I'm Still Dumping Hollywood

I forgot to share my results from my Hollywood Poker new members freeroll on Monday night. 161 players signed up and I tried to show patience through the first break. I was feeling really good about my play and then noticed that as people got knocked out, it announced $3.22 prizes awarded to their account. I think they started paying out at around 40. I broke through 20 when the fateful hand occurred. I had A 10 and called a small raise. The flop came A J 10 and somehow we both ended up all-in. I can tell while writing this that I need to take better notes. This would help my playing as well as my blogging. Sorry, back to the hand. He turned over JJ for trips and my 2 pair never improved. I went out 19th for a payday of $6.44. Hey, my first money from Hollywood. I have one more freeroll ticket that I may do Sunday night or sometime next week.

Finally, I've Been Added!

Aha, I've made it to the blog. Truthfully it's mainly Brian's poker blog, but since I am in the title, I'm going to make it a little bit mine also. So for you poker players out there reading for play commentary, you may want to skip my posts. Or not. Who knows, I may have something entertaining to say every now and then. For my friends who are reading this, yes, I'm actually blogging! Who'd have thunk it? Now, I have a confession to make. I have become a reality TV junky. While I don't watch ALL reality TV, I do tune it to my fair share: Survivor, The Amazing Race (awesome show), American Idol, The Apprentice, The Next Food Network Star (I love the Food Network). That said, I have been without a new Survivor for two weeks, and I am anxiously awaiting its return tonight. It certainly sounds like I'm a TV hound, but really I'm not. That's actually Brian's role. Other than these shows, there isn't much I watch regularly. Many times I'd much rather curl up with a good book. Oh, and a good glass of wine!

First one out, are you kidding me?!

Apparently, I am more in love with AQ than AJ. For some reason I was a big ole dumbass and felt like calling someone's all-in reraise after the flop while I am not even holding a pair. He flopped two pair and I never had a chance. Well that's not true, my chance was to fold and lose my raise but fight another day. I can't believe I made that call, there simply is no good way to explain it other than I thought the cards were "pertty." One hand later, I had the honor of being the first one out of Wil's tournament tonight. Let the junk kicking begin, I deserve it.

Part of what really sucks is how much I look forward to this particular game each week. I read the blogs of alot of the other players and think they are fantastic at the game. Socially, it is so much like a home game that I miss it when it is over. The people playing are so much fun and I really feel like I am becoming a better player because of the strength of the competition. I shouldn't let this week get me down, just consider it an $11 lesson on aggressive behavior.

I'm in love with a stripper

This song goes through my head every time I look down at AJ. It looks great, makes you feel good for a moment, but if you act on it, you're going to lose money.

This is my lame attempt at naming a poker hand. Feel free to use it. Even if you don't, you'll still think it, so either way I win (enter maniacal laugh).

Hollywood Poker and Too Many Brain Farts

I played in a neighborhood NL game on Saturday with 7 other guys. Around midway through the game I managed to get chip lead when my AQ made 2 pair on the turn. I had already called somebody elses all-in on the flop with A,8,? on the board. I was worried about AK, but he surprised me with A8 for 2 pair. Luckily, the Q hit and I knocked him out. Going to the final 3, I had about a 2-1 chip lead but seriously misplayed a hand. First off, I should have folded on the flop, then I lost the ability to count so I didn't fold on the turn either. This busted me down to 3rd and I went out on the next hand. I managed to win back my buy-in, but no profit.

I recently opened an account on Hollywood Poker to try something different. Since I am more interested in tournament play, I took the 2 free entries for designated tournaments as my opening bonus. I will play 1 tonight and the other later in the week. I tried 4 SNGs and 1 tournament on Sunday. I have not placed in anything yet. I have been playing the 10 person SNG and have not gotten higher than 5th. I don't know why I have sucked so much at these.
The Sunday afternoon tournament had about 300 people. I made it past the 1st break and had a brain fart when I didn't realize we were 3 handed instead of 2. This cost me 1/3 of my chips. A few hands later I had about T2000 when I raised to 300 on 50/100 blinds with AJ. From 1 before the blinds, I was mistakenly trying to pseudo-steal the big blind from the chip leader(T10,000+) and he called. The flop came 9?2, I bet heavy and he raised. I thought he was just pushing me around, so I went all-in, he calls and turns over 9,2. With another 2 on the river just to completely trounce me with the boat and I got busted out in the 90s. I would gladly accept some input as to how I could have done it different. I realize I am leaving alot of the variables out so it is hard to give advice. The only thing I can think of would have been to raise 5X, push preflop, obviously not play the hand or fold on the reraise.

Basically my play for the weekend was not good. I had a problem not seeing the signs or paying proper attention. I do not like the look of Hollywood Poker, maybe because I am used to ESPN and PokerStars, so after my 2 free games I am pulling out what's left. I still may try some free rolls unless there are 1000 people going for $20. I may try out some stuff on Full Tilt next week. As usual, I am really looking forward to Wil's Tuesday game.

My Nephew and Dundee

Not much going on lately. We went to my brother's over the weekend to visit with the family. Our 3 year old nephew loves Dundee and after a few years of limited exposure, she is much more comfortable with him. He is very good with her, but I think she is still remembering his early days when he was learning to walk and would fall on her when he tried to pet her. They also used to wig each other out with their respective communications. He would squeal with excitement which Dundee clearly didn't like and when Dundee would bark at him to play with her, he would start to cry. Now when Dundee barks he tells us "that's how Dundee talks," but it still startles him. Once they get going playing ball or throwing a stick they both start having fun.

Our niece is 1 and although she clearly likes Dundee, she is not as obsessive about her as my nephew was at his age. Our niece will walk around the house and slowly follow Dundee or turn her head to watch her when she is around but doesn't run after her or follow her to her hiding spots like he did. It is very cute to see my nephew tell my niece "Dundee is a good dog, Dundee is a sweet dog" when they are petting her.

My brother has a nice, level, fenced in backyard so when the weather is nice, it makes for a great day playing with Dundee and the kids. He has an interest in birds like I do. With his more wooded neighborhood, his variety of feathered visitors is much greater than mine. He has already had his first hummingbird of the year. I guess its time to start putting out the sugar water for ours even though we are back in a rut of 30-50 degree days.

Stacie is hosting a baby shower for our friends on Saturday so I am going to a neighbor's to play some short handed poker. The size of this game varies, but its looking like around 5-7 players, so maybe we'll play 2 tournaments. I may play online as well since I opened an account on Hollywood Poker to try out some new tournaments and SNGs.

Dem's Quads Beetches!

This is my all-time favorite saying in poker. It just cracks my ass up. I heard it a couple of times from the railbirds in February when I got four Aces not once, but in two separate WWDN Tuesday night games. It's always great to have four of a kind, but something about hearing someone else announce this hand is funny to me. It's like they won something too. It is a great example of the social aspect that I enjoy so much about the Tuesday game. I was an idiot and didn't do any screenshots for future enjoyment.

LUCKY! LUCKY! LUCKY!

Let me just start by being very thankful for my win in the WWDN tourney last night. We had 77 players and went to around midnight EST. With that said, I must apologize for being the luckiest DONKEY known to man! I should have been knocked out multiple times but managed to river at least 4 if not 5 suckouts. Most of the time I put myself in those situations, I either went in incorrectly thinking I had the best hand or was bluffing and went all in and got caught by someone calling with a better hand. The results were ridiculous and I know that I was just a really shitty player compared to my competition. Sir Waffles had a great post about luck, and I embodied that to the Nth degree last night.

At the first break, I was in first place and kind of stayed near the top until the final 20. I dropped down to 12 out of 12 and then was the very low stack when we got to the final table. My greatest luck came when at the final table, I went all in with KsXo and got 4 spades to come on the board. This was particularly ugly and I received much deserved mocking from the railbirds. I did a couple of more all-ins that held up. I even managed to get my two nemeses for the evening, Mourn and Katitude. I was really proud of the Atlanta metro area representation for the night. At the final table there were 3 of us (Transfish and Mowenumdown) and the HU match was 2 GA boys. Not University of Georgia, mind you, but it was clear mowenumdown was a Dawgs fan.

I offer this admission to hopefully appease the Poker Gods so they will continue to smile upon me. For the sake of the mortgage payment, this is why I only play tournaments. I have managed to have (2) 1st place and (1) 2nd place out of the last 6 times I have entered this regular tournament so naturally I am thrilled with that.

I am not sure if Wil is going to do a tournament of champions or when it will be. If not, no worries its been great so far. I don't know how many players have won multiple Tuesday night tourneys, but I don't think there are more than 3. Maybe the 2nd place finisher from the second win will get the invite or it will just extend the qualification until there are the designated number of winners.

Let the flaming begin!

Results from the weekend

The weather here in Atlanta was just too nice to not be outside. We did a little yardwork, played with Dundee and her pal Sasha, and I got the lawn mower ready for this season. I really should have ridden the motorcycle more but I did go for a quick hour ride on Sunday. I did some exploring around the "covered bridge" area in Cobb County. It is a beautiful area that has some nice homes tucked in to some very wooded lots.

I did enter a low buy-in SNG on Saturday night and managed to take 1st. Money wise, it was a small win, but as long as I stay on the positive side I am thrilled. I'll use this win to pay my way to Wil's weekly Tuesday game. I haven't decided if I am going back to my good luck chocolate chip cookies or start drinking the little Guinness bottles during play. Wish me luck.

Dundee

We love our dog. What's not to love?
Ok, I'm not crazy about the fact that she has to be walked twice a day. The afternoon one is fine and good for all of us, but spending 20 minutes every morning because she has this thing about not pooping in her own yard can be a little annoying.

I want this!

I want this! Dundee can ride in the side car with me. She would look very cute in her little aviator googles.

TV shows I watch

What I watch: (Love my DirecTv with Tivo and my new purchase of the HD model) The Office, My Name is Earl, Top Gear, E-ring, Numbers, CSI, Las Vegas, Smallville, Medium, 2 and a Half Men, King of Queens, King of the Hill, Lost

Shows I miss: Blind Justice, Keen Eddie, Star Trek series, Coupling (British version), Most of old Tech TV's lineup (Screen Savers, Call For Help, TechLive, Fresh Gear)

I hate eating alone

One of the best parts of my job is working in the same building as my wife. We almost always have lunch together. This works out well for me because I hate to eat alone. If it is just me in the lunchroom at work or a restaurant, I am miserable. It's not bad a home because I just go up to the bonus room and watch Tivo on the big screen. In fact I really enjoy it then because it's basically watching TV with some chewing thrown in. To me, food is not very important. Don't get me wrong, there are things I really like to eat, but it's not a real big deal to me. I am one of those "eat to live" and not a "live to eat." I am more of a snack fan.

At my last job (cable company) I had 2 different groups of great friends that I would go to lunch with just about every day. With one group we would go out and get something to go and come back to my office. I had a good size office with a nice round table and cable TV with video-on-demand. When I went with the other group, we would usually go to some tablecloth / plastic picnic blanket restaurant and spent the 1+ hour. These were really good times and I miss these friends. We still meet up on occasion, but I am striving to do it more. I would love twice a month, but we will start back with once a month. With the weather turning nice, I am definitely ready to start up some Margaritas and Marley on Fridays on our back deck. This would also be a good time to have over my friends from my phone company days. Let me get started on that.

Tuesday's WWDN Tourney Results

Real quick. I played really shitty. I lost 1/3 of my chips in the first 10 minutes and then managed to river a winning suckout with my all-in. Even after my bounce back to a normal chipstack, I stil got knocked out before the first break. I had a feeling it wasn't going my way, and my play wasn't helping. I have been low in games before and made solid plays to allow me back in so I need to remember this next time I am short stacked. FishyMcdonk was still kicking ass when I quit watching around 10:30. He didn't win, but he did knock out Wil for the second week in a row. If I remember right, Fishy was able to call 2 all-ins before him while he was holding pockets Aces. They held up and he collected a nice stack. Congratulations to S.T.B. for taking the whole thing later.

I attempted my first real money multi-tabling during Wil's tourney. I wasn't planning on doing this, but I entered the $3 satellite into the million dollar Sunday game. It was going pretty well, but since it was a rebuy tournament, I knew it was going to go later than I need to do on a weeknight. People are going all in like crazy because they can just spend $3 and get back in on the next hand. After playing for 30 minutes, there were still hundreds of players left. I think I will try this on a weekend sometime, but for now I will stick with Wil's Tuesday game and start playing more SNGs.

A Few Thoughts About The Oscars

If enough people read this, I might get in trouble with the title and trademarks. Since that is not a big concern, here are a few of my thoughts about the 2006 telecast:

Salma Hayek - Super, Super Hot. That blue dress looked awesome on her. I am not just saying that because her boobs were spilling over the top.

Jada Pinkett Smith - Super Hot. Pretty much the same comment as I had for Salma without the large breasts. The dress did a great job of making her look taller.

Jennifer Garner - Very Hot. She still looks great after her baby and chose a nice dress that accentuated positive and hid parts that will be worked off later.

Keira Knightley - Hot.

Jennifer Lopez - Hot.

Uma Thurman in her after party dress - Hot.

Jessica Alba - Hot, but used to be much hotter about 10+ pounds ago.

I felt really bad for Lauren Bacall. I don't know if she has having problems reading the teleprompter or maybe something more age related with her memory and speech.

Where the hell was James Doohan during the death montage?

I can't believe I actually saw an Oscar winning movie before the Oscars. Not only that, I remember watching Crash with Stacie and we both commented that it should be considered for "Best Picture." I was really impressed that it won, I figured Brokeback was the Hollywierd favorite.

I thought Jon Stewart did a great job. I think he will have the job as long a he wants it. Not as funny as Billy Crystal, but his hosting style seemed more like Johnny Carson.

I can't stand the red carpet preshows, but since Stacie had it on in the background, I caught a few minutes of TV Guide Channel's broadcast with mom and daughter team. Did anybody else see Joan Rivers introduce Lee Majors as Larry McMurtry? That was hilarious. I loved watching her screw up but I did feel bad for the Six Million Dollar Man. For cryin' out loud, I would expect the new 18 - 21 year old entertainment reporters to not know him, but damn Joan you were both popular around the same time. You've even met the guy previous to this.

I am looking forward to this year's entries and maybe I'll see other nominated candidates before next year's awards show. Since most of my movie choices are action and Sci-Fi, I doubt that will be the case.

In front of Paris Hotel in Vegas. 2005
 

At the Wynn. Vegas 2005
 

Yellowstone. 2004
 

My 2002 BMW R1150R. 

Funny Things My Coworker Says

I work with a really sweet woman that sometimes says things without completely thinking through what she is saying. I think most of it comes from combining 2 phrases and she adds her own touch with hilarious results. These usually come when someone is picking on her and she starts to defend herself and gets flustered. Here are what I have documented so far:

"But under the ropes, we don't know." I think we were trying to figure out why a coworker was being such a dumbass.

"As long as you keep your own back clean." She was telling someone else to mind their own business.

"No pennies unturned." Make sure you look everywhere.

"Better use the Mighty Mouse." She was talking about cleaning a toilet and meant "Tidy Bowl Man."

"Up to my ass in alligators and I can't get them off of my throat." Another coworker had a great response "You must have had your head up your ass!"

"You've been working the little beaver." Instead of "busy like a beaver." This got big laughs.

"We're so busy, we had to catch our tail to get there."

"The Pesky Truck." Instead of the "Penske" truck for shipping.

"The ball will fall."

"I went to the bathroom and did 2 customers at the same time." This is my favorite. We just opened our new sales counter near the bathrooms, so sometimes when we go over to the bathroom, we have to help walk-in customers with their orders.

"Communication is our worst enemy." I think she meant, "lack of communication."

"Deader than a freakin' snail." I realize snails are slow and door nails are dead.

"Memory like a duck." Confusing elephants and ducks. I guess it's like "water off on elephant's back."

"More than its barked up to be." Instead of "cracked up to be."

"The Old Witch of the South."

"Drives me up a nut tree."

"Swallering our butts off." Talking about how fast she and a coworker had to eat lunch since the service was slow.

"Somebody's done turned CW's funny bone over."

"Take my voice back." I really don't remember, I think she was trying to retract a statement.

"Hang in there like a Trojan." One vivid image comes to mind, but she meant just keep doing your job.

"You put words in your own mouth."

"I don't want to go 3 feet under." We were having some death conversations.

"Hung like a trooper." This is her attempt to correct the "hanging trojan" comment. We asked her if she was still falling for the "breathalyzer" trick again.

"Hootie and the Goldfish."

"A trojan came in the backdoor!." A computer virus warning prompted her to exclaim to the room. It made us think of the "hanging trojan" again.

"Under the bug." When your sick.

Why are we here?

A few years ago, I started reading Wil Wheaton's website and have followed to his "temporary" location in exile. I really enjoyed reading his site and when he started playing poker and writing about it, it introduced me to a ton of other blog sites that had an interest in poker. Because there just isn't enough already, I started my own blog after reading the sites of the other players in Wil's weekly tournament on Pokerstars. Most of the people have been really nice and I have enjoyed playing against them. Some of the other players have been excellent sources of top notch info, especially Wes, aka Boobie Lover, and Sir Waffles. Unlike Wil and the rest, I am a novice at online Poker and don't know squat about writing a blog so please forgive me here and at the tables.

I have been playing NL Texas Hold'em in home games for about a year and on ESPN.com for about 4 months. On Tuesdays, I used to play at a local sports bar for prizes, but wanted to start playing in a regular Tuesday night tournament that Wil Wheaton hosts. After getting my account set up on Pokerstars, I played in my first WWDN tournie sometime in November of last year . There were about 50 entrants and I got knocked out in about 10 minutes. Not exactly the result I was looking for, but it was my first time playing online for real money.

I didn't have the chance to play again for a while, so I decided to make February "Brian's poker month." My goal was to play as much as possible without taking away too much time from my wife or let my TIVOs collect any more shows (I think I am about caught up to January of 2006 with some car shows from last summer). The first game actually started on January 31st and I was lucky enough to beat out 124 other players to collect 1st place at about 12:15 AM on Feb 1st. That made a great start for the month and definately encouraged me to play more. I thought I played pretty well and was catching some great cards. I even had quad Aces once to win a nice pot. When I went head's up against Boobie Lover, I had him chip dominated 4-1 I think. The only reason it wasn't over immediately is because he is a much, much better player than I am and I need to learn alot more about head's up play. The following Tuesday I went fairly deep but not enough for any payoff.

The next tournament was Valentine's Day so I spent the day away from the computer for a nice evening with Stacie. The Tuesday after Valentine's tournament didn't go well at all. I got knocked out fairly early so I tried my hand at a 9 person Sit'n'go. Beginner's luck held true and I won the first SNG I every entered. On Friday, I entered a satellite for the big Sunday game but was knocked out quickly. I tried another SNG and was out 7th out of 9. I think I will take these satellites a little slower so I can have better showings.

I always get very excited on Tuesdays because of Wil's tournament. This past Tuesday I wanted to make a good showing to end out "Brian's Month of Poker." I had a great showing with 91 total players. I was having ridiculous luck with flops. Almost every pocket pair I had would trip on the flop. I was trying to play aggressive and when I grabbed the chip lead, I still would be getting Ace something so I started stealing blinds. Shortly after the final table was set, it was obvious that they were better players than me. I got lucky on a few hands when the short stacks went all in and I either had them beat preflop or the board went my way. By the time there were 3 of us left, I had dropped to third. The cards were really going my way and I was able to pick up 2 good pots, 1 with pocket Aces and another on the board, then a couple of hands later I got quad Aces. I ended up finishing 2nd because my opponent, FishyMcDonk, had me slightly covered in chips but vastly covered in talent. Congrats Fish and I look forward to more tables.

Future posts will probably be more poker, our travels, and basically whatever I feel like. I hope you will come back and let me know how it's going.

Introduction

Welcome! I hope you enjoy this and future posts. This will mainly be updated by me, but my wife will probably add her own touches.

Speaking of my wife, I am happily married to Stacie, a wonderful, smart, funny, sexy, cute, and amazingly fit woman that takes awesome care of me. We got married back in 1998 in Pacific Grove, CA. It is between Pebble Beach and Monterey.

We don't have any kids, but love our dog immensely. She is a retriever / shepard mix that we got from the Humane Society about 5 years ago as a puppy. Her adoption picture is my avatar at PokerStars.

I graduated from Auburn University back in the early 90's with a degree in Aviation Management. After graduation, I moved to Atlanta to hang with my friends.

Unfortunately when I graduated, Pan-Am and Eastern had just died, and Delta was laying off, so I ended up doing jobs that are completely unrelated to my original interests. I did retail management for a couple of years because I really needed the money. It didn't take long to get sick of that and took a few months off and hung around with friends while I looked for another job. This was back when I was single and really didn't care about debt.

While I was at a party my friend's coworker said that Bellsouth was hiring people for their startup cable company. I applied for an outside position and after pole climbing school, was hired to hang strand, cable, and eventually splicing in components. I really enjoyed the hours, money, and working outside until Winter hit. At that point I did not enjoy hanging cable to the side of someone's house in the freezing cold and mucking with a ladder. I was able to get a job inside troubleshooting and assisting technicians that were servicing our customers. From there, I was promoted to supervisor, then manager of the group. By this time I am managing a Network Operations Center that monitored and did troubleshooting for the video offering by BellSouth. I did this for a few years and then did the similar function for the competing cable company. After a few years of this, I needed a break. I had been managing a 24x7 group for 5 years and the hours were just getting longer and longer. I was not able to reach my "goal" of 1 meal a day with my wife. Not good, so I quit my job and started to look for something else.

Apparently, I severely overestimated my ability to get another job in my field without working the crazy hours again. Fortunately our savings allowed my to look, but eventually I just had to get a job. I started working in the same small family owned company where my wife does the marketing. After 6 months in the warehouse, I moved to inside sales where I answer inbound sales calls and provide tech support for (in Hank Hill voice) "thermostats and thermostat accessories." It is not the most exciting job, but my wife and I carpool, we have a short commute, and it is a true 40 hour a week M-F job. I get paid well enough to support my hobbies and live close to work. Our 20 minute commute means alot to us and is definitely not the norm for ATL.