Why even have police?

It’s been a hell of a week.  I’ve hardly had any time for poker at all.  I’ve been dealing with a bunch of bullshit that really isn’t my fault, but is being made out to be my fault.

Tuesday night, I drove my truck around town running some errands.  All was fine.  Then Wednesday morning, I’m leaving my parents house to go to the drug store.  On the way out of my parents subdivision, which is a fairly steep hill going to the main road, my left rear wheel just comes off my truck and proceeds to roll down the hill into traffic, causing an accident.  Meanwhile, I’m sitting on the hill with 3 wheels on my vehicle, looking like an ass.

Upon further investigation, my wheel had been tampered with.  I found all, but 2 lug nuts laying between my parents house and where the wheel came off.  I had to get the truck towed to the service station next door.  He said that if those lug nuts had been loose for any period of time, it would have destroyed the threads on the studs.  Which hadn’t happened.  He also said all the lug nuts would not have come off at the same time.

The police refused to hear this side of my story.  I didn’t get a citation or anything.  And sure, I know it’s not the other guys fault for a tire running in front of him on the main street.  But I want retribution for whomever fucked with my vehicle.  That’s a low blow.

I stayed with my parents Tuesday night and I remember the dog barking at one time.  The only thing I can figure is that someone was trying to steal my wheels and the barking dog scared them away before they could finish the job.

Also, the officer that responded to the accident, did a piss poor job.  He basically had me and the other guy give a statement, had us sign the statement and then sent him on the way.  He called the tow truck for me and when it arrived, he was gone with the wind.  I didn’t even get a phone number for the guy in the other vehicle or any of his information.  So I had to call my insurance company and just plead ignorant on any of the details surrounding the other guys info.

The entire process has left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the way the police handled the situation.  Luckily, nobody was injured and there was minimal damage to my vehicle.  In fact, I was up and driving it again about an hour later.  The other truck just had a bent bumper.

Damn I’m old.

Here’s the only poker content you get: The downswing has now gone over 20 buyins.  This is my 4th 20+ buyin downswing since the UIGEA.  I don’t want to talk about poker anymore.

Every day, I feel better and better.  I think back to just a couple weeks ago and I could barely get from one end of the house to another.  When I had to actually go out, it would literally take me over an hour just to shower and get my clothes on.  Today I’m running around, doing chores, going to events and such without it taking me half the day just to get ready.  And I’m not dog tired in the process.

I came to the realization that I’m old today.  It’s hit me a few times, but today was just a reminder.  I remember when my nephew was born.  He was such a cute kid.  I remember being amazed when he was like 5 or 6 and he figured out how to operate the stereo so he could play his music.  I remember him riding shotgun with me any time I had to run to town.  Today, he was helping me work on the yard and my truck needed moved.  I tossed him the keys to the same truck he used to ride along with me in so he could move it.  He just turned 18 years old.

Time flies.

Another round. Yay!

So I’m sitting here grinding my ass off yesterday when I get a call from the “Free Clinic”.  It was my hot doctor lady telling me that my lab work was back.  It was a good news/bad news sort of thing.  Good news: I’m not diabetic.  I felt like Phil Hellmuth and thought to myself “I can dodge bullets baby!”.  Bad news: My potassium levels are insanely high.  WTF, isn’t potassium good for me? I have eaten my share of bananas in the past month or so.  Anyway, they had me come back immediately for more blood work so they can recheck the number.  Twice in 2 days at the free clinic with a 3rd most likely coming so I can get whatever treatment it is to rectify the problem.  I Googled the treatments and there was a list of things (including one of the pills I’m already taking or insulin shots).  I asked the blood work lady about treatment for high potassium and she told me it would most likely be a drink I take that pushes it out my bowels.  So I got that to look forward to.

While I was at the clinic, I saw the dumbest looking boyfriend/girlfriend combo ever.  The boyfriend wore white shorts with red checker pattern on it, black socks  pulled up to his knees, white K-Swiss tennis shoes, and a wife beater.  Both arms were sleeved up with tattoos.  His hat was turned sideways. He had these huge J-LO-esque sunglasses.  Plus he had piercings everywhere.  His girlfriend, I would do though.  But she was still a piece of work.  She had on the shortest shorts possible with just a bit of ass cheeks hanging out the back when she walked.  She too had a wife beater and multiple piercings.  Oh yeah, and she had the back of her hair clipped real short while the front hung down well past her eyes.  Both had cell phones attached to their ear.  He never seemed to be talking to anyone though.  She, on the other hand, was talking all kinds of shit..literally. F-bombs a plenty.  Now, I belong to the “Classy chicks who say ‘fuck’ a lot” Facebook group, so I was cool with it.  But I’m sure at least one of the mother’s that owned the 85 ankle biting parasites running around the waiting room took offense.  I was just happy to be entertained and hoped they were there for some sort of sterilization process.  10 to 1 she was pregnant though and we are all doomed!

Luckily, my stint at the doc’s office was fairly brief and I was still able to grind out a bunch of poker.  What a turd the last few days have been.  Up, down, Up, down down, Up, down down down.

Not all was bad yesterday though.  During commercials of Minute to Win It (I’m a fan!), I was browsing through old classmates on Facebook when I came across a girl that used to be smokin’ hot back in the day.  I really hated the bitch though because of one drunken night.  Several of my circle of friends were at a party.  I drove because I had the truck that would carry the most.  Not because I was the designated driver (I didn’t say we were smart when we were 17).  When the party was over, our crew stumbled back to my truck and I was heading back to the pool hall to drop them off at their vehicles so we could have an entire fleet of drunk drivers on the road.  About half way there, I noticed my gas needle on the truck start bouncing back and forth real quick.  I joked about it because the truck had 220,000 miles on it.  Just another cool feature I thought, until I hit the gas to pull out at the red light.  Sputter sputter clink clank, the truck died.  Awesome.  We managed to get the truck off to the side of the road before any cops came (police station was about 1/4 mile down that road). 

The group of us put our soused minds together to figure out what to do.  Now remember, this was back before everyone had cell phones.  We contemplated on which direction would be best to find a pay phone so we would call for a ride back to the pool hall.  Before we even started our journey, The girl I’ve been speaking of drove by.  She saw us and stopped.  We were saved!  She offered to give us a ride to the pool hall and even though her driving record was shit because she drove 2 speeds: Fast or stop, we had a way to get home! She had a Chevy Cavalier.  That was the first year they came out with the new body style that they use now (assuming they still make the Cavalier).  Anyway, there was like 7 of us and 3 (her and her 2 friends).  No way everyone was fitting into that car.  We contemplated who was making the trip.  No way in hell I wanted anything to do with riding with that bitch.  I didn’t want to die.  I just bit my lip and let the other dudes battle it out over who went.  The plan became to stuff as many of us into that little car as possible and then one of our crew come back and save the rest.  Before everyone started piling in, I heard her big mouth say “You know Wes’s fat ass ain’t fitting in there” followed by a smoker’s chuckle.  Little did she know that my friends were as ruthless as any and I am immune to fat jokes.  I know I’m fat.  I used to have self esteem issues about it, but that was back when I was small.  I got over those issues around age 10.

Anywho, I was checking out this chick’s Facebook page last night.  It has been around 15 years since I’ve seen her.  I wanted to see if she was still as smoking hot these days as she was back then.  I hoped for some nice bikini pics and such.  Then I saw that the cunt is now pushing 300 lbs easy.  I just grinned.  Enjoy that karma bitch slap you twat!  Sometimes the World just throws you a bone.

*Sigh* Legit Beat

I’m trying to get the feel for Rush Poker.  I really love the fact that you can blaze through hands.  I hate the fact that it’s full of shortstackers.  However, the offset is that it’s full of TAGFish and rakeback whores that help my red line go thru the roof.  Now if I could just figure out how to win a showdown:

Full Tilt Poker $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 814525
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $58.79
Hero (MP): $25.10
CO: $13.04
BTN: $25.00
SB: $48.30
BB: $13.61

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP with 7 7
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, 1 fold, BTN raises to $2, 1 fold, BB calls $1.75, Hero calls $1.25

Flop: ($6.10) T K 7 (3 players)
BB bets $11.61 all in, Hero raises to $23.10 all in, BTN folds

Turn: ($29.32) A (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($29.32) A (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $29.32
Hero shows 7 7 (a full house, Sevens full of Aces)
BB shows A K (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
BB wins $27.86
(Rake: $1.46)

For those of you following along at home, that’s a 96.5% favorite when the money went in…going down in flames.  I ran 6 buyins below EV today just playing $25NL.  Good thing I wasn’t playing my normal stakes I suppose.

I also went to the doctor today.  Apparently I’m depressed.  The doctor prescribed some sort of anti-depressant for me to take.  I thought about offering them at a discount to Dr. Pauly.  He might be able to use them as party favors.  But since my doctor is kinda hot, I figure I’ll throw her a bone and try them.  It might help with tilt issues after all.  But seriously, the only depression I feel is that I let myself get so god damned fat and I can’t do things I would normally want to do.  But I’m doing pretty damned well on the diet front and I’m going to start a more structured exercise regime in the morning.  It won’t be long before I’m back down to fighting weight.

My blood pressure is still on the high side as well.  Oh, and I have a vitamin D deficiency.  Pills Pills Pills.  Pharmaceutical Companies 4, Predator314 0.

In other news, I’m stuck in a rut on the internet.  I turn on the computer and pretty much hit the same 3-4 websites and I’m done.  I’ll check my Gmail and if there’s an interesting headline on my Google start page, I might check the news.  Then Facebook.  Then my Fantasy Baseball Scores.  Then 2+2.  Done.  I need to expand my internet horizons a bit more.

Long time no post

*Tap Tap Tap* Is this thing on?  Long time no see everyone!  I found out that blogging is something I do when I’m miserable.  At least that’s the way it was.  I’m not miserable right now, but still decided it’s time to revive this site.

What’s going on in my world? Not a whole lot actually.  I’m dedicating myself to clean living these days.  Not that I really have much choice.  I let myself go so bad, that I’ve actually been sick.

To make a long story short, I lived the past several months locked up playing poker and eating fast food.  After a while that becomes habit.  Then after that, it got so that when I went to the grocery story, I was out of breath.  So to save myself from that nuisance, I continued to live off fast food.  That way you don’t have to get out of the truck.

It’s a sickening and embarrassing story really.  But that’s my life.  No more.  I’ve made drastic changes to prevent this from happening again.  How so? I’ve moved back in with my parents.  That’s right….32 fuckin’ years old and I’m back in the same bedroom where I used to sport Star Wars sheets on my bunk bed.

I really had no choice.  My Mother is great and she agreed to help me get back on my feet health wise.  We’ve changed our diets to eating lean proteins, whole grains, veggies, lots of fruits, and tons of fish.  This arrangement has been going on for about 2 weeks and I already feel 100% better.  However, I have a long road to go.

Meanwhile, I still have my own house on the other side of town just sitting there and not doing anything.  I don’t plan on being here long enough to go clean it out and rent it to someone else, so I still gotta pay the bills.  And I’m still doing that with poker.

Poker has gone much better the past few months.  However, back last fall thru part of the Winter was rough.  I basically got lazy last summer and didn’t put in the required hours and it caught up to me.  I’m grinding overtime these days to make up for that.  The bankroll is thin after the bills are paid, but at least I still have one.

One new thing I’ve been doing is incorporating tournament poker into my game.  I’ve been selling 75% of myself for the Sunday Million each week.  I’ve done this the past 2 weeks and let me tell you one thing…that tournament is rigged.  Last week was a train wreck.  I was completely card dead for 2 hours.  I’m talking not even a medium pocket pair.  This week was just cruel.  I ran good the first hour and a half building up a monster stack.  Then lost 3 coinflips in a row against short stacks.  Then was on the ass end of a set over set situation.  Finally put out of my misery by losing, yep, another coinflip.  FUUUUUU POKERSTARS!

Anyway, expect more frequent posting from me.  Posts might be food/health related, poker related, or anything else.  Hey it’s my blog.  IF you don’t like it , go get your own!

Sickness: Week #2

I've been sick since late last Friday night. I was hoping I would magically feel better this week since it's the start of a new week. But nope, I rolled out of bed, tried to get the day rolling, and it just didn't happen. I don't think it's a Swine Flu, but what the hell do I know? The only reason I don't think that is because I never really had a bad fever. The rest of the symptoms were/are definitely present though.

Don't get me wrong, I feel much better than I did 1 week ago. But I still feel like ass. I'm all congested, still have periods of body aches, and just feel out of it. I've tried to rectify the situation by avoiding any bad foods. When I eat right, I feel good. This has helped me get through the days, but it's exactly making me feel healthy.

Hopefully I'm at the tail end of this thing, because it has really kicked my ass. I haven't been able to sit and grind poker like I should be doing either which hurts my wallet as well. Poor poor pitiful me :)

Day 1 of uber-grinding = failure

I'm already running 5 buyings below EV this month. FML.

I grinded for about 2 hours yesterday. I was getting aggravated as shit because I was getting my money in good left and right and getting hosed. I shut it down after about 1500 hands. I took off to the grocery store to pick up a few things and clear my head. I was gonna pick back up and play some more after that. Well, on the way home, directly in front of my next door neighbor's house, a stupid fuckin deer decided to prance its big ass in front of my car. We locked eyes at about the time her dumb ass flipped straight up in the air and landed in the other lane. I didn't stick around to see if it survived. My guess is yes, but she wasn't liking it. I managed to get slowed down to maybe 15-20 mph before we locked horns (<--- see what I did there? it was a doe, so no antlers). Anyway I was so damned mad because it broke the grill on the front of my car. So thats my excuse for not grinding several more hours last night.

Never fear though, I'm super motivated today. I'm already up and at 'em today. I've had a nice nutritious breakfast and a little bit of exercise in the form of picking up trash scattered about my yard. Seems either dogs or raccoons got in my trash last night. FML. But I'm in good spirits. It's bowling night. It's cold outside today. I'm just going to watch last night's episode of Dexter and then grind until time to leave. Depending on my state of mind, I might squeeze in a few more hands after bowling. I should get a solid 6-8 hours of play today. If I had better drugs I could do this. Anyone know how addictive Adderall is :) ?

And with that I leave you with some video footage of some friends I went to school with jamming at the train station:

How about 1 more .... cleaning up an OCMS cover for some kindergarteners:

The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test Song

Poor Taters | MySpace Video

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Don't forget about the Loose Change Freeroll every Sunday. $5000 Guaranteed!

To join in on the action and get a great rakeback percentage, check out the Donk @ Life Rakeback page

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Don't forget about the Loose Change Freeroll every Sunday. $5000 Guaranteed!

To join in on the action and get a great rakeback percentage, check out the Donk @ Life Rakeback page

Lack of updates on my end.  Sorry about that.  I haven’t been in the office.  This won’t be a proper post either because I have training in a few minutes.

I have been working out of town the past 2 days.  I have in-office training the next 2 days.  Friday can’t get here fast enough. 

I played a bunch of tournaments over the weekend and ran like pure ass.  I tried to make it up by playing 2-7 triple draw and run like smelly ass.  I lost a good chunk of money over the weekend.

I haven’t played poker the past 2 days because I have been getting home late.  I went to my parents house to watch the HR derby Monday night.  Last night, I had intended to watch the All-Star game on MLB.tv, but what was I thinking?  It was blacked out of course.  Fox, ESPN, and MLB are tight.

Maybe more of a proper update later on.  I still haven’t began working on the new site either.  So much to do, so little motivation to do it.

River on!

Not an hour after my last post, my buddy Charlie called me.  He is the other half owner of the cabin and the contractor on my house last year.  He said him and his cousin Danny were definitely going to the river.  So the trip was on!  Nice!

I called the usual suspects to see what their status was for that week.

Rusty – Oldest of the crew.  Recently married, awaiting child. One of those What Can Brown do for you guys who wears brown shorts and brown socks to work if you know what I mean.  He works for a Hypermega Global Corp. type company and they have all kinds of procedures for vacation days.  He’s pretty sure he can get off the necessary days.

Bub – 2nd oldest of the crew.  Definitely the most blonde.  Fun to get on a sleepless induced tilt.  Even more fun when he’s drunk.  He said he would love to go and will make it happen.  Bub is a trooper when it comes to fishing.

Roger – My oldest friend.  Personal problems kept him from attending these trips the past 2 years.  He’s going to check about getting the days off.  My mother is his boss, so I’m not seeing a problem there :)

Jason? – Other owner of the cabin. I’m sure he’s working on the park somewhere.  Doesn’t answer his phone.  Checks his email like once a century.  His status is very doubtful as I have mentioned the reasons in my last post.  Jason originally started organizing these trips and I hope things work out so that he can go.  He needs a break anyway.

Danny – Cousin to Jason and Charlie.  Overall good guy.  Kind of looks like Sloth from the Goonies, just not as sexy.  Danny has a knack for landing women that are way out of his league.  It’s either all personality or he’s hung like a horse.  By the looks of his up and coming bride to be, I’m guessing it’s the latter.  She’s way too hot for him :)  Danny is the fish at the poker games.  It’s not that he sucks or anything.  He just lives to spew.

Mike? – 2nd oldest friend.  Mike and I don’t get to hang out much anymore because he spends his spare days jumping from airplanes.  Myself, I’m afraid of planes and have never really had the urge to follow him down to SC on these trips.  Mike is the quiet guy that can probably outdrink anyone on the trip.  We grew up in the pool hall together (along with Roger), went to college together, and both loathe our IT jobs together.

So, what can we expect from this trip?  Well, it’s mostly poker and fishing with some horse shoes on the side.  There will be drinking.  There might be some magical tea passed around.  Fish might actually be caught.  There will be grilling and a lot of chilling.

Danny is getting married next month too.  This means, there might be a trip to Charlestown for a bachelor party.  This means a redneck version of The Procedure.  Poker, Booze, Strippers… not necessarily in that order.

Charlestown has strip clubs and a casino.  I’m pretty sure they are running table games now that they are legal too.  If that’s the case and if the Powerball winner that lives beside the cabin comes along, I will try for a stake in the highest stakes game they spread.  If Mr. Powerball gets hammered and starts handing out cash like he did last time this mini-trip happened, then that cash will skip the strippers’ grubby mitts and land in my pocket so I can stake myself :)  That’s how I roll.  I don’t care much for Mr. Powerball anyway.  He’s a pill popping douche who likes to show off his money :)

Vacation Fail

I’m 2 weeks off a vacation and now I have another one scheduled in 3 more weeks.  However, I’m not sure if it’s going to happen at this point.  For like the past 15 years, a bunch of us friends pack up the vehicles and head for Front Royal, VA to do some fishing.  It looks like perhaps last year was our LAST year doing this trip.  Nobody seems to be able to get their shit together this year and get the days straight (we’ve been going the first full week in August for the past 15 years).  The guy that owns the cabin just married the anti-Christ.  They have a child that was born back in December.  So that complicates the issue.  However, the real reason is that the guy is a superintendent at a popular WV state park and has a hard time with his schedule during the summer.  In short, he has managed himself into a corner where nothing gets done if he’s not there.  So he has to work 7 days a week during the summer.  I don’t know about him, but I went to college so I could get a job where I didn’t have to do such things.

So here I sit again, wondering what vacation #2 will bring.  Vacation #1 was decent in the beginning because my Dad and I took the boat out fishing for a few days.  Vacation #1 was supposed to be Bonarroo, but I really enjoyed my time with my Dad.  More so than I would have with a bunch of filthy hippies.  We might sneak the boat out during this vacation too if his work schedule permits.   If not, then I’m not sure what I can do.  I really don’t want to spend another vacation sitting around the house.

I’m actually going to get with some other friends and see about maybe putting together a beach trip.  There are issues with that as well because one of the guys is starting school that following week, so I’m not sure about that either.

Long story, short… Vacation plans are “iffy” at best this year.  Getting old is gay.

I’m finally back in the office today after a long weekend.  I haven’t missed it one bit.  In fact, I could fired right now and feel nothing but happiness even though I might not be able to pay my bills in the future.  All of this, not 1 week after receiving a nice raise.  Throw all the money you want at me…I still hate my job!

I was looking at my schedule for this month.  I don’t see anything fun on the horizon.  I have a training session scheduled for tomorrow.  Next week, I have to install a new system in Charleston.  That will take 2 days.  Then after that, I get to train a new customer.  The next week…more training.  Week after that, I travel to Washington D.C. for yet more training.  The good news is that after the next 3 weeks, my schedule is pretty clear.  And I have another vacation coming up first full week of August.

I’m hoping the August vacation is to the Shenendoah.  Several of us want to go, but the guy that actually owns the cabin has been unreachable.  We don’t know if the trip is a go or no-go.  In past years, it’s always been just the thing to clear your calendars for the first full week of August.  But these days, wives and kids complicate matters.

As for poker, I’m grinding still.  I only played about 500 NLHE hands yesterday.  That’s normal for me, but prior days say me playing 1200-1500 hands.  I’m supposed to go to the P-Rays game tonight, but it has been storming all morning.  I doubt the field can withstand much more of this rain.  If that’s the case, then I’ll try to score another 1000+ hand session tonight.

This job is all the motivation I need to play poker anymore.  The more poker I play = more money I win = more I can save = bigger bankroll = me telling the boss to take a hike.

Lastly, I watched a couple movies yesterday.  First was The Grand.  I had never heard of it, but picked it up on a whim.  The movie was pretty shitty, but I got a couple chuckles out of it.  It’s a satirical, almost improvisational movie about the state of the poker industry today.  It pretty much hit the nail on the head.  I also watched the new Rambo.  If you never wanted to buy a .50 caliber weapon, this is the movie to change your mind.  They took Sylvester Stallone and his shitty acting and made an entertaining movie.  Basically, Stallone grunts and occasionally yells while firing various guns with awesome precision into enemy heads and toros.  The shootout scenes make the movie.  Nothing like seeing a sniper rifle take a dude’s head entirely off his body.  They didn’t leave out the gore in this movie and it’s fantastic if you ask me.  Just don’t expect to see good acting.  Just awesome shootouts and death scenes.

.

In my quest to reach 20K hands this month, I have 1/2 failed so far.  Tuesday night, I grinded.  Since my money is still somewhere between Full Tilt’s mysterious address and my mailbox, I had to drop down a level and play $10NL on Stars (didn’t have funds immediately available for deposit).  I continued to run hot at that level and ended up winning more than what I probably would have at $25NL…you never know.  I really miss the Neteller days and blazing fast withdrawals and deposits.  Fuck politicians.

Yesterday, I had to go to Matewan for work.  I’m not sure anyone outside of WV has ever watched it, but there was a movie made about the town.  Not much has changed since those Coal Mine war days.  Except now instead of train being the preferred method of transportation, they tend to prefer travelling by 1.) ATV 2.) Hitchhiking or 3.) Car…. in that order.  These are some backwoods folks for sure.  The trip was fairly uneventful with the exception of getting stuck behind a truck painting lines on the road for 10-15 miles….doing at most 20MPH down the straight stretches (which are few and far between).

Once I got home, I played with the pup and mowed grass.  Then I couldn’t miss the Princeton Devil Rays game on such a pretty evening.  So, off I went to the ballfield.  It was pretty much a sell out which is awesome to see.  The only reason there were so many people, though, was because they were playing the Bluefield Orioles, which is pretty much a cross-county rival.  I scored some cool schwag including a Delmon Young figure, a Fred McGriff bobblehead, and a super awesome Carl Crawford superhero figure:

Anyway, the P-Rays won in an exciting game and I got to cheer loudest around the swarm of O’s fans that decided to sit in my area.  So it was a fun night.

Unfortunately the game wasn’t over until after 10:00 p.m. and I hadn’t eat since 12:00 p.m. and I was about to starve.  The concession stand lines were way too long during the game, so I had to do without until after the game.  After food and all, it was pretty much bed time when I got home.  I had to let the dog out and all that good stuff, so I didn’t get to play any poker.

I don’t really have much in the way of plans for the 4th weekend.  At one point, we will try have a bonfire or something, but not sure which night.  Other than that, I just have a trip to Charleston planned to pick up an outdoor dog kennel that my cousin gave me.  I plan on grinding a lot of poker over the weekend too.  I’ll probably do my usual grinding in the morning, enjoying the day, grinding at night, sleep routine.

I’m also getting an itch for live poker.

Sour –> Sweet

Of course you know how bad my day has gone with the following going on:

- 2 commutes to work this morning because I forgot to leave door unlocked for carpet people

- Fought with puppy to get in his crate, he refused, I ended up giving up and locking him in den for 30 minutes until Mom came over to be with the carpet people. He ate my blinds and shit in my floor

- Thunderstorms across the East Coast have caused havoc with my customers and have caused me grief here working on technical shit.

- Full Tilt wont’ let me cash out using a Bank Transfer or MyWebATM. 

But life has a way of evening things out when you run bad.  Just like poker, when you get dealt cooler after cooler after bad beat after bad beat, you just want to give it all up.  Then all of the sudden the light shines and you get unstuck and even make a profit.

I got called into my boss’s office for a private conference.  That’s never a good sign.  I’ve been in these types of meetings for the past 14 years of my life.  The first time, I was fired.  Every time after that I’ve gotten a raise.  Which would it be today?  Of course it was a raise.  A pretty good one too.  Why would I get fired?  I’m a model employee who never slacks off (from slacking off). 

One good thing about this job is the pay.  I am now making nearly double what I made when I started in 2000.   Too bad that the rest of the job sucks.

Morning from hell

Well, it’s a fuckin Monday alright.

This has been the morning from hell.  It all started innocently enough.  I got out of bed after a decent night’s sleep (for me).  Let the pup out while I got showered and ready for work.  I was even early getting ready and proud of myself.  I was going to be at work on time.

I let the puppy back in to play with him for a little bit before I left.  Then something happened.  Puppy decided to be an asshole.  He refused to go in his crate.  No matter how hard I tried, he wouldn’t go.  I have a backup plan for these types of instances.  I’ll just put him in the downstairs bathroom.  Tile floor, fairly small, and I have him a bed and food/water set up down there.  He refused to go in there too!  I wasted 30 God damned minutes dealing with this dog and really had lost my cool by now.

The good news is that my mother would be showing up in about 30 more minutes.  I am having carpet installed today and she had to let the carpet people in.  I finally gave up and locked him in the den downstairs.  There’s not a lot he can get into down there. WRONG!

I get a call from my Mom right at 8:00.  I’m still on the way to the office, but not there yet because of the damn dog making me late.  I had forgot to leave a key for my Mother to get in.  Fucking Christ!  It was pouring the rain, I was already pissed off, damn near empty on gas, and about 48 minutes into my 50 minute commute.

I got into the office, told them I had to go back home.  I pumped some gas, and started another 50 minute commute back home.  My mother had already fell asleep in her vehicle waiting on me.  When I got home, I looked through the sliding glass door where the puppy was.  He had chewed up my vertical blinds!  Not just a little bit either.  Fucking destroyed.  Also, he shit in the floor.

I’m at my wits end with the puppy.  He was doing so good for so long.  But now, it’s like he wants to butt heads with me.  I’ve read so much about doing the positive re-enforcement with the dogs, but I think I’ve failed to establish that I’m the leader of the pack along the way.  I’m not real sure why either.  So far, I figure the puppy has cost me over $1000 with the shit he’s chewed up.

I’m not going to get rid of him or anything.  I love the dog and the company he gives me.  But I have to get him trained or he’s going to tear up everything I own.

Going deep, but fizzing out

She was a real life Jerry Springer episode gyrating on my lap and spilling Grey Goose all over my Ecco shoes.

--Dr. Pauly

First things first.  Go Al!  I love when hippies prosper and do what they love.  It breeds good work.  Look at Pauly or just look at my iTunes playlists.  Hippies make good reading and good listening.  And since these are my blogging/poker brethren, I pull for them to prosper even more.

I think I jinxed myself yesterday with spilling the details of my good fortunes on and off the tables lately.  I had a tough night last night.  I didn’t play all that well though to be honest.  I just couldn’t get into that rhythm I had been in lately.

It seemed like I was stacking chumps left and right last night, but it also seemed like I was getting stacked off a lot myself.  And as all you poker players know, the bad stretches always seem to stick out more in your mind than the good stretches.  So when the smoke cleared and I finally checked my PT3 results, I was expecting all my monthly profits to be gone.  Fortunately, all I had lost was 1 buyin.

I had a lot more poker left in me, but the puppy thought otherwise.  He was on tilt from being ignored for a couple hours and decided to start getting into mischief.  I had to take a break and play with him for a while.

After the play session with the pup, I was ready to play some more.  Before I hopped back into the cash games, I decided to check the tournaments.  I nearly bought into the Stud/8 MSOP event on Full Tilt, but the field was too big and while I thoroughly enjoy Stud/8, I don’t feel like I have an edge over any remotely competent player.  So I opted to buy into a $5.50 NLHE tourney and a $4.40/180 on Stars.

The Stars tournament didn’t go so well.  I had an ill-timed bluff early against an apparent monster to lose the first 3rd of my chips.  From there I nursed a short stack down to about 44th place.

In the Full Tilt tourney, I doubled up early, but then went card dead pretty much until the 2nd break.  I kept alive with some steals, a few small pots, etc.  Then I finally hit a big hand when my KK > TT.  Then again, my KK > TT.  Now I have chips to work with.  As we approached the bubble, I played to win while the rest of my table to played to cash.  This saw my chipstack swell considerably.  Then I got KK again and got it all in against…. you guessed it… TT and won for the 3rd straight time and a huge chip lead.  We cashed, I continued my aggression, and continued to keep my chiplead from like 27 people down to 12.

There was a guy to my left that played a 29/2 game and was really causing me problems during the latter stages and he seemed to out-flop me on every hand.  Then I finally picked up Aces in early position (possibly UTG).  I did the normal raise, 29/2 guy re-popped me all in (he was 3rd in chips I think).  I insta-call and he flips over…. deuces.  Of course, deuce on the flop and I’m crippled.  I win that hand, and there’s nobody with even 1/3 of my chipstack.  But that’s not how it played out.

I did make the final table, but with only about 5BBs left.  I finally pushed with pocket 8’s and got called by Aces.  His aces held up.  IGHN in 9th place.  I only netted a little under a buyin for my efforts.  237 runners, 9th place…seemed like I deserved more.  I really wanted the $300+ first place prize though and my 3rd MTT victory of the year.

MTTs are a good distraction from grinding and a good way to luckbox into a nice score, but they just aren’t for me.  I find it incredibly frustrating to bust chumps for 3 straight hours, take 1 bad beat and maybe get a few bucks for your efforts.

I used to be horrible at MTTs.  My strategy was pretty much the same as a full ring game cash game.  This would work if you were catching cards, but not if you go card dead.  I constantly found myself having to fold my way past the bubble and then hope to catch a couple miracle double ups to go deeper.  These days, I have loosened up a bit, upped the aggression, and have been able to build good sized chipstacks…especially around the bubble.  These guys fold EVERYTHING on the bubble.  Occasionally, you’ll find a decent player and he will either get there before you or be on your left and come over the top.  But I’m playing $3-$5 tourneys here, so those players are few and far between.

I have about $35 left in my Pokerstars account.  I have been donking around the PL Omaha and some $10NL tables with that money in my downtimes at work.  I have also played several $4.40’s with zero results so far.  I think I’m just going to take the rest of that money and run a bunch of $4.40/180’s with it.  That will give me my MTT fix.

---

Tonight, I will probably be around grinding out some hands, but I also plan on going to the ballgame first.  Tim Beckham made his debut for the P-Rays last night.   I listened to the game on the radio, but tonight I’ll be there in person to see the #1 pick in MLB play.  It’s also Jonny Gomes bobble-head night, so…BONUS!

My uncle is having a cookout/party type deal on Sunday at one of the local lakes.  I was excited to go, but then I heard there were going to be upwards of 100 people at this shindig and now I’m not looking forward to it so much.  I’m all for family and shit, but when you bring in 80-90 other people I don’t know, then it’s just not for me.  I’ll probably skip out on that event and play in the MSOP HORSE tournament instead.

Hardball

Last night, I opted to take the puppy out to the softball field to watch my friends play in a tournament.  My friends won their game and the puppy had fun and wore himself out for the evening, so all in all it was a success.  I didn’t play a single hand of poker though.

Tonight, I’m going back out to watch a baseball game.  The P-Rays are playing the Danville Braves.  I’m a big Braves fan, but I’ll still be rooting on the local team.  I’m kinda bummed about the P-Rays because I thought Tim Beckham was coming.  It looks now like he will skip rookie ball and go straight to A ball.  I guess commanding a $6 million signing bonus you can also command a no-rookie league clause in your contract.

There’s not much else going on in my world lately.  I’ve kind of fell into a rut in life lately.  I think I might have found a way out….restoring old friendships and what-not.  Maybe more on that later, maybe not.

I played a late session yesterday after we went out to eat for my father's birthday. Our plans got shifted around due to some bad planning on our part. My parents picked me up at my house after I got off work. We headed towards Pipestem to my favorite BBQ restaurant. The last time I went to this place, I had Flounder which was decnet, but who the fuck orders fish at a BBQ joint?

"I'm eating pig tonight!" I stated on the ride over to my parents. My mouth was watering thinking about digging into a big plate of pulled swine. Then we got there and CLOSED! Booo! Not a problem, I thought. We can have steak. The restaurant next door is a gourmet steak house and the best in the area. It's a little more expensive, but well worth the extra price. We pulled in to the lot and ... CLOSED! Boo again! Finally, we gave up and ate at a Mexican restaurant. I had something I couldn't pronounce. It was grilled chicken smothered in some sort of salsa that was really the perfect spicyness and cheese. They had another variation that had peppers and zucchini as well, but I opted to skip on the veggies. The dish was FANTASTIC and put this restaurant on my favorites list. This was only the 2nd time I've ever been to the place, but I will be back much more.

After eating, I went back home. I got my new puppy toy in the mail yesterday. I got him one of those Kong toys that are practically indestructible and you can fill them with treats. Boy did he love that thing. I put a milk bone inside of it and he played forever trying to get that milk bone out. I'm using the toy as a training aid to help him with his crate and separation anxiety. I'm going to make Kong his "Special" toy and he only gets that when he's in the crate. Hopefully this will occupy him for a while when I sneak out so he won't be fussy/whiney every time I leave.

After playing with the dog for a bit, I fired up Full Tilt and started data-mining a bit while I watched a Stoxpoker video. When the video was over, it was getting close to bed-time, but I wanted to play some hands. I played about 400 hands and had an up and down session. I was winning for a while, then it seemed like someone hit the doomswitch for about 10 minutes and then I grinded back up to where my loss was only $10 :)

Here are some interesting hands from my session though:

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HAND #1
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Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

Predator314 (BTN): $55.40 (221.6 bb)
SB: $14.75 (59 bb)
BB: $28.25 (113 bb)
MP: $35 (140 bb)
CO: $192.90 (771.6 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is BTN with Qc Qh
MP raises to $0.85, CO folds, Predator314 raises to $3, 2 folds, MP calls $2.15

Flop: ($6.35) 9h 4h Js (2 players)
MP bets $4, Predator314 raises to $12, MP calls $8

Turn: ($30.35) 3h (2 players)
MP bets $12, Predator314 raises to $40.40 and is all-in, MP calls $8 and is all-in

River: ($70.35) 2d (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

Spoiler:

$70.35 pot ($3 rake)
Predator314 showed Qc Qh (a pair of Queens) and lost (-$35 net)
MP showed Ah Th (a flush, Ace high) and won $67.35 ($32.35 net)

I probably could have gotten away from this hand. However, I was over-analyzed it and forgot I was playing $25NL. I'm not sure, I had so much invested in the pot and he only had another $8 behind, so the hand really had me thinking.


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HAND #2
--------------------

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

SB: $25.50 (102 bb)
Predator314 (BB): $29.60 (118.4 bb)
UTG: $61.25 (245 bb)
MP: $20.70 (82.8 bb)
CO: $25 (100 bb)
BTN: $36.65 (146.6 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is BB with 5d 5h
CO posts BB out of position, UTG folds, MP calls $0.25, CO checks, BTN calls $0.25, SB completes, Predator314 checks

Flop: ($1.25) 7d Qc 5c (5 players)
SB bets $0.50, Predator314 raises to $2, MP folds, CO folds, BTN folds, SB calls $1.50

Turn: ($5.25) Qh (2 players)
SB checks, Predator314 checks

River: ($5.25) Td (2 players)
SB bets $23.25 and is all-in, Predator314 calls $23.25

Results:

Spoiler:

$51.75 pot ($2.55 rake)
SB showed 7s 7h (a full house, Sevens full of Queens) and won $49.20 ($23.70 net)
Predator314 mucked 5d 5h (a full house, Fives full of Queens) and lost (-$25.50 net)

Silly coolers. I don't know if I'd ever be good enough not to go broke in a set vs. set situation...especially in an un-raised pot.


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HAND #3
--------------------

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

Predator314 (BB): $25 (100 bb)
MP: $15.35 (61.4 bb)
CO: $26.30 (105.2 bb)
BTN: $73.90 (295.6 bb)
SB: $186.85 (747.4 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is BB with Kh Ac
MP raises to $0.50, 2 folds, SB calls $0.40, Predator314 raises to $2.50, MP calls $2, SB calls $2

Flop: ($7.50) 9d 3c 3d (3 players)
SB checks, Predator314 bets $4.50, MP calls $4.50, SB folds

Turn: ($16.50) Jd (2 players)
Predator314 checks, MP checks

River: ($16.50) Ah (2 players)
Predator314 checks, MP bets $8, Predator314 raises to $18 and is all-in, MP calls $0.35 and is all-in

Results:

Spoiler:

$33.20 pot ($1.65 rake)
Predator314 showed Kh Ac (two pairs, Aces and Threes) and lost (-$15.35 net)
MP showed Ad Qd (a flush, Ace high) and won $31.55 ($16.20 net)

Who knows...I was getting 2 to 1 on my money there at the end, so I guess a call was in order?

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HAND #4
--------------------

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

Predator314 (BB): $28.75 (115 bb)
UTG: $51.05 (204.2 bb)
MP: $25.35 (101.4 bb)
CO: $25 (100 bb)
BTN: $33.30 (133.2 bb)
SB: $216.10 (864.4 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is BB with Jd Jc
UTG raises to $0.85, 3 folds, SB raises to $2.25, Predator314 calls $2, UTG calls $1.40

Flop: ($6.75) 4c 5h 8s (3 players)
SB bets $6.75, Predator314 raises to $26.50 and is all-in, UTG folds, SB calls $19.75

Turn: ($59.75) 4d (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: ($59.75) Js (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Spoiler:

$59.75 pot ($2.95 rake)
Predator314 showed Jd Jc (a full house, Jacks full of Fours) and won $56.80 ($28.05 net)
SB showed As Ah (two pairs, Aces and Fours) and lost (-$28.75 net)

Yay! I suck out. As you can see, SB was rockin' a huge stack. He was also rockin a VPIP of 55% and a PFR of 30%. I don't feel too bad for getting it all in here because I feel I'm ahead of his range most of the time. Am I wrong?


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HAND #5
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Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

CO: $24.75 (99 bb)
Predator314 (BTN): $28.85 (115.4 bb)
SB: $25.25 (101 bb)
BB: $33.40 (133.6 bb)
UTG: $51.40 (205.6 bb)
MP: $57.60 (230.4 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is BTN with Js Jd
2 folds, CO raises to $1, Predator314 raises to $3, 2 folds, CO raises to $7, Predator314 calls $4

Flop: ($14.35) Ks 3c As (2 players)
CO checks, Predator314 checks

Turn: ($14.35) 8s (2 players)
CO checks, Predator314 bets $11, CO folds

Results:

Spoiler:

$14.35 pot ($0.70 rake)
Predator314 mucked Js Jd (a pair of Jacks) and won $13.65 ($6.65 net)

Normally, this is a fold pre-flop for me, but the villian in this hand was the fish at the table. I had iso-raised him several times prior and he had just recently started playing back at me. I was going to give up after the flop but when he checked, I figured him for AA-KK-QQ. When he checked the turn, I knew he had QQ and a large bet would most likely win me the pot assuming he didn't have Qs. He confirmed he did have QQ in the chat and he claims to have had the Qs. I'm happy with my post-flop play here, but looking back on my pre-flop play, I think it's bad. Comments?

When I order something that needs to be shipped to me, I usually have it shipped to the office. It's much more convenient that way. My Dad has a birthday coming up on Monday and I ordered him all 3 seasons of Arrested Development for a gift.

Just like hundreds of other orders that I've made a Amazon, I put in the same address on file and had it shipped here. Today is Friday and his birthday is on Monday, so I got worried and decided to track my package. Well, they decided to send this package USPS. My heart sank when I realized this.

You see our office is stupid. You can send something UPS, Fedex, DHL, whatever to our street address. Send something via mail to this address and you get nothing. They don't even try.

So I called the Post Office. The woman did not want to help me at all. I got kind of rude with her and at least she looked through some stack of stuff (supposedly). According to her, it should be already on the truck going back. That's all well and good, except for the fact when I track my package it says "DELIVERED". It sure as fuck wasn't delivered here!

Fuck the Post Office and everything the government is in any way involved. They are low life fuck ups. They can't do shit right. And now they are screwing up my Dad's b-day present!

Another mediocre day

I played about an hour last night and won, but won very little. That's 2 days in a row of break even poker. Better than losing I guess. I'm beginning to realize why I got away from LHE in the 1st place. I feel comfortable plyaing limit. I'm a better player at limit. When I am winning at limit, I win fast. However, there are so many stretches where you win nothing or lose. Sometimes these stretches go on seemingly forever.

I think I'll switch things up tonight and play some NL poker. I can't play a very long time because I got plans for Saturday. I'm going fishing Saturday morning. I have to pick up my friend Rusty at 4:30 a.m., so I'll be hitting the sack early tonight. I also have to go to Wal-Hell and pick up some supplies for my fishing trip. I want to get everything done this evening and have everything packed so I can wake up at 4:20 a.m. and throw on some clothes and leave.

I'm probably going to focus more on learning tonight than playing. I will probably fire up some videos on Stoxpoker. I saw some interesting looking videos on Hand reading by Ed Miller I'd like to check out. I have a huge backlog of NL Videos on that site I can watch.

I have also decided not to go to Vegas. I could probably afford it, but it would also put a hamper on my financial situation for a little while if I went. Being that I just got on completely stable financial ground, I don't think I can disrupt that just to go hang out at some Casinos. Next year though and I'll be saving for that trip as well.

So now back to the age old question.... What to do on vacation?

I got some pointers from BadBlood on booking a trip to Vegas. He lives about 4.5 hrs away from me and Charlotte, NC seems to be a little over halfway between the 2 of us (or under if you're coming from the G-Vegas direction). Charlotte also has the best airport in my area. I do have somewhat closer options, but there's still going to be some driving involved, so, I'll just choose the airport with the most options. I'm fairly proficient with Charlotte roads and traffic too. It looks like all the local airports either stop in Charlotte, Cincy, or Philly anyway, so I might as well skip that step. Why drive 1.5 hours to board a flight that will stop at a place you can reach in 2.5 hours of driving the other direction?

The Vegas trip is becoming more of a reality each day. I really want to go. My only problems would be 1.) running solo, 2.) my fear of flying 3.) and lack of planning which equals lack of money. I'm trying to take care of #3 as I'm frantically trying to get everything straightened out from my house refinance and see how much I gained on my equity compared to what I spent on repairs. My fear of flying is more of a fear of control. I'm not too fond of heights, but I've just never flown because, well I've never really gone too many places that made flying a necessity. #1) is my biggest problem. It's not that I'm afraid to go to Vegas by myself. It's just that I want to experience it with a friend or friends. I don't doubt that with the onslaught of bloggers covering the WSOp and just hanging around that I can hook up with somebody. I just wish I had more friends that weren't married, didn't have full time jobs, and more or less don't give a shit and this would be all good.

In some ways, going solo in Vegas might be a good thing. I could do what I want, when I want without having to worry about others. On the other hand, I could get rolled by a hooker and not even know it :) I could play as much poker as I wanted and eat wherever I wanted. I could also get lost and end up with the tweakers at the Redneck Riveria.

Right now all signs point to "What the fuck else am I going to do?" and the Vegas trip seems to be on. Now who wants to stake me in one of the tournies?