Special K's Place

Trip to Germany

2011-09-25T20:41:00.001-04:00

I had quite a trip to Germany this month. I just returned and I’m still recovering a bit, so I won’t write a whole lot about the trip. I’ll let some of the best pictures and their captions tell the stories.

This is from the center city park in Stuttgart. Touring this park early in the day helped me to get back to the train station late that night. Hint: When in Stuttgart, don’t rely on the trains to get you home after 1 am.

Roman Ruins - Trier, Germany.

Old Town – Trier, Germany

Kurfurstliches Palace – Trier, Germany

Spa de Casino – Spa, Belgium. This casino bills itself as “The oldest casino of the World (1763)”

A blurry picture of a restaurant with a funny name. Spa, Belgium.

The Philosopher's Walk, Heidelberg, Germany

High above Heidelberg

The Heidelberg Castle

Near Mittenwald, Germany.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein again.

The view from Neuschwanstein Castle

Hohenschwangau Castle from Neuschwanstein Castle

I love horse fountains with water coming out of their noses. Linderhof Castle

Linderhof Castle

Near Mittenwald, Germany

Mittenwald, Germany

The rest of the shots are from the Munich Oktoberfest:

Fish on Sticks

Obviously, we didn’t know what to expect from this trip, but we sure did have a blast. Check another line on the life list.

Dads

2011-07-27T23:51:00.001-04:00

This week, David, a friend from many years ago lost his dad. We are all getting older that this sort of thing is happening more and more.

Also this week, my friend Brad penned another blog post that took be three days to get up the nerve to read. He has a way of jerking moisture from around my eyes, so I have to prepare. You can read about promises here: http://www.rapideyereality.com/archives/2011/07/25/promises/. I didn’t cry this time, but it was still a good read.

On Friday, Dr. K and I will ride our bikes hundreds of miles in the 24 Hours of Booty charity bike ride to raise money that will defeat the bastard disease (brain cancer) that killed her dad 4 years ago.

I’ve got no point except that it is good to sit and think about all of the great dads and the great things that they do.

If you’ve got a few bucks and want to help, http://www.24hoursofbooty.org/site/TR/Bike/General?px=1069905&pg=personal&fr_id=1150

Thanks

The National Debt and Fun with Graphs

2011-07-27T13:33:00.001-04:00

There’s a lot of talk out there about the national debt and who is to blame for creating it and who will get credit for fixing it. We can be sure the president will take credit for fixing it. True to form, he is blaming Bush for creating it. You haven’t heard that? Well take a look at this graph from Whitehouse.gov:

Even the liberal friend who pointed me to it said that it was a bit disingenuous in how it pins spending on Bush that happened during the Obama administration. They call them lies when a Republican does it.

That got me looking around for other graphs about the national debt. How about this one from saintpetersblog.com:

This one ties increases to the debt to presidents. Notice that there is no mention about who is running the House of Representatives at the time. It conveniently stops before Obama took office.

Those first two were obviously written by Democrats. Here is one that is a little more balances in that it shows the make up of the federal government at the time and percentage changes. It still leans Republican in that it does not use real dollars and compare the change to the S&P 500 as if that has any place in the debate. It also includes the Obama years so far.

Here’s a funny one from democrashield.com:

This one ties the debt to the President and the Senate and completely ignores the branch of government that is in charge of spending.

Finally, I think this graph is the most balanced and the one that matters most:

That looks bad. Now if you consider that only half of the adults in the US pay any income tax (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36226444/ns/business-personal_finance/t/half-us-pays-no-federal-income-tax/) and you can double the totals on the graph’s left to tell you how much taxpayers will have to pay back eventually. Raising taxes (income enhancement to Democrats) isn’t going to get us close to getting this problem under control. The balanced approach is a shame designed to help the half that do not pay income tax.

Workout Update for Q2

2011-07-12T15:24:00.001-04:00

Just the fact that I’m still tracking my workouts 6 months into the year is a small cause for celebration. I thought I would start skipping a few entries and then pitch the whole idea after a few months. Not so. I really enjoy seeing how much I have done.

Now for the downside. I’d like to be seeing more progress. I saw some progress in the first quarter, but I think I’ve stepped back from even those small gains. Illness and a rough travel schedule caused a four week layoff from any meaningful workouts for the last 2 weeks of Q2 and the first 2 weeks of Q3. Consistency was also not a high point for this quarter. Running decreased, but biking came out of the closet and kept the workout time in each month between 7:45 and 9:30.

So here are the totals:

I ran 108.3 miles in 15 hours and 9 minutes for the quarter and 308 miles in 43 hours in the first half.

I biked 172 miles in 10 hours and 21 minutes in this quarter.

I picked my next goal which is to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon on Sunday, December 4, 2011. It happens to be the weekend of the WPBT (aka Blogger Weekend) and several of my blogger friends also plan to participate. It should be the capper to another great Vegas weekend. Of course, there is also the 24 Hours of Booty charity bike ride at the end of this month and I’m still hoping that I can gather up enough fitness to do the Take Flight Tryathlon for the third year. I’m really busting my workout volume right now. It’s time to get going or get out of the way.

See you out on the road.

Special K–Senior Citizen

2011-06-15T09:44:00.001-04:00

On Friday June 17, 2011, I will officially become a senior citizen. That is the day that I begin (and end?) play in event 30 of the World Series of Poker, The Seniors event (must be 50 to enter). I wonder if all senior citizens feel too young to be this old. I’m looking forward to getting my chips in and having fun with the whole experience. Dr. K was good to remind me that having fun was the goal. My friends Jim the Knife, Tom Scott, and David Westbay will also be playing and I wish them all the luck in the world. Having friends along for the ride definitely adds to the fun.

The last time I played in a poker tournament, I was out before the end of the first level. The first goal is to have fun. The second goal is to last longer than I did in the last tournament. I could sit in the hallway at the Rio for the first hour and watch people and make the first two goals. After that, I’ll have to be content to do my best and hope the cards are kind. I’ll tweet when I can, so follow @CKrumel for live updates starting Friday.

Palin and Revere

2011-06-08T20:24:00.001-04:00

I am totally fascinated by the controversy over Sarah Palin’s comment about the ride of Paul Revere.

First off, I have no need to defend Sarah Palin. She’s a big girl now. She’s riding around the country in her bus, looking for and getting attention, so she asked for moments like this.

At the suggestion of a friend whom I respect very much, I watched the clip again. This one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8koxCWVwTlg. Palin’s statement does lack some pronouns.

Some have criticized her for not even answering the question by giving her take on the ride of Revere. She was asked about her take-away from "this trip." She pretty obviously interpreted “this trip” to be the trip to Revere's house (where she was at the time) and not the trip to Boston or the trip around the country. She did not only talk about the ride, be started the answer talking about seeing where Revere “hung out as a teenager.” No biggie there.

As for the ride description and motivation, yes, it is a muddled sentence. Here is what she said: “And you know, he who warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms, by ringing those bells and making sure, as he is riding his horse through town, to send those warning shots and bells, that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”

Just how far would that sentence have to be edited for it to be accurate and coherent? Let’s see:

“And you know, he [who] warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms[,]. [b]By having colonists ring[ing] those bells and making sure everyone knew about the British [by ], as he [is riding] rode his horse through town, and to send those warning shots and ring the bells, that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”

I had to take out two words, change the tense of two words/phrases and a punctuation mark, and add 12 words. I don’t think I’ve changed the gist of what she was saying though I’ll grant that some will think I have. I don’t have a problem with that. Is the statement poor? Yep. Is it wrong. I wouldn’t go that far.

He didn't ring bells or fire shots. He was out to tell others to ring bells and fire shots. I didn't know that before this controversy hit and I’m pretty well educated in history. I don’t thing most of the critics knew that either. And he did warn the British. It was a bluff once he had been captured. In contrast, the reporter in the clip above ends his piece by telling his audience that there were no bells and that lanterns were used to warn the colonists about the British. It was the opposite of Palin’s comment; a good sentence and completely wrong. There were in fact bells being rung that night to warn the colonists about the emergency. Today, we use Twitter and Facebook for that. The lanterns didn’t warn the colonists as the reporter said. They sent info to Revere and his fellow rider so that they could warn the colonists. Revere and William Dawes went out to do the warning. Smug reporter.

There were a lot of facts in what Palin was trying to say that most people didn’t know. So why has the controversy gone on so long. There are plenty of fact-check reports and articles out there that spin the history one way or the other but most have the facts as I’ve written them here. There should probably be more controversy over teaching our children Longfellow’s poem about the ride and the appalling lies therein. (Longfellow’s Grandfather found Revere to be a coward)

My theory is that once folks publically jumped on Palin for what they thought were gross inaccuracies, whether they were broadcasting, writing on the internet or just around the water cooler at work, they became invested in making this a “stupid Palin moment.” To admit that it wasn’t as bad as they first thought would damage their pride and potentially give Palin a break. For liberal Democrat, this last bit would be worse than Reagan returning from the dead.

Finally, I know what is coming in the comments, so before I’m written off as another right-wing nut (evidence for that can be found elsewhere) or a Palin lover, I want to point out that I’ve publicly defended Joe Biden along these same lines here.

It’s not worth much as theories go, but it entertains me. So there.

The ‘Glamor’ of Traveling (Part 2)

2011-06-07T23:06:00.001-04:00

(See part 1 for the forestory) It’s now day two of my one hour flight to Huntsville, Alabama. We just boarded half of the plane when the pilot came on the PA to announce that a problem that they thought had been fixed had really not been fixed. After some confusion on the part of the crew, we de-boarded the plane. It took about 30 minutes for them to decide that the plane was not fixable and that they would fly the route with a plane that had 20 fewer seats.

Now they need to find a way to boot 18 folks from the flight and so they ask for volunteers. After considering the $175 in voucher money they were offering and the fact that I could now change to another city, one that would have rental cars, I decided to take the offer and give up my seat. This would prove to be a winning move.

I consulted my Windows Phone 7 Map application and saw that Huntsville is close to equidistant from Nashville, TN, Chattanooga, TN, and Birmingham, AL. I had to pick one and I chose Nashville. I got to the gate and called Avis for a rental car reservation. Unbelievably, they also had no cars to rent. As the Nashville flight was now starting to board, I had to high-tail it to US Airways customer service to get yet another change.

This time I guessed Birmingham. I got that ticket and headed off to call Avis back. This time cars were available. I got my reservation and then I thought of something that I’d forgotten. I now needed to push my return flight back by a day. Back to Customer Service go I. The girl behind the counter said she could do that for only a $150 change fee and that there was no way the system would let her do it for free. I calmly (really, those who know me would have been shocked) explained that this was due to 2 mechanical failures and that it was going to be free. I told her the whole story. She asked if I had my original boarding pass, which I did, and she made the change. Funny, I thought the system… oh, never mind. I had won so I left winner. (It was at this point in the day that I penned part 1 of this tale, so I didn’t know how much more ‘adventure’ was to come.)

From that point on, the trip went without a hitch. I did have a 2 hour drive once I got the Birmingham, but the roads were clear and the sailing smooth. I arrived at my hotel around 8 pm and prepared for the site visit. I’ve now completed day one of 3 at the customer site and I’m hoping I can keep this trip running smoothly until I return home of Friday. If not, there will be a part 3.

Happy Trails.

The ‘Glamor’ of Traveling

2011-06-06T16:56:00.001-04:00

For the American worker who slaves away at a job, doing the same thing in the same place for 5 days and week, the life of us who travel as a part of our jobs must seem interesting and glamorous. I’ve posted over on Facebook how it is truly interesting, but in a proverbial Chinese sort of way. As for glamorous, it is not. Consider that I’m now sitting on the floor of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport writing this here post instead of doing the work that I was scheduled to do today. I’m not doing the work because I’ve been trying to get to Huntsville, Alabama for over 24 hours now. I’m not saying it’s better to work at the same place everyday, just that each job has its challenges. Today, I’m being challenged, and how.

It is only a seven hour drive to Huntsville, so I could have driven yesterday and gotten there on time, but I could not foresee the future. In short, I arrived at the airport yesterday afternoon for a 6 o’clock flight that takes about an hour. As we were boarding the plane I noticed the interior lights in the plane flickered and then came on full. I commented to my neighbor that the lights didn’t add a lot of confidence for the flight. Sometime later the pilot came on the intercom and told us that the flickering lights was actually a circuit overload that they needed to get checked out.

It took about 30 minutes to get the checks done. Nothing was really wrong and we were good to go. Just as we were ready to push back, a thunderstorm closed the tarmac and we could not move until it was reopened. There was some excitement when one plane at the airport was struck by lightning. That was cool. I’ll bet they did have an overload.

It took about 45 minutes for the storm to blow over. We pushed back and headed for the runway. Once there we pulled to the side and the pilot told us that we were to be rerouted due to other storms in our path and that calculations had to be made to determine if we had enough fuel. That’s important, I guess. Then we were scheduled on a different runway. Then the fuel calculation for the new, way-northerly route came back as insufficient. But by this time the old route was clear, but we had idled away too much fuel and had to go get more. But that would take too long for either the crew to make the trip or for the airline to avoid paying us hefty fines. That wasn’t very clear. What was clear was that our flight was cancelled.

Rebooking went reasonably well and I was back home by 9 pm with a ticket for today. Before I went to bed, I called the hotel to let them know I was still coming, I’d just be a day late. They were cool about that. Why not. They get paid the same whether I show up or not. Then I went to change my rental car reservation. The problem was that they (Avis) had no cars to rent. NONE. I didn’t believe the web site so I called Avis. It was true – no cars, trucks, busses, nothing. I checked the other rental car companies at the Huntsville airport and they all were out of cars. Carp. (Carp is funnier than crap right now). I did find a reservation at the Enterprise rental office in Huntsville and figured I ‘d take a cab to get that car and figure out how to get it back and get to the airport later.

I returned to the airport around 1 this afternoon, waited to board the plane, boarded, and got ready to fly. That didn’t happen either. (Part 2 coming soon)

Another Headline

2011-02-16T22:20:00.001-05:00

Continuing on yesterday’s theme, this headline reminded me of an old joke:

"Bahrain Police Open Fire on Funeral Procession Leaving One Dead"--headline, Guardian (London), Feb. 16

Recent Headlines

2011-02-15T16:12:00.001-05:00

Since the news from Egypt has cooled a bit, I guess the press has moved on to other stories. Here are a few recent headlines that I found humorous:

"Why You Should Avoid Getting Pregnant on the Way to Mars"--headline, Guardian (London), Feb. 14

"'Mars' Mission Reaches Climax in a Giant Sand Pit"--headline, Daily Telegraph (London), Feb. 15

That takes care of item 1.

"Light-Emitting Rubber Could Sense Structural Damage"--headline, TechnologyReview.com, Feb. 15

… and that takes care of all other missions.

Airport Bombing

2011-01-24T12:36:00.001-05:00

So does the TSA groping still make you feel safe? Ask the poor souls in this video. There’s no reason it won’t happen in the US. I hope this bomb maker blows his face off soon.

I’ve got a bit of ‘splanin to do

2011-01-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

That’s because it’s been since October since I’ve done a real blog post. It’s not that nothing blog worthy has happened. A lot has happened, actually. It’s just that I haven’t felt like writing it up and since I don’t make any money or make any promises about posting, I just didn’t. So let’s see what I remember.

My job kept me on the road after the October triathlon. I’ve traveled to Germany, Vegas, St. Louis, Vegas (again), St. Louis (again), G-Vegas, DC, and Charleston, SC. The Germany trip was to upgrade a customers database server. It took a 24 hour work day (my first ever), but we hit the planned return to service time and the customer has invited me back. I don’t have any problem with that.

The first trip to Vegas was for the celebration of my 50th birthday. I’m still not used to being that old, but so be it. That trip was awesome. Most of the folks that I really wanted there made it. We had incredible dinner at the Hofbrauhaus on Thursday, followed by another incredible dinner Carnevino in the Palazzo, followed by the Cher show at Caesar's on Saturday. There was some gambling in between with a good session of blackjack, a bad session of pai gow, and lot’s of poker. Dr. K and I got in a couple of good workouts in the beatuiful fitness spa of the Venetian (where we stayed courtesy of Skoon and Brian the Red) and a visit with my younger brother and Dr. K’s aunt. Though I ended up on the negative end for gambling, it was my best trip to Vegas ever.

The first trip to St. Louis was for work and nothing real special on that. I did play some poker at Lumiere Place and River City, both times with poor outcomes, and stayed right downtown near the arch and Busch Stadium. That was fun.

The second trip to Vegas was for the World Poker Blogger Tour (WPBT). Seeing that bunch of degens just gets better and better the more times we get together. The gambling hit a new low as I posted my biggest Vegas loss ever, but I’d do it again. If I’ve got the resources, I will.

The second trip to St. Louis is probably best forgotten. I was to present two days of training, but the customer’s folks only showed for 1 of the 4 sessions due to poor weather and general disinterest. Too bad. I had some good stuff planned. I stayed and played at the Harrah’s Hotel and Casino. My losses continued to mount this trip as well (are you seeing a trend here), so I’ll just move on.

G-Vegas brings us up to the new year and actually New Years Day and the BadBlood New Year’s Tourney. You can hear all about it on the Gambling Tales Podcast, but the gory details are that I got my money in good and didn’t win any of the significant hands that I needed to post another big loss. I’ve had good luck and bad luck in G-Vegas. I’ll try again soon.

Finally, the trip to DC was interesting. I think that will make for a good blog post of it’s own as that memory is fresh from last week. I’ll break out this weekend’s trip to Charleston as well.

As for other highlights from the past quarter – Thanksgiving and Christmas were good with family and friends healthy and doing well. Dr. K lost a bet with her nephew (a Clemson fan) and went over the top in paying off as the picture shows.

The two pictures in this post were taken with my new Windows Phone 7 which really kicksass. I won’t say that it’s better than the other smart phones (iPhone, Driod), but it holds it’ own with a lot of potential yet to come.

That’s most of the highlights. There are trips to Seattle, Colorado Springs and San Antonio in the near future. I’ll try to do better at keeping up.

Hangin’ at the Hospital

2011-01-18T23:17:00.001-05:00

Today didn’t go quite as expected. It was a pretty normal day at work until just after lunch. My phone rang with the caller ID telling me that it was my mom. She rarely calls, but will usually call in the morning. When I answered, it was not Mom, but a friend of hers. This is not the kind of call where you want to mess around with. It’s best to get straight to the point, to outrun my imagination. Diane did just that and the news was not nearly as bad as it could have been. Of course, it wasn’t great either.

Mom woke up feeling badly and called Diane for help getting to the emergency room. That was a good call. Mom ended up having a ruptured appendix. I did okay with the news. I called my wife, who is great in situations like this. I wrote a quick email to my brothers as that was way quicker than calling each one and headed to the hospital. Thankfully it was only a 5 minute drive.

As I write it is quarter past 11 and Mom has one less organ than she started the day with and is sleeping comfortably. The staff here at Carolinas Medical Center – Pineville is doing a great job. I’m confident that I could leave now and that everything would be okay, but I’ll feel better staying here. Perhaps I could catch this blog up on all that’s been going on with the adventures of Special K. I don’t have that much time but perhaps I’ll do an overview. Stay tuned.

PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

2011-01-16T12:58:00.001-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 602496

Gambling Tales Freeroll Tournament

2011-01-03T11:40:00.001-05:00

If you've not noticed, the Gambling Tales Podcast (gtpodcast.com) is back "on the air" with new shows weekly. We took a bit of a break over the last 6 months, reformatted the show to single topic weekly shows, and now we've added a weekly freeroll tournament on Full Tilt Poker. I'm guessing that the tournament might be the most interesting part of the new GTP, so I'll concentrate the rest of this post on that part.

Full Tilt Poker has been kind enough to offer a freeroll tournament to the listeners of the podcast that includes a $50 prize pool. The tournaments are on Thursday evenings at 9 pm eastern. You only need a Full Tilt cash account and the tournament password to participate. The password is generally given out sometime during the podcast which is released the Monday morning prior to the tourney. Since you have been a friend to the podcast and since I'm getting ready to ask something of you, I'm going to give you this week's password. It is "CollegePoker" (Tournament #208556681). It fits into the subject of the podcast. Shamus, of the Hard-boiled Poker Blog, is teaching a college course on Poker in American Film and Culture. Interesting stuff. I hope you will check it out.

Now my ask: We need links to our web site. If you like the podcast or the tournament, please write a brief blog post and include a link to http://gtpodcast.com in the post. You could offer your readers the chance to enter the freeroll. Encourage them to listen to the podcast, but give out the password if you like. We would really appreciate it. If you will reply to this email and let us know that you've created a post, I'll add you to the roll of "Friends of the Podcast" and send you next week's password.

Thanks again for your support and for listening.

May your dice fly high

Gambling Tales Podcast Returns

2010-12-27T10:51:00.001-05:00

The Gambling Tales Podcast is back with a new format and a weekly freeroll tournament. We took 6 months off from the podcast. It wasn’t planned, but business travel and life in general kept us from putting new shows together until now.

The new format will be a change from the old 3 segment format that we were publishing every two weeks. We are streamlining the show with just one segment per show and publishing the show weekly. We had planned for the old show format to run about 20-30 minutes, but we found that most shows were pushing an hour. I listen to some podcasts that run an hour or more weekly and I find it difficult to keep up with them. With our new format, we won’t have to worry so much about the length. Some shows may be as short as 10 minutes while others may run 30. I’m very open to reading comments and adjusting future shows (gtpodcast@live.com).

Starting January 2, 2011, the Gambling Tales Podcast will host a weekly freeroll poker tournament on Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt will put up a $50 prize pool each week. Most tournaments will be No Limit Texas Hold’em with an occasional venture into Omaha, Stud, or Mixed games. The password for entry into the tournament will change weekly and will be announced on the show. Shows will be released on Sunday night and the tournament will be held on Thursday at 9 pm eastern. We look forward to railing friends and listeners each week.

I’m really excited about the changes and look forward to hearing comments and suggestions from listeners. Enjoy.

My Favorite Desktop Gadget

2010-11-07T20:02:00.001-05:00

A much better tri

2010-10-11T10:04:00.001-04:00

As I expected, Saturday night led into a very restless Sunday morning. I managed to get some sleep between 3 and 5 am, I think. It was tough wrestling with the ghosts of the triathlon. They kept trying to help me by wanting to go through the first transition, and then the plan for the biking hills, and then the run strategy, and then the second transition, etc, etc. I had heard that the night 2 nights before the event was the most important night of sleep for the triathlete. Apparently that’s because you are not going to sleep well the night before.

I arose around 5 am to make my final checks, feed the dogs, eat some breakfast and load up my gear. We got away and to the site a few minutes before 6:30. Setup went smooth and by 7:15, I was ready to go. I did make a couple stops by the porta-potty before the race, just in case. I’d paid for that lesson last year. I wasn’t going to waste it. I also ran into an old friend, CM, from my early days at my work place. She gave Dr. K an invitation to join her all-girls workout club. It was good to see that she was doing well. I’d see her again in a bit.

I wore number 68, which set my start time around 7:49. In this race, someone started every 15 seconds, so we all stood in a line until our turn. Soon enough it was my turn. The starter yelled “Three, two, one, go”, and I was off.

My first mistake was trying to wear my heart rate monitor during the swim. I didn’t expect to get my HR during the swim, I just didn’t want to have to put it on during a transition and I did want it for the run. I had noticed that I was the only person wearing one, but not until it was too late to ask why. There was no problem until the first swimming turn where I pushed off the wall and felt the strap of the monitor slip down to my waist. The second turn pushed it down to my butt and the third turn took it off. It remained at the bottom of the pool for the remainder of the race. I felt a real distraction from this turn of events and I think my swim suffered for it. Swim time – 4:45 (250 meters).

My swim didn’t feel great, but the finish came up a lot quicker this time. I managed to pull myself from the pool and run out the door into the very cool October air. This year, unlike last, I was going for time. There was no time to dry off or put on socks. It was time to do what needed to be done and nothing more. I mixed up the order of things in the transition, but I managed to put on my bike shoes, my shirt, and my helmet in a reasonable time and head for the bike start.

The bike portion went well. My concentration for the bike ride was the hills on the course. They are big and the first three come at you one after another. The second hill is the worst on the route. I set my mind to climb mode and made those hills mine. My lungs ached during the entire ride, but I wasn’t letting up. My Secretariat motivation from Friday night cut at least a minute off my time. I do remember getting a bit of a ice cream headache about halfway through. The cold air running over my wet hair made me a little uncomfortable. It was about this time where I almost drove my bike in a ditch for no good reason other than lack of concentration. The two were probably connected. Bike time – 34:00 (10 miles).

I returned to the transition zone to prepare for the run. It was a good long way from the bike dismount point to my spot in the transition zone and another from my spot to the run start point. This added a ton of time, like a full minute, to my race. I again messed up my plan. First, I headed up the wrong row of bikes and had to do an about face. Once to my spot I had trouble hooking my number belt around my waste and finally forgot to drop my glasses. All of those mistake probably added another 20 seconds. Not awful, but significant. You brain just doesn’t work the same when you are tired and my performance here proves that.

As expected, the run started slow and got better as I went. There was never any real need to start walking, but I did shuffle through the first mile or so. This is where I saw my old work friend again. The run course doubles back on itself 3 times. CM had started about 10 minutes ahead of me in the swim. When I saw her during the run, she was up by about 2 minutes. By the second switchback that time was down to a minute or so. It was more motivation than competition that made me want to catch her by the finish. at switchback 3 her lead was only about 150 yards, but we were only a half-mile from the finish. I picked up the pace and I could see her ahead of me with a quarter mile to go.

I think 100 yards was as close as I got, but the distraction of the chase helped pull me to a good finish. Run time – 26:36.

My time for this race last year under very similar conditions was 1:23:36. This year I bettered every segment except the second transition and posted a time of 1:09:20 or 14 minutes and 16 seconds better.

I thought before the race that 1:05 might be possible. After the race I knew I had given a little more than I had to give (Translation: I felt like crap for the rest of the day). Now, the morning after the race, my head still has a bit of a buzz and my lungs have a distant ache and my ankles have rough spot or two, but I’m pretty much recovered. It will be a while before the pain of yesterday’s triathlon recedes enough for me to try again, but I will. I think I’ll wait a few more days until I start to work on that.

Tri. Now try harder.

2010-10-09T22:05:00.001-04:00

This the not football season in the Special K household. This October has become triathlon season. I’ve been a workout junkie on and off since high school. The last time I was really into it was back in 2002 right up until I run the old Cooper River Bridge had my gall bladder removed 2 days later. For some reason I never gotten back to that routine. I think the combination of work travel and poker conspired against the workouts by sucking up my free time. Now, even though I’m not in the best running shape of my 40s, I am in the best all-around shape for swimming, biking and running that I’ve ever been.

Most of that work was inspired by my wife, Dr. K. She discovered working out and how much she loves it in the spring of 2009. Since then she has been working out and building a triathlon machine. The change has been remarkable. As we say during election season, I approve that message.

So the official sport around the house is now triathlon. Three week ago, we traveled to Augusta, GA to watch a friend run in a Half-Max Tri. I was pretty impressed as he just kept motoring along through a mile+ swim, and 40+ mile bike ride and a 13 mile run. Last week was Dr. K’s turn for her international distance tri (1k yrds/28 mi./10k). Unfortunately, the swim was cancelled, but she rallied from her disappointment to do very well. She came out with a plan to run a half-marathon in Dec.

Tomorrow is my turn. Around 7:48:45 I’ll start the same tri that I tried last year, the Take Flight Triathlon. Mine is a sprint of 250 m swim, 10 mi bike, and 5k run. If you need to catch up on what happened last year you can jump to here. I’ll not repeat the soiled details of that one, however I was not pleased with the outcome. Tomorrow is my chance at redemption and I’m pretty nervous about it. I’m hopeful that by dumping my thoughts here, where no one will read them, that I’ll rid myself of at least some of those nerves.

I’ve trained hard, maybe even too hard at times. I should have had a plan, but I didn’t. I just tried to do a lot of each of the disciplines and tried to improve my fitness along the way. Next time I’ll go with the plan. I didn’t have to go on a month long trip a few weeks before the event this year like last. I did go to Afghanistan during my training, but only for 2 weeks and I did manage to run a few times while there. My running is still not back to where I want it to be, but my swimming is about as good as ever and my biking is better than ever.

I’ve been over the course and there are about 4 points on the bike course that scare me. It is hilly and 4 of the hills are going to take my best effort and then some to get over in a reasonable time. The run will be awful to start, but I’m not holding back on the bike to save for the run. I’ll do what I can to avoid cramping up totally and take it as it comes. I’ll probably finish faster than I start on the run.

It all comes down to how deep in can dig in my heart to make myself go beyond where I think I can go. It seems so silly to do this as a hobby. There must be more constructive ways to abuse myself. I’ve got no one to compete against and no money on the line. I’m not good enough to compete for prizes. It’s just a goal that I set and I’m determined to see what I’ve got.

Tomorrow, my inspiration comes from an ESPN show I saw last night on Secretariat. Watching that horse run is such an awesome sight that I get a lump in my throat. One line from that show said that it was as if God said “go”, and he went. I’ll not be a Secretariat tomorrow and frankly, I’ll be relieved when it is done, but when they say “go” tomorrow, I’m going to see how much go I’ve got. I’ll update here when it’s done.

Tri.. er.. Duathlon in Myrtle Beach

2010-10-03T12:40:00.001-04:00

Dr. K was to Swim/Bike/Run in the Myrtle Beach Triathlon. We drove to the beach on Friday, got her registered for the race and loaded up on pasta. Our arrival at the Marina Inn for the event was about 6:30 am. About 7 am an announcement was made that there would be no swim. That was upsetting to many racers, some of which were competing for a spot on the national triathlon team. The problem was the epic rainfall of this past week. Myrtle Beach had 16 inches of rain from Tuesday to Friday. The runoff had pushed the e-coli level in the water too high for safe swimming. The event organizers had no choice.

So they re-jiggered the start and timing and Dr. K’s race started around 9:30. She did great finishing faster than she was expecting taking 4th in her age group. Thanks to the Hampton Inn West for allowing us to check out late for post-race showers. Below are some pictures (of the race, not the showers):

You can tell I’m very proud. Congrats Dr. K!

It’s Lemming time again

2010-09-07T12:22:00.001-04:00

A few pictures from Afghanistan

2010-08-27T10:48:00.001-04:00

I just returned home from my adventure in Afghanistan. Internet connectivity in this 3rd world country is difficult to come by, so I’ve waited until now to post. Also, most of what I really wanted to take pictures of was just what the military didn’t want me to take pictures of, so I passed on those. There are no award winners in this bunch, but it may give you a little idea of what the place is like.

Thanks to Jim Bell for the really cool carabineer for my armor.

United Airlines F’s over its Customers

2010-08-16T14:08:00.000-04:00

On Thursday I had what must rank as one of my top ten all-time worst customer service experience at the hands of United Airlines. It all started when my 2:30 pm flight to Washington-Dulles was cancelled due to bad weather in the DC area. I don’t blame them for not flying without permission, but cancelling the flight altogether put the 130 or so folks on the plane in need of rebooking to get to their destination. Had we flown when the airport reopened, I would have made my flight to Kuwait which was also delayed instead of enduring the torture that followed.

As we pulled back to the gate an announcement was made for domestic customers to line up at one gate and international customers at the other. I’m thinking that they will give the international customers a priority since they have more expensive tickets and longer delays if flights are missed. Nothing could have been further from what happened.

The domestic line was about twice as long as the international line, so it wasn’t surprising to see two agents servicing those passengers. I was 9th of about 45 passengers in the international line. Things were looking ok until the second customer in my line. The first customer was in the wrong line so he was gone at once. The next guy took over 50 minutes to try every possible option and ask every possible question. Several international passengers asked for the agents to help us out a bit. That wasn’t going to happen.

As the ‘help’ whet on, the average time to book domestic passengers was maybe 5 minutes and the average passenger in the international line took about 30 minutes. Even though I started 9th in line, I didn’t get any help with my travel until I had stood in line for over 3 hours. Of course, by that time there was no way to get to Kuwait in time to catch my connection. None. And since my connection only runs three days a week, it pushed my travel back 3 days.

Even though our line was moving so much slower, the 2 agents serving domestic passengers made no effort to help our line at all until all of the domestics were gone. That happened right about the 3 hour mark. Score 90 domestic, 8 international. Nice.

At that point, some folks from further back in the international line stepped into the domestic line. Once the domestics were gone, the agents continued with those line-jumpers in front of them instead of serving the next customer in the proper line. Let that be a lesson to those who listen to instructions and play by the rules. The folks behind the desk don’t give a crap about that. They will do what is easier for them. And did United keep all 3 agents working to help customers? Nope. One of the agents disappeared with no explanation.

Thankfully I was in my home town, so I could schedule a tentative trip and go home. I really feel for the folks who were still 3 hours deep in the line and facing a night in a hotel and another day of traveling.

DId I say I could just go home? That’s not quite true. I still had to retrieve my bag from the airline. That took another 30 minutes of waiting at the bag conveyor line. From there I hopped on the waiting shuttle to airport parking and got right to my car. Then I say the worst backup at the parking pay windows that I’ve every seen. It took another 30 minutes to pay for the parking that I didn’t need. I was home about 20 minutes later, much to the surprise of Dr. K.

As I’m writing this, my second try at this trip is going much better, but there is a long way to go.

The Long Layover

2010-08-15T13:26:00.001-04:00

Now that I seem to be on my way I’ll quit being coy. I’m headed to Afghanistan for a couple weeks. Specifically, I’ll be traveling to US Army bases in Kabul and Kandahar. They are exotic locations and the living conditions are much different than I am used to in the states, but the work is pretty much the same.

Is it safe? Yes, I believe it is. The most dangerous part by far is the flight, and not because it is in a war zone, but because it is a flight. The problems that you hear about on the news tend to be out in the country-side or around forward operating bases (FOBs), not the big bases near cities. I found that to be true in Iraq the past two summers and I expect the same in Afg.

I tried to get this trip started last Thursday. The plan was to travel from Charlotte to Dulles and then on to Kuwait City arriving Friday afternoon Kuwait time. There is an apartment that I can use there to get a shower and some sleep before continuing on to Kandahar and finally Kabul on Saturday. Weather threatening in the DC area botched those plans. My United flight out of CLT was cancelled. The resulting ordeal that followed is too long for this post, but I will follow up with that rant shortly. United won’t be happy, believe me.

Currently, I’m in the United Red Carpet Club in the Dulles International Airport. It is a much nicer hang-out than the concourse. Some free drinks, snacks, a bar, and NASCAR on the wide screen will work just fine. I hope they don’t mind my changing the channel.

Because of the problems of Thursday, I didn’t want chance missing the flight to Kuwait again. Unfortunately, the next earlier available flight out of CLT gave me a 6 hour layover here in Dulles. So my current schedule looks like 2 hours of traveling to and hanging out in the Charlotte airport, 1 hour flight to DC, 6 hour layover in DC, 14 hour flight to Kuwait city and probably another hour or two of getting into Kuwait, getting my bag, and getting to the apartment. After that 13 hours in the apartment, it’s back to the airport for the flight into Kandahar and then Kabul to finally get bedded down around 12 hours of travel on Tuesday. Of course I will be full of energy and ready to go on Wednesday morning. Right.

For security sake, I won’t be giving any details on my specific work. You wouldn’t be that interested anyway. I will try to snap some interesting pictures that I’ll pass along if I can, so stay tuned.

Booty Ride Wrap-up

2010-08-10T10:23:00.001-04:00

The HearUSA 24 Hours of Booty Team had a very successful ride for charity last week. All four members completed at least 100 miles. Captain Tracey (“Dr. K”) and John the Trainer (picture left) completed 200 miles in just under 21 hours.

Personally, I was very happy to participate and glad that I could support my wife in a cause that she is passionate about. I was also disappointed to have come down with a cold while in Seattle on Wednesday only to have it peak the night of the ride. I’m thinking that the 3 or 4 days with little sleep in a strange bed and two cross-country flights might not have been the best preparation for the ride. I had about 91 miles ridden before 4 am, but that’s where I fell out. I returned to the course about 2 pm to complete my century and to help pack the campsite up.

We completed getting everything in the cars just as the sky opened up. We literally threw the last two items in the car as the heavy rain began to fall and headed for home. Dr. K insisted on a beer and pizza dinner even though she had not slept all night. She was pretty punchy by the time we returned home. In all, the team raised $2785 for cancer research and treatment. Dr. K is already shopping for a new bike for next year.

Fenway Update

2010-07-21T21:47:00.000-04:00

I was just looking back through the last few months of blog posts trying to figure out what I’ve posted and what I’ve missed. That’s when I came across the posts about one of my dogs, Fenway, and how he blew out his knee. You can catch up on that story here.

I knew it had been a while, but I had no idea that he hurt himself back at the end of March. It’s been 4 month or about 16 weeks. There was a long delay in getting his surgery done as he had some skin infections. It would have been a really bad idea to operate with the infected skin as it would have gotten into the surgery incision and I don’t want to know what would happen then.

Now to the present. Our boy is still recovering. He had his surgery about 3 weeks ago. I’d say he is a bit behind in his rehab. He should be walking and exercising more, but he gets really sore for days afterwards, so we are taking that slow. We are hoping to have him back to normal in 5 more weeks. I say we, but I’m going to be gone from home the majority of that time. It’s times like that that my job is not fair to Dr. K and the dogs.

Catching up – Aloha

2010-07-20T21:12:00.001-04:00

A few weeks back, business took me to Hawai’i. First off, when did they add an apostrophe to the name. I’m thinking before the trip that it was maybe a Hawaiian thing, but when I get to the island I see the state spelling Hawaii and Hawai’i. You’ll be glad to hear that it didn’t mess up my work or my short vacation.

I mention vacation as I took Dr. K along on this trip. She was willing to put up with me being gone during the first few days of the trip. Having the company pick up more than half of the tap for the trip really made it possible.

There’s not a lot to say about the trip. On the days when I was working, Dr. K rented a bike and rode around Diamond Head and Honolulu. We rode around the island (Oahu) one day from Waikiki to the North Shore and Hanauma Bay. Another day we visited Pearl Harbor with the Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri.

The final morning was a real treat. Doc Chako and the Wife came on vacation and happened to stay at the very same resort. We met poolside and had a real nice visit, met the Chako kids and au pair.

Here are the best of the pictures that I promised weeks ago. Enjoy.

Hanauma Bay

The Missouri looking over the remains of the Arizona (from the beginning to the end of WWII)

The Arizona Memorial from the Missouri

I’m not sure what I did with the pictures from the top of Diamond Head. I’ll post em when I find em.

Candidate v. President

2010-07-02T13:50:00.000-04:00

Candidate Obama (18 Sept 2008):

"Senator McCain's first answer to this economic crisis was - get ready for it - a commission. That's Washington-speak for 'we'll get back to you later.'"

"Folks, we don't need a commission to spend a few years and a lot of taxpayer money to tell us what's going on in our economy," he continued. "We don't need a commission to tell us gas prices are high or that you can't pay your bills. We don't need a commission to tell us you're losing your jobs. We don't need a commission to study this crisis, we need a President who will solve it - and that's the kind of President I intend to be."

President Obama (18 Feb 2010):

Signed Executive Order:

“There is established within the Executive Office of the President the National Commission on
Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Commission).”

Booty Time!

2010-06-30T13:12:00.001-04:00

Support Curtis in the 24 Hours of Booty

Join me in my extraordinary journey!

I will be participating in 24 Hours of Booty, a fundraising event for national and local cancer initiatives.

24 Hours of Booty (you’ve got to love that name) is The Official 24 Hour Cycling Event of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. 24 Hours of Booty is proud to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation as its national recipient. The LAF believes that in the battle with cancer, unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist, Lance Armstrong, the LAF provides the practical information and tools people living with cancer need to live strong.

I don’t generally ask for contributions to charities, but this one is really important to me and my family. If you could spare any amount, it will make a difference in someone’s life and you will feel good, guaranteed. Just go to http://www.24hoursofbooty.org/site/TR/Bike/General?px=1069905&pg=personal&fr_id=1100 with your credit card at the ready and hit the “Support Curtis!” button. Please donate This week to beat the fundraising deadline set by the organizers.

I’m completely serious about any amount. $1 will help. $5 will help more. Etc.

Lastly, some of you own or run a business. I’ll wear stuff to advertise for you for any donation. Just comment below and I’ll get in touch with you about the details.

Thank you.

Lost Vegas is Available

2010-06-29T12:13:00.001-04:00

This is a book that I’ve been waiting to get for a year now. Dr. Pauly (Paul McGuire) started this project the first year he went to cover the World Series of Poker. We hope to get him on the Gambling Tales Podcast as soon as the current WSOP is over. Stay tuned for that. In the mean time, check out Lost Vegas at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/lost-vegas/11493168

Turning 50 in Vegas

2010-05-28T11:56:00.001-04:00

That was my plan anyway. Plans change.

The location has not changed. The fact that everyone that knows me is invited to come along has not changed. Only the dates have changed a little bit.

I’ll make this official: I’ll be in Las Vegas from Thursday,October 21 until Monday, October 25. Dr. K is also scheduled to attend. I’ve promised her either Cher or MMA. (I know. You’ll have to ask her.) My current plan is to stay somewhere in the area of the Venetian. I’m not skimping on the room, but if there is a much better deal on an upgraded room at the Mirage or Caesar's, I may stay there. I’ll update when I make that reservation.

My birthday is actually October 28, but the actual date isn’t as important as some of my dearer friends being there. A plus from what I was planning before is that we will be there over a weekend which will give us a better selection of shows and events. I could have done the 28th to Nov. 1th, but that is halloween. That will be more expensive and crazy. I’ll be over-the-hill then so I won’t need that.

So that is pretty much it. I’d like to have a nice group dinner on either Friday or Saturday. I’ll have to work that around the show schedule. Otherwise, there won’t be many/any events. It will be a come and have fun time. Hope to see you there.

Gambling Tales Podcast

2010-05-24T12:21:00.001-04:00

Show 015 is out and it is our best yet. Check it out: http://gtpodcast.com/archives/282.

Almost Live Blogging the Shuttle Launch

2010-05-14T09:15:00.001-04:00

I haven’t had a wild hair in a long time, but I got a hold of one this week. I’ve always wanted to see a big rocket blast off. With the end of the shuttle program approaching and the future of the space program in doubt (no political commentary) my chances are likely to become limited. So with work being slow (today’s the last day of that for a long while) and a high probability launch scheduled, I decided today was the day.

1:00 am (Charlotte) – Up and atom. Throw everything in the car and hit the road.

4:30 am (somewhere between Savannah GA and Jacksonville FL) – First stop for gas and drinks. There has been a good bit of construction but very little traffic. I’m making good time. I’m back on the road in 10 minutes.

8:40 am (Titusville, FL) – I arrive in town to find that the crowds are already gathering. I try one very busy paid lot and they are only accepting cars with reservations at this point. I continue on to find the Moose Lodge. I pay $10 to park and use the lodge. That lodge has a bar, pool table, bathroom, friendly folks, and a clear view of the launch. Perfect. It looks like I couldn’t have done any better had I planned.

9:00 am – One Moose gives me directions to the best diner in town for breakfast. I arrive just before the line starts to form at the door.

11:45

12:08 – Wondering when the pre-game starts

1320 (T-1:00) – L:aunch Party

2:20 (t-0:00) LAUNCH!!!!

8:30 pm – Savannah Hilton Garden

This is where I ran out of gas. The car did fine. I just couldn’t give a good reason to keep driving as tired as I am. Best to get a room and some sleep and get home safe in the morning.

I was really surprised at my reaction to the whole event. With about a minute to go I could feel myself start to shake. My mouth went dry and my heart really picked up the pace. I was in awe as the ship came off the pad. I’ve seen the video hundreds of times, but to see the ship on a column of flame that seems as bright as the sun and 3 or 4 times the length of the entire shuttle is unbelievable. And it is all done without a sound from where we were. You don’t hear the roar until 30-40 seconds after liftoff. It was just awesome.

It has been a fantastic day. There’s not many things that are so quick that is worth so much time and effort. This was one of those things and I will, baring an unforeseen ending, always be glad that I did. Check that bucket-list item.

Sell Your Vote

2010-05-12T15:36:00.001-04:00

for the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. Here’s how:

Vote for Tom and only Tom and make $$$$.

Note: this is a longshot and there won’t be much money once split if any at all, but there is no money asked for and no more personal information than your email address. It is for real. I’ve gotten that straight from Tom. It think it will be fun to have a horse in the race, so to speak.

---------------------------

This year, the World Series of Poker is having a Tournament of Champions. Only 27 players will play and 21 of them must be voted in.

Here’s the deal.

You vote for me, Tom Schneider, and ONLY ME, and you will be part of the pool that will split half of what I win. First place pays $500,000. 50% of what I win will be split by people who have voted for me. If I win $500,000, $250,000 will be split by my voters. It’s that simple, and if I get voted in, I will be competing against only 27 players.

The site below is where you vote.

http://www.wsop.com/TOC/TOP50/

They will send you an email with a code in it. That code must be entered when voting.

After you have voted. Send this email to me and the verification email you receive from the WSOP site to tom@bigstackmedia.com and you will be part of the pool. I really would like to play in this tournament and your vote is very important to me. That’s why I’m paying for it.

One more important request. Please email this to any friends or family you have that you think might find it fun to own a piece of someone playing in the WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Please vote and then wish me luck.

Thanks again,

Tom Schneider
2007 WSOP Player of the Year

A few signs from Heidelberg

2010-04-20T11:13:00.001-04:00

Restaurants

When you don’t want something different:

Not a steak restaurant:

I’m just surprised that this one was almost all in English:

Hackteufel (means something like Devils Crossing). It was the name of my hotel. A sign over the door:

Some messages are clear - “Quit pissing on my door!”

That is all.

Blog Explosion

2010-04-20T11:07:00.001-04:00

I managed 11 marginal posts in the first quarter of this year. So far in April I’ve posted 18, er, 19 times and there are still 10 days to go. I can’t say why I feel so much more like writing. Travel helps. I can’t say I really feel better though I don’t feel bad. Taking pictures helps and that is something I’ve been ignoring for far too long. I guess that I’m posting enough when I’m posting about posting. Meta-posts count.

If an old friend asks…

2010-04-19T17:25:00.001-04:00

to spend a little time, you should go. I’m not talking about coming out for a beer with my and my crew. Oh, I will be asking soon and you will make your own decision, but the folks who show up will have a good time.

I’m talking about a regret that I have. Years ago, I had a friend named Bobby. Bobby had a fraternal twin named Billy. We really got to know each other during our senior year in high school and later in college at Carolina. We ended up in the same dorm. They didn’t drink so we didn’t spend nights out closing the bars, but we did spend quite a bit of time hanging out in their room.

I can’t remember which of them I followed to the basketball players dorm to get a bumper sticker signed for a handicapped child. It seems more like a Billy thing. That was a very interesting trip. We stopped into Jimmy Black’s room and he was happy to sign. He told us to wait and he would go get his roommate to sign as well. He ducks into the bathroom and shortly thereafter, a totally naked James Worthy is standing in front of us asking for the pen. I wish that memory was a bit more delable.

Bobby really saved my life when it came to calculus. I started out doing great in class, but the further along the semester went, the worse my grades got. Bobby tutored me and I squeaked by. I never even had to ask. That’s just the kind of guy is was. We would ride to and from Charlotte some weekends. They put up with my music as long as they could and then told me to change it as nicely as possible.

After college we went our separate ways. I later ran into Bobby in Charlotte. When he found out that I was working in Wilmington he made it clear that his job took him there often and that he would be calling me to come have a drink sometime soon. And he did.

I was in my TV production career. My job was putting together stories for a morning public interest show. The show was on from 6-7 am five days a week. Needless to say, I was early to bed and early to rise. I was beat the evening that Bobby called. I could have gone as it was still fairly early, but I postponed our meeting to another night.

A few weeks later, there was a story on the news at my station. Robert Douglas Hurd had been shot by a jealous ex-boyfriend of a girl that Mr. Hurd was dating. He was shot 6 or 7 times at close range with a .45 in a McDonalds parking lot around 8 am. I wouldn’t get another chance to have a drink with that old friend. Instead, I would host his family at our TV station in Wilmington and attend a couple of half days of the murder trial.

I’ve seen Billy in the past few months. We are both back in Charlotte and both making our way through life pretty well. We’ve shared some laughs and I ask about his family, but I don’t mention Bobby even though he’s always there. I don’t kid myself that having that drink would have changed his path or fate. I do wish I had that one more memory to share and remember. It was all so sudden.

When it’s going bad…

2010-04-18T20:02:00.001-04:00

Story of my night… (sigh)

We got it all in on the flop. I’m a 9-to-1 favorite.

BBT5.1

2010-04-18T19:24:00.001-04:00

Well that was about the worst tournament that has even happened to me. The coolers don’t get much worse than what I ran into tonight:

QQ – flop xQK – Miami Don holds KK (the only hand that would have been ahead)

5 hands later:

AK – All in – Call by L Johnson with KK

I’m in Germany so it’s 1 in the morning. It took 20 minutes for me to bust out. I’ll ry again next week. G’night.

Sorry

2010-04-18T11:41:00.000-04:00

A friend who will remain nameless (just because he would rather I promote his shit) is participating in a spoken word performance in a couple of weeks. The theme is “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.” He already has some work on his blog and plans for more.

I don’t really count myself as a writer. I have several friends who’s blems I’d be happy to call my own. I can sting a sentence together and get a point across, but it usually lacks for timing or wit or the creativity that makes reading a pleasure. That reflects a big part of my personality. I’m usually more on the logical, straight ahead side. But on the inside, my brain makes some connections in very odd ways. Sometimes I get some really cool ideas and look brilliant. Most times the result is garbage and is tossed before it ever starts the journey out of my mouth. Other ideas pass the smell test and make it out only to melt into the stinking pile of poo that they are.

All that is leading up to an attempt to see what comes out when I try to put the ideas around the word ‘Sorry’ in this post.

Can hard be easy? Does say equal mean?

So easy and fun getting getting there

So easily seen.

Don’t see sorry coming

but easy to avoid

‘So sorry’ doesn’t lower us enough

Regrets sail into the void between us and float away

Apologies are much too long and I lose track

Insincere, sorry is the sledge in the old one two

Impossible to drop my guard and give it true

only for lack of try

True sorry need not be said

Sorry, not right now. Too hard.

I wish it was better. Sorry.

Casino Reports – Germany

2010-04-18T08:59:00.001-04:00

I’ve spent the last couple of nights in Germany casinos. It has done untold damage to my already frazzled sleep pattern, but such is my dedication to you, my loyal readers, to bring you the story. In short, Germany casinos are very different than what I’m used to.

Baden-Baden

To start off, I had to get to the first casino. I chose the most famous casino in Germany, the Speilbank Casino in Baden-Baden. Getting there was a treat, probably better than actually being there, because the route from Heidelberg to Baden-Baden whet straight down the Autobahn. I hit 200 Kph (about 125 Mph) once and cruised at 160 (100) which is probably being overly safe, but it’s still a hoot to look down at the lights to see 200 shining back at you.

I had been warned through my research that getting in wouldn’t be a simple as going into a Vegas shop. For starters they have an entrance feel I had to pay 3 € to enter. Some of the better casinos have a strict dress code. B-B is among the most strict requiring a jacket and tie on all the men. I didn’t bring that type of clothing on this trip, but they had jackets and ties available to rent. I cost me 11€ for jacket and tie. I also knew I’d be paying 4€ for parking, so I’m down 18€ before I even get in the door.

It was a very nice door. Elegant is the word that comes to mind. From the high artistically painted ceilings to the huge chandeliers, to the art covered walls and the plush carpeting, this place oozed class. Also unlike Vegas, this place was very quiet. There was no yelling. No loud machines. No music. They had a stately atmosphere that reminded me of the early James Bond flicks. Unlike the Bond flicks, there was an almost total lack of drink service.

There was also far to little room for playing. Seems to be for the rich, not the masses.The limits were high, but not outrageously so. There were 4 French roulette tables (one zero), 2 blackjack tables (one 5€ min and one 10€ min), 3 poker tables (though only 2 in operation), and one ‘ultimate hold-em’ table which really seemed out of place. There was no baccarat.

The blackjack table were very odd. Each station had three circles and rectangular ‘twins’ bet area. I quickly learned that spectators can bet with player by placing their chips in one of the circles. The twins bet hit when the player got a pair on the first 2 cards. It pays 6:1 (ouch). I couldn’t believe how many players played it. Here is the closest I could find to this layout:

Players can’t split pairs and apparently can’t hit hard 17. Every time I got to 17 or more, the dealer wouldn’t even ask if I wanted to hit and went on to the next player. Dealer stands on all 17s and blackjack pays the standard 3:2. Each table had at lease 15 railbirds at all times. They could have filled 3 times the number of tables than they had. A lot of folks were happy to bet on other players.

I had to wait an hour for a seat. Once seated with about 20 min bets in front of me, I did okay. I played profitably for about an hour. Then a new dealer came to the table. He took 4 of the next 5 hands. 5th was a push. I was back to even and stood up at that point.

The two poker tables that were in operation were both 5-10€ no-limit tables, way too high for my roll. They were both back in the glass enclosed smoking room. This room also held on blackjack table and the ulitmate texas holdem table. The poker tables were also behind a velvet rope, so you couldn’t even watch the action very well. I just moved along.

The biggest surprise was the overwhelming popularity of roulette. This is only a marginally better game than the total rip-off american version (5.26% v. 2.7% house edge) because they have one zero on the board in this version instead of 2 for the american version. Half of the tables in the casino were roulette table and they were busy.

Bad, Bad Durkheim

Last night took me to Bad Durkheim, only about 45 minutes from my hotel. This casino had a much more relaxed feel, though it was tiny compared to American versions. The whole place was only 5000 square feet with another 1000 square feet closed off for renovation. They had 3 big roulette tables, 2 blackjack tables, and 3 poker tables.

The roulette tables each had 4 tux clad men running the table: two chip pushers, a wheel spinner, and a boss man in a raised chair. I kept thinking that the boss man was ready to shine some shoes by the looks of the chair.

The blackjack layout was more normal with no twins bet and a single rectangle in front of each player. However, this square did the same job as the circles in B-B. Spectators were reaching over players’ to put money on one of the four corners of the rectangle with the middle reserved for the players bets. It was a mad house.

Since two of the poker tables were 2-4€ no limit (yea, not 2-5 as we are used to), I was able to entertain the hope of playing. I put my name on the list and was #5 for the low limit game. It took an hour and a half for me to get my seat and that only left 2.5 hours in the evening with which to play. The closed the gaming at 2 am.

I sat down with 300€ and proceeded to have an epic fail of a run of cards. I won 2 hands in the 2.5 hours, neither of which were at showdown. It was a small miracle that I left with any chips at all. I probably wouldn’t have had I known about the closing time. It was still fun and I get my european poker cherry busted. Winning can wait for next time. I’ll need to learn my German numbers before I try that again.

Even they speak German at the table, they still use the English terms for most everything in the game including big blind, small blind, flop, turn, river, and donkey. Okay, I made up the last one.

That will be it for my casino visits for this trip. It was worth it even if my luck was somewhat mixed.

This one is BIG

2010-04-18T07:36:00.001-04:00

I’ve already pimped it once, but this is too big to leave it at that. The Battle of the Bloggers Tournament 5 (BBT% for those who can’t use the shift key correctly) starts today.

Actually, for me it starts tomorrow. Because I am in Europe, the start time of 1900 EDT translates to 0200 Germany time. Oh the sacrifices I make for the blogger community.

I’ve written to him personally to say thanks to AlCantHang, but Mr. Hang deserves public adulations for this one. I’m sure that over the next few Sunday’s, Monday’s, and Wednesday’s that my dreams of playing in the WSOP will die horrible deaths. I still plan to enjoy the ride.

Morning Stroll in Heidelberg

2010-04-17T03:25:00.001-04:00

I am so freaking spoiled that I get to do this just for working.

This guy is holding a mirror asking “See the Monkey?”

View from the Castle

Looks like the guy from Monopoly as a gargoyle.

Favorite restaurant (Vetter), my hotel (Hackteufel) and the iconic bridge. Sweet setup.

Note the pattern in the sidewalk in front of the Cafe Gundel.

Ever wonder what happens when you blow half a tower off then let it sit for a hundred years?

BBT5

2010-04-16T19:02:00.001-04:00

Tournament: Poker From the Rail
When: Monday, April 19th through May 24th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 (or token)*
Password: 2010WSOP

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday, April 21st through May 26th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1*
Password: vegas1

*Winner also receives ToC entry

Tournament: Battle of the Blogger Tournaments Invitational
When: Sunday, April 18th through May 23rd starting at 19:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: Restricted freeroll**

**$2,000 Prizepool + 1st and 2nd place receive ToC entry

Tournament: Blogger Battle Royale
When: Sunday, June 6th starting at 14:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: Freeroll for BBT participating bloggers

(Thanks EasyCure… like I asked)

It’s almost time. ‘nuff said.

I don’t know if I’m a-gonna go…

2010-04-16T04:01:00.001-04:00

I guess that title would refer to going home on time now that the volcano has blown. It seems that a little volcano has popped up between me here in Germany and home in North Carolina. Flights are spotty at this point. For instance, my return flight, US 705 ran on time yesterday. Today’s flight is cancelled. I’m not schedule to get out of here until next Saturday and everything could be all clear by then. Last time this volcano blew it kept blowing for a year. So maybe it won’t calm down before next weekend. You can be sure that I’ll be following it closely.

That begs the question: If I do get a forced vacation here in Europe, what should I do? I would expect that I would have some time to put around, but can’t go too far from the Frankfurt-Mannheim area of Germany. Think day trips. I could take some time off and go further afield if there was something really interesting. I’d be in big trouble is I went down in to Italy without Dr. K, so that is out. I’d get in trouble in Greece for the same reason. I’ve been to Paris and don’t have any reason begging me to go back. I’ve also been to Amsterdam and London. My job requirements would keep me from enjoying Amsterdam fully anyway.

Monte Carlo sounds like it might be worth a look-see. One thing I would be looking for would be good pictures. I did bring my good camera with me, so picture taking would be my primary task/recreation. Finding a good poker game would be a big plus.

Well those are the parameters. Any ideas are welcome.

I guess I will perhaps also have to think about exit strategies in case flights from here going west still look bad in another week. Thoughts that have popped into my head include flying back via Moscow or Madrid, or catch a cruise out of England. They do still have trans-Atlantic cruises, don’t they?

This is shaping up to be another adventure. I sure am glad I’m on my employer’s dime.

The lines in my Face(book) keep getting clearer

2010-04-13T17:04:00.001-04:00

I’ll just warn you up front, this is going to be a long navel-gazing post, and if you weren’t affected by the situation, you probably won’t be interested in this story. Of course, you may be interested in how small a world it can by and how people are connected. Facebook really brings that last point out. But to tell my tale, I have to supply some background and that starts with who I was in high school, a bit over 30 years ago.

BTW, I changed all of the names in this story. I think that those involved will recognize their character.

I was a little kid in the 9th grade. Little as in small. My late blooming caused my time in junior high to be a living hell. I had started liking girls, but with one or two exceptions they had not started liking me. My athletic record was pedestrian at best. I didn’t take getting picked on very well. I was an average kid in a lot of ways and a geeky looser in others. I thought a lot more of myself than that and really didn’t understand why everyone else didn’t see it, too. It put a bit of a chip on my shoulder and sure didn’t give me any training for handling success.

So I arrive in high school and things start going better almost immediately. I had grown a good bit over the summer. I made a ton of new friends when classes began. Before long I had a car and had been on a few dates. I really started enjoying the social scene.

In the spring, I switched out of running distance races in track and tried a sport that had fascinated me for as long as I could remember, pole vaulting. Turns out I was really good at it. It was at Big G High School when I really took off (pun intended) increasing my best height by 2 feet and taking 2nd place in the meet. I became the best new pole vaulter in the county that year. I followed up that success with a run for the junior class council. I not only won, but was voted class president. I was flying higher than any time in my life. Needless to say, I wasn’t ready for it and messed up a few things in the following year.

I had started dating a girl, we’ll call her Allison, which I had known from church since I was 4. She was and is a wonderful person and I was really lucky that she liked me in return. We dated through the summer in into our junior year, she at Big G H.S. and me at the Big I. My status change got the best of me that year. As I got the opportunity to start seeing other girls, I did, but I didn’t tell Allison. Just before Christmas I met Jenny at school. She was nice and young and cute. The two girls went to different schools and had no way of meeting, so what’s the risk. Right?

That went just fine for a while, so well, in fact, that when I got the opportunity, I started dating a third girl, Lynn. There was nothing wrong with the first two girls’ looks, but I think everyone would agree that Lynn was stunning (probably still is). She was tall and thin with long blond hair and delicate features made her one of the most beautiful girls I’d ever known. The fact that she AND Jenny both went to the same school was a risk that I decided to take. I can’t say what I was thinking because I just wasn’t.

There was nothing more serious with any of these relationships than first base with maybe an occasional attempt to steal second, so I wasn’t doing anything physically dangerous, just really callous, selfish, and downright stupid. Those were fun times, but it didn’t take long before the stress and the lies turned the whole situation sour. I ended up breaking up with all three shortly thereafter. In one particularly callous move, I told Lynn when we arrived at school one morning and left her crying in the car with a request to “lock it up when you are through.” Jerk just doesn’t go far enough to describe me that day. My breakup with Jenny wasn’t any better. I think I just stopped calling Allison.

That was a really long setup about things that happened a long time ago. Now fast forward to 2009 and the rise of Facebook. It' has been great fun connecting with a lot of folks that I haven’t seen or heard from since high school. I reconnected with Jenny and her sister Linda almost right away. It was a while after that, but I eventually reconnected with Allison. Until this past week, I’d not been able to track Lynn down, but I found her husband and he’s been kind enough to pass my connection info along to her. I’ve yet to hear from her and won’t pursue it any further. Of course, given the story so far I wouldn’t blame her for not writing.

That brings us to the Facebook lines where I started. As soon as I friended Allison, I got a real surprise. It said that we had 2 friends in common even though I had not friended anyone that I thought Allison would know. One of those friends was Linda, Jenny’s sister. I just had to find out how this connection was made. It turns out that Allison and Linda shared a suite in college. What are the odds? I came clean with this story to both sides and we all had a good laugh, including Jenny.

I thought that would be the end of it. However, this past week I was looking around the internet to see if I could find Lynn. I’ll poke around for folks I used to know. I probably thought of her for some random reason, a song maybe. I knew her married name and the town she lived in a while back, but still couldn’t get a lead on her whereabouts. So I tried finding her husband and found Tom on Facebook. That’s when I got a real shock. It said that we had a mutual friend, and that friend was Allison. That was too weird and something that I’ve not had the chance to share with anyone. It turns out that Allison and Tom were friends and classmates at Big G High School (recurring theme). Unbelievable! It is a small world after all (couldn’t resist).

I have always been disappointed in myself for that whole situation in high school. I would say that Allison, Jenny, and Lynn, and I ended up with pretty good lives since those days. Our paths crossing and my mistakes were part of that path and I wouldn’t change my destination for anything, so I would never say that I wish it hadn’t happened. I hope they all feel the same. To say that I’m sorry it happened is a bit of a contradiction, but I am.

It is funny and weird that Allison would end up connected to Jenny (once removed) and now Lynn (also once removed). and Jenny and Lynn went to school together, so they probably remember each other at least a little. It took Facebook to reveal it. Turns out everybody knows everybody. Well, almost.

Bad Beats

2010-04-12T16:23:00.001-04:00

Sure, charge me a dollar. I’m just playing with play money in Rush Poker, just killing time until it’s time to call home to the wife, but damn. That’s all of the commentary I’m going to give. Just look at the hands, particularly the fact that all of these hands come in a stretch of 9 hands:

this one got all-in on the turn:

This one, I got pot committed on the turn:

I got all-in on the flop here:

I got all-in on the flop here, too:

The last one particularly stung. That one was 92% to win. Guess it’s time to call home.

On the road again

2010-04-12T12:08:00.001-04:00

Actually, in the air again would be more correct. I’m currently recovering from the overnight flight, sitting in my hotel room in Heidelberg, Germany. I’m pretty excited to be here. I love the location. This hotel has one shop between it and my favorite restaurant in Germany, the Vetter. They have a plate of sausage, kraut, and potatos that is to die for. I’ve posted the plate and pictures of the restaurant on this blog before, but in case you don’t want to go looking for it:

Oh yea, they have bier, too.

In fact, if I had taken this picture from the other side of the street, my hotel would have been visible through the gate, but I think it gives you the idea. I will definitely have to get out and around this town as much as possible this week.

The transition from one continent to another is the most difficult part of the trip. At least this time my host and ride aren’t expecting me to work until tomorrow. On one of my trips here, I was not only kept at work with no ride and nothing to do, but I was kept there until after 7 pm which meant I was up for about 36 hours. Needless to say I’ve avoided that situation and letting that person set my schedule on arrival.

Well, it’s time to head to the Vetter for dinner. Maybe I’ll try something different this time. Naaaaah.

Saturday Night Poker

2010-04-08T16:26:00.000-04:00

Another night of hanging with friends, drinking a few beers, talking, laughing, and crying quietly to myself, a.k.a. playing the poker home game. The faces were not much older, but were very familiar. I arrived on time to find that 6 had gotten there before me. There was T, Uncle Phil, Jim the Knife, Dr. Lou, Little Nick, Tom S., Brian the new guy, and Falstaff. The conversation was lively. Some examples:

Anybody but Duke (NCAA Final Four)
Homer and the Greeks
New basketball rules
Trip to Vegas just past (me, Jim)
Upcoming trip to Vegas (T)
My PS2 is just a Blue-Ray player

At the end of the night, I gotten shut out of being dealt or flopping great cards. I remember getting QQ once and JJ once that had to be tossed quickly. I saw Q10 too many times to count and lots of trash. I picked up enough orphans and caught a river or two and managed to only lose $30. If that’s a bad night, I’ll take it.

One line in a news story

2010-04-07T13:43:00.001-04:00

In today’s Charlotte paper (on-line version), there is a story about an ex-girlfriend who ran into a house where her (presumably) ex-boyfriend was staying. That is not normally a huge deal, except for the fact that the girl was driving at the time. She later ran into the boyfriend’s truck while said boyfriend was driving to the courthouse to get a restraining order. She then stabbed a female passenger of the truck in the back. It was the next line in the story that got my attention:

“The woman was taken to Carolinas Medical Center but is expected to survive, police say.”

So what exactly is supposed to happen to folks who are taken to CMC? I expect that line will be edited shortly. Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/04/07/1361960/stabbing-shuts-old-statesville.html#ixzz0kR9t2LdO.

Fenway Update

2010-04-07T12:54:00.001-04:00

Fenway went into the vet this morning. He still has a couple of spots of skin infection on his leg so the vet won’t operate on him. The risk of infection to the knee is too great. So we will get him back later today just as he left. Maybe we can get him on the road to recovery next week. Thanks for the well-wishes.

Fenway’s Knee

2010-04-07T08:00:00.002-04:00

Dr. K and I decided a long time ago that there would be no little Ks running around the K estate. Instead, we have 2 children that most people call dogs. Dr. K named the dogs Fenway and Wrigley. You can tell she is a baseball fan.

Both dogs are from the same kennel and both are golden retrievers. That is about where the similarities end. Fenway is the older of the two. He is male, smart, beautiful, playful, demanding, and a bit of a loner when everything is well. When he doesn’t feel well, he demands attention to the point of being clingy. Here is a recent picture of our boy:

Wrigley is the sweetest dog you will ever meet. She doesn’t have the classic good looks of Fenway. She is not very bright, can’t track, doesn’t play, loves to sleep, and is totally devoted to Dr. K. She can be funny as hell though she doesn’t mean to be. But as far as being loyal or a good pet, she is awesome.

We’ve been having a problem with Fenway over the past week and a half. Fenway blew out his knee. He was running in the back yard and snapped his ACL. I was outside with him and heard it pop. I didn’t know dogs did such things. A quick search of Bing shows that they do.

Today, Fenway is undergoing surgery to repair his leg. For the next 12 weeks we have to keep him from running or playing as he loves to do. He won’t be able to go out without being on a leash. That part means that Dr. K and I will be going out with the dog in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

I’m no parent, but watching the dog go through this has been heart-breaking. We are hoping for the best. I’ll post updates, and maybe some gross post-op pictures, here soon.

Side Boob

2010-04-06T12:20:00.000-04:00

I’ve noticed that posting a picture of a hot lady showing ample side boob increased the viewership of my podcast site. Case in point: http://gtpodcast.com. I’ve also noticed that mentioning such posts also increases traffic. This may become a regular feature.

Overdue Vegas Trip Report

2010-04-05T12:18:00.001-04:00

No excuses. Let’s just get to it.

This trip ran from March 7-10. There was a plan where I could be stopping in Vegas at the end of February. That trip was cancelled when a customer I was to visit pulled the plug. When my next planned trip (end of March) fell through, I hooked up with Brian the Red and crew and headed out with the gang.

The digs on this trip were the suites of the Venetian. Thanks to Papa Skoon, I had a bed for one night and a sofa for 2 (which I didn’t use much). I’ve not stayed at the V before. It is the location of the best poker room in town so I always stay close. I doubt I would fork over $200+ per night when other good alternatives exist for under $80, but it was very nice to be so close and in such a nice room. Thanks, Skoon!

Now for the bottom line. I was in Vegas about 70 hours and played poker for 34 of them. More importantly than that, I won at poker. I didn’t realize it until I double-checked the numbers. Here it is in graphical form:

The red line on the chart above is the running net for the trip. I actually thought I had lost a bit less than $200, but either my math was off or I lost more in random machines and roulette than I remembered. You will notice that I peaked on Monday with an 8th place at the Venetian Noon tourney, then had a horrible time until Wednesday morning when a furious run brought be back above water.

I got a couple of interviews for the podcast while in Vegas and laid the groundwork for more in the future. Those interviews are planned for show #012 to be released on Sunday.

We did visit Aria and City Center. I’m not real impressed. It would be spectacular anywhere else I’ve ever been, but so are many resorts on the Vegas Strip. The poker room was OK, as was the decor. The staff was polite without being overly enthusiastic. I’ll probably go back sometime, but I can’t think of a good reason right now.

I’m not sure when I will get back to Vegas. There may be a trip to AZ in a few weeks, so maybe I can schedule a stop-over then. I’ll definitely be making a trek out in October for my birthday. Anyone who wants to party is welcome to join (almost certainly Oct 22-25, maybe one or two more days).

There’s been lots else to write about in the past few weeks. I’ll get that out shortly.

Conservative Values

2010-03-22T20:42:00.001-04:00

Let me be one of the first to condemn the actions and reactions of some on the right to the passage of the healthcare reform act(s). The shattering of windows and threats of violence against anyone involved (especially the President) are acts of treason against this country and the conservative movement. Those actions do much more harm than good. Stop it! You get no support, only scorn, from the vast majority of republicans, libertarians, and conservatives. Grow up.

When a poker tourney gets raided, the players hope it is the police.

2010-03-06T22:18:00.001-05:00

That has never been more clearly illustrated than at the EPT Germany. Check this article by MSNBC:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/35744551/ns/sports-other_sports/

Robbers made off with the prize pool of over a million dollars. I’m sure my friends in the poker media are already far ahead of me and MSNBC already.

When the raid happens, if the raiders are the police, the players usually face loss of the money in the game and a ticket. If the raiders are robbers, people can be killed. I’d take the police every time.

US Gov’t Poisoned Citizens?

2010-03-02T12:18:00.000-05:00

I found this story very interesting in light of the current debate over health care in this US.

http://www.slate.com/id/2245188

Zealots of every stripe are very dangerous.

What to do with ‘a Jerk’ at the table?

2010-02-28T13:28:00.001-05:00

Interesting times at a not so local poker game this weekend. BtR and I traveled to a new (to us) location in Asheville for a Friday night poker game. The setup was nice. The host (who was also great) had a full-sized poker table in his man-cave. The cave also came complete with a toilet and fridge nearby, both of which are critical to the proper poker environment.

I got off to a ‘great’ start when I got 6x4x in the un-raised big blind. The flop came 3x5x7x rainbow – the absolute perfect flop for this hand. I push out a standard bet. Player +1 makes a healthy raise and BtR calls. I shove the remainder of my initial 100 buy-in. Player +1 calls and BtR folds. Player +1 says “Well, if you’ve got a straight, you’ve got a straight.” to which I reply “I’ve got a straight.” He turns over a pair of sevens for a set. The turn is another 5 and I’m off to get another buy-in.

Much of the rest of the night was mostly unplayable cards and situations. I hit a big flush draw and pushed over top of a raise by Mr. LJ which he called. I don’t recall what he had since pretty much anything beat me at that point, but I hit my flush on the river to get my initial loss back. I bled down from there and made my third chip purchase shortly before the big hand of the night. (or did I make that 3rd by before the flush hand?)

I picked up a pair of tens in the small blind. I raised and got rid of most limpers. The notable exception was the player to my right who I will call “big A” or just “A” . The flop comes down 9 high. I check and A bets 10 or so. I call. The turn brings a ten making my set. I bet 15 or 20 and A raises about a hundred to which I push over top for another 150 or so. He says that he has to call and turns over 10x3x for top pair (or was it 2 pair). My set holds up and I rake der Monstertopf.

I typically say little or nothing when I win a big pot. I know the loser feels bad and I don’t want to kick that person when they are down. It’s bad form and it may cause a situation that will change the game in undesirable ways. This was no different. I did say something about Asheville being unfriendly at first (referring to my early bust) but getting better, but I kept even that low key. That was pretty much it until I won a couple of decent hands right at the end of the night to give me a nice profit of 235.

It was the behavior of the player to my right that really stands out from this night. This was Big A that I wrote of above. It was early in the night when I had to ask him not to fling my cards at me. I was at one end of the table and when the dealer was at the other end my cards needed the help of those closer to the middle to get my cards to me. Most people just put a finger or two on the back of the cards and slide them down. Not A. He would flick them in my direction sometimes launching them into the air. Asking him to stop could have been offensive or something.

A could stand for Apple as this guy had an iPhone on the table. With the Olympics on, my Twitter feed was busy and I took out my Epix at one point to check on my incoming messages. Big A asked me (this was probably the first thing he said to me all night) “What kind of phone still uses a pointing device?” That really can’t be anything but a put-down. I about came back at him with something very snide, but I let it got with a reply of “Oh, just an old one.”

It was at the conclusion of the evening for me that the biggest incident happened. I had folded my last hand and counted and stacked my chips in preparation to be cashed out. Well, Big A saw something in my stack that he liked and decided to make it his own, a $100 chip. So without saying or asking anything, he reached into my stack and pulls out the chip and slides over a stack of red 5s. I stare at him without saying anything though I’m sure the look on my face said “what the fuck are you doing.” He must have been trying to tweak me since he asked if there was a problem. Why else would he even wonder?

One of the biggest taboos in gambling is touching another players chips. Everyone knows this, right? I’ve looked up poker etiquette on several web sites. “Don’t touch others’ chips” is generally mentioned high on the list. At the time, I replied to A that it is more difficult to count out 20 chips instead of one and he shouldn’t be reaching into my stack at all. He made an excuse and we let it go for a second. Then he brought it up again when the host put the chips in a tray and, of course, I repeated my objection. Most everyone else there just wanted to avoid a heated confrontation. I sure would have liked to hear if anyone else shared my view or if I was just over-reacting. That’s happened before, too.

It was an awful end to an otherwise great night. I play poker for entertainment. I like to win and it sucks when I lose, but losing is still better than not playing when it is among friends. Some folks are more competitive than that, I suppose. Some will resort to making others angry to get an edge. I may have done something that rubbed Big A the wrong way. I’ve done it before and will do it again some day. It may be that this is a part of his game: pick out one person and target him. I really don’t know. I know that I’m not going to play in an otherwise friendly game where purposely tiliting players is going on. I can’t do anything about it at a game where I am a guest except to stay away. There are people on my list that do not get invitations to my games for various reasons. Not playing nice is one of those reasons.

I like going to Asheville to play. The folks there are great mostly. So now I’m torn as to whether I will consider invitations that also includes Big A. Once this is read the problem may even take care of itself. If there are no more invitations, so be it. Hopefully time will show me the proper course.

In the mean time, Mastodon weekend is fast approaching and then a short trip to Vegas. There are too many good times coming to dwell on the past. It’s on.

Gambling Tales Update

2010-02-23T12:57:00.001-05:00

Podcasting is still a blast. I’m getting everything I had hoped out of this project with the possible exception of cash. I’m keeping up with an area of interest. I enjoy collaborating with my cohost Falstaff. I’m meeting and writing to some very interesting people. I’m going to ramp up my efforts to get some sponsorship shortly.

Today will will hit our 4000th download in 8 shows, so it looks like we are not alone in enjoying some good gambling stories and we really have just scratched the surface of what is there.

So check out http://gtpodcast.com for some news and story-telling goodness.

Poker in Seattle 2010

2010-02-23T11:57:00.001-05:00

Traveling from west to east really messes me up. That traveling makes the days short and throws my already punished sleep schedule straight under the bus. I feel my hangover, but I didn’t get to enjoy the buzz.

The first leg of the trip was seriously messed up. Blame global warming if you like, but flying out of sunny Seattle into rainy Phoenix is just not right. Thank goodness that Charlotte was its normal cold and gloomy self. It is good to be home!

I am home now, though a few dollars lighter. I dropped $460 in the Shoqualmie Casino my first night in Seattle on a table that I never could get anything to happen. All of my moves were challenged and hitting a flop did nothing be cost me more chips. I guess I lasted as long as I did because I only hit one flop which gave me AA with a 10 kicker. Since my opponent flopped a straight I didn’t end that hand on a happy note. I didn’t tilt me. When you play badly, there is no one to blame but yourself. Not having good cards is not excuse for playing badly. Anyone who plays poker at any level of seriousness knows there is both good and bad play, which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill.

I did okay on the skill thing for the rest of the trip. I went back to Snoqualmie on Saturday night and to Tulalip on Sunday. The cards didn’t get any better, but I managed to play even poker for another 10 hours or so, beating the rake and tips to finish the trip right where I finished the first night.

I’ve got two big games coming up at Mastodon Weekend followed immediately by a trip to Vegas with BtR, Papa Skoon and Big Papi. While in Vegas, I hope to do some work on the Gambling Tales Podcast. I’ve got my portable recorder. Now all I need is business cards and some subjects to talk to. Here’s looking forward to better cards and better flops.

Aging

2010-02-16T12:30:00.001-05:00

I mentally filed this article from the Financial Times website under “holy crap”:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/436a39a0-1a6e-11df-a2e3-00144feab49a.html

Basically (for those who don’t get FT.com for the articles), the article explains that scientists in Germany (U. of Ulm) have discovered the mechanics of how and why we age. Old cells get their DNA damaged over time and reach a point where they are told to either stop reproducing or destroy themselves. It is this damage that, if left unchecked, that can cause many types of cancer and other problems of aging.

For me, this begs two really big questions. First, should I find of save sources of my young DNA now so that it might serve as a tool for refreshing my DNA when that technology is discovered? The second question is do I really want to?

The first question is pretty easy. The answer is yes. Why not hedge my bet and have some spare DNA just in case. I don’t know if my mom saved any of my baby hair. I actually had an wisdom tooth lying around for years. I may still have that. I seem to remember teeth being good containers of DNA. I’ll have to go find that and maybe find another source to set aside.

The second question is probably also a yes. I’m pretty much OK with my current situation where age is involved. I’ve always gravitated to people younger than myself. Most of my friends are more than 5 years younger than me. Some are almost 20 years younger but I see them as equals and colleagues (except maybe when they do dumb-assed things that I did at THAT age). I feel good and really don’t look or act almost 50 years old. I don’t expect any of that to change drastically in the next 10 years.

However, barring a technological miracle, the end is almost certainly closer than the beginning and that is a really strange concept to get my head around. What if I could keep going? Right now, I would. I wouldn’t mind continuing to work or coming home to Dr. K and the dogs. I could keep learning new things (like I’ve learned about podcasting this past year) and meeting new people. The central deciding factor is am I tired of this and ready for what lies beyond. I’m not even close, so keep working, you demon deacons of the U. of Ulm. You need to figure out how to refresh human DNA. I’ll wait as long as I can.

Hotel Desktop

2010-02-10T14:40:00.001-05:00

Here is a picture that I snapped a while back. This is the look of the desk in my hotel room on a typical business trip. I expect that I will look back at this in a few years and 1) Remember these are good and bad old days, 2) be reminded about how far technology has come, and/or 3) make a blog post about how my hotel desk top looks now.

I expect this will mean more to my fellow business travelers.

Enjoy.

Too Much Fun

2010-01-18T22:55:00.001-05:00

Hey, Special K! How about a blog post?

Sure, don’t mind if I do. Can I get it toasted?

That sums up the last two weeks or so for me. I’ve been busy working on the road, which, in this case, means hanging out in DC during the week and home on the weekends. Well, that’s not really fun, but it pays for some of the fun.

I got a toaster as my most major Christmas gift this year. That seems pretty funny that I would get the toaster that I asked for. I didn’t really ask to get a toaster for Christmas, but it was just around Christmas time and I mentioned to Dr. K that I’d like to scrap the toaster oven for a real toaster. I also wasn’t very specific about what I wanted for Christmas gifts, so I got a toaster.

It’s a real nice toaster made by Cuisinart with an LED browning indicator and settings for bagels, thawing, and of course, toast. Since 12/25, I’ve been toasting every piece of bread that has come near my mouth. PBJ on toast. Tuna on toast. Warm Pop-tarts? O-M-G.

Yes, the podcast (gtpodcast.com) is still going strong and might even pick up a sponsor. It would be nice if it would pay for itself. That means about $750 a year. I don’t think we will have an problem there, but I’d sure like to see the money in the bank.

I’ve been 3 weeks without poker. Folks have been busy. I should get that monkey off my back next weekend. Until then, we’ll just keep plugging along whistling a happy tune.

Dog Looking for a Poker Game

2010-01-09T21:33:00.001-05:00

This is a picture of my dog Fenway who found a prize that he didn’t want to give up, at least not until we agreed on a game and the stakes.

Another Year – Another Trip – Another City

2010-01-04T08:26:00.001-05:00

Today I’m off to DC. Of course I was a bit worried about the situation at the airport, so instead of leaving the house 1.5 hours before the flights departure, I made it 2.5 hours early this time. As long as the security lines were not a total nightmare I’d get to my flight in plenty of time. Wouldn’t you know the airport is like a ghost town this morning. The deck where I normally drive around looking for a spot looks like it’s been closed for a week and only opened this morning. Where is everybody? I could understand this if it were the week of Christmas or New Years, but this is a normal week. Go figure.

The trip to this customer site is getting to be routine. This is my third trip to this site. Thought I did bring my GPS, I didn’t bother to print out a map or my hotel reservation. I hoping and a little afraid that much of this year’s travel will be this way. Familiarity makes business travel a little more like a long commute than a big deal full of planning and worry that I’ve forgotten something important. However, it also means that I’m not going anywhere new or exciting. Come to think of it, I’m a bit worn when it comes to new and exciting places. Maybe familiar will do just fine.

Since my holidays ended yesterday and the new work year begins today, I’m counting this as the first of the new year. I count it as a sign of real true happiness to think that I hope the coming year is as good as the last year. This last 11 have been the best of my life and I sometimes wonder how many more I can string together with Dr. K, a good job, nice house, and dogs who love and amuse me. I guess I’ll just have to enjoy the ride as long as I can.

Happy New Year, y’all!

December Truckin’

2009-12-25T23:06:00.001-05:00

December 2009, Vol. 8, Issue 12
1. Stiff Santa by Paul McGuire
The Beverly Center had one strict rule -- never under any circumstances remove the bunny head in public. That would mortify young children. Josh turned to Ritalin to solve his problems... More
2. Christmas Money for Misty by Johnny Hughes
Misty laid her best story on Sam, her road story. She was temporarily broke, like most casino folks, but she was to inherit the historic Morgan Ranch, 473 oil wells, 47,000 acres, and a bunch of cows in the Texas panhandle... More
3. The Hobby by Milton Burton
The driver himself was a small-time coke pusher and wannabe heavy metal musician named Ronnie DeLoach who would never make it big, partly because he was void of any real musical talent. But mostly this sad fact could be attributed to his very limited life span... More
4. Dick-Hole, Part II by Bobby Bracelet
Most guys will yank it twenty times a week but they won't feel their balls for lumps. I see it all the time... More
5. Absence of Fear by George Tate
The turns became hard to handle and Gatlin knew it wouldn't take much to be over a guard rail and down the side on his back, load, tractor, and all. He suddenly cleared his mind and focused on the words, "Turn off the engine, that's it."... More

Threads

2009-12-23T16:03:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, things just happen. I’ve gotten too old to let my ignorance as to why bother me. Then again they can be such little things that suddenly become very important to someone else. Thankfully, this time it appears to be a good thing.

What the heck am I writing about. This morning I get a Tweet from my buddy Falstaff. He is trying to build a writing career and is really still in the startup phase. Not the writing part, the career part. Instead of just spamming everyone he knows or directly begging for money, he asked everyone who got the tweet to “Email someone that you think would like my writing and give them a link to this site.” Since this was a great idea and I generally want to support his writing, I decided to help him out and send the email.

I don’t know many people who I would describe as touchy-feely in a poetic sense, but I thought my friend LB (who also happens to be my ex-wife) might just fit the bill. So I fired off an email and went on with the day.

After a little bit of audio work and computer work and Christmas shopping I return to my email to find a couple of mails from LB. To paraphrase it in short, it read – “Our friend MI’s boyfriend BS found someone else and is moving out. MI’s chemo is having some bad side effects. I couldn’t afford a ticket to be with her. I told mutual friend WB who sent a ticket, no questions asked. I’ll move back to CLT as soon as a job opens up. My boyfriend CH won’t move to NC, but I need to be there. I’ll be with MI Christmas day. I was so happy to hear from you. See you soon.”

Wow! If there was ever a year when I was just going through the motions of Christmas, this would be that year. But when you see the kindness and selflessness of folks like LB and WB and the rough times that befall nice folks like MI, it both restores and calls to action. People really aren’t as bad as I’ve been feeling that they are (BS may be an exception). There really are more good ones than bad ones.

So from a simple favor I get so much in return. That is likely not to be the end of that story. Now I have to figure out just how I can help. It would be good to help out to bridge the gap until LB can get to town. We’ll see what the season will bring.

New Podcast

2009-12-20T15:38:00.001-05:00

New episode of the Gambling Tales Podcast is now available: http://gtpodcast.com/. Enjoy. Please send feedback to gtpodcast@live.com.

In the middle of a blogger weekend

2009-12-15T21:39:00.001-05:00

Who knew it got foggy in Las Vegas? It’s really not foggy, outside anyway. The time rushing by certainly make this weekend a blur.

This is the December weekend when friends we call the poker bloggers descend on Vegas to hug, drink, talk, and gamble a bit. I scheduled this trip for myself back in the August heat of Iraq as a present to myself. Of course, Dr. K has been great about allowing/encouraging this trip, so at least half of the gift is from her.

The trip out was smooth. I had a first-class upgrade on US Airways, so the booze started flowing before we left the ground. After 4 more mini-bottles of of tequila and a nap (go figure), we touched down in Vegas. First stop after check-in, the MGM poker room and the first of several monetary losses playing hold’em.

Next came the Geisha Bar at the Imperial Palace and the gathering of friends, both old and new. Of course Falstaff found his bachelor party level of intoxication and seemed to enjoy every bit of it. Dr. Dave Schwartz came by and chatted for over an hour. What a great, fun, nice, smart guy. It was a pleasure to let Falstaff buy him a drink or two. :)

A big shocker was the attendance of Mrs. GCox. I knew (and still very much regret) that GCox would not be attending, so it really didn’t register when I saw the Mrs. My mind told itself “she looks an awful lot like Mrs. GCox.” It wasn’t until later that she came back around and we had a great talk. The GCox’s are some of the finest people I know and a always come away from visiting with them richer for that time.

Yesterday brought a visit to the Neon Boneyard. Here is an areal view:

View Larger Map Driving Directions View Bird's Eye

It’s a little hard to see on the small view, The lots full of old vegas signage are on either side of E. McWilliams Avenue in the center of the map. In the lower lot is a clear view of the old skull sign from the Treasure Island. This was a great time and well worth the 2 hours and cold temperatures.

Here are a few pictures of the Neon Boneyard from ground level:

My trip report on the second half of the weekend coming soon.

The Hard Rock Poker Lounge Rocks

2009-12-12T12:59:00.001-05:00

This weekend’s blogger gathering was hosted last night at the Hard Rock Poker Room for cash games of hold’em and omaha. Pokerati in Chief Dan Michalski hosted the event. It was a great event in every way. The Hard Rock Poker Lounge is a nice facility. It has all I like in a poker room: Lot’s of room, comfy chairs, compentent dealers, and “knock your socks off hot” waitresses. The room added an extra gift of comping the dinners of all of the poker bloggers.

The evening also give my a great opportunity to get to know several bloggers that I’ve read, but not gotten to know. Poker Peeker Dan, Jordan, CK/BWOP, and an excellent poker player named Alanna all came by to sling the cards. I also got to talk to a most interesting book-maker/actor/producer from Birmingham England named Ian. He was great fun and agreed to do an interview on a future episode of the Gambling Tales Podcast. It will be a good one.

Thanks again to the gracious hosts at the Hard Rock casino and to Pokerati Dan for a great evening. Go visit the lounge next time you are in Vegas.

More to this life than meets the eye

2009-12-02T22:12:00.001-05:00

On Monday, my cousin Chuck passed away from cancer. While I was traveling that day, I had a thought of him sitting on his boat in the waters near Key West grinning that grin he always kept around. At the time, I wondered how he was getting along and moved on.

Though the miracle of Google alerts (I have one on my last name), I learned that next morning that Chuck was gone. Because of my “vision”, I believe he really has gone fishing. He probably takes my dad out with him from time to time. I know my dad loved that man as much as anyone on this earth. I’m sure they are happy to be back together. I imagine his dog Leon, his sister Susan and his friend Shel are glad to see him again as well. Susan was a gem of a person. One of the kindest, bravest, funniest people I’ve ever known. Chuck and Shel Silverstein were good buds down in Key West. I was once fortunate to be visiting Chuck when Shel stopped by. That was a treat.

The rest of this post may sound crazy or a bit creepy to some. That’s fine. I know from my FaceBook post yesterday that more than a few of us on this earth have felt the passing of loved ones from hundreds of miles away. I’ve experienced it before and I’ve seen other evidence that I can’t ignore. My rational side keeps me from reading too much into the phenomenon, but there is something there. This post is about the most obvious of those events in my experience.

Way back in 1994, I was living in a little house on a very busy street in Charlotte to a woman who would only be my wife for another 18 months or so. I had a new job with a major software company and on this night was sitting at the computer working hard on skills that I needed for my new job.

All of a sudden, my was-wife (she still calls me wasband) came into the room searching for something. She actually seemed pretty desperate. I asked and she explained that she wanted the picture of her father that used to be stuck in the corner of the mirror over her dresser. I didn’t remember seeing the picture, but I pitched in to help anyway. It didn’t take but a couple of minutes before she found the picture behind the dresser, took it and went back out of the room. I had never seen her act that way before. I’d soon find out why.

It was maybe 15 minutes later that the phone rang. It was was-wife’s sister with news that their father had been found unconscious in his Delaware trailer and that an ambulance had been called. Truth was that he had already passed.

There were no calls before this time. We had no text or email or Twitter. There was no way that my was-wife could have known, but she did. She felt something and any amount of logic can’t explain it away.

So back to Tuesday. I wasn’t too surprised that Chuck was gone. I still don’t know what time he left this earth, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was around 2;30 eastern time. If so, I appreciate that he would pay me a visit on his journey. One day, I’ll understand what that journey is all about, but there is no hurry. Until then, I’ll just keep my mind open to the possibilities and know that there is more to this world and this life than meets the eye.

Some of the best geek video ever

2009-11-29T13:20:00.001-05:00

STS-129 Ascent Video Highlights (If you know what this is already, you’ll love the video)

http://www.vimeo.com/7852885

Enjoy

Odds and Ins and Ends and Outs

2009-11-25T18:00:00.001-05:00

The odds of me making my 100 post year seem to be slipping away. I only write when I feel like it or if I have something that really needs to be said despite how I feel and that is just not conducive to a lot of posts this time of year. So be it.

I am having a hella good time with our new podcast. The whole intent of the podcast was to have fun, go fun places, and meet people that I want to meet. This has worked out remarkably well. We’ve (we being Falstaff and me) posted 2 shows and recorded the tracks for 2 more. That’s enough to get us through our upcoming Vegas blogger trip and that trip should be a bounty of material. That’s our plan anyway.

If you haven’t, check out the ‘cast at http://gtpodcast.com.

I’ve been learning about digital recording, editing, creating Feedburner, Call Burner, Skype, mp3s, WordPress, RSS feeds, iTunes, Audacity, jpg logos, and on and on. It has been frustrating at times but I’ve really enjoyed learning new stuff. I think/hope that the result looks and sounds professional. That is a key to getting and keeping an audience. I know a lot of podcaster don’t want to charge or get sponsors for their podcasts out of a desire to remain creatively unfettered or under some moral obligation to keep the internet free. No me. I’d like to get some sponsorship and make the deal produce some cash. Not a lot of green, but enough to cover the cost of the equipment, licensing, and maybe a room in Vegas for a few nights. That should be doable. Heck, my poker hobby has made money so far. Why not our podcast?

Did I mention that it is up at http://gtpodcast.com?

Other Odds and Ends:

The trip back from Sao Paulo was hell and I really don’t feel like reliving it enough to write it up except to say that the gate agent who thinks seat G is an isle seat can kiss my American butt.
Everything I had to be thankful for in 2008 is still in my life in 2009 plus one or two things. It has been too much to have asked for. All I can be is thankful.
I’m skipping poker tonight to be with Dr. K. Good call. I’m really glad the game found enough players without me.

That’s enough for now. Dr. K will be home shortly. If you need something to do, take 40 minutes or so and listen to The Gambling Tales Podcast. You’ll sleep better for it.

Impressions of Sao Paulo

2009-11-19T18:56:00.001-05:00

I’m winding up my visit to the 3rd (or 3° as it is written here) largest city in the world (or 6°, depending how you count). There have been many interesting things I’ve noticed here so I’ll jot a few down before I forget. First, the caveat: I’ve only seen a small portion of the city, namely Morumbi, and the roads between there and the airport. All observations are from my very limited experience.

The place looks like many places in the US at street level. There are tall buildings and shops and busy people going to and from work. The people dress about the same as in the US. I think I could have forgotten that I was in Brazil if I didn’t speak with anyone.

There is no such thing as someone who looks Brazilian. They have a much or more of an ethnic mix as the US with Europeans, Asians, Africans, and Native Americans. They do talk funny, though. They really, really like their meat. The Brazilian restaurant is the same, but the meat is much better than where I’ve been in the states.

Brazilians pride themselves on being good hosts and do a fantastic job at it.

The elevators are odd. You hit an up or down arrow as I’m used to. When the arrow above the elevator door lights, that doesn’t mean the elevator is arriving. That arrow might just go out with no elevator. The arrow will flash when the elevator is arriving. So you get on and hit the button. If you don’t hit is quick enough, which may be before the door closes, you very well may be going the direction you didn’t want to go. This get to be a real problem when you have to swipe a card to get to your floor.

Some here say Portuguese sounds more like Italian than Spanish. I’ve always heard that it’s enough like Spanish that Portuguese speakers can usually understand Spanish. I’ve been corrected.

They have TV channels that don’t have soccer, or so I’ve been told.

Tipping in the restaurants and for other service workers is not expected. When getting change for a purchase, the cashier will usually not give the pennies unless you insist. They will, however, insist that you give them enough to cover every penny.

The hotel staff here at the Hilton Morumbi has blown me away with great service, especially the staff at the Canvas restaurant. I arrived for dinner tonight and the hostess remembered that I was there for Sunday brunch. That was 4 days ago. She almost remember my name. I left a cheese plate on my table when I left and it was brought it up to my room in case I wanted a snack later. Now that is service.

I’ll probably think of more later. All in all, it’s been a good trip. I’m still looking forward to home. It’s been a long year of travel.

Sao Paulo is Huge

2009-11-19T08:24:00.001-05:00

Here is the view from my hotel. I’m not downtown, but on the outskirts of town.

The Podcast has arrived.

2009-11-12T11:37:00.001-05:00

“Press release” from bloggers Falstaff and Special K

Gambling Tales Podcast is now available. Join Falstaff (John Hartness) and Special K (Curtis Krumel) as we take you through the best in lies and legends about gambling today and through the ages. . Show #001 with Badblood and the origins of gambling is available immediately. New shows are scheduled to appear every two weeks. Guests scheduled to appear in future shows include Dr. Pauly, Lee Jones, Dr. David Schwartz (UNLV – Roll the Bones)

The podcast is available at http://www.gtpodcast.com

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GamblingTalesPodcast

Available on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=339814710.

It will be searchable on iTunes by the weekend.

Email address for Questions, Comments, and Suggestions: gtpodcast@live.com

Subscribe today!

Bloggers: Become a friend of the podcast (FOP) by posting this information on your blog. Drop us an email with a link to your post and we’ll link to you on the Friends of the Podcast list. See you in Vegas Dec. 10-14!

G-Vegas Poker Conversations

2009-11-08T14:43:00.001-05:00

I played poker badly at Badblood’s last night. The drive down is getting easier and seemingly shorter. Blood introduced a great new set of clay chips. They played much better than I. On several occasions I was not thinking about who I was up against and/or not trusting my reads. It cost. I did get lucky late and finished up about $50.

Table conversations:

Douchbag Marital Moves – aka bailing a friend out of jail.
Boy parts? I need more Doritos!
Having our own personal WSOP on-site reporter
Darvin Moon is the worst player ever to make the final table – What? He’s still in?
Stina with a winna
Gary Gary the faux fairy
Date night poker at Badblood’s
The teller at the Sphinx convenience store touched my prostate.

My big lesson on the night: When you notice and admit that you’re playing like crap, there is really nothing to tilt at.

The Podcast is Coming

2009-11-06T11:23:00.000-05:00

Did I mention that I’m starting a podcast? It’s not just me. It’s Falstaff and I. Actually, I did mention it a few posts back, but I didn’t say much about it. Now that we have a couple of shows in the can (save for editing the segments together) and will be posting it to the web, I fell like I can say a bit more.

The title of the show is The Gambling Tales Podcast. We will talk about what is going on in the gambling world, tell gambling stories (mostly about other people’s stories) and have an interview where our guest tells his tale.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and gathering stories and there are millions or stories, so we shouldn’t have a problem with material. The bad economy is also fueling a lot of action around legalizing casino gambling around the country.That along with poker news should keep us full of recent developments to talk about.

Most of all, we are looking to have a load of fun with the podcast. It will be a vehicle to talk to people that we would like to talk to anyway and to go places that we want to go. We may even find a sponsor or two if the show is any good. That would be a big plus.

There are a few things left to organize, but I’m hoping to post the first show today or tomorrow (since we talk about the upcoming WSOP main event that starts back up tomorrow). Be on the lookout for it. I’ll post the url on this blog once it is finalized.

Sick on the Road

2009-11-05T11:11:00.001-05:00

I’m sitting in the airport terminal at Baltimore (BWI) at the end of one of the most difficult trips. The customer wasn’t ready with my workstation. Fixing that took half a day. Things went well for a while until I started coming down with a cold.

I’ve been on over 200 customer visits in the last 5 years on this job and I’ve never gotten sick to the point I could not go to the site. That is, until yesterday. It’s not that I couldn’t work. I did. I just couldn’t is good conscience expose my customer to my illness.

They were great about it and they all wished me well. The boss even made a joke that I should use more virus protection.

I’m feeling much better today. I got to the site at 6 am to finish up what I needed at the site and headed to my current location. With luck I’ll be home in a couple hours.

Grill Cheese Tilt

2009-11-02T12:35:00.000-05:00

I have one fun story left over from my last trip to Las Vegas. It happened in the Venetian poker room on my last full day in town. I started playing around 3:30. At the table next to mine was a blabber-mouth with a voice that carried great over the clack and murmur of poker chips and conversations. Everyone for three tables in all directions could hear everything this guy said.

I remember him going on for at least ten minutes about one of his fellow players being Canadian. He yapped about someone he once met from Canada and how it gets cold there sometimes. Yap, yap, yap, eh.

Luckily for my ear and bankroll (my stack was shrinking) I had to go over to the sports book to meet CK and F Train. They didn’t arrive right away, but I was ready for a break so I stayed in the sports book. Once CK arrived we chatted while we waited for F Train. In all I was away from the tables for for about an hour and a half.

When we get back to the poker room, I got seated immediately at the same table that I had left. This time I was facing in the direction of the loud mouth. It was no surprise that he was still running he mouth, but now his tone was different. He was angry and frustrated. It had something to do with a grilled cheese sandwich. He was calling the floor to ask how long it should take to get a sandwich. He wanted to know where the server who took the order had gone. He wanted the name of the cook. Basically, he wanted someone’s head on a platter. And a grilled cheese sandwich.

This went one of at least 15 more minutes. I could tell my entire table (who had been listening to this guy for over 2 hours were pretty humored by his frustration. I started making some cracks about the situation. I told my neighbor “I want to order a grilled cheese just to see if I can get mine before he gets his”, and “If I had a grilled cheese right now I would stand up and exclaim aloud that this was the best grilled cheese that I’ve ever eaten.” The whole table was into the act before long.

About this time I look over to the table with the loud mouth and noticed that he was in a big hand with his opponent all in and two-thirds of the loud mouth’s stack involved. Loud mouth was behind and did not catch up. Unbelievably, that shut him up. He silently grabbed a rack, loaded up his chips and faded away. Thus ended the first known instance of grilled cheese tilt. And the whole poker room quietly rejoiced.

Poker Friday Night

2009-11-01T11:38:00.001-05:00

Many of the usual gang and a couple of unusual folk gathered at the Special K casino for some poker and camaraderie. Both were found in generous supply. Falstaff came by early for dinner a bit early. We were soon joined by Mr. Jones, Jim the Knife, LouD, Big Nick, and special guest Shamus and thus we had our 7 to get us started. We were later joined by the Brown Recluse and Lane B.

The game of choice was .5-1 NLHE. I don’t remember much from specific hands. I was able to out kick Falstaff on a couple of hands, but he was able to out draw me on a couple of bigger hands. The middle of the night was especially cruel to me time after time seeming to draw the worst card out of the deck at the worst time over and over.

At 11:00, we switched out to .5-1 NL Omaha which was a bit better to me as I recovered my earlier losses to end even for the night. Mr. Jones and JtK were the big winners with LouD and Falstaff funding their score. That is all from a day old memory, so me need correction.

Some of the table conversation:

Is Barak Obama more likely to win the best actor oscar or start at quaterback for the Panthers. Answer: Probably both.
Ups and Downs of the Breeders Cup
Running numbers for the mob
Good gambling books
Vegas in December – Blogger Gathering
Never going back to the IP (that wasn’t me)
Gambling in WVa, AC, Cherokee, and Tunica
Could we switch to the deck with the face cards in it?

It was a bit stressful getting the right number of runners for the night, but all worked out well in the end.

Impressions of Vegas – Oct 2009

2009-10-27T11:21:00.001-04:00

Unlike last year, I’ve not made many trips to Vegas in 2009. My business travel destinations have just not been to the west coast. There was a trip to Vegas back in May with Falstaff in which I lost a chunk of bankroll. Otherwise, I’ve had to satisfy myself with the home game action that I can find and an occasional casino game when the business or vacation road takes me to a good location.

But last week, Brian the Red was going to a professional conference in Vegas, so I thought that as good a reason as any to book my own trip. I also convinced the Pirate Monkey to join us (or so he blamed me).

I’ve already posted my monetary results from $1-2 NLHE. I/we did a few other things and I left with some interesting impressions.

One of the biggest impressions was City Center. Wow! That thing has come a long way since May. The buildings look mostly finished. There is still a lot to do at ground level, but it seem impossible that they have come so far so fast. It was just a hole in the ground back in March of 2007 when my group at work had a conference at Bellagio and my room overlooked the site. Now it is a small city with 8 or 10 tall towers. Some signage is up. The chrome-looking retail center that runs up and over the sidewalk on the strip looks cool from a distance, but when you get up next to it the scale of the thing is overwhelming. The whole project took 62 acres and 8 billion dollars. What boggles my mind even more is the effect that this will have on the rest of Las Vegas as it starts to come on-line in December. They are already giving away rooms. What they will be able to do with all of this inventory is anyone’s guess. I’ll bet there are some really scared people in Vegas about now.

The Pirate Monkey had an excellent run in the Venetian daily tournament. He took 10th out of about 180 runners for a nice 3 or 4x score. He would have run much deeper except for a bad suck out. I don’t remember the details, and since he sucked out on me in fantasy football last night, I don’t really care. To be fair, from what I saw of his play, he did an excellent job and deserved a better finish.

The Bellagio is back to spreading $1-2 NLHE. They were spreading $1-3, like Caesar's, but I guess they didn’t get the numbers that way. I didn’t check the drop, but I’m guessing they will still drop $5 on big pots. The Venetian is still be best room for my play.

The Venetian has their new player tracking system up and running. They were about to turn in on the last day of my trip in May. Players no longer get credit for time away from the tables, but we no longer loose time when we forget to log out. I guess that is a wash.

Did I say they were giving away rooms in Vegas. I stayed at the Hooter’s Hotel and Casino for $55. That is not per night. That was for three nights. Many hands of poker that I played were worth more. Hooters always gets a giggle when I mention it, but it was a nice hotel and the room was just fine. I’d do it again.

I did get on the elevator with a john and hooker on my final night there. He was a little balding white guy with kakis, sport shirt and a wind breaker. She was a 6 foot tall slender black woman with huge boobs in a day-glow yellow stretch halter top and skin tight jeans. Obviously, it was only my prodigious sense of observation that allowed me to size up this situation. Once the elevator arrived it was just the three of us. No one stood near anyone else. No one spoke. No one even glanced at each other. Except for me, that is. I lit up. “Hey, how are we doing tonight? Having any luck? Man, I sure have. Let me tell you…” I thought the guy was going to open the door in for floor of the elevator and jump. The hooker didn’t flinch. She must have been a professional in every sense of the word. Floor number 4 was never so far away, but it arrived and they scampered. I laughed until my sides hurt. I love Vegas.

The town was mostly dead compared to a year ago. I like it in the short run. It is easier to walk on the sidewalks, the wait for service is no so long, and the deals are great. But I also know that it is not good for Vegas or poker in the long run. Eventually (read “when city center forces the weak properties to take drastic action”), deals will go away along with poker rooms and other things that I now enjoy, and that will be more than just sad. It’s probably coming. I’ll just have to go back in December to enjoy it before it changes again. My flight is already booked.

Quick Vegas Results

2009-10-23T22:44:00.001-04:00

I spent three days in Vegas this week. I have many impressions that need more time and space than I have right now. Instead, I’ll just post my results graph. I tried to record my chip stack every time I got the button. That allows me to estimate how many hand I play and how I’m doing during the trip. Here is the result from this trip:

The blue line is my chip stack at that time. The red line is total win/loss. Each tick mark along the x axis is a button. I estimate that I played about 540 hands in a little over 20 hours of play. My late rally brought me back close to even from the trip. I actually lost $6. I saw AA 4 times, KK 3 times, QQ 5 times and JJ 2 times. On average, I should have seen each 2.5 times each. Though that could be considered catching good cards, I did not win one substantial hand with any of these 14 hands. I lost much more with them than I won.

More Vegas impressions to come.

Last Night’s Poker Report

2009-10-18T12:31:00.001-04:00

We had a gathering of poker heads at the warehouse last night. Me, Jim the Knife, T, Lou D., B Razz, the Brown Recluse, and later Falstaff joined in the festivities. I’ll just say right off the top that it was my best night in a local poker game. I started off hitting my cards and pretty much ended the night the same way. Since I' knew a trip to Vegas was starting early in the morning, I called it quits at midnight with 414 more than I came with.

Our table discussion had a good run and many laughs with quotes from Monte Python and the Holy Grail. The Life of Brian also came up. I’ve run into several conversations where people found LoB just as funny as HG. I don’t see it, but that opinion was voiced again last night. Maybe I’ll have to go back and watch it again. I’ve only watched it once sober and that was on commercial TV.

Several fun jokes were made about the balloon-boy saga that hit the news this past week. For example, I heard something in the 911 call that I would never want a parent to hear, “Does your son know how to operate the flying saucer?” We also put the odds on Pres. Obama winning the best actor oscar at 2:1. Also heard - “You only have $10? You’d be better off buying my book and going home now.”

I’m sitting in Pheonix’s Sky Harbor Airport as I write this. We board for Vegas in about 10 minutes. Here’s hoping that the roll will continue.

Poker this weekend

2009-10-14T15:50:00.000-04:00

I traveled to G-Vegas for some good poker action and camaraderie. At least I got some camaraderie. I would say that my play was bad, my cards were bad, and my mind just would not stay on any one track. I felt fine, I just wasn’t quick mentally. Even so, I left with a profit, so it could have been worse.

Some quick examples:

8:10 flopped boat holding A4 and AA4 on board. I slowplay. 4 on river allows the other player holding an A to catch up. chop pot.

9:25 next had won

9:55 double through G-Rob - my AJs v. AQ. We get all-in preflop. Two jacks hit the board for me to luck out and chip up.

11:00 I get KK when I’m first to act. My raise is too big and I win 7 in a walk. Dumb.

We went to O8/Hold’em rounds after 11 and I took a couple decent hands O8 hands to get out of the hole and make my small profit.

The funniest story was about someone not at the game. This single father sent a sexually blatant text meant for his girlfriend to his 8 year old daughter of the same first name. Ouch. It would be funnier if I were to post what was actually written, but it was a bit over the top so I won’t.

I got caught up with Otis and his crazy travel schedule. I hope I have him and another buddy schedule for our upcoming podcast. That should be a hoot.

A profitable night of poker is like any plane landing that you walk away from. Hopefully, Vegas will be even better.

Little League Football

2009-10-13T15:30:00.000-04:00

I took this picture this past weekend. “Hennessey” is my nephew. Beyond that, this picture caught my eye because of the actions of all the boys in the shot. In some areas it is easy to see what is going on. In others it’s hard to imagine what the boys are doing. Come to think of it, that’s just how it looks live.

Enjoy

Metapost

2009-10-12T15:18:00.001-04:00

Another friend just passed the 4 year mark on her blog. Like her, I don’t pay a lot of attention to that sort of thing. But she got me thinking about my blog and where I am in age and posts.

Well, I started this blog on December 2, 2004. Before that I had a website (www.curtisk.com) since about 1999 and had figured out in 2002 how to post to that site from the road, in effect creating a blog before the term was probably even coined. I’m pretty sure that all of those pages have been lost over time.

Back to this blog. Since 2004, I’ve posted to this space 409 times (410 when I publish this). I posted 116 times back in 2005 and peaked again in 2008 at 115 posts. So far this year I’ve been really lazy and have only posted 49 times. Having the ability to make quick posts to Facebook have cut my posting quite a bit, but laziness is a big part, too.

I’ve still got a few weeks left and I can do better. My life in not boring, so I do have stuff to write. And I understand that it’s mostly interesting to me, but if I hit something you find interesting or funny 1 out of 10 times, then it’s probably worth your time. At the very least, I get to come back in a year or two and remember a lot of details that I’ve forgotten.

So I’m going to energize this blog. I’m headed to Vegas next week and again in December. That is always blog-worthy. I’m scheduled to go to Brazil in November. I won’t be touring much in Brazil, but I’m sure I’ll find something to write/post. I’m starting a podcast with a friend, so there should be a stream of post coming from that. All-in-all, I have plenty to share without falling back on politics or passing on others’ posts.

My goal is to get to 100 posts by the end of the year. Since today is day 285 of 2009, I have 80 days left to post 50 times. Heck, I should be able to go around the world in that time. 50 posts sounds easy. We’ll see.

POB

2009-10-09T00:09:00.001-04:00

Here’s a fun picture for my poker friends who follow the behind-the-scenes of the poker world.

Maybe this is Capt. Tom’s truck.

Triathlon

2009-10-06T12:34:00.001-04:00

With the running of a short triathlon, I checked off a bucket list item on Sunday. Folks who have been around us in the past 6 months know that my wife has really enjoyed working out and getting physically fit. She has a trainer that she likes and a determination that I really envy. It all started with her 24 hours of booty ride to raise money for brain cancer research but has now taken on a life of its own.

About a month ago she hit me with a challenge for us to run a ‘tri’. I told her that I would like that, too. I had no idea at the time that she meant “Let’s run a triathlon SOON.”

My travels have made it easy for me to not workout like I should. I didn’t run at all in Iraq during August for obvious reasons. Since my return, my travel schedule has been no less crazy though I have done somewhat better in recent weeks. For instance, I’ve rented a locker at the local YMCA. I have really enjoyed swimming laps before work. Even with that, I knew I wasn’t where I wanted to be for a triathlon. I started referring to it as a try-athlon. Oh how accurate that was.

We signed up for the Take Flight Triathlon that took place in Huntersville this past Sunday. The event consisted of a 250 meter swim, 10 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run; short for a tri.

Things didn’t start all that great for me. As I arrived at my bike storage location I dropped the pop tart I was having for breakfast from my pocket. Just having a pop tart at a triathlon is like interviewing Bill Gates and taking notes on a Mac. I would have gotten fewer funny looks had a dropped a dime bag or “Bring Back Bush” bumper sticker. We checked in and got marked with our numbers (magic marker on skin) around 6:30 am and then had to hang around for over 2 hours until our start times. I took a nap in the truck.

Dr. K started the race about 7 minutes in front of me. She insisted that I enter a higher 100 yard swim time and it was this time that was used to set starting positions. The swim section was in a pool. We were to swim up one lane, turn and push off and under the lane ropes back to the other end. The pool had 10 lanes, so the whole course was 250 meters. It was good that I got to watch her swim as she is a really good swimmer.

Almost before I knew what was happening it was my turn. 3..2..1..GO and I’m swimming. All I hear now is the rush of water by my ears. I’ve got a long way to go so I’m concentrating on my stroke keeping it long and consistent. There were times when I felt like I wasn’t moving in the water at all. I glanced up at one point and counted 2 more laps than what I thought remained. Curses! I did manage to do crawl the whole way. I passed 3 people and didn’t get passed so I felt pretty good at this point.

Then I had to run wet and mostly naked outside and around the building to the transition area where the bikes are kept. It was now about 9:15 on an October morning. My blood was pumping pretty good but it was still a bit chilly. I find my bike and stuff, get dry, put on shirt, socks, bike shoes, helmet and I’m off on stage 2.

After fumbling with my pedals for the first 200 yards I get the bike moving. I’ve got the wind in my face and no sound but the tires on the pavement, oh yea, and my breath that is really not in the sprit of the moment. The breath getting a bit short and there is too far left to go. I saw a young woman wipe out on her bike going up one very steep hill (there were no non-steep hills). She said that she was OK which is good because I don’t have to feel bad about not stopping. I wasn’t stopping in any case, I just didn’t need to carry guilt, too.

As I mentioned, the hills were rough and I had to coast a few down hills to keep moving and I wished that my bike had one lower gear than it has, but I didn’t stop and after what seemed like an hour I got back to the starting area. Now it’s off the bike, off with the shoes and the helmet and on with the running shoes and number. My legs are mush and my lungs are struggling, but it’s time for a 5k so up and off with me.

Here is where it really gets bad. I start to cramp in my calves and my stomach felt like it is about to reject the pop tart I had for breakfast. It was about this time I hear another runner yell “Number 447, you suck!” Wouldn’t you know it was my lovely bride who had already looped around the halfway point and was headed to the finish.

Then is gets worse. I gotta go. I tell my body to forget it, but it insists. I gotta go #2 and soon. I’m looking around for a porta john, abandoned lot, phone booth, anything, but there is nothing. So I do what I’ve got to do. I find a resident and plead for a toilet. I really didn’t have to plead. Just the fact that I stopped running to ask let her know that the situation was dire. She may have rightly decided that it was either going to be her bushes or her toilet so she led me into her house.

Once the pressure and about 5 pounds was released I was back on the course and doing much better. I was able to run the final 2 miles to post a not awful time. Final results for the event with splits is available here: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=1546. You’ll find me down in 300th place in the men division. Dr. K’s times were better than mine in every phase of the event to beat me by 3 minutes and 148th place among the women. As usual, I’m very proud of her.

As difficult as it was, I look forward to going back next year. I’ll be sure to do a little more than 1 months training next time so I can shave a little bit of my time. I’ll be sure to go before the race, too. At the very least, that item is done. Triathlon: Check.

Truckin’ has a new author - Me

2009-10-04T19:23:00.001-04:00

Go read my story. I’ve been told by several kind friends and family members that it is the funniest thing they’ve ever read. I hope you enjoy it.

In fact, go read all of the stories in this month’s edition. Paul (Dr. Pauly) is a great writer and editor.

Thanks.

Truckin’

October 2009, Vol. 8, Issue 10

1. The Booth by Paul McGuire
A fidgety Larry had nowhere to blend in as only person sitting in a booth along the wall. The cops had to pass him on their way out and they'd know that he was fucked up. How could they not know... More
2. The Demon of Oscar Braathen's Tavern by Sigge S. Amdal
The baby wants attention and makes a horrible shrieking sound, making the hairs on my back stand up. That's exactly what you'd expect from a demon hovering above a deserted town. It's just doing what demons are supposed to be doing. But it freaks me out nevertheless... More
3. Just Lunch by Betty Underground
We're not strangers, though perhaps we should be; the span between the time when knew each other before and now, is vast. Back then, we didn't even know ourselves, and what we knew about each other was drawn with immature minds. When we first reconnected I'm sure we imagined what we thought the other had become... More
4. Danger Box by Curtis Krumel
In Mexico they have Montezuma's Revenge. In Iraq, the bane of the visitor is Saddam's Revenge. The source of the condition, like that of the Nile, is shrouded in mystery, but the effects are unmistakable.... More
5. Two Memories by Johnny Hughes
I was called in the middle of the night, when I was higher than a hawk's nest, and drunker than Cooter Brown. Joe explained the deal, and he and I both knew Jesse had a handful of warrants out, and unresolved entanglements with Texas laws... More

Hangin’ in San Antone and Catchin’ Up

2009-09-29T23:54:00.001-04:00

I got a bit of a night off tonight. I’m visiting a customer in San Antonio all week. When I’m out of Charlotte like this, I usually have a lot of research or writing to do. But tonight, I’ve decided to take some time for myself. I got in a good run in the hotel fitness center and then a nice meal at a nearby chinese buffet. For the balance of the night I’ve enjoyed working on a special project that I’m not talking about much at the moment. There’ll be no problem picking up work in the morning.

I have been meaning to update some recent adventures on this blog. I took a big chunk of September off from blogging. I was always too busy or tired or just not in the mood to blog.

So what happened while I was away? Well, I was away. After returning from Iraq I took Dr. K on a vacation down to Punta Cana. We went there earlier this year and liked it so much we decided to try another resort on the same island. We got a great deal that included airfare on US Airways. That may not sound like a positive, but considering that I’m Platinum Preferred, it is a big plus. See, we got bumped up the 1st class both ways on our $166 tickets. We also like Punta Cana because it is a direct flight from the hometown of Charlotte. We leave the house and arrive at the resort in just about 5 hours.

We had a great time swimming and sunning and eating and drinking and whatever else came to mind. here are some of the very few pictures I took:

View Full Album

That’s a pretty cool feature of Windows Live Writer that I just discovered (photo album). Sweet.

Back to the story. About a week after we got back, it was time for my next business trip. This time Mannheim, Germany was the destination. The weather was better this time than during my December trip. It was still cloudy the whole time, but it was still a nice trip. I got to hang with my buddy Trace as I trained him to present a class while I taught a bunch of Army contractors to use our database software a little better. They had good things to say about the class and I had good things to say about them. Can’t beat that. I even got in some sightseeing before heading home. Here are a few more pics:

View Full Album

Now another week has gone by and I’m on the road again. I’ll get to take a little break from traveling after next week (Pennsylvania) and I’m really looking forward to that.

Oh, yea. Did I mention that Dr. K and I are swimming/biking/running a triathlon this weekend? It’s true except in my case (out of shape) it will more of a try-athlon. It’s really is all fun and I have no complaints. Chao.

Luecke, Texas

2009-09-28T19:38:00.001-04:00

I had an early morning flight today. Charlotte to Dulles to San Antonio. It was bad that the flight left at 6:00 AM, but was very smooth otherwise. I had a window seat on the DC to SA leg and I saw something that reminded me of why I still like window seats. Now you can see it for yourself.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=austin,+tx&btnG=Search&t=k&ll=30.083058,-97.143688&spn=0.065951,0.173035&t=k

This is not a photoshop or any kind of fake. This guy cut the trees on his property to form the pattern with .25 mile high letters. Actually, it is just his name, but it well may be the biggest name in the world.

Poker Saturday Night

2009-09-27T11:15:00.001-04:00

Saturday night saw the return of the Falstaff home game. With all my travels, I’ve not played at this location since before going to Iraq. T, the Knife, Nate the Elder, and Brian R joined us for the short-handed poker action.

It was a night of rivers. I don’t remember seeing some many 2 and 3 outers on the river to reverse the flow of chips. Nate built a huge stack early. Jim went into his roll a few times but ended the night with a lot more than he came with. My holdem hands were awful, but the Omaha hands made up for that late. I ended the night with a small profit.

The Knife also paid off the football eliminator challenge that I won in just 2 weeks. We had 3 misses and one no-pick to eliminate everyone but me.

A few of the conversation topics from the poker game:

Jim took down $1k this past week
What does an Asst. Principal do?
Brian the Red’s rough job.
Falstaff’s new sofa.
Skip, the Canadian butt@^er.
Shooting pool with your fly down.
Vegas in December (at least 4 are going).

The next 2 weeks are going to be really busy, so there won’t be many opportunities. Hopefully, with the cold weather setting in, we will be able play a bit more regularly, or at least more often. :)

Bad Poker Rules, Iraq Style

2009-08-22T13:30:00.000-04:00

Being a guest in Iraq means doing without a few things that I enjoy. My wife and beer come immediately to mind. Being a short timer here at the Liberty/Victory Camp Complex means I’m a guest of those long-timers who are here for a year or more. This comes into play with things like bunk selection and transportation. I just can’t front someone who is putting up with this lifestyle when I’ll be home in under two weeks (9 days now, but who’s counting).

It also comes into play at the poker table. Most of us players have been in the situation where we are the new person in a group of regulars. We are the guest and we should act like it. That means not talking too much about things that no one else has any interest in. It means being extra observant and polite about the rules of the house. Is everyone taking off their shoes? Can I go in the fridge? That sort of thing.

It also means not being a jerk about the rules of the game. They play a certain way so that’s the way I’ll play tonight. I’m having to do a lot of that playing here in Baghdad. Our regular home games are pretty serious about the rules of the game. All of us have played a lot of casino poker and we try to fashion our rules after theirs. After all, they developed those rules over many years for various reasons. I like to say, “We learn from the mistakes of others because we don’t have enough time to make them all ourselves.”

But here in the desert, I get the feeling that most have not seen the inside of a casino and several kitchen table rules are in effect.

Two cards wins in Omaha. In every casino I’ve played in, if there is a showdown, the players must show all of their cards to win the hand. Not here. Actually they have started enforcing that rule for hold’em, but most of our hands are Omaha and winning players regularly show only the two cards they are playing. This has led to the comical grab for the face-down cards when the player realized he’s folded a winning low. Thankfully, those cards have been ruled dead and much laughter generally ensues.

String bets are out, but unannounced single-chip raises are fair game.

Announcing “there is a low” “there is a flush” “there is a straight”. Yep, talking about the hand when you are not involved is not only tolerated, it is encouraged. I cringe every time I hear it and I hear it on every hand. “There’s the low”, “There’s no low.” There’s the straight/flush/boat/whatever. Arrrrrrrggggggggggg. I just bite my lip and shake my head. It’s their game.

Dealing the turn and river after the flop. I saw and commented on this one last year. Usually, after the flop, the dealer will continue with a burn and the turn card face down and then another burn and the river face down. Some have even been known to deal the cards and then immediately deal the flop, turn and river, all face down. We almost had a hand killed when mucked cards hit the already dealt board. Do you think that put an end to the practice. Nope. I’ll admit that I’ve been able to pick up whether the down cards are face cards or not from time to time. If they are going to make it a part of the game, I’m playing.

There are apparently no cut cards in all of Iraq. I’ve seen the cards shuffled face up, turned over and sat in front of the cutter who just taps the deck. I generally know 3 or 4 cards on the bottom of the deck when the deal starts. If I miss it I just have to be patient because the bottom card will be flashed several times before all the cards are dealt. Since we are playing Omaha, those cards are likely hitting the board.

The worst one came last night. One fellow was having a really rough night. He was complaining about all of the bad play and suck-outs that he was enduring. We all know the drill. He had a really bad habit of holding his cards down on his lap under the table. This made me a bit nervous, but he was on my immediate right and I could see his cards so I doubt that anything dirty was going on. He finally sees a hand and a flop that he really likes and goes all-in. As play in the hand continues, he takes his cards with him to the fridge, to show the other table and all around the room. On the turn or river his high straight got counterfeited He got quartered and lost money again. I had no sympathy.

But like I said, I’m a guest and I don’t make many suggestions and they seem to respect the one’s I do make. Maybe I’ll try for cards on the table at all times tomorrow night. I’m afraid I’ll have to leave them with early dealing. I’ll call it a quaint local custom down at Huckleberry Farms.

And I lost $80 last night. So there.

The Boys are just Sick – Iraq Poker II

2009-08-22T13:00:00.000-04:00

I played the local game again Wednesday night. It may have been the sickest game I’ve ever been involved in. It didn’t take any time at all (literally 2 or 3 hands) before guys were regularly pushing all-in preflop playing Omaha 8 or better. A-2-x-x Shove. That was the game. Most folks buy in for around $40. One guy got a little ill, stood up and threw $200 on the table stating “OK, if that’s the way you want to play, let’s go!” That just makes this rock smile from ear to ear. I got to say my favorite phrase 3 times this night - “I’ve got the nuts and there is no low.” Is that poetry, or what?

We also played so freaky games that I’m not sure I remember. We played 5 card double draw with 5s and 10 wild. I won one of those with K5K10 for quads. We played a couple of variations of stud with a chicago (low or high spade gets half). I took one pot when I got dealt the 2 of spades and pushed everyone off the pot. Cool. Before the night was over, I had dubbed this game “Huckleberry Farms” because there is ALWAYS a huckleberry around. I walked out a bit early with $202 more than I came with.

Here are a few random pictures from around the office:

Be careful what you put on your ‘Nilla Wafers:

Jeff is slaving away:

Our lifeline:

Let’s all learn some Microsoft stuff:

Later.

More Poker for Iraq

2009-08-21T19:35:00.002-04:00

Last week, regular readers will recall, I took a pair of aces and drew three cards to get a full house (AAA55) on the only draw of the hand. So what are the odds of that? One of the two aces and two of the four 5s or three of the four 5s? (4.3% * (8.7% * 6.7%)) + (8.5% * 6.5% * 4.4%) = .0493% or 1 in 2027. I’m sure someone can get exact numbers.

Now what if I told you that we played another hand of draw tonight and the same thing happened. This time it was KK and I drew K55. That makes it twice in a row. .0493% * .0493% = 1 in 4.1 million. Live poker is so rigged.

The rest of the night was really dry. The cards really ran against me and I still managed a profit of $36. I love this game.

Otherwise, I’m learning a ton on this job and keeping things on track well enough. That makes the time go quickly so all is good. Thanks to my FB friends for their notes and well wishes. That really helps, too.

Iraq – Poker and Pictures

2009-08-21T14:12:00.003-04:00

Well wouldn’t you know it. I managed to find a juicy poker game here in Camp Victory. I suppose it is frowned upon by official sources, just like at home, but I think of it more as recreation. Besides, playing with some of these guys is not gambling at all.

The game is dealer’s choice. All games so far have been no limit and all players pay a quarter ante on every hand. There are no blinds. That is a first for me in hold’em and omaha, but it works. There is tons of action. I hesitate to say it, but I actually think it is looser than the Falstaff home game, even those nights when Nate the Elder and Jim the Knife are both attending. I’ve yet to find an amount that won’t draw 4 callers.

Last night in a hand of O8, there is very little action to the river when a third heart hits the board. I’m acting first and take a pot sized stab with 3 players to act behind. The first folds as does the second. The fish at the table calls me with a 4-3 as his low (no A or 2 on the board) and a pair of jacks for a high. Of course I got quartered because I was just making a play. I lost 3 or 4 bucks on that hand, but the information on that player made me 5 times that much before the night was done.

A big hand late in the evening had me catch a set of 8s to bust AKs with and K8x flop. Funny thing was that the flop was all diamonds. AK leads post-flop for $25. I’m 90% sure he didn’t hit his flush there and I’ve got a good shot at a boat so I go all in for the $36 more that he had. No improvement for either of us and I take the pot. That was one he could have gotten away from.

The we played one hand of 5 card draw (only one draw and two round of betting). I get a nice AAxxx hand. My bet only gets one call on my immediate left. I draw three and get A55 for a miracle boat. I bet $15 and my opponent calls and shows a high FLUSH. I still can’t believe he didn’t shove. If the cards are reversed, I go broke every time knowing that it is the right play.

We also played some Crazy Pineapple (called by the degen from NC). That was fun. I get a crap hand and keep 34. I really feel obligated to play since no one had ever played it before. The flop come J52. Now I’m interested. I bet and get two or three callers. Blank on the turn so I bet more and get called. The ace on the river gives me the nuts, a nice pot, and a rash of shit from my new ‘friends.’ Good stuff. I’m glad only one of them had a gun. (Hummm, just like the home game).

I’ve played two nights and netted about $180 so I’ll be back next week for sure.

We had a major dust storm yesterday, Here is a picture of the masque that I used as an air quality reference last year. This is what it didn’t look like yesterday.

See my posts from June 2008 to see what is supposed to be there. Dust gets on and in everything. Here are a couple expamples:

Here is a shot to give you an idea of how hot it get in Iraq in July/August. This is necessary for a south facing door:

Finally, a picture of my new wheels. I like having some personal transportation. It’s not a Boxster but this ain’t home:

Let me wrap this post up with a funny shirt that I saw in a store back in Kuwait. Take care, all. I know I’ll try.

Yea, what he said.

2009-08-20T00:45:00.001-04:00

Thank you, Spaceman, for putting into words much of what I’ve been thinking about the health care debate. Your post titled “

A Few Reasoned Thoughts From An Outraged Retard

Really hit the spot this morning. No matter which side you are on, you should read this for some independent, reasoned thinking.

What am I doing here?

2009-08-14T09:07:00.001-04:00

I’ve got a week to go here in this hot, dusty, hard, boring place known at Camp Liberty/Victory near Baghdad, Iraq. I feel the need to assess my attitude and begin the push toward a strong finish of this project. So forgive the navel gazing for this post. This is an exercise in attitude self-adjustment.

So here are my reasons in roughly ascending order:

Number one, there is money involved. It’s not a great deal of money, but it’s not trivial either. It’s gap money. It makes the gap between what is in the bank and what is owed every month a little wider and that’s not a bad thing. It will also pay for my post-trip rehab (vacation with Dr. K). For many of the contractors here, that is the reason heard most but those folks are doubling, or more, the amount they would make or save working a normal job in the states. But for me, for just one month, there has to be more to it than just a little financial boost to make this a bigger reason to be here.

Number two is the adventure. I’m a sucker for a reasonably safe adventure. Coming to a hellish part of the world and testing myself against the discomfort and long working hours, lack of transportation, bland meals, second or third rate working conditions, and more, is something I have to do to myself to feel that I still measure up. The stark difference between the life I have in the states and life here makes me all the more respectful of our military men and women and all the more thankful for the life I lead back home. The saying goes “you don’t appreciate things until they are gone,” I come here to make sure I appreciate all that my life is and to put perspective around my disappointments. I also need to press my limits here and there to see where they are now. I can imagine the great explorers like Byrd, Livingston, and Shackleton thinking the same way on a much larger scale. My job just offers a war zone and army life as a small scale testing ground for me.

The economy has something to do with it. This is not the kind of economy that I want to be out in looking for a job. My heart goes out to my friends who have been forced into that situation. It is much tougher than just not having a much money as before. No one has threatened my job nor have I been told I need to “pick it up.” My billable hours were down for the FY one month in and there is nothing like 5 84 hour weeks to get that back in line. But I also show myself to be a team player by taking assignment that others might not. I know that some folks have situations that prevent them from these assignments, but I have a wife that understands some sacrifice for a career and we have no kids, so I do this to put a bit of a gap between me and the headhunters. I’m not married to my employer, so I want to leave in my own time for my own reasons (I’ve been saying that for 15 years now). This helps.

I’ve really enjoyed gaining and regaining new skills in the SQL Server product family. I found out that I already know more than I give myself credit for, but I’ve not had a month of consistently working with Integration Services, Analysis Services and SharePoint as well as building servers and putting them into production. I wanted to come here and hone my skills and I’ve gotten just that.

The biggest reason I’m here is that I support what is going on over here and I get a sense of pride out of giving of myself toward that end. Now before you make any political assumptions about the meaning behind '’what is going on over here', please hear me out. What I see here is a people with a chance at freedom. They have a chance to make for themselves a place that is safe and strong. A place that loads less of a burden of worry about the life of loved ones on their shoulders.

The debate about how this country got to this point has merit on both sides and I really don’t know if the ends have anything to do with the means. But I can see what IS right now. I can see what not finishing this job correctly will mean for this place. I’d say the chances of this place finding anything close to the peace I describe as very slim (due as much from our political friends as our enemies), but that’s a far better situation than they had 2 years, 5 years, or 10 years ago.

I’m also very proud to be from the place that has produced the men and women that I’m working with, namely the officers and soldiers of the US Army. These are not people who are interested in killing anyone. They are committed to ending this thing the right way for the people of Iraq. They talk of freedom often. They understand the difference between a lawful and unlawful order and they have a cause and are committed to it. Sure, there are outliers, those who don’t fit the above description for one reason or another. But the average soldier here is smart and strong and noble. This is a historic place and a historic event. The boots on the ground here are the best ever. It is what I believe our country is and should be – Smart and Strong, and Noble. There are still patriots and some of them are here. I’ll return home proud to have served their mission.

This is already a bit long, but I want to pass on a story that I received in email this morning that I really enjoyed. I hope you do, too.

From a Chaplain in Iraq :

“I recently attended a showing of 'Superman 3' here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorial services and other large gatherings.

As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through the National Anthem the music stopped.
Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments; and everyone would sit down and call for a movie. Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place.

Here, the 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward. The music started again. The Soldiers continued to quietly stand at attention. And again, at the same point, the music stopped.

What would you expect to happen? Even here I would imagine laughter, as everyone finally sat down and expected the movie to start. But here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier continued to stand at attention.
Suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices of a thousand soldiers, finishing where the recording left off:

"And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that Star Spangled Banner
yet wave, o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq . I wanted you to know what kind of Soldiers are serving you here. Remember them as they fight for you!
Pass this along as a reminder to others to be ever in prayer for all our soldiers serving us here at home and abroad. For many have already paid the ultimate price.

Written by Chaplain Jim Higgins
LSA Anaconda was at the Ballad Airport in Iraq, north of Baghdad”

Publishers Note

2009-08-13T01:09:00.004-04:00

I've taken a few posts down for a little while. I decided that there might be some risk to keeping them up, so I scheduled them for republishing upon my departure from Iraq.

SK