NFL football, and Old Friends

What a day! A lot to do and just looking through my block and quality to see what we can sell and what we need to go ahead and scrap. So I jump over and look over yahoo news and see an article that motivated me to write this post...it has me a little irate, nah, really pissed off! The Saints crushed the Falcons last night. I mean they put a slacking on these guys, Micheal turner had 11 carries for 39 yards! SHUTDOWN! The Falcons had to throw the ball and M. Ryan was 65% for 373 yds and one touchdown! The Saints took over in the second quarter, scoring 14 points, and never looked back. The biggest story of the game is that New Orleans beloved Drew Brees set the NFL record for yards passing in a season, a mark that Dan Marino(HAIL TO PITT!) held for 27 years! Marino broke the record on Monday Night Football in 1984 flash forward to 2011 and Brees does so on Monday Night Football!

(A picture of the place where Marino played in his college days.)

OUTSTANDING! The thing is I am not a Saints fan, I love the Dallas Cowboys! Here is the thing that pissed me off! The writer basically accused the Saints of running up the score! Wow! It is my opinion that this writer got what he wanted, people to get pissed off at him and write about him and talk about this subject because if he was serious then I believe he's a moron! This isn't pop warner, middle school, highschool or Alabama playing Harvard! It was two NFL teams playing, professional football players who are paid a pretty penny to get the job done, quite frankly the Falcons DID NOT get the job done! All who play this game and have played this game should agree, I guess someone may not agree with this but they are playing at the highest level and if you cannot stop them that is on the opposing team's players and coaches...it is not on the other team to go, "Geez, they're having a bad day, try not to score." Those types of thoughts take place when you are playing El Paso High in 1990 and you are the Andress Golden Eagles and are up 42 to nothing in the first half and that is when your coach says guys, second and third team are playing the second half. NOT IN THE NFL do you do those things. I don't recall hearing this nonsense when the Saints smacked the Colts around! A fellow Gulf Coast blogger wrote that he hopes New Orleans appreciates what they have in Drew Brees. I love this blogger but believe me Drew is a freaking god around here. If he ran for mayor he would win in a landslide! I mean I have grown ass men who tell me stories of when they met Drew Brees and how down to earth he is and how freaked out they were that he actually stopped what he was doing to say a few words to them. Again, as a none fan of the Saints, I and 99% of New Orleans LOVE AND APPRECIATE Drew Brees! As a matter of fact I believe they need to pay Drew more than Peyton, as a base and then add the incentives, he should be the highest paid QB in the NFL! Also, yes, I believe, he needed to break that record on MNF and in front of all of America. Also, he will have to play next week for a few reasons 1-Brady just needs 190 yds to break the same record 2-He is still on track to getting another record that of consecutive tds in all games played 3-Brees needs to insure the victory just in case San Fran loses to shore up the number two seed. Poor taste to that sports writer for yahoo, trying to smear a class act like Drew Brees!
Okay, my final NFL item is the Cowboys are playing the Giants for all the marbles, a spot into the playoffs! My boys struggle too much with all the quality and talent that they have, until the last few weeks I believed Jason Garret was an outstanding coach but there have been some funkly flubs by him with the timeout and sitting Romo! WHAT! Also, is Jerry Jones a help or hinderance to the Boys? I mean they have not gotten back to where they were when they had Jimmy Johnson running the boys and we know why he left, TOO MUCH JERRY IN HIS KOOLAID! I am routing for my boys, but we know if they make it, who are they going to beat? UGH!

In my last post I talked about catching up with some old friends...I got in touch with them last night! Oh yeah, it was good to hear from them and it helped close that down and now they'll be a constant in my life. LIFE IS GOOD!

Finally, when it comes to taking care of business on the felt. I was reading Monkey's blog about Harrahs and their dealers and floor staff. Very funny! I do know part of that is because Harrah's is all that we have in the New Orleans area to get a good variety of poker.

(One of the best dealers I know in the business)

Boomtown is more lower stakes and I think the big game moved there for a while because of what Monkey talked about. My experiences have been more positive than negative but I wonder how it will be when I go to play here in the near future. I have not been there since May, and that was for the smaller tournaments they had there. Nothing to report, made it to the dinner break. Just cannot get myself to play without cards in those crucial levels where it is important to accumulate chips, my transition game...SUCKS!

Okay, you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Pondering...

Lots of stuff just running through my head and I just had to put it down here, for the record. I am in a great position with the company I am with, we just went through a huge audit on paperwork, safety and security and our inventory. I did well on the first three parts and the last, inventory, was horrible. Not to worry, I have been in this position for four months working on my fifth now, so we discovered that there were a lot of things not being done correctly and it's my job to get that fixed. I do not want to bore you with the details but let me throw a few in here. I control, the building, am responsible for all inside that work in it, responsible for the inventory and all shipping and receiving goes through me and my personnel. I work alongside another manager who is responsible for the store attached to my building...long story short on this piece, we are working well together. Getting back on topic I have to make sure the warehouse is professionally set up to retrieve product and it needs to look very good and be easy for a new employee to walk in and go to a location and pick what we need from it. I have a temporary solution set up and have plans to get a more permanent solution down, basically straighter lines using paint instead of warehouse floor tape. -Side note-A fellow Andress High Alumni invited me to join linkedin which was pretty cool, after I had pictures up on my facebook about my "5 S project".

Back on subject, so I need to set up processes around picking correctly, receiving correctly, sanitation schedules and making sure all paper work is signed and DATED correctly. We also go through SOX audits, some facilities are targeted monthly through a random selection process, all publicly traded companies must abide by Sarbanes Oxley-a law passed due to the Enron Crisis. So if my paperwork does not have a signature and DATE, or if missing one or the other, we fail. We just went through a SOX audit a few days ago, we failed the SOX audit, because four pieces of paper work had NO DATE! Laugh out Loud hilarious! Another item that I am going to have to control. Basically, the business ran well but inefficiently and not as cost effective as they could have, process was not followed on a consistent basis, it was almost like the wild west around here.

Another thing I have been pondering is friends, I have a few GREAT friends and then I have friends that I talk to rarely but were GREAT before and I have those friends that I get together with maybe once or twice a year. I have been really thinking about my former GREAT friends, the guys who honored me by asking to be in their wedding parties, both were white and they had the one big black guy in all their group wedding pictures...meant a lot to me then and well...I miss those guys! I don't know, I mean look at your friends, mine tend to be very similar, smarter then me, a bit more successful then myself and believe in a being higher then ourselves usually God or Jesus Christ. I think that if we associate ourselves with people in a better place we thrive to be better ourselves not because we envy what they have, just because...I wish I could elaborate but if you know what I am talking about, maybe you can explain it for me. Currently I have AT@T who is an engineer that works month off and a month on in Angola. He's also a great poker player. Another GREAT friend, WBP, has his own website and has leveraged different outlets in order to write for them and get paid. I studied English at the University of Pittsburgh and when I read his stuff I just wish I could write as well. He is also a great poker player. Just a couple of examples of my buddies whom I am proud of. I am abusing the English language by the way.

So I have been trying to get in touch with a couple of GREAT friends that live in Pittsburgh and I have not been successful, they are both engineers and OUTSTANDING people, who I learned a hell of a lot from.

The last thing I have been pondering is poker...the reason I started this blog. I have looked at the success of Wild Bill and "No Blood from a Rock" Gene, recently, and I want that...see they are pushing me to be successful!

Finally, I was watching a little WSOP Europe, geez those guys three bet with A10 off! So freaking aggressive! Believe me I thought I was aggressive. Ah, maybe he knew how the guy played and wanted to really see where he was and when the original raiser called the three bet he settled into a range for the guy, because after the board paired twice he must have thought the guy was on a pair higher then the two different pair the board was showing as he gave up his hand after the guy check called to the river where the board paired again and lead out with a bet 3/4 the pot. A10 let it go, the winner had deuces and took the pot without a showdown. Aggressive. I wanna play!

Alrighty, until next time...Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

New House, Fences and Trick or Treating...

I have been very busy with our new home. Especially with it being brand new, had to hang blinds, had to frost some of the windows, had to set up the washer and dryer, instead of having the new furniture delivered (to save money) I picked it up and put it together. Just a few of the things we had to do as a homeowner, not to mention all of the items we had to purchase. For example, a lawnmover, I have a decently sized yard and three hoses, and three yard watering devices, weed eater, shovel, brooms and the list goes on. It is awesome being a home owner and scary, can't just call the land lord and say come get this fixed. It's on me! Through all of this, poker has always been on my mind. I am always reading people as I ask them questions, through the house hunt and working with our agent in the subdivision I asked a question he could not answer ,"how are race relations in this subdivision?"and I read him and was very comfortable with my read and it looks to be a good one...so far!
So this past Saturday we had trick or treating in the neighborhood. One of the families took it upon themselves to make flyers and pass them out indicating that we are going to do so in our subdivision. We have about 40-50 homes in our subdivision with more being made daily. Our HOA does not start until 2015, so I called the subdivison agent and asked if they sent that flyer, no they had not. Now, I guess that was a good idea, with Halloween being on a Monday, but I did not like something being done without my input, some of my neighbors felt the same way but for the kids sake we went with it. My kids started by giving out candy, then saw how heavy the kids bags were before getting to us so they asked to go themselves, my seven year old went on her own, that is another thing I love about my neighborhood. My ten year old went by himself as well. I walked my three year old around and she ran up to the houses with me sitting in the street, she had a ball! I look forward to being a part of the HOA, setting up block parties, rules and regulating the ones in place. I mean people have white mail boxes, only black allowed. Putting up a fence should have the good side out, some have put the bad side out and they did a crappy job of that! This leads me into my final point...
I started to put up our fence this weekend, well we started yesterday the 30th of October. New home, fences do not come with them unless you buy them but we did not know about the option but no worries my wife wants one, I will deliver!
Well, I got a helpful hand from our kids grandfather. We got the auger, 10-10 foot 4x4 and 30-8foot 4x4. We didn't get everything as we wanted to get the pieces as we went along. We started at 10am after eating a quick breakfeast, we drilled the four holes, lined out the fence line, and thank GOD for Mr. Rudy as he was instrumental in setting everything up. I learned a lot and am in awe, he is 57 and moves around like a 25 year old. Full of energy and gracious enough to take a couple of breaks for my sake. After we had the fence line marked we spaced it out for the 4x4's and started drilling, this was the hardest part of the job, we had to go down 3 feet for the 8 foot 4x4's and had to use the extender to get down two more feet for the 10 foot 4x4s. It wasn't easy peasy either as we had to sit on the auger at times to get it to dig down or we would hit a couple of roots where Mr. Rudy got down and had to move the auger's blade manually in order for us to pull it out. We got the poles into the ground but did not level them out yesterday as we finished up at about 5:30 pm. Today, I am beat! We have a trunk a treat tonight that we are going to in Ponchatoula at the park. I love Ponchatoula, if you don't mind the drive into the city and are looking for a good place to live...look into Ponchatoula, LA!
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Holiday weekend

As we move into the holiday weekend, Labor Day comes on the 5th of September, I tried to track back to see when I had that day off before starting my new career here at Lennox Industries. I had to go back FIVE years, when I was with Iron Mountain. I have been asked, don't you miss Frito...my answer is a very clear..."NO."

This would be an excellent opportunity to get away for the weekend and get some quality play at the tables. Maybe play a weekly tournament or two! The action seems to have grown, Harrahs has a Wednesday and Saturday tournament. The Beau and the IP have weekly tournaments. I understand Shorty's has a weekly tournament as well. This is my brief knowledge of some of the surrounding casinos. I hope to get back out there and travel to many of the poker rooms to check them out. My first excursion may be into Baton Rouge where I believe they have two poker rooms now, please correct me if I am wrong.

We are getting ready for a tropical storm and that is going to be fun.

I'll close with this, to anyone living in the Ponchatoula/Hammond area...where is the live action? Also, looking for participants in a dead money satelite. If you do not want to comment here e-mail me at bellyred@yahoo.com.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Understanding

I have been hearing a lot of alleged scams that have involved some of our seasoned pros! To my understanding, it all centers around...MONEY!


I understand that this world we live in is driven by the demand for more...but why compromise your morals for it?


I understand why we do, when we want more when we have less...sometimes we make some weak willed decisions in the pursuit of what that MONEY will get us! Want an example, look in the paper, watch the news.


I understand because I have compromised my integrity at a younger age and I will have to live with it and yes, if I could I would have willed myself to not make such a decision. Of course it was not illegal but in retrospect, it was not tottally cool and I hate that part of myself for going there. Maybe, if I get enough questions. I'll go there.


Poker has taken a big step backwards but it will be one of those things in life that will not go away. Texas Hold'em was not the most popular choice but it is today and could stay that way for sometime but another game may take it's place, hello omaha? Who knows, but the strategy and the ability to play with anyone and win will not go away.


Just understand...some of the integrity of the game got some dirt thrown on it, but overall it is straight up.


You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Abrupt slow down on the learning curve.

Pretty wicked couple of days, two of the biggest sights, are shut down to U.S. players, Poker stars and Full Tilt. This has affected several friends that are not in close proximity of brick and mortar casinos and were making a comfortable living off of all of those lunch boxes on those sites.

Well I just wanted to get a quick opinion on what I think is going to happen:

I believe other poker sites are taking on U.S. customers but how are they going to pay them? This way of making a living is going to be hurt for the next few years. We will lose the Poker stars funded tournament series, we may lose poker after dark and the coverage of the WSOP. All may have been funded by those sites. Casinos are going to lose a percentage of players in the long run due to the lack of on-line play. Live tournaments and cash games at those tournaments are going to get a nice increase, especially at the lower buy ins, of people, but over time that will fade. The huge fields we had in the past are gone! Poker sites sent tons of these folks to play through sponsorship, through winning small buy in tournaments, or because people did so well and made the money through beating other people. Without being able to multi-table and show film of what was done to help with training videos there will be a set back in the learning curve. Before when you could play more hands in a month than an older seasoned pro who has 20 years under their belt, is going to go away...unless you like play money or you are moving out of the U.S. Poker will not die, it may fade a bit but it will still be popular but we may not get as many younger players in as their only means of playing for real money will be in casinos and most of the time they need to be 21, unless they can Phil Ivey their way in.

Again, Poker will not fade away into the night, it's popularity may fade a bit but we will have a new generation of lunch boxes and those who play in casinos should be ready to reap the riches!

Just my opinion...you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

April Fools Day!

What is up? Say? Where the heck did April Fools day come from? Just curious. My oldest daughter wants to team up with my wife to try to prank me, they think they will be successful but I asked them not to try. We will see what happens.

Looking forward to the games tomorrow, we have VCU and Butler and on the other side we have Kentucky and UCONN! I'd like to see Butler play UConn and UConn get the win, they need to represent the Big East! I am very happy about where Butler is as they barely beat Pitt so I am one who wants the team that beat my team to finish it out and they seem to be doing so.

I have been grinding out online a tad bit, it has been fun nothing substantial to talk to but I really want to get back to a table, feel the chips, and felt someone. I hope to do this in the WSOP circuit event coming to Harrahs New Orleans, soon. Through that I hope to take the family to Vegas, visit my sister, see some friends and maybe get a tournament in, but cash games will be played!

Still going through a lot of my magazines, notes, books and what not and it is amazing how much you can miss when you are not playing on a normal basis. All successful players have a sense about things at the table, a "spidey sense", and I remember when I had it. That feeling of when to call someone down with King high and when to lay down a set of jacks when broadway was made on the river. Now, it takes me time to get my rhythm back but this is the price you pay when you work as an exempt manager, supporting 3.5 kids and a wife. When you come home, it is tough to leave the little ones and wife as they are all just awesome to be around. However, there is always that itch that wants to get back to playing on some type of consistency. Just me blabbing away...so until next time.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Know yourself...then maybe wins will come.

Over the years playing poker you learn a lot of things through normal play, talking about hands with others, reading about poker etc. These lessons can stay with you, they may become your culture and you just do before thinking or they may be things that you used to do, switched your game up and may have forgotten but one day you re-read something or over hear something and it reminds you of a piece of your game that you could possibly go back to.

My wife really hates the fact that I have books, magazines and notebooks full of notes and has asked me to start getting rid of...something. I started by looking through my poker magazines and I happened upon an interview in Cardplayer August 2009 with Matt Hawrilenko, under the Capture the flag section with top cash game pros. Matt talked about an important aspect of his game and that is not learning to read your opponent's hand but learning to read your own hand. Here is an example of what he means, "Suppose someone raises, the big blind defends, and the board comes j-6-5 with two hearts. Some guys in the big blind will never check-raise a 6. All they will check-raise is a jack or any sort of straight draw or flush draw. So, when he check-raises, the bulk of his distribution will be flush draws and straight draws. If the board runs out Q-J, there are a lot of guys I'm calling down here with king high, because their hand distribution is just so heavily weighted toward drawing hands that have missed. This is where good players just eat people up. It's very important to have the appropriate mix of different types of hands in every situation. When I was really improving, that is the thing I focused on the most."

My take is this, when you are playing tell a good story in every hand that you play, bet size correctly to get the most value and represent your hand correctly, in doing so your game will improve and your wins will add more green to your pockets! Stay within your comfort zone and play to win, but try not to bluff bad!

Stay nice as Rice and Mello as Jello!

Attention to detail

As an Ops Manager for Frito Lay, I am pretty laid back and not hyper aggressive. I tend to let most things go and allow my people a lot of leeway. I come down on the big things and continue to coach and train on the smaller issues. Working in the environment that I do it is important that you pay attention to details, address them before they become bigger issues. I know, it's only chips, but it is a business and it exists to make money. My point is when I am at the table I am very opposite of how I am at my job. I am very aggressive at the poker table, sometimes too aggressive for my own good. I make good reads and have been able to play a loose aggressive game for most of my poker experience. Recently however, I have transitioned to a more tight aggressive game. I don't get to go play very much so I have to reduce my negative variance. The key though is to watch out for the details. How did his hands move when he saw the flop, people have learned to control their facial features, however they still have not been able to work on the neck down. Watch and observe if you are not in the hand and see if they move towards the table or away after the flop and if he/she goes to the river what did they have? Usually when they move closer, their hand is pretty strong. Moving away sometimes indicates weakness. These are a couple of the basic reads. As you play, continue to observe the table when you are not in a hand. I know that others like to watch the ball game, cocktail servers or what have you, I suggest you watch the other players and how they might put a chip on their cards or keep the left hand on for a strong hand or their right had on for a weaker hand. How they bet could also indicate strong versus weak...if they throw in a big chip, they might be strong, if they bet smaller chips and try to make them look right, might be weakness. Consider this, because I am still working on this myself, when you are playing this game you are playing with real money, do everything in your power to get it in for the most profit. Observe the other players because when you do get into a situation you may have seen something from your opponent that would give you that extra insight to make the right decision. Pot control, bank roll management, bet sizing. These concepts will always be important as you continue to try to become a pro or if you are a pro. I just wanted to give my two cents...get out there and make the right decisions and you will eventually be rolling in the dough!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Recent Biloxi Trip

Greetings and salutations! It has been a long time since I put some words down and it is pretty awesome how big the site is! My time away from poker...SUCKS! However, I am enjoying my life as a husband and father, but...

So, I recently made my first move at a live game in Biloxi and I decided to try out the Hard Rock. Here is a quick review...the room is pretty small, only five or six tables. It is located on the right when you walk into the casino, can't miss it. The floor staff, very cordial and open to any questions, really appreciated the customer service. Dealers on a scale of 1-10, '8'. Very personable, and moved the action as best as they could. Also, was fun playing with a couple of them as well, when they got off an put jackets on, love that they can do that in mississippi. Very knowledgeable as well. Another interesting highlight, if you are a rock, very tight. There is not a time rake, they only rake the pot and that is maxed out at $4.

My play was average, there were many spots that I missed opportunities and many times that I made mistakes. The frustrating thing for me was that I made some bad calls and did not play aggressively when it warranted it, basically I was not prepared and the results showed it. I also may have played a little too long, however I had a ball!

The one highlight that I will talk to is this hand, now I had several highlights but this one just reminds me of those grinders that I used to play with and myself, several years ago. Okay, so I am on the button and action gets back to me and I look at two black jacks. Let me talk to Pocket Jacks up to the time I get them. In the previous five hands three people had pocket jacks and made considerable raises, took down the pot and showed them. Back to my hand, I am on the button, under the gun calls, middle calls, highjack calls, so I make it $17 to go, sb folds, bb folds...why 17, we have $11 in the pot, make it $17 and the price of another $15 for $28 was the wrong price...at least that was my thought, and I didn't want to make it look like I had pocket jacks by making it $20 or more. Hi jack is the only caller. I have some history with the hi jack seat, younger player, local, seems to be respected and has played a very good tight aggressive game. Earlier he made me lay down a big hand, so I respected the call and at the same time wondered what he would call with after limping? So my range was A weak, small to medium pair no higher than pocket 8's. He also had me covered. The flop is mixed 2 7 9, he checks and I bet out about $35. He thinks and calls...FRAK! He might have a set and is going to squeeze the milk outta me! Nah, he probably thinks I am making a continuation bet. The turn is a 3 offsuit, no flush possibilities. He checks I bet half the pot, again he thinks for a few seconds and calls. CRAP! Am I beat! The last time he got me off a hand, he had bet into me. The river brings a red JACK, he checks again and I bet 75% of the pot, he thinks about it and calls! Huh? I show my set and he acts like he let me get there and gets pissy! He had not acted like this ALL NIGHT! We were somewhat friendly and I quickly asked did you have me before that jack, he says of course I did. I smile and insert my headphones and stack my chips. BOGUS I think. Now he pulls out about $1000 and sets up. Got me covered again, he did this because I must have put him on tilt and he was going to try to get involved with me and try to snap me off, I was laughing inside because I used to do this and have seen it done many times before. He then goes and talks to an asian kid at another table, who also has a large stack, and they are looking at me while talking...maybe it was in my head but I really affected this guy that bad I should have broke it off in him later. I didn't get that opportunity but someone else did, taking a few hundred from him. So yeah, that was my highlight, I think I tilted a local and it was freaking fun! Yeah, I rambled through this one, hope you enjoyed it. Until next time be it poker or something else...stay frosty and...

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!