Drop The Hammer!

Blogger Tourney!!!

2005-10-18T11:35:00.000-04:00

I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 4865026

News Post

2005-10-18T07:36:00.000-04:00

Harrah’s WSOP, AOL Join Forces for Poker Players
AOL Will Soon Launch a WSOP-Sponsored Suite of News and Games

Fans of the World Series of Poker and members of America Online will soon have access to a litany of play-for-free poker rooms, behind-the-scenes reports from WSOP events, and plenty of other poker content designed to enhance players' experiences and skill levels.

Harrah's License Company, LLC, an affiliate of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., has joined forces with AOL to create a co-branded poker room for AOL users that will be the only free-play Internet poker game in which 12 players can win a $10,000 seat into either 2006 or 2007 WSOP main event.

"We're thrilled to pair the best brand in poker with the best brand in online games and content," said Jeffrey Pollack, vice president of sports and entertainment marketing for Harrah's Entertainment. "AOL's powerful reach will help more people than ever before experience the fun, excitement and energy of the World Series of Poker. This strategic alliance is an important foundation for our growth strategy over the next 24 months."

AOL’s poker rooms will be divided according to skill level and will offer tournaments and options to create private rooms. AOL will also give a WSOP seat away to one visitor to its site a year.

AOL partnered with Harrah’s after extensive market research. According to a phone survey done by AOL Games and SRBI Public Affairs, almost half of Americans said they play some form of poker.

Of those who said they play, 17 percent say they are playing more than ever before, and about a quarter of those who say they play have taken up the game in just the past year. AOL talked to 1,005 people all across the United States.

About 1-in-10 players said they have played poker online and, when asked why, most players said it was to learn the game and to get in practice before playing in a live-action game.

"The renewed interest in poker has also been reflected on AOL.com, where poker is constantly among the most popular games on our service," said Ralph Rivera, vice president and general manager, AOL Games. "Joining forces with Harrah's to create the most compelling World Series of Poker-branded poker destination online is a great way to satisfy our users' interests in all things poker."

The WSOP is held each summer at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. WSOP Circuit events take place at Harrah’s properties all around the country year-round.

Harrah’s, which was founded in Reno 67 years ago, took ownership of the “World Series of Poker” brand in 2004 when it bought Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. The company sold the casino to another company earlier this year but retained the rights to the popular poker tournament.

World Poker Players Conference

2005-10-17T11:49:00.000-04:00

Of all the poker special events in which I have the pleasure of participating each year, the World Poker Players Conference (WPPC) is my favorite educational event because it offers poker players the best chance to really improve their play and provides them with the tools they need to beat the games and increase their poker bankrolls significantly. For the first time, the WPPC will be held on the East Coast rather than in Las Vegas. Foxwoods Resort Casino has been slated to host the sixth-annual World Poker Players Conference on Nov. 12, 2005. Whether you are a novice player or a seasoned poker professional, you will benefit by attending this remarkable day full of poker seminars presented by an all-star lineup of world-class poker celebrities and authorities.

Card Player Cruises is co-sponsoring the Conference, along with “America’s Mad Genius” Mike Caro, who will be the emcee and also will present poker tips again this year. Already confirmed to speak are T.J. Cloutier, Nolan Dalla, Paul Darden, Jan Fisher, Barry Greenstein, Mark Gregorich, Linda Johnson, Lee Jones, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Mike Sexton, Barry Tanenbaum, and Mark Tenner. Other speakers are still being confirmed, and since the Conference is scheduled for the day before the World Poker Tour championship event at the World Poker Finals, you can count on additional poker celebrities making appearances throughout the day. The speakers will be covering such topics as no-limit hold’em winning secrets, sit-and-go tournaments, game selection, money management, general poker tips, specific play of hands, playing at the final table, and how to maximize your poker profits. There also will be time for questions and answers with each speaker, as well as autograph and photo opportunities during the breaks.

The itinerary for the day will begin with registration from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Seminars will be ongoing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a lunch break in the middle of the day.

Early-bird pricing of $169 is available for participants who register before Nov. 4. After Nov. 4 and at the door, the price will be $199. A continental breakfast will be included for all participants, but only those registered by Nov. 4 will be able to attend the complimentary banquet luncheon. A limited number of rooms at the discounted rate of $200 on Friday, Nov. 11 and $250 on Nov. 12 are available to attendees who call the Foxwoods reservations department at (800) FOXWOODS by Friday, Oct. 21. In order to receive the WPPC contracted group rate, telephone requests must identify affiliation with the World Poker Players Conference. Reservation requests received after Oct. 21 will be accepted on a room and rate availability basis.

Nov. 12 will be a life-changing day for many poker players. Register now to be one of them at www.cardplayercruises.com, or by calling (888) 999-488

mmmm, Cameron Diaz

2005-10-15T11:39:00.000-04:00

Everyone knows that poker is the latest "Hollywood" celebrity fad. What people don't realize is that these star converts to the game are falling in love with the game in the same manner as everyone else. The latest preacher at the poker pulpit is Charlie's Angels star, Cameron Diaz.

According to a Contactmusic.com feature, Diaz credits talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres with giving her this new outlook on life and more importantly, a new creative outlet for the already successful actress. According to Diaz, Degeneres introduced both her and her boyfriend Justin Timberlake to the game and the rest is history.

"I remember the fateful night (DeGeneres introduced me to the game) as well. I remember the phone call: 'Come on
Buy $20 and get up to $500 free!
over and play Texas hold'Em.' I said, 'I don't know how to play Texas Hold'Em.' She was like, 'None of us do, come on over.'"

Apparently that game was the genesis of Diaz's inner poker monster. "I took everyone's money that night."

Now she seeks games all of the time. "I'm addicted to it. I do like the casino a bit. I find myself at a casino every once in a while just walking through going, 'What am I doing here?' That's so desperate - I'm in Tunica, Mississippi (at casinos)."

Diaz has shown some aptitude for the game, scoring a second-place finish in a recent re-buy event. Despite still being a novice, Diaz recognizes she has a flare for the game. "I took second (place), but I actually won because I never bought back into the tournament. The guy who beat me bought back in like five times."

Only time will tell if Diaz can duplicate the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker titles owned by another actress, the reigning queen of poker, Jennifer Tilly

I'm Back

2005-10-07T11:32:00.000-04:00

I know, it's been awhile...I've been pretty sick the past few months and havn't had the energy and/or motivation to blog about poker much. But, thats changing now. I've got a bankroll again, taking advantage of the new empire re-loads and such, I'll be posting a bigger update later in the week!

Its good for you

2005-03-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

Happy St Patricks Day

.

Not much going on around here lately. My dismal performance in the WPBT HORSE tournament is barely worth a mention, though I did manage just over halfway with a sixtysomething place finish. Not bad considering Holdem and Stud are the only thing I've played before, and I don't know much more than the basic rules of the other games.

Unlike other bloggers, I don't care for Full Tilt. The site itself is OK...but the bonus system sucks balls. With the huge amount of other bonuses out there, there's little chance I'll return unless every other bonus dries up. Right now I'm chipping away at the pokerstars bonus, although absolute has yet another reload bonus, and I find the games there to be very easy to beat. Just waiting on another party/empire bonus so I can take advantage of gametime+.

On the casino front, I just wrapped up a disappointing bonus at planetluck casino. same as starluck, 100% up to $100, bet a boatload to clear. I finished up $36. I think I made the mistake of using the downloaded casino's multi hand poker, I thought clearing the bonus three times as fast would be better... not so sure of that.

There are other things I could go into, but like my mommy said, if you don't have anything nice to say.... so I'm keeping quiet on what I see part of the poker blogger world becoming (ie, a bunch of shilling, everyone selling something). Everyone has to make a buck, and there's always someone wanting to take advantage of a community. Oh well. I'll keep my shilling to a minimum for the 5 people who visit a day, most looking for things like Paris hiltons boobs or wrinkly old man balls....

till next time.

So...Much...Poker....

2005-03-07T14:05:00.000-05:00

This weekend I realized I was burnt out on poker.

Well, at least at the low limit grind out that bonus poker. Yes, I make a good profit doing it. It's a form of relaxation, I chill on the couch, watch movies, tv, etc.

But, clearing the latest party bonus, $750 deposited, $150 bonus, 1050 raked hands in 7 days. Total profit was $380 including the bonus. I had one losing session, and many many i left the table doubled up. This playinig two tables, sometimes three (the most i can get by on my tiny old laptop, on autopilot, decisions made mostly instantly on seeing the cards/action. Occasionally using gametime+ to make positive EV plays like raising tight/rocky players in late position, folding to non agressive players turn bets, etc. ...

I tell you, anyone out there with Pokertracker, and you should all have it, should be using Gametime+, it's a must. Realtime info overlaid onto the poker tables, percentage of times putting $ in the pot, raises, agression factor... it's all there, as well as the auto-rate. No need to read any books, a monkey could make money using it. plus, it's free... www.pokerdominion.com to get it.

So now my bankroll after party and my one casino adventure so far is above $1300, not bad considering I started the year with a new bankroll of $150. So the question is...where to next. Id like to stick to the party skins for the reasons mentioned above (gametime+ only works on that system as far as i can tell), but I out there are all the crypto and prima bonuses... so tempting.... where an empire bonus when you need one?

The things bloggers post

2005-03-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

I'd link to this, but Iggy pulled it down... I'm still trying to figure it out... any takers?

*************************** From Iggy**********************
i just asked hel1xx if this was too weird to post because my judgement is severely clouded and he said, "its weird more than funny - its one of those things you finish and scratch yer head about like a david lynch movie."

he1ixx : it teeters on the edge of incoherence at times too
he1ixx : which doesn't help

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

The following is PURE FICTION, to the best of my knowledge, and bears only a
passing relationship to truth and propriety. To the best of my knowledge.

No attempt is made to protect the innocent by changing names and places, as
places (other than cyber space) will not be mentioned, and the names have
been, in fact, changed by the named. Well, less one. That being the primary
victim.

CENTRAL CHARACTERS: Iggy and Stripper by Night, a dwarf, and a hoax. Minor
character(s): Blog writer (victim), all Blog readers (eager, voluntary
victims).

OPENING: Flashback; develop character Iggy. Explain hoax of claiming Dwarf
status and hesitation meeting eager, fellow Bloggers because of physical
envelope. Expand the theme to include the charade to an actual presence at
the 1st conclave of Bloggers in Las Vegas, by introduction of a Lilliputian
in a casino cardroom. Demonstrate the lengths of deception showing actual
skulking techniques used by MAIN CHARACTER to evade detection by fellow
Bloggers.

SECOND CHARACTER DELEVOPMENT: Scene; normal poker table, full, containing an
indistinct form/figure of female character playing poker. Voice over, not
eminating from the table, but elsewhere: Explaining the status of bankroll,
bank accounts, abilities at the tables. CHANGE SCENE FOR CHARACTER:
Indistinct form in room, at computer. Voice over reading the words beginning
a Blogger Flame war.

INTRODUCE VICTIM BLOGGER: (Caution: Female cast in this role MUST NOT be
allowed license to overact illnesses. They are not primary to the action,
nor in-character to real life.) Demonstrate the sharpe mind and writing
abilities, used to analyze various poker situations and enviroments. Show
effects of SECOND CHARACTER actions on victim and Bloggers, which should
lead into:

REACTION OVERVIEW: MAIN CHARACTER and various other Bloggers, selected at
random. Possibly best done by indistinct images and voice overs reading
various selected posts expounding those reactions.

FADE TO BLACK;

RE-OPEN: SCENE: Keep simple. However, show reconsillation, methods used and,
the live- and-let-live, truce that set in. Dwell a bit on the various minor
Blogger characters; explain the schooling, and personalities of one or two.
DO NOT OVER PLAY THE FACTS. Do demonstrate the abilities of Bloggers to
accept other points of view (critical to their character). Re-introduce Iggy
during this. Place him:

SCENE: At a computer center, back to viewer; sweating, opened bottle of
adult beverage at elbow; voice expounding on the readers demanding that
instead of the Uber-posts filled with borrowed material (while of great
interest and of timely nature) which reveal nothing of the nature of the
poster. Demonstrate further, the lengths to which the writer goes to bring
his Blog to the public, keeping it alive and fresh them. Explaining to the
viewer why no posts on personal figures on poker playing are possible. (HAVE
THE FIGURE ACTUALLY USE THE COMPUTER TO TYPE)

SUGGEST MOST STRONGLY USING ARCHIEVES OF MAIN CHARACTER FOR THIS. As they
are lucid and well done.

FADE SCENE: Return to POKR TABLE SCENE, used in developement of SECOND
CHARACTER. Solidify primary female figure to semi-solid. Repeat voice-over
relating poker activities, etc..

DWELL THERE A BIT:

MORPH: The female to dwarf. (Don't over- do, just long enough to register on
the viewer)

MORPH: The Dwarf to Iggy at the computer desk (or elsewhere, as the director
chooses.).

DURING MORPHING: Roll Credits.

FADE TO BLACK:

FADE TO "THE END" ON BLACK.

*************************************************

yea...ok.... regular post coming

Quick Update

2005-03-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

Howdy everyone...

It's been awhile, sorry I've been neglecting you...life and all. Work has slowed down, but other things have moved in to take it's place. My friends who got together a few weeks ago, back from disney/college... I've started chatting more with a few of them, including my buddy who is moving down to orlando in a month. A few of us chatting has gradually turned up more and more people, some whom have moved back down... Great for me as it's more people for me to visit, and an excuse for more vacations.

Speaking of vacations I've planned my first one in umpteen years...3.5 to be exact. The last one was before I bought my first place, then there was always more important stuff, then being laid off and, and then contracting for a year or so meant no paid time off.

So it's back to disney for the first time in 5 years. Just a 4 night trip in may with shell... will meet up w/friends for one night, but it's a different group of friends than shell, and I like to keep them mostly seperate.

Also planning two more trips down, june and november for reunions. Add a possible vegas trip over the summer and my schedule is filling up. I booked air for the may trip. Shell has a fear of flying, and is slightly neurotic... that meant no changing planes, and no airlines with 'American, united, independence' in them because, of course, terrorists target them...umm ok... Southwest or Song it is... out of Hartford... Southwest was cheapest, but the times didn't fit... Song was $75 more, but nonstop. I was about to book wed night.... decided to do it in the morning..check back, and the price dropped $75 a person..woohoo...

Pokerwise, I've been plugging away. finished up at PokerNow...and at Absolute... on to the Party reload bonus. Suprisingly, my $150 new year deposit, through average play and bonus's (is it bonuii?) I'm up to $800... actually a little more, but it's tied up elsewhere, i'll explain in a moment. So thats a $150 or so party bonus, 1100 hands in 7 days..ouch... tried the new 25nl games, figuring with the lower blinds would be easier to get raked hands...it is..but even though I played correctly, I continued getting sucked out on... my 10's tripped up against kings, i go all in, runner runner spades for the king high flush... rebuy.. not much more loss after that... but no gains. I go back to the old standy, .5/1 and get some back. 220 hands down. total so far, down $20...

As for the other money tied up... I've begun taking the plunge into the land of casino bonuses (bonuii?)... And i've found that when the bad beats get me down...nothing like mindless blackjack playing $1 a hand...

First up, if you'd like to play along, i will follow a proven track and list my results as well. Is Star Luck Casino
user bonus code "THEHAMMER".... they have a 100% match bonus up to $100. So...deposit $100, and you'll have $200 in your accounts. Playthrough is $1600 total. Play the blackjack, vegas strip version for the best odds. $1 a hand helps against the variance. It's a legitimate company, run by the party poker people (PPP), deposit and cashout are the same. Only bad thing is no way to tell how much you've played through. I had to goto chat help and ask...but they've always told me. Result, $100 deposited, just cashed out $286, for a profit of $186. Not bad.... I'll get back to you on the next one.

have a good weekend!

Blow

2005-02-25T10:38:00.000-05:00

From Lindsay Lohan
To Paris
Subject Private

Jessica simpson was just totally doing blow in bathroom @ bar downstairs of shoreclub
-god bless
lindsaylohan

What...you expected poker content...maybe later.

Yes, I have Anna Kournikova's number, i can die now

2005-02-24T13:26:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a certain drugged out celebrity, Ms Paris Hilton's tmobile sidekick address book and notes made it onto the web. Great news, if I every have anything to say to the likes of Lindsay Logan, Fred Durst, Pauly Shore et al then I know what to do. Now can we all go on with our lives? thank you.

Next.

Work has finally slowed down. Friday night till midnight. Work paid for a hotel across the street. Stay up watching Good Will Hunting (it might as well have been rounders, I was too tired to notice). Wake up at 7am to the disturbing site of Pauly Shore in Son in Law (even more disturbing, mentioning Pauly Shore TWICE in one blog entry)... Saturday 8am start...

Now I spent a crap load of time planning this whole thing out, and it went well. My plans worked, we hired a bunch of temps to come in and do all the grunt work. By all accounts we should've been done around 6pm, it was going very smoothly.

This would've worked out great for me, as I had other plans. Turns out a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in 5 years decided to fly in for the weekend. She was staying at another friends house in boston, who I talk to online quite a bit but hadn't gotten together with in a good 3 years. Add to the mix one more friend (we all went to college in florida together briefly) and I was itching to get out of work.

My boss, he has another idea. He's stuck there no matter what, the temps are getting paid by the hour, so they don't care...me...I'm not getting paid for the weekand at all... so the 3 hour dinner break at 6pm pissed me off.

11pm, we finish up, I call friends...can't get in touch. Go back to hotel, shower, finally get in touch w/friends... check out of hotel, drive, half asleep, into boston, get lost...finally found apartment and proceed to pass out.

The next day involved some catching up, a good steak..and then the golden question "so when are we going to that casino that Ben Affleck plays at all the time?" which of course was foxwoods...the draw was irresitable.. 5pm we leave, 1.5 hours later we are there....I forgot it was a holiday weekend...and it was packed. With little hope I stopped by the poker room and the lists for 80 people long...screw that...I had only brought $100 along anyways...table game limits were a low...$25 a hand... yea right.. taking a page from pokergrub we wander around and play some slots... some neat ones out there...Men In Black, Saturday Night Live... I end up about $60 playing these, then lose it in two hands of $25 blackjack....

Then our visiting friends points to the craps table and says "whats that game?" myself, I understand the basic concept but had never played... $10 min bets, after watching we decide to play... fun game, lots of noise, lots of bets, big swings... i ended up even... i could see playing that trashed for $1-5 in vegas...

We drive back to boston, drop friend off at hotel (flying home the next day)...and I start the 1.5 hour drive home...halfway through it starts snowing.... 3/4 of the way home, with me exhausted from the weekend, snow covered road, I feel like i'm in a snow globe... at one point a car drives up behind me...I put my blinker on to move over, and change lanes...into the breakdown lane...oops...3 hours later I'm home at 3am..luckily I had monday to rest...

Of course I ended up playing poker all day . Finished out the pokernow bonus. I originally lost a bundle in one sitting, and gradually gained it back for a profit, including bonus of $130. I am now back at intertops for their reload bonus, mch fewer hands (500 vs 1100) for the $100.

Overall a great weekend... I was very glad to catch up with these people... My hobbies are oddly varied...from poker and booze to disney and theme parks.... I'm already planning a trip down (one of them is moving down to orlando next month) to visit and relax... and have revisited the idea of getting out of this armpit called the northeast..i hate winters... I am considering buying a rental home, which, of course, would necessitate several trips a year...tax deductible of course.

We were also considering a group trip in june...so I'll have to weigh that against the possibility of a WPBT appearance on June 4th in vegas...i'll have to check flights and hotels....

Why I need a career change....

2005-02-23T15:03:00.000-05:00

I'm back...project went well, but I've been dealing with this all day today.

Two conversations....

8am
Hi,

I'm having problem with my PC. I could not open any Excel files.
Seem like it's missing window files.
Could you please take a look ASAP.

Thank you,
Luser

From me: Whats the machine name?

response: You mean the PC? it's DELL

from me: Please follow the link below and I can remote support the
problem, choose my name from the drop down list, thanks,

http://www.gotoassist.com/ph/

response: It could not contact you, page could not be displayed. (read: MORON)

From me: Ok that doesn't seem to be working...if you could get the
machine name by right clicking my computer, properties, I can connect
that way.

response: Microsoft Window NT 4.00.1381
IE 5 6.0.2800.1106

From me: (sound of head banging against desk)

response:
Have you resolve the issue on this PC

then: By the way could you replay my PC with another one??? (i'm
assuming they meant replace... as of course I have new pc's just
sitting around)

From me: I still need your machine name... right click my computer,
properties, then network identification... it should end with
company.com , oldcompany.com, or oldercompany.com

response: Register to:
Old Employee
Old Company Name
21198-OEM-0035733-17888

At that point I gave up and am now huddled in the fetal position in
the corner of my office....

And Two:

George,

You've had these problems w/oracle freezing off and on with this machine.... I've never found a single cause of it, but it comes and goes. One thing that may be causing it is the fact that you have lots of windows open. Currently you have 48 separate windows/applications open, and you only have 128mb of memory on a 5 year old machine. If possible, I would try and restrict the amount of open windows to a max of 2 or 3 at a time. Meanwhile, I will look into getting you some more memory. Could you reply with the Dell model # of your machine? thanks,
Me

God I wish I had paid attention in school.

Hiatus

2005-02-14T17:26:00.000-05:00

With a major (weekend, ugh) project coming up I have a ton of work to do both here (where the majority of my blog writing takes place) and at home (where my poker playing takes place) so I'll be absent for a week or so, the two of you...don't miss me too much, go read some talented bloggers....

blog roll

2005-02-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

I've been slowly but steadily updating my blogroll/link list to the right. I'm concentrating on the ones I currently ready daily first, and then will look to add new ones to my aggregator and list. If you'd like a link, shoot me an email. id10tuser@mail2007.com

please dont fire me

2005-02-09T14:40:00.000-05:00

Poor Mark Jen.

for those that don't know, Mark was an employee at Google. Mark had a blog. Mark, 3 weeks after starting at Google, apparently got canned as a result of his blog. oops. Good thing those morons I work for don't read this....well, at least I don't 'think' they do...

Poker front... got tired of absolute...opened a pokerroom.com account and am down a little, I don't like the software, too bulky and slow, moved most of my money out (the bonus will take forever). My plan right now is to open a pokernow.com account, taking advantage of the bonus as well as a rake rebate from www.pokersourceonline.com . Check them out, they have some interesting programs, 27.5% rake rebates too, as well as some signup bonuses. If you sign up, feel free to use my username: hammer72

Getting ready for yet another winter storm, although it may be a nice excuse to 'work' from home and get some poker in (good thing my boss doesn't read this... Hi Marty!)

Always a day late

2005-02-07T16:20:00.000-05:00

....Story of my life.
*edit* non poker content below*

Today being Monday, not much going on at work, working on the emptiness 'personal' laptop filled with spyware. Not the most involving work. So I decide to surf the web...

After reading the blogs, I do what every person does at least once in their life, google themselves. I find a few mentions of myself, all from high school. One is an alumni list, the other two are from the School's sports hall of fame. Pretty funny since there have been quite a few real athletes (specifically some pro quarterbacks) come from my school.

That done, I start searching for friends, co-workers, guys I want to kill, people I went to school with, all the things a bored geek does at work.

Then I came across this...I'm still stunned and not sure how to feel.

I met Tracy in a whirlwind of a summer way back in 97. I had broken up with what was at the time the love of my life, gotten back together with another ex, and ended up back together (for a short time) with the first. All of this in the middle me having to switch colleges (money reasons) and lots of other now pointless crap. She was totally my opposite, outgoing, flirting all the time, loud... but a blast to be around. I ended up working with her at a couple of places... we dated for a short while, but we were better off friends (my choice, I stopped seeing her right as I met my current fiance, so I suppose it was a good thing). We talked all the time, worked together, etc. She then got sick, quit work, and I lost touch. 6 months later she walks back into work...pregnant.... the timing 'might' of worked but it wasn't, it was the guy's she'd been seeing on and off again since I'd known her (later I ended up at the same college of him, but didn't know until after the fact).

I saw her once after that early January of 2000, she called out of the blue the night before I left town and moved down south for a 6 month internship. I met her for coffee and that was that.

I'd always wondered what happened to her. She was the type of person I wouldn't talk to for months, and then one night I'd get a call and be talking to her like we chatted everyday. I was always expecting the phone to ring one night and it be her, having tracked me down (it's not that hard, and one of the ex's mentioned here already did that once), and now I understand why I never heard from her.

A shame that I find out now, after all this time. I knew her family, but could never bring myself to talking to them now, this long after the fact.

Well, there's one chapter of my life closed, Rest In Peace, Tracy.... even if it's a little belated.

Movie Corner: The Village

2005-02-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, time for a new feature here at Drop The Hammer. Movie Corner.

Being out in the middle of nowhere, there is not much to do. My hobbies, besides poker, include long walks on the beach (oh wait, no beaches here, scratch that) and movies. I go through two or three a week, a wide variety. I've used all the online services, Netflix, walmart, blockbuster. I've settled recently on blockbuster. They get the movies out quick, $15 a month for three, plus two in store rental coupons a month. Those alone are worth $5 a pop. On top of that, there are a few ways to beat the system and get more than three movies at a time, perhaps I'll blog them if there is enough interest.

So this weeks movie is: The Village, written and directed by M Night Shyamalan, whose past hits include Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. I've enjoyed his past work, and this one looked pretty scary, although, like signs, it's not blood and guts scary, but implied terror and violence, which I find just as, if not better, than a guy with a chainsaw.

Plot Summary, From IMDB: "'The Village' depicts the thrilling tale of an isolated town confronting the astonishing truth that lies just outside its borders. At first glance, this village seems picture perfect, but this close-knit community lives with the frightening knowledge that creatures reside in the surrounding woods. The evil and foreboding force is so unnerving that none dare venture beyond the borders of the village and into the woods. But when curious, headstrong Lucius Hunt plans to step beyond the boundaries of the town and into the unknown, his bold move threatens to forever change the future of the village."

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I liked the feel of 6th sense and Signs, and this had the same overall feel. Of course there were twists and the ending has some but not as huge as 6th sense. Although I will admit that I pegged the twist/ending about a quarter of the way into the movie, but I have a habit of doing that.

So, my rating, on a scale of one to five hammers is :

4.5 out of 5 stars. Good movie, but I guessed the twist too early.

As for the other viewers:

Shell: Thought it was 'boring' although she was the one who picked the movie out, always asks for scary movies, yet spends half the movie with her hands over her eyes asking me what's happening...

Shell's Mom: Since it didn't have Oprah, guts or tom cruise, and is, according to her, one of them 'thinkin' movies, I could tell what she thought of it by the snoring coming from the lazyboy halfway through, although the buckets of margaritas may have had some part in it.

The Dog: Mostly slept through it, although did bark and charge the TV when animal sounds came on...his snoring was rivaled by Shell's mom.

Thanks and join us next time in the Movie Corner.

Patriots + poker = priceless

2005-02-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

Welcome back everyone, hope you enjoyed the weekend. Mine was a doozy.

My next house, I've decided, will be a one bedroom shack. These extra bedrooms just attract family members like flies. In this case Shell's mother decided to spend Friday night here...Saturday was her birthday, so out shopping we went. Costco, then furniture shopping (please shoot me now), finally at least I got to test drive what should be my next car, a Nissan Murano, which will replace the Toyota Highlander I've been driving. After an early lunch at a Mexican restaurant (XL margaritia for the old lady of course), the day thankfully came to close, with me finally getting to play some poker.

Earlier, our hero had taken his measly $300 entire bankroll and deposited into empire with their reload bonus. This meant 528 hands for a $75 or so bonus. I started off with the usual .5/1...and realized that while I was making money, not enough hands were raked. Solution that I picked up from other bloggers is to play the $25NL tables. Okay I thought, I've had decent success in the past, but usually get impatient and blow my stack or get sucked on.

Turns out, either the cards were slapping me in the face, or I have stayed away from NL for too long. On Friday night (while matching a movie, review to come), and Saturday night, the fish were pooling. I don't think I had one losing session, two tabling 25nl tables on empire. When the dust settled around 10pm Saturday I finally cleared the bonus, my entire bankroll was at $615, around $250 in gains just from the tables, not to mention the bonus.

Where to go next, with all the reloads floating around, I had a tough time. I made a mistake though. Figuring I could do a quick deposit/withdraw on absolute (whose bonus I believe doesn't expire, I planned on depositing and withdrawing, then going for the paradise bonus. Turns out that while Absolute withdrawals are quick, there is a 48 friggin hour waiting period after you deposit before you can withdraw.

Ok, so I lost some potential bonus, but there will always be more. Meanwhile I had 48 hours with my bankroll (and 90 in waiting bonus) to work off...away I went...

absolute Poker, for those who haven't played there, might just have worse players than party. not nearly as busy, there is usually one full $1/2 game going, and a couple 6 handed games. Same with .5/1. The players, outside of one or two ok ones, are absolutely horrible. Not quite the same as Empires 25nl tables, but I rarely had a losing session more than $5. I do, however, miss gametime+ severely, and it would come in handy since the same group of crappy players are always on. I've only gotten through $20 of bonus (100 raked hands per $10, they release each $10 as you reach it)but am up $80 or so already. Just to make sure, I logged back into empire (I had $18 leftover) and ran it up to $50 in 5 minutes...can't wait to get back there next weekend.

As for the superbowl, I went over a family friends house, lots of food, but I'll be damned if I don't spend next year at home. I mean I have a 52 inch HDTV at home, yet I end up sitting in a crowded room with a 36inch basic cable TV watching the game....arghhh.... as for the game, well, you know that it was going to happen. The Eagles (some of them at least) showed the requisite lack of class when taking the lead early, and I thoroughly enjoyed the flapping eagle dance that Vrabel did. Face it, New England was the better team by far, and in reality they had a bad day, and should've blown them out even more. Of course, I didn't bet anything on it (sports betting isn't my thing)....

As for commercials, my top five:

1. The Budweiser parachuting one
2. godaddy.com commercial
3. Tobacco commercial
4. careerbuilder series (with the chimps)
5. The ford one at the beginning, with the bikers

The halftime show, in my opinion, was atrocious. This is the boring tripe we get when the conservative religious nutjobs control the TV, 40 year old songs and a 'show' consisting of an one old guy that can't quite give up the spotlight. Besides timberlake/jackson last year, I enjoyed the aerosmith songs. Paul, well, he put me to sleep...literally.

god

2005-02-03T15:52:00.000-05:00

If you don't know what podcasting is, take a minute to learn.... I'll wait.

Okay, now go listen to Dave over at the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast/audio essay titled "Why I don't believe in god".

Not too much to say, go listen for yourself. It's great to know that you aren't alone...

MY WPBT Experience or - How to blow off your stack in one hand

2005-02-03T10:18:00.000-05:00

"I lost all my money playing Keno. I thought it'd be easy, like bingo...but it's not. It's hard, like, lose all my money hard" - Jay Mohr, "Las Vegas"

So After a long, boring day of work, I pull up to home, find some chinese food and plop down on the couch ready for the tournament... but it's only 7pm...what to do until then...play poker of course. I log on to Stars...

I initially started at stars way way back, but got fed up and left for the aquarium that is party long ago. Upon my return, I realize how much I love the modified tables at party, no pictures, no icons, nothin... at gametime. At least the chat box at stars is readable.

I buy into the tourney and lose a little at .5/1, then decide to play some NL... $20 into a .25/.50 game that is suppressingly MUCH better than at Party... I get grinded down and push my stack in a few times to getup to around $25... I call a raise from a bully to my right, flop a straight draw, call one raise and hit it... a couple hands later I bust him with a3 suited, I hit my flush on the turn, check and call his $3 bet...A on the turn, he bets $10, I reraise all in he insta-calls and leaves the table broke... me, I just earned my WPBT buy-in back, and had enough to cash out of stars ($50 min) to boot.

Tourney time, American Idol ends, MoronTV (ie state of the union) comes on, so poker has my full attention. (Actually the tv got turned to one of those home makeover shows, although not by me, listening to the drivel come out of W's mouth is enough to make me stupider (yes that was intended). My table is not very talkative, the only one I recognize is Grubbete on my left.

Second hand I get Aces... not a bad start...raised to 150 before me, i reraise to 350 or so, and all the chips go in... AA V AK, there was a King in there somewhere but i double up and the first person of the tourney was out (i believe Al was second...don't know what happened there).

I do well for awhile, folding crap, stealing a few blinds. I get pocket Jacks, make a decent sized raise, not sure how many callers, flop comes JXX two clubs... pot sized raise, one caller who is now pot committed, turn is a 9, I put him all in, call...with KQ, of course one of the 3 cards that help him comes and I'm down to 1500 when the 10 hits....

Paully gets moved to my table, I get back up to around 2300 or so... then the drought began...my audience left to goto bed, the dog even gave up sitting on my lap (could have something to do with the chips I was eating being gone) and starting snoring next to me.... I find myself nodding off between hands...finally see KJ raise... and in a half-dream misread the board and bet a large portion of my stack with what I thought was a king high flop (um, turns out it was Ace high...no kings or stacks) then realizing I'd be crippled, and a warm bed calling, donated the rest of my chips to I believe of the lord admiral's crew, although in my haze it could've been the easter bunny... Finishing 75th, almost exactly in the middle. but depressing after the start I had.... oh well, next time!

Tonight

2005-02-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

Howdy everyone... Sorry for the absence, real life has been kicking me in the ass the past few days. Between work and home life and my poker playing I've had to seriously cut down on my TV watching time....

Well you can stop holding your breath, turns out I will be playing in tonight's Blogger tourney...woohoo! I know you are all excited now... Initially I thought I would have a doctor related thing tonight, turns out it's scheduled for tomorrow night, more proof I don't do numbers and dates well.

I finished the party bonus, lost a little, then tripled a micro limit .5/1 buy in. I moved $50 over to stars, the rest I'll be pulling out of party and depositing into empire whom I believe has a bonus going on right now, as well as paradise. Eventually I hope to be able to take full advantage of these bonuses by maxing them out, but funds availability has become an issue.

I'm just about finished with my taxes, and thought I'd have a whopping $600 return total. Not much, but when you factor in that I sold a house at quite a profit and was unable to take the capital gains exemption, I expected to owe a huge chunk of change. Turns out my would've been refund covered the taxes due... I then did my state taxes and that cancelled out the $600 refund, leaving me owing around $10. Ok... But I had set aside 5k in savings in case I owed...so in my twisted world I just gained 5k...Which should pay off my last credit card...woohoo...

regardless, see ya'll tonight, my pstars name is DropDHammer

"I A9.com'ed him last night"

2005-01-28T14:16:00.000-05:00

Ok so it's friday... the last day of the week I have to wake up, jump into my shower until the hot water runs out, get dressed, go into my garage and put my feet into frozen shoes (I am forced to leave them out to freeze because they drip inside)...today they were actually frozen TO the floor..wonderful..jump into my freezing car and shiver my way for the first 15 minutes of my 60 minute commute. Yes a smarter man would've started the car earlier, but that would've made me even more late...oh well...at least tommorow I can sleep in...until the dog decides it's time for me to wake up.

I'm working my way through Party's reload bonus, unfortunately my entire bankroll at the time was $150, so my bonus is all of $30, but it's better than nothing and by playing the 120 hands so far i'm up to $180 or so.

Watched the OC last night, Shell constantly says she hates the show, yet is always watching it... I mean who can resist summer

or the new bunch of hotties this season:

Although Shell doesn't care for 'gumby'....

Myself, I'm more of an Anna guy, too bad she's not on anymore, but she never quite looked like this:

Anyways, the sad part of the show was when one of the characters said she 'A9.com'ed' a person to get info. I couldn't imagine a more obvious paid plug there, as almost nobody has heard of a9.com, a search engine run by amazon, and any normal person would've said 'googled' or worst case 'yahood'... of course I was the only one to pick up on it, being the geek I am...

Luckily Shell has to work on sunday, so I should have time to play some poker this weekend, and may actually have poker content to write about. Although I can say that my next trip to foxwoods is planned. A friend is coming up to boston... now she has no interest in poker as far as I know, I havn't seen her in five years, and back then she was one of those boy-band obsessed college girls... although that may not have changed much... she told me she wants to meet new kids on the block and goto that casino that "Ben Affleck goes to all the time".... add on a coworker from CA and a buddy from boston, and it's a party.... err well it'll be interesting at least.

Thats it for me, see you next week.

Not much

2005-01-25T13:43:00.000-05:00

I've been putting off posting..well, because my life is pretty damn boring, and I don't believe anyone is reading anyways... clearly I'm not fit to be linked to some people's sites.

Honestly, who cares, this is my blog...I play poker, online and in card rooms. I also write about what happens in my day. boo-hoo, don't like it, skip past it...or call the FCC.. If I want to talk politics I will, although I don't really care much (call me dis-en-franchised if you will) but I love people's reactions as soon as you post a viewpoint thats not one hundred percent the same as theirs.

Onward, we are set for another 3-5 inches of snow tonight...on top of the two feet over the weekend...and the single digit temperatures...yeah I'm loving new england...

I now officially live in 'the country', even though i'm 2 miles from the downtown of a fairly large city, i'm a 15 minute car ride from barns and cows. I hate barns and cows, and old houses. We went to a country farm 'store' over the weekend. I guess it's ironic that I ate a bagel with cream cheese and a chocolate creme doughnut at a place called Atkins Farm.. luckily we made it home before the blizzard. once shut in, I plopped myself down in front of the tv with a boatload of movies....and poker.

As for movies... "Open Water" hated it...made it through 45 minutes and realized that after they got left in the water, all we'd see was those two annoying people fighting and some sharks. I was hoping for a jaws style attack... then came "Surviving Christmas", which just has to be Afflecks response to Damon's "Stuck on You" over the top comedy. Lots of overacting and ridiculous situations. Tony Soprano looked and acted suprisingly like my father with the full beard, but who can pass up Kelly Bundy (Christina Applegate)...overall predictible but funny... Finally I somehow got trapped into watching "Garden State" which I initially got confused with "Jersey Girl" another affleck film but by Clerk's Kevin Smith. Regardless, Garden gets a gian "chick flick" thumbs down... with Natalie Portman of New Star Wars shame plays a flat chested psychotic 11 year old looking twentysomething that lives at home... even the scenes with clothes off sucked...

Sunday, after spending 3 hours blowing the snow out of the driveway (not that it did anything, the streets hadn't even been plowed yet) (damn Blogger, just ate the last half of my post..thank jeebus i cut and pasted half of it)... too cut it short, enjoyed watching the Pat's bitchslap the Steelers, almost like a Harlem globetrotter game if you ask me.... ok, time to go... cya

our new overlord

2005-01-20T13:12:00.000-05:00

Now I am NOT much of a current events type of person, even less so on politics. And I do realize that this is a poker blog... but, me being from a non-red state....

Well...the picture really says it all:

I for one, welcome our new overlord...

Iran, here we come.

work, shmork

2005-01-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

Howdy everyone, back from a very interesting weekend, although with only a little poker content.

First off, much thanks to the guys over at Lord Admiral's Podcast for the shoutout on their show. My poker content lately has been limited to my own play, which hasn't been particularly good, but there are many many many smarter bloggers out there and I'll leave the complex game analysis up to them... I will offer my insights here and there.... regardless, thanks, Right now on my commute (about an hour each way) I listen to 4 or 5 regular podcasts, for those interested they are:

1. Lord Admirals (as previously mentioned) Poker related
2. The Dawn & Drew Show Hard to describe, but hilarious, give it a listen.
3. Adam Curry's Podcast yes that Adam Curry, from MTV VJ fame...
4. In The Trenches A Podcast for IT Administrators...of which I happen to be one, so it's interesting to me
5... I'm still looking at a few to add to my daily rotation..i have some downloaded I havn't listened to yet, I'm open to suggestions...

My Tip Of The Day #1: Don't leave your laptop and Ipod at home with your significant other. I loaded my new ipod up with all the songs I like, I listen to podcasts on the way to work, then music at work while I read blogs and pretend to do real work... well I'm rocking away to my variety of music, which is pretty varied, Metallica to Blues Travellers to Pearl Jam to Dave Matthews to Guns & Roses...quite a mix... and all of a sudden I'm listening to.... Shania Twain???? Elton John's greatest hits??? Usher??? Where the fuck did this stuff come from??? turns out she figured out how to load cd's into the ipod...wonderful. Now my shuffle is ruined, I have to skip half the dam songs...so..my advice...protect your ipod with your life!

A quick recap of my weekend... Friday, 8am went to work.... 3am, returned from work. yes....3am. Boss flew in from CA, decides since the network was limping along we should rebuild it... make a crapload of changes that of course don't work...try to go back and of course that didn't work either...finally got things working at 3am...went home....

Saturday, wake up at 8am, drive an hour to nephews first birthday party, just what I need on 4 hours sleep, screaming kids, although I had a blast making the leapfrog toys swear... It also being my birthday, I got my own cake next to the 1 yr old, although I managed to keep most of it out of my hair....

Get back home at 4pm.... friends arrive at 5pm... these are mainly Mrs. Hammer's friends, but I've known them a good 5 or 6 years, and they got married over the summer, the Mrs. was in their wedding (i was not, and thankful for it...I mean who has an outside wedding in August!?)... we got to show off our new house...of course they just decided to buy a house too, and while it's not new, it's bigger... we hang around, then go out for dinner to a steakhouse.... nothing beats some cocktails and a nice thick steak. While there, the waitstaff must've sung their weirdo birthday song 5 or 6 times to different tables. I had been promised that this would not happen, that noone would make me suffer that humiliation... so I order dessert (i ended up with the fried cheesecake...heart attack in a bowl w/ice cream).... of course they deliver it with 8 clapping waitresses singing me their birthday song... I look around the table to see who to kill....turns out our waitress overheard a comment about it being my birthday..snooping little bitch ;)

Sunday consisted of me sitting down at the couch, playing poker and watching football. Poker went ok...going up and down but staying around even, I played a $5 Multi at party and ended up 28th, winning all of $3. I then took a nap, and woke up in time for the Patriot's game... Quite a showing, next week will be interesting... the night ended with my traditional watching of the Simpsons, and Carnivale which just started it's second season....

Yesterday was my first offical day of work. My name was put on the 'welcome' sign at the receptionist..even though I've been here as a contractor for almost a year. i did the math and realized I wasn't getting that big a raise, i forgot about an extra $2 an hour I had dragged out of the contract agency a few months ago...but in the end with the cheaper health care, vacation, stock options, etc it should work out.

Got home last night and found a dinner guest at home, a high school friend of the Mrs who lives near us now that we've moved. I thought that might cut into my poker time...it didn't , but I wish it had... while she got drunk on a bottle of wine I blew through 3 buy ins at the $25 nl tables after a series of horrific beats I won't go into. Each time i got my money in the pot with the best hand, only to be smacked down again... Maybe that Otis guy actually works for Empire and is stalking me (he actually changed his screename the next night, but I tracked him down and let him know I was on to him...he was not happy). On tilt, I played a $50 sit n go and came in 6th...go me... I got a little back but am down to $40 again... I need to learn me some patience...

Tip Of the Day #2... BUY POKER TRACKER! now... www.pokertracker.com worth every penny. I've had it for almost a year...at first I used it to evaluate my play... but now, with party/empire keeping hand histories local, and with gametime plus, you can open a couple of tables, lurk and collect info on the players, then sit down and have stats already on everyone..it's amazing.

Tip #3... for a Poker Tracker guide, go here

Wow..this post got a bit longer than I thought, But i've been uninterupted at work. Before i go, i wanted to ask what's up with that fake Iggy site. Is it Iggy just playing a joke on us ala the midget thing again? for awhile it was pointint to Iggy's blogspot site (i had accidentically linked to it instead), but now it has a message about the upcoming blogger tourney and winning some prize...weird... but I don't see anyone else talking about it...maybe it's a hush hush thing and the blogger mafia will be after me now ;)

Ps, thanks for the birthday wish Maudie!

Friday

2005-01-14T10:26:00.000-05:00

I'm suprised how quickly this week went by, but I guess that happens working 13 hour days.

I am truly embarrased by the lack of poker content (not to mention the lack of quality poker content) on this site, My plan is when things finally settle down in my work life is to blog more about poker, but since I've been playing so little, I have little to write about.

Since the network at work shit the bed, we've been working quite hard to fix the thing...but like a fish that plays any two cards, the network, like his bankroll, keeps on going down (see, at least i related that to poker)...

It got to the point where the boss even flew in from across the country, I can live in the consolation that its years of neglect to the network, and not my doing...and that I've been getting overtime since I'm still contracting, almost a year after I came here (although to be fair the company got sold to a startup halfway through).
Well, the days of overtime are over for now, I got an offer letter yesterday. I can honestly say I'm pleased, it's quite a hike over what I was making at my last permanent job, and even more than i've been making contracting, plus I get thousands of currently worthless stock options, although we may be going public this year, so who knows.

So this means I can finally relax and enjoy the new house, I don't have to skimp as much on the new car I've been considering (thinking about the Nissan Murano, i'm not a small person and have to spend an hour each way to work), and to top it off it's my birthday tommorow... of course I'll be spending it at a Whinnie the pook themed birthday party for a 1 year old, but thats life....

I did finally get home last night in time to see 'Tilt', ESPN's new gambling/poker show. Call me a hillbilly, but I liked ESPN's other series (the pro football one, can't remember the name), and gave this one a shot, in HDTV by the way...
it was....ok.... I'll probably watch it again, see if it gets any better, I honestly didn't get too into it and was playing on empire at the time, I didn't care for the main character (the 'matador', wtf is that?) much... however, the best moment in all of poker tv did occur...

as two of the main characters (the white and black guy) walk into a home game full of African Americans, they see a table dispute, leading the best line in poker "there ain't no string betting here, bitch!" and he pulls a gun... which of course results in another gun being pulled... it's eventually settled and an old guy says 'you's supposed to check those at the door'.... I actually rewound and watched that a few times...made my night...it even got me talking at the tables...

I sat down at a $50nl table on empire with about $30, I had pulled some money out to move it to pokerstars for Iggy's tourney, and was looking to double up or blow it, I know not the best idea but the .5/1 grind was getting to me... no big stacks at the table, guy to my left is named otis (not of the up4poker fame i believe) and has around $75 or so... first hand I play is Q10 in the big blind... I limp in, flop comes AKJ rainbow... I bet $2, otis raises to $5 and I call, one more person calls... flop is a 9, I check, otis bets $10, everyone folds around to me, I push all in... Otis calls...with.... A4o... I double up, Otis starts complaining about thats not how I'm supposed to play a flopped straight... next hand, I have the hammer!... a couple of limpers, i'm in the small blind, otis in the big... limped around to me, I raise to 5... everyone including Otis folds and I Drop the hammer..Otis goes into a fit...I can almost see steam coming out of his avatar... Otis wins the next couple of hands with big bets on the flop...gametime says he's been playing 95% of the hands, no raises with a big post flop agression factor, but nobody has called him down yet... I fold until I get 75clubs in the big blind again, Otis makes a min raise and I decide to call... flop comes queen high all clubs. I check..and Otis makes his typical $5 raise, everyone folds, i reraise him all in, about $55 at this point. He types "I can't believe you are betting on the flush draw" I don't know..maybe he didn't see the three clubs, maybe he had the better flush, i think he thought I was bluffing, which is what I wanted him to thing..eventually, he calls...with Q6, for top pair, 6 kicker, no clubs. I type in my 'TY' that I love to use to put people on tilt... Otis has around $15 left, and I intended to get every cent of that... he 'berates' me about not knowing how to play a flush... pretty funny when I have his money, and he called with top pair 6 kicker... I start calling him tiltboy, and he goes nuts... eventually he goes broke, unfortunately not to me. I get to make the comments in chat "it's funny, i'm watching tilt both here AND on TV!", and in response to a player who was absent and came back asking what happened to Otis' stack I said "more tilt than a weeble!"

I know I know..I'm an ass, but I was trying to get him to rebuy and blow some more...instead he sits there broke for 20 more minutes, trying to insult my play (i tightened up and went card dead so he got to see nothing) and insisting he would watch me lose it all... eventually, as all agruments go, it resorted to mother comments, and I wish I had the chat logs saved... but I left reassuring Otis I would tip his mother an extra $5 and say it was from the next time I was at the $.25 peep show in the ghetto... I logged off and went to bed with the fish properly tagged, and knowing that one more person wished me dead :)

Everyone have a good weekend, and avoid those strippers turned 'professional' poker players, they are sharks and only play good cards ALL the time!

Hammer Abuse

2005-01-12T15:48:00.000-05:00

First off, go read This... Then join in me a collective "GO F Yourself you washed up hooker wannabe!"

Ok maybe a little over the top but after the week I've had I can afford to shout and be mean... 7 years of neglect and non-funding (nothing to do with me) have finally caught up with the company I'm at, resulting in lots of what I like to call "computer boo-boos"... which means our whole network goes down two or three times a day, which means meetings with people screaming... which means me at work till 9pm every night, which means I miss poker and the simpsons...which means I am NOT happy.

Before the mess stared, i did take advantage of the empire reload, although only for $200. Only 40 hands more, and I'm up around $40 or so from the low limit grind.

It's sad when I look forward to ride to and from work more than the desinations... but my ipod and my collection of podcasts has done wonders for the commute. Not too many poker blogs out there, but my favorite is The Card Club... Lord Admiral's Radio Show go check it out, even if you don't have an ipod...it's blogging with sounds...pretty neat.

Not much else so go read the real poker blogs.... I said GO...NOW!

Crash and burn

2005-01-07T13:50:00.000-05:00

What a week it's been...

work wise it's been a disaster...still waiting for my permanent position to come through, any day now. At least then I'll know what I'll be making and have something to budget on. Basically it's salary-bills=poker money. Meanwhile things keep on breaking at work, causing everyone to stop working. I can't explain it to non-technical people, so i now just call them computer boo-boos. That works.

I took yesterday off because of the snowstorm up here in the northeast, 7 inches of snow that got covered by two inches of ice. I was able to finally use my snowblower for the first time at the new house. It went quickly, would've been quicker if my new neighbor hadn't decided to have a chat with me outside in the middle of an ice storm.

So my bankroll has been sitting around $80 or so, neglected mostly because of my cashouts for house/xmas purposes. It was down to $30, i plopped it all into a sit n go and won... So with a day off from work I popped on some movies (collateral, anchorman) and quickly got tired of the ring games. I decided, with this cold weather, I would win a seat into the party poker million semi's that were last night. $30 single tables, top gets a seat, two and three get another entry. What followed is a string of five or six second and third places, a couple out of the money, and so semi for me. I was left with $30 and on tilt, one last single table, second hand and my aces go up against 35 unsuited and a flop of a24...

So I now have to wrangle up some more funds, meanwhile it looks like I'll be catching up on my blockbuster movies, they've been piling up lately from their mail service. I have $85 left in my poker fund, not sure where to put it, I'll probably just throw it back into party this weekend when I get bored. Damn christmas presents and house stuff. I mean did we REALLY need blinds on the windows???

My hour long commutes have been flying by with my new ipod. i switch between music and podcasts/audioblogs. I'm at the point where I've added a ton to my reader, but am still trying to figure out the ones I want to listen to. Theres a couple great ones I've found, mostly techie geek type ones, but i'm sure there are more out there. Something ironic about listening to a speech (from a tech conference) of a gu speaking about global warming and sudden ice ages as I'm driving through white-out conditions... the podcasts really are the next step for blogs, they require a little more of a setup and time commitment. i don't think I'd do one, who the hell would want to listen to me rambling.... Anyways, have a great weekend, I'm counting the minutes till happy hour at work...

Oh, Maudie, that was me at your table, I sat down, realized you were there, but was falling asleep between hands, i only stayed a few minutes before going to bed...You bloggers all stay up too late for me....

packet8

2005-01-03T16:11:00.000-05:00

I can happily say I've paid my last $80 phone bill to the devil-company verizon. In fact, my new house doesn't even have a phone line run from the street. Everyone in my house has cell phones, but a certain someone wasn't comfortable not being able to pick up a house phone and call, and the daytime minutes added up quickly.

So after some detailed research i settled on packet8, VOIP, or Voice Over IP, uses your existing internet connection (cable or dsl, cable in my case) to make phone calls to regular phone users. All the phones in my house plug into a box from packet8, which plugs into my cable modem. I pick up the phone and there is a dial tone. $20 a month gets me unlimited calls anywhere in the country, voicemail, caller id and all those goodies. Granted the quality depends on your network connection, but I'd put the quality a step above cell phone, and the price can't be beat. An added plus, i got to pick a number from my old area code, so the folks can call me w/out long distance.

I've even had a buddy of mine in Iraq calling me with his, turns out it's cheaper and better quality then the militaries phone system over there.

Check it out, I believe they are offering a month free, and if you want tell them I sent you. Packet8.net.

Sorry but I'd thought I'd share...back to poker content soon!

Back to the grind...

2005-01-03T13:49:00.000-05:00

Work that is.... welcome back, I took a nice little vacation from it all. Well not quite.

Holidays involved three seperate christmas gatherings, which makes for a very tiring day, not to mention expensive.... The work week inbetween you think would be quiet, but I was by myself and, as I describe to my non-techie friends, there were lots of 'computer boo-boos' I had to fix. Makine for a stressful week.

Inbetween work and xmas, I was dealing with my new house...dealing is a bad choice...more like trashing... I am not a handy person at all...I can take apart computers and laptops into teeny tiny pieces, but give me a drill and you better run for the hills... incidents involve a leaking fridge (which i fixed but managed to rip a hole in the floor in the process..hey who said a fridge that has rollers can only roll up and down, not sideways? well the manual did...but anyways), my feable attempts to replace a showerhead (i won't even go into that one) and the seemingly simple task of hanging a couple of pictures and using my nifty new laser level..well the sticky stuff on the back ripped off a big chunk of paint in the process... I now have two greatly-hung pictures with a big paintless hole in the middle.... I figure it's bound to happen, so I shouldn't get worked up about it....

This meant unfortunately very little time at the poker tables. After going on tilt and blowing a big chunk of my small bankroll on large limits, I did the low limit grind and got back to a reasonable amount. Played a couple of sit n go's, best place was a second in a $30. Yesterday I tried a $30 nl tourney on party... had my aces cracked THREE out of the four times I got them, with the only saving grace me going all in with aces, getting called by AQ and 10-7o... of course the 10-7 flopped two pair, but I rivered the ace... finally while watching the Pat's game I got into the maxed out 5NL multi with 2000 people.... I decided to either go out early or get a big stack quick... by the first break I had a 5k stack... fast forward and i go out 400 or so when my pair of 3's finds it's buddy on a flop of 234....all my chips go in and I get called by A5...oops....

So the new year brings me with a depleted bankroll (i took a huge chunk out for xmas) but a promise of better times to come. I should have a new job within the week, most of my new house expenses are out of the way, and the new job hopefully will mean a raise, but will definitely mean cheaper health insurance, vacation and benefits. The downside is with my new house the commute is about 60 miles each way... all highway which means a time of around 50 mins..but i get bored easily so I've gotten some distractions.

I got a sirius satellite radio waiting to be installed in the car, and I have a shiny new ipod for xmas... the story is somewhat interesting... so the old lady knows I want one, she tells me she's going to buy it.... and then I cringe when she says she's going to buy it at circuit city... my being the cheap ass..and knowing she'd be using the joint credit card so I'd be paying for it anyways... so no way I'll look for a deal online.. eventually I find a great one and my 40gb HP ipod sits next to me now, for a grand total of $240, $30 cheaper than she was going to spend on the 20gb one.

So of course I've been busily downloading and importing music... and since I can't deal with only music (it puts me to sleep when I drive after awhile) I've been exploring the options. Audio books do great, I already downloaded and read the DaVinci Code, which was good but i was pissed at the end when I realized it was the abbridged version, I try to avoid those...

So the local library has a neat system where i can order audio books online, and I drive by on the way to work...I tried to get a card but couldn't because I didn't have anything w/my new address on it...so that plan got pushed back a little.... I did however look into podcasting, basically audio blogs, you can use an RSS feed much like I do w/poker blogs, that downloads new content and automaticallly imports it into itunes, which puts it on my ipod...pretty neat, if anyone has any suggestions on good podcasts shoot em my way...

enough for today, good luck and happy new year everyone!

Merry Holidays!

2004-12-23T16:14:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Hana...Chana....Hanaku...err that Jewish holiday, Festivus, Chrismaku, Kwanza, etc to all those out there in bloggerdom.

I don't have time for a full fledged post as I'm about to scoot out of work early, if I did I'd mention the forces of the dark side that tried to lure me down to foxwoods last night (promises of a paycheck prevailed in the end), losing my money to a table full of sharks..I mean bloggers, I got caught bluffing with hammer, outplayed by someone holding...the hammer...and my Hilton Sisters suprisingly held up to the hammer which did provide two pair, but my Q on the river did it in....

Regardless, look for me online, or passed out on the couch with a pile of empty, torn wrappers from those alchohol filled chocolates that I can't resist....

Monday...Bleh

2004-12-20T13:37:00.000-05:00

Finally the first relaxing weekend I've had in quite a while, only to be spoiled by a 2.5 hour drive to work through a blizzard. Last week involved moving into my new house, and all the stress that goes with that. This weekend brought a ton of nosy family/friends to check out the new place, but also brought the cable company. Which means glorius tv and internet. Got TV hooked up, HD, DVR, On demand... I love it...of course theres still nothing 'good' on, but it beats 3 chanells of static. The internet was a bit harder to get working, but eventually it came up...which meant, finally, Poker!!!

First there was where to play... I started firing up different sites. Before moving I took my bankroll, combined it, and left $200 sitting in Neteller. I figure it would be a good new start. I finally found that Party had a 20% reload bonus (DECBONUS, how creative) and plunked my $200 down. The catch is that 280 raked hands had to played to clear the $40 bonus...within 7 days... more poker for me!

Based off a tip from my blog readings, I got pokertracker back up and running, started a new database, and installed gametime+. What an amazing tool. Pokertracker itself had added some great features since I last used it, including the auto rate icons (which took some time to program, but are great) and most importantly, no more emailed hand histories from Party/Empire, they are stored locally. Which means quick updates to Pokertracker and Gametime+.

I quickly got into the groove, but got depressed when my own autorate icon turned first fishy, then into a calling station, then settled on gambler. It looks like I play too many hands (34% or so), and raise about 8%. But the results have been ok, after 220 raked hands I'm up 60bb playing .5/1.

I'm sure there are tons of ways to use gametime+, and I need to read up more on it, but I quickly took advantage of stealing 'Rocks' blinds. In late position when the rocks were in the blinds, I'd raise, and 9 out of 10 times would pick up the blinds... I also knew to slow down when reraised by the tight agressive players, i encourage everyone to take advantage of this.

On a quick non poker note, I watched several movies this weekend, here's my quick reviews and recommendations:

Connie & Carla: The wife picked out this one, ok, but the whole women dressing up as men dressing up as women thing got confusing, and oddly arousing, though I'm not sure why. (kidding)

Man On Fire: Another Wife pick... better then C&C, Denzel played his typical military character, Mark Anthony was horrible, some decent action scenes...probably worth watching

Chronicles of Riddick: Just what I needed after those other two movies, typical modern sci-fi movie, great special effects, and that XXX guy makes me laugh. Go see it if you need are tired of all the chick flicks....

Eight Crazy Nights: I watched this one while wrapping presents...found it on HBO on demand... I like Adam Sandler movies generally, happy gillmore, wedding singer, etc... this one is animated... I WANT MY TWO HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK! what a horrible movie. I admit to being immature at times, but even I stared blankly at the screen as reindeer licked crap off of a short old guy, then had a party in the woods pooping... umm ok...

Enough for today, go out and read all the real blogs that have something useful to say...Now!

For anyone interested

2004-12-17T11:47:00.000-05:00

It's probably too soon for a lot of you, but I was browsing my poker spam today and came across an email from true poker mentioning a poker cruise...I know about www.cardplayercruises.com but they are usually expensive or cruises I don't really want to go on. This one mentioned http://www.worldpokershowdown.com basically it's a cruise on Royal Caribbean's newer ship. It leaves from NY (which is great for me) on February 6th for a 7 day cruise. On the cruise will be a complete poker room, as well as tournaments and satellites to the main event, a $500 buy in tourney. It sounds great, and it doesn't look like you have to book with them. What could be better then 7 days of booze, food, sun and poker.....

I did some quick poking around, www.vacationstogo.com has the cruise listed at some discounts:

Inside Brouchure Pice: 1659 Discount Price: 764
Oceanview Brouchure: 1929 Discount: 1009
Balcony Broucure: 2159 Discount: 1229

According to http://www.worldpokershowdown.com/cabin_prices_.html the cheapest balcony is 1439, oceanview is 1279 and interior is 1054.

Sounds like a deal, and better rates may be out there....anyone up for it? Not sure if I could convince the wifey to go for it, anyone want to room with a big guy that drinks and snores???

Drop The Hammer.... It Begins!

2004-12-17T10:42:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. There...I did it. My fist sentence of my first post. I've been putting off starting a blog for a long time, I'm not much of a writer, nor much of a poker player, and writing about poker, online much less.

Ok, let's back up a bit. I've been reading poker blog's for quite some time. I'm a huge fan of Al and Pauly and Maudie and of course Iggy and all the rest. I have everyone set up on my RSS feed viewer and when I have time catch up. It's like TV for work. I was even around B.H., or Before Hammer, was 'created' and became the signature of bloggers. I've played on Party and others, even with a couple of bloggers a few times (although I stayed anonymous).

So why start now? Well, the time just seems right. I feel like becomming involved in the community (what I have to offer besides a horrible sense of humor, who knows), I've been reading the reports from the blogger tourney in Vegas, and realized that even though I feel like I know all these people, they don't know me, and I really couldn't join them w/out having a blog myself...so here we are.

I also have free time, where before my work and life prevented me from playing much online poker, much less chatting with other people about poker. My work can now stay at work, most of the major stresses in my life are gone and I can sit back and afford grind out some cash from the fishies online (or lose it at blogger tables).

A little about me...basically I'm a lot like a picture of AlCan'tHang, minus the hair, some of the drinking, and most of the fun, my sense of humor is odd at best, and if you laugh at my jokes you are immediately my best friend. I've been playing online for a few years off and on when time allows. I live around Hartford, CT, and play at foxwoods (and used to play at mohegan sun) when I can get out there. I usually end up getting drunk and losing my money, while any relatives/friends I bring break thebank.

I think that should do it, I'll be posting when I have something interesting to write about, and will try and become more involved in the community. Drop a line if you want, I'll be putting up links to blogs I read, feel free to link me if you want, or just say Hi...