7 card cud

This is (or was) a poker blog and somehow I can't even find the inspiration to blog in a timely fashion when I have noteworthy poker exploits to blog about. Saturday found me shirking my scholarly duties and instead playing in a 5 dollar 7CS tourney around the same time as 'Saturdays with Dr. Pauly' 10+1 PLO tourney. In the PLO I started out at the same table as the host himself, Joe Speaker, and 7 other chaps. I made a rather poor showing (not even sure I won contested pot) and was bounced some time within the first hour.

This gave me more time to focus on the 7CS tourney that was already into the second hour. When we got down around the bubble I got seated at the same table as the Rooster, who had managed to amass a good amount of chips. Not much noteworthy happened as people continued to drop until we were down to the final table bubble. Being the chip leader, The Rooster went to work on our table and raised most pots. I managed to stay about even until we made it to the final table and even managed to chide the Rooster a bit (told him I thought his avatar was a chicken). Of course I lost most of my stack to him when I had (99)10x10 and he rivered me with some shit I don't remember. I ended up going out in 5th for about 30 bucks.

Adventures in cooking

It looks like I've fallen off the bloggin' wagon-or maybe it's falling on the wagon. I don't know. Work has been so goddamn stressful I almost went postal yesterday. One of the things that keeps me grounded is my love of trying to cook food, which often becomes a horrible adventure.

Exhibit A.
I decided to make some sort of chocolate cookies despite not having really any ingredients to make a proper batch. These doozies had several packets of swiss miss cocoa, maybe an egg or 2, baking soda, and what looks like powdered sugar on top of them. I am fairly certain this "recipe" was concocted after severe sleep deprivation and a few too many glasses of wine.

What was sorely lacking in this endeavor was any ingredient that would make this mess a cookie, namely flour or sugar. The result (pictured below) was some sort of awful smelling (think out-of-control tire fire) glob of shit that nearly spilled out of the cookie sheet I placed the "dough" on.
This looks like a 2 week old pan of brownies with bird droppings on it, only it tasted worse. I sampled a bit of it and then promptly tossed it in the trash.

Fortunately I redeemed myself with these sweet treats, which were derived from pre-made store brand dough that came in cubes and cooked quite nicely. And they tasted good to boot!

We are f*cked

Quite the little snow storm is descending onto Milwaukee. This one might packin' 20 inches locally (if you know what I mean).

If the storm actually does dump that much snow on us, it might be the largest storm I've been through-and I grew up in northern Minnesota and have been through some doozies in my time.
No way in hell am I shoveling all this shit at our apartment. I have been taking care of most the snow removal duties, but the landlords left me us with an old rusted shovel that makes it twice as much work to clear snow. Landlord man is going to have to trudge his ass over to deal with this mess.

I combined my enthusiasm over gambling with my lifelong fascination of winter storms and have a snow bet with a friend of mine. We set the line at 16.5 and I took the over. I'll probably lose as I think that is a pretty generous line, but I am always optimistic about my snow bets and I have been doing well this season.

Hate blog

Yes, I bet them. Yes, they all called. Yes, the majority of players on a 1/2 7 card stud table are mouth breathing retards. Pokerstars routinely has 100k plus people logged in. I don't know where all these fuckers are coming from, but jeeezus christ many of them are bad.

The Twins dealt ace lefty Johan Santana to the Mets yesterday for 4 dudes I never heard of. Hopefully a few of them pan out to be very good players, but we won't know for a few years. It's frustrating that the team keeps losing it's best talent because they can't pay them-or can't overpay them in the case of Hunter, Silva, etc, but that's the reality of a small market team. Get ready in a few years Brewers fans.

Man, did anyone else see that lame ESPN "skit" all about how Tom Brady was actually in the Brady Bunch. The ESPN tech people photoshopped his face in a few old pics and they had fake interviews with Tom and those glory hounds Barry Williams and whatever-the-fuck his name is who played Peter. I wanted to beat that bastard Barry Williams up a la Danny Bonaduce in celebrity boxing.




While I am on the topic of ESPN, what the fuck was with their coverage of the Santana trade. They parade that turd Peter Gammons out in front of a camera and he proceeds to go off on how Boston's deal would have been much better for the Twins. Nice analysis.....douchebag. How about talking about the players the Twins got, or how Johan has been the most dominant lefty this side of Sandy Koufax. Instead the anchor had the audacity to ask him if this deal hurts the Red Sox or Yankees more. News alert. THE TRADE DIDN'T INVOLVE EITHER TEAM! Johan played for the Twins and was traded to the New York Mets of the National league. Short-term the trade hurts the Twins, helps the Mets, and means about as much to the Yankees and Red Sox as it does the Houston Colt 45s. ESPN can eat it.

Cold. Hard cash.

The day after the Packers lost a good portion of the state of WI was blanketed with several inches of snow including around 8 inches of fluffy goodness here in Milwaukee. The game was pretty entertaining even though the Packers were dominated by the Giants. I have to say that Manning seemed to handle the weather much better than Favre, who looked and played like he was damn near frozen to death. The day after the game I was reading the Minneapolis Star Tribune and one of the columnists was gloating over the Packers loss and compared it to the Vikings heartbreaking loss to Atlanta in the 1998 NFC championship game. I google searched for that game to bring back those painful memories and came across this article from the Journal Sentinel. Reading it made suddenly made me very happy that the Pack lost. I hope it hurts, assholes.

After winning a SNG I played last night and a +70BB 2 hour session of 1/2 7 card stud last weekend, my bankroll is $400+. This is up from 4 bucks, the amount I was reimbursed from some anonymous cheating assholes on pokerstars. I am gonna keep on grinding away and see how far I can go with it. I wish I had a little more time to devote grinding it out - every time I see 100K+ people logged in to pokerstars I start to salivate. School is going to be a serious grind until I graduate. I am proposing my dissertation tomorrow, after which I need to do my experiments, and then defend them in writing and orally. Sounds easy.

Vegas III: Fresh air, crumb sweepers, and small victories.

Our last full day in Vegas we decided to get some fresh air and explore the Red Rock canyon area. We has some lunch and made our way west into the hills. It was a very sunny day, but still very brisk, probably around 45 degrees or so with a steady wind. We made our way around the canyon, hiking some of the trails, stopping and looking at others. It was great being able to see something other than the inside of a casino or losers waiting to get chow in a buffet line.

After spending a good part of the afternoon at the canyon we got back to the IP with a few hours to rest up and then make our way to dinner at Lawry's. I took advantage of that time to roam around the IP, finally deciding to stop and have a beer while playing some video poker at the Sake Bar. I flopped a straight flush playing 'deuces wild' and pocketed the profit.

We met mom and sis' at Lawry's off of Flamingo. It was delectable - sis' and I had shrimp and brie stuffed salmon filet, while GF and momma had exquisite cuts of prime rib with 2 shared bottles of Merlot between the 4 of us. Just prior to dessert the waitress whipped out a silver tool which she used sweep the crumbs off our table. Ooo la freakin' la! The 3 ladies were stuffed and tired after dinner which was perfect for me as I was able to watch the end of the Texas/ASU game and play some poker. Texas won, netting me a modest 18 bucks, and I then ambled over to the Flamingo and then back after realizing their pokerroom was full. I was soon seated at a 2/4 table at the IP.

This table was by far and away the best of the trip - it had a couple of out and out fish there to have fun, a couple of decent looking girls from California who had a decent grasp of the game but both ended up losing their buy-ins, and a couple of drunk slobs who were in pretty much every hand. I don't remember much in terms of hands, but I was able to grind out a 50 or 60 dollar win over the course of the next 3 hours. One of the dealers that rotated in moved at an insanely fast pace. It was exhausting watching him do it and I hardly had time to take a decent swig of beer. He informed the table that he did everything fast - a comment that was met with modest chuckles from the ladies. The table started to get shorthanded, and with the speed at which the blinds were coming around I decided to book a small profit and call it a night.

The next day we were on our way back to Fargo. The flight back was pretty good despite a few crying babies. However, it was nightmare on the tarmac part two as the airport people were unable to get the skyway to connect to the plane. We sat there a good 45 minutes until they decided to de-board us using some rickety stairs pushed up to the cabin door.

Future Bears Fan

From the associated press (via jsonline)

Portage - A 36-year-old man tied up his young son with tape for an hour after the boy refused to wear a Green Bay Packers jersey during the team's game on Saturday, local authorities said.

Mathew Kowald, 36, was cited for disorderly conduct in connection with the incident with his 7-year-old son at their home in Pardeeville, Lt. Wayne Smith of the Columbia County Sheriff's Department said. Pardeeville is about 30 miles north of Madison.

Kowald was arrested on Monday after the boy's mother, Kowald's wife, told authorities about the incident. Kowald was taken to the county jail and held until Wednesday, when he pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $186 and was released.

Kowald's wife filed a restraining order on Wednesday, so Kowald will not be able to have contact with his family, Smith said. Smith said other domestic issues have surfaced, though he wouldn't elaborate.

The boy refused to wear the jersey on Saturday, when the Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks in a playoff game, Smith said. The father was accused of restraining the boy for an hour with tape and also taped a jersey onto him during that time.

Smith said the incident sounded strange when reported at first, but the mother took pictures with her cell phone and that type of evidence is difficult to dispute.

The boy's refusal to wear the jersey may have just been rebellion, he said.

"We've been unable to uncover any evidence to suggest that this boy was not a Packers fan," Smith said.
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Sadly, this doesn't really change my impression of Packers fans, whom I still hold in higher regard than Cowboys fans. The last quote of the story is priceless. It seems to suggest that if there were evidence that the boy was not a Packers fan then the dad's actions would have been justified. That being said, GO PACK! Yes, I am cheering for the Pack despite being a Vikings fan....what can I say, I like a good show. And I don't think there will be any better show to be in the midst of all the fervor that would accompany a Superbowl appearance by the Packers.

I don't enjoy oral.

My bankroll took a major hit Sunday night as I dropped about 150 bucks in a few hours (remember I started with 4 bucks a few months ago). I was determined to get it all back at one table and stuck my whole bankroll on the line at a shorthanded 3/6 limit table. I won a few hands and then got the hell out of there as I came to my senses. It would have been a real punch in the balls to tilt off my whole pokerstars balance in one night after building it up from 4 bucks. Instead, I prefer to lose it painfully over the course of several months courtesy of consistent sub-par play. I had a good day yesterday and was able to recoup a large chunk of what I lost.

Today, I decided it was a good idea to start tracking my wins and losses again via MS excel. Maybe this will add some more accountability to my play, even though I have been pretty good about not donking around lately - with the exception of Sunday night.

While I have been playing poker some lately a good deal of my time the last handful of days has been spent working on a presentation for my dissertation proposal. I love most things about being a graduate student, but giving oral (hehe) presentations isn't one of them.

About 5-6 years ago I gave my first lengthy presentation on data I had collected at the time. I had enough to fill about 45-50 powerpoint slides - I got through all of them in less than 20 minutes, leaving a full 30 minutes for any questions about the work I had babbled my way through. The looks of a few faces in the crowd still stick in my head today. Confusion. Nervous smiles. Looks of pity. They had to wonder if my body had mysteriously been inhabited by the fast-talking man who did those Micro Machines commercials back in the 80s. Some of them never came back to these meetings - ever! Even the presentation from the guy who mistakenly showed a porn video wasn't as poorly received. And the porn was awful!

I have got much better with public speaking since that time, but it's nothing that I look forward to. So, wish me luck as I try not to babble incoherently in front of a group of 5 professors.

Redesigning Blog

I spent part of yesterday spiffing up the old blog. Gone is the lame blue, white and black....in is the new header (designed by yours truly) and new colors for the text/hyperlinks/etc. Much improved me thinks. I am hoping that it inspires me to post more. My goal is to have at least 100 posts this year. Get ready for a serious heaping load of tripe every few days. This could turn into me chronicling the minutia of my everyday existence - what I had for lunch, debating the relative merits of crapping at home vs. at work, amateur weather forecasting, etc. Stay tuned.

Vegas III: Broken Bottles

I slapped down 20 bucks each on Purdue (-8) over Central Michigan in the 'Who gives a fuck' bowl and on Texas (-2.5) over Arizona State in the Outback Nestle Crunch Doritos Tostitos Frito Bandito Bowl. Purdue had walloped Central Michigan earlier in the year and through the first half of the game look destined for a repeat performance. Purdue was up 21 early in the 3rd quarter and then managed to completely implode and give up 3 unanswered TDs. They ended up winning when they kicked a last second FG, but my 20 went down the toilet.

As the game was going on I was taking my GF out to Pampas Brazilian BBQ at Planet Hollywood for her b-day dinner. We arrived early and did some last minute xmas shopping for a friend of hers who we were meeting for dinner. We (she) decided on some PJs and a bottle of Merlot, which was elegantly wrapped in a cheap gift bag that looked like a slot machine. I was carrying the bag as the 3 of us were making our way through the busy miracle mile shops and to Pampas when all of a sudden the bag felt 75 percent lighter and I was staring at a broken bottle and wine spilling all over the mall floor. We did what any responsible adults would do and we left it there and walked quickly towards the restaurant.

The M.O. at these Brazilian BBQ joints is for 'gauchos' to come around to your table with various cuts of meat on a skewer. We sample different cuts of steak, pork, and chicken. Compared to similar dinners in San Diego and Atlanta, this place was a tad sub-par. None of the meats stood out as exceptional and the service was average at best. We didn't let this put a damper on our evening as we headed to a bar in the PH shops and had a few more drinks.

When we got done my GF was tired and this allowed me to hit up the poker tables again. I played for a couple hours, took some horribles beats, made some horrible plays and lost most of a buyin at 2/4 holdem. I tried to strike gold on a dollar slot machine, but wound up drunkenly dumping 50 bucks in that. Wisely, I called it a night.

Vegas III: Christ's B-day Buffet Special

When I woke up at Harrah's I realized that the events of the night before weren't simply a nightmare - it indeed happened. Why else would we be at Harrah's? The important thing was that we are now here and awake and must go back to IP to check in. After showering and grabbing coffee we head over to IP ready to sit in line for an hour or two. Things go surprisingly smooth at check-in and we make our way up to our "Deluxe" room. Spending one night in a decent hotel makes you realize what a fucking dump the IP is.

We hopped in the Impala and made our way to the Texas Station for a Christmas day brunch buffet. We were meeting GFs mom and sister there. I park the car by a replica of an oil derrick and make my way inside. We are seated quickly and head for the first run through the buffet. Nothing is all that great, but in true Christmas fashion it is a Champagne brunch buffet. All 4 of us wash down our first plate with the cheap swill and we convince the waitress to bring us some more. She came through with a whole damn tray full of the shit and everyone gets pretty toasty by the time we get done eating.

After that we do the regular xmas day gift exchange and everyone gets pretty tired around 4pm. GF and I head back to the IP, she takes a nap and I make a beeline for a 2/4 limit table. The table is short-handed for the first hour or so, and our table even stopped briefly, but they kept brining me drinks, so it was ok. I played for a few more hours before dinner and ended up about 30 bucks.

We head to eat some Mexican at the Forum shops at Caesar's Palace. I have a 15 dollar burrito and spill my 10 dollar margarita in true drunken spaz fashion. After that we do a bit of shopping and call it a night, but not before I lay down bets on the 2 days of college football bowl games.

Vegas III: Getting there is 9/10ths the work.

Our 9pm flight to Vegas from Fargo on Christmas eve was already scheduled to be about 30 minutes late. That 30 minutes became an hour while we were waiting for the plane to arrive from Vegas. It comes time to board and something weird happens because all of a sudden people are no longer being allowed into the jetway. We wait several minutes and learn that something has gone wrong with the jetway and someone is coming to fix it. We finally get on the plane and our pilot informs us that we will leave as soon as the de-icer shows up and does it's job. That thing must have come from fucking Bismarck because it seemed to take forever for it to show up. We finally get rolling about 2 hours after our scheduled takeoff.

The first half of the flight was pretty smooth as my girlfriend and I were able watch some episodes of Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Somewhere over the rockies we start to bounce around a bit, but it doesn't get too bad until we land in 40-50mph surface winds in LAS. We grab our bags and hop on the shuttle to the new rental car emporium near the airport. They don't have the compact car I reserved, so they bumped me up to an 08 Chevy Impala - this is the only part of arriving that goes well.

The Chevy was a bit more car than I am used to and I caught myself racing down Las Vegas blvd at 70mph. We get to the Imperial Palace - both hungry and dead tired. The check-in line is about 15 deep and we decide to hit up the Teahouse for a quick meal. After chowing down my Eggs Benny I go back down to get in line. There is only about 10 groups in front of me, but I soon realize the line is moving so. fucking. slow. Someone would get up to a clerk, give them their ID and CC and all of a sudden that clerk would disappear into an adjacent office for 10-15 minutes. This happened with pretty much everyone who made it to the front of the line and was starting to piss me off pretty good after waiting an hour in a line that should take 10 minutes to get through. My girlfriend joins me in line and we finally make it up to a clerk. I give her my info and she tells me that they have no rooms left and that they need to put us up nextdoor at Harrah's. I understand that hotels overbook to ensure they are full, but there was no excuse for them taking as long as humanly possible to take care of everyone there.

We hike it over to Harrah's and get to a clerk immediately. It is 3am and we're both dead tired. He sets up the reservation for us, but when it comes time to give us keys their fucking keymaker goes dead and he tells us that we can either wait for it to start working again or they can call security to open our room for us. We ask for security who comes pretty quickly. We get to our room and the security guard opens it and someone's shit is all over the room - the numbnut Harrah's clerk gave us a room that was already occupied. I guess we're lucky we didn't walk in on someone getting blown by a tranny hooker. We go back down, get another room - this time with real keys, and finally get into our room. Sleep was in order.

Spider in the Snow

Wintertime has descended on Milwaukee in the form of an over-the-weekend snow and ice storm and Alberta Clipper that is dumping on us now. I am about 1 mile offshore of Lake Michigan, which is kicking up some nice lake effect snow for us. I routinely place 'snow bets' with a friend of mine. I always take the over. I won this past weekend with the line at 3.5 inches, and I'm pretty sure I am good now with 4.0 as the line. 2 beers coming my way.

The snow/ice storm last weekend caused me to break my 'car accident' cherry. Some dimwit was backing out of a drive way blindly and backed right into me while I was driving. He hadn't even wiped the snow off his windows. The accident caused a fair amount of damage to the ol' Honda. Hopefully, I don't get dicked around by his insurance company.

The poker playing has been going well, although I still don't have the desire to play as much as I used to. My 'roll is up around 300 from the 4 bucks I started with a few months ago. I have been averaging an SNG every few nights and I typically play a 1/2 stud game at the same time. That 7CS cash game seems as soft as it have ever been, and my results in the SNGs have been very good since I started back up again.

The Minnesota Twins are seemingly about to unload Johan Santana to the Yanks, Red Sox, or some other team able to part with top prospects and sign Santana for 20+ mil/season for 5 years. as much as I hate to see Johan go, it makes sense to trade a person that is going to command 20-30% of the team's payroll over the next 5 years. Hopefully, they can get a decent stash of young talent in trade for Johan.

Bowties, curly mullets, poetry

I just got done playing a $15 SNG where I took advantage good timing and a few suckouts and took home 1st place. My bankroll now sits around $160, up from the 4.40 I had 1 month ago. It's laughable that I have been able to build up a tiny roll from 4 bucks.

My GF and I returned from San Diego exactly 1 week ago. Amazingly, we saw less sun there than what we were seeing in Milwaukee. We went there for a conference - we are both looking for jobs. Kinda sucks to be in this position, but we made inroads for positions in Atlanta, but Toronto is also on our minds. Or maybe NYC, or Calif? Who the fuck knows where we'll be in 1 year. It's exciting, but also a bit shitty.

Our flight from MKE to SAN and back went through Denver. Flights were pretty good - watched some Curb Yr Enthusiasm on the laptop, and some direct TV on the plane. We had a 2+ hr layover in Denver on the way back. We had a very nice meal and drinks at Jimmy somethings' and few more drinks at the 'Cowboy Bar' before getting on the plane. Best time I've ever had on a layover. Kudos to DIA.

Las Vegas III is only about 5 weeks away. I simply cannot wait to be playing Pai Gow late xmas night at the IP. Downing Miller Lite's brought to me by a waitress in a skimpy dress and getting dealt cards from a Korean dealer, both wishing they were somewhere else.

#120

This is my 120th post. Holy crap! Most of them have been poorly written and lazily thought out. This one will be no different.

You might remember that a few weeks ago my bankroll on pokerstars increased 100 fold when they deposited 4.40 into my account as a result of some collusion investigation. I managed to turn this windfall into 30 bucks in a week or so. I was down to 3 cents with 2 SNGs running last weekend, but I got 2nd in both of those and have since ran it up to about 80 bucks. At this rate I should have 1600 dollars in my account by mid-November. In all seriousness, getting back to playing a few SNGs here and there has been great. I'll probably go on tilt late one night and burn through it all in a few hours, but right now it is fun. If I manage to build this into a real bankroll, there better be articles written about it a la Chris Ferguson's 0-10K achievement.

Qotsa/Melt Banana

This past Wednesday I went to the Queens of the Stone Age show at The Rave in Milwaukee. I forked over 7.50/each for 3 miller lites, and watched one of my favorite bands standing immediately behind 5 dudes who were probably the starting lineup for 2002 Cudahy High basketball team. Now, apparently they've all become stoners who go to shows to smoke pot in public and stand listless while one of the greatest rock bands alive puts on a show. They weren't the only jerkoffs in the crowd. First of all, the guy girl ratio was about 10-1, and the dick to not-a-dick ratio was about the same. Exhibit A was the fuckwit who flicked a lit cigarette at Josh Homme near the end of one song. Exhibit B was about every fucking loser who I walked by as I tried to make my way through the crowd and to the bathroom. Not only were people not making any attempt to help me get by, several mouth-breathers made sure they stood their ground, sometimes throwing a light shoulder my way. Absolute homos.

The next night I went down to the Cactus Club to check out a Japanese noise-punk band named Melt Banana. They put on one hell of a show. They were fronted by a waifish woman, who belted out vocals that would make those chicks from Cibo Matto proud. The guitar player wore a mask as if he felt he was at risk for some airborne disease. Oddly enough, their merch guy had one on too.

What the Nickle?!

I've managed to turn the $4.40 pokerstars sent me from some anonymous cheating dickwads into 30 bucks over the last week or so. Yep....pretty much dominating the old 3 dollar SNGs. I rule!

I am totally enjoying being able to play again, even if it is for peanuts. I had not played at all for about 2 months, but it seemed longer than that. Consider this a tune up for an xmas trip to Vegas. I can't wait to see the kind of loser that will be playing pai gow on xmas day at the Imperial Palace. It's gonna be fucking awesome, and I will be there right next to them. I can't wait to see the strung out looking 'Joan Jett' or 'Mariah Carey' dealertainers. God, I'm such a loser.

Maybe I can find an afternoon or two to take a shot at a few MTTs in the next couple weeks. It would be nice to build up a roll to have at my disposal in LV, but I realize the chances are against me with only 30 bucks to dink around with.

$4.40 and ready to go!

Looks like I have to find a few cheapo tourneys to donk off the money I got from some cheating bastards.

Hello,

PokerStars has become aware of two players who were working together in our Sit & Go tournaments to the detriment of other players. You were involved in at least one tournament with these players and as a result you may have been adversely affected.

The players' accounts were closed and their funds frozen pending a thorough investigation, which is now complete. Fortunately the problem was identified quickly and they had only played in a few tournaments before the accounts were closed.

In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders' winnings or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible. To confirm your credit, log onto your PokerStars account, go to the 'Cashier' screen and click the 'History' button. Your share will be shown "Credit Purchase", followed by the amount of the credit.

I regret that we will be unable to answer questions as to how your specific credit amount was calculated. Likewise, we are not at liberty to identify the specific games or players in question. Suffice to say that they have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.

The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to us and we will not abide cheating or collusion in our games. We work hard to police our games and prevent such instances. In the rare cases where collusion has actually occurred, we make sure that any players affected are compensated appropriately.

Thank you for your continued play here on PokerStars. Please do not hesitate to let us know any time we can be of help.

Best Regards,


MarkW
PokerStars Collusion Investigation Team

Maritime

Thursday night Maritime played a free show at the Gasthaus, which is a basement bar/restaurant in the Union at UWM. Immediately upon entering the place I was overcome with the all too familiar smell of the Gasthaus' infamous french fries. If you have ever ordered food there, you'll know that it comes with about 8 pounds of these taters - and they are god awful. I wanna puke just thinking about them, even though I occasionally still eat them.

We had a few beers (PBR) before Maritime took the stage. I spotted lead singer and emo trailblazer Davey von Bohlen readying himself backstage, which also happened to be the mens bathroom. The show started off with was announced as the first three songs on the bands forthcoming record Heresy and the Hotel Choir, two of which can be downloaded off the labels' website and the video of another is embedded above. Those three songs sounded damn good, and gave me hope that the new record will measure up to the bands last one.

The rest of the show was very good as well, despite the less-than-optimal venue. There was a decent pocket of people near the stage that were into the show and then other people were strewn about sitting at tables and looking half-bored. Maybe they had all become ill from eating the food there.

Bloc Party

Last Tuesday Bloc Party came through Milwaukee and played at the Pabst Theatre downtown. I was introduced to Bloc Party in the summer of '05 by a friend on our way to our 10 year high school reunion. We listened to 'Silent Alarm' and I immediately fell in love with that record. Over two years later and I finally got a chance to see them live. Bloc Party released their sophomore record a handful of months ago - it is pretty rad as well, but isn't nearly as energetic as Silent Alarm.

This was the first time I had seen a show at the Pabst. Maybe it was where we were sitting - 3rd level in the balcony, but it sounded fucking amazing in there. As soon as we walked in I saw a giant sign advertising $3 tallboys of PBR and I knew this was going to be a good night. We were able to catch a good part of the set by the opening band called Smoosh. I felt like a dirty old man watching them play. The were pretty good though, even though their 8 year old bass player took off during the second song and never came back. The next group was named Final Fantasy. They were even more nerdy than the name implies - the band consisted of a dude with a violin connected to some kind of looping machine and a girl who placed art work over an overhead projector that seemed to go along with the different songs. Not as bad as it sounds.

Bloc Party opened up with the first song from 'Weekend in the City.' They covered what seemed like a good chunk of both albums, but most came from Silent Alarm. The highlight had to be when Kele made his way out into the crowd (with the help of a very long microphone cord) during 'She's Hearing Voices.' At some point he disappeared from view, only to return doing a backwards somersault just after getting on stage. Go see them if you have the chance.

How do you say.......Fat Pig Hypocrite of the Year?

I really wished I had saved the letter Rep. Jim "I am taking my fucking gavel home with me" Sensenbrenner sent me in response to my letter supporting legislative efforts to legalize online poker. According to what he wrote in that letter efforts to allow online gambling would be the downfall of society. Crime rates would go up; teen pregnancy would skyrocket; the national debt would triple; alcohol, drug, and trans fat consumption would hit heights never seen before. Terrorism would be funded for life! Birds wouldn't fly anymore! And there would be a state of complete and utter paranoia!!!!!!

Ok Then. You couldn't imagine my surprise to learn that the esteemed Congressman from WI has won his fair share of money playing the lotteries in DC and WI. If he doesn't think that state sponsored lotteries leads to some of the same perils for some percentage of the population he is an even bigger douchebag than I think he is.

The Detroit Cobras

A friend of mine was in a band that came through Milwaukee a few years ago and they played at Mad Planet. There was an all ages show in the afternoon and a 21+ later at night. Mad Planet is in Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee, which is a really awesome area, but it can get pretty shady especially if you go a little west on Center. At some point during the afternoon show I had a strange vision of someone bursting into the club and mowing a bunch of people down. I didn't think much of it at the time. Between the all ages show and the night we walked down to the Riverhorse and then on to the Foundation for a few drinks. We ended back up at Mad Planet in the "backstage" area downstairs. Some dude in a local band that was opening the evening show went into this long story about some massacre that occurred on New Year's Eve outside of what is now Mad Planet.

Last Thursday I ended up back at Mad Planet with a friend to catch the Detroit Cobras show. I had never really got into them, but I was able to give some of their stuff a bit of a listen before going to the show. What I had listened to was good, and the show they put on was great (see obligatory grainy cell phone photo).

Two bands preceded the Cobras, The Willowz and Dan Sartain. Dan Sartain was, I presume, Dan on guitar and vox, and some dude on drums. A two piece! Fucking awesome and t(he)y made a pretty great racket. Although apparently Dan had some pretty crunchy B.O. and he was spotted stealing a poster off the wall near the bar at Mad Planet. The Willowz, on the other hand, had absolutely no redeeming qualities. All of the band sported the same haircut despite the fact that they all seemed to vary greatly in terms of age, weight, and sex. The lead singer also made a conscious decision to don a Kid Rock-like hat and they fucking droned on for what seemed like hours. I went to the bathroom at some point during their set and heard the guy next to me remark to his friend that he "hoped for fucksake that they will be off the stage soon or that someone comes in and murders them."

Beisbol es malo

He's pitching so badly he cut his own fucking thumb off and threw it!

Thoughts from an Interpol show

I went to the Interpol show with a friend of mine and we downed a couple beers before the show began. I have been trying to quit smoking for the last few years, and I am doing fairly well with it, but seeing live music and having a few drinks is a major cue for me to have a smoke. I had two cigarettes in my possession left over from a party the previous weekend. Like a complete retard I stuck the two ciggies in the pocket of my shorts without realizing that this would most likely cause them to get bent or perhaps break in half. They broke in half of course. Unfazed, I went into the bathroom just before the show started, entered one of the stalls, squeezed the tobacco out of one end, and smoked it like a joint while pretending to take a piss. Definitely a watershed moment in my life.

A few years ago being a fan of Interpol was prima facie evidence of having good taste in music. After the critical acclaim and greater popularity (and major label deal), I suspect the “cool” thing to do now is dump on them and say their most recent release doesn’t stack up to their two previous LPs. It very well may not; I have not heard the new record in its entirety, but judging from their recent appearance at The Rave in Milwaukee they are still crafting very good songs (insert played out Joy Division reference here).

I went back to the bathroom midway through the show relive the glory of smoking on a toilet. I came back out and watched the rest of the set. I was also keeping an eye on the really sweaty dude in front of us who would mouth the lyrics for the first part of every song, and then half way through he’d have his back to the stage and be talking to some other dude or trying to chat up a couple of obvious lesbians next to him.

I kept trying to take pictures of the band on my cell phone, but I was too far away and all of the pictures ended up looking like I was snapping shot of a Lite Brite board. We left the show quickly after the encore ended; rejecting the free Pete Yorn tickets the staff was trying to us as we walked out. I bet the sweaty dude was all over that shit.

Vegas: Part Two

Johnny Cheng was up with the birds, and the other 2 of us woke in time for a breakfast at the Teahouse around 10 am. Immediately after the meal, the 2 of us go down to the IP poker room and we each got seats in a 2/4 limit game. About half of the table had little to no clue how to play and both Johnny and I ended up the short session with modest wins. The Shoeshiner was rolling over his table and ended up about 100 bucks ahead after only an hour or so. Considering how weak the game was, it was kind of hard to leave the IP, but we had planned to play the 2pm tourney at Planet Hollywood and we stuck to that plan.

The room at PH had a nice modern feel to it. The dealers were pretty good, but I wasn’t in love with the wood ‘racing track’ on the tables. The tourney had about 75 runners in it, and I got off to a pretty nice start the first hour. I won a decent sized pot with K10 suited against a young girl who probably wants to be Brandi Hawbaker, but was a tad over weight. She was playing pretty fast, and it seemed like she was bluffing a lot early. Not long after that hand I pick up AA in the big blind. A Dude chugging rum and cokes raised from 1 spot behind the button and the Brandi wannabe smooth called from the SB. I popped it up 1K and original raiser folded, but Brandi moved all in immediately. I called, she showed 55, my AA held, and she was headed for the exit. I won another decent pot when I flopped 3 of a kind with KQ off, and won a few more pots before the end of the first hour. I had more than doubled up before the first break and liked the spot I was in. The next hour was atrocious as I got very few cards and was only able to steal the blinds a few times. I think I ended up the second hour with fewer chips than I had at the end of the first.

Johnny busted out during the 2^nd hour, but the Shoeshiner had a decent sized stack. We were down to 25 players or so when we started the 3^rd hour. I am in the big blind the first hand I have 3500 chips left after posting the 2K bet, it folds around to the SB who limps, and I put the rest of my chips in with garbage hoping the lady to my left folds. She calls off half her stack with J7 off, a J comes on the flop and IGHN.

I spent the rest of the time sweating the Shoeshiner who made the final table, despite taking a nasty river beat when they were to 11 or 12 players. The final 10 got paid and the Shoeshiner played some nice poker and ended up getting 4^th for $350. We had all exchanged 15 of each other, so I got back about 50 of my 60 dollar buy-in. After the tourney, we went down to the Spice Market Buffet which was very good, but slightly expensive.

We head back to the IP and agreed to play there the duration of the night. The Shoeshiner and I started to play some Pai Gow and have some drinks. After a few hours we decide to get in on a 2/4 game hoping it was as weak as this morning. It was, but I lose some big pots and end up losing a good chunk of my buy-in before deciding to go back to Pai Gow. I got up and left and the Shoeshiner and Johnny joined me not too much later. We are playing and a hand comes up where the dealer set her hand wrong, although no one caught it at the table. I think she set a flush behind and a very weak two card hand up front, when she could have set a pair up front and a pair in back. She went through most of the table pushing with everyone and taking their cards. A pit boss walked up and notices that she set her hand wrong and proceeded to give everyone their cards back and reset her hand. Everyone raises a big stink and I ask if we can all reset our hands after everyone’s hands have been exposed. He said yes, and I reset my hand to where I could still push with her. This pissed him off and he set my hand back to where it had been in the first place and takes my bet. This really pissed me off and I go into a profanity laced mini-tirade about how he had just told me I could reset my hand. Everyone at the table is yelling at him. He ends up giving me my bet back, but everyone at the table got up and left. I don’t know what the proper ruling is there, but it seemed like a pretty poor decision from a PR point of view.

We decided to take our Pai Gow tour next door to the Flamingo and got seated at a ‘mini Pai Gow’ table. This game was played with 6 cards, with a 1 card poker hand up front and a 5 card in back. There was no 5% rake which cut back the house edge and ended up making the game run smoother. I ended up a few bets after 2 hours or so and got a pretty nice buzz going from the 2 stiff 7 and 7s I drank. We head back to the IP around 6 am and crash having to check out 11am. We all made it up on time and caught our flight back to reality.

Vegas: Part One

The flight to Las Vegas was largely uneventful. I sat by a middle aged black woman who listened to the XM radio most of the flight, although somehow we managed to get our seatbelts tangled together at some point. We got off the plane, hopped on the tram, and got to the taxi waiting area. After 5 minutes or so we were off into the dead heat, headed for the Imperial Palace. The check-in line was somewhat long, and my attempt to bribe the clerk into giving us a suite did not work. We dropped our bags off in the room and headed up to get some lunch at Pizza Palace, which was ok. With the bill settled we headed down to get into the action at the IP poker room. I jump right on a 1-2 NL table that was running. There was a smattering of folks at the table; a T.J. Cloutier look-a-like, an annoying Texan to my right, chain smoking woman across the table. I played for about 4 orbits and didn’t win one hand. I had basically got blinded down to about 70 bucks, when I picked up 2 black aces on the button. The drunken Texan to my right raised to 15 and I pop it 25 more. The SB tanked and ends up flat calling. The flop was Q 10 rag. The SB bets 30 and the Texan makes it 60. I call off my last 30. The turn and river are both 3’s, the SB shows JJ and the Texan shows QQ for the boat. I took off and had a beer while winning 30 bucks playing video poker. I had two more beers during my charter Pai Gow session and won 10 bucks over the next hour or so.

The Shoeshiner, Johnny Cheng, and I decided to press our luck and play in the 7pm tourney at Sahara. All three of us got the impression that the tourney was a complete rock garden. I managed to last the longest collecting 5 dollars from my two companions, but bowed out in about 20^th place out of 140 runners. I doubled up early when my KK rolled over my opponents QQ, but it was slow going after that. I was low on chips almost the entire last 2 hours of the tourney, and went out when with 94 offsuit with about 2.5 times the BB left. The tourney seems pretty well run and the dealers were pretty decent and friendly. The structure is pretty good, although I wasn’t crazy about the fact that there are no ante’s. We jumped on the monorail and headed back to the IP.

The Shoeshiner and I bellied up to a Pai Gow table and began tossing back beers while learning the finer points of the game. Johnny joins us shortly thereafter. Hours and several beers pass, while Johnny decided it’s was time for him to head out around 2 am. We stayed in the game and downed several more drinks. At times our game was down to just the two of us and other times it was lively with random drunks. Two completely drunk morons sat down around 3 am and the one proceeded to clog the automatic shuffler by getting his cards wet. The next hand he bent one of the cards and they had to get another deck. He had to have been very close to getting 86’ed. Some time later a couple of decent looking drunk girls sat down and bought in for $200 each. They were both betting $50/hand with 5 bucks on the fortune bonus. Needless to say, they didn’t last long. I got out of there around 4am with a modest loss and a belly full of beer.

T minus 24 hours

This time tomorrow I will be descending into McCarran for a quick two night Vegas trip with a few friends. Plans: Planet Hollywood/Sahara/other cheapo tourneys; Dealertainers; Cherry-breaking Pai Gow session; 20 dollar trick at check-in; betting on the Twins; ; Free booze; Buffets; Pizza Palace; Cash games at IP/MGM/PH. I'll try and whip up a decent trip report when I get back.

I got wind of this awesome thread on 2+2 where Steve Albini offered himself up to answer a ton of questions regarding pretty much anything. If you are a music nerd like me, you'll love it. The result turned out to be a very candid Q and A session between Albini (who trashes Urge Overkill about 100 times) and a bunch of people. I think the thread is still alive. You might remember my run-in with Steve at a 7CS table on pokerroom.com.

whoop their it is

Hello rgpars,

We have received a complaint regarding some things you said in chat
at our tables.

111132650 rgpars sharkscope is for fucking retards 4 6/23/2007 11:53:43 PM
(I am not sure why I said this, I use sharkscope all the time)
111132650 rgpars what crap 4 6/23/2007 11:59:21 PM
(Here I rivered 2 pair when I was all in with Q10 against KK and AQ, I felt bad)
111132650 rgpars i have to take a mean dump 4 6/23/2007 11:59:40 PM
(I really did)

If I get a warning for goofing off in the chat, I bet Lee Jones and his thugs took this guy out and the Costa Rican jungle, beat him mercilessly, and left him for dead.

shawnbb73: POKERSTARS IS SOME CHEATING UNREGULATED SITE........I HOPE YOU GET SHUT DOWN NEXT MONTH WHEN THE TRUTH HITS THE FRONT PAGE THAT YOUR SITE CHEATS MOBSTERS GANGSTERS CHEATERS........ALL RIGHT HERE POKER STARS IS A BUNCH OF LIARS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moving on. I was tickled pink to learn that some rich Aussie bible thumper opened up a Creation Museum in KKKentucky. Fortunately, these guys went undercover to get the real story. I can't believe any of them were able to keep straight faces through the whole ordeal.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vegas trip is coming up quickly. I am once again going to grace the Imperial Palace with my presence. I can't wait to play blackjack against Madonna, or get a royal gut ache when I break my promise to stay away from the Emperors Buffet. I think I am going to try what I learned is called the "$20 trick." I don't really care much about the upgrade, as I imagine we won't be spending a lot of time in the room, but it seems like it might be fun to try.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just got this in my email a few minutes ago. A fine cause, but someone needs to do a little research on how to spell peoples names.

no, I didn't win this hand, and yes I spent 3 hours in a 2 dollar tourney for a whopping buck forty five.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to rgpars [Ks Kc]
rgpars: raises 1200 to 1600
DangIFold: folds
broncoook: folds
larry1dart: calls 292 and is all-in
strapNlefty: folds
Jonny B the1: calls 1600
Fabulez: folds
jdeere5220: folds
wizzardking: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kh 6d 2s]
rgpars: bets 800
Jonny B the1: raises 7055 to 7855 and is all-in
rgpars: calls 3700 and is all-in

I was trying to pull off a "big" score in Little Chinatown by dabbling in some late night 8 bit donkfest clusterfuck tourney on pokerstars. No good.

I have a CD compilation of every great song from every great artist of the Nineteen Nineties. Wilson Phillips. LEN. Smashmouth. Screaming Trees. Blind Melon. Smashing Pumpkins. Daft Punk. Nirvana. Squirrel Nut Zippers. Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Des'ree. Portishead. Jawbox. Helium. Fastball. Dinosaur Jr. Boss Hog. The Beastie Boys. Green Day. Jets to Brazil. EPMD. Sonic Youth. Ice-T. Yo La Tengo. Jewel. Veruca Salt. Weezer. Tricky. Unwound. Nashville Pussy. Seaweed. Radiohead. Pizzicato 5. Superchunk. 411. Semisonic. Massive Attack. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Sleater Kinney. Fatboy Slim. Modest Mouse. Beck. Ice Cube. Bell Biv Devoe. The Black Crowes. INXS. Digital Underground. Foo Fighters. Built To Spill. Coldplay. The Breeders. At the Drive In. Snoop Dogg. Natalie Merchant. Black Sheep. Roni Size. Rage Against the Machine. Morphine. The Dismemberment Plan. The Get Up Kids. Helmet. Jimmy Eat World. Pixies. Tone-Loc. Public Enemy. Phil Collins. Air. The Delta 72. Unsane. SWV. Digable Planets. Dr. Dre. Chemical Brothers. PM Dawn. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Le Tigre. Sublime. Fiona Apple. Whitney Houston. The International Noise Conspiracy. Elliot Smith. Eminem. Kid N Play. Rob Base and DJ Easy Rock. Guns N Roses. Prince. Seal. Salt N Pepa. Presidents of the United States of America. The Wallflowers. Tom Cochrane. Live. REM. Naughty By Nature. No Doubt. U2. Juno. Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Rembrandts. Dave Mathews Band. Stone Temple Pilots. Fugazi. Mudhoney. LL Cool J. Nicki French. Dee-Lite. Janet Jackson.

Turn on, tune in, cash out.

Just got a fat check from pokerstars that would have been much fatter had I cashed out a few months ago. Hopefully all goes well when I drive to the bank tomorrow, drop that baby in the pnuematic tube, and ask them to deposit the money into my bank account. I left myself a few hundred bones to play around with on pokerstars. I see it as coming full circle to where I was 3 years ago with my bankroll. I dropped a few hundred on pokerroom.com and then deposited 50 bucks on pokerstars a few months later. I ran that up to a few hundred and then totally cashed out to buy x-mas gifts in Dec '04. I loaded $150 into fulltilt.com the following January and never really looked back, and never had to reload. The money I made from that deposit on full tilt paid for trips to Vegas and 2 to Atlantic City and is now paying for another trip to Vegas. It also helped take care of some everyday expenses when my money got low. Now, I am basically back to where I started, playing 6 dollar SNGs and micro buy-in MTTs trying to rebuild a bankroll.

Pre-Sopranos dinner/ post bustout wine.

insert trite phrase here

330pm - First hand. 85 off. folded.

338pm - I've got last longer side action bets with two RGPers. 20 bucks from each to the winner. Haven't seen a flop yet after a dozen hands.

346pm - Didn't play 1 hand the first level.

358pm - First guy out on our table. He was bad. lost with 106 suited.

400pm - - 2 out of 4 times while in big blind (50%)
- 0 out of 3 times while in small blind (0%)
- 0 out of 21 times in other positions (0%)

405pm - first raise from middle position takes down the blinds.

413pm - will eventually need cards. best hand i've had (AJ suited), i had to fold. took down another uncontested with MP raise.

422pm - donked off half my stack with 87 suited on a 72Q flop.

429pm - can't even make the first break. I raise to 1200 from MP with AQ. BB calls and flop comes K106. I bet about 2500 (3/4ths of my stack) and he raises me all in..................with 77. I call off my last ~1000. Don't hit. Nice play there BB. Nice play me!

Ready to Rumble

About 15 minutes until my 3rd foray into playing the Sunday Million. Stay Tuned for the live blogging extravaganza.

Tits!

Eat that retreads. I just won a ticket to the Sunday Million on Pokerstars in a 11.70 double shootout. The first table I went from shortstack with 4 left to winner within the span of about 25 hands. It was one of those rare situations where you win a few hands, make a well timed bluff, and then completely run over the table. The final round I was able build up a nice stack and stay in 2nd place pretty much the whole time and cruised until the last dude busted. I think this might change "the plan" a bit. I realized that with my goldstar status I would be able to use my FPPs for an "electronics store gift card," so I think I am going to do that instead of use them to buy-in to another Sunday Million. I think I might play this Sunday and live blog that shit.

PokerStars Tournament #51835805, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: $10.70/$1.00
86 players
Total Prize Pool: $920.20
Target Tournament #51769624 Buy-In: $215.00
4 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started - 2007/06/08 - 23:20:00 (ET)

Dear rgpars,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
You qualified to play in Tournament #51769624 and are automatically registered for it.
See Tournament #51769624 Lobby for further details.

If you choose to unregister from this tournament your account will be credited
with $215.00 Tournament dollars. Tournament dollars can be used to buy into
any tournament.
Visit our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/tournaments.html for more details.

Dear Lord

I have hardly been watching the NBA playoffs at all being that the T-wolves didn't make it, but I had the pleasure of watching most of the 4th quarter and both overtimes of the Pistons/Cavs game. Lebron James scored the last 25 points for his team and they are now one game away from the finals. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

While I am on the topic of sports, the Minnesota Twins seem to be in the midst of turning the season around a la 2006, and the Brewers seem to be seriously fading....a la 2006. I sincerely hope the Brewers take the NL central, but they aren't looking that good lately. I would sell my soul to see a Twins-Brewers world series, and would donate my left nut to get a ticket to that game. Could you imagine?

The Plan

Consider this a public proclamation regarding my intention to quit playing online poker for the foreseeable future. I am fairly convinced that the games have largely dried up on pokerstars and it is too difficult to move money around to bother looking for softer games at other sites. The plan is to withdraw my remaining balance on pokerstars once I hit enough FPPs to buy a ticket to the Sunday Million Donkstravaganza. This should take a weeks worth of time or less. I was going to hold out and wait until I got enough FPPs to buy a digital camera to replace the one I had stolen out of my car a few weeks ago (thank you very much anonymous prick who broke into my car in my garage, next time I will be waiting with a baseball bat and beat your fucking head in like a 15 year angst ridden teen smashes pumpkins). Playing the Sunday Million on stars has gone so well in the past that it seems fitting that it might be my last act of online poker unless Barney Frank has his way.

The money I cash out will be used fund an excursion to Las Vegas in mid-July. Me and a few buddies are heading out for a short trip sure to be full of poker and large quantities of alcohol, with some sports betting and probably some other casino games thrown in for shits and giggles. I've yet to take a turn at playing drunken (or sober) Pai Gow. I think I might try it. The money that I don't blow in Vegas will go towards some living expenses during the summer when I will be making a near poverty-level wage. I am also planning on checking out the action at the "new and improved" Potawatomi poker room. Stay tuned for a trip report.

Massive Nights

Here is your obligatory grainy cell phone picture of The Hold Steady performing last night at the Miramar in Milwaukee. I believe this was taken during the opening song "Stuck Between Stations," a personal favorite of mine. My GF and I were positioned stage right when the show began, the view was great but it sounded like shit and we moved after the first few songs. The concert was pretty awesome despite the fact that it got ridiculously hot towards the end and the staff at the Miramar did nothing (i.e. open the front doors) to cool it down. Before the show began, there were about 5 or 6 beers placed on the stage where each member of the band would be standing. To top it off there was a bottle of Jameson on an amp. Frontman Craig Finn took at least a few swigs during their set, and it seemed as though he had taken several before the band took the stage. It didn't seem like the band actually drank much of the beer and I guess it is probably kind of hard to drink a beer and play an instrument at the same time as they both require use of one's hands. I can excuse them for not being able to chug beers and rip away on a guitar at the same time, but I can't excuse the fact that the beer they were given (and presumably requested) was Budweiser. Right in front of our Miller-loving eyes. This is Milwaukee for f*** sake! Have a High Life or a Pabst. Shit, if you really wanted to show that you were down, you would polish off some Cream City Pale Ale or an Eastside Dark. Despite the poor choice of beer, The Hold Steady rocked ass. The band ripped through an impressive set that included most of the songs off of Boys and Girls in America, plus selected "classics" like Stevie Nix, Cattle and Creeping Things, Your Little Hoodrat Friend, Modesto is Not That Sweet, etc. Finn also managed to get booed for talking about the Minnesota Twins. It was pretty funny, and I love that a band that has received so much acclaim from the Indie (and mainstream) music press doesn't give a shit about being perceived as uncool for liking baseball. I think it was hard to grow up in Minnesota in the 80s and not develop a serious love for the Twins, I know I did and I relish it. I could give a shit about the Vikings or the Twolves, and don't even get me started about the North Stars (Norm Green, the offer to eat my shit still stands), but don't mess with my Twins. Whom, btw, are in Milwaukee this weekend. GO TWINS!

Long Slow Goodbye

Pokerstars has a big promo going for their upcoming 10 Billionth hand. I've been a multi-table playing douche bag lately to try and take advantage of it. Too bad I can't win a hand or make money in a sit and go to save my life. I think the end might be coming near. Online poker for me is about to go the way of Jerry Falwell. Farewell old friend. I'll see you when the sun meets the ground and I am in it. The same old games are getting boring to me and the number of fish seems to have dropped to a point where it is no longer as profitable as it had been. Plus I'll probably need some extra dough this summer and the poker bankroll seems the obvious choice to draw from.

The idea of being dead and having everything be over has been pervading my consciousness lately. Everything goes through one death; I know that. But does it not freak you the fuck out to realize that one day you will cease to exist and that everything that is YOU is gone??? Your memories, possessions, someday everyone you have ever met will be dead like you have been for awhile. I love life, but someday nothing will be left

Holy Shit....poker

First of all, let's applaud Congressman Barney Fag, I mean Barney Frank, for drafting legislation aimed at stopping this online poker ban nonsense. He stepped up when all these other stuffed suits in office are off playing with themselves. Of course, I don't really expect any of the bible thumping retards in the Republican Party to vote for it. Likewise, I doubt very many of the Democrats will get behind it either. Frank needs to sneak the bill in some unrelated piece of legislation that Republicans can't vote against. That would be sweet; like taking a big shit on Bill Frists' Howdy-Doody looking face.

I played in a honest to god real poker tournament last night and ended up winning the damn thing. It was a 7 card stud tourney with about 50 runners, so it wasn't that great of a pay day. It's been a good amount of time since I last won a tourney, so it was pretty sweet. Maybe this bodes well for a trip to Vegas that is going to take place in a few months. Plane ticket and room are already booked. It should be a 48 hour frenzy of poker and free booze. I wonder if my points on my Imperial Palace players card from 18 months ago are still valid. Pizza Palace here I come!

nappy headed radio hosts

I'll probably get some accidental traffic with that title....

I don't want to have a whole big post about this Dom Imus thing, but the whole thing makes me wanna puke. From what he said, to the ridiculous amount of media coverage, to Rutgers Univ trotting out the whole team for a media Q and A, to morons sticking up for Imus and complaining that he should not have been canned, to Jesse and Al who are utterly shameless about sticking their mugs on TV.

Here's my version of what happened. He said something stupid, the media descended like vultures, his sponsors backed out, and as a result he got fired. He got fired because no company in their right mind wanted their brandname associated with Don Imus, not because of what he said.

While I am on the race issue....MLB allowed teams to make a mockery out of day designed to honor Jackie Robinson. The entire St. Louis Cardinals team donned jerseys with the number 42 on them. I am a big fan of subtlety, this was not subtle. No offense to David Eckstein, or any other white player, but to me it removes some of the meaning of the day when guys like him are sporting Robinson's number on his day. And to add insult to injury, they throttled the Brew Crew.

The hockey playoffs are going on, I feel sad for all you tards who pay no attention. Playoff hockey beats the pants off any of the other major sport playoffs. Except the years when the Twins win the World Series.

dead man's computer.

There are few things in life that leave a person more sad than going through the stuff of someone who has recently passed away. I realize this after salvaging a dead man's computer. Someone will be there when I die to go through my shit and probably judge every little thing that was in my possession. That gives me an idea, put some crazy shit on my computer in the event that I bite the dust. The sad sap that boots the machine up might find dated pictures of every bowel movement I made since 1999 along with a short menu of what I ate the preceding day. Or maybe a collection of unsent love letters to Wembley from Fraggle Rock. Remixes of Pointer Sister songs (that might be pretty awesome, actually), and the entire videography of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Napster. WAV files of the Doodletown Pipers. Pics of dogs chewing on dildo's. Serial killer biographies.

The computer I went through had the following things:

1. A handful of short porn clips. Sometimes you kinda wonder if porn loses it's thrill when you get old; not for this dude.

2. What seemed to be Clay Aiken's entire discography; this would make some sense if those clips were gay porn, but instead I was left flummoxed.

3. No less than 10 programs about how to get somewhere; microsoft streets and tricks, google maps, microsoft chicks with dicks, google earth, streetfinder, etc. Maybe it was a sign of dementia.

4. A Dummy's Guide to Will's and Estates. Family Tree Maker. 5 or more programs that have to do with income taxes.

About 6 years ago, I helped a friend who managed some apartment buildings clean out the apartment of a lady who had just died. She lived across the way from another tenant I knew and she spent most of her nights in a pitch-black apartment smoking cigarettes. She died, and had no one to claim or clean up her stuff. She had many books; some good stuff too, like Burroughs, Sartre, Hemingway, etc. Yet, all those good books didn't mean one ounce of happiness for her. No doubt she was miserable. I spent most of my last 2 years as an undergrad reading good books and smoking cigarettes by myself. I wasn't miserable (probably not happy either) and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything, but at a certain point one welcomes the company of others .

Quote of the Day

Mike Matusow to Gus Hansen a few months ago across fulltilt chat:

Mike Matusow: gus what u do lick some nuns pussssy last night or somthing.

worst. blog. ever.

You're looking at it. I only have enough thoughts in my little pea brain to muster about 1 post/6 weeks.

I have been getting back into the groove of playing poker on a regular basis. The 2/4 shorthanded limit HE have been my bread and butter. I've sprinkled that with a dash of 2/4 7 card stud and the occasional glass of pot limit omaha, but whatever is in the sit and go's lately has been giving me the shits. Explosive shits. The kind that keep you on the toilet for the better part of an hour. I've been 2 outered, rivered, fucked, flanked, homered, and screwed. Alas, I am hardly playing them now. It's too bad because they are so soft. I'll come back to them once the ring games start to make me ill.

I think I have been light on the poker blogging because I realize blogging about me sitting around playing poker is boring as fuck. It has to be even less exciting reading this crap. I wish I could regale everyone with stories of winning big tourneys or having 40 BB wins in the 10/20 limit game. But, I can't. I am a low limit hero. The muse of that Foreigner song was a 'jukebox hero.' And I am a 'low limit hero,' and that's the way it is and probably the way it will be until I cashout all my dough and put it all on 'black.'

Oh, by the way. Kudos to the commenter on my previous post. My heart almost melted after I head that complement.

8 oz Bud cans, tranny hookers, and happy endings.

I woke up at 1 pm after my first night in NYC. Two hours later I was sitting where I woke up, freshly showered, with a screwdriver in my hand watching last night's 'The Office' and '30 Rock' shows. 4 more of those drinks and I hopped out onto Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn during the middle of rush hour. I got a fresh pack of smokes and a slice of pepperoni down the block and jumped on the 61 bus to head to the bar where my friend was working.

I made it to the bar and pulled up a stool. Over the next 5 hours I drank half the bars' supply of Miller Lite and endulged in the complementary tater tots the bar served. We all left around 11pm and made our way into the city after hearing Springsteen on the jukebox and almost puking. The first stop was some dive bar joint in the lower east side called the Holiday Cocktail lounge. The bathroom there was so small I almost knocked myself over trying to get inside the door and wedge myself by the toilet to go piss. The bar seemed to be run by two older dudes who like to close around 1230am. They had cheap Bud bottles and wood panel walls that reminded me of my parents basement. As last call was over and we we're on our way out we heard Springsteen and I had to piss again and it was that same fucking song again.

Some minutes later we were sitting at a booth at Doc Holidays which I think was pretty close to where we were before. The bartender had tits that extended farther than the average persons arms and if you think that's good then ok. We drank PBR which put Drummer Floor Guy into death throes and he was on his way to the L train soon thereafter. Tiny E and I stuck it out, and after another 16oz of PBR we started walking again after hearing that same fucking Springsteen song. The next stop was on Avenue B; the place might have even been called Ave B, but they served 8 oz ponies for 2 bucks. We each got 2, and I took a piss in a bathroom that had Bloc Party sticker on the toilet. We weren't there long as we hopped in a cab and headed to a place called Happy Endings. I had to piss again after we ordered 2 Bud's and I stood in line next to some dude named Philmo. We were standing in line to the one unisex bathroom and he was with some chick that looked like a blonde version of Hilary Swank, but the sort of version that would be with a 60 inch dude named Philmo.

Tiny E realizes he is no longer in possession of his Ipod and we figure that it must have popped out of his jacket at Doc Holiday's. I thought it was a longshot, but we headed back around 23oam. The place was less busy and we made a beeline for the booth we were in earlier. The Ipod was wedged between the booth and the wall and we ordered 2 more PBRs after that victory. As the bar was closing we headed down the street and found our way to a pizza joint. I had slice of pepperoni and we made out way to the subway. I get down inside the station and I see a figure approaching as I am eating my pizza. Up walks a man dressed in woman's clothes and he asks what I am up to tonight. I mumble something with a mouthful and he asks if I am 'looking for a good time.' I laugh and he is on his way. I passed out around 5am.

I'm not dead

Holy shit it has been over a month since I last posted here. The month of december whizzed by pretty fast with the Christmas, prelim exams, and new year's holiday. The beginning of January was marked by my first trip to NYC (post forthcoming). Currently, my body is trying to give a beat down to a cold that started just after xmas, subsided after new years, and then made a nasty reprise this past weekend.

I decided to lay my balls on the table and throw a good chunk of money back into pokerstars. Everytime I see 100K plus people logged in, I start to salivate. Unfortunately, the first week after I deposited I got steamrolled and lost a fair amount. The last few days have been decent and I feel like I might be getting my mojo back. Stay tuned.

save as draft

Pretty good stuff right now:

Beck - The Information.
Cheap ass beer at Sendik's on Oakland.
Tickets to 1/4/07 NY Rangers game at MSG.
Holiday break from grad school.
Snowstorm that is about to kick out ass in Milwaukee.

Stupid shit right now:

Studying for my 2nd to last exam ever.
Joke of a poker bankroll.
Weed in my freezer.
My last trip to Potawatomi.

pigskin' f*ckit

I can't pick an NFL game correct to save my ass. The last 6 or 7 weeks my performance has been at about chance level. If I made my living betting on football games, I would be living in a fucking dumpster right now.

After beating the Seahawks in Seattle, the Vikes looked poised to go on a nice run with 3 of their next 4 games against very beatable teams in SF, GB, Miami. They got trounced by New England and then proceeded to lose the next 3 to 3 very mediocre teams. And the Timberwolves look like they are headed for another lottery pick this year. The have something like 8 guards on the roster; that makes alot of sense there, Kevin McHale. Ugh, when does baseball start?

I have been playing poker consistently, but at pretty low limits. I final tabled a 3 dollar HORSE tourney yesterday, which netted me something like 15 dollars. I am wondering whether or not to reload some accounts and get back to playing the levels I was before. One good thing about playing for peanuts is that I don't really care when I lose because I am losing no more money than most people have laying around in change jars. But, I still feel that competitive urge from time to time, and I can't help but think that will only be satisfied with a return to playing higher stakes. This will probably sound corny, but I really thought that I was good enough that one day I would make a nice score in a big tourney and have a bankroll that would allow me to play at levels where I could make real money. I was contemplating buying in to WSOP events and had started to play the Sunday Million a few times on pokerstars. Maybe I've lost that desire, maybe it's on vacation.

1 year

This blog sucks and it is 1 year old. I started pounding stuff out on this here webspace while I was staying in a hotel on 13th ave and M street in DC. The following month I was staying on the Vegas strip and blogging from the 8th floor of the Imperial Palace. Now I am sitting on my ass at home in Milwaukee trying to remember why I started this. I don't have any delusions that anyone reads this, and I don't really care. I think I started blogging because pokerstars has an annual tourney for bloggers and they give away some nice swag. I was also a big fan of a few poker blogs and I suppose some of this is based on that. Right now, I "maintain" this blog mostly out of posterity.

Why not talk some more poliltics. The democrats now control the legislative branch of our government and I think that is a good thing. Not only because I normally vote democrat, but because I don't think any party should have control for too long. The republicans have been controlling the agenda for too long and I think we saw how that went. Hopefully the Democrats can push a populist agenda and get some stuff done in congress. As much as I think Bush should be held accountable for the crap he pulled his first 6 years, I think it would be a mistake to go after him with impeachment hearings. Even if he deserved it, am I'm not really sure one way or the other if he does, it would look bad and get in the way of getting real work done. I would like to see minimum wage increases, get the budget under control, and somehow fix things in Iraq (no idea how). I think a repeal of the gaming legislation would be a good thing. Some of that bill's big proponents went down in flames last Tuesday, and that made me smile from ear to fucking ear.

vote those bums out/live drunk blogging of the election

8:00pm - God, I just saw Frist on MSNBC. Makes me want to puke when I see that troglodyte. Dems are +2 in the Senate with the big races still up for grabs in VA, MO, and MT.

8:06pm - Feels good that all this states I have resided in have elected Dems for Senate tonight. Congrats Konrad, Klobuchar, and Kohl. OMFG, the KKK. Nevermind, it's spelled Conrad.

8:14pm - Ugh. Loserman got elected as an Independent. Not a big surprise though. I think NARAL just dug their own grave by supporting him.

8:55pm - +4 DEM for Gov. 2 (R)IND house members get the boot.

9:01pm - Jesus, I think Santorum's nerdish looking 14 year old kid is crying. I'm an asshole and that is funny to me.

9:19pm - Cnn.com calls the race for Gov. Doyle. Now hopefully the Dems pick up the seat Green vacated.

9:33pm - Kerry is still a stiff. Hopefully he sails off into the political sunset soon.

10:00pm - You better be watching the Live Dailyshow/Colbert Report coverage.

11:35pm - barnburner in VA. Webb up by ~2300.

11:45pm - Dems +23 in house. Sen looks headed for a split.

1:14am - Long fugging night of watching Tweety bird Chris Mathews and the CNN stiffs. Dems look poised to pick up MO, MT, and VA. Macaca is going down. He's behind by 12K votes. Looks like a DEM Senate and House. Checks and balances........bitches.

I am not dead. Therefore I am.

Wow. It's been a long time since I sat here and pounded something out for this here blog. The whole poker legislation thing has had a weird effect on me psychologically. When the law passed I removed about 2/3rds of my BR into a saving account. Since that time my attitude towards the game seems to have changed a bit. I have a feeling like the hayday is over and that has sapped some of the passion out of it for me. I left enough money in my accounts to dink around playing 1-2 games and some sit and go's. I am toying with the idea of 'going for the gold' and risking a good portion of what I left in there playing some bigger tourney's or a 5-10 session. I don't think I'll do it mostly because it's not in my nature. I am a good enough player to win at the levels I play, but perhaps my best skill is that I don't go through large downswings in my BR because I am pretty good about managing my losses.

I had enough FPPs in stars to buy into a couple 215 tourneys, but instead I used a good chunk in exchange for a pretty sweet little digital camera. I think it speaks volumes about stars that they haven't backed out yet and that they are still honoring the VPP program.

Unrelated to poker, I made a visit to Atlanta for a conference a few weeks ago. Atlanta seemed pretty lame to me and everything was overpriced as hell (see 10$ 6-packs of Miller Lite), but the hotel we stayed in had a sweet happy hour from 530-730 with free drinks. Embassy Suites rules.

To quote an old song, the thrill might be gone in terms of me and online poker right now. Never fear. This blog will always be here. 10 years from now I'll probably be blogging about how I used to play back in the 'wild wild west' days of internet poker.