Memorial Day Golf

On Monday Fernando, Alan, Steve, and myself decided to go golfing. I haven't been golfing for well over a year so I was a little bit hesitant. I didn't want to be "that guy" that holds up the group because he lost another ball. I historically shoot better on the back nine so since we were only playing nine holes I had to pick it up. To my surprise I didn't do that bad. I actually shot for par on the third hole. I started to tank halfway through but then came through in the clutch and won the last two holes. In the end I shockingly had the best score. Even more shockingly was the fact that not one bet was made the whole time we were out.

Jeff's Birthday

Saturday we played some cards in honor of Jeff's birthday. I bought in for twenty and it lasted me quite a while. Unfortunately for us lady luck sat on Jeff's lap all night. And I do mean luck. He played a lot of the hands blind and won. When he looked at the cards he would lose. If it wasn't for me being on the losing end I would have found it amazing. I eventually busted out and had to rebuy which officially gave Jeff custody of The Nuts. I hate to lose them that way but I know that I will get them back soon.

Not a very good picture but who cares he got the nuts

Birthday Tourney

I went to my brother's house last weekend for his birthday and as usual the evening ended in a small poker tournament. We didn't want it to run long so we played with the blinds going up every ten minutes. I must say I was pretty happy with my play. I made some pretty good reads which lead to some excellent calls and laydowns. Unfortunately due to a bad beat I was the first one out. When I went all in I had the best of it and had Rod drawing dead to a king to make his straight. So guess what came on the river. Yup the king. Once again the river gives and the river taketh away. Rod went on to win the tourney but not with out Selena putting up a fight until the end.

Testing a Theory

On Monday Selena emails me and says I should go to the casino after work (yes she is that cool of a wife). She has this theory that I do better when I go by myself and wanted to see if it was true. I was happy to accommodate. For this experiment since the minimum buy-in on the $1-$3 table is $40 I decided to go with just enough money to buy in twice. The first $40 lasted me about 45 minutes. My cards were running extremely cold. I finally caught a hand when my pocket 9's turned into trips on the flop. I didn't like the possible flush on the table so I moved all in to protect my hand. The other guy called and caught a small flush on the river. Interesting call. My second $40 turned out to be a little more profitable. I actually started getting some playable hands and began to rebuild my stack. My biggest pot came on a hand when I was dealt KJ. The guy in front of me raised before the flop and everyone called. The flop came K-J-6 to give me top two pair. When the bet was checked to me I bet $20 and everyone called. The turn brought another King giving me the nuts and also put a possible flush on the board. Hoping that someone caught their flush or was chasing a straight I bet out $40. Only one person called all in and sure enough he had caught his flush and I won the pot. I played a few more hands but they weren't too eventful. By the time I cashed out I had turned my $80 into $301 for a profit of $221. I think Selena might be on to something.

Late Night Poker

Last Friday I managed to get some of the guys together to play some cards. The plan was to play a tourney but since there were only five of us we decided to just play a cash game. I played pretty solid most of the night and I never had to re-buy. Jeff brought the nuts but didn't leave with them. He has had them for a long time so I am happy to have them back. I'm surprised I ended up with them because he was up big for a while. I guess you can always count on the Russell meltdown. Jeff and Alan decided to play some hands blind and I believe that is what started the downward spiral. Alan and I ended up playing until 4 am. By that time we were playing hands that were ranging anywhere from $40 to $100 a pop. I didn't mind those stakes because his luck was running real bad and besides I was playing with his money. By the time we finished he was in debt to me for an addition $240. It easily could have been a lot worse though. My dad and I were the only ones to walk away ahead so it turned out to be a good night. Oh yeah and did I mention I have custody of the nuts now? Just making sure.

The Nuts

During our last trip to Las Vegas my dad, Jeff, and I found ourselves gambling at the Frontier. I heard they had a mechanical bull and I wanted to ride it. As usual, when we got there I headed over to get my players card. While I was filling out my form I noticed that if you earned enough points you got to spin a big wheel and win a prize. I was expecting the prizes to be your usual boring prizes: glassware, t-shirts, hats, etc...and for the most part I was right. There was one prize that caught mine and Jeff's eye though. It was a ceramic salt and pepper shaker set in the shape of two acorns sitting on a leaf. In other words it was a set of nuts! I knew that by the end of this trip we would own them. The three of us immediately went to work on building points. A couple of hundred dollars later we had accumulated the points needed. The only problem now was in order to win the nuts we had to spin the wheel and have it stop on a particular spot. I guess now is a good time to mention that somehow during this whole process the people working behind the players club counter got wind of what we were doing and they were getting a kick out of it. Now the moment of truth. I went up and gave the wheel a spin and it seemed like it was never going to stop. You could actually feel the excitement in the air. When it finally slowed down I began to realize that it was not going to make it to the spot we needed and all of our hopes and dreams were going to come crashing down. It finally stopped and my prediction was right it was a couple of spots away from the one we needed. Everyone (including the employees) let out a moan of disappointment. Then it occured to me how much blood, sweat and money (mostly money) we had given to win the nuts and I knew right then and there that I would not be denied. So I ever so casually reached out and gave the wheel a little nudge and stopped it on the space we needed. Remember when I said the employees knew of our plight? Well this is where it comes in handy. After I gave the wheel the nudge and we started cheering they laughed and went along with it. Today those very nuts can be seen proudly displayed in mine or Jeff's house depending on who has custody at the time. Every time we play we are required to bring them and the winner gets to take them home.

Game 6 Recap

We actually looked really good this week. We had a couple players back and that gave us some options on the field. We jumped out to an early lead and held it until the sixth inning. Mental mistakes cost us some runs again and we gave up a huge inning. We definitely played well enough to beat this team. Our bats were alive again which is a good sign but we still had too many strikeouts. We put a lot of pressure on their defense early and capitalized on their mistakes. We had a great opportunity to put the game away with the bases loaded and only one out but we couldn't manage to put the ball in play. I think even though we lost we showed that we can hang with these other teams and if we stop giving up that one big inning we will win these games. Here are my stats for this week:

1 -3/ 1 Run/ 2 Reach on Error/ 3 RBI/ 1 SAC Fly

My batting average took a small hit and is now at an even .400 but I am very happy with my day. I was very productive with three RBIs and took advantage of their errors. My one attempt to steal on a 3-1 count was thwarted when the batter took the pitch for ball four.

As for my side bet with Mike....I came up an additional 3.5 points. Mike hit a double which earned him a few points but strikeouts really hurt him. I think his double was the spark he needed to get him going. Once he starts hitting our sidebets will really start getting interesting and maybe we can expand it to include defense. Until then I will rest comfortably with my 8.5 point lead (he paid up for five of his points last week).

Game 5 Recap

Well, our game against the Sox didn't go as planned. As a matter of fact we got demolished. Our record is now 0-5. I am not too worried yet because I still think once we get all of our players back from injuries we will be a very competitive team. We are getting a couple back this week so maybe we will be able to actually start the game with more than only nine players. The one good thing that came out of this game was the side bets I had with Michael. We got plus or minus points for certain offensive stats and at the end of the game I was up 6 points and a free lunch. Add that to the previous 5.5 points I already had from other prop bets and I am up 11.5 points and a lunch. I'm sure he will catch up soon enough but I like to gloat while I can. Here are my stats for Game 5:

1-3/1 hit /1 Reach on error

My season batting average is now down to .418. Time to pick up the pace. My goal this week will be to raise my average, have at least one stolen base, earn more points from Mike, and get another lunch out of him. Wish me luck.

MV Legends Game 5

This week we play the SoCal Sox at 9:00 at Sunnymead Park. We still have quite a few guys on the DL but those of us that are healthy plan to come out and give the Sox a run for thier money. I have never seen a team so plagued with injuries as this one is. It seems like we lose at least one player per game. Fortunately it's not too late into the season to turn things around. I fully expect this to be a very competitive team once we get healthy. Let's hope we get healthy soon.

I Made it to the Big Leagues!

My brother created a player to my likeness on his Xbox game. I guess this is as close as I am going to get to the big leagues.