The Cooler

The Whine Cooler

Wow, I don't even deserve to post anything about poker on here tonight. Good news is that I came in 2nd, luckily. Bad news is that I played horrible. I haven't played this bad in a long time, it is a miracle that I even came in 2nd. Everything to folding just about every one of my big blinds from raises to re-raising all-in on stupid hands to not playing very well heads-up.

Also, tonight I was a bit fiesty. From time to time I tend to get a bit "sensative" and tonight was one of those nights. I was in a bad mood and being stupid. I was giving attitude to just about everyone that said anything to me. Though I did get some "constructive criticism" from Brent The Storm and Richie Rich about my blog(there's your mention Brent). Also you will notice shorter paragraphs in this one Richie.

Alright well maybe if I feel like it tomorrow I will post about some of the hands that I played

Take Lots With Alcohol

So tonight I went to my usual hang out, the local bar called the Canyon Inn. I spend quite a bit of time there, hanging out, drinking, etc...it's pretty much always the same, except on Tuesday nights. Tuesday nights are $1 beers from 9pm-12am. Sweet, right? Well on Tuesday nights at the bar they have live bands play(all cover bands) and they average age is from about 21-23, so yeah I even feel old there. It is also just a cespool(sp?) of everything you love and hate about Orange County. Love being the good looking scenery, hate being the bro's and bro ho's(which happen to be the nice looking scenery). It makes me very glad when I go there that I didn't go to high school around this area, or else I would end up knowing all these stupid idiots that don't know how to control thier alochol or tip a bartender, or even wait patiently for a drink. Right as I got there tonight, I found an open seat at the bar, which is rare on a busy night like tonight. Not 10 minutes after I sat down did a gaggle of stupid bleach blonde girls come over to the seat next to me and try to cram 4 of them in a tiny little space, almost pushing me out of the way, trying to get the bartenders attention to order drinks. Now, one of my favorite things to do when I go to the bar is people watch, and Tuesday nights is the perfect night for that. I see all these young amateurs ordering shot after shot and pitcher of beer after pitcher of beer, sans tipping, just getting wasted. Normally if you get there around 9-10pm you are fine to be able to get a seat at the bar, get a table, or even lucky enough to jump on one of the 2 pool tables. Everyone tends to show up between 10pm, where they all come in by the groups and then leave by 12:15 right after dollar beers are over. I swear I think there must have been some huge sale on hair bleach this week as just about every girl in the bar had bleached blonde hair. Its ridiculous.

So there was an Angels game tonight, which they won, and normally after a game a few of the guys come into the bar. Tonight was no exception. Tonight featured Adam Kennedy, John Lackey, Jeff Weaver, Jered Weaver (who pitched tonight and won, he is now 4-0 in his first 4 major league starts as a pitcher, first Angel to do that since 1962), and Mike Napoli. Now don't get me wrong, I am all about these dudes coming in and drinking, but so far this year, everytime I have seem them come into the bar after a game, they have lost the next day, actually they have gone on a losing streak. I know they have won a few in a row now, but if they mess it up, I am going to be pissed. I don't know if any of the other Angels fans in the bar notice it(which there are A LOT), but I sure do, so we will just see if they win tomorrow or not. My bet is that they lose and I am willing to put money on it. Also it is just so amazing to see how many chicks just flock to these guys, its so outrageous.

Got SuSIII 2 this week on the 4th street poker tour, will update after that happens. Might post a movie review soon, I watched The Squid & The Whale last night. It was quite depressing, very good, but very depressing, especially after experiencing a lot of what happened in the movie...so don't know if I am ready for a full on review yet. Thursday I should be getting a new shipment from Netflix of Match Point, Hustle & Flow, and Dave Chapelle's Block Party

well time to go watch Last Comic Standing on my TiVo and then go to sleep.

SuS III Game 1

So, this week was the first week of the new season/year of the 4th Street Poker Tour. All points cleared and everything was starting fresh. I was the first one there as always. After getting set up, I paid and picked my seat, I drew Table 1 Seat 1. At my table were: Evan "Grimace", Richie Rich, The First Lady, Susan "High Noon", Eliot "El Bear", and Will Call. Not too bad of a starting table. 4th hand of the tourney I have the button with blinds at 25/25 and look down at AA. I raise to $75, SB folds, and BB(richie Rich) calls. Flop comes K high, he checks, I bet out $150 and he folds. Phew picked up my first pot of the night, and against Rich, he said something about me being on a draw, which kinda made me feel like I didnt show off too much that I had AA. After that don't really play many hands, call 1 raise from Eliot when I was in SB with AQo, missed the flop and check folded. My stack dwindled down to about $1325 until I picked up QQ and raised it to $325(blinds 50/100). Susan re-raises me all-in. I call, she shows KJ and my QQ hold up so I double up. Shortly after that I get moved to table 3 where I steal a few blinds early, and then just have to keep folding to people going all-in. Even folded AQ when UTG raised it to $1000, I am UTG+1 and see AQ, thought about moving all-in, but the chip leader was behind me and still left to act, so I folded because I didnt want him to pick up a hand and call my all-in and knock out both of us. Then after the blinds and antes getting too big and my stack getting shorter and shorter, I am in big blind, chip leader on button raises it, I look down at ATs, I go all-in, for like $500 more, so obviously I know he is going to call, and he has QQ, no A or spades come and I am out in 12th.

I feel that I played fairly well, definitely not my best, but definitely not my worst. I might have played a bit too passive, but then again it all depends on the situations. I've been working a lot of different things lately that I think will help my game out tremendously. So I am not worried about not getting any points on Thursday, there are still 11 games left in this season.

TOC

Last night was the 2nd annual 4th Street Poker Tour Tournament Of Champions, featuring all the winners that have won during the previous year. I had 4 wins this past year(tied for 2nd for the most). My starting table was pretty tough consisting of Richie Rich(voted 4SPT best all aroung player, points leader for the year, points leader for spring season, 7 wins this year, 8 wins total), Mr. Pick (3 wins this year), Joe "Wou-tang"(2 wins), Jun (honorable mention for Most Likely To Bluff, and Most Likely to donk off their chips), Will Call (2 wins), C-Mint (2 wins), Mike "Drud Report" (just won the big smoke'em event last week), and Will Shake(1 win). I think this was one of the toughest starting tables I have sat at on the 4SPT, so many different styles of players.

So for the first round or two we are all just feeling each other out. on the 4th hand with blinds at 25/25 and I am in the small blind, a couple limpers and I look down at 7h7d and check. Flop comes Q T 7. I bet out $75 into a $100 pot and everyone folds. I show the 77. A couple hands later with blinds still at 25/25 I raise to $100 from UTG. 4 callers. Flop comes K Q x. I bet out $125 folds around to C-mint and he raises it to $500 total. I have to lay down my pocket Jacks. Don't really play too many hands for the next level. When blinds were 50/100 this hand came down The Pick raises it to $300 and I call with 88(sorry I forget what position I was in but I am to the picks right, I think I am the BB). There is 1 other caller. Flop comes down A 7 6 with 2 spades. Pick bets out $250. I raise to $650(or maybe it was $600), he goes into the tank asks if I have AK and finally folds. I take down a pretty decent pot. Picked up a few other good hands and would raise or bet and people would fold. Nothing too crazy. then I got KK UTG and put in a huge raise to make it look like I was trying to just steal the blinds, but no callers. Then I got moved to another table. I was on a short stack by that time, pretty much moving in if I hit anything on the board. Built my stack up to about $5k until I raised in the cut off with ATo, the chip leader is to my left and calls(he had been calling all of the raises) and BB calls. Flop comes A 5 4. BB checks, I go all-in, chip leader immediately calls, BB folds. I flip over my AT and he shows AK and no help on the turn or river, and I am out in 12th place.

Its okay, I felt that I had played extremely well, I was very happy with my performance. It was going to be a tough one to win. I haven't played that good in a long time, and also I didn't have to show down 1 hand that I won until I went out on the ATo. Which to me is really good and means that I did play good.

Next thursday starts the new season/year. All points are cleared. I think I will do even better this year, than I did last year.

It's been awhile...

Well, it's been a long while since I have posted in here. I am definitely going to try and post more.

Updates since last post: Went to Vegas a few times, did okay. Turned 25. Won 2 4th Street Poker Tour events in 3 weeks, after taking 5 weeks off.

Today on my lunch break at work we went to the Islands Driving Range to hit golf balls. I haven't hit a golf ball in I don't know how long. This place is all water with a few "islands" that you try to aim for. So first ball I go to hit, I look at my friend and say "$5 if I hit the sign that says 100". He says "ill give you 20 bucks if you hit that sign". So I tee up with a 9 iron and swing away, and the ball lands less than 1 foot away, DOH! So then I spend the whole time trying to hit the sign and come close but not close enough.

After work I come home and score some tickets to the Angels game. Oh man did they suck tonight. It was like watchin the movie Major League live. Even the people were boo'ing their own hometeam and yelling at the players, it was crazy. It was my first game of the season, but I think I am going to go to more.

Well this is just a quick update for now, tomorrow I have the 4SPT tournament of champions and I am so stoked about it. Then starts the new season. I will start posting more here, poker and non-poker.

What the deuce?

Wow, long time since last update...Nothing has changed in the poker world, still running bad, cold decks, bad rivers, etc...but anyways tonight played on the 4SPT and wanted to post about some of the hands I played...

First big hand I played...blinds 25/25. I raise to $100...get 1 caller from a "terrible" player...

flop: 4 6 7 rainbow

He is big blind, bets out $150, I raise to $300, he reraises me $500 more...i fold As Kd...I knew he had a set, and later found out that he did have pocket 4s..

A few rounds later, I had raised 3 times in a row, all with callers, but I bet on the flop and they would fold...until I come to this hand...blinds 25/50...I am UTG and raise to $200, UTG +3 reraises to $600 (this is a player that is kind of new to the game, and also last time we were at the same table I was playing VERY loose and one time raised him out of a pot and showed him 5 2 offsuit) so everyone folds around to me, I go All-in, I have him covered. He calls IMMEDIATELY...

I flip over J J...he flips over A K off....flop comes all blanks...I'm safe...turn comes blank..still good...river...yeah you guessed it K of fucking spades on the river...leaves me down to $650

a few hands later a person to my right raises to $300...I go all-in for $650...folded around, he calls the $350 more..I show Ad9d he shows AKo...I catch a 9 on the river to double up..

After that I steal a few blinds with AQo, Until this last hand..

I am UTG and raise it again(for some reason I keep getting hands Under The Gun) to $350(with blinds at $50/$100) guy to my left(whom I am his nemesis of sorts) calls..everyone else folds.

Flop: 9 A 7

I bet $350, he immediately moves all-in. He is known as a very aggresive player and knows that he can get me off a hand with a big raise. I think about it, but I only have $525 left, so I finally call he says "you got an Ace?" I say "No" and he goes "well I do" and shows Ad3d. I had TT. Nothing on turn or river, and I am out early again.

My reads on people have been getting a lot better, but I still have not been catching any cards. I am starting to get a bit discouraged, but I am going to stick with it because I know it will turn around soon, and when it does everyone better watch out because I will be on fire.

I might play some this weekend at one of the local casinos.

Also I want to start posting in here more often, not just about poker but just about what happens on a daily basis, lets see if I can do that.

For now...we toast

Sitting here at Dinos house testing how the new powerbook works with other peoples wireless connection besides mine...waiting for the 4SPT game to start...I have exactly 0 points this season which as Coach Chaires would say is "piss poor". Hope I am ready to play tonight, if not oh well, there's always next season.

Have had a quite a busy week with school starting and working 3 jobs, will give full update later.

Almost time to shuffle up and deal, I'll post my results and key hands played later tonight or tomorrow.

Where's John Salley?

Alright, so today started off alright. Went to work. While at work I looked through the college catalog and signed up for some classes. I start on Monday. Good thing is because I can transfer sooner than I thought, but I will be one of the older people in my class....

After work I headed to the 4th Street Poker Tour game. Normally when I am on my way I leave work and head straight there and get there early enough to hit up a bar. Tonight I got there somewhat early but I wasn't in the mood to go to a bar, so I drove around looking for a starbucks to get some coffee and try my new laptop out there. Well I drove around in LA for about 35 minutes and couldn't find a Starbucks. How is that possible to be in LA and now find a Strabucks in 35 minutes? I also was hungyr but couldn't find anywhere to eat...I have to remember that next time we go to Will Calls house, no one around there likes to drink coffee or eat. But I did see atleast 5 billboards that said "Where's John Salley?". I wanted to ask "Where's the beef?" cause I was so hungry

At 4th Street I have been doing really bad lately. I have exactly 0 points for this winter season. I had a good feeling going into the game tonight, that I was going to do better than normal. Here are a few key hands that I played...

1st hand I actually played I was in the cut off seat with blinds at 25-50. I had A9o and raised to 200 and everyone folded so I picked up the blinds and a couple of limpers. Next hand I was involved in I was on the button with AcKc. I raised to 200. Got 1 call from Gerrit, who is known as a loose player. Gerrit says "I shouldn't make this call but oh well". Flop comes 7 2 4 rainbow. he checks, I bet out $250 and he calls. Turn comes a 9. he bets out and I think and fold, he shows 1 7, I believe that he had a set of 7s. The very next hand I pick up AdQd, I raise to $150 from the cut off and get 1 caller from Rob V (who I don't know much about). flop comes A 7 5 with 2 clubs. he bets out $200. I raise it to $600. he thinks for a while and reraises me all-in for about $525 more. I think for a minute about if he called me with A 7 or A 5 cause he might have done that. Finally I call, he flips over Jc8c with the flush draw, so I am ahead. turn comes 8 and river is a blank so I double up to about $3100. I get moved to table 3. Only played 1 hand at table 3 where I was in big blind and no one raised. I had 8s3c, flop comes K 3 7 with 2 clubs. I bet out $200. everyone folds except the button raises to $500. I show him my 3 and fold. After that hand I get moved again to table 4. At table 4 I was involved in about 2 hands. I kept folding and Zack was to my right with a short stack. Everytime it got folded to him and I was big blind he would go all-in and I would fold. One hand I had AKo and raised it and everyone folded and I picked up the blinds. Then came this crucial hand. I was in big blind and Zack was in small blind and like I said he had been moving all-in on my blind everytime. So action goes fold, then Elliot(a very aggressive loose player) raises it $400, with blinds at $75/$150. Elliot has been known to raise with garbage. Zack reraised all-in as I suspect as he only had about $850. I look down at AcQc and moved all-in over the top for a raise of about $2200 more, trying to isolate Elliot and get heads up with Zack because I am pretty sure I had him beat or 50/50 at worst. Everyone folds around to Elliot who thinks and says " I don't know how I can fold this hand" and calls. He flips over KK. Zack flips over AJo. Flop comes x Q x with 1 club. so I have a pair of Queens. turn 6. river 5c. So Elliot ended up taking both of us out. I am not going to let this get me down. I believe that I played as well as I could tonight, the best I have played on 4th street in a long time. It just sucks that I have been doing so well in the cash games at commerce and I can't even make it to the chip up at 4th street. Well I guess "that's poker". Hopefully I will get to play some at Commerce this weekend. Will update more later

Wait For The Blackout

Well here is my 2nd post of this blog. Today was pretty uneventful. Woke up and went to work. After work came home, had some dinner, and just hung out messing around with my new laptop. I am still trying to figure out all the programs and functions and what not. This is my first mac of my own, I have used macs at previous jobs but have never owned one.

Today I did buy tickets to see Alkaline Trio (my favorite band) in Las Vegas at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel on March 31st, which will mark exactly 9 years to the day that I went to one of my first punk shows ever that happened to be at the Joint. That show was Bad Religion, Unwritten Law, and Dance Hall Crashers. I went to that show with Jeff and some of his friends. I was only 15 at the time. It was the first time I ever went into a mosh pit, the first time I ever crowd surfed. I remember we took my moms car to the show and since the show was on March 31st and the show got out around midnight, which means it was April 1st, Jeff wanted to call my mom and tell her that something was wrong with her car to mess with her, but I don't think he actually did. I haven't been back to the joint in several years, probably since 2000. I did see The Killers are the Hard Rock Hotel last October, but that was in the outside amphitheater. I'm excited for this show because it is called the "Occult Roots Tour: Early Songs for Eerie People" which means they will be playing all their older material, which they don't play enough of lately. Funny to think how first time I saw Alkaline Trio was with about 10 people at a record store in Las Vegas, 7 years later they are playing some pretty big venues.

I also need to buy tickets for Belle & Sebastian w/New Pornographers @ The Wiltern on March 18/19. I used to go to shows all the time, from little independent shows to big concerts and be in the know about the latest bands to come out and what not, but lately in the past year or so I haven't been so much into it anymore, which really kinda makes me sad when I think about it. Something I was/am so passionate about that I have pretty much just given up. I am lucky now if I go to a show every couple of months and even then it's rare. Also now when I go to record stores I am totally lost on what I want to buy. I really need to get back into it all. I did go to a show on Friday at the Troubadour. I went to go see Lifetime with Dan. It was cool, the show was awesome and I haven't gotten to hang out with Dan in a long time. We used to hang out all the time and go do karaoke and go to shows, but I've been so busy lately with all this shit going on that I haven't had time. I am also not the greatest when it comes to calling my friends, or anyone for that matter. There has been long periods of time where I have totally ignored everyone, it's not on purpose, it's just that I tend to get extremely high anxiety, and then the longer I don't talk to someone the worse it gets. I think my friends are used to it by now.

I've been playing a lot of poker lately, which I like a lot because when I am there playing than I don't think about the things that are going on. I used to go to the bar all the time to get away, but I haven't been in about 2 months now, which is good considering I used to go on average 5 times a week. Actually I haven't been drinking nearly as much, and when I have gone out to bars with friends I haven't really had much to drink, and there have been times I didn't even order anything but a coke, which is a pretty big deal for me because I love the alcohol. I am just trying to get my life straightened out and organized. I also signed up to go back to school. I start next week and I have yet to figure out what classed to take. I do have more units than I thought I did from when I went before. So I figure if I take 2 full semesters I can transfer and hopefully be done within a couple of years. It is going to be weird going back. I remember when I went before that there were people that were my age now in the classes and I thought they were kind of old and now I am going to be that creepy old person in the classes with these 18 and 19 year olds. Oh well.

Tomorrow(well today actually) I have a meeting at 10:30am the WPT(World Poker Tour) to go over the program that I will be using for the job. I am so excited to start this new job. I really hope that it leads to something much more.

I'm a bit disappointed that there weren't new episodes of Scrubs on tonight.

Currently watching: Ali G In Da House(on mute)
Currently drinking: tuaca
Currently listening to: Murder City Devils

Testing...1...2...

This is a test. Just trying to set this thing up. I am writing this from new new 15inch Powerbook. Hopefully I can remember to continue to write in here and share some interesting times with everyone.