RecessRampage - Poker and other stuff

It's time

2011-02-09T10:26:00.003-05:00

You know what's funny? Since my last blog post, I really thought this blog was essentially dead. I mean do people still read blogs? It doesn't matter... this is more for me than anyone else. Between my last post and now, I've done a lot...

1) Went home to Japan in October for a visit
2) Went to the Outback Bowl
3) Went to the AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh
4) Went to Lucko/LJ wedding in Jersey
5) Went to the Superbowl in Dallas

And yet none of these made me think/want to post here until today but I want today to be memorialized...

I'm gonna have to put down Tivo, my cat. He's 18 and he's been a trooper. He's had a kidney disease which actually got better after changing his diet and giving him medication. His heart murmur was under control also in large part due to medication and quite frankly, he was unbelievably spunky for an 18+ yr old cat (not sure of his exact age as he was a stray when I first got him).

But now, it's clear his time is near. After I got back from Dallas this weekend, he seemed to be eating less and less. This morning, since he really wanted no part of his food or the treats, I decided that it might be time so I took him to the vet. I just got a call saying that his kidney worsened, his white blood cell count is up (ie, fighting an infection somewhere), and based on the vet feeling his abdomen, something is not right with his liver/stomach. He's nauseous right now and basically, the diagnosis is that he needs more fluid for his kidney but his weak heart may not be able to handle the amount of liquid needed to keep his kidneys well.

I was ready for this but like the death of any family member, you're never really ready.

Tivo and I shared a lot...

He was with me in this past decade where a lot had happened:
1) bought my first house
2) bought my second house
3) got married
4) got divorced
5) moved to FL

All these years, he had feline HIV also... basically, he was defying all odds and even my vet back in VA was surprised that he was doing so well when I was moving from VA to FL. But eventually, all good things come to an end.

I still remember the day he was welcomed to my household. My gf at the time had a huge part in this. But everytime I walked out the door, he would come out from behind the bushes as if to greet me. Everytime I pulled in to the driveway, he would once again come out from behind the bushes. He looked like shit at the time so we decided to feed him... we set up flyers all around to see if he belonged to anyone but no one claimed him so we decided to take him to the vet where they gave him all the shots and medication to rid him of the worms/infection, etc that he had at the time. Based on I don't know what, the vet determined that he must be 8-9 yrs old at that time.

He and I were like one. He's dirty, he acts like he doesn't give a shit, but he's always by my side (or more like by my feet - I stepped on his tail countless times). He required so much medical/special diet attention but it was never a burden... While most guys feel a bond with their dogs, it was like that with Tivo. Hell, I even had him on a leash one time when going to the vet cuz he'll walk when I tell him to.

But at this point, I just don't want him to suffer. We can administer treatment but it might not make him better and considering his age, it would be prolonging the inevitable. I don't want to lose him but even more than that, I don't want him to suffer or be in pain.

So, thanks for all the great memories Tivo but I'm gonna have to pull the plug. This might be the worst week ever.

Poker related post!? Craziness!

2010-08-01T10:15:00.000-05:00

So over the course of the years, I've met most of the bloggers that I've wanted to meet. There are still a few out there that I haven't but they are getting fewer and fewer... one of the guys that I've "known" the longest who I actually never met was cmitch. He never came to the winter gatherings that I've been to and I have not gone to any blogger gatherings that happen during the summer (during WSOP which I think cmitch goes to). Well, now that I've moved to Tampa and he lives in Orlando, I figured it was a matter of time till we met, especially considering there's a casino in Tampa. Recently, FL passed a law that no longer caps the buy in at the poker tables so all the more reason for degens to get together right?

Well, so Thurs, I get a text from Cmitch telling me he's gonna go to Hard Rock Casino (here in Tampa) on Fri. Since i live 10 minutes away, I told him that he can just text me when he gets there and I can go meet him. Now the last time I was in this casino was back in December... during my apartment hunting trip. And sure enough, the games were shitty and but so was the rake/service so I decided that I see no point in coming to this casino... So despite living 10 minutes away (like 6-7 miles away), I never bothered to go... until tonight... and boy did I underestimate the power of degeneracy...

Friday evening, the Hard Rock Casino exit is packed... I mean there's a line on I-4 to get off the exit. I patiently wait and eventually, I enter the parking garage where I proceed to text cmitch (who was already waiting for me at the bar) that I am now in the parking garage... This begins the 30 minutes of trying every level of the parking garage looking for a spot! Eventually, I got tired of being stuck behind a long line of cars doing the same thing I'm doing so I drove to a nearby neighborhood, parked my car in there and just walked to the casino.

Cmitch and I had some drinks together to get acquainted and then we hit the tables. He quickly got to his 2-5NL table and I was seated at a 1-2NL table shortly thereafter. I also signed up for the 1-3NL table but since 1-2 was starting a new table, I figured I'd go sit there. With the law no longer capping the buy in, I show up with $200 stack when the dealer quickly tells me that for 1-2nl, the cap is a $100. WTF!? And then I see a bunch of people buying in for like $40 or $50 bucks... 3rd hand in, I don't even remember what I had but I stack this other guy and yet I'm only up like $50... WTF!?

Fortunately, I hear my name being called for the 1-3NL where the minimum buy in is $100 and max is $300. While there will still plenty of guys buying in at the minimum, at least it was a $100. The table was fairly nitty but there were two juicy calling stations who kept buying in $100 at a time (one of them bought like 5 times while I was there) and then there were some other donkeys that would spew for a while and leave empty handed. I was one of the lucky recipients of such donkeys when my AA > JT on a J high flop. T9 was also a great hand for me tonight as I hit two pair twice, both times getting me a decent pot. Some more wins and spews here and there netted me +$253 for the night. Considering the stack sizes, not a bad night.

I called it quits around 1:30am when my table started getting short.... cmitch didn't quite seem ready to go home yet but I saw on twitter that he left about an hr after I did with a profit of $200... follow him on twitter or go check out the blog (linked above) for his trip report (assuming he posts something).

Overall, it was pretty fun... the players were pretty terrible and it was an enjoyable activity... having said that, I doubt that I would go there more than once a month. Let me put it this way... It ain't no Vegas...

A+

2010-07-17T00:17:00.002-05:00

So I had a doctor's appointment this week... just the normal regular checkup on my knee. And he talked to my therapist and then checks out my knee and as usual, he gives me his "You get a A plus on your knee. I can tell you're working hard and it shows!" Now, when you hear that every time, I always joke with him that that's his standard line. Part of it is obviously encouragement but then he did say that I'm at a point where if I had NBA Finals next month or the Superbowl to play in, I am at a stage where they can attempt to get me back by then in playing condition. Of course, with that comes a lot of risk as well and then he proceeded to talk about Rod Woodson who had the reconstructive surgery and while his recovery time was projected to be 6 to 12 months, he came back in 4 to play in Superbowl XXX.

Dr Craythorn who performed my surgery and who I have follow up visits with is (or maybe was) Tampa Rays doctor so he's also used to assessing where the recovery stage is and push harder than a normal doctor to get the patients back. Now, he's also used to dealing with the regular Joe Schmoe's like me but he knows what to look for and so with his thumbs up, he's able to authorize me to do more...

And so now, I am starting to jog on the treadmill... I do intervals and I use that term very very loosely as I am walking for 30 seconds and jogging at an 11 minute pace for 2-3 minutes... but considering some doctors don't allow their patients to even start jogging until 6 months post op, this is huge that I am starting now, merely 13 weeks after surgery.

I already declared on here that I will PR my half marathon in December in Vegas. I ran 1:43:00 last year and I intend to break 1:40 this year. It will be tight and it will be a lot of work but competitive and determined are two words that pretty much define who I am. I told my trainers that that is what I'm gonna do so they need to make my training to gear towards that and while at first, they jokingly laughed, I think they now know I am dead serious. I mean the assistant did go from "I'm not sure you'll be ready to do a half" to "I'm not sure you can get a PR in your half" so clearly, my improvement is going better than he expected. The head PT guy is a guy that has done more ACL's than anyone else in Tampa and based on what he's seeing out of me, he's fairly certain that I can be back to running hard in the next couple of months. Beyond that, it would be up to me to get my endurance back.

Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to get back to basketball before 2011... after all, I am already jumping off my left leg and landing on my left leg. While it's still a little unstable, I am months ahead of where I was when I had the same surgery on my opposite leg 12 years ago.

A PLUS BABY!

My second home

2010-07-10T11:03:00.005-05:00

Most of you know that I'm born and raised in Japan. Well, if you don't... I am.

But now that I've moved to Tampa, it feels like I have a second place to call home. And that's Richmond, VA. It's funny how it is. While I was there, I couldn't wait to move out. I mean there were parts of it that I loved but there were more things that made me want to move somewhere else. But now that I moved, I miss it. To be honest, I really don't know if I miss Richmond or the people there. Probably both and probably weighted towards the people... but this morning, I realized that I missed the place itself as well.

In Tampa, I live 3 blocks away from Howard Ave which is known for all the cool restaurants and bars that are down in Hyde Park area of Tampa. It's a "trendy" place where lots of "young professionals" hang out. It also happens to be the douchebag capital of the world. I swear, there must be a dbag fountain somewhere around here... Ed Hardy shirts that are two sizes too small, bling-ish sunglasses worn at night indoors, etc. Yep, typical douchebags. But chicks dig that. And these are also hot chicks. So I guess everyone just plays the game. Don't get me wrong. Douchebags are everywhere. In VA, they pop their collars. But at least they weren't as over the top as they are down here. Anyways, so while I love going to the bars on Howard, I was also craving a more chill atmosphere too. Because the whole, being a dbag, pretending to be something more than you really are, and just trying to get laid is not the game I play. Just not how I roll. I'd rather not get laid for years than to sleep with someone that I don't care about that I'll never see again (until you awkwardly run into them at a bar again or whatever).

Well, when I went to get a haircut, I was talking to the dude and I asked him for some advice on places to eat. He's openly gay and lives in Ybor (kinda known for where the gay people live/hang out - sometimes referred to as "gaybor" per wikipedia, not my words) so I figured he would know more of a different feel restaurant than this Howard Ave dbag crowd (that I would assume would be extremely homophobic). And sure enough, he told me about this breakfast joint that he and his bf go. Some homely diner where they know your name, run by a family, etc.

So... today (Saturday), I decided to go check it out.

Pach's Place. Once you walk inside, it's definitely that family owned diner feel. It's small, crowded, busy, and loud... and it reminded me of the diners I used to go in Richmond. For Richmonders, think rivercity diner but smaller, boychik's but packed in tighter, or Jimmy's but louder (and def busier). I sat at the counter since I was by myself and sat next to this old lady, Connie, who told me about how the diner has been around for years and it's family owned and the people that work there has been there for years (except for our waitress who just started today). I also talked to two other older ladies from West Virginia and so I told them about how I've been to Charleston and also driven out to Huntington for a friend's wedding. I told them that I thought the state was beautiful (the drive to Huntington crossing the state is gorgeous) and they were stoked that I knew WV and that I was so appreciative of the state. They told me that you never realize how beautiful that state is until you leave there and move down here to flat FL. So true.

It was just so nice to be in a homely feel type of place. I was craving that a lot more than I realized until I got it. The food was good... I mean it's standard eggs, bacon, grits (finally found it here!), homefries, and toast (slabbed with melted butter). Ah, finally, some southern flair. As I crushed my food, said goodbye to the ladies, and left the place, I realized that for that last 30 minutes or so, it was like home sweet home. Who knew that I would actually miss Richmond like this? I sure didn't.

Third World Country Part 2

2010-07-09T21:44:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I intend to keep this very brief. After a week long binge drinking and partying, by the end of the week, between all the alcohol and the sun that we were getting, along with the crazy bug bites, we were all ready to leave. I mean it was just a long week and so it was just draining. Plus, keep in mind that 10 of us are sharing a house and despite it being a large house and many of us having the bedrooms to ourselves, eventually, you start missing home and your normal life... at least I do.

So, the last night that we were in Roatan, we went to this bar, partied some but didn't go crazy... at this point, alcohol was starting to not get the job done for me... which I was ok with. Well, Friday night, it became really stormy and nasty... apparently, tropical storm Alex was coming in and so it was just a lot of rain and wind... and sure enough, Saturday morning, the day we're all supposed to leave, I'm woken up by one of my friends who came into my room and said "all the flights are cancelled!"

OMFG

I mean are you serious? I was looking forward to going back to the US and to my home and now you tell me we have to stay another day here? I was not happy about it at all. Some of them were gonna go to the airport to sort things out but I just decided to check the status online and just go from there.

Well... remember how I had to switch my flight because Delta was delayed and so I ended up missing the flight that everyone was on? And so I had to book Continental? Well... CLUTCH!!!! It was only Delta that cancelled all their flights for the day. Continental (flying a different route obv) did not cancel any of their flights so I actually got to go home... And boy was I glad.

Don't get me wrong. Roatan was a lot of fun and being with my friends is always great. But after 7 days of just nothing but partying (I don't know how to "take it easy") and such, I was ready to be home. Also, the bug bites and the sun was taking a toll on my skin and I was starting to get bumps and rashes and I wanted some american medication. (No CVS or Walmart in Roatan)

When I touched down in Houston, I was so psyched. Connection to Tampa was no problem and the tropical storm... well, I never saw it or was affected by it so I don't know why Delta was being such a pussy but it is what it is.

You know, the cool thing is, despite remembering that I wanted to come home by like Friday, as time passes, only the good things stick in my head. The fun times that we had. Getting to know some of the others on the trip. And just having fun with old friends. I'll probably never go to Honduras/Roatan ever again... but I'll always remember the fun times that we had.

Third World Country

2010-07-09T21:14:00.006-05:00

I have so much that I've been wanting to write about but just failed to make writing a priority. Knee is coming along good but still very slowly. 9-12 month recovery is no joke and though it's week 12 now, I can only jog for like 30 seconds at a time so as not to stress the ACL (or the ligament that is now in the place of ACL) too much too soon.

Well, few weeks ago, I went to Roatan Islands off the coast of Honduras with 9 of my friends from Richmond. Going into the trip, I had mixed feelings about this. The deal was that we were all staying in a house... of course, the house is like super nice. I mean this is the view from our deck...

Literally, we go down the steps and there's the beach... and the pier... which we went on the boat rides 2 of the 7 days that we were there... well, sort of.

And this is the island we were on...

So here's the deal. Generally, beautiful views and gorgeous scenery really doesn't do much for me. And on top of that, this is Honduras... a country where I imagine poor people walking around with AK-47's, trafficking children to be sold for sex slaves, and obviously, dealing drugs. Yes, I'm narrow minded and very judgmental. But, I was definitely stoked to see my friends. I mean two of my very close friends were gonna be there so naturally, I was just glad to see them. See, the thing is, as much as I love Tampa and all, I really miss my friends... like terribly. If it weren't for the great career opportunity, I would move back in a heartbeat. Fuck Tampa, friends are so much more important. But that's why I try to take the opportunities I can to join them and so, this trip to Roatan.

Interestingly enough, by Saturday (the trip was Sat-Sat), I was excited. I get to the Tampa airport, ready to party it up when I see that the flight is delayed... due to "crew rest." I mean are you for fuckin real!? In talking to the gate agent, she tells me that there's no way I will make my connection to Roatan... But I'm supposed to meet all my friends in Atlanta where we will hop on the plane there! No dice. She told me that I can call the reservation desk and they can try to get me on another plane but of course, the one that I'm supposed to get on is the last flight to Roatan. And Delta doesn't fly to Roatan on Sundays. And Monday is booked up. So the earliest they can get me to Roatan is Tuesday. Naturally, I said "fuck that" and I canceled the trip... got a full refund since it was their fault, called my friends who were already in ATL and told them the story. Then everyone (my friends in ATL) and I get online (me at TPA, at a bar, watching World Cup) to look for flights on Sunday... and sure enough Continental flies there and the tickets are essentially the same price. So, I rebook and I arrive there a day late. This will actually be very key for the return trip but I will hit on that later.

So I get there and sure enough, my friends are there to pick me up. Despite a night of partying, they looked alright... obviously, because I wasn't there to ruin them completely... since that is what I do. But in the truck that they drove to pick me up, they brought me a bottle of southern comfort (my staple, even though Al clearly has that title in the bloggerdom but I was into Soco way before I even knew blogs existed) and so we all took a swig. Of course, since I wasn't driving, I took a pretty big swig. And once we got there, well... all hell breaks loose. Games of beer pong starts, and we go nuts with the shots. I mean that is what I do. At one point, we somehow decided that a shot of tequila would need to be done in the crawl space. So that is what we did here.

Tequila always hurts so good (I'm stealing a quote from a friend who probably got it from some movie or show).

Despite all the drinking and the memory loss (that is slowly being pieced back together via Facebook photos), the following day was more of the same. Our boat captain came to get us and we went to different bars on the boat. And as you can imagine, more of the same.

Btw, I'm not doing these shots alone... I've cropped out my friends who are in the photo for privacy purposes FWIW. And unfortunately, no Soco in honduras so we ended up doing more tequila shots.

After a while, we noticed that there were t-shirts on the ceiling with people signing stuff so I volunteered my shirt and all of us on the trip signed the shirt to leave our mark in Roatan!

Of course, after all that drinking and partying, I was passed out on the boat... and boy did that feel really good with the breeze and everything (but I paid the price forgetting to put sun screen on my face).

Wow, I thought I can finish this trip summary in one post but I obv can't. It's already long enough so I guess I'll break it up into two parts (and this is really a very summarized version... I believe there are like 800+ pics on Facebook of this trip).

World Cup - Japan and a trip down memory lane

2010-06-15T09:36:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Japan recorded its first win ever in a World Cup match. While some countries (namely European and South American countries) are expected to win each and every game, for a small island like Japan, getting to the World Cup is a big deal in itself... Think #16 seed in a NCAA tournament. Just happy to be there. We'll do the best we can, knowing that's probably far short of everyone else.

Of course, having said that, I always have hope. Well... that and the fact that I'm demanding. I get this from my dad. Just relentless pursuit of perfection or doing it right. With him, there were numerous times I felt that winning isn't even good enough. It's how you win. Like winning almost becomes a consolation prize... like "well, at least you won. But..." and there would be million things I coulda done better. I always thought that was shitty... until now, I realize that's what I demand from myself and it has made me that much better and stronger, both physically and mentally. I remember back in my freshman year in high school or something. I came home with I think a 3.64 GPA (out of 4.0). For all you "A students" out there, that might be normal but I was your typical "do well when I tried but was always distracted and found ways not to study" guy... in other words, a typical teenager (and back then, we didn't immediately find some random "disease" as an excuse like A.D.D. or whatever). So anyways, I am extremely proud of this report card because before this, I always flirt with the 3.0 line (B average) but that's it and I always have to explain why I got a "B" instead of an "A" and heaven forbid, any of the classes that I get a grade below B, I had to explain why. What did I slack off on, what homework didn't I do, what tests did I not study for, etc etc. I hated report cards. Anyways... I get what I consider a pretty awesome report card and while I can tell he was happy, his comment was "well, we need to be careful because it can only get worse from here."

Now to his defense, he's not doing this to hurt me or to pressure me more. It's more of a defense mechanism for him. He's a pessimist by nature so it's almost like he's always bracing himself for what he considers the inevitable failure. By finding fault in everything, including success (or winning), he'll now at least have a reason as to why they couldn't sustain it.

Anyways, back to soccer... so my dad always thinks Japan sucks (which we do) and that we'll never win (I'm more hopeful). However, back in 1993, leading up to the '94 World Cup, Japan came as close as they ever have in making the World Cup. Japan's professional league called the J-League had just started and everyone was really getting into soccer. The guys who have grinded it out in the 80s when soccer wasn't nearly as popular was getting a chance to be on the center stage and everything was going well. We had our backs against the wall a few times but inspirational plays from unexpected players brought Japan to within one win away punching that ticket to the '94 World Cup.

The game was against Iraq. We were up 2-1 with minutes left in the game. We're approaching the 45th minute of the 2nd half...

When we were watching it, to call that devastating was an understatement. Up until that point in my life (I was a high school senior), I was never so emotionally invested in a team... that was such a painful goal. The goalie couldn't even move or react to the goal. There were ensuing questions about why... why couldn't he dive for it, why couldn't he react... but in reality, you know that there's no one who wanted to save that more than the goalie himself who was a veteran who played through the "dark years" of soccer in Japan. But nonetheless, it was so painful.

So, having that in the background, for Japan to now be pretty much expected to make the World Cup is definitely an improvement. And sure enough, yesterday, against a much talented but very poorly playing Cameroon team, we recorded our first victory on world stage... when no one expected us to...

While I still realize it's a long shot, if we make it to the round of 16, it would be awesome. Next up, the Dutch! GOOOOOOOOOO JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My old boss

2010-06-03T22:57:00.002-05:00

In our lives, we all have people that are extremely influential to who we are today right? I mean the most obvious being your parents... whether they were great parents, shitty parents, were available or were gone, they somehow impact you. Well, and then there are the rest of your family that you might have a special relationship with. Then maybe your friends, teachers, and other social influence. Well, one of my influential people is my former boss...

I spent 8 years in public accounting, working for a regional firm... a good sized firm with visions of moving up by increasing clientele and/or merging with other firms. In my time there, I definitely had visions of the firm succeeding... strangely, I've always been a company guy... when I was with the firm, we had a motto called "One Firm" and I truly embraced that concept. Once I jumped to Capital One, I was a very corporate guy... what was best for the company and what would make sense for the company is a question I always asked myself. And in my new company now, I obviously adopt that motto... what I've now realized is that that makes me unique... but valuable to a company. And, because of that mentality, it becomes normal for me to go above and beyond the normal course of duty. I just try to do what is right.

Well, all that is to say that one reason I am able to think that way AND perform in the way that I believe is the most beneficial to the company is because I had a great boss and now a great friend. A partner in the accounting firm had a significant influence in my formative years as a professional and he was great. He recognized my strengths and weaknesses and enabled me to work in areas that really allowed me to showcase my strengths.

To be honest, so far, despite working for a traditionally conservative accounting firm, then a credit card/banking industry, and now a 100 year old insurance company, I have been blessed with great bosses. Now part of it is definitely me. I have a strong personality and will not cave easily to people, even with higher power. However, generally, I've had bosses that allowed me to run my own show and grow my own way.

Why am I writing all this? Well, my former boss from the accounting firm was in Tampa this week because of work and so I went out to dinner/drinks with him tonight. We talked about family, the firm, my current job, etc... and to be honest, it just reminded me of how much I missed working for him. We share so much when it comes to vision on the "greater good" which in a corporate world is generally geared towards what's best for the company... or at least, that's how we feel it should be. But admittedly, a lot of companies create a silo where each section would be responsible only for their parts and without a strong central leader, there's not enough coordination.

In talking to him, I was reminded of how lucky I was to have spent the 8 years of my 20's working for him and making me who I am today... and giving me the ability to believe in myself and that my values made sense. It's funny how he went from being my boss to being my friend... and to listen to his struggles even in his 50's about working in the firm. This is one perspective I would not have gotten if I stayed in the firm... but on the same token, we did have a lot of discussions around values and strategy and just thoughts about the direction of the company... and I know that every time we talked, we were on the same page. I have since moved on to other companies but one thing that doesn't change is our values. It was just nice to be able to catch up with him and despite the fact that we are 20 years apart and that we only talk like 2-3 times a year, we share very similar values and visions.

And you know he is a great boss when me and I think a few of my friends would go work for him if he were to break off from the firm and needed help from us. Now THAT is loyalty that you can never buy. You'd have to earn that and he certainly has.

I don't miss Richmond at all but I do miss all the people that are still there.

5 weeks and counting

2010-05-23T22:29:00.003-05:00

It's funny how this blog goes. I wrote on here before that I actually like blogging. I like putting my thoughts on the virtual paper and despite the title of this blog, there's clearly a lot more focus on "other stuff" now than poker. I might care about that hypocrisy if I were writing for someone else or for a general audience but in the end, what it comes down to is that I mainly write for myself. So, the past few weeks, there were numerous times that I wanted to blog about something I had in mind at the time... but something gets in the way... and these days, the "something" mainly consists of work, physical therapy, and work outs.

So this coming Wednesday will mark the 6th week since my knee surgery. It's really amazing how this works. I mean the knee surgery is literally like hitting the "reset button" on your leg. All your muscles go dormant, you lose whatever definition you had in your legs and everything that you take for granted like walking, quickly jogging across the street when the lights are flashing, or going up and down the steps, or climbing over the tub to get into the shower are all the things that you actually now have to work up to. The progress is fast and slow at the same time. I work hard on my PT sessions (3x a week) and on days I don't have PT, I still repeat the PT exercises to the extent that the therapists allow me. Tricky thing is, the more you can do, the better, but you don't want to overdo it because then the tissues in that area will flare up and you wlll have more swelling, less range of motion, and you will be unable to do some of the exercises until the swelling comes down which could be a day or two. And now, I can pretty much walk like normal although there are times my left knee still feels a bit stiff so I walk with a slight limp. I can go up the steps now pretty comfortably but I still can't go down the steps (yes, going up is A LOT easier than going down the steps). I can pretty much climb over the tub to get into the shower... I feel only a slight pain bending my knee that much to do it. And no, my tub is no higher than your average tub... that's how much range of motion you lose. I can now bike on a stationary bike even though I struggle to maintain 80+ RPM on Level 1. And that's not because of cardio... that's how weak your muscles in your leg become. To put it in perspective for those that don't do the stationary bikes, I can keep up 80+ RPM at Level 15 (on a bike whose max I believe was 25, maybe 20) pre surgery.

The funny thing is, initially, I didn't go out to bars and such because when my knee is vulnerable and I'm wearing a big brace, the last thing I want to do is to be around a bunch of drunk people. I had some of my neighbor friends and coworkers joke that I can play the pity game and pick up girls that way if I wore the huge brace to the bars but I really suck at playing the pity game. I'm so independent (have been since I was young) that I just don't want any pity. I don't need the "awwwwww you poor thing" type of comments and nor do I want to hear another person's injury story which seems almost inevitable... like they want to find common ground with you or something. It's just a torn ACL. I'll live and not only that, I'll be back to pre injury form and more so I don't need anyone taking pity on me and nor do I want that to dominate the conversation. I love sharing PT notes because that's fun but I don't want to hear the "yeah, I tore my ACL by xyz" or "I've torn both my ACL's" (well so have I so don't expect pity from me sucker) or any of that crap.

So anyways, that was the initial reason I avoided bars... but now, I've been so focused on working out through PT and still finding time to hit the gym 5 days out of the week so I'm more cognizant of what I'm putting into my body. I was never a health nazi and I'm not one now but I definitely pay attention to my protein and carb intake to make sure that I am getting sufficient amounts, especially because literally, pretty much all 5 days, I am working out twice a day if you include the PT exercises. So now, I'm not so keen on drinking too much because I know that that will impact my workouts the next day. So these days, I tend to have a beer or two at home or if I'm out for dinner, at that point. But nothing more. In a way, I'm kind of a hermit. I mean I go to work, I go to my PT, and I go to the gym... and that's pretty much it. Rest of my time is spent watching the NBA playoffs or playing poker online. Which seems kinda isolated and crappy but I am actually enjoying it. I look forward to my PT sessions because each session is an improvement and an opportunity to be able to do something new. Plus I've never worked out with anyone after college (in college, we had team lifts and practices, obv) so it's a nice change to have someone who is like a trainer working with you.

Oh and btw, if any of you ever have ACL surgery (and I really hope that none of you will), going to the gym with braces to work your upper body doesn't impress women but it will draw a lot of positive remarks from guys. I guess girls think you're crazy that you have to be that much of a workout nut but the guys are all impressed like "that's dedication man" or "dude, you should be an inspiration to all those other lazy guys that always find excuses." And yes, I've heard various versions of those statements from many guys. Only one girl gave me props and several others that I know just gave me the various versions of "why are you still coming to the gym?"

Hey, that is just how I roll.

2 week anniversary

2010-04-28T21:08:00.003-05:00

So, last time I posted, it was a few days post op, I thought things were better and I was feeling good about the start to recovery... unfortunately, I ended up with an infection which caused immense pain in my shin (on the leg that I had the surgery) every time I stood up... and I mean pretty excruciating. While that didn't stop me from going to PT and continuing to do the exercises at home, it definitely hindered the amount that I can do. Nonetheless, I got my antibiotics, it kicked in and by day 8 post surgery, I felt much better. Keep in mind that if it weren't for this infection, I think by day 4 post op, I would be doing pretty well.

Now, I am regaining mobility and strength (albeit, little by little) and actually the funny thing is each night, I look forward to the next day because every day is a little bit better... a little, but noticeably so.

So, I went ahead and registered for the Vegas half in December. Last year, my time was 1:43:00... so, on the race form, when they asked me where I expect to finish, I put down 1:40. That is gonna be my goal. I did run it by my physical therapist to make sure I wasn't too crazy and while he said it's a pretty rare goal considering the timing, he also felt that it wasn't unreal either. He did make sure that I've ran half marathons before and reminded me that it would still require a lot of work. But after spending 2 weeks (7 sessions) with me, I think he now knows that I'm extremely deetermined and motivated. I mean even at PT, while half the people moan when they are told to use the tougher band or heavier weight/resistance, I'm like craving it and always quick with my smart ass remarks.

I also finally hit the weight room today with my knee brace and crutches and while some undoubtedly thought I was crazy, there were several people that said that I motivated them... their point was that if a guy on crutches who can only limp around can hit the weight room and be smiling about the recovery, there's no reason for anyone else to not hit the gym. Fact of the matter is, I refuse to let this injury slow me down. I'm in as good a spirit as I've ever been and I don't want any pity and I refuse to let this get in the way. In 9-12 months, I'm gonna be faster and stronger than I was before this injury. That's a promise I am making to myself and now that I've set a tangible goal (half in Dec), I now have something to work towards. And when I have a goal, I'm relentless.

I love it. Now I just need my knee to cooperate by reducing the swelling and getting some mobility back... speaking of which, I guess I should do some exercises before I go to bed. I'm out!!

And so it begins

2010-04-17T20:22:00.000-05:00

The surgery went well. My hired help (for here on out referred to as the nanny) arrived around 8:30am to pick me up and take me to St Joseph's hospital here in Tampa. FWIW, St Joseph's is great. First off, it was really relieving that every time I told someone where I was getting surgery, they all said "oh, that's good, that's a great hospital." And sure enough, the people there were great. I don't know how many of you have had the experience of surgery (I've had 3... man, I'm injury prone or something lol) but it's the same every time... at least at the good doctors. You get your anesthesia, you pass out, and everything is a blur but it's all done. The nanny took me home, I don't really remember but I passed out on my bed and few hours later, I felt good enough to Skype my parents. I knew that my parents would be worried so I figured the least I can do is call them and let them know I'm ok.

That was Wednesday. Thursday morning, I still felt fine. The nanny came back to check on me, get me some food, etc etc and I dismissed her thinking I'll be fine. Well, it was probably around noon on Thursday that I started feeling really uncomfortable. The pain in my knee, coupled with the soreness of my body for just laying in one position just made me feel miserable, even with my pain medication. And even though I tend to "tough it out" I did take the pain meds as prescribed but Thursday night, I could barely sleep... I kept waking up every couple of hours and not being able to fall asleep. By Friday mid day though, the pain started subsiding at which point fatigue really overcame me. I dosed off a few times until it was time for my post op rehab. After two days of having my knee wrapped up, it was obviously swollen.

The first exercises I had to do are simple things that you would never think twice to do. One is flexing your ankle towards you. It stretches the calf and the muscles behind your knee which at this point is like stretched super tight (and painful). The next few exercises are like flexing your quads (which are completely dormant at this point). Basically, the first step is to regain your range of motion as well as waking up your muscles which at this point is completely shut down. Mike, the rehab guy, gave me the exercises to do over the weekend.

Friday night, I probably had the first good night of my sleep. Today was the first day that the nanny did not come over and I was able to manage... even though, simple tasks like going from my bed to the kitchen for a glass of water takes 10 minutes (no joke) and it feels like hell of a work out, even with the crutches. Even then, it feels good to know that I am taking my first step towards recovery.

Even though I think this might be a fairly tight time frame, it always helps to have goals so I decided that this year's Vegas half (December something) will be my goal. Well, obviously, to run it faster than last year. I don't know how realistic that is. It's probably pretty close - like it's not totally unreasonable but it's not easy to achieve... ie perfect for a goal to recovery.

But man, to think that I was gonna work from home on Friday... ha ha ha ha, I was in so much pain and then completely drowsy, I would not have been in any shape to think straight.

Yeah so I'm selfish

2010-04-13T21:31:00.003-05:00

I think I'm mentally, pretty tough. I'm competitive, determined, ambitious, and generally speaking, very resilient. However, there are times I wonder how much of it is natural and how much of it is forced.

For example, when it comes to things I'm pretty good at, I talk a lot of shit. But I usually back it up. You see, me talking shit is like my way of applying pressure on myself. Now it doesn't work all the time (remember I was trying to bench 250lbs? I still can't... I can't go higher than 225lbs but in my defense, I only weight 170lbs). The most recent shit talk that I had was that me and my buddy (both of us played in the county basketball league together) would beat 4 of my friends playing 4 on 2 half court. The rules were fairly standard. 2's and 1's (the 3 pters were 2pts), game to 15, take back everything except for steals, and loser's ball (as opposed to make it take it for those of you familiar with the bball lingo). If these were the conditions, it's pretty much a guarantee that the two of us would win. The four of them are not bad in terms of athletic prowess (whether it's running or lifting or whatever, one guy was high school football defensive player of the year... in his division or region or whatever)... anyways, but not bad does not equal great. And they have close to zero basketball skills (yep, I just outed you guys to all my blog readers... which is probably about 10 others). So, to make this fair, I also went as far as to say that the spread is 9pts... against us.

So the deal is, it will be 2 on 4, and they start 9-0 with the game being up to 15. This might sound ridiculous to those that don't play ball but I'm fairly certain we'd win. I mean I was ready to take bets... now of course, this is gonna be delayed for another 9 months since no, I'm not pregnant, but I am going in for my surgery tomorrow for my ACL reconstruction. But what was the point of all this? The point was that by making bets like these, it would drive me to work harder, train more, practice more, etc in order to make it a reality. It's self applied pressure that makes me good at the things I care about.

But tonight, as I sit here, I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't nervous. I usually cherish my alone time. But it's times like these that I feel a lot more alone than normal. In Tampa, I don't really know anyone. I mean I know coworkers and I have some friends to go out with but no one that I can ask to take time off to take me to the hospital or stay with me post op... no family member, no nothing... now don't get me wrong. I have family that would fly on a moment's notice but I really can't do that to them. Of course, they'll read this blog and feel immense guilt and helplessness but that's not the intent. The fact of the matter is, I want to get this surgery done as soon as possible so that I can start the rehab as soon as possible. It's just that as I went through the trouble of hiring a nanny (yes, I really did hire a nanny who would take me to the hospital, pick me up, grab my prescription, and take care of chores around the house for the next few days), I felt a bit vulnerable.

I mean here's a stranger that will be taking care of me (it is from a reliable place so no worries there) and seeing a very vulnerable side of me (cranky, in pain, miserable, etc) and I'm just not used to that. Now I did warn her that I could be extremely cranky but she's an older nurse so she knows and whatever...

So yeah, I guess that is my way of saying wish me luck, and if you think a hot nurse strip o gram would cheer me up, you are absolutely correct... now as Bayne pointed out, I just don't know how I will get to the door...

I know, this is extremely selfish as I know some others who are going through much harder times. You know who you are and to those, my thoughts and wishes truly do go out to you and your family. But I'm not gonna lie... some of that prayer is gonna be set aside for my operation tomorrow... so here's to wishing that my left ACL will be reconstructed just as awesome as my right one. GL me.

No more ACL to tear

2010-04-06T19:18:00.004-05:00

13 years ago (damn I sound old), I blew out my knee, completely shredding my ACL, MCL and the meniscus into pieces. What ensued was a surgery which was a complete ACL reconstructive surgery (which essentially means they take your patellar tendon and put it where your ACL used to be) and a long, long period of recovery/rehab. With multiple ligaments torn, my recovery took almost a year before I was running like I used to. However, from that point on, I always said that that was an experience that I would never wish on anyone else but it's also an experience that I would never take back. The reason for that is that it's moment like those (or times, I guess a year is longer than a moment) that make you appreciate the things you take for granted. I had to work hard just to go up and down the steps. I mean like months to be able to go down the steps (going down is harder than going up - the steps, you pervs). And I remember, the first time I could actually run outside and not on the treadmill, I actually enjoyed running. Now you might think, but dude, you run all the time now. Well, that doesn't mean I love it. I do it because I'm competitive. Not for health, not out of love, just pure competitive nature drives me to train.

Well, I have claimed that for the past 13 years since my knee injury and now, I get another chance to put my money where my mouth is.

I got the results of the MRI and this is the official diagnosis:
- complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
- partial tear of the medial collateral ligament (MCL)
- tiny tear in the medial meniscus (a cartilage between the bones)
- bone contusion and a small fracture

Here are the MRI pics (cuz I think they are pretty cool):

The white area on the bone in the middle is the knee contusion - white is where the liquid is seeping through

Is it just me or is there something dirty about this pic? Yeah, I'm a perv I guess... but the dark part in the middle is the ACL and apparently, that should extend all the way through... so white on the left side and the right side is where it should all be dark... hence, the torn ACL

This is a pic of bone on bone with meniscus in between... again, you see the damage from the contusion:

All the white area is where the liquid is that shouldn't be there... that's my swollen knee, hence somewhat limiting my mobility now:0

This might sound unbelievable but I'm actually not that bummed right now. Actually, to be honest, and you might not believe me unless you really know me but I'm actually looking forward to this. I thrive under challenges and set backs. I mean would I rather not have this? Of course. But am I bummed about it? Not really. I'm not trying to be tough or be dishonest or anything. I really do thrive under these conditions. There's nothing more satisfying to me than to overcome something and achieve something greater and this injury gives me a chance to do just that. I've been working out pretty hard up until now but I was starting to fall into somewhat of a cocky stage where I felt that I can challenge most things and succeed. This is like a little reminder that not everything will fall my way... or will it? This sounds sick but I'm already looking forward to the physical therapy. Because I know I'm gonna reinvent myself through this process.

I know I know, total cheese ball speech... the whole overcoming adversity, blah blah blah.... I mean what's next? I'm gonna be like let's do this for all the small schools (oops, wrong movie, still in the Butler/Hoosiers craze) yadda yadda.

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I really do appreciate it but all things considered, I got it good so definitely don't feel sorry for me. I'm looking forward to this recovery and for most of you, by the time you see me next time, you won't even know that I had my knee operated on. I'll be faster and stronger than I ever was... ok, that's a lie... I was a student athlete in college so maybe not quite that kinda shape but you get my drift.

To get this process started, I scheduled my surgery for next Wed. I guess I'm not wasting any time. ACL recovery part 2, here I come!

uh oh

2010-04-04T00:20:00.003-05:00

So about a month ago, I had an incident on the basketball court where I injured my knee. After going to the urgent care, it was diagnosed as a bruised knee and based on the tests that the doctor ran, he felt that there were no tears in my ligaments. If you have ever gone through a ligament tear in your knee, the fact that this time it wasn't a tear is like a joyful moment. I blew out my ACL, MCL and my meniscus when I was a junior in college and it was not a pleasant experience... the surgery and the 9 months of rehab that followed was just brutal.

Well, the doctor did say that I should see an orthopedist just to get an expert opinion so this past Tuesday, I went to see one near my apartment. He came recommended by one of the guys I play ball with... and he did do a much more extensive tug test (you check for ligaments by tugging on your leg in various directions and apparently, you will feel a pull/stretch like a rubberband if you know what you are checking for). Anyways, after he tugged on my leg every which way, he tells me that he's worried that there might be a partial tear in my ACL (this is my left knee since I no longer have an ACL in my right knee - it has been replaced by a patellar tendon). He said that this could be how my knee has always been but it was worth getting an MRI...

So now, on Friday, I went to get an MRI done. I don't know the results yet and I won't find out till Tuesday. But by the way the orthopedist was trying to tell me about how the surgery these days (my last surgery was in '96) is much more advanced and that a "young, motivated guy such as yourself can get back to and surpass your current abilities through rehab" tells me that he was fairly certain there's a partial tear.

I really don't want to go through the procedure again, even if it is less invasive... So here's to hoping that on Tuesday, when I get the results, my ACL is fine. Come on. ONE TIME!!!!

Dear diary

2010-04-02T22:57:00.003-05:00

The blog is a funny thing. It's obviously very public in that anyone can read this. There's no privacy setting. If anyone wanted to know what "RecessRampage" was like, they can read this blog, click the nonpoker filter and probably find out a good deal about me... especially about who I am on the inside. In a way, this is like a gateway to my inner thoughts. And yet, this blog offers me a sense of anonymity. It might not be real, but conversing about thoughts and feelings with strangers (well, most of you aren't strangers anymore but you know what I mean) had a strangely soothing effect... and it's somewhat easier...

I've been wanting to blog for a while. I just hadn't made it a priority and nor am I doing it because I feel like I owe it to anyone. I mean for all I know, no one reads this. I don't really care. When I first started this blog, it wasn't meant to be something where I update what's going on... it was just a virtual outlet of my thoughts, feelings, etc. And since at the time, I was really into poker, the title of my blog was born. Nothing more, nothing less.

But this post... this is gonna be personal. Because I think I'm ready.

I went out with this girl tonight. Some girl that's in the neighborhood, we met a few times, decided to go catch a movie. The movie theatre is one of those places that serve dinner also (very pricey) and it was really good. We were going as casual friends but once we were together, it was obviously a date. She likes me more than I thought/expected and then that's when I realized this...

My failed marriage had (or still has) a huge impact on my emotional well being. I thought I was fine. I mean after all, we separated back in late 2007, divorce was made official in Jan 2009. I've gone out with several girls since then though none successfully. I was happy, I had more time to do whatever, I picked up new hobbies, etc... seriously, if anyone asked, I was back to being happy again and I truly meant it. I have a good group of friends, have a great career, a loving family, good health, etc etc... you know, stuff that people take for granted but what truly makes life special. And yet, I never quite thought about how the marriage impacted me.

I mean it was easy to play it off. We were only married for a bit over a year. We only dated for like 9 months before we got engaged. It was her second marriage. She traveled all the time. I was consumed with poker and basketball. I felt closer to bloggers than I did to my wife at times. It was just a failure in the making. It was a mistake. No big deal. At least that's how I played it off in my mind.

But you know what? I'm not gonna lie. I somehow didn't realize it at the time but I was more hurt by it than I ever thought or cared to admit. Since then, I haven't really gotten emotionally involved with anyone. I just thought I hadn't met anyone but I'm not sure that's true. I've met people. I tried to like them... but I just can't seem to conjure up any romantic feeling... and really, that's not something you need to "conjure" up... it should just happen if it's with the right person. I catch myself comparing women to my ex-wife. And unfortunately, no one lives up to her yet... The thing is, I was truly in love with my wife. I still remember the day we got married... once again, I thought I was fine and I was just happy... until I saw her in her wedding dress for the first time and I was just overcome with so much emotion (yes, I was the first one to break down and cry... I know I know, say what you will). I think what haunts me to this day is that I never got a chance to have true closure. She never gave me a reason as to why she left me. It's almost as if it woulda been easier if she said "sorry, I cheated on you" or "there's someone else" or "you weren't there for me when I needed you" or something. Something where I can point to. Unfortunately, there was nothing...

This post isn't meant to be a "feel sorry for me" or "give me some supportive comments" type of post. And I know I've written something along these lines before. If this stuff bores you or bothers you, you woulda stopped reading by now and frankly, I don't care because I'm not writing this for anyone else. This blog is for me and this is my outlet. I actually love my blog for what it is.

I know (well, I hope) that I will eventually find someone special... but right now, I'm finally at a point where I realize that I have some emotional baggage that somehow I need to get rid of... or at least get over. This is progress since I didn't even know that I had such baggage until now.

I'm not even sure why I'm writing all this here. Well, that's not true. I do know why. It's because this is essentially my diary. And writing was always therapeutic to me. I really need to make more time to blog more often.

Missed opportunity

2010-04-02T12:37:00.002-05:00

It may have been more fun if I had posted this yesterday... that way people coulda wondered if I was just totally effing with them for April Fool's day or if I were actually serious.

Nonetheless, here goes.

I'm closing my fulltilt account. R.I.P. RecessRampage.

I no longer play as much as I used to and really no longer have much interest in playing as much as I used to. Of course, I still average like 5hrs per week so that's probably a lot for some but I no longer have the interest or the drive to do it. Just like any other hobbies, it is a very time consuming thing. And between my new job, new location, and my new hobby (training for triathlons and other races), I just don't have the time.

Another big factor is that as you all know, I don't get rakeback from Fulltilt. I've tried, begged, pleaded, and everything else but I never got rakeback. Not that I cared that much (obviously) but it's just another thing that made me decide to hang it up on Fulltilt. FTP was good for me and so was poker. I met a lot of people through this blog and I am definitely glad for that.

For what it's worth, this blog will live on. Obviously I don't post like I used to but I still enjoy having an outlet for myself so with or without readers, this is a space that I will continue to keep for quite some time.

Cheaters!

2010-03-10T22:17:00.001-05:00

I checked my account after I got this email and saw that my account was credited with $54.

Hello,

PokerStars has become aware of two players who were in violation of our poker room rules. You were involved in one or more hands with these players. You have received a credit as a result. To confirm your credit, log onto your PokerStars account, go to the 'Cashier' screen and click the 'History' button. Your share will be shown as "ADMIN CREDIT", followed by the amount of the credit.

I regret that we are not at liberty identify the specific games or players in question. Suffice to say that the players involved have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.

Likewise we will not go into detail regarding the method used to calculate your share of the funds distributed. I can say that it is based on the net amount won using unfair tactics, combined with the number of hands that you played at a table where unfair play was taking place.

The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to us and we will not abide unfair play in our games. We work hard to police our games to assure our players of a fair, secure place to play. In those 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.

Regards,

Dan M
PokerStars Game Security

Phew

2010-03-09T15:24:00.002-05:00

I meant to update this sooner but just haven't had the chance...

But today, just like many other days, I played basketball at lunch time with a few others from my company. Things were going well until towards the end, I went after the loose ball and one of the guys undercut me by accident. I came down funny and collapsed on the ground, writhing and screaming in pain. I've felt this before. Last time, it was a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus.

Fortunately, this time, it was just a bruise in my knee. I went to the urgent care facility and after the x-ray and some tug/pull check (for the ligaments), the doctor doesn't think it's ligament damage... which is obviously fantastic news. He told me to be on crutches for a week or two though and he said absolutely no leg exercises for 2 weeks.

Fuckin doctors... they're always so cautious.

So now, I'm limping around in my crutches and will be doing so for the next week or two... but in a great mood because all things considered, this is the best news I could have gotten.

Yet another useless toy...

2010-02-23T23:38:00.004-05:00

After I moved down to Tampa, I decided to put my money where my mouth is... since I always claimed that I never watch TV (or hardly ever), I decided not to get cable. Despite missing it badly on some football weekends, I'm actually at peace with it. I've been putting in 60-80hr work weeks so I generally don't have time to watch TV and when I'm not working, I'm either working out or going out.

Unfortunately, the side effect of this is that my 46 inch LCD is just sitting there, looking pretty but collecting dust. Now unrelated to not having cable, I also have a PS3 which I got when I got what's called a "spot bonus" at Capital One which was essentially just a little bonus to tell you you did a good job on something small. Anyways, my spot bonus was literally a $250 gift card on amazon and since I never buy anything there, I bought a PS3. I have also had a Wii that I hardly ever play... basically, I just have these high demand gadgets, all collecting dust.

For a while, I also had an ipod touch but I realized that that thing is completely useless to me. First off, if you need wifi to connect, no matter what the other Ipod Touch lovers will say, it sucks. You can't connect whenever you want... so if I'm gonna go that route, I would have an iphone. Of course, I detest AT&T and so I will obv never have an i-phone and I'm actually ok with that. My dad has one and he uses it like crazy... has apps for all the little shit that I would never use. Tip calculator, measurements from here to Pluto, how to say bicycle in 15 different languages, etc etc... ok, so I'm making it up. I really have no idea what other apps there are and nor do I give a shit. When I had the ipod touch, I never used it. So basically, these gadgets are not for me. (I also don't listen to music while I work out... oh my god, what am I!?)

Anyways, so now that we established that gadgets are useless with me, I can move on to the actual story...

Last week, I saw a notice from UPS saying they attempted delivery and I wasn't home to sign it. These things always put me on tilt. Like who the fuck is home at 3pm on a weekday. Well, so, I signed the back of the thing and posted it back on my door, just to see it be ignored and find the second delivery attempt post on my door... Motherfucker. Of course, another weekday, another delivery attempt. After 3 delivery attempts, they make it available for you to pick up the item. The thing is, the whole time, I had no clue what was trying to be delivered to me. I haven't ordered anything. It's not my birthday. I got the Clif bars I ordered from Amazon. So what the hell could it be!?

This morning, I finally went to the UPS place to pick it up... and this is what I find...

A freakin ipod nano that I totally forgot I ordered when Pokerstars was having that super discount sale in January of all the stuff you can get with your fpp points. *sigh* I mean it's a good use of points because of how much this was discounted (if normally, 1 fpp = $0.016, this was like at a rate of 1fpp = $0.032, I think). And no, that's not a type, it is 1.6 cents. Anyways, so I got it.

I guess the question now is, how long will it take me to take it out of this box. Probably fairly shortly... and then it will probably just lay around after 1 or 2 uses. I don't hate music but I just never have the occasion to be immersed in my own music...

Oh my god... what am I!?

Man vs Woman... not really...

2010-02-18T20:50:00.003-05:00

Last night's post was not intended to be a "women aren't physically capable" or anything like that. It was just my way of appreciating a woman who believes in herself and sticks to her guns no matter what... now, of course, I wasn't really clear about that but I was tired, it was late, and so I was kinda short and didn't feel like explaining.

I'm heading out shortly so this will not be long either. However, the comments on my blog made me want to write a short note...

A) If a woman is competing amongst women in sports, I see no reason why something should be "womanized" for a lack of better term. For example, in golf, why are there red tees? It's not like the women compete with the men. I mean recreationally, I understand completely. But for the pros, why have red tees... actually, nix this because I actually don't know if the women's pro golf events start with red tees or not so this might not matter.

B) Push ups - I actually am opposite with Jordan on this one. If the girls were competing against the guys in the actual number of push ups done, I think it's ok to have that handicap because for pushups, I have to believe men are naturally stronger (I could be completely wrong, I don't scientifically have any evidence, just my opinion). However, if the women are competing against themselves and men are doing their own thing, why do the knee version?

Both of these things actually tie back to CK's post on women's events in poker. How? Well, if the sex is not a factor (in both examples above, competing amongst women takes away the "which sex is superior" factor out), why have the red tee or the knee push up, etc. In other words, why diminish the actual game?

Same as poker. Poker is supposed to be a game where the sex of the player doesn't make him/her superior to others... so, if that's the case, why have a woman's event as if that's the only way a woman can win a bracelet?

To Peaker's point... of course there are women who are physically more capable than other men... but my argument has always been that physically, given the same level, men are superior to women (in sports). Like a professional male athlete in that particular sport would be better than the professional female athlete in that particular sport. A college level male athlete in a sport would be superior to a college level female athlete (assuming similar college - I'm not talking TN or CT woman's bball program vs some D3 men's bball... and even then, I'm not convinced that the females would beat the male equivalent).

Not sure if I explained myself clear enough.

Bayne, I'm gonna take that challenge. Picking up a chair... two hands or one hand?

One in a million

2010-02-18T01:37:00.002-05:00

I am a very demanding guy... in everything I do, I demand a lot. As a leader of the team, the bar I set for the team is very high. For all the women that I meet, the bar that I set for them is also very high. CK's recent blog about women's poker events was very interesting to me because I was always making the comment about how if you create a forum for just women to "even out the playing field" then you can never claim equality... to some, I just come across as a jerk. At my new company, they have this fitness test thing going on. One of the events was how many push ups you can do. I tanked at 67 consecutive push ups. The most that the girl could do was 74. Respectable. Until I found out it was the "girl's" push ups. You know, the one with the knees on the ground. I realize the physical make up is different. But I'd have a lot more respect for a girl who refuses to do the girl's version of a push up and be able to do like 40 rather than a girl who gets upset that she couldn't beat me by tanking at fifty-something when in reality, it was a bullshit version of the push up.

But that's neither here nor there. I guess what I am saying is that, I have as high a bar for women as much as I do men. Why should they be different? Believe me, you want equality, I bring that. I act it, I live it. That is why I have very few female friends in my life because I truly believe that the society cripples them. But those that are my friends are ones that I respect tremendously and bring more than most people (men or women) bring to the table.

I saw this episode of House, and my god, I never thought much about Cuddy until this episode, but this is the type of woman that I idolize.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/125174/house-5-to-9

Yeah, I know... it's made for TV. And not many are like that in real life. But I know they exist. I married one for crying out loud. It may not have worked out for me the first time... but they're out there... kicking ass and taking names... and I dig that.

This made my day

2010-02-09T23:04:00.002-05:00

Tonight, I received an email from a former colleague of mine. He finally got his promotion which I denied him at the time and wanted to write me a note to share the good news as well as giving me updates on the MBA programs that he's trying to get into (which I wrote recommendation letters for).

The promotion for him was well deserved and a year overdue. However, back in December of 2008, I felt that he wasn't ready. Now he was the top performer amongst his peers and he got a rating that people rarely get. However, I am always fair on my performance evaluation and people know that. An excellent senior associate doesn't necessarily translate into a good supervisor level. I felt that he needed about 6 more months... roll forward 6 months, I am no longer in that group (I was in a different group at Cap1) and his group went through a budget freeze... so his promotion was further delayed. At the time, I remember feeling extremely guilty. I don't second guess my decision. It was the right decision at the time. But I felt bad. I felt that he deserved the reward that came with the promotion.

So, to get the news that he finally got his promotion made me very happy. But what he said in the email made my day.

"Seriously though, you've been very helpful, and I hope your new team will come to appreciate your management style the way that I have."

I've always been very fortunate with people who were on my team no matter where I've been. I still keep in touch with many that worked for me and I get great joy out of seeing them grow in their careers. To get such feedback is just an icing on the cake.

Funny how I still get fired up

2010-02-07T17:18:00.003-05:00

As I prepare for tonight's Superbowl, I decided to warm up by watching what I felt was one of the most intense, emotionally exhausting game I watched as a Steelers fan... well, I guess I did that last night when I watched the 20 minute recap of last year's superbowl but this was the other game... the divisional playoff game against the Colts in 2005. As the 6th seed (felt like playoffs since week 13 when so many things had to go right for the Steelers to even make the playoffs) going up against the heavily favored Colts, we all knew it was gonna be a tough game. And sure enough, the game lived up to the hype.

So many things rushed through my head when I watched the recap but even before this, I remembered two big things... One was the Polamalu interception that got inexplicably overturned (well, clearly, the refs had money on the Colts - that's a bullshit call and Pete Morelli is lucky that the Steelers ended up winning... I'm fairly certain he would be dead by now if the Steelers ended up losing that game).

The other was obviously the goal line fumble by the Bus that resulted in Nick Harper running it back, only to be tackled by Roethlisberger leading to the choke job that is Mike Vanderjagt. Thank god for that.

Seriously, that was an extremely emotionally draining game and watching the recap just made me live through that excitement/nightmare again. It's funny how exciting it could be despite knowing what happens.

At least tonight, I can just enjoy the Superbowl for what it is - just another football game. It's so stressful when your team is actually playing in it. Tonight, two teams that I couldn't give two shits about are playing. But I'm tired of the whole "I want New Orleans to win because they need this after Katrina" bullshit so of course, GO COLTS!!

Lady Gaga - You got pwned!

2010-01-12T21:51:00.003-05:00

These days, I watch lots of show on Hulu.com because I don't have cable... since I don't know what to watch, I started watching bunch of Southpark episodes... you know, I used to watch this like long long time ago (like 10 yrs ago, holy shit, how long have they been out!?)... and then I stopped because I thought it got really stupid... and now, I'm actually enjoying it... I mean it's stupid but the humor behind it is actually pretty funny and well played. It's like you never know who they are out to criticize and make fun of.

Anyways, one of my favorite episodes was the "Whale Whores" episode where the Japanese slaughter the whales and dolphins. Of course, the best part was Cartman singing Poker Face by Lady Gaga... You can watch the full episode here.

I went on youtube, hoping to find a quick clip for my favorite section and there are bazillion vids... but I felt that the video below was actually kinda cool...

"I don't give a crap about whales so go and hug a tree"

Ha ha genius!

I'm not too busy Stan... I just don't care. Kenny and I don't give two shits about fuckin whales!

Here's the clip from the actual episode:

In the interest of full disclosure, I am Japanese, I do care about whales and dolphins and I would not eat them. I also like Lady Gaga. But anytime we can mock the tree huggers, that's always a fun time.

Funny thing is, I hate this song. But this song got a lot of play from just general parody. I do remember Jordan doing a post on his blog (long, long time ago when I used to keep up with the blogs in general - blogline count 2200 and counting) where he compared the LadyGaga song to poker. I'm too lazy to link to that particular post but I do remember thinking it was pretty funny. Well, so much for the "too lazy" part... the power of the search engine is amazing so here's the link to his post.

Trying to be responsible... and getting screwed

2010-01-03T13:14:00.003-05:00

So last night, I went out to a Greek restaurant called Acropolis in Ybor. For those of you that have never been to Tampa, Ybor is a historic neighborhood in Tampa with a very heavy Spanish (and I later learned, Italian as well) influence where it's a center of the major night club scene in Tampa. (Also a very heavy concentration of gay bars, as my friends are quick to point out)

Anyways, the place is awesome but it's one of those areas (think: New Orleans) where if you're on 7th ave which is where most of the restaurants and night clubs are, you're probably fine... but if you turn off into the side streets, you should always be looking over your shoulder...

Anyways, so after eating there, we (I went out with people I met at the NYE party) we decided to go to a chill bar instead of like a hopping night club... and good call... this is where going to Ybor with people who know the area helps. We went to this bar that had a live "band" playing... basically it was just two guys but they were really good... basically, they were a cover band but just played whatever and was just really laid back.

Well, so, I drove my car there (only 4.5 miles from my apartment) but by the end of the night, I didn't want to drive home. I wanted to do the responsible thing but when I initially parked my car earlier that night, the parking attendant told me that I can keep my car there till 8am. Well shit... no way I'm gonna make it back by 8am... but I don't want to drink and drive so... I was gonna ask the parking attendant if I can pay for Sunday as well... well, by the time this thought was crossing my mind, it's already 3am (dinner was at 7... yes, we were hanging out for 8 hrs - good times!)... anyways, no parking attendant. But not to worry! I see the parking meter thing so I was like, perfect, I'll just buy another ticket... at this point, the girl who was gonna give me a ride home thought that I would be ok without buying another ticket... I mean it was $7... but I thought, I'd rather pay another $7 to be safe rather than taking a chance and getting my car towed.

So, I do the right thing. The responsible thing. I buy another parking ticket instead of driving home. And then I laugh. Check out my parking ticket and when it expires. (click on the pic)

Expires at 6am... as in 3hrs from when I bought it. BAD BEAT! Here I am, trying to do the right thing and I just got screwed for $7. Nonetheless, I left that on the dash of my car hoping that if they saw two parking passes, they will let it slide.

I have no idea if that helped or not, but when I went to my car today (I ran... it was only 4.5 miles after all), it was still there... so all is good, I suppose.

Oh and btw, happy new year everyone!

Almost like twitter - but of course, an uber post

2009-12-25T18:23:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to do a quick update. Not sure why. I've been wanting to blog a lot more but I'm busy between unpacking the boxes, tidying up my new apartment, work, trying to meet more people, squeezing in a workout, etc...

Let's see... to recap, this past week, I did go run on Bayshore which apparently is America's longest uninterrupted sidewalk... you're running along the water which is gorgeous. Anyways, from the area called Hyde Park Village to Channelside (another fairly known but boring/touristy area) is about 3 miles so I did a quick loop to there and back for a quick 6 miler... the first time I ran since my half marathon. I ended up running with this other guy I just met and we came in at 46min... we were literally hauling ass. Apparently, he was running with a bunch of other people that he met up with so I ended up meeting a few people through him. I was invited to go out but I turned it down since it was a Tuesday night and I already started working.

Wed night, a neighbor of mine and I went out to an Irish bar which had a huge outdoor deck... since 65 degrees is "cold" in Tampa, they had those outdoor heater stands... kinda funny... they also served beer in a 35oz cup so I had two of them and felt a bit groggy the next morning but obviously, I still went to work... it was only half day though since it was the 24th so no big deal.

The rest of my time, I've been spending just unpacking and stuff. My apartment is definitely liveable even though it still has some cleaning up to do... but really, if I didn't do anything else, it would just be a messy apartment... doesn't look like I just moved in anymore, which is nice.

As I'm going through bunch of my stuff, putting a lot of things on craigslist, I always find it funny that I find stuff I forgot about. I am generally not one to throw things away. Old photographs, greeting cards, letters, junk, etc... whatever it is, I tend to keep. I guess it's because they are all part of me. Of course, when I went through my box of cards, I did throw away a lot of Christmas cards that I've kept (I mean I had some from people I can't even recall who they were, I had one from our mailbox lady, my dentist, etc... I told you, I keep everything). So, the ones from people that don't mean anything to me, I threw away.

But as I was going through them, I also found a bunch of letters... I hate dating myself like this but I'm not gonna lie... I miss the days where you had to write letters to keep in touch. I believe that was maybe my first two years in college (94-95). We just got email but not everyone had it and especially in Japan where phone lines are charged per minute of use, the internet boom didn't hit Japan as quickly as here... and since most of my friends that I would want to keep in touch with over email were in Japan at the time, I still wrote a lot of letters... and in return, I got a lot of letters from them. And I kept them. Every single one of them. It's always very interesting to read them. It just takes you back to those days, and you reminisce the feelings that you were going through, etc etc. I remember when my grandpa passed away, my mom asked if I had any of his letters that he sent me (my grandparents never had a computer/email) and of course, I kept every single one so I was able to share all of them with her. Those are the times I'm glad I never get rid of anything.

The letters from 15 years ago are still in great shape. There were letters from some people I no longer keep in touch with, unfortunately, but it was still nice to see them. Of course, I couldn't throw them away so I put them all back in the box.

With emails, facebook, twitter, etc, the only time we send out greeting cards are during the holidays. And even then, you don't really write stuff anymore. You let the cards do the talking. It's so easy to keep in touch now and that's great... but I sure do miss writing letters... even if it was a pain in the butt sometimes... because at least with letters, you always have something tangible to hold on to.

Man, do I sound old or what?

Well, I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season. For me, Christmas was just another day of unpacking (of course, I did sleep in till like almost 1pm) but unpacking in a 75 degree weather on Christmas day was actually pretty fun... and it seems like bunch of bars and clubs around my apartment are all open tonight so it looks like I'll be going out. Guess it's time to start cooking dinner so I can head out in time to catch the football game (I have no cable and internet in my apartment - I will have internet starting the 28th but I won't get cable since I don't watch enough TV... and I was gonna steal someone else's wireless but they turned on the security so the only one I can access is a very weak signal and super slow - which is why I'm typing this from our apartment's business center).

Seriously, I meant for this post to be a quick, twitter like update. ha ha ha ha... I guess not.

Final Vegas recap

2009-12-14T18:02:00.006-05:00

You know what? If I recap every detail, I would have like a 5 part post... and I am starting to see other bloggers do their recaps in one post... so I'm just gonna make this my final version and cram a bunch of shit in. Apparently, I lack the ability to keep things short but I'm gonna try. And also, sorry for the lack of links but at this point you know who these people are.

On Friday, Schaubs, LJ, and I went to play poker at the Venetian since I wanted to be in the vicinity of the Palazzo when Bayne checked in. His flight was to arrive at 7 and since Schaubs and I were mooching off his comped room at the Palazzo (seriously, how good does this guy run!?), I just wanted to be around when he came so I could drop off my luggage and stuff before things got out of hand. Poker at the Venetian was like a joke... so many soft spots and people donating me money... even weirder was when our table broke, LJ, Schaubs and I were still able to be play at the same table... where I ran into a friend of mine from college that I hadn't seen in 11 years. That was completely random. This was also the table where Schaubs made an inexplicably, jaw-dropping fold after he check-raised the flop and bet-out the turn... I'll let him recap the hand if he wants to but after finding out what he had, I think I shat myself a little. Ha ha, ok, I'll stop, we gave enough shit to Schaubs about that hand already.

Well, as planned, when Bayne got in, we went up to the room for yet another awesome experience... I mean I knew that all the rooms were suites (I've stayed at the Venetian before) but still, when I walked in, I was amazed... Just check out the pics...

And check out this lame, poorly taken video. I should never do a video blog...

Nevermind... I tried uploading a video but it failed... ha ha ha, anyways, it was a pretty crappy video of the blinds automatically going up and down with the remote... yes, I'm easily entertained.

I missed all the action at Hard Rock and the MGM but Bayne, Schaubs, and I threw some dice at the Palazzo... the $15 minimum is pretty vicious. We played there for a few hrs and I think both Bayne and I took like a $500 hit... (and NOT because I threw poorly) - there goes my poker profit for the week. Thank god for the earlier session at the Venetian. We grabbed some late night munchies at the Grand Lux Cafe at the V and then went to bed... my god, the best sleep I had in a week. Love the Palazzo.

Saturday was the blogger tournament at Caesars. This year, I really haven't read up on the blogs... so, even when the winter gathering details came up, the only thing I knew was that it was the weekend of 12/11-12/13. Aside from that, I just assumed that there was another blogger tourney but like in other years, I thought it was at the Venetian. That's how clueless I was... I was also aware that there was some sort of a last longer side bet by teams... and the only reason I know that was because I was on a team... I didn't even ask to be on a team or look for interest by other bloggers. One day, Bayne pops up on my chat and asks if I want to be on the team with him and Gnome. Since I didn't really care, I accepted. I didn't know what the prize was or whatever but I figured it wasn't much since it was a side bet and I had no good reason to turn it down. My only concern (which I told LJ) was if I felt too lazy and didn't make it to the tournament... of course, that thought went away when Gnome told me about how psyched he was about our team when he saw me on Thursday. He was clearly our team captain, coming up with team names (even though he choked under pressure and told CJ that we were "Team Spewmonkeys"... we later corrected him as the appropriately named "Team Roach").

Well, little did I know that so many things had to go right for us to put together this solid team. Initially, it was Schaubs that apparently wanted to put a team together. He had asked around and so the team was initially going to be him, Gnome, and Bayne (clearly, a "B" level team). Schaubs then displayed his love for his country by opting to go with Team Canada which was supposed to be with himself, BamBam and Fag55. Sadly, Fuel bails on the trip and so the Canada team took a slight hit... of course, Fuel was replaced with Pebbles so in terms of number of team members that love men in team Canada, that was unchanged. (Clearly an inside joke, hopefully, none of this offends anyone reading this)

So, since Schaubs abandoned the then unnamed team, Bayne hit me up. Upon my acceptance, we went from an unnamed team to an "A" level ballah team (obviously). What? You want proof?

How bout them apples!?

Oh wait, what's this? An email from Stars?

Hello Dirty Vizzer,

Congratulations on your performance in the WPBT Winter Tour 09 Luckbox Last Longer Challenge, your account has been credited with your prize money.

Regards,

PokerStars Marketing

Ha ha ha, yeah, we won... the appropriately named Team Roach roached our way into the lowest combined total amongst three players with Bayne busting in 22nd-ish, me busting 17th, and Gnome final tabling at 5th for a combined 44 points which apparently was 22 (?) spots higher than the second place team. Damn we're good*.

*these are obviously written in jest as I've said numerous times that I suck at tournaments.

So, in total, each of us got $120 in cash, $500 in our PS accounts (as good as cash) and the kick ass trophy. Funny thing is, that side bet totals more than the 5th place cash that Gnome got which was like $512 or something like that. Good times. And before I forget, thanks to CJ for putting this together. You are the man.

Sunday, my flight left at 6:30am so I stayed up all night and left the Palazzo around 5am after finishing a late night/super early morning breakfast with Bayne and Schaubs. I missed out on what seemed like a great time at the Palazzo sportsbook on Sunday but at the time I booked my flight, I still had a job that I would have had to go back to on Monday. Wow, when I think of it that way, how things have changed so much in such a short time.

To all of you in Vegas, it was great seeing you again. It's always a pity that we don't get to spend more time together but nonetheless, I had a great time. It's amazing how little we know each other in person and yet whenever we get together, it's like old friends reconnecting. I look forward to seeing you all in the near future. Till then, I'll be basking in the sun... even in January.

Yours truly,
the Asian Floridian

I'm from Florida dammit! (part 2 of Vegas recap)

2009-12-14T17:22:00.002-05:00

Now that I have unofficially transplanted to Tampa (I am in VA today surrounded by boxes that the movers packed - still have internet though!!), when I was asked "where are you from" by anyone in Vegas (usually the bartender/waitress/dealers), I answered "Tampa, FL" (like they wouldn't know that Tampa is in FL). And I will say... that gets a much nicer response than saying "Richmond, VA." Let's see... usually, when I say Tampa, I hear "ooooh, nice" followed by some variation of how nice the weather must be now or how they've been there before and loved it. When I say Richmond, it is usually followed by a polite "nice" with an automatic bobbing of the head up and down like they approve it (to clearly mask that they really know nothing about Richmond) or for those that actually are more familiar with Richmond would say something like "that's close to DC right?" It's so much nicer when you're associated to something nice as opposed to just some remote city near DC...

So, by Thursday, I didn't even hesitate to answer FL to the often asked question. I usually don't play table games aside from craps because the last thing I need is an addiction to more -EV games. Well, Thursday is when all the bloggers get in and since I pretty much never play poker with them anymore, I decided that I should at least sit at the same tables and enjoy games, drinks, and the conversations. It's year 3 of blogger gatherings for me and I still didn't know how to play Pai Gow or Let It Ride. And I'm still trying to shake off the "ice man" title that was unfairly given to me (such a small sample of throws - statistically irrelevant, yet reputation wise, devastating) from the craps table. But anyways... that is neither here nor there.

BamBam summons me over to the Let It Ride table, telling me that this is almost +EV because you don't really lose much money per hand and yet you get "free" drinks so you know, if you hit a few hands, and break even gambling, then it's obviously +EV because you're getting your "free" drinks. I roll my eyes at the "free" drinks because there were countless times in the past that my friends and I would opt to gamble for the "free drinks" and it would cost us like $100 per Miller Lite... Well, anyways, so I did get to learn how to play this game called "Let It Ride" which was basically BamBam's way to sucker me into yet another table game where the attempt to get "free drinks" turns into, in this case, something like 5 drinks for $100... unless you run like Drizz in which case you get paid to drink (quadzilla in LIR? Really!?). Freakin luckbox bloggers. At least the weather in Tampa is 75 degrees now. (yes, I realize I am sitting in my empty house in Richmond - details, details) What you got, Minnesota/Canada donks?

So anyways, we're playing this game and having a good time when at some point, the dealer asks all of us where we're from. So, each of us answer and when I say "Tampa, FL" BamBam wasted no time in calling me out asking me how long I've been there. Dude... Well, that's ok because I take this newfound FL fury and I take it out on bloggers at the blogger tourney on Saturday but that brag post will be for part 3.

I also did mingle at the Geisha Bar but as is the case in all these gatherings, you don't really get to talk with anyone for too long. I mean I talked to Gnome for a little while longer since I've known him now for a few years so that was cool but unfortunately I wasn't able to talk to Peaker as much as I had hoped we would. OhCaptain also came up to me and in my defense, he looked really different from how I remembered him from last year so I didn't immediately recognize him... and then he called me out on the fact that I no longer read his blog. (Hey, my bloglines now shows 2100+ unread posts total... and I only have like 80 feeds... so it's not just your blog that I haven't read) Well, anyways, he lost like 35lbs (sorry if I'm wrong, maybe more?) so yeah, I didn't quite recognize him. Apparently, he's on his way to losing more so good for him.

So Thursday was like just a mass chaos of people arriving. I write this like a total afterthought but I also did dinner with LJ and her friend Augie and then Schaubs came in and we... shit, I don't even remember what we did. Thursdays are always like a blur, not because of all the drinking/gambling but because that's the night you talk to so many people and see so many different people that in order to recap it accurately, I'd have to have this post written on Friday... I just know that I was in bed by the time Schaubs called it a night and then when I woke up, Schaubs was getting ready to go play golf... in shorts... in a 30 degree weather (yes, Vegas gets cold during the winter time). Fawkin Canadians. (apparently, later, he wussed out and put his rain pants on)

I'm gonna abruptly stop this post now because I realize this is starting to become long...

Recap Part 1 - Post race/Pre blogger weekend

2009-12-14T15:19:00.002-05:00

*Warning* - if you are only interested in the blogger weekend portion of the recap, you can skip this and wait for my next post.

Isn't this always the same theme every year? Where to begin, not enough time to meet/talk to people you wanted to, wanting to stay longer but exhausted nonetheless, and now, it's time for the recap and you go on a more than usual reading spree of everyone's blogs to see what you may have missed out on even though you were in Vegas at the same time.

I have already been in Vegas since the Friday before the blogger gathering. I had the half marathon to run and I had two of my friends from Richmond run the half also so we got to spend some time together. My parents also came to meet up with me/watch me run so until Wednesday, I was pretty busy in a different way and actually hadn't had much chance to play poker or gamble it up at the craps table. You all saw my post regarding the half as evidenced by a lot of you coming up to me with the joking disapproval of my time in the half. I expect nothing less! :)

Well, one thing I did notice is that Vegas is big enough that unless you actually try to coordinate your activities, it's actually hard to meet up. Since I wanted to do some stuff during the day with my parents, I figured my buddy from Richmond and his gf and I would drink/party in the evening but in the end, I think we only did that once (even though we've been in Vegas at the same time for 4 days). They stayed at NY NY and of course, I stayed at the IP and so in the end, we just never really did much together. Now I've always made it clear that while I don't consider IP a great hotel (because it's not), it's not the flea bag motel that many people make it seem like. The casino is a dump and there are many little annoying things (like the seemingly world's slowest elevators, very confusing maze-like design of the different towers, bath tubs that don't drain well, etc etc) but then again, how much time do you spend in the room when you're in Vegas? The room itself is actually decent as I'm sure Schaubs will vouch for, now that he's stayed with me at the IP. (I will neither confirm nor deny that we slept in the same bed together) Personally, I'd rather save some money and stay at the IP rather than cough up extra bucks to stay at NY NY or Treasure Island or any of those mediocre hotels that I don't consider as much of an upgrade when it comes to rooms. My total bill from the 7 nights at the IP was like $329 or something like that... I mean really... unbeatable. Well, almost unbeatable. Bayne, shut up. You'll get your props.

Anyways... for the pre-blogger gathering part of my Vegas trip, my definite highlight was taking my parents to the Jersey Boys show at the Palazzo (does it count as "taking out my parents" if they paid me back for the tickets though? prob questionable). The show was amazing. I have always loved Vegas shows. No matter which ones I've been to, I was always amazed with how good a show they put on. Jersey Boys was no different. It was a show about a band named Four Seasons... apparently, they were big in the 50s-60s? I didn't know but this just happened to be the show that my dad showed any interest in (and he's generally not interested in shows). So we go and sure enough, the show was fantastic. Even if you don't know Four Seasons, you definitely know their songs if you were like me and had to endure countless hours of listening to your parents' favorite tunes growing up during long car rides for family vacations. And it was just an awesome show that was funny, touching, and just simply amazing. But as great as the show was, the best part was that you could tell that my parents absolutely loved it and were touched because of all the memories that I'm sure all their songs brought back to them. I think I was the youngest in the crowd by at least 20 years... but I would highly recommend the show to anyone.

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

2009-12-06T20:36:00.004-05:00

It's official... (click on pic to zoom in new screen)

So I didn't quite break 1:43... instead I came in 1:43 flat. That sucks. I mean I'm happy with the time but to be so close to being on the 1:42's and not getting there blows. Even worse... see where it says "AgeGrade"? (you will if you click on the picture dammit)... well, I'm at 57.6% which no matter what you're talking about or what it means, anything in the 50ish percentile can't be good. Sure enough, this is what it says about the AgeGrade...

Age-Graded Results

"AGE-GRADED" results are calculated using tables developed by the World Association of Veteran Athletes (the world governing body for masters track and field, long distance running and race walking). These tables were first published in 1989 and are frequently updated. The tables can be used in two ways: first, by comparing your time to a standard for your sex and age, you can determine your Performance Level Percent. These percentages can be interpreted as follows:
100% = Approximate World-Record Level
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class

So in other words, I'm not even local class... awesome. Granted, I'm not even in the top 10 percentile of men (685 out of 6505) so clearly, I have some work to do. Man, I never shoulda pulled up the official results. I was fairly content with what I got but now, I feel belittled. Fuckin runners.

I did get a cool finisher's medal though... it's heavy! (really is, actually kinda impressive)

Popping my half marathon cherry

2009-12-06T13:06:00.003-05:00

Whenever I tell people Vegas is cold in December, they don't believe it... or they think it's cold "for Vegas." Like it would be 50+ degrees or something... this morning, around the race start time, it was 35 degrees. That's fuckin cold. I want to write a detailed recap but I'm starving now so I'll do it later. I did want to post something though. I don't know what my official time is and I botched my starting of my watch and the stopping of my watch at the end...

So, knowing that I botched my start a bit (don't think it was more than 15 seconds but I can be wrong), the following were my mile splits:

mile 1 - 7:31.73 (I looked and thought I need to ease up a bit, so I did... only to discover that I eased up waaaaay too much... see mile 2)
mile 2 - 9:13.33 (ha ha ha ha ha ha)
mile 3 - 8:00.75 (I'm a rookie at this distance... pacing, not my thing)
mile 4 - 7:42.02 (finally, what I was looking for)
mile 5 - 7:40.20
mile 6 - 7:50.47 (uh oh, I better pick it up slightly)
mile 7 - 7:37.55
mile 8 - 7:45.00
mile 9 - 7:45.45
mile 10 - 7:52.37
mile 11 - 8:03.15 (this surprised me a bit. I thought I still felt solid but obv in the last 2 miles, my pace slowed a bit and I felt my calves tightening/threatening to cramp a bit... so I slightly altered my running to be less strenuous on my calves. I knew I could go strong the rest of the way)
mile 12 - 7:46.09
mile 13 - 7:26.94 (I was booking it. I don't think I had much left after this one)
the last 0.1 mile - still going... just kidding. But this is where I failed to stop.

Unofficially, according to my watch, it comes to 1:43.38. I have to believe the time was slightly faster. I hope. We'll see when the official results come up.

Not bad for my first one but if I didn't screw up mile 2, I would like to think that I would be flirting with the 1:40 mark...

Goodbye Richmond, Hellooooooo Tampa!

2009-12-01T19:15:00.002-05:00

Wow, where to start... I'm gonna do my best to not make this an uberpost since I have so much to write but I don't want to overload the readers with details. I believe last time I wrote (I can check but I'm lazy), I was either torn about taking this new opportunity in Tampa or maybe I already announced that I took it... well, in case I left it at "decision to be made," I took the job. There were tons of people involved in the decision making process and to all of them who are both readers and nonreaders (ie, they don't even know this blog exists), I am extremely grateful.

So, once I decided to take the job, I started looking for places to live. The relocation package that my new company gave me was basically a killer lump sum that allowed me to do whatever I wanted in terms of making apartment hunting trips, actually moving, etc etc. So, initially, I was planning on going on an apartment hunting trip. 2 days prior to actually doing it, I decided that I should just drive down and fly back to Richmond to take care of business. So, on Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I made the ~13hr drive down to Tampa. I checked in to my hotel and on Wednesday, started my apartment hunting trip.

Now, when I was searching for apartments online, I had a few places in mind. My top choice was this one:

I mean, I'm moving to Tampa so what better than a place right by the water? Close to downtown Tampa, Ybor (major party city) and Channelside (area that some people mentioned was cool), I figured this was a great location. Once I got there though, I immediately hated this place. For Richmonders, think Short Pump. Literally, a community that was developed and everything was built for that community. Totally convenient, definitely upscale, and completely isolated (it's out on its own island). I hate the fuckin suburbia now, why would I move to another? I pretty much immediately nixed this place. However, this place played a big part in choosing my final destination. When I was talking to the guy who worked at the rental office, he mentioned that this property was close to Hyde Park. I didn't know what that meant but I do remember nixing the apartment properties in Hyde Park when I was searching online because I didn't think the area was all that awesome.

My next stop was a high rise apartment in the heart of downtown Tampa. It's a building that really stands out in the skyline of Tampa (which is just as impressive as Richmond... ha ha ha, seriously, downtown Tampa blows). Anyways, here's the entry way to the apartment that on the inside is very impressive...

Basically, it's a modern condo turned apartment. 24hr concierge service, dedicated parking deck, and magnificent view of Tampa are clearly the selling points of this place. The rooms were very impressive. I mean the layout was cool and the views were definitely cool... the thing is, these were the condos that were built in the peak of the bubble... and when the economy hit the tank, no one was buying them (which is why they turned it into a rental property). As such, there are tons of retail space available on the ground floor... presumably from when this was built. No one was moving into downtown Tampa... seriously, it made downtown Richmond look awesome... after being impressed with the apartment, walking around this area made it easy for me to lose interest. Of course, this is very close to Hyde Park but close as in few miles away... few miles is a long way to go when you're drunk. So, sure enough, when I went to Hyde Park (since both locations mentioned "close to Hyde Park"), I immediately fell in love with the area.

Hyde Park area is essentially where it includes Bayshore Blvd (allegedly, the longest sidewalk in the country and as the name suggests, right along the bay), Hyde Park Village (outdoor mall - Richmonders, think Stony Point), and Soho (short for South Howard Ave) which is the home of the area's most popular bars and restaurants (Richmond, think the Fan but slightly better, according to my biased opinion). And here, I found the apartments that are essentially your typical, non-fancy, normal rental housing as you can see in this picture.

From what I saw, these apartments are mainly filled with mid 20's young professionals... a bit younger than me but I party like a mid 20yr old so I think I can get by. Literally a stumbling distance away from the bars and a crawling distance away to brunch for some hangover recovery food... in other words, perfect for me and a great transition from the hell hole of suburbia that I am in... now let me clarify that I don't hate the suburbs... except I'm single and all my neighbors are families with dogs and 2.5 kids...

Anyways, I loved the area so even though I didn't "love" the apartment (at least not the way I felt about the apartment downtown), it was definitely good enough for now. So, here I am, filling out the app for the apartment.

Sorry, this became an uber... I had a feeling it would.

One thing that sucks about Tampa... it's freakin November and it was 80 degrees today... I'm gonna die in the summer time.

One more thing... naturally, I would have the tendency to compare things to Richmond. I believe I mentioned this before (I know I have but I'm not sure I did on the blog) but I felt that Tampa was like Richmond but in FL and right by the water. After being down here for a week exploring, I believe my assessment is fairly close. Of course, it's got a major sports team (if you can call the Bucs as such but then again, my team just lost to the lowly Chiefs and then to the hated Ravens) and it's right by the water so there are things that make it better but in terms of the city itself, it's clearly not the metropolis that I was hoping to move to in the near future (think NY or Tokyo). But, it was a good time for me to leave Richmond (18 yrs in Tokyo, then 15 years in Richmond!? I mean seriously...) and this gave me the opportunity to do so and explore a pretty cool city in the meantime. I will miss all my friends and everything I had built up in Richmond but I am really excited for the new opportunities to come in Tampa.

Picture's worth a thousand words

2009-11-19T01:24:00.004-05:00

My buddy works for a big insurance company and was able to score company seats for the Wizards v Cavaliers, aka Lebron James and others. I can't begin to tell you how awesome the seats were.. I basically spent all game heckling the Cavs even though I like Lebron. How awesome were the seats? Well, these are all pics from where I was sitting.

AWESOME!!!!

Because I fear the wrath of LJ

2009-11-14T21:05:00.002-05:00

LJ, I love you, but I'm lazy and as you clearly pointed out, I'm a taker. But since I did agree to give back a little, here's the plug.

Note: This is a plug for a free poker training deal. If you are not a poker player, you can stop here since this will just bore you to tears. Hell, it's boring me and all I did was ctrl+c and ctrl+v from cmitch's blog. Thanks cmitch.

Here's the plug:

If you aren't signed up for free poker training, you are missing out. If we play at the same tables, please ignore this post.

Get Cardrunners/Stoxpoker for Free

I continue to receive CRs and Stoxpoker for free thanks to their truly free poker training program just for playing on FTP.

The link: http://www.trulyfreepokertraining.com/

The details:
Earn 5.5k FTP points in a month and get 1 month of CRs free
Earn 3k FTP points in a month and get 1 month of StoxPoker free
No hit to rakeback
You keep your points
Pretty simple (I guess it is FTP paying ppl additional RB to play)
Go sign up

To follow up on Bayne's recent post about the FTC requiring "Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service" I was not paid anything to make this post. I just can't imagine why people wouldn't sign up for it. If you hit the required number of points then you get free access to the training sites. If you fall under the required number of points then you can get discounted access (I think - may need to read the TFPT website info)

Change

2009-11-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

~Anatole France

I'm born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. I moved to Richmond, VA when I was 18 to go to U of Richmond and after graduating, I stayed here for 11 years, working for a CPA firm for 8 years and then moving to a bank that is more known for its credit cards. During my 11 years here, I've met a lot of people and have become friends with a few of them. There were good times and tough times but through it all, one thing I had in common was the fact that I was always surrounded by good people. Despite the fact that I wanted to get out of Richmond (again, I grew up in Tokyo... nuff said), I was starting to get comfortable. It was an easy life. I had friends here. I have a good job in a great company.

And I'm gonna leave all of that behind.

About a month or so ago, I got a call from a recruiter. It was completely out of the blue and I have no idea how they got my number. Some job opportunity for a big insurance company. I wasn't looking but I never turn away job opportunities without at least entertaining the idea so I decided to string the recruiter along. It turns out it is for a director level position (it would be a 2 level promotion for me) in financial reporting... after the phone interview, I got the feeling that despite the fact that they really liked my experience, they were concerned about my lack of experience at the director level. Nonetheless, they invited me to Tampa, FL which is where their operations are located to interview me in person. Now I always said that if you get me an interview, I will get the job. Yeah, I know, I'm cocky. I'm also 100% in the interview to getting the offer ratio so it's not like I can't back it up. But this was a stretch. It would be a two level jump. They know that. I didn't even know if I still wanted the job... as in literally, I went to the interview unsure of what I would do even if I got the offer. Of course the money is better... but that's not what drives me and personally, I don't care about titles and such. I mean they're nice... but I have so much more in my life that I'm proud of that career/work is just a piece of who I am. At the end of the interview, I'm kinda worried that I may have actually nailed it... I mean the reason I was worried was that if I didn't get the job, it's a nonissue. I have nothing to worry about and I just keep going down the red carpet that my bank has laid out for me. But if I get the job, I have to make a decision.

Well, sure enough, by the following week, I get a verbal offer. I nailed it. What followed was probably the most stressful 2 days that I've had in a long time. As much as I act like nothing in the world scares me, I can only do that because I'm surrounded by my friends. It's easy to act tough when you know that you have friends that have your back. But this was a great opportunity... and a good chance for me to leave Richmond.

I talked to my boss about it the very next day. He then asked if I was comfortable talking to the CFO of our business segment so I said yes. So I talked to the CFO as well. This is where I'm convinced that I work for great people in a great company. They were very supportive... and appreciative of the fact that I was open with them about it. They essentially gave me advice on things to think about and they also mentioned that "as much as we would hate to lose you as an organization, opportunities like this don't come often, and we certainly cannot blame you for going after it." So, that weekend, I thought about all the pros and cons of staying vs leaving. Then, I realized that there were no cons for either one... I mean the cons were essentially missing out on the pros of each option. But there was nothing bad about it. So, I decided to take the job. My last day at my current company is next Friday. I'll be starting the new job in Tampa around mid December, after the blogger weekend.

Note: I will be unemployed during the blogger weekend so if you want to hook me up with drinks, I will graciously accept... I'm just sayin...

This decision, despite seemingly easy on paper, was not an easy decision for me. And the quote in the beginning was very fitting. There will be tons of things I will leave behind. As I started telling everyone at my current company, and they all started saying their goodbyes and giving me advice, etc, I realized that even these people that I work with or that I play basketball with will be missed. And these aren't even my friends! Of course, I'm sure I can find something similar down in Tampa. But, hence, the quote was so applicable. It's gonna be really hard to say goodbye to my friends. Of course, I can come visit or they can come visit but it will still be tough.

Having said all that, I would be lying if I said that I'm not excited. I am. Actually, I'm stoked. I'm definitely nervous and a little sad but I am mostly psyched for a new opportunity, new location, and a new life. I will enjoy the remaining time with old and new friends that I've made here in Richmond for in a month, I'll be starting all over again. But I am ready. And for that, I am psyched!

Dropping off the face of the earth

2009-11-03T20:40:00.002-05:00

That's kinda how I feel... I've been so busy in both my work and personal life that I just haven't had the chance to update my blog. I don't even know if anyone still follows or checks but oh well... I do have a twitter account but I never really tweet... I guess I'm not much of a twitter guy.

So, what have I been up to? Well, a lot and nothing at the same time. Last time I posted, I believe I was just giving up on doing a triathlon because my buddy was in NY that same weekend. I was also in the midst of trying to bench 250lbs 3 times so that I could claim that I can bench 150% of my body weight. So, let's see... athletically, what have I accomplished? A big fat NOTHING.

I am still not benching 250lbs, I have given up on doing a triathlon this year (no more tris locally), and so I guess my focus is now on the half marathon that I'm doing in Vegas right before the blogger weekend. Taking people's advice, I actually started to incorporate running into my workouts. I ran 5 miles on Sat, did 10 miles on Sun, and did a 5.3 mile interval workout today. In between, I lift weights but one thing I noticed when I mapped out my workout plan was that I didn't have a single rest day. I mean there are days I don't run but then I'm lifting... and on days I don't lift, I'm running... and I'm thinking this is getting in the way of my 250lbs bench goal. Mondays are my chest days and there are times I'm freakin exhausted after the 1st set which is essentially a warm up set. When the 15th rep of 135lbs feels hard, I just know it's gonna be a shit workout. And I've had a few Mondays with worthless piece of shit workouts which really pisses me off.

I am gonna have to figure out a way to get the workouts in and yet come up with at least one day off...

So here in VA, we now have a republican governor... For those of you that don't know, and concludes that since VA is the south, we must always have a republican governor, you are incorrect. The past 8 years, we have had a democratic governor and personally, I'd like to think that this is a big eff you to Obama. I mean come on. Some people are starting to think that maybe the government taking over business to protect the idiots... errr, I'm sorry, the less fortunate or whatever you want to call them, may not be such a great idea. Ultimately, we, the consumers as a whole, will suffer... it's like when they say you're only as fast as the slowest guy in the group, it holds true the way Obama is trying to run things. Oh well, this post is not intended to be a political post and as a hard working, fairly decent income generating individual, these days, I just avoid the news because all it does is piss me off. I never thought I would repeat what I said during Bush years but here it comes... 3 more years. I can't wait.

Where was I going with this post? I'm really not sure. I just know that I haven't written anything on here for a while and I kinda miss it. This was a nice outlet but now, it isn't much of one for me right now. Maybe because I don't really need an outlet? Not sure.

On a completely different topic, I am still digging the "Surviving Disaster" show but tonight was the premier of "V" which as most of you (I assume my general readership is my age or above) know, was an old show... in Japan, they always had some american shows on TV including Family Ties, Knight Rider, the A-Team, etc... V was one of them and growing up, I remember being freakin hooked on that show (and I was in love with Faye Grant - I apparently liked blondes from when I was really young). Anyways, so I decided that since I was so into it, I'd watch the season premier... and I'm not gonna lie, I actually kinda dug it. It's now officially set up on my DVR to record weekly along with House and Criminal Minds.

I guess this is enough for now. If you are still reading, thanks. I'm hoping it won't be so long till I post next time but it is what it is. I hope you all had a great Halloween and if I don't post till later, Happy Thanksgiving.

Another race

2009-10-03T19:43:00.002-05:00

So last time I updated this blog, I indicated that I was gonna miss my first olympic distance tri because of my trip to NY to hang out with my best friend from high school. As upset as I was that I was missing my race that I trained pretty hard for, I had a blast in NY, just as expected so I have no regrets. Plus I only get to see him like twice a year so it was really a no brainer. So, Monday of this week, I signed up for a 10 miler here in Richmond for this weekend.

Below is the email I received:

"Congratulations Alan T. on finishing the Capitol 10 Miler on October 03, 2009.
For your records, the weather at start time was overcast, 65 degrees F, 93% humidity, wind South 3.5 mph.

There were 58 finishers in the Male 30 to 34 age group and 647 finishers in the 10 Mile Division.

Your overall finish place was 198, your age group finish place was 23 and your gender finish place was 135.
Your time was 1:22:22.99 giving you an overall pace of 8:14 per mile."

What I learned from this race is that I need to train for the half marathon I'm running in December in Vegas. 10 miles is probably the max distance that I can wing it by cross training... the last mile was pretty brutal and hilly but even then, I felt like I was losing it (evidenced by the fact that according to my watch, I was around 72 minutes at mile marker 9). So Trebek, Peaker, you guys are right, I definitely need to start running/incorporating runs into my workout.

I really wanted to do a NY trip report too but updating my blog is fairly low on my priority list these days so as much as I want to (with lots of thoughts floating in my head), I just haven't had the chance.

This and That

2009-09-16T20:51:00.003-05:00

This post is gonna be all over the place, potentially. I have some things I've been wanting to type/write but just haven't had the time to make this a priority.

As you may or may not know, I've been training for my first olympic distance triathlon which is set to take place in Northeastern VA on 9/27. It consists of a 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and a 10k run (.9/26/6 in miles) where the swim takes place at this place called the Naylor's Beach where it's basically a river swim. I wouldn't say that I'm completely ready but I'm fairly certain that I can complete this... my goal was going to be able to do it within 3 hrs which depending on how the swim goes would be pretty tight (not a great time for anyone in my age group but great for a newbie like me). So last night, after basketball, I go to the pool to do some drills and as I was doing my warm up swim of 300yds, I felt good so I thought, maybe I should try swimming 1.5k to see what that's like... But being that I was tired, at first, I figured I would do 500 yds (that's 20 lengths of the pool). As I got to lap 20, I just thought, well I can keep going so I'll do 20 more. When it was all said and I done, I was at 60 and 6 more laps would give me a full mile so I was going to go ahead and do it when the life guard is waiting for me at the end of the pool. He tells me to hop out of the pool so I was a bit surprised but I just assumed they were closing... an hour early. Turns out a girl puked in the pool so they were getting everyone out. According to a friend of mine who used to be a lifeguard, it shouldn't be that big a deal because the pool has a mechanism to suck those things out - who knows, maybe the Y has a higher standard of cleanliness or something... I sure hope so but once I found out what happened, I was pretty glad the guy got me out of the pool.

So, I'm still feeling good about my swim (and btw, I'm paying the price today - my shoulders/arms/wrists are sore!) and I notice that I have a call from an unknown number. Turns out it's from my best friend in Japan. I knew he was gonna be in NY sometime soon for business but no dates were set. Well, it turns out that he'll be in town (in NYC) starting the 20th and then he'll be here for 2 weeks leaving on Oct 2. So basically, he'll only be here for one weekend... which happens to coincide with my triathlon. Of course, this is my best friend since high school who I made a crazy weekend trip for his wedding where I was in Japan for as long as I was traveling so giving up my tri to go visit him in NYC is a no brainer... having said that, I'm a little bummed because I was really looking forward to this triathlon and training pretty hard for it. I mean there will be other races but I don't know... anyways, so that's $80 of registration fee down the drain... having said that, I know I would have a blast in NYC - we always do and so I am definitely excited to see them. Lucko/LJ, you guys met my buddy last year (I think), wanna come out to the city? I still owe you guys drinks so it will be on me!

Anyways, so now, I'm searching for another triathlon that I can do this year - I have to do one this year because I don't think I can keep training the way I do now through the winter season without a little taste of what it's like to do an olympic distance tri.

On a completely different note, I've recently become a TV junkie... well, not really from most people's standards but for me who only had one show per week that I religiously watched (Criminal Minds), I am now at 4 shows... First one is Shaq Vs. It's an awesome show where Shaq goes around competing against the other athletes in their sports. It started with him vs Ben Roethlisberger in a football showdown and on to him battling against Albert Pujols in HR Derby, the two US women's olympic champion beach volleyball team in beach volleyball, Oscar Dela Hoya in boxing, and last night was him battling none other than Michael Phelps in swimming. Of course, each of these have handicaps to even out the playing field but it's just a fun time amongst competitive athletes talking shit but having fun. I'm not a big fan of Shaq but his personality is perfect for something like this. You can catch all the episodes here. It's entertaining as hell and also, just reminds you of how great these athletes are in terms of how good they are in their sport. I mean these are the best of the best but I think you forget how good they are when they are also surrounded by other superstars...

The next show is Surviving Disaster. This ex-navy seal walks you through a disaster scenario where the stage is set so it's real life like... and he walks you and gives you tips on what you can do to survive the disaster. First one was if the plane that you are on is hijacked, next was if you are in a tall office building (this was 10 stories) and there's a fire and you're trapped... most recent episode was how to survive a nasty hurricane (of Katrina variety, I imagine). It's actually a very interesting concept and I personally love it. I'm not saying that by watching this, if the particular disaster strikes, you'd be ready but I already learned a lot so far that I didn't know before. Next week's episode is when house robbers come in to your house... I think it's totally worth watching!

Last but not the least is 2 months $2MM. It's about these 4 twenty-something year olds who play poker professionally (LJ, you should know this since you work at CR and White Lime is one of the 4)... Anyways, the setting is that these 4 move to Vegas for 2 months with the intent to make $2 million amongst themselves. As of week 5, they are way behind, being up $35k ish as a group but it's interesting to see how these guys who are great pros but on the same token, very young guys go through bad losing streaks, tilt, deal with women and the temptations of Vegas. One kid went out, got drunk, and woke up with a $5k bar tab! They high-carded for a $1200 dinner for 6 people (hmmm, actually, didn't we do that in Vegas? I backed out but you guys are sickos) and just have no regards for money... of course, when you're like 22-25 and have made over a million dollars playing poker, I can see how you can be detached from reality. Poker is the basis but it's more a reality tv show than anything else and it's just entertaining as hell. Ah, the sneak peak into a life of degenerates. Good times!

Ok, I feel like I've written enough. I'm gonna go search for some triathlons in some appealing places and see if I can find one that's worth traveling to.

Damn, I'm good

2009-09-12T19:09:00.002-05:00

I'm chillin out in the afternoon watching football after running errands and stuff and this email pops up on my newly acquired blackberry (Tour which is freakin awesome if you have Verizon).

This is an automated message sent from Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Tournament #101593141 Silver $15,000 Freeroll NL Hold'em
Buy-In: $0.00
957 players
Total Prize Pool: $15000.00
Start Date: September 12 3:45 PM ET

Dear RecessRampage,

You finished the tournament in 253rd place.
There has been $22.50 added to your account.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Ha ha ha, nothing like cashing in a tournament without even playing!!!

It's so weird that I used to pay attention to make sure I never missed tournaments like this and now, it didn't even occur to me. Good times!

Week 6 - Falling Behind

2009-09-01T17:41:00.000-05:00

This is week 6 of the JT workout. If you've been paying attention, this is week 6 of 7. If everything went according to plan, I should be able to put up 3 reps of 250lbs on the bench next week... unfortunately, I don't see that happening. Now generally, I'm not one to psych myself out. If anything, I relish the chance to come through under pressure. In basketball, I was never afraid to pull the trigger... that's not to say that I would take stupid shots but I knew I was a good shooter and so even if I missed 5 in a row, I would just keep taking open shots, as long as they were good choices (I wasn't a stupid player either). That's my way of saying that I don't go into a workout, wondering or thinking that I might not be able to do something. I go, I do. Simple as that.

Having said that, I encountered yet another set back yesterday when I tried lifting... not to make this an excuse but the guy who was spotting me (huge gym rat) pointed out that, and I quote, "everyone is weak on Mondays... all the drinking and the partying that they do, they're not ready for a big lifting day on Monday." *sigh* That is so true for me - at least the drinking part... this weekend, I had 3 fantasy drafts and I definitely went overboard... I think I was feeling the effects till Sunday evening. Well, without further ado, here's my workout.

Flat Barbell
135 x 12-15 (did 15)
185 x 8 (easily got 7 up, on my way to getting the 8th one up, I hit a major wall, seemingly out of nowhere. I just couldn't lock up my arms so it ended up being a forced rep)
225 x 4-6 (the above set got to my head - 1 + 2FR - just couldn't get anything going)
250 x 1-3 (245 x 2 FR - I'm sure the guy spotting me thought I should just stick to 225)
225 x 2-6 (I had nothing left here - 2 FR)

Incline Barbell
95 x 12-15 (did 15)
135 x 8-10 (did 10)
155 x 6-8 (5 + 1 FR)
165 x 2-4 (3 + 2 FR)

See, the irony here is that I'm getting stronger on my inclines now. Last week, I could only do 3 reps of 155lbs. This week, I knocked out 5 and I was able to get 3 strong reps of 165lbs. Flat bench is falling apart though...

Dips 3 sets to failure
11, 15, 12 - Suprisingly, after the first two workouts, I was exhausted and did not have much left... obviously.

Pushups 3 sets to failure
25, 19, 20 - Same story as the dips. Keep in mind that any other day, I can do 50 easy (after cardio work - not after lifting)... yet on my very first set, I can't go any further than 25.

I'm not sure what to do now... The whole time, I was set on hitting my goal after 7 weeks... do I start over at around week 4 workout?

I'm bored with Richmond

2009-08-27T15:00:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, this is NOT a "I'm finally moving!" post... But instead, I think I found a way to get out of town, at least on the weekends. Now I have yet to run a half marathon but I think I can see myself enjoying those since it's not THAT taxing (I'm guessing) and it will only take like 2 hrs at most to complete (I'm assuming).

Ok, so my guess and my assumption could be completely off... but I'm fairly certain I can go out and run 13 miles in less than 2 hrs right now... and I don't even run per se (I do plenty of cardio with biking and swimming and bball). If I train, I'm pretty certain I can maintain a pretty decent speed up to about the half marathon. So, anyways, that's my long way of saying that in 2010, I'm considering doing all the Rock N Roll Half Marathon Series.

Currently, the following are scheduled:

I'm obv signed up for Vegas but now I'm considering doing a bunch of these next year.

The only problem is that they are mostly Sunday races... how ghey is that? If it were a Saturday, I can run, chill out for a few hrs and then enjoy the weekend night life in various cities. Who the fuck goes out on Sunday nights!? Wanna know who? Bunch of dudes watching Sunday Night Football. Bad beat!

Nonetheless, I think I'm gonna seriously consider pursuing this. Let me know if anyone is interested in doing something like this as well.

Oh, and here's the course map for Vegas half... Basically, we'll be starting out by the MGM-ish area and then run all the way down and back up the strip. This should be fun. I'm definitely getting excited about this.

Week 5 - FAIL

2009-08-24T20:56:00.002-05:00

Going into week 5 of the JT Master Plan, I was pretty psyched. Today's workout included minimal reps of 250lbs which is my goal weight... I figured if I can even get one rep, I would be right on track... however, today was not a good lifting day for me. I wish I can pinpoint what happened but it just seemed like one of those days when I just didn't have it. Nonetheless, here's my report (for those of you completely uninterested in this weekly report, good news is, there are only 2 more weeks left!).

Flat Barbell
135 x 12-15 (did 15)
185 x 8 (done)
225 x 2 (1st one required some help, 2nd was forced rep - this is the beginning of the disappointment. 2 weeks ago, I was able to do this weight 3 times with no help... today, not even one)
250 x 1-3 (this is where I was psyched for - due to the plates, I did 255lbs - one forced rep and two negatives - I was fortunate that this one guy who is freakin huge and is at the gym all the time was there so I did get two very good negatives in FWIW)
135 x 15 (done)

This bench press killed me though... I didn't realize it at the time but my chest and my triceps were spent...

Incline Barbell
95 x 12 (done)
135 x 8-10 (did 9, no spotter)
155 x 4-6 (did 3 + 1 with minimum help)
135 x 8-10 (did 6 + 1 with help + 1 with major help - as in the last one, my left arm/tricep pretty much gave out... I had absolutely nothing left)

My last sent on the incline barbell really made me realize how little I had left in the tank... even more of that proof to follow...

Flat Dumbell Fly
3 sets of 50 x 8

Keep in mind that last week, I did 3 sets of 45 x 8... today, I did the 50lbs DBs but I could only do 6, 6, and 5... (on the 6th one on the last set, I had absolutely nothing left - I can bench press 90lbs DBs and yet I can barely lift 50lb DBs to even start the DB fly's)

Dips - 3 sets all to failure

This is where it absolutely shows that I was dead. Even last week, after the workout, I was able to do 14, 13, and 11. This week? My first set was 5... yep, FIVE reps of dips. I couldn't go back up... 2nd set, 6 reps... 3rd set, 4 reps. Essentially, after 3 sets, I can only do one more than my first set from last week. My arms were literally dead.

Good workout but man, I sure hope I can put on a better showing next week. This week, I have 3 fantasy football drafts coming up so the outlook is not good... we shall see.

Booked!

2009-08-24T11:40:00.004-05:00

It is extremely rare that I plan things this far in advance unless it's something big (like my annual trip back home to Japan). Hell, even then, I still wait till the reasonably latest moment to book my trip... so the fact that I've already booked my flight to Vegas for the December gathering is definitely outside my comfort zone... having said that, I already know that a) I will be running the half marathon in Vegas on 12/6 and b) I will be there for the winter gathering to see some of my gay canadian friends as well as other friends* as well. And as soon as I typed this, I realized that linking a few was a bad idea but then again, amongst the others that I talk to, I'm guessing none of you would be offended whether I link you or not so yeah, deal with it.

Anyways, here's my itinerary...

Kuro and Peaker, it's unfortunate that you won't be there for the race but nonetheless, I guess I'll see you guys few days later.

The biggest win here is that my ticket cost $10... I had enough miles so I was able to score a free ticket ($10 for tax) so that is a win! Now I just need to book a hotel room but despite some others booking rooms at MGM and such, I am fairly certain I will stay at the IP where a) the rooms are cheap and b) I've never had any problems or bad experiences in terms of the quality of the room. I'm gonna be in the room for like 6hrs a day... I'm fairly certain I just need a bed and a working bathroom. And at the average price of approx $40-45 per night, you just can't beat that. (unless your name is bayne and you get sick deals cuz you're a luckbox)

See you all in Dec!

Week 4

2009-08-17T19:43:00.002-05:00

Every week, when I update my chest workout (I obv do other things on other days), I start to wonder if I should just start another blog consisting entirely of my workouts... but then again, the only reason I post this is to provide feedback to my buddy JT... which then leads me to wonder if I should just email this to him... but then yet again, I would think, hey I'm typing this much, I might as well "blog" about it since otherwise, this will never get updated... Maybe that's ok. This blog is kinda on its last leg as of right now. I feel like I'm so busy these days that I really don't have much to post on here - or the time to post on here. Before, it was somewhat therapeutic to type thoughts on here... but now, not really. I don't hate it, nor do I force myself to do it because I actually love blogging/writing but I just feel like there's no sense of direction on this blog these days. Oh well... it is what it is and it's a reflection of myself so I guess feel free to keep reading if you are interested. If not, well, if you read this blog at some point, thanks for that nonetheless. After week 7 when I supposedly reach my goal, you won't be burdened by my chest workout blog... and I can see myself getting back into blogging about other things but right now, my focus is pretty much on the 7 week lifting plan to be able to put up over 150% of my body weight.

Ok, without further ado...

Flat Dumbbell Press
50 x 12-15 (did 15)
70 x 8 (done)
90 x 2 plus 2-4 forced reps (I did 5... but no forced reps... I think I fucked up here by not getting in any FR's but I didn't really know the spotter too well and so I just kinda gave up)
55 x 6-8 all negatives (55 x 8 regular - no spotter...)

This whole no spotter thing is going to be a theme for today which kinda pisses me off because I went to the Y earlier than usual today, hoping that there will be trainers working there who knows what they are doing. And yet, not a single trainer was found. That's one thing that sucks about the Y... you never know what you get.

Incline Dumbbell Press
40 x 12 (done)
60 x 6-8 (did 8)
70 x 2-4 (FAIL!!! I could not get this up and with no spotter, I just couldn't get it started... at the same time, my triceps felt pretty nonexistent... so, instead, I did 65 x 6...)

Flat Dumbbell Fly
3 sets of 45lbs (done)

Dips - all sets to failure
14, 13, 11

At this point, I had absolutely nothing left... first 6-7 dips went smooth and after that, it's almost like hitting a bump... and then once I got to like 10, it was like hitting a wall... first set, I couldn't come back up on my 15th attempt... same for set 2 and 3.

Overall, it felt like a good workout but I was pissed that my workout was slightly cramped by the fact that I didn't have a spotter. I feel like an idiot can spot barbells but not necessarily dumbbells. I might have to get my buddy JT in to the Y (he's a member at another gym) for the last few workouts leading up to week 7 since I would think the next few weeks would be critical. Dammit YMCA, how do you not have trainers working on one of the most crowded nights!?

Week 3

2009-08-10T21:58:00.004-05:00

Man, how the days go by so fast. I feel like I was just posting results from Week 2 of the JT Master Plan (aka my quest to 250lbs bench press) and it's already time for a week 3 update. Riggs pointed out that he's now on a regimen to lose weight but unlike me, he'll just do it instead of talking about. Riggs, don't be Fuel. That's no fun. So, here I am continuing to document my progress.

You know, one day, maybe I can compile this into a book... like there are so many exercise books to go from fat to thin or lazy to fit or skinny to buff... but there's never any guide for an average-ish guy to go from average to above average or whatever the goal is... of course, that's not as catchy but you get my drift. Let's say you're a 20 something or a 30 something weekend warrior, involved in many activities, but not quite in the type of shape you want to be in. There's never a guide for that. Well, I can use this 7 week master plan as one of my chapters of "how to go from a weekend warrior to being FIT!"

Of course, someone can read this, think it's a good idea, and take it before I even get around to writing a book... oh well. So be it. Without further ado, here's week 3 (as usual, the weight in lbs times range of reps is what was JT's design and in parenthesis is what I actually did):

Flat Dumbbell Bench
50 x 12-15 (did 15)
60 x 10-12 (did 12)
70 x 8 (done)
80 x 4-6 (did 6)
90 x 2-4 (required help to initially get it up. Did 3 with little help on the 3rd)

I will say, I felt a little "tough" since the heaviest dumbbells that the Y has are 100lbs (they have up to 120lbs dummbells in the other wing).

Incline Barbell
95 x 12-15 (did 15)
135 x 8-10 (did 7)
155 x 4-6 (did 3 + 2 forced reps)
135 to failure (did 8 - 8th, I can barely get it up but required no help. Then did 1 forced rep - on the forced rep, my left arm felt nonexistent)

Pushups x 4 sets to failure
43, 21, 20, 15

After the first set, my triceps and chest was nonexistent... I was certain I can at least hit 100 after 4 sets so I was a little disappointed but on the last set, I really had nothing left... Actually on all sets, I was down and half way up but couldn't lock my elbows before I collapsed. At least it was to failure...

FOUR MORE WEEKS!

Week 2 of the Master Plan

2009-08-03T20:57:00.004-05:00

Shockingly, this is only week 2 and yet I actually felt a little stronger. When I started warming up with 135, it was astonishingly light. The cool thing about this workout is that the incline dumbbell made me feel strong. I mean I'm 6'0 tall but only weigh 165lbs... so I clearly have a smaller frame than some of the guys that work out a lot... and yet when I was doing the 65lb dumbbells and 70lbs dumbbells, there's like a guy who looks huge doing the same weights. Of course, he was doing a few more reps than I was doing but not much. It just made me feel pretty good about myself. Pack a lot of punch in this tiny body. I mean unless you're a beast like Riggs, I'm pretty sure the weights I'm lifting for my weight is pretty decent... especially considering the height. On the board I was talking about which had the body weight %, everyone at the top of the list are several inches shorter than I am.

Well, here was the detail of week 2.

Flat Barbell
135 x 12-15 (I did 15)
185 x 8-10 (I did 8... I felt like I could do more but I didn't have a spotter. That was my mistake)
220 x 2-4 (I couldn't find 2.5lbs so I just did 225 x 3... 3rd one was spotter assisted)
185 x 6-8 plus 2-4 negatives (I did 6 plus 1 spotter assisted and 2 negatives... 2nd negative was reeeeeeeeeally hard)

Incline Dumbbell
40 x 10 (done)
60 x 6 (last week, I felt stronger on the incline so I tweaked this - did 65 x 6)
70 x 2-4 plus 2-4 forced reps (I did 4 plus 2 forced reps - perfect weight/rep combination)

Incline Dumbbell Fly
25 x 12 (done)
2 sets of 40 x 6 (done and done)

Decline Barbell
135 to failure (I did 14 plus 1 forced rep - I actually thought I would at least do 15 but around rep #13, my chest started giving out)

What's the opposite of a bad beat?

2009-07-27T21:32:00.003-05:00

In the past, clearing ironman bonuses within the month was like breathing... it got done and I didn't even have to think about it. Hell, to keep things interesting, I usually did contests against Bayne. But now, with my workouts and social life kicking in full gear, I don't have as much time playing poker... so, I came to peace with the fact that I probably won't clear my $500 ironman bonus... Until last night, I checked (just for kicks) how much bonus I am due and guess what I saw!!!

A one month extension to clear the bonus. Sweet jebus. I guess I will be able to clear this bonus after all. YESSSSSSSS!!!

7 week master plan

2009-07-27T19:36:00.005-05:00

Disclosure: This has absolutely nothing to do with poker.

Ok, so there are bazillion things I want to do. I want to do a real olympic distance triathlon... and I want to do the Vegas half. Considering that I have no desire to immerse myself in training for either, but since running tends to come more naturally for me, I am guessing that this year, I don't think I will be able to do a tri... I might find another duathlon or a sprint tri but no real distance tri for me... at least not in '09. And to answer Peaker's comment from the other day, it's just that I don't like running... and that's why you don't see running in my workout plan. Of course, in order to do the half, I'll prob have to run some but I think I can get enough cardio in through swimming and biking so I won't do much running. We'll see how that pans out.

In the meantime, few posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted to be able to bench 250lbs (free weight, obv)... sure enough, my buddy JT read the blog and emailed me, telling me he can come up with a master plan. He knew how strong (or weak, it's in the eye of the beholder, I think) I am and so he came up with this 7 week plan, full with guidance like "make sure to take at least 120g of protein on the day of and day after your chest workout." He also told me that I need to do shoulder and triceps but not within 48 hrs prior to my chest day.

Since JT is a freakin beast I decided to take him up on his offer and today was Week 1 of his 7 week master plan (Mondays from here on out will be chest days, most likely Wed/Thurs would be when I would incorporate shoulders and triceps amongst other things).

His week 1 regimen:
Flat Barbell Bench
135 x 12-15 (I did 15)
155 x 10-12 (I did 12)
205 x 4-6 (I did 4 plus 1 with help from spotter - the 50lb increase was definitely felt)
225 x 2-4 + 2-4 forced reps (basically, I ended up with 3 forced reps, ie 3 with help of spotter)

Feedback: Hmmm, maybe I'm not as strong as JT thinks I am...

Incline Dumbbell
35 x 12-15 (I did 15)
50 x 8-10 (I did 10)
60 x 4-6 (I did 6)
45 to absolute failure (I did 15)

Feedback: Considering I didn't do much incline dumbell before this and he didn't know where to start because of it, it seemed right on par. The 6th one on the 60lb dumbell was a semi-struggle.

Flat Dumbbell Fly
25 x 12 (I did 12)
2 sets of 35 x 6-8 (I did 2 sets of 8)

Feedback: I never did flat dumbbell fly (I always did the fly on the machine) so it was a little interesting but I think I could have added a little more weight.

Dips
3 sets to absolute failure (I did 13, 11, 10)

Feedback: I actually thought I could do more but I just didn't have anything left. Kinda disappointing that my first set was only 13 reps... I was certain I could do 15+.

Overall feedback: Pretty good week 1. In terms of number of exercises, this is a little less than what I usually do since I usually would also do a decline bench press. So, we'll see how this goes. Since JT is also trying to gauge my strength and process, the outer weeks can change, even though it would probably only be a slight tweak. Considering he took the time to write up a 7 week program where in week 7, I'll be doing reps of 250lbs on the bench, I will def be working hard since a) I think I can do it and b) I don't want to feel like I failed him.

This won't be easy but it will be pretty cool to be able to do 3 reps of 250lbs at which point, I can see my name go up in the weight lifting board since that would be like 150%+ of my body weight. MONEY BABY!!!!

Are you dating or are you paying for a hooker?

2009-07-23T16:37:00.003-05:00

This morning, on the radio, I heard an interesting discussion. Apparently, this one guy who works at the radio station heard of an intriguing thing - there are people offering to pay for whatever the person's needs are in exchange of that person living in the house with them and "caring" for them whenever they needed care. Essentially, it was like a live-in maid who would also provide services that are beyond household chores for the right price.

Example they gave was let's say there is an attractive girl who needs to pay for her college tuition (wow, sounds a lot like the workers at the rhino working to "put themselves through law school"). The guy would pay for her college tuition. Of course, in exchange, she would take care of certain household chores but more importantly take care of him when he needed taken care of. He confirmed on the radio that "taking care of him" would entail what most listeners are imagining and that it wasn't completely ok to go into details on the radio.

The female hosts and some female listeners were absolutely disgusted by this idea. They thought he was a pig and that basically he was paying for a hooker. Of course, there were mixed thoughts on this one and there were girls that called in and said if this guy was decent looking, then something can be arranged.

I thought it was interesting, mainly because of a lot of the female arguments. They thought it was ridiculous that a girl had to put out in exchange for some fee (in this example, the tuition). They thought there's no difference between that and a guy going to a dark corner, hiring some prostitute, and doing it in the back alley (or the hotel room or whatever). The funny thing is, while all these feminists errrrr, I mean ladies were ranting about how disgusting this was, I started thinking how is this that different from dating?

Ok, yeah, I get that most people would classify it differently but is it really as different as people think it is? Hell, paying for hooker is probably like getting a girl drunk for a one night stand. Are all college girls considered hookers? Here's my thought. These ladies were all pissed off because of the notion that a guy paying for her needs is receiving sex in exchange. What do you think guys are doing when they are offering shots to women? Being nice just to be nice? Or being nice to get into their pants? If your answer is because the guy is nice, then wow... I mean, wow. How old are you, 12?

Let's see. You meet a girl, you take her out to dinner. You wine and dine her, share some stories, share some laughs, you take her home and give her a goodnight kiss. You even opened the car door for her and you were a perfect gentleman throughout the night. You don't get anything more than a good night kiss but all the guys reading this knows that it's just a set up to the next date where you're obviously going to go further. So let's see, what exactly happened here? You provided the girl what she needs (free dinner, free drinks, companionship, sense of humor, etc) so that you can get what you want ("taken care of"). I mean if the live-in maid concept is like prostitution, is dating all that different???

Yeah, yeah, I get that there are plenty of exceptions and I'm not saying that any girl in a relationship is a hooker. It's actually the complete opposite. I'm arguing that the live-in maid situation is NOT the same as having a prostitute. I mean I never had a hooker but I'm guessing the transaction goes something along the lines of you negotiate, you pay, and you have sex. She walks out the door, both getting what you wanted. Strictly business, right? In the live-in maid situation, it would be different wouldn't it? There doesn't have to be any chemistry but there needs to be some level of getting along because otherwise, it would just be annoying to live with someone and to pay for their shit if you can't hold a decent conversation. That sounds a lot more like dating, doesn't it?

I don't know, what do you all think? Am I totally off the mark? Am I a total pig? If I am, I'm ok with it... I'm not Tucker Max and I'm not trying to use this blog to get laid.

I'm not a gym rat...

2009-07-20T15:54:00.003-05:00

But I've been spending a lot of time devoted to exercises... of course, some of them, in my book, don't even count... like playing basketball in my mind is not an exercise... it's just what I like doing. So... my typical week goes like this...

Monday evening - I lift.
Tuesday at 7am - I play bball for 1.5hrs at the company gym.
Tuesday evening - I lift (diff areas from Mon, obv)
Wednesday evening - lift/swim
Thursday at 7am - same as Tues
Thurs evening - happy hr...
Friday at 7am - same as Tues/Thurs
Friday evening - more happy hr
Saturday - usually a pretty intense lifting day, followed by a swim
Sunday - bike 18-24 miles

I'm not big or buff by any means... I think I have a decent body... well, I've gotten compliments whenever I take my shirt off... but I have a small frame so I don't like that. I'm 6'0 and I only weigh 165lbs...

Well, the reason why I was incorporating swimming and doing 2-a-days when playing ball was because I was training for a triathlon... the thing is, it was a sprint triathlon so the distance for each leg is half of what the olympic distance triathlon is. So, my race was 300m swim/20k bike/5k run... about as short as it can be for a triathlon. Well, that was this past weekend and even though it's short, I popped my tri cherry!

I was pretty pissed off that my first transition time took so long... I had a tri top that had my bib # on and so I was trying to put that on... putting a tight top when wet is extremely difficult... and it literally took me like 2+ minutes trying to put it on, taking it off, trying again... Overall, I had a great time (not my actual time but the time I had at the race was fun) but I had way too much left in the tank at the end of the race so I was not too excited about my performance... but then again, it's my first one so I guess it's passable. I'll give it a B- for my personal grade.

I do know that I no longer have any desire to run a marathon (which at one point was on my life checklist). I will prob do a half actually... oh, for you bloggers who still read this and those of you that run (I'm pretty much talking to you and you), any interest in doing the Vegas half on 12/6? My buddy and I are doing it so you guys should join... isn't that around the winter gathering anyways?

So then this past Sunday, I did my tri... well, last night was our company league 3on3 tournament. Despite it being a company league, it's actually uber competitive and we have refs... if we can call them that... they are the same refs from the County league that I play in and they are freakin terrible. Well, in this double elimination tournament, despite losing our very first game, we actually won the next 4 games to make it to the Finals!! Of course, by then, we were totally gassed and considering we were playing against the #2 seed (we knocked off the #1 seed in the game before in OT) which was also last year's champion, and they played 2 less games than we did (because they were the #2 seed and they didn't have to go through the loser's bracket), they crushed us... during the seeding games last week, we lost to them 13-9 (it's a game to 20 by 1s and 2s or 20 minutes, whichever comes first)... last night, we got crushed in the Finals 20-4... No surprise. We were completely done after knocking off the #1 seed. Having said that, it was a total blast.

With all the workouts and my renewed social life, I've devoted a lot less time playing poker... but I'm ok with that for now.

Oh, at our company gym, there's also a list for anyone who can bench more than 120% of their weight and it is ranked by %. You have to bench the weight 3 times to qualify and so I did 220lbs 3 times, good enough to put me on the list at 132%. Of course, that puts me like 3 from the bottom but there are only about 15 guys on the list... so, my next goal is to move up that ranking. 235lbs would get me 142% which would put me on the upper half of the list so that should be my goal. Hopefully sometime in the next few months, I can get there...

Nothing really

2009-06-18T08:27:00.002-05:00

These days, I feel like I got so much going on that I really haven't had time to play poker... I think I'm averaging maybe 4-5 hrs per week... maybe a little more but really not that much more. As such, I'm struggling to come up with contents for this blog. Where has my time gone? Well, honestly, most of my time these days are spent working, vacationing/going out of town (I was in NY this past weekend), working out (my first triathlon is coming up in a month), etc... Very little poker and this kinda makes me sad because I want to play more... I just don't have the time.

But anyways, the main reason... errrr, the only reason I'm writing this post is to give props to LJ. Though we haven't talked in a while (since my company banned gchat), her text message in the middle of the night (LJ, midnight in Vegas = 3am EST) reminded me of WSOP and the fact that my nemesis as well as the only other blogger that I haven't met that I really would like to (wow, that was a long description of cmitch) are out there donking it up. Actually, that description of cmitch is not true. These two donks avoid blogger gatherings like the plague too.

But anyways, yeah, go give LJ some love since she just came in 10th in the WSOP Horse event. Fawkin aye. She was 9 people away from a god damn bracelet!!!! That woulda been so awesome but nonetheless, an awesome run. Maybe her new employment made her an even better poker player??? For those of you that don't know, she's director of marketing at CardRunners. So awesome. I love my company and my job but honestly, I'm wasting my life away. I'm in nowhereville VA and every time I go back to Tokyo or visit NY, I'm reminded of how much I miss the city life and how bored I am in suburbia. Don't get me wrong. Richmond is a very nice city... if you want a fuckin family. But for a single guy, it's boring as shit. I love my friends here and if I move, I will miss them a lot. But convenient, quiet, and good school district aren't exactly high on my priority list when those things come at the expense of entertainment. So, that's my long way of saying that I'm looking to get the fuck outta here. I might have an opportunity to move to NY within my company so worst case scenario, I'm moving to NY by Jan of 2010. Best case scenario? Finding something even before that and moving to Tokyo or NY. But either way, before I do anything, I know I have to go visit these two clowns as well.

GL to everyone in Vegas! And LJ, as I promised, I'll look up tickets for the weekend and if I find a decent flight, I'll go out there, even if it's just for the weekend. I mean it is the WSOP after all.

OMG a blog post!

2009-06-07T17:00:00.003-05:00

It's funny how what you intend to do and what actually happens are totally different. 3 weeks ago, when I was leaving for Japan, my thought was "phew, I'll finally be able to take a much needed break, relax, and maybe play some poker." Naturally, I figured I'd catch up on reading other blogs as well as post a few times while I was there. Instead, my 14 day stay in Japan was a complete blur. Some nights, literally.

There are so many things that I can recap. But even for me, mr my-life-is-an-open-book, I don't want to disclose all... plus it would just be a needlessly long blog post. So, I guess I will just summarize a few points...

- in a totally random coincidence, my boss from my old job (who is also my mentor and a friend) was in Japan and we spent a day together showing him around
- it is possible to never leave an apartment on the 9th floor and lose pieces of clothing... and I don't mean in a good way...
- when I first got home, my two best friends from high school kept trying to convince me to move back... by the time I was leaving, they said "maybe it's good that you don't actually live here... if you did, I would probably get divorced and F will never find a job."
- My two best friends from high school are also the best wingmen in the world. M & F, you guys are the shit!
- I will never ever lie about my age and where I live anymore. I am a 33 yr old in Richmond, VA... hopefully, that will change soon.
- I ate raw liver. That's right, raw liver. Sounds nasty, I know. But it's soooo much better than cooked liver.
- I ate whale, obv raw. Best sashimi I ever had. Yeah, I know, I know, I'm generally anti whale hunting. But it was sooooooo good. So Greenpeace, you can eff off. tyvm.

Finishing up the KK hand

2009-05-16T05:29:00.000-05:00

Great comments everyone so thank you for that. Hell, Jordan even went as far to do a whole post on it. The reason why I posted this in the first place was because I really wasn't sure what the best course of action was and what I ended up doing resulted in me doing the "right" thing money wise but I was certain that whatever analysis I did at that point would be almost impossible for it to not be results oriented so I decided to pose the question here.

As you loyal readers know, I've pretty much abandoned strategy/poker thought posts and even though part of it could be blamed on me doing other things and not having as much time or the desire to put the effort into blogging, part of me was that I no longer wanted to share my thoughts and hole cards publicly where I don't even change my screenname (even if I did, you can still google recessrampage and you will come here, I think) so I just thought it would be -EV. However, there's a good chance I'm gonna kill my RecessRampage account so I figured I don't really care anymore. But that's for a different post.

On the KK hand, here's the recap.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12167653280: Table Stonewater - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:19:34 ET - 2009/05/11
Seat 1: The Jeltz ($207.15)
Seat 2: ZMAE ($137.25)
Seat 3: eddymoosh ($87.15)
Seat 4: pmow2131 ($358.15)
Seat 5: AAces Again ($159.65)
Seat 6: RecessRampage ($200)
Seat 7: prettydevil1 ($200)
Seat 8: zoitkiller ($298.80)
Seat 9: bombkiller ($273.75)
The Jeltz posts the small blind of $1
ZMAE posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Kc Kh]
eddymoosh calls $2
pmow2131 folds
AAces Again folds
RecessRampage raises to $9
prettydevil1 has 15 seconds left to act
prettydevil1 folds
zoitkiller calls $9
bombkiller calls $9
The Jeltz folds
ZMAE calls $7
eddymoosh calls $7

I'm not gonna lie, when the two guys behind me called, I was hoping one of the blinds would try to squeeze. Instead, I am in a nightmare situation with KK seeing a flop 5 handed.

*** FLOP *** [Jc 8s 9d]
ZMAE has 15 seconds left to act
ZMAE checks
eddymoosh checks
RecessRampage ???

And this is where I left off. The flop is freakin horrible for KK in a 5 handed pot. With so many callers, the board is more likely to have hit someone. The question is how strong? There was the UTG limper who then called my raise after 3 other callers (including the blind). So I eliminate AA or QQ from UTG because he would have to repop and as a shorty, actually, I felt that it was more likely that he didn't have a pair at all because it would just seem so standard for the shorty to shove in that spot hoping for a race. The question was the BB. He could really have anything so at this point, I wasn't interested in narrowing down his hand range. The CO and the button's range was tricky but I felt that the button would have tried to squeeze if he had a hand like AK or AQ so he probably also had a moderate strength hand.

In other words, a lot of the preflop action lead me to believe that everyone had a moderate strength hand so I was about to bet for approximately $35 like a lot of people advocated. The problem was, if I get called from either the CO or Button, there's really no card I would like to see other than KK. So I felt like I was setting myself off to get bluffed off what could be the best hand. On the same token, I couldn't shove over the top if someone were to raise me so in the end, I decided that if I bet out here, I would be turning what could still be my best hand into a bluff. Rather, I want to see what develops. My thought was that if either the CO or Button bets and the two players in front of me folds, I was gonna call and then lead out on the blank turn. I felt that against the CO/Button's range that would bet the flop, I have a better chance of being ahead. Again, this could be a wrong train of thought but that's what I was thinking (honesty HAS TO count for something, right?). And this is also one of those spots where I would rather have QQ instead of KK so that I would also have a inside straight draw...

So anyways, this is what I did...

RecessRampage checks
zoitkiller has 15 seconds left to act
zoitkiller bets $36
bombkiller folds
ZMAE folds
eddymoosh raises to $78.15, and is all in
RecessRampage folds
RecessRampage adds $9
zoitkiller calls $42.15
eddymoosh shows [Ts Qd]
zoitkiller shows [Jd Jh]
*** TURN *** [Jc 8s 9d] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 8s 9d 5c] [2c]
eddymoosh shows a straight, Queen high
zoitkiller shows three of a kind, Jacks
eddymoosh wins the pot ($199.30) with a straight, Queen high

I was shocked to see the top set from the CO. I couldn't believe that he didn't repop me pre. And again, as I mentioned above, if no one came over the top, I would have called and when the 5 came, I probably would have bet into the guy so I would have lost more money in that scenario but I felt that he could easily do this with JT, T9, AJ which are all realistic holdings. Of course, 88 and 99 came into my head but you really can't always be afraid of sets. And being that my line would be really weird (call flop OOP and then bet into the guy on the turn), I think a lot of worse hands will still call.

Again, I really don't know what the best line to take in this situation. I agree with the thoughts of cbetting but I'm also wondering if varying the amount would be an option. Maybe instead of betting $35-40, what about betting about half pot? Maybe like $25ish? Despite all the comments though, I really hate betting out here because my hand can't stand up to a raise and most hands that I even beat are gonna raise me, including the ones that I am losing to. In other words, all sets, flopped straights, two pair, JT, 9T, 8T will probably all raise me... Betting out just seems a little spewy, even if that's the right answer.

Anyone have a more compelling argument here?

Yet another Question for the KK hand

2009-05-12T16:23:00.002-05:00

Great responses so far so I thank you all for that. I think most of you mentioned to cbet about $30-35 and a lot of people went as far (I think) to say "to find out where you are at." I've decided that I actually hate betting for information. But that's neither here nor there. My question is this.

Is your C-bet a bluff or a value bet?

In other words, if you bet and a guy in position calls you, now what? Do you fire another bullet on a blank turn? What cards are you afraid of seeing on the turn? Or, the shorter list might be, what cards do you want to see on the turn?

The reason I ask that is that I'm trying to ask myself this question more and more before I bet. Am I betting for value or am I bluffing? For those of you that say that you're betting for value, what would you do with the hand if you get raised on the flop? If you say fold, then you're effectively bluffing. I mean you might as well have 25o and it wouldn't make a difference, would it (at least if you look at the flop situation in a vacuum)?

If you say you're betting for value but if you get raised, then you realize that even though you thought you're betting for value, it turns out you might not have a good enough hand to withstand a raise... I can buy that argument too. But do you think an AJ would raise here or just call you?

Honestly, I guess my biggest concern is having two people behind me right? In other words, I want to know your thoughts more on what to do on the turn then if you cbet and just get called. Do you check/call turn? Then what do you do on the river? Hope for check/check?

Great comments so far... hopefully this will continue. I'll def post the hand but I'll wait till tomorrow to give some of the stragglers some time to catch up on my blog.

One quick pimpage - I gave Brue some shit about his offer to coach but I'll say this... if you guys like my hand history stuff, you should def be reading Brack/Brue's blog. Their recap of High Stakes poker has been very solid and entertaining at the same time. The HHs could be a bit dry sometimes but I think there's a lot of gold there and the stakes that Brue plays is def not indicative of his skill level (he's more of a .05/.10 fishie swimming in the 1-2nl waters :) )

OMG A poker post!

2009-05-11T21:22:00.004-05:00

I'm not really sure what compelled me to post this... But as I was feeling lazy, I opted to skip my workout last night and instead 6 table on FTP and ran into this situation which I thought was kinda interesting.

1-2NL 9 players, I'm in MP

Edit: Cmitch, thanks, I'm an idiot

Seat 1: The Jeltz ($207.15)
Seat 2: ZMAE ($137.25)
Seat 3: eddymoosh ($87.15)
Seat 4: pmow2131 ($358.15)
Seat 5: AAces Again ($159.65)
Seat 6: RecessRampage ($200)
Seat 7: prettydevil1 ($200)
Seat 8: zoitkiller ($298.80)
Seat 9: bombkiller ($273.75)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Kc Kh]
eddymoosh calls $2
pmow2131 folds
AAces Again folds
RecessRampage raises to $9
prettydevil1 has 15 seconds left to act
prettydevil1 folds
zoitkiller calls $9
bombkiller calls $9
The Jeltz folds
ZMAE calls $7
eddymoosh calls $7

So I get dealt Bayne's favorite hand and then I'm mortified to see 4 callers. Pretty sure seeing a flop with 5 people holding KK is a shitty situation. I mean how often do you go into a flop wishing to hit a set with KK (except Bayne)??

*** FLOP *** [Jc 8s 9d] Pot size $45
ZMAE has 15 seconds left to act
ZMAE checks
eddymoosh checks
RecessRampage ???

So, here's the question. What would you do? In order to prevent anyone from being result oriented, I will post the results later. Being that I haven't posted anything poker related in a while, I might not get much response... or it might take a while for people to catch on/see it but nonetheless, let me know what you think. Do you throw out a standard cbet? If so, how much? Do you check here to see what the others would do? Any reasoning to your answer would be very helpful too.

Results are in!

2009-04-27T09:30:00.006-05:00

I'm clearly doing this wrong... but if you click on the little strip below, you can see my result.

Overall, I came in 43rd out of the 60 men competing in the 30-34 age group. My bike portion, which was clearly the slowest (hey, I've only had my bike for a few days) was 52/60... still shocking that I wasn't like last or second to last. 43 out of 60 puts me in the "slower half" but I can't help being very proud of myself.

I mean these are the guys I'm "competing" against... all so scary looking.

Richmond Times Dispatch also has a cool slide show of the Duathlon Nationals.

Phew!

2009-04-26T18:19:00.002-05:00

The night before the race, as I'm getting ready, I keep thinking to myself if only I had two more weeks, I would definitely be more ready and in better shape. And the other thought was why the hell is our start time at 10:50am and why the hell does this have to be the first weekend where the temperature hits the mid 90s (when so far we haven't sniffed the mid 80s until this weekend). Hell, when I worked out outside on Wednesday, just 4 days prior to the race, it was in the 40s... So, I did the only thing I can do at that point which was to focus on keeping myself hydrated.

On the day of the race, I get out and there are tons of people... all looking like they are in kick ass shape. Seriously, I haven't seen a collection of athletic looking people like that since track meets in my college days. As my friend cleverly put it, "it is the national championship of duathlon." Good point. Why did I sign up for the championship event instead of the shorter version??? I mean I know that is what I do but man... why oh why.

Well, all said and done, I was able to complete the race. It was insane tough though. I was literally running on empty from about 16 mile mark of the bike. A funny thing did happen early though... 1.6 miles into the race (10k run), we come to the train tracks... and there is a train crossing... literally, we were stopped for 6-8 minutes (depending on when you got there) and the race officials had to come out to issue the official ruling (keep in mind that top 4 from each age group qualifies for the world championship in Sept so some of them were very fired up about this). I think the official ruling was that they are going to take 8 minutes off the race chip time. Well, getting that out of the way, the race continued.

By the time the 10k portion was done, I was actually feeling fatigued. This is not like the Monument 10k race where there are thousands of runners, some slow, some fast. All these guys were fast... hell, so were the girls. Well, another thing I learned was that I'm slow on my bike. Which makes sense since I just bought my bike few days ago... But that's where everyone broke away from me for sure... I mean I was kinda behind after the run but I imagine that I had to be the slowest guy in my age group on the bike. Around mile 8 into the 24 mile bike portion, my calves were starting to cramp up. And again, by mile 16, I was running on empty. I was just doing everything I can to keep pedaling but it was also not a flat course and my quads were burning as well.

The last 5k run portion is actually kind of a blur... I know that I was glad I was off the bike... just different muscle group I guess and it helped... a little. I was so happy to finish though since that was my goal. I don't know my official time yet (not posted on the website yet) but that's secondary, at least for this race. I'll just have a baseline of what to shoot for next time. And yes, even though I felt like death, there will be a next time. I haven't been this proud of myself in a long long time!!!

Oh and once you complete the race, they give you a "finisher's mug" and of course, Richmond Tri Club has a party with pizza from Papa Johns, burritos from Chipotle, and beers (Miller Lite and Yuengling). One free beer for race participants - man, Yuengling out of the finisher's mug tasted especially good!!!

Some picture dump:

Start Line

Different angles of the transition area - where you transition from run to bike and then from bike to run:

My bike racked up at the transition station:

And me kissing my finisher's mug!!!!

Ok, now I'm FIRED UP!!!!

2009-04-24T20:42:00.005-05:00

I went to pickup my registration packet downtown for my duathlon on Friday and up until then, I was pretty nonchalant about the duathlon. I mean yeah, I was getting prepared, moderately working out for it but I wasn't like super psyched about it. Now, don't get me wrong. Despite my prior post, I work out more than the average person. I just haven't done targeted workouts for endurance. So Tue, Thurs, and Fri mornings, I play basketball for like 1-1.5hrs and then usually, on Wed, Fri (yeah I essentially work out twice) and Sun, I lift weights. I do decent cardio on Wed and usually pretty heavy cardio on Sat and Mon. So yeah, I know I work out harder than your average person - I don't want to come across like I do awesome in races without working out because that is NOT the case.

Well, anyways, I get downtown and I find the registration area and like all the other big races I've entered, the set up makes it enough to get you fired up. First off, I got all my goodies that come with the registration fee...

I then spot the finish line which is also right by the "transition area" where I guess we will all be hanging our bikes during our runs. This is where I would love to be able to cross... I don't have a goal time right now and since it's my first, I guess I will focus on completing. But if I could come under 2:45, then I would be pretty happy about myself I think.

And ultimately, this is where I would hope to avoid...

Wish me luck!!

My new ride

2009-04-24T20:18:00.004-05:00

As I was getting ready for the duathlon, I have been contemplating what to do for the biking section. This is pretty typical me... I sign up for a duathlon without a serviceable bike for a race. Don't get me wrong. I have a bicycle. But it's one of those hybrid bikes... essentially, it's a mountain bike with road tires. And for those of you who are actually bike connoisseurs, it's got thick wheels, the gear change happens when you switch the knob on the handlebar or sometimes randomly. Nonetheless, I figured, well, I have a bike so whatever... and I wanted to try something different so that's kinda how I signed up for the duathlon... pretty much on a whim. I mean I've never ran more than 6.2 miles (this is still true - which could be a problem for me on Sunday) and I figured my next step would be to do a half marathon... but duathlon sounds more fun.

Leading up to the duathlon, I was fairly content with the idea of doing it with my bike. I mean sure, it's not as good as a road bike but it works. I worked out on the stationary bike quite a bit and then few weekends ago, I biked 18 miles on that bike and even though it was really hard, mainly because it was kinda cold and windy, I decided that it was still passable. Well, after talking to a guy at work about it, he mentioned to me that there was a guy selling his used road bike and he was telling me how much difference it makes. So, I tried it out and I felt like it was a little different but because I didn't know what I was looking for, I still didn't think much of it.

Well, this past weekend, I decided to at least go check out a few bikes. I spent about 3-4 hrs at the bike shop, trying out maybe 5 or 6 different bikes, some totally out of my price range... and then I realized something. These bikes do make a difference. It felt so much smoother and easier. After doing price comparisons, I realized that the used bike that a coworker was offering was not that great of a price... eventually, I ended up purchasing this bike (a Fuji Roubaix Pro '09 - yes, like cars, they have the year of the model):

It's a decent bike for an entry level biker and it set me back like $1400 ($1100 for the bike, bike rack, shoes, pedals, etc). Yes, I know... it sounds insane... but that's like the low end of bikes too. Who knew, that these bikes that YOU pedal, cost so much. On Wednesday, I bought this bike and promptly went on a 20 mile bike ride (I mean the race is this Sunday so I don't have much time - yes, I'm a last minute guy) and oh my god... it was so much easier to do the 20 mile ride than it was to do the 18 mile on my other bike. I mean so much easier. I am now glad that I bought this bike because it will definitely help me on race day. And believe me, considering that so far, I have yet to run more than 6.2 miles, I have yet to bike more than 20 miles, and yet, the races is 6.2 mile run, 24 mile bike, AND 3.1 mile run, I will need every help I can get... but then again, I never do the entire distance of the race when I train (most I ran leading up to the 10k was 4.5 miles and that was only once) so we'll just see how I do. Who knows, on Sunday afternoon, I might be writing about how I couldn't finish the race (first two segments have to be completed within 2.5 hrs or they won't allow you to do the third segment)... it's supposed to be 90+ degrees on Sunday. Fuckin shit.

Maybe I shoulda spent longer than 3 weeks training for it... The joke amongst the guys I play ball with in the mornings was that by the time I signed up for the duathlon, I should be starting to ease off the training so I can peak at the right time. Since I signed up like 4-5 weeks ago and I think 4 weeks ago was the 10k race, yeah, I probably shoulda been better prepared but oh well. We shall see.

Phew

2009-04-17T17:38:00.002-05:00

I can breathe again... this could be more of a twitter type entry... With earnings call right around the corner, I am "on call" this weekend. However, I am gonna go out tonight to blow off some steam after working pretty sick hours recently. I have a few things I want to blog about (some even poker related!!! shocking, I know) but for now, I just got home from work and just popped open my first cold one. Man, it tastes good. Most likely hitting the clubs tonight... don't wanna get too drunk since I got a pretty heavy workout planned tomorrow (assuming I don't get called in to work) since my duathlon is coming up next weekend. Wait, did I even mention here that I signed up for one? Yes, me, the guy who never ran more than 6.2 miles at once in my life is attempting a duathlon (6.2m run, 26m bike ride, and 3.1m run)... and those are miles, not meters (for anyone in foreign countries who follow the metric system). I'm gonna be dead after the race for sure but it should be fun. We'll see how well I do. Alright, back to relaxing, at least for the evening. I'm out!

Foot fetish anyone?

2009-04-11T14:00:00.005-05:00

I do apologize for the delay in posting this. It was totally unintended and I really wasn't trying to build any anticipation. With quarter end, work is super busy and I just never got the time to post.

The closest answer was jjok... with the hammer toes. It certainly reminded me of this...

Well, the actual answer was that she had effed up toenails. Yes, I know I know... that sounds so stupid. But really... she was telling me how she hurt her foot and so she took her socks off and showed the section that hurt. No bruise or anything so the conversation had more to do with she didn't know how she hurt it. Meanwhile, I'm looking at her toe nails and thinking "OH MY GOD. Those are the biggest, weirdest shaped toe nails ever." I mean seriously, her nail on her big toe was like the size of her toe itself... and weirdly shaped. I really wish I could have taken a picture so I can post it here because I really don't know how else to describe it.

So anyways, one thing leads to another, we're making out but I can't get the picture of the toenail out of my head. And it's not like one of those "wouldn't it just grow out?" kinda thing. It's just... weird. The exposed area of her toenail is like almost round... I don't know man, it just kinda freaked/grossed me out.

I'm not a foot guy or anything... (not that there's anything wrong with that either if you're into that kinda stuff) But I guess I should clarify. I'm not a foot guy in the sense that a) I don't really check out feet and b) having beautiful feet doesn't turn me on. However, apparently, ugly feet turns me off. Honestly, I still can't get that out of my mind.

I am shocked though that no one guessed effed up nails.

Nonetheless, the comment section was gold. And yeah, most of the stuff listed in the comment section would also be bad... but effed up teeth? I wouldn't even go out with her in the first place... For me to go out with the girl a few times, it had to be something not immediately noticeable. How common is an outie btw? That would def gross me out too. Man, I'm so superficial.

Another year older, none the wiser

2009-04-08T12:34:00.003-05:00

Note: if you are too lazy to read through the whole thing, at least read the last paragraph. Little contest at the end.

First of all, thanks to all those on Facebook/emails/posts/etc who wished me Happy Birthday. I do have a birthday rant that I can go into but I can do that at another time so I will just share what can only be described as an "interesting" event.

My whole day went like the normal/typical day here. Played basketball in the morning, worked all day, yadda yadda. Well, during the course of the day, one of my friends who was determined to take me out for my birthday suggested that we go watch the new movie: Fast and Furious. She knew I was a big fan of the previous 3 (Fast and Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, FF: Tokyo Drift) and since I did make a comment that I wanted to go see the latest, it made sense. Plus, it's a Tuesday night so we figured there wouldn't be too many people at the movie theatre. Other people are generally the reason I don't go to movie theatres often so it made sense...

So, all was decided over email and so even though I had enough work to keep me here late, I ended my work day around 6:30pm to get home in time to change/eat before the movie at 8pm.

As I am driving home, I am entering my neighborhood and as I am approaching my driveway, I notice that there's a car parked. I can't think of whose car it is but it looks vaguely familiar. And then right when I get a little closer, I realize who it is... and when I realized it, that "oh shit" feeling entered my mind... you know that feeling when you are busted for doing something wrong? Well, that kinda feeling... except I didn't do anything wrong... but it still felt that way... why?

Let's rewind the timeline....

Few weeks ago, I met this girl at the evil empire of coffee shops. We talked, kinda hit it off, she gave me her number, blah blah blah. We hung out a few times, she seemed pretty nice, pretty cute, and definitely on to me. On my end however, not so much. I mean she's cute - italian, petite, pretty features, etc... but that's about it. Nothing that really wowed me I guess. But anyways, so we hung out a few times and then this past weekend, she just kinda got on my nerve. We're definitely not dating or anything and yet this weekend, she apparently really wanted to see me. So she texted me a few times, emailed me, etc. I kinda blew her off and then I responded to her on like a Saturday, telling her I had to work all weekend. (I did have to work - the "all weekend" part was a lie). Sunday was another beautiful day here so I went to the gym, worked out, did my chores, did some work, etc etc. Then, Sunday night, I get this email from her... ah hell, fuck privacy. I'll just copy and paste it here.

"I hope your day went well today, and that you were able to spend some time outdoors this weekend despite how busy you have been.

I don't know what to say, except that I am really confused. I've wanted to get to know you better...Mr. Cranky Pants and all! :), but it doesn't seem you desire the same. If that's the case, it's fine...err...ummmm...I mean, I'll understand. And it's not bc you have been so busy, rather I admire your passions and work ethic. It's bc... I feel kinda trivial to you, especially today.

I so much hope this is just a misunderstanding"

Ok, let's analyze this for a second (I'm pretty sure I just lost whatever female readership I had). First of all, she's feeling trivial to me???? Um, hello? We're not even dating. We just saw each other like 3-4 times. If this ain't a sign for being needy, I don't know what is. And I did needy girl long time ago and fuckin hated it. So I sure as hell ain't going back to that. Second, for all you ladies out there who think "oh, he's just really busy but he'll call back later." Um yeah. Let me tell you something. He's just not that into you. Period.

- Back to where I left off earlier....

So, I realize that the car parked in my driveway is none other than this girl... Now, after my previous paragraph, I do feel a little guilty because she was dropping off her home made chocolate chip cookies (cuz she knows I like chocolate chip) at my house... I so wish I was few minutes late in going home... Anyways, I come up with a lame excuse like "hey, sorry, I'd say we can hang out but the only reason I'm home so early (cuz I indicated to her that I'm working like 15 hr days) is because my friends are taking me out to dinner for my birthday (not a total lie - my friend and I had plans to eat pizza before the movie) and that I'm meeting them at 7pm. She understood, told me she assumed as much, and that she was kinda embarassed because she just wanted to drop off the cookies and leave them by the door. So I thanked her and walked into the house.

That was it in terms of the "interesting" event that I prefaced. My friend and I went to see Fast and Furious as planned and it was freakin awesome!!!! I love that entire series and if you liked the other F&F series, you'll definitely like this one too. And btw, movie on a Tuesday night is the way to go. No one at the movie theatre despite it being spring break week for the kids and there are coupons for like a $1 popcorn... can't beat that.

I will leave you with one thing... I did kinda like this girl and like I said, I did think she was cute... until one day, when we were messing around, there was one thing that I saw/noticed that completely turned me off. I am pretty certain that you won't guess what it was and no, you haters, it's not because she's not a he. But I'll leave you with this. What is it that I saw/noticed that completely turned me off about her?

I'll ship $5 on Fulltilt to the first person who guesses correctly. (if you don't have a fulltilt acct, well, guess anyways, it'd be fun)

PS: I brought the cookie into work... I had some already and they are pretty freakin awesome.

Opinion/Thoughts wanted (nonpoker)

2009-04-04T15:11:00.003-05:00

Currently, in my FTP account, I have over 300K in points.. and in looking at the Fulltilt store, I was thinking about getting this:

I've checked out sites like cnet and pcworld and the ratings/reviews are nothing but stellar. If I were to purchase this, retail cost is approx $1,200. Considering what else is in the fulltilt store, it seems like the best value. Currently, I play poker on my apple macbook which is fine but if you know what the macbook looks like, the screen is tiny and playing 6 tables will be pushing it... So, even though I love my mac, for poker and other PC related apps that I use, I was thinking about getting a cheap computer.

Like this one. Top rated value desktop by PC World, doesn't have all the latest bells and whistles but the specs are more than enough to play a lot of the video games (maybe not the super graphics intensive but I don't play those - I'm more the Civ/Age of Empires type of game guy) I like to play, clearly enough for poker apps... $699 for the system (excludes monitor) is not a bad price to pay for a computer with this kinda horsepower.

Also, I've been thinking that it's better to buy a $700 computer every 2-3 years as opposed to buying a $1500-2000 system every 4-5 years (where undoubtedly, by year 3, you are starting to have new computer envy).

So, I would love to hear all your thoughts about the system or the monitor.

It's definite! Online > B&M (Vegas trip report)

2009-03-31T14:16:00.002-05:00

Last time I wrote my post before I was rudely interrupted by the 10k race, I was writing from the airport all excited about my upgrade to first class. Well, let me tell you something. I don't know how much it is to upgrade to first class but for the trip to Vegas, I would say it's totally worth it (unless you can figure out how to smuggle enough alcohol through the security gate with the liquid restriction they now have). From Cleveland to Vegas, I was sitting first class and at first, when I took my seat, I was a tad annoyed... sitting next to me was a dude with his family in the other two seats across the aisle and they have clearly never been in first class. This dude was yelling to his other buddies few rows up (they were all in 1st class - clearly just upgraded like me) about how great it was... Fuckin noobies...

So here I am, sitting in this comfortable seat on the plane and in bit of a tilt... but then the flight attendant comes, I order a Miller Lite thinking I'll just enjoy a few cold ones for a warm up, put my noise cancelling headsets on and just ignore these clowns around me. Well, when our beer comes (the guy also ordered ML), he goes "well, cheers to Vegas!" Well, how can I not cheer to that. I smile, say cheers out of courtesy, and I take a good swig. Mmmmm, nothing like free beer on a plane. This got us to talking and next thing we knew, we were ordering more beers and I gotta admit, this guy wasn't so bad after all. He was willing to pound drinks and then the cold platter thing came with cheese and meat and so I downed a few glasses of wine, polishing off all the wine they had (they only had 2 bottles and there were 12 of us in first class - I had 3 or 4 glasses tho) and then we kicked the ML so we had to switch to Heineken. After all was said and done, I was pretty buzzed and definitely ready to get the night started in Vegas. Sure enough, it was almost landing time. Great way to kill time on a plane. I never even pulled out my PSP (which I only play on flights - and considering I fly to Japan at least once a year, I fuckin need it).

I meet up with my friends the first night and besides a short craps session (a profitable one, might I add), I decide to hit up bars to continue on with my drinking. No more gambling was done that night, which is definitely a rarity for me. I got to bed around 4am PST and having been awake for over 24hrs (I woke up at 6am EST that morning to play bball in the morning), I was ok with calling it a night.

Over the course of the next two days, I played a good chunk of poker and a good amount of craps. My buddy was on fire all weekend and he basically made the craps table his personal ATM machine. Oh, and in an attempt to dust off my "iceman" image, I roll a 4 point fire bet... I even set the 5th point but couldn't hit... I had $3 on the firebet so the 5th point woulda been huge (4pts pay 25 for 1, 5 pts pay 250 for 1, and all 6 pts pay 2000 for 1).

But instead of going into a detailed trip report, I just want to share something I discovered for myself. CK does a much better job recapping live poker experiences anyways so there's really no point in me telling similar stories about calling station tourists and some ridiculously passive/nitty table filled with college kids with no money out during spring break for the March Madness.

People always talk about the appeal of live poker... the social interaction, blah blah blah. I really don't know what else. Social interaction I guess makes up for a lot. For me, it just adds to the annoyance. Brue mentioned this before in his blog that I reluctantly pimp... But live play sucks. First of all, you see a lot less hands per hr... I mean online, you might see anywhere from 50-60 hands per hour... and that's only if you're playing one table. Live, you might see 20-30 per hour. Online, some of you earn rakeback, I just enjoy the very meager benefits that come with earning points but nonetheless, you get something in return... sure, you can earn comp points or $ or whatever in a casino but the accumulation has got to be much slower than online. The rake on FTP is capped at $3 (I think 5% of pot, capped at $3). In most casinos, I think it's $4... this, I could be wrong, and not sure. Then there's also the tipping factor of tipping the dealer which costs another $1 per hand (if it's a big hand, maybe even more). All of this really amounts to me preferring the online world.

Well, and then there's the social aspect of poker you can only get live... Man, I don't know what people enjoy but putting up with other people's banter just makes me wanna shoot myself. I don't want to hear other people's bad beat stories, I don't want to hear their "analysis" on their hands (which are never good ones), and honestly, I don't give a shit where you're from or what you do. If I wanted to socialize, I'll hang out with my friends. If I wanted to network, there are plenty of networking social events that I can attend that will be beneficial for me professionally. So when I play poker, I just wanna play cards and make money. I am not interested in getting to know people. And I realized this during one of the sessions in Vegas when one side of the table was discussing airline bad beat stories (my bag didn't get here, my flight was delayed, we had to wait on the runway for x hrs, etc etc - AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!) and the other side of the table was discussing strategy ("well, I limped from UTG+1 with K8s and this guy raises but I have to call because if I hit, I can win a big pot. Flop comes 8 high, turn brings a flush draw, but I miss completely and I lose most of my stack cuz this guy has AA! I'm just so unlucky!").

At least online, it's only in the chat box, you can mute whomever you want, or you can just not read what's there. You don't have to deal with some stupid ass boring story or engage in small talk. Now I know some of you enjoy this and that's great. But I just know that this trip finally, definitively made me realize that I prefer online poker to live poker any day of the week. Sure, live players are so much worse but man, the amount of time I would have to invest in it really isn't worth it. Great for vacation, maybe... Of course, a profitable trip made this all less tiltworthy but nonetheless, I am clearly an online donk.

Now I'm gonna go be unsocial again.

Woot 10k!

2009-03-29T11:26:00.003-05:00

No, I didn't win 10k playing poker... but yesterday was the annual Monument 10k in Richmond, VA. This 10k is the 4th or 5th largest 10k in the country with 32,000+ participants in this year's race. I'm not totally into running or anything but this 10k event is awesome. We run down the historic Monument Ave for 3.1 miles and then loop back around... almost every other block, there's a band set up, tons of people come out to cheer for their friends and family, and there are tons of people who are rooting (or heckling) from the balcony of the houses lining up this road.

Few months ago, when the registration for this race started, my friends and I decided to all run this and also have individual goals. I figured this would be a good thing because a) I'm competitive and b) our friends are such that we would keep giving each other a hard time to make sure we work hard for this race... well, it turns out, I am too lazy to actually work out for the race so, even though I knew I was in pretty decent shape with all the basketball I play and the cardio/lifting I've been doing, I wasn't sure what kind of running shape I was in. I mean the last time I ran 6.2 miles was... 2 years ago at the Monument 10k...

So, it was to my surprise when I saw that I actually got a PR... Of course, for all you runners that read this, it's not gonna be that great. But PR is a PR and for any of you in any of the races, you know how great that is.

I didn't have a watch on me or anything so I didn't really know what my official time was. When the results were posted, I was psyched. As you can see below, my time was 46:34. Not too shabby!!!

I run goot!!!!!

2009-03-20T16:41:00.002-05:00

Oh my god... You know my trip to Vegas is off to a good start when I get bumped off my original flight which was supposed to depart at 5:50 to Newark, NJ where I would then hop on to the plane to Vegas, arriving there at midnight. I mean to be able to avoid Jersey is a win, IMO. :D

But not only that, they switch me to a flight through Cleveland which departs Richmond at 6:30, giving me an extra 40 minutes which I will use to eat/blog/play online poker... And shockingly, this will get me in to Vegas at 10:30pm (PST obv)... a whole hour and a half before my scheduled arrival. Of course, delays can cause all of this to not work but still, it is off to a good start.

Oh and one last thing. Did I mention that my flight from Cleveland to Vegas is FIRST CLASS!? Yeah, I know... I run so goot!!!

I just hope I'm not using up all my luck before I even get to Vegas...

So I guess it IS different...

2009-03-17T14:12:00.003-05:00

Generally speaking, I can pretty confidently say that I am a smart guy. I understand a lot of different concepts and ideas pretty quickly and analytical skills were never my shortfall. So, I always had in mind that the school you ended up in was more a reflection of how quickly you matured, how dedicated you were in school, and basically, much like the CPA exam, how much discipline you had for a predefined period of time. So, based on that, even the Ivy League schools to me was impressive and maybe a handful of geniuses went there but in general, I figured it had more to do with a being a dork in high school... and of course, I would phrase it that way because I did not have a GPA to brag about in school (and goes to show that means shit because my performance ratings in all my jobs have been very stellar).

Today, at my company, we had one of our many interview rounds where we are hiring for the May grads as well as the summer interns. We are fortunate to have the luxury of being able to hire some interns and you can tell that the job market is totally different for these college kids. The caliber of kids coming in to interview and subsequently not getting an offer is much higher than those of few years ago. Literally, the joke amongst us interviewers is that we wouldn't be hired in today's standards. And all of us are managers or above in finance and accounting roles (HR administers but we are the ones conducting the interview).

I am one of the "casers" as in I administer a case study and of course, during that process, there are multiple evaluation criteria. It's not perfect but it's definitely a good way to gauge some of the skill set that we are looking for here. Today's group consisted of several UPenn students and some Cornell students. Let me say that again. UPenn and Cornell students, interviewing for a company in Richmond fuckin VA. Let me say this in case you're not grasping the magnitude of what's happening here. Those Ivy Leaguers with their ridiculously loaded resumes and insane GPAs are always set to go work in Manhattan on the trading floor... Glitz and glamour of city life is what they have worked all their adolescent lives for and so they probably think that they deserve to be there... and yet today, they were sitting on the other side of me, trying to frantically figure out the case as they walk me through their thought processes under a lot of pressure of time as well as wanting the job.

And I will say this. Some of them weren't great fits for us but one thing they all had in common... very professional and even more astonishing to me was how smart they were... I mean they're freakin wired differently. They see angles that I am shocked that they see at their level. Certain calculation comes to them incredibly naturally. I remember walking out of one of the interview thinking "oh my god, this guy is freakin insanely smart... like genius level." The problem is, they might jump ship the moment the market turns. But of course, that's not one of our eval criteria. Now like I said, it's not that they all passed with flying colors. But when you show how much of a genius you are without even trying, you know what you get? A second chance. So, some that won't get offers for the summer internship will be saved for another round in the fall. Of course, by then, they may have other offers which is fine with us too. There's no shortage of great candidates right now and we're in the fortunate position of being able to decide who we get to keep and who we can't.

I guess the point of this post, in actuality, is to give props to all those who actually went to an Ivy League school. Hey, I always knew you Yale grads (besides the last Prez who clearly got in because of his fuckin connections) were super smart but today, interacting with these students from the Ivy League schools did make me realize how smart some of these guys are. Like I said, that doesn't translate into an immediate job offer or anything, but for what it's worth, you have my respect. I guess it was just interesting to see it in person as one to evaluate them.

So stay away from my poker table please. Thanks.

I'm the worst Japanese ever

2009-03-16T06:48:00.003-05:00

Have you ever been to Hawaii?

Ok, or any other tourism heavy spot like pretty much anywhere in NY, Orlando, Hollywood, Vegas etc? Hawaii would be the best and Gnome/Kuro (lucko, Kuro does NOT live in Hawaii, unlike Gnome) can probably attest to this but a typical Japanese would have... holy shit, as I started this sentence, I realized that I'm gonna date myself on the last time I saw a Japanese tourist. I was gonna say that a typical Japanese would have a camera with a strap around his neck but I just realized that these days, the cameras are so small (or they use the camera on their phones) so maybe you don't see that as much. My point was going to be that usually, a Japanese tourist does a great job of taking pictures, capturing their memories/favorite sceneries, yadda yadda... whatever it is that they do, they take a picture of it.

So, being that I was going up to DC to watch the Wizards play the Magic (that's NBA for those that aren't familiar), I charged up the batteries on my digital camera, fully intending to capture the awesomeness of the corporate box suite that we got free tix to and maybe a glimpse of Superman/Dwight Howard.

Plan was a solid one too. Since I was gonna be in DC, brackchips from brack&brue suggested that we meet up before the game. I won't out you his screenname but I was pretty psyched to meet up with a guy that I had played with at 400NL quite a bit on Fulltilt (fuckin aggro monkey bastard). I get to the bar kinda early and so I start off my picture taking solid. We met up at this brewery restaurant called Chophouse so I start off with their amber ale and take a pic of their beer menu.

Very awesome place and Brack shows up while I'm finishing off my second beer. The beers went down smooth, it was fun talking to him and when my buddy from Richmond came (he came later due to work reasons), it was time to go to the game. We headed to the Verizon Center which was a block away and got to the company suite which is now located at the half court line (as opposed to the corner that it used to be). We treated ourselves to free food and free drinks, enjoyed what ended up being a closer game than expected and had a blast... of course, I completely forgot about my camera in my computer bag so sure enough, despite all my good intentions, the beer menu was the only pic I took...

Seriously, if you guys ever go out with me, make sure to NOT make me the designated photo guy... because there will not be any memories captured... I bring shame to the Japanese tourist stereotype...

This has to be a record

2009-03-04T22:07:00.003-05:00

I'm too lazy to post a screen shot. But I was gigli from the Mookie... and it took me 3 hands to bust out... Cmitch raised from CO, I reraise from the button, he 3 bets, and honestly, I really didn't want to play and I wasn't sure why I signed up but I didn't care so I shoved with AQ. He instacalled with AA. Seriously. What a donkey. How can he call off 100BBs with AA???? :D

I really don't know why I signed up though. I gotta get up at 6am to go play basketball and as I indicated before, right now, bball > poker, despite the BBT. I blame peer pressure. I'm looking at you, New Yorkers, you know who you are. And if you thought "what, we didn't pressure you into playing" then yes, you are the ones.

Alright, I'm off to playing some STTs and calling it a night. These 10pm tourneys are tough for east coasters... I don't know how you all do it and go to work the next day. But then again, I suppose I used to also.

This IS the South, y'all!

2009-03-02T12:08:00.003-05:00

This might be hilarious for those up north but down here in VA, things shut down when we get like an inch or two of snow... so when we got 5+ inches of snow, um yeah, it's like an apocalypse. Sure enough, I wake up this morning and the first thing I do is boot up my work pute to check my email to see if we are open today. First off, I can't even log on to the work network. It appears that the server is down.

I look outside and the roads in my neighborhood isn't even cleared. So I pull the ol' "eff it" maneuver and go back to bed. I woke up once again to attempt to check the email. This time, it works and sure enough, there's an email that says 1) campus is closed today (weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) and 2) our server is intermittent. So, I guess I will be "working from home" today. The thing is, I really don't want to have to make up any work later so chances are, I will be doing some real work.

Last night, this is what it looked like and my guess was that regardless of whether the campus is open or not, I would be working from home since the roads in our neighborhood would definitely not be cleared up and my convertible is not ideal for a ride in the snow. Plus, I don't really need much of an excuse to work from home.

This morning, this is what it looked like. Yeah, yeah, I know. This IS the South!

Close = No Good

2009-03-02T01:53:00.003-05:00

I came so close to winning a seat to the TOC in BBT4... it woulda been nice to lock up a seat this early and with the chip stack I had, I should have. I think I pretty much was in first place the whole time except at the very end when it mattered most.

My demise came here...

Full Tilt Poker Game #10919212418: Blogger Big Game (81289088), Table 5 - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:48:09 ET - 2009/03/02
Seat 5: RecessRampage (101,324)
Seat 7: Rake Feeder (223,676)
RecessRampage antes 1,000
Rake Feeder antes 1,000
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 4,000
Rake Feeder posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ks 6d]
RecessRampage calls 4,000
Rake Feeder checks
*** FLOP *** [2s Kh Ah]
Rake Feeder checks
RecessRampage checks
*** TURN *** [2s Kh Ah] [Qc]
Rake Feeder checks
RecessRampage bets 9,000
wwonka69 (Observer): go rakegeeder
Rake Feeder raises to 25,000
wwonka69 (Observer): rakefeeder
RecessRampage raises to 92,324, and is all in
Rake Feeder calls 67,324
wwonka69 (Observer): go go go
RecessRampage shows [Ks 6d]
Rake Feeder shows [Qh Qs]
*** RIVER *** [2s Kh Ah Qc] [4s]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Kings
Rake Feeder shows three of a kind, Queens
Rake Feeder wins the pot (202,648) with three of a kind, Queens
RecessRampage: gg
RecessRampage stands up
Rake Feeder stands up

I'm not unhappy with how I played the last hand. You can obv argue that I coulda bet the flop but there's really no card that I'm afraid of.... sure, a heart maybe but HU, you really can't sweat the flush draw. So, I felt that if I'm already behind, I'm going broke here anyways... and if I'm ahead, I figured to be pretty far ahead so I figured I'd try to let him catch up. Unfortunately, he caught up in a big way but any other card, I think I woulda got some more action out of his QQ by checking the flop. Oh well, moot point.

GG Rakefeeder! (Do you have a blog? If so, please comment and I'll link you up) And thanks to all those who railed me.

Fuel is gay.

Better to be lucky than good

2009-03-01T16:27:00.002-05:00

This blog should be changed to "Other stuff and poker." I don't really foresee myself blogging much about poker anymore so unless you are interested in my nonpoker posts, really, there's prob very little reason to come back here. On the other hand, if you are here for my nonpoker posts, you are in for a treat.

So my subject line... it's so true isn't it? Now I'm not saying that you don't have to be any good to capitalize on the luck or anything but be it poker or be it real life, the saying seems to hold true and it feels especially true these days in this economy. I mean everywhere you read, there are more people laid off or struggling to find jobs. I'm still not convinced that the market is SO BAD that NO ONE can find a job. Perhaps their standard is still a little inflated from the years of lunacy that we've all be subjected to. But that is neither here nor there and not the point of this post.

One thing that is true is that the economy IS SO BAD that there are layoffs everywhere. And depending on where you are located or what department you are in, sometimes, it doesn't even matter how good you are. It's just like poker. You can get it in good and yet succumb to a sick runner runner or a one/two outer on the river when all the chips went in the middle on the turn. No one is immune to the layoffs and so to those who have been laid off and reading this blog, please don't mistake my previous paragraph. Losing a job is not a reflection of you. It is generally a reflection of the economy. I'm just saying that maybe not being able to find a job might be you. But again, that's not the point.

As for me... I still have a job. As a matter of fact, considering how the economy has been, I've had it better than just having a job. I've been given some serious opportunities, and after going through my appraisal, I am due for an awesome bonus so regardless of what people think about bonuses, since that makes up like 30% of my compensation, not getting that would be a bad, bad beat.

But this post is also not about how great I am at work... because believe me, there are plenty of others who are either just as good or better (there are plenty who are not also). However, I know this. One thing I excel in is my general personal presence and how I conduct myself. The other day, I had a one on one meeting with the VP of our group. He mentioned to me that I carry myself in a way that is very influential (in a good way) regardless of the other person's rank and that that is one of those qualities that all good leaders have. Granted, that's not something I didn't know about myself so as flattering as it was, no surprise there. But I will say this. During my 2.5 years in this company, I have volunteered a lot for HR related functions (I was in the controller's group before, in finance now so I have nothing to do with HR) such as being the interviewer or the one that takes the candidate to lunch. Because of my willingness to do that, I was able to meet many more people and expose myself to a lot more people here in this company. And I know that that has contributed to some of the opportunities I'm getting now.

That set me up nicely to be entered into what's regarded as a fairly prestigious rotation program and so even though it's almost downright silly to say that you're "safe" in this economy, I have to believe that I am in a safer bucket. I am not delusional. So, it could be that I will be typing a new post next week saying I lost my job because of a massive layoff. But my evals were great and my network is very strong so if that were to happen, I would just have to chalk that up to very bad luck.

But see, here's the thing. Somebody (or something) is clearly looking out for me because 2.5 years ago, I got a call from the recruiter of this company and that's how I got here. At the time, I was becoming increasingly disgruntled with my previous employer who I had been with for 8 years and in all honesty, have been nothing but great for me in terms of experience, compensation, and other special treatments that I clearly got over others. But because I was ready to move on, when the call came, I took the offer which immediately bumped my pay up like another 25%.

I recently had lunch with my former boss and heard about how things are going with the CPA firm that I used to work at. The firm is in shambles. Not that it's gonna go bankrupt or anything but in terms of morale and how things are generally going, it just seems like it would be a miserable condition. As a matter of fact, my boss mentioned that they are lucky that the economy sucks so bad because the people who want to leave are probably still there only because they can't find anything better. I mean when a statement is made like that from one of the partners of the firm, you know things are going bad. I could easily have still been there but instead, I am with a company which despite tough times and clearly contracting economy (and LOTS of cost cutting), I am getting great treatment and been given bunch of training classes and programs that are designed for the select few (some of these classes/training programs no longer exist as a result of the cost cutting).

I guess this is just my long winded way of saying that as much as I know that I work hard and do good things, none of this can happen unless I have some luck on my side. So, whoever you are that is out there that's looking out for me... please continue to do so and more importantly, thank you. Whenever I hear about things that have happened to others (and these days, it seems like it's never good), I am always reminded of how lucky I am and I am truly grateful of that.

Sorry for this seeming brag post. It wasn't intended to be that way... I was just in a self-reflecting mood.

Oh yeah, and BBT4 is kicking off. If you want more info, you can go to anyone else's site to check it out. I'll try to play many events but it clearly won't be my number 1 priority for now so good luck to all who are definitely gunning for the seat.

Sticking to my nonpoker theme

2009-02-16T15:05:00.003-05:00

Gmello, I thought this was a poker blog too... see the thing is, I haven't felt inspired to write anything poker related these days. So for those of you that check here for poker related content, sorry, but the outlook is bleak in terms of me posting actual solid poker stuff... but I believe that's true for pretty much all "poker blogs." I haven't see any solid strategy posted stuff anywhere... there are things that some may consider strategy but bad advice <> strategy.

Anyways...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

I love my company. They just informed me that I am getting 2 tickets to the Washington Wizards v Orlando Magic game in DC on 3/13 (Friday)!!!! Dude, it must be all the hyping of Superman I've been doing!!! Dwight Howard baby!!! I actually had a choice between that game and a game against the New Orleans Hornets. Why do I care about New Orleans? Well, Chris Paul is awesome so being able to see him live woulda been cool as shit too. But hey. Dwight Howard, let er RIP!!!!! I can't wait. The Wizards suck too so hopefully I can see some highlight material that night.

Steve, if you still read this blog, I'll give you first dibs... of course, it's March Madness time so I'm guessing you will probably just prefer to stay at home and watch the college games. But, if you're interested in box seats with free food and booze, you are welcome to come. If you don't read this blog, well, then tough shit. Just kidding. I'll email you when the time comes but if you know now that you wanna come, let me know.

What a great Monday!

More Superman!

2009-02-16T10:18:00.002-05:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that the dunk contest is about more than just the dunks. I mean the chances are, by now, it's been done before. The dunk from the free throw line, the ball around under your legs jam, the no look Dee Brown jam, etc etc... I mean really, you'd have to do something different and new to really get the crowd going. And that's what Dwight Howard does. I mean it's sh*t like this, from the set up, the use of props, that comedic nature of it all that makes him so fun to watch in the dunk contest. It's kinda like the good days of Ocho Cinco when he did his thing... I know that now, his stock went into the sh*tter but in his prime, he was funny as hell to watch.

Case in point. This is impressive alone but I don't think people go as crazy if the initial build up is not there.

Of course, he will then unleash his sick athleticism with this dunk. I mean this was just sick.

Riggs mentioned in the comments to my previous post that Dwight ruined his chances for his consecutive win by allowing this:

But see, I disagree. Winning the slam dunk contest, once you've done it before, is really not an accomplishment. I mean it's just for fun. And I think that Dwight was willing to be a part of the prop by allowing himself to get dunked over. I actually like the fun loving nature of these dunk contests than the selfish, immature, cocky, I am holier than thou attitude that a lot of the NBAers seemed to have had the past few years. After the Olympic Gold and watching these, I can definitely get back into the NBA... which is saying a lot considering I stopped watching the NBA (aside from the playoffs) from like 1996...

Superman!!!

2009-02-14T22:49:00.002-05:00

Dwight Howard is SICK!!!!

Seriously, is this guy human?

Last year, I watched the dunk contest for the first time in a while... and it's rare that I would get up and yell when there's a spectacular dunk because... well, that's what they do. But man, if you wanna see some pure, sick athleticism, Dwight Howard brings it.

Now, if there are any haters out there, I'd say this. Slam dunk contest is about the dunk, but also about the creativity that goes into it. You know, capture the crowd, get everyone going. Even before his "Superman Dunk" this was like shocking to see:

And of course, there was this:

Of course, I've heard people say "well, that's not a dunk, he threw that in there." Um, ok. Yeah, so that's even sicker. What sick elevation do you have to get to "throw" a ball DOWN into the hoop? This guy is unreal.

And now, we have this year. Unfortunately, no vid available as of yet but my god... The way he captures the crowd is awesome. There's the 12 foot hoop dunk... and then he did it. The sick off-the-side-of-the-backboard slam dunk. That was actually awesome. And yet, Nate Robinson topped it! It was all about the presentation. Nate Robinson's final dunk was the key and Dwight helped him by being a great sport about it. Dwight Howard stood in front of the basket so Nate can dunk over "Superman." Knowing the background, if that didn't get you going, then you need to go get checked out...

On a completely separate note, did Jordan steal this commercial from the NFL Nike commercial? If so, good for him, cuz I love this commercial.

But really, that was clearly a rip of this commercial right?

I <3 this guy

2009-02-09T10:49:00.000-05:00

This guy basically spells out my thoughts on the economy and the current government activity perfectly. I can type out a post but what's the point. He did it for me here.

Missing the opportunity?

2009-02-05T14:00:00.002-05:00

Maybe my mind is too business oriented. Even though I am involved in a few pro bono work through my company and doing the whole "giving back to the community" thing, I think I always made it clear that that's really not my thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against it. But when I help these organizations and help give back to the community, I don't get that sense of satisfaction that a lot of people talk about. Maybe I'm the devil. Whatever is the case, I don't really get much out of helping the needy.

So, it was interesting to me when I heard that the BBT4 will consist of a few $10 buy-in tourneys (Mookie and Skillz or something?) and maybe another CHEAPER tournament... to me, this is shocking... Don't get me wrong. I am not saying anything bad about the BBT series because I think it's great that Al puts this together, giving bloggers an opportunity to play in the WSOP and other larger buy-in events. But if I were to put my business hat on, only including smaller buy-in tourneys seems like we're missing something here. Again, it might just be that Al is organizing for the bloggers so the idea behind it is that it would encourage more bloggers to play in a $10 tourney than say a $26 (really!? Twenty six fuckin dollars!?) or heaven forbid, a $50+ tourney. Wouldn't fulltilt be better off if these were slightly higher buy-ins, generating more rake AND more importantly, forcing people to redeposit money?

With the BBT, the stakes are much higher. The rewards are awesome and so it's shocking that the buy-in doesn't reflect that. It's also amazing how in an average blogger's poker fund, $26 seems so much more than $10 or whatever considering I'm pretty sure most of you waste $26 on nothing... well, if not, then maybe I'm extremely careless with my money. Let's see, so far today, what did I spend money on. Breakfast because I was too lazy to eat cereal at home (actually, I was in a hurry cuz I was late for bball) was $3.50ish. Lunch was $7.55 (our company cafeteria is NOT cheap). That's already a mookie buy-in! And I haven't gotten through the whole day! I just feel like this would be a great opportunity to get people to deposit more money into the poker client, hence injecting more money into poker. And the more money there is out there in the poker world, the better for us right?

Again, it's not so much I'm complaining about the buyins or anything. I guess I just don't understand and that's all there is to it. I'd still play the BBT if they are $1 because it's not about the actual prize pool in the tournament but rather, what's possible to win as add-ons. But beyond that, the reason I don't really play blogger tourneys anymore is because heaven forbid I get lucky enough to make it deep or win, it's not worth it for me to stay up till 1am or 2am winning $100 and change or whatever the top prize is these days for the Mookie. I gotta get up at 6am to go play ball in the mornings (I don't HAVE TO but I want to/I'd rather) so without the added prizes, there's really no incentive for me. I love you all and it is fun when I actually do end up playing in it but so is basketball...

So the bottom line is this. Why is the buy-in so low when the stakes are so high? Would there really be that much of a drop off in players if the buy-ins were increased?

Why I hate Superbowl Parties

2009-02-02T15:38:00.004-05:00

I'm not gonna do a brag post about the Steelers. What's the point? It just gives another opportunity to all the haters/naysayers out there about how the Steelers were "gifted" another Superbowl and quite frankly, I'm tired of it. As of last night, and maybe even this morning, I was giving props to the Cardinals. I liked them, I've mentioned this before, I liked many of the players on that team. As the day goes on and I hear more and more people whining about this call and that, I'm finding myself hating the Cardinals... now I hate myself for wishing a good, close game. I wish it was a blowout so that it would shut all these people up. But whatever. Wish what you want and talk about what coulda, shoulda, or woulda. It's totally NOT like telling a bad beat story.

On to my main post. Leading up to the Superbowl, I've had many people ask me what I was doing for the Superbowl or if I were going to a party or what not. Not growing up in this country, I was fortunate enough to not be subjected to the torture that is the Superbowl Party.

I fuckin hate those things. I think it's different if you can find a party where everyone loves football... and, if you're fortunate to have one of your teams be in the Superbowl, it would also be fine if you're surrounded by (and ONLY by) the people who are rooting for your team AND love football.

But in the past, I've been to Superbowl Parties where the following happened:

- someone has to constantly explain to another person why the players are switching, how many more tries they have to get to the yellow line, why they aren't going for it on 4th down with "only" 5 yds to go at their own 30 yard line, etc etc... that's the equivalent of sitting at a poker table, constantly listening to someone explain to the other what beats what, when they have to bet, etc etc. Sure, a clear sign of donkery but the amount of tilt it would cause for me is just not worth it.

- people tell you to keep quiet during the commercials even though they are yapping away during the game. I, for one, like to pay attention to the game. I get that the companies spend millions of dollars in coming up with funny, creative commercials for the Superbowl but you know what? They are fuckin commercials. If you wanna see them, go to Youtube (in fairness to some, Youtube didn't always exist).

- people are rooting against your team and you can't do anything about it because you don't really know them and you don't want to cause a scene. Like I said, it's one thing if it's just your close friends... but if you are at a Superbowl party, there are bound to be people you've never met before. And you never know who they are rooting for and believe it or not, I am not always looking to start something...

So, those are my top 3 reasons of why I don't like to go to Superbowl parties. Now don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that any of the above are bad. I just don't like it. So, I choose avoid situations like that... and the easiest way to do that is to stay at home and watch it by myself. I did that for for Superbowl XL, was extremely surprised at how much more I enjoyed the game that way and it's been that way ever since.

Live blogging the Superbowl

2009-02-01T18:38:00.059-05:00

I was just gonna twitter once in a while... and then I realized I'm commenting on every play (another reason people should be glad I'm not at anyone's Superbowl party) so I decided to just live blog it. I may keep it up, I may not... we'll just see where this takes us. So far in twitter this is what I had:

What else can be said? Go Steelers!!!!!

Amazing... NFC won like 10 coin tosses in the Superbowl in the past 10 years or some thing... oh, 12th consecutive year. Crazy!!

Kurt Warner story was overplayed back in St Louis... and once again, overplayed. I get it, I get it... he bagged groceries before. Yeesh.

Willie Parker giving a big FU to UNC by naming his high school instead.

1st play play action woulda been interesting

ok, 2nd play. either one is good.

hmmm.... what was that with the play clock? On TV, it read zero but no one called anything or said anything about it

BOOM!!! That's our QB!!!

Fuck it, I'm gonna live blog this instead of flooding twitterville

And that brings us to now...

6:43pm Nice challenge by Whiz... at least Tomlin didn't take his crazy chances like he's known to do and instead took the points.

6:46pm Edge is not gonna be able to run against the Steelers... they have a better chance with Hightower (UR represent!)

6:52pm Watching these commercials reminds me why I hate going to Superbowl parties... I'm gonna do a Superbowl rant post here. Man, I must've missed blogging.

6:55pm Dammit Ben!!!! TD if he didn't throw it short!

6:57pm BIG PLAY!!!! Look at Ben dodging and weaving and finding Heath Miller. Big 3rd down conversion!!!

6:58pm WTF was that!? Miami Dolphins offense going no where.

7:01pm End of 1st quarter. Not to jinx it but don't turn the ball over Ben! Let's get a touchdown!

7:02pm Sweet. New Fast and Furious movie? Sweet. I loved that series. Since I prob won't see it in the theater, I can't wait till it comes to TNT in about 2-3 years.

7:08pm BOO YAH!!!! This time it's a TD for real!

7:09pm Holy shit, that Pepsi commercial was painful just watching it...

Youtube is amazing... here's the commercial I was talking about...

7:18pm Rare miss tackle by Polamalu. Sweet cut by Edge but man, Troy just flew right by him...

7:21pm Holy shit... how the hell did Ben Patrick catch that!? Hell of a catch.

7:31pm FUCKIN SHIT!!! Somebody stop this Breaston kid!

7:33pm ABOUT TIME we get a sack!!!!

7:35pm "I can't flex the golden pipes?" LOL I love E*trade commercials.

7:38pm Holy cow, that was a hell of a punt coverage by the Cardinals. Alright, let's do this!

7:41pm SHIT!!! Deflection is deadly...

7:45pm Ike Taylor!? How do you not make that INT dude!!!!

7:46pm Fuckin screen play to Hightower and 3rd down conversion... So ghey.

7:49pm 30 ticks remaining... we need a stop here. Just hold them to a FG please.

7:52pm HOLY SHIT!! oh my god. Holy shit. Harrison INT return 100yds for a TD!!! but there's a flag... please god... give it to us. I don't know what the fuck the call is. Offensive facemask! Holy shit!!!! erhagiorsjfklsdjfageralf;kldfjg;ioergjiopgrehjiohgjaioerjgoriadjgopa'rdjo'pjgopjdfopajg'dj'lrkj!!!!!!!!!!

7:53pm Should be a TD. His knee never hits the ground, I think because his knee lands on Fitz.

7:55pm This is obv so big. Please, we need this TD. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! Play stands!!!!!! 17-7 at half time.

7:56pm That is DEVASTATING for the Cardinals. I believe Whiz should be able to calm this team down and this is prob where it helps to have a guy like Kurt Warner leading the offense so that it doesn't get out of hand for them. But huge momentum change there after the Roethlisberger INT to getting the ball back in the endzone and taking it to the other endzone.

8pm Am I supposed to have some 3D glasses? WTF was that commercial?

8:46pm Hines Ward disappears for most of the game after the 2nd play of the game, Al Michaels talks about him, and poof, here he comes with a 3rd down conversion.

8:47pm Bayne is gonna love this. Roethlisberger avoids the tackle all over the place, eventually gets rid of the ball, Dansby comes in to push him to the ground and they call a roughing the passer. Even as a Steelers fan, I hate that call. That's such a pussy call.

8:48pm Santonio Holmes is having a field day against Rodgers Cromartie... seems like whenever they are lined up 1 on 1, they are dumping a short pass to Holmes and he turns it into a decent gain.

8:50pm Willie finally shows off his speed with a nice run! 1st and goal on the 5. TD here would be huge with 4:40 remaining in the 3rd quarter.

8:53pm This is starting to get one-sided, much to my surprise. Jeff Reed makes the FG and the score is now 20-7. Oh shit!!!! Penalty on Adrian Wilson running over the holder. This gives the Steelers 1st down on the 1yd line!

It's not even the points here that's big. The fact that the Steelers can get 3 more tries and kill the clock even more (I know it's early but every minute counts). Of course, the ball gets batted and almost becomes an INT...

8:56pm Unfortunately, we couldn't make Adrian Wilson pay for his penalty. So, we're back to where we were 3 minutes ago... 20-7.

9:05pm End of 3rd quarter. 1 more quarter until the Steelers have the most Superbowl wins in history. Go Steelers!

9:16pm BOOM! Breaston doesn't call for a fair catch and gets hit immediately at the 13yd line. That was a nice punt. Even better coverage.

9:19pm With 11 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter, Larry Fitzgerald only has one catch for like 11 or 12 yards. Basically the Steelers have taken him out of the game. Of course, he makes another catch but that's only like a 6 yard catch.

9:25pm 8 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter, the Cardinals are getting in rhythm. Warner is like 9 for 9 (maybe more) this drive... and of course, Fitzgerald scores on a fade route. 8 plays for 87 yards. Man, Fitz is a beast... 20-14.

9:30pm Uh oh... Ben just got sacked. 6:30 remaining in the 4th quarter, it's like 3rd and 16... not good...

9:35pm Tempers flaring up. Bolding and Ike Taylor get into it. I actually think the offending party was Ike... and sure enough, that's what the call is. Way to cost us another 15 yards you dipshit.

9:36pm Trey, thanks for the comment. No, I didn't think we can contain Fitz the whole game...as a matter of fact, I'm surprised it took this long for Fitz to get his catches. That guy is def an unbelievable receiver.

9:37pm If the Steelers can hold on to win, Harrison has to be the MVP... aside from the INT return for a TD which alone should be enough, he's wreaking havoc and causing 30 yards in penalty (3 holding calls against Gandy who is supposed to protect Warner from him).

9:38pm Is it just me or what? I used to remember Brenda Warner being like a man or something in his St Louis days... now she's a hot blonde? Has she always been that way?

9:39pm Big defensive stop here. 4th and 20, 3:36 remaining. That was big. But huge punt coverage, the ball is downed at the 2 yard line... but there's a flag on the play... Oh FUCK. Harrison called for a penalty... apparently (fortunately) after the play... holy shit, based on the replay, that was dirty.... wtf is he doing? He should be thrown out. He can expect a fine from Goodell on that one. What an idiot.

9:42pm Wow, Parker barely gets out of the endzone. So close. This game is getting too close for comfort.

9:44pm BIG BIG BIG!!!!! Santonio Holmes with a big catch. OH SHIT!!!! big... Holmes catches a 3rd down conversion pass... but a holding call negates it and instead is called a safety giving the Cardinals 2 points... Huge momentum swing. This is crazy... Steelers D will not really be put to the test. 2:58 remaining in the 4th and the Steelers up 20-16...

9:47pm Please keep pressuring Warner. You're not gonna cover 3 good receivers. And as I type that Fitz breaks Jerry Rice record for the most TDs in the post season, and gives the Cardinals the lead. Man, he's fast... 23-20 Cardinals.

I told all of you that this game was gonna be tougher than everyone made it sound...

9:54pm 2 minutes remaining. Let's see if Ben can make it happen.

9:55pm I don't know how the hell Ben got rid of the ball. Come on... 1 minute remaining. Steelers with one timeout remaining after this one.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! BIG BIG pass and catch with Holmes!!! Holy cow. So it comes down to this. 49 seconds remaining, ball on the 5yd line of the Cardinals. I think our red zone offense is not that good but come on man... one time. I need this.

So close. Holmes almost had a TD catch... went right thru his hands... Fitz woulda caught that... I'm just saying...

OH my god!!!! Holmes!!!! Big playmaker!!!!! Please please please please be in. It looks good. I think. Come on. Please. Right foot looks in. Yes. yes. Come on... please... Holmes, I hate OSU but I love you man!!!! This is legit. It looks legit. Yes. It's definitely in. Come on!!! CONFIRM!!!

Holmes has been such a clutch guy for us this season. That is huge. He is our answer to Fitz. YES!!! And now, it's official. Oh my god, oh my god.

Defense and special team hold please. 35 seconds. Let's stop them. We need good kick coverage and contain that high octane offense.

They need 77 yds in 29 seconds. If anyone can do it, they can with 2 time outs. Please. #1 D in the league. Time to live up to the hype boys!

Another catch by Fitz. 22 seconds left. We still need to apply pressure to Warner I think... 55 yds to go...

They use one more time out... no time outs remaining, 15 seconds remaining... I think the ball is on the Steelers 40 something... Just keep them out of the endzone!!!

The Steelers D comes through!!!!!!! When we need them the most, they come through. Is it officially a fumble? No review? I actually think it might be incomplete pass. It looks like Warner is trying to get it out. I don't know at one point is considered a fumble and what point it's considered a fumble. Al Michaels think it's a fumble. There it is. #6 baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew.... such an emotionally exhausting game. In the end, all the stars came out to play. Fitz def did his part, Warner played tough, game was good, Ben stepped up, Holmes made his big play... I'm exhausted.

Trey made a very good comment and no, I didn't think it was a jinx when you mentioned it. I think this shows that the Steelers did what no other NFC team could do in the playoffs... keep the Cardinals' score to less than 30 points. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Real quick thought before the Superbowl

2009-02-01T18:08:00.003-05:00

As I sit at home by myself getting ready for the Superbowl, here are some quick thoughts.

No doubt, by now, you know I'm a Steelers fan. I actually looked up tickets to the Superbowl but decided that I just couldn't shell out $1800+ for a ticket... Having said that, as I watch the opening ceremony on NBC, I wish I was there...

I think this game is going to be a lot closer thatn most people think. The Cardinals are hot at the right time and really, that's all that matters. The funny thing is, even down the stretch in the final few weeks of the regular season, they couldn't beat anyone who was actually good. Sure, they beat St Louis and Seattle but who didn't? So, coming in to the playoffs, it didn't look like they had much of a chance... and then next thing you knew, they beat Atlanta, Carolina, and Philadelphia to get here. It's one thing to beat one of them... to be able to beat all of them together is some serious shit.

I also wonder if our lack of a solid running game (as compared to 3 years ago when we won the whole thing) would hurt us. You obv don't want to get into a shoot out with the Cardinals. And Cardinals D is getting no love despite them starting to play well...

I also question Tomlin's decision making sometimes and I wonder how much the coaching could come in to play. Whiz and Grimm are obviously going to want to prove to the Steelers that they are better than Tomlin by winning this game. Don't get me wrong, I love Tomlin... but there were numerous times during the season where I would say "WTF!!! Go for the points!!! What are you doing!?"

Ah, but what the hell. Kick off is coming up in a few minutes so I'm just gonna enjoy this game.

MeCrushSTTs

2009-02-01T11:37:00.003-05:00

I don't have a big score or anything but I just kept pwning these STTs in January.

You want advice? It's easy.

Run Good!

If I wait long enough, goals will be easy...

2009-01-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to do a look back at '08 and goals for '09 type of post but I just haven't had the time. Beginning the new year, I moved to a different department within the company as part of a pretty prestigious program for managers here that they rolled out. In short, it's a great opportunity for me and so I was determined to make the best of it. That meant that I would be working decent hours and with my basketball/work out routine being what it is, my time for poker was sure to dwindle. It did, especially on the weekdays, and I was ok with that. My outlook has changed significantly over the past year as the economic landscape shifted. I went from assuming that I would always have a job to "I could get laid off anytime" type of mentality... not in an unhealthy way. I'm a CPA with 10+ yrs of experience and I actually loved public accounting so I am still comfortable with the fact that if I'm not picky, I can find a job if I need to. But I guess what I mean by that is that even in this economic environment, I've actually been given a chance to succeed with a lot of opportunities thrown my way so I am definitely grateful and I want to make the most of it.

2008 has been an interesting year to say the least. As a matter of fact, 2008 sucked ass. Even though this happened in the tail end of 2007, I guess I will include it in the 2008 sucking ass category since that's literally when all the changes started happening. My wife left me in Dec of 2007, which I think most of you that read this blog knows. It's probably impossible to convince anyone that poker isn't the reason, you know, what with the fact that I'm writing this on a poker blog... but poker wasn't the reason. As a matter of fact, I still don't really know what the reason is. I can only assume that it's a multitude of reasons culminating in the fact that she no longer wanted to be with me but I can't help but feel that I got the bad beat end of this thing. When things got rocky, I suggested many things, including trying to take more time for each other, trying marriage counseling, etc but she said no to it all. I think she mentally checked out of our marriage long before she made the decision. All my friends were very supportive (though many suggested on numerous occasions if she was cheating on me - she may be or she may not be, I have no idea and at this point, I don't care) and for that, I was very appreciative. There was an awkward period where I continued to defend her from others because they all knew that she was married before as well and based on her personality, they just thought that maybe she wasn't the marriage-type. Not that your resume reflects commitment issues but I don't think she's held the same job for more than 2 years at a time. I think she may have had about 6 different jobs in the 8 years of her professional career when I met her. I could be wrong but I'm certainly not way off either. Either way, I made a mistake somewhere... and I hate that this is one mistake I can't undo. Sure, you can get a divorce and it's over but you're forever labeled as "divorced" and I personally hate that. That's a black spot on my life resume I never wanted.

2 years ago, if you asked me, I woulda said I would have a kid or two by now. Instead, I'm single and I have to go through the process I've always hated... DATING. Ugh. I fuckin hate dating more than anything. But I want a family... so for that, I gotta find my "the one" out there and in order to do that, you gotta sift through a lot of donkeys... it's like an MTT in a way I guess. You sift through the donkeys, trying to avoid the minefield, suffering the occasional setups and bad beats but you hopefully make a good play to get that ultimate score. Or should I equate it to KO tourneys where along the way you can collect bounties... Shit, and I'll be the first one to admit that I don't have much of a MTT game. Interpret that how you will but I'm pretty sure I beat these guys to the punch. :)

So anyways, there was that. Then, as you can see to the right (unless you are reading through bloglines or google reader or whatever feed thingy you're reading through), my cat died. Another devastating loss and my first experience of a pet dying. Seriously, could my life get any better?

Then I started to run like shit. I mean really shitty. There were a few months where I was afraid of poker cuz I ran so bad. But I played through it. And it wasn't easy. It was just some sick beats after sick beats and then after a while, you just don't even know if they were set up hands, bad beats or bad plays... they start running together and you're like in a fog. Phew, I really don't want to go through that again.

My vacation to Montreal was fun in the sense that I got to hang with my friends but wasn't ideal.

So, to say that the first half of my 2008 was shitty would be an understatement... however, there were a few bright spots in 2008 also.

First and foremost, my best friend got married. I flew to Tokyo for my briefest stay there just to be a part of it. I wouldn't change that for anything in the world. I was happy for him and very happy to have been able to be there.

Also, in the latter part of 2008 was when the announcement was made and I was made an offer to enter this program at this company. Job and career wise, that was a tremendous boost and this is a good move regardless of where I may end up. In other words, even if I were to get laid off or I decide to move on, being part of this program will round out my experience even more so it can only be a positive. A lot of work will come with it but this is clearly a positive.

So, heading into 2009, there are lots of good things going for me. Steelers making the Superbowl is a good first step.

In poker, I'm not gonna make any particular goals. I want to branch out further into other games but right now, poker is not at the top of my priority list. I love the game and it's still up there and I still play every day but it's definitely not my main focus. And for now, I am ok with that. So there aren't gonna be "I wanna get a big score in MTT" or "I wanna move up couple of levels" type of goals... at least not now, not at this moment. I have a lot of good things going for me, I have some baggage that I want to unload, and those are the things I'm gonna try to focus on.

For now, here are the things that I plan on doing/accomplishing this year:
- Run a half marathon. Mclarich just did one and I think I want to do one this year as well
- Trip to Europe (Sweden and Amsterdam are high on the list) with a buddy of mine from college. We both love blondes so we figured, why not?
- Play in a WSOP event. I know I'm not an MTTer. But you know what? I don't care. There are so many events so it'll be fun to be a part of it.

Let me point out one more thing. The reason why I don't want to come up with poker goals is because right now, I know I don't have the drive to try to accomplish it. Everyone out there is doing the goals thing and I think that's great. But you know what? If you want to improve or move up or whatever, you really have to spend time thinking about the game, breaking down your game, etc etc... I mean really doing it. Not just taking 15 minutes out of the day to look at a few key hands or whatever. I mean really taking the time to read, watch vids, think about your game, look through HH... in other words, there are times you will spend more time analyzing your game away from the table than you would playing. Look at the ones who are truly successful and I can guarantee you that they are doing that. Like who? Gnome and Brue/Brack duo are the first ones that come to mind when thinking about cash games.

So, to me, at this point, it would be silly and naive for me to come up with poker goals until I can shift my focus back to the game. And just because it's not my focus, it doesn't mean it doesn't pay my bills either. :)

PWNED!

2009-01-19T09:54:00.004-05:00

We are who we thought we are!!!!

Hard fought game, but in the end, we beat those hated Ravens three times this season and we now get to play against Whisenhunt's Cardinals... the same Whiz that we passed over by choosing Tomlin instead.

If you want to relive the memories of last night's game, click here.

And just like that, we are going to the Superbowl!!!!

2009-01-12T09:42:00.002-05:00

Real post will come up soon. With my new position in the company, I have been extremely busy to try to get up to speed and learn so that I can "hit the ground running"... which is an attribute displayed by all the high performers here. I really like my new position too... funny because I really liked my old position. There are obv the good and the bad in both but the bad in both are very trivial compared to the good that I get out of it. I am learning a lot and a lot of the financial articles I used to read for my own benefit/pleasure is now part of my job so really, does it get any better???

Oh, and I gotta link this. Seriously, this is one blog I now read religiously. And once again, I think his entry here is awesome. Now if Hoy would just stop posting about poker or writing stuff to antagonize people (which really actually humors me - and I have to believe that is his intent) and more about the economy/market, my financial readings would be complete.

Defeated

2009-01-09T19:21:00.002-05:00

I guess I'm no longer the official points tard.

I knew that I needed a huge lead going into the week because there was no way that I can play as much as Bayne does on the weekday. He lives on the west coast so naturally, I get to work before he does... sadly, I get home from work at the same time or later than he does... and I still find time to go to the gym and stuff... on a weekday, typically, I'm playing a lot if I can squeeze in 2 hours of poker time... so I'm not gonna lie... I'm glad that it's over so I don't have to worry about points anymore... just back to earning 200 a day.

New Years resolution/goals post coming up soon. Been very busy transitioning into my new role here at the company... And I freakin love my job!!!!

Not again...

2009-01-05T19:07:00.001-05:00

Official New Years post coming up soon... you know, the one where you go over last year's goals and then come up with some new ones. But I think that's gonna have to wait until I beat my nemesis in the points prop bet that we did... I never know why we do this... it's like I force myself into a degenerative state. With a new position in my company, I really won't have much time during the weekday to play... so I just have to hope that Bayne doesn't either... which is doubtful since those superturbos are all he seems to be playing these days.

On a more positive note, I did get this email. Woot for opening a Cardrunners account but never signing up for it!

I mean 4500 pts to get a free membership at CR for a month? I'll get that in a week, let alone in a month!

My life = open book

2008-12-30T11:37:00.003-05:00

I caved in. It's official. I'm a fuckin dork. And to think I used to pick on them in school. Geeks and dorks were the ones that we picked on. I mean come on. It's the world's pecking order right? But now I'm entering into their realm. I opened a twitter account. If you want to follow my awesome daily life, my account name is dirtyvizzer.

You can see my past exciting posts at twitter.com/dirtyvizzer.

That completes my circle of dorkdom. Blog, facebook, and twitter. I think I'm gonna go read my calculus book for pleasure. oh wait, what am I talking about? How can I pick on a math major? I'm a fuckin CPA. I could just say I'll go make sure my debits and credits balance. God, I feel so dirty.

So I'm a hypocrite... shoot me

2008-12-29T10:17:00.003-05:00

If you follow my blog, you know where I stand. Well, maybe. I probably come across as a guy who would never lend a helping hand to someone who is down on their luck. At least some of my friends (not the blogger ones - the nonbloggers, might I say) think so. But they're super f*ckin liberal anyways so even though I would never consider myself a republican, I'm no loony lefty either, and their views are... well, they are what they are I guess.

Anyways, so I always talk about how people get themselves in bad situations and they should suck it up etc etc. But, if you really know me in the blogger world, you do know that I tend to "give" towards stuff I believe in. It wasn't much but I donated to JamyHawk's cause and then later to Evy/Alcanthang "Save the boob" event. I'm not trying to say I'm great or anything cuz I'm not. I just know that as part of a community, I like to help out to the extent that I can for the things that I want to/choose to.

So, when I read about this tragic event that happened the night before Christmas, I felt that I should do my part... of course, being the cat person that I am, his pet dying just adds to the misery.

So, please go to the link below and help if you want/can. I'm not gonna call out any Christmas spirit or some shit like that (like the typical "you should help because it's Christmas" garbage). You should help if you want to and only because you want to. Not because you are nicer than anyone else or because you feel you have to. If you sympathize, then here's an opportunity to do something about it. But you're no less of a person if you don't and I truly mean that. I'm not using my blog to twist anyone's arm or make anyone feel any less about themselves. I can relate to this story so I want to help. But that's it. I'm no better for it, nor am I any worse for it. So, if you want to help, please click on the link below. Or even just for a good read. If after that, you don't do anything about it, there's absolutely nothing wrong. After all, he's not the only one who is suffering. But this guy just happens to know someone in the community.

http://helpjeffout.blogspot.com/

To twit or not to twit

2008-12-28T18:21:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday break, regardless of what you celebrate. So while I was enjoying my brief time off from work, I noticed that Buddy is going to Canada. And he mentioned that he will update his status on twitter. I remember Pauly mentioning twitter and so now, I was kinda curious as to what this whole buzz is about. Between Facebook, blogs, emails, txts, and everything else, is there really a need for another status update thingy!?

So, I wanted to reach out to those of you who do use twitter and let me know what's so good about it... well, I was gonna... and then I found this video which pretty much answered my question...

Not bad. Not that any of you might care but if I end up opening a twitter account, I will let you know on my blog.

Oops I did it again

2008-12-23T15:13:00.002-05:00

For a while, I vowed not to read the housing bailout related news... mainly because it puts me on tilt. You know the story. Poor family can't afford the mortgage payment when their ARMs (that they chose to obtain) reprice and the interest rates are reset to levels they can't afford. Well, it was a slow afternoon and so, I caught this article on money.com.

My favorite part:
"After the monthly payment on his adjustable rate mortgage jumped to $2,400 from $1,300, he got a workout with the help of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a community advocacy group that offers mortgage-prevention counseling.
That workout may have pushed his payment down to $2,000, but it still represented more than 50% of the gross income he and his wife earn."

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww... poor thing, Maybe you shoulda thought about that when you first got the mortgage! Have fun on the streets, Mr Bagley.

Winter report - brief poker summary

2008-12-23T13:51:00.003-05:00

Ok, so my trip report is essentially done. I'm not even sure if anyone cares about the poker portion of the trip but I feel that I owe it to the title of my blog to talk about it. After all, if I don't talk about poker... hell, I don't know where I was going with that sentence. Alright, so I'm just gonna recap the sessions, not to the detail that maybe Jordan would do in his 5 part post about a hand or two where he recognized the twitch in his opponent and pwned him because he read it correctly as a weakness... :) I love your blog Jordan, just giving you shit cuz I know you can take it.

I started writing out this huge post about each of the sessions but I got bored as I was typing it up. And I didn't take nearly as good a notes as I should have on winning sessions... Just dollar amounts. So, instead of going into each of them, I'll just post by dollar amounts. On second thought, I'm not even gonna do that. Overall, in poker, I ended up about +$700. I started off the trip -$300 but from Friday night on, I would go on a mini heater. But again, no crazy hands, nothing too interesting. I think it was more that the players were loose so they were calling me down with worse hands. However, I know I was able to extract a lot of value based on that because of one consistent theme that I enjoyed through this trip.

My hand reading was on point.

There were numerous times that I would literally call out someone's hand in my head and sure enough, that's what they flip over. Earlier in the trip, I was watching the other players when I wasn't in the hand and I would try to make a read on them. Now, I hardly ever play live poker. So, I may not recognize the nervous twitch, the mannerism, etc etc, but one thing that is the same online or live is a player's betting pattern. And based on that, I was able to really narrow down the hand range and like I said, for several instances, I was able to exactly pinpoint what they had. One example was when BaconMary (this was Sunday night poker) got it all in against two other players... I whispered over to the guy who wasn't in the hand that she had top set, the other dude next to me had to have a set and the donkey in the other seat must be chasing a flush. They get it all in, flip over the cards and sure enough, Mary has top set with her JJ, guy to my right who was fairly tight shows his bottom set (I think 4s) and the donkey who stacked off earlier chasing was on a flush draw that never got there. Mary scooped up a nice pot. And I was proud of myself for literally calling out the hand. Sure, it could have been that I was lucky. But that wasn't the first or the last time during this trip that I felt I had a good feel for what the players were holding. And when that happens, it really helps, especially in extracting value. There were numerous times that I made a fairly thin value bet to get an extra $30-40 out of a person and again, this was one of those trips where that worked out.

None of it mattered though because my whole poker profit was given back to the local economy via craps. Probably no surprise to the readers out there. But remember... I am due!!!!

If you dance with the devil, the devil don't change. The devil changes you.

2008-12-19T16:40:00.000-05:00

If you can guess what movie the title of this post is from, you get bonus points.

This always happens to me. I forgot that it does. And I don't really know why. But whenever I go to Vegas, I come back a little different... I'm not quite the same person as before the trip. I care less about my daily routine. The things that mattered to me before the trip seem to matter less. I get this "ah, I don't give a shit" mentality which tends to last for a few days before I am back in the groove of the daily grind. I don't know why. I flirt with the line of degeneracy in Vegas and I guess it takes me a few days before I become "normal" again.

The past few days, I pretty much had no desire to go out. I had some offers to join people for happy hours, christmas parties, birthday dinners, etc and I turned them all down. I just wasn't feeling it. Sure, I had other plans but they could have been rearranged. Pre-Vegas, I would have rearranged my plans. But this week, I'm just not feeling it. It's like the world around me doesn't matter. I'm numb. Vegas offers such a sensory overload with all the glitz and glamour mixed in with the filth and desperation that I think I become immune to anything else, at least for a while.

Vegas has such a distinct smell. Well, maybe it's the casinos. But I equate that to Vegas. You walk into any casino and you can smell it. And hear it. It's the weird smell of cigar and nasty carpeting. There's always some "peaceful" sound of water trickling into a fountain mixed in with the chaotic noise from the hundreds of slot machines. There's the feeling of excitement in the air as the tourists hope it's their lucky day... and the despair from those that are ready to leave after they got cleaned out by the house. There are people walking around with racks of chip colors you've never seen before, making you wonder what all this "economic downturn" is all about. But then you also see the guy nursing his last $20 stack at a 1-2NL table, folding to a bet on the turn when there's already $60 in the pot...

I know I'll be back to normal again. I'll be back to wanting to do things that I thought was fun before the trip. I know it because I've been there before and after a few days, I snapped out of it. Until then though, I think I'm just gonna be holed up in my house, trying to kick Vegas out of my system. But I know I can never completely get it out of the system. Because I love Vegas. It's like a drug and I'm addicted. See, the devil's changing me already.

I always thought Denver was cool...

2008-12-19T14:20:00.000-05:00

American Cities That Best Fit You:

65% Denver

60% Austin

60% San Francisco

55% Atlanta

55% Las Vegas

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

All skillz

2008-12-18T22:53:00.003-05:00

So I only won a $22 pot. Details, details. I'm so good.

Things I missed in the recap

2008-12-17T16:17:00.000-05:00

There are always things that happen during the trip that no amount of recap posts could cover. Astin had the same idea (but beat me to it since he posts like 5 times a day... seriously, wtf do you do!?)

- I never got to do dial a shots. I promised Schaubs and LJ over text messages that I would... I never followed through. I was too drunk and having too much fun to text/call people. I did notice that I talked some shit to Fuel during the Steelers-Ravens game. I didn't remember this until I looked through my text messages the next day.

- Bayne has a knack for creating a nemesis. At the craps table, he introduced me the concept of position. Poker lingo was frequently thrown around as he was "raising" my bets "in position." You really had to be there to appreciate it. Few "checkraises" by me were priceless. At least I got to exercise "pot control" when the shooter crapped out.

- I saw snow. In Vegas. The morning that I was flying out was when the snow started falling. I was in the cab towards the airport when I saw it. Bouncers at the Rhino were talking about it though.

- Pauly mentioned to me that this is still one of the few blogs he reads. I remember him saying that before too and it's such an honor to hear that. When he commented on my post about the stuff that my mom found that belonged to my grandpa, I remember feeling very honored.

- I'll recap poker part of the trip in another post so that people not interested in reading poker stuff won't have to be bothered during the trip recap. Poker turned out to be profitable... craps table, not so much.

- Bad beat on the luggage. I didn't get it in time so they had to deliver it to my house. I guess it's not a total bad beat. It's like winning the side pot after losing the main pot to a bad beat.

All in all, it was a blast. Like everyone mentioned in their recaps so far, it's never enough time. And really, it just leaves a lasting impression. I remember walking through Imperial palace in April when I went there for my friend's birthday and when I walked by the hooker bar, it just felt weird when it was completely empty. I feel like I should always be able to find bloggers there. Hopefully, it won't be a full year until I see most of you again.

Winter gathering trip report Part 3

2008-12-17T00:08:00.003-05:00

After we were cleaned out by the sirens that is the craps table, we called it a night. We didn't want to stay up too late (read: we went back to the room around 3am) because we had to check out of the room by 11. We went back to the sandwich joint at Bally's to claim the breakfast sandwich that was not available at 2am or whatever it was when we went there the night before. Bayne of course has to rub in the fact that his plastic reads "Total Rewards" and is comped by the action he gives to the Harrah's property as opposed to mine that proudly displays my company logo. I'm already on card tilt. He tries to rub it in further by telling me about the points but is unsuccessful in putting me on points tilt since I'm not even in the game... it's like bragging to me about how many UB points you have... I couldn't care less since I don't play there.

Note: As of today, I am now officially a member of Total Rewards. I checked my points balance online. I am a degen...

After dropping our bags off at the IP luggage checkin, we went upstairs to the sportsbook to join the other bloggers. I was getting fired up since it was a big game for the Steelers... the game against the hated Ravens. But before that, there was the big blogger event. The Real Football Fan test of Dawn Summers. As part of the committee, I was very interested in how she would do. Quite frankly, I didn't think she would pass. I just didn't think she would be interested enough to really study. And believe me. This test was no joke. The list of questions were quite impressive and even those of you who think you are a football buff would still struggle with some of the questions.

Once the testing started, I was impressed. I stood by her as she filled out her answer sheet and realized that she clearly did her homework. She crushed the test by getting 23 of 25 (requirement for passing was 20 of 25) while CK got a lot less (though she was exempt from Patriots related question, I think she will admit that Dawn did her homework). This event turned out to be a win win situation. If she failed, we woulda ridiculed her and still had a good time with it. Instead, she passed and the Patriots have a new, real fan. Any time there's a new real football fan, even if it's the Patriots, I would consider that a win. (Bad beat would be if she were a Ravens fan).

Once the testing was done, Bayne and I were joined by Joanada, Buddy, and Joshua Carlson for the Steelers - Ravens game. We were surrounded by Ravens fans but strangely enough, they were all nice people. At one point, I had to encourage them to start talking shit because I warned them that if the Steelers scored, we would be going crazy. We had the shots of soco queued up for the touchdown celebration. Unfortunately, that did not happen in the first half so we did one for good luck at half time. I think we had more after that but between the buckets of beer and shots of soco, my memory is fuzzy. All I know that when the Santonio Holmes catch was ruled a touchdown, Buddy and I celebrated like a bunch of school girls jumping up and down, hugging, downing more shots of soco... My memory is extremely fuzzy after this but I barely recall chowing down on some meat loaf at the IP with Bayne. I remember it tasting pretty shitty but I was starving so I wasn't picky.

Afterwards, I went over to play at the 1-2NL table at IP, another incredibly soft poker game, and since my flight was at 6am, I decided to just stay up all night and not get a room. Once I started sobering up, I walked over to Caesars to get some more food... except I wasn't feeling pizza and that was all that was available so I went over to the Venetian to the Noodles bar... I crushed the food there and then proceeded to play 1-2NL at the Venetian. Another winning session and then I decided to celebrate the winning sessions at the Rhino to complete my trip. At 4:30am, I left the Rhino smelling like cigarette smoke and cotton candy and headed for the airport. I felt pretty ghetto changing in the airport bathroom but I really didn't want to fly the whole way home smelling like that.

Man, I am a filthy dirtbag.

And this concludes the trip report. All, it was great seeing/meeting you. There are plenty of you that were not mentioned in the trip recap but I was happy to see/meet you all. Especially smokkee and Tina since I didn't get to meet them in the previous gathering.

Winter gathering trip report Part 2

2008-12-16T21:08:00.000-05:00

So I left off last time with the part about how we went to the Venetian to get some poker fix in. Friday, I played the part of Mr Unsocial and actually just hung out by myself, playing poker over at the Venetian and then at the Wynn for most of the day. It wasn't until the evening that I joined the rest of the bloggers over at MGM. That was also around time my roommate for the trip was arriving. By the time he arrives though, he's on airline tilt since his flight is delayed so he proceeds to start drinking... a lot. He describes it in his trip report but he's drinking out of this gigantic glass that he bought for $9 with $5 refills. At one point, he finishes the glass, goes for 2nds and then is like gone for like 15 minutes. I wonder what happened to him and then he comes back to tell me that he finished the second one while he was at the bar and he was already working on his 3rd. I made sure to get the room key and the room number before he was too far gone.

When I got back to the room, I was very impressed. We were staying at Bally's cuz he got comped and so the room was "free." But really, the room was awesome. Much better than the $40 room I had at the IP for Thursday night... I mean I'm not complaining. I love the IP. Cheap and great location and I really can't ask for more... esp since I only spend like 4-6 hrs in the room... tops...

Friday was really a poker day. And the action was starting to pick up. More tourists and cowboys were coming in town and so the tables were definitely starting to get juicier. Then, on Saturday, we had the winter poker blogger tournament. I bust out early when I reraise Doc's LP raise from the BB with AK and we see an ace high flop. I cbet, he calls so I immediately put him on a hand like AJ or AQ. Maybe a set but you really can't fear sets in situations like that... esp since my reraise was a good chunk, I killed whatever set mining odds that you would ordinarily need. Not that that matters but that's always my intention is to make sure that the person is paying the wrong price to make the call. Well, I took his call as a weak ace so I decided to value bet the turn... except when he raises, now I know I'm probably screwed. But I have 6k remaining and the pot is like $16k after he raises me so I'm not gonna fold there. Maybe I should but I'm really not interested in roaching in that tournament. So I shove, Doc calls with his two pair and just like that, I am out. I felt bad that I didn't have a bust out bounty to give him... esp since Doc showed me his before the tournament started which was a nice card protector coin from Iraq. Whoever busted Doc must be psyched to have that. And Doc, it was fun playing at the table with you sir!

Well, once I busted out of the tournament, I just played more cash games at the Venetian to kill time until Bayne busted. I was in the mood to redeem myself at the craps table so when Bayne went out in a sick but fairly standard situation, I felt a little bad for him but I got over it quickly. We immediately headed over in search of some low stakes craps table and we were rewarded by a table at O'Sheas. You know, the empty tables are usually an indication of a cold table. And sure enough, I lived up to my hype as Iceman on my first attempt at redemption. First time I get the dice, I roll. Point is set. I think I roll one number in between. Maybe not. In less than a minute, I crapped out. Hey, at least if you're the one that likes to go the come bet route, you wouldn't have lost much money. However, if you go the Bayne system, then... well... sorry dude, at least I lost just as much. Well, maybe he won. He had a don't pass bet at first... however, I did redeem myself somewhat and by the end of the night, he was betting the pass line and placing bets... probably hoping that my "I am due!" statement would translate into some fire bet wins. Alas, I don't run like Astin so no fire bet cherry was popped for me. Seriously, how much of a luckbox is he!?

The irony of the craps table was that it was really cold at first, then it got better and once we were leaving Oshea's I think I was about break even... or maybe down a hundred or two. Nothing crazy. So Bayne and I go to Bally's and we decide to get some late night grub. After we down our sandwiches, we start heading to the room... but of course, the casino knows Bayne... so they cleverly place the craps table right by the elevators. We CAN'T not play if we're passing the craps table, regardless of how empty it is. So, sure enough, we pull out our cash and start placing bets. Few rolls later, we're down a couple of hundy. I am ok to call it quits, regretting the decision to play at this obvious cooler of a game when they tell us that they are closing down the table. You know shit's not going for us when they actually choose to close down a cooler table. You also know Bayne is a degen when he takes another hundy to go place bets at the other table since ours got closed. It didn't take long before we were in the elevator heading up to our "free" room. Between me and Bayne, I think we lost a combined total of $500 (memory is a little fuzzy so I could be wrong).

Bally's 1 - 0 Bloggers

Note: LJ, no spooning or any inappropriate behaviors took place during my stay at Bally's with Bayne. For real.

Winter gathering trip report Part 1

2008-12-15T22:36:00.003-05:00

So I see that some people have already started the trip reports. Hell, some even did trip reports during the trip itself. That's sick dude (no pun intended). Well, I guess I'll start at the very beginning.

This year, I haven't been as active in the blogging community as I have been last year. In hindsight, I do wonder if my shaky marriage had something to do with how involved I became with the bloggers last year. My exwife traveled for work a lot and was out of town during the week but since I was married, it wasn't like I was gonna go out and get drunk and try to pick up chicks on the weekdays. So, I turned to online poker and to blogging, and there, I met a bunch of people that I now refer to as friends (LJ, notice the lack of quotes please, tyvm). Fast forward a year and now, as my divorce gets finalized, I am going out a lot more, hanging out with my friends, unsuccessfully trying to pick up chicks, and all in all, having a great time. This meant less time for poker, less time for blogging, and definitely less blogger tourneys. And I am not gonna lie. I was ok with that. Sure, I miss gchatting with my usual unproductive counterparts but besides that, I was totally ok with it.

What all that meant was that to be honest with you, I wasn't really looking forward to this trip. Sure, it's Vegas. Sure, I will still get to see some of my friends and sure, I would be able to put more faces to names. But even then, I just wasn't so excited. I thought, hell, if I just wanna play poker, I could play online. And if I just wanted to get drunk, I can do that with my buddies here. So why was it that I was going there again? Most of the ones that I became really close with over the past year weren't gonna be able to make it. I mean it was just looking like a bad beat all around!

Having said all that, I wasn't gonna back out of a trip to Vegas. Afterall, it is Vegas. Funny thing is, now, I no longer feel the excitement when the plane lands or when I get off the plane and into the airport. I see the slot machines and it's kind of a "no big deal, been there, done that" mentality... which was kinda sad, only because I miss the excitement that I used to feel for Vegas before. So, with the nostalgia gone and the whole trip was something I wasn't eagerly looking forward to, I just hoped that I could still enjoy the break from the daily grind.

But you know what? I knew why I would make every effort to make it to the winter gathering every year the moment I stepped foot in the Imperial Palace and walked to the Geisha Bar. Initially, I checked in, got all my stuff to the room and then came back down. The moment I got there, all the familiar faces are there. Al, Pauly, Buddy were the first ones that I immediately recognized. Then I saw Gnome and Kuro. Finally got to meet OhCaptain whose blog I currently do not read (sorry! that will now change!) but is a friend on facebook. Joanada giving me countless hugs from the moment she met me and all that served as a reminder as to how cool and open this group is... and that even if you don't always email each other or chat online or play in the same tournaments, when we all get together, it's almost like a high school reunion (I just assume since I've never been to my high school reunion). So, we start hanging out, catching up, just chatting. I meet PirateLawyer for the first time and he doesn't disappoint... within 2 minutes of meeting him, he's already telling me a bad beat story. Dude, good thing you passed your bar exam... you must owe a lot of money to a lot of people for all the bad beat stories you tell!

Eventually, Gnome, Kuro, PL and I decide to walk over to the Venetian to play some poker. One other thing I noticed this year about Vegas was how dead it was. Sure, there are still people but man, the tables were tighter and all in all, the action was a lot less than what I remembered from last year. The economy must be affecting it because I can't think of any other reason why it would be so different from the same time last year. On the way to the Venetian, we ran into Astin who did the whole canyon dive thing that he described on his blog. Sounds like a freakin blast and maybe next year, I'll have enough balls to do it. Once we get to the Venetian, we all sit at different tables and I'm not gonna go into details because quite frankly, poker is a pretty minor part of this whole trip in relation to the fun factor of other things. I might eventually post some interesting hands but really, I don't want to make that a part of my trip report since I have a lot more to talk about. It's weird how a gathering of poker bloggers would lend itself to me posting about a bunch of nonpoker related stuff. But that's why it's fun.

Part 2 to come later.

I run so good! (not quite the trip report)

2008-12-15T14:39:00.004-05:00

I just landed in Richmond... and as I sit here typing away at the airport, one might wonder why I'm not just picking up my luggage and going home... I mean afterall, I didn't sleep at all last night... In the past 24hrs, the only sleep I got was the 3 hr flight from Vegas to Atlanta. Well, that was cuz I got dealt a great turn card. Let me explain.

Preflop, my hand selection was perfect. Since CK pointed out while I was planning my trip that the Ravens - Steelers game would be on Sunday afternoon, I should get on the red eye Sunday night or take an early Monday morning flight. So, after weighing out my options, I chose to take the 6am flight out of Vegas on Monday. The only decision was whether I should get a hotel room for Sunday night but if I have to leave around 4-5am to get to the airport in time for my flight, I thought getting a room was pointless. I was already freerolling the hotel portion of this trip by staying with Bayne... well, maybe freerolling isn't quite the word since it was a very expensive free room... fawkin craps tables...

So, anyways, I stick to my plan preflop and stay up all night. The flop was just what I hoped for and I was able to catch my flight out of Vegas and pass out on the plane. Next thing I know, we are getting ready to land in Atlanta. As soon as I get there, I get off the plane and realize that the gate across from where I just got off the plane is boarding for a flight back to Richmond. My initial flight was supposed to be at 2:30pm but this one is also Delta and this one leaves at 1pm! I go across and ask the gate attendant if I could switch my flight. She says no problem! Nice turn! The only issue was that I checked my luggage in at Vegas so that will be coming back on the later flight. She asked if I still wanted to proceed. Hmmm, facing a raise I see. No problem. Free wi-fi in Richmond vs not free in ATL made it an easy decision. After all, that'll give me some time to write up the trip report!

So now, I just sit here typing away and hoping that the river doesn't fuck me. If my luggage somehow doesn't make it here at 4pm (my initial arrival time), then that would be a bad beat!!!

Huh? Oh yeah, I guess you guys will want the full trip report. That will be coming shortly.