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January 17th, 2009
May 18th, 2005
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 Two weekends ago, I'd pretty much caught up on all of the TiVo that I'd needed to. A backup of five weeks of Deadwood and South Park on top of the weekly viewing of Everwood, 24, Lost, and all the other network shows that I follow were behind me--only an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher and a single Mythbusters remained. Somehow, in my newly-discovered free time, I've nearly drowned myself with an inundation of new media which, in addition to my weekly television fix, includes: - The Jerk DVD from Netflix
- Dumb and Dumber DVD from Netflix
- Ai Yori Aoshi Vol 1. DVD from Netflix
- The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, and Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett Audiobooks
- Negima and Love Hina by Ken Akamatsu Manga
- Cupid DVDs that I bought on ebay
- Kingdom Hearts on the PS2
- Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando on the PS2
- Hoyle Casino Omaha and Triple Crown poker tournaments on the PC
- The LJ friends list
It's become quite a dilemma as to what I should do when I get home--do I watch the episodes of The Daily Show that have backed up to the point where the TiVo will start deleting them, or do I check the friends list (I know if I sit at the computer I'll be likely to start up a poker tournament)? Do I continue listening to what happens to Granny and Esk, or should I watch to see just who proposes marriage in the season finale of Gilmore Girls (I chose both--unfortunately not seeing who proposed because the stupid WB overran the 9:00 pm cutoff time because of their ten-minute included promo of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants--and ended up going to sleep at 1:00 AM after re-reading some more Negima)? The meatspace isn't helping--just last night I went to see Unleashed with a friend, and a group of ten of us are in preparations to see Revenge of the Sith tomorrow night. The Independent's been holding a few Texas Holdem tournaments (in which I've been regularly placing), and I've made arrangements to meet up with the Indy's new waitress at Wallcrawlers to do some bouldering. And on top of this, I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I'm swamped. |
August 13th, 2004
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 The car is now in the hands of Atlanta Import Collision. I have a rental car reservation for pickup tomorrow. My back is inordinately sore. In the copious time I've had to spend on the phone today (including a conference call I sat on for work), I've gotten a little better at the chip twirl and chip flip. I suspect much of my commuting for the next week will be exclusively between work and home. Sigh |
August 10th, 2004
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 Had quite an extended weekend. On Friday, I left straight from work to drive down to Newnan, where Amy, Runa, Yvonne, and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tiiguy held the grand opening of their latest endeavor--Alamo Jacks, a new restaurant/bar located right on Newnan square. I stayed there from about 5:45 until 1:30 AM, with the occasional foray out to pick up Bloody Mary Mix and ice when the ice-maker failed to keep up with demand. All told, I think they estimate about 1000 people came through the doors, and they ran through up to six times the amount of beer and liquor supply of a good night at DuPree's. When I finally got out of there, my feet were killing me, my neck a bit sore from craning it about looking at the pretty young things, and I was in moderate danger of keeling over into the steering wheel during the 45 minute drive home (I would make it home, awake, aware and well). The Brother flew in Saturday morning, and we spent the weekend hanging out. Got a great deal of food, and spent some time with his friends from Boynton Beach, Mark and Theresa. On Monday, we hit Ria's for a short stack of buttermilk pancakes with carmelized bananas, and then hit stores until lunch at Udipi. After I dropped him off at the airport, I milled about at home until it was poker time. At the Alamo on Friday, I finally convinced Patty to join me at poker, so I met her at the game. I played tightly for the first few hands, taking down a couple of small pots before dealer's choice rolled around the first time. I made a lot of money when I hit a wheel playing 7 Stud 8/b, and dropped a bit when I hit threes full to someone else's fours full playing the same game (I had 8733AA, so I had a fair chance at a low and a high, and I was getting good pot odds on the draw). On the final hand of my night, I played a high hand--(KJ)T, catching another King on fifth street. With a Queen on sixth, we ran out of cards, so we had to go into the mucks for remaining cards. I had noticed that Patty folded her Ace of clubs right after the deal, and there were two aces already out there. I didn't really put anyone on anything more than two pair, however. After the dealer shuffled the mucks, and dealt me the card from the top, I looked, and lo and behold, Patty's folded Ace of clubs stared back at me. All told, less tips to the dealer, I nearly tripled my money (I did give some to Patty to play with, but I'm going let her keep that, especially since she gave me that final Ace). |
July 30th, 2004
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Played at the Madison Grill on Wednesday with flattop. He played the first round and built a pretty impressive stack, but got blinded out playing too conservatively when they got higher. I had to play at a table with three apparent fish, who were just way too annoying for words. Folding out of turn, questions like "What do I have to put in?" weren't the half of it. The drunk guy who eventually won the table played AKh on a three-hearted flop and had to rely on a large entourage to advise him to go all-in after my opponent bet. Play your own damn cards, guy. If you need someone else to tell you what to do, you should go back to the training table. My back is somehow killing me. Not sure what exactly I did to it (probably slept awkwardly on a pillow), but it just suddenly started smarting. I suppose slouching in front of the computer screen all day and at a poker table all night doesn't help. ( Answers behind the cut... ) |
July 28th, 2004
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From ludditerobot (who will probably get at least one of the obscure ones), ( The lyrics meme )Played some poker last night, and more than doubled my buy-in, when I sat down to my first hand--Jacks full playing Omaha 8. Played tightly for most of the night and got a little crazy towards the end. Now I need a few more nights like this to pay for my new computer! |
July 22nd, 2004
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 Went to the book club yesterday, and of all things, played a little bit of poker. Of course, we had read Positively Fifth Street, so it was somewhat understandable. Happy Birthday to El Guapo, himself. A sweater is forthcoming... |
July 15th, 2004
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 I just spent the last five hours upping my "Met Someone Famous" quotient. Back in 1998/99 or so, when the Superbowl was being held in Miami (I don't particularly care to remember exactly what year it was), a couple of friends and I took off to South Beach that weekend, trolling the already crowded streets, dressed in suits and sharp dresses, hoping to just have a good time. As we were on our way to Liquid (I believe this was Madonna's old bar, or something else just as pretentious), I happened to spot Luke Perry cartwheeling an arm as if to beckon his entourage forward. Someone else would mention that Calista Flockhart was with him, but I didn't catch her as they piled into an awating limo. In my first year in Atlanta, I was playing pool at DuPree's when I noticed a tall, African-American man with a distinctive voice. I approached him and asked, "Are you Chris Tucker?" He nodded, and I shook his hand and told him that I was a big fan. He and his friend (who were playing pool at the time) left the bar soon after. Like last week, I went to the Madison Grill to play in their Texas Holdem tournament. After getting knocked out of the tourney, I sat down at the "learning" table, just to play a few more practice hands. After I told him it was a free tournament, Emmanuel Lewis sat next to me, played a few practice hands, and then joined a bunch of us for a little mini-tournament. Surreal, indeed. |
July 12th, 2004
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I spent the entirely of my day yesterday doing just about nothing. Oh, I picked up around the house and did a load of laundry, but for the most part, I just sat in front of the television and watched about eight hours of poker coverage (two WPTs, two Championship Poker at the Plazas, and a Celebrity Poker Showdown), along with two episodes of Six Feet Under. In all of the poker coverage, I did happened to catch a commercial for PokerInAthens.org, a group trying to petition the Olympic committee to include poker as one of the games in the Olympics. Given that the IOC has already declared the World Bridge Federation a "Recognized Sport Organization," I don't think the site intends to be overly satirical--there are a few Onion-esque articles, but I think their ultimate aim is to get poker recognized as an Olympic-worthy sport. Honestly, I love poker, but it's not a sport. Nor are Chess and Bridge, the IOC's decisions nothwithstanding. But the subject did bring to mind something that I've been thinking about for a while. Back when DuPree's was DuPree's, there was a time where a whole bunch of us just went up to the bar to just play cards. We'd play Spades, Hearts, Pitch, Poker (for matchsticks, not money), a silly pot-matching game called Three-Card Dumbass (with hand values a lot like Three-Card Brag). We were just a bunch of card-playing fools. At one point I suggested we should have a big tournament where we just played the games we loved to play and figured out who would come out on top. I thought about it again yesterday, so I came up with the following "Cardplayer Decathlon" event: At the very minimum, there would need to be at least four players, with eight being the ideal. They would play ( the following games... )Since it's a Decathlon, I decided to include Cribbage, Pitch, and Rummy, even though those are games we don't really play regularly. You could substitute Euchre, Bridge, and Canasta somewhere in there, with the appropriate modifiers, but since I don't know how to play any of those, I opted to go without... When those games have been finished, we tally the number of points each player has, multiply those figures times ten to generate chip counts for each player, and then we move into the poker phase of the decathlon: - 2 rounds (16 hands) Omaha Hi/Lo, ring style.
- 4 rounds Pot Limit 7 Card Stud
- No Limit Holdem
Maybe I play cards too much...
* For example: if the final point counts in Hearts is Alice 76, Bob 102, Carol 46, and Dan 85, Carol would receive 125 points (30 Alice, 56 Bob, 39 Dan), Alice would receive 5 (26 Bob, -30 Carol, 9 Dan). Dan and Bob would not receive any points (negative points in a game would not count against you). |
July 8th, 2004
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I've been finding a lot of poker around town lately. Aside from the regular games that I've been known to frequent, a few entries ago, I attended the Texas Hold'em tournament at Jocks and Jills Midtown location. Last week I met up with the GLOML who was visiting town and staying with Alex and Elena. When I mentioned poker to them, Alex told me that the restaurant in the building where he works, the Madison Grill, holds poker tournaments on Wednesdays, and invited me to join in. Last night I got off of work at about 5:30 and rushed over to the restaurant. Unlike the Jocks and Jills tournament which has at least eight tables of eight each with the ability to expand, they only have seven tables of seven players each--they hold two rounds the first with three tables, the second with four tables, then the final seven table winners play for the prizes. Like Jocks and Jills, the game is free. Madison Grill, however, doesn't insist that you make a minimum drink purchase to win anything, as far as I know. You get 65 dollars in chips, the first blinds being 1-2 and doubling every fifteen minutes. I played extremely tightly starting out, folding low-kicked aces and rags throughout. Most of the players at the table were playing just any cards, seeing flops and turns and rivers with rag hands. I managed to suck out on Alex when the flop hit his two pair (aces and nines), but also gave me four to a flush which hit on the river. He played solidly, however, for the rest of the time--he managed to knock me out right before head's up. I tried signing up for the second round, but the second round games are reserved for players who didn't play the first round. All in all, a decent enough tournament. It's nice to see poker becoming more and more popular (although I could do without the fishy suckouts). I'm planning on returning at some point, if only to get together with Alex and play a little for free... |
June 16th, 2004
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Based on a tip from vudiddy's poker mailing list, I decided to do a bit of information gathering on the Texas Hold'em tournaments being held nightly at the various Jock's and Jill's locations around Atlanta. Their Midtown location holds their tournament on Tuesday nights, so yesterday, I woke up at 7:20 AM to get to work early, so I could cut out to get in an early registration. ( The Tournament Rules and Administrivia ) As for the actual gameplay, it was a mix between some fairly good players and some fish. Our first hand saw an all-in bet when the board showed 98732 rainbowed, and a 65o went up against a T6. I lasted a fair amount of time at the table, playing pretty tightly, knocking two short-stacked players out. My penultimate hand, however, I caught a pair of ladies UTG, and bumped the bet to triple the big blind (600). The fellow to my left calls, and everyone else folds except the BB, who raises to 2000. I watch him for a bit, and he's not giving anything away, not really meeting my eye, and I can tell he's got a big hand. Instinct tells me to fold, but since this is pretty much a free tournament, I decide to call. Guy to my left calls too. Flop comes 484 rainbow, and BB moves all-in. I call with a shorter stack, and the guy to my left calls. Since he's got the smallest stack, I actually get to keep 700, because apparently, there's no side pots (I think the rule sheet actually said "No side bets," which is an entirely different thing, in my estimation). BB shows his pocket cowboys, I show my pocket queens, and the other player shows suited Motown (WTF??!?!). Turn and river are rag-rag, and the big blind takes the pot. Next hand, I'm in BB, and I catch ATo. Everyone folds to the SB who raises me all in. This time, he's got the queens. Flop is J8-rag, and I'm calling for a runner-runner straight. the 9 comes on the turn, but the river is no help, and I walk. While part of me regrets not coming off of the queens, I don't feel too bad about busting out--I played most everything pretty well. From there, I went to the Independent, told O about the tournament setup, suggesting that we should do something like that up there. Unfortunately, he says, as a "pool hall," the Independent is pretty much precluded from doing anything of the sort--technically it's illegal for the bar to have even a deck of cards in the house, or a set of dominoes. How's that for the Puritanically stupid? |
June 2nd, 2004
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 Following the fam's visit this weekend, I can finally post the following: - And you know what they call a, uh, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
- They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
- Nah, man, they got the metric system, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
- What'd they call it?
- They call it a "Royale with Cheese."
- "Royale with Cheese."
- That's right.
- What do they call a Big Mac?
- Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it "Le Big Mac."
- "Le Big Mac." What do they call a Whopper?
- I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King. You know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?
- What?
- Mayonnaise.
- God damn!
- I seen 'em do it, man, they fuckin' drown 'em in that shit.
- Yuck. Yes, that place is called " Nooky," that is a peep show located right next to McDonald's, and that is the Aviation Club where they hold the World Poker Tour tournament. |
May 19th, 2004
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My neck is killing me. I woke up this morning all twisted, sleeping on my stomach, my left arm around a pillow, my right under a stack of two thin pillows under my head. I could feed a dull ache from the right side of my neck. I'm not sure if I slept on my neck wrong, or if some in-dream tension hit me. I dreamt this morning of playing poker, some Omaha variant, where I had wired Kings, a Queen and a rag. Trip Aces and a pair of Kings show up on the board (which in that strange dream-logic which only makes sense at the time, also included an eight and perhaps a Queen), and for some reason, I move all-in. Someone else, of course, shows an Ace to snap off my quad Kings. I wouldn't be surprised if in that moment, that switch that turns off your muscle control while you sleep overloaded for me, and I wrenched my neck in dream-anger. The dream is probably directly influenced in no small way by my playing of a Hoyle Casino Omaha Hi-Lo tournament, where not once, but twice, I had the nut boat snapped off by quads (from the same computer player, even). I think I need to play some live poker soon. Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/sore.gif) sore |
April 12th, 2004
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According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Beau Rivage West The Bellagio is suffering from a major power outage which started Saturday evening. Both of Sunday's O showings were cancelled, the famed fountains remain still, and as many as half of the fully-booked hotel guests checked out early Sunday morning. Damn you, Basher, and your damn "Pinch." In other gambling news, that assbag who bet his complete net worth on a single spin of the roulette wheel, didn't get snapped off by O or OO. He actually won. Cap'n Ken has a well-reasoned analysis of the tax implications, asking why exactly would a "professional gambler" risk so much money on crappy pot odds. Honestly, a "professional gambler" with a) a net worth of 135 large and b) a preference for playing roulette (rather than say, craps or blackjack) as the game on which he wants to risk it all is obviously more qualified for the title of "professional dumbass." |
April 8th, 2004
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Regular readers of this LJ know that I have a love of the wager. Less so than a few others perhaps, but the rush of gambling and all its various trappings--from the sounds of shuffling chips to the incessant bells and shouts of "WHEEL OF FORTUNE!" at the adjacent slots--are probably the closest things I have to addictions (except for maybe limerence...but that's a whole 'nother post). But this guy? Honestly? Complete and total dumbass. |
March 12th, 2004
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Rules: Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
You'll include this explanation.
You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.( And finally... the answers to the interview... ) |
February 2nd, 2004
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James, stop playing low-limit poker against players who just learned how to play watching the Celebrity Poker Showdown. This weekend, I saw the worst cards ever win pots. 9-2 offsuit, 10-3 offsuit after a big raise pre-flop, 7-2 taking a pot from pocket aces with two pair. And Happy Birthday, tiiguy--I have your copy of Super-System that you left in Runa's car. Here's a veritable gem found on some internet documentation for a project we're doing: "Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), like all Public Key Incruption (PKI)..." Well, it's time for me to save some money for the next few weeks... |
January 29th, 2004
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I just got invited to head to Biloxi, MS this weekend with the Sweetest Girl in All The World* (a.k.a. the Best Bartender in Atlanta). I've got nothing immediately pressing, except for some tentative plans which can always be pushed off until next week/weekend. Should I go? * We're going to see her girlfriend. |
January 12th, 2004
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- Time does not always heal all wounds.
- Installing a new ATX Power Supply is easy.
- Even if you have a 99.9 percent chance of winning, that ugly 0.1 percent will rear its ugly head. Sometimes that happens twice in a single weekend.
- If you haven't been rock climbing in a while, don't expect to be spry and graceful on the rocks.
- Clip your toenails before you go to the rock gym.
- Helping someone move after you went rock climbing the day before will rob you utterly of any and all energy for the rest of the weekend.
- Great Expectations is still a wonderfully lush movie.
- Despite being over her, I find it difficult to look directly at the Woman formerly known as the Woman of My Dreams. Knowing this, however, makes hanging out with her not difficult at all.
- Very few people on
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) open_on_sunday, in the context of a crossover challenge, know who Abe Sapien is without the specific mention of Hellboy. Surprisingly, fewer people know who Melaka Fray and Aku are (from Joss Whedon's Fray and Samurai Jack, respectively).
More people in the community, however, know who Hob Gadling is.
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January 10th, 2004
January 9th, 2004
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Thought a few of the guys would enjoy this bit of poker humor found on Rivered Again: Surely.
What you do is get four cards. Doesn't matter much what they are because nobody really looks at them anyway. Next, they put three cards on the board. It doesn't matter what they are because nobody really pays any attention to the flop either. Then one more card for the turn and another one for the river. Same betting scenario as before. Doesn't really matter much what they are, except, for a few of the players that may have "cheated" and looked at their hole cards. These players may now fold if they have absolutely no outs (mostly bad sports). Now, at the showdown, everybody turns over their cards and helps the dealer figure out who has the best hand. You MUST play two cards out of your hand so this usually takes a while and and the winning hand is usually found out after a little bit of searching by all of the players and a partially confused dealer. The dealer now pushes the pot to the wrong player and everybody yells at him and he smiles glibly and says "Oh yeah, sorry" and then sends it in the right direction. Then, after all of that excitement dies down, everybody lets out a collective sigh of relief and gets ready to wind up and do it all over again. Fun game. |
January 1st, 2004
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Happy New Year, everyone! And a special shout-out to bratsey. Hope everything's going well in Japan, and hope to see you home soon. Had one of the best New Year's I've had in a long time. I started at sdtaylor555's place where a bunch of the Dragoncon Buffy track regulars, including aviationwolf and jackzodiac, got together for a party. We first went to catch a showing of Peter Pan (which, in my opinion, was the cinematic equivalent of Chinese take-out--pleasant to look at and perhaps consume, but it will leave you empty and unsatisfied). After the movie we returned to Sarah's place, and had a bit to eat and talked about many a fannish subject. I think the conversations wound their way through South Park, George Clooney, ER, Monty Python (because what geek gathering ever foregoes the Holy Grail quotage?), Harry Potter, Star Wars in various media (film as well as computer games), sock puppets, and my previous suggestion for relationship outplacement. I left the party around 10:30 PM or so, because I had a standing engagement at Dupree's for the regular New Year's Eve poker game. When I got there, I found everyone gathered around a pool table, playing a makeshift craps game, with playing cards representing the field and khubli banking. For a while there, the "customers" were doing rather well, but ultimately the shooter would crap out, and he'd take down the large stacks of chips everyone had on the table. When that game broke down, we began our regular dealer's choice game. For some reason, after folding a few winners, I was hitting lucky cards all night--poker is generally more a game of luck when you're playing at 0.25-2.00 dollar unstructured betting limits. I played a Screwy Louie hand where I passed a pair of Kings and a Queen away, and flattop and khubli passed me three tens to give me tens full of Jacks--the best boat available when two others showed their Aces for the low hand. I made it up to about 160 dollars in profits early in the night, and played tight for a while. When some of the players started getting low, I played a bit more loose (because it's a friendly game). Eventually the two tables of players broke down to one, and we played until about 7:00 AM or so. I ended up about 120 up, after realizing the bank was about 21 dollars short of cash (I had been handling the bank, with khubli). tiiguy was nice enough to split the loss with me, although when he learned that I was so far up, he got a bit miffed. I got home around 7:30, washed the second-hand smoke from myself, and went to bed. |
October 30th, 2003
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 Staying up watching Smallville, Angel, and The O.C. as well as playing a Hold'em and a 7-stud Tournament on Hoyle Casino has reduced my mind to simple declarative statements today. From a morning chat: tmhsiao: eggs are yummy
...
tmhsiao: I like cheese, but cheese don't like me.
...
tmhsiao: Candy is good.ETA: Reading that over, the phrase "Murdered by pirates is good" suddenly came to mind... Incidentally, the second line has nothing to do with "Restless." |
August 19th, 2003
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Friday Morning::8:00 amPatty, Jason and I get up early so we could go and register for the $25.00 Texas Hold'em tournament at the Luxor, after which we hit the Pyramid Cafe for some breakfast. The way the tournament (which starts at 12:00 noon) works is you pay $25.00 for T$350.00. For another $3.00, you get another T$50.00 in chips. It starts with $10-$15 blinds and $15-$30 structured betting limits, and essentially doubles every fifteen minutes until you hit $100-$200 limits after which it's No-Limit. We all did moderately well, getting down to the second-to-last tables by playing conservatively. There were a lot of fish in the tournament, and they could make or break us with the river sometimes. Jason got knocked out before the No-Limit round, which was a bit disappointing, because that's where his strength is. Patty got out soon after, playing until a pair of sixes or sevens got outdrawn when she went all-in. I made the mistake of calling two raises with A-6 suited and lost a good portion of my stack. I had to go all-in at one point and managed a heavy hand (trips/flush/boat). I don't remember the exact hand. I got knocked out after playing dumb again, and then losing out on the blinds. From the tournament we transitioned over to 2-4 Hold'em again. I cashed in $60 and lost a good deal of it playing conservatively, and then (you guessed it) getting impatient, and chasing dumb hands. Again, the fish were out out-drawing me on two pair and top pair hands, as well as Patty who was disciplined enough to play her way up to $80 (from a $40 stake). Jason played up and down until he hit Quad Queens and got a huge pot as well as a Four-of-a-kind $20 jackpot hand bonus. I, however, lost all the $60 and the subsequent $40 that I cashed in. I took another $60 to play PaiGow Poker (yeah, yeah, I know I said I wouldn't). Lost about $38 there, but it was good to pass the time not thinking about getting outdrawn and seething about it. Jason met up with me at the PaiGow table after his Quad Queens win, and we waited a bit for Patty to cash out. Once she did we headed to the Hard Rock to find Amy, Runa, Jeech and Keely. It has to be said: The women at the Hard Rock are fucking gorgeous. We met up with Amy at the casino, looked for the others, and then ate dinner at the Pink Taco. After dinner, we hit the casino and played a couple of games. I dropped another $15 on paiGow and then I did something really stupid: I got another $300.00 out from the ATM. Note: at this point, I'd already gone about $240 in the hole on the trip, not including the $28 I spent on the tournament, and most all of $364.25 that I had mentioned previously is gone. I don't know. I do have a somewhat addictive personality, but it's tempered by an extreme dislike of losing, as well as a healthy sense of moderation. There's something about this town, though--the constant blinking, the clip-clack, click-clapping of shuffling casino chips, the incessant bleeps and clunks of slot machines taking and spewing out nickels and quarters and tokens. I watched Jeech, Amy, and Runa play PaiGow for a bit, and then Keely joined them. Behind me, at the Let It Ride table, two friends bantered as they played the game, and I would occasionally turn and watch. As one guy's chips dwindled down to $15, he put all three reds onto the betting circles and borrowed a dollar token from his friend for the sucker bet. He played the hand blind. I watched as his friend drew a 5-6-8 and took his first bet back. When the dealer flipped a 7, he let it ride. The dealer then flips a 4. Hoots and shouts. His nearly-broke friend is very excited for him, and then the dealer flips the blind hand-- 4-7-7. Full House. Blind. He jumps up and hollers and most everyone around is both happy and envious. Buoyed by their success, and the fact that Amy was a bit tired of PaiGow and wanted to try a bit of Let It Ride, I cashed in $100.00 and played. On my second hand, I picked up 2-7-8 of spades. A bit wary of the possibilities, I took my first bet back. When the dealer flipped the 4 of spades, I let it ride on a hunch. I was overjoyed when she flipped the Queen of spades. I had essentially doubled my stake. That (perhaps overly) healthy sense of moderation kicked in a few hands later (when I started to lose), and I cashed out for $205.00 We hung out at the Hard Rock for a bit more, then went back to the hotel for a quick nap. I opted to take the rest of the night off because I wanted to be rested for Zumanity, but we all ended up crashing for the rest of the night--I would learn in the morning that Jason met up with Jessyca and that he scored about $400 playing slots and blackjack. Current Mood: down, but hopeful |
August 18th, 2003
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Thursday afternoon::3:30 PM Eastern - 8:00 MountainOk. I don't know if this is a good or a bad omen, but everyone on the road is a complete and total idiot--getting onto 285 from work, the old bluehair in front of me decides that the optimal course of action when merging onto the interstate is to make a complete stop at the fucking end of the merge lane. WTF? I come this ->||<- close to rear-ending the moron, and of course, I have to wait to merge with the rest of the traffic heading that way once he decides it's safe to move. Coming down I-85, some guy in a pickup truck decides that his haul isn't all that important and somehow a large box full of crap has ended up in the road. Now, this might not be too bad, but someone's already hit said box and strewn its contents across all four lanes of the thoroughfare, including a large shovel in the second-to-left lane. I see the guy resignedly walking back to his pickup as if he could do anything in the proto-rush-hour traffic of 3:30 PM Atlanta. Dolt. Once I've gotten home, things are much better, however. I switch things around in the bags, and I almost forget my contact lens case and glasses and toothbrush, but I manage to remember and save myself a world of aggravation. I do forget my good cell battery, but let's face it, who gives a shit? I'm going to Vegas to play poker, not gab all day on the cell phone. Let me just say, that Delta's online check-in, despite what everyone says about the airline's other drawbacks, pretty much rocks. I make it to the security gate around 5:00 PM, somehow managing to get about five or so people behind Wendy, Sasha, and Shannon. Up until this morning, I had no idea that I would share the flight with anyone else on the trip, so having them along is a lot better than sitting at the departure gate, leering at all the cute women walking by. We grab a bite and they grab some smokes after I get patted down at the security gate for forgetting to remove my big metal belt buckle; I felt cheap and used--the security guy molested me! The sad thing is it's the most action I'd seen in months. The flight over was completely uneventful other than sitting next to Bill Hackett, a former Gator with whom I struck up an extended conversation about UF, business, music, poker and blackjack. A blackjack player by preference, Bill has a negative progressive betting system whereby he doubles his bets after every loss. It sounds okay, but a) it requires a lot of capital and b) I'm so not going to Vegas to play blackjack. Bill and I talk a great deal--so much that another passenger, Dan Something-or-another, and his really hot wife chime in about gambling and poker and blackjack. After the plane lands, Bill tags along with the rest of us to the Westward Ho to see if he can grab a good rate on a room. All in all he was a pretty cool guy, but he did talk a lot... Somehow, our flight beats Patty's flight despite her earlier arrival time. And we had no layover, either. w00t! Night One::Luxor::9:00 PM to about 3:30 AM$364.25That's how much money I brought with me into Vegas, give or take a few sub-dime coins. I spend 4.25 of that amount on the shuttle from the Airport to the 'Ho. I spend twenty dollars on a cab ride for Jason, Patty, Felicia, Tammy and I to get to the Luxor. I spend about $0.25 on Camel Races and another $0.25 on a single spin of Wheel of Fortune slots. And then I drop $100.00 dollars playing 2-4 Hold'em at the Luxor. The evening starts out okay--I was playing pretty tight, catching the occasional hand (I caught Aces full of Jacks twice, and slow played both for more money from the fish). At some point, however, I started catching some good cards, and dropped the entirety of my $80.00 buy-in to a guy who was catching great cards. I'd have top two pair, and he'd have trips. I'd have big slick for a pair of aces, and he'd have the bottom two pair. It was infuriating, and I lost another $20.00 playing on tilt. Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/excited.gif) excited |
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Got back from Vegas last night and went to Rob's birthday gathering. Lost money to fools at the poker table, saw hot boys kissing and hot girls lighting each other on fire. Leered at many a pretty young thing, and probably more than a few prostitutes disguised as pretty young things. Still had no courage to walk up and talk to any of them. Am feeling dead tired now, almost nodding off at the desk and foregoing the use of personal pronouns. Will post Vegas journal bits in a little bit. Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/tired.gif) tired |
July 31st, 2003
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What should I do first? - Watch the Homicide DVDs that I got from Netflix.
- Watch the BMW Films DVD that I got in the mail.
- Look at The Art of Hellboy.
- Read Matt Wagner's Trinity (Supes, Bats and Wonder Woman).
- Install a new video card in the computer and add the sound card from the other computer into there.
- Read Amarillo Slim's biography.
- Watch the Shawshank Redemption on TNT.
- Watch the fourth installment of the World Series of Poker on TiVo.
Current Mood: torn |
July 28th, 2003
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 Last night, after writing a drabble for sunday100, the hinge that holds the screen on my laptop finally gave way. It's been deteriorating for a while, and after spewing a few sharp bits of dark grey, distressed plastic, it came apart. Now of course, it didn't come apart in any way that's convenient to fix. No, the plastic which is pretty much essential to the hinge is gone. Granted, after it failed, I just ripped more of the plastic off, to see if I could get at some of the metal innards, but the screws that comprise the tightenable part of the hinges are apparently stripped, as well... So the laptop looks like one of the following diagrams: = when closed, |_ when precariously balanced, or __ when open. Gee.
I went to OfficeMax today to pick up some bookends to see if I can't just prop the screen up. If this fails, I'm hoping there's some way of completely removing the screen and propping that up on some platform. Otherwise, I might want a new LCD monitor or one of those fancy web-pad computers. But that's only after I win first place at the poker tournament next month... :) |
July 27th, 2003
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Down $40 dollars in regular poker. I came to the conclusion tonight, on my way home that many of the games we play regularly, Kiss of Death (5-Card Razz), 727, Itsy-Bitsy, even Screwy Louie for the most part, are far more games of chance than games of skill. Sure, there's the betting and bluffing portion of it, and the reading bets, people, and patterns, but honestly, I think most of the players at the table just play to see where cards fall. In contrast, I played a $10 dollar buy-in tournament with everyone there today where nine people went at one another with an equal amount of chips. I ended up getting knocked out fifth, after I raised all-in with the A-Qs. Jason, who would ulitmately win the tournament had pocket ladies. But I played Texas Hold'Em for what I imagine was going on four hours. I know khubli tends to find Texas rather boring, and really, it's not the most exciting game, even when a lot of us are playing blind or playing off-suit rags. We might see some interesting showdowns, but it's not like betting huge sums of money on a spin of the Roulette wheel. Ultimately, though, it's a fascinating study for me, to be able to watch players, put them on cards, and develop skills beyond watching random cards go to players. And I think this partly is why I'm growing more and more dissatisfied with our weekly wild-card games. Of course, the other part is losing money all the time. Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/thoughtful.gif) contemplative |
June 27th, 2003
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I made the mistake of hooking up the PS2 and starting up Enter the Matrix last night around 7:45 or so. When I next looked at the clock, it was 10:15 or so. This recovering gaming junkie needs this addiction not. Especially with the large number of things that I need to get done. I started the evening by trying to setup the SiPix Blink to take pictures of various Texas Hold'em hands for some LJ icons/mood icons, but the SiPix is a horrendous piece of shit when it comes to taking pictures indoors, even with direct lighting, so that was a wash. Also on my plate: Books I have to/should/have purchased to read: - Positively Fifth Street
- Earnie's copy of Poker Nation
- Dumbing Down for the book club
- The Secret History
- Play Poker Like the Pros by Phil Hellmuth
- Girls' Poker Night
- China Boy
- The Rape of Nanking
Stuff I have to/should do: - Find some way of getting those Texas Hold'Em hand pictures.
- Transcribe a bunch of Mandarin from Making Out in Chinese for taraljc.
- Hash out the plot/character problems in the Willow/Xander post-Chosen piece before July 15.
- Laundry.
- Dishes.
- Record and watch thirteen episodes of this season's Six Feet Under off of the TiVo for Jackie.
- Make the MP3 CD that I promised khubli a while ago.
- Fix the sound card problems with my mini-tower PC.
- Find some more ways of saving money before August 14.
I'd also like to say hey to the Fishes. :) |
June 22nd, 2003
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Around 7:30 or so Saturday morning, I woke up. The last time I was awake at 7:30 Saturday morning, I believe I was still up from playing poker on a Friday night. Getting up is an entirely different story. Still, I was up for a specific reason--I wanted to hit Costco to go pick up a copy of Order of The Phoenix. Of course, since Costco opens at 9:00, 7:30's a bit early, so I hung out on HomeStar Runner and caught up on a bunch of the Stong Bad E-mails that I hadn't seen. About 8:00 or so, I took a shower and headed up to Costco. Getting there around 8:40, I waited along with a handful of others for the doors to open. Honestly I didn't really know what to expect when it came to the crowd--I figured most of the hard-core fans would have either pre-ordered their copy or tried to pick one up at some of the midnight openings at the bookstores around town. There were a few people there specifically for OotP. One guy picked up three copies, as well as the audio book. Now, I had been on LJ since the opening and I had seen someone remark that they picked up their copy at midnight or so, and at around 3:00 AM, they were done. I, personally, spent the entire day reading the book. I started about 10:00 AM, and finished at 11:30 PM. ( A couple thoughts... )Afterwards, I went down to tiiguy's place and played some poker. Horrendously tired, my back and neck were sore from reading in bed, so I cut out early. This afternoon, I watched "Serenity" for the first time. Why did Fox cancel this show? Stupid bastards. |
March 14th, 2003
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So we (Keely, khubli, Flossie, and Team Boobie) booked our flights and rooms for April's Sin City Spectacular. It cost a pretty penny, but I think it'll be worth it. I sent Jerry e-mail to see if he wanted to go, as well, since it looks like I'll be partaking of a single room at the Luxor by my lonesome. Of course, I could hook up with some nymphet while trading chips at the Bellagio Poker Room, but since I'd expect the women at the poker tables (aside from those going on the trip) to be at least seven years my senior, as well as the abject terror which grips me when it comes to talking to new people, I'll probably be spending my room time alone. ( I went indoor rock climbing for the first time in almost a year )I just found Iusedtobelieve.com from a FOAF. A particularly funny entry: For some reason, when I was a little kid I was convinced that if you hooked two nine volt batteries to each other, they'd explode violently and destroy anything within about 100 feet. Some part of me still thinks this. batnandu suggested that we try it sometime--connect two nine-volts and leave them someplace. You'd think that someone would have already done this experiment and written it up on some website, but a cursory search of Google turns up nothing but a description of devices which use two nine-volts. My parents are coming up this weekend. I need to clean the condo up and put away all the, umm, non-childish things.... I've already thrown a bunch of stuff into the closet, which is a veritable jungle of boxes and papers, but since my father is a bit of a stickler for "proper" bookkeeping, I need to get all my bills and statements in order. I'm writing something. Nothing particularly concrete as of yet, but listening to some of Philip K. Dick's stories--"Second Variety," "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," "Paycheck," and "The Minority Report"--on the way down and back up from Miami put me in a writing mood. The story which I'm writing puts a different spin on Rekal from "Wholesale"--what if you could rent someone else's body to wear for an hour, a day, or a week? What kind of person would allow themselves to be rented out? Current Mood: Vegas, baby |
March 3rd, 2003
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a.k.a. Screwed on the RiverWarning: much bitching and moaning here follows... In most variants of Hold 'em poker, the players receive some number of cards, and the dealer sets apart five cards as "the board." These are the community cards--they are revealed after set rounds of betting. Usually, in games such as Texas or Omaha Hold 'em, the dealer shows the first three cards after the players have placed bets based on their own hands--this is known as the "flop." Here follows a round of betting--often accompanied by groans or folds. The fourth card to be revealed is known as the "turn." Following yet another round of betting, the dealer then flips over the final card--the "river." On Friday night, following our birthday dinner for sassica, flattop, and Thomas, and Robb, we went to play poker at Casa Ghetto. I was looking forward to the night, having been bereft of poker for the past few weeks. ( Once I sat down to play, however... )With the night full of bad beats and lousy bluffs, I decided to devote Saturday to sulking. I spent a good portion (likely about 12 hours or so) watching TiVo, and another two or three hours reading comic books. I would get up only to eat a large bowl of raisin bran around noon when I awoke, and cook myself a can of beans and a Gardenburger Riblet around dinner time. It would be the only redeeming thing about the weekend. On Sunday, we held ( the latest Eight Ball tournament at DuPree's... )All told, I lost about $150 dollars this weekend. Thinking the worst was behind me, I decided to drive to Costco to get my tires balanced/rotated. On the thirty-or-so-minute drive up, I called flattop to see if he wanted to meet me there, since he needed new tires. He started driving up while I was about halfway there. Arriving around 4:30 PM or so, I spoke with the salesman, who informed me that the shop (which closes at 6:00 PM) wasn't taking any more work. They were short-staffed as it was, and couldn't fit my work in. After calling John and letting him know not to come up there, I spoke with a manager, who informed me that there was nothing he could do, despite their inability to take appointments. Sigh. Whatever. Tired of getting dicked over at the last possible minute in everything I was doing that weekend, I went home and continued reading Life of Pi for Wednesday's meeting. Hopefully, the pervasive shit of this weekend is now past... Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/angry.gif) irritated |
February 2nd, 2003
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Not much to say about Ghetto Poker tonight, other than I'm up about 27 dollars. Earnie brought a newbie into the fold--Sam. Being someone who can't really tell one group of Asians from another, I'm not quite sure what his ethnicity was, but since he arrived with Earnie, I don't think I'd be too off in assuming he was Korean. All in all, a amiable fellow, with a fair mind for cards. He did try to chase a lot of hands which our regular group wouldn't, and lost a lot of money in the process. His first experience with Screwy Louie treated him quite poorly, with his going up against Jason high, and myself the solitary low. I likely made around 65 dollars in total winnings (i.e. including what I put in...) from that single hand. Otherwise, Screwy Louie was rather off tonight--with only five or six people playing, a good four out of five hands would just came down to khubli, tiiguy, and myself, playing out a hand, usually with someone (read: me) folding on first or second street. Reminder to self: never play 727 again. Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/happy.gif) pleased |
January 6th, 2003
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For a good while on Saturday night, I was up around 25 dollars. I ended the night down six dollars and 75 cents. The turning point was a Screwy Louie hand where I had Jacks full going against Amy who ended up having Kings full. That was a tough beat. I played tightly the rest of the night, even going so far as to fold a pocket pair of threes in Omaha Hi-Lo after the turn. I had flopped trip treys with QA3. The turn showed a 5, and flattop and sassica both started betting it up. I played it ultra-tight and folded, thinking at least one of them had the wheel. And the fourth 3 showed up on the river. Come Wednesday, I'm heading to Jackie and Harry's place to join in their book club discussion of The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. So far, I'm enjoying the book, but I've got such a large stack of things I have to read, not to mention that batnandu wants to recommend yet another book that I neither have nor have read over one that's already in my reading list (the aforementioned Bringing Down the House). |
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1. Quit buying poker books for other people. 2. Start reading the poker books that you have. |
January 1st, 2003
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Poker went pretty well. I woke up around 9:15 or so from the restless, metaphoric sleep which always accompanies illnesses. I remember when I was taking Linear Algebra my senior year of High School, I got really ill, and tossed and turned all night feeling boxed (as in, for those of you who know Linear Algebra, [James]). Today, I just felt a bit like an medieval Army marching to war, with miniature lances and halberds, raised high, lacerating my mouth and causing me to drool. Hey, don't ask me what it means, it's the strange hypnogogic ramblings which always permeate my sickness-infused slumber. But, as I was saying... I woke up around 9:15, played Chess and Pachisi on the computer for a bit, and then got up to get ready for New Year's Eve Poker. For some reason this took me a bit less than two hours, because I ended up leaving for DuPree's at 11:00. I actually made a circuit of my place and the SaveRite parking lot after realizing that, in my rush to gather everyone's Christmas presents, I left my poker money on the kitchen counter. Once I got there, I gave everything I could out. Keely wasn't there, so I'll have to come out Friday or Saturday to get her gift to her, and I'm not sure when I'll catch up with Team Boobie. For the most part, my sore throat didn't bother me (maybe this is because my throat is always kinda sore in the smoky confines of DuPree's). ( Some key hands... )So I'm up anywhere from 30-40 dollars, which is a fairly good day for me. At one point, I was down about 26 or so, but caught a couple of lucky breaks. Happy New Year, to everyone. Current Mood: tired |
December 31st, 2002
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Ugh. What's worse than being sick? Being sick for New Year's Eve. What's worse than being sick for New Year's Eve? Being sick for New Year's Eve Poker Night. I'm going to take a nap and see if I can get to feeling better so I can play some poker. Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/uncomfortable.gif) sick |
December 20th, 2002
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This has been quite a week. Like I said before, I went to go see Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on Tuesday night, following our pool league match. Our match went quite well--We took 4 out of 5 to secure first place in the division. The four wins over the then-second place team allowed us to give Rob's team a bump up to second place. We have to play a wildcard round two weeks from now, and then figure in the session finals. The movie was pretty good. I'm not sure about some of the plot changes, but since I don't recall the book itself well enough to delineate the exact differences, I'm going to wait to say anything else, other than to reiterate: Not enough Ents. The birthday celebration was quite enjoyable. I ended up in quite a stupor towards the end of the night, demanding my cake and trying desperately to find a fork and knife with which to eat it. I honestly can't say enough about how much I appreciate the gift, too. tiiguy suggested to batnandu that they get a signed copy of the recently out-of-print Super/System, by Doyle Brunson a two-time (maybe more?) winner of the World Series of Poker. It's what just about everyone in the professional poker world would refer to as the "Poker Bible." And now I have one. The work week is winding down, too. Unfortunately, the project that I'm currently working requires me to constantly reload a WindowsCE device with old versions of our software product, and upgrade. These upgrades take about 15 minutes each time to reinitialize the entire system, and then I have to check if the changes that I made worked or not. So now you know where I found the time to learn how to juggle. Ugh. The unit I was working with basically just choked out, and because, I suspect, of the continual re-loads will now require flashing the harddrive and a total rebuild from the ground up. Luckily I have a spare... Sigh. Current Mood: busy Current Music: "Here" - VAST |
December 15th, 2002
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 But I think I'm losing control, because I programmed it too well, 'cause I'm amazing. I'm going to have to use that quote sometime in my coding career... I just watched "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever." Jhonen Vasquez is a genius. Even cooler, is once I was done watching, "Rise of the Zitboy" was on Nick. Poker was good to me last night, caught a couple of really good hands (on two hands of Deuces-Jacks, I caught a pair of sevens--once with a seven showing, and another time with pocket sevens). Also went high in Screwy Louie with a pair of sixes and won (T-9-8 of spades, 6 of clubs, and 6 of hearts). I lost a bit of money at Between the Sheets, which is a stupid, stupid game. I'm still convinced that I need to hone my card skills and come up with a system to the point where playing that game (and others like it) will be a no-brainer. Overall I'm up about 45 dollars, with some change. Didn't go to any brunch this afternoon--I got out of poker about 6:00 am, despite Ollie's insistence that I play a hand or two of No-Limit Hold 'Em (yeah, right). Woke up about 1:30 and then went back to sleep for a bit. Eventually just decided to forego brunch after I slept a little too close to the cutoff time for yummy eggs at Diem or Carrol St. Current Mood: punchy Current Music: "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever" |
November 9th, 2002
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Went to sleep at 6:15 last night (err... this morning...) for some reason because after trying to watch all three Godfather movies at Rob's place, playing four games of chess (in the we-made-a-mockery-of-the-game-of-chess sense) with Nandu and Jason, and eating way too much wonderful food prepared by Keely (plus Jessyca's delectable tiramisu, I went home at about 4:30, showered the smoke from me, and began to play Hoyle Casino (2 Texas Hold'em Tournaments) and Hoyle Card Games (Hearts and Gin Rummy). Woke up around noon today, and watched some TV, and then went to eat brunch at Apr´s. John and I then went to CompUSA and I bought another SiPix for Jerry and some other stuff. Went to CD Merchants afterwards to look for used CDs, because let's face it. I'd rather buy a used CD to prevent the freaking RIAA to get any additional income. As a matter of fact, I think I may sell a good many of my CDs now--it's not like I listen to most of them... But I digress. After CD Merchants, I went to Target and bought some cleaning shit for all the mildew growing on my mildew-resistant shower curtain. What gives? I did get to see what could be one of the most sultry women I've ever seen walking by me amidst the aisles of the store. Or maybe I'm just being hyperbolic because it's really just been far too long.So anyways, I made some leftover pasta that Keely left for me with garlic and oil (when garlic starts growing roots and stuff, is the darker part in the middle of the clove OK to eat? I sure hope so, 'cause if not...uhhh.... uh-oh...). Cleaned the tub, and watched John Doe. I was thinking about heading to the bar, but I'm a bit tired, and I don't feel like getting all smoky. So I'm going to upgrade my computer so I can use USB 2.0 devices. Yay. Word of the moment: odalisque Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/nolegs/mellow.gif) mellow Current Music: Good Eats: Gravy Confidential |
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