It's been a while since I've posted anything. So here's a recap of some of the events of the last week, in no particular order. . .
GP vs. Three teenage girls. . .I went to my sister and her fiances house in Cambridge tonight for the 4th. I was reading my book while walking down Mass Ave. As I was crossing the street, the red "don't walk" sign had just started flashing, so I still had the right of way. I started to cross slowly and let two cars turn right in front of me. When the next car should have stopped, they didn't seem to be slowing down. I kind of flinched and prepared myself to jump out of the way when the car abruptly stopped about a quarter-turn onto Mass Ave. The car had three teenage girls in it. I noticed the girl in the passenger seat visibly giggled in my direction right when I reacted to their delayed stop. How could they laugh at me? It wasn't my fault, and, in fact, I was a little insulted that she opted to laugh and not apologize. I stared for about two seconds, arms akimbo, but she didn't wipe the smirk off her face. I quickly lifted my book (hardcover, about 7" x 9") and cocked it back like a Frisbee that I was going to rifle right into her open window. I then placed it in my left hand and flung my right hand in full frisbee-toss motion, watched the girl's arms quickly wrap all around her simultaneously ducking body. Then I smiled and proceeded on my path. . .
New Pokerstars software. . .I didn't notice anything drastic, but then Glenn told me about the resizing table feature and new themes. So, I set the theme to the saloon, and maxed out the table size. On my Dell 20.1" external monitor, the table is about 8.5" x 14" actual size - the biggest online table I have ever played on. . . it also seems like the smallest size auto-readjusts the resolution much better than at Party. This makes one wonder "Why can't Party do something like this? Their interface is so boring and ugly, anyways. . .
Cultural Evening at the Museum. . .Last Friday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for dinner and to see the "Americans in Paris" exhibit. My mother wanted to talk about the Red Sox, and the ensuing conversation followed:
GP's mom: "So, how about those Red Sox (they has won 11 in a row at this point)?"
GP: "Yeah, they're on a little run. . . "
GP's mom: "I felt bad when they knocked out Pedro (she, for some reason, had always pronounced his name "Ped(estrian)-ro"). . .
GP's sister: What? He got knocked out? Like hit in the head?
GP: No, they just scored a lot of runs early and he got taken out of the game. . .
GP's mom: You know who I really like? That Coco Crisp. . .
GP's dad: So, do you know what position he plays?
GP's mom (turning towards me): Shortstop, right?
GP: Nope. Did you see his catch last night on the highlights? (where he made a highlight catch in centerfield)
GP's mom: Yes.
The rest of the dinner was fun. My sister is getting married in two weeks, and her fiance was there, so my father started getting his axiom mode. This is usually reserved for holidays. He starts making general comments about life and applying them to us and no one in particular: "Well, you can only do what you do in the time you have;" "You kids turned out ok, you just have to try to make a buck," etc. . .
The museum exhibit was ok. It's kind of annoying how all museums seem to recycle stuff with variations on a theme just to get people to take interest, but I understand why they do it. The Sargeants were the best part, but still, the
Daughters of Edward Boit is part of the Boston collection, and the equally famous portrait of Madame X came all the way from the Met in NYC. He is one of favorite painters, though, (I used to paint a lot in high school and early college) so I still look at his paintings like Cameron looked at the Seurat painting in Ferris Beuller's Day Off. After the exhibit, when I got in my parents car, my mother gave me a late birthday present - a clock. I stared at it for a while, trying to figure out what kitchen elements were used as what. As I looked, my mother said: "It's a clock made out of kitchen parts. . . (I kept staring at it). What, you don't like it? I got it at the DeCordovah Museum - It's Fine Aht!" "No, I like it. I was just looking at it." I hung it up on my wall next to my refrigerator, right next to my Sargeant postcard and Napoleon Dynamite magnet. Then I poured myself a glass of the scotch whiskey I got in Berlin in the only cup I had - a plastic cup probably made so 3-year-olds could drink small portions of apple juice. . . .
I got home from work today and noticed my refrigerator was where my table should be, so I turned around and noticed they ripped the ceiling out and were repairing a pipe in apartment. Nice. Then I thought about the what I had in my fridge. . . Nothing, good. . .oh wait, I had two cans of beer. Then I noticed they plugged it into the other side - cool.
Saturday Night Susan. . . .On Saturday night I met up with an old friend at Four Winds for some drinks. We reconnected on myspace and had 18 years of catching up to do. We covered a lot of high school gossip, which is probably more fun for me since I left public school after ninth grade. We also talked about sports. Susan is a big sports fan, so the following discussions ensued (pun intended): whether Papelbon should stay a closer (she says yes I say no), Ortiz mvp debate, Francona taking out Pedro, etc. That got me started on retroactive thinking, and how bad I was running at Party, and how sometimes it's hard to say whether a bad decision is a bad decision just because one loses. (I had a -200 bb swing that I just came back from over time. Since I have been back from Europe and changed my handle, I have been hesitant to even put hands in my tracker until I knew it would be in the green (which, outside of pokertracker is known as the "black") I finally got there yesterday and now can boast a .43bb/100 under my new handle :P.)
Sue mentioned she worked at a celebrity golf tournament, so I asked who was in attendance. She lit up and said "Lyndon Byers." You have to be %100 Boston to appreciate Lyndon Byers. His toughness on the Bruins may be second to only Jay Miller, who, despite his unimtimidating size, fought regularly with Chris "knuckles" Nilan, and never lost a fight. The bar got very crowded at 1 a.m. closed at 2. We went to get cigarettes, and Sue learned that's it's not easy to get any particular brand in the 7-11 near my house without a language and body language struggle. She said she wanted to see another GP quiz, sensing she may do a little better now, so I may put that together. I'm thinking the prize may be a freeroll $105 sng vs. me on stars, or maybe an ipod shuffle for those that don't play poker. We'll see. . .
WSOP News. . .I am on the other side of the country from Vegas, but since I have a computer I keep up to date on the action. First, congrats to Vipul on getting 5th in the $1500 limit holdem for 58k. Based on the push at the beginning of the final table (the KJ hand) I figured you would be a little disappointed with anything but top three, but nice work anyways obviously. Feming cashed in the 5k nl, and the legendary Steve G. was in the thick of it until the end (search archives for Steve G. interview). I must hand over any news to the people who are currently there - Jesse Martin and Mike Schneider's in particular. . .
PLWnd8!I took a break from grinded late Saturday night/early Sunday morning to play Glenn in a little hu plo8 5-10 on a pvt table at party. This was the by far the biggest hand of the night. When I later sent him the hand history, he refused to believe I didn't doctor it, but based on how the match was playing thus far I decided to demonstrate that even though I have been running bad in limit holdem that I can still play poker sometimes. My plan on this hand was to call the big cr on the turn and fold if he followed through on the river and push if he checked. After some discussion, he finally admitted that, although he did have the best hand at the push, he had QQ9x (maybe :P) when he cr'ed. So, he probably would have been put in a tough spot and probably would have folded anyways on the river even if I didn't catch one of the best cards given his hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?396140
