Tales from the West Side

Netflix Plans Change

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:58:00 +0000

Anyone that is a Netflix subscriber, and those that aren't, have heard the news that the "Blockbuster killer" has changed the game again. Like many changes, this will benefit some and hurt others. Unfortunately for me, the way I use their service, I'm seeing a 60% increase in my monthly bill.

Now some of you will say the with Redbox and Blockbuster Express in the mix, we no longer need to get DVDs in the mail. For the most part I agree, but Netflix still has a better DVD library, especially for catching up on TV shows. Also, since I don't have HBO, I have to wait for DVD to see shows like Entourage, Boardwalk Empire, and Game of Thrones. HBO offers a great product but their monthly subscription rate is higher than even the new DVD subscription. I will admit, with the new HBO Go, I have been considering signing up for HBO since I can now watch shows on my iPhone, Stacie's iPad and our next TV.

One of my biggest problems with this deal is the overall DVD service from Netflix has changed quite a bit in the last couple of years. I feel with this rate increase on DVD service, they are double dipping with the savings they achieved by releasing new discs 28 days later than they used to do. They got quite a break from the studios when they made that move. Even with these savings, Netflix would rather not send out the physical discs. The shipping and inventory costs are increasing dramatically each year so it just makes sense to figure out how to get more subscribers at a lower cost per subscriber. With the ability to stream Netflix on so many devices, their customer base is increasing much faster without the need to increase their physical disc inventory. Admittedly, this was one of the reasons I initially bought my Blu-ray player and iPhone 4. I have not regretted the years of service I have enjoyed streaming shows from the SyFy and BBC America libraries. They are so committed to the streaming service that when Netflix is launched in Central and South America, it will be streaming only.

Netflix is not the only "villian" in this new strategy. Movie and TV studios must shoulder some of the scorn for the greed. They underestimated the deiree for the product and now want more for retransmission rights. Netflix had already signed a great deal with Starz but Starz and the studios have already stated that Netflix will not be getting the 'bargain' pricing went the contracts are renewed. It is estimated that the renewal rate could rise from $30 million this year to possible a couple of hundred million a year. That is just for one provider! This year we have already seen Netflix having to pull some movies from the instant streaming offering because "too many" people were taking advantage of the service and Sony siad it violated the agreement they had with Starz. Unfortunately for those of us that have cable / satellite service, this kind of thing is very common because of sports broadcasting. Whenever you hear athletes signing big contracts, we all will pay with higher cable rates because those costs are handed down to the end consumer. The owners / leagues start charging more the the right to carry games which in turn increases the costs to ESPN / Fox Sports, which gets charged the the cable / satellite providers and then eventually shows up in our monthly bills.

Who does this help beside just Netflix? People like my mother-in-law don't use the streaming service, so her bill actually went down $2 a month. Also, people that only do the streaming service will also see their bill go down by a couple of bucks. I think Redbox will see a good jump in their subscribership beginning next month and Amazon will probably see more people trying out their service just out of protest.

While I don't like the increase, it's still a great value compared to the old days of driving to the store and paying $4 a movie. With all of this in mind, I will continue to enjoy streaming on my devices and still get DVDs in the mail until the competitors offer the titles I'm looking to rent. I'm fully expecting the streaming service to be at $9.99 in a little over a year and probably be at $11.99 by the beginning of 2014 due to the higher and higher carriage rights that Netflix will be paying. I am also afraid that we also might be in a situation where the wired high speed provider start charging for data like the wireless providers currently do, but that's a post for another day.

Ocala Poker

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:54:00 +0000

On Sunday, I drove from a bachelor party weekend in Destin to Orlando for a week long business trip. I looked on the internet and found a poker room at the Jai-Alai place in Ocala where I could spend some time Sunday afternoon and evening.

The address didn't show in my GPS but I figured I would see some signs for it in Ocala. I apparently blew right past it and didn't start looking for it until I actually hit Ocala. Since it wasn't in my GPS I looked it up on the trusty iPhone and realized it was 15 miles back up I-75. According to the website, it is "located half way between Gainesville and Ocala." D'oh! Truth be told, I was distracted by all of the Cafe Risque billboards. So back the way I came for another 20 minutes and then I finally found the place. It is in the middle of nowhere but sure enough, they had 1/1, 1/2, and 2/5 games running.

I bought in for $100 at the 1/1 and immediately played 1 hand before getting moved to my seat at the 1/2. We had a couple of gamblers at this table that would see flops. One of the gamblers was pretty good and was running great. He was a young kid that used to deal there. He was good at extracting value and putting people on hands. He had the deadly combo of running great and getting paid. He flopped a set of kings 3 times in less than 2 hours and got paid every time. I didn't get involved in to many pots in the first hour or two and was slowly getting blinded away. I tried to steal some pots but usually got push off pots when I got a caller or 2 and then a raise. To induce a little more action or fight boredom, I started doing some straddles and that would build the pot a little better. My timing was pretty good because I was able to hit some good flops whenever I did straddle. This got me back over the original buy-in and then the heater began.

I'm in the big blind and we have some early position action with almost everyone calling behind so I complete with the almighty 4,7 offsuit. The flop comes out a terrific 4,4,7 with 2 diamonds. Weeeeeee! I do my usual early position check and let the action unfold. We get a bet, a raise, and a call by the time it gets to me. I grabbed some raising chips but then put them back and just called. Yikes, major tell there. I clearly wanted the diamond draw to come and I couldn't have advertised it any better. Sure enough, the turn brings the 3rd diamond. I check again to see how the flush draw that got there was gonna play. The first guy checks and the other gambling guy puts out a good size bet. The tightest player at the table is next to act and just calls. Now its to me and I have about $50 more left after I call so I go ahead and push all in. The gambling dude thinks for a bit and calls. Now it's to the tightest player at the table. He thinks for a couple of minutes and folds. We flip over our cards and he's got 4,6 and is drawing dead. He actually caught his boat on the river but mine was better. The tight player showed us the nut flush that he folded. Damn old rockie coots!

This put me back to being up slightly over a buy-in. After folding for the next 5 hand, I was ready to leave because I still had 1.5 hours to go to my hotel. I grabbed an empty rack to put my chips in after the next hand. I had 2 more free hands before I was big blind. I look down at UTG+1 and have 2 black Aces. I make it 11, a short stack behind me calls and the guy I just doubled through earlier makes it $25. I have about 210ish in front of me and am willing to just take this pot and book a +150 win for the night so I push. The shortie call his last 30 or so and the other guy thinks and finally calls. Fortunately, he had recently topped up and won a pot so he had over 200 total. The shortie has AJ and we all know what the poor bastard with the big stack had, KK. I quietly ask for my hand to hold. How many times have we lost it all on the "last hand" that we intended on playing, or the 1 after we should have quit? The flop is a wonderful wiff with no draws for either. The turn seals the deal with another ace and I rake one of the biggest pots of my life. I tip the dealer and tell him I'm done. I told the table that I wasn't hitting and running, it was already my last hand. They were cool with it and said they saw me grab the rack before the hand started.

I didn't play particularly well. I had too many tells that I caught myself doing and at least 2 of the other players saw them also. I did make some good laydowns and never really got myself in trouble. I was card dead for a while and bled down to a $40 or slightly below before I went on the heater by winning a couple of good pots and then the biggie.

Since I have a coworker riding back with me tomorrow and I'm so ready to be home, I will have to skip the Ocala Poker Room on the return trip. I don't expect to be back in the area any time soon, especially not by myself, so who knows when my next casino poker session will be. I was going to try to meet some friends over in Tunica, but the flooding has put those plans on hold for a bit. I will have to live vicariously through the bloggers that are in Vegas right now and follow the progress of the winner of our home game league that will be playing an event any day now. My 2% interest in him could be worth tens of dollars if all goes well.

Conclusion of Season 1 of Survivor Poker: Donkey Island

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:43:00 +0000

Well season 1 is in the books and I think it turned out great. My run came to end a couple of weeks ago when I wasn't able to survive my heads up match against SmBoatDrinks. I played it really hard but just could never put it away. I played both the nuts and rags for almost an hour before he finished me. I don't do alot of heads up play but I was very happy with my play. While we both had some suckouts, I was on the brutal side of too many to snag the victory.

I was able to finish the series off with a win in the dime rebuy. I had to pump 20 double rebuys in before I was able to hold on to a stack and then I went on a monster tear. In just a few hands, I went from 2,000 with a fresh rebuy to around 125K. Once I got that stack, I never looked back. Funny thing is, I wasn't able to build it up again too much until we lost half the players at the final table. I was able to keep taking enough pots to pay for the blinds and keep others from scooping too many pots. Not even I could blow a lead with a stack that big and eventually took the top prize which netted me almost 13 whole dollars, American even!

This was the game that would decide who would get the guarantee pay day. Simply put, the last of the two candidates standing would secured 40% of our Survivor's pool money. This came out to be a little over $120. With momentum from our heads up match and after VeryJosie decided to bring him to the final two, SmBoatDrinks was able to last longer than her.

After the tournament was over, Buddy was able to announce the voter's choice to receive 60% of our Survivor's pool good for a slightly less than $200. With a close vote, VeryJosie was crowned our first champion. Congratulations to both players.

Ahhh, what could have been? I had a real good shot at some of the prize pool. I certainly floundered in the beginning and was apparently clueless when the teams merged. That was when my immunity winning skills came to good use. I still can't help but wonder what would have happened if the 3 outers didn't hit so much during the heads up game. I could have also played a few hands better but looking back I realize what I did get out of it all. It was a nice mix of cashes, great conversations and I got to know XKM1245 and Turtle a little better. Hanging with Buddy, Jo, and Numbbono on BDR is always a treat and I hope I added to the entertainment.

A big thanks goes out to all of those that put this together and contributed extra dollars along the way - Buddy, Julius Goat, Heffmike, AlCantHang. I think we have begun to expect all of this free, extra money or at the very least we take it for granted. Whether there is a BBT6 or not, let's not forget BBT 1-5, the WPBT gathering goodies and what we got for Season 1 here. As part of the poker blogger community, we all know many people who are employeed by the major poker playing and reporting sites. Let's make sure we let them know how much we appreciate them and their companies throughout the year, not just during the freebie madness times.

Decision Time on Donkey Island

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Last night's game of the Survivor Poker Donkey Island was a wild one. It was a turbo format so it was expected for the action to go faster. It turned out, that we didn't need an accelerated blind schedule to have some big hands. Here are 2 of the craziest for the night. All the money was in preflop both times.

Fortunately for me, I wasn't involved in either of these pots. After these crazy hands, that left just Turtle and I battling for immunity. I've been on the chopping block for the past few events but have been able to be the last one standing and stay safe until the following event. I knew how important it was for me to outlast Turtle but it wasn't to be. TwoBlackAces was running like a God and when I did challenge him, he had my underpair in bad shape. I wasn't able to pull a Buddy and hit my out so that ended my night leaving Turtle with immunity.

With immunity granted, we were able to cast our votes to Buddy. The votes were read and the final tally was 3 votes for SmBoatDrinks and 3 for myself. Since there was a tie, he and I will battle it out in a $5 heads up match at 9PM EST tonight. The loser of this match will be the next player voted off of Donkey Island. I really think tonight's game will be the linchpin for the makeup of the final 3 players. This is the biggest event that has happened since the Goat slaughtering a few weeks ago.

See some of you tonight, and the rest I'll see you in the inagural Dank on Wednesday. Also, thanks to HeffMike for providing the great stats.

March Madness

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 05:28:00 +0000

After a very slow start to 2011, I have been crushing March. I'm 4 for 4 this month in home games and my last 2 Survivor series games. Skidoo and I chopped last night for roughly 100 a piece.

This gave me much needed immunity. We are to the point where it only takes one vote to swing the decision.

First Cash of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:27:00 +0000

I've only been playing bloggers games this year and have gone the big O-fer in cashing. That's especially bad when you are playing in a Survivor league with much better players. I've been in danger of getting voted off each week, but fortunately, things fell my way by either a team win, or a power struggle gone bad. Between my time on BDR and watching the scheming behind the scenes, this has been a really fun series.

Well, I was hit hard enough with the deck tonight to pull out not just a cash, but a victory. It was made even nicer thanks to AlCantHang and FullTilt. They provided a little gravy to our cutthroat contest. This was a multi-entry tournament and since I suck at multi-tabling, I just went for the 2 buy-in option. The highlight of the game was when BamBam pushed in to my four of a kind on the turn when we were heads up. Weeeeeee!

See ya in the Mook / Dank on Wednesday. Oh, and as a side note...... Daylight Savings Time blows! It's the dumbest thing right behind Columbus Day.

Hilarious Poker Videos

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 04:05:00 +0000

I'm addicted to these stupid things. I can't stop laughing.

We all know this guy:

Ahhhh, this reminds me of the good old days of blogging:

WPBT Recap Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:29:00 +0000

On Friday, Stacie, MIL, and I went over Henderson to meet my buddy and his wife for a kicking lunch at The Cracked Egg. After lunch, Chad showed me one of his newest toys. A beautiful supercharged Jaguar XKR. This thing is bad ass. The girls took the rental car back to the house while Chad and I hit the interstate for some mischief. I had a blast getting off at different exits and gunning it through the turns back on to the on ramps. The power in this beast was incredible. When we got back to his place, it was time to play around with his other new toy, a Ural with a sidecar. I have never driven a motorcycle with a sidecar on it so he did a lap with me to point out the behavior of the vehicle. After my quick checkride, I was on my own and headed around the neighborhood. It drives really weird and it took some getting used to. It pulls one way when accelerating and the other way when braking. Another thing to consider is the width. I'm so used to riding a motorcycle and spacing myself according, that I came within inches of smashing the sidecar in to our rental. I didn't even notice that I was close to crashing until Chad slowly shook his head after I parked. He just let out a little laugh and showed me how narrowly I avoided disaster.

After spending the day catching up, I took the Jag back down to the strip for one last ride. I gotta say, it didn't suck having that for transportation for the day. Once one the strip, Chad and I said our goodbyes and he took the car back home. I headed over to MGM for some blogger cash game action. I don't know enough of the games to sit down at "Table 16" but I there were plenty of friendly faces at the 1/2 game. I had already met DrChako at Mastodon Weekend in G-Vegas, but this time I got to meet Mrs. Chako aka TheWife. She was certainly as lovely as advertised. Nice ride, smokin' wife, loving family and great job. You won this one sir, but next time, I will beat youuuuuuuu! Sorry, I had Speed Racer stuck in my head. Anywho, back to poker. Like my session much earlier in the day, I was up a bit again courtesy of Skidoo. My set was able to hold against his flush draw. Unfortunately also like my early morning session, I bled away all of my profit and a slight bit of my original buy-in. I spent most of the evening sitting next to Mr. Staples rebate / MetsFan. His roadtrip to see the different sporting events and venues was pretty cool. The loud ass cowboy music and lack of good sleep were catching up to me so I headed back down the strip to my room at the IP. I wanted to have a decent amount of rest before the blogger tournament at Aria on Saturday.

WPBT Recap Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:01:00 +0000

The trip started Thursday afternoon with a slight delay due to a power outage at our gate. Travel tilt was starting to creep in but I didn't want to start the trip with a bad mood so I just focused on the good times ahead. Between late takeoff and the long ass trip to get our discount rental car, we got to the strip a little late. Even with the delays, I still had plenty of time to drop Stacie and her mom at Bally's and then head over to the Geisha Bar. This was the place to meet a ton of people and see some familiar faces. I'm really glad that I was able to make it for the Thursday night get together at the bar. This is a great start to the weekend and allows you to meet many cool people without the fear of losing money to the yet. Falstaff was kind enough to share his buckets with us and this helped fuel interesting conversations about trains and cabooses with Shelly. After years of internet chatting and Buddy Dank Radio time, I was able to meet Katitude, Joanada, and Buddy in person. They were as great as expected although Kat did scold me for my one armed hug. Note to self, put down drink next time and give wonderful people the proper hugs they deserve. My main drinking buddy for the night was NumbBono before he was escorted off and put to bed. He was cracking me up because about every 30 minutes he would look at me, put his hands on my shoulder and say "you're BrainMc, I can't believe your here." He's a good dude and lucky to have such a wonderful girl to put up with him and take care of him in his less than sober state.

I started to get the urge to play some cards, so I mosied over to the poker room on the other side of the Imperial Palace and took a seat with 23Skidoo, CK whose blog is now on lockdown :(, Bacon Bikini Mary, Falstaff, Metsfan, Lightning36, and others I'm missing. No real hands to note for the evening. I was up a bit for a while but called it a night around 4AM local time and finished down $40 for the night. It had been a long day and I was beat.

NumbBono put up a extensive recap post that includes links to other recaps here.

iPhone Or Not To iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:35:00 +0000

For years, I keep going back and forth on getting a smart phone. It has never been a need for me, simply a want. I almost bought an iPhone when the 3GS was released. The main thing that has kept me from buying one isn't the cost of the phone, it's the damn monthly fee. Anyone that knows me can tell you that I am a cheap bastard. The built in cameras sucked, I don't text and I didn't see myself accessing the internet enough at the time. I'm usually either at home or work so I could wait a few minutes and then log in from a computer. Now the cameras are decent and there are tons more apps that I am more inclined to use. Admittedly, access to Twitter during the WPBT December gathering are jump starting my desire again. I think I may actually do it this time. I have even been having the justification arguments with myself. "Screw it. I don't buy a cup of coffee every morning nor do I smoke, so I'm going to take that money I don't spend there and buy a data plan." Most places I'm in have wi-fi available that cuts down on the total data used per month and I once again find myself wanting one. I realize the iPod Touch would be the same thing without the 3G access, but I think I will find times when I won't have access to free wi-fi. I have also been told that I will find myself using it more often than I think when I actually have one.

While shopping for the phone, I have considered an Android based Motorola phone so I can have an actual better, you know, phone. The lack of a Netflix viewing app is keeping me from it. I know it's crazy, but this feature I would really use. I see the new Windows phone can do it, but I don't know anyone that has one so my local support group is non-existent. After talking with everyone that has an iPhone 3 or 4, I have found very few people that weren't enjoying theirs. Besides, billions of people can't be wrong can't be wrong, unless we are talking about religion.

Moab

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:26:00 +0000

Stacie and I spent Memorial Day week in Moab, Utah. We flew in to Salt Lake City on Saturday and then started the 4.5 hour drive south. We decided to stop halfway and stay in Price since it had already been a long travel day. The drive from SLC to Moab is beautiful and has elements that reminded us of Colorado and parts of California.

Once in Moab on Sunday morning, we started off by taking a short hike to Corona Arch. This was our first arch visit and we weren’t even in Arches National Park yet. Apparently, these things are quite common in the area. This was a great one to start our week. It was huge and as usual, there are other varieties of arches and formations very close. We finished the day hiking the Negro Bill Canyon Trail that leads to Morning Glory Arch. Most of the hikes we did were in areas of mainly sandstone and scrub brush except this trail followed a tributary of the Colorado River so there were multiple stream crossings and we were under shade trees for much of the hike.

Monday was our first day in Arches National Park. It is only a couple of miles outside of Moab and you are in impressive scenery within minutes. We did some great hikes over the next couple of days and saw cool things like the iconic Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch and Double Arch. Devil’s Garden Primitive Trail.

Later in the week we went to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. There weren’t many arches in this area, it was mainly about the deep Canyons that have been carved out by the Colorado River. The next day we hit up Dead Horse Point State Park which is in the same area, but had much nicer views. We did a big hike along much of the rim.

We finished the week back in Arches and did a little more hiking in Park Avenue.

Along with the great hiking, we had some killer meals. We didn’t eat anything fancy, but almost everything we ate had such great flavors. I don’t know if things were fresher or it was the seasoning they used but we were impressed with what was available.

We drove back to Salt Lake City on Friday and spent a few hours touring the Mormon Church campus before heading to our B&B. This place is mighty impressive. You can go through and tour just about everything but the Temple. It’s a members only sort of thing and since we weren’t Latter Day Saints we just get a smile and a polite “No.” While we were there, we saw multiple couples having their wedding pictures taken. They were churning out married couples like a factory.

The next morning, we caught our flight home and this year’s biggie vacation came to a close. I recommend Moab and the surrounding areas to anyone that enjoys being outdoors. Stacie wasn’t interested in any of the abundant 4X4 activities in the area so we stuck to hiking the trails. That was enough to fill most of a week and leave some downtime for relaxing. I could see myself going back for a long weekend with a group of guys and renting a Jeep for some off-roading and heading deeper in to some of the parks.

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Sat, 22 May 2010 04:02:00 +0000

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A Little Early I Know

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:40:00 +0000

I know it's a little early but I've already booked my room for the December WPBT gathering. Hopefully it is the same weekend as usual. I didn't get off my butt and take advantage of the good deal that Otis posted for MGM but I'm happy with the rate I got at Bally's. I'll keep checking and if it goes down, I'll just rebook.

When I have a few more Skymiles, I'll book the flights. Stacie is going to come out with me this time so she can meet and have some drinks with the folks I spend my internet time with. She is also combining this weekend with her annual Mother / Daughter trip. Her mother has never been to Vegas so we are bringing her along. Her mother is really looking forward to it. Vegas is such a great place to be a tourist and I think she will really enjoy having Stacie show her the sights. This will work out perfect for me as well because Stacie can have things to do while I play poker. I'm sure once we get out there, our schedules will be completely different. I joked with her that we will fly out together, hang with the bloggers on Thursday night and then see her again on the flight back to ATL.

BBT 5

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:57:00 +0000

A huge shoutout to AlCantHang and the gang at Full Tilt for hooking up the blogging community again. It just gets bigger and better each year.

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/bloggers-on-the-rail/battle-blogger-tournaments-5

Dagmar, The Avatar

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:51:00 +0000

While playing on Full Tilt, I noticed that one of the avatars looks exactly like the weather hottie (Dagmar Midcap) on one of our local stations. Maybe an animator was a fan of hers. Those of you north of the border may recognize her from back in the day when she used to host a car program on Canadian television.

Hollywood Casino

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:11:00 +0000

My brother and his family moved up to Cincinnati late last year and we scheduled a visit to coincide with a Spring wine festival for Stacie and Laura to attend. Friday afternoon, We took a quick flight up to the Cincinnati airport, which is actually in northern Kentucky and headed to their new house.

I had already mentioned to my brother that I would like to spend some time at Hollywood Casino and check out their WPT branded poker room. He and I headed out for a bite to eat and then made our way across town and in to Indiana on the other side of the river. The place was packed and we ended up parking on the top level of the parking deck. Real fun with the cold rain falling all night. I did a quick tour of the place and headed downstairs to the non-smoking section where the poker room was located. This place has recently been renamed and remodeled and I was very pleased with the look of it all. I was not impressed with actually getting a seat in a game. The staff at the check in desk weren't the friendliest or accommodating. It is a big room but half of the tables were empty. This wouldn't be a big deal, but there was a pretty long wait list and they weren't setting up any new tables. I guess it was because they were running sit-n-gos in the adjoining ballroom and that took up some of the dealers. We waited about 30-40 minutes and were both seated at a 1/2 table.

I don't think my brother had ever played 1/2 cash and after dropping a little less than $100 he decided to go play some 3 card poker and blackjack instead. When he left I was up a little and at one point had almost doubled my buy-in. As usual, I can spend 3-4 hours making money, but give away the night's profit and a chunk of my original buy-in with one hand. I still haven't decided if I made a mistake or not at the time, but either way, it didn't work out. I eventually pissed away the rest of my stack in the next hour or so. Lessons learned and I will definitely be back the next time I visit.

Another advantage of visiting Cincy was the opportunity to hang with Iggy for the second weekend in a row. Saturday night, my brother and I dropped our wives off at the wine festival downtown and met up with him for dinner at The Senate Pub. I ate the most expensive grilled cheese I have ever had but man was this sandwich tasty. Fortunately for me, they were out of the meat that normally goes on the sandwich and substituted spare or short rib meat. Personally I think this is how they should always serve it compared to the more fatty meat that it normally contains. After dinner and conversation we all headed to a Bengal's bar for some drinks and a few rounds of pool. This gave me a good couple of hours to get to know the Blogfather a little better. As many of you know, he is a great guy and easy company. Unfortunately we had to make the evening shorter than I wanted because we had to pick up the girls from the convention center. We headed back to the house and jetted out the next afternoon.

Mastodon Weekend Recap

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:38:00 +0000

If you plan it, they will come. Here are some flashes of activites from the weekend:

Showed up in time to see the next card game craze, Big Duece, courtesy of Dr. Pauly.

Got busted in the 2nd level of the awesome tournament by the sex offender that looked like Charlie from Lost. Congrats to Otis and BadBlood for going heads up.

Won a buyin at the cash game. I had to swap stacks with CK to do it. I have never played so aggressive in my life, but she can push you to do it. I look forward to some Venetian time with her in late July.

Just my luck, I had to sit next to Nikki in the tournament and later in the cash game. Damn, this young lady is hot! Unfortunately for some of us, she knew how to play poker as well. Not only was she obviously smokin' but she was as sweet as can be. She and her husband, Jeff, really treated us well with their Bustout Poker gear, catering, and cash addition to the prize pool.

I played my first ever round of frolf. G-Rob, Drizz, TripJax, 23Skidoo, Bobby Bracelet, and Pauly were the lucky witnesses to my fantastic disc throwing abilities. Apparently, my throws are calibrated to the 20-30 footers that I do with my dog in the back yard. Beyond that, they shoot way left and quickly seek the ground. I got more distances on rolls and bounces than I did on the actual flight of the disc. We bruised many a tree that day. Somehow, Trip managed to start behind the tee.....twice! Pauly was able to do the exact same shot 3 time in a row on one hole. He'd throw it and it would hit a tree, bounce off and roll straight in to the creek. When he conceded the hole, Bobby threw his disc back to him and it went right off of his fingers to end up back in the creek. 4 times on the same hole, that's gotta be a record. Here is Pauly's video:

Prop bets won: 1 with CK. I went 4 for 4 on blind picking out each person's bill when the waitress laid a stack of them on the table.

Prop bets lost: 2. Paid off Pauly for his frolf win. Paid off Bobby Bracelet for his 3 shot run in pool. Well done.

Shared a slice with CK while taking a break from the trivia / pub crawl. Major highlight.

Watched Bobby Bracelet in action with the ladies. His opening? Boldly retelling how he had been so drunk last time, the he boned a chick for 2 days and didn't realize how ugly she was until he finally started to sober up. If that's not convincing enough to the ladies, he described in detail her lack of grooming standards. The descriptive terms "thigh stubble," "huge 70's jungle bush," and something about a basketball star "in a headlock down there" were used. But, he maintains "she had nice tits."

Shared a room with TripJax and 23Skidoo. These 2 were either wasted or hungover the entire time I saw them.

Made plans to have a beer with Iggy this Friday while I'm in his hood.

Put a smiling face to a name for some bloggers that I have played against or read about for years. In addition, I met some awesome new folks. Shout outs to: The Mark, Teresa, Lee, CaityCaity, Pebbles and Bam Bam, Curtis, Boy Genius, Tim, Dr Chako, Heather, StB, Wes, Mrs. BadBlood and her drunk ass friend, and of course the man of the hour and the reason we took the field, Al.

How can I not make this a yearly stop on the blogger tour? It's so close and the company can't be beat. I'm thinking the Chicago folks need to get something going as well.

Money Questions

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:36:00 +0000

Forgive my ignorance, but I’ll never know if I don’t ask. I have some questions about different types of compensation for poker players. This may be a good topic for the boys at Gambling Tales to discuss on their next podcast.

Years ago when I first started watching poker, it was just the final tables of the WPT and WSOP Main Event. I’m sure just being on TV was a thrill and it helped make some of these guys rich and famous. That was before the days of NASCAR like logos and advertising on players. Now there are tons of new shows that aren’t just broadcasts covering poker but are shows created for the sole intent of airing. As a player, how do they make it worth their while? It is my understanding that for the WSOP and WPT, you sign waivers and receive no additional compensation from ESPN or the network du jour that is broadcasting the WPT. If you are lucky enough to make it to a TV table there seem to be 1 day deals for wearing patches or hats, but those come from the poker sites. What about shows like Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker? On PAD, each player puts up $20K in a winner take all format. Are they really putting up $20K of their own money? If so, are they getting paid something different for their appearance on the show? Otherwise, why do it? I realize it’s just a big commercial for Full Tilt but they don't all play for FT. On HSP and some episodes of PAD, it is strictly cash games. What is the advantage of playing on TV versus just doing it in Bobby’s Room? Does it avoid the rake? How much is the rake on these big games anyway?

Speaking of the pros, what is given to the ones that sign sponsorship deals? What is a ballpark figure for the salary of a pro? Do they get tournament buy-ins and travel on top of that? How long will Chris Moneymaker remain a PokerStars pro? I can only imagine the tax nightmare for the players that constantly have prop bets and win money in multiple countries.

Another subject I curious about is players backing other players. What is the proper distribution of prize money when you have financial backers? Is some ratio of % of the buy-in equal to a % of the amount won? I was kind of thinking 100% buy-in gets 50% of the prize and 50% buy-in gets 25%. How do you report that on taxes if it is a large enough amount to worry? Can the prize money be issued to multiple people at the time of collection like lottery winners?

To help put myself in a postion to have these worries, I joined 9 other guys and we are each contributing $180 to a pool. The person with the most points over 12 games in 2010 will get the $1800 to enter a WSOP bracelet game (1500 or 1000) and some cash. The other 9 will split 20% of the after-tax winnings if the person cashes. I’m not expecting to be in the large prize money situation, but it is coming up more as we start hitting more tournaments and are interested in buying pieces of each other.

I realize this was a bunch of rambling questions and I'm thankful any info you can give me to satisfy my curiousity. Also any advice about the financial backing would be appreciated.

WBCOOP Time

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:42:00 +0000

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers, you too can take part by registering on WBCOOP

Registration code: 554151

Cherokee

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:48:00 +0000

I took my confidence up to the Harrah’s Cherokee poker room the weekend before Christmas. I was originally going to drive up Friday after work and stay until Sunday morning, but when making my reservations, I decided to drive up Saturday morning and just spend Saturday night. What a great decision that turned out to be due to the snow storm that hit the area Friday night. The roads were clear Saturday but I counted almost 20 cars that were stuck or abandoned in the fairly short distance from the NC state line to Cherokee. While driving in Georgia, the sun was shining and I had no idea that I would even see snow on this trip. That all changed as soon as I was about ¼ mile in to NC. It was bizarre, I looked in the rear view mirror and could see bright sun shining on the Georgia side with no snow anywhere, but on the NC side, it was grey with snow all over the ground.

The first thing I did when I hit Cherokee was head to Pizza Inn to get my beloved Taco Pizza and as usual, it didn’t disappoint. I had a great waitress and she kept me hooked up and even brought me 4 pieces of chocolate chip pizza for dessert. I could only eat 2, but she was sweet for trying.

After lunch, I checked in to my room and then drove a mile up the road to Harrah’s. It has changed so much since we buzzed through it some time last year. The new lodging portions under construction look like it triple its current size within 2 years. The poker room is easy to get to from the side and you don’t have to walk through the smoking section. They have 5 or 6 PokerPro cardless tables by PokerTek.

I went to the cage and loaded $400 on to my players card and sat down at a 1/2 table. I bought in for $100 to get a feel for the game. Half the table were regulars and all had more than a buy-in in front of them so I decided to wait for premium hands. Apparently, that’s not what is necessary to build your stack at this table. My first buy-in plus early profit went to the one of the old timers after we had a 3 way all-in pot while I’m holding pocket aces. His pocket sixes caught up on the river after our money was in on the flop.

Reload again and burn through most of that one with pocket kings that fell to 3 of a kind on the turn or rivered flush, I’m not sure. I gave the rest of my stack away when I pushed with pocket queens preflop and they get crushed by A6. Reload again and work my stack up to about $120. 2nd to act makes it 12 or 15 preflop and I call with AK. The guy to my left and 1 other calls as well. The flop comes A, J, 10 and the intial bettor throws out $50. I have 2 choices, fold or push. I’m thinking this is just a continuation bet, so I throw in my last hundredish. The guy to my immediate left min raises. Uh oh! The next guy agonizes and then folds and it’s back to the original raiser. He goes all in. Double Uh oh! and is immediately called. So I know I’m up against at least 1 set and probably 2 pair. The virtual cards are flipped over and sure enough, I’m in 3rd place but not drawing dead. It turns out the initial bettor flopped a set of jacks and the guy behind me had K,Q for the straight. I’m looking for 3 outs for a chop with my top pair top kicker. The straight holds up and I sink my last $100 in for another buy-in.

A different one of the regulars had run his stack up to $1200 thanks to flopping 2 flushes and a straight, but he was bleeding them off easily. I was really hoping I could use my last buy-in to get my share. I folded my way down to around $80 and then get pocket jacks. I raised it up to $10 and get 3 callers. Oh joy. The flop comes 6,J,6. Oh joy indeed. I check and then the next guy takes a stab. He gets called by the next 2 so when it comes back to me, I just shove my last $70. One guy drops, but the other 2 call. My hand holds up and I’m sitting with almost $250. I wasn’t able to do much more after that and I finally cashed out when my stack was back down to $200 even. That made me a $200 loser over the 8 hours of play, but other than maybe the AK hand, I think I did everything pretty solid against these guys. As I was leaving, I glanced over at the previous big stack and he was now down to $400 and getting attacked by the other stacks. I had had enough for the day and couldn’t hang around any longer to try and get more.

I am going to try to try and hit the casinos in Tunica,Biloxi, and Cherokee more often next year. Most likely, my next trip to a casino will be in southern Indiana. My brother and his family just moved to Cincinnati, so it looks like I will be able to check out a mid-western casino this spring. He and I will hit up Hollywood Casino and their new WPT poker room. It looks like they do $1/3 NLHE. The next closest to him is the Belterra Casino. It does a $1/2 NLHE with a $50 min and $300 max buy-in. The Horshoe is just a little bit further and does $1/2 and $1/3.

End Of The Year Poker

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:45:00 +0000

For 2009, I was able to keep poker as a hobby that continues to pay for itself. My last 2 live sessions unfortunately didn’t help pad the 2010 bankroll.

I bubbled the Georgia boys’ “Main Event” earlier in the month. That’s too bad, because it could have funded most of my 2010 games over at Kajagugu’s neighborhood. I was very happy with the way I played and it help me feel like my 2009 success was not just a streak of good luck. With 4 of us left and me barely with the second largest stack, I raised with pocket jacks preflop from the button. The small blind reraises. His total stack has about 3 big blinds less than me and if I fold or just call, I still have about 10 big blinds left. On the previous hand, he had just knocked out “Main Event Mike” when his A8 bested Mike’s pocket queens. With this in mind, I decided to just call and hope no paint comes on the flop. The flop comes out and there is nothing higher than a 9 on the board. He is first to act and shoves all-in. I got the flop I wanted and put him on a A high, maybe top pair, top kicker so I call. It was the correct call as he had AK. I had to sweat the next 2 cards but couldn’t stay ahead as he hits a K on the river. I unsuccessfully pushed with my short stack on the next hand and got eliminated on the bubble. It was a bummer, but I gave it my best and I’ve put worse beats on others this past year.

I will finish the year by playing in the Mookie tonight. This will mark only my second appearance in this game for all of 2009. The other time was back in May. I must play more often in 2010. This isn’t a resolution as much as a revelation that I played very little blogger games this year. I genuinely like most of the players and I love joining Buddy (damn, it's been a while, all my links are dead) and Joanada on the air. I guess the biggest reason I play so little is the toll it takes on me the next day if when I go deep and it kills my necessary sleep time. I realize that makes me a wuss, but it’s true. I am too susceptible to headaches as it is and getting little sleep is a sure fire way to bring one on. This time I have Thursday off, so naturally I’ll go out in the first level. See you there........OK, after looking at the lobby this morning, I take it I'm not the only one who is missing from these games lately. Hopefully more will sign up and I can catch up with some bloggers.

Next post – Cherokee.

Home Game Success

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:43:00 +0000

Wow, I think November was the first time I haven't blogged for an entire month. I guess since I've joined Twitter, I get out my little smart ass remarks and don't come here as often. The other reason is quite frankly, I've really got nothing much going on right now.

I was really hoping to make it to Vegas next week for the Winter WPBT Event, but it's not going to work. I already had it scheduled as vacation but didn't have the trip booked. When I was ready, Stacie said she couldn't commit because she was concerned that she was going to have to help her mom after her surgery. Fortunately, her mother didn't need surgery so it looked like the trip was back on, but heavy spending in November killed it from a financial perspective. We made alternate plans and will do a staycation for our long weekend and do some Atlanta stuff like seeing the DaVinci exhibit at the High. Next year, I am just going to go ahead and book the flight as soon as it dips below $300 and just deal with other things if they come up. It's just too easy to talk ourselves out of spending more money after paying for expensive house and car maintenance items.

It might be just as well that I'm not going anyway because my lucky poker streak may be nearing the end. I played in the regular game with Kajagugu last night and I chopped for most of top place in the first game along with collecting 4 bounties and getting to keep my own. This put me on a freeroll for the second game but I didn't cash. This ended my sick run of winning or chopping for first in 7 of the last 7 home games in his neighborhood and mine. I finally came back to reality when I didn't even cash in the second game. I really hope the no cash was just a fluke, because my neighborhood is having our higher buy-in Main Event this afternoon and it should be a decent prize pool. I already jinxed myself when I made a comment after the first game so I figured it is safe to blog about it now. I was bragging and then was immediately smited.

Since I am not going to Vegas and I have a few extra dollars in my poker fund, I think I will make a run up to Harrah's Cherokee some time before Christmas. The have a good size poker room that only has the video tables, but I have heard it's a good opportunity to make a little dough and it's smoke free. They still don't serve alcohol and I don't know if that will change. I don't care that I can't drink, but I wonder how it affects the play at the table. It's always great to see the drunk guy keep reloading. Hopefully they will come premedicated or just bring their own mixers like their going to a football game. Speaking of football, I must with Stacie's Clemson Tigers good luck today in the ACC Championship. It was great to see them make it, but they have a tough game against Bayne's Yellow Jackets.

Fantastic Birthday Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:47:00 +0000

It wasn’t done specifically for any celebratory reasons, but last weekend turned in to a birthday weekend full of fun activities. I began the beginning of my 40th year by cashing in both games at Kajagugu’s neighborhood. That was a nice boost to the live bankroll and I cleared enough to pay my buy-ins for the next 3 months with 2 games each night. During football season, the games in my neighborhood dry up so I really look forward to spending the evening with the EG friends once a month.

Saturday was spent chilling around the house watching football and playing small stakes cash games online. Auburn was able to extend their undefeated season under our new coach. That was subsequently squashed yesterday against Arkansas but I’m still pleased so far. We need a ton of work, but they have proven that the are capable of putting lots of points on the score board.

Speaking of small stakes poker, I rarely can clear any bonus programs that online poker sites run because I don’t play enough when it comes to time or the monetary stakes it takes to accumulate points. Another reason is because I haven’t needed to deposit to PokerStars or FullTilt since my initial deposit to each several years ago. FullTilt did have a Take 2 promotion that didn’t require any deposit to qualify. It was the easiest I have ever participated in because it had such easy terms. I didn’t play quite enough to take full advantage, but I did make $25 of the $50 available. To do it, I played less than 1 hour a day at (2) .02/.05 games at the same time for as many days as I could. I was able to reach the 3rd level by playing 15 of the 30 days. I didn’t realize I was making enough points while playing on my lunch hour so I let some days slip. If I had been paying more attention, the full $50 would have been very easy just by playing 25 of 30 days. I’ve now signed up for the Ivey’s share thing they have going, so we’ll see what that will get me.

Sunday was a full day. It started with me going to Best Buy and picking up my birthday present. I got a Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray player. I am totally digging on this player. It has great load speed along with Netflix, You Tube, and Pandora applications that I can take advantage of since my router is very close to my big screen set up in the bonus room. I have been watching this model since it came out earlier this year but I wasn’t willing to pay over $200 for it. A couple of weeks ago, everybody lowered the price to 199.99 and Wal-Mart even had it for 189.99 I think. Since it wasn’t a must have purchase, I figured I would wait until Black Friday and see what specials could be had. I was willing to wait, but Best Buy had the player with a $50 gift card for 199.99 so I figured that was about as good as it was going to get. I used the gift card to replace a dead UPS and picked up The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray.

In addition to taking most people’s money on Friday night, I was given 2 tickets to the Braves’ season ending game at home. When I got back from Best Buy, I joined Kajagugu, Kajakid, 2 other dads from the poker game along with their kids and we motored down to the ball park. We had a great time but had to leave a little early due to some other party commitments for Kajagugu. We were there long enough for me to get my smiling mug up on the big screen. We left during the 7th inning and the score was tied. I give the players a ton of credit because the game ended up going 15 innings. This was the last game of the year and they still gave the fans more than their money’s worth. Well done fellas.

I got home in time to head to dinner at one of my all time favorite restaurants, Kobe Steaks. You can’t beat their fried rice with bucket loads of the chili paste. I usually order double on the fried rice and this gives me to save for another meal with a little bit of the filet and vegetables I have left. I’ve been to other Japanese steak houses but this one is still the tops for me. It was a fantastic ending to a fabulous weekend that fell perfectly in to place.

Historic Flooding And Words From a Jackass

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:57:00 +0000

We had rainfall that measured in feet over the weekend and it caused severe flooding in and around Atlanta with 10 confirmed deaths so far . Our neighborhood is near the Chattahoochee River, but we were never in any danger of having any flood damage at our house since we live on a ridge that overlooks the city. It was still bizarre to watch the news and see all of the damage that is only a few miles from our house in multiple directions. Our county and the 2 neighboring ones are going to account for about $250 million in damage. At one time we had 3 separate interstates closed because they were completely submerged by flowing rivers. At one point, the DOT was actually reporting fish on the interstate.

I have a preferred route that I get to and from work, but it was closed until this afternoon. Luckily, my secondary route wasn't affected and it didn't add but about 5 minutes to my commute. I was able to take my normal route home and was amazed to see the high water marks on the trees and bridge supports.

We've now had a few days of sunny skies but we could have some more coming this weekend, but it isn't expected to be any where near the amounts we had last weekend. Thankfully, we have Kanye to put it in to perspective.

Who Watches My Chips?

noreply@blogger.com (BrainMc) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Stacie went to Charleston with her best friend over the long weekend and that left me home alone to hang with the fellas for a couple of nights of poker. Kajagugu kicked things off Friday night with a couple of 10 man tourneys. I followed up with a .25/.50 cash night at my place on Saturday after the boys finished watching the Dawgs lose to OSU.

Surflexus, who hasn't blogged in over a year now, joined us for some card action Friday night. He got knocked out of the first game and joined the other early victims who were jamming to Rock Band. Those that have been to Okie-Vegas know that Surf can rock the mic, but did you know he can play piano as well? What a Renaissance man! I was not able to join the band, not that I wanted to, because I was the chip leader in the game. When we got down to 3, we just couldn't kill the short stacked Paul. As we usually do, we decided on a chop so we could get to the second game. We split up the prize pool and I took a 20 spot higher than the other 2 since I had them both covered. I didn't cash in the second game, but I still cleared a profit for the night.

That leads us to Saturday night at my place. I wanted to host a cash game with blind levels a little higher than we normally do. 9 disappointed UGA fans joined me to tilt away their money. I was able to run my stack up to over a hundred due to some more than usual aggressive play and I have been trying to maximize my pots. My new style of play was working well until I tangled with the other big stack at the table. My new found aggressive behavior took me just a little too far when I semi-bluff reraised all in with a flopped 2 pair. He snap calls and shows the flopped straight. I get no paired board love and kiss away roughly 125 on that hand. Why did it have to be against the only other player at the table who could bust me? Because I got greedy that's why. I could have easily folded to his reraise. So did I learn my lesson? Of course not, I gave him my next buyin when I pushed with KK against another one of his reraises on the flop. He turns over another flopped straight and this time I'm drawing dead. Hey, it's 1:30 in the morning and I've lost 2 buy-ins. Screw being a good host, get out! Just kidding, they played it out until roughly 2 and then we called it a night. While I wasn't happy about kissing away a nice stack at the cash game, I managed to keep the weekend to a loss of only 60 bucks. That was well worth the price of admission for a couple of nights with good friends playing a game I love.

The only other thing of note I did over the weekend was watching Watchmen. Really good flick. If you have a spare 3 hours, you should check it out. I knew almost nothing about it so it was it was a pleasure to see it live up to the fanboy hype. I may have to check the library to see if they have a copy of the graphic novel. Hopefully my county is not too Puritan to keep such a piece from their collection.