Crooked Straight - The Crooked Link

On a heater

2009-11-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

Last night I had my most profitable single day of my poker career, making $460 in a 5 hour session. It was probably also one of the softest tables I've ever played at. I got to the poker room around 4pm and sat down with a full buy in at the 200nl game. I started off on the right foot this time, flopping a set of Jacks and slow playing it until the river, where I check-raised a $17 bet. I made it $42 to go, got called by God knows what, and just like that I was off to a good start.

That same player rebuys for another $100 and a few hands later I bust him again when I flop top two pair in a 6-7-8 all heart flop. I bet something like $20 into a smallish pot, he raised all in, $50 on top and I called, hoping he was on a draw. He was, as he tabled Ah7x. The turn and river brick and I drag in another nice pot. Then THE SAME GUY rebuys again, tilts off some of his stack, and I bust him again with QQ vs. his A-10 all in preflop.

That's 2 times that I felted the same guy, all within my first hour at the table.

Then I lose a somewhat medium sized pot when I call down an opponent on every street with KJ on a King high board and he shows AK. I don't let it get to me though, and a few hands later I pick up pocket ducks, flop another set, and get value on every street, from a guy who was wearing a donkey hat that got a good laugh out of the whole poker room. (see above pic.)

The same donkey hat guy pays me off again when I river trip fours on a straddled pot.

I'm not going to lie, I was running like baby Jesus the entire night. I think I got dealt pocket Queens four times the entire session and they held up each time. I also won another sizable pot where I had JJ in the big blind. A player in early position raises to $11 and gets like 5 callers. It gets back to me and when I look down at JJ, I throw out a green ($25) chip and then announce "Make it $25 all day." The dealer announces my action but the player on the button who had called the $11, protests, and says I made my verbal bet after the green chip had touched the felt, thus making my very obvious intention to raise, a call. Whatever, I don't make too big a fuzz about it and throw $11 out and take the green chip back.

The flop comes Q-J-x and I fire out $35 with my set of Jacks. I get one caller and the turn is another Queen, giving me a full house. I make a tiny $25 bet, hoping to get raised by trip Queens, but my opponent just calls. The river is a blank and I try to figure out a good value bet amount into the $175 pot. I finally settle on $75 and my opponent insta-mucks. In hindsight I should have probably bet a little less, maybe $50 or so, but then again, either he has the Queen or he doesn't so I don't think it made much of a difference.

I won a few more smallish pots the rest of the night and cashed out around 9pm for $660 ($460 profit.) Like I said, I was a card rack the entire night, but I also think I played very well and was able to avoid marginal spots by tightening up and not getting too out of line.

Today I decided to hit up the casino again for a quick session before work. I got to the room at 2pm and had work at 4pm. Since I got there just as the tables were getting started, I was stuck in a game full of regs, not exactly what I wanted. I got stuck $100 pretty quickly after calling a bet with 2nd pair on a wrong read and playing a bit too lose. I was down to like $110 and decided to straddle for $4. Five players call the straddle and I look down at pocket sixes. I decide to make it $20 on top, and get one caller. The flop comes 9-5-2 all hearts. I double check to make sure I at least have the 6 of hearts, which I do, and decide to shove ~$85 into a $60 pot.

My opponent calls almost instantly and I figure I'm drawing pretty thin. To my surprise he turns over 10-2off with no heart. He says he put me on AK and thought his deuces were good. My pair of sixes hold up and I double up. A couple of orbits later I pick up AK in early position and raise to $8. I get 4 callers and we see an A-4-5 rainbow flop. I lead out for $20, a guy to my left raises to $50 and it folds back to me.He only has like another $50 behind so I decide to push and he insta calls with AJ. My AK holds once again, and I drag in a nice pot. I left the card room around 3:30 and cashed out for $359. A $159 profit in 1.5 hours. Not bad. Then it was time to go to work, to make half of that in 8 hours, lol.

Anyway, the win this afternoon extended my winning streak at the charity casino to 7, dating back to this past summer. I hope to make it 8 in a row tomorrow. I have the day off from work so I look forward to putting in a longish session.

Two Wins

2009-11-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

What's up blog? I feel like the last few times I've written on here, the posts have been prefaced with an apology for not updating this in a long time. (Okay, I just checked my previous entries and this isn't entirely true, but I digress.)

The reason I haven't updated this shit is because I hadn't really been playing any poker at all. I think the last time I blogged, I was headed to a poker game at The Loft, and that was over two months ago. I ended up losing $50 in that session, but chalked it up as a win after being stuck almost 3 bills. I got most of my money back on the very last hand of the night with AQ against pocket 7s and another players unseen cards in a 3-way $250 pot.

Besides that, I haven't been doing much gambling this past couple of months except some regular action on the Mexican soccer league with this guy from work. We each pick a team we like each week (we alternate 1st picks) and then bet $20 on both games. We've been doing it for a few months now and usually end up washing since we both pick the top favorites obv.

Anyway, last week I got the itch to get back on the poker grind and headed to the charity casino. I put in a brutal 6.5 hour session that netted me +$59. That's after being up almost $300 at one point. I think my stack peaked at around $480 ( bought in for $200) but a couple of key pots sent me home a small winner. The first involved trying to use my tight image to try and pull an ill-timed bluff against the wrong guy. I picked up 7-3off on the straddle, flopped bottom pair and fired all the way. After my $50 bluff-bet got raised on the river, I insta-mucked and got up, disgusted with myself.

About 10 minutes after getting back to the table, I pick up QQ on the button. A few limps, then the cut-off raises to $8 and I repop to $20. Him and another player call and we see a K-Q-10 rainbow flop. 1st player checks and the original preflop raiser bets out something like $22. I re-raise to $72 with middle set, and the cut-off's flat call after tanking for a bit, has got me a little worried that AJ might have me hurting bad. We go heads up to a Jack on the turn, (board is now a rainbow K-Q-10-J) and the cutoff immeditly fires out a $100 stack. I hate my life at this point, along with my set of Queens. I tank for maybe 5 minutes, and one of the problems was that I couldn't just flat the $100, it was either push or fold. I kept putting my opponent on AJ, and so many other hands are in his range with his pre-flop raise that ultimately I decided there was no way I was ahead. I muck my ladies face up and my opponent shows JJ. I feel sick to my stomach and want to vomit.

I don't know if my opponent really thought JJ was good there or if he was just bluffing at the scariest turn card possible, but neverthless, the hand put me on mad tilt and I began to bleed chips left and right. I was down to my last two green chips ($50) when I said to myself "Self, you made a good laydown. 95% of the time you are going to be up against a straight. Time to nut up, shut up, and play some poker" So I went into what I like to call my ninja poker mode, which includes hoodie over head, iPod blasting Jay Z on full volume, and complete focus on every hand with no bullshit chit-chat or socializing with anyone at the table. Ninja poker mode was good to me as I grinded my stack back to $259, cashing out around 11PM.

The next day I was scheduled to work but I called in for someone to cover for me and headed to the poker room again. I got there at around 5pm, and there was no list for the 200nl game so I immediately got a seat. And I also immediately got two-outtered pretty ugly. About 6 hands into the session I pick up 10-5off in the BB and check my option. I almost have to double check my cards when the flop comes 10-10-5. With five of us in the pot, it checks around. The turn is a 6, bringing two diamonds to the board. Gets checked to me and I bet $10 hoping not to scare away a flush draw. I get called in two spots and the river is a 7d bringing the flush to the board. I check, hoping to induce a bet from a made flush. The 2nd player to act bets out $22. Then the 3rd player tries to raise, but string bets and is only allowed to call the $22. At this point, I'm hoping they've both made their flush and I'll get paid off with my full house. I raise $53 more, making it $75 all day. One player tanks for about a minute and begrudgingly mucks his cards. The other player insta calls and I proudly announce full house, thinking how nice it's going to be to start off the session being up a cool hundo.

Oops! Not quite. My opponent flips over his cards and tables 10-6 for a better full house. I get that sick illy feeling that only a two outter can produce. I have no idea why he didn't raise me on the river though. Only hand that beats him is 10-7. He missed out on the rest of my stack, haha.

Anyway, that pot got me off to a rocky start and I couldn't get anything going for a while. I kept raising with big hands and then whiffing the board and having to check fold. Once again I found myself short stacked with about $35, when I decided it was time to go into Ninja Poker mode again. So on goes the hoodie and the headphones, and my luck immediatly starts to change.

I pick up Aces and win a smallish straddled pot. Then I doubled up with AK on a K high flop against KJ. A few hands later I pick up KK in the small blind, and make it $16 to go. I get 5 callers and the flop comes 2-3-4 with two diamonds.. I'm first to act and bet out $50 not wanting to fuck around, with such a draw-heavy board.. The guy sitting next to me, this young kid who is somwhat of a decent player tanks for a bit and then calls. Folds around to the button who goes all in for $67 total. I call the extra $17 as does the other kid. The turn is an offsuit 5. I hate my Kings at this point, but the pot is just to big so I throw in my last $45 or so hoping neither player has an Ace. The young kid tanks and finally makes a crying call asking if I've made my straight. Since me and the button are all in, we all turn our cards up, and I find out I'm up against the young kid's pocket 8s and the button's 9d-10d for a flush draw. The river blanks and I drag in a nice pot.

Then some weird shit happens a the table. The player in seat 2 comes back from smoking a cigarette or something and asks the dealer what the fuck happened to his stack of chips. At first the whole table thinks he's kidding, but it soon becomes apparent that he isn't. He says he left around a $50 stack on the table and now it was gone. I'm sitting in seat 4 so the dealer starts asking everyone on our side of the table if we saw what happened. I honestly didn't see shit. I definitely saw the guy get up from the table but I don't recall whether he left his chips or not. Just a few minutes before the guy had come back to his seat, the player in seat number 3, a white dude in his mid 20s, had gotten up to cash out. The table starts theorizing that maybe he accidentally grabbed the guy's stack when he was racking his chips. I honestly doubt this is what happened, but whatever.

The floor is called, and then the floor calls the guy who runs the entire charity casino. He has a long talk a few feet away from the table with the guy who lost his chips. I'm not sure what is said, but I guess the guy didn't want to fucking deal with this shit over $50 so he reaches into his wallet, and hands the guy a crisp Grant note.

The whole thing is forgtotten and we continue to play poker. I went on a bit of a heater and started dragging in small pot after small pot. The last big pot I won on the night was when I turned a straight with pocket 5s and got paid off by a terrible player who made Aces up. I cashed out for $430 (+$230 profit) around 10pm.

Today is Tuesday and I'm planning to head to the card room again around 2pm. Hopefully I can keep the winning streak going, and I'll try to post another update tonight.

Peace out homies and good luck at the tables!

P.S.- I've jumped on this twitter craze, so check out my tweets on the left hand side of the blog. I don't tweet too regularly, mostly when I'm at the poker table.

The Comeback Kid

2009-08-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been keeping up with the online grind updates like I said I would but blogging about winning $10 or losing $20 just seems kinda boring. But I thought I'd post a quick blog since I'm about to head out for some live poker.

I haven't played live since I got my ass skinned about a month ago. Dropped $600 that session, the most I'd ever lost in a single day. But I'm back at it today looking to make some mad bank. I'm playing at this underground game called "The Loft" (because it's on the 2nd floor of a loft building, ldo.)

Not sure how soft the game is going to be but I'm packing two buy ins for the $200NL game. I'm probably going to nit it up a little bit and not try to pull off any crazy moves or anything. But who knows, the game plan always depends on the kind of players at your table so I've gotta see what I'm up against first.

If I have a good session I'll probably hit up the tables again tomorrow night at another game off Irving Park. Not a lot of charity casino events near me in the next few days so if I can get a bankroll going I'll probably do most of my grinding at these two underground games which are actually pretty well run.

Anyway, going to go hit the shower and then I'm off to the game.

Good luck at the tables!

Good Start

2009-08-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

Off to a good start grinding 10NL. I didn't play Thursday night cause I got home and wasn't really in the mood to play. But I put in another session last night and ended up a litte over 2.5 buy ins. (+$26.70) in 215 hands.

A couple of hands from the session:

-$23 pot with 88

-Trying to figure out if I misplayed this.

Session graph:

I'm about to leave for work in like an hour but I'm going to play a $6.60 sng and try to cash in that. And then I'll probably play another 10nl session tonight.

Good luck at the tables! Peace.

edit: Bubbled the fucking SnG obv.

1st Day of Grinding

2009-07-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the beginning of my online grind with my new plan as outlined in my previous post. Tuesday night I was able to get $200 on Stars using one of the All Access Visa gift cards. I highly recommend these if you're having trouble depositing any amount of money on Stars. They're super hassle free and I'm going to see if I can use one of these to deposit on my sports betting account soon.

Anyway, I installed PokerTracker3 on my laptop and then spent 45minutes trying to figure out why my hands were not importing into the database only to find out my dumbass did not have PokerStars configured to save my hands to my hard drive. So after fixing all that I finally started playing.

I lost a buy-in @ 10nl pretty retartedly so I decided to play a $6.60 SnG instead. That didn't go to well either as I busted out pretty earlish when I flopped top two against a straight. I went back to the cash tables where I continued to get anally raped. Then another SnG where I bubbled pretty brutally. I was chip leader with 3 players left (top 2 get paid) when I suffered this massive cooler that was reminicent of the legendary Negreanu v. Hansen hand on High Stakes Poker. Sure that was a $600,000 pot and this was a $6 sng but still, lol. Losing to quads with a full house is never fun.

I still had some chips left after that cooler but ended up busting in this hand. Got rivered nasty and GG me. I went back to the 10nl tables where I tilted away two buy ins and finally decided to stop playing cause I was getting super tilty. At this point I was already down almost $50. (3.5 buy ins at 10nl and 2 $6.60 sngs) All of a sudden my $200 bankroll was down to $150.

I chilled for a while and went to get something to eat. I came back home and just planned to watch the America v. San Luis soccer game that I had $50 on. But since I was no longer steaming I decided to get back on the laptop and fired up another 10nl table. This time things went ALOT better. I played for about 2 hours while watching the game and ended the session up 5.5 buy ins cashing out for $64.55 total. I not only ran well but was playing an extremely effective tight aggresive game, imo. Part of this I think was because I was watching the game at the same time so I was really only playing premium hands and not really getting too out of line. Here's some of the bigger pots I won:

-$30 pot with Aces.

-Getting there with an open-ender.

-Aces again.

Anyway the session helped recoup my losses from earlier in the day which felt pretty damn good. I celebrated my robusto day by smoking a bowl of kush and watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia the rest of the night.

Graphs!

I'm beginning to love PokerTracker3 more and more each time I use it. It's such a powerful program but the thing is you have to know how to use it properly. It gives you a ton of stats about your session but that's all meaningless unless you actually take the time to study those stats and find leaks in your game, which is what I plan to do. I also love the pretty graphs that it generates! Haha.

This is the 5.5 buy in Session of 230 hands:

And this is the graph for the entire day:

Was down $35 at one point and ended the day up $20. 564 hands in total. Not a lot of hands per say, but I'm not quite ready to start multi-tabling.

I plan to put in a short session after work tonight. Hopefully I can run decent and make that bankroll grow!

New Plan

2009-07-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

I've decided to get back on the online poker grind. For a couple of reasons, one of them being I just don't have the time to play live as much as I'd like but I still want to keep growing as a poker player.

Now, being honest with myself, I know that I'm probably a lifetime losing player online. But I blame this more on the fact that I just have never really practiced "proper" bankroll management. I'll usually go on a nice winning streak, then start losing and play higher and higher. Evidence of this are the $50 HU matches I started playing after a few losing streaks in the $6 sngs a few months ago. That's something that I will try to avoid this time around.

The plan is to throw $200 on Stars sometime in the next couple of days and then start grinding 6max 10NL and 6max single table $6.60 SnGs. $200 really is a bit of a dangerous bankroll to start with, considering I'm playing 6max poker for the most part, which usually requires a larger bankroll, but I think I'm okay for now. If I start off on a huge downswing I'll just replenish the bankroll with another deposit.

My original plan for getting back on the virtual felt was to wait til I saved up around $800, then deposit that and start grinding 25NL exclusively. But I think I'll try to work my way up instead. I actually don't think I'm ready for 25NL as the games on Stars aren't as soft as they once were so I'd like to see me beat 10NL over a decent sample before I move up. I'll also be purchasing PokerTracker3 along the way to help me track results and put some graphs up on the blog.

Hopefully I can make the deposit tomorrow and begin the grind!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I won $40 in a couple of soccer games over the weekend off a guy from work. I had $20 on Mexico v. Costa Rica and $20 on the U.S. v. Honduras. I was going to double down on the Mexico v. U.S. game on Sunday liking the U.S. but backed out which was a smart decision as Mexico raped them 5-0.

I've got another bet on tomorrow's America v. San Luis game. I've got $50 on San Luis and the only reason I made the bet was because I was getting even money since I'm betting with another guy from work. The actual line for the game is San Luis -150 so I'm getting a bit of equity there. Hopefully San Luis comes away with the win.

My Biggest Loss

2009-07-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

I remember when I used to blog it up almost every day here on the Crooked Link. These days it's looking more like a couple of posts per month. So again, I do apologize for that. But like I said in my previous post, my job schedule has been kinda goofy the past few weeks. But now that my guy Z. quit and I'm working more days, it'll probably mean more time to blog since I seem to do most of my blogging from work.

So what have I been up to the past two weeks? Oh I don't know, just having the worst poker session of my life is all. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. First let's backtrack a bit to where I left of in my previous post (7/6/09). I decided to take that week off from Gigio's and try to put in some solid time on the tables. I had a solid session on the 8th, cashing out for $475 (a +$275 profit). It was kind of a short session, playing around 4 hours but I felt good about my game and was also running extremely well. In fact I won the my biggest pot that day like this:

5 limpers before me and I limp in the small blind with Ac6c. Big blind checked and 7 of us saw a flop of 9c-5-c-2x.

I check, as does the big blind and a short stack in early position goes all in for his last $12. The rest of the table and their pet Chiguagua proceed to call the $12 including myself. Then the big blind decides to go all in for another $100 on top. It folds back around to me and I contemplate for a bit before making the call, getting almost exactly 2-1 on my money. (There was $198 in the pot, and it cost me $100 more to call). I know at worst I'm a 3 to 1 dog here, but knowing I'd been running good lately helped me make the call.

As it turns out, I was in better shape than I thought, as my opponent turned over Q-9o for top pair and a look of disgust when he sees I called him with a flush draw. A beautiful club hits the turn and I have my opponent drawing dead. I dragged in the $300 pot as I'm serenated by the losing player's bitching about how unlucky he is...

Anyway aside from that pot, I just picked up a couple small ones here and there leading to the +$275 for the day.

I definietly loved the venue where that charity casino was held. It's probably the nicest place I've played live poker and a super nice contrast to the usual dirty smelly venues the charity casino usually hosts their events.

It was held in a country club out in Bensenville and I decided to snap a couple of pictures for the blog.

Outside the Country Club's banquet hall.

They had about 8 cash tables running.

Waiting for a table, with my $200 buy in.

Nice view.

Grinding out my stack.

Final cash out: $475

Anyway I left feeling REAL good that day because I'd managed to build a nice little $800 bankroll with the profits of the last 3 sessions (+$415 on the 2nd, +$150 on the 6th and +$275 on the 8th.)

Of course this all went to shit, and my ship came crashing down the very next day. I realize $800 can't even be considered a bankroll for playing 200NL but just knowing that I built up that $800 on the tables had me feeling pretty invincible. In fact $800 in just 3 sessions of poker had me wondering why the hell I still had a real job. I soon found the answer to that question.

So the next day (the 9th) I decide to hit up the 200NL tables at a private game. I got there around 9:30pm and by 10'oclock I was already down one buy in ($200). My second buy in didn't go to well either as I ran my top pair into a set and then lost a couple of smallish bullshit pots. I considered quitting at this time but said fuck it and reloaded once again. Bad mistake. I tilted off that buy in with stupid donkey plays like re-raising out of position with marginal hands and getting myself into some tough spots. I finally got all my money in with what I thought was a live flush draw only to realize I was drawing completly dead when my opponent called with a bigger flush draw.

I hung around for a while, trying to absorb the fact that I'd just lost $600 in about 2 hours. The guy who runs the game told me I could play on credit which I didn't want to do. I still had another $200 in my pocket as well, but I decided to just call it a night and left.

Now, for having just lost $600 (the most amount of money I've lost in a single day) I think I took it pretty well. I didn't let my frustration show as I left the game, and really the most upset I got was on the drive home. But once I got home I told myself I wasn't going to let the loss faze me, and instead I rolled up a blunt and chilled the rest of the night watching TV.

I haven't been back to the tables since. I used up the rest of my "bankroll" to go out with friends and shit, and since I took that week off from work, I haven't had any money to try and rebuild. I could still hit up that private game if I wanted to and play on credit since I'm a regular at that game, but I'd rather play with my own money.

Hopefully maybe by next week I'll have a couple of buy ins saved up and I'll go back to get my revenge. Til then I'm still going to try and update this blog as often as I can, just rambling about random bullshit.

Shit, this post is getting a little too long so I'm going to cut it off right here.

Peace and good luck at the tables!

Quad Aces

2009-07-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

I got to the game last night around 9:15 and bought in for $200. We were playing 7 handed so I decided I'd loosen up just a little bit but that did not work out all too well. Within in the first 30 minutes I was down $100 after missing my draws and firing big river bluffs. Then I got pocket Aces, decided to get cute and limped in early position, only to have the rest of the table and their pet iguanas limp behind. With a very coordinated board I decided to dump my Aces on the turn after calling a bet and a raise on the flop, all the while kicking myself for not raising preflop.

So as I'm grinding a stack of around $60-$80 I get Aces again and this time put in a pre-flop raise of $8. I get three callers and the flop comes A-A-2. Nice! I can't bring myself to bet my quads on the flop or the turn which is a 4. When the river 5 hits, a player bets out $8 and I mini-raise to $16. A third player calls and the original bettor folds. I drag in the smallish $64 pot when I realize that if this game was taking place at Mike's place (the place that got robbed a week ago) I would have been able to lock up a nice $100 bonus that is handed out at the end of the night for the highest hand made using your two hole cards. It would have been pretty tough to beat quad Aces.

But anyway as I'm grinding along I keep fluctuating between $80-$150, until finally I hit my much sought after heater withinin the span of about 5 hands. I get Queens and get paid off, very next hand I get Queens again, and make a gutsy call on the river to drag in another big pot, then right after that I get pocket Tens, flop top set and get value on every street. A couple of hands later I call a shortstacks all in with AQ. He as pocket Fives and I catch up with an Ace on the turn.

So my heater has my stack up to about $375, which I was very pleased with given that I was down $150 at one point. As the game draws to a close I decide to protect my win and don't get involved in many big pots. I lost a couple smallish pots along the way but still ended up cashing out for $350. A solid $150 profit that has me on a winning streak that I hope will continue.

I ended up getting home around 2:30am last night and fell asleep around 4am. I woke up around 11:30am today and the plan is to first go take out an ID because I've been too lazy to replace the one I lost a while ago. Then grab something to eat, come back home to shower and hit up the Charity Casino in Elmhurst to keep that winning streak alive.

Summer Is Here

2009-07-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Damn, I've been away for a while, lol. I've actually got a good excuse though, besides being a lazy bastard. I started working at my job full time about a month and a half ago because this other guy quit. So my schedule was pretty busy with work from 9am-5pm Monday thru Saturday. I also could not bring my laptop when I was working mornings because we were always busy as hell, so I just never had any chance to update the blog.

Well, today was my last day working full time at Gigio's. I've decided to take the rest of the week off and then start working the phones again part time starting next week.

So what have I been up to this past month and a half? Not much really. A little bit of poker and a little bit of sports bets.

Let's begin with the latter.

I've been collecting on sports bets from co-workers almost every week the past month, mostly on Confederation Cup soccer games. I've been picking mostly heavy favorites and laying decent odds. I did get burned badly on a game when Mexico lost to I think El Salvador and I was laying 4 to 1 on that game. I think I ended up losing like $200 but other than that I've been collecting on small bets between $10-$50 every week. I haven't yet deposited any money on my online sportsbook yet, but I'll probably throw some money there a little later this summer.

I've also played poker a couple of times with decent results. My last session at the charity casino was about a month ago. I think I hit the $200NL game for about a buy in. Then I played at this home game in Wrigleyville, where I ended up losing $100 for the night after being up a little bit, losing a big pot with Jacks and then going on tilt.

Interesting story about this game at Wrigleyville, it's not really a "home game" per say. It's just a raked game that this guy ran out of his place a couple of times a week. That is until the game got robbed at gunpoint about a week ago. The game is set up in a small 3rd story apartment, and apparently what happened was, this guy Spencer, a regular at the game whom I've played with before, went out to the fire escape to have a smoke and got confronted by two big dudes with bandanas over their faces. They put a gun to his head, walked him back into the apartment and they proceeded to rob everyone at the game, inlcuding taking everyone's cellphones/mp3 players and shit.

Obviously the guy running the game was pretty shook up so he's no longer running it. Instead he gave his player list to a couple of friends who are going to run the game out of a much safer location. I went to the game at this new location on Thursday and it went pretty well. They have a much nicer set up with room for about 5 tables, although only one was running since it was the first night. And they have this off-duty cop running security in the room to make the players feel alot safer.

Anyway I played on Thursday from about 9pm-1am and ended the night up a nice $415, cashing out for $615 total. I got hit in the face with the deck pretty hard though, getting Aces like 4 times, Kings once and hitting my draws when I needed to. I was actually sitting with around $800 at one point but lost a key pot with Aces after I should have been able to get away from it on the river but I paid off a value bet like a donkey anyway.

I also played another interesting $400 pot where we got it all in on the turn with me holding an over pair to the board and my opponent (a decent player who played a couple of WSOP events this year) holding top pair with an open ended straight draw. I didn't wanna take a bad beat here with one card to come, for a $400 pot, so I proposed to run the river twice. My opponent somehow bricked both times and I dragged in a nice pot.

Anyway, that's really all I've been up to this past few weeks. Like I said earlier, I've taken the rest of the week off work so I plan on hitting the poker tables hard, starting tonight. I'm about to leave for a game in a few minutes and if things go well, I'll be back at it tomorrow again.

I'll try to write an entry when I get back, or if not then maybe tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Swingy Session Part 2

2009-05-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm back to finish updating on my 8 hour session from Tuesday, as well as the home game I attended last night.

So in my last post I had just finished writing about the heart-breaking cold deck I suffered against Mr. Korea. I actually posted that hand in the strategy forum on FCP to get a little bit more insight and criticism on how I played it. Check out the thread here.

Opinions ranged from it being an insta-shove on the river to being able to find a fold on the flop (completely disagree with this).

The problem in the hand arises from the fact that I know Korea is a straight forward player, so for him to check-call the flop for $15 is a bit out of line with only a gut-shot. I don't think my call on the river was in any way terrible as Korea ends up showing a set a lot more than 9-10, in my opinion.

But anyway, on to the rest of the session. I was still up $150 after that hand but tilt got the best of me and I slowly started bleeding chips again. I make stupid plays like calling a player's all in after I bet a flop of K-10-x with Q-J. Villain surprisingly turns over A-10 saying something about how he KNEW I had Q-J and decided to go with his read. Of course I brick the turn and river and lose a big pot.

Then a short while later I have Q-Q UTG and make it $10 to go. I get 1 caller, a shortstack on the button with like $50 left behind. Flop comes down something like Q-J-7 rainbow giving me the absolute nuts with top set. I decide to make a small $10 bet into the pot and he insta-ships his stack all-in. I immediately call turning over my hand and he says "Aw shit, I thought you were making a play at me. I'm pretty sure I'm drawing dead."

As he says this, he still hasn't turned over his cards, and is holding them over the muck about to fold them. Mind you, if his cards are to touch the muck his hand is dead and I win regardless of the turn and river. But the dealer deals the turn and river in lighting-fast speed. A King and then a 10. The button immediately double checks his cards and says "Oh shit, I think I have a straight" and sure enough he flips over a retarded A-3off. Nice hand sir.

He runner-runner'd me but as bad a beat as it was, it did not hurt as much as it should have because he was so short stacked, so I only lost like $60 on the hand.

I had however, dwindled my stack to around $250 after having almost $500 in front of me a couple of hours earlier. I rely my frustration to Z via text:

10:31 PM: I am heartbroken Dr. Z. Im up a measly $47 bucks. This hurts...

He in turn does not offer much consolation with his response:

Zhagui: Lol,oh the swings, how I miss those.Weren't u up like a cool 100 a couple hours ago.

F*ck you Dr. Z.

Haha, anyway so I'm feeling like shit and ready to leave but Z has agreed to pick me up after he gets off work at midnight. So I have about an hour and a half to make something happen, and make something happen I did. In all honesty though, I have no idea how I was able to make a comeback in the last hour of play because I didn't really play any big pots. I did win a nice one when I limped with J-3, flopped two pair and got paid off by what was probably A-J, but other than that I guess I just built my stack with small pots here and there. Finally, when the table was about to break I had a nice $434 stack in front of me.

Final numbers for the session:

Buy in: $200
Cash out: $434
Profit: $234

Hours Played: 8.25
Hourly Rate: $28.36/hr

Sustainable? I think not! LOL.

So that was Tuesdays session after which I was completely exhausted both physically and mentally. It's definitely one of the longer sessions I've ever put in and I tip my hat to the guys who do this day in and day out grinding it out everyday at the poker table. The phrase Poker is a Hard Way to Make an Easy Living never rang so true to my ears.

On Wednesday I woke up around 10am to say goodbye to my mom who left for Houston for a couple of days. Seems my grandpa is pretty ill, but hopefully all goes well with him. Anyway, I went out to eat, came home and bummed around then left for a home game I got invited to out on the west side. Now, the way I came upon this specific game was a little bit shady, and I didn't know a single person who was going to be there, so I was a little skeptical about the whole thing.

I sent my guy Z the following text:
7:11 PM: Ok dude im about to go to this home game i found on craigslist. In case this is a set up, the address is xxxx xxxxx, aight, lol.

His response:
7:13 PM: Lol alright bro don't get raped tell me how it goes later.

Somehow I don't think he was referring to getting raped at the poker table. After all, we all know about the dangers of craigslist....but I digress.

So I got to the game which wasn't actually a home game at all. It was being held in this commercial office space that apparently one of the guys organizing the thing owns. It's a pretty nice set up with about 4 poker tables and a fridge full of all you can drink beer, wine and soda. We would also ended up ordering a couple of pizzas later in the night.

A couple of snapshots I took before people started arriving:

But anyway, I'm one of the first people there and we chill around till we have enough people to get a game going. We start off six handed 1/2NL , and I buy in for $200. Everyone else at the table buys in for around $50-$80 except for the guy on my left, a hilarious dude named Gabriel who also buys in for $200. As the only threat to my stack I've made up my mind not to get involved in any big pots with Gabriel unless I have a monster hand, and instead try to focus on bullying the shorter stacks.

All that goes out the window when I'm holding K-Q on a J-10-2 board. The pot is still pretty small at this point since there was no pre-flop raising. We check check the turn which is a blank and then I hit the nut straight on the river with an Ace and no possible flushes out there. I bet $10 into the still small pot, and it's music to my ears when Gabriel announces raise and goes $25 on top of my $10. I cut out my chips, announce re-raise and make it $75 all day, double checking my cards one more time just to make sure I do indeed have the absolute nuts. Gabriel announces all in and at this point I'm a little upset at the realization that we're going to end up chopping the $400 pot because we both have KQ. I insta-call and Gabriel does indeed turn over K-Q as well. Yikes, why couldn't he have a set there, just one time! Haha.

So the game is pretty dull for the next hour or so with not a lot of action, yet somehow I'm managing to lose a bunch of small pots by playing way to loose, doing random shit like calling with Q-8 out of position and check-folding most flops. Then a bit of drama ensues when a guy named Rick makes it $7 to go from middle position and another dude named Albert re-pops to $27. Rick tanks and calls the $20 while Albert announces that he is all in for his last $50 blind before the flop, despite the fact it it's an out of turn bet. The flop comes 4-4-2 and since Albert's all in bet was binding despite it being out of turn, Rick insta-calls the $50 and flips over.....4-2 offsuite, lol!

The turn and river don't seem to help what Albert says was pocket Aces and he doesn't take the beat well as he storms off to get a drink. When he comes back he rebuys for another $50 and over the next 30 minutes we have to listen to Albert's bitching about what a bad call Rick made pre-flop with the 4-2. Not only that but he continues to berate Rick's plays until I guess Rick has had enough and tells the dealer to cash him out. Keep in mind Rick is the big winner thus far, up about $200, including a nice pot he won off me when I paid him of with a weak Ace on an uncoordinated board and he woke up with a two pair.

So as Rick is cashing out Albert starts talking. " I'd sure like to leave a winner too Rick. You know if you leave right now, every single person at this table is going to be pissed off at you. Don't you have any idea what ethics are?" Rick in turn responds "That has nothing to do with it Al. You just can't handle a bad beat and I'm tired of your bitching bro. I didn't even want to come tonight but Gabe asked me to." As he walks out Gabe informs me that Al and Rick are actually pretty good friends.

Alas, the game continues 5 handed for a few more minutes until the pizza arrives and we take a short break. When play resumes I add another $100 to my stack because I've lost about $150 of my original buy in. So I'm now in for $300 when a bunch of other dudes arrive so we finally have a full game going. My bad run continues though as I just can't seem to get anything going despite having some ultra-fish in the game including this guy named Richard who has been sipping on wine the whole night and is falling asleep at the table.

My impatience gets the best of me and when I look down at A-Koff in early position I raise it up to $12. A player in late position 3bets to around $30 and I push my remaining stack. The other guy, who seems to be somewhat of a decent player calls nonchalantly although he does not turn over his cards. The board runs out all small cards and I figure his over pair is good. It is indeed as he flips over pocket Jacks and drags in a monster pot leaving me with around $30 left.

It's around 1 am at this point and I figure I'll lose the $30 and head home, having gotten my ass kicked. I dwindle the $30 down to about $7 or $8 bucks and go all in blind UTG with several callers. The board runs out something like Q-10-6-3-2 and when I finally look at my cards I see that my 10-5 is the best hand. Then I manage to crack a dude's Aces with 6-2 in another blind all in and before I know it I'm back to $100.

I announce to the table that this will be my last round, and limp with K-7 of spades on the button. 4 of us see a flop of K-Q-6. Player in early position bets $15 and gets 2 callers including myself. The turn is a 7, giving me two pair, and the previous raiser now goes all in for around $50. Folds to me and I make the call hoping I haven't run into a set. Nope, the other guy flips over Q-6 and when he doesn't improve on the river I drag in yet another big pot putting me down only around $75 for the night.

I play the last few hands of the round losing around $25 in some straddled pots but finally call it a night being down $102, which actually feels like a win after having been stuck close to $300 and grinding my last $7 all the way up to $225.

I ended up getting home around 3 am again exhausted from what was a longish 6 hour session.

Swingy Session Part 1

2009-05-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

Okay finally some good content I can throw on this blog. As I said in my last post, I hadn't really played any poker in a while so there was really nothing much to write about. But I decided to hit up the casino last night and had quite the swingy session. I played some monster pots, took some massive beats but ended the night in the green.

As I made my way to the casino I was fully intending on playing either 2/4 or 3/6 limit. Needless to say I've never played limit poker in my life, but I've been wanting to learn the game for a long time now and I figured I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately when I got there, there wasn't a single limit table running. So I decided to sit in my usual 200NL game instead.

Before that though, I had a bit of a problem at the cage. I didn't have an ID with me because the charity casino rarely cards. In fact I can only remember being carded like two times there in my life. But the guy refused to sell me chips with no ID. I decided to go talk to this floorguy T.C. and see if he could help me out. T.C. went and talked with the guy at the cage and told him I was a fairly regular player there despite the fact that I haven't played there in months, so that was cool of him.

So I finally sit down with a rack of $200 at the NL table around 3:40pm. I'm pretty much card dead for the first hour at the table, getting dealt like K3 and J2 every other hand. I'm slowly bleeding chips and then lose a biggish pot with Ad 10d after chasing a flush draw, not getting there and giving up on the river. So after that hand I'm steaming a bit and decide to gamble it up and raise with 5-2 of spades UTG. I make it $12 to go and get 4 callers to the flop. Flop comes A-Q-5 and I figure I can represent an Ace here with my pre-flop raise. I lead out for $22 and get one caller, this older lady who kept reminding me of Mac's mom from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Anyway, the the turn brings a second Ace on the board and I decide to check. Mrs. Mac's Mom checks behind and I'm now fairly certain she has a Queen and I need to bet big on the river if I want to get her off it. Mind you I still only have a pair of fives at this point. Luckily the river brings another five, giving me Fives full of Aces. Now instead of betting big I try to figure out an amount to bet that she can call with a Queen. I settle on $25 and she thinks it over for a bit and finally calls. She seems a little shocked when I turn over the 5-2 of spades and mucks KQ face up.

I then send this text to my guy Z who is asking about my session.

4:50 PM: Bro i just won a sick $140 pot wid the good old 5-2 of spades.

So that pot brings me up to about even and then I go on a mini heater raking in a few smallish pots in a row. So I'm sitting with around ~$240 when I get pocket Jacks in MP. A couple of limpers before me and I pop it up to $10. Then the small blind, this gangsta looking black dude re-pops me to $30. Folds back to me and I have a bit of a decision to make. I can 4-bet and commit myself to the hand there, or wait to see what the flop brings. I decide to smooth call and we go HU to a flop of 2-2-2. Gangstalicious thinks it over for a bit and then throws two green chips out ($50). I go into the tank a bit, asking myself if he would do this with anything other than AA, KK or QQ. Tens seem possible and I say fuck it, and push all in. He calls rather quickly which makes my heart sink thinking I've run into Queens most definitely. But surprisingly he flips over AK of clubs and I sweat the turn and river and can't help myself but to fist pump in celebration when he goes brick brick. I drag in what's probably one of the bigger pots I've won in my life and send the following text:

6:33 PM: Just won a $445 pot bro! Now netting $245 for the day.

Shortly thereafter though, I suffer a heart breaker. I'll tell it as best I can remember.

UTG and MP limp in before me and I look down at 4-5 of diamonds on the button and decide to limp in as well. The SB folds and the BB checks. The flop comes down 6-7-J rainbow. BB checks, UTG who I have a bit of history with (more on that in a bit) checks and MP, a player who just sat down, bets out $15. I call the $15 on the button with my open-ender, BB folds and UTG calls the $15 as well. The turn is an 8, completing my straight. UTG checks, MP again bets $15 and I raise it to $45 on the button. To my surprise they both call my raise and we see a blank river, something like a deuce of hearts.

So the board now reads 6h-7c-Jd-8c-2h. To my surprise, UTG leads out for $70. Now, UTG is this older Korean guy in his 60s who I've played a lot with in the past. He's a straight forward ABC player but he puts me on tilt every time he seats at my table just because he acts like the biggest douche bag in the world. Every single decision the dealer makes, he wants confirmation from the floor which slows the game down. He berates the dealers for absolutely no reason and is just an all around jerk. A few hands earlier I asked if he could trade me some of his white ($1) chips for some of my red ($5) so I could pay the blinds, and he refused, mumbling something about how he likes his stack to look bigger with the white chips or something, so the dealer had to call a chip runner to bring me some whites.

Quick snap shot of Mr. Korea I managed to take with my phone for the purposes of this blog.

But ANYWAY, back to the hand. Mr. Korea (is this racist? I don't really think so, I just can't come up with a more clever nickname for him) leads for $70 on the river and MP tanks for about two minutes before making a crying call. Now I have a huge decision with what is effectively the second nuts. The only possible/reasonable hand that beats me at this point is 9-10. (9-5 beats me as well but makes no sense what so ever.)

So I make the call as well, not even remotely considering a raise, and of course Korea turns over the 9-10. As soon as he did, I wanted to grab my cards and throw them in his face. I just could not believe I had gotten cold decked in such a sick pot against the one person at the table I'd hate to give my chips to the most. But I kept my cool, said nice hand and went for a short walk, sending the following text:

7:11 PM: Major tilt dude. Just lost a $350 pot wid the 2nd nuts. Woulda been up $500 for the night man. still up 150 tho.

I actually have to cut this post short for now because I gotta get ready for a home game I'm headed to tonight. It's another 200NL game and hopefully I can create a bit of a win streak for myself. Anyway I'll try to update the info for the rest of yesterday's session as well as the results for tonight. Peace!

Drunken Soccer Bet

2009-05-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Geez, more than a month since I updated this thing. Let's see, I think the last post I made was right after blowing up my roll on Stars. I started talking about giving up poker, how I can't handle the bad beats, blah blah blah. Lol, basically all the shit that goes through your mind after a bad session.

But of course I haven't given up poker, I just haven't been playing much lately which is the reason this blog's been neglected the past few weeks. I've been wanting to hit up the casino but work has got me tied up. Everytime they have an event close by, I usually have to work.

For example today I wanted to go donk around in the $20+$5 Early Bird crapshoot at 2pm but I had to be at work by 4pm. And it's not like I can head over there after work because since its a charity casino, they're only allowed to run the events til midnight. Blah, can't wait to turn 21 so I can f*cking drive to the Horseshoe at 3 in the morning if I feel like it.

Hopefully I can put in a good session sometime soon though. I think my guy Zhagui is going to be working again with me during the summer so that'll definietly make my schedule more flexible.
I know those donkey's at RCG are just dying to give me their money. :-)

Anyway, I've also cooled off a bit with the sports betting as well. Haven't reloaded my Bookmaker account but I have been making small $10-$20 bets on soccer matches with the dudes from work.

Actually, about 3 weeks ago I was at this party where a bunch of the guys from work were at. Needless to say I was quite wasted and towards the end of the night I found myself in the washroom of the banquet hall, discussing soccer with a driver from work who I never talk to. (Alcohol will do that to you, I suppose.)

Anyway, that day my team Chivas had played against and beaten his team Club America 1-0, so the shit talking began and we somehow ended up making a $100 bet on who would accumulate the most points in the last 3 games of the season between Chivas and America.

Now even as drunk as I was (I'd been drinking non-stop since I got there around 7pm and it was already 1ish am) I knew I was making a bad bet because of the remaining 3 games for both teams, Chivas had 2 away games and 1 at home while America had 2 at home and 1 away. Home field advantage is HUGE in soccer, but despite all this I still went ahead with the bet.

Well in the 1st of the last three games for both teams, I caught an early break when America lost 2-1 at home against Tecos and Chivas managed a 1-1 draw in an away game against Pumas. So I was up 1 point on the bet but then last week America managed a miraculous last minute win against Monterrey while Chivas couldn't take advantage of their home turf and again only managed a 0-0 draw against Puebla.

So it looks like the bet is going to come down to the last game of the season for both teams. America has accumulated 3 points to Chivas' 2. It's not looking good for me since America will be facing a weak Necaxa team at home while Chivas will be visiting an inspired Indios squad. I need America to lose and then Chivas to draw just to push the bet. In a more unrealistic scenario I could still win the bet if America draws and Chivas pulls off the away win.

Meh, anything can happen I guess. Definitely going to be sweating the games big time this weekend.

I'm Done

2009-03-23T01:06:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure I'm done with Poker.

What a shitty past couple of days. Just cooler after cooler and bad beat after bad beat. Just CAN NOT catch a fucking break.

I've dropped $150 since my lost post although the last $50 was in a HU match that I played out of pure tilt. Surprise surprise I got coolered there as well. Got it all in on a K-7-10 flop with K-7 and villain woke up with K-10.

Yea yea I know $150 is NOTHING. Shit I drop twice that at the live sessions without breaking a sweat. But when you lose it bad beat after bad beat, it just stings a lot more.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this post it. I'm not really sure if I'm done with poker or not, it's just been a shitty weekend. And I've got some real life family shit going on that's obviously more important than anything.

I still have $100 left on Stars. I'm thinking of just withdrawing it but I'm really not in the right frame of mind right now to make that decision. I'll do that tomorrow when I'm not so tilted. Alright that's all for now. I'll probably post tomorrow to see what I plan on doing.

A Victory!

2009-03-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

I ended up losing the $90 soccer parlay last weekend when Lazio got destroyed 3-0. The other two teams in the parlay were AC Milan and Barcelona. They both won quite easily. So now I'm officially broke on my sports betting account which sucks. I don't think I'm going to reload for a while though. At least not until I'm able to deposit at least $300 so I can start making fewer picks but for higher money.

I've been too lazy to go back through my bets history to update my record but I'll get to it eventually...

Anyway on to the good stuff. Poker! So I was down to $12 on my Stars account and like $4 on Full Tilt and figured I would have to be reloading soon unless I was able to go deep in something. Well, deep I went! I was able to take down a Stars $4.40 180man sng on Tuesday night for a sweet $216. I ran like god for most of the way and had some disgusting suck outs. I was rivering 3 outters left and right like nobody's buisness! Haha, anyway there was a key pot with like 50 players left where I basically got it all in with K-9 in a 6-7-8 board against a player who already had the straight (4-5). I rivered the 10 and then immediately after that I got it all in with 99 and got called by QQ and some other random hand. This time I turned a set and tripled up giving me a huge chip lead that I held for quite some time.

I lost a pot right around the final table bubble so I came into the final nine with 4th in chips but I quickly regained the chip lead after picking up pocket 10s early on and getting value from what was probably 7-7 or 8-8.

Anyway the final table was easy sailing until we were down to 3. We played 3 handed for probably close to 30 minutes as the chip lead kept changing back and forth. Finally I was able to knock out a guy who overplayed Kings up after I made a straight on the turn. The heads up battle started with me having a slight chip lead over my opponent.

We actually discussed just chopping the tourney for $180 each, but we weren't even sure if Stars allows you to chop SnGs so we said screw it and just played it out. Heads Up lasted for like 15 minutes. I realized I was getting to passive and my opponent was building a chip lead so I decided to start playing back. We finally ended up getting it all in with my AJ vs. his KJ. I miracolously held and shipped the tourney.

Winning it felt great. I can't remember the last time I took down anything bigger then a couple of tables. And I'm happy about the way I played the final table with the chip lead. Being aggresive but not retarded.

I know it's only one tourney, and one result, but I think I really want to start concentrating on multi table tourneys and abandon the cash games for a while. I'll also continue to grind the $6.60 6 max single tables, which have always been kind to me (took one down last night) and I'll probably donk around in the 1c/2c game on Full Tilt when the crave for cash games arises.

So thus far my online roll consists of $252.14. Not bad considering two days ago it sat at $16, haha.

I'm Not Dead

2009-03-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

Just in case you were wondering, I'm not dead or anything. A couple of friends reminded be that I haven't updated this sh*t in a while so I thought I'd check back in.

What have I been up to the last month or so? Nothing really. Same old. Losing in poker and losing in sports betting, haha.

Let's start off with tha pokah.

I got staked in the Stars 5k Guaranteed about 3 weeks ago. Out of 1016 players I ended up busting in 15th for a measly $76. First place money was $4,500. I wanted to final table that bitch sooooo badly, so when I busted I was pretty bummed out. I thought I was finally going to reach that elusive 4 digit score I've been seeking but no dice.

And the way I went out was kinda shitty too because I'd been shortstacking it for a while but got myself in position to have a decent stack at the final table but I somehow got it all in with KQ against KJ and lost.

Anyway I also got crushed at the 200NL live game a couple of weeks ago. I went ice cold and got coolered a couple of times. One hand at the beggining of the session got me pretty steamy and I think it affected how I played the rest of the way.

With 5 limpers before me I look down at 9d6h on the button and decide to limp in as well. SB completes and BB checks.

Flop comes 9c-6c-3h. Early position bets $10. Middle position calls and I raise it to $45 on the button with my two pair. EP insta-calls and MP tanks for a bit but calls as well. EP and MP both have ~$35 and ~$50 left and I've got them both easily covered so I've made up my mind to push on the turn if anything but a club hits.

The turn is a 10s. They both check to me and I think about slowing down now that a straight draw might have hit, but decide to push anyway. Again EP insta-calls and MP tanks for about 2 minutes before finally calling.

EP flips over KK and MP has Ac2c. Of course a f*cking club hits on the river and I lose the ~$280 pot.

Now, I know that it wasn't a horrible beat. Even KK had a lot of outs against me, but it was the fact that I lost the big pot early in the session that got me steaming. See, I feel a lot more comfortable at the table when I'm playing deep stack poker. I just feel like I have a lot more room to make plays and don't feel so pot commited on every big hand.

So instead of sitting with a $400 stack early on I was down to $100 annd lost that over a couple of coolers.

I rebought for another $200 but again wasn't able to get anything going. Lost a huge pot with QQ on a 2-7-9 flop. I had to meet someone so I left earlier than I wanted to, being down $339 overall for the session.

I haven't been back since and I have a bunch of bills to pay in the next week or so which means I probably won't be back to win my money til sometime at the end of March. But I will be back. That's a given, haha.

Now on to the sports betting.

I've been raping people here at work on Mexican soccer games but unfortunately those results haven't translated into my BookMaker account. Last time I updated this blog (2/12) the bankroll was sitting at $181 but unfortunately I've managed to cut that in half over this past month.

It's mostly been due to retarded huge favorite parlays in the Spanish, English and Italian leagues. I've also used the account to book a couple of bets for some friends who wanted to bet on the Mexico v. Bolivia game because they liked Bolivia's +400 odds. So even though I lost the money from my account, I still got paid as I was only booking the bets for them.

Speaking of retarded parlays, I've decided to throw my last $90 on one for tomorrow, lol. It's a three teamer with 2 Italian league games and one Spanish league.

All the teams are -450 or bigger favorites but of course that doesn't mean sh*t in soccer, haha.

Anyways I'll post the parlay either later today or tomorrow morning and I'll also try to backtrack through last month's bets to update the record.

I'm out, peace!

Unpatriotic

2009-02-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

Sigh...

Yes, I went with the U.S. yesterday instead of Mexico. Turned out to be the right decision but nonetheless I felt shame in not having faith in my own country, lol. Oh well, money is money and I cashed on both of my plays in last night's game:

United States -0.5........$30 to win $10.53

U.S. v. Mexico Under 2.5........$30 to win $17.14

Total Record: 213-209-18

Bankroll: $181.66

Total Profit: -$18.34

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I've been putting in a few sessions on the micro cash games at Full Tilt Poker even though I said I wanted to focus on the 6max SnGs. But I've been running pretty good in the 10NL game and taken a couple of shots at 25NL for which I'm severely under rolled.

I actually took a couple of horrendous beats at 25NL last Friday.

Here's the first one.

I guess I could have just flat called the 3bet on the flop but I knew villain had A10-AK so might as well put the money in as a 3 to 1 favorite.

That beat wasn't as bad as this next one though.

I basically flop the nuts and almost jizz my pants when the big stack moves in after my check raise and then the 3rd player calls as well. I knew one of them HAD to have flopped a set so I was just praying for the board not to pair. But of course an ugly Queen hits the river and I lose the $83 pot.

So that basically busted my Stars account. Thankfully I still had $35 on Full Tilt and over the past few days I've been able to run that up to $115 at the 10nl game including a nice 3 buy in session a couple of days ago. I actually had it up to $135 but had a bad couple sessions yesterday.

I'll probably continue to grind the 10nl game even though I'm technically still under rolled for that as well with only 11.5 buy ins but anything lower than .05/.10 I just can't take seriously for some reason and always end up spewing off chips.

Anyway I really wanted to hit up the casino last night to put in my first live session of the year and was really pumped up for it but I ended up using the money I had to buy a new phone instead, lol. I've been phoneless ever since I sold my Sidekick 08 so I bought the Samsung Behold off a dude on craig's list. I've only had it for a day but so far I've had no problems with it. I wish the web browser was a little faster but overall a nice phone and it's got a kick ass 5.0 mega pixel camera.

So the 200NL game is going to have to wait for now. Maybe next week, although I'm looking into buying a LCD for my room in the next couple of weeks so I really don't know.

Sports Betting Update

2009-02-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

Haven't felt like updating this in a few days. Been busy grinding the 10nl and 25nl games on Full Tilt. I'll post about how that's been going sometime tomorrow but for now here's a list of the plays I've made on BookMaker since my last post.

2/6:

Boston -6.5.......$15

Golden State +9.5........$6

2/7:

Parlay; Chelsea -0.5, AC Milan -0.5........$40

Denver -2.5........$10

Detroit -4.5........$10

2/8:

Parlay; Calcio -0.5, Barcelona -0.5..........$10

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Record: 211-209-18

Bankroll: $153.99

Total Profit: -$46.01

So overall during the weekend I went 3-3 on the picks but unloading $40 on the parlay on Saturday really cost me.

Didn't have any plays yesterday or today but I might throw some money on the Mexico v. USA soccer game tomorrow night. Which side I play is still undecided. My heart says Mexico but my brain says USA, lol. It's hard to admit but USA has just owned Mexico when playing at home.

I think Mexico's scored a grand total of 3 goals against USA in American soil. Not to mention the fact that both Guardado and Arce are out for the Mexican squad. Oh well, I'll make my decision sometime tomorrow.

Laker Show

2009-02-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

I collected on my final Super Bowl bet today and decided to hit up Best Buy to pick up a new 360 even though I'll probably get my broken one back from Microsoft in about 2 weeks. I shipped that one off today in the pre-paid box they sent me.

I just didn't want to go 2 more weeks with no system though. I actually busted out the old PS2 yesterday just because I was craving some gaming, haha.

Anyway so yea, I picked up the Arcade version which was $200. I'll probably try to resell it on Craig's List for $150ish when I get my Elite back. I also picked up a Turtle Beach X3 gaming headset that I'd been wanting to get for a long time. Those were $100 although after trying them out for a little bit before I left for work today, I'm not sure they're worth it. I can't even use them on the 50'' Plasma in the living room because since they're wireless they use IR technology that interferes with the Plasma IR so all I get is a bunch of static on them.

They did work great on the 22'' monitor in my room though since that's an LCD. And playing Rock Band with them on was pretty awesome as well as kicking ass in CoD4 cause now I can hear every single mofo trying to sneak up behind me, lol. But the LCD in my room doesn't have HDMI hook up so the graphics look washed out unlike the Plasma downstairs where the graphics are sweet.

The only solution I forsee is buying a new LCD tv with HDMI hook up for my room, lol.

Went 1-2 yesterday with my Bulls bailing me out of an ugly day. Should have thrown some money on them moneyline, but w.e.

Tonight's only play is Lakers +6.5.

The freaking line went down from +7 to +6.5 the second I was trying to get my bet in. So if I end up losing cause of that, I'ma be pissed cause it's a $20 bet.

My boy Viet over on the Paper Chaser has money on Lakers moneyline so let's hope we cash this!

Lakers +6.5

Day Profit: +$18.18

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 208-206-18

Bankroll: $176.36

Total Profit: -$23.64

Wednesday Picks

2009-02-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Played a little poker this morning. First a $6.60 6 max SnG in which I donked out of pretty early which left me kind of tilty so I fired up a $25NL 6 max table and proceeded to lose a buy in pretty quickly which left me even more tilted, lol.

So I decided to try my luck on a Full Tilt cash table instead and ran better there. Bought in for $20 at a 25NL table and cashed out for $45 20 minutes later.

I might play a couple of $4.40s tonight also.

I've got three bets tonight. All NBA and all for $10. A 3-0 day would be nice, haha.

Cleveland -5.5

Houston -5.5

Chicago +2.5

Day Profit: -$10.91

Day Record: 1-2

Total Record: 207-206-18

Bankroll: $158.18

Total Profit: -$41.82

Super Bowl Results

2009-02-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

All in all, a very nice Super Bowl for me last night. I won $200 from Luis (he gets my Sidekick), $50 from Alex, $50 from Mauricio, $45 from Kobe2Odom8 (dude from the FCP forums), and $20 from BookMaker for a total profit of +$365 on the game.

The BookMaker play was Arizona +6.5 and I actually wanted to unload a lot more than $20 but ultimately decided not to, which sucks.

Now, you would think that after an almost $400 profit weekend, I'd be pretty damn happy. And I would be if it weren't for the fact that my Xbox 360 died on me yesterday morning. I got the infamous red ring of death which basically means the system is dead and the only way to revive it is to send it in to Microsoft to have it fixed. Who knows when I'll see my system again once I send it in. From a bit of online research it could take anywhere from a week and a half to over a month.

Going a month without my Xbox is like asking me to go a month without betting on anything. It just ain't gonna happen, lol. So if Microsoft tells me it's going to take more than a month to fix when I call them tomorrow, I'm probably going to buy the Xbox 360 Arcade version for $200 and then resell it when I get my Elite back.

Anyway I'm out. About to head to the movies but I do have a play on the Lakers just for the sake of it.

Lakers -5.5......$10

Day Profit: +$9.09

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 206-204-18

Bankroll: $169.09

Total Profit: -$30.91

More Super Bowl Bets

2009-01-29T17:25:00.000-08:00

I took some more Super Bowl action today. First with Alex who accepted my 1.5 to 1 money line odds so I'm putting up my $75 against his $50 on a Steelers win. Then with Luis although this one is a little different. I've been trying to sell my new Sidekick 08 because it still doesn't seem to work with my SIM card.

It's the weirdest thing because it's not the phone that's defective since I pop in my sister's SIM card and the phone works great, but it's not my SIM card either because I pop my card into my sister's phone and it works also. So I don't even know what the problem is and just want to sell the phone and get something else.

But anyway, so Luis wanted to buy it from me for $150 but I wanted $200 for it. So we decided to leave it up to the Super Bowl. If the Cardinals win, I'll sell him the phone for $100. If Steelers win I'll sell him the phone for $200.

So I'm selling the phone either way. I actually paid $150 for the phone but still have a $50 mail in rebate voucher that I haven't sent in so I don't really lose money if I sell the phone for $100.

I'm still trying to get a little bit more Super Bowl action on the FCP forums although that'll probably only be in the $20 range and maybe another $20 on props. Don't know if I'm going to place a bet on BookMaker yet. I'll probably decide on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, it turns out I might have to come in to work which sucks. I doubt we're even going to be that busy but my manager wants me to come in anyway. This is going to be a hectic ass weekend at work cause I have to work tomorrow from 4pm-1am then Saturday from 9am-1am (double shifts ftw!) and Sunday from 2pm-10pm.

At least I can look forward to a nice paycheck!

Oh yea, almost forgot I bet $10 on the Mexico game yesterday and lost. LOL, I had actually forgotten they where playing but I was at Best Buy and using the Internet on one of their laptops and remembered about the game. So I rushed home to see if I would get there in time to bet it. I did and they freaking lost. They're going to get crushed by USA in a couple of weeks too probably.

1st Super Bowl Bet

2009-01-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Got my first Super Bowl bet down yesterday with Mauricio from work. Even money, straight up with no point spread, for $50. He only wanted to bet $20 but I pushed him towards $50. I'm also offering Alex 1.5 to 1 odds for another $50 so he's still considering that. (True money line is like 2.3 to 1 but w.e.)

I'm also probably going to get a couple of bets down on the FCP forums with my Stars poker roll so I REALLY hope Steelers don't lose, haha.

Oh yea last night before I went to bed I placed a tennis bet on Federer -400 for $20 to win $5 so I cashed on that. Sports betting roll now stands at a healthy $150 plus like an extra $20 that I have saved up in BookMaker's Loyalty Rewards program but I don't plan on cashing that in yet.

I played a quick one hour 5NL session yesterday morning before work and made like $7. Then this morning I lost a $5 HU match but took 2nd in a $6.60 6 max SnG. Will probably put a couple more of those in later tonight.

I also got a stake today to play the Stars 200k Guaranteed on Sunday so I hope to make a deep run in that. There's even more incentive to run good in this one because there's a last longer bet with 9 other FCPers and the winner gets staked into a $55 freeze out. I just hope I get to play it because there's the possibility that my boss asks me to work on Sunday since it might get busier than usual because of the Super Bowl. I hope this doesn't happen.

Good Sunday

2009-01-25T19:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't updated the blog this whole week. My dad got injured at work and had surgery this past Friday so that was pretty much the only thing on my mind the entire week. Surgery went well though, so that's good. He should be back at work in a month or so.

Anyway played a little bit of poker online today with good results. I had been planning to deposit some money on my Stars account sometime this week but just hadn't had time so I played a $4.40 on a stake today and managed to take second for $144. Obviously cause I was staked I only got $72 but that plus another $15 I had on Full Tilt should be enough to make something happen.

I gotta admit I ran extremely well through out the whole tournament winning flips and dodging coolers. I actually got really lucky around the final table bubble when I ran my Queens into Aces but was able to suck out with a flush.

I started the final table 4th in chips but it quickly got down to 5 handed where it remained for a while. That's where I took kind of a sick beat. I made an awesome soul read where I knew my opponent was really weak on the turn and I decided to put him all in with Ace high. He decided to call me with a 5 high flush draw with one card to come and he obviously got there. That was the biggest pot of the tournament at that point and would have put me in a commanding chip lead 4 handed. Instead I was down to 40k.

When it was 3 handed I was still shortstacking around 35k-40k while both my opponents had over 100k. Got lucky and cracked a dude's Jacks with 8c9c and then got to HU with about a 5-1 chip deficit. I played Heads Up pretty poorly though. Way too passive til I got impatient and bluffed with a hand all the way and got called by like 2nd pair.

Oh well, I'll take a $144 cash anyday. It was the first final table in a while too which was nice. So right now the onlie poker roll stands around $91 which like I said earlier should be enough to try to build off of.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also managed to cash on a soccer parlay for $15 to bring the sports betting roll to $145. AC Milan easily won 3-1 while Real Madrid struggled but squeezed out a win against Depor.

2 Team Parlay................$20 to win $15
-AC Milan -0.5
-Real Madrid -0.5

Day Profit: +$15.00

Day Record: 1-0-0

Total Record: 203-203-18

Bankroll: $145.41

Total Profit: -$54.59

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a completely unrelated note, I've been on the most normal sleeping schedule in a long time the past week or so.

I've been waking up around 8 or 9 am and going to sleep around 10pm at the latest. Yesterday when I had to work til 1am I got home and was COMPLETELY pooped out and went straight to bed whereas I would usually jump on the XBOX and play til like 7 in the morning.

I'll definitely try to keep the normal sleeping schedule cause I just think it's a lot healthier than going to sleep at 7 or 8 in the morning every day and waking up at 3 or 4 pm.

Ballin'

2009-01-20T06:07:00.001-08:00

Mas Futbol

2009-01-18T07:20:00.000-08:00

Nice 2-0-1 day yesterday although it would've been 3-0 if Chivas had been able to hang on to a 2-0 lead. Instead they forgot how to play defense and the bet pushed with a final score of 3-3.

The Chelsea game was actually a lot closer than I thought it would be and I ended up winning that in injury time. Chelsea was down 1-0 but tied it in like the 87th minute and then won it in the 92nd so I got lucky there.

Another parlay today although not as heavy favorite as yesterdays. From the 3 games the one I'm worried about the most is probably the Toluca game. They're the defending champs and they're at home but the Mexican league is just so inconsistent that an upset is very possible. Real Madrid should roll over Osasuna and the EPL game should be interesting since both teams are in horrible form but I think Tottenham can pull off the home win.

Looking at some later picks I'll probably take Santos at home vs America. I've also got $20 on that game with Alex from work.

Haven't decided yet if I'm going to throw some money on either football game today.

3 Team Parlay..............$20
-Toluca (pk)
-Real Madrid (-0.5)
-Tottenham Spurs (pk)

Santos (-0.5)............$20

Pittsburgh Steelers (-0.5)............$15

Day Profit: -$10.17

Day Record: 2-1-0

Total Record: 202-203-18

Bankroll: $130.41

Total Profit: -$69.59

$60 Parlay

2009-01-17T06:11:00.001-08:00

Going to start Saturday morning off with a nice $60 parlay. Arsenal (PK) and Chelsea (-0.5).

Risking $60 to win $22. Big juice I know, but that's been my thing lately so whatever. I decided to start gambling it up a little more to try and build a roll faster. Might lead to brokesville but I'm okay with that.

If I hit the parlay then I'll add a couple more soccer game picks tonight and if I lose it, I'll throw the last $50 on Barcelona tomorrow or something.

2 Team Parlay.............$60
-Arsenal (pk)
-Chelsea (-0.5)

Chivas (pk).................$20

Chivas v. Cruz Azul Over 2.5............$10

Day Profit: +$31.24

Day Record: 2-0-1

Total Record: 200-202-18

Bankroll: $140.58

Total Profit: -$59.42

T-mobile is putting me on tilt

2009-01-16T07:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks but I'm on mad tilt right now and really need to vent.

I just got off the phone with T-Mobile and it seems like they've essentially screwed me out of $150 bucks.

Last Monday I ordered the Sidekick 08 from t-mobile.com which was an upgrade from my previous phone, the Sidekick 3. I went ahead and got a two year extension on my contract as well to get the phone for $149.99 as opposed to the retail price of $299.99.

Okay so I got the phone yesterday and I figured it was going to be as simple as popping in the SIM card from my old phone into the new one.

Not quite.

For some reason the phone would not get any signal and it took me to a screen that said I had to wait 24 hours for the data services (AIM, Internet etc.) to work properly but that I should still be able to make calls and send texts.

Well when I tried placing calls a message would read "Hardware Problem" or something like that. But this was last night and I was at work so I could not call t-mobile to see what was up.
So I called t-mobile up a few minutes ago and explained the problem.

Lady said a simple phone reset should fix it. So I reset the phone and still nothing. I would get a signal for like the first 30 seconds the phone was booted up and then it would disappear. So she had me try a bunch of other stuff including testing my SIM card on another phone to see if that was the problem.

The SIM card worked great on my sister's phone so it was deemed that the Sidekick was the one at fault. Okay at this point, am I crazy for thinking that the most straight forward and logical solution would be for me to send the phone back and have them send me a new one?

I guess not. Apparently since I didn't purchase insurance on the phone, they can't do anything about it. No money back no nothing. I'm stuck with a phone that was SHIPPED already broken and I'm liable for it.

Okay hold on. I'm going to put this post on pause for a minute and take a drive down to the t-mobile store since I'm guessing they're already open by now.

to be continued in a few minutes...

Alright, I'm back and things seemed to be worked out now I guess. But first let's go back to the original phone call to t-mobile earlier this morning. So the lady keeps insisting that there's nothing I can do and basically t-mobile isn't responsible for the defective phone.

WTF? Seriously?

She's putting me on mad tilt at this point so I hang up on her and then decided to drive down to the t-mobile store. Some dude checks the phone out and checks SIM card and what not basically doing all the stuff the lady made me do over the phone. He says the phone is defective but that I can just call t-mobile back and they should send me a new phone regardless if I have insurance on it or not.

So I come back home and call t-mobile again and finally start talking to someone with a bit of brains. She's super cool about it and tells that I can in fact get a new phone because the one they sent me was a defective model (I don't know what the earlier rep I was talking to was smoking.)

So I just got back from the UPS store where I shipped the defective phone back and I should be getting a new one sometime next week. Why this wasn't the first thing that was proposed when I called is beyond me but whatever.

It still sucks that I'm going to be without a phone for a week though (I sold my Sidekick 3 yesterday) but I think I can get a loaner phone from the t-mobile store til mine arrives.

So, that's been my morning basically. 3 phone calls to t-mobile, a trip to the t-mobile store and another trip to the UPS store. Oh yea and I haven't slept all night and gotta be at work in 3 hours. Yay me and my crappy Friday morning!

Sub-Zero

2009-01-15T06:17:00.000-08:00

Today is expected to be the coldest day in Chitown in over 10 years. Temperature right now is at -10° and it's expected to dip all the way down to -40° with wind chill factors. So yea, it's pretty fucking cold to say the least.

Let's hope the freezing temps are not an omen of things to come in my gambling endeavours, haha.

Haven't played online poker in a long time. Gonna try to deposit sometime in the next couple of weeks. Not sure how I'm going to go about it though cause MoneyGram is no longer an option on Stars and most debit cards get rejected. I'll see what other viable options they have.

Probably going to deposit $200 and play the 6 Max $6.60 SnGs exclusively. That's about 30 buy ins which should be enough to handle the variance of short handed SnGs. Going to try and build the roll and move up to the $13s.

No sports picks today I don't think. I'll give the NBA lines a look but probably nothing til the soccer games this weekend.

English Parlay

2009-01-13T16:47:00.001-08:00

So Sunday didn't turn out as bad as it could have, but it was still pretty shitty thanks to the Giants being a bunch of donkeys.

I go 3-1-1 and end up losing $20, lol.

And another thing that sucked was that I initially wanted to parlay the Real Madrid and Manchester United picks which would have given me even odds, but BookMaker was being gay for some reason and didn't let me do that. So I only won like $10 off those two picks while laying like 3 to 1.

My biggest bet of the night (and the biggest bet overall for a while) was Chivas and they ended up winning but it went to a penalty kick shootout so the bet pushed.

The bankroll stands at $91 and the plan was to wait til' the weekend soccer games but the two big English clubs are playing today. Both big favorites so I decided to parlay them for $41 bucks. Enough to leave me with a $50 bankroll in case one of them loses.

2 Team Parlay..............................$41
-Manchester United -0.5
-Chelsea -0.5

Day Profit: +$18.26

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 198-202-17

Bankroll: $109.34

Total Profit: -$90.66

This might be a bad day...

2009-01-11T07:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, I think I'm officially on tilt territory after yesterday. After losing the soccer parlay by one game (stupid donkeys on that Liverpool team man) I dropped an extra $10 on the Titans. That obviously wasn't too smart, haha.

So I'm making some "tilt" picks today. It's not really that I don't like the picks, it's more the fact that I'm betting way to much on them which is going to end up with me being almost broke if I have a bad day.

But hey...it's Sunday. Let's gamble.

Chivas -0.5 (-200)....$50

Giants -0.5 (-205).....$40

Steelers -0.5 (-310)....$30

Real Madrid -0.5 (-420).....$20

Manchester United -0.5 (-150).....$10

Day Profit: -$18.55

Day Record: 3-1-1

Total Record: 197-202-17

Bankroll: $91.08

Total Profit: -$108.92

Remember the Titans

2009-01-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

Tennessee -3 (EV).........$20

4 Team Parlay...........$5
-Arsenal -0.5
-Liverpool-0.5
-Olympiakos -0.5
-Inter Milano -0.5

Day Profit: -$25.00

Day Record:0-2-0

Total Record: 194-201-16

Bankroll: $109.63

Total Profit: -$90.37

Early Cold

2009-01-08T15:57:00.000-08:00

Seems like I'm battling the symptoms of an early cold. I don't get sick often but when I do, it hits me hard.

And I really need to get back on a somewhat normal sleeping schedule. It's so messed up right now that I feel like shit all day long. Today for instance I got 3 hours of sleep. I need at least 5 to function somewhat coherently throughout the day so with 3 hours I'm a little out of it right now.

And since the night shift manager decided not to come in to work today I'll probably have to stay a couple of hours extra tonight to cover for him.

I just wanna go home, drink half a bottle of NyQuil and sleep for 10 hours straight.

I have work tomorrow night as well which is going to suck major balls if I'm not feeling better by then. And I can't call in sick cause we're short staffed as is.

Sigh...

Oh well, nothing left to do but throw some money on the BCS Championship game and a couple other soccer matches, to help kill time.

Fuck it, I'm taking Florida on the moneyline. Don't want to deal with them having to cover the spread. If they lose, they lose. I'll post the soccer picks later.

Florida -0.5 [-195].......$20

America -0.5 [-117]........$5

Chivas -0.5 [-160]...........$9

Day Profit: +$10.83

Day Record: 2-1

Total Record: 194-199-16

Bankroll: $134.63

Total Profit: -$65.37

Interliga

2009-01-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

Bankroll dipped below $100 for the first time in a while after the Colts lost on Saturday but a nice 1-0 win yesterday by Pachuca has the roll up to $100.57.

Two games today. Chivas and America. Both big favorites and both worthy of $20 plays.

America -0.5 [-165]...........$20

Chivas -0.5 [-180]..............$20

Day Profit: +$23.23

Day Record: 2-0

Total Record: 192-198-16

Bankroll: $123.80

Total Profit: -$76.20

Friendly Home Game/ 09 Goals.

2009-01-05T08:59:00.000-08:00

Got a text invite Saturday night for a small stakes poker game at my guy Mackenzie's house. He's home from Yale for winter break so he called up a few people to get a game going. It was cool seeing him and a bunch of other dudes I hadn't seen in months.

Macken is actually the nephew of Denver Broncos' ex coach Mike Shanahan as his mom is Shanahan's sister. So we were talking for a bit about the possibility of his uncle coaching Dallas in 2010.

Anyway, back to the poker game. We decided to play .25/.50 NL and I bought it for $20. Nothing serious really, just enough to keep the game interesting. Everyone was just fooling around and having a good time. I came out the big winner at the end cashing out for $70 for a nice $50 profit.

I think we were too loose on the banking situation though cause everyone was just basically putting their money in the bank and grabbing their own chips which led to us being like $10 short when it was time to cash out. I decided to pay it off just cause I was the big winner of the night and I didn't want it turn into a big deal. We'll just be more careful next time.

We played a couple of hands of blackjack after the game just for old time's sakes while Macken, Furico and I reminisced about all the gambling we used to do in the school library and the time we got kicked out and banned outta there for like a week, lol.

Good times...

Anyway got home from the game around 9:00 and I was tired as hell so I ended up going to sleep pretty early which led to me waking up like at 4 am today. Haven't been able to go back to sleep so here I am blogging instead.

I planned to do a long new year's resolutions post but I'm to lazy for that and I'll basically outline some of the major things I want to accomplish both poker and non poker related.

As far as poker goes, I basically want to start playing live more. A LOT more. I think the $200NL game at the charity casino is soft enough that I can beat it at a win rate of $12/hour. Why $12/hr? Well, I don't want to set any monetary goals but I want to see if I can make enough in the $200 game where I could possibly consider playing poker full time at a sustainable win rate that compares to what I make in my current job. But this is something that I want to discuss further in a separate post sometime later this week.

As far as online poker goes, I'll definitely be throwing more money on PokerStars but I haven't quite figured out what I want to focus on. I've had good runs in the $6.60 short handed SnGs so I may try to grind those out and then build the bankroll to where I can move up to the $13 SnGs by the summer and possibly the $25s by the end of the year. I may also dabble with the Double or Nothing SnGs to see how those play out.

So that's it as far as poker. On to none poker related goals. Number one is to probably start taking some classes in CC. I think this is the most important one because going back to school is I think going to help me with the rest of my goals since it'll give a little more structure to my days, something that is seriously lacking right now. For example, goal number 2 is getting in shape and taking better care of myself, but when my days consist of going to sleep at 6 am and waking up at 4 p.m. that near impossible.

So with school I'll be forced to follow a more "normal" regimen which is definitely a good thing.

I also want to buy a car hopefully by the time Summer comes around. This is kind of questionable right now though, just because I still need to do some money planning for other things like school and buying some other random shit I've been wanting to get like a video camera, a Wii and another Plasma for my room.

There's also been talk with a friend of mine about the possibility of getting an apartment together but I'm still not sure about that one. I'm not really in a hurry to move out to be honest. At least not yet. Maybe sometime next year.

So that's pretty much it I guess. Play more poker, go back to school, get in shape and buy a car. I don't expect to accomplish all of these things but that doesn't mean that I won't put my best effort into them. Wherever I find myself to be by January of 2010, I think I'll be cool with it.

Double Whammy

2009-01-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

Indianapolis [-2]......$20

Chivas [Pick].......$20

Day Profit: -$20.00

Day Record: 0-1-1

Total Record: 189-198-16

Bankroll: $82.54

Total Profit: -$117.46

Holiday Hangover

2009-01-02T16:17:00.001-08:00

So I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus this past week just bumming around enjoying what was left of 08 and looking forward to 09.

My mom, sister, and I all pitched in to get my dad a new 50'' Panasonic HD plasma for Christmas so I've been spending most of my time sitting in front of that beast playing Call of Duty 4 and FIFA 09. Compared to the 20'' LCD monitor where I do most of my gaming, the 50'' plasma is 1000x better especially because of the HDMI hook up compared to the A/V cables.

We're also going to be getting an HD receiver from Direct TV sometime next week so I'll pretty much be glued to the television the next few weeks, haha.

Anyway New Year's Eve was pretty chill at the Ortiz residence. Not much was planned because both my dad and my sister work til' pretty late. My friend Peter came over around 2 to chill for a bit playing Rock Band 2. Then we started messing around with the BB gun his girl got him for Christmas. That was pretty fun, lol.

I was trying to bet him that I could hit a Soda can from about 25 feet away and was willing to LAY odds but he didn't bite. Good for him as I hit that shit straight on, lol. Then I wanted to see just how much it would hurt to get hit by one of those bbs so I volunteered myself to be shot in the back by my little sister.

That wasn't fun.

I wasn't expecting it to hurt so much cause the fucking bbs weren't even the real metal ones, they were plastic. But they stung like a bitch nonetheless, lol.

I'm definitely getting one of those guns though cause they are fun as hell to just fuck around with. Thinking of getting probably an MP5 or an M16. Going to do some online researching on that.

Anyway back to New Year's Eve. So after I got shot at with the BB gun we just chilled watching Saving Private Ryan and I fell asleep. Woke up around 7 and my sister and I went to the grocery store to buy some stuff for dinner. The highlight of that trip was me spending like $11 on one of those stuffed animals claw vending machines. Those always tilt the shit out of me. I finally got the fucking stuffed animal I wanted though so that was good, lol.

Right, so dinner was pretty awesome overall for the mere fact that my whole family was sitting at the table which rarely ever happens because we all have such weird schedules. New Year's day was pretty slow. More Cod4 and FIFA 09 as well as dropping $15 on the Blackhawks v. Red Wings game that was played at Wrigley Field.

Chicago got off to a strong start going up 3-1 but ended up losing like 6-4. So that, along with an earlier play on a Manchester game, has the bankroll down to about $102.

Anyway that's what I've been up to this past week or so. I don't want to turn this post into a New Year's resolutions type of thing cause I'll probably do one of those tomorrow.

I'm off to watch the Toluca v. Morelia game. I've got $10 on Morelia with Alex from work although he's sightly pissed and feels hustled cause I didn't tell him that Toluca was bringing their B-squad to this match. Oh well, haha.

P.S.- To the douchebag who cut me off today on the way to work and then gave me the finger as I proceeded to cut HIM off, may you have a not so very Happy New Year sir.

PSV

2008-12-27T08:34:00.000-08:00

PSV Eindhoven -0.5 [-225]..........$30

Atlanta -10 [-110]............$5.75

Day Profit: +$5.23

Day Record: 1-0-1

Total Record: 188-196-15

Bankroll: $110.98

Total Profit: -$89.02

Christmas Brag, Beat, and Variance.

2008-12-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Folks!

Brag: My mom cooks the best tamales in the world.

Beat: No Christmas bonus at work this year ='(

Variance: Santa's gift for me? A Boston win tonight.

Boston +2 ($20)

Day Profit: -$20.00

Day Record: 0-1

Total Record: 187-196-14

Bankroll: $105.75

Total Profit: -$94.25

Da Bears!

2008-12-22T17:33:00.000-08:00

2 minutes before kick-off.

I've got $70 worth of action on this game. $50 with Rommel from work and $20 with Mauricio. Good news is I'm getting even money and laying no points. Bad news is I run like death against Mauricio. He's pretty much raped me the entire year in sports bets. The last bet I remember winning against him was back in Spring in a Mexico v. Ghana game.

So tonight it's redemption time!

It's single digit weather at Soldier's Field. Bear weather indeed!

I decided to throw $10 on Green Bay +4 on my online account and hoping to hit my middle by having the Bears win but Green Bay able to cover so I can cash on my bets at work and on my $10 bet online.

Oh yea, I also had a play on a soccer game earlier that ended 0-0 making it a push.

Okay, it's kick off time. I'm off to watch the game!

Green Bay +4

Chelsea (Pick)

Day Profit: +$9.88

Day Record: 1-0-1

Total Record: 187-195-13

Bankroll: $125.75

Total Profit: -$74.25

(Day Profit with side action from work: +$79.88)

Need a Sweep

2008-12-21T15:55:00.000-08:00

New England -8

New Orleans -7

NY Giants -3

Day Profit: +$25.87

Day Record: 3-0-0

Total Record: 186-195-12

Bankroll: $115.87

Total Profit: -$84.13

Lakes and Pachuca -12-20-08

2008-12-21T15:48:00.000-08:00

Lakers -1.5

Pachuca -0.5

Day Profit: -$20.00

Day Record: 0-2

Total Record: 183-195-12

Bankroll: $90.00

Total Profit: -$110.00

Random blog...very low content

2008-12-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

Nothing new really to report but I'm bored at work and have nothing better to do than write a random entry...

I had a play on the Suns last night which ended up a loser. Like I was telling V over on the Paper Chaser, I've gotten really lazy with the picks lately. All I've really been doing is checking to see what the line is and then looking at each team's home and away record and decide what makes sense. No checking injury updates, past match ups or anything like that. This approach seems to work when I go on a major losing streak and whenever I find myself over analyzing picks. So I just gotta find a balance between some in depth pick analysis with some common sense thrown in there...

Okay anyway, I don't really have any plays tonight. The bankroll is at $110 after last night's Suns loss and I may screw around with some soccer parlays this weekend.

What else....yea not much going on really. Work's a drag, home life is a drag, and I haven't really been in much of a Christmas mood. I found out what my older sister is getting me for Christmas. She consulted with my little sister who knows I love video games so she suggested she get me Mirror's Edge for the 360. Good looking out Narda. Now I gotta work on my surprised face come Christmas morning. As for my own X-mas shopping I really suck at getting personalized gifts so I'll probably end up getting everyone a gift card or something.

Alright I'm rambling on now so I'll stop this here.

A Very Long Entry

2008-12-16T16:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating after my crazy rambling on Saturday and I apologize for the colorful language I may have used, haha. It was just a pretty shitty day overall, but I'll get to that in a second.

First let's backtrack to the casino visit on Thursday.

So I got to the place around 5:10 PM and thinking I may have been too late to register for the 5:00PM Early Bird tourney. But I was just in time and managed to get a seat. The tournament was $20 with 2,000 in starting chips and $5 for an extra 1,000 chip add-on. With 12 minute levels the add-on was a no brainer.

By the way, the place the event was set up in was pretty crappy. It was on the second floor of this theater place and the room was small as hell. There were like 10 tables all together 3 of which were cash games, the other tourneys. The place was really crammed.

But anyway I took my seat and the tourney started off pretty slow. I chopped a pretty big pot early on where I made a call with J-10 on an x-Q-2-10-A board. We checked the flop, I called a bet on the turn and then he made a big bet on the river and I tanked for a bit. I was sure he had AK and spiked an Ace on the river. I made the crying call though and we ended chopping.

Then I went completely card dead the rest of the way, and with 12 minute levels that's not a good thing, lol. The best hand I saw the rest of the way was KK which I only managed to pick up the blinds with pre-flop.

I ended up getting blinded down to like 3,200 with blinds at 300/600 and pushed with pocket 8s. Got two callers and someone won with like trip Queens or some shit like that.

I ended up somewhere around 15/50 or so.

So I busted out and then was railing the cash games for a bit deciding what to do until the 7:30 tourney started. I had like 40 minutes to kill so I decided to sit in a $200 game super short stacked, lol.

I know I said I didn't want to play cash games unless I brought 2 full buy ins with me but I was only sitting down to kill time til' the next tourney started. So I bought in for $70 and basically lost half my stack by calling pre-flop raises with small pocket pairs, flopping air and check folding.

I ended up pushing my last $25 on the button with Ad9d and got 3 callers. Flop came A-9-10 and I thought I was tripling up. Both dudes checked the flop, turn came a blank and one dude fired like $20 and the other guy folded. River came a King and I thought my two pair was good still good but the other douche bag slow rolls me and says, "Oh I think I have a straight" flipping over QJ.

I still had like 5 mintues to kill when I got a call from Kevin, a guy from the FCP forums who I was suppose to meet there. I hadn't met him before so I didn't know what he looked like. I'm standing there asking him where he is and he's right behind me playing in a cash game, lol.

So we talked for a bit and then it was time for the $80 Mini deepstack tourney. Kevin and I ended up on the same table which was cool. The tourney started off pretty okay for me. I won a big pot early on where I got paid off with pocket Queens on a 8-4-4-2-4 board. I got value on every street by a guy who had A8. So early on I was up to like 13k. But then I started losening up a bit which I really shouldn't have. I started playing bad hands out of position and my stack started suffering a bit because of it.

Then I made two big mistakes that pretty much crippled me. The first one was when I raised on the button with K-10 and got called by the blinds. Flop came A-A-8. Both checked to me and I bet out like half the pot. Got one caller. Turn was check-check and I caught a K on the river. Dude made a pretty big bet and I couldn't bring myself to fold knowing it was a pretty bad call and the line he took meant he had an Ace just about 100% of the time. Whatever I was a donkey and paid him off.

He had A6 obviously.

A little bit later I had KJ on the button again and raised it up to like 1200 with blinds at 200/400. The big blind thought about it for a minute and reraised to like 2600. I had like 7k at this point so it should have been an insta fold. Nope, I called and we saw an Ace high flop. He checks to me and I ponder about what to do. Now that I made the pre-flop call I probably should at least take a stab at the Ace high flop hoping he has something like 99-JJ. Instead I check behind. Turn is a blank and again it goes check check. River is an other Ace. He checks and again I think about betting but instead check and say I have King high. He flips over pocket Kings.

I probably could have taken the pot on the turn or river but really I shouldn't have been in that pot at all so it was a horribly played hand that brought me down to under 5k. I slowly blinded down to 2800 and decided to open shove UTG with AK with blinds at 300/600. Got called by the big stack on the button who had Q-10.

10 on the flop and GG me.

I stuck around for a while sweating Kevin who nursed a short stack for a while also til he pushed his last 3k with A6 and got called by another Q-10. He flopped an Ace, turned Aces up but got rivered and lost to a straight.

We talked for a while and then I headed home since I'd burned my buy in for the 11:00 PM tourney at the $200 game.

Over all I ended up losing $175.

Okay I just realized this might end up being a pretty long entry since I'm barely done covering Thursday night, lol.

So Friday morning I met up with a friend (she shall remain nameless) before work. We were gonna smoke a bowl but had no where to smoke it. We ended up at the park and couldn't light the fucking thing up cause it was windy as hell and like 8 degrees outside, lol. So we scratched that idea and went to eat some chinese food instead.

Then I took the bus and train to work which is probably where I dropped my iPod. I remember having it when we were at the park, but when I got to work I forgot about it til a friend called me up and told me he was at Radio Shack. He said he was going to buy a case for his iPod so he asked if I wanted him to get one for mine. I said sure and then went to get the iPod from my backpack. That's when I realized I'd lost it.

I was pretty fucking pissed by this point and to make matters worse this new manager we have was being a complete dick. We were a man short so obviously everyone had to do a bit of extra work, which would have been fine if the new manager wasn't a complete douche bag about it. I was already tilted from the iPod so I was about ready to walk out if he snapped at me.

So around 7P.M. I walk down to Dunkin Donuts to get some coffee. I somehow managed to drop a $50 bill while paying. On the walk back to Gigio's I couldn't help but laugh at that actually, lol. How bad can I run on one day?

I decided to find the answer to that question by buying some scratch and win lottery tickets, haha. The guys here at work are addicted to that shit. I'll buy one once in a while but these guys are are running across the street to the White Hen and buying some every 10 minutes.

So I bought $9 worth of tickets and blanked on all of them, lol. Statistically speaking I'm suppose to at least get my money back on one out of every 4 tickets according to the odds printed on the back of the ticket. Nope, a nice 0-9er for me.

That was Friday. A pretty shitty day, but now that I look back at it I can laugh since it really wasn't THAT bad. A friend made me realize how silly I was being later that night when she pointed out that it was only money. She was right...

Saturday looked to be a much better day since it was my cousin Mario's wedding. The wedding turned out to be okay, but not great. I was expecting to meet a shit load of chicks but the problem was that half the ladies at the wedding looked like this:

The other half looked like this:

And the rare ones that happened to look like this

just so happened to be an aunt or a cousin.

Sigh...

So the wedding was not all that enjoyable. The food sucked and I didn't even get a chance to get my drank on. My mom wasn't suppose to be at the wedding til late at night when I would already be too wasted for her to do anything about it, but instead she got there when I barely had one Tecate in me, lol.

I spent most of Sunday sleeping and watching TV. I also threw $10 on Dallas against New York, so I ended up cashing on that. Yesterday was another slow day of bumming around the house. I was going to play the Eagles on the Monday Night Fotoball but didn't want to lay the 15 points. I thought about taking them money line for the entire bankroll which would have netted me around $10 but thought better of it as well, lol. So I had no action on the game and instead watched Christmas With the Kranks. Horrible movie by the way...

Anyway, so that was the weekend pretty much. I'm at work right now and managed to only arrive 20 minutes late despite the crazy snow storm outside. Our power here at the store actually went out around 5 PM and we were all happy as hell that we might end up going home but the power came back like 30 minutes later. Bummer...

Oh yea I was planning on hitting up the casino again on Thursday. I was suppose to go with my friend Peter but he just bailed on me today so I'm not sure if I still want to go.

I might just save my money to play this other tournament next Tuesday at the Rockford Charity casino. They're running this special $100+$20 Holiday tourney. 12k in chips and 20 minute levels. I know it doesn't sound great but compared to the other shit they run it's a pretty playable tourney.

Okay I've rambled on way too long. I'm going back to watching the Bulls lose. They're currently in Over Time down by 1. With a 1:52 left on the clock. I've got $10 on them @ -3 so it's not looking great.

I also have New Orleans minus whatever the spread was. I'm too lazy to go check.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Bulls -3

New Orleans - 6.5

Day Profit: -$0.91

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 183-192-12

Bankroll: $118.51

Total Profit: -$81.49

Shitty Day

2008-12-12T15:50:00.001-08:00

I lost $175 at the casino yesterday and today I lost my $250 iPod that I just fucking bought like a month ago. Oh yea, and I may quit my job today because of our new cunt-bag of a manager.

I don't really give a fuck if cunt-bag is not a word.

I'm extremely pissed off to say the least, but just felt like venting for a bit and will give details later....

Haha, and I accidentally posted this in the Crooked Straight blog, but it's back here where it belongs now.

edit: Okay according to UrbanDictionary.com Cunt Bag is a word.

Cunt Bag (n):

Shithead, vicious, evil person that represents a manifestation of all that is wrong with the world... The ultimate worst insult that you can use to describe your friends...

edit #2: LOL, okay so I just got back from my break here at work where I took a walk down to Dunkin Donuts and managed to drop a $50 bill somewhere in between. Yea, when I was about to pay the lady for the coffee I saw the $50 in my pocket and then put it back cause I wanted to give her the $20 on my other pocket.

So when she gives me the change I put it back in my pocket and see that my $50 is no longer there. I probably dropped it when I was trying to put it back in my pocket and someone behind me immediately picked it up. I know for sure that I didn't give the Dunkin Donuts lady the $50. That's not even a possibility cause I clearly saw me giving her a $20 and besides I've known that lady for years and she wouldn't pull one on me like that.

Anyway I spent around 5 mintues trying to look for the fucking bill emptying my pockets and looking all over the Dunkin Donuts place but no luck.

I guess I'll just chalk it up as another loss in this shitty shitty day.

I wish I was making this shit up cause it's really getting ridiculous now, but nope.

I'm just running sickly bad.

FUCK TODAY!!!

S'LDKFJHASK;DJFHSKA;DJFH;SKJADFHKASJFHKEHNKDSJFNSKJ
KDSFNASLDKFJSADKLFJDSALKFJSADKLFJALDS;KFJL
SADF,MNADSK;LFJSLADKFJSLADKFJS;DLAKFJSAKLDFJSKJDFSHK

Tournament Grinder

2008-12-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

I called someone to cover for me at work today so I could hit up the Charity Casino. I won't be playing the $200 game though. I'm short on cash and have promised myself that I won't be jumping into a cash game unless I bring two full buy ins otherwise I feel like I'm playing with scared money.

Anyway, I'm going to be hitting up a couple of tournaments instead.

I plan on playing the 5:00 PM $20 Early Bird which has a horrible structure but it's only $20 so whatever. The plan for this one is going to be ultra aggression early on so I can accumulate chips early since it's a 12 minute level structure. So I won't be surprised or care really if I bust out early on this one.

Next I'll play the 7:30 $80 Mini Deepstack. This has a little bit of a better structure and the one I hope to go deep in. It's 9,000 in starting chips with 20 minute levels. Again not a great structure but playable at best. If I somehow end up going deep in the early bird, I'll have to multi table between the two tourneys.

Final one I want to give a shot is the late night 11:00 PM $40 turbo. I'm not sure if they're even running this tonight but if they are I'll jump in it as well.

So hopefully I can final table at least one of these and take home so nice cash. If not, oh well.

Alright, I'm about to go take a shower and then hit up the mall to buy some clothes for my cousin's wedding on Saturday. Then back home for a while and I should leave for the casino around 4:00.

I've never been to this particular charity casino so I really hope they're not too big on the carding thing. Its 18+ but I still haven't gotten a new ID since I lost mine a while ago. If they do end up carding it's going to suck major balls.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shit, lost the Bulls game by a couple points the other night. Going to throw $20 on the Bears tonight. They need this win to remain in the race.

Bears -3

Day Profit: +$0.00

Day Record:0-0-1

Total Record: 181-191-12

Bankroll: $110.33

Total Profit: -$89.57

Snowy Tuesday

2008-12-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

It's so slow here at work that I thought I'd catch up on my blogging a bit since I haven't written in a couple of days as well as sharing a picture of the snowy view I have here at work outside the window.

That's one of the driver's car and as you can see by the snow accumulation in his car, he hasn't been on a run in a couple of hours, which he's not too happy about.

Ha, anyway...

So De La fucking Hoya got completely owned last Saturday by Pacquiao . That's it for him, I think. He's gotta throw in the towel and go back to whatever else it is he does.

Lost $20 on the fight to a guy from work, but lucky for me he only wanted to bet $20 since I was trying to get him to go up to $50. I was also lucky that I completely forgot to place a bet on De La Hoya on my BookMaker account. Remember I said I'd wait til right before the fight to place my bet, hoping the line would go down?

Well half way through the first round I'm like "Fuck! I didn't place my bet!"

Of course it turned out to be a genius move on my part.

The not so genius move of the night for me was not taking my guy Rommel up on a bet some time around the 4th round. He'd bet on De La Hoya and even though Pacquiao was already owning him pretty badly Rommel asked if I wanted to bet another $50 with him. He'd give me Pacquiao. I thought about it but ultimately pussied out believing De La Hoya was just one good round away from gaining momentum and kocking out Manny. Of course that never happened and I missed my chance of turning a $20 loss into a $30 profit.

Sunday I had a somewhat break even day losing $2.56 after going 1-2. I hit my Bears pick but lost a soccer pick as well as $1 on a prop bet for the soccer game. Then last night I hit MNF play to bring the bankroll to $120.33 for today.

I've got just one play tonight with the Bulls -7.5 against the Knicks. Didn't really research it. Just threw some money on them so I could have a reason to watch the game here at work. They're looking good so far up by 12 half way through the 2nd quarter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bulls -7.5

Day Profit: -$10.00

Day Record: 0-1

Total Record: 181-191-11

Bankroll: $110.33

Total Profit: -$89.67

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, a couple more Gigio's pics just because I'm messing around with the camera settings on my laptop.

Golden Boy

2008-12-06T12:58:00.001-08:00

Big fight is finally here. I already had a $20 bet with a guy from work, me taking De La Hoya. So I'm throwing down some more money on him on BookMaker.

I haven't placed the bet yet though because right now the line is at -195. It was down to like -150 last night and I should have taken it then. Now I'm probably going to wait til right before the fight starts and hope it goes down again.

I also have a shit load of other plays on the NBA and NCAA football. My man V tells me we're going to make some lunch money today, lol.

USC -32

Missouri +16.5

Miami -11

LA Clippers +1

New Orleans -14.5

Atlanta +6.5

Atlante PK

Day Profit: -$2.73

Day Record: 3-3-1

Total Record: 180-190-11

Bankroll: $113.65

Total Profit: -$86.35

V-Money is HOT!

2008-12-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

Our homie V-Money over on the Paper Chaser is red hot right now with his picks and has manged to make a crazy bankroll come back after being down to around $35 a couple of weeks ago. He had a solid +$50 even after deciding to follow me on my Santos pick.

So once again we're tailing the V-man on his two picks tonight which are Clippers and Lakers.

Both for $10.

LA Lakers -12.5

LA Clippers -1

Day Profit: -$20.00

Day Record: 0-2-0

Total Record: 177-187-10

Bankroll: $116.38

Total Profit: -$73.62

Facebook Oddities

2008-12-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

LOL, I just got done reading a newspaper article that got me thinking about how weird Facebook and other networking sites actually are when you look at it from a simple sociological point of view.

For example, every couple of weeks I get a friend request from a complete stranger whom I've never heard of and I usually just end up accepting the friend request. So what if I've never heard of Dafney Angelis from Corpus Christi, TX. She looks like a solid 8 on her profile pic and she wants to befriend me. How can I possibly say no?

Now, if a perfect stranger approached you on the street and asked to see your photo album, all of your contact information, a list of your favorite books and movies, favorite activities as well as your religious affiliation (I'm not even sure of that one myself) then you'd probably run away as soon as possible. Well, unless it was a really hot chick obviously.

Then there's the whole "Relationship Status" on Facebook that's a complex taboo of its own. What if the current chick I'm fooling with thinks I'm a creep for suddenly declaring on Facebook that we're dating when we're in fact a little bit more than friends but not much more. Or what if the same chicks gets pissed for the exact opposite reason.

"Hey Vic, what's up with you not accepting my dating request on facebook!? What are you too ashamed to acknowledge our relationship publicly? Huh!?"

I actually got burned pretty badily one time when I started going out with a chick and then let Facebook know about it. The next day at school this other girl I'd been spitting game to was completely ignoring me and I had no idea why til' her friends started calling me a jerk and an asshole for just messing with this girl's feelings. Facebook had let them know I was now
"Currently in a Relationship..."

Ha...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice 2-0 day yesterday with some last minute plays on the Cruz Azul game. Will hope to keep it rolling today with Santos against Toluca.

Santos is coming off a very convincing series knocking out San Luis who had the best record in the regular season. And with the aquisition of Blanco from the Chicago Fire for the play-offs Santos has I believe, at least on paper the best team in the league. Not to mention they're the best home team of the past two tournies having lost just one home game in all of 2008.

I've got two plays on them. One for $20 on the spread which is a pick. Going with that just to cover my losses a bit if the game happens to end in a draw. Odds on that are -210. Then I've got $10 on the moneyline which I was able to grab at -117 after it was all the way up to -142 earlier in the day.

So esentially it comes down this. If Santos wins I win about $20. If they lose I lose $30. And if they tie I lose $10.

Oh yea, I got my first bet down for the De La Hoya v. Pacquiao fight on Saturday for $20 with Mauricio from work. And tomorrow I'm suppose to hear from this other guy to see if he wants to go double or nothing on some money he owes me from a while back. He said he'd let me know by tomorrow.

Santos Laguna -0.5 (-117).....................$10

Santos Laguna Pick (-210).....................$20

Day Profit: -$10.00

Day Record: 0-1-1

Total Record: 177-185-10

Bankroll: $136.38

Total Profit: -$63.62

Not Quite Done With Soccer

2008-12-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

Cruz Azul -0.5

Cruz Azul v. Atlante Over 2.5

Day Profit: +$16.15

Day Record: 2-0

Total Record: 177-184-9

Bankroll: $146.38

Total Profit: -$53.62

$0.84

2008-12-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

Yep, my online poker bankroll now consists of a whopping 84 cents, lol. The plan was to use the last $40 or so that I had to grind the Stars $4.40s but instead I played some $10 HU matches and ran horribly.

There was one match in particular that lasted almost an hour. I managed to get a small lead very early in the match and had my opponent drawing to three outs for all his chips but he spiked his card on the turn and I was down to like 200 in chips to his 2800. I somehow ninja'd my way back to even though and after lots of chip lead changes I finally lost a race for my whole stack.

That's pretty much how the other matches went. Unable to win a race.

I'm not sure when I'm going to deposit some more money since Stars took away the Money Gram option and my debit card never worked for Stars or Full Tilt. It's cool though, since I don't really have the money to deposit with anyway since I'm going to be spending a lot of money on Christmas shopping as well as getting some new gear for my cousin's wedding in a couple of weeks.

So I probably won't have some disposable income until the end of the month. The sports betting will have to satisfy my gambling urge.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So Grace and I ended up not going to the Circus last Sunday. The day was pretty ugly with rain/snow and cold as hell so we opted for a movie instead. We decided to go to the movie theater that's like 2 blocks away from my house. The same one I deemed the crappiest movie theater in Chicago a while back.

But once we got there we saw that they had closed down the place for good. Ha! See, I wasn't the only one who thought it was a shitty place to watch a movie.

Anyway we ended up just going to Borders instead, which incidentally is where we always end up when Grace and I hang out.

So it's still undetermined whether or not I have a clown phobia...

Anyway on to something completely unrelated. I think I've been playing waaaaay to much Call of Duty 4 on my 360. For the past week or so I've been having this weird ass dreams were I'm in the game running around shooting people with my MP5 or my P90, and calling in air strikes. Weird as hell. Then I wake up in the middle of the night wondering what map I'm playing.

I can't help it though. That game is just so fucking addicting. I've been trying to put in a ton of time trying to Prestige. Currently at level 47. Should be at level 50 by the end of the week.

The rest of my game's have pretty much been neglected for the past month or so except for Rock Band 2 and a little bit of FIFA 09.

I haven't even played EndWar since buying it a couple of weeks ago.

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The sports betting bank roll is looking a bit healthier than the poker bankroll, lol. I had a play on the Texans yesterday after following Chaser's advice to take them. So that's brought up the bankroll to $122.05 And tonight I'm sticking with the Chaser man and his winning streak. Let's hope we don't jinx it up, haha.

(All for $10)

Portland -7.5

Clippers +11

Utah -2

Day Profit: +$8.18

Day Record: 2-1

Total Record: 175-184-9

Bankroll: $130.23

Total Profit: -$69.77

I'm still debating whether I'm going to put any money on the De La Hoya v. Pacquiao fight this weekend. If I do, it'll probably be on De La Hoya who is currently a -200 money line favorite. I'd probably bet with the guys at work though since they'll give me even money on him. It's definitely going to be a good fight. Pacquiao has pretty much owned every Mexican he's been up against earning himself the nickname "The Mexicutioner" but I think this fight will put an end to that.

Off to the Circus

2008-11-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

Sigh...

I hate soccer.

Not really, lol. But I ended up losing the San Luis game in like the last five minutes of play in what turned out to be a pretty meaningless goal for Santos. Should have just gone with Chaser's picks and nothing else cause I'm just ice cold right now.

I'm gonna follow Chaser on the Steelers tonight since I'm too late to bet on his other pick.

Alright I'm out. Headed out to the Circus at the United Center tonight with a friend. I think I may be scared of clowns. I forgot. We'll find out...

Pittsburgh +2.5....................$10

Day Profit: +$9.09

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 172-183-9

Bankroll: $112.25

Total Profit: -$87.75

Let's get over $100

2008-11-29T14:47:00.000-08:00

Split a couple of NBA games that I followed Paper Chaser in. Bankroll is at $95.89.

Going with three more of Chaser's picks today. He claims to feel a hot streak coming and we don't wanna miss it, lol. =)

Also putting down $20 on San Luis today against Santos. Last week's match was pretty good between these two and Santos came away with a 3-1 win but things will be different tonight as San Luis won't want to be knocked out of the play offs in the first round after having the best record of the season. I predict a 1-0 San Luis victory.

USC -32.5..............$10

Atlanta +1.5..........$10

Cleveland -7..........$10

San Luis (Pick) .....$20

Day Profit: +$7.27

Day Record: 3-1

Total Record: 171-183-9

Bankroll: $103.16

Total Profit: -$96.84

Chasin' Chase

2008-11-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

So we had quite an interesting Thanksgiving yesterday. It all started around 11 A.M. when my little sister came into my room to wake me up asking me to help look for Chase, our dog. Apparently he either jumped the fence on our backyard or someone just left the gate open.

Anyway, so we were all walking around the neighborhood trying to look for him and asking joggers/dog walkers if they'd seen him. We searched for about an hour, both on foot and on car but we couldn't find him and no one had seen him.

So we come back home and I start printing out some Lost Dog signs. I go outside and as I'm putting up the first sign, a bunch of little kids ask me if I'm looking for my Chase. They were like 7-8 year olds. And I'm like yeah, have you guys seen him? So they start telling me that Chase had been running around the block all morning scaring the little kids. (wtf? This is a small as dog and cute as hell).

But anyway, they tell me that someone called animal control and they came and took him.(Another wtf! These little kids know Chase isn't some stray dog. They know him by name and they always play with him when I'm walking him.)

I'm asking them if they're absolutely sure of that. They tell me yea they're sure. Some truck came and lured Chase in with some food.

So I run back into the house and I call Animal Control. They tell me that per policy they're not allowed to tell me if my dog is there. I have to go down there and see for myself. So my whole family makes the 1 hour drive down to Animal Control down in the south side and we sign in and wait in a waiting area for about 15 minutes. Then a lady comes and guides me through these 3 big ass rooms where they keep the dogs in these small ass cages and I'm just hoping to find Chase ASAP so we can get the hell outta there. It was scary in there man. Well not for me but I imagine it would be terrifying for Chase. All these dogs barking and howling and shit. Finally I get to the last row of cages and Chase is nowhere to be found. Now I'm like wtf, where is my dog?

So the lady starts telling me that maybe they haven't brought him in yet which doesn't make sense because by now its like 4PM and the kids told me Animal Control picked up Chase around 10AM. She tells me there may also be a couple of other shelters that he might have been taken too but they were probably closed for the day because it was Thanksgiving. So I should check back on Monday.

The drive back home was pretty brutal. I was really bummed out and wondering where the hell Chase was. And then I snapped at my mom for no reason which sucks and I regret. Anyway so we get home and I'm feeling like shit. The rest of the family gets ready to go eat Thanksgiving dinner with some relatives but I just jump into bed to take a nap.

During my nap I heard my cell ring a couple of times but I didn't want to pick it up cause I figured it was some friends I was suppose to hang with that night. I didn't feel like seeing ANYBODY and all I could think of was what my Chase was up to. I felt a little comfort in knowing that at least Animal Control had him somewhere so he wasn't roaming around the street in the freezing cold and possibly hungry. But then I would think about the conditions that they had the dogs in at the animal shelter in those small ass cages and shit and I felt like crying man.

Alrite so anyway I wake up from my nap around 7 PM and see that I have a voice message. Still thinking it's just my friends I ignore it for a bit but finally decide to check it out. It's a message from a lady named Diane telling me she may have found my dog. That he's okay and I can come pick him up if I want.

So I call her back ASAP still confused though because the kids told me they were SURE animal control took him. I call her back and she says she saw the poster that I posted in the morning and she was sure the dog she found was mine. (By the way she managed to find the only single poster I actually put up. After the kids told me animal control took him I stopped putting up the rest of the posters.)

So I practically run over to her house which is actually literally right accross the street from my house. And there I see Chase playing around in her backyard. Oh man, I was so fucking happy. She told me she saw him roaming around in the morning and just brought him home. Then she saw my poster and called me.

After giving her a million thanks I came back home and called my family to tell them the good news. When they came home we all just started hugging and kissing Chase, lol. The little punk didn't even know what was going on. Guess he decided to have a little adventure of his own for Thanksgiving.

Anyway my sisters and I are planning on buying the lady who found him a thank you card and throwing some cash in there. She seemed like a really nice lady. And I still don't know what the hell was up with the little kids telling me animal control took Chase.

But whatever. I got my dog back which is all that matters.

Bankroll Bleeding.

2008-11-25T04:37:00.001-08:00

Whoops.

Bankroll is definitely heading the wrong way with another bad day yesterday. But it started last Saturday with a lot of draws killing my soccer picks. I did hit my big $50 play on Sunday with Santos but I took the money line at -200 so I only made $25.

Yesterday was another ugly day going 0-3. So the bankroll is under $100 for the first time in a while. Will probably take a couple of days off so I don't make any more picks just to chase.

The online poker bankroll is suffering badly too but that's due to my degenerate self using my Stars and Full Tilt roll to pay off prop bets/ stake players/ and enter retarded pools on FCP. I'm down to like $40. I can still make something happen with that amount though.

I just need to stop running like shit in the $4.40s. Fired one up last night and finished like 40/180. after losing with AQ v. 77 all in pre flop. I just can't seem to win a freaking race lately. But I'll keep at it cause all I need is to final table one of these to give the bankroll a nice boost.

Monday Picks

2008-11-24T23:53:00.000-08:00

Utah -6.5

LA Clippers +6

Green Bay (PK)

Day Profit: -$30.00

Day Record: 0-3

Total Record: 167-181-9

Bankroll: $96.80

Total Profit: -$103.20

Big Bets, Small Win

2008-11-23T23:54:00.000-08:00

2 Game Parlay:

AC Milan -0.5, Barcelona -0.5................$30

2 Game Parlay:

Dallas -0.5, Tampa Bay -0.5..................$20

Santos Laguna (PK).....................$50

Day Profit: +$6.67

Day Record: 2-1

Total Record: 167-178-9

Bankroll: $126.80

Total Profit: -$73.20

Saturday Morning Parlay

2008-11-22T00:34:00.000-08:00

3 Game Parlay:

PSV -0.5, Chelsea -0.5 and Liverpool -0.5..........$20

Cruzl Azul -0.5..........$10

Tigres (PK).........$20

Day Profit: -$30.00

Day Record: 0-2-1

Total Record: 165-177-9

Bankroll: $120.13

Total Profit: -$79.87

Big Bets

2008-11-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

So I'm getting pretty tired of these win $4, lose $5, win $3, lose $6, lose $0.90 win $0.45 days....

Which is why I'm making some big plays today. Well, big at least relative to my bankroll. Today could potentially turn out to be a very good day, or a very bad one, lol.

And I'm placing the bets in one of the most inconsistent sports, soccer! Really the best team can go down to the shiitiest one any day of the week which is why betting on soccer is so high risk.

Buy anyway I've got a play on Mexico at -140 (PK). Haha, I actually guessed correctly on exactly what the line was going to be on yesterday's post. I've also got a bet on the under on that game and a 3 game parlay with some other big favorites.

Like I said, this could spell disaster for me but you gotta bet big to win big!

Haha, yea anywya. I'm off to Best Buy to buy me an iPod Touch and then back home to watch the games!

Edit: adding another big play on the Over in the Jamaica v. Canada game. Jamaica needs to win by at least 7 goals to have any sort of chance to qualify, so you know their offense is gonna be popping. At least I hope it is, lol. This one's for $30!

Mexico PK -140..........($20)

Mexico v. Honduras Under 2.5 -145..........($20)

3 Game Parlay: USA -0.5, Jamaica -0.5 and T &T -0.5..........($20)

Canada v. Jamaica Over 2.5 -190..........($30)

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Day Profit: +$31.48

Day Record: 3-1

Total Record: 165-175-8

Bankroll: $150.13

Total Profit: -$49.87

Tomorrow's Game

2008-11-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

Yet another break even day on Sunday with the football picks going 2-2 and losing .90 cents on the day. I did not have a play on the Monday Night Football game last night and I really don't like anything tonight either.

Instead, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game between Mexico and Honduras. Big game for Mexico here as they could potentially be eliminated from the 2010 South African World Cup with a loss tomorrow and a big win by Jamaica over Canada.

Because of the fact that they've struggled a whole lot in past games in Honduras they are an underdog in tomorrow's match with a tempting price on the moneyline of +175.

The problem is that since a draw would assure Mexico's qualification into the next stage of the World Cup qualifiers, they may just play for a tie. A line has not been posted yet by BookMaker on a spread line for the game but if it is anywhere close to Mexico (Pick) -140 which is what I estimate it is going to be, then I'm probably going to unload on that play for at least $30 because I just really don't see Mexico losing tomorrow.

They've got their full squad going for the match with all their superstar players who play in Europe expected to play so I can at least see them coming away with a 1-0 victory.

I'll have to wait and see what the line is though but definitely looking forward to the game.

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Total Record: 162-174-8

Bankroll: $118.65

Total Profit: -$81.35

Stupid Atlanta

2008-11-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

Atlanta cost me a nice paying parlay today by losing when they where in fact a 10 point spread favorite and a -600 money line favorite. I parlayed them with Cruz Azul and Chivas, both of which won easily.

I also lost the Boston pick although I did stop the bleeding with a good pick on the Rockets. I was going to unload some money on the Bulls also, but changed my mind at the last minute, which sucks cause they covered.

I'm hoping for another big day in football tomorrow.

Boston -8.5

Houston -2

3 Game Parlay-Atlanta -0.5, Chivas -0.5, Cruz Azul -0.5

Day Profit: -$6.49

Day Record: 1-2

Total Record: 160-172-8

Bankroll: $119.55

Total Profit: -$80.45

Yesterday's Picks

2008-11-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

I had another 1-1 day yesterday which makes it 3 days in a row but at least I made a small profit this time since I played the Lakers for $10.

Man, I also thought I had bet on the Mexico v. Ecuador game and was sweating the match. I was happy as hell when Mexico pulled off the last minute victory with Vuoso's goal in the 90th minute, only to come check my BookMaker account and realize I never actually bet the game, lol.

I only played the Lakers and Chivas who lost. I was sure I added the Mexico pick when I bet on the Chivas game, but I guess not.

Chivas -0.5

Lakers +1

Day Profit: +$3.84

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 159-170-8

Bankroll: $126.04

Total Profit: -$73.96

WSOP Prop Bets

2008-11-11T16:57:00.000-08:00

I was sweating the WSOP Main Event final table both on Sunday and last night and for good reason. I had Dennis Phillips to win it in a $30 pool on FCP. I would have gotten paid off even if he finished second. But nope, he busted in third.

Then I also entered a $20 pool on what cards would hit on the final hand of Heads Up play. Basically you picked a card and if it hit on the flop you got paid $100, the turn paid like $250 and the river paid $500. I had the 7 of clubs, and of course the 7 of spades ends up hitting on the river. Haha I run bad...

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I had a split with two picks last night. I had the 49ers +9.5 and Phoenix -11. So I lost a whopping .45 cents on the day yesterday.

Tonight I'm going with the Lakers as well as the 76ers.

Lakers -6

76ers -3.5

Day Profit: -$0.45

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 158-169-8

Bankroll: $122.20

Total Profit: -$77.80

Drunk Conversation

2008-11-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

I'm not much of a drinker. In fact, I can recall maybe two other times that I have gotten completely wasted. Well, last Saturday night was number three thanks to my co-workers

Around 12 AM, an hour before closing time, this guy named Max came in. He works at a liquor store a few doors down. Anyway he comes in with a backpack full of booze. He has a bottle of Jagermeister, a bottle of tequila, 2 six packs of Miller Light and a shit load of Red Bull. And he's looking for people to share the love with.

I declined at first. After all, I was on the job for another hour or so. But then I see my manager downing a Jagerbomb and I say, hey why not! By closing time every single employee there was completely wasted including myself.

Then me and the other phone guy start cracking up over the fact that we have no way of getting home. He has a car, but neither of us are in any condition to drive obviously. He finally calls a friend who comes to pick us up.

I got home around 2AM and REALLY hoping no one was awake at home. Luckily no one was.

So I go online and have an interesting conversation with one of my friend's exes who I rarely talk to. Here are a few excerpts from said conversation:

Me: dude hwoww come we nevber hang outtt????
Her: Umm...

Her: Because we never really talked before

Me: yeaqaaaa

Me: trye

Me: we shoyudl talk more

Me: Sure =]

Me: yeaqaaaaa

Me: what yu wananna talkj about

Her: Umm... Anything you would like

Her: Where on earth were you drinking?

Me: ummm

Me: attt work\

Me: loll

Me: bastards gott me drunk

Her: So they peer pressured you into it

Her: And now you're drunk

Her: =p

Me: pretty mnuchhhh

Me: pear pressure

Me: weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Me: actually i tink its spedlled

Me: peer

Me: is it spelled peer?a

Her: Yes, it's peer

Me: coools

Me: sio wucha doiun

Me: why u still up?

Her: I'm kinda sick so I was sleeping all day so I'm just up

Her: Watching Love in the Time of Cholera

Me: ohhh

Her: One of the main characters has slept with 622 women that he can account for

Me: i rad dat book

Me: well i was suupose to read dat book

Me: byt i cant rememvebr if i did or not

Me: did some one own aq paroot in dat book?

Her: Yup

Me: cooool

Wow, my spelling skills leave much to be desired under the influence...

Hang Over Picks

2008-11-09T13:31:00.000-08:00

New England -3.5

Baltimore +1

Green Bay +2.5

Kansas City +14.5

NY Giants +3

Day Profit: +$22.55

Day Record: 5-0

Total Record: 156-167-8

Bankroll: $123.10

Total Profit: -$76.90

BB,FB and Soccer

2008-11-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

Utah +2

Cleveland -3

Virginia Tech -3

Houston -5

2 Game Parlay: Fire (PK) & Boca Juniors (PK)

Day Profit: -$12.51

Day Record: 2-3

Total Record: 151-167-8

Bankroll: $100.55

Total Profit: -$99.45

Coin Flip Pick

2008-11-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Sunday's results were so horrible, I wondered whether I would have been better off just flipping a coin to decide which games to play. So that's what I did for tonight's MNF game, lol.

Steelers +2.5

Bulls +8

Day Profit: +$13.60

Day Record: 2-0

Total Record: 149-164-8

Bankroll: $113.06

Total Profit: -$86.94

Big Card Sunday!

2008-11-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

Jaguars -7

Browns -3

NY Jets +5

Rams +3

Bears -13

Broncos -4.5

Colts -6.5

Santos (Pick)

Day Profit: -$25.45

Day Record: 1-6-1

Total Record: 147-164-8

Bankroll: $99.46

Total Profit: -$100.54

Soccer and Football

2008-11-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

I had a bad day with basketball picks last Wednesday going 2-5 and losing $15.90. So heading into today the bankroll stands at $84.77.

Two plays today:

2 Game Parlay: Man. United -0.5 & Chelsea -0.5

Florida -6.5

Day Profit: +$40.04

Day Record: 2-0

Total Record: 146-158-7

Bankroll: $124.91

Total Profit: -$76.09

Back to $100

2008-10-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

A week ago today the bankroll stood at $134.66, but it's been a bad week. More like a bad weekend actually. I played a soccer game way to heavily on Sunday putting $20 on it only because I bet the other side of it with a guy at work and I wasn't liking the play so I bet both sides to cancel it.

I bet on Chivas with Alex from work for $20 and then put another $20 on America on BookMaker. Chivas won so I lost the $20 on BookMaker, but I did get paid by Alex today, so it kind of works out as me just withdrawing $20 from the BookMaker account. Still wish I hadn't done it though because I was on a roll the last couple of weeks.

Anyway these are all the plays from this past week that I hadn't posted and basically outlines how I got back to $100.

10/22- Tampa Bay -0.5 (-$5.00)

10/23- Tampa Bay -1.5 (+$5.83)

10/25- Tampa Bay -1.5 (-$5.00)

10/26- America -0.5 (-$20.49)

10/27- Philadelphia -1.5 (+$0.00) no action

10/27- Indianapolis +4 (-$10.00)

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Going with Lakers Celtics and Bulls tonight. Also going to follow Paper Chaser on his Hockey play since he's been on a roll with those. I'd be happy with a 2-2 day.

Bulls -6.5

Celtics -6

Lakers -7.5

Penguins -0.5

Day Profit: +$0.77

Day Record: 2-2

Total Record: 142-153-7

Bankroll: $100.77

Total Profit: -$99.23

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I got invited to a home game for tomorrow night but I'm not sure it's still on. So far only 4 people have confirmed so it's not looking to good. Hopefully more people decide to come because I really feel like playing. Haven't played live in a while.

I actually went to this same home game back in February and was the big winner that day. That time we were playing .50c/$1 but tomorrow it's suppose to be $1/$2 NL Hold Em' and Pot Limit Omaha. I don't mind playing Omaha. I really suck at it but I won my biggest pot of the night in Omaha last time, haha.

But like I said, I'm still waiting to hear back from the host to see if the game's still on. If not, I might hit up the Casino up in Rolling Meadows although that's also up in the air since it's like an hour bus ride.

Soccer Parlay

2008-10-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, I wasn't planning on having any action tonight but I that's just not like me. Haha, so I've got a 2 game soccer parlay going which looks kind of solid. First game is Atlante v. Joe Public (I swear that's the name of the team, lol. It's some small soccer team from Trinidad and Tobago)

Anyway Atlante needs a win in this one and Joe Public's back line looks sketchy due to some suspensions. Atlante's offense is not anything to brag about either but I think they can come away with a 1-0 win here.

Second game is DC United v. Cruz Azul. I think Cruz Azul comes away with an easy win here. DC United is fielding a team full of reserves because they have a big match coming up in the MLS this weekend not to mention the fact that MLS teams always struggle when playing in Mexico city.

I had to parlay the two because individually they were -185 and -300. That's too much chalk for my liking. So hopefully this works out nicely.

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2 Game Parlay: Atlante (Pick) & Cruz Azul (-0.5)

Day Profit: +$7.26

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 139-147-7

Bankroll: $134.66

Total Profit: -$65.34

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Big win for me yesterday with New England crushing Denver. Good thing I decided to up the ante on the game. I did that for a couple of reasons though. 1, I felt like gambling and 2 because not only was Paper Chaser on the pick, but also this other dude from the FCP forums who's been on a tear lately in football picks. He's made like $1500 off of other posters in the last couple of weeks. He's actually the guy I lost like $80 to in the last Super Bowl. Anyway, he too liked the Pats so I felt good with the pick.

I actually didn't even get to see the game. I was at the movies. We went to this movie place that's like two blocks away from my house. I hadn't been there for a while and now I remember why. It may just be the crappiest movie place in Chicago. Back in the day it used to be a pretty nice place to go watch a movie but now a days all they show is Bollywood foreign movies and an occasional new release.

My sister told me you didn't even have to pay for a ticket because no one was ever watching the entrance. People just walk in and out without paying. We got there and there was in fact no one watching the entrance but I still decided to pay for the tickets anyway which we had to buy at the concession stands. Probably because there was exactly one person working the entire theater. And that was probably due to the fact that the place was completely dead. Granted, it was Monday night but still, I'm talking absolutely dead. We were the only two people in there. The place looked like a good spot to shoot a horror film or something because it gave me the creeps.

Anyway we ended up watching The Express which was the only movie in english playing besides Death Race. I actually thought the movie was really good and would definitely recommend it. They actually shot a bunch of the film at Lane Tech High School which is were a bunch of my friends go. They also shot some scenes across the street from where I work in this tunnel that leads to a train station. They converted it to look like a tunnel that leads into a football field. I remember when they were shooting last summer cause we had film crew coming in and out of the pizza place the whole day. Oh yea, also my high school music teacher had a small role in the film as well. So a lot of connections to the movie, lol.

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So, I arrived late to work today because once again I over slept for a job that requires me to be here at 4 PM, lol. WTF is probably what you are thinking. First I woke up like at 3PM and hit the snooze button. When I woke up again it was 4:15PM. And my dad wasn't home so I couldn't get a ride and had to take the bus. Got to work like at 5:15. Gabriel the manager was cool though and didn't give me too much lip.

Why'd I wake up so late? Well, I was up all night watching episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu.com. Man that website is awesome, they have every episode of the show along with some other great ones like Arrested Development.

Then I decided to watch that movie Kids. Hadn't seen it in a while. Definitely a good movie to check out if you've never done so. My favorite scene from that movie is when Casper and his gang beat the crap out of that dude at the park. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'll leave you all with a clip:

Monday Night Football: Let's go Pats!

2008-10-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

A split day yesterday but I ended up on the red because of how much juice I laid on the Santos game. Looking for the Pats to cover tonight.

edit: Screw it, I feel like gambling tonight and seems this is the only game on besides hockey, I'll go ahead and throw $13.70 on it instead of the usual $5.

New England -3

Day Profit: +$13.70

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 138-147-7

Bankroll: $127.40

Total Profit: -$72.60

Still on Chaser's Picks

2008-10-19T13:23:00.001-07:00

Still tailing Paper Chaser. Two of his 3 picks have already split so let's hope the Colts manage to cover against the Packers

Also going with the Rays tonight. I'm hoping Garza has a big game on the mound and shots down the Red Sox.

I'll probably have a play on the Santos v. Jaguares game but I haven't made up my mind on that yet.

Baltimore +3

San Diego +0.5

Indianapolis -1.5

Tampa Bay -0.5

Santos Laguna -0.5

Santos v. Jaguares Over 2.5

Day Profit: -$2.74

Day Record: 3-3

Total Record: 137-147-7

Bankroll: $113.70

Total Profit: -$86.30

Lucky Misclick

2008-10-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

Paper Chaser has been red hot with his football picks the last couple of weeks so I decided to tail this weekend.

But let's backtrack a little. I made a few plays during the week which I didn't post. I went 1-2 in those and lost -$8.84 leaving me with a $100 bankroll heading into today.

So I decided to tail all 4 of Paper Chaser's picks and ended up with a solid 3-1 in those. Then I also had a play on the baseball game today. I wanted to bet on the Rays, but I must have misclicked when I placed the bet cause when I went back to check the day's results it showed that I actually took Boston -1.5! LOL, nice! Huge break there as Boston ended up winning 4-2.

That's actually the second break I've gotten this week. Last Thursday I was going to bet on the Rays also but for some reason my bet never went through. Rays gave up a 7 run lead and I saved myself $5, haha.

Missouri +4

South Florida -24

Ohio State -3.5

USC -42.5

Boston -1.5

Day Profit: +$16.44

Day Record: 4-1

Total Record: 134-144-7

Bankroll: $116.44

Total Profit: -$83.56

MLB Playoffs and MNF

2008-10-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

So as was expected, ever since I mentioned how hot I was running in the HU SnG's a couple of days ago, I've now gone completely cold, lol.

All those coolers that I'd been fading are now coming back at me with a vengeance one after another. I've lost something like the last 5 out of 6 or something. I may switch back to the $6.60 6max for a while.

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Nice 3-1 day yesterday with the football picks. I was really thinking about taking Atlanta instead of the Bears yesterday but changed my mind last minute. Gotta start going with my gut feeling more and not over analyze the games.

Anyway, going Rays and Dodgers tonight. Also taking the Browns but I'm holding off on that til before game time to see if I can get a better line.

Thought about teasing Browns +14 and Over 36 but my tease record speaks for itself. I'm like 0 for brazillion in them, so no dice.

Rays -0.5

Dodgers -1.5

Browns + 7.5

Day Profit: +$10.19

Day Record: 2-1

Total Record: 129-141-7

Bankroll: $108.84

Total Profit: -$91.16

Sunday Results

2008-10-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Bears -3

Colts -3.5

Eagles -4.5

Chargers -5

Day Profit: +$8.65

Day Record: 3-1

Total Record: 127-140-7

Bankroll: $98.65

Total Profit: -$101.35

Mexico & USA Parlay

2008-10-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

USA is a sure pick on this one against Cuba but Mexico has struggled somewhat when playing in Jamaica. Still, I think they can pull off a 1-0 win here.

2 Team Parlay: Mexico -0.5 & USA -0.5

Day Profit: -$10.65

Day Record: 0-1

Total Record: 124-139-7

Bankroll: $90.00

Total Profit: -$110.00

Super Hot

2008-10-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

I'm currently on a 10 game win streak in the $5.25 HU SnGs between PokerStars and Full Tilt. Pretty amazing considering the variance of these things. But, like I said in my last post, I've just been fading coolers and making big lay downs.

Lets hope the streak continues.

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Salt Lake City couldn't come up with a win against the Redbulls yesterday and the game ended 1-1 giving me a losing pick. Bankroll now stands at $100.

Going with Boston and LA on tonight's picks. Hoping to go 2-0. I really don't want the Bankroll to dip under $100 again.

Boston -0.5

LA Dodgers -1.5

Day Profit: +$0.65

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 124-138-7

Bankroll: $100.65

Total Profit: -$99.35

New Laptop

2008-10-09T15:21:00.001-07:00

Haven't blogged in a while.

Between work, shopping for a new laptop and mourning the Cubs' playoffs choke-aments, I haven't had much time.

I finally went to pick up my laptop at Best Buy yesterday. Not the one I linked in my last post though.

That one has apparently been discontinued and I would have to order it online which I didn't want to do. So I went with my second choice, which was a lot more expensive but a better laptop overall.

4GB of memory, 250GB HDD, and an Intel Duo Core processor. Integrated Webcam and what more do I need?

Grand total?

$1,099.99.

Ouch!

Completely worth it though. This thing is blazing fast. I'll probably be blogging more now and with the integrated Webcam, I might even do a video blog here and there.

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On to Poker. I've been putting in a lot of time on the $5.50 HU SnGs on Stars and Full Tilt and been running extremely well. I know part of it has been luck and avoiding many coolers, but I've also been playing extremely well and capable of laying down big hands to stay alive.

So I'll continue to grind those out along with a $6.60 6 Max here and there.

I haven't played live since last Wednesday. I ended up down $25 in that session after like 5 hours. Never really had anything going and spent most of the session with a stack of around $100-$130, grinding back to $200 and then going back down.

There was an interesting hand that came up, but I'll save that for one of my video blogs if I ever get around to doing one.

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Sports betting has been pretty minimal the last few weeks. I've made a few plays that I haven't posted with the biggest one being taking the Rays against the White Sox in the ALDS for my whole roll which was around $80. I profited like $26 from that and so the updated record looks something like this:

Total Record: 123-136-7

Bankroll: $106.67

Total Profit: -$93.33

I've got one play tonight on Salt Lake City -0.5 v. NY Redbulls.

I was going to throw some money on the Dodgers also but I think I'll hold off on that.

Work Work Work

2008-09-30T19:28:00.001-07:00

Pulling another double shift today working from 11:00 A.M.-1:00A.M. It hasn't been too bad though since I only work the register half the day and the other half I do my usual phone job.

I'm on pace for a 55 hour work week when I usually put in anywhere from 25-30. This all means I can expect a pretty nice paycheck next Tuesday which ALSO means I can finally get my new laptop. My original price range was anywhere between $800-$1200 but I found this really nice HP laptop that seems to be exactly what I'm looking for.

My main criterion was a slick design and a massive HDD.

This computer supplements both of these requirements. And at $700, I'll have some cash left over to burn on another little addiction I'm beginning to develop.

No, not drugs.

DVDs!

Television shows on DVD to be more specific. I'm really beginning to enjoy buying a bunch of TV shows on DVD. I've got quite a few already but I want to expand on the collection. Yesterday I bought all 12 seasons of South Park, Seasons 1 &2 of Boondocks and Seasons 1-9 of King of Queens.

On the soon to buy list is: Seinfeld, The Simpsons, The X Files, Everwood, Weeds and Lost.

Some of these shows like Seinfeld and The Simpsons for example, it really makes no sense for me to buy them on DVD since the shows are in syndication and have reruns like twice a day. But whatever, lol.Buying these isn't cheap though which is why I buy most of them off Craig's List or Ioffer.com

Anyway, I've got the day off tomorrow and undecided about whether or not to go to the casino to put in a short 1/2NL session. I'm not really "in the mood" to play and unless that changes by tomorrow, I'll probably just stay home and watch game one of the NLDS between my Cubbies and the Dodgers. I like the Cubs and will probably have a play on them for tomorrow.

Yawn

2008-09-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

So I never updated last week's post about how the visit to the casino turned out. I just haven't felt like blogging the past few days. Anyway I got to the casino last Wednesday around 6:00P.M. and played til 11:30P.M. or so.

I dropped one buy-in ($200) within the first hour but reloaded and ran my stack to around $550. Then I played a couple of hands pretty poorly in the last hour and ended up cashing out for $410. A net profit of+ $10 for 5 hours of poker. Not exactly the results I was looking for but I'd rather book a small win than a big loss.

Anyway I left the casino around 11:30 and stupid me didn't realize that the buses don't run that late so I had to walk down Dempster road hoping to flag down a taxi. It was a 30 minute midnight walk down a pretty dark and isolated road with $600 cash in my pocket before a cab finally drove by. NOT A FUN WALK.

In conclusion, I need a car.

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So today I'm pretty freaking tired. I'm at work right now pulling a double shift on 3 hours of sleep. I was playing Call of Duty 4 last night on the 360 and finally beat the single player campaign. The story dragged for the first half but it finally picked up last night and I couldn't put the controller down until I finished it. The ending sequence was seriously one of the coolest video game moments I've experienced. Such an awesome game.

Anyway, I ended up going to sleep at 7 A.M.since I thought I didn't have to be in to work today til 4:00 PM.

Wrong!

10:00 A.M. and my mom walks into my room saying my manager called saying I had to come in to work for this other dude who called in sick. She said this to me as I was still half asleep so for a few minutes I contemplated whether I'd just dreamed it, lol. But nope. I called back my manager and sure enough he wanted me in by 11 A.M.

F*ck!

So I've been here since 11 and and don't get off til' 1 AM. And I might have to do it all over again tomorrow. At least I can look forward to a FAT paycheck next week!

Rockford

2008-09-24T12:05:00.001-07:00

I'm about to leave for the Casino. Looking to replicate last week's results. I'll update later tonight.

PS- I REALLY hope they don't card me. I lost my wallet and have been too lazy to go take out another ID.

Hookah

2008-09-22T09:41:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago my friend Jay told me about an underground poker game the owner of a Hookah Lounge runs on Sunday nights. Jay's not much of a card player but he knows that I am so he told me I should check it out.

I got to the Lounge last night around 7PM and asked the bouncer if he knew about the game. He said he didn't know anything about it. I was wondering whether maybe he did, but it wasn't the kind of game anyone could just walk into. So I went inside and decided to chill there for a while. I was about to leave but I figured, what the hell, I'm already here, so I decided to split a Hookah with this other dude who was there.

We ordered some weird berry mist flavor that was hitting the spot. The place was completely dead so the bouncer came in and smoked with us along with this other chick who may or may not have been working there. She's the one that prepared the Hookah for us but I think she was just there to see the bouncer. Anyway a few minutes later the owner of the place came in and I found out there really was no poker game that night. So I puffed for a while longer and then headed home, not before having a delicious meal at White Castle.

I'll probably be back next Sunday, even if there is no poker game.

Division Clincher

2008-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Cubs -1.5

Brewers -1.5

Rangers -1.5

Colorado -1.5

3 Game Parlay: -Monterrey (Pick) -Santos (Pick) -Chivas (Pick)

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Day Profit: -$25.59

Day Record: 0-5

Total Record: 120-133-7

Bankroll: $90.00

Total Profit: -$110.00

Road Winners

2008-09-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

NY Mets -1.5

LA Angels -1.5

White Sox -1.5

Connecticut -13
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Day Profit: +$14.25

Day Record: 3-1

Total Record: 120-128-7

Bankroll: $115.59

Total Profit: -$84.41

Jack on the River

2008-09-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

I got to the casino yesterday around 4:30 and got on the 1/2NL list. I was kind of regretting going when I was on my way there because I wasn't feeling good at all. Runny nose, slight headache and a sore throat. But for some reason as soon as I got there I was feeling much better.

Anyway, fifteen minutes later a seat opened up and I sat down with $200.

Played my first big hand when a player in early position raised it to $8. Two other callers and myself in the small blind with pocket eights. Flop comes 8-5-J I lead out for $15. The preflop raiser, this old man who I swear to you had to be about 95 years old, mini raises to $30. Folds to me and he's got like $50 behind so I push. He insta calls with QQ. Of course the turn has to be a sweat card when he catches a flush draw but the river bricks and I drag in a nice pot.

The rest of the way I was playing a very tight game. Some guy to my left even commented on how tight I was playing. I was able to exploit that image when I got in a hand against him when all I had was a flush draw on the turn and made a big bet. He folds and tells me he knows I made my flush. Okay, sure I'll take it.

I felt like I was really playing well and don't remember making any "bad decisons." I was getting paid with my monster hands and getting away from hands like TPTK where it was clear I was beat. Got paid off with Aces, Kings and a set of 10s all for nice pots. The only real bad beat I took the whole night was when I had AQ in late position and raised it up to $12. I got 4 callers and the flop came J-10-K. Weeeeeee! I'm feeling good and thinking about how to maximize value on the hand. It checks around to me and I bet $20. Player to my left calls, another guy folds and another one goes all in for $38 total so $18 more to me. I then tank a bit and decide whether or not I want the guy on me left in the pot. In hindsight I probably should have just called, but I went all in instead. Then the guy to my left asks the dealer if I'm allowed to raise in that spot since the player who went all in didn't make a complete raise. Dealer says I'm okay to raise though (I think he was wrong) and the guy tanks for like 2 minutes asking me if I want him to call. He finally folds telling me had Q-10 or something like that. So the guy who went all in flips over J-10.

I've got an 80% lock on the flop and a 90% lock after a brick turn. Yes, you know where this is going. Ugly Jack on the river cracks my nut straight with his full house. It hurt, but I realized I got lucky that he was so short stacked before the hand started with around $50. I could have lost alot more if he was deep stacked cause I was sitting with like $350 myself.

Anyway, I felt a bit of tilt coming so I walked away from the table and went to buy an orange juice. When I got back I was feeling much better and kept playing my A game. Won a ton of small pots and was ready to call it a night when I got involved in yet another hand with the dude who cracked my straight. Don't remember the preflop action but we find ourselves heads up on a flop of K-8-3 he bets out like $15 and I call with K-6. Turn is another King. I bet out $25, he asks if I have the King, then raises to $50. I really hate my kicker at this point but call the extra $25. River is a Queen, for a board of K-8-3-K-Q. I check hoping he checks behind but instead he goes all in for like $100. I proceed to tank for about 2 minutes hating myself for getting myself involved in the hand. I make the crying call expecting to see AK. Nope. He flips over K-5 and we chop it up. Bastard! I actually had the best hand heading into the river, lol.

I felt releaved to chop it up though. It woulda sucked big time to lose that one that late into my session. It was also a sign to get the hell outta there, lol.

I ended up cashing out for $463.

Nice profit of +$263. Not bad for about 3 hours worth of work.

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Tonight's Picks:

NY Yankees -1.5

Tampa Bay -1.5

Day Profit: +$2.25

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 117-127-7

Bankroll: $101.34

Total Profit: -$98.66

Runny Nose

2008-09-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

So I'd been planning to hit up the casino today for the past few days and was really pumped up about it. Then last night I began to catch the first symptoms that an imminent cold was about to hit me. It started with a bit of a headache and the runny nose. By the time I was going to go to sleep I felt pretty terrible. Body aching and in no shape to go play poker.

I went to bed with the idea that if I wasn't feeling any better this morning I'd just skip the casino and stay home to rest up. Well, I'm feeling somewhat better this morning, but I'm still not sure whether or not I should go. I definitely don't think I can play my best if I end up going.

My mom did give me a couple of capsules that are supposed to be pretty good in fighting off colds. And I've been trying to drink a lot of OJ. Right now I'm thinking that maybe I'll just go and once I get there, if I'm not feeling up to playing the 200NL game, I'll just donk around in the 1-3 Spread Limit for a while.

R.I.P. Hiro

2008-09-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

So where were you when Carlos Zambrano threw a no hitter huh? I was on the edge of my living room sofa sweating every single pitch and hoping my dad would get home in time from work to watch it as he's a huge Cubs fan as well.

Well he was about 3 minutes to late, lol. But as soon as he walked in the door I was yelling "Dad! Dad! Z just threw a no hitter!"

But let's backtrack a little.

I started watching the game from the beginning not only because I had money on it, but because of the fact that it was being played in a "neutral" site which I thought would make for sort of bizarre game to watch. Miller Park was anything from neutral though as it upheld its long standing Wrigleyfield North nickname. 97% of the people in attendance were wearing Cubby blue.

Anyway I wasn't aware of the fact that Z had a no hitter going until around sometime in the 6th. We all know broadcasters are all but prohibited from uttering the words "no hitter" so I only became aware of it when Len Kasper said Z had faced the minimum number of batters thus far. But it wasn't until he finished pitching the 7th when I first began to think he actually had a shot.

Fast forward to the top of the 9th with two outs and a 2-2 count and I'm just a nervous wreck, lol. Splitter low and away and boom! Astros' Darin Erstad strikes out to give the Cubs their first no hitter since 1972. To say I was estatic after the strike out would be a huge understatement. I was screaming and jumping and just going crazy. Man and that was only a no hitter. Imagine what I'm going to be like when we win the World Series. =)

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Later that night I was on AIM talking to my friend about the game and he gave me some pretty shocking news. This guy named Hiro who went to school with us was killed early Saturday morning by a train. Apparently he was trying to beat the train accross the tracks and fell.

I didn't really know him that well as he hung out with a completely different crowd than the one I hung out with and I don't even recall having any classes with him but it was still pretty shocking to find out a person you saw on a regular basis for 4 years passed away. Here's an online artcle on his death.

Certainly my thoughts and prayers are with his family.

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Tonight's picks:

Woodlands Wellington -0.5

LA Dodgers -1.5

Philadelphia +7

Day Profit: +$9.71

Day Record: 2-1

Total Record: 116-126-7

Bankroll: $99.09

Total Profit: -$100.91

Fading the Bears

2008-09-14T16:13:00.001-07:00

Toluca -0.5

Panthers -3

Cubs -1.5

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Day Profit: +$12.38

Day Record: 1-1-1

Total Record: 114-125-7

Bankroll: $89.38

Total Profit: -$110.62

Borrowed Picks

2008-09-13T02:58:00.001-07:00

I'll be upping the ante today on Chaser's picks. Gonna go with $11 to win $10 on all of these to essentially leave me in Brokesville if it turns out to be a bad day, lol.

Vanderbilt -8.5

East Carolina -12

Washington U +21

Missouri -26.5

UCLA +8

USC -11.5

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Day Profit: -$3.00

Day Record: 3-3

Total Record: 113-124-6

Bankroll: $77.00

Total Profit: -$123.00

Birthday Boy

2008-09-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Your boy turns 19 today. Unfortunately I'm going to be spending the day at work! Sucks big time but oh well. I'll be sure not to mention it's my birthday at work though cause Gigio's has this retarded ritual of beating the shit out of birthday guys with this spatula thingy. Not cool...haha.

So 19? No real perks with going from 18 to 19. Except maybe if I lived in Canada, lol.

I may celebrate my birthday sometime next week, perhaps by hitting up the Rockford Casino and putting in some time on the 200NL game. Haven't been in a while.

Alright that's all for today folks. No picks today cause there's not much that I'm liking for tonight so I'll just hold up for Paper Chaser's College football picks tomorrow.

Never Forget

2008-09-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

Although I can thank God that I was not directly affected by the September 11 attacks (and I mean not directly affected in the sense that I did not lose a loved one) my thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who lost somebody on that tragic day.

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Cubs -1.5

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Day Profit: -$8.83

Day Record: 0-1

Total Record: 110-121-6

Bankroll: $80.00

Total Profit: -$120.00

Mexico vs. Canada

2008-09-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

Wish me luck boys and girls. I don't see Mexico losing this game but anything can happen.

Mexico -0.5 (-350)

Risking $69.09 to win $19.74

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Running Blog:

7:18 PM: I'm going to be keeping a running blog during the game just because I feel like it. I'm at work right now but I'll be able to watch the game on Justin.tv (great source for live sporting events).

7:23 PM: Kick off time is at 8:00PM so it'll be another 35 minutes or so before the game starts. I was checking out the lineup for the Mexican squad and two noticeable absences to keep an eye on are going to be Pardo and Salcido. Pardo got injured in the game against Jamaica and Salcido accumulated 2 yellow cards. They're both intergral parts of the team but Mexico should still come away with a victory tonight.

7:34 PM: I'm glad I didn't wait til the last minute to put in my bet for tonight. The line has jumped from -350 up to -600. Good job me. =)

7:39 PM: I'm trying to get more action on this game on FCP using my poker bankroll, but no one is biting...yet.

7:44 PM: I'm currently negotiating odds with an FCPer. He is asking for 6-1 odds (which like I said, is what the line at bookmaker.com is now) and I counter-offered with 4.5 to 1. I'm awaiting his response.

7:56 PM: Just about ready for kick off and I got another huge bet with an FCPer. I gave him 5.5 to 1 odds. I'm risking $275 to win $50 from him. This is bad. I shouldn't have done it. It will cripple both my Poker and my Sports betting accounts if Mexico loses this game, lol.

Sigh....

8:55 PM: Halftime. Quite the game we have here. Mexico had complete domination throughout the first have but failed to capitalize. Canadians had only one or two shots on goal while Mexicans keep playing down the wings but were missing that key guy up front that could punish the Canadians in the air.

10:05PM: Okay, so the running blog didn't exactly materialize the way I thought it would. The plan was to keep updating throughout the game but that proved impossible because I had 3 or 4 guys huddled around my laptop trying to watch the game. Anyway, important thing is that MEXICO WON! Yes sir! It wasn't as easy a victory as I thought it'd be though. But Mexico finally broke trough in the 58th minute on a header by Bravo and then Marquez made it 2-0 with another header off a corner kick. Mexico seemed to be cruising 2-0 until Canada made it an interesting finish by scoring in the 77th minute. The Mexicans held on though and shipped the 2-1 victory. Including the $50 from the FCPer, a total profit of +$69.74 for the night but of course only a profit of +$19.74 will go on the record since the other bet was made with my poker bankroll and the money will be deposited into my Full Tilt account.

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Day Profit: +$19.74

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 109-121-6

Bankroll: $88.83

Total Profit: -$111.17

Packers and Raiders

2008-09-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

So much for a good NFL season start.

Whatever happens tonight, I'm putting my entire roll on the line tomorrow with Mexico against Canada. I'll lay the heavy juice and take Mexico -0.5 (-350).

Green Bay -2

Oakland +3

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Day Profit: -$0.91

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record:108-121-6

Bankroll: $69.09

Total Profit: -$130.91

New NFL Season

2008-09-07T10:47:00.001-07:00

Let's hope we get started off on the right foot this football season.

Jets -3

New England -15.5

2 Team Teaser: Colts -1.5 & New England -7.5

Browns +7

Colts -9.5

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Day Profit: -$38.17

Day Record: 1-4

Total Record: 107-120-6

Bankroll: $70.00

Total Profit: -$130.00

4 Teamer

2008-09-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

4 Team Parlay:
Serbia -0.5
England -0.5Germany -0.5
Mexico -0.5

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Day Profit: +$18.77

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 106-116-6

Bankroll: $108.17

Total Profit: -$91.23

Wednesday and Thursday

2008-09-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

I didn't post the plays from Wednesday and Thursday but it was pretty much a break even two days after South Carolina messed up my teaser.

Here are the plays I had:

Yankees -0.5

Detroit -1.5

Cubs -1.5

2 Team Teaser: Redskins +10.5 & South Carolina -3.5

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2 Day Profit: +$1.28

2 Day Record: 2-2

Total Record: 105-118-6

Bankroll: $89.40

Total Profit: -$110.60

Hello Fall

2008-09-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

Okay so technically its not really fall yet, but it sure feels like it with the Labor Day weekend, and football season kicking off on Thursday. I don't really mind it since unlike previous years, I don't have to dread going back to school. I'll welcome the cooling off in the weather and the scenic foliage of Chicago autumns.

The weekend went by pretty quickly although I didn't get out or do much. I had an ugly 1-3 day on Saturday in football and soccer plays with my only win coming via Paper Chaser's suggestion on taking USC. I spent most of the weekend on my Xbox 360. I picked up copies of FIFA 08 (which I previously had but my dog Chase scratched badly)and a copy of Call of Duty 4 which I'd been meaning to get for a while now. COD4 has been pretty awesome so far. I've been going trough the single player campaign but I haven't played online a lot yet cause I'm still a noob and keep getting owned by everyone.

Saturday night I played the $33 10K Guaranteed on PokerStars on a stake from an FCPer. I went semi-deep in that ending 49th out of 432 entries for $60.91. It would have been fucking awesome to final table that bitch. First place was like $2,400.

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I've updated my record to reflect the 1-3 day on Saturday from plays that I didn't post.

Here are the plays for tonight. Let's get lucky just ONE TIME!

Cubs -1.5

Brewers -1.5

Red Sox -1.5

Twins -0.5

2 Team Parlay: Revolution & Chivas USA.

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Day Profit: -$21.43

Day Record: 1-4

Total Record: 103-116-6

Bankroll: $88.12

Total Profit: -$111.88

Good Karma

2008-08-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Another good day today with the baseball picks going 2-0. Hope to keep the good run going throughout the weekend.

I've been running pretty shitty in poker though. The cards have been falling ice cold so I decided to take a little break from playing and instead staked some players from FCP last night.

I staked 3 players in a Stars $4.40 180-man, and one of them actually won the damn thing. He had a huge lead starting heads up but then got crippled when his two pair went down against a straight. He was down to like 30k to his opponent's 200k.I thought meh, 2nd place money isn't too bad. But he somehow made a ninja comeback and won the tourney.

First place money was $206 so he shipped back $108. $108 minus the $13.20 I invested on staking the 3 guys came out to a profit of +$95. I can't tell you how huge $95 is to my poker roll right now which now sits at around $270 and I'll continue to grind it out in 10NL and $6.60 shorthanded sngs.

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Boston -1.5

LA Angels -1.5

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Day Profit: +$11.50

Day Record: 2-0

Total Record: 101-109-6

Bankroll: $124.30

Total Profit: -$75.70

8th Inning Heroics

2008-08-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

I only had one play today which was Cubs -1.5. I was regularly checking the score at work until they were down like 4-1 in the 7th which is when I stopped paying attention.

I come to find out my Cubbies went on to score 5 in the bottom of the 8th to win the game. Nice. Just enough to cover the runline, lol. Too bad I only bet a measly $3 on them.

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Cubs -1.5

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Day Profit: +$4.80

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 99-109-6

Bankroll: $112.80

Total Profit: -$87.20