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Showing posts with label WSOP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WSOP. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
WSOP Fantasy -Event #3 ($1,000) Donkament #1
Only one WSOP event begins today: the first of the $1000 buy-in weekend donkaments. It's scheduled for 4 days and up to 5000 are expected to enter. The chance of any of my 15 horses actually cashing let alone final tabling is probably nil. Last year I had a bunch of goose eggs in these events and expect no different.
I doubt any of my horses in the 50k event will trouble themselves with running back and forth between two tables unless there is some kind of absurd prop bet going on where someone like Phil Ivey will attempt to play all events. I eliminated all my 50k horses from inclusion in my picks for today's event.
I went heavy on internet phenoms who will undoubtedly chip up or bust out early. Full Tilt's list of pros you can pick is fairly limited and consists mostly of Team Full Tilt, Full tilt red pros, WSOP prior year final tableists (of the last two years or so) and WSOP Main Event Champions. For example I cant pick the likes of Bryan Micon, Shane Schleger or Yevgeniy Timoshenko or numerous other tour champions.
Event #3 ($1,000) No-Limit Hold'em (4 day)
Position Player
A Player Luke "__FullFlush1__" Schwartz
A Player Dennis Phillips
A Player Shaun Deeb -
A Player Nikolay Evdakov duh was playing 50k still
A Player Jacobo Fernandez
B Player Josh Arieh duh was playing 50k still
B Player Steve "mrsmokey1" Billirakis duh was playing 50k still
B Player Ivan Demidov
B Player Alexander Kravchenko busted day 1B
B Player Eric Froehlich
C Player Amanda Baker
C Player Issac "westmenloAA" Baron playing day 1B
C Player Jean-Robert Bellande
C Player Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger - playing day 1B
C Player Jon "PearlJammed" Turner busted day 1A, not playing again till 2-7TD Tuesday
As for the 50k event 105 players remain. There were only 11 bust-outs yesterday: Dan Shak, Tom "Durrr" Dwan, Marc Karam (I have actually sat at the same tourney table with him at Turning Stone), Greg "FBT" Mueller, Brian Townsend, Mike Matusow####(who I picked and removed prior to submitting my final picks) and Daniel Alaei to name a few. I had none of these guys in my stable. Dan Shak was a thought as he had a great 2009 but he isnt a choice, only his ex-Beth is. Annette Obrestad did not play and isn't in Vegas yet based on a tweet that she is still in Norway for her mom's birthday. I also don't believe Jeff Madsen, David Williams or Peter Eastgate are playing the 8 game mix. I believe I have 11 of 11 in still. David Bach, last years champion when it was played as HORSE will probably not repeat as he has dipped to roughly 33k chips of the original 150k starting stack.
Action begins about 3PM EST. Follow the live reporting over on PokerNews.com and of course the great coverage on Dr Pauly's Tao of Poker, Pokerati, and Wicked Chops Poker to name a few.
####Correction: Mike Matusow actually made it thru to Day 2. He was incorrectly listed by WSOP officials as out.
I doubt any of my horses in the 50k event will trouble themselves with running back and forth between two tables unless there is some kind of absurd prop bet going on where someone like Phil Ivey will attempt to play all events. I eliminated all my 50k horses from inclusion in my picks for today's event.
I went heavy on internet phenoms who will undoubtedly chip up or bust out early. Full Tilt's list of pros you can pick is fairly limited and consists mostly of Team Full Tilt, Full tilt red pros, WSOP prior year final tableists (of the last two years or so) and WSOP Main Event Champions. For example I cant pick the likes of Bryan Micon, Shane Schleger or Yevgeniy Timoshenko or numerous other tour champions.
Event #3 ($1,000) No-Limit Hold'em (4 day)
Position Player
A Player Luke "__FullFlush1__" Schwartz
A Player Dennis Phillips
A Player Shaun Deeb -
A Player Jacobo Fernandez
B Player Ivan Demidov
B Player Eric Froehlich
C Player Amanda Baker
C Player Issac "westmenloAA" Baron playing day 1B
C Player Jean-Robert Bellande
C Player Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger - playing day 1B
As for the 50k event 105 players remain. There were only 11 bust-outs yesterday: Dan Shak, Tom "Durrr" Dwan, Marc Karam (I have actually sat at the same tourney table with him at Turning Stone), Greg "FBT" Mueller, Brian Townsend, Mike Matusow####(who I picked and removed prior to submitting my final picks) and Daniel Alaei to name a few. I had none of these guys in my stable. Dan Shak was a thought as he had a great 2009 but he isnt a choice, only his ex-Beth is. Annette Obrestad did not play and isn't in Vegas yet based on a tweet that she is still in Norway for her mom's birthday. I also don't believe Jeff Madsen, David Williams or Peter Eastgate are playing the 8 game mix. I believe I have 11 of 11 in still. David Bach, last years champion when it was played as HORSE will probably not repeat as he has dipped to roughly 33k chips of the original 150k starting stack.
Action begins about 3PM EST. Follow the live reporting over on PokerNews.com and of course the great coverage on Dr Pauly's Tao of Poker, Pokerati, and Wicked Chops Poker to name a few.
####Correction: Mike Matusow actually made it thru to Day 2. He was incorrectly listed by WSOP officials as out.
Friday, May 28, 2010
WSOP Fantasy- Event #2-The Players 50k Championship
Once again I'm doing Full Tilt's Fantasy Poker Challenge. Seven + weeks of sweating my horses events ranging from $1000 donkaments to World championship events in various poker disciplines. Last year I won a bunch of entries into freerolls and the tourney ending championship event in which the first prize was a 2010 WSOP Main Event seat. I also won a couple of hats, neither of which I received. But that is okay because I have one already and shirts too!
Today we kick it off with the multi-day 50k players championship which consists of an 8 game mix (which i love by the way and how I learned duece-7 triple draw). Here are my horses for this event.
Event #2 ($50,000) The Poker Player's Championship (5 day)
Position Player
A Player Phil Iveybusted day 3
A Player Daniel Negreanu busted Day 2
A Player Justin Bonomobusted day 3
Player Erik Seidel busted day 4, oh so close to a cash too!!
A Player Scotty Nguyenbusted day 3
B Player Jeff Madsen did not start
B Player David Williams did not start
B Player John Juanda - 4th place finish $436,865
B Player Vitaly Lunkinbusted day 2
B Player Erick Lindgrenbusted day 2
C Player Jason Mercier busted day 2
C Player Annette Obrestad did not start
C Player Peter Eastgate did not start
C Player David Benyamine busted day 2
C Player Kassem "Freddy" Deeb busted Day 2
Today we kick it off with the multi-day 50k players championship which consists of an 8 game mix (which i love by the way and how I learned duece-7 triple draw). Here are my horses for this event.
Event #2 ($50,000) The Poker Player's Championship (5 day)
Position Player
B Player John Juanda - 4th place finish $436,865
Friday, June 12, 2009
Due to Technical Difficulties.....
I apologize for the lack of updates. First, the cable modem went. I had phone and cable but sporadic Internet signal. At least that's how it all tested out when Time Warner got here. I was off the grid from a Tuesday night to late Saturday afternoon. Then a few days later my computer started turning off on its own and wouldn't restart. Thought it may have been a loose cord so I tried a new one. Still no computer. I had a new power supply put in back in late December but my Dell is 4+ years old and on borrowed time. I did get it going again bought a hard drive and backed everything up.
So now I'm shopping for a new desktop PC. Ive always owned Dell's but frankly their customer service is lacking and your lucky if you get someone in the United States. I'm no stranger to outsourcing as my original job at my company was largely outsourced. I'm thinking about an HP A6700F which is a relatively new model and I can get a discount on one thru my company as HP is a vendor for us. Then again I can also get a discount on a Dell.
I haven't played much online poker in the last three weeks short of 4 DON's and I cashed 4/4. Now of course we are faced with a whole e-check debacle of not being able to get money on and off PokerStars and Full Tilt easily. I've qualified for a few of the freeroll's Full Tilt has as prizes for the Fantasy Poker Challenge. I ran TT into JJ last nite in the first one so I failed to cash. Speaking of the Challenge, my ability to pick horses to finish in the money in the low buy-in NLHE donkaments is nil. I've goose-egged (no fantasy dollars) every NLHE low buy-in event. Yet I have three horses who final tabled the $10k deuce to seven Lowball event (all 15 of my horses actually played the event). Obviously in the NLHE events I've picked Internet young guns who have largely crashed and burned in their attempts to acquire chips early. I figure the big established names are playing the bigger buy-ins and mixing up their game selections.
I have noticed that the young guys who play fearless and ruthless early on and build up big stacks, seem to implode a lot later on. Seems like they just don't no when to change the gears back to medium speed mid-tourney when table conditions change and they run their big stack into someone else's big stack and are out shortly after. I'm sure that is why the big stack on a Day 1 or Day 2 normally isn't the chipleader or around on Day 3. Or they are not paying close attention to the players at their live tables.
Here's best wishes to CK who made it to day two of the $2500 Mixed Stud/Omaha 8 or better tourney. Play resumes at 5PM EST/2PM PST. I'm heading out to play live tonite at my friend Rich's place across the river. Actually make that two rivers, gotta cross the Mohawk and Hudson. I'll be checking up on you girl when I get back in.
So now I'm shopping for a new desktop PC. Ive always owned Dell's but frankly their customer service is lacking and your lucky if you get someone in the United States. I'm no stranger to outsourcing as my original job at my company was largely outsourced. I'm thinking about an HP A6700F which is a relatively new model and I can get a discount on one thru my company as HP is a vendor for us. Then again I can also get a discount on a Dell.
I haven't played much online poker in the last three weeks short of 4 DON's and I cashed 4/4. Now of course we are faced with a whole e-check debacle of not being able to get money on and off PokerStars and Full Tilt easily. I've qualified for a few of the freeroll's Full Tilt has as prizes for the Fantasy Poker Challenge. I ran TT into JJ last nite in the first one so I failed to cash. Speaking of the Challenge, my ability to pick horses to finish in the money in the low buy-in NLHE donkaments is nil. I've goose-egged (no fantasy dollars) every NLHE low buy-in event. Yet I have three horses who final tabled the $10k deuce to seven Lowball event (all 15 of my horses actually played the event). Obviously in the NLHE events I've picked Internet young guns who have largely crashed and burned in their attempts to acquire chips early. I figure the big established names are playing the bigger buy-ins and mixing up their game selections.
I have noticed that the young guys who play fearless and ruthless early on and build up big stacks, seem to implode a lot later on. Seems like they just don't no when to change the gears back to medium speed mid-tourney when table conditions change and they run their big stack into someone else's big stack and are out shortly after. I'm sure that is why the big stack on a Day 1 or Day 2 normally isn't the chipleader or around on Day 3. Or they are not paying close attention to the players at their live tables.
Here's best wishes to CK who made it to day two of the $2500 Mixed Stud/Omaha 8 or better tourney. Play resumes at 5PM EST/2PM PST. I'm heading out to play live tonite at my friend Rich's place across the river. Actually make that two rivers, gotta cross the Mohawk and Hudson. I'll be checking up on you girl when I get back in.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Music Sweet Music!! and Albany Poker Club Redux
Wow, what an incredible weekend of music at Mountain Jam IV. I was completely blown away by some of the bands I had never seen and by those I've heard or seen many times who brought their craft to a new level. But first I have to organize my thoughts and get ready to recap for Coventry.
I came back to find a comment on my previous blog entry from the "neighbor" of the Albany Poker Club/Italian Social Club. She asked me to remove the link to the post as she was fearful for her family which I did. I only linked it up to illustrate how it must have looked to the other side not to out her as a complaining resident of the area. I have since suggested that any new location be in a non-residential area. A comment on her blog refers to me as "some person she doesn't know or care to know" who had linked to her. Now that will get a good chuckle from the people who know me (family/friends) as well as the poker community be it live or on-line as I am far from being a menace to society. I don't drink or smoke, I pay my taxes and vote, I bake cupcakes and garden . I'm past president of one of the largest running clubs in the country. I guess the running club will soon want to take away my Distinguished Service Award since I'm a person of "questionable character". She has apparently password protected that particular post for only family and friends. Heck, I stumbled upon her blog pretty easily doing a pretty basic key word search as did probably a host of others (including actual paid journalists) . The internet is hardly anonymous if you don't want to be read don't put your journal on-line.
First, all I can say is she has more to fear from her "neighbors" around the corner then from anyone who showed up to play cards who apparently she feels are a bunch of gambling degenerates and lowlifes a stigma that most of us poker players endure. Even my own mother, doesn't get it but when I win a nice tournament score she is the first to say." Good you can buy lunch today". Most of the people who played cards there were everyday people including college kids trying to make some spending money, a retired judge, radio DJ's, members of law enforcement, restaurateurs, current and retired state workers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, hair stylists, computer programmers etc. And without a doubt we all want the bad guys caught too.
As someone who had 25 years in law enforcement said to me.... "I hope the dude with the dew rag and baseball hat cocked on his head and who was sitting out on the hood of one of the residents cars at 3:30 AM in the morning turns out to be a better "neighbor". The guys who I played cards with would walk us ladies out to our cars in the late hours because of some of the more unsavory characters who frequent the street or live near where the club was located. Yes its largely a residential neighborhood on the back side of the club, but North Allen where the club was situated is mixed use: a bunch of bars, a funeral home, other businesses and a lot of houses that are "lower-income" aka slummy heck its the city. I'm a gal from the burbs.
Now, I have three days of WSOP coverage and poker news and blogs to get caught up on as well as figuring out where to start with the synopsis of Mountain Jam IV. Thank goodness I have today off. Starting next week I have every Friday off for most of the summer including the whole week of July 7th thru the 13th for the Main Event.
I came back to find a comment on my previous blog entry from the "neighbor" of the Albany Poker Club/Italian Social Club. She asked me to remove the link to the post as she was fearful for her family which I did. I only linked it up to illustrate how it must have looked to the other side not to out her as a complaining resident of the area. I have since suggested that any new location be in a non-residential area. A comment on her blog refers to me as "some person she doesn't know or care to know" who had linked to her. Now that will get a good chuckle from the people who know me (family/friends) as well as the poker community be it live or on-line as I am far from being a menace to society. I don't drink or smoke, I pay my taxes and vote, I bake cupcakes and garden . I'm past president of one of the largest running clubs in the country. I guess the running club will soon want to take away my Distinguished Service Award since I'm a person of "questionable character". She has apparently password protected that particular post for only family and friends. Heck, I stumbled upon her blog pretty easily doing a pretty basic key word search as did probably a host of others (including actual paid journalists) . The internet is hardly anonymous if you don't want to be read don't put your journal on-line.
First, all I can say is she has more to fear from her "neighbors" around the corner then from anyone who showed up to play cards who apparently she feels are a bunch of gambling degenerates and lowlifes a stigma that most of us poker players endure. Even my own mother, doesn't get it but when I win a nice tournament score she is the first to say." Good you can buy lunch today". Most of the people who played cards there were everyday people including college kids trying to make some spending money, a retired judge, radio DJ's, members of law enforcement, restaurateurs, current and retired state workers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, hair stylists, computer programmers etc. And without a doubt we all want the bad guys caught too.
As someone who had 25 years in law enforcement said to me.... "I hope the dude with the dew rag and baseball hat cocked on his head and who was sitting out on the hood of one of the residents cars at 3:30 AM in the morning turns out to be a better "neighbor". The guys who I played cards with would walk us ladies out to our cars in the late hours because of some of the more unsavory characters who frequent the street or live near where the club was located. Yes its largely a residential neighborhood on the back side of the club, but North Allen where the club was situated is mixed use: a bunch of bars, a funeral home, other businesses and a lot of houses that are "lower-income" aka slummy heck its the city. I'm a gal from the burbs.
Now, I have three days of WSOP coverage and poker news and blogs to get caught up on as well as figuring out where to start with the synopsis of Mountain Jam IV. Thank goodness I have today off. Starting next week I have every Friday off for most of the summer including the whole week of July 7th thru the 13th for the Main Event.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Where in the World is IG?
Wow, doesn't seem like its been a week since I last posted. I did have a lot going on with work, some vacation days, mothers day and only a little poker.
I did cash in an undercard race for the Kentucky Derby but that was it. Only one horse in my exactas made the top two (Big Brown) and the others were 5th and 6th or around there (Pyro and Colonel John). I do feel only a little bad for Snake5970 who missed out on a big trifecta payday when he failed to put Big Brown (the favorite and eventual winner) on top and wheel his other horses. Oh he had Big Brown in the mix all right, but he put Z-Fortune on top and wheeled Tale Of Ekati, Eight Belles, Big Truck, Colonel John, Monba, and Dennis Of Cork in the duece and trey spots.... Can i say that about horse racing positions or is it ghey?
Online poker continues to suck for the most part and I've become to think its a big joke. So much so that other then Sit-n-go's I have lost a lot of my desire to play an online MTT and my performance in Blogger tourneys has been pitiful so I'm just not playing them. Of course they are all on full-tilt so that may have something to do with it. I cannot tell you the beats I have been subjected to on Full Tilt. I'm almost Bankrupt on FTP and wont reload this time for a good long time. I'm an immediate gratification girl. I can only make the right moves so many times and after a while I just say FAWK IT and move on elsewhere when I put in the work and get bent over. I really don't know how it is possible for me to be so bad online but play as well as I do live. The only thing I don't have online is the ability to read people's verbal and nonverbal tells. Of course my average buyin live is about 8-15 times higher then it is online and maybe that's the issue. People don't give a rats ass about $10-$25 tourneys since its pocket change (although I think Lucko et al. takes that $27.50 pretty seriously) but they think twice before making a redonkulous call or move when the buyin is $80-$200.
I have a ton of other things keeping me busy. I put up three posts over on PhishCoventry this weekend and with overtime going away soon at work Ill be able to spend a little more time following my music muse. A big thank you to Dr Pauly for bringing me in. I'm having fun checking out music sites like Jambase, Rolling Stone and Relix as well as different band websites and seeing where it leads me. In fact although I've heard of him for years, I finally got to downloading some Keller Williams. If you haven't been over to PhishCoventry check it out. The Joker has some kick ass coverage of Radiohead and Coachella Music Festival and Boy Genius added a great Jazz post. Pauly is really excited in the direction the blog is taking and its exciting to be a part of it. In fact today was a record traffic day on the site with over 1000 visits when Pauly emailed me this AM. God forbid it gets bigger then Tao of Poker and we lose the good Doctor to covering music full time!!! I think a big highlight for me was a post I did about a new Grateful Dead archival release and David Gans of the Grateful Dead Hour who was there pretty much in the beginning with the boys posted the answer to a question I had asked on PhishCoventry and emailed me.
As you can see I'm pretty excited about contributing to something that is on the verge of breaking out. All the contributors have similar, but different interests and tastes musically. So if there is something you think we should be listening too or you would like to see coverage on, let me know and I'll check it out and give you props too!! Just don't subject me to Death Metal or totally Redneck Country music (ie. the word double-wide appears in the lyrics) or something that makes me go what the Fawk!!!
Thursday I took off and papa IG and I headed down to Westport CT to visit my younger sister Suzanne. Pops is doing quite well on his generic Prilosec and will still take liquid iron for about 4.5 more months. I've never written about this before but my sister lives right across the street from Martha Stewart's former Westport aka Turkey Hill home. No I have never met Martha myself, although my mom and aunt did get a really nice tour of her house and gardens one summer when they were down visiting. And no my sister isn't incredibly wealthy. She happens to be a Culinary Institute of America Grad with an incredible knack for decorating, cooking and gardening herself. Years ago when she needed a new apartment, she happened to fall into a great situation with the friend/bridge partner of a former business associate of my dad's. It developed into a great friendship and my sister also serves as a house and pet sitter and associate gardener for the owner's of the house (okay it has an elevator in it so its more then a house). And the owner's of the house have become "cousins" to us all.
A trip to Westport wouldn't be complete without a trip to Trader Joe's or Costco neither of which Smallbany NY have. We have BJ's and Sam's clubs but you just cant compare the two to Costco. Trader Joe's is a gem in and of itself. I cant believe I drove three hours to grocery shop but I did and my fridge is stocked with all sorts of good cheap food. I got almost two lbs of shrimp salad at Costco for only $11.38. The salad was just shrimp and celery and some grape tomatoes on a bed of lettuce in a light mayonnaise base.... YUMMO. I got some frozen panna cotta at Trader Joe's along with falafel and some other prepared food dishes which will keep me lunching and dining for the rest of this week. Much better then the crap that goes into Lean Cuisine's and Smart One's etc. The only thing we didn't have time to do is go to Whole Foods Market, Stew Leonard's and Billy's Bakery, my other favorite places to go down there.
The WSOP will soon be upon us in like 18 days. Since I'm not going to Vegas this summer I'm only mildly interested. For me to do Vegas right with dinners, a show or two and tourney entries, (not to mention airfare and lodging for a full week or so) and to go for more then the in and out trips Ive done in the past I need a good $7500-$10000 which I don't have in a live poker bankroll right now. With the price of gas and everything else I'm frankly more concerned about paying my bills. Plus I have my homeowners and car insurance coming up. I'm sure my escrow will increase, we are going to have an assessment to do our driveway and parking lot at my condo development early next year. I'm going to need new tires for the gas guzzling Santa Fe. I can also see the replacement of my hot water heater coming up in the near future. I would love to redo my floors in hardwood (Bamboo will probably be used) paint the inside of the condo, do new kitchen counters in granite, and add a mantel to the fireplace. As a friend said, Vegas will be there next year or the year after.
So the week I still have off in July (7th-11th) I'm budgeting for a week of play in A-Vegas. I figure I can play the tourneys on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nites without driving far and I'll plan on doing a Borgata trip in the fall as well as put in an appearance at Al's Bash.
So who the heck has won a Main Event seat anyway? I read about Fuel55's Step 6 catastrophe. Last I heard from Snake5970 he was sitting on a Step 4 and 5 only. He's in Florida closing up his parents place for a week and the laptop he brought with him isn't connecting to the internet but it worked perfectly fine up at home. When I talked to him yesterday he told me I may see a laptop rising into the air similar to the shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral. I told him to enjoy his time off the internet and go buy some newspapers to read. I think he is a little anxious to return to the WSOP for round 4 and last year he had his seat locked up as he had qualified thru UB in December of 2006. His brother Silo hasn't had any success either. I can honestly say that I loved my experience last year but could live a happy life without playing in the WSOP again. I think there is a lot better value out there as well as tourneys with better structures, like that Borgata Deep Stack tourney they just had.
All for now time to delve into the Falafel from Trader Joes.
I did cash in an undercard race for the Kentucky Derby but that was it. Only one horse in my exactas made the top two (Big Brown) and the others were 5th and 6th or around there (Pyro and Colonel John). I do feel only a little bad for Snake5970 who missed out on a big trifecta payday when he failed to put Big Brown (the favorite and eventual winner) on top and wheel his other horses. Oh he had Big Brown in the mix all right, but he put Z-Fortune on top and wheeled Tale Of Ekati, Eight Belles, Big Truck, Colonel John, Monba, and Dennis Of Cork in the duece and trey spots.... Can i say that about horse racing positions or is it ghey?
Online poker continues to suck for the most part and I've become to think its a big joke. So much so that other then Sit-n-go's I have lost a lot of my desire to play an online MTT and my performance in Blogger tourneys has been pitiful so I'm just not playing them. Of course they are all on full-tilt so that may have something to do with it. I cannot tell you the beats I have been subjected to on Full Tilt. I'm almost Bankrupt on FTP and wont reload this time for a good long time. I'm an immediate gratification girl. I can only make the right moves so many times and after a while I just say FAWK IT and move on elsewhere when I put in the work and get bent over. I really don't know how it is possible for me to be so bad online but play as well as I do live. The only thing I don't have online is the ability to read people's verbal and nonverbal tells. Of course my average buyin live is about 8-15 times higher then it is online and maybe that's the issue. People don't give a rats ass about $10-$25 tourneys since its pocket change (although I think Lucko et al. takes that $27.50 pretty seriously) but they think twice before making a redonkulous call or move when the buyin is $80-$200.
I have a ton of other things keeping me busy. I put up three posts over on PhishCoventry this weekend and with overtime going away soon at work Ill be able to spend a little more time following my music muse. A big thank you to Dr Pauly for bringing me in. I'm having fun checking out music sites like Jambase, Rolling Stone and Relix as well as different band websites and seeing where it leads me. In fact although I've heard of him for years, I finally got to downloading some Keller Williams. If you haven't been over to PhishCoventry check it out. The Joker has some kick ass coverage of Radiohead and Coachella Music Festival and Boy Genius added a great Jazz post. Pauly is really excited in the direction the blog is taking and its exciting to be a part of it. In fact today was a record traffic day on the site with over 1000 visits when Pauly emailed me this AM. God forbid it gets bigger then Tao of Poker and we lose the good Doctor to covering music full time!!! I think a big highlight for me was a post I did about a new Grateful Dead archival release and David Gans of the Grateful Dead Hour who was there pretty much in the beginning with the boys posted the answer to a question I had asked on PhishCoventry and emailed me.
As you can see I'm pretty excited about contributing to something that is on the verge of breaking out. All the contributors have similar, but different interests and tastes musically. So if there is something you think we should be listening too or you would like to see coverage on, let me know and I'll check it out and give you props too!! Just don't subject me to Death Metal or totally Redneck Country music (ie. the word double-wide appears in the lyrics) or something that makes me go what the Fawk!!!
Thursday I took off and papa IG and I headed down to Westport CT to visit my younger sister Suzanne. Pops is doing quite well on his generic Prilosec and will still take liquid iron for about 4.5 more months. I've never written about this before but my sister lives right across the street from Martha Stewart's former Westport aka Turkey Hill home. No I have never met Martha myself, although my mom and aunt did get a really nice tour of her house and gardens one summer when they were down visiting. And no my sister isn't incredibly wealthy. She happens to be a Culinary Institute of America Grad with an incredible knack for decorating, cooking and gardening herself. Years ago when she needed a new apartment, she happened to fall into a great situation with the friend/bridge partner of a former business associate of my dad's. It developed into a great friendship and my sister also serves as a house and pet sitter and associate gardener for the owner's of the house (okay it has an elevator in it so its more then a house). And the owner's of the house have become "cousins" to us all.
A trip to Westport wouldn't be complete without a trip to Trader Joe's or Costco neither of which Smallbany NY have. We have BJ's and Sam's clubs but you just cant compare the two to Costco. Trader Joe's is a gem in and of itself. I cant believe I drove three hours to grocery shop but I did and my fridge is stocked with all sorts of good cheap food. I got almost two lbs of shrimp salad at Costco for only $11.38. The salad was just shrimp and celery and some grape tomatoes on a bed of lettuce in a light mayonnaise base.... YUMMO. I got some frozen panna cotta at Trader Joe's along with falafel and some other prepared food dishes which will keep me lunching and dining for the rest of this week. Much better then the crap that goes into Lean Cuisine's and Smart One's etc. The only thing we didn't have time to do is go to Whole Foods Market, Stew Leonard's and Billy's Bakery, my other favorite places to go down there.
The WSOP will soon be upon us in like 18 days. Since I'm not going to Vegas this summer I'm only mildly interested. For me to do Vegas right with dinners, a show or two and tourney entries, (not to mention airfare and lodging for a full week or so) and to go for more then the in and out trips Ive done in the past I need a good $7500-$10000 which I don't have in a live poker bankroll right now. With the price of gas and everything else I'm frankly more concerned about paying my bills. Plus I have my homeowners and car insurance coming up. I'm sure my escrow will increase, we are going to have an assessment to do our driveway and parking lot at my condo development early next year. I'm going to need new tires for the gas guzzling Santa Fe. I can also see the replacement of my hot water heater coming up in the near future. I would love to redo my floors in hardwood (Bamboo will probably be used) paint the inside of the condo, do new kitchen counters in granite, and add a mantel to the fireplace. As a friend said, Vegas will be there next year or the year after.
So the week I still have off in July (7th-11th) I'm budgeting for a week of play in A-Vegas. I figure I can play the tourneys on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nites without driving far and I'll plan on doing a Borgata trip in the fall as well as put in an appearance at Al's Bash.
So who the heck has won a Main Event seat anyway? I read about Fuel55's Step 6 catastrophe. Last I heard from Snake5970 he was sitting on a Step 4 and 5 only. He's in Florida closing up his parents place for a week and the laptop he brought with him isn't connecting to the internet but it worked perfectly fine up at home. When I talked to him yesterday he told me I may see a laptop rising into the air similar to the shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral. I told him to enjoy his time off the internet and go buy some newspapers to read. I think he is a little anxious to return to the WSOP for round 4 and last year he had his seat locked up as he had qualified thru UB in December of 2006. His brother Silo hasn't had any success either. I can honestly say that I loved my experience last year but could live a happy life without playing in the WSOP again. I think there is a lot better value out there as well as tourneys with better structures, like that Borgata Deep Stack tourney they just had.
All for now time to delve into the Falafel from Trader Joes.
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