Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Let It Snow!

Sigh.

The white stuff has invaded the Twin Cities where it will clamp down on the terrain for the next eight months or maybe longer depending on what kind of deal Tice made with the devil for that win on Sunday. The wife wants to purchase a snowblower since our driveway is now our responsibility to clear since we don’t live in a duplex anymore. Is the comfort of not busting your back at 3:30am to clear the driveway worth $500-$600?

While the cold winds and crystallized water droplets fell outside, frigid virtual cards inside prevented me from having a wonderful write up about my tournament cashes. I am pleased that I managed to outlast most of the field in both attempts last night but one beat and one Alberta clipper wave of cards sent me to the rail without dessert. 34th out of 180 in a $20 PokerStars SnG where my shortstacked A9 was shot down by the powerful A2. It happens, one of these days I’ll get lucky with these 70/30 shots.

On Full Tilt I managed to reach the bubble taking 11th out of 77 in a PLO8 tourney. Good god, when you get chat like “I was way ahead pre-flop with 9925 rainbow vs. A346 double suited” (for those of you who don’t play O8… 2599 is not exactly a “premium hand”, think along the lines of playing J6o UTG) you know your chances of winning increase dramatically. I picked a couple of spots for steals, but nothing materialized as I had to push with a less then premium hand and ran into Aces with a broadway wrap vs. my one-way flush draw AJJ7. The flop gave me hope; the turn gave me more outs then poorly written NFL contract to at least a split. But it wasn’t to be. Pleased with the decisions I made rather then the results was more important than the money. Don’t get me wrong, I like money, but when you’re on a cold-streak of tournament finishes, being able to look back at your decisions and feeling confident that you played your best trumps the greenbacks.

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Ever been out to eat and wonder why the hell this cost $XX.XX? You enjoyed the food, the service was manageable, but the price tag just didn’t match. Timberlodge steakhouse left me with the urging for more last night while we celebrated my buddy Burnsie’s 30th birthday a little early with the in-laws last night. Don’t get me wrong, the honey infused, parmesan crusted bread they brought out could have constituted for an entire meal. And, my chicken-filet with 11 herbs and spices would make the Colonel blush with envy.

But, where’s the portions?

They crammed the cheesy hash browns and chicken filet onto an appetizer plate to make it look bigger then it was.

Nice try jackalopes.

My stomach isn’t as easily fooled as my eyes. I’m not used to dining out much since Little Drizz has an attention span that rivals with your average college student in an auditorium Freshman Comp class. I expected not to go home hungry after spending $15 on a meal (I passed on the $5-$6 domestic taps). Maybe I’m a tight-wad but if I’m spending $15 on a meal and not boozing it up, I’d like to feel the need to wear my wife’s maternity stretchy pants for the ride home.

Question on tipping etiquette: You get charged 15% gratuity for having a party of eight or more and the service was meh (or so-so in non-gamer speak), do you add an additional tip? I always tip regardless of the service (amount varies of course on the level of service), but I wanted to make sure that the server received that 15%, not the restaurant. If the 15% is automatically added to the bill, does the server get that amount?

Thanks for dropping by, now check out Pauly’s live blogging results from Foxwoods. After viewing some choice photographs on his site, I can see that the Absolute Poker girls match the skankiness of that site’s software.

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