25k event later today.

by Phil

5 Comments

I have to sleep now. It is 6 am and I have a 25k event at the Venetian manana. 49 players. 100k added by poker stars. shoot out style. Win your heat and you get 50k. The seven winners advance to a final table, for winner take all. (At anytime during the event should you felt someone, then you get 5k for it.) At my table we have. Me David Williams Joe Sebok Justin Bonomo Yevginiy Timoshenko Tommy Vedes Joe Cassidy This should be fun. We start at 7 pm today. gl to me! Phil

Flood in the Apt...

by Phil

3 Comments

On Friday the 19th I zoned out and after starting to fill the tub... forgot all about it.  The water was of course on maximum and I forgot about it for only about an hour or so but the damage looked brutal.  The tub fills in about 5 to 7 mins, so it looked like about 10 or more full tubs of water were on my floor.  I summed two friends and along with about 35 towels proceeded to soak up and squeeze out the water back into the (now drained tub) and shower.  It was a rough workout that lasted for a vigorous 30 or so minutes.

I thought I was in the clear.  It didn't look too bad... and if the floor didn't buckle any more than it had in the first hour or two I thought it would all be fine.

I was typing away in the office when I got a knock on the door.  It was engineering and the guy in the apt beneath me was having a water nightmare of his own...  The water needed a place to go, and down it went.  I went to speak to him and take responsibility.  It was brutal.  His apt was RUINED.  My oh my, I felt as small as I could possibly feel.

His bathroom ceiling was DESTROYED... he had water seeping down his walls.. his floors were soaked... it was 4 or 5 times worse than I had it.

An hour later we had a water damage company filling our apts with these huge machines ... our floors were taped down.. and the machines started blowing hot dry air along the floors under the plastic tarp.  These machines run for three days straight.  It is a huge pain in the ass.  (I had no idea how impt it is to get these machines in there to REALLY SUPER DUPER dry things down.  In my case it was more or less visually ok, but left untreated, mold develops and getting rid of mold and pores and stuff is apparently such a bitch to do that most insurance companies don't even cover it.  So I was happy to fix it right the first time.)

Ok, so eventually the guy (David) whose apt I destroyed and myself coordinate with the water pros and we start to settled in for the repairs to follow.... That night I started to count up the possible damage that this whole fiasco might cost me.  (You see, the fellow beneath me just moved in and just finished painting and putting the new floors in and didn't have insurance yet.)  I told him not to worry as my policy might cover it and if not... then I would handle it all out of pocket.  Sting....

It has been 4 1/2 days and the air vac machines are still humming along.  I put David up at the Bellagio and the claims adjuster guy comes Wednesday the 24th to give his two cents on the whole thing.  The poker analogy is messed up.  Essentially I have been waiting about 5 days to see the last card.  The last card for our unit is good already... insurance covers it up to it with only a 1000$ deductible.  But for his apt.... arghghgh... this is where the real sweat enters....If it hits good then I will not have to pay for David's apt damage.  If it hits bad... then I will have waited 5 days for an awful bit of news.  The damage to his apt will (I suspect) be between 40,000 and 80,000 dollars.  Sting.  Please... if I have ever needed a good river card this is it.

So essentially now I just wait til Wednesday (1.5 days from now) to see what the claims adjuster says.

Oh yeah.. moral of the story... If you turn your tub on... don't forget and let it flood your house.

There was more to this story.. but it is not fun writing about it.  Suffice to say, there was also water damage (not so extreme, but real enough anyway.) in two other apts.. one right next to his, and the one beneath his.  Arhghghggh.... Oh please let the river be nice on this one...

Will fill you in later..

Til then, be good.

Phil 

 

Final Heat and closing thoughts to the Premier League

by Phil

0 Comments

I went out first…. I netted 44k for my efforts.... (96k for prize money in the previous heats won, and 50k for my 6th place finish.)
100k was the entry.

: (          6th place.

: )          netting 44k!

It is all in the way you look at it....

The entire event was incredible… I was super duper pleased with everything in spite
of me not getting a good result in the last and most impt heat.

-------------------------------------

Random story – Something that I think the poker world will think is incredibly funny.

A bit of gossip surrounded Luke “Bubblegum” Schwartz’s arrival to the States:
that it came at some cost.  I was curious.  What was this all about?
Was it something innocent or did it maybe involve missing sandwiches?

It turns out that Luke was the central character in a little story I have decided to title…

            “Luke arrives Late to the Airport.”

Before I share the email, two quick things.

1) I promised not to reveal my source.
2) I promised not to reveal the name of the airline.

In all its glory… the following email was sent FROM the airline to the booking agent in charge
of Luke’s travel.

This is it…. VERBATUM….

“I though you night like to know about these 2 paxs we had to deal with today.

They turned up at 1035am 15mins past closure for the flight and he had not
completed there ESTA for entry into the US.
He said he had but he was on the phone to his mother (swearing at her )
because she was trying to do there ESTA and he she was not doing it quick
enough for him.
The checkin supervisor then said the flight was closed and we could not
take him and he went beserk, swearing and kicking the desks.
I called sales and was advised that the ticket was not changeable or
refundable and as he had turned up late with no esta they was nothing they
could do. I told the passenger and was greeted with another barrage of F
words and we told him to leave the desk and we would not serve him anymore."


I wish I had a video of that blow up!

 =================================================

The Premier League was a great time..  I heard that they are thinking of raising the
entry fee next year and expand it from 12 to 16.  I think that is a great idea.

Off to LA today for the WPT Celebrity Invitational.

(PS.  If you are in the first 100 people to sign up for the 10k event in LA for the 26th you
get an automatic entry into this event!  Very cool... it used to be that you had to pre-register
for the 25k event at Bellagio to get into this fun freeroll."

Later

Phil

Last Heat

by Phil

0 Comments

O points.  At least it is a number/result that appeals to my synesthetic aestheicism.  Zero, a perfect number.

I don't think I really have synesthesia.... but it is possible... I know that I can be quite enamored by the odd number purity things here and there but true synesthesia is actually a bit different.  Though there are more or less 60 variants.. the most generic definition / the giant brush picture would be this..

Synesthesia is a sensation felt in one part of the body when stimulus is applied to another part.  (i.e. visualization of a color on hearing a sound.) 

It wouldn't surprise me if I had some sort of low level variant of it though...... I wouldn't mind it if I did... things have been working out after all,,, right?

Anyway... O points. 

=====================

There are 6 of us at the final table manana...

Me
Benyamine
Giovanni
Bubblegum

Picture of him in action... (Courtesy of Mickey May of Matchroom Sport!)

The last two will be the respective winners of the following two heats..

Negreanu vs Tran
and
Frazer vs De Wolfe

The prize money will be

1st 400k
2nd 200k
3rd 100k
4th 80k
5th 70k
6th 50K

(and all 12 contestants have already logged money in the bank from the already in place 2000 dollars per point system that was in place....

Me             96k
Benyamine 76k
Giovanni     58k
Bubblegum 58k
Negreanu    52k
Frazer         52k
De Wolfe     44k
Tran           40k
Hellmuth     38k    
Yevgeniy     32k
Rousso       32k
Tony G       22k

==================

I like that it will be 6 handed... I like 6 handed... all the games online now are essentially 6 max... or at least where all the action has been in the ring games.

I like that Bubblegum is in for sure... He is always fun at a poker table....

I like that we don't have to start til 4 p.m.

(This means that I get to sleep unitl I am done being tired.  Which is what I am used to.)

I like that JC Tran has started using the 40% line.  (When playing two suited cards threee gapper or lower).  I started up with this about 6 months ago and it did seem to be getting traction.  But now with JC helping carry the torch... who knows... it may someday become standard poker venacular.   (i.e. "How could I fold? I started with 40% of a straight flush!")

======================

Movies...

Saw Daybreakers... Amazing stuff... Best vampire movie I may have ever seen... Will have to double check that, but for now I am going with it.  VERY COOL VAMP FLICK>>> VERY COOL.  I knew I was gonna love that flick.

Next on the map... Wolfman!  The trailers are nutso cool.

======================

Later...

Phil