This morning Abby woke me up at 4:30am yelling "Daddy!!!". I rushed into her room, especially considering that the house is in disarray from us tearing up the carpet, molding and walls in a complete re-modeling of my bedroom (a topic for another much longer blog).
So anyways, I run into her room and she is still laying down, looking asleep. She asks me, "Daddy, why are there stars in the sky?". Apparently my hastily put together answer satisfied her, as she said "Thanks Daddy" and went back to sleep.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Casino Windsor trip report (part 2 - more poker, dinner and stuff)
Concluding the previous trip report…
After the tournament we both felt pretty good about ourselves, so after grabbing some lunch in the café. (decent, but nothing great, since I was saving room for our main course). After lunch we did an early check-in. We got a room on about the 11th floor, looking out over the Detroit River. The room was very nice. It had a king size bed, medium sized plasma screened TV, and a fridge. The bathroom had a tub and a glass doored shower.
After chilling out for a while, we decided to check out the pool. It was very nice, partially because we were the only ones there. The pool was on the 3rd floor, also overlooking the river. It had an extra large Jacuzzi as well.
After the pool, a shower and a change of clothes, I still had about 2 hours to kill before dinner, so while Victory was getting ready, I headed back down to the poker room. I decided to play a some 1/2NL, just for fun, and maybe make a few bucks. I don’t recall any memorable hands, but by the time Victory came down, I was up about 200. We headed to the “Sportsbook” to watch the end of the MSU/Penn State game, and kill the last 30 minutes before our 7:00pm reservation. I say “Sportsbook” in quotes, because that’s precisely what it is. They take bets, but they only allow parlays. As if that weren’t enough, the odds of a 2 teamer are 3 for 1 (meaning 2 to 1), and for a 3 teamer, they are 6 for 1 (meaning 5 to 1). The odds in nearly all Sportsbooks for these are 2.6 to 1, and 6 to 1. It is, however, a very cool place to watch a game. The crowd was mostly pro-Spartan, and it was an exciting comeback win for MSU.
Dinner was at Nero’s steakhouse, on their $150 comp. Nero’s is a nice upper end restaurant. The main courses are between $30-50. Both me and Victory ordered a filet, her’s well-done, and mine medium. We also ordered baked potatoes ala carte, and split a Caesar salad. The salad was made fresh at your table, and was excellent. My steak was cooked excellently (some places have a difficult time hitting medium for some reason). It was cooked in some kind of butter glaze. The steak was a very nice cut and very tender, but was a little lacking on the flavor. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but for that price I expect top-notch.
For dessert, we both got the NY Cheesecake at $9 per. This pretty much exhausted our comp (we couldn’t include drinks). The cheesecake unfortunately not up to par, although it was decent. I’m not a big cheesecake fan anyhow, but I have had a few good pieces in my day, so I was optimistic. Overall I give the meal a 6/10. It was pretty good, but I don’t think it is worth anywhere near $150. I can have a meal that is as good at the Texas Road House (though far less elegant) for only $45.
After dinner it was time for some more poker. I got into another incredibly juicy 1/2NL game, and Victory ended up getting a seat in the same game. Early on, there was a middle aged gentleman who was on complete monkey tilt, raising preflop to $40-45. He quickly went through 2-3 buy-ins, and I was disappointed that I didn’t have an opportunity to take any of it. Finally I picked up AK and raised to 10 after a limper, I got one cold call right after me, and then the tilter moved in for 100. I was slightly fearful that the cold caller was trapping the tilter with a big hand (he seemed decent) but ultimately shipped my stack in. He had AJ, and my hand held up. He polished one more buy-in off before storming away from the table.
He was replaced by the Queen bitch loud mouth of poker. She endeared herself to me early when I tried to get a seat change to sit next to Victoria to be able to talk. She immediately informed the dealer that we were together and shouldn’t even be at the same table (since we are obviously trying to work the 1-2 game). She was one of those people who never shuts up, has an opinion on everything, is an expert on all things poker and not poker, etc..etc….you know the type. Watching her play, I thought she actually did have a clue, but then got busted on a bad beat, and proceeded to berate the crap out of the guy who stacked her. Following that she polished off another 3 buy-ins (2 of them to me with retarded play). She also got into it with another player sitting next to me, threatening to slap him upside the head (which would have likely gotten the guy into a lot of trouble if he had said it to her). Apparently she is a regular there, so she got the benefit of the doubt, which I was happy with as she was dusting off money. In the meantime, the guy next to me busted Victoria when he made a 25X pre-flop raise with 55, and outraced Victoria’s AK.
After that hand, I set for myself 3 very simple goals; 1) Drink every Heineken in the building before last call at 2am, 2) Bust the annoying bitch again, and 3) Bust the guy that took Victoria’s money. As far as #3, I told the guy that I was making that my mission, mostly saying it as a joke, as we were enjoying drinking together and poking fun at the queen bitch. But in reality it really was a goal, as his play wasn’t very inspiring.
I accomplished #1 as best as I could, and also accomplished #3 when I flopped the nut straight, and got the guy to stack off on the river with 2nd pair after flopping top pair. #2 failed though, as she eventually left. Finally around 3:30am I called it a night, as I could tell Victory was mad at me for staying down there after a text message she sent. I ended the session about 550-600 to the good.
The next day I was worried about the border crossing, given the photocopy of my birth certificate, as well as the long line over the bridge. The trip over the bridge ended up taking over an hour, as we arrived at 11:00am and didn’t get across to the US until about 12:15pm. The crossing was very smooth though. The border agent was more interested in asking poker related question than anything pertaining to our citizenship, and never once mentioned that my birth certificate was a copy.
All in all it was a nice trip. A relaxing time, a profit of about 1400, and a good meal or two.
After the tournament we both felt pretty good about ourselves, so after grabbing some lunch in the café. (decent, but nothing great, since I was saving room for our main course). After lunch we did an early check-in. We got a room on about the 11th floor, looking out over the Detroit River. The room was very nice. It had a king size bed, medium sized plasma screened TV, and a fridge. The bathroom had a tub and a glass doored shower.
After chilling out for a while, we decided to check out the pool. It was very nice, partially because we were the only ones there. The pool was on the 3rd floor, also overlooking the river. It had an extra large Jacuzzi as well.
After the pool, a shower and a change of clothes, I still had about 2 hours to kill before dinner, so while Victory was getting ready, I headed back down to the poker room. I decided to play a some 1/2NL, just for fun, and maybe make a few bucks. I don’t recall any memorable hands, but by the time Victory came down, I was up about 200. We headed to the “Sportsbook” to watch the end of the MSU/Penn State game, and kill the last 30 minutes before our 7:00pm reservation. I say “Sportsbook” in quotes, because that’s precisely what it is. They take bets, but they only allow parlays. As if that weren’t enough, the odds of a 2 teamer are 3 for 1 (meaning 2 to 1), and for a 3 teamer, they are 6 for 1 (meaning 5 to 1). The odds in nearly all Sportsbooks for these are 2.6 to 1, and 6 to 1. It is, however, a very cool place to watch a game. The crowd was mostly pro-Spartan, and it was an exciting comeback win for MSU.
Dinner was at Nero’s steakhouse, on their $150 comp. Nero’s is a nice upper end restaurant. The main courses are between $30-50. Both me and Victory ordered a filet, her’s well-done, and mine medium. We also ordered baked potatoes ala carte, and split a Caesar salad. The salad was made fresh at your table, and was excellent. My steak was cooked excellently (some places have a difficult time hitting medium for some reason). It was cooked in some kind of butter glaze. The steak was a very nice cut and very tender, but was a little lacking on the flavor. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but for that price I expect top-notch.
For dessert, we both got the NY Cheesecake at $9 per. This pretty much exhausted our comp (we couldn’t include drinks). The cheesecake unfortunately not up to par, although it was decent. I’m not a big cheesecake fan anyhow, but I have had a few good pieces in my day, so I was optimistic. Overall I give the meal a 6/10. It was pretty good, but I don’t think it is worth anywhere near $150. I can have a meal that is as good at the Texas Road House (though far less elegant) for only $45.
After dinner it was time for some more poker. I got into another incredibly juicy 1/2NL game, and Victory ended up getting a seat in the same game. Early on, there was a middle aged gentleman who was on complete monkey tilt, raising preflop to $40-45. He quickly went through 2-3 buy-ins, and I was disappointed that I didn’t have an opportunity to take any of it. Finally I picked up AK and raised to 10 after a limper, I got one cold call right after me, and then the tilter moved in for 100. I was slightly fearful that the cold caller was trapping the tilter with a big hand (he seemed decent) but ultimately shipped my stack in. He had AJ, and my hand held up. He polished one more buy-in off before storming away from the table.
He was replaced by the Queen bitch loud mouth of poker. She endeared herself to me early when I tried to get a seat change to sit next to Victoria to be able to talk. She immediately informed the dealer that we were together and shouldn’t even be at the same table (since we are obviously trying to work the 1-2 game). She was one of those people who never shuts up, has an opinion on everything, is an expert on all things poker and not poker, etc..etc….you know the type. Watching her play, I thought she actually did have a clue, but then got busted on a bad beat, and proceeded to berate the crap out of the guy who stacked her. Following that she polished off another 3 buy-ins (2 of them to me with retarded play). She also got into it with another player sitting next to me, threatening to slap him upside the head (which would have likely gotten the guy into a lot of trouble if he had said it to her). Apparently she is a regular there, so she got the benefit of the doubt, which I was happy with as she was dusting off money. In the meantime, the guy next to me busted Victoria when he made a 25X pre-flop raise with 55, and outraced Victoria’s AK.
After that hand, I set for myself 3 very simple goals; 1) Drink every Heineken in the building before last call at 2am, 2) Bust the annoying bitch again, and 3) Bust the guy that took Victoria’s money. As far as #3, I told the guy that I was making that my mission, mostly saying it as a joke, as we were enjoying drinking together and poking fun at the queen bitch. But in reality it really was a goal, as his play wasn’t very inspiring.
I accomplished #1 as best as I could, and also accomplished #3 when I flopped the nut straight, and got the guy to stack off on the river with 2nd pair after flopping top pair. #2 failed though, as she eventually left. Finally around 3:30am I called it a night, as I could tell Victory was mad at me for staying down there after a text message she sent. I ended the session about 550-600 to the good.
The next day I was worried about the border crossing, given the photocopy of my birth certificate, as well as the long line over the bridge. The trip over the bridge ended up taking over an hour, as we arrived at 11:00am and didn’t get across to the US until about 12:15pm. The crossing was very smooth though. The border agent was more interested in asking poker related question than anything pertaining to our citizenship, and never once mentioned that my birth certificate was a copy.
All in all it was a nice trip. A relaxing time, a profit of about 1400, and a good meal or two.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Casino Windsor trip report (part 1 - Border security and poker)
Several months ago I received a free offer to travel to Canada and spend a night at Caesars Windsor (formerly Casino Windsor) and get a free $150 at Nero’s Steakhouse. Last weekend was the weekend I selected, so Victory and I made the trek over the bridge to Windsor for a night. The laws require a birth certificate (not yet a passport, which is good since I don’t have one yet). However, I only had a copy of mine, so while concerned, felt like it I would be allowed to cross. There was a $100 buyin tourney starting at 10am, so I wanted to leave the house by 8:30 to ensure making it (they close entrants at 60). Victory took a long time getting ready though, so I was worried we may not make it on time.
The Canadian border guard gave me a hard time, but he let me across (which was important since the wait to get back into the US spanned the entire bridge as well as some Canadian sidestreets). Driving to the casino was easy (as I know the roads decently from traveling there often in my formative gambling years). Upon arrival I entered the garage and noticed they had a lot for diamond members (my first good fortune of the trip). So I was able to immediately park on the ground level and enter the casino. It was my first trip there in at least 4-5 years, and it has significantly changed. They don’t allow smoking there now, and they completely gutted the inside. It was quite nice inside, and the poker room was very nice as well (though somewhat small).
We arrived in plenty of time for the tournament, and my friend Al from work, along with his wife, came for the tournament as well. Right before the tournament started, I tried to get a bloody mary to start things off right, but Canadian law doesn’t allow drinks until 11am. They only got 25 entrants, which meant they paid only the top 3 players (breakdown of 1375, 750, 375).
Here are a few of the key hands from the tournament (starting chips 2000, blinds start at 25/50, with only 20 minute levels until level 4 when levels are increased to 30 minutes):
Hand #1: My stack is around 1800, blinds 25/50. UTG+1 raises to 200, I flat call with 77 (almost re-raised all in, but decided I could flat call and evaluate and find a better spot if necessary). One of the blinds came along as well. Flop was 985r, checked to the preflop raiser, and he bet 500. The bet was large, and into 2 players it screamed strength to me. I elected to fold, even though I had a feeling I should have moved in there. The blind folded too, so I never saw the hand. Later I saw a similar situation with the same player, and his 500 bet was bottom set, so I felt better about my fold.
Hand #2: My stack is about 1550, blinds 25/50. UTG (woman who had been fairly active and raising) raises to 200, folds to me, I am on the button with KK. I debate how to play this one, and figure she will fold if I move in, yet I want to get more money in, so I make a small re-raise to 600, and after some debate she folds what she says was JJ. I’m not convinced at all of this, but file it away.
Hand #3: I’ve started to chip up some getting KK again and AA once. My stack is about 4500 and blinds are 50/100. I raise from the CO or Button to 300 with TT, folds to BB (woman from previous hand) and she calls. Flop comes Axx (x is lower than T). She checks to me, I reach for chips, and then decide to check. Turn is a J, she bets out 500…. I debate and call. River is another A (good card for me). She bets another 500….at this point I’ve deduced she has either trip aces or nothing, and decide that her small river bet has priced me into a call. She turns over K2 and my hand is good.
Hand #4: I have about 6K, blinds 100/200. I raise 5s4s to 600 from LP, BB calls (3000 behind). Flop is KsQsJx. BB leads 1000. I think that there is a real chance of him folding if I move in (because live people love to do this), so I move in, and he looks disappointed, but say’s “I have to call”. He has QT, the turn blanks, and the river is the As. He shouts “Yes”….but not so fast my friend, your straight loses to my flush.
Hand #5: I have 9K or so, blinds still 100/200. I raise to 600 with AhAx, button calls, leaving himself 1200 behind. I have been very active for a while now that I have accumulated some chips. Flop is Kh9h2x, so I decide to give him some rope to hang himself, not worrying about a free card, he bets 800 of his 1200, and I move him in. He mutters to himself “Why did I bet so much?”, and I keep thinking “Because you did what I wanted you to do.” He asks me if I have a flush draw, and I just stare straight ahead. He finally calls with 44, and doesn’t hit his 2 outer.
Hand #6: After a few players have given me some chips. I am around 12K, and there are about 12 players left. Blinds are 200/400. I raise Kh2h to 1000 from the button. The BB calls (leaving only 1500 behind). Flop comes AhTx2x. He checks to me, and I put him in. He debates and then calls with KQ, and the turn and river brick and I knock him out.
Around this point they break for the final table. I have 15500, and the average stack is around 5500, so I have everyone way outchipped. Victory and Al both also make the final table, however both are really short with 2000 or so each. I raise the first hand UTG+1 with AsJs, and all fold. I decide to show to set the tone for me to be able to steal frequently and abuse my chip lead. The problem is that nothing seems to work out at the final table. Al busts in 6th or 7th by making a pretty poor play. Finally 5 handed, I double Victory up with 54s vs QJs. Then 4 handed I double up the short stack with JTs against A8. Victory also re-stole from me one time when I had T9o, and she moved in. I made a close fold, and she showed AQ. Hmm, this final table isn’t working out so well. I am at least able to maintain with some steals, but there is no chip accumulation on my part. 4 handed the short stack wants to talk chop, but we turn him down, and Victory busts him shortly after that. Once we are 3 handed, we are all pretty even in chips (around 17K). We all agree to chop equally (I was especially inclined to so that Victory would ensure a nice payday). Our opponent was eager as he feared we would not play against each other very hard (he was wrong in that regard), but it was probably a correct fear in most cases.
All in all I was pleased by my play, and Victory played a perfect final table, nursing a short stack most of the way through. She even made a very nice call on a flop of low cards with AQ.
The Canadian border guard gave me a hard time, but he let me across (which was important since the wait to get back into the US spanned the entire bridge as well as some Canadian sidestreets). Driving to the casino was easy (as I know the roads decently from traveling there often in my formative gambling years). Upon arrival I entered the garage and noticed they had a lot for diamond members (my first good fortune of the trip). So I was able to immediately park on the ground level and enter the casino. It was my first trip there in at least 4-5 years, and it has significantly changed. They don’t allow smoking there now, and they completely gutted the inside. It was quite nice inside, and the poker room was very nice as well (though somewhat small).
We arrived in plenty of time for the tournament, and my friend Al from work, along with his wife, came for the tournament as well. Right before the tournament started, I tried to get a bloody mary to start things off right, but Canadian law doesn’t allow drinks until 11am. They only got 25 entrants, which meant they paid only the top 3 players (breakdown of 1375, 750, 375).
Here are a few of the key hands from the tournament (starting chips 2000, blinds start at 25/50, with only 20 minute levels until level 4 when levels are increased to 30 minutes):
Hand #1: My stack is around 1800, blinds 25/50. UTG+1 raises to 200, I flat call with 77 (almost re-raised all in, but decided I could flat call and evaluate and find a better spot if necessary). One of the blinds came along as well. Flop was 985r, checked to the preflop raiser, and he bet 500. The bet was large, and into 2 players it screamed strength to me. I elected to fold, even though I had a feeling I should have moved in there. The blind folded too, so I never saw the hand. Later I saw a similar situation with the same player, and his 500 bet was bottom set, so I felt better about my fold.
Hand #2: My stack is about 1550, blinds 25/50. UTG (woman who had been fairly active and raising) raises to 200, folds to me, I am on the button with KK. I debate how to play this one, and figure she will fold if I move in, yet I want to get more money in, so I make a small re-raise to 600, and after some debate she folds what she says was JJ. I’m not convinced at all of this, but file it away.
Hand #3: I’ve started to chip up some getting KK again and AA once. My stack is about 4500 and blinds are 50/100. I raise from the CO or Button to 300 with TT, folds to BB (woman from previous hand) and she calls. Flop comes Axx (x is lower than T). She checks to me, I reach for chips, and then decide to check. Turn is a J, she bets out 500…. I debate and call. River is another A (good card for me). She bets another 500….at this point I’ve deduced she has either trip aces or nothing, and decide that her small river bet has priced me into a call. She turns over K2 and my hand is good.
Hand #4: I have about 6K, blinds 100/200. I raise 5s4s to 600 from LP, BB calls (3000 behind). Flop is KsQsJx. BB leads 1000. I think that there is a real chance of him folding if I move in (because live people love to do this), so I move in, and he looks disappointed, but say’s “I have to call”. He has QT, the turn blanks, and the river is the As. He shouts “Yes”….but not so fast my friend, your straight loses to my flush.
Hand #5: I have 9K or so, blinds still 100/200. I raise to 600 with AhAx, button calls, leaving himself 1200 behind. I have been very active for a while now that I have accumulated some chips. Flop is Kh9h2x, so I decide to give him some rope to hang himself, not worrying about a free card, he bets 800 of his 1200, and I move him in. He mutters to himself “Why did I bet so much?”, and I keep thinking “Because you did what I wanted you to do.” He asks me if I have a flush draw, and I just stare straight ahead. He finally calls with 44, and doesn’t hit his 2 outer.
Hand #6: After a few players have given me some chips. I am around 12K, and there are about 12 players left. Blinds are 200/400. I raise Kh2h to 1000 from the button. The BB calls (leaving only 1500 behind). Flop comes AhTx2x. He checks to me, and I put him in. He debates and then calls with KQ, and the turn and river brick and I knock him out.
Around this point they break for the final table. I have 15500, and the average stack is around 5500, so I have everyone way outchipped. Victory and Al both also make the final table, however both are really short with 2000 or so each. I raise the first hand UTG+1 with AsJs, and all fold. I decide to show to set the tone for me to be able to steal frequently and abuse my chip lead. The problem is that nothing seems to work out at the final table. Al busts in 6th or 7th by making a pretty poor play. Finally 5 handed, I double Victory up with 54s vs QJs. Then 4 handed I double up the short stack with JTs against A8. Victory also re-stole from me one time when I had T9o, and she moved in. I made a close fold, and she showed AQ. Hmm, this final table isn’t working out so well. I am at least able to maintain with some steals, but there is no chip accumulation on my part. 4 handed the short stack wants to talk chop, but we turn him down, and Victory busts him shortly after that. Once we are 3 handed, we are all pretty even in chips (around 17K). We all agree to chop equally (I was especially inclined to so that Victory would ensure a nice payday). Our opponent was eager as he feared we would not play against each other very hard (he was wrong in that regard), but it was probably a correct fear in most cases.
All in all I was pleased by my play, and Victory played a perfect final table, nursing a short stack most of the way through. She even made a very nice call on a flop of low cards with AQ.
Preakness trip report and a few notes:
First the notes...this blog has sucked with no activity for 6 months. Part of that is due to limited poker activity, part due to just being so damn busy and tired, and part due to laziness.
I had written up a trip report from my trip to the Preakness almost 6 months ago, yet never concluded it. Here is the somewhat complete trip report I had written. Enjoy.
Friday:
The trip started with Victory dropping me and Erik off for a 7am flight out of Detroit to Baltimore. The flight was smooth, and Paul picked us up at the Baltimore airport. We had about 9 hours to kill before the Phillies-Blue Jays game that night, so we drove to Philly in search of a genuine Philly Cheesesteak.
We got to Philly and saw some of the dumbest parking ever. Cars were parked in middle turn lane of roads, as well as just all over the place. We tried driving around for a while following our instincts for Cheesesteak, but eventually we had to ask someone. He directed us to Geno’s and Pat’s, which are across the street from each other. We drove through an area that looked like it was from the movie “Rocky”, with all of the houses close to one another. It was a one way street, with cars parked on both sides of you. It was quite claustrophobic for a road. After about 20 blocks of random houses, Italian bakeries, pizza joints, markets, etc….we found the cheesesteak joint.
We went to Geno’s, which is apparently very famous as they had pictures of famous people eating/cooking there. Included were Bill Clinton, Tiffany Amber Thiessen, Grant Hill….among many others. When you order, you order it with the type of cheese and with/without onions. For example, I got “Provolone without”. Other choices were American or “Whiz”. I don’t know what the “Whiz” was aside from maybe Cheese Whiz. The cheesesteak was actually kind of disappointing, low on meat, and overall not very flavorful. I’ve had better here in Michigan, but I wasn’t about to say that there, for fear of being killed.
After lunch, we drove through more of the local area on the way into the downtown district. It started reminding me more of a European/African market with all of the street vendors, people running around, and overall close quarters. Finally we got to drive through the downtown area. It was very nice, very clean, some interesting architecture as well. We didn’t get out as we were interested in drinking. By the baseball stadium we say Philadelphia Park (Horse racing) and decided to bet some races there, then walk to the baseball game. I wouldn’t be surprised if I drank 12 beers (Yiengling) while betting the pony’s for 6 hours. As I drank more, I bet more, and handicapped less, which is a very poor combination unless you are extremely lucky (I wasn’t). After all of us getting our asses kicked, we went to the baseball game. Our first order of business was getting beer and another cheesesteak. This cheesesteak tasted better (could have been due to the beer). We got there a little early, so I was able to take a decent number of pictures of the stadium. Overall a very nice stadium. Our seats were nice, about 26 rows up even with third base. We were very obnoxious by hassling every beer vendor for cheesesteaks, and even annoyed some girls that were sitting behind us, which amazingly did nothing to stop us from asking, and might have even led us to ask more. I recall pretty much harassing every player on both teams, but that is a little foggy right now. Going through my pictures I have several shots of a guy with what looks like pie on his face, but have absolutely zero recollection of that, nor does Erik.
After the game (a 5-3 Phillies win) we went back to Philadelphia Park, but I was totally hammered and ready to pass out, so we left shortly. Apparently finding the hotel was difficult since Erik and I both passed out, and Paul was driving after about 15-20 beers (not sure why we felt that was a good idea).
Saturday:
Saturday (Preakness Day) started out miserable. First Erik woke up about 5am and proceeded to puke multiple times. I felt rough and decided to go try to find some Tylenol with my toiletries. I reached in there in the dark and sliced the tip of my left middle finger pretty bad on my razor, which bled a ton. After using a Kleenex to stop/slow the bleeding, I proceeded to run in the bathroom and puke. Erik had already puked all over the back of the toilet rim, so I compensated for that by hitting the front of the rim. Fortunately I only puked once, while Erik did about 6-7 times. After puking, I felt far better, but it effectively ended my drinking for the weekend.
We made the 90 minute drive to Pimlico after grabbing some breakfast. On the drive Paul pushed for just getting infield tickets. Since we were getting killed at the races, we decided to do it. We paid $30 to park in a decent neighborhood, that was not dfficult to make it back to…pay attention, this is important later on. We walked to the track and you could tell it was different from the Derby. There were a shit ton of school buses and motor homes, with people pounding beers, and standing on the top of said buses.
After buying the way overpriced $60 ticket (I wanted to sit grandstand, but due to waiting tickets weren’t available online anymore), but Paul wanted to save a bit of money and buy infield (first bad decision by Paul of the day). As were were in line to get in, suddenly the line stopped. Apparently Pimlico doesn’t have a tunnel under the track, so you have to wait from about 10 minutes before the next race until a few minutes after the race is over to cross the track again. This caused us to miss the first two races. Race 1 I picked the winner on but didn’t miss out on any money, the second race I pegged nearly perfectly. I would have 100% hit the trifecta to return $700+, and I would almost have assuredly hit the superfecta to return $2200+….definite bad beat for me!!!
Erik described the Preakness as “The infield at the Preakness is basically like Spring Break on steroids. When we first set up camp, Paul and Todd left to use the ATM and place bets. During that short time I had at least 15 beer cans fly over my head, a bottle of Gatoraid explode about 5 ft from me, saw about 5 chicks pop their top, and saw a huge dude get tackled into a foam cooler full of beer.”
The rest of the trip involved my friend Paul getting so drunk that we lost him on the way back to the car, then us spending over an hour driving around and looking for him, while speaking to his incoherent ass on the phone. In the time of trying to communicate with Paul, I accidentally dialed Sonny on speed dial multiple times. It became so comical that he pretended to be Paul, and directing us to a non-existent location, before I realized who I was talking to. Finally we found him walking by a random hospital on some backroad over a mile from the location of the car. In the process of getting lost, he had lost his Pistons hat, and camping chair that he was carrying. The rest of the night was quite ridiculous dealing with Paul, but none of it is really worth rehashing here.
I had written up a trip report from my trip to the Preakness almost 6 months ago, yet never concluded it. Here is the somewhat complete trip report I had written. Enjoy.
Friday:
The trip started with Victory dropping me and Erik off for a 7am flight out of Detroit to Baltimore. The flight was smooth, and Paul picked us up at the Baltimore airport. We had about 9 hours to kill before the Phillies-Blue Jays game that night, so we drove to Philly in search of a genuine Philly Cheesesteak.
We got to Philly and saw some of the dumbest parking ever. Cars were parked in middle turn lane of roads, as well as just all over the place. We tried driving around for a while following our instincts for Cheesesteak, but eventually we had to ask someone. He directed us to Geno’s and Pat’s, which are across the street from each other. We drove through an area that looked like it was from the movie “Rocky”, with all of the houses close to one another. It was a one way street, with cars parked on both sides of you. It was quite claustrophobic for a road. After about 20 blocks of random houses, Italian bakeries, pizza joints, markets, etc….we found the cheesesteak joint.
We went to Geno’s, which is apparently very famous as they had pictures of famous people eating/cooking there. Included were Bill Clinton, Tiffany Amber Thiessen, Grant Hill….among many others. When you order, you order it with the type of cheese and with/without onions. For example, I got “Provolone without”. Other choices were American or “Whiz”. I don’t know what the “Whiz” was aside from maybe Cheese Whiz. The cheesesteak was actually kind of disappointing, low on meat, and overall not very flavorful. I’ve had better here in Michigan, but I wasn’t about to say that there, for fear of being killed.
After lunch, we drove through more of the local area on the way into the downtown district. It started reminding me more of a European/African market with all of the street vendors, people running around, and overall close quarters. Finally we got to drive through the downtown area. It was very nice, very clean, some interesting architecture as well. We didn’t get out as we were interested in drinking. By the baseball stadium we say Philadelphia Park (Horse racing) and decided to bet some races there, then walk to the baseball game. I wouldn’t be surprised if I drank 12 beers (Yiengling) while betting the pony’s for 6 hours. As I drank more, I bet more, and handicapped less, which is a very poor combination unless you are extremely lucky (I wasn’t). After all of us getting our asses kicked, we went to the baseball game. Our first order of business was getting beer and another cheesesteak. This cheesesteak tasted better (could have been due to the beer). We got there a little early, so I was able to take a decent number of pictures of the stadium. Overall a very nice stadium. Our seats were nice, about 26 rows up even with third base. We were very obnoxious by hassling every beer vendor for cheesesteaks, and even annoyed some girls that were sitting behind us, which amazingly did nothing to stop us from asking, and might have even led us to ask more. I recall pretty much harassing every player on both teams, but that is a little foggy right now. Going through my pictures I have several shots of a guy with what looks like pie on his face, but have absolutely zero recollection of that, nor does Erik.
After the game (a 5-3 Phillies win) we went back to Philadelphia Park, but I was totally hammered and ready to pass out, so we left shortly. Apparently finding the hotel was difficult since Erik and I both passed out, and Paul was driving after about 15-20 beers (not sure why we felt that was a good idea).
Saturday:
Saturday (Preakness Day) started out miserable. First Erik woke up about 5am and proceeded to puke multiple times. I felt rough and decided to go try to find some Tylenol with my toiletries. I reached in there in the dark and sliced the tip of my left middle finger pretty bad on my razor, which bled a ton. After using a Kleenex to stop/slow the bleeding, I proceeded to run in the bathroom and puke. Erik had already puked all over the back of the toilet rim, so I compensated for that by hitting the front of the rim. Fortunately I only puked once, while Erik did about 6-7 times. After puking, I felt far better, but it effectively ended my drinking for the weekend.
We made the 90 minute drive to Pimlico after grabbing some breakfast. On the drive Paul pushed for just getting infield tickets. Since we were getting killed at the races, we decided to do it. We paid $30 to park in a decent neighborhood, that was not dfficult to make it back to…pay attention, this is important later on. We walked to the track and you could tell it was different from the Derby. There were a shit ton of school buses and motor homes, with people pounding beers, and standing on the top of said buses.
After buying the way overpriced $60 ticket (I wanted to sit grandstand, but due to waiting tickets weren’t available online anymore), but Paul wanted to save a bit of money and buy infield (first bad decision by Paul of the day). As were were in line to get in, suddenly the line stopped. Apparently Pimlico doesn’t have a tunnel under the track, so you have to wait from about 10 minutes before the next race until a few minutes after the race is over to cross the track again. This caused us to miss the first two races. Race 1 I picked the winner on but didn’t miss out on any money, the second race I pegged nearly perfectly. I would have 100% hit the trifecta to return $700+, and I would almost have assuredly hit the superfecta to return $2200+….definite bad beat for me!!!
Erik described the Preakness as “The infield at the Preakness is basically like Spring Break on steroids. When we first set up camp, Paul and Todd left to use the ATM and place bets. During that short time I had at least 15 beer cans fly over my head, a bottle of Gatoraid explode about 5 ft from me, saw about 5 chicks pop their top, and saw a huge dude get tackled into a foam cooler full of beer.”
The rest of the trip involved my friend Paul getting so drunk that we lost him on the way back to the car, then us spending over an hour driving around and looking for him, while speaking to his incoherent ass on the phone. In the time of trying to communicate with Paul, I accidentally dialed Sonny on speed dial multiple times. It became so comical that he pretended to be Paul, and directing us to a non-existent location, before I realized who I was talking to. Finally we found him walking by a random hospital on some backroad over a mile from the location of the car. In the process of getting lost, he had lost his Pistons hat, and camping chair that he was carrying. The rest of the night was quite ridiculous dealing with Paul, but none of it is really worth rehashing here.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Kentucky Derby - Non-trip report
For the second time in about 12 years I had to skip the Kentucky Derby this year. The first time was 4 years ago, as I was in a hiatus from gambling, this time it was because of Victory’s college graduation ceremony, which for some stupid scheduling reason was the same day as the Derby. Don’t they have any respect for events going on 7 hours away?? In any case I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to partake in the festivities with the guys. But to make up for it I scheduled a trip in 2 weeks to the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, and we will also be going to a baseball game in Philly the day before the Preakness.
Thursday:
My supposed day of departure. The night before I became very sick. Out of nowhere I had a bad headache, and my throat started hurting. I hardly slept a wink. I got out of bed at 4:15am and had a temperature of 101, and could barely swallow. I decided then to take the day off of work and try to recover. I basically stayed in bed all day, then around 3:00pm called my doctors office….oops, they were closed. Apparently people don’t get sick on nice days. They have 3-4 doctors in that office and not one of them were there. Don’t you think they could spread their hours out to be available maybe 9 hours per day??? So I spent more time on the couch, alternating shivering and sweating. I had to skip my softball game as well (we won 14-8).
Friday:
Oaks Day. I was still sick, and hadn’t hardly slept all night. Victory had to drive to Mount Pleasant to get her cap and gown, so I was left on my own for most of the morning/afternoon. The doctors office had one doctor in, so I wasn’t able to get in until 12:15. They determined what I already knew, that I had tonsillitis, and should pretty much do nothing to get better. I got home and watched the Kentucky Oaks pre-game coverage on ESPN2, and then bet the Oaks. I continued my success on Oaks day by hitting the trifecta, but it only turned a $26 profit for me. However, this was far better then Sonny and Paul did for the day down there. They likely went to the Titty bar that night to drown their sorrows.
Saturday:
Derby Day / Graduation day: We got up at 5am, to be able to meet at Victory’s parents house at 6am, to make it up to Mt Pleasant in plenty of time for the 9:30 ceremony. The ceremony was nice and not too long (2 hours). I was feeling better so I got to at least enjoy it some. Seeing her graduate was a proud moment and I’m sure her parents were very proud as well. The speaker even made a comment about the Derby, which I’ll assume was directed at me. After the graduation we had a nice lunch/dinner at Lonestar, where I got a Filet/Lobster combo. It was the most I had eaten in several days. Following the long drive home, it was time to settle in and watch the Derby coverage. I talked to Paul to her him and Sonny’s thoughts on the Derby. Sonny was incommunicado, and Paul already had a bunch of tickets, so I decided to bet it on my own. Paul got to share a story about them purchasing counterfeit grandstand seats, which was humorous.
For the Derby, it came in about how I expected, but I put so much money into random off the wall horses to hit the board that despite hitting the trifecta, I lost a very small amount. After that I went and got ice cream. A few hours later we watched a special on NBC on Barbaro, which was a real tear-jerker. Very sad story, and what makes it sadder is seeing how much that horse meant to the people involved. The whole thing about him getting so many letters and e-mails was a little overblown, but I think it speaks volumes about the world we live in today, and that we will cling to any kind of story of hope and perseverance, even if it involves a horse.
We also went and got a Neti pot, which I’ll explain in a future post.
Sunday:
In what was normally a travel day back from Kentucky, I was able to sleep in and lay around, trying to recover from my sickness. I had a makeup softball game that night, which we won by forfeit, though we were leading 9-5 in the 4th inning, after one player got ejected from their team and they didn’t have a substitute available. It was a very disappointing result, as it was against our best competition in the league, and is a game we look forward to every year. In any case, we are 2-0 now in the 14 game season, and we will have one more game against them.
Because of my illness, I was apprehensive to play, but given the opponent and the fact that we had nobody to sub for me made me decide to play. I went 2 for 2 with 2 line drive singles and handled my only fly ball hit to me.
Thursday:
My supposed day of departure. The night before I became very sick. Out of nowhere I had a bad headache, and my throat started hurting. I hardly slept a wink. I got out of bed at 4:15am and had a temperature of 101, and could barely swallow. I decided then to take the day off of work and try to recover. I basically stayed in bed all day, then around 3:00pm called my doctors office….oops, they were closed. Apparently people don’t get sick on nice days. They have 3-4 doctors in that office and not one of them were there. Don’t you think they could spread their hours out to be available maybe 9 hours per day??? So I spent more time on the couch, alternating shivering and sweating. I had to skip my softball game as well (we won 14-8).
Friday:
Oaks Day. I was still sick, and hadn’t hardly slept all night. Victory had to drive to Mount Pleasant to get her cap and gown, so I was left on my own for most of the morning/afternoon. The doctors office had one doctor in, so I wasn’t able to get in until 12:15. They determined what I already knew, that I had tonsillitis, and should pretty much do nothing to get better. I got home and watched the Kentucky Oaks pre-game coverage on ESPN2, and then bet the Oaks. I continued my success on Oaks day by hitting the trifecta, but it only turned a $26 profit for me. However, this was far better then Sonny and Paul did for the day down there. They likely went to the Titty bar that night to drown their sorrows.
Saturday:
Derby Day / Graduation day: We got up at 5am, to be able to meet at Victory’s parents house at 6am, to make it up to Mt Pleasant in plenty of time for the 9:30 ceremony. The ceremony was nice and not too long (2 hours). I was feeling better so I got to at least enjoy it some. Seeing her graduate was a proud moment and I’m sure her parents were very proud as well. The speaker even made a comment about the Derby, which I’ll assume was directed at me. After the graduation we had a nice lunch/dinner at Lonestar, where I got a Filet/Lobster combo. It was the most I had eaten in several days. Following the long drive home, it was time to settle in and watch the Derby coverage. I talked to Paul to her him and Sonny’s thoughts on the Derby. Sonny was incommunicado, and Paul already had a bunch of tickets, so I decided to bet it on my own. Paul got to share a story about them purchasing counterfeit grandstand seats, which was humorous.
For the Derby, it came in about how I expected, but I put so much money into random off the wall horses to hit the board that despite hitting the trifecta, I lost a very small amount. After that I went and got ice cream. A few hours later we watched a special on NBC on Barbaro, which was a real tear-jerker. Very sad story, and what makes it sadder is seeing how much that horse meant to the people involved. The whole thing about him getting so many letters and e-mails was a little overblown, but I think it speaks volumes about the world we live in today, and that we will cling to any kind of story of hope and perseverance, even if it involves a horse.
We also went and got a Neti pot, which I’ll explain in a future post.
Sunday:
In what was normally a travel day back from Kentucky, I was able to sleep in and lay around, trying to recover from my sickness. I had a makeup softball game that night, which we won by forfeit, though we were leading 9-5 in the 4th inning, after one player got ejected from their team and they didn’t have a substitute available. It was a very disappointing result, as it was against our best competition in the league, and is a game we look forward to every year. In any case, we are 2-0 now in the 14 game season, and we will have one more game against them.
Because of my illness, I was apprehensive to play, but given the opponent and the fact that we had nobody to sub for me made me decide to play. I went 2 for 2 with 2 line drive singles and handled my only fly ball hit to me.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Learning NL Holdem
In my poker career, I've primarily been a limit player, with no-limit sit and go and no limit tournament play as well. I've dabbled in no limit cash play, but it is quite a departure from tournament strategy (at least my tournament strategy) that it never particularly interested me in taking up. But after a recent run of playing limit a month or two ago, the mechanical nature of the game, and the lack of creativity started to get on my nerves. After a few recent trips to the casino, a trip to Vegas, as well as discussing the game with Sonny and his recent run of success at No Limit, it has become clear to me that no-limit is where the money is. Limit seems to be a dying game online as well as in the casino.
My take on limit is that you try to capitalize on mistakes, or make your opponent make a mistake. The thing is, all of the mistakes are generally small mistakes, and it takes a long time for the "long run" to kick in. In my brief no-limit experience, it's a game of forcing your opponents into making big mistakes. It's also a game of hand reading. The part I enjoy the most is reading the hand an opponent is on, and selecting a bet size or line of play that makes my opponent do what I want him to do (whether it be call, raise, or fold). It's a game of minimizing your losses, and not getting carried away with one pair hands. Pocket aces are the best hand, but can be quite weak after the flop if facing a big bet or raise, as it doesn't have a lot of room to improve.
The area that I needed the most improvement right off the bat was recognizing that these one pair hands are not very strong after the flop facing resistance. Same goes for top pair (whether it be with top kicker or good kicker). That change is something I have done for the most part, but is still a potential leak that must be fought, especially considering my limit or SNG background.
The other main thing that I need to work on is blind defense...as in not doing it with marginal hands. In limit holdem stealing blinds is an integral part of the game, but in no-limit the blinds are so small relative to your stack size (sometimes less than 1% of your stack) that it is hardly worth chasing.
A few weeks ago I jumped into Pokerstars playing the 1/2 NL game (max buy-in of $200). I am actually amazed at how much can be won at this game. I am averaging over $50/hour, playing only two tables at a time. Granted this is a small sample size, but with proper game selection, and good play I think a rate close to this is attainable.
The plan right now is to get at least 10K hands in at 1/2, then move up to 2/4 (assuming my bankroll has increased nicely as a result of this). Following the change, I will stay at that level for 10K hands. Some of these numbers may change as I grow more comfortable with the style and amount of money, but I will set a minimum of 5K hands at the level before I move on to the next level.
My take on limit is that you try to capitalize on mistakes, or make your opponent make a mistake. The thing is, all of the mistakes are generally small mistakes, and it takes a long time for the "long run" to kick in. In my brief no-limit experience, it's a game of forcing your opponents into making big mistakes. It's also a game of hand reading. The part I enjoy the most is reading the hand an opponent is on, and selecting a bet size or line of play that makes my opponent do what I want him to do (whether it be call, raise, or fold). It's a game of minimizing your losses, and not getting carried away with one pair hands. Pocket aces are the best hand, but can be quite weak after the flop if facing a big bet or raise, as it doesn't have a lot of room to improve.
The area that I needed the most improvement right off the bat was recognizing that these one pair hands are not very strong after the flop facing resistance. Same goes for top pair (whether it be with top kicker or good kicker). That change is something I have done for the most part, but is still a potential leak that must be fought, especially considering my limit or SNG background.
The other main thing that I need to work on is blind defense...as in not doing it with marginal hands. In limit holdem stealing blinds is an integral part of the game, but in no-limit the blinds are so small relative to your stack size (sometimes less than 1% of your stack) that it is hardly worth chasing.
A few weeks ago I jumped into Pokerstars playing the 1/2 NL game (max buy-in of $200). I am actually amazed at how much can be won at this game. I am averaging over $50/hour, playing only two tables at a time. Granted this is a small sample size, but with proper game selection, and good play I think a rate close to this is attainable.
The plan right now is to get at least 10K hands in at 1/2, then move up to 2/4 (assuming my bankroll has increased nicely as a result of this). Following the change, I will stay at that level for 10K hands. Some of these numbers may change as I grow more comfortable with the style and amount of money, but I will set a minimum of 5K hands at the level before I move on to the next level.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Ruby on Third review
A week and a half ago I had a strong desire to celebrate my big Vegas weekend with a nice steak dinner. So on Friday I decided to call the Brown Derby, in downtown Detroit at MGM Casino. It turns out that a new restaurant called "Ruby on Third" is now in it's place. The person that took my reservation assured me that they were a 5-star steakhouse, and since all I really care about is the food, it could have been called "Dog Shit on a stick" and I might have gone being promised a good steak.
The restaurant is on the 3rd floor of MGM, and as you wind through the maze of obnoxious slot machines, you enter the restaurant, which is like walking into a different dimension compared to the chaos of a casino.
Immediately after sitting down I could tell I was in for a different type of dining experience. First, the server brought warm wet washclothes to wipe our hands off with, while this in itself isn't new to me, it was a nice touch. Then the server offered me my choice of napkin color (black or brown). I'm not sure the significance of this, nor do I care (I selected black). Strangely red was not a choice, despite the overall red decor of the restaurant and the red in the title.
The menu was short, but most of the items sounded excellent. Victoria selected the Filet (cooked medium well), with some kind of potato and leeks (neither of us had any idea what it was, and she was in a gambling mood). Maybe she can chime in as to what exactly the leek was, and what kind of potato she got. I chose the surf and turf, which was a filet (cooked medium) with a lobster tail, along with a baked potato. We also split a caesar salad. We also started with an adult beverage. I got a spicy bloody mary, which was delicious. I wish I knew which mix they used for it. Victoria got a strawberry daiquiri.
The salad was excellent, though hardly worth $8, with just the right amount of dressing. We had two different types of bread, one with poppy seeds, one without. Both were good, but the one without was the best.
We were both very hungry, and everytime the door from the kitchen swung open we were teased by the false hope that our entrees were on the way. Finally, they arrived. Everything looked excellent, and the steak actually tasted far better than it looked. It was prepared perfectly. Quite honestly one of the best steaks I've had in a few years. The lobster was also quite succulent. After all of that I had very little need to eat my baked potato, which was merely good by comparison.
Victoria's steak was slightly undercooked in the middle (more for me!!!), but was also very good. Her's came with a sauce on the top that she really liked, but I was kinda meh about it. The leeks were a disappointment to her, but overall the entree's were excellent.
Neither of us had any room for dessert, so the meal closed with more warm wet washclothes, and some chocolate covered strawberries with our bill. Overall the tab was $125 with tip, which wasn't that bad considering how great the meal was, and that it included one drink.
I definitely would recommend this restaurant to anyone interested in upscale dining.
The restaurant is on the 3rd floor of MGM, and as you wind through the maze of obnoxious slot machines, you enter the restaurant, which is like walking into a different dimension compared to the chaos of a casino.
Immediately after sitting down I could tell I was in for a different type of dining experience. First, the server brought warm wet washclothes to wipe our hands off with, while this in itself isn't new to me, it was a nice touch. Then the server offered me my choice of napkin color (black or brown). I'm not sure the significance of this, nor do I care (I selected black). Strangely red was not a choice, despite the overall red decor of the restaurant and the red in the title.
The menu was short, but most of the items sounded excellent. Victoria selected the Filet (cooked medium well), with some kind of potato and leeks (neither of us had any idea what it was, and she was in a gambling mood). Maybe she can chime in as to what exactly the leek was, and what kind of potato she got. I chose the surf and turf, which was a filet (cooked medium) with a lobster tail, along with a baked potato. We also split a caesar salad. We also started with an adult beverage. I got a spicy bloody mary, which was delicious. I wish I knew which mix they used for it. Victoria got a strawberry daiquiri.
The salad was excellent, though hardly worth $8, with just the right amount of dressing. We had two different types of bread, one with poppy seeds, one without. Both were good, but the one without was the best.
We were both very hungry, and everytime the door from the kitchen swung open we were teased by the false hope that our entrees were on the way. Finally, they arrived. Everything looked excellent, and the steak actually tasted far better than it looked. It was prepared perfectly. Quite honestly one of the best steaks I've had in a few years. The lobster was also quite succulent. After all of that I had very little need to eat my baked potato, which was merely good by comparison.
Victoria's steak was slightly undercooked in the middle (more for me!!!), but was also very good. Her's came with a sauce on the top that she really liked, but I was kinda meh about it. The leeks were a disappointment to her, but overall the entree's were excellent.
Neither of us had any room for dessert, so the meal closed with more warm wet washclothes, and some chocolate covered strawberries with our bill. Overall the tab was $125 with tip, which wasn't that bad considering how great the meal was, and that it included one drink.
I definitely would recommend this restaurant to anyone interested in upscale dining.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Sexual predators
Lately I've taken a real liking to watching "Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator". I've even went as far as to add Dateline to my DVR so I don't miss an episode of it, even though it's the same thing over and over.
On that same note, I heard something on the news about Ohio looking to identify sexual predators of children with flourescent green license plates. As much as I hate child molestors, this just doesn't make sense to me. I've heard arguments that if they drive to the park, you can see if they drove to the park by looking at their license plate...but what if they walked???? I live near a few parks/playgrounds that can easily be walked to.
I think a better solution would be a tattoo right on their forehead, so that wherever they go, people can see who/what they are. But then again, what if they are wearing a very wide headband, or a hat with the bill pulled way down???
I am making light of this in order to show just how ridiculous this idea is. It seems to fall under cruel and unusual punishment, as well as punishing someone twice for their crime (as most of the time they will serve some sort of jail sentence). Can you imagine the ridicule/danger a sex offender could be in if a group of people decided to be vigilantes????
There's also a big difference between different types of sexual predators. There is the middle aged man chasing 13 year old tail, and then there is the 15 year old guy who gets charged with statuatory rape for having sex with his 14 year old girlfriend. Do we treat all of these the same?
Besides, does the system really work as it is now? They have to report that they are convicted sex offenders, and you can see their names on the internet now. But does that stop people? I'm sure that there is a high number of repeat offenders.
If they really want to get tough on this, they need to change the punishment. Hit these monsters where it will hurt. Castrate them in a very painful way (like unleasing a hungry wolf on their genitals). I guarantee you that this would start to have an immediate effect.
On that same note, I heard something on the news about Ohio looking to identify sexual predators of children with flourescent green license plates. As much as I hate child molestors, this just doesn't make sense to me. I've heard arguments that if they drive to the park, you can see if they drove to the park by looking at their license plate...but what if they walked???? I live near a few parks/playgrounds that can easily be walked to.
I think a better solution would be a tattoo right on their forehead, so that wherever they go, people can see who/what they are. But then again, what if they are wearing a very wide headband, or a hat with the bill pulled way down???
I am making light of this in order to show just how ridiculous this idea is. It seems to fall under cruel and unusual punishment, as well as punishing someone twice for their crime (as most of the time they will serve some sort of jail sentence). Can you imagine the ridicule/danger a sex offender could be in if a group of people decided to be vigilantes????
There's also a big difference between different types of sexual predators. There is the middle aged man chasing 13 year old tail, and then there is the 15 year old guy who gets charged with statuatory rape for having sex with his 14 year old girlfriend. Do we treat all of these the same?
Besides, does the system really work as it is now? They have to report that they are convicted sex offenders, and you can see their names on the internet now. But does that stop people? I'm sure that there is a high number of repeat offenders.
If they really want to get tough on this, they need to change the punishment. Hit these monsters where it will hurt. Castrate them in a very painful way (like unleasing a hungry wolf on their genitals). I guarantee you that this would start to have an immediate effect.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
IKEA trip report
I finally made the trip to IKEA in Canton this Sunday, after avoiding it for the several months that it has been opened. Something about going there just didn't seem very fun in my mind, after reading about people camping out for several nights just to be the first people to get into the store when it opened. My thinking is that anything with that much hype is bound to be incredibly disappointing.
I generally make a point to try to avoid the Ford Rd and I-275 area altogether, as it is a mess of overbuilding and congestion, and can take 10-15 minutes just to get through it if the traffic is bad. But Victoria wanted to go to look for pictures for Abby's bedroom, so the 3 of us got in the car and made the drive. Since it was 11am on a Sunday, I figured the area wouldn't be too horrible, but wasn't sure what to expect for the store itself.
If anyone doesn't know what IKEA is, they basically have everything, from kitchen and
bedroom stuff to full fledged furniture. Most of the furniture is less expensive, but requires assembly (why anyone would want to spend 8+ hours assembling a couch/futon to save $100 is beyond me).
As we arrived, my annoyance level increased with the idiocy that is the parking lot. We did find a spot without much effort about 1/2 mile from the entrance, which was fine considering the 25 degree temperature with matching wind. Upon entering the store, there is an area where parents can drop off their kids while they shop. I opted to keep Abby with me. As you enter you are immediately whisked upstairs. We got upstairs and then went right back down into a mess of people into the kitchen area. There was actually a lot of worthwile items. I picked up a kitchen knife set for $2.99 (!!!) and 6 wine glasses for the first time I decide to have people over to drink win for like $5.
The rest of the trip is a blur. The store forces you to trek through all of the items to get to the checkout. There are stregically placed shortcuts, which are damn near inaccessible if you have a cart (I did). We also had to make a trip to the bathroom for Abby, which led us completely across the store, and then all the way back to the beginning for an item that we missed. When all was said and done, I was hungry, tired, sore and annoyed.
After checking out, I had spent about $20, on the above mentioned items, as well as some pictures and frames for Abby's room, 2 toilet brushes, and a silverware tray. Afterwards I commented that it was amazing how little I had spent on those items, but I also commented that I would have rather spent twice that then have to deal with that mess.
Basically I strongly recommend the store if you can get there when there is nobody there or in the area. Since that is very unlikely to happen, I recommend avoiding it unless you enjoy dealing with massive throngs of people walking around aimlessly or standing in the middle of aisles.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Golf Trip report (Long)
The trip started out with business in Monterey, CA. Quite a beautiful area to live I would imagine. Moderate weather...rarely getting into the 80's, and never really getting very cold either. Great views all around, with green mountains and nice valleys. They are right in the middle of wine country too, so there are plenty of nice options to drink. It's also a great place to eat seafood. It's not my cup of tea, but I tried calimari as an appetizer, and had some crab ravioli at dinner. Now on to the good stuff...
Wednesday:
I arrived in Vegas via Phoenix at about 11:00am. After getting my bags, Sonny picked me up and dropped me off at my hotel. After a shower and a few minutes of relaxation, I was ready to fire it up. I had about 10 hours to kill before my other buddies (Greg and Jim) were to make it in. Since I was on a full comp from the Rio I tried to give them a little bit of play. First I sat down at Pai Gow, and played for a little over an hour, making about $200. Since I didn't bring a very big bankroll with me this was a nice start. Then I headed off to the poker room to play some 2/5 NL, as I heard their room had some very poor players (I fit right in since my NL cash game is pretty average). After about 3 hours of play, I had pissed away about $250. Sonny and his friend Joe showed up, so we decided to grab some dinner before we played the $230 Mirage tourney at 7pm.
Dinner that night was at the All American Grill, I got a nice New York Strip and a baked potato. As usual, the meal was excellent there. Following dinner we headed to the Mirage. Sonny and Joe were both out in the first 30 minutes or so, and I soon followed. On a flop of KJ7 with 2 diamonds, I check-raised all-in from the SB with K7 for bottom two pair. The button was priced in and looked me up with Ad4d for the nut flush draw. The 9d on the turn gave him the flush and the river missed me so I was out as well. Since it was only 7:45, we had the whole night ahead of us, so we went to Bellagio to play a little bit more poker. Sonny stepped into the big no-limit game there (5/10 NL) and I went over to the 15/30 limit game (again, bankroll considerations). The play was terrible, but I could never get it going, and ended up down about 180 in the game.
By that point, Jim and Greg had landed and were at the Rio, on the way out Sonny and I shared some hands of Pai Gow. I was a 20% partner in this venture as he bought in for 2500. After a nice start, we lost 4 straight hands to bust us and suddenly I was down a good chunk of my bankroll.
Tally's for Wednesday:
Money: -$960ish
Drinks: 20+ beers
Thursday:
Despite a long night and little sleep, we were ready to start golfing and got to the course (Legacy Golf Club) over an hour early. The weather was great, it was in the low 60's with very little wind. Judging from the forecasts, this was going to be our best day to play.
On the putting green, I thought I found a correction for my poor putting from the last year. I felt as if I was pulling quite a few putts. I tried an exxagerated closed stance, and suddenly the ball was finding the cup. This excited me to get on the course and try it out. I wasn't disappointed with the results. I shot an 81, which was ballooned by 2 big scores I had. My putter was dead on, and I had 2 birdies on the round. We also played teams. Day 1 had me and Jim (Cobra Kai, we both have Cobra drivers) against Greg and Sonny (team Polo, both wearing the same polo shirt). In a spirited battle, we came out ahead. Sonny shot pretty well on Day 1, carding an 82, with a big score on 17. Greg and Jim struggled pretty evenly for the most part.
The course was nice, but the greens were unbelieveably slow, I hardly got a putt to the hole all round. The layout was nice however, and for the first round it was a good course selection, as the fairways were generous.
After the round, we had Jack in the Box, as usual it was stellar, and was the last food I had all night (it was only 4:30 or so). After watching our bets in the Sportsbook, we showered and got ready for the night. I took an awful loss on a sports bet at this point. I had Washington -5 over Sacramento, and had a 17 point lead with about 6 minutes left. They proceeded to blow it, and were up by 3 with 0.7 seconds left. After a full court inbound pass by Sacramento, John Salmon's caught it, stepped back and nailed a triple as time expired. This gave me a chance to win the game in OT, but upon instant replay, the shot was hit just a tic after the clock reached 0:00.0. -550 right there!!! I'm sure there was something we did in the early/late evening, but at this point it escapes me.
We ended up going to "Crazy Horse Too", which many will recognize as a popular adult establashment. We had a good time firing up the beer pretty hard, as well as making fun of some of the annoying bitches that were bothering us. Overall it was a very good time.
On the way home we tried to convince Sonny to take us to In-n-Out burger, but he declined.
Tally's for Thursday:
Money: -$600ish (sports bets)
Drinks: 20+ beers
Friday: The carnage the night before definitely took it's toll. I felt horrible, and it didn't help that our tee time at the Badlands was 9am, as when I booked it I planned on getting 27 holes in. The weather wasn't going to co-operate today, as the temperature was very low 50's, with winds gusting to near 40 mph's. The course is also very penal, if you miss the fairways, you are in desert waste area that is pure rock. You can hit out of it (and I did) but you will likely gouge the hell out of your clubs). The greens were extremely fast, especially if you were above the hole. This required a big adjustment from the day before's slow greens. Fortunately I never adjusted very well and was able to handle them. I ended up shooting an 84, which killed everyone in our group (there may have been a 99, and two scores over 110 in the rest of the group). Me and Greg (team name I don't recall) also pummelled Jim and Sonny in team play. Greg had an excuse for his round though, as he had to shit and nearly didn't make it to a bathroom, as the first one was on the 7th or 8th hole. The round was difficult to take, as the cold and wind made it pretty miserable.
We were in no condition to play 27, so after the round we packed up and headed over to Red Rock Station. Red Rock is an absolutely beatiful casino, with an awesome sports and racebook. We ate dinner at the the Salt River bbq, where we had all you can eat ribs, brisket and sausage. Food was very good, and after stuffing ourselves we headed to the sportsbook to unwind. I had the Knicks -3 against Milwaukee, and after trailing for most of the game, the Knicks grabbed a 3 pt lead with 35 seconds left. That was tied on a 3 ptr with 24 seconds left. The Knicks held for the last shot and Marbury missed at the buzzer, sending the game to OT and giving me a chance at a win in OT....but I looked back at the screen 2 minutes later and Channing Frye was at the free throw line. Apparently they called a late loose ball foul on the play (looked like good D to me) and I was screwed out of a chance at the win. A loose ball foul called on a last shot at or near the buzzer???? That never never never happens!!! I had a small bet on the Pistons that day that won, but again another loser.
Following that, Sonny and I headed over to the Orleans to play in their 60+40 rebuy tourney. I played like a total donk, and was out after 45 minutes or so. After that it was on to the 2/5 NL game. I bought in for 300 as it was a new table and that's what everyone else had. I had lost a bit from that and then had 250 left when this hand occurred. This hand was one of the turning points of my trip. An early position player raised to 15, I called from MP with 99, and one of the blinds also called. The flop came a beautiful A95, and both players checked to me, I led out for 30, and both the SB and EP called. The turn was another A, making the board AA95. Checked to me and I led out for 75. The SB called and then EP moved all-in for about 100 more. I then moved in for the rest of my stack and got a call from the SB. The SB had AJ, and EP had KK (?????). I had to dodge an A, K, J or 5 (9 outs) to win the pot, and I did. That tripled me up and put me up about 500 at the table. After Sonny busted out we headed over to the Rio to play some more 2/5 NL (Sonny refused to play at the Orleans).
At the Rio both Sonny and I bought in for 500. Since he generally plays higher, he played like a complete maniac. Basically 75% of the hands were raised PF to $25, and he managed to make all of the other players play far worse. I was able to capitalize on this and finished the night about a $500 winner (was up $800 or so until I caught a few cooler hands).
Tally for the night:
Money: +300 or so
Drinks: 20+ beers
Saturday:
If Friday was the turning point of the trip, Saturday morning confirmed it. Prior to leaving for golf, I placed 3 basketball bets, winning 2 of them in close fashion (I lost the third bet barely, but it was a smaller bet). Our tee time was for 11am at Aliante. I forgot there would be little traffic, and got us there at about 9:50am. Since we had time to kill and were hungry, we went to the clubhouse for some breakfest. Greg got there first and after inquiring about breakfest, was told they didn't have anything, so he ended up with a turkey sandwich. I then went in and asked a middle aged woman behind the counter, and she said no, I then said "Nothing like waffles." She replied, "Well if you have time, I can make some pancakes or waffles." As she said this, the look on Greg's face was priceless, as he was taking his second bite of his sandwich. The french toast I got was 4 of the best pieces I've ever had in my life, and coupled with bacon and OJ made for the best breakfest of the trip. Bad beat for Greg.
The course was beaufiful. It was in a remote area I had never been before, and there were snow capped mountains in the distance. The winds were relatively calm. The only downside is that the greens were unbelievably fast, and if above the hole damn near impossible to putt. They also had their pins tucked in some absurd "Sunday" pin locations. I shot 40 on the front, and was fairly convinced I would break 80 on the round. I caught the waste area on a few holes and eventually the wheels came off for an 86. Teams were me and Sonny against Greg and Jim, with me and Sonny giving them 16 strokes in best ball. I knew this would be an impossible spot, and Greg played fairly decent, while Sonny didn't, so they ended up winning fairly handily with the spot.
After golf, Jim and Greg wanted to see downtown. We saw signs for a Lobster/Steak special and went into Tony Roma's for dinner. Dinner was good...not great, and then we headed over to Binions to roll some craps. Nobody could quite get it going, and I dropped about 300 there. We decided to head back to the Rio and determine what we were going to do. After changing clothes, I went back downstairs to meet with Sonny. He was getting his ass kicked at blackjack, and all of this reminded me why I hate that game now.
Then we proceeded over to Pai Gow. It was there that fateful decision was made. Sonny wanted the anchor/corner seat, but I told him that I wanted it. I bought in for 1K, and started playing 100 per hand. The dealer made a full house on the first 3, and I was down a quick 300. Sonny was down a quick 2K probably at this point. Finally things started turning around. I went with a slow progression in bet size as I was on a winning streak, and went on about an hour long tear. My bet size went 100-200-300-500-600-800-1K-1200-1500-2K-2500-3K. I won all of the hands until the 3K, and was suddenly up a nice 7K or so. I sent Jim to cash out 5K and decided to start over, with my base bet at 200. Then my progression was something like 200-400-600-800-1K-1300-1600-2K-2500-3K. Again I won everything until the 3K hand. After that run I raised my bet size higher. I started at 500, then basically added 500 every hand that I won. That progression made it up to 4K (easily my biggest bet ever) before finally losing. When it was all said and done I won 23K or so at the table, dwarfing my biggest casino win.
In all of my life playing that game, I have never seen a run like that. My cards were for the most part great, while the house was pulling the biggest garbage hands I have EVER seen. The amazing thing is that I never could win when I had an awesome hand, like 3 pair. I had 3 pair in back to back hands for 2K, and pushed them both. Then I won the next hand with a pair of 5's.
After the run ended, it was 3:30am, and after cashing out and taking most of the $$$ back to the room, we grabbed a taxi to find an In-N-Out burger. They were closed, so we had to make due with Carl's Jr. After buying the cab driver a burger (she was really cool) and Jim and my food, and paying the fare, I spent $41 on that late night meal. Small price to pay for that kind of chow.
Tally for the night:
Money: +23000
Drinks: 15+
Sunday:
After the night of destruction at the Pai Gow table, it was very difficult to focus on golf. Part of the problem was that I had 22K in cash in my golf bag, so I never wanted to let it too far out of my sight. If for some reason the zipper slipped open, $100 bills would have been flying everywhere due to the extreme wind conditions present. Plus, the golf got a little tedious. Having the course as windy as it was makes the round very taxing. We also were watching Jim struggle with his game so much that he said he was quitting (it's not the first time I've heard this, but it was pretty convincing). So basically everyone was disinterested in the round, aside from Greg, who played his best of the trip. We were close to quitting at the turn to fire it up one more time, but Greg wanted to keep playing, so we obliged him. Jim did not play on the back 9, as he was a beaten man.
Following golf, we headed out for one last meal, as my flight wasn't until 10:55pm. We went to Pampas at the Aladdin, which is a Brazilian grill, all you can eat, in which they bring you several different types of meat on skewers throughout the course of your meal. The selections included spicy chicken, filet mignon, flank steak, turkey with bacon wrapped around it, sausage, ham and pineapple, lamb, and I'm sure there was a fish though it never made it to us. If you have ever eaten at the Samba Grill in the Mirage it's very similar. Meal was good and made sure to eat my $35 worth of it.
Given my big win, I sprang for all of us (Sonny brought his kind of girlfriend as well). Following dinner Greg and Jim left for the car, with a 5 hour drive to San Diego ahead of them. I hung out at the Aladdin, killing time before my flight, which was uneventful except for a 1 hour delay, though I only arrived 30 minutes late.
Those redeye flights are killers though, as after the flight I slept until 2pm. I'm still not back on a regular sleeping schedule, most likely due to me hardly sleeping at all in Vegas.
Summary:
All in all my most successful trip to Vegas (all due to a few short hours). This win cures a lot of ills, and pays some nice bills off. It also lets me add a nice chunk to Abby's college fund.
As far as golf, it's a great destination. I think I would rather do it in March next year though, as the February weather is a little dicey. I also don't know if I'd select the Badlands again, unless I had a group of golfers with handicaps below 10, as it can be downright frustrating for the common golfer.
Overall though, a great success!
Wednesday:
I arrived in Vegas via Phoenix at about 11:00am. After getting my bags, Sonny picked me up and dropped me off at my hotel. After a shower and a few minutes of relaxation, I was ready to fire it up. I had about 10 hours to kill before my other buddies (Greg and Jim) were to make it in. Since I was on a full comp from the Rio I tried to give them a little bit of play. First I sat down at Pai Gow, and played for a little over an hour, making about $200. Since I didn't bring a very big bankroll with me this was a nice start. Then I headed off to the poker room to play some 2/5 NL, as I heard their room had some very poor players (I fit right in since my NL cash game is pretty average). After about 3 hours of play, I had pissed away about $250. Sonny and his friend Joe showed up, so we decided to grab some dinner before we played the $230 Mirage tourney at 7pm.
Dinner that night was at the All American Grill, I got a nice New York Strip and a baked potato. As usual, the meal was excellent there. Following dinner we headed to the Mirage. Sonny and Joe were both out in the first 30 minutes or so, and I soon followed. On a flop of KJ7 with 2 diamonds, I check-raised all-in from the SB with K7 for bottom two pair. The button was priced in and looked me up with Ad4d for the nut flush draw. The 9d on the turn gave him the flush and the river missed me so I was out as well. Since it was only 7:45, we had the whole night ahead of us, so we went to Bellagio to play a little bit more poker. Sonny stepped into the big no-limit game there (5/10 NL) and I went over to the 15/30 limit game (again, bankroll considerations). The play was terrible, but I could never get it going, and ended up down about 180 in the game.
By that point, Jim and Greg had landed and were at the Rio, on the way out Sonny and I shared some hands of Pai Gow. I was a 20% partner in this venture as he bought in for 2500. After a nice start, we lost 4 straight hands to bust us and suddenly I was down a good chunk of my bankroll.
Tally's for Wednesday:
Money: -$960ish
Drinks: 20+ beers
Thursday:
Despite a long night and little sleep, we were ready to start golfing and got to the course (Legacy Golf Club) over an hour early. The weather was great, it was in the low 60's with very little wind. Judging from the forecasts, this was going to be our best day to play.
On the putting green, I thought I found a correction for my poor putting from the last year. I felt as if I was pulling quite a few putts. I tried an exxagerated closed stance, and suddenly the ball was finding the cup. This excited me to get on the course and try it out. I wasn't disappointed with the results. I shot an 81, which was ballooned by 2 big scores I had. My putter was dead on, and I had 2 birdies on the round. We also played teams. Day 1 had me and Jim (Cobra Kai, we both have Cobra drivers) against Greg and Sonny (team Polo, both wearing the same polo shirt). In a spirited battle, we came out ahead. Sonny shot pretty well on Day 1, carding an 82, with a big score on 17. Greg and Jim struggled pretty evenly for the most part.
The course was nice, but the greens were unbelieveably slow, I hardly got a putt to the hole all round. The layout was nice however, and for the first round it was a good course selection, as the fairways were generous.
After the round, we had Jack in the Box, as usual it was stellar, and was the last food I had all night (it was only 4:30 or so). After watching our bets in the Sportsbook, we showered and got ready for the night. I took an awful loss on a sports bet at this point. I had Washington -5 over Sacramento, and had a 17 point lead with about 6 minutes left. They proceeded to blow it, and were up by 3 with 0.7 seconds left. After a full court inbound pass by Sacramento, John Salmon's caught it, stepped back and nailed a triple as time expired. This gave me a chance to win the game in OT, but upon instant replay, the shot was hit just a tic after the clock reached 0:00.0. -550 right there!!! I'm sure there was something we did in the early/late evening, but at this point it escapes me.
We ended up going to "Crazy Horse Too", which many will recognize as a popular adult establashment. We had a good time firing up the beer pretty hard, as well as making fun of some of the annoying bitches that were bothering us. Overall it was a very good time.
On the way home we tried to convince Sonny to take us to In-n-Out burger, but he declined.
Tally's for Thursday:
Money: -$600ish (sports bets)
Drinks: 20+ beers
Friday: The carnage the night before definitely took it's toll. I felt horrible, and it didn't help that our tee time at the Badlands was 9am, as when I booked it I planned on getting 27 holes in. The weather wasn't going to co-operate today, as the temperature was very low 50's, with winds gusting to near 40 mph's. The course is also very penal, if you miss the fairways, you are in desert waste area that is pure rock. You can hit out of it (and I did) but you will likely gouge the hell out of your clubs). The greens were extremely fast, especially if you were above the hole. This required a big adjustment from the day before's slow greens. Fortunately I never adjusted very well and was able to handle them. I ended up shooting an 84, which killed everyone in our group (there may have been a 99, and two scores over 110 in the rest of the group). Me and Greg (team name I don't recall) also pummelled Jim and Sonny in team play. Greg had an excuse for his round though, as he had to shit and nearly didn't make it to a bathroom, as the first one was on the 7th or 8th hole. The round was difficult to take, as the cold and wind made it pretty miserable.
We were in no condition to play 27, so after the round we packed up and headed over to Red Rock Station. Red Rock is an absolutely beatiful casino, with an awesome sports and racebook. We ate dinner at the the Salt River bbq, where we had all you can eat ribs, brisket and sausage. Food was very good, and after stuffing ourselves we headed to the sportsbook to unwind. I had the Knicks -3 against Milwaukee, and after trailing for most of the game, the Knicks grabbed a 3 pt lead with 35 seconds left. That was tied on a 3 ptr with 24 seconds left. The Knicks held for the last shot and Marbury missed at the buzzer, sending the game to OT and giving me a chance at a win in OT....but I looked back at the screen 2 minutes later and Channing Frye was at the free throw line. Apparently they called a late loose ball foul on the play (looked like good D to me) and I was screwed out of a chance at the win. A loose ball foul called on a last shot at or near the buzzer???? That never never never happens!!! I had a small bet on the Pistons that day that won, but again another loser.
Following that, Sonny and I headed over to the Orleans to play in their 60+40 rebuy tourney. I played like a total donk, and was out after 45 minutes or so. After that it was on to the 2/5 NL game. I bought in for 300 as it was a new table and that's what everyone else had. I had lost a bit from that and then had 250 left when this hand occurred. This hand was one of the turning points of my trip. An early position player raised to 15, I called from MP with 99, and one of the blinds also called. The flop came a beautiful A95, and both players checked to me, I led out for 30, and both the SB and EP called. The turn was another A, making the board AA95. Checked to me and I led out for 75. The SB called and then EP moved all-in for about 100 more. I then moved in for the rest of my stack and got a call from the SB. The SB had AJ, and EP had KK (?????). I had to dodge an A, K, J or 5 (9 outs) to win the pot, and I did. That tripled me up and put me up about 500 at the table. After Sonny busted out we headed over to the Rio to play some more 2/5 NL (Sonny refused to play at the Orleans).
At the Rio both Sonny and I bought in for 500. Since he generally plays higher, he played like a complete maniac. Basically 75% of the hands were raised PF to $25, and he managed to make all of the other players play far worse. I was able to capitalize on this and finished the night about a $500 winner (was up $800 or so until I caught a few cooler hands).
Tally for the night:
Money: +300 or so
Drinks: 20+ beers
Saturday:
If Friday was the turning point of the trip, Saturday morning confirmed it. Prior to leaving for golf, I placed 3 basketball bets, winning 2 of them in close fashion (I lost the third bet barely, but it was a smaller bet). Our tee time was for 11am at Aliante. I forgot there would be little traffic, and got us there at about 9:50am. Since we had time to kill and were hungry, we went to the clubhouse for some breakfest. Greg got there first and after inquiring about breakfest, was told they didn't have anything, so he ended up with a turkey sandwich. I then went in and asked a middle aged woman behind the counter, and she said no, I then said "Nothing like waffles." She replied, "Well if you have time, I can make some pancakes or waffles." As she said this, the look on Greg's face was priceless, as he was taking his second bite of his sandwich. The french toast I got was 4 of the best pieces I've ever had in my life, and coupled with bacon and OJ made for the best breakfest of the trip. Bad beat for Greg.
The course was beaufiful. It was in a remote area I had never been before, and there were snow capped mountains in the distance. The winds were relatively calm. The only downside is that the greens were unbelievably fast, and if above the hole damn near impossible to putt. They also had their pins tucked in some absurd "Sunday" pin locations. I shot 40 on the front, and was fairly convinced I would break 80 on the round. I caught the waste area on a few holes and eventually the wheels came off for an 86. Teams were me and Sonny against Greg and Jim, with me and Sonny giving them 16 strokes in best ball. I knew this would be an impossible spot, and Greg played fairly decent, while Sonny didn't, so they ended up winning fairly handily with the spot.
After golf, Jim and Greg wanted to see downtown. We saw signs for a Lobster/Steak special and went into Tony Roma's for dinner. Dinner was good...not great, and then we headed over to Binions to roll some craps. Nobody could quite get it going, and I dropped about 300 there. We decided to head back to the Rio and determine what we were going to do. After changing clothes, I went back downstairs to meet with Sonny. He was getting his ass kicked at blackjack, and all of this reminded me why I hate that game now.
Then we proceeded over to Pai Gow. It was there that fateful decision was made. Sonny wanted the anchor/corner seat, but I told him that I wanted it. I bought in for 1K, and started playing 100 per hand. The dealer made a full house on the first 3, and I was down a quick 300. Sonny was down a quick 2K probably at this point. Finally things started turning around. I went with a slow progression in bet size as I was on a winning streak, and went on about an hour long tear. My bet size went 100-200-300-500-600-800-1K-1200-1500-2K-2500-3K. I won all of the hands until the 3K, and was suddenly up a nice 7K or so. I sent Jim to cash out 5K and decided to start over, with my base bet at 200. Then my progression was something like 200-400-600-800-1K-1300-1600-2K-2500-3K. Again I won everything until the 3K hand. After that run I raised my bet size higher. I started at 500, then basically added 500 every hand that I won. That progression made it up to 4K (easily my biggest bet ever) before finally losing. When it was all said and done I won 23K or so at the table, dwarfing my biggest casino win.
In all of my life playing that game, I have never seen a run like that. My cards were for the most part great, while the house was pulling the biggest garbage hands I have EVER seen. The amazing thing is that I never could win when I had an awesome hand, like 3 pair. I had 3 pair in back to back hands for 2K, and pushed them both. Then I won the next hand with a pair of 5's.
After the run ended, it was 3:30am, and after cashing out and taking most of the $$$ back to the room, we grabbed a taxi to find an In-N-Out burger. They were closed, so we had to make due with Carl's Jr. After buying the cab driver a burger (she was really cool) and Jim and my food, and paying the fare, I spent $41 on that late night meal. Small price to pay for that kind of chow.
Tally for the night:
Money: +23000
Drinks: 15+
Sunday:
After the night of destruction at the Pai Gow table, it was very difficult to focus on golf. Part of the problem was that I had 22K in cash in my golf bag, so I never wanted to let it too far out of my sight. If for some reason the zipper slipped open, $100 bills would have been flying everywhere due to the extreme wind conditions present. Plus, the golf got a little tedious. Having the course as windy as it was makes the round very taxing. We also were watching Jim struggle with his game so much that he said he was quitting (it's not the first time I've heard this, but it was pretty convincing). So basically everyone was disinterested in the round, aside from Greg, who played his best of the trip. We were close to quitting at the turn to fire it up one more time, but Greg wanted to keep playing, so we obliged him. Jim did not play on the back 9, as he was a beaten man.
Following golf, we headed out for one last meal, as my flight wasn't until 10:55pm. We went to Pampas at the Aladdin, which is a Brazilian grill, all you can eat, in which they bring you several different types of meat on skewers throughout the course of your meal. The selections included spicy chicken, filet mignon, flank steak, turkey with bacon wrapped around it, sausage, ham and pineapple, lamb, and I'm sure there was a fish though it never made it to us. If you have ever eaten at the Samba Grill in the Mirage it's very similar. Meal was good and made sure to eat my $35 worth of it.
Given my big win, I sprang for all of us (Sonny brought his kind of girlfriend as well). Following dinner Greg and Jim left for the car, with a 5 hour drive to San Diego ahead of them. I hung out at the Aladdin, killing time before my flight, which was uneventful except for a 1 hour delay, though I only arrived 30 minutes late.
Those redeye flights are killers though, as after the flight I slept until 2pm. I'm still not back on a regular sleeping schedule, most likely due to me hardly sleeping at all in Vegas.
Summary:
All in all my most successful trip to Vegas (all due to a few short hours). This win cures a lot of ills, and pays some nice bills off. It also lets me add a nice chunk to Abby's college fund.
As far as golf, it's a great destination. I think I would rather do it in March next year though, as the February weather is a little dicey. I also don't know if I'd select the Badlands again, unless I had a group of golfers with handicaps below 10, as it can be downright frustrating for the common golfer.
Overall though, a great success!
Friday, February 02, 2007
An (un)Civil War
So the US government is finally admitting that there may be a civil war in Iraq. Interestingly, I figured this out over 11 months ago.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Random Thoughts
Blogging -
Life has been hectic, so I haven't really been able to blog much. Even so, it's been normal life things, and not necessarily blog-worthy. This will attempt to be a catch-all on all of the other things going on right now.
Christmas -
I spent the entire holiday sick with pneumonia/bronchitis. Fortunately my girlfriend was there to take care of me most of the time. Even so, it was miserable. It was a fun time with Abby though, as this being her third Christmas, she was really into the Santa thing.
Birthday's -
With Abby's birthday only 3 days before mine, I become much more excited for her birthday and much less excited for my own. It was also the first time since I was 18 that I don't recall going to a bar to celebrate with all of my friends, as I have a ton of friends with birthday's right around my own. The joys of getting older I guess.
Other Abby -
Me and her mom signed her up for her first extra-curricular activity, pre-school ballet. She was so excited to go, with her ballet slippers and leotard and tights. The only ones more excited then her were me and her mom, to be able to watch her. Unfortunately they made parents leave the room. I can understand the logic of not having parents around 10-15 children under 5 years old, but I was incredibly disappointed. She has since demonstrated her ballet to me. But she seems to love it, and her second class is this week.
Otherwise, she keeps getting funnier with age. Some of the things she says or does literally amazes me. I just got her a computer game, and she is getting very adept at handling the mouse. She may be a budding online poker star in the making!!!
Fantasy Football -
In the league that me and Paul were winning, we got beat by 6 pts in the last few minutes of the last game, a very painful way to lose. We got 2K back for 2nd, but a big drop off from the 6K....meaning that I came very close to breaking even on fantasy this season.
Both Paul and I are toying with ditching the WCOFF and joining the NFFC this year. There are a few issues we are concerned with...reducing the juice we pay, and the WCOFF's overall handling of rules interpretations and customer service have left a lot to be desired.
Poker -
I was starting to really allow all of the beats that occur in SNG play to affect me, and it was likely affecting my play in a negative manner as well. I was having way too many bubble type finishes.
Since then, I have been playing limit cash games exclusively, primarily the 5/10 and 10/20 on Pokerstars. There are essentially 3 types of players in that game. The loose passive ones that you just have to value bet to death. They are unbluffable, but generally a consistent cash machine. There are the maniacal aggressive ones, that you sometimes find yourself calling down with Queen high. They are highly profitable, but their style of play results in huge positive/negative swings. The third one is the tough aggressive player, of which I like to think I am a part of.
I played in a home game with some buddies the other day. My friend Dan said that I taught my girlfriend well...maybe too well, as she beat me in game 1 heads-up. I got redemption by winning the 2nd game, with her finishing 3rd. She has a very good game, and is at the next and most difficult part of becoming a tough winning player, and that's finding the balance between playing too tight or too loose. At this point she plays too tight, which is good enough to win against bad or average players. But better players will be able to exploit this. I think she'll be able to do it though, as she hasn't been playing the game all that long.
Legislation -
What a topic, this could take pages and pages. I'll just make it very short and sweet. The government is a bunch of hypocritical assholes, who try to tell us that I can't gamble online, but I am free to go gamble my life savings away on Horse Racing, state lottery or state casinos. If they would be honest about why they are doing this it would be much more tolerable (and even understandable). But to do it under the guise of saving us is disgusting.
The funny thing is that all of this work they have done, as far as blocking financing, may cost most of the people with money online, as some of these operations may hit and run and steal customers money, that pre-legislation would have been safe as hell.
Television -
I've been in a television lull lately, as a few shows have been on hiatus. Currently I only watch "The Office", "Lost", "Survivor", "CSI - Las Vegas" and "Desperate Housewives" (for the girlfriend!!!). In the meantime, I have been watching Season 1 of Lost. I wish I had watched this show earlier, as the beginning episodes are great. I'm not sure how I feel about the direction the plot has taken in Season 3. Some of it is good (The Others) and some of it is bad (the supernatural black cloud). I am starting to believe that they are trying too hard.
Survivor is starting again in February. I kinda wish I could stop watching this show, but I keep coming back over and over again.
I have a list of shows I'd like to watch at some point. I'd like to see Season 1 of "The Office", Season 2 of "Lost", and then watch all of the seasons of "24". That should cover me for the next year or so.
Golf Trip -
My golf trip is a little more than 3 weeks away. We (Greg and Jim as Dan bailed this year to have another baby) are going to Las Vegas this time. Me and Greg have gone every year, the trips have been to Pinehurst, Pinehurst, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Phoenix, Orlando, and now Vegas. I especially love playing out west. There is something serene about being at the base of a mountain, overlooking most of the city. Amazingly it wasn't my idea to go there, though I suggested it. Greg and Jim are going on a "romantic" getaway to San Diego after I leave, so that was one of the highlights of this destination. We will not be at a shortage for things to do, or poker to play either.
Sonny will be our 4th on most days (you can see him at the link on the right, knocking out TJ Cloutier from the WSOP). That was another selling point of going out there.
I should probably go to the range once or twice, to make sure my game is in shape for the desert golf.
Life has been hectic, so I haven't really been able to blog much. Even so, it's been normal life things, and not necessarily blog-worthy. This will attempt to be a catch-all on all of the other things going on right now.
Christmas -
I spent the entire holiday sick with pneumonia/bronchitis. Fortunately my girlfriend was there to take care of me most of the time. Even so, it was miserable. It was a fun time with Abby though, as this being her third Christmas, she was really into the Santa thing.
Birthday's -
With Abby's birthday only 3 days before mine, I become much more excited for her birthday and much less excited for my own. It was also the first time since I was 18 that I don't recall going to a bar to celebrate with all of my friends, as I have a ton of friends with birthday's right around my own. The joys of getting older I guess.
Other Abby -
Me and her mom signed her up for her first extra-curricular activity, pre-school ballet. She was so excited to go, with her ballet slippers and leotard and tights. The only ones more excited then her were me and her mom, to be able to watch her. Unfortunately they made parents leave the room. I can understand the logic of not having parents around 10-15 children under 5 years old, but I was incredibly disappointed. She has since demonstrated her ballet to me. But she seems to love it, and her second class is this week.
Otherwise, she keeps getting funnier with age. Some of the things she says or does literally amazes me. I just got her a computer game, and she is getting very adept at handling the mouse. She may be a budding online poker star in the making!!!
Fantasy Football -
In the league that me and Paul were winning, we got beat by 6 pts in the last few minutes of the last game, a very painful way to lose. We got 2K back for 2nd, but a big drop off from the 6K....meaning that I came very close to breaking even on fantasy this season.
Both Paul and I are toying with ditching the WCOFF and joining the NFFC this year. There are a few issues we are concerned with...reducing the juice we pay, and the WCOFF's overall handling of rules interpretations and customer service have left a lot to be desired.
Poker -
I was starting to really allow all of the beats that occur in SNG play to affect me, and it was likely affecting my play in a negative manner as well. I was having way too many bubble type finishes.
Since then, I have been playing limit cash games exclusively, primarily the 5/10 and 10/20 on Pokerstars. There are essentially 3 types of players in that game. The loose passive ones that you just have to value bet to death. They are unbluffable, but generally a consistent cash machine. There are the maniacal aggressive ones, that you sometimes find yourself calling down with Queen high. They are highly profitable, but their style of play results in huge positive/negative swings. The third one is the tough aggressive player, of which I like to think I am a part of.
I played in a home game with some buddies the other day. My friend Dan said that I taught my girlfriend well...maybe too well, as she beat me in game 1 heads-up. I got redemption by winning the 2nd game, with her finishing 3rd. She has a very good game, and is at the next and most difficult part of becoming a tough winning player, and that's finding the balance between playing too tight or too loose. At this point she plays too tight, which is good enough to win against bad or average players. But better players will be able to exploit this. I think she'll be able to do it though, as she hasn't been playing the game all that long.
Legislation -
What a topic, this could take pages and pages. I'll just make it very short and sweet. The government is a bunch of hypocritical assholes, who try to tell us that I can't gamble online, but I am free to go gamble my life savings away on Horse Racing, state lottery or state casinos. If they would be honest about why they are doing this it would be much more tolerable (and even understandable). But to do it under the guise of saving us is disgusting.
The funny thing is that all of this work they have done, as far as blocking financing, may cost most of the people with money online, as some of these operations may hit and run and steal customers money, that pre-legislation would have been safe as hell.
Television -
I've been in a television lull lately, as a few shows have been on hiatus. Currently I only watch "The Office", "Lost", "Survivor", "CSI - Las Vegas" and "Desperate Housewives" (for the girlfriend!!!). In the meantime, I have been watching Season 1 of Lost. I wish I had watched this show earlier, as the beginning episodes are great. I'm not sure how I feel about the direction the plot has taken in Season 3. Some of it is good (The Others) and some of it is bad (the supernatural black cloud). I am starting to believe that they are trying too hard.
Survivor is starting again in February. I kinda wish I could stop watching this show, but I keep coming back over and over again.
I have a list of shows I'd like to watch at some point. I'd like to see Season 1 of "The Office", Season 2 of "Lost", and then watch all of the seasons of "24". That should cover me for the next year or so.
Golf Trip -
My golf trip is a little more than 3 weeks away. We (Greg and Jim as Dan bailed this year to have another baby) are going to Las Vegas this time. Me and Greg have gone every year, the trips have been to Pinehurst, Pinehurst, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Phoenix, Orlando, and now Vegas. I especially love playing out west. There is something serene about being at the base of a mountain, overlooking most of the city. Amazingly it wasn't my idea to go there, though I suggested it. Greg and Jim are going on a "romantic" getaway to San Diego after I leave, so that was one of the highlights of this destination. We will not be at a shortage for things to do, or poker to play either.
Sonny will be our 4th on most days (you can see him at the link on the right, knocking out TJ Cloutier from the WSOP). That was another selling point of going out there.
I should probably go to the range once or twice, to make sure my game is in shape for the desert golf.
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