I was seriously thinking of going out to Syracuse for tomorrow night's show but Thanksgiving week time off from work was pretty much unavailable since I didn't put in for any in advance, so I'm hanging tight for two nights of Phish at the Times Union Center on Black Friday and Saturday. I went to work the day after the SPAC show and was exhausted. Dancing for three hours is tiring. I have been taking a Body Jam class to prepare myself for a busy series of concerts and my return to running.
First up your Phish Pforecast: We've had a pretty mild November this far and Turkey Day Weekend should be no exception. Right now 45 on Friday with chance of showers so bring your Wellies and Saturday a little cooler at 41. I'll probably cross post something over on Coventry as show time approaches. Give you peeps and tweeps some places to eat etc. Just an early PSA. Plan ahead and leave early. Exit 23 of the Thruway to 787 may not be too bad that is the exit you take to the Times Union Center. But traffic around town will be crawling as it is Black Friday and Saturday. Leave early. Exit 24 of the Thruway which is where the Thruway/Northway/ and 90 converge will be a clusterfuck.
Dr Pauly will be taking in the shows with me so Coventry Music will be well represented. He'll be kicking it old school style with his "big sis". BFF Kim and her son (nephew Zack) will also be attending for at least one night. And I believe a whole host of the Phish Twibe members will be here. I'm bummed I'm going to miss the NYC shows which Pauly and Nicky will be going to the following week. She's not flying east until after the holiday so I miss my chance to catch up with her. Again time off from work is the issue. I'm trying to save 40 hours till 2010 so I have like almost 7 weeks off.
I won two nights at the Rio Las Vegas in a twitter promotion and have to use them up before 3/31/10. Cant hold on to them for the WSOP time but im thinking Venetian Deep Stack in February or March Madness time if its not blacked out. Think that would be fun to see kickoff weekend in a sports book in Vegas.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Sunday Overload
I am trying to do/watch too many things at the same time.
NYC Marathon: I caught most of it on line at Universal Sports but missed the finishes of the races. Had to run out and hand off my moms goodies I got for her at Trader Joe's and Costco. Plan on catching the NBC highlight broadcast in a few minutes.
NFL Football a full day of games ahead.
NASCAR at Talledaga - Granted I don't follow Nascar as much as I used to since my driver Rusty Wallace headed to the broadcaster's booth but I still like to catch snippets here and there.
Festival 8 - Third and final day of Phish's Halloween run of shows from Indio, CA. Most of my colleagues from Coventry Music are in attendance. I've been listening to as much as I can on Sirius Satellite Internet Radio. Got a free 7 day trial and I must admit I'm liking it. Love the Jam-On station. Currently gigging down to a live Widespread Panic (WSP) performance on which Oteil Burbridge of The Allman Brothers is guesting. I've had my face melt a few times over the last two nights. Can't wait for the Albany Phish shows Black Friday and Saturday!!
Amazing Race- Gotta see how Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho capitalize on their second place finish after last weeks leg. The Amazing Racers head to the Netherlands tonight.
World Series- Granted I'm not much of a baseball fan but I am interested in this East Coast rivalry: Cheese Steaks vs NYC Style Pizza.
Poker - Once again attempts to get out and play live are a fail. I may join in the FTOPS warm-up at 3:05 PM to see how long I can last.
NYC Marathon: I caught most of it on line at Universal Sports but missed the finishes of the races. Had to run out and hand off my moms goodies I got for her at Trader Joe's and Costco. Plan on catching the NBC highlight broadcast in a few minutes.
NFL Football a full day of games ahead.
NASCAR at Talledaga - Granted I don't follow Nascar as much as I used to since my driver Rusty Wallace headed to the broadcaster's booth but I still like to catch snippets here and there.
Festival 8 - Third and final day of Phish's Halloween run of shows from Indio, CA. Most of my colleagues from Coventry Music are in attendance. I've been listening to as much as I can on Sirius Satellite Internet Radio. Got a free 7 day trial and I must admit I'm liking it. Love the Jam-On station. Currently gigging down to a live Widespread Panic (WSP) performance on which Oteil Burbridge of The Allman Brothers is guesting. I've had my face melt a few times over the last two nights. Can't wait for the Albany Phish shows Black Friday and Saturday!!
Amazing Race- Gotta see how Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho capitalize on their second place finish after last weeks leg. The Amazing Racers head to the Netherlands tonight.
World Series- Granted I'm not much of a baseball fan but I am interested in this East Coast rivalry: Cheese Steaks vs NYC Style Pizza.
Poker - Once again attempts to get out and play live are a fail. I may join in the FTOPS warm-up at 3:05 PM to see how long I can last.
Friday, October 02, 2009
IF a cat could talk...
Yesterday I brought Rags in to be tested, neutered, his ears rid of mites and dewormed. He got his nails trimmed to and his fur cleaned up. My neighbor Mary Lou and I split the cost and another neighbor Randy is going to pitch in too. I was a little worried the little dude was going to test positive for Feline Leukemia or Feline HIV. I also wanted to get an age on him. I had an inkling he might turn out to be older then the 18-24 months I initially thought for a couple of reasons: A) He has full jowls, B) His balls were fully developed C) I noticed his teeth were discolored, including one of his canines being a snaggletooth.
I got him into the cat carrier no problem at all. From a cat who ran at the sight of people 10 months ago he now greets our Post-person Sandy when he hears her mail truck every day when she brings him treats. He's become quite social and I can pretty much handle him and pick him up. He weathered the car trip to the Animal Protective Foundation well. Drop off time was 8AM and I wasn't the only one bringing in a cat for the program. One lady brought in 5-8 semi-feral males the last of the bunch from a colony in Ballston Spa. She had already done the same for about 38 other kittys and had found homes for most of them. When I returnd to pick Rags up at 4PM at the APF's education center there had to be at least 12-15 cats all lined up waiting to be picked up. The vet must have worked on them assembly line fashion.
Much to my surprise Rags came out of his day like a new man. When the volunteer told me he had some dental disease and the Vet removed his snaggle-tooth because it was loose I wasn't surprised. When she told me he was about 10 years old my mouth hit the floor. I was also told he was not a feral and was very nice with the vet. I looked at him in the carrier and said "Dude what is your story?". He was glad to see me and when I got him home came right out of the carrier and butted my hand even though he was still groggy.
Where this cat was the first 8-9 years of his life me and my neighbors will never know. Maybe someone threw him out, or moved away and left him behind or he was abused and ran away. I know he knows how to hunt and he used to dumpster dive. He's definitely been in a bunch of fights (torn ear and hes battle-scarred). Since I've worked with him he's become quite affectionate (male cats typically are). He will cross the threshold of my doorway but doesn't want to be inside behind a closed door yet. When I closed the door but didnt completely shut it he walked over to and and took his paw to open it and leave yesterday. right now he only comes in because he knows where is food is.
I've fixed up his cat house with a fleece mat and old towel on top of his straw bed and he's content in that or on my door mat. I will definitely bring him inside if he wants to come in when it gets bitter cold. He may have to stay in my entry way but at least he'll be warm at night.
All I can say to the person who turned Rags out: Karma is a bitch and what goes around comes around. I have no compassion to anyone who disposes/mistreats an animal.
October 16th is National Feral Cat day. Across the country there are thousands of volunteers working with our homeless cats. If you can afford to contribute for a spay/neuter please do so. For more information Alley Cat Allies is a great resource.
I got him into the cat carrier no problem at all. From a cat who ran at the sight of people 10 months ago he now greets our Post-person Sandy when he hears her mail truck every day when she brings him treats. He's become quite social and I can pretty much handle him and pick him up. He weathered the car trip to the Animal Protective Foundation well. Drop off time was 8AM and I wasn't the only one bringing in a cat for the program. One lady brought in 5-8 semi-feral males the last of the bunch from a colony in Ballston Spa. She had already done the same for about 38 other kittys and had found homes for most of them. When I returnd to pick Rags up at 4PM at the APF's education center there had to be at least 12-15 cats all lined up waiting to be picked up. The vet must have worked on them assembly line fashion.
Much to my surprise Rags came out of his day like a new man. When the volunteer told me he had some dental disease and the Vet removed his snaggle-tooth because it was loose I wasn't surprised. When she told me he was about 10 years old my mouth hit the floor. I was also told he was not a feral and was very nice with the vet. I looked at him in the carrier and said "Dude what is your story?". He was glad to see me and when I got him home came right out of the carrier and butted my hand even though he was still groggy.
Where this cat was the first 8-9 years of his life me and my neighbors will never know. Maybe someone threw him out, or moved away and left him behind or he was abused and ran away. I know he knows how to hunt and he used to dumpster dive. He's definitely been in a bunch of fights (torn ear and hes battle-scarred). Since I've worked with him he's become quite affectionate (male cats typically are). He will cross the threshold of my doorway but doesn't want to be inside behind a closed door yet. When I closed the door but didnt completely shut it he walked over to and and took his paw to open it and leave yesterday. right now he only comes in because he knows where is food is.
I've fixed up his cat house with a fleece mat and old towel on top of his straw bed and he's content in that or on my door mat. I will definitely bring him inside if he wants to come in when it gets bitter cold. He may have to stay in my entry way but at least he'll be warm at night.
All I can say to the person who turned Rags out: Karma is a bitch and what goes around comes around. I have no compassion to anyone who disposes/mistreats an animal.
October 16th is National Feral Cat day. Across the country there are thousands of volunteers working with our homeless cats. If you can afford to contribute for a spay/neuter please do so. For more information Alley Cat Allies is a great resource.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Football, Poker, Music
FOOTBALL:
It came down to the last play of the game. Miami was stymied for the game winning score when Pennington's throw to the end-zone/Hail Mary pass was intercepted, but based on points of the Monday Night Football game, I won one of my leagues outright this week!!! Three of us were in contention on Monday night: Had Miami won, California Rob would have taken it down. Had the points come under 45 one of the three "Wags" brothers in the pool would have won. I faded them both and won for the first time in 5 years (my first year in the league). Over the last 4 years, I've lost the weekly title either by whiffing on MNF points or mis-picking the Monday night game winner outright, at least 7-8 times that I can remember. Sometimes, the weather was a factor and the games were low scoring and I was over the total points scored, other times just bad Ju-Ju.
I was also co-winner of this week's Pauly's Pub league hosted by none other then Dr Pauly. That is an all-season long only league (no weekly payouts). My Big-Eyed Phish entry moved up to one game out of first place. Of course we are only two weeks and its a long season to go.
I'm watching more football and paying more attention then in prior years where poker was my primary focus on the weekends. And as Ray & Rob and any other of my good guy friends can attest: I know my football. Last night I even watched the South Carolina - Ole Miss game over network TV. Ever since I was a little girl, I can remember watching football with my dad and sometimes my maternal Grandpa who actually played college football. One of my high-school boyfriend's was co-captain of the football team our senior year of High School and I went to a NCAA Division I football school. I think I bleed Black and Gold for my Colorado Buffs.
POKER:
I actually played some live poker last weekend. The first time since end of June or beginning of July. I know the last time I played live was during the WSOP shortly after LJ's horse near final table. It was a nice early Sunday start time with 4 big screen TV's going and a prime rib/shrimp scampi dinner which was worth the entry fee. I bubbled the final table in 11th but only top 5 were to pay. Near the end, I got my money all-in behind two times and sucked out. One was a suck re-suck suck hand. I was all in pre-flop flopped two pair, opponent turned straight I boated on the river. On the other hand, I rivered two pair but was dominated on the flop. I knew I was behind with my KJ but shoved the rest of my short-stack in any-way because I needed chips or it was time to go home. If people can't lay down hands when they have fold-equity and nothing but top pair on a coordinated board, I'm not going to feel bad about sucking out. And I really also don't want to hear my table mates go on and on about how I got so lucky for 10 minutes. Of course I got lucky. Better to just say nothing and move on with your lives. I'll take the lucky bones I was thrown because believe me I was not born with a horseshoe up my arse. I probably got my only two lucky rivers I'm going to get for the next year. And look what it got my anyway Squadoosh.... Remember, sometimes I don't care what my cards are. If I'm short, I'm making a move solely based on my chip stack in relation to yours and board texture.
Dr Pauly is soliciting opinions on who should be inducted into this years Poker Hall of Fame. You can leave a comment at the end of this post. Congratulations to him for being selected as one of 15 media member's who get to vote. I'm pretty sure Andrew Feldman over on ESPN is another media vote based on a comment he left. Both of these guys are reading our comments. All the nominees are worthy, but who deserves to go in first is the question.
MUSIC:
If your a music fan and/or fan of Mike Gordon's solo band, lead guitarist Scott Murawski is looking for suggestions of covers to under take. I came up with some pretty wild ones including Pink Floyd's PIGS. I tried to come up with song's that had killer bass lines for Mike as well as great guitar work for Scott. I stayed clear of songs PHISH has covered and Max Creek has covered including the Grateful Dead catalogue. Not that I wouldn't want to hear them try The Eleven, its just that there are so many other cover songs out there they could have fun with. I no longer go to Max Creek shows to hear them play Dead covers. I may have done so back in 1986 but after I became familiar with their own tunes those became my favorites. In fact, Emotional Railroad is a current Max Creek cover being performed by MGB and one of my favorites.
And be sure to head over to Coventry for all the news thats PHISH to print (and lots of non-Phish stuff too).
Finally, It's amazing how many people pop onto my blog still looking for info on Brandi Hawbaker as well as, the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal. The UB cheating scandal is still pretty fresh in everyone's minds since the recently released official report finely outed and named Russ Hamilton as the primary person behind the accounts thru which a multitude of higher stakes cash game players were robbed from. No surprise there really. The question remains on whether the other alleged cheats names will be released. Its quite possible those alleged names may never see the light of day unless they actually were the owner's of the accounts. Since these other people may have not had any inside position at UB with direct access to creating super-user accounts it may be really hard to prove they were the ones who actually played and cheated on the account. One of the reasons said names may not have been released. I'm by no means a legal expert but can only imagine the ramifications if someone is named and it cant be proven (libel & slander lawsuits up the wazoo).
Now its time to sit down with Dan Brown's Lost Symbol and some left-over Chinese Food.
It came down to the last play of the game. Miami was stymied for the game winning score when Pennington's throw to the end-zone/Hail Mary pass was intercepted, but based on points of the Monday Night Football game, I won one of my leagues outright this week!!! Three of us were in contention on Monday night: Had Miami won, California Rob would have taken it down. Had the points come under 45 one of the three "Wags" brothers in the pool would have won. I faded them both and won for the first time in 5 years (my first year in the league). Over the last 4 years, I've lost the weekly title either by whiffing on MNF points or mis-picking the Monday night game winner outright, at least 7-8 times that I can remember. Sometimes, the weather was a factor and the games were low scoring and I was over the total points scored, other times just bad Ju-Ju.
I was also co-winner of this week's Pauly's Pub league hosted by none other then Dr Pauly. That is an all-season long only league (no weekly payouts). My Big-Eyed Phish entry moved up to one game out of first place. Of course we are only two weeks and its a long season to go.
I'm watching more football and paying more attention then in prior years where poker was my primary focus on the weekends. And as Ray & Rob and any other of my good guy friends can attest: I know my football. Last night I even watched the South Carolina - Ole Miss game over network TV. Ever since I was a little girl, I can remember watching football with my dad and sometimes my maternal Grandpa who actually played college football. One of my high-school boyfriend's was co-captain of the football team our senior year of High School and I went to a NCAA Division I football school. I think I bleed Black and Gold for my Colorado Buffs.
POKER:
I actually played some live poker last weekend. The first time since end of June or beginning of July. I know the last time I played live was during the WSOP shortly after LJ's horse near final table. It was a nice early Sunday start time with 4 big screen TV's going and a prime rib/shrimp scampi dinner which was worth the entry fee. I bubbled the final table in 11th but only top 5 were to pay. Near the end, I got my money all-in behind two times and sucked out. One was a suck re-suck suck hand. I was all in pre-flop flopped two pair, opponent turned straight I boated on the river. On the other hand, I rivered two pair but was dominated on the flop. I knew I was behind with my KJ but shoved the rest of my short-stack in any-way because I needed chips or it was time to go home. If people can't lay down hands when they have fold-equity and nothing but top pair on a coordinated board, I'm not going to feel bad about sucking out. And I really also don't want to hear my table mates go on and on about how I got so lucky for 10 minutes. Of course I got lucky. Better to just say nothing and move on with your lives. I'll take the lucky bones I was thrown because believe me I was not born with a horseshoe up my arse. I probably got my only two lucky rivers I'm going to get for the next year. And look what it got my anyway Squadoosh.... Remember, sometimes I don't care what my cards are. If I'm short, I'm making a move solely based on my chip stack in relation to yours and board texture.
Dr Pauly is soliciting opinions on who should be inducted into this years Poker Hall of Fame. You can leave a comment at the end of this post. Congratulations to him for being selected as one of 15 media member's who get to vote. I'm pretty sure Andrew Feldman over on ESPN is another media vote based on a comment he left. Both of these guys are reading our comments. All the nominees are worthy, but who deserves to go in first is the question.
MUSIC:
If your a music fan and/or fan of Mike Gordon's solo band, lead guitarist Scott Murawski is looking for suggestions of covers to under take. I came up with some pretty wild ones including Pink Floyd's PIGS. I tried to come up with song's that had killer bass lines for Mike as well as great guitar work for Scott. I stayed clear of songs PHISH has covered and Max Creek has covered including the Grateful Dead catalogue. Not that I wouldn't want to hear them try The Eleven, its just that there are so many other cover songs out there they could have fun with. I no longer go to Max Creek shows to hear them play Dead covers. I may have done so back in 1986 but after I became familiar with their own tunes those became my favorites. In fact, Emotional Railroad is a current Max Creek cover being performed by MGB and one of my favorites.
And be sure to head over to Coventry for all the news thats PHISH to print (and lots of non-Phish stuff too).
Finally, It's amazing how many people pop onto my blog still looking for info on Brandi Hawbaker as well as, the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal. The UB cheating scandal is still pretty fresh in everyone's minds since the recently released official report finely outed and named Russ Hamilton as the primary person behind the accounts thru which a multitude of higher stakes cash game players were robbed from. No surprise there really. The question remains on whether the other alleged cheats names will be released. Its quite possible those alleged names may never see the light of day unless they actually were the owner's of the accounts. Since these other people may have not had any inside position at UB with direct access to creating super-user accounts it may be really hard to prove they were the ones who actually played and cheated on the account. One of the reasons said names may not have been released. I'm by no means a legal expert but can only imagine the ramifications if someone is named and it cant be proven (libel & slander lawsuits up the wazoo).
Now its time to sit down with Dan Brown's Lost Symbol and some left-over Chinese Food.
Friday, September 11, 2009
On the Road
I'm about to head out the door for a quick trip down to Woodstock, NY for a concert at the Bearsville Theatre. I'm raging solo tonite as BFF Kim has a bad case of pink eye and Zack (my oldest nephew) can't make it from Boston in time. I'll be seeing the Mike Gordon Band. For my poker playing readers, he is the bassist for Phish and features one of my top 5 favorite guitarists, Scott Murawski of Max Creek.
I am still on poker hiatus. I took off all of August. And short of playing ten minutes of the Blogger thank you freeroll that awarded $109 WCOOP seats on pokerstars recently, I have not played any poker live or online since 07/26/2009. Once I return to the felt I hope to have a renewed focus. But I have really enjoyed my down time
I've discovered its really hard at my age to do it all. I love music, I love to play poker, I love trying out new restaurants and recipes. I love to read and to garden. I'm about to take on some volunteer work with our soon to open Saratoga County Animal Shelter satellite location. Plus, when you work a customer service job which requires you to be perky 40 hours a week and your soon to be 49, you get tired. Playing poker, like training for a marathon is a part-time job.
Rags my little semi feral or throwaway cat is getting snipped on October 1st. Hopefully he'll test out okay for FIV/FLV and I can work on getting him semi indoors for the winter. I'm beginning to think he may have been kicked to the curb and became unsocialized. He's currently living in a dog house I bought for him outside the condo front door behind some shrubery. He spends most of his time on my doormat or sunning himself on the walkway and doesn't run from anyone anymore. In fact he is constantly looking for a pet. He brought me two half eaten mouse heads last week. Guess he appreciates all I've done for him. He took a swipe at me (but missed) yesterday when I walked away from petting him but hadn't done that in a while.
My mom just had her hammertoe operated on today for the third and hopefully final time. I'm going to spend most of tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon with her as she already is stir crazy about being unable to drive for 4 weeks while she heals. Unfortunately its her driving foot. The first season of True Blood came from Amazon.com today and I figure that will be good to watch together. I'm also looking forward to reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol when it drops on Tuesday.
And for the record, CU plays Toledo tonight and it will be televised. I am not going to miss another concert to watch them play. Maybe they will win if I dont watch!!!
Now its time to go get Bassed. Mike should be soundchecking right now on WDST. Check out my quick post over on Coventry Music.
I am still on poker hiatus. I took off all of August. And short of playing ten minutes of the Blogger thank you freeroll that awarded $109 WCOOP seats on pokerstars recently, I have not played any poker live or online since 07/26/2009. Once I return to the felt I hope to have a renewed focus. But I have really enjoyed my down time
I've discovered its really hard at my age to do it all. I love music, I love to play poker, I love trying out new restaurants and recipes. I love to read and to garden. I'm about to take on some volunteer work with our soon to open Saratoga County Animal Shelter satellite location. Plus, when you work a customer service job which requires you to be perky 40 hours a week and your soon to be 49, you get tired. Playing poker, like training for a marathon is a part-time job.
Rags my little semi feral or throwaway cat is getting snipped on October 1st. Hopefully he'll test out okay for FIV/FLV and I can work on getting him semi indoors for the winter. I'm beginning to think he may have been kicked to the curb and became unsocialized. He's currently living in a dog house I bought for him outside the condo front door behind some shrubery. He spends most of his time on my doormat or sunning himself on the walkway and doesn't run from anyone anymore. In fact he is constantly looking for a pet. He brought me two half eaten mouse heads last week. Guess he appreciates all I've done for him. He took a swipe at me (but missed) yesterday when I walked away from petting him but hadn't done that in a while.
My mom just had her hammertoe operated on today for the third and hopefully final time. I'm going to spend most of tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon with her as she already is stir crazy about being unable to drive for 4 weeks while she heals. Unfortunately its her driving foot. The first season of True Blood came from Amazon.com today and I figure that will be good to watch together. I'm also looking forward to reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol when it drops on Tuesday.
And for the record, CU plays Toledo tonight and it will be televised. I am not going to miss another concert to watch them play. Maybe they will win if I dont watch!!!
Now its time to go get Bassed. Mike should be soundchecking right now on WDST. Check out my quick post over on Coventry Music.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
I was Ready for College Football
This half-time report is brought to you by: Alum who remembers when we sucked it hard.
Its beginning to look alot like when I was in College circa Fall 1980 - May 1983 or the Pre-BM years ( that's for Bill McCartney). I know we were beat up by injuries last year, but this is ridiculous. The Defensive line needs to learn how to tackle. The Offensive line needs to give the Quarterback some protection and Cody needs to learn how to stay in the pocket.
We were totally pwned/owned in the first half by the CSU Rams. The most exciting thing other than Ralphie's magnificent run was the 55 yard field goal by the dude who couldn't do anything last year and whose name is escaping me currently. Think its Goodman.
Woot we scored while i was typing this. I'm a little shocked to see Little Hawk back in as QB thought he would get the bench and they would start out the 2nd half with Tyler Hansen.
I decided to stay home and watch football rather then drive or to Lenox and see Max Creek. I'm beginning to question my decision/sanity.
Its beginning to look alot like when I was in College circa Fall 1980 - May 1983 or the Pre-BM years ( that's for Bill McCartney). I know we were beat up by injuries last year, but this is ridiculous. The Defensive line needs to learn how to tackle. The Offensive line needs to give the Quarterback some protection and Cody needs to learn how to stay in the pocket.
We were totally pwned/owned in the first half by the CSU Rams. The most exciting thing other than Ralphie's magnificent run was the 55 yard field goal by the dude who couldn't do anything last year and whose name is escaping me currently. Think its Goodman.
Woot we scored while i was typing this. I'm a little shocked to see Little Hawk back in as QB thought he would get the bench and they would start out the 2nd half with Tyler Hansen.
I decided to stay home and watch football rather then drive or to Lenox and see Max Creek. I'm beginning to question my decision/sanity.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
A Phish Tale
I had a great time at my first live Phish show and a most totally awesome time catching up with and hanging out with everyone's favorite globe-trotting, soon to be book author, Dr Pauly.
You can check out my thoughts on the show over on Coventry Music by clicking here.
And this is just my two cents but local journalists should really be ashamed of themselves for this kind of reporting. I know more then a few poker bloggers who write better then this.
You can check out my thoughts on the show over on Coventry Music by clicking here.
And this is just my two cents but local journalists should really be ashamed of themselves for this kind of reporting. I know more then a few poker bloggers who write better then this.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
PFRIDAY PHISHY PFORECAST
Sunday 8/16/09:
HIGH 90F LOW 66F
PARTLY CLOUDY
Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the mid 60s.
Chance of rain 20%
Head over to Coventry Music at 4:20 AM for my guide to navigating Saratoga/SPAC during the busy racing season that is August.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Hey Now I Still have a Blog
Twitter has definitely killed my blogging efforts. I also have played literally no poker in the last two, err actually three weeks except that 2010 WSOP seat freeroll I qualified for. That was held on the day I drove back from a music festival. I had it going on early and then ran my big stack into another big stacks turned flush. Yup online poker morons still call pot size bets on the flop with just flush draws. Its also what I expect for a freeroll.
I pretty much have decided to take the summer off from poker. Mostly because, Ive been busy doing other things. I went to Gathering of the Vibes on a day trip with BFF, Kim, stayed over night at my sister's in Westport CT. Shopped with Kim at Trader Joe's, Stew Leonard's and Whole Foods in Norwalk/Westport on the return. It was a good old girls day with a slumber party at my sister's. My sis had not seen Kim in 31 years since my High School graduation party. Suzie is an awesome gardener and sent Kim home with lots of succulent babies to get started.
I got stung by a wasp last Friday night. That resulted in me jabbing myself in the thigh with an epi-pen and a trip to on-call. They held me for a bit, gave me some prednisone and two prescriptions. I was no worse for wear next day. The prednisone took away all itching, swelling and in the morning I could barely see where I was stung. Amazing!!!
I will be headed into actual work for a two week training class in September as it stands right now. The good news, I will work a normal 5 day week of like 8 to 5:30 instead of my 9.5/9.5/9/8/4 schedule I work now. I have had every Friday off for the months of July and August though.
I have not made it up to the Race Track (Saratoga) yet and probably wont. I have an old running friend in town for the meet. She rent's a house for four weeks and I have to squeeze in a day/afternoon to catch up with her. She owns horse's in partnerships much like Snake5970. Snake's horse's are all on the sidelines right now. Two are recovering from injuries. If he's lucky he may see Hooked on Hope run at the tale end of the Saratoga meet. She is still stabled and training down at Belmont. She's been on the comeback trail since getting injured after her last race in late April.
I will make it up to SPAC however for PHISH 3.0 next Sunday 8/16/09. BFF Kim and I are on the lawn. Nephew Zack (Kim's 24 yr old) and his buddy Nate are in the Balcony and Dr Pauly is coming into town (balcony). WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!. Anyone who knows Pauly, knows its virtually impossible to catch up with him when he's working the WSOP. Since he's pretty much west-coast based when he's not traveling now and his trips to NYS/NYC infrequent its cool that he's literally going to be on my doorstep. Way cooler hanging out and catching up in a relaxing setting where people don't talk about bad beats. Plus its my first live PHISH show ever!! Pauly has already initiated a few of us poker bloggers into the way of the PHISH. The only poker-y thing I may even mention is his upcoming book LOST VEGAS. Much rather talk about music, food, travels etc. The only bummer is Nicky isn't coming on this east coast trip and I haven't seen her since the day we both played the 2007 ladies event.
Just for the record, I am not a complete Phish virgin. I did see the Coventry Simulcast in 2004 with California Rob and wife, Toni. I have seen Trey and Mike play with their own bands as well as them sitting in with Phil Lesh & Friends and I saw Mike join the Dead on bass and segway a few years back. This will be my first time seeing the fab four together. I'm going in with an open mind and no expectations. For years, I didn't get PHISH probably because they weren't the Dead. I finally came to appreciate them for the awesome musicians they are. Compositionally, they are nothing like the Dead so to compare them it isn't even fair. But man they can lay down some mind-bending jams.
I also scored tickets for the Mike Gordon Band at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on 09/11/09. The theatre sits like 250 people. Attached to the theatre are two well know restaurants one Chinese the Little Bear and the renowned Bear Cafe. I'm totally psyched for this because Max Creek/BK3, guitarist Scott Murawski is reprising his role on guitar. Max Creek put on a smoking show at Vibes and I'm going to try to catch them Labor Day weekend at CreekEnd, if i can set aside the time to stay on site as required. I can honestly say that as someone who has followed Creek for a really long time, Scott gets better with age. One of the most under-appreciated/rated journeyman guitarists out there. Time permitting, BFF Kim and I will first travel to the Museum at Bethel Woods, site of the actual Woodstock Festival in 1969. It's about an hour away from Woodstock proper. Plus there is also the Kaatskill Kaleidoscope (the world's biggest) in Mount Tremper.
All for now, time to check out the farmer's markets and stands for NYS's best produce. Tomatoes suck this year. Too much rain causing a major fungus. Fortunately I didn't try to grow any myself this year. The Albany area had the rainiest July in history. We had 9.91 inches which was 6.4 inches above normal. It's also been unseasonably cool.
I pretty much have decided to take the summer off from poker. Mostly because, Ive been busy doing other things. I went to Gathering of the Vibes on a day trip with BFF, Kim, stayed over night at my sister's in Westport CT. Shopped with Kim at Trader Joe's, Stew Leonard's and Whole Foods in Norwalk/Westport on the return. It was a good old girls day with a slumber party at my sister's. My sis had not seen Kim in 31 years since my High School graduation party. Suzie is an awesome gardener and sent Kim home with lots of succulent babies to get started.
I got stung by a wasp last Friday night. That resulted in me jabbing myself in the thigh with an epi-pen and a trip to on-call. They held me for a bit, gave me some prednisone and two prescriptions. I was no worse for wear next day. The prednisone took away all itching, swelling and in the morning I could barely see where I was stung. Amazing!!!
I will be headed into actual work for a two week training class in September as it stands right now. The good news, I will work a normal 5 day week of like 8 to 5:30 instead of my 9.5/9.5/9/8/4 schedule I work now. I have had every Friday off for the months of July and August though.
I have not made it up to the Race Track (Saratoga) yet and probably wont. I have an old running friend in town for the meet. She rent's a house for four weeks and I have to squeeze in a day/afternoon to catch up with her. She owns horse's in partnerships much like Snake5970. Snake's horse's are all on the sidelines right now. Two are recovering from injuries. If he's lucky he may see Hooked on Hope run at the tale end of the Saratoga meet. She is still stabled and training down at Belmont. She's been on the comeback trail since getting injured after her last race in late April.
I will make it up to SPAC however for PHISH 3.0 next Sunday 8/16/09. BFF Kim and I are on the lawn. Nephew Zack (Kim's 24 yr old) and his buddy Nate are in the Balcony and Dr Pauly is coming into town (balcony). WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!. Anyone who knows Pauly, knows its virtually impossible to catch up with him when he's working the WSOP. Since he's pretty much west-coast based when he's not traveling now and his trips to NYS/NYC infrequent its cool that he's literally going to be on my doorstep. Way cooler hanging out and catching up in a relaxing setting where people don't talk about bad beats. Plus its my first live PHISH show ever!! Pauly has already initiated a few of us poker bloggers into the way of the PHISH. The only poker-y thing I may even mention is his upcoming book LOST VEGAS. Much rather talk about music, food, travels etc. The only bummer is Nicky isn't coming on this east coast trip and I haven't seen her since the day we both played the 2007 ladies event.
Just for the record, I am not a complete Phish virgin. I did see the Coventry Simulcast in 2004 with California Rob and wife, Toni. I have seen Trey and Mike play with their own bands as well as them sitting in with Phil Lesh & Friends and I saw Mike join the Dead on bass and segway a few years back. This will be my first time seeing the fab four together. I'm going in with an open mind and no expectations. For years, I didn't get PHISH probably because they weren't the Dead. I finally came to appreciate them for the awesome musicians they are. Compositionally, they are nothing like the Dead so to compare them it isn't even fair. But man they can lay down some mind-bending jams.
I also scored tickets for the Mike Gordon Band at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on 09/11/09. The theatre sits like 250 people. Attached to the theatre are two well know restaurants one Chinese the Little Bear and the renowned Bear Cafe. I'm totally psyched for this because Max Creek/BK3, guitarist Scott Murawski is reprising his role on guitar. Max Creek put on a smoking show at Vibes and I'm going to try to catch them Labor Day weekend at CreekEnd, if i can set aside the time to stay on site as required. I can honestly say that as someone who has followed Creek for a really long time, Scott gets better with age. One of the most under-appreciated/rated journeyman guitarists out there. Time permitting, BFF Kim and I will first travel to the Museum at Bethel Woods, site of the actual Woodstock Festival in 1969. It's about an hour away from Woodstock proper. Plus there is also the Kaatskill Kaleidoscope (the world's biggest) in Mount Tremper.
All for now, time to check out the farmer's markets and stands for NYS's best produce. Tomatoes suck this year. Too much rain causing a major fungus. Fortunately I didn't try to grow any myself this year. The Albany area had the rainiest July in history. We had 9.91 inches which was 6.4 inches above normal. It's also been unseasonably cool.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Midterm WSOP Main Event Fantasy Report
After four day 1's, two day 2's we are finally condensed to one day 3 of the 2009 WSOP Main event. Cant believe the WSOP started over a month and a half ago and we are already to the grand finale event 57.
I participated in Full Tilt Poker's Fantasy Poker Challenge. I'm currently sitting in the top 200 overall. I earned two full tilt hats for two top fifty finishes in individual events, entry into a bunch of free rolls for top 2000 finishes in a bunch of events and by virtue of a 4th place finish over 1000+ in the RAZZ Tourney the other night, I now play for a 2010 WSOP Main Event seat. The top 100 overall finishers plus the top ten in every free roll earn spots in this finale free roll. I was in the top 100 overall for most of the later half of the challenge but fell out when i had zero money finishers in the last donkaments. It also didn't help that in event 56 my picks didn't take and carried over from the prior event. Had they taken I should have been back in the top 100 overall as a lot of my horses cashed including eventual bracelet winner Matt Hawrilenko. I now don't really care about a top 100 finish since i have my spot in that grand finale freeroll already.
So, who did I take as my final horses in the Main Event? I went with players who had solid live poker tourney success in deep fields. In other words, warriors those who know how to survive a grueling multi-day event when its not won on the first second or even third or fourth days:
My line-up of 15:
Vitaly Lunkin on to day three with T135900
Phil Hellmuth on to day three with T142900
Daniel Negreanu - Busto day 1C. Daniel tweeted that he was sick sick sick. I only wanted to pick Negreanu or Ivey wrong horse picked as Ivey is still alive and doing very well. But does Ivey really care about the ME or would he really rather be over in Bobby's Room playing cash and winning outrageous prop bets?
Gus Hanson - Busto Day 2A. Not alot was reported about Gus on his day 1, largely as he was at the feature table and ESPN has the monopoly on reporting over there. Pokernews updates were few and far between.
Huck Seed - Busto 1D not alot said about Huck but I think he was in the area of the feature or secondary feature table hence the lack of updates. Some folks thought he was a shut-out but his bust-out was reported
Justin Bonomo on to day three T22330 - Solid player both online and live. He was my young gun horse. Chosen over the likes of Jimmy Fricke (who is still alive going into day 3) and Shaun Deeb (busto) and Isaac Baron. I've met Jimmy a couple of times at Turning Stone and like him a lot as a player and he's a nice young man. But Jimmy hasn't been running hot like Justin coming into the series, and in the early WSOP events. Shaun was actually an easy bench for the ME. He ran up a huge stack early and then busted on his day 2 when he 5-bet a9os into pocket AA or KK. In a prior post I mentioned the importance in the ability to change gears. Even Joe Hachem on the pokerstars blog mentioned this important ability in a large field live multi day MTT. I'm picking on Shaun here, but over and over again throughout the course of the early events many of the top online players succumbed to their Achilles heel: the inability to back off the aggression factor when they were not getting the best of it and coinflipping with hands they wouldn't fold after being played back at.
Mike Matusow - Busto day 2A. per his tweets he was card dead. I was rooting for you Mikey.
Lee Watkinson - on to day three with T62300. I'm not sure why I picked him, other than a few deep runs over the last couple Main Events. Lee was up over 100k in chips but lost two big hands on day 2B
David Benefield - busto day 1D. He cashed last year had some deep runs in other events. Fellow blogger and friend, LJ works for CardRunners and he looked to be the best of the CardRunners bunch as far as MTT ability and I wanted another young gun. (Sorry LJ you are not an option in Full Tilt's Fantasy Challenge, so I couldn't pick you!!).
Ylon Schwartz Busto day 2B. The one November Niner who had the best 2009 WSOP in the preliminary events. Sadly he is busto. Eastgate, Phillips, Suharto and Kim are still alive from last years original Novemeber 9.
Ivan Demidov - Busto day 1D (see above). He joins Ylon on the rail along with Scott Montgomery and Chino Rheem. I'm not sure if Craig Marquis even played this year
John Turner - Busto day 2A - I picked pearljammer much for the same reason I picked Justin Bonomo. Can play both online and live with success.
Greg Raymer - on to day three with T95900. A great finish in the 40k, plus hes proven his ability to go deep in Main Events more then once!
Eugene Katchalov on to day three with T183800 - He's a Russian, who lives in the US. if you notice a pattern of my picks, I picked Russians, young dudes who can play online and live, and a few former ME champs who have gone deep in other big championship tourneys.
Matt Hawrilenko on to day three with T65700 - Fresh off a bracelet and like Justin was running well coming into the main event. Plus his name sounds Eastern Bloc-ish, Russian.
So 7 of my 15 are alive heading into the meat of the Main Event. 6494 players began with 30k stacks. Total chips in play T194,820,000. total players remaining heading into Day 3 2044. Average stack size t93484. As you can see only two of my players are below average stack. Raymer is average stacked and the others are well above average.
I'm kind of sad we are getting to the end of this years series but at least I will have the TV coverage to look forward to.
I participated in Full Tilt Poker's Fantasy Poker Challenge. I'm currently sitting in the top 200 overall. I earned two full tilt hats for two top fifty finishes in individual events, entry into a bunch of free rolls for top 2000 finishes in a bunch of events and by virtue of a 4th place finish over 1000+ in the RAZZ Tourney the other night, I now play for a 2010 WSOP Main Event seat. The top 100 overall finishers plus the top ten in every free roll earn spots in this finale free roll. I was in the top 100 overall for most of the later half of the challenge but fell out when i had zero money finishers in the last donkaments. It also didn't help that in event 56 my picks didn't take and carried over from the prior event. Had they taken I should have been back in the top 100 overall as a lot of my horses cashed including eventual bracelet winner Matt Hawrilenko. I now don't really care about a top 100 finish since i have my spot in that grand finale freeroll already.
So, who did I take as my final horses in the Main Event? I went with players who had solid live poker tourney success in deep fields. In other words, warriors those who know how to survive a grueling multi-day event when its not won on the first second or even third or fourth days:
My line-up of 15:
Vitaly Lunkin on to day three with T135900
Phil Hellmuth on to day three with T142900
Daniel Negreanu - Busto day 1C. Daniel tweeted that he was sick sick sick. I only wanted to pick Negreanu or Ivey wrong horse picked as Ivey is still alive and doing very well. But does Ivey really care about the ME or would he really rather be over in Bobby's Room playing cash and winning outrageous prop bets?
Gus Hanson - Busto Day 2A. Not alot was reported about Gus on his day 1, largely as he was at the feature table and ESPN has the monopoly on reporting over there. Pokernews updates were few and far between.
Huck Seed - Busto 1D not alot said about Huck but I think he was in the area of the feature or secondary feature table hence the lack of updates. Some folks thought he was a shut-out but his bust-out was reported
Justin Bonomo on to day three T22330 - Solid player both online and live. He was my young gun horse. Chosen over the likes of Jimmy Fricke (who is still alive going into day 3) and Shaun Deeb (busto) and Isaac Baron. I've met Jimmy a couple of times at Turning Stone and like him a lot as a player and he's a nice young man. But Jimmy hasn't been running hot like Justin coming into the series, and in the early WSOP events. Shaun was actually an easy bench for the ME. He ran up a huge stack early and then busted on his day 2 when he 5-bet a9os into pocket AA or KK. In a prior post I mentioned the importance in the ability to change gears. Even Joe Hachem on the pokerstars blog mentioned this important ability in a large field live multi day MTT. I'm picking on Shaun here, but over and over again throughout the course of the early events many of the top online players succumbed to their Achilles heel: the inability to back off the aggression factor when they were not getting the best of it and coinflipping with hands they wouldn't fold after being played back at.
Mike Matusow - Busto day 2A. per his tweets he was card dead. I was rooting for you Mikey.
Lee Watkinson - on to day three with T62300. I'm not sure why I picked him, other than a few deep runs over the last couple Main Events. Lee was up over 100k in chips but lost two big hands on day 2B
David Benefield - busto day 1D. He cashed last year had some deep runs in other events. Fellow blogger and friend, LJ works for CardRunners and he looked to be the best of the CardRunners bunch as far as MTT ability and I wanted another young gun. (Sorry LJ you are not an option in Full Tilt's Fantasy Challenge, so I couldn't pick you!!).
Ylon Schwartz Busto day 2B. The one November Niner who had the best 2009 WSOP in the preliminary events. Sadly he is busto. Eastgate, Phillips, Suharto and Kim are still alive from last years original Novemeber 9.
Ivan Demidov - Busto day 1D (see above). He joins Ylon on the rail along with Scott Montgomery and Chino Rheem. I'm not sure if Craig Marquis even played this year
John Turner - Busto day 2A - I picked pearljammer much for the same reason I picked Justin Bonomo. Can play both online and live with success.
Greg Raymer - on to day three with T95900. A great finish in the 40k, plus hes proven his ability to go deep in Main Events more then once!
Eugene Katchalov on to day three with T183800 - He's a Russian, who lives in the US. if you notice a pattern of my picks, I picked Russians, young dudes who can play online and live, and a few former ME champs who have gone deep in other big championship tourneys.
Matt Hawrilenko on to day three with T65700 - Fresh off a bracelet and like Justin was running well coming into the main event. Plus his name sounds Eastern Bloc-ish, Russian.
So 7 of my 15 are alive heading into the meat of the Main Event. 6494 players began with 30k stacks. Total chips in play T194,820,000. total players remaining heading into Day 3 2044. Average stack size t93484. As you can see only two of my players are below average stack. Raymer is average stacked and the others are well above average.
I'm kind of sad we are getting to the end of this years series but at least I will have the TV coverage to look forward to.
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