Life, Poker, and the Pursuit of Happiness View RSS

Time to catch up 1 Sep 2006 9:31 AM (19 years ago)

I've started over a half of a dozen posts over the last few weeks. I'd just get into it and something would come up. Work, friends, random stuff... Now it's Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend. Most of the sane world has today off. Not me... but that would have to mean I was sane or something. LOL

I'm sitting in my office, finishing up last minute adjustments to a brand-new server I built last week. That was a major drain on my time. We had an extremely short timeframe from the point of when the customer signed contract to when we had to deliver a completed server. Anyone who works in a large corporation can attest to how long it takes to get ANYTHING through purchasing. Then, try spending $150K at the end of the fiscal year. Yeah, good luck. It's done though. All that's left to do is yell at Development for doing what I told them not to do (they're on vacation this week) and finish updating my documentation so the next schmuck can do the job when I leave.

I haven't found a new job yet. I'm looking though. I need them to pay me what I'm worth. Or at least the minimum for my position. My immediate management keeps telling me that they're trying to do something. I don't see where there's any question or argument. I'm a level 3. I'm not making the minimum for a level 3. I don't care what the difference is between my current salary and what the minimum is. I'm doing the job, so I deserve it. Actually, I'm doing above my job. I was told by my manager that I'm really doing level 4 work, so they want to give me a promotion. They can stuff their promotion up their asses unless they want to pay me for it. I won't get into my whole reasoning behind it, but if I can't make up the money during the transfer, I'll just put myself (or let them put me) into a deeper hole.

Ok. Enough venting on that. Next topic. :)

I went fishing. I love fishing! A couple of friends had their birthdays in August, on two consecutive days. As part of their birthday presents, a few of us were taking them fishing. (Actually, I really wanted to go, and I knew they'd say yes, so...) Our original day was stormy, so only one of the birthday boys were able to go on the second date. We had a blast! We call caught several fish, but I was the only one who caught a flounder large enough to keep. Chicks rule! My Mom is coming down to celebrate our joint birthdays (hers is Sept. 9th and mine is Sept. 14th), and we're going to take her fishing. I know where I get my fishing genes from... Mom!

The second part of their birthday present was enough to make up for me stealing the fishing spotlight. I cooked for the guys. Now, that doesn't seem like much for some people. The thing is, I can cook. And I can cook well. I made a kick-ass summer dinner grilled and eaten outside on a gorgeous Saturday night in August. I made the guys a dinner of ribs (boneless, fell apart when you put the fork to them), grilled fresh zucchini and peppers, grilled portabella mushrooms with roasted red peppers and fresh mozzarella (even the guy who didn't like mushrooms couldn't stop eating them), and fresh tomato/mozzarella salad. The only thing that was left of the meal was one piece of the 5 lbs. of ribs I grilled.

That was good, but it was the dessert that made the meal. I made a cheesecake. I swear, this thing must have weighed 10 lbs. and was 4 inches thick. My Mom is the queen of cheesecake (she will sell them to restaurants), and I used her recipe and my cheesecake knowledge. It sounds funny to say that, but the recipe is just the starting point. Depending on the ingredients, the weather, the moon cycle, whatever, the batter comes out differently. You need to know how to adjust it by adding in more heavy cream or other ingredients to bring it to the right consistency. It seems that my memory was good enough to make a kick-ass cheesecake. It came out a little brown on top - not burnt, but my Mom's is a perfect cream color - but tasted amazing. I don't know how anyone was able to eat it after the meal, but they did. They keep me around for a reason.

Our pool session ended too. Our team made the playoffs, but we didn't make it past the first round. The team that we played has a reputation for playing dirty and only enforcing rules when it suits their needs. During the tiebreaker match, their shooter called a foul on our guy - a foul which ONLY he saw, even though there were a ton of people watching. That gave the guy ball-in-hand, which meant our shooter lost his turn, their guy could place the cue ball anywhere on the table, and take his shot. With that advantage, he sank his last ball and the 8-ball on that turn. I've been a first-hand victim of their tactics too. The next session starts after the holiday. I need to get some serious practice in. I'm slipping...

Preparations are coming along for this year's Bash at the Boathouse. Go check out Al's website for details. It's his brainchild - and obsession. He and BigMike, along with Bobby Bracelet, are setting up all kinds of great things for two really great charities. Do what you can to help out. It's good Karma. :)

I've been playing poker online, but things haven't changed much. Some days, I get rivered unbelievably badly. Some days, I get to suck-out on people once or twice. (I do my best to always be in with the best hand, but...) I hope to start a couple of homegames with some of the bloggers coming to the Bash. I need to be on the top of my game to play against these sharks. Or at least stock up on LOTS AND LOTS of booze! I have to even the field somehow. And I know bloggers can't resist SoCo and Long Island Iced Teas. Does anyone even remember Brad-o-ween? LOL

It's almost 2 PM here. I think it's almost time to go home. Many people in my hallway already have. I haven't eaten lunch yet... worked right through it. I think I need to take a late lunch. A very long late lunch. Like, until Tuesday morning. I won't let the door hit me on the ass on the way out. It won't even have the chance.

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Wednesday morning BLAHs... 9 Aug 2006 7:44 AM (19 years ago)

I've just spent half the night playing with a server hardware issue. It should've been an easy fix. Suspend the hardware and let the vendor replace it. I had their tech lead take a look at the server after and schedule the hardware replacement. It's still not working right after the hardware replacement, and the customer is screaming. This is only the second time I've worked on this type of hardware replacement. It should be easy, but my bad luck seems to be coming into play. The first time, I ended up corrupting a database and it had to be rebuilt completely from backups. I don't want to do something like that again. Especially since its the same customer. :)

I *WAS* having an upswing in cards recently. I'd moved up from .05/.10 NL ring games to the .10/.25 NL ones and had built up my bankroll by 50%. I was feeling quite pleased with myself... and I think that was my downfall. Not to say that I didn't get my share of bad beats (flop a set of Ks, get "bluffed" by A7s, and have them runner-runner a flush - stuff like that), but I think I tilted pretty hard. It's funny because I never thought I tilted. At least not that badly. It seems that I don't know myself as well as I thought I did. I felt calm. I seemed calm. I called raises with TPTK when someone suddenly started betting out of nowhere on the turn or river. It should've been my first clue that they caught a second pair or a straight when I had two pair, but who would play those cards, right? My first tilting mistake: not giving people enough "credit" (!?!?) for their randomness and donkey-like poker playing attitude. Took a step back. Deep breath. Try again a few days later, and came out slightly ahead. Good, good, good. Making progress. Give it a little more time... try again.

I have good news to report too. I'm officially getting better at pool. :) I'm now ranked a 3 instead of a 2 by the APA. I've won my last two or three matches in a row. I still have problems where sometimes I'll need to shoot on the same ball close to half a dozen times before I can sink it, but my defensive shots and ability to completely screw my opponent with my leave (we call that "johnson pool"... it's all about being a dick LOL) keep me ahead of the other person. And if I get behind? I actually play better, believe it or not. I think the extra adrenaline that leaks into my veins when I've got more balls to sink (or when I'm "short-stacked", whichever the game might be) helps me to focus and play better. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. They keep playing me against other women in my matches though. I always thought it was because there were quite a few of us that all started this session and are still ranked as 2s. No excuse now. I'm a 3, and there are plenty of 3s that are male. My low-cut tops that display cleavage are definitely gonna be coming out of the closet! Any legal advantage that can be taken should and will be...

It's all how you play the game. Tilt your opponent before they tilt you. In any game. :)

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And now for my next trick.... 3 Aug 2006 5:30 AM (19 years ago)

Hey Bullwinkle - watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat! Well, no rabbit, just a post.... but some days, that does seem like magic.

Welcome back to my little corner of the universe! It has been an extremely busy time since we got back from Vegas, but I'm sure it would bore most people... it's interesting to me since I had to live through it. Quick highlights to explain....

- My Mom came to visit the day after we got home. This is a great thing, actually. I love my Mom and never get to see her enough. Plus, she makes me cheesecake. :) She stayed for 3 weeks... and while she has succeeded in making my house a little more girly and looking a little more lived in (I HAVE CURTAINS NOW!), I spend most of my time wth her when she's here.

- The Atlantic City Expressway sucks. I became a gaper delay on the weekend after we got back. My truck got rear-ended twice... since I was the first car of a 3-car pileup. I must say that I was very impressed with NJ's accident response - start to finish, including the switch over to the other side of the road for paperwork, we only lost 20 minutes of our trip. Truck is in the shop now. I'm driving a Ford Focus. Now, if I'd wanted to drive a Focus, I would've bought one. Definitely not for me. And the shop is now saying I won't get my car back until tomorrow or Saturday... even though the original estimate was 3 days and I dropped it off Monday. I'm not happy with them right now.

- I've won my last two pool matches. My pool skills have been kicking butt lately... and its surprising since I haven't been playing as much. Maybe I was focused in too much and couldn't see enough of the big picture. I can't say as much for shuffleboard... we're not gonna make it into the playoffs this session. I guess you can't be a winner at *everything*, no matter how hard you try. I guess I could just blame my partners... LOL

- Speaking of focusing, I've been playing poker again lately. It comes and goes in waves for me. I'm riding the crest of a killer wave right now. I'm still playing low limits since its all my bankroll will support. After losing everything on Full Tilt earlier this year, I decided I wasn't going to deposit anymore. I'd just wait until my advertising credit hit my account and play from there. Over the last 3 or 4 months, I've taken those credits and doubled the amount. My play has been pretty solid, and I'm doing my best not to play while I'm tired for my mind is elsewhere and I can't concentrate.

- Allergies suck. Need 18 hours of sleep when they hit this bad. Can't seem to get more than 7 lately. ...even when I do, I feel like crap. Ugh.

- Work is busy... lots of stuff to do. Haven't heard about a live interview for the other job I was looking at. Very disappointing. Gotta call them today to see what's up. Turns out my friend will probably no longer be working there soon. Who knows... maybe it's for the best. Maybe he can get me in where he's gonna be working. I like to work with cool people...

- Fish is still alive. Officemate didn't kill him. This is a good thing. I spend half my time at work zoning out, staring at said fish. This is a bad thing. ...but he's got such a pretty tail!

Ok... I think my mind is progressing into the deeper stages of poor mental health. Brain dump is complete, for now. Still have more to say, but there's no juice to get it out into this media. Maybe, just for fun, I'll take a picture of the keyboard imprints on my forehead from when I pass out on the keyboard. It will make for a good logo on the blog. Sending best wishes and good Karma to whoever needs it...

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Vegas Baby!! 14 Jul 2006 5:48 PM (19 years ago)

I'm so far behind in my writeup. Work was hellacious when I got back, and that's always my favorite place to write. My Mom came to visit the next day, so my evenings have been full too. I need a vacation! LOL

Here's my quick writeup... (I'll get links in later. If I don't get this up now, I don't know when I'm gonna have a chance again.)

Booze. I drank a whole lot of it. Stayed away from the shots this time (no more 6 AM tequila shots with Iggy. It's amazing that little body can hold that much alcohol), but the beer was enough to keep me happily buzzed. I tried to pay off my booze by playing the video poker in the bar. The first night, I think I drank enough to pay for it. The other nights, I lost money faster than I can drink. Most people can attest, I can drink pretty fast too. Learned that I can get more +EV at other forms of gambling.

Early morning breakfasts. One after a long Sherwood Forest Bar stint, another on the last night of the trip. The first was with Iggy, Derek, Spaceman, Bobby Bracelet, G-Money and Me. (I think. Booze-fuzzy memory.) Second with April and umm... ugh. Can't remember.

Sherwood Forest Bar. Our bartender Tim looked like BG in about 20 years. He wasn't the most attentive server initally, but he warmed up after a few days of binge drinking and overtipping. He'll definitely remember us for a long time to come.

Poker. I didn't play much outside of the blogger tourney. I did play the night before the tourney. 1-3 spread limit. I suck. Drank, but not enough. Only other time I played, on the last night/morning, I sat next to...

The guy who hit on me last year. When we stayed and played at the Plaza, my last night was spent at the tables to the right of this guy with way too much money for his own good. Same position again. He remembered me, and vice versa. The only reason I sat down at the table originally was that April was telling me about this table asshole that was annoying her. I wasn't gonna play... and then he started annoying me with the come-on lines. I lost my first buy-in to him when he sucked out on my pocket 5s with 98o. He didn't get anything on the board... two higher pair, and he took it with a higher kicker. Got it back and more when my A9 hit two pair. He was playing any two cards, and throwing money around like it was water. I made my money back plus a little... that was all I wanted. I got up and left happy.

Playing Pai Gow. After hearing so much about this game from other bloggers, I learned how to play from an online site (no money involved). On Sunday night, after watching Jen Leo kick butt on Pokerdome, a few of us (Garth, Gracie, and I) decided that Pai Gow was a go. Pai Gow is a drinking game. Lots of pushes, hopefully you don't lose much and come out ahead a little bit, but the +EV is in the drinking. We had more +EV than any other game I'd played during the whole trip! We were joined by other bloggers (Maigrey, Derek) and had a grand old time donking it up on the Pai Gow table. I think that it was probably my favorite time of the whole trip!

Blogger Tourney. I skipped the Roshambo tourney and just played cards. Sat between Pablo and Poker Bitch (The Mark's wife). We had a blast with the people on the table. Although I got sucked out on (Josh's friend got me good!), I played well and lasted down to the final 4 tables or so. I busted out and headed out to drink with Iggy, JoeSpeaker and Maudie. Lots of blogger bonding. We got done and headed back to Excalibur.

Slots. SUCK! When we (Me, Gracie, Pablo, Garth, Falstaff, Byron and ...ugh, can't remember who the 7th person was) got done with dinner at the Luxor, there was a bank of $1 slot machines right outside the stairway. Normally I don't play those, but they had a jackpot of $11.6 MILLION!! Of course I had to play. At one point I was up $3. Probably should've quit there. Nope, had to go for the jackpot. Came up with nothing. That's how all of my slot play went. I'm sure it won't stop me from playing...

Dinner at Luxor. More specifically dessert. I'd gotten this black forest torte-thing. I put one bite into my mouth and almost gagged. Pablo saw the grimace on my face and started smiling. Of course, I can't suffer on my own. I turn to Falstaff, who's on my left. "Here, you've gotta try this!" Of course, he grabs a big forkful and puts it in his mouth. He's trying to school his face into a semblance of normalcy while he's inwardly cringing. I say to him, "Tell me, does that taste as shitty to you as it does to me?" and burst out laughing! Pablo sees the whole thing and starts to giggle. Falstaff starts laughing - he was trying to figure out how I could like the taste of the stuff and how he was gonna lie to me about his opinion of it. Of course, I can't let it go. "Watch this... Hey Garth, you've gotta try this!" Garth fell for it too. Used the same line on him that I used on Falstaff. I almost peed myself at the table! I was laughing so hard that I was crying. The whole table was cracking up. Luckily, the room we were in was almost empty so our noise didn't bother anyone else.

I'm sure there are all kinds of things I'm forgetting, so I apologize to anyone else for anything good I've forgotten. The booze has gotten to the few remaining brain cells I have left. I'll try to remember more and post over the next few days. Feel free to remind me!

I want to say how much I enjoyed seeing everyone again and meeting all kinds of new people. I loved every minute of this trip... or at least those I can remember. :-) I can't wait to see you all again!

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Pocket Aces Suck!! 30 Jun 2006 10:20 PM (19 years ago)

Yes, I've come out of hiding to vent! I guess it's as good a reason as any... :-)

It's 2:15 in the morning... my "nap" ended up being almost 6 hours, so I'm wide awake. In my infinite (???) wisdom, I decide to sit down and play some cards. What the hell am I thinking?? Playing cards at this time on a Friday night...

I've gotten pocket As dealt to me twice. Both times they crashed and burned. HARD. There's no limping with pocket As either. I come out firing... Got killed by 7To the first time, and 97o the second. Both times, I raise to 5x BB. These people still called. Flop comes out Q high both times. Both times, both catch MIDDLE pair with their high card. I bet the size of the pot or above both times. Not little pots considering the number of big blinds in there. And they catch their cards both times. What the hell are they thinking?

I guess I'm the sucker for playing with these people.

On other fronts, everything has been busy. Still playing pool. Won my last 2 matches, so I'm very happy. Won my last shuffleboard league game. Another good thing. All these high-energy sports... LOL I'm turning into a little old lady. Someone grab me my walker!

The rest of my time is usually spent working, looking for a job, or helping out friends. As rough as I feel some days, I have friends who are fighting some pretty tough battles. I feel good when I can help them out a little bit.

Everything is beginning to get overwhelming lately though. Maybe I need a vacation... somewhere warm. I need palm trees, dammit!

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No, I did NOT fall off the face of the earth... 14 Jun 2006 7:15 PM (19 years ago)

...but I am all kinds of stressed. I'm hopefully working on a new job that will pay me a whole lot more than I'm making now. I was at a wedding celebration half of last week (which was a completely awesome time! I make the most amazing fires). I have a ton of work to catch up on. I won my first APA pool match. All kinds of stuff going on.

I'd love to say that I have a new job. Still working on it. Hoping! Keep rooting for me... if anyone is even still reading this P.O.S. :-)

The wedding rocked! Bob and Shannon threw a great celebration. I hope we sent them off to their new life of misery... I mean wedded bliss... in proper fashion. There's always stories, but I'm too tired to even try to do them justice right now. I promise I have some stories coming up...

Work sucks. What else can I say?

I love playing pool. I actually sorta look like I know what I'm doing. LOL I have my own pool stick now and all of the wonderful little toys that go along with it. Who knew how many little accessories you'd need for a pool stick? Luckily I have some great friends who are helping me along with the shooting as well as the rest of it. My own cheering section. I had my second APA match against my friend's son. Took 2 of 3 games to win the match. His son was pissed! He hates losing to women, especially when they have their hair up in pigtails and look like they haven't graduated from High School yet. Yup, I did it. I'm proud of it!

My kitty is curled up in my lap, trying to make sure that I can't even reach the keyboard to type up this mess. I think he has the right idea. Time to curl up and relax. He's a smart cat. He learned everything he knows from me.

Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker
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And since I'm a little behind... 4 Jun 2006 1:06 PM (19 years ago)

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 1301401

Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker
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Sucking out is the RIGHT thing to do 4 Jun 2006 10:14 AM (19 years ago)

I haven't been playing much poker. I'll admit it. Its a love/hate relationship with me. I love playing. I hate not being able to get better and show progress. It frustrates me to no end.

The worst part of any poker player's experience is being sucked out on. Come on, we all have those bad beat stories. Even if you're Shannon Elizabeth... and your pocket As get cracked by pocket Js on the river. (Right Pauly? ) Any poker player worth anything will always try to make sure that they never put themselves in a position to be behind in a hand. By doing this, you're always the one who gets sucked out on, not the one doing the sucking out.

This is my biggest frustration. Oh sure, I know that their play will pay off for me in the long run. I want gratification sooner though. So I decided that I needed to do a little sucking out of my own...

I went down to the lowest limit SNG Full Tilt has ($1 + 0.25) to play a little hyper-aggressive poker. I didn't play complete donkey poker but I definitely put myself in more coin toss situations. (BTW, I read somewhere that donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. I believe it.)

It felt so good!! I played 4 of them yesterday. I went out 6th or 7th in two of them... and the other two I placed first! It was +EV, however minor to the bankroll. The truly +EV part of it was knowing that I was the donkey. I needed to be the one sucking out on others, not having them suck out on me. I don't have the Luckbox's skill at being able to suck out at will, but I think I did just fine. I have observed the best. heheheh

Donkey poker was my therapy this weekend. I needed it. I wanted it. I loved it!

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Hands I Love 22 May 2006 10:07 AM (19 years ago)

Some hands in poker are just too good to be true. (I like those stories much better than the bad beat ones.) I took plenty of bad beats this weekend - along with some crappy playing on my part - but hands like these make the game worth playing.

In late position, I find myself holding pocket 3s. I limp, as I usually do with tiny pocket pairs. The big blind raises 2 or 3x the BB. I'm the only one who calls. The flop is perfect - an ace and the two remaining 3s in the deck. Score! Of course, my evil opponent is holding an ace. Big slick, if I remember correctly. After calling his bet on the flop, I raised on the turn (which was crap) and he called. The river brings another ace and he pushes me all in. Poor guy didn't know what hit him, and I couldn't click the button to call fast enough.

My only problem with the hand? I bought in short. Instead of doubling up the max for the table, I only doubled up about half of the max. Live, I will always buy in for the max if possible. Unfortunately, playing online has gotten me to start with half of the max. It's hands like these that make you want to kick yourself for this habit...

I've learned that short buy-ins have their advantages though. Most people will play differently against someone who is short. Players who normally wouldn't call your bets will call if they know that the max they can lose won't break them. If you're well above the max buy-in for the table, people tend to be more aggressive because many players will not call all-ins since they don't want to lose their profit. If you build up your stack to the max buy-in, many players don't realize that you've doubled your buy-in. And when someone with a comparable sized stack sucks out on you, they really aren't taking the max buy-in from you.

I know many people would disagree with that last statement, but I look at my bankroll at the beginning and end of each session. If I have doubled up my short buy-in and lose it all, I'm only losing my short buy-in. If I buy in for the max and lose it, I'm still losing a max buy-in. I try not to take each table's immediate results as the judge of how well I did that day. I use the total sum of the session as an indicator of a good day or bad day.

I've learned I still suck at poker. I haven't been able to concentrate like I should, so I've been staying away from the tables. I think it's better for my bankroll and my general outlook on poker. I know I get frustrated too easily when I have a few losing sessions in a row. I can't consistently win if I'm not focusing on my play. I'm a smart person (in general, no comments from the peanut gallery). Even I can see that I need to stay away. Now let's see how long it takes before I break down and hit the tables for a marathon session...

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Bachelorette Parties and Straight Flushes 15 May 2006 6:33 AM (19 years ago)

What a weekend! I think I need a few days off to recover... The weekend was celebrated in true "CanHang" style.

A friend is getting married next month, and her bachelorette party was this weekend. A Saturday night in Atlantic City with the girls. Great idea. It consisted of 5 girls, which included the bachelorette. We tried to convince her that she doesn't need to get married. Of course, the usual argument didn't work. We told her that once she gets married, her husband would get chubby and go bald, then she'd have to live with it. Since he's already there, it didn't make much impact. Strike one for the married women.

It had to be one of the best bachelorette parties I've ever been to. All of the women besides the bachelorette were already married, so we didn't have the usual problem of finding the party member who ran off to get a little action. All 5 of us got along great - no drama, no fighting, and the bonus of nobody drinking to the point of puking. Its not like people didn't try...

Of course, I can't let everyone in on the full party happenings, but here's a couple of highlights:

- We hooked up with another friend of mine who was in AC for a bachelor party. The guys were fun to hang out with and bought us several drinks. Their bachelor also happens to be a DA in Philadelphia, so we figured we could use their help in case anyone had a run-in with the local law. Always nice to have someone associated with the law around... Just like having a fellow blogger there while in Vegas.

- We decided to take the bachelorette into what was supposedly a really cool club. I paid the $50 in cover charges to get in to find out that although it had really bumping music playing, there was no dance floor. They had tables, but for bottle service only. We had been the first ones in, so we had our choice of locations. We grabbed a prime seat and prepared to order a couple bottles of champagne when we were told that the good table we were sitting at was already reserved. They tried to get us to sit all the way in the back corner. Complete BS. Up to the bar - one round of drinks at double the price of anywhere else. We didn't stay long.

- We went to watch Phil's band Vibe Tribe play at Bally's. They made sure that everyone knew that the bachelorette was there and encouraged everyone to buy her drinks/shots. Music was great and we did a whole lot of dancing.

- The bachelorette made friends with (supposedly) a bigwig of a very very large corporation. If nothing else, he was throwing around money like he was. The bottles of Cristal champagne were a nice touch. His girlfriend was a little creepy though. At one point, he told me that he hoped she wasn't a lesbian. After watching her for a little bit, I couldn't reassure him that she wasn't.

- I had to leave the festivities at 4:30 AM. Unfortunately, I had server work to do at 5 AM. Critical last-minute stuff that was scheduled and I couldn't get out of. I had to call the 24 hour monitoring group and let them know I was going to take down a server. I couldn't tell you how bad I was slurring. While waiting for the server to reboot, I passed out at my laptop for 45 minutes. I woke up, finished the maintenance and let people know the work was done. I logged in again the next morning to make sure I'd worked on the right server. Yup, it seems that booze and work isn't a problem for me. Everyone should try it.

- I woke up after 5 hours of sleep and tried to get out of bed. I couldn't get the world to stop rocking and making me seasick. Luckily I didn't drive - Kenna did. When we started back home at 11:30 AM, she didn't seem to be having the same problems I was. I think that was because she was still drunk and the hangover hadn't started kicking in yet.

The couch was my best friend yesterday. Once I got home, that was where I spent most of my time. I grabbed my laptop and decided to play a little poker. I had a bad run initially and lost two buy-ins within the first 15 minutes. One was a suckout, the other I was outplayed (my nut flush on the river didn't hold up to the pocket pair that caught a boat on the turn). I figured I'd give it one more buy-in before I was done for the day.

I worked back my money slowly, but catching a straight flush helped. I was in early position and had one person calling me. He had a pair of aces on the flop and two pair on the turn, but I'd already made the flush with an OESD on the flop. When the 4th diamond on the river hit, it brought me the straight flush. I was praying for him to have the K of diamonds, but no such luck. When he folded, I had to show my hand. I took down a good sized pot too.

I finished up around 10 BB. Good enough. Even if I only win a little each session, its still winning. I don't know how much poker I'll get to play over the next few weeks though. My side project is heating up, and I joined a shuffleboard league on Sundays to go with my pool league. Trying to diversify my life a little. I think that stepping back has been good for my game and leaves me more focused when I actually do play. I like to win. Now I just have a few different things to win at.

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9s are GOOD 8 May 2006 7:42 AM (19 years ago)

I've actually been playing a little poker lately. Low limits... lower than I've ever played before in my life. I'm rebuilding the bankroll. After losing everything, I decided that I'd wait until my monthly bonus from Full Tilt Poker and work up from there instead of buying in again. I've doubled that money... actually quite quickly, within a week. It's been slower going, but I'm still increasing with every session.

Since I'd stepped back and scaled back my play, I find that I'm much more focused on what I'm doing and how my play is. I'm able to catch my weak spots and bad plays more and try to correct them. I still see plenty of bad beats... bone fide ones, where your AK/2 pair on the flop goes up against pocket 2s and calls your all in on the flop, then catches a set on the river. That happens.

Low to mid pocket pairs have always been a sore spot for me. If I have a pair of 6s or less, I fold 'em on the flop to any decent sized bet if I don't hit a set. Sometimes I won't even call some raises pre-flop with these cards, depending on the bettor, size of the bet and how many people are along for the ride. For the mid pairs, I very rarely raise. I have to be in late position/button and hope that I can outplay the people still in.

For a while, it seemed that any low to mid pocket pair that I had was useless. Couldn't catch a set. The cards were low enough where there were always overcards on the flop. Sometimes the card I needed would come on the turn or river after huge amounts of betting on the flop or pre-flop. I was disciplined and didn't chase.

This weekend, my pocket 9s were gods. They ruled! In a span of an orbit, I had pocket 9s three times. I'd raise pre-flop and get a couple of callers. I'd catch a 9 on the flop for a set. Always get action. Lots of it. There would be an A or K on the flop and people would chase. Or someone would have a lower set - a set of 3s against my 9s. The third time this happened, I even spiked a 9 on the river for quads.

I think I just used all of my pocket pair luck. For the year. I wish I'd been playing at much higher limits than I usually play. On tilt. So EVERYONE would have called me. I could've made a killing! I'm very happy with my wins though.

Taking a step back and focusing on other things is working well for me. I played some pool last night. Ended up winning 4 out of 6 games against the guys helping me improve my game. They all tell me that they know better than to throw a game against me... If I win, I want it to be won fairly. They all know that. They also know I'd kick every single one of them on their backsides if I thought they were doing this. They tell me that I'm definitely getting better - and I see that. Pool league starts in a month. Luckily these guys will be on my team. I'd hate to have to beat them like stepchildren in the league matches. lol

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My neighbors the Rednecks 29 Apr 2006 4:27 PM (19 years ago)

I'm sitting here on the back deck of my wonderful new house. Unfortunately, the reason I'm here and not meeting up with my pool partner is that I got paged for work. Been working on a system for the last 2+ hours, and now I'm waiting for someone to get back to me with some info so I can finish this thing up.

So, I'm sitting here on the back deck. The neighbors decide to come out on their front porch for a smoke. Thank God I don't have kids. They'd know about 15 different vulgar phrases by now. I've heard a whole lot of "Fuck You", "Shithead", "Shut the fuck up, Fuckhead", and just the general use of the word "fuck" as a verb, noun, and adjective. I mean, all you need to do is hear any of them talk and you'll know that their daddy is also their uncle or something similar...

And to think, I spent all this money on the house to have neighbors like this. I guess they're trying to make me feel at home, but the reason I left the backwoods of New York state was to get away from these people!
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OMG!! I was going to end this post, but something just happened. I swear to God... I just heard a FART from across the street. It sounded like a wet, nasty one too. Thank God I wasn't eating... Just think, next party we have, we can have everyone on the deck to watch the rednecks. It will be like a day at the zoo.

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My Night at the Bar (or, Why I Drink at a Social Club) 28 Apr 2006 5:08 AM (19 years ago)

My posts concerning poker have been few and far between lately. I'd taken a pretty massive hit to the bankroll (like 95% of it), and although I knew most of it was luck and not my play that caused the massive drops, I decided to take a step back. My heart and my wallet just couldn't take anymore. At the risk of alerting the poker gods that I'm starting to wade back into the pool again, I'm happy to say that I'm doing better now and beginning to enjoy it again.

Of course, if I'm not playing poker, I have to be doing something, right? Lately it's been shooting pool. I used to hang out in a pool hall in high school (there was nothing better to do unless it involved booze or sex, and I was a good girl - was...) but it's been a while since I've put any serious time into it. I'll soon be joining a pool league at the Social Club I belong to, and some of my future teammates have been helping me brush up on my skills. I spend lots of time there, drinking and trying not to be the worst person on the team. I may not be able to hit some of the easier shots, but my saving grace is that I leave the crappiest shots for the person I'm playing against. Johnson pool. :-)

Since my shift in hobbies, I haven't been hitting the Boathouse much. Last night, I decided that it would be a good night to go back to the home ground. Thursday is trivia night, and it's nice to have a little competition that pays for your bar tab.

The night started out well enough. Nice weather. Favorite bartender Terri working. (StB's favorite bartender too - she was born in Milwaukee, but I think it's her "geography" that he likes staring at. Hi StB! BTW - did you get my dial-a-shot message?) Night started out slow... beers, a shot or two. Royce had a few of his buddies show up. LOTS of shots.

At some point, Al goes up to visit ScubaSteve. A drunk chick celebrating her 22nd birthday is trying to get into the dj booth, and of course wingman Al comes to the rescue. He offers to bring her back to the bar and buy her a shot. Normally I don't mind when Al does this, but things weren't quite right with her. She kept petting my hair. (I have a friend that plays with my hair, but I've known her for a couple of years.) And she kept telling me how beautiful I was. And wanted a hug or three. I figured she was drunk so it wasn't really a big deal... right?

Time progresses. Team AlCantHang (me, Al, BigMike, and Caucci) kicks ass on trivia. We make it to the final round - up against the second place team. We answer the 15 questions and wait to find out the results. Now, drunk girl is back. More drunk than before. (It seems that she was seen doing a pole dance on a pool cue at some slightly earlier point of the night.) She sees me... I should've run. Nope, I stay where I am and let her stumble up to me. More hugs. This time she goes for a kiss. Not a friendly, on the cheek kiss. On the lips. Not once, not twice, but THREE times. I can only imagine what I looked like, dodging her lips. I look over and the bouncer is staring with slack-jawed interest. (I was going to say he couldn't believe what he was seeing, but I know that's a lie. Interesting stuff happens there all the time. I just don't think he expected me to be in the middle of it!) I can see him laughing at me as I try to extricate myself from her hug. He'll get payback one of these days.

After one more short trivia round, Team AlCantHang wins another week and remains the Boathouse champion! It was a good week - we won 90% of the prize pool. It goes a long way towards covering the bar tab.

It's around 10:30 PM now, and ScubaSteve isn't feeling well. He offers to let me iPod-DJ again. hehehe I love this stuff. I get to play all the music I love and everyone else can all go to hell. Well, not really, but I get to play stuff people haven't heard before. I did this for about 2.5 hours. I introduced people to the Gourds, Elliott BROOD, Rufio, Anberlin and other lesser-known songs and covers. I think I may have a spot for late-night DJ. (I just have to prepare and make playlists next time. It stinks having to be stuck to your iPod for a few hours.)

Royce finally sobers up enough from all the shots he's done to be able to pick his head up off the bar, where it's been for quite a while. It's 1 AM, and he has to be at work in 3.5 hours. Not good. I think the room is still moving on its own a little bit for him. Between the shots and many cans of Red Bull, his stomach has had enough of this crap. He's a hurtin' camper. He's sobering up rapidly though, and BigMike offers to stay a little while longer to make sure he's ok. We head home...

So, that's my story. What would have happened if I'd just hit the Social Club like normal? I would've had a few beers, maybe a shot or two. I'd have played about a dozen games of pool (if I was having a good night - less if I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn) and hung out with the guys. All good people - usually the same group, (mostly) responsible people, always amusing. Instead, I got molested by a drunk 22-year-old chick and got to DJ for a few hours while waiting for drunk boy to sober up. (And yes, just for you perverts, she was cute. At least I attract cute women. Maybe Bobby Bracelet should take Boathouse lessons from me. lol Love ya Bobby!)

So, now that I've eaten my breakfast, drank my tea, and settled in (blogged) for the morning, maybe I should get some work done. Half an hour until lunch, and I'd hate to be late for that. Happy Friday!

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Post to come later 20 Apr 2006 6:04 PM (19 years ago)

I know I'm still lazy as hell when it comes to posting. Way too much going on.

I had to put this up though. Mom sent me an email with this, and I've been laughing for the last 10 minutes over this. Now, Mom has a problem with forwarding way too many chain letters, but occasionally she passes on a gem like this [WARNING - if you're at work and have easily-offended co-workers, turn off your sound. There's captions, but make sure you listen to the song later lol]:

In what is a not too subtle dig at Bush's subpoena of their search records, Google is getting their own nasty dig at 'W' before the gag orders go into effect.

I don't know how long this will work, but go to http://www.Google.com then type in the search word: asshole

Then, DO NOT press "search," but do hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button right next to the Search button.

The result is hysterical, and I have to admit I absolutely admire Google's nerve.


Hopefully this will still be up so everyone can see it. Happy Friday! (close enough)

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