by john | Oct 27, 2010 | Poker, Real Life, Vegas, Writing
But this is what you get. And you’ll like it, too! Or not, but you probably won’t be pissed enough to tell me about it if you hate it.
So most of October has been spent getting Hard Day’s Knight ready to go, and yesterday I got home to find a box full of books waiting on me! So the book is available from Amazon and via CreateSpace, with ebook coming in November. Place your orders now by clicking here. I’ve booked a table selling books at a local Halloween carnival for Friday night, a NC Writer’s Network meeting next weekend, and a comic book convention in Raleigh on 11/12-14. So feel free to stop by any of those events and see me, too! I’ll have copies at each event to sign for folks, so either bring your copy or buy one at the event.
Speaking of buying, the lease was running out on the Element after almost four years, so I traded it in a couple weeks ago. 
The dealership bought me out of the lease, which was great since I was 10,000 miles over the lease (with 6 months driving left), and I picked up this beauty. She’s a 2008 Chevy Silverado with all the electronical type gadgets, and only 55,000 miles on her. She rides like a dream, and has a ton of room in the back seat. It’s a shortbed, but that’s all I need for the errands I run around the house. So far I’m loving it.
Last week saw me in Las Vegas for a conference, and wouldn’t you know it, I had a little time to play the Venetian noon tournament while I was there. Some of you may recall my epic 20-way even chop performance in that same tournament last December. I followed that up with a 7th-place finish, good for $500 (and $30 in prop bets!). I got really lucky once whe I cracked Kings with my Jacks after all the money went in preflop, then got really unlucky later when my Aces got cracked by Kings. I was crippled, but quintupled up on the next hand when I flopped a boat in a 6-way limped pot. So I made it all the way to 7th before I ran pocket fives into pocket tens and headed off to dinner. I played a little more over the week, ending up about $350-400 for the trip.
I of course used my winnings to book my flight to Vegas for December, and I’m looking forward to seeing all my degenerate friends again! I get in on Thursday and fly out on Monday, and I’ll be staying at the MGM. I also have a trip to NYC the weekend before to celebrate Suzy and my 15th wedding anniversary. We’re using Marriott points to stay at the Marriott Marquis in Time Square, and we’ll see American Idiot and something else while we’re there.
So that’s what’s going on here – now go buy a book!
by john | Dec 15, 2009 | Gambling, Vegas
That’s all you have to search on Twitter to find a whole lot of fun and good times this weekend. I was there, like I’ve been every December since 2005 (jeez, really? It’s been that long?).
There are some trip reports coming, but I wanted to touch on a few of the coolest moments quickly.
Thursday nights are always great – raging at the Geisha Bar with everybody is a blast, having Dave Schwartz (Roll the Bones) come hang out with me & Special K was extra-cool.
Chopping a tourney for first is always great – chopping it 20 ways is a great story, too. Then finishing the night with Steel Panther is the best idea EVER.
Finding myself drunk at the Geisha Bar and having good conversation with Iggy, Carter and CaityCaity until almost dawn was one of those moderately quiet, but ultimately cool moments.
Hanging out downtown with Suzy and the look on her face at the Fremont Street light show was worth the plane fare all by itself.
There will be more to come, I promise. Hanging out with dozens of my best friends reminded why I started writing a blog in the first place, and now it’s time to get back to actually writing a blog.
BTW – Friday is about the last day I can guarantee shipping by Christmas, so if you’re gonna order a book, do it now! Click the button, I dare you! Any book that’s Chilly-approved oughta be good enough for you, too.
by john | Nov 25, 2009 | Real Life, Vegas, Writing
So with Thanksgiving upon us, I guess I’m supposed to list things I’m thankful for.
I’m thankful to be employed. And most days in a job I like. I’d be thankful for a little more freelance work, because that would take a little financial pressure off, but I have limited time to chase that in, so I think I’m good with status quo and a few baloney sandwiches for the time being.
I’m thankful that the reception to our podcast has so far been excellent. With just two episodes released (next one drops Sunday 12/6!) we’re knocking on the door of 1,000 downloads, which is very cool to me. I went into this with no expectations other than to hang with Special K and have a good time, but I think we’re putting a good product out there and providing enjoyment to other folks as well. All that’s thanks to Special K, who does all the editing and the vast majority of the research for our episodes. I’m the funny fat guy on the show, and am perfectly happy to be the dumb one. So far I’ve been amazed at how intelligent he makes me sound, and the bumper at the beginning and end that Tragedy did for us is fantastic.
I’m thankful that my folks are still around, even though it’s less and less so every year. My mom has Alzheimer’s (or dementia, we’re not really sure and I don’t think I care enough to pay attention to the difference) so every year might be the last one that she’s really with us. Who am I kidding? She hasn’t been really with us for several years, but we still get flashes of the woman she used to be now and then, and as long as those flashes keep coming we’ll keep hanging on to them. She’s 76 and my dad is 80, so they’re pretty frickin’ old to have a 36-year-old son, but that’s what happens when you shoot out your last pup at age 40. I think every year that it might be the last one I have with them, so when I get another holiday with them, I’m pretty friggin’ thankful.
I’m thankful that I got Returning the Favor published and the reception has been good from the folks that have purchased it. If you want a copy and will be in Vegas, let me know. I can throw some copies into my carry-on and I will accept casino chips for book sales. A year ago I wouldn’t have considered publishing a book off my old blog posts and poetry, and now I have a copy in my backpack. That’s pretty amazing to me, and something I’m pretty proud of.
I’m thankful that in a couple of weeks I’ll be drinking with some of my best friends in Vegas. I can’t wait!
by john | Nov 17, 2009 | Gambling, Poetry, Vegas
Does anyone have a good plugin or app to keep comment spammers off your WordPress blog? I’m by no means an expert on the format and I get tons of spam comments each day. So I’d love your help if there’s a solution out there that I just don’t know about.
Back in Atlanta this week, working (ish) ’til Wednesday afternoon. Got no plans tonight if you’re in the ATL and wanna get together, let me know. I’ve pretty much settled into a routine of staying at the Marriott Century Center, because it’s convenient to the interstate and thus my office in Midtown. It’s decent, and as of last night I’d locked up Marriott Platinum status until 2011, so I get the concierge level rooms. The nice bath mat and robe in the room is pretty spiffy, but I haven’t taken advantage of the concierge lounge yet. May check that out tonight.
Thanks for all the nice Facebook comments on my poetry contest win a couple weeks ago. It was pretty wacky to me to win the thing, since I’d never entered a poetry contest before. So I was shocked when I got the notification, and pleased because the way the poem came about was really neat. So I read the piece at the last meeting of the Writer’s Club, and it was very well-received. I kinda only started going to this club because my senior HS English teacher is on the board, so that gave it a measure of respectability in my mind. I gave her a copy of my book at the last meeting, and she was touched a little by the gesture.
Nothing really to report, since I had my crushing run at Omaha in West Virginia I’ve since given back $100 to the poker economy of Cherokee, NC on the electronic tables there, and dropped a gross $240 in my home game last week. I kept ending up second best, with draws that didn’t get there, or hands that wouldn’t hold up. I did manage to crack BadBlood’s aces with my kings in a hand that had we been playing deeper I could have gotten away from, but didn’t rake a significant pot for four hours after that.
In the AA v KK hand I had position on Blood, who was very early to act. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t UTG, but it was close. He raised preflop, his buddy Mike called and I three-bet. Now my preflop three-bet range is fairly narrow, and I need to work on expanding that, but I when I took his $3.25 raise to $8, I’d pretty closely defined my range as being a big pair or AK. Action folded around to Blood, who re-popped me to $31. Mike got out of the way and I thought to myself “He’s got Aces, but I don’t have any chips, I wish we each had a pile of money so I could get away from this hand.” But I had less than $40 in front of me, so I shipped it in. Blood called the five or six extra dollars, and I made a set on the turn to come from behind. I did have a bit of a sweat, as the Ks on the turn was the third spade, but I faded the flush and doubled up. It didn’t happen again all night, so I became the spewmaster. It wasn’t pretty.
Hopefully I can provide a better showing for myself in Vegas in a few weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing all of you there, and so is Suzy. We get in relatively early on Thursday and leave Monday, so we’ll be around to party and we’re both planning on playing the tournament. I bet I wouldn’t win a last longer with my wife.
A new episode of the Gambling Tales Podcast is coming up first of next week, with the inimitable Dr. Pauly as our special guest. We’ve got two more episodes in the can after this one, then we need to pick up more material for later shows. If you’ve got a great gambling story, drop us a line at gtpodcast@gmail.com. Thanks to everyone who’s downloaded and publicized the podcast, the response has been great and we’re having a blast doing it. I think starting in the new year we’re gonna try to do some promotional things, maybe with Cake Poker (bonus code GTpodcast!) in a shameless attempt to monetize the podcast and get more listeners.
by john | Aug 7, 2009 | Vegas, Writing
Now that the lovely April has confirmed the annual degenerate’s poker tourney at Caesar’s Palace for 12/12/09, it’s time to lock in those Vegas plans! Now I booked a room for Suzy and I at the MGM Grand a while back, and got what I thought was a pretty good deal – $149/night with an all-day buffet pass for each person in the room. That works out to be at least $100/day worth of free food, so in essence we’re staying at the MGM Grand for $50/night!
I know, I won’t be eating all my meals there, but I can certainly schedule my life so that I’m eating most of them at the MGM buffet, and even if it just covers breakfast and one other meal for Suzy and I each day, that still covers at least $50-60 per day. Plus after our trip last December, we swore we weren’t staying at fleabags anymore. So sorry, IP, I must depart for softer beds and better food choices.
So we’re going to arrive on Thursday, party like rock stars for several days, and head back to the CLT on Monday. Now I had a crazy idea, or more to the point the vivacious Betty had an idea, that maybe we could find a place to set up tables and sell/sign our books at some point over the course of the weekend. Then I got to thinking, there have been a bunch of books published (or in the process of being published) by our blogger brethren and sistren over the past couple of years. So here’s the question – would any of the other bloggers that have published books in the past year or two like to go in on a reception area for a couple of hours? You know who you are, lemme know if you’re interested in a concerted joint book-pimpage.
Then afterwards we drink like college kids. Of course we do that anyway. See you in December!
The dealership bought me out of the lease, which was great since I was 10,000 miles over the lease (with 6 months driving left), and I picked up this beauty. She’s a 2008 Chevy Silverado with all the electronical type gadgets, and only 55,000 miles on her. She rides like a dream, and has a ton of room in the back seat. It’s a shortbed, but that’s all I need for the errands I run around the house. So far I’m loving it.
