Assorted Stuff
Sunday, July 06, 2008

Well, the new gig at work is keeping me teh busy. No more cushy train ride for me...now it's a 130 mile round trip drive in the gas pig Jeep! Boooo! No train service near the new client, so Hoff is SOL. I've spent the past week and nearly the entire weekend looking at older Accords, Camrys, Eclipses, Preludes, Integras, etc., hoping to find a not too expensive beater that will get me 25-30 mpg that I can drive the wheels off of. So far, no such luck. I know the cars I'm looking at are old and high mileage, but I've owned old and high mileage before...doesn't anybody know how to take care of their cars these days? This week will be more looking, and hopefully purchasing. The Jeep's fuel economy is bad enough, but this is absolutely going to destroy the mileage cap of my lease if I don't do something. Sigh. Anybody out there own a nice 5 speed mid-90s Honda Accord they want to part with? Shoot me an email at iamhoff at the gmail dot commie.

Poker. Due to the aforementioned automotive issues and job issues, it's been a while since I jumped onto the tables. So with DAPGF out with friends tonight and with it too late to call people about their crappy cars on Craigslist and Auto Trader, I decided to jump into some micro-limit ring on FT. Just a little .05/.10 to scratch the itch. I do a min buy-in of $4, and sit down at UTG+1. I thought about waiting until I hit the BB, but I wanted to play, so I posted my BB. And the first hand goes like this:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [9d 7h]
dredayp5 raises to $0.20
iamhoff calls $0.10
georgiarealtor folds
poeticinterlude folds
MagBoy TNT calls $0.20
chadd17 folds
mpingel1981 folds
conanav calls $0.10
*** FLOP *** [7s 9c Qd]
conanav checks
dredayp5 bets $0.85
iamhoff raises to $3.10
MagBoy TNT calls $1.90, and is all in
conanav folds
dredayp5 raises to $14.65, and is all in
iamhoff calls $0.70, and is all in
dredayp5 shows [Jh Js]
iamhoff shows [9d 7h]
MagBoy TNT shows [Jd Qs]
Uncalled bet of $10.85 returned to dredayp5
*** TURN *** [7s 9c Qd] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [7s 9c Qd 4h] [Kc]
dredayp5 shows a pair of Jacks
iamhoff shows two pair, Nines and Sevens
iamhoff wins the side pot ($3.45) with two pair, Nines and Sevens
MagBoy TNT shows a pair of Queens
iamhoff wins the main pot ($5.90) with two pair, Nines and Sevens

Well hot-freaking-damn! That's the way to start a session. I only hung around for a few hands, saw a couple of flops that went nowhere, and ultimately subscribed to the Pauly rule of "hit it and quit it". And I left with my slightly better than double up inside of 3 minutes. Fun is where you find it, peeps.

Went and saw the movie Hancock on Friday. I wasn't sure what to expect given the deviation from Will Smith's usual good-guy 4th of July fare (see Independence Day, Men in Black, etc.), but I was surprisingly pleased. He's a great actor, and to see him playing what likely amounts to a superhero version of Alcanthang (in reality, we all know that Al is a hero unlike any other...SoCo Man!!!) was actually pretty damn funn-ay! And as a bonus, we got out of the flick just in time to drive up to the top of Mt. Soledad in La Jolla (just a short way from Casa de Hoff) where we had nearly a 360 degree view of San Diego, and the finales of 4 or 5 different fireworks shows. Good stuff.

As a slight change of pace, instead of the last 5 songs I heard at the gym this morning, let's go with the first 5 songs...which ones served to pump me up. I added a bunch of tracks to the mp3 player, so I manually created a playlist, started with one particular song, and shuffled the rest. I was not disappointed.

Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart
AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
Pantera - Mouth For War
Testament - Electric Crown
The Vines - Ride

FWIW, the next 5 were equally motivating:

Megadeth - High Speed Dirt
Iron Maiden - Invaders
Iced Earth - Declaration Day
W.A.S.P. - Blind in Texas
Babylon A.D. - Hammer Swings Down

Only made it to the beach once over the weekend (looking at cars most of the time), and the waves kinda sucked. Still, I was at the beach enjoying the San Diego weather (and massively attractive scenery, and yes, that's one of the lifeguards!)


and lots of other people weren't. Life ain't too bad, I suppose. Stay classy, peeps!

Posted byiamhoff at 8:55 PM 3 comments Links to this post  

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Random Thoughts From a Busy Week and Weekend
Monday, June 30, 2008

Got no poker playing in last week. Z-E-R-O. So it was a good time for the bankroll. The main culprits? Work, Dad, and DAPGF.

Work is really in a weird state of flux. My assignment in Santa Ana came to an end on Friday. This is good for two reasons. One, I no longer have to go to Santa Ana. Two, I'm no longer bound by the inflexibility of the train. Three reasons why this is bad. One, I actually enjoyed riding on the train. I made some good friends, I could nap or read a book (or even, God forbid, work), and Amtrak serves liquor, including Arrogant Bastard Ale! Two, the work was super easy. And three, now I have to drive out to the Lake Elsinore area of Riverside County! At 14.5 mpg in my gas pig Jeep. I do get reimbursed for mileage, but the Jeep is a lease and I fully expect to rack up somewhere between $2500 and $5000 in mileage overcharges over the remaining 9 months of the lease. The reason I'm not sure what the mileage charge is going to be is my boss still hasn't told me definitively how much I'll be out there. We've known about this project and client for the past month, and I still have no idea what the schedule is. As of Friday around 10 a.m., I was scheduled to be up there by noon on Monday (I have a meeting with another client here in San Diego first). I got an email at 5:03 pm on Friday from my boss, saying "I think we are free on Monday. I'll call over the weekend to coordinate." What the hell does that mean? And then beyond that, I don't know if I'm there one day per week or five days per week. Last week my boss said that at least for the first month it would just be the two of us handling this project. Which implies that I'm there 5 days per week. So long story short, I spent a bunch of time closing out one project, prepping for the new project, and in an effort to minimize fuel and mileage costs, me and DAPGF spent a bunch of time over the weekend looking for a beater car (early 90s Honda Accord, etc.) that will get 25-30 mpg and I can drive the wheels off of. Of course I couldn't find something to make a deal on, so I get to keep wasting time looking for a commuter box. Meh. Dad is also in a state of flux. As most of you know, my mom passed away a little over a year ago from cancer. What that has meant for my Dad (among many obvious things) is that he has felt that the house that my family has lived in for the past 19 years was both too big and too expensive for a single retired person. So he's been trying to sell it for the past few months. And at the beginning of June he accepted an offer on it. So we then went thru the drama of figuring out what his plans were. Stay in San Diego? Move someplace else where there's mountain streams to fish in? He wants to do the fishing thing, and he wants to move someplace cheaper than California, San Diego in particular. The Carson Valley area of Nevada seems to be a leading choice. But there are still a few variables in the mix, so he decided to rent a place in San Diego for a year, to give him time to figure things out. So we had to find a place. Then came this past week. First we had to help him pack stuff up. Then we had to help him move his stuff (he did have movers for the big stuff). Then we had to help him unpack. And by "we" I mean me (and DAPGF). He's in a very nice condo, about 2 miles from the house, so we'll see what happens. Finally DAPGF. She was actually the least impactful in one way, but hugely impactful to my poker time in another. There was only one issue, but it was time critical. DAPGF teaches one night a week at a local technical college. That is a night that I typically play some poker. I went off to work on Tuesday, all set to go to the gym after work to pick up heavy shit and put it back down, and then play me some poker. And I get a call while I'm on the train from DAPGF. It seems she had her schedule mixed up, and the summer session didn't start for another 2 weeks. So she wasn't going to teach, so we were going to have dinner, and I wasn't going to get to play poker. Uber-meh. Quite the week. Hopefully I can get a work schedule locked up, and then figure out what to do for a car. Then I might actually find the time to jump on the digital tables and sling some chips around. We'll see. For a change of pace on Friday, I shuffled up some Southern Rock on the mp3 player. The last five songs to come up on my way home for the last time from Santa Ana: ZZ Top - I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide Great White - Step On You .38 Special - Wild Eyed Southern Boys Eagles - In The City (Live) Jackson Browne - Running On Empty

Friday, DAPGF got us tickets to see Bonfire, an "early AC/DC tribute band" play at the House of Blues. As you might expect, there are several such bands named Bonfire, and this one is apparently out of LA. They actually freaking rocked! They totally looked and dressed the parts, but the best thing out of all of it was that the guy who was supposed to be Angus Young actually looked kind of like Gavin Smith! You be the judge:

Who knew?

On Saturday, we went and saw the movie, Wanted. Freaking awesome! Killer action sequences, lots of death and violence, and Angelina Jolie's naked ass! That's all you need to know. And with that, it's time for bed.

See you out there, peeps.

Posted byiamhoff at 12:04 AM 0 comments Links to this post  

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Hey! Real Poker Content! And Bonus Non-Poker Content!
Friday, June 20, 2008

DAPGF went to Vegas without me! Something's wrong about that situation, if you ask me. Actually, she left on Thursday and went to some conference or something. So the next best thing (at least given gas prices here in San Diego...$4.79/gal?!?) was to fire up the poker machine and see what might happen. I dinked around in a couple of freerolls on Tilt...a $75 token frenzy I lasted to 48th but only the top 6 payed, and the daily Razz freeroll. I actually did ok on the Razz, but once the blinds got up to (I think) 400/800, I got dealt (A2)3. I completed the bring-in and got raised and reraised. Well, I'm not going to give up A23, so I called. Then I got a 7, another round of capped betting, and then a 9 plus the betting. I wound up doing no better than A2379, and bled off almost half of my stack. Very next hand I get (45)2. I just called the bring-in, but the betting still got capped. I caught an ace on 4th Street, so I led out. Again, betting got capped. Then I caught a 5. It paired my hole card, but I figured with A25 showing maybe I could scare somebody. Nope. Then I paired my Ace. My only hope is the river, but I bricked with a K, and dropped from 17th out of 1300 down to somewhere in the 1200s. 3 hands later I get dealt (A6)5 and reraised until I was all in. No luck, and I went out in something like 1251st.

While doing that, I caught a 10 FPP $500 tourney on Stars. I was actually doing rather well in that. 3300 runners, top 648 paid. I was doing so well that I actually caught the hammer in the BB, and rivered 2 pair to take down a small pot. Another hand was this one:

Dealt to iamhoff [9h Kd]
rolled up22: folds
yeltrah22: calls 150
TVDad: calls 150
bthomas59: folds
Prunejuice13: folds
webmoosh: folds
TL_TUCKER: folds
iamhoff: calls 75 (2 limpers ahead of me, I'll call a K9off from the SB)
Zoppo: checks
*** FLOP *** [9d 6s Ks] (Booooom!!)
iamhoff: bets 150 (just a min-bet to see where I am)
Zoppo: calls 150
yeltrah22: folds
TVDad: calls 150
*** TURN *** [9d 6s Ks] [3d]
iamhoff: bets 450 (pretend C-bet of just under half the pot, represent a weak K, which I sort of have)
Zoppo: folds
TVDad: calls 450
*** RIVER *** [9d 6s Ks 3d] [9c] (cha-ching!)
iamhoff: bets 750 (I was actually trying to bet enough to put him all in, but I had 3 tourneys going and the bet timers were beeping on all of them, fortunately he just decided to shove)
TVDad: raises 75 to 825 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 75
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TVDad: shows [9s As] (three of a kind, Nines)
iamhoff: shows [9h Kd] (a full house, Nines full of Kings)
iamhoff collected 3600 from pot (ship it, beeyotch!)

Then I had to see if JJ really was OK. Turns out it was.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Jh Js]
midnightluv8 is connected
iamhoff: raises 1200 to 1600
rolled up22: folds
yeltrah22: folds
Ede2001: folds
bthomas59: folds
Prunejuice13: folds
webmoosh: folds
TL_TUCKER: folds
Uncalled bet (1200) returned to iamhoff
iamhoff collected 1200 from pot

Then the wheels started to fall off:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Tc Qd]
rolled up22: folds
yeltrah22: folds
Ede2001: folds
bthomas59: raises 355 to 755 and is all-in
Prunejuice13: folds
webmoosh: folds
TL_TUCKER: folds
iamhoff: calls 555 (from the SB, with my stack, how can I not call this)
midnightluv8: calls 355
*** FLOP *** [Qs Ts 4d] (Booom!!)
iamhoff: bets 1600 (2/3 of the pot to start the sidepot seemed sufficient)
midnightluv8: calls 1600
*** TURN *** [Qs Ts 4d] [5h]
iamhoff: bets 2400 (time to put him all in or make him fold)
midnightluv8: calls 1785 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (615) returned to iamhoff
*** RIVER *** [Qs Ts 4d 5h] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [Tc Qd] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
midnightluv8: shows [9s Jc] (a straight, Nine to King) (and he chases his OESD and catches one of his outs on the river. Didn't I hear that online poker is rigged? I must have read it on the internet or something)
midnightluv8 collected 6770 from side pot
bthomas59: shows [9h 8h] (high card King)
midnightluv8 collected 2490 from main pot

Then I got sucked in by a really good slowplay:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Qc As]
webmoosh: folds
TL_TUCKER: calls 600
iamhoff: calls 600 (the last two hands I watched him limp AJs and ATs, so I figured I'd limp along and see if I connected to the flop first, which was my first mistake)
midnightluv8: folds
rolled up22: folds
yeltrah22: calls 600
Ede2001: folds
5feet: folds
Prunejuice13: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah Kd 4h]
Prunejuice13: checks
TL_TUCKER: bets 600
iamhoff: calls 600 (Ok. On his last hand, when he hit the flop, he min-bet, so I put him on a medium ace, but not AK...even for him I'd expect more preflop)
yeltrah22: folds
Prunejuice13: folds
*** TURN *** [Ah Kd 4h] [Kc]
TL_TUCKER: bets 600
iamhoff: calls 600 (another min-bet, he must be on a weak ace and worried about his kicker, or he's on a draw to Broadway or hearts...didn't even give him credit for a K)
*** RIVER *** [Ah Kd 4h Kc] [8c]
TL_TUCKER: bets 3000
iamhoff: calls 3000 (Noooooo! He didn't have the K, dammit! Did he? Crying call time)
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TL_TUCKER: shows [Kh Jd] (three of a kind, Kings)
iamhoff: mucks hand (and that's how you slowplay, or in my case, how you get greedy and try to suck up more chips than your hand is worth)

The very next hand I'm down to 2 and a half BBs and I'm UTG. I look down to see a s0000ted Tourist (A7), so I figure I may as well take my chances and shove. I got called by two runners. I flopped a 7 to keep me ahead of the dude playing A8off, but the other villain was playing Cowboys, and IGH in 777th, a little outside the money. Not the finish I was hoping for, but not a bad showing.


I went to the gym on Monday. My gym is located in the University Towne Centre area of La Jolla, an area very full of itself as evidenced by the "e" at the end of both Town and Center. So it's a bucks up area. It's also the closest major gym to UC San Diego. So I see the rich, cougar housewives and the sorority co-eds, with a typical ratio of 65 to 35, hot to not so much. Monday, though, I'm not sure what happened. Easily 95 percent scaldingly hot beautiful babies in there, sweating away. I'm not sure how I didn't drop the bench press bar on my neck or fall off the elliptical trainer. I really (no, really!) needed a cold shower when I got home. There's normally plenty of "Hotts", but it was like there was a convention in town or something.

Last 5 tunes to shuffle up at the gym:

Armored Saint - Can U Deliver
Testament - Electric Chair
Cinderella - Somebody Save Me
Disturbed - 10,000 Fists
Metallica - Frayed Ends of Sanity

Last 5 tunes to shuffle up on the train ride home today:

Aquabats - Super Rad!
Extreme - Do You Wanna Play?
Simple Plan - I'd Do Anything
Buck O' Nine - My Town
Sprung Monkey - Get 'Em Outta Here

Enjoy the weekend, peeps! It's hot here, so I'm at the beach! Bring on the waves!


Posted byiamhoff at 8:36 PM 4 comments Links to this post  

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Holy Crap! Actual Poker Content!
Monday, June 09, 2008

Yeah, it's been a while since my last post. I guess I've been too busy playing poker to actually post about poker. Wish I could say I've got some good results to show for it, but hey! Poker time is poker time.

One thing I started doing is a new button strategy. If there is at least one limper in front of me and I'm on the button, I go into ATC mode. Being on the button, nobody has any idea what I've got or whether I hit the flop or not. I'll even call some semi-decent raises, depending on the stack, the cards, and the pot odds. And in the first tournament I tried it in, it worked fairly well.

Table '90672877 3' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Silverfist (1630 in chips)
Seat 2: MaXeEm0e (1450 in chips)
Seat 3: schaoier (1380 in chips)
Seat 4: 1LBS (3800 in chips)
Seat 6: DEEZNUTZ324 (2000 in chips)
Seat 7: iamhoff (1480 in chips)
Seat 8: allornuttn (580 in chips)
Seat 9: foldingtom69 (1180 in chips)
allornuttn: posts small blind 10
foldingtom69: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [7d Tc]
Silverfist: folds
MaXeEm0e: folds
schaoier: calls 20
1LBS: folds
DEEZNUTZ324: calls 20
iamhoff: calls 20 (20 into a pot of 70, why not)
allornuttn: calls 10
foldingtom69: checks
*** FLOP *** [4s Jd 9s]
allornuttn: checks
foldingtom69: bets 40
schaoier: calls 40
DEEZNUTZ324: raises 40 to 80
iamhoff: calls 80 (with my flopped gutshot, I figured I'd call the typical min-bet. Even if the limpers fold, I'm still getting 3 to 1 on my money)
allornuttn: folds
foldingtom69: calls 40
schaoier: folds
*** TURN *** [4s Jd 9s] [3c]
foldingtom69: checks
DEEZNUTZ324: bets 200
iamhoff: calls 200 (seeing that I was sticking around, his c-bet of not quite 2/3 the pot smelled weak)
foldingtom69: folds
*** RIVER *** [4s Jd 9s 3c] [8h] (boooooom!!)
DEEZNUTZ324: bets 220
iamhoff: raises 460 to 680 (with a str8 on the board, I wanted to bet enough that he'd still feel compelled to call, so a raise to 3x his bet seemed reasonable)
DEEZNUTZ324: calls 460
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [7d Tc] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
DEEZNUTZ324: mucks hand (he mucked KdJc for TP2k and no connection to the spade draw. I thought he smelled weak)
iamhoff collected 2140 from pot

A couple of orbits later, I got to see how button limping can not only hide a junk flop monster, but can also camouflage a strong hand that catches the flop across the face.

Table '90672877 3' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Silverfist (1110 in chips)
Seat 2: MaXeEm0e (1950 in chips)
Seat 4: 1LBS (5875 in chips)
Seat 5: ace 2478 (1740 in chips)
Seat 6: DEEZNUTZ324 (385 in chips)
Seat 7: iamhoff (2835 in chips)
Seat 8: allornuttn (2320 in chips)
allornuttn: posts small blind 15
Silverfist: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [9d 9c]
MaXeEm0e: calls 30
1LBS: folds
ace 2478: folds
DEEZNUTZ324: calls 30
iamhoff: calls 30 (2 limpers, perfect. Bring on Helmuth! I got your cards, bitch!)
pompano954 is connected
allornuttn: calls 15
Silverfist: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ts 7h 9h] (Booooom!!)
allornuttn: bets 90
Silverfist: calls 90
MaXeEm0e: calls 90
DEEZNUTZ324: raises 265 to 355 and is all-in
iamhoff: raises 2450 to 2805 and is all-in (well, I didn't get him last time, I guess I get to now! There is a str8 draw out there, so let's see if we can isolate)
allornuttn: folds
Silverfist: calls 990 and is all-in
MaXeEm0e: folds
Uncalled bet (1725) returned to iamhoff
*** TURN *** [Ts 7h 9h] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 7h 9h 2s] [3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Silverfist: shows [2c 8h] (a pair of Deuces) (went for the gutshot str8 and backdoor frush, too bad. Ship it, bitch!)
iamhoff: shows [9d 9c] (three of a kind, Nines)
iamhoff collected 1450 from side pot
DEEZNUTZ324: shows [Td Qh] (a pair of Tens) (TPDK, backdoor frush, yeah, I'll take your chips too!)
iamhoff collected 1395 from main pot

The nice thing about micro-limit is, because not many people really understand it at this level, there's a lot of limpers. With this hand, I knew I could lead out limping and face minimal possibility of a reraise.

Table '90672877 3' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: MaXeEm0e (2830 in chips)
Seat 4: 1LBS (6275 in chips)
Seat 5: ace 2478 (1690 in chips)
Seat 6: Takeemout56 (2455 in chips)
Seat 7: iamhoff (3220 in chips)
Seat 8: allornuttn (2200 in chips)
Seat 9: pompano954 (2910 in chips)
ace 2478: posts small blind 25
Takeemout56: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [6s 4s]
iamhoff: calls 50 (s00ted 1 gappers, why not? Limp here and fold to a decent reraise)
allornuttn: folds
pompano954: calls 50
MaXeEm0e: folds
1LBS: folds
ace 2478: calls 25
Takeemout56: checks
*** FLOP *** [Td 7c Qs] (ok, backdoor str8 draw. I'll fold to anything decent)
ace 2478: checks
Takeemout56: checks
iamhoff: checks
pompano954: checks
*** TURN *** [Td 7c Qs] [5c] (or I'll just take the free card and give myself an OESD)
ace 2478: checks
Takeemout56: checks
iamhoff: bets 50 (let's see who still has something, and are they willing to try and take it down now.)OO
pompano954: calls 50
ace 2478: folds
Takeemout56: calls 50
*** RIVER *** [Td 7c Qs 5c] [3h] (Booooom!!)
Takeemout56: checks
iamhoff: bets 200 (a little more than 2/3 the pot should be enough to keep anyone playing QJ, QT, or JT hanging around)
pompano954: calls 200
Takeemout56: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [6s 4s] (a straight, Three to Seven) (ur chipz. I wantz dem)
pompano954: mucks hand (mucked As 5s for the flopped backdoor frush and a turned pair of 5s.)
iamhoff collected 750 from pot

But not all was good for your hero.

Table '90672877 3' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: couriermike (1865 in chips)
Seat 2: MaXeEm0e (2430 in chips)
Seat 3: f1ferrari02 (5805 in chips)
Seat 4: 1LBS (6325 in chips)
Seat 5: ace 2478 (1290 in chips)
Seat 6: Takeemout56 (2970 in chips)
Seat 7: iamhoff (2570 in chips)
Seat 8: allornuttn (2375 in chips)
Seat 9: pompano954 (3720 in chips)
allornuttn: posts small blind 50
pompano954: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [5s 5h] (is Presto gold?)
couriermike: folds
iamhoff said, "vn"
MaXeEm0e: folds
f1ferrari02: folds
Takeemout56 said, "tx GF"
1LBS: calls 100
ace 2478: folds
Takeemout56: folds
iamhoff: calls 100 (a limper and Presto...how can I not call?)
allornuttn: calls 50
pompano954: checks
*** FLOP *** [8c 6h 3d]
iamhoff said, "K9"
allornuttn: bets 200
pompano954: calls 200
1LBS: folds
iamhoff: calls 200 (these pot odds and a backdoor str8 draw, sure I'll call. Besides, I read somewhere that Presto is gold)
*** TURN *** [8c 6h 3d] [Qd]
allornuttn: bets 200
pompano954: raises 200 to 400
iamhoff: calls 400 (not really feeling the love, but I gotta trust Fuel)
allornuttn: folds
*** RIVER *** [8c 6h 3d Qd] [6s]
pompano954: checks
iamhoff: checks (I could've tried to sell the set of 6s, but the last hand I folded TPDK to a shove which probably looked like I was bluffing the pot...let's hope he was on a diamond draw)
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pompano954: shows [Qc 8h] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
iamhoff: mucks hand
pompano954 collected 2000 from pot

Sometimes you get lucky and catch a Big Blind Special

iamhoff: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [5c 7d]
allornuttn: folds
pompano954: calls 150
couriermike: folds
f1ferrari02: folds
1LBS: folds
Takeemout56: folds
iamhoff: checks
*** FLOP *** [5d 2h 4d]
iamhoff: bets 520 and is all-in (after finding out that Presto isn't gold for me, I'm shortstacked and figure TP is worth a shove)
pompano954: calls 520
*** TURN *** [5d 2h 4d] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [5d 2h 4d 8d] [6d] (no better time for a str8 frush then when all the chips is in the middle)
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [5c 7d] (a straight flush, Four to Eight)
pompano954: shows [6c 6h] (three of a kind, Sixes)
iamhoff collected 1415 from pot

Unfortunately it didn't end well. After chasing 2 frushes that flopped 4 to da frush but never materialized, and going thru 2 orbits of blinds, I woke up to 99 in the SB and shoved. I was in the lead against BB's A8o, until the turn brought an ace, and IGH in 17th place out of 45. Not as good as I'd hoped for, but I was generally pleased with my play. And it was only $1.20, so it's not a major deal.

Hope all is well out there, and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. You know who you are. And my sincerest apologies to anyone I forgot to link...enjoy the day.

Posted byiamhoff at 9:42 PM 4 comments Links to this post  

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Stuff and more stuff
Friday, May 23, 2008

The windows in my office in Santa Ana face out to an intersection on a fairly major street. Accidents and near misses are common, and somewhat entertaining. But as I was preparing to leave today, I got quite a show. I'm logging some work into the computer, with my back to the window, when I hear the "chirp" siren that a cop will use when he's pulling someone over. I looked out the window and directly in front of me, maybe 10 feet away, a Santa Ana police officer is getting out of his cruiser with his hand near his weapon. As he walks to the driver's door of the ratty, mid-90s Honda Civic he pulled over, his partner is hanging back behind the Civic and another cruiser came tearing up. As the other officers pull up, all of a sudden the first cop takes two steps back and pulls his gun. His partner comes around to the passenger side with his gun drawn. The other two draw their weapons and the first cop pulls the driver out. A gun falls out of his lap onto the street. The passenger is pulled out the passenger side, dropped on his face on the sidewalk, and cuffed. Then another cop car comes tearing up and blocks the street at the intersection. Once both of the guys in the Civic are cuffed, the cops start going thru the interior of the Civic. I left at that point, but I guess it's just another typical day in Santa Ana.

DAPGF went out with some friends tonight, so Hoff figured he'd try his luck at the digital tables. And in case anybody was wondering, the river button is alive and well on Full Tilt. I was playing in a 180 SNG on Full Tilt. I checked my ATs in the BB, with 5 limpers. Flop came down 7s Ks Ah, giving me the nut flush draw, along with TPDK. I thought about leading out, but I figured I'd check my Decent Kicker and see what happened on the turn. Js. Boooooom!! Featherplucking nut frush! I check my monster, and villain leads out with a pot bet. MP reraises all in, for about half of my stack. I smooth called, and villain (who had me covered by 200 chips) shoved over top of me. Again, I called with my monster. MP flipped over A9c, giving him a pair of aces. Villain turned over a K7o, for a limped 2 pair. Not good enough for da nut frush...until the river. 7. Reverse boom, and IGH.

While playing the 180, I was also playing a $3.30 knockout 90 player. We made it to the break, and I was sitting in about 14th out of 37 left. Third hand back, and I get dealt cowboys in the cutoff. Big Stack Bully in EP min-raises, and I reraise him another 5x. He calls. Flop is A 4 5 rainbow. I'm trying to think what he may have here, given his initial min-raise and smooth call of my reraise. Because of his BSB nature, I discounted aces, and figured he would've played Ax or 4s or 5s more aggressively preflop. So I put him on junk. He checked, I bet out the pot, he came over the top and I called all-in. I flip over my cowboys and he turns over 67o. OK. He's got an OESD. Please no 3 or 8. Please no 3 or 8. Turn is actually a K, strengthening my hand. Doubling up thru the BSB would be sweet, and push me into probably the top 5 in the tourney. And the river brings the.................8, completing asshat's str8 and sending me to the fridge for another Blackened Voodoo Lager. River bombed twice in separate tournaments inside of 10 minutes. Meh.

At the gym tonight, last 5 songs to hit the shuffle:

Innerpartysystem - New Transmission
Testament - Electric Crown
Suicidal Tendencies - You Can't Bring Me Down
Atreyu - Blow
Authority Zero - Mexican Radio

On the train, the last 5 songs to hit the shuffle:

The Aquabats - Super Rad
Hed Kandi - Feeling the Night
The Refreshments - Banditos
Bob Mould - Hanging Tree
Soul Coughing - Screenwriter's Blues

Enjoy the extended weekend!

Posted byiamhoff at 6:44 PM 0 comments Links to this post  

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Poker and Non-Poker...that oughta cover it!
Monday, May 12, 2008

So. This work schedule and reduced access to gmail and blogger is a major impediment to keeping up with the brogging. Still, I am trying. So here's a recap for the past week-ish.

Yesterday was actually the 2nd Mother's Day since my mom passed away. Still difficult. But, to celebrate Mother's Day, I took DAPGF (my baby doggy mama) out to the champagne brunch at The Prado at Balboa Park. Phenomenal spread, phenomenal weather, and I needed a phenomenal nap afterwards! Many of my favorite restaurants here in San Diego are Cohn restaurants, and they really seem to have the formula down.

Semi-related topic to my mother; as my parents neared retirement and such, they expected that it would be difficult to continue to live in expensive So Cal. They'd talked about selling the house and moving someplace else (4 seasons climate, mountains, etc.), that would be affordable enough to allow them to enjoy retirement. Since my mom passed away, dad stepped up those thoughts. He's been downsizing all of the crap that has accumulated not only over 40 years of married life in general (my parents' 40th anniversary would've been just over 2 months after my mom passed away), but 25 of those years in the same town, and 19 of those years in the same house. It's good that he's been working on that, because he got a decent offer on the house. He made a reasonable counter-offer, and I expect that this week the house will go into escrow. It's going to be weird. I lived in that house during my senior year in high school, college summers, and spent the majority of weekends in that house after getting jobs that were unfortunately NOT in San Diego. Most of the major holidays have been spent in that house, with my parents (natch) and my little sister. It's going to be difficult on my dad in some ways, but hopefully it will help him to heal and move on after my mom's passing. I'm trying to convince him to find a townhome that a) has enough room for him to watch the doggie when DAPGF and I go out of town, and b) is on a golf course so that he can get resident-tee times at some of the Rancho Bernardo golf courses for me and some of my friends (not that I'm being selfish or anything). It should be interesting.

Friday was one of the fuglier commute days for me. It was a day on the train, but oh what fucked up complications. My train pulled into the Irvine Metrolink station at 9 a.m., and stopped. After a half hour or so, they told us that a construction crew had ruptured a natural gas line adjacent to the tracks between Irvine and Tustin, and nothing was moving north of Irvine. Estimated time to open things up was noon-ish. So we got lucky and convinced an empty OCTA bus to take us to Santa Ana, where some people could catch additional northbound transit and I could simply get a cab to the office. So I got in and did some work. At the end of the day, I called both Amtrak and Metrolink to check track status, and Metrolink (which owns the tracks) said that the tracks were still closed, but that they would run buses from Tustin (where southbound traffic stopped) down to Oceanside (last Metrolink stop in San Diego county). So I walked back to the train station. Caught a ride to Tustin, and got on a bus. Unfortunately the bus only went to Irvine, but they said that we could catch Metrolink charter buses down to Oceanside. So we waited in Irvine. And waited. And waited. Side note, the train and crew I came up on in the morning was still there! Then they announced that a Metrolink train was coming in and would take us to Oceanside. So we climbed the 3 flights of stairs to the bridge to the far tracks. And waited. And waited. And the train finally came in, but wouldn't let anybody board because the crew had no idea what they were supposed to do. Finally, they opened the doors and let us board, telling us that they'd take us to Oceanside. Now mind you, my car was in Solana Beach, 20 miles south of Oceanside, but that's not a critical issue at this point. So we wait for the crew to fire it up and get moving. And they come on the PA and announce that they made a mistake, and that they were only going as far as San Juan Capistrano, and that people going to Oceanside and San Diego should go back over the bridge and wait for charter buses that would take us down there. So we exit the train, climb back over, and wait. And wait. And then they announce that an Amtrak train is coming up from Oceanside to take us south, and that we need to cross over to the far tracks again. So we go back over. And wait. And wait. Finally the Amtrak comes in, but because it's not going any farther north, we have to wait for everybody to get off the train. Then we have to wait for them to clean the train, and more importantly, RESTOCK THE LIQUOR ON THE CAFE CAR!!! Then we finally board and start rolling south. A buddy of mine who was supposed to ride a later train and was still in his office in Irvine texted me wanting to know what the situation was. I told him and he decided to look up the Coaster schedule in Oceanside for me. At that point, I was kind of screwed. We didn't get into Oceanside in time to catch the 6:30 train (not even close), and the next one south was scheduled for 9:30. Fortunately, this very nice girl I'd been chatting with (thanks Courtney!!) had her car in Oceanside, and offered to take me down to Solana Beach. Whew! I finally get to the car, drive home, and get in at 8 p.m. I should've been home by 4:30! Fortunately, DAPGF was out with friends (pre-planned event), so I didn't have to worry about her waiting on me.

So with DAPGF out, I was hoping to play in Kat's donkament, but that plan was obviously out the window. So I started jumping into SNGs, wanting to get as much pokerage in as possible before DAPGF came home. 2 18 player SNGs produced nothing better than a 7th place finish, but then I jumped into a 4 player HU PLO/8 shootout. That was the first 4 player shootout I ever played in, and I'd hoped that with the format it would go fairly quickly. My table did...4th hand I flopped quads, and my opponent hit a boat. Naturally we both shove and I won. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. I put a load of laundry in. I emptied the dishwasher. I didn't want to start another game, because I figured DAPGF would be home soon. I was right. So we bullshitted for a while, watched some stuff off of the DVR, and then all of a sudden the laptop beeped and my match restarted...almost 45 minutes after I won my table! 20 hands and this happens:

Royal Flush, baby! That crippled my opponent and enabled me to finish him off a few hands later. So a decent end to the evening. I would've included some hand histories, but I was playing on my laptop, and the settings on the thumb drive client weren't set to save hand histories. Meh.

My digital cable system (Time Warner) includes the Music Choice digital music channels. While waiting for DAPGF to come home, I was listening to the Arena Rock channel. The last 5 songs before she came home were:

Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger
Kiss - I Love It Loud
Night Ranger - (You Can Still) Rock in America
Britney Fox - Girl School
Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer

Car of the Week

This is a really cool car that I've seen occasionally near the UCSD campus. It is officially known as a Volkswagen Type 34 Karmann Ghia. It was a limited production model, made between 1961 and 1969, with a total of 45,000 approximately produced world wide. Not sure how many made it into the United States, but here's one of them, and it actually appears to be in decent shape. Any VW lovers out there that have additional details on it, feel free to share.

So our official COTW is the Volkswagen Type 34 Karmann Ghia. Have a great freaking week!

Posted byiamhoff at 9:46 AM 1 comments Links to this post  

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Maybe it's the heat or...
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Kinda weird today. Jumped into a $6.50 18 player SNG. Actually had a decent amount of premium and not quite premium but still playable hands, including AK 4 times, AA 3 times, QQ 2 times, KQs couple of times, AXs several times, snowmen, 99, etc. With the exception of AK once and AA twice, these hands did nothing for me. But I could check snowman tater legs from the BB and flop a set. If I limped my 26 s000ted with the lemurs, the flop hit me 345. Pocket ducks turned quads. Basically, the shitty hands kept me in the game, ultimately getting me heads up, only to have my A8h with 2 pair and a backdoor flush draw run into a set of 4s. IGH in 2nd. That was actually my best finish in a while, so I'll take it.

Took the doggie to the vet today. She had a tooth extracted and a growth on her eyelid removed. She's still a little drugged and groggy, but still thought she should go on one of her epic hour-long walks at 11 pm. Fortunately, I had the written orders from the vet. I read them to the dog, even put them in front of her face so she could read them, but she still wanted to walk. Ultimately, though, the bribery of treats was enough to get her home. Too bad because a) I like the long walks in the late evening...I can just gel and collect my thoughts (well, thought), b) I get some good exercise, and c) it's finally below 70 degrees!

It's early in the season, but hot weather usually brings out the brush fires here in So Cal, and today was no exception. Fortunately there wasn't a whole slew of them to contend with, but there was a decent-sized one northeast of Los Angeles, in the Sierra Madre Foothills. There is a fire station near my office, and as I went rolling by this morning, they had a few CDF (California Dept. of Forestry) fire rigs and support trucks staging outside, along with two of the coolest looking fire rigs I've ever seen. Those of you who know me know that I hold firefighters in the highest reverence, even pre-9/11 I always thought they were the coolest, baddest guys (and gals) out there. And with the two recent huge firestorms to hit San Diego, we tend to show much love and respect to all the departments and crews. Now, being a region that has what is referred to as an "Urban-Wildland Interface" (which in plain-speak means that portions of the city bump up against wilderness area), the San Diego fire department along with most of the other departments here in the region have heavy duty fire rigs designed to go off-road and fight brush fires. They tend to look like this:



These two rigs I saw simply put these rigs to shame. I was driving by and was unable to stop and get a proper picture, but they reminded me of an armored personnel carrier. The closest image I could find that remotely resembles the rigs I saw is this:

I spent over an hour combing the intertubes trying to find the rigs I had seen. This Oshkosh Airport Fire Rig comes the closest, but the ones I saw were even bigger and more badass than this one, painted red and white like the brush rig photo. Over the course of my time in working for several cities in Southern California, I've actually had the opportunity to drive a fire truck for a short distance, and even shoot the water cannon at an actual building that was on fire (it helps to be buddies with both the Chief and the Squad Captain). Coolest. Time. Evar. And as a firefighter fan and a car junkie, I have to say that those fire rigs I saw this morning were some of the coolest vehicles I've ever seen, and despite lacking a photo of the actual vehicle I'm referring to, I'm naming all fire trucks as the Cars of the Week. Godspeed guys, and come home safe.

Everyone else out there, be careful and stay classy!

Posted byiamhoff at 12:10 AM 0 comments Links to this post  

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