MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

No, not because it's May.

Wickman goes on DL

Well, at least we know the last three outings weren't because of a deep-seated desire to imitate Chris Reitsma.

In the meantime, Soriano can close games, and Chad Paronto was activated from the DL to slide into the bullpen.

Oh, and the Braves re-took first for the fifth time this season. I know it's supposed to be a seesaw with the Mets, but nine lead changes in one month is a lot.

Laying down ladies

Friday night, was playing live, did something I can't recall ever doing.

Playing a tourney, third level (last before re-buys). In late position, I look down and find pocket Queens. Of course, I raise it from the BB of 100 to 400.

Player next to me (who just made a major cash at the Bellagio last week) raises it up to 800.

Folded around to the one other remaining player, who raises another 1000. Very loose player, but not THIS loose.

It comes back to me, and I'm staring at a re-raise and a re-re-raise of my bet. I don't remember ever doing this, but I laid down the Queens pre-flop because I knew I was beat by the guy next to me, and may have been racing the other guy.


Good idea to fold; player next to me had A-A, loose player had K-K.

Bad result: first card out was another Queen.

I ended up having to leave soon after for a home emergency - everything's fine now, thankfully.

Well, time to go hit it - only 58 runners, we needed 63 for the WSOP. Sadness : (

UPDATE: Not a success - got busted by Katitude when I pushed in with A-Q (it was sooooted) to be met by her A-K unsuited. Got a flush draw on the flop, but no heart or Queen on the turn or river and bounced out in 29th. Next time, I need to find a really, really quiet place to play that doesn't have Alex shrieking in the background.

Yahoo! Going All-In?

Yahoo! Launches Real-Money Poker Site in UK.

Well, they've already got access to a pretty big target membership - anyone with a Yahoo! e-mail, profile, Geocities page, groups site, etc.

Ballsy, in this environment.

Speaking of the shaky legal environment, my newest favorite Congressman put forth a very nice bill today.

Act Introduced to License Online Gaming in U.S.

Dear God, a pre-election promise actually came through. Now, let's see if it passes.

Smoltz to retire

No, not right now.

Probably after 2010.

Smoltzie signed an extension today, which could end up lasting through 2010, ensuring he finishes his probable Hall-of-Fame career in Atlanta.

(1 Cy, 195-138, and 154 Sv, 2800 K, 3.28 ERA)

Good. It's how he should go out.

Now here's hoping he gets another ring before leaving - because if not, that means a drought of 15 years, which at this point Mets fans may be familiar with, hitting that point six years ago :)

In related Atlanta sports news, Michael Vick doesn't like puppies very much.

Order of the Phoenix

OK, this looks pretty good - hope the embedding comes through this time on RSS/Facebook.

Poker for a good cause

PokerStars Announces Virginia Tech Fundraiser

If you are looking for another way to help, this may also work for you:

• This Saturday, 28 April 2007 at 3:00pm eastern U.S. time, PokerStars will host a tournament to raise money for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. The Fund has been established by Virginia Tech to cover expenses including, but not limited to: grief counseling, memorials, communication expenses, comfort expenses, and incidental needs of those affected by the tragedy.
• You can find this tournament under the Tourney/Special tab on PokerStars, under the name Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund - $20 fundraiser. $0.01 from each entry will go toward the tournament's prize pool. The remaining $19.99 from each entry will be matched by PokerStars and then sent to the Fund. Registration is open now.
• For those wishing to contribute directly to the Fund, information on doing so is available on the Virginia Tech website.

Fat turd dropped

Rosie O'Donnell is leaving The View.

Don't worry, I'm sure there will be plenty of other places where she can spout her paranoid, delusional, borderline psychopathic ramblings.

I wonder how much they miss Star Jones.............and this will most certainly be my only post ever about The View.

Freakin' moonbat:

mmmm.........meat on a stick

Taste of Marietta, taking place this Sunday, April 29, from 11 AM to 7 PM.

1) Have a bunch of food.

2) Don't charge admission.

50 different restaurants on site, a bunch of music, nice weather.....I think it'll be good entertainment. Besides, it's free. There's something good about local fairs that are free.

Monday Morning Merger Madness

Today was one of the rare mornings when the rest of the family left to house on time. This meant I could enjoy about 15 minutes of quiet before heading out the door to work myself.

I made myself a bowl of cereal, and flipped on the TV to CNBC as I tend to do each morning.

News came across that Barclays was finally buying ABN Amro - which had been brewing for weeks. Not a surprise, aside from the price tag of $91 Billion.

The shocker, though, that made me almost choke on my Raisin Bran was that it was apparently a three-way deal, as ABN was selling Lasalle Bank (based in the Midwest, mostly Chicago) for $21 Billion.

To who?

Take a wild guess.

This makes the bank's share of U.S. Deposits right at 10%. So, this is the last merger for a few years - it has to be. After U. S. Trust, MBNA, Sallie Mae, and now Lasalle, that's enough to integrate at once.

Come 2010, though, who the hell knows.

Wonder if any of us will be sent to Chicago to help with integrating. I'm sure Chicago would be more interesting than Connecticut.

Braves 7, Mets 3

Tim Hudson flirts with a no-hitter for a few innings, but a solid game nonetheless.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that would make 3 of 4 so far and that I saw the Braves in first by a half-game. That could be the Jim Beam talking, though.

This is the Hudson we've been waiting to see - 3-0, 0.62 ERA. Niiiiiiiiiice.

I'd feel better if there weren't three ninth-inning runs given up by Soriano. Again, a win is a win.

And yes, I know, I haven't mentioned the Thrashers. That was a depressing series and an absolutely pitiful effort against the Rangers.

Happy 420 day?

Hey hey hey, smoke w**d every day.

Guaranteed, this is the first and last time I link to High Times.

Gotta go for the weekend - been a bit of a crazy day, a longer, more rant-filled description of today will follow later.

Must.....flee.....from....stupid people......

UPDATE: Here's something trippy for you on this day, courtesy of Katitude.

Tilting

I've learned now that when I'm playing, it's best NOT to have anything else going - TV, e-mail, anything.

Last night, I'm playing in the Mookie, and I've moved up to about 17th of 69 starters. I'm fairly focused, making moves when I need to, and avoiding big confrontations and committing myself too badly in any spot. Doing better than the previous couple of outings.

I get an e-mail notification. It's from a company I interviewed with on Friday, who I can now name....Accenture. I'd interviewed about a support role with them Friday and had thought it had gone quite well.

Apparently not. I got a form letter e-mail notifying me that I was not going to be offered the position after all, after I'd thought I was in pretty good shape to get it.

Well, after that, I started to not play so well, and donked out in 42nd of 69. I made a couple of raises out of position with medium pairs, and committed myself too much in hands I should have tried to see cheaply. By the time I had to push all in, I only had an M of 4 so I have to push in the blind and hope. Unfortunately, I'll probably get called with anything - and the A-9 held up to knock me out.

I also tried a Sit and Go - bounced in 4th, but again, not playing clearly.

I finally sat down at a Cap NL game, at a micro-limit table. I'm not playing anything higher in my frame of mind.

Which is too bad, considering the hand that went down:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2240158334: Table Asbury (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - $3 Cap No Limit Hold'em - 1:07:15 ET - 2007/04/19
Seat 1: thatoneguy0999 ($14.10)
Seat 2: APOSEC72 ($9)
Seat 3: Str8Whiskey ($4.95)
Seat 5: slaveinacubical ($3.10)
APOSEC72 posts the small blind of $0.05
Str8Whiskey posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to APOSEC72 [7c 9c]
slaveinacubical folds
slaveinacubical is feeling confused
thatoneguy0999 calls $0.10
APOSEC72 calls $0.05 (From the SB, sure.....besides, it's SOOOOOOOTED)
Str8Whiskey checks
*** FLOP *** [3d 6d 8c]
APOSEC72 bets $0.40 (Open-ended straight draw)
Str8Whiskey folds
thatoneguy0999 calls $0.40
*** TURN *** [3d 6d 8c] [Tc]
APOSEC72 checks (Check the nut straight, with a flush draw, want to keep him in the pot)
thatoneguy0999 bets $0.50 (guess the ten helped you a little - not enough, though)
Dublk sits down
Dublk adds $6
APOSEC72 calls $0.50
*** RIVER *** [3d 6d 8c Tc] [Jc]
APOSEC72 checks (Checking the straight flush)
thatoneguy0999 bets $1.50 (Gotcha!)
APOSEC72 raises to $2, and is capped
thatoneguy0999 calls $0.50, and is capped
*** SHOW DOWN ***
APOSEC72 shows [7c 9c] (a straight flush, Jack high)
thatoneguy0999 mucks
APOSEC72 wins the pot ($5.50) with a straight flush, Jack high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $6.10 Rake $0.60
Board: [3d 6d 8c Tc Jc]
Seat 1: thatoneguy0999 (button) mucked [8h Td] - two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 2: APOSEC72 (small blind) showed [7c 9c] and won ($5.50) with a straight flush, Jack high
Seat 3: Str8Whiskey (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: slaveinacubical didn't bet (folded)

So he calls my flop bet with top pair, bets out with top two pair, but after I call and then check, he bets big to take it. He almost played it perfectly to lose the minimum until the river. Given how he bet the turn, I thought he would fire one out on the river if I just called the turn bet and I could get the max - which is what happened, since he thought he was ahead with his two pair.

Getting a read online.........too bad the rest of that session didn't go as well. Other players came in and knocked me around a bit. But, hey, you don't get a straight flush too often.

Hopefully, tonight will be better overall:

VY's begging to get hit, and bad

Vince Young on ESPN.com about being on the cover for Madden NFL '08:

So you're not sweating the Madden cover curse too hard?

Nah. I'm a big fate guy, I don't worry about no jinx. If I get hurt, it was bound to happen.

I'm putting the over/under at Week 4 for his ACL Injury, because that's the bye week. Put it in the comments - would you take the over or the under?

Photo gallery of the last eight years of covers available here.

Be your own boss

A nice post from the Tao of Pauly about working with ESPN on the WSOP, then deciding that it was not the best path after all.

It's an interesting post, worth reading for sure, about deciding what you want and what's important. Besides, I like any story that deals with ESPN getting screwed, which they are by not having him work with them on the WSOP.

Two BBT tournaments coming up.

Mookie, tonight, 10 PM EST, pwd is vegas1. (2nd Chance, the Dookie, is Heads-Up Turbo Hold 'Em at 11:30)

Riverchasers, tomorrow, 9 PM, pwd is riverchasers8.

Both are part of the Battle of the Bloggers. Also, for any other poker bloggers out there is this nice setup, again courtesy of AlCantHang:

Lack of credibility

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is often called the Atlanta Urinal and Contipation for a reason.

Well, apparently other organizations are awarding the drivel that regularly encompasses the AJC's pages, most notably the editorial section.

Cynthia Tucker wins Pulitzer for commentary

Well, it's good to know these awards are given to race-baiters with few insightful thoughts beyond "the GOP and white people are evil, bad, and want to hurt you." as seen in this excerpt cited in talking about the honor. Or, we can look at her last piece prior to receiving the award, talking about the evil GOP in Georgia trying to pass a law that - gasp! - requires ID to prove you are who you say you are and to prevent voter fraud, but is really voter suppression and an attempt to keep everyone oppressed. Because, as you know, THE MAN'S KEEPING US DOWN!

This dim-witted idiocy is apparently worthy of such high honor.

So much for rewarding excellence.

Bad Timing

Just when I'm trying to get out, they pull me back in.

Things just became more difficult than they already were.

Sallie Mae agrees to $25 Billion Buyout deal - Deal between giant student loan company, private-investment funds, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America comes amid intense scrutiny into student-lending industry.

F*CK!

Really starting to grow up

Sometimes, the little things are really big things.

We've been trying to work on potty-training with Alex for a while, but haven't had much success as he's got my stubbornness.

In the last couple of weeks, we've started making some more progress at school, but not much at home.

Tonight, though, we really had a breakthrough. Alex went and used his potty, not once, not twice, but THREE times in one night.

Let's hope it keps up well over the weekend, but for us, it was cause for celebration.

It's the little things sometimes.

Imus fired

Well, apparently Don Imus is getting fired from his radio show after all.

CBS Chairman Les Moonves referenced the recent controversy regarding Imus' commentary on Rutgers as the source of concerned consideration.



However, no reference was made to over 25 years of lousy radio work by Imus, who hasn't been funny or good since Howard Stern was on WNBC in the 80's, and even then it was somewhat disputable as to whether he was actually funny, good, or entertaining. I never really found him interesting when I was in NY, and he got kicked off his main Atlanta home several years ago with low ratings. I dind't even know he was on somewhere else in Atlanta until last week, that's how irrelevant he seemed. He sucked on WFAN, he sucked on MSNBC, I've never known the Imus show NOT to suck. It's just not very entertaining. Never was. He should have been fired long ago for being a crappy radio host.

OK? OK.

As for Imus.....for everyone's sake.....

Humps?

Because when you think of weird comedy.....you think of Canadian singers.



If Fergie covers Ironic in response, it may well signal the End Times.

Trailer Time

Ocean's Thirteen trailer. Happy Thursday.



Due to release June 8. Looks better than Twelve, at least.

Bounty Time

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means:

Tonight, we get some nice bounties to chase. I don't want to see a three-peat.

Of course, that would require me to actually play well, or make a stupid play and hit a lucky two-outer.

Now that I've finally figured out how to get screenshots on the new computer, I may actually be able to post a few (un)lucky hands.

Heating Up

No, not the weather. It's still fricking cold outside for another day or two. Maybe BDJ can bring some warm weather up from Florida in time for the Dogwood Festival.

A few more phone calls yesterday and today, and it's becoming slightly more possible that I will be elsewhere very soon. I've now had a rival bank contact me as well about jumping to their company. Many of my co-workers have also left here to go to this bank, so it could be tempting, depending on what they say.

I've got in-person interviews on Friday (consulting) and Monday (risk/compliance), and possibly a couple more toward the end of next week relating to banking, brokerage, and corporate credit. It's starting to move really fast - guess those Monster, Facebook, and LinkedIn profile updates helped a lot.

Meanwhile, BoA decided to not even forward my name on for two internal positions which were almsot my current rank. Way to show the love, guys. Thanks.

It could be worse - I could be working for Citigroup and receive this news today.

It's not that I'm excited about this whole process - I'm actually not enjoying it. I'm more nervous than anything else, given my tenure here and the fact I haven't really done a job search in several years. Besides, things seem much different at 30 than they did at 23, both at work and in life. So, I guess it could be called anxiety, nervousness, excitement, or a combination of all three. I don't know. Maybe you've got a better way to phrase it than I do.

Gee, what a shock!

Hampton to miss 2007

This one was a mortal lock. See, there's a reason I barely mentioned him before the season, only as "scary" and didn't mention him at all in March.

Again, I will be very happy when the $15 million for 2007 and $15 million for 2008 comes off the books. Since 2003,

And unlike others, I still think Redman will be a decent option. I thought so in January, and I still think so.

I just wish we had that money back. At least Redman's making under a million.

Oh, and at least the Braves are in first at the moment, even if it is by a half-game. I do wonder, though, where all the Mets voices went after Braves wins on Saturday and Sunday...........I wonder.........

Busted Out

27 arrested in Roswell Poker Raid

Of course, they left the meth lab up the street alone, because it's much more important to bust Big Slick than chase meth dealers.

This is juuuuuuuuust a bit too close to home for my tastes. Not that there was a game going on, but that the cops felt it necessary to chase this sort of activity. There's few enough police around here - I'd think it would be slightly more important to chase the serious stuff instead of trying to bust up a poker game.

Sheesh.

Grants While-U-Wait

Well, it only took them almost 20 months to figure it out.

Road Home OK'd For Lump-Sum Payments

When HUD tells you your program is idiotic, that's probably a sign things need to change.

Of course, it would have been nice to set this forth in, say, 2006. How much can be done in 8 weeks before another hurricane season starts?

Hopefully, the majority of funds actually will be put into repairs, and not the thought process of take-the-money-and-run.

I guess we'll see in a few weeks how much progress has been made in a year and how much more of the city has returned. At least it'll be a nice break from Atlanta before classes start again in June.

Bummin'

Maybe it's the cold weather, maybe it's from waking up at 5 because Sammie didn't want to sleep for more than a 4-hour clip, maybe it's because it's Monday, but wow, today feels like a really down day. Hopefully, when it warms up later this week, it will feel a bit more cheerful.

At least I'm not feeling THIS bummed out today.....and yes, you've probably already seen this clip somewhere else.

But if you haven't, you probably shouldn't play it at work.

no 162-0

Well, that's more like it.

Three strong innings from the bullpen to hand the Mets their first loss of the year.

That helps salve things a bit from last night. Not entirely, but a little.

Nyah.

Smoked

11-1.

Ouch.

At least Redman had 5 good innings.

Unfortunately, he came out for the 6th inning ad a close game became a rout.

Reminder of the day

Hopefully, you already haven't had two big meals so far today.

From Catholic Online:

The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday [Canon 97] to the 59th Birthday [i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday] to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem to be contrary to the spirit of doing penance.

For more on Good Friday, click here.

Feeling Wanted

Last week, I wrote about how things had taken a bad turn at work.

In light of recent unpleasant developments regarding career growth, I decided to go ahead and build/re-build my profiles on Monster and LinkedIn (for which some of you may have seen separate notes from me for profile-building).

Well, one week in, and it's good to feel somewhat wanted. Already, I've got three 2nd interviews lined up - one for a credit officer position, one as a brokerage researcher/sales associate, and one as a consultant. All three are thankfully with very large firms (which I can't name right now but you would recognize immediately).

I've had headhunters calling and employers actually returning messages. It's been a long while since I've actually attempted a full-on job search, so it's good to know I still have cohesive thoughts in answering questions :)

Now I just have to close the deal with one of these companies - unless BOA steps up and delivers. My poker-playing isn't going well enough to the point that I can quit work entirely, though if I win one of the FTOPS IV events in May, I probably could. Doubtful, though.

In the meantime, hope for the best that one company works out.

One other interesting item that I just realized: Out of 73 Servicing & Implementation associates within BOA GCS, I now rank 14th in seniority within the department. Scary, huh?

Hitting trips

Game 1: Braves 5, Phillies 3
Game 2: Braves 3, Phillies 2
Game 3: Braves 8, Phillies 4

Break out the brooms.

Atlanta Bullpen: Not so good, including walking five in the 9th inning today while up by six runs (!).

12.0 IP, 12 H, 11 BB (!!!!!!), 11 K, 4 ER, 3.00 ERA, 1.917 WHIP

Let's hope Redman can go 7 or 8 tomorrow against the immortal Oliver Perez.

There's no reason you shouldn't be able to throw strikes while up six runs. Soriano finally had to come in to shut it down after McBride walked three and Paronto walked two more.

Starting the season with a three-game sweep on the road is about as good as you can get in terms of results, but how they did it still leaves a bit to be desired, and they can't afford crappy bullpen work against the Mets this weekend.

But we'll take it.

Behind the 8-ball

VA Patient Has Wrong Testicle Removed

OK, I wish this had come out on Sunday so it could be dismissed as an April Fools' story, but I don't think that's the case.

I think this may be a bit worse than the story a couple years ago about operating on the wrong knee.

A lot of new cars and bad drivers

Linking to this story which says that Atlanta is #1.....in population growth.

900,000 more people in 7 years? Yeah, that's a bit of a jump. 5.1 million people in Atlanta, of which approximately 2 million have no clue how to drive on the Connector or think 285 is their own NASCAR qualifying heat.

Growth is apparently even faster here than in Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, or Vegas.

Guess there's something to be said for nice, warm climates. We're now #9 in total population, passing Boston. Wow.

Still a long way to go to catch up to New York, though. Then again, I'm not sure I'd want 19 million people here, either.

Cards in the air

A few other bloggers decided to get this idea off the ground - since I play in them occasionally, I figure I'll pimp it here too, for the other poker degenerates that read this:



It'll be three tournaments a week, going until June. Here are the three, all on Full Tilt:




MATH, Mondays, 10 PM EDT, $24+$2.


Mookie, Wednesdays (as in, tonight), 10 PM EDT, $10+$1. We'll see if I can cash again.....





Riverchasers, Thursday nights, 10 PM EDT, $10+$1.

The first event was Monday and 47 players signed up for a nice prize pool- I was not one of them, though, as I happened to be really, really tired.


In the meantime, I get to leave work soon and bring Alex to Chick-Fil-A for a play-date with his classmates. Then again, I suppose I'm not too worried about work at the moment if I'm taking the time to write here :)

UPDATE: The good news: An all-time high of 78 players. The bad news: I got a bad beat when my pocket 9's was beaten by pocket 6's when a third 6 hit on the turn, and then got knocked out when my A-K ran into pocket aces. Finished 61st - donk donk donk.

Good day for Atlanta sports

Well, let's see:

1) We had the Final Four without massive gridlock or too many shootings (a couple, but at least no NFL players were involved)

2) The Braves won their first game to re-take first place in the NL East with a mighty 1-0 record. Four scoreless innings from the bullpen is a very nice way to start by beating the Phillies on the road, 5-3.

3) Last, for the first time ever, the Atlanta Thrashers are heading to the playoffs. Thanks to a Toronto loss yesterday, the Thrashers clinched a playoff berth. They have not yet clinched the division, but are three points up on Tampa with three games left. As of right now, they would face the Rangers in the first round - who knows, it might be fun to root against the Rangers again.

The Hawks, however, can't even lose right, as they'll lose their lottery pick if it is outside the top 3 and they currently have the fourth-worst record behind Boston, Milwaukee, and Memphis. Hopefully, they can learn to suck just a little more over the last couple weeks to get a better shot at a top-3 pick and either Oden, Durant, or Joakim Noah.

I hate the Gators

I hate them a lot right now.

Last night, Florda beat UCLA by 10 to advance to a rematch of the BCS Championship against Ohio State.

If UCLA had won last night and won Monday night, I would have won my pool. Because the damn Gators won, I now have no chance even though I had 3 of 4 in the Final Four.

Because I REALLY needed another reason to hate Florida.

And now, back to watching Wonder Pets for the 842nd time. For some bizarre reason, that is one of Alex's favorite shows. I find it as fun as getting hit over the head with a beer bottle - most of the other shows he likes are somewhat tolerable, but this one just grates on my nerves for some strange reason.

It's just started raining, so hopefully the pollen will come down from the 6000+ levels it's been at all week, and get rid of part of the yellow blankets from hell.

UPDATE: Yes, I know, Florida won. That's nice. Here's what I have to say because I don't want to talk about it.