Today was a rough day, due to the excessive drinking that went on yesterday for the Seahawks-Raiders preseason game. We drank a lot of beers at Davis' house to prefunk, drank a lot of beers during the game, and drank a lot of Jager-bombs at King Street after the game. It was rather ridiculous. We went home pretty early but I woke up at 3 AM and couldn't go back to bed until 5:30 because of all the Red Bull. Nasty stuff.
I'm always amazed by the audience that my blog has. I was at a bar on Monday Night for trivia and I ran into two guys who I'd drank with maybe 2 or 3 times at a mutual friend's house 3 years ago. I hadn't seen them since and honestly couldn't quite remember their names when I saw them. I'm pretty horrible with names and they were pretty easy: Bob and Ben. Anyway, we were talking a bit then they started dropping all kinds of knowledge on my life. "So, how were the 5 weeks in Vegas?" "How's house shopping?" "How's the 5/10 NL?" I was like how the hell do you guys know all this stuff and of course they found my blog through MySpace and read it semi-regularly. I guess I shouldn't have ever been naive about stuff that I put on the Internet but I always just assumed the only people who read this thing are my super close friends and a few random poker players. Maybe I'm just not very bright. During our conversation I found out that Bob and Ben went to high school with none other than Spirit Rock aka Mahatma aka Prahlad Friedman. He is an alumni of Nathan Hale, class of '96! I had no clue that he was from Seattle. He's one of the top HU and shorthanded NL players in the world and apparently went by "John" Friedman in high school. Anyway, Bob and Ben want to have a drunken home game with him when he comes back for their 10-year reunion. The dude is used to playing six-figure pots so a $20 home game might get a little out of hand.
MySpace is a funny thing. I like it a lot because I've gotten in touch with a ton of old friends that I'd lost track of. However, it's also uber-popular among high-schoolers and that makes it a haven for skeezy weirdos. I was hanging out in Vegas with Pauly and some other people and the topic of MySpace came up. Pauly asked me if I had an account and I said yes and he replied with, "I just lost a lot of respect for you. MySpace is so gay. But will you add me as your friend?" I found it pretty hilarious.
The last two paragraphs might only be interesting to me but, really, I'm the only opinion that matters here.
Poker went reasonably well this week. I played 3,601 hands and won $5,794.79. I was actually up almost $8K before giving some of it back tonight. The games were very good and I think I should play more on Thursday-Saturday nights. Here's my favorite hand of the session:
MP2 ($499.62)
CO ($896.50)
Button ($1326.15)
SB ($1404.82)
BB ($782.02)
UTG ($475.36)
UTG+1 ($1659)
Hero ($1000)
Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 9c, 7c. CO posts a blind of $10. SB posts a blind of $5. UTG posts a blind of $10.
1 fold, Hero raises to $45, 3 folds, SB (poster) raises to $96.03, UTG (poster) calls $91.03, Hero calls $56.03.
Flop: ($313.09) 9h, 6d, 7d (4 players)
SB bets $523.41, UTG calls $374.33 (All-In), Hero calls $898.97 (All-In), SB calls $375.56.
Turn: ($2485.36) 6h (4 players, 2 all-in)
River: ($2485.36) 5c (4 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: $2485.36
Results below:
SB has As Ad (two pair, aces and sixes).
UTG has 9s 3s (two pair, nines and sixes).
Hero has 9c 7c (two pair, nines and sevens).
Outcome: SB wins $2485.36.
Expert play, by everyone. Seriously, people were trying really hard to give away their money tonght and I just couldn't get it. I got stacked 2 other times, one on a race where I had a big draw and one where I got half my stack in with AA vs KJ on a Kxx flop and the rest in on a J turn. Wah wah wah. The worst part is that now I have to drive all the way back to Seattle, since I'm obviously in Canada.
I'm probably not going to be playing any poker next week because I'll be on vacation in Florida. Renee and I fly to Tampa tomorrow morning to see the Mariners play the Devil Rays. It should be fun to see Delmon Young and BJ Upton and the rest of the D-Rays prospects. Renee is uber-stoked for this vacation since she works six days a week and never goes anywhere. I'm excited but I was just getting used to being home. Seattle has been beautiful and I've had a great time over the past 10 days. I'm probably going to buy a house when I come home from vacation and that will definitely be exciting. I'll try to take pictures during this trip and get them uploaded for your enjoyment.
The Huskies have their first game tomorrow and hopefuly we can start 1-0 against San Jose State. I bought season tickets this year and I might miss our only victory of the season. I'm actually reasonably optimistic about this year and I have a $100 bet with my friend Mike, taking the over on 3.5 wins. I'm not sure what the real line is but 3.5 seems about right. Anyway, Go Dawgs!
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
Week One
Well, week one of poker/health is over and it was so-so. On Tuesday I went to Vashon Island with my mom and cranked out a 20-mile bike ride. On Saturday we rode to Redmond and back, totaling 39 miles. Vashon was hilly and probably a tougher ride than Redmond but I definitely felt like dying during both. My mom is a pretty strong biker and she smoked the crap out of me. It's pretty embarassing, getting crushed by your 51 year old mom, so I'm going to have to keep up the cycling. It's pretty fun and a nice way to enjoy the beautiful Seattle weather. I also did 100 push-ups on Monday, 50 on Wednesday, 59 on Friday and 65 today. I haven't been as sore and I think I can start to do them every day. As far as eating goes, it's really easy to eat healhy when you're active. After the bike ride I was tired as hell and there was no way I wanted to ruin my hard work by pigging out on some crap. I didn't go too crazy but I definitely worked on eating healthier.
In poker news, I played 3,118 hands and won $3100. It's pretty painful to only be up that much when i won $4900 on Tuesday alone. I actually ran pretty good overall but chose my running bad for when I jumped up to 10/20. I won $7528 at 5/10 and lost $4400 at 10/20. I try to pick good spots for jumping up and I'm still an overall winner at 10/20 but I think I'm going to stick with 5/10 for a while. I got stacked in a hand where I got 1/4 of my stack in preflop with AA and once I put in $500, the rest is coming no matter what. I only played 280 hands of 10/20 but I swear it'll be zero next week. I'd really like to play 5,000 hands of 5/10 but I'm heading to Tampa on Saturday and I might not get it done.
Obviously, once I start getting into a routine I go on vacation. I'll be in Tampa for 2 days and Miami for 4. I like to eat and sleep on vacation. Uh oh.
I drafted two fantasy football teams today and I think I learned a few things. I'm going to wait until Wednesday to post my observations because my big money league drafts Wednesday night and I don't want to reveal any strategy. It's probably dumb but there's quite a bit of money on the line.
The Mariners own the AL East. We just took 5 out of 6 from the Yankees and Red Sox but still have a 20-game losing streak to the AL West. The Angels are in town and it would be nice to end that ugly, Major League record, streak. We're playing strictly for pride but it would be nice to have a bit of confidence going into next year.
I guess that's it. Life without travel is booooooring.
In poker news, I played 3,118 hands and won $3100. It's pretty painful to only be up that much when i won $4900 on Tuesday alone. I actually ran pretty good overall but chose my running bad for when I jumped up to 10/20. I won $7528 at 5/10 and lost $4400 at 10/20. I try to pick good spots for jumping up and I'm still an overall winner at 10/20 but I think I'm going to stick with 5/10 for a while. I got stacked in a hand where I got 1/4 of my stack in preflop with AA and once I put in $500, the rest is coming no matter what. I only played 280 hands of 10/20 but I swear it'll be zero next week. I'd really like to play 5,000 hands of 5/10 but I'm heading to Tampa on Saturday and I might not get it done.
Obviously, once I start getting into a routine I go on vacation. I'll be in Tampa for 2 days and Miami for 4. I like to eat and sleep on vacation. Uh oh.
I drafted two fantasy football teams today and I think I learned a few things. I'm going to wait until Wednesday to post my observations because my big money league drafts Wednesday night and I don't want to reveal any strategy. It's probably dumb but there's quite a bit of money on the line.
The Mariners own the AL East. We just took 5 out of 6 from the Yankees and Red Sox but still have a 20-game losing streak to the AL West. The Angels are in town and it would be nice to end that ugly, Major League record, streak. We're playing strictly for pride but it would be nice to have a bit of confidence going into next year.
I guess that's it. Life without travel is booooooring.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Ouch
I cranked out 100 push-ups yesterday and felt pretty good about myself. Today I don't think I could one. My shoulders hurt and I'm pretty stiff. I'll try to do as many as I can tomorrow. It sucks being so out of shape. I've been eating healthier but that's the easy part. I really don't need fried food or sugary drinks. The only problem is that if I want to kick it with a beer, I'm gonna kick it with a beer. If that weakness forever dooms me to sparetiredom, so be it.
Tomorrow my mom and I are going on a 35-mile bike ride around Vashon Island. It's nice to have her around to motivate me. She's still on sabbatical(16 months and counting) but claims that she's heading back to work soon. I'll believe it when I see it.
Speaking of my mom, living in her basement is cool and all but I really need my own place. I'm a grown ass man. I'd rather buy then rent but stuff is still expensive as hell. I'll probably do some shopping around during the next couple of weeks but if I don't find something by mid-September I'm just going to find an apartment.
My mom doesn't have an Internet connection(well, she has dial-up but that doesn't count) so I'm writing this at a coffee shop near U-Village. It's a big place and there are a lot of college hotties in here. I like. IF online poker were legal I could probably crank out a few hours of play. Damn you, Washington State Gambling Commission.
Madden '07 came out today and I played for a bit at Davis' house. I'm considering buying it myself but I would never get 5,000 hands played if I had that evil, evil game. There was a time in my life where I spent every waking moment playing Madden. I don't want to go there again.
One thing that I've been obsessing over lately is Fantasy Football. I'm playing in four leagues and draft day is coming soon. Two of them draft on Sunday, one on Wednesday and one is an auto-draft. I'm still not sure what my strategy will be but I'm pretty sure that I'm going with running backs as my first two picks. I'll post all my rosters once the drafts are over.
I just realized that tomorrow marks the 1-year anniversary of this blog. I don't feel like I post very often but this is my 175th post. I know there are some posts that are just pictures or whatever but I still averaged about one post every two days. I might start to post more now that I have these goals to attain but I promise nothing.
Tomorrow my mom and I are going on a 35-mile bike ride around Vashon Island. It's nice to have her around to motivate me. She's still on sabbatical(16 months and counting) but claims that she's heading back to work soon. I'll believe it when I see it.
Speaking of my mom, living in her basement is cool and all but I really need my own place. I'm a grown ass man. I'd rather buy then rent but stuff is still expensive as hell. I'll probably do some shopping around during the next couple of weeks but if I don't find something by mid-September I'm just going to find an apartment.
My mom doesn't have an Internet connection(well, she has dial-up but that doesn't count) so I'm writing this at a coffee shop near U-Village. It's a big place and there are a lot of college hotties in here. I like. IF online poker were legal I could probably crank out a few hours of play. Damn you, Washington State Gambling Commission.
Madden '07 came out today and I played for a bit at Davis' house. I'm considering buying it myself but I would never get 5,000 hands played if I had that evil, evil game. There was a time in my life where I spent every waking moment playing Madden. I don't want to go there again.
One thing that I've been obsessing over lately is Fantasy Football. I'm playing in four leagues and draft day is coming soon. Two of them draft on Sunday, one on Wednesday and one is an auto-draft. I'm still not sure what my strategy will be but I'm pretty sure that I'm going with running backs as my first two picks. I'll post all my rosters once the drafts are over.
I just realized that tomorrow marks the 1-year anniversary of this blog. I don't feel like I post very often but this is my 175th post. I know there are some posts that are just pictures or whatever but I still averaged about one post every two days. I might start to post more now that I have these goals to attain but I promise nothing.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Seattle Owns
I really love Seattle. I'm really happy to be home and I can't wait to see everyone. The M's are in town this week(feresh off an 0-11 road trip) and I'm planning on going to a few games. Kenny, Ichiro's interpreter, has a rare day off tomorrow so I'm going to try to hang out with him for a bit. He's been traveling with the team and might be pretty bummed out. It's a good think I'm so witty and charming. I think I may be able to get him to step off the ledge.
I updated the links on the side of my blog. I know most of the people that I've linked to but some of them are just good blogs that I read. Nat and i were driving to Cooperstown this spring and he randomly blurted out, "Why don't you have a link to my blog on your page!" I promised to add him soon but it ended up taking over three months. That's how I roll. Nat has some good pictures of the Vegas house on his blog so go over there and look at his older posts.
I had a fun weekend. I hung out with my friend, Chris, in Portland on Friday night at a sweet bar called Ground Kontrol. It's basically an arcade for adults and they have all the cool old school games. We played some Simpson's and pinball while drinking cans of PBR. The coolest part was when we found out that the PBRs were free because we bought them while one of thir reps was at the bar. The only thing better than PBR is free PBR. On Saturday morning, Chirs went out to get donuts and I ate a maple bar. I know, healthy diet, but I just can't say no to maple bars. I took off around 10:30 and drove across the river to my Grandma's place for lunch. She usually eats at her Retirement Home so it's a treat when she gets to go out for lunch. She always invites some friends and I enjoy hanging out with them. We went to a place called Patrick's Hawaiian Cafe and I had some delicious Huli Huli Chicken. After lunch we went back to her place and I played pool with one of her friends. he was pretty good but I ended up taking 2 out of 3 games. After winning the rubber match I threw down my pool cue and yelled, "I OWN YOU, OLD MAN!" in his face. I'm a good winner.
I ended up leaving around 2 PM and got to Seattle at 4:45. I picked up Renee from her mom's Panini shop and we headed to Cle Elum. Her friend Stephanie's dad lives out there and she's living there for a month. Steph just graduated from pharmacy school and has to travel do different places each month and intern. She's currently interning in Ellensburg. Anyway, her dad's place is sweet. They have a lot of land and it's really nice to get out in the countryside. They have a bunch of 4-wheelers that we drove around in the mountains and they went pretty damn fast. Saturday night we drank beer and ate smores. I'm really livin the good life. Today we went to the swimming hole and splashed around for a bit. We ended up leaving at 6 PM and traffic was horrible. I guess we weren't the only ones that went out to the countryside for the weekend. I realized that I didn't have keys to my mom's house so I called my friend Davis and asked if I could spend the night. My mom is camping this weekend and isn't coming home until sometime tomorrow. I left a message on her phone but she might read this first. If so, MOM! I can't get into your house! Call me when you get this and LET ME IN! It's not a big deal since Davis let me stay over but he might get pissed if I stay on his couch for a week or more.
Tomorrow I start my push-up/exercise challenge AND my 5K poker hands challenge. It might be tough since I have to drive up to Canada for every session but i think I can do it. I'll definitely post updates on each bet in the hopes that I'll stick with my plans to avoid public embarassment. I think I'm going to stop with the bankroll updates, maybe just posting as I clear milestones or as I go busto. Let's hope it's the former.
I updated the links on the side of my blog. I know most of the people that I've linked to but some of them are just good blogs that I read. Nat and i were driving to Cooperstown this spring and he randomly blurted out, "Why don't you have a link to my blog on your page!" I promised to add him soon but it ended up taking over three months. That's how I roll. Nat has some good pictures of the Vegas house on his blog so go over there and look at his older posts.
I had a fun weekend. I hung out with my friend, Chris, in Portland on Friday night at a sweet bar called Ground Kontrol. It's basically an arcade for adults and they have all the cool old school games. We played some Simpson's and pinball while drinking cans of PBR. The coolest part was when we found out that the PBRs were free because we bought them while one of thir reps was at the bar. The only thing better than PBR is free PBR. On Saturday morning, Chirs went out to get donuts and I ate a maple bar. I know, healthy diet, but I just can't say no to maple bars. I took off around 10:30 and drove across the river to my Grandma's place for lunch. She usually eats at her Retirement Home so it's a treat when she gets to go out for lunch. She always invites some friends and I enjoy hanging out with them. We went to a place called Patrick's Hawaiian Cafe and I had some delicious Huli Huli Chicken. After lunch we went back to her place and I played pool with one of her friends. he was pretty good but I ended up taking 2 out of 3 games. After winning the rubber match I threw down my pool cue and yelled, "I OWN YOU, OLD MAN!" in his face. I'm a good winner.
I ended up leaving around 2 PM and got to Seattle at 4:45. I picked up Renee from her mom's Panini shop and we headed to Cle Elum. Her friend Stephanie's dad lives out there and she's living there for a month. Steph just graduated from pharmacy school and has to travel do different places each month and intern. She's currently interning in Ellensburg. Anyway, her dad's place is sweet. They have a lot of land and it's really nice to get out in the countryside. They have a bunch of 4-wheelers that we drove around in the mountains and they went pretty damn fast. Saturday night we drank beer and ate smores. I'm really livin the good life. Today we went to the swimming hole and splashed around for a bit. We ended up leaving at 6 PM and traffic was horrible. I guess we weren't the only ones that went out to the countryside for the weekend. I realized that I didn't have keys to my mom's house so I called my friend Davis and asked if I could spend the night. My mom is camping this weekend and isn't coming home until sometime tomorrow. I left a message on her phone but she might read this first. If so, MOM! I can't get into your house! Call me when you get this and LET ME IN! It's not a big deal since Davis let me stay over but he might get pissed if I stay on his couch for a week or more.
Tomorrow I start my push-up/exercise challenge AND my 5K poker hands challenge. It might be tough since I have to drive up to Canada for every session but i think I can do it. I'll definitely post updates on each bet in the hopes that I'll stick with my plans to avoid public embarassment. I think I'm going to stop with the bankroll updates, maybe just posting as I clear milestones or as I go busto. Let's hope it's the former.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Unhealthy
First of, I want to say WHAT UP TITO!!!! We never met for that beer, hombre! No offense Tito but I've been to Detroit twice this year and I think it'll be a while before I plan a trip back there. I escaped twice without getting my car stolen and without getting shot. I really don't want to push my luck.
Tito was always pushing me to eat healthier. One thing I forgot to talk about in yesterday's ramblefest is the fact that I'm in horrible shape. I haven't been in good shape for, oh, 5 years, but spending 5 weeks sitting on my ass eating Carl's Jr., In N Out, and SuperMex really brought me to a new level of unhealthy. Guacamole Bacon Burgers, waffle fries ALL DAY. SuperMex Burrito with green sauce ALL DAY. Now that I'm going to be in Seattle more I'd really like to get in better shape. I'm going to make a pledge to eat NO fried foods(other than wings on Monday nights), drink NO pop or juice(other than real juice, no Sobe or Snapple) and do something active for at least an hour 5 days a week. The something active could be walking around Greenlake, playing basketball or riding my bike to the grocery store for porno mags. Just something that makes my heart pump a little and makes sweat come out of my pores. I'd also like to do at least 100 push ups every day if I can. Sounds easy but you people have no clue how sorry I am right now. Hopefully that push up number will increase with time but I need to start doing something if that's going to happen. I'm not going to make any weight loss goals or even weigh myself at all. I'm just looking for a better level of fitness and a healthier lifestyle.
I've made silly pledges like this before and I've always bailed on them. I don't really know what to do to keep myself motivated but the extra flab has me feeling pretty gung ho at the moment. I'm twenty freaking six and it's not going to get any easier. In the past I've always been able to get in shape pretty quickly after going on a diet or starting a workout regimen but I don't think it'll be that way forever. If anyone can think of a way to motivate me, please chime in. I'll be starting this "get the heart pumping again" plan on Monday but I'm going stop eating crap immediately.
Poker went pretty well today. I played about $1K worth of tournies and didn't cash in a single one. I made the final table of a WPT Choice tournament but busted in 9th with KK on a T-high flop vs a set of 4s. I hate folding, bleh. However, cash games went really well and I ended the day with a $1500 boost in my bankroll. Hooray Beer! I ran pretty good but I also felt a lot better. I've been reviewing hands after each session and I'm becoming more familiar with recurring situations. One day I'm going to run really bad and swear off of cash games forever but right now I'm having fun.
I should set some poker related goals for each week and try to play a certain number of hands. I'll think about it more and let you know what I come up with. I think that I'd like to play about 5000 hands per week but I'm not sure if that's too high or too low. I'm don't think monetary goals are very productive and I'm a firm believer that if you play enough, the money will come. I'll only be playing when I'm out of the state, obviously, so I'm probably going to be heading up to Canada pretty frequently.
There are a few things that I need/want to buy that I can use as carrots for my bankroll building. Number one is a new laptop for when I multitable in Canada. My current laptop has crappy reolution, blue-screens all the time and makes a strange grinding noise when I turn it on. I bought it about 20 months ago but it was pretty cheap and is probably more dated than that. I'm considering getting a PowerBook but it depends how much it costs to run Windows programs on it. I think Full Tilt is the only site that is Mac compatible and Party is where all the money is. If I don't get a PowerBook I'll probably get a Dell 9300 or whatever it is that all the cool kids have. I'd like the new laptop soon so I'll get it when the bankroll reaches $25K(It's at $24,184.80 at the moment).
I've already talked about the Breitling watch and I think I'll go for that once the bankroll gets to $50K. That could be a long ways off but if I put in 5,000 hands per week I think I can get there reasonably soon. I'll be pulling from the bankroll to pay bills, eat food and travel but I don't anticipate any huge expenses.
Cliff Notes so far:
Eat Healthier, Get Heart Pumping
Play 5,000 hands per week
Buy a new laptop when the bankroll reaches $25K
Buy a new watch when the bankroll reaches $50K
The ultimate goal is to get the roll up to $100K and start playing 25/50 regularly. I can't think of a good reward once I reach that milestone and I might not buy anything at all. It seems so far out there but all I need to focus on are 5,000 hands per week.
Tomorrow I'm going to drive most of the way home. I'm going to stop at my Grandma's and probably stay through lunch on Saturday. I've done this drive up and down I-5 a million times and it bores the crap out of me. I really despise driving through Oregon and the happiest moment of the drive(other than driving past SouthCenter and seeing the Seattle skyline) is crossing the Columbia and entering the State of Washington. God Bless Washington and its online poker ban. Anyway, if you're bored tomorrow and want to help a brotha stay alert and stay alive, give me a call. Peace. Love. Happiness.
P.S. I have no clue why anyone reads this crap. Blogging feels like one of the most narcissistic things ever and I feel like a jackass every time I write. Why the hell do you care about my physical and poker goals. Please don't put a bunch of comments saying we care because you're our friend blah blah blah. Just let me bitch in peace. Goodnight.
Tito was always pushing me to eat healthier. One thing I forgot to talk about in yesterday's ramblefest is the fact that I'm in horrible shape. I haven't been in good shape for, oh, 5 years, but spending 5 weeks sitting on my ass eating Carl's Jr., In N Out, and SuperMex really brought me to a new level of unhealthy. Guacamole Bacon Burgers, waffle fries ALL DAY. SuperMex Burrito with green sauce ALL DAY. Now that I'm going to be in Seattle more I'd really like to get in better shape. I'm going to make a pledge to eat NO fried foods(other than wings on Monday nights), drink NO pop or juice(other than real juice, no Sobe or Snapple) and do something active for at least an hour 5 days a week. The something active could be walking around Greenlake, playing basketball or riding my bike to the grocery store for porno mags. Just something that makes my heart pump a little and makes sweat come out of my pores. I'd also like to do at least 100 push ups every day if I can. Sounds easy but you people have no clue how sorry I am right now. Hopefully that push up number will increase with time but I need to start doing something if that's going to happen. I'm not going to make any weight loss goals or even weigh myself at all. I'm just looking for a better level of fitness and a healthier lifestyle.
I've made silly pledges like this before and I've always bailed on them. I don't really know what to do to keep myself motivated but the extra flab has me feeling pretty gung ho at the moment. I'm twenty freaking six and it's not going to get any easier. In the past I've always been able to get in shape pretty quickly after going on a diet or starting a workout regimen but I don't think it'll be that way forever. If anyone can think of a way to motivate me, please chime in. I'll be starting this "get the heart pumping again" plan on Monday but I'm going stop eating crap immediately.
Poker went pretty well today. I played about $1K worth of tournies and didn't cash in a single one. I made the final table of a WPT Choice tournament but busted in 9th with KK on a T-high flop vs a set of 4s. I hate folding, bleh. However, cash games went really well and I ended the day with a $1500 boost in my bankroll. Hooray Beer! I ran pretty good but I also felt a lot better. I've been reviewing hands after each session and I'm becoming more familiar with recurring situations. One day I'm going to run really bad and swear off of cash games forever but right now I'm having fun.
I should set some poker related goals for each week and try to play a certain number of hands. I'll think about it more and let you know what I come up with. I think that I'd like to play about 5000 hands per week but I'm not sure if that's too high or too low. I'm don't think monetary goals are very productive and I'm a firm believer that if you play enough, the money will come. I'll only be playing when I'm out of the state, obviously, so I'm probably going to be heading up to Canada pretty frequently.
There are a few things that I need/want to buy that I can use as carrots for my bankroll building. Number one is a new laptop for when I multitable in Canada. My current laptop has crappy reolution, blue-screens all the time and makes a strange grinding noise when I turn it on. I bought it about 20 months ago but it was pretty cheap and is probably more dated than that. I'm considering getting a PowerBook but it depends how much it costs to run Windows programs on it. I think Full Tilt is the only site that is Mac compatible and Party is where all the money is. If I don't get a PowerBook I'll probably get a Dell 9300 or whatever it is that all the cool kids have. I'd like the new laptop soon so I'll get it when the bankroll reaches $25K(It's at $24,184.80 at the moment).
I've already talked about the Breitling watch and I think I'll go for that once the bankroll gets to $50K. That could be a long ways off but if I put in 5,000 hands per week I think I can get there reasonably soon. I'll be pulling from the bankroll to pay bills, eat food and travel but I don't anticipate any huge expenses.
Cliff Notes so far:
Eat Healthier, Get Heart Pumping
Play 5,000 hands per week
Buy a new laptop when the bankroll reaches $25K
Buy a new watch when the bankroll reaches $50K
The ultimate goal is to get the roll up to $100K and start playing 25/50 regularly. I can't think of a good reward once I reach that milestone and I might not buy anything at all. It seems so far out there but all I need to focus on are 5,000 hands per week.
Tomorrow I'm going to drive most of the way home. I'm going to stop at my Grandma's and probably stay through lunch on Saturday. I've done this drive up and down I-5 a million times and it bores the crap out of me. I really despise driving through Oregon and the happiest moment of the drive(other than driving past SouthCenter and seeing the Seattle skyline) is crossing the Columbia and entering the State of Washington. God Bless Washington and its online poker ban. Anyway, if you're bored tomorrow and want to help a brotha stay alert and stay alive, give me a call. Peace. Love. Happiness.
P.S. I have no clue why anyone reads this crap. Blogging feels like one of the most narcissistic things ever and I feel like a jackass every time I write. Why the hell do you care about my physical and poker goals. Please don't put a bunch of comments saying we care because you're our friend blah blah blah. Just let me bitch in peace. Goodnight.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
What's up, Broseph?
Wow, it's been 2 weeks since my last entry. I'm not sure why I just quit blogging but I think Vegas took its toll on me and I just felt lethargic every day. I finally left Vegas on Sunday, spent two nights in LA, and drove up to the Bay Area last night. I'll be here at my dad's house until Friday when I start the drive back to Seattle. I'll probably stay at my Grandma's in Vancouver, WA on Friday night and get back to Seattle on Saturday afternoon. Hallelujah. I've been thinking about a lot of things so be prepared for a bit of a braindump.
The Mariners are officially done. They were as close as 3.5 games out of first as recently as 2 weeks ago. Then we ran into our eternal nemesis, the Oakland A's. Tonight's loss marks the 15th consecutive time that the A's have finished a game with more runs than the M's, tying a major league record for consecutive wins against a division rival. Throw in a 4-game sweep by the Rangers over the weekend and the M's are now 12 games out of first place. TWELVE! Doce! Gross. I'll still be attending a lot of games once I come home but I'll probably be drinking a lot of beer and razzing a lot of visiting centerfielders from the beer garden. I never expected the M's to be 3.5 games out of first place at any point this season but it was nice while it lasted. Wait 'til next year.
Football season is officially here and I'm ridiculously amped. I think the Hawks look better on paper than they did last year and I think their defense is going to be nasty. Julian Peterson is no small upgrade. Obviously losing Hutch hurts but I'll take the tradeoff. I don't think we'll go 13-3 because the schedule is pretty dang tough but I think we can get 11 wins and take down the division. Everyone is on the Cardinals' nuts but they were supposed to be a sleeper team last year too. Screw the Cardinals and the rest of the NFC West. We own it. My friend and fellow Superfan, Curtis, wrote a great analysis of the Seahawks' draft that I meant to post earlier but here it is anyway:
----------
What I keep hearing about the hawks '06 draft is "TOO SMALL!" To those who
would criticize our selections based on the players physical size I would
offer 3 words, or names actually...
1. Chuck Darby
2. Leroy Hill
3. LOFAAAAAAAAAAA
Pick # 1 -
So Kelly Jennings only weighs 178lbs! Are we forgetting about his 40 time &
40 inch vertical leap?! Jennings is a true cover corner who may not be the
flashest pick but he has shown that he can bring his A-game EVERYGAME in a
solid football program. No disrespect to Matty Hass or Pat Ross (Seahawks
new 3rd string center) but playing for Boston College is not the same as
succeeding with the Canes. I know that everbody would have loved Hali or
Lawson but it didn't go down like that. Beside, the Mount Nittnay Lions of
Penn State are a soft program these days. Lawson would have been legit
though. Same unit as Super Mario. Bottom line solid pick if not flashy and
someone who can come in and play NOW. Adjusting to the speed of the
Hawks/NFL game won't be as hard for a guy out of Randy Shannon & Tim
Walton's Miami's defense. BTW- The Canes have had a 1st round pick for 12
years running
Pick # 2 - Darryl Tapp, Virginia Tech.
It's a little tougher to be undersized on the line but he's getting a little
shortchanged. He's keeps getting listed as 6'1 but he's closer to 6'2. One
inch isn't was got him selected @ pick 63 though. Sure he can rotate
through w/ Wistrom & Fisher but you don't use a Round 2 pick on a
releaver!...or do you. **See also the rotation of Darby, Bernard and
another early pick Mr. Tubboat** Seemed to work out pretty good didn't it
and EVERYBODY knows that Darby is WAY TOO SMALL. Now we could have 6 SOLID
guys to play 4 defensive line positions. Crazy?...or draft day genius? I'm
also thinking immediate impact on special teams. Tapp had a blocked kick
both his Junior & Senior year. Rotating him through will leave him with
enough gas to pick up a couple more blocked kicks for the Hawks.
When asking Holmgren what any Draft Day plan is he usually identifies a few
areas of need but says that the Hawks will take the best player available.
I'm not entirely convinced that is what happened this weekend ESPECIALLY
with Sunday's picks but let's think of the near dynasty of the recent New
England Patriots. Not very many of those Pats were stars prior to the first
couple of superbowl but New England put together a work ethic/winning
culture that I believe is what Seattle is building too. Sure we'd all love
to have Mario Williams but I am defiinitely happy with our #1 & #2 cuz they
really are career guys.
Pick # 3 - 4th Round Rob Sims, Ohio State.
Obviously he's no Hutch but Guard isn't the most demanding position either.
He's played some Tackle as well. I would hope for him to develop his
versitility into a Pork Chop sort of player. Animal in the weightroom but I
won't expect him to compete w/ Spen-dogg for Tobeck's position as some
speculate. This is the last year of Tobeck's contract and similar to the
Mili/Stephen scenario, the job is Robby's to lose. If we could ever get two
blocking backs & Chris Spencer at center, maybe Matt could finally go to the
Shotgun from time-to-time to find Warrick downfield. Holmgren's probably
not interested in that scenario.
Pick # 4 - 5th Round David Kirtman, USC.
This was a favor! Did the Hawks forgetting about Mack's contract and that
he's just getting better? No need to draft for the future because of the
Carson-Newman rising star that is Leonard Weaver. So now people critisize
the difference in pedigre between Carson-Newman & USC but Weaver is WAY TO
MONEY to have somebody trash his small town program. If we can remember the
2005 preseason, Matt was shaking Mack's hand on the sidelines while they
both watched Leonard run like he was 50lbs lighter. Matt told Mack, "it's
been nice workin' with ya."
I think this was a reach and I still haven't called out who I think this was
a favor to. Has anyone noticed where Kirtman's parents address is???
That's right folks, David's parents are Holmgren's neighbors. Shakey Pick +
Friends Nextdoor = impared 5th round judgement!
That's it for now. I should probably get some work done. GO
HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
----------
If you didn't think that was awesome then you aren't my friend. Thanks, Curtis!
Check out the Seahawks' road schedule: @Detroit, @Chicago, @St Louis, @Kansas City, @San Francisco, @Denver, @Arizona, @Tampa Bay. The three division games are automatic ally assigned, obv, but the others are pretty sick. Soldier Field is never easy, The Chiefs don't lose at home, The Broncos have a sick home field advantage and Tampa won't be a cakewalk. The only soft spot is opening day at the Lions but we looked like crap the last time we played at Ford Field. *cry*
The UW MBA program emailed me about two weeks ago and basically said, "write back if you still want to come because we don't want to admit waitlist people who already have plans." I wrote back and they told me that they can tell me their final decision as late as September 15th. I'd really like to get this damn MBA and I'd like to do it sooner rather than later.
If I don't get in this year I have a pretty sweet backup plan. First I'm going to take some undergrad business classes this Fall to strengthen my application for next year. After Fall quarter I'm going to resubmit an application and take off for a while. My friend Ivan got a job in India and is living there now. Two other friends, Scott and Matt, are going to visit him from December 26th until January 6th and I'm going to tag along. On January 6th I'm going to fly from Mumbai(formerly Bombay) to Melbourne. There's a big poker tournament in Australia that ends on the 19th of January. I'll probably stay in Australia for a while longer then fly to Vietnam around February 1st. I'll stay in SE Asia for a month or so and fly back to Seattle around March 1st. Sounds fun, huh? Seriously, I'd rather just get my damn MBA and work from there but travel could be fun too.
As far as poker is concerned, I'm playing a lot of 5/10 and 10/20 NL cash games and I'm really enjoying them. I still suck and make a lot of dumb mistakes but luckilly they suck worse and make more mistakes. My bankroll has grown from around $7K at the end of the Main Event to its current value of $22,679.87. I think I've run pretty good but I also think that my resluts will get even better as I learn to stop making ridiculous payoffs and hopeless bluffs. I've probably given up about $5K making terrible calls and terrbile bluff attempts. $5K in obvious mistakes that I look at in retrospect and shake my head at in disgust. There are probably a lot of smaller mistakes that I'm making too. Gross. Anyway, I think NL cash games are a great way to make money and I'm going to continue to build my bankroll through them(only when I'm outside of the State of Washington of course). I'd like to get the roll up to $100K so that I can take shots at the 25/50 NL regularly. I'll keep throwing random bankroll updates on the blog and hopefully I'll stay motivated and play as much as I have been over the past two weeks.
There were a few things that happened that got me into cash cames: (1) Spending a lot of poker money on travel and expenses, (2) Dropping most of the rest of my poker money on the WSOP, (3) Living with some of the best NL cash game players in the world. I really believe that a few of the guys I was living with in Vegas are the some of the best players out there. One of them is 20 and the other is 18. Years old. Ridiculous. Anyway, they don't give a crap about money because they make so damn much playing cash games. One day, on our way to dinner, Smokey, the 20 year-old, gave one of the best one-liners ever: "I'd kill myself if I only made $100K a year". I'm pretty sure he didn't literally mean "kill himself" but to hear that kind of stuff from a 20 year-old is unreal. I'd like to make that kind of money and I think getting really good at NL cash is one of the best ways to acheive it. I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't ever treat money the way that they do but I'd like to have the funds available to abuse if I so chose.
Here's an article that my man ADB sent me via email. It's about the online poker laws in Washington. I think it encourages people to play, especially quotes like this:
----In Washington, other than a handful of cease-and-desist orders issued to billboard and radio advertisers that promote illegal gambling sites, the state has not busted a single person for illegal Internet gambling.
"Our enforcement does not focus on individuals," Arland said. "We respond to complaints."-----
Arland works for the Washington Gaming Commission. Not focusing on individuals is good news. I'm still not going to play unless I'm out of the state. Obviously.
I've bought almost nothing of real value since the big tournaments that I won. I bought some Bose headphones for $300, my Treo phone for about $550 and I can't think of much else. While at the house in Vegas, three guys bought watches and the cheapest one was a $9K Jacobs. I think I'm going to buy a nice watch as my first major purchase. The watches that the guys bought were really amazing but I'm probably going to go with a "cheap" Breitling for about $3K. Cliff is my official fashion consultant and he loves the Breitlings. I don't know why I included this paragraph but it's my braindump and I can write what I want.
Speaking of Cliff, he moved to Germany on Monday. I'd really like to go see him soon but I'm not sure when I can do it. Maybe for a few days on the way to India?
It's 3 AM and things are going down the tube. Who knows how much longer I'll ramble. On September 23rd I'm flying to Philadelphia for a charity poker tournament/boozefest called Bash at the Boat. This is the seventh annual Bash at the Boat and I think it started as a crazy party then evolved into a charitable crazy party. Obviously it's something put together by AlCantHang and I'm excited to be a part of it. He's promised to hold the 1st Annual Brandon Schaefer Beer Pong Championship so I better get some practice in while I'm at home. We played a lot of beerpong at the house in Vegas and I got pretty deadly by the end. We played 10-cup with teams and in one game I went 7 for 7 and our team won with 8 cups left. Smokey and Bushman may be great poker players but I own them at beerpong. I've never gone 7 for 7 before and I'm pretty sure I'll never do it again. It was just one of those Jordan vs the Blazers moments when you shrug your shoulders at the commentators and the cups look as big as peach baskets. Carl actually ruined me a few times during the trip but he flew home early and missed me when I was in my groove. He's going to enter the WSOBP and I can't wait to hear stories about how good other people are. Supposedly the great players use a fingerroll technique that I tested for a while. It seems like the fingerroll gives a better arc but I was having a hard time controlling distance and accuracy. Anyway....
I'll Florida from September 2-8. Renee and I are flying into Tampa on the 2nd and watching the Devil Rays play the Mariners on the 2nd and 3rd. Then we're renting a car and driving down to Miami for a few days. We're going to stay on the beach and hopefully it'll be a nice vacation for her. She's very excited about the trip because she has a real J-O-B and doesn't get to do crazy things like yours truly. I'm not saying that I'm not excited to finish the stadium tour and take a vacation with a pretty lady but I've been around the world ya-ya-ya, I've been playa hated, I don't know and I don't know why, why the want us faded. I feel like the travel schedule has jaded me a bit and I can't really get too fired up for any domestic travel. "I don't need my passport? Pssssh." Anyway, if any of you loyal readers know anything about Tampa or Miami or parts inbetween please leave a comment.
I wonder if I still have any loyal readers. 2 weeks is a long ass time to go without updates.
I'll be in Seattle on Saturday afternoon but I'm heading to Cle Elum with Renee on Saturday night. I think my first time kickin' it will be at Kangaroo & Kiwi on Monday night. Darts? Wings? Mongoose IPA? Holy crap I can't wait to get home. Seattle, the greatest place on earth. Except I can't play poker while in Seattle. Only when out-of-state. Obviously.
The Mariners are officially done. They were as close as 3.5 games out of first as recently as 2 weeks ago. Then we ran into our eternal nemesis, the Oakland A's. Tonight's loss marks the 15th consecutive time that the A's have finished a game with more runs than the M's, tying a major league record for consecutive wins against a division rival. Throw in a 4-game sweep by the Rangers over the weekend and the M's are now 12 games out of first place. TWELVE! Doce! Gross. I'll still be attending a lot of games once I come home but I'll probably be drinking a lot of beer and razzing a lot of visiting centerfielders from the beer garden. I never expected the M's to be 3.5 games out of first place at any point this season but it was nice while it lasted. Wait 'til next year.
Football season is officially here and I'm ridiculously amped. I think the Hawks look better on paper than they did last year and I think their defense is going to be nasty. Julian Peterson is no small upgrade. Obviously losing Hutch hurts but I'll take the tradeoff. I don't think we'll go 13-3 because the schedule is pretty dang tough but I think we can get 11 wins and take down the division. Everyone is on the Cardinals' nuts but they were supposed to be a sleeper team last year too. Screw the Cardinals and the rest of the NFC West. We own it. My friend and fellow Superfan, Curtis, wrote a great analysis of the Seahawks' draft that I meant to post earlier but here it is anyway:
----------
What I keep hearing about the hawks '06 draft is "TOO SMALL!" To those who
would criticize our selections based on the players physical size I would
offer 3 words, or names actually...
1. Chuck Darby
2. Leroy Hill
3. LOFAAAAAAAAAAA
Pick # 1 -
So Kelly Jennings only weighs 178lbs! Are we forgetting about his 40 time &
40 inch vertical leap?! Jennings is a true cover corner who may not be the
flashest pick but he has shown that he can bring his A-game EVERYGAME in a
solid football program. No disrespect to Matty Hass or Pat Ross (Seahawks
new 3rd string center) but playing for Boston College is not the same as
succeeding with the Canes. I know that everbody would have loved Hali or
Lawson but it didn't go down like that. Beside, the Mount Nittnay Lions of
Penn State are a soft program these days. Lawson would have been legit
though. Same unit as Super Mario. Bottom line solid pick if not flashy and
someone who can come in and play NOW. Adjusting to the speed of the
Hawks/NFL game won't be as hard for a guy out of Randy Shannon & Tim
Walton's Miami's defense. BTW- The Canes have had a 1st round pick for 12
years running
Pick # 2 - Darryl Tapp, Virginia Tech.
It's a little tougher to be undersized on the line but he's getting a little
shortchanged. He's keeps getting listed as 6'1 but he's closer to 6'2. One
inch isn't was got him selected @ pick 63 though. Sure he can rotate
through w/ Wistrom & Fisher but you don't use a Round 2 pick on a
releaver!...or do you. **See also the rotation of Darby, Bernard and
another early pick Mr. Tubboat** Seemed to work out pretty good didn't it
and EVERYBODY knows that Darby is WAY TOO SMALL. Now we could have 6 SOLID
guys to play 4 defensive line positions. Crazy?...or draft day genius? I'm
also thinking immediate impact on special teams. Tapp had a blocked kick
both his Junior & Senior year. Rotating him through will leave him with
enough gas to pick up a couple more blocked kicks for the Hawks.
When asking Holmgren what any Draft Day plan is he usually identifies a few
areas of need but says that the Hawks will take the best player available.
I'm not entirely convinced that is what happened this weekend ESPECIALLY
with Sunday's picks but let's think of the near dynasty of the recent New
England Patriots. Not very many of those Pats were stars prior to the first
couple of superbowl but New England put together a work ethic/winning
culture that I believe is what Seattle is building too. Sure we'd all love
to have Mario Williams but I am defiinitely happy with our #1 & #2 cuz they
really are career guys.
Pick # 3 - 4th Round Rob Sims, Ohio State.
Obviously he's no Hutch but Guard isn't the most demanding position either.
He's played some Tackle as well. I would hope for him to develop his
versitility into a Pork Chop sort of player. Animal in the weightroom but I
won't expect him to compete w/ Spen-dogg for Tobeck's position as some
speculate. This is the last year of Tobeck's contract and similar to the
Mili/Stephen scenario, the job is Robby's to lose. If we could ever get two
blocking backs & Chris Spencer at center, maybe Matt could finally go to the
Shotgun from time-to-time to find Warrick downfield. Holmgren's probably
not interested in that scenario.
Pick # 4 - 5th Round David Kirtman, USC.
This was a favor! Did the Hawks forgetting about Mack's contract and that
he's just getting better? No need to draft for the future because of the
Carson-Newman rising star that is Leonard Weaver. So now people critisize
the difference in pedigre between Carson-Newman & USC but Weaver is WAY TO
MONEY to have somebody trash his small town program. If we can remember the
2005 preseason, Matt was shaking Mack's hand on the sidelines while they
both watched Leonard run like he was 50lbs lighter. Matt told Mack, "it's
been nice workin' with ya."
I think this was a reach and I still haven't called out who I think this was
a favor to. Has anyone noticed where Kirtman's parents address is???
That's right folks, David's parents are Holmgren's neighbors. Shakey Pick +
Friends Nextdoor = impared 5th round judgement!
That's it for now. I should probably get some work done. GO
HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
----------
If you didn't think that was awesome then you aren't my friend. Thanks, Curtis!
Check out the Seahawks' road schedule: @Detroit, @Chicago, @St Louis, @Kansas City, @San Francisco, @Denver, @Arizona, @Tampa Bay. The three division games are automatic ally assigned, obv, but the others are pretty sick. Soldier Field is never easy, The Chiefs don't lose at home, The Broncos have a sick home field advantage and Tampa won't be a cakewalk. The only soft spot is opening day at the Lions but we looked like crap the last time we played at Ford Field. *cry*
The UW MBA program emailed me about two weeks ago and basically said, "write back if you still want to come because we don't want to admit waitlist people who already have plans." I wrote back and they told me that they can tell me their final decision as late as September 15th. I'd really like to get this damn MBA and I'd like to do it sooner rather than later.
If I don't get in this year I have a pretty sweet backup plan. First I'm going to take some undergrad business classes this Fall to strengthen my application for next year. After Fall quarter I'm going to resubmit an application and take off for a while. My friend Ivan got a job in India and is living there now. Two other friends, Scott and Matt, are going to visit him from December 26th until January 6th and I'm going to tag along. On January 6th I'm going to fly from Mumbai(formerly Bombay) to Melbourne. There's a big poker tournament in Australia that ends on the 19th of January. I'll probably stay in Australia for a while longer then fly to Vietnam around February 1st. I'll stay in SE Asia for a month or so and fly back to Seattle around March 1st. Sounds fun, huh? Seriously, I'd rather just get my damn MBA and work from there but travel could be fun too.
As far as poker is concerned, I'm playing a lot of 5/10 and 10/20 NL cash games and I'm really enjoying them. I still suck and make a lot of dumb mistakes but luckilly they suck worse and make more mistakes. My bankroll has grown from around $7K at the end of the Main Event to its current value of $22,679.87. I think I've run pretty good but I also think that my resluts will get even better as I learn to stop making ridiculous payoffs and hopeless bluffs. I've probably given up about $5K making terrible calls and terrbile bluff attempts. $5K in obvious mistakes that I look at in retrospect and shake my head at in disgust. There are probably a lot of smaller mistakes that I'm making too. Gross. Anyway, I think NL cash games are a great way to make money and I'm going to continue to build my bankroll through them(only when I'm outside of the State of Washington of course). I'd like to get the roll up to $100K so that I can take shots at the 25/50 NL regularly. I'll keep throwing random bankroll updates on the blog and hopefully I'll stay motivated and play as much as I have been over the past two weeks.
There were a few things that happened that got me into cash cames: (1) Spending a lot of poker money on travel and expenses, (2) Dropping most of the rest of my poker money on the WSOP, (3) Living with some of the best NL cash game players in the world. I really believe that a few of the guys I was living with in Vegas are the some of the best players out there. One of them is 20 and the other is 18. Years old. Ridiculous. Anyway, they don't give a crap about money because they make so damn much playing cash games. One day, on our way to dinner, Smokey, the 20 year-old, gave one of the best one-liners ever: "I'd kill myself if I only made $100K a year". I'm pretty sure he didn't literally mean "kill himself" but to hear that kind of stuff from a 20 year-old is unreal. I'd like to make that kind of money and I think getting really good at NL cash is one of the best ways to acheive it. I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't ever treat money the way that they do but I'd like to have the funds available to abuse if I so chose.
Here's an article that my man ADB sent me via email. It's about the online poker laws in Washington. I think it encourages people to play, especially quotes like this:
----In Washington, other than a handful of cease-and-desist orders issued to billboard and radio advertisers that promote illegal gambling sites, the state has not busted a single person for illegal Internet gambling.
"Our enforcement does not focus on individuals," Arland said. "We respond to complaints."-----
Arland works for the Washington Gaming Commission. Not focusing on individuals is good news. I'm still not going to play unless I'm out of the state. Obviously.
I've bought almost nothing of real value since the big tournaments that I won. I bought some Bose headphones for $300, my Treo phone for about $550 and I can't think of much else. While at the house in Vegas, three guys bought watches and the cheapest one was a $9K Jacobs. I think I'm going to buy a nice watch as my first major purchase. The watches that the guys bought were really amazing but I'm probably going to go with a "cheap" Breitling for about $3K. Cliff is my official fashion consultant and he loves the Breitlings. I don't know why I included this paragraph but it's my braindump and I can write what I want.
Speaking of Cliff, he moved to Germany on Monday. I'd really like to go see him soon but I'm not sure when I can do it. Maybe for a few days on the way to India?
It's 3 AM and things are going down the tube. Who knows how much longer I'll ramble. On September 23rd I'm flying to Philadelphia for a charity poker tournament/boozefest called Bash at the Boat. This is the seventh annual Bash at the Boat and I think it started as a crazy party then evolved into a charitable crazy party. Obviously it's something put together by AlCantHang and I'm excited to be a part of it. He's promised to hold the 1st Annual Brandon Schaefer Beer Pong Championship so I better get some practice in while I'm at home. We played a lot of beerpong at the house in Vegas and I got pretty deadly by the end. We played 10-cup with teams and in one game I went 7 for 7 and our team won with 8 cups left. Smokey and Bushman may be great poker players but I own them at beerpong. I've never gone 7 for 7 before and I'm pretty sure I'll never do it again. It was just one of those Jordan vs the Blazers moments when you shrug your shoulders at the commentators and the cups look as big as peach baskets. Carl actually ruined me a few times during the trip but he flew home early and missed me when I was in my groove. He's going to enter the WSOBP and I can't wait to hear stories about how good other people are. Supposedly the great players use a fingerroll technique that I tested for a while. It seems like the fingerroll gives a better arc but I was having a hard time controlling distance and accuracy. Anyway....
I'll Florida from September 2-8. Renee and I are flying into Tampa on the 2nd and watching the Devil Rays play the Mariners on the 2nd and 3rd. Then we're renting a car and driving down to Miami for a few days. We're going to stay on the beach and hopefully it'll be a nice vacation for her. She's very excited about the trip because she has a real J-O-B and doesn't get to do crazy things like yours truly. I'm not saying that I'm not excited to finish the stadium tour and take a vacation with a pretty lady but I've been around the world ya-ya-ya, I've been playa hated, I don't know and I don't know why, why the want us faded. I feel like the travel schedule has jaded me a bit and I can't really get too fired up for any domestic travel. "I don't need my passport? Pssssh." Anyway, if any of you loyal readers know anything about Tampa or Miami or parts inbetween please leave a comment.
I wonder if I still have any loyal readers. 2 weeks is a long ass time to go without updates.
I'll be in Seattle on Saturday afternoon but I'm heading to Cle Elum with Renee on Saturday night. I think my first time kickin' it will be at Kangaroo & Kiwi on Monday night. Darts? Wings? Mongoose IPA? Holy crap I can't wait to get home. Seattle, the greatest place on earth. Except I can't play poker while in Seattle. Only when out-of-state. Obviously.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Busto
I busted 5 minutes before the dinner break. I played a tough pot early on against a good player and for the last 5 hours I nursed a shortstack between 9 and 15 blinds before finally busting with QJ against 22. It was definitely a frustrating day and a frustrating World Series overall. I really feel like I was playing a lot better with each successive tournament and my results kept getting worse and worse. Oh well.
Just about everyone from the house is out of the main event and they're all heading home. I have some friends coming down from August 9-13 so I'm going to have to stay down here until then. I'll probably be indulging in some hookers and blow during my free time so if that's your bag, feel free to come visit sometime over the next 2 weeks.
Just about everyone from the house is out of the main event and they're all heading home. I have some friends coming down from August 9-13 so I'm going to have to stay down here until then. I'll probably be indulging in some hookers and blow during my free time so if that's your bag, feel free to come visit sometime over the next 2 weeks.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
The Main Event
Tomorrow is my Day 1 of the $10K Main Event. I'm getting pretty excited and it would be really nice to catch some cards and run good. I haven't blogged in a while because poker has been pretty brutal over the past few weeks and every time I started to write a post it would come out extremely negative and I'd scrap it. Who needs negativity? Tomorrow, I start with a clean slate and I think it could be a lot of fun. I feel really calm and confident. One time, poker gods, one time.
Here is the Shaniac post about the poker scene and why it sucks. I'm really lucky that I have a great group of friends within the poker community who also have a lot of interests outside of poker. Together we can escape the weird world of poker for games of beer pong, pool and darts. I can't wait to get back to Seattle and start the next chapter of my life: heading back to school and trying to figure out another source of easy money. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Cliff is in town for a few days and, like always, it's really great to see him. He's moving to Germany in 2 weeks and will be stationed there for 3 years. I'm going to try to visit him in mid-December when it's cold as hell and he can't make me go running. He's driving back to Seattle on Sunday morning and I kinda feel like going with him if I get knocked out of the tournament tomorrow. Since they knock out 2/3 of the field on each day, I think each individual might be a dog to make it past Day 1. I guess if you're twice as god as the average player then you're a favorite to be in but it's still kind of a toss-up. Whatever, no negativity. I'm going to be playing poker for two more weeks and once I win, my life will become just like Entourage but waaaay cooler. Vinny Chase ain't got nothin' on me.
Bedtime. Everyone pray to whomever you pray to for me to run good. I'll pay you back once I'm living the Entourage lifestyle.
Here is the Shaniac post about the poker scene and why it sucks. I'm really lucky that I have a great group of friends within the poker community who also have a lot of interests outside of poker. Together we can escape the weird world of poker for games of beer pong, pool and darts. I can't wait to get back to Seattle and start the next chapter of my life: heading back to school and trying to figure out another source of easy money. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Cliff is in town for a few days and, like always, it's really great to see him. He's moving to Germany in 2 weeks and will be stationed there for 3 years. I'm going to try to visit him in mid-December when it's cold as hell and he can't make me go running. He's driving back to Seattle on Sunday morning and I kinda feel like going with him if I get knocked out of the tournament tomorrow. Since they knock out 2/3 of the field on each day, I think each individual might be a dog to make it past Day 1. I guess if you're twice as god as the average player then you're a favorite to be in but it's still kind of a toss-up. Whatever, no negativity. I'm going to be playing poker for two more weeks and once I win, my life will become just like Entourage but waaaay cooler. Vinny Chase ain't got nothin' on me.
Bedtime. Everyone pray to whomever you pray to for me to run good. I'll pay you back once I'm living the Entourage lifestyle.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Gooooooo Carl!!!!!
Carl made his first WSOP final table in the $2000 No Limit event. He's 5th in chips out of the 9 players remaining and 1st place is around $840,000. I'll be courtside for this one and hopefully can vibe some good cards his way. Gooooooooo Carl!!!!!!
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Yuck
Got in to Vegas at 2 AM, supposed to arrive at 11 PM. The weather in Vegas was bad to we flew to Ontario, CA, refueled, then flew back here. I'm tired and I'd skip tomorrow's $1500 NL event if I wasn't already registered for it. Wish me luck.
Today, from 5 PM to 6 PM Pacific, ESPN will be airing the New Orleans Circuit Event won by my friend Peter Feldman for $500K and change. Be sure to catch all the action. If I bust tomorrow, I hope it's before 5 PM.
Tired. Soooooo tired.
Oh yeah, my phone works. Sweet!
Today, from 5 PM to 6 PM Pacific, ESPN will be airing the New Orleans Circuit Event won by my friend Peter Feldman for $500K and change. Be sure to catch all the action. If I bust tomorrow, I hope it's before 5 PM.
Tired. Soooooo tired.
Oh yeah, my phone works. Sweet!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Going Going Back Back to Vegas Vegas
It's been a fun little vacation but I'm heading back to Vegas tomorrow night and I'll be playing in the $1500 NL tourney on Tuesday. Tuesday is my birthday so hopefully the poker gods smile on me and let me go really deep.
Getting out here was quite the debacle. I had a short layover in Chicago and we boarded the plane on time, ready for the short flight to Boston. We stop mid-taxi and the pilot informs us that there will be a 2 hour delay because of the weather in Boston. Apparently, there was a lot of fog in the morning and all flights throughout the day were pushed back. It would have been nice to know about before boarding the plane. We end up waiting for about two-and-a-half hours and I wasn't a very happy camper.
Once I finally got to Logan I rented a car for the weekend and drove to Cambridge to pick up my mom. A tunnel on I-90 collapsed a few days before and traffic was horrid. I had to take a wicked detour and would have never found my way without my trusty GPS. Greatest purchase evar. My mom and I ate a late dinner at Legal Seafoods then went to the top of the Prudential Tower. There was a line for tables so we snuck a quick peek at the view then went back to Justin's place for the night. Thanks a million to Justin and Caitlin for letting us stay at their place. I didn't know where they were registered but they had a ton of Crate and Barrel boxes in their house so my mom went online and we bought them some champagne glasses. I figure they can think about their alkie friend Brandon every time they drink champagne.
In the morning I went to a laundromat to wash all my clothes. I refuse to pay the prices at the Rio($5 to wash a t-shirt!) so I flew to Boston with all my dirty laundry. I wanted to get a haircut but the dryer at the laundromat was horrible so I didn't have time.
THe drive up to Vermont was pretty nice. I really like the lush green hills of New Hampshire and Vermont. We stopped in Concord, NH for lunch and saw the domed capial building. We got a bit lost on the way to Killington, VT, where the wedding took place, and drove about an hour north to Montpelier. It was cool to see our second capital of the trip and we pretended like the detour was intentional. Did you know that Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's? Now ya do!
The resort in Killington was pretty nice. It's a skiers destination but they have weddings there in the summertime. It was hot and humid as crap and I was sweating non-stop. The wedding was short and sweet and the reception was long and awesome. Open bar from 4-10 PM, does it get any better than that? Ramsey brought a pint of Goldschlager to the table since they didn't serve shots at the bar and we had a grand ol' time. At the end of the night I was so sweaty that my clothes were literally sopping wet. I went to the room to chang and then headed to the pool for more beers. I ended up getting pushed into the pool and my phone may be dead forever. I'm still holding out hope that it'll work once it dries but I'm not very optimistic about things.
Today my mom and I woke up at 6 AM to go hiking. I birched and moaned the whole time and ended up turning around after about a mile. I had a wicked hangover and there were a ton of bugs and I was sweating like a stuck pig. Not fun. I slept in the car as my mom finished the hike and we got out of there around 11. I tried to get to Boston in time to register for Pokerstars' big WSOP giveaway but I missed it by about 15 minutes. We headed to the airport to return the car but all the hotels out there were too expensive to we drove back to Boston. The whole debacle took a ton of time because of the collapsed tunnel and the traffic was as bad as I've ever seen anywhere. What a horrible time to be in Boston.
We're staying in a hotel a few miles north of the city and we're going to do some touristy stuff tomorrow before I fly out at 8 PM. We have a car but I might just park it in Cambridge and use public transportation to get downtown.
I can't wait to get back to Vegas. I feel like I've been playing better and better with each tournament that I play and I think I want to make a final table someday soon. I've been working on a new strategy: getting it in with the best of it. It hasn't worked so far but I think things are bound to turn around. I'll give it another few tournaments then I'll go back to my old strategy of getting it in bad and sucking out.
Tomorrow I finally get to move into our sweet house. I'll take some pictures there and finally post some. If you're in Vegas, I'll see you soon. If you're in Seattle, COME TO VEGAS!
Getting out here was quite the debacle. I had a short layover in Chicago and we boarded the plane on time, ready for the short flight to Boston. We stop mid-taxi and the pilot informs us that there will be a 2 hour delay because of the weather in Boston. Apparently, there was a lot of fog in the morning and all flights throughout the day were pushed back. It would have been nice to know about before boarding the plane. We end up waiting for about two-and-a-half hours and I wasn't a very happy camper.
Once I finally got to Logan I rented a car for the weekend and drove to Cambridge to pick up my mom. A tunnel on I-90 collapsed a few days before and traffic was horrid. I had to take a wicked detour and would have never found my way without my trusty GPS. Greatest purchase evar. My mom and I ate a late dinner at Legal Seafoods then went to the top of the Prudential Tower. There was a line for tables so we snuck a quick peek at the view then went back to Justin's place for the night. Thanks a million to Justin and Caitlin for letting us stay at their place. I didn't know where they were registered but they had a ton of Crate and Barrel boxes in their house so my mom went online and we bought them some champagne glasses. I figure they can think about their alkie friend Brandon every time they drink champagne.
In the morning I went to a laundromat to wash all my clothes. I refuse to pay the prices at the Rio($5 to wash a t-shirt!) so I flew to Boston with all my dirty laundry. I wanted to get a haircut but the dryer at the laundromat was horrible so I didn't have time.
THe drive up to Vermont was pretty nice. I really like the lush green hills of New Hampshire and Vermont. We stopped in Concord, NH for lunch and saw the domed capial building. We got a bit lost on the way to Killington, VT, where the wedding took place, and drove about an hour north to Montpelier. It was cool to see our second capital of the trip and we pretended like the detour was intentional. Did you know that Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's? Now ya do!
The resort in Killington was pretty nice. It's a skiers destination but they have weddings there in the summertime. It was hot and humid as crap and I was sweating non-stop. The wedding was short and sweet and the reception was long and awesome. Open bar from 4-10 PM, does it get any better than that? Ramsey brought a pint of Goldschlager to the table since they didn't serve shots at the bar and we had a grand ol' time. At the end of the night I was so sweaty that my clothes were literally sopping wet. I went to the room to chang and then headed to the pool for more beers. I ended up getting pushed into the pool and my phone may be dead forever. I'm still holding out hope that it'll work once it dries but I'm not very optimistic about things.
Today my mom and I woke up at 6 AM to go hiking. I birched and moaned the whole time and ended up turning around after about a mile. I had a wicked hangover and there were a ton of bugs and I was sweating like a stuck pig. Not fun. I slept in the car as my mom finished the hike and we got out of there around 11. I tried to get to Boston in time to register for Pokerstars' big WSOP giveaway but I missed it by about 15 minutes. We headed to the airport to return the car but all the hotels out there were too expensive to we drove back to Boston. The whole debacle took a ton of time because of the collapsed tunnel and the traffic was as bad as I've ever seen anywhere. What a horrible time to be in Boston.
We're staying in a hotel a few miles north of the city and we're going to do some touristy stuff tomorrow before I fly out at 8 PM. We have a car but I might just park it in Cambridge and use public transportation to get downtown.
I can't wait to get back to Vegas. I feel like I've been playing better and better with each tournament that I play and I think I want to make a final table someday soon. I've been working on a new strategy: getting it in with the best of it. It hasn't worked so far but I think things are bound to turn around. I'll give it another few tournaments then I'll go back to my old strategy of getting it in bad and sucking out.
Tomorrow I finally get to move into our sweet house. I'll take some pictures there and finally post some. If you're in Vegas, I'll see you soon. If you're in Seattle, COME TO VEGAS!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
All-Nighter
I'm staying up all night to make sure I make it to the airport on time for my 6:30 AM flight. I just lost almost $2K playing 5/10 NL on Party and it wasn't much fun. Here are some random links:
Zidane game
Seal Dribble
Jean Carlos Chera
Thank Allen Barron for the Zidane game. I think it's hilarious. That Chera kid is 5 years old in some of those clips. He's pretty insane.
This is a well written blog entry by Shaniac that does a good job explaining why I could never travel the poker circuit full time. Shane's a great writer and his blog is awesome when he has the motivation to write.
Well, it's 4 AM so I better finish packing. I'm going to try to play a bit online this weekend but I have a feeling that I'll drink too much. Ramsey and Damon had better watch out. There I go, talking about drinking again. Carl told me that people who know me obviously know I'm not an alcoholic but from reading the blog people might think differently. Well, I'm also going hiking this weekend with my mom. Hiking is good. I will drink water.
The 2003 WSOP was on TV tonight and it was pretty funny watching Moneymaker suck out on Humberto. It's the worst feeling, having the maniac at your table, patiently waiting to get your money in with the best of it, then watching him suck out.
OK, seriously, time to pack.
Zidane game
Seal Dribble
Jean Carlos Chera
Thank Allen Barron for the Zidane game. I think it's hilarious. That Chera kid is 5 years old in some of those clips. He's pretty insane.
This is a well written blog entry by Shaniac that does a good job explaining why I could never travel the poker circuit full time. Shane's a great writer and his blog is awesome when he has the motivation to write.
Well, it's 4 AM so I better finish packing. I'm going to try to play a bit online this weekend but I have a feeling that I'll drink too much. Ramsey and Damon had better watch out. There I go, talking about drinking again. Carl told me that people who know me obviously know I'm not an alcoholic but from reading the blog people might think differently. Well, I'm also going hiking this weekend with my mom. Hiking is good. I will drink water.
The 2003 WSOP was on TV tonight and it was pretty funny watching Moneymaker suck out on Humberto. It's the worst feeling, having the maniac at your table, patiently waiting to get your money in with the best of it, then watching him suck out.
OK, seriously, time to pack.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Poker is Stupid
I went pretty deep in the $2K Pot Limit event yesterday but I took a rough beat and couldn't win an important coinflip near the bubble and I busted around 63rd place with 54 people making the money. I could care less about finishing 63rd compared to 54th but I really want to go deep in one of these suckers. I tilt very rarely but I've never lost in a live tourney with KK to KQ all-in preflop and it stung quite a bit.
After the tourney I was really disappointed because of the bad beat so Carl and I went to Treasure Island to play a drunken 2/4 mixed game. The mix was 2-7 triple draw, A-5 triple draw, Badugi and Stud/8. The play was loose and the drinks were flowing and I soon forgot all about the stupid WSOP. We stumbled out of there around 5 AM and crashed hard back at the Rio.
Today we did absolutely nothing and it felt great. The only time we left the room was to eat lunch at the Rio's mediocre Carnival World Buffet. We watched a few episodes of Arrested Development and I took a nap around 6ish. Laziness rules.
Tomorrow I fly to Boston at 6:30 AM. I'm meeting my mom at 7 PM EST and we're driving up to Vermont for Justin's wedding on Friday afternoon. By the time I return on Monday, everyone will have moved into our house and we won't have to put up with life at the Rio anymore. Casinos are pretty depressing.
After the tourney I was really disappointed because of the bad beat so Carl and I went to Treasure Island to play a drunken 2/4 mixed game. The mix was 2-7 triple draw, A-5 triple draw, Badugi and Stud/8. The play was loose and the drinks were flowing and I soon forgot all about the stupid WSOP. We stumbled out of there around 5 AM and crashed hard back at the Rio.
Today we did absolutely nothing and it felt great. The only time we left the room was to eat lunch at the Rio's mediocre Carnival World Buffet. We watched a few episodes of Arrested Development and I took a nap around 6ish. Laziness rules.
Tomorrow I fly to Boston at 6:30 AM. I'm meeting my mom at 7 PM EST and we're driving up to Vermont for Justin's wedding on Friday afternoon. By the time I return on Monday, everyone will have moved into our house and we won't have to put up with life at the Rio anymore. Casinos are pretty depressing.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Cruel
The $1K tourney went OK and I actually got my chips in with way the best of it for a change. I just need to work on making my good hands hold up.
Today is the $2000 Pot Limit event. The $1500 PL event was the first ever live Pot Limit tournament that I've ever played and I really enjoyed the additional mental challenge of counting the pot and figuring out how much to raise. It's cruel and unusual that the Rio starts all these tournaments at the ungodly hour of noon. I need my sleep!
I fly out of here on Thursday morning, headed for Boston to attend my friend Justin's wedding. I've stayed with Justin and Caitlin in Boston on 3 different occasions and I'm really happy for them. I don't know how a loser like Justin pulled a girl like Caitlin but she's definitely out of his league. I credit Justin for turning me into a wining poker player so I'll refrain from calling him a "loser" in the future. Congrats, you crazy kids.
Time to shower and get my butt downstairs. This is the last tourney that I'm playing before leaving and I'd like to get ahold of some chips. Sayonara.
Today is the $2000 Pot Limit event. The $1500 PL event was the first ever live Pot Limit tournament that I've ever played and I really enjoyed the additional mental challenge of counting the pot and figuring out how much to raise. It's cruel and unusual that the Rio starts all these tournaments at the ungodly hour of noon. I need my sleep!
I fly out of here on Thursday morning, headed for Boston to attend my friend Justin's wedding. I've stayed with Justin and Caitlin in Boston on 3 different occasions and I'm really happy for them. I don't know how a loser like Justin pulled a girl like Caitlin but she's definitely out of his league. I credit Justin for turning me into a wining poker player so I'll refrain from calling him a "loser" in the future. Congrats, you crazy kids.
Time to shower and get my butt downstairs. This is the last tourney that I'm playing before leaving and I'd like to get ahold of some chips. Sayonara.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Wait 'til Next Tourney
The first time I made it to day 2 in a WSOP event I lasted 4 hands and finished in 64th place. This time I lasted 3 hands and finished in 65th place. The first hand UTG pushed for 13,500 chips, exactly the same amount that I had. I looked down at K5o and decided that it wasn't big enough to look him up. The next hand it's folded to me in the cut-off and J3o is plenty big enough to stick in my chips. Everyone folds and I'm up to 17,000 after posting the 200 chip ante and I look down at 77 in the hijack, again plaenty big enough to jam. Sadly, the button had AA and IGUTPON. I've cahsed in 2 out of 3 tournies and actually lost about $2000. Like they used to say in Brooklyn, Wait 'til next tourney. Monday is the $1000 freezeout so I won't find myself making it into the money and actually losing money. It would be really nice to go deep in one of these things but I need to stop bluffing off all my chips. Bleh.
I'm still shocked over the Zidane head-butt. I don't know what to say. He's one of the last athletes that I'd ever expect to do something like that in such a huge spot. Now Italy get 4 stars on their jerseys, boooooo.
The MLB All-Star break is upon us. The Mariners sit at 43-46, better than expected. They're in last place in the West but only 2.5 games out of first. Don't count the boys out just yet. Gilbertino Meche is pitching really well and we finally got rid of Everyday Eddie. If the bats can be more consistent I like our chances. I wrote this team off during the first week of the season but they've been a pleasant surprise.
I fly to Boston on the 13th and back to Vegas on the 17th. It'll be nice to get out of here again but once I'm back, I'll be here for the long haul. We'll have the house at that point and I'll be able to stock up on grapefruit and cereal. Carl and I were sitting in our hotel room this morning, wistfully yearning for a simple bowl of cereal. One day, Carl, we WILL get our cereal. One day.
I'm still shocked over the Zidane head-butt. I don't know what to say. He's one of the last athletes that I'd ever expect to do something like that in such a huge spot. Now Italy get 4 stars on their jerseys, boooooo.
The MLB All-Star break is upon us. The Mariners sit at 43-46, better than expected. They're in last place in the West but only 2.5 games out of first. Don't count the boys out just yet. Gilbertino Meche is pitching really well and we finally got rid of Everyday Eddie. If the bats can be more consistent I like our chances. I wrote this team off during the first week of the season but they've been a pleasant surprise.
I fly to Boston on the 13th and back to Vegas on the 17th. It'll be nice to get out of here again but once I'm back, I'll be here for the long haul. We'll have the house at that point and I'll be able to stock up on grapefruit and cereal. Carl and I were sitting in our hotel room this morning, wistfully yearning for a simple bowl of cereal. One day, Carl, we WILL get our cereal. One day.
Bleh
I got my chips up to 42,000 then ran a big bluff on the bubble that got called and now I'm down to 13,700 going into tomorrow. There are 66 people left and the blinds will start at 800/1600 200a and I'll be moving my chips pretty early. I tried to find a spot tonight but just couldn't do anything. I have the button to start the day tomorrow so I guess there's one thing to be happy about. If I bust first out tomorrow I get $4Kish and I spent $5K on this event. I actually need to get all the way to 54th place before I turn a profit. Oh well. I'm tired and my bed is calling. The World Cup final is tomorrow at 11 and I'll be rooting for France. Allez le Bleus!
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Treo Update
4th break in the $1000 rebuy, I have 23,500 chips and the average is 21,245. 114 left, 72 get paid. We're playing 2 more levels before breaking for the night. Blinds moving up to 400/800 100a. I'm at a tough, aggressive table. Let's pick up a hand. One time.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Busto!
I busted 4 hands into the 2nd level today. I'm pretty sure that's a record for me. I felt really good during the first hour, getting a lot of medium pairs and suited connectors and splashing around a bit. I missed most flops but won some pots in position and I had around my starting stack of 2500 chips going into my final hand. With blinds at 25/50, I raised to 150 UTG+1 with KK. Bernard Lee, 13th in last year's Main Event, moved in behind me for about 600 or 700 chips and the button, who had me covered, instantly moved in. I felt pretty good about the spot, hoping to see an AQish type hand for Bernard and AK for the button. Unforunately, Bernard had AJ and the button had AA. Bernard flopped 2 jacks, jumped out of his seat and kissed the picture of his kids. It was pretty funny. I thought to myself, "If you can give Bernard two jacks, I know you can find me a King," but the turn and river blanked off and IGHN. Whatever.
I think I'm going to head over to the Venetian and play some 3/6 limit to blow off some steam. Tomorrow's the $1000 rebuy and that'll be a lot of fun.
Pictures coming soon, I promise.
I think I'm going to head over to the Venetian and play some 3/6 limit to blow off some steam. Tomorrow's the $1000 rebuy and that'll be a lot of fun.
Pictures coming soon, I promise.
Busto!
I busted 4 hands into the 2nd level today. I'm pretty sure that's a record for me. I felt really good during the first hour, getting a lot of medium pairs and suited connectors and splashing around a bit. I missed most flops but won some pots in position and I had around my starting stack of 2500 chips going into my final hand. With blinds at 25/50, I raised to 150 UTG+1 with KK. Bernard Lee, 13th in last year's Main Event, moved in behind me for about 600 or 700 chips and the button, who had me covered, instantly moved in. I felt pretty good about the spot, hoping to see an AQish type hand for Bernard and AK for the button. Unforunately, Bernard had AJ and the button had AA. Bernard flopped 2 jacks, jumped out of his seat and kissed the picture of his kids. It was pretty funny. I thought to myself, "If you can give Bernard two jacks, I know you can find me a King," but the turn and river blanked off and IGHN. Whatever.
I think I'm going to head over to the Venetian and play some 3/6 limit to blow off some steam. Tomorrow's the $1000 rebuy and that'll be a lot of fun.
Pictures coming soon, I promise.
I think I'm going to head over to the Venetian and play some 3/6 limit to blow off some steam. Tomorrow's the $1000 rebuy and that'll be a lot of fun.
Pictures coming soon, I promise.
I hate poker
This morning, Carl got a phone call from Cliff around 10:30. We were both pissed that he would call so early but he had flown into Vegas and wanted to have brunch. When I say "he flew into Vegas" I mean it literally. He came with two warrant officers in a sweet gray military plane and they called it "training". Carl and I had gone to bed around 6 AM but I managed to throw on some clothes and meet Cliff and his friends at the Bellagio Cafe. He had to leave around noon but it was a nice surprise.
After brunch I ran a few of my errands then drove back to the Rio around 1:30 PM. Carl was still sleeping in the room so I woke his punk ass up and we headed downstairs to sweat the $5K NL final table. We got there just as it was starting and the crowd was just too big. It was a star-studded table and the railbirds were out en masse. It actually may have been bearable if the smelliest man alive wasn't standing right next to me. He was about my height, 350 lbs. and smelled like rotting flesh. I picked up the smell immediately, looked around for a second and immediately knew it was him. I watched one more hand then left the area. I bought into today's $2500 NL event and headed back to the room with Carl.
Around 4 PM we headed to an Italian place off the strip called Carmine's. I wasn't terribly hungry but Carl convinced me that I should eat. We met my friends Mike and Brian and had a pretty nice meal. After linner, Carl and I headed to Mike's house to watch the latest High Stakes Poker and Entourage episodes. I love both shows and have decided that Tivo is the greatest invention of all time. At 6 PM I entered 4 tournaments: 3 WSOP qualifiers and the $30 rebuy on Paradise. I spent a lot of monry on the $30 rebuy but went pretty deep and busted in 17th. I felt like I played well but ran into some big hands at inopportune times. Ah well. I went deep in one of the WSOP qualifiers and busted in 6th place with 3 seats awarded. It was pretty painful, especially because I don't think I played very well. I have some sort of mental block when it comes to satellites and I definitely boched a few hands. I need to get it into my head that it's just another tourney until you have enough chips to fold your way in. Bleh.
I'm excited for tomorrow's event. It'll be nice to have 2500 chips and I enjoy live play much more than online poker. Here's hoping that I run good and play decent.
Al's in town and I'm excited to say hello. I'll probably throw back a few SoCos if I get knocked out early. Pauly is still going strong with his WSOP updates and there's no place better to get your news. I actually like his personal blog better but I think the first link has most of the poker stuff. Here's Carl's blog again and here's the website of the house that we're moving into next week. It's so sick. I can't wait.
Tomorrow I finally play in my second event of the year. Carl's cashed in 2 out of 4 events so far and I'd love to go 2 for 2. Hasta.
After brunch I ran a few of my errands then drove back to the Rio around 1:30 PM. Carl was still sleeping in the room so I woke his punk ass up and we headed downstairs to sweat the $5K NL final table. We got there just as it was starting and the crowd was just too big. It was a star-studded table and the railbirds were out en masse. It actually may have been bearable if the smelliest man alive wasn't standing right next to me. He was about my height, 350 lbs. and smelled like rotting flesh. I picked up the smell immediately, looked around for a second and immediately knew it was him. I watched one more hand then left the area. I bought into today's $2500 NL event and headed back to the room with Carl.
Around 4 PM we headed to an Italian place off the strip called Carmine's. I wasn't terribly hungry but Carl convinced me that I should eat. We met my friends Mike and Brian and had a pretty nice meal. After linner, Carl and I headed to Mike's house to watch the latest High Stakes Poker and Entourage episodes. I love both shows and have decided that Tivo is the greatest invention of all time. At 6 PM I entered 4 tournaments: 3 WSOP qualifiers and the $30 rebuy on Paradise. I spent a lot of monry on the $30 rebuy but went pretty deep and busted in 17th. I felt like I played well but ran into some big hands at inopportune times. Ah well. I went deep in one of the WSOP qualifiers and busted in 6th place with 3 seats awarded. It was pretty painful, especially because I don't think I played very well. I have some sort of mental block when it comes to satellites and I definitely boched a few hands. I need to get it into my head that it's just another tourney until you have enough chips to fold your way in. Bleh.
I'm excited for tomorrow's event. It'll be nice to have 2500 chips and I enjoy live play much more than online poker. Here's hoping that I run good and play decent.
Al's in town and I'm excited to say hello. I'll probably throw back a few SoCos if I get knocked out early. Pauly is still going strong with his WSOP updates and there's no place better to get your news. I actually like his personal blog better but I think the first link has most of the poker stuff. Here's Carl's blog again and here's the website of the house that we're moving into next week. It's so sick. I can't wait.
Tomorrow I finally play in my second event of the year. Carl's cashed in 2 out of 4 events so far and I'd love to go 2 for 2. Hasta.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Back in Vegas
I'm back in Vegas for about a week. Updates should come more often.
I really appreciate comments like the one from DeAnna. The reason why I feel so confident that I'm not an alcoholic and not addicted to gambling is the fact that I'm very self aware AND I'm blessed with a great family and great group of friends who aren't afraid to tell me when they think I'm screwing up. They definitely keep me honest and I don't think they'd allow me to fall that far down the addictive slopes. With that said, I really do appreciate their input and I appreciate the random comment from someone that I've never met. It takes a pretty special person to put forth that much effort and have that much concern for someone she's never met. Thanks, DeAnna. It's people like you that will keep me under control. I try to keep this thing light hearted but I'm not afraid of confronting serious issues if I have to.
This weekend was a lot of fun. I hung out with my little bro most of the time and there isn't anyone else on this earth with whom I'd rather kick it. He drank pretty heavily on the 2 nights that I didn't see him so he was recovering most of the time that I saw him. He's probably going to drive through Vegas during the Main Event before heading off to his duty station in Weisbaden, Germany. He'll be there for 3 years and I'm definitely going to try to get over there a few times.
Tonight I played a bit of online poker, winning about $300 in the 3/6 NL on EuroBet. Around 12:30, Carl and I went to the Bellagio for some 5/10 NL action. He's definitely a lot better than I am and I think I play too tight. I'm not comfortable opening up but I think that will come with experience. It's not a terrible way to play but it's pretty easy to play against weak-tighties like me and I'd like to find ways to loosen up. Luckily there was a big Laggy donk at the table and I stacked him once, ending the session up $800.
Tomorrow is an off day. I'm going to try to run some errands but there's a sick final table that I might try to sweat. Vinny Vinh, Phil Hellmuth, Marcel Luske and Isabelle Mercier are the 4 chipleaders in the $5K NL event. Those characters will definitely put on a good show. I have to get to the bank to get some cash but I might put off washing my car and pressing my shirts.
It's late. I'm boring myself with this crap. Hopefully I'll have something fun to talk about tomorrow.
I really appreciate comments like the one from DeAnna. The reason why I feel so confident that I'm not an alcoholic and not addicted to gambling is the fact that I'm very self aware AND I'm blessed with a great family and great group of friends who aren't afraid to tell me when they think I'm screwing up. They definitely keep me honest and I don't think they'd allow me to fall that far down the addictive slopes. With that said, I really do appreciate their input and I appreciate the random comment from someone that I've never met. It takes a pretty special person to put forth that much effort and have that much concern for someone she's never met. Thanks, DeAnna. It's people like you that will keep me under control. I try to keep this thing light hearted but I'm not afraid of confronting serious issues if I have to.
This weekend was a lot of fun. I hung out with my little bro most of the time and there isn't anyone else on this earth with whom I'd rather kick it. He drank pretty heavily on the 2 nights that I didn't see him so he was recovering most of the time that I saw him. He's probably going to drive through Vegas during the Main Event before heading off to his duty station in Weisbaden, Germany. He'll be there for 3 years and I'm definitely going to try to get over there a few times.
Tonight I played a bit of online poker, winning about $300 in the 3/6 NL on EuroBet. Around 12:30, Carl and I went to the Bellagio for some 5/10 NL action. He's definitely a lot better than I am and I think I play too tight. I'm not comfortable opening up but I think that will come with experience. It's not a terrible way to play but it's pretty easy to play against weak-tighties like me and I'd like to find ways to loosen up. Luckily there was a big Laggy donk at the table and I stacked him once, ending the session up $800.
Tomorrow is an off day. I'm going to try to run some errands but there's a sick final table that I might try to sweat. Vinny Vinh, Phil Hellmuth, Marcel Luske and Isabelle Mercier are the 4 chipleaders in the $5K NL event. Those characters will definitely put on a good show. I have to get to the bank to get some cash but I might put off washing my car and pressing my shirts.
It's late. I'm boring myself with this crap. Hopefully I'll have something fun to talk about tomorrow.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Congrats, Rizen
I spent all day today sweating my friend, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, at the final table of the $1500 Pot Limit tourney. He was chipleader 3-handed but suffered a few brutal beats and busted in 3rd, winning $104,544 in the process. The final table was pretty exciting and featured a ton of 2 and 3-outers. It'll make for great television, October 3rd, on ESPN. Congrats, Eric, you played really well.
Last night I won my biggest ever pot in a cash game, stacking a guy at 10/20 NL. Here's the hand history:
BB ($1806)
UTG ($1495.83)
UTG+1 ($1203)
SchaeferBeer ($1940)
MP1 ($1923.48)
MP2 ($1429.76)
MP3 ($2244.50)
CO ($1950)
Button ($3565.29)
SB ($3535.50)
Preflop: SchaeferBeer is UTG+2 with Qd, Qs. SB posts a blind of $10.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $20, Hero raises to $80, MP1 calls $80, 3 folds, Button calls $80, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $60.
Flop: ($350) 9d, Qh, Kd (4 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $270, MP1 calls $270, Button folds, UTG+1 calls $270.
Turn: ($1160) 5s (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $860, MP1 calls $1573.48 (All-In), UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $713.48.
River: ($4306.96) 3s (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $4306.96
Results below:
Hero has Qd Qs (three of a kind, queens).
MP1 has Kh Jh (one pair, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins $4306.96.
I was pretty worried about JT but I wasn't folding. It's pretty fun when you can find people like this at stakes as high as 10/20. When I bet that much on the flop and turn, KJ is good exactly 0% of the time and I'm probably not folding. I guess KJ gets there 9% of the time but anyway, I'm excited. I won more in that pot than I did for my tourney finish. This was the third time I've ever played 10/20 NL and winning a big pot was fun. Carl recommends a site called Card Runners for NL instruction and I'll probably join. $20/month is insanely cheap for good lessons.
I'n flying back to Seattle tomorrow to spend the weekend with my family. I'm excited to see my brother, sister, pop and mom. On the 4th I'm heading to an apartment near Mercer with a great view of Lake Union and the Space Needle. Beers will probably be consumed. I come back to Vegas on the 5th and my schedule looks like this:
July 7: $2500 NLHE
July 8: $1000 NLHE (rebuy)
July 10: $1000 NLHE
July 11: $2000 PLHE
July 13: Fly to Boston
July 17: Fly to Vegas
July 18: $1500 NLHE
July 19: $2500 PLHE
July 21: $2000 NLHE
July 22: $5000 PLHE
July 23: $1000 NLHE (rebuy)
July 24: $1500 LHE (shootout)
July 25: $1500 NLHE
July 28: $10000 NLHE
That's $41,500 if I play all those tournies, assuming $6K in each $1K rebuy event and I don't satellite into the Main Event. Hopefully I'll make some day 2s and maybe even a final table. If I don't cash in any more events I will be BUSTO by the end and my poker bankroll will be gone. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I'm excited to come home. Peace.
Last night I won my biggest ever pot in a cash game, stacking a guy at 10/20 NL. Here's the hand history:
BB ($1806)
UTG ($1495.83)
UTG+1 ($1203)
SchaeferBeer ($1940)
MP1 ($1923.48)
MP2 ($1429.76)
MP3 ($2244.50)
CO ($1950)
Button ($3565.29)
SB ($3535.50)
Preflop: SchaeferBeer is UTG+2 with Qd, Qs. SB posts a blind of $10.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $20, Hero raises to $80, MP1 calls $80, 3 folds, Button calls $80, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $60.
Flop: ($350) 9d, Qh, Kd (4 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $270, MP1 calls $270, Button folds, UTG+1 calls $270.
Turn: ($1160) 5s (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $860, MP1 calls $1573.48 (All-In), UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $713.48.
River: ($4306.96) 3s (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $4306.96
Results below:
Hero has Qd Qs (three of a kind, queens).
MP1 has Kh Jh (one pair, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins $4306.96.
I was pretty worried about JT but I wasn't folding. It's pretty fun when you can find people like this at stakes as high as 10/20. When I bet that much on the flop and turn, KJ is good exactly 0% of the time and I'm probably not folding. I guess KJ gets there 9% of the time but anyway, I'm excited. I won more in that pot than I did for my tourney finish. This was the third time I've ever played 10/20 NL and winning a big pot was fun. Carl recommends a site called Card Runners for NL instruction and I'll probably join. $20/month is insanely cheap for good lessons.
I'n flying back to Seattle tomorrow to spend the weekend with my family. I'm excited to see my brother, sister, pop and mom. On the 4th I'm heading to an apartment near Mercer with a great view of Lake Union and the Space Needle. Beers will probably be consumed. I come back to Vegas on the 5th and my schedule looks like this:
July 7: $2500 NLHE
July 8: $1000 NLHE (rebuy)
July 10: $1000 NLHE
July 11: $2000 PLHE
July 13: Fly to Boston
July 17: Fly to Vegas
July 18: $1500 NLHE
July 19: $2500 PLHE
July 21: $2000 NLHE
July 22: $5000 PLHE
July 23: $1000 NLHE (rebuy)
July 24: $1500 LHE (shootout)
July 25: $1500 NLHE
July 28: $10000 NLHE
That's $41,500 if I play all those tournies, assuming $6K in each $1K rebuy event and I don't satellite into the Main Event. Hopefully I'll make some day 2s and maybe even a final table. If I don't cash in any more events I will be BUSTO by the end and my poker bankroll will be gone. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I'm excited to come home. Peace.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Busto!
Busted in 5 hands. Tried to run Q5s through black Aces and AJo through AK. I got $3008 for 64th place. IGTTBN(I go to the bar now).
Stayin' Alive
I made the money in my first WSOP tourney this year! There are 70 players left in the $1500 Pot Limit tourney and I’m in 32nd place with 24,000 chips. 24K is about average but blinds are starting at 1K/2K so I’ll need to find a hand or make a move pretty early. The payouts are very top-heavy so it makes sense to gamble for some chips. If I go out on the first hand today I win $3,008, 19th place gets $9,777, 9th wins $33,845, 2nd takes $180,508, and the winner will get $345,984. Today might take a while but I feel good and I’ll try to get lucky. Carl got knocked out of the $1500 NL tourney yesterday with one of the nastiest beats you’ll ever see. I might quit poker if it happened to me. He has a blog here where you can waste more time.
Brad “Otis” Willis is a guy I met last year at the EPT events and he keeps a blog for Poker Stars here. I’m not reppin’ Stars in this tourney but he still might throw in an occasional update for me.
Pauly has been running updates and if he pulls himself away from the hooker bar, he might have some news. His updates are written in his own style and, trust me, his style rocks.
For something a little more formal, check out CardPlayer. They’ll let you know when I bust. I’m heading downstairs for some breakfast. Let’s get lucky, ONE TIME!
Brad “Otis” Willis is a guy I met last year at the EPT events and he keeps a blog for Poker Stars here. I’m not reppin’ Stars in this tourney but he still might throw in an occasional update for me.
Pauly has been running updates and if he pulls himself away from the hooker bar, he might have some news. His updates are written in his own style and, trust me, his style rocks.
For something a little more formal, check out CardPlayer. They’ll let you know when I bust. I’m heading downstairs for some breakfast. Let’s get lucky, ONE TIME!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Vegas
Vegas is fun.
My flight was delayed a bit last night and I ended up arriving around 1:30 AM. By the time I got to the Rio to sign up for the first tournament, it was already sold out. Boooooooo. They got 2200 entrants and 500 alternates, amazing! They’re down to 122 players left and obviously Carl’s still alive. He doesn’t have a ton of chips but it looks like the field is full of medium sized stacks and that should be good for his steals and resteals. Hopefully he finds a hand when they make a stand.
My first event will be the $1500 pot-limit event tomorrow. I wandered around the poker room today and really wanted to play poker for the first time in a while. It’s a good feeling and I can’t wait to splash some chips tomorrow. Today, I played a single table $525 Sit n’ Go. The tourney is played 10 handed and the winner gets 5K in tourney dollars and $120 cash. That means that the juice is only $13! The play was horrible but I busted in 7th, making a pretty terrible play to go out. The first hand after blinds went up to 100/200, I’m in the big blind with 1450 left after posting. It folds to Moneymaker on the button and he raises to 700 total. It’s a bigger raise than normal and it’s pretty obvious that he’s calling a push. The SB folds and I look down at 88. It’s a clear stop and go but I figured that he’d see through it and I may as well just get it in. Pretty dumb and way too hasty. He calls with QsJs and the board comes A74(Q)(J). Before I pushed I knew a stop and go was the right play and I’m glad the board smacked me in the face. If I just call then push on the flop, he has to call 950 more to win 2450. He’s getting better than 2.5-1 but it’s had to call there with QJ. C’est la vie but it’s frustrating when you know the right play and you still botch it. Let’s hope I play better tomorrow.
My flight was delayed a bit last night and I ended up arriving around 1:30 AM. By the time I got to the Rio to sign up for the first tournament, it was already sold out. Boooooooo. They got 2200 entrants and 500 alternates, amazing! They’re down to 122 players left and obviously Carl’s still alive. He doesn’t have a ton of chips but it looks like the field is full of medium sized stacks and that should be good for his steals and resteals. Hopefully he finds a hand when they make a stand.
My first event will be the $1500 pot-limit event tomorrow. I wandered around the poker room today and really wanted to play poker for the first time in a while. It’s a good feeling and I can’t wait to splash some chips tomorrow. Today, I played a single table $525 Sit n’ Go. The tourney is played 10 handed and the winner gets 5K in tourney dollars and $120 cash. That means that the juice is only $13! The play was horrible but I busted in 7th, making a pretty terrible play to go out. The first hand after blinds went up to 100/200, I’m in the big blind with 1450 left after posting. It folds to Moneymaker on the button and he raises to 700 total. It’s a bigger raise than normal and it’s pretty obvious that he’s calling a push. The SB folds and I look down at 88. It’s a clear stop and go but I figured that he’d see through it and I may as well just get it in. Pretty dumb and way too hasty. He calls with QsJs and the board comes A74(Q)(J). Before I pushed I knew a stop and go was the right play and I’m glad the board smacked me in the face. If I just call then push on the flop, he has to call 950 more to win 2450. He’s getting better than 2.5-1 but it’s had to call there with QJ. C’est la vie but it’s frustrating when you know the right play and you still botch it. Let’s hope I play better tomorrow.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Go Nats!
I´m in Munich at my friend Jan´s place. We´re heading to an American bar to watch the two huge games. Please, Landon, get selfish. Put the effing biscuit in the effing basket. Also, today will be the last day that I ever root for Italy.
Last 5 Albums I´ve Listened to on the Train:
1. Stevie Wonder - Song Review: Greatest Hits Disk 1
2. Pearl Jam - Vs.
3. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
4. Craig David - The Story Goes...
5. Bob Dylan - The Essential Bob Dylan Disk 1
I fly home tomorrow and I´m very excited. I´ve had a great time here but I miss home. I´m also getting extremely amped for the WSOP. I´ll be there for most of the 6 weeks, coming back to Seattle July 1-4 and going to Justin´s wedding sometime around July 15-18. I´ve spent a ton of money over the last 3 months so I don´t think I´m going to play as many events as I want to unless I have some early success. It´ll be nice to meet up with all my friends in the poker world.
To all of you in Seattle: I´m coming home! Put on your drinking shoes!
Last 5 Albums I´ve Listened to on the Train:
1. Stevie Wonder - Song Review: Greatest Hits Disk 1
2. Pearl Jam - Vs.
3. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
4. Craig David - The Story Goes...
5. Bob Dylan - The Essential Bob Dylan Disk 1
I fly home tomorrow and I´m very excited. I´ve had a great time here but I miss home. I´m also getting extremely amped for the WSOP. I´ll be there for most of the 6 weeks, coming back to Seattle July 1-4 and going to Justin´s wedding sometime around July 15-18. I´ve spent a ton of money over the last 3 months so I don´t think I´m going to play as many events as I want to unless I have some early success. It´ll be nice to meet up with all my friends in the poker world.
To all of you in Seattle: I´m coming home! Put on your drinking shoes!
Monday, June 19, 2006
Pictures!
Thanks for all the nice comments about the last post. Comments are what make blogging worthwhile. Carl once told me something along the lines of, "I like when you post pictures, they make the blog better." Translation: Your writing sucks, let the pictures tell the story for you. Here are some pictures from the trip so far:
Munich Fanfest
Empty train station at 6 AM
This was the morning that I arrived in Berlin without a hotel. I was delirious and took a bunch of random pictures. I kinda like this one and the clock proves that I was there at 6 AM.
Big ad in the train station
Fountain in Berlin
Berlin Fanfest
I couldn't get many good pictures here since I went so late at night but believe me, the Brazilians were loco.
Cologne Fanfest
Cologne's fanfest was awesome but they closed it for the 2 late games because the noise was too much for the church. Crazy church-goers. Don't they know it's the World Cup?
The Dom from the East
View of Cologne from the top of the Dom
I actually made it to the top of the South Spire. It actually wasn't that bad. I was out of breath and my heart was racing wildly but I never once felt like I was going to puke or collapse. Woo-hoo!
Jason, in front of a meter of beer
The beer glasses look small but believe me, the meter gets the job done.
Karaoke IN A MCDONALDS!!!!
Possibly the highlight of the trip(almost as cool as the game). During the day, since we thought we were going to watch the US-Italy game on TV, Jason and his friends drove to Landstuhl to get some bags of ice for mixed drinks. For some reason, Europeans don't believe in ice. Jason realizes halfway that I can't get on base since I'm not carrying my passport so they leave me at a McDonald's while they go buy the provisions. I walk into the McDonald's and hear "Ironic" by Alanis Morrissette being sung with a slight German accent. I investigate and find a full Karaoke Bar attached to the McDonald's. It appears that you can get a happy meal AND belt out some Karaoke at the same time! They even had a smoke machine and a disco ball. I was floored and was so excited that I could barely talk but I still managed to snap a few pictures.
The streets of Kaiserslautern
Me and Jason, sweating after running to the stadium
Opening Kickoff!
Me, Jason, Monique(The ticket provider) and Justin
Hard core guys sitting in front of us
Gooch and Eddie Johnson salute the fans
I seriously can't begin to describe the game. It was just too cool.
Tomorrow I leave Jason's place and head back to Berlin to meet up with my friends Sasha and Rob. They arrived on the 17th and they're staying through the Final, leaving on the 10th. I'd like to stay longer but the WSOP beckons and I'll have to watch the later rounds back in the USA. I do have conditional tickets for the US for the quarterfinals and beyond so IF we beat Ghana AND Italy beats Czech AND we beat Brazil in the round of 16 then I'm going to fly back here. Gooooooooooo Nats!
Munich Fanfest
Empty train station at 6 AM
This was the morning that I arrived in Berlin without a hotel. I was delirious and took a bunch of random pictures. I kinda like this one and the clock proves that I was there at 6 AM.
Big ad in the train station
Fountain in Berlin
Berlin Fanfest
I couldn't get many good pictures here since I went so late at night but believe me, the Brazilians were loco.
Cologne Fanfest
Cologne's fanfest was awesome but they closed it for the 2 late games because the noise was too much for the church. Crazy church-goers. Don't they know it's the World Cup?
The Dom from the East
View of Cologne from the top of the Dom
I actually made it to the top of the South Spire. It actually wasn't that bad. I was out of breath and my heart was racing wildly but I never once felt like I was going to puke or collapse. Woo-hoo!
Jason, in front of a meter of beer
The beer glasses look small but believe me, the meter gets the job done.
Karaoke IN A MCDONALDS!!!!
Possibly the highlight of the trip(almost as cool as the game). During the day, since we thought we were going to watch the US-Italy game on TV, Jason and his friends drove to Landstuhl to get some bags of ice for mixed drinks. For some reason, Europeans don't believe in ice. Jason realizes halfway that I can't get on base since I'm not carrying my passport so they leave me at a McDonald's while they go buy the provisions. I walk into the McDonald's and hear "Ironic" by Alanis Morrissette being sung with a slight German accent. I investigate and find a full Karaoke Bar attached to the McDonald's. It appears that you can get a happy meal AND belt out some Karaoke at the same time! They even had a smoke machine and a disco ball. I was floored and was so excited that I could barely talk but I still managed to snap a few pictures.
The streets of Kaiserslautern
Me and Jason, sweating after running to the stadium
Opening Kickoff!
Me, Jason, Monique(The ticket provider) and Justin
Hard core guys sitting in front of us
Gooch and Eddie Johnson salute the fans
I seriously can't begin to describe the game. It was just too cool.
Tomorrow I leave Jason's place and head back to Berlin to meet up with my friends Sasha and Rob. They arrived on the 17th and they're staying through the Final, leaving on the 10th. I'd like to stay longer but the WSOP beckons and I'll have to watch the later rounds back in the USA. I do have conditional tickets for the US for the quarterfinals and beyond so IF we beat Ghana AND Italy beats Czech AND we beat Brazil in the round of 16 then I'm going to fly back here. Gooooooooooo Nats!
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Why I Love Sports
I left Cologne yesterday and took a 4 hour train ride to Kaiserslauten. On the trian, I listened to my Ipod and read a travel book on Berlin. I thought about soccer and poker and baseball. My train pulled in to Kaiserslautern around 8:30 PM. I took a taxi to Jason's house and had to wait about 5 minutes before he pulled into the driveway. I came out to meet him and said, "Long time no see! Ready to kick it?" He replied with, "Yeah, let's do it. Today was crazy: Something happened in Iraq and we had 19 patients on the floor today. I'm worn out and need to get some beers."
Suddenly soccer, poker and baseball seemed like dumb things to think about. Jason works as a nurse at an Army hospital in Lanstuhl and treats soldiers that were evacuated from Iraq due to injuries suffered in the war. While he's here in Germany, I'm galavanting around the world, obsessed with sports, and all the while doing nothing of any real significance. It was a very sobering thought and I started to feel indifferent about the US-Italy match. Who cares? It's just a freaking game.
We hit the bars and I tried to express my thoughts to Jason. He rebuffs me and says that he's just doing his job. If he could, he'd be doing what I'm doing. That's why I love soldiers. The "I'm just doing my job" line is so ridiculously humble. "Yeah, I'm just saving lives while putting my own in extreme danger. No biggie."
Fast forward to today, around 3 PM. We're hungover in the streets of Kaiserslautern, among thousands of soccer fans chanting back and forth. The Italians outnumbered the Americans but we still had a good showing, mostly because of the heavy military influence here. I'd say that about half of those wearing red, white and blue had some affiliation to the many Army and Air Force bases nearby. I saw the face paint and I heard them cheering and I started to understand why sports matter. They weren't thinking about the war or the long days ahead of them. They were focused on a soccer match and for the time being it was all that mattered. I saw the excitement in Jason's eyes and I began to get fired up.
At 8:45 PM, Jason gets a phone call from two people in his squad. They have 2 extra tickets and want to know if we'd like to go to the game. Uh, yeah? We're about a mile from the stadium and sprint the whole way to meet them. I was full of sausage and potatoes but I ran faster than I have in a long time. We make it into the stadium as the National Anthem is ending and the players take the field. The atmosphere is surreal, I can't even begin to describe it, but the emotions of the 3 soldiers I was with struck me more than anything. All I could think about was the war and their jobs and how great it was that they were given this break from the "real world".
Everyone already knows how the game ended. The Nats played their hearts out and earned an incredible tie despite playing 9 on 10 for the entire second half. It was by far the greatest sporting event that I've ever been to and I've been to a lot of them. The Super Bowl this year, The NFC Championship game, Game 3 of the 2004 World Series; none of them come close to what I experienced today. I had tears in my eyes for the last 15 minutes of the game, watching these true American heroes root for our National team to hold off the Italians. It took everything I had to hold back from bursting into tears as we left the stadium chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" with the thousands of other fans and soldiers and Americans. It was definitely one of the greatest feelings of my life.
We beat Italy. We didn't win the game but anyone who watched that game knows we beat their ass. Supposedly, there are no moral victories in sports; Only the results matter. But, if you try to tell me that, try to tell Jason that, try to tell the thousands of Italians who left with hung heads, you'll get a very different answer. We beat Italy and for tonight, for Jason and the groups of soldiers on the streets, it was the most important thing in their lives.
That is why I love sports. Sports have an incredible ability to take our minds off of the stresses of everyday life. Sure, most games aren't as extreme as the World Cup and most stresses aren't as difficult as war, but the moral remains. Tomorrow, when Jason and his friends go back to work they'll be back in the war, but the memories of today will stay with them and make things a little easier. That's why the games matter and that's why I love sports.
Suddenly soccer, poker and baseball seemed like dumb things to think about. Jason works as a nurse at an Army hospital in Lanstuhl and treats soldiers that were evacuated from Iraq due to injuries suffered in the war. While he's here in Germany, I'm galavanting around the world, obsessed with sports, and all the while doing nothing of any real significance. It was a very sobering thought and I started to feel indifferent about the US-Italy match. Who cares? It's just a freaking game.
We hit the bars and I tried to express my thoughts to Jason. He rebuffs me and says that he's just doing his job. If he could, he'd be doing what I'm doing. That's why I love soldiers. The "I'm just doing my job" line is so ridiculously humble. "Yeah, I'm just saving lives while putting my own in extreme danger. No biggie."
Fast forward to today, around 3 PM. We're hungover in the streets of Kaiserslautern, among thousands of soccer fans chanting back and forth. The Italians outnumbered the Americans but we still had a good showing, mostly because of the heavy military influence here. I'd say that about half of those wearing red, white and blue had some affiliation to the many Army and Air Force bases nearby. I saw the face paint and I heard them cheering and I started to understand why sports matter. They weren't thinking about the war or the long days ahead of them. They were focused on a soccer match and for the time being it was all that mattered. I saw the excitement in Jason's eyes and I began to get fired up.
At 8:45 PM, Jason gets a phone call from two people in his squad. They have 2 extra tickets and want to know if we'd like to go to the game. Uh, yeah? We're about a mile from the stadium and sprint the whole way to meet them. I was full of sausage and potatoes but I ran faster than I have in a long time. We make it into the stadium as the National Anthem is ending and the players take the field. The atmosphere is surreal, I can't even begin to describe it, but the emotions of the 3 soldiers I was with struck me more than anything. All I could think about was the war and their jobs and how great it was that they were given this break from the "real world".
Everyone already knows how the game ended. The Nats played their hearts out and earned an incredible tie despite playing 9 on 10 for the entire second half. It was by far the greatest sporting event that I've ever been to and I've been to a lot of them. The Super Bowl this year, The NFC Championship game, Game 3 of the 2004 World Series; none of them come close to what I experienced today. I had tears in my eyes for the last 15 minutes of the game, watching these true American heroes root for our National team to hold off the Italians. It took everything I had to hold back from bursting into tears as we left the stadium chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" with the thousands of other fans and soldiers and Americans. It was definitely one of the greatest feelings of my life.
We beat Italy. We didn't win the game but anyone who watched that game knows we beat their ass. Supposedly, there are no moral victories in sports; Only the results matter. But, if you try to tell me that, try to tell Jason that, try to tell the thousands of Italians who left with hung heads, you'll get a very different answer. We beat Italy and for tonight, for Jason and the groups of soldiers on the streets, it was the most important thing in their lives.
That is why I love sports. Sports have an incredible ability to take our minds off of the stresses of everyday life. Sure, most games aren't as extreme as the World Cup and most stresses aren't as difficult as war, but the moral remains. Tomorrow, when Jason and his friends go back to work they'll be back in the war, but the memories of today will stay with them and make things a little easier. That's why the games matter and that's why I love sports.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Going to Cologne
I´m leaving Berlin today and heading to the beautiful city of Cologne. Berlin has been wonderful and I got to see two fun games at the Fan Fest. The Brazil-Croatia and Germany-Poland games were both great for different reasons. Brazil and Croatia both played quick, skillful soccer and I enjoyed watching it. There were so many yellow jerseys I could barely stand it. There were a ton of Germans running around in yellow jerseys and they made me want to root even harder for Croatia. I´m pretty sure that most of them don´t have noble, "I love how they play" reasons for rooting for Brazil, they just want to root for a winner. I think Croatia could do big things in the World Cup and it looks like Japan may go winless. The Poland-Germany game was one of the most physical games I´ve ever seen this early but Poland really needed the game. There was a heavy police presence during the Brazil game but it probably tripled for the Germany game. Apparently there were 500 people arrested in Dortmund, the site of the game. You could cut the tension with a knife at the Fan Fest in Berlin but I didn´t see any threats of violence. There were just too many Germans for the Poles to try anything. I was sad after the US lost to Czech but words can´t describe the look on the Poles' faces after Germany scored that late goal. I think they had much bigger hopes for this World Cup and now they´re done. I might get that same feeling on Saturday night but I don´t have it yet! Go Nats!
Yesterday morning I took the "that looks cool, I´m going to go look at it" approach to sightseeing. I ignored all historical importance or cultural relevance and instead focused solely on aesthetic beauty. I saw some beautiful churches, museums and monuments before I finally broke down and bought a guide book. This is probably the worst prepared I´ve ever been for a long trip but I´ve had a lot of fun flying by the seat of my pants.
Cologne is the only city that I´d really experienced before this trip and I´m looking forward to going back. Cologne is the home of the best Dönor I´ve ever had, the coolest cathedral I´ve ever seen, and a cool Irish bar where I´ll enjoy watching tonights games. Tomorrow morning I´m going to wake up and attempt to climb to the top of one of the Dom´s spires. Wish me luck!
Friday and Saturday I´ll be in Kaiserslauten preparing for the big US-Italy game on Saturday night. My brother´s friend, well my friend too, Jason Perez lives in Kaiserslauten so I´ll be staying with him over the weekend. There´s a good chance that I´ll be able to post some pictures from his place so keep your fingers crossed. Danka.
Yesterday morning I took the "that looks cool, I´m going to go look at it" approach to sightseeing. I ignored all historical importance or cultural relevance and instead focused solely on aesthetic beauty. I saw some beautiful churches, museums and monuments before I finally broke down and bought a guide book. This is probably the worst prepared I´ve ever been for a long trip but I´ve had a lot of fun flying by the seat of my pants.
Cologne is the only city that I´d really experienced before this trip and I´m looking forward to going back. Cologne is the home of the best Dönor I´ve ever had, the coolest cathedral I´ve ever seen, and a cool Irish bar where I´ll enjoy watching tonights games. Tomorrow morning I´m going to wake up and attempt to climb to the top of one of the Dom´s spires. Wish me luck!
Friday and Saturday I´ll be in Kaiserslauten preparing for the big US-Italy game on Saturday night. My brother´s friend, well my friend too, Jason Perez lives in Kaiserslauten so I´ll be staying with him over the weekend. There´s a good chance that I´ll be able to post some pictures from his place so keep your fingers crossed. Danka.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Berlin
I´m at an Internet cafe in Berlin, patiently waiting for 11 AM to arrive so I can check in at my hostel. The overnight train was awesome and I got some good sleeping done. I wandered around the city from 5:30 until 8 AM then I found this cafe, my home for the next hour or so.
I got a good comment from Carl in the last blog. Obviously we wanted a tie, I don´t know where my brain was. I´ll blame the jet lag, heat exhaustion and general stupidity. It´s moot now anyway because Italy was a big winnah and we look pretty screwed. BUT, guess what! This morning, as my train pulled into Berlin at 5 AM, the sun did indeed rise and life goes on. I´ll be at the Fan Fest tonight appreciating Brazil´s play but still rooting for them to lose. I guess I could/should root for them because they play such a pretty game but everyone and their mom knows that they´re going to win anyway and there´s no fun in rooting for the best of the best. I also like Croatia´s jerseys so gooooooo Croatia! Every team that I root for loses anyway. I´ll be wearing my Japan jersey today since my US jersey smells horrible. You know you smell really bad when you gross yourself out.
Anyway, a shower in a few hours will feel nice and the atmosphere tonight should be a lot of fun. Brazil supporters are everywhere and their drums are entrancing. I´ll get pictures up as soon as I find a computer with a USB port. Go Nats! Go M´s!
I got a good comment from Carl in the last blog. Obviously we wanted a tie, I don´t know where my brain was. I´ll blame the jet lag, heat exhaustion and general stupidity. It´s moot now anyway because Italy was a big winnah and we look pretty screwed. BUT, guess what! This morning, as my train pulled into Berlin at 5 AM, the sun did indeed rise and life goes on. I´ll be at the Fan Fest tonight appreciating Brazil´s play but still rooting for them to lose. I guess I could/should root for them because they play such a pretty game but everyone and their mom knows that they´re going to win anyway and there´s no fun in rooting for the best of the best. I also like Croatia´s jerseys so gooooooo Croatia! Every team that I root for loses anyway. I´ll be wearing my Japan jersey today since my US jersey smells horrible. You know you smell really bad when you gross yourself out.
Anyway, a shower in a few hours will feel nice and the atmosphere tonight should be a lot of fun. Brazil supporters are everywhere and their drums are entrancing. I´ll get pictures up as soon as I find a computer with a USB port. Go Nats! Go M´s!
Monday, June 12, 2006
Yuuuuck
The atmosphere was awesome, here in Gelsenkirchen. At the Fan Fest, I´d say that the Americans outnumbered the Czech by 25% or so but the Czech were pretty loud due to their great chants. All we could muster was the old U-S-A!, U-S-A! while they had sweet songs: simple, loud and catchy. It was pretty clear that this was going to be either one of my favorite sports memories or one of the most painful.
When Czech got that early goal I felt confident. It was a simple letdown and we´d definitely rebound stronger. When Reyna´s shot hit the left post I felt even better. It was only a matter of time before we equalized, despite losing every ball in the air and despite Beasley´s obvious discomfort. Even after they scored the second goal I had faith. The Czechs in the crowd were getting rowdy but one goal would shut them up and give us the momentum we´d need to salvage a tie. I´ll admit, once it hit the 70th minute I started to panic, and once Czech scored their third goal I gave up all hope. There are few things more painful than losing a game like this in that type of atmosphere. The only thing worse would have been paying a scalper 600 Euros for a ticket to the debacle. I kept telling him all I´d pay was 100 Euro but he only came down to 400. Still way too much and it would have made this feeling even worse, if that´s possible.
The thing that frustrated me the most about the game (disclaimer: I think Arena is awesome and I don´t really know much about soccer) is the fact that we continued to make 40 yard passes downfield even though their defenders and midfielders were winning every single ball. I don´t think we touched a single one of those. I don´t know how to come back from 2-0 against a good team but having Eddie Lewis futily lob balls into the 18 definitely isn´t the way to do it. I know they started playing small ball toward the end but I think they should have been working it on the ground for the entire game.
All we need to do now is win 2 straight against Italy and Ghana. Easy, right?
I´m catching a train to Berlin at 11:10 tonight and I´ll get there around 5 AM. I think I´ll sleep in the train station then get breakfast and basically waste time until my hostel is available. But the important thing is that I do have a hostel for two nights.
I´m off to watch the Italy game. I think I want Italy to win so that they´ll be more relaxed this weekend. I don´t think they´re happy seeing a desperate US team and I don´t want to see a desperate Italian side. Until they´re eliminated, GO NATS!
When Czech got that early goal I felt confident. It was a simple letdown and we´d definitely rebound stronger. When Reyna´s shot hit the left post I felt even better. It was only a matter of time before we equalized, despite losing every ball in the air and despite Beasley´s obvious discomfort. Even after they scored the second goal I had faith. The Czechs in the crowd were getting rowdy but one goal would shut them up and give us the momentum we´d need to salvage a tie. I´ll admit, once it hit the 70th minute I started to panic, and once Czech scored their third goal I gave up all hope. There are few things more painful than losing a game like this in that type of atmosphere. The only thing worse would have been paying a scalper 600 Euros for a ticket to the debacle. I kept telling him all I´d pay was 100 Euro but he only came down to 400. Still way too much and it would have made this feeling even worse, if that´s possible.
The thing that frustrated me the most about the game (disclaimer: I think Arena is awesome and I don´t really know much about soccer) is the fact that we continued to make 40 yard passes downfield even though their defenders and midfielders were winning every single ball. I don´t think we touched a single one of those. I don´t know how to come back from 2-0 against a good team but having Eddie Lewis futily lob balls into the 18 definitely isn´t the way to do it. I know they started playing small ball toward the end but I think they should have been working it on the ground for the entire game.
All we need to do now is win 2 straight against Italy and Ghana. Easy, right?
I´m catching a train to Berlin at 11:10 tonight and I´ll get there around 5 AM. I think I´ll sleep in the train station then get breakfast and basically waste time until my hostel is available. But the important thing is that I do have a hostel for two nights.
I´m off to watch the Italy game. I think I want Italy to win so that they´ll be more relaxed this weekend. I don´t think they´re happy seeing a desperate US team and I don´t want to see a desperate Italian side. Until they´re eliminated, GO NATS!
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Homeless
Well, I´m homeless in Gelsenkirchen tonight. I guess that´s what happens when you wait until the last minute to book and everything costs 600 Euros. There´s a train to Berlin at 2:10 AM and I´ll probably catch that puppy. I arrive in Berlin at 7:30 in the morning and I´ll probably be able to find accomodations there.
I bought a 10-day railpass yesterday for 190 Euro. I can ride all day on any 10 days over the next month. I was just going to buy tickets as needed but the Munich-Gelsenkirchen ticket cost 115 Euro alone. I could have bought a 5-day train pass for 130 Euro but I didn´t want to skip trips just because I ran out of days.
In less than 12 hours, we´ll know if the US is sitting pretty or in desperation mode. A win against the Czech Republic would be huuuuuuuge. GO NATS!
How bout those M´s? They just swept the Angels in Anaheim and now travel to Oakland. We´ve always always always struggled in Oakland but the M´s are playing great baseball and will try to inch closer to .500. I can´t believe we´re only 4 games back! Hooray mediocrity!
I need to go catch my train. Go Nats. One time.
I bought a 10-day railpass yesterday for 190 Euro. I can ride all day on any 10 days over the next month. I was just going to buy tickets as needed but the Munich-Gelsenkirchen ticket cost 115 Euro alone. I could have bought a 5-day train pass for 130 Euro but I didn´t want to skip trips just because I ran out of days.
In less than 12 hours, we´ll know if the US is sitting pretty or in desperation mode. A win against the Czech Republic would be huuuuuuuge. GO NATS!
How bout those M´s? They just swept the Angels in Anaheim and now travel to Oakland. We´ve always always always struggled in Oakland but the M´s are playing great baseball and will try to inch closer to .500. I can´t believe we´re only 4 games back! Hooray mediocrity!
I need to go catch my train. Go Nats. One time.
München
I'm in Munich! Sadly, my luggage is not. I haven't checked a bag in ages and British Airways was kind enough to remind me why. The bag will be delivered to me tonight so it isn't a huge deal but it's still a hassle. And if the bag isn't delivered tonight it will become a big deal.
Enough of this Internet crap, I'm off to find a bar.
Enough of this Internet crap, I'm off to find a bar.
Friday, June 09, 2006
WORLD CUP
I know I'm bad at updating. I've been wicked busy and blogging has taken a back seat to life. I'm staying at my mom's house in Seattle and she has dial-up which makes logging on incredibly painful. Here's a quick recap of the past week:
Friday: I drive for about 4 hours from KC to St Louis for a Cubs-Cardinals game. The game is sold out except for single tickets in an $88 section. I suck it up and pay the ghastly sum. The game is great and the stadium is beautiful but I had to leave at the end of the 9th inning with the score tied at 4-4. I think the Cubs ended up winning in the 14th. I get back to Kansas City at 2 AM and get to bed around 3:30.
Saturday: I wake up at 9 AM and drive 9 hours from KC to Denver. Watch the Marlins beat the Rockies 13-0 and head to the bars. Get to bed around 2 AM.
Sunday: Wake up at 8:30 AM and drive for 11.5 hours to Vegas. There are long stretches through boring desert but there are also some really pretty stretches. Some cool rock formations in Utah, some cool canyons in Arizona and a gorgeous drive through the Rockies along the Colorado River. I get to Vegas at 7 PM and hit up an all-you-can-eat sushi bar before my flight home to Seattle. Sushi is good.
Monday: Arrive in Seattle at 1 AM. Wake up around 10 AM and meet my friends Chhouk and Kenny for lunch at Pnom Phen Noodle House. Noodles are good. I buy a new shirt and tie, get a haircut and head to my business school interview. The interview went really well but the odds are definitely against me getting in. The interview was for placement on a space-available waiting list and usually there isn't any space available. I'd say I'm a 4-1 dog to get in. You hate getting your money in with an underpair. After the interview I drive to Kirkland to pick up my friend Dave then head to Renton to pick up my friend, Matt. We pick up Renee from work and head to Kangaroo and Kiwi near Greenlake for cheap wings. Wings are good. After playing a few games of darts we head back to my mom's house for Scene It: Sports. I win both games and take the losers home.
Tuesday: I wake up early and go on an 8-mile hike with my mom. Hike is a little misleading because it was a simple stroll through Alki and West Seattle but it got my heart racing and blood flowing so I'm going to call it a hike. After the hike I drive up to Edmonds to pick up Renee's brother, pick up Davis from work and meet Dave downtown. We head to Larry's BBQ and eat ribs. Ribs are good. After dinner we head to Safeco Field and watch the Mariners beat the Twins 4-2. The game was great and I was pleasantly surprised to see the M's play such good ball.
Wednesday: Mow the lawn and pick up my friend Erica from the airport. Go eat dinner at our favorite Sczechuan place in the International district then drive down to Vancouver, WA to visit my grandma. Watch the Mariners game at my grandma's place and cheer as Carl Everett hits an 11th inning walk-off dong.
Thursday: Wake up around 9:30 and hang out with my grandma. Head to Thai Lotus with my mom, grandma, and 3 of her friends. Eat Thai food with 0 stars. No spice isn't very good. Drive back to Seattle and eat dinner at Wild Ginger with my mom and Renee. The food was incredible but it came out late. We had to pound our wine and head to Benaroya Hall for an awesome string performance. It was chamber music in a small venue and it was good.
Today I'm at my friend Mark's house for the World Cup openers. Mark is Brazilian and his whole family is going nuts here. I thought the first game was entertaining and had a few spectacular goals.
I board a plane for Germany tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to try to be a good Asian tourist and take a lot of pictures but I might just be too caught up in the moment. Sorry in advance if that happens. I know it sucks reading this drivel without visual aid.
Here's where I'll be and when I'll be there:
June 11th: Arrive in Munich at 4:05 PM
June 12th: Train to Gelsenkirchen: USA v. Czech Rep. @ 6 PM
June 13th: Train to Berlin: Brazil v. Croatia @ 9PM
June 14th: Hang out in Berlin
June 15th: Berlin: Sweden v. Paraguay @ 9 PM
June 16th: Train to Stuttgart: Holland v. Ivory Coast @ 6 PM
June 17th: Train to Kaiserslauten: Italy v. USA @ 9 PM
June 18th: Train to Munich: Brazil v. Australia @ 6 PM
June 19th: Hang out in Munich
June 20th: Train to Berlin: Ecuador v. Germany @ 4 PM
June 21st: Hang out in Berlin
June 22nd: Train to Nuremberg: Ghana v. USA @ 4 PM
Train to Munich night of the 22nd
June 23rd: flight home @ 9:15 AM
I guess it's a pretty short trip but watching those games with the masses should be loads of fun. I have no game tickets but I think it'll be just as much fun to party outside. If there's anyone in Germany reading the blog (it seems silly making that statement but I got a comment from a guy in Dirk's hometown) please write me an email at brandon.schaefer@gmail.com and meet me for a beer. Go Nats!
Friday: I drive for about 4 hours from KC to St Louis for a Cubs-Cardinals game. The game is sold out except for single tickets in an $88 section. I suck it up and pay the ghastly sum. The game is great and the stadium is beautiful but I had to leave at the end of the 9th inning with the score tied at 4-4. I think the Cubs ended up winning in the 14th. I get back to Kansas City at 2 AM and get to bed around 3:30.
Saturday: I wake up at 9 AM and drive 9 hours from KC to Denver. Watch the Marlins beat the Rockies 13-0 and head to the bars. Get to bed around 2 AM.
Sunday: Wake up at 8:30 AM and drive for 11.5 hours to Vegas. There are long stretches through boring desert but there are also some really pretty stretches. Some cool rock formations in Utah, some cool canyons in Arizona and a gorgeous drive through the Rockies along the Colorado River. I get to Vegas at 7 PM and hit up an all-you-can-eat sushi bar before my flight home to Seattle. Sushi is good.
Monday: Arrive in Seattle at 1 AM. Wake up around 10 AM and meet my friends Chhouk and Kenny for lunch at Pnom Phen Noodle House. Noodles are good. I buy a new shirt and tie, get a haircut and head to my business school interview. The interview went really well but the odds are definitely against me getting in. The interview was for placement on a space-available waiting list and usually there isn't any space available. I'd say I'm a 4-1 dog to get in. You hate getting your money in with an underpair. After the interview I drive to Kirkland to pick up my friend Dave then head to Renton to pick up my friend, Matt. We pick up Renee from work and head to Kangaroo and Kiwi near Greenlake for cheap wings. Wings are good. After playing a few games of darts we head back to my mom's house for Scene It: Sports. I win both games and take the losers home.
Tuesday: I wake up early and go on an 8-mile hike with my mom. Hike is a little misleading because it was a simple stroll through Alki and West Seattle but it got my heart racing and blood flowing so I'm going to call it a hike. After the hike I drive up to Edmonds to pick up Renee's brother, pick up Davis from work and meet Dave downtown. We head to Larry's BBQ and eat ribs. Ribs are good. After dinner we head to Safeco Field and watch the Mariners beat the Twins 4-2. The game was great and I was pleasantly surprised to see the M's play such good ball.
Wednesday: Mow the lawn and pick up my friend Erica from the airport. Go eat dinner at our favorite Sczechuan place in the International district then drive down to Vancouver, WA to visit my grandma. Watch the Mariners game at my grandma's place and cheer as Carl Everett hits an 11th inning walk-off dong.
Thursday: Wake up around 9:30 and hang out with my grandma. Head to Thai Lotus with my mom, grandma, and 3 of her friends. Eat Thai food with 0 stars. No spice isn't very good. Drive back to Seattle and eat dinner at Wild Ginger with my mom and Renee. The food was incredible but it came out late. We had to pound our wine and head to Benaroya Hall for an awesome string performance. It was chamber music in a small venue and it was good.
Today I'm at my friend Mark's house for the World Cup openers. Mark is Brazilian and his whole family is going nuts here. I thought the first game was entertaining and had a few spectacular goals.
I board a plane for Germany tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to try to be a good Asian tourist and take a lot of pictures but I might just be too caught up in the moment. Sorry in advance if that happens. I know it sucks reading this drivel without visual aid.
Here's where I'll be and when I'll be there:
June 11th: Arrive in Munich at 4:05 PM
June 12th: Train to Gelsenkirchen: USA v. Czech Rep. @ 6 PM
June 13th: Train to Berlin: Brazil v. Croatia @ 9PM
June 14th: Hang out in Berlin
June 15th: Berlin: Sweden v. Paraguay @ 9 PM
June 16th: Train to Stuttgart: Holland v. Ivory Coast @ 6 PM
June 17th: Train to Kaiserslauten: Italy v. USA @ 9 PM
June 18th: Train to Munich: Brazil v. Australia @ 6 PM
June 19th: Hang out in Munich
June 20th: Train to Berlin: Ecuador v. Germany @ 4 PM
June 21st: Hang out in Berlin
June 22nd: Train to Nuremberg: Ghana v. USA @ 4 PM
Train to Munich night of the 22nd
June 23rd: flight home @ 9:15 AM
I guess it's a pretty short trip but watching those games with the masses should be loads of fun. I have no game tickets but I think it'll be just as much fun to party outside. If there's anyone in Germany reading the blog (it seems silly making that statement but I got a comment from a guy in Dirk's hometown) please write me an email at brandon.schaefer@gmail.com and meet me for a beer. Go Nats!
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Dirk is God
I had another lazy day today. I woke up around 1 PM and surfed the Internet for a while before showering around 3 PM. After the shower I went looking for Menorah Hospital, which is where my mom was born. I found Menorah but it was a very new looking building and definitely wasn't around in 1922 1954 when she was born. I figured it was just a new building but Jimmy informed me that it's an enirely different location, as of 1996. The old Menorah Hospital is now a Baptist Research Center. Strange. I might try to find it tomorrow before heading to St. Louis.
Jimmy got off of work around 5:30 and we went to a place called Jack Stack Barbeque for dinner with his friend Salwa. Surprisingly, there are some attractive women in medical school. Here's a picture of the three of us at dinner:
Salwa, Jimmy and Moi
I had a lot of food but it was nothing comared to Jimmy's dish. They're called Crown Prime Beef Ribs and they're damn impressive. Jimmy let me have one and they taste better than they look. Here they are:
Jimmy's Crown Prime Beef Ribs. Impressive.
I really wish that I had measured my BMI and cholesterol level before going on this trip. My body fat % has to have doubled and my cholesterol has probably tripled. The next 2 months of Germany and WSOP don't look very promising on the health side of things. We all make sacrifices.
After dinner, Jimmy and I came home to watch the basketball game. We were about 45 minutes late but he had the game Tivoed so we got to fast forward through commercials and almost caught up to live play by the end. All I can say is VIVA LA DIRK! He finally rid us of the hated Spurs and he's powering his team toward Finals glory. What a performance. Jimmy's neighbors probably hate me for running around his apartment like a wild banshee but I couldn't contain myself after some of those 3-balls Dirk nailed. The last one, to put him over 50 points, marked the end of my sanity. I instantly leapt to my feet, started howling like a babboon and sprinted back and forth through Jimmy's apartment until I was out of breath. As we covered before, I run out of breath pretty quickly, but I still made a decent amount of noise. Bottom line: I hope to meet some people in Germany who resemble this:
The Man
After the game, Jimmy went to bed and I watched some TV and played around with my fantasy baseball team. I need saves desperately so I picked up Jorge Julio. Gulp. I also fired up a $20/180 man sit and go and tried to focus on where exactly I was leaking chips. I soon realized that people in lower limits never fold and making people fold is what I do best. I never have a hand, I just rely on folds. When people are calling stations, I lose. I'm going to work on my ABC game and I think my results will improve.
OK, that's all. I don't know why there was so many people clamoring for blog entries because I find my daily activities boring as hell. I'll leave you with one final picture from the Vegas weekend:
Vegas
I still can't believe how cheap that Korean hooker was that we bought on the strip. She said she was 18 so I think we're ok, legally.
Jimmy got off of work around 5:30 and we went to a place called Jack Stack Barbeque for dinner with his friend Salwa. Surprisingly, there are some attractive women in medical school. Here's a picture of the three of us at dinner:
Salwa, Jimmy and Moi
I had a lot of food but it was nothing comared to Jimmy's dish. They're called Crown Prime Beef Ribs and they're damn impressive. Jimmy let me have one and they taste better than they look. Here they are:
Jimmy's Crown Prime Beef Ribs. Impressive.
I really wish that I had measured my BMI and cholesterol level before going on this trip. My body fat % has to have doubled and my cholesterol has probably tripled. The next 2 months of Germany and WSOP don't look very promising on the health side of things. We all make sacrifices.
After dinner, Jimmy and I came home to watch the basketball game. We were about 45 minutes late but he had the game Tivoed so we got to fast forward through commercials and almost caught up to live play by the end. All I can say is VIVA LA DIRK! He finally rid us of the hated Spurs and he's powering his team toward Finals glory. What a performance. Jimmy's neighbors probably hate me for running around his apartment like a wild banshee but I couldn't contain myself after some of those 3-balls Dirk nailed. The last one, to put him over 50 points, marked the end of my sanity. I instantly leapt to my feet, started howling like a babboon and sprinted back and forth through Jimmy's apartment until I was out of breath. As we covered before, I run out of breath pretty quickly, but I still made a decent amount of noise. Bottom line: I hope to meet some people in Germany who resemble this:
The Man
After the game, Jimmy went to bed and I watched some TV and played around with my fantasy baseball team. I need saves desperately so I picked up Jorge Julio. Gulp. I also fired up a $20/180 man sit and go and tried to focus on where exactly I was leaking chips. I soon realized that people in lower limits never fold and making people fold is what I do best. I never have a hand, I just rely on folds. When people are calling stations, I lose. I'm going to work on my ABC game and I think my results will improve.
OK, that's all. I don't know why there was so many people clamoring for blog entries because I find my daily activities boring as hell. I'll leave you with one final picture from the Vegas weekend:
Vegas
I still can't believe how cheap that Korean hooker was that we bought on the strip. She said she was 18 so I think we're ok, legally.
Why am I so Dumb
So…I wake up today at noon and get on the road at 2 PM, headed for St. Louis. It’s about 4 hours to St Louis so I have plenty of time to make it before the 7 PM start. Jimmy calls me at 2:30 and informs me that the game is in the 7th inning and it started at noon. UGH. So, I turn around and head back to his place. Now I have a bit of driving to do this weekend but it looks possible. Here’s the schedule:Tomorrow: Day off for the Cardinals. I go visit the hospital where my mom was born and try to find the park where my grandma used to take her when she was little. Jimmy gets off of work at 6 PM and we get some bomb ass BBQ and watch the Mavs take a 3-2 series lead.
Friday: Drive to St. Louis. The game is at 7 PM. I triple-checked. The game will end around 10 PM and I will drive back here. I will get here at 2 AM and go to sleep.
Saturday: I will wake up at 9 AM and drive to Denver. It’s about 8 hours away so I’ll get there at 5 PM but I’ll gain an hour so it’ll be 4 PM. Actually, I may leave around 10 AM. It’ll still give me one hour of leeway for traffic, coke-snorting, etc. before the game starts at 6 PM Denver time. I triple-checked. After the game I will hang out with my friend Mike and possibly my friend Frank. I will stay sober and prepare for….
Sunday: Drive to Vegas. It’s about 10 hours away at my flight is at 10:25 PM. I guess I should get to my friend’s house by 8 PM so I can park the car and give him time to get me to the airport by 9:30ish. I guess I’ll leave Denver around 10 AM. I arrive in Seattle at 12:51 AM, guess I should call someone about picking me up!
I have an interview with the UW business school on Monday. Here’s the official word: “Thank you for your recent application to the University of Washington MBA Program. After an initial review of your application, we would like to extend an invitation for you to participate in an Admission Interview.” I got an email of rejection from the UW Evening MBA program but I didn’t want that anyway. I guess they reserve the evening MBA spots for people who work full-time. As an unemployed bum, I don’t qualify. The interview obviously isn’t as good as an acceptance but I’m happy that I get the chance to talk to the Director of Admissions and convince her that I should get into the school. If everyone could cross their fingers for me at on Monday at 3 PM that would be great.
I’m tired. I’m going to bed. Go Mavs. Go Mariners. GO NATS!
Whoops, that reminds me. I’ve been meaning to link up my friend Matt’s soccer blog for a while now. It’s been tremendously educational for me and I think it’s perfect for the sports fan who is trying to get into soccer. One thing Matt told me tonight is that even if we make it through our tough ass group in 2nd place, we face the winner of Brazil’s group in the round of 16. Ugh. I guess we just need to win our group! GO NATS!!!!
Friday: Drive to St. Louis. The game is at 7 PM. I triple-checked. The game will end around 10 PM and I will drive back here. I will get here at 2 AM and go to sleep.
Saturday: I will wake up at 9 AM and drive to Denver. It’s about 8 hours away so I’ll get there at 5 PM but I’ll gain an hour so it’ll be 4 PM. Actually, I may leave around 10 AM. It’ll still give me one hour of leeway for traffic, coke-snorting, etc. before the game starts at 6 PM Denver time. I triple-checked. After the game I will hang out with my friend Mike and possibly my friend Frank. I will stay sober and prepare for….
Sunday: Drive to Vegas. It’s about 10 hours away at my flight is at 10:25 PM. I guess I should get to my friend’s house by 8 PM so I can park the car and give him time to get me to the airport by 9:30ish. I guess I’ll leave Denver around 10 AM. I arrive in Seattle at 12:51 AM, guess I should call someone about picking me up!
I have an interview with the UW business school on Monday. Here’s the official word: “Thank you for your recent application to the University of Washington MBA Program. After an initial review of your application, we would like to extend an invitation for you to participate in an Admission Interview.” I got an email of rejection from the UW Evening MBA program but I didn’t want that anyway. I guess they reserve the evening MBA spots for people who work full-time. As an unemployed bum, I don’t qualify. The interview obviously isn’t as good as an acceptance but I’m happy that I get the chance to talk to the Director of Admissions and convince her that I should get into the school. If everyone could cross their fingers for me at on Monday at 3 PM that would be great.
I’m tired. I’m going to bed. Go Mavs. Go Mariners. GO NATS!
Whoops, that reminds me. I’ve been meaning to link up my friend Matt’s soccer blog for a while now. It’s been tremendously educational for me and I think it’s perfect for the sports fan who is trying to get into soccer. One thing Matt told me tonight is that even if we make it through our tough ass group in 2nd place, we face the winner of Brazil’s group in the round of 16. Ugh. I guess we just need to win our group! GO NATS!!!!
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