Saturday, August 30, 2008

Back In the Game...

8/30/08

Back In The Game...

Another buddy of mine, R.V. (no permission to use his name),
came down with some of friends to Vegas on Wednesday.
Like I always say, Vegas is indeed the center of the
universe. You just tell anybody in the world to meet you
in front of PURE at Caesar's in Las Vegas, and they know
what you are talking about.

Anyway, R.V. and his boys are here for one of their friends
Bachelor Party. They were also here to do their annual
fantasy football draft. What a good plan, a new excuse
to head out to L.V., nice...

I knew that he liked to play poker, so it was a good
reason for me to enjoy a "work day" with one my friends.

The first tournament we hit up, is one of my favorites.
The Caesar's 12 pm tourney for $135.00. We traded
25% of each other's action, meaning that if we made
the money, we would give each other 25% of our gross
winnings to each other. I usually do that with friends
of mine before the tournament, kind of like a friendly
insurance and better chance to cash. It was uneventful
though as we both busted out before the money spots.
At least I lasted longer than him in the tournament.
I hope you read this R.V., I want to twist the knife
deeper in your back, lol...Oh, this was last Thursday.

Later that day we hit up the $65.00 NLHE tourney at
Paris. As I may have said before, I do not really
like playing these tourneys as you don't start off with
that many chips and the blind levels are pretty quick.
You started with $2,000.00 in chips and blind levels
changed every 15 minutes. You have to play pretty fast.
To make a long story short, I made it to the money,
placing 3rd out of 31 players. Not a bad result, but
not much money - $243.00, but gave $13.00 to tip the
dealers, $65.00 to my buddy (gave a little bit more
than 25%, but I felt it was better to give him back
his complete buy in).

Today we played the 12 pm NLHE tournament at the
Venetian. That was the first time I played any
poker there, since I've moved over here. It is a
good format, very similar to the Caesar's tournament
that runs at the same time, Sundays to Thursdays.
The buy in total is $150.00. One of his other
friends from SD came into town and played in it
also. He seems to be a very good poker player
as well. We all decided to trade 10% to each other,
if any of us made the money.

One of the hands, I would like to discuss is where
I hit the ultimate nuts (meaning the best hand ever).
It was just before the end of the 3rd level of blinds
at $100/200. R.V. was sitting in the #2 seat to my
left. He raised to $600.00, under the gun. He got
5 additional callers, which put the pot at $3,200.00.
I had an additional $400.00 to call into that pot.
I peeled up King/Jack of Hearts. I had an 8 to 1
call, you pretty much call with anything. I had about
$3,100.00 left in chips at that point. I decided to
call and see the flop. So now the pot had $3,600.00
total. The flop comes out Queen of Hearts, Ace of
Hearts and Deuce of Clubs. I flopped a big draw, a
Royal Straight Flush draw to be exact. I paused for
a minute and thought about what I wanted to do.
I was shortstacked at that point, so I decided to go
all in. If I get a call and win the hand, I would
more than double up. Hopefully R.V. doesn't call me.
I decided to go all in. R.V. is next to act and he
thinks pretty hard to see what he wants to do. After
his contemplation he calls my all in (he still had
about another $4,500.00 left). All the other players
fold. I flip up my cards and he flips up his as
well. R.V. had Ace/King OS for top pair with King
kicker, he's in the lead. The dealer then puts out
the turn card, Bingo! a Ten of Hearts - I actually
hit the ultimate nuts, a Royal Flush! Wow! I've never
had one of those (I have straight flushes before, but
not that). I apologized to him, but I wish someone
else called. I can't blame him, he couldn't lay his
hand down, with the lead on the flop. The river card
was meaningless, he would not be able to redraw for
a better hand. Sorry R.V., I had to do what I had to
do.

I made it to the last 5 tables (181 players started,
we had about 45 to 48 players left at that point).
I had a good amount of chips, $24,000.00, but blinds
were kicked up to $800/1,600 with $100 antes.
The hand that started the downhill slide, was where
I raised it to $4,100.00 in the cutoff seat, with
Ace/Nine of Clubs. Everybody folded and the big
blind player called. About $9,800 was in the pot.
The flop came out Ace/Deuce/Three OS. The big blind
player thought for a minute and pushed all in for
$7,900.00. I thought for a moment and I didn't think
he had top pair beat. I had a pair of Aces with
a Nine kicker. That should be the best hand. If
he had a premium Ace (with a kicker of at least
a Ten, Jack, Queen or King), he would have most
likely reraised me preflop. If he hit a set, I
think he would have slowplayed it. After my
contemplation, I decided to call. I made the
right one, he tabled just a pair of Fours. He
had outs though, he could still win with another
Four for a Set or hit a Five for the Straight.
That would be a total of 6 outs, with two cards
to go. The turn was dealt another Deuce. But
of course the river rolled out a Five. Poker
is sick sometimes, but that's what makes it
exciting.

I could not recover this late in the tournament
and finally busted 39 out of 181. They were only
paying the top 18, so no money again.

Good thing we all traded percentages, because
R.V.'s boy made it to the final table and
was the chip leader. The final 5 player
decided to chop the rest of the pot, but
R.V.'s buddy got the most as he held a
3 to 2 chip lead against the rest of the
players. He made out with $4,000.00. He
then in turn gave me and R.V. our $400.00
each, for the ten percent trade.

Not bad, it's always good to be on the positive
side of things. Shouda' traded for 15%, lol,
that would have been Six Hunny, hehe. But, I'm
more than happy to be back in the game...

Missing In Action...

8/30/08

Missing In Action...

It's has almost been 3 weeks since I've seen any action
on the green felts of Vegas. I have been kind of busy
with being the tourist guide of sorts when I got back
into Sin City, as they say.

Last week my GF came into town for a couple of days.
It was a welcoming visit, even though we spent time
together when I was in the Bay Area the week before.
It's pretty hard sometimes, being separated from her.
The distance is not that far in the scheme
of things, but as you know Vegas is not exactly in the
same county and state of San Jose, Cali...

I wish she had a longer stay, there were more things
I wanted to show her and do. I think we got to maximize
our time together, from the little we had. Good food,
good thrill rides (she's a roller coaster aficionado)
and some good spooning sessions. The rest of the
details will be published in the next Danielle Steele
novel.

You know I just want to be held sometimes, is that
so wrong? (ala, Jon Lovitz at Harvey Fierstein in
Saturday Night Live - watch it, it's a classic).

At the beginning of this week a couple of buddies
of mine A.P. and R.C. (no permission to use their
names came into town for the MAGIC Convention,
http://www.magiconline.com/magic/v42/index.cvn).
When I thought magic convention, I was like, are
there new innovations in taking a rabbit out of a
hat or cutting your female assistant in half?
But no, it was the business of fashion.

It was pretty interesting to see the convention's
goings on, from a novice. I sat on a couple of
meetings my buddies' had with the accounts/products
they carry in their store. Oh, I forgot to mention
that one of their businesses is an Urban/Hip Hop
cloting store in Stockton, Ca. It's called
KINGDOM, http://www.kingdom209.com/. Yo, check it
out, they got some cool fits. Anyway, one of the
meetings was with Crooks and Castles, an urban
clothing manufacturer based in SoCal, I think their
flagship store is located on Melrose in West
Hollywood, Ca. The company was started by a
number of Filipino guys from around the way.
From what I heard and saw, was that they take
multimillions annually. Not bad, right.
You just need to find that right concept or
product, and make sure it's marketed correctly.

If you wanted to stargaze, there was a mix of
celebs on hand. Biggest one was probably,
Kimora Lee, who was promoting her label Baby
Phat. She is an Asian Amazon, she gotta' be at
least 6 feet without the heels. Props to her
though, she had one of the best booths, it looked
like one of her flagship stores, sitting in the
middle of a convention center. Also ran into
Danny Trejo (the bad ass looking Mexican dude you
see in Robert Rodriguez movies like Desperado and
Dusk Till Dawn, even the Spy Kids franchise).

Photobucket

Travis Barker was also there with one of his sick
Impalas.

Cool stuff, again Vegas the center of the world.
Or could that be hell, the heat you know. Still
stays 90 degrees at midnight, jeez...

Sunday, August 17, 2008

A not so Air Force One experience…

8/17/08

A not so Air Force One experience…

Right now, I’m sitting at San Jose “International” Airport
waiting to get on my afternoon flight back to the City of Sin.
I can’t really say why they call it an international airport,
as I’ve never flown out of San Jose to a foreign country – I
guess if you call Mexico a foreign country, that might count.
Well, San Jose is supposed to be a metropolitan city – yes,
one that closes at 130 am every night, hehe. That’s the culture
I guess, it’s sometimes hard to go back to a “sleeper town”
after you’ve lived in a city where you can get anything your
heart desires, as they say “Twenty Four-Seven”. But what do
I know, when do I ever get the craving to get a salmon lox bagel
at 330 in the morning. At least the option is there, lol.

My credo again, it is better to have a gun and not use it,
than not have a gun when you need it. I guess that makes some
kind of sense.

Anyway it was good to come back home for a bit (even though
I am coming back in a couple of weeks , again for another week).
Seeing family, friends and the GF is always great. Even though
I did not get to see everybody I wanted to see, I’ll be back in
SJ or most likely see them in Vegas (it is the center of the
universe). Plus the weather is a lot cooler in the Bay than in
Vegas this week. Weather in the triple digits can wear on you.
I miss driving my car with the windows down. The little things
keep you going, hehe.

To kill time of course, while I wait and write – I have “Entourage”
playin’ on my laptop. The show always cures my boredom. Even
though I’ve seen each season several times, I can not humanly
get tired of the show. It was probably the only reason I had HBO
(well, besides Real Sex, G-String Divas, uh…you know documentaries
for educational purposes). If you don’t know what the show is
about, it is basically about a young movie star and his buddies,
hence the “Entourage” title, regarding their escapades in the
“industry”. I wouldn’t mind getting in to something like that –
Hey, if I made it big, I’d want my best buddies around to revel
in it to – I don’t want to be alone at the top, yo’…

Again, I’m kinda’ straying away from the subject at hand. Is
there one? Nah. I’m just writing here for my enjoyment.

I’ll see the GF this week when she comes back through Vegas,
on her road trip. She’ll be in Vegas for a couple of days,
before going back to San Jose. I’ll be pretty happy when she
comes in – it’s hard to having someone far away (even though
the flight’s only an hour n change away).

No poker in San Jose this week either. I was only going to
play in our “$700.00” poker club (and the "408 Tour), if a
game was set. It seems like the old school players can’t get
together these days. Hopefully I can win that pot, I’m up about
$535.00 in that game. One more first place, I should be able
scoop it. It’s within grasp, I can taste it, but like I said
we all haven’t played with each other for a long time. Just
give it to me already, hehe. Or at least put the pot in the
mutual fund or something, let it grow, lol.

Now I’m on board the plane, just got over 10,000 feet, so I can
use my laptop again. I think I need an Ambien. As much as
I have flown throughout the years and the distances I’ve t
ravelled (to the Philippines is a pretty long flight), I still
get a bit of the jitters. I always ask myself what kind of
physics allows a huge blob of metal with wings, sustain flight
in the air? I’m just glad it’s the safest form of travel (well,
statistic wise).

I think the root of my minor nervousness in flight, stemmed
from a connecting flight I had taken from Tokyo to Manila.
That flight was on a trip I had in December of 2006. There
was a storm brewing off the coast eastern coast of Vietnam,
which was right in our flight path. There also a monsoon or
something occurring in the Bicol region of the Philippines at
the same time. The flight was scheduled for 2.5 hours, from
gate to gate. The flight wasn’t too long, but the flight from
San Francisco to Tokyo was about 11 hours already. Thank God
for the smoking rooms at the airport in Tokyo.

Anyway, we were flying out at night, so you couldn’t really see
anything outside the windows of the plane. I think it was about
a half hour after taking off, we started to fly through the storm.
This caused a lot of turbulence around the plane. I experienced
turbulence before, but this time it was freakin’ crazy. In my
prior flights, I think the longest time I have experienced turbulence
was for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, which is a long time. This time
the turbulence lasted about 1.5 hours. Imagine riding a roller
coaster (like the Grizzly at Great America) for the length of a
movie. Lightning started to crack outside, and I could see
that the wing on my side of the plane was flapping up and down
a good foot to foot and a half each way. Are they going to
fall off or what?

I was glad that I didn’t throw up or mess up my shorts.
But I was grasping my seat, white knuckled and belted to my chair.
We were supposed to get dinner at the beginning of the flight,
but it was delayed till the last half hour of the trip. I didn’t
think I would be able to even eat.

All the while, I was thinking, “Is this what the characters of Lost
felt, before they crashed onto that island?, “Which group would
I hang with on the island, with Jack and Freckles, or with the Others?”.

That flight felt so gross. I was about to abandon flying and
take a boat back to the States. I wasn’t looking forward to my
flight back home. But hey, I’m impatient and flying is the quickest
way to from point A to point B.

Great, we got turbulence now. I wonder if they I can use my drink
coupon for an Ambien or Vicodin? Hmm…(as I press the button for the
Flight Attendant)...

Recognizers...

8/9/08

Recognizers…

“Recognizers, mount up! It was a clear black night…” – sung
to Warren G’s “Regulators”…

Back long time ago, in a land far away, I actually graduated
from a university called CSUS Sacramento. It was like a good
times, like my buddy’s dad used to say after watching us come
back home after a long Saturday night out. We may have partied
in Sactown, come back from the Bay or maybe a short jaunt to
Cache Creek or Tahoe. My buddy A’s (no permission to use his
name) mom would cook breakfast Sunday morning before they would
go to church. It was nice back in those days, had a cool part
time job that paid the bills, getting ready to finish school
and gallivanting wherever you pleased.

Anyway, my buddy A. and I would play this game, well it really
wasn’t really a game – we just joked about having this useless
superhero like power called, “Recognizing”. If you know me, I
am a plethora of useless information. I could probably make
tons of money playing Jeopardy – but somehow, they have not
returned any of my emails regarding contestant auditioning.
Hmmm, maybe they want to save money or something? I think I
would boost their ratings – at least in the Filipino demographic
(TFC might be in trouble baby). Back to “Recognizing” – it
would usually be a group of us watching a movie or television
show and my buddy A. asking me what other movies/television
shows a certain person was in. I would then rattle off a list
of movies/tv shows that person appeared in. I would also add
if a certain combo of actors/actresses played in several
productions together. Stupid, huh? I was the human analog
precursor to IMDB (I know everyone has checked that out).

How “recognizing” relates to Vegas, you ask? I guess I correlate
it to these continuous experiences that I am having while I am
playing poker. I’m not kidding when I say this, because it
really has not given me anything beneficial to date. Maybe a
good table image, “don’t fuck with me”, hehe. I would say about
5 or 6 times, while sitting at the table – several players have
said that they may have seen me playing at other casinos around
the world, even on television. I must have a doppelganger or
Bizarro twin living in the same contiguous universal plane as I
am. I swear to Buddha, at least once a week at the tables, somebody
makes some comment that they have seen me play somewhere.

Like the other day at the Planet Hollywood NLHE tournament, a
couple of Brits were playing at my table. One of them, with a
hardcore Cockney accent (imagine dialog in any Guy Ritchie film,
ie, Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels or Layer Cake), says “By the
way mate, haven’t I seen your knocka’ over at the Victoria Open
PLO tourney in London?”. I played along and said “That it might
have been in Monte Carlo for a European Poker Tour Event, I never
played any poker in London, sorry”.

Another dude at the Caesar’s NLHE tourney last Wednesday, an old
guy with his Texas drawl, “Might I seen yooo’ at the WSOP this
yee’ar”, who knew that year had two syllables? Anyway, I decided
to be truthful this time, told him no and said that I was just a
scrub scratchin’ out an honest living on the low stakes tournament
circuit.

Fame is a a two edged sword, a blessing and a curse.

If my Bizarro twin is reading this, if you got some good poka’
money – give me some. If you are broke, don’t track me down…

Recognizers mount up!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Superheroes Redeaux...

8/12/08

Superheroes Redeaux...

Last Sunday, after eating some grubbin' sushi (Sushi-O-Sushi,
on El Camino Real in Santa Clara, CA. - yes I'm back in the
Bay for the week), I went with the GF to see "The Dark Knight"
starring Christian Bale, the driver from
"Driving Miss Daisy"/the DJ from "The Electric Company" Morg'
Freeman (my prayers are with you hoping you have a full
recovery), Mags Gyllenhall and Mikey Caine.

I'm sure everyone has seen the movie already, so there is
nothing to spoil. It's been out for quite sometime and the
thing has probably made like a gazillion dollars already.
Beat Tita Nic!!! Maybe the US Gov't needs to make a hit movie
to get out us out of this damn' deficit. Well, Bush don't care
now, he's about to leave - and he's busy slappin' booties on
the Olympic Beach Volleyball Courts in Beijing.

Anyway, I had pretty high expectations for this movie. I'm a
bit of a comic book geek and movie aficionado. Like I said before,
pick me for your team on Scene It game night, you won't lose
(I'll put $5.00 bucks of my hard earned money on it).
My expectations and more, were met. Each person played their
roles to almost perfection. My only gripe is Bale's smoker
voice, when disguised as Batman, hehe.

The thing I like about Batman is that he is at a constant odds
of his real identity as playboy Bruce Wayne and Batman. He's kind
of like the polar opposite of "Iron Man", who is a similar character
of the playboy billionaire mold. As "Iron Man" embraces his
role as a hero and relishes in the good/fun he experiences while
being a "hero" - "Batman" has felt the need to relinquish his role
as a "hero", to try to give the citizens of Gotham city another
"hero"(in the name of DA Harvey Dent). Of course, Wayne/Batman"
realizes that he can not give up his destined role as savior of
his city. The Joker, his evil foil, even says it to Batman - that
they need each other - "one" can not exist with out the "other".
Like the Ying and Yang - these two forces of good and evil, can
not exist apart from each other. If one is gone, there would be
actual anarchy. Whoa, I'm getting existentialist with this, hehe.
Maybe that's why Batman can not kill his "villains or foes",
without them, does Batman have a purpose in the world? Probably
not. What's a billionaire playboy to do?

I guess wait for "Watchmen" to come out next year.

I didn't really give a review of the movie, but these are some
of my random thoughts after watching it. I guess it really must
have been good, as it peaked some type of analyzation from me.
Hehe, Freud/Siskel/Ebert, eat your heart out, yo!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Aces Cracked Again...

8/8/08

Aces Cracked Again...

As you know today, is supposed to be a lucky day. Well, in my case,
it was not. Coming off the heels of my Wednesday win, I thought
today would be a good day to step into the poker room.

Anyway, I went out to Planet Hollywood Casino to play their $80.00
NLHE tournament at 2 pm. You get $4,500.00 in chip and the blinds
change every 20 minutes. I told myself before that I shouldn't play
those, since the blinds kind of go up too fast. I bought in and we
started to play.

To make a long story short, I called two all ins with pocket Two's
(I was short stacked at the time). We were three handed, the first
player had pocket Aces and the other player had pocket Sevens.
I was severely dominated and had to get lucky. No help for me
on the flop, turn and river. The player with pocket Aces scooped
the pot. I was done. Now off to play some cash.

I cashed in $300.00 to play some $1/2 No Limit Holdem. I played for
a couple of uneventful hours, where I was up maybe $10.00 bucks.
I then pulled up pocket Aces in the cutoff seat. I raised the bet
to $17.00. The button and small blind players folded. The big blind
player called my bet. The flop was dealt a Queen of Spades, Six of
Hearts and Nine of Spades. The big blind player bet out $10.00
bucks. I then reraised him to $30.00 dollars and he paused, then
just called. The turn card came a King of Clubs. The big blind
player bet $30.00 dollars I then raised it to $100.00 dollars.
The pot had about $222.00 dollars in it now. The big blind player
then went all in and the pot swelled to $402.00. I had about the
same amount of chips as him, so I had about $180.00 behind. I
thought he might have a Set of Queens, but that can be rare.
I called his all in and I should have listened to my gut. He
tabled a pair of Queens for a Set. Come on river, bail me out
with my donkey call! The dealer dealt out a harmless Two of
Clubs.

Sometimes I hate getting Aces, you feel committed to play them
through the river. Again,I should listen to my gut sometimes, I can
save some money. Easy come, easy go. I retract that, I wouldn't
mind getting pocket Aces all the time - they are soooo pretty...

Fuck 8/8/08, lol...

Monday, August 4, 2008

Content...

8/6/08

Hump Day...

Today I entered another Caesar's NLHE 12 pm tournament. Agin, buyin costs a total of $135.00 for $7,500.00 in chips. There was a total of 60 players who entered into the tourney. I had contemplated on going to Venetian for a similar 12 pm tournament for a buyin of $150.00 total, but they have this bonus for live play at the Caesars. So, if I bust out of the Caesar's tourny, I could sit down at a cash game. The bonus requires you to play 60 hours of live poker in the month of August 2008 and you would qualify for a freeroll poker tounament in September 2008. The freeroll tournament consists of a $100,000.00 payout, where 8 people could win $10,000.00 seats for another tournament in October 2008 (where first place is a guaranteed $1,000,000.00) and split $20,000.00 cash. I think I am just up to 3.75 hours of live play this month. I really want to play more cash at Treasure Island because of the $2.00 buck an hour food comp, but there is really more action at Caesar's.

Anyway, like I said before, I really like the format of this tournament. You start off with some deep chip stacks and the blind levels change every 30 minutes.

I was really trucking along with about 20 blinds through each level. I got a lucky hand where I called a standard raise with pocket Jacks and it was 4 handed. Flop came out Queen of Spades, Jack and Six of Clubs. I hit a Set of Jacks. The pot had about $2,000.00 and I led out from the small blind with a bet of $1,200.00. The big blind folded and the next player raised it to $3,600.00 total. The original raiser folded on the button. I paused for a second to think about what the raiser had. He probably did not have a Set of Queens, he might have raised preflop with that hand. It is pretty rare to have set against set also on the flop. Maybe he had a Set of Sixes, if he does I got him. Anyway, I pushed all in for a total of $6,600.00. He quickly called the additional $3,000.00 and tabled a Set of Sixes. Cool, I do have him now, he only has one out the case Six. Blanks came on the turn and river, so I doubled up, niicceee...

Anyway by the time the blinds got to $300/600, I had about 12 bets left. This one hand almost killed me. The under the gun player went all in for $4,200.00. I was next and peeled up 2 Red Kings. I went all in for $7,200.00. All the players folded and it was heads up. I got to bring back $3,000.00 in chips. The other player flipped up Ace/King OS and I flipped up my pocket Kings. And of course after the flop and turn, the other player paired her Ace on the river. Sucks, but hey, I'll take that race anyday.

Blinds went up the next round to $400/800. I went all in a couple of times to steal the blinds. I got to the dealer button unscathed. The cutoff player raised it to $4,200.00 total. I peeled up pocket Eights and I told myself, now or never. I went all in for $3,000.00 total. Everybody else folded and we were heads up. She tabled King/Queen of Clubs. Cool, a race, at least I'm ahead. The dealer dealt a Nine of Spades, Ten of Clubs and Two of Hearts. Now the other player has Jacks to win (for the straight) and her 2 over cards. Dealer please no paint! Turn card came 7 of Spades. River comes Nine of Clubs - whew! I won that race, thank God. I'm pretty much tripled up.

With "stellar" play and a bit of luck, I chipped my way up to one of the leaders to about $80,000.00 in chips. I made some calls I usually wouldn't make with a short stack, but I made them this time due to the stack I had at the time.

In this certain hand blinds were about $600/1,200 with a $100 ante. We were 8 handed at the time and the pot held about $2,600.00. Each player folds and I hold King/Queen OS in the cutoff. I decided to call the bet of $1,200.00. The button player folded. The small blind player had about $7,200.00 total in chips, he paused and then went all in. The big blind player folded and the pot now held $10,400.00. The small blind player had just lost a big pot the hand before and looked like he was on tilt. I thought I might have him dominated, or it could be a race. I thought to myself, that I probably do have the best hand with King/Queen OS. I called the additional $6,000.00 and I tabled my hand. The other player looked down, groaned and tabled his King/Eight OS. Nice, I got him dominated. Anyway the flop, turn and river were all Spades. I held the King of Spades for the Nut Flush, good call Scotty...

Another hand where I usually would not call unless I had a big stack of chips was where I held Ace/Eight of Hearts in the button. Each player folded and I raised it to $4,000.00 total (blinds were still $600/1,200, with a $100 ante). I figured I could steal the blinds with this bet. The small blind player folded and the big blind called my bet after a bit of hesitation. The flop came out Eight of Diamonds, Six of Clubs and Jack of Diamonds. The big blind player led out with a bet of $4,000.00, that's a smallish bet I thought - if he hit the Jack, I think he would have bet the pot size of amount of $9,400.00. Hmmm, what does he have? I decided to min raise him another $4,000.00 to see where I was at with my second pair of Eights, with Ace kicker. The other player paused and called my raise. The turn came a King of Clubs, putting another overcard and two flush draws there. The other player quickly went all in for $7,200.00 and now the pot held a total of $24,600.00 in chips. I had a little over 3 to 1 to call his all in, with the river card to go. He surely paired his King. I actually felt that I was indeed behind in the hand. Something inside felt like gambling and counted out $7,200.00 in chips. I still had $60,000.00 in chips left, if I make the all in call. If I make the call and win, another player would be busted out of the tournament as well. I felt that if I was behind, I still had the 2 Eights and 3 Aces for the win on the river. I decided to call and the other player tabled King/Eight OS for two pair - shoot, now I only have 3 Aces to win. Whattaya' know, Ace of Spades on the River, I got a better two pair. The other player grumbled and said something to the dealer, to the effect of @#$%^& 3 outer! And walked off. He was behind preflop and on the flop. I just wondered why he didn't just fold that hand preflop or on the flop when I raised him. He could have went all in preflop after my raise, and I might have folded my Ace/Eight of Hearts preflop. Anyway, I made kind of a gamble call, but I prevailed...

We got to nine handed, with no clear cut chip leader. I still had about $65,000.00 in chips at the time, which was about mid stack (the other players ranged from $40,000.00 to $85,000.00 in chips - blinds were about $1,000/2,000 with a $200 ante - still a battle to wage). We decided to do a 9 way even chop for the pot of $6,600.00. After tipping the tournament staff, we ended up with $720.00 each.

Not bad for hump day...

The Almost Perfect Haircut...

8/6/08

The Almost Perfect Haircut...

I think I've found the place to go for my #1 fade all around. No, the owner is not named "Kim" or "Lan" and it's not located in Chinatown. I went to a place called "Sport Clips" in the North West area of the city, the first week I got here. I didn't go back there for my last haircut, because it is pretty far from where I am staying at. With gas prices these days, I don't want to spend $10.00 bucks in gas just to get a haircut. Well, I was in the area last Sunday looking at homes in the North West, so I decided to make a pit stop as my shag was getting a bit out of control.

I don't think they have the franchise in NorCal yet, but I do believe they have several in SoCal. Basically the place is like ESPN meets Footlocker meets Supercuts. The place has flatscreens, playing various sportchannels. It is decorated like a gym locker room. The lady hair "stylists" all wore referee/umpire style uniforms. When you are waiting, you would sit in stadium style seats or a bench. The place caters to men, but they accept everybody as a client.

I chose the "MVP" service, which includes haircut, shampoo, steam face towel and neck/shoulders massage. All of this costs $20.00 bucks. Beats the Chinatown's $15.00 dolla' wet the scalp and go special. Let me tell you, this is what old school barber shops are all about. I get my cut, the stylist cleans me up with a brush and baby powder. Next I get the shampoo, she rubs and massages my scalp with this pretty invigorating and minty shampoo. This is all the while when you are sitting in a massage chair. After 5 to 7 minutes of the scalp massage, she puts a steamed towel on your face. As you are laying there, she then starts to rinse off the shampoo, with additional scalp massage. After she towel dries your head, she takes the steamed towel off your face. You just want to fall asleep, mayn! Anyway, you're not done yet. She leads you back to her station and sits you down. She then takes out an electric hand massager and begins on your right shoulder. After 5 minutes, she continues to your left shoulder. Last but not least, the neck massage is continued for another 5 minutes. Paid $25.00 with tip. I wanted to tip more, but hey I that's all I had at the time, plus I'm still discretionary with my tips kids.

Yo, it's better than a lap dance. I certainly recommend it, it is so choice....

Superheroes...

8/3/08

Superheroes….

"I remember long time ago, when Aquaman used to cook me chi-e-ken"…

"Aquaman was shouting, What are you doing? What are you doing? – I’m just cooking feesh, I’m just cooking feesh, I’m so sorry Aquaman!!!"…

Re: Rex Navarrette’s Maritess vs. the Superfriends, Badly Browned (CD).

I saw the movie Hancock last Monday, starring Wil Smith, Charlize Theron (she was definitely saucy in this flick as a housewife) and Silver Spoon’s own Jason Bateman. Charlize is definitely on my "list". So, Miss Theron, if read this and happen to get an inkling of getting out to Vegas, hit me up.

Watching previews of this film, made me think that this would be some type of superhero spoof. Maybe a change from Mr. Smith’s usual summer blockbuster portrayals of the Fresh Prince against the world – either aliens, robots, humans infected by an incurable virus, etc. He is probably the reigning box office king these days. It’s nice to be the king. I’d rather be the prince, because everybody is always gunning for the king – anyway, as a prince, you will be king someday. Dunno’ why I said that.

If you haven’t seen it (spoilers coming), it is about a superhero by the name of John Hancock, played by Wil Smith. He seems to be a goodhearted person, but has his flaws. The first scene consisted of him lying on a bench at a bus stop, drunk off his ass. A kid comes up to him and tells him that a police chase is going on. Hancock wakes up and sees a lady passing him by. He slaps her on the butt. Funny stuff. He then flew out into the sky. The park bench explodes, due to the force of him flying out of the area. At the end of the scene, he catches the bad guys and puts their vehicle atop a pole on the Capitol Records building in LA. Unfortunately, after this chaos, he causes millions in damage to the city of LA. People interviewed in newscasts mostly scold Hancock’s methods of doing "good" in the city. There are a few people that see the good that he actually does in fighting "crime" his way. Like I say, it’s better to have a gun, than not have one. It’s a necessary evil.

I won’t reveal the rest of the movie to you, but there was a pleasant surprise in the story line midway through the movie. It involves the character played by Charlize Theron. This made it a much more different movie that I was expecting to watch. This is not your typical superhero movie that they have been making these days. Some reviews of the movie that I have read, have criticized the tangent the story line takes halfway through the movie. They say that the movie does not have a clear cut message. Do movies need to have messages? Are they vehicles to relay some important diatribe? No, they are for entertainment. To me, it was entertaining (too bad they didn’t cast Mandy Moore as Aquagirl, hmmm..that’s for the sequel). It must have been entertaining to a bunch of people, because I believe it has grossed over $210,000,000.00 domestically to date. That ain’t "Dark Knight" numbers, but a respectable amount, with more to go.

San Jose Redeaux...

8/2/08

San Jose Redeux

I guess Vegas could be considered the center of the world sometimes. I met up with some other folks from back home last night. I picked them up (it was my old real estate agent M. and her sister P., again no permission to use their names) from their hotel the Hilton, behind the Riviera. They are here for a business seminar from Thursday to Saturday. Every week, it seems like I see someone from back home. Again, that’s besides the Bay Peeps that have been situated in Vegas, before me.

I decided to take them to V-Bar at the Venetian. It was already about midnight when I picked them up, and it would be too late to try to get into Tao or any club for that matter on a Friday night (in Vegas). Well, unless you paid for table service, but we didn’t feel like paying the premium bucks for a secured spot at one of the hotspots. Anyway, I like V-Bar, as they don’t charge cover – it seems like there are more locals there and you always get the Tao line rejects heading over there, after their unsuccessful line jumping escapades.

We got over there and found that the bar was pretty jumping already. They have a DJ playing old school hip hop. It must have been a pinoy one from the Bay, as the playlist reminded me of a party at Booty Hop or Raffles from back in the day, circa 1992. It’s kinda’ funny observing the out of towners to Vegas party and get drunk. Those commercials on tv stating what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas seem to get the tourists (hehe, like I’m OG in this town already…) to work out their inhibitions. Our group was chillin’ at the rear of the bar area, where there was an unused VIP seating area. We started to drink and groove over there. In front of us were a group of women, probably my age (mid thirties), who were just having a good time. They were bit on the plus size, and I’m not saying that this was bad. Beauty comes in all versions, sizes, backgrounds and what not. It was just funny to me that they kept on grabbing up guys at the bar who were skinny as hell. Freaking and grinding ensued, everybody was having fun. It was an image to me that did not match, I’m bad, sorry…It’s Vegas, so who cares. Like Tarantino says on his dvd extra interview regarding Sam Jackson’s character Ordell, in the movie Jackie Brown – "You gots to match (your clothes)", before heading out the crib. Sorry again, thinking about it, I don’t think that correlates.

We all left the bar at about 4 am. Wow, this place actually closes. Anyway, we headed out to get some late night sushi, with one of their friends from the seminar. That’s good and bad about this town. You can find almost anything you want to eat, anytime of the day. This truly is a 24 hour a day city. What’s not to love? 24 HR workout is just down the road, lol.

I forgot to mention that I made another final table last Thursday, at the Caesar’s 12 pm NLHE tournament. The buy in was $135.00 total, including your add on ($5,000.00 + $2,500.00 add on, in chips). I like this format, as you start off with $7,500.00 and the blinds change every 30 minutes. The player count is usually capped at 50, but they take alternates for the first 2 levels of blinds. I was actually the number 2 alternate and started play about 20 minutes into level one.

By the last 12 players, I was one of the chip leaders. Played my game, the chips and cards complied with me once again. But alas, that was not to last. The downslide started was when I held pocket Queens. At this point, blinds were $600/1200 with a $100 ante. Playing six handed at my table, the pot held $2,400.00 in chips. It was folded to me in the cutoff, where I made a standard raise of $3,600.00 (I had a total of $57,000.00 in chips at the time, and I covered everyone at my table). The button player folded and the small blind player when all in for a total of $17,600.00 in chips). The big blind player quickly folded. Now the pot held $23,600.00 in chips. I would have to call $14,000.00 to continue in the hand. It’s pretty much a no brainer, I thought I had the best hand and hoped the small blind player went all in with a smaller pair or ace rag. I didn’t really want to see Ace/King, but I still would have the best hand preflop. I called of course and was up against Ace/King OS. The dealer pealed out the King of Hearts on the door. The flop, turn and river did not help me. I doubled up the other player. But hey, I did not all risk all my chips on the hand. I wouldn’t have played it any differently. Sometimes the best hand gets outflopped. I’ll take those races all day.

I managed to get to the final table of ten players, in mid chip stack position. Originally the final 7 players were going to be the money table. We all decided to donate $45.00 bucks each to give the 8th, 9th and 10th players $135.00 when they busted out (you would actually win back $90.00 bucks back in those places). At least that gave you some insurance to get most of your money back. It sucks to bubble out of the money, which I definitely know. It should have been taken out of the prize pool, but the floor manager did not want to get involved in determining the chop, nor did any of the players want to work those numbers out.

Well, to make a long story short, I lost two races to bust out in 10th place. The first race involved me raising with Ace/Ten Spades under the gun , a mid position player went all in with King/Queen OS, and I called his all in. I hit a Ten on the flop, but he hit his King (with a Two of Spades). The turn came a Seven of Spades. Cool, I now have a spade flush draw, which gave me 9 Spades, 2 Tens and 3 Aces for outs to the win (a total of 14 outs, I believe I have still a 30% chance to outdraw the other player, with the river card to go). The dealer dealt out a Two of Clubs on the river. Sucks, hehe. My other race involved me going all in with Ace/Two OS in the small blind against the big blind player’s Jack/Ten OS. He hit a Ten on the River (that’s hurts even more, when it’s the last card – but again, I’ve been on the other side as well – it’s what it makes it exciting). I still had 2 bets left at that point, and went all in two hands later with Queen/Seven OS (a shitty hand, the "Computer Hand"). I was up against another all in player who held pocket Kings and the chip leader who held Ace/Six OS. I had a gut shot straight draw on the turn with my Seven, but the river hit an unneeded Five – I am busted out.
I’m not happy with busting out of the tournament, but I’m happy with my play in it. You need to have your cards hold up when the chips are on the line. Otherwise you don’t get to play anymore, hehe…