Huzzah!

I spend way too much of my spare time dicking around with Facebook.

That is all.

I just rode up and down the beach on my bike after installing a huge bike seat on it. It was absolutely incredible, and my ass didn’t hurt a bit. Huzzah!

I started at the Marina del Rey pier; I live three blocks from it, and it was an easy ride there. There were plenty of gift shops and bars by the pier, and there was a bike path heading north and south right alongside the beach. In fact, I’m in one now - The Terrace - writing this entry and enjoying a happy hour peach martini. I could get used to this.

I chose to bike north, heading toward Venice Beach. After just a little biking, I saw countless food stands, gift shops, smoke shops, crystal shops - you name it. The people were just as varied; every walk of life imaginable was represented. There’s plenty to explore, and that was just Venice Beach. I can see myself biking this path a lot.

LA is so much better than the OC so far, it’s not even funny.

I’m having a bout of insomnia right now… the first one in quite some time. It’s been about a month, actually. Ever since the divorce + move + job change started to all happen at once, I’ve actually been sleeping more soundly. Before it started, it’d be a weird night not to have teh insomnias. You’d think it would have been the opposite, but not in my world. Too much has been going on lately to give me enough time to crawl inside my head to sufficiently worry over shit I shouldn’t be worrying about anyway.

Here I lie on my bed, making a blog entry on my iPhone. The music of choice to ride out this insomnia is “Rezin” by Sultan and the Greek. I am everything I have ever mocked. Huzzah! What’s going through my head that is keeping me up? I wish I knew.

I need to get up in a few hours and head to Irvine. I need to check on the apartment, as it’s getting its last cleaning today. I also need to pay the last month’s rent on the Irvine apartment - an apartment I am not even living in anymore. The Irvine Company (the apartment leasor) has sufficiently put an ample screw to me in the lease break and the 30 day vacating notice requirement. I hope I never have to deal with them again. I’d recommend anyone thinking about moving to Irvine first not to, and second not to use them. Just ignore the fact they own 90% of all the living spaces there.

I need to pick up an original piece of art I had framed before I left. It’s an original Milk and Cheese art image done custom by Evan Dorkin. I’ve never been in to original art purchases, but this isn’t what I’d call a Monet either. Actually, it’s *better* than Monet. When I get it, I’ll be sure to grab a pic of it and post it on Facebook. HARM!!!

I need to finish this damn move and get some good poker sessions in online before work starts for me and instantly kicks into overdrive. Just a couple boxes left, but the massive organization of my boundless and unnecessary crap will then commence. A new table (and chairs), sofa, and bookcase arrive tomorrow evening. I think there’s room for them all. Well, I hope there’s room.

More than anything though, I need to sleep. There’s not the fear and dread of things to come pressing down on me as it had in the past; I knew back then what was keeping me up, that’s for sure. Maybe insomnia is sometimes just insomnia and nothing more.

Maybe.

First off, a note: this move/job/life crap is harshing on my blogging groove.  I’ll try to update more, but I am still ass-deep in boxes.

Tonight, I went to dinner with two old college fraternity brothers of mine.  There’s something I bet most of you didn’t know about me: I was in a fraternity in college.  It was Kappa Delta Rho, Nu chapter (Indiana University).  I had previously rushed the IU Greek system as a Freshman, but it wasn’t much of a surprise to me that no one had shown much of an interest in me.  I looked and talked like a mutant dork when I was a Freshman in college; I was in to everything that the Greek system at the time was NOT about: theatre and drama, role-playing games, and computers.  Looking back on it, I’m not even sure why I rushed.  I guess I wanted to belong to something in an effort to reinvent myself from who I was in high school.  Self reinvention, no matter how clean the slate I am given, is something that to this day is insanely difficult for me to do.

That, or I wanted to be in a real life version of Animal House.

A friend of my brother John’s who happened to be going to school at IU at the time after an educational hiatus was the person who turned me on to KDR. At least, that’s how I remember it.  It’s been over twenty years now, and I don’t remember how I even got in contact with him.  Anyway, I never rushed KDR because their house was not part of the main drag of frat houses.  KDR at the time was a small house - much smaller than the other frat houses at IU.  My brother’s friend (Jerry Emery) invited me to a dinner at their house, and I went not expecting much.  As it turned out, there were a few other prospective members at this dinner.  To my surprise, they looked rather mutant-like as well.  In fact, the brothers in general seemed to be different shades of nerds, geeks, and freaks.  As though it were the cherry on top of a very awesome sundae, the house had alcohol, drug, computer, and gaming paraphernalia in visible sight.  It seemed that I had found the frat house for me!

I made a lot of good friends in that fraternity over the years I was active with them.  As doing theatre shows at IU became more important to me, I lost interest in the fraternity structure.  Actually, fraternity membership was at times a liability being in the theatre department of IU back in the day, though KDR had the reputation of being the geek frat so that actually bought me some cred in that regard.  Go figure.

I maintained associations with the brothers though… ones that continue to this day.  To this very night, actually.  Joel Shappell and Tony Liali were the brothers who checked in on me tonight, and it was great to catch up with them.  I’m notoriously bad at keeping in touch with people, though anyone know knows me knows that I never truly forget about people who have been a part of my life.  Facebook has been a real asset to me in this regard; it’s easier than ever before to check in on old friends who have gone down far different paths than your own.

It was crazy seeing guys who I hadn’t laid eyes on in 15-20 years… how they had changed.  It also reminded me that they hadn’t seen my in as much time, especially since I weighed 50+ pounds more back in college than I do now.  Personal life updates invariably gave way to reminiscing.  All in all, it was a good time.  Apparently they have been much better at keeping in touch with the brothers from our era in college than I have.  A number of them are getting together in two weeks at a Holiday Inn in Portland, IN that one of the brothers had built and is now the main owner of.  Most have wives/kids.  If I wasn’t in the middle of a life reboot, I’d be sorely tempted to go.  Say what you will about the fraternity system, I met some fantastic guys at KDR who accepted me for who I was at the time, and for who I am today.

By the way, my Delta Tau Chi name was “Chook”.  I was the Sergeant-at-Arms of my KDR chapter during my Junior year.  I also did my best to reinact key scenes from Animal House whenever the opportunity presented itself.  All I need to do is become a Senator and my journey will be complete.

The nightly $70K at Poker Stars is a great tournament that I am now trying to crack.  The prize money is right in my range of excitement - the final table gets usually a hair under $1K, and the winner gets $12K-$13K.  It pays out usually to just under 200 players.  The size of the field is “manageable”, running around 1200 people usually.  By the time the second break happens, we’re usually down to give or take 400.

I was doing extremely well in tonight’s game, at one point being 18th in chips in this $50+5 NLHE tourney.  Three hands over the course of maybe an hour took me from hero to zero.  It’s gotta be the worst feeling in poker when you’re doing well and you’re in the zone, but you get cooler hands and/or you slip up just a little and lose everything.

The first hand isn’t worth talking about (I think).  My flopped set of 6s vs. the villain’s set of Qs on a rainbow board.  Right to the river, we were battling for control of the pot.  Guess what?  QQQ > 666.  My hand was da debil!~

The second hand was another cooler on the river, but I am not sure I bet this hand properly.  When I reach this point, I’ve recovered and then some from the set vs. set debacle.  I have a good amount of chips again, though the blinds are getting a little friskier and we’re kicking in antes to boot.  Here’s the replay:

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/430388

My raise pre-flop is obviously a move to steal the blinds - enough said.

My bet on the flop is a continuation bet with the Q on board, and his call means he has something - certainly better than my pair of 3s with an ass kicker.  When he calls, I’m prepared to slow down completely on the turn.

The turn is where it gets interesting, and where I question my betting.  I am sure I have the best hand when I spike two pair, and I bet half the pot.  Should have I have bet more?  75% of the pot?  All in?  Thinking about it isn’t really giving me clarity on the issue.  Regardless - he calls, which is a horrible call for him to do IMO.  Maybe he puts me on nothing, which even then I’m still not sure I’d make that call with that low of a chip count on his part.  When I’ve shown at the river to this point, I’ve had the goods.

The river is self-explanatory - he spikes his K, I push him all in and he is only too happy to get his winnings being quite the dog up to this point.  Maybe I check here, but I still think I am betting for value.  Maybe he has KQ, but I think he doesn’t; there are plenty of other possibilities he could have such as AQ, QJ, QT, etc.

I’m right - he’s got the mighty K5 suited instead of KQ… on a board where he has no flush draw.  Huzzah!

The third hand - the one that sent me to the rail - is the one where I think it is a mix of bad luck and potentially weak betting on my part.  Check it out:

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/430391

My limp pre-flop is 50/50.  If I raise, I do it small ball style for 2.5x.  I had been having some success limping in with small ball hands from early position at this table, and I wanted to see a cheap flop.    I specifically choose not to raise here because I want the pot small, especially from early position where I can guess I will get a call and be out of position.  I limp, and the villain of course calls.

The flop is great - I flop 2nd nuts with the ass end of the straight, and I have a straight flush draw.  I bet a hair above 50% of the pot; I think it was a probe bet to see where he was, along with enticement to stay in the pot.  I  don’t think the bet was horrible, but maybe it could have been significantly more aggressive than that.  He calls, and I most likely would have called too; implied odds look good if he connects with his draw.

The turn is a blank, and I lead out with a 50% pot bet.  At the time, I still think I have the best hand, and the turn bet was simply to get good money into the pot.  Had I thought about his call on the turn, though, maybe I would have been better suited to go big - at least 75% of the pot here.  Again, I don’t have the nuts here, but it’s still a monster hand.  Anyway, he calls the bet.

The river is the two of hearts, which isn’t horrible for me, but at the same time it is absolutely horrible.  Now I have 3rd nuts, and for all intensive purposes if he had been calling to make his flush, he hits it.  He also could have been on a straight draw too, which isn’t outside of his range of hands I put him on.  He could have KT, QT, JT… even T8 suited (not suited).  He also could have 87 and hower in hearts - remember he just limped in, and this guy is playing small ball just like I am.  I check, saying to myself, “I either have this, or I don’t.  I’m going to shove if he bets out at it.”  My intent is to check-raise any bet he makes.  With a busted straight draw, he is 100% capable of making a move at the pot here to try and steal.

I check, he bets, I shove, he calls, I lose.  Huzzah!

Share your thoughts, gang.  I’d love to hear them.  I’m going to crack this tournament yet, and I now have a bankroll now that will let me take a significant number of cracks at it.

So much has happened to me today.  I can talk about so much radical change that’s happening in my life right now.  I’ve really been kinda numb to everything, just struggling to keep the compass pointed in the right direction.  At least for the rest today, however, that doesn’t really matter.

I went to Hilary’s blog and read this post.  After reading it, I loaded up iTunes and have since played this song over and over.  I consider it “our song”.  It was on the first mix disc I made for her.  Every time I hear it, I think of her.  Every time I read the lyrics, I think of her.

For the first time in a very long time, I cried.  Hell, I still am.

Well, at least I’m no longer numb.

Had a decent night at a $33 NLHE tourney at Poker Stars, making the final table of 9 in a field of 765.  I was middle of the pack when I got crippled after flopping a set of 3s, going all in after the villain bets out, and subsequently losing to a 2-out better set of 10s on the river.  I lost at least 80% of my stack in that mess.  After that, I was scrapping to stay alive because of the blinds.  I doubled up a few times, but eventually I lost an all-in coin flip on the river.  It was disheartening, but that’s poker.

(My desktop is in the shop, so I can’t share the key hands here.  All in all, the action was rather straightforward.)

I try to take it in stride, especially after sucking out at least twice in that tournament.  It’s weird though… I basically spent 6 hours multiplying my money by 10 and nevertheless I feel disappointed.  I guess the $5K win earlier has jaded me a bit to lower payouts; first place was $4K+ and I know I had an excellent shot at it.  I should be relatively happier than I am, I think.  I earned more in 6 hours than I do in a day at my regular gig.  I was in the zone and I was playing good “blow-up-free poker”.  I can guess that I made at least a couple lay downs where I had the best hand, but it only stand to reason that will happen (especially online where reads are more difficult).

I’ll get them next time.  I’m starting to feel as though placing deep in tournaments isn’t a fluke for me anymore.  Thank you, Small Ball!

Work was pretty special today, which was a welcome change for me.  I had arranged for Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias to come into Blizzard today and speak to the company’s designers about the history of Magic: the Gathering and the Magic Pro Tour.  I know Richard and Skaff from my time at Wizards of the Coast back in the 90s.  They both were very insturmental in shaping a lot of how I look at design, and they both were very good to me as a rookie designer.  It was great to see them again, and it was especially great to see them shine in their talks at Blizzard.  Richard is one of those people who you instantly identify as a certified genius, and Skaff is about as sharp and as savvy as they come in the design world.  It felt good to flex my design muscles with them again, and I think the folks who saw the talk really enjoyed it.

I also nabbed BOTH of them with the ol’ iPhone-picture-of-the-hand-making-a-circle and showing it to them below my waist!  Huzzah!

Just testing out blogging via iPhone. I hope this tram opens up soon; it smells like ass.

Greetings from Vegas!  Taking a quick break before I hit the town tonight, so here’s a quick update on the action here thus far:

1. I’m never playing craps again.  That’s one dragon I think I’ve had my fill of chasing.  I dropped a dime and then some in like two hours.  Bases loaded save one and I crap out three times AGAIN.  Happened to me last trip too.

2. I’m 0-3 on poker tournaments: Caesars $120, Caesar’s $65, and the Venetian $560.  I’ve only gone out with the best of it at the Caesar’s $120.  Puh.

3. So there I am at the Venetian tournament, trying to get focused.  Just before we get going, Mike Morhaime (my CEO @ Blizzard and someone I play poker with fairly regularly) sits down. Mike is an amazing player.  A few moments later, Dennis Phillips sits at the table.  Dennis, BTW, is the player who finished 3rd at the 2008 WSOP main event.  Needless to say, my table is loaded with talent… and then there’s me.  Anyway, I ask Dennis if he is, in fact, Dennis.  He pauses just for a moment, and quietly says yes.  All I do is congratulate him on his finish and say it is great to be playing with him.  No, I did not goob on him, and I think he appreciated that.

4. Venetian tournament, part 2!  The dude to my left is a raging cock.  Headphones and a scowl.  A player gets pulled up from the table to discuss something with the Venetian staff and when theaction gets to the player Headphone Scowl starts yelling “DEAD HAND DEAD HAND”.  Everyone looks at him like he fell off of a turnip truck.  Later on I ask to make some change, and he says he wants to keep his chips… but then goes ahead and makes change without me asking two hands later.  Sweet!  Anyway, he’s in a hand with multi-way action, and it gets around to him.  He checks, and the dude next to him open folds (for whatever reason - looks like he was frustrated missing the flop so many times).  Headphone Scowl ERUPTS!  “YOU CANNOT FOLD OUT OF TURN”  Flop Misser (who was British) says, “I didn’t fold out of turn, chap.”  Headphone Scowl: “YES YOU DID”.  This goes on for a few exchanges, when Headphone Scowl SCREAMS for the floor manager.  So it turns out that Headphone Scowl was technically right for the Venetian, and HS is vindicated: “YES, THANK YOU”.  HS takes a moment to insult the Brit: “I DON’T KNOW WHAT FUNNY WAYS YOU PLAY POKER IN ENGLAND OR IRELAND BUT HERE IN AMERICA WE PLAY THE RIGHT WAY”.  He then openly berates the dealer in front of everyone (including the floor manager) for not knowing the rule.  The dealer clearly has the “Thank you sir, but die in a fire” look on her face.  Everyone has a mix of expressions on their faces, none all that complimentary of HS.  Man - that guy was a royal douche.

5. Venetian tournament, part 3!  The hand I bust out on I have KQ clubs one off UTG.  I have about 12K in chips, maybe less.  Blinds 50/100.  UTG limps, I bump it to 375.  Three callers behind me, and UTG calls.  5 to the flop - QJT rainbow with a club.  UTG checks, I bet 2K.  Villain to my left raises to 5025.  I start thinking - to me for what it feels like an eternity.  After I see the player to the right of the villain fold, I announce that I call… and the table gets jiggy.  It would seem that I forgot about the three other people still in the hand.  Yay - I have committed a cardinal sin at the poker table - acting out of turn.  The rest of the table folds and I call as I had previously announced.  As luck would have it though, Headphone Scowl had gotten up from the table at the start of the hand and was doing something douchey elsewhere.  I apologize profusely, and people start saying that I lucked out that Headphone Scowl wasn’t there.  They were right - I’m pretty sure HS would have prison raped me.

6. Venetian tournament, part 4!  To finish off the hand, the turn (8 of clubs) now gives me a flush draw, straight draw, and top pair.  I check, villain puts me all in for the rest of my chips - 6000.  At this point, I think I am pot committed.  I call, fail to catch anything on the river, and I am out after 1.5 hours of the most expensive tournament I have entered.  Huzzah!  At least I got to shake Dennis Phillips’ hand afterward; he was sitting next to Mike when I went over to wish both Dennis and Mike luck after being felted.  Dennis seems like a nice guy, and you can tell that he’s enjoying that WSOP money.  Still, how embarrassing for me to not only donk it up in front of a pro AND Mike, as well as break poker etiquette!  I’m still thinking about that, though I’m sure I’ll get over it eventually.

7. I’m doing well in video poker and pai gow!  Up $425 and $606 in each.  I think I’ll stick to those as my forms of idiot taxes in the future.  I took a couple iPhone photos of some interesting video poker hands - I will post them later when I have time.

That’s it for now - off for a glorious night of who knows what!  If you’re in Vegas, look me up.  I’m here until Tuesday.

I’m off to Vegas again tomorrow for the WotLK wrap party.  Here’s hoping I don’t blow my poker winnings at the craps table again.  ;)  I plan to do more poker and video poker this go around, and less table gaming.  Operative word - less!

I’m still pretty flush with excitement over the big win on March 31st.  The graph I use via Poker Tracker is pretty much useless at the moment - it shows a slow, steady decline that eventually pops right off the chart.  I’ve placed out of the money in the last three tourneys I’ve done, including a $155 loss just a little bit ago at a $50+5 NLHE [1R1A].  Here’s the hand I got busted on:

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/396837

As I made the all-in bet, I was thinking to myself, “Don’t go all in.”  Apparently my brain didn’t send the message to my mouse hand quick enough.  Still, I don’t think it was the worst move in the world.  The villain was tight and aggressive, but I think he was capable of a continuation bet.  I also believe he was capable of a reasonable lay down, but obviously when you flop the nuts you’re calling any sort of chicanery your opponent might do.

Even if I had called, I was pretty sure I was going to call the turn regardless of what he would have bet - I hit top pair at that point and in my mind had plenty of outs left.  I needed to get some traction in the tournament, as I had been floundering pretty consistently up to that point.  Maybe - MAYBE I would have folded, but with 15 outs (outside straight and flush draws) knowing what he had… it would have been a hard decision either way I think.  Do you agree or disagree?