Thursday, April 20, 2006
Vegas Vacation
My spring break was well spent. On Thursday, March 23rd, I took two tests, packed, and got on my way to Vegas. In anticipation of the trip, Cachaulo and I watched Vegas Vacation. To say the least, I was a little pumped. Cachaulo, Kevin Coelho, DC/DTS/DOH/DTI, and I piled into Cachaulo’s car for a 11 hour drive to Las Vegas. We arrived at 3:00 in the morning at the Wynn hotel, where we were staying. Danny and Eric (who had flown out to meet us) were sleeping at Danny’s place. As we thought that Danny had our room key we decided that 3:00 in the morning, after a long day of tests and driving was the perfect time to start playing poker. Cachaulo and I sat down at the $1-$3 game.One very unique and interesting hand played out. I had J-Q off and had called the big blind. Two more players (including Cachaulo) called and the big blind checked. The pot was at $12 and the flop came J-Q-4. I had first action and I raised the pot $12. Cachaulo re-raised to about $30, the third player called and the big blind folded. I had about 80 behind me after the flop raise and I went all-in. Cachaulo went all-in over the top and the third player called all of his chips into the pot. At this point I was pretty sure that I was in big trouble. The turn came a 10 and the river came a 9. Not exactly the cards I wanted to see. We all reluctantly turned over our hand to reveal that we all had J-Q. All of the Jacks and Queens we’re out for three two pairs and a chopped pot.After we repeatedly tried to reach Danny to no avail, I realized that there was no chance that I would get any sleep before Kim’s volleyball tourney at 8AM (which was coincidentally the same weekend in Vegas). At that point I decided to start drinking heavily to add another element of excitement to watching volleyball. Before Kim’s team car left from the hotel to go to the UNLV campus, I got up and cashed out. I walked from the Wynn to the Stardust where Kim was staying to go with the team. At that point I established myself as Kim’s team’s biggest fan. I sobered up while watching Kim’s team turn a corner and play surprisingly good volleyball. After their set of morning games, Cachaulo picked me up and informed me that we still had no room and Danny could not be reached. On the way back from UNLV we saw a sign for $1 roulette, a game that we thought would be fun to waste our time at. Unfortunately, the casino, and I use that term loosely, was not offering $1 roulette because there was hardly anyone in there. Cachaulo and I ach wasted a dollar on penny slots. But I won 20 dollars from craps and blackjack in two quick sessions before leaving. That $19 made was the extent of the gambling I did away from the poker tables.Finally after leaving that “casino”, we got in touch with Danny and arrived at his house, which was surprisingly well kept and very nice. I wouldn’t say that he was living large, but definitely comfortable. It was at Danny’s house that he informed us that my name was also on the room and we could have checked in any time we wanted. We all drove (including Eric and Danny) to the Wynn. We had our first of many fine meals comped by the Wynn. At about 6 in the evening (34 hours without sleep) Cachaulo and I again headed down to the poker tables.This is when I realized the greatest part of playing live poker and being in Vegas, all of the hilarious people that you meet. The following sections will describe my favorite players of my vacation.Local Harry – Harry and I enjoyed several sessions playing together. He is the kind of poker player that lacks creativity so he is very dependant on the quality of his cards and the cards on the board. We sat next to each other a whole bunch, He even let me listen to the crappy music he was listening to on his Ipod imitation. He would play all of the top ten hands and then either get sucked out on, or not flop well, or just get plain old beat quite often. His mood was a direct reflection on the success of the last hand he played and usually he was upset. He would always slam his good hands away into the muck after a junk flop. His widow’s peak and rooster middle hairdo, combined with stories of his failed acting career in LA, made him an original. Probably the one moment that describes him best is after I raked in my second biggest pot of the trip he tells me that I should be grateful to be so lucky, because he had been “running bad for six years”. Good luck Harry.Silverback – Silverback was from Massachusetts and was one of the worst poker players I have played with. When I got to the cardroom I would put my name on the list and when I got seated I would put my name on the list for Silver’s table. When I got to Silver’s table I would try to move closer and closer to get right next to him. He was incapable of putting down any hand so He was a cash station for me. Every time he was in a hand and other players were coming after him I rooted for him and he put on a show of awesome bad beats. This guy would lose his money 10-30 bucks a hand, until he either finally had a good one or he made a great suck out, or he busted and bought back in. He was the guy at the table that would lose $300 then put in $300 more and so on. Silverback got his nickname because he was easily 300 pounds, probably 350 and his figure somewhat resembled a gorilla. His silver slicked back hair was just the finishing touch. My favorite part about Silver was how highly he talked of his son. He described him as being in medicine, but I’m pretty sure he was a nurse. Eventually after hours of hearing how proud he was of his son who not only had made it as a nurse but was also a dominating poker player, he sat down at the table.
Silverback Jr – It was pretty funny when it only took Silverback Jr. four hands to bust. He played his fourth hand very aggressively and very quickly. He kept raising and the other player kept calling. He lost all of his money with ace high trying to bluff out a made hand. He bought back in and managed to last another 30 hands before busting out again. Sadly, he and his father left, not exactly dominating the table.
Black Jack Dog – “They call me the CEO.” This guy could talk about himself and how great he was even more than I do, to total strangers. According to him he won a WPT event, and 41 out of 65 tournaments he entered. This guy is the biggest liar I have ever met. He wanted to sell Cachaulo and I his system for beating blackjack everytime. And for only $100 each. He told us that his book that he signed sold for over $1000 on ebay. One of my favorite expressions, from my father, can describe this guy best. He was so full of shit, his eye’s were turning brown.
The Guy in the suit – Danny, Cachaulo, and I stayed up super late playing deep stack poker at the NL 1-3 game with this guy. He thought my name was Billy and he was a loud dude. A bunch of drunks and idiots walked in and came lost their money and left in the hours we were all playing together. The table action got crazy with him, Cachaulo, and Danny each with $1,000 in front of them building up the pots. He kept on giving us what he thought was amazing unique advise for life. He kept bringing up his wife and he acted drunk drinking juice. At the table was this old Asian guy who had sat there for a good hour not playing a single pot. The best part was one hand Cachaulo goes all-in from under the gun and the action comes to the Asian guy and you could tell by the look on his face that that was going to be the one hand he was going to play. He looks at it over and over again, folds his hand, picks up his chips, and leaves.
There are more guys I could talk about but I’ll save the space for more people on my next trip.
Silverback Jr – It was pretty funny when it only took Silverback Jr. four hands to bust. He played his fourth hand very aggressively and very quickly. He kept raising and the other player kept calling. He lost all of his money with ace high trying to bluff out a made hand. He bought back in and managed to last another 30 hands before busting out again. Sadly, he and his father left, not exactly dominating the table.
Black Jack Dog – “They call me the CEO.” This guy could talk about himself and how great he was even more than I do, to total strangers. According to him he won a WPT event, and 41 out of 65 tournaments he entered. This guy is the biggest liar I have ever met. He wanted to sell Cachaulo and I his system for beating blackjack everytime. And for only $100 each. He told us that his book that he signed sold for over $1000 on ebay. One of my favorite expressions, from my father, can describe this guy best. He was so full of shit, his eye’s were turning brown.
The Guy in the suit – Danny, Cachaulo, and I stayed up super late playing deep stack poker at the NL 1-3 game with this guy. He thought my name was Billy and he was a loud dude. A bunch of drunks and idiots walked in and came lost their money and left in the hours we were all playing together. The table action got crazy with him, Cachaulo, and Danny each with $1,000 in front of them building up the pots. He kept on giving us what he thought was amazing unique advise for life. He kept bringing up his wife and he acted drunk drinking juice. At the table was this old Asian guy who had sat there for a good hour not playing a single pot. The best part was one hand Cachaulo goes all-in from under the gun and the action comes to the Asian guy and you could tell by the look on his face that that was going to be the one hand he was going to play. He looks at it over and over again, folds his hand, picks up his chips, and leaves.
There are more guys I could talk about but I’ll save the space for more people on my next trip.
Monday, April 10, 2006
A Visit From a Friend
I am still desperately trying to play catch-up from my time off from writing in my journal. From March 14th to the 18th, Brad came into town. I was very excited to see him and give him an opportunity to check out my life here in Boulder. We went on a hike up in the flatirons and we went skiing in Vail.
Brad and I began to talk about summer plans and that is when I really realized that summer is coming up and I don’t have any plans. Most of my good friends from home are going to be all over the place this summer. Mike is going to be here in Boulder, Eric will be in Chicago/Highland Park, Brad will be in Madison, Danny could be anywhere from Vegas to Chicago to Boulder to well… anywhere. So, going home to see all of my friends really isn’t going to work. My current idea is a tour of cool places. Dividing up my summer into three potentially four places. My summer is from May 12th to August 28th. By my count that gives me 108 days. The closest thing that I have to a plan is that I want to go to Vegas with Cachaulo from when he graduates to when he has to be back for summer classes. That sounds funny, but they are letting him graduate with one class left as long as he takes it in the summer. That will probably take me to somewhere in the beginning/middle of June. At that point I think I will come back to Chicago to reload, because Vegas can be quite exhausting. From their on I am pretty open. Knowing that I can make a decent hourly wage from anywhere in the country playing poker online is a very freeing feeling. That way I can play poker from pretty much wherever I find myself.
To prevent myself from pissing away my entire summer watching movies or something like that I am going to set a goals for myself. Seeing as I don’t want to do that right now I will start with some easy ones. I want to set a goal for where my bank account is at the end of the summer. I also want to set a schedule for my summer. I will make both of those due by April 20th. In my next entry I will try to recreate my awesome spring break.
Brad and I began to talk about summer plans and that is when I really realized that summer is coming up and I don’t have any plans. Most of my good friends from home are going to be all over the place this summer. Mike is going to be here in Boulder, Eric will be in Chicago/Highland Park, Brad will be in Madison, Danny could be anywhere from Vegas to Chicago to Boulder to well… anywhere. So, going home to see all of my friends really isn’t going to work. My current idea is a tour of cool places. Dividing up my summer into three potentially four places. My summer is from May 12th to August 28th. By my count that gives me 108 days. The closest thing that I have to a plan is that I want to go to Vegas with Cachaulo from when he graduates to when he has to be back for summer classes. That sounds funny, but they are letting him graduate with one class left as long as he takes it in the summer. That will probably take me to somewhere in the beginning/middle of June. At that point I think I will come back to Chicago to reload, because Vegas can be quite exhausting. From their on I am pretty open. Knowing that I can make a decent hourly wage from anywhere in the country playing poker online is a very freeing feeling. That way I can play poker from pretty much wherever I find myself.
To prevent myself from pissing away my entire summer watching movies or something like that I am going to set a goals for myself. Seeing as I don’t want to do that right now I will start with some easy ones. I want to set a goal for where my bank account is at the end of the summer. I also want to set a schedule for my summer. I will make both of those due by April 20th. In my next entry I will try to recreate my awesome spring break.
Monday, April 03, 2006
My 21st Birthday, Decision Making, and Law Breaking
On March 12th I turned 21 years old which is a pretty big milestone especially in college culture. It has been long overdue, I have anxiously waited for my 21st birthday for well over a year and being 21 has certainly had it’s benefits.
The night started in my room with Cachaulo and Austin we watched some Seinfeld and enjoyed White Russians and Parrot Bay, not together that would be pretty gross. After a couple of good hours hanging out with two of my best friends we gathered a group of guys and drove to a motel room that Leland had rented for his friend Mikey who had the same 21st birthday as myself. There I enjoyed a couple of beers and got a chance to be with more of my really good friends, Pearlman, Sixer, SOB. From there we walked to the bars and I was beaming with anticipation. It is strange how you picture a place that you have never been to but only heard about over and over again. I think that the way I do that with places I also do with people.
People always say that you should not judge a book by it’s cover or something of that extent to say that you shouldn’t judge someone based on how they look or based on a first impression. But I think that is a valuable skill. In life you have to make decisions and sometimes those decisions have to be made without perfect information. I am not afraid of using all of the information I have available to make decisions. If the information is what they look like then I have to make a decision based on that. That is why I believe it to be a valuable skill to accurately access a situation or person with little information. But like in the case of what the bar looks like I had a picture of it based on the little information I had. After I visited those bars I had more information and I changed my idea of what the bars looked like. That is the key to making snap judgments about people, is being open minded and willing to accept more information even if it is contradictory.
So I visited three bars. I kissed the buffalo at the pub, I listened to good music and had good Irish drinks at Conor O’Neils, and I ate peanuts and had shots at the walrus. It was a great night spent with great friends. I went to bed feeling great, I woke up in the morning feeling great, my only regret of the evening was that sometime during the night I must have vomited and I ruined my mattress and box spring.
Overall I would say that turning 21 was fun but even better than the night itself has been the freedom of not having to violate laws that I do not believe are just. I always had a moral problem with violating those laws (drinking/gambling). Part of it is that even though I think the laws are stupid, I understand that I live in a democratic society and part of living in a democratic society is having to follow laws that you might not agree with because a majority agrees with them. So I am glad that there were laws that I was not following with some moral objection that I do not need to break anymore.
The night started in my room with Cachaulo and Austin we watched some Seinfeld and enjoyed White Russians and Parrot Bay, not together that would be pretty gross. After a couple of good hours hanging out with two of my best friends we gathered a group of guys and drove to a motel room that Leland had rented for his friend Mikey who had the same 21st birthday as myself. There I enjoyed a couple of beers and got a chance to be with more of my really good friends, Pearlman, Sixer, SOB. From there we walked to the bars and I was beaming with anticipation. It is strange how you picture a place that you have never been to but only heard about over and over again. I think that the way I do that with places I also do with people.
People always say that you should not judge a book by it’s cover or something of that extent to say that you shouldn’t judge someone based on how they look or based on a first impression. But I think that is a valuable skill. In life you have to make decisions and sometimes those decisions have to be made without perfect information. I am not afraid of using all of the information I have available to make decisions. If the information is what they look like then I have to make a decision based on that. That is why I believe it to be a valuable skill to accurately access a situation or person with little information. But like in the case of what the bar looks like I had a picture of it based on the little information I had. After I visited those bars I had more information and I changed my idea of what the bars looked like. That is the key to making snap judgments about people, is being open minded and willing to accept more information even if it is contradictory.
So I visited three bars. I kissed the buffalo at the pub, I listened to good music and had good Irish drinks at Conor O’Neils, and I ate peanuts and had shots at the walrus. It was a great night spent with great friends. I went to bed feeling great, I woke up in the morning feeling great, my only regret of the evening was that sometime during the night I must have vomited and I ruined my mattress and box spring.
Overall I would say that turning 21 was fun but even better than the night itself has been the freedom of not having to violate laws that I do not believe are just. I always had a moral problem with violating those laws (drinking/gambling). Part of it is that even though I think the laws are stupid, I understand that I live in a democratic society and part of living in a democratic society is having to follow laws that you might not agree with because a majority agrees with them. So I am glad that there were laws that I was not following with some moral objection that I do not need to break anymore.
Success
Wow, I'm pretty embarrassed. It has been way to long since my last post. Most of that is my fault but in my defense I had written one article and as I hit the post button it did not work and erased all that I had written. That really sucked so I was a little discouraged. Eventually however, I just way too much to talk about, I just had to add another entry.
I am going to try and recap my life for the last month or so. It started with an awesome win in my indoor intramural soccer championship. The whole team played great, Lance scored a pair of goals and Koke knocked one in for a 3-1 win. Overall it was a great season. I am really looking forward to outdoor, we can win three titles in one year. Water Polo did not go that well because we were missing our two best players Kim and Chris for the semi’s. We lost and I was reminded how much I like winning and how much I don’t like losing. Some people would say it’s not about winning or losing but about having fun. But I always have more fun when I win so to me it is about winning or losing. The only question is if this characteristic is good or bad. On one hand when I was younger I was affected by competition in a way that mad me a sore loser and a worse winner. I try to keep my winning/losing emotions inside because it makes me more pleasant to other people. Beyond that however I think that my competitive nature is what will make me successful and happy with that success.
I guess the main reason why I stated this journal was a cheap form of therapy. I have thought about my future and my plans for after college. It is the most difficult thinking I have ever done. The closest decision that I can think of was when I decided what college I wanted to go to. Aside from transferring or life changing decisions down the road, college was a 4 year decision. My profession is a 40 year decision. It is that much more difficult. I have a lot of anxiety about making a good decision for my career. I thought maybe I should talk to a therapist about it and work through my issues. But I realized that it would be hard for me to find one whose opinion I would trust, it would be a good way to express my thoughts but expensive, instead I decided to think about it out loud and regularly with a written record in order to make some progress.
I am going to try and recap my life for the last month or so. It started with an awesome win in my indoor intramural soccer championship. The whole team played great, Lance scored a pair of goals and Koke knocked one in for a 3-1 win. Overall it was a great season. I am really looking forward to outdoor, we can win three titles in one year. Water Polo did not go that well because we were missing our two best players Kim and Chris for the semi’s. We lost and I was reminded how much I like winning and how much I don’t like losing. Some people would say it’s not about winning or losing but about having fun. But I always have more fun when I win so to me it is about winning or losing. The only question is if this characteristic is good or bad. On one hand when I was younger I was affected by competition in a way that mad me a sore loser and a worse winner. I try to keep my winning/losing emotions inside because it makes me more pleasant to other people. Beyond that however I think that my competitive nature is what will make me successful and happy with that success.
I guess the main reason why I stated this journal was a cheap form of therapy. I have thought about my future and my plans for after college. It is the most difficult thinking I have ever done. The closest decision that I can think of was when I decided what college I wanted to go to. Aside from transferring or life changing decisions down the road, college was a 4 year decision. My profession is a 40 year decision. It is that much more difficult. I have a lot of anxiety about making a good decision for my career. I thought maybe I should talk to a therapist about it and work through my issues. But I realized that it would be hard for me to find one whose opinion I would trust, it would be a good way to express my thoughts but expensive, instead I decided to think about it out loud and regularly with a written record in order to make some progress.
