Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Worst Golf Round Ever

My co-workers and I decided to get together for our Boxing Day get together. It happened late due to my Disneyland visit. We partook of some beer and played some golf.

We opted to play Pebble Beach at Dave&Busters and we manged to lose 3 golf balls.

How bad do you have to be to lose 3 golf balls playing on a golf simulator where every ball hits the screen in front of you?

Friday, December 18, 2009

Strange Day

No Poker Content:

Work today has such a weird vibe. Company is shutting down until January 4th for the holidays and to make the books look better. When I come back instead of being in office I will be working on a customer site for at least six months so it sort of feels like the last day on the job as well.

I had just figured out a week ago that I was good in new job when I got to visit companies biggest customer with only an hours advance warning. I spent a little time researching design that I had not seen before and figured out who to contact in Ottawa if I had questions and drove to customer. After few minutes in lab it was pretty obvious customer had neglected to supply clock and that was root cause and I was out the door by noon. Customer happy, bosses happy, Bayne happy as no issues with blogger weekend.

Next Year I will basically be returning to my job of previous 9 years just at a more successful company. The other plus side is I already know 2 of my co-workers.

I will be somewhat off net as we embark on Disneyland Christmas Vacation, there really are no religious overtones to that, possibly followed by skiing in Tahoe.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Blogger Weekend Sunday

Sunday I managed to wake up before kickoff and headed to LaGasse's Stadium. I managed to get 2 morning parlays bet and found Luxury Suite #3 arranged by CJ and Al. If I ever hit at a start up again my basement man cave will be based on that suite. Watching Drizz and CJ wagering on 1st downs and punts via the Pallazo supplied blackberries was degeneracy at it's finest.

The wife paying off the purple prop bet was priceless. Vikings and Packers fans interacting is a funny sight, I think a lot of the camraderie is based on they are all too bundled up at games to really hurt anyone if a fight broke out and it carries over to warm environs.

Being a Bucs fan I have already given up on the season so my game focus was not good but the late Cowboys v Chargers game was entertaining.

LJ then took me out to dinner at B & B Ristorante as a reward for hooking her up with a room. After grilling the waiter over how everything was prepared a fine dinner began. I was allowed to choose the wine and found a good $13 dollar bottle for only a small mark-up. Food and Wine was good but it's possible we were a little annoying as the people at the adjacent table did request to be moved halfway through their meal.

We returned to LaGasse's to watch the 2nd half of the Eagle's Giants shootout. At this point most of bloggers opted to head toward Ip while I stayed behind as I was already in my hotel and had early flight (and worked Monday).

A final session of craps was required and as we walked by the Venetian craps table it was noted that they had no $10 tables but did have two empty $15 tables. Negotiations were begun to change the table to $10 or we would walk, I can now see some advantages of traveling with an only child (henceforth OC) used to getting her way as it would not have occurred to me to ask.

A few minutes later the pit boss placed the 2nd call upstairs and a $10 table was opened.

There were some good shooters and a lot of energy as OC was cheering for each shooter based on shirt worn and over time rest of table joined in. There were some tense moments as OC would rathole Green chips in her olive oil stained ghetto purse but then not have enough chips on table for a later come bet or odds. I would drop chips from my rail to keep the game flowing as ratholed chips were retrieved but then OC would get peeved that I would not give her $100 bill for her 4 $25 chips so she could buy in for 'more money' and improve comps.

The craps dealer and I also tried to convince OC that place bets were better in some circumstance than come bets as a)you get paid 1st time the number hits and b)if you have all the numbers covered a place bet pays better than a come bet not fully backed. There is also the psychological aspect that after you get all the points you just don't want to see a 7 on a come out roll.

The young asian dude to my left was shortstacking craps and saw some advantages to the place bets approach (but he was sticking to the 6/8).

At some point Asian dude did ask: "Are you two together?"
My answer: "Just for gambling"
OC's delayed answer: "Are you fawking kidding me? You don't think I can do better than him?" there were about 3 other questions until she got to "plus he's married and I like his wife and 13 yo daughter"

We played a while longer and then decided we would cash out 'after 1 more shooter', 1 more was repeated 3 times until we got to 'absolutely 1 more shooter' and then it was but I am rolling in 2 so around to you. After I rolled I colored up as the shooters at other end of table who had been hot were gone. I cashed out and came back to table to hear '1 more shooter' a few times. I walked away and picked up a 'Know when to say When' pamplet and drew laughs from stick and dealer as well as Asian guy but angry gestures. I waited a few more shooters and gave up saying goddbye and heading to my room for 4 hours of sleep before flight.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Another Blogger Weekend Complete

Being on the job 2 months AND promising to take the demon child to Disneyland for Christmas can lead to an abbreviated blogger weekend due to a lack of vacation time.

I arrived in Las Vegas at 8:00 pm, checked into Pallazo and then met up with LJ, Recess and Schaubs at the Venetian Poker Room. After distributing keys, the girlie ones headed to the room to primp for MGM while LJ and I headed to Casino Royale and Caesars for craps.

I arrived a little late to MGM and led by Iggy and the South Carolina bloggers a $1/$2 game had ~$5k on table. At this point I decided to head to the bar to value drink the 32 oz Stellas. With the 1st one being $9 and subsequent being $6 I had to have a few to get average cost down.

Biggest surprise was waffles was already at the bar, Marshall of course normally arrives after midnight but either the divorce or the drink brought out the waffles we all know from blog and chatbox rather than meek /quiet Marshall. Lots of fun was had by all as Pauly (I think) started idea of chipping into to get waffles a hooker to celebrate his divorce, which led to a lot of speculation amongst the male bloggers about how waffles could improve his game.

I did ask the female bloggers near the bar if they hated waffles (as he insisted)? Heather, Texas April and Betty Underground all denied hatred. Discretion does force me not to reveal who amongst them did express complete indifference. I also learned that there are more craps degens amongst bloggers than just myself.

Saturday marked the blogger tournament which April did a great job setting up.

Also mad props to CJ, Otis and G-Rob for setting up the 3 man team last longer challenge!
And a special thanks to Pokerstars for the added $2k prize money. I would also be remiss if I did not thanks Schaubs for forming team roach with Gnome and myself then bailing to form a Canadian team (really??? have you seen fuel play in tournies?) forcing Mark and I to bring Recess into Team Roach.

Our hostess was seated to my immediate right at the start of the tournament but exited somewhat early to a blogger that shockingly liked to limp call with KJo out of position. In the levels before the 1st break I got dealt QQ 4 times and survived, I probably folded a good hand once and managed to collect a nice pot to get above starting stack when I managed to have flopped quads hold up.

I folded a lot between breaks but luckily time passed quickly as Smokkee and Blinders traded nittyness barbs and Pauly and Iggy traded barbs on a wide variety of subjects. Heather was keeping close track of last longer and at 4 table point she that we were down to 2 complete teams.

My table finally broke to get to 3 handed and I found myself with position on eventual champion Astin. I have to believe the complete fear of me cracking his AA with some suited connectors kept him a small stack not willing to make a move until I busted. I was relatively shortstacked but had outlasted Maude to aid Team Roach when I jammed Ts9s from ep. Unfortunately 7 handed there is still a chance someone will pick up a monster and JoeSpeaker was sitting on the jackAce, despite 2 spades and a backdoor straight hitting flop I was unable to improve and my chips finished 3rd with out me. Fortunately Mark and Alan ran deep to secure the team last longer, my wife was so impressed with the fine trophy that she will let it sit on dining room table until she romves the Santa themed stuff.




Recess has a better phone/picture on his blog.

Sunday and part II of the awesome work of UpforPoker crew to follow ......


Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Longest Day

Being 2 months on job means I do get to go to WPBT. But I have already allocated all my vacation time earned to take wife and kid to Disneyland for Christmas. It's brutal to know that the festivities have been ongoing all week for some tards. Hurts a little more that so many others arrive a day ahead of me but at least I can console myself with knowledge that waffles will arrive later than me.

I could probably pull off sneaking out early tomorrow as I am either doing very well or very poorly at new job. My employee number is US001 and I was brought in to help land more California business and get company into bigger accounts. I cannot say that I am good at estimating effort a project will take or writing statement of work describing accurately what a customer wants. I definitely have lost patience with one potential customer who I believe will be a bigger pain in the ass than doing design projects for him will be worth.

On the other hand I was very good at doing high speed board design and interviewed well at a Dow 30 company, worst case I start working on a 6 month contract January 4 but may start sooner.

Being a guaranteed profit center rather than overhead for 6 months certainly adds to the job security. I may have to ask CEO if I can fly out tonight.


Friday, December 04, 2009

16th Anniversary Today

All the overs long ago collected their wagers on how long this would last. I think the key to my marriage is wife is very tolerant of my faults and as long as I don't cross over into Chris Brown or Tiger Woods territory she will probably remain very tolerant.

Wife did inform me of latest Tiger offer for Elin to stick around this morning, I did not quite get idea of making it a business transaction but maybe Tiger's sponsors did.

I made mistake of sharing Chris Rock line that "A man is as faithful as his options".

Wife did jump right into "What are you saying?" had to respond quickly that Tiger is probably tempted with offers on a pretty regular basis where I am mainly turning down professionals during Vegas trips.

I don't believe I blew it for my participation is the Pokerstars added WPBT team challenge so will see everyone in Vegas next week.