The Randomness of Hoff

This is certainly different...

2010-04-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

So...I've now spent about a month and a half in Afghanistan. I've been in MRAPs (google it), I went thru M-16 and Counter IED training, and I've flown in C-130s and Chinook helos. I've been in rocket attacks, I've lived (and worked) in tents, and I'm currently sitting at a Dutch Cafe in the NATO base at Kandahar, enjoying stable internet and a non-cafeteria breakfast. Definitely the most interesting thing I've done. Played a little live poker with coworkers and other soldiers, but I don't yet have a consistent enough internet connection to try logging back into FTP or Stars. The cars have been the most interesting aspect of this adventure for me. You hear stories about how the Taliban uses mostly Toyota HiLux pickups...and it's true. Those things are everywhere. My company leases 8 or 9 of them for use here at Kandahar, along with older model HiLux Surfs (4Runners in the States), Prados (Lexus GXs in the States), and the occasional Land Cruiser. Half are LHD and half are RHD. Quite the culture shock to drive a stick shift from the wrong side. But back to the Toyotas. Even the military (US and others) use them. The Surf SUVs are the most prevalent NTV (non-tactical vehicles) used by everyone's personnel. It is definitely interesting. My thoughts aren't exactly coherent right now, and I'll try to put together a more rational post with pictures in the near future. For now, I'm ok, hot and dusty, but ok. Wish I could find a table to jump into, but I'll settle for getting an occasional blog post out. Take care world, and I'll post when I can.

I'm Still Here...Sort Of.

2010-03-27T04:33:00.000-07:00

Wassup peeps? I have news. After 8 months of unemployment I finally got a job! Of course in this economy, it's not exactly the ideal position. I've always been an urban planner, and this job does entail planning. The wrinkle is that I'm working for a defense contractor (no, not Blackwater or Haliburton) doing planning for the expansion of several military bases in Afghanistan! I've received training in MRAP (like a Hummer on 'roids) rollovers, combat lifesaving skills, weapons training, and Counter-IED detection and avoidance. And there have been a couple of mortar attacks on the base since I've been here. All in all, I'm wondering just what I've gotten myself into.

I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post, but I'll give updates as often as possible. Being on the government network, there are a lot of web restrictions to deal with (I'm writing this on my BlackBerry), but I will be buying a netbook when I get to my main base. It's far from ideal and I miss DAPGF and the dogs terribly, but the economy hasn't given me any other options. Not sure if I'll be able to play poker online either, but I did bring a thumb drive with the Stars and FT clients on it. We shall see. Have fun out there!

It's That Time of Year Again!

2010-01-21T20:38:00.000-08:00

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Progress Update

2010-01-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

What up, peeps? Here we are half-way through January, and there's not a helluva lot to report.

Employment - I burned through my initial award of unemployment insurance, and the State of California was kind enough to process another 3 months of unemployment insurance. I guess I can hold things at bay for a bit longer. I am still applying to jobs across the country (latest ones include: Ventura, LA, DC, Boston, Salt Lake City), but not having much luck. I did get a random email from someone who said she stumbled across The Randomness while Googling her real estate agent, read my last post where I talked about getting into computer/tech work, and told me about an entry-level opening at her company. So hopefully later this week she'll get me in touch with her manager and we can see what's up with that.

Poker - Honestly, I haven't really taken the time to play. DAPGF started a new quarter of teaching, and her school is doing this new hybrid online/in-class learning format. There's a whole lot of online work (discussion boards, online testing, etc.), and she has enlisted my help in figuring out a bunch of it. As such, a good chunk of my time has gone to helping get those things set up. But I do plan to hit the felt occasionally, as the B/R permits. And as always, the high- and low-lights will duly be reported.

Weight loss - My goal was 2 pounds per week. I haven't quite kept up with that, but over the past 2 weeks I was down 2 pounds. The weird thing is I made it to the gym the entire first week of the year, and I gained a pound. Because of DAPGF's school stuff and having to take the dog to a couple of morning vet visits, I didn't make it to the gym at all the 2nd week of the year and lost that one pound plus nearly 2 more. Don't ask me why, I don't know. So I'm trying (made it to the gym this morning), and we'll see what happens. On that note...

Music - The last 5 songs that shuffled up at the gym:

Atreyu - Blow
Pantera - Mouth For War
Authority Zero - Mexican Radio
Bad Religion - Los Angeles is Burning
Babylon A.D. - Hammer Swings Down

And on a final note, I have no idea just what in the hell happened to my Chargers yesterday. They just seemed lifeless, and Nate Kaeding was anything but automatic on fieldgoals. Sigh. Seeing how past seasons and players have gone, LT will probably get released by the Bolts and picked up by New England (see Junior Seau, Wes Welker, and Rodney Harrison). It's a shame, because this was probably his best shot at a Super Bowl ring with the Bolts. So let's see. Obviously I cannot root for the Jets. I despise all things Manning (click here for why). I've never been a fan of the Vikings, and despite the fact that he can obviously still play, Favre hasn't handled the whole "will I retire, will I sign with someone" drama in the best fashion. Which leaves me with N'awlins. I loved me some Drew Brees when he was in San Diego, when Rivers was drafted, and I was disappointed that they had to let him go. Granted, Rivers has worked out fairly well, but I do like Brees. So I guess I'm rooting for the Saints to go all the way! Go Saints!!

See ya out there!

Happy Freaking New Year!

2010-01-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

Hey! New Year, New Blog Duds...you like? It took a while to find a template I like, which in a way relates to where my life is (or isn't) going these days.

I am still unemployed, but now that the holidays are past, maybe people will start hiring and I can start rebuilding my life. If I could transition into a new career and immediately make the money I've been making after more than 14 years in the same career, I would totally do so. Unfortunately, that isn't likely to happen. Still, the field of urban planning doesn't seem to have a really big future in the San Diego area, so it's looking like I leave San Diego or I start taking classes is something computer-related (hence the blog-template comment earlier). I'm pretty good with computers...installing and configuring hardware is reasonably easy, and I am able to figure out new software fairly quickly. I just have had no formal training in programming, networks, databases, and the like. Who knows...maybe I will luck out and find a job here in the San Diego area. It's a slim chance, but it would certainly be the easiest course of action.

Beyond the job hunting, I'm trying to make the most of my time. Organizing my finances is a joke, because with no income there's not a hell of a lot to organize. I am trying to structure my days in such a way as to allow me to blog and play poker more frequently. And I am trying to get into better shape by watching what I eat (more difficult to do on a mega-tight budget than you might think), and working out more consistently. The depression that has thus far been the monkey on my back is quite the demotivator, but I'm trying to shake it and regain control of my motivation and mojo. FWIW, I managed to make it to the gym the first 3 days of the year. I had to skip Monday and Tuesday because I had obligations related to my unemployment, but so far so good. For those readers who have followed me over from What Happened, I'm thinking of setting a goal of losing 2 pounds per week, measured Friday morning to Friday morning. Conveniently, January 1 fell on a Friday, so my start date is numerically significant.

I will also be talking about movies and music here, although I obviously can't afford to go to the movies right now. Most of you know that, while my first musical love is Metal in its various forms, I do listen to a bunch of different artists and genres. Driving home from my meeting this morning, the last five songs to shuffle up in the car were:

In The Mood - Robert Plant
Check My Brain - Alice in Chains
Center of the Sun - Conjure One
I Go Back - Kenny Chesney
Tooth and Nail - Dokken

Ultimately, I'm trying to take whatever control of my life I can. As much as you would think that not spending 8-9 hours per day in an office would give me that freedom, it's amazing how depressing a lack of money and identity can be. Still, I'm trying. Keep checking back, and I'll keep trying.

Changes are Afoot

2009-12-31T15:49:00.001-08:00

As you few remaining readers know, I was laid off over the summer, making it twice that I've been victimized by this recession. Well, I'm still laid off, six months later. In that period of time, I've had a whopping TWO interviews, but no offers yet. It has been, as they say, depressing. I've not been motivated to go to the beach, to play poker, to blog, to hit the gym, pretty much to do anything. But dammit, I'm tired of the depression. It sucks ass, and I've had enough. Besides, what better time than the start of a new year to make some serious changes to things?

So, there will be changes. I'm going to try to get back to playing more poker. Granted, the bankroll is pretty much in the toilet, so I may be stuck with some freerolls for a bit, but I want to shake off the cobwebs and get back into it. I want to get back into the exercise groove. Hell, I've got the damn time...I may as well make some use of it! Which leads me to my next change. Not only do I want to get back into the blogging groove, but I have to recognize that there probably isn't enough going on in my life to justify maintaining two active blogs. So I'll be putting What Happened To Me on hiatus, and adding the exercise/weight loss posts here for a while. Why the hell not? After all, it IS called The Randomness of Hoff for a reason. As my life's direction takes whatever course God and the Fates have in store for me, I may separate the two again, or I might not. For now, though, anything of interest concerning The Hoff will be found right here, starting tomorrow.

So good riddance 2009. You sucked. GTFO. But however your 2009 may have gone, may 2010 be even better! For me, that shouldn't be too hard!

Actual Poker Content!

2009-09-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

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Well peeps, wazzup? I am still toiling away in the land of the unemployed, and it does suck. If you hear anyone talking about how the recession is over and the economy is turning around, ask yourself why Congress is talking about extending unemployment benefits. Trust me, the job market (at least here in So Cal) really sucks sweaty goat balls. Or Waffles' balls. Either way, it's not good (no offense, Sir Waffles).

But enough of that, because I can make a living playing poker, dammit! I freaking won an SNG! Yeah, it was a lowly $2.25 27 player, but you gotta start somewhere. Besides, after the cold-decking I've been taking on the felt, any kind of boost to the B/R is a good thing. Basically, I played pretty solid ABC poker, with some bluffs where I wound up with some good reads on a weak table. Generally, I got good cards and managed to not donk off my consistently decent stack on the 8-2s. The hand that took us from 3 handed to heads up was particularly nice. 3 handed, AT s00ted is definitely playable, and the BB decided to shove for his remaining chips with KJoff...a not unreasonable play. Flop came down Q99 with two diamonds. I got a little worried when a K dropped on the turn, but the riverbrought a lovely 5 carat diamond, and we are now heads up. Of the 40,500 chips in play, I've got about 34,000 of them. I'm in the BB, and I look down and see rockets, for probably the 5th or 6th time of the tourney. I'm just praying for my opponent to decide to shove into me. And when he wakes up to a s00ted King, he does just that. As the flop comes down, I'm just hoping to avoid the frush.
As it turns out, I didn't need to worry much. I flopped a set and rivered a boat, taking down the tourney and adding some much needed moolah to the B/R. Small stakes I know, but again, you gotta start somewhere. See ya out there, peeps!

Hiatus on hiatus

2009-09-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

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So, here's the scoop. I was laid off 3 years ago, when the real estate development industry here in San Diego went in the tank. After a frantic 6 month stretch of looking for a job, I found a consulting gig. It paid pretty good money, but not what I had been making. After almost exactly 2 and a half years, I got laid off from that job. My former boss (partially due to medical issues) told me that the CEO had dropped him down to approximately 10 hrs per week, and then only on projects the CEO wanted him to work on. We've been speculating whether they wanted to close down our division in the San Diego office, and it seems as though they may be on the way.

So I've been looking for work since the end of June, and as bad as it was in 2006, it is waaaay worse this go 'round. The Sunday Jobs section of the SD Union Newspaper used to make up an entire section, probably 7-8 solid pages of listings. This past Sunday, it consisted of 2 and a half pages, simply within the Classifieds section. To surf through the major internet job boards (Indeed, Craigslist, Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Jobing, and a couple of industry-specific ones I check out) would take a solid 3 to 4 hours back in 2006. Now, I'm amazed if it takes an entire hour...that's how few jobs there are out there. I would love to cross-train out of the urban planning industry (an industry that is for the most part dead here in California), but I don't have the time to go without a salary for that long, and most entry level jobs (or even mid-level) jobs don't come nearly close enough to allowing me to pay the mortgage, and take care of DAPGF and our dogs. Selling is unfortunately not an option, because we are so far upside down that it's unlikely a bank would agree to a short sale. So I'm hunting. Basically, I've extended to a roughly 100 mile radius around San Diego, which takes me up to LA, OC, and the IE, a distance that I could commute if necessary, or rent a room during the week if that were the case. It sucks, but it's what I'm stuck with. Any of you readers who might actually be left, and you have a job, count your blessings. Even if it does suck. Trust me.

And to continue the cold decking of life, I jumped back onto P/Stars to see if things had improved for me. In short, nope. I'm playing a $6.50 45 player, and I'd been running decently until I got moved to the table with the tournament big stack. When the blinds are $600/$1200 with a $75 ante, even trying to limp once or twice can be a hit to the stack. I tried p/f raising with decent hands (hell, we're 5 handed on the table, so KQ s00ted and Snowmen are playable cards) twice, and got reraised both times by the big stack bully. So we're down to the final table bubble, and I'm down to 2 BB. UTG, I look down and see A9 off. With my BB coming up next hand, that's a shove situation if ever there was one. The only caller is BSB in the BB, and he calls me with 48 off. And of course you can guess what happened.

Yep. He flops an 8, and decides to river a four for good measure. IGH as the final table bubble boy. Yeah, I'm running great!

Not sure what else is going to be happening, and I'm not sure how often I'll be able to keep enough of a B/R going to keep playing, but stay in touch. I'm down, but not out!

Hiatus

2009-08-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

Assuming I still have any readers, you may have noticed that it's been 2 months since I've posted anything. Two reasons for that. First, I've been running way cold at the tables. Not sure why...I've made some stupid plays, but generally I've just been getting cold-decked no matter where I play or what game it is. Second, work has been a shit experience, resembling my 2006. As such, as I explore what my options are, I'll be putting The Randomness on hiatus. I will be back, hopefully sooner than later, but I'm not sure exactly when. Stay tuned...

Freaky Friday

2009-06-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

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We've had some freaky weather out here in San Diego, lightning, hail, rain, and then the CEO of the company shows up. And we've got more freaky weather on the way. So to celebrate what has turned into an odd week, I give you 9 minutes of odd entertainment. SFW, but freaky. Thanks to Jalopnik for the video.

Spider from Qoob TV on Vimeo.

Random Stuff

2009-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

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Brain MC and his lovely wife Stacie are currently enjoying their time in San Diego. They hooked up with Smokkee and Elf for some chip-slinging at the Oceans 11 Casino over the weekend, and Brian nearly doubled up over a few enjoyable hours. Then the two of them met DAPGF and I for dinner and drinks at a San Diego Old Town institution, Casa Guadalajara. The food was awesome, and it was nice getting to meet some more invisible internet friends. And now the blogosphere has independent confirmation that my web-nonymous girlfriend, DAPGF, really does exist!

So a policewoman pulls over a suspected drunk driver. She asks the driver to step out of the vehicle, and then informs him that anything he says can and will be used against him. The driver looks at the policewoman, and says "breasts."

And on the subject of breasts...

Ewwwwwwww.

Due to stoopy work obligations, I was unable to hit the gym last night. So, the last five songs on Hair Nation while I drove home from work yesterday:

Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
Bon Jovi - You Give Love A Bad Name
Britney Fox - Girl School
Winger - Seventeen
Warrant - Uncle Tom's Cabin

Not sure I'm going to make it onto the felt tonight, but I'm sure gonna try. See ya out there, peeps!

Amazingly, none of the usual suspects officially reside in New York

2009-05-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

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Pauly. Daddy. Alcanthang. Bacon Bikini Mary. These were the first suspects I thought of when I came across this:

Wouldn't you come up with that exact same list of suspects? Props to Jalopnik for finding this gem in the interwebs.

Catching up on things...

2009-05-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

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A couple of weeks ago, me and a group of degenerates participated in the Beer Belly Olympics. As you might have surmised, beer was involved. Lots of beer. All different kinds of beer, from Coors Light and Corona to Blue Moon to Stone's Oaked Arrogant Bastard to my personal favorite, Blackened Voodoo Lager. But it wasn't just beer. We had Bombay. Crown. Goose. Patron. But the drinks weren't the events. Oh, they were events, but the competition events consisted of: basketball free throw contest where it was timed and you had to shag your own ball; bowling; golf; billiards; washers (a demented sort of ring toss thing); horseshoes; darts; and a finale of a massive Hold 'Em tournament. We rented a heavily fortified mountaintop compound in the mountains northeast of San Diego, and lived it up large. I was last place in basketball (hadn't shot hoops in probably 20 years), 2nd to last in horseshoes, 3rd from last in golf, midpack in darts, billiards, and washers, 2nd place in bowling, and I freaking won the poker tourney! And our heavily fortified compound was only locatable by GPS navigation, straight up the mountains. It had a pool table, bbq, 3 or 4 balconies, 2 horseshoe pits, a baby grand piano, and a 60 inch plasma with Dish Network. It. Was. Awesome. We are definitely going to make this a regular event.

And after quite a hiatus, I jumped back into a couple of SNGs on Tilt tonight...specifically a $6.5o 18 player and an $8.70 18 player peep sex token SNG. I was running solidly 3-6 in both SNGs for most of the night. In one, I decided to follow the lemurs and complete my SB 96off. Who doesn't love floppin' da nuts?On another one I decided to slowplay my AQ in the BB, and just checked my option. I think it worked out, don't you? Ahh, but where would I be without a wicked suckout? We're on the bubble for the token SNG, and I'm in 3rd or 4th place. I get dealt spade Big Slick, and UTG I pop a 4x raise. The button decides to call. Flop comes down K-high with 2 spades. I bet the pot, and the butthole shoves. having TPTK and the nut flush draw, I feel confident and call all-in. I actually laughed out loud when I saw his Q9s, thinking I had his punk ass dominated. Except for one circumstance.In addition to the spade draw that he had, he also had floped a gutshot straight draw, which filled on the turn. I screamed at the computer for a spade or a queen, but no such luck. But I was still in the other SNG. After running 3 handed for quite some time, I got dealt ATs UTG (and button), and led out 5x, which was about half my stack. BSB in the BB shoved on me, putting me all in. He flips over AJoff, which made me think that I had a slim chance. Unfortunately, we each flopped our kicker, and I went out in 3rd. Still, I was up $7 or so for the evening, so I'll take it.

Last 5 songs at the gym:

Poison - Valley of Lost Souls
Chevelle - I Get It
Ratt - Nobody Rides for Free
Nickelback - Animals
Foo Fighters - The Pretender

See ya out there!

So, are you married?

2009-04-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

That I get asked that question indicates that I'm of an age (or at least the appearance of that age), where I should be married. I am not...yet. Things are going well with DAPGF, and we have talked of moving in that direction. We both agree that we need to stablize careers and pay down some debt, but all talk seems to point in that direction.

Anyway, I mention this because of something that happened in the sauna room at the gym yesterday. I'm sitting in the 180 degree air, broiling myself with 3 other random people, when a rather attractive single mother (dare I say, MILF?) enters and sits down next to me. We start talking and it turns out that she has a 14 year old daughter. I never did get her age, but if she had a 14 year old daughter, my guess is that she had the baby when she was 15 or so. She looked that good. Realistically, she was probably 33 to 36, but she looked in her late 20s, and I told her so. Well of course that earned me brownie flirting points, and she kept chatting. Eventually the question came up of whether I had kids (only if you count my 85 pound Doberman) and whether I was married. She seemed disappointed when I told her I was living in sin with DAPGF. Shortly thereafter, I left the sauna. Not because I felt uncomfortable, but because I was starting to feel cooked.

While driving home from the gym, I was listening to Blue Collar Comedy on Sirius, when a clip from (I believe) John Heffron came on. In it he bemoaned the fact that it's only when he's in a relationship that the women really seem to flock to him. That women seem to be able to smell a relationship on a guy, and it seems to be an aphrodisiac. And he wants to start a company that sells a cologne for men called "Taken" that smells like you've spooned someone in the last 24 hours. Funny, definitely, but it got me thinking. I like to flirt, but I never go beyond just the flirting. Sometimes it's tempting, but I've never done that. I've had the most "interest" whenever I've been in a relationship, and I think I know why. Confidence. When you're single, you're flirting because you are trying to potentially get somewhere with this person (not necessarily in their pants, but more often than not...). When you're in a relationship, you can flirt without worrying about the outcome because you know you've got someone to go home to. Maybe women can smell "relationship" (or spooning) on a man, but I think the confidence factor gives off the vibe that seems to work. If you're really good, you can pull off that vibe even if you're not in a relationship. One of my best friends married a girl he met in college, right after he graduated. It wasn't a good marriage, and they divorced after 2 years. He moved to Huntington Beach and got a bachelor pad close to the beach. Women flocked to him, including an ex-porn star (I met her, thought I recognized her, but never did get her screen name. It was 12 or 13 years ago, tho), and he had all the action he could handle. He rarely got into relationships that lasted more than a couple of months, and often was seeing 2 or 3 at a time. And I believe it was the air of confidence that he gave off. He was in good shape, reasonably good looking, great job, good money, nice car, and he would get right in girls' faces and tell them that they should not date him, because he was an asshole. His words. I think the combination of his confidence, the challenge, and the weird need for women to try and change their men into what they want them to be just worked and sent a massive stream of hotties to his door. And the trend continued when he moved to Minneapolis, then back to San Diego, and finally to Providence, RI, where he ultimately met his wonderful wife. He's been married now for 6 years, has 1 kid with another on the way, and has settled down to a nice family life. But he even told his wife that she shouldn't date him, because he was still an asshole.

So there's my thought for the week. I'm hoping to get back on the felt in the next week or so, so that I can continue to give you a play by play of the bad beats and lemurs that inhabit my world. See ya out there!

Carpocalypse - Will GM Go Bankrupt?

2009-04-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Howdy, peeps. Long time no post. After running strong in February, March I just fell into the tank. So I basically took the last half of March and the first half of April off. By next week, though, I should be back on the felt, flinging chips like the tarded lemur I am. For now, though, a little non-poker content.

GM's new CEO, Fritz Henderson is implying that bankruptcy is more and more likely for GM. Part of any reorganization or further government bailouts will be a massive restructuring of the company. Right now, GM's North American brands include: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. According to Fritz, Buick, Caddy, Chevy, and GMC are their core divisions, with Pontiac as a niche player. The other brands would obviously join such storied automotive names like Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Packard, Studebaker, AMC, et al in the graveyard of history. Since the purpose of this is to make GM leaner and meaner, let's look at the vehicles in the doomed divisions, and see if there's anything worth saving.

Saturn: Of the current lineup, nothing cries out to be saved. That being said, the 2011 Opel Insignia (GM's European division) would replace the current Saturn Aura. That vehicle could serve as an updated Chevy Malibu.

Saab: Signs point to it becoming a stand alone company, so it is outside of the mix.

Pontiac: As with Saturn, most of the vehicles are crap. The only bright spot is the G8, a rear wheel drive sport sedan with a version of the Corvette V8 as an option. That basic vehicle is sold as the Chevy Impala in the Middle East. The current Impala is a soft, blobby front wheel drive sedan. Replace it with the G8.

Hummer: From a PR perspective, Hummer is in the toilet. That being said, the H2 and H3 vehicles could certainly fit with GMC's "professional grade" mantra. Since they're both based on existing GMC platforms (H2 on the Yukon platform and the H3 on the Canyon minitruck platform), it could be a decent bit of synergy.

So that leaves us with Buick, Caddy, Chevy, and GMC. On my car blog, I lay out comprehensive lineups for each remaining division, as well as those for Ford and Chrysler. Check them out.

I was ahead when the money got in...

2009-03-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, you know you're running crappy when that's the best thing you can say. First 2 SNGs were blanks. I was generally playing ok, but I did make a couple of bad decisions and so it goes. So I jump into a final 6.50 27 player SNG on Tilt. I'm generally running good, top 7 or so for nearly the entire tournament. We get down to the bubble, and I've got about 8BB in 4th, with the top 5 paying. I get dealt K2off in the BB. Naturally, that's a hand I would never consider playing in these circumstances, but 2 other limpers allow me to check my option. Flop comes down K25 with 2 spades (I have none). I want to try and take it down now, so I bet the pot, figuring that nobody else would come along. Unfortunately, UTG does come along. The turn is an ace, so I shove, hoping that anyone playing Ax didn't just hit two pair. UTG calls, and he flips over the Q9 of spades. Please no more spades, please no more spades, please no more spades. Aaaannnndd the river!
Yes! The ever popular river button! And the aptly named death card drops, and Hoff is once again a bubble boy. Back in February, I was running pretty good. Not so much now. Oh well. Das poker.

Last five songs at the gym this morning:

Godsmack - Releasing the Demons
Pantera - Walk
Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnite
Death Angel - Seemingly Endless Time
Dokken - Tooth and Nail

See ya out there!

Did you ever have one of those nights...

2009-02-24T20:20:00.000-08:00

I'd already played in two 18 player SNGs on Tilt, and done crappy in both. Combination of not getting good cards, getting good cards and crappy flops, and overplaying both situations. But while I was in the 18 players, the 90 player that I first signed up for finally kick started. And it was great. I got cards. I flopped sets, turned flushes, rivered boats, it was going great. Right before the break, I was sitting at 4 of 47 remaining, and blinds were somewhere around 500/1000. 1st place had somewhere around T27000, and I had around T19000. I was UTG and got dealt a couple of rags. I folded, and the whole table folded. As soon as the chips were swept to the BB, I got moved and literally dropped into the break with 4 min remaining. OK, I kinda got screwed out of a minute of the break, but not a major deal. But when we started up, the wheels fell off. The antes kicked in, and I went pretty card dead. T6off. Snowman Taterlegs. 25off. At one point I found T9off and followed 2 limpers, only to have BB pop a 3x raise. I was bleeding chips like a hemophiliac. A couple of times I woke up to real hands that actually held up. Once, I got AJd, flopped TPTK, and wound up doubling up when I rivered the flush. Very next hand, I got QQ on the button, raised it up 4x, and got one caller. Ace on the flop, and he shoves. 2 hands later, my AToff flops TPTK that I'm betting hard, until the J falls on the river. I bet out, and sure enough the lemur who'd been feeding the chip stack with nothing more than 2 overs (he was nice enough to show his KJoff, the jackoff) gets paid off on the river. Finally, we're down to 11 left, the top 9 pay, I've barely got 2 BB, and I wake up to s00ted Big Slick. Big Stack Bully in the SB calls with his K6 off, flops trips, and IGH steaming and out of the money. Das poker.

Last five songs to shuffle up in Media Player:

Slayer - War Ensemble
Erykah Badu - Sometimes
Fighting Gravity - Land of Ska
Sergio Mendez & Brazil 66 - Mas Que Nada
The Blues Brothers - Gimme Some Lovin'

See ya out there.

Creepiest. Thing. Evar. (Non-poker content, slightly NSFW)

2009-02-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

Ok. I'm extremely straight, and secure in my masculinity. Still, sometimes you come across something you really didn't wish that you'd seen. The problem with working out at a gym is that inevitably you'll come across the ever-present "naked dude." If you're going to change out of your sweaty workout clothes, shower, and get into clean street clothes, you'll have to be nekkid at some point. Generally, it's not a major issue. Guys all know this...keep your eyes pointed straight ahead and odds are you'll never see more than some guy's pecs or moobs, which you'll see at the beach anyway. Not a big deal. Sunday morning, though, I was needing to pour bleach into my eyes to try and erase what I saw. I'd finished my workout (last five songs - Five Finger Death Punch - The Bleeding, Megadeth - Holy Wars, Atreyu - Becoming the Bull, Pantera - Fucking Hostile, Suicidal Tendencies - You Can't Bring Me Down) and had just finished changing out of my workout clothes so that I could go home. I walked around the corner of the lockers, and standing there with his back to me was Naked Guy. Oh, but this wasn't any old Naked Guy. Nope. This one was special, and with the acknowledgement that my eyes never got below waist level, that should definitely say something. This guy had seemingly manscaped all the hair off of his back, except for one bit. You know the hot girls that you find on the porno websites, with the little wedge pie or landing strip pubes? This guy left a little triangle patch of back hair just above and pointing to his ass crack! First of all, who would think of this? Second, who was the brave soul who was drafted to perform said manscaping? A fucking little landing strip pointing at his asscrack!?!? Definitely not the way I really needed to start the day.

Success is where you find it...

2009-02-19T20:43:00.001-08:00

Played in a 90 on FT tonight, and it was one of those nights where it seemed like everything was working. 59off in the BB. 5 limp and I check. Flop comes down 595, and I double through the lemur who limped with cowboys. I call a raise with snowmen on the button, and the flop comes down all rags. EP raiser checks, and I bet. He calls. Turn is another brick, check, bet, call. River brings an 8, check, bet, raise, reraise, shove, I call, and double up through another lemur playing rockets. It was that kind of night, until the final table, where JJ was not OK. I'm in first place, and get JJ in MP. It folds to me, so I open for a 4x raise and get one caller. Flop comes down T-high, and the caller, who was one of the shorter stacks, shoved. Having a pair of overs, I called, figuring this guy for either AK or TPTK. I figured if he had QQ - AA, he would've reraised me PF, so I figured he was just making a move. Oops. He had a set of tens, and doubled through me. I fought my way back into first, and then third place doubled through 2nd place, to be way ahead of me. So we get down to five handed, and blinds are at 1500-3000. UTG, who is in first opens for 12000, and I wake up to JJ in the SB. I call, and see a flop of AJx, with two spades. I lead out with a pot bet, not wanting to make it easy for someone to chase the frush. UTG reraises and I shove. He calls, and flips over the spade Big Slick, for TPTK and 4 to the nut frush. The turn is a brick, but the river brings him his flushie, and IGH in 5th, with a $70 payout on a $12 buy-in. I was hoping for more, but positive money is positive money.

Last five songs heard at the gym tonight:

Pantera - Mouth for War
Joe Satriani - Summer Song
Cinderella - Somebody Save Me
Queensryche - Breaking the Silence
Quiet Riot - Slick Black Cadillac

What can I say? Hair metal is an awesome soundtrack for picking up heavy shit and putting it back down. See ya out there, peeps!

Still breathing, barely

2009-02-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not sure what it's like in your part of the world, but here in San Diego, we've got a wicked cold going around. This has honestly been the worst cold I think I've ever had. 102 degree fever, that all-over body ache, sore joints, and I could barely muster the energy to sleep. You know it's bad when the fact that your throat-tearing cough is finally producing phlegm is seen as a good thing. My doctor actually put me on Vicodin just so I could sleep through the night. Crazy stuff. And it's kept me off the felt. Which, based on this little gem, is probably a good thing.

PLO/8. 9 player, I'm sitting comfortably in 2nd. I raise preflop, and UTG, who had limped and had me covered, comes along. I flop the Royal draw, so there's no way I'm leaving, but UTG got enough to justify staying in, regardless of what I bet. I wasn't completely doomed until the river, but sure enough the river boat sinks my turned nut flush, and IGH in 5th. Big pile of meh. Still, the b/r is positive for 2009, so I'll keep grinding. Stay dry and stay healthy. See ya out there.

Epic Want (non-poker edition)

2009-01-28T12:34:00.000-08:00

So, are you bored during the doldrums of winter? Snowed in? Have a spare $200k that you are afraid to put into a bank somewhere? Try this.

Props to Jalopnik for giving me a dose of happy during the lunch break. Cue music: Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

Small Victories

2009-01-25T00:55:00.000-08:00

Well, after several midrange losses (4th of 9, 6th of 18), I finally found some money. Simple $11+1 9 player, and I finished 2nd. I had a pretty good balance of tight and aggressive, and found that after 3 or 4 folds in a row, I could pop a preflop bluff raise and take it down. I got sucked out a couple of times, including this one during 4 handed play:

Dealt to iamhoff [Ad 6s]
iamhoff calls 600
HotPanda folds
westside115 folds
KYLE49ers checks
*** FLOP *** [Td 9d 2d]
KYLE49ers checks
iamhoff bets 600
KYLE49ers raises to 1,200
iamhoff calls 600
*** TURN *** [Td 9d 2d] [Qc]
KYLE49ers bets 1,895, and is all in
iamhoff calls 1,895
KYLE49ers shows [6h 3d]
iamhoff shows [Ad 6s]
*** RIVER *** [Td 9d 2d Qc] [3s]
KYLE49ers shows a pair of Threes
iamhoff shows Ace Queen high
KYLE49ers wins the pot (7,690) with a pair of Threes

Yes, I shouldn't have limped, but A6 is not bad 4 handed and I'd been active the prior 3 hands, which is why I was in first place. But it happens. I made up for it with this hand:

Dealt to iamhoff [Ac 2h]
HotPanda folds
westside115 folds
KYLE49ers raises to 2,000
iamhoff calls 1,125, and is all in
KYLE49ers shows [As 9s]
iamhoff shows [Ac 2h]
Uncalled bet of 475 returned to KYLE49ers
*** FLOP *** [Qd Ah 2c]
*** TURN *** [Qd Ah 2c] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Ah 2c 2s] [Ts]
KYLE49ers shows two pair, Aces and Twos
iamhoff shows a full house, Twos full of Aces
iamhoff wins the pot (3,050) with a full house, Twos full of Aces

The poker gods taketh, and then they giveth back (occasionally). And anytime they give back to my bankroll, it's a good day.

Last 5 songs at the gym:

Keep Away - Godsmack
Crashed - Daughtry
Chinese Democracy - Guns N Roses (it's actually a pretty decent album, who knew)
Judas Kiss - Metallica (Death Magnetic is fucking awesome!)
The Pretender - Foo Fighters

See ya out there, peeps!

Nice to see some things never change...

2009-01-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

Wassup! This past few months has been very frustrating and non-conducive to poker (among other things). Back in November, the best doggie anywhere (a sample of which can be found here), Ginger, lost her battle with cancer (I HATE that fucking disease!). She's now in doggie heaven chasing bunnehs and kittehs, but life at Casa de Hoff has been way depressing. So depressing that DAPGF couldn't wait until past the holidays and got us a Dobie puppeh in early December, just before I signed up for the PokerStars WBCOOP tournament. Unfortunately, the puppy was a little older and had some serious behavioral problems (mainly aggression, towards both dogs and people). So the weekend of the tournament, I had to drive DAPGF back to the breeder in Paso Robles to return the dog. So we are once again without doggie. We do get the pick of the breeder's next litter, which should be born in March, but it still requires waiting.

So now that things are somewhat stable for the time being, I'm trying to get back into the groove. My morning dog walk and dog feed time is officially allocated to going running in the morning. Officially. Unofficially, I've been fighting off a cold and have been spending most of my time touching the snooze button. Meh. Hopefully I can find the motivation and get back on a track of dropping some of the weight I've gained over the past year. (Check out the progress here). Also in the vein of New Years Resolutions, I'm trying to be more timely in managing my bills, and to not fuck around as much at work. And most importantly, PLAY MORE POKER AND POST MORE BLOGGING STUFF!!

So here we are posting, and I'll talk about 2009 and how poker is treating me thus far. The first SNG I played was a 27 player, $2.25 on Tilt. I freaking won it, doubling my bankroll right there. A few days later, I followed that up with a couple of $6.50s that went nowhere (10th/45, 46th/90, 6th/9). And then tonight I jumped into a $12 18 player SNG. I was playing solid, and I ran in 1st or 2nd most of the way through it. We get to 4 handed, and I'm comfortably in 2nd. Then 4th place busted out, which allowed 3rd place to jump past me to 2nd place. Then came the bad hand. I'm UTG and get KQs...a pretty solid hand 3 handed. So I pop a raise. Big Stack Bully was in the BB, and came over the top. I figured him for a bully move, so I called. Unfortunately when the cards flipped, he had AK, including the s00ted Ace to my KQ. End result, A on the flop and IGH in 3rd. Still, it was a decent cash. I decided to press my luck and try one more...a $12 9 player. I'm running pretty solid through this one also, and we get to the bubble. I'm in 3rd, in the BB, and I find AJs. Fold, fold, and big stack bully in the SB comes over the top, as he's done all night. So I figure I've got a better than decent chance, even if he's got a real hand...strong, s00ted ace, nut flush draw, broadway draw, royal draw, plus, BSB is probably full of crap. And...
Yep. Q5off. I'm feeling pretty damn good until the flop of 2Q5, and Hoff is teh bubble boy. Still, the bankroll is positive for 2009, so I'll hold on to that little bit of goodness. DAPGF is teaching 3 nights this quarter, so I'm actually going to have some opportunities to jump on the felt. Maybe I'll bump into some of you. See ya out there!

It's time to get back in the groove

2008-12-09T10:14:00.001-08:00

Way too long without posting. Way too long without playing. I will have updates as to what's been going on in the life of Hoff soon, but I am finally getting my life back into a steadier pattern which will allow much more regular opportunities to play and blog. And to kick off my early New Year's Resolution, I must confess the following:

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 773926

That's right! It's back! The PokerStars WBCOOP! One of the most fun freerolls out there, and I'm registered. See ya there!

Where does the time go?

2008-10-27T07:43:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure when it got so hard to post. The new assignments at work keep me busy, and DAPGF seems to always have something to do when we get home. Not that there's anything wrong with that (wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean), but it does cut into the pokah and bloggah time. And the golf time, and the sleep time, and so on down the list.

So. I've actually had a bit of success recently at the tables, and doubled my bankroll. I've just been working on leaks in my game, trying not to get too loose later in the tournaments, and I have been getting lucky. Dumb calling station opponents certainly help. This was the first hand in a PLO/8 SNG that I wound up winning.

Dealt to iamhoff [9d 8h]
tikibars626: folds
Poker Own U: folds
Noid$614: folds
Bassinyou: calls 20
totem333: folds
12 oz m0use: folds
iamhoff: calls 20
WuTank: calls 10
d0r1t0s: checks
*** FLOP *** [8d 7s 4h]
WuTank: checks
d0r1t0s: checks
Bassinyou: checks
iamhoff: bets 40
WuTank: folds
d0r1t0s: folds
Bassinyou: calls 40
*** TURN *** [8d 7s 4h] [Td]
Bassinyou: bets 40
iamhoff: calls 40
*** RIVER *** [8d 7s 4h Td] [9c]
Bassinyou: bets 60
iamhoff: raises 140 to 200
Bassinyou: calls 140
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [9d 8h] (two pair, Nines and Eights)
Bassinyou: mucks hand
iamhoff collected 640 from pot

With blinds at only 10/20, 640 is a pretty nice pot to drag. And for the record, PLO is very much a "limp and see the flop" game. My opponent limped with Q9 off, so at the flop he had two overs (which is pretty much worthless in PLO), at the turn he had a gutshot, and at the river picked up 2nd pair, 3rd kicker. I guess he either thought I was bluffing, or figured that my river reraise was still small enough that it wasn't too much of a dent in his stack.

This one, the cards just fell my way.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Kh Qh]
d0r1t0s: folds
Poker Own U: folds
Noid$614: folds
Bassinyou: raises 450 to 600
12 oz m0use: folds
iamhoff: calls 525
WuTank: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kc 8s 8h]
iamhoff: bets 450
Bassinyou: raises 215 to 665 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 215
*** TURN *** [Kc 8s 8h] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Kc 8s 8h 4c] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [Kh Qh] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
Bassinyou: shows [Td As] (a pair of Eights)
iamhoff collected 2680 from pot

And that's pretty much how that one went.

Here's a case where Presto really was gold:
That was an 18 player NLHE SNG, and I managed to win that one, too. It's not been all perfect, because despite the updates, online poker is still rigged, as evidenced by this:
and this:
As much as I love s00ted cards, T3 is not a hand I would normally play. I will, however, check my BB option, and did so. 57 s00ted is a hand that I'll limp if the pot is opened, but I would never open-limp with it. So imagine my chagrin after shoving on the river, to find a feather plucking str8 flush staring up at me from the next seat over.

Oh well, so it goes. The important thing is that I've actually made some progress on my b/r. Maybe I can actually build on that. See ya out there, peeps.

Ups and Downs in the Land of Poker

2008-10-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well peeps, we gots some good times and some bad times. A random sampling:

Here is one of many PokerStars patented river beat downs. Admittedly I shouldn't have played it quite the way I did, but I was ahead when the chips got all in. Unfortunately, the big blind villain hit the river button and tripped up his queens to crack my flopped two pair.
As I said, I shouldn't have been in the hand, but so it goes. I made up for it later. With the blinds at 600/1200, the pots get big quickly. I was able to take advantage of someone who raised with either AQ or QQ-TT and didn't like the K on the flop.

Dealt to iamhoff [As 8s]
littlee3812: folds
bigstackfats: folds
krupnugz: raises 2400 to 3600
OutOfTheRed: folds
iamhoff: calls 3600
soarer1: folds
Riches2Rages: folds
chauncy: folds
*** FLOP *** [3s Kc 2h]
krupnugz: checks
iamhoff: checks
*** TURN *** [3s Kc 2h] [2s]
krupnugz: checks
iamhoff: bets 1200
krupnugz: folds
Uncalled bet (1200) returned to iamhoff
iamhoff collected 9600 from pot
iamhoff: doesn't show hand

If you don't take a swing at some of these passive tables, you probably won't win. Granted I was sitting on 4 to a flush and my bet represented a possible set of ducks, but it wasn't too likely I would've continued that hand if he'd bet. So it goes. Ultimately, I took 6th in the SNG, so all was relatively well.

Another recent tourney was the $40k guarantee rebuy madness on PStars. I was really pleased with my play during this tourney, although I did get quite lucky with some quality suckouts, such as hands like this:

Dealt to iamhoff [3d 7d]
bigstackfats: folds
armdplumber: raises 100 to 150
littlee3812: folds
xtigger44x: folds
OutOfTheRed: folds
iamhoff: calls 150
marbeau: calls 150
Zwarte Gat: calls 125
Moxie77: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [Qd 8d 6d]
Zwarte Gat: bets 600
Moxie77: folds
armdplumber: folds
iamhoff: raises 430 to 1030 and is all-in
marbeau: calls 530 and is all-in
Zwarte Gat: calls 430
*** TURN *** [Qd 8d 6d] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [Qd 8d 6d 7c] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Zwarte Gat: shows [7s Ad] (a pair of Sevens)
iamhoff: shows [3d 7d] (a flush, Queen high)
iamhoff collected 1000 from side pot
marbeau: shows [Js Qs] (a pair of Queens)
iamhoff collected 2340 from main pot

Like Daniel Negranu, I loves me some s000ted cards, especially ones that can connect. Another hand was this one.

Dealt to iamhoff [3d As]
iamhoff: calls 150
packpower04: folds
bigstackfats: folds
armdplumber: raises 150 to 300
littlee3812: folds
xtigger44x: folds
OutOfTheRed: folds
iamhoff: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [Ad Ks 3c]
iamhoff: checks
armdplumber: bets 300
iamhoff: raises 300 to 600
armdplumber: calls 300
*** TURN *** [Ad Ks 3c] [5h]
iamhoff: bets 450
armdplumber: folds
Uncalled bet (450) returned to iamhoff
iamhoff collected 2025 from pot

The table had shown a propensity to limp, so a hand that I might normally fold, like A3off, became a live hand. A min-raise preflop made me think that someone with a medium pocket pair wanted to make a play. An ace or a high pair would've generated a larger raise, so I figured my A3 had a decent shot. And a flop of AK3 rainbow hit my hand perfectly. The correct amount of aggression and I take down another 13BB. One that didn't quite go my way was this one.

Dealt to iamhoff [9h Th]
bigstackfats: calls 400
armdplumber: folds
xtigger44x: folds
OutOfTheRed: folds
iamhoff: calls 400
packpower04: folds
Riches2Rages: checks
*** FLOP *** [7d 3s 9c]
Riches2Rages: bets 800
bigstackfats: calls 705 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 800
*** TURN *** [7d 3s 9c] [Qd]
Riches2Rages: checks
iamhoff: checks
*** RIVER *** [7d 3s 9c Qd] [Kc]
Riches2Rages: checks
iamhoff: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Riches2Rages: shows [Ts 3h] (a pair of Threes)
iamhoff: shows [9h Th] (a pair of Nines)
iamhoff collected 190 from side pot
bigstackfats: shows [Js Td] (a straight, Nine to King)
bigstackfats collected 3690 from main pot

Sometimes I like to limp on the button with ATC...could be aces, could be the hammer, could be 9Ts000ted. You never know. Flop comes down giving me TPMK (Top Pair, Meh Kicker). BB bets enough to put UTG all-in. UTG calls, as do I. BB picked up bottom pair, meh kicker and tried to steal on a rag flop. UTG called only with a gutshot. So all the money got in and I was ahead. I survived the turn, but that damn river button hit and filled UTGs str8. I took the side pot, but lost about half of my stack. But for some silly reason, the gods decided to make it up to me. Short stacked, I took an uns00ted Dead Man's Hand and shoved.

Dealt to iamhoff [Ac 8s]
xtigger44x: raises 2620 to 3020 and is all-in
OutOfTheRed: folds
iamhoff: calls 695 and is all-in
packpower04: folds
Riches2Rages: folds
bigstackfats: folds
armdplumber: folds
Uncalled bet (2325) returned to xtigger44x
*** FLOP *** [5d 7s 6c]
*** TURN *** [5d 7s 6c] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [5d 7s 6c Ad] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
xtigger44x: shows [Kh Qd] (high card Ace)
iamhoff: shows [Ac 8s] (a straight, Four to Eight)
iamhoff collected 2165 from pot

Boom! Back in business! Followed up a few hands later by this gem.

Dealt to iamhoff [3h 3c]
iamhoff: calls 400
packpower04: folds
Riches2Rages: folds
bigstackfats: folds
armdplumber: folds
xtigger44x: calls 200
OutOfTheRed: checks
*** FLOP *** [3d Td 9c]
xtigger44x: bets 1475 and is all-in
OutOfTheRed: folds
iamhoff: calls 1475
*** TURN *** [3d Td 9c] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [3d Td 9c 9d] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
xtigger44x: shows [7s Ts] (two pair, Tens and Nines)
iamhoff: shows [3h 3c] (a full house, Threes full of Nines)
iamhoff collected 4325 from pot

Who doesn't love boating up? And then there were aces. Five times out of 6 opportunities I had rockets hold up. This hand also happened to actually be a fairly large pot.

Dealt to iamhoff [As Ad]
littlee3812: folds
packpower04: raises 1070 to 1670 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 1670
soarer1: folds
cream14: calls 480 and is all-in
krupnugz: folds
bigstackfats: folds
skippy3481: calls 1070
*** FLOP *** [2h 3c Tc]
skippy3481: checks
iamhoff: bets 1200
skippy3481: calls 565 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (635) returned to iamhoff
*** TURN *** [2h 3c Tc] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [2h 3c Tc 5c] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
skippy3481: shows [Kc Qh] (high card King)
iamhoff: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
iamhoff collected 1130 from side pot-2
packpower04: shows [Qd Kd] (high card King)
skippy3481 is sitting out
iamhoff collected 3570 from side pot-1
cream14: shows [9s 9d] (a pair of Nines)
iamhoff collected 2620 from main pot

Unfortunately, my run wasn't meant to last. After having aces finally get cracked, and then 3 hands in a row of s00ted paint whiffing flops, I found myself down to less than a blind, in the SB. So I went for it.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [6c Ks]
Riches2Rages: folds
littlee3812: folds
bigstackfats: folds
OutOfTheRed: raises 2155 to 4155 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 700 and is all-in
soarer1: folds
Uncalled bet (2155) returned to OutOfTheRed
*** FLOP *** [9d 4c 6d]
*** TURN *** [9d 4c 6d] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [9d 4c 6d Td] [Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
OutOfTheRed: shows [Kh Kc] (a pair of Kings)
OutOfTheRed collected 600 from side pot
iamhoff: shows [6c Ks] (a pair of Sixes)
OutOfTheRed collected 5700 from main pot

And IGH. Out of 3300 runners, I went out in 347th, which was ITM. I had only rebought once (for the initial double up) and did the add-on, so even though my prize wasn't huge, it covered my buy-in. All in all, not bad. I wish I could say the same for other tourneys, though. Rockets failed me at hand 17 here.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Ad Ah]
Ernest Evans: folds
ranman402: folds
BJW1000: raises 45 to 75
wairarapa2: calls 75
hsoinc: folds
iamhoff: raises 225 to 300
linobill: folds
sirrich111: calls 285
TheNuts1169: folds
BJW1000: calls 225
wairarapa2: calls 225
*** FLOP *** [Ks 7h 4c]
sirrich111: checks
BJW1000: checks
wairarapa2: bets 600
iamhoff: raises 600 to 1200
sirrich111: calls 1200
BJW1000: folds
wairarapa2: calls 600
*** TURN *** [Ks 7h 4c] [4s]
sirrich111: checks
wairarapa2: checks
iamhoff: bets 1360 and is all-in
sirrich111: raises 130 to 1490 and is all-in
wairarapa2: calls 1215 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (130) returned to sirrich111
*** RIVER *** [Ks 7h 4c 4s] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirrich111: shows [7s 7d] (a full house, Sevens full of Fours)
iamhoff: shows [Ad Ah] (two pair, Aces and Fours)
sirrich111 collected 290 from side pot
wairarapa2: shows [Kc Qc] (two pair, Kings and Fours)
sirrich111 collected 8475 from main pot

So it's been a bunch of ups and downs. What else is new? Hopefully this week I'm going to get some live poker in at Pechanga. That is the one advantage of this assignment of mine...every time I go to the client's location, I pass right by Pechanga Casino....should be fun. See ya out there, peeps!

Arrrrr Matey!

2008-09-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'd like to report a crime, and other assorted thoughts

2008-09-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

So me and a group of degenerate friends (hell, they're all degenerates...that's why they're my friends!) went out to Viejas Casino to get some live poker on last night. And it just wasn't. my. night. It was insane how pathetic my evening was. The 1/2 and 1/3 NL games had heavy lists, so we signed up for 3/6 limit kill. My cards were generally junk...J-2 off, 4-7 s00ted, 9-T off 3 hands in a row, T-3 off, etc. And you know how when you fold rags like 7-3 and the flop comes down 3-7-3? Yeah, that wasn't even happening. I was just getting nowhere near the flops. One hand I admit that I should've gotten away from was about an hour in. I got dealt A-T spades in MP, and joined 2 other limpers. Both blinds were calling stations and came along. The flop came down K-J-x with two spades. So I've got a draw to Broadway, the nut flush draw, and a backdoor Royal draw. A round of betting and the turn brings an ace. Betting gets capped, and I could've gotten away from an obviously made straight, but TP and all my draws kept me in. River was a ten, giving me two pair. This is where I totally should've gotten away from it, but I couldn't. Fortunately the betting didn't get capped, and I lost to someone who was playing Q-T. Beyond that, I think my play was fairly solid. I just was getting unlucky. I lost set over set, I was outkicked on sets twice (my J-T vs J-Q and K-6 s00ted vs. A-6), had K-K cracked by the SB calling station's 2 pair with 9-5 off, and so on. Still, it was good to get out and play some live pokah.

I had to get the taste of last night out of my mouth, so while watching football (DAPGF was out to a movie with friends) I jumped into an 18 player SNG on Stars. Unlike last night, things did go my way. One series of 6 hands saw me get AA, AK, QQ, and AK again. All held up for decent pots. We got down to HU, with my having about a 9:1 chip advantage. And then the wheels started to fall off.

Seat 6: iamhoff (22868 in chips)
Seat 9: duncin mac (4132 in chips)
iamhoff: posts the ante 50
duncin mac: posts the ante 50
duncin mac: posts small blind 300
iamhoff: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Qd Qs]
duncin mac: raises 1200 to 1800
iamhoff: raises 3000 to 4800
duncin mac: calls 2282 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (718) returned to iamhoff
*** FLOP *** [4h 2h 9s]
*** TURN *** [4h 2h 9s] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [4h 2h 9s 3c] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [Qd Qs] (a pair of Queens)
duncin mac: shows [Jd Ad] (a pair of Aces)
duncin mac collected 8264 from pot

Yep. Rivered an ace. But I'm still in the chip lead. And then the very next hand.

Seat 6: iamhoff (18736 in chips)
Seat 9: duncin mac (8264 in chips)
iamhoff: posts the ante 50
duncin mac: posts the ante 50
iamhoff: posts small blind 300
duncin mac: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [8d Kd]
iamhoff: calls 300
duncin mac: raises 1200 to 1800
iamhoff: calls 1200
*** FLOP *** [6d 5s 2s]
duncin mac: bets 1200
iamhoff: calls 1200
*** TURN *** [6d 5s 2s] [Kc]
duncin mac: bets 5214 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 5214
*** RIVER *** [6d 5s 2s Kc] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
duncin mac: shows [9s 9h] (three of a kind, Nines)
iamhoff: shows [8d Kd] (a pair of Kings)
duncin mac collected 16528 from pot

Again, the river cracks my hand, and now I'm down about 3 to 1 in chips. But I wasn't going to be denied. I picked up some blinds and minor pots, and then this gem of a hand hit.

Seat 6: iamhoff (13322 in chips)
Seat 9: duncin mac (13678 in chips)
iamhoff: posts the ante 50
duncin mac: posts the ante 50
iamhoff: posts small blind 400
duncin mac: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [As 8s]
iamhoff: calls 400
duncin mac: checks
*** FLOP *** [4s 2h 5s]
duncin mac: bets 800
iamhoff: calls 800
*** TURN *** [4s 2h 5s] [9s]
duncin mac: bets 12028 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 11672 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (356) returned to duncin mac
*** RIVER *** [4s 2h 5s 9s] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
duncin mac: shows [4c 3s] (a pair of Fours)
iamhoff: shows [As 8s] (a flush, Ace high)
iamhoff collected 26644 from pot

Two hands later I closed it out, and victory was mine. Didn't quite win back enough to cover last night's losses, but the victory nonetheless felt good.

Ran some errands in the Jeep on Saturday, so I got to listen to some Sirius Hair Nation (don't have satellite in the BMW yet). Last five songs to come up on Hair Nation:

Britny Fox - Girl School
Great White - Lady Red Light
Dokken - Breaking the Chains
Ratt - You Think You're Tough
Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger

While I was out running errands, I came across the Car of the Week. Due to the fact that we were actually in traffic, and the fact that Lamborghini's are somewhat speedy vehicles, even the older ones, I was only able to get one good shot of it.

You will be forgiven if you can't tell what this is. For the record, it is this. Lamborghini 400GT. Probably my favorite Lambo. Hell, I like 'em all, but this one just looks so sweet. In particular the gray metallic paint, Hallibrand wire wheels, and the original black and gold license plates. It looked absolutely pristine, and the V-12's exhaust wail raised the hair on the back of my arms...it may as well have been an opera, it sounded so incredible. I wish I'd been able to get more pictures, but as I stated, the combo of traffic plus speedy target was difficult to overcome. So here's a couple of photos off of the interwebs.

Absolutely effin' gorgeous, and with that the Lamborghini 400GT is our Car of the Week.

It is spider season here in San Diego. When I walk the doggie, she doesn't do nice things like staying on sidewalks and such. Nope, she walks along bushes, fences, and such, looking for bunnies, raccoons, possums and such. So I have to watch out for these:
I have no idea what type of spider this is, but this is the second one that I've seen that is this big. For the record, the body of this thing is almost as long as my thumb. I must say, it is somewhat unnerving to be walking along in the dark and come face to face with one of these.

Picked up Death Magnetic by Metallica. Absolutely awesome! Who the hell cares about St. Anger? This album stylistically seems to fit between ...And Justice For All and The Black Album, with some tones of Load. The tunes are great, the music is great, the lyrics are deep and dark. About the only problems I've noticed are related to Rick Rubin's production. There are some areas where the guitars are overdriven to the point of speaker distortion, regardless of volume. Distortion is fine, to a certain extent, but not to the point where it screws up the rest of the music. The other problem relates to drum production. The drum production on AJFA (think "One") is nice and deep, and the drum production on TBA ("Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters") and Load is tightened up but still full and deep. On Death Magnetic, the kick drum seems clipped, as though the lowest registers below 100 hz were zeroed out during the final mix and production. Some bands and songs sound ok that way, as though the instruments were tuned specifically for that range (think the drumming on Great White's Psycho City, specifically "Step on You"), but it sounds like the playing was meant to include it and it was clipped out during production. It's nothing major and it doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the disc, but as both a Metallica fan and someone who is into the sonic experience of the music (metal, some modern country like Gretchen Wilson or Rascal Flatts, jazz fusion like The Rippingtons or Marc Antoine, acid/house like Zero7 and Massive Attack), I like my music to sound good pure. Existential, I know, but so it goes. Regardless of that, I give Death Magnetic a 4.5 out of 5 thrown goats. \m/

And while finishing up this post, the Chargers gave another one away in the last minutes, with some help from Ed Hochuli and the other stupid zebras. The Chargers didn't deserve to win until near the end, and Ed blew a play dead that would've been a fumble recovery by the Bolts. Instead it simply made it easier for the Broncos to score a touchdown in the last 30 seconds of the game. And then the Chargers who can't seem to stop the passing game gave up a go ahead 2 point conversion!?! What in the holy hell is this about?!? But the Bolts tried, and almost got half way down the field to try to set up a game winning field goal, but they just couldn't pull it off and lost their second game in a row, in the final seconds. It isn't looking good for the boys in blue.

So long, peeps, and I'll see ya out there.

Actual Poker Content! Plus Bonus Non Poker Content!

2008-09-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Why I live in San Diego: Saturday morning, approximately 10 a.m. I'm in the Pacific Ocean near Blacks Beach, waiting for the next wave. I duck under a wave, surface, and as I'm clearing water off my face I hear the unmistakable wail of a high performance car engine. I glance at the Coast Highway bridge that heads southbound from Del Mar up to Torrey Pines Golf Course. Traveling across the bridge is a procession of three Lamborghinis (looked like Gallardos), two Ferraris (a 360 Modena and an F430), an Aston Martin (probably a DB9), and an older Lotus Esprit. Absolutely beautiful, and they all obliged for the people on the beach by revving the engines so that we could hear the wailing. Total car porn, and I was lucky I was in chest-deep water, so as to hide the monster woodie I was now sporting.

Played a 9 player SNG on FT tonight. Had one sequence of hands that was absolutely sick. The first hand was this:
Pretty standard fare. All-in preflop, QQ vs TT. The only really unusual thing here is that my bitches held up. Who knew? That's one I knocked out.

The second hand was kind of funn-ay. After the last hand, I was the big stack. So when it folded around to me in the cutoff, I look down and find AT s000ted. So I pop a 4x raise. The BB shoved on me. I figured him for a tilt-steal, after watching me take out a player just the hand before, plus a call only cost me another 1000 out of my 5k stack. So I called and groaned when BB flipped over rockets. "C'mon, let's see some diamonds!" And here's how the flop looked:
Sick! Flopping the nuts and just knowing how my table mates must be both hating me and fearing me. A second player knocked out by yours truly.

The third hand was even crazier. A leak in my game is I sometimes loosen up too much when I get a big stack, and play hands I really have no business playing. So I look down and find K5 s000ted. Before the deal I thought about just mucking whatever cards I got, because I figured after those last two hands people would either fold to me or come at me with guns blazing. But UTG and UTG+1 both limped, so I felt completely compelled to join the lemurs and limp. The button decides to make Baby Jebus cry and min-raises. There was no SB because I knocked him out, but all limpers called. The flop came down 3 6 5. I figure there's no way it hit anybody, and it checks around to me. I fire out a 3/4 pot-sized raise with my 2nd pair 2nd kicker. Button raises me 3x my bet. Something about it smells like unpaired paint, so I reraise to put him all in. He calls and here's what happened:
I was right! And my simple pair of 5s would've held up, but the dealer saw fit to make sure I was covered by giving me 2 pair. And the third player is gone.

Sadly, though, I didn't win. HU with the lead, I ran KJ into KQ, and then AQ into AK. End result, second place. Some cash is better than nothing, I suppose.

Last 5 songs heard at the gym on the mp3 player:

Babylon A.D. - Hammer Swings Down
Scorpions - Big City Nights (off of World Wide Live, of course)
High Voltage - AC/DC
High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night) - Def Leppard
Blackened - Metallica

Have I mentioned how much I love my gym? Who doesn't love a gym that is the closest "big" gym to a college campus. Oddly enough, not many college dudes come by, some, but not many. The co-eds on the other hand, sweet jumping Jesus they are freaking hot! Crazy stuff.

DAPGF is teaching, dog is sleeping, You Can't Stop Rock and Roll by Twisted Sister just finished and Eat the Rich by Krokus just shuffled on, and I've got a Captain & Coke sitting on the desk. Life ain't too bad, right now. Guess I'll test my luck and find a SNG to jump into. Good luck out there, peeps!

And some things never change...

2008-08-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well, still busy at the new work assignment, and still busy trying to keep the new commuter box running and hopefully get it smogged and registered. So last weekend, it up and dies in the middle of traffic. I've got 3/4 of a tank of gas, it's cranking over but not catching, WTF? Fortunately two guys pulled up behind me and ran interference so that we could push it out of the fast lane of traffic. While waiting for AAA to come pick me up, I start wondering what the problem could be. Fuel pump or fuel filter, perhaps? Half hour later at the mechanic, we have a winner! The fuel pump! Of course the one thing that is practically completely unrelated to any of the other issues (ABS/traction control, Airbag Control Module, Emissions Control system) that are still unresolved. Nope, just another $550 to fix an eminently "normal" wear and tear item on an 11 year old car. Just a big fat pile of meh. And to top it all off, the weekend before I'd gotten the car band-aided together by the mechanic in Chula Vista that I bought it from, and went to the smog shop. They checked it out (2nd time, mind you), and determined that the Secondary Air Pump (a potentially $400 to $800 repair, depending on who you talk to) wasn't showing up as "ready" on the smog computer. That mechanic gave me the number for the California Bureau of Automotive Repair Smog Referee (swear to God, that's the official title of them). Apparently, they can officially bypass a non-critical sensor (which this supposedly is) and take the smog readings that way. The only problem is that the State of California doesn't currently have a budget in place. And with a judge staying The Governator's executive order cutting the pay of state employees, they've done the next best thing and furloughed nonessential employees. And what do you know about that...it includes my featherplucking smog referees! So I can't even schedule an appointment with them until the Legislature and the Governator agree on a budget. Which is really frustrating because the car seems to run fine (with the new fuel pump, natch), and gets between 26 and 30 mpg on my trip up to Riverside, depending on how much I put my foot into it. At this rate, it may wind up being easier to just fix the air pump and be done with it. We shall see...

At least this past Saturday was enjoyable. Went out to Cal State San Marcos for the 12th Annual Stone Brewing Invitational Beer Festival. Outrageously good time. Excellent beer, great food, scaldingly hot girls, what's not to love? And no, DAPGF wasn't there, hence the enjoyment of the visually appealing female attendees. Relax, nothing untoward happened...it was just that certain aspects of the scenery were exceptionally enjoyable to view. In the interests of not being labeled a stalker, I didn't take any pics of the scenery. However, here are a few random shots of the event:

Made it to the gym tonight. Another casualty of all this work and car drama is I've barely gotten to the gym 5 or 6 times since the beginning of July. And as a result of that, I've packed on 10 pounds that I'd so recently gotten rid of! Damn you job! And damn you car! And damn you smog referees! I also haven't even been to the driving range in like 3 or 4 months. Maybe the bad habits in my swing will have been forgotten and I can relearn how to play properly! Who knows? In any respect, I'd recharged and reloaded the MP3 player, and really came across a broad mix of stuff to listen to while picking up heavy shit and putting it back down. The last five songs I heard at the gym tonight:

Disturbed - A Welcome Burden
Prince - Let's Go Crazy
The Alarm - The Road
REO Speedwagon - Riding The Storm Out
Toad the Wet Sprocket - So Alive

I used to listen to a bunch of the classic rock and alternative stuff when I rode the train, so I shuffled some of it into the mix for something different.

Poker. I managed to play in several SNGs and a couple of MTTs on Stars tonight. Boy did I get my ass handed to me. The brain just wasn't in it, and I made several stupid moves. That being said, this hand is pretty indicative of how my night went:

Dealt to iamhoff [5s Ac]
ZXBOOGYMAN: folds
w.t. spartan: raises 400 to 600
iamhoff: calls 420 and is all-in
vetstud: folds
berserk37: folds
fioreB: folds
Brueske1: folds
red99971: folds
Uncalled bet (180) returned to w.t. spartan
*** FLOP *** [8h 3d 8d]
*** TURN *** [8h 3d 8d] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [8h 3d 8d 2h] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
w.t. spartan: shows [Ah 3s] (a full house, Eights full of Threes)
iamhoff: shows [5s Ac] (three of a kind, Eights)
w.t. spartan collected 1140 from pot

Hell, I was in one of the $4.40 180s and wound up with these stats:

You finished in 82nd place (eliminated at hand #19750068756).

33 hands played and saw flop:
- 0 times out of 4 while in small blind (0%)
- 1 times out of 4 while in big blind (25%)
- 7 times out of 25 in other positions (28%)
- a total of 8 times out of 33 (24%)

Pots won at showdown - 0 out of 1 (0%)
Pots won without showdown - 0

24% is at the high end of average for percentage of flops seen, but I don't think it was outrageous, and I wasn't playing pure pot odds and calling with a 92off just because there were 6 limpers in front of me. It was simply a baaaad night on the tables.

Car issues notwithstanding, I seem to be getting a handle on the work thing, so hopefully I can get back into a steady blogging routine (hell, Twitter is saving my ass in that respect), and find my groove on the felt. See ya out there! If you can't make it, then you should really check out the best online poker games on the net. You can play all your favourite games at this top casino online. They have the best odds, and everything from slots and bingo to plenty of information about roulette and blackjack strategy.

July has kinda been teh suck

2008-07-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

Pretty much an entire month spent searching for a decent beater car to commute in. All my spare time on teh interwebs was spent on Autotrader.com and Craigslist, and time that would've gone for such things as golf, gym, or buying groceries. Certainly there's been very little time on the digital felt. Finally I thought I'd found one, in a 1997 BMW 328i. Salvage title, but it was straight and ran smooth. It had its scars and problems, but it was loaded, only showed 81k on the odometer, and the airbags were still in it. And because of the salvage title, the price was phenomenally low. As it turns out, one of the critical things that needs fixing is preventing me from getting the car smogged and registered here in Cali. I've spent days visiting several garages and repair shops who admittedly work with the guy who sold me the car and have cut me good deals to do work on it. Finally, after spending 5 hours standing in the sun at a wrecking yard in Chula Vista on Tuesday (and not feeling the earthquake because I was too far south), the check engine light was out and (supposedly) the vacuum leak was fixed. It was the end of the day, so I couldn't get over to the guy who I was referred to for smog, and Wednesday I was up in Riverside County, and I'd already made an appointment to get the Jeep in for an oil change and brakes on Thursday. So Friday it would be. Except for when I left work Thursday afternoon, the damn check engine light was on again! I pulled over and lifted the hood. I did check and sure enough, the engine was there. But the light remains. So Friday morning (probably 8 hours from now, which is currently 12:23 a.m.) I'll go back to the yard in Chula Vista to see if they can band-aid my car together enough to pass smog. If they do and there's enough time in the day, I'm going straight to the smog shop to get it smogged. Once that's done, registration and plates are mine! Then I'll probably sell the damn thing. We shall see...

Thursday evening, for a change of pace, DAPGF went out for drinks with a friend, so Hoff had some time for the poker machine. I managed to play 3 sngs, the first of which was one of those "Super Turbos" that are on Full Tilt, in which I managed to place second. That was the end of my luck, because the next one, an 18 player SNG had this result:

Yeah, it's always fun to get your aces cracked. Aaaaaannnnd Hoff is sent to the rail. So SNG #3. Maybe this time will give me a shot.

Yeah, it's always fun to flip the carsd over and realize that you've got your opponent dominated. And then they catch a 2 outer on the turn to really screw you in the ass.

I'm tired and I'm going to bed. See ya out there!

Assorted Stuff

2008-07-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

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!

Random Thoughts From a Busy Week and Weekend

2008-06-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Hey! Real Poker Content! And Bonus Non-Poker Content!

2008-06-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

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!

Holy Crap! Actual Poker Content!

2008-06-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Stuff and more stuff

2008-05-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

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!

Poker and Non-Poker...that oughta cover it!

2008-05-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

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!

Maybe it's the heat or...

2008-04-29T00:10:00.000-07:00

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!

Teh Randomness of Crap

2008-04-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well, this was not a good evening on the felt. DAPGF called me up at work today to tell me she's going out with friends tonight. Woo hoo! Hoff gets unexpected time on the poker machine! So I fire up a nice 18 player Tier 1 SNG. I go out in 14th. I fire up a 6.50 18 player SNG. I go out in 14th. I fire up a 2.25 18 player SNG. I go out in 12th. A typical hand would see me checking my J6off in the BB, and seeing a flop of A J 2 rainbow. I check, and someone min bets and I decide to call. Turn is a 6, giving me 2 pair. I lead out with a pot bet, and get called. River is another 2, only I don't realize that anybody who paired their ace just counterfeitted my 2 pair. So I bet, someone shoves, I call, and lose 2/3 of my stack. That was typical. But two hands that really present the flavor of the evening are these:

spgmolly19 posts the small blind of 40
iamhoff posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Qs As]
LuckyLadyLuck folds
freddyboy88 raises to 280
XPOKERACESX folds
hornet3a folds
spgmolly19 folds
iamhoff calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Qd Ac 8h]
iamhoff checks
freddyboy88 bets 560
iamhoff calls 310, and is all in
freddyboy88 shows [Ah Kc]
iamhoff shows [Qs As]
Uncalled bet of 250 returned to freddyboy88
*** TURN *** [Qd Ac 8h] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Ac 8h Jc] [Kd]
freddyboy88 shows two pair, Aces and Kings
iamhoff shows two pair, Aces and Queens
freddyboy88 wins the pot (1,220) with two pair, Aces and Kings
iamhoff stands up

I was ahead when all the money went in, so what could I do? The other one was this:

34shortstack34 posts the small blind of 80
iamhoff posts the big blind of 100, and is all in
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Ks 6c]
cassaar folds
success11 folds
arvinjr folds
smendezr folds
shortyw4lgs folds
34shortstack34 calls 20
34shortstack34 shows [5d 4c]
iamhoff shows [Ks 6c]
*** FLOP *** [Ts 8h As]
*** TURN *** [Ts 8h As] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 8h As 4s] [Ad]
34shortstack34 shows two pair, Aces and Fours
iamhoff shows a pair of Aces
34shortstack34 wins the pot (200) with two pair, Aces and Fours
iamhoff stands up

I'd already been nuked a couple of hands prior, so I was all in on the BB. I figured a K6 would at least give me a chance to not be dominated. And when SB flipped over his 54, I figured I had a shot. Until the turn, and I get busted on a pair of 4s. That's how my night has gone.

Nothing special was said by the DJ, but I assume that they programmed this series of selections on purpose. What I'm calling the Sirius "Innuendo Mega-mix," heard last night while driving home from pet-sitting:

Whitesnake - Slide It In
W.A.S.P. - F**k Like a Beast
Kiss - Love Gun
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Motley Crue - Girls, Girls, Girls

Last 5 songs to hit the shuffle at the gym tonight:

The Killers - Somebody Told Me
Innerpartysystem - Don't Stop
Abandoned Pools - Mercy Kiss
Lost Prophets - The New Transmission
The Police - Synchronicity II

Car of The Week:

This week's Car of The Week was nominated because of a non-factory feature that was "installed" on the exterior of the car, no doubt by a very close friend. This car is a mid-70s Chevrolet Nova. A fine example of what is typically referred to as the "malaise" era of American cars. Back when the first oil crunch hit, combined with the first concerns about vehicle emissions, the 55 MPH speed limit, and newfound desires for crash protection, vehicles were downsized, fitted with huge chrome bumpers, and the mighty V8s of musclecars past were strangled by lower compression ratings and catalytic converters. Corvettes of that era were lucky to hit 160 hp. You can buy a Honda Civic right now that has almost 200 hp, and the top Corvette, the mighty ZR1 comes from the factory with 620 hp. But back then, things weren't good, and this car is a prime example. Old Novas from the late 60s could be had with factory big block V8s that put out simply absurd amounts of horsepower. And if that wasn't enough, special dealerships like Don Yenko (the rough equivalent of a local AMG setup) were selling modified cars fully capable of bypassing Ludicrous Speed and going Plaid. Anyway here's the car:

This fine vehicle was spotted recently at the Solana Beach train station, north of San Diego. On the surface, it looks like a typical redneck vehicle, with the Centerline rims, rally stripes and SS badges, hood pins, and a hole cut for the air cleaner to clear the inevitable Holley 4 bbl carburetor. But the reason it was nominated should be visible along the passenger door, rear quarter panel and rear quarter window.

That slight discoloration just ahead of the door handle is what caught my eye in the setting sunlight. Upon closer examination, it turned out to be barf! Probably beer-based...no doubt Bud or maybe Pabst Blue Ribbon. Either way, that sealed the deal, and the COTW was captured!

Have fun out there!

The Randomness of Posting

2008-03-30T20:47:00.001-07:00

Pretty damn random when posting happens, but those moments I actually have available to post are pretty random themselves. So without further adieu...

Poker.

Fuck am I running cold. Not that I've had too many games over the past month, but I think I managed one win, in a damn HORSE sng on Tilt. The rest of my luck has been very consistent with past play. I go card zombie, where my cards look to be live preflop (s00ted Ax, KQs, AQ, snowmen, etc.), but go dead when I whiff the flop. And this is usually approaching the bubble, when the blinds are higher. So I've got s00ted A4 in LP. Blinds at 800/1600, and two limpers in front of me. I join the lemmings and limp, only to have the SB min-raise. With a pot like that, I've got crazy pot odds and pretty much have to call and see the flop. And when it misses my suit entirely and consists of K9T with 2 to a different flush, when someone bets I'm going to fold, and just bleed chips all over the screen. Here's another recent example of how my luck is going. This one caused me to bubble out of a 90 player SNG.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5770323198: $10 + $1 KO Sit & Go (43917593), Table 8 - 800/1600 Ante 200 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:47:46 ET - 2008/03/24
Seat 1: iamhoff (3,620)
Seat 4: iufan82559 (46,400)
Seat 5: T_227 (40,025)
Seat 6: MyEntourage (40,096)
Seat 7: PuukerWang (37,641)
iamhoff antes 200
iufan82559 antes 200
T_227 antes 200
MyEntourage antes 200
PuukerWang antes 200
PuukerWang posts the small blind of 800
iamhoff posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Ah 5h]
iamhoff: vn
iufan82559 folds
T_227 folds
MyEntourage folds
PuukerWang raises to 3,200
iamhoff raises to 3,420, and is all in
PuukerWang calls 220
iamhoff shows [Ah 5h]
PuukerWang shows [6s 3s]
*** FLOP *** [5d 8d 4d]
*** TURN *** [5d 8d 4d] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [5d 8d 4d 6d] [Jh]
iamhoff shows a pair of Fives
PuukerWang shows a pair of Sixes
PuukerWang wins the pot (7,840) with a pair of Sixes

Given that it was the bubble, if FuukerWang's raise had dropped before I put chips in, I likely would've just folded, but given that I'd just put half my stack into the BB, I kind of felt committed and figured my s00ted ace had as good a shot as any. As it happens, I was a 61-38 favorite when the money went in. Postflop, having paired my 5 but putting a str8 draw for fucknuts on the board, I was down to a 56-39 favorite. The turn screwed me, but gave me a shot at tying for either a flush or a str8, but no such luck. That's just how I've been running lately. A big fat pile of meh.

Last five songs to come up on the shuffle at the gym this morning:

Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart
Atreyu - Blow
Bad Religion - Los Angeles is Burning
Metallica - Ain't My Bitch
Testament - Electric Crown

Car of the Week

This car was spotted parked on the street in front of an El Torito restaurant near UC San Diego here in La Jolla. Traffic was kind of crappy when I noticed this absurdly amusing ride, so I quickly shoved the cell phone out the sunroof and hoped that I got at least one remotely decent pic of our subject. This particular whip harkens back to my inaugural COTW post, where I noted the usual types of skyjacked vehicles and the absurdity of shoving Dub6s and bigger under front wheel drive unibody sedans. Sadly I'm seeing more and more of them, including this one:

This is a circa 1990 Buick LeSabre that is reaching for the sky. In addition to the ginormous rims, this fine example also has that latest and greatest automotive accessory, the 2008 equivalent to fake cell phone antennas and gold emblem kits back in the 90s: the fake fender vents on the front fenders. These have gotten so bad that even the manufacturers are adding them to vehicles that would have no conceivable need for fender vents, such as the 2008 Ford Focus:

And yes, the Focus vents are simply glued on plasti-chrome bits that fit into a groove molded into the fenders. To our COTWs credit, Buick has a history of including fender vents (portholes or venti-ports in Buick-speak) on their cars, but they didn't really start making a comeback until sometime around 2002, and then only on the Park Avenue. BMW brought them out on the M3 in 2003 or so, and Land Rover (owned at the time by BMW coincidentally) put vertical vents on the then new Range Rover. But to see them on a Focus is bad. To go to the effort to install vents on a car that never had them is worse. But to go to your neighborhood auto accessories store and buy non-functional vents that simply stick on the fenders of your ride tops it all. I'm seeing vents like on our COTW showing up on Dodge Rams, older Mitsu Eclipses, and even an early 90s Toyota Supra turbo. But added to an early 90s American family sedan sitting on Dub6s, just brings an amused smile to my face. So we honor this fine example of GM's former marketplace domination, pimped to the heavens. Too bad it's missing the Landau roof.

Last five songs to come up in the library shuffle while working on this post:

Aquabats - The Cat With Two Heads
Pantera - Mouth For War
Kansas - Play The Game Tonight
Kiss - Rise To It
Prince - Housequake

Back to the grind. See ya out there.

Hilarious non poker content

2008-03-26T15:45:00.001-07:00

Ever been caught in a lie? Ever caught someone in a lie? A member at the Maryland Street Scene forum, Fresh C280 decided that he'd show off a pic of his Mercedes CLS 55, a $90k car. Now, Fresh is apparently 19, and lives in Owings Mills, MD. I know nothing about OM, but several other forum members state that it's nothing special. Everyone, though, questions the kid's story, including the assertion that his pic was taken in New York (as in this week), even though the garage door is open and the weather is obviously nice. It gets even better when the guy who actually owns the Benz (and lives in Miami) gets into the thread and even posts live pics from his garage. It is some of the funniest shit I've read since the Brandi 2+2 threads. Check it out.

I'm Still Here, Dammit

2008-03-19T14:56:00.001-07:00

For just about the past month, work has been kicking the ever living crap out of me. Working on the train, working on the weekend, working late at night, etc. In fact, until last night, I had managed to log (I think) a total of 3 SNGs in the past month, 1 of which landed me a bubble-boy finish and the other two were pathetically early departures (7th out of 9 and 31st out of 45). I did play last night, but my results were a giant bucket of fail. When I have a chance to put together a real post, I'll include some donkariffic hand histories, some minor musical observations, and some long overdue Car of the Week samples (man, downtown Santa Ana is a goldmine for "interesting" automobiles). In any respect, I'm still here, just trying to find a way to get some time in on the felt. See ya out there. And I'll leave you with this, and yes it really is fur glued onto the car.

And just for good measure...

2008-02-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

So later in the afternoon after my previous post, I jumped into a micro-limit 18 player SNG. I figured that enough time should've passed and the bad streak would be done. Or at least the river streak. And sitting comfortably in 2nd place out of 5, just outside of the bubble, this happened:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Ad As]
CASTLECLR: folds
62taner62: folds
iamhoff: raises 2400 to 3000
alexdetls: raises 2400 to 5400
cjantzen: folds
iamhoff: raises 1643 to 7043 and is all-in
alexdetls: calls 1643
*** FLOP *** [Qd Th Td]
*** TURN *** [Qd Th Td] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Th Td Jh] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
alexdetls: shows [Js Jc] (a full house, Jacks full of Queens)
iamhoff: shows [Ad As] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
alexdetls collected 14936 from pot

OK, it wasn't quite a river, but it was the 2nd time my aces got cracked to send me home. Again, I'm not backing down with aces, so I'm not disappointed with my preflop shove. In an EXTREMELY dispassionate look at things with a hard eye at second-guessing, I suppose I could've smooth-called his reraise preflop. I'm on the button and villain is the SB, so on the flop he'd be the first to act. Being the big stack at the table (covering me 11,700 to 7100), he might have shoved on the flop. I don't know. The fact that he reraised my 5x PF raise with JJ (I guess JJ really R OK) tells me that he probably would've bet out. Maybe not, I'll never know. If he would've checked, either A) I shove (remember, I've only got 1600 at this point) and he folds, or B) I shove and he calls. The only way I see any way to have won is if he check/folded, and seeing how he played JJ preflop, I don't think he would've. Basically, it was just another massive bucket of Fail. And life goes on.

It's Nice To See Some Things Don't Change

2008-02-16T14:07:00.001-08:00

Like probably most of you, it had been a while since I'd played on PokerStars. We all know that online poker is rigged, and that PokerStars is the home of the infamous River button. But I had a little extra sitting around in the bankroll, so I decided to drop a bit into Stars and give it a run. 18 and 45 player SNGs, what I like and traditionally have done reasonably well in. Now all I needed was an opportunity to play. Lo and behold, DAPGF had to run some errands this afternoon! We now have motive AND opportunity. Sounds like a crime is about to take place. Actually 3 crimes.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Ac As]
iamhoff: raises 200 to 250
jobob7: folds
theburglar4: raises 400 to 650
funtimeharry: folds
papyguy: folds
A V0id In Me: folds
Hochkar@ter: calls 600
iamhoff: raises 505 to 1155 and is all-in
theburglar4: raises 765 to 1920 and is all-in
Hochkar@ter: calls 1270
*** FLOP *** [3c 4d 9d]
*** TURN *** [3c 4d 9d] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [3c 4d 9d 4h] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hochkar@ter: shows [Ks Kd] (a full house, Kings full of Fours)
theburglar4: shows [Jc Js] (two pair, Jacks and Fours)
Hochkar@ter collected 1530 from side pot
iamhoff: shows [Ac As] (two pair, Aces and Fours)
Hochkar@ter collected 3490 from main pot

No way in hell do I fold aces preflop, I don't care how many raises and reraises there are. And I'm looking at a very nice triple-up, until the featherplucking river hit giving villain's KK a boat to crack my aces.

The second one was this:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Jc Kd]
Le_FRier: folds
Premier: folds
atsanicerack: folds
Gutbusta: folds
iamhoff: raises 150 to 200
farlzz: raises 650 to 850
MVPTomBrady: folds
iamhoff: calls 650
*** FLOP *** [Td 7d Jh]
farlzz: bets 353 and is all-in
iamhoff: calls 353
*** TURN *** [Td 7d Jh] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Td 7d Jh 6s] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
farlzz: shows [Ac Kh] (a pair of Aces)
iamhoff: shows [Jc Kd] (a pair of Jacks)
farlzz collected 2456 from pot

Now, you might question why I was calling a hefty reraise with KJoff, but villain was in the SB and had been a reraising steal-monkey all over the place. I took it to be a simple steal from the blinds, and I had a sufficient stack to give it a shot. And when the money got all in, I was ahead. Unfortunately, someone pushed that damn river button and left me with less than a blind. Next hand my A2 went nowhere but home.

And the final for the day:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [4s Ac]
cuckyboy: folds
AZ SON: folds
SirNiro: calls 400
Ruggers15: folds
Bruisa: folds
Bk_Mithran: folds
JEDepies: folds
bumbumpeng is disconnected
bumbumpeng is connected
bumbumpeng: folds
iamhoff: checks
*** FLOP *** [5h 7d 2s]
iamhoff: checks
SirNiro: checks
*** TURN *** [5h 7d 2s] [3c]
iamhoff: checks
SirNiro: bets 400
iamhoff: calls 400
*** RIVER *** [5h 7d 2s 3c] [7s]
iamhoff: bets 780 and is all-in
SirNiro: calls 780
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iamhoff: shows [4s Ac] (a straight, Ace to Five)
SirNiro: shows [5c 5d] (a full house, Fives full of Sevens)
SirNiro collected 3585 from pot

I was the BB here, and checked my option. In a dispassionate review of hindsight, it would've made more sense to reraise on the turn, but I doubt villain would've folded a set of 5s. Either way, that damn river button hit one more time, giving villain a boat to sink my wheel. And now I remember why I haven't played on Stars in a while.

Stay Classy.

Couple of things...

2008-02-12T14:30:00.000-08:00

Jericho returns tonight!! 10 pm ET/PT, 9 in flyover country on your local CBS affiliate. Watch it and don't make me have to send more nuts to CBS again. Climb out of the malaise that is Dance Wars, The Biggest Loser, and Wife Swap. Watch a real show!

Actually played some poker last night. 2 45 player NLHE sngs, went out in 13th and 22nd. The 13th place one was a pain because I'd actually been playing some of my best poker in a while. The two hands that hurt me was, following 2 limpers with KTs, I flopped 4 to a flush (4s 6s 4d) and hit two pair on the turn. I bet it up, only to be smooth called by the BB. As it turned out, he checked his 42off BB special and ate half of my stack. My bad (take your pick) for either being in the hand at all with a KTs (following 2 limpers, mind you) or not raising it up PF. The death hand was 2 hands later, when I got all in PF with AQs. It wasn't too much for the BB to call me with his 95off and proceed to hit two pair. IGH. I was also in the mood to play some Stud, but no sngs were spinning up, so I found a 2 table HORSE sng to hit. So I busted out of the NL while still going in the HORSE one, and fired up another 45 player NL. I was just aggro-donkalicious in that one, and went out in 22nd place, after not being able to get away from my 2nd nut flush, knowing that Villain did in fact hold the ace. Yet the HORSE moseyed on. The final table bubble was almost comical, as those of you who regularly play HORSE know. Lots of people get short stacked at the same time. Sure as hell, the other table busted and they merged with our table as it was dealing. We were playing Stud/8 at that point, and the limits were 400/800. I wound up getting 4 people all in against me, and my deuce to six straight scooped the whole pot! I gave a lot back 2 hands later when my 8s full of 4s in Stud/8 lost to quad bitches. So we get down to HU, and Villain has me shaded 60-40 on chips. But I just turned into an aggro-monkey and stole blinds like it was nobody's business. HU, why not play ATC poker? End result, I freaking won and made back most of what I bought into the other sngs for.

A Taxi Cab Company of Orange County (yes, that's the official name) sucks at dispatching cabs on time. Tuesday and Friday I called for a cab 20 minutes or so ahead of when I wanted it, and 35 minutes ahead of when I NEEDED it, so I could catch my train back to San Diego. The first time the dude was just way too late, and picked me up at the time the train was scheduled to leave. No way to make it. The Friday one, the guy picked me up with what would've been enough time had he known where he was going. Unfortunately, I get the only white cab driver in Santa Ana, and he's apparently the only one who doesn't know where the damn train depot is! We pulled into the bus drop off area because it was closer to the train platform, just in time to see my Amtrak Pacific Surfliner pulling out of the station. Yeah. This was the wrong time of the month to explain to DAPGF (who was being neither D nor P at that point) why we were going to be late going out to dinner and so on. She teaches on Thursday night (Valentine's Day, for those who need the reminder) so we're celebrating on Friday. I think I'm going to leave work early enough to walk to the train depot (which is what I normally do), so that the only way I'll miss the train is if I get run over in a crosswalk or shot in a drive-by.

Last night at the gym, the last 5 songs to come up in the shuffle whilst on the elliptical hamster machine:

Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight
Bad Religion - Los Angeles is Burning
Dream Theater - Pull Me Under
LA Guns - Rip and Tear
Stormtroopers of Death (S.O.D.) - Speak English or Die

Have fun out there, and Stay Classy.

Assorted Randomness

2008-01-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

I gotta keep telling myself that working is better than being unemployed. That being said, my schedule is hella sucky. It's been over a week since I fired up the poker machine, and even longer since I've set foot into my blog-o-tubes. So something to tide you over until I have some poker content to discuss.

Last five naughty Sirius tunes (taken from both Hair Nation and Buzzsaw, all heard in the space of an hour or so)

Slide It In - Whitesnake
Long Stick Goes Boom - Krokus
Girl's Got Rhythm - AC/DC
Big Bottom - Spinal Tap (FTW!!!)
Love Gun - KISS

Funnay picture of teh day:

You've most likely seen the minivans and SUVs sporting those stickers that show how big the family is. Usually represented by stick figures,
feet,
or flip flops

But in the parking lot of the train depot in Santa Ana, California, I saw an older Ford Explorer with a slightly different style of sticker.

If you click to embiggen and look closely, you'll see that the characters resemble those seen on signs throughout the San Diego area, particularly in areas where illegal immigrants from Mexico attempt to cross the freeway to avoid the Border Patrol.
What made it fantastically amusing was not that the vehicle was spotted in Santa Ana, a region with a population of probably 60% or greater Hispanics, but that it was actually being driven by a Hispanic!

On the subject of Santa Ana, with this new assignment, I've gotten to see a lot of Santa Ana up close and personal. I walk almost two miles, 3 days per week through downtown and a part of the ghetto (sadly a lot of Santa Ana is ghetto) on my way to the train depot. (Side note, the cabbies don't give a shit either. I usually catch a cab in the morning to make sure I'm on time, and one day the cab sideswiped the bumper on an older S-class Mercedes as he was pulling up to the curb to let me out. I wasn't going to say anything, and the cabbie tore out of there as soon as I cleared the door of the cab...crazy) There's a coin-op laundromat that actually has a bank of washers that are located outside of the building, under a carport! Lots of cops patrolling the area, which led me to a conclusion. If I was going to partake in some sort of criminal activity like drug dealing, running prostitutes, etc., I wouldn't drive a flashy Escalade or 300c. I wouldn't roll in a Mercedes S-class or Bentley. I wouldn't even roll a new Honda Accord. I would find myself a 5 year old Ford Crown Victoria with no markings on it, maybe a trunk-mounted antenna, and no wheel covers at all. Something like this:

The reason I say this particular vehicle is because there are about a million of them running around Santa Ana, some with "California Exempt" plates and some with normal issue plates. They're not all cop cars, but that adds to the camouflage opportunities. In this area, you've got City of Santa Ana (cops, building inspectors, city engineers, housing inspectors, etc.), County of Orange (same plus health inspectors, transit inspectors), Orange County Transportation Authority managers, assorted State of California court and department of justice officials, and a variety of Federal court, Justice, immigration, and so on. So all you need is a car that blends in, and you can get away with murder!

So as I've noted, I'm working for a large bureaucratic organization. One interesting thing I've noticed is the extreme difference in mindset in the government bureaucracy versus a for profit company. In my office complex, when people go into the bathroom, they tend to do their business and be on their way. Occasionally you hear clicking and beeping from the stalls, because people who have their Treos or Crackberries are texting or playing games while doing their business. Fine. Just about every time I go into the bathroom in the government megaplex I work at, either coming or going I come across some guy (always someone different, too) carrying a coffee mug and a newspaper! Break time!!

Finally, a sign of the coming apocalypse. I give to you, the most pointless, most pathetic, most absurd attempt to create a food that is acceptable to both kids and their parents.

Reduced sugar Frosted Flakes. So would that then be called "Flakes?" The whole friggin point is the "Frosted" part of the name. Without that, it's just Corn Flakes with a better mascot.

Have a great day!

And You Shall Know Them By Their Beer

2008-01-20T10:41:00.001-08:00

Patsies vs. My Bolts, the beer edition. Representing the Patsies, Samuel Adams. And in the San Diego corner, Stone Brewing.

Samuel Adams beers are much like the 2007 Patriots. Lots of success (sales), lots of appeal. And here's where we find the disparity.

To appeal to the wimps, the weaklings, and the unwashed masses, they created a freaking light beer!!!

On the other hand, we have Stone Brewing, and their signature beer:

No appealing to the masses here. Just attitude. Pure and simple. I like attitude.

Which beer would you rather drink? Which one asks you whether you are worthy? Which team is going to win?

Go Bolts!!!

GO BOLTS!!!!!!

2008-01-20T00:27:00.000-08:00

It's gonna be LEGEN...

wait for it...

oh it's gonna be crazy...

DARY!!!!!

Bill Bellicheater, this is for you.

San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
Charge!

We're coming your way,
We're gonna dazzle you with our super play.
The time has come,
You know we're shooting for number one.
With thunderbolts and lightning
We'll light up the sky,
We'll give it all we've got, and more
With the Super Charger try!

San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
Charge!

We've got a plan,
We're gonna do it for our super fans.
All we seek,
Is the goal line to victory.
We'll ignite you, excite you
With high voltage play.
We won't let up a minute,
We're going all the way - all the way!

San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
Charge!

We're coming your way
With the Super Chargers' play.
We're coming at you.
Now we're coming through!

San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
San Diego Super Chargers,
San Diego Chargers!
Charge!

GO BOLTS!!!!!!!!!

Yo yo yo, boyeeeeeeee

2008-01-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

This new schedule of mine at work is kind of sucky. No broadband card for the laptop (thanks for correcting me, Smokkee), I spend 3 hours per day, 3 days per week watching surfers dropping in on some phenomenally beautiful waves through San Clemente and San Onofre and I CAN'T GET OUT THERE TO JOIN THEM, and I have to spend what little free time I have at home for inter-tube related stuff catching up on things that would otherwise be taken care of here and there, keeping me off the felt. Of course, if last night was any indication, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Knowing I had just a little bit of time and fresh off a nice double up on my last session, I bought into some micro NLHE. Pretty card zombie, whiffing flops and getting little traction. Except for getting all in with my nut flush against villain's set on the turn, and having the river pair the damn board. So I decided a change of pace was in order, and I jumped into some PLO/8. A couple of times I had that glorious hand of AKA2, double s00ted, and couldn't even hit a low. The one hand I actually won was one of those absurd head-shakers. I had JJ23, and limped from the CO, along with half the table. Flop was AKx rainbow. Check around. Turn was a brick. Check around. River was another brick. Check around and my jacks held. Beyond that, I got felted and left with 4 to the nut flush, and a backdoor flush wheel draw only to miss all of them and lose to a set of 9s.

On a different topic, sometimes life just presents you with a target that is such an easy hit that you almost feel sorry for them. On my way back from a meeting, I stopped in suburban San Diego to get some fuel (some of the cheapest around here, btw, $3.11/gal for 87 octane). There's a brand new, $180,000 Bentley Continental Flying Spur at the next pump island, which isn't an everyday occurrence in this particular neighborhood, but it's not hugely out of place. What made it funny was the two young hooligans that were on the other side of the pump from me. So white they would've glowed in the dark, they were in full-on gangsta mode with their Ecko jeans, ENYCEE jackets, Lugz boots, black NY Yankee caps (backwards, natch), seats reclined, thumping some gangsta rap, out of the speakers in their 2003 Toyota Camry with plastic wheelcovers!Not exactly a '64 Impala or a 2007 Hummer H2. The Suburban Mafia! But the best part was, after putting maybe $10 into their tank, they slow-rolled in front of the Bentley, stopped, and whipped out their cameraphones to get some shots of the apparent car of their dreams. I was laughing too hard to get a shot of them. And make no mistake. I'm a car nut of the highest order. I stop and take pics of cars all the time. But the image they were trying to rep, in the whip they were rolling was just too much to take. So I'm nominating two cars for Car of the Week. The Bentley Flying Spur and the 2003 Toyota Camry...rides for gangstas from all walks of life.

I Wish My Company Got Me a Wifi Card

2008-01-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

With this new job, 3 days each week I get to spend a total of 3 hours on the train, from San Diego to Santa Ana and back. If my company (who sent me on this annoying assignment in Orange County) really loved me, they'd give me a damn wifi card for my laptop, and then maybe I could actually get some poker time in.

Sadly, my poker time has been kinda minimal. I think I've caught a couple of micro buy-in SNGs, and I just played a little .05/.10 NL just for shits and giggles. No cashes in the SNGs, but in honor of Fuel, I had to show that even here at The Randomness, sometimes Presto really is gold. In the cutoff, I follow two limpers and bring my presto along for the ride. Flop comes down Qh Jd 4h. It checked around to me, and I decided to see a free card. And it is a 5, but unfortunately the 5h, putting a flush on the board. It again checks around to me, and I decide to lead out for a 1/2 pot bet. Everyone folds and I take down a decent little pot.

I did manage a nice little double up in the ring. My table seemed pretty heavy with weak-tight players, and it was pretty easy to make aggression work. And then this happened. I'm dealt AQo UTG+1. I pop a 5x raise preflop and get one caller from LP. Flop comes down TQQ. Boom! I check and LP checks. Turn brings the 6s. I check, and LP makes a pot-size bet of $1.20. I wait until I get the warning beep on the timer, and reraise it to $3.60 to go. LP instacalls. The river brings a worthless 5, and I decide to shove my remaining $1.50 in. For some reason LP calls with this:
It always amazes me when someone calls down a shove while only holding AK. I suppose at least there was a pair on the board, so they weren't just sitting with A-high. So that made up for the couple of SNGs. I failed to cash in two SNGs right after the New Year, so I'm still down for the year (all that time!), but I'm heading in the right direction. Good luck out there, and see ya on the felt!

Happy Freaking New Year

2008-01-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

OK poker peeps, it's 2008. Time to put 2007 behind us. Bad days, bad cards, bad beats, bad governmental agencies, I'm done with 'em. To make sure, I ended 2007 on a losing note (as if you were surprised by that.

First, DAPGF and I went to California's Central Valley to spend time with her family. Like San Diego, there are plenty of Indian Casinos in the area, and mama DAPGF likes to play the slots. So off to Table Mountain we go. Trying to keep the peace, I promised I'd only buy in for $100 at 1/3 NL. And I got nothing. JJ are not ok when two people call your raise and the flop comes down AKx. Lots of smaller pairs that went nowhere, and a few s00ted aces that whiffed the flop as well. The only hand I won was a small pot that my SB J9h hit the J-high flop. I lead out and everyone folded. Big fat pile of meh. After hanging around for 45 minutes or so (when you fold preflop, you don't waste chips...pretty neat, don'tcha think?), I busted and went looking for DAPGF and her mom. DAPGF hadn't won anything, but mama had built $5 on some nickel slot up to $50 while I was doing my donkey impression. Merry Christmas.

And Happy New Year! I'm waiting for DAPGF to get home from a friend's so that we can go out to this 80s party on NYE, so I decided to fire up the machine for some pokery goodness. First thing I jump into is an 18 player SNG on Tilt. Very first hand I get dealt rockets at UTG +1. I bump it to 5x (150) to go. I get reraised 3x to 450 by the cutoff. I say fuggit and shove. CO calls and shows KK. I flopped an ace and doubled on the first hand. Can a brother get a w00t! But that was all she wrote. I just went card zombie. AQc and the flop is all red. TT and the flop is all overs. Just a pile of crap. The only reason I lasted to 10th place was because I doubled on the first hand. But because I was so dead, I looked for another SNG to fire up, just so I'd have something to do. Nothing looked close to filling up, but wait! Red text on a lowly $10 Razz game. So I jump in and find Erik Sidel waiting for it to spin up. Nice guy, he answered questions in the girlie chat, laughed at someone's comments about Helmuth, and generally came off as a fun guy to be at a table with. My cards, on the other hand, were much more suited to a Stud 8 game. A typical hand would be (A2)K, which would obviously give me the bring in. Inevitably someone (half the time, Sidel) would complete and I would call. I'd catch a 3 and 7 which would be enough to keep me chasing, only to brick the last two streets. I bluffed my way into two pots just because I had 4 lows showing, but both times several of them were paired. The best one, though, was (23)A. A couple of us were in this one, and we capped the betting on the first round. My next card was another A. I tried not to raise, but it still got capped. Then I get dealt a 2. Well, let me try to bluff. Again, it got capped. Then I get a 3. Maybe if I lead out on their checks, I can get them to fold. Nope, too much in the pot. Finally, 7th street brings another freaking 2!! So my Razz hand looks like (23)AA23(2). How sick is that? Amazingly, that didn't put me all in. But the next hand with (43)2 did. We capped it on the first round, and after catching a 7 on 4th street I figured I had no choice but to shove. After 4th street, my cards came up (43)27 KK(K). And thus ended Hoff's 2007 poker season. Here's hoping 2008 sees some victory.

Happy New Year everybody! Keep it safe and stay classy everyone.

Could. Not. Resist.

2007-12-30T22:25:00.000-08:00

And The Randomness says...

Get More From Cocaine.

Generated by the Advertising Slogan Generator, for all your slogan needs. Get more cocaine slogans.

Shamelessly stolen from St B (and I'm quite sure others). Work has just been hella busy. I've got one client who needs to be baby sat through the entire construction process for some 72 inch water main pipelines. Major project but textbook work. And they still manage to create fires that I need to put out. And to top that, starting this week, I get to take the train from San Diego up into Smokkee's world in Teh OC. 3 days a week. At least I don't have to drive it, I suppose. That's what I get for being stuck with a client in Santa Ana. Uber-meh. Oh well. It beats being unemployed. Happy New Year, and may the felt be with you degenerates!!

Am I Missing Something?

2007-12-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

18 player SNG on Tilt. I get dealt Cowboys at UTG+1. I pop it up 5x the BB. The cutoff triples my raise. I flat call, concerned that villain might have rockets. Flop comes down Q93 rainbow. I shove and villain calls. I show my kings and he flips over 66. My Cowboys hold up and I stack the tool. OK. I can understand calling me preflop with a pocket pair. We've all done it, hoping the flop will hit us in the face. And yes, I can see reraising me on a bluff-steal. Except his stack was smaller than mine and he didn't shove preflop. But to call my shove with two overs to his pair on the table, and my preflop raise indicating strength to begin with, I don't get it.

And while typing this post it happened again. I'm dealt Kings again, I bet it up again and get called. Flop comes down 58T with one spade. I bet out, he raises, I reraise, he shoves, I call (I have him covered), and he shows a 3-5 of spades. So BPSK (bottom pair, shitty kicker), and only 3 to a weak flush and he reraises me several times? I know the donkeys are out, but I haven't seen it so blatant all at once in quite a while.

It's Friday! Time for Teh Randomness!

2007-12-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

Another week, and more rain here in San Diego. Not as heavy as last week, but it's been pretty steady since midnight-ish. The downside, I was going to the driving range at lunch today, now not so likely. And I really wanted to because a) I haven't swung a golf club in probably a month, and b) next week I get to play a round at Torrey Pines! One of the Top 50 courses, public or private, site of the 2008 US Open, and I'm going to attempt to play a round! I may even bring my camera and attempt to blog the round, you know, for comedy's sake. Fortunately the weather is supposed to clear by then. I just need to speed along a meeting that morning (think that Budweiser commercial set in the TV news room where the anchors race thru the news to go and get plastered).

Haven't had much opportunity to play poker either. Played 2 SNGs this week, one NLHE and one PLO8. The PLO I went out in 7th of 9 when the river made my boat of Ks full of 10s but gave Villain quads. Uber meh. The NLHE I survived to 2nd out of 9, which more than covered both buy-ins. So, minor profit for the night. Better than the losses I took last week. My profit from this has been taking some hits lately, so anything not negative is g000t.

Last 5 tunes on Sirius last night while driving home from the San Diego APA/AEP holiday party:

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Rush - Fly By Night
Whitesnake - Slide It In
Kiss - Rise To It
Tesla - Edison's Medicine

And now, the return of Car of the Week. The first COTW post was all about the pimpaliciousness. The second one was about the finer things in life. This one is about a survivor. I spotted this in the parking lot of the mall where my gym is located. I'd seen it before and had been previously impressed with the condition it has been maintained in. It's not restored, as there are minor rust bubbles near some of the bolt-on trim. Frankly, I think what impressed me was that I didn't even see many of these at my high school, and they were only 10 years old at the time. Granted, I went to high school in what was, at the time, an upper-middle class neighborhood, and a good number of the cars in the lot were fairly new. Still, for a 30 year old car, it's in great shape. So for this week's Car of the Week, I give you the 1977 Toyota Corolla. A rather basic, mundane car, but a survivor. And let's face it...we've all likely owned a comparable "basic" car at one time or another. Do you think your old basic transportation would still be running at 30, much less looking this good? I know mine wouldn't. Happy Friday, peeps!

Assorted Thoughts and Stuff

2007-11-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

Best insult yet: "You suck so hard that you can't even hear it over the sound of you sucking! It's like you drowned in a bucket of fail!"

While my game hasn't been completely sucking, it has been up and down. I just finished up a $33 9 player SNG on Tilt where I basically folded my way to second. I was fourth out of four, sitting on the bubble, and every blind I hit, big and small, my hand was J2, J3, or J4. And being the short stack, they were ganging up on me (as they should), so I rarely had the opportunity to even check an option. Finally, UTG raised and the button shoved. AA vs KK and the bubble bursts! But wait, we're back to the shitty blind hands. 93o, T4o. Finally UTG min-raised me and I called with J4d. Flop comes down 2 diamonds. I bet, hoping to induce a fold. He stays. Turn is a 4. I bet and DH shoves. I fold and he graciously shows his set of 4s. That cost me half my stack. But wait! There's a little more! I picked up Big Slick in the next BB. SB has me covered and shoves. I call and he flips over A5o. I flop a K and double up. Next hand, UTG who doubled me up shoves. I fold and BB thinks about it and calls with a 56c, to UTGs JTo. Flop comes down 565 and I land in 2nd! I'll freaking take it!

Last 5 songs in my WMP shuffle:
The Voices - Street Commander
Abandoned Pools - Mercy Kiss
Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger
Jeff Kashiwa - Saratoga
SOD - Speak English or Die!

How's that for random? And for slightly less random, the last 5 songs on Sirius Hair Nation while I drove home from work:
Ozzy Osbourne - Shot in the Dark
Van Halen - And the Cradle Will Rock
Guns and Roses - You Could Be Mine
Scorpions - Big City Nights
Krokus - Long Stick Goes Boom

Peace, love, and goo.

What I Am Thankful For

2007-11-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for A9 s000ted. Full Tilt, 45 player $10+1 SNG. Over the course of 2 hours, I was dealt A9s 6 separate times. The first one I took down a smallish pot (it was early and blinds were still only 30-60) with TPTK. The second one boated up 9s full on the turn and let me stack somebody who had limped Big Slick along. The third one let me hit my flush on the turn. The fourth one was a flopped flush. The fifth one was a river boat of 9s full again that let me stack someone slowplaying their AQ 2 pair. The last one busted the money bubble. I had 4 to the flush, and was looking at a board of TQ9J. Victim shoved, and showed his K9 for the K-high str8. The river brought a glorious K, allowing me to complete Broadway and pop the money bubble.

So I'd led since we had been down to about 12, and then I started taking some hits and bleeding chips. I ran JJ into KK. My AK didn't improve against 44. And I'd gotten down to 5th of 5. And then the cards woke up. AK, AQs, KK. Inside of 5 hands, I was back in first place. Honestly, when we got down to the final four, it felt like a damn blogger table...lots of fun girlie chat. But somebody eventually had to lose, and somehow I had channeled CJ and here was the final result.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! See ya on the felt!

I've been...tagged!

2007-11-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

OK. Our boy Brian tagged me, so I gots to properly respond. The rules:

A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...
B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...
C). Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...
D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog...

Seven random things:

1. I got lost at the Grand Canyon as a little kid.

2. I got pulled over for doing 110 miles per hour in Utah, and got away with a warning.

3. Unless I have a meeting with clients, I can wear shorts every day to work.

4. I had season tickets to the Chargers for 10 years. They were the dark years, and the first season after I sold them, they went to the playoffs.

5. I should really be working right now.

6. I got snowed in on Interstate 80 in a little, podunk town called Wamsutter, Wyoming, and spent the night drinking in a school gymnasium with probably 100 of my then closest friends.

7. Ben and Jerry’s Brownie Batter Ice Cream is my all-time favorite ice cream flavor.

There. That ought to cover things. Next to be tagged:

River Driver
Drewspop (still there man?)
Klopzi
Matt
President Dave
Wolverine Fan
Raveen

The Randomness of Friday (it's a whole new week!)

2007-11-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s been a busy week. The major proposal I’d been working on for the past several weeks was selected as the winning one, so now I get to work on a project that will generate somewhere north of a million dollars for my company. Job security…after 2006, me likey job security. Of course I’ve got one other project that just started up and another proposal that I need to write.

Managed to play a little poker on Monday. Hit the Daily Doubles on Tilt. One of them I busted out somewhere in the 500s, but the other one I survived a field of 1250-something and held on to 54^th place. Not a high-dollar finish, but it’s always nice to go deep in these tournaments. That finish was even more impressive given that, approaching the 2^nd break I was down to 787 chips. I get dealt A3c UTG and shove. One caller with 89c. I catch an ace on the flop and double. Next hand, I get KQ in the BB. 1 limper, 1 min-raise from MP, and I shove. Limper folds, MP calls and shows KJ. Ship it beeyotch! And the next hand I get dealt AA in the SB. 2 limpers, button raises 3x, I shove over the top. Limpers fold and button calls, showing AK. What do you know! I’m back over 6k in chips! I got lucky several times, and committed a couple of bad suckouts, but by and large I just played solid poker and got cards when I needed them. One hand I was particularly proud of, I got dealt 99 on the button. UTG+1 limps, MP min-raises, I call, SB folds, BB calls, and UTG calls. Flop comes down 4 9 T rainbow. Jackpot! Gotta slowplay this one. BB checks, UTG checks, MP bets just over half the pot. I hesitate for a bit and then call. BB calls and UTG folds. Turn brings a duck. BB checks, MP checks, and I check as well. River brings a ten, giving me 9s full of tens. BB checks, MP bets a little over half the pot. I think and hesitate, and finally min-reraise him, figuring he was on AT. BB folds and MP shoves. I’ve got him covered and I call. As expected, he shows his AT and leaves the table when my 9s full are shown. One of the best hands I’ve played in a while.

Finally, some of the random Friday crap.

Last 5 songs on WMP shuffle:

Survivor – American Heartbeat (back in the Eye of the Tiger days, baby!)
St. Germaine – Alabama Blues (more ambient acid stuff)
Cobra Starship – Bring It (I’ve had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!)
The Specials – Pressure Drop
Fates Warning – Through Different Eyes (excellent late 80’s prog metal)

Car of the Week

I still don’t know if this is going to become a regular feature, but I had this one and decided to share. The bank branch for my bank that’s closest to my office happens to be next door to an automotive repair shop. But this isn’t just any repair shop. This is the authorized body shop for Ferrari/Maserati of San Diego and Symbolic Motors of La Jolla, which is the San Diego dealer for Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lotus, Lamborghini, Panoz, Spyker, Bugatti, and all those other exotic makes. Those two dealerships are the strip clubs that DAPGF lets me go to occasionally (still haven’t managed to get a lap dance, tho’), with some of the hottest automotive bodies you’ll lay eyes (and other body parts) on. But back to the COTW. I went to the bank, and sitting in the parking lot of the body shop was this:

Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. This is one of the sexiest cars on the face of the earth, IMHO. The lines and curves go beyond sensuous, and despite the fact that the best colors for Ferrari’s are Red and Black (with the occasional white Testarossa hold out from Miami Vice), this is the first one ever that I’ve seen in Maroon. And you know, it looks damn good. It dials back the “arrest me now because I’ve obviously done something naughty” look without taking away from the gorgeousness of the car. Frankly, as a car nut of the highest order, I’m lucky to live where I do. We have the population that loves the pimp-mobiles from last week (why do I have this eerie feeling that Smokkee was going to call on that one?), and the high-dollar crowd that rolls around town in the Rolls Royce Phantoms, Lamborghini Gallardos, and those beautiful Ferrari 599 GTBs. Have a great weekend!

The Randomness of Friday

2007-11-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Randomness of Friday. A random collection of thoughts, observations, and other time-wasters to fill out the work week. Enjoy.

Last 5 tunes to come up in my WMP library shuffle (IT won't install iTunes on our laptops, the bastards):

The Aquabats - Super Rad! (one of my favorite Friday tunes, and the reason why Ska is cool)
Authority Zero - Mexican Radio (killer remake of the Wall of Voodoo original, pimped by Alcanthang like a year ago or something)
Bone Thugs 'N Harmony - Fuck tha Police (another killer remake of the original, that I first heard featured in the Getaway in Stockholm street racing video)
DJ Helixx - These Days (this is a house mix Helixx did for Maigrey. It can be downloaded from Helixx's Mix Depot page)
The Propellerheads - Take California (Decksanddrumsandrockandroll. Just a killer electro-rock groove)

Last 5 websites I visited (blogger and sites I needed to copy links don't count)

Wil Wheaton
KGTV Channel 10 (as if the fires weren't enough, a bomb scare closed down the freeway I take to get home)
Jalopnik
Autoblog
Icanhascheezburger.com

And the original plan for this post, the Car of the Week. This feature will randomly appear when I find something worth posting. Basically, if I come across an "interesting" vehicle (which can mean insanely cool, insanely ugly, insanely expensive, or whatever), I'll post it for your viewing pleasure. And now the vehicle that inspired the concept. I'm sure most of you are aware of the trend of cars having huge wheels (20 inches or larger, generally referred to as Dubs and variants on that). The latest trend is to lift a car, much like a tricked out four wheel drive truck, and put even larger wheels on. The largest currently are 30 inch rims, referred to logically as Treys. And the cars that started the trend are called Donks, Boxes, and Bubbles. Donks refer to pre-1976 Chevy Caprices and Impalas. Boxes are 1977-90 Caprices and Impalas, called Boxes because of their, well, boxy shape.And then the Bubbles. These are 1991-96 Impalas and Caprices that are, well, bubble-shaped.Other cars can receive this type of treatment, among them the 80's vintage Monte Carlos, Lincoln Town Cars, older Cadillac Fleetwoods, etc., but to be truly called a Donk, Box or Bubble by a purist, it's got to be an Impala or Caprice. The one consistency with the majority of cars rolling Dub4s, 6s and higher is that to achieve the suspension lift, it's got to be a body-on-frame car. Think older American cars, pick up trucks, SUVs like the Tahoe, Explorer and Durango. By having the body mounted on the frame, as opposed to a unibody car where the body and frame (and thus suspension mountings) are an integral unit (any modern front drive car like an Accord, Taurus or Jetta, minivans except the Chevy Astro and Ford Aerostar, and crossover utility vehicles like the Toyota Highlander, Nissan Murano, and Ford Edge). Today's COTW is none of these. It's an early 90s Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, a front drive unibody mid-size sedan, and truly the first one I have ever seen pimped out at all.This was spotted on the 805 Freeway in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego. I'm not sure what appeals to me more. The huge rims, the pristine beige paint, or the fact that it's for sale. Judging by the license plate, the current owner just registered it, too, so the tags should be good until probably August 2008. I can't possibly imagine how this thing rides or drives. Being a unibody front drive, the steering has got to be heavy and probably not all that smooth. But the suspension! It's not like anybody makes a lift kit for this, like they do for most trucks. So that means that it's homemade. There's a recipe for disaster. Anyway, I just had to share. And call now, before somebody else buys it.

Have a great weekend!

2003 Revisited

2007-10-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

4 years ago to the week, I played witness to a disaster of epic proportions. And here we go again. Interestingly, many of the same areas that were on fire in 2003 are burning again. Lake Arrowhead. Malibu. And my hometown of San Diego. This time is both worse and better. Worse in that the path of destruction is longer, larger, and wider-spread. Better in that injuries and deaths are far lower than 2003. This is mainly due to the implementation of a Reverse-911 phone system. Officials look at the fire's path, figure out what areas should be evacuated, and enter map coordinates into the computer system. It pulls all the addresses in that area, checks all the phone numbers assigned to those addresses, and calls them with a prerecorded "you need to evacuate now" message. If you have watched the show Jericho (one of my favorite shows, season 2 starts on CBS in January, unless some cancellation allows CBS to start it early), they used it to notify the residents after the nuclear blast. Anyway, officials sent out the evac notices and it seemed to give everybody enough time to at least get a few things together and make a run for it. Several people in my office were evacuated, and the area I grew up in (Rancho Penasquitos) is surrounded by Poway and Rancho Bernardo (2 major burn areas) was uniformly evacuated. I don't live there anymore, but my dad does, along with many friends. Dad being dad decided that because he didn't see any flames on the hill at the end of the cul de sac, he was going to stay. This prompted my sister, who lives in the Memphis area to ask what part of mandatory evacuation he didn't understand.

So while there are a lot of homes that burned, injuries and loss of life has been remarkably low. Probably the wildest thing I've seen was a news report that is all over YouTube. I can't access YouTube at work, so I can't give you the link, but search for "Larry Himmel" on YouTube and watch the video. He's a reporter with San Diego's CBS affiliate and he had to evacuate his house in western Rancho Bernardo. After getting his family to safety, he went to work, got a video truck, and went back and did a news update from his driveway, while his house was still smoldering! 25 years in one house, literally up in flames. The fires are now moving into more of the rural areas of the county, and there are still fires burning in Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Orange County, and LA County, but metro San Diego seems to be winding down. As evidence of this, they've lifted the evac orders for much of the Poway and Rancho Penasquitos areas. Rancho Bernardo is still under evac orders mainly because of the damage and lack of infrastructure (no power, gas, water, debris-clogged streets, etc.), but the metro area seems to be coming back under control. Because of the evac orders, not to mention the safety factor and the fact that I'm not that stupid, I didn't take any pictures of the devastation. All of these pictures were grabbed from the San Diego Union-Tribune website.

This is a shot taken on State Route 67 heading west from Ramona towards Poway, around 10 pm on 10/21/07. East and westbound lanes were opened up to westbound traffic.

This is taken from an upscale neighborhood in East Poway, near Poway Lake.

Another East Poway picture.

Northern Rancho Bernardo.

Interstate 15 (my route to Las Vegas). Looking north at the southbound lanes. This was taken from the Duenda Road overcrossing. This is where the fire jumped into the Westwood community.

This was in Westwood. For the record, those were a circa 1992 Toyota Tercel and a circa 1995 Honda Accord.

Another Westwood home.

Finally, you may have noticed the revised layout of The Randomness. I have hit 200 posts and decided to switch templates. I don't know if I'm going to keep this one, but for now, welcome to The Randomness 2.0.

Links, Links, Links

2007-10-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

PokerStars - iamhoff

Full Tilt Poker - iamhoff

Pitbull Poker - iamhoff

Full Contact Poker - iamhoff

Royal Vegas Poker - iamhoff

Troll's Online Poker Zone

Card Squad

Lord Admiral's Card Club

Australia's Poker Community

TopPoker.org

Poker Source Online

Home of the DADI

HammerBlog - A Collection of Hammer Stories

Autoblog

Jalopnik

Winding Road

Edmunds Auto Source

The Car Connection

Carscoop

The Auto Prophet

The Hollywood Extra

Amazing Motor Girls

LA Car.com

Car and Driver

Motor Trend

Auto Trader

Car Domain

Nissan Pathfinder Off Road Association

Jeep

San Diego Traffic

iamhoff on Buzznet

iamhoff on Last.FM

Odd Todd

I Can Has Cheezburger?

Stupid Videos

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

San Diego Chargers

San Diego Padres

Golf San Diego

The San Diego Golf Pages

Assorted Gen-u-wine Poker Content

2007-10-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts on some recent poker-riffic action.

In the end, AK is nothing more than Ace-high. 9 player NLHE SNG on Tilt. It's early, but my stack is up around 2000, and I get dealt AK UTG. I pop it 5x and get one caller. Flop comes down tripsnowmen (as opposed to Tripjax), and I check. My caller shoves. Nobody would do that with the case 8, so I put him on 2 high cards. I've got him barely covered, so I decide to call. Nice to know I guessed right as he flipped AQ over. Unfortunately he turns his Q and cripples me. Next hand, I get Big Slick again. 4 limpers, the button makes baby Jebus cry with a min-raise, and I shove over that for my last 300 or so. Button calls and flips over A7s. Aaaand the river is a 7, and IGH.

While that was going on, I was also in a 45 player. I get dealt the powerhouse 93o in the BB. UTG and 3 limpers allow me to check my monster hand. And the flop comes down 9-3-5. SB checks and so do I. UTG bets out the pot. It folds around to me, and I reraise him twice his bet. He shoves and I've got him covered, so I call. He flips over his rockets, and I stack his slowplaying ass. Ya gotta love them big blind specials.

Here's someone to follow on Full Tilt: Panicbet. The dude is a LAGWJ (loose aggressive whackjob), who shoves with almost any two cards, but he loves his s00ted cards. No matter which ones. In the above 45-player, we're at the final table, and I'm sitting at 3 of 9. His stack probably put him at 5th or 6th. UTG, he min-raises preflop. 2 callers come along, giving me easy pot odds for my K9h. Flop comes down 68K rainbow. SB checks, and I lead out with a 3/4 pot bet, figuring that should be enough to protect my TPDK and take it down. Nope. Panicass decides to shove over top of me. He's been shoving all over the place, really bullying the tables, so with a decent hand and decent stack, I decided to call his bullshit. And I was right, when he flipped over 26c for bottom pair, last kicker, and no clubs on the board. And here's what happened:

Yep. He spikes a duck on the river to give him 2 pair and leave me gasping in last place with less than 3K in chips. But I patiently wait for my opportunities. I catch a few hands, and then double up to 7400. Then I catch KK in the BB. He decides to shove preflop, with his 16K stack. I call and laugh when he turns over J3d. No evil happens and I double thru the asshat. Ship it, beeyotch! 2 hands later, he shoves again. The chipleader calls, but this time he has a real hand. QsQd, and he's probably thinking that he just pulled off a great trap. Except that the chipleader got to where he was by playing good cards. He flips over KsKd and felts the asstard. The entire table just flamed him in the girlie chat. Ahh, sweet justice, and he was the money bubble to boot! Does it get any better than that? So after being down to 9th place at the final table, I managed to fight my way back to 3rd in chips, with 5 remaining. Unfortunately I wasn't destined to go any farther. I get dealt QQ, run it into AA, and IGH in 5th.

Also played in a 600 FTP token SNG. And for some reason, the frush was my friend. I honestly hit a flush 5 or 6 times just in this one SNG. I think I decided to take this screenshot just because it was probably the 3rd one I hit, and it was starting to become amusing.

I love it when someone bets into me when I'm holding the nuts. Double me up, beeyotch!

Here's another one, when we were down to heads up.

I knew I wouldn't be able to double through him, because all the clubs on the board were scary, so I bet what I thought I could get away with, just over 2/3 of the pot. He called and mucked his 3 snowmen. Yeah, I would've loved more, but you take what you can get. Ultimately I won my token, and I'm going to start off in the $24k Guarantee this Tuesday. Feel free to find me on the rail or in the girlie chat. DAPGF was kind enough to give me the night off, so it will hopefully be poker non-interruptus.

Finally, everybody's favorite pool hottie was wondering if I was going to make it out to Vegas for the WPBT Winter Classic. I'm not sure. DAPGF is going to have 3 weeks off over the holidays, and is thinking on a Vegas run in between Xmas and New Years. Depending on when the Winter Classic is, it may or may not work. Hopefully the timing will work out so that I can convince DAPGF that the Winter Classic would be a perfect time to go to Vegas. Then she could meet all of my invisible internet friends that she constantly hears about. As things get closer, I'll try to lock up some dates. We shall see...

See ya on the felt!

The Return of BBT2

2007-10-18T16:41:00.001-07:00

They've done it again. The blogging hooligans that brought us the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments somehow pulled the wool over Full Tilt's eyes and got them to sponsor an amazingly intriguing points structure with an incredible slate of prizes. I have shamelessly stolen from everybody's favorite SoCo - chugging, head-banging freak, and pasted here for your information.

Full Tilt Poker has given us an $18k Aussie Millions package to give away for our next challenge.

$18,000 Prize Package for you and a friend

The 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event begins Monday, January 14th and promises to be bigger than ever. Play for your $18K prize package, including:

* Aussie Millions Main Event entry worth AUD $10,500
* 10 nights stay at the luxurious Crown Casino Resort
* Round-trip airfare for the winner and a guest from Los Angeles to Melbourne
* $3,000 in spending money
* Winner & Pro golf outings, dinners, winery tours, seminars and a bounty tournament

During the original BBT there was some positive and negative comments about the point system plus the number of people awarded points. For the BBTwo you won't have to worry about those points. They will be awarding the Aussie Millions package to the winner of a Tournament of Champions. So if you'd like to win the trip, you have to win one of the events during the eight week run. No worrying about making the points. No worrying about who made the most money during the challenge. Win an event and you are in the TOC and a shot at the Aussie Millions package.

So if you are interested in winning the Aussie Millions package, play them to win them.

But only so many people can win an event during this stretch so what about everyone else? We want everyone to play, enjoy themselves, and have a shot at winning something. Full Tilt Poker has given us the Aussie Millions Package but that's not all they're giving us.

FTP is giving us an entry into their weekly big Sunday guarantee tournaments whic we will reward to the Player of the Week. This is where that pesky point system comes in again. We will be using the same point formula as the last Challenge but this time around only the top 25% of players in each event will receive points. Whoever earns the most points during the week will get a ticket into the FTP Sunday Guarantee Tournament.

The point system will also be used to determine players to qualify for an end of challenge freeroll which is still being worked out.

So there you have it. BBTwo is about to kick off and it's time to reload your FTP account, start firing up those Token Frenzies, and strap in for an 8 week, 27 tournament challenge to see what you are made of.

Things will kick off on Sunday, October 21st with the big prizepool in Miami Don's Big Game. The rest of the Blogger Schedule will go as planned except now the Riverchasers events will also be weekly during the challenge. The challenge will run for 8 weeks ending on Sunday, December 16th with another Big Game.

So there ya have it! The best places to find out additional info are Al, Don, and Hoy, so check them out for detailed schedules and such. DAPGF's schedule doesn't make it easy for me to participate in tournaments, but with these prizes I've got to try. Don't know how much I'll actually get to play, but I will be out there. Hope to see ya on the felt.

We Have Been Experiencing Technical Difficulties

2007-10-08T12:23:00.001-07:00

Greetings and salivations, poker peeps. Those one or two of you who actually stop by The Randomness may have noticed some screwy behavior over the weekend. Pictures and widgets going missing, format changes, etc. Well, as I approach the 200th post of this formerly powerhouse blog, I find myself bored with the way it looks and feels. In this Web 2.0/New Blogger world, there's so much that can be done to make it spiffier, with all kinds of new toys and such. Not being an HTML or XML expert, trying to take somebody's template and modify it ain't the easiest thing to do. And I'm not talking about using Blogger's default templates...they're all a little boring and common. So get ready. Cool things are coming, as soon as I can figure out how to install 'em!

It's That Time Again!!

2007-10-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

Once again, PokerStars is serving up a special treat for the broggers. See below for details

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 4857796

Sunday October 14. 12 PM here in da west, so do the math to figure out what time it is in whatever part of da world you are stuck in. Hope to see you there!

Public Service Announcement

2007-09-24T01:03:00.000-07:00

***Warning, disturbing non-poker content ahead. SFW, but disturbing***

So I ended my weekend on a really rough note. I went to take the dog for a walk at 5, before DAPGF and I went to get dinner. As I was walking past our condo's pool, I glanced in and saw what appeared to be a person floating face down in the water, and nobody else around. I got out my keys and got into the pool area, clipped the dog leash to the fence, and whipped out the cell phone to call 911. While it's ringing, I take off my shoes, keys, wallet, etc., and jump into the shallow end where the guy is floating. 911 answers and PUTS ME ON HOLD!!! I close the phone and chuck it up on the pool deck, scream for somebody to call 911 (several times), and grab this guy who is about 6 feet tall and probably weighs 200 pounds and hurl him up onto the pool deck. Boy Scouts 20 years ago comes rushing back and I get him on his side to try and clear his airway. Beer starts coming out his nose and mouth. While I'm checking for a pulse, my cell phone starts ringing. I don't know why, but I knew it was 911 calling me back (since I hung up on them) and I answered it. The 911 operator tells me that paramedics are on the way, and starts talking me through mouth to mouth and CPR. Side note, compression/breathing patterns have changed since I was last certified in the 1980s. People start to gather around the pool deck, but only one dude is helping me out at this point, mainly wiping the beer, water, and whatever off of this guy's face while I'm doing chest compressions. After about 10 minutes of that, I realized that the other dude had left. No idea why, no idea where he went. A few minutes after that, the San Diego Fire paramedics showed up and took over. I called DAPGF to come down and get the dog, to finish her walk. A San Diego Police officer took my statement (what happened, when did I find the guy, yadda yadda yadda). After about another 20 minutes of working on the guy, the paramedics stopped, saying that he was gone. After talking with a bunch of my neighbors who were hanging around with DAPGF, I went home and showered. We decided to go get something to eat, not that I had much of an appetite at that point. We decided to walk by the pool one last time, to see if the coroner had shown up so I could give her my statement and not have to have her call me during dinner or something. Fortunately she was there and that business was taken care of. I still feel queasy.

Things learned from this whole experience. You shouldn't swim alone, and you really shouldn't swim when you've been drinking. I only saw one can of beer on a table by the chaise lounge where the guy's wallet, flip flops, etc. were, but I bet he spent the day drinking while watching football. You should also carry your keys (all of them, storage rooms, pool areas, club houses) with you at all times. Damn near all of my neighbors said that they were amazed that I had my pool key on my key ring. Apparently they all keep theirs on separate rings. That, and keep a cell phone with you at all times. I walk the dog early in the morning and late at night. I am 6'3" and weigh in the range of 277-280, and I'm walking a Doberman Pinscher. It's not that likely that anybody is really going to hassle me while I'm walking, but why take the chance. So take these experiences and use them to better protect yourselves. I'm also going to find a CPR course and get re-certified, and I suggest that you all do it, too. Again, better to be prepared than find yourself in a bad situation and not know what to do. I feel bad that I wasn't able to get the guy revived, but I know I did everything that I could, and I did it as right as possible. I hope you never find yourself in such a position, but if you do, I hope you have read this post and are better prepared for it.

***Cross-posted at What Happened***

Idiots (non poker content ahead)

2007-09-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

And for the stupid is as stupid does award…

We bring you the story of MIT student, Star Simpson. She's attending MIT, so she's brainy and likely somewhat techy and geeky (not that there's anything wrong with that). She has to go to Logan International Airport in Boston to meet her boyfriend. She decides to wear a sweatshirt upon which she's attached a lighted computer circuit board with visible wiring, and she's holding a wad of play doh in her hand. After having the authorities level machine guns at her and arrest her, she's actually protesting what happened, and pleading "not guilty" to a charge of disturbing the peace and possessing a hoax device.

OK. Was what she did a harmless statement (as she said)? Technically, yes. She was not wearing a bomb. Did she exercise judgment that goes beyond stupid? Hell yes. Let's examine this. Post 9/11 USA. "Let me dress like a suicide bomber, but it will just be a joke. Nobody should misunderstand what I'm doing. And to add to the excitement, maybe I'll do it at the airport where two of the four highjacked 9/11 planes took off from. And just to extract maximum irony, I'll do it in the city that went apeshit over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force goofy fake bomb thing. I should really be able to make a statement that way." And you wonder why the men with the big guns told you to get face down on the pavement. And you wonder why you were placed under arrest. Did the authorities overreact? To the ATHF thing, probably. To her, nope. I'd say they did their jobs correctly, and I'm glad for it. Besides, every single airport I've ever been in has always had a sign (several, actually) that had words to the effect of, "We take all comments regarding bombs and guns seriously." Meaning even if you're joking, we're going to react as though your comment was meant seriously. So if you go to an airport, any airport much less the one which was pretty much the epicenter of the 9/11 tragedy, and basically say that you've got a bomb strapped to your body, you should expect to be treated as a terrorist threat. The moron is lucky to still be alive. Major Scott Pare of the Mass. State Police was quoted as saying, "She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device. Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force."

I understand the idea of making a statement, really I do. Unfortunately the statement that came across was, "I'm a f**king moron. Shoot me." Mr. Darwin, we likely have a future candidate for your award.

For Daddy, Al, Pauly, and select others

2007-09-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

I've not been to this place, so I cannot speak for the quality. Reading the review, though, I was drawn to one item in particular. Click the pic to embiggen, and look at the description on the right.

That's right. Bacon. As a complimentary bar snack. Get there before these nut cases do, otherwise you may find yourself sans bacon. For more bacon-y goodness, feel free to check out Pauly's new blog (where in the hell does he find the time to start up ANOTHER blog?!?), the Tao of Bacon. To read more of the reviews in the pic, click here.

Generations

2007-09-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

Labor Day, just south of Del Mar, looking south towards Black's Beach. Water temp was around 72 degrees, waves were poor form but running 2-4 feet with occasional sets up to 5 feet, and the air temp at the coast was in the upper 80s. DAPGF and I are on our way home from lunch, and we happen upon this:

I apologize for the crappy cell phone pic, but the light changed and I was in a hurry to get the shot. Still, old meets new and either way, There Is No Substitute.

Carmen's meme will be coming shortly.

Oh the carnage! Actual poker content! Be warned, it's ugly!

2007-08-31T10:02:00.001-07:00

My worst, most painful beat ever, sadly wasn't even a bad beat. So I don't owe anybody a dollar!

18 player SNG on Tilt. Blinds are sitting around 75/150, and we're down to 14 or so. I get dealt an uns00ted Cheney (As2c) in the SB. A guy in MP limps, I complete and BB checks. Flop is 2s 5d 4s. Nice and raggy, I lead out for about 2/3 the pot. BB folds and MP calls. Turn is the 3s, giving me a wheel, the nut flush draw, and a str8 flush draw. I'm actually hoping for any spade but the 5, because I've just got this eerie feeling. Of course the 5s hits the river, giving me a str8 flush, Ace to Five. I bet the pot. MP, who has me covered, raised enough to put me all in. I'm hoping that maybe he's playing A5 and thinks his boat is good. But I've still got a weird feeling about it. I call, and flip my str8 flush over. He then flips over 6h 6s, giving him the higher str8 flush, 2 to 6! To hit a str8 flush is rare enough (I think I've personally hit them 3 times, including this one), but to hit one only to lose to the guy playing the only card in the deck that could beat me was just awful. And to make matters worse, I ran the numbers on TwoDimes, and I was behind the whole time. At no time was I any closer than a 70 to 30 dog, and that was preflop. So there's a good story to start the long weekend with. May the felt be with you.

Actual Freaking Poker Content!!

2007-08-19T00:35:00.000-07:00

I’m actually going to Vegas in September, so I’ve been playing a little more ring to prepare. One thing I’ve noticed is that people bet differently in ring than they do in tournaments. In tournaments you can count on people limping with Ax, s000ted connectors, or 2 paint, and a 3x to 5x raise typically indicates JJ or higher. In ring, people seem to limp (.25/.50) with anything but a premium hand, or they pop 5x to 7x raises preflop. It takes some getting used to. That being said, I’ve had a few hands that were of interest.

What the fuck is a frush?

I’m dealt AKd on the button. EP pops a 4x raise preflop, it folds around to me and I smooth call, and the SB calls as well. Flop comes down 7d Jc 9d. Kewl. Nut flush draw. EP bets half the pot and I call, along with SB. Turn brings the 6d. EP checks, I bet out half the pot, being worried about someone hitting a str8 flush on the river, and SB calls. River is the Kh. I bet out, SB raises to put me all in, and I call. He flips over QTo for a rivered straight, and I laugh as my nut flush takes the stack Even from the SB, I can’t see calling that kind of preflop action with QTo, and to be hanging around after the turn when there’s a flush on the board that he has no part of…ship it bitch!

Hoy’s favorite Fonkey hand #1

We all know that Hoy loves himself (not) AJ. It is without a doubt one of his favorite hands to berate people about. I get dealt Hiltons in the BB. There are 3 limpers and I raised up to make it $2.50 to go (.25/.50), and I get 1 caller. Flop comes down J-high rainbow rags. I bet the pot, trying to weed anybody out playing Ax. I get called. Turn is a brick, so I bet the pot again and get called again. The river brings a fucking ace and I just start pounding my head on the desk. I figure that I’ve led the whole hand, may as well try to represent and hope that he’s been hanging out with something other than an ace. So I make a C-bet of about a third of the pot. He calls and flips over AJ, devastating my stack. Nothing I could’ve done would’ve gotten rid of him, once he had his TPTK. Hell, he probably would’ve called an all in preflop shove, because that’s what Fonkeys do.

One of my few suckouts, and it couldn’t have come at a better time, given the previous hand

I get dealt AQs UTG. I was on life support after the Fonkey Hand #1, with my once mighty stack down to a pathetic $6. So UTG I fire out a bet of $2.50, and get reraised all in by the guy to my left. To my amazement the SB calls as well. Everyone else at the table was sitting on a stack of at least $20, and with only 7 BB remaining I felt I had no choice but to shove and hope that I could find some magic. I flopped a Q with 1 club and 2 diamonds, which had me worried. SB bet out, Villain called and the cards were flipped. Villain shows AKo, and SB shows KQh. So far so good, but Villain’s K is a diamond. The turn is the 5d, and now I’m sweating a diamond flush. Fortunately the river is a brick and I tripled up to get back into the game.

Floppin' Quads

What else can I say about this? I was going to fold this hand, but the 5 limpers in front of me convinced me that the pot odds favored my J9h. So I joined the lemurs and limped. The flop comes down 3 Jacks. Well holy fucking shit, batman! It checked around on the flop. The turn was an 8, and the BB fired off a pot bet. Hmmm. I wonder what he's got. Oh what the hell, I'll call. The river is a Q, he checks, I bet, he folds. Who doesn't love flopping the absolute nuts?

Hoy’s favorite Fonkey hand #2

3 hands after my miracle suckout, I get dealt KK on the button. 2 limpers ahead of me, I bump it to $2.50 to go (6x). I get one caller. Flop is rainbow rags. Villain leads out with a pot bet. I shove and he calls. I show my KK, and he shows the Fonkey hand of AJo. Turn is a brick, but the river once again brings the ace, felting me. Ah the river button. Have I told you lately that online poker is rigged?

It ain't easy bein' a pimp!

2007-08-08T10:21:00.001-07:00

I really do have some poker content to discuss, a couple of cashes in larger MTTs, one horrible beat (not a bad beat because I was behind all the way, but very sucky nonetheless), and a couple of really fun hands. I'll try to get to those tonight when I get home. But for right now I wanted to put on my pimp hat and smack some hoes around. Many of you probably know Nick. If you don't know Nick the person, then you might know Nick the guru/moderator/operator of CardsChat.com. CardsChat is a great poker portal that really covers the full spectrum of poker. News. Site Reviews. Bonus whoring opportunities. How To tips. Message Boards. Bankroll management info. In short, just about anything you could need that's related to online poker can be found here at CardsChat.com. Now go check it out before I gotta bitch-slap you!

One more deposit option gone.

2007-08-02T08:59:00.001-07:00

***IMPORTANT NOTICE***

Per PokerStars, as of 2 a.m. EDT Thursday, All Access Visa Debit Cards, the ones that actually did work on PokerStars and Full Tilt have been blocked. PokerStars Deposit Assistance crew sent me an email stating that they'd been blocked by the Federal Government due to the US financial institutions' restrictions on "gambling" transactions. I haven't confirmed with Full Tilt if they've been hit with the same restrictions, but I would presume they have been. PokerStars has directed me to ePassaporte, which I believe Hoy has had some success with. Guess I'll go online and use the card to pay my cell bill. Meh.

I've actually managed to play in a few MTTs and SNGs recently, and when I get home tonight I'll put together a recap. Actual poker content…who knew?

An interesting observation...

2007-07-27T14:16:00.001-07:00

So. As most of you know, I have limited times when I can sit down and get my poker on. Those nights that DAPGF teaches and if DAPGF is asleep when I get done walking the doggie around midnight. I hadn't played a hand of poker all week, live or online, and I was eagerly anticipating jumping onto Tilt and firing up a SNG after walking the doggie. I get home at 11:50 pm pacific time and DAPGF is asleep. w00t!! Hoff is hitting the felt! I login to Tilt and start scanning the lobby. There's something like 7400 players sitting at 6100 tables, but nobody is signing up for any SNGs. No matter the game, no matter the buy-in. There aren't even any where they're sitting at 1 of 45, 1 of 9, 1 of 6, or even 1 of 2!! Nothing. I figure that it's close to midnight and there are probably some MTTs that go off at that point, so I check there. There are two MTTs that kick off at midnight, the $4k guarantee in Pot Limit Hold 'Em, and a $10 NLHE. Both are 18 player minimum, and they only have 4 and 3 players signed up respectively. So despite signing up for them, the tournaments are cancelled. I really wasn't in the mood to play ring, so I logged off and went to bed. Yes I know that there is the Riverstars curse (besides, we all know online poker is rigged) and that the action has gotten quite fishy since the Party players came over and the bloggers left for Tilt, but there is always action going on at Stars. You might have to wait a few minutes for a tournament or SNG to fill up, but there will always be action to be had at Stars. And with that, I'm going to get me a Visa Debit Card and reload the Stars account. You know, for just such an emergency.

Tournament Pimpage

2007-07-24T16:22:00.001-07:00

Nobody hijacks The Randomness! Nobody! Oh wait. I don't know if anybody would notice if it was L. But to help out another Michigan Fan (M Go Blue!), I wanted to help Wolverine Fan pimp the Blogger World War. Normally they're allies, but on the virtual felt it's a battle royale (with cheese!). Brittbloggerment hits PokerStars on Sunday, 1 PM west coast and 4 PM east coast.

Unfortuately I have a prior engagement and will not be able to attend, but all of you good red-blooded 'Muricans out there should stick it to the Limeys. Bring the blogger cup home! $5.50 buy-in. Details can be found here! And God Bless America!

A change of scenery...

2007-07-23T14:26:00.001-07:00

Poker remains a hit and miss proposition. I had $13 sitting in my Stars account last night, and with DAPGF going out to see a movie with some friends Hoff's gonna play some poker. Given my less than stellar results as of late and my adherence to the idea of "change it up if you get into a rut," I decided to jump into a .10/.25 ring game. I was pretty card zombie throughout the evening, but I still managed to stay right around par. And then the Riverstars gods laughed at me. I'm dealt KQo in LP. Two limpers, I limp, and both blinds see a flop of KQ2 rainbow. Well hot damn! Not wanting to get nuked by slow-playing it, it checks to me and I bet the pot. One guy in EP called. The turn is a worthless 7, but Villain shoves. Now, if he was short-stacked or huge-stacked, I might think that he just hit a set. But his stack, which had me covered, was deep enough that he could've bet the pot and not quite been pot-committed. So I didn't place him on a set. I figured he'd hit two pair (hammer anybody?) and was going to prevent anybody playing TPTK from outdrawing his two pair. So I call and am all in. A ten hits the river, giving villain and his J9 a K-high straight and felting me. And sadly I can't even fault him because I've been dumb enough to chase that same damn draw. Meh.

But I still had time to play, so to make it that much more different, I changed up a bunch of stuff. I went over to Tilt, and jumped into a $22 8 player limit HORSE sng. I'm not a huge fan of playing limit, but I figured it would be a nice change of scenery. Wouldn't you know it, my favorite game out of all of them, O/8, was my worst game, but it didn't matter. Well, it wound up mattering. From the time we were 5 handed, I had a huge chip lead and was running over the table. Then we got 3 handed as Omaha came back around. I donked off a bunch of chips, and fortunately one of the others got busted, sending it to HU. We were about even at that point, and I got on a RAZZ tear. Villain was getting good hands, but I was getting better ones. We both have A235 showing, but his low hole is an 8 and mine is a 6. That kind of thing. I got him to within 500 of being out and the deck turned to ice as we went to Stud. I couldn't catch a hand to save my life. I'd get dealt pocket aces, only to have his last face card give him a visible set of something, and I fold. That happened a lot. Eventually we made it back to LHE for one freaking hand. I've got K3s in the BB. He raises and I call. Flop comes down K73. He bets, I raise, and I wind up all in. He flips over a pair of 3s, and IGH in 2 ^nd. Still, that was a nice $50 win, and anything that adds to the b/r is a good thing. See ya out there.

Actual Poker Content! Who knew!

2007-07-16T09:05:00.001-07:00

Greetings poker peeps! Get ready for some actual poker content!

This past week was kinda busy and weird. There were opportunities provided by DAPGF to get my poker on, but for the most part I was unable to. Dinner with Dad. Twilight round of golf. Etc. Etc. Wednesday I did play a little, but not with a bunch of success. I hit Stars and placed 2^nd in a micro 45 player SNG. Then I went over to Tilt. There was a peep sex token SNG spinning up, so I jumped into that while waiting for either a $6 or $11 9 player turbo to open up. I busted out of two SNGs but won my token. Now, when in the hell am I going to find time to properly use a token? When all of a sudden DAPGF comes home and tells me that a friend of hers got tickets to some folksy guitar chick's concert on Saturday night. Well how about that! A quick check of things shows that Tilt's $24k guarantee will be jumping off at 5 pm. Done. And since I know it's rare that I get time to play a longer MTT, I figured I'd see if anything worthwhile was happening on Stars. $3 Rebuy Madness with a $30k guarantee!! What a freaking evening!

So 5 pm rolls around and I get going. I did the initial rebuy to bump my chips up to 3k, and the $24k Guarantee was a deep stack, so I started with 3k in chips for both. I chipped up early in both games, and amazingly I wasn't at a pushmonkey table in the rebuy. So I hovered around 3 to 4k in chips in both, and then my fonkiness reared its ugly head. About 30 minutes into things, I get dealt A9s in the $24k, just before the CO. 2 limpers ahead of me, I go ahead limp and the blinds call/check. Flop comes down 269 with 2 spades…no real straight opportunities. SB checks, BB fires out a pot-sized bet. Fold fold, and with my TPTK and nut flush draw I min-reraise him (half the pot). He goes ahead and shoves, and I call. He had pocket 6s for a set, I didn't improve and busted out as only a fonkey can with only 1 pair.

After that, I tightened up at the Rebuy Madness, not wanting an early exit here, too. So we make it to the first break, I did the add on, and was sitting with a little over 5k in chips…not great but not bad. First hand after the break, I get dealt Hiltons at UTG+1. UTG folds and I fire out a 5x raise (I forget exactly what the blinds were) and the button smooth calls. I figured if he had KK or AA he would've reraised me, so I figured him for an underpair or a strong ace. Flop came down low rainbow rags (7 high). I bet the pot and the button shoved. I took his move as either he was playing A7 and had TPTK or he was trying to protect 2 overcards (AK, AQ, etc.), but that I was probably ahead, so I called which put me all in. At least I had my read correct, when he flipped over uns00ted big slick. Unfortunately the turn brought a K, and no more rebuy madness for Hoff.

I'm disappointed in the results and in my fonkalicious moments, but it was still fun. Gotta find a way to play those again. See ya out there.

Cancer still sucks

2007-07-12T09:19:00.001-07:00

Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we will find a cure for this shitty disease known as cancer. But for now, here's a person who could use some kind words and thoughts.

Cross-posted at The Randomness and What Happened

The one in which we breathe a sigh of relief...

2007-07-02T08:37:00.001-07:00

Sez me…

This past 2 weeks has been brutally hectic. Working late several nights, over the weekend, all to get a proposal together for a potentially $1.8 million contract. We got it done, and now it's a waiting game to see if my company is going to be called for an interview. I've got more projects to work on this week, but I'm hella relieved to be done with that proposal. Of course, if we get the project I'm looking at 2 solid years of being busy, but it beats being unemployed.

A side effect of the work situation was that I played practically no poker at all for almost 2 weeks. My first game of any substance, hell the only game I played recently was a 9 player $11 turbo on Tilt that I got into at about 12:30 in the morning, because I finally had a moment and was itching to play. I played solid ABC poker. We went into HU with chip counts me T3000 and villain T10,500. I managed to get all the way to me T12,000 and villain T1500 and the deck went cold. Every hand I entered except for maybe 2, it was at worst a race, and at best I should've been a lock. At that high point, I was in the BB. Villain shoved and it was only another 700 to call. I look down at a s00ted 26, and figure what the hell…it's s00ted. He flips over a 27 and he manages to drag the pot. From there it just went to hell. My AK vs AT…he flops a set. My TT to his 55, he 4 flushes it. And so on. The only other hand where I was dominated was the last hand. I'm back to T3000 and he's fought back to T10,500. I get a s000ted K7 in the SB and shove. He calls with his own s00ted K8. Flop comes down K78, and IGH. Still, 2^nd place…that was my first cash in a while so I'll take it.

Beyond that, not too much happening. I was supposed to golfing over the weekend, but we had to delay it to next weekend for some reason or other. Now I've got something to look forward to. It's nice and warm here in San Diego, so I'm getting back into beach mode. My office isn't too far from the beach (maybe 2-3 miles), so some nights that DAPGF teaches I'm catching some waves. My Padres are doing well, and my boy Tony Gwynn is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. All in all, things are looking good.

See ya on the felt.

Can a brother catch a break?

2007-06-22T10:04:00.001-07:00

This is merely an example of how my game has been running lately.

*********** # 28 **************
PokerStars Game #10558454851: Tournament #53485032, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2007/06/22 - 03:40:46 (ET)
Table '53485032 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: majorcarnag1 (2302 in chips)
Seat 3: coolroocat (3000 in chips)
Seat 4: tybo138 (2878 in chips)
Seat 5: iamhoff (2075 in chips)
Seat 6: Posti (2055 in chips)
Seat 8: BMoneyLess (1190 in chips)
BMoneyLess: posts small blind 50
majorcarnag1: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [Ks Kh]
coolroocat: folds
tybo138: raises 300 to 400
iamhoff: calls 400
Posti: folds
BMoneyLess: folds
majorcarnag1: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [5h 2s 3s]
majorcarnag1: bets 1902 and is all-in
tybo138: calls 1902
iamhoff: calls 1675 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [5h 2s 3s] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [5h 2s 3s 2h] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
majorcarnag1: shows [2c Ac] (three of a kind, Deuces)
tybo138: shows [Js Jd] (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
majorcarnag1 collected 454 from side pot
iamhoff: shows [Ks Kh] (two pair, Kings and Deuces)
majorcarnag1 collected 6275 from main pot

I ran the number on Two Dimes, and preflop I was a 53% favorite to the 29% of the A2 and the 18% of the JJ. JJ was the preflop raiser, I called and the BB called with the A2c. On the flop, BB shoves. According to Two Dimes, when the money went in I was a 58% favorite to the 31% of the A2 and the 8% of the JJ. It's one thing to lose a race, but it's entirely another thing to lose a 2 to 1 contest. And that's pretty much how this past month has gone.

The Randomness of Hoff

This is certainly different...

I'm Still Here...Sort Of.

It's That Time of Year Again!

Progress Update

Happy Freaking New Year!

Changes are Afoot

Actual Poker Content!

Hiatus on hiatus

Hiatus

Freaky Friday

Random Stuff

Amazingly, none of the usual suspects officially reside in New York

Catching up on things...

So, are you married?

Carpocalypse - Will GM Go Bankrupt?

I was ahead when the money got in...

Did you ever have one of those nights...

Creepiest. Thing. Evar. (Non-poker content, slightly NSFW)

Success is where you find it...

Still breathing, barely

Epic Want (non-poker edition)

Small Victories

Nice to see some things never change...

It's time to get back in the groove

Where does the time go?

Ups and Downs in the Land of Poker

Arrrrr Matey!

I'd like to report a crime, and other assorted thoughts

Actual Poker Content! Plus Bonus Non Poker Content!

And some things never change...

July has kinda been teh suck

Assorted Stuff

Random Thoughts From a Busy Week and Weekend

Hey! Real Poker Content! And Bonus Non-Poker Content!

Holy Crap! Actual Poker Content!

Stuff and more stuff

Poker and Non-Poker...that oughta cover it!

Maybe it's the heat or...

Teh Randomness of Crap

The Randomness of Posting

Hilarious non poker content

I'm Still Here, Dammit

And just for good measure...

It's Nice To See Some Things Don't Change

Couple of things...

Assorted Randomness

And You Shall Know Them By Their Beer

GO BOLTS!!!!!!

Yo yo yo, boyeeeeeeee

I Wish My Company Got Me a Wifi Card

Happy Freaking New Year

Could. Not. Resist.

Am I Missing Something?

It's Friday! Time for Teh Randomness!

Assorted Thoughts and Stuff

What I Am Thankful For

I've been...tagged!

The Randomness of Friday (it's a whole new week!)

The Randomness of Friday

2003 Revisited

Blogroll

Links, Links, Links

Feeding the Need to Play

Feeding the Need for Speed

Feeding the Need for Whatever

Assorted Gen-u-wine Poker Content

The Return of BBT2

We Have Been Experiencing Technical Difficulties

It's That Time Again!!

Public Service Announcement

Idiots (non poker content ahead)

For Daddy, Al, Pauly, and select others

Generations

Oh the carnage! Actual poker content! Be warned, it's ugly!

Actual Freaking Poker Content!!

It ain't easy bein' a pimp!

One more deposit option gone.

An interesting observation...

Tournament Pimpage