Sunday, September 24, 2006

What a Weekend!

What a great weekend! I had a great time at the Bash on Saturday and met a lot of cool people. They’re all legends in the blogging world and it was nice to put faces to blogs. Bad Blood and I made it to the finals of the beerpong championship but ended up as the first losers. I was drunk and pissed so I think I made some disparaging remarks about our opponents but really I played like crap and they played well. Oh well. Wait til next year? This was the 7th Bash but there are rumors that it might be the last. It takes a ton of effort to coordinate everything and I have to give a lot of love to Al and Mike for setting it up. I think they raised a good chunk of money for Michael Davis and cystic fibrosis. Fun, drinking and charity! The three reasons for living! The poker tournament was fun and Gavin is a cool guy. A lot of friends tell me it’s cool that I’m the same lazy, laid back, sloppy SOB even with the poker success that I’ve had. Well Gavin’s made over $3 million, was the WPT player of the year and STILL is the laziest, sloppiest, coolest dude that you’ll ever have the fortune of meeting. He’s donated a ton of money to charity, too, and really seems to love what he does. He’s also a sick degenerate mofo but that’s neither here nor there. Gavin may or may not have had over $100K riding on various College Football games. Luckily the only bet I remember was a smallish one on your Washington Huskies +3.5. More on that later.

A lot of craziness happened Saturday night but I’m not a good enough writer to try to cover it all. I’ll wait until the real writers and bloggers post what they have to say and then I’ll link their stories here. Laziness wins. For now, here are some pictures by F-Train.

While out in Philly I missed another faaaaaaaantastic football weekend in Seattle. The Huskies are 3-1! I didn’t get to watch the game but apparently, according to Davis, it was one of the best games that he’s ever seen .His word is good enough for me and I’m sad that I missed it. My bet with Mike is looking pretty good, especially with Stanford at home on the schedule. GO! HUSKIES! GO! HUSKIES! The Seahawks won a laugher in a game that I thought was going to be pretty difficult. I don’t think we’re quite as good as people are going to make it seem but I’ll take this victory with a smile on my face. I think the real Hawks are somewhere between the team that won 9-6 in Detroit that everyone was trippin’ about and the team today that everyone will be raving about. Next week we’ll get a better idea of how good this team really is. If we can go into Soldier Field, in Prime Time, and beat the Bears I will be very impressed. I can’t wait!

Today I woke up around 1 PM and felt like crap. I logged on to Yahoo!Sports and saw that TJ Houshmandzadeh was playing but still on my bench. Oh well, he was gimpy and playing as the 3rd WR anyway. No biggie. Oh, wait, he scores twice and would have been worth 21 points! His replacement, Jericho Cotchery scored 3 points for that team. Now, throw in the fact that I’m down by 6 going into Monday night and I feel like stabbing myself in the eye. I have Marquez Colston going by he has Algee Crumpler so I think he’s a bit of a fave right now. That’s my $100 league. I’m 0-2 and kinda screwed cant afford to fall too far behind. I’m 3-0 in my $50 league and really like my team. In my $1500 league, I’m 2-0 but have the 4th lowest point total in the league. This week I’m getting my butt kicked by 52 points but I have Vick, Jenkins and Colston going on Monday night. I made a big trade in this league, giving up Corey Dillon, Mike Bell and Philip Rivers for Vick, Jenkins and Ahman Green. I’m not sure that I got the better of this deal but I had serious QB issues and some RB depth so I went with the trade. The best part is that since I had Jenkins I benched Javon Walker and he racked up a tidy 25 points. I’m the best GM ever!

I bet Fantasy Football is one of the most boring things that I could ever write about. You know what’s even more boring? POKER!

I planned on playing the WCOOP $1K event all day today but ran into some bad luck. In other words, I got Nordberged:

Hero (t15060)
SB (t14180)
BB (t14062)
UTG (t3076)
UTG+1 (t17115)
MP1 (t13410)
MP2 (t8426)
MP3 (t10677)
CO (t6015)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ac, Ah.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t900, 4 folds, Hero raises to t2400, 2 folds, UTG+1 raises to t17115, Hero calls t12660 (All-In).

Flop: (t32625) Jd, 8h, 3c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t32625) 6d (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t32625) Td (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t32625

There were still 1100 players left but the 30K would have put me in the top 20 in chips and that’s gotta be worth something, right? First place in this baby is an incredible $442K. Pretty amazing. The WCOOP Main event is next Sunday and has a guaranteed $3 million prize pool which means that first place will be around $520K or so. God bless the Internet.

That’s all I have for now. I fly home at 7:30 AM and get to Seattle at 10:15. If you wanna kick it, come over to the Kangaroo and Kiwi for Monday Night Football, eat wings and watch Vick and Jenkins hook up for 4 TDs. Goooooo Falcons!

Sunday, September 17, 2006

I Love Football

It's been a lazy Monday after a weekend filled with football. It's a lot of fun when both the Huskies and Seahawks are in town, I get to go to both games, AND both teams win! The Husky victory was probably more important in the grand scheme of things. This is a program that went 1-10 in 2004 and 2-9 last year. Starting off the season 2-1 is nice and I think they'll beat UCLA next week. Stanback looked competent and hopefully will continue to improve. The Huskies are lucky that all their tough games are on the road and the winnable ones are at home. They weren't going to beat Oklahoma, USC, Cal or Oregon anyway so we may as well get them on the road. The Seahawks are 2-0 but still aren't playing their best football. Yesterday's 21-10 win could have easily been much bigger if the Hawks execute like they usually do. It's pretty fun to be able to critique wins as opposed to bitching about losses and I think the Hawks will gel soon. We've got two tough games coming up: The Giants at home and Chicago on the road. The Giants kicked our butts last year and lost because Feely is a choker. Eli looked impressive last year and looks better this year. I think it'll be a huge challenge for our team, especially because the Giants will have extra motivation to avenge last year's loss. I'll be watching this game in Philly, trying to nurse a wicked hangover. The Bash sounds like it'll be a lot of fun and Al's really been working hard. I hope it's a big success since the proceeds are going to some great charities.

Tonight I'm headed to the Kangaroo and Kiwi for 25-cent wings and Monday Night Football. One of my Fantasy league games hangs in the balance: I lead by 30 points and my opponent has Hines Ward, Fred Taylor and Pittsbugh D. I think I'm a small favorite but the line might be pick 'em. We need to hope for Pittsburgh to open up a big lead early, hopefully on Willie Parker runs, then watch Jacksonville throw the ball for most of the game and make a bit of a comeback but not throw any interceptions in the process. I want it to be 35-0 Steelers at the half then end with the Jags winning 42-35. Is that too much to ask?

One house that I like was sold and I'm going to take a second look at another one tomorrow. I think the market may be better in 3 months but I really want to get this shopping over with. It's pretty stressful, even though I don't need a house immediately, and you know I'm not a big fan of stress.

Carl has moved to Barcelona and is being good about providing updates on his blog so go check it out. I also got a comment from an old co-worker, Cale Green, and I like his blog. It's about sports and gambling and he really takes a lot of time writing stuff so you all should read it. That's all for now. Go Jags!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Florida Baseball....it's faaaantastic

Sorry for the lack of posts during the vacation. The internet connections were spotty at the Tampa/Miami motels/hotels and I never really had time to crank anything out. Excuses, excuses.

The highlight of the trip was seeing Anibal Sanchez throw a no-hitter. We were thinking about going to the game on Tuesday because Dontrelle Willis was pitching but it rained a lot and we decided to skip it. I'm glad we did because the no-no was one of the most exciting things that I've ever witnessed. I've seen no-hitters through six innings but never anything deeper. As he got each out in the 7th, the place buzzed a little louder and when shortstop Hanley Ramirez made a great play for the third out on a ball up the middle that I thought was going to be a hit, I leapt out of my chair and high-fived the guy behind me. The place was now in full buzz(as loud as 5,000 people could buzz) and the 8th was pretty electric. With a man on first, Sanchez induced a slow grounder to second base where Dan Uggla pulled off a perfect "run the guy back to first, throw to first to get the batter, then throw back to second and tag the runner" 4-3-6 double play. It was beautiful and the crowd roared as loud as 5,000 people could roar. In the ninth, he struck out the first batter with a 95 mph fastball. His fastest pitch before that was 91 mph. I think he was pretty juiced. Luis Gonzalez, Mr. Steroids, pops up quickly and we're one out away. Eric Byrnes hits a hard grounder to Hanley Ramirez who takes too much time but nips Byrnes by half a step and it's pandemonium in South Florida. The coolest part about it was watching the Marlins come sprinting out of the dugout and watching Sanchez cry. The Marlins have a payroll of 15 million! For the whole team! The Mets were going to be my October team since the M's won't be playing any games in October but I might have to root for the Marlins. I can't believe that they have 2 rings already and that really turns me off but how can you not root for a team with a $15 mil roster? I did some research and the following players make more than the entire marlins team: Alex Rodrigues, Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Mike Mussina, Manny Ramirez, Todd Helton, Andy Pettite, Magglio Ordonez, Randy Johnson, and Chan Ho Park. Unreal.


Packed House(moments before the first pitch of the no-no) Posted by Picasa


Marlins cheerleaders Posted by Picasa

Earlier in the week we went to the Devil Rays-Mariners game. Kenny got us sweet seats right behind home plate so we watched the M's take batting practice and even got a cameo from the man himself, Kenny Barron. The game was entertaining but the way the Mariners lost really got to me. They were up 6-4 in the 8th, Felix was pitching a pretty good game, then he visibly lost it. With a runner on 2nd, he threw a wild pitch to Ty Wigginton, then bounced another ball about a foot in front of home plate. Right then I knew he was done and I told Renee, "they should pull him right now. Don't let him throw a crappy fastball because that's all he can get over". Anyway, he throws the next pitch low and walks Wigginton. I said to Renee, "man, we got lucky there. Now we'll definitely pull him". The pitching coach went to the mound and the whole infied huddled. I figured that the relievers weren't quite ready and they were stalling before yanking Felix. Finally the ump came out to break it up and Felix was still in the game. "What the hell is going on," I verbalized to Renee. Before Felix could get set, Rene Rivera stood up and shouted out some instructions to the infield. OK, I thought, they're still stalling. Hargrove is going to come out of that dugout any second now. Then all of a sudden, Felix got set and I realized he was going to stay in the game. As he started his wind, my exact words to Renee were, "this is terrible," about 1 second before whoever the heck it was hit a 3-run bomb to put the Devil Rays ahead 7-6. I haven't seen very many Mariners games this year but that managerial decision, or non-decision, was one of the worst that I've ever seen in my life. If I were the GM, I would have called downstairs and fired Hargrove on the spot. I've heard that he's a nice guy and gets along with everybody but holy crap I was disgusted.


Renee at the Trop Posted by Picasa


The best translator in the league Posted by Picasa

Finally, the baseball trip is complete. I saw 32 games in 30 different stadiums and I had a frikkin blast. I'd really like to do it again someday.

The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing. Renee wanted to go out and hit the clubs but laziness got the best of us and we stayed in most nights. It was ridiculously humid and rainy and apparently it was the middle of hurricane season. If you want to go to Florida, go between November and March. We didn't have a choice because Renee had to plan around work but I wouldn't recommend going in early September. If you go to Tampa, make sure you go to the Salvador Dali museum in St Petersburg. It's the second-biggest Dali museum in the world and was very well done.


Fishbowl full of alcohol Posted by Picasa


Asian girl drinking fishbowl of alcohol Posted by Picasa


Giant Green Apple Cotton Candy Posted by Picasa

Renee and I got home on Friday night and I got to enjoy two glorious days of football with my friends. On Saturday we got together to watch the UW-Oklahoma game and we were treated to a 13-13 halftime score. I thought the defense played pretty well and I was encouraged by the 37-20 loss. Stanback is terrible and I really hope Willingham benches him sooner rather than later. Sunday was pure vegging out. The Seahawks game was at 10 AM and the Giants-Colts game ended around 9 PM. That's a lot of time spent sitting on Davis' couch. Everyone's freaking out about the fact that the Seahawks only won 9-6 but a road win is nothing to scoff at and I'm glad we're 10. Obviously there are some things to work on but I'm confident that the Hawks will be fine.

This week I've been looking at houses and I'm very close to putting in an offer on one. I can't wait to have a huge mortgage payment. I didn't have any time this week for a poker trip up to Canada so I'll have to go up early and often next week. The mortgage isn't going to pay itself.

That's it for now. Have a great weekend.