FLIP + CHING

Brian is an Easy Mark

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Ching under Life.

The ShamWow guy at the HBA home show is by no means a fantastic salesman, yet he managed to ~~con~~ persuade my husband to buy his product. Brian was completely convinced it was a great deal. He got two sets for only $20, after all. I knew we should have deposited his poker winnings in the bank. Having cash in his wallet is like holding sand in your hands: here today, gone tomorrow.

I had heard that the ShamWow doesn’t really work as great as they say it does so maybe the sales guy deserves more credit for his very convincing sales pitch. Either that, or Brian is just an easy mark.

Kidding aside… On the bright side, he did get two sets so now we have one and his mom and dad has one. If anything, at least it’s affordable.

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Ron’s BDay and a Very Full Saturday

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Ching under Life, Movies.

Proof that Brian and I were present last night. Well, this photograph I took while there and our card/gift card for Ron. Then again, someone could have delivered the card for us, so I decided to take a photo as evidence.

The HBA home show in Hutch wasn’t very busy Jason, the coworker who was working our booth with me, allowed me to leave early so Brian and I were able to make Ron’s birthday on time. Except the GPS dropped us at the wrong house. When Wilma said “Arriving at … on left,” we couldn’t really tell which house she was referring to. The festive tiki torches in the driveway should have been a dead giveaway, but I wasn’t wearing glasses so I didn’t notice them until we were walking up to the door. This was after we had knocked on the wrong house, though. The embarrassing moments just seem to continue. Ugh.

Anyway, I really enjoyed looking at Ron’s pictures over the years. The displays all over the house were A+. Ron was very handsome when he was younger. (This is the part where I dig myself into a hole.) Don’t get me wrong, he is still a very handsome man. However, if you see some of his pictures from “back in the day” — specially the ones of him with long, shoulder length hair — he almost looks like a male model in some of the photos.

Cooking is one of Ron’s interests and he isn’t kidding. The food last night was fabulous. The food items I tried were all really good. The timpano (it’s like a deep-dish pasta pie) was most notable because I had never eaten anything like it before. Sure, I’d had pasta before. Never like this, though. It was pasta with sausage and hard-boiled eggs and other things encased in dough. It looked like it was a real challenge to make. Ron was telling us about their adventures while preparing it: having to remake the dough to get it just right, making sure that it was in the oven by 5p to get it done in time for the party. I really envy those who can tackle complex dishes and pull it off. They really did pull it off. I think everyone loved the timpano, inspired by the movie Big Night. I have never seen it, but Ron and others say it is a great movie. I added it to my Netflix so Brian and I can watch it one day.

Anyway, there were so many people there last night. Ron has a very impressive circle of influence. There were many guests from the Wichita Eagle, past coworkers, some friends from church, lots of tweeps, Facebook friends, long-time friends, friends of the kids… All of the generations were well-represented. I had never seen such a diverse group of people together in one house.

Brian and I left as Julie and Viktor Tarm arrived, this was probably 9p or so. We only stayed an hour an half because we were trying to squeeze in all of our commitments this weekend. Brian had promised to take his parents to watch Push (a movie that Brian has been waiting to see since he first learned about it) on opening weekend. Friday night is poker night so that was out of the question. Sunday is tax and laundry day. The only way to get it in this weekend was to see the late show on Saturday. The latest showtime was 10p. =(

We got almost everything we planned to do on Saturday done: Pink Boa to pick up my “Art by Amy” pendant, HBA home show, Ron’s birthday, Push. The only thing we didn’t get to were the back rubs that we promised each other. Having had only five hours of sleep the previous night (because Brian made the final table at poker) we were so worn out by the time we got home. We simply went straight to bed.

Today is going to another long day. We are scheduled to meet Jeremy, our tax guy, at 11a and then we will head to the in-laws to do laundry after a quick lunch. The nice thing is they are feeding us dinner so we won’t have to go somewhere or make anything. Having to leave the house for laundry is very tedious, though. I hope that we get the laundry closet situated this week, so that we can buy a replacement washer and dryer and finally start doing laundry at home again.

I’m not looking forward to the expense of having to buy a new washer and dryer, but I am looking forward to not having to drag my dirty laundry across town anymore.

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My Would-Be Diamond Royal Flush

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Ching under Poker.

This is why they say that you shouldn’t rabbit-hunt. First, allow me to provide a background.

We are only at $200-$400 blind level and I am already crippled. Crippled because I hadn’t been getting any cards, but it was one momentous hand that really took most of my chips. Here’s the story of how I got into this sad state so early in the game:

So I finally get after over half an hour of just folding my cards. It is the first hand that I’m actually able to play. The flop comes and I have a straight draw. There are two hearts on the board, however, indicating that someone could be on a flush draw also.

The turn comes and it is Qh. That gives me my straight. Someone could very well be holding two hearts, though. Richard is first to act and bets $2,000. I thought to myself that he can’t possibly have the flush. If he had the nuts, he would have checked (which is what I would have done). I convince myself that he is bluffing and, after much deliberation, raise to $5,000. This was a very big mistake as you will see later.

Another player calls. I figured, she has the flush. Ack! I didn’t put Richard on the flush even though he called my raise. He could very well have the flush also, though. I was for sure she was the one who had the flush.

Richard bets his final $2000 on the river. At this point I realized my mistake and figured out that I am hosed. Even though I was pot-committed, I decided to save what little chips I had left and fold. The only other player remaining in the hand called.

It turns out she had the straight and he had the nut flush (Ah Kh in he hole). That was good playing on his part, though, because he did the exact opposite of what I would do in that exact same situation which is what really convinced me that he was simply trying to buy the pot. That was an expensive lesson to learn.

A few folded hands later, I look down at Kd Jd. Flop comes Ad As 10d. I checked. Richard bets $2,000. I’m thinking to myself that this is what he did earlier. Instead of checking his big hand, he bet it. I had this nagging feeling that he didn’t have an ace, though. I was drawing to a gut-shot royal flush, but I could not put my tournament life on the line. That bet was about the same amount of chips as what I had left. Calling would have meant the end of the line for me if I was wrong.

I folded and he showed pocket deuces. I said, “I knew you didn’t have an ace!” I was dealing that so I rabbit-hunted just to see if I would have beat his deuces on the turn or river. I hate deuces because they are so easily beaten.

The turn was a blank and the river was a Qd, giving me a diamond royal flush. Ugh. I missed out on a good opportunity to double up!

The rest of the night it was a struggle to stay alive. I’m not sure how I made it to break. I had $8,000 left at that point, which is not even three blinds. Brian, on the other hand, was doing fantastic. He had almost $60,000 chips at break time. I was literally on life support, hanging by a thread.

Brian parlayed his chip stack to the final table. I knew half of the people remaining: Dill, Sunny, Rich (not the Richard at my original table; different guy), and Binder. Sunny got knocked out before the money. Dill got knocked out in fifth place.

Only Brian, Binder, Rich and another guy (we play with him a lot but his name escapes me at the moment) were left. They played a few more hands until the stacks were pretty much even. Brian who had been one of the chip leaders when the final table began, was only third in chips at this point. A chop was proposed. Brian agreed on the condition that Dan, our tournament director was guaranteed tips. They decided to chop $475 four ways at $115 each leaving $15 to Dan and the players would tip more as appropriate. Brian gave an additional $15, so we left with $100.

I wanted to make sure Dan made money so I asked Brian if the other players tipped Dan as well. Brian said he thinks that there was at least one other player who tipped $15 and then maybe a couple more $10 tips. I saw Dill tip him too when he left. I hope Dan made good money last night. He is a good guy. As tournament director, you want to make at least 10% of the pot in tips. That’s a long night. Tournaments will usually run 4-5 hours.

BTW, Sunny and Scott and the rest of the WPTAPL/Highlands big shots are playing in the WPT Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce Casino in LA in three weeks. I’m not sure what day it airs, but remember to check it out. One of our friends might just make the televised final table!

Here’s Vince Van Patten of WPT, which has moved to FSN from the Travel Channel:

P.S. Shane celebrated his 32nd birthday last night. Happy birthday, Shane!

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On Canceling Our Gym Membership

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Ching under Life.

Brian and I went to the YMCA after work tonight to cancel our gym membership since we don’t really have time to go anymore.

“I can’t believe we’re throwing in the towel,” I told him as we walked up to the door. “We’re basically giving up. You realize that, right?”

“We’re not giving up,” Brian responded. “We’re simply cutting back on unnecessary expenses until we can recover financially.”

“That’s how quitters rationalize their behavior.”

LOL.

So we are officially quitters. Although, it took almost a half an hour to accomplish this. Brian and I sat at the desk and waited for someone to assist us. One of the guys was helping some other people, but there were two other guys just standing around. No one came over. Brian said that two guys looked at him and went to the back, leaving only one guy. When we was finished with the people he was helping, he looked like he was straightening up their binders at the desk.

“Are we invisible again?” Brian asked. We run into bouts of invisibility on occasion. Cars just pull out in front of us. People cut in line. That sort of thing.

I just laughed and said, “I guess.”

Then added, “I should take a picture of you and see if it comes out. It probably won’t.”

After a while, it wasn’t funny anymore. Brian and I were tired and we were both starving. We finally got the guy’s attention and he gave us a form to complete.

I had completed it, but he had left us to tend to some other stuff. I could not tell what. It looked like he was just standing there. I looked at my paper and looked at Brian and then asked, “What is he doing?”

More wait…

At first I had just marked our reason for cancellation was because we were no longer able to go, but then I was so frustrated about the whole process that I decided to mark the “dissatisfied” box as well.

I had provided feedback on the form that was direct and pretty mean-spirited. I let “Cranky Ching” get the better of me and I shouldn’t have. I hope I don’t end up with bad karma. Ugh.

P.S. Our gym membership is actually good until mid-April because they require at least 30 days cancellation notice. So our final bank draft will be on March 15.