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Winning, Anger and the Crack Addicted Chimps!
Posted on August 13, 2006 by Brian under Family, Games, Life.
On Thursday August 10 my wife and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We had decided that we were going to take a trip to Kansas City and play in a poker tourney their and stay at Harrahs Casino. We have been to Kansas City several times but not to this end, normally we stay around the plaza and don’t venture farther than that. This time we had to go to North KC which took us thru a totally different Highway System. Let me start here and say that the KC Highway System had to be designed by Crack Addicted, ADD inflicted Chimpanzees! It is the most insane thing that I have ever seen in my life. We were following directions that were given to us by Google Maps. At one point it told us to look for the I35, I70, and I210 exchange. So we did. Come to find out this is an intersection where ALL THREE highways intersect into one freaking point and continue for several miles. Then they all branch out again but not in the normal fashion (oh no!). Instead for example, if you entered from the right which was I35 you now had to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get all the way over to the left to catch I35 again. If you entered from the left then you had to cross over to the center and so on. Then there were the on ramps! These were not normal on ramps, these things stretched on for miles and seemed to twist and turn and contort so that you thought you were on a roller coaster not an on ramp. At one point I felt like throwing my hands thru the sun roof and yelling WEEEEE as we went around the on ramp. Then we get to the final annoyance of the
KC Highwaysystem, the signs. At one time we were following the signs to get back to the highway when all of a sudden the highway sign that we were following just disappeared. We are in the center lane of rush hour traffic and we are completely lost. Our highway just vanished and I could not see any options for another turn. I ended up going around the block to only run into another sign for our highway. We were completely dumbfounded. We HATE the KC highway system. Needless to say that after that we did not leave the hotel for the rest of the trip.
As for our poker tourney that is a story in itself. So let’s get started at the beginning. We get their and get our entry paid and find out the seating and rules for this tourney. Ching and I were hopeful to win but were realistic in the thought that we probably would not as this was a new experience for us (playing in a tourney of this magnitude around players that come here to make a living off of this). We both get seated and give each other good luck kisses and start. After about an hour I look over to see Ching walking toward me. I could not believe she was knocked out so soon. I thought to myself this is incredible, she is by far a better player than me and she is already out. It’s just a matter of time before I go out. I managed to get luck on my first 2 hands and get high card Ace for the win followed by pocket Aces for the second win. After that everything went dead and I barely played a hand. I told Ching to stay close so if I got knocked out I wouldn’t have to go far to find her. Break came and I decided to see what she was doing. There was no cell coverage in the building so I had to locate her the old fashioned way, by using my dammed eyes (what is this world coming to). I only had ten minutes and as time went by I got increasingly frustrated and worried then it just turned to anger. My ten minutes were up and I was so pissed that I decided that I was just going to dump the game hunt her down and tell her just how pissed I was. I ended up getting the big blind on the second hand returning from break. I didn’t have many chips so I went all in. One guy asked if I was going to look at my cards and I looked at him and said with a resounding tone “Nope!†This sparked several callers at the table and several worried people that eventually folded. All in all I had 4 callers and the other three could bet. One guy didn’t have much in chips left and after the flop he went all in as well. One guy folded and the other called. The 2 that were still able to bet turned their cards over and the dealer laid out the turn and the river. The short stacked guy lost to a pair of aces, I figured I was done and turned over my cards to discover that I had king jack. This was great because the table had 2 jacks on the board which meant I got three of a kind and won the bigger pot. I looked over at the guy that won with the aces (who was also the guy that asked if I was going to look at my cards) and he was glancing at me with an almost disgusted look on his face. Like he should have won just because I didn’t not look or something. This kind of put him on tilt because after a few hands he was gone at the table and they condensed us. I had 4 more all-in’s and survived. It was an incredible run. Top six paid out and I turned to my wife and said “Watch me get knocked out on the bubble!†I was the target, I was the short stack and everyone wanted me dead. Every time I went all in I was sure I was gone but every time I pulled back more and more chips. There were 10, then 8, then 7 then all of a sudden I was in the money. I couldn’t believe it. Then all of a sudden it was 5, then 4, then 3! I looked at this one guy next to me as my wife is cheerleading in the background and he says “your like that dammed hang-nail that won’t go awayâ€. I looked back and said to him “no, I’m more like that last cock roach that you have sprayed smashed and poisoned and he still won’t dieâ€. He laughed and every time I won a hand after that he would turn to me and say “Why won’t you just dieâ€. I turned to the tournament director and asked him “How much does 3rd get†(thinking to myself that third is better than nothing). He tells me the denomination and no sooner did I say that, the guy to my left gets knocked out and it’s down to 2 people. I immediately turn to the director and ask again “How much does 2nd place getâ€. This got lots of laughs and I continued till I was finally knocked out in 2nd place. I couldn’t believe it. I came in to this game as the under-dog beating out 38 other players to take home 2nd place and $414.00. I was amazed and I don’t think it really hit me till I got back to the room. Ching thinks that it was my pissed off bought that got me thru it and wants to start pissing me off more before we play poker now. I told her I would rather not. I immediately called my folks who were also amazed. I mean I never win anything at poker, the occasional home game but nothing major like this. It just show that you can never underestimate that desperate cock roach, other wise he will come back to life and take it all.
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Poker Passion and Final Table Fantasies!
Posted on July 11, 2006 by Brian under Poker.
Since my wife put a cheesy pic of me at the final table of the APL’s 7:00pm session, I feel the need to write about it.Â
I was happy that I was at the final table. I realized early on that this was going to be a different night. I was getting cards right and left. I had a great streak at my first table where I got quad 7’s followed by trip 7’s followed by trip Ace’s then we left for a 15 min break. When I returned I got another set of Ace’s and took out 2 players of which one was the chip leader at the table for a while till she decided that she had to be in my last 4 pots. On her last hand she had Ace Queen and I had pocket Ace’s, the flop was Queen, Ace, 7. The guy next to me had 10/7 off suit and went all in with his last 1000; I knew I had him beat. The other person that had been in all my other pots and lost decided to raise it to 3000, I looked at her and without blinking said I was all in with almost 20k in chips. She looked and me and said “I have to call you” she only had about 1200 in chips left. I figured if she made a miracle out of this hand then she deserved it if not then I win big time. Everyone flipped over their cards and the truth was revealed and we saw her 2 pair, the guy next to me was dead in the water and I revealed my set. Their was another guy that was to the right of me that knew what we had before we ever rolled over our cards and as we turned the cards he points to the guy to my left and says “desperate move” points to the woman and says “2 pair” and points to me and say “the set” and that’s exactly how it plaid out. The last 2 cards didn’t help anyone and I won the biggest pot of the night (to my knowledge) after that I just sat back and rode the ride for a while, then I realized that as the blinds get higher you cant ride for long cause the blinds will eat you up. So I started to make some moves but nothing too risky so I didn’t loose the chips that I had and risk missing my chance to get to the final table. After a few table bounces as we consolidated and moved closer and closer to that final table I became more and more aware of who I was going to be up against and watched their style of play. I got down to about 15k in chips at the last table before they moved us to the final table and got lucky by getting pocket aces followed by ace queen suited. It seemed that those cards were following me everywhere. I finally got my chip stack up to 45k and we got moved to the final table. I thought I was going to get lucky and grab a few hands to stay alive for a bit but I was not so lucky. The cards that fell were junk and the blinds hit 40k real quick, soon I was in the blind and I had to put all my chips in to play regardless. I didn’t look at my cards until it was all over just because I’m superstitious. The run was over and I turned my cards to see that I had actually hit nothing and was knocked out. I went out 7th and tied with another guy that was put in the same position. All in all I was lucky rather than skilled that time, but it was a good ride and it made me feel good to just make it that far. I had never really been that far in the game and now I can say with pride that I beat out 200+ other people to sit at the final table.Â
 On a side note the person that won the game for the evening was a pregnant lady that had never played poker before tonight and was using a card to tell her what hands she had. Beginners always win on their first time, next week she will be like everyone else. Hopefully I will be sitting at the final table again. My ultimate goal is to be in the first place club with my wife and friends. Currently I’m the only one that has not made it.
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Weekend Woes and the Love of my Life.
Posted on June 27, 2006 by Brian under Life.
Man, what a weekend!
And it’s not over yet either. We bought a new car this weekend, a Toyota Corolla. I’m happy that my wife is getting a new car and the one that she wants to boot. But I hate car dealers and the whole experience has just left a foul taste in my mouth. I have run into more people that I have known for a long time that either had an abundance of car dealer experience and had their 2 cents to put in or actually worked for a car dealer and tried to tell me ways around the system. I just want to get the car and be done with it. It’s being delivered on Wednesday and then we should only have to see the dealer for scheduled maintenance.
 Ok, enough about that now on to the love of my life.
My wife and I had a really nice talk yesterday on the way we have changed and what is important to us and things like that. I told her that before I lost my job I was always wanting everything, every little gadget, every little gizmo, I didn’t care I wanted it. Weather I needed it or not if it was cool and I could afford it (hell sometimes even if I couldn’t afford it) I bought it. Then I lost my job and left T-Mobile (good reddens). And that’s when everything changed; I realized that none of that was important. One of the reasons that I realized that it was not important was due to the fact that we had no money and we were in debt up to our eyeballs. As we talked about that time period I explained to my wife that the other thing that opened my eyes to what was important and what was not is that the last couple of months before I got another job I had realized that I was really (REALLY) close to loosing my wife. The stress of finance and the burden of me were too much, and on top of that she was in school as well. She confirmed (in not so many words) that she was indeed stressed and that she had entertained the thought for a brief period. Since then I have done everything in my power to show her the appreciation that she deserves for sticking it out, staying with me thru thick and thin and holding on to those bonds of marriage that we vowed to on August 10th 2002. I told her that I realized that nothing is more important to me than her and that I wish that I could express the feelings that I had for her more than I do right now. She says that she knows how I feel and that she is never going to leave me. However, I wish that their was a way that I could bottle my feelings and then give it to her to drink like her fruit beer or glass of wine or something like that. Then she could feel the intoxication that she brings over me and the flood of emotion that I have every day. She is the most important thing to me and every day I thank the lord that I found her. We had not really had a talk like that. I told my parents when they asked me why we were getting a new car that Ching deserved it. She is the one that worked hard to graduate from college, she is the one that contributed the most to getting us out of debt, and she is the one that works the hardest at everything she does. I told them that if any one deserved a new car it was her. They saw my point and agreed. I don’t deserve a new car, the only reason I bought that Rodeo was because I was trying to help out my brother who was fixing to have a family and needed a 4 door car. I told my dad that if it wasn’t for that I would still have my Neon and Ching would have gotten a new car long ago because I would have had the Neon paid off already. With all the events that happened with my brother, I regret ever making that offer and giving him that car.  Well I guess that’s enough for now. I started this post on Monday and its now Tuesday. Oh, and an update that you will probably be reading next from my wife. We received the car and on top of that it’s the car that we test drove on Thursday. But that’s another story for another time.
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It’s my Birthday…… Yippy-Fucking-Do!
Posted on June 14, 2006 by Brian under Life.
This will be an account of my Birthday. This is the first time that I have ever kept a record like this so it should be pretty amusing.
6:30am
Got up this morning and was greeted by my cat (Oscar) trying to see how far he could shove his head down my throat. That drives me nuts, great way to start the morning in a pissy mood with a mouth full of hair. I normally get greeted by my wife telling me Happy Birthday and giving me a Kiss but that didn’t happen. Hell I didn’t even get a kiss this morning. She’s probably still mad at me because Care One took $300.00 and applied it to a credit card that we paid off after they told us that it would not be applied. Oh well, I guess it’s just another day for me. 32 is starting to look crappy but what can you do but move on.
7:15am
At work now and still having a shitty day. Set up the board and was told after I had it all set up that three people were not going to be here today. It would be nice if the TSE supervisor would update the vacation calendar (I just think to myself that it was a last min thing and he didn’t have time. That way I done get too upset and make an ass out of myself).
7:48am
Sent an e-mail to my wife telling her to not worry about the auditors and asking her if she’s still mad at me. I’m so sensitive, I don’t know why. If she gets mad then I guess I’ll just try to suck it up and take it for pestering her on a busy day.
8:50am
So far my wife has e-mailed me and told me Happy Birthday. She said that she was sorry for forgetting and would make it up to me tonight. As for anyone else, I wasn’t told happy birthday by anyone but I told someone that it was my birthday and he told me “I’m Sorryâ€. Wow, what a great way to start the day. As for work, this is the first time in 8 years that I have had to work my birthday and it sucks. I woke up this morning and new that today was going to be crappy and it is busy as hell here, it sucks.
9:00am
Cheez-it’s, Breakfast of champions! NOT!
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Let the Sale begin!
Posted on June 9, 2006 by Brian under Life.
Ok folks, tomorrow is the day that we start this grand garage sale that has been haunting me for the last several weeks. I am glad that we actually went thru all our stuff and made space in our house. It’s something that I have been wanting to do for quite some time now. We got rid of a lot of stuff that we had from our wedding that we got like 6 duplicates of, also got rid of some old presents that were given to us from various friends that we never did use. At one time we could not walk thru our house without walking into some box or something. Now we can’t walk around without walking into a dog toy. After all this is over I will be relived that we are that one step closer to our vision of a simple lifestyle. I think that if this goes well I will write a book on how to live simply in the world and be happy. I think that if the world were to follow in the footsteps of people like me then it would defiantly be a better place. Ching just called and said that she will be coming home to got thru her clothes at noon today to see if theirs anything that she wants to give up for the garage sale. This is a big step for her. She really likes her clothes and doesn’t want to get rid of them, I have been trying to get her to loose some of the older smaller ones but she is determined to loose weight and fit into her stuff that she wore in high school. I keep trying to tell her that it doesn’t work that way and to just let it go. I hope that she finally lets some stuff go and frees up space in the closet for maybe some new stuff. She hasn’t bought clothes in like 2 years and I am trying to encourage her to do so. She still won’t its frustrating because for once I want her to actually buy clothes and she is turning it down. I guess time will tell if she changes and accepts the fact that she needs new clothes. Maybe I should call those “What not to wear” people and tell them to come fix her up!Â
 This is Post three. I finally get my full day of WOW. I almost feel like I should take a day off from work like on a Wednesday or something so that I can just play all day. If it wasn’t for my work ethics I probably would. But I’ll save it for a Saturday or something when I can get up at like 10am and play till midnight or later. My goal will be to level at least 3 to 5 levels during that time. I think if I balance Quest’s with Battle Grounds and the occasional grind in the high level areas then it should be no problem. The only problem I have to think about now is what to do when I have to pee. Maybe I’ll just get some depends and then I wont have to worry.  Â
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