Now this is not the end

It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

-- Winston Churchill, London, 1942

Finals are almost over for my first semester.  I took my first final yesterday, and then have two finals next week.  One on Monday and one on Wednesday.  Then I am off to Vegas on Thursday for a few days.

On my midterms, I got two A's and a B.  The B was in Torts, on a multiple choice exam, which I very much dislike, but will need to get used to it, as part of the California Bar Exam, is multiple choice.  On Civil Procedure which was just an essay, I did well, and on Criminal Law, I got one of the highest grades in the class.  The Criminal Law midterm was a combination of an essay and multiple choice.  The criminal law midterm multiple choice was extremely challenging.  After the exam, I thought to myself, self, there was only 1 question out of 9, that I actually know I got right.  The other 8, I had to think about and make arguments for why each answer could be correct, and then pick the best one.  It turns out, I got 7 out of 9 correct on the multiple choice and when I went to look at my exam, figured out why I missed the other two.  Interestingly enough, the professor posted the raw exam scores and the distribution was very telling.

The distribution approximates a mirrored chi-squared with a long tail, or another way of thinking about it is a "chi-squared" distribution with a long left handed tail as opposed to the normal long right handed tail.  What does all of this mean?  Well, law school is interesting in that raw scores don't really matter all that much.  Mean and standard deviation aren't really relevant.  What's relevant is the median and your ranking.  And the distribution is telling.  There are a couple of outliers at the far right, who did very well on the exam, and then you have a large middle section where lots of people are bunched together and all within a few points of each other, and then a very long tail as you get to people who clearly either a) are not getting it, b) don't belong in law school, c) don't care, or d) all of the above.  So why does all of this matter?  Because USD School of Law, and many other law schools have a mandatory curve for their 1L class.

Grading for all first-year courses, except Introduction to the Study of Law, can use any grade from A+ to F on a mandatory curve. The average of the grades for each course must be between 2.95 and 3.05. The grade distribution must be as follows.

• 20-25% of all grades for the class must be above B+. Within this group of grades, the mean must not exceed 3.85.
• AND 20-25% of all grades for the class must be below B-. Within this group of grades, 8-12% of all grades for the class must be below C.

The class average must be a B.  No more than 25% of the class can get {A-, A, A+}.  And at least 20% of the class must get  {C+, C, C-, D+, D, F}, and within that set at least 8% of those grades must be in {C-, D+, D, F}.  And the overall mean still needs to be met.

So there's a couple of quick observations I have about this system, both from a personal practical point of view, and from a 10,000 foot view on institutional implications of law school and grades.  From a personal practical point of view, EVERY LITTLE POINT MATTERS, and it matters a lot.  Because your grade is determined, not by how well you do in the abstract, but it is determined by how well you do relative to everyone else in the class.  I guess this is why I've heard the stories and I'm sure others have as well, as to why law school can be so competitive and cut-throat.  There are two ways to get a better grade, get your score to go up, or make someone else's score go down.

So instead of the mean giving you a wealth of information about the class, it is now all centered on the median.  And remember how the distribution looks?  Yep, lots of people clustered together in a big center of mass.  And remember those arbitrary lines and GPA's that need to be set?  That means 1 point, yes 1 point, simply because it kicks you in into the next highest grouping could make a very significant difference in your grade.  And since a lot of financial aid in law school is also tied to your ranking within your class, well you see where this is going.

Next, there is an inherent bias in the system across the different sections and professors.  You'll notice the rules simply say the class average must be between 2.95 and 3.05, and what the requirements are on the top and bottom.  No requirements that says something like students ranked in the top 5% will receive an A+, etc, etc.  What are the implications of this?  Well a professor, who really doesn't want to fail anyone, or give grades no lower than a C-, or to minimize D's and F's, can help push the average down, by giving everyone in the top 20% A-.  There is nothing explicitly in the rules against this, and it would conform.  Now, it may not be in spirit with the rules, but aren't lawyers by nature, trying to push the rules at every possible corner?  So what is the impact of this?  Well, at USD at least, there are approximately 225 total students in the 1L class, divided into 3 sections of approximately 75 each.  But your class rank is not specific to your section, but to the overall class.  Each section takes its substantive law classes together and will do so for the full year, consisting of 26 units.  So there are some potential issues, if let's say Crim Professor I versus Crim Professor II and Crim Professor III don't get together and grade similarly.  If one professor wants to give 2 or 3 A+'s, but another doesn't, well that's going to have an effect on class rank when the entire 1L class of 225 is ranked.  And since there's money on the line, as well as things like admission on to law review, well yeah, stuff like this kind of matters.  Now, maybe the school has this stuff all figured out, and behind the scenes they take steps to make sure that things are done properly.  But then, again, maybe they don't.

What's the point of all this?  In the sense of having a mandatory curve, and assigning what the average grade should be?  Unless you attend an elite school like Harvard or Yale, where everyone who graduates from there is going to get a job that they want, you need a way of evaluating your students.  But, there has been a problem with grade inflation among higher education institutions for decades now.  Mommy and Daddy, want to make sure little Junior is getting good grades, and since they are paying so much, the school feels compelled to hand out the grade.  Take a look at this article.  So what, you say?  Well, think about if you are USD and you need your graduates to compete with other graduates from like institutions and those institution's graduates have GPA's higher than yours?  That doesn't look good.  Well how do you fix it?  Renorm the average, that's how.  So instead of the average being a C, (which I recall it being that way when I was an undergraduate), it has been inflated to a B.  And with the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see it go higher, as other schools will be tempted to make their graduates look better, and what you end up having is a nuclear arms grade race, also known as an unstable positive feedback system.  So in reality what does all of this mean?  Once again, your grade doesn't really matter.  What matters is your ranking.  And employers know how law school works.  And guess what employers want to know?  Are you in the top 10% of your class, top 15%, top 25%, top 33%, top 50%, etc.  At the more prestigious universities, the lower they are willing to dip to find talent.  At the weaker schools, the higher up you need to be, in order to be even considered.

So where am I?  I don't know.  The official rankings for the 1L class, don't come out until after spring grades are released in May.  From what I have seen so far, I should be in the top 25% without a problem after the fall term ends, even though it will be unofficial.  I hope I can get at least a B+/A- in Torts.  Getting that B on the midterm, really sucks, and it is going to be hard to overcome, now that I know a little better how the system actually works.

To the Moon!

I had a very good session yesterday in the Oceans 40 game.  I headed up to the casino after my morning class and got there around 11:15 or so.  The 40 game was full, so I sat down in a 5/5 game and played 2 orbits.  I played only one hand where I opened with 99 in early position and took down the blinds and one limper.  I booked a $5 win there.  Then I went to an 8/16 game that had just started and played for about an hour and lost $172.  Then we fired up a second short handed 40/80 game that I started around 1:00pm or so.  By 8:00pm when that photo was taken, I was up over 100 big bets.  It may not be clear from the photo, but the first base is a triangle of 28 stacks.  The middle layer is 21 stacks, and the top is 3.5 stacks, for a total of $10,500 in chips I have in front of me.  I bought in 2 racks, so at this time I was up $8500.

Of course, at this time I had my designs on breaking my single session win record of 125 bets.  But alas it was not to be.  For the next 4 hours, I pretty much treaded water.  I actually gave back like $1500 or so, before I went on a mini rush before I quit around 11:45pm to get up to my peak at $10,700.  So for the first 7 hours, I could do no wrong, but the last 4 hours not much happened.  Oh well.

Nights like these don't happen very often so you definitely need to appreciate it when it does.  Of course on nights like this, it always helps to have more than your fair share of big pairs, and flop sets galore and have most of them hold up.  And have more than your fair share of semi-bluffs get there.

I got to own Helen one hand.  I opened with KJs button - 3, she 3-bet the cutoff and we went heads up to the flop of AQx, 1 of my suit, but 2 diamonds.  Check/call.  Turn was a blank, and I check/raised and she called.  River was ten of diamonds.  I checked.  She hesitated and thought for a little bit, bet, and I insta raised and she called, saw the bad news and flung her cards at the dealer in frustration.

I have varied up my turn check raises against Helen quite a bit here lately.  I would go into my reasons and rationale, but I'm not sure I want to get deeply into how my poker mind works in such a public forum.

That's a wrap

Well my first month of law school is in the books.  I am having a grand time.  I really like being back in school, being intellectually challenged and thinking critically about the assigned reading.  So far, I have not felt like the work load has been anything that I can't handle.  Although the next month, I may regret having said that.  This week looks fairly full.  And all 3 of my substantive courses have midterms.  I thought that wasn't supposed to happen in law school.  Oh well.  I have midterms scheduled on the 8th, 22, and 28 of October.

This week is going to be fairly busy.  I need to study up for my midterm next Tuesday in civil procedure and I have a 1250 word legal memo due this Friday at 9am.  I have read all of the cases regarding the legal memo, but need to pencil in some time for actual drafting of the memo, which I imagine will take at least 8 to 10 hours minimum.  That and the studying I need to do for my midterm will make me a very busy guy this week.

September poker wise is also in the books. I had my best month of the year dollar wise, making 11k in 49.5 hours, so I am happy about that.  In other news Helen who continues to hate me, had another bad night on Friday, in no small part due to me.  I got her good quite a few times, with bluffs, value bets, and suck-outs (maybe).  Here's one hand I played, in which I think I sucked out on her, but it's possible I flopped the best hand.

Amos, drunk and spewing, live straddles.  UTG+1 folds, I 3-bet next up the QdJd, Helen caps next up, and it folds around to Amos and he calls, and I call.  Flop comes QJ5 1 diamond.  Checked to Helen, who bets, Amos calls, I raise, Helen calls, Amos calls.  Turn T.  I bet, Helen raises, Amos folds, I call.  River J.  I check, Helen bets, I raise, and she insta calls, and I win.  She lost probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 racks on the night and was super frustrated and on tilt most of the night.  I am beginning to think that she comes pre-tilted.

October is shaping up to be a light poker playing month for me.  I will probably play this Friday, but the next couple of weeks after that I have family commitments on Fridays that will likely prevent me from playing.

Absent

As I expected the spot that kicked out last Friday night was nowhere to be seen this Friday.  Don't know if it was because he was away on business, or if he made a conscious decision to not come.  We shall see.  It will be a shame if he stays away for a while, due to the poor treatment he received from the casino management.

Odeng

Really?

You gotta love Oceans-11 sometimes.  They make some of the stupidest decisions I have ever seen.

Friday night 40 game going strong and with all appearances that it will go well into the early AM hours of Saturday, when the inexplicable happens.  The spot is kicked out of the casino!

For what?  Apparently shooting off his mouth to one of the floor men in the California Games part of the casino while taking a break from playing poker.  Now this guy is one of the biggest whales in the casino and in our 40 game.  He's super nice, gives great action, tips EVERYONE well, and is easily one of the biggest losers in the game.  He also likes to play the other table games, and I know he's a big whale in Las Vegas as well.  Even at Oceans-11, he's been known to play Ultimate Texas Holdem, and min-bet the ante and blind bet ($10) and max-bet the trips bet ($500).

Now all of this is hearsay, so I can't vouch for any of this personally.  So while on a break from our game around 2:00 am in the morning, he goes to the restroom and stops by the pit games and wants to play Ultimate Texas Holdem.  There is currently not a table open spreading that game.  He talks to the floor guy, and apparently he is reticent to opening a table for him to play.  Our gentleman says something to the effect, "get off your fat ass and get a dealer over here so I can play."

For this, the floor man has him kicked out for the night.  He is escorted back to our table around 2:15 am, security in tow, and is forced to rack up, cash out and leave.  The rest of the table is dumbfounded and is in awe of what a bad decision was rendered.  And of course, as soon as he is out of the building, the game insta breaks.  No duh, the entire reason for that game existing, walked right out the door, with like 5 or 6 racks, that would have inevitably ended up in the other players' stacks.  At least that's what happened last week.

Sometimes I just don't get it.  In Vegas, I have seen people get away with far more egregious behavior and get nothing more than a warning to the effect of please try and control yourself, and as expected, the bigger and more you bet, the larger the tolerance for obnoxious behavior, justified or not.  I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself what you think the appropriate policy on the part of the casino should be in this regard, although I tend to believe in the end, that money talks.

Overall, I did ok this week.  I was running really well, getting up 5 racks, but by the time the game had broken, I was only winning 2 racks, so that was a bit of a downer.  The game was off the charts good too, with the maniac who got kicked out, raising and capping most hands, and two others on his left, not knowing how to adjust properly 3-betting super light and doing all other sorts of stupid things.  We had more than one 8-way capped pre flop pots.  It was a sight to behold, if you could happen to win one of those behemoth pots, which I unfortunately, I didn't seem to win my fair share of those.  Oh well, as long as he shows up this Friday, it'll make for another good Friday game.

Law School and Poker

I have begun law school in earnest and I am really enjoying it.  I am taking Civil Procedure with Shaun Martin, Torts with Christopher Wonnell, Criminal Law with Jean Ramirez, and Legal Writing and Research with Lisa Pearl.

My weekly schedule is fairly full, but I have only one class on Fridays from 10:30-11:30 am, so it looks like I will still be able to play the 40 game once a week on Friday for most of the day and evening and into the night, depending on how I'm running and how tired I am.  Last week, I stayed until 4:45am in the morning because the game was so good.  Of course I only won $281, but that's not the point.

Interestingly enough, the class I thought that would be the most interesting and the one I would like the most, is actually my least favorite, criminal law.  I don't know for some reason, the material just doesn't "speak" to me.  Possibly because I am not particularly fond of the professor or her style, but whatever.  And ironically enough, the class I thought I would like least, Civil Procedure, is actually my favorite.  Professor Martin is engaging, energetic, quick-witted, and super fun to be in class with.  And the material is actually fairly interesting, and much more "technical" than other substantive areas of law.  It's likely my engineering background makes this area of study enjoyable to me.

I'm amazed at exactly how important language and its usage and meaning is in the study of the law.  Back in the Clinton era, I was fairly disgusted with Bill Clinton's response to a question with the response it "depends on what the meaning of the word is is."  I now have new appreciation for that quote.

Vegas Day 3

Some Friday morning insomnia finds me awake and stirring at 4:30 in the morning, so now is probably as good as it is going to get in terms of peace and quiet and solitude at home.

Day 3 in Las Vegas, as with most Las Vegas trips is usually about just recovering and taking it relatively easy.  This trip was no different.  After getting into bed a little after 4am and then up at around 9am, my body was completely worn out and I was pretty Vegased out at this point.  But my flight wasn't until 9:30pm that night, so with my last 12 hours or so in Vegas, it was necessary to actually try and accomplish something sort of useful, or at least in the realm of degeneracy.

After showering and taking care of my morning routine, I had some miscellaneous business to take care of.  I went down, finally said hi to my host, and dropped off an envelope for him.  My roomie was stirring as well, and I let him know that I had a bunch of little things to take care of, and he offered to tag along.  I introduced him to my host, and my roomie seemed interested in how the whole host-client relationship works and how it gets set up, etc.  So I let him know, what I know about how that side of Vegas works.

I needed to pick up some gifts for my girls at home.  So we headed over to Crystals at City Center which is within easy walking distance of the hotel.  Big mistake.  I should have known better.  I was looking for typical retail stores, specifically a Disney Store, while Crystals is a high end shopping mall.  We did stop off at the Tag Heuer store, the Donna Karan store, along with one other high end men's fashion store that I forgot.  I whipped out my handy dandy smart phone and searched for a Disney Store, expecting to find one in the Miracle Mile shops at the Planet Hollywood casino.  No luck, unfortunately.  So we ended up visiting the Aria gift shop and I got some earrings for my older girls and a pretty little Las Vegas dress for my youngest.  For my wife, nothing.  Instead I gave her 1k in cold hard cash when I got home and told her to buy something for herself.  Much easier that way, although I did make an honest effort to look for something for her at Donna Karan.  Unfortunately, they already had their fall collection on display, and there's not a lot in that collection that is appropriate for San Diego.  They did have a small discounted section with the previous spring collection that I quickly browsed but didn't see anything that caught my eye.

Eventually my roomie and I ended up in the high limit salon playing blackjack again.  I made lunch reservations at Olives in the Bellagio for 1pm.  Once again as has become my tradition, we ordered a feast of food for only 2, but managed to finish everything, and I was even still a little hungry when we left.  From the menu we ordered the Grilled Squid and Octopus, Beef Carpaccio, I had a Traditional Caesar Salad, I had the Scallops and Prosciutto, while my roomie had the Lobster Roll.  From off the menu we ordered an Olives Classic Flatbread and the Shrimp Skewer appetizer as well.  Mostly good, with the exception of the shrimp which was just plain awful.  I let our server know about that and she happily took it off the bill, not that I was paying for it, but it was the principle of the matter.  I got lucky in that I somehow managed to get the same waiter I had last time I was there and she remembered me and how much food I ordered last time and was still able to finish it, therefore wasn't too surprised when she took our order how much we requested.

After lunch we wandered over to the Bellagio poker room and fired up a 40/80 heads up game.  We tried buying in with Aria chips, but they wouldn't allow us so we just used cash.  We played heads up for like 20 minutes or so before a third player joined us.  My roomie ran extremely bad and ended up losing 2500 in 90 minutes or so, while I picked up 1200 and the third wheel got the rest.  No super interesting hands I played with the exception of my 62dd I had in the big blind.  Wheelie opened the button, roomie called the small blind, and I defended.  Flop came 245 two diamonds.  Checked to the opener, he bet, small blind called, I raised, both called.  Turn was an off suit queen.  SB checked, I checked, button bet, SB folded, I called.  River was a blank, and I checked, button bet, I contemplated and finally called only to be shown the bad news.  Button had A3 offsuit for the flopped straight.

Anyways around 4pm, we quit since my roomie had a 6:30 flight back to San Diego.  We headed back to Aria, ran into Cecil and some others from the bachelor party at the Aria poker room.  We chatted for a bit and then my roomie said his goodbyes and then ran off to the room to grab his stuff and head off to the airport.

I managed to find a craps table calling my name.  I played until about 7:00pm or so, giving back about 5k before quitting, hitting the cage, getting a check cut for the majority of my winnings and taking the rest in cash.  Cecil and his best man invited me to dinner at Julian Serranos, but I wasn't feeling up for dinner after lunch even though I was a bit hungry.  I think my body just hadn't adjusted to my weird sleeping schedule and odd meal scheduling from the past few days.  I hooked up with them in the high limit lounge after grabbing my stuff from the room and we shared my limo back to the airport.

At the airport we said our goodbyes and I had an opportunity to talk with Cecil's best man, who happens to be an attorney with DLA Piper here in San Diego about the profession and law school. Boarded an uneventful flight, besides the early turbulence, back home to San Diego and I offered to give Cecil's best man a lift home since he lived downtown and was on my way home anyways.  Stopped off at taco bell to grab a quick late bite to eat, arrived home around 11pm, chatted with my wife until a little after midnight and then slept like a baby until about 11 am the next morning.

I have the most awesome wife in the world.  She realized that I was in no condition to be actual useful to do anything and she offered to get the kids out of the house and told me to go to the Rancho Bernardo Inn, get a massage, relax and then meet her for dinner at Roy's in La Jolla.

So that's what I did.  Here's me enjoying a cup of wine by the pool before my massage.

Bounty off!

Vegas Day 2

After getting a minimal amount of sleep, I roll out of bed and go through the rinse cycle and get out of the room to avoid disturbing my room mate.  Even though we have a 2-bedroom suite, and technically it's my room, I still wanted to be courteous as possible.

I roll downstairs put in a small losing craps session, when my buddy finally stirs.  We head over and have breakfast at the cafe.  There's a reason I will only eat breakfast at the cafe.  It's usually pretty hard to screw up breakfast.  After a nondescript meal and some mediocre service, we will about before sitting down and playing the IGT heads up machine.  I put in $500, run it up to around $750, swing back down to $555, when I have to relieve myself.  I tell my buddy to play, as he was just watching trying to get a feel for it.

I arrive back and he's run it up to over $850 in the matter of a few minutes.  I tell him to just keep playing, and 10 minutes later we're cashing out for 1045.  I give him 245 for his share, just to say thanks.  After this we roll into high limit lounge Carta Privada for some blackjack action.  I am extremely tired and on a whim ask the pit boss if that's a house phone in the middle of the pit that I can borrow.  He says sure, and I book a 2pm massage at the Aria Spa.

We split up around 1:10 or so, with my roommate wanting to check out the pool and take care of some business.  I show up at the spa around 1:15 or so, relax a bit, and get a nice 50 minute Swedish massage from an attractive Asian miss, named Mai.  This is definitely the way to go, I've decided.  Normally I get a massage the day of my arrival, but this massage was so much better after already been on the Vegas experience for over 24 hours.

After showering and heading back to the room, I run into the bachelor and the best-man on their way out to the pool.  So I join up with them, and hang at the pool for a little bit.

My roomie and I decided we had enough of the pool experience, so we head on back up to our room.  I change out of my beach attire, and he decides to take a nap.  At this point I am hungry, but it's late in the afternoon, so I know I shouldn't eat a ton, considering we have a group dinner at Mesa Grill at 8:45.  So I decided to grab a bowl of soup at LemonGrass.

I talked with Tony the Italian bartender for a bit over slurping down my soup.  Then I hit the craps tables before dinner.  I'm humming along going up and down as one should, when my roomie finally arises from his nap and asks where I am.  I let him know and he shows up and buys in.  At about 7:25pm, the dice have come me to as it appears the table is cooling off, and I say, well we don't need to meet the others until 8:00, and it's not even 7:30, so I guess we have time for one more roll.  3 minutes later, I have seven-out and the dice pass to him.  I look at my watch and say, well now it's only 7:28, so we still have time.

He then proceeds to go on a humongous heater.  He bought in $500 and cashed out $4000.  I made another 20k+ score.  I told him, honestly, I don't really mind missing dinner.  All good things must come to an end however and at about 8:05 we head up to the bachelor's room, AKA party central.

As to be expected after more than 24+ hours in Vegas with a group of 16 guys, getting anything organized is just not happening.  Most everyone is some combination of drunk, hungover, high, crashing, baked, or sleep deprived.  Eventually mostly everyone shows up, but at this point it's too late to actually walk over to Caesar's Palace so we split up into 4 cabs and try to reorganize and meet over there.  As expected, big gigantic huge fail.

I think we finally got seated at the restaurant at around 9:15pm, only 30 minutes later than our actual reservation.  I must say that I was severely disappointed with just about everything at this establishment, with the exception of the shrimp corn tamale.  That was excellent, everything else from the ambiance, waiters, service, and food was nothing better than mediocre.  I did grab a peek at the regular menu and it appeared to have some good items on it, so I might be tempted to come back with the wife some day.

After dinner we walked back to Aria in the 85+ degree heat in the night, stopping by the Bellagio fountain show to watch for a bit and take a group picture.  We head back to Party Central and I break out the Cuban Cigars I have for everyone and we start smoking up a storm in the no-smoking executive suite that Cecil booked.  By the time I showed up to the room, Cecil had already booted and was looking much the worse for the wear.

After smoking the stogie and having some good conversation, it was obvious that Cecil was about to pass out, and my roomie couldn't stand the smoke anymore, so we headed back down to get our gamble on with a couple others as well.

We played craps and I made a small 2k score, but we were playing with the most annoying, game-slowing, bring the pace of the game to a halt group of guys at the other end of the table.  $1 more on this bets, move this bet from here to there, no I didn't want that, etc, etc.  They had the dealers and the pit boss hating them and themselves.  After like an hour of this, I couldn't take it anymore and I rage quit.  I didn't think I could tilt from craps, but I learned something new.

My roomie didn't want to crash just yet as it was only 3am in the morning, so I said ok, let's play a real carnival game, and we stopped by an ultimate texas holdem table.  The players, play this game so absurdly bad it's insane.  I bought in 2k, my roomie broke down his 5k flag and we were off to the races.  We played about an hour, I doubled my buy-in, my friend got crushed for like 3500 or so, even though I was betting bigger than him.  He ran super-bad.  Flop a set, lose, top-top no good, two-pair no good, etc, etc.  It was pretty funny in my opinion.

I was extremely out of it at this point, and had stopped drinking at dinner, so I was completely ready to turn and so we did a little after 4am.

End of Day 2 in Las Vegas.

Vegas Day 1

Wow what a weekend!  Had a great time doing the dual celebration of Cecil's bachelor party and my law school admission.  The whole weekend was a blur, although I didn't drink very much the entire weekend, but I definitely suffered from sleep deprivation.

Flew out from San Diego on the 11:30 am flight with a bunch of Cecil's crew from San Diego, including myself, the best man, and a few others.  We arrived in Vegas, met up with Cecil and a few others and then headed over to Aria casino, with a stop for liquor at the liquor store first.  I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of all the alcohol that was purchased, but here are a few shots from in the room:

After checking in 8 of us headed down to Julian Serrano's for lunch.  We had a good lunch, lots of food and wine was ordered, and good conversation as we got to know each other better.  I think there was a total of 16 guys for this trip with quite a few people still rolling in.

I am now completely jonesing as I had been in Vegas for over 3 hours and had yet to place a single bet.  New record for me, I'm sure.  Gambling this trip was a very positive experience for me, with a minor bump in the road.  We got a craps table together and I proceeded to dump a 20/40 bankroll in short order.  Other people were showing up, and I ended up in the high limit room playing blackjack with my other buddy who came out from San Diego.  We booked a small win and then headed over to Aria poker room to play drunken 4/8 limit no look holdem.

We started off by everyone putting in 5 bets preflop and then 5 bets again on the flop, so we were essentially on the turn immediately.  The gamble was a little too thick, so we then changed it up so everyone put in 5 bets preflop, and then you were allowed to look at one card, cap it with a chip and then do your action.  On the turn you were allowed to look at the other card, and also ask to see one of your opponents cards.  It was a ton of fun, we were very loud, and very obnoxious.  I was really expecting others to join us, since we were trying to give away money!  I however, ran like a god.  I had JJ, KQs, AA, and something else all hold up, making in order, jacks full, nut flush, and aces up.  I believe I was the only winner cashing out 440 in about an hours worth of play.

After that we freshened up

and got ready for a big group dinner at Blossom.  They had a nice setup for us with a private room in the back and a large banquet table with 3 lazy susans situated in the middle.  Food was excellent and we managed to finish most of it.  The group then headed to the Marquee night club inside of the Cosmopolitan.

Now, I am not a club guy at all, but I felt like I should make a token appearance and not be a total dickhead and bail on the guys.  So the club was what I expected, large, loud, and crowded.  I did manage to walk around a bit, and saw a blackjack party pit inside the club, with female dealers wearing basically trashy lingerie.  Not stripper skimpy, but skimpy enough.  I kicked it with the guys in the club long enough to have a few beers and yell over the music trying to chat.  We got bottle service and a nice setup.

I bailed after about an hour, and headed back to Aria.  Although I got lost in the back corridors of the club's exit ways, and eventually got dumped out onto one of the Las Vegas Strip side streets and proceeded to hoof it back.

I then hit the craps tables again, and went on a massive heater:

That's after hitting the bonus bet for 50/100/50 a pop.  Although I did get a little paranoid.  After hitting the all small, and then only having the 10 left for the all tall, and legendary status, I took a bit of insurance and layed 2000 on the 10.  Two rolls later, 10 baby!  20,900 minus the 2000 insurance I took, was almost a 19k hit.  This is what this score looks like after coloring up:

Then it was off to bed.

There and back again

Back home from our Northern California family road trip.  Added about 1500 miles to the family minivan.  Added a couple more cities that I have never been to, to my travel log.

We left last week on Friday.  Spent the day in Los Angeles, specifically Wi Spa.  Enjoyed our relaxation time there and then spent the night in LA at the Hyatt Regency.  Woke up rather latish, and had brunch at Chez Marie on the edge of Santa Monica.  Food was ok, service was good, ambiance was very nice, but they had a massive fly problem out on the patio.  From there we made the very long drive to Woodland, California where my sister-in-law lives.

We arrived around 7pm or so Saturday night.  My sister-in-law literally moved into her new house, the night before.  There were boxes everywhere, nothing could be found, etc.  It was a major disaster area, as to be expected.

On Sunday, we went to Napa Valley.  We had brunch at a very nice place call Brix.  The Sunday brunch was very good, as far as brunches go.  From there we toured Sterling Vineyards.  I wasn't super impressed with the wines, but then again, I pretty much just drink Pinot Noir, and Sterling apparently doesn't make too many of those regularly.  My sister-in-law and her husband have a membership there so that's why we went.

Monday was my free day and I got out to Capital Casino.  I made 2k playing 2/5 no limit and 300 playing 8/16 limit. I got involved in two big no limit hands.  The first I had pocket sixes and flopped bottom set on a 6 King Jack two diamond flop.  The spot limped, I raised to 25, everyone else cleared out.  He called.  He check/raised my flop bet of 35 to 100 and I called.  Turn was 5 of diamonds, he bet 210, I called.  River was 5 of clubs, and he check/folded to my river bet of 475.  Talked to some of my friends, who play no limit a lot more than I do, and they pretty much said that I screwed up every street.  Oh well.  The other big hand I got involved with was pocket kings that ended up winning unimproved.  Very loose aggressive splashy player open raises under the gun to 25.  New spot calls him next in.  Folded to me in cutoff.  I raise to 115.  Splashy calls, spot folds.  Flop comes 973 rainbow.  He check/calls my flop bet of 150.  Turn was a blank.  He check/called my turn bet of 350.  River paired the 3, and he lead for 500.  I insta-called and he tabled 75 suited, and I collect the monies.

In 8/16 two memorable things happened.  When the table first started, we had 5 chops in 6 hands!  The only non-chop hand was when I raised the cutoff with A9o.  Then I proceeded to dribble off a bunch of chips, before I went on a rush, winning like 4 or 5 pots in row.  In a kill pot, some obviously poor player open-limped early, I raised with A4h, everyone else cleared out.  Flop comes AQx.  He check/calls, turn A, same action, river A, same action.  I collect the monies.  In all I enjoyed Capital Casino.

Tuesday we headed out to San Francisco.  Did the San Francisco thing, visited Pier 39, the wharf, rode a cable car, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Then drove to Monterey and spent the night at Casa Munras.  Nice hotel although we didn't get there until a bit before midnight, and their bar was already closed, which was a little irksome for me.  

The next day, we hit Monterey Bay Aquarium.  And then drove into Carmel, and had dinner at Dametra Cafe.  The food was good, but the service was horrible.  The owner came by and asked us how our meal was and I was pretty honest with him.  The bartender/waiter and kitchen screwed up multiple things, and I let him know, particularly since I have worked in restaurants before and I know how they are supposed to work from both front of the house and back of the house operations wise, exactly what I think went wrong.  He was very apologetic and offered to buy our dinner for us.  I didn't let him, but he did buy my wife and I a bottle of wine, and gave us two for the road as well, along with a free dessert, so that was nice.  We'll definitely go back and give them another try, next time we are in Carmel.

Comparing Carmel and Monterey, from the little I saw of both of them, I much preferred Carmel.  Carmel reminded me of a mix of La Jolla and Del Mar.  After dinner we got some ice cream and coffee, and then it was off to Solvang, a little piece of Denmark, right here in California. 

We arrived at the Kronborg Inn  a little after 10pm.  From a hotel room perspective, I actually liked this room the best, even though it was the lowest star hotel we stayed at.  Go figure.  As it turns out, there is a casino located super close to the hotel.  After getting settled in, the wife said I could go check it out, and grab another $1 check for my collection.  So off I went to Chumash Casino.  Big casino, little poker room.  I played 15 minutes of 1/2 (yes one dollar two dollar blinds) no limit and played I think 4 hands, winning 3 of them, and booking a $52 profit.  The first hand I played, I flopped quad 8's.  The second hand I played, I missed my open ender with 87 on a J56AK board.  The third hand I played I hit made my straight with KT on a QJ889 board, and the fourth hand I completely forgot as I think I raised the button, continuation bet the flop and took it down.  And then the table broke, and I took off.  I stopped off at the blackjack tables for a little bit, and lost some.  And then headed back to the hotel.

Today, we toured Solvang, riding around on a surrey which was fun.  As we were walking around the town, I hear this woman yell out my wife's name.  Turns out one of my wife's friend from San Diego was also in Solvang today, small world.  Then on the drive home, we stopped in Los Angeles and ate at Beer Belly in the heart of Koreatown, unbeknownst to me or my wife when I suggested we eat there, care of Diners, Driveins, and Dives.  Food was just a tad above average.  We ordered the following off their menu: Duck French Dip, Beer Belly Grilled Cheese, Beer and Chipotle Braised Short Rib, Death by Duck, and the Summer Crab Salad.  The Duck French Dip and the Grilled Cheese were excellent.  The short rib was mediocre to blah, and the Death by Duck was nothing special, and I mentioned to my wife that the Summer Crab Salad would have been better without the crab!  So don't think we'll be headed back there anytime soon.  And then we drove home, just so I could head on back out tomorrow!

I am leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning, to attend Cecil's bachelor party and to celebrate my law school acceptance as well.  So it's a dual trip for me.  The only real issue, is I am extremely tired, and I am not sure how much partying I will actually get done this weekend.  We'll see.


View Larger Map

Off to school again!

Got my acceptance letter to USD school of law today via e-mail.  Things are going to be busy, busy, busy!

Bounty off!

After LSAT celebration beer and poker.

Still Alive and Kicking

Don't worry, I am still alive and kicking.  Just been extremely busy the last two months, but things have started to slow down.  Although I expect things will get extremely busy for me in the upcoming months as we head into August.  Early morning Friday insomnia finds me with some quiet alone time at home.

I took the LSAT on June 10.  Not exactly sure how I did.  The LSAT consists of five 35 minute timed sections along with a 35 minute writing sample with a 15 minute break in between sections 3 and 4.  The graded portion of the test is comprised of 4 sections, 2 logical reasoning sections, 1 analytical reasoning, and 1 reading comprehension.  The astute reader will notice that only adds up to 4.  There is a fifth timed section of the test that is called the experimental section that is used to test drive future LSAT questions.  So there are 3 possibilities for any given LSAT, there could be 3 logical reasoning sections, 1 each of analytical and reading comprehension, or 2 logical reasoning 2 analytical reasoning and 1 reading comprehension, or 2 logical reasoning 1 analytical reasoning and 2 reading comprehension.  The test I took, I had 3 logical reasoning, and 1 each of the the other two sections.  On the analytical reasoning, I unfortunately ran out of time, and had to guess on the last 5 questions or so, and on one of the logical reasoning sections, I did not mark on answer on one question that I had skipped and intended to come back to, but ran out of time.  I was shooting for a score between 165 and 170.  I may have fallen a little short of that mark, but should hopefully score in the solid 160s.  We shall see, the test score should be reported back in early July.  My law school application for University of San Diego school of law, starting in the fall of 2013 has been submitted.  My personal statement first draft initially consisted of almost 1500 words and was 4 pages in length.  Most personal statement essays should not be longer that about 2 pages, double spaced, so I had to do quite a bit of editing to get it to fit within the required length.  So now, I am just playing the waiting game.

Since April 1, I have put in 283 hours worth of poker and I am up a a tad, nothing to write home about.  Although this past Wednesday I lost 4000 playing 40/80 mixed half holdem half Omaha high only in a short handed game.  I was definitely the favorite in the holdem rounds, while a dog in the Omaha rounds.

Back in middle May, I started playing a gentleman from LA heads up fairly regularly on Wednesdays.  We have a standard agreement.  We try and start by 9am.  Loser can quit at anytime, winner needs to play until at least 1pm, unless the game gets to at least 5 handed and then the winner can quit too at anytime, otherwise the winner must stick around to at least 1 pm in that case as well, in case the game gets short again.  I also negotiated with the casino manager a time charge of $5 per person per half hour when the game is heads up.  So that definitely makes the game worth playing now.  Before the casino was dropping $1 per hand even heads up, which makes overcoming that drop very tough unless you have a very large edge on your opponent.

My opponent is not the worst heads up player, I have ever played, but he's certainly not the best and I certainly have an edge over him.  Although he's currently up about 500 on me after about 18 hours of play, including our very first session that lasted only 2 hours where I lost 6000 to him in the most absurd ludicrous fashion.  Our first heads up session consisted of me essentially losing every big pot, with just absolute coolers like, over pair versus over pair, two pair versus better two pair, set versus set, straight versus straight, and flush versus flush.  As I am not afraid to put in action when I have a big hand, you can imagine how big those pots were and how quickly I got decimated.  And unfortunately our first heads up session, we hadn't negotiated our deal yet and we got started late at 11 am, and he had to quit at 1 pm.  Remove those two hours from hell and I am currently winning at a clip of 343.75 an hour or over 4 big bets per hour.

In our last session, we started heads up last Friday at around 8:45 am.  Two hours later, he quit me and waited for the game to fill up before he would start playing again.  We're supposed to play again this morning, so we'll see how it goes. 

In our last session, he went absolutely bonkers over a hand I played, in which he thought I played it horribly, but only because he didn't remember the board or the action properly.  I opened the button with 86o, and he 3-bet the big blind with what he claims is AA.  Flop comes A45 rainbow.  He bets, I called.  Turn is a 2.  He bet I called.  River was a 3, and he check/called, and I of course won with a 6 high straight.  Now he claims that I raised the the flop with 8 high and called his 3-bet, with no pair no draw, and that the board came A52,3,4.  He was willing to offer me 2:1 odds that the board wasn't A45, my $500 against his $1000. 

I declined, as I saw no upside potential in taking a wager like that.  In any case he kept pestering me about it, so I offered him $100 straight up with the winner getting $80 and giving the floor $20 to go look at the tape.  I won of course, and he still wouldn't let up, implying that I colluded with the floor man to angle him out of  $100. 

Now let's think about this logically.  First, the $100 is a fairly meaningless amount of money in the grand scheme of things, and why would I want to damage my reputation over that?  Second, he's seen me play enough at this point, that he should realize that I do play somewhat sanely and have folded to his flop bet in 3-bet pots somewhat regularly as one should given my wide button opening range, and his super narrow big blind 3-betting range.  Given that when these pots occur, he's putting in the 7th bet out of position and I can call getting 7:1 immediate, with implied odds of usually at least 6 more small bets, given that his showdown percentage and turn continuation bet in these 3 bet pots is almost 100%. 

So I can call the flop with as little as single over card if I think it's live and still be mathematically correct in doing so.  Calling with a gut shot to the nuts is a no brainer.  Turn or river comes a 7, I may get infinite bets from him with his supposedly top-set.  In any case, I don't really care what he thinks of my heads up play, but I got super annoyed that he kept pestering me about it, so that's what really motivated me to get the floor to look at the tape, so I could hopefully shut him up, but to no avail.  It's not super surprising to me anyways, as he's shown through comments to me previously while we've been playing heads up, that his memory of the board cards and the action is circumspect.

Family vacation plans are still in the works.  My two older kids are attending vacation bible school (VBS) at the local Korean Catholic Church this week.  And then starting next week, the two older kids will be attending Gateways Summer School in the afternoon.  We still need to go to the San Diego County Fair and we'll probably do that next week some time.  After the kids are done with their Summer School, my wife has a planned a trip up to northern California to visit her sister and her brother-in-law.  Her mother and her nephews from Minnesota will also be there, so our kids will have some other kids to play with as well.  She wants to make a couple of side trips as well, one likely to Lake Tahoe, and another to the Bay Area.  And there's talk of us going to Wichita as well.  I'd still like to sneak in a boys trip to Las Vegas, but we'll see about that.

This update killed about an hours worth of my morning, so I guess I'll sign off now, grab a shower, and start heading into the "office."

And we're back!

Wow, it's been a while since I last had a chance to make an update.  I've been extremely busy with all of the things going on in my life.  It seems that even though I don't have a regular job to go to anymore, I seem to have even less time to trawl around on-line.

I've started studying for the LSAT in earnest.  I scored 158 on my first practice test that I timed myself on, with no prior study or practice.  I'm looking to score at least 170, so I have 12 points to improve.  Unfortunately, the raw test score to LSAT reported score is logarithmic, so to increase my score requires getting quite a few more right.  I am doing fine in reading comprehension, almost always get them all correct with maybe 1 or 2 incorrect.  I do fine in analytic reasoning with no time constraint.  I need to get faster, as I keep hitting the 35 minute time limit.  My current Achilles' heel is the logical reasoning section of the test.  What is odd, is that from the prep materials I have one of which contains 3 practice tests with answers and explanations, is that I do fine on the difficulty 2, 3, and 4 questions, but struggle with the 1's and 5's.  I guess I am over thinking things sometimes.  I have been getting better and scored a 168 on the practice test that I took today.

My regular schedule now is to study on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, play poker on Wednesday and Friday, and family time on Saturdays and Sundays.  As the test gets closer (June 10, 2013), and if I feel I need more study time, I'll knock off Wednesdays from poker first, and then include Sundays for studying as well if necessary.  I received two more study aids today in the mail from Amazon, and I plan on starting on them tomorrow.  I'll see how useful they are.  Sometimes I think the writers of the LSAT are sadistic little green evil men, but I guess they need something to separate the riffraff from the cream of the crop.

While my kids had spring break from their school in early April, my wife suggested we go to Vegas so the kids could go swimming and have something to do over their break.  I didn't really want to go, but my wife prodded me enough for me to acquiesce. I made some phone calls and hooked up with a host at Mandalay Bay.  The host arranged everything and was much better than my current host at the Aria.  He was attentive, got all the details correct and made sure that we had everything we needed each day were there.  He arranged for us to have an approximately 1500 square foot, 2 bedroom suite.  One bedroom had a king bed, while the other had 2 queens, which worked out perfect for us.  The beer, red bull, wine, cheese and fruit platter, and fresh cut flowers for my wife, were all delivered within an hour of us checking in.  We got a cabana each of the 3 days that we were there.  My kids had a blast and loved the cabana service and the fact that they could pretty much order anything they wanted any time they wanted.  We tried three different cabana locations, one at the lazy river, one at the west lagoon, and one near the wave pool.  Each had its pluses and minuses.  Next time around, I'm sure my wife will have a better idea of where she wants our cabana to be.  Two complaints, the cabana menu is very nondescript and has nothing really tantalizing, it pales in comparison to the cabana menu at the MGM Grand, which is a little surprising since they are owned by the same company.  I couldn't get a vanilla shake, since their shake machine was broken.  I complained jokingly that I was going to the Bellagio if I couldn't get a shake.  

We arrived early on Wednesday morning a little after 10am.  We left San Diego a little after 5am in the morning.  Unfortunately, the beginning of this trip was the day after the Day of Degeneracy with Cecil and crew.  Bad timing on my part, as I was in no shape to be up this early in the morning for travel via car.  More on the Day of Degeneracy later.  The first night we ate at some meh sushi restaurant inside Mandalay Bay called Mizuya.  Can't say that I recommend it.

The  next morning, we got room service for breakfast (at least the kids and my wife did, I was sleeping).  Spent the morning at Shark Reef, and then headed out to the the pool.  After the pool we decided to go to RM Seafood for dinner.  Food and service were much better here than the previous night.  After the kids were in bed, I headed out to do some gambling, and got back to the room very early Friday am hours.  My wife graciously let me sleep for a couple of hours, took the kids for breakfast and headed out to the cabana.  I got a few hours sleep and then headed out to the pool to join up with the rest of my family.  While at the pool, we were debating staying another night or coming home, but decided to stay and see the 6pm showing of Tournament of Kings at Excalibur and then drive home.  We were on the road home by around 8pm or so, and arrived at home a little before 1am.  My kids enjoyed the show, particularly my youngest, whose eyes I swear got all bug-eyed, and she was screaming and giggling with delight almost the whole time.  It was difficult to get her to eat anything for dinner.  The other two enjoyed it as well, but unfortunately, we sat in the Dragon section, and it is a little hard to get all amped for the bad guy, when you know inevitably he is going to lose.

Overall it was a fun Vegas trip.  All of the room expenses got comped, and while I lost, I lost the equivalent of a bad 40/80 session so it wasn't too bad.  My wife is thinking of going again this summer, but I'm not so sure about that, nor keen on the idea.  Vegas is very hot during the summer, and I don't think my kids nor myself or my wife would enjoy spending the day outside in the pool area, even if we were in a misted cabana.  I am thinking of going to Vegas to play in the WSOP limit holdem 6-handed $2,500 event on June 26.  I haven't told the wife yet about this.  Hoping to sneak it in as a post-LSAT / law school acceptance gift to myself.  The wife has 3 or 4 different ideas for summer vacation plans.  All involve visiting at least one of her sisters, so it's either going to be Northern California, Minnesota, or Wichita, or Vegas, or some combination of the three.  Plus my kids are signed up for summer camp for 3 weeks in July or so here in San Diego, so we'll need to work around that as well.  Nothing has been decided and conversations regarding that have just begun.

Well that's a pretty long update, and while I have other mildly interesting things I could possibly muse about, I'll save it for another time.  I will leave you with this, from Kenny Rogers, which was playing as I was eating a burger at BGR for lunch today, "Know when to walk away and know when to run."

Wii

It's been a bit since my last significant post, due to life business and technical difficulties.  Friday morning insomnia, gives me some free quiet time at home while everyone sleeps.

To recap my Vegas trip, it was a complete debacle.  I never seemed like I was winning.  I think I had a total of maybe 10 good shoes with solid positive counts.  In one of those shoes I made like $6500, all the rest bad things happened.  Either the 20's or 21's would end up with the dealer, or some ploppy who was min betting would hit the good hands, while I would end up with the stiffs, even though I was pressing my bet higher.  And the few times I decided to degen it up at the craps table didn't work out well either.  Both craps and blackjack even when played at a disadvantage to the player have a very small house advantage.  Nowhere near the losses that I actually incurred, which just goes to show how bad my luck was running. 

Then the stupid casino's collection department screwed up and deposited my markers before my 30 days was up and overdrew my checking account.  Normally, I just cut them a check if I need to before I leave, but this last trip I forgot my check book at home, and I figured I'd just wait for them to send me a statement before I sent in my check.  The checking account they have on file for me is my joint account that I have with my wife, that I leave a minimal amount of money in to handle monthly expenses, and it didn't have nearly enough to cover my markers.  I'm still in the process of dealing with the casino, but they did agree that they screwed up, and are willing to pay all of my bank fees and offered me a 5% loss rebate on my markers, so there's at least that. 

My host at the casino, is already in hot water in my book as well.  Multiple screw-ups on his part, in my opinion.  The limo was late picking me up at the airport (not the first time that this has occurred).  The room wasn't ready for us when we arrived.  The beer, red bull, and cigars weren't ready in the room like I asked for.  The beer and red bull didn't show up until I think until Friday afternoon, which by that time was too late for me to consume all by myself.  The cigars weren't the exact type I specified, but he did get me some good cubans, so I guess that's ok.

My friend and I met a cougar at the blackjack table, and I invited her to have dinner with us at Jean George's which she graciously accepted.  She was in a town due to a fashion convention.  Turns out if I remember right, she was from Texas and married to a plastic surgeon, and judging from the rock on her finger, he's quite successful.  She said she had 3 kids, with the oldest like 21 or so.  She didn't look much past 35 or so, so she obviously keeps herself in good shape, and I'm sure her husband has had something to do with that as well.

After Vegas my wife went on her cruise to the Caribbean with her 3 sisters and her mom.  She flew from San Diego to Atlanta, met 2 of her sisters there, and then the three of them flew into Miami.  They spent their first night in Miami before her other sister and her mom arrived in Miami the next day.  They took Celebrity cruise lines out of Miami on a 5 day/4 night cruise to Key West, Cozymel, and then back to Miami.  My wife said she enjoyed the cruise immensely.  Especially all the fine dining she was able to do, and really enjoyed the service she got from her waiter.  She let me know, that cruising is definitely not for me, since it was quite obvious you are on a boat, and she knows that I would not enjoy myself and would have gotten seasick as usual.

While she was gone, I was in charge at home, and took care of the kids.  For the most part everything went fine until Sunday.  My youngest got sick with some kind of stomach flu and had a slight fever.  Most likely caught it from the birthday party we attended on Friday.  Sunday morning she puked.  I thought she was better, but at Sunday evening mass, she actually fell asleep in the pews, so I knew something was up, but she said she was fine.  At the restaurant after mass she puked again.  And then to make matters even worse, Monday morning around 12:30 am, she puked for a third time all over me, my bed, and herself.  Nothing better than being awoken to a puking kid.

Due to my organization, we got a second scheduled day of 40/80 at Oceans-11.  I did a survey sometime in February asking the 40/80 regulars which days were good for them to play a second day, and the consensus was to start the game on Wednesdays mid-morning.  So the first scheduled day of this occurred on March 6.  We had games on both March 6 and the 13, with also some random firing ups of the 40 game on Tuesdays as well.  The 10/20 no-limit normally goes on Tuesdays and Fridays, and for the last couple of Tuesdays has been weak, and we got some no-limit players who wanted to play the 40.  Maybe a sign of good things?

My run bad in the 40 game continues unabated.  I got crushed in February, losing 5 straight sessions, including a shortish session at the Bellagio while I was out in Vegas.  March has been marginally better, while I am still in the red for the month, I at least have 3 winning sessions to match my 3 losing sessions, including a Commerce excursion where I got crushed.

Our family has annual passes for Disneyland, and my wife wanted to get back out there before the spring break crowds show up, so we went there last Friday.  I dropped the kids off at school, headed up to Oceans for a quick morning session, and then my wife picked me up there and we headed up to Disneyland.  My last hand I played at Oceans?  QQ vs K7 spades on a JJT, one spade board.  No I didn't win that one, as it went running spades and I didn't fill up.

In any case, we spent a nice fun-filled day at Disneyland.  It wasn't busy at all, and the weather forecast was a bit ominous.  However, it turned out to be a beautiful day, right up until about 8:45pm at night, when it started to rain unfortunately.  They had to cancel Fantasmic and the fireworks, and by this time my kids were tired, cranky, and wet and just wanted to go to the hotel.  So off we went, to LA's finest, the Commerce Casino Hotel and Spa.  I made sure my kids pretty much just saw the hotel lobby and the room.  I hit the casino around 10:30pm at night and returned to the room around 6am, with my tail between my legs and my wallet a lot lighter.  My wife let me get around 2 hours of sleep, and ordered room service for breakfast.  Afterwards we spent the rest of the day at the Wii family spa in Los Angeles' Korea Town. It was awesome, and I had a great time there.  My wife got a body scrub and massage.  She let me sleep for about 2 hours in the men's sleeping room as well.  We had lunch and dinner at the restaurant there before leaving for home.  We got back to Oceans around 8:30pm or so, my wife dropped me off, I grabbed my car and met the family at home.  It was a fun LA trip, and I am contemplating another excursion to Commerce and Wii spa over my kids spring break.  The play I saw at Commerce was just horrid, but I could never get my hands to hold up and just lost chips pot after pot.  But the play that I saw certainly reinforced what I had heard in the past, that the Commerce 40 game is a gold mine.

At Oceans this week, the game went again on Wednesday.  We started a little late at 11:30am, and was a little weak throughout the day, before it filled up and went strong into the night.  I took off around 10pm, and booked a nice win for once.  Hopefully I'll do the same today.

Last Wednesday, there were shenanigans between two regulars, that ended up with one of the regulars getting kicked out for the night.  That's an interesting and funny story, but it'll have to wait for another time.

Eh Never Mind!

Through some creative out-thinking of Google, I have simply changed my identity slightly and reclaimed my blog, so uh, forget about what I said before.

Phoenix

This will be the last post in this blog.  The blog has been reborn here, due to technical difficulties.  Hope you all will continue to follow my adventures and pursuits!  I will try and keep this blog around for as long as possible for posterity's sake, but I need to clean up my google account and my daughter's so if things get blown away because of that, oh well.

Yuck Vegas Debacle

That's all I have to say about that.  I did get to stay in a nice two bedroom suite.  Picked up a cougar to have dinner with one night.  Two days later, I was eating room service alone in the room.  Had some very good meals and some meh meals.  Discovered that greyhounds are very yummy.  Full detailed trip report may or may not be coming.  Don't really want to relive it.

Las Vegas!

T-minus 17 hours to touchdown.  Don't have a lot planned for this trip.  Play some blackjack, maybe a little craps, the IGT headsup machine, maybe get some poker in at Bellagio if they can get an 80/160 or 100/200 game going, a least one massage, some fine gourmet meals, and probably a visit or two to the petting zoo.  Might try and hookup with Harborlaw387 while I am out there.  But we have never met in real life, so that might be a little difficult to do, but we'll see.

I need to drop my girls off at school in the morning, then get back home, pack my things, and then pick up my buddy and we're off for the airport.

Depending on how I feel, I may or may not be doing nightly (or more likely early morning) updates chronicling my adventures in Las Vegas.

Poker Hiatus

Won't get much poker in here over the next couple of weeks.  At least not locally.  I'm headed off to Vegas until Saturday, and then my wife is headed out for her Caribbean adventure the week after next and I will be at home watching the kids.  My wife turns 40 this year, and she has always wanted to go on a cruise.  I, however, hate boats with a passion.  I get motion sick relatively easy, and it seems every time I have been on a boat, I have fed the fishes stuff I didn't even know that I ate.

In any case, for my wife's birthday, I offered to send her, her 3 sisters and her mom on a cruise.  I paid for their cruises, they just needed to get to Miami on their own.  They are all pretty excited about it.  My wife just today asked me about what I think she should pack.  I told her to just google it.  In return and in part for my birthday that I just had my wife said I could go to Las Vegas for a few days, so I jumped at the offer and I'm T-minus 23 hours from splashdown at McCarran International Airport.

Birthday

Bounty off for my birthday.

Semi-Retirement

It's official.  I am no longer employed.  I am officially in semi-retirement.  Lots of reasons why, but primarily I've decided that I have gotten out of engineering what I wanted and it was time to move on and find something else to do.  Fortunately, I am in a financial position where I can afford to make this move now.  I've decided to attend law school and pursue intellectual property law, with the intent of becoming a patent attorney.  With my technical background in engineering I believe that patent law makes the most sense, although I will go into law school with an open mind and if some other area of law strikes me as particularly interesting I will consider it.

With that being said, I am currently studying for the LSAT.  Or more accurately, I guess I should say I will begin studying for the LSAT.  My wife has been gracious enough to give me one month of being a bum, and I don't really have to do anything other than help out with the kids and be a stay at home dad for a while.

I do plan on playing poker and blackjack to supplement the income, but that's not really needed.  More of just another small little cushion.  Although with that being said, I've been on a huge downswing to start off 2013, so that's not looking so good, but I'm sure it will turn around.

Part of the downswing occurred last Friday, where I went on mega-tilt and blew through a 20/40 bankroll in the span of 20 hours.  Given that I plan on playing for actual money now, I will have to make some adjustments to my mindset and playing style, but they are probably for the better anyways.

So that's it for now.  I plan on being back in the workforce sometime in 2016 or 2017, just in time for my eldest daughter to be nearing high school, so I will have enough time to make up for my unemployed status.

I do have a Las Vegas trip planned for my birthday this year, so I am looking forward to that as well.  We'll see if I can get back some of the money that Aria owes.  Hope I run well.

Bounty off!

Beer bounty is off for today since I'm celebrating a significant life event.

Riding the Wave

Interesting session yesterday.  After it was all said and done I finished down exactly $300, so basically that's like breaking even in a 40/80 game.  The game started short, filled up, stayed full most of the day, and then started to get short later in the evening and into the early morning hours.  I eventually got to put in an extended heads up session against Cecil.  I ran pretty good against Cecil and I could tell that he was getting a little frustrated particularly since it seemed like I flopped a pair or a draw like almost every time, and whenever I needed to would bink the 3 outer no problem.

I finished the heads up match with 23 and 1/2 stacks for a cashout of $4700.  Now I can't totally recall what I started with when we started our heads up match, it was either 11 stacks or 6 stacks.  I think it was 11, but I'm not totally sure.  I just recall Helen running hotter than the wind as usual, particularly when were playing 3-handed with Cecil and I.  Some more Helen delights, 3-betting me with KTs out of the SB when I had AK.  Don't worry she binks a T on the turn.  QJo against my 88, where she held a singleton diamond against my 8 of diamond.  Board runs out pretty bad for me and she gets the maximum as the way the hand played out, she's never supposed to have an unpaired hand there on the river when the 4th diamond hits, but apparently when Helen tilts she literally have any two sometimes.  She got another guy really good with T6 suited for a big pot too.  Playing 3-handed she pulled off an animal raise with 22 on a 6555 board.  I opened the button with AK, she 3-bet the SB, Cecil folded and I 4-bet.  She check called the 655 flop, and then check raised the 5 turn.  I am really regretting not 3 betting her on the turn, in any case I called.  River was a 2 and she fired, and I snap called.  Cecil and I both think, that she thought she was bluffing on the turn, and that the river card "improved" her hand, when in reality her hand could not improve further after the turn.  I had 7 outs for the win and 3 outs for a chop.

In full ring play I got up as much as 2 racks or so, but then went on mini-tilt or as I like to call it raiseitis, and started raising a few too many hands.  I eventually got cured of that but ran into some cold decks.  KQ versus AQ on a queen high flop, turn Q.  I opened preflop, got 3 bet by the button, check/raised/called a 3 bet on the flop, and then bet/3bet the queen turn, and fired the river only to get looked up by AQ of course.  I even announced AQ good after getting called on the river so quickly.

I got to check raise Cecil with A4 against his AQ on the river on a like a a 87284 board.  I opened short handed he correctly 3-bet, I called.  I check called both his flop and turn bets.  Then I check/raised the river and he snap called, and then I wasn't sure that my hand was good.  At the time I thought I had a good value check/raise until he called so fast, but my hand was still good.

Later on in the evening playing I think 5 or 6 handed I pulled off a masterful river check raise.  Lam open-limped UTG, I over limped with 87dd, Helen limped, Cecil raised the button, can't quite recall if one of the blinds called or not.  In any case flop comes Q79 one diamond.  Checked to Cecil who oddly checks behind.  Turn is an 8.  Lam now bets, I call, Helen folds, Cecil calls.  River is a king.  Lam now checks, I check, Cecil ponders for an unusually long time for him and then bets.  Lam calls, I raise, Cecil frowns and calls, Lam hates it and folds.

Also, someone tried to buy me a beer and I had to respectfully decline otherwise Cecil would have pounced and collected his free $50.