Greetings and salutations! I did it, I played a bit of poker! I met my buddy Wild Bill at Lauberge Casino in Baton Rouge to play the $100 tournament and follow up with some cash games. I got to the last three tables before I busted. Had to play like a nit, could not catch anything and when I raised most folks folded.
We got there before the tournament started and were instant alternates, something about a supervisor not being on the floor to help open up another table, but after about 30 minutes they opened a table and about 30 more minutes later I was called to action. Played very tight and just observed, I wanted to get my feel for the game back and it took a very long time. I picked up blinds where it was necessary had one scare where a gentleman chased me to the river and folded on my river bet but my downfall hand was pocket jacks in the cut-off, I believe the blinds were 1k 2k with a $100 ante. It's checked around to the high jack who calls, I raise to 6k, about 20% of my stack, big blind, who just sat down and has me covered asks to see what I have left and calls, highjack folds. What are we all thinking here? It would be tough to play this guy situationally because he just sat down and has no idea that I have been playing tight so I am hoping for NO ACE on the flop. Flop comes A 9 2 rainbow. He bets into me, usually if you hit your ace you let the raiser bet, because I would have, I fold and he shows me an ace. From that point on I got extremely card dead and went out with A 10 off, hit two pair to a dudes set and said thanks.
I moved to a 4-8 limit games and gave away $60 bucks, playing laggy is bad in that game. I finally got into a 1-3 game next to Wild Bill, got my money back up to what I brought plus my tournament money and a few bucks to the good. I think it is about 5 or 6 pm now. Bill has to go, I should leave here! I did not. When Bill left my range opened up, and opened up a bit too much for my current bankroll. I was still holding my own until I called a lunchboxes $6 raise from the button with J-5 diamonds. The lunchbox was drunk and he had bet big to move people out of the way in the three or four hands after sitting down, I think I can take some of that money from him...wink wink...I'm that good of a player...nudge nudge, plus I have position on him. PFFFT! We went to the flop four handed. We saw J 6 7, two diamonds. Check, check $30 bet, fold to me...I call, fold, fold. Turn card is a black 8, he bets $85 into me. Now...I should just fold but I felt like it was a push off bet or Aces, I went with my first assumption. I called...looking for a diamond and or a 5, but the five may hurt me but again, he either has nothing or aces so the five helps me. River is a 9 of hearts, he goes all in and has me covered. I cannot call with just a pair of jacks and if that 9 does not come but some other card a deuce or 3 or 4, I think I call. Well after that hand it went downhill...two hours later, felt and did not feel like rebuying. I felt crummy after this session but talking to Bill our conversation put some things into perspective and while thinking through some of my play, I did not do that bad for a time and I should build on that versus after that J-5 hand. Lets hope I get more time to get over to a poker game so I can apply what I learned.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
RECOGNIZE AND REACT
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
End of the year and I still suck at updating this blog!
More for me than anyone else but if you are reading, Greetings and Salutations! 2014 is winding down, shopping is done and food will be prepared for our celebration on the 25th. I am going to Vegas in February and want to get one or two nights of play in that wonderful town. I am going to hit my buddy, Mark, up while I am there to show my the appropriate room to take down some donkeys. I do want to play at Aria though. I will also hook up with some friends that have made Vegas their home and hang with them for a night. My company is flying me out there so that we can have meetings about our company and reward those who did very well in 2014. First time they allowed Operations Managers to attend in the four years I have been with the company...looking forward to a great time. The only set back is my family will not be there.
Currently, I am gaining weight at levels not known to man, but seriously, I get back into the gym and hurt my knee, fix that get back into the gym for about two weeks and hurt my back, get over that get back into the gym and get a major sinus infection...so many setbacks. So, we are going to be back at it again and I hope to shed about 30 pounds before this Vegas trip.
I am also coaching three basketball teams, yes, three! Not as daunting as it sounds. We only practice one hour a day once a week, due to gym space. The have leagues for girls and guys starting at five years old! I am coaching a 7-8 team, 9-10 team and a 13-14 year old team (this team actually has my son on it). I really enjoy watching the kids develop and grow as players and I hope they can take something from me that will make them great.
Thoughts run through and my fingers whip away at the keyboard, being of mixed race, Korean and Black, I call myself Korblasian, it does not sit well to see all the issues that the media have blown up. From the Garner case to the hands up situation to the kid in Cleveland. Trust me, as a guy married to a beautiful little white woman, there are people that do not like black people out there and a lot of police officers look at race and pre judge, most of the time. I appreciate and even wanted to become an officer at one point in my life but it did not work out. They are under pressure more than most people are in their everyday grind and their pressure tends to deal with bullets sometimes. However, as an officer of the law there is a higher expectation I have for you. You must be able to communicate in a mild manner and when in a situation that does not need violence talk the person down, get them to an understanding that they are going to jail. In the Garner case, perfect example, the guy was surrounded and was voicing his outrage but he was not going anywhere nor was he going to actually get violent. Officers decided to become violent instead, why? Did they need to get him out of there before it started a riot? Did they think he was going to become violent if they did not subdue him right away? I think he should have been talked down and made understood what was happening so that he would be alive today. Sorry to say this but it is tough to be black in this world.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Currently, I am gaining weight at levels not known to man, but seriously, I get back into the gym and hurt my knee, fix that get back into the gym for about two weeks and hurt my back, get over that get back into the gym and get a major sinus infection...so many setbacks. So, we are going to be back at it again and I hope to shed about 30 pounds before this Vegas trip.
I am also coaching three basketball teams, yes, three! Not as daunting as it sounds. We only practice one hour a day once a week, due to gym space. The have leagues for girls and guys starting at five years old! I am coaching a 7-8 team, 9-10 team and a 13-14 year old team (this team actually has my son on it). I really enjoy watching the kids develop and grow as players and I hope they can take something from me that will make them great.
Thoughts run through and my fingers whip away at the keyboard, being of mixed race, Korean and Black, I call myself Korblasian, it does not sit well to see all the issues that the media have blown up. From the Garner case to the hands up situation to the kid in Cleveland. Trust me, as a guy married to a beautiful little white woman, there are people that do not like black people out there and a lot of police officers look at race and pre judge, most of the time. I appreciate and even wanted to become an officer at one point in my life but it did not work out. They are under pressure more than most people are in their everyday grind and their pressure tends to deal with bullets sometimes. However, as an officer of the law there is a higher expectation I have for you. You must be able to communicate in a mild manner and when in a situation that does not need violence talk the person down, get them to an understanding that they are going to jail. In the Garner case, perfect example, the guy was surrounded and was voicing his outrage but he was not going anywhere nor was he going to actually get violent. Officers decided to become violent instead, why? Did they need to get him out of there before it started a riot? Did they think he was going to become violent if they did not subdue him right away? I think he should have been talked down and made understood what was happening so that he would be alive today. Sorry to say this but it is tough to be black in this world.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Monday, December 30, 2013
The end of 2013...it was a good year.
Greetings and salutations.
I had to get on here and throw down some thoughts on how the year went for me and to set some expectations for 2014.
Poker has really taken a back seat, I live through Gulf Coast Poker.net and some friends in Vegas. I truly plan to get back into action in 2014, slowly but surely. My action figure business did not get off to a good start and following up on that with my other responsibilities hurt my slothfulness.
I found golf again and I have really gotten into it but I SUCK right now, my last score was a 115 last month...I need to practice, but do not get out there to do it, so that will be part of my weekly life. Getting back into poker is going to help supplement my golf outings and practice, I am going to try to become a scratch golfer in two years...glass is half full!
I got back into the gym and was very consistent until November, but I dropped an official 34 pounds in 2013 and plan to get 80-100 pounds in 2014, I have a great game plan and with the results of this past year I need to piggy back that and get better into the new year. Also, less weight will help with the golf game and the ability to stay at the tables longer if needed.
Work, was good far too many items going into block and quality and I had to write off, that will affect my review and bonus but I have identified some items within myself that need to be fixed in order to have a better year. Power walks need to happen daily, pre-shifts on a daily basis, follow up on all PIT inspections, break down the safety topics, stabilize the inbound process and control block and quality. These keys will drive a consistent workforce and get my small building back into shape, not saying we are that bad off but if you do not expect the best, mediocre becomes the worst.
I have a new employee so I have some expectations for him and my floor lead, who is very young, will have some lofty goals but attainable, they will keep him busy.
I started coaching 11-12 year old basketball and my team won one game. I am coaching again in 2014, we have had three practices and my team looks great. Our first game is this Saturday and I expect a win. I hope that I can teach these kids a bit about basketball as I am channeling Coach George Diaz and Coach Cordova, my eighth grade and ninth grade coaches. I played varsity in high school and could have gone and played basketball in college but I had more success as a football player. However, I learned most of my basketball from these two great men, we dominated the scene as 8th and 9th graders. Flashback over.
It was great seeing all the good people who I call friend and who I know have healthy babies and I hope that they grow into great conservative adults who push the small government viewpoint when they are our age.
With my family, more time. More time is what needs to applied to all of them and with that continue to show them the correct values and to walk the Christian path. Always more love, right?
So it looks like, poker, weight loss, better golf game, healthy work ethics, successful basketball season and more love to the family, never enough love for the family.
Hope your 2013 was a good one and looking forward to a great 2014!
Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
I had to get on here and throw down some thoughts on how the year went for me and to set some expectations for 2014.
Poker has really taken a back seat, I live through Gulf Coast Poker.net and some friends in Vegas. I truly plan to get back into action in 2014, slowly but surely. My action figure business did not get off to a good start and following up on that with my other responsibilities hurt my slothfulness.
I found golf again and I have really gotten into it but I SUCK right now, my last score was a 115 last month...I need to practice, but do not get out there to do it, so that will be part of my weekly life. Getting back into poker is going to help supplement my golf outings and practice, I am going to try to become a scratch golfer in two years...glass is half full!
I got back into the gym and was very consistent until November, but I dropped an official 34 pounds in 2013 and plan to get 80-100 pounds in 2014, I have a great game plan and with the results of this past year I need to piggy back that and get better into the new year. Also, less weight will help with the golf game and the ability to stay at the tables longer if needed.
Work, was good far too many items going into block and quality and I had to write off, that will affect my review and bonus but I have identified some items within myself that need to be fixed in order to have a better year. Power walks need to happen daily, pre-shifts on a daily basis, follow up on all PIT inspections, break down the safety topics, stabilize the inbound process and control block and quality. These keys will drive a consistent workforce and get my small building back into shape, not saying we are that bad off but if you do not expect the best, mediocre becomes the worst.
I have a new employee so I have some expectations for him and my floor lead, who is very young, will have some lofty goals but attainable, they will keep him busy.
I started coaching 11-12 year old basketball and my team won one game. I am coaching again in 2014, we have had three practices and my team looks great. Our first game is this Saturday and I expect a win. I hope that I can teach these kids a bit about basketball as I am channeling Coach George Diaz and Coach Cordova, my eighth grade and ninth grade coaches. I played varsity in high school and could have gone and played basketball in college but I had more success as a football player. However, I learned most of my basketball from these two great men, we dominated the scene as 8th and 9th graders. Flashback over.
It was great seeing all the good people who I call friend and who I know have healthy babies and I hope that they grow into great conservative adults who push the small government viewpoint when they are our age.
With my family, more time. More time is what needs to applied to all of them and with that continue to show them the correct values and to walk the Christian path. Always more love, right?
So it looks like, poker, weight loss, better golf game, healthy work ethics, successful basketball season and more love to the family, never enough love for the family.
Hope your 2013 was a good one and looking forward to a great 2014!
Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Realization
Greetings. Not that it matters to many but it matters to myself. As I am watching the Barclays and switching from it to the football game I realized what my buddy J.P. meant when he said I was opening too soon when I drive the ball. We had a text conversation about a week ago, he told me what he saw after reading my blog and looking at the video. I went back and looked at it myself and did notice that I was casting a bit but I could not see where I was opening up too soon. It somewhat frustrated me but it was not until today as I watched Stadler, who is leading, hit the ball that I realized that I am not always on the right plane and that is why my shoulders are opening up too soon and why I am casting at the ball, probably creating an outside in motion which pushes the ball to the right. I JUST REALIZED that as I took some practice swings with a diet dr. pepper bottle. I noticed that my right shoulder was not lower than my left when I was swinging through and that my left shoulder was opened and my hands followed and I saw the cast! Wow! Now I need to get on the range and hit some balls to get the right feel and get that muscle memory involved! Thanks J.P!
J.P. Stadler is doing work even with that gut!
Enjoying the WSOP Main Event coverage. Maybe one day I will get to play in it. Quick and sweet! You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
J.P. Stadler is doing work even with that gut!
Enjoying the WSOP Main Event coverage. Maybe one day I will get to play in it. Quick and sweet! You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
My pursuits in life
Well met!
Got a few things going on in my life along with fatherhood. I started getting back into the gym regularly after tipping the scales at 374 this past January, after my doctor's visit, to make sure everything was ticking okay. Well here it is August and I am down to 327, 47 pounds! Nice but not where I want to be. Goal is to be under 300 before the end of the year and by next August to be at 240-250, my playing weight when I was at PITT. I plan on doing two a days in the next week or so, running in the morning and weights in the evening. I just need to get to bed a little earlier.
The other thing I have gotten back into, since the weight loss, is golf! Oh, how I missed it. Funny thing is my wife continued to hammer me about getting back into golf, to get me away from all the poker. I told her that golf is more expensive than poker and I do not want to do that right now, that was four years ago. Now she understands that it is expensive, with the range balls and rounds of golf, the new (used) clubs (from ebay, finally have my 14 that I like) in the bag. Now I want this mizuno bag with samurai warriors fighting each other, of course this is a vanity item like my superman putter cover, so I may have to wait for it.
Well, those are the two things that I have gotten into, the weight loss got me into golf and golf is my new sports love, more than football!
I have not given up on poker, I do not get many sessions in because as a father of four, three still at home and a husband, your time must be allocated accordingly. Also, hitting the gym and playing golf sucks up the free time. There fore, my sleep time is used to play a lot of Black Ops 2. Yes, I am a video game geek as well. My kd is 1.14 and my wins are at 1.15. More of a first person shooter guy who used to enjoy rpgs but because of the lack of "TIME" they are not purchased as much. I did enjoy the newest Assasin's Creed.
Here is a video of me playing at Bayou Barrier on the West Bank, unfortunately the same weekend that Kidd Kraddick passed away after he played some golf at the country club nearby.
Work, right now is becoming a challenge only because of the fact that we are dealing with loads that have damaged units and it is out of our control and very frustrating but I truly enjoy my job and plan to be here for a long time. This blog is about how my poker life coincides with my real life and real life has swallowed up poker. No doubt, poker will always be there and some of my plans to develop a good bankroll have gone to the wayside of procrastination or just not doing them. But there is a plan in place and my wife is on board. So I plan on using this to track poker, my weight loss and my golf game, and life as I move forward. I do not have many readers, one or two, so it will be a journal of sorts for you all and myself.
All right you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Got a few things going on in my life along with fatherhood. I started getting back into the gym regularly after tipping the scales at 374 this past January, after my doctor's visit, to make sure everything was ticking okay. Well here it is August and I am down to 327, 47 pounds! Nice but not where I want to be. Goal is to be under 300 before the end of the year and by next August to be at 240-250, my playing weight when I was at PITT. I plan on doing two a days in the next week or so, running in the morning and weights in the evening. I just need to get to bed a little earlier.
The other thing I have gotten back into, since the weight loss, is golf! Oh, how I missed it. Funny thing is my wife continued to hammer me about getting back into golf, to get me away from all the poker. I told her that golf is more expensive than poker and I do not want to do that right now, that was four years ago. Now she understands that it is expensive, with the range balls and rounds of golf, the new (used) clubs (from ebay, finally have my 14 that I like) in the bag. Now I want this mizuno bag with samurai warriors fighting each other, of course this is a vanity item like my superman putter cover, so I may have to wait for it.
Well, those are the two things that I have gotten into, the weight loss got me into golf and golf is my new sports love, more than football!
I have not given up on poker, I do not get many sessions in because as a father of four, three still at home and a husband, your time must be allocated accordingly. Also, hitting the gym and playing golf sucks up the free time. There fore, my sleep time is used to play a lot of Black Ops 2. Yes, I am a video game geek as well. My kd is 1.14 and my wins are at 1.15. More of a first person shooter guy who used to enjoy rpgs but because of the lack of "TIME" they are not purchased as much. I did enjoy the newest Assasin's Creed.
Here is a video of me playing at Bayou Barrier on the West Bank, unfortunately the same weekend that Kidd Kraddick passed away after he played some golf at the country club nearby.
All right you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Sunday, March 31, 2013
What a life...
Greetings and salutations! I have been in the middle of living the life. Just got my bonus and I did not get Chevy Chased, so I am now painting different areas of the house. We finished the kids bathroom and now are working on the girls room. Going to paint it pink and purple, their favorite colors. What is it about the color purple? I understand pink but so many females love the color purple almost as much as they love pink. Moving along. Got my review from my manager, who resides in Dallas and I crushed it. The one opportunity is going to be an easy fix, it will involve a lot of hard work but when we get it going on a consistent basis...easy street! Tax time was generous, my wife is going to college so we got to use that and it was good...of course in about three years we will have student loans to pay off.
Poker...had my second home game and a neighbor won it all. I was in the chip lead but made a couple of bluffs as the eventual winner, who would not lay down after raising with 7-2, missing on the flop, firing on the flop and turn and having to fold to a significant river bet. I was out two rotations later and watched him march to a very nice victory. My wife hooked up the snacks, the fellas brought over the beverages and most left intoxicated and not hungry. I had a pretty good talk with a buddy of mine who I met in the poker rooms and he now lives on the other side of the lake close to me, invited him over and he came over. We talked about how these young ones are that much better because of the internet and how they are playing the person versus their cards and how well they get it. We thought back on ourselves and laughed at how bad we were but thought we had it. Still it is the dream and I will continue to chase it. Playing pro football will not happen, but hey, poker, still a possibility.
Life is good. Disney trip is coming sometime in May. I am pretty pumped as I never got to go there but even more pumped because I can take my family. I might be able to get some real poker in sometime between this writing and the trip but I hope to be back on to blog about it. Heh. My little girl sat on an alligator and held it's jaws up...I would not do it...she's pretty awesome...well my whole family is pretty awesome.
No worries in that smile huh?
Alright, until next time. You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Poker...had my second home game and a neighbor won it all. I was in the chip lead but made a couple of bluffs as the eventual winner, who would not lay down after raising with 7-2, missing on the flop, firing on the flop and turn and having to fold to a significant river bet. I was out two rotations later and watched him march to a very nice victory. My wife hooked up the snacks, the fellas brought over the beverages and most left intoxicated and not hungry. I had a pretty good talk with a buddy of mine who I met in the poker rooms and he now lives on the other side of the lake close to me, invited him over and he came over. We talked about how these young ones are that much better because of the internet and how they are playing the person versus their cards and how well they get it. We thought back on ourselves and laughed at how bad we were but thought we had it. Still it is the dream and I will continue to chase it. Playing pro football will not happen, but hey, poker, still a possibility.
Life is good. Disney trip is coming sometime in May. I am pretty pumped as I never got to go there but even more pumped because I can take my family. I might be able to get some real poker in sometime between this writing and the trip but I hope to be back on to blog about it. Heh. My little girl sat on an alligator and held it's jaws up...I would not do it...she's pretty awesome...well my whole family is pretty awesome.
Alright, until next time. You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Monday, October 29, 2012
Birthday, bad beat jackpot history and a little life.
Greetings and Salutations,
I write because I like it, sometimes it becomes a labor and something that I do not like to do because of the time it can take. I would rather be a-Playing Call of duty, b-Playing Borderlands 2, c-Watching TV, D-working out(just got back into this in July). I used to LOVE to write but when I finish I have to fix what I wrote and that takes a lot of time. You see I am the kind of writer that writes what he thinks, sometimes it comes out the wrong way so I have to go back and correct it and make sure it flows for a reader outside looking in. Maybe, one day I could be an editor...NAH! I suck.
Okay, so I had my 41st birthday this past 27th of October and I asked for two things, hamburgers on Saturday and taco salad on Sunday. Two of the many favorite dishes that my wife makes. Now I am about to bitch because I am very disappointed but I do not want to do so to my wife because I do not want to put anymore stress on her right now. She is AWESOME! She is the mother to my four kids and we took in our 14 year old niece, so she cooks for all of us, cleans this house, pays the bills (she is the CFO of the family, I make it she spends it, I have to ask for a stipend, but this works and we are happy) and is working on getting her college degree while still being an awesome wife and mother. I want to say something but I do not think it is worth it. So I will put in on here...I have to get it off my chest. So, on Saturday we had Halloween in my subdivision, I am on our advisory board (pre-HOA) and we fought about having trick or treating for the kids on Saturday or Wednesday. We finally settled on Saturday which allows the kids to get it, come home and eat it and be sick on Sunday. Well my wife along with two other neighbors decide to have a block party when the trick or treating was over. So last Monday she met with a couple of ladies and they are going to have a hay ride, bob for apples, and food for everyone. My wife volunteered to make chilli, a couple of dips, cupcakes and who knows what else. I got a great break feast, as I normally do on Saturdays got to hang out by myself as my wife went out to buy a few things to prep for the party Saturday night. When she got back three pumpkins appeared and she asked me to work with the kids to help carve them. I didn't want to carve pumpkins but as parents, you do so to make your kids happy. I started with them and of course all three were gone running around before they were done so I finished them off as I sat in my garage with the candy to start passing that out at about 6 pm.
(I just had to face book a lot of my friends on the east coast, just to make sure they were okay, funny thing is, now they are going to experience something that I did, when Katrina hit. I was like them, it's just rain and wind no big deal, I learned a lesson and learned it well. I hope they all stay as dry as possible, stay out of harms way and do not freeze to death.)
Yes, I decided to let my wife take the kids around the neighborhood and I would take care of the candy. It was cool, got complements on my kids pumpkins. Check it out:
So at about 8pm nobody is left and I have a bowl full of candy left. My subdivision is about four years old and most of the construction picked up in the last two years, we are at about 70% finished, 90% brings in the HOA and then we pay dues...weeeee! Okay, so after that I go down to the block party that has become one house as it got cold, but it was cool had a couple of birthday shots and drank my first moonshine. Did I get my hamburgers? NO! I did get two hotdogs, a bowl of potato soup and some nacho chips. Oh, I did get a birthday cake, carrot cake, it was good, but no happy birthday song. Not really bitter about it though. So Sunday comes around and we go to church, I come home and lay in bed with my wife, she eventually leaves...no boom boom for me. HA! But I got to sleep until the Cowboys game, but I was hoping to get either hamburgers or taco salad. My wife tells me we are going to have gumbo. For the love, now do not get me wrong, her gumbo is fantastic but my mind was set on burgers or taco salad. I got nada. So 41 was not as sweet as 40, I know that I should not expect a lot but I did request two things, neither came through and I was put to work most of my birthday. Alright, that is off my chest.
I got to go to the new casino in Baton Rouge, L'auberge, fantastic casino.
Nice poker room with seven tables, they spread, on the weekends that is not sure about the week, two 2-5 nl games, 3-1-2 nl games and 2-4-8 limit games. All juicy! Well I left because the list was monster long, came back at about 1am to play and later that morning they hit the bad beat jackpot, so I was part of history first day opening, of course technically, it was into the second day, but I was present when the very first jackpot was hit that day, check it:
Four of a kind, 10's, were beat by a heart royal flush!
I went a few more times, got snapped off, broken off in after a 10 hour session, felted in one hand...feel like it was my fault. We are short handed, six people, I have 10-8 off, I limp under the gun. Two more limp and lady, who I have some history with during this session, opens to $12. Big calls, I call and one of the other two call. Flop comes J, 9, Q, two clubs. She LEADS out for $60 big folds, here is mistake one...maybe...I min-raise to $120, next guy folds she says, "Are you drawing for the club?" She calls, turn card is a red Q. She bets $100 into me. HUH? Now I know you don't have a full house, I know you don't have K-10...are you drawing to the club and trying to block me? I think so, so I shove for another $280 on top. I think it took her 10 minutes to call. Then she says, I was priced in. You didn't have enough to make me fold. I think she is right as she showed the AK clubs for the win on the river as a club hit, but why did it take you 10 minutes to decide, maybe it was more like five but felt like 10. Either way if that was an easy decision call quicker, right? I do not like it when they try to reason like that, she had trouble calling because it would have left her with about $100, that was why it took her so long to call. They must eat this lady up at the 2-5 game! That one hurt only because I had been playing for so long, so yeah, maybe I should not have played it but I did and SNAPPAGE! What do you think?
Finally, I got back into the gym in July, free monthly pass, hit it for about two weeks all together and decided to join. Found out my insurance covers my membership at a lower rate so that was a cool bonus. I have been working out consistently since late August and am stronger, getting tighter in places but still have a long way to go.
Overall, I have an awesome life. To get pissed at not getting a burger or anything that I wanted that day is very selfish but I am in a place where I can afford to be, I've worked my butt off to get into a position where I can take care of my family, got my wife a beautiful home and she does not have to work right now. So yes, life is good but...
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
I write because I like it, sometimes it becomes a labor and something that I do not like to do because of the time it can take. I would rather be a-Playing Call of duty, b-Playing Borderlands 2, c-Watching TV, D-working out(just got back into this in July). I used to LOVE to write but when I finish I have to fix what I wrote and that takes a lot of time. You see I am the kind of writer that writes what he thinks, sometimes it comes out the wrong way so I have to go back and correct it and make sure it flows for a reader outside looking in. Maybe, one day I could be an editor...NAH! I suck.
Okay, so I had my 41st birthday this past 27th of October and I asked for two things, hamburgers on Saturday and taco salad on Sunday. Two of the many favorite dishes that my wife makes. Now I am about to bitch because I am very disappointed but I do not want to do so to my wife because I do not want to put anymore stress on her right now. She is AWESOME! She is the mother to my four kids and we took in our 14 year old niece, so she cooks for all of us, cleans this house, pays the bills (she is the CFO of the family, I make it she spends it, I have to ask for a stipend, but this works and we are happy) and is working on getting her college degree while still being an awesome wife and mother. I want to say something but I do not think it is worth it. So I will put in on here...I have to get it off my chest. So, on Saturday we had Halloween in my subdivision, I am on our advisory board (pre-HOA) and we fought about having trick or treating for the kids on Saturday or Wednesday. We finally settled on Saturday which allows the kids to get it, come home and eat it and be sick on Sunday. Well my wife along with two other neighbors decide to have a block party when the trick or treating was over. So last Monday she met with a couple of ladies and they are going to have a hay ride, bob for apples, and food for everyone. My wife volunteered to make chilli, a couple of dips, cupcakes and who knows what else. I got a great break feast, as I normally do on Saturdays got to hang out by myself as my wife went out to buy a few things to prep for the party Saturday night. When she got back three pumpkins appeared and she asked me to work with the kids to help carve them. I didn't want to carve pumpkins but as parents, you do so to make your kids happy. I started with them and of course all three were gone running around before they were done so I finished them off as I sat in my garage with the candy to start passing that out at about 6 pm.
(I just had to face book a lot of my friends on the east coast, just to make sure they were okay, funny thing is, now they are going to experience something that I did, when Katrina hit. I was like them, it's just rain and wind no big deal, I learned a lesson and learned it well. I hope they all stay as dry as possible, stay out of harms way and do not freeze to death.)
Yes, I decided to let my wife take the kids around the neighborhood and I would take care of the candy. It was cool, got complements on my kids pumpkins. Check it out:
I got to go to the new casino in Baton Rouge, L'auberge, fantastic casino.
Nice poker room with seven tables, they spread, on the weekends that is not sure about the week, two 2-5 nl games, 3-1-2 nl games and 2-4-8 limit games. All juicy! Well I left because the list was monster long, came back at about 1am to play and later that morning they hit the bad beat jackpot, so I was part of history first day opening, of course technically, it was into the second day, but I was present when the very first jackpot was hit that day, check it:
I went a few more times, got snapped off, broken off in after a 10 hour session, felted in one hand...feel like it was my fault. We are short handed, six people, I have 10-8 off, I limp under the gun. Two more limp and lady, who I have some history with during this session, opens to $12. Big calls, I call and one of the other two call. Flop comes J, 9, Q, two clubs. She LEADS out for $60 big folds, here is mistake one...maybe...I min-raise to $120, next guy folds she says, "Are you drawing for the club?" She calls, turn card is a red Q. She bets $100 into me. HUH? Now I know you don't have a full house, I know you don't have K-10...are you drawing to the club and trying to block me? I think so, so I shove for another $280 on top. I think it took her 10 minutes to call. Then she says, I was priced in. You didn't have enough to make me fold. I think she is right as she showed the AK clubs for the win on the river as a club hit, but why did it take you 10 minutes to decide, maybe it was more like five but felt like 10. Either way if that was an easy decision call quicker, right? I do not like it when they try to reason like that, she had trouble calling because it would have left her with about $100, that was why it took her so long to call. They must eat this lady up at the 2-5 game! That one hurt only because I had been playing for so long, so yeah, maybe I should not have played it but I did and SNAPPAGE! What do you think?
Finally, I got back into the gym in July, free monthly pass, hit it for about two weeks all together and decided to join. Found out my insurance covers my membership at a lower rate so that was a cool bonus. I have been working out consistently since late August and am stronger, getting tighter in places but still have a long way to go.
Overall, I have an awesome life. To get pissed at not getting a burger or anything that I wanted that day is very selfish but I am in a place where I can afford to be, I've worked my butt off to get into a position where I can take care of my family, got my wife a beautiful home and she does not have to work right now. So yes, life is good but...
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Belle of Baton Rouge
Took a drive over to the Belle of Baton Rouge to play a little poker. I thought they would open a 2-5 NL game but they did not. I sat in a 4-8 limit game and it was bonkers. Everyone thinks it is okay to chase you down, it got so bad I started to do it. I had to rebuy and that brought me back to reality. This is what $500 looks like in a 4-8 limit game.
I got aces three times and won with them, I got kings once and lost with them, a pretty big pot, it looked like it ended up being about $180. I got AK twice, and won, made a full house on the river on the last time I got it, but I didn't need it. Guy raised me on the turn, where I make two pair, I popped it back and he just calls, then I river the king, he checks I bet, he calls. He mucks. I have to be able to focus in on the hand I am in, I lost track and missed a couple of tells that would have told me I was in trouble but I did miss them. I did pick up certain things as these folks did not know how to bet while in position, for example we had a flop that came K, J, 4 at one point, five of us were in the hand. I was the small blind, I checked and it checked all the way around. The turn is an 8, I bet I get two calls, hi-jack and the button, the river is another king, I check, hi-jack checks and the button bets...'huh'? You don't have a king or a jack, a missed straight, I call, the hi-jack folds, button shows me Q-9 as he folds, I show my A8. Send me the pot. Overall, I got hit in the face with the deck, I was blessed. This was my best, low limit session ever!
The Belle has four tables, I think when the new casino opens at the end of August it is going to hurt them even more they might lose those tables. I do understand that the Belle has a $50 NL hold 'em tournament on Sundays that starts at 10 am, 1000 in chips and 15 minute levels. The dealers were okay, now there may have been one or two that take their time dealing, I believe one of the regulars counted SIX hands...wow!
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello.
I got aces three times and won with them, I got kings once and lost with them, a pretty big pot, it looked like it ended up being about $180. I got AK twice, and won, made a full house on the river on the last time I got it, but I didn't need it. Guy raised me on the turn, where I make two pair, I popped it back and he just calls, then I river the king, he checks I bet, he calls. He mucks. I have to be able to focus in on the hand I am in, I lost track and missed a couple of tells that would have told me I was in trouble but I did miss them. I did pick up certain things as these folks did not know how to bet while in position, for example we had a flop that came K, J, 4 at one point, five of us were in the hand. I was the small blind, I checked and it checked all the way around. The turn is an 8, I bet I get two calls, hi-jack and the button, the river is another king, I check, hi-jack checks and the button bets...'huh'? You don't have a king or a jack, a missed straight, I call, the hi-jack folds, button shows me Q-9 as he folds, I show my A8. Send me the pot. Overall, I got hit in the face with the deck, I was blessed. This was my best, low limit session ever!
The Belle has four tables, I think when the new casino opens at the end of August it is going to hurt them even more they might lose those tables. I do understand that the Belle has a $50 NL hold 'em tournament on Sundays that starts at 10 am, 1000 in chips and 15 minute levels. The dealers were okay, now there may have been one or two that take their time dealing, I believe one of the regulars counted SIX hands...wow!
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
WORK THROUGH
I got most of our mezzanine lighting replaced today, pretty happy with myself, however I did not get the highest point, three light structures that had to be 18-19 feet up. I would have had to get on the top of the 14' ladder to replace those bulbs...so not going to be this guy, plus it said not to get on the last step as it is unsafe, so I did not. It was our month end and I believe we hit our numbers for the month, pretty exciting as I believe the company is doing much better than last year, whew!
Finished the day off at about 12 noon and headed home. Then I got to see this as I was heading down I-10.
It didn't end up being that bad, got underneath this storm and got out in about two minutes. When I continued north on I-55 it got a little hairy, but we made it to the crib.
I was looking forward to playing a little poker this weekend but I had to make a decision and be a grown up about it, even at my age, outside of work, it is tough trying to be a mature adult! One day I will grow up, I need to grow up.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
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| The 14' ladder on my little Pontiac Vibe. |
Finished the day off at about 12 noon and headed home. Then I got to see this as I was heading down I-10.
I was looking forward to playing a little poker this weekend but I had to make a decision and be a grown up about it, even at my age, outside of work, it is tough trying to be a mature adult! One day I will grow up, I need to grow up.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Monday, July 16, 2012
Iowa and all that CORN!
The dealers were pretty good, they moved the game quickly, the rake was max $4 a hand, there was not a time rake ( I was very happy to see that) and though there was every reason to deal slower than normal those dealers did not.
At one point I was playing with phone ring tones through the Zedge application and played a Samuel L. Jackson ring tone as the next dealer sat down, the ring tone said this, "Shut the F&%K up Fat man!" The dealer looked like Santa Clause, the white beard and large frame...I felt like crap for the round and tipped more than normal whenever I won.
The funny thing about this place was you knew who was good, who was average and who were the fish, and the locals did not tap on the fishbowl at all. I made so many mistakes, I missed bets, I checked down with the best hands, I basically let the cards play and could have made another buy in. One of the locals who sat down with $200, was sitting with over $1000 as I left. He picked the right spots and the right fish to snap off and I will tell you those fish were not believers, they called down with the second best every time, chased the one outers and snapped off the average players only to give that money to two of the better players at the table. I was not one of them, but I kept my distance as I was still trying to re-learn how to ride the bicycle.
Prairie Meadows only downfall is that the poker room is on the third floor. They have about 12 tables, other than that, there is decent action, if you abc it you will win. The dealers are excellent, but I did get a bit upset with one of the dealers who heard me playing the ring tones for most of his down but when one of the better regulars got in the game, "Sir, please don't do that during a hand in progress." It pissed me off only because he should have said that the first time I did it when others were in the hand. Was I the only black guy in the room, yes, but never felt like that was a problem and I won't say that this was why he did it but I think he got some back bone because he wanted to show out for that regular.
I played later at Riverside out side of Iowa City, much bigger poker room about 20 tables, only three were going when I got there, (a soon to be busted) 2-5 no limit, a must move 1-2 and a main 1-2 nl game. I continued my streak of playing bad but it got worse. I called a $112 bet with $74 in the pot with pocket 8's, with one card to come, the board had a 7, 9, 6, 2 on the board. I had 10 outs, but did not fold. J on the river he tables aces. Not a bad beat, me being a lunchbox and paying this kid off. He played it well and got me to make a mistake, what upset me four hands later was how he played his pocket jacks. So four hands later he is in middle position and there are two limpers to him, he pops it to 12 a 2-5 player from the broken game calls and another player in early position calls. The flop is 664, early checks, he bets $25, late (2-5 player calls) so does the early position player. Turn is a 5, early checks he bets...$25! Late calls, so does the limper. River is an 8. Early checks, HE CHECKS, river bets $75, early folds, pocket jacks shoves for $225. Late takes some time thinks it through and eventually calls, he hit a freaking straight on the river, of course this kid is upset because he thought is jacks should have won. What happened to protecting that pot on the turn? Any way, I make another bad call with AK suited on a paired board when my suit gets there on the river. He had a full house. My last mistake was to not price a kid out of an open ended straight on the turn, he hit the river against my set of jacks. All mistakes by me, myself and I. 'nuff said.
Iowa was fun, and there is a heck of a lot of corn!
Just wanted to give a huge shout out to Poker Monkey and an awesome finish in the WSOP main event, he gave me something to be excited about since I could not be there, checking on how he was doing while walking around with my cell phone this weekend.
Alright, you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
My first homegame
This past Saturday I hosted my first home game in my new home. It was to be more of a social gathering for neighbors but we did have a $20 buy in tourney with 20 minute blinds. My wife, who is AWESOME, cooked. She made meatballs in bbq sauce, meatballs in marinara sauce, smoke sausages, dip, and Jambalaya. Then she left, with the kids, to hang out with the wives of the other fellas that showed up. I am not an alcohol kind of guy, but usually during social gatherings I'll have some, so I picked up a bottle of seagram 7 and a case of bud light platinum. Both would survive the night as the fellas came loaded with Crown Royal black and two other whiskeys I do not recall.
We got started and had nine players, someone asked about re-buys (I smiled), yes, in the first four levels, you may re-buy. We had three re-buys. I split the purse and three spots would be paid, third started by getting their money back but after the rebuys that doubled. We got four handed and I think I was second in chips when I limped with k 4 suited. The big stack min raised, we were at 500-1000, I was last to act and called. We took the flop of A 8 4, I had been playing with, Animal (his nickname), for a couple of hours and had a good read on him. His read was he did not like this flop but with everyone else he would always bet if they showed weakness, so I checked in hopes of making a check-raise to represent the ace. He checked behind. The turn was a 2, I lead out with 5k, he thought about it and called. The river was a 10, I bet 5k again, trying to make it look like I wanted a call and was extracting value, and maybe this bet would get him to fold. Well he asks, how much do I have, I counted out 15k. He takes a very long time to make a decision, I would say two minutes...he calls and turns over pocket sixes for the win. I say good call. He replies, if you would have bet more I would have folded but you only bet 25% of your stack so I figured you didn't want to lose anymore. I nod, he's a guest and I didn't want to get into a deep conversation on that hand, but it gave me more information and how to get him to fold for now on.
Well he crushes the other two guys and has me out chipped 25-1. We play 10 hands, six of those hands we gave up and sent the blind over, I went all in three times pre-flop just won the blinds and played hand number ten from under the gun with a limp, with AK. I hit my king on the flop and check hoping for a bet, nope, he checks. The turn is a 3, I push all in and he hesitates a bit and calls...he turns over 7-3 and says geez, I thought you were bluffing as a 7 hits the river. That hand would have gotten me even and then I think I would have crushed him from that point, but it was good that I didn't I don't want those guys thinking I am that good (believe me I'm not) and not want to come back. So I, happily, take second place money and paid Animal his loot. We then gambled and played "in between" freaking fun card game, but if you can count cards you can crush it.
Wild Bill is in AC trying to get a "W", so good luck to and prayers to him.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
We got started and had nine players, someone asked about re-buys (I smiled), yes, in the first four levels, you may re-buy. We had three re-buys. I split the purse and three spots would be paid, third started by getting their money back but after the rebuys that doubled. We got four handed and I think I was second in chips when I limped with k 4 suited. The big stack min raised, we were at 500-1000, I was last to act and called. We took the flop of A 8 4, I had been playing with, Animal (his nickname), for a couple of hours and had a good read on him. His read was he did not like this flop but with everyone else he would always bet if they showed weakness, so I checked in hopes of making a check-raise to represent the ace. He checked behind. The turn was a 2, I lead out with 5k, he thought about it and called. The river was a 10, I bet 5k again, trying to make it look like I wanted a call and was extracting value, and maybe this bet would get him to fold. Well he asks, how much do I have, I counted out 15k. He takes a very long time to make a decision, I would say two minutes...he calls and turns over pocket sixes for the win. I say good call. He replies, if you would have bet more I would have folded but you only bet 25% of your stack so I figured you didn't want to lose anymore. I nod, he's a guest and I didn't want to get into a deep conversation on that hand, but it gave me more information and how to get him to fold for now on.
Well he crushes the other two guys and has me out chipped 25-1. We play 10 hands, six of those hands we gave up and sent the blind over, I went all in three times pre-flop just won the blinds and played hand number ten from under the gun with a limp, with AK. I hit my king on the flop and check hoping for a bet, nope, he checks. The turn is a 3, I push all in and he hesitates a bit and calls...he turns over 7-3 and says geez, I thought you were bluffing as a 7 hits the river. That hand would have gotten me even and then I think I would have crushed him from that point, but it was good that I didn't I don't want those guys thinking I am that good (believe me I'm not) and not want to come back. So I, happily, take second place money and paid Animal his loot. We then gambled and played "in between" freaking fun card game, but if you can count cards you can crush it.
Wild Bill is in AC trying to get a "W", so good luck to and prayers to him.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Headache, taxes, Obama Rant...but life is good!
I squeezed my eyes shut hoping that the burning sensation at the pinch points would dissipate and remove themselves from my eye lids. After several attempts it started to work. It is not often, no, I cannot remember the last time I had a headache that hurt this bad! It is one of those pains that burn the temple and you are rubbing at it ineffectively but for some reason, you think it feels better...NOT! I took some sinus medicine as I think it is a sinus issue and got some Excedrin from the store manager. I am still walking around smiling but this really hurts!
Well we got our tax assessment back and we are not happy. We bought a house last June and we are going to get less back than from 2010...maybe this is part of the headache effect? I want to say this is because of the Obama administration, but I can't do that without any proof. Speaking of Obama, what has he done to help better the country? Obama care(mandatory healthcare), got Bin Laden(inevitable), won the Nobel Peace Prize, and...what else? Sorry, just frustrated that people are okay with our government telling us what is good for us. Seat belts, by now, it has been burned into us that we need to wear them, or else you go to jail. Common sense tells us we should wear them for safety purposes. Sometimes they get it right but is it right for them to tell us what we should do? It will, promise you, get to a point where we will be run by the government and not running the government, because the government is for the people. I cannot say that a republican is better than a democrat but I have two good examples...Reagan and Clinton. Reagan got us back on our feet after Carter put us in a hole and Clinton made money as our President, heck the only bad thing I can remember about him was the Lewinsky issue. Reagan worked with both sides and got things done. Clinton did the same and balanced the budget. Bush screwed up but Obama knew that, don't continue to blame, we know, FIX IT! So seriously, what has he done? Please don't say he is being obstructed, he had it all when he came in, that is why democrats lost all those seats, they got too big for their britches. Argh! let me get off my soap box.
Now my return to the felt may be delayed as I was hoping to use some of this tax money to play, but according to the CFO, my wife, it ain't looking good. No worries, I have some other things in the mix to make sure I get to that felt and it should and will be glorious! E-bay anyone? I got action figures, comic books, and sports cards to sell.
I really don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about life. All my complaints are selfish because I want something. My family is healthy, other than my four year old who has bronchitis, but she is getting well. I have given my wife a beautiful home and things are good. Of course we got a little stretched thin because we went crazy with credit but we accept that responsibility and will get it fixed. I guess what I am saying is that this blog is for me, for me to put more of me out there to maybe...get it off my chest(as I shrug my shoulders), that I will have to continue to work hard, raise my children and be a great husband. Even though wanting to play poker, more often, tugs at me. Yes, I like to ramble.
Wild Bill made a final table in the 6-max in Tunica, SWEET! I hope he hits another and hopefully does work in the main event.
Short and sweet...you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Well we got our tax assessment back and we are not happy. We bought a house last June and we are going to get less back than from 2010...maybe this is part of the headache effect? I want to say this is because of the Obama administration, but I can't do that without any proof. Speaking of Obama, what has he done to help better the country? Obama care(mandatory healthcare), got Bin Laden(inevitable), won the Nobel Peace Prize, and...what else? Sorry, just frustrated that people are okay with our government telling us what is good for us. Seat belts, by now, it has been burned into us that we need to wear them, or else you go to jail. Common sense tells us we should wear them for safety purposes. Sometimes they get it right but is it right for them to tell us what we should do? It will, promise you, get to a point where we will be run by the government and not running the government, because the government is for the people. I cannot say that a republican is better than a democrat but I have two good examples...Reagan and Clinton. Reagan got us back on our feet after Carter put us in a hole and Clinton made money as our President, heck the only bad thing I can remember about him was the Lewinsky issue. Reagan worked with both sides and got things done. Clinton did the same and balanced the budget. Bush screwed up but Obama knew that, don't continue to blame, we know, FIX IT! So seriously, what has he done? Please don't say he is being obstructed, he had it all when he came in, that is why democrats lost all those seats, they got too big for their britches. Argh! let me get off my soap box.
Now my return to the felt may be delayed as I was hoping to use some of this tax money to play, but according to the CFO, my wife, it ain't looking good. No worries, I have some other things in the mix to make sure I get to that felt and it should and will be glorious! E-bay anyone? I got action figures, comic books, and sports cards to sell.
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| Bobba Fett and Stormtroopers at attention. |
Wild Bill made a final table in the 6-max in Tunica, SWEET! I hope he hits another and hopefully does work in the main event.
Short and sweet...you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Superbowl weekend, a funny experience and Action shots!
Lots going on today and into the weekend! We are hitting phase two of my warehouse Five "S" project which I had to recognize and react to and change it up a bit, but I'll get the same result in the end. Hard work pays off folks! I cannot say enough about the position I am in, I will continue to thank God for this daily and if it turns out to not work out, I'll thank God for the experience.
This weekend we have two carnivals going, one in Slidell and the other in Metairie, can't recall what the crews are but I think I am going to record a couple of them to re-live the experience and post them for those way outside of the New Orleans area, these parades are big time!
We also have the Super Bowl, as a guy who has played football for half his life, this is something I'll never be able to experience first hand but it is a good time to watch and enjoy, they really leave it on the field for this game. I think the family will be heading to a neighbors house for a bit to socialize more than watch the game.
I had a very funny experience last night as I left work. Let me start with some history.Right next door to our building a gymnastics training facility has opened and the place does not have a lot of parking. I as a new business in the area and understanding that we will not have a lot of parking would make friends with your neighbors and visit with them to see if it would be a problem to utilize our parking lot, after hours. They did not, they talked to one of our inside sales reps, who just told them what our hours were, well they took that as, we can use their parking lot after 5pm. We had to correct that...quickly.
They had about five cars in our parking lot at 4pm last week and had filled up the businesses parking lot on the other side of them plus their own, so we had kids, parents and grand parents looking for parking and since we were next door, why not? My store manager is VERY aggressive and did not want them parking there, good reason, it'll take spaces away from her customers and in our experience trash starts to build up and we did not want that to happen. So she and I went next door and walked through the hundred or so gymnastic girls to get to the front desk to ask them to not park next door, my store manager noticed the sign on the door that they could park next door after 5 pm and she went off, in front of the kids. I'm a big black guy...I was blushing. I wanted to be very neutral and understanding of their situation and not be too aggressive but that went out the door...it worked so we rarely have to tell folks not to park in our parking lot. I am 100% sure that they are, they are doing it way after we leave, but don't let me find trash out there, then the PAIN TRAIN will be coming.
So the picture shows how close they are, I've tried to open that door. Okay, back to my story, I've given the history so yesterday at about 5:30 pm as I was leaving to go home and SUV pulls in and parks, now I really don't have a problem with this but I tell myself they should wait until I leave then I tell myself not to be a punk and let them park. So I get out of my car and notice it is an older gentleman, "Excuse me sir, you are going to have to park at the facility next door, we really don't want anyone parking here after hours, thanks."
He looks at me, for a second, slowly turns back to his SUV and throws his hand at me like he was going to block my lay up and says, "Fooey!" and I think something else under his voice. I laughed all the way home, fooey? I can hear nincompoop from that same source.
I discovered a cool function on my Samsung Infuse Android phone, my camera has this action button and takes pictures like this:
I think it's pretty cool, I was snapping shots of them swinging on the tire swing, all kinds of ACTION shots of them playing.
I believe I will be hitting the felt on the 17th of February, I have been brushing up by reading a couple of blogs Ed Millers and Mitchell Cogerts and re-reading Harrington on cash games, also re-read low stakes hold'em, which was all about beating low LIMIT hold'em, not no-limit, but the thought process was similar just need to adjust it a bit for no limit. I'll be talking to a buddy of mine this weekend, I hope and talk through different situations and the metagame. Just look forward to bringing more wins home than losses.
I know Wild Bill is in Tunica, good luck brother. I think Gene-O will be heading out there as well good luck to you as well! Prayers coming for both of you.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
This weekend we have two carnivals going, one in Slidell and the other in Metairie, can't recall what the crews are but I think I am going to record a couple of them to re-live the experience and post them for those way outside of the New Orleans area, these parades are big time!
We also have the Super Bowl, as a guy who has played football for half his life, this is something I'll never be able to experience first hand but it is a good time to watch and enjoy, they really leave it on the field for this game. I think the family will be heading to a neighbors house for a bit to socialize more than watch the game.
I had a very funny experience last night as I left work. Let me start with some history.Right next door to our building a gymnastics training facility has opened and the place does not have a lot of parking. I as a new business in the area and understanding that we will not have a lot of parking would make friends with your neighbors and visit with them to see if it would be a problem to utilize our parking lot, after hours. They did not, they talked to one of our inside sales reps, who just told them what our hours were, well they took that as, we can use their parking lot after 5pm. We had to correct that...quickly.
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| Shot from our door, my parking lot. |
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| The neighbor, gymnastics and good loud music |
He looks at me, for a second, slowly turns back to his SUV and throws his hand at me like he was going to block my lay up and says, "Fooey!" and I think something else under his voice. I laughed all the way home, fooey? I can hear nincompoop from that same source.
I discovered a cool function on my Samsung Infuse Android phone, my camera has this action button and takes pictures like this:
 |
| My youngest running up a dirt pile and down it. |
I believe I will be hitting the felt on the 17th of February, I have been brushing up by reading a couple of blogs Ed Millers and Mitchell Cogerts and re-reading Harrington on cash games, also re-read low stakes hold'em, which was all about beating low LIMIT hold'em, not no-limit, but the thought process was similar just need to adjust it a bit for no limit. I'll be talking to a buddy of mine this weekend, I hope and talk through different situations and the metagame. Just look forward to bringing more wins home than losses.
I know Wild Bill is in Tunica, good luck brother. I think Gene-O will be heading out there as well good luck to you as well! Prayers coming for both of you.
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Get my mind right!
I sit here wading through thought, restlessness and activity that must be achieved. Very vague but true. I am in a great position here and truly appreciate what I have been blessed with and every day I must challenge myself to be better. I don't have a boss who has an office two doors down from me, he is in another city which is in another state! I am the one who runs this and I must step up on a daily basis and make sure all of the ground work I started in September continues to this day. There are days where team members make a mistake, now I have to look at that mistake and deem it a quick floor conversation or a "let's move to the office and talk" conversation. I've had a few of the later but my goal is to set it up that I should rarely set foot on that floor, I want and need to work to the next level while I am currently running operations here for example our Operations Excellence director is working all the CI projects, I am a CI guy and could help with quality input, travel to get productive data, take some of the workload off and make it my own, to solidify my position and set myself up to move to the next level when promotions are considered.
I have several books on styles of management, I am currently reading a book that talks about how I got to where I am will not get me to the next level. Very interesting stuff, of course there are a few other books I am reading at the same time along with my comic books and graphic novels. Yes, I enjoy reading and wish it would better me around my writing skills. A quote comes to mind, "You get out of it what you put into it,"...right?
So I sit here and thoughts of MW3 are streaming through my thoughts. Fifth prestige, 1.03 k/d, just doing work! Those thoughts are quickly followed by sitting at a poker table and felting a lunchbox who called my three beat with A 10 off and runs into my pocket aces. All of these things take effort, I am an okay texas hold'em player and have been a gamer since rocking and rolling on my commodore 64 in the 80's!
The last couple of years have been unsuccessful in poker in the cash games, it was so bad last year that I told my wife I'd have to take the rest of 2011 off and not play in a casino environment. Why? I had not put into it what I expected! I have a library of poker books, a lot of friends who play much better than myself and blogs to read and I have not leveraged any of those resources. I just went off of what I knew and told myself it was like riding a bicycle and I sat down and played. Of course I SKIMMED through a couple of my books looking at a few of the highlighted areas and told myself, "LET's DO IT!"
It was not that easy, I remember sitting at the table, holding K Q suited in the cut off seat and this lady in the hi jack, right next to me raises after two had limped into the pot and I just called but something in the way back of my head told me I should raise here, but I was not sure. I ended up winning the hand but after that indecision I continued to make bad decisions and eventually lost a buy in. I have over 10 books about poker and am reading through one that has opened my eyes and has me salivating to get to the tables. I plan on making a showing in late February and hope to play on Friday evenings going forward and look forward to documenting my WINS and how it was done. I am putting a lot of research into getting back on the tables and will be talking to a few of my buddy's about random thought processes throughout a session. I believe that putting the research time, the study in will pay off and it was something I did not do well before. Yes, I talked about it and said I was going to do it but I actually am and it has been insightful.
I love my family, I love my home, I love my life and I look at others who have children and wonder if my desire to play and take some time from my kids is bad? What I mean is if I go play poker, I am not around my kids, sharing in those special moments. For example, my three year old, Sienna, ran into the living room, jumped up next to me on the couch looked at me, smiled and said I love you daddy. I said I loved her back. She continued to sit there for a few more seconds and said "You love me enough to get me some milk?" That was awesome! She usually taps my hand and says Daddy get me some milk. Then I have to say, What was that honey? Then she says, Can you fix me some milk? But this time it was special as she is learning to manipulate me! LOL! It'll only be an evening out of the week but maybe it's the way I am putting down that it seems and feels despicable. Yet, I want and feel that I need to play and it worries me and I hope it does not worry me so much that I will play bad. So as I stated in another post, I have to give up my x-box time and hang out with the kids during that time and the weekends are wide open for my little ones. I have a 17 year old who wants to play football for the first time IN COLLEGE and has asked me to show him some stuff! Color me excited! The only things I force on my kids are learning how to respect others, discipline and making sure they are getting an education. I envy my wife as she lives here life for my kids, not that I don't but it is much different in comparing how she is versus how I am with our kids. What the heck just happened, now should I delete all this mopey stuff about my kids or should I leave it, hell, going to leave it! We only live once folks, but we need to do what we want responsibly and hold ourselves accountable! I know my kids love me to death and I them, so it won't hurt if I am a bit successful at the tables and it pays off when Santa comes...just saying! Enough! I have ranted enough, you all stay frosty!
Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
I have several books on styles of management, I am currently reading a book that talks about how I got to where I am will not get me to the next level. Very interesting stuff, of course there are a few other books I am reading at the same time along with my comic books and graphic novels. Yes, I enjoy reading and wish it would better me around my writing skills. A quote comes to mind, "You get out of it what you put into it,"...right?
The last couple of years have been unsuccessful in poker in the cash games, it was so bad last year that I told my wife I'd have to take the rest of 2011 off and not play in a casino environment. Why? I had not put into it what I expected! I have a library of poker books, a lot of friends who play much better than myself and blogs to read and I have not leveraged any of those resources. I just went off of what I knew and told myself it was like riding a bicycle and I sat down and played. Of course I SKIMMED through a couple of my books looking at a few of the highlighted areas and told myself, "LET's DO IT!"
It was not that easy, I remember sitting at the table, holding K Q suited in the cut off seat and this lady in the hi jack, right next to me raises after two had limped into the pot and I just called but something in the way back of my head told me I should raise here, but I was not sure. I ended up winning the hand but after that indecision I continued to make bad decisions and eventually lost a buy in. I have over 10 books about poker and am reading through one that has opened my eyes and has me salivating to get to the tables. I plan on making a showing in late February and hope to play on Friday evenings going forward and look forward to documenting my WINS and how it was done. I am putting a lot of research into getting back on the tables and will be talking to a few of my buddy's about random thought processes throughout a session. I believe that putting the research time, the study in will pay off and it was something I did not do well before. Yes, I talked about it and said I was going to do it but I actually am and it has been insightful.
 |
| Barry Sanders...THE MAN! |
I love my family, I love my home, I love my life and I look at others who have children and wonder if my desire to play and take some time from my kids is bad? What I mean is if I go play poker, I am not around my kids, sharing in those special moments. For example, my three year old, Sienna, ran into the living room, jumped up next to me on the couch looked at me, smiled and said I love you daddy. I said I loved her back. She continued to sit there for a few more seconds and said "You love me enough to get me some milk?" That was awesome! She usually taps my hand and says Daddy get me some milk. Then I have to say, What was that honey? Then she says, Can you fix me some milk? But this time it was special as she is learning to manipulate me! LOL! It'll only be an evening out of the week but maybe it's the way I am putting down that it seems and feels despicable. Yet, I want and feel that I need to play and it worries me and I hope it does not worry me so much that I will play bad. So as I stated in another post, I have to give up my x-box time and hang out with the kids during that time and the weekends are wide open for my little ones. I have a 17 year old who wants to play football for the first time IN COLLEGE and has asked me to show him some stuff! Color me excited! The only things I force on my kids are learning how to respect others, discipline and making sure they are getting an education. I envy my wife as she lives here life for my kids, not that I don't but it is much different in comparing how she is versus how I am with our kids. What the heck just happened, now should I delete all this mopey stuff about my kids or should I leave it, hell, going to leave it! We only live once folks, but we need to do what we want responsibly and hold ourselves accountable! I know my kids love me to death and I them, so it won't hurt if I am a bit successful at the tables and it pays off when Santa comes...just saying! Enough! I have ranted enough, you all stay frosty!
Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
DEAD MONEY Last Chance table
1-17-2012
I donned my Gulf coast poker.net hoodie, after parking in Harrah's garage, 8th floor. Grabbed my satchel, put on my size 8 throwback fitted hat and proceeded to the Queen and Crescent hotel, home of the Dead Money tournament. I arrived in a state of panic as I forgot that there are two entrances to the hotel and was hanging out in the wrong one, I had to cross the street to the main entrance and proceed to the Napoleon room. I flopped down into a black painted, hard wood chair, quickly took off the hoodie and the throwback Dallas Cowboy hat in order to cool down as I began to slowly perspire, a very uncomfortable feeling. Met Wild Bill, exchanged pleasantries, grabbed a card player and bluff magazine, have not seen any of these for about a year, good stuff to find out where the poker world is now. Of course getting on-line, and hitting those sites would be comparable, however; I enjoy holding a magazine and leafing through the pages. I started a conversation with Austin, another blogger on the site, who had a pretty good cash in the Choctaw Casinos Indian tournament series, (hope that's correct). He was pictured along side the other final table members in the current Card Player Magazine, cashed for 17K, but we were talking about the rise and fall of his poker website and then Gene D rumbled in and we started talking with him and he and Austin talked about his free roll in the million dollar event due to his tourney MVP at the recent IP circuit event.
There were some interesting characters, the three friends from Cleveland, Ryan is the one I remember and I believe he won himself into the Main Event this past Saturday. Also, met Brian from Nantucket, Ma, he's a captain of a fishing boat and had some pretty cool stories. He's also a pretty damn good poker player.
We had 18 players to try to win two seats to the main table the next day. I looked forward to this as it would be the first time I have played in 11 months. I did, lie, and say I have played in some home games but I didn't want to be perceived as weak due to my lack of current experience, one of the only things I regret about the night. The turn out has to be the 2nd largest if not the largest since Wild Bill started this back in 2004. That said a lot to me about where poker is today, not dead and growing, much slower but growing.
At my table I had, Brian from Nantucket on my left, followed by an older gentleman who, I believe, plays regularly at Harrahs, not sure. Followed by a young Russian(I think so because I heard him talking to the other Russian on the other table earlier and I think they were speaking in Russian, so I should be right) who plays at Harrahs, freaking highly aggressive as I saw him , later that night, put the older gentleman all in with an Ace on the board and the the old guy made a crying call with pocket queens, the young Russian said, "You called, you win," and insta mucked his hand. WOW! The old guy still turned his hand up. Then we had Ryan from Cleveland, Wild Bill, Dave Anderson, and Gene D on my right. I held my own, after starting in the big blind with 6 8 off and hitting my gutshot straight on the turn, while it completed a flush, I bet it and was called by only Wild Bill. I bet the blank on the river and was raised by WB, of course I should fold, but I called and he showed K3 suited for the flush.
I opened from position with good hands, had pocket pairs pretty often, lowest being treys. I had pocket Kings twice, pocket Aces twice, showed the pocket kings once and had a solid image at this table. Got involved in a hand with Gene D, I was in the hi-jack, he limped in after another before had limped as well, I look down at wired 8's and raise it, I get them both to call. Flop is A 7 6, they both check to me. I bet c-bet, looking for a check raise, the other guy folds and Gene D goes into this monologue, "Yeah, guess that hits your range, hmm, yep, that had to hit your range, good hand sir," and mucks. I was laughing inside, I guess he limped with K 9 or 10, or J. Maybe QJ or the very least Q 10. Another hand which had me feeling good about my self was towards the end of that first table, image has been established, so the old guy opens, Ryan from Cleveland flats, I'm in the cut-off and I see that Brian from Nantucket likes what he sees and I quickly think he wants to play so that helped my decision with pocket 4's, I re popped it. Brian, gives me a slight, "ugh," and the Old guy takes a long time before he folds, it comes back to Ryan, he looks at me and eventually calls. The flop is A 9 J, Ryan checks I c-bet half the pot and Ryan mucks, the old guy said he had pocket Jacks.
When we lost eight players we got together on one table, I did well at my table but when we combined I had to lay down once when I had AK, I raised pre-flop and got called by two players. The flop was babies, 7 5 2, Austin bet into us, fold and I folded. During this time I was getting blinded out and anted out, did not get a good hand and just did not play my position correctly nor understood the table dynamics enough to make the appropriate moves to win some money, what I am saying is I got very passive and finished by pushing all in with A 4 off into a pre flop raiser and caller. I hit a four on the flop but pre flop raiser hit a set with his pocket 10's and I was out in sixth place. Parfait and the other Russian advanced to the next day's final table, Gene D hit the bubble.
Wild Bill ran a good tournament, the only issue was the air, got pretty stuffy in there. A funny story that happened during the tournament was Ryan went out and picked up some Chinese food and about 20 minutes later we had Chinese delivered, no one ordered it but the fellas bought it anyway, I can remember Captain Ron wanting an egg roll. Looking forward to next years meeting and hopefully be in a position of playing a New Orleans table in November, last chance if I have to and have the ability to buy into the final table if I have to. Research and experience, and more conversation with better players are my key ingredients!
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
I donned my Gulf coast poker.net hoodie, after parking in Harrah's garage, 8th floor. Grabbed my satchel, put on my size 8 throwback fitted hat and proceeded to the Queen and Crescent hotel, home of the Dead Money tournament. I arrived in a state of panic as I forgot that there are two entrances to the hotel and was hanging out in the wrong one, I had to cross the street to the main entrance and proceed to the Napoleon room. I flopped down into a black painted, hard wood chair, quickly took off the hoodie and the throwback Dallas Cowboy hat in order to cool down as I began to slowly perspire, a very uncomfortable feeling. Met Wild Bill, exchanged pleasantries, grabbed a card player and bluff magazine, have not seen any of these for about a year, good stuff to find out where the poker world is now. Of course getting on-line, and hitting those sites would be comparable, however; I enjoy holding a magazine and leafing through the pages. I started a conversation with Austin, another blogger on the site, who had a pretty good cash in the Choctaw Casinos Indian tournament series, (hope that's correct). He was pictured along side the other final table members in the current Card Player Magazine, cashed for 17K, but we were talking about the rise and fall of his poker website and then Gene D rumbled in and we started talking with him and he and Austin talked about his free roll in the million dollar event due to his tourney MVP at the recent IP circuit event.
There were some interesting characters, the three friends from Cleveland, Ryan is the one I remember and I believe he won himself into the Main Event this past Saturday. Also, met Brian from Nantucket, Ma, he's a captain of a fishing boat and had some pretty cool stories. He's also a pretty damn good poker player.
At my table I had, Brian from Nantucket on my left, followed by an older gentleman who, I believe, plays regularly at Harrahs, not sure. Followed by a young Russian(I think so because I heard him talking to the other Russian on the other table earlier and I think they were speaking in Russian, so I should be right) who plays at Harrahs, freaking highly aggressive as I saw him , later that night, put the older gentleman all in with an Ace on the board and the the old guy made a crying call with pocket queens, the young Russian said, "You called, you win," and insta mucked his hand. WOW! The old guy still turned his hand up. Then we had Ryan from Cleveland, Wild Bill, Dave Anderson, and Gene D on my right. I held my own, after starting in the big blind with 6 8 off and hitting my gutshot straight on the turn, while it completed a flush, I bet it and was called by only Wild Bill. I bet the blank on the river and was raised by WB, of course I should fold, but I called and he showed K3 suited for the flush.
I opened from position with good hands, had pocket pairs pretty often, lowest being treys. I had pocket Kings twice, pocket Aces twice, showed the pocket kings once and had a solid image at this table. Got involved in a hand with Gene D, I was in the hi-jack, he limped in after another before had limped as well, I look down at wired 8's and raise it, I get them both to call. Flop is A 7 6, they both check to me. I bet c-bet, looking for a check raise, the other guy folds and Gene D goes into this monologue, "Yeah, guess that hits your range, hmm, yep, that had to hit your range, good hand sir," and mucks. I was laughing inside, I guess he limped with K 9 or 10, or J. Maybe QJ or the very least Q 10. Another hand which had me feeling good about my self was towards the end of that first table, image has been established, so the old guy opens, Ryan from Cleveland flats, I'm in the cut-off and I see that Brian from Nantucket likes what he sees and I quickly think he wants to play so that helped my decision with pocket 4's, I re popped it. Brian, gives me a slight, "ugh," and the Old guy takes a long time before he folds, it comes back to Ryan, he looks at me and eventually calls. The flop is A 9 J, Ryan checks I c-bet half the pot and Ryan mucks, the old guy said he had pocket Jacks.
When we lost eight players we got together on one table, I did well at my table but when we combined I had to lay down once when I had AK, I raised pre-flop and got called by two players. The flop was babies, 7 5 2, Austin bet into us, fold and I folded. During this time I was getting blinded out and anted out, did not get a good hand and just did not play my position correctly nor understood the table dynamics enough to make the appropriate moves to win some money, what I am saying is I got very passive and finished by pushing all in with A 4 off into a pre flop raiser and caller. I hit a four on the flop but pre flop raiser hit a set with his pocket 10's and I was out in sixth place. Parfait and the other Russian advanced to the next day's final table, Gene D hit the bubble.
Wild Bill ran a good tournament, the only issue was the air, got pretty stuffy in there. A funny story that happened during the tournament was Ryan went out and picked up some Chinese food and about 20 minutes later we had Chinese delivered, no one ordered it but the fellas bought it anyway, I can remember Captain Ron wanting an egg roll. Looking forward to next years meeting and hopefully be in a position of playing a New Orleans table in November, last chance if I have to and have the ability to buy into the final table if I have to. Research and experience, and more conversation with better players are my key ingredients!
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Alabama, Mardi Gras and Bad Beat jackpots
1-11-2012
Alabama showed everyone why they should have been in this game. I am a University of Pittsburgh graduate so this is an impartial viewpoint (opinion). First, it was not a fluke that Alabama did what they did to LSU there were several contributing reasons. Defense-Alabama shut down LSU's option play, which allows LSU to open things up and do a lot out of this package, since it did not work for them Alabama was able to press their coverage and not worry to much about the deep ball. We did get a glimpse of Alabama's secondary and it is not as strong as their front line. That front line pressured, harassed and sacked LSU so much that the secondary did not have to worry too much about getting beat deep. Running back-Alabama had the edge, due to Trent Richardson, but look out for Lacy next year going forward, he had a strong game. Receivers and tight ends-Alabama's best receiver went down after a fantastic punt return and the receivers and tight ends stepped up. There were deflected passes that were caught at crucial times, deep passes caught at crucial times. Quarterback-not many, but the true Alabama fans, knew that McCarrion was as athletic as he showed us and he kept it under control while Jefferson looked confused and not in control. Mental Game-Alabama wanted this more than LSU. It felt like LSU thought that Alabama should roll over and hand them the win. Coaching-Alabama out coached LSU. Les even admits this in post game interviews, he said he as surprised and did not know how to help his team.."WHAT! REALLY?!?" Score- Alabama SHUT OUT LSU, case closed they showed that they are the best in the nation and showed it in dramatic form. They proved that they, not Oklahoma State or anyone else should have been in this game. Just to put an exclamation point on this, LSU had one penetration of the 50 yard line into Alabama territory and less than 100 total offensive yards!
This was my brief take on the BCS game, I didn't think it was boring, I really enjoyed the watching how well coached BOTH defenses played, but LSU's defense was on the field for a long time and those boys got tired.
Bird watchers have a blast waiting to see a particular bird and take great joy in watching all that they see and how those birds interact with their environment. As a former player, I really enjoy the trench play, how well the defense would stay squared, watching offensive line and tight ends drive block on running plays. How did the coaches teach them, what methods did they use? Watching the best, really is interesting, if you watched me during my tenure, you would laugh at how undisciplined and foolish I looked on the field.
This February the 21st is FAT TUESDAY but I believe I'll be visiting friends in Missouri so I will not be around to take dat money at Harrahs.
I believe that my first visit back to Harrahs will be on the 24th and I am eager! I am going through my library and reading through some scenarios, refreshing myself around certain plays and situations, re-reading my book on tells but I think I'll be working on not giving away too much. I have started my mantra, wait to play, wait to play, wait to play...because every time I take time off and get back to the tables, I usually play as soon as possible, out of position when someone has raised and the raiser gets called I look down at A9 suited and say, "yeah go for it you'll surprise 'em, they'll never see it coming," of course that has not worked ONCE! There is a teaching format that I think I'll share if I can find it. Helped me get my basics down.
I was thinking about bad beat jackpots the other day and how hitting one of those could elevate someone's bankroll, quickly! Well I have been involved in four at Harrahs and one in Biloxi, three at Harrahs were table stakes and the one in Biloxi was a table stake even though it was hit at another table! Very cool. The other that I was involved in was pretty special as I was the one who beat the guy for the bad beat, it was the beginning of my poker stint back in 2002, Harrahs poker room was in the back where the steak restaurant is, it had two levels and it was a great room! We were isolated, not too noisy from the slots but visible enough for people to find. This was before Moneymaker had hit it big and No Limit Texas Hold'em became "the" game. Here in New Orleans before Moneymaker, omaha was the big game, especially 1-4-8-8 limit omaha/hold'em. Well I was at the front table by the walk way towards the buffet. There was this old guy who had pissed me off on the prior hand by chasing and catching on the river, we were working through the omaha round, every time the button got to the dealer the game would switch from hold'em to omaha back and forth. I was in the 10 seat he was in the four seat, in the bad beat hand I had QJ suited 8 2, can't remember if it was hearts or diamonds. I still remember the guy, about 6'4', always wore a baseball hat, white hair, mustache and trimmed beard and had a look of "whatever" on his face at all times. (SIDE NOTE-Little history, I used to play 7 card stud, at the treasure chest. This is where I met Christy for the first time, she is an excellent dealer at Harrahs and usually deals the final table on the main events with Darrell. I used to look at the half/half game back then and was very intimidated at the speed and the bets. I finally start playing half/half and started to beat it eventually I would play during the week and the games would finish early so they told me about the room at Harrahs. I make my way there and really enjoyed it.) So we get a family pot, now I am steaming, this was during a time when my poker etiquette...SUCKED! I was steaming and you could see it. I think I was under the gun, yep, and the flop comes K, 10, 9 of hearts/diamonds. I bet out, it was four bucks, two callers to the lunchbox and he raises and my buddy, Chris, calls, I call and another one of the earlier callers call as well. The turn brings another heart/diamond like a 3 or 4, I check, check, lunchbox bets, Chris calls, I raise...yep...fold, lunchbox re-raises and Chris calls. I look at Chris and he says to me, "Hope you got what I think you have!" yes with three of us playing. I simply call because I am confused. I know that the lunchbox has the ace high flush so I am trying to get a lot of money from him, I just didn't know why Chris was still in it because a set should have let it go after the re-raise. Well the river is a king, I don't care, I bet, lunchbox gets frustrated and folds, Chris says you do don't you! He raises, I re-raise and he screams yes! He calls and yells "JACKPOT!" Now look, I haven't shown my cards yet, I could have been an idbot and raised with a full house or the ace high flush. He turns his cards over with two black kings that match the two red ones on the board. I scream and turn over my straight flush and the table erupts, even my nemesis. It was a sizable jackpot as I took home $8k, he got over $20k and the table got a nice chunk. I can't tell you what I did with that money but I promise you, bankroll management was not part of my vocabulary. I hope that one day I can get snapped off for a jackpot but until then...
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Alabama showed everyone why they should have been in this game. I am a University of Pittsburgh graduate so this is an impartial viewpoint (opinion). First, it was not a fluke that Alabama did what they did to LSU there were several contributing reasons. Defense-Alabama shut down LSU's option play, which allows LSU to open things up and do a lot out of this package, since it did not work for them Alabama was able to press their coverage and not worry to much about the deep ball. We did get a glimpse of Alabama's secondary and it is not as strong as their front line. That front line pressured, harassed and sacked LSU so much that the secondary did not have to worry too much about getting beat deep. Running back-Alabama had the edge, due to Trent Richardson, but look out for Lacy next year going forward, he had a strong game. Receivers and tight ends-Alabama's best receiver went down after a fantastic punt return and the receivers and tight ends stepped up. There were deflected passes that were caught at crucial times, deep passes caught at crucial times. Quarterback-not many, but the true Alabama fans, knew that McCarrion was as athletic as he showed us and he kept it under control while Jefferson looked confused and not in control. Mental Game-Alabama wanted this more than LSU. It felt like LSU thought that Alabama should roll over and hand them the win. Coaching-Alabama out coached LSU. Les even admits this in post game interviews, he said he as surprised and did not know how to help his team.."WHAT! REALLY?!?" Score- Alabama SHUT OUT LSU, case closed they showed that they are the best in the nation and showed it in dramatic form. They proved that they, not Oklahoma State or anyone else should have been in this game. Just to put an exclamation point on this, LSU had one penetration of the 50 yard line into Alabama territory and less than 100 total offensive yards!
This was my brief take on the BCS game, I didn't think it was boring, I really enjoyed the watching how well coached BOTH defenses played, but LSU's defense was on the field for a long time and those boys got tired.
This February the 21st is FAT TUESDAY but I believe I'll be visiting friends in Missouri so I will not be around to take dat money at Harrahs.
I was thinking about bad beat jackpots the other day and how hitting one of those could elevate someone's bankroll, quickly! Well I have been involved in four at Harrahs and one in Biloxi, three at Harrahs were table stakes and the one in Biloxi was a table stake even though it was hit at another table! Very cool. The other that I was involved in was pretty special as I was the one who beat the guy for the bad beat, it was the beginning of my poker stint back in 2002, Harrahs poker room was in the back where the steak restaurant is, it had two levels and it was a great room! We were isolated, not too noisy from the slots but visible enough for people to find. This was before Moneymaker had hit it big and No Limit Texas Hold'em became "the" game. Here in New Orleans before Moneymaker, omaha was the big game, especially 1-4-8-8 limit omaha/hold'em. Well I was at the front table by the walk way towards the buffet. There was this old guy who had pissed me off on the prior hand by chasing and catching on the river, we were working through the omaha round, every time the button got to the dealer the game would switch from hold'em to omaha back and forth. I was in the 10 seat he was in the four seat, in the bad beat hand I had QJ suited 8 2, can't remember if it was hearts or diamonds. I still remember the guy, about 6'4', always wore a baseball hat, white hair, mustache and trimmed beard and had a look of "whatever" on his face at all times. (SIDE NOTE-Little history, I used to play 7 card stud, at the treasure chest. This is where I met Christy for the first time, she is an excellent dealer at Harrahs and usually deals the final table on the main events with Darrell. I used to look at the half/half game back then and was very intimidated at the speed and the bets. I finally start playing half/half and started to beat it eventually I would play during the week and the games would finish early so they told me about the room at Harrahs. I make my way there and really enjoyed it.) So we get a family pot, now I am steaming, this was during a time when my poker etiquette...SUCKED! I was steaming and you could see it. I think I was under the gun, yep, and the flop comes K, 10, 9 of hearts/diamonds. I bet out, it was four bucks, two callers to the lunchbox and he raises and my buddy, Chris, calls, I call and another one of the earlier callers call as well. The turn brings another heart/diamond like a 3 or 4, I check, check, lunchbox bets, Chris calls, I raise...yep...fold, lunchbox re-raises and Chris calls. I look at Chris and he says to me, "Hope you got what I think you have!" yes with three of us playing. I simply call because I am confused. I know that the lunchbox has the ace high flush so I am trying to get a lot of money from him, I just didn't know why Chris was still in it because a set should have let it go after the re-raise. Well the river is a king, I don't care, I bet, lunchbox gets frustrated and folds, Chris says you do don't you! He raises, I re-raise and he screams yes! He calls and yells "JACKPOT!" Now look, I haven't shown my cards yet, I could have been an idbot and raised with a full house or the ace high flush. He turns his cards over with two black kings that match the two red ones on the board. I scream and turn over my straight flush and the table erupts, even my nemesis. It was a sizable jackpot as I took home $8k, he got over $20k and the table got a nice chunk. I can't tell you what I did with that money but I promise you, bankroll management was not part of my vocabulary. I hope that one day I can get snapped off for a jackpot but until then...
(similar but represented what happened)
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
2012: Resolutions, College Football Helmets.
What up? So what are your New Year's resolutions? I have a few, of course, one being to lose weight. That one is key because my kids are getting a little more active and I need to show them how it is done! My 10 year old thinks he can dribble a basketball. He can't, however, he can bounce the ball with his hand, but he cannot dribble...not yet, but it'll come. One of the many things I want to be able to do, losing weight will help with that. Another resolution is to get more poker time, that will mean a huge reduction in XBOX time unless I am playing with the kids, because I will have to move that time to hanging with the kids so that I don't miss a beat in that department. I do enjoy playing MW3!
Projects for this year work and home: Patio around our Oak tree to include a fire pit. Enclosing part of the living room to create a gameroom/guest bedroom. Finishing our Five S project in the warehouse. Getting the offices cleaned up. Moving my office to the bigger office. Cleaning my closet. Setting up an ebay sales account, gots things I want to sell. So I will have a lot to do and will not be very idle after this weekend.
Looking forward to Pitt playing SMU this Saturday. I don't know much about SMU, lately, but the program looks to be rising again. SMU Mustangs had been more like burros or mules but they have started playing football and have taken a long time to recover from the death penalty they were dealt so long ago. Pitt needs to be focused and finsh the season with a winning record. We picked up a new head coach , Paul Chryst, former Wisconsin Offensive coordinator. New coach and new conference, I am uber excited for the 2012 season! I don't know who is coaching the team in the bowl game but I suggest they start the true freshman from Texas, if he isn't hurt. Their senior...I hate to say this...hate to do this but it seems like he chokes. If they can get the run game going, and just control the ball and grind it out, we should win. Flashy isn't bad either but if it doesn't work it'll make us look bad. Go get that "W" Pitt! So, HAIL TO PITT!
Of course I think the flat paint jobs are due to an inspiration from the hit MTV show Rob and Big when they "murdered" out the Tahoe in all flat black.
Of course The New Years was great, we had Mitai's and frozen Margaritas. We fired off $40 worth of fireworks which seemed like a lot but was nothing compared to my neighbor who went through $2000 worth and what a show that was. Getting ready to start grinding it out in February. My first stop should be in Biloxi and then I'll make stops in Harrahs on Friday nights, so look for me in Harrah's grinding it out, I'm looking to try to make 40 big blinds an hour in the 1-2 NL game. I'll need prayer.
Projects for this year work and home: Patio around our Oak tree to include a fire pit. Enclosing part of the living room to create a gameroom/guest bedroom. Finishing our Five S project in the warehouse. Getting the offices cleaned up. Moving my office to the bigger office. Cleaning my closet. Setting up an ebay sales account, gots things I want to sell. So I will have a lot to do and will not be very idle after this weekend.
Looking forward to Pitt playing SMU this Saturday. I don't know much about SMU, lately, but the program looks to be rising again. SMU Mustangs had been more like burros or mules but they have started playing football and have taken a long time to recover from the death penalty they were dealt so long ago. Pitt needs to be focused and finsh the season with a winning record. We picked up a new head coach , Paul Chryst, former Wisconsin Offensive coordinator. New coach and new conference, I am uber excited for the 2012 season! I don't know who is coaching the team in the bowl game but I suggest they start the true freshman from Texas, if he isn't hurt. Their senior...I hate to say this...hate to do this but it seems like he chokes. If they can get the run game going, and just control the ball and grind it out, we should win. Flashy isn't bad either but if it doesn't work it'll make us look bad. Go get that "W" Pitt! So, HAIL TO PITT!In talking about college football, I secretly love the Oregon Ducks uniforms, all of them especially what they wore in the Rose Bowl. Those mirrored helmets were "BUTTERY!" I heard that the commentators were upset because they were so reflective (not against the rules) and it was hard to see the players numbe
rs. As a fan who was watching I loved the look and enjoyed watching the game. I think those helmets will look better with the white uniforms with the gray wings. Maybe we will see them? I am not going to pressure my kids to go to that school but that is the only way I can wear another schools, of like caliber, colors. That is a rule! I am a PITT grad and I only rock that schools name. I also understand that the NFL is opening up the uniform policy and it looks like they are going to allow NIKE to get in there, starting in April 2012, moving away from Reebok. I have to show you all some of the cool helmets that were out there in college football. Shoot when I played we had one helmet, two different jerseys, freaking Oregon (In a class by themselves) have about six different uniforms and helmets! GEEZ! That, folks, is how much money college football is making, those uniforms are not just for the teams they are for spectators, we who like coolness and difference and will tune in and catch whatever ads that may play during that game, that is another reason, in my opinion, on why these schools get these different uniforms and helmets. With that said there will be a few who will not get multiple uniforms, for example, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Penn State. Here are a few of the helmets that I liked: Baylor's flat green helmet (NICE!) Arizona States Firey Pitch Fork (Awesome!) and Southern Mississippi's Flat black helmets(OUTSTANDING!) 
rs. As a fan who was watching I loved the look and enjoyed watching the game. I think those helmets will look better with the white uniforms with the gray wings. Maybe we will see them? I am not going to pressure my kids to go to that school but that is the only way I can wear another schools, of like caliber, colors. That is a rule! I am a PITT grad and I only rock that schools name. I also understand that the NFL is opening up the uniform policy and it looks like they are going to allow NIKE to get in there, starting in April 2012, moving away from Reebok. I have to show you all some of the cool helmets that were out there in college football. Shoot when I played we had one helmet, two different jerseys, freaking Oregon (In a class by themselves) have about six different uniforms and helmets! GEEZ! That, folks, is how much money college football is making, those uniforms are not just for the teams they are for spectators, we who like coolness and difference and will tune in and catch whatever ads that may play during that game, that is another reason, in my opinion, on why these schools get these different uniforms and helmets. With that said there will be a few who will not get multiple uniforms, for example, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Penn State. Here are a few of the helmets that I liked: Baylor's flat green helmet (NICE!) Arizona States Firey Pitch Fork (Awesome!) and Southern Mississippi's Flat black helmets(OUTSTANDING!) 
Of course I think the flat paint jobs are due to an inspiration from the hit MTV show Rob and Big when they "murdered" out the Tahoe in all flat black.Of course The New Years was great, we had Mitai's and frozen Margaritas. We fired off $40 worth of fireworks which seemed like a lot but was nothing compared to my neighbor who went through $2000 worth and what a show that was. Getting ready to start grinding it out in February. My first stop should be in Biloxi and then I'll make stops in Harrahs on Friday nights, so look for me in Harrah's grinding it out, I'm looking to try to make 40 big blinds an hour in the 1-2 NL game. I'll need prayer.Okay, you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
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!
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!
(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!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
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.
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!
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