We’ve left Canmore and are now en route to Vancouver, but before departing we snuck in one more hike that proved to be one of the best we’ve done. There are these trees up here called “larches” that are like … Read more…
Three weeks gone by and thousands spent, I fled my homeland for this event, matched wits with the pros and the keyboard droolers, but fell to a series of beats and coolers. Pay attention, friends! Don’t let those eyelids droop, … Read more…
I deliberately didn’t write any kind of 9/11 retrospective yesterday because I don’t have anything interesting or original to say on the subject. I felt it should be a day for those affected by the attacks (not the aftermath, which … Read more…
Some of you may have seen on Twitter that about two weeks ago, my building lost power and consequently internet while I was still in two tournaments. If I’d been playing exclusively cash games, I would have just quit for a … Read more…
We woke up early on Thursday morning with plans for an all-day hike in a nearby alpine meadow, but we were looking at the worst weather we’d seen since we’d been in Canmore. Massive gray clouds were hanging over the … Read more…
I know I never finished my Montreal story but it just feels like really old news now so I’ll just give you the short version. Emily and I were in Montreal for about two weeks, and while it was a … Read more…
I played five tournaments yesterday and whiffed them all, nothing remarkable about that. And it wasn’t a particularly frustrating day or anything, cash games went well so I was up despite the tournament losses. What was remarkable was that after a long day of playing, I had a ton of awesome hiking opportunities to choose from just a few minutes’ drive from my home.
What’s more, the new Euro-friendly schedule on Stars suits my preferred playtimes perfectly. I can start playing between like 11:00-14:00, play for several hours, and have time for an hour or two of hiking in the evening. Right now it’s staying light out until ridiculously late, like 22:00, so there’s plenty of hours in the day.
After yesterday’s session Emily and I hit the trail. We bootlegged it a bit to get on top of the canyon wall for a vista of Grotto Lake with the Canadian Rockies in the background. Then we hiked through a canyon (the creek was running extremely low) to a small waterfall, which seemed a good turning around a point. It was a very fine way to decompress from a long three days of poker!
After my other adventures on Friday night, I decided to read for a while. I’m currently working on Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, but I didn’t want to exacerbate my already bad mood by immersing myself in a world of flea-ridden … Read more…
I let a guy get under my skin and tilt me tonight, which I almost never do. We were at a $2/$4 deep-stacked table, and he was just relentlessly aggressive pre-flop, both in and out of position. He was cold … Read more…
I am totally addicted to this 2+2 thread “Stingiest Thing You’ve Seen Someone Do“. In between some stupid arguments about tipping and such, there are some truly jaw-dropping stories: my ex gf’s mother finds overripe fruit at the store, takes … Read more…
Instead of grinding the Sunday majors today, I donned a clown costume cobbled together from accessories at the Halloween store and visited “The Corn Maize”. Yes they spelled it Maize even though Corn is already in the title, and yes, … Read more…
I enjoy Stud/8 and all, but… it’s my birthday, bitches! No poker today. Good luck to those of you playing.
As I recently mentioned, some old friends came out to Seattle to visit us over the weekend. We had a great time camping on Orcas Island, hiking, kayaking, drinking beer and making S’mores (the secret ingredient is Hershey’s Special Dark … Read more…
I reported back in June that for the first time ever an Urban Debate League team won the National Forensics League Grand Tournament, the largest of three high school debate national championship events. The Chicago Debate League, with the help … Read more…
Emily and I left Missoula, Montana this morning, passed through Idaho, and crossed the border into Washington, bound for Spokane. With that, I can now say that I’ve been to every state in the continental United States. No immediate plans … Read more…
It’s hard to keep track of the proper procedures for encountering various potentially dangerous animals in the wild. With someone you are supposed to wave your arms and appear threatening, with others you are supposed to back away slowly, etc. … Read more…
It wasn’t the Boston Debate League, but a team from our sister league in Chicago recently won the National Forensics League Grand Tournament in Kansas City, making them the first Urban Debate League team ever to win a national championship … Read more…
While I was in Germany, my girlfriend was hanging out in Northern Minnesota (long story). One night, she ironically attended a monster truck rally where she ironically purchased this camouflage hat for me. We’ve been camping in the Badlands of … Read more…
Before leaving Leipzig this morning we visited an excellent museum dealing with the Stasi, the secret police of the East German government. The museum was located in their old headquarters and preserved the look and feel of the place complete … Read more…
Sorry for the lack of posting this week, I’m currently traveling around Germany with sporadic internet and frankly better things to do. I spent my first few days in Berlin and Potsdam, then two days in Dresden, and am now … Read more…
Sorry it’s been quiet for the last few days, Emily and I have been camping in the White Mountains with very limited internet access and no poker playing. I’m about to start a session now though so hopefully I’ll have … Read more…
Today’s the last day of March and the last chance for you to help out the Boston Debate League in its March for Goodness competition. This is an organization that’s near and dear to my heart, and if you’ve enjoyed … Read more…
The girlfriend and I were driving yesterday from White River Junction, Vermont to Burlington, and is par for the course for us, we consulted the GoogleMaps application on her Blackberry for directions. To our pleasant surprise, Google actually suggested a … Read more…
Big thank you to everyone who’s contributed to the Boston Debate League so far to help us get more unique donors for our “March Goodness” competition (details here). If you enjoy reading this blog, and especially if you feel like … Read more…
A lot of commenters tell me that while the weird bluffs and thin value bets I post here are fun to read, they don’t feel they can apply them in the games they play. Well, today I’ve got a great … Read more…
A recent study finding tremendous academic gains for students participating in urban debate leagues has meant great things for the Boston Debate League, not only because of the impressive findings themselves, but because of the opportunity for publicity. Here’s a … Read more…
We were looking for a place to stay last night in Estes Park, a resort town just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. During the summer, the place is apparently over run with tourist families, but in December it’s a … Read more…
So I kind of have a second blog, though so far it’s mostly been my girlfriend posting to it so I haven’t really been promoting it as much as I should have. It’s nothing to do with poker but about … Read more…
I overheard a pretty funny conversation today that reminded me of another funny Halloween incident from some years ago. A Critical Difference The child in this story is roughly 9 years old. Father: How was your Halloween party today at … Read more…
Driving through Topeka this morning, we stopped at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Landmark. Unlike the iconic Central High School in Little Rock, which we visited on a previous road trip, the physical location of the Brown … Read more…
The Boston Marathon is the most prestigious and oldest continuously-run marathon in the entire world. Many people dream of running it, but participation is extremely limited and exclusive. The only way to get a spot is either to qualify with … Read more…
Emily and I are currently camping in Nickerson State Park on Cape Cod. It’s a huge campground with hundreds of sites, and even past peak season it’s nearly at capacity. There just a few building with showers for the entire … Read more…
As I ended Part 1, my girlfriend and I had just driven home a virtually new car (2009 Subaru Forester with about 4000 miles on it), but we weren’t as happy/excited about this as I felt we should be. I … Read more…
Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately. I actually have some pretty exciting news to report, which will make clear why I’ve been busy. As of today, my girlfriend and I are officially homeless. No, I’m not busto. She’s currently … Read more…
Emily and I were looking at used cars today, and though we weren’t even at the point of negotiating prices or anything, I found a few parellels to poker that I thought were interesting. I should tell you about the … Read more…
When I made it through to Day 3 of the WSOP, my girlfriend came out to Las Vegas to be with me. Sadly, there didn’t turn out to be much more poker to watch, so we took the next few … Read more…
One of my original poker buddies and his wife welcomed their first child into the world today. Picture forthcoming if I can convince his parents that it’s safe for his picture to appear on a poker blog. It’s safe to … Read more…
For some reason, people in Vegas talk to strangers on the elevator, which is a total 180 from common elevator behavior anywhere else in the world. I think it has something to do with the general mood of the place … Read more…
Awesome town! I had this preconception of a kind of shallow California surfer dude town, but I actually found a surprisingly friendly, welcoming, and charming place with a strong sense of community and civic identity (as a California surfer dude … Read more…
I noticed this video on The Stranger Blog this afternoon. I must say that as a University of Chicago undergraduate, I had a haughty disdain for the Alpha Delts. In my defense, their president did get our twice-weekly campus poker … Read more…
The Boston Debate League’s Fifth Annual City Championships took place over the weekend, and it was a great event. Nearly sixty students competed, which is actually a little low compared to the numbers we’ve had recently, but their enthusiasm more … Read more…
Shantel was a middle-aged black woman who for some reason developed a sort of matronly affection for me. She always told me that I was her favorite person to work with, but I don’t know why and the feeling wasn’t … Read more…
Our manager was in the store mornings almost every day, but even then he was usually in his office. Store policy was enforced on employees not through regular supervision but by the threat of surprise inspection by Carl, the manager … Read more…
Bear wasn’t an employee, but he was one of our most colorful regular customers. I mean that both figuratively and literally: he was a hulking biker dude covered in ink from head to toe. Rose bushes encircled naked women on … Read more…
This is an honest-to-God quote from the City of Boston’s official calendar: Join the Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC) to kick off the start of the city’s holiday season! The singers will join Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino for one of … Read more…
Gary was a tough guy to work with. He had some mental disabilities that prevented him from engaging fully in the idle banter that generally passed between co-workers. Most of the time he did his job just as well as … Read more…
The Boston Herald ran an article this morning about the Boston Debate League and one of its member schools which was nearly closed by the school district: The debate team at the Academy of Public Service sailed into the “elite … Read more…
Mark was our youngest employee. I knew him first as a customer who came in nearly every day and talked about how badly he wanted to work in the store. Sure enough, he started work on his sixteenth birthday. The … Read more…
Norman was in his early thirties when I worked with him, and in retrospect a giant fuck-up. He was a lot of fun to work with, though. When we were bored, which of course was quite often, Norman would sporadically … Read more…
I wrote this yesterday, about 12 hours after McCain’s concession, but didn’t get a chance to post it until today. I can’t bring myself to get as excited as I feel I should be about Obama’s victory. I was pulling … Read more…
Bear wasn’t an employee, but he was one of our most colorful regular customers. I mean that both figuratively and literally: he was a hulking biker dude covered in ink from head to toe. Rose bushes entangled themselves with naked … Read more…
Hatty was about my age, maybe a year older, but very much a teenager. The 7-11 where we worked was in Baltimore County, but it was just over the city line on Edmondson Avenue. Thus, it was quite accessible by … Read more…
I haven’t played much poker of late, but for some reason I was compelled recently to write a series of vignettes from my days as a 7-11 employee. I figured I might as well post them here on days that … Read more…
About five years ago, when I was a senior in college, I attended a panel on education reform that a professor of mine had organized. One of the panelists was “domestic terrorist” Bill Ayers. I don’t recall what Ayers was … Read more…
I haven’t watched or followed much of the DNC Convention, but I’ve seen enough to make these two observations: 1. Hillary Clinton and the Glass Ceiling. Before Hillary’s speech, they did this video montage thing that was all about how … Read more…
I was too inconsiderate to order your gift well in advance and too cheap to get expedited shipping, so it may not arrive tomorrow. But it will be there soon. In the meantime, here are photos from Bryce and Zion … Read more…
My dad keeps up with the blog, so I figured I’d make a post to wish him a Happy Father’s Day. I didn’t see him today, since he’s in Maryland and I’m in Boston, but he’ll be coming out to … Read more…
As some of you know, my poker playing for the last few years has supported not only myself but a debate league in the Boston Public Schools. It started as just a volunteer thing that I did with a few … Read more…
A few days ago, as part of our cross-country road trip, Emily and I spend the better part of a day in Little Rock, Arkansas. I found it to be quite an interesting place, kind of a hip and relatively … Read more…
This week I watched the second-to-last Sopranos, which I’d never seen, and re-watched the final episode. I recall going to considerable length to see the finale and being thoroughly disappointed, not just by the final seconds, but by the entire … Read more…
Last weekend, I accompanied several of my debaters to an urban debate league national championship in Chicago. As the director of the Boston Debate League, I rarely have the time (or inclination) to judge debates myself. However, I did judge … Read more…
Last month, my girlfriend and I spent a few days at the Grand Canyon. I know most of you probably don’t care, but for those of you who know me or who enjoy looking at pictures of other peoples’ vacations, … Read more…
I was in Providence Wednesday night for the Rhode Island Urban Debate League‘s end of the year banquet. It was a powerful event marked by three highlights: speeches from Providence mayor David Cicilline, Great Debaters star Nate Parker, and the … Read more…
I’m just back from three wonderful days at the Grand Canyon with Emily. It really is an amazing place. I’d been once before, about fifteen years ago, but didn’t remember too much about it. We took a lot of pictures, … Read more…
I flew into Las Vegas last night for a hastily scheduled vacation. I may be the only person in the world who comes here in order to take a break from gambling. This afternoon, Emily and I are leaving for … Read more…
I like to walk, and I liked it even more when I was in high school, so I didn’t think much of it when George (not his real name) told me he was late because he chose to walk. George … Read more…