Boudreaux's and Reckless Kelly

Saturday night turned out alright for just about everything.  Dr. K and I met up with Falstaff at Boudreaux's in Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood.  The food and the company were first rate.  Falstaff found the Mojitas to be first rate as well.

From there we walked next door to the Neighborhood Theater for the show.  The Sons of Bill warmed up for the headliners.  They were adequate.  It was obvious that the guitar player had to tone down his playing so as not to outshine his brothers.   He did let loose in the next to last number.  You could tell that the boy has talent.

Then we got Reckless Kelly.  This band rock-a-billied everybody in the house.  They were fun.  They were tight, and they were rockin'.  Dr. K was so impressed that she downloaded a whole album's worth of their song on Sunday morning.  Anytime Dr. K has a good time, that is good enough for me, but this show would have taken a lot of work to not enjoy it.

Thanks to Falstaff for showing us a good time.  I hope we get to repeat this often.

Obamaha

TripJax has a brilliant post on a new game that is sweeping the liberal nation: Obamaha.  Go check out his post here: http://tripjax.blogspot.com/2008/04/obamaha.html

Did you notice that if you add a G to the the last name of the leading democratic presidential candidate, you get Go Bama!  How's that for a 'change'.

Now go read TripJax.

My Boring Friday Night

*** Nothing interesting here. Move along. Nothing to read here. ***

I'm back from a week in Norfolk, VA. Falstaff is hosting a poker game as I write this. I passed in order to spend the time with my wife. It is absolute hell having so many great options on how to spend tonight. I made the right choice.

Tomorrow night, Falstaff and I are escorting Dr. K to see Reckless Kelly in NoDa. We are dining at a place we've never been and going to see live music which we never do. Should be just another wonderful and boring night.

Be sure to catch my Top Nine list on http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/. It should be released at 6 am this morning.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

I spend way too much time doing a certain thing that, while enjoyable, really doesn't accomplish anything.  Sometimes, when I'm by myself and I don't have anything that has to be done right away, I can do it for hours.  When I'm finally done, I have this guilt that I shouldn't have spent so much time on it.  I could have gotten bills paid or dishes washed, or even gotten a little better at Guitar Hero.  But no, that time is wasted, never to return.  When I do it on and off, all day, as I sometimes do (even sneaking a little in at work), there's always a little there, some times it is okay, but it would be nice if there were more available, if you know what I mean.  Not to mention how taboo that kind of thing is at work.  I really have to be careful.  The funny thing is, if you don't do it for a while, it's really more fun when you get back to it.  It's like things build up and are ready for you.  I'm relaxed and ready to read all the new posts in the blogs that I follow in Bloglines.  I sure wish my wife was in to it.  What did you think I was writing about?

A Little Bit of Life Tilt

Poker teaches me how to deal with life sometimes.  Today was a perfect example.  There was no big crisis, just a series of events where the deck of life just refused to give me the card I needed.

CLT Security Line - At the airport, a woman breaks into line to get up with her friend in front of about 200 people.  At least one person said something about it.  Hint: I'm not in France any more. (see the post from 4/8/08, point #2 for an explanation).

Access to base - I spend 2 hours getting a pass to my work location for the week.  I had sent the application for this on Wednesday of last week and was told it was taken care of on Thursday.  I guess not.

Line at Subway - I allow a sailor to go into the Subway  ahead of me.  I like to do things for our men and women of the military.  Once at the counter, he orders 6 footlongs, all with different toppings.  We did have a little juvenal fun marking one sandwich with black olives as BO and the second one with black olives as #2.

Working space - I finally get to my work location and the desk I was supposed to have was taken by someone who was supposed to be out all week.  Instead, I get the edge of a desk all week.

What does poker have to say about all this.  Well, sometimes you just don't get the cards you want.  You may start out with a good hand, but the wrong cards can turn that to crap in a hurry.  So I did today what I do at the poker table.  I stay patient and wait for the cards, or at least the right situation to come along.  It always does, as long as you don't quit too soon.

Here's hoping for a rush tomorrow.

Blood and The Bracelet

Last night was a special night at the Casa de Falstaff.  Bobby Bracelet was in town and it was Saturday night, so that must mean that poker would be played.  In honor of the Bracelet's visit, Mr. BadBlood drove up from his home in G-Vegas to take part in the festivities.

The other 8 seats were filled by the regulars of Special K, Falstaff, Mrs. Falstaff, Jim the Knife, T, lil Nick with  special late appearances by Nate the Elder and D Brown.  The night stared loose and quick with bets of 15-20 right out of the chute.  BadBlood and Bobby are used to bigger, looser games and their games show that.  Their presence made the whole game much bigger.

I think my luck on the night was about average to a little below.  I stayed pretty tight and waited for decent hands before getting involved.  If the flop hit my hand, I would bet strong and force out all but the big draws.  I rarely had to show my hands. 

One particular hand had everyone wondering what I held.  I think I made a 3.5 raise UTG+2 and got 3 or 4 callers.  The flop was something like Q96 rainbow.  D Brown checked in front of me and I fired 15 at the pot.  Everyone folded and I raked and folded.  For those interested, I had AQ.  I also made one boat and one nut flush on the night.

Once midnight hit, T and The Bracelet split the high hand jackpot and we switched the game to Pot Limit O8.  D Brown had a sick run in the first 6 or 7 hands of O8.  He was hitting just about every river he needed to mostly scoop pots. Thankfully, not much of that was mine.  One of those was a scoop against T who thought she had a nut low with A2 in her hand giving her and 8 high low hand, but the A was counterfeited on the board and D made a 7 high low hand with something like 35 in his hand. 

T got stuck for 110 on the night.   I'm sure driving 10 hours direct from Nashville to be at the game didn't help a bit.

I finished the night adding about 120 to my bankroll.  Here are some of the conversation topics that I remember:

• The Bracelet's card cap condom
• GPS tracking devices
• Working in Iraq
• "Is Nick OK?  He's been in there a long time."
• At least they don't stink
• Grape Vodka
• Virgin Islands Beer
• The Bracelet was ranked 860th in the world
• Salsarita

Thanks again to Falstaff for hosting.

Clinton and me

I don't get too political on this blog as it tends to send people up a pole where everyone can see their ass. In fact, though what I am going to write about this time isn't really political, though it does mention a couple of politicians. It is really about the truth and how we react the being lied to.

Bill Clinton brought up the Bosnia issue again yesterday. The flap over his wife's lying about the circumstances around her visit was just about dead. A lot of people are scratching their heads over why he would go anywhere near this topic, but he did, and I think what he said speaks volumes. In short, the man is a liar and his wife is a liar, and if you disagree, then you are now lying to yourself.

Here's what he said in a campaign event in at Boonville High School in Boonville, Ind:

"You know, I got tickled the other day. A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated — and immediately apologized for it — what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995 [sic]. Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up." [emphasis mine]

It is well documented that:

1. She made the comment at least twice
2. The first time was mid morning
3. She has yet to apologize for the 'misstatements'. She did admit misstatements a week later and after video of the Bosnia aired on CBS.

It looks like she is going to lose the nomination, so this probably doesn't amount to anything, but it is beyond me how she has any support.

But to me, the most interesting part is to watch how much people will lie to themselves once they have staked out a position on anything in order to keep from changing. If they supported Hillary before this, they are 98.765% likely to still be Hillary supporters now. It won't matter to them that she lied. There are now other reasons for them to stick with the same candidate.

Politics really doesn't matter here. People have the same reactions to anything where they are emotionally committed. It could be a relationship, a job, religion, or global warming. People would rather lie to themselves than to see the truth and change. The hard part comes when I turn and look in the mirror and see that I am guilty of this as well.

Random Observations from Europe

• They let you through airport security with your shoes on.  I guess that explains all of the planes blowing up over Europe.
• As long as you are quite and smile, people are generally pretty nice, even the French.  Maybe I should try that in the States?  Nah.
• Coffee in France is the best I've ever had.  I mean every cup was better than any I've had elsewhere.
• Driving at the speed where I feel comfortable absolutely rocks.  Round-a-bouts rock.  Four-way yield intersections rock.  Basically, all of this adds up to being treated like an adult on the road (like in Germany at least) is so much better than being treated like the basest idiot (like in the US).
• With a little bit of concentration, not much really needs to be said.  Not communicating with the people around you gets old in a hurry.
• Why do we not use the Metric System?
• If I were dropped on earth and had to choose one language to speak, English would win hands down.  If only two languages are used, English is always one.  Second choice?  Probably Pig Latin so as to confuse anyone who speaks English poorly (they can and do use their native tongue to confuse us).
• Power plugs are dear.  Don't assume one will be where you need it.
• Futbol, Rugby, and Snooker are better games than Football, Basketball, and 8-ball.  NASCAR racing is better than F1 (F1 cars are better, but the racing is worse).  Curling and Team Handball are just plain weird.
• Public German TV limits itself to R-rated porn.  French TV does not.
• I paid 7.4 eruos for a half litre glass of Coke near Notre Dame.  That's $10.  Yea, it had ice and lemon and tasted really good.  I can only wish death on that business and move on at this point.
• It is good to get home.

Paris in the Spring?

I finished up my trip to Paris yesterday. The weather was looking bad and since that doesn't make for good outdoor pictures, I decided to take myself back to the Louvre to try to catch what I missed the day before.

The Louvre is just enormous. There are no two ways about it. I arrived at 10 am with a good idea of what I wanted to see. I rented another e-guide and finished up the antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) before moving on to the Italians and other foreigners. This tour was heavy into Rafael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo painted 15 paintings in his lifetime and the Louvre has 7. Michelangelo's work is so distinctive, whether it is his painting or sculpture. Here are some pictures of Da Vinci painting and Michelangelo sculpture:

Everything was just stunning. I'm sure the pictures won't do justice to the art. Actually, for me, after two days on my feet going from gallery to gallery, one masterwork looked about like another. It started to become more fun to watch the people watch the art. With that said, here are some of my favorites from day 3:

After the Lourve, I headed back toward my hotel, but stopped for my last meal in Paris. I ended up getting pizza and beer. I know, this is Italian and German, not French, but I was hungry damn it. Put the best of Italian and German cooking in the hands of a French chef and you are in for some good eats.

I stuck around for another beer when it started to rain a bit. By then end of that beer the rain was still falling but I couldn't wait any longer. I covered the camera and headed for the hotel about 5 blocks away. I'd like to say that the rain stopped about half way and it did slow a bit, but that was to make room for the snow.

SNOW!?!. What the hell. I thought this was Paris! In the SPRING! Anyway, I got my things packed, set the alarm and got to bed early. Wake up this morning was 0345. It was still snowing though not sticking to anything but the cars that I could tell. The temperature reading on the way to CDG was between 1.0 C and 0.0 C. I needed no help in translating that, but the road was solid and I made it just fine. I still don't know half of waht the cabbie said on the way out. I just laughed and smiled. "Just watch the road" I'm thinking.

I'm in the airport at 0455 right now. Time to get checked in for the the 0645 flight to Frankfurt and the 1145 flight to CLT. It will be good to get this one done.

Europe this week

It's been quite a week. I've not posted since last weekend only because I've been too busy. After my sightseeing, my week turned to work. Running a workshop that I've done dozens of times not shouldn't take so much of my time, but it always seems to. In addition to that, just finding food and sleep in a strange, time-shifted land makes time extremely short.

But I finished that up on Thursday afternoon and it was nearly time to let the fun begin. I drove to Frankfurt to be close to the airport (top speed - 185 kph). I had an early morning flight out. Before dawn broke, I had checked out of the hotel, dropped off the rental car and found my way to the proper desk at the airport.

My flight was on Lufthansa. This marked the first time I've flown from one foreign airport to another. It was also the first time I've flown on an airliner where the first announcement or instruction was not in English. I thought it politically interesting that the order of languages on Lufthansa as German, English, and then French. Maybe it's nothing.

We got to CDG airport in Paris on time and my bag was the first out of the chute. I love it when that happens. I go to the cab stand and just point to my hotel's name and address. We were probably half-way there before the driver knew I was American. I've worked pretty hard to do that as much as possible on this trip. Advice that I got about staying quiet has proven to be good. The cab ride with tip came to €40 with a tip for what should have been a 20 minute ride. My hotel room was ready (it was still only 10 am), so I dropped my bags, got organized and hit the road.

I got a 3 day pass for the Metro and the next thing you know I'm emerging on the Champs-Élysées. Another good piece of advice that I got before leaving was to get a ticket for the double-decker tour bus. I got a Red Bus ticket and spent the rest of the day touring and taking pictures. I managed to get to the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and many points in between. Here are some pictures from Day 1 in Paris.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You notice that I made my way back to the Eiffel Tower for a night shot. It was definitely worth it. Day 2 was much simpler, just as exciting and more exhausting. Two word: The Louvre. I purchased a walking tour before leaving the states. I had heard that the lines were terribly long, but I never saw them except for the main entrance near the pyramid.

This tour took a couple hours and was a good start and introduction to the highlights of the museum. After lunch, a nice lady gave me her electronic tour guide and I was off on tour number two, the history of the museum. I got through this tour and part of the antiquities tour when my e-guide and legs died. Here are some pictures from the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

So it is now 0230 on Sunday morning. The weather for tomorrow doesn't look great, so I'm likely to head back to the Louvre for the rest of what I can see. There is a station that will drop me right in the museum. I may stroll the Champs-Élysées if the weather turns good. Either way, I leave for home Monday morning for a 6:45 flight to Frankfurt and an 1145 connection to Charlotte. It's been a great trip and it will be great to get home.

Luxembourg

Not much time to write today, so I'll just post some pictures from my drive to Luxembourg.  It was particularly interesting to me that there was no border stop.  It was going from one state to another in the US.

Technology Rocks

I made it to Germany today.  Actually, since it is 0330 Germany time (3:30 am as we write it), I got here yesterday morning.  Tonight, Germany went on daylight savings time so I'm having a little trouble keeping up with the time for several reasons.

With the Tarheels doing so well in the NCAAs, I was going to hate missing the games tonight and next weekend.  They were going to have to make the final game for me to see them again.  Ah, but this is 2008 and CBS is putting all of the games on the web.

So I'm typing this post in one window while I watch the game on CBS.com.  I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of the video over wi-fi.  It's a little jumpy which I don't get on TV, but it is widescreen formated which I don't get at home.

As for Germany, I didn't do a lot today.  The plane landed around 0700.  Customs in Europe is a breeze and my rental Mercedes was ready (it's a little diesel SUV). I did enjoy cruising down the autobaun with the speedometer reading 160+. I have no idea how fast that is, but it feels real fast in a mini-SUV.  Wow.  I just calculated it and it is 100 mph.  Cool.

I got to my hotel about 0900.  My run of luck continued as my room was ready.  That let me get some rest before starting my day.  That rest took about 5 hours.  I spent the rest of the day wondering around the little town near my hotel.  Here are some pictures. 

 

I would have like to have gone up to the castle, but they put it at the top of the hill overlooking the town.  How inconvenient!

The Tarheels are rocking.  44-32 at the half.  If they play like that, they are going to be tough to beat.

Headed Out

We played a little poker this Wednesday night.  One of our players had his wife out of town, so he had the boys over to play.  I got crushed by the deck.  I won a few substantial pots early and then I couldn't buy a card that I needed.  I guess you could say I got 2nd place.  The problem was that I got 2nd over and over and over.  It's OK.  I've been on a good run and have a good bankroll built up.  I'll try again later.

I really don't have time to worry about that now.  I'm sitting in the Philadelphia Int'l Airport awaiting my flight to Frankfurt, Germany.  I've got to run a four day workshop nearby.  Afterwards, I plan to take a few days in Paris.  I hope that lots of pictures follow from my adventures.

Stay tuned.

Online Poker for the USA

<sponsored post>

It has been over a year and a half now since the passage of the UIGEA and seemingly the end of internet poker for players in the USA. I came across a site today that works to help poker players in the USA to find internet sites where they are welcome. The site is Internet-Poker.co.uk. Their main page is located at http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/. Let me tell you, this site is a one stop portal for all you need to get back into playing poker on the internet.

The first thing I saw on the site was a chart listing the top 10 internet poker sites. The chart has a special column for those sites that accept players from the United States. The chart also shows the bonuses offered to players who can play for real cash and the bonus codes to use.

If you like, you can click on the link below the site to get the best sites for US Poker Players. That site is http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/US-Online-Poker-Sites-Accepting-USA-Players/ in case you want to go straight there. Once there, you get the same chart, but now with only sites that accept players from the United States. For those players who can deposit British Pounds, the UK Poker link (http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/Best-UK-Poker-Sites-Rooms/) will give you the sites that accept your money as is. Canadian’s also get their own page (http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/Poker-Reviews/Canadian-Poker-Sites-Canada-Accepted/). Those lucky Canadian don’t, however, get a list of sites that they can play on. They get the shorter list of sites where they cannot play along with deposit options.

The folks at Internet-Poker have given some of the top sites their own pages, complete with links, bonus codes, and reviews. Some of these sites are Party Poker (http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/Poker-Reviews/Party-Poker-Bonus-Code/), Poker Stars (http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/Poker-Reviews/www-PokerStars-com/) and one that I’ve not heard of before, Sky Poker (http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/Poker-Reviews/Sky-Poker-Review~41.html). There is even a page that lists sites that accept PayPal deposits from European players only.

Internet-Poker.co.uk rounds out their site with pages for Poker strategy and Poker news. Like I said, it is a one stop portal for the poker information that you are looking for. I do wish that the news page was full of hope for US players to be lifted free of the bonds of the UIGEA, but we will half to wait on that a while. In the mean time, you should check out Internet-Poker.co.uk.

<end of sponsored post >

Poker in Mount Holly

Last night was this first chance I've had to get together with the gang for a night of poker in about 3 weeks.  We started with a tournament.  Losers started a cash game of hold em until midnight when we changed over to dealer's choice.

My first hand of the tournament was AK suited with me under the gun.  I raise pre-flop and get 2 callers.  The flop was TTK. It gets checked to me and I bet about the pot.  Both callers call.  "Okay," I think, "No aggression" so I think I'm up against a flush draw with 2 clubs on the board.  I'll keep after it until another club hits.  The next card was a J or Q, something that makes a straight possible, so I go with about half the pot.  Call.  Call.  The river brings a small club.  The big blind (one of my callers) checks, I check and Jim completes the hand by checking.  Jim tables a K with a low kicker.  I table my TPTK.  T in the big blind tables two more tens for quad tens on the first hand.  I feel like this is a good sign because I'm not crippled or out on the first hand.

Unfortunately, I don't think I took any more than a hand or two in the whole tourney.  I bleed down to just a few blinds when I got ATo and push in pre-flop.  Falstaff is my only caller and he tables JTh, so I'm looking good until a J spikes on the flop.  I get no Ace and head for the cash game.

Congrats to Big Nick for winning, Dave B for 2nd, and Falstaff for cashing for the 2nd week in a row.

I win the fist hand after sitting down and then go pretty dry here as well.  I manage to eak out a few hands to stay right around my buy-in amount for the next 3 hours.  Every time I got a decent hand, somebody got a monster.  I tried to make one nut flush on a draw, but couldn't hit it or much of anything else. Finally at midnight we switched over to other games.

The stud round didn't do much for me, but Omaha and O8 did great things for me.  I drug some really good pots to end the night up 140 points.

I don't remember much of the conversations.  There was very little talk early.  I don't know if that was because of the daylight or the tourney making everyone concentrate a little harder.  But here's what I remember 24 hours later:

• I'm going to Germany, Jim's going to London
• Vegas in June, October, December
• Bobby B's coming to Charlotte
• I'm going to Paris, Jim's going to London
• 95.3% of statistics are made up on the spot
• A humidifier?  I thought is was a weird water pitcher.
• Garmins and Tom-Toms
• Poker Chip Displays
• The next president is going to be a Democrat, even if it's McCain.

Arthur C. Clarke is Dead

2001 - A Space Odyssey will always be one of my favorite books.  Rendezvous With Rama still fascinates me with it's big cylinder flying and rotating through space with the environment on the inside surface.  Somebody should make that movie.  His writing certainly expanded my mind.  Thanks, Mr. Clarke.

They Sent a Carrier up from Norfolk

That line from Billy Joel's "Miami 2017" keeps going off in my head. I never did understand that song, but I've always liked it. 2017 sure was a lot further away when I first heard it in high school and HS is the topic of this post. I'll get to that in a sec.

I'm in Norfolk, VA this week, working in the shadow of those carriers. I won't say exactly where or for whom as that makes me seem much more exciting and mysterious. I can say for sure that nearly unlimited patience is required to play good poker and to work anywhere near government, any government.

I did have a very good conversation with an old friend today. First a little back story. I was the class president my junior year in high school (and not a very good one). As I understand it, it is traditionally the senior class president's job to coordinate the reunions. I can't seem to find Jim (not his real name). I've got a few more place to look, but I'm not hopeful. I've been told more than a couple times that the responsibility falls to me.

Well, I liked HS and I almost always enjoy visiting with my old classmates. I would like to see a reunion happen, however, I'm not looking for a part-time job. Planning such an occasion for a graduation class of 600 (or what's left of us) could easily overwhelm anyone.

That is where the old friend comes in. Jen, not her real name, was very involved in putting on a reunion for the HS class that is one year ahead of mine. I was hoping that she would be involved this time and could share some hints or lessons learned. She isn't involved, for reasons I'm coming to, but she did share some good advice on the subject. But as these things happen, there was so much more to be discovered and the reason for the call became eclipsed by the visit and the stores she shared.

As it turns out, Jen came home from the hospital a few days ago. She went in for 5 days and came home after 5 weeks. I don't think they keep heart/lung transplant patients for 5 weeks any more, so I knew that her case was very serious. She told me that she came very close to never coming home, though she never believed it. She told me with all the conviction in the world that she would continue to heal and then travel to all the people and places that she had put off. The thought of having to watch my wife go through something like that scares me deep.

She told me about her husband and children and job as an associate pastor. She told me about her mother passing recently and current enrollment in divinity school. It is certainly a life worth hanging on to. I tried to share some stories of hope and faith that have happened to me recently. I took away inspiration and purpose and a smile. Thanks Jen. After all that, I look so forward to hugging my wife when this trip to Norfolk is done.

Corrupting Sir AlCan'tHang

After work last night, I took a trip over to the hangout of Sir Al Can't Hang.  Al was high atop his usual bar stool surrounded by a troop of locals.  I was fortunate enough to be able to visit with Al, Big Mike, Connie, and more for a couple of hours.  They were most welcoming.

The Tyler James Pub will be the location of "The Bash" in September.  I got a short tour of the facilities.  The huge room with a bar and street level access (we don't want too many drunks navigating the stairs) will make for a great party.  My calendar is already marked for the weekend of Sept. 27th.

We talked about work, retirement (Al's, not mine), dogs, baseball, Key West, Eh-Vegas, Oki-Vegas, Las Vegas, AC and more.  Connie's story about bringing a drowned puppy back to life was particularly enthralling.  My Bass ale, bacon burger and fries dinner was excellent.

I learned that the myth, the legend, the utter bullshit about Al is true.  Though he had not taken a drink since Eh-Vegas, he broke bad and ordered us up a couple of shots.  I knew the stories to be true when, upon Al asking for two shots of SoCo, the bartender asked if he wanted "your kind of shots?"  Al has his own kind of shot?  The bartender really just meant big shots, but the point was made.  These were not among the first hundred shots that Al has ordered.

It was a good time and I look forward to returning.  If you find yourself in the vicinity of Valley Forge, PA, make your way to Tyler James' Pub and knock one back with Al.  I'm sure he well be there.

Saturday Poker

We played again this Saturday night.  Saturday night in Mooresville, NC is like being nowhere at all... Oopps.  I reverted back to that John Denver song for just a second (See the post from 2/17).  Actually, it was quite fun except for the fact that I didn't get to play cards much.  I did get off to a good start in the first orbit and probably had twice the chips as I started with.  Then I got to look at a lot of crappy starting hands and I got into a fair number of limped pots.  Considering that I had BG and Falstaff on my immediate left, seeing any limped pots is a minor miracle.

Pretty much all of the hands from there on went south pretty quickly, so I sit and sit and wait for the tide to turn.  I did donk off some chips to Twitch when I should have known that my two pair were beat.  I know how he plays well enough that I could have avoided it, but frustration overtook me and I called him down.  I later got KK, bet, got two callers and saw an ace flop.  T bet and I'm gone.  Kings cracked!  I also had Nate dead to rights when he went all in with K2 to my KJ when a K hit on the flop.  The 2 hits on the river and I get more chips (from the bank).

It wasn't all bad.  I made a big comeback late in the Omaha hour (literally 2 hands before I had to leave) to finish the night up by 12 points.  I'd have to say the patience was the only thing that kept me around that night.

Table talk:

• Either BG really had to go bad or his nose opened up again.
• Make a double batch (hair color)
• It's hard to tilt listening to Perry Como (yea, that was me)
• If T were going to get embarrassed, she would have left years ago.
• Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (Springsteen)

Poker this week will be on Friday and I will just be returning home from Philly, so no poker for me this week.  I'll miss the gang, but I could use a break.

One last note, I've been invited to become a contributor on a real web site - LasVegasVegas.com.  I have no idea what form my posts will take and they will probably be few and far between.  I'm honored and excited to be a part of the LVV team.

Vegas Hotel Shorthand

When Dr. K came back from Vegas last week calling the Imperial Palace the "ip", I knew this post had to happen.  Here it the totally unofficial list of shorthand names for Vegas casinos:

• IP or "ip" - Imperial Palace
• TI - Treasure Island, but even they call it the TI now
• The Castle - Excalibur
• P Ho - Planet Hollywood
• The Gem - MGM
• The Burnt Marshmallow - Monte Carlo (that one only lasted a couple of weeks)
• GVR - Green Valley Ranch
• That place where the waitresses have huge hooters - pretty much anywhere in Vegas except Caesars.
• The Rhino - no wait, that's not a casino

I guess that's it.  Feel free to suggest more.