Friday, March 27, 2009

One Man Gathers... What another man spills.

The other day I logged into my Bugsy's Club account and noticed the balance I had left of about $210 after winning $225 in a tourney on Easter Sunday 2007 was gone. When I checked my account activity it had been transferred to Bugsy's for an inactive account. I found that odd as I had received no email notification from them advising that a transfer had taken place. I will admit I rarely played on the site. Only a few tourneys since I had cashed back in 2007. I fired off a tactful email that asked where did my money go? Within 24 hours it was back in my account and I didn't have to fire off the threatening email that i would trash them publicly on my blog.

A few hours after receiving said funds an email from a forum notified me that Bugsy's was closing its doors. I figured my newly returned money was now gone for good. But when I logged into Bugsy's they had a nice post that explained the UIGEA had made it difficult to do business for players wanting to remove funds and deposit. I'm not sure why they didn't seek a merger with the growing Cake or Merge networks but all was not lost for my funds. Bugsy's Club had worked it out with Pokerstars that funds would be transferred to a players Pokerstars account. Major Woot Woot Woot for IG!!.. Within 24 hours of receiving the email from Pokerstars to enter my Bugsy's info the money was in my Pokerstars account.

It does appear that PokerSchoolOnline and PokerPages will remain in business. I'm sure most of us who play poker have accessed the PokerPages data base for player results at one time or another. Lately, I find myself utilizing the PokerDB or OPR more often then not, or the Hendon Mob database over on Full Tilt. PSO utilized the same software as Bugsy's Club which was the money site.

If you followed any of my twitter updates, you will know that Snake5970's horse he's a part owner of, won her debut race at Gulfstream Park on Sunday, going off at 20:1 odds from a morning line of 12:1. A $2 win bet paid $44 and change. I know my friend Action Hank is happy as he had her twice in the second daily double which paid a sweet $400 plus. Snake5970 was the only owner present on race day. At the last minute I didn't put any money down. The Italian in me didn't want to put the whammy curse on her. Hooked on Hope came out of the race fine and is shipping north to Aqueduct I believe where she will run against some NY breds on the grass hopefully we'll see her run this summer at Saratoga too.

Today I took the day off to once again try to attempt to score PHiSH tickets this time for my home venue of SPAC. I'm not sure most 48 year old women still do this but music is and always has been a big part of my life. SPAC is a Live Nation venue. Many of my phish phan phfriends had been shut out of Ticket Bastard for the Gorge and Red Rocks etc. California Rob and wife Toni both tried online and by phone and were able to score two out of the three passes they need for each night. I assume the third is for their daughter Lauren, now almost 6 (edited from 5 per her daddy) Ms Lauren accompanied us to the Coventry simulcast in 2004 with earplugs. The SPAC box office, a mere 10-15 minute drive away is closed till May 10th, so I couldn't get tickets by going right to the venue. I opened up one browser kept hitting refresh, wound up in the waiting room and....... waited. I decided a few moments later to open up another browser and literally I was taken right to the order form. My hands were shaking as I typed in my info and by 1:04 PM EST a mere 4 minutes after they went on sale I had a nice $250 charge on my credit card. Today pigs really do fly. As I said to Dr Pauly via email, I'll gladly take a months worth of river beats on PokerStars to watch a middle-aged man in a dress suck on a vacuum hose. I've seen TAB, I've seen Trey & Mike, I've seen Mike Gordon's band but I've never seen all four members of PHiSH together live. This will be my first PHiSH show.

Shortly after Pigs took to the air, I saw a twitter announcement from the good old Grateful Dead calling out for NYC fans. A sweepstakes entry for three surprise shows before they kick off their official tour. They are playing three shows on March 30th in NYC closed to the public. My entry is in with BFF Kim as my guest. I'll know by tomorrow if I earned a pair of tickets to one of the shows.

Now that its Spring and I'll soon be on work-free Fridays I plan to get a little more active. Tweeting with one of the Wicked Chops entities who is also a runner has me reminiscing about my days scampering up and down mountain sides and thru the woods. And I did once mention I would do another marathon sometime on or after my 50th birthday which is 18.5 months away. I've served as race director for more marathons then I've run. If only my knees and hamstring can take it. My Orca wetsuit hangs unused in my closet and is probably all dried out and my Specialized racing road bike suffers the same fate. I'm not even sure I would be confident/comfortable riding clip less pedals again. (edited from petals.... you can tell i spend more time gardening then riding these days)

And what is this crazy rule that the State of New Jersey wanted to ban Brazilian waxes? Obviously some man came up with that one. If I want to have hot wax applied to my nether regions by an Asian woman I barely know and then have it ripped off with muslin while I pull in the other direction its my right!! And yes, I've paid for the privilege.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Too Busy to blog but you can follow me on twitter

Ive been anti-Face book and My Space but I jumped on the twitter bandwagon. Its perfect for someone who is always doing 3000 things at once.

Go check out my review of Jam Band Max Creek over on Coventry. And of course check out the awesome coverage of PHish's three night run at the mothership in Hampton, Virginia. I just took next Friday off to attempt to get tickets for PHiSH at my home venue of SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center)for their August show date.

I completed an NCAA bracket for Dr Pauly's pub league. I don't know much about college hoop. I do get into the hoopla during March madness. So far I'm 7/8 in todays early games only missing Butler who i picked over LSU. Those 8-9 seed match-ups are tough. I did pick Maryland over overrated California. I listened to some upset videos by college coaches and a couple of them actually picked that one. Dr Pauly has been live blogging today's action over on Tao of Poker.

Just got an email from Snake5970 that his horse Hooked on Hope will finally be making her debut run Sunday in the 3rd at Gulfstream in a Maiden special weights race. Haven't talked to him yet but I'm sure hes going to be flying down to watch her run.

I will be playing an all ladies poker tourney Saturday afternoon. I will probably twitter expletives, chip counts and my bust out. So follow along Saturday afternoon sometime after 1 PM EST. Whats really cool about twitter is a lot of the pros jumped on the bandwagon and twittered updates from Bay101. Annie Duke even was posting updates faster then the WPT update team. Obviously twitter is the next wave of providing action from the tourney floor.

My work computer has been bogging down. Tomorrow I have to head into the office with it and swap it for a new PC. Its an older model and we are all due to be upgraded. When I called the help desk today to mention the noise it was making and that things were freezing he put in a ticket for me and I will get a new one sooner then later.

I've been working 5 days a week plus some overtime. The extra money is nice but I'm tired. Soon summer will be here and I will be back to 4 day weeks. I once again have every Friday off in the months of July and August so far.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Rock of Love Bus - Cat Fight

Found this clip while amusing myself on my bed rest day off. (in reality I'm really sitting in a chair at my computer in my office, as my bedroom is normally a tech- free zone). I missed last nights episode opting instead for Celebrity Apprentice and following in on LJ's progress over on Pokerstars (go congratulate her).

The clip features the remaining members of the blondetourage vs the brunettes in a food throwing, foul mouthed clip. Just another day in the life for rocker Bret Michaels. Really, dude you cant be serious about making any one of these woman step-mother to your girls or your life companion.

I give kudos to Taya (penthouse playmate), or Mindy for holding back and only finger waving. I might have just aimed a few darts in the direction of the silicon laden blonde Ashley or was it Farrah who is equally as silicon laden. And Brittanya, (obviously a stripper name) with the front side tramp stamps is scary looking. Farrah was given the walk of shame off the tour bus, leaving Ashley the only blonde remaining





Watching these women is like watching a NASCAR race on a super-speedway track and waiting for the big crash to come. You know its going to happen.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Whats Been A Going On

Friday, I had originally scheduled the day off and was planning to head to Turning Stone for the $350 buy-in that is part of the March Madness Series at TROCK. I had plans to catch up with this girl and this guy, but LJ emailed me to tell me they were going to pass on TROCK as there was a family function on Lucko's side of the dynamic duo. Then overtime at work fell into my lap and I cancelled my day off and worked a long Friday and also Saturday morning.

I had cabin fever and live poker jones so I headed out to Shane's new digs Friday night. I hadn't played live since New Year's Eve. Not sure if there were 63 or 72 runners but I made it down to the final three tables busting somewhere between 23-26th or so with 10 paying. I could get nothing go on, I played neither good nor bad. I made the right decisions, stayed out of trouble got away from some hands I knew I was beat on and realized I was really tired too boot. My first table featured me and "Soul-patch" Mike to my immediate right after the donkey sitting between us donked out. I would say we were the two of the three best players at the table, the other being Pops, Shane's dad. The table was weak passive, with lots of limping which doesn't help me. I need the young aggro guys who build the pots and three bet. Shane's game tends to draw an older crowd. I'm bumping up against the half century mark and am on the young side. Some of these players may have played for years but a lot of folks aren't students of the game. I would characterize them as: recreational, out to have a good time, and I have no idea what pot odds are, or how to size my bet, players. The young aggro guys that like to mix it up and know what a three-bet is tend to stay on this side of the river and play Albany.

I bit the bullet and signed up for twitter. Actually more fascinating then a blog. I know that Kat is knitting and reading today and Otis was working and cleaning. Actually Otis has been really busy blogging today over on the PokerStars blog about the NBC heads-up Championship. Kat, did you ever read/finish The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo?

I was reading Shane Schleger's blog and a commenter called Shane a hippie for some time Shane spent in Burlington, VT. Shane commented back that only made him half a hippie. I spent two years in Burlington at UVM, before moving on to CU Boulder. I considered applying to Law/Business School at Cal-Berkeley so I guess that makes me a full on card carrying Hippie. I even broke out the Birkies (with socks) when the weather hit above 38 degrees the other day. Anyway, back to Shane he is one of the bloggers whom i most enjoy reading, just wish he wrote more often.

24 is kicking ass this season. Top Chef finished up with Hosea winning over Stefan and Carla. I watched the first episode of Celebrity apprentice. Annie Duke was dead on but her bossy way is as annoying as hell. Snake who has seen her in action at the tables said, "Now the whole world will get to see what a bitch she is". In my opinion, Joan Rivers, should be able to win this thing. My god, she sells jewelry on HSN or QVC for goodness sakes. I thought Monster Garage's Jesse James (married to Sandra Bullock) and Tom Green represented the men well. Jesse is my pick for the male to go the furthest. Brande Roderick showed shes more then just a playmate. Natalie Gulbis had a blonde moment. I think of her as golf's Anna Kornikova. Dennis Rodman, should have gone before the DiceMan but maybe the fact that Andrew kept calling Mr Trump, "Donny" didnt help his case.

Coventry has kick-ass PHISH reunion coverage thanks to Dr Pauly, Change100 and the Joker. I start my concert season next weekend with the MaxCreek show at Troy Revolution Hall. Pauly's Phish tweets inspired me to get signed up so I can report from the floor of the Times Union Center. I actually have no idea where my seats are for The Dead, as I haven't received them yet, but mail-order was successful.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Layne Flack Busted

According to PokerNews, Layne was busted on his way home from the bracket drawing party for the NBC Heads-Up Championship Thursday night held at Pure nightclub and did not show up for his scheduled first round match. He was charged with driving 21 mph over the speed limit, driving under the influence and failing to yield to an emergency vehicle.

Sometimes good things happening in addicts lives set off the chain reaction for a relapse. You could almost see it play out before our eyes. Layne gives interview about how he's clean and got his act together with the help/intervention of fellow poker players, including Daniel Negreanu who supposedly paid for Layne's rehab. Layne wins bracelet during 2008 WSOP, Layne shows up during the WSOP Horse final table and makes an ass of himself, earning the scorn of Erick Lindgren. This week, Layne shows up acting drunk and stupid in a video PokerlistingsTV captures and Wicked Chops Poker dedicates a post to:

Fun with Flack from PokerListings TV



Message to Layne: Forget about being a prospective suitor on VH1's Megan wants A Millionaire. Instead get in line for Dr Drew Pinsky's Celebrity Rehab.

Layne issued this statement:

"I attended the Draw Party at Pure on (Thursday) night and then met with my brother, who had flown into Vegas for Heads Up. I was under the impression that I was to play in the last bracket the next evening at around 8 pm. I was pulled over for speeding and refused a breathalyzer test as I have been instructed to do. I have no idea why I was written a ticket for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle. There were no emergency vehicles around, besides the police car. A test, given by the Las Vegas PD, later revealed that I had a blood alcohol content of zero. I also took a blood test, as I have nothing to hide. I was held for the mandatory 6 hours and released. I always go out of my way to not drink and drive. I regret that I was not able to play in NBC Heads Up and hope to be invited next year to play in this prestigious event.”

To steal part of a line from one of my favorite movies, Animal House:

Drunk and Stupid is no way to go thru life, Son!!!!