Random Stuff to wind down 2006

I'm doing a cull without mercy clean up of my office which hasn't been done since I put in the furniture, so it was due.

I found an envelope with another bunch of collected quotes and new articles from various sources and some that I created, so I'm just going to share them.

The Hormel company, manufacturers of Spam, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the luncheon meat by designating the town's July 4th celebrations as "Spam Days". Among the festivities were a "Spam-o-rama" cookoff and a "Salute to Spam" air show. A bitter strike against Hormel ended in September and not everyone has made up.

"Hormel has co-opted the Fourth of July holiday and turned it into a glorifcation of pig meat in a can," said Jim Guyette, former leader of the union. T-shirts reading "Scab City, USA" and "Cram the Spam" were seen alongside company-issue Spamwear.

One of my all time favorite TV shows - "You're travelling through another dimension. A dimension, not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wonderous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop - the Twilight Zone!" - Rod Serling

Laissez les bon temps rouler! - pronounced: "Lay-say lay bon tom rule-ay!"

San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, December 6, 1991
Hayward Tom responded to our call for infomation on various football handicapping systems. He said he uses the Visi-Calc program for an Apple II PC to enter weekly data and compute his picks. At the 11 week mark, he was humming along nicely at 64.8%, he said.

Tom added: "Good luck and I'm glad to see that Larry Stumes is over 50%. I used to use the "Stumes Factor" to pick my games. If he picked the opposite way than I did, I was sure to win.

Tom was referring to back to an infamous off-year that Chronicle racing handicapper Stumes had when he was doing the football predicting.

1. If you don't let anybody in, no one can hurt you.
2. The more complex the mind, the greater the need for simplicity of play - Capt. Kirk
3. 25 G's is a lot of cabbage. Where are we going to glom onto it? Pony up the dough
4. Special words from 2001 - Nabonga, Sock the Weasel, Uncle Gruesome, Nothing but trouble, Side Effects and Wake the Banshee
5. Pardon my side effects
6. A bad Psychic is better than a good Astrologer
7. A little kid & his mom are heading into a grocery store and he says: "No basket for me" and she points and says: "BASKET!!" and he starts crying and gets into the basket. (true story)
8. Turning negative thoughts into positive actions
9. There's more spin control around Dan Quayle than Minnesota Fats ever needed
10. Question to TLC in 1990 - Have you always been this way? TLC: "The older I get, the funnier I get."
11. Tickle my fancy and I'll follow you anywhere
12. Crossfire 17-Aug-88 - Senator Alan Simpson: "You're looking for something that isn't there. You're looking into George Bush's head."
13. Imagination is more important than knowledge - Albert Einstein
14. A riddle from a Sherlock Holmes movie - Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) - Who's was it? His who is gone. Who shall have it? He who shall come. What shall be the month? The last from the first.
15. Character name for some future story - Martin Stumbles, Esq.
16. Chinese/Russian Detective - Won Wong Steppe
17. Those people want me, but they can't touch me because the old man love my ass
18. An old alias - Joe Cose. Jocose \jo-kos\ adj 1: given to jokes and jesting 2: characterized by joking

2 Cents Question: Can the US regain its standing in the world?

I'm not sure what will happen in the next 2 years, but I expect the worst and hope for the best.

I'm not sure I'm going to vote in the 2008 Presidential election because anybody who wants to be President with the current situation might not be the smartest cookie. As Mr. T would say: "I pity the fool who wants to be the next President!"

A Milestone, I hope...

On 2-Dec-06 my worst nightmare happened. I am hurt, bruised, sprained, but OK. I can't go into details, but just for me, I'm putting a reminder in my blog. I want to mark this date to remind me. I'm feeling a lot happier even though it's painful.

That's it for now.

2008 Presidential Prediction

I predict that neither Hillary Clinton or John McCain will win the Presidential election in 2008 and take the oath of office in January 2009. I don't know who it's going to be or if one or the other of these two will get their party's nomination and lose to someone else, but I know for sure, 100% positive, as they say in football betting - Stone Cold Lock!, it's not going to be them.

Any comments?

The 2006 Midterm Election

Here is the best election result in 2006...

Iowa's 2nd House District
Dave Loebsack (DEM) 51%
Jim Leach (REP)* 49%
100% of precincts reporting

From Newsmax: One of the biggest surprises of the night was Republican Rep. Jim Leach's defeat in Iowa after a career that spanned 30 years, losing to Dave Loebsack, a college professor making his first run for elective office. The two parties spent lavishly on television commercials in dozens of districts deemed competitive - but not that one.

Jim Leach, the sponge that put through the anti-poker/gambling bill at midnight on the Port Security Bill. This was completely unexpected and not on anybody’s radar, so I can only assume that it was revenge of the Iowa online poker players! Way to go!

Iraq is FUBAR, NRTS & SNAFU

I woke up this morning with this in my head, so I figured I had better blog it....

Iraqi Dumpty sat on a wall
Iraqi Dumpty had a great fall
All Rummy's horses & all of his men
Couldn't put Iraqi Dumpty back together again...

Egg broke.


There are really only 3 countries in the Middle East - Turkey, Egypt & Iran. All the rest were created by the French & English after they beat the Ottoman Empire after WWI. The whole place is a bunch of tribes that have 1000 year old feuds and in the end, they are just going to have to work out their feud on their own.

Tom Coates' on politics in California & the US as of 25-Oct-06

Here are my thoughts as of today: I doubt if the demos would be supposedly winning the congress if it was 2008. I think there is a feeling that the legislative branch isn't doing much of anything (how many days was congress in session, about 94?), lining their big contributors pockets, building bridges to nowhere, building fences and then not paying for it and just being lame. if the demos win all or part of congress, it will be a 2 year trial to see if they can do anything with the prez as a safety factor so they can't go too far. as you already know, I prefer conflicted government and either way is OK with me.

if Pelosi can't control her fringe elements, she'll have a short speakership. everyone deserves a fat chance...

I could never vote for Angelidies. he's too weasly, if that's a word. who wants a pencil neck geek for governor when we have Arnold? I can't vote for Feinstein because she voted for the anti-poker legislation. I can't vote for Barbara "Commie" Lee because I don't like commies, even though she did vote against the anti-poker law.

Be sure to vote if you know who you want to run the government. If you don't know anything, then stay home and don't complain.

Lost Crossword Puzzle

I've created a crossword puzzle for everyone, but with a few specific clues for fans of the TV show, Lost.

Click here for the puzzle. Save the zip file and extract all 3 files and run the html file. You need Java to run the puzzle.


What is up with this four toed foot? That's what I want to know in season 3.

The World at this time

it's a big conflict of bad things

War=bad, terrorists=bad, dead american soldiers=bad, torture=bad, no torture=bad, listening in on phone calls=bad, not listening in=bad, dead americans=bad, illegal aliens=bad, nuclear bombs=really bad, stay the course? why? change the course? better not, then terrorists win=bad.

before going to Iraq, everyone said it would be quick, but I said: "we're still in Korea after 50 years, so why doesn't anybody just admit it will be like that in Iraq?" Bush gave the terrorists a timetable - he said troops would be there as long as he's president, which is Jan 2009. if they really wanted us to go, they could just stop fighting for 6 months.

too much obfuscation lately. Where is "Morning in America"? bring back Reagan.

I'm voting Yes on Q - parks & open space for Castro Valley.

Opening up random spam

I don’t know if you ever open up a random spam message, but when Outlook strips out the bad stuff, there are a bunch of random words that are left behind that I guess the expert spammers try to use to get through the spam filters. I opened up a spam message because the subject line was “ass Roberts” and that made me laugh.. I discovered that there is was a compelling, strange and possibly disturbing story from the far off land of India, hidden in the spam.. here it is for your reading pleasure…

arrow?" 'Alas', my brother, I do not know,' said the Curator. 'Nay, if way through the press of all the races in Upper India, and the lamaa bow as none might bend. Thou knowest?' 'It is written. I have read.'-sore eyes. Ask. him that also, O thou Little Friend of all the

here alone. For five seven - eighteen - forty years it was in my mind. Shing, the Chinese bootmaker in the bazar. His eyes turned up at the vernacular by preference, and his mother-tongue in a clipped uncertain poles by the side of the road snatching up and snatching up their the miraculous birth; the death at Kusinagara, where the weak disciple shop, where a man lay. 'He drove away the bull,' said the woman in an He is quite mad, and I am tired of Lahore city. I wish new air and heavy fruit-eating bat cowers, and returned to his rosary. 'Stand sleepy clerk grunted and flung out a ticket to the next station, just intensely human, and lives to look upon life. Kim marked down a gaily I shall meet one of the pure faith in a Jain temple of that city. He Delhi he wired: 'Lutuf Ullah. Have wired two thousand rupees your at death consisted of three papers - one he called his 'ne varietur'-Kim pointed to the ticket-office - 'who will give thee a paper to a rose. 'And whom didst thou worship within?' said Kim affably, circular biz bushwhack asterisk

Except for the "circular biz bushwhack asterisk", the rest is from "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling

2 Cents Question: Have hands-free cell phones made you a safer driver?

Everyone knows that Volvo drivers are the worse drivers in the world because they feel invincible, indestructible and therefore just don't care about you and me. They don't drive crazy, they just don't pay attention because they are basically driving an M60 Tank minus the big cannon and plus airbags all around. If your car, unless it's a Hummer or a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, hits a Volvo, you car is destroyed and totaled. The Volvo might have a small dent and maybe a scratch.

About 15 years ago, I came up with this theory after seeing a Volvo TV ad. There were two women walking out of the forest and they said they had just wrapped their brand new Volvo around a giant tree, but see! Not a scratch on them. Not a care in the world, no matter how stupidly we drive. Crashing into trees - no problem!

2 Cents Question: Has online gambling caused you any grief?

I can no longer vote for Senator Feinstein. She is trying to stop online poker.

"While the advent of the Internet has clearly been beneficial to American society, the same cannot be said for Internet-based gambling activity. Internet gambling is too easily accessible to minors, too subject to fraud and criminal misuse, and too evasive of state gambling laws. For these reasons, I have supported legislation aimed at curbing Internet gambling during my tenure in the Senate. For example, in the 108th Congress I co-sponsored the “Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act” (S. 627), which was introduced by Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Unfortunately, this bill was not signed into law, however, I plan to continue to support limits on Internet gambling should any legislation be considered by the Senate in the 109th Congress.

Again, thank you for your letter. While we do not necessarily agree on the particular topic, I hope that you will continue to write on matters of importance to you. Should you have further questions or comments on this or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841."

Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

My letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Dear Senator Feinstein,
While I agree with you on most issues and have voted for you each time you ran for state or federal office, I can't vote for you in the future while you are supporting legislation banning online poker.

Poker is not gambling, it's a skill and luck game and if it was gambling, it wouldn't be legal in California and I'm sure you know there are plenty of card clubs in California where you can play poker and other skill games. Obviously, it should be regulated so that underage kids can't play online, but you and the government shouldn't not infringe on my civil liberties.

I'm not sure how you can stop it anyway, since it's all overseas unless the US sets up a ban like China or Iran does on their internet services. I'm sure you'll agree with me that it isn't in the best interest in our free country. The site where I play has it's HQ on an Indian Reservation in Canada.

California has Lotto and Mega Lotto and Horse Racing and online Horse Race betting, so I'm not sure what is your point. Many other states have casino gambling as we saw when they all washed ashore in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina. California has lots of citizens going to Nevada or the local Indian Casinos. So gambling is everywhere... Why ban Poker online?

I have a personal interest because I won an online poker satellite tournament that got me a $10,000 entry to the World Series of Poker and I hope to do it again next year.

WSOP 2006 Guarantee

Before I left for the 2006 WSOP, I guaranteed that I would be on TV. Nobody would bet me because they all said that if I didn't cash or make the final table, I would make it in "The Nuts" section of the ESPN show.

Well, I didn't have to get nutty to get on TV, I just had to be sitting behind someone that wanted to get on TV by wearing a Finding Nemo hat.

Click here for all the images.

20 Websites I can't live without

20 Websites I Can't Live Without
Amazon.com
It rules e-tail, with 34 different product categories (including groceries; new and used cars could be next) yet stays true to its bookstore roots, with nifty features like Search Inside the Book, and the new AmazonConnect, which links you to blog posts from your favorite authors from the home page.

Apple Movie Trailers
Coming attractions for movie buffs and reason enough to finally get that broadband connection.

Blogger
The place to go to create your own blog; tools are powerful and easy to use, and it's free.

CBSsportsline
Best all-around sports site, with sports news, sports videos, sports columns, fantasy sports and sports data galore.

Cartoons
Red Meat - Very odd & disturbing cartoons. I like them.
Brevity - Intriguing one panel cartoons that make you laugh & think
Dilbert - the classic. If you are in High Tech, sooner or later, you will be in a Dilbert cartoon.

Ebay
The auction powerhouse keeps expanding its repertoire, allowing users to write blogs and create wikis (collaborative info-banks), and to "Skype" each other about individual items up for bid (i.e. use the Internet telephony service to place voice calls)

Factcheck.org
Picks apart speeches, press releases, TV ads and other public statements by politicians of all stripes to set the record straight.

Google
What started as the Web's best search engine has become a jack-of-all-trades, offering all sorts of free applications, from Spreadsheets and Calendar to Picasa (for digital photos) and Gmail. There's Google Scholar, which lets you search for academic papers on any topic, and Google Finance (nice charts!); Google Maps has inspired countless "mash-ups" including weatherbonk.com. Register for a free account and you can personalize your home page too. Click here, for a menu of features and services that have officially launched; go to Google Labs for the new stuff that's still in beta (such as Spreadsheets). The unaffiliated (but lovingly devoted) Googletutor.com has helpful tips and advice for making the most of all things Google. Read more about some of Google's latest-greatest features in the TIME archives.

HowStuffWorks
Easy-breezy explanations of how things work, from money laundering to hybrid cars, game consoles to the human kidneys

The Internet Movie Database
Encyclopedia of entertainment that covers some 800,000 films, television shows and video game titles. Users help keep the Internet Movie Database current, submitting 16 million data bits in 2005 alone

Netflix
More than 60,000 DVD titles available to rent, from classics to art-house flicks to major studio releases. Digital delivery is scheduled to start early next year, but don't expect those red mailers to be phased out anytime soon

The Onion
Long before The Daily Show, long before Stephen Colbert, there was The Onion, and it's still hilarious, and now you don't need a subscription to read the fake news archives. Podcasts are also now available

Rotten Tomatoes
Gathers movie reviews from far and wide, and reports box office and other stats; flicks receive a critical average on the 100-point "tomatometer." Movies.com also gets a nod for streaming episodes of "Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony," an Ebert & Roeper spoof starring those lovable muppet-curmudgeons

Shopzilla
New comparison shopping sites keep popping up (Become.com isn't bad) but nothing beats Shopzilla's search tools and merchant ratings

The Borowitz Report
Daily extremely funny and satiric commentary on current events.

The Smoking Gun
Continues to document interesting news (sample headline: "Six Skulls Found in Strippers Home") and get the occasional big scoop, like outing writer James Frey

Wikipedia
A real Web wonder: this massive, collaborative online encyclopedia is written, edited, and maintained primarily by volunteers; some 1.3 million articles in English, and millions more in 228 other languages

Yahoo!
Arguably Google's toughest competition for top Web property. Check out the new My Web 2.0 service, which incorporates the social bookmarking activities of the recently-acquired del.icio.us (you get to see where other people are surfing, and share your own favorite links). Maps.yahoo.com/traffic offers a visual guide to gridlock situations on major roads in 20 metropolitan areas; Yahoo Photos offers new ways to share images (more advanced search features, tagging and other tools); and the new Yahoo Tech page cherry-picks from CNET's playbook.

Zappos.com
Simply the best place to shop for shoes online, with stellar customer service and free shipping all the time

Other Tom Coates' in the news

I've set up a Google alert for any news items with Tom Coates in them. So far, it hasn't been me.

The three Tom Coates' that get in the news the most are English Cricketeer Tom Coates, World Class yachtsman Tom Coates & AIDS specialist Dr. Tom Coates.

Cricket Report from the Camb Times online
Poor batting dooms side to defeats: A POOR batting display from the Wisbech first team proved to be their undoing as they suffered defeat at Kimbolton on Saturday.

Following a string of Tucker Division One draws, Wisbech would have been searching for the points and a good performance but it was not to be.

Things looked good for the visitors when Tom Coates (41) and James Williams (64) settled in to their batting. However, their dismissals led to a collapse and Wisbech were eventually bowled out for 198 after 41.3 overs.

Yachting Report from BYM News
USA. Rolex NYYC Race Week: Tom Coates J-105 Masquerade wins 3 races on Rhode Island Sound

"We couldn't have had a better day," said Tom Coates about today's racing on Rhode Island Sound during New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. As he did at this event in 2004, Coates with his Masquerade took an early lead in the competitive J/105 class; he won all three of today's races. Known around New England as an accomplished sailor, he also is known on his home waters of San Francisco Bay for his success in the same class.

Doctor Tom Coates News from the New York Blade
HIV/AIDS researchers, service providers and activists from across the globe are gathering in Toronto for a six-day International AIDS Conference, which began Aug. 13. About 24,000 people are expected to attend, making it the largest in the now-biennial meeting’s 21-year history.

"We have committed more resources for HIV research than any other government in the world," said Tom Coates, director of the UCLA Program in Global Health. He cited as examples the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, first outlined in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, along with the billions of dollars in AIDS funding allocated to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

"But then we get hung up on issues like promotion of abstinence-only education, or [needle exchange programs]," Coates said. "We get tripped on our own ideology, and our lack of knowing the evidence."

I made the final table

It wasn't the World Series of Poker and it didn't cost $10,000 to play and there weren't over 8,000 players and the top prize wasn't $12,000,000, but I still cashed.

I played a $55.00 tournament at the California Grand card club in Pacheco today. There were 50 players, the top prize was $1,500 and they paid the top 10. I made it to the final table of 10 and was knocked out first, so I got $75.00.

I had been down to my last 200 chips (starting with 500), but I beat the same guy 3 times in a row by going all in and I knocked him out of tournament. My buddies, Glenn, Mike & Jesus also played, but they finished out of the money.

I wish I was still playing

My mind is still in the game... I didn't really get a chance to play some poker. Seven hours is way too short. I didn't get to give anybody a bad beat. I did knock one player out, so at least I've got that going for me.

It's hard to explain, but it's not out of my system yet. I'd been thinking about it and working on it for over 2 months, so I wish I had more time at it. I guess that when the tournament is over on August 10th, I'll be able to move onto the next thing..

Heads in plastic bags, loud noises, Capt. Crunch and tomato trucks

After I finished with poker and was awake at 4am, I decided I should end my trip with a big fun bang, so I went online and bought a ticket for the Blue Man Group.

If you don't like loud and I mean very loud music or are claustrophobic, do not see the Blue Man Group, but it is a very funny and fun show. I saw it about 3 years ago, but about half of it was new. They use Capt. Crunch in the show. I don't recommend getting a seat in the first 6 rows as those are called the Poncho seats. If you've never seen the show, they bang on drums with paint, so there is a bit of splatter.

As I was walking through the Venetian Casino, I saw a weird sight - about 500 women dressed in black walking towards me and they all had mannequin dummy heads inside plastic bags with bad wigs. It took me awhile to figure out that they were at a Paul Mitchell hairdressers convention. Very bizarre!

The Venetian is a very beautiful place to hang out. It's got the canal with the gondolas and St. Marks Square with singers and performers.
Click on the photos for a larger image.

Finally, driving to Las Vegas was good for me because it was nice to be able to get around where I wanted and when I wanted. The only problem is coming back up Highway 5 with the super slow tomato trucks. They can only go about 55 MPH, so there is always a traffic jam around them with other trucks pass. The worst time was when one tomato truck was passing another and it was only going around 1 MPH faster, so the pass took about 2 miles.

The evil Lady Canada gets the boot

Wed Aug 02 17:59:00 PDT 2006

Monica Reeves Eliminated - Monica Reeves is all-in with K-Q against her opponent's 10-10. Neither player improves and Reeves is eliminated from the Main Event.

Actually, she was very nice and we both made the exact same amount of cash.

Final Poker roundup

Well, I'm back home in Dreamland with stories to share, hats to wear and some new refrigerator magnets (Excalibur, NY NY & WSOP 2006). This is a photo of the ESPN Featured Table. Last year's champion, Joe Hachem is on the monitors.

Here is my WSOP rundown:

1. After 2 hours, I had about 12,000 chips after starting with 10,000
2. After 4 hours, I had about 19,000 chips as I busted out a loser with a big unlit cigar, who mumbled all the time and had showed up about 40 minutes late. For some reason he was trying to stare me down, but I've already been stared down by the King of Stares, Jay Lakumb, so I was immune. I guess he thought I was bluffing because I had a Queen high flush and he had a pair of Jacks and there was also another Queen on the board.
3. After 6 hours, I had about 15,000 chips and it was dinner break
4. I goofed on dinner and got stuck in a really slow restaurant and got back late to the table and missed a couple of hand. I wasn't back in the same groove as before. I should have slowed down, looked at my rules again.
5. Monica Reeves, the poker & blackjack pro from Canada, was sitting to my right and to her right was another pro from Australia. I just didn't realize that they both were "the Grinder" because I hadn't heard of them. They were the ones I needed to stay away from on day one. She went all in for her last 10,000 chips and was doing some big time "Hollywooding" (over-acting), but my mind was just wasn't ready to figure it out and for some reason, I thought she was trying to bluff me out of the hand and I should have realized that she knew I was playing tight (conservative), so the only way she was going to risk getting knocked out was if she knew she had the best hand, but c'est la vie, I didn't figure that out and I lost about 13,000 of my chips and only had about 2000 left, which lasted me about another 45 minutes. I wasn't pot committed and if she bluffed me out, I still would have only been a little bit under the average chips.
6. I stole some blinds twice without getting called. Unfortunately, one time I had pocket Aces and wanted to get called, but then I went out when the pro from Oz had pocket Kings to my A-Q and didn't improve. I ended up playing about a little over 7 hours.
7. Today would have been my second day of playing and after getting a good night's sleep in my own bed, I was still tired, so it would have been all adrenaline and power bars to get through day 2.
8. I think that whoever wins will really deserve it and it's just as mentally & physically gruelling as the Tour de France.
9. The final count was: Players 8,773 Prize Pool $82,512,162
10. I was sitting right behind the guy with the Nemo hat. I guess he wanted his photo taken, so it worked
11. PartyPoker.net paid $22 Million to have their logo on every table, so all logowear with .com was banned, hence the need for massive duct tape as seen on my hat below.
12. I didn't get on TV, at least not that I know of, but I did get mentioned in the PokerStars blog - http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2006/07/wsop-main-event-day-1c-begins.html
13. The third photo below is Daniel Negraneau getting interviewed - he said he thought the final table would be at least 8 out of 9 players that nobody had ever heard of.

Click on the photos for larger images.

It's 4am and I can't sleep

It would have been nice to be blogging now after surviving the first day, but I didn't. I got knocked out after the dinner break. I made the fatal mistake of not getting settled down after having to rush eating and getting back late to the table.

I didn't follow my rules. My mind was in a fog and I didn't take time to analyze a simple play. I had 3 pro players at my table - from Denmark, Australia & Canada. Monica Reeves, who's going to be on TV in the fall playing elimination Blackjack on CBS is the one who took most of my chips. She's got 44,000 chips (about 13,000 from me) after day 1.

T.J. Cloutier, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Gordon, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harmon, Jennifer Tilly, Steve Dannemann & Sammy Farha also got knocked out today.

I'll do a final WSOP blog when I get home.

Some of the Mighty Have Fallen

Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer and several other big time professional poker players are gone after the first day.

I found out that the 2005 winner, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow will be playing today, so I might run into them...

Everything happens for a reason

I was coming back from watching the big time fun movie, Pirates of the Caribbean and I wanted to eat at the Excalibur, but their valet parking was full. There is obviously zero competent traffic engineering staff in Las Vegas, so I was stuck just trying to get out.. I got so fed up, that I decided to bag it and just go back to the Monte Carlo, but I got into the wrong left turn lane and I found myself going into the New York New York parking. There is a walkway above the street over to the Excalibur, so I redecided to go eat English like I'd planned...

Because of all the delays, I ended up getting to the Zagat award winning Steakhouse at Camelot at the exact same time as Humberto the Bertmeister, well known king of Palm Springs recycling. He was also solo, so while chatting as we waited, we decided to dine together. He's a big time crap shooter and he had a bunch of hotel points he needed to use, so after an excellent dinner, he treated.. that was very nice of him and keeps my lucky winning streak going.

Tomorrow is going to be the second craziest thing I've ever done and those that know me understand that I'm just saving the first crazy things place just in case.

No more blogging until I get home from the Rio, hopefully around 3am or so.

My Ticket to Play

Here is my ticket to the 2006 WSOP. PokerStars has a breakfast for the players each morning. It's almost getting exciting.

Yowzer... I'm going for a swim.

Day 1A ended at 3:12am. I'm going for a morning swim, then breakfast, pick up the pokerstars.net stuff, then it's back to the burbs for Pirates of the Caribbean, then to the Excalibur to complete my British Isles eating tour at the Sir Galahad's Pub & Prime Rib House and early to bed.

Here is the Monte Carlo pool, the Rio Casino where the WSOP is being held and as I said earlier, all of Las Vegas is under construction.


The Monte Carlo has a wave pool, a Lazy River (which if you are taller than about 4 feet, is hard to swim in, so rent a tube), a hot tub spa and a regular pool. It's nice in the morning because the hotel puts the whole pool area in the shade until about 10:15am. The weather in Vegas today is sort of mild - it's only 86F this morning. I think that the massive thunderstorms cooled things off. I'm finally getting a clue and wearing shorts. What was I thinking?

Shuffle Up and Deal

The 2006 World Series of Poker has begun. I checked it out before the Penn & Teller show. I had my first poker celebrity sighting - Scotty Nguyen. Currently, he's got about 30,000 chips.

It's after 12:30am and there are still 990 players left out of 2,138 and they have to get down to 800, so it's going to be a late night. I'm going to bed really early on Saturday.

Here is what it looks like. I got to the Rio right as they were getting their dinner break and I basically got run over. There were so many spectators earlier, nobody could move, so hopefully, when I play on Sunday, the novelty will have diminished...

The Penn & Teller show was a lot of fun.. Not too much blood.

One major snafu - Pokerstars gave out PokerStars.com logowear and anything with .com on it is banned from the WSOP and always has been, so now I guess I get another set of pokerstars.net swag. Everyone today had a bunch of duct tape over the .com part of the logo. It looked very tacky and lame...

Tonight I ate at the Twisted Kilt pub in the Rio. So last night it was Irish and tonight it was Scottish... I guess I better heard over to the Excalibur for dinner on Saturday night to make a complete British Isles circuit..

At least 8,200 WSOP 2006 players

There are officially at least 8,200 participants, over $82,000,000 in prize money and the word on the street is that there will be up to 500 alternates per day.

Lucky for me, the "Grinder" is playing on day 1A, so I can easily stay away from him until the 2nd day.

Here is the link to follow "live" events. http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/3229

Look for me on Sunday.

Less Than Urban

As I've said plenty of times, I'm a suburban (less than urban) kind of guy, so today, just to keep things a bit normal before I head over the Rio on Sunday and hit the mother of all unreality, I decided to head out to the 'burbs of Vegas...

Luckily, my Garmin GPS gizmo, which I call Ma'am (as in Yes, Ma'am when it tells me where to go and gets me there even if I make a wrong turn), got me out the Summerlin NV, home of the Suncoast Orleans casino and Century 16 movie theater. I saw the new Miami Vice movie starring Jamie Foxx & Colin Ferrell with a south Florida mullet. It's a typical slam bang action flick by Micheal Mann, so if you liked "Heat" and "Thief", you'll like it... it's even got a flagrant Jackson Pollock reference. Although because I'm me, my favorite part of the whole movie was when in the last 5 minutes or so, Sonny says: "A guy named Frank will come and pick you up in a boat". I know all of my movie group people know about my claim that 80% of all movies have a character named Frank, so even though you didn't really see Frank and he's not in the credits, there still was a character named Frank, which is all that counts.

Here is an observation about Las Vegas - all men's room floors are always wet no matter what time of day or what casino you're in and all Las Vegas roads are under construction...

I'll report back later after I get back from the Penn & Teller show.

Nine Fine Irishmen

I had an excellent dinner tonight with Terry & Peg and was able to catch up with them. I saw Terry about a year ago when he played in our sort of monthly Texas Hold Em games at Dreamland, but I hadn't seen Peg for maybe 10 years.

We went to the Irish Pub in New York New York called the Nine Fine Irishmen. They have an excellent 4 piece Irish house band and they played some rollicking tunes.

Peg & I were testing each other on trivia and even though she's Irish, she didn't know what "Beyond the Pale" meant..

The phrase beyond the pale, meaning to go beyond the limits of law or decency, was in use by the mid-17th century. The phrase is a reference to the general sense of boundary, not to any of the particular places, such as the English Pale in Ireland, which bore that name. Out of the many pales established in Ireland, (Cork, Dublin, Drogheda, Waterford, and Wexford) only a select few followed the laws established by England, Hence within the Pale and beyond the Pale.

My 6th Sense is already working..

I found 6 cents in my hotel room under a lamp, so that seems like an omen to me... I've been in Las Vegas for 3 hours and I'm in the plusage... as Ken would say: "Not bad".

I'm meeting my old buddy Terry from Qantel and his wife Peg for dinner tonight. We're going to an Irish Pub in New York New York. They are here for Terry's birthday.

I had about 60 lbs. of coins laying around, so I stopped at Primm, which is right on the CA/NV border and traded them in for $285, so that's my playing around money if I need any. I'm hoping that I'll be too busy to play around. There was a tremendous lightning storm right on the border, so here's a real photo of lighning hitting Las Vegas that I didn't take, but you get the idea.

For my cube-mate, Steve - the temperature in Bakersfield at 9am ,when I stopped for gas at Costco ($3.07/gallon) was 100F.

I cut about 40 minutes off the predicted time for driving by averaging 71.1 mph. There are nice reststops about every 90 minutes, so it was an easy drive...

Pokerstars WSOP2006 goodie bag

Because I won the pokerstars.com satellite, I won 9 free days in the Monte Carlo hotel (more when I keep winning), but you have to wear some kind of PokerStars logowear... here is a preview of the goodie bag I'll get when I arrive.

• One duffel bag (top left), big enough to carry two watermelons or a medium-sized dog.
• Baseball jersey (below bag)
• Letterman-style jacket (right of baseball jersey)
• Two baseball caps, one commemorative baseball, and a plush teddy bear (on top of jacket)
• PokerStars t-shirt (right of jacket)
• Basketball jersey (right of t-shirt)
• Hockey jersey (bottom left)
• Soccer jersey (bottom right)
• Commemorative card capper and trading cards (on top of soccer jersey)

My 2 Cents about the extreme heat wave

My cousin thought it would be a great idea to have an outdoor wedding in Hollister in July. I don’t know if he was nervous, but it was the sweatiest wedding I’ve ever seen. It was 109 and it was next to a duck pond, so we had humidity also. I’ve been in hotter weather, but just usually just walking from my car into an air conditioned building. It was brutal.

Congratulations to Jason & Valerie and I know they will have a lifetime of happy air conditioned years.

Click on the picture to get a larger version...

My WSOP rules...

Here are my rules for playing in the 2006 World Series of Poker...

1. Have fun
2. I’ve got nothing to lose
3. Don’t make any bull moves
4. Don’t go all in on the first day without the absolute nuts
5. Stay away from the Grinder and any other pros until after the first 2 days
6. Play quality hands from position
7. Don’t bluff a guy who can’t be bluffed, like a short stack when nearing the bubble
8. Play tight as a drum on the first day
9. Aggressive poker is winning poker after day one
10. I’ve already won!

I feel that I'm the best prepared as I can be. I've gained a massive amount of Texas Hold Em knowledge in the past couple of months. I've tested out new theories. I tested out massive bluffing last time I played with Jay, Glenn, Mike, Stefan, Steve, Keith and Tim and I didn't get called once, so I know I'm not giving anything away easily.

Jay bet Mike from Omicron $300-$100 that I wouldn't cash and now that there might be as many as 10,000 players, it should probably be more like 900-1, but I feel confident that Jay will have to pay off.

I just got an oil change and my A/C recharged for the drive to Vegas. I recently installed a MP3 changer in the trunk, so I'll have about 1000 songs to listen to on the trip along with Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book" of poker on CD.

Here is my schedule:

• Thursday Jul 27: Drive to Las Vegas, check in with Pokerstars & get swag, shirts & hats.
• Friday Jul 28: relax, more poker book study, go over to the Rio and check out the lay of land & see Penn & Teller Show (I've got a seat in the front row) in the evening.
• Saturday Jul 29: relax, more poker book study & early to bed
• Sunday Jul 30: Shuffle up and Deal! first day of play
• Monday Jul 31: final day one of the tournament - day off for me
• Tuesday Aug 1: first 2 days play from 1600 down to 700
• Wednesday Aug 2: second w days play from 1600 down to 700 - I will be playing
• Thursday Aug 3: Day off for everyone - Brunch at Paris
• Beyond August 3rd - getting near to cashing - hopefully I'll still be playing and have to get to bed early again.
• August 10th - Final Table - who won da money? probably $10 Million for the winner.

Prediction - Why Not?

It's all about making the wrong play at the right time...

World Series of Poker Update

I got my confirmation from the WSOP today. I got into flight C, which is on Sunday, July 30th. I'm arriving in Vegas on July 27th, so I'll have 3 days to settle in, check out the lay of the landscrape and get ready to rumble. Mr. Mike thinks I'm going to be nervous, but I've got nothing to lose and I don't really get nervous anyway. By the time I get to Sin City, I'm going to have my strategy all set in my head, I'll have my game face ready to go and we'll just be playing some cards. As Lancey Howard (played by Edward G. Robinson) said to the Cincinnati Kid (played by Steve McQueen): "It's all about making the wrong play at the right time." I'm planning on saying that to the first pro that I knock out of the tournament.

My good buddy, Jay, is betting against me cashing, but he's set the odds at 3-1, which considering that only about 10% will cash and there are going to be nearly 8000 players, that's really kind of a favorite's odds. Nobody will bet me that I will get onto TV. I've got a plan to do that.

It is going to be a blast of a lifetime! "Kid, let's play some cards."

Card Player Magazine is doing live coverage of the WSOP, so I think you'll be able to see how I'm doing at this link, once the Main Event starts on July 28th.
Live WSOP Main Event update

WSOP Main Event Qualifier

Yes, it's me. I won a $30 Pokerstars satellite tournament and beat out 172 other players to win a $10,000 entry fee to the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas starting on July 28th, 2006.

On www.pokerstars.com I am Fireball36.






Here is the winning tournament final standing.

It hasn't sunk in yet and I don't think it will until I get to Vegas and see all the other players. I told my brother and he said: "It's hard to believe, but then it's you, so I can believe it."

here is what happened... if you want to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event, it's a $10,000 entry fee. So some people pay it directly. the big increase is from people like me. Last year they had about 5700 players, about 10% cashed and the first one to lose on final table got $1,000,000 and the big winner got $7.5 Million. The online poker sites, like the one I play have satellite tournaments daily several months before the WSOP event and so do card rooms and casinos. I played in a few earlier and didn't make it, but this time I played in a game that had 1 guaranteed entry - $10,000 entry fee, $1000 spending money & a free hotel room in Vegas for 9 days. it took 4 hours & 53 minutes to get to the final hand and I won beating 172 people. In Vegas it will be 12 hours a day for many days, so I've got to get into mental & physical shape.

No Limit Texas Hold Em Poker takes a massive amount of patience, knowlege, observation, acting skill, & luck. Hopefully I will have enough of all that and a bag of chips, poker chips that is.

If I meet Phil Hellmuth in person, I will say: Click Here

I have confidence that I'm as good or better than 90% of the players, so I just need 10% luck.

Here is some details on the satellite tournament I won:

1. There were 173 players competing for 1 WSOP Main Event entry
2. 2nd - 4th place was $650 and 5th place was $72
3. It was a $30 game with re-buys & add-ons and $3 house fee
4. After 1 hour, I was 14th out of 106 players with 11,005 chips
5. After 2 hours, I was 5th out of 39 players with 30,040 chips
6. After 3 hours, I was 8th out of 8 players with 34, 387 chips
7. After 4 hours, I was 3rd out of 3 with 189,000 chips
8. For most of the fourth hour, I was low chips
9. I knocked out Windough with 11 hands to go. She went all in for 86,692 chips with a K-3 offsuit and I had pocket Q's. I won with Q's & 10's to his 10's.
10. I had about twice as many chips as Bluewave
11. I had 5-2 of diamonds and got check raised on the turn to 36,000 chips on a flop of 7h Qc Td and a turn card of 8d, but then I got 9d on the river which gave me a flush and also put a straight on the board. I don't think he thought I had a flush, but he was afraid I had a K and he probably already had a straight with a 9. I bet 96,000 and Bluewave folded, but he was crippled.
12. I had Bluewave 3-1 in chips
13. Bluewave went all in with 9h Kd, I had 6h 6d and called his 170679 chips and the board ended up as Td 2d 7h Qs 6s, so I won with trip 6's.
14. Game over, Man.

374 hands played and saw flop:

- 30 times out of 74 while in small blind (40%)
- 37 times out of 74 while in big blind (50%)
- 50 times out of 226 in other positions (22%)
- a total of 117 times out of 374 (31%)

Pots won at showdown - 23 out of 31 (74%)
Pots won without showdown - 57

For those who don't know much about Texas Hold Em Poker, click here.

Making the Creative Leap of Faith, Should I take the easy route?

I wrote this poem a long time ago...

Choice

As dawn makes its way through the trees,
I see a bridge astride a creek.
Steam floats lazily from dead stumps,
I stand, though my legs are weak.

A road goes to the bridge,
But none comes out.
An easy path crosses mine,
It's not the only route.

So on this day before the rest,
I have a choice that's very old.
The certain way that leads nowhere,
Or the one that's adventuresome and bold.

I have to figure out if I can make the leap from an easy job that pays really well into something that I will enjoy so much more and still keep up the income. it's really scary and always much easier to keep the status quo. I'm setting a deadline for myself of my birthday in October 2007. That will be about 1 year after the Inspirational Speaker class, so I should know by then if it's a viable option.

During this five day program you will:
Learn to design and deliver an inspiring message.
Create your own authentic and confident “Presence & Persona.”
Develop a new relationship with your voice and essential skills to step into your power and build rapport.
Practice using stories, spontaneity and humor.
See how to market yourself to get booked.
Learn about producing and selling Back of the Room (BOR) products – a huge income potential.
Hear secrets, shortcuts and the mistakes to avoid, saving yourself money and cutting years off your leaning curve

Even if you just want to be a better speaker, you should register for the class. Click here for the link.

I'm also going to visit one of Marcia's seminar speakers - Renée Stephens and take her Say Goodbye to Food Compulsion session (Mind For Body). My plan is to be someone completely new by October 2007, so much so that some people won't recognize me. I've gone through big transitions before and sometimes it's just better to do a whole bunch at once. I'm in a non-creative rut that I need to break out of.

I'm going to relax down in Monterey for a couple of days at the end of the week... then go back to my dull work world during the day and stay creative at night and on weekends...

Poem - Don’t Give Up

I'm not sure what year I wrote this, but I wrote it for my cousin Kathy...

Don’t Give Up

Don’t give up
Buttercup
Don’t you frown
Or turn upside down

Don’t fulminate
Just dominate
Remember Geronimo
High five an Eskimo

Shampoo the tattoo
On the kangaroo at the zoo
Anything that you can think
From grandiose to rinky-dink

Do them all from A-Z
But just don’t sit on a killer bee
Just get well, I declare
We all love you, so hang in there

Blog Alert - Looking for Courtney (#124)

When I posted my 49er Gold Rush audition video on all the different video sharing sites, I had no thought of the star of my video, #124, would find it. But last night at 10pm, she found it and put in a comment.. Now my blog story is incomplete and I need to know more, so I'm hoping that Courtney will email me.. here is her comment and my response.

At 10:08 PM, Courtney said...
Hey, I'm # 124, I was searching on the internet the other night and came across this video. When the final Gold Rush team was made I didn't make the cut. Its always disappointing when you fail at something and when I saw this it made me feel good. At least someone thought I was good,I appreciate you noticing me. You learn from failure and this is definitely a learning experience.

At 10:43 PM, Carbubble said...
Hi Courtney, I just can't believe you didn't make the squad. I picked you out of the mass rehearsals and that's why I had the camera ready in video mode when it was your turn. You had all the moves down. This is a travesty of justice! There should be a recount! I've uploaded my video to a whole bunch of video blogs and on Metacafe, it's got massive momentum, so you've been seen by over 80,000 people around the world and of course, you are my favorite. please email me tlc@thomascoates.com

So if Courtney checks back or if you know her, please tell her.. She didn't fail, they just failed to see her athleticism, grace & beauty.

As they say in the voice acting world - "It's selection, not rejection."