I lost a bet with Veneno at the Orleans bowling alley in Vegas. She had 70 pins of handicap (and I bowled like crap)! I didn’t break 163. Since then, I’ve done this:

Almost a 700 series on the first three games of my four game set. Fell one pin short, 699. Losing the bet means I had to rename my blog for a week.

I really do want to do some sort of writeup from the weekend, but so much happened that I just don’t know where to begin. Sorry, I suck.

In the meantime, go congratulate Shane, Byron, and CJ for their recent nice cashes and Ryan and Zeem for winning seats in the WSOP main event yesterday!

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Well, my site is back anyway. What I initially thought was a hacked server is looking like it was actually a dying hard drive. I had backups of everything on it except my site, for some reason. I was lucky to be able to restore things. I need a better backup solution.

When the site went down last week, I was trying to make my first post in two weeks. Now it’s been three, and I have a lot more to write about, but as usual, no motivation to do so. Go read some other poker blogs for great write-ups of the 2006 WPBT Summer Classic. I’ll have one up eventually, I hope.

For now, I’m just happy to have this damn place up and running again.

Almost forgot: The House passed a ban on internet gambling yesterday. The Senate hopefully will not. Go join the Poker Player’s Alliance if you care about the issue. I did.

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That’s really all I can say. WTF?

PokerStars Game #5358391093: Hold’em No Limit ($2/$4) – 2006/06/25 – 02:55:58 (ET)
Table ‘Athamantis’ 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: armani1 ($214.65 in chips)
Seat 3: GreenEyes017 ($248.10 in chips)
Seat 4: gonzal63 ($1079.70 in chips)
Seat 5: penner42 ($378 in chips)
Seat 6: RobertV12 ($108.35 in chips)
penner42: posts small blind $2
RobertV12: posts big blind $4
CanadaKev: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to penner42 [5h Td]
armani1: folds
GreenEyes017: raises $12 to $16
gonzal63: folds
penner42: folds
RobertV12: raises $92.35 to $108.35 and is all-in
GreenEyes017: calls $92.35
*** FLOP *** [Jc 8d As]
*** TURN *** [Jc 8d As] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 8d As Js] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RobertV12: shows [Kc Ks] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
GreenEyes017: shows [4d Th] (a pair of Jacks)
RobertV12 collected $216.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $218.70 | Rake $2
Board [Jc 8d As Js 3h]
Seat 2: armani1 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: GreenEyes017 showed [4d Th] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 4: gonzal63 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: penner42 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: RobertV12 (big blind) showed [Kc Ks] and won ($216.70) with two pair, Kings and Jacks

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I know some people love Party for the fish, and make good money there, but I won’t be playing there again. Not that I was really playing there before, either.

Dear geekandproud,

Our records show that that you have not logged in to your account for 180 days.

A$$.28 administration fee* has been charged to your inactive account. The next charge will be deducted from you account balance on: 22-Jul-2006.

However, this fee will NOT be charged if your account, or any related account, is reactivated on or before 21-Jul-2006.

Reactivating your account is easy: Just log in and place a cash wager, enter a tournament with a cash entry fee, or play a raked hand.

*TERMS & CONDITIONS If you do not access your Account by “logging on” to your Account using your Account name and password for any period of 180 days, then after those 180 days (the “180 day grace period”) your Account (and any related account with any ESP) will be deemed “Inactive”. If your Account becomes Inactive, then the Company is entitled to charge you an administrative fee (the “Inactive Account Fee”). The Inactive Account Fee shall be deducted from your Account Balance at the end of each calendar month in accordance with the Inactive Account Fee Schedule. We will stop deducting the Inactive Account Fee from your Account Balance if your Account is re-activated.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our Customer Care team is available 24/7.

Sincerely,

Party Team

info@partyaccount.com

Of course, those links are still affiliate links. I wonder how they’ll take $0.28 out of my account when my balance is $0.00.

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I haven’t been playing much poker lately, but I did hit my first ever royal flush last night. It came in on the river, playing 2/4 NL, and I checked.

The pot was $20, and my opponent pushed for over $400! I had to double-check the board to make sure I actually had the hand I thought I did, and then called.

And we chopped.

I ended up losing more than I am used to in that game, but less than a buy-in. My bankroll can handle 2/4 NL, I think, but I’m still working on wrapping my head around it.

The Mets are still kicking ass in the NL East. After the win last night, they now have a 7.5 game lead over the second place Phillies, and an 11 game lead over Atlanta. I went to two games last week, against the Dodgers, the first and last game of a three game series. I got to see them win both, though they lost the one in the middle. I need to get to more baseball games, regardless of the teams playing. One of the few problems with Santa Barbara is the distance to the closest major league baseball team. Too damn far.

Most of my free time lately has been spent playing Guitar Hero. After the game last Monday, I played it for the first time at a friend’s place. After one song, I was hooked, and ordered it from his Amazon on his laptop. Tuesday at work, I got impatient, and ordered it from Circuit City for in-store pickup, with plans to return the one I would get from Amazon later in the week. I don’t know if I will, though, or if I’ll just keep the guitar so I have a second one.

A little bit of searching on the web found two hacks for making the guitar wireless. This one looks like a lot of work, and doesn’t mention anything about charging the batteries. I was initially planning to try that, but then found this. Definitely looks like less work, and has the added benefit of being able to charge through the PS2’s USB port. I’ve ordered all the necessary parts, and should hopefully get everything I need to do it by next week.

“I will rock your face!” —Err

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“Hey metsfan, remember when you used to be a blogger?”
—Shane Nickerson

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? No real reason for that, just no motivation.

I’ve started playing poker again a decent amount lately, mostly 1/2 NL at FTP. After about a week and a half, and some huge swings, I’m slightly above where I started. That’s good, I guess, seeing as my game was rusty and I was playing really terribly the first few days of it. Still making some donkey moves, though. Played a few tournaments as well, with not much to show for it. One cash, for not even 1.5x my buyin, and 5% of a few of Ryan‘s small cashes. Swaps are good, especially with players who are better than I am.

The baseball season is still progressing nicely, with the Mets still holding on to first place, though not as far ahead as I’d like them to be. The backend of the starting rotation is a mess, and we need Brian Bannister to come back. Then we need a 5th starter as well. I think the team is better off with Victor Zambrano not pitching than with him, but someone needs to fill that spot and it isn’t going to be Jose Lima for the rest of the season. Billy Wagner needs to get himself together, too. Tonight’s game against the Phillies will be on INHD, and they apparently have three games a week now, which is nice. Baseball in high-definition is so much better than not, I don’t know how I can still stand to watch it that way anymore.

I’m finally going to get myself to a baseball game in a couple of weeks, going to both the Monday night and Wednesday night games when the Mets are in LA playing the Dodgers. For the first game, I went crazy with tickets and will be sitting just past first base, the second row from the field. That should be a lot of fun, and you’ll be able to see me on TV getting hit in the head by a foul ball. Or catching it, maybe.

My fantasy team seems like it might actually be coming together, having made two trades for starting pitching. I dealt Lyle Overbay who was rotting on my bench behind Nick Johnson (and Nomar) for Mike Maroth and Tyler Walker, and then traded Chase Utley for Chris Carpenter. I won’t miss Overbay at all, but being without Utley will hurt my offense quite a bit. It seems like it should be strong enough to do without him, though, and my pitching is now no longer absolutely awful. Plus, I get Gagne back soon, giving me a third closer, finally.

There’s a three-day weekend for Memorial day coming up, so I’m heading back to the east coast to see my nephew (and the rest of my family) again. I’m not looking forward to the actual traveling part of the trip, but it should be a fun weekend. Too bad the Mets are on the road.

And, lastly:

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

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What a difference one night makes. Tuesday, I threw a great series, my 679. Last night, only 193 pins lower for a 486. I don’t remember the last time I was under 500. I guess it goes without saying that we lost the rolloff and finished in second place. Tonight, I play my first softball game in forever.

Billy Wagner blew his third save of the season last night, giving up two runs to the Pirates in the top of the 9th, and costing Pedro another win. The Mets hung on to win it on a Delgado homerun in the bottom of the 12th, though. They’re now 18-9, and still 5 games ahead of Atlanta. The offense seems to be struggling a bit, and they’re still winning. When the middle of the order catches fire again, they’ll be almost unstoppable.

Thanks to Shane, I’m writing this post directly in Firefox, using Performancing, yet another Firefox extension. I’m now running 17 extensions. The Performancing metrics statistics are pretty neat, too, but I really would like Google to give me an Analyitics invitation code already. Not that I really use the stats for anything useful, anyway.

No poker news to report, as I haven’t been playing much. No real reason for that, except that I just haven’t been in the mood to play. When I feel like that, I get bored quickly, my play suffers, and it’s usually just a waste of money. I’m sure I’ll feel the need to play again sometime soon. In the meantime, go read some better poker blogs linked on the left there.

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I promised a real post. This is it, I guess.

Damn you, Chris, for pointing me at this. Can’t get it out of my head.

Poker has been interesting lately. I haven’t been playing much, but enough to lose a bunch of money at Chumash last weekend. My losses basically came down to two hands: losing with QQ vs AK in preflop, and JJ vs 76s when I couldn’t lay it down. I have since made all that money back at 1/2 NL on FTP. I’ve only been playing the cash games there seriously again for two days now, but if it’s really as soft as it seems, I’m going to have to keep doing it. I’ve also played a few of their guarantee tournaments, but failed to cash. I busted 15 off the money in one getting in preflop with QQ vs 33. I will probably continue to play these tournaments, but at least for the moment, the $200 NL cash game looks like a better way to spend my time.

Reminder! Easycure‘s charity tournament for the American Cancer Society is this Sunday. This is a WPBT-POY event, and you can earn Player of the Year points in it.

What: Hammer Out Cancer – WPBT-POY Circuit Event (Tournament ID 3381723 under the Private section.)
When: April 16th – Sunday
Time: 9pm EST
Where: Full Tilt Poker
How Much: $10 + $16 ($15 goes to American Cancer Society so buy-in is 25+1)
Password: dahammer

The Mets are off to a great 7-1 start to the season. Of course, they’ve only played the Nationals and Marlins so far, so they should be beating those teams. Tonight they go up against Milwaukee, who have started the season 6-3. I can’t believe they’re for real, though, so the Mets should be able to beat them, too. I’m trying to figure out how long they’re going to string me along before falling apart and giving the division to the Braves again. I think this year it might be midway through September, sadly. At least I’ll be out of the country then. 🙂

A friend of mine at work sent me a link to a great blog: Plunk Biggio: Dedicated to Craig Biggio and his (probably unintentional) Quest to break the all time major league career record for getting hit by pitches. It’s got daily updates on his HBP numbers, as well as fun stats about teams and pitchers plunking him. He needs 14 more to break the record, and has one this year so far. He’s been plunked at least 15 times in each of the last 6 seasons, so there’s a good chance it’ll happen this year.

My fantasy team is off to a wonderful start, going 1-11 the first week. I had a pretty good offensive week, but my pitching sucked, and my opponent hit 13 homers with 44 RBIs to crush me. This week it looks like I might be able to salvage a split. Yesterday, I hit .430 with 6 homers (more than I had all last week). I’m short a closer because Gagne is hurt (again! what was I thinking?) and my other two have been crap. Izzy and Cordero both have losses for me this week. My starting pitching is a mess, too. I’m not giving up yet, though. It’s a long season. Last year I actually moved up into third place for a few weeks at the end of August and beginning of September before falling off and finishing second to last again. My terrible finish leading to picking first in the draft and getting Utley finally paid off with a 2-homer game from him yesterday. My homerun from Mora blew a Dan Miceli save for my opponent, too. I love this game, even if I suck at it.

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First things first: Joaquin posted about this in my comments, and I realized I haven’t mentioned it yet. Iggy has set up another WPBT WSOP satellite, this time at PokerStars. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it, as I’ll be at the bowling alley. Monday night? WTF. Thanks, anyway. 🙂

What: Blogger WSOP Satellite Tourney
Where: PokerStars – Private Tab
When: April 3rd – MONDAY
Time: 9PM EST
Buyin: $30 +3
Password: socoshot

Second, Easycure is raising money for the American Cancer Society. You can just give cash here, or play in a charity poker tournament he’s set up on April 16th. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to the tournament, but I’ll be donating at least the $15 if I can’t.

What: Hammer Out Cancer – WPBT-POY Circuit Event (Tournament ID 3381723 under the Private section.)
When: April 16th – Sunday
Time: 9pm EST
Where: Full Tilt Poker
How Much: $10 + $16 ($15 goes to American Cancer Society so buy-in is 25+1)
Password: dahammer

I haven’t been playing much poker lately, and haven’t won when I have played, so nothing really to report on that.

Last weekend, I went back to the east coast for Evan‘s bris. The ceremony was nice, and it was good to get back home for a couple of days. I have a picture of him in my photoblog, and there’s one in the gallery. While I was there, I also got to see Brad and Staci’s new house, and it is beautiful.

Yesterday, I finally got a replacement receiver back from Denon after they finally decided waiting three months for a part was absurd and sent me a whole new box. While I’m not at all happy with their service, I do love the receiver. I set it up again last night, and got my Harmony 880 remote working with it. That was a bit of a pain, actually, but once it was programmed everything is working perfectly. It’s so nice to be able to switch from my Xbox to my Cox DVR without having to go behind them and move wires around. I also got the Xbox DVD kit yesterday, so I can use my Harmony remote to control XBMC now. I’m very happy with the whole setup now.

One last thing: Opening day, this Sunday.

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I’m so behind in posting, and have so much to say. Where to begin?

Last Friday, I became an uncle! My brother‘s wife gave birth to a healthy 8lbs, 10oz baby boy. Say hello to Evan Scott Penner. I’m heading to the east coast this weekend to meet my new nephew. I’m now officially “crazy uncle Alan from California.”

Saturday, I went down to LA with some friends to see V for Vendetta. I enjoyed the movie a lot. I liked the political message, and while it really seems like an obvious attack on the Bush administration, it’s worth remembering that the original comic was written between 1982-1985. From what I understand, the movie is pretty faithful to the comic. The explosions (though few) were good, too. The 1812 Overture is great music to blow shit up by (as opposed to Music to Look at Boxes By). I bought the graphic novel as reading material for the plane ride this weekend.

Sunday, I played some board games. First, Paranoia Manadatory Card Game, which was a lot of fun. Also, I won. I don’t think it played out quite like the game normally would, as people didn’t seem to draw the right cards for some of the missions, but it’s a good game. After that, I played a few games of Lost Cities before heading home.

I went home to play in the WPBT WSOP Satellite. Many thanks for Iggy for setting it up. I didn’t play particularly well, and eventually busted when I pushed (with an m of 2) from the cutoff with K5 and ran into Gnome‘s AK. He would go on to take second. Congratulations to Gracie for winning!

Last night, I played in the $17k guarantee at FTP. I was doing just fine until my KK in the small blind ran into AA in the big blind. It actually folded to me, and I just completed. The big blind raised, and I pushed. He said “you better not suck out,” and then called. He flopped quads. I rivered a king. I had him slightly covered, and so I still had some chips. Built them up a little bit, and then my 55 lost to A4s who made runner runner flush. And then the next hand my JJ lost to 33 (all in preflop) and I was out. Damn poker. I guess I was due for a bad run of cards at some point.

Update: I almost forgot… okay, I did forget, and I’m fixing that now: April has posted information on getting room reseverations for the WPBT™ Summer Classic. Go check out the news here.

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