Squirrel Surfing

As I was sitting, watching the shore break, it dawned on me. Was this shoreline any more or less beautiful than Waikiki? I was there last summer, and yes, with no question, outright righteous.

True, there were even more wonderous parts of Hawaii. To compare I could not even begin to do simply due to these, as I have outlined:

1. Such same peace of mind
2. Same people I am comfortable with. i.e. love of sports, weather, geography, points of interest, etc.
3. Clean streets
4. Clean buildings
5. A few nice looking elligible, potentional, participants for my woman-looking-for-as-a-le-pardneroess, list.
6. All necessary hardware/grocery needs one could ever need
7. Clean water
8. A natural surrounding that is unparallel to anything I have seen before.

However the surf is smaller here. It is surf, no question. In fact there is this break, just off the road, north of the Comfort Inn, its a perfect a smoothy-righty, if say you were a squirrel. I've seen dogs surf. And a squirrel water ski actually.

The waves do not seem to be constant though. I figure, they must primarily be either wind or boat initiated.
The clarity of the water also took me by surprise. All the great lakes are huge. And, well, they are called great. It is surprising to me how such a mass stays so clean. I guess its just me, and seeing the Pacific so often. All places I have scoped out the clarity of the ocean, ranging from Rosarita, Mexico to Seattle, Washington, is nothing but a greenish... mostly greenish that is, to blueish, soupy mix of salt and thousands of years of tiny dead things. Not that its gross. I'll swim in any of it. Well, except for, right near Tiajuana. F that. (As I've recently been taught to say) Nonetheless, not so clear really. Mostly Non-scubable.
Here it is clear.


But there are also huge islands, very close to shore. It appears at night, as if all are also thier own town. Boat traffic is very light throughout the day, and every day. Just a small fishing community actually. There is a small tide that comes in and out each day. No more than a rise and fall of a few feet at most. Some shores are just large, round, smooth, stones. Mostly grey, with some tans in the bunch. Some other shores are cliffs, of the same shades. Mostly limestone I believe. The rest, highly hardened bedrock. I could be wrong about the composition though. I'm not a geoligist.

But I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. Actually, thats not true. But I did stay next door to a Holiday Inn last night. What if I stayed here for a year? Just roamed the lakes in my ocean going like vessel. High captain of the open seas. Without all the risk of the real seas. Sounds great. Sign me up. I'd like a jet ski too please.

I may. I might.
If I continue to win money, why not? Maybe get a job, maybe not.
Watch cartoons all day, on my 70foot yacht...

Right now though, I can imagine those squirrels have a great time.

Poker, Pizza, Politics and a Taco Salad

Last night I jumped into an online $100 buy in tourney. With 50 something total entrants, the competition was stiff. I've certainly noticed, the higher the buy in, always, the better the players. At the 2 hour turning point, there were 12 people left and I was in fourth place. I think I got tired and a little soft. I took 12th. I would detail the downfall, but it all happened so fast. Some speculation, and some overplayed medium hands. Oh well.

Again though, I have somehow turned it around. An hours worth of work at an online 5-10 table netted me $176 this morning.

In other news, I have discovered not only the best pizza I have ever had, but also maybe the best cup of coffee I have ever experienced. B.C. Pizza deserves much props. Super quick delivery, non-greasy, and all fresh vegatables do not say enough about how this place has it right. They also have a great taco salad. ( I need my ruffage, ok?!!)
Another place worth visiting if ever in this neck of the woods, is Java Joes. Joe will hook you up. And he's a heckuva cool guy, willing to shoot the breeze about anything. We discussed California, his local politics (he's on the county board, I think he said) and just how great this area is.

I don't think I can really fully describe just how relaxed this whole area really is. Perhaps its the time of year, after the tourist season, and with the weather still enjoyable. Either way, I highly recommend stoping in one day. I know I will certainly be back.

Here forward, I plan to hit up Kewadin Shores once more for thier Sat. noon poker tourny, and then its westbound. I'm not sure if I can get to Minneapolis/St.Paul in half a day or not. Another option is to check out an 'ol high school bud who is now living it up Wisconsin style.

For the rest of the day, I'm leaning towards ... staring out the window for a while.

And then, I dunno, maybe around 3 or so, I think I'll grab a mocha and see what Joe is up to.

Full Boat on Lake Huron

Today I'm feeling great. Last night, not so much.

Around 5pm I headed in the direction of the Kewadin Shores Casino, located here in the beautiful upper peninsula town of St. Ignace, Michigan.It was my second night in a row attending thier 6pm poker tournament. Which was very beneficial to get to know some of the local players. The night before I made it to the final table, only to bust out in some non-exciting fashion. Net loss $30.

With newly found determination, I walked in and got to work. Slowly earning chips to a count of 6500, from an original 1500, I felt I was doing well. However I feel it must be said, the tournys these guys run are awfully generous to early risk takers. They have unlimited rebuys for $10 anytime your under 1500 chips while in the first hour. Thus anyone with a pocket full of cash can stick around in the first hour, hoping to suck you out on any one of a number of different long shots. Additionally, they have what they call a "Dealer ReBuy," which is an additional 1000 chips for $5. The point being, to help dealers make some tippage. But it doesn't stop there. They also have a one time only "All-In" rebuy, for $10 to get your original 1500 back. And to top it off, after that first hour you can fork over another $20 for an "Add-On" of 3000 chips. The long and short of it is, more money is put in the overall prize pool, but it makes the first hour of play much more hectic and absurd.

Fine, however they want to structure it is fine with me, I feel, as long as I physically feel fine. Which I did not. As I mentioned, I left around 5pm, and without eating any dinner. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, I can handle any mild hunger cravings. But, unfortunately for me, I've recently been prescribed anti-biotics for an inflammed in-grown hair. (totally sucky) And as a requirement for these little foul smelling pills, is that you take them on a full stomach.
I thought I would be ok. I had a decent lunch, and I was drinking a lot of water to help the situation. And as I said, I was doing fine for a while, until the headache came on. And it came hard. Temple rubbings, toe curling, and all the slow deliberate breathing did not help. But my soldier mentality told me to tough it out. After all, I had a decent chip stack, and a good handle on the players at the table.

Then, I got stuck. I held an A of diamonds and an 8 of hearts. With two of us in the flop came 5-6-7, all diamonds. The other dude checks first, I bet 900 chips. He raises to 2000. And in my shoes, I got an open ended straight draw, and the nut flush draw. Its not necessarilly a good early tourny move, but I go for it.I call. The turn comes A of clubs. Great I think, now I also got top pair. Dude bets 3000. Tough situation here. I quickly add up my outs. If he only has two pair, I have smething like 20 outs (cards that can help me). Any diamond (9 more left) any 4 or 9 to make my straight (8 of those), any 8 to give me two pair (3) or any other ace (2). And honestly, at the time I really figured he had the flush already. All my years of finely honed human/poker observation told me so. (after the hand, he showed that he did indeed flop the flush, king high) This left me with one shot at one of those diamonds. I'd like to believe that if my head was clear and headache free, I'd lay it down.
River came up something other than what I was hoping for. He went all in, and I had to fold. I still had chips and a chair, but I was crippled. Then, it got worse.

I hung around until after the first hour break, and bought another 3000 chips for $20. My stack was now around 4500, but the big blinds were up to 2000, effectively leaving me two more hands. After relentless 2-7s and 3-8s, I found myself posting the big blind with another garbage hand, just as my belly began to grumble. I was going to hurl, and please God, not during my blinds. The small blind called and checked at an excruciating slow pace for the entire hand. He took the pot, I posted my small blind and immediately left the room. I opened the bathroom door, took two steps, saw a trash can and launched chunks like an NBA free throw. (not Rick Barry style, more Shaq like) I hunched over the can for a few minutes, washed my face, and regained my composure. I stopped by the gift shop for a pack of double mint gum. Chomping heartily on the minty freshness, I took my seat and prenteded everything was normal. I'm not sure if it worked, perhaps not.
In the end, I was forced to go all in with a decent K-9 vs. A-J. No one paried and that was it. Net loss $50.

But today got better. I played some 15-30 online, and after half an hour of hovering around even, I caught 10s full of aces to rake in $180 over my buy in.

Then, just now, The Chisox clinched the central.
Damn those antibiotics, but I don't care, life is good.

OK, Screw it... maybe I am "Matter of Fact"

I decided late last night, that this blog will be composed in part, on my current poker ventures. But only because I seem to be maintaining a pretty high win ratio. Also, it will serve my own purpose of documenting my winnings. So, if I start losing, it will be clear and obvious, that I need to change hobbies, or at least change my poker strategy. Not that I doubt my own ability to gauge my success/failure, its just that in a game that certainly has an element of luck to it, streaks of two days, followed by a converse streak of three days, completed by another streaky streak, can well... blur into one another.

Anyways, today I played a tournament online. It was a 24 dollar buy-in with 110 entrants. The prize pool was a gauranteed $3,500. 1st would take something around a thousand, 2nd $600 or so, and scaling back proportionally as one placed lower in the final standings. I took 102nd. So that sucked. Here's the story.
I had A-J off suit, and raised $125 of my begining 1500 chips. Everyone folds except for some blow hard who kept his 7-8, also off suit. The flop rolls a 3-7-10. (suits inconsequential) I fire off 400, figuring no one would call 125 and have any of those cards, except maybe a ten. And, I would of course find out if he re-raised. Now, this is not always the case, some people are sneaky. In fact, its best to be sneaky actually. But I'd like to think I had my "feelers" on.

In any event, he calls my 400. At this point, you may wonder, why would he call such a high bet? Good question... follow along. Next, the turn gives me my ace. I immediately bet another 400. He, just as quickly calls. :(

I'm worried now. The river card makes the board 3-7-10-A-8. No flush, and a remote chance at a straight. But keep in mind, he would have to have called my preflop raise with a J-9. And then call a high bet after the flop with an inside straight draw (meaning the middle card of the straight was missing. And, usually only inexperienced players do this. A much better odds advantage is an outside draw, meaning you have four connectors ((e.g. 2-3-4-5, thus eight cards in the deck could help, versus only four for the inside variety)).

Other possibilities for him, would be if he held a pocket pair and caught trips.
I guess I was willing to gamble on this.

Knowing I hold a pair of aces, with a solid kicker, coupled with the fact that I only have 500 in chips left, I put out what I consider a sucker bet. That being, a low bet, to sucker him in. This is great to pull in an inexperienced player if they dont have a strong hand, and great for scaring away a veteran) He calls. His two pair, of course put my aces to shame.
In all my days of playing, its always the newbie players who really dont know what they are doing, who make the worst bad beats, defying all odds and logic to sweep up huge pots.
Of course, these are the guys you want to play with in the long run. But it still hurts.

I soon thereafter, somehow floundered my remaining chips.

Oh well though, I decided to play some 2-4 limit on a live cash table. It took me about 20 mintes to lose my 40 dollar buy in. But I rebought and in another 20 minuted cashed out for $100 even. Net gain, one Andrew Jackson.

I played the 2-4 only because there was nothing higher with an open seat. So, after a rousing episode of Scooby Doo on the tube, (ya, they caught the ghost impersonating bandits) I found an 8-16 table, with only one dude there. Straight up, heads up.
Hmm, I thought, I guess I could work on my final table skillz. He had $160, I had $160. No more than an hour later, I had his $160.

Net gain on the day, $180. Time, 12:47pm.

I swear to the big guy in the big house, I could live off of $180 a day. And nobody can beat the hours or the commute!!

Ok, well gotta go, Tom and Jerry is on. And you know that dang the Jerry is always up to something.

On second thought...

The test ran fine, looks good, but the question remains: what will this blog be about?
Of the leading ideas so far, none strike me over the head.

Perhaps though I could document all of my poker playing escapades.
But I dont want to come across as shallow and matter-a-fact, as much of what gambling is.
I could easily pour all of my spiritual and religious beliefs into smallish, type-written words (maybe in a fancy old English font) that would inevitably display my broad universal understanding and humble approach. But I dont want to sound like a ... well you know.

I could go the "Daily News" route, and tell all of what I've done through out the day. But I dont think anyone gives a shit what I ate for breakfast, or how I successfully managed the day without actually having any clean socks. Although, both were very newsworthy unto themselves.
And of course, there is the "Weekly Update" version of the "Daily News" route. Here, I could summarize the Mon-Fri chronicles, with maybe a special Weekend Feature full of flair and funny, anectdotal, feel good items.
However, I dont want to be a Ted Koppel, or Entertainment Tonight.

In truth, I want to be a blend of sorts. Like when Rocky met Adrian, or when Bill and Ted had thier most excellent adeventure. Firguratively speaking of course. If ever though, I do indeed travel through time you can be sure it will be posted.

First Thoughts

Monday, 1:49am. For the most part, this is a test.