Poker Itch

So remember when I told you about the books I'd bought to take my poker game up a notch? Well, thanks to my complete disinterest in reading, they've been collecting dust in our apartment rather than filling me up with poker knowledge that could be making me hundreds of trillions of dollars. Pretty brilliant, eh?

Well, I've decided that before the end of next month (March), I will have at least one of them read completely. Haven't decided which one I'm going to tackle first, but mark my words, I'm going to get through one of them! I've been itching like crazy to get back into tournaments regularly and I'd really like to do so with a new level of knowledge to help me compete.

The real reason I want to soak it all up is that I'm hoping to play in the 2005 World Series of Poker in June. There are 42 total tournaments in the series running from June 2nd through July 15th, and I'm hoping to play the $2,000 No Limit Hold Em tournament on June 10-11th. Now, I'm sure anyone that's reading this is probably thinking I'm completely out of my mind, but I think with a little more edge, I can be a solid competitor. This event should draw thousands and thousands of entrants, so there's a possibility the win could net well over a million. Also, I've found some interest in friends that would like to buy a piece of me (a stake in my tournament performance - investors will receive a percentage of my winnings for every percentage of the entry fee they pay for me), which I'm considering. It's kind of exciting for me. I've only really been playing hold em tournaments for about 6-8 months, done pretty well for the most part, and to think I could be playing in the World Series this year is pretty cool.

Travasare Winecafe

So we're going into a business venture with some very close friends of ours, Rob & Lynn Richards. Rob and I met over 5 years ago when I first moved to AZ and his former company, Accipiter Communications was my first big client when I had my graphic design business. Accipiter is still around, but they're flailing with no direction as Rob was their driving force. Rob has a very unconventional business mind and it seems his board of directors (mainly one person) didn't like his methods so they ousted him from a decision making position. He's been ready for his next adventure in business for some time now.

It became known, literally the night that I met Rob, that we had very similar interests and would ultimately become good friends. He got married a couple years back to a wonderful lady who left her life in Minnesota to come enjoy the valley of the sun with Rob. We spend a lot of time together enjoying great food, good company, and of course, the juice of the gods.

With my 10 years in the restaurant industry, culinary half-education, joy of food service in general and acute knowledge of wine, partnered with Rob's love and knowledge of wine and unmatched business savvy (and throw in the bubbly personalities of Lynn and Michelle), I think we've got a pretty successful formula. I've always wanted my own restaurant/bar so this is a chance of a lifetime for me personally.

Our concept is simple. Take a comforting European-ish cafe atmosphere, a simple assortment of Italian influenced food, a collection of mid-priced wines chosen more for their unique qualities than their name recognition and add some friendly social type people and you should end up with a relaxing type of place that we'd all love to hang out. Our menu will be a constant work in progress as will our selection of wines. We hope to get the attention of the average joe wine drinker moreso than the elitest cork-dorks.

Our current status is we have a business plan which is progressing along nicely which Rob is mostly responsible for. We've worked out a good variety of cost and revenue projection matrix. We have a name, logo, business cards and a first stab at a menu. Rob and Lynn will be meeting with the leasing agent for the space we're interested in this week and we hope to have that pretty well nailed down in short order. From there it's all about funding. We're hoping to go to the SBA or a private lender for a small business loan for set up costs. Barring any major setbacks, we'd like to have the doors open by June.

I'll be writing about our progress as things go along. We're very excited to have it all pan out and look forward to anyone who may be reading my blog to come visit and drink some wine with us at Travasare!

WE'RE GOING TO SEE BILLY JOEL!

Poker?

Alright, so last night I decided it was time to get back into a tourney for the first time in quite a while. I recently started hanging out with an old friend from a couple years back and he's also big into poker, so we've gone to the cardroom a few times together. He's not a big tournament player, but he's getting into it.

So I got there a little late and was an alternate (20 or so people they take after the 150 seats are filled who rotate in once someone busts out.) I got in pretty quick as several people usually get over anxious early in these things.

Sat down with T$1800 and first hand picked up K-10 suited in late position. UTG raised the $100 blind to $250 and I called and we were heads up. Flop came 10-10-9 and first to act pushed in. I quickly called and he flipped over KK. He's on a one outter and I'm feeling good. River shows the last K in the deck to fill him with Ks full of 10s and me 10s full of Ks... I'm crippled down to T$175. Two hands later got A6 pushed in and that was that... OUT.

So then I was determined to get my entry fee back, so I headed to a 3/6 Omaha 8h/l table with full kill. Played very well, got some nice draws and was clicking on all cylinders up about $200 which covered my tournament entry and left some to spare... Feeling pretty good, but it was only about 9:30pm, so I had a couple beers, and a couple more, and a couple more. Next thing I know it's 3am and I'm bust from chasing loose players and not hitting ANY of my outs. Ugh. Time for bed!

I keep up pretty well with Paul Phillips Blog and Daniel Negreanu's as well... Recently, Daniel wrote a little about why he thinks he's doing so well lately in tournaments. He attributes it mostly not to the fact that he's so good, but moreso that he's very careful about ensuring that he doesn't do anything really bad. I know the beat I took in the tourney is just "one of those things" but the $$$ I blew off in the Omaha game was just inexcusable. A glaring example of what NOT to do in poker!

Anyway... Working from home today. Work is going really well. Lots of good things going on with Command for 2005 and I really feel proud to be an integral part of a lot of them! :-)

Adios for now...

Moooovies!

So we're trying out this online movie rental craze thing. I signed up for the 2 week trial with both Netflix and Blockbuster.com. It looks like they both have a pretty similar system (put movies in your queue on their website, they send 3 to you overnight, watch and return 1 or more at your leisure, they instantly send that many back to you from your queue the next day) but Blockbuster is $3/month cheaper, so we'll see how the trials go and base our decision on that.

It's pretty sad that the American public (read: WE) have gotten so lazy that we can no longer venture 1.6 miles up the road when we feel like watching a movie. But then, who am I to strangle the advancement of laziness? When in Rome...

Long time, no see!

So I haven't posted in here for, let's see... Nearly 4 months....

Let me try to recap.

Faust Alberta, Canada for Thanksgiving with Michelle's family. Shot a moose. Absolutely love her family. Had a blast! Wine country in early December. Awesome time. That trip capped off with a visit to Raider Nation in Oakland to watch my Chiefs dismember the Raiders. Love it. Had a holiday party here at our place in mid-December. Great time had by all. Vegas for NYE with a bunch of friends, new and old. Amazing time. Been going up to Flagstaff skiing every other weekend or so. Always fun. Michelle rocks on her new skis. Been working as usual. Looking at opening a wine bar this year with some close friends. Excited about that. Umm...

That about brings us up to date. I realize it would have been a lot more fun with actual accounts of the trips, etc, but I've been lazy, what can I say.

Oh and there are pics of pretty much all of this in my photo albums.

I'll get back on the horse and start writing more often. Lots of good stuff going on.

Ciao for now...