the WU reborn

lately

-i've been doing a bit of cooking.  i made curry spaghetti for oliver and o'neal.  it went over pretty well

-no placings in tournaments.  the 150+15 on saturday ended with me in 25th, 10 spots out of the money when my QQ lost to TT.  i nearly threw up.

-cash games have been going pretty well.  i've got a pretty tight table image at the rock, so it allows me to make some pretty good steals now and again.

-i found someone to teach me mandarin, but she's a bit spendy.  perhaps i'll try to find someone else.

-i'm planning to go camping with oliver and o'neal.  we're heading to find a site off the beaten path near kamloops on wednesday until sunday.  i guess it's hardcore camping, like no campground, no showers etc.  but there will be a lake (brrr).  thankfully, ollie has all the gear so i won't have to worry about much.  i haven't been camping forever, but i do enjoy a good fire.  and s'mores. 

-i missed AP's bachelor party in northern wisconsin.  i heard it was a good time, but unfortunately was unable attend.  oh well, i'll see him in october.

-i saw coach carter, and it was better than i thought it would be.

-i almost lost a game of HORSE (basketball not poker) to my 10-year-old nephew devan.

12 hours

i busted out of the 90+10 quite early, and sat down for the 3-6 NL.  a few hours in, i looked down to see JT hearts.  i am in the big blind.  there is a raise to 25, and a few callers.  i call.  the flop comes 9QK rainbow.  i have the nuts!  i check, everyone checks to the button who bets 60.  i raise to 160.  he calls.  the turn comes Ace.  i still have the best hand.  i bet 100.  he raises all in for 250, i call.  he turns over QQ, giving him trips, and a 22.7% chance of winning on the river.  he says "pair the board," and sure as shit the board did pair when the 9 of hearts fell.  a little later, the guy left, and on his way out apologized for getting so lucky.  heh.

i bought in again and over the next eight hours managed to fight my way back to recoup all of the losses from the straight debacle and an excess of a few hundred.  weary but satisfied, i drove home at 5 this morn.

needless to say, i missed the 30+4 this morning.  however, i'll probably play the 150+15 on saturday, and i have WSOP qualifier on sunday online.

tilt

new photos in the june album!

so i think i'm on tilt, or was yesterday.  it happened after yet another person went all in for a large sum of money with 77 vs my AA.  and again i lost, this time when the 7 was flopped!  how random.  this caused me to play poorly in the 20+3.

my living room window was infested with ants last nite, so i went to the store to get some ant hotels and douse the whole area with sweet syrupy death. 

no sign of ants this morning.

i went to three banks today to try to open a savings account.  on the third try, i found a bank that doesn't have its corporate head in its ass.  it turns out that it's an enormous pain in the ass to open an account if you don't have canadian ID.  i mean, wtf is the problem?  i'm not asking for credit.  i'm asking for them to take my money, invest it, make money off of it, and pay me very little interest.  why is that such a hard fucking decision to give the go ahead on?

i'm signed up for the 90+10 tomorrow at 4:15.  hopefully, my head will be together by then.

treading water

7 hours. +$8.  that's what today yielded.  taking into account some of the ridiculous beats i took, i'm surprised to be in the black:

-my AA gets a girl to go all in for $200 with 77.  she turns the 7.

-my top set of tens loses to runner runner flush after getting all in on the flop.

sick stuff like that.  ah well, if the donkeys never won, nobody would play.

tonight oliver made dinner for uncle john for father's day, so gerald, shelly, me, and oliver's kids devan and serena were there.  he made veal which was pretty tasty.

saw mr. & mrs. smith the other night.  overall entertaining, but nothing to buy on dvd.

tomorrow morning i have the monday morning 20+3 at the rock if i can get in on the alternates list.  i'm going to try to play 4 tournaments there this week: monday 20+3, wednesday night 90+10, thursday 30+4 and saturday 150+15.

that's all i got.  i'm beat.  good night all!

first local tourney win

today at "the rock" i played in their 10 a.m. $30+$4 NL tournament.  60 players max, so the prize pool is $1800.  i found myself at the final table, and managed to not get sucked out at all.  in the final two, we split since 1st is 50% ($900) and 2nd is 20% ($360).  he seemed like a relatively solid player, and blinds were 2000-4000 with each of us around 30000 in chips.  no reason to gamble for $540.

after that, i played a bit of cash game $1-$2 NL, but my heart wasn't in it, so i called it a day early and headed home. 

i've been doing a lot of cooking lately, as i had gone grocery shopping right before mom and dad were in town.  once they got here, we ate out pretty much all the time, so it's steaming and sauteing for me...that, and the consumption of a large amount of fresh fruit.

local poker

monday, after dropping mom and dad off at the airport, i headed to river rock for some NL.  i got on the waiting list for their monday morning $20+3, and was the 10th alternate.  i was the last one of sixty total players to make it in, which seemed to be a good omen.

i made it to the final table of 10 with the chip lead of 8800.  the blinds were at an oppressive 500-1500.  unfortunately when the blinds get this high this fast, it can become a crap shoot, and a standard blind steal can leave you pot stuck.

i looked down from one off the button at KQ suited.  one guy had limped in, and i all inned to take the pot.  to my surprise, the button called, the small blind called, the big blind called, and the limper called!  it was 5 guys all in!

clearly, i figured to be dead.  the button had AA.  the small blind had AK offsuit.  the big blind had KK, and the last guy had a medium pair, i forget what.  needless to say, AK (second underdog only to my worse hand) won with a flush when a fourth club hit the board.  it also gave me a straight, which gave me the side pot of 3500.  so, the two worst hands got money.  gotta love it.  *shrug*. 

i fought my way to 7th, (they paid to 5th), then got it all in with KK which was called by AK.  sigh.  the turn was an ace of course, giving the underdog the win again.  crap.

afterwards, i sat down for a marathon session of 1-2 NL cash game which ended in the black.  i went back tuesday to sign up for thursday's tournament and for a few more hours of NL cash., also a winning session. 

today, i went to the holiday inn on broadway for 10-20 and clocked 5 hours and my first canadian losing session since moving here.  i played well, but got a bit tilty at the end when my A9 offsuit called 3 bets cold on a kill pot to crack my QQ.  i really need to read up more about low stakes limit.  i duno if i have the heart for it. 

they say people don't play NL because of the swings.  what about the fucking limit swings?  christ i was up and down like a yo-yo.  at least in NL you can control the math.

tomorrow after the tournament, i'll check out the 3-6 NL game and see how soft it looks.  if it looks favorable, i'll jump on; otherwise, i'll be on 1-2 NL again.

i've taken to bringing some food to poker rooms for long sessions.  today was a quart of strawberries, a banana, and a water.  i need to get a man-purse that doesn't look freakin' gay....something to hold food, water, iPod, book, sweater, etc.  if anyone has any ideas, let me know.  maybe something that looks like worn, brown motorcycle saddle bag leather that is about the size of a book bag.

technocracy

for the lates and greatest in electronica, make sure to check out ryan's radio show on wsum.org on wednesdays from 8-10 p.m. CST.  that link should fire right into your iTunes if you click it.  he takes requests at wsumlive (aim chat) during that time. 

top 10 reasons why my new phone kicks ass

1. it glows in the dark.  i just found out!
2. it was free (with a contract).
3. it’s a nokia.
4. it fits all the accessories from my last phone (ac, hands free).
5. it's bluish purple.
6. it has a ringer called “clubbin’.”
7. it has speaker phone.
8. it’s nice and small, and non flip, like I like.
9. it doesn’t have a camera, a typewriter, chapstick, tv, or any other garbage on it.  It’s a freakin phone for god sake!
10. it makes a good cudgel.

arrrrrrr

chyi had lasik surgery on her second eye today.  think of her whenever you see a pirate!  frankly, i'm a bit jealous, but just chicken.  contacts are ok, but after 12 hours at a poker table, they start to dry out a bit!  here's to a quick recovery chyi!

mom and dad are in town checking out the progress on their new condo.  unfortunately, they'll only be here til sunday.  we went out for a nice dinner last nite of spicy crab and some other tasty treats.  yeah that's right tyan, crab.  dry.  spicy.  salty.  did i mention crab?

i had mom bring my vcr to hook my dvd player thru it as my tv looks to be manufactured during the taft administration.  sadly, i get video for 5 seconds, then blue screen for 2, then video for 5, rinse, repeat.  i have to get to the bottom of this.

i just played 5000 hands of poker online to try to qualify for a wsop freeroll only to find out that the qualification period is probably over by one day.  they said "through the 10th" which in my world means until the end of day on the 10th.  bastards.

it looks like a bbq is in the works at uncle red robe's house.  perhaps i'll make the 20 mile trek there.  meanwhile, the sun is shining; it's a nice day here in vancouver!

have a nice weekend all!

wk

ducks

sometimes in the morning, there are ducks in my front yard...just walking around.  i saw the mailman walk right by them and they didn't even move.  good thing he wasn't hungry.