Background:
My parents got me a gift card for my birthday to Johnny Carino’s. Victory and I went on Saturday night around 7pm to the one right next to Westland mall. Apparently they are a chain, but I have never been to one.
Seating:
We were immediately seated, which was impressive, given the business of that area. Perhaps that area has finally built enough restaurants to satisfy the overwhelming demand. The restaurant ambience reminded me of a Papa Vinos/Macaroni Grill, with a very open kitchen adjacent to the seating area.
Bread:
Some of the best bread I’ve had at an Italian restaurant in a while. They do the whole oil on plate thing for butter. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it’s a nice change of pace. The two of us finished the roll, and decided it was best to not ask for more.
Salad:
Both of us got a Caesar salad. We swapped because I tend to like more dressing, but this thing was damn near inedible, as it was literally coated in Caesar. I asked the waitress about it and she said she didn’t know why they were putting so much today, so it wasn’t typical. She offered more, but I was quite happy waiting for my entrée.
Entrée’s:
I got Chicken Alfredo, while she got the special, which included Lasagna, Chicken Parm and Spaghetti. The Alfredo was very good, with the chicken cut into very small strips, which is different than what I am used to. The serving size was gigantic to me, and I could barely eat half of it. The lasagna was very cheesy and good. The chicken parm had a zesty breading on it which was pretty tasty as well. The spaghetti was average. Again the serving size was enormous.
Service:
Young girl who was pretty good. Food came out in good time, drinks stayed full, etc…basically what you ask for in service. She also took much of my good natured ribbing very well (salad comment among others). Victory seemed to like her too so I tipped her over $6 on our $29 bill.
Ratings:
Seating: 9
Bread: 8.5
Salad: 3
Entrée: 7.5
Service: 8.5
Overall rating: 7.5 (a solid 7.5 though, the overall rating can never be better than the entrée, and while the salad is a minor hiccup, docking significant points due to a salad is queer)
Monday, February 27, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Multi-table cash
Finished 15th out of 584 last night in the Party 35K guaranteed. That was only good for a little less than $500. Haven't cashed in a multi in a while, so it was nice to get that monkey off my back, but it wasn't high enough to be anything more than encouraged. I never could get anything going once we hit 35 people or so. There was a huge stack opening nearly every hand before me, which forced me to be very selective. Finally my AJ went into a different big stack's KK, and I missed my 3 outer...which sucks as a shorter stack hit their 3 outer on me earlier with K9 against my JJ.
As a side note, the hand for hand play on Party is excruciating, you lose 1-2 levels of blinds, turning it into an all-in fest for all but the biggest stacks. Instead of going hand for hand 10 spots from the money, how about 3 or 5 spots?
Worked out last night for the first time in a while, man are there a lot of hugely fat people in the world, with a majority of the ones (at least at the gym), being women. Makes me feel better about myself. I like to think it helped me play better too, as I felt a little better, and hopefully that helps me make good decisions.
The picture shown is one of a woman working out a few spots away from me at the gym.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Party Acceler-8-tor bonus week 2
Week 2 results: (further explanation to be done later):
Cash Tables
30/60 (273 hands): -$189.29
1/2 PL Omaha Hi: -$192.00
Sit and Go's
$500's (9 played, 0 1st/ 1 2nd/ 0 3rd): -3270 (buddy owned 840 of this): -$2430.00
$200's (47 played, 8 1st/ 7 2nd/ 6 3rd): +$4495.00
$100 SNG (1 played, 0 1st/ 1 2nd/ 0 3rd): +$191.00
Multi-table tourney's
$100's (3 played, 0 cashed): -$327.00
$200's (1 played, 0 cashed): -$215.00
Week 2 results: +$1232.71 (plus bonus money - likely to be another 225 or so)
Net Results (for the full 2 weeks):
Cash Tables
30/60 (490 hands): +$249.21
20/40 (111 hands): +117.50
1/2 PL Omaha: -$192.00
Sit and Go's
$500's (9 played, 0-1-0): -3270 (buddy owned 840 of this): -$2430.00
$200's (126 played, 16-15-14): +$4710.00
$100's (1 played, 0-1-0): +$191.00
Multi-table tourney's
$100's (5 played, 0 cashed): -$545.00
$200's (1 played, 0 cashed): -$215.00
Total Poker results: +1885.71
Bonus dollars earned: $215+ this week
Total for 2 weeks: $2100.71 + this week's bonus
Been running really bad, can't believe I turned a profit. When things turn around for me, watch out.
Cash Tables
30/60 (273 hands): -$189.29
1/2 PL Omaha Hi: -$192.00
Sit and Go's
$500's (9 played, 0 1st/ 1 2nd/ 0 3rd): -3270 (buddy owned 840 of this): -$2430.00
$200's (47 played, 8 1st/ 7 2nd/ 6 3rd): +$4495.00
$100 SNG (1 played, 0 1st/ 1 2nd/ 0 3rd): +$191.00
Multi-table tourney's
$100's (3 played, 0 cashed): -$327.00
$200's (1 played, 0 cashed): -$215.00
Week 2 results: +$1232.71 (plus bonus money - likely to be another 225 or so)
Net Results (for the full 2 weeks):
Cash Tables
30/60 (490 hands): +$249.21
20/40 (111 hands): +117.50
1/2 PL Omaha: -$192.00
Sit and Go's
$500's (9 played, 0-1-0): -3270 (buddy owned 840 of this): -$2430.00
$200's (126 played, 16-15-14): +$4710.00
$100's (1 played, 0-1-0): +$191.00
Multi-table tourney's
$100's (5 played, 0 cashed): -$545.00
$200's (1 played, 0 cashed): -$215.00
Total Poker results: +1885.71
Bonus dollars earned: $215+ this week
Total for 2 weeks: $2100.71 + this week's bonus
Been running really bad, can't believe I turned a profit. When things turn around for me, watch out.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Faith in sports
My faith in the integrity of sporting events continues to get shaken.
NCAA basketball officiating is a joke, favoring the home team nearly all the time. I hate it getting justified as “that’s home court advantage”. How tough is it to call a game down the middle and not get influenced by where the game is at? I continue to see home teams get ridiculous number of free throw attempts vs. visitors. Some of that can be explained off by aggressiveness, but I’m sorry, not all of it.
MLB umpiring was pretty terrible in the playoffs as well. They gift wrapped at least one game to the White Sox with the AJ “dropped” third strike play.
The NFL has been getting worse throughout the years, but the Indy-Pitt game, where the Polamalu INT was overturned was one of the first times I’ve seen what looked like an absolute agenda. Then the debacle of a Super Bowl happened, with the Jerome Bettis agenda.
The NBA has always been suspected of having agendas. The following example is very loosely defined as a sporting event. The slam dunk contest was an absolute farce. It was crystal clear to me that they wanted Nate Washington (another Spud Webb) to win it, to help keep the contest alive. While I’ll agree Iguodala wasn’t very imaginative with his remaining dunks (after the ridiculous alley oop off of the back of the backboard), it was absurd for Washington to win. What is the criteria for the dunk contest, judge the dunk on level of difficulty? Do you incorporate a players height into it? I personally don’t think you should, otherwise a short person should win every time. Lastly, something needs to be done with a system in which a player requires 7 tries before they make it once and 14 tries before they succeed again. How can that not penalize a player?? Without a penalty, I would try to dunk with the ball hanging from my teeth over and over again until I finally made it.
The 3-point contest was also a joke. In the first round eventual champion Dirk Nowitski released his last money ball clearly after the buzzer. This allowed him to make the finals and denied two other competitors the chance. I always wondered why they had officials there during this contest, and after the ref missed this one, I still wonder the same thing. It’s not like he had anything to look at other than his feet when he released and whether or not he beat the clock. There were no potential fouls, no 3-seconds, no traveling, etc…just a joke.
And no, I didn’t have money on any of the NBA events.
I find myself being less and less interested in sports as these things happen.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Del Taco Trip report
Background:
I was hungry and didn’t feel like cooking. I could throw a pigskin to the Taco Bell by my house, but I decided to make the drive to Del Taco (3 miles). Contrary to my Walmart experience, this required bringing the Ford Road traffic into play.
Parking/Entrance:
Bad idea from the start, traffic was miserable, and I thought about turning around several times. But I stuck it out. Finally I made the turnaround past Ford Road, and was in the second to the right lane. But traffic was so heavy and people were driving like such assholes, I was forced to overshoot the entrance by a 100+ yards. I was able to cut through parking lots and make it in relative short order.
Shopping/Drive thru experience:
The drive thru people are always very pleasant and have yet to mess up my order. I ordered a combo meal, which included 3 tacos and a cheddar quesadilla (plain, I know, not living up to my Mexican heritage).
Eating experience:
Cheddar quesadillas are usually an 8, but this time it was about a 4-5. The amount of cheese on it has decreased each time I have been in there, and yesterday it was reminiscent of a Taco Bell quesadilla, which is garbage. The tacos as usual included real shredded cheese, unlike T-Bell, however, the presentation was lacking as the cheese was not very lovingly distributed throughout the taco. Once the cheese melted, this created the undesirable consequence of some of the taco being a cheese bounty and the rest being cheeseless.
The taco sauce comes in Hot and Mild, actually the hot as a different title that eludes me at the moment. Unfortunately, the hot is in a black package, and the mild in a red package, which is the opposite of what my intuition tells me is correct. Therefore, the first two tacos I ate were with mild sauce until I noticed the error in my ways.
Side note:
I have been to Del Taco 3-4 times in the past month, and it has grown on me everytime. This experience was well below par on most levels. I have changed my perspective on the place to recommending going there, at least for comparison sake. Also keep in mind that on the Fast Food rating scale, all things are compared to Jack in the Box, which I know is an unfair comparison. The number in the paranthesis is the rating I would give based on the work of the past month.
Overall ratings:
Parking/Entrance: 3 (5.5)
Shopping/Drive thru experience: 7.5 (8)
Eating Experience: 5 (7)
Intangibles: 6 (6)
Overall Rating: 5.5 (7)
I was hungry and didn’t feel like cooking. I could throw a pigskin to the Taco Bell by my house, but I decided to make the drive to Del Taco (3 miles). Contrary to my Walmart experience, this required bringing the Ford Road traffic into play.
Parking/Entrance:
Bad idea from the start, traffic was miserable, and I thought about turning around several times. But I stuck it out. Finally I made the turnaround past Ford Road, and was in the second to the right lane. But traffic was so heavy and people were driving like such assholes, I was forced to overshoot the entrance by a 100+ yards. I was able to cut through parking lots and make it in relative short order.
Shopping/Drive thru experience:
The drive thru people are always very pleasant and have yet to mess up my order. I ordered a combo meal, which included 3 tacos and a cheddar quesadilla (plain, I know, not living up to my Mexican heritage).
Eating experience:
Cheddar quesadillas are usually an 8, but this time it was about a 4-5. The amount of cheese on it has decreased each time I have been in there, and yesterday it was reminiscent of a Taco Bell quesadilla, which is garbage. The tacos as usual included real shredded cheese, unlike T-Bell, however, the presentation was lacking as the cheese was not very lovingly distributed throughout the taco. Once the cheese melted, this created the undesirable consequence of some of the taco being a cheese bounty and the rest being cheeseless.
The taco sauce comes in Hot and Mild, actually the hot as a different title that eludes me at the moment. Unfortunately, the hot is in a black package, and the mild in a red package, which is the opposite of what my intuition tells me is correct. Therefore, the first two tacos I ate were with mild sauce until I noticed the error in my ways.
Side note:
I have been to Del Taco 3-4 times in the past month, and it has grown on me everytime. This experience was well below par on most levels. I have changed my perspective on the place to recommending going there, at least for comparison sake. Also keep in mind that on the Fast Food rating scale, all things are compared to Jack in the Box, which I know is an unfair comparison. The number in the paranthesis is the rating I would give based on the work of the past month.
Overall ratings:
Parking/Entrance: 3 (5.5)
Shopping/Drive thru experience: 7.5 (8)
Eating Experience: 5 (7)
Intangibles: 6 (6)
Overall Rating: 5.5 (7)
Walmart Trip report
Background:
Yesterday I decided to pick up some new headphones (for my MP3 player) as my last ones had broken, and get a combination lock with the intention of getting rid of all excuses to not go to the gym. On the way home, Target (my intended destination) was not desirable due to traffic. I got off at Middlebelt with the intention of going to Target, but saw Walmart and decided to roll the dice. I tried not to let my expectations get in the way of honestly evaluating my shopping experience.
Parking/Entrance:
Very crowded, and I had to park pretty far back. Not a big deal as the weather was unseasonably warm, and there were actually cars in every spot, as opposed to randomly strewn shopping carts. Entering the store became the first real adventure. There was somebody about 5-10 yards in front of me, and they went through the automatic door. I proceeded to follow and the automatic door nearly closed on me. It literally got within inches of me, causing me to make a retarded jump backwards in order to avoid it. This must have looked rather silly to an observer as it looked like I had never seen an automatic door. This got my experience off to a poor start.
Shopping experience:
The store is dark (poorly lit), messy, and the signs are not very clear to tell you that you are in the right department. I expected the locks would be difficult to find, and they would have been if I hadn’t been lucky and guided by the force yesterday. I found exactly what I was looking for in a reasonable time. On to the headphones, found what I wanted, again pretty cheap, grabbed it off the shelf and it was already open….oops. Fortunately they had one more that was already sealed. I also made an impulse buy of a $5.00 hand AM/FM radio, to listen to at the Kentucky Derby, and the few times where I actually go to Sporting Events (if I so choose to listen). I suspect that if you were looking to purchase any items over $10, this is not the store to go to. If I were looking for any sales assistance I would have struck out like Labelle at a bar not named Kickers, as I never saw an employee in the sales aisles.
It should be noted that the experience would have been more pleasurable had an annoying black woman’s voice not been playing over the PA telling employees to move anything that didn’t belong in their area (of which there was a lot of) to the front of the store for organization.
Checkout experience:
Not very many lanes open, and they had some long lines. I found one at the far end titled “Speedy Checkout”, where I was 3rd in line. It was far from speedy, the scanner wouldn’t work to scan the 1st person’s prescription. Then the 2nd person required a price check on their Selsun Blue. By this point I was fed up with being there, and just paid cash, even though I intended to pay with my credit card.
Side note:
Near the corner of the store, they have a Subway. The décor is a very nice brick, well lit, looks like it belongs in Ford Field, and not a ghetto Walmart. No report on the dining at said Subway.
Overall ratings:
Parking/Entrance: 3.5
Shopping Experience: 6
Checkout Experience: 3
Intangibles: 2
Overall Rating: 4 (I expected a 1)
Yesterday I decided to pick up some new headphones (for my MP3 player) as my last ones had broken, and get a combination lock with the intention of getting rid of all excuses to not go to the gym. On the way home, Target (my intended destination) was not desirable due to traffic. I got off at Middlebelt with the intention of going to Target, but saw Walmart and decided to roll the dice. I tried not to let my expectations get in the way of honestly evaluating my shopping experience.
Parking/Entrance:
Very crowded, and I had to park pretty far back. Not a big deal as the weather was unseasonably warm, and there were actually cars in every spot, as opposed to randomly strewn shopping carts. Entering the store became the first real adventure. There was somebody about 5-10 yards in front of me, and they went through the automatic door. I proceeded to follow and the automatic door nearly closed on me. It literally got within inches of me, causing me to make a retarded jump backwards in order to avoid it. This must have looked rather silly to an observer as it looked like I had never seen an automatic door. This got my experience off to a poor start.
Shopping experience:
The store is dark (poorly lit), messy, and the signs are not very clear to tell you that you are in the right department. I expected the locks would be difficult to find, and they would have been if I hadn’t been lucky and guided by the force yesterday. I found exactly what I was looking for in a reasonable time. On to the headphones, found what I wanted, again pretty cheap, grabbed it off the shelf and it was already open….oops. Fortunately they had one more that was already sealed. I also made an impulse buy of a $5.00 hand AM/FM radio, to listen to at the Kentucky Derby, and the few times where I actually go to Sporting Events (if I so choose to listen). I suspect that if you were looking to purchase any items over $10, this is not the store to go to. If I were looking for any sales assistance I would have struck out like Labelle at a bar not named Kickers, as I never saw an employee in the sales aisles.
It should be noted that the experience would have been more pleasurable had an annoying black woman’s voice not been playing over the PA telling employees to move anything that didn’t belong in their area (of which there was a lot of) to the front of the store for organization.
Checkout experience:
Not very many lanes open, and they had some long lines. I found one at the far end titled “Speedy Checkout”, where I was 3rd in line. It was far from speedy, the scanner wouldn’t work to scan the 1st person’s prescription. Then the 2nd person required a price check on their Selsun Blue. By this point I was fed up with being there, and just paid cash, even though I intended to pay with my credit card.
Side note:
Near the corner of the store, they have a Subway. The décor is a very nice brick, well lit, looks like it belongs in Ford Field, and not a ghetto Walmart. No report on the dining at said Subway.
Overall ratings:
Parking/Entrance: 3.5
Shopping Experience: 6
Checkout Experience: 3
Intangibles: 2
Overall Rating: 4 (I expected a 1)
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Party Acceler-8-tor bonus week 1
Week 1 results:
I earned 2500+ points, so with a target of 2000, I should get 20% over my bonus amount, meaning they should give me a $200 bonus for the week.
It's a good thing to, because I ran god-awful.
Cash Tables
30/60 (217 hands): +$438.50
20/40 (111 hands): +$117.50
Sit and Go's
$215's (79 played, 8 1st/8 2nd/8 3rds): +$215.00
Multi-table tourney's
$100's (2 played, 0 cashed): -$218.00
The sit and go results are the most disturbing. After getting off to a bangup start, I got my ass kicked the rest of the week. Some was due to bad play, but for the most part I ran awful. I can't even count the number of 2 and 3 outers hit on me. Normally with that many sit and go's I can expect to make about 2K. Oh well, hopefully next week I'll run really good and make 4K.
Week 1 results: +$533.00 (plus bonus money)
I earned 2500+ points, so with a target of 2000, I should get 20% over my bonus amount, meaning they should give me a $200 bonus for the week.
It's a good thing to, because I ran god-awful.
Cash Tables
30/60 (217 hands): +$438.50
20/40 (111 hands): +$117.50
Sit and Go's
$215's (79 played, 8 1st/8 2nd/8 3rds): +$215.00
Multi-table tourney's
$100's (2 played, 0 cashed): -$218.00
The sit and go results are the most disturbing. After getting off to a bangup start, I got my ass kicked the rest of the week. Some was due to bad play, but for the most part I ran awful. I can't even count the number of 2 and 3 outers hit on me. Normally with that many sit and go's I can expect to make about 2K. Oh well, hopefully next week I'll run really good and make 4K.
Week 1 results: +$533.00 (plus bonus money)
Latest tournament controversy
So it turns out JJProdigy, a prominent online player, won 140K on the big one on Party (I believe) this weekend. The thing is, JJProdigy actually finished somewhere out of the money, but then he won the tournament on his "grandma"'s account, after he took over for her. Apparently he stakes her and then took over for her in this instance. Is the Bush administration writing his responses to?? Does he think everyone is that stupid?
Basically he was playing in the same tournament with more than 1 entry. Not such a big deal until you consider the possibility of both players being on the same table at some point. Then collusion, chip dumping, cheating, sandwiching, etc....come into play.
There are a few posts on 2+2 saying he should lose the money, and I tend to agree. It turns out this practice is very widespread, and sending a message like this would definitely help reduce/eliminate this issue. If they do take the money, they should use this as an example of the consequences of cheating.
Now I don't have the time to e-mail the sites and basically start a crusade against this type of practice, I'll leave that to the people without real jobs, children, girlfriends, lives, etc....
My favorite quote about this practice came from a thread on 2+2. Here is the quote from a poster named Roman: "I personally have multiaccounted in a few tournaments in the past, however I realized this was a mistake and stopped. When I first started doing this, I FTed a 109r on 2 accounts and realized that even though I would never collude, this is a huge problem. It definitely damages the integrity of the game."
Huh???
So you made the final table with 2 accounts, yet would never collude???? Were you playing with split personalities? It would be impossible to not collude in this situation, even with the best of intentions. In the least you would know 2 of the hands at the table.
There is way too much money at stake for this type of thing to not be taken seriously. Otherwise the integrity of the game is ruined. Then all we have is the NFL.
Basically he was playing in the same tournament with more than 1 entry. Not such a big deal until you consider the possibility of both players being on the same table at some point. Then collusion, chip dumping, cheating, sandwiching, etc....come into play.
There are a few posts on 2+2 saying he should lose the money, and I tend to agree. It turns out this practice is very widespread, and sending a message like this would definitely help reduce/eliminate this issue. If they do take the money, they should use this as an example of the consequences of cheating.
Now I don't have the time to e-mail the sites and basically start a crusade against this type of practice, I'll leave that to the people without real jobs, children, girlfriends, lives, etc....
My favorite quote about this practice came from a thread on 2+2. Here is the quote from a poster named Roman: "I personally have multiaccounted in a few tournaments in the past, however I realized this was a mistake and stopped. When I first started doing this, I FTed a 109r on 2 accounts and realized that even though I would never collude, this is a huge problem. It definitely damages the integrity of the game."
Huh???
So you made the final table with 2 accounts, yet would never collude???? Were you playing with split personalities? It would be impossible to not collude in this situation, even with the best of intentions. In the least you would know 2 of the hands at the table.
There is way too much money at stake for this type of thing to not be taken seriously. Otherwise the integrity of the game is ruined. Then all we have is the NFL.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
The beats keep coming
It's hard not to get discouraged when you take a few bad ones in a row. These were the first two SNG's of the night for me.
SNG 1: Blinds 10/15, I limp KK UTG. MP raises to 60, everyone folds, and I decide to just call and check raise any non-ace flop. Flop comes Txx rainbow, I check, he bets 85. I raise to 250, and he moves all-in. I quickly call and he has JJ. The turn is immediately a J, and I am crippled to 30 chips and soon after am eliminated.
SNG 2: 5 players left, blinds are 100/200, I am in the BB with about 1500 chips and 99. UTG moves all-in (he has me covered). I think for a while and decide that I am ahead of his range of hands (put him on QQ-22, AK-A7, KQ, KJ, with a slight chance of AA or KK), and given my short stack position I call. He has 55. I can barely be happy long enough for a 5 to flop, and I am eliminated from that one.
The rest of the night wasn't as bad (though it was bad) and it set the tone. I played 13 SNG's for the night, with 1 win and 1 3rd. The win was in the last one of the night. Overall very ugly results. But I feel that I was playing pretty well, so I need to press on, as the luck will turn around.
SNG 1: Blinds 10/15, I limp KK UTG. MP raises to 60, everyone folds, and I decide to just call and check raise any non-ace flop. Flop comes Txx rainbow, I check, he bets 85. I raise to 250, and he moves all-in. I quickly call and he has JJ. The turn is immediately a J, and I am crippled to 30 chips and soon after am eliminated.
SNG 2: 5 players left, blinds are 100/200, I am in the BB with about 1500 chips and 99. UTG moves all-in (he has me covered). I think for a while and decide that I am ahead of his range of hands (put him on QQ-22, AK-A7, KQ, KJ, with a slight chance of AA or KK), and given my short stack position I call. He has 55. I can barely be happy long enough for a 5 to flop, and I am eliminated from that one.
The rest of the night wasn't as bad (though it was bad) and it set the tone. I played 13 SNG's for the night, with 1 win and 1 3rd. The win was in the last one of the night. Overall very ugly results. But I feel that I was playing pretty well, so I need to press on, as the luck will turn around.
Monday, February 13, 2006
The Nuts!!!
Maybe I missed the memo sent out to the entire poker community, because that's the only possible explanation I can come up with for why people are playing KQ like it's the nuts against me. It's generally an all-in battle involving my ace high, or my pair against their KQ, in which generally they are calling all-in bets that they don't have the pot odds to make. It wouldn't bother me so much if not for the fact that they were hitting them far too often.
I got a pretty good Party VIP offer, so I am focused on getting the required amount of points for my bonus, and plan on doing it for as many of the 8 weeks as possible. 95% of my play has been multi-tabling the 200 SNG's. Made a decent profit, but I feel like it's been a tough week. I've had far too many loss with dominating hands. The worst of which was when I got all-in heads-up to win it with AQ against QT on a Q52 flop. The river T did me in. I'll update these results after Tuesday night's play, when the VIP "week" ends.
I've made back about half of the money I lost on the Superbowl. It feels good to get some of that back this fast, as it was a bankroll setback.
Looking forward to a big, but brief night of SNG'ing tonight.
I got a pretty good Party VIP offer, so I am focused on getting the required amount of points for my bonus, and plan on doing it for as many of the 8 weeks as possible. 95% of my play has been multi-tabling the 200 SNG's. Made a decent profit, but I feel like it's been a tough week. I've had far too many loss with dominating hands. The worst of which was when I got all-in heads-up to win it with AQ against QT on a Q52 flop. The river T did me in. I'll update these results after Tuesday night's play, when the VIP "week" ends.
I've made back about half of the money I lost on the Superbowl. It feels good to get some of that back this fast, as it was a bankroll setback.
Looking forward to a big, but brief night of SNG'ing tonight.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Super Bowl thoughts
First and foremost I got whitewashed, basically every bet I made lost, which was ugly because I took a lot of proposition bets.
But that game was an absolute abomination, a travesty, a hijacking. The referees did everything they possibly could to make sure Pittsburgh won, from phantom or questionable interference calls, invented penalties to questionable goalline decisions. Several of the decisions were made very late also, in a manner that can only be construed as questionable.
I basically felt like I was watching something scripted, like wrestling. The officiating in the playoffs was horrendous all playoffs, starting with the Polamalu INT that was overturned against Indy, and culminating in the debacle of the Super Bowl. As a Seattle fan, I would be incensed, and as a Pittsburgh fan I would be embarrassed that my team won in that manner. The MVP was Hines Ward, but the entire officiating crew should have gotten it. Seattle dominated the game from start to finish, and save for 3 Pitt plays that totaled 150+ yards, they could have been shut out.
The entire fiasco leaves a very bad taste in my mouth about the NFL. I have never been one to believe in conspiracy theories, but this game really makes one question their beliefs. I hope that the fallout from this forces the NFL (or somebody/something else) to investigate the officiating, and take a hard look at the entire system. The worst thing that can happen is have people give up on this and forget about it. Without the integrity of the officiating, the game becomes nothing more than wrestling. But then again, maybe scripted finishes that satisfy the majority of fans are exactly what the NFL wants....
But that game was an absolute abomination, a travesty, a hijacking. The referees did everything they possibly could to make sure Pittsburgh won, from phantom or questionable interference calls, invented penalties to questionable goalline decisions. Several of the decisions were made very late also, in a manner that can only be construed as questionable.
I basically felt like I was watching something scripted, like wrestling. The officiating in the playoffs was horrendous all playoffs, starting with the Polamalu INT that was overturned against Indy, and culminating in the debacle of the Super Bowl. As a Seattle fan, I would be incensed, and as a Pittsburgh fan I would be embarrassed that my team won in that manner. The MVP was Hines Ward, but the entire officiating crew should have gotten it. Seattle dominated the game from start to finish, and save for 3 Pitt plays that totaled 150+ yards, they could have been shut out.
The entire fiasco leaves a very bad taste in my mouth about the NFL. I have never been one to believe in conspiracy theories, but this game really makes one question their beliefs. I hope that the fallout from this forces the NFL (or somebody/something else) to investigate the officiating, and take a hard look at the entire system. The worst thing that can happen is have people give up on this and forget about it. Without the integrity of the officiating, the game becomes nothing more than wrestling. But then again, maybe scripted finishes that satisfy the majority of fans are exactly what the NFL wants....
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