after this for the whole trip, which sucked, but next time I go out there it's on the list of important things to do. He didn't even get a chance to meet up with Mitch since he was passed out at this point. Next time, we gotta.

By 4 I had had enough and we took that horrible, bastardly trip back and forth from the casino to the parking garage to grab our bags. I'm telling you right now that the devil was in charge of the layout of the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood - Desert Passage combo. In order to get back and forth from the parking garage and the casino/hotel you need to take a two-day trek through random retail stores and restaurants, cleverly disguised in a pseudo-desert surrounding. I'll give 'em that the Desert Passage mall is a work of art, it's an awesome place and it's a fun outlet. I'll also say that it's completely unneccessary to walk through the whole damn thing to get something out of the car. K we got a good deal on the room so /end rant

We headed up to the room and it was sleep time! I ended up getting three tantalizing hours of close-eye, and by then Mitch was ready for a night of gambling with his newly won "wad". I got up at around 7PM and took a shower. Then we hit the strip. We were gonna walk as we were in great position on the strip, and we decided on the Monte Carlo. We spent a few hours there playing blackjack and drinking Jack N Cokes. We each dropped a few hundred there over a couple hours, with the usual ups and downs of that damn game. I decided to toss a bill at the 3-card poker table for shits and giggles and picked up 2 hands the whole time. That went as planned.

From there we took a walk over to the New York New York cuz I enjoy the scenery. That probably sounds pretty gay, but I WAS an art major and I enjoy art of the physical kind, so I really enjoy themes, props, scenery, etc. Anyways, while playing there I was able to grab the Snag of the Trip for this trip around (I'm also a poker chip fanatic, for those who don't know). The dealer had a whole rack of them, and I was able to grab a pretty much mint snapper from the NY NY. And I know I know, but I have a new Casio EX-Z850 coming on Monday, so take it easy on me.

Anyways the drinks were still flowing as Mitch blew pretty much all of his money. On the first night out, that was expected. Let's just say that for next two days Mitch grew to know the ins and outs of our hotel room. He probably even learned the Bellagio's waterballet schedule thanks to our Bellagio fountain view.

After I lost a little bit there, we headed back to the Aladdin, being that Mitch now had no more money to play. I got crushed to the tune of another $200 on the way up to the hotel room as I saw an open BJ table and thought I could take her. Wrong answer!! Still love that game, though...I knew that since Mitch was done it would be straight poker for the next two days, and damn was I ready.

Next time I'll talk about the Red8, the big names, and the big bluff gone horribly good.

Until next time.

Quotes Are Great

"What will you do if you win the million dollar first prize?"

"Well, I guess I'll probably pay off some bills and some debts."

"So what will you do with the rest?"

"Well, I guess I'll just tell them that they have to wait."

-Interviewer questioning Thor Hansen before a final table

Hahahahaha!


And I'll be updating with my Vegas trip report tonight. Keep cool my babies...

Departure Is Upon Me

I didn't think I was ever gonna get off work today, but damn it feels good to be home! Or should I call it a docking station. Or should I call it a launch pad. Whatever the hell it is....it's gonna be behind me in about two hours. It's Vegas time!

The countdown began at the beginning of the week and it felt like there was no end in sight, but alas it's here! We'll be heading out from Ventura at around 8:30 tonight. We're probably gonna roam around until we can check into our room in the afternoon, and then the fun begins. Five days of pure excitement and non-stop action.

This is what dreams are made of.

Birthday Weekend

If another day had passed by without a game of poker in it, I might not still be here. I might have perished off the side of the Earth. I might have spontaneously combusted and there might have been no noticeable remains of my body left. I might have fallen into a black hole in the ground, only to get eaten by the planet and never be seen again. But thankfully Darsky had a hankerin' for that good ole' Chumash so I'm still alive and breathing.

Suffering through a horribly boring Friday night, I sent an SOS to Dar to come up and play some Chumash poker. He responded with a "tomorrow night" and that was that. He arrived, we ate, we played. We took off to Chumash at about 5PM and showed up to only ONE 2/5NL game. The 1/2NL had four tables going, of course, so we were at the mercy of the poker gods to open up some new 2/5NL games. Fortunately for the both of us two new tables opened up within twenty minutes and we both took seats at different tables.

I felt good going into it (of course, as I wouldn't go if I didn't). I got off to a quick decent start by catching a small straight for a small pot, but after that I just couldn't get off the ground. I was getting outflopped, caught on, and getting unlucky. My first big pair was QQ, which I raised to $20. I got called in two places behind me, one seat being a tight-ish player I'd seen before, and it folded back around. The board came up A-K-x, and I checked to the two callers and a betting war ensued between the both of them, each chopping up with AJ. Two hands later I picked up KK and raised it up to $20 again after one limper. Both blinds called as did the limper, giving me position. The flop came up 7-7-10. The small blind bet $25, the big blind called, and the limper raised it up to $70. I thought for a second before letting it go in light of the action, and there was a chop again with each of them holding A7.

So needless to say there was major action, and I just needed to catch a hand and I would get action on it all the way down. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I ended up widdling down to around $100 when I looked down at AKd on the button. There was a raise to $20, a call from a kid sittin on around $800, and I pushed with my $100 in position. The original raiser folded, and the kid called if off with the 56h. The board came up 4h-6x-7h, making me about a 10-1 dog. I turned the A, but was still facing major outs. Another 6 hit the river and I rebought. Over the next three hours I just couldn't get anything going. I picked up JJ and QQ, but couldn't play after the flop on either of them. Widdling down again I got caught with a bad kicker on my Ace and decided to take a walk.

I hit the casino floor for a couple minutes to take a breather, and headed back to the poker room ready to go one more buy. I waited to get a seat at Darsky's table, since we always have a blast playing the same table and our styles of play allow us to stay out of each other's way. He was up, and we started to have a good time. I was down to about $150 from my $200 buy, and finally caught a hand. I checked off my 99 in the big blind after four limpers, and had a beautiful looking A-9-3 flop. We got three way betting action, and a 3 on the turn filled me up. I ended up doubling and half up on that hand and finally had gained some ground. Unfortunately, the fun wouldn't continue long.

I ended up working my way to around $500 when I picked up AA. I raised it up to $20 and had two callers, one who was sittin on around $120, and the other who was sittin on $200. The board came up 10-high and the 1s pushed in. The middle seat called off, and I reraised to put him all in. He ended up calling with 99. The turn was a 9 and that was another hand lost to bad luck. I ended up getting QQ and KK one more time, letting the Qs go to an Ace-high board facing action, and I won a small pot when I flopped a third King. Darsky had been stale since building his stack to around $900 earlier in the night, and we decided to leave. I was sittin on around $350 by this point, and raised it up to $15 with the 45s and got two callers. The board came up Qs-xs-xs, and I bet out $45. I got called twice. The turn was, of course, the 2s, and the small blind pushed all-in for $1,000. I racked up my remaining $200+ and took off, disappointed in the night's occurances.

My buddy Mitch was up at Chumash as well, and ended up coming back with Darsky and me. We called up Joe on the way back and the four of us went to go grab some food before returning back to my place where we all crashed at about 5AM. Then in the morning, it was my birthday! Darsky took off and Mitch and I went downtown to go to this Mexican place for brunch. We met up with my little lady friend and her friend, and had all-you-can-drink margaritas and mermosas until 2 o'clock.

After that we we to a couple more bars downtown, and drank the day away. We headed down to the Lounge to play some pool, that which I was doing horribly. I'm usually ok, but when I'm drinking I don't think I can make a single shot. Oh well...it was still fun and then we parted and Mitch and I headed to Ventura. I dealt a small $5 tourney at Mitch's house, and then I tagged along with the group as we headed down to the bowling alley. We got a few pitchers of beer and bowled for a few hours. All around it was a good time, and Mitch and I bet on most of our games. We all left the bowling alley at around midnight, and we ordered some pizza before I took off back to Santa Barbara at 2AM.

All around the weekend was great and I had a lot of good company. Next weekend will probably be even better, as Darsky, Mitch, and myself are all headed out to Vegas! We'll be there from the 8th-11th thanks to John, who got us a cheap, cheap room at the Aladdin.

Until next time.

Where Have I Been? Where Have YOU Been?!

Yes yes, I'm still alive. It's hard to believe, but it's true! As a matter of fact, I might be more alive than I've ever been, but then again who knows......Every day I think that new things mean things that they don't. Is it life or is it mundane bullcrap? Is it love or is it a lie? Are things ever going to improve, or does life just ride along like a train on a track, taking you down the same path day after day, night after night...

It's been a difficult time since I stopped playing and started working, or I should say started putting 100% of myself into work. I've gone through many socalled "epiphanies", and perhaps that's a big reason why I stopped writing. I hate writing about things that I'm going to do or going to stop doing that I end not following through with. I said I was gonna stop playing, I didn't. I said I was gonna save up a bunch of money for a roll so I could start playing seriously. I didn't. I kept saying I was gonna write and blog multiple times a week, and we all know how that's been going.For the past year and a half I've been telling everyone, and telling myself, that a new car was coming. It hasn't been.

Well I finally leveled out. I stopped playing cards about three months ago. I've played sparingly when being backed, but haven't put my own money up for some time now. I think I still have the skill to make money, I just finally realized that I'm not in the situation to put my own money up. It affected the way I played, and more importantly it affected the way I acted outside the card room.

Through a raise and promotion at work after months of hard work, I was able to finally afford myself this

Being on the verge of my December Vegas trip, it hurt from a gambler's POV to put money into this car at this point in time. Two weeks away, and $2,000 dropped from my Vegas funds in half an hour. But from the personal side, damn does it feel good. For too long I've been driving around a broken, beatup, old piece of crap car. It hurt to drive, it hurt to listen to, and it was really damaging to my self-esteem knowing that it was my only option to drive. I can say with full honesty that driving arounda nice new car really can affect a man. For the past week I've been walking (driving) around with the biggest smile I've had in years.

Of course the car isn't the only reason for the smiles. Life can't be lived without love. Love? Eh who knows what love is. I don't know, and that's the damn truth. I thought I did once, but the more and more I get to know, the more and more I realize that I don't know much at all. And whether or not it's love that I'm trying to know now, I know that it's fun in any case. Got it? Yeah that's enough on that subject for right now....

Moving along, thanks to my buddy John, I got a room at the Aladdin from Dec 8-11 for very, very cheap. Mitch and Darsky will be joining me for that one, and it'll be a fun one. I'll be playing poker for sure, but I'll also be hitting up multiple gaming tables, and I'll also be enjoying every second of Vegas's lights and extravagances, which I never seem to get enough of.

So now that life seems to be back on track, I'm startin to feel better and better about things. Hopefully for this blog, that means I'll be writing more again, at least a couple times a week. I would say to wish me luck, but for once, things seem to being going in the right direction already...

Whattup Tasty Readers

Just a quick update, and I know I've been treating this blog like a bastard. Hopefully I'll be in the mood to write later.

News from the homefront! I can't even explain how much I've been working lately, partially because I don't think I've ever actually been in a situation where I've had to. I've been putting in a lot of hours in the office for the past three weeks, workin lots of 12 hours+ days, and damn I've been tired. But thankfully our new system is up and my job should require fewer hours from me, which is good and bad. Good because I'll have time to do stuff. Bad because for the next two weeks I'll still be getting paid for overtime.

And this weekend was.....productive? I acquired a new couch and coffee table, which is sweet cuz my previous living room was pissing me off. And to go along with that I also got Tiger Woods 07, and Joe and I put about 12 hours into it this weekend alone.....we're sick I know. I had realized a couple weeks ago that I missed the entire summer's worth of golfing, and was really feeling down about that. Soooo.......enter Tiger Woods! I love this game, and if you've played it and don't like it then there's definitely something wrong with you.

Next on the list is to get my XBOX 360 and my 60" 1080p DLP Samsung.




K that will probably have to wait, but I'm patient.

And I have my Vegas trip coming up in December, and am probably going to stay at either the Mirage or Bally's, or (hopefully) I'll be getting hooked up at the Aladdin, which is fine by me. More to come later.

300

Another movie inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel, I'll be sad if this one disappoints......But it won't

Hot Streak....Cold Streak....No Streak??

Day after day I've been doing this thing that people call...living life, or something like that. Honestly, "living life" is a personal definition. Going to work every day from 9-5, working some overtime, going home, paying bills, watching tv........elch whatever. That's not exactly what I'd call "living", but to each man his own. Having had this gambler's mentality for the past two years has really given me some different views on life and money.

Before the past couple months, for the past couple of years I've been skating by. Working part-time while attending CSUN wasn't paying much, but I didn't have much to pay for so I didn't really mind. Was it boring? Eh maybe, but I was working with a bunch of other college kids who just worked cuz they needed a job while they were in school, and I fit that description and was able to have a pretty decent time there. I had had my driver's license suspended in a crazy summer after graduating high school, I had just broken up with my girlfriend after three years when I got to college, and my living situation sucked, so things were looking pretty bleak. But I got a job, and found some friends in a city that I had just moved to, and made a smaller group of poker playing friends as well. Once that happened it was an hour drive in two directions to get to either of two indian casinos that had allowed players of 18+ to play.

So when I wasn't at school, or wasn't at home not doing my homework, I was either at the Mash or I was at Morongo playing cards. If I wasn't at any of those places I was at a home game, and things were good. I was learning the game, I was getting better, and moreso I was forming myself. Whether that was good or bad, it was happening, and I wasn't gonna stop it. It was exciting and winning or losing more than a paycheck in one night was fun for me. The lows made me feel like shit, yet the highs made me feel like God.

A little further down the timeline when Joe and I had met, and I moved out to Santa Barbara, I was basically a full-blown casino junkie, being only half an hour away from the Mash. I had learned blackjack and had gone through some pretty sweet streaks in that. Of course one night of a hot streak was quickly countered by two losing nights, but no matter what happened it was still exciting and never got boring. I started focusing more back on playing poker, and soon enough I had left the blackjack train for a game I felt could easily make me money on a consistant basis.

I had started as a limit player. Obviously entering the game at 2/4, but moving up through the 3/6, the 4/8, and eventually to the 6/12, being that Chumash didn't offer an intermediate 5/10 game. Although I wasn't as consistant of a winner as I would've like to have been at the 6/12, I was still ahead. At this point I'd seen Joe go through minimal losses and maximum profits in the 2/5NL game, the only NL game that was offered at the time. We were both taking the game seriously at this point and were playing live at least four days a week. After a few lengthy discussions, I decided to switch from playing the 4/8 and 6/12 to solely playing the 2/5NL.

Things started out well, and I noticed that I could definitely make more money off of the horrible players in the NL game than I could pounding away at the "idiots" (I've since learned not to consider anyone an idiot at the game; they either help pay the bills or have enough skill/luck to get my money, neither of which I would consider an idiot) at the 6/12. For the most part things were on the up and up, and although I suffered the occasional loss I was up. I spent a lot of money on crap I didn't need, spent a lot of money on food, and had a habit of paying for EVERYONE no matter who was with me or where we were. I still was winning, the game was still exciting, and I still didn't care about money.

Then a horrible thing happened. I started losing. I was still winning sometimes, but when I went to go unneccassarily blow a bunch of money on Sundays, I noticed that I had started ending up with less money than I had started the week with. But I still kept coming home with loads of DVDs and still treated all my friends to food and occasionally crap that they wanted that they couldn't themselves afford. But at this point Joe and I had gotten the reputation for being the badasses that played cards and actually won, and could afford to blow all this money while everyone else was humping crappy part-time jobs while finishing school. It was fun to be in the spotlight and even more fun to know that the way that I had gotten the money in the first place was not through hard work in any way.

I started to worry about my game, about my skill, and about my mentality. I had been taking some huge beats, and at the same time I wasn't playing my A-game. Then for whatever reason I went on a pretty decent one-month hot streak. One month, and no more. After that month I started steadily losing again, and this time it was no fluke. Within months I had lost everything that I had won and more. All the cash in the hidden places and in my pockets was gone. All the numbers in my bank account were zeros, and my body felt about as empty as my accounts. The months continued to show me red results, and even though I had now had steady paychecks coming in, they certainly weren't being saved in any way. I kept trying to pry my way back into the winner's circle, and for some reason it wasn't working.

Month after month my paychecks came, my bills got paid, and my extra money got spent.....err lost. So, I decided to stop playing. It hurt, it still hurts, and until I get back on my feet and can afford the swings, it's going to hurt in the future to come. No more dealer's games, no more late night trips to Carrow's after turning up a grand profit in just hours, and no more disregard for money. I have never been so uptight with money in my life, ever! And it kills me, cuz my personality is one that doesn't allow me to care about money as much as I do, yet my brain knows I need to so it overrides my instincts.

So now I wake up every morning, get dressed, go to lunch, bullshit around the office, do some work, and come home and be bored. Joe is playing still, supporting his life, and Darsky is still rollin through the professional player process. And I'm watching, that's it, just observing. Thankfully I have people who understand what I'm capable of, and I've been supported a few times throughout my drought by Darsky and Joe, usually resulting in profits for both parties. And now with my latest crush I'm getting support as well. I love women almost as much as cards, and that's one of the only things that's kept me going. When I find one that tells me that I can make it in the gambling world, like the one I have now, and when I have friends like the ones I have, it gives me hope. When they tell me that they believe in me, it relieves me from my everyday hypnosis of going through the motions just to watch another year past. I have a feeling that sometime in the future my hopes will turn into realities, and that I can prove all my supporters right.

Darsky Enterprises

And perhaps a logo?

Poker Trip

I took a trip down to Chumash last week. Joe put me in, and believe it or not there was no action at the 2/5NL game on a friday night...pathetic. For the longest time the only games they spread were 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, the occasional 6/12, and the 2/5NL $200 max. Just recently they started spreading a 1/2NL $50 max buy-in. The game has very little play and is chalk full of horrible players. Of course with horrible players comes a minefield of rediculous calls and terrible beats. And of course, we showed up at around 6PM on a saturday and there was four $50NL games going and ONE friggin $200NL. Joe was staking me on this night, and seeing as how there was a list of only about six players on the $200NL list, it looked to be a while before either of us took a seat. So I figured I'd ante up and play the $50NL game.

After folding the first few rounds I figured I'd take a stab at the pot from the button. There were two limpers and I bumped it to $8 with the Ks8h. I got one caller out of the SB and the others folded. The board came up a pretty decent As Qs 9s. The caller checked and I bet out $15. He tried to check behind me.....and then after he was told that he couldn't check he called the bet. Haha fantastic. The turn was a K. Now I figured to have the best hand as well as, obviously, the best draw. Except now he bet into me. $10 was the bet in front of me. With $60 in the pot and with me on only $20 I had an easy jam and got a quick call. I turned over my hand and he tabled Jd9c. River: Jh. REBUY

I wasn't too upset since I was expecting that in this game goin in, so I quickly bought for another $50. It took less than 20 minutes for me to get into another confrontation with this guy. In middle position I raised it up to $8 after one limper with the 56s. He called without hesitation behind me and it folded around. The board came up with what I thought, again, was a pretty good flop for me. With 3s 4s Jd, I bet $12 into the caller. He raised another $12. And again, with a $50 buy-in, I was forced into another situation where I felt the money needed to go in. There was only one hand that I was fearful of, and that was the AJs. IF he did have that hand then I was only a 2.5-1 dog on the hand but I was getting laid 3.7-1 on my last $18 after his raise. Given his previous hand holdings I highly doubted he had anything that huge, and if he didn't have the AJs then I'm looking to be a 55-45 favorite over any other pair, still ahead against a 4 3, and a slight dog to a set but still facing major odds. Fortunately for ME I overthought the situation and he ended up calling me with Q3 offsuit, putting me as a 70-30 favorite. Fortunately for HIM I blank blanked and had to rebuy again.

That one kind of frustrated me. I took a deep breath and shelled out the next $50. Again, it took me less than 20 minutes to hook up with another guy who wanted to put all of his money in on the flop. Luckily for ME I had flopped a set with my 77 on a board of 5-7-8. Luckily for HIM he had decided to put his whole stack in on a Q6 and managed to turn the 9 as I managed to blank the chance to boat the river. AAAGGHH. It's cool I got more to play. I rebought for another $50 and was able to at least get back another $100 before they finally started a 2/5NL $200 max three hours after we arrived.

I was up and down in the 2/5NL game. I bought in for the max $200 and never broke the $450 mark. I kept getting up to $450 and then getting knocked back down to $200. Then I'd get back up to $400, then back down to $200. I felt like I was playing ok but not great. It's been about a month since I've played a session at the Mash, but I definitely felt better than I did last time when I lost my mind. This time I felt like I was making good plays and good reads to get a little ground, but then I would lose it back in tough situations. There was two situations where I probably could've saved money. In the first situation I got stuck on a tough read. I had two choices and picked the wrong read. In the second situation I got overly aggressive against the wrong player and had I been less aggressive I could've saved a bit of money. Overall I ended up down on the session, but I know what I need to fix and what to get a hold of next time I get a back.

We got Paul's game tomorrow and I'm hopin to take down some cash in that cuz I'm feelin like I can right now. Although I've barely played in the past month I'm feelin like I can cruise right now and take down the ole' weekend tourney against weak players. Updates to come on Sunday/Monday.

Update?

Soon!! I've been really busy at work (yes, yes it's sad to hear, tell me about it), but I'll put up an update soon. Check back in.....half an hour?

Breath of Fresh Air

Every now and then, no matter if nothing is going bad, life is difficult to be happy with. Even though nothing is wrong, things might just be stressful, if perhaps not blatantly stressful but maybe on a subconscious level, and for no reason at all you just feel uncomfortable and it seems like nothing can make you happy. Have you ever wondered why this happens? I'll tell you why. It's because every now and then, no matter if nothing is going bad, you just need a breath of fresh air.

Lucky for me I found mine.

HALO, The New Apartment, and Sports

Ok so apparently I suck at HALO. I've never really played the game with the exception of a few times spread apart over months and years at a time. Well now since there's three XBOXers living in the new apartment (as opposed to just myself previous to the move) I'm gonna have lots of times to get my ass kicked. My two roomies were HALOers before when they lived on campus at UCSB and they did the whole XBOX live thing and all that. Now although they haven't played in a while, they still know the game. I definitely don't, and I've been proving that all week. But I'm improving! And that's saying something, right??........

Aside from that, the new apartment rocks. The living room is a decent size, my bedroom's a decent size, and it's cool being able to live with these guys, as the three of us have kind of been the best of friends over the last couple years, and living together is pretty fun. The area's quieter than my other place, which is a definite plus because I was living in brand new apartments JAMMED into the slums of Santa Barbara, so my place was awesome but the surrounding noise of the hudlums sucked. Our new place is tucked way back, so it's a nice change for me. And there's also tennis courts right down the street. Hey look, another thing I suck at.

I've never played tennis before, but I think it's something I should get into and it's probably something I can get really good at. I think that I have a pretty natural sense of sports, although some who know me as a poker player and nothing else would beg to differ. I enjoy playing sports, but I've been a casino rat for so long that I'm kind of coming into my athletic self. So although I've never played tennis before I went out and bought a brand new Prince TT Ultralite. Being that I've never played before, I could've bought a $20 racquet, but I'll be damned if I have to learn how to play a game with less than moderate equipment (as you can see my problems in money management). Although I'm having some problems controlling the ball, I'm feelin pretty good on the court and think I can pick up the game pretty quickly.

If there were some decent basketball courts close by that would rock, and I definitely need to get back on the golf course sooooooon. I haven't been to the range in forever, and it hurts inside. I've never really found time to get good at golf, but perhaps it's coming in the near future. I should get a new set of clubs first though...

On to something that I'm decent at: volleyball. Down here in SB there's a lot of beach, and with a lot of beach there's a lot of beach volleyball courts. My parents play beach volleyball and have been playing for a few years regularly, and they've been preaching the joys of the game to me and trying to get me to play for a long time now, but they haven't succeeded. Recently though, my parents decided to move across the country to New York, and what a time for me to branch out into sports again. It sucks because I would've definitely loved to have played with them since they're pretty good players and they play hard, and good competition is what makes playing sports and games fun to me. But nevertheless I've been improving over the weeks and feel like playing against better players so I can get my skill level higher. Lovin the game.

And in more sports news football is back!! Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year once again that Sundays are no longer open in my schedule. The NFL is wonderful and time spent without it is time in the dark as far as I'm concerned. The Eagles have a pretty new team as far as the team's makeup goes, and while losing a great LB in Mark Simeanou, I'm definitely glad they were able to get Donte' Stallworth for the trade, as the Eagles are in dire need of a superstar receiver if they're gonna get back to the Superbowl any time soon. Last season was a huge disappointment after so many years of dominating the NFC East, yes that's right, DOMINATING :) But however new and young the team is, they sure showed their capabilities in the first game of the season. Sheppard got injured on the first play of the game, but Roderick Hood should be quite an acceptable sub for Sheppard's serious injury, the guy's got some game in him. And although the first game was against the Texans, I can think of quite a few teams in the past two years that fall far below Houston. Nonetheless it's gonna take a little more to beat the Giants than it did the Texans, and the Eagles are game. Here we come NFC, watch out now.

Here's lookin to more sports played and more sports watched.

Hey There Children

I haven't been writing recently because, frankly, I hate writing about losing. And as much as I try not to be a biased writer, writing about losing sucks if that's ALL you do, as is the situation I've come to feel like I am in. And also I hate the way my posts have been coming in. I don't like posting an uplifting "I knew I could it!" post one day just to have it followed by a "Dammit I suck at life and should not ever play poker ever cuz I suck" post. It's probably not fun for you all to read, and it really seems immature to me. And while things haven't been going well for me recently, rather than re-explain all the depressing bad beats and bad plays, I'll just say a few words about life.

Recently I had an epiphany of sorts. After getting crushed in the $350,000 guaranteed at Chumash, and getting handled at the cash games afterwards, I kind of took a step back to evaluate and wonder: 1)what I am doing wrong, and 2)what the hell is wrong with ME. After thinking for a long while, the reasons listed below are what I came up with.

I've never been the best money manager, I'll admit to that. Is that a good thing for a gambler? Of course not lolp. Most of the time I spend too much money on useless crap that I never use, I eat out a lot, and I usually spend money on things that I don't NEED even though there are clearly things that I DO need. I am a big idiot in this field, that much is apparent. I also pay for people a lot even though I'm not (and have never been) in a situation to do so. Luckily for me, I have people in my life that understand that I have great passions that get in the way of practicality, and I also have enough sense not to get to a point past saving.

I haven't been the healthiest person in the world lately, lately being the past year. I definitely am not fat, but I could use some excercise and diet changes for the pure healthiness of it. Now as any serious poker player knows, these two things are key to being a successful player. Whether or not these two things (or lack of them) are directly related to my inconsistant success, I don't know, but I'd have to guess they do.

Another thing is that because of my lack of financial responsibility I'm broke, just flat out. Santa Barbara is a crazily expensive place to live. As a matter of fact Forbes Magazine ranked Santa Barbara, CA as the 7th most expensive city to live in in 2005 with a starting median housing price of $2,050,000. We made another top 10 for 2006 as well. Prices aside, I've been living out here for barely over a year now since leaving CSUN with nothing, and I have nothing to show for it. I have no cash, a beat down car, and still haven't gotten back to school since I relocated. Being in this depressed (and depressive) state for the past year hasn't helped my game at all.

Overall my poker game has definitely improved. I've been making some good folds, some great calls, and some even better plays. I don't make the right move every time, but nobody does. But regardless I really don't feel like I'm at the level where I should be, and I honestly think it's because of the situations I've stated above.

Guess what Loyal 5. It's all about to change. I'm moving into a new apartment tomorrow and plan on eating in a LOT more than I do now, because currently I'm NOT eating in. I started playing beach volleyball, if that's what you want to call it...I suck, but in any case it's excercise and sunlight. And, because my recent losses have left me short on cash, I've adopted a new view on cash flow and money management. Things are also going well at work. Some things are going to change in the future around the office that are really going to be in my favor. What does this all mean?

Well for starters, I won't be playing cards. Sure if Darsky or Joe wants to put me in a game, I'd be happy to take the stake and split the treasure, as that has seemed to work out quite well in the past. I'll also be playing the monthly at Paul's as well as the crazy quarter games that pop up every once in a while. But basically I won't be putting any money into the game for a little bit. Once things settle down a bit after I move in, I have to take care of certain expenses that have been hanging over my head for some months now. After that I'll save up a bit so as not to get in sticky situations again, and by that time I should be in a perfect mental state to take down some sick cash playin cards. I know I have the ability to do it (it's true, I've been told so), but without discipline skill means nothing in the world. It's really sad that I've let things slide for so long, but I'm really feelin like I'm turnin things around. And it's not that I've slid SO far, but I know that I'm better than where I have let myself get to.

Anyways I won't be abandoning this blog at all, and in fact I might reach out more to other viewers without as much poker talk coming through. But in time I will return and really put myself in the game like I have in the past, just this time I'll really be able to take a hold on it. I know things like this happen, and the greatest of pros have been broke multiple times early in their careers, so I'm not scared.

Until next time.

And This Is Why I'm Still Working

So after picking up a $1,000 winning night, the next few nights weren't as kind. On top of a long couple of days of dead cards, I got schwapped with difficult hands and bad beats. On a few different occasions I got in situations where I got in kicker trouble on tripped boards, one where I lost the minimum amount on the flop, and one where I lost the maximum amount on the flop........The next session after my most recent winning session I lost a bunch of money where I opened with 1010 in MP and got 2 callers. The board came up QQ10 and I ended up getting a guy's $300 stack in with him holding QJ. The turn was a J and I lost.

I stayed quiet for the rest of that night and just couldn't pick up a hand. I finally decided to make a stand with the K9d in late position and got one caller out of the SB. The board came up KQJ, to which he checked. I bet into the pot, and he called. I hadn't played a hand for two hours up to this point and the guy was still calling me down. For some reason, I just didn't think he was big. The turn was a blank and he check called a bet again. The river was a meaningless 6 and he checked again. At this point I still didn't think he was strong, and coupled with the fact that I had pretty much no stack left, I stuck the rest in and he called. He turned up K6 for a rivered two pair and my previous victory was $400 shorter in one night. Thanks for that.

Chalking it up to bad luck and dry cards I decided to hit the Mash again the next night and took a seat with an out of control player I loved to see. I'd seen him before, and I'd taken some chips off of him before, and I had a great time doing it. Imagine how I felt sitting at the table with him again........until the first five minutes. On about my fifth hand I look down at 44 and limp. It folded around to Crazy in the SB and he bumped it to $15. The BB called and I called as well. The board came up a BEAUTIFUL A-4-7. I was hoping to get some action with a weak A, or hopefully a two pair from Crazy, and sure enough Crazy bet out $15. The BB called and I raised it up to $40. Crazy shrugged and called and the BB folded. The turn was a 9 and he pushed all-in for the rest of my starting stack and I called, showing my 44. The table was glad I got him, because apparently he had been pushing the table around with mutilple all-in shoves. I was happy, until I saw a 10 on the river. "Oh I got a straight." That's right children, he had the ole' 68 and my first buy was gone.

For the rest of the night things didn't go well and I suffered through more dead cards. I just hate having ONE good night countered by a bunch of shitty nights. I know I'm playing well and constantly improving, I can feel that. But it really gets a guy down when he's tired of working nine to five, yet he can't get rolling at the tables because of bad luck or whatever you want to call it. I'm playing well, I know it.

Hopefully things will turn around soon, very soon, as this weekend is Chumash's $520 tournament. $100,000 for first is sounding pretty appetizing at this point. Darsky's coming down on Thursday and will be spending the weekend up here, so that'll be a fun time as usual. Hopefully we'll be at the tables Thursday and Friday night makin some cash, and on Saturday hopefully I'll make a decent showing and bring home a big wad. I love playing live tournies! I probably won't update till after the tourney, so wish me luck.

Until next time

More Tales From the Felt

This past Friday night called for another Mash trip. We showed up at around 5PM to get an early start on the Friday night crowd, in hopes that the stacks would be built early in order to take advantage of Chumash's $200 max buy-in structure. It took about 10 minutes for me to get a seat with two full tables in play. I took the 1seat in the BB and got off to a crazy start right away. On the first hand in the BB I flopped top pair and it went for a betcall, betcall, betraise on the river and I was forced to dump it on a nonscary board facing a $100 call with a weak kicker. The next hand in the SB I flopped TP again and this time heard back from an AA on the turn. On the button I flatcalled a $20 raise with AQ and flopped a Q and doubled up on the turn when I got headsup with the raiser. By the fourth hand I was back to just under my starting stack of $200 and was ready to play some cards.

The dealer was crackin up at my three-hand entry to the table, and I couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened in a matter of minutes. After that, though, I was ready to play some cards. The table was pretty passive, and I took advantage of that to it's full effect. I was able to take a couple small pots early with some loose raises and continuation bets, and it looked like it was going to be a decent night. At this table it looked like I would be picking up some medium sized pots all night, whether I had the goods or not, and that's pretty much how it went. I took a lot of medium pots, but no monster pots, though I did lose a pretty big pot.

About an hour and a half in I had moved over to the 2seat and was sitting on about $500 when we lost a player in the 5s and picked up another. I had seen this guy around the card room a few times, and from what I knew of him he was a pretty weak player, and I really felt like I would be the one to take his stack. I got my chance to tangle with him when I picked up QQ from mid position facing one limper. I had just come off from raising four hands in the last round, taking down the pot preflop every time. I knew I would probably get played back this time and here's how it went. There was one weak-passive limper in EP and after her it folded to me. I made it $20 to go and it folds folds to the button in the 5s (new guy). He jammed for $185 all-in, forcing the EP limper to fold, and it was back to me for $165 more.

Now because my read on him being a weak player meant one of three things here. He either had a mid-pocket pair or he had AA. I quickly doubted that he had AK because of what I had seen with him earlier, and that left two very viable, and one very difficult choice. At the game at the Mash people push all-in with KK or AA for a massive overbet all the time, which is such a weak play, but coming from weak players so it makes sense. I called for time and took a quick mental recap of what I knew of the player. After not thinking that he would jam AA or KK like that, I put him on a mid-size pair and made the call.

Someone asked me if I had Queens and I gave an affirmative nod. "You got Jacks?" asked the same person to the guy in 5, and his answer was an affirmative nod as well. "You got Jacks?" I asked, and his answer was "Yeah I got Jacks." The flop came out 9-7-3. "Oh I just setted," he said. Huh??? He flips over 99 and I mucked my QQ as I counted out his $185. "Sorry."

Meh, oh well. Another $400 pot gone to bad luck. I still was $100+ up and could still control the table. By this time Joe had sat at my table in the 7s and watched the hand go down. He shot me a "Jesus Christ" look and I shrugged my shoulders and went back to playin ball. I came up against the guy one more time when I opened the pot for $15 with JJ and had him push again, this time for about $115. I made the call again and he said he had 99 again. A Queen and King on the flop made me weary since he'd been dishonest about his hand the first time, but it bricked the turn and river and he mucked. With about $570, I moved over the 8s when it opened up so that Joe and I could stay out of each other's way better, and we basically controlled the table until we left at about midnight (I know, I know, but I had to work in the morning).

We finished up with me a $560 winner.

I was a little saddened by my victory, partially because I had lost about $180 throughout the night on bad calls, which I had control over, and also because my QQ fell again as a 4-1 favorite preflop for a $380 pot, which I had no control over. Put those together and I could have been....SHOULD have been up another $560. I know that I couldn't do anything about the QQ vs 99, and I know I'll win that enough times to make me happy then. But I know I could've saved at least another $180 if I trusted my reads and wasn't an idiot. I know I wouldn't have made those calls three months ago, so now it's just a matter of being in that state again.

Overall it was a victory, but it also made me more aware of my play, which means next time I will definitely be shooting for a bigger win.

Oh, and I took that picture with my new Samsung a930, which is a wicked phone. It's got a 1.3 megapixel camera, plus mp3 capabilities, video capabilities, and it also supports a transflash card for extra memory and transfering. It rocks.

Until next time.

Another Breath of Life

Friday rolled around, and facing a short work day thanks to Santa Barbara style, I was facing a tough decision as to what to do with my two-and-a-half day weekend ahead of me. I could sit around and stare at a computer screen, I could head down to the beach (why would I do that on a clear, sunny day), or I could..........by god......I could.........yes! YES!!

"Hey Joe"

"...huh......wheh.......what?......"

"Dude it's like 12:30, get up."

"..........no........."

"Come on man, let's go grab some lunch and head up for a long session at Chumash, it's been like two months!"

"...........ok.......let me take a shower real quick........."

Thank god for poker buddies :) We hit up Baja Fresh on the way to the 154 (which is oh so good if you haven't had it in a while), and we took that all so familiar drive to the indian safe haven. It took us what seemed like less time than usual, and I was in a great mood to play. Being that it had been so long since I had last played I really felt good, geared up, and refreshed.

When we showed up the usual 2/5NL games were in full swing. There were two 100/200 buy-ins and a 300/500 buy-in going. If I had been in a spot I was in a few months ago I would've jumped right into the 300/500. But thanks to the fact that I previously withdrew the BR I had left from play altogether, I thought it best to sit in a 100/200 and mop up. I got a seat after a quick wait, and was offered a very lovely table. There was a friendly in the seat to my right (Garrett) who I've become pretty decent friends with, and I didn't want to tangle with him just out of pure friendship, but we usually stay out of each other's ways anyways and there was plenty of other fishies to take down.

I started off pretty decently, quickly building my $200 buy-in to around $450 when a super-donk took the 9s. I quickly turned to my buddy on my right and told him how donk-a-licious this guy was, and about 3 hands later they got heads up on a K-Q-5 flop, and Garrett took the guy for about $170 of his $200 starting stack. Garrett had K-9 lol. He had been betting the whole way and SD had been calling him down with Q-8, and had decided to leave himself with $30......just in case, I suppose. This was perfect.

A little bit later I found aces after Garrett had opened up for $20. I popped it up to $60 behind him, and Garrett flat-called. He asked if I wanted to check it down, I said sure. He said he had queens and I politely told him I had aces, and he was surprised cuz he thought he was doing ME a favor. The flop came up 10 high and he said I could bet it if I wanted, so I throw out a nickel and he mucked into a $120 pot. nh me. Haha I wouldn've run it, but I really didn't want to see a queen on the turn, and he told me he'd rather not see a queen anyways since I'd let him live by telling him I had it. This kind of sucked, and is a prime example of why nice people shouldn't make friends at the poker table. At that point he was sitting on about $400, and I could have easily broken him if I'd let it play out. There's always tons of action, and usually overplays in these games, which makes it so very, very fun to play in, and surely if we hadn't have been that friendly with each other I could've easily added his $400 to my stack.

But I took up the pot and gladly stacked it, knowing that at least I got $60 from the aces. After about half hour I was still sitting on around $650 when looked at QQ from the BB. There was a raise to $15 from an EP TAG, and three callers behind him. I made it $115 to go, and it folded around to the super-donk in the 9seat who only had $145. He had $30 left (again), and I put him in in the dark. The board came up A-x-x, and he said "Well might as well" as he threw in his $30 and turned over A6. Great call preflop by the SD, nh me.

That got me pretty pissed, but never the mind I was going to take all of his money by the end of the night. Fifteen minutes later after it folded around to me I bumped it up to $20 with AsJs, and got two callers out of the blinds, the BB being the SD, sitting with about $90 now, after wasting the pot from FIFTEEN MINUTES EARLIER. The board came up 4-J-7, and it checked to me. I tossed out $25 and the SB folded. The SD was being jittery and staring at his chips and pushed the rest of his chips in a single tower into the middle. It was $45 more to me, and I took one glance over at the 9seat and saw him messing with his cards as I quickly threw out the cards. He hastily threw over his 67, and I turned up my AJ. Turn 6, river blank. A $200+ pot wasted to the SD. No big deal, still had around $450 and was controlling the table and my reads. This SD was startin to get on my nerves though.

Turn the clock forward a half hour, and after rebuilding my stack to around $600 just playing stack-building poker, I get HU with none other than SD himself. This time he's wasted his whole $200 from sucking out on me and now has rebought for another $100. I raised it up with AQ after one limper, and ended up getting one caller: an out of position SUPERDONK. He just wouldn't leave me alone. This time the board comes up with a Q-7-10. He checks again, I bet out $30, and he pushes in again, this time for another $50 or so. Ummm.....ok I call. SD turns over 89offsuit. GG me, cuz here comes the...yup, 6 on the turn and I'm done for that hand. ONCE AGAIN, I'm down back down to $500.

I eventually built back up to $800, and was still cruisin when I hit a wall. I opened the pot in the CO-1 with JJ and got called by the button and the SB. On a Q-rag-rag rainbow flop the SB checked and I fired out $25. The button flat-called and we lost the SB. The turn was a blank, but put 2 hearts on the board. I bet out $55 and got called by the button once again. I didn't think he had a Q when he flat called, but a King on the river made me hesitant. I reluctantly checked and he checked behind showing the K10h. *sigh* That was a sweet $100 wasted.

After that I lost some more of my stack by cont. betting KK and QQ on dangerous boards and getting raised off of them on the flop, and I was feeling pretty dejected at my recent turnaround of bad luck in the past 2 hours. After raising it up with AK and getting HU with the SD, we saw a flop of K-6-3, and after getting all of his money in (he had about $180 thanks to another full rebuy), he showed me his patented 76, and then he showed me a river 7...again. That put me under $200 for the first time since I had sat down. My last hand had me HU against a pretty tight player with my AQ vs his AJ. My money went in on the turn of a 9-high board, he makes the call with AJ. River J, gg me.

I could've easily rebought and stuck it out another 6 hours, but I was so disheveled by the last two hours at that point that I decided to call it quits. I talked with a few of the floor people and dealers who were on break as I waited for Joe to finish up. I ended up playing well, I made two big moves to stay alive when I had to, and couldn't make my big hands hold up. I should've easily been a $1,000 winner on the night, but I ended up getting smoked multiple times and now I have to wait again to take another shot.

I'm trying to be very wary of my playing right now, because I really don't have the cash to play right now because of personal reasons, but every time I take a 3seat or 7s and think about how I can dominate the Chumash game it gets my brain going.

Discipline sucks, but it should only be a little bit longer until I'm back in the game full swing. Until then, it hurts, it hurts I tell you!

Until next time.

PS - He did it!!

Jeff Freakin' Madsen

I don't know how many of my readers out there are following the WSOP via the internet or actually being in Vegas right now, but if you're following it at all you should know about Jeff Madsen right now. Jeff's a recently turned 21-year-old out of Southern California. At the time of me writing this he's made four final tables in four weeks at the World Series. One final table in Omaha HiLo, a third place finish in Stud HiLo, and he's won two bracelets in NL Hold'Em. At 21-years and one month he became the youngest bracelet winner ever at the World Series. Just days later he became the youngest person to ever win two bracelets. Why do I bring this up? Well, only cuz Jeff's a Chumasher.

I've played with Jeff multiple times at Chumash over the past year or two. Many people must think that he's an internet player, a new breed of players that lack certain skills of live play, but that's definitely not the case. He's been playing frequently at Chumash for a while, and while I've never seen him with a huge stack at the NL tables, Joe says he's seen him either go huge or lose huge, which is pretty typical of the younger aggressive players at the NL games up at Santa Ynez.

The reason I'm writing about this is that I've been putting a lot of thought into my current situation lately. I've been down recently, and after riding a pretty decent rush and being put in a bad financial situation in personal life, it's taken its toll on me mentally. But looking at Jeff's situation really stunned me. He's had varied success at Chumash, as have I, and he's only played the 2/5NL at the Mash since up until a month ago he's not been old enough to play anywhere else. Many of my reader's don't know that I'm only 20, so his situation is pretty close to mine, one difference being that I won't be 21 until December.

I've put the last three years of my life into this game, and like I said I've had varied results. I've been huge on a couple occasions, and those were great times. But I've also lost some on various occasions. Because I've more or less been a casino junkie for the past years I've also lost a lot playing Blackjack. I've since overcome my gambling tendencies since I've lost a lot of my poker winnings playing against the house, and that was a difficult lesson to learn. More recently I was forced to quit playing in the middle of a downswing. When a poker player is not playing poker, he starts to realize and understand the value of money. When someone's forced to work for their money it makes a huge impact on the way they view it if they've been doing a lot of gaming. And if you're making and losing more than you're making in an "actual" job, it'll definitely affect someone's mentality.

So that's where I've been as of late. Here, at work, no cards, no cash. I have a decent job with a lot of potential for growth, but it's for decent-to-low pay for right now since I'm early into it. But with the money I was tossin around playin cards it really feels like the money I'm makin now is inconsequential. I still have money left from card playing, but like I said in my last post I'm not in a position right now to put it into play, mainly because of the importance of the money to me right now. Because of the whole situation it's made me question the role that poker should be playing in my life. I'd like to make it the number one priority in my life, close to it anyways. I'd really like to make it that way for a long time. Unfortunately I'll have to wait a little bit to make that happen, but in the past couple of days I've come to grips with that.

Right now the plan is to not play cards seriously. Every single person I know that knows about my planned hiatus just laughs when they hear it, simply because I've been all about poker for the past few years now. It's not that I'm quitting poker altogether, just seriously and just for the time being. I do, however, have complete confidence in my game and will continue to do so until I get back into it heavily again. I've decided that I'll still play Paul's game, as that field is easily beatable and it's for decent amount of food money :) Also I'll be playin the weekly CT tournament on PStars most likely. It's just an $11 MTT, usually with around 50-60 people. The CT community is a good one, and although the tourney isn't for big money it seems like, from what I've seen, they still try to play a decent game, and that's good.

I've been puttin a lot of thinkin time into this whole thing. I've been talking a lot with Joe and have gotten some good words from Darsky, as usual, and my views have changed back and forth. I've become settled in some aspects of the matter, and now I'm ok to wait a little bit until I'm in a good position to play strongly again. It's just amazing to me to see this Jeff Madsen kid tearing up the World Series. It really showed me that given varied success and not having a lot of money after playing for so long (he's been playing for 3 years as well, and had to borrow money and use tuition money to get into the WSOP), it doesn't really matter. It hits really close to home considering he's so young AND he's a regular at Chumash!! His story is definitely inspirational to me and his successes so far have shown me a few things that I've blinded myself from.

OK enough about this, next time you will all read about the recent going-ons in my life besides this fiasco.

Until next time

Until Next Time

This blog might be done and over with for a long time. I suppose I could continue writing about stuff that happens in every day life, but I started this blog to write about poker and its influences on my life. And since I've decided to stop playing poker altogether, I suppose this blog will not continue to serve its purpose. I'm tired of losing to 3-outers, 4-outers, and 7-outers. It's heartbreaking, it's walletbreaking, and worst of all right now it's mindbreaking.

I've been playing this game for over 2 years now and I've gone through good rushes and tournament wins, and I've been through depressing lows. Obviously recently, thanks to extreme misfortune and horrible luck, I'm experiencing a very depressing low. I haven't been up to the casino in while because I squandered away my most recent rush, and the little I've put online in the past few days have all gone to crazy turns and rivers, and it's making me angry and depressed, neither of which is normally part of my personality.

I'm glad Joe is succeeding playing stud online, and I'm glad Darsky has enough resources and talent to consider playing poker full-time as well. I wish them both luck because I know and feel that they can do it. Unfortunately after all this time it looks like I just can't do it. I can't handle all the bad beats as of late, mainly because I don't have the bankroll to sustain them. I'll decide at a later time if I'll be playing Paul's monthly home game or not, but right now my state of mind is telling me that I won't.

I've been able to get this blog a lot of visitors and viewers, and I'm not sure how many out there are regulars from CT, or FCP, or the Hideout, but I'm sorry if you're a regular reader because it's killin me to not write this anymore. I enjoy writing, it's a hobby of mine, it's something I enjoy tremendously, and if you all want me to keep writing, anything at all, then leave a comment in my comment box. If not, this page will slowly die. Thanks for reading.

"Jesus! What've you been livin' on?!"

It's sad, isn't it? When I can't even pay $500 for a tournament. And I call myself a poker player?? Times are rough, it's true. But come on, $500? In today's world that should be money to scoff at, yet here I am hemming and hawing over the fact that I don't even want to spend money on necessities because I don't wanna feel like I'm down to the bone. Though I pretty much feel that way already.

I should have money, I should have lots of it. Thanks to a 3-year long-distance relationship with my ex-girlfriend (yes I'm blaming it on her, too) and the fact that for some reason I am not equipped with the natural ability to save money, I have nothing. I'm learning now, but it's too late now. If I had learned years ago then maybe life would be different. Maybe if I wasn't such an idiot before then I wouldn't feel like one now. I might have a nice car, a nice apartment, and more toys than I could imagine. But not now, Chris, congratulations cuz you suck at life. THANK YOU FUCK YOU. Yes I went on a small rush when I was Mashin regularly, but most of that's gone now, thanks to my love of buying useless shit and losing some of my winnings back on a truely disgusting run of cards over a month-long span. So I'm left to sit here every day to ponder what happened. It was supposed to be skill, not a rush.

Admittedly I've run into some really bad luck in order to lose most of it back, so perhaps it was skill. But now I have no money to find out for sure. People tell me the bad run was bad luck, and I want to believe it. But how many times does a poker player have to go broke until he finally hits it?? Whatever. I'm not even going to Vegas until December. Hopefully I'll be able to make a splash once I can get away from fuckin Chumash.

I know that if I could get back into the game I could crush it again. The last time I played I felt it, I felt good. I felt my play was good. I know that if I could get back on my feet in life then I could cruise along with that too. I'm level-headed now, I'm ready to do this. Every now and then someone just needs a little help. Unfortunately for me I have no more options for help. The only help I get is words, and sometimes those who need help need more than words. So it's on me now.

Wish me luck.

PS - Haha and in no way is any of this "getting back on my feet in life" about drugs, FORTUNATELY I've never had to travel down that road. It has to do with finances, as it usually does with most poker players. Just thought I'd throw that out there. And also I realize that I'm more fortunate than some people out there, and I'm appreciative of that. But at the same time it hurts on a personal level to think back where I went wrong and to know that I could've done things differently. Fortunately I'm still young and the world is still open to me.

Life: Encumbered

It's been 2 weeks and it already feels like I haven't played poker for years. I've just been takin it easy around the house lately, but shit it feels boring. Where's the excitement? Where's the thrills? I try not to watch poker on TV cuz it makes me crave it more. I try not to follow the WSOP online cuz it makes me crave it more. But who are we kidding? I've watched the 2005 USPC reruns like fifteen times this week alone, and it's only Wednesday. But it's not like I can't play cards. I can, but I can't, ya know what I mean?? Sure I could take $400 down to Chumash and see if I can't get on another $3,000 streak at the 2/5NL, but that wouldn't be the right move right now. If I lost the $400 I'd feel even worse than I do now.

I'm gettin really bummed out here because August is right around the corner. And with August this year comes Chumash's August Extravaganza, a large-field tourney yielding $100,000 for first place. The only problem is the $500 entry fee. Does anyone know a faithful backer? I won't be able to put up the entry fee for myself, thanks to troubling financial problems on the personal front. Although I suppose I could find a check for $530 in the street on the way home today. Either that or I could find a way to multiply the $5.30 in my pocket by 100 times, and then I'd be set. Now that's an idea.

On Sunday night I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean II, which I thought was as great as the first one. Then I went down to the campus on Monday night to hang out with Casey, he came out for his birthday. We hung out at a good friend's house with a few others, drank some drinks, and had an all-around good time. That's been the main highlight of pretty much the last two months. Gotta love hangin with Casey and his girlfriend, always good times.

Aside from all my bumming out I watched the first two seasons of Entourage on DVD this week. If you guys haven't seen that show, then you either don't like watching good shows, or you're out of the loop. In either case, I think that if you didn't like it if you've seen it, you should force yourself to watch it cuz you WILL like it, guaranteed. By the way, this is the first time in a long time that I borrowed a DVD to watch it instead of buying it. It hurt a little.

And on a last note I can say that not all is bad. I've been talking to Meredith (quite obsessively) over the past couple of weeks. She seems great! She's smokin' hot, she's a fun person, I can't get enough of her southern accent(it drives me wild), and she seems to like talking to me as much as I do her. Bad side? Of course there's still a bad side. She lives 2 hours away.

Nothing in life can never be too easy.

What is Life Without Poker?

Life has been pretty mundane since I haven't played poker in forever. Why? Cuz I can't. I need to save pretty much every single dollar I can until I get a new car. On top of that I'll be moving come September and my living expenses will increase dramatically. The bright side? I'll let you know when I find it.

Let's concentrate on more important things. Last time at Paul's I was doin alright but took a terrible beat to send me to the box early. With nine players left and the blinds at 200-400, I was sitting on about 14,000 and had Heather with about 18,000 on my left. A hand came up where Roland limped in from EP and it folded back around to me in the SB. I looked down at 9 10 offsuit and limped for an extra 200. Heather checked off and Joe dealt us a flop of 7-8-J rainbow. Boo yah!! I checked figuring that crazy Roland would bet if Heather checked, but much to my surprise Heather announced that she was all in for her 18,000 stack. Thanks for that!

Roland was messing with his chips and was looking like he wanted in badly, as I lied in wait waiting to nearly triple up right here. He eventually folded and I quickly did a "CALLNUTS" as I flipped over my straight. Heather showed QJ. Chris = 96.52% to win. Or is that to lose? I forget. Oh wait no yeah it was definitely 96% to lose. The turn came a 10 and the river a 9 and Heather kicked my ass to the rail. I don't mind losing, I've become emotionless to losing by this point. What DID get me ticked was that immediately upon the river completing her straight, Heather said "OH well I told you this tournament was mine I knew it was coming I told you I was gonna win this tournament. Sorry." Um....................

Words of wisdom to all players out there. Don't shove your 18,000 stack in on a rainbow straighted flop for a 1200 pot. Then if you give someone a huge beat after making a really stupid bet, first off don't tell someone that you KNEW it was coming. That's fuckin terrible and a really, really worthless and stupid comment. Secondly, don't tell them sorry, and especially if you just told them you thought it was coming. That's like a sure recipe for death. Luckily Heather's a good part of the group so I was only mad at her for a little bit when I stepped into the dealer's box.

I didn't play poker for that whole week afterwards because it was a bright reality that I needed to not spend money. Unfortunately for me and my money, Joe and I were supposed to head down to LA to meet up with Darsky and go to one of his friend's birthday BBQ and poker party. This guy had a nice backyard filled with people, and a hired casino party company who had provided seven poker tables, chips, cards, dealers. And on top of that a beautiful drink girl with a southern accent. The buy-in was $25, and there were three rebuys available for $25 also. So overall there was 68 players all basically putting in $100. Good? Yes. But not for me who's trying NOT to spend or gamble money. Luckily Joe said he'd put me in and we'd split the profit between us.

So the night went on and we ate and drank and played cards. Darsky took third (?) I believe and a decent size cash, and by the end of the tournament Joe and I had split a big honkin zero between the both of us. But not to worry! My mind quickly averted from poker and my attention was focused on the drink-running brunette beauty! I was quick to be my usual socially-adaptable self, and made small conversation with her when I could. We exchanged information as the night went on, and although she lives in LA, I'm talking to her now. I always enjoy meeting new people :)

Some exciting things have come about this week. Joe took money out of his account for bills for the first time this week! That's both exciting and scary. It makes it quite a definite reality that he is INDEED playing poker for a living. It's kinda scary for him since he's been watching his online account grow for the past month, and now has to take out a bit to pay for life. He's been doing pretty well playing 5/10 Stud for the past month, and it looks like he'll be doin fine for a while to come. Last night he also placed 5th out of 2655 players in Party's 40K Guaranteed. He was disappointed that he couldn't nab the $11,120 first place, but the chip leader took AQ against JoeDinski's 55 and turned the A, sending him packing with a $2,700 cash. Still not bad for $22. He's been playing well and building, so he's doin it.

And if you haven't followed Darsky's trail into becoming a full-time pro, you need to! He's finally doing it!! You can see the start of it here, and then the further exploration of it here, and the decision here. It's definitely an exciting and defining time for him and his close friends, so keep up with it. THAT'S how you do it!

Like I said before, I might not be playing for a while. Backers are always welcome, cuz I can still play the game. It is pretty boring without playing though...Although me and the guys have been hittin up the beach and throwin the disc around a lot lately. It definitely feels good to get out in the sun and run around a bit after being jammed inside a casino for the past year straight. Perhaps it's time to hit the volleyball courts, no?.............

Until next time, here's my new favorite quote:

"I used to be a gambler. I quit gambling. I quit yesterday. I quit again this morning, and I'll lay six-to-one, I'll probably quit again this morning." - Walter Matthau