Waldo's Wild Kingdom

More from the road.

2011-07-06T09:51:00.001-07:00

Quick photo dump from The Endangered Wolf Sanctuary, Purina Farms and the scary Hail Storm in and around Washington, MO.

Tractor Pulls and redneck summer activities.

2011-07-02T10:22:00.001-07:00

Out to visit Maelana again and the Summer festivities are on in Marthasville. Despite some crude names on the competitors from all over MO, it was a solid turnout with lots of fans. Trurly rural entertainment but it was nice to see "down home" again.

Met a local innovator and entrepreneur with a company called FAAS that makes a three stage air de-aspiration device for diesel engines that is attracting international attention. I love seeing innovation in small town manufacturing! Great for the little guys.

Took Mae to see Cars 2, found some bugs and started writing "Magical Girl" with my very creative kiddo.

Anyways...photos and the blog from my mobile phone...tell me what you think. (At least I'm posting.)

(PS - If you are looking for poker posts, go to Random Table Draw.)

What is the strangest lie you have ever told?

2011-02-14T09:04:00.001-08:00

What is the strangest lie you have ever told?

Answer here

If you had the opportunity to live one year of your life over again, which year would you choose?

2010-10-18T14:52:00.001-07:00

My 27th year on this planet. Big growth year but a lot of critical mistakes.

Ask me to find out whatever you want at tournaments, of your favorite players or just random questions!

If you could have invented one thing, what would it have been?

2010-10-18T14:51:00.001-07:00

Beer.

Ask me to find out whatever you want at tournaments, of your favorite players or just random questions!

formspring.me

2010-02-20T15:17:00.001-08:00

If you could attend any concert, what would it be?

BB King, Clapton and The Dead all played the same show at the Fillmore once -- that would be pretty epic and I don't even like TGD much.

Ask me to find out whatever you want at tournaments, of your favorite players or just random questions!

formspring.me

2010-02-20T15:15:00.003-08:00

Pretty slow day here until the LAPC Celeb Invitational - cash game questions today?

formspring.me

2010-02-20T15:15:00.001-08:00

Pretty slow day here until the LAPC Celeb Invitational - cash game questions today?

formspring.me

2010-02-19T18:00:00.001-08:00

What's the meaning of life?

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women. So says Conan the Cimerean.

Ask me to find out whatever you want at tournaments, of your favorite players or just random questions!

formspring.me

2010-02-19T16:32:00.001-08:00

Here is a questions. Is this thing working? ;) WhoJedi

It is now! I'm paying attending to details and clicking the right 'send to' boxes.

Ask me to find out whatever you want at tournaments, of your favorite players or just random questions!

formspring.me

2010-02-19T15:42:00.003-08:00

Live at the LAPC!! Ask me anything http://formspring.me/MattCWaldron

formspring.me

2010-02-19T15:42:00.001-08:00

Live at the LAPC!! Ask me anything http://formspring.me/MattCWaldron

2010-02-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

The lack of posts...post.

Just a quick note to everyone out there that stops by to read this blog and wonders -- where is all the poker stuff? or why isn't he updating?

Quick answers:

This was a personal blog started before I got a bit more hooked on Facebook and Twitter for updates. No excuse really, but when you feel you are communicating, a rewrite isn't always something I have time to do now-a-days.

My "poker stuff" can be found at http://www.lifesabluff.com/ and http://www.wptmag.com/ as well as several other freelance spots that I'll point out from time to time. I've landed some nice freelance deals lately that are letting me get a lot more out there, but since I am still employeed full time, they are not letting me get back to the blog that often. If you know me and this bothers you, feel free to email me to vent, but don't get to bent if I don't write back.

THE GOOD NEWS:

Thanks for the widgets/gadgets here in good 'ol blogger, you can follow my adventures through the photos in the Flickr viewer and the recent YouTube posts on the right! See, all interactive an updating all the time...you just need to look right. ...your other right. There you go.

For up to the second, 140 character blurbs about what I am doing, seeing and thinking, follow me on Twitter @mattcwaldron.

2009-05-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

As a note to all of you...I appologize for the lack of updates on the Blog. It appears that the world of Facebook and Twitter are a bit more absorbing than I thought.

Anyway, I hope to fix this as I begin posting about the WSOP this year and the interviews and events that go with it.

Cheers!

2009-03-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

Post 101!! Hey hey! Missed a reason to celebrate on my last post, I've made it to 100 updates. Seemed to be running out of steam lately, but oh...don't you worry, I'm not quitting anytime soon. Some folks might be disappointed. ;)

Anyway, this weekends travel (and I was NOT going very far away after the LAPC, etc. the last several weekends.) was to Wondercon! (the San Fran version of Comicon) where piggy and I gawked at the Cos-players (folks in costume) met some legends and heroes and saw some generally fun stuff. Mainly, its all pretext to show you some photos!

Speaking of which, be sure and go to your right for the pictures on Flickr of the LAPC 10k Main Event, 10k Heads Up Event, 10k HORSE event and some smaller events including a 5k NLHE, 5k PLO w/rebuys and some of the smaller NLHE events.

Awesome this statue was.

You might know him as the Giant Mute from Superman 2.

JAWS!!

Not one of THOSE Baldwins, but that is why he's in all the good shows.

Greg "The Hammer" or "Spagetthi Head" as he was called by the Waldo Brothers.

Well he's the Honkey Tonk Man. And he likes Clamato.

Cobra Commander and The Baroness from GI Joe.

Lady "Sweeny Todd"

I fanboyed up pretty hard here, this is one of my MOST favorite artists and he can be yours two, Phil Foglio of GirlGenius.net and many, many other awesome projects.

Blade let himself go, but he's still badass.

Marie and her favorite super heroe -- Wonder Woman! (sing it!!)

And I am not making this up "Jedi Professors Holms and Watson, Private Investigators."

The Fairy Godmothers Redux.

The Changling Bounty Hunter from Starwars.

Nintendo's Paid Cosplayers.

Street Fighter 4. 15 years after the last great arcade standup...its back.

This is a very telling picture you see. I felt like a little kid here, I would have been dressed as Indy and the Darth/Storm Trooper Combo would have been awesome. Also, kid looks like my brother Charles.

2009-01-17T18:30:00.000-08:00

Long overdue Christmas photos!! Yes, I know it has been a long, long time. Ima be sorry now, a'ight? Anyway, its been busy since South Beach. Flew back to San Fran just to hop a plane to the UK and ran from city to city almost every night for work over the first two weeks there. Managed to avoid being sick (and I was terribly clobbered by a cold at the end of the year) during the trip, only to get home and almost keel over. I missed my work holiday party (a Bond themed Fancy Dress party) so I don't have any interesting pictures of myself or piggy in Bond-themed costume wear. I was going to be Jaws and I was to be accompanied by a very sexy 70s Bond Girl, but, alas, I couldn't get up from a one hour power nap to try to rally the strength to go on. From there, I recuperated a bit and then shortly thereafter it was off to Missouri for Christmas. We had a great time staying at the Lil' Otter's house in the new room in the basement and spending Christmas with her family and friends. Piggy got delayed on the way in and ended up in Salt Lake City overnight (of all places) and I myself was delayed getting in till almost 1 am. We danced around weather issues but ended up making it through fairly well with only a short period of good 'ol Missouri "ohmygawd" icy coatings. Even that could not tamp down the Christmas spirit and we had a heck of a night with good food, great people and much shared love. Truly a time to realize how blessed I am to have these people in my life and things working out for me the way they have. And now what you've all been waiting for...the photos!!

Cute, cuddly and fuzzy is always welcome.

The new art studio is all set up!

Dad all wrapped up for Christmas.

Two heart breakers!

Pawpaw and MaeMae

Proud of the finished tree!

You must be THIS intense to play the Wii.

2008-11-24T06:14:00.000-08:00

World Series of Poker, State of Poker, PokrPokr.net and missing poker in Miami.

Hello! I'm alive. Really. Hiding in the very tip of Florida. Came down for a conference, stayed for a nice weekend with Piggy in the South Beach side of Miami Beach (DUCK TOUR 2 Successful!), ate WAY to much Cuban and Italian food (after one year on the diet, thought I'd take the holidays off), partied at MANGOS last night, got up and peeled myself awake to post this and make sure you guys knew I was alive.

What have I been up to? Well, I covered the World Series of Poker final table this year for www.lifesabluff.com, Flush Magazine UK, as well as some photo journalism for Sky Poker (part of the SKY Satellite Network in Europe.) Don't ask me how I get into all of these things, I just don't say no when the opportunity arises. Well, as part of the festivities, Hoyt Corkings and the folks from DoylesRoom.net were sponsoring a very high end charity poker tournament for the JDRF (Juvenille Diabeties Research Foundation) at the brand new, MASSIVE (and good lord it is bigger than a Sear...a back-in-the-day Sears) Red Rock Harley Davidson in Las Vegas. A ton of pros showed up to lay down some cash for a great cause and play for a $20000 signature Harley. I did not win. Meh. Check out the photos to the right on my Flickr site for more notes. One below of Doyle, Hoyt and Me at the Life's A Bluff autograph booth signing prints by Mr. Ryan Estrada.
From there is was on to cover the Final Table as the November Nine battled for the WSOP Main Event Bracelet and 9.1 MILLION US Samolians. It was ESPN and Harrah's first run at doing a delay to build up the Final Table and show it mostly live. It was a huge feat and they should be commended. Again, photos and notes to the right...hope you enjoy them. Also did a lot more Random Questions interviews that you will see there soon as well as some follow up videos with Tiffany Michelle after her rather controversial behaviour at the 2008 WSOP. Again, right column folks...I don't put this stuff up for Skittles and Giggles.

Was recently interviewed on podcast by Duke over at PokrPokr.net about the SuperMix Game played with www.pokerroad.com forum members, my Random Questions and general this and that at the WSOP this year. It was fun and the podcast will be up soon. It hits some real highlights from the trip, so be sure and give it a listen and save me some typing. If nothing else, here how a 4/8 limit Razz game ended up with a pot of over $800.

While we are on the subject of Poker...I have a sin to confess. While I was in Miami I did NOT make it to the GulfStream or HardRock Casinos to play some poker and thus fulfill my traveling poker requirement. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa. Lo Siento. Oh! And with a brave new world via the US election, come a note from the PPA (Poker Player's Alliance), a lobbying group myself andthe crew at Life's A Bluff have had a go-around with in the past but has now changed its ways and charged forth to just do what it really started out to do...and that is lobby to get online poker regulated and legalized so we can make some money off it in this country and stop shipping profits abroad. And here is that closing note, anti-poker nutjob politicians beware, there are more than a million of us now, and we vote!

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) played an important role in the national elections this year by supporting pro-poker candidates for Congress all across the nation. While the voters casted their votes based on a number of important issues it is clear that poker players made a significant difference in several key races.

The PPA was successful in helping to unseat a number of anti-poker U.S. Representatives; we also achieved our goal of electing many pro-poker candidates. Of the 54 candidates PokerPAC, the political action committee of the PPA, endorsed (12 of which were challengers) 46 won their elections on November 4, 2008. Moreover, we are pleased to announce that more than 40 of our lowest rated Members of Congress will not be returning to Washington next year.

2008-11-01T23:38:00.000-07:00

Some quick shots from the APE! (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco. Some great folks from web comics were there as well as some fun alternative art and publishing.

Jeenie Breeden poses with her illustrated self at her booth. Read Devil's Panties damn it.

J. Jacques of of Questionable Content. I am sooooo jealous of his clean line work.
Sam Logan of Sam & Fuzzy and J. Jacques shared a booth at APE. Great Gear, get to their store.YES! The game is here soooooon. Home Star Runner.Bob the Angry Flower Creator as Bob the Angry Flower.SKULLBUNNY!Chainsaw-Baseball bat. Enough said.

2008-11-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from this Halloween! We actually got 6 trick-or-treaters. Up from 1 last year. Overall, it was sitting in and watching some scary movies whilst waiting for the bell to ring. And now the photos.

The Queen of Halloween!

Pumpkins carved and unlit.

Franken-pumpkin through the grate.

Panda Pumpkin through the grate.

2008-09-15T13:06:00.001-07:00

Just a couple of updates from the world of interviews!! Two new Random Questions Videos up now: I give you Polar Opposites in teh world of Professional Poker.

Clonie Gowen:

Todd Brunson:

2008-09-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Wow...what has been going on huh? Its been a bit, but here I am again.

FOOTBALL WEEKEND!! One game in and things are blowing up already. Brady hurt so my big Fantasy Football weapon is screwed, hopefully that won't be a long lasting one. Got Farve as a backup and apparently...NOT having a kicker is the best way to squeeze extra love out of your new-to-the-team QB. However, sometimes you do things like trade a prime Defense and running back to you end up getting your ass kicked by the woman you love. Willie Parker and the Eagles defense somehow cleared up all those questions people had about them. Big time.

Poker Update: Back from the Legends of Poker and paid for the trip on the felt and got some GREAT interviews and photos to boot. All in all, it was quite the success. Some photos below from the event. Pardon the odd formatting, I don't feel like wrestling it at the moment. Sometimes free, cheap and easy has its drawbacks. Thanks Blogspot. Anyway, met some great people this time and hooked up with old buds from Cardplayer, PokerPages, PokerListings, PokerNews, and PocketFives as well as the WPT crew. (Hang on gang, things will work out.) Mo Faithipour did a great job taking care of the high limit section at the Bike even though, like some fall-back Frat house, the big games and players went down the road (a scary, dark, east-Los Industrial road...) to the Commerce. My nights went long and I did not join them however so no stories from the big game(s) that were all over there. Reports state that it was one of the Commerce's best weeks in a while however, even with the pros scattered all over for big tournaments coming up in Maccau, Cannes, London and then the Borgata next week. Whew. How much money do people think is IN poker? Above is 10K US, 20K Euros, 10K Pounds, and then 10K US. So, a total of about 70k in 3 weeks for JUST the main events...assuming you are capable of getting to all of them. We are getting dangerously close to butchering the "sheep" of poker we are sheering it so close. Come on folks, lets get organized.

VACATION UPDATE!!: Well, Piggy and I made it to Seattle and then drove up to Vancouver on the long weekend. Wow, I am really pleased to have got to see both these cities as a tourist. Vancouver is like the incarnation of what San Francisco TRIES to be. They are obviously liberal, green and progressive but they are actually friendly, helpful and enacting a lot of the things that folks in Frisco are still just getting off the ground. Weather was cool but bright for most of the trip so we got lucky there. Seattle was grundge incarnate in many places, but they were in the middle of Bumbershoot, so that might have said something to do with it. In the end it was saved by the Duck Tour and dinner at Fado. Vancouver gets an A and Seattle gets a B on the "weekend vacation" report card. Gotta get the pictures off the other PC folks....give me a bit.

2008-08-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

Creepy, no? Well, old Waldo hit a snag last week and was forced to take a break from poker for a while. ('bout a week, fret not.) Felt like everything was going well and I was playing solid and then the deck got as cold as the backside of a drunken polar bear's chain mail cod piece body surfing the snow dunes of the North Pole. I mean...brrrr. Online was not only worse, it was maddeningly, statistically, mind blowingly painful. So, rather than break anything or plow off into funds not earmarked for the felt, yours truly took a break.

Actually, this is all an excuse to repost this pic from icanhazcheezburger.net which, next to the fail blog, is the most logical place to go in a day to see some mindless, 5th grade humor and some semi-clever work with photoshop. Most are cute...this one...well...god help whoever owns that cat. Or whatever the heck it is.

Heading up to Canadaland...Canukistan...Our Northern Invasion Threat, er, I mean Neighbor at the end of the month for a long weekend in Vancover from a cheap flight booked months ago. Piggy and I are fairly excited as this is the first time she gets to use her new passport and we both get to see the gem of the Canadian West (via Seattle). I'm sure pictures will be forthcoming. Oddly, this comes at a time when I've really, really been trying to find a reasonable flight back to Missouri. Best case that actually lets me do anything is $450 bucks. Its disgusting, no?

2008-07-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

LOOK MA!! I'M ON TV!!

For those of you that care to watch the WPT events, this weeks episode was at the Bay 101 Casino for the Tour's only bounty event, the Shooting Star. (Basically, if you knock out specific players, typically high-profile pros, you get $5000.) This makes for one of the best tournaments of the year and marks the the first full event where I was there as a reporter for www.lifesabluff.com and pulling in more Random Questions interviews than ever before. One of those was Jennifer Harmon (yes, you silly person, stop now and click the video links on the right to find it.) who did a GREAT interview and then finished the event third to the eventual winner SteamRoller/Bounty Hunter, Brandon Cantu and Steve "Mugglylicious" Sung. While I thought the coverage of this event was really quick and bang, bang it was a lopsided final table with Cantu running the table with the chiplead from start to finish...and by no small margin either. Anyway, you can see me on TV decrying the shot that knocked Jen out 1 hr. 41 mins into the show. Shaggy brown hair and a goatee in a checkered black n' white short sleeved button-up and a long sleeved black undershirt in the second row. Much to the WPT crew's credit, they kept me hidden behind the Pot Size graphic or in the "fuzzy" space in the shadows. Still, it was a great time. Should I find something...I'll post it here.

I got one of the new Sprint/Samsung Instinct 'iPhone killers' since my work perk was removed...so look forward to grainy 2 MP photos and videos send from your favorite shutter-bug otter-man/boy.

The chins are feeling better after some meds to clear them up. They are gaining energy at a rapid pace. Its possible they might spontaneously burst into plasma energy at any moment.

Lil' Otter starts school in less than a month and her Grandmother starts another Nanny tenure in Dallas very soon. Wow...where does time go, and what did I do with it? Its hard to believe she just turned 5 in April. Its hard to believe "SuperMom" is on her last gig before retirement (maybe). I just can't stand it some days...I really need a break to make it out of here or up in the world here. In the mean time, pray I just keep it together. Thank God Piggy is here with me, I'd be a complete basket case/degenerate otherwise.

2008-07-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

Doh!! I'm THAT guy!! Posting pet pics on his blog!! Aw man...well, can you blame me? The following are from today's "exercise run" out back of the Casa where the guys can run free outside and stretch out. Something I am sure a lot of cage critters don't get the chance to do. The names appear to be officially Rosco and Sully. Sully is the fluffier one with bigger eyes and a patch of fur regrowing on his right side and Rosco is the shyer, mildly lighter one with a bigger head.

2008-07-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

And the Rodents have Landed!

The two new arrivals at the Casa de Piggy and Otter steal the spotlight for now. I finally...FINALLY...has a pet at home. I have never gotten one due to my travel schedule and lack of budget/time to actually take care of a pet well. I spent a lot of my youth raising and training animals and it gets to be a big part of you, like it or not. Its hard to be a dog person without a dog, but these little guys seem to fill the void a little and can make it on their own at home for a day or so without having to be crated, kenneled or left outside to the elements. They are very bright and were picked up from the California Chinchilla Rescue in Menlo Park. (www.chinchillarescue.org) The boys are 12 years old (they can live to be 25-28 yrs old but have a typical life expectancy of around 18) and used to belong to a very nice gal that had to move away but could not take her childhood pets with her. In steps Lani and then in come Marie and I to take these fellas home. We went looking for one, but felt for the pair and outside of pelleting on us (actually quite clean, considering) they were very well adjusted and happy and seemed to be the best choice from over a dozen. Marie shot this little video (ignore my babbling) and I'm sticking up a couple of pictures too.

I final tabled the $300 Super Saturday tournament at the Oak's this week coming in a technical 6th though we had $2k stashed for everyone. With the entry fee tucked back and tips and a donation to PAL animal rescue (it was also a memorial tournament for a long-time friend of the Card Club and tournament who's love was pet rescue and bringing the team chocolate.) it tucked home enough to get some running money back under the bankroll since the WSOP fiasco. Final two hands were AJs against a short stack on the button who shoved when no-one raised and I called in the big blind for 35k more. Blinds were 5k/10k with a 1k ante and I had about 80k at the time so it was cut and dried really, except he woke up with jacks there. A few hands later I picked up Ten-Ten on the button (after eating a round of blinds and antes being card dead with action in front of me) and saw the other short stack (who had more than me by a bit) turn over KJo. He caught the king on the turn and I went out a lot further back than I thought I would...but hey, crap happens and it was a nice profit anyway.

Last week Piggy and I packed off to the Zoo in San Francisco! We had a great time and I went on photo safari. Working on getting those up on Flickr where you can see them or a "best of" on here but I really went nuts, so it is taking a while.

What may have brought on the missing-pet solution could have been the great time that we had going out with a friend of mine from work to Fort Funston beach just down the road on Skyline Blvd. two weekends ago. We took her highly energetic Golden out for a beach run/retrieving session and saw folks up there hang gliding (its a pretty sheer cliff face drop to the beach) and kite flying but almost no-one but the recently defunct jellyfish on the beach. Sadly, it was the first time we'd made it down the road to the beach that is practically in my back yard...but its not like we are in SoCal or Florida weather to enjoy it. No photos there but cheers to our new buddy and her canine pal for spending the afternoon with us!

Just heard that the lil' otter and her mom made it out for a long day at Six Flags and had just come back from some camping the week before. I hope that I get some photos, but if not, they tell me they had a blast!!

Prayers out to: My Mom as she looks for a new Nanny position (email me if you know anyone.), Piggy as she copes with my craziness, the players dealing with the end of the WSOP and their Main Event bust outs, my Dad as his election for a civic position, and my brothers as they both head into new parts of their careers (or in one case...trying to get one going).

2008-06-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Scotty Nguyen! "Scotty Baby" took down the "player's championship" at this years WSOP by winning about 2 million playing in a $50k buy in mixed game event (HORSE) against about 150 of the world's best players. Now known as the Chip Reese memorial tournament (named after its first winner and one of the most respected high stakes cash players of all time), the pros view this as "their" championship vs. the 10k No Limit Hold Em open championship, even though anyone can enter. The $50k buy in and the mix of games (Hold Em, Omaha 8/b, Razz, Stud and Stud 8/b) scare even tournament professionals away as only the baddest sharks can survive in this pool. Anyway, I sat down with Scotty about a week before this event kicked off, you can find the interview up tomorrow at: www.lifesabluff.com (and archived for you folks that don't check daily...) at www.lifesabluff.com/randomquestions.

2008-06-26T10:58:00.001-07:00

WSOP 2008, failure to follow plan = planning to follow failure. But I got some great photos.

Well folks, it looks like this year's World Series of Poker is not my year to take one down. As you know from my previous posts, I was in a bit of a slump generated from taking a lot of bigger shots than I should have in tournaments and cash games and trying to ramp up for this year's Series. Big surprise, that did not work quite as well as I had planned. However a late score at Oaks put some $$ in the roll and I slapped a rubber band around most of it and headed for the WSOP. (See where the great planning starts folks?)

There were a few reasons for this. First, I have done pretty well at the cash games and side action at the WSOP over the last 3 years. Enough that I paid for the event I played in (even if it was a side event), my hotel and my expenses while on the trip. A fairly positive experience for the common grinder. Not to mention, that last year and this year I have been generating interviews and photos for the fine folks over at www.lifesabluff.com. (Yes, clicky clicky, check them out...win some free stuff why don't ya.) So let me hit you with the bad/obvious news and then I'll get to the other projects.

Opened on Saturday after having drinks waaaay to late with Todd Brunson and at the Rio Friday night along with fellow Life's A Bluff writer Mr. Id (and his lovely lady for who I have no pseudonym yet) and Piggy. Mildly hung over, I went to try my chances at the Mega Stack event going on at the Caesar's Palace Card Room the next day at the crack of noon. That must have had something to do with it as I managed to pump off my stack about 6 hours in when I knew I was beat but was too stubborn to admit that the guy had stuck with second pair and hit trips on the turn. *Errrrt* out the $350 that that one cost, but hey, for that money the stacks were, indeed, Mega, and the levels left plenty of time to play. Were I JUST rounding at the series, I might have parked my budget ass there and played Caesar's until I wore a dent in the felt, but alas, I did not and found myself back at the Rio and in the cash games. Despite expectation to the contrary by some folks, the single table satellites were again, very soft, and your hero managed to run up some chips to take bigger shots a few times including a couple of $525 and $1030 STTMTTs. The problem was, I think, that I was doing this past midnight every night after having been up early (for a poker player) doing interviews and covering the events. The cash games were holding me aloft until I took two huge hits getting it in way ahead only to come out behind (the challenge of a soft game...hmmm), and the cost of living started to chew things up. $80 bucks on cab rides out to TPC and back to interview Negranue (not to mention day to day cab fare from the Tropicana.) , and as I promised myself, all food, expenses and side action coming out of the bankroll and not the bank account. Instead of focusing on the one event I really wanted to play, the $2500 6-max NLHE event, I wandered about in every direction trying to score a seat into the big show and that turned out to be some fiscal suicide brought on by a little case of tilt from some gawd-awful plays on the bubbles of those 1k events I mentioned. Well, I made it home with $15...so I didn't go completely broke.

On a good note though, I think I had a great time in spite of myself. A lot of the players that I had spent time with at other major events welcomed me warmly, the Poker Road crew took me under their wing again and let me use their tables, interviews were pretty well accepted and I think I have more lined out for my next stop at the Legends of Poker at my favorite place in LA, The Bike. Shronk-daddy and Joe Sebok saved my ass when my camera went busto by lending me one of the Flip Video Ultra cams to finish my interviews that I had scheduled. I highly recommend them and I cried a little when I had to give it back. (Go to their site if you need a great, cheap, easy solution for video.) I got interviews with Mark Newhouse, Scorry Nguyen, Jeff if you wanna see them, they even have a new and improved model, the Mino out now. I scored interviews with a ton of interesting folks at the WSOP including but not limited to: Mark Newhouse, ScottyLisandro, Gavin Smith, Jeff Madsen, Annette Oberstad, Andy Black, Bart Hansen, Daniel Negranue and Justin Shronk. All in all, a hell of a batch of videos. These will pop up about every Friday on Life's A Bluff so remember to drop in and check them out. Currently a very rushed G-Smith is profiling. TONS of photos, this year's much better than last years, of players with the new Nikon D40 and 55-200 lens playing a big part in that. Check those out at FLICKR and let me know if you want to use of buy a print. Always happy to be capitalistic.

Well, that is the short and sweet of the rundown...hopefully you have lots of links to click on and things went well.

Cheers!

2008-05-27T21:44:00.001-07:00

The Little Otter's FIFTH BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Hey all, WOW its been a while. I was actually admonished for not keeping the blog up! Just when I thought no one was really reading it! Well, I have a certain VERY important update that has been due since April, so I'll get to that first. Piggy and I traveled to Missouri again for the little otter's fifth birthday party and we had a really good time. We managed to keep an air matress inflated long enough to sleep the night and were able to stay right there for a couple days and really soak up the time with my special little girl. It was a blast, a real milestone moment and a great party. Hats off to the organizer!

And on that note: The little otter is coming to CALIFORNIA!! Her momma and she are making the trip by sleeper train to SoCal where we will spend a couple of days at Disneyland, see the sights of LaLa land and then head down San Diego Way to the Zoo and maybe Sea World. I'm pumped. I felt like a little kid when I finally got to Disney. I can only imagine what it will be like through the eyes of a 5 year old!

Speaking of her being FIVE, here are some pictures from the party:

You can see now why I didn't fill this post with silly poker musings and other things. She is just WAY TO CUTE! Thanks to everyone that came out and HAPPY BIRTHDAY again to my sweet little otter!

2008-05-02T10:52:00.001-07:00

The Ali "Ali-wood" Nejad interview is now up at www.lifesabluff.com!!

Couple of fun events lately that I need to stick some pictures up from. Sorry for being so lazy, work is killing me.

2008-04-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hal Fowler, WSOP 1979's mystery man. Doyle Brunson mentioned this guy in his blog and I am re-printing it below because it is a great story and I hope I have this many stories (and tell them as well) when I am Doyle's age. I doubt I can aspire to "Texas Dolly's" skill as cards, but maybe...some good old country story telling.

" The poker historians have speculated, guessed, and surmised what became of the 1979 World Series winner, Hal Fowler. I’ve heard all kinds of stories: he was living in California…he moved to Hawaii…and, that he died shortly after his win. Nobody seemed to know. Finally, Des Wilson wrote a book called Ghosts At The Table. He went to great lengths to authenticate all the facts in his book and he spent months trying to find out what happened to the man that pulled the greatest upset in poker history when he won the WSOP. He took so many amphetamines and Valium that he could barely sit at the table and made some of the most unbelievable plays anyone had ever witnessed…miracle after miracle and he finally back doored a straight to beat Bobby Huff.

The strangest thing happened. Fowler never came back to defend his title. In fact, he never came back to Las Vegas. Des Wilson hired a private detective to trace Fowler’s life and he came up with some amazing facts. Harold Fowler was born in Vermont and had left home at a very early age and his family never saw him or heard from him again. He went into the service and when he got out – nobody knows why – he insisted that no one could know where he was at any time. The detective traced Fowler to a retirement home in Tulare, California, where he spent his last ten years. He died in 2000 and had only two possessions when he died; a small gun and a video recording of the 1979 WSOP. He lived his last years on social security, was almost totally blind, and could barely walk. He told the people at the retirement center not to tell anyone about his death for at least two years. What a strange story. His achievements and his secrets were buried with him.

All I know is that I liked the man, even though I never knew him well. After he won the WSOP he told me he was going to go on tour and sell 10,000 copies of Super System. I bet him $5,000 that he wouldn’t do it and after one year I got a cashier’s check in the mail for $5,000 from Fowler. At least he was an honest guy who paid a debt he didn’t have to because that was the last time anyone ever heard from him that I know of. - DB"

http://www.pokerroad.com/_/authorpage.php?author=Doyle%20Brunson&type=proBlog
Read all Doyle's blogs on Poker Road.

2008-04-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

New batch of Random Questions is hitting the airwaves! Unfortunately, I will probably never have the hit volume of Sneezing Panda or Chocolate Rain, but I hope you guys will drop into YouTube and have a listen as I interview luminaries from the poker world. It is really a "One Man and A Cam" operation by a non-professional interviewer, but, I think I have gotten better with each interview and I am learning a ton "under fire" as they say. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this little side journey for Life's A Bluff and my journalistic hobby!

Hit the link, watch the video...if you like, give me a nice rating and a favorite-ing!
Antonio Esfandiari -- The Magician
Jen Harman -- Lady Luck
Jean-Robert Bellande -- That Guy from Survivor China
Hoyt Corkins -- The Alabama Cowboy
Kristi Gazes -- Fun, fun, fun...

The rest of my work...as always...right here! http://lifesabluff.com/interviews/

2008-04-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

Proof of less fatness...

Lots of unproven chatter about weight loss on this blog. Well, here is a shot from Christmas 2007, about 45 days into my diet where I topped out between 258-260.

Here is me at Easter, down to 220. And holding unfortunately. Working on a kick off to get down to two bills. But 38-40 lbs ain't so bad so far.

2008-04-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

EASTER UPDATES!!

First off, in case you missed it, Piggy has a great blog about our Paschal Adventures here: http://www.phillypiggy.blogspot.com/

But, I wanted to put up some more funny pics:

The makeshift Easter Sombrero

Grinning Idiot with Basket of Eggs

2008-03-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

Bay 101 Shooting Star Tournament Photos!

Hey Folks! Got them all up and posted. The charity events, the $2k and the $10k at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/runtcake/

Also, check out the new Random Questions Interviews going up over on www.lifesabluff.com! The old ones are under the "Interviews" Tab.

2008-03-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

The LAPC and the Bay 101 Shooting Star.

Well, I may not get to play them this year, but I will certainly be at both this year doing some coverage for Life's A Bluff. In fact, you can already see some of the LAPC "Random Questions" live interviews posted there right now. I apologize in advance for some of the crappy light and sound, but its a "one man and a cam" operation and we are still working the kinks out.

The LAPC had a huge field that was packed with pros and arguably some of the best local players in the world. When I walked in on day one, I think I saw possibly 2 tables out of 63 that were "weak". That would mean they only had one named pro...but you never know just what that means. Phil Ivy battled a final table that included 11 WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, WPT Champ Nam Le and another WPT final table veteran to make the final 6 one hell of a final table and no walk in the park for the 8 time final tablist (but yet to win) Phil Ivy. He outlasted them all though and finally pulled down that WPT trophy at one of the biggest events on the circuit.

Just a couple of weeks later comes the Bay 101 Shooting Star. This unique event features a $5k bounty on all the "Shooting Star" pro's heads as well as a $1 million dollar guaranteed first prize and awards for chip leaders at the end of Days One and Two. Many pros mark this as their favorite stop on the tour due to the very fan friendly nature of it and the change up it gives to the standard tournament format. I like it, because I played it last year. This year, my move to the peninsula as well as personal commitments and bankroll issues during the juicer qualifiers appears to have knocked me out of the running for the cool million this year, but "I'll be back."

What I will be doing this weekend is more coverage of the 2nd Annual Coyote Creek Golf Tournament hosted and founded by tournament director Matt Savage. Hopefully, we'll get some fun coverage of pros on the links and some interview footage away from the felt. (I wonder if I can ride along with the beer girls?) Immediately following that I'll be making a quick run up the road to cover the Leo Brien Foundation Charity Poker Tournament in Santa Clara hosted by the 'Silent One' Todd Brunson. Now this should be a blast. Typically, these events feature wild play, drinks and hilarious situations and its all made even more fun by the fact that it goes to a great charity. (see link for details) Its already selling to the rafters and many of the pros are still trying to confirm their seats so look for this to be a charity blockbuster! I'll have to get Greasie Wheels Productions to do my next charity tournament!! (They also handle the Jen Harmon Nevada ASPCA No Kill Shelter tournament that LaB did artwork for and have a hell of a year of new projects in front of them from what I hear.)

Hopefully I'll have a ton of new photos and stories for you after this event to match some of the ones over the last year or so. Man, its hard to believe I have been blogging everything for almost two years now. Who'd have thunk it?

2008-02-13T10:00:00.001-08:00

In Memory of Jason Schroer

On Monday evening I received a call that my daughter's stepfather, Jason Schroer, had succumbed to his last bout with cancer. Jason was a man that quickly earned my respect with with kind, gentle and loving manner that he interacted with my daughter. He brought love, a positive attitude and stability into my daughter's home and we all (myself especially) were lucky to have him in our lives while we did.

Jason was a consummate optimist and a fighter. He fought off cancer several times only to have it come back time and time again, but he never let that deter him from doing what he loved and and loving those around him. Jason never once complained to me or anyone around me regardless of the pain and no matter how dire the situation. He never used his illness as an excuse to stop helping with his family's farm or his duties around the home. He was an honorable man with an iron will and a kind and generous spirit.

There are very few people as honorable and kind in this world as Jason Schroer. I know everyone that knows him has wondered as least once why some other less deserving, mean-spirited or evil person was not taken from this world instead of him. We can only trust that he is in a better place now, free from pain, and reaping the rewards of a life so well lived, even for such a short time.

I have placed a couple of pictures here that show Jason with my daughter and her mom's side of the family this Christmas. The smiling, joking nature you see here is genuine and what this world will miss most. RIP sir.

2008-02-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

A really, really, late Holiday update. Wherein I finally upload those now out-of-date holiday pics...but not the New Year's photos. I have to leave you wanting something. ;) Anyway, this should fulfill the promised photos from this blog post and explain the work holiday party a bit better.

All holidays need their grinning idiot...here is this year's. I'm a very happy boy here doing an early Christmas gift exchange with Piggy before heading out to a nationwide Christmas home crawl to Missouri, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York.
My good buddies in St. Louis and their new baby girl along with the Lil' Otter, Piggy and Myself hitting the Red Robin! Big 'Ol Burgers, and better yet...balloons.

They had an awesome Santa at Grant's Farm, home of the Budweiser Clydesdale Team and much Holiday Merriment including A Christmas Carol with a Chinese Acrobat Team, Carolers, tons of lights and free refreshments! Unfortunately, the picture got a little creased, but its still a great shot...even if the Lil' Otter is in a rose patterned camo outfit!
Here is the Piggy and I in Marthasville getting ready for the big family event there. Nice huh?

My job is fun. Sometimes its a fiesta. In this case, a Holiday Mexican Fiesta Fancy Dress Party. Yep, they are creative aren't they? Well, here we have Zoro and his lady.

More of the team in serapes and toting Margaritas.

Santo Nicolas y su esposa Irlandesa. Colin is so much fun he gets to come to parties even after the group he work with was "resized". We are always happy Colin is there!

More drink toting party-goers!

Everyone having a great time here!

Ahhhh, que romantico! Y...que mustachio!

The rough-neck cholo crowd. Well, the checked the guns at the door so we let them in.

The rogues gallery.

Welcome to the front door of the Holiday Home of the Otter and Piggy. That is me hiding back there.

The stockings (and various stuffed piggies) hung by the chimney with care!

Our pretty little live tree...playing Xbox Live.

The holidays were a heck of a road trip and (as usual) turned into one of those vacations you need a vacation from, but it was worth it to reconnect with my family, friends and of course, Piggy's family as well. Thanks to everyone that took the time to stop and I hope we see you again soon...OUT HERE IN CALIFORNIA!! Seriously...why am I traveling back into the cold....COME OUT HERE PEOPLE!!

Oh, and on the poker front, the good news is that things have turned around. My Native people at Harrah's in St. Louis helped pay for trip expenses and then a trip down to LA put me in a soft seat in my favorite game there and BAM, I have a bankroll again. Add in a final table a couple of weeks ago, and we have AMMO! Just send the lawyers and guns for the Warren Zevon trifecta and we will be ready to mount a full scale takeover of my little poker universe.

PS -- A great bit of work has gone on at www.lifesabluff.com including a video interview by yours truly with 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider. Check out the video at the site under "interviews."

2008-01-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Wherein I apologize lamely and post some holiday pictures. More to come, once I hatch them off my camera and find a second to get them up here. These photos are a selection from Old Bear Productions of Jackson, MO. Grrrr.

The Little Otter got to spend a day in her daddy's home town visiting Grandpa Bear for the Holidays. Yep, she was a pretty happy gal getting to explore the old office lair of the Old Bear. Check out the Dora the Explorer Pink Camo. All the fashion in the under 5 set I'm told.

This is one of the Old Bear's hunting dogs (of a much smaller number than the packs he kept when he had slave labor...er, children at home to help him care for them) named Nell. She told everyone about meeting Grandpa's white dog Nell.

The Old Bear and the Little Otter in Dad's office. We introduced the camera game of "close your eyes till we count to three, then open and smile" so you aren't blinking. So, basically, she looks really surprised in a lot of these photos. My bad.

Getting our grub on at the Texas Road House. Me with my crackberry and Little Otter with her never ending request for Chicken Strips. Nom nom nom.

Piggy, Old Bear and the Little Otter all upstairs in the old High Street Building. I got lucky that I got to hang out with a beautiful woman and a wonderful daughter and we made a old fella's Christmas a little bit brighter! Thanks for a real nice holiday day trip dad! And for letting Marie and I take out the old 63 Impala for a cruise down memory lane!

2007-12-19T14:22:00.000-08:00

Birthday is OVER, off to the Holiday races!! (Wherein I officially start to celebrate Christmas, hit the road to see family and friends and try not to make an ass out of myself at any social function.)

For those of us born near Christmas (and I can't imagine the peril for folks born inside a week of - on ON - 'the big day') there is a bit of a double edged sword syndrome to your birthday celebrations. It is a problem about as old as the gift giving tradition has been attached to an otherwise perfectly good religious holiday I imagine. Parents split gift days, pretend to 'double up' on 'value', tell the kids its just a "tough spot" and all kinds of things. Personally, I think people make too big of a deal out of birthdays ANYWAY, so this is not the most awful of problems by a long shot. No, its merely an annoyance that needs a creative solution. The Piggy helps me out by celebrating a HALF birthday somewhere in July and that has been VERY successful over the past couple of years. Mostly due to the fact that the weather does not suck and we end up going out camping or to a ballgame or something. For all its worth, that time has past and I can officially start feeling the holiday spirit!

Piggy and I went out and got a tree and have spruced up the house with little bits here and there and even a wreath and some lights on our foggy front door step. It is a bit of a condensed gesture (I have to concede to decorating outside of my preset 'holiday boycott' to make it work) as we are hitting the road soon, but I think the place looks amazing! Hopefully one of us will put up pictures soon. We also had the staff Holiday Festivities here...they were a Mexican Fiesta theme! Ole'!! That, I do have a picture of!

Anyway, I am off to see the little otter and maybe a little bit of down home. I am hoping beyond hope that the weather tries to hold up for us this year and it has gotten all the really bad crap our of its system already. Getting stuck somewhere in an ice storm and staring at a hotel wall for hours on in would not make me a happy boy. I'll be seeing my lady's family in PA as well. I wish it was baseball season so we could see the newly formed Iron Pigs throw it around, but that probably won't happen. We tossed around the idea of seeing the Eagles play live but the expected weather is less than friendly, so we will look for other forms of entertainment. GAH! So much of this depends on the weather. Good thing card rooms stay open in inclement weather.

Speaking of which...I think I have come to terms with the fact that my tournament game has fallen off steeply. Either from lack of practice, lack of focus, wanting to get too fancy with things that just don't work with a typical local player...or just plain old running horrible. I am currently 2/12 on cashes with almost all but one of those being deep runs with death before the money...usually on bad beats. However, if I was playing better, I should have had the chips to combat that. Some retooling is in order. In the meanwhile, I have turned up the frequency and the profitability on my cash game. It might be that is my solution, but what are you going to do when you love tournament play so much? Ah well, maybe Santa will bring me a lucky streak for Christmas and I'll stop whining about things.

2007-11-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope that this post finds you all getting to where you need to be this holiday season. However, I shall not be traveling. I'll be here nursing the last large wounds of the Saints and Chiefs losing streaks and hoping that they both snap out of it soon. Sundays have been miserable for me. I know that makes me hard to live with and makes me wonder how people put up with my BS over a sport I was never any good at.

Anyway, to top that off, this time of the year which is typically very good for my poker game has been brutal. Live had a couple peeks eliminated that pretty much let me settle to a manageable loss but have put me in a bankroll bind as finding a live tournament that fits it is now tough and the cash games I am now forced to sit in are sporadic due to ridiculous play, but are the same games I beat before. Ick, it is weird starting over. But, all in all, I am happy that I've had that roll there to help me this year with things outside poker and that it got big enough to take the shots I did! (There is my Thanksgiving thanks for poker.)

Online, I have hit a few nice scores and gotten close to some bigger ones, but I am happy with my steady progress online. Look for more updates soon!

Most of all though, I am thankful for a loving woman at home, a healthy family (to varying extents, but hey, we are all mobile and not in dire threat of imminent death!) some friends that still remember me and a job that I do not dread going to.

Thank you everyone that:
-- Keeps me smiling.
-- Keeps me working.
-- Keeps me sane (well...close enough)
-- Keeps me grinding it out.

Have a great holiday weekend.

-- Waldo

2007-11-01T11:37:00.001-07:00

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez! "Let the Good Times ROLL!" As they say in Cajun Country and " Roulez Saints, Geaux Saint!" as we were cheering in the stands! Three in a row for my boys now and nothing made me grin and enjoy my sunburn more than watching the curmudgeonly old Niners fans boo their injured team from the end of the First Quarter on. I've said it before, 49er fans are the worst in the NFL. They did not deserve the 80s, or maybe, they just don't know how to support a team that isn't the poster child for the league. Waa.

Piggy and I got all dressed up and rolled out early that morning to try and stake out some "down the street" free parking in the sketchy neighborhood that surrounds the Monster Park area. We found one, pulled in and hiked down to a pair of BEAUTIFUL if not over-exuberantly Ebayed seats. The seats were right behind the visitor's bench and thanks to a wonderful usher named Monica, a quick jaunt down to the front row to get some up-close and personal pictures of the team. Not that the jaunt was needed often, I think you'll see that the pics from the seats are pretty awesome! (Nice call on my digital camera upgrade!) Anyway, as promised the photos are below.

One grinning idiot, right before we head out.

One beautiful, tolerant football buddy sporting the injured McAllister's jersey and ready to bear the brunt of being there for the opposing team! (Even though they knocked her Eagles out of the playoffs last year.)

At our seats bright and early! 19 rows up right on the 40 yrd line! The day was amazingly warm and sunny for San Francisco, we both got too much of it. The weather cooled to perfect by the 4th quarter, but by then (for some reason - ahem - ) most of the Saint's starters were on the bench.

Here we are getting ready to score again. Colston became a stud again, actually hanging on to a bunch and scoring 3 TDs. Breese passed fearlessly against what was the number 10 pass defense in the NFL. Reggie racked up another 100 all purpose yards again and the team again got the rock around to a variety of playmakers to lock this one down. Seriously, the Niners were stunned and shut down from the beginning. They have an AMAZING punter though.

Number 99, Hollis Thomas and his fellow lineman. The 6'x6' defensive nose is anchoring a suprising deadly run D and racks up sacks like a line backer. Like they said on TV, they need to let him have a 3 digit number. (Fun fact, we got him from the Eagles.)

The receiving corps getting instructions on the bench. They really passed it around and Patten, Moore and Karney made some plays to put the Saints in key scoring positions.

Reggie gearing up to go again. Pierre Thomas even stepped in as a "hammer back", but they are still working the kinks out of that one.

Commander Brees studying the stills from the game between drives. The offense was on the field so much I think he should invest in a speed reading course.

The post team prayer huddle. Piggy and I both love this. While baseball and basketball pros shun each other after the game now instead of high fiving or saying 'good game', its good to see some form of fellowship like this.

Score at the end of the third quarter. A long field goal put up three and a desperation touchdown by the Niner starters vs. the second string Saints gave you the final score of...

Le Ass Whoopin'. Note that this is at the final tick of the clock and most of the colors in the stands are field team yellow, Saint's gold and black and the back of whatever the Niner fans were wearing if they were still there. They mostly left at the end of the third quarter...traffic going home was a cinch.

In related news...YES, we did feel the earthquake that had its epicenter down in San Jose. It occurred right when I was final tabling a nice Omaha H/L tournament on poker stars. It must have shaken something loose, because the cards turned on me soon after and I blew out in 4th for a nice chunk of change, but not where I hoped to be coming to the final table 2nd in chips. Oh well, there is always another tomorrow...or in like 30 minuets.

2007-10-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is Halloween (Hallowpiggy? Otter Ween?) Hey! A ton of pics, what do you want?

Post gord mutilation in 2007 as Piggy and I show off our pumpkins. Also pictured, 'Traz the toothpick holder (he says they are shivs) and Boney the animatronic Halloween wonder.

This is Piggy's skull pumpkin...spoooooy.

This is my demon pumpkin.

BONUS!: Halloween 2006, the pig-o-lantern and the dental nightmare!
Costumes 2006! We were too old and carmudgeonly to go out this year, so here are last year's costumes...Werewolf and Pirate! ArrrrooOOOOOOOO!

2007-10-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

I am going to see the Saints live for the first time tomorrow. The seats are in the 19th row, Visitor's Side (behind the Saint's -- it's at Monster Park) on the 40 yard line. I've only had tickets to anything this good one other time in my life. I am indescribably psyched for this. Photos and more to come!!

Currently final table (edit: WON!) at a sizable Razz Tournament on Poker Stars. Given, its Razz so sizable is relative. Few hundo for first anyway, not bad for killing time till going out with my gal to see the Sawx battle the ticket-scalping Rockies. I hate Denver sports on principle, so I'm going with Bean Town on this one.

2007-10-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

Two for the Saints! Its a tough win and Leftwich seemed to have the answer until he got folded up the wrong way by the Saint's new and dangerous D. The Falcon's made the Saint's D stay on the field for what seemed like forever and they held up well considering. The O is not out of the woods yet, as dropped balls and penalties probably cost us well over 100 yrds of offense. You can't do that and expect to win out. Reggie gets the game ball for his intense effort in the endzone to score the game winner. With the TD and the 2 pt. conversion, I think he is the first player I have ever seen knock over both pylons in one score. Again, great job getting everyone involved as out undrafted free agent RB scored and Henderson redeemed himself with a little bit of good stuff and a TD catch. He and Colston still lead dropped patches though. Needs some stick-em and some sideline beatings to right them maybe?? Anyway, its a win and I'm happy.

Chiefs are on and looking a little chaotic so I won't say anything yet, they are up by two FGs and the Raiders haven't some anything yet. Jared Allen is still a stud!! We SQUEAK by again and I think they will give me a heart attack by the end of the season if this keeps up. OPTIMUS PRIEST saw plays and got a first down and about 15 yrds on 3 carries and the Chiefs rack up a W the hard way. It was a battle of defenses and punters (punting yardage was a record) and a divisional battle that left KC in first place. Schweeeet.

NEXT WEEK I GO TO SEE THE SAINTS AT SF FROM THE 40 YRD LINE 19 ROWS UP!

2007-10-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

Saints Rawk the Hawks!! Road to Recovery?

The changes that the Saints included in this weeks game seemed to really work as they crushed the "boom or bust" Seahawks on Sunday Night Football. What many thought would be a snoozer turned out to be a hell of a game (for Saint's fans anyway, and I saw them in the stand helping to whip the Emerald City's 12th man).

The silent signal calling was a counter-counter to the noise in the stadium that Quest Field uses to generate an inordinate amount of false starts. The calls ended up at a tie of 3-3 for illegal procedure related calls. +1 for Payton's gang.

Patton and Moore, two guys that the coaching staff was fairly obvious about including more in the offense this week, both had great support weeks for guys that were only occasional rotation players this year and came up big when the chips were down. Something Henderson and Colston seemed incapable of doing the first 4 games. Look for them to keep stepping up and the offensive swarm to grow under the command of Brees and Payton. +2 for the Saints!!!

Reggie Bush blew up. In a good way. I seemed involved in almost every play in the first quarter and the Saints attacked the run up the middle (exactly where no one expected Bush to go) and really opened up the whole thing after the DST recovered a botched punt for a touchdown to open things up. Reggie pulled a few of the longest rushing yards of his career to spark the game. The Saints built off the Bush-mania to score thrice with players OTHER than Bush. Disappointing for Bush's fantasy owners but sterling for 'Aint's fans as the offense showed that their 'solution' to its problems wasn't to become more one dimensional and continue to capitalize on the abilities of their whole team. + 2 for Reggie who had over 100 yards of offense by the end of the first half and the team effort.

Drew Brees looked like he was commanding the ship again instead of trying to save it from a ravaging storm. His passer rating blew out of the cellar and his pass selection was almost dead on all night. No picks, only one penalty for grounding and clear crisp throws that were still haunted by the occasional drop but far fewer and less critical than in games past. +1 for Captain Brees!! (106.9 passer rating...third highest of the week.)

WE HAVE A DEFENSE!! After not counting a sack all season, we piled up 5 and added 2 fumble recoveries and a pick to the roster. Tackling was SOLID for the most part and one of the worst defenses in the NFL shone against Seattle. Shaun Alexander score less yards than his backup...some dude named Wexler. My new Favorite Fat Man (said with love) is Big 99 ('casue you can't use 3 numbers on a jersy) Hollis Thomas! Shout out to Harper for his 2 Hassel-bags also. + 1 and a sigh of relief for the Defense.

So, it wasn't all positive. And I'll balance it out with this:

Play selection. There were a few plays like running your back-up crusher up the middle on 3rd and 8 behind the 50 and over using the gut-run with Bush to 'play it safe' in the second half that killed some opportunities and risked the game being brought back into control. This stuff not only gained nothing but put negative yards on the board for Bush and other rushers in an otherwise stellar game. We know Payton is 'aggressive' with play calling an his team continues to rise to the occasion when he puts that to them, but his O's 'safe' options border more on WTF than last year's VIP and has for most of the year. - 2 for the Saint's offense, Jacksonville and Philadelphia will not be as forgiving of these types of errors and Chicago, though worse this year, will still create turnovers in those situations where others might miss out.

Colston and Henderson continue to drop passes. They are HUGE deep threats that either need to have stick 'em coated on every inch of their arms or get to football basics church really fast. Drops by all our key players have killed us this year, but Henderson and Colston were the only ones not to drastically improve this game. That may be why they saw minimal action in the second half and Moore and Patten became down-field stars. I hope they got the message. -1 for the formerly stellar WR duo. Do we need to bring Horn back from Atlanta to smack some catch into you? I'm sure he'll take a pay cut about now.

Seattle Fan's...you SUCK! While this has nothing to do with my review of the Saints it has to be said. A big -5 to the Quest Field 12th man for BOOOOING Shaun Alexander and their team from the first half on!! You have a team with all the weapons to at least win the crappy NFC West and you are not supporting but BOOING it?? Saints' fans were getting a bit restless by the time we went 0-4 but at least you have 2 wins to hang your hat on. This is almost the same team that took you to the Superbowl and has resurrected your pathetic program from the DUST!! Grow the hell up.

Anyway, Overall score is +4 for the Gold and Black Attack and a sigh of relief that we may be able to salvage this season yet. We have 'must win' scenarios with a seemingly low calibur but error proof Tampa Bay team piloted by Jeff Garcia and a Vinnie Ballgame Manned squad in Carolina. Final Score 28-17, 367 yrds of offense, 1 turnover (fumble), Breese 25/36 for 2 TDs and no INTs. Bush 19 rushes for 97 yrds and 6 catches for 44 yrs (141 total), Patten 8 for 113, L Moore 1 Rsh TD, Johnson (TE) 1 TD and Marquise Colston on the second try of the same play, one catch to 2 yards and a TD. ROLL SAINTS!!

Those Kansas City CHEATS! (Huh?) I could have sworn this is what the color team called the Chiefs on more than one occasion during this game but the Sea of Red opened up and swallowed the Fuedin' Bengals. Larry Johnson finally got his score (maybe he'll take the diaper off) and Damon Huard posted the second highest passer rating among NFL QBs for the week. New stars D-Bowe and Webb spread the field with their talent and Gonzo went Gonzo 2 TDs and 109 yards for a NFL record setting 63 total career TDs by a Tight End. The big man who never thought he would play pro football continues to shine for his team letting them find themselves and put forth a real shot at winning their turbulent division. Thank you TG, you are the man!!

Jared Allen showed that his suspension had not slowed him down as he dominated the defense, scored two and a half sacks out of three and a forced fumble for the day and mauled the opposition the whole game. God love this kid...KC does. The D as a whole picked pockets (2 INTS) forced a fumble and held the Bengals to one of their lowest scoring totals in a long time -- 20 pts. The game is no where as near as the score might make it seem as desperation plays by the orange and black kitty-cats scored the last touchdown in the 4th Quarter.

Larry Johnson found the endzone TWICE in this game, but fumbled out the back of the endzone on the first go round. I hope he bought Sutain dinner for recovering the ball with a pick right after that allowed him to get that touchdown finally.

Herm Edwards is still playing too safe for ANYONE's comfort -- with or without a lead -- and that will hopefully lessen as the now division leading Chiefs find their voice and thunder on the field.

Game of the week goes to the Saints...it was far more inspiring and impressive to see you dismantle the Seahawks for your first win. Plus, Bob was in a luxury box drinking free beer at Arrowhead and that will make anyone jealous. Consider this my spiteful retort.

A Brief Mention to fallen Mizzou that lost its chance to make the top 10 in the BCS standing by losing in the snake pit. Sorry Tigers, but you are from the MidWest and don't have a legendary name so I don't care WHO you beat, the superflawed BCS won't let you have a top 10 spot now as you have -- shutter -- a loss to another team. Please land in a game with my Gamecocks so I'll have a reason to go to a college bowl game for once in my life. (Meanwhile, Cal and its 'illustrious' victories continue to show the BCS voting retardation for the PAC 10 even after they loose to a team that was Div. I in name only. Jackasses.)

2007-10-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

Making it pay!!

For those of you that seem to think online poker and my obsession with writing about it and posting here about it and playing it are a little odd...it finally pays off!! Well, it gets me an entry into a freeroll with $40,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs.

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

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 6816659

Speaking of online poker:
My progress is as follows:

"The Ferguson Method" on FT. My freeroll cash is not up to $47 dollars! I am on pace with Jesus there, in fact, I think I got out of the gate a bit faster into the real money.

Bodog: They gave me free money and I turned it into $300 over the last month, going to swing for the fences there. Honestly, the site drives me nuts and what they did to some friends of mine is just sick.

PokerStars: My former online poker nemisis has become my poker home. With $230, 340 and 180 MTT wins in the last two months and a steady score rate in STT and cash games, I am generating a regular positive income. Not about to try to live off of it, but for a guy that one year ago was stuggling to make online work and had moved away from his "butter" casino tournaments in LA, this is a huge improvement.

UB and the rest: I have money there...I just have little to no inclination to play on UB/Absolute until this superaccount/bot thing is clarified.

Well, that is the update from the virtual felt. I'm looking for a big score at the Oak's this Saturday and rooting the Saint's and Chiefs through a couple tough games on Sunday!!

Check out the new and improved Life's A Bluff webcomic at www.lifesabluff.com.

I will have a new "bloglike" location for my articles up there shortly.

Shalom, Peace and Paz Amigos.

2007-10-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

Housewarming and Poker...pretty novel approach huh? Not really, if you know me at all, but it was something that I had the digs for and a great way to cap off the night after the early crowd went home. We had a massive grilled dinner with some awesome potluck food brought by my even MORE awesome guests and chatted it up, drank some good beverages and then, while the kids entertained themselves with Guitar Hero and Lego Star Wars II, we had a little poker tournament in the house. Both the winner (John M.) and the second place finisher (Mary G.) managed to top spots in their very first poker tournaments. I guess my ten minute crash course in Hold 'Em Poker is marketable, huh?

As you can see, a very professional set up....a folding table top on top of a folding table. Chips are nice though. That's me with the bad dealing mechanics.The final four were given their choice of hats to wear from my odd and unusually large collection of big brims. Why? Because a cool hat makes you a better poker player, stupid!

Cool Hand Mary relaxes with the vino. I think she read most of my poker library back there while I wasn't looking.John TAKES IT DOWN!! Ship it to Britain baby!! Gin and Onions.

2007-10-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

Meet me in St. Louie-Louie, meet me at the Zoo.

Ahhh, the St. Louis Zoo. Apparently, ranked the best FREE Zoo in the US, and we agree. Piggy was nice enough to accompany me to St. Louis as you know from the post about the game below to visit my Little Otter and go to a wedding in Kansas City for a Fraternity brother. She is also the camera person in about every shot that does not have her in it. Anyway, we had a great day and saw the Zoo and played in the Zoo Park and even the kids petting Zoo and the incredible map eating goats. Lots of great pictures but the ones below are the best.

The sea lion statues at the front of the park.

The Reticulated Python could eat a little otter, but she still thinks its cool.

Grooming the Baboons?

Daddy's head makes a great armrest!

Daddy the mobile lounge chair!

A juguar SWIMMING! I knew it happened, but it was too cool not to post.

A young giraffe was right up to the edge, the kids loved it.

Checking out the Chimps.

The merry-go-round was probably her favorite stop.

Piggy and the Puffins. Movie out next summer.

The Polar Bear was very active while we were there...and he's koot.

Sexy Piggy with the Singin' in the Rain Elephant Fountain.

WOW! We transformed into otters in the kids park!

Cousin Larry.

The Hippos ate my baby!! But it was Koot.

My girlfriend is bigger than a pigmy llama! Wait...that came out wrong.

Piggy and the goats....OF DOOM!!

The Crazy Eyed Goat did not eat my baby. I think she would move in here if you let her. They would be well groomed.

2007-10-09T12:17:00.001-07:00

The Cards close things down but I was there to see it. A few weeks ago, my Piggy and I went to see the last homestand of the Cardinals as they faced off against her Phillies. Turns out that the Cards picked that one up, even though it did not matter to them and the Phils later returned that consideration by making the playoffs in one of the most exciting last weeks in baseball in my memory and then promptly loosing to the meteorically rising Rockies. No one can really explain either washout. The Phils were the biggest hitting team in the NL and they could not score over 3 runs in any game. The Cards, last year's World Champs, spent September securing a "stay at home" post season in a different way and then proceeded to win out and play to potential once they were mathematically eliminated. Go figure. This is why I don't bet on sports...why depend on someone else's mental state and effort? Anyway, enough bitching. We had a great time and I finally got to see Busch Stadium. Tough for a kid that grew up 100 miles south playing baseball since they stuck it on a tee for me, but a journey that meant more than just seeing it passing by on I-55. (Horrible memory for my childhood, I was 10 and my Dad had tickets to the 1985 I-70 series with the Royals and gave them away. The folks who went were nice enough to bring us back hats. I think mine is in a trunk back home somewhere. Meh.) Anyway, below are some pictures and descriptions.

Alll Lovey-Dovey before the game.

My buddy Mike showing us where the old stadium stood and the lay of the land.

The old stadium site to the left with the arch in the background.

The statue garden out front has all the greats in action poses and watching over them from the stadium wall is none other than the legendary announcer Jack Buck. Jack ruled. You may know his son Joe, the ESPN schill. I remember being introduced to the best way to watch a Cardinal game by my friend Daniel Perry's family. Turn on the TV, turn off the sound and tune in Jack Buck on the radio. Soooo much better.

Very large, very pretty lights. The park lost some uniqueness, but its still a damn fine place to watch a ballgame.

Next to the Cardinal keystone absconding with my collected souvenirs, including the Yadier Molina bobblehead from the night where he hit the winning shot! Go Yaddie!

Piggy trying to look sad for the camera after the Philly loss. But ain't that the cutest smile ever!! I am the luckiest bastard on earth.

In the statue garden with the Wizard of Oz! Tell me one other player that made the game this fun? Oz, Vince, Ugly Willie and the game were just classic!

2007-09-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

The Saints come out of the gate...poorly. Wow, this does a lot to the hopes of the Saint's fans everywhere. I have to say I expected a bit more out of the team, thought I thought it would be a tough fight, not a 3 touchdown blowout where "Mr. Reliable" Drew Brees tanked like a Rex Grossman. I'm still pretty grumbly over the whole thing, but there were still flashes of the multi-faceted all star offense there...it just met a defense that was a hell of a lot better than they expected. Well, the Colts go off to their predictably easy schedule and the Saint's hit the road to Tampa Bay. Let's hope the SI prediction won't do to the Saint's what it did to the Panther's last year.

I promise I have Tahoe trip pics/report coming and a fun little poker party at the house too. I just need to figure out how to shrink the giant photos I'm taking with my new camera so they will upload.

2007-08-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Football, Pigskin Pick 'Em, The Ferguson, Roll Saints!

Wow, football season is almost here! It might surprise many people that knew me in high school that I have become this big of a nut. Maybe it is an unrequited desire to return to my youth and be an athlete or maybe I have just spent more time observing the game without someone yelling at me. Either way, I am pretty pumped.

Currently, I have a fantasy league on nfl.com that is sporting my friends and loved ones from across the country. (Sorry slackers, its full) We did this last year and I found it to be a BLAST, if not ridiculously time consuming! You may not realize this but fantasy sports apparently has over 200 million devotees/players around the globe with fantasy football (American) claiming 50 million of those. Looking forward to kicking it off and running roughshod over the competition...or at least not looking like an idiot!

I have automated the now 5 year old ritual of a weekly picking pool (all fun league) by putting it on ESPN.com's Pigskin Pick 'Em site. While this does not do the Playoff Prognostication pick (I'll still do that manually) it makes it a hell of a lot easier for me than manually sending out the forms and tracking the stats of about a dozen people. Not to mention ESPN hands out prizes if yer guud. Enjoy slackers, this has no cap, but you do have to be in by Sept. 6th. Join at this link: Get in the action now:
http://games.espn.go.com/pigskin/group?groupID=6527&password=beerme
if that does not work, try:
Game Front: http://games.espn.go.com/pigskin/frontpage
Group: Knight's of Classic Lore
Password: beerme

The year starts off with the game that ESPN and NFL.com polls showed that the majority of America wanted and promises to be a real humdinger, The Saints vs. The Colts. Were this in the Superdome, I would say 'Saints' hands down, but those crazy Hoosiers know how to back their high powered team. A win there will really launch the Saints though so as long as they are stepping on Payton's neck by the 4th quarter, I will feel pretty good. Party at my house this Thursday night.

Finally, in a weird twist of circumstance, I have taken on a challenge a la poker great Chris "Jesus" Ferguson in which he turned both $0 and $1 into over $10,000 (and still growing). Anyway, he has a really interesting tight money management control system that never puts more than 5% of the bankroll into play at one time in a cash game scenario and 2% in any MTT, in cash games he picks up if his stack grows to 10% of the bankroll at any one time when the blinds reach him. (Basically, double and get up. Go to a different game) I am working on it on two sites, Full Tilt Poker where I am attempting to take $9.36 and turn it into $1000 in 6 months and Ultimate Bet where I am still in the process of taking $1.23 that I won in a free roll and turning it into $1000. We might set new goals after. The brilliant part of this is that I get all kinds of play with no risk. The down sides are that the rewards are tiny for quite a while and the players at that level are idiots and turn up the bad beats on you. Also, you get some real 'back to basics' play training in. Just like running drills or doing basic moves in sports. Those have to be solid to be good. See more about 'The Ferguson' at:
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/chris-ferguson-challenge

Well, that is what is going on now. Hope that updates everyone.

2007-08-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Someone explain this one to me:

Japanese Gameshow: Mess up what you say and get mousetrap-hammered in the nutz?

I'm surprised Fox doesn't own the US rights yet.

2007-08-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

Way to go Ronnie Mac.

So the last time I was in LA for the Mini Series and found cash game gold and no love in the tournament series, I saw an old tournament buddy and Live At The Bike team member, Ronnie MacMillan.

Ronnie was at the event doing some cleanup for the now defunct show and was about to head to Australia to do some similar work and I offered to loan him some cash to get into a cash game and the Seven Stud 8/ob tournament running that day. Well, none of it went well as a runner runner donkey popped his cash game and, despite brilliant play echoed by his tablemates, eventual card death shut Ronnie down. I was confident that he would pay me back as he had a good reputation amongst our old tournament rat group (and there are a lot of shifty SOBs out there) even though I was nervous as A) I don't lend money. B) I was already at the bottom of my bankroll and the tables were being nice...for now.

Then Ronnie has a lung collapse. (Sound familiar to some of you?) This is right before he is about to get on a plane to Australia...which is semi fortunate since had he been on the plane, it probably would have killed him. However, now he is stuck to his surgeon, his backers, landlord, etc. and his boss who fronted money for the job. Ronnie is in deep doodoo. But, dauntless, and with his honorable reputation in tact and a network of friends, Ronnie kept pushing forward. I told him to take his time with the cash, the clock wasn't running and to get himself set up.

Fate turns around and Ronnie thinks there is a heavenly hand in place. Based on the above and the bit to follow, maybe you will agree.

Ronnie gets a heavy leverage stake for some of his better games in event 8 of the Legends of Poker (Omaha 8/ob) and wins it at the chop with a table that included top LA players and Amir Vaheedi. That almost gets Ronnie out of the muck.

Ronnie then plays again, similarly leveraged into the Stud 8/OB Event 12 and again, wins that. Ronnie is now smelling daylight.

We talked after the first win and I was one of many people blowing up his phone after the second win once I saw it posted on CardPlayer.com. I however, was more interested on how things were rolling that my cash. Ronnie was doing good, and the story rolls on. Having locked up his cash at home after paying off his many debts, Ronnie went into the Bike with enough money for the game and some spending money when a friend approached him to borrow for a $120 satellite. Ronnie only had $64 but gave his buddy $60 so he could get in with the promise that they were 50/50. His friend returns later with a wad of tournament chips having won, and goes to buy into the $1000 NLHE event. At 3am, he was in 8th at the final table when Ronnie went home after one player refused to chop. Turns out, the objector went out in 3rd and the stake-friend got the first place chop. Ronnie cleared more out of that deal than either of his wins.

Today, the full loan amount appeared in my PokerStars account. Ronnie is payed back in full with everyone and sitting pretty, full of confidence and ready to take down the Main Event. Personally, I want to see him whip some ass in the E.O. World Championship. Why not, since he won both of the single events that make up this one. In an age of Dustin "Neverwin" Wolfe scandals and Jamie Gold lawsuits, its good to see one of the old hands stand up for honor and the unwritten gamblers code.

Way to go Ronnie, keep taking it down.

2007-08-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

Slacking off, working hard, house parties and catching up.

Wow, so a LOT has happened since that last post even though I am still peeling from the sunburn at Bolinas beach. I'll start with the most recent and work my way back.

FINALLY had a housewarming party at the new place and even put on a little poker tournament for the folks that stuck around late. I BBQed ribs, burgers, veggie-patties and turkey sausages to hopefully fulfill the dining needs of a diverse crowd whilst the side dishes and deserts were well covered by the attending guests. Some of you need to cook for me more often!! James Malins, in his first poker tournament, bested Mary G. (of course in her first tournament as well) to take home the winners prize in the end. Funny, considering the table had 5 veteran players out of the 8 entered and the 2 that finished were the newbies that seemed to have some great game theory and brains on their side. Beginners luck? Maybe, but Mary and James were gunning to win from the first practice hand all the way to the end!

I am struggling to get enough vacation to visit everyone and do what I need to do so allow me to stick a note in here to apologize to those that are missing me or are hoping I'll be able to fly everywhere again this holiday season. I'm afraid I will have to decline and open my doors to visiting family this year. My 9 year streak of visiting everyone that will have me has come to an end, but the good news is you can finally visit me in foggy/sunny Northern California!!

Going back another week, work took me to Las Vegas again and on my nights off I was, you guessed it, playing poker. Which turned out to be a very good thing!! I won the 7pm freezeout at Caesar's Palace for a nice chunk of cash and them played HORSE and various mixed games at the lower limits with some friends and acquaintances in town (purely coincidentally) at the same time. (Funny story, I called to brag that I was on 'The Strip' and the reply was..."really? I'll be there tomorrow.") Best of luck to Taj and the Zombie Jack.com team in their quest to get their business kicked off and sue the hell out of the rep that screwed them. People like that should be shot. In the stomach. Then left to die slowly. In a hole filled with scorpions. And offal. Lots of offal.

Went to the Olympic Club with the Young Entrepreneurs Organization a few weeks ago and met some truly interesting and inspiring people who just happened to know of a very cool club near by that I will be stopping by at again. Le Colonial in the Financial District in San Francisco needs to be seen! The, thankfully, have a website for those of you in other areas http://www.lecolonialsf.com/.

Below are some wrap up pictures. If you are wondering, that is a tower built out of about $1300-$1500 worth of chips in these picture. Then we knocked it down! Best beer holder ever for Constantine (aka Stoli4Me).

The Tower of Constantine...plus 1 Sam Adams.

The final table at Caesar's Is Stylin'!

The View from the Caesar's Tournament Room and out onto the main floor. Note the pics of the past WSOP Champions over the door and top pros around the rooms. I think I look crappy in leopard print, but you could convince me to be up there.

First place money is purty!

Boyle (left) and Taj (right) let their freak flag fly in Vegas...sporting Zombie Jack's original designs.

2007-07-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

BURNT!!!!

We went to Bolinas Beach...the HIDDEN TOWN...this Saturday and the sunblock product we brought with us failed miserably. I'm toasty from the calves down where it may have washed off, but the poor piggy is BAR-B-QUE! Recovery is going slow and steady. Pictures to follow.

Bolinas (Bobo town) is a town that was built up by a commune of hippies turned college kids moving into the area afterwards and then doing everything they can to shut themselves off from San Francisco and growth. They bought the local water works and with that very capitalistic privatization decreed that no more public water meters would be distributed...so, no more houses. The last one to become available (the water meter not the property) occurred when a house burned and the meter was auctioned SEPARATE to the property. It went for over $350,000. For a water meter. You wonder why I don't own a house out here?

I have some great pictures to add later, but I thought I would let you know abou this fun little hippy town and the sunburn that has the house down here in D. City.

2007-07-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

People watching and being one of the "bigger".

I'm a natural observer. I always have been. Many people might say I have a short attention span or I am not paying attention to them, but the simple truth of it is there is typically something more interesting (or at least unique) happening right around you that you don't notice. Fortunately/Unfortunately I am blessed/cursed with a mind that must pay attention to these things even if it means splitting my attention 5 ways. This is why I like live poker as opposed to online, this is why I'm better at the early stages of relationships than long term, and why I hate menial route tasks compared to "firefighting" upcoming emergencies. They are just more random and interesting than the static world or the flat panel. ...and I'm wandering again, but here is an example.

I had a thought that struck me today as I was pinned in by two larger women on the subway. The thought had occurred before and I had been following the observation like a random social anthropologist. It deals with the size of people and the subway. You can guess with surprising accuracy the following things about a person from just looking at them when the are on the subway.

A. At what point the will stand up to go to the door to disembark the car.
B. What method they will take to get up to the exit level.
C. How they will pay. (given, this is the newest observation game)

A) My casual empirical research shows me that: The bigger you are, the longer you wait to stand up. Being someone that deals with a gimpy knee, carries a lot of stuff and has notoriously poor balance...and is getting fatter by the day. I fully understand why. The BART and Metro Cars are NOT known for coming to a soft stop and there is nothing more embarrassing and hard to deal with for a bigger person than getting launched into a crowd of people waiting to start their day or get home. Especially in SF where you are bound to be crushing small, dainty, or primpy people that take great exception to being squashed, mauled, messed or crinkled. Therefore, the equation is [(Mass)+(# of passangers)]xTrain Velocity = Exit Order. The higher the score the farther back you are. This does not account for the elderly, cripple or people trying to trundle a massive beach cruiser (bike) out of the car at rush hour, but people tend to give them the right of way for similar reasons to those mentioned above.

B) People don't want to change and they will do what is easiest. Simply put, the bigger you are, the harder it is to trudge up 4 flights of stairs. So, the bigger you are, the more like you you are to be on the escalator. Not only that...but farther to the RIGHT on the escalator. That is where the "standstill" folks are. In between the stairs and the standstill escalator people are the "fast lane" people. Folks in a hurry but NOT in enough of a hurry to run up the stairs. Typically, the folks in the fast lane are in worse shape than the stair climbers and better shape than the standstill folks. Most of the time, I fall in the middle, it depends on how the knees are feeling and if I'm in a full suit or just a shirt and tie. Nothing worse than sweating up a wool suit on the stairs.

C) How they hold it and where they keep with will let you guess who to get in line behind to ensure a quick exit. Very few people have adopted the electronic card that I've been with since the pilot program. (Seriously, its the only major city I've ever been to that does not have some sort of balance holding fare card. We finally have one and people are mystified.) Those of us that have it are either holding their wallets or the card itself. Paper people with "multi-pay" cards are easy to spot and everyone else is going to go digging for that slip of paper.

There you have it folks. A random observation post about SF and a guide on how to get the hell of the subway faster.

2007-07-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

One year Blog-aversary.

It just hit me that I have been doing this blog for a year. Its has been an interesting year and I apologize to the few of you that read this if the quality of my posts have been getting worse. I invite everyone that stops in for this new post to take a trot through my archives and let me know which post you liked the best or thought was the most interesting.

Damn, what a long strange year its been. (Now I feel like a dirty hippie...thanks 'Frisco.)

2007-07-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

And yea I bring unto you photos of my new place. Housewarming August 4th. Yep, its a crowded little street, but the place is all ours....to rent.

....Near....

....Far!

Second Bedroom, Workstation, Gamestation, General Mess.
Stairs up the back door.

Our "Sun Porch and Empty Storage.

Believe it or not, that is a Bay View waaay down there from our back porch.

The bedroom.

kitchen back to front.

kitchen front to back. Biggest room in the house.

Annnnd...the living room.

On the paid tour you get to see the garage, bathroom and washer and dryer. But, no high rollers today I guess?

For World Series of Poker Updates: Check www.lifesabluff.com and click on the blog achieves. Also, more photos of the series on the message boards.

2007-07-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

In Vegas, Feeling Good, Starting Off Right!

Greetings from the World Series of Poker and the Media Room at the Rio All-Suites Hotel! I got in last night, slept the sleep of the truly road weary in the VERY comfortable beds here and awoke early and fired up, ready to cover the series and play some poker.

Its started off well. Today, while waiting for the Media Room to open so I could pick up my credentials, I won a single table satellite that will cover my room and flight. Now, if I can manage to not loose that, we have a net positive trip in the works! And really, isn't that all we can ask for.

A big shout out to my friends at LifesABluff.com as I am here with this kind of access thanks to them. Should I decide to take anything down today, its one for the crew!! RuntCake shall carry the day!

Well, hopefully some pictures and more positive stories to follow. Until then, thanks for the well wishes and may the BLUFF be with you!

2007-06-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

"I'm not dead yet." -- Plague victim, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Last weekend was a return to LA and my last shot at making some serious bankroll before I headed down to the World Series of Poker. I doubled my (thinning) bankroll in the cash games even after blowing out of the two Bicycle's "Mini Series" events I was able to play. Got some high-roller treatment from Mo Fathipour and the Bicycle Casino while I did it so the grand total of expenditures came to $79 for a flight, $10 for a stuffed pig and random tips, etc. that I include in my bankroll anyway. The 3-500 5/5 NLHE game was very good to me and I even enjoyed some 20/40 7 Stud 8OB too. Not a bad time for under $100 bucks.

I have already cut my trip short and have (well, prettymuch...) thrown out the idea of playing the Main Event as I have to be in New York while it is going on. But, I will be there for some of the smaller tournaments, cash games (very soft that time of year...yum!) and to do some business for lifesabluff.com to see if we can't lock in some deals with the Vegas Elite.

Also, I will be there for the Gaming Lifestyle Expo and the craziness surrounding it. I managed to snag a cheap room IN the Rio of all places. Turns out 7/7/7 is making Vegas more expensive than the WSOP and any conventions put together. Go figure huh? Lucky superstitions in Vegas. It might seem odd for me to go to a trade show/expo in my free time, but it was certainly a blast last year.

Up next: Free concerts and sunburn!! That sneaky Bay Area weather.

2007-06-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

The World Series of Poker. Wow, its that time of year again and its bigger and better than ever, and for the first time in two years...my bankroll is not ready.

Its my own fault really. Giving money away to friends and family, buying some nice stuff for myself, playing in some bigger WSOP qualifier than I had a business doing with a bankroll my size but ones that I was used to playing. So, natural variance kicks in and now I'm now looking at the bottom of my box for the first time in a long time. I'm not broke...but for the first time I'm "playing down." My timing is horrible.

Well, I have a couple of weeks and we'll see what happens. I think lifesabluff.com has a seat in the Media Event before the Main Event for me. We'll see how that goes then. Going to combine a week of vacation with my visit to St. Louis to go down there and take a look-see.

Pray for me, sacrifice a chicken, do what you have to do...just wish me luck! ;)

2007-05-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

Warmer days and qualifier woes.

The sudden infusion of warm...nay, HOT...weather into the Bay Area this last weekend and week got me out of the house and helped me get over a cold.

Piggy and I went to see a great game with the Phillies and Giants where the Pil'delfia batboys trounced the streaking SF Giants and really showed off their skills. I'll let her post the pics, but we were really pretty close to the action. No foul balls (darn it) but some GREAT batsmanship out of the Phils and the Barry-less Giants. You see, Barry does not play a day game after a night game, cause he might get a boo-boo on his syringe thumb or something and not be able to juice properly without a full 24 hours rest...or some crap like that. Anyway, the Bond-ster is at 745 as we speak, just 10 shy of Hammering Hank (who mysteriously -- along with the commissioner of baseball -- don't seem to want to be near Bonds when he breaks his record.) and a much debated place in baseball history. Right up there is Babe Ruth being one of the best starting pitcher the Sox ever had. Seriously...where did those guys go? If we are all bigger, stronger, faster, etc. where is the pitcher with the .347 average and 30+ dingers to go with a sub 3 ERA?

Worked the techno-glitzy Software 2007 conference this week in Santa Clara. I think it was good all around. Now back to sorting out the new place. Which, when the fog is out, had a great view from the back deck.

Poker, poker, how 'bout the poker. With the WSOP fast approaching, I have been on a bender (live and online) of attempting to qualify. Unfortunately, I have nothing great to report right now. The busted live qualifiers and a bevy of online tries that have sapped my bankroll have made me think I may have to raise the cash the old fashioned way and just win it. Or at least win enough to play some satellites while I'm there if I roll up a starting stake. Wish me luck, patience and clarity.

2007-05-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

The otter finds the otters! Well, this weekend I "cashed in" my Valentines Day gift from the piggy and we motored on over to the Monterray Bay Aquarium to see their new 'Wild About Otters' exhibit and the rest of the place too. Here are some pictures. I promise we'll get some of the house too when, we'll when someone reminds me at an opportune time. Details below.

Me and the statue of an Asian Small Clawed Otter. Those guys are crazy! Kinda like this dude.

The biggest female liked to hog all the toys in the tub in the middle of the tank.Big, cute, fuzzy faces.
This is the position that Sea Otters spend most of their time in. They sleep like this wrapped in kelp.The caged fuzzy furry of a horde of river otter pups!
The BIG saltwater tank!
Woo Hoo!!

2007-05-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

My road has s'plode! (www.homestarrunner.com reference...deal.) So, much to the chagrin of Rosie O'Donnell and her 9-11 conspiracy ilk, the accident that pretty much melted the overpass in the MacArthur maze has caused traffic havoc here in San Francisco. Apparently though, pretty much everyone is over it in 24 hours with a free commuter pass and a pat on the back. It did flood the trains for one day as everyone jumped on the 'freebie' ride to work on Monday, but congestion was down by about half today, showing that it must have been worth about $5 of inconvenience. I don't take that road (I-80 and 880) anymore since I moved onto the peninsula but I can only imagine what it did to the auto traffic. Probably looks like LA now. I'm really cheesed off about something else that happened on the BART today. I'll post again after I follow up with that. Just thought I'd let everyone know that the exploding truck and resulting transit mess has left me unscathed and unscarred.

2007-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

The Brit Bus Tour has stopped in San Francisco. All Aboard Mate!

Pretty fun time and a great group of folks putting things together. CLICK HERE! to see more about it! Anyway, Julia Jones, The Crave and the Jyrojets are on this tour and I got to see them do an acoustic bit on Thursday at the King George Hotel and a "Pub Crawl" Tour today with three stops and a sudden FREE PASS to see the Kaiser Chiefs perform at thw Warfield . AMAZING stuff. Sometimes its good to be me. "My Favorite Thing About Jane" by the Jyrojets sounds clean, ready, and catchy. My bet for the hit song of the tour! Look for these guys on a radio near you soon.

Touring around San Fran in a double decker will get you some looks, but I think the best thing was easily the people and the music. The PR team, event guys and the bands were all solid people and great folks to go on a Pub Crawl with. Cheers fellas! And "The Crave" owe me a pint when I get back to the UK.

2007-04-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

Beer Glorious Beer. For those of you in my circle that do not appreciate fine micro-brewing or beer in general, go put on your worry-wart hats and sit in the corner for a while. This post is not for you. For those that do, wellll....

Yesterday I attended a 'Tion' for the Russian River Brewery at The Toronado in the Lower Haight here in San Francisco. Two things:

First: The Toronado should be on any beer lover Haj. (Yes I'm trying to be ironic, not bigoted.) In the midst of so many fine breweries in the NW US, this bar continues to stand out as the home of great, craft brewed and non- traditional beer. It looks like a biker bar/dive from the outside but when you enter and get an order in past the surley, tatto laden barkeep, you will have a world of fermented fabulousness at your fingertips. It serves NO FOOD! It is a beer bar. But it is perfect happy to allow you to toddle in with baskets or paper plates from the almost equally as locally legenday Mythic Pizza or Sausage Parlor that flank it. What more could you ask for? www.toronado.com

Second: The Russian River brewery produces some brew that PACKED the house all night for this event. They weren't giving it away, they were selling it on a Wednesday and the result was an elbow-to-elbow-buy-4-at-a-time event. The Pleny the Elder (an IPA) and Lap Dance win the 'keepin' it realz' beer name award. Most of the catalog is very religious. Links below:

Go ye forth and find one to enjoy. You will thank me for it.

Cheers Big Ears!!

2007-04-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

14 innings end in disappointment! Outside of the fact that I was hanging out with a ton of great people from work, Philly Piggy, Mo-Piggy and leading the band when it came to cheering the Cardinals Wednesday at AT&T/Pac-Bell/Cingular/Nextsponsorplease Park I felt a bit of a pang of regret when the game ended. After 14 innings of hard fought baseball, the Cards inability to keep up a steady batting average and some blunders with coaching and communication ultimately cost the Red Birds the win against the very sucky San Francisco Giants. Maybe its just karmic revenge for getting a mass of people together to go to a game where I was rooting against the home team. Bah, who knows. At least we saw Pujols pop a dinger and Bonds put number 738 into McCovy Cove.

Good luck to Frank Frisina of www.lifesabluff.com as he heads off to Vegas hoping to build his business, play in a ASPCA celebrity pro-am charity tournament and hopefully fleece some WPT tourists at the poker tables all in one trip. Killer Flops and Suckas' Drawing Dead, Franky Bones. Don't pop a lung...again. Seriously.

This last weekend was the little otter's 4th birthday party and we got her a big ol' back yard swing set. Her backyard 'park' as she put it, was an instant hit and will probably be the source of a lot of "time for dinner" fits from her mother. Everyone had a great time and I'll be sending out some photo CDs to family soon. If you don't get one, email me.

Also, the move is complete and we have a new home number! Yep, no more cell-phone only for Waldo, I have been shoved into the world of land lines yet again. Mass email to friends and family coming soon.

PS -- I hate parking enforcement and community bureaucracy.

2007-04-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

We be moved in!! The new Palcio de Otter y Piggy has all our stuff in it. Still some unpacking and sorting to do and TV etc. to hook up, but we are now officially there! If you don't have the new address call or email me.

Its a tight street but we've managed to work out a couple parking spots. The neighbors are plentiful but fairly friendly. Some issues with very few power outlets, but that is about it. I'll edit up some photos soon.

2007-04-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

The UK wrap up post...a week late.

OK, so here we have a slightly late but entertaining bit. Two days after the train jumper-offer, we had a train jump in-fronter. Ewww. Needless to say it caused a delay as the driver was to shocked to carry on. I got into London OK that weekend and met up with some Welsh friends to have a night out before heading off to the SW for my last few days. Many, many drinks in many bars in the "interesting" SoHo area later, we saw Fergie (or formerly/kinda with the Black Eyed Peas chick) come on stage for all of three numbers. Not sure if it was worth the wait, but it was a bit more remarkable than sitting on my butt all night.

Did a little wandering around the Covent Garden area and its ritzy shops and old pubs the next day and afternoon. Did you know it actually was named in a spelling error. "Convent Garden" was the original name. Funny. Hopped yet another train for Taunton in Somerset. We did not have anyone climb on or jump off in irregular ways, but we were late anyway.

Somerset, Exeter and Wochester we all great little bits of the smaller city/countryside in England. Beautiful little places with lots of charm. Its always stunning how much the country changes from region to region in the UK. Many times very distinctly in the time it would take you to drive across a medium sized US state. Met with several interesting businesses but each day was punctuated by a brewery. Darwin's Brewery, Cotleigh Brewery and the Weston's Cider Brewery. Perry. That is all I have to say. Yum.

Just for posterity, I'd like to point out that I'm not a complete lush. Its just hard NOT to drink when out with the British and when you job revolves around helping Food & Drink Companies in the UK (including breweries) make it to the US...you get in a situation or two where there will be drinks. Fabulous breweries though, most at least 100 years old (two much more) in their history with a mix of "ancient" technology and very modern process.

The flight home was the Premium Economy that I was SUPPOSED to have the first time. The big seats UPSTAIRS in the Virgin Atlantic Airliner. Very posh. I had to bounce through LA to get home a little earlier. Ya' see, Piggy and I are moving up to Daly City. It should cut down on both of our commutes and cut out the tolls as we will be on the peninsula. So, rent goes up but costs go down...and I can have more of my day that is NOT a commute. Hard to put a price on that. BUT, we now have an actual HOUSE so all of you wishing to visit have a place to stay and you don't have to worry about condo rules, neighbors, etc. Email me if you want the new address, etc.

I'm thinking about getting a dog.

2007-03-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

UK Trip Report: Bag thief jumps off train.
OK, well, I'll lead with the interesting story. I'm on a GNER train heading for London and somewhere between York and Duncaster, the train slows to a halt and a "attention, customer has pulled the emergency handle" sounder comes on. Turns out some jackass (I think it was a drunken sot walking up and down the aisles for a while before) grabbed a couple of plastic bags and JUMPED OFF THE FRIGGING TRAIN. Yes, while it was moving. The train was already an hour behind due to switching problems up north and this wasn't too much of a delay. They calmly explained the issue to us and started rolling again, adding in, while he may have avoided oncoming train traffic, if he got hit it was probably what he deserved." I love these folks in the northern side of the island.

So, back to the semi-boring stuff. I started out in London at a big food trade show and met a lot of great people. Made about £120 at the Pot Limit Hold Em game at the Gutshot Club (still holding on as it fights for appeal to the rather BS sentence passed in London. All poker players, please go to www.Gutshot.com and click the banner to help.) and they were PACKED on Saturday night. I was jetlagged and had crashed for 8-9 hours when I landed so found myself wide awake at 11:30 in London. Nothing to do but go play some poker. From there I traveled the Northwest region, past the midlands and near Wales and saw the outskirts of the Lakes district. So damn picturesque you could just stare at it for hours.

Fast forward a couple of days to Newcastle in the North East. Just off the border to Scotland, this town has dragged itself out of an industrial malaise and really jumped forward to be a part of the modern economy. They also have a Grovesnor Casino that hosts a nightly poker tournament and game. This was a lil' £10 pot limit rebuy, but we generated about £1300 in the prize pool and I took down my first pot limit hold 'em tournament and got a nifty card protector and some new card buddies out of the rather late night. Got to see a ton of the city walking about (in the rain.) and saw the revitalized Quay-side district (pronounced KEY-side) and had a pint in a pub over 200 years old and some FANTASTIC authentic Chinese food at Hei Hei. Its nice to have a job where its my "duty" to do these things. I think I'll miss Newcastle. I'll have to come back longer next time. Hopefully with better weather. Aye. That's it, n'dt it?

Well, I am blogging from a moving train (huzzah!) and this brings us almost up to the moment on our train jumper and my time out and about. Busy little otter here lately. Almost time for some very important birthday parties and the stretch towards winning my way into the World Series of Poker.

Cheers Big Ears!

2007-03-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

BUSTED! Well, the excitement is over. One misstep and I bit it. I think this pic will say everything I could. for more www.cardplayer.com

2007-03-13T23:19:00.000-07:00

Day 1b. Stopped in for a peek and to "flex" that Lifesabluff.com media street cred.

The nightmare scenario! 5 bounties, 6 total pros, 3 other guys that could get rich if they weren't scared to death. Chip Reese elminated Jen harmon and Gus Hanson in one hand catching a flush against Hanson's KK and Harmon's set of Tens. Total players: Seat 1 Gus Hanson, 3 "Miami" John Cernuto, 5 Amir Vahedi, 7 Jen Harmon, 8 Nedad Menic, 9 Chip Reese.

MiMi Tran and Joe Pelton. MiMi got knocked out...when I left, lil' Joe remained!

John Juanda and Ted Forest...neighbors.

Tough Table again...The Grinder and Patrick Antonius.

Eric Sidel is F'N TALL!

Mr. Chan is not amused.

Lloyd and Sam! The guys that REALLY run tournaments at the Bay 101.

Tod Brunson lets his hair down! Fresh off a 3rd in the 2k event, bust out level 8, Day 1b.

2007-03-13T01:11:00.000-07:00

I SURVIVED!! And then some! The first day of the Bay 101 Shooting Star is over and not only did I survive Phil Helmuth Jr. at my table (well, three hours late Phil Helmuth) but I finished with 66k in chips putting me somewhere in the Day 1 top 25 (bottom end) unofficially between Scotty Nguyen and Allen Cunningham. Because I'm not a pro...no online listing yet. here are some pictures though! Enjoy.

The Bay 101 -- SHOOTING STARS! (Day 1) www.bay101.com

Behind me, David Williams, Eric Lindgren and Phil Helmuth Jr. Chat it up. To big fat heads.
The owner of the Bay 101, then Eli Elesra, Daniel Negranue (sporting the local hockey jersey) and Scotty Ngyuen.

The poker side of the Bay 101...fat dealer scratching his head.

Tod Bruson on his way to finishing 3rd in the 2k event with a first prize of 100k. Get the results at www.carplayer.com!

(above) and me! Hey look! I have chips!

2007-03-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

Strangaties. I noticed today that I know people at work, and I know my old friend (who I don't see enough) but I don't know anyone outside of work. My social network is an issue. I've started making friends with select people at card rooms but that rarely does anything more than "where was that home game?" and "good to see you, let me by you a drink to celebrate your win, etc." I'm trying to do more, but I'm getting sidetracked to the journal post for today.

I had the thought today as I was parking to jump on the train that I am really familiar with my fellow commuter's cars. I see the same ones almost daily. When I am running on time, we park in almost the same places and, I assume, they are sitting somewhere near me on the train but I don't know them. Its weird being lonely and yet surrounded by people. If it wasn't for my friends occasionally touching base electronically or Philly Piggy at home, I think that kind of thing is enough to drive someone nuts. Maybe this techno-isolation we all fall into in the modern world is what is causing some people to snap. Reality fades and loneliness and a need for meaning, place and purpose warp into something sinister. Meh. Who knows. All I know is that the dog lover in the blue Mazda 3 hatchback needs to fill her right read tire and I don't know how to tell her.

2007-03-02T10:18:00.000-08:00

Quake N' Shake Part One!

WooHoo! My first California earthquake. I've been out here for YEARS and this is the first one that I felt. It was a bit like the furnace kicking on in an old apartment/house and then a couch giggle no stronger than your neighbor shaking their leg...but I FELT it. There have been 3 or 4 in the Bay Area since I've been here but I have been driving or sleeping and they have been pretty small. It was about a 4.0 centered in Laffayette, which is a bit north of me. Some of my co-workers actually had a house shaker, so bully for me on not moving yet. Anyway, that seemed significant enough to blog.

2007-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

Big Vist, Big Win, Big Weekend to come.

I have recently been away from the blog for a while and I have been getting no end in grief, so allow me to recount a great weekend with my little otter in St. Louis. She is going to be 4 in April and in a snowed in environment, she is her own entertainment center. We did too much paling around to recount everything but I'll highlight a few things. We built our first snowman while we were playing at the Rabbit Run park. It was great watching her play on the playground and explore with another three year old that was there. We have VIDEO and photos that need to be put on disk and mailed out to the family. So, now you can bother me about that! ;) We had an interesting nap time where she insited on putting ME to bed and then reading me the story I read her. Of course, then she was tired and tossed me out so she could sleep. Hilarious really. She is so stubbon and independant that I hope I can hone it into a plus in her later life so she can chase things down that she really wants. Her Mom and stepdad need a lot of support and prayers now so please drop them a line and include them daily. They have been through a ton and have been great parents and role models for the little otter. These aren't the kind of things that you get paid for in life, but they should be. Bless them. Bless them big.

On a complete flip side of my life, your boy may finally hit it big. A huge tournament win this past weekend (and a horrible beat, but lets focus on the positive) I have won my way into the $10,000 WPT (World Poker Tour) Bay 101 Shooting Star here in San Jose. That means I will be playing for the 1.5 million dollar first prize with the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negranue and more. I'm am completely nervous and pumped at the same time. I am hoping that my friends in the poker world can talk me though this and get my head straigh because I am fairly sure I can take home some cash with my "A" game and with some luck, some life changing money. This has been a dream of mine since I started playing tournament poker right before the 2003 Chris Moneymaker led poker boom and next to the main event of the World Series of Poker, this is about as big of a stage as you get. Its wierd to have people rooting for you in a poker room. Strange, because it tends to be such a selfish environment. Stange because you are afraid they want something but they are legitimately happy for you in many cases. Well, this is going to be my shot on March 12th. That reminds me, I need to put in for leave.

I know many of you might not understand my poker 'hobbie' or the fact that it has paid for many things I would not have otherwise been able to afford or kept me afloat when I was jobless. Know that this is not taken lightly, but is something I have put years of study and practice into and is something I know how to do. And yes, I am taking all precautions necessary, but as I stand on the edge of playing with the pros, I have to ask for your support and understanding. Who knows, your boy might be on TV soon.

This is the Otter, aka RuntCake, aka The Waldo Brother 2, out.

2007-01-29T15:33:00.001-08:00

Super Bowl Sunday. At least they have commercials.

Funny note from NFL.com. In a fan poll, the LEAST popular option for "who would you like to see in the Super Bowl" was Colts v. Bears. Most popular Saints v. Patriots. I couldn't agree more. I hope I'm wrong but I can only think its either going to be a Manning led blowout for the Colts. Or a defense dominated, low scoring yawn fest for the Bears. But! Record setting ad spend, so that should get funny.

I'm heading to VEGAS tomorrow. Yes, for work. I think I'll sneak in some time at the Venetian poker tables as well since I'll be working there most of the days. I might even get to see Jerry Lee Lewis play. Something that will make my Dad wildly jealous, but I'm sure Old Killer is more Old than Killer now-a-days. I don't care, BB King still rocked the house, I'm sure Jerry Lee will make it work too. Look for an update and a new article on www.lifesabluff.com afterward.

Work is killing me lately, thus the lack of posts. Please forgive my lack of communication. Its not you, its me. Really, I should see other selves because I'm probably holding me back from real happiness.

On the born and breeding front! Mr. & Mrs. Schmucke have brough beautiful Ms. Addison into the world and Mr. & Mrs. Tuck have announced they are expecting another bundle of joy. Beautiful people that deserve beautiful children. Congratulations!

2007-01-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

D Day for the Saints!

Sunday at 11am Pacific I will walk OUT of wherever I am an into the "fan zone". Truly, I have waited 22 years for this day...and we are not into the Super Bowl yet. I know they are playing uphill...In Chicago, Outdoors in cold weather, against a killer defense...but I know they can do it.

Manning or Brady in the Superbowl and I think the Saints, playing a such a super-team, can take them down. There is just one hurdle between the Saints and the longest SuperBowl dry streak ever.

I have never felt this freaked out about an upcoming sporting event. Even if you count some of my biggest poker tournaments or games as sports. Roll Saints! Lets knock em dead.

2007-01-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

London on Ice...with a Bar too!

Basically, I have promised and promised an update on London and have failed. This is just a highlight of the trip and a way to let some of the fellow travelers on that trip have a way to download the pics as they appear to be to big to email. So, without further adue, the Ice Bar London, a room where you have to dress in a special thermal parka (great for the fashion challenged like me) and EVERYTHING is ice, right down to the glasses.

2007-01-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

Stupid f*£%^g fortune cookies.

Well, it was a mildly unfortunate weekend. It started off when I brought home some take out Chinese coming home from work. Food was ok, but I was eating "healthy" so, no MSG bliss (or post meal hyper-bowel evacuation...but that isn't what you tuned in for is it?). Even non-superstitious people hate getting weird vibes/omens. We'll our two fortunes were something along the lines of "Your Luck Will Return in the Autumn" and "The best throw of the dice is to throw them away." At least one was a fortune and not a piece of wisdom, but that weekend the Chiefs stunk up the joint and the Eagles will now be playing the Saints next week. I can't hide my fervor for the Saints this year (or any year...just something to cheer about this year) and Piggy's favoritest team is the Eagles, so I might be sleeping on the couch soon. This is not the situation you want with your GF. Well, I guess that is the price you pay for having a tall, sexy, sports-loving, gas-tolerating lady in your life.

Anyway, went out on the bubble of a WPT satellite/tournament and came within 8 of 10K. It tough to deal with, but I thought I played really well on a short stack with cold cards for the longest time. Lost a race and there was one call I could have made with no guarantees, but I have to like the fact that I play one decent tournament live a week (most weeks, not counting the holiday tourney-fest between Christmas and New Years) and I've been finishing in the top 18 consistently, that is something to be proud of. The cash games actually made the whole thing to a positive day by fraction, but a positive none the less. Yeah bankroll stabilization!

Working the online angle a bit. Cashed in one for $891 during Christmas and while that is not that big, I was happy to survive the insane play that accompanies the holiday/break time tournaments. Also, since the online frontier is one that I've been hacking away at, this years positive growth and "chunk-o-cash" deposit in the bank makes it feel worthwhile. Now I just have to get my earning-per-hour up to speed and we will be talking about viable "earned from home" income that will keep me off the road hunting for good games.

Piggy did some great cooking over the Holidays including a Christmas spread I haven't had since I was living at home and the grandparents were alive! Plus super-duper baked goods. They are gone now and the road to a slimmer, trimmer, more aero (aqua?) dynamic otter begins!

Peace and luck in the New Year...and ignore your fortune cookies.

2007-01-02T18:34:00.000-08:00

The new year starts off with a COUGH!
"So that is how the world ends, with a whimper, not a bang."

Well, its 2007 now. I've been sick since Christmas and I'm still getting over it now. I went ahead and took a day off work today to rest up as I have a TON going on this month with travel, events and a backlog of pre-end of year housekeeping...taxes, insurance, and maintenance junk. Ugh! One of my goals (resolutions) is to get back to the positive outlook I had on things pre-2000, but its gonna be hard. Oh well, that is the choice you make getting out of bed in the morning.

My New Years Resolutions:
1. Make an impact at my job and become a key player in the system during my first year.
2. Get down to 200lbs. by June.
3. Bet that poker bankroll up to $20,000 by the end of next year! (Sub goals to this I won't bother you with now.)
4. Move closer to the city and my job, get more time for a life.
5. Send more pictures to my family. Yeah, it could be on this blog!

Anyway, just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone. I was miserable the whole weekend so thanks to those that called me and sorry if I missed you otherwise.

Check out the new interviews and articles I've done at www.lifesabluff.com

(Yes mom, its about poker)

2006-12-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

Chiefs nail the Raiders and I'm still alive!!!

Well, to all of you who thought I would die in the black hole, sorry to disapoint ya. The Chiefs took it to the Raiders and have a chance to drop into the playoffs a little bckwards with a win against Jacksonville. Scratch that. Jets won and they got nadda of a shot. I think if the Jets loose to the Raiders (pfft, right) the Chiefs might have a shot to win in, but I won't cross my fingers too hard. HOWEVER!! The Saints have locked up a spot for the first time in years!! What a GREAT year for my boys! Hell yes. This will be the year someone gets decked for calling me a bandwagon fan...I'm fairly sure of it. Saints v. Charger Superbowl. You heard it here first!!

Pics from the Raider/Chief beating. Hint: They ain't friendly or happy with a 2-fer team!

2006-11-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

Its the Thanksgiving Travel marathon!!! Well, I am off to the following states: PA, NY, NJ, MO and possibly KS. Now go play Scrabble with those.

Its a run to do the Holiday Hello thing and catch up with my family which is scattered all about. I'll be meeting my brothers up in NYC for dinner and maybe a show after meeting Philly Piggy's parents and seeing her old stomping ground (rooting grounds? Who knows...) with a trip to Atlantic City with her Mom worked in there. The its off to Missouri to meet up with my Mom, visit my little otter and maybe get down to see dad or over to see the crew in KC. I try to stay flexible on these things as holiday travel can be anything but predictable most times.

I know I owe a London write up, I'll try to work on it on the plane. I'm backed up on real work so that will take precedence. Hope this helps everyone keep up with Waldo.

2006-11-18T19:08:00.000-08:00

Well its been a fun, challenging and enlightening experience the last couple weeks. I head home tomorrow morning and then immediately proceed to bounce out across the country on holiday travels. I think those should be fun too.

London has been great but I am a little to tire to get into it now so expect and update soon with pictures (I took a lot!). Don't forget to check out the WPT Website The guys from Life's A Bluff have been made their official web comic! Go do the clicky-clicky thing and make sure that they stay on! Its in the lower right hand corner...go now!

2006-11-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

CARDS WIN!! ...and I'm leaving the country.

So the World Series news is old but I've had some busy days recently and havn't had time to update the old BLOG. Great news for St. Louis on the tail of being voted the most dangerous place to live. yeah murderers from East SI-EEED.

I'll be hopping a plane to London on business soon. I'll be gone a couple of weeks so I expect the Piggy to be happy and partying with her friends in the mud hole. I'm snaking in some pleasure and sightseeing along with the business as it is my first time there. Wheeee! Rack up another country for old Uncle Traveling Matt.

2006-10-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

'Pine Tar' Rodgers ties up the series.

I try not to get too worked up...I really do. I usually fail as I am little too passionate about things. I was willing to get past the pine tarring accusations until I heard KR's response that it was just "a big ole clump of dirt...I washed it off". What kind of dirt is shit and caramel colored and leaves a visible yellow residue after being washed off? Either admit to it or tell us you didn't wash you hands after the bathroom ran out of TP. Man.

OK, I have to get back to work but this had to get out there.

GO CARDS! ROLL SAINTS!!

PS -- I am in two outter hell. Knockouts both days on the incredible 3% turn cards. But again, I think I'm handling it well. Nothing is broken in my car, house or card room! ;)

2006-10-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Molina comes up to bat, YADDA YADDA YADDA, Cards are going to the World Series.

Old news as of today, but I have been a little busy. I could not, however, resist this Seinfeld reference. Tonight's win makes me feel GREAT! (Tiger pun attended) Still a soft spot for D-roit as to my years on the T-ball and little league team of same name, but screw that, CARDS IN '06 BABY!

The Bay 101 Open 1K Spread Limit Hold 'Em event was today. I played with JJ Lieu, last years top female points finisher (Card Player Magazine) for most of the event but was busted in 87th place when my Aces were cracked by Kings when the two-outer hit on the turn. (For the un-initiated, that means there were two cards left to help him and the 4th card out of 5 was one of them.) Big 2K is tomorrow so off to bed and victory for me now.

2006-10-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

MOB OF WALDOS TO ATTACK SAN FRANCISCO!! Some believed to be ZOMBIES!

Ninjas and Pirates of the Bay Area are planning a retaliation.

My brothers, now is the time for every WALDO' of the world to UNITE!! From the fabled book character to that poor nerd in the Van Halen Video "Hot for Teacher." November 11, 2006!!

http://waldo.castlepeakstudios.com/

2006-10-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

Saints Win, Chiefs Lose, Go Cards and a Poker Update.

Well, the Chiefs embarrassed themselves in Pittsburgh this weekend. As a friend of mine put it "they found out that the Steelers could wake up and remember they were a SuperBowl team and take it out on someone." Why not last week in San Diego then? Damn. But, I am happy to note that my new pick for NFC Champion...the New Orleans Saints, are now 5-1 after beating a formidable opponent in the Philadelphia Eagles. Since this is Piggy's team, it made for some cold conversation, but I can woot and cheer all I want on my blog! WOOT! CHEER! ...ah, who am I kidding.

The Bay 101 Open Players Points freeroll kicked off the Bay 101 Open Tournament series this Sunday. Yours truly finished 6th taking home a nice prize package but falling a few short of my goal of a big win or at least a seat in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star in March. But, I still have a few months to shoot for that. Big games this Saturday or Sunday so if you have any lucky objects, rub them for me. If you have any voodoo dolls, please take the pins out!

GO CARDS! by the way. If last night's shellacking ties it up, the Cards have a LOT to prove as they head back to New York to stomp down the Mets shot at the World Series. I will admit to having a secret hope for the Detroit Tigers after my years of suffrage on jr. teams of the same name. Rawr.

2006-10-13T16:24:00.000-07:00

I....Bluffed...JamesWoods! (Sung to the Family Guy tune of "I love James Woods")

While it only happened once, it did give me a chance to write that headline. To be honest, I think he was on to me, but had no hand whatsoever and had to fold. But James is so good, you can't tell when he's acting, on screen or at the table. (Yes, that is a complement.) What....OH! You want an explanation. Geez.

OK, so last weekend I shot down to LA to play in a few of the Big Poker Oktober tournaments and interview some of the regular players in the Live At The Bike webcast high stakes game for www.lifesabluff.com while I was there. This was also a warm up for a few big tournaments I have won my way into locally, the Bay 101 Open Player's Points Freeroll, the Oct. 21st 1K event and the Oct. 22nd 2K event. How the hell else can I afford to fly everywhere, visit everyone and send out Christmas gifts to all you wonderful people?

A few bonuses happened along the way, unfortunately, one of them was not me winning the tournament. I only played one tournament. It was an expensive one and the bad luck that kicked me out was palpable for about a 3 table radius. But, I kept my chin up and kept it fun and light. Brooding leads to bad play and besides, ya can't win them all. What this DID do is end up putting me in a cash gam on the casino floor with none other than James Woods and his darling girlfriend. Both quite excellent players. I left the game up 150% from my buy in, so I was a happy man at 3 a.m. but not nearly as happy as the fellow who left up about 5K or Mr. Woods who was probably sitting on a couple extra grand. I'll have to tune into his new TV drama "Shark" (sleazy defense lawyer turned tricky prosecutor) to see how he does there. He's planning to appear at the Bay Area's big event, the Bay 101 Shooting Star and we joked that we'd see each other at the final table. At least he did. He can watch me in reruns on TV next year.

I got an interview not only with the team of Live @ the Bike fame (all of these faithfully transcribed by Piggy, the darling) but also poker pro and fast rising star Kenna James. What most impressed me was his work with the Wounded Warrior Project and I knew that I had to get him on tape for an interview. Kenna is pleasant, jocular and took time for an AMAZING amount of people from pros and well knows (Jerry Bus, James Woods etc.) to people from his old playing days in LA. A class act. Look for those write ups.

Well, fast forward to me surviving a late night drive back up the state and you get to where I am now. Itching for this weekend and the Bay 101 Open freeroll and next weekend and the big events.

Hope you enjoyed hearing about this little poker romp. Cheers big ears!!

2006-10-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

A Saintly Chief's Performance but Not a Chiefly Saint performance....

OK, so that intro line sucked. Pardon me I'm mostly deaf and tired from a late night rock concert last night with Shine Down, Rob Zombie and Godsmack. For those of you who don't know them, just skip down a paragraph. I had a GREAT time at the show and Piggy concurs (http://phillypiggy.blogspot.com/) that Uncle Rob stole the show. Godsmack did a hell of a job, but the Zombie Army isn't one yo want to compete with for stage presence. I don't know why the hell I waited this long to go to a real hard rock show. THROW A GOAT UP AND SAY HELL YEAH!!

So, the Chiefs awoke from a slumber and went spare on the lowly 49ers, fresh off their beating by Philly (I witnessed it and put an old-man-stomach-punch-hoodoo-curse on the Niners apparently) and they get Arizona and fresh faced rookie QB and Hilton Boy-Toy Matt Linert next week. Ahhhh, the joys of finally having a soft scheudle and a concious QB. Look for them to go big again next week. Also, look for me to die somewhere around December 23rd as I will be at the "Black Hole" in Oakland in full Chief Gear for that ass kicking as well. More details later.

The Saints played a hell of a game Sunday but could not stop a recently re-gelled Panther's squad at home. One escape and run by DeShaun Foster and a slow 3rd quarter left the Crecent City Boys huslting to the end. They did it with some beautiful play (Colston will be a home town hero), guts (beautiful 2 pt. conversion) and gaul (A deep onside kick they failed to recover) but I still expect them to remain on top of the NFC South all year, just cause I said so! ;)

Hope everyone has a great week. Wish me luck as I sojurn to LA to push my luck at the Bicycle Casino's "Big Poker October" event. It is running along side the start of a big event in Vegas so I'm hoping the overlay will be nice and the competition thinned out! More money for the "bail me out of college loans" fund.

2006-09-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Monday Night Football...best game EVER!!

Well, until the Saints arrive at the Super Bowl at least. Anyway, last night's 23-3 victory by the Saint's in their return to the Superdome may not have been an offensive clinic, but I won't argue with the results. The Crescent City Crew eliminated the advantage of the most prolific athalete in the NFL and his crew with crushing defense and a non-stop, sprit filled effort from every team memeber. I have no doubt that Atlanta will do well this year, but the Saint's showed that when they are playing at the top of their game that they will be VERY difficult to shut down this year.

3-0!!! Can you believe it! I watched the whole thing at a place called the Royal Exchange on the Embarcadero here in the Financial District. There were a couple other Saints fans in attendance, but it was mostly me, Piggy and two aquantinces from work chowing down, drinking up and roaring for the team. Man, it was amazing from the first series to the final gun.

Congratz Saints! And roll on!!!!!

EDIT NOTE: Apparently, it was the best game ever in a sense. ESPN reports that it is the most watched cable show of all time. 11.8 share and 10.8 million homes watching!

2006-09-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Eagles win! ...and geriatric violence.

So it was a really good weekend. I started off by getting up WAY to early on a Saturday for my sojourn down to the Bay 101 Casino to play in the poker tournament that they hold there on Saturday. Its now the only one in town and starts at OH MY GOD o'clock so it keeps the pretty hardcore in attendance. But hey, as a workin' man, I have no options. Well, luck was with me as well as some crappy cards (how is that good you ask? well, trust me, it can be) and I ended up splitting the first place prize and heading home quite a bit heavier in the wallet. Even though I had the chip lead I gave up a $50 jacket for the chance to to loose a couple thousand. I thought it was smart. My usual style was stunted as I saw almost zero decent hands and played only 2 before the first break (won them both) and 5 after that break (before the final table) that weren't my unraised big blind. Thankfully, I won them all due to a tight table image and not getting run over. At the final table I took my only bad beat and was left literally with a single $5K chip and a chair and battled my way back to have the chip lead at the finish. As usual, it was noted I was having "too much fun" being happy and generally good natured about the whole experience, but I figure if you aren't having fun, you shouldn't be there. Besides, smiling scares people a lot more than frowning most days. (I could go in depth here but since my audience is mostly family and friends you probably either get it or don't care.)

Sunday was more fun as we went to Monster Park to watch the Eagles and the Niners as mentioned below. Besides being fairly ghetto, this was a great place to watch the game and it was nice and sunny in our seats so I got some late summer sun and generally had a good time. Most of the fans were cool as we discussed how much better the Niners were getting even though they were loosing from the starting whistle (almost literally, the Eagles scored in their first three plays from scrimmage) except for one old crotchety bastard that happened to be sitting right in front of us. He seemed to take offense at every cheer for the Eagles and every comment from "good play" to "ow! you have to catch those" and was spending most of his time calling his home team "pukes" and "losers" and being pretty damn negative. Not that I didn't participate ein a little tet a tet with our grumpy old Niner fan, but I'd have to say the initiation of violent behavior was all on him. In the second half, Frank Gore fumbled on the goal line and a 330 lb. lineman scooped up the ball and ran the length of the field for an impressive touchdown. Needless to say, Piggy and I and every other Eagle fan in the pace (of which there were many) went absolutely nuts! During this process, a little beer splashed on old growly and I immediately offered him some napkins ans to buy him a beer with my apologies, but he seemed to take it as intentional and stood up demanding that I move, shut up, go to hell and fuck off in no real order. I tried to laugh it off, dissuade him, get his friends to corral him and ignore him and finally told him to shut his geriatric ass up and watch the game before he got us both thrown out. His response, apparently was to punch me in the stomach when I was looking at his seatmates for a little help. It didn't hurt, I laughed "did you just hit me?" and that didn't make him much happier. By this time his buddy returned and sat him down and about the whole section apologized for him being a jackass. If it wasn't so surreal, it might have put a severe damper on the day, but as it stood, I still had a great time. This did not stop him from getting off a "menacing" final message to me as he left with him team down about 30 points eluding to "meeting me in the parking lot" and "showing me just how geriatric his ass was". I waved him on and later thought it funny that he wanted to show me his ass in a parking lot...but it is San Francisco. (OK, I'm going to hell for that.) Perhaps the "geriatric" comment was out of line but he was half my size and weight and I don't think he realized how close he was to taking a trip over the top rail if he started anything. I get in the wierdest situations.

Anyway, besides a rabid nearly 60 year old half-badger half-fair weather fan it was a killer day and Piggy and I really enjoyed it. The old fantasy football league and KCoL Pick 'Em Football is going great too, so if you are playing, keep up the good work!

2006-09-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Cheesesteak Birds of Prey versus Gold Rush Mining Enthusiasts: This Weekend Only!!

Well, as a half-birthday suprise for my favorite Piggy I Craig'slisted (I think that is how they write it out here) a pair of upper level tickets to this weekend's Niners/Eagles game. While she is the Philly superfan (The sudden prospect of Philly in double playoffs does my job for me at home, let me assure you.) I am pretty enthusiastic about this game A) Because its Pro Football and B) Because both of these teams that were duds last year are looking like equally matched STUDS this year. It will be interesting to see if Alex Smith, Antonio Bryant and Frank Gore can penetrate the defense of the Eagles and if McNabb, Westbrook and Stahlworth (Ex-N.O. WR) can nail it down on the road. The NFC East will be a tough one this year, so I know every win counts for them.

Lets see, other updates:
1. The IRS will try to charge you twice. I paid a refigured tax estimate for 2004 a year or so back and the IRS decided I needed to be tracked town aobut it today. It caught me on a bad day and I really blew up (scaring my entire apartment complex I'm sure) but I had just finished paying quarterly tax estimates on the lines of about 7 grand that week and did not want to see my meager bank account depleted further by our "screw the middle class" tax system. When I calmed down and called them a few days later, they noted they had "researched further" and found that it had been taken care of. Real confidence inspiring huh? What if you sent that stuff to someone that was broke and suicidal? A shame you didn't look in the "paid" or "unpaid" checkbox before sending out more forms to validate your job's exisitance. On another note, a parential "oopsie" still haunts me as the SS Admin dosen't want to help me change my birthday back to its correct year. Crazy guys think I want to be older.
2. Vegas again. Nice corporate meeting in Las Vegas. Henderson, actually, at the lovely Green Valley Ranch property. If you havn't seen Vegas lately, this is part of the new face. Its not 3.99 prime rib and cheap glam. They are world class and they expect you to pay for it. Sure, there are a some old standard "trailer park" properties but revamps like Green Valley are showing of massive pool complexes, multiple tiers of top end resturants and lounges and entertainment that is no longer "where it goes to die" but people making serious fiscal decisions to set up regular gigs in Lost Wages. They are a Station Casino property, known for middle of the road places that were "acceptable" on most levels but have taken a Wal-Mart-esque approach to setting up bigger and better ourside of the city limits. GVR and Red Rock being their top spots. 3. Ah poker. Love to love it and hate to hate it and I do both some days. Still net positive but some ugly beats lately have me squirming. Grrr. That hasn't stopped people from wanting my opinion however, check out the community section of "Life's A Bluff" for my article on why massive changes to the WSOP would be wrong. www.lifesabluff.com

That is all my short term memory will divulge for now. Back to work.

2006-08-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Fat men are funny. I'm getting funnier by the day.

So this past weekend, with out of town friends of the dear Piggy in tow, we went to see John Pinette at the San Jose Improv. Very...VERY...funny. Beer out the nose funny. Changed my mood completely for 2 or 3 days funny. So, yeah, funny. You might know him from his infamous "Chinese Buffett" bit or various bit film and TV parts. His new act is very funny and all that crap is right here on everyone's favorite free online encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pinette

On another note, I really like San Jose. Living between the two big Bay Area cities is odd in that -- A) about 4 million of the 5 million people in the area do. B) 90% of us wish we lived where everyone else is. Locks in the 'Prozac-nation' feel of the place.

The problem is, San Jose still rolls up the streets on most nights. The area around San Jose state stays bumping occassionally, but the whole downtown area really shuts down at about 10pm. It has been a much lamented fact that after a show or event in SJ, you just go home. You can't go hit the town. Much to the chagrin of the local economy. And horrible in the fact that so many great resturants (Original Joes, Hawg's Seafood, etc.) and potential nightspots are tucked into this clean, quirky metro-stop in Silicon Valley. If anyone is randomly reading this out in cyberspace and wants to fill me in on how to get around this little bump -- PLEASE DO! It is, logistically, a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to get to SJ than SF from just about anywhere. Not to mention that parking thing.

Other notable events:
1> Piggy and her tourist companions have seen many sites in the area this week:
-- Winchester Mystery House in Santa Clara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House
Shows what $20 million and a screw loose could buy you in 1913.
-- Monopoly in the Park, the world's largest Monopoly Board!
http://www.monopolyinthepark.com/
-- Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
http://www.beachboardwalk.com/
-- Golden Gate Park, Japanese Tea Garden, Haight-Ashbury District in San Fancisco.
www.youlookitupyoulazybastard.com

2> I'm sitting on my butt at work and wishing I was out with them to see all this. To that point, more people need to come visit so I can be a tourist too! (sic. I did get to buy them dinner at In-n'-Out Burger, that is just the kind of guy I am.)

2006-08-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

So, the door to heaven is guarded by 7 or so elderly, somewhat portly, black gentlemen with shining instruments. They dress in co-ordinated colors and play some mean blues. About 8 o'clock, they start a fanfare that eventually brings god out on stage, dressed in a purple tinged tuxedo. He is a roughly 80 year old, smiling, portly black man with a guitar forged of purified Hell's Onyx and the power of creation dims to his power to control emotion with his music.

I got photos, here are a couple:

BB's ability to still move an entire audience with performance and stage presence far outweighs any slight nicks in his game that come with being 80, diabetic and playing a 30+ city road show. The consummate showman, any slight glitches (from a late entry pick up to getting a little out of breath on a 15 minuet set) were done tongue in cheek and added to the flavor of the show. All in all, they were a plus for him and his band of road show veterans that exuded power and jubilation while practicing their craft with a living legend. No one was putting it through the paces that night, not even ones that might have an excuse. I feel truly blessed to have seen this. It really was on my list of "things to do before I die" and I found it truly inspiring. Object lesson: You are only done when you say you are done. Only finished when you say you quit.

God, I wish everyone could have seen this. I was transported to a blissful Utopia for almost 2 hours that night. Thank you and God bless you BB King.

Waldo.

2006-08-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

BB King tonight at the Mountain Winery. That is about all I think I need to say.

(pics and updates later)

2006-08-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

Vegas, Vegas...eh, more Vegas.

So this past week has seen me in oh-so-sunny and unseasonably HUMID Las Vegas. While I'm the first person to enjoy a trip to Vegas, its no secret that in my pseudo-crippled blind ass state, poker has proved to be one of the few hobbies I have left that I have any level of proficiency at. However, this proves the saying that you can have too much of a good thing. BUT! Most importantly, another key piece fell into place on the "stuff to do before I die list" so there is a big silver lining to dealing with furniture and shoe conventioneers from across the pond.

This month is the World Series of Poker and yours truly was dropped right into the middle of it. I did play an event, I'll get to that later, but one of the most interesting things was seeing it as a true measure of the growth and legitimacy of the industry. The Gaming Lifestyle Show (interesting name) filled a huge convention room at the Rio and was packed side to side with all manner of businesses plying their wares. While it was dominated by the online cardrooms/casinos, there were several other small businesses and media groups pimping themselves as well. While touring as the unofficial spokesperson and promo-pimp for the guys at "Life’s A Bluff" (www.lifesabluff.com) I was able to meet dozens of famous poker pros and World Series Bracelet winners and media magnates. (Get ready for the name dropping) Including:

Greg Raymer (cut him off in the buffet line and then he ate off my used plate...interesting story, but a hell of a down to earth guy to mix with us all at the PPA event -- keepin' poker legal.)
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson
Doyle Brunson
Todd Brunson
Jennifer Harmon
Phil Laak
Mike Sexton
Joe Sebok, Gavin Smith and Scott Huff ('The Circuit' Poker Radio Hosts on Sirrius and at CardPlayer.com, fun show with great tips)
Bart Hanson (of 'Live at the Bike' fame. A special hello to former LA tournament grinder Ronnie McMillan who is doing the website graphics for L@tB.)
Humberto Brenes
Antonio Esphandiari
Joe Hachem
Max Pescatori (Congrats on your first bracelet Max)
Jhonny Chan (Twice. Sorry if I bothered you Mr. Chan.)
Phil Gordon (Thanks for the tournament advice Mr. Gordon, it helped me do well, see below)
Howard Lederer (Best “who the hell are you” stare, and then friendly handshake)
David Williamson III (I still think he looks like the guy from Night Court)
Byron Liggett (Columnist for the NW for Poker Player and a guy that was cool enough to share a couple of drinks with a bunch of 30 something web-heads that enjoyed all his stories.)
Mhin "the Master"
Scotty Nguyen

And above all, the Life's A Bluff Crew. (Quack Quack)

Vegas got me thinking and I decided that if I could pop my little chunk of my bankroll into something substantial, I would try to enter the last braceleted event in the world series, Event #40, the $1000 NL Hold 'Em "Donkey Rodeo". Short stacked, fast blinds (compared to other events) and low buy-in it is known to be a fast action, Russian Roulette style game. Actually, very similar to the dozens of events that I've played so I figured I had an edge. Well, they (strongly) cut off the entries at 1100 and 100 alternates due to a chip shortage (WTF??) and lil' old me got in. It was because I won a night tournament that I entered with the LaB team and split a 3 way win for first and $1,100 plus some cash from a few side games and, well, that went right into Event #40 with some cash back. Well, about 1200 people and I finished around 120 in. So, top 10% and on a hell of a run till a bad beat on a perfect move chunked out half my chips, I finished in view of the money, but not quite there. I call it a heck of a virgin WSOP attempt.

Note, I'm tired, the spelling could suck, and I may have left some people out, but here is the story and I hope you loved it. I'm happy to be home and ready to do it again next year.

Want to know who the players are? www.cardplayer.com and find the profiles.

Cheers!

2006-07-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Two of the people I swore to see before I die, in a one two punch!

So, late in posting this experience, but July 16th on top of a hill in the San Jose area wine country, one of my "must do" concert experiences occured, and the other opened its doors to me. July 16th was Blue Travler in concert and trust me, every positive thing that you have heard about them in concert is true, naysayers can bite me. They were rocking out until the city pulled the plug! That was a dule edged event to be sure, on one hand we were all pissed that the show was cut off -- on the other hand, we got to rebel against the man as we made as much noise as the concert for the next 10 minuets cheering for the guys.

Here is a shot of the hills around the venue! GREAT for someone cut off from "the wilds" of Missouri for so long...you should see the homes.

How close were we to the stage? Well, Marie took this from our seats:

And here is John Popper and the Boys Rocking out!!

Key moments in the concert:

1. John Popper "Oh, you guys love the OLD shit, huh?" And switching the set list (saw it later) to NAIL a bunch of stuff from the first album (self title) and Traveler's and Thieves. Why is this amazing? Well, going from Dropping Some NYC, inset Optimistic Thought and I Have My Moments, and then finish the Jam on Dropping Some NYC. 18 mins of AWESOME.

2. What I like to call the "whoa-ly shit how is he still standing set!" Hook, Run Around, Brother John, All-In the Groove in one high speed mash-up set. His only breaks were to take a drag off what COULD have been a cigerette during the instrumental Jams that weren't him.

3. "No Woman No Cry" cover. Apparent he did this with Ziggy Marley at some point, but it sounded better solo, I can't describe the energy. Obviously, a bunch of 30-40 yr olds need something in common to jam on, this was it. I have the Marley-Popper track if anyone is interested.

So yeah, I was rocking out:

Loved the new stuff from 'Bastardos' (and the art too, check it out). Had an awesome time there with Piggy and it was cool from front to back. The cherry on this Awesome Pie came right after we arrived. I was looking through the concert event calender while we were milling around the front area and BAM, there was B.B. King heading there for the 80th Birthday tour! Sick cause I knew as close as we were, it had to be sold out, I tried my luck at the box-office. Turns out, he was about to free up four handicapped spaces that hadn't sold yet out of 8 available. I bought two. Now I'm 10th row center for the greatest living blues man's 80th birthday celbration/concert! I am sooooo pumped.

2006-07-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Did you know the zip code for United baggage claim is 60-666!? Well, I do now and I know why.

As I mentioned on my previous post, I flew into St. Louis for a visit and then was tuning up for a trip to NY to meet my team's boss and the rest of the network there. Let me point out that the show, the event and the subsequent meetings went great! I got to see my older brother, ate a terrific (if expensive) meal at Smith & Wolenski's in Manhattan and stayed in a pretty nice hotel. However, it wasn't the case for the whole flight. It all started with a conversation with a snippy united clerk that went something like this:

"You need to go now and get on an earlier plan, the next one might be delayed." Said Mr. Clerk, brusquely without eye contact.
"Oh great, thanks for the heads up," I cautiously state "this won't affect the baggage that you just check in under my original flight will it?"
"No. You are meeting the same flight so even if it goes on the wrong plane, it will get there." Said looking over my shoulder at the people behind me.
"OK, but won't that mean that the luggage would be late it the second plane was/" I seriously queried.
"No, you'll be fine but you have to go now." He bluntly stated.
"OK, if you are SURE my bag will make it, I will need everything first thing in the morning?"
"Yes. You are fine. Hurry along. Next Please." he said dismissively.

Welllll...good news is, I got on the early plane. Bad news is, they kept loading possible "delay" passengers on it until it was 45 minutes late and then we had a lovely half hour sit on the tarmac waiting to take off. Not to be deterred from going farther off course, we make it to Chicago. I hustle down to my connection and after convincing the gate agent she can't give away my seat as I am, in fact, standing in front of her I board up and...after a 30 minute delay. We are ready to take off. Here comes the fun part. Apparently, there is a big storm over the NY-Newark area and we and we need to land at Washington Dull-ass due to the fact that...and here is the kicker...we DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FULE TO CIRCLE IN THE HOLDING PATTERN IN NJ! Great, wonderful, fun. We are assured they will try to turn it around as fast as possible. Note, that right now, I'm looking at getting in after midnight and to my hotel an hour to an hour and a half later. Of course, hurray, this is not quick 20-30 minute turn around...oh, no,...is an hour and a half sit down on the tarmac as they try to find someone to get the FULE HOSE un-stuck from the wing. (Imagine my confidence level at this point folks.) Well, it happens and after a nice stand in line (apparently we aren't the only re-routes in the United army) we are off to Newark. Landing in new was, of course, a conga line to the terminal, but hey -- NOTHING -- compared to the trip so far. Until, of course, the baggage conveyor stops and I'm one of 3 people standing there waiting. I quickly assume the worst and stop in to the claims office and, yep, my bag is still in Chicago. At 2 am with a trade show and embassy meeting the next morning, I'm told that they'll "do their best" to get the bag on the 9:30am flight out to NYC. Oh joy, oh glee, oh happy day. One thing to mention here. The constant in-and-out of A/C and new climate set off my sinuses and had me kicked around and apparently the germ tube air circulation of the flights did not help. At 2:30 am in New Jersey, I know that I am sick and that my voice and head and on the verge of breaking down. Well, I missed the last train into the city thanks to our lovely baggage delay and now I hop a $90 cab right into the city and right to my hotel. Huzzah, I have arrive, sans baggage, but I am here in one piece. It is pushing 4 am, United tells me I am eligible for reimbursement for the lost luggage and cost to me to get things to live on but that means hopping right out of bed at about 7 am, getting a shower, getting out to have a suit fitted ASAP and then off to my trade show. "Screw it" I think "if that is how it has to be, oh well, adapt and overcome."

7 am comes way, way, WAY too early and I beat the snooze mercilessly but eventually submit and wander to the shower. Long story short, a safety device was stuck and no hot water in the shower. They send someone up quickly to fix it, I rinse my fat ass down and I'm out into the streets of Manhattan in yesterday's clothes heading to the nearest Men's Warehouse. I love these guys, really I do. Not only had the team in San Francisco hooked my up with a great light weight set of suits for the summer trip to New York, they had turned it around fast and got me a great deal on just what I wanted. Albeit, the suits are in Chicago, but I know where to go when I need some help. So, in I go and I tell the salesman I need the fastest suit up and turn around in history. One hour later, I have been suited up from Florshiem shoes to "no worry" shirt and it has been altered and I am OUT the door and on my way to the trade show. Score again for Men's Warehouse...plus the will alter the suit if I loose the weight I'm working on, for free. Score two, hell, gold stars all around.

As I mentioned, show/event went great, no news is good news there. My older brother worked the event like a champ even though he was a guest on short notice and I am again amazed on who the guy I grew up with turned out to be. Waldo Sr. on Wall Street...who would have guessed?

And now...the trip home. Welll, of course, stormy weather is approaching and I'm hoping to beat it out of the airport, but the crew at United decides to screw around and delay the baggage load and jetway pull back and 10 minuets after we are supposed to be in the air, they announce that LIGHTNING has been spotted and due to union regs NO ONE will be getting anywhere near the plane to take off the jet way or finish the last THREE bags that need to be loaded. So, there we sit for two hours all in from that delay and the cattle line to take off. Note: I didn’t get the worst of it, a co-worker leaving to visit San Francisco sat on that tarmac for FIVE HOURS waiting to leave and did not make it to her destination until 6 am Pacific time, so this next part is a little more irony that whine. We leave, hit Denver, and since I was able to call United from the plane before we took off, I'm set for the 9:50 flight heading to San Jose. Philly Piggy is hopping to pick me up at around 11 and whisk me home. We take off on time, no delays, beautiful! Gonna finally have a leg make it on time. Nope. Mid-flight it is announced that we will be routing to Salt Lake City for a medical situation. Seems that someone it ill. Turns out it was a panic attack that induced severe hyper-ventilation. Awwww. Anyway, another hour and a half turn around on the refuelling and bag pull-off for our nervous wheezer (what is with these turn around times) and I am heading the San Jose. I get in after midnight, I get home in a half hour, I get to bed by 1:30 am. I'm in to work the next day. I am sick as a dog!

Due to a work overload and this trip, I can't just suck it up and stay home but have gone in diligently the whole time since arriving back. I've probably infected the whole office. But, I am alive, and I know why the zip code for United ends in 666.