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The Rise And Fall At Garage Mahal
Tuesday, May 31, 2005


Last night was the $100 buy-in at my buddies house, also known as The Garage Mahal. He's converted his garage into a 2 table joint that can fit 22 players and has a sweet tv, fridge, and heating and air. It's good stuff. We had 21 sign up and were rolling around 5pm with 10k in chips and blinds going up every 20 minutes. While I don't like blinds going up so fast - often making it a crapshoot - I recognize that none of us want to be playing until 5am.

Times were tough early on and I found myself below 5k after some semi bluffs didn't pan out. In 2 seperate hands I had open ended straight draws with big flush draws, neither of which panned out. Both times my strong bets on the river were reluctantly called by top pair, weak kicker.

Down to 3k, and starting to worry just a bit, I look down at rockets in the big blind. With an early raise, a reraise, and one caller, I push my remaining stack all-in and wait to see what happens. To my surprise only the original raiser calls with about the same chips as I had (I think I had a few hundred more when it was counted out). He flips over 10's in the hole and, as I flip over my rockets, mumbles about constantly running into Aces to get knocked out of tourneys. No help for him on the board and my rockets put me back over the original 10k and back into contention.

Unfortunately I didn't see another good hand until my final one. From 6:30pm - 8:30pm my best hand was K 2 suited. With it down to 13 players and the blinds and antes really starting to wear me down, I found myself back under 3k. While in the big blind, I again wake up with a decent had with 10's in the hole. With one limp and one raise I decided to push my stack again and hope for the best. Interestingly, the orginal limper immediately calls all-in for another 12k. I immediately put him on Q's or K's, but after the other guy folded he quickly flipped over rockets. No help for me and just like that I'm out. So my rockets take down 10's in the hole, then my 10's get taken down by rockets in the hole. Though I was hoping for a suck out, justice was served in both cases so I can't complain. I was out and not long after they were down to the final table.

Our host, The Asian Equation, ended up the Cinderella Story by taking it down after being down to his final 1500. After losing his big hand with rockets vs. a set of Q's - taking him to his low of 1.5k - he proceeded to wax the field and take down first place. With his strong hands holding up and his draws always coming, it was clearly his night. Of course, not one to miss an opportunity to act like a dumbass, he immediately started with, "I am da gweatest poka prayer in da wurld. I think I rill write a book." What a donkey.

On to bigger and better things. Scratch that...on to other things. As I mentioned at the end of my previous post, Saturday night brought with it a chance to get out on the town with friends. Like most drinking nights, we hit The Speak Easy with plans on going out later, but we ended up trashed and going no where else. The SoCo was flowing by 11pm which pretty much sealed my fate. At some point after I think Jager made its arrival which didn't help things (or did it?). No doubt Al would have been proud. At some point - I believe late in the night - I think I got a hold of my buddy Alx's picture phone and snapped the following pic of my other buddy MTW. Either that or Alx took it...I'm not really sure. I don't recall the purpose of the pic, but Alx emailed it to my work address today and I liked it. Note the cornhole game in progress in the background. The patio at The Speak Easy now makes it available to play for free and is even selling cornhole sets to those interested. Pretty cool. Here's what MTW thinks about something or other...




Yeah it's blurry, but so were we.

Gonna finish this up with a couple of random thoughts. We'll see where this goes. Has anyone else seen the reality show Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel? I got a chance to see a couple episodes in the last couple of weeks and I'm just amazed at some of the things that have happened. Now I know working on a crab boat is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, but you just don't expect to see things actually happening while watching the episode.

Before I go further let me give the quick skinny so you'll know what I'm talking about. The show basically follows along with +/- 6 boats and awards the crew who hauls in the most crabs with a load of cash for winning. I think it was a cool million for the winner. On what I believe was the first episode of the season, one of the boats sinks and 5 out of the 6 crew members die. Only hours later, another boat loses a crew member after a huge wave sends him overboard. The crew members are able to locate their fallen friend and nearly lift him back in the boat, but he was unconscious and the (hate to use this word) dead weight was too much and they lost him for good. 6 people dead on the first day of filming. Unbelievable.

Now I don't know about you, but most reality shows try and avoid the whole death gig. While it's probably incredible for ratings, it's not a good schtick to be pegged with. Unless I've missed something, I don't recall anyone ever dying on a reality show, though I seem to remember someone who may have died of AIDS on one of the early The Real World episodes. Anyway, I just found this show fascinating and wondered if anyone else had seen it. If not, check it out on Discovery.

Gonna finish this up with a question on poker. Please feel free to leave a long comment if you want cause I really do wonder what other folks think on this subject. Or if you answer on your blog, let me know so I can read it. I don't expect to get many answers with most people heading to Vegas post haste, but I'll fish anyway.

Do you think the poker boom we are seeing in this day and age is good or bad for the legalization of poker in states where it is currently illegal?

Thanks everyone...and if you are NOT reading this...have fun in Vegas ya bastards!

posted by TripJax @ 11:52 PM, ,




This One Time...At Borgata Camp...
Saturday, May 28, 2005


I did something this past Wednesday I haven't done in a while. I was dealer in a 2/5 NL cash game at my buddies place. I used to deal at his house every Wednesday up until about 6 months ago, but once wifey was pregnant I felt it was time to take a break from the dealing gig. The extra money from dealing was nice, but there were more important items to attend to...mainly taking care of the family. And I must say, while I've missed playing live tremendously, I haven't missed dealing a bit. The feeling was reinforced this past Wednesday as I will explain in a minute.

The only reason I agreed to deal was the host is having a $100 buy-in tournament on Memorial Day and he said he would pay my buy-in if I deal for a few hours. He and the other guy that took my place 6 months ago are pretty burned out on dealing as well so me being there was definitely a good thing for them. I ended up dealing for a little less than 5 hours and now I will be freerolling at the tourney. That, my friends, is a good thing. He's also having a cookout prior to the tournament so it should be a good time. I think I'll just continue to be a substitute dealer when need be and use the extra dough to pad my bankroll.

Moving on...if you read my previous posts you know they warned me at the last WPBT event for using the word bastardos in the chat box. A tad much considering it was a private tournament and bastardos isn't even a word. Well, they've done a number on me again with my picture choice. I was growing tired of this pic, which was my original choice when I joined...

It's a pic of the Hamburger Pimp, a character in the sweet ass movie Dolemite. It was a good fit for me, but I was ready to make a change. So, I decided on this pic (resized to fit the PokerStars pic space) a few days before the last WPBT satellite for the WSoP event #2...

I felt like this was a great choice considering the pic I have at the top of my blog. Easy on the eyes, no doubt. By the time the WPBT event began I was still without a picture as they had yet to approve my choice. That bugged me cause I hate the plain gold background. A few days later I received the following email...

Hello TripJax,

Unfortunately we are unable to approve the image that you
have selected. We feel that this image might, in some way, offend other players,
and therefore we ask that you select a new image.To select a new image, go to
"Account" in the main lobby menu, thenclick on "Select/Change Image".Please note
that we only allow one more change so select your new imagecarefully.

Regards,PokerStars Support Team

Yeah, I'm sure my image choice would offend so many people who play online poker. There is no nudity, no vulgarity, no nothing. Just a lady in a bathing suit. As my 4 year old son would say, "No Daddy That's Gay." Indeed, son, indeed.

So, after searching and searching I couldn't find anything I really liked, but decided to go with this pretty cool bottle cap...

Decidedly less cool than my main choice above, but oh well. If you see the Jax Bottle Cap be sure to say hello, although I've mainly been playing heads up matches so not really much chance to see folks while playing.

Well, I think I'll go ahead and play a few matches before going out on the town tonight. I haven't gone out drinking since my 30th birthday so I'm looking forward to getting out. In the meantime, don't you just love heads up matches like this...

During current Hold'em 1on1 session you were dealt 6 hands and
saw flop: - 3 out of 3 times while in big blind (100%) - 3 out of 3
times while in small blind (100%) - 0 out of 0 times in other positions
(0%) - a total of 6 out of 6 (100%) Pots won at showdown - 5 of 5
(100%)

Still that's not the quickest game I've ever played heads up. Nothing like making some quick dough on the first hand. Gotta love that.

Gonna end this now, but I'm really looking forward to the tournament on Monday. Top 5 pay with 1st place paying $1100. I like my chances. I probably won't post again til after that game, so hopefully I'll have good news to write about. Considering it's a freeroll for me, I won't have the concern of losing my $100 buy-in so I should not have to worry with making a wrong move for the wrong reason.

posted by TripJax @ 10:35 PM, ,




Posting In Arrears
Tuesday, May 24, 2005


Homer: Whoa Barney, you brought a keg?!
Barney: Yeah, where can I fill it up?

Whenever I play a freeroll, I think of the above exchange as Barney enters Homers house for his BBBQ (the extra B is a typo). Gotta love hearing about a tournament and then seeing the lovely words freeroll next to it. Granted, it usually means the payout is low, but it is still playing poker for free with the potential for making some cash. That, folks, is a good thing. As for the freeroll, check out The Good Doctor for details...it's tonight so get with it.

Posting has been difficult as of late. I'm in the midst of preparing for an internal audit at work so I've got zero time to post at work during lunch. Between 8:30 - 6:00 I can't even think straight, so there is no chance for me to post right now. And then when I get home, I don't really want to look at a computer screen. These days, about the only time I have played any online poker is later in the night after everyone is asleep (and only then if I'm really itching to play which hasn't been the case) or a few games on the weekend.

I did manage to fit in about 15 heads up games on PokerStars this past weekend. I've really enjoyed the heads up games lately cause they usually don't take too long. I don't have to set aside hours at a time to play which is important for me right now with a newborn and a 4 year old. I more than tripled my bankroll over the weekend, but that obviously shows I had a pretty small bankroll to start with. The bulk of my roll is over at Noble right now so any money at Stars had been set aside for WPBT tourneys and heads up games. Still, I'm hoping I can continue to build my roll their with heads up games.

I've been using the following strategy to grow the roll and it has seemed to work out o.k. Basically I play the $5 heads up matches and if I win two in a row I step up to the $10 match. Regardless of my result at the $10 match I drop back down to the $5 match. Rinse, lather, repeat.

As for my play, I usually start ultra aggressive with a good amount of raising or re-raising and if I run into a player who combats my raises with all-ins, I just slow it down a little bit, but keep with the raising often enough to allow me to catch him sleeping during one of his ill advised all-ins. That was one long ass sentence.

Well, that's it for now. I have so much poker crap I have in my head that I want to write about, but I just don't have the time right now. It could be the middle of June before I really get back into a mode where work is normal, thus allowing me more time at work and home. I'll still post occasionally so keep a look out...

posted by TripJax @ 3:04 PM, ,




I Can't Believe What Just Happened
Saturday, May 21, 2005


Holy shit...I can't believe what just happened a couple of hours ago. This was just crazy. Let me set the scene...

I got home around 5:30pm today and was chilling with the fam in the living room when I heard what I thought was an ambulance siren. My 4 year old, Jaxon, was on the couch with me and I told him to run to the porch to see if he could catch a glimpse, since he loves anything with a siren on it (what 4 year old doesn't?). The front door was already open so it was easy for him to run out onto the porch. Once he made it out there, I realized that something strange was going on. There was a really loud motor chiming in with the siren. I jumped up and ran out on the porch just in time to see a crotch rocket motorcycle fly through the stop sign at the intersection directly in front of our house. A Suburban SUV (undercover cop) was chasing the motorcycle, but at least slowed down long enough to see if the intersection was clear.

The motorcycle had to be doing between 50 - 75mph and I knew this would be a problem if he was not used to our neighborhood. The posted speed limit is 25mph and he was in for a surprise just a few 100 feet down the road where the road came to a dead end. There is a chance to turn left before the dead end, but as fast as he was going, I knew he wouldn't make that turn without wrecking. By the time he went past us I looked at my wife and said, "we better watch the news tonight to see details about the dude who D.I.E.D. while trying to run from the cops." (gotta spell out some things around the boy ya know).

After about 15 seconds I decided to walk out onto the front lawn to see if anything was going on and was completely amazed when I saw the villain running directly towards me with his helmet still on. The cop was trailing him with gun in hand and a dog giving chase not far from the villain. My wife and son had walked out with me and my first thought was getting them the hell outta dodge. With the guy only about 30 feet away I yelled for wifey to grab boy and head for the door and lock it. After about 100000th of a second I decided it was probably best that I follow them. I was thinking there was a good chance this guy would be desperate enough to try and grab one or all of us and attempt to take us hostage in our own home...especially if he's packing. It was truly one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me and the fam. We busted ass back up the steps and towards the door.

Like a dumbass, once at the front door, instead of locking it behind me I told wifey to lock the door while I go check out what is going on. I was confused/concerned cause I didn't see him run past our house and things had gotten strangely quite. I leaned around the porch door to get a view and saw that the villain was down and was in the process of being cuffed. About 45 seconds later 8 police cars were surrounding both mine and my neighbors yard. Within a couple more minutes half the neighborhood was in my front yard to talk about what had just happened.

I decided to go talk with my neighbor who ended up being about 10 feet from the crazyness since it ended in his yard. He said it all happened so fast he didn't know whether to run away or tackle the guy. One second he was watching a crazy race and the next he was right slap in the middle of a foot chase. He had the same hostage thoughts running through his head, but was even closer to the chaos.

So here's what happened during the parts I missed, but the neighbor was able to see. The motorcycle flies past our house and is unable to make the left turn, thus getting stuck at the dead end. The SUV (I guess that now stands for Slick Undercover Vehicle) was able to block the motorcycle in the dead end, but somehow the cycle spun out and was able to turn around. A civilian in a white truck was driving down the same road just a few seconds behind the chase, but he didn't realize what was going on. It didn't take long for him to see what was happening and when the cycle spun out and attempted to go around the SUV, the civilian put his truck in reverse and tried to block the guy in. Instead of blocking the guy in he nailed him with the side of his truck causing the dude to bust ass pretty bad. The bike was totaled. The dude jumped up and began to run and ended up in our neighbors yard not long after. When he heard the dog giving chase - right about the same time we were headed back to the front door - he actually stopped and put his hands up to surrender. The cop called off the dog and then tackled the dude. He gave the guy a few good shots to the gut with his fist before putting his arms behind his back. He was handcuffed and they kept him on his stomach with his helmet on for a good 5 minutes. After the ambulance arrived and checked him out they decided he could be picked up and moved to the back of the police car. They took his helmet off and he looked like a typical white dude. Nothing too villain about him, except for everything I just wrote.

It was truly unbelievable to experience it.

O.K. if you read my last post you know I was planning to take the week off from poker and blogging. I'm happy to write I haven't even thought about poker since my last post on Monday. It has felt good to take a break, but I think I'll play a few games this weekend. I'm also starting to get a hankering for some poker posts which just hasn't been the case for me lately. Looking forward to it all. I really wanna make some comments via post to some of the great stuff bloggers are writing these days so I'll try to do that soon.

In the meantime, I still can't get over what happened today...unbeleivable...no belief.


posted by TripJax @ 1:49 AM, ,




TripJopke
Tuesday, May 17, 2005


Haven't had a ton of motivation to write lately. Sorry faithful (or is that fateful) readers. I've just needed a break from poker so I'm gonna try and take it this week. I think I just miss playing live games, but it's tough with having a new addition to the family. Will probably try to play live sometime in the next couple of weeks. Maybe on a day/night when we have a baby sitter and nothing else is going on.

Before I jump into a post I have a random non poker related question. In attempt to get my lazy ass moving, I've decided to do more walking after work. Today, I took out the 4 week old for a stroll around the neighborhood(s). So here's the question...

Are you supposed to walk against traffic (on the left facing oncoming cars) or with traffic (on the right with cars to your back)?

I've always thought it was against traffic since you can see the car and they can see you. However, I was listening to a radio commercial today and it mentioned something to the tune of, "remember walkers, walk with traffic for a safer stroll." That threw me off guard cause it just didn't seem right. I don't like the idea of not being able to see what is coming, or rather, having to look over my shoulder constantly to check out what's coming. I do, however, want to be as safe as possible when walking with the baby, the boy, or the fam all together. Help me out peeps.

O.K., on to what I really planned to post about. Last night I feel like I played pretty well in the WPBT event. I was surprised to find I had made it to the final 2 tables, but knew I had some work to do to go any further. Strangely, there were quite a few short stacks because more than 1/3 of the total chips were held by the top 2 or 3 players most of the time. I can't remember exactly how things ended for me, but I'm pretty sure I had Hilton Sisters, pushed and got beat when someone rivered their Ace. I think it was Dnasty, but I'm not sure if he is a blogger or reader. Second straight tournament that I ended up busting out with the ladies (the prior one being Poker Profs freeroll). Good games regardless. I laid some bad beats and received some bad beats so it was poker as usual. And as usual, The Good Doctor has an excellent write up...I even get mentioned a couple of times. Thanks Doc!

Anyway, when we were down to 2 tables, there were numerous observers talking out of their ass. I don't mean bloggers who were railing, but some randoms who decided it was potty mouth time and dropped every pee pee, poo poo, penis, vag, and any other "bad" word they could think of in an attempt to test the censor software. It took all of 8 seconds to get old. Apparently someone complained to Stars support (which I understand) and a warning was issued to some people. Unfortunately, support took the complaint pretty broadly and they slapped the hand of anyone who said anything remotely questionable...or maybe it was just me. When it got down to around 7 players left, I was still watching from the rail and received the following pop up.

You have received a warning email regarding your language during a chat in this tournament (or something to that effect).

I'll explain now before you read the email. A few days ago I changed my pic/avatar and was bummed to see it had not been approved yet, so I was just a plain old gold background for the tourney. When the tournament started I was just writing to skitch-o-rama that the bastardos took my pic away. I was joking cause they didn't take my pic away...they just hadn't approved it. The software censored bastardos so I retyped it as bazturdos. That was it. Think that's a bit overboard on their part? As a sidenote, I use bastardos when joking around and got the word from the movie Boondock Saints. If you've never seen that movie, stop reading and go rent/buy it. You'll like it.

Moving one...here's the email and my response to them...

********************

PokerStars Support wrote:

Hello TripJax,

We have received a complaint regarding some things you said in chat at our tables. I have reviewed the chat log and did find some of your comments to be inappropriate.Our goal at PokerStars is to be a fun place to play, where everyone can feel comfortable. Foul language and abuse of other players takes away from everyone's enjoyment, and therefore cannot be permitted.We must ask you to refrain from using this type of language in the future, or we will be forced to remove your chat privileges.Please note that you may not be the only one receiving a message suchas this. When we receive a chat complaint, we review the entire chatof all players at the table. Any other offenders at the table were also warned or revoked as appropriate to our policies.
Regards,
PokerStars Support Team

---16989167 TripJax bastardos took my pic away 3 5/15/2005 8:58:21 PM
---16989167 TripJax bazturdos 3 5/15/2005 8:58:31 PM
---16989167 TripJax sup skitch! 3 5/15/2005 8:58:44 PM

********************
My response...

Date:Sun, 15 May 2005 21:11:33 -0700 (PDT)From: jaxon59@yahoo.com
Subject:Re: PokerStars ChatTo:"PokerStars Support" support@pokerstars.com

I didn't realize it would be a problem since it was a private tournament. Not sure who would complain about what I wrote since it was a jopke and nothing I wrote was bad...and again it was amongst friends... I did however see many other observors typing much much worse things than me. I'll refrain in the future. Thanks

********************

Yeah I dropped the "jopke" on them. Nice!

posted by TripJax @ 2:04 AM, ,




Noble Poker Ate My Balls
Saturday, May 14, 2005

If you've never seen the phenomenon that is *Insert Anything* Ate My Balls, just check it out here. I first came across this snippet of tasteless humor while in college and often thought about it and laughed when something bad happened to me. I guess it was my Kicked In The Junk before I ever heard Bracelet Bob or The Good Doctor drop those words.

Well, Noble Poker ate my balls tonight. First I tried my hand at a $20+2 NL freeze out $1000 guaranteed tournament that looked like would have a nice overlay with only 20 people signed up with 15 minutes to go. Unfortunately a ton of people showed up last minute and we started the tourney with 57. I played like a donkey who had just been punched and went out in the 40's, thus no where near cash. I then won 3 straight heads-up games to win back the $20 I had lost. I was thinking that might be a good chance to quit, but the wife was playing back last weeks ER and I had no desire to watch that so I kept going. Bad move.

I ended up losing my next 8 out of 10 heads-up games (6 straight at one point). I just played bad and I played hurried for a few of them as I had tried to 2 table. Folks...let me just say I don't recommend trying to 2 table heads-up tourneys...especially on Noble Poker. It sux. Granted it was stupid of me since your basically always in a hand when heads up, but damn I didn't figure it would suck so bad at Noble. Their software just isn't at the level of many of the other sites yet. With all that said I can only blame myself for the bad play and I've done incredibly well at Noble over the long haul so I don't have any real complaints.

I'm planning to post more this weekend, but I'm a little pissed cause blogger ate one of my posts earlier today and I couldn't recover it. It was much better than this tripe, but I'm gonna try to rehash it later. For now, it's getting late and I wanna go cuddle with the baby right now...she's gonna be a month old in a couple of days. Before I go, a huge congrats to VARoadstter who now also has a new one to cuddle with. Congrats man!

posted by TripJax @ 3:40 AM, ,




MadJax: Beyond Thirtydome
Wednesday, May 11, 2005


Well the birthday has come on gone and I must say, it feels good to be 30. When it was creeping near, I thought I might have some reservations, but it's all good. I did purposely take a few days away from blogging and playing, so if you left a comment or an email, I'll be getting to them soon. Not that I get many comments. Thanks to MTW for giving me the idea for my title. There's no mad in me, but I still like the title.

I'd like to note that I really wanted to write a long (but good) post regarding the stink thats been going around the blogosphere lately about content thievery, but I think there have been plenty of good retorts from the likes of Up For Poker (and those who left comments on his post) as well as a nice post by The Fat Guy. Moving on...

I played in the Noble Poker freeroll sponsored by Poker Prof last night at 9pm and actually played pretty damn well. I feel like I played tight aggressive and it seemed to work. I had the right things happen at the right time, both early and late, to keep me truckin. In the end I finished 5th out of over 190+ players which was nice. I only took home $10 for the effort, but I wasn't expecting much with it being a freeroll. More importantly, I wanted to get some MTT time in before tonights WPBT WSoP Satellite to event # 2. And I feel I accomplished that task as I was in it til the very end. When I went out there were 3 remaining and that only lasted about 10 minutes so I got to experience the bulk of the action.

I'd like to add it was extremely cool to have Dr. Pauly sweating us from the virtual rail. His comments and support most definitely helped...both making me feel better and easing the tension that can arise from tournament play (freeroll or not). At one point he asked another player who was a blogger what their URL was and another player chimed in with "I don't even know what a blogger is." Doc proceeded to explain that a blogger is another term for an ex-marine. It was great. Thanks again Doc and Prof for spending your time watching some freerollers.

Though I didn't see very many poker bloggers playing, I did come across a few at the tables I played or when checking out the player list. To note just a couple, On_THG showed up at my table about 10 - 15 minutes into the tourney, and about 5 seconds after I knocked out someone when my pocket rockets turned into a full house when the flop came A 3 3. Unfortunately for the guy I was up against, he was chasing a flush draw that never panned out, nor would have done him any good had he hit it. That took my stack to about 3200 when the average was probably around 1800. Perfect timing for a fellow blogger to join the table.

BigSlickNuts was the other poker blogger I ended up playing with and he ended things well. Though he didn't take down 1st place, he did play a very nice heads up battle against the big stack, but ended up coming in 2nd. If there is anyone else I should have mentioned, but didn't, drop me a comment so I can link you up. I'll link THG and BSN today. Enjoyed playing with those guys.

Well, that's it for me. Thanks for reading and go sign up for the tournament tonight using the link below. It's Iggy's link and he damn sure deserves it. After the things he's done for us, he deserves every single solitary bit of support we can offer him.

Readers are invited to this one.

Noble Poker
Wednesday, May 11th, 9pm
30+3 NL
Password: dahammer

posted by TripJax @ 4:23 PM, ,




Outstanding Achievements In Aging
Saturday, May 07, 2005


And the award goes to...me!

Dear readers, life as someone in their twenties is nearing its end for yours truly. The fragility of the situation was made all too clear in an email I received from a buddy earlier this week with the following line...

Enjoy the last Wednesday of your twenties!

Sort of makes me feel like I'm walking the The Green Mile of my young adulthood...though I think that's pushing it.

On Monday, May 9th, I'll begin a new path down the road of life as a 30 year old. I'm actually looking forward to embarking on a new personal decade and I figure taking a moment to muse over the past is a good thing.

As most people tend to say - and I'm no different - the last 10+ years have been a blur. It's as if I jumped into the proverbial high school to adulthood time machine and went from 15 - 30 in an instant. I find it hard to believe that I started high school nearly half my life ago. In some ways I think it's less about time flying and more about having incredibly vivid memories of things that happened so long ago. When you hold those memories close, it's hard to let yourself believe it was decades ago.

High School, for me, was more like a semester of summer school. It all happened so fast. And college felt more like a weekend excursion to camp. Camp with hot chicks, alcohol, and lots of sleeping. Those were some incredible times. In an effort to not make this post too long, I'm gonna give a cheat sheet version from college to now. It goes something like this. After college I:



So there you have it...the last 10 years quick and easy. I met my wife when I was 22 and am now turning 30. Hard to believe, but it's true. She's a dream wife and we have an incredible family, so I couldn't be happier. And I don't write that just to make her happy, since she doesn't read this blog.

Well I guess I better qualify this post with a little poker content eh? With a birthday party (drinkfest) on Saturday and Mothers Day on Sunday, I doubt I'll get much play in this weekend. That's o.k. though cause the next WPBT event will be Wednesday so I'll get my playing in soon. I'm quite happy about Iggy's choice of Noble Poker since that is currently where most of my bankroll is. The bad side of that is I don't need to reload and thus can't help him with any affiliate bonus. However, when we spoke (well wrote via email) the other night, I mentioned I would pimp his affiliate link, so here it is...Noble Poker. Sign up under that link and give him some props...he for damn sure deserves it.

I'm happy to report I was 2nd in line for the tourney, only trailing Iggy himself. I just happened to be blogrolling when he posted the news, so it was a quick sign up for me with my money already their. I actually saw the tourney listed last week while I was perusing the site for juicy games, but figured I better keep it on the downlow.

Well, that's it for me. Tomorrow is party time and then Monday is birthday time. Thanks for reading and go sign up for the tournament! Readers are invited to this one.

Noble Poker
Wednesday, May 11th, 9pm
30+3 NL
Password: dahammer

posted by TripJax @ 2:25 AM, ,




Kicked In The Junk
Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Sup all. Not a whole lot to write about tonight, but I still want to post. Mostly random junk.

First, allow me to get something out of the way. Even though I had a shit ton of work to do today, I still found some time during lunch to work on a little project that I decided to do while chatting in the tourney last night.

http://kickedinthejunk.blogspot.com

This is basically a joke, but check it out...if it takes off, and people actually start posting, then so be it! Moving on...

Last night after I got knocked out I decided to play in a WSOP cheap ass satellite. It was the one that kept popping up during the WPBT event. This was the stupidest possible thing I could do...first it was a waste of money cause even if I had won a seat to the qualifier, there's no way I would have stayed up late enough to play in the actual event. I guess I was just wanting to play more poker for cheap.

About 20 minutes in I catch Rockets and watch as 1 guy raises and another guy re-raises in front of me. I push my remaining stack which was a hefty raise and watch as they both call off the rest of their stacks to me. I was amazed when they flipped over 10 8 offsuit and 3 3. Of course, Sir Mini Pair catches a 3 on the flop and I'm tossed way, way early. It was the best thing for me cause there was no reason for me to be there.

Still not having enough I decided to play a Mini Step Level 1 over at Party. I proceed to get Ace Rag offsuit nine consecutives hands to start the game. I'm not sure what the odds of that happening are, but I would imagine it's pretty rare. This after I got an Ace when drawing for the button (guess that really makes 10 Aces in a row). Since the Steps typically reward tight play early in that if you finish 7 - 10 you get nothing, I folded every single A Rag I received. I kept an eye on each hand and would have lost every one that actually made it to showdown. I ended up finishing in 3rd so I got a freeroll into another Step 1.

Moving on...did anyone watch the heads up tourney on CBS(?) Sunday? I must say, though I enjoyed the show in the end, I was a little annoyed at first. After about 25 minutes of an hour long show, I think they had shown maybe 5 total hands. The majority of the first half was filler and/or fancy intros to segments. There were a few good interviews, like the guy who invented the holecard camera table, but other than that, I felt like I was being shafted for hand content. In the end, they did a pretty good job of showing some good hands, but I hope they step it up a notch as the show continues. The format was pretty cool (like March Madness bracket) and they used really cool mini tables that would probably work well for a fellow esteemed blogger (so I'm told), or his hired little person help, if the guy would ever show up on time.

Let's finish this post up with some real randomness. I eat at a local joint called Tex & Shirley's at least once a week. It's the type of restaurant that serves breakfast all day and where everybody knows your name. There's a man who's been working their for years who buses the tables. He's probably 40+ and I don't think I've ever heard him say anything other than the occasional your welcome when you say thank you to him for clearing your table. In fact, he usually just nods his head. So me and my boy were eating there and this guy was talking up a storm to another busboy as they were cleaning off the tables. As they neared a table right behind ours, I could here the guy saying something to the tune of, "So I put him on A Q offsuit and..." It's everywhere.

Until next time...

posted by TripJax @ 1:39 AM, ,




Let's Light This Candle...Again!
Sunday, May 01, 2005

It's almost time for the WPBT WSoP Satellite Event at PokerStars...about 4 hours away. I did well in the last one - finishing 8th - but I have high hopes for this one. I want to win that seat. I think in the first event, in the back of my head, I was o.k. with finishing in 2nd and taking the money and running. Since that event, my mindset has changed and nothing but 1st will do. I realize now, not expecting to finish 1st in the last one means I got what I deserved...nothing. This time, I'm poised and ready to take it down.

As for my poker playing this weekend, it's been an up and down time for me...let's start with Friday...

I was playing a Mini Step over at PartyPoker when my problems began. I was at a Step 2 table and had a huge chip lead with 6 people remaining when my wireless connection died. I worked for the next 30 minutes trying to get it back up and running to no avail. I rebooted my computer, the wireless port, the cable modem, the fridge, the microwave and anything else I could think of (o.k. the last few I didn't reboot...).

Finally, I figured out what the problem was. Turns out that I am having problems with my wireless home phone interfering with my wireless internet connection. I can't figure out why, but if we answer the phone, or make an outgoing call, if someone is on the internet, about half the time it will kill the connection. In this particular instance, I didn't think that was the problem because no one had called us and no one had made an outgoing call. Turns out my son had been jumping on the couch and the phone was behind one of the cushions. His bouncing must have triggered the Talk button cause when my wife found the phone it had been running for over 30 minutes. Once she turned the phone off the internet connection came back. I tried to find the game, but it had already ended. I guess the one good thing about the situation is I received a freeroll back into a Step 1 since I finished in 6th. Still, I feel I was poised to finish in the top 2 which would have put me at a Step 3...oh well.

Dear readers, is there anyone that can help me understand what the hell is going on with my internet connection? One of the main points about having Road Runner cable internet is you can be online and still make phone calls. Yet, periodically the phone causes a "disturbance in the force." Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do? I contacted Road Runner, but they said based on the scenario I gave them, there was nothing they could do since it involved the wifi box and/or my wireless phone. Help!!!!!!!!

After getting back my connection, I probably should have called it a night, but I decided to try one more game. Having read numerous bloggers writing about the MTT SNG's, I decided to try one out. Normally I stick to the Single Table tourneys, but I was feeling a little frisky. I picked a 30 max NL tourney which started not long after I signed up. The first 20 minutes were slow for me, but then I went on a tear. I started hitting every flop and just waxing my opponents. With 6 players remaining, and only 5 paying, I had a huge lead with 11,573 while the next closest person had 5045.

Unfortunately, I never won another hand. I overplayed my big lead and found myself down to 2000 in chips. Luckily, one of the other players had already been knocked out so I was at least assurred some money. From there my card dead state continued and I was busted out when my 6's in the hole were beat by AQ and a Q on the board. I was pretty bummed about relinquishing my big chip lead and only getting 5th place, but I was still able to triple my buy-in so it was o.k. I knew at that point it was time to call it a night.

On Saturday, I decided to give Party a break and head over to Noble. I'm trying to clear a bonus there and lately it's been an exercise in futility trying to make money. It feels like the bonus is taking forever to clear and I've basically been flat throughout. I'm playing the .25/.50 NL Hold'em tables and each session has gone something like this...I start with $25...I get waxed in the first 20 minutes and find myself down to less than $10...I wake up with a good hand (like trips or a flush) and get back to my starting stack.

Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

Time to finish this post up and get a few hands in before the tourney tonight. It's weird, when I went on Stars this morning I swear it said the tourney was going to start at 3pm. This surprised me cause I could have sworn it was set for 7pm. I had planned to go to work for a while today so this put a kink in my plans. I went to work early and made it back home at 2:30. This time, when I signed onto Stars, it said the tourney started at 7pm. I don't know if my eyes or playing trix on me or if there really was a change, but it is wigging me out. Hope I see things a little clearer tonight during the game.

Good luck all!

Readers, you get your chance next week when the tourney is open to everyone. Sweet.

posted by TripJax @ 6:29 AM, ,