Mission WSOP

Had a horrible night at the tables and a huge setback.  I dropped $46.45 and am back to $261.06 which is still ahead of schedule but only by 3 days.  Just could not have anything go my way and added in some missteps also. 

The biggest misstep of the night was going to see "I Know Who Killed Me", the new Lindsay Lohan ‘thriller’.  What a horrible movie this was.  It was like watching a train wreck into a car that just had a plane land on it.  Think of the worst movie you ever saw, then multiply that by 125% and make it just bizarre enough that you HAVE to see every second of it.  I will have to admit that Lindsay’s got a nice ass in the movie.  Other than that… wow… was that painful!  The performances in the movie reminded me of those performances you would see in those Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies.  The worst part was I went to see it by myself and up until the last preview I was the only one in the theater.  Then a group of 4 girls walked in who were so unimpressed with the movie that they didn’t even bother ruining it by talking through it.

The Phils won again and inched closer to the division lead… I think they are 3 out now and 1 1/2 out of the wild card but I could be wrong.  Both Shane Victorino and Michael Bourn went down with injuries though… hopefully that isn’t too serious.

After a strong week, Sunday was not the strongest of performances for me.  While still positive for the bankroll, I managed to add $1.40 to move the figure to $307.51.  Playing for roughly 30 minutes, I think that is about the hourly wage for a Nike shoe factory worker.

The Phillies, on the other hand, closed out a home stand with another win and finished 5-1 on the home stand and have won 8 out of their last 9.  They continue to creep closer to a Wild Card spot where they are 1.5 behind or even possibly catching the Mets where they are 3.5 behind.

Place Your Bets: Edition Two

Over/Under

# Of Home Runs Barry Bonds Will Hit This Week: 2.5
Final Box Office # For Transformers: $302,000,000

Which Side?

Will David Beckham Play In The Next Galaxy Game?

Futures

What will happen first?
Sirius Satellite & XM Satellite will have their merger approved (9-to-1)
Topps & Upper Deck will have their merger approved (6-to-1)
Pigs will fly before either is approved (2-to-1)

Where will the next NFL arrest come from?
NFC East (9-to-2)
NFC North (11-to-2)
NFC South (4-to-1)
NFC West (5-to-1)
AFC East (5-to-1)
AFC North (2-to-1)
AFC South (4-to-1)
AFC West (4-to-1)

Technorati Profile

Today, I increased my bankroll by over 10% with a solid day/night of play but failed to hit the home run again getting sloppy late in the $3 tourney.  For the day I added $29.62 to the bankroll… bringing the total to $306.11. 

I made it deep into the $3 tournament again with 88 players entered I finished 20th.  I flopped two pair and failed to put the player who went all-in on having the nut straight when a gut shot straight hit the board on the turn.  I couldn’t put the player on a straight after he called a big bet on the flop from me.  The board was 9-J-2 and I bet 1000 into a 800 pot.  He called and the turn was a 10.  I had 9-2 and he had K-Q and that was my tournament as I failed to improve on the river.

Beckham was a no show again for the latest Galaxy game.  This time they lost.  No one cared I’m sure as all it is that they want to see Beckham play a few minutes just to feed their insatiable appetite for the guy.

A lame night on the online poker felt.  My total was increased just $1.57 to $276.49.  I wasn’t able to hit the $5.77 mark but was able to keep it positive.  Since I’m already to the August 5th target then I’m ok with a light night.

Now time for my Top 10:

My Top 10 Favorite Athletes Of All Time

10. Andre Rison
Sure, his girlfriend burned down his house but I was always a huge fan of the Falcons receiver who later bounced around between teams.

9. Mark McMillan
He was 5′8" but played with a lot of heart and while he couldn’t tackle worth a lick, every once in a while he made a big play and then celebrated like he won the Super Bowl twice.

8. Wes Chamberlain
I don’t know what it was about this guy but I always rooted for Wes.  Maybe it was his adequate .250 hitting or mediocre power or below average fielding.  I don’t know what it was… just liked him.

7. Ladainian Tomlinson
Amazing running back who deserves a chance to play for at least an AFC Championship.  I hope this is his year on a team achievement level.

6. Vince Young
He might someday move to the top of the list.  Watch the USC-Texas game to see exactly why I’m looking forward to the ‘07-’08 NFL season.  He’s the real deal… you’ll see!

5. Terrell Owens
Aggravating that I have to root for a Cowboy.  His cockiness and celebrations overshadows his talent.  Plus I enjoy watching to see if he is going to be the talented player he can be or putting his foot in his mouth on the sidelines.

4. Rondell White
The oft-injured White has been one of my favorite baseball players since he played for the Expos.  I hope he comes back for at least one more year but he has been injured since the second week of ‘07.

3. Reggie Jackson
Mr. October!  I got to see Reggie play once in person.  I think he struck out. 

2. Randall Cunningham
At any moment, Randall could come up with one of the most amazing displays of athleticism you’ve ever seen.  His jaw dropping feats may never be duplicated and I think that Randall is one of the most underrated players in NFL history.

1. Michael Jordan
From North Carolina… at guard… number twenty three… MICHAEL JORDAN!  What can be said?  There is no one EVER that dominated their sport like MJ did. 

Another positive night for the bankroll as $16.80 was added to move the figure to $274.92.  Live play hasn’t been so kind.  Last night, I played in a poker tournament at the Showboat and after busting out the way I did, I had no desire to play the rest of the night.

With the blinds at 1500-3000, I was sitting at 15,000 in chips (not a great place to be).  The first two players to act fold to me and I move all-in for 15k.  The first player calls and I have him covered (he has 11k).  The big stack at the table calls.  Finally, the big blind moves all-in for his last 13k.  At this point I feel like I’m dead as I have Pocket Queens.  The pot is 55k which will get me right back into contention.  Then the hands are revealed.  A6 vs. A8 vs. A10 vs. my QQ.  I feel like I’m so money at this point.  Flop A-6-8-K-10.  Every player hits two pair including the case ace.  Pre-flop I was a 70% favorite to win the hand.  To be 70% when 4 handed is just perfect.  If you put pocket Aces against any 3 random suited hands, it is roughly 50-50.  I was sick.  So I left.

A short blog tonight as I had a long day and night and have to be up in 2 hours.  I struggled early and often and it looked like I was headed for my 3rd losing night.  Then I went on a vicious run (after being down as much as $30) and pushed the bankroll to $258.12 (+$4.70).  It was probably my best played night of poker due to my ability to play through some poor play and not lose my cool.  At low limits I am prone to doing that.  I nailed the rest of the night and actually was up about $9 at one point but gave a few bucks back at the end.

It’s official… you can no longer find one person in the United States that has not seen the preview for The Simpsons Movie.  SPIDERPIG! SPIDERPIG!  DOES WHATEVER A SPIDERPIG DOES!

My eyes are barely open at the moment.  I didn’t arrive home from work today until 10 PM and spent a little bit of time with Lisa and hit the gym for only an hour because I am totally spent.

On the good side, apparently I play online poker well totally exhausted because I was able to bring my WSOP bankroll to $253.42, a +$18.99 increase today.  And I only played for 30 minutes tops.  That puts my 1/8 of the way there in about 30 days.  I am 9 days ahead of schedule and have had just 2 losing days since starting my endeavor and 2 losing days since blogging.  That’s 8 winning days and 2 losing days… not too bad.  Throw in the days pre-blog and I’m 90% winning days and $45 ahead of target.

Looks like if you put a chunk of money on the arrest of teen celebrities, Lindsay Lohan (technically no longer a teen) just cost you a notch by getting arrested a week early.  Lohan was arrested Tuesday for DUI, driving with a suspended license and cocaine possession.  Lohan later denied the charges but in the court of public opinion, I’m sure this isn’t going to help her 2nd movie of the summer coming this Friday.  You know the movie that is not The Simpsons Movie. 

Game 2 of the Beckham ERA in LA went off… and no Beckham.  Sadly, the LA fans will just enjoy Beckham parading the sidelines.  Despite Beckham playing just 1/15th of the first 2 games, ESPN announced that Beckham’s debut was the highest rated soccer game ever televised on ESPN.  1.5 million people watched the 1-0 loss that had Beckham appear for 12 minutes.

Finally, one of my favorite baseball players announced that he was retiring… then turned around and hit a grand slam.  Astros’ Craig Biggio announced he was retiring at the end of the season.  Biggio has 3000 hits and he’s the only player in major league history with 600 doubles, 250 HRs, 3000 hits and 400 steals.  He’s a 7-time all-star and played numerous positions including catcher despite mostly being a second baseman.  Biggio might be the most underrated player due to his under-the-radar workman-like effort.  He made the playoffs four times and the World Series once. 

If Biggio ain’t a Hall Of Famer on the first ballot, I know nothing about baseball.

I was too busy screwing up personally to be able to devote much time to increasing my bankroll but I was able to put in a quick 30 minutes at the end of the night tonight.  In just 30 minutes I took my bankroll from $223.48 to $234.43… a $10.95 increase.  Still 5 days ahead of schedule, it was nice to have an easy night of it and would be great if I could duplicate tonight’s session over and over again.  It was the perfect storm of tight passive players in a short handed stud game. 

So, I was getting caught up with all of the news coming from the Poker world I so desperately want to be a full-time part of and I see the winner of the big online tournament on Bodog on Sunday was "pearljammer".   Then I see a picture of Jon "pearljammer" Turner.  Flashback to a few years ago at the Borgata when a younger me was confusing the heck out of some players at a $1/$2 NL game at the Borgata.  One of those players thoroughly confused was Mr. Turner.  I remember Turner because of the look of utter despair when I felted him a second time in the night when I made a huge overbet with the nuts and he called me thinking there was no way I had his hand beat. 

At the time, I had no idea who Jon Turner was and neither did anyone but maybe Momma Turner and his homegame friends.  I remember seeing Turner two years ago also.  It was in the halls of the Rio near the Amazon Room and I remember thinking "this guy is playing in the World Series?"  Now, I see he’s a perrenial tournament casher with over $361k in live tournament winnings and the 229th ranked player in 2007.  I’m sure he’s much improved since our encounter but it just makes me think of what kind of success I could possibly have if I was able to devote my energy to this hobby full time.  I dunno… maybe I’ll get my opportunity some day.

While we are on the subject of jealousy.  I was just perusing the Bodog Beat on my Newsgator RSS Feeds and came across this story about Eva Mendes.  It appears that Mendes likes her body and enjoys bathing with other nude women.  What a revelation!  Now, you’d think I’d be jealous of the bath or the other women or the reporter who got to interview Mendes.  The real jealousy comes from the fact that if you are a beautiful woman in this country, you have a free pass to allow yourself to use as few brain cells as possible.

Case in point… flashback to a few weeks ago when Paris Hilton, in her first interview after prison, revealed to Larry King that the thing she most didn’t like about herself was that when she got nervous or shy her voice gets very high.  Or last week on Conan when Jessica Biel revealed that she really didn’t like her fat fingers.

OK… so I’m jealous.

What a screwed up day today was…  Lisa got a call early in the morning as I was headed to bed that her dad was headed to the hospital due to some complications so sleep had to be put off while I headed to the ER with her.

Lisa’s dad, Joe, has MS and is paralyzed and is currently rehabbing in a nursing home but after about a month out of the hospital, he’s now back in with pneumonia.  Don’t ask me how he’s able to keep recovering but he’s been sick more than I can possibly imagine.  This year I think he’s been home a total of 5 days.  It’s been real tough.

So, my day started there.  At some point, I was facing total exhaustion and decided to go to the car and catch a few Zzz’s.  At 85 degrees, clear and sunny, I was boiling in the car and gave up after about an hour into the nap.  I went back in but couldn’t cut it and finally had to head home once it was safe that Joe was out of the woods for today. 

At home I slept soundly through the day and woke up around 5:30 to catch up on some work and play in Round 2 of the Borgata qualifier.  I also called Lisa to see if she needed anything from me but she was good on her own.  I got caught up on work and exited the Borgata qualifier early when my Pocket Kings were called by Pocket Twos only to have the player hit a 2 on the river.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful.  Lisa and I ate and watched "Ace Of Cakes" and "So You Think You Can Dance?".  Then I headed to the gym.  Lisa turned in early because she has a CPR certification in the morning and I turned back to building my bankroll…

It didn’t go too well at first and after a bit of time, I started to panic.  I had not lost 2 days in a row and I felt like I was headed that way as nothing would hold up.  At one point, I was down $20 and looking to be barely on track.  Then I went on an amazing rush.  Next thing I knew I was positive for the day and even a little beyond the $5.77 daily target.  I finished the week at $223.48 and +$8.36 for the day.

For the week, I added a little over $18 which is less than $3 a day with 2 losing days thrown into the week.  I’m still ahead of schedule by 5 days.  I have to admit I get so frustrated when things don’t consistently go my way and I really have to control the tilt factor.  The hardest part is that it is never about the $$$ but about losing to players who win while making poor decisions only to watch them eventually dump off their winnings to someone else.

Best blog in the business:  Daniel Negreanu’s Poker Blog.  If you are a poker fan, you should subscribe to the blog… it’s a must read.

While Friday is reserved for the Top 10 list… the oddsmaker in me will be posting some Prop Bets every Sunday in ‘Place Your Bets’!

Place Your Bets: Edition One

Over/Under

# Of Home Runs Barry Bonds Will Hit This Week: Over/Under 3
# Of Times It Will Be Mentioned In The Media That Bonds Might Be Juicing: Over/Under 1,312
# Of Commercials Fox Will Air For The Simpsons Movie This Week: Over/Under 251
# Of Hot Dogs I Will Consume This Week: Over/Under 3 1/2
# Of Days I Will Be Able To Avoid Finding Out The Ending Of The Latest Harry Potter Book: Over/Under 20

Which Side?

Football Player Arrests vs. Teen Celebrity Arrests In August
The Simpsons Movie Opening Weekend Box Office vs. Amount Of Money In David Beckham’s Wallet
Michael Vick’s Prison Time vs. Tim Donahee’s Prison Time
Vegas Strip Club Frequent Customer Pacman Jones’ Prison Time vs. Vegas Strip Club Frequent Customer Lindsay Lohan’s Prison Time

Futures

Winner Of ESPN’s Who’s Now?
Tiger Woods: 4-to-1
Lebron James: 9-to-2
Peyton Manning: 6-to-1
Tom Brady: 10-to-1
The Field: 3-to-1
Who Cares?: 1-to-1

Will Bud Selig Be In Attendance When Barry Bonds Breaks Hank Aaron’s HR Record?
Yes: 9-to-2
No: 3-to-2
Technically He’ll Be There But He’ll Be In Line Getting A Jumbo Dog When The Actual HR Is Hit: 800-to-1

My 2nd setback was a decent sized one but I’m still ahead of schedule by a few days.  A -$23.09 day brought the total back to $215.12.  I’m still 4 days ahead of schedule but it was an absolutely frustrating day as I could never find a groove all day.  Hopefully, the next day will be more kind.

The lowlight of the day was having Aces and Queens with a 10 showing against a player without a pair showing and his high card showing being a 10.  He had a pair of 10s with no straight or flush draw and was raising me the whole way.  On 7th street, my hand failed to improve but he hit the case 10 to lock up the hand with trip 10s.  Basically, he hit a one outer which saved his bluff.  There were others involved in the hand earlier and it cost me almost $6 and a $16 pot.  If he called me down and hit, I would have been surprised… but he raised the whole way with nothing and hit trips on 7th… that’s just sick!

David Beckham made his LA Galaxy debut… 12 whole minutes of nothingness.  It’s so unlike soccer to have an uneventful 12 minutes.  I just can’t believe i missed it!  I hope my sarcasm is well hidden here.