the WU reborn

poker/snow/carnage

that's about all that's been going on since my return from the land of sand.  pot limit at potowotomi went well, as has 10-20.  friday night mom and dad came down to the casino and i treated them to the seafood buffet.  they seemed to like it.

after that, i headed to gilly's for a tournament.  i couldn't catch a card to save my life, and my 88 lost to KK.  thankfully it's a small buy-in.

upon leaving gilly's at 1 a.m. i was assaultted by 10 inches of snow.  driving home in that crap was actually a lot of fun!  i made it home ok and parked in the driveway.  in the morning, my car got stuck in the driveway, (well, at the bottom where the plow dumps all the poop), and jay and tyan helped me get it out.  thanks guys!  afterwards, we cleared snow around the house, and then later dad and i dug his car out.

yesterday was a lot of online poker, as i had to blow through a bunch of raked hands to get a bonus.  that's been going well.  mom's computer blew up (it was the video card), and johnny had a spare, so threw it in for us and dropped it back off.  thanks johnny!  i promised him steaks for his trouble.

today i have to run a bunch of stupid errands....getting contacts, maybe a pair of pants, go to the bank, etc.  all the fun stuff.  tomorrow is tuesday, which means pot limit at potowotomi.  time to get rested up!

one last note: after fifteen long years of waiting, my eagles have finally made the superbowl!  woot!  i guess other eagles fans have been waiting since 1980, when they last were there, but i've only been following them since 1990.  it's been a long time coming!

Birthday in Vegas

New photos in Birthday Vegas album!

Vegas involved a lot of poker, cocktails, and good eats.  Also, we played a bit of blackjack and craps.  The players were me, Sanjay, Johnny, Graham and Dan.  We also met up with Johnny's pals Paul and Andrew, Uncle Mike, and also Sanjay's sister Anjali.

Highlights:

We had dinner at Binion's Steakhouse on my birthday, and it was great.  Dan was missing in action so he wasn't able to enjoy with us, but it was good times.  I had the filet and crab legs. 

Sunday night the five of us and Paul and Andrew met at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace.  What a great looking place!  The food was great too.  I had Shrimp and Roasted Corn Tamale and Chili Encrusted Sea Bass. 

I hit quad sixes at the Palms poker room.  The hand was dealt to me by a dealer who used to work at Potowotomi, Michael!  I got a jackpot for that of $160 in addition to the huge pot i won off a guy.

I took 18th in a 160 man tournament at Binion's.  Unfortunately they only paid out to 14th.  My AK suited got blown out by T9 offsuit.  Oh well.

The weather was cool to warm.  Not hot by any means, but i never needed more than a fleece. 

There are so many ridiculously hot women in Vegas; must be the warm weather that attracts them!  I met a cool Malaysian chick named Lynsey, and we went out for dimsum breakfast. 

We spent a good deal of time sitting around sipping cocktails and just chatting in different casino bars.  Especially nice was Red Square at the Mandalay.  It's so nice being in environments with nice tall ceilings and lots of space rather than the cramped smokeboxes that are Milwaukee bars in winter. 

We stayed at the Excalibur.  It was ok, but I think I'd opt for a different place next time, either somewhere nicer on the strip, or even an old school place in downtown. 

That's about it.  The flights were uneventful, and now I'm back in the icebox that is Milwaukee.  Overall, it was a great birthday in Vegas.  The only thing I would add next time are more of my pals out there!

Retrieving the Crate

i was feeling mostly better, so i decided to finally get my car.

good ole dan flood picked me up around noon to make the two hour journey to pulaski.  after a quick lunch at noodles, we arrived at broadway automotive.  the car seemed ok, and i asked the key lady the best way to get to the casino from there.  she drew a treasure map style sketch complete with directions that included county roads and "watch for turn offs" but we sure as hell got there faster than i could have gotten us there.

once inside, dan and i learned the cruel truth: casino gambling had grown so big in green bay that they needed three casinos, and our beloved poker room was actually in another building ten minutes away.  luckily, a friendly shuttle driver took us there, and in no time, we were upon the poker room. 

overall, oneida's poker room sucks.  it's smoky as hell.  they say no smoking, but the building has smoking in it which rockets up the ramps from the other room into the poker room.  i hocked up an oyster in the shower this morning so yellow and hard, it could have been mistaken for a piece of lemon rind. 

their chips suck.  they are cheap and plastic, and they stick together.  also, $1 are purple and $5 are orange.  holy hard on the eyes batman! 

their dealers suck.  i saw the wrong person get paid twice, and half of the dealers had no idea how to call hands.

a few good things about oneida: they have automatic shufflers which speeds up the game a bit, and also their tables are quite nice.  also, they offer no-limit, unlike potowotomi.  also, the players gave dan a new nickname, but if you want to know what it is, you'll have to ask him yourself.

**update: nickname revealed: LITTLE ABE

we played for a long time, and during that long time, we met a slew of interesting folks, a few of them drunk.  they allow booze at the tables there too.

i overheard one of the most depressing conversations ever on my table.  a guy said that he was going to play all night because his wife was "you know what," (alluding to menstruating).  the only lady on the table entered into conversation with him:

Lady: well you know, even if she wasn't, she might still say that she's on it, you know.

Man: why would you say that?

Lady: oh you know, we women say that a lot

Man: why?

Lady: well, if you didn't know, most women don't like sex.

i don't know if I'm just misinformed, or if most women really just don't like sex.  maybe i've just been fortunate enough to have had ladies in my life who have enjoyed it a lot, some more than me.  i'd like to think that the majority of women out there at least have the potential to enjoy sex a lot.  how depressing is it that this lady has probably never been banged correctly?  how even more depressing is it for her husband who was sitting at the next table (who knew 80% of the people at our table who heard the conversation)? 

anyway, after a few bad beats, (eleven hours worth to be exact), we took our leave and the search for a cheap motel yielded nothing, so to the cold long road we took, forsaking green bay until my car breaks down again in the north woods and needs to be towed to the nearest city.

tomorrow is the cruise qualifier on partypoker.  it starts at 2pm.  come watch if you like!

sicky

it's winter, so obviously i'm sick.  i've spent the last 30 hours in my bedroom sleeping and coughing, only pausing for trips to the can.  i think i've figured out that coughing.throat-clearing.old.dude on my poker table the other night got me, since karl didn't get sick from the paki and el-rey we ate, and AP didn't get sick from fortune.  achey, coughy, mildly sore throaty.  today i ate some unsalted chicken broth, and 2 pieces of wheat toast with various condiments on them (pb and j on one, butter and marmite on the other).  and i ate like 6000 mg of vitamin c and 6 echinacea pills.

in other news, tyan and jay are safe in singapore, and plan to go to bali afterwards to conclude their honeymoon.  dad's foot is healing slowly, and mom is heading to new orleans to give a workshop.

i have my partypoker million qualifier on either friday or sunday, depending on which day i want to play.  if i feel like this on friday, it'll have to be sunday.

my P.O.S. car is still up in exotic pulaski, wi at a car dealership.  it's fixed to the tune of $385, but i've not had the energy to get it yet.  also, i need to find someone who is aching in the loins to make the 4 hour round trip drive.

i need to scratch my resume together and have karl and shannon polish it up so that i can send it out to places with nicer climates and healthier poker players.

vegas is only a week away.  i better be fully recovered by then.

Happy New Year

Our trip up to Bill's place in Crandon was an eventful one!  We had intended to have a relaxing time snowboarding and ringing in the new year.  The final crew assembled was: Bill, Johnny, Me, Sanjay, Brendan, Shanna, Laura, Julie, Adam, and Rachel.  Scott, Catherine and Caroline came for one night, then stayed in a hotel.

The first day of snowboarding we went to Ski Brule, which is an hour or so away from the cabin.  It was rainy as hell, so some of us didn't even get out until after noon.  My right boot was killing me, and once I packed it in for the day, I found that my arch was swollen towards the back.  I took the next day off.

As it turned out, the next day at Indianhead, it was icy as hell, and there were several minor injuries related to the crappy conditions.  Shanna and AP took minor falls, but are ok now. 

Johnny's car got stuck in the snow one day so we pushed it out.  Later that day while driving home from the ski hill, I pulled over to help a guy who was in a ditch.  Everyone else pulled over too, and AP's car slid into the ditch too.  The roads were just terrible!  A nice plow driver helped us all out and get on our way.  I figured I would be the only one to escape unscathed from the weekend.

New Years Eve, I cooked pork tenderloin, garlic mashed, and green beans.  Thanks to Rachel for all the prep help and Laura for taking over the spuds while I was finishing the pork on the grill.  We had a few cocktails and watched quite a bit of the South Park marathon.  There were a few fireworks, and a tribal dance around a lake on fire were sighted.

New Years Day, Sanjay and I packed up and headed out around 1.  In the driveway, which is nice and icy, I hit something with the bottom of my car, probably a rock or piece of risen ice.  Fifty yards later, my dashboard starts going off like a Christmas tree.  As it turned out, my oilpan was leaking, so I had to have it towed 100 miles to a suburb of Green Bay called Pulaski, where it sits now in the parking lot of a dealership.  *sigh*

So, Sanj and I packed into Johnny's car with him, Bill, and the two dogs.  After stopping at the dealership, we had dinner in Green Bay with John's friend Tracy.  Then we headed back slowly, since the roads were so crap.  I stopped at Tyan's house to borrow her car since she and Jay leave for their honeymoon today. (Thanks guys!)  After a quick stop at the police station to get a parking permit, I headed home to answer e-mails and eventually sleep.

Overall, it was a fun trip, although drama-filled.  It's nice to be back home, even though the near future holds another trek to Green Bay to get my car. 

I did get one good thing out of the weekend though: a new voicemail message.  Props to Yoda for that!

In other news, Dad went in for foot surgery and is doing well.

Much love in the new year!

wk