poker and a childhood tale

back at mandalay bay for couple hours today and won 318 dollars. it was one of those days that bad cards in good position paid off.

i am on the button and when it gets to me there are already 6 callers plus the two blinds, i will be the 9th in and take a peek at my cards but really the only thing i am looking for is whether to raise or just call because i am not throwing whatever in the fuck i have away. the two mystery cards are the 9-2 of spades; i call. the little blind then raises the bet to 9 dollars, which is an odd raise from that position, usually it would be better to raise big to drive people out or to just call hoping to trap and this is assuming that you have cards that you could indeed raise with from the little blind. but it is to 9 and 5 people call before me, now there is 60 dollars in the pot and i call, they have priced me in. the flop comes 9-2-7 with two diamonds and no spades. it is checked to the player to my right who bets 20 dollars into that pot. i raise to sixty and he debates for a moment and chucks his hand.

two hands after that a player puts in a straddle to 4 dollars and there are 3 callers before me and two players after me. peekaboo and i have ace-3 of hearts. i call. one of the two behind me players also calls as does the bb. 7 x 4 = 28 dollars. flop comes A-7-3. bb checks and straddle fires 20 dollars in the pot and it is folded to me. i raise to 60 dollars and it is back to him and he raises to 100 and the ball is back in my court. i read him perfectly and put him all in. he calls and says to me, "do you have two pair?" at which time my read was confirmed, he had 7's and 3's (remember he was the straddle) and i got his stack right then.

there are times in a no limit game that the price is such that a call with ANY TWO CARDS is called for. you have to be able to get in cheap and there must be a gang of folk in before you. if it is 8 callers before it gets to you and it is still 2 dollars, call. 7-2 offsuit? call. see a flop. it could be 7-7-2. you know?

on to something else: good comments on previous post especially about the dog. we are putting up a BEWARE OF DOG! sign. there are so many fucking idiots running around loose, (after you have been certified a FUCKING IDIOT by a panel of thinking adults, you should have to wear a collar to identify yourself as a fucking idiot so the rest of us can give you a wide bearth) we have to protect ourselves in oh so many ways.



a childhood tale:


when i was but a wee child
my mother used to say to me
"i hate you and wish you had never been born."

i never could get anyone to believe that among the adults. the other kids saw it but the adults stuck to the story that no mother would ever say that to their child and all mothers love their children.

that is when i learned
that most adults are clueless
and kids are a much better judge of character.

and nothing has happened since to make me change my mind.

poker, running dogs, suggestions?

back in mandalay bay today for a plus 165 which also makes 32 out of 39. ground them out today, never had a really big hand and was never in a really big pot. picked off some 30-40 dollar pots and after 2 and half hours went home.

yesterday when i got home a couple of my neighbors tell me they hear a woman screaming and dogs barking over by my side yard. making a long story short, (which is a change for me but i don't do detail well when i am just writing a blog or letter), a woman was walking her dog and the dog broke away from her and rushed to the fence where he then proceeds to stick his nose through. maverick, the great dane, then proceeds to bite aforesaid nose causing the dog to yelp and run and the woman to scream and run after the running dog which is hightailing it down the street. later, we talk to the owner of the dog and he (husband of running woman) says that we ought to get a steel mesh for our wrought iron gate. rhonda, being a better person than i, told him that we would do that. i would have suggested that neither he nor his wife should let their dog run over and stick his nose through the gate where the giant fucking dog awaits, barking and growling. that he shouldn't have a large dog like he does if he cannot control that dog. you can't be walking a big dog that can get away from you for all kinds of bad things can then happen. in this case, it was his large dog that got hurt (but not bad, just a how-do-you-do bite on the nose) but his big dog could have attacked a smaller dog or a small child. maverick is over 170 pounds and it would be impossible for me to physically control him but he will stop on a dime at my command. he is, however, just a little jumpy about dogs coming at him; once, he and i were attacked by a pit bull while we were walking and since then maverick has decided that strange dogs running towards him need to be dealt with severly and a bite right on the old snozzle usually does the trick. the guy does have a point though, some idiot kid could come over and stick his hand through the gate and get bit. maverick is not mean but he is a watchdog and that is his house. know what i mean? so we will put up the fucking mesh.

within a couple of years we are going to fence the front of our property; the back already is completely walled in except for the one wrought iron gate. then i will have another compound. i am big on compounds and have had several. i want to have my great dane to be able to get to both front and back and i like having my privacy with no unannounced visitors. know what i mean?

so what do you guys think of the myspace deal? i am thinking about posting a video on u tube, i hear that is a good way to start a buzz. comments? suggestions?







.

sue the soldiers, huckabee is a whacko, revelations.

hundreds of soldiers who were given signing bonuses are now being asked to return some or all of the money when they are wounded in battle and are discharged from active duty. a soldier in iraq was blinded by a bomb and was being sued by the army for 2,800 dollars which was a pro rated figure based on how long he was in until blinded. support our troops indeed.

huckabee is surging in the polls for the republican nomination. huckabee does not believe in evolution and when he was governor of arkansas the schools there got an "F" in science because he cut funding for science. "science changes, god doesn't." is what he said. also, he apparently does not know that man is a primate as he answered a reporter's question about evolution with, "well anyone who would care to try to prove than man is primate to me, he would be welcome to try." gosh, gov, man is a primate.

huckabee, as well as george, the decider, bush, believes in the book of REVELATIONS. revelations is a favorite among the fundalmentalists but there is a little problem with that: REVELATIONS SHOULD NOT BE IN THE BIBLE AT ALL SINCE IT IS, IN THE OPINION OF MOST BIBLICAL SCHOLARS (WHO ARE NOT FUNDALMENTALIST) A JEWISH PAMPLET AGAINST ROMAN RULE. the seven headed dragon refers to the 7 hills of rome. if you read it with that in mind, it makes much more sense. the great battle of armageddon is the battle for jerusalem between the jews and the romans. it was one of the books that the catholic church put in the bible at the council of nice in 300 a.d.

in that same vein, have you noticed how the so-called christian preachers are always quoting the epistles of paul and hardly ever quote jesus christ himself. i have written of this before, but the epistles should not be in there either. if you want to be christian, try reading and living by the words of christ. if you want to be a paulist, read paul. if you want to be jewish, read the old testament; but if you are christian, read the four gospels and, in my opinion, concentrate on matthew.

one of these days i am going to devote a series of blogs to the gospel of matthew which i have read in latin and greek as well as english. it may surprise you in what it says.

once again, go to my myspace space. www.myspace.com/ronshockcomedy. tell me what you think. post comments.

didn't get to poker today but plan on hitting tables tomorrow.

homeward bound

back home today! some home cooking is in my near future, no more employee dining room (yuck!) for me.

won yesterday so ended up the week about 1700 to the good and won every session except that one small loss.

see where republicans are trying to recruit rich people to run in h.o.r. races because they, the republicans, are not raising enough money to support their canidates. might as well get the ultra rich to run, the republican platform is for the rich and fuck the rest of us. trickle down did not work for reagan and it did not work for bush. the national debt is now NINE TRILLION DOLLARS!!! which is 30,000 dollars for every man, woman and child in the usa. the rich have gotten richer with bush in but the rest of us have seen our overall economic situation get worse. oil and gasoline are at all time highs as the feeding frenzy goes on. this has been the largest transfer of public money into private hands that our country has ever seen. from halliburton to exxon-mobile to boeing to blackwater the bush administration has done everything it could to empty the coffers of our government and give it to his friends. it will take us decades to get back what we have squandered during this past eight years.

see ya down the road, my friends.

more of this and that

i had my first loss here in atlantic city this week but it was small, 48 dollars. i just felt it was not my day and got up and left even though the game was okay and i was playing well. sometimes i feel it getting away from me and i am almost always correct and it is better to leave with just a small loss than to stay and burn off a couple of hundred. i will tell you though, if i played every week in atlantic city in the 1-2 i would make over 50k per year. it is not quite day and night as compared to las vegas but it is damn close; the regular players in vegas are much better and the tourists, because a good number of them play in california, are not quite as stupid as they are here. here we get a lot of young kids who suffer from the "way too much tv" syndrome. if you don't know what i mean you don't play poker and watch it on tv. these kids try to play live games as they see pros play tournament but they don't factor in the escalating blind structure which changes the game totally.

shows here (i am a comic after all) have been okay except for one, none great but most good. i always have worse shows here than in vegas or in any road club. the audiences are not all that bright and they don't have the attentions span of a gnat. do i sound bitter?

it could be either kansas or missouri in the national title game in college football and, i tell you, no one in the country could have forseen this. neither of these teams have ever, to my knowledge, had a powerhouse football team. kansas is a basketball school and missouri is a perpetual also-ran. congratulations to both programs.

i have recieved several really nice letters on the hrshock address from fans over the past two weeks. it is so nice to hear from you, it makes me remember, as rhonda says, why i do what i do. i don't want to get so wrapped up in poker and the writing of this book to let my comedy go to the wayside. while i think i would and will enjoy speaking at colleges i have come to the conclusion that my main talent is on the comedy stage and i will continue to work, just not as much.

oh well, gotta go. see you on down the road

30 out of 36

two more winning sessions today making it 30 out of the last 36.

as a guy was rebuying for the second time he says to me, "you have to gamble sometimes, you just can't sit there and wait for good cards."

i said, "yes, i can and yes, i do."

this is not to say that, once ahead, i don't play some speculative hands, i do, but i pick my spots and know my table. this was an interesting hand from last night late session: i am in early position with Jc-9c and cold call with it. the table i was at had the tendency to just call or put in small raises and that is what happened in this case; the guy right after me made it 7 to go and by the time it was back to me there were 5 callers so i put in the extra 5. the flop comes Qd-Td-2c. i have an open end straight and back door flush and am second to act. the bb, who has called the 5 dollars, checks and i bet 15 dollars into the pot with two aims in mind; one: to take it right there or two: sit them up just in case i hit the straight which they won't see because i bet it now. i am called in 3 places including the bb. the turn is the perfect card, the 8 of clubs; i now have the nut straight and a flush draw. i bet 50 dollars and am called by the button and the bb. there is now 250 dollars or so in the pot. the river is a queen. not what i wanted to see. bb checks, so far so good, i check and the button hesitates and bets 40 dollars into this huge pot and the bb just calls which means that she didn't have the full house, which is, of course, what i am worried about and now there is just way too much money not to call with my straight. i call. when i call, i say, "full house wins." button says that he has three queens and the bb had queens and tens and so my straight took it down. now go back over all of that: he called a 50 dollar bet with only one pair, queens with an ace kicker, she, the bb, called a 50 dollar bet with SECOND PAIR also with a king kicker. then he bet the river without the straight or a full house and she called with only two pair. these are really bad players making really bad plays. but their bad plays were set up by my original bet of 15 dollars, but they, bless their little hearts, did the rest. neither one of them should have called that fifty dollars. that is a big bet in this size of game and you need to either have two pair or a set or just a monster draw to make that call and neither of them had any of that. they made the call anyway. thank you. no, seriously, thank you.

i have a friend who is just a great player and he terrorizes the medium good players. i go after the really bad players. atlantic city tropicana poker room has a ton of really bad players. to add some more to the story; a case could be made that i misplayed the hand and could have check raised them on the turn but, as i have said before, i don't have to be good, i just have to be better than the ones i play against. lol.

johnny chan said that "you make your living with big cards but you make your big hands with cards they don't expect you to have." i spend the first couple of three hours proving to the table that i am a stone cold rock and that i only play great hands. this way when i do something like call with the two-three suited in the cutoff position and flop comes 2-2-3 no one sees me with that hand which is incidently a three hundred dollar hand from reno last year. remember, i only do this once or twice all session and ONLY after i have established my rock persona and i am ahead by a good margin. then when i make that call, i am making it with THEIR MONEY. doyle brunson said that in his book.

poker talk at 3:30 a.m. est

the day after thanksgiving
and i am far away from home

myspace/running hot/thankful for it

27 out of the last 33 sessions including every one here in atlantic city; have been getting in two sessions on some days and right now am up just short of a thousand dollars for this week. i am playing exceptionally well and today got exceptionally lucky. i caught a two-outer to beat a guy who had slow played aces against my raise with nines and since the biggest card on the board was an 8 and i had not been raised on the flop when i bet 25 dollars, i bet 50 dollars when the board paired a three so i had nines over threes. a nine came on the river and i bet all in and the guy called and showed aces. whew!! i was SO behind. lol. but hey, it is not like someone has never caught a two-outer on me. he should have taken me out on the turn, i would not have called an all-in right there. can't help it if i am lucky.



yesterday, i raised with aces under the gun to 18 dollars and a guy on the button said, "let's make it 50 dollars." to which i said, (since it was only the two of us) "no, let's make it for all our money!" and pushed all-in. he immediately called with queens and he didn't hit the two-outer! he put in over 280 on that one hand which made for a nice day yesterday.

just got back from a late night sessions and won there as well and a nice one at that; +625. a set on my very first hand more than doubled me up and it just got better and better. i am running so hot right now that i hate to be away from the tables. seriously, it is like i can't miss. my good hands hold up and my behind hands catch up. can't help it if i am lucky. we all get our fair share along the way and these kind of runs make up for a lot of card dead days. 28 out of 34.



i now have a MYSPACE site. go to myspace.com/ronshockcomedy and dere i am. THANKS SINA!!!!

thanksgiving has come and gone since it is in the early morning hours here on the east coast and the temperture is dropping outside. (when i post, this computer is set on las vegas time so it will show three hours difference) don't like to be away from home and hearth on a holliday but it falls under that old "do what you gotta do" thing. i have been very blessed again and have lots of things for which to be thankful. my wife, my life, the dogs, the house, the pool, my friends, my career and so much more all make my overall existance really quite pleasurable. an attitude of gratitude helps bring blessings. if you don't believe that try being truly grateful for what you do have and see if you don't get more. hey, it's worth a shot.

incidently, the audience tonight did not find me funny at all. a whole lot of staring going on. i do, indeed, mean a WHOLE lot of staring going on however, on the other hand, they didn't throw things and sometimes, as i have mentioned before, you have to search for that silver lining, brothers and sisters; it is not obvious all of the time. if it were, the heathen would get it and no lessons would be learned.

JITTERBUG PERFUME by tom robbins. read it and see if it not one of the best books to come out of this age of literature. it is funny and one hell of a story. perfume, beets and the ancient god, pan, with just a little bit of new orleans voodoo thrown in to make a brew unlike any other.

my old friend,

three a.m.

is just around the corner.

he should never be greated with an unaltered state of consciousness.

reading hands and reading books

three sessions so far here in atlantic city; +222, +195, +28. as usual, these are bad and loose players. the first day, i won almost all of that on one hand when, after sitting there for over an hour and a half without playing in a hand, i raise with aces up to 20 dollars and am called in two places. flop comes K, 8, 4 rainbow; gotta like that. since there is 60+ dollars in the pot, i bet 75 and this fool raises me another 75 so i go all in and he calls with K-9 off suit. tells me after i rake in the pot, "i thought you were bluffing." there ya go. it is now 24 wins out of the last 30 sessions which, for those of you who went to public schools, is an 80% win rate and, brothers and sisters, i can live with that.

speaking of public schools, a report today on cnn that says that american youth are reading less than ever. employers report that 38% of applicants read poorly and 79% of them cannot write a coherent sentence. that is frightening for all of us and bodes ill for the country. if you have children, read to them starting at 6 months or so. encourage them to read by example; remember that ALL learning starts with reading. keep your children away from the crap that is on tv because if you don't you will end up with children who are poorly prepared for the real world. way too many parents seem to use tv as a babysitter and then are surprised when their child's teacher tells them that little bobby is an idiot.

oh well, don't want to preach so will close for now. happy thanksgiving to all of you!

off to atlantic city

well, off to atlantic city for thanksgiving week. rhonda is not all that happy over this but a deal is a deal and i had asked for a week in nov. from the owner and this is the one he gave me. that is how comedy works, you make a call, he gives you a date, you show up, they are waiting. and since i needed a gig this month to pay for the floors here i go. it is also our wedding date so it is a double whammy but.....

it is going to be cold there and it is warm in las vegas....shit.

will write more later.

THOUGHTS ON THE DEMOCRATIC DEBATE

i just finished watching the democratic debate here in las vegas, from beginning to end and including the discussion on cnn afterwards and several thoughts i would like to share with you:

first of all, in the discussion afterwards on cnn, only three canidates were mentioned, clinton, obama and edwards with nary a word about any of the others. by doing this, tv determines who we should be voting for and consequently who will be the next president of the united states. now on that stage were bill richardson, chris dodd, and joe biden. dennis kucinich was there and while i like and respect him tremendously, dennis has no chance of getting the nomination. by the same token, dodd and biden are vastly qualified to be president. both has many years of public serice and command the respect of both sides of the aisle in congress and could form coalitions of republicans and democrats to come up with answers to the problems that we, as a country, face. by only putting up for discussion clinton, obama and edwards tv says these are your choices and they are not the only choices! not to say that clinton and the other two are not the front runners, they are, but they are thanks to the huge amounts of money they have raised and the tv ads that money allows them to put on the air and the almost exclusive coverage they recieve from the national press to the detriment of the others.

now having said all that, let me also say that senator clinton handled herself exceptionally well and, to use a sports analogy, the others never laid a glove on her. she comported herself with confidence and humor. she had the look and the demeanor of someone who knew what she was doing and had full confidence she would and could do it well.

the more i see john edwards, the more i don't want him as my canidate; there is just something about the man that rubs me wrong. obama looked inexperienced and a little in awe of just being there. debates are not his best format and, though he gives great speeches, he lacks the fire in the debates to sway the masses.

dodd was on top of his game and biden looked as though he knew his run was over.

i think the lineup should be; clinton, dodd, biden, obama and then edwards in that order. i think hillary clinton will just slaughter any republican in a debate, she is bright, well versed, well educated and knows what she knows. while many say that she will polarize the nation, guess what, we are already polarized! those that hate her would hate any democratic they would just hate her more but, then again, they weren't going to vote for any democrat. if she is elected she has the wheretofore to bring most of the people together especially those in congress. she also has the advantage of being married to the most popular democratic president since jfk and we all know that by voting for hillary we are also voting for bill and i, for one, would not mind having bill clinton back in the white house even if it is to be an unofficial advisor.

all in all, i came away now leaning towards clinton with dodd as my second choice but i thought all of them were very good for the most part and any one of them is better than any republican running with maybe the exception of john mc cain, whom i still respect but not as much as i used to since he has now cozied up to the religious right, which is, in my opinion, so far to the right as to be literally dangerous to our republic and to our freedoms and when john joined in with them he lost most of my respect. other than him, the rest of the republicans are a joke and have no ideas other than bomb iran and give tax breaks to the rich.

back to tv for a moment: wolf blitzer asked, as the first question, whether they supported "drivers licenses for illegal immigrants". which is a GOTCHA question and has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE. DRIVERS LIS. ARE A STATE ISSUE. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ISSUE D.L.s!!!! why ask that of someone running for federal office? jesus. there are a million issues facing the next president and that is not one of them.

so that is my take, my friends, for what it is worth which is nothing at all.

roller coaster of a game

what a ride today! first hand i play is aces; guy raises to 12 dollars and i come over the top to 30 dollars and he is the only caller. flop comes 3h 4h 5s, he checks and i bet 75 dollars and HE CALLS. shit. next card is the 2h giving me the straight but there is now a flush on board. in retrospect, i should have put him all in right there but i checked. the turn is the 9d and he goes all in. i am too pot committed to fold so i call and he turns over 3 nines. cool.



later i raise to ten dollars with ace king of hearts. flop comes kc, 7d 3h; top pair, top kicker, i bet 40 dollars and am called. next card is the 7c, he checks, i check and on the river he bets 40 dollars and i call and am beat by 7's full of kings.



then i get 4 dueces against the same guy for a small win but a 100 dollar bonus.



then i call a ten dollar bet from bb with pair of 5's with 4 people already in. flop comes Jc, Qc, 5d. i check, raiser bets 25 dollars, guy to his left goes all in and i call but the orginal better calls as well. orginal better has aces, guy who went all in has two pair, jacks and queens and i have the best hand at that point with the set of 5's. bad luck on turn, another jack comes and there goes some money.

win a couple of small pots and then here we go again. am on button with AK of diamonds when the cut-off raises to ten dollars and i cold call as does the bb and one other player. flop comes 8c, ten of diamonds and the queen of diamonds. i have nothing except nut flush and royal flush draw. it is bet by raiser to 20 dollars and both bb and yours truly call. the turn is a blank and everyone checks and the last card is the 8 of diamonds giving me the nut flush but now there is a pair on the board. bb goes all in with his last 40 dollars and the raiser takes it up to 100 dollars. i debate whether or not he had slow played trips on the turn and decided that he hadn't and called and my flush won.

at the end of this roller coaster day i was up 273 dollars and damn glad to be there. i just as easily have had a grand in front of me but on the other hand, i could have gone home a 100 dollar loser. but anyway, that is another win in this streak.

little wins

i have now posted wins in 18 out of the last 22 poker sessions. not all those wins were large and, in fact, the last three have been 65, 45 and 15 dollars or 125 dollars for about 13 hours of play. the 15 dollar win today was very important. i had gone in the hole 200 dollars by playing two hands just horribly. i couldn't have done it any worse! no limit hold-em has a way of punishing you when you play bad; you lose your money. i got up from the table and gave myself a good talking to and then came back and rebought and when i had my money back and a tiny profit i got up and got out. to come back from a big (for me) hole and show any profit is as satisfying as winning big.

you have to be willing to get up from the table when you do that, it is really bothersome to go into the hole and get it back and then stay too long and lose it back! i've done that before and kicked myself for doing it. i always have to remind myself that the game goes on forever; i don't have to make a fortune today. i learned that in limit hold-em; leave with a profit, no matter how small, leave with a profit. it was a win. makes me a winner. feels better than losing. it is part of that old discipline thing. know what i mean, jelly bean?

one of the major mistakes i see people do at the tables is "getting married" to big pairs and paying off huge bets with only that big pair. today a guy raised 17 dollars and got called in one place by a player who played a wide variety of hands, even against a raise. the flop come 7-8-K, rainbow. the raiser bet 25 dollars and was called. the turn comes a Jack. raiser bets 50 dollars and the other guy says "all-in"! the raiser foolishly called 360 dollars with his pair of aces and, of course, the other guy turned over 9-ten for the nut straight and the aces were drawing dead. but what else could he have had to raise all in? three 7's, three 8's, three kings, three jacks, 7's and 8's, jacks and kings; all of which beat one pair of aces. let me tell you something, one pair is not a good calling hand when faced with huge bet. but over and over again i see people paying off big bets with a single pair. don't you be one of those people. know when to fold them. if you can learn that you can be a constant winner at no limit hold-em. the wins will take care of themselves, learn to limit the losses.

may all your flops be good, the turns better and the rivers always gives you the stone cold nuts!

teenagers and sex

report shows that teens who engage in sex are less likely to get into trouble with law. this turns the debate on teenage sex on it's head (so to speak). but if you think about it, the reason is obvious: if you can get laid why go out and get in trouble? why break and enter when you can enter during a break? while steal a car when you can steal kiss (or more)? why get in a fight when you can get in some tight?

besides, the push for abstinance for teens, especially by the conservative wing of the republican party lead by king george the decider, was and is ridiculous. teenagers are going to want to fuck and if they have a chance they are going to fuck. that is life and nothing the government can say is going to change that. a fifteen year old male goes through his entire day with a hard on. a willing girl is his life's dream at that age. (a willing girl/woman will be his life's dream for a good portion of his life for that fact.) i can remember being embarrassed to stand up in front of the class because my dick was already standing up and it was going to be very obvious to all. and i am pretty sure that if marguerite had said "yes" i would not have paid any attention to the good nuns telling me no. alas and alack, marguerite and trudy and karen and colleen and carol and....all said "no" and consequently i spent my teenage years getting into trouble.......

i think the kids today have it much, much better than i did when it comes to sex at an early age. in the 50's none of us got laid until at least senior year in high school and even then it was a very small percentage. now, if i am to believe what i read, a good portion of teenage girls think oral sex is not even real sex but just a nice way to say hello. (and it is) (and a good way to say good-bye as well). oh, to be a teenager again....

by the same token, on college campuses, there is not a lot of demostrating against the war in iraq even though polls show that the college age people are against that war 75-25. maybe they are too busy getting laid to protest.

later this week i am going to post a list of really neat things to do here in vegas that require little or no money and are off the beaten path of attractions. this is a great place to visit and an even better place to live. if you have never been here, what in the world are you waiting for?

definations

rhonda and i went to a hillary clinton function this evening here in our neighborhood and met some interesting people from her campaign. they made some very interesting and valid points about why she would be an excellent canidate. rhonda and i are still undecided but the women there made a good case for senator clinton.

during the conversation, one woman said that she wished we could get rid of the labels of conservative and liberal because the catagorize people which lead me to thinking of just how the republican attack machine even changes the meanings of words. so let me give you some food for thought:

ROGET'S THESAURUS DEFINITIONS:

LIBERAL: .... generous, abundant, lavish, broadminded, tolerant, enlightened, charitable, free.


antonym:


CONSERVATIVE:...stingy, miserly, reactionary, regressive, bigoted, prejudiced, biased, narrow-minded, strict.

so, in reading these which would you consider yourself? which one would you wish other people to see you as? which ones would be the qualities that you would like to see in our next president?

just curious.

oj and oil and sports in between

the oj circus is back in town and the area around the courthouse is filled with media trucks as oj has prelim hearing. 3 of his co-defendants have cut deals and are going to testify against him. looks bad for the juice but hell, it looked bad in brentwood as well and he walked on a murder charge. i guess he is hoping that marcia clark will come over to be the prosecuting attorney again. she was so incompetant that she let a slam dunk case go awry. if they send him up this time maybe he can look for the "real killers" in the nevada joint instead of the miami golf courses. you know that almost every cop in the country is pulling for the las vegas district attorney on this one, the thing that pisses police officers off more than anything else is a murderer skating. i hope they throw the proverbial book at that smirky motherfucker. for the record, i think oj was acquited, not because of black jurors voting against the "white man" or "white girl" but because of the idiotic case the prosecution put on and detective furman's inability to tell the truth and then get caught at it. his "no i have never called a black man a niggar" statement was just unbelievable even before they produced his writings to show he used it quite frequently. what he should have said is "when i arrest a black thug, robber, murderer or rapist i call him a niggar motherfucker. when i arrest a hispanic thug, robber, murderer or rapist i call him a spic motherfucker and when i arrest a white thug, robber, murderer or rapist i call him a honky, redneck motherfucker. all law abiding citizens i call 'sir'" that answer would have been factual and accepted as such by the jury. the prosecuters, marcia and chris were so bad, so stupid, so unprepared, so scattered in their presentations that the jury was confused and when confused about the prosecution case, you have to, in good faith, vote for the defense. i would have been in the position of knowing this motherfucker was guilty but also knowing that the prosecution did not prove their case. he did it. not a doubt in my mind and i watched the whole trial. when the jury went out, i knew they were going to acquit. we shall see this time.

the euro is now trading at 1.47 against the american dollar, when bush came in the euro was in the 80 cent range. why does this matter? well, if the europeans and the russians were to get together and have a euro/rubel benchmark for oil instead of pegging it to the american dollar our currency would crash sending us into a deep recession if not a depression. all around the world, governments are looking for ways to stop american emperialism and military adventurism and striking at our economic base is the most logical and effective way to do it. because of bush/cheney we have many more enemies than we have and, my friends, billions of people would like to see us fall. the times they are achanging.

saw the 07/08 edition of UNLV basketball this tues when we played an exhibition game against washburn. we won big but that means nothing, the icabods are not big time basketball. that being said, unlv will have a good team this year and win maybe 20-22 games and go to the ncaa's as a 13-15 seed BUT next year, we have the makings of a GREAT team which could put the rebels back on the national basketball map. we lose two starters and have a 7 footer who had to redshirt this year and already have some good freshman players and more coming in. on the subject of sports, my predication of oklahoma vs. lsu for national championship game is back in play. i would not be surprised if ohio state were to lose a game and if they do, lsu will move back into number one and if in the big 12 championship game oklahoma beats kansas they will move up to number two. both of those schools have played a much tougher schedule than ohio state.

watch for this kid rene rogouget (sp--need to look it up) from unlv, he is going to be a very valuable kid coming off the bench this year and starting next year. (i do like college basketball! and think the ncaa tournament is, if not the very best sporting event in the world, at least in the top three. you have to give credence to world cup soccor because it involves so many countries and teams and it takes so long to decide the championship. of course, the summer olympics have to have a shot as well.)

gas is now over 3.00 per gallon. when bush took office: 1.46 per gallon. i put that up every couple of weeks or so just to be sure that it is seen by as many people as possible. you know what the real bitch is? we are fighting a war for oil and, even if we were to pacify iraq, which we won't, but if we did, we still would not get the iraqi oil because the "government" in iraq is controlled by shiites and they are much more aliegned with iran than with any western government so they will follow iran's lead on whom to ship to and at what cost. you think it is expensive now, .....well, the times they are achanging.

curds in the whey. seems like miss muffit wasn't the only one with this problem. only the spelling is different.

got to go, they are still working on my house.

not always predictable

while i am, for the most part, a stone cold rock at the poker tables i can sometimes be just a little tricky. for the first couple hours of the session today i was my usual play only SUPER PREMIUM CARDS self but after i had gone up a little over two hundred dollars this hand came about: i am second position with ten-jack of diamonds, a hand that normally i would not play in early position because i don't want to call a raise with it, and so i raise ten dollars and am called in 4 places. the flop comes 6-7-9 with one diamond and two hearts, bb checks and i bet 15 dollars into the pot and am called in two places, the guy to my left and the big blind. the next card is the 8 of spades, mr. perfect himself, and bb bets 30 dollars into me, i don't want the heart flush to get a cheap draw here nor do i want any two pairs or trips to get off easy, so i raise to 90 dollars and the guy to my left calls all in and bb has the good sense to fold. i say to the man on my left, "i have the nuts" and he says, "so do i" but he turns over ace-ten. i tell him "no, partner, that's not the nuts! this is the nuts!" and show him the ten jack. it was a nice pot and it served another purpose by showing the table that i was not predictable all of the time.

i am not a big fan of "tricky" as a way to win at no limit hold-em, at least not at the levels i play, but it is an advantage to have your opponents not all that sure of just what you have.

lay-downs are still, i think, the key to posting more wins than losses. today i called from the cut off with ten-queen of diamonds, multi players already in. the flop comes Ac, Qs, Tc and the first player under the gun bets 25 dollars. i threw it away as did everyone else. i tell the guy that i thought he had ace ten but he told me he had ace queen. either way, the board was way too dangerous to call with that two pair. it is those kind of lay-downs that can keep bankrolls from shrinking.

anyway, just another day in paradise here in the last years of the american empire.

more poker talk

after starting new poker week out 340 in hole when in one day i lost set over set (those always hurt) and when my nut flush was cracked on river by full house, i have got that back plus another 200.

here is the hand that made my day yesterday; i have been hanging around even and have my stack up to about 245 when this hand happens: i raise to ten dollars from mid position with pair of tens and am called by two people. flop comes ten, 3-3! i have flopped a full house! yes! now how am i going to get paid off? there is player in front and player behind me and lo and behold, player in front bets straight into me, 15 dollars. i call and the guy behind folds. turn is a 6 putting a flush draw out there as well and my boy in front bets 25 dollars into me. i call. the river is a 9 and he bets 25 and i raise to 50, thinking that is all i can get from him unless he has the 3, which i doubt because i don't think he would have lead out the betting with trips, i am thinking he has ace ten; but he goes all in!! i, of course, call and he turns over nines full of threes, the river giving him a full house. it was the worst card for him and the best card for me.
my 245 is now over 500 and then picked up another hundred and then left.

the day before i had sit there and thrown away cards for couple of hours and was down about 60 dollars when i was dealt a pair of nines in early position and called with them. the flop was, are you ready?, 9-9-8 with two spades. lordy, lordy. not only did i win a big pot against a straight, a flush and a full house i got a bonus for the 4 nines of another 100 dollars. i checked them each time and let people make their hands. it was so sweet.

sit and wait and patience will be rewarded. it takes a lot of discipline to play the way i do but it works for me. i enjoy just sitting at a poker table and engaging in light-hearted conversation with the other players so waiting for hands is not hard. not that i don't get rattled at times, of course i do, but when i do i get up and take a walk and talk to myself and then go back. since my friend gave me such an ass-chewing for getting upset one time when some fool drew out i have not gone on tilt since. slowed down my game and have been on a good roll ever since. there may be a lesson there......

the great cosmic joke of the middle east

our ally in the war on the T word, (we have declared war on a word!) musharraf, the military dictator, has declared martial law and suspended the constitution of pakistan. he is the guy bush is counting on to help bring DEMOCRACY to the middle east. surely this is just all some kind of great cosmic joke.

now if the radical islamics of pakistan, who have already infiltrated the pakistan military, do take over the government we will then be faced with a much more unstable country with nuclear weapons than we would be if iran went nuclear. india, also nuclear, has fought several wars with pakistan over disputed territory would be tempted to try a pre-emptive strike against pakistan.

turkey is massing 100,000 troops on the borders of iraq to attack the kurds in the, which until now, was the only fairly stable part of that poor country. of course, what is not mentioned in the press is that the kurds, who want their own country BACK, also attack iranian positions on their other border so the iranians are going to be on the side of the turks against the kurds who are supported by the united states who invaded iraq to bring stablity to the region. it is a joke isn't it. we, the usa, are telling turkey who is being attacked by people of iraq, not to invade yet we invaded iraq when the iraqis hadn't done anything to us. surely this is just some kind of great cosmic joke.

boy, invading iraq was such a great idea.

40 billion in profit in three months!!!!!!

while i am a national league fan, boston was far and away the best team and, as much as i hate to admit it, the american league has better teams right now. there is not a "great" team in the nl but there are several in the al, red sox, yankees, cleveland, detroit to name four. national has none. hmmmm

i repeat: when george w. bush was elected president (or, more accurate, when the supreme (ha!) court gave him the election in 2000) gasoline was 1.46 per gal. today gasoline is twice that and last quarter exxon-mobile made 40 BILLION dollars in profit. in three months. an oil industry analyist was quoted in the ny times as saying that there is "no rational reason for oil prices to be this high." ah, could i suggest just unbridled greed? the bushies are going to try to get as much money as they can before january of 09 when the new democratic president is sworn in. (and whoever that president is will be able to walk the streets of washington d.c. on inaugration day, unlike pussy george who hid in his car because the PEOPLE knew he had stolen the election) this administration has overseen the largest transfer of public money to private hands than ever before experienced in america. they are a gang of thieves (who was at cheney's energy policy meeting in 01? he still refuses to say.....national security don't ya know?) the likes of which have never come down the pike before.

the other day, bush the decider, said that the democrats need to quit listening to moveon.org. you know, the radio waves are full of right wing propoganda and warmongers but bush admires those people but, god forbid, someone disagrees with him and all of a sudden that forum is something to be belittled and berated lest some of the republicans might actually listen to the other side and god knows, we can't have that; listening could lead to thinking which could lead to realization that georgie boy is, if not evil incarnate, at least corrupt and incompentant.

i just watched my birthday show at the trop and brothers and sisters, it was fucking great! the best video i have ever filmed! the story about the escape from l.a. country jail is really, really good. i am going to edit next week and will have the dvd ready by thanksgiving.

lost 340 dollars yesterday. fuck.