Hella Hold'em

DMB Alpine was absolutely fantastic. I've been on a DMB high all week (while chasing away the cold I caught), but oh my my, was it good!

I'm doing that limit thing again. I can't really explain it, but limit really is my game - though I've been doing strictly NL SnG's for what seems like forever now, and I do well at those - but I guess that's the thing. After all these years, it's NL tourneys and limit cash games. Yup, that's me. I'd love to make it out to check out the new Horseshoe poker room in Hammond one of these days...

I came across the most amazing looking recipe for chocolate peanut butter cake on the PLANET today. Seriously. It's like food porn. Go see: Smitten Kitchen - Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. The pictures are ridiculous. Thanks to Kevin Rose for posting it. It is on my Must Make list.

One thing I did forget over time about these micro limit games: how many insane chasers there are. Yowza. I've hit 2 straights and flopped a set so far, and lost all 3! I know, I know... these are the people I WANT at my table... yada yada yada.

I still haven't changed to the penguin avatar. Thinking about it.

I spent a good chunk of time last night working in Photoshop on a logo header for what may become my ebay store. I sold photography prints on there for a couple months before I left on vacation, and am thinking of doing the whole store thing. I sell prints through Zenfolio as well, but I think eBay has much better exposure.

Ha I just flopped a straight, but with the wrong hole cards on the wrong table. LOL!

Is there any good reason to sit down at a .25/.50 limit game with $50? Oh right - to give it all to ME!

Or not. These are some butt ugly cards.

Not much else going on around here. I go back to work next week. Summer went by WAY too fast. I'm not ready to get back in the grind. I've got a busy schedule for fall, teaching 4 classes and taking 3 photography classes. It's all good - I'll just be a bit chicken-sans-head. But what else is new, right?!

Debating shutting this thing down to go eat a bowl of Lucky Charms and watch the Olympics...

I've got a couple new articles up on Suite101 -

Twitter Tools: TweetDeck - Organize and Search Twitter Tweets Quickly and Easily

and

Point n Shoot Digital Infrared Photography: Get Creative with Invisible Light

and

Inexpensive Macro Photography: Close-Up Lenses - Magnify the World Around You and Take Amazing Photos

So, what are you waiting for? Go read! :)

I'm not sure what prompted me to play a little limit holdem the other day, but I did... Limit to me is kind of like auto-pilot poker. It's all math. It's not very situational. The rules are pretty much the rules, all the time. Kind of like doing brain teaser puzzles.

My brain likes limit. Multi-tabling limit is like brain exercise.

Limit really makes me want to go hit up the boats. The new Horseshoe poker room opened up in Hammond, and I hear it is MIGHTY nice...

I'm heading to Milwaukee tomorrow for DMB at Alpine Valley. It should be sick!! Can't wait!!

K4o, on the other hand, is not sick. Or it is, in the literal sense.

I much prefer full ring games to 6-handed, for the record.

I've been thinking about making a change. I'm usually the goldfish avatar on Full Tilt Poker, but they now have a penguin avatar - and I love penguins! I collect them, and I sponsor one at the local zoo. But, the goldfish is... sort of... part of me. Maybe I'll try the penguin on for size. But is that disrespecting the goldfish? I don't want to diss the fish.

I hate when I call someone down with second pair thinking they're weak as all hades, to see that they turned the straight.

Ahh well, lunch beckons me...

I've got a new article up on Suite101.com: Creative Film Photography with Holga Cameras.

Enjoy!

I haven't played a MTT in a while... OK, so 2 tables isn't exactly breaking the "multi" bank, but hey. I want to get to sleep at some point tonight (cuz we all know THIS IS MY TIME! I'm gonna ROCK THIS THING!) ha!

I've got a 20" monitor and a 24" monitor, and I can't seem to get comfortable. Bah. Windows feel disorganized. My head is twisted the wrong way. Man, I've got problems!!!

iTunes is on shuffle...

We had some wicked storms roll through here tonight. The tornadoes missed me (that's always a good thing, and it was too dark to take pictures anyway, so I don't mind). I was hoping to get some cool lightning photos, but no such luck. It was all flashy, not streaky. I see some lightning on the horizon now - maybe I'll get lucky tonight.

Loose table so far... 4 or 5 to each flop. One guy out already. (It's the 4th hand).

I've been trying out the hand-coloring technique (photography) using these photo markers I got at the craft store. It was one of the techniques we covered in the experimental photography class I took this summer. I want to give it a fair shake before I write it off completely (no pun intended). I generally suck at coloring, but hand-coloring can be an imprecise, which bodes well for my suckage. I colored a photo tonight that I took in Boston. Not sure what I think of it. I colored it, scanned it, then applied the Holga simulator in Photoshop. (I'm in love with the Holga simulator. More to follow).



So this Holga thing... if you haven't heard of them, they're these cheap plastic cameras with plastic lenses. They have a bit of a cult following due to the unexpected results you can achieve with the crappy lens and the light leaks and whatnot. Yes, some people call this "art." I love what I've seen so far. There's a Photoshop action to simulate the misframing and weird vignetting and strange blur effects of a Holga (as seen above). I've just finished shooting my first roll of film with a Holga 120. It's 120 format black and white film. I haven't developed it yet. I'm not sure if I have a 120 reel for my film tank. I'll have to dig around in the box of stuff I inherited. I've got 2 things in mind to do with Holga stuff: 1) mod my Holga camera to take 35mm film, and 2) buy a Holga lens body cap for my Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I really love the look.

If you don't have Photoshop and would like to try out the Holga effect on a photo, there's a free online Holganizer!

One of my BIGGEST poker pet peeves: When someone's all in versus 2 opponents. Normally, the 2 opponents should check it down to increase the likelihood of knocking the 3rd person out. The exception is when one person actually has a hand and wants to try and make some money, or has a hand he/she would rather take on heads-up, but WHY would you min-bet the other person out of the pot when you have nothing but QUEEN HIGH?!?! I know why. BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT YOU'RE DOING!

/end rant

I like to see cheap flops.

And now, it's attack of the clones who can't do anything but hit the "bet pot" button. Arg!!!

The donks are sucking me to a slow death.

But the iTunes is doing pretty well tonight with the shuffle. Soul Asylum on now. Nice.

What you beyotches don't know is, I'm going out on MY TERMS! Eat that, punks!

22 - here we go!

vs AJ

SET

BOAT

And I live to play another hand!

Reading on how to mod a Holga 120 into a 35mm Holga...

KK all in... one call... vs AK.... I win! Yay!

The mod doesn't look hard at all. I wonder if I have any foam pieces laying around somewhere. Looks like a non-permanent mod, too, in case I want to shoot medium format again. The thing is, I'd like to shoot color, and I don't have color processing equipment at home, so I'd have to rely on the local photo shops, and it's hard to get anything but 35mm processed around here anymore.

Hells yeah, Smoking Popes! I <3 my iTunes.

Final table... haha out of 18 :) Still on life support. But I have a whole orbit to pick a hand.

Fantastic! 66 vs KQ, doubled up!

So, I got Adobe Lightroom 2.0. I religiously used LR 1.0, and I'm already so impressed with version 2.0 that I wouldn't go back to version 1 if you paid me. (Well, MAYBE if you paid me). Thomas Hawk did a nice write-up on the 10 Best Things About the New Lightroom 2.0. It's good stuff.

Ahh, Billy Joel...

Sorry guys. I just folded a hammer. I feel like a hypocrite every time I do.

I'm just over 10xBB with 6 people left. 4 places pay.

1 more out, though I'm the bottom. Gotta double up and hope somebody else knocks out.

Faith No More is takin' me through!

I'm going to miss Pauly's blog-birthday game. I have no funds on PokerStars. Booo :(

There's my double up, against a scooby. People really surprise me. I'm 3rd of 5. Looks like somebody didn't click the "I'm Ready" button for break....

I tried out extension tubes for some macro photography yesterday. It's a nice way to get into macro cheaply, but there are some disadvantages to buying a dedicated macro lens. The cheapo tubes disable auto-focus and aperture control, though that didn't really bother me, as I probably shoot 30% of my work with manual focus anyway, and the depth of field is so tiny that aperture control doesn't help much.  The most difficult thing was that with my 50mm lens, which has a short minimum focus distance of about 11 inches anyway, the minimum focus distance with the tubes was a couple inches, tops! I used my body to focus, moving forward and back as necessary to try and get sharp focus, but it was tough. I thought of getting out the tripod, but I was shooting a bee on a sunflower, and didn't want to miss the shot. Here's what I came up with:






Arg Full Tilt is throwing me all these juicy hands that I just can't play this short!!! And the short stack doubled up, booo. I'm still 3/5 but it's crowded here at the bottom.

U2... Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses

Yeah baby, ITM! Time for a comeback, eh?

Doubled again. DMB. Bring me home, Dave baby!

Jake here is a crazy blind stealer. It seems to work for him but he also calls way too many all-in's with inferior hands. Bad habit.

Can't do much with Q7o and T3o.

Before These Crowded Streets is my favorite Dave Matthews Band album of all times. I'm heading to Milwaukee to see them at Alpine Valley Music Theater this weekend. Can't wait! My summer revolves around DMB shows each year. Got a cheap hotel on Priceline - $55/night at a nice place in downtown Milwaukee. Noon Saturday can't come soon enough!

Top 3 baby...

Oh my, and now I'm chip leader. I love when the scoobies get cranky and tired and do stupid shit.

Boy, my cards are suckin' though! Folding lots.

Some new R.E.M. on the tune-age...

Passing chips around...

Heads UP!

And.... Green Day takes me into the Winner's Circle!

I should play these more often.

A few notable poker bloggers got blocked over the weekend by Blogger and locked out of their blogs. All seems to be operating normal today, but in case you missed it, Blogger has apologized for spam-blocking blogs.

We have now restored all accounts that were mistakenly marked as spam yesterday. (See: Spam Fridays)

We want to offer our sincerest apologies to affected bloggers and their readers. We’ve tracked down the problem to a bug in our data processing code that locked blogs even when our algorithms concluded they were not spam. We are adding additional monitoring and process checks to ensure that bugs of this magnitude are caught before they can affect your data.

Kudos to Blogger for admitting the problem and apparently working quickly to clear it up. In a similar vein, it looks like they are working on some import/export tools that should make it easier to back up your blog's posts (should something similar ever happen again).

Catching up on Poker After Dark on the TiVo, and you know what that means... two days in a row of posts that, while maybe not poker related, at least had some poker going on during their creation. w00t for you! haha :) Firing up a SnG on FTP...

So I'm watching the Director's Cut of the "Nets vs Vets" week, and the players are all introducing themselves and whatnot. One thought I can't shake: these internet players are going on and on about how they've played just as many hands as Doyle has in his lifetime because they play 32 tables at a time. Yes, BUT... playing live has so many facets beyond the poker itself that these net players have NO experience with - and in a lot of cases, it shows and gives away a wealth of information. I'm just appalled that they can seriously feel justified in comparing themselves to the legends of poker. Hell, the one kid can't even figure out how to cut out his chips.

It's a new age, I guess.

I enjoy playing online - don't get me wrong. But I play online because I can't get to the casino as often as I'd like, or because I don't at this moment have an actual bankroll. The authentic poker experience, to me, occurs in the poker rooms of the world, and not on living room couches. I'm sure some of these zillion-multi-tablers would disagree.

How many computer monitors does it take to run 32 friggin tables simultaneously??

Is anybody watching HGTV's Design Star? I want Jennifer to win so bad!!! :)

Nothing doing in this SnG. I need some cards and soon, or else I will be making an early exit.

Did this guy just say, "Doyle is a tight player..." The net kids must define "tight" differently than I do.

Shocker, he went out first.

True multitasking: watching PAD while playing a SnG while giving myself a manicure.

Now up: the Poker After Dark heads-up challenge. I like this show, but I really miss High Stakes Poker.

At some point today, I actually have to get out of my PJ's and go to work...

Just got knocked out. I'm mildly irritated at the range of hands people will call an all-in re-raise with for 1/3 of their stack. K3 suited? Really?

Let's roll this one more time...

Ahhh, nice little double up on the first hand with the nut straight. 3rd pair bet it all the way and called my river all-in reraise. Okie dokie!

It's amazing how Chris Ferguson can look so friendly yet so menacing, all at the same time. I'd have a messy chair to deal with if I ever had to stare him down heads-up.

Yowza. Made my straight J9 with a 10-8-10-Q-4 board. Was up against 8-10. Ouch.

Still 2nd in chips but the chip lead felt much more comfortable.

Well, that did not go well. 10-10 and out, knocked out by a caller who chased me down with K-10 and hit a K on the river. A pair draw? Really?

Scoobies 3, Me 0

Yes, ladies and gents, it's a quickie sit n go, starring ME!

Got back from vacation in Boston a couple days ago. Love that city. I'd move there in a heartbeat if the winds of fate shifted so. We hit all of the usual tourist haunts - the Duck tours, Prudential Center, Newbury Street, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Marketplace, Cheers (both the real and replicas), the Boston Common and Public Garden with the swan boats and the Make Way for Ducklings statues, various cemeteries, Fenway Park, the Boston Garden, Hard Rock Cafe Boston, the New England Aquarium Whale Watching cruise, Harvard (including Mr. Bentley's Burgers - highly recommended). That's all I can remember! Oh, and we checked out Salem, which after 2 visits I now feel comfortable saying it's overrated and rather lame (this coming from a girl who used to dabble in some of the esoteric arts). Boston, though, is an awesome city. I've been there twice now and absolutely love it. The subway ("T") is clean and user-friendly, and the people are great. There's so much history there.

Nothing doing so far in the SnG. Folded orbit #1.

For the photography geeks amongst you - has anybody used Costco's private label brand ("Kirkland") Professional Glossy Inkjet Photo Paper (8.5x11")? It was rumored that originally, this paper was a private label of Ilford's Gallerie Smooth paper, but that was when the packaging indicated that it was Made in Switzerland, where Ilford produces paper. Now, it is Made in the USA, and I've read once in passing that it is made by Mitsubishi and is not as good. Others claim it's a re-branded Epson paper.

I'm curious, because it's extremely reasonably priced, and has the same weight specs as some good papers (69 lb, 255g, 10.4mil). I'd love to know the source, mostly for estimating its permanence and archival qualities with pigment based inks.

Bummer. Just folded 67c to an all in preflop raise for 6xbb out of position with no previous callers... he had AA and against one caller, I'd have turned the straight.

Redemption, with a twinge of sadness: I just knocked out the donkey of the table. At these $20 tables, I find that there are on average maybe 5 decently solid players, 1 or 2 really good players, and a couple scoobies. It's kind of sad to see the donkeys go. Makes the game just a little bit tougher.

The Experimental Techniques photography class that I'm taking ends tonight. Overall, I'm pleased with the work I created for this class. We did some interesting techniques - hand coloring, solarization and the Sabbatier effect, infrared photography, paper negatives, and Polaroid image and emulsion transfers. I particularly liked the emulsion transfers and the infrared stuff.

For infrared, we shot with Ilford SFX 200 red-sensitive film (not true infrared - more of a "special effects" film). I shot my first roll with a Red 25 filter, and while the result was interesting, it wasn't quite infrared. I've since picked up an R72 filter but haven't had a chance to shoot another roll of film with it yet - though I did shoot some digital with the Canon PowerShot G9 and the R72 filter, and it definitely appears infrared. I only had a monopod in Boston and not a tripod, so nothing really came out as crisp as I'd like. A tripod is a definite must with that R72 filter. My camera was able to meter through it, but even in sunlight, the exposure was 1 second.

Flopped an OESD. Fingers crossed. Great. On the turn, a guy pushed all in for 1900 with 400 in the pot, and another guy called for his 1500. Was an open ender with one card to come worth my tourney life, even though I had top pair 7's? There was a 4-card lower gutshot onboard. I figured one of the two had it. I folded. The caller had the lower straight, and I'd have rivered the higher straight.

I should stop folding, eh? If only I were psychic.

Woohoo, FedEx just brought me my tickets to Dave Matthews Band at Alpine Valley (near Milwaukee, Wisconsin) next weekend. Sweet!

I'm short stacked at 6xBB right now, 4th of 6 remaining in chips.

And now I'm out, AJ vs AA. Whoops. Or not - had a few chips left and just doubled up to 3xBB! Life support!

Doubled again! Back to 3rd in chips with 8xBB. LOL!

Chip and a chair, buddy... chip and a chair.

I've got about an hour and a half to kill before I leave for class (and for a tasty Subway sandwich). Storm clouds are gathering. I didn't expect rain in the forecast today, but the skies look menacing.

If you caught any of my tweets last week, you may have read about my Blackberry mishap. I've got the Pearl 8130, the 2nd generation Pearl. I've been loving it since December. In Salem, we got caught in the rain, and though I took the phone off of my hip as soon as it started pouring (and put it into a plastic bag with my camera gear), the phone's screen shorted out from liquid damage. Strangely, though, it did not even get wet enough to trip the liquid sensors inside the phone. Just my bad luck, I guess. I had insurance on it and Sprint replaced it with no problems, but as I dug around on the internet, I found many reports of similar damage. The repair guy at the Sprint store told me that he has even seen sweat from people carrying the phone in their pockets cause this damage on this model. It seems to be overly fragile. I'm not hard on my phones. I had my last Blackberry for 5 years, and retired it only because it was so friggin old. Spare a couple of dings on the corners, and the thing was a tank.

With the Pearl, I managed to scratch it on the very first day I had it, by bumping up against the side of my car. I mean, really? Since December, it has earned more dings in its plastic case than my original BB ever had, and the silver plate around the trackball has chipped and lost most of its silver. I only had a skin on it for protection, so I've learned my lesson. I ordered the OtterBox Defender case for my new Pearl. It's water resistant and much more durable.

By the way, I'm heads up in that SnG.

And... out! Ha! From the gutter to the penthouse, baby - or, just beneath the penthouse. Second place. That's a win to me!

And with that, I will go get ready to head to school...

What if the iPhone "brick" tragedy extended to other parts of our lives? Brought to you by Revision3.

Go, Iggy! Cheers and good luck from Chitown!  

On PageRank, nofollows, ads, and SEO - Falstaff said it best:

PageRank is based on the quality of incoming links. By putting a nofollow into the link, the site that is linked doesn't get the PageRank boost, but your site doesn't get considered a linkspammer and your PageRank doesn't get hurt. It seems like Google has decided that some of my advertisers are buying links to manipulate the system, and need to be punished for that. Since I'm providing the link without a nofollow, I'm getting punished as well, because I am part of manipulating the system.

I'll be keeping an eye on that post over at PokerStage. I'm curious to see fellow bloggers' responses.

I'm a bit disturbed that Google can effectively decide who is allowed to buy and sell ads on the internet via this "policy." It's a little too Big Brother for my taste.

Many, many, many poker bloggers are finding that they've been dogged by Google, with a drop in page rank and a disappearance from search results. If you search Google for hella holdem right now, you'll see that I too have fallen off the map.

It appears to be related to buying/selling links / banner ads / affiliate programs. On the page to request reconsideration by Google, they note:

In general, sites that directly profit from traffic (e.g. search engine optimizers, affiliate programs, etc.) may need to provide more evidence of good faith before a site will be reconsidered.

I'm not sure if it will do any good, but you can request reconsideration from Google.

Happy 4th of July, everybody!

The fireworks were fan-friggin-tastic this year! As usual, we went to the New Lenox, IL display, and they never fail to put on a great show. It was a full half hour long, and not a bit of it was cheapo-filler-crap. I love their show.

I shot on a tripod with a cable release, and used ISO100 and f/11 for the entire show. Most of the time, I used a 2 or 3 second exposure. I made a few shots with a 6 second exposure, when they were firing off multiples in sequence, and those turned out pretty cool too.

Here are a few of my favorite blasts:

I've just dropped the following letter into the outgoing mail (postal mail, that is):

July 3, 2008
Customer Service
Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185

To Whom This May Concern,

I am writing regarding a recent experience I had with your technical support representatives (Ticket #801330xxxx). On June 28, 2008, I purchased the HP Photosmart Pro B8850 printer and several packages of Advanced HP photo paper. I ordered these items online via CircuitCity.com. The items were delivered in June 30, 2008.

I unpacked the printer and began setup. When I plugged the printer into the wall outlet, the printer received no power. After troubleshooting via telephone with one of your support representatives, it was determined that the AC power adapter was likely faulty. Your representative shipped a new AC adapter to me. It arrived on July 2, 2008.

The new AC adapter did not solve the problem. I called technical support again, and after troubleshooting, the representative determined that there was likely a problem with the printer itself. While I was disappointed, I understand that this happens. Hardware fails. It’s the way of the world, when it comes to computers.

What I was most disappointed in, though, was the solution offered by your representative. She offered to replace my brand new printer with a refurbished one. I explained that this printer was brand new out-of-the-box and was dead on arrival. I paid for a new printer. I expect replacement with a new printer. I could understand a refurbished replacement if I’d owned the printer for some time and it needed repair, but this printer was not used. The support representative agreed with me, but that she could not guarantee that the replacement would be new, and that she had no other options to offer me.

I find your policy of replacing brand new, defective items with used, refurbished ones to be completely unfair. I spent $549 on your product in good faith that it would work when I brought it home. When a brand new item is defective, I expect a brand new replacement - not just from HP, but from any company.

I am a photographer and a professor, and despite the advice of many of my colleagues to purchase an Epson (the reigning king in the professional photo printing arena), I decided to give HP a shot. The B8850 might be a fantastic printer. I did not get the opportunity to find out. Based on this experience, HP is not the kind of company I want to do business with.

As a result of my disappointment in your company’s policies, I have returned the HP printer and papers to Circuit City and instead purchased the Epson Stylus R1900 and Epson papers, and will recommend to my colleagues and students that they do the same.  

Sincerely,

Shelly

Well, I finally upgraded my old template to a Blogger Layout to take advantage of the ease of editing with widgets. I put all of my old code sections into widgets, and was quite happy - until I tried to install a new custom theme.

Silly me thought that widgets were modular and would just transfer over from layout to layout. Apparently, that is only true if you switch between one of the lame-o default layouts that Blogger provides. If I want to switch to a custom layout, I have to re-enter all of my widgets.

Ugh.

So that will be a project for another day. Until then, my apologies for the bland layout.

Signed up for a KO sit n go on FTP. Yes, a 90 player game is a bit more of a time commitment than I usually undertake these days - but we're in the wee single digits of the evening, my friends, and I feel some productive web surfing time ahead (and maybe some productive poker winning time to go with it... especially since I missed both the Trojan Wars game AND an impromptu Forest game this weekend). I know it's lame to say, "I'm due," but... well...

60 people registered so far. Getting there...

First up, did everybody go download the new Firefox 3? Get yourself into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most downloads in a 24 hour period! Download Firefox NOW!

With that, though, I have to say that I've morphed to using a Firefox-based browser that isn't Firefox.... Their latest beta (released yesterday, based on the new Firefox) crashed like crazy on my machine, but the one based on FF2 is rock-solid, and hopefully the bugs will be squashed soon in the FF3 release. If you blog or use social news or networking sites or are into media and photography online, Flock is uber cool. I know, I can't stop gushing, but it has made my time on the web so much more productive and enjoyable.

Tourney has begun. If I'm not mistaken, it's a turbo deep stack knockout tournament. Alrighty then! Say that 5 times fast. Man, people are doing some CRAZY preflop raising. 20xBB???!??!?!

Did I miss something?

So, I finally got around to creating a WordPress theme of my own. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. It was for my "business" site (the one I use to represent me for web dev/consulting projects and hopefully for photography in the near future) - http://purplepenguins.com. You likes? Me likes. My logo needs work, but aside from that...

Damn it, YOU FREAKS, STOP RAISING SO DAMN MUCH!!!!!

Listening to a recording of Don't Drink the Water by Dave Matthews Band, featuring Bela Fleck, from last week's show at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. Sick. Just sick. Show was fantastic, and I'm absolutely giddy to have seen Bela Fleck! I'm downloading a new recording of the show that I hear is better quality (less wind noise) than the first recording I downloaded. The wind gusts were only 45mph. No biggie, right?!

Omg these overbets are KILLING ME.

Srsly.

At this moment, I'm checking out some pinhole photography. I made my first pinhole camera in the Experimental Darkroom class I'm taking. It is made from a Santa Claus cookie tin. I've got some work to do to get it working. I haven't figured out the right exposure times yet - partially because I used a needle that was too big when I made my pinhole. Such is life - live and learn! I'm really digging on getting a Leonardo pinhole camera. That would be mighty cool.

AKs - maybe I can play this hand? Pretty please? With a standard 3xBB preflop raise on top?

Or not. 2-3-6 flop and the PFR'er pushed all in on the flop. Sigh.

Finally won a pot - a most unlikely one! 4 diamonds onboard and no diamonds in hand, but 2 pair held up after a check-check on el flopo.

Still reading pinhole photography stuff...

Nice, doubled up with the 2nd nut flush vs a guy who pushed all in on his straight draw with 3 clubs onboard?!?! Alrighty then! The overbetting continues, though  now I have some tolerance chips.

By the way, did I ever mention that I hate blog spam?

Antes have begun. I'm 17th out of 45 remaining.

Now I'm cruising MySpace, the ultimate in boredom. w00t just won a knockout bounty :)

Here's a photographer on Flickr that I really like: ScoutJ

I took some pictures today hoping to kick-start a new theme for a project I have to do for class, but they all sucked. Booo. I had a great time yesterday though, making paper negatives from magazine pages - a la "found art." My 2 faves:

Eye for Love


and

Within


Created in the darkroom as contact prints (a la paper negatives) and then scanned and processed digitally via Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Break time in the tourney. I'm currently 6th of 30.

Growing bored of reading hand histories lately, I won't bore you, but let's just say I made a pretty ballsy move just now, and it paid off. I could feel my opponent agonizing and wiggling in their seat. Mwah!

Another bust-out bounty, and I'm 2nd out of 20. *pats self on back for a good read*

I'd blog more about what I'm reading, but I'm still on pinhole photography, to which most of you are probably like, "Yawn..."

How about Twitter? Like, rock star. I'm phlyersphan. Follow me!

Oooh! KK!

As in, King King, not answering my own command... anyway, no action. I'll take it. Better than losing!

I'm reading about making pinhole body caps for cameras. I have a Canon Rebel K2 film camera, and the Digital Rebel XTi. Both are EOS and use the same body cap, if I'm not mistaken. It would be pretty cool to try out. Probably more reliable than my Santa Claus tin can pinhole camera.

Wow - from top 5 to out, in 2 hands. One was carelessness on my part (acting too quickly without thinking it through), and the other was bad luck (JJ vs 77, he hit his set of 7's). Maybe I'll try again.. finished 2 out of the money. I feel like I'm playing well tonight...  

Download the large size -
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/2582874758_783e95982e_o.jpg

I'm playing a SnG on FTP because my printer is driving me insane.

I have a Canon Pixma printer. It was a $300 printer a couple years ago. (Today, of course, the ink inside is worth more than the machine). I bought it for the exclusive purpose of printing photos. I have one of those HP all-in-one thingamajigs for document printing.

Everything was lovely until recently. The printer has started printing random stray marks on my photos. It almost looks like stray hair marks, but very small, and generally not in the same spot twice. I do have 3 cats, so I took a can of air to the inside of the printer. Bad idea. Not only did it make matters worse, but for a while, the printer gave me an error that it needed repair service - until I smacked it a few times, and the error went away.

I did all of the built-in maintenance options - nozzle check, head cleaning, deep head cleaning, bottom plate cleaning, and roller cleaning.

No good.

Desperate, I bought one of those inkjet printer cleaning kits. I swabbed everything I could reach with alcohol. I ran the moist towel like paper through it, just like it said.

Still, there are a couple tiny stray marks printing.

I can't think of anything else to do, and it is driving me insane. I'm neck deep in photography classes right now. I need to be able to print.

Calgon, take me away.

The SnG has become a push-fest, even though most everybody still has 20xBB in front of them. Whatevs.

Any ideas on the printer? Seriously, I'm open to anything at this point. Exorcism maybe?

Why did I just limp with JTo in MP? Flop = nada. Turned a gutshot, but not enough in the pot to pursue. Boo me.

And, am I the only one who is bothered by the people who ALWAYS and ONLY make a pot-sized bet? Srsly. Do you know anything about bet sizes in relation to the pot and your intentions?

On the photography front, I got a few pieces accepted into a gallery - my first exhibition :) It's a group exhibit at a local gallery. It opens this Friday. I'm excited and nervous! I finished writing my first "artist resume" this past weekend and applied to another exhibition out of state. I'm certain I won't get in, as the photos I had that fit the theme weren't the best, but I want the experience of trying - and, kind of like in hockey, you throw the puck at the net and sometimes, it finds its way in. I'm not above taking a lucky bounce if it comes my way!

I'm very near push-or-fold status. I play the turbo SnG's because I have trouble committing more than an hour to an online SnG anymore - but boy, those levels go fast when you're card dead.

There's a Trojan Wars game this weekend. So many darned things going on this weekend.The only thing I've got in stone is the gallery opening. The rest is up in the air. Will have to figure it all out one of these days.

Out vs. a flush.

I think I've got one more SnG in me. Turbo, of course.

So, how many of you have to-do lists of things you really want to get around to doing someday, or things you've started but haven't finished? Oy. Every year, I think I'll have time over my summer "break" from work, but every year I end up working a lot more than I expect to, and spend too much of the remainder of my time off vegging out. Here are some of the things on my list:

- Finish reading Scott Kelby's Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Digital Photographers. I only started it in like April 2007.
- Go through the now-giant stack of photography magazines next to my bed and scan the articles I want to keep into PDF files - or at least tear them out of the magazines and store them in binders or something.
- Clean my home office - I mean, REALLY... shred old paperwork I don't need anymore, file the giant stack of bills and whatnot that's been collecting for almost 2 years now, etc.
- Frame and hang the 20 some odd Dave Matthews Band tour posters I've been collecting for years. Speaking of - if anybody has an extra DMB tour poster from this past Friday's Bridgeview, IL show, I'm looking to buy one!
- Buy some tulips to plant in my front yard, and some decorative bricks to edge my landscaping.
- Re-stain my deck.

Yeah... one of these days.

Well, out again - I was ahead AK vs A7 and got the scooby all-in on the turn... and he/she/it rivered the gutshot straight.

With that, I will log off having both lost my SnG's *and* not accomplishing anything on my to-do list! Ha - procrastination accomplished :)

I'm so friggin anxious for DMB tonight! T-minus 40 minutes and counting till I go load up the truck and head out for tailgating festivities. I am stir crazy, so I am donking around a micro limit NLHE table on Full Tilt.

This will be my 25th Dave Matthews Band show tonight. I usually see no fewer than 5 shows per year, but this year I'm only slated for 3. Money's tight, and gas prices are killing me. Still, 3 will be wonderful (tonight in Chicago/Bridgeview, then 2 shows in August at Alpine Valley - Wisconsin).

While killing time this morning, I decided to try and give myself a quick French manicure. Oy. Apparently, there is no such thing as a "quick" French manicure. Oh well. So my nails look like a 4 year old colored on them. I'm seeing Dave tonight!

That is, if the weather holds out. We're at moderate risk for hail and tornado-bearing thunderstorms tonight - but who trusts the weather man, anyway? You know where I'll be: out in an open stadium with 30,000 other DMB freaks!

Wow. I've only killed 6 minutes. This is going to be a long half hour.

On the bright side, my pigtails cooperated fantastically! Totally stoked re: the pigtails today.

Haven't won a hand yet.

Twitter has been down for the past 18 or so hours for me. I see others have gotten some posts through, but not I. Sadness. I can't believe how mainstream twitter has become. For so long, it was only my geek friends on there. Now, look at you all!

Low pocket pairs in early position. It's so hard to raise them up. Flop it or drop it...

Wow. Donkey called my 1/3 to 1/2 pot bets all the way after turning the J high flush. Ummm hello, raise maybe? (I missed my gutshot straight flush draw but did have pocket 8's on a J-5-6 flop).

Ahhh, won it back on the bet-a-holic, check-the-river donk.

35 more minutes.

AKJ flop is generally not what you're looking for with 22 in the hole.

I found the negative of one of my favorite photos of my dad yesterday. I brought it to photography class and scanned it with their film scanner. I feel really lucky to have it.

Uh oh, tornado siren. Hmmm. Ya know, we hear these so often around here that people begin to NOT hear them. I should probably go scan the skies, just in case... there are tornadoes in the forecast today.

Donking around at .05/.10 NLHE with the 5 bucks I had in my FTP account (post-withdrawl, which took over a friggin MONTH, tyvm)... doubled my money! Double-rooni! w00t!

Catching up on the last series of Poker After Dark on my DVR. DirecTV is coming by Wednesday to hopefully fix my HD channels. They stopped working last week. The rep said my DVR/tuner might be bad, so I'm trying to watch everything I have saved in case they take it.

I've got to run to the post office to drop off an ebay shipment. Other than that, it's been a lazy day... ahhh, summer! I'm SO glad it's here - meteorological summer, anyway.

This Friday kicks off summer officially in my world - Dave Matthews Band at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. We've got some serious tail-gating plans. Can't wait!!

Alrighty, last round.

Nothing exciting. Off to the post office!     

Pauly's got my all time favorite WSOP coverage - so follow the Tao! And don't miss his live WSOP updates via Twitter.

My most uber geek crush is on Kevin Rose of former Tech TV Screen Savers fame and current Digg/Pownce fame. I've just fired up a sit n go on FTP with Diggnation in HD on the big screen. It's 80 degrees at 8pm. Life is good.

I love that Kevin Rose has a favorite vodka (Belvedere). Vodka = my favorite!

Tomorrow, my next photography class starts. I'm taking 2 classes - Digital Darkroom, and Lighting. I'm way looking forward to them.

I'm catching some crazy cards. Flopped 3 straights and a flush so far. Not getting much action, but I'm feelin' lucky, punk.

LMAO "mount it and ride it around like a cobra-cat"

So, I've switched to the Firefox-based web browser, Flock. I had tried it years ago, probably in like alpha phase - way early - and I loved the idea of it, but it was buggy as hell. Now, it's fantastic, and I'm in love. If you've never heard of Flock, it's got a lot of the nice Web 2.0-ish sites kind of built in. There's a sidebar that loads your Flickr friends' media streams, your Twitter friends, Facebook friends, etc. It has a built in blog editor, which makes it INCREDIBLY easy to write to multiple blogs without having to deal with logging in to each one. It has a built in photo uploader that works with Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa, and others. In a nutshell, it pulls together all of my favorite web services and makes it super easy to manage and share my stuff and keep up with what everybody's up to. Check it out - Flock.com.

Duuuuude, Diggnation in New York. Oh how I wish...

6 players left... everyone's around 10BB. Yawn.

Alright, I'm not going to post the name I just spoke out loud vs the "person" that knocked me out.

New game. One more episode of Diggnation to watch, so it works out.

ROFLMAO I keep missing my turn cuz I'm laughing hysterically at Diggnation. Srsly. It's just friggin funny.

Nice, AK. Damn, no flop.

Alex and Kevin make me want an iPhone. I heart my Blackberry, though. Until the iPhone integrates turn by turn GPS navigation, I can't even consider it. I wonder if there are any Digg themes for the Blackberry. (They just showed one for the iPhone and it's pretty slick).

I think I've overloaded my Blackberry trying to email the photos I took this afternoon of giant thunderheads. Wicked storm clouds. I tried to send 'em all to myself at the same time. Whoops.

Alrighty, in the money! Barely :)

And.... out! Just in time for the end of Diggnation. Nice.

more cat pictures

I'm trying again, this low limit NLHE cash game bit... ended even the other day. Yawn. Better than losing it. I thought the cash-out curse might come after me. I shouldn't speak so soon.

I'm almost done with work for the semester. I'm teaching this summer, but online, so it's not nearly as crazy as being on-campus. I will be on campus, however, but as a student - taking more photography classes. I've got Lighting and Digital Darkroom this summer. I'm thoroughly enjoying photography, both film/darkroom and digital.

Srsly? All in preflop in a cash game with A5o?

There are two bright red cardinals out in the tree in my back yard, and it is taking all of my will not to sit out the poker game and go shoot some photos of them. The light sucks out anyway.

Ahh, the all in on a flush draw bit...

If it wasn't so windy and the light was better, I'd go out and practice some digiscoping. I've got a field spotting telescope that connects either to my point n shoot camera or to my dSLR, which results in some great magnification. It's large and clunky, though, and I haven't quite mastered focusing with it. And birds aren't generally patient, cooperative subjects.

Yes, I watch birds for fun.

I planted the first bit of garden related improvement to my yard this past weekend: a Joseph's Coat climbing rose bush. It produces multicolored flowers, mostly oranges with reds and yellow all swirled together. I got it for the orange, of course (for the Flyers, who are poised to break my heart again this year, it seems). I have a small trellis behind it, but the branches aren't yet long enough to tie them to the trellis. I hope it survives. I wasn't able to plant it quite as deep into the ground as I was supposed to, as there's a rock bed/drainage tile thing under my yard about a foot down. So that's as far down as I could plant it. As we get toward fall, I'm going to plant some tulip bulbs around the front as well. I picked out some shades at the Veldheer Tulip Farm in Holland, Michigan a couple weekends ago - oranges and dark violets. My dad loved rose bushes. I'd like to keep that love alive.

Folding an ace? Yeah, I do that sometimes. Crappy kicker UTG. Wasn't feeling it.

[time lapse]

Slow playing bites me again. Why oh why do I do it?

Reading about digiscoping. Maybe I will go out and try and shoot some birds. (Photos, you freaks! Photos!)

I'm wondering if the digiscoping adapter I have is big enough to hold my dSLR. I have a different adapter that essentially makes the scope a big telephoto lens, but the other adapter (typically used for the point n shoot) would allow me to leave a lens on the dSLR (presumably the 50mm f 1.8 prime I've got). Hmmmmm.

Looks like it might rain. I should get out there. Dollars and cents slowly dribbling away on FTP. I think I just got bluffed out of a pot on the river when a third spade fell in an otherwise uncontested pot. Oy.

To all the mom's out there, happy mother's day! I'll be spending the day with my mom and the rest of my family. I spent a couple hours in the darkroom this afternoon, making gifts. :)

Work has gotten crazy as we wrap up the semester (thus the crickets around here the last couple weeks). I've finished taking the final exams in the classes I was in as a student (photography and meteorology), and next week will give finals in the classes I'm teaching. Then, hallelujah! Summer! Hard to imagine summer break when it's only 60 degrees here, tops. Weather has been crazy in Chicago this year!

I should be getting some poker in shortly, particularly since FTP offered a bonus due to some delay on withdrawals. Alrighty then!

Awww heck maybe I'll play a little now while surfing. Maybe a little NL cash game. Haven't done that in a while.

If it "sticks," maybe I'll blog it... Gotta go put up my Project 365 photo of the day first.

Catching up on some High Stakes Poker re-runs on the TiVo. (Yes, catching up on re-runs - I've already seen these episodes, but there's always something I missed the first time). I love HSP. Favorite show. I almost just typed I <3 Gabe Caplan but that makes me feel... weird. So scratch that.

I prefer the episodes with the "old" pro's. Except Jamie Gold. He can stay. I thought he was a total tool in the WSOP but I've grown to like him through his subsequent media splashation all over the place. This episode has Negreanu, Gold, Elezra, Harman (love her!), Hellmuth, Safai, Farha...

First all-in on my SnG. 3 hands in. Wooo! I think I like this after-school crowd (though it seems a little too early for the kiddies to be home from school). (Clarification: it was not me who was all-in).

I'm trying to think of a way to put the extra 19" LCD monitor that I have in my loft somehow so I can use it with my laptop (such as now, when watching poker and playing online). It would need to be on some sort of movable cart, so I could roll it in front of my couch/chaise while lounging, then moved out of the way when not in use. And it would need to be non-hideous looking. Currently, I use one of those as-seen-on-tv Table Mate tv-trays for my laptop. (Yeah, it's hideous, but works quite well). Any ideas? Suggestions welcome.

Something just happened that I'm not sure has really ever happened before. I did something totally out of character, on a gut feeling that I didn't even consciously know I had (ie. I wasn't actively thinking about it), and the move was the right one. (Well, "right" is a subjective term, but it worked). I don't even have an explanation. At first, I was being cautious, and on the river, I just knew this guy was full of crap.



5 people left in this SnG, and I'm the chip leader. I have played 3 hands, and we're only a couple rounds in.

It's a beautiful day out, so I have the windows open and I'm working on my poker commitment issues. I've got a regular turbo SnG up, AND one of those knockout 90 player SnG's. The latter just started. The big(ger) LCD monitor would be so nice right about now. (I've got the first MacBook Pro's that ever came out with the Intel chips - with the smaller 15" monitor. Boo on the monitor. Thumbs up otherwise - love my MBP!)

LOL Sammy Farha just called Hellmuth "Philly Willy." Nice!

So, let's say you're on the turn with 1 card to come. There's a 4 card gutshot straight on the board. You've got a gutshot to a straight flush. Do you call off a third of your stack to draw at it for one card?

[time to think]

I folded.

ARG the guy on my right is picking off my blinds EVERY TIME!!! I mean, the only defense is to have a good hand against the guy, and that's beyond my control.

I ate too much Chex Mix with lunch. Mmmm cheddar.

Noooo playable hands, growl!

I'm in push or fold mode but can't even find a face card in this mess! Oy I pushed K9 vs 33 and lost. Haha not out yet - doubled up twice LOL. I have 1/3xBB.

Woo again! 65o all in with my 1BB. DOUBLE UP! lmao poker rules :) LOL damn, went out AJs vs AA.

Still in the 90 player.

Sweet! I just got my first knockout bounty! *slips $4 back in my pocket*

Anybody out there doing any sort of entrepreneurial stuff? (Wow - auto-spellcheck didn't yell at me! I can't believe I spelled that right!) I've had a small web dev business on the side for 5 years or so now, but I'm thinking of moving into photography a bit. I'm not looking to quit my day job, but of course, since my day job is teaching, I could use some basic income supplementation! I still do web sites, but I guess my passions are sort of shifting and I'd like to explore "my new thing."

My question is - or, what I'm pondering, anyway, is - to what length do you invest money into a hobby to try and turn it profitable? I'm investing money into photography anyway (equipment and whatnot, for the sheer joy of it). I'm a bit strapped for cash lately, so spending more money to try and make money seems risky, but potentially beneficial.

That's what's on my mind today.

w00t, another bounty!

"This is a jam-up game." - Phil Hellmuth

I gotta remember that one!

Apparently, there was an earthquake in southern Illinois this morning. My sis-in-law felt it. Police reports from suburbs maybe 15 or 20 miles south of me felt it, but as far north as I am didn't. It was at like 4:30am. I was quite asleep. Earthquakes aren't something I generally worry about here in Chicagoland. Tornadoes? Yeah. Earthquakes? Dude. I'm in the middle of the country. Earthquakes only happen in California, right?

Damn it. The Pedigree dog food commercial just made me cry.

On break in the 90 player knockout. I'm 31/36 in chips. Not so good, but still alive at least. 9 places pay.

Went out 3rd in the other SnG.

I'm craving Pizza Hut.

Out of the knockout. At least I got a 33% discount :)

I think I will finish my current SnG and then grab some lunch.

LMAO @ Gus Hansen on Poker After Dark! 5 ladies and Gus! I missed the first couple episodes of this story, but since nobody was knocked out yet, it appears I didn't miss anything.

Did I ever tell ya how Gus Hansen walked past me and brushed my arm at Bellagio once? Srsly. YUM.

I didn't know Gus has a blog! Wow, thanks to Wikipedia (which I searched to make sure I was spelling Gus's last name correctly), I've discovered a web site that Gus started - ThePlayr.com, complete with nifty Web 2.0 Approved intentional misspelling. Nice!

Wow - the after-school crowd on Full Tilt Poker sure is fishy. 2 people out in this SnG, in round 2. Definitely a contrast to the usual evening crowds I encounter.

Gus has giant dumbo ears, yet he's still hot. How can that be? He gives hope to guys with dumbo ears all over the planet.

Haven't played a hand yet. Lots of face-rags.

Clonie vs. Gus. Now, THAT I'd pay to see! D'oh! Sorry. Got lost in a little reverie. P-O-K-E-R. Riiiiiight.

Has anyone heard Tom Petty's new song with Mudcrutch (his pre-Heartbreakers bandmates) - "Scare Easy"? I'm diggin it. Turns out, it's not a bad listen when playing poker.

I don't scare easy. I don't fall apart when I'm under the gun. You can break my heart, and I ain't gonna run. I don't scare easy for no one.

Yeah baby! I just keep on folding 6-2 offsuit!

Holy cow, down to 4. How did that happen?

I doubled up a couple hands ago with 33, turned a boat vs. KK overpair. w00t!

The all-in's are rampant around here. I swear it's only been like 10 minutes and we're in the money already!

33 again. Raise, vs the guy who doesn't know how to spell Leopard. Cha-ching! Yeah, FEAR the folder!

I fold very well in poker, but not in household chores. I despise laundry.

Wow, out in 3rd. Flopped a set with 55 and lost vs A9 to a rivered 4-card straight. Yikes.

Alright, let's go for two.

"I go with my gut - that's how I play." - Beth Shak.

Hmmm. That strategy seems like it should be the occasional invocation of the poker gods, rather than the standard. Maybe I spend too much time in bed with math.

AA in the big blind. Not a bad way to start. What is it they say? Don't get involved in big pots early, when the blinds are low...

UNLESS YOU'RE PLAYING AGAINST THE AFTER-SCHOOL FISHES WOOOOOO!

I'm not one to show hand histories, but if you'd like to check this one out, here it is. Hand #1, bet my AA all the way, and joker bluffed all-in on the turn with his AJ0, no pair, no draw. Yay! Now I have enough chips to fold for a while! LOL

WOW. 99, I raised preflop in late position. 2 callers. Flop 855. Checked around. I bet. 1 caller. Turn, 4. The guy bets all-in (huge overbet). Felt weird. I called. He had top pair, 8's. Blank on the river. I gots me some MASSIVE folding chips now!

I love how Gus is flirting with these girls. I bet Clonie would eat him alive, but this Beth girl...backs down to The Gus-ster.

Love the Negreanu hockey commercial. We need more hockey on TV. It has been great fun watching the Chicago Blackhawks' resurgence. They didn't make the playoffs, but for the first time in years (a LOT of years), the city is buzzing with hockey talk. That's why I fell in love with the Flyers when I moved out to Philly - the city was so in love with them. I could see myself falling for the Blackhawks. Back to my roots, in a way... The Flyers, on the other hand - still hold the keys to my heart. Big game tonight. Flyers are up 2-1 in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. A 3-1 lead tonight would be pretty sweet. Ovechkin is fun to watch, but the Washington Capitals can take a walk. My Fly Guys are on a mission!

It's 74 degrees out. Do you have any idea how happy that makes me? It took 178 days to see our first 70 since last year. (It was yesterday). The record is 185 days. Oy!

It's my weekend now, by the way. Awwww, yeah.

Hmmm, FedEx is here. For me?

Nope.

Damn, just got sucked in by a guy that slow-played his QQ preflop. I hit TPTK on the flop. Boo.

5 left. I'm 3rd in chips, but we're all about the same.

Thursday's Poker After Dark episode up next. I sure do love TiVo!

Someone told me yesterday I should TiVo a show called UFO Hunters. My mom wants me to TiVo Army Wives. I'll try the latter. Not sure about the former. I like aliens and all, but my TV time is at a premium.

Going for it with 33. No callers. I'm around 9xBB.

Gus and the ladies. Too funny. It's still cracking me up!

Tight table now. Lots of walks.

The love must still be there. Every so often, poker gets my heart racing - even online in a little sit n go.

Bubble time. C'mon, let's get rid of this short stack.

Yes! ITM. And... out! I have a habit of going out in 3rd lately. Not bad for having a hand selection resembling the Sahara Desert.

One more round? Hmm. I need a beverage. BRB.

I hear these knockout SnG's are pretty cool. I don't feel like committing to anything lengthy right now. What does it say about me that I won't even commit to anything longer than a 9 player SnG?

I have poker commitment issues.

HA "All these guys coming off the ice for Washington are gonna be sucking dirty pond water" - that's what the announcer just said as the Capitals came off the ice after a long shift. WTF?! LMAO!!! I love hockey!

I'm camped out in the loft with the HDTV, watching the Philadelphia Flyers take on the Washington Capitals in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals (NHL). The weather here is blah and my HD signal has been blah, but I see some sunshine out my window, and for now my signal is pretty good. Hockey in HD on a 57" widescreen is a wonderful thing. Soooo much more gorgeous than broadcast TV. Broadcast TV is at best, tolerable. HDTV? Gorgeous. Slick. Sharp. Beautiful. Maybe even to die for.

Oh, and I'm firing up a SnG on Full Tilt. I like the $22+2 full table turbo NLHE games. My Flyers are up 2-0 in the 2nd period. Let's see if we can make it 1-0, Shelly vs FTP Scoobies.

Pot #1, in the bank. w00t!

So I was messing around last night trying to figure out how to transfer files via Bluetooth from my Blackberry Pearl 8130 to my iMac. I got them to pair, but apparently this Blackberry doesn't have the right services to do file transfer. People have found a way to send files from the iMac to the BB, but not the other way around. I wanted to be able to send pictures from my phone to my computer. Currently, I just email the pictures to myself to transfer them. Oh well. It did give me the option to run the iMac over the BB's data connection. I didn't try it, as I have Sprint Mobile Broadband... but I find myself wishing I hadn't signed that 2 year contract, as I could have probably used my Blackberry instead. Damn impulse buys.

I have a feeling I'm at a table of either a) n00bs or b) morons. Weak weak weak, checking like crazy, but then 4 people call a 10xBB preflop raise. Wha?

How many of you have been to the horse races? I just went for the first time a couple months ago. It was pretty cool. I found myself wishing we could go outside (it was winter time). I'd like to go back in nice weather. I was betting based on the horses' names, hehehe :)

Level 2. 1 guy out.

Damn, had to go back to the broadcast feed. I don't often have trouble with my DirecTV, but these clouds appear to be doing me in. My HD feed is very sensitive to weather. Maybe it's the fact that it's SNOWING today. I will refrain from bitching, but come on, Mother Nature!!!

AK hearts, flopped 2 hearts. c'mon baby! Didn't need help. Betting was plenty. *stuffs chips in my virtual pocket*

Briere almost made this a 3 goal game. Holy moly, I love my Flyers! It's fun to watch Ovechkin... LOSE!!!! hahaha!

"Don't be afraid to go out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is." - Doyle Brunson. Yeah, Doyle! I like all his quotes. They amuse me.

Nooooo Umberger better not be hurt!!!! Ummmmmmmmmmmmberger!

Ever wonder where some people get their handles/avatar names? I mean, mine is obvious. The one I saw the other day - "[someone's] mom" - that's obvious. But some, I actually fire up Google to see if they are real words. Nope, the one I just googled isn't a word. So is it an attempt at spelling a curse word semi-phonetically? If so, well - either ewww, or that still doesn't make much sense. Feces Wood? Really?

Flyers are heading into the 2nd intermission with a 2-0 lead. This is similar to Game 1, where the Flyers came out with a 2 goal lead in the 3rd period and broke my heart. Hard to get that out of my head... but today is a new day, and the Flyers have been hoppin' all day. Biron has looked great. NO FEAR!

I just let Feces Wood steal my big blind.

Awwww! Michelin marshmellow puppy!! Great commercial :)

88, no callers. Reminds me of Eric Lindros. *cringe*

They're interviewing Donald Brashear. He was a Flyer for a while and I really liked having him. He looks better in Orange. Good guy, good goon. But I'll hate him just like every other man in red on the ice today. I bleed orange!

Srsly, does everybody have to wait 14 seconds before they act? Longest. Game. Ever. 3 guys out so far.

Damn, out in 5th. My Broadway lost to a J high flush. Ugh.

I suppose it's a good thing. I need my undivided attention available to cheer the Flyers on in the 3rd period.

Believe it or not, I must be on a poker kick! I've got another SnG running as we speak, while waiting for photos that I took today at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago to upload to Flickr. We're down to 6 people and I've got 30BB in my stack. Aggro-boy just lost a big pot to fall beneath me in chips, w00t!

Aquarium was fun. Penguins, lizards, beluga whales, fishes... even some tropical birds for me to get all squealy about! The weather has sucked today, though, and we were soaked to the bone after walking from the aquarium to the train to head home. Brrr! We're expecting some crazy storms to roll through here tonight as the temps warm up, and then... SNOW this weekend. WTF? I hate Chicago weather. Srsly. With a passion.

Aww what the hell, 95s looks good. Haven't played a hand in a while. oooh, 2nd pair! But aggro-dork will surely bet the K. He did. Gut feeling. I call. Oooh, flush draw! Hmmm. Wow, he checked it to me and folded when I bet. How bizarre!

So, when a few people are in a pot, and it checks around on the flop, then a guy in the middle comes out firing on the turn with a pot-sized bet, what do you think that typically means?

I find it's generally Mr. Trickery Dickery Dock Newbie slowplaying, but he can't hold back his nut any longer and throws his whole wad. Or a pot-sized wad, anyway. I bet the guy with the froggy avatar is Mr. TDDN.

So I'll play 95s and then fold A9o. What can I say? I wasn't feelin' it.

Wow, I just noticed how on the tournament lobby screen, FTP shows color ratings next to player names if you've got them rated/noted. That's pretty sweet!

Wow, I really enjoy beating aggro-nerd out of pots.

Looks like Adobe is trying again with their Lightroom update after the last debacle. Lightroom 1.4.1 is out - we'll see if the walls come crashing down this time.

Nice, in the money! Someone knocked out aggro-donk! Those of us that remain all have about the same amount of chips. Here we go...

Something feels wrong about playing against someone whose handle is "[someone's] mom." Weird, no?

Someone's mom folds a lot.

Damn, AA min raise, no action. But how many times have you read me blog about slow-playing AA even versus 1 opponent and getting bitten in the ass? No sir, not today.

Someone's mom took the chip lead and now she's pushing all in every hand. HA and she just lost to the other guy. Well, I guess that sucks, cuz now he's no longer the short stack. Bah.

I'm the short stack.

Wow, the short stack just called my 6xBB all in for almost his entire stack with 10-8 suited. My A4s did not hold up. Wheee out in 3rd. Better than 4th!

Twice in one week?

Yup, I fired up a $22+2 9-handed turbo NLHE sit n go.

Q2o? Fold.

I was inspired by the fact that it's 4pm and I'm not at work. I've changed out of the monkey suit and into cozy pajama pants and a hoodie. (Cozy? Isn't it supposed to be spring? Yeah, notsomuch if you're anywhere near Chicago).

I'm also inspired by the fact that I only have one more (long) work day to survive this week - tomorrow. I've taken a personal day Thursday, and with that day of freedom I'm going to the Brookfield Zoo to take pictures of animals. :)

It's a strange spring here. None of the trees seem to be budding yet. It's awful late to look around and see nothing but sticks. I'm so tired of the dead trees. It's supposed to snow here this weekend. WTF??!

Grrr I hate it when I slow play as a defensive move and end up paying off the SOB anyway. I can't think of too many situations where a defensive slow play actually saved me money.

No action on my flopped set of 4's. Booo.

Back to the defensive slow play. So, I've got top pair, week kicker. I check-call, not wanting to get too married to the hand. But as I check-call, the board becomes more and more coordinated until it becomes likely that my now-two-pair is not good. But top pair WAS good on the flop, and I probably could have pushed weasel-boy off of his 2nd pair, had I bet instead of checked.

It's more of me being a wuss than anything.

I love the K on the flop against 5 opponents when I'm holding QQ. It's not like preflop raises mean anything anyway.

In completely unrelated news, I would definitely NOT kick Jared Leto out of bed for eating crackers.

Nice. AA held up on the short stack. Doubled up. Tight game. Blah.

The rain has begun here. I'm hoping we get the thunderstorm they mentioned in today's weather forecast. I'm so geeked out for spring storms to kick in!

I'm on a Photoshop brush kick. Two of my favorite places to find brushes:
DeviantART's Photoshop brushes and MyPhotoshopBrushes.com

Still hanging in there. Only 2 people have gone out. Everyone is in push-or-fold mode. Ugh. Yawn.

Yowza - bet that guy is pissed. I called a short-stack's all in with 88 for 2/3 of my own short stack. He had A70. Flop came AA8. 'Nuff said. Buh-bye.

Alrighty - I just knocked out another guy with 32o when I flopped 2 pair. One more to the money.

My cats have suddenly become interested in sitting on my desk. Oy. Srsly. Why? Cats do not belong on desks.

I'm 2nd in chips out of 4 and only have 10BB. These are the most boring of all poker games on the planet. Did I already say yawn?

Push or fold, push or fold...

I'd say it's like watching grass grow, but NOTHING is growing around here!

WOW a-hole pushes with 73o. I call all in with AA, and the guy after me (who started with 200 more chips) called with AQs. Flop came 4-5-6. Way to bubble.

That was so entirely unfulfilling that I have no words.

Created by OnePlusYou

Yeah, that poker thing!

Forgot about that!

Home games don't happen around here as often as they used to. It's a shame, as live poker is my favorite. Favoring home improvements and my new photography hobby, I don't really maintain a bankroll to play at the boats anymore.

Thank goodness Full Tilt exists, both for the occasional fix and to keep poker around my world.

Look at that - my favorite hand, first hand in!

Fold.

Hehe. 97-off doesn't do so well for a 10xBB raise preflop.

I see there are a couple episodes of High Stakes Poker waiting on my TiVo. I wonder if they're re-runs or new... though I don't mind the re-runs. I rarely remember the whole show anyway, as often I'm playing online while watching.

Dave Matthews Band tour dates have been announced. I will definitely be at Alpine Valley (Milwaukee, WI 8/9-10) and Bridgeview (Chicago-ish, IL 6/6). St. Louis (6/7) and Toronto, Ontario (Canada 6/18) are possibilities. If anyone is going to any of the shows, holler! I will miss my absolute favorite venue this year (Deer Creek, IN aka Noblesville). I'll be in Boston that week, boooo :( Well, not booo, as I absolutely love Boston, but booo for missing DMB at my favorite place. Boston will be awesome, though. Been there once before and can't wait to go back!

Sweet! Tripled up right outta the gate. Flopped a King-high spade flush with KJs, versus set-over-set. Only of FTP, right?!

I may make a visit to Potowatomi Casino this summer while up at Milwaukee for DMB. You never know...

I like flopping sets on uncoordinated boards. This game ain't so bad!

Let's see, what else is new in my world?

I set up a home darkroom in my garage last weekend. (Just folded the hammer). I'm enjoying black and white film photography (though I'll likely stick with digital for color). I've registered for my next two photography classes this summer - Digital Darkroom and Basic Lighting. (Damn - flop 7-5-2! Shouldn't have folded that hammer!)

I attended Severe Weather Spotter Training from the National Weather Service over spring break, so I'm now an official spotter. Bring it on, tornado alley! :) One of these springs I will go storm chasing. There's a great program offered by a local college here, involving a 10-day driving trip through the midwest chasing tornadoes with some local meteorologists. I picked up a book on weather photography last week. Just started reading it, in anticipation of storm season (though it seems like spring is never going to make it to Chicago this year).

Love it when people try to get all trickery-dickery-dock with disguising their hands, and then get NO action cuz they checked it down waiting for me to bluff.

5 people left in this SnG.

So what's new with you guys? I've had to clear out my RSS reader, as I just got way too far behind to catch up. Work has been a bit nutty, but hallelujah - 5 weeks till summer break! That sounds insane, considering it's not even spring yet, weather-wise.

No flopped set that time. Fold.

Had to bring my beloved iMac in to the Apple Store for repair last week. Power supply died. Kind of sucks, considering it's only 5 months old, but I had it back in a couple days, free of charge, so I'm not going to complain too loudly.

Just hit a 2-outer to knock a guy out. Why is it my gut reaction to say, whoops? hehe

Ouch. Set over set to my bad that time. 4 left. We all have around 3k chips. Watch my dumb ass bubble. Grr!

I thought it was a dream, cuz I never flew before....

So who saw the pregnant guy on Oprah today? WTF?

Excellent - in the money!

Excellent again - JJ! Nice, held up.

I hate folding to blind-stealing aggro's, but sometimes...

Out in 3rd. My 88 vs KQ (I pushed, he called). Q on flop... not a bad re-entry into the atmosphere.

(you can still play poker)

Turn off your lights for an hour on Saturday, March 29th, from 8-9pm.

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.

This year, Earth Hour is a global event.

Make a difference. Turn off your lights. Support Earth Hour.

What Your Shamrock Says About You

You are brilliant, analytical, and somewhat of a perfectionist. You are ultra competent and knowledgeable. At times, people find you intimidating. You can be a bit sarcastic and harsh. You don't really consider yourself a lucky person. In your view, people create their own luck. You are creative, innovative, and complicated. You definitely have a unique spin on the world.

Oh, and I've been losing my ass in SnG's lately. w0rd.

I finally finished watching Heckler's Week on Poker After Dark. (Yeah, I'm a bit behind on the TiVo. Haven't been watching much TV, since nothing has been on due to the writer's strike). I've been meaning to ask - what happened to Shana Hiatt? Well, I googled it, so I don't need the answer anymore. Wikipedia says Shana left Poker After Dark because she's pregnant. You go, girl!

Is it just me, or was Gavin Smith the most reasonable and intelligent sounding player at the table that week? Color me impressed. I've always liked him, particularly for his support of the charity auctions For Peyton, but watching how he conducted himself at the table really impressed me in that game. I guess I'm just used to seeing snippets of him on poker shows with less "verbal" formats.

And, what makes Shawn Sheikhan a good poker player? I see no redeeming value in the guy, from my perspective as a consumer of poker entertainment. When Hellmuth told him that the "push or fold" strategy is appropriate for less skilled players who feel they're weaker than their opponents, but that no great players employ that strategy, I think that was a very strong point.

I just won me a SnG on Full Tilt Poker. Sweet.

I've traditionally been content to take the "ignorance is bliss" approach to the footprint I leave on the environment with my consumption and disposal of goods, but since I've started watching birds and interacting a bit more with my natural environment, I'm beginning to see the importance of the natural resources and the environment around me, with all its wildlife and beauty.

This isn't your typical "go green" propaganda video. It paints a very clear picture of how we got to where we're at, and the core of why we need to change. It's worth 20 minutes of your time. I promise.

The Story of Stuff

I had quads 3 times in the last SnG I played a few minutes ago on Full Tilt Poker, and still managed to bubble.

Ran my AQ into AK. (AK limped in, we both flopped our Ace, and I played the aggressor thinking AQ was good). Don't you hate it when it actually crosses your mind that a certain situation might be happening, and you dismiss it only to find out that your gut was right?

I had no reason to think this guy would slow play. He hadn't at any other point in the tourney.

Oh well. I'm in another SnG right now - probably my last for the night. Took 2nd in one earlier today.

Yeah, fine, so I couldn't come up with a clever title. The name of the game is just begging for one, though. How about: Trojan Wars: I Sucked

The strangest thing about that game was that I did not go to showdown with a losing hand - not one single time - except of course for the hand that knocked me out. Not one bad showdown! If you asked me if that was possible, I'd probably have laughed and deemed it an impossibility. I saw a decent number of flops, and either connected with them and won, or missed and folded.

With that in mind, I can't think of anything I'd change about the way I played. Scott had early criticisms for me with regards to not getting enough value from a good hand (I had something like 10-2 in the big blind and flopped trip deuces). I check-called all the way down with a kid at the other end of the table betting 3/4 of the pot at me the whole way. He was betting enough that I figured, I was happy to win it, while simultaneously cutting my losses if he had my 10 outkicked or worse, flopped a bigger set. It was early in the game, and I had no clue how this kid played, so I had no choice but to play the cards. I wouldn't do it any differently today - unless maybe I had unlimited rebuys in my bankroll, which was not the case last week.

I went out bubble + 1 - made the final table of 10, and 5 places paid. I went out 7th out of 30. There's no dramatic story to tell of a stack-crippling hand or anything like that. The blind structure of this game increased EXTREMELY quickly (much more quickly than I prefer), and by the time we were down to 10 players, literally 3/4 of the final table sat down with fewer than 8 big blinds. At that point, it's a crap shoot, and the game disintegrates into a luck fest.

I'd love to see a game with a more conservative blind structure hosted by Ryan. Playing at his house is like walking into someplace off of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The house is gorgeous (which, yes, is totally unrelated to poker - but I will never complain when surrounded by marble and fine woods and to-die-for floor plans!), and the food and open bar are always fantastic (though I tend to stick to diet cokes). The best thing, though, is the comfort level of the chairs at the "final table" table. Nothing - and I mean nothing - makes for a more miserable poker experience than an uncomfortable chair. I am a girl that really appreciates a comfortable chair.

Thanks to Ryan for hosting another great game (now titled, The Trojan Wars). Sorry I couldn't stick around for the cash game. Funds are kinda tight around here. It looked like one wild night, though!

I hear Scott's next Diamond game will be in March, and I have yet to host my "housewarming poker game." (Let's just pretend I haven't been living here for a year and a half already). Pencil in a weekend after Tax Day. I'll host a spring poker game.

Poker!!!

I've got a date tonight with the glorious game that so birthed this wonderful blog.

Ryan, a frequent attendee of Scott's Diamond games, is hosting the second instance of his own game, from now on affectionately referred to as the Trojan Wars. You see, Ryan hosted this game last year, but I had made such a donkeriffic move in that tournament that I never got around to naming the game. In a combination of verbal and written discourse that I could never do justice to by explanation alone, Ryan mistakenly referred to his game as the Diamond game, much to the dismay of Scott (who has been running the Diamond games for years).

Suffice it to say, when I received the Trojan condom in the mail along with the official papers declaring Ryan's game as the Trojan Wars, I just about lost it in hysterical laughter.

So, I'm heading off to the Trojan Wars tonight. Randy will be joining me, and I expect to see a few familiar faces from the Diamond games. I haven't seen the guys in a while, so I'm looking forward to that (aside from looking forward to actually playing poker).

I think this is a rebuy NLHE tourney, though I only have enough scratch to walk in with one buy-in. The proverbial "money is tight around here" complaint hasn't changed a single iota. I'm flying in on a wing and a prayer for a little luck, and the wisdom not to do anything completely stupid.

I don't have a game plan, really, in terms of playing. I've had a tendency in the past to play entirely too weak-tight after a long stretch without poker, so I suppose my initial emphasis should be on shaking off the rust and avoiding my timid tendencies.

There are rumored to be 25+ people attending this game, so the prize pool should be ripe. If anybody's got any luck to spare, I'm humbly but gladly accepting donations!

Can you tell I'm catching up on my reading?

Thank you, Gracie, for your post about tilt-shift miniature faking. It goes quite well with my photography hobby. I love your shrunken dogs!!! Now to shrink my felines, mwahahaha.

If I have any success, I will be sure to share.

I don't know why, but every time this chick pops onto the radar, it's like I'm driving past a car wreck and have just GOT to look!

Cliff's Notes for Brandi's latest, by Waffles

This here blog turned 3 years old the other day. Ringing in the new year is always a time to reflect on the previous year and look forward to new possibilities.

My 2007 Year in Review begins with the first few sentences from the first post of each month of 2007:

January: Tomorrow, this blog turns 2 years old. The cliche thing to do around this time of year is to draw up some resolutions for the new year. I thought I'd first look back at last year's resolutions, and see how many came to fruition.

February: Empress has live poker again!

March: Chances are slim that I'll play poker tonight. I'm sitting at Empress right now, on the list for 5/10 holdem. Ninteenth on the list.

April: No posts

May: Learned an interesting lesson last week at a poker game. NLHE, hosted by Ryan (a regular attendee of the Diamond games).

June: If you haven't watched the WPT Mandalay Bay episode yet, or don't want to know what happens, stop reading now! Spoilers ahead!

July: "Run over" does not begin to describe the past hour or so I've spent on Full Tilt. 4 SnG's. Four 8th or 9th place finishes. Ouch.

August: Welp, it took a while (5 hours or so), but I doubled my buy-in tonight at Majestic. If ever there was a session that qualified for the label "grinding out a win," this was it.

September: I'm back to an empty tank in terms of my bankroll. I spent what I'd won in July on fantastic weekends seeing Dave Matthews Band in Indianapolis and in Milwaukee (close enough). I pulled out most of my Full Tilt money to pay off the October Vegas trip that I charged.

October: Ever had one of those yawner sit n go's? You know, the kind where you're fold fold folding because your cards suck THAT bad, but nobody else is doing anything?

November: I drank the Apple Kool Aid.

December: I hope you're all enjoying Vegas! Wish I was there!

And thus went 2007 in my world. Let's see how I did with my 2007 resolutions:

My poker goals for 2007:

• Reseed my B&M bankroll and continue playing $5/10 limit holdem - Nope. Never got there.
  
• Learn to play the player and not just my cards. - Still working on it.
  
• Make it out to Vegas at least once this year. - I did, but it wasn't a poker trip.

Last year, I wrote that "Sometimes, life, family and work have to come before poker - but that doesn't diminish my love for the game." That holds true today.

As I look forward to 2008, poker remains a hobby, though it is no longer my primary passion. 2007 saw me add photography and birding to my list of hobbies, and one of my goals of 2008 is to add meteorology and weather photography to the list. I still intend to play poker each chance I get, but like last year, my financial situation doesn't lend itself well to seeding the bankroll I'd need to play poker seriously. And I'm OK with that. I spent a chunk of change on new toys in 2007, and I'm going to spend 2008 enjoying them (and paying them off!)

I may not see as much live poker as I'd like to in 2008, but I still get my fix via the TiVo :)

I suppose my resolution for 2008 is to continue to enjoy and improve my skills in ALL of my hobbies - including poker.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2008, and the hope that everybody finds something to love and enjoy and feel passionate about.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to all!

I hope you're all enjoying Vegas! Wish I was there!