I almost never write blogs at home these days but after reading a few good ones from other people (tommy angelo and doyle brunson) I'm a little bit motivated. I also don't want to finish packing as that would make too much sense. My ski stuff is ready and most of my clothes but the finishing touches are always saved for the last minute. I don't have to leave for an hour and fifteen minutes. Plenty of time. I'll shower when I get done with this.
LA was a reletive disaster. It really couldn't have gone much worse (other than being irresponsible and tilting off even more money) but I lost more than any other trip I've taken and was not a great start to 2009. BUT. I always try to look at things with a positive light and maybe it was almost a good thing as it's gonna make me wanna just grind out the low limits and not be stressed out by poker for awhile so the next couple months should be pretty nice. It'll still be hard to avoid some of the good bigger games but aside from a little dabbling here and there I'm really going to try to stick to my best game (hu lhe) and just play bad players and grind a lot of hours and make a healthy number in feb.
Poker really is a fickle bitch. Since returning I've been just crushing and had my biggest winning day ever (bets wise not money wise) of 330 big bets. I've done 200-250 a number of times but 300 has always been elusive. Got there!
My sleeping lately has been completely ridiculous. I've been getting to bed at normal times (11pm-2am) but only sleep for like 4-5 hours before waking up wide awake, only to crash by noon and have to take an hour or 2 nap. I know I should probably skip the nap and just suck it up but it's been really hard.
Vail's getting 2 to 3 feet of snow by tuesday so I'm off with a few of the boys to go get some. We're staying with Brad L again and as always it's greatly appreciated (and pete too but he'll be in vegas while we're there.) I'm sure we'll be mashing lots of poker hands too. Ski trips are so perfect for working.
I was supposed to get a personal trainer when I got back from LA (one of those things I realised was something I should really do while I was losing and reflecting) but this past week was busy (bullshit excuse) and with my dumb sleep schedule (half legit) just didn't get done so I'm writing about it here to keep myself honest with it when I get back. If you see me ask me if I've done it if I havne't tell me how much I suck. Haha. I'm doing it. darn it.
I better go get ready.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
san diego, mn, and off to LA
(I wrote this on jan 11 but forgot to post it)
Michelle had some time off work so we thought a little warm weather was in order so we popped down to San Diego for New years. The Chargers had a home playoff game so we all went to that too. I'm really jealous of the setup they have as we dont have any sort of good tailgating setup here in mn. They have parking lot after parking lot of fans tailgating and it's super fun. It was a really fun trip and it was the first time we've travelled together and she was a really awesome travel partner. I was able to fire up a round of golf too and it took me about 6 holes to remember how to golf...but it all came back and I'm really pumped for when it gets nice again to get back out on a consistant basis.
We had a boys night last night which was long overdue with john in town and it was a really good time. We went to a sweet new steak house in st. paul called the strip club. It's really tiny and has a very 'small town' feel. It was the 2nd time we had gone there and one of the owners had remembered us from when we had gone 2 months previous. Pretty cool. We had a real long dinner and ended up the last table there and our cab took a bit to come so they poored everyone who was still there a shot on the house (us and about 12 employees) and really made us feel welcome. They also gave us free apps cause our table wasn't quite ready at reservation time. I highly recomend anyone looking for a great dinner experience to check it out.
At dinner dave and john convinced me to come to LA for a few days for some poker. I've been itchin for some live play and it's going to be like -1 as a high in MN so it seemed like a great idea...Jay is coming up from San Diego and Ian and travis from seatle are here too so it's looking to be a fantastic time.
I started looking more at houses again this afternoon and was shocked at how much the market has changed in the last 2 years and even 6 months. The value you can get is unreal so I'm gonna take my time and find something I really like and probably in the spring make a purchase. I'm starting to think I may have to wait until my 2nd house to get one on a lake but that's not a huge deal.
Michelle had some time off work so we thought a little warm weather was in order so we popped down to San Diego for New years. The Chargers had a home playoff game so we all went to that too. I'm really jealous of the setup they have as we dont have any sort of good tailgating setup here in mn. They have parking lot after parking lot of fans tailgating and it's super fun. It was a really fun trip and it was the first time we've travelled together and she was a really awesome travel partner. I was able to fire up a round of golf too and it took me about 6 holes to remember how to golf...but it all came back and I'm really pumped for when it gets nice again to get back out on a consistant basis.
We had a boys night last night which was long overdue with john in town and it was a really good time. We went to a sweet new steak house in st. paul called the strip club. It's really tiny and has a very 'small town' feel. It was the 2nd time we had gone there and one of the owners had remembered us from when we had gone 2 months previous. Pretty cool. We had a real long dinner and ended up the last table there and our cab took a bit to come so they poored everyone who was still there a shot on the house (us and about 12 employees) and really made us feel welcome. They also gave us free apps cause our table wasn't quite ready at reservation time. I highly recomend anyone looking for a great dinner experience to check it out.
At dinner dave and john convinced me to come to LA for a few days for some poker. I've been itchin for some live play and it's going to be like -1 as a high in MN so it seemed like a great idea...Jay is coming up from San Diego and Ian and travis from seatle are here too so it's looking to be a fantastic time.
I started looking more at houses again this afternoon and was shocked at how much the market has changed in the last 2 years and even 6 months. The value you can get is unreal so I'm gonna take my time and find something I really like and probably in the spring make a purchase. I'm starting to think I may have to wait until my 2nd house to get one on a lake but that's not a huge deal.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Vail
Dave and I got to denver and it was looking like our flight into eagle (small one runway airport) was going to be trouble as we talked to brad and he said it was storming hard in vail at that time. A lot of times planes can take off but have problems landing and there is often tons of nasty turbulance (brad said everyone but like 3 people threw up on two of his flights...so dave and I were a little apprehensive) but it ended up being reletively smooth.
Brad came to pick us up but didn't make it far before he called and said it was going to take at least an hour and a half to make it because it was whiteout so we took a shuttle. It was the drivers first year and man could you tell. He made it but it was hairy and he was all over the road. We had to get switched into a subburban in vail cause the vans are more prone to get stuck, and that driver drove it into a gaurdrail that if it wouldn't have stopped us we were cyalateralligator over a cliff. We hit it only going perhaps 5 mph but it was still not that cool.
It ended up snowing a foot to a foot and a half depending where you were so sunday was a sick day of skiing so we ripped it hard. Afterwords we went to walmart to get some stuff and came home with hungry hippos among other games. Wow was that more fun than anticipated. We played it for 2.5 hours the first night and a couple a few days later. I highly reccomend it to everyone, it's great entertainment. THe first night we would do 1 ball at a time and the 2nd 4 at a time. We'd rotate seats and hippos to keep things fair as some are better than others and the table wasn't completely flat. The 1 ball at a time method is more skill but slower and not as much fun imo. Probably because i suck at it. I did well at the 4 ball way though.
(first part typed on plane but we were landing so I had to stop and I forgot to finish til now (2 weeks later haha))
The rest of the boys got there the next day. It was quite the group - Dave, Jay, Billy, pfunk, sponger, cts, and pickett. We had a sweet dinner that rivaled a good vegas dinner and skiing worked out far better than anticipated with such a large group as everyone was pretty similar in abilities. It often broke down after a run or two into groups of like 6 which is still a lot and a lot of fun.
I'm not sure of the final tally but it had to have snowed around 35-40" while we were there, so that was super nice and we had a couple good visibility days too.
A few days on the floor was enough for a beeker so I bought a twin matress that I'll have for subsequent trips which will be nice. I can't wait to go back.
Brad came to pick us up but didn't make it far before he called and said it was going to take at least an hour and a half to make it because it was whiteout so we took a shuttle. It was the drivers first year and man could you tell. He made it but it was hairy and he was all over the road. We had to get switched into a subburban in vail cause the vans are more prone to get stuck, and that driver drove it into a gaurdrail that if it wouldn't have stopped us we were cyalateralligator over a cliff. We hit it only going perhaps 5 mph but it was still not that cool.
It ended up snowing a foot to a foot and a half depending where you were so sunday was a sick day of skiing so we ripped it hard. Afterwords we went to walmart to get some stuff and came home with hungry hippos among other games. Wow was that more fun than anticipated. We played it for 2.5 hours the first night and a couple a few days later. I highly reccomend it to everyone, it's great entertainment. THe first night we would do 1 ball at a time and the 2nd 4 at a time. We'd rotate seats and hippos to keep things fair as some are better than others and the table wasn't completely flat. The 1 ball at a time method is more skill but slower and not as much fun imo. Probably because i suck at it. I did well at the 4 ball way though.
(first part typed on plane but we were landing so I had to stop and I forgot to finish til now (2 weeks later haha))
The rest of the boys got there the next day. It was quite the group - Dave, Jay, Billy, pfunk, sponger, cts, and pickett. We had a sweet dinner that rivaled a good vegas dinner and skiing worked out far better than anticipated with such a large group as everyone was pretty similar in abilities. It often broke down after a run or two into groups of like 6 which is still a lot and a lot of fun.
I'm not sure of the final tally but it had to have snowed around 35-40" while we were there, so that was super nice and we had a couple good visibility days too.
A few days on the floor was enough for a beeker so I bought a twin matress that I'll have for subsequent trips which will be nice. I can't wait to go back.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Vail
Last sunday was Michelle's bday and there was a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert so that seemed like a good way to spend it. It was at the Xcel and it was really good. We thought it was maybe a little to 'show-ee' which made it long as opposed to just rocking out. Man they can rock though. I highly recommend people to check it out next year when they come back.
I leave on saturday for Vail with Dave P. The rest of the n00bs get there sunday and it's quite the group. 12 of us in total will be out there. Brad and Pete have a condo for the winter and the rest of the group rented a 10 person condo but it only has 5 beds (2 king and 3 queen) so instead of sharing a bed with dave or somebody else he and I are going to stay with brad and pete and I think I'm gonna buy a cheap mattress cause I'll be out there more I'm sure. They say it's supposed to snow a foot or 2 between sat and sunday evening so I'm getting super pumped...I'm a little nervous though as we fly in a 20 person jet to eagle airport from denver and that might not be happening and if it does a lot of the time people get sick I guess. Great. Owell it's a 3 hour shuttle ride or something if we can't fly. I just hope to get there sometime saturday night.
I'll try to give an update from out there. Wish me luck on the flight and snow!
I leave on saturday for Vail with Dave P. The rest of the n00bs get there sunday and it's quite the group. 12 of us in total will be out there. Brad and Pete have a condo for the winter and the rest of the group rented a 10 person condo but it only has 5 beds (2 king and 3 queen) so instead of sharing a bed with dave or somebody else he and I are going to stay with brad and pete and I think I'm gonna buy a cheap mattress cause I'll be out there more I'm sure. They say it's supposed to snow a foot or 2 between sat and sunday evening so I'm getting super pumped...I'm a little nervous though as we fly in a 20 person jet to eagle airport from denver and that might not be happening and if it does a lot of the time people get sick I guess. Great. Owell it's a 3 hour shuttle ride or something if we can't fly. I just hope to get there sometime saturday night.
I'll try to give an update from out there. Wish me luck on the flight and snow!
Friday, November 28, 2008
thanksgiving on the farm
The yearly tradition for thanksgiving is for my dad's side of the family to goto his parents house on a farm in Worthington (rural sw minnesota). As a kid we would go there a lot and I always had the time of my life and I think it was great for my development. I would ride tractors, make fires, shoot guns, and ride dirt bikes. I think a lot of other city kids miss out on this stuff and I'm grateful to have experienced a little bit of it.
It's always a nice true vacation as except for maybe a few low-stakes hands in the car on my laptop, it's poker free.
We are all ready to go skiing and snowboarding out west but nobody really has any worthwhile snow. I was able to convince jay, dave, billy, and dave p to get vail season passes too as it's just such a good deal so we're hoping they can get some snow soon. It works at Vail, beaver creek, heavenly, Arapaho basin, and Breckenridge. All for $579. Their website says 620 now but if you have a friend refer you you can still get it for 579. Pretty sick.
There has been talks of a pickup pond hockey type hockey game as well as some snow football once we get some snow and I'm looking forward to both. I've only skated now twice in the last billion years but owell it'll be fun to go screw around as most people are about as bad as I am.
I got a sick new laptop a few days ago and so far I really love it. It's the ultraportable toshiba R600 which has a 12" screen and weighs 2.5 pounds. It also has a transreflective (or something) screen that works in direct sunlight so I'm seeing some poker on the beach in my future. It also has a solid state hard drive which makes it faster and more durable. The battery life seems to be about 4 hours which is 4 times better than my last hunk of junk. The one negative thing is there is only 1 speaker and it's brutal as far as sound quality. Not a huge deal but annoying nonetheless.
Everyone laments about vista and this has been my first experience with it and so far I really like it. I haven't had any crashes or issues and I like how everything just seems smoother and thought out. I did HATE the UAC (the thing that pops up whenever you open a program or file and asks you if in fact you wanted to do that) as well as was confused as to where to find how to enable hidden folders to access my poker stars hands (which are stored in the user apps dir instead of program files) but past that it seems pretty sleek.
It's always a nice true vacation as except for maybe a few low-stakes hands in the car on my laptop, it's poker free.
We are all ready to go skiing and snowboarding out west but nobody really has any worthwhile snow. I was able to convince jay, dave, billy, and dave p to get vail season passes too as it's just such a good deal so we're hoping they can get some snow soon. It works at Vail, beaver creek, heavenly, Arapaho basin, and Breckenridge. All for $579. Their website says 620 now but if you have a friend refer you you can still get it for 579. Pretty sick.
There has been talks of a pickup pond hockey type hockey game as well as some snow football once we get some snow and I'm looking forward to both. I've only skated now twice in the last billion years but owell it'll be fun to go screw around as most people are about as bad as I am.
I got a sick new laptop a few days ago and so far I really love it. It's the ultraportable toshiba R600 which has a 12" screen and weighs 2.5 pounds. It also has a transreflective (or something) screen that works in direct sunlight so I'm seeing some poker on the beach in my future. It also has a solid state hard drive which makes it faster and more durable. The battery life seems to be about 4 hours which is 4 times better than my last hunk of junk. The one negative thing is there is only 1 speaker and it's brutal as far as sound quality. Not a huge deal but annoying nonetheless.
Everyone laments about vista and this has been my first experience with it and so far I really like it. I haven't had any crashes or issues and I like how everything just seems smoother and thought out. I did HATE the UAC (the thing that pops up whenever you open a program or file and asks you if in fact you wanted to do that) as well as was confused as to where to find how to enable hidden folders to access my poker stars hands (which are stored in the user apps dir instead of program files) but past that it seems pretty sleek.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Rise Against
For Dave Schnettler and Mike Pickett's birthday they decided to get a vip suite at myth for the Rise against concert and what an idea it was. We didn't get there for the first band, but thrice and alkaline trio played also and they were really good...but Rise just knocked everyone's socks off. They are just so good in concert. I highly recommend the suite to anyone for concerts too. Can easily fit 20-30 people in there comfortably and everything just works out smoothly. We did get a little rowdy and I think one person got kicked out at the end but it was just hard not be to with how good rise against was.
Some seasons out west are snowy in November and I've been following the weather daily and it just hasn't been. I've been ready to pack my bags and go for a couple weeks but nowhere has much open and I'll just have to wait. The long range forecast is warm and dry, too. Hopefully early December will be different.
Michelle and I went ice skating last week and it was my first time on skates in probably 15 years. Since I ski and rollerblade it came back nicely and it was fun to get out there and cruise around with how much hockey we watch these days. Some of the guys are talking about a pickup game, that sounds really fun. Matter of fact I'm gonna go make a few phones calls and see if we can set that up next week.
Some seasons out west are snowy in November and I've been following the weather daily and it just hasn't been. I've been ready to pack my bags and go for a couple weeks but nowhere has much open and I'll just have to wait. The long range forecast is warm and dry, too. Hopefully early December will be different.
Michelle and I went ice skating last week and it was my first time on skates in probably 15 years. Since I ski and rollerblade it came back nicely and it was fun to get out there and cruise around with how much hockey we watch these days. Some of the guys are talking about a pickup game, that sounds really fun. Matter of fact I'm gonna go make a few phones calls and see if we can set that up next week.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
LA and it's aftermath
LA was a real good trip and I ended up staying a couple extra days cause it was fun spending time with some really awesome people as well as poker was going well. Most nights I was going to bed between 4am and 8am (which is of course 6am and 10am MN time) and my flight landed at 6am and I didn't sleep on the plane, so I came back with the standard backwards sleep schedule. This isn't particularly a huge deal, it's just pretty annoying especially when you want to hang out with friends and girlfriends who are on regular schedules.
So the last 3 days I've been trying to fix it. 2 nights ago I was able to crash from 230am-630am which I figured wouldn't be that bad because I should still be tired the next night...so when I went to bed at 230am last night I figured I could sleep. But then it was 430am and I still hadn't gotten a wink, so I got up and started playing poker. I lost my ass in like an hour so I had to quit and just kill time. A few friends had spent the night so I drove them home at 11am that probably wasn't a super good idea... I was sober but it was like i was drunk from being so tired. We made it though. I fully intended on sleeping when I got home but then I was talking to a buddy and I'm like "damn, I've made it this far, should just stay up all day and sleep at like 8 or 9pm and wake up and play the heartland poker tour tourney at 9am." So that's what I did. I played poker for 8 hours straight and man was it tough. the 4pm-5pm stretch was by far the hardest but once I got to 6pm it was smooth sailing minus the fact that I started seeing colors on white paper in addition to having the standard sleep deprived vision impairment. I actually did alright in my marathon poker session.
When I got in bed a little after 8, my body was kinda past the whole sleepiness thing. Adrenaline had obviously kicked in and so I had a couple beers and watched the end of the wild game and when it was over, conked out quickly. I woke up at 1230 for no reason and was like screw this but was able to quickly fall back asleep. Then I woke up at 230 and had no such luck. I tossed and turned. No chance. Argh. I gave it a half hour now I'm gonna go give it another shot.
So the last 3 days I've been trying to fix it. 2 nights ago I was able to crash from 230am-630am which I figured wouldn't be that bad because I should still be tired the next night...so when I went to bed at 230am last night I figured I could sleep. But then it was 430am and I still hadn't gotten a wink, so I got up and started playing poker. I lost my ass in like an hour so I had to quit and just kill time. A few friends had spent the night so I drove them home at 11am that probably wasn't a super good idea... I was sober but it was like i was drunk from being so tired. We made it though. I fully intended on sleeping when I got home but then I was talking to a buddy and I'm like "damn, I've made it this far, should just stay up all day and sleep at like 8 or 9pm and wake up and play the heartland poker tour tourney at 9am." So that's what I did. I played poker for 8 hours straight and man was it tough. the 4pm-5pm stretch was by far the hardest but once I got to 6pm it was smooth sailing minus the fact that I started seeing colors on white paper in addition to having the standard sleep deprived vision impairment. I actually did alright in my marathon poker session.
When I got in bed a little after 8, my body was kinda past the whole sleepiness thing. Adrenaline had obviously kicked in and so I had a couple beers and watched the end of the wild game and when it was over, conked out quickly. I woke up at 1230 for no reason and was like screw this but was able to quickly fall back asleep. Then I woke up at 230 and had no such luck. I tossed and turned. No chance. Argh. I gave it a half hour now I'm gonna go give it another shot.
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