Spending Money

Today I spent a buttload of money. Spending money happens to be one of my least favorite activities but sometimes you gotta do it. I went to Costco to get a watch because I've needed one for about a year now but was always too lazy to actually get one. At Costco they had a Sprint booth set up and I went to lok at new phones because mine is pretty old. I really liked the Treo and decided to pick it up. It has bluetooth technology, which is basically wireless networking and came with one free month of Vision which lets me access the internet anywhere. The phone can also work as a router for my laptop so I can connect to the internet on my laptop anywyhere I go. I can be driving(or preferably RIDING) in a car across the desert and play poker on my laptop using my phone as a wireless router. I'm going to experiment with the compatibility for a while and see if I want to keep the Vision service. It's $15/month and includes free picture and video messaging. O'll let you know how it goes. I played around with it for a bit, transferring my phone book and whatnot but I think I'm going to have to wait until I see Clifford to really understand what features are cool. He's always been the technology guru in the family. He had a cell phone before me and my first phone was his hand-me-down and that number is still alive as Mike's phone. Ah, the cirle of life.

I also bought a Kenneth Cole watch that looks kinda different but I like, an 80 Gig portable Hard Drive, a good surge protector, a case of gummi bears, a case of sunflower seeds, 100 stamps, a hand towel for my bathroom and two DVDs, Rudy and Training Day. All told it was: more money than I wanted to spend. What can I say, I'm a compulsive son of a bitch.

That's about it. I played a little poker today but didn't do anything special. The Treo is really pissing me off because the book claims that it I can put music on it but the actualy device manager on my computer won't let me drag my MP3s into the little update box. Technology, the bane of my existance.

All Hooked Up

I went to UPS this morning and finally received the computer. It didn't come with a wireless network card so I had to buy one from the place down the street and of course the first one I got was defective. I tried to install it for about an hour and wasn't sure if the problem was just my computer illiteracy. Finally I took it back and they tested it to confirm that it was broken and then gave me a new one that I installed in a few minutes. I swear, computer stuff never goes smoothly, and crap like this is the norm.

Everything's hooked up now and the system is really great. The new monitor is still 20" but it's a little shorter and wider than the one that I had before and I won't be able to fit 4 tables on it but I'll probably only play a max of 6 at a time and use the extra space to surf the Internet and watch TV.

The TV feature is really awesome. They asked for my Zip Code then got my TV schedule from the Internet and I can search for programs and stuff just like digital cable. I can also pause live TV if I want to and then fast forward through the stuff I don't want to see, like commercials, to catch up with the live broadcast again. I thin kit's pretty damn slick. AND, I can find programs and schedule for them to be recorded while I'm away so I can watch the WSOP whenever I want to. AND, when you ask it to record a show it gives you the option of recording the entire series, so that it remembers each week so I won't ever need to remember to program it. AND, once the shows are recorded I can burn them onto DVDs. Very exciting, and I'm leaving it on Thursday. Cry.

Weekly Poker Report

Bankroll: $76,029.52

I decided to skip the 6PM and 7PM tournaments because playing for 7 hours is enough. I started today at 11AM and don't feel like playing anymore. I didn't have any huge cashes but I took second in a Limit Hold 'em tourney and that paid $1,620 so I netted about $700 for the day. Sometimes I'll lose 2K on Sundays but sometimes I'll win a big chunk.

Obviously this was a good week but I spent about $1,000 on satellites for the Bahamas and paid my friend Noah $720 that I owed him from Barcelona so that's why the jump in Bankroll is less than the $63K tournament win. If you remember last week's post I want to build the BR to 100K by the beginning of July AND pay for all of my travel/rent/food expenses so the number will probably have to be around $120-125K. Clearly, I still have a lot of work to do.

The way to build a bankroll is through cash games. They're steadier than tournaments and if you're a winning player you can count on winning over the long run. Tournaments are a bit of a different animal. You still should win over the long run but there is soooooo much short term luck in tournaments that it's a dangerous way to build a bankroll. You can go on a cold streak and burn through tens of thousands of dollars without blinking. The only problem is that I enjoy tournaments so much more than cash games and I need to really force myself to play cash games. I don't know, part of me wants to just play tournaments. I don't think it's productive for a poker player to force himself to play any one form of the game. I guess what I'll do is play tourneys until I start getting too pissed at the beats then focus on cash games more. My friend Steve, a professional player for 5 years now, has told me many times that variety is key to maintaining focus so I guess there's nothing wrong with going on a tourney binge for a while.

I don't know if any of that was interesting to anyone but guess what: IT'S MY BLOG! DEAL WITH IT!

Nice win for the Hawks today. Any road win in the division is nice, even though Kurt Warner sucks. I can't believe Shaun took that 88-yarder to the house. It looked like he was going to get caught and then he hit "triangle" and hurdled over the diving tackle attempt. It's beginning to look like the game against the Giants will be an important NFC battle. And we have them at home. And I will be there. And Eli better SLEEP WITH ONE EYE OPEN! GRIPPING HIS PILLOW TIGHT! I can't wait, baby! I'm not a player so I'm allowed to look ahead but I really hope we take care of business and rock the Rams next week. That will be another big step toward exorcising the demons.

GOOOOO!!!!! SEAHAWKS!!!!! GOOOOO!!!!! SEAHAWKS!!!!!

Tomorrow I'm going to the UPS depot at 8 AM to pick up my computer. Thursday I'm flying to Boston. Next Wednesday I'm flying to Seattle. Yee-Haw!

Ok, I was just kidding

Poker Gods! Just kidding! I didn't really want to go out in 778th place out of 814 entrants in the BoDog 100K guaranteed! I got all my money in with AsAd vs KdTd and KcJc on a 3c7sTc flop. I had 48.4% equity and a chance to triple up early but alas, the genius with KT and 12% equity spiked a third ten on the river. I swear, I'm the unluckiest guy in poker :)

I'm going to stop the rapid fire blogging. You'll hear from me tonight, after all the big tournies.

Nice Win

Nice Win 

It took me this long to figure out how to put that up on my site. First the picture was too big then I couldn't upload it because it was a .bmp instead of a .jpg. Anyway, it's now immortalized forever.

I downloaded an excel spreadsheet on Friday that keeps track of tournament statistics. It tracks your ROI, how much money you make, what sites you do best on, and a bunch of other great things. Sadly, all the data is now ruined because of the big win in my 3rd tournament entry. Now it say that I average over $20K per tournament and my ROI is 10341.2%. For some readon I don't think that's sustainable over the long run.

I'd be stupid if I didn't admit how lucky I was in this tournament. I think I'll post some key hands later but I cracked Aces twice when we were all in preflop, once with J6o and once with J8o. What a silly game. Today is Sunday and that means most of the major tournaments. I might give back half the money today and make the spreadsheet more believable. GO SEAHAWKS!

Yuck

Well I finished 11th in the Bahamas satellite and they were awarding 9 seats. I had a bit of bad luck with the draw I got and had to go for it. Here's a copy of an email I sent my poker friends:

UGH, despite Ramsey sweating me I finished 11th in the PCA satellite. One guy on my table started open-pushing every hand with 11 left and I was in 8th so had to keep folding. Then DavidRoss calls from the BB with A6 and beats the maniac's K7 and the other shorty on my table finds KK to beat maniac's 57. Meanwhile, on the other table 2 of the 5 players are sitting out and the shorty gets a walk in his BB and pushes a few and suddenly I'm 11th. The maniac was 2 to my left so the only times I got to even think about pushing were the CO and button when he was in the blinds. So I finally get TT on the button and open push and he has.....QQ. So disgusting. So I bubble the PCA. So I forget even winning any tournament 30 minutes ago. BLEH.

Seriously, I'm really pissed. I really want this damn trip and it may become my white whale if I don't pop that bubble soon. The bubble in poker is the worst feeling in the world. Damn it all. I guess I'll go look at the 63K in my account and smile for a minute.

OH BABY!

I just won a tournament on Paradise Poker, netting $63,518. Good god it feels good.

I'm also 10th in chips with 18 players remaining in a satellite for the Bahamas. The top 9 all get seats so I might have more good news soon.

All you need to do is kiss Carl Olson's ass. Easy game.

Hoops

NBA Basketball, it’s Faaaaaaaaantastic.

You know, despite everything the NBA has done to turn me off, I just can’t stay away. Basketball is such a great, exciting game and I really enjoy it. Tonight the Sonics were on National TV and I got to watch the game on our stolen cable. I have to say, I liked what they did last year and I like what they’re doing this year. I love the Sonics because they’re good for the same reasons I was good at Rav-Eckcommunity center. They have a good fundamental understanding of the way that basketball should be played and they hustle their asses off. They may not be the most talented team in the league but they do the little things very well. They also play really well together as a team. Luke Ridnour understands what his role is, he distributes the ball and manages the clock. Jesus Shuttlesworth knows his role on the team: He takes big shots, scores our points and is the go-to-guy when we need a bucket. Nick Collison, Danny Fortson, Reggie Evans….they know they’re never going to score 25 points per game or be the stars. They just grind out the rebounds and beat people’s heads in.

Ray Allen is underrated, IMO. It’s hard to say that a perennial all-star is underrated but you really don’t hear his name as often nationally as you hear other, less deserving names. I think he’s as good as anyone in the league and even though he’s older I’d take him before almost anyone. There are 10 names I could throw out who get more pub than Jesus and I wouldn’t trade him for. Is it because he doesn’t have tattoos all over his body, because he holds charity events instead of smoke-outs? Because he’s never had to buy his wife a $10 million dollar ring after cheating on her for the 485th time? I love Ray Ray and I still believe in him as a legit, top five, NBA superstar.

People say that were not going to be as good as last year because we lost Antonio Daniels. Now I love A.D., but I think he was a little too similar to Ray Allen and not enough of a point guard. I like having Mateen off the bench as a TRUE backup pointguard, someone who’s going to come in and distribute the ball like Luke and take the occasional ball to the rack like Luke. I love Mateen’s basketball IQ. He may never develop a great jumper but he knows what he needs to do to be effective and I like seeing him out on the floor. Nick Collison is another one of our guys with a great sense of what’s going on. A coach’s son, he makes great passes, comes up with big rebounds and can also shoot free throws.

That’s the other thing I love about this team: the free throws. Winning teams make free throws, period. The Sonics make free throws, period.

The one downer is how unbelievably good the Spurs are. I feel like no matter what happens we’re not going to beat those guys. I want to enjoy the regular season as much as I can but that thought is going to linger in my head all year. Also, I don’t know what I think about seeing Bob Weiss with the reins. Something about it just rubs me the wrong way. Oh well, go Supes! Everyone pray for Duncan’s legs to fall off.

Fantastic

Well, the UPS guy finally came at 3:45 PM with....2 of the 3 boxes. The monitor was there, as were the speakers, but the mother-effing Central Processing Unit was nowhere to be found. He said he didn't know what was up and suggested that I call UPS. After 3o minutes of talking to an automated message I got in touch with the local UPS distributor who told me that my computer was still in L.A. Apparently it was separated from the rest of the shipment and I'm going to get it on Monday. MONDAY! That's glorious. Hopefully they come at 6:45 in the morning, knock lightly then leave and tell me that no one was home. Now I have speakers that I don't need and a second monitor that my laptop can't handle.

I apologize for the pessimism surrounding the last few blogs. I'll try my best to come up with something wonderful for the next one.

Computer oh Computer

Where art thou, Computer? I've been up since 8 AM, a painful experience, and UPS hadn't shown up yet. The online tracking system said that they came here at 9:40 AM yesterday so maybe they're trying a different time of day.

I got kinda close to the Bahamas yesterday. I won the first table of a double shootout but finished 4th at the final table. Double shootouts are 81-person tournaments. There are 9 tables of 9 players and the winners of each table advance to the final. The winner of this 9-person table gets the trip. I had a very difficult first table but got some good cards and was able to take it down. My second table was filled with really bad players but I got a little unlucky, holding K9 on a flop of KK4 while my maniac opponent held KT. This guy was unbelievably crazy, playing 90% of pots and calling all bets. K9 felt like the nuts there but instead knocked me out in 4th place. I feel good about these Double Shootouts and I hope to have some good news soon.

Doh

According to UPS tracker they came to my apartment at 9:20 AM and no one answered the door. I just woke up (11:40) and I can neither confirm nor deny their claim of coming by this morning. I guess I just need to wake up early tomorrow and sit by the front door in my rocking chair. It's reather disappointing to have to wait another day but I guess I can suck it up.

Axe body spray has a contest online for the dirtiest fraternity shower. Guess who's one of the 10 finalists....Psi U! I guess that's not really something to be proud of but if we win Axe will spend $15,000 to "Pimp Our Shower". If you have the time, go to this page: http://axe.eprize.net/pimpmyfraternityshower/
and vote for Psi Upsilon, Washington. You can vote once per day so vote early and vote often.

I was planning on spending all day having fun with my new computer but I guess I'll do that tomorrow. TOday I'll try to recover from yesterday's poker debacle. Wish me luck.

Jeez

Man, I woke up this morning psyched to play my best poker. I was planning on concentrating and playing my best to fulfill my quest to win a seat in the PokerStars Carribean Adventure. That's why it hurt so bad today to get as unlucky as I did. I seriously tried to play really well and kept getting bitch-slapped by the deck. I won't go into details but the poker gods really had fun with me today. They kept giving me great tables with the worst players ever and giving me good hands that just couldn't win. I only lost about $400 but it felt really, really bad. I think it's because I talked shit about Carl. He's done some deal with the gods and hardly ever runs bad. So my new official statement is that I love Carl and I wish him the best. Now I hope I'll get off the Poker Gods' shit list. God, I love poker. I really, really do.

I Hate Carl

Carl won a trip to the Bahamas today and will be joining Justin there in January. Normally I'm happy for my friends but I really hate Carl with a passion that burns deep inside my soul. I'm just kidding but now I want to win this trip sooooo bad. I'm afraid that my desperation will prove harmful for my game. We'll see. If I win one tomorrow it will be fine but with every day that passes it gets tougher and tougher. I got deep in a tourney that gave out a seat today but suffered some bad luck and went out in 7th. Man, I want this trip. I'm devoting the rest of the week to earning the trip. Hopefully I don't spend 12K in my quest. Wish me luck.

Costco finally installed my new tires today. I don't have to be donut boy anymore. My new computer gets in on Thursday according to UPS. We found out that we get free cable so I don't need to order it for the time being. I wonder if they're going to shut it off at some point. I've decided that I don't want to order it, even if they do shut it off. I'm still going to be traveling a lot and I'll probably be gone too much to make it worth paying all by myself. Kele really is adamant about not wanting cable so we're SOL if they cut it off. I just want it for a little while once I get my computer so I can use the TIVOish feature and burn a DVD of PrimeTime or something.

Did I mention that I hate Carl?

Stuff

We finally cleaned our old apartment today and finished moving all the little stuff over here to our new place. The new place is a bit of a mess but I like having my desk in the living room. I'll put up a picture of my setup once my new computer and second monitor get here. I'm tracking it via UPS online and it's due on Thursday. I can't wait because my laptop is wigging out and randomly decides it doesn't want to let me use the internet at inopportune times. Not good when you're trying to make a living playing poker tournaments and other such things online.

I found some sweet poker chips for the religous readers:
http://www.kerusso.com/catalog.taf?parent_id=16
Click on the "Faith Chips"

I don't remember if I put this in yesterday's blog but I finally bought my plane tickets to Seattle and Boston. I'll be in Boston from November 10-16 and Seattle from Nov 16-28. I will be attending a Seahawk's game on November 27th and I can't wait. I'm also planning on playing in our annual Thanksgiving football game for the first time in a while. I can't wait to blow up Ted.

Tomorrow my tires arrive at Costco. I haven't called the cable company yet. I'm considering waiting until I get back from my trip because it's $60/month for the nice digital cable package and I'm going to be gone for 18 days. If I can convince my roomies to chip in I'll get it before but they say they don't want cable so I'm planning on paying for it all. We shall see.

I alomst forgot, Happy Halloween. I hope you're having more fun than I am. Sitting in front of the computer is great but there's something about kickin' it with friends that makes my tummy warm.

Poker Sundays

Sunday is a big day in the world of online poker. Most of the big tournaments are played on Sunday and there are multiple 100K winners across each of the different sites. I don't believe in posting short term results because poker is such a long term game but I think I'm going to start putting up my poker bankroll weekly for you all to look at and see how I'm doing. I want to get my bankroll to 100K by next July for the WSOP and I think posting it may motivate me to play more. Sunday will be the day with the biggest flucuations so I'll post at night once I'm done playing but before I go to bed. This bankroll is what I will use to earn the rent and get money for traveling. So, I'm probably going to have to earn a bit more than 100K to sustain my travels AND have 100K for tournaments in July and August. I still have a good amount in the bank and set aside in a cash account should I go belly up. Anyway, I feel like the results will come if I put in enough hours and I think that I'll put in more hours if I post about results. I'm actualy down $1200 since last Monday if you want a reference point. I feel like there will be a lot of weeks where I break even or have minor up and downticks but there will be a few great ones in there. Let's hope next week is a great one. Without further ado, the number as of right now:

$14584.50

I almost forgot to congratulate my boy Justin for winning a trip to the Bahamas and an entry into the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure. The package was worth 12K altogether and he won it tonight. CONGRATS!

Almost there

We're almost fully moved into the new place. We have the UHaul reserved on Sunday for the big items, beds and couches, but we've moved most of the little stuff already. UHaul really chaps my ass. The truck costs $19.95 to rent for one day BUT you have to pay for 50 miles at $0.79 per mile. That's $40 extra dollars that they don't advertise to you, twice the rental of the truck! Are you kidding me? They have quite a monopoly on the moving business but I think it's messed up.

Bill Simmons is amazing. He makes me literally laugh out loud multiple times per article. Here's a great bit from this week's NFL picks column:

Chiefs (+6.5) over CHARGERS
Seems like a three-point game to me. And since I have nothing else to add ... watching football last Sunday with my friends, I brought up the topic, "What touchdown dance would cause the biggest possible fine?"

You would think it would be Adam Carolla's idea for the "Touchdown Poop," which I described two years ago -- basically, the guy scores a touchdown, then squats like he's on the bowl, stays there for a couple of seconds, turns the pages of an imaginary newspaper and finally "pushes" the ball between his legs. We figured that if Randy Moss did that, he would get suspended for a game and fined like $150,000. Plus, Joe Buck might start crying on the air.

But I think this one would be worse: "The Delivery." What if Moss scored a TD and immediately fell to the ground on his back, with his legs up in the air like a pregnant woman, and two receivers stood on either side "cheering him on," and Randy pretended he was pushing, and finally the QB leaned over him and "pulled" the football from Randy's loins, then held the football to his shoulder like a baby for a few seconds before Moss stood up, gingerly grabbed the "baby," cut an imaginary umbilical cord, then spiked the ball as hard as he possibly could? I think that would be like a three-game suspension and a $500,000 fine, right? Plus, Buck would be more distraught than Walter Cronkite after JFK's assassination. Let's hope and pray that Randy reads ESPN.com.

The Delivery! If I saw any NFL player act that one out I don't know what would happen to me. I'd probably get checked into the local insane asylum and scream "Bill Simmons is a genius" incessantly for the rest of my life.

Brilliant Quote

This quote gives me goosebumps. Maybe it's just because I'm an extremely competitive person but this quote really gets my blood flowing.

"It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or the doer of deeds could have them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the Arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but he who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great devotion; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who know neither victory nor defeat."
-Teddy Roosevelt

Life Rears its Ugly Head

Well I had to run some errands today and remind myself that life isn't all peaches and cream. One of my tires went flat at Costco and I took the car over tot he tire center to see what was up. The treads were really worn and I ended up buying 4 new tires. They didn't have my size tire(baby Prius tires) so they oredered them and they aren't coming until Tuesday. The one that went flat had a hole in it so I put on the donut and took the side roads home. It's quite a pain in the ass since we're moving this weekend and I'm going to have to use the car.

Moving is the other slight pain in the arse. It's only a few miles but I hate boxing up all my stuff. I hated to the room next door while living in the Fraternity so I definitely hate loading my donutified car and driving a few miles.

I like our new place. My room is a lot smaller since I'm giving Kele and Danielle the Master bedroom but it's manageable. I'm going to be saving $165/month in rent so that satisfies the miser in me. I also can put my desk in the living room if it gets too cramped in the room and I think I'd like that better. I can't wait for my new computer and monitor to arrive. I'm such a poker nerd. We went to check out the new place today and I picked up two wireless signals that seem usable. I still think I'm going to get my own so I can troubleshoot when things go down instead of just cursing at the neighbors.

Well, that's about all the news. Two errands, man life is tough.

It's falling into place...

Man oh man, it's starting to come together. The Red Sox came out with their 2006 schedule and motivated me to pore over over the rest of the schedules and figure out when the teams without schedules released were playing, based on the team's schedules that have been released. Does that make sense? I found out that the Red Sox are @ the Yankees on May 9 and I can fit 2 of the 3 games into my schedule. I have the full schedule down below. The Braves schedule isn't out yet but I found that they're at home on that date but I forgot to write down what team it was and I don't want to go through all the National League teams again to figure it out so that's blank. The Orioles game is a pure guess. The Blue Jays came out with a HOME schedule and are somewhere on the road that date. The Red Sox and Yankees are playing a 2-game series for the same 2 days that the Blue Jays are on the road AND the Blue Jays are @ the Red Sox for the second 2-game series so I'm thinking it's a division flip-flopping thing. The D-Rays full schedule is out and they're playing the AL West so that leaves those 4 teams to be playing each other and since the Jays aren't at home, they MUST be at Baltimore...I hope...because it fits into the schedule perfectly. I found out that the Orioles are on the road on the 3rd through the 11th or something like that and that would throw a severe monkey wrench into the plans.

YOU LIKE THAT RAMBLING? I CAN GO ON FOREVER. My apologies if you don't like baseball. Suck it up, this is my life and my blog. Without further ado:

Seattle......3-Apr...Angels
Oakland......5-Apr...Yankees
San Fran.....6-Apr...Braves
Angels.......8-Apr...Yankees
Padres.......9-Apr...Rockies
Dodgers......14-Apr..Giants
Arizona......16-Apr..Astros 14-16, Giants 17-20
Rangers......21-Apr..D-Rays 21-13
Astros.......22-Apr..Pirates 22-23, Dodgers 24-26
Atlanta......28-Apr
D-Rays.......29-Apr..Red Sox
Marlins......30-Apr..Rockies
Orioles......2-May...Blue Jays
Nationals....3-May...Marlins
Phillies.....4-May...Braves
Mets.........5-May...Braves
Boston.......6-May...Orioles 6-7
Yankees......9-May...Boston 9-10
Blue Jays....11-May..Oakland
Pirates......12-May..Marlins
Indians......13-May..Tigers
Reds.........14-May..Phillies
Tigers.......16-May..Twins
Cubs.........17-May..Nats 17-18
White Sox....19-May..Cubs 19-20
Brewers......21-May..Twins
Twins........23-May..Indians 23-24
Royals.......25-May..Tigers
Cards........29-May..Houston 29-31
Rockies......2-Jun...Marlins

I guess I could put the date first but I mapped out the trip based on route a few months ago so the cities/teams are first. Dave will be with me on the West Coast but that's the only passenger for now. I think the stretch in early May will be a good one. Fly to Boston on Saturday May 6th. May 6-7, Orioles at Red Sox. May 8 I'm going to Cooperstown and then May 9-10 you get 2 Red Sox-Yankees games. Then you get 4 games in 4 days and fly out of Cincinnati. All told you get 8 games in 9 days AND a trip to the Hall of Fame on the one off day. And you only need to use 5 vacation days since it's Saturday through Sunday. WOW! I should auction that one off, baby! 8 games in 9 days including 2 at Fenway and 2 Sox-Yankees in Yankee Stadium. Are you kidding me? I'm planning on sitting in the bleachers for one Sox-Yankee game and in the main area for the other. Did you know that you can't get to the plaques area in center field if you buy bleacher seats? Another reason to hate the Yankees, but since I get TWO games there I can enjoy the raucous crowd in the bleachers AND check out the plaques on day 2. Holy crap. I should probably rent another car for these 9 days to accomodate everyone that's going to want to come.

OK, I'm calm. Not really but I need to move on. One of the coolest things about this trip is getting to see a Giants-Dodgers game and a Red Sox-Yankees game. The Cubs-White Sox games will be cool also but I'd really like to see Cubs-Cardinals. There actually is a series June 2-4 at Busch so I might decide to spend even more time with Minh Ba than I already am and check out that series. Neither the Cubs nor the Cardinals have released their schedules yet but fans have sites where they did what I did and compiled each team's entire season schedules. THOSE are real fans.

The stretch in Chicago might also be a good time to tag along. My friend Anh is in med-school in Miluakee and he'll probably join me for part of the Chicago trip. I haven't talked to him at all but he told me a few months ago that he likes going down to Chicago for games. Here's what you should do: Fly in on the 17th and get 2 games at Wrigley, May 17-18. Then we go to the South Side and get two Cubs-White Sox games, at the home of the probable World Series Champs. The drive up to Miluakee with me, drink beer and go to the Sunday game. Fly home Sunday, May 21st out of Miluakee. OR, you can skip Miluakee and fly out of Chicago on Saturday the 20th or Sunday morning and just buy round-trip airfare, Home-Chicago for May 17-21. You get 4 games in 4 days, 2 at Wrigley and 2 cross-town rivalry games. However, you miss out on the road trip aspect but if you don't like driving then this is the package for you! You like my travel agent impersonation?

Well, folks, I think it's obvious that the best package means flying into Boston on Saturday May 6th and out of Miluakee on May 21st. 2 weeks of vacation time in exchange for 16 days of BASEBALL NIRVANA. 16 of the greatest days of your life. Not that any of the packages alone won't be great, but, man...

OK, I know not everyone loves baseball the way that I do and maybe I'm overhyping this a bit but HOLY SHIT I'M EXCITED! CAN YOU TELL?

Moving

Well we're moving this weekend and I'm actually kinda happy about it. The wireless internet that I've been stealing from the neighbor has been very erratic since this week and it's been frustrating the hell ou of me. Luckily it hasn't wigged out during a big tournament but it's still caused a lot of problems while playing poker. At the new place I'm going to splurge for an internet connection of my own so that I have someone to complain to when it's going haywire. We also steal cable but we don't get all the channels. Basically we get a good number of channels with a bit of static and some that are unwatchable. Unfortunately, ESPN has become unwatchable and FOX has always been really bad so I've missed the World Series AND the World Series of Poker. It's football season so no Primetime is enough to make a man insane. I had to watch the highlights of the Seahawks game on my laptop and the internet kept cutting out. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Yep, I'm a cheap bastard and it takes a lot for me to spend money but I've reached my wits end. I also just bought a new computer and it's very media oriented. It has an input for cable TV and has the software to pause and record live TV, like TIVO but without subscription costs. I can then burn TV shows or sporting events to DVDs and watch them on regular DVD players. I bought it because I needed something more powerful than my laptop to run all of my poker programs with two 20" monitors.I'm planning on playing a lot of poker over the next few months and I'm going to need something strong and reliable. Here it is:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11029684&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=&s=1

I think it's pretty cool. That price included shipping and a 20" monitor that normally costs around $600. I was planning on buying a second monitor anyway so it all works out well. Plus, as an Executive Member of Costco I get 2% back! I told you I was a cheapskate. The TV recording feature really intrigues me.

I've been feeling really good the past few days and I'm really glad that I decided not to go to Dublin. Rest is very nice sometimes and I'm really like it down here. I only have 5 months left here and I'll definitely be traveling a bit...speaking of travel here are my latest plans:

November 10-16: Boston/Foxwoods for poker. I might stay until the 18th if I can qualify for an entry to the $10,000 tournament. The final table is on the 18th so if I make it that far I'll buy a different ticket home. Right now the plan is to go and hang out with my Bostonian friends who essentially taught me how to win at poker and watch Carl play in the 10K event.

November 16-22: Seattle for Founder's Day. Fonder's Day is an annual Fraternity function that I had to miss last year while helping move Cliff to Alabama. I really would like to go every year that I can. I'll only miss this one if I somehow get to the final table of Foxwoods and it's going to take a hell of a lot for that to happen.

December 10-17: Vegas for another WPT event. Again, I'd like to qualify for this one too but I'm such a poker groupie that I can't stay away.

December 18-January 3: Seattle for the holidays. My mom's coming home!

January 3-11: The Bahamas for...poker!

January 25-28: Copenhagen for...poker!

February 8-11: Deauville, France to defend my EPT title!

March 31: Move out of my apartment down here. I'm planning on storing my stuff at my Dad's house in the Bay Area for a few months while traveling. I haven't asked him yet but maybe he'll read it here on the blog.

April 4 - June 1: Baseball Roadtrip

June 14-July7: Soccer's World Cup in Berlin, Germany.

July 7-Augut 13: Vegas for the WSOP.

September: Go back to school! Right now I'm torn between going to school in the Bay Area, Barcelona or Seattle. In the Bay Area I'd get to live with my pops for 2 years, in Barcelona, well, I'd get to live in Barcelona for 2 years, and in Seattle I might get to live with my baby brother for a few years. The Army has some sort of program where you can go to graduate school AND get paid as a captain while you do it. Sickening, the benefits those damn officers get. If he ends up enrolling for next fall there is a very good chance that we'd look into buying a place and living together. I think I'm going to apply to schools in all these areas and fiure out where to go from there. I'd really love to live with Cliff. He'd whip me into shape and possibly teach me how he got rid of the Schaefer laziness gene.

Well, I think this has gone on long enough. Can you tell I'm feeling better? It's 1:30 in the morning so I'm finally getting back on my normal sleep schedule. I'll see y'all Seattle kids in a few weeks.

Baseball Road Trip

Well most of the teams have their 2006 schedules out but a few are slacking. The AL East and most playoff teams are kinda ruining it for me. Two of the only playoff teams with 2006 schedules: Astros and White Sox. Coincidence?

So here's my schedule for the first month:
Seattle: 3-Apr
Oakland: 5-Apr
San Fran: 6-Apr
Angels: 8-Apr
Padres: 9-Apr
Dodgers: 14-Apr
Arizona: 16-Apr
Rangers: 21-Apr
Astros: 22-Apr
Atlanta: 28-Apr
D-Rays: 29-Apr
Marlins: 30-Apr

12 teams in the first month but that's the toughest stretch. Once I drive from Miami to Baltimore(sounds very painful) the teams are much closer and I'll be able to come close to averaging a game a day. Dookie will probably be driving with me from Seattle to Phoenix then flying home from there. Anyone else is welcome to join me for stretches of highway if you want. Teams that don't have their schedules out kinda make it tough but I'm trying to hammer out a framework for the East Coast. Here we go:

Orioles
Nationals: 3-May
Phillies: 4-May
Yankees
Mets: May 5-7
Boston
Blue Jays: May 8-11
Tigers: May 16-21
Indians: May 12-21
Pirates: May 9-18
Reds: May 9-14
Cards
Cubs
White Sox: May 9-11, 19-24
Brewers: May 12-21
Twins: 23-28
Royals: May 19-25
Rockies: May 21, June 2-11

Yep, I warned you it was ugly...I'm trying to look at the dates and figure out the best plan of attack. It may involve backtracking like I'm doing for the Angels-Padres-Dodgers but I'd really like to figure out how to hit one game every day. Are you excited yet? If anyone out there can get me the schedules for the Orioles, Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals and Cubs I'd be very much obliged.

MY BAD!

Well it's been a while and Dookie just emailed me saying I should get another blog up so here ya go.

I've been on a weird schedule since coming home. I wake up at 7 or 8 AM and go to bed around 11PM or so. Really, really weird. I've been kinda unmotivated to do anything and my days consist of surfing the internet and playing a little poker. I have a few interesting things to blog about but I'm going to wait for those. Look for: Poker Goals, Baseball Roadtrip, and Updated Calendar in the next few days. Most of the teams have released their 2006 schedules so I'm trying to plan the trip as much as I can right now. I'm so excited about this damn trip. In fact, I'm going to go work on it right now. I'll put up the dates and cities that the Brandon Schaefer World Tour will be stopping at sometime later today.

OK, short blog but I guess it serves the purpose of, "what is Brandon up to?" and that's the whole reason for this damn thing. The weather down here sucks. I hope it's better where you are.

Coming Home

Well the smog was wreaking havoc on Ken's allergies and we felt like 6 days in H.K. was too long anyway so Ken and I are coming home 2 days early. We had a great time in Hong Kong and I wouldn't mind coming back for a day or two someday. Kay was a great guide and we had a lot of fun hanging out with her. She's a vegetarian aand doesn't drink alcohol, two feats that I've tried to accomplish many times but always failed. I'm far too lazy to find Vegetarian food all the time and the alcohol thing...well...I just like it, OK?

The hike was really cool. We started at the school where Kay works and made our way around the Tam Tai Reservoir(or Tom Toi or something). We had a chance to take a wicked mountain trail but the humidity was stifling and we had a good enough view from where we were so we stayed on the level for the most part. It was a very clear day but the smog made it so that you could hardly see the mountains just across the water. I really can't get over how polluted Hong Kong is but I guess that's what happens when you cram so many people into such a small space. After the hike we went back to Kay's place to watch Doraemon, a funny Japanese cartoon, and unwind. We left after a few hours then went home to wait for John to arrive. He got in around midnight and we strolled the empty streets for a while before turning in.

The next day we made our way out to Lantow(sp?) Island and saw the tallest outdoor sitting Buddha in the world. It was a really spectaclar sight and a real must see if you go to Hong Kong. There's also a Wisdom Path that just opened and it's very cool in it's own right. It's about a 10 minute walk from the buddha and most of the seemed unaware that it even existed. The whole trip is fun, ferry ride, bus to the top of the island, hike up to the buddha: we had a lot of fun. The best thing too is that the entrance was only 23 HKD(about 3 USD) and it included a free meal at their vegetarian restaurant. Give me free food and I'll love you forever.

We met Kay at the ferry terminal back on Hong Kong island and caught the ferry to Kowloon. The ferry is only 10 or 15 minutes long and cost 1.6 HKD. Kowloon is pretty big and bustling in its own right but the view of Hong Kong island across the water spectacular. There is a must see on Kowloon as well. The Peninsula Hotel is one of the nicest hotels in the world and has a great restaurant on the top floor named Felix. The view from the women's bathroom at Felix is absolutely unreal. The women's bathroom is directed across the water and offers the best view of Hong Kong's skyline anywhere. It's a good thing that Kay was with us because she was able to apologize to the shocked woman who came to see 3 young males with their noses pressed to the window. The view from the men's bathroom is nice as well but it looks out over the city of Kowloon, not quite as nice as the HK skyline over the water. Make sure you head to this female bathroom if you're ever in Hong Kong, no matter what your gender. Every night they have alightshow on the Hong Kong skyline that you can watch from Kowloon but it's very overrated. Each building on the Hong Kong skyline has a few lights on it and they flash in time to some music. I guess it was worth seeing but I'm not going to call it a must see.

Yesterday we went to Victoria Peak, or The Peak as they call it. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, but we still could barely see across to Kowloon. Have I mentioned how smoggy Hong kong is? We had a guide that told us about a nice trail around Victoria Peak and Tom san seconded the recommendation so we checked it out. It's funny because most of the tourists head to an observation point on the left, an overcrowded and overrated viewing point, and never even look at the loop trail on the right. The trail was about 2.5 km and offered much better views of the skyline and waterfront. I will label tis trail a must see, I think it's called the peak loop or something like that. Just turn to your right once you get off the funicular railway, to opposite way that most people are going, and look for the signs. We had dinner with Kay one last time and called it an early night.

We are at the HK ariport now and I just wanted to crank this puppy out before I lost my motivation. Hong Kong is an extremely interesting place and we had a really good time. I would recommend 2-4 days and you'll be ready to hit the road. My next blog will be live from beautiful San Diego. I love traveling, obviously, but it's always nice to return home. I can't wait.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is muggy as hell and there are millions of people on the streets. It's pretty cool to experience and we're going to do plenty of bootleg shopping in the next few days. Tomorrow we're going hiking with Ken's friend Kay. She's been teaching here for 2 years now and sems to have found a nice niche for herself. She claims that tomorrow will be a tough hike but the view will be worth it. I'm not sure what kind of view we'll get through the smog but I'm going to welcome the physical exercise. The sun looks really strange in Hong Kong, because the smog is so thick. It's wicked strange and I'll try to get a cool picture of it. Talk to you later.

Apologies

I'm sorry for both the low volume and low quality of posts lately. I'm really starting to feel burnt out and I'm rather excited to head home. Kenny and I had a great last week here in Tokyo, saying all of our last goodbyes and again spending way too much money. Tokyo is a really fun city but it's ridiculously easy to spend tons of money. Tomorrow we fly to Hong Kong for a week and then it's back to the good old U.S.A.

I think that I'm going to skip the Dublin trip. I really feel worn out and don't want to subject myself to another European flight just 3 days after getting home from Asia. I think I'm just going to hang out iN San Diego until I head up to Seattle for the first week of November. I wonder how my dear old mom does it. She's been traveling through Asia since May and hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. I think it may have to do with our contrasting lifestyles. While on the road she hikes a lot and generally spends a ton of time outdoors. I usually end up drinking way too much and gorging myself at every opportunity without any real form of exercise.　On the trip to Eastern Europe with Rob, Davis and Chris we all decided to go running each morning to keep in shape and see the cities from a different perspective. Well that lasted for about a week before we fell into the wining and dining routine. I think our idea was great in theory and I'm going to try to do it better on my next long trip. That will be Copenhagen and Deauville in late January and early February. I should be itching to travel by then.

I'll try to post from Hong Kong. We have almost 6 full days there so we should have a lot of downtime.

Tokyo Nightlife

Well, the past weekend was quite a blur and I'm here to report that Tokyo's nightlife is really fun. The clubs are clean and the dancing is ferocious. Japanese people do everything to the fullest, working 11 hour days then copletely letting loose on the weekends. the most crowded, interesting subway you'll ever see is a train from Roppongi at 5AM. There are business men vomiting on the floor, girls that look like they're 15 giggling incessantly, and big drunken Americans trying to remember how to get home. I'll let you guess which group Scott, Kent and I belonged to this weekend.

I don't really remember all the details but it was great reuniting with the boys. They live a pretty good life over here in Japan and I feel pretty jealous. I'm really growing to appreciate everything that Japan and Tokyo have to offer and I'll be sad to leave on Saturday morning.

Saturday we're heading to Hong Kong and I'm going to buy as much bootlegged apparel as I can. Sorry for the short entry but we're about to watch a movie at John Rankin's place. I really miss my home and my friends.

PokerStars Blogger Tourney

This looks pretty sick. If you have a blog about anything, go register for this event. PokerStars is giving away about 25K in prizes so don't miss out. If you don't have a blog, you suck.

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

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 7521661

Kyoto

I'm just going to concede defeat in my efforts to blog more wile on the road. I guess it's good that I find it so difficult to make time because that means that I'm out doing better things.

Kyoto is a fascinating city. It was the capital of Japan before Tokyo and the word 'Kyoto' actually translates as capital. There's a lot of really interesting history here with over 2,000 temples. We7ve been busy every day, checking out temple after temple. Ken has another Buddhist Monk friend here named Sakata. We're really lucky to have him as a guide because he takes us to the lesser known temples that most tournist don't get to see, as well as the major guidebook hotspots. I'd be utterly lost without Kenny, the best Japanese tour guide in the world.

Kyoto is also a pretty young city. There's a real fresh energy around and the nightlife is great. There's a big river that runs through the middle of the city and a ton of people sit on the banks and drink every night. In a way it reminds me of Barcelona and Istanbul, rich with history and culture yet vibrant and youthful.

We hung out with Laura for the past two days and it was great to see her. She's meen teaching English in Japan for a year now and she's contracted for another full year. She really likes it here and might even sign up for more than two years. I really am enjoying Japan but I don't think I could live here for that long. There are a lot of Japanese customs that I really like but there are a few that I don't really understand and irritate me a little bit. The people here are all really nice but sometimes I get the vibe that it's a little contrived and forced because of the culture.

All in all, Japan has realy wowed me with it's efficieny, cleanliness and cheerful attitudes. Every train is on time, the streetrs are spotless and everyone, everywhere, greets you with a Konichiwa and an Arigato Gozaimasu. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to visit and I'd like to come back again if I ever get around to learning the language.

We're off to Tokyo in a few days. I probably won't blog until then. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

Lots to tell

Bleh, I let it happen again. Too many things to write and not enough time to write them. I have 15 minutes here at the Internet cafe to write about the past few days so it'll have to be short. Here's a summary of what I've been up to.

Tuesday: Shigetoshi
Wednesday: Shigetoshi
Thursday: Hiroshima-Kyoto
Friday: Temples of Kyoto
Saturday: Laura

On Tuesday I met Shigetoshi at a train station near his house. Sasaki Sense dropped me off and he spoke with Ken for a few minutes before they left me on my own. Shigetoshi brought his whole family, wife Chica, 11 year-old son Hoshi, and 7 year-old Anri. We went to a very nice Unagi(eel) restaurant for lunch and tried to talk to each other. Shigetoshi knows very basic English and his family members knew none. Needless to say, it was very difficult to talk to them but we tried our best.

We went to do some sightseeing near his hometown of Kurume City then went to his house to drop off the wife and kids. His daughter is ridiculously cute and his son is your typical 11 year-old, probably plays too many video games, collects Magic cards and spends way too much time indoors. I gave his daughter some finger paints and Care Bears stuff and she loved it. I gave him an outdoor lawn game and he responded with a very uninspired 'arigato'. Oh well.

Kurume Dity is about an hour and a half drive from Fukuoka City where we were headed that night but we ended up taking off pretty late. We went to see Shigetoshi's mother who is my Grandma's cousin and her sister who obviously is also my obasan's cousin. They were all very thrilled to meet me. It's interesting to me how they still feel such a strong sense of family even though I'm so distantly related. We took pictures and looked through old photo albums and finally headed off for Fukuoka City, arriving around 11:30 PM. I was exhausted and crashed immediately.

Shigetoshi let me sleep in until 8 AM but couldn't wait any longer than that. We had a busy day of sightseeing and he really took me to a lot of cool places. I saw a famous temple, Fukuoka tower, like the SpaceNeeedle of Fukuoka, and a museum dedicated to Fukuoka's history. It was very frustrating, having such a limited ability to communicate, but we had a good time regardless. He spent way too much money on me and I felt really bad. He dropped me off at my hotel around 5 PM and drove back home. I had met him once before, in Hawaii 17 years ago, but it was good to really meet him and get to know what little family I still have over here. He drew out a family tree for me and showed exactly where we were linked. He's a ridiculously nice guy and I really appreciated his enthusiasm.

That night we ate sushi with Ken's uncle Ichiro. We again had too much soju and went to bed feeling good. Thursday morning we went out with Uncle Ichiro to the best ramen place in Japan. It's become a big chain with about 30 restaurants throughout Japan. They have a day once a month where the bossman comes in and cooks for everyone that it's a really big event. This was that day so we joined the throng outside the restaurant and bullied our way in once they opened. Ichiro knows the bossman and we got a nice seat up front and talked to him while he worked. Well, they talked to him, I smiled and nodded.

After ramen, Ichiro drove us to the train station and we headed to Hiroshima. They have a really nice museum there and it was very humbling to see all the effects of the atomic bomb that the U.S dropped on them. War is fucking brutal.

I only have a minute left here so I'll post the rest later. Laura is waiting for us and we're off to see more temples. Sayonara.

Drinking

People in Japan really like to drink...and I`m easily swayed by peer pressure. The past two nights have been pretty hectic but thankfully I`m drinking nothing but water tonight.

We arrived in Fukuoka City on Saturday night around 7 PM. Ken`s uncle is subsidizing a hotel for us because his son is studying for the Japanese version of the SATs and we can`t stay at his house. We checked in at the hotel then met Uncle Ichiro and his friends for dinner. We ate at a really nice place that had a lot of Korean influence. Our main dish was a lot like Sundubo(Soon-Doo-Boo) but was homemade by the lady of the house and much better than the Sundubo that I usually eat on North Aurora. Ichiro was drinking really fast and was drunker than Ken had ever seen him. Ken thinks he was trying to keep up with me but I think competition is silly, especially in something as juvenile as drinking.

We woke up in the morning with a slight hangover and caught a train to Ken`s mom`s hometown. Allen was stationed here and was able to woo the beautiful Tempura chef named Akiko thanks to 2 of his golfing buddies, Shimomini San and Sasaki San. We`re staying with Sasaki San and we had a great time last night. He broke out the good soju and he and I got smashed. Ken was worried for our safety so he stopped early but I wasn`t going to miss out on drinking with the coolest 70 year-old in the world.

We woke up at 5 AM this morning without a hangover due to the quality of the soju and went hiking all day. I got pretty sunburnt because it was an absolutely perfect day. We hiked right next to a dormant volcano that emitted lagre quantities of sulfuric smoke. After hiking we went to a hot springs place and soaked our muscles. It was really nice to do something active after all these weeks of overeating, starting in Jacksonville and never ending.

Like I said before, tonight we`re going to chill and get some rest. Tomorrow I head to my Cousin Shigetoshi`s place to see him for the second time in my life. He`s pretty much the only remaining Japanese relative that we keep in touch with and I`m excited to see him. Ken is staying with Mr. Sasaki and we`re meeting in Fukuoka City on Wednesday. I have a few pictures that I want to put up but I`m going to have to wait until I`m at a newer computer.

Go Seahwaks! Yankees Suck! Mariners aren`t going to lose 100!

Tokyo: Round 1

We`re off to Kyushuu today with a brief stop in Hiroshima to see the Atomic Bomb Museum. It should be pretty intense.

Tokyo has been great. We stayed with Ken`s friend Ryo, a real-life Buddhist monk. Yesterday we woke up early to go see a ceremony that he was taking part in. His temple is one of the biggest in Tokyo and it was cool to get to check it out. He`s a hard partier but he sticks to his faith when it`s important. He`s 19th in his family line, one of the oldest consecutive lineages in all of Japan.

After the ceremony we went to Shibuya and hooked up with Scott for lunch. It was great seeing him and catching up. He really digs the program he`s doing and is seriously considering re-signing for another year. After lunch, Kenny and Nabe went back for a nap so Scott and I went to Electric City, an overhyped district of Tokyo with a buttload of electronics. The bargain shopper in me was pretty disappointed because everythign was still really expensive and the tourist in me was a little annoyed because it all seemed so pointless. Sure there were a lot of electronics stores but they all sold the same stuff and they all looked and felt the exact same. Meh.

Scott had to head home so we took a picture in front of the electric monstrosity and parted ways. I got back to Ryo`s apartment around 4 PM and we all got ready to go out. Around 5:30 we headed to a very nice restaurant near the Tokyo Dome. Ken`s brother Matthew met us there along with 2 other friends for a party of 7. We ate a lot of really good food and drank a lot of good alcohol then went out to some other bars. We had a good time and didn`t get home until around midnight. I hit the wall around 9 but I couldn`t drag the party down by wussing out early so of course I kept it real. As soon as my head hit the pillow at Ryo`s I was out like a light. Ken said that all the Japanese guys thought I was dead this morning because I wouldn`t wake up no matter what they did.

It`s been a long few days and I`m looking forward to relaxing in Kyushuu. As I type this, Ken informs me that his uncle wants to take us out drinking tonight with a bunch of his friends. Joy.

I Made It

I`m finally here in Japan. We`re staying at Ken`s friend Ryo`s apartment. I slept a lot on the plane so I feel great right now but we`ll see how I hold up tomorrow. We`re scrapping the trip to the expo and we`re going to Hiroshima on the 24th instead. I`ll try to post some pictures tomorrow. Sayonara.

Contact Info

Before I forget, here's Ken's cellphone number in Japan:

If you call from Japan use: 090 9844 1671
Outside of Japan use: 011 81 90 98441671

It's free for him to receive calls so hit us up. It might cost you a pretty penny, but, WHATEVER! Please remember that Japan is 16 hours ahead of the Pacific Time Zone and call during decent hours. If you want to prank call Ken at 4AM, that's cool too but make sure he doesn't wake me up.

I'm kinda pissed that I didn't carry my camera around in Barcelona and I won't make the same mistake in Japan.

The Homeland

I'm in San Diego for 12 hours to recharge my batteries and wash some clothes. I'm off for Japan at 10 AM tomorrow and I'm really stoked. Kenny has given me great directions and I should be able to find him at the train station, about an hour away from the airport. Here's our itinerary for the moment:

Sept 22-23: Tokyo
Sept 23-24: Nagoya for the Expo
Sept 24-29: Kyushu with Ken's family and my cousin Shigetoshi
Sept 29-Oct 6: Kyoto with Ken's family and Laura hopefully
Oct 6-15: Tokyo with friends and Scott hopefully
Oct 15-21: Hong Kong

We may skip the Expo, depending on the recommendations of Ken's friends who have already gone. In that case we would catch the train to Kyushu on the 24th. I can’t believe that this is my first ever trip to Japan, or Asia for that matter. I’m really amped period but having one of my boys as my tour guide really puts the icing on the cake.

Here’s my first poll:
What is your favorite nickname for Kenny?
(a) Hawk (because of the Barron nose)
(b) Sky (because of Kenny “Sky” Walker, slam dunk champ in the 80s
(c) Bones (no explaination needed)
(d) Tweeter (no real reason)

One day I’ll learn how to make an interactive poll but for now, just vote in the comments section.

I’d really like to see Scott and Laura during this trip. I think my next post will be from beautiful Tokyo. I’m waking up in 5 hours to catch the train back to the airport, what a rough life.

Sweet Caroline 

We be clubbin 

The Coolest City in Europe

Will and Kat just boarded their plane to Seattle and I have an hour left here in the Philadelphia Airport. Seems like a good time to write!

Most of you know how much I love Europe. I think that Barcelona was the coolest city I've ever been to and that's saying a lot. It's hard to describe what makes it so great but Barcelona has all the old architecture and history that I love about Europe yet remains one of the more progressive and hip places I've ever been. I'd really like to move here someday soon and I'll be applying to their business school next year.

I really feel strongly about the above paragraph. I think that I often overexaggerate things and always romanticize the place that is freshest in my mind but this isn't the case here. I think my favorite cities in the world are ranked in this order: Barcelona, Istanbul, Budapest. Of course Seattle will always be number one but that goes without saying.

At the tournament, no less than 3 people asked me if I had gained weight since Mone Carlo. I immediately went to the bathroom and purged my paella.

I forgot to thank Conrad and the entire PokerStars team for giving me the chance to play in this tournament. I was on TV for a while so that has to make them pretty happy. I have a great relationship with those guys and I really hope that it continues.

Pauly (http://taopoker.blogspot.com) is a really funny and cool guy. I told him that I read his blog and he acted really flattered then went on to tell me about the million different people that he's met and told him that they read his blog. He was probably more excited when Isabelle Mercier said she read his blog than when I said that I did. I read his blog the other day and he introduced me as "the best player under 26 that you've never heard of". Obviously this is quite an exaggeration but I really hate the fact that he has to put "26" now insted of "25". Growing old sucks.

The best player under 25 that you've never heard of? Carl Olson. He's an absolute machine and continues to amaze me. I stayed up until 7AM one morning in Barcelona to watch him win almost $60K in an online Pot Limit Omaha tournament. He was getting advice along the way but it's amazing that he really doesn't know PLO that well and relied on his sick tourney skills. Congrats, Carl. He's now committed to going to Foxwoods in November and I'd really like to qualify and hang out with the guys who taught me how to win at poker.

It's nice to be back in the states, albeit for less than 24 hours. I'm off to Japan tomorrow morning and I hope my body can handle all this travel. I think I'm still running off of the huge meals that we had in Jacksonville. I can't wait to get to Tokyo and hang out with Katsumi again. I'll post my Japan schedule tonight, once I get home to San Diego. Hopefully I'll be able to hook up with Scott, Laura and my cousin, Shigetoshi. Talk to y'all later.

EPT Barcelona

It´s cool to see 5 comments on my last blog. I really appreciate feedback and it kinda fulfills the purpose of this blog, keeping in touch with my friends, family and loved ones. Davis is right and I´m really bad at keeping in touch with people but it doesn´t mean I love them any less.

I always want to sit down and write a novel for each blog but I think I´ll start dropping little posts daily, one paragraph or so, while on the road. There are 3 computers at the hostel we´re staying at and Internet is free. The problem is that everyone wants to use it and you always have to wait a little while before getting on then suffer through people constantly asking when you´ll be done and breathing down your neck. I got tired of it and I´m at a cafe that charges 2 Euros per hour. It´s a small price to pay for my sanity.

The tournament didn´t go too well and there were a lot of things that really pissed me off. They had 325 entrants after declaring that they were capping the number around 270. In order to get a winner in 2 days they had to shorten the blind levels to 45 minutes. This was extremely frustrating because usually you get a little more value for your 4,000 Euros. If I had paid to get in I would have been extremely upset. As is, I was merely a little disappointed.

My opening table was about as sick as you can get. I had a difficult table in Monte Carlo but I think my relatice position at this one made it worse. I had Gus Hansen 2 to my right and a young Finnish kid directly on my left who was capable of putting me to the test with nothing and probably calling me with Ace-high. He´s the kind of player that you absolutely need a hand to play against: unbluffable, fearless, and a seemingly insane lack of regard for chips. He was very good at sensing weakness and picked up a ton of pots. The other six players were all very good as well and nearly everyone I talked to speculated that the selection process had been rigged. All I know is that it was the toughest day of poker of my life and I had to fight for every chip.

I don´t think I made too many mistakes but I didn´t have very many hands at all and it was very frustrating. Gus doubled up early and with more big hands an aggression he had built a monster stack. He opened in middle position for 1250 and I called in position with 77. after this call I had about 11000 left. The flop came down T43 with 2 hearts and Gus bet 1150. This bet could mean absolutely anything and I called, planning to reevaluate on the turn. I could have raised here but I had no desire to play a big pot against Gus. The turn paired the 3 and Gus checked. I had seen him make flop bets then check-fold on the turn 3 times in the last orbit so the first thing that went through my mind was getting him to fold. In retrospect I think my bet of 3500 was my crucial mistake. I think I should have checked it through on the turn then called a medium sized bet on the river. As it played out, Gus instantly check-raised me all in. I had seen him play top set, Quad Queens and an overpair to the board earlier in the day where he check-raised his opponent all in. However he had always taken his time in those spots, counting his chips and asking his opponent how much he had before putting them all-in. This time he quickly jammed and I thought there was a good chance that he was bluffing. If he´s bluffing one-fourth of the time here then I think I have to call, rather than folding and leaving myself with just over 6000 chips. This was the last hand of the 200-400 level and blinds were moving up to 300-600 with a 75 ante. Leaving myself with 6000 chips in that scenario at that table is absolute suicide. I guess I´ll never be known for my big folds. Half the time people will be amazed at how I made such a big call and half the time people will be shocked at how I could make such a terrible call. Such is life and I don´t regret calling at all. I really wish that I had checked the turn through but there´s no going back. I was shocked to see that Gus had JT. I expected to see a big overpair half the time and some sort of semi-bluff the other half. It seems dangerous to check the turn with just a Ten but he probably knew I had a medium pair and planned on owning me, which he did.

It was a great experience and I learned a lot. The Finnish kid on my left, Ilari was incredibly difficult to play against and I enjoy learning from people who give me fits. I think he was a little too reckless but it´s hard to tone it down without losing your fear factor. There was one hand where he called an all-in from Christer Johanson, easily the tightest player at the table with Ah5h getting about 1.5-1 on his money. This can not be a good call but the image that it produced was very valuable. He was able to pick up a ton of smaller pots because people knew he was unbluffable. He called the 5 or 6K more without even thinking really and it really terrified me. Without that call I would have been more likely to test him with check-raises and whatnot. Anyway, he´s 22 and very, very good. Watch out for him soon.

Here´s a list of my starting table with a link to their tournament history. It´s pretty sick.

Seat 1: Pascal Perrault:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=193
Seat 2: Christer Johansson:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=459
Seat 3: Theo Jorgensen:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=26502
Seat 4: Really weird dude, ran KK into AA for Gus, 5th hand of the tourney.
Seat 5: Peter Eichardt:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=745
Seat 6: Gus Hansen:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=461
Seat 7: Daniel Larsson:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=514
Seat 8: ME!
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=39855
Seat 9: Ilari Sahamies:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=2151

I talked to Peter Eichardt at the club after the tourney ended and he said that in 15 years of tournament poker it was by far the tougnest table he´s ever had.

One last rant before I go. Being on the TV table really sucks. There are constant pauses while people fix their microphones or they ask for chip counts. We get way fewere hands per level that all of he regular tables. The worst thing ever was when we came back from dinner break all the other tables were playing and we had to wait 11 MINUTES for a CAMERAMAN to get back from dinner. The dealer dealt our first had with 34 minutes left in the round. I was irate and tilted for about 2 levels. I am going to write Thomas Kremser a letter and plead with him that he makes sure to have someone on his staff on the set at all times to make sure the TV crew doesn´t slow us down. It´s hard to blame anyone because everyone on the crew and tournament staff is really cool and they really are trying hard but it´s just insane to penalize us like that.

After I busted I went to a club called Razzmatazz with Will and Kat. The club is a marketplace during the week and a club on Friday and Saturday nights. It feels like an abandoned warehouse and there are 8 or so different rooms all playing different types of music. It was really cool and we had a great time.

The next night, after the tournament ended I went to a nother club with Noah and a bunch of Scandanavian kids. The club was called Sutton and it was one of the coolest clubs I´ve ever been to in my life. There was a huge line outside but Noah went to the front and we all got right in. They led us to one of the private tables where we got 8-10 bottles of Moet champagne and 6-8 bottles of Absolute vodka with mixers. These kids really know how to go all out. We had a great time and I felt a little out-of-place but I met a few really cool guys and it was a great night. We spent way too much money but every once in a while I think it´s worth it. It wasn´t even one of the top 10 amounts that I´ve ever spent at the bar.

I´ll post my reflections of Barcelona soon and also post my schedule for Japan. I have to email some friends who are over there so that we can meet up. Adios!

I definitely need to get better at posting while on the road. Sorry for the long lapse and I hope it won’t take so long ever again.

Will, Kat and I arrived in Barcelona around 11AM on Tuesday and decided to go to Valencia for 2 days since we’d be spending so much time in Barcelona during and after the tournament. I originally had planned to play in a smaller tournament on Wednesday but I decided it would be more fun to check out another city and I’d also be able to adjust to the time change better. We had a great time in Valencia and I don’t regret going at all. We found a very basic place to stay, San Jose hostel. It was pretty ghetto but pretty cheap so I was fine with it. The heart of the city is really old and it reminds me of a lot of great European cities with amazing architecture and cool little mazes of roads that make the cities really fun to explore. One word to the wise: If you ever travel with Will, do NOT let him navigate. North is South, East is West and we always wound up at the train station no matter where we wanted to go. We had some really bad meals at some really cheap restaurants and drank quite a bit of beer. Two places that I highly recommend if you ever go to Valencia: Bar Pilar, great atmosphere, delicious mussels and relatively inexpensive, and Radio City. It sounds pretty cheesy but Radio City was the coolest club we could find. There were more locals here than any other place we could find and the dance floor was pretty crowded. On Wednesday night we cut a mean American rug until it closed around 4 AM.

Thursday we caught the train back to Barcelona. The round trip ended up being around 60 Euros, pretty expensive compared to the travel I did in Eastern Europe but I guess it’s to be expected in Spain. We checked in at the Barcelona Princess around 6 PM and left the memories of the San Jose Hostel far behind. This hotel actually has a door on the shower and a window that looks out over the city instead of a brick wall. I went to the casino last night for a bit and hung out with the PokerStars people who have been kind enough to sponsor me in this tournament. I met some really cool people and got my first taste of the Barcelona nightlife. Will and Kat stayed out until about 4 AM again but I came back early to make sure I would be well rested today. I’m really excited for the tournament and let’s hope I get lucky.

Here are some good places to receive updates:

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/barcelona.html
http://taopoker.blogspot.com/

The second page is run by a guy named Pauly and he’s a really great writer. I met him last night but I’ve been reading his blog for a few months now. He’s covering the event for Poker Player newspaper and I think he’ll have updates throughout the day. Of course I’ll try to post as much as I can. Let’s hope I don’t have any time for posting because I’m busy playing all night. It’s about an hour 'til gametime so I'm going to head over to the Casino. Talk to you soon.

God Bless Jacksonville

I'm in the airport here in Atlanta and I can't help but think of the great time we had in Jacksonville. The hospitality we received was unreal and we are definitely appreciative. It was great to see Kenny, Will and Sean and really nice to meet the families of Kenny and Will. I'd definitely like to come back to Jacksonville soon. Let's hope Barcelona is cool, I have a feeling it might be.

FOOTBALL

We had a really fun football weekend down here in Florida. The results may not be what we envisioned but we had a great time. Both games had a great atmosphere, great weather and, of course, great friends.

Interlude: Some of these entries are starting to sound a little sappy and contrived. I’ll try to stop doing that and just write off the top of my head.

The Gator game was great. We bought a six-pack of Sparks and one half-rack each of Beast Light and Natty Ice. Will’s cousins hadn’t ever had the pleasure of indulging in Sparks and they were very impressed by its smoothness. Tailgating at the Swamp is a lot bigger than at Husky Stadium. It seemed like the entire state of Florida was having a party in the parking lot and you couldn’t help but get fired up. We were a little disappointed with the lack of hotties in the state of Florida but it is possible that we just weren’t looking in the right places. I might just be spoiled by So Cal as well.

As far as the game goes, Florida won 41-3 but didn’t look nearly that good. Chris Leak looks a little shaky and I’m not a huge believer in their offense. Tennessee will be slightly tougher than Louisiana Tech was this week and I think the Gators are going down, even though it’s in the Swamp. You heard it here first.

The game didn’t end until late and we got home around 11PM, ridiculously tired from drinking all day but ready to do it again on Sunday. Unfortunately I entered a tournament on PokerStars and didn’t get to bed until 4 AM so when Aunt Bev served breakfast at 9 AM, I was a little tired to say the least. She made quite a feast with 50 eggs scrambeled, sausage, bacon, biscuits and OJ. We got to the tailgate site around 11:15 and met up with Ken’s cousins. This one was a little less eventful and I think Seahawks tailgating is a little bigger and better then what we experienced. We still had fun and threw the football around and I was feeling really good heading into the game.

The first half was so-so. We turned the ball over too much but the defense stiffened in some key spots and we were lucky to go into the half up 14-13. I love Hasselbeck and I think he’ll take us far but sometimes he has a little too much gunslinger in him and he makes ill-advised passes. Anyway, I liked how we played the first half and I figured if we could hold onto the ball, the game was ours.

Well, obviously we couldn’t hang onto the ball and the Jags defense really got it going. I think they started sending more blitz packages and we couldn’t take advantage of one-on-one coverage. In the end it really came down to their defense making plays and our offense failing to do the same. It is really tough to run on this Jags defense and I’m not ready to panic over one game. Hopefully we establish the run next week and can get in a better rhythm. And, uh, NOT turning the ball over 5 times would be cool.

After the game we went to Aunt Linda’s house to say farewell and ended up going to Beach Road Chicken House, a Jacksonville landmark. The chicken was good and it was served like fried chicken should be: in large quantities and as greasy as possible. We stuffed ourselves, said our tearful goodbyes and headed back to hang with Will’s family. We watched the Sunday Night game and hung out like one big happy family.

I’m very tired and I hope my fatigue wasn’t reflected in this blog entry. The pictures I posted are:

1. Ken and Will at Steak and Shake, a horrible restaurant we stopped at on our way to Orlando. Kenny is very skinny and we decided that he looked like a Haitian Refugee. We said things like, “poor thing, probably hasn’t eaten for days!” and other comments on Ken’s lack of insulation. I don’t know how much I should rag on a guy for being too skinny while I’m pretty overweight but that’s beside the point.


2. The 4 of us at Alltel Stadium. What a beautiful day for a football game.


3. Kickin back at Uncle Tim’s place. Does it get any better than a huge hammock by the river at sunset?

Tomorrow it’s goodbye Jacksonville and hello Barcelona. It’s a long day of travel but I can’t wait to play some live poker and experience Spain at the same time. I have a feeling we might get some good pics there. Hasta la vista.

Haitian Refugee 

The Superfans 

The Good Life at Casa de Will's uncle

Booooo Orlando

What’s up. We’re at the Days Inn Orlando and I have a secret to share: Orlando sucks! The traffic was really nasty on the way down here and we didn’t arrive until 3 PM. All the parks were shutting down and the clubs weren’t opening until 10 PM or so. We went to the Universal Studios City Walk but it was all so phony. Bob Marley had a restaurant there, a “tribute to freedom”. I have a feeling that if he were still alive, Bob Marley would be pretty upset about being a part of such a hokey place.

Bored to tears we resorted to drinking. We had a few at City Walk then came back to the hotel with a half-rack of Coors Light and a fifth of Gin. The most fun we had down here was playing beer grenades in the pool. We passed out pretty early and we’re on our way to Gainesville. It’ll be great to see a college football team score some points and WIN a game. Poor Huskies. Full tailgate and game report coming tomorrow.

Pictures!

The 4th Amigo

Check out the nipple peeking through. Scandalous!

P.S. If anyone knows how to condense all the pictures under one blog, let me know.

Aunt Linda 

The Boys 

Family and Good Food

My blog is finally cool enough to receive spam comments! I feel so special!

Jacksonville has been fantastic. Ken, Sean and I arrived Wednesday night and Will got here tonight. We really haven’t done much but Southern hospitality lives up to the hype. Last night we stayed with Ken’s aunt Linda. As soon as we arrived at her house she started feeding us, starting with Ritz crackers, herb and garlic whipped cream cheese and martini olives. Quite delicious. As soon as they were done she put a huge plate of fried alligator tail on the table. The meat was pretty tough but the flavor was mild and we ate a ton. Ken’s cousin came over along with his wife and baby daughter. We played around a bit and finally, dinner was served. Squash casserole, boiled okra, black-eyed peas, white acre peas, jumbe prawns, smoked ham and homemade biscuits with homemade blackberry and peach jam. We finally squeezed down some rum cake for dessert and called it a night. It was all about family and a ton of good food, just like the South should be.

We woke up at the crack of noon. Aunt Linda was ready for us with scrambled eggs, smoked ham, grits, extra-large biscuits and OJ. There’s a tropical storm brewing but the sun was out for a bit so we went to the beach. The Atlantic is much warmer than the Pacific but the wind was a little crazy and the waves were too choppy to go swimming. We visited Ken’s cousin and planned Sunday’s tailgating festivities then went home to wait for Will’s call. Around 5 he called with directions to his aunt and uncle’s place and Linda drove us on over.

Aunt Bev and Uncle Tim live right on the water in an insane house. I’ll take some pictures and post them before the end of the weekend. Will’s cousins, 2 dudes about my size, came over and we watched Sportscenter for a while. Dinner was catered tonight and featured a poker table-sized platter with all the BBQ you can imagine piled high: Ribs, chicken, shredded beef, jumbo prawns, baked beans, potato salad AND a case of Michelob. I absolutely gorged myself silly. We went to Will’s cousin’s house for the season premiere of the OC and Monday Night Football. He just dropped us off back at the pimp pad and we’re getting ready for bed. The theme of the night: Family and good food.

Tomorrow we’re renting a car and driving to Orlando to hit up one of the theme parks. Uncle Tim got us tickets for the Florida Gators game on Saturday so we’re meeting Will’s cousins early to tailgate. Sunday of course is the Jags-Seahawks game so we should be busy the next few days. If we get a hotel tomorrow night with wireless I’ll get another post cranked out. Go Seahawks!

FINALLY!

I've been on edge for the past few days, eagerly anticipating the start of my travels. I don't know the exact reason but I am seriously addicted to traveling and experiencing new things. I hope I never get numb to all the amazing things that I get to do.

It's 2:30 in the morning and I finished packing a few minutes ago. I just sent out the traditional mass e-mail that makes me feel so loved. I don't really know what I want to accomplish with this blog but it helps me really capture an experience when I sit down and retell it to people. I hope you get something out of it too.

I need to leave the apartment around 5:45 AM to get to the airport on time so that means 3 hours of sleep for Mr. B. Next time you hear from me I'll be in Jacksonville. Let's hope it isn't too muggy.

Travel Calendar

I tried looking for a calendar to add as a link on my blog because that would make it easier to schedule stuff but all I found was a pay site for $19.95 a year. Forget that. But it got me thinking about the next year and what I want to do. I've already posted some of this but I'm going further into the future now:

September 7-12: Jacksonville, FL for Seahawks v. Jaguars.

September 12-20: Barcelona, Spain for EPT Barcelona.

September 21 - October 19: Japan/Hong Kong with Kenny "Bones" Barron.

October 23-30: Dublin, Ireland for EPT Dublin.

Thanksgiving: Hanging out with my sisters in San Diego with a cream cheese beago.

December 13-17: Las Vegas for Bellagio WPT Event.

December 17 – January 3: Seattle to see family. Mom's back from sabbatical!

January 20 – February 6: Copenhagen/Scandinavia for EPT and hanging out with my cousin.

February 8-11: Deauville, France for EPT. Defend my title!

April 1 – June 1: Road trip to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.

June 18 – July 9: Berlin, Germany for soccer’s World Cup.

July 14 – August 20: Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker.

September: Start business school somewhere (Nor Cal hopefully)

Some of the poker tournaments may not work out and some may be added. My real goal is to use the time from November 1 to March 31 to see if I’m cut out to make a living playing poker. These past few months I’ve been enjoying life a little too much and I need to be more responsible with not spending more than I earn. At some point I will sit down and outline some goals for myself as far as money earned over these 5 months. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I do that!

I really would like to do the baseball road trip in August and September since the playoff chase is so much fun but I really think I need 2 months and the WSOP just doesn’t allow it. That was a ridiculously long run-on sentence.

We’re probably moving out of this place at the end of the month and I’m lobbying hard for a 6-month lease. That would mean the lease ends at the end of March and I’d be more flexible to move in with my loving father in Nor Cal. During the stretch of baseball road trip, Germany and WSOP I’ll be able to store my stuff at pop’s place for free. Don’t get me wrong, I love it down here but part of being a nomad is picking up and leaving sometimes. I’m really going to live up the last 5 months here (November-March) and hopefully I’ll stick with this long enough to blog all of it.

WCOOP #1

Event #1 of the WCOOP is underway! 3,062 entrants, $1,531,000 in the prize pool, $306,200 for first place. I’ve played one hand, 88 in the SB. Flop was 234, I bet 40 into a pot of 60 and both players called. Turn was an A and I check-folded. I’m all the way down to 2450 from my starting stack of 2500.

There are two absolutely horrible players at my table. They will probably go broke soon and I hope I get a hand before then. One is very loose and passive so when I pick up a hand I’ll bet it very aggressively at him. The other is intensely aggressive so I’ll try to trap him for a lot of chips.

DAH! Just got moved to a new table. I didn’t recognize anyone at the last table but at my new one, I have S 18, one of the hottest tournament players on Stars, iMsoLucky0, a very good 2+2er, AND ME argent, a very well respected player. Talk about a bad beat!

Jc6c in BB, one limper and SB completes. Flop Q72 with 2 clubs. I check and call a bet of 40 into a pot of 60. Sometimes I’ll play draws aggressively but early on I like to keep the pot small. The turn paired the 2 and I checked and called another 40 chip bet. I would have folded to a bigger bet but I was getting 4.5-1. River missed and the bettor had 8c7c. Down to 2280 chips and blinds just went up to 15/30.

Carl just messaged me that he has 7325 chips. I hate him with a passion that burns deep within my soul.

iMsoLucky0 just min-raised and I called in the SB with Ks8s. The flop came As3s8h, giving me a huge hand. A pair and a flush draw is never in bad shape. I check-raised the flop hoping he would remember the hand where I played my draw passively. He just called and I hit my spade on the turn. I bet a little under half the pot, hoping he’d read weakness but sadly he just called again. Too good for my shenanigans. The river paired the A so I no longer had the nuts but clearly he had a hand like AJ or AT so I valuebet 380 and he called with AhJh. Up to 3075 chips.

Gah, just lost a big pot with AA on button. One limper and I raise to 120. Flop is 3c7d6d. He checks and calls 180. Turn is Jh and he check-calls 420. The river is the ugly 5d and he thinks, thinks then bets 360 into a pot of 1485. It really feels like a flush so I cry a little bit and fold. Down to 2235 at the first break. I think it was a pretty easy fold but I just hate leaving all those chips out there.

I opened with AQo and got reraised by a tight player so I just folded PF. AQ is ridiculously tough to play out of position. The re-raiser just played a hand the same way and had AA so I’m hoping that means my fold was good. Down to 1935 chips with blinds at 25/50.

Yikes! Tight player has loosened up and raised UTG+1 to 155. I had AhKd in the SB and re-raised to 600, trying to get as much in preflop as possible. Raiser just called, a terrible result. AK is a crappy hand to play OOP postflop. The flop was J-high and all hearts and I pushed for about the pot. She quickly folded and I was back up to 2500ish.
Just played a bad hand. iMsoLucky0 opened to 125 in EP, a very small raise. I decide to just call in LP with TT. The flop is JJ7 with 2 diamonds, he bets 175 into pot of 325 and I call. The turn is 3d. He checks and I check. I don’t think he has much here and I’m hoping to pick off a bluff on the river. The river is another 3 for a board of JJ733. He checks and I bet 300, hoping for a call from A-high. Well, he calls with A3 for a boat. I don’t really like how I played this hand but oh well. Down to 1860, blinds just went up to 50/100.

Bleh, another one I’m not sure of. iMsoLucky opens for 300 and I’m in the SB with AK. A standard re-raise is to 800 or 900 but that’s putting half my chips in OOP. I push and he calls with 99. My push basically announced my hand to him and he could call with 22 there AND fold AQ pretty easily. I think I like re-raising to 800 then pushing on any flop. This looks like a much stronger hand. Anyway, the board made a 7-high straight so we chopped the pot. I’m very bad at poker. 1810 chips still.

ME argent has raised my blind every time so I made a stand with AT moving in over his 300 chip raise. He folded and I’m up to 2100. I just blew one hand. Floded to me in SB and the BB has let me steal all day. I decide to just call with Q9 and he insta-checks which probably means he had the FOLD button checked. Flop is K-high, all clubs and I check-fold. Missed out on 150 free chips there.

Good god, I'm playing so bad. Hit a gutter to take out top set. Here's how bad I'm playing: blinds 50/100 CO limps, I make it 500 in SB with AK, CO and I each have about 1800 to start the hand. Flop QJx and I bet 400? WHY!?! Lord knows I'm not folding but I like a c/r AI here better. He minraises to 800 and I call planning on pushing on the turn. But the turn is a T and I check-call all in vs top set. I am sooooo good at poker.

3505 at second break. I need to pull my head out of my ass.

Picked up TT and restole, got AK and stole. Up to 3955.

iMsoLucky opened in LP for 450 and I called in BB with 44. AQ4 is the greatest flop in the world and I check-called a 600 chip bet. I lead the turn K for 750 and he raised essentially all-in. He had KJ and the river J was irrelevant. Up to 6500. He thoroughly outplayed me the whole time and I got very lucky there.

This table is ridiculous. No flops, all raises and re-raises. Very tough.

Just lost about 2K. I open to 450 on button with 98o, BB defends. My button raises had all gone uncalled until this one. The flop is T66 with 2 diamonds, giving me a gutshot straight draw. BB checks and calls my 450 bet. The turn is an 8 so I have a pair and a gutter. I like my hand but I check behind. The river is a complete blank and the BB leads for 555. I try to pick off a bluff but she has AT and it’s all hers. Down to 4736 with blinds up to 100/200.

Oh lord, just donked off all my chips. I’d rather not talk about it. Let’s just say I’ve had better showings. The only good thing I did was trade 5% with Carl. LET’S GO COLSON10!!!!!!!

BLEH!

Well, poker hasn't been going too well. Actually, side games are still going well but I've been running very bad in tournaments. I think I'm starting to let it affect my play and I'm looking forward to the 2 months overseas. There's one big tourney that I'm playing tomorrow, event #1 of thw WCOOP, the online version of the World Series of Poker. It should be fun and let's hope I go far. There's a ton of hype surrounding these evnts and the winner tomorrow will take home a few hundred thousand. I'm also going to play in a smaller tourney at Ocean's Eleven Casino on Labor Day. That one will pay the winner around 30 grand. These will be the last poker tournaments that I'll play before Barcelona. I'm going to try to focus and play my best game. I think I might keep a running log and have my first in-depth strategy Blog. I'm sure you all can't wait.

Tough Life in the Big Easy

Entry #10! My first milestone! Believe me, it’s a small miracle that my lazy ass has lasted this long. I really think this will be a great place for me to post travel updates while abroad.

Today Kele and I were supposed to look for new apartments but we ended up playing video games all day. Danielle wasn’t too pleased when she got off of work but we promised to do it tomorrow. We shall see. I feel bad because I’m going to be gone when we move and they’re going to have to move all my crap. I don’t have that much stuff and I absolutely HATE moving so I don’t feel thaaaaat bad.

Man, the events down South sure are sad. We went to New Orleans last year right around this time for Seahawk’s opening day and there was a huge hurricane threat at that time too. It’s really difficult to hear these warnings hundreds of times over the past 20 years and not experience some sort of Boy who cried Wolf effect. I hope those who survived land on their feet and may those who passed away rest in peace.

Are you kidding me?

If you notice the time stamp on this entry, it’s as early as you’ll ever see me writing. Thursday is the day that the yard gets mowed at my apartment complex and of course they do it at 7:30 in the morning. 7:30 in the morning! Are you kidding me? Sometimes I think it’s an elaborate joke and there are cameras set up in my room to see how angry I get then Ashton’s going to burst in laughing but it never happens. The lawn mower keeps going and I’m forced out of bed. Thursday = the worst day of the week.

Yesterday Kenny called me at 12:30 and we discussed the Japan-Hong Kong trip in more detail. I’m getting extremely fired up for the next two months of travel. My roommate, Danielle, heard me on the phone so she burst in and made me go to the beach with her. I brought my long board out and she brought her boogie board. The waves were bigger than I’ve ever seen and joyfully there weren’t very many people out because school just started down here. It was fun but after catching one wave I kept getting crushed by a huge set while trying to paddle back out and eventually I quit fighting against the waves. I need to get stronger before I can get good at surfing. I need to do more push ups and practice hopping to my feet at home. Right now my knee keeps dragging on my board and it’s really important to spring directly into a standing position. I’ll get there someday.

Last night we went out to dinner at a Mexican place called Las Olas with another couple, the dude works at the Four Seasons with Danielle and she’s becoming friends with the girlfriend. I don’t really mind being the fifth wheel and it was a lot of fun. Afterwards we came home, Danielle and Kele went to bed, and I played a little poker. Sadly, I lost about $100 and called it a night. One of these days I’ll have a sick day to tell you about but I’ve been having some bad luck in tournaments. Kele has the day off today so we’re going to look for cheaper apartments together. Should be fun!