2unica - Part 2: Poker is easy

The next day we woke up and had breakfast at the cafe in Sam's Town. I absolutely murdered a ham, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich that came with tater tots. Stomachs full, we signed up for the 11am tournament. There were about 35 runners with 2K guaranteed in the prize pool.

The first hour I manage to win a fair number of pots and double my chip stack in the first hour. At the first break, Johnny is still hanging in while the Shoeshiner went busto. Just before we move down to 2 tables, I managed to take out a player when my AJ outflops his AK. Players keep dropping pretty quickly during the 2nd hour. I manage to chip up when my J6 beat a short stacks 44 on a j65j4 board. We get down to the final 10 and the very first hand I call and all in from a short stack with A6 hearts vs 44. The flop comes KQJ of hearts and I take out another player and am 2nd in chips. 3 more players go busto and we began to discuss a chop. Everyone is pretty agreeable. Me and another big stack take 400 and the other 4 got 300.

Afterwards, I sit down at a 3/6 table to grind out the 5 hours for the room rate. The session is eerily similar to the previous days' as I go up early and manage to piddle most of it away and then some in the next several hours. We took a break in there and hit the buffet before going back to more 3/6. After getting my hours I head down to hit up the let it ride table again.

I go down early in my 2nd session but get hot and am up close to 200 bucks before I decide to hit the pai gow table. I didn't last long at pai gow, as it was boring as hell and the table was empty except for me. I wander around the casino for a bit before catching up with Johnny and heading up to bed.

All in all, it was by far my best gambling trip as I ended up about 1500 bucks or so. I was left with a pretty positive impression of Sam's Town in Tunica. The locals seemed very friendly as well, which in my experience contrasts with Vegas or Atlantic City locals.

Lucky Lucky

I took the Amtrak from Atlanta to Birmingham to meet a few friends on our way to Tunica, MS. The train ride was relaxing, but I think 4 hours at that pace is just about right. Anymore time on the train would have been a drag.

We took off for Tunica Saturday morning and arrived at Sam's Town about 1pm. After check-in we all took seats at a 3-6 hold'em game with seven other players, most of them were over 60. I started out hot and doubled my buy-in after a few hours, but managed to give all that back and more before quitting after 5 hours or so. We had an unspectacular dinner at one of the restuarants and I went to play some Let It Ride, while Johnny and The Shoeshiner watched. After a bit The Shoeshiner joined me. I lost most of my 100 buyin and went to the ATM to reload. I came back and bought in again. The dealer, whose nametag said 'Stocks', kept giving me shit about not playing the bonus bet. I told him it was a bad bet in the long run, and that it wouldn't be there if the house didn't make money on it. I got some dirty looks as everyone else at the table was playing the bonus bet.

Not long after explaining why I don't play the bonus bet, I decided to put my first one out there. That very hand I was dealt 2-4 of hearts which paid me 40-1 on my 5 dollar bonus. I get plenty of shit from the people at the table. The next hand, I shit you not, I get rolled up 10s. Trips paid 30-1 on the bonus, and the first card he flipped up was the case 10 paying me 50-1 on all five of my bets. Those 2 hands made me +1K for my session and I was in happy town. I took off for the bathroom a few minutes later and when I get back I learn that the guy immediately to my left was dealt rolled Qs. I'm pretty sure someone would have killed me if I was there for that hand. The Shoeshiner and I play for a good bit before Johnny meets us and we hit bed.

I can has mental problems

Yep. The last few months have been a bit of a blur. My focus has been mostly sapped from me and I am experiencing various symptoms of fatigue and anxiety. I've started tossing back Ativan which seem to work ok, but lack the kick of a xanax. I'm still charging ahead in my work, and strangely enough, have been grinding out some profits on pokerstars lately. Shoot, I've even attained Silverstar status for the first time since I don't know when. I'm not sure how anxiety and lack of concentration translate into better decision making while playing 7 card stud, but that seems to be what happened. Luck was also on my side for a while with the SNGs. That seems to have turned as of late with bad beats leaving me out of the money in my last several SNGs. Hopefully, this is ample tuneup for my first trip to Tunica in a few weeks. Bedtime now.

Sign of the Times - Vegas Part II

After lunch we headed back to the Planet Hollywood to kill some time before dinner. My girlfriend napped, while I took the time to get my PH players card and place a bet on the Packers (+4) over the Bears. It was an emotional bet, as I was hoping to see a Green Bay win meaning the Vikes clinching the NFC north. Despite it being and emotional wager, I figured the Pack would give them a tough game since it is a huge rivalry, plus I only bet 20 bucks.

After placing the bet, I again found myself playing video poker. I hit some good hands and cashed up about 50 bucks. I decided to try my luck at Pai Gow again, and lost my whole buy-in fairly quickly, but offset that loss with 4 or 5 budweisers. I was on a little bit of tilt because I hit up the ATM and dumped 60 bucks into a slot machine, polishing off another beer in the process. At this time, my girlfriend had texted me that she was shopping. I declined the invitation to join her, and kept on playing-dumping more money into the slot machine. Luckily, she made it back to the casino and we had a pre-dinner drink at the 'heart bar.' Our waitress had enormous tits and a pimp decked-out in red sat alone at a table nearby.

We caught a cab to McCormick and Schmick's for dinner. I had clam chowder and then salmon stuffed with spinach and brie. All around, everyone agreed the dinner was great. Over the course of dinner, I was sweating the football game. The Packers blew a lead, missed the winning FG, and the game went to overtime. We stuck around and had another drink at the bar and caught the end of the game. Bears kicked a FG in overtime-bittersweet, I won my bet, but the Pack didn't help the Vikes out.

We took a cab back to the PH and our driver complained that he had been working all day and we were only his 5th fare. I don't doubt it, Vegas seemed pretty much dead. The cabbie figured it was a combination of the time of the year/week and the crappy economy. We headed up to the room for a bit, and after my girlfriend decided to take it easy, I headed down to gamble a bit. I hit the casino floor and before I even knew it a dark-haired woman hopped out from a slot machine and asked me "are you looking to party?" I was kinda surprised by her approach and I politely declined. Over the course the next few hours, I saw a few other hooker/potential trick interactions. All obviously occurring right in plain view on the casino floor. In my previous trips to Vegas I have never seen hookers being so forward and out in the open. Maybe, it is a sign of the slow time of year and pisspoor economy. It affects everyone from the cabbies and hookers, all the way to the Billionaire's who got fucked over by Bernie Madoff.

I decided to play let it ride, a game that I had no experience playing in the casino. I played conservatively, but ended up hitting some huge hands as the next hour went on. I turned my 100 buyin into 350 or so and called it a night.

The Hustle - Vegas part I

We arrived in Vegas about 1030pm local time after 3 hour flight which seemed more like 5 hours with the constant turbulence. I used my VIP card to bypass the slow-as-molasses rental car line and we were soon heading our way up Las Vegas Blvd. We valeted the car at Planet Hollywood and we were happy to see no line for check-in. I decided to attempt the '20 dollar trick' and see if we could get a room upgrade. The male clerk immediately pocketed the 20 bucks and set us up in a resort vista room. Predictably, the rooms at PH are themed after movies and our room theme was "The Long Kiss Goodnight" starring Samuel L Jackson and Geena Davis. The room was very nice with a King bed, 52" flat screen TV, his and hers vanity, large tub and separate shower and a view of the strip.

The whole process from getting off the plane to checking into the hotel was so efficient that I decided to go gamble for a bit. I sat down at one of the bars and played a bit of video poker ending up 40 bucks after hitting a straight flush. I cashed out and sat down at a pai gow table. I had a horrible time at this table. I didn't win a hand for about an hour, and after I won a few a few dealer rolled over everyone at the table and I left, losing most of my buyin.

My girlfriend and I got up in the morning and met her mom and sister at the Peppermill for breakfast/lunch. We decided to walk since it was such a nice day. As we were almost there, we were approached by a rough looking woman standing outside a CVS. She asked us if we had "3.75 for tampons." We were both so fucking flabergasted that we just kept on walking without saying anything. I think that woman needs a new hustle. We went inside the Peppermill and I absolutely destroyed an eggs benedict.

Wee!

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Election Night

Given how much emotional stake I had put in this election, I felt surprisingly calm on Tuesday day with the exception of the 5 o'clock hour. That is when the blogs became a-twitter with the rumored exit polling numbers. First, some demographic stats. Then gawker released a handful a battleground numbers that turned out to be incorrect. Drudge leaks +15 for Obama in PA....and then Gawker shows some updated results with much better margins for Obama. My girlfriend and I went to an election night get together at a bar in Virginia Highlands, but we left around 9pm because it was hard to follow the action on the TV at the bar. Not too long after we got home, they called OH for Obama and that was pretty much all she wrote. The rest of the night was spent texting and calling family and friends in celebration. I wish I could have mentally recorded the entire night in my head to play over when things aren't so rosy politically and otherwise. Now, we get to see if Obama can become the kind of president that all of us who voted for him, hopes and believes he can become. The night is something that I'll never forget, the sense of history is undeniable and there was several points in the night where I nearly broke into tears because of how monumental the occasion was. Who would have ever thought it would happen? The history notwithstanding, Obama has some serious work to do. The economy is in the shitter, we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a lot of people are going to be waiting for him to fail. Ultimately, he will fail in some regards. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, but I think he has demonstrated the intelligence and demeanor to become a very successful leader. I hope i am right.

How can we lose?

The wheels are coming off.

Less than a week before election day, it is clear that the Republican party is about to implode. Several reports have indicated growing dissension in the McCain camp, especially around the choice and performance of his VP nominee. According to one source McCain has even began snubbing her on the campaign trail.

Robert Draper writes,
I’ve heard from one well-placed source that McCain has snubbed her on one long bus ride aboard the Straight Talk Express, to the embarrassment of those sitting nearby.

This sounds like the kind of working relationship you'd want to have between a President and his number two.

In any event, some of these events and others got me to thinking about the future of the Republican party, especially if they receive the beating some people are forecasting. Will it be a death blow or just a temporary lull. Speaking in the short-term, I would certainly expect the R's to bounce back to some extent during the 2010 midterm election. That just seems to be the nature of the beast, of course there are some exceptions. However, given the demographic changes that will be occur over the next few decades, the Republican party as we know it appears to be in serious trouble.
Courtesy of the US census bureau, this table shows the projected US population by race from 2000 to 2050. Given how voting typically shakes out by race, it's clear to see that the Republican base of today is going to get proportionally smaller. It would seem to me that the party is going to have to do something to appeal to a broader mix of races to have any chance of winning. And if this presidential campaign is any indicator, they are a long way from achieving that.

For future reference

Here’s my 'Republican guide for how not to fake an assault in order stir up fear of blacks and scare people into voting against Barack Obama.'

1) Don't detail your immediate pre-assault activities on Twitter or Myspace in order to make the story more believable. It will look awfully suspicious to anyone with half a brain.

2) Don't scrawl perfectly formed letters on your own face while looking into the mirror. They will look backwards to others.

3) When making said letter on your own face, you might want to make it look a bit messy for that implies some sort of struggle.

4) Black eyes typically co-occur with some swelling. Thus, if you give yourself a fake black eye, you better be prepared to punch your own eyes to make them swell.

5) If the cops show up, you need to have ice water in your veins or otherwise they'll catch on. Don't act all weird and refuse medical treatment. The cops are not as stupid as you might think. They've seen it all. You might be able to fool the people at Fox News or knuckle-dragging right wing bloggers, but us bipeds will figure it out.

6) Don't stage it in front of a place that might have security cameras unless you are going to claim you were assualted by an invisible abberation.

You're committing voter fraud, no YOU are.

"In this election, it's a choice between a candidate who won't disavow a group committing voter fraud, and a leader who won't tolerate voter fraud," Palin said.

Really? Well, today the Obama campaign called bullshit on this phony "voter fraud" issue being raised by the McCain camp. The first thing we need to realize about this issue is that there is a long history of voter suppression efforts (caging, misinformation, intimidation) on the part of the Republican Party. The reason is simple, if the Republicans can prevent certain groups of people from voting, namely the poor and minorities, they greatly improve their chances of winning elections. One way they have tried to prevent people's votes from counting has been to make spurious last-second voter fraud claims, which they are doing again. The Bush administration put immense pressure on various state U.S. attorney's to investigate these, and other, claims around the time of elections in November, presumably with the hopes of swaying the election. Some of the attorney's didn't bow to this pressure and therefore 9 of them were fired. These politically-motivated firings then led to an investigation, which then resulted in many of Bush's cronies in the DOJ being relieved of their duties including Alberto Gonzales (who couldn't remember his own fucking name during the investigations).

As the memo states, the DOJ has the responsiblity to consider the allegations of "voter fraud" being made in the context of what the Republican Party has been doing for years and in the context of the criminal firings of several U.S attorney's and the investigation that followed. Folks, I am not making this stuff up. The McCain camp is pulling out all the sleazeball tactics Bush and other Republicans have been using for years. However, this year will be different.

Ladies and Gentleman....Public Enemy Number 1!

It's become almost sad to watch John McCain shed his last bit of dignity by going after Obama's "association" with Bill Ayers. Anyone with a few minutes can find out the truth about any of this. Obama served on an anti-poverty board for a few years with Ayers during the mid-90s. Ayers donated 200 bucks to his senate campaign and while the 2 appeared at a few public events together, there is no evidence of a close relationship. This whole thing becomes deliciously absurd when learning that the activities of this board were funded by Leonore Annenberg billionaire widow of Walter Annenberg, and John McCain supporter. By the same rationale used by the McCain/Palin campaign, she was not only "palling around" with a terrorist, she was funding them. Despite this, McCain was so freakin' happy about her endorsement that he made it public. This is all just a crock of shit of course, and it is starting to piss some of McCain's party members off enough for them to speak out on this. You wonder what the long-term effect of McCain's poorly run campaign and impending landslide loss will be on the Republican party. A good old landslide will have to make them re-assess just what their party stands for. You'd think the smart one's are going to realize that the party is going to be in shambles if they don't make significant changes. Of course, the religious right will vote for them no matter what, but that group is going to do nothing but shrink in terms their share of the USA's overall demographics. 30 years from now, the party better have figured out a way to appeal to a more diverse group or else they are fucked.

Goodbye Milwaukee

Guess the email password

moosebabe64
bancondoms69
godspipeline
futuregmilf
deadgibson22
ihrthannity
firemonegan

Conservatives for Obama

Former editor of the National Review endorses Obama.

I know of a few friends who for various reasons, although none so eloquently put as Mr. Allison's, that have jumped ship on the Republican Party during this election and are now firmly in Obama's camp. I think deep down some conservatives are starting to realize that the Republican party is not conservative at all.

But today it is so-called conservatives who are cemented to political programs when they clearly don’t work. The Bush tax cuts—a solution for which there was no real problem and which he refused to end even when the nation went to war—led to huge deficit spending and a $3 trillion growth in the federal debt. Facing this, John McCain pumps his “conservative” credentials by proposing even bigger tax cuts. Meanwhile, a movement that once fought for limited government has presided over the greatest growth of government in our history. That is not conservatism; it is profligacy using conservatism as a mask.

McCain is anti democracy

THIS JUST IN! John McCain campaign is attempting to prevent people from voting. This is just more of the same crap the GOP has been doing for decades. From the MJS:

McCain mailing draws complaints

The Wisconsin board that oversees elections is fielding complaints that Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign is sending out a mailing that includes an application for an absentee ballot - but in some cases the address is wrong.

Democrat Beverly Jambois of Middleton got one of the fliers addressed to her husband Robert, a lawyer for the state Transportation Department. They're registered to vote in Middleton, but the absentee ballot application was addressed to the Madison city clerk's office.

"They're trying to knock me off the rolls," she said. "I can't tell you how upsetting it is to me. This is how you win elections? By disenfranchising other voters?"

Kyle Richmond, a spokesman for the Government Accountability Board, said there have been 10 complaints in the past two days from those who got the McCain flier. The board's staff is investigating, he said.

Absentee ballots may only be used in the locality where the person is registered to vote, he said.

Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party, denied there was any intent to prevent people from voting. The wrong absentee ballot applications were the result of incorrect information in databases used for the mailing, he said.

"You do the best with the lists you have, and no list is perfect," Jefferson said. "There is certainly no type of suppression effort going on."

He said the mailing was directed to hundreds of thousands of voters.

Local clerks now are processing absentee voting applications. The absentee ballots aren't sent until about four weeks before the election.

John McCain is a Liar

The lies just never stop. The McCain camp is banking on the notion that Americans stay misinformed and that his lies go unchallenged. Thankfully, the press is standing up and calling bullshit. Hopefully, people realize that lies in the context of running a campaign is an indicator of how McCain will govern. We should all be scared shitless. Here are some highlights.


1) He routinely lies about Obama's tax cut proposal. Obama's plan calls for tax cuts for everyone except those making over 250k a year. FALSE!

2) He claimed that Obama's "lipstick on a pig" comment was directed at his running mate. FALSE!

3) He approves a disgusting ad claiming Obama wants to teach "comprehensive sex-ed" to kindergartners. FALSE!

4) The McCain camp pants are on fire when they say that his VP nominee was against earmarks for "the bridge to nowhere." False! She was for it before she was against it.

Seriously, as Paul Krugman points out, these lies are so bad and so poorly cloaked that anyone can debunk them by doing a few minutes worth of research on the internet.

It's time to start questioning the integrity of a candidate that would engage in serial fibbing to gain the upper hand in the election. I don't care if he was a POW for 100 years, a man who demonstrates such a lack of integrity should not be president.

Oh boy!

woeful.

McCain loves pedophiles

McCain recycles an old smear on Obama with a creepy and despicable attack ad. Of course, the legislation in question was aimed to protect kids from pedophiles. Not something John McCain can get behind.

Empty Pant Suit?

Politics are dominating my thinking right now, so politics are going to dominate this blog. It's amusing to me to watch the republicans try and tote Sarah Palin out on stage as someone who has the experience to be VP and potentially president at the same time as criticizing Obama on the experience issue. The irony is delic(ious)!

We've all heard the "Alaska is close to Russia" bit and the "she's commander of the Alaska National Guard" line as support for the idea that she has foreign policy experience and that she can lead troops into battle. I'm amazed that so many people have repeated this utterly ridiculous statement.

It's going to be interesting to see how the 'get-to-know Sarah Palin' story unfolds. The McCain camp is obviously shielding her from any scrutiny by not allowing any 1 on 1 interviews. You'd expect that she would be on the Sunday morning shows this week. She was not. There is one interview lined up with Charlie Gibson. It'll be interesting to see the kinds of questions he'll be allowed to ask and how she answers them. You can draw your own conclusions about why McCain is protecting her from the media, but it seems to me it is being done because they fear she's not prepared to answer questions that will be asked of her. She's already demonstrated ignorance regarding economic policy when she said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers" during a campaign rally in Colorado. This is obviously going to be a key economic issue for the next administration as it appears the government is going to have bail out these lenders. The fact that she didn't know they were privately owned companies should scare the bejeebus out of people. Eventually she's going to have to pay the piper, answer tough questions on the Sunday morning shows, and prove she has a clue. Let's sit back and watch.