MEMORANDUM

To: T. Glavine

From: East Lake Golf Club

Re: Availability

Dear Tom:

We're glad to let you know we were able to squeeze you in for a 9 AM tee time tomorrow, Monday, October 1.

You are scheduled to go just before Mr. Jones's party.

Enjoy your round on the links!

Not bubbalicious

This would be my third satellite bubble this week out of four attempts. The fourth, I came in 73rd of 527 for a $2 rebuy directly for the WCOOP Main Event - had two seats available and I couldn't make enough of a move.

At least it's not missing out on cashing entirely. Then, I'd really be ticked off.

PokerStars Tournament #62546511, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite Buy-In: $4.00/$0.40
125 players
Total Prize Pool: $1644.00
Target Tournament #62546314
Buy-In: $80.00
20 tickets to the target tournament

Dear francase13, You finished the tournament in 21st place.

AAARRRRGGHHH.

Bad Day for the Home Town

1) The Braves lost. They had to win out, especially had to sweep the Phillies, and they lost tonight which makes it damn near impossible. NOW Chipper can book a tee time.

2) Apparently it wasn't a one-time thing with the water bottle in Miami's airport. How stupid can you be? At this point, I'm not sure if Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, O.J., or Mike Vick should be the hot pick in a death pool.

Thankfully, local bad news was mostly limited to sporting items today. What can I say - I spent damn near the whole day unavailable. It's a nice change. Besides, I haven't had anything to post for the last few days.

Hope?

Not much, but still some slim hope remains:


San Diego - 85 70, .548 - (3 at SF, 4 at MIL)
Philadelphia - 85 71, .545 .5 (3 vs. ATL, 3 vs. WAS)
Colorado - 84 72, .538 1.5 (3 at LA, 3 vs. ARI)
Atlanta - 82 74, .526 3.5 (3 at PHI, 3 at HOU)

Obviously, Atlanta needs to win every game this week and pull off a comeback which has never been done - leapfrog 3 teams in the final week - so odds are slim.

It'll be interesting if the Braves can pull off a miraculous sweep of Philly this week to see where they stands.

Also quite obviously, the Mets will be rooting for the Braves this week so they can lock up the division.

It's better than last year, at least. At least a winning record has been clinched.

Tide Rolled

Georgia 26, Alabama 23, in Tuscaloosa?



Woof, Woof, Woof.

Pi**ed

I finished in the money in a tournament, and I'm pissed about it.

I've been debating all week whether to try to satellite into the WCOOP Horse event today at 3 PM. I've been doing well in HORSE and deep-stack tournaments lately, and thought I might be able to do well in it, so I was considering a satellite attempt.

Horse is Hold Em, Omaha H/L, Razz, 7-Stud, and 7-Stud H/L in a rotation. The tournament has a $215 buy-in, which I would not and could not front, but would have a first prize of at least $47K. Stacks started at 3,000 and had 30-minute levels, compared to the ten or even 5-minute levels in normal tourneys.

Poker Stars was running several satellites, and I entered into the last one where an entry was given for every 11 entries. 104 players meant that 9 would get entries, with 10 through 16 getting buy-ins returned.

Early on, I was crippled, and then went on a monstrous tear to get up to 7th out of 16 remaining. However, with the turbo format I was still in danger on any hand of not getting the entry, though I was guaranteed of recouping the buyin.

Well, that's exactly what happened - with blinds of 750/1500, and sitting on a stack of 3600, I pushed in when everyone folded to me in the SB, as I would be anted off within the next few hands anyway - if I folded, I would have 1800 remaining, and be done in 5 hands when the BB hit me again.

I had 10-7 suited, got called by 9-4 unsuited from another small stack (WTF????) and saw a 9 on the flop. So, I finished 11th out of 104. In a cash tourney, I'd get a good amount back. In this, though, I just got back the buy-in.

I wasn't quite sure if I'd be able to play the event, but just having the tourney dollars to do other satellites if I didn't play would be nice. As is, I neither gained nor lost anything.

The HORSE event ended with 1639 players, and a total prize pool of 327,800.00, with first place taking 72K home. As of now, 4.5 hours into the tourney, half the players remain, and another 500 need to drop before reaching the money.

So, I cashed, but I'm ticked. Doesn't make much sense, I guess.

At least there are still 11 other events to try for. Not sure which I might try, though, because the remaining options aren't great in time or in buyin amount.

Ugh.

I didn't hear this on the news!

OK, I get what you were trying to say, but chrissakes, JUST SHUT UP.

Maybe I should add the countdown clock back to the blog too.

Another change

Yes, I've now added a fundraising widget on the right side of the blog. (From Facebook, you'll have to click through to the original post - a lot of stuff gets left out when notes transalte. I hate that.)

It's hard to believe it's only 4 months until primary season gets underway.

At least it'll give the news networks something to do besides focusing on O.J. again.

All we need now are another Hillarycare proposal, and it'll be just like 1994 again.

Oh, wait......

Well, at least there's no baseball strike.

Falcons Sign Julio Franco

Well, they might as well have done so.

Last year, they lured Morten Andersen out of retirement to handle placekicking duties.

Today, after seeing two missed field goals comprise the losing deficit to Jacksonville, Atlanta lured the 47-year old kicker out of retirement again.

In other Falcon news, they may finally sign Byron Leftwich, a move they should have done two weeks ago.

No word on whether either player will require a walker.

Of course, that isn't stopping me from entering a waiver claim on Leftwich - since Harrington is currently my #3 QB - with a titanic battle coming up this week.

Hammer for the win, please (Part 7?)

I've lost count and I don't feel like culling the archives.

The very last hand of a 45-SnG on Stars - a full house, deuces full of sevens.



Whhhhhheeeeeeeee.......

With six you get eggroll!

That will probably be the only Doris Day reference ever on this blog.

If you get a chance, go over to Mookie's and wish him congrats on the arrival a few months from now of a new little one to make a six-pack.

And wish him luck because that's more than a handful.....

Pwned

Sometimes, unwinding after a long day can b quite fulfilling.

Especially when you can make good on a guarantee.

I was playing a Triple Draw Lowball Sng on Stars, and we were down to the final two. All of a sudden, my connection went boom. I saw when I got back in that instead of a 5:1 leader, I was now an 8:1 dog.

That just won't do.

Before the drop, I was up 7300 to 1700. When I came back, I was down 8050 to 950. Upon coming back I let him know that since I'd already taken most of his chips, that I would now do it again.

Here goes:

Hand 1: raise 550 on the 3rd draw (all-in) with 9-high and chip up. 1350-7650.
Hand 2: double with 8-7-6-5-2 against J-7-6-4-2. 2700-6300.
Hand 3: villian mucks pre-draw. 2900-6100.
Hand 4: I fold after the 2nd draw. 1700-7300.
Hand 5: villain mucks-pre-draw. 1900-7100.
Hand 6: Double up when he plays jack-high as a good hand. 3800-5200.
Hand 7: Raise after all three draws, and villain folds. 4200-4800.
Hand 8: I fold pre-draw. 4000-5000.
Hand 9: I fold at the end when I get paired. 2800-6200.
Hand 10: Double up with a seven. 5600-3400.
Hand 11/12: Fold twice pre-draw. 4900-4100.
Hand 13: Crippling blow when my nine takes out his straight - no good here. 7300-1700. (back to where we were before)
Hand 14: My eight takes out his ten. It's OVER. 9000-0. He stood pat with a ten on the last draw.

Hooray for online therapy. Especially against lousy players.

If I keep going at this rate, I might be in the WCOOP event Friday or Saturday. We'll see.

I get older, they stay the same age

News broke that Annette Obrestad of Norway won the Main Event at the WSOP-Europe.

She plays as Annette_15 on PokerStars (where the WCOOP is breaking records, with a $3M tournament this afternoon and a $5M tourney will happen in a couple days).

She just won a million pounds.

She will turn 19 this week, so she cannot play yet in the U.S. legally. But she is slightly more than two million dollars richer, even if she seems to be about 12 years old, so I'm sure that'll help a bit.

It is funny that the winning hand in the picture was the hammer.

When I was turning 19, I was finishing up a crappy freshman year of college and got hit by a taxi. She is definitely having a better year.

Stop the false hope

I just read this astoundingly stupid nugget on Chop-n-Change:

"Mike Hampton threw off a mound for the first time since having elbow surgery back in April. The 35-year old left-hander is trying to come back from two lost seasons due to such surgeries and be an effective part of the Atlanta rotation next year. Any benefit the team could get from Hampton next year would be a huge plus for solidifying the rotation. "

Also being floated (again) is the possibility of a return of Tom Glavine next season.

With apologies to the clip below.......

MIKE HAMPTON ISN'T WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR. TOM GLAVINE ISN'T WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR. GREG MADDUX ISN'T WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR. AND IF YOU EXPECT THE TO WALK THROUGH THAT DOOR THEY'RE GOING TO BE GRAY AND OLD!

Seriously, there is no point hoping for any positive return from Mike Hampton for the remainder of his contract. I wrote this almost a year ago and it's still true. Yet writers continue to trot out this false hope.

IT'S.......NOT.........HAPPENING.

Let's not forget about Chipper Jones and his "injuries" which keep him out until getting called out by Smoltz for babying everything. He's probably quit on the season, unlike a lot of his teammates who are still hanging on, 4.5 games out of the wildcard, desparate with 16 games left but not out....yet.

(Really, they have three against Washington, three against Florida, four against Milwaukee, three against Philly, and three against Houston. All those teams are playing out the string or floundering lately. It's still possible if they get their acts together.)

And of course, there's Andruw Jones, who has turned in one of the worst "contract year" performances I've ever seen. Has anyone ever seen a proven hitter, in his prime, hitting .220 and slugging barely .400 in a contract year? How the hell do you get outslugged by Yunel Escobar? They should have traded him to the Red Sox when they had the chance last year.

At least Andruw is gone soon - the Braves will not re-sign him for what he will ask, even after such a horrendous effort.

Too bad Hampton and Chipper can't disappear after this season, because the team could use the extra $40 million from these three contracts for some people who can pitch and actually give a damn.

You know, gutting it out, hustling down the line, showing up to play every day, hustling and not loafing, not missing weeks or months at a time - something those three haven't done in a few years.

Maybe a little more effort would have the Braves closer than 4.5 games right now and keep me from typing this rant as the season comes to an end, whether it is in three week, four week, or more. There's still some hope.

Aliases

H/t tip to Blonde for posting this meme - I'm posting it because I don't have too many original posts in me right now.

Some work better than others. Feel free to steal of lift at your leisure.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Patches Escort - yeesh.
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Rocky Road Oatmeal
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)M-fra (yech)
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Dolphin
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)Lawrence New York (eh)
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)Frami
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)The Blue Kamikaze
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Jimmy John - that's pretty damn redneck right thar'
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)Armani Reese('s)
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )Anne Plummer (ok, that won't work without a lot of surgery)
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)Morales Madrid (how the hell do I remember some of this stuff?)
12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Summer Rose
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + "ie" or "y")Pineapple Shoesy
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Cereal Pine
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Gambling Wind Tour

Celebration Day

The founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun, died last year.

Plans were announced today for a tribute concert to be held on November 26 in London.

Many big and/or famous bands will be performing, and one has been signed to perform, conveniently enough, after their new compilation of "remastered" songs, Mothership, drop on November 13.

It's an interesting group lineup:

Robert Plant
Jimmy Page
John Paul Jones
Jason Bonham

I don't think demand is going to be very heavy, though. I mean, it's only been 20 years.

In related news, a pig flew over my house.

Creative Arts?

Yes, this clip won a creative arts Emmy for best song.

We really seem to be scraping the bottom today.

I guess classy posts will have to be saved for tomorrow.

For the troops

Other folks may post pictures of guardsmen or troops in battle today.


As for this site, I think Chops has the right idea in their post to support the troops. Either that or it's just their continuing fascination with Keeley Hazell.


Good thing she wasn't posing in a Hummer.

One more thing - is EVERYONE on MySpace or Facebook now? Because apparently she has a page too.

Even though it's Monday.....

Try to smile. This fellow's happy.

Such Ambivalence!

So.....I'm the nerdy equivalent of a squishy moderate.
H/t Geek Soap Box

Good or bad omen?

I'm not sure if I should feel better or worse about having Joey Harrington on my fantasy team, after reading this Sports Guy article picking the Falcons as a sleeper, considering how bad he was with picks last year.

I'm just praying Vince Young doesn't get hurt so I don't have to choose between Harrington or Trent Green.

Ugh.

Pro Picks

Let's hope they fare better in week 1 than my college picks.

AFC East: New England
AFC North: Baltimore
AFC South: Indy
AFC West: San Diego
AFC Wild Cards: Cincinnati, Tennessee

NFC East: Philly
NFC North: Green Bay (I really don't like Chicago)
NFC South: New Orleans
NFC West: San Francisco
NFC Wild Cards: Chicago, St. Louis

Conference Champs: San Diego over Tennessee, Philly over San Francisco

Super Bowl: San Diego over Philly (no Schottenheimer may make the difference, even if it is Norv Turner)

One Order of Stupid, Coming Right Up

Yes, it's whitey's fault that Mike Vick ran a dogfighting ring. Because, when possible, blame whitey and rednecks.

H/t to WWTDD.

At least Whoopi is keeping the moron quota for the show in line.

What does Cliff think?

I know I can't be the only (former) Metallica fan that has a problem with this being part of the regular playlist.

I don't remember Newsted ever playing it.........EVER. At least not the whole thing - maybe a minute here or there, but never the whole thing.

Thoughts?

(And yes, I know, it's old. News reaches me slowly.)



Update: Well, it didn't take as long as I thought to find a Cliff bit. I feel productive now. Go ahead and turn it up a little to piss off coworkers, or at least make them wonder what the hell that noise is.

Brutal beats

I played in another $1 90-man SnG and got one of the worst runs of bad beats I've ever gotten in one sitting.

I had four horrendous hits in the span of just a couple orbits. Before this run, I was a massive chip leader, with double any other stack, and 21 remaining (18 pay). 47K in chips out of 270K total chips, so I am dominating until this run.

Hand #1: Run pocket 10's into pocket Aces. OK, this is normal. Drop to 44K.
Hand #2, Run pocket 10's into pocket Aces of a very short stack. Drop to 38K.
Hand #3, Pocket 9's, try to push people out and get called AGAIN by rockets on a short stack. Drop to 31K.
Hand #4, 2 orbits later, now 12 left: Pocket Q's, and re-raise player from hand #3 all in again. He calls and flips....pocket kings. No help.

I've dropped down to 9th by the end of this run (amazingly, i didn't bust out, thanks to the formerly massive chip lead, but somehow managed to recover with a lot of steals and pushing to get to this:

Full Tilt Poker Tournament #26436721 $1 + $0.25 Sit & Go NL Hold'em
Buy-In: $1.00 + $0.25 90 players
Total Prize Pool: $90.00

Dear APOSEC72, You finished the tournament in 2nd place. There has been $13.95 added to your account.

So at least there was a happy ending to this bad beat story.

So THAT'S why he seems popular

I've mused often about how odd it seems that girls seem to swarm around Alex at school.

Kim pointed out something to me the other day, mentioning about how he looked like the lead from High School Musical.

Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about.

So, today, she showed me who she was talking about.

It seems to be an interesting comparison........It must be a hair thing.

Does this mean Alex looks older than he is, or that Zac Efron looks like a three-year old?

I still don't know what High School Musical is, though.

About the other day.....

Is it too late to take back the title game appearance for Michigan?

Um, oops.

I'm not really that sad, as Michigan isn't really one of my favorite teams anyway, but it made sense at the time.