So, Yeah.

A few people have recently commented on my lack of picture updates. Rest assured I am still taking at least one picture every day, but most of these pics are very boring and not anything I would really want to look at, much less show anyone and explain the story behind. Now that the weather is warming up, I plan to get out and take more pics around the metro Detroit area....assuming I get my motorcycle back together soon and that's it's running when I do. Speaking of, here is a pic of what I took off my bike the other day.

This is what my exhaust currently looks like, laying next to my bike instead of on it. This all started because I need to jack up my bike and change my front tire. The exhaust is aftermarket, and gets in the way of the center stand and my motorcycle jack....so it needed to come off. Now I am thinking of replacing it with a new Vance and Hines exhaust, and looking to do even more maintenance on the bike since it's already out of commission. A tune up and general preventive maintenance seems appropriate now but the more I do, the more I want to do. I am afraid I am going to go from having a bike in working order to a bunch of parts strewn about that could resemble a bike once put back together.

Thank the motorcycle gods for my Clymer manual.

No Phone, Mo Problems

I really don't like forgetting my phone at home when I leave for work. It's good to know that I can live without it for 10 hours, but it's such a pain. On slower days at work I send text messages. A LOT of text messages. No phone, no texts. I am forever using the calendar function on my phone to see what I have going on any day or weekend I a show or festival I want to check out will be in town. This is actually how I found out I wouldn't be seeing NIN this year, and I am surprised my phone survived that day.

My phone also has a calculator I use to figure out the MPG for my bike any time I fill up. It of course has a camera in case I want to capture anything I see during the day, and this camera has taken many pictures that I reference very often. This is what actually spurred my blog today. I took quite a few pictures and videos with my phone while in Vegas, and wanted to check a couple of them out....sorry.

At least I know my phone will be fully charged tonight.

Another Pic-a-Day Update

Here are the photos I had trouble uploading the other day, and a couple more to get me up to date through yesterday.

Click on the pics to see a bigger version.

Jan 14th:I nearly forgot to take a picture on the 14th, and had to do this just before midnight as I was preparing the garbage to be taken to the curb. Guinness' old food bags make very good heavy-duty garbage bags when I have something heavy or sharp to toss out.

Jan 15th:
Of course I didn't expect to see this a couple hours later when I walked out to my car. It was cold when I went to bed, but it hadn't started snowing. This pic is a little blurry as it was really dark out and I took it without flash. I had the shutter open quite a while, and was shivering as I was holding it.

Jan 16th:
VEGAS!

My reservation at MGM for April. I am soooo looking forward to this already, even though it's over 3 months away. BTW, that's not my real confirmation number in case anyone has any ideas about changing my reservation.

Jan 17th:
My cousin Denise and her devil dogs. I took Guinness with me when I went over to her house that night to eat dinner. He was shocked to see them get up on the couch and looked like he was waiting for me to yell at them the same way he'd get yelled at if he tried that at home.

Jan 18th:
With the high temp at about 20 degrees, I doubt seeing this happening at a house in my neighborhood could have been very good.

MMR #2, Alien

Movie number 51 on the IMDB top 250 when I started this project was Alien. I had seen this movie when I was younger, but didn't remember that much about it. There is a good reason for that....there wasn't too much to this movie.

The plot is very simple. 7 crew members on a cargo ship bound for Earth carrying a bunch of intergalactic ore are awaken from their "cryo-sleep" early when the ship's computer receives a transmission from another ship nearby.

They go to a planet which seems uninhabitable where 3 crew members stumble onto a
crash site and find a bunch of pods or eggs or something. One of those pops open and the entity inside affixes itself to the face of a crew member. They take him back to the ship where the ship's 3rd in command, Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) refuses to let them past the airlock without being quarantined for 24 hours, in an effort to protect the others on the ship. The science officer takes it upon himself to override the airlock door and let them in.

After a little while the alien on the face of the crew member shrivels up and dies, and the crew member wakes up. Before going back to their cryo-beds for the rest of the trip home, the crew decides to have dinner together. This is where the infamous scene of the alien busting out of the guy's stomach takes place. After that a whole lot of cat and mouse takes place trying to find and kill the alien.

When the crew has only four of the seven still alive, everyone finds out that the science officer isn't really alive after all. He's a robot that was ordered to get the alien back to Earth alive at all costs, even if it meant the entire crew had to die. The three remaining crew members "kill" the robot and decide it's time to get in the shuttle and blow up the ship with the Alien still on it.

Only Ripley makes it to the shuttle alive before the ship blows up, and after a gratuitous underwear scene she realizes she's not alone on the ship. Somehow the alien snuck onto the shuttle while her dumb ass was chasing a cat around the mothership.

Of course she outsmarts the alien and ejects him from the shuttle, sends a message out to any ship in the area that could rescue her, and gets into her cryosleep chamber.

Overall this was a pretty good movie, but seeing as it was made in 1979 the special effects are very dated. I certainly wouldn't put this movie in the top 52, but considering I am too young to remember how other movies were in 1979, maybe it's deserving. Overall I would rate Alien a 7 out of 10.

Tonight I'll be watching A Clockwork Orange, which I've never seen and am excited to check out. The review should be up in the next couple days.

Pic-a-Day Project Update and MMR #2

Amazing how I say I need to update more often, then I actually take longer to post my next update than I had before, isn't it? I will truly make an effort to upload pics more often, and should have the next one up by Sunday at the latest.

This time around I am going to use Blogger to upload my pics instead of photobucket. If there are any problems, let me know. Click on the photo to see the actual size.

Jan 10th:
A boring Thursday night looking ahead to a busy Friday at work. Lots of important people to impress, gotta keep those shirts nice and white.

Jan 11th:
This is not my dog. For a while there I thought about adopting it, but just couldn't justify it with my schedule since she is only (approximately) four months old. I found her running alongside the entrance ramp to I-94 when I was driving home from work. A few minutes earlier, I never would have seen her. A few minutes later, she probably would have ended up as road kill. She came right to me when I stopped to get her. Let me pick her up and put her in my truck with no issue whatsoever. She even laid down on the ride to my house, which I still can't get Guinness to do in the car. Brought her in the house when I came in to get my phone which I had forgotten when I went into work that morning, and she was well behaved. She met Guinness and they got along so well that he was disappointed when I took her to the shelter, and seemed even moreso when I came back without her. I haven't seen him act that way since Kira was still his partner in crime.

It is hard for me to believe it's just coincidence. Which made it so much harder today when I told the people at the shelter I couldn't adopt her. I hope they find her a really good home, because this is probably going to bother me for a while....

Jan 12th:
During the Patriots/Jaguars game Pam begins to speculate on the size of Tim Brady's....well, you get the idea.

Jan 13th:MEAT!

My bowl of delicious pork products, with a little pasta in there, at Mongolian. Notice the size difference between my portion and Sarah's portion there on the left. Even with the rice she couldn't come close to the amount of calories I was about to ingest.

Even the best laid plans don't always work out, so I guess I shouldn't be so disappointed that blogger isn't letting me upload pictures right now....after I changed my layout (yet again) to conform with the blogger pics instead of the photobucket pics.

I'll try and load the rest of the pics and put up MMR#2 after dinner.

Pic-a-Day Update

I really need to update this more frequently, as I have almost an entire week's worth of pictures to post now. Now that I have gotten in the habit of taking my camera with me just about everywhere, the pics will be the easy part of this silly project and the hard part will be juggling when to post picture updates, movie review updates, and regular blog posts.

On to the pictures!

Jan 4th:
With a sink full of dishes, what are two single guys to do when dinner time comes? Pizza is always good at times like this because it comes with it's own container that you can eat right out of....

Jan 5th:
This picture was originally supposed to be the ravioli I was cooking right before Mark, Sarah, and I headed out to the east side for Justin's party....BUT something happened just I was about to serve myself dinner, and now we have this. Story is; I had just finished pouring my sauce onto my pasta when the bread I was microwaving in this container was done heating up. I turned off the burner, placed the sauce pot into the sink, and the styrofoam container with the bread in it on the burner which I guess was still hot. I left the kitchen to wash my hands because it's now time to eat, and when I come back about 2 minutes later....there's a fire on top of my stove. Again. Fret not, the fire cause no more damage than what you see here. And most importantly, the bread was not harmed in the fire.

Jan 6th:
Less than a week ago there was about a foot or so of snow on the ground around here. Sunday began the unseasonable warm-up, and this fog was the result of the quick snow melt. This pic was taken at Rotary Park in Livonia just after I left Marc's house following our day at the Motorcycle Expo in Novi and lunch at Mongo.

Jan 7th:
For the 7th I had many options for pics, and was pretty sure I would post the pic of my bike seeing as it's not very often that you get to ride a motorcycle in Detroit in the first week of the year. Thinking about it though, I am sure to have a bunch of motorcycle related pics throughout Spring and Summer, so this picture made a little more sense. This is a wall at Logan's Road house where I went to dinner with my mom, aunt, cousin, and cousin's husband.

Jan 8th:
I didn't get much accomplished on the 8th, so this pic is a little bit of a cheat. I didn't take this picture. I took a picture OF this picture, but it didn't turn out well....so I decided to use the original. This pic was on a blog I found when I signed in to leave Sarah a comment on her blog. On the blogger dashboard I noticed that one of the recently updated blogs was titled "Max's Blog". I had to check it out. This was the last picture of the last post from his blog, and I found the irony of it all quite amusing.

Jan 9th:
In an effort to save money and lose weight, I am eating more often at home. This lovely bowl of cottage cheese was my whole dinner tonight.

MMR #1

Max's Movie Review #1:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,
#52 on the IMDB Top 250.

This was an interesting film to start my movie reviews with. I have never seen it, or any other Humphrey Bogart film, and had no idea what to expect.

The movie starts off simple enough; a down on his luck American (Fred C. Dobbs, played by Bogart) stuck begging for money from fellow Americans in a small town in Mexico. I'm sure the name of the town was mentioned in the movie, but I honestly never did catch it.

The plot really starts to form a few minutes in when Dobbs asks the same man for money for the third time in one day with his vintage line of "would you stake a fellow American in a meal?". The man does in fact give him money again, this time twice the amount he had the two previous times, but rips into him a little for having the audacity to ask him so often in one day.

Soon thereafter, Dobbs finds another American in the city who is offering up jobs with good pay. For a couple weeks he works on this job with his new found friend Curtain (played by some dude who looks a whole lot like someone I can't think of) until they ferry back to town and the their boss on the job tells them to meet him at the pub in an hour to get their pay, and gives them 10 pesos as down payment. Dude doesn't show, they use the down payment to get drunk, then get a couple of cots at a local flophouse.

Here's where the story starts to really form. In the flophouse they meet Howard, an old timer that claims to have struck it rich before panning for gold. Soon thereafter Curtain and Dobbs finally get their money, and they are off to the mountains in search of their fortune.


There are a few twists and turns along the way, and if you haven't seen this movie yet I would suggest you check it out. The second half of the movie had two genuine laugh out loud moments for me. The first involves banditos. I had no idea one of the lines I would hear from a random bandito would be something very famous. The other involves a blooper with the camera panning too far to the left in one scene and revealing part of the set that shouldn't have made it on camera.

Overall I think I'd rate this movie at 7.5 on a ten point scale. If you are into old movies, this could jump by as much as a point and a half, and if you are someone who seems allergic to black and white on a TV, it would probably drop by a point and a half.

In a couple days I'll review the #51 movie and hopefully have a better review up here a couple days later.

New and Improved for 2008!

That's just about how I come into every new year. I don't have too many resolutions per se, but each year I want to do a lot of things in my day-to-day life a lot better. Of course this year is no exception, but this time around I have outlined a couple different projects to tackle on a regular basis.

The first project I came up with was a picture-a-day. I need to take one picture each day illustrating something I did that day, somewhere I was, topic of conversation, etc. This was meant to get me to take my camera out with me more often so I can get some really good pictures when the situation arises. I thought of it a couple weeks ago when most of Detroit was blanketed in fog, and from my window at work high above the fog I was forced to take some pictures with my camera phone instead of getting some really sweet ass pictures if I would have brought my camera with me that day.

Later in the week I came up with another idea, out of sheer boredom at work. I was looking up some info on The Matrix at imdb when I noticed it was in the IMDB Top 250. I looked over the top 25 and top 50 movies and realized that, for someone who claims to love movies, I really haven't seen enough of the best movies of all time. So my second project will be to watch one movie per week, starting with movie #52 and working my way to #1, and give a short review of it here.

Pic-a-Day:

Since we are only 4 days into 2008, I don't have much to put here....but it's a start.

Jan 1st:


This is the monkey I velcroed to Marc's belt as he tried to sleep well after midnight on NYE. Last New Year's, a few of us took much joy in constantly deflating the big man's air mattress as he slept in the living room at The Ranch. This time around he had a room to sleep in, but no closed door could keep me from deflating his hopes of a good night's sleep. The monkey was an innocent bystander until I saw him hanging from the closet door.

Jan 2nd:


The first of my movies, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre". A review shall appear here sooner rather than later.

Jan 3rd:
Here we have just about every plate and utensil I own, along with a few pots and pans, and even a few more glasses. With my roommate and I both making a dish to take to The Ranch on NYE, the sink got full rather quickly. Unfortunately for my roommate, the dishes are his household chore. Unfortunately for me, there are no clean utensils in the house now as he still hasn't gotten around to this chore. This became my picture of the day because I tried to eat something with a fork last night and stumbled upon this as I looked for a clean one.

That's all for now since my Jan 4th pic is still pending, but check back soon as I am sure I will get one or two amusing pictures in here before long.

Merry Effing Xmas, Amazon

My parents are the hardest people for me to buy gifts for. If either of them sees anything they want, they buy it. I am the same way, so now I know how hard it is to get me a gift....

Every year I spend a ton of time looking for one or two good Christmas presents for them. Usually I end up with something that is just OK in my book, but it's the thought that counts right? I decided to do as much of my xmas shopping for this year online as I could. Somewhere in there I managed to find a gift I was excited to get for my parents. It was something I know they'd love and, just as important, something they would never think to buy themselves. So I add it to my Amazon cart and purchase it, along with a few gifts for Sarah.

Fast forward a week or so. I have everything I ordered for Sarah, yet the mom and dad gift that was supposed to ship with Sarah's stuff is still en route. Or so I thought. At 1:24 am this morning they sent me an e-mail letting me know that even though they guaranteed I'd have it by the 24th, it was not in stock and they had to cancel it from my order. Five days before Christmas.

So for once, I don't procrastinate and I still get to mill around with all the idiots looking for last minute gifts in the malls around here.

Last week, someone at work offered up an innovative idea on how to relieve stress. If you need to talk to me any time soon, I'll be out looking for some pigeons to kick.

Changes

When I got home from work today, I decided I would play 3 or 5 heads up matches and see if I got winner or not before pressing on. Upon opening Full Tilt, I got a new update. Probably something I won't even notice I thought. Ha! This update added a rematch option for heads up SNGs. BRILLIANT! How many times have you outplayed someone heads up only to lose to a suckout or complete crap luck and hurried back to the menu to try and catch that player again before someone else got the chance to take YOUR money from him/her?

I know I have had this happen quite a few times, often missing the person I wanted to play and getting someone else much better as I kept my eye on the player who was busy giving away my money. Needless to say, I thought this addition was great. At first. I posted a 15-11 (.577) record for the day heads up, but that included 4 consecutive losses to someone that I really thought I was outplaying. When I finally beat him in the fifth match, he declined my offer for a rematch. Ugh. I found him right away and sat down in another HU game with him and asked, politely, why he didn't let me have a chance to win back my money after I rematched him every time he won. His answer didn't satisfy me, and I ended up dismantling him pretty quickly and, of course, politely before he "headed off to dinner". I'm still down 2-4 to this guy, but will definitely be looking for him very soon to pull my money back out of his pockets.

Other than that little hiccup, I am very happy with my play and results today. 2-4 against him and 13-7 (.650) against the rest of my opponents. I spent way too much time and energy in the process, but I did end the day up a couple SNG buy-ins after the rake, and got pretty hot at the right time on a limit table in the process. I think I spent about 45 minutes playing two cash games while playing my heads up matches, and in about 20 minutes on the one table I was up 1.5 buy ins....in a limit game. Small stakes may be a big headache for the amount of money you win, but the skill level is still terrible and the tables often produce a decent profit for a good player. Not to mention, it gives me a lot of material for my Low Limit Hand of the Week.

In Dreams v2.0

Not much in the way of details for my dreams last night, but one thing did stick out to me. I was either the manager or owner of a local bar/brewery. We found a niche market.....a VERY niche market. Our best selling beer was made with a certain group of people in mind. This beer was made specifically for homosexual Jewish males and was a kosher pale ale called He-Brew.

In Dreams

It's no secret that I often have trouble sleeping. By nature I am a night owl. By work schedule I am an early riser. Those two things don't always work well with each other. Saturday night/Sunday morning I didn't go to bed until about 6 am....24 hours before I had to be at work the next day. Somehow in that 24 hours I had to find a way to get two full nights of sleep. Easier said than done.

I set an alarm to get me up around 11 on Sunday to do all my NFL picks and manage my FFL teams. It seems that in a couple weeks I won't have to worry about any of that as I am pretty sure to miss the playoffs in all three of my leagues, and my NFL picks are just sucking ass this year. Oh well.


So last night I get to bed at a decent hour after a nice meal with my girlfriend's family. Full stomach, tired....I should have slept really well. But when does that happen on a Sunday? I tossed and turned all night but did get some sleep in there somewhere, because I remember a couple dreams. The one that sticks out the most is the one I probably remember the fewest details from, but the one big thing I remember was very strange. Strange enough to make me realize it was a dream while I was still dreaming it.

Long story short, a bunch of my friends and I were hanging out at my house (which is usually the house I grew up in when I am dreaming) before we went out to the bar. When we went outside to drive to the bar, we all ended up "driving" separately because we were all piloting our own beds. We all laid face down on single mattresses on bed frames that rolled, and paddled with our arms like we were on surfboards. Navigating the neighborhood was no big deal, but when we got to a busier road, I started to wonder how all of us were going to paddle at like .5 mph when the speed limit was 45 mph.

I was the second bed at the stop sign turning right on to the road, and when the guy in front of me took off at like 50 mph (with bad Star Trek FX even) I realized that it was a dream and woke up. I was somewhat disappointed that I woke up at that time, because every now and then I realize I am dreaming when I am in a dream and go along with it. It's very cool to be in control of a dream.

Also at one point last night I woke up from a dream because I could smell something. I don't know if I have ever noticed whether or not my sense of smell is active in a dream before, but it kind of freaked me out when it happened last night. It was so real that I have a scent memory of it.

Hopefully sometime tomorrow I will remember to look into the whole "smell while dreaming" thing, but that will have to wait as my weird ass dreams are calling me to bed once again.

Evil

While cleaning the house the weekend before last I came across some things I forgot I still had. Things that I meant to throw away. Things that reminded me of a time a few years back when I wasn't as nice of a person as I am today. Reminders of some purely evil things I had done. Things I'll never discuss.

It's scary to know that I justified everything that I did. It was rather easy to do actually because nothing I did was illegal, and that used to be something that I relied on as a moral compass. The law. Kind of laughable really.

When I found these things, I was very surprised that I hadn't gotten rid of them. Why would I want to keep them? I set them aside to make sure I got rid of them. Then....I packed them away again. I decided that it might be a good idea to keep them around. I don't see how it could be bad to remind myself of things I used to do that I never want to be able to justify again.

I'm It?

Somewhere during my little bday break I was tagged by JamyHawk. I've never been one to play along with these types of reindeer games, but I don't see what would stop me now that I am making an honest effort to be an active part of the community once more.

Although I am going to go along with this, it's going to have to wait a day or two....and since I haven't really been reading blogs lately, I doubt I will end up tagging any poker bloggers. What a shame huh?

Birthday

So I took a few days off or birthday celebration stuff. Got some cool gifts, got too much food and dessert.

I have, however, discovered an equation that I never knew existed.

Crunch Berries = Love

NFL Week 9

I had thought about doing a nice write up on a handful of games that I'd be betting on if it wasn't such a pain in the ass to do so where I live....but I am going to be happy enough just watching the Indy/NE game at 4 o'clock, so we'll have to save that for some other time.

I say NE takes it 28-24.

Grab some popcorn and enjoy.

I Could Get Used to This....

My birthday isn't actually until Monday, but the celebrations started yesterday at work with a home made birthday cake of my choosing. Tonight is a night of drinking and gaming fun at the big boy Chuck E Cheese in Novi known as Lucky's. My birthday may actually be the lamest day of birthday celebration for me this year....

My Editor is an Ass

I'm making a serious attempt at getting at least one post up here or at my other blog every day this month and next month. I've been an on and off blogger for more than a couple years, but most of that time has been spent in shut down. I always have a lot to say, and blogs are a wonderful tool for the average guy to get his viewpoint out there....I am just too lazy to post as often as I should.

Actually, that's not the whole story. The truth is I am an asshole of an editor. Nothing is ever good enough for me. Couple that with being a writer with a somewhat fragile ego, and I am truly my own worst enemy when it comes to writing anything. For the next couple months, though, my writer-self and editor-self have agreed on a truce. Hopefully this will help me get more content out there.

Quick note: My birthday celebration is tomorrow night. We're starting off at Lucky's in Novi, and I am sure we'll end up somewhere else later in the night. If anyone is interested in joining these festivities, let me know and I can give you the details.

Day One

My first "must blog" day of my own little two month challenge and I have already put myself behind the 8 ball. My sleep habits have left me very little time to get anything up here, but something is better than nothing. The next few days will be very busy for me, so I'll be sure to post but I am not sure the quality of those posts will be up to par. I'll just consider this weekend a warm-up of sorts for next week when I start talking about something(s) with substance.

Or I'll just rant about my bad poker luck like usual....

Happy Halloween!

This token post should be followed up by an outright barrage of posts the next couple of months. I am going to try to take this blogging thing seriously once more and see if I can get a post up just about every day for the rest of the year.

More soon, stay tuned.

Scott Weiland Loves His Bullhorn

Velvet Revolver rocked DTE tonight. What a great show.

Alice in Chains played a great set too.

If this is my last concert of the summer, it was a good one.


Photo Credit: Happy Walters

Long Time Coming

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything of substance here. I'm not going to change that just yet, but it's been even longer since I posted a silly picture of my dog....so here goes.

Guinness says:
"Michael Vick is a good guy....FOR ME TO POOP ON!"

Briefly

This is why I love HU SNGs on Full Tilt.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2705422933: $11 + $0.50 Heads Up Sit & Go (20629860), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:35:48 ET - 2007/06/18
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Table_Max [6s 8s]
Table_Max calls 15
Opponent raises to 90
Table_Max calls 60
*** FLOP *** [3d Jd Ts]
Opponent bets 90
Table_Max calls 90
*** TURN *** [3d Jd Ts] [3h]
Opponent bets 90
Table_Max raises to 270
Opponent calls 180
*** RIVER *** [3d Jd Ts 3h] [Jh]
Opponent checks
Table_Max bets 750
Opponent folds
Uncalled bet of 750 returned to Table_Max
Table_Max mucks
Table_Max wins the pot (900)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 900 | Rake 0
Board: [3d Jd Ts 3h Jh]
Seat 1: Opponent (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: Table_Max (small blind) collected (900), mucked



Full Tilt Poker Game #2705430713: $11 + $0.50 Heads Up Sit & Go (20629860), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:36:30 ET - 2007/06/18
Seat 1: Opponent (1,050)
Seat 2: Table_Max (1,950)
Opponent posts the small blind of 15
Table_Max posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Table_Max [Td 4h]
Opponent calls 15
Table_Max checks
*** FLOP *** [7s 8h 6c]
Table_Max bets 30
Opponent calls 30
*** TURN *** [7s 8h 6c] [2c]
Table_Max bets 60
Opponent calls 60
*** RIVER *** [7s 8h 6c 2c] [9h]
Table_Max bets 240
Opponent raises to 480
Table_Max raises to 1,830, and is all in
Opponent has 15 seconds left to act
Opponent calls 450, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 900 returned to Table_Max
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Table_Max shows [Td 4h] a straight, Ten high
Opponent mucks
Table_Max wins the pot (2,100) with a straight, Ten high
Table_Max: gg
Opponent stands up
Table_Max stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,100 | Rake 0
Board: [7s 8h 6c 2c 9h]
Seat 1: Opponent (small blind) mucked [5d Ah] - a straight, Nine high
Seat 2: Table_Max (big blind) showed [Td 4h] and won (2,100) with a straight, Ten high

Yep, two hands. This happens a lot more than you would think....

Trifecta Therapy

Insomnia has made an unwelcome return to my life this week. It has been creeping up on me for a few weeks, making a surprise appearance here and there, but this week is the longest bout I’ve had to deal with in quite a while.

Years ago I battled it long and hard, after living with it for several months. Actually at that point in my life it wasn’t so bad. I was still in school, working full time, and had a more than full time girlfriend. Time was at a premium then, and walking around like a zombie for days on end was probably very good for my relationship at the time.

When school settled down a bit and my work schedule was cut I figured the insomnia would die down. After a couple weeks I realized it wasn’t going anywhere and looked for answers. It seems there are a ton of “experts” who have foolproof ways to fight insomnia, or maybe it was a ton of fools with expertproof ways. Either way, I tried most of them. Some seemed very plausible, eating or drinking certain things at certain times of the day made a lot of sense to me Give your body what it needs when it needs it, and this should help restore your circadian rhythm. Others seemed ridiculous, like taping a coin to each of my temples and covering them by wrapping a tube sock around my head, but it seemed I should try them just in case. No luck with the dozens of “cures” I tried.

After many months I found that a balanced diet, lots of time in the gym, and a very active sex life combined to be the best way for me to treat my problem. Even with other issues stressing me out at the time, these three things kept me sleeping well night after night.

In the last few months I have been more active, and have been eating a healthier diet than I had been for quite a while. My stress levels have been low, and I am very happy in my personal life. This week has been somewhat of a break from that. My stress levels have risen and I haven’t been as active as usual, partially due to the weather, which should change this weekend. And now not only is my sleep affected, but I also have this amazing bouncing knee that won’t stop anytime I am sitting in a chair. I’m a zombie with restless leg syndrome.

I know that I need to continue to pursue my insomnia treatment trifecta, and I really hope this weekend will do a lot to get me back on track. Maybe by Sunday night I’ll be in bed at a normal hour getting some much needed rest. Or maybe I’ll just play in the blogger Big Game and/or the FTOPS ME which has more than a quarter million dollar payout for the winner. That would definitely help me sleep better at night.

Speaking of poker, I think I need to find the time to enter a live tourney or at least get a home poker night together with some friends soon. I’ve been playing exclusively online all this year. I haven’t played a serious hand of live poker all year. I like playing on Full Tilt and all, but I am mostly playing limit right now to grind the bankroll to a respectable level and, like I always said about dealing black jack when I was at MGM, I could teach a drunk monkey to do that. It’s not always fun to be on auto-pilot when I am on the digital felt, and with the problems involved with reloading online right now, I need to have a little more padding to account for variance. Smart and responsible poker isn’t always fun and entertaining poker.

Western Conference

My ramble on gene got the best of me yesterday and I didn’t have enough time to get out my thoughts on the Western Conference Finals which begin tonight when the Ducks come to Hockeytown to take on the Red Wings. The puck drops in less than 11 hours, and there are still many good seats available. It’s amazing what can happen to a team with a great fan base when ownership keeps raising ticket prices. Wasn’t there a lockout recently that led to a salary cap to help the owners from going broke? Didn’t the Wings payroll decrease by 40-50% after said lockout? How is it that I got two tickets for game 1 of the Pistons/Bulls series for 60% of what it would cost me to take my mom to a Wings game for mother’s day? Especially considering I sat only 6 rows behind Pistons owner Bill Davidson for game one, and the Wings tickets for Sunday were 18 rows from the glass in the corner. Did I mention the Pistons have sold out 181 consecutive games?

OK, enough of the anti-Illitch rant. He’s done some great things for the city of Detroit so I can’t get on him too much, but I think he needs to learn a little more about the basic rules of supply and demand. The Wings used to be the only game in town this time of the year, but with the great success of the Pistons over the last few years and the recent revival of the Tigers, there are other options for sports fans right now that cost a fraction of the price.

Looks like my ramble gene is still in high gear. Sorry, it’s hereditary. But now, on to the series breakdown.

Western Conference:

#1 Detroit vs #2 Anaheim

While I think the Eastern Conference Finals will be the most entertaining series for casual fans of the NHL to watch, I’m pretty sure the hockey snobs purists will like watching this series a lot more. Both of these teams play great defense (all three Norris Trophy finalists are playing in this series) and have good goalies with playoff experience. Giguere has won the Conn Smythe Trophy, but not a Stanley Cup, while Dominik Hasek has won six consecutive playoff series wearing the winged wheel (including our most recent Stanley Cup victory) and is playing as good at 42 as he did while winning the cup 5 years ago.

One of the first things you will notice about this year’s Red Wings team when you watch them play is that while they are still a great puck possession team they also have a lot of grit and can play a more physical game when needed. That was important in the first two series this year, and should play a major role in this series as well. The Wings are a very balanced team, and may be the most versatile in the league. At times they look unbeatable offensively and defensively, but this versatility also has its drawbacks as the Wings can look like a team without an identity from time to time and actually look a little lost in their offensive zone or on the power play.

This is not the case for Anaheim. The Ducks know how to play D as well as anyone in the league and have two of the three Norris Trophy finalists on their blue line in Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, as well as a Selke Award (best defensive forward) finalist in Samuel Pahlsson. And if you happen to work the puck through these tough defensemen and forwards, you still have Giguere to deal with. It’s because of this defense first philosophy and outstanding defensive talent that the Ducks have only had one game during the playoffs where they have given up more than 2 goals, and have only lost two games out of the ten they have played.

I really think this series can go either way, but the longer the series goes the better it is for the Ducks. In my opinion the Wings will have to get on Anaheim’s D pretty quickly in each game and shove a couple goals down Giguere’s throat right away to be successful. The longer the game goes, the more the Ducks D will get a feel for the Detroit game plan and adjust to it. The Ducks are probably the best in the NHL at dissecting an offense and reacting to it, which in turn leads to scoring chances off of turnovers from frustrated foes. While the Wings are less likely to get frustrated with a defense, it does happen and some players will try to force a play or make an ill-advised pass that could work against most other teams, but not usually against the Ducks.

Like I said before I think this series can go either way, and as a Wings fan I’ll remain optimistic about our chances, but I really think I have to give Anaheim the edge in this series. Even though Detroit doesn’t make many mistakes in any game, when they do make them they are pretty severe and Anaheim is a lot more capable of capitalizing on those mistakes than the Flames or the Sharks were. Blue line fatigue will become a factor as our top defensemen will be forced into more ice time with the loss of Mathieu Schneider, who just happened to be the quarterback of the Wings power play. I just don’t think the Wings can overcome losing a player as important as Schneider, and the Ducks will go on to the Stanley Cup finals.

Pick: Anaheim in 7

More Hockey Stuff

Two rounds and twelve teams down, two rounds and four teams left. Generally speaking, the first two rounds of the NHL playoffs are usually easy money for anyone that knows anything about the game. Case in point; I have not paid nearly as much attention to the game since the lockout that I did before it and I have gone 11-1 picking the winners in each series so far. No matter how bad I do from here on out, the worst I can be is 11-4. And that might end up being the case because I am a lot less confident about these match ups than I was about the first two rounds, but seeing as I love sports and betting on playoff games and series I’ll stick it out for the rest of the Stanley Cup run.

So now that I got the bragging about my 11-1 record in the first two rounds out of the way, twice now, here are my picks for the Conference Finals.

Eastern Conference:

#1 Buffalo vs #4 Ottawa

I’ve felt all along that Buffalo was the team to beat in the playoffs, and even though they didn’t sweep the Rangers like I had thought I still feel the same. Ottawa did a great job in taking out the Devils last round (my only wrong pick so far), but I really think that New Jersey did more to lose that series than Ottawa did to win it. I really don't want to take anything away from Ottawa's win, as they are a very good team, but I feel that New Jersey would have taken them down if both teams were playing their respective A games throughout the series. That being said, I think Buffalo could take Ottawa even if the Sabres only bring their B+ game every night.

These games should be fast paced with both teams getting a lot of quality scoring chances. This could very well be the best series of the entire playoffs for the fans who aren’t hockey purists. I don’t know that the games will all be high scoring, it’s hard to tell how either goalie will handle the pressure of this series while facing a lot of tough shots. Both goalies have played very well so far, and I am really starting to respect Ray Emery’s (OTT) focus and mental toughness. That being said, I really think that Ryan Miller will be the deciding factor in this series. The kid is a puck magnet. I think he’s let up 2 rebounds so far in 11 playoff games. OK I am probably exaggerating a little here, but that’s what it seems like to me. As a shooter, you better get the puck past him on the first attempt because it’s very unlikely that puck is gonna bounce back your way.

Buffalo’s biggest challenge will be finding a way to contain Ottawa’s top line of Heatley, Alfredsson, and Spezza who have combined for 16 goals in 10 games. All of the other forwards for the Sens have combined for only 11 goals. Buffalo will try to keep Tallinder and Lydman out there whenever Ottawa has their top line on the ice. This defensive pairing did a good job against the Rangers top line last series, and should give Miller a decent look at most of the shots from Heatley and company.

I think this series will go six games and seem a lot tighter than it actually is. This series should be exactly what the NHL was hoping to get after tweaking the rules in recent years to open up the games a little, and therefore should be a lot more entertaining for a wider base of fans….if anyone watches that is. Two small market teams in America’s least favorite “major” sport who have avid fan bases in their respective markets, but no real broad appeal elsewhere. Sidney Crosby may be the player the NHL is counting on to bring more fans to the game, but I think this series could help do that sooner, if only the NHL could get it out there for more people to see,

Pick: Buffalo in 6 (and leaning toward taking the OVER in every game of the series)

Since I rambled on too long about the Eastern Conference match up, I don’t have any time left to do my Western Conference breakdown today. Look for it tomorrow.

Tonight’s picks:

Pistons +2.5

Buffalo -140

Buf/Ott OVER 5

End of the Month

Just played my last session of poker for the month of April. I have played 12 cash game sessions this month and have turned a profit in 11 of those. Most of those 11 were small wins seeing me walk away 4-10 BBs ahead from when I sat down, but all but one of those sessions lasted more than 90 minutes.

I am nowhere near being able to pay for a trip to Vegas solely with my poker winnings this year, but if I can keep my cash game tight throughout spring and into the summer I might just have to spend a week out there during the WSOP just to take advantage of the side action. With decent cards and/or luck I am pretty sure I can win more than enough to freeroll myself into one of the smaller buy-in events.

Hell, if I can book a few big wins in the coming month I might be able to move up to a limit where the money actually means something. I've still got a few leaks here and there, but my profit per hour keeps creeping up toward my hourly wage at work. Hopefully in the next couple months I'll be making more per hour with my "side job" than I am at my 9-5.

In other news, the Lions seemed to have another sub par draft this year. We really couldn't mess up the second pick as far as I am concerned, and I really like the idea of having Calvin Johnson on this team. But it seems that everyone in the war room was too busy giving each other congratulatory blowjobs the rest of the day to pay attention to who was out there that could actually help the team this year, instead of holding a clipboard as a third string QB or playing on kick coverage teams.

Other than that the weekend weather was great and it really looks like spring is finally here. I am looking forward to many a lazy afternoon on the porch watching the hilarity that is my neighborhood in the summer.

The Pistons looked good disposing of the Magic in 4 games, while Chicago did the same to the Heat. I can't wait to see what the crowd is like when the Bulls come to town for games one and two of our series.

The Red Wings looked pretty good against Calgary in the first round, but playing the Sharks is a whole different story. San Jose is a much better team than Calgary, and we suffered a couple injuries in round one that might really effect the next few games of round two. As I sit here game three in San Jose is tied 0-0 halfway through the first period, with the series tied at one game apiece.

Last but not least, my golf game still sucks....but it's not any worse than the guys I play with so I am ok. After spotting Mark and Mark three strokes on the first hole yesterday I only finished two strokes behind them for the nine holes we played. My short game failed me and I three putted on three different holes because I misread the cut and/or the speed on the green. After a few more days at the range and a couple more rounds I should be able to get a decent swing back and play well enough through the summer.

NHL Round One Results

So I was a little off on the number of games for most of the series, but I did manage to correctly pick who would move on to the next round and who was going to be hitting the golf course early. I am not as confident in my second round picks, but here they are anyway.

Detroit vs San Jose:
With my Wings a little banged up going into our matchup against San Jose I am a little worried. With all the pressure on this team to win a playoff series, I hope that they can focus on round two now that they have finally beaten a team they are supposed to in the first round of the playoffs. Hasek has been playing well enough to carry us to the finals, and if he gets some defensive support in this series we should advance in 6 or less. Normally I would bet the Wings on the money line for game one at home in any playoff series, but I think the Sharks may come in and steal this game.
Pick: Detroit in 6

Anaheim vs Vancouver:
I think the long Dallas series will really take it's toll on Vancouver. They will be fired up for the first couple games in Anaheim, which is good, and I'd look for them to seriously push the Ducks in those games but I just think Anaheim is gonna grind them down and take the series pretty handily.
Pick: Anaheim in 5

Buffalo vs NYR:
It's no fluke that Buffalo was the best team in the regular season. Usually in the NHL that doesn't mean much in the playoffs, but I really don't see the Rangers hanging with the Sabres this series. This could be painful for NY.
Pick: Buffalo in 4

NJ vs Ottawa:
I think this will be the best series of the second round and could go either way. I really think it will come down to goaltending, and for my money there hasn't been a better pressure goalie in the NHL the last decade or so than Martin Brodeur. He looked someone average in the first couple games against Tampa Bay, but the defense shored up in front of him after that and he played very well the rest of the series. NJ could ride his play to the finals, and if they do he will almost certainly be a lock for the Conn-Smythe no matter who wins the cup.
Pick: NJ in 6

Today's Picks

I wanted to get more of these in this week, but hey.

Detroit -240
Det/Cal under 5
Ottawa +115
Ott/Pit under 6.5

NHL playoff games are all about match-ups and adjustments to those match-ups. Game 2 between the Wings and Flames should be relatively low scoring. I see a 2-0 or 2-1 game.

After playing a high energy game just yesterday, Ottawa and Pittsburgh should play a little tired today. Both teams need to make quite a few adjustments. I believe the Senators will implement their adjustments a lot better than the Penguins, but coming home will mean a lot to Pittsburgh. Ottawa should get on the board early to take the crowd down a notch.

NHL First Round

I used to make brackets every year for the NHL playoffs to see how well I was really paying attention to the game throughout the year. This year I have paid little attention to the game itself and have relied more on stats to tell me about the games and match-ups. Here are my thoughts on round one.

Eastern Conference

#1 Buffalo vs #8. NY Islanders
I really don’t see the Sabres having too much of a problem with the Isles. NY may win game 3 or 4 at home, but I think that’s about it.
Pick: Buffalo in 5

#2 New Jersey vs #7 Tampa Bay
Another series where I think the lower seed is really overmatched. Martin Brodeur is a machine. 2.18 GAA this season (3rd in NHL, 1st in East) in 78 games (1st in NHL). Impressive stats for a goalie, but even more I think it’s a great indicator of how well this NJ team plays as a whole. Tampa might be able to take a game at home, but I doubt it.
Pick: NJ in 4

#3 Atlanta vs #6 NY Rangers
I really like the Rangers team this year and think that they will take this series if they get some good play in goal. I think they will steal a game in Atlanta and lock up the series in NY in game 6. If they don’t take it in six, I don’t think the win game 7 in Atlanta.
Pick: NYR in 6

#4 Ottawa vs #5 Pittsburgh
Nothing would please the NHL front office more than the Pens making it deep into the playoffs led by the great play of Sidney Crosby. I think Crosby will play well and could cause some match-up issues for the Senators, but I think Ottawa will prevail. I also think all seven games will be very close 1-2 goal difference games.
Pick: Ottawa in 7

Western Conference

#1 Detroit vs #8 Calgary
Being a Red Wing homer I always get a little too optimistic in the first round of the playoffs considering the Wings track record over the last few years. That being said, I think this team is ready for anything and barring any major injuries (keep and eye on Bertuzzi) we should take this series handily, with the possibility of a sweep. Look for Hasek to get 2 shutouts in this series.
Pick: Detroit in 5

#2 Anaheim vs #7 Minnesota
Another series that could be a sweep, but I think that Backstrom might just stand on his head in one or two games and really frustrate the Ducks. Even if he handles the playoffs as well as he handled the regular season, I don’t think he can keep his GAA under 2 in this series and it may actually end up being double that when all is said and done.
Pick: Anaheim in 5

#3 Vancouver vs #6 Dallas
I also think this series has the underdog really overmatched and Vancouver should win pretty easily.
Pick: Vancouver in 5

#4 Nashville vs #5 San Jose
This may be the most entertaining match-up in the entire first round. I think that the games will be close, could all be pretty high scoring, and it will go seven games.
Pick: San Jose in 7

St Patrick's Suckage

Well my 9-5 completely botched my plans for St Patrick’s Day. Instead of going out and celebrating with my friends all night and getting pretty well shit faced, I worked a 12 hour shift from 6p-6a. Boo!

After working five straight 12 or 13 hour afternoon/midnight shifts I got up early enough on Saturday to go out and hang with some friends at the bar before I went into work. I was tired, and only about 1/3 of our crew showed up before I had to leave for work, but I still had a good time. Although, it was very weird being the only completely sober person in the bar on St Patty’s Day. A feeling I hope I never experience again.

Driving to work I was already getting texts from my friends saying how much it sucked that I had to work and that they really wanted to hang out with me that night. My responses were pretty simple and short and agreeable, but the whole time I was thinking, “I already know this….I am the one on his way to work for the night.”

It was nice to know that my friends were looking forward to me being there, but of little solace to me as I faced my favorite bar night of the year all alone at work.

At first I thought it would be an ok night because I got two drunk dials from friends by 8 o’clock. Those ended up being the only two though and my night wasn’t as interesting as I would have thought with all of my friends out drinking. At one point I got a text saying that “everyone is crazy” but not much in the way of drunken mutterings after Rob called me and sang the song from Bodyguard to me. Ironically enough, about two hours after that call I was flipping through TV stations in one of the lounges at work and saw that Bodyguard was actually on.

I briefly talked to Sarah on her way from the Brand New concert to the going away house party she was attending that night. I was very glad to hear that she thought that concert was the best one she had seen yet, even though the opening band with the lame name sucked. After a couple minutes on the phone with me she noticed exactly how many drunk drivers were out and decided it would be best to drive without the phone distracting her.

Later on, after a few texts back and forth, I got one that told me to ignore her the rest of the night because she was drinking and gets stupid when she drinks. Seemed like I might get some interesting calls or texts after all, but that was the last I heard from her for the night. Guess she was too worried about her drunk skating form to think about drunk dialing or texting anyone.

The bright side to missing out on St Patty’s Day is that after doing some rough figuring about how much I am going to make from all this crazy OT, I have been looking at the WSOP schedule for this year and found a couple events that I could put this money toward. The last couple years I’ve thought that if I stayed on my game for a couple months leading up to the WSOP and got even a little bit of luck in an event, I could be a serious contender for a bracelet. Of course that’s not possible if you don’t enter any events, but this could very well be the year I put my money where my mouth is. A lot will depend on the traveling costs associated with a week in Vegas during the WSOP, but if it’s not so much that I’d have to borrow from my bankroll to fund it, I could easily see myself there in late June.

Museum Night, Family Day, and Opposite Week; An Update for the Last Week or So

The first full week of March was somewhat of a downer. It all started off with a Monday that saw me angry most of the day for no reason at all. By 1:00 on Friday I was singing the praises of my 9-5 to anyone that would listen because of a few conversations I was part of on Thursday and Friday. By 3:00 I was angry again.

I had plans to go out of town for St Patrick’s Day. I try to go to Chicago that weekend if possible every year to visit Cathy, and it’s been about a year since I have seen her since I wasn’t able to make it to her wedding in November. My 9-5 changed those plans for me.

It’s nice to know that my partner and I are almost irreplaceable at the 9-5, but when emergency situations arise it can be a real pain in the ass. One of these situations came up on Friday and we were required to cover the exec suite 24 hrs/day for the entire week leading up to St Patty’s Day, one of us working 6a-8p and the other working 6p-7a.

I don’t mind the long shifts, but I normally start my day at 6a, and I was tapped for the 6p shift which completely reversed my schedule for the week and got me out of work no earlier than midnight Friday night when I was supposed to be driving to Chicago that very morning. Chicago was scrapped, and other plans were soon made. I was bummed, but I was still going to spend national drinking day with a lot of my close friends.

My anger soon disappeared once I worked out our work schedule for opposite week and got to leave. I was out 30 minutes late, but happy to be gone for the weekend even though I had a ton of errands to run before my date with Sarah. Got the errands done-ish, just didn’t clean the house as much as I had hoped to before she came by.

The date was pretty awesome. We had a good dinner at Union Street where we played Stripper or EMO Slut? Never found out for sure, but I was leaning toward stripper. Normally I would have just asked the girl in question, but wasn’t so sure that would be the best way to start off our date and just let it go.

From there we hit the Detroit Institute of Arts to see the Ansel Adams exhibit. It was effing spectacular. I could have stayed and looked at many of the photos for hours on end, but we ended up leaving after an hour or so because the museum was closing. Or so they thought. We still had some time before the movie started, so I decided that we’d try and find the long way to the theatre and go through the museum. Security didn’t like that and re-routed us about halfway through our journey.

The movie we saw is called The Bridge. I had read a little about it beforehand, and knew that I would see a couple people jump to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge, but wasn’t quite expecting what I ended up seeing. I had no idea that there would be family interviews and a personalization of many of the suicides. Putting names and families to the jumpers made it a lot harder to watch.

From the depressing movie we headed back to my house and hooked up her Gamecube to play some Mario Kart. I haven’t had a Nintendo system since my NES, and had only played Mario Kart once before so I was told I was going to have my ass handed to me. But like I told her, if it’s a racing game she never really stood a chance against me.

I won the first 6 races, and then we split the next six. 12 was enough for us since we both had long days before our date, and we went to bed. Not much sleep to be had that night. We both had visions from the movie playing in our dreams. Add to that the slight, bittersweet discomfort of sharing your bed with someone else for the first time, and the both of us tossed and turned til the sun came up.

Saturday was a poker day as I played in the level two WSOP freeroll that afternoon and hit some cash games after playing many heads-up SNGs. After an astounding 8 game win streak, I ended up losing 3 out of 5 to BJ and decided that HU SNGs were BS and made a lot more money in a 2-4 limit game than I had lost to my eurodonk friend.

Sunday’s weather was awesome and made me look like a genius for scheduling a family BBQ that day more than a week beforehand when it was still snowing a lot around here. I think the real genius of it was getting my cousin and her husband to host and cook all the food that I brought.

Large family dinners are rare for me nowadays and it was a great feeling to have a bunch of us eating at the same table. Even with Denise’s dogs flipping out because they had been locked in the basement, and Guinness flipping over chairs once he saw/heard that I had discovered Denise had a cat. Guinness once went through a window at my house just to chase a cat, he doesn’t like them and I don’t like having to tackle a 115 lb Rottweiler that is hell bent on killing a cat just as we are all sitting down to eat.

The highlight of the evening though was definitely getting to hang out with my nephew Desmond. The kid is so effing cute that it’s hard not to just pick him up and hug him, but making sure that he was cool with Guinness being around kept me occupied enough.

To Blog, Or Not To Blog

One of the reasons I became a member at Suicide Girls was Wil Wheaton. When I heard he was writing over there I decided to sign up so I didn't miss any of his content, and he seemed a perfect fit for the job. What's that? You don't need to be a member to read his stuff? Only if you want to look at the naked women? OK, not important. In my mind he has always been one of the top bloggers out there on the internets. He’s in my top three along with Iggy and Pauly, and unfortunately I’ve been failing to read any of them with regularity recently.

About the time Iggy started his gig over at Poker Works is when I started to read a lot more new (to me) poker blogs. With Poker Works blocked at my 9-5 I could no longer lose my productivity to the Iggy ubers, and the Tao was blocked well before that. In my search for new weekday content, I lost track of my favorite pokerbloggeractor.

The last couple weeks I have been hitting Wil’s blog here and there when I had the time, then yesterday I saw this great post that he put up about not being motivated to post anything for about a week even though he knew he could easily come up with some great stuff.

For the past few months I’ve felt pretty much the same way. I had fully intended to post on a regular basis follwing my most recent Vegas trip, because that right there would undoubtedly give me a ton of stuff to write about. That trip was in December. This is only my 10th post since I returned from Vegas. Almost three full months. Definitely not often enough.

In this time I’ve struggled with myself about this a little bit. Justifying the lack of posts on one hand, while reasoning out why I should post more on the other hand. But why? Why should I feel any pressure at all to post on my blog at any time unless I truly feel like it. When I really want to get something up there, the excuses will fall to the wayside and I will.

And since I mentioned Iggy’s Poker Works gig, I should also mention that he is back home now at Guinness and Poker. No ubers up last I checked, but I’m assuming that will change real soon.

My Morning of Anger

Have you ever woken up angry? On the proverbial wrong side of the bed? This isn't something that happens to me all that much, but when it does there there is a discernible reason for it. Like I went to bed angry about something, or have been under a lot of stress about something for a few days. But today was not one of those cases. Today was a complete mystery to me.

I had a very good weekend. Actually got a good amount of sleep for once. Wasn't steaming from any poker games. Was properly tucked in before bed. Hell, if anything I should have been happy when I woke up. This was not the case.

This general sense of aggressive anger coursed through my body the whole time I was getting ready for work, and increased exponentially on my ride in. All 12 minutes of my commute.

First I was cursing the dumb ass in the Escalade who got right in front of me from the middle lane while I was speeding up and merging into the right lane. Of course the right lane was no longer of any use to him as soon as I signaled to pass him on the left, so he cut me off again.

A couple other drivers pissed me off a little more after that, but as I pulled into the structure at work I started to calm down a little. But not nearly enough. On my way in I made sure to have my iPod on and visible to all so I could avoid any contact before I got to my desk to scarf down a big breakfast, since food always comforts me. A couple people tried saying good morning, but I just kinda grunted back and brought my head up slightly and quickly in a universal "what's up"gesture.

When I get to work, I have two options for breakfast. There's the smart healthy choice, which I generally choose every day except for Wednesday when my greasy, unhealthy, wonderfully delicious choice is one of the breakfast specials at the restaurant in my building. Today I went for the grease. Then followed that with the healthy breakfast....and followed that with a granola bar and a buttload of water.

Still not happy.

I leer and nod my way through the morning, and the anger doesn't subside....but it doesn't get any worse either. As I'm sitting at my desk wondering what in the hell is wrong with me, I get a few text messages from my sheet midget about what's going on at her job. Twice I end up laughing out loud, one of those times some water found it's way out of my nose and onto my keyboard. Not a pretty sight, or a great feeling immediately, but it ended up turning my attitude around for the morning. From there I slowly rose from the depths of my anger and ended the day on a good note when I got some more food at work. For free no less.

Since then it's been pretty smooth sailing as I am about to chow down on my free work food for dinner, and I just set the ground work for a website that I've discussed with a few friends a couple times over the last couple months. Nothing big for me, but it could really help out a few of my friends in the long run.

At least my day will end on a high note. Hopefully I can avoid a repeat of my pissed off morning come tomorrow.

We Were on a Break

The last few days I have played a total of 37 hands. One heads up SNG. I actually won after getting my money in ahead. That was quite a change from Tuesday. Varience toyed with me all afternoon. I take pride in being someone who doesn't go on tilt while playing poker, but Tuesday was an exception to the rule.

Normally if I think I am going to tilt I can get up from the table or computer and just stop playing, but the other day the play was so bad and the suckouts so crazy that I knew I could still win even if I was tilting a little. Or so I thought.

I just got angrier and angrier as I got my money in good and lost time after time, but I continued to play because the games were juicy. I knew I was in trouble when I went off on someone for a play. I never do that. It's usually only 'nh' or something similar because I want the players who are playing badly to feel comfortable and stick around. I usually go out of my way to defend people who play like shit when others call them out because I don't want the guy handing me money to be chased away.

Once I tore up the donkey who told said I was a terrible player and he left, I realized how bad I was tilting....but continued to play. I don't know why now. But I pressed on.

Had I dropped my buy in, I would have left but because I was basically breaking even I stuck around. I lost a total of $12 the whole afternoon while I saw the sickest single day of cards in my entire poker life. In that regard I was lucky.

So enough of my bad beat day story. Last night I went to my first Flogging Molly concert. I've tried to see them a couple of times in the past, but ended up being out of town just about every time they came to Detroit. Awesome. That's about all I can say. We had a great time, spent a lot of money on beer, and had a drink with Dave and Bridget after the show when they strolled into the Town Pump and hung out at the table next to us.

I'm normally not the "Hey, take a picture with me" type, but I had to get one with them. I even made sure to post it on myspace before I passed out last night. I'm such a dork.

Not sure yet where tonight is going to take me, but I can guarantee I won't be drinking after all the beer I had last night.

How Not to Talk Your Way Out of a Ticket (A poker player's analysis)

Me: Afternoon Trooper, how are you today? (Always start out with a pleasant question, like a probe bet it will tell you where you are in the hand)

Douchebag Trooper: Do you know why I pulled you over? (Trying to convey strength, he's obviously concerned about the strength of his hand)

Me: Truthfully I have no idea sir. (Smooth call the reraise to make him think he's taken control of the hand)

DT: Do you know how fast you were going? (Too strong of a continuation bet, he's still worried about his hand)

Me: Yes sir, 74 mph. (Another smooth call to make him wonder exactly what you have)

DT: So you admit that you were speeding? (Reading me as weak, he checks and tries to trap me here)

Me: I admit that I was driving 4 over, that's what I always set my cruise at. (Small bet hoping for a reraise)

DT: And why is that? (Min raise)

Me: Cause I come from a family of cops, went to school to be a cop, and that's what we all do since it's too much trouble to pull someone over and write them up for only four over. I've actually never heard of anyone doing it. (Min reraise, lets see where he stands)

DT: You went to school to be a cop but you aren't now....and why is that? (Another min reraise, what is this donkey doing?)

Me: When I graduated I decided there were too many douchebag cops in the area so I went into the private sector. (Enough of this bullshit, I'm all in)

DT: Excuse me? (In the tank, and on the verge of tilt)

Me: Well, Detroit is a death sentence, being a Wayne County deputy is a life sentence, and the suburbs are full of douchebags....since Michigan State Police wasn't hiring at the time I decided to get paid protecting Corporate America. (Table chatter giving off false tells of strength because even though I may not have a hand, I know he's uncomfortable with his)

DT: Alright, well do me a favor and watch your speed. It's rush hour, and even 4 over can be dangerous at this time of day. (Folding his hand without showing, even though he says he's got pocket kings)

Me: Will do sir. Have a good day, and stay safe the rest of your shift. (Telling him it was a good fold because I had the nuts)

Disclaimer: Do not try this at home, I am a professional asshole.

Tags; Not Just for Decoration

This one is to be filed under "Too Embarrassing to Elaborate".

So I procrastinate. A lot. I've got a date tonight and need to get a few things ready beforehand. Do I make sure everything is taken care of before I leave for work this morning? No. I've got time after work.

Had I not procrastinated, I would have seen the little tag that says DRY CLEAN ONLY and I just might have listened to it. But being pressed for time I think, "What's the worst that could happen?" and put it in the washing machine on the perm press cycle. That will do it just fine.

Fast forward a couple hours and here I am, sitting in track pants and a hoodie, one delicate item lighter, silently hoping that my washing machine isn't damaged by this debacle. To make matters worse, my date just texted me and said she probably won't be able to make out it now.

Being me rocks.

Token Post

Saturdays have been spent on Full Tilt lately. I had planned to shovel my snow and get some other things done that I have been neglecting, but the weather got a little warmer last night and I didn't have any snow to worry about when I rolled my ass out of bed this morning....er, afternoon....so I eventually made my way to the computer. Held off on the poker until I decided to get a few hands in while Cousin Mark was showering before we went to lunch. Oh look, a juicy 2-4 limit speed table has an opening. That's just what I need for a quick hit and run.

Not so much. It was very juicy, and donkerific and it also ate up half a buy-in by the time Cousin Mark got out of the shower. So much for earning my lunch money.

Lunch was great, but I was still stinging from my limit loss so I was eager to get back onto FT and find another weak table. So far so good. Found a 1-2 limit table that suited me well and I am working on tripling up my buy-in. I love LHE because of the return I see but it's very boring, so I decided to try one of those token tourneys I've heard so much about. 8 bucks, 18 players, top 5 get tokens and 6th gets $10. Sounds simple enough. Even though I'm not a fan of the turbos on FT, I decide that that's the best format of the bunch for me today and jump in.

I know that one tournament doesn't really qualify as a random sample, but if all these token sats are like this I really need to toss my hat in the ring more often. The amount of scared money in this $8 sat was amazing. Very easy to chip up early after sitting out an orbit to get my "tight" image, and once I became the chip leader at my table I only had opponents play back at me two or three times. Long story short I pounded the money and token bubbles and was the big stack when we got down to 5. As a result, I am now registered for the first WPBT event this year for just under 1/3 of the buy-in.



Hopefully I can stay awake long enough to do some damage tomorrow night, and I really hope that I can play in more events this year than I did last year. I think I made it into three last year before life got in the way of my poker again. One of my poker goals for the year is to be more involved with the blogger games again, so this should be one step toward that. And hopefully Don will keep the Big Game going on a monthly basis. I am always up for the bigger buy-ins.

We had a good time at the Pistons game last night, but the game ended badly as the Wizards pulled out a two point victory. The last five minutes of the game were pretty exciting as the Pistons looked out of it until then. When Sheed hit a fade away to tie it up after trailing for more than half of the game, the crowd went nuts.

Wings/Avs tomorrow as a replacement for football. The rivalry doesn't have the punch that it used to, neither does hockey for that matter, but it's still always a good game to watch. I just hope that it's on CBC and not just carried by NBC.

You don't say....

Warning, this could be misconstrued as poker content. Read on.

This weekend was up and down at the tables for me. I ended doing rather well over all, but the swings within each session were horrible. Glad I am a super donk and chase my losses.

I won more than enough in cash games to justify entering Don's Big Game on Sunday night. Last time I played in it I ended up chopping with Don, and this time around he won it outright after a chop that left about $100 in the mix for the first place finisher. Blogger Big Games are so rigged.

For me the Big Game started off well enough. I chipped up early by mixing it up in a few pots and getting paid on my nut flush. Things were going well, and I was the early chip leader when I looked down at pocket aces. I thought I had played enough to get somewhat of a LAG tag for the game thus far, even though it was early, so I was pretty confident I could pull in a decent sized pot here. I make a standard 3x raise and get one caller, our tourney host. Innocuous jack high flop with two clubs and Don bets out at me, 200 into a 225 pot. I think about pushing here but elect to just call. Seven of spades on the turn can't help him at all, yet he bets out 500 into a 625 pot. I put him on AJ clubs, but would expect a little bigger of a bet if he wanted to bet the turn. I loudly proclaim, to no one cause I am alone in the room, that I am no doubt ahead and reraise all in. Insta call. Don flips over pocket 4s and a flopped set. DOH!

Maybe a better player doesn't double Don up there, but that's just not me. My m.o. in the blogger tourneys is get the chip lead as soon as possible and use all that rope to hang myself in some elaborate manner. I'm getting rather good at it, I just need to play more of the blogger games.

A couple hands later I drop another 400 to Don when I 3x raise from MP with AK and he repops me from 120 to 400 from the big blind. Flop comes rags and Don bets out about 1/2 of my stack and I am forced to throw it away cursing my luck. I am now 18th in chips out of 18 remaining players....at least I didn't bust out 1st as we only had 19 runners.

Not too long after that I double up when I flop a flush and someone pushes with top pair and a draw at a better flush. Thankfully the river was kind for once and I didn't exit earlier than Iak who wasn't even playing. As a matter of fact, after building my stack up quit nicely into the top 5 of chips once again I ended up going out in 8th, just two spots ahead of the m.i.a Iak, when I ran my AQ into Hoy's AK. Oddly enough, that was the second consecutive hand that AQ got all in preflop against AK. Rigged.

After I busted out I did a couple quick things around the house and sat back down in a limit game, not ready to be parted of my $75. Unfortunately I didn't downshift from the tourney quick enough and found myself in a hole pretty quick. As I battled back I decided to take a shot playing with the bloggers at the 1/2 NL table. At one point I had a Rounders moment as it very much seemed we were all targeting a couple of the non-bloggers at the table and pretty much staying away from each other. "You don't see Pirahna eating each other do you?"

Glad I did it. It was only about an hour or so, but I had a good time and walked away from the table up $74.75. I figured that only paying a quarter to play that much with the bloggers was quite the value and it was time for bed.

Hopefully sooner or later my work schedule or sleep schedule will permit me to play a few more blogger games this year. Everyone has a few poker resolutions, and this is one of mine. I have always enjoyed the blogger games, but hated getting up for work an hour or two after they were finished. I need to make adjustments and see that I get into a few more games each month.

Side note: My links are all effed up cause I got so sick of my last blog template and discarded it with haste. I will build my blogroll up soon and get my linkage back on track.

Re: I suck

What the hell do I know about football anyway? It's not like I spent the majority of my formative years training and practicing for the next game, breaking down film from my first year of high school on. All those years spent at the Silverdome while the Lions were still there....OK, bad example. I could go on, but why? It's obvious I know nothing about this game anymore. January has been total suck sausage for my picks. My heater from Vegas is now a cooler. The NFL playoffs used to be my wheelhouse....now I am just under the bus. I hate this game!

Week 2

Here are the picks for week 2 of the 3M Playoff Challenge.

Mike (18 units):

NE/SD under 46.5 ~~ 6 units
Phi/NO under 49 ~~ 3 units
SD -5 ~~ 3 units
Phi +5.5 ~~ 3 units
Ind +4 ~~ 3 units

Max (16 units):

Bal-4 ~~ 8 units
NO-5.5 ~~ 4 units
Phi/NO under 49 ~~ 4 units

Mark (10 units):

Bal-4 ~~ 10 units

Playoffs

This week's picks for the 3M Playoff Challenge:

Max:
Sea -3 for 3 units
KC +7 for 2 units
NE -8.5 for 1 unit
NYG +7 for 2 units
Dal/Sea Over 46.5 for 1 unit
KC/Ind Over 50.5 for 1 unit

Mark:
Phi -7 for 5 units
KC +7 for 5 units

Mike:
KC/Ind Over 50.5 for 3 units
NYG +7 for 4 units
NYJ +8.5 for 3 units

Right now it's halftime of the Indy/KC game and Indy is up 9-0. Not looking good for any of our picks so far.

Oh yeah....

And Bob Costas is a shit head.

Disappointment

Another kick in the nuts for Detroit sports fans. I'm sure it's common knowledge by now that OSU will play Florida in the championship game this season. A little over a month ago we had to deal with our pitchers not named Kenny Rogers throwing the World Series away with their terrible fielding. Earlier this year the Pistons and Red Wings both took the best regular season record in their respective sports into the playoffs and came out with nothing. Adding insult to injury the Lions continue to be the doormat of the NFL while GM/President Matt Millen gets a contract extension. Although this bothers me very little as I grew callous to the Lions during my years as a season ticket holder. Thank God I woke up three years ago and decided not to buy the tickets anymore.

Those disappointments were tough on the fans, but those teams all played poorly to bring it upon themselves. UM getting sodomized in favor of Florida is tough for the fans, but it's got to be much worse for the players who did all they could to prove they were one of the top two teams in the country, losing just one game. By just three points. To unanimous number one team in the nation. Oh yeah, that #1 team had home field advantage. In one of the toughest places to play as a road team.

I may be a little biased here because I have seen every UM game this year except for the one that ESPN put on their college channel that no one subscribes to....btw, I hate what ABC has done to ESPN....and I have seen how freaking good of a team they are. That being said, I wonder how many people out there who have had a chance to see a lot from both teams think that Florida would have any shot at beating Michigan in a game. I've talked to a few people who have said that Florida should go over Michigan, but most of them also didn't think that Florida would beat Michigan if they played.

"So Michigan should be ranked higher than Florida?"

"No, they already had a chance to play Ohio State. There shouldn't be a rematch."

"So Florida deserves to go to the #1 vs #2 game as the #3 team in the nation?"

"What do you mean?"

I may be a little bitter.