Evacuate!

If there was a good chance that your house was going to be flooded to the roof in a mere matter of hours and you were told to evacuate ASAP, what would you take with you? Would you stay behind are take your chances?

Personally I can't see any benefit in staying in a house that sits below sea level as a hurricane is taking aim at your city. As I watch Katrina pummel the south, I try to think what matters most to me that I could pack into the Cherokee in an hour or less. The most obvious answer to me is Guinness, his food, and water. After those were situated I'd grab my insurance policy and any other important docs I have in the house and some clothes. After that I would probably do a quick room by room walk through and see if anything grabbed my attention....Poker chips and cards....Portable TV and all the AA batteries I could throw in a bag with it so I could watch the news as long as possible....My camera, my hard drive, maybe my brand new monitor if there was room....cell phone and car charger....jewelry....toiletries....Then it's time to lace up the boots and get out of Dodge!

All the while I would be on the phone with family and friends to see if anyone needed my help with anything before I got the Big Pimp and myself to higher ground. If not, I'd throw Pimpzilla in the Cherokee and take him to meet his Grandma and Grandpa at the cabin up north.

At first glance I was somewhat disturbed that my poker chips ended up being the third thing on my packing list....then I realized that I am very lucky to have everything important clearly prioritized and that I won't obsess over the lesser things. My possessions, it seems, have little meaning to me when the fit hits the shan. I know that as long as I have my family and friends and my Pimpzilla, I can make it through anything and still be a happy man. Possessions are just that....THINGS that you own. Now the government would only view Guinness as one of my possessions, but I can't think of him like that at all....how can you call a dog who saved your life a mere possession?

Family. Friends. Dog. Those are my big three....

Weekend in Review (the LONG version)

Friday:

Fridays are always long for me considering it's the 5th consecutive day of waking up at 4:30, usually after about only 5 hours of sleep. By the end of the my work day I am ready for a nap, but with errands to run and a dinner reservation at Como's for Kelley's birthday I didn't have the time for such a thing.

Como's is a nice little place right on the main corner in Ferndale. The seating area outside is where we reserved a table, and we enjoyed the open atmosphere throughout the night. Once we found some reasonable parking and got inside. I took the reasonable parking for granted. Once we got to Ferndale we didn't see any open spots in the public lots or on the streets near Como's, so I had Jen high-tail it over to a lot near The Post that I figured would be a good place to park. We pull up and see the sign for $5, not the best value but at least we're getting a close parking spot.

Jen feeds a five into the machine which then instructs her to add 5 more dollars....my level of aggravation is rivaling that of Clark W. Griswold when he sucker punched Marty Moose's statue at Wally World....So I get out and look over the parking machine, because I am an expert on these types of things ya know, and realize quickly there is no way to compromise with the machine just because the sign says $5. So I hit the refund button and CLANK CLANK CLANK here come the quarters, like I cashed out at a slot machine. So I take my new found wealth and jump back in the passenger seat and we end up getting a spot on the street a couple blocks away from Como's.

We had a lot of fun celebrating Kelley's birthday and people watching. The bar inside Como's is very nice and the price for my libation of choice was the lowest I've found anywhere. Now I had heard that Como's had good pizza, but that is an understatement. The pizza is excellent and I wanted more than we ordered.

We stayed a little later than I would have liked, I actually fell asleep briefly while we were still there, but all-in-all it was a fun night.

Saturday:

Saturday was supposed to be a nice long day of football followed by a nice little BBQ. The weather changed all that rather quickly. When my alarm went off I could already see the impending storm and just jumped back in bed for a couple more hours. When I finally rolled out of bed Jen and I watched Layer Cake, which I had just bought the day before. I dug the movie, but I'm going to have to watch it again to catch some of the dialog.

Toward the end of the movie Mark told me on his way out the door that there was a safety meeting in progress at the OPAC (Oakman Performing Arts Centre) and that one of our crew members was celebrating a birthday. After the movie Jen and I puttered about the house for a little bit and met decided to stop in on the meeting and sing happy birthday in our own special way.

After the safety meeting Jen and I headed over to Steve and Jill's to celebrate their engagement and Steve and Adam's birthday. With many people out of town for the weekend the BBQ was slightly underattended. Once Mr and Mrs Gentner left, the remaining ten of us were herded down to the basement by Jill, so we could listen to the CD of one of her friends who is in a band....

Sitting on the couch listening to Mormon Rock was not the highlight of my evening, but I did turn to Jen and say something to the effect of, "Wow this is such a blog entry...."

About halfway through the second song the ability of the evenings imbibers to feign interest in this God awful sound was completely gone, and most everyone jumped off the couch to hang at the little bar in the basement. Jen and I sat patiently and listened to a couple more songs until someone mentioned poker....I was upstairs so quick you would have thought someone shot me out of a cannon. I fetched my chips and cards as enough chairs were brought in for everyone who wanted to play.

We played two tourney style games with a $5 buy in for each. Second place got their $5 back and first place took the rest. I think we had 6 players for the first game, and 7 players for the second. The games were not seriously competitive and I played solid, but fun poker. I didn't mind blowing a few chips here and there calling people all-in with 4-8 off to see what would happen when I was big stack. I was getting pretty good cards, even hit quads once, and really capitalized on types of hands. Both games ended up with me and Mike D heads up, and I seemed to have a better read on him than he had on me so I took first both times.

On the very last hand of the night it was pretty obvious that I was behind in the hand when Mike moved all in. The flop was 8-J-K and I was holding only A-J. I read him for the king and said so as I called him, as he turned over Kx, and then I asked for a Jack on the turn. Ask and ye shall receive. The turn was a blank and I took home enough cash to pay for my round of golf the following day. Which brings me to....

Sunday:

Went golfing with Mark, Marc, and Jay at Taylor Meadows. It's a nice municipal course with some pretty challenging greens. Started out poor, got somewhat better in the middle of the first nine, then completely lost it for the rest of the day unless we were on a par three where I made the green in regulation 50% of the time, which was at least 100% better than all the other guys.

Not much more to say about it....had I played more this year, or gone to the range more than once, I would probably have more to say....but as it is, I now stink at golf.

Movie Review

Just in time for the weekend I decided to write up a review for The 40 Year Old Virgin, which I saw earlier this week. That is, until I read this week's Real Detroit Weekly and saw that Keith Dusenberry had already put most of my thoughts in print. Here's his review of the movie:

How much did you like Anchorman? Your answer to this question is directly proportional to your likelihood of enjoying Virgin. To be fully accurate, there needs to be a slight adjustment to this formula: Virgin has no Will Ferrell, though it certainly feels like a movie he could have been in. Instead, Virgin features a bunch of the supporting Anchorman cast members, including The Daily Show’s Steve Carell. His role as a 40-year-old who has never had sex does not drastically push his acting skills beyond those Carell regularly utilized to portray a fake news reporter … or for that matter, Produce Pete. He’s awkward, naïve, trying too hard to seem cool and generally pretty funny. There are lots of jokes in the 5-to-7 range (on a 10 scale), but they come steadily enough to make this movie seem funnier than it really is — and though the 8's and 9's are fewer, they are well-placed and laugh-out-loud funny. The pacing drags in the film’s final third — Virgin would benefit by having about 25 minutes shaved from its nearly two-hour runtime. Still, it’s funny, brainless and enjoyable.

Now to tell you the truth I really didn't like Anchorman, but I did enjoy 40 Year Old Virgin. Anchorman seemed to go overboard to force the punchlines, where most of the jokes in this movie flowed very well. I'm a little disappointed that most of my friends haven't seen it yet because there are many lines from the movie I'd love to quote, but no one would get except for Jen. All in all I give this movie a thumbs up and would be open to seeing it again with a group of friends.

Totally Random....

Why is it that every person in Michigan over the age of 50 will always prescribe Vernors and (blank) when someone isn't feeling well? I overheard someone "diagnose" someone's "stomach virus" over the phone yesterday, with what she said was very limited information. Her advice? "Vernors and water....and some popsicles for your stomach. You don't need to waste money on a doctor."

It was only after she hung up that she admitted she had limited information and really didn't know what malady had stricken the unfortunate caller.

Top Five List

Yesterday's post made me think of a new top five list....

Top Five Ways to Eat Bacon:

5. Bacon Cheeseburger
4. Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit
3. Club Sandwich
2. At breakfast along with eggs, toast, and pancakes
1. A bacon sandwich on white toast

94 Days

Dec 2nd is the weigh in date. 200 lbs is the target. I have 94 days to lose the 35 or so pounds that I have put on in the last year. My reward will be a freeroll into one of the NLHE tournaments on the ship during our cruise....and a sandwich....with bacon. If I lose I will have to stake Jen in said poker tournament. This may just be the motivation I need to get my butt back into the gym on a regular basis, much less stop eating like a farm animal.

Speaking of farm animals....
I had a good time at the Michigan State Fair last week. For only $9 you can get in on some of the best people watching around. People watching at casinos is grand, but when you have fair patrons, carnies, and farmers all in the same place it becomes hard to remember that staring is rude.

This was my first time back to the fair in a few years and I of course wanted to win Jen a stuffed animal, so I went to my old stand by and tried to break some beer bottles with some baseballs. Being that I am about 30 lbs overweight and haven't thrown a baseball in forever, I decided to warm up a little and ease into the throws. First two had some speed but missed the bottles, and I put a little more on the 3rd and final ball I got for $5 and struck a bottle. Unfortunately the balls seemed to be a little on the soft side and the ball ricocheted off without busting it. I put my head down and walked away.

We made it around the midway watching people try to toss a softball here or knock something down there, only to be mocked by the carnies who would undoubtedly say, "look, it's easy...." and "win" the game on their first try. This "demonstration" may be the most brilliant idea to ever come from a carnie, in the history of the world....maybe not, but I'd say it's a good bet.

On our way out of the midway, somewhere around the time we were commenting on all the chubby 8-10 year old girls who looked like boys because of their short hair and broad bodies, I find another carnie asking me to try his bottle breaking game. Being that I was thinking about hitting the bottle and not getting a prize on my last try most of our time in the midway, I wasn't what you would call a hard sell.

I give him the $5 and take three balls out of the bucket....three hard plastic balls that I suspected would be harder to break a bottle with than the soft-hard balls I used at the last carnie stand. Meaning, of course, that I need to put all of my weight into my throws so I take a few steps back, tug up slightly on what little sleeve I have on my right shoulder and pull out my old pitching form. It was a beautiful throw with good speed and right in the strike zone....which was about half a foot underneath everything.

Jen hands me the second ball and I notice that people behind me have stopped to watch me throw the next one. I tend to do much better with everything I do when I have an audience, so go figure I line up my next shot and fire it right through the bottle I was aiming for, the sound of the bottle blasted into a thousand pieces and the gong-like sound of the ball hitting the metal backstop drowning out the carnie's cry of, "We have a winner!".

Next throw was pretty much the same as I obliterated another empty beer bottle and won my girl the "Large" prize. She ended up choosing a white dog with the tongue hanging out and posable legs. She now has it proudly displayed in the cargo area of her Envoy for all....er....none to see.

Working for the Weekend

After a long busy week at my 9-5 it's finally Friday! Ironically, I have never in my life worked a job with those hours....just a few 9-5 shifts when I worked at MGM, but that was 9PM-5AM.

ANYway, so it's Friday and when I get out of here I can just relax for the weekend....well, after I get out of here and pick up my suit from the cleaners. And after I head out to Clawson during rush hour traffic and the Woodward Dream Cruise to attend a 6 pm, Friday night reception for a wedding that took place more than 8 months ago. Not exactly how I would have planned it, but hey....

So that leaves tomorrow. I guess I can relax sometime after Grandma's outdoor birthday party at Chilson Pond on a day with rain and storms in the forecast. But then I have to come home and get ready and go check out an Irish band called Death by Accordion playing a gig in, of all places, Greektown. Which, as anyone who knows anything about anything in the city of Detroit can tell you, is the place around here to find the best Irish pubs.

So Sunday is the day....I will relax as long as I bust out early from the NLHE home tournament(s) we are playing all day....but will I really relax if I bust out early? I doubt it. I will be going over my bad play or bad beat while the other players finish the first game. Eh, maybe I'll just chalk it up to poker being poker and take a nap....

No matter how I slice it, I should have a pretty busy weekend. I should also have a pretty fun weekend. Those combined will lead to one looong Monday when I get back to business. Maybe I can use some of my spare time on Monday to do a little bit of research for my FFL draft which is right around the corner, and at the moment I have no idea who I'm looking to draft with the 10th pick in both leagues.

Hopefully I'll have a few pics from this weekend in my next post....I just hope the lighting at the wedding is decent, the weather holds up for Grandma's party, and either I win the tourney on Sunday or go out early enough to get some cool "action" shots of everyone who actually knows how to play poker.

Townie Poker!

It only took one tournament, and one trophy, to get me hooked on Townie Poker. For the uninitiated, there are a few places near my cottage up north that host charity poker tournaments. These tournaments attract many locals looking to get lucky and take home the $500 first prize. Unfortunately for them, these tourneys often attract people like myself who are visiting for the weekend and have a greater grasp of game theory and the ability to adjust their playing style to fit the game. Sit someone with those attributes at a table like the ones in these tournaments and it's Darwinism at it's best. You can sit back and watch as the weakest bust out first, then up to the next level of the food chain until you see, barring many miracle suckouts, the player who was able to adapt the best standing there holding everyone else's money.

This is unfortunate for the locals because they are all genuinely nice people just hoping they can make a little extra money by playing some cards. And true to the well known quote from Rounders, "The nicer the guy, the poorer the player." It's kind of like the lottery to them, but instead of 1000:1 to make any money, they are getting approximately 10:1.

This being said, I changed my play to suit the game and did pretty well until an error in judgment put me out of the game. I could easily blame the old guy who called a 4.5 x BB raise with 93 offsuit for my demise, but I should have known better than to push all in on the turn without the very best hand after he had checked it to me. 1 mistake. 5th place. 0 dollars.

Jen adapted her game even better and stuck with it to finish 2nd and in the money again. Had the blinds not doubled every half hour and gotten ridiculously high at the end, she very easily could have outplayed the guy who took 1st. We were only at the same table for a few hands before I busted out, but it seemed that she played her draws less aggressively than I did and that worked in her favor because no matter what the best was, someone was going to call each time with an overvalued middle or even bottom pair. She also seemed to read the townie players better than I did and wasn't afraid to muck it when she had to.

There's another townie tourney during Labor Day weekend. Hopefully this time I can stay in the right mindset and we can both get a few hands here and there so we can finish first and second again. Hopefully there will be another trophy up for grabs so I can stay a little more focused on the task at hand. Maybe I just need to play more hands on Party Poker to get used to the townie style. Practice makes perfect right? Well in poker, practice makes money.

Homecoming and More....

Every year the city of Dearborn holds our summer festival, dubbed "Homecoming" over the first weekend of August. When I was younger I never missed it, but I hadn't been in a few years so I was excited to see how it is now. I was not impressed. Maybe it was just that Friday evening isn't the best time to visit the festival, but there weren't many people at the park and there really wasn't that much to do. After an hour or so we headed over to Cheli's Chili Bar to check out the tent party there which included a set by the Killer Flamingos.

Six of us ended up hanging out at Cheli's until about 1:30 when we all piled into my new Grand Cherokee and headed to Jen's for a sleep over. We sat around and BSed for a while and I, being the only completely sober one, was even more amused by everyone's drunken hijinks.

Saturday

Saturday morning came too soon and I got going later than I had hoped. I had planned to be up early and take my suit coat into the tailor and have a couple repairs made since the coat didn't quite hold up to the rigors of my last Vegas trip. Well, I got up with enough time to eat breakfast and get ready for the wedding, but I was going to have to go without the coat. In hindsight it wasn't so bad since my vest made it look like I brought the coat, just never wore it....

Got to the church just in time for the ceremony, although the sculpture depicting two Native Americans handing their child over to a catholic priest nearly made me mad enough to not even go into the church. After briefly expressing my disbelief at the scene welcoming "one and all" to the church, we went in to be seated. The ceremony was pretty standard, but the priest found just enough time toward the end to bash Muslims and Jews.

After all that I needed a little comic relief and we had almost three hours to kill until the reception. I figured the proper way to spend that time was in the movie theater watching, obviously, Wedding Crashers.

The reception was nice, even though the food left a little to be desired. Hey, I'm gonna complain about something right? This time it just happens to be the food. I was happy to take many pictures throughout the night, but the lighting was really hard to adjust to and I didn't get nearly as many good shots as I had hoped. Maybe I just need to buy a better camera....

Sunday:

Sunday was another poker day. Our first game started a little later than expected due to some traffic problems caused by weekend construction. Ah, the joys of driving in Michigan. Using a new blind structure and increasing levels every 15 minutes instead of 20 seemed to work pretty well, but I think I am going to tweak it once more so the blinds aren't 20-40 halfway through the first orbit.

After a couple hours we pared it down to Rob and Hope. Truthfully I didn't watch too much at that point because I was eating pizza and setting up the chips for the next game, but I am sure Hope played textbook poker en route to knocking off Rob for the win. This made her the 7th person to sign my table and earn an invitation into the upcoming tournament of champions.

The second game was only a 7 person affair as Jeremy and Rob both had to leave, and Katie decided not to play. It wasn't too long before Matt and Stephanie were heads up, and Matt prevailed shortly thereafter earning him a signature spot on the table and the final invitation into the tournament of champions. Now that the field is set, I just have to figure out a date and send out the invites....

My showing in the games was less than spectacular. I ended up dumping a pretty fair amount on one hand early on when I bet my straight and flush draw but didn't hit either. Not too long after that I found a couple of queens in the hole and pushed all in after Matt made it 3xBB to go. He called rather quickly and I knew before he turned over his cards, "Tell me you got the kings, right?" Of course he did, and they held up to send me to the rail. The second game I never really made a hand and played pretty passively, no surprise that I didn't do well. Guess I will have to build my momentum for the townie poker tournament by playing online this week.

PokerJen

I got Jen onto Party Poker last night....she finished 4th in her first SNG....man was she PO'd. She got OK cards through the first part of the tourney but bet well enough to build up a nice little chip lead....then the bad cards came. It kept getting down to, "OK you have to make a move soon....but not with those cards." Then she lost a coin flip as the short stack and bubbled out. She did very well adjusting to the SNG donkeys, but couldn't keep it going without some cards. All in all I am very proud of the way she played, but her competitive streak wouldn't let her feel the same....After her SNG I played 30 minutes at the NL25 game and made 30 cents....transform that into an hourly rate and I think it's a little more than the GNP of Madagascar, but still not very impressive....

At Last....

My cards have come along....

Wednesday afternoon started off like a typical bad day, and I of course made it worse with a bad play on a short handed no limit table. After the table filled up a little more I reloaded and had another go at it and did OK even though the cards were still chilly. Getting bored with the one NLHE game I decided to fire up a $20 SNG where I am usually very confident, but was a little apprehensive to say the least after all of my consecutive losing sessions. My apprehension was gone after the first hand when I got KK in the big blind and pulled in a profit of 170 even after an ace flopped. That one hand seemed to cure everything for me. In the next 30 minutes I played rather well in both the NL ring game and the SNG where I was the chip leader for most of that time. Cards ran a little cold and I closed the ring game to focus on the other 4 players still in the SNG. This short stretch of cold cards was of the "great starting hand, terrible flop" variety and took me out of the chip lead. I remember saying something to Jen, who recently arrived at my house and was patiently watching while she waited for me to finish and take her to dinner, about how I would rather have rags and fold than these hands you are pretty much forced to play yet never hit....the poker gods were listening for once and that's exactly what happened.

From there out it was a little bumpy with a couple suckouts against me and one suckout in my favor, but then I got it back and was able to get inside everyone's mind and play puppet master until the end. All except for one hand that might have cost me 1st place had it not been for Jen. As I have said before she is a very good player and has a great grasp of the game. I haven't completely gone over the hand history yet but as I remember I had either AJ or KT suited, raised preflop and got one caller. I hit middle pair with a backdoor straight and flush draw. Caller pushes all in and I look at Jen who is shaking her head....I have him covered, but am not too sure I should call. For once I did the smart thing and listened to Jen, maybe I am finally getting wise even though I can't seem to grow up. Anyway, I went on to win and boost my confidence once more heading into our live game on Sunday.

Cold Cards

So I am told that every poker player goes through this....it just takes a little time, play the way you normally would and it will all be fine soon. I'm still waiting.

Poker for me is not a job, it's not something I count on making money from at all. As a matter of fact, I have set aside a small bankroll to play with and when that is gone so is the online poker. I haven't lost that bankroll yet, but I sure am trying. Nevermind the fact that I have had six consecutive losing sessions online. Nevermind the fact that I can't win any of our home games anymore. The thing that bothers me most is that Jen currently holds a five game heads-up win streak against me. Don't get me wrong, Jen is a very good player and I don't mind losing to her. But this streak illustrates exactly how bad the cards have run for me lately. In a heads up game I'll give myself at least a 50-50 chance at winning against really good players. Against a pro, I'd say 3-1 or 4-1 against at the worst. Heads up is the best part of my game. With no other distractions or untimely bets by other players I have all the time in the world to get inside someone's head and think like they do, and I thank my great chess background for this. With any bit of luck, my B game will win against most players....but losing 5 in a row to one of the players I know the best is just uncanny.

Maybe this is the next big step I need to take on my way to being a top notch player....the only problem is, I don't know how to take the step. I've read a couple articles including a really good one from Daniel Negreanu, he is a much better writer than I had expected, but I am still stumped. I play low stakes, so I can't really lower the stakes and play it out. I like the game way to much to completely unplug, I just can't get over this frustration. Whatever the case may be, I just want to have fun playing on Sunday so I can build up a little more confidence before heading back up north for another townie poker tournament.

I am now the proud owner (lessee) of a new Grand Cherokee. With all the hassle out of the way during the big 3's employee pricing promotions, I may have spent more time test driving the truck than I actually spent inside the salesman's office....unless you count the time I spent in there waiting for him on Friday when I went in to pick up my truck and he had gone for the day. Wouldn't have been so bad if any of his co-workers knew he was gone. After a few minutes of waiting in his office, the young receptionist with the cool hair, hideous cackle, and grossly oversized curtains decides that they should try and track him down before the dealership closes on us. Blah blah blah, they get him on his cell phone and due to our "miscommunication" there's no way to sign the paperwork, but I can still take the truck for the weekend. Not a bad deal, but I still have to come back on Monday to sign everything, and the truck will do me no good over the weekend as I will be up north....which leads me to another car dealership problem.

Poor Jen got to the dealership on time (even though she's late for everything else) to meet her salesman (who was actually there) but he couldn't get ahold of the dealership that had the Envoy that she was supposed to pick up that day. She took care of trading in her Audi, and thankfully the salesman is nice enough to give her a free loaner Envoy for the weekend. The loaner didn't have all the bells and whistles that hers is equipped with, but it was good to see how the truck would do on a weekend trip up north.

After all the frustration at our respective dealerships, we packed up the Big Pimp and hit the road. Guinness had mixed reviews of the Envoy right off the bat. There was more room for him in the back of this SUV than there was in the back of my truck, but there was also an extra row of seats between him and his daddy. It took him a little longer than usual to calm down back there, but eventually he seemed rather fond of all the room to stretch and lay as he pleased.

Saturday and Sunday we had nearly perfect weather, and spent a good part of each day on the boat just soaking up the sun and frolicking in the water. The time we spent up there doing a whole bunch of nothing was some of the best time I have spent this summer.