Jam Packed Weekend!

Twisted Mother F'n Sister!

Wow! I can’t remember the last time I had a weekend with so many activities packed in. Here is what it looked like:

Friday after work, Chris and I went and played in a World Series of Poker Circuit event at Caeser’s Palace. The event we were to play in is a daily event held each nite at 7:00 PM. We had initially planned to play in the same event on Sunday because it was Chris’ birthday. That was to be my gift to her. But, since it didn’t start until 7:00 PM, common sense said that since we both get up early on Monday, a late tourney on Sunday may not be wise. So, we opted for Friday’s event instead. For a recap of how I did in the event, check out PokerStories.info.

Saturday we got up fairly early and Chris and I both got massages. Since Chris graduated from the massage school, her massages are free. And, when she graduated, she received a stack of gift certificates good for free massages. I use those. So, mine too was free. Sweet!

We then went out to lunch at Road Runners Saloon to celebrate Chris’ birthday with her mom, brother & sister-in-law. After a big lunch, we headed home and took a nice long nap. We got up in time to get dressed and head on over to the Silverton Casino to see Twisted Sister in concert. Paxton had discovered Twisted Sister a few months back. I’m certain it had to do with one of their songs showing up in a video game he was playing. But, he had downloaded some of their videos and we had also bought him a greatest hits CD which he liked a lot. So, when we found out they were coming to town, we surprised him with tickets for the 3 of us to go. He was stoked. The show was great. Dee and the boys sounded great. The photo above was taken during the last song of the night. To see a bunch of photos, click here. If you ever go to see a show at Silverton that is going to be at the Pavillion, be sure to wear a bathing suit. You can watch the show from in the pool that is no more than 15 feet from the front of the stage. Makes for a nice “Slosh Pit”. har har har.

The concert let out pretty early. So, after getting home and dropping off Paxton, we, of course, went out to play poker at Sahara in the 11:00 PM tourney. I ended up going out in 18th spot after making a bad play. 8 away from the money. Damn. We got home at about 3:00 AM and after a LONG day, finally got some sleep.

We got up on Sunday morning and I asked Chris if she wanted to go back to Sahara to play the 11:00 AM tourney. Reluctantly, she agreed. Man, I’m so glad she decided to go. After being short stacked for most of the way, I ended up making it to the final table. Since only 69 players started the event, they were only going to pay out 7 spots. We all agreed to chop $90 off first and second spots in order to pay spot 10, 9 & 8 $60 each. At least they would get their buy-in back. It sucks to make it to the final table and still not get any cash… I played fairly tight at the final table and watched as spots 10 through 8 got busted out. At that time, I announced to the table that I was not going to accept any deal to chop the pot. Even if that meant they all come gunning for me, I wasn’t chopping. It took a little while to do, but before too terribly long, we were down to the final 4. I had doubled up a time or two so I was sitting pretty well in chips. Player 4 got taken out and it was down to the final 3 of us. All of us were fairly evenly stacked. I was the shortest stack and this was the first time somebody had mentioned a deal. I declined the deal and we played on. I picked up pocket 5s in the Big Blind and the small blind raised me. I went ahead and moved all-in. He called and showed Q-8. He didn’t get any help and I doubled up and took a nice sized chip lead. He still had about 25K chips left. A few hands later, he moved all-in and I called with K/J. He turned over J/8 and he did not hit his 8. We were then heads up. At the time we started heads up, I had a sizeable chip lead. I had approx 200K in chips to my opponents 40K. Funny thing though. In No Limit hold ‘em, that can change in a few short hands. And it did. He battled back and I doubled him up… Then, the final hand came up. I was the Big Blind. With the blinds 5K and 10K, a lot of chips move around pretty quick. He raised to 40K and I pushed all-in with A-3. He called in an instant which scared the crap out of me. He turned over K/J. All I needed to do was NOT get unlucky here. The flop was all blanks. The turn was an Ace. He was drawing dead. When the chips were counted down, I had him covered by 4K chips. I won the tourney and it felt sooooo good! This was my first ever first place finish in a casino tourney. I’ve chopped the final 4,5 or 6 places a few times before, but this was my first actual solo first place finish. I can’t wait to do it again!

With all that, you’d think that would bring us to the end of the weekend… But you would be wrong. We took Chris out for a birthday dinner. We went to a place called The Melting Pot. It’s a fondue restaurant over on Eastern. Holy cow! That place was excellent. You start off with a cheese fondue with bread, veggies and apples for dipping. Then, a salad (they have some great salads & dressings!!). Then, they bring you out your main course. You cook your main course yourself in the center of the table. After the meal, you absolutely MUST have dessert. We had a smores fondue. Milk Chocolate, graham cracker crumbs and marshmellows heated in the pot. Then, a plate of strawberries, mashmellows, bannanas, cheese cake and brownies for dipping. We all left feeling quite full! Two quick things you will want to know before heading there for dinner… Don’t go if you are in a hurry. Dinner took a little over 2 hours. Second, the place is not cheap. They add an 18% gratuity on any party of 5 or more. And, our meal worked out to be a little more than $45 per person. I was not expecting that at all.

So there ya have it. A great weekend has come to an end. I’m going to need to go to work in the morning so I can rest up. ;)

How to stop a winning streak

Oh, that’s an easy one to answer… Just mention that you are running good. Since my post about running good, let’s see how things have gone:

- Final table of a tourney at South Coast Casino. I’m the chip leader. Get dealt pocket aces on the button. Raise 4 times the BB. The BB calls with 7/4 offsuit and flops a straight.

- 3 hands later in the same tournament, all-in pre-flop with pocket kings against A/K and Q/10. Flop comes with an ace and I’m all but out of the tourney missing the money by 3 spots.

- Playing in a no-limit cash game get dealt A/A on the button. Raise 4 times the BB. BB calls. Flop comes 2/2/4 - Pay off on the river to see that the BB had pocket 4s and flopped a full house.

- $225 tourney, loose aggresive player makes a raise. On the button I look down at pocket jacks. I move all in only to find that the original raiser has pocket aces.

So, I retract the “running good” statement. That streak had stopped pretty much the minute I hit “publish” on that previous post.

It sure sounded funny in my head

I was thinking back to things I’ve done in the past that, when you think about them in your head, they seem funny. Then, after you do them, you realize you look like an asshole. The best example I can recall happened when I was about 8 years old. My mom had taken me out to a movie and we got a big box of Goobers. On the way home, we had about 3/4 of the box left. I asked if she wanted some. She said she did. Rather than trading the box back and forth (she made us sit in the back seat), she told me to eat what I wanted and then give her the box and she’d have the rest. So I ate and ate and ate… until there was exactly 1 lonely chocolate covered peanut left in the bottom of the box. I giggled a bit as I handed her the all but empty box… she took it from my hand, felt that it was quite lite and then shook. The sound of the lone nut rattling around in the box was quite funny… to me. My mom, however, failed to see the humor in it. She gave me a nice talking to about sharing with people and especially with somebody who had just taken you to the movies, bought you soda, popcorn and candy… Man, even at 8 years old, I realized immediately how much of an ass I was for doing that.

Mom, if you read this, I’m still really sorry about that.

Social Webbing

Everybody’s doing it, doing it! Let’s see… I have several blogs, I have a myspace account, I’m a big fan of del.icio.us, digg, puregenio.us and I’m sure there are others… Oh, of course there is. I just found a new one that I really dig. I signed up at TagWorld. It’s got a cool “Music Discovery Engine” that lets you find music of specific genres, and you can of course search out other peeps with your same interest. Not that I’m looking to meet peeps, but still the site is pretty sweet and I think you’ll like it as well. If not, flame me in the comments…

Viva Las Vegas

Las Vegas Sign @ Night

I’ve lived in Vegas now for a few years and before living here, I had visited Sin City dozens of times. Yet, until this past weekend, I had never once set foot on the little patch of dirt in front of the World Famous “Welcome To Las Vegas” sign. And, had it not been at the request of Drew, that record would still be intact. But, to help out with a project he has for his photography class, I headed on over once the sun went down and the lights on the strip were burning bright.

Ya know, for being a Sunday evening at 9:00 PM, that sign gets a lot of traffic! I got their a little early and watched for 15 minutes as a steady stream of people parked their cars and ran over to take photos in front of the sign. There is also a spot where cars can make a U-turn right in front of the sign which also gets a fair amount of traffic. 2 tour buses and 4 limos in 15 minutes.

We walked over to the sign and set up the shot prior to bringing the car over. Once Drew had the shot set up the way he wanted, I walked back and rounded up the car. Sadly there are no ramps to drive up so you have to actually jump the curb to drive on to the patch of dirt. I pulled the car into position and we took several photos from varying angles. We stopped a couple times to let other people jump in front of the sign and take some pics. Including a group of canadians who wanted their photo taken in front of my car.

After 10-15 minutes of photo taking, the job was done. I don’t know if this is going to be the final shot that Drew submits for his class, but I like it all the same. Thanks for letting me be part of your photography class. I had a blast.

Your Kids & Cannibalism

Hey, your kids are never too young to talk to about Cannibalism. Stop what you are doing right now and click here to watch this informative video. It could be the difference between having your kids around for Christmas, or them having you for Christmas dinner.

Hey, you have been warned!

Planes, Trains & YouTube

These guysThis guy reenacted a scene from Plains, Trains & Automobiles. Silly movie. Great video.

OK, I had to edit this post… found out that same dude did another video. This one is of The Princess Bride. hard deciding which is my favorite!

Running good

I’ve playing a LOT of poker lately. Mainly I’ve been playing the 7:00 PM tourney at the Sahara casino and sometimes the 11:00 PM tournament depending on how things go in the 7:00 PM tourney. Over the past two weeks, I’ve played in their tournament 5 times and have made the final table twice (10th place & a 6-way chop) and finished 20th in one of the other events. Each of the events has had about 150 players in the field. In the two other events I was absolutely card dead the entire time. There isn’t a lot you can do with 9/2 offsuit. Sure, you can double-down if you are playing blackjack.. but in poker, you just get to throw your cards away.

I’m gearing up for a few larger tournaments that are coming up in the next couple months. At the end of this month is the WSOP Circut event taking place at Ceaser’s Palace. Then, in a couple months it’ll be time for the 2006 World Series of Poker. I’m going to try and play in at least 2 events this year. I’m looking to do considerably better than I did last year. Though, I have to say, I wasn’t upset with my play in last year’s event. I played well, stole some blinds, bluffed some pots and then got really unlucky to get knocked out. If anybody out there is looking to invest in a poker player, just let me know. I’m sure we can work out some sort of deal. :)

Even though I haven’t been playing online all that much lately, that may change pretty soon. I found this link for chipvault.com. Apparently they are running a $10,000 free Hold ‘em tourney in June. Head on over and sign up. It’s a free entry tournament… Man, ya gotta love free tourneys with money waiting to be won. I’ll be there with bells on. Or, at least some headphones…

The Star Wars Kid Strikes Back!

I’m SURE you all remember this kid, right? The video of this high school kid who taped himself in a mock lightsaber dual circulated the internet a few years back and the kid quickly became known as “The Star Wars Kid”. It was hugely popular. It has been downloaded several million times…

Well, there are always two sides to things. The kid took so much ridicule from his classmates that he had bouts of depression and eventually quit school and his family hired him a tutor. And, since we live in such a sue-happy world, the obvious next step was for the Star Wars kid to stand up and shout, “Where’s my mother fuckin’ check?”

As reported by globeandmail.com:

Three years later, Mr. Raza and his parents this week reached an out-of-court settlement with the families of three former schoolmates they had sued for $351,000 in damages.

I still have to say, that was one funny ass video! If you are one of the 3 people in the world who hasn’t seen it, check it out here.

Poker is a fickle bitch

Playing poker in a tournament is much different than playing in a cash game. In tournament play, going broke means going home. In a cash game, going broke simply means going to the ATM. I realize that I am primarily a tournament player. My cash game at this point is fairly weak. I’m looking to practice a lot over the next few months and get a healthy number of hours under my belt. I’m also playing with friends who I feel comfortable discussing strategies and situations with after a session at the table. I want to get better. I want to be a stronger player.

Over the past two weeks I’ve read two really fantastic poker books. Barry Greenstein’s Ace on the River and Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book. Of the two, I liked Phil’s book a little better, but Barry’s is well worth the read. Next on my reading agenda, Mike Caro’s Book of Poker Tells. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the book. I’ve had friends tell me they have read it several times over. I’ll report back with my thoughts on the book.