Picture Memories

I can't believe its been almost two week since I posted anything.

Basically I spent the 2 weeks going though the garage getting rid of things I don't need or use. The best part of that was going through old pictures and photo albums. That brought a lot of laughs and a few sad moments too. The laughs were looking at pictures of family, friends and myself in earlier years. Its amazing how much some people change over the years and others seem ageless. The sad moments were seeing pics of family that are no longer with us. With the digital age upon us our kids and grandkids will probably never have the fun of doing what I did. Everything these days gets loaded onto your computer and stored on some site (like Facebook) and basically forgotten. Of course the quality of pictures today are amazing but looking at some of the old shots including black and white ones brought back a lot of memories. Don't get me wrong I love my digital camera and the ease of use but there was always something exciting about after a long trip when lots of pictures where taken and waitiing for them to come back developed. You would open the envelope and laugh at some of the crazy shots that had been taken. Now of course you see them instantly. Not quite the same but a heck of a lot cheaper.

Still have the house for sale. Getting lots of people through but nobody seems to be buying. None of the places in our neighbourhood have sold. Talking to the agents it seems its the domino effect. A lot of people looking have places to sell themselves and until they sell nothing else sells. This is the longest its ever taken for me to sell a place. A couple times we sold in a week or less with more than one offer. Times sure have changed.

As far as poker goes I played four live tournaments finishing 15th in one (52 entrants), twice finished 11th and way down in another when someone caught a 2 outer on the river to send me home early. Thats it for poker.

Taking Responsibility

Here in Canada most of the casinos are controlled by a lottery corporation. The same folks that run our 649 lottery etc. The casinos themselves are run by different corporations but ultimately they report and pay some profits to the Lottery Corporation. That's the way it is here in B.C. and it is the same in Ontario. Well it seems that a guy in Ontario couldn't control his gambling so he signed one of these no entrance passes which means that he is not allowed to go into casinos. Your picture is taken and if you are recognized you are immediately asked to leave. Well to me it sounds like an almost impossible thing to control. Unless you ask each and every person coming into the casino for photo ID. So evidently this guy continued to go into different casinos for the next 3 years only getting the boot once. Now he has decided to sue the Lottery Corporation because they allowed him to continue gambling. HMMM. In my opinion does he not have to take some responsibility for his gambling. I realize that gambling to some is an addiction but wouldn't this be like an alcoholic suing a liquor store because they sold him booze. It sure will be interesting to see how this plays out in Ontario as whatever the court decides will reflect on casinos across the country. Will they need to ask everyone for ID?? Get facial recognition software for their cameras?? Its really opening a can of worms.

I see the WPT World Championship event has started yesterday at the Belaggio in Las Vegas. It is a week long event with a 25,000 dollar buy in. Yesterday was day 1A and today day 1B. They have split the event in half and will join both halves tomorrow. Most of the big names are there. Johnny Chan is sitting in second place after day 1A with a lot of big names behind him. Looking through the list I saw Jennifer Harmon (pictured above),Vanessa Rousso,Andy Bloch to name a few. The biggest name to drop on day 1A was Phil Hellmouth. Most of the big names are playing. Should be an interesting week.

Went and saw that movie 17 Again last night.... Mathew Perry and Zak Efron are in it. What can I say but if you are going to want to see at least wait for video. I actually did laugh a couple times but it was pretty predictable. Not terrible but certainly not worth spending theatre prices for it.

Hockey Playoffs (not all poker)

Okay so last night was game 2 of the first round of the playoffs. The Canucks at home to St Louis. My better half suggested we go catch the game at one of our local pubs. We have like 3 pubs within walking distance. She's not a big hockey fan but I think she needed a couple drinks after a bad week at work. Anyways we decide to sit at the bar as all the seats in front of the big screen were gone. Thats okay as they have a tv behind the bar that we can watch. I am now into month 4 of my alcohol free bit> its not that I had a problem but I drank too much New Years eve and I just said that's it for awhile. Anyways there is this guy sitting next to me at the bar. I think he was Australian. I made a comment to the bartender that I would like to see the Canucks play the Flames(her team) in the second round. She thought that would be good but the guy next to me said that the Canucks wouldn't even get to the second round. I laughed thinking this guy was a St Louis fan. Which would have been great. Its always fun to have someone cheering for the other team too. That wasn't the case. This guy just didn't like hockey so he decided to cut down the Canucks. He was trying to draw me in and also the guy next to him. He was getting on both our nerves. He was making comments like if he was at home hockey would put him to sleep. That's fine but you are in a bar filled with Canadian hockey fans. Really just drink your beer and watch the game or talk about something else or flirt with the cute bartenders. It would be like me going to Australia and ragging on whatever sport they play down there (Aussie Rules Football) Anyways after 2 periods of listening to him ramble we left and watched the 3rd period at home. The good guys won 3-0. It kind of wrecked our night a bit.

After the game Party Poker had coverage of the UK open on for a bit. Phil Hellmouth was doing the play by play. I didn't recognize any of the players but Phil was being Phil. Not liking the way anybody played. One really funny thing happened . One of the players caught AA and immediately went all in. Phil ragged on him for doing that saying nobody was going to call him and he wasted good cards. He should have played them slower Well he did get one caller who had A10. So what happened?? A 10 came on the flop and another on the river. Phil was stunned and I was rolling on the sofa laughing . Too funny.

I played a bit of Razz and Omaha online last night and had a really friendly couple of tables. Its nice when people are congratulating each other and talking online. It makes playing online more enjoyable. I like to talk and that's why I really prefer the live game. I love the interaction at the table and if you are playing online a lot of times nobody talks. Gets boring.

I was reading Cardgirls blog this morning as she is in Las Vegas for a few days. I just started following her a few months back and really enjoy her writing. I admire her for what she is attempting to do play for a living. It takes great courage and I wish her well. Seems she is going through a bit of a bad spell right now. Hope she plays her way out of it.