Saturday, June 30, 2007

day 1 : matt's place

hello everybody. here is the beginning of my homeless section of my blog. day 1 is at matt's place. ive moved in my 2 suitcases, my living out of suitcase and my day/night suitcase. i have a small tote bag ready in case i need to live in any other place (christophes or sara/andi/dana's or dan/sam's). my central base of operation for the next week or so will be out of matt's place, as i now have a set of keys. that was the highlight of today. i can now come and go as i please to and from matt's place. it's nice here, there's a fridge and a jug of wine, and really, what else can a boy ask for. now its time to go out and revisit with birthright people.

cheers

asher

Well That's Baseball

On Baseball Tonight, Pete Gammons once said, "What makes baseball so great is that every night of baseball you'll see something you've never seen before"

Tonight - Aubrey Huff of the O's hit for the cycle. Since 1940 only Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr. have hit for the cycle for the O's. 2 days ago Huff hit a 3 run home run to boost the O's to a 4-0 win over Roger Clemens. I was at that game and got to see the Rocket pitch in what might be his last season...or if YouTube is right, in the middle of his career. Despite hitting for the cycle tonight, Huff and the O's still lost to a Howie Kendrick 2 run homer in the 9th.

A rookie hit a walk off home run in Cleveland tonight, his first major league home run.

Aramis Ramirez hit a walk off 2 run home run in Wrigley today, giving the Cubbies 7 straight wins and now only 6.5 back of the Brewers for first place. If I told you 3 months ago that the Cubs would be 6 behind the Brewers, the Cardinals were stagnant in 3rd, the Stro's had just won back to back walk off home run games and the Reds had the worst record in baseball you'd think I'm crazy.

But this is baseball.

Yesterday - Frank Thomas hit #500 home run of his career. It came in Minnesota, and they also lost the game. Thomas was also tossed out of the game in the 9th for arguing a strike.

Craig Biggio hit his 3000th career hit. His hit came as he blooped it into center and he was thrown out trying to get a double. They won, as I said, on a walk off Grand Slam by catcher El Cabayo (not his real name)

And of course, Bonds continues on his road trip, hitting 750* tonight. I'm not even going to get into why I put the asterix there, but I do.

Why am I going into all of this? Because it's baseball. And it's the sport that I love and will always love. Because even if you hit your 500th homerun, or hit for the cycle, or hit your 750th home run or make the greatest catch ever, you can still lose. Because if you hit 3 out of 10 times, you're considered a great hitter. In what other sport are you celebrated for being 33%? Because they play 162 games in a season. that's more than 10 times the games in football, twice as many as basketball. They play in the hottest time of the year, and they always play outside (unless they're in a dome and then, on astroturf). Because you don't just jump into baseball like in football or basketball right out of college. You go through 3-6 years of farm system work before you can maybe see some action.

That's all.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Like the 300 but more gay

As I just told Larke, I'm watching Alexander now for the first time. It's pretty gay. I don't mean that in a derogetory way, I just mean it in the way that all the men are hugging each other and saying they love each other and slapping each other and no one is wearing more than a napkin over his crotch area.

There's also an Anthony Hopkins voiceover, BUT, they found this like 10 year old kid to play the young Alexander. Looked JUST like Colin Farrell looked like at 10, I'm sure of it. Good job to the casting director on that one.

Since last night, I've seen way too many movies for my own good. Me You and Dupree was solid, had some good simple comedy. Very standard, but it put me in a good mood when I was pissed off after that poker game.

Then Serenity where I wasn't really paying attention, but I caught all the fast Joss Wedon quibs. Witty. But I think there were zombies? I dunno, it was 6 am.

Tonight I saw Waiting, which I was really really suprised about. A very solid script. Good structure, good characters, nothing too unnecessary. And there was even some humor that was original and not just poop jokes. But the penis jokes were still funny. In the credits they had this great list of thank you's. My favorite was "To God...for not existing."

So I'll be in NY on Saturday, still not sure where I'll be living. I might start off with the girls from UHall and see what happens.

Tomorrow I'm expecting to get my jersey, or at the very least my t-shirt. My Bonds t-shirt came the other day, it's glorious. Man do I hate that man.

Till a later time,

- A

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

No more poker for a while

This blog will soon be dedicated just to my homeless adventures.

The bad run continued tonight. I don't wanna talk about it cause it's only gonna make me mad. I'm taking a few weeks off. Going to read some books I just got. Reload. Refresh. And see what happens.

For now, I can't sleep, so let's see what's on TV. Hey, Seth Rogen is in You, Me and Dupree. Nice

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Thanks Larke for making me feel old


My New York age is 38

This New York age puts you into a middle category between young and old (but not "middle age" per se). Be proud. You've got a nice balance between going out hard-core and staying in. You care about culture but also like some quiet nights. Keep it up, but think about expanding your horizons in the other directions. Head to Studio B or Anthology Film Archives for the first time, or finally check out the Village Vanguard or Elaine's for a dose of old-school NYC.

Does your age reflect how you're living? Let us know.

What's your New York age? Take the Time Out New York quiz and find out!

Sleeper Cell

Just finished watching the series Sleeper Cell from Showtime.

Found it extremely interesting and somewhat moving. Aside from being a decently well written show, well shot, decent acting, it did a lot that not many movies or media do these days, and that's present the Islamic side of terrorism from all sides.

Our hero of the series is Darwyn, an African-American Muslim who is an undercover agent working inside a terrorist cell. He helps try to stop terrorist attacks in LA, much like Jack Bauer, but more like season 1-2 Jack and unlike present Jack, he has a soul and a personality other than kill.

The show doesn't just go the route of "Arabs = Terrorists", it goes to great lengths to go into the religous battle vs. the territory battles vs. the battles within everyone for peace. As the first season goes on, and into the 2nd season (of only 2) we get to see a lot of interesting personalities go up against each other. It's not really biased against any one color or religion. The show simply is anti-terrorist. It's not anti Muslim, it's not anti-Saudi Arabian or Middle East, it's only anti-terrorist.

Really interesting show. In a world of Jack Bauers and Losts and Sopranos, spend a weekend and watch the show. Only a total of I think 16 episodes.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Bad Run Continues

Why should my terrible run only be online? Why shouldn't it carry over into my live game play? Poker gods aren't restricted to the internet as I found out.

It actually wasn't so bad, it was pretty standard.

I sit down at my table, 3 table, and it's all noobs. Every one an 18 year old who's playing his first real big tournement. So I sit down and then James sits down, and I'm like, cool I can do this. Then Jack sits down, and Jack is always my downfall in these things. He's knocked my out twice before I think on bad beats. I love him, but he always does it to me.

So we sit, and James and I start our table talk. Next to us is Feuer and Neil, so when we're talking about our 20/40 stud game that we play at, we get some support. Late nights in AC, 5/10 NL, 30/60 Razz, oh yeah, we do it all. So EVERYONE there has me pegged for a loose brash player who doesn't care about this tourny. Early I show an out of position 2 5 PF raise to 3 bet someone off a hand and then I know, KNOW that I'm good at this table, as long as I don't get bad beat.

Few hands go by, lost a chunk on a draw but had the odds cause the noob was min betting the whole way with 2 pair, like a noob and I just couldn't cash on it. Lost a couple coin flips, ran into some hands like 10 10 to JJ and AQ to AK but minimized the damage. I'm at around 900 chips, blinds at 20/40 early position and I see AA, obviously I raise, but only to 150. Folds around to Jack who thinks and thinks and thinks and calls, and someone calls behind him. Flop Q 9 10. I open push and Jack thinks and thinks and thinks and calls, other guy folds. Jack shows QJ off and hits his Q on the turn. That's just how these things go I guess.

But after that, enough people got out so Corber Jordan and I, mainly them, started a PLO game. We started 5 handed, eventually got to 6 at one point had 7. I sat with 40 that I borrowed from James and really had little idea what I was doing. I've played a fair amount of omaha, but only online, and not in at least 6 months. So I was pretty newbing it myself. Played pretty well though, folded a lot of good folds, 1 bad fold that would've paid me off big, but what can you do. 1 hand in particular I'd like to show:

Blinds were .25/.50. I have KS JH 10S 8H. PF I raise pot, this kid Brian, been solid all around calls, Jordan calls. That puts like 6 bucks in there. Flop KH JC 9H. So I flop 2 pair, a flush draw and a straight draw. Nice. I bet pot, Brian calls, Jordan folds. Turn something like the 5H. So I hit my flush, but only Jack high. I bet out like 10, he raises pot, so pretty much an all in at this point. I think for a while, and I fold. He shows me the Ace high flush and I didn't hit my boat on the river, so good fold Asher.

I ended up with 41, so I paid James his 40 back and took my dollar home. Feuer ended up placing 3rd in the tourny, and got Naqed by Martin for most of his chips 3 handed. 10 10 losing to 8 2. Yup. Sam won the tourny, playing good short stack poker and making right moves at the right times. Learned from the best. At one point, Martin compared me to the Phil Ivey of our games. I wouldn't go that far, but a compliment is a compliment.

When I got back home I thought I'd cool off a bit with a couple MTs. Wrong. Just the worst run I've seen in a long time, since my Party days in fact, so you know it's going bad. But, just gotta keep going and not going broke is all I gotta do.

Word

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Poker Update

Since Danny Feuer is a little bitch, I'm going to update. And also since I've had one of the most frustrating hour of online poker in my life, I'm going to rant here for a while.

First of all, there was a hand I wanted to post entitled, "Hey my luck is turning around." This was a long time ago. The hand in essence was this :

I'm on the button with about 800 in chips, blinds 50/100 and I get a black 88. UTG pushes all in for around 260, next to act calls, then a fold then a call then a fold to me. I push HOPING to isolate to just a coin flip, but get called by both other players. Flop comes Kxx and I'm getting ready to leave, then a 9 then an A. I'm just about to leave when everyone mucks to me. I check the hand history and I see I was up against Q10 (SB), 66 and 33.

So that hand was coming off of 3 losing tournements and 1 bubble, all to terrible beats and terrible runs (like flopping top pair of J on a dry board with KJ and facing AJ, that sort of shit).

So then I'm in these 2 tournements, and I'm chip leader in both. I got a little lucky hitting a set in each and battled to just take the chip lead. And then...DISCONNECTED. Hmm. I run upstairs, reboot. Still nothing. Then I call comcast. 20 minutes later I get running...sort of. It connects, and then disconnects, so I try and process again. For those of you who have never been disconnected while in a tournement, imagine the Incredible Hulk beating up a...something. I almost beat up my kitten who I'm pretty sure disconnected me one time.

So I finally get back to my tournements to find I obviously lost my chip lead and am obviously in last place in both. In one, first hand I see reconnected is KJ, I have to push cause I have like 2 BBs, and I get called by QQ of course. Then in the other, I steal some blinds and 2 hands later I push with A8, get called with T7, flop by A and then turn T river 7. And here I am. One of my worst online sessions in weeks.

BUT -- As I said to Feuer before playing, I was trying to get all my bad beats out of the way tonight before tomorrow's big tourny in CP. so hopefully I did that. Got all my Naq's in.

Let me explain what a Naq is now.

The other night, I guess Sunday night, I make some calls and get a game. James, Hamburger, Feuer, Neil and Country, and country says he's bringing a couple guys. So he shows up with 2 guys, stoned off their asses, Losh and Naq. We sit down, ready for a normal night of poker. I even made the stakes more reasonable to .25/.25 as opposed to the .25/.50 with our buy ins of 20 dollars. It just makes more sense until we up the stakes.

First big hand, Neil and Martin are all in on the flop, flop of 3H 8D 10D, Neil shows A3 of diamonds and Martin shows QJ of diamonds. So Neil was winning to a QJ or 9...or the river 9 of diamonds, giving Martin the straight flush. That was to set the mood.

Next nice hand, which will go down in history. Naq, new guy who no one really knows is the dealer. Puts me in straddle position, so I straddle to 1 dollar. Martin RE-straddles to 2.50. Neil OPENS to 6. James calls on the cut off and Naq calls on the button. Flop K 4 5. Neil checks, James bets around 10 and Naq pushes all in, for about another 8 or so. Neil folds what I think was like AQ or weaker, James shows 55 (a set of 5's) and Naq turns over 3 4. That's right, he CALLS an all in with bottom pair. So turn an A. River, of course, the 2. So Naq pulls out what I believe to be a .03% win.

VERY next hand : After we all sort of mutter to ourselves about Naq maybe cheating, I mean, come on that's a whacky hand, James pushes his like 9 dollars remaining with TT and Naq calls with 56. Eventually Naq hits his inside straight, again. And we realize Naq isn't cheating, he just was the luckiest man alive.

The rest of the night was more of the same. Money flying around the table, 60 dollar pots being won with middle pots, raises on outside straight draws and bottom pairs. Eventually, I ran out of chips. We had to play with cash on the table. So at one point, I had 40 dollars in cash and 50 dollars in chips in front of me. It was a great feeling. Martin scored big cashing out around 170, James had a respectable 60 eventually I had around 100 and Naq had 0 in chips by the end of it.

It was a night to remember. And now we have a new term. A Naq is pulling a 1 outer. Or making the wrong move and somehow getting lucky enough to seem like you know what you're doing.

Well, I'm going to go fall asleep while the USPC is on in the background.

I better have some better luck tomorrow. For realz.

Oh, and in 10 or so business days, my jerseys will be here and I will be officially, Good Bet Ash.

Word

Now with new updates!

Ok everyone, people will now hopefully be reading this a little more, I'm gonna be updating a little more.

Updates will include :

- poker winnings and losing, with some good stories, including taking huge pots off possible drug lords of Silver Spring and hopefully taking down big tournements in CP.
- movie updates, including C4 updates (yeah it will never leave our lives) and everything else going on for KT films
- ** My living situation** Yay being homeless. I'm going to start a list, it's called the hooray list. It's a list of the fine ladies and gentleman who are so kind to let me and Jesse possibly stay a night or two or 10. The list is as follows as of now :

Matt and Christophe (each respective home)
Margot and Stephie (but I have to buy toilet paper because I don't think they ever do. I think they just use a single leaf)
Sam the man and Dan the...man. Fine pair of upstanding Jews. Well, Dan's close.
The lovely ladies of UHall : Sarah, Andi, Dana and Melissa, with hopefully a smattering of some Carrie in there for kicks. A little spice never hurts.

That's all as of now.

Ok, time for some late night poker. Big tourny tomorrow. I should update in actuality sometime soon.

Peace yall

- Ash