Fall Back

During Phillies pinch hitter in 6th inning, Tim McCarver said, "Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight so you won't turn on the game too late tomorrow". Did he play before batting helmets were developed?

Pathetic

The new job and the demon child's entering high school are kicking my ass as far as limiting my ability to find time to play poker. My humiliation at earning so few more dollars than Recess in rakeback is alarming.

My poker outlet had been reduced to listening to waffles stories about how some tard beat his marginal hand with an even worse starting hand in PLO8 tournaments so I decided to see for myself how tarded the play had become.

Just after the 1st break with blinds at 60/120 and the 3 of us having 3k-6k stacks this beauty happened. Action was UTG raised, I reraised from button, BB called and UTG shoved.



I loved that spot I am 53% to win the high and there is only 1 live 2 to prevent me from chopping the low if one comes. But some people play A2 like it is the nuts so what can you do?

I played a solid PLO8 game mainly getting paid on AA2 or AA3 hands all in pre-flop against shorties or quartering people who insisted on playing low only hands strong until


with 25 left and 18 paying I had a top 6 chip stack and a connection problem.

When I reconnected I was 17th with 19 left but found a way to roach all the way to 6th while not looking at much for hands.

But big recent news is my wife's driving suspension was lifted. Her license expired so we still have to go to DMV to take care of that but her radius of motion has expanded.

An Early Happy Holidays from Citibank

19 years ago I signed up for the 'AT&T Universal Card' which was a Master Card as well as a phone card because I thought it would be good for my work travel. I probably have not used it as a phone card in 15 years due to having a cell phone but I have probably only been late on at most 3 payments in the 19 years. Yesterday I got a letter from Citibank letting me know that the interest was being changed to Prime + 26.74% effective Nov 30, but if I want I can choose not to accept.

I of course called Citibank today to find out WTF was this about because it seemed really strange since my last bill had a few hundred dollar credit from me paying wrong credit card earlier in month. Since I have learned 'market conditions' have forced this change which really means we are trying to screw the customers as hard as we can before some new government regulations take effect I would like to call on my readers to take the following steps:

1) Cancel any Citibank cards that are not carrying a balance.
2) Open new credit elsewhere and do a balance transfer to pay off Citibank cardsand then cancel.
3) Anyone that is holding a mortgage that is dramatically underwater should walk away from the mortgage.
4) Write to your Congressman and let them know that Citibank is not 'too big to fail' instead they are 'too greedy not to fail' from this consumer mis-step.

In the interest of full-disclosure I must mention I have a sell order in for all my Citibank shares, more than doubling money was nice but I can't be involved with this business any longer.

Cash Out Tournies

I am always sucked in by the 'new thing' whether it is 'Crazy Four Poker' or 'Mississippi Stud' in the Casino or a new gadget to improve my golf swing so of course I had to play a $10+$1 cashout tourney this afternoon even though it was 6 max and I am not aggro enough for 6 Max.

I was unsure whether thapproach to these tournies should be treat it like KO and cash out a bounty when you did eliminate someone or treat it like a Stars Final Table pays.

At the bubble $6422 of the original $7325 cashout pool remained, so belief is getting to Final Table is paramount but NOT as a roach.

I must now question why did I enter????

My Wife is such a Yankee

Yesterday my wife met one of our newer neighbors in the apartment complex business office. He was printing out ticket to Vegas and she helped him find the replacement printer cartridges for the printer. He said "Thank you ma'am" and introduced himself as Scott. She was with the demon child at time but wife was a little tilted when she got home because she took it to mean she was old.
Since she was also convinced he was other 49er in apartment complex she thought he was old enough not to call her ma'am.

Since I am not too bright I pointed out he was probably closer to demon child's age than her age. A quick search for Scott and picture confimation revealed he does have one TD and is a rookie so more than a decade closer to demon child's age. Being correct did not help wife's mood but where I grew up use of 'ma'am' is just being polite.

I should end my poker hiatus tonight by entering Mookie.

Profiling is Wrong (part 2)

I would like to wish all my Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately my new company has shown an ugly side. I am only employee of my new company working today because I am also only American. CEO asked me on Friday if Columbus Day was just a government Holiday and I was stupid enough to say 'yes' because kid did not have day off school (California probably does not approve of Columbus Day due to the exploitation of indigenous people). CEO said "we are not the government". When I got to work today I remembered Hammerhead had Columbus Day off. It was only job I ever had that had Columbus Day off but now I am feeling as exploted as a defensive player from this weekend's Florida State vs. Georgia Tech game.

What a sham!!!

I suppose I should be happy that Rugby was added to the Olympics for the 2016 Rio Games and the 2020 Olympics as well. I am pissed. Gawd damn backs don't even get their hair messed up while the pack is doing the dirty work in the scrums,rucks, mauls and lineouts fighting for possession of the ball. Now the Olympic Gold is being awarded to 7 a side Rugby.

5 of the 6 backs can get a gold but only 2 of the 9 forwards.

WTF

Poker Training

FTC disclaimer:
I currently receive free poker training.

All that is required to receive this training is to go to www.trulyfreepokertraining.com and earn 750 FTPs for a week at stoxpoker or 3k for a month at stox or 5500 points for a month at cardrunners. Points don't get deducted you merely need to hit threshold in a month.

With a little training you might learn it is a bad move to try to make Buddy fold an overpair even when the top card on flop trips up in the Mookie!

Federal Trade Commission

The FTC has issued new guidelines, the one most likely to impact me is:

"The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

Future product reviews where payments are received will include a comment where LJ types 'whore'

For those rare cases where LJ is just pissed at me and no products were endorsed I will add a 2nd comment to confirm that no products were actually reviewed in blog post.

Writers Block

Activities since last post:

1) Wife had a birthday.

2) New CEO is visiting local office.

3) I did learn a lot about what new job requirements are, I could perform last job in my sleep, now I must hone some new skills.

4) I introduced "The Wife" (not my wife) to my local poker tourney. It was bad tourney night in that normal tournament director was late so host ran tourney (and not as smoothly), I had to bust Mrs Chako when she jammed my BB and the tool that annoys me more than any other tourney regular crippled me in a coinflip where 2 of the Aces were out. It was good in that I got a good 1st table and I won a little in the cash game.

5) Georgia Tech won and showed a passing attack, but I missed watching game, DVR did not record and I forgot to even check score until late Sunday night.

6) I finally may have put together a 4-0 fantasy football weekend but will have to wait to fade AP.

This month is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, my little sister has been cancer free for 5 years, luckily she caught her cancer early. We will make sure demon child gets checked often. Everyone else with breats should get checked too.

Weekends Matter

This was my 1st real weekend in a while as weekends really do not matter when on sabbatical, staycation, or the dole.

The Chako's invited demon child, wife and I over on Friday. Demon Child is currently taking a tech literacy course and current unit of study is on 'internet predators'. After assuring daughter that I had met them in person before and showing her family picture on facebook she decided to trust my judgment and ordered me NOT to mention her predator question. This will have to just be another post I hope daughter does not read. Food was good, company was good and MrsChako managed to get permission from my wife for me to go to Vegas in December.

Saturday I played tiny bit of poker in order to get another take 2 day but have not been feeling the poker play last week or so. Hung out poolside with some of the neighbors at night for a near record 2nd sociable night in a row and then had late night (for them) IM conversations with 2 of my cousins that I have never IMed before.

Sunday means watching NFL's red zone channel (Greatest Channel ever, I love that Scott Hanson felt need to apologize for being in High-Def when they showed Seahawk's jerseys). At this point Chiefs, Rams and Bucs would have to be leading contenders for 1st pick in April. Redskins, Raiders and Lions also look quite bad but they have already beaten a member of the trio of suckitude.

Sunday Football Report

Sunday the wife sat down to watch football with me around 11 am. Fifteen minutes into it she was asking "OMG how can you follow the game switching the channels like that?". I pointed out that the remote was next to her. NFL network's red zone channel rules. Rather than having to watch the atrocity that was Raiders vs. Chiefs I got to see my fantasy football teams take a beating during the morning games and my Bucs take a beating in afternoon all for only $5 month since I can't get Sunday Ticket (stupid tree next to deck).

Sunday poker continued it's normal pattern, grind a small profit for a while in PLO then get checkraised on turn for stack when I am holding nut straight, top set and 3rd flush draw only to see opponent has 3 chop outs (as well as useless top 2 pair) and straight flush gutter that of course hits.

NFL TV schedule

Missed 1st week of NLF season due to flight to Ottawa last Sunday.

Tomorrow my local affiliates have:
10:00 am Raiders at KC
1:00 pm Seattle at San Francisco

Not that I want my neighbor to know but this is not an optimum selection to me.

After a long hard week at work I would rather not have to spend Sunday in sports bar.

FML

1st time publishing in Firefox

OMG did Tech e dominated on line of scrimmage last night!
That is all.

End of an Era

Easiest promotion ever:





I was reading company Corporate computer use policy:

"You must not use computer equipment, under any circumstances, to engage in online gaming. Even sites accessible without a download are prohibited. "

I finally have to learn how the other half lives.

Hat tip to MiamiDon for sending the video above. I could almost smell the fear in the message.

I will have to set dvr for game Thursday, this working and west coast living has it's downside. Demon child went right to heart of matter last night when I told family about job: "You are going to have to talk on job, bwahahaha" . I talk more than Waffles, but not a lot more during previous workdays unless I was leading a specification or design review.

I did confirm I am 1st U.S. citizen at job, may have to learn to appreciate hockey. Luckily now that games are broadcast in Hi-Def it is watchable on TV

Brian Westbrook is smarter than Hines Ward

But Villanova vs UGa told you that already. I had Westbrook on a fantasy football roster when he slid down at 2 rather than scoring which iced a game for the Eagles and for my fantasy opponent. Hines not so bright in waning seconds of regulation but coin flip bailed Ward out of sleepless night in overtime.

Georgia Tech started their game against Clemson like it was going to be a woodshed game. But realistically they had 3 big plays and not much execution until the last 2 drives.

I interviewed with a company 3 times in July, they did keep me informed that they had not made a decision and there was lots of vacationing in August. Do Canadians get European levels of vacation? I met local business manager and CEO for breakfast, ended up with a flight to Ottawa to meet co-workers early next week. I will still be based in Santa Clara and most of my work will be on West Coast plus Arizona. I did not check to see if I ever have to go to Nevada but it would seem to be part of territory.

I have the best friends

An email received today:

Dear good friend,

Good day, how are you today? I am writing to inform you that I have
paid the fee for your Cheque Draft. And I went to the bank to confirm
if the Cheque has expired or getting near to expire and Mr.Ahmed Zafa
the Director of Financial Trust Bank told me that before the cheque
will get to your hand that it will expire. So I told him to cash the $1,500,000.00 USD UNITED STATES DOLLARS to
cash payment to avoid loosing this Funds. However, all the necessary
arrangement of delivering the $1,500,000.00 USD UNITED STATES DOLLARS
in cash was made with GLOBAL TRUST COURIER COMPANY here in Cotonou
Benin Republic,

It is so nice that my friend managed to cash a check payable to me before it expired.
As I was typing this blog post I received a 2nd email it contained above text plus:

Mr.Ahmed Zafa the Director of Financial Trust Bank Cotonou has to
package the sum of $1,500,000.00 USD in cash for me. Then he also
agreed to help me to register the Consignment with GLOBAL TRUST
COURIER COMPANY. Infact I thank God very much for all the movement I
made, every thing goes normally. As for our agreement with the Global Trust Courier Company they
promised that your consignment will leave this Country on Monday next
week, But the Director of the GLOBAL TRUST COURIER COMPANY said that
they need your contacts information’s to able them meet up with you
immediately the Diplomat Agent arrived to your Country. Please write a
letter of application to the given address below.

ATTN: Mr.Terry Cool
TEl: 00229 98540624
EMAIL :( removed)
Please, Send them your contacts information to able them locate you
immediately they arrived in your country withYour BOX .This is what they need from you.

1. YOUR FULL NAME
2. YOUR HOME ADDRESS.
3. YOUR CURRENT HOME TELEPHONE NUMBER.
4. YOUR CURRENT OFFICE TELEPHONE.
5. A COPY OF YOUR PICTURE

Please make sure you send this needed information to theDirector General of Global Trust Courier Company Mr.Terry Cool with
the address given to you Note. The Global Trust courier company doesn’t know the contents of
the Box. I registered it as a BOX of an Africa cloth. They don't know
it contents money. This is to avoid them delaying with the BOX. Don’t
let them know that is money that is in that Box, Again do let them to
find out the box contain cash for i simply register it as an African
Cloth ok.

I am waiting for your urgent response.

You can even call theDirector of Global Trust Courier company with this line: 00229 98540624 ( email removed )
Thanks and Remain Blessed.

Alhaji Barka

This explains so much. After 1st email I was concerned that bank had cashed my check for someone else. (I like Fuel misplace $1.5M all the time). 2nd email clarified a lot of things as I can now get my money back.

Still I am left wondering.

1) Was sending 2 emails intentional or was this a bad cut and paste on 1st attempt?

2) How many people really fall for this each year?

3) Would Waffles break even if he responded to 100 of these emails?

Feeling old

Demon child started high school. She decided to take German because one of the neighbors encouraged it and is one of the German teachers at DC's school and would be willing to help. This weekend she had a homework assignment to translate several sentences.

She was really struggling with 1 word in 4th sentence so I looked up "isst" and learned it meant "eat". Daughter was suspicous of how I could be so sure until she quickly manuevered to see screen and saw I was on "secret web-site". She immediately wanted url and I acting under wife's instructions refused to provide. Teacher had instructed not to use web as there were sites that would translate whole paragraphs. (Yes secret web site will). Daughter went on full blown monkey tilt that I did not provide resource to help with her education.

I went with "wife told me not to reveal, but if she says it is okay when she gets back I will share" defense. In interim daughter did revisit 4 times for final 2 sentences for me to look up words in "secret web site". "Attraktiv" would have to confirm that daughter goes to site too easily.

Tomorrow we go old school and get daughter a German to English book at Borders. Wife did not approve reveal of site. I give daughter 2 weeks until she finds site.

Friday I got 2 phone calls from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Due to the death of Ted Kennedy they are at 59 which is not filibuster proof and they wanted me to contribute $500 to the cause of next years Senate elections.

My 1st response was "Shouldn't you have the common decency to let Senator Kennedy be buried before invoking his name for fundraising?"

I ignored most of prepared script from phone drone the asked.

"I was employed during entire Bush administration and have been unemployed pretty much entire Obama administration so what benefit do I get from more Democratic control?"

After a few more minutes of partisan droning I agreed to donate 5% of my next paycheck and hung up.

10 minutes later she called back, apparently when entering my 'pledge' in the computer system she encountered an error and needed to know exact dollar amount.

I replied "5% of $0 is $0 you stupid cunt if you call back before I get a job I will donate to the Republicans".

My 1st time voting was in the 1980 Massachusetts primary and I registered as a Democrat to vote against Ted because I thought it was wrong for him to challenge the incumbent President of his own party. But it still strikes me as completely tacky to use the death of the remaining Kennedy brother as a fund raising tool.

RIP Ted

Ready for some Football?

Hat tip to John Saunders on ESPN's Sports Reporters for informing me that dedicated dog owning Eagle's Fans can buy the Michael Vick dog jersey.

Demon child starts High School in morning, suddenly I feel old, she is anxious about change. I realized when I took her to orientation that this is only 3rd different school she has enrolled at.

I managed to go to 4 elementary schools, 2 Jr. Highs and 2 High Schools. My goal was not to moved the daughter around as much as my parents moved me. I made a lot of acquaintances but after each move was less likely to develop any close friendships.

Job search is still going slowly but it seems like there are more jobs being advertised.

Nothing much happening on online poker front as I really haven't felt like I was in good mindset, may settle for Silver on FullTilt this month.