Hella Hold'em

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.