tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61982782024-02-06T20:52:35.881-06:00Rob's BlogI'm cursed. I have so many great ideas running through my head, and the poorest memory known to man. Chances are that I've already solved the world's problems, but forgot. So instead, you get this...Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-15195375881937776322023-11-21T01:43:00.002-06:002023-11-21T01:45:01.699-06:00Xmas Party 2023!<p>Non-Facebook people, here are this year's Xmas Party details:<br />( Copied from the Facebook event page <a href="https://fb.me/e/1sjfdjNnR">https://fb.me/e/1sjfdjNnR</a> )</p><p>Date: Saturday, December 16th <br />Time: Doors open at 7:00pm. We get started at 8:30pm and the White Elephant Gift Exchange is at 10:00pm!</p><p>The *69 Xmas Party is usually the biggest and most fun gathering of the year at *69 HQ! We can't wait to welcome everyone back to celebrate! There's food, fun, partying and gaming. This party is for everyone, so feel free to bring non-gamers, siblings, significant others, etc. They'll have fun too!</p><p> I *highly* recommend that you participate in the White Elephant Gift Exchange! (See below!)</p><p>PLEASE RSVP so we can get an accurate head count for food/drinks. Also let me know of any guests you're bringing... the more the merrier! You may text me, email me or call me to let me know you're coming. We usually get around 20-30 people, so it's a pretty good sized party! RSVP early!</p><p>7:00pm - Doors Open<br />8:00pm - Party Game Registration<br />8:30pm - Games Start<br />10:00pm - White Elephant Gift Exchange</p><p>There are two main events at every *69 Xmas Party... the White Elephant Gift Exchange and the 2v2 Random Teams Game Tournament.</p><p>- WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE -</p><p>Most of you have played some sort of variant of this game at an office party or school function. It goes like this:</p><p>You find something around the house that you don't want anymore, but you think someone else might want. It can be just about anything... unused gift certificates, old electronics, movies, video games, comic books, Star Trek steak knives... whatever. Hell, re-gift your office gift exchange gifts if you want!</p><p>Wrap up the gift, but do NOT put a tag on it so nobody knows who brought it. Also, try to be tricky with the wrapping. CD/DVD-shaped presents are dead giveaways as to their contents.</p><p>Bring your gift to the party and place it alongside all the other White Elephant gifts.</p><p>When the time comes to play, everyone who brought a gift will get a number drawn from a hat. #1 goes first, and he or she picks a gift at random and opens it. #2 and forward can either choose to unwrap a new gift from the pile remaining or steal an already opened gift. If your gift is stolen, you get to steal from someone else or choose a new gift. Play continues until all the gifts are open.</p><p>Additional Notes...</p><p>A gift can only be stolen 3 times. After the 3rd steal it becomes locked and cannot be stolen again. You cannot directly steal a gift back from someone that just stole it from you. After all the gifts have been chosen, #1 gets to choose whether to keep his or her existing gift or steal from any of the non-locked gifts!</p><p>On Choosing a White Elephant Gift: People often take choosing a gift in one of two ways. Some take it upon themselves to come up with awesome gifts. Previous awesome gifts included a Sega Dreamcast, Oakley Sunglasses and a porno dvd complete with lotion and tissues. Others, the grinchy ones, give away total crap. Some examples of total crap that have been given away include: an external 28.8bps modem, and... uhh... yeah... that was actually the only really shitty one. 🙂</p><p>- 2v2 RANDOM TEAMS GAME TOURNEY -</p><p>This is an absolute blast. What we do is take everyone's name who wants to play, and put their names in a hat. People are paired up randomly. You might end up with the best game player ever or the drunkest person at the party! The 2 person teams then compete against each other in *very simple* games that anyone can play. Seriously. No experience necessary.</p><p>The Prizes: The winning team will get 2 fabulous prizes courtesy of the *69 family. They won't suck either! Winning is good!</p><p>This Years *POSSIBLE* 2v2 Tourney Games:<br />- Jenga (Board)<br />- Push Me Pull You (PS4)<br />- Password (Traditional)<br />- Mario Party Superstars (Switch)<br />- Johann Sebastian Joust (PS4)<br />- Fibbage 3 (Xbox One)<br />- Gang Beasts (PS4)<br />- Super Bomberman 2 (SNES)<br />- Overcooked (Xbox One)<br />- Starwhal (PS4)<br />- Chu Chu Rocket (Dreamcast)</p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-79581806738290152112022-11-23T13:12:00.002-06:002022-11-23T13:13:12.395-06:00*69 Xmas Party 2022!<p>This is for the people that have left Facebook or are too young to have ever been on it. ;)</p><p>Here are the details as copied from the Facebook event page :(<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/645505203685315">https://www.facebook.com/events/645505203685315</a>)</p><p><b>Date: Saturday, December 17th <br />Time: Doors open at 7:00pm. We get started at 8:30pm and the White Elephant Gift Exchange is at 10:00pm!</b></p><p>The *69 Xmas Party is usually the biggest and most fun gathering of the year at *69 HQ! We can't wait to welcome everyone back to celebrate! There's food, fun, partying and gaming. This party is for everyone, so feel free to bring non-gamers, siblings, significant others, etc. They'll have fun too!</p><p><b><u><i> I *highly* recommend that you participate in the White Elephant Gift Exchange!</i></u></b> (See below!)</p><p>PLEASE RSVP so we can get an accurate head count for food/drinks. Also let me know of any guests you're bringing... the more the merrier! You may text me, email me or call me to let me know you're coming. We usually get around 20-30 people, so it's a pretty good sized party! RSVP early!</p><p>7:00pm - Doors Open<br />8:00pm - Party Game Registration<br />8:30pm - Games Start<br />10:00pm - White Elephant Gift Exchange</p><p>There are two main events at every *69 Xmas Party... the White Elephant Gift Exchange and the 2v2 Random Teams Game Tournament.</p><p>- WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE -</p><p>Most of you have played some sort of variant of this game at an office party or school function. It goes like this:</p><p>You find something around the house that you don't want anymore, but you think someone else might want. It can be just about anything... unused gift certificates, old electronics, movies, video games, comic books, Star Trek steak knives... whatever. Hell, re-gift your office gift exchange gifts if you want!</p><p>Wrap up the gift, but do NOT put a tag on it so nobody knows who brought it. Also, try to be tricky with the wrapping. CD/DVD-shaped presents are dead giveaways as to their contents.</p><p>Bring your gift to the party and place it alongside all the other White Elephant gifts.</p><p>When the time comes to play, everyone who brought a gift will get a number drawn from a hat. #1 goes first, and he or she picks a gift at random and opens it. #2 and forward can either choose to unwrap a new gift from the pile remaining or steal an already opened gift. If your gift is stolen, you get to steal from someone else or choose a new gift. Play continues until all the gifts are open.</p><p>Additional Notes...</p><p>A gift can only be stolen 3 times. After the 3rd steal it becomes locked and cannot be stolen again. You cannot directly steal a gift back from someone that just stole it from you. After all the gifts have been chosen, #1 gets to choose whether to keep his or her existing gift or steal from any of the non-locked gifts!</p><p>On Choosing a White Elephant Gift: People often take choosing a gift in one of two ways. Some take it upon themselves to come up with awesome gifts. Previous awesome gifts included a Sega Dreamcast, Oakley Sunglasses and a porno dvd complete with lotion and tissues. Others, the grinchy ones, give away total crap. Some examples of total crap that have been given away include: an external 28.8bps modem, and... uhh... yeah... that was actually the only really shitty one. 🙂</p><p>- 2v2 RANDOM TEAMS GAME TOURNEY -</p><p>This is an absolute blast. What we do is take everyone's name who wants to play, and put their names in a hat. People are paired up randomly. You might end up with the best game player ever or the drunkest person at the party! The 2 person teams then compete against each other in *very simple* games that anyone can play. Seriously. No experience necessary.</p><p>The Prizes: The winning team will get 2 fabulous prizes courtesy of the *69 family. They won't suck either! Winning is good!</p><p>This Years *POSSIBLE* 2v2 Tourney Games:</p><p>- Jenga (Board)<br />- Password (Traditional)<br />- Super Mario Party (Switch)<br />- Johann Sebastian Joust (PS4)<br />- Fibbage 3 (Xbox One)<br />- Gang Beasts (PS4)<br />- Super Bomberman 2 (SNES)<br />- Overcooked (Xbox One)<br />- Starwhal (PS4)<br />- Chu Chu Rocket (Dreamcast)</p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-92200446978770391232021-11-07T20:31:00.003-06:002021-11-09T22:48:35.463-06:00*69 Xmas Party 2021!<p>It's super weird to go back to writing a blog post on this site, but so many people have left Facebook, and this blog post was the easiest was for me to communicate the what it is to come to the best party that we host all year!<br /><br />Anyway, here are the details as copied from the Facebook event page:</p><p><b>Date: Saturday, December 11th <br />Time: Doors open at 6:00pm. We get start at 7:30pm and White Elephant Gift Exchange is at 10:00pm!</b></p><p>The *69 Xmas Party is usually the biggest and most fun gathering of the year at *69 HQ! We can't wait to welcome everyone back to celebrate! There's food, fun, partying and gaming. Feel free to bring non-gamers. They have fun too!<b><u><i> I *highly* recommend that you participate in the White Elephant Gift Exchange!</i></u></b> (See below!)</p><p>PLEASE RSVP so we can get an accurate head count for food/drinks. Also let me know of any guests you're bringing... the more the merrier! You may text me, email me or call me to let me know you're coming. We usually get around 30-40 people, so it's a pretty good sized party! RSVP early!</p><p>There are two main events at every *69 Xmas Party... the White Elephant Gift Exchange and the 2v2 Random Teams Game Tournament.</p><p>- WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE -</p><p>Most of you have played some sort of variant of this game at an office party or school function. It goes like this:</p><p>You find something around the house that you don't want anymore, but you think someone else might want. It can be just about anything... unused gift certificates, old electronics, movies, video games, comic books, Star Trek steak knives... whatever. Hell, re-gift your office gift exchange gifts if you want!</p><p>Wrap up the gift, but do NOT put a tag on it so nobody knows who brought it. Also, try to be tricky with the wrapping. CD/DVD-shaped presents are dead giveaways as to their contents.</p><p>Bring your gift to the party and place it alongside all the other White Elephant gifts.</p><p>When the time comes to play, everyone who brought a gift will get a number drawn from a hat. #1 goes first, and he or she picks a gift at random and opens it. #2 and forward can either choose to unwrap a new gift from the pile remaining or steal an already opened gift. If your gift is stolen, you get to steal from someone else or choose a new gift. Play continues until all the gifts are open.</p><p>Additional Notes...</p><p>A gift can only be stolen 3 times. After the 3rd steal it becomes locked and cannot be stolen again. You cannot directly steal a gift back from someone that just stole it from you. After all the gifts have been chosen, #1 gets to choose whether to keep his or her existing gift or steal from any of the non-locked gifts!</p><p>On Choosing a White Elephant Gift: People often take choosing a gift in one of two ways. Some take it upon themselves to come up with awesome gifts. Previous awesome gifts included a Sega Dreamcast, Oakley Sunglasses and a porno dvd complete with lotion and tissues. Others, the grinchy ones, give away total crap. Some examples of total crap that have been given away include: an external 28.8bps modem, and... uhh... yeah... that was actually the only really shitty one. :)</p><p>- 2v2 RANDOM TEAMS GAME TOURNEY -</p><p>This is an absolute blast. What we do is take everyone's name who wants to play, and put their names in a hat. People are paired up randomly. You might end up with the best videogame player ever or the drunkest person at the party! The 2 person teams then compete against each other in *very simple* videogames that anyone can play. Seriously. No experience necessary.</p><p>The Prizes: The winning team will get 2 fabulous prizes courtesy of the *69 family. They won't suck either! Winning is good!</p><p>This Years *POSSIBLE* 2v2 Tourney Games:</p><p>- Jenga (Board)</p><p>- Password (Traditional)</p><p>- Super Mario Party (Switch)</p><p>- Johann Sebastian Joust (PS4)</p><p>- Fibbage 3 (Xbox One)</p><p>- Gang Beasts (PS4)</p><p>- Super Bomberman 2 (SNES)</p><p>- Overcooked (Xbox One)</p><p>- Starwhal (PS4)</p><p>- Chu Chu Rocket (Dreamcast)</p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-38270431555712439132018-03-29T11:18:00.002-05:002018-03-29T11:26:44.291-05:00Ready Player One Movie Thoughts (Plot Spoiler Free)Ready Player One<br />
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Note: This was written in a kind of stream of consciousness style. I didn't take time to organize my thoughts or edit it thoroughly on purpose.<br />
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As a person that rarely reads fiction for pleasure, I can count on one hand the number of novel-to-film adaptations that I've seen in my life. I mean the ones where I read the book first and then saw the film adaption. Not like Wizard of Oz or something where I saw the film first. When I read anything, it's either about current events/pop culture or history. The idea of reading a novel almost puts me to sleep on its own. It's an archaic form of entertainment. However, I will admit that reading books does offer one very important advantage over film adaptations: detail. Since most of the time movies are limited to a few hours, they often have to cut out details that would simply make the movie too long. This of course, happened. Even with its subject matter being "right up my alley" and almost universal praise upon its release, I never considered reading Ready Player One. It was only after I somehow decided to try Audible, the audiobook streaming service, that I figured I'd give Ready Player One a try. So, for the next couple of weeks, I listened to Wil Wheaton read to me for a little over 15 hours while I drove around in my car. A couple of times I went on a long road trip, and let me tell you, audiobooks are amazing for that. In any case, I just wanted to own up to the fact that I never actually *read* Ready Player One, but I did listen to it read to me. And in my opinion, that bridges the gap between movies and reading books quite nicely. But you're sacrificing time for convenience and entertainment, I suppose.<br />
<br />
So, yeah, the movie. I'm sure you're wondering how the movie was. It was... different. That's the best way I can think of to explain it. I guess this is how most people that "read the book first" feel when they see movie adaptations. But I mean, it almost wasn't the same at all. Sure, it had most of the big points from the book in it in some way or another. But everything was turned around somehow. Well, maybe not everything. But a lot of things. Characters acted differently, especially I-R0k. Names were slightly changed (why shorten Shoto to Sho... seems like no reason for it at all, and it impacted nothing.) People lived that should have died. And the quests were pretty much completely and totally different. There were, of course, parts of the book that were completely left out, and things that weren't explained very well which I'm sure was a requirement to getting this thing under 6 hours. Basically, if you read (or as in my case, listened) to the book first, just throw it all out the window. All of it. Take all of the references that you read in the book, and just assume they are replaced by new references. This isn't necessarily all bad, but it's hard not to be disappointed. The only thing that was almost spot on for me when it went from book to film was the dance club. It looked pretty much exactly how I envisioned it. Since a picture of the stacks was on the cover of the book when I listened to it, that was pretty close as well.<br />
<br />
So other than being different, was it any GOOD? Yes. It was. Did I have very high expectations? Yes, I did. Were they met. No. Honestly, I knew I'd blown this up too much in my head, but I had high hopes that they'd do it right. I didn't mind the addition of 90s and even 2010s references. I minded that they changed things too much. But, if you've never read the book, you'll probably enjoy it more. The acting was fine for the most part. I thought that Halliday was mis-directed or mis-written. The actor that played him was fine, I suppose, but his personality was pretty off from the book. And as much as I like Simon Pegg, he was not who I envisioned as Og. The special FX... I don't know. It almost feels like they made the Oasis characters have that uncanny valley look to them on purpose. Like, hey, this is a game world they're in, this is how avatars look like in there. But then you look at everything else in the game world, and it looks totally and completely realistic. There is even a scene at the end that really drives that point home. But overall, I guess the effects were still pretty good. The feedback I got from my girlfriend's 15 year old son was that he really liked it. He never read the book, and I'm sure he didn't get many of the references. The feedback from my 40something friend who'd only partially listened to the audiobook was that he liked it as well. So, I guess, overall, it's a likable movie if you've never experienced the book or were even alive in the 80s. My girlfriend liked it better than I did, I think. She'd both listened to and read the book. She even wore her "Ready Player One" t-shirt to the movie. But even still, I think I was much more invested in it. It's currently got a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. I think that's fair. Maybe add a few points if you've never experienced the book.Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-80831139909133593782016-02-03T01:55:00.002-06:002016-02-03T02:05:30.725-06:00My Horrible Experience with an Auto Body Painter<br />
I contracted a guy to paint my arcade cabinet in the beginning of January 2016. He said it would take 3 days tops. He dodged me for 3 weeks until I called the police, and they made him give me my unfinished/totally botched cabinet back.<br />
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Here is what the cabinet looked like before it was sent to the painter:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhARWwK9uJatgGLDGPm-MOUfc4so4gscJ_oCKylGKSoBPMtF6Zw4BnQ2PD35KjZRWxV_7NsCD46OQdXztmQ8neIOsYKwnEYguqgjo8_7n7YxUewQfGdGbrao35Qvxef60FsQFib/s1600/image1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhARWwK9uJatgGLDGPm-MOUfc4so4gscJ_oCKylGKSoBPMtF6Zw4BnQ2PD35KjZRWxV_7NsCD46OQdXztmQ8neIOsYKwnEYguqgjo8_7n7YxUewQfGdGbrao35Qvxef60FsQFib/s400/image1.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cabinet breaks down into 3 main parts. The Arch, the Base and the Control Panel. Here you can see the Base and the Arch. There are extra parts in the back that just needed to be painted flat black. Those are done.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7_JRHERCTrtwnZEKEiJW3gde2hcF8Fr3e8bRX-cFKGbnweDpe_HfL9URPCH-qyELiXDI-Ur5vaxMim2FEjyL8LsyQ98Ehipj4yrvQhnVbGVIUccdhiyb0JMgQfQ6snJrLTtX/s1600/image5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7_JRHERCTrtwnZEKEiJW3gde2hcF8Fr3e8bRX-cFKGbnweDpe_HfL9URPCH-qyELiXDI-Ur5vaxMim2FEjyL8LsyQ98Ehipj4yrvQhnVbGVIUccdhiyb0JMgQfQ6snJrLTtX/s400/image5.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here is the Arch attached to the Base WITHOUT the monitor/speaker bezel in place. You can also see my other arcade cabinets already painted in the background.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7SuK2Nk2j1qVDmevc9Eu3oPHueircGC8mHLendss0J_B0nZPFdWkh890mXFQPZ1UGFyKXwHiG3U0v07EtJEchQpMKpFOowa14UgjazEyDKa3sDni_p-t2vAxkD_s9D_06iDv/s1600/image2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7SuK2Nk2j1qVDmevc9Eu3oPHueircGC8mHLendss0J_B0nZPFdWkh890mXFQPZ1UGFyKXwHiG3U0v07EtJEchQpMKpFOowa14UgjazEyDKa3sDni_p-t2vAxkD_s9D_06iDv/s400/image2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I had started to work on sealing the cut/rough edges of the control panel with bondo. I did an OK job, but felt that a professional should finish it up and paint it with the right paints and equipment. Ha!</td></tr>
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Here are examples of what the cabinet was SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE after being sent off to a local painter:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCg1A4De2Yui0BL2La6Jz9zh46ZncrdjAvpUpEYYOJiNNmFXgVhiPifYN_nx8j6hUHckX-MDA6q-PBrLp_oXueI2_f08LUoQin7xZLq5U58vmaZoHA1ovzSUDpwIPhTq9T6lDl/s1600/deep+red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCg1A4De2Yui0BL2La6Jz9zh46ZncrdjAvpUpEYYOJiNNmFXgVhiPifYN_nx8j6hUHckX-MDA6q-PBrLp_oXueI2_f08LUoQin7xZLq5U58vmaZoHA1ovzSUDpwIPhTq9T6lDl/s640/deep+red.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like this example except that I didn't want red ALL the way around the control panel like this. Just the sides. Also, this is a different version of the arcade cabinet. It has a black side piece that does not exist on the version I have.<br />
<br />
.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz1YQD4rZ8eY2CLUbqhVg9NMYAP77zU3exhdiD93Cij4aFFDYwTOMKWVxbSOwklFedivbpS6hdW79Wihrb4Yzfv89Z-Hr8sDsOmEUuAkwM_Z1r67-tQFxZYS7sklfYZX9AFZD7/s1600/red+trim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz1YQD4rZ8eY2CLUbqhVg9NMYAP77zU3exhdiD93Cij4aFFDYwTOMKWVxbSOwklFedivbpS6hdW79Wihrb4Yzfv89Z-Hr8sDsOmEUuAkwM_Z1r67-tQFxZYS7sklfYZX9AFZD7/s640/red+trim.jpg" width="633" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In this example, the pin-striping is unnecessary, but the rest looks good.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8B-1q_q4axCjJmCtvjsk5AnwtEMJ9PQTF-LhbuRl6SluZgp_Lz54bzyfAff9V_Ud7q1laTX2XYsV0_5uudKhpN8lJ-dstgw6MFLDxca7FcKW_JPfEQ9XPsxxetURCpbLWRgho/s1600/Picture+015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8B-1q_q4axCjJmCtvjsk5AnwtEMJ9PQTF-LhbuRl6SluZgp_Lz54bzyfAff9V_Ud7q1laTX2XYsV0_5uudKhpN8lJ-dstgw6MFLDxca7FcKW_JPfEQ9XPsxxetURCpbLWRgho/s640/Picture+015.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In this example, you can see a two tone paint job. On my version, the white parts would have been red. Ignore the Plexiglas parts. I have those already done.</td></tr>
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<br />
And here's the current state of the cabinet... which is what I got back from an idiot painter in Hutto:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47ynGdDTxUc_EvPDNrHFKOk1z1yV08PZ9fNsiExfEadXqqjsDhzJG1R3qJHbpT-pTIZeHwfo6nqOITSzPzFn9Zk868v4Ro2Zien6BaEUBx0ZnNY0HhALg5D61u0XuuR-TdPjL/s1600/IMG_2642.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47ynGdDTxUc_EvPDNrHFKOk1z1yV08PZ9fNsiExfEadXqqjsDhzJG1R3qJHbpT-pTIZeHwfo6nqOITSzPzFn9Zk868v4Ro2Zien6BaEUBx0ZnNY0HhALg5D61u0XuuR-TdPjL/s640/IMG_2642.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can't really tell how BAD the paint job is here.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSpQghp204i4Z3SeNUy3oWrYeuQ6ZfUr7ufX81yKqjHv2dLoXVXnvX2h7o4omd7GCEAK7ynhOJDXsVys79N0BQvsLsHmao6MFEfClGy3nQzH8f8iqFDVzVtQPX-6XTxkCZw4rV/s1600/IMG_2641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSpQghp204i4Z3SeNUy3oWrYeuQ6ZfUr7ufX81yKqjHv2dLoXVXnvX2h7o4omd7GCEAK7ynhOJDXsVys79N0BQvsLsHmao6MFEfClGy3nQzH8f8iqFDVzVtQPX-6XTxkCZw4rV/s640/IMG_2641.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notice that he didn't seal the cut/rough edges so all the paint soaked through. Terrible.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9-Ca-9Ih9Wxo3N0D-uV_pzj4bIhY27DYGi-UgBZU_QzDHZTUihPE73NSaMN1SaiKrFPMwP2ZTRtlexrl56qEL6ZUC09E1HpqmYvvTsX9CYm3ZBNPx-PVXEYmtoca1dQj0nMj/s1600/IMG_2640.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9-Ca-9Ih9Wxo3N0D-uV_pzj4bIhY27DYGi-UgBZU_QzDHZTUihPE73NSaMN1SaiKrFPMwP2ZTRtlexrl56qEL6ZUC09E1HpqmYvvTsX9CYm3ZBNPx-PVXEYmtoca1dQj0nMj/s640/IMG_2640.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another example of why you NEED to seal the cut/rough edges with wood filler or bondo or something BEFORE priming.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7idNnVh9_xaYiLwwHU9R5RSQM7iDhQ8CfP4wkYwTfXS4MC_6Vay42lAoJLjTofNguoLg-vyA8OCysm5YErR2MHQtF0oFZmzscucPpTBzsJnLwQTCeuQVf0mu-wqAIBOxANid3/s1600/IMG_2639.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7idNnVh9_xaYiLwwHU9R5RSQM7iDhQ8CfP4wkYwTfXS4MC_6Vay42lAoJLjTofNguoLg-vyA8OCysm5YErR2MHQtF0oFZmzscucPpTBzsJnLwQTCeuQVf0mu-wqAIBOxANid3/s640/IMG_2639.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More non-sealed edges.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHBP25y3w0HI9ru7pMlq5AGEP5SZi1otVFC5ddGKxy4hoqEJaI4HmdziRdMu4OeyhvCsU0xiIkiG1HB5EvgsAgkIVcbGw1pU8XPls2EzD364N9pgaKQpn0CmGiiiBYeU51261/s1600/IMG_2638.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHBP25y3w0HI9ru7pMlq5AGEP5SZi1otVFC5ddGKxy4hoqEJaI4HmdziRdMu4OeyhvCsU0xiIkiG1HB5EvgsAgkIVcbGw1pU8XPls2EzD364N9pgaKQpn0CmGiiiBYeU51261/s640/IMG_2638.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Arch separated from the Base.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DLbNWvDk2plhLJEtwpgEjIb7OR8FAFBbpYC46gXtH1YRLPealNAq-H9MKkVuAzRujd44EeQep-Cz6LshqDhiZRmFA_6kJTOd5PSlCN7emxWt1fYKGn8dHgnq96rSkBE8JeZY/s1600/IMG_2637.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DLbNWvDk2plhLJEtwpgEjIb7OR8FAFBbpYC46gXtH1YRLPealNAq-H9MKkVuAzRujd44EeQep-Cz6LshqDhiZRmFA_6kJTOd5PSlCN7emxWt1fYKGn8dHgnq96rSkBE8JeZY/s640/IMG_2637.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This should have been red/black on the back too. This guy just didn't care at all.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZ7rrZ3TsneyZracCt3iieEwPpG66oEOdEoyiL-UwfwaAA8Vo_qL2KWrPEsBbkV3yOhiZABGKPD7y98a5z4lvRhuHDGXhlQ63OBEW0kCfCTCFhquIhPPRW_XNYoIDu53kdftw/s1600/IMG_2636.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZ7rrZ3TsneyZracCt3iieEwPpG66oEOdEoyiL-UwfwaAA8Vo_qL2KWrPEsBbkV3yOhiZABGKPD7y98a5z4lvRhuHDGXhlQ63OBEW0kCfCTCFhquIhPPRW_XNYoIDu53kdftw/s640/IMG_2636.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There is so much dust on it from the guy ignoring it for 3 weeks.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCTDwHWxpCdx7M_nsKtnG1MouXVqy-NGOyn-4-2HJd6GjOdL5skp9PI-9BIBGsAulKXfmO3j2OMfIFbd_YBGAYRbNZN0TCe_oGgFHoZDEioyY3jIqFNrn6mX2McoOU3bXW0IX/s1600/IMG_2635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCTDwHWxpCdx7M_nsKtnG1MouXVqy-NGOyn-4-2HJd6GjOdL5skp9PI-9BIBGsAulKXfmO3j2OMfIFbd_YBGAYRbNZN0TCe_oGgFHoZDEioyY3jIqFNrn6mX2McoOU3bXW0IX/s640/IMG_2635.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It almost looks decent here. It's not. Trust me.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEvJk1HZooaFjBgYFmvap4CpgNnmSJpbt5DKsEkQ5z1g1Lqk0sAtpwoT49Zu6zJuLTvL8XA8wIcKA-z2lE54AV7U0q7zKRba3Xj5SbtNA-qfVrV2SGBE_KnGN4upz5h9aXuhm/s1600/IMG_2634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEvJk1HZooaFjBgYFmvap4CpgNnmSJpbt5DKsEkQ5z1g1Lqk0sAtpwoT49Zu6zJuLTvL8XA8wIcKA-z2lE54AV7U0q7zKRba3Xj5SbtNA-qfVrV2SGBE_KnGN4upz5h9aXuhm/s640/IMG_2634.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another deceptively "clean" shot.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIy7ai4XAL9FyPqYAUBgeTjQEOvYp9GjVgWjNDGzAIdAn7FbYIh0U_3lF7zSmF2yzIpfE5dbsmXctpoxbL3n_Cc1MxgqEznHkpCUC3qwyCq4O6mLfhPhjLG5CcLz-oXlBL6YCX/s1600/IMG_2633.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIy7ai4XAL9FyPqYAUBgeTjQEOvYp9GjVgWjNDGzAIdAn7FbYIh0U_3lF7zSmF2yzIpfE5dbsmXctpoxbL3n_Cc1MxgqEznHkpCUC3qwyCq4O6mLfhPhjLG5CcLz-oXlBL6YCX/s640/IMG_2633.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can see some scratches in this picture.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiN9OItkdxtWIELhaBayERuVi7BXKZRk-ZkiG2_yHwMlpLI72ZTj1B_JMuO1I3wZGbsKWQNIlTweieyeAlXFsn7L5CgWakWb6KGMAzOk-3BPoNhdb_30Oqth5bTd0DjTnnAwc/s1600/IMG_2632.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiN9OItkdxtWIELhaBayERuVi7BXKZRk-ZkiG2_yHwMlpLI72ZTj1B_JMuO1I3wZGbsKWQNIlTweieyeAlXFsn7L5CgWakWb6KGMAzOk-3BPoNhdb_30Oqth5bTd0DjTnnAwc/s640/IMG_2632.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bottom of the Control Panel wasn't even primed correctly. I would be ashamed if I had done this.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUPdnJQgEVZLcVDNU82HhvDodvg8UtuHGf4jznu3YsbDCYSR07_rBstNq1TF0-Ct5zHSNGKsuIroiE7mIg22Co_I-FElmF2Yxn04A3mKKQR3SzHz7IJENOALo7FlAeI_Y3TyC/s1600/IMG_2631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUPdnJQgEVZLcVDNU82HhvDodvg8UtuHGf4jznu3YsbDCYSR07_rBstNq1TF0-Ct5zHSNGKsuIroiE7mIg22Co_I-FElmF2Yxn04A3mKKQR3SzHz7IJENOALo7FlAeI_Y3TyC/s640/IMG_2631.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bottom of the Control Panel with the access panel removed.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcUVhUIU5oVzUwJFHxHdJRgO5wyJlKkv-r3fl3wasJ7JY2JNcUYspK_uM2oRxld99oeMCYv0roFuGGZNktyl3Zs_RebGk9bJ-RPZGKwuopL56OCTy5XepMHpRUBCCbLY8FN-n/s1600/IMG_2630.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcUVhUIU5oVzUwJFHxHdJRgO5wyJlKkv-r3fl3wasJ7JY2JNcUYspK_uM2oRxld99oeMCYv0roFuGGZNktyl3Zs_RebGk9bJ-RPZGKwuopL56OCTy5XepMHpRUBCCbLY8FN-n/s640/IMG_2630.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The only reason THIS primed part looks decent is because *I* bondo'd it BEFORE I gave it to the painter. It's the only part that looks like it came out smooth prior to painting.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisvTIcTRHOGalJf3jCIIU7Lhbw2Pym7gOdkGbQpN1i-WEQbl0HYxhyphenhyphenQPLaT-OmcFAugnHx93cbiLVeg3bAWsc-hW5fl0FD73te-ZvfNY17DyMt8TxzyezgizzcSsmjzxU7rIHB/s1600/IMG_2629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisvTIcTRHOGalJf3jCIIU7Lhbw2Pym7gOdkGbQpN1i-WEQbl0HYxhyphenhyphenQPLaT-OmcFAugnHx93cbiLVeg3bAWsc-hW5fl0FD73te-ZvfNY17DyMt8TxzyezgizzcSsmjzxU7rIHB/s640/IMG_2629.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More dust from weeks of neglect.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17KNnbfUmysWxTnu7IBmU1prZJdrIFfD5Rw23iJ8LNlwRZjcsM7A0tqsv6hXf71fUcgo7GDLFrgLGNYNz6DQxMdRCelbDf71q9PfXHkSBYNscs_Gb5s6-p93UJ6fyEEpK2LjQ/s1600/IMG_2628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17KNnbfUmysWxTnu7IBmU1prZJdrIFfD5Rw23iJ8LNlwRZjcsM7A0tqsv6hXf71fUcgo7GDLFrgLGNYNz6DQxMdRCelbDf71q9PfXHkSBYNscs_Gb5s6-p93UJ6fyEEpK2LjQ/s640/IMG_2628.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More rough edges. The yellow lines are due to sunlight. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntHX4JuJSA11iPHc0xS6Xvwl6nE_l43D81u3AzMDCQG0sE3z03DFbU7xclsI5ASail8xyPxEsXScyoKopmC59As5U2znNJmv-6a3PLUW99zz0HNCXRTulBmAzDeg3cNic2Gm8/s1600/IMG_2627.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntHX4JuJSA11iPHc0xS6Xvwl6nE_l43D81u3AzMDCQG0sE3z03DFbU7xclsI5ASail8xyPxEsXScyoKopmC59As5U2znNJmv-6a3PLUW99zz0HNCXRTulBmAzDeg3cNic2Gm8/s640/IMG_2627.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The arch part scratched the side all up. Those lines are NOT sunlight. Those are spray marks from who knows what he was doing..</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHKCcPXLk3674U24AVqJNZGZPopTlH56tdYXbU52mzF5Tt6eOtYNINM_Aaq4x2HcY2U2vgaKPhRjRC949KMFYnhMflENEdTdJiZi0F2yPX4VZL2i3K6n7AE3gNBFQv-yNqb44/s1600/IMG_2626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHKCcPXLk3674U24AVqJNZGZPopTlH56tdYXbU52mzF5Tt6eOtYNINM_Aaq4x2HcY2U2vgaKPhRjRC949KMFYnhMflENEdTdJiZi0F2yPX4VZL2i3K6n7AE3gNBFQv-yNqb44/s640/IMG_2626.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More scratches and more spray marks. Just terrible workmanship.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQlEaDf0JjDVXUFdB24zfVji7xpp5fLI8fow6Q8114l9vYIpU2Pmgl7WrKRnUXz4ZkSEUBwNiMJ7yGiKaejX_aFhUr4CiLvYtdo5BRqndwzuraTbPx9amjUMqKri9V8a1_kRcd/s1600/IMG_2625.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQlEaDf0JjDVXUFdB24zfVji7xpp5fLI8fow6Q8114l9vYIpU2Pmgl7WrKRnUXz4ZkSEUBwNiMJ7yGiKaejX_aFhUr4CiLvYtdo5BRqndwzuraTbPx9amjUMqKri9V8a1_kRcd/s640/IMG_2625.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even the "good" side looks really really bad. Not smooth at all.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwGdiYD2sE_Hv0APRxjXiUiIvS7XJ6of3jpN6CeO3uu12b_6gZOKYr7hQ3KIpzF4Ri4G0H9vWTnmi-cS4FknKxIDh8XZdS32VVO3sG9hAF9-2NeKCE3sfECppitOLlk9VXDuWj/s1600/IMG_2624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwGdiYD2sE_Hv0APRxjXiUiIvS7XJ6of3jpN6CeO3uu12b_6gZOKYr7hQ3KIpzF4Ri4G0H9vWTnmi-cS4FknKxIDh8XZdS32VVO3sG9hAF9-2NeKCE3sfECppitOLlk9VXDuWj/s640/IMG_2624.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NO attempt to do a good job. The masking wasn't done right either.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikw8fcWuL_Zl_CsvS3EbkQ5JINW1yYUPFcpIsNgD5U4Gpbj89WfXupTpIM-Hmoz3Nichg7TZYwJzZJ_HwDiGI5onisWYb02EbUdzhPphNlbRF53pW4-SKp5aklfA91_G2FskJL/s1600/IMG_2623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikw8fcWuL_Zl_CsvS3EbkQ5JINW1yYUPFcpIsNgD5U4Gpbj89WfXupTpIM-Hmoz3Nichg7TZYwJzZJ_HwDiGI5onisWYb02EbUdzhPphNlbRF53pW4-SKp5aklfA91_G2FskJL/s640/IMG_2623.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Again, you have to SEAL the rough edges first! C'mon!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLJRJ-qC8qzaipSsT2zeaEsky8sGO95bMCjAVkh_aYVv8cVXfJnw0Ano9CEQiostrR_LEsPG3Q5x9exJc77F84iXYFt2oqDK9R-jH-BhyhU-CBHWUeouJczXLWrefS3RgfgmV/s1600/IMG_2622.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLJRJ-qC8qzaipSsT2zeaEsky8sGO95bMCjAVkh_aYVv8cVXfJnw0Ano9CEQiostrR_LEsPG3Q5x9exJc77F84iXYFt2oqDK9R-jH-BhyhU-CBHWUeouJczXLWrefS3RgfgmV/s640/IMG_2622.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And another pic of the part that I sealed with bondo before he primed it. He never got around to painting it.</td></tr>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-11115514281326136552015-07-23T08:01:00.002-05:002015-07-23T08:01:41.393-05:00A look into a particularly tight session of $1/$2<div>
A complete listing of every single hand that I got dealt at The Venetian $1/$2 No Limit Hold 'Em game.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Interesting stats:</div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">179 hand dealt in 4 hours and 15 minutes. That's 42 hands per hour! Or, a new hand every 1 minute 25 seconds! That's really fast for a live game!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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I folded 121 out of 179 hands. That's 68%. This doesn't count checked big blinds or chopped blinds or forced posts.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I flat called 30 out of 179 hands. That's 17%. 11 of those calls were small blind hands where I called $1. So 19 times, or 11% of the time time I flat called a raise.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I raised only 13 times. That's 7% of the time. </div>
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In 179 hands, I was dealt:</div>
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<br /></div>
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AA: 0</div>
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KK: 2</div>
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QQ: 0</div>
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JJ: 0</div>
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TT: 0</div>
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99: 1</div>
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88: 1</div>
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77: 0</div>
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66: 0</div>
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55: 0</div>
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44: 3</div>
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33: 1</div>
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22: 0</div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">AK: 0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">AQ: 1</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">AJ: 2</span></div>
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Date: July 22nd 11:30pm.</div>
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Starting stack: $300.</div>
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You'll see the hand, my action, and how my stack looked (up or down) compared to my starting stack of $300 after that hand was completed.</div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://5" x-apple-data-detectors-result="5" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">11:30pm</a></div>
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6h Td fold </div>
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4s 5h fold </div>
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Kh 5h fold</div>
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Ks 3d fold </div>
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Js 2d fold </div>
7c 2d fold<br />
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7h 3c BB fold -2 LOSE</div>
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Ad 9c SB folded for $1 more -3 LOSE</div>
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8c Qs DLR fold</div>
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Qc Jd raise to $7. 4 callers. J65A <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+44 WIN</span></div>
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Jh 9h call $2 JT9 +65 WIN</div>
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Qc 4d fold</div>
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4d 6c fold</div>
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Td Ks raise to $6 Qd Td 8c Jd +76 WIN</div>
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As Qd raise $8 Folded to reraise $34. +68 LOSE</div>
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Jd 6c BB checked. folded on flop +66 LOSE</div>
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Tc 3c SB folded to raise to $10 +65 LOSE</div>
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6c 4h DLR fold</div>
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3h 4s fold</div>
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Kc 6h fold</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://13" x-apple-data-detectors-result="13" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">12:00am</a></div>
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5h 6d fold</div>
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7c 9d fold</div>
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9h 2s fold</div>
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Kd 8c BB folded to $9 raise LOSE +63</div>
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Kd 9h SB folded to $7 raise LOSE +62</div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://16" x-apple-data-detectors-result="16" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">12:13am</a> </div>
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TABLE BROKE</div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://17" x-apple-data-detectors-result="17" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">12:15</a></div>
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NEW TABLE - MOVED</div>
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8h 4h fold +62</div>
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2d 3h fold</div>
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2d 4c fold</div>
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9d 9h call $7. 4QQ6 +94 WIN</div>
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5h 8a BB check LOSE +92 LOSE </div>
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Jd 7c SB call 2 +90 LOSE</div>
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8s 3c DLR fold </div>
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6c Qs fold</div>
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Ad 8c fold</div>
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4s 4c call 7 +81 LOSE</div>
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<br /></div>
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12:30a</div>
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Jh 5c fold</div>
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8h Kc fold</div>
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8c Ks fold</div>
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9s 8h BB folded to straddle 4 +79 LOSE</div>
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Ad 5c SB call 2 +60 LOSE</div>
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4s Tc DLR fold </div>
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7s 2s fold</div>
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Qs Kd call $10 +16 LOSE</div>
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8h 6s fold</div>
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Qs 4c fold</div>
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2c 3c fold</div>
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6h 9d fold</div>
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7s 9c fold</div>
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7s 8d BB fold +14 LOSE</div>
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9s Ts SB call 2 +12 LOSE</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://20" x-apple-data-detectors-result="20" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">1:00am</a></div>
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Ad 7s DLR fold </div>
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Qh 4s fold</div>
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Th Jc raise $7 call $13 -8 LOSE</div>
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Kh Ks raise 12 +10 WIN</div>
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6c 7d fold </div>
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3c 6c BB fold +8 LOSE</div>
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Kh 8d SB call 2 -59 LOSE with flopped 2 pair</div>
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2s 5s DLR fold</div>
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Kd 6d fold</div>
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7h Ts fold</div>
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7h 8d fold</div>
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Kd Ks raise to $6 -56 WIN</div>
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7s 9d BB fold -58 LOSE </div>
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Qs 4s SB fold -59 LOSE</div>
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Js 8c DLR fold</div>
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8d 9h fold </div>
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Js 9h raise to 6 -52 WIN</div>
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Ah Jh BB call 6. -8 WIN</div>
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Jc 9d SB fold -9 LOSE</div>
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Qc 4h DLR fold</div>
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JS 4h fold</div>
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8c 6h fold</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://24" x-apple-data-detectors-result="24" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">1:30am</a></div>
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TABLE BROKE</div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://25" x-apple-data-detectors-result="25" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">1:32</a></div>
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NEW TABLE - MOVED</div>
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9s 5h fold -9</div>
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Qc 7s fold</div>
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8d Td called $10. +35 WIN ChkRais w/pair/draw</div>
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Ah 7c fold</div>
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QH JS BB chopped blinds +35 DRAW</div>
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7h 8c SB fold +34 LOSE </div>
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Kh Th DLR raise to 12. +22 LOSE</div>
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Ks 3h fold</div>
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Kh Qc call 6 +41 WIN</div>
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3s 5d fold</div>
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2h 4c fold</div>
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4d 4s call $2. +39 LOSE</div>
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Ac 8c BB call $11 +28 LOSE</div>
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Qh 2s SB fold +27 LOSE</div>
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JC 5c DLR fold</div>
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Tc 3c fold</div>
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Qh Td raise to $7. +41 WIN</div>
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Ah 5s fold</div>
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Qd 3h fold</div>
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Kc 4s BB check +39 LOSE</div>
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Ah 6c SB call 2. +42 WIN</div>
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4s 8d DLR fold </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://30" x-apple-data-detectors-result="30" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">2:00am</a></div>
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3a 6s fold</div>
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3d 3c call $2. Folded to reraise. +40 LOSE</div>
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As 2d fold </div>
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Kh 8c fold</div>
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3h 9c fold</div>
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4h 3s BB check +38 LOSE</div>
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Qc 9c SB Call 2. +36 LOSE</div>
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2c Qh DLR fold</div>
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4h 9c fold</div>
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Js 8c fold</div>
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2c 3c fold</div>
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Th 6d fold</div>
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Jc 6s fold</div>
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Jd Td BB call 7. Chopped. +36 DRAW</div>
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Ah 7c SB fold +35 LOSE</div>
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4d Jc DLR fold</div>
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Jh 3c fold</div>
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4s 5h fold</div>
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Ac 5c call $2. +33 LOSE </div>
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4h 4c call $2. +31 LOSE</div>
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5c 3d BB check +29 LOSE</div>
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<br /></div>
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2:30a</div>
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Kc Th SB call $2.+27 LOSE</div>
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Qs Jd DLR raise to 7. +33 WIN</div>
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9c Tc call $2. +31 LOSE</div>
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As 7s fold</div>
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5c 6c call 2. +29 LOSE</div>
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4s 6h fold</div>
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2c 5h BB fold +27 LOSE</div>
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Kh 3s SB fold +26 LOSE</div>
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6c 4h DLR fold</div>
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9d 8s fold</div>
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Qd Td raise $6. +29 WIN</div>
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Jd 6d fold</div>
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5h 5d call $12. +17 LOSE</div>
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4s 8d BB fold +15 LOSE</div>
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9d 3c SB called 2. +13 LOSE</div>
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Qs 3s DLR fold</div>
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As 2s called $6. +196 WIN</div>
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As 7c folded. </div>
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<br /></div>
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3:00a</div>
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3c 7h BB Fold +194 LOSE</div>
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Qc 5h SB chopped blinds +194 DRAW</div>
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<br /></div>
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3:05a</div>
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TABLE BROKE</div>
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3:10a</div>
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NEW TABLE - MOVED</div>
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8s Th fold +194 </div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://38" x-apple-data-detectors-result="38" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">As 3h</a> fold</div>
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Tc 5c seat change $2. fold +192 LOSE</div>
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8h 8c call $2. Fold to reraise. +190 LOSE</div>
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3s 7s fold</div>
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6h 2d BB fold +188 LOSE</div>
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<br /></div>
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3:30a</div>
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9h 6d SB call 2. +186 LOSE</div>
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4d Td DLR fold</div>
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3d 9d fold</div>
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6s 7s call $2. +184 LOSE</div>
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6c 2h fold </div>
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Jh 8s fold</div>
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Qs 2h BB check. +182 LOSE</div>
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Td 6d SB chopped the blinds +182 DRAW</div>
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Ac 5h DLR fold</div>
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4d 3c fold</div>
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Jd Td call 2. +130 LOSE</div>
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Ad Jd raise to 10. +$133 WIN</div>
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6h 9s fold</div>
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6s Qh BB fold +131 LOSE</div>
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<br /></div>
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4:00a</div>
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TABLE BROKE</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://42" x-apple-data-detectors-result="42" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">4:05</a></div>
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NEW TABLE - MOVED</div>
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<div>
Ad 7d fold +131</div>
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4h Ad fold</div>
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Jd 4d fold</div>
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4s 2h fold</div>
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5s 7s BB check. +129 LOSE</div>
<div>
6c 5s SB call 2. +121 LOSE</div>
<div>
Qs 2d DLR fold</div>
<div>
Td 5s fold</div>
<div>
Qc Tc raise to $11. +110 LOSE</div>
<div>
Qh 2c fold</div>
<div>
Js 6c fold</div>
<div>
Jd 8c fold</div>
<div>
Ts 2c fold</div>
<div>
Qd 9h BB check. +108 LOSE</div>
<div>
6s 8s SB call 2. +76 LOSE</div>
<div>
Ks 3d DLR fold</div>
<div>
Jd Th called 2. Folded to raise. +74 LOSE</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
4:30a</div>
<div>
Js 2h fold</div>
<div>
Jc 9d call 2. +80 WIN</div>
<div>
6s 3s BB fold +78 LOSE</div>
<div>
Kd Ks SB raised to 12. +101 WIN</div>
<div>
5s 3d DLR fold</div>
<div>
Ac 2h fold</div>
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Jd 8h fold</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div>
4:45a</div>
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TABLE BROKE</div>
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Could not be moved to a new table because there was only one left and it was full.</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-60113509312980283362014-11-25T11:03:00.002-06:002014-11-25T11:28:25.940-06:00From Where is the *69 Moniker Derived?<br />
So those of you that have hung around me long enough, within the last 15 years or so, have known that certain things I'm associated with are named with some variant of *69: video game tournaments, poker games, even my Wifi network have s69 or Star Six Nine in it somehow. I get asked a lot where that came from. Well, that's a medium-long story.<br />
<br />
When I first moved to Austin in 1999, Quake 3 was a big thing for PC gaming. I had dabbled in Quake 2, but when Quake 3 came out, I got into it pretty hardcore. There was a local LAN tournament in Austin called "IRQ Conflict" (the Q was stylized to look like the Quake "Q" logo.) The best players from the Austin Area (and some even from other parts of Texas) would gather there several times a year.<br />
<br />
At the first tournament I went to, I think I placed 5th or 6th in Quake 2. So I didn't do that great, but I played well enough to get noticed by the locals. One of the locals, Josh, decided that he should form a Quake 3 clan comprised solely of Austin players. Nobody could agree on a name, so Josh just used his old Quake 1 clan name, which had been dissolved by now. Since nobody cared, we just went with it: *69.<br />
<br />
For a while, none of us in the clan even knew why it was called *69. Eventually I asked Josh why he'd chosen the name *69. The story wasn't that inspiring. He told me that he had hastily formed a clan for a tournament, and he needed a clan name for registration. In true Brick Tamland fashion, Josh simply looked around the room for inspiration. He saw a refrigerator magnet that was advertising a phone service, *69, and just used that.<br />
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Many of you younglings might not know this, but back then, when people had home land-line phones, you could add features to your service... like call waiting, caller-id and last-call-return. These were not included in your regular phone service. The last-call-return service was accessed by dialing *69 on your phone. It would simply call back whatever number last called you. So if you had someone that'd call you and hang up on you, you could dial *69 and call them back without knowing their number and go, "Hey, asshole! Why'd you hang up on me!... Oh!... Sorry, Mom! I didn't know it was you. Oh, the cat unplugged your phone as I answered? No, I'm fine. Sorry I haven't called." The funny thing is that some people thought that by naming ourselves *69 that we were saying, "If you frag us, we'll frag you back!" Ha! If only we'd have been that clever...<br />
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So, in short, Josh had this GTE (not even AT&T, hmph) magnet reminding him of the *69 service, and he simply chose that for the clan name kinda randomly. And the dojo part? Well, ever since being part of that clan, people would come over to practice Quake. I'd host many, many LAN parties over the years. And since my clan was called *69, and we practiced at my place all the time, people starting calling my house the *69 Dojo. Makes sense, right?<br />
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Anyway, the name stuck with me and anytime I couldn't come up with a better name for something, which is almost always, I just name it s69 or STAR69 or *69. The end.<br />
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TL;DR = *69 comes from my Quake clan's name which was in turn inspired by a lame refrigerator magnet.<br />
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-35724976928527335322014-11-21T11:10:00.001-06:002014-11-21T12:54:53.640-06:00Button Layouts for Popular FightsticksYesterday's post on fightsticks reminded me of a discussion that several of my FGC buddies and I have had regarding button layout. More then a few have "complained" that the Qanba Q4RAF's buttons were "too close to the stick" and would cause them to play poorly. I maintained that there was no difference between the Q4RAF's button-joystick spacing and the Mad Catz TE's button-joystick spacing.. which are the only points of reference that I have since those the only two sticks that I currently own.<br />
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I decided to download the templates from Art's Hobbies (who I highly recommend if you plan to customize your stick... they do very good work!) and compare the templates. What I found was that 4 out of the 6 templates that I compared had almost exactly the same distance between the joystick and the leftmost buttons. The Qanba Q4RAF, the Mad Catz TE, the Mad Catz TE2, and the Hori HRAP V3 were nearly identical in their spacing. In fact, the Hori HRAP V3 and the Qanba Q4RAF were almost pixel-for-pixel the same. The only difference was that the joystick hole for the HRAP was just a tiny bit smaller.The TE and TE2 were also nearly identical. The TE2 just had ever so slightly bigger button holes.The SFxT Mad Catz stick was a few millimeters further away than the ones I mentioned and the Mad Catz Soul Calibur V stick was waaaay over to the right. Honestly, that's more variation that I thought there would be on that SCV stick.<br />
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Anyway, take a look for yourself: (CLICK PHOTO TO EMBIGGEN):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNpkwwq6BBWsrHr6XS1XkhSYaKd-b4PzJ-58o7PKl63Al2En7JmDwMKCPzJxwK4fEGGeLUxEqjIR7F0t3bqUUNX-f_HwkXNAGpg7v7hSev9L2AZBfO1Bn8QGc-VNwyIreLzCx/s1600/Popular+Fightstick+Template+Overlays+V2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNpkwwq6BBWsrHr6XS1XkhSYaKd-b4PzJ-58o7PKl63Al2En7JmDwMKCPzJxwK4fEGGeLUxEqjIR7F0t3bqUUNX-f_HwkXNAGpg7v7hSev9L2AZBfO1Bn8QGc-VNwyIreLzCx/s1600/Popular+Fightstick+Template+Overlays+V2.png" height="205" width="320" /></a></div>
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(NOTE: Most of you probably know this, but the Eightarc Fusion stick is the same as the Q4RAF but without the start button on the top. That's why I didn't bother putting it in.)<br />
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You can download all the templates from Art's Hobbies yourself if you'd like: http://www.tek-innovations.com/arthobbies/index.cfm?loc=about&sub=templates<br />
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UPDATE: Someone asked me for JUST the Q4RAF vs the TE layout. I left the HRAP V3 because it's literally the same exact layout as the Q4RAF.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-cRqmYQ1aGxzCmVt8K5DmkulQLNBwqyThBcsJuPLZWGww6iSoa7Uu2nJcp7uyjwrofa8yIqr9pym6ei2WShOdZJBtyKnCKQD26bN6kNZyQr7mN-qydOGcBkUUbAHOGE9Xu1R/s1600/Q4RAF+vs+TE+Fightstick+Template+Overlays.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-cRqmYQ1aGxzCmVt8K5DmkulQLNBwqyThBcsJuPLZWGww6iSoa7Uu2nJcp7uyjwrofa8yIqr9pym6ei2WShOdZJBtyKnCKQD26bN6kNZyQr7mN-qydOGcBkUUbAHOGE9Xu1R/s1600/Q4RAF+vs+TE+Fightstick+Template+Overlays.png" height="205" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-58057602122086912382014-11-20T16:39:00.001-06:002014-11-20T16:47:32.511-06:00My Fighting Game Controllers Over the YearsSo today someone asked me how people could have "survived" playing on American-style sticks back in the 90s. The topic came up because I'd bought some Mortal Kombat fight sticks with the retro layout for the Xbox 360. You know, the ones with the block button in the middle and a dedicated run button for your thumb. Let me tell you, having gotten used to Sanwa-based fight sticks, I have to admit, that these old school sticks do feel pretty awful. The answer was that back then, we were just used to the the bat-top Happ sticks. We didn't know any better. :)<br />
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In fact, when Street Fighter II came out for the SNES, it was the first time anybody really cared about specifically designed fighting game controllers for a console.<br />
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THE BEGINNING...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmWEBDCYgoHnYOgtOOUqu4mZ7Kip7GPzBqc6Dv1Fs7jTvYxP-F-SlcyDw_9aVrgWYI5fOJQOk-pjc8TL8E8adrADHUkRx-E0oIa2pHZ43NIAkEDeGQilQKDrwLVIUF-kjkCVa-/s1600/SNES-Controller-in-Hand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmWEBDCYgoHnYOgtOOUqu4mZ7Kip7GPzBqc6Dv1Fs7jTvYxP-F-SlcyDw_9aVrgWYI5fOJQOk-pjc8TL8E8adrADHUkRx-E0oIa2pHZ43NIAkEDeGQilQKDrwLVIUF-kjkCVa-/s1600/SNES-Controller-in-Hand.jpg" height="230" width="320" /></a></div>
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To be sure, the SNES controller is one of the best of all time. The d-pad is actually pretty responsive, and you can certainly hold your own with one in any SNES fighting game. But having invested 100s of hours in SF2 at the arcades, playing on a d-pad just didn't seem right. So, on went the hunt for a better controller.<br />
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Because we were young and naive, or at least I was, I was very easily swayed by video game magazine ads. And when I saw this baby, I just had to have it!<br />
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THE PROGRAMMABLE PAD...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihQ5bRiCUPh6Sz38daM2QYtUwvfUS_gc1_3oBxtKVZtihZaCcnhRRqGIAJzmZR9lPypeYZBVe_PJV9OVGvoSv8w254xrjUC8hS3my3I8hRf7qFCb0ANN4IYygSalYQH78YhcJi/s1600/SN+Programpad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihQ5bRiCUPh6Sz38daM2QYtUwvfUS_gc1_3oBxtKVZtihZaCcnhRRqGIAJzmZR9lPypeYZBVe_PJV9OVGvoSv8w254xrjUC8hS3my3I8hRf7qFCb0ANN4IYygSalYQH78YhcJi/s1600/SN+Programpad.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Looking at it now, we can tell without even touching it that it's just a load of hot garbage. But when you're a teenager staring a the glossy pages of EGM and see that there's a controller that will do a fireball FOR YOU with a touch of a button, oh, man. How can you resist?<br />
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Other than it being completely awkward to hold and the d-pad being junk, this thing had many problems. For one, it just recorded motions and stored them into one of the three programmable bean-shaped "buttons." But guess what? If you record yourself doing a fireball to the right, and you're on the left, it's not going to work if you end up on the right! That and it almost never worked right. What a waste of money.<br />
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One of the things that this pad didn't address was the button layout. SF2 had a distinct 2 x 3 matrix of buttons. The shoulder buttons were awesome for stuff like F-Zero, but lousy for fighting games. Even Capcom understood this and introduced a couple of Capcom-branded fighting controllers.<br />
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THE 2 X 3 LAYOUT PAD...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDW08jTjBSBdsDhsl5Xa-kgaGcedxJFnDfcuOcdyyg7oVBu3CGPzsk_vAhAQXQY2N3E8ARt5w2pftw1rkKQjgDtFtoIf5ENvdeHybMug2VvYXCxxeXv3nOUOBVduLk-itfw70l/s1600/Capcom-pad-SNES-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDW08jTjBSBdsDhsl5Xa-kgaGcedxJFnDfcuOcdyyg7oVBu3CGPzsk_vAhAQXQY2N3E8ARt5w2pftw1rkKQjgDtFtoIf5ENvdeHybMug2VvYXCxxeXv3nOUOBVduLk-itfw70l/s1600/Capcom-pad-SNES-1.jpg" height="313" width="320" /></a></div>
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We can admire Capcom's effort here, but the final product was not that great. Once again, the d-pad just wasn't as good as the original SNES d-pad. That and even though it was ergonomically designed, it just felt weird in your hand. We wanted a real joystick. And Capcom knew this.<br />
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THE OFFICIAL CAPCOM FIGHT STICK...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiToqIWUp9fYJNtLYyCsbdql0YeTykopHFy2nguejeQ1RpZOFKRNkmAZnwL5jC9cR-PQgul7KImyuam3tyV9GxeEbXCKzMaqt7TQZPb1_IHgRM90ld8ZjQPshBbPmoF9hdqwUbP/s1600/capcom+powerstick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiToqIWUp9fYJNtLYyCsbdql0YeTykopHFy2nguejeQ1RpZOFKRNkmAZnwL5jC9cR-PQgul7KImyuam3tyV9GxeEbXCKzMaqt7TQZPb1_IHgRM90ld8ZjQPshBbPmoF9hdqwUbP/s1600/capcom+powerstick.jpg" height="271" width="320" /></a></div>
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Or Powerstick as Capcom liked to calll it. It still retained that goofy ergonomic design, but the buttons and joystick itself were terrible. Had they simply used arcade standard parts, it would have been a pretty decent stick, but alas these are junk. The stick was super mushy and the buttons felt terrible. To my knowledge, Capcom never tried to create another fightstick again.</div>
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And Capcom wasn't the only one trying to cash in on the SF2 craze on SNES. Oh, no.</div>
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ASCIIWARE SNES JOYSTICKS...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguVtt_s55ITSuI4f84i37V7d78ZWZvbnUFDi_CqAq30ZUxJ-nVeej7bSLKWCeEHxMt5t2aGLlsvAltcm_yMAL5KsuuYHhdk6Q12uT5lxEnZdPKfzTNM45uNnb65f-oTWfhTJDM/s1600/snes+stick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguVtt_s55ITSuI4f84i37V7d78ZWZvbnUFDi_CqAq30ZUxJ-nVeej7bSLKWCeEHxMt5t2aGLlsvAltcm_yMAL5KsuuYHhdk6Q12uT5lxEnZdPKfzTNM45uNnb65f-oTWfhTJDM/s1600/snes+stick.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRl_7BdLh5HVes26v93UhIg5Ifs6XnIlUV8dLj0WgvNb2IIm3ugwoyyi51lx3TKfjfJZLsoGEDJth78mXT70TBldyuIYOaxUhwlBroD9Rsv8qqR5kb0t9I-nzm5C92WTWKd1HX/s1600/FighterstickSN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRl_7BdLh5HVes26v93UhIg5Ifs6XnIlUV8dLj0WgvNb2IIm3ugwoyyi51lx3TKfjfJZLsoGEDJth78mXT70TBldyuIYOaxUhwlBroD9Rsv8qqR5kb0t9I-nzm5C92WTWKd1HX/s1600/FighterstickSN.jpg" height="273" width="320" /></a></div>
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A company called ASCIIWARE made a couple of attempts to get into the SNES joystick scene. If I recall correctly, that terrible SNES/SFC/NESAdvantage-inspired stick came out first. It might have come out before SF2 even. At least I hope it did because check out that button layout... wow! It's like a drunk 4 year old slapped some buttons on a prototype and they just went with it. "Looks great! Throw 'em into production!"</div>
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The 2nd attempt was much more on target. It had probably the best layout of all the SNES sticks, but again, the problem was the shoddy joysticks and buttons. There was too much play in the stick. It was very easy to drop the simplest of combos.</div>
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Ultimately, like most people, I ended up reverting back to the original SNES pad for SF2. I believe that MAS Systems created a genuine arcade joystick for the SNES, but it was ridiculously expensive, and I never met anyone who had one.</div>
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Fast forward a few years. Skipping over the PSX and Saturn era which did have a multitude of quality joysticks. But this is my story, and so let's move to the 128bit era.</div>
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MY 1ST JAPANESE STYLE JOYSTICK...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgYIbQC6fG6QvKp7u6JGcPEPlZZ5-4oJGVin7vS4dAl8PK1Q4BPJj4FodWPEDgTwF7bje5YUHH7h6yZvvOjeuTHCgKA7V3WirP5VB9grdAyRDhNQFiMdTFXiz7VW46Fz_d_ww0/s1600/dreamcast_agetec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgYIbQC6fG6QvKp7u6JGcPEPlZZ5-4oJGVin7vS4dAl8PK1Q4BPJj4FodWPEDgTwF7bje5YUHH7h6yZvvOjeuTHCgKA7V3WirP5VB9grdAyRDhNQFiMdTFXiz7VW46Fz_d_ww0/s1600/dreamcast_agetec.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Dreamcast was a wonderful system. At it's core, it was a Naomi arcade machine, so it had plenty of power to run a multitude of great arcade quality fighting games. And while the SNES, PSX and Saturn pads were very capable controllers for fighting games, the DC controller was absolutely not. In fact, it was God awful. Luckily, I found one of these babies at EB Games marked down to $10. I'd have bought two, but they only had one left. It didn't have official "Sanwa" parts, but I didn't know any better back then. All I knew was that it was heavy, looked awesome and had a square joystick gate that drove me nuts.... at the beginning. After a while, I came to love the square gate. I realized what many people had known for years... that it really helps you "feel" the corners and makes moves that end in diagonals like dragon punches much easier.</div>
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After this stick, I was sold on Japanese style sticks, so when the first fighting game for the Xbox 360 came out, I bought two!</div>
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MY 2ND JAPANESE STYLE JOYSTICK...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4-L03Ky_7gw6e76lo9BQ_-6XUZAyaXVMdUbBgwqg17MiMkNFx5Ol4WGWZ154PIAIlFqkWKelaO1gzdd2SqB6Z15GTSiXR7qKSin9oqDQ4J88p9NkQa16I2FUxujqg9CHOFMhF/s1600/DOA-1.jpg~original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4-L03Ky_7gw6e76lo9BQ_-6XUZAyaXVMdUbBgwqg17MiMkNFx5Ol4WGWZ154PIAIlFqkWKelaO1gzdd2SqB6Z15GTSiXR7qKSin9oqDQ4J88p9NkQa16I2FUxujqg9CHOFMhF/s1600/DOA-1.jpg~original.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Again, no Sanwa parts, but again, I didn't even know what that meant. This stick, in retrospect, was probably a bit worse than the DC stick, but we didn't have any choice. That's all that there was. While I first bought it for DOA4, it got the most use when Street Fighter 2 Turbo Hyper Fighting came out for XBLA. I LOVED that game, and playing on this stick gave me a huge advantage over pad players. We all know how bad the Xbox 360 pad is, right? Right? RIGHT?!?! (*AHEM*)</div>
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So this stick was good for a while, until I heard that SFIV was coming out and a new stick was debuting with it.</div>
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THE NEW STANDARD...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGX_g_2v8UHLQzB8Lro2lWaMdXfvT08vkKb7uc-zyCj6Ni9xgQwAsQfJzCGCqYin1HHS0eVvMnojvhpVXmE-Dy1k0Uf8rZQPrNnl4WlM8aZ_wNFgq5Ia3XpshfK49ebrBXvELV/s1600/mc+te+stick+360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGX_g_2v8UHLQzB8Lro2lWaMdXfvT08vkKb7uc-zyCj6Ni9xgQwAsQfJzCGCqYin1HHS0eVvMnojvhpVXmE-Dy1k0Uf8rZQPrNnl4WlM8aZ_wNFgq5Ia3XpshfK49ebrBXvELV/s1600/mc+te+stick+360.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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Ahhh. Now we're talking! By this time, I was familiar with what was what when it came to joysticks. I'd read all about Sanwa and Seimitsu and when this was announced, everybody pounced in it. As far as I know this was the first all Sanwa parts fight stick released in the US. The problem was that it was being made by Mad Catz, which up until then, had made nothing but cheap Chinese garbage peripherals. So this was a big departure for them. And it really turned the company image around. Everyone scrambled to pre-order it, but supplies were super scarce. When rumors on the 'net started spreading that some people had gotten their hands on one, I called every video game store around town looking for one. Luckily, one Game Crazy about 10 minutes away said they got an "extra" one in stock. I had already pre-ordered a couple online, but I HAD to have one that day. I drove down there during my lunch hour and when I got there, the guy didn't want to sell it to me. He said his manager said it was on hold for someone that had pre-ordered it. Somehow, I don't know how, I convinced him to sell it to me anyway, and I couldn't remember ever being happier bringing a new video game peripheral home.</div>
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About a week later I got the two I had pre-ordreed shipped to me. I sold one to a friend of mine at cost and kept the 2nd one for guests. Best purchase ever.</div>
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Until...</div>
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MY CURRENT FAVORITE FIGHTSTICK..</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf93yyLgQxORR_HLR4Y_bimJjz1QZ0rqrrXDNXA7FSd3fRCMGnT2vp_g7-nBrm3G67nrklF5gyKI17BKKmigvV48JHYXHLuplPIqPYt6IiblQQPBXW4cA9McYY8EXnRp1Zv1wl/s1600/qanbaq4series.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf93yyLgQxORR_HLR4Y_bimJjz1QZ0rqrrXDNXA7FSd3fRCMGnT2vp_g7-nBrm3G67nrklF5gyKI17BKKmigvV48JHYXHLuplPIqPYt6IiblQQPBXW4cA9McYY8EXnRp1Zv1wl/s1600/qanbaq4series.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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Or my personalized version...</div>
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This stick is essentially the same as the Mad Catz TE. It comes with high quality Sanwa parts, which I've customized, but the real big thing about this stick is that it works on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or PC with just a flick of a switch. While others might mod their sticks to have this functionality, I've found that none work as easily and as consistently as the Qanba Q4RAF. </div>
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Will this be my last stick? Almost certainly not. With the release of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, I'm eagerly awaiting a X360/PS3/XBO/PS4/PC compatible stick. It may be a while. Perhaps when the next Capcom fighter gets released for the newest generation of consoles. :)</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-86862179840246227112014-04-22T11:05:00.000-05:002014-11-28T17:18:59.322-06:00Display Performance: Input Lag (i.e. Display Lag) Vs. Pixel Response TimesOK, this is beginning to bug me. I see a lot of people confusing these two things ALL THE TIME! And worse yet, some people are misinforming others! I'm sick of people telling others to only buy monitors with 1 or 2ms of input lag. While that would be awesome, NO monitor to my knowledge even comes close to those input lag times.
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A lot of the confusion is due to both input lag and pixel response times being measured in milliseconds (ms = 1/1000th of a second), and both having to do with display (monitor) performance. However, they're TOTALLY different.
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For years, most people only talked about pixel response times. Those are the numbers you see that are less than 5ms. Pixel response time is how long it takes a pixel to change from one color to another. Most manufacturers measure this as GTG (grey-to-grey). Essentially, this is how fast the pixels can change color. The longer the pixel response time is, the more you're likely to see "ghosting" (i.e. after-images or blurring) on your flat panel display during fast moving sequences. Really good monitors range from 1ms to 5ms or so for pixel response GTG times. CRT and Plasma displays, due to the nature of their technology, typically don't have to worry about response times because they're super fast.
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Input lag (i.e. Display Lag) is kind of a newer thing that people have been measuring (and a lot of people don't quite understand.) Input lag is how long it takes for a display to show an input on your screen. For example, input lag measures how long it takes from when you press the light punch button to when the action is displayed. To my knowledge no display manufacturer publishes this value. Maybe they will soon because it's becoming a hot topic... especially in the fighting game community, but I've yet to see places like amazon.com or newegg.com list input lag values for a display. So if you see a low ms value listed on a website where you're buying something, you're most likely seeing the pixel response time, not this. A really good input lag rating is about 10ms. Anywhere from 10ms to 40ms is considered pretty good. Above 40ms, and you'll start to notice a delay from when you punch to when you see it. AFAIK, THERE ARE NO COMMERICALLY AVAILABLE 1ms INPUT LAG MONITORS. Not by Asus or Benq or anyone else.
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For a database of input lag (i.e. display lag) ratings, check <a href="http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/">http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/</a><br />
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To be perfectly honest, how well a display performs for gaming is going to be due to a combination of both input lag and pixel response times. Both are important. And high values for either can cause your game controls to feel sluggish.
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Bonus: While I'm at it... Refresh Rates are something completely different too. But, most people don't confuse them with input lag or pixel respone times because they're measured in Hz as opposed to ms. A 60Hz monitor is standard and refreshes 60 times a second. Higher performance monitors can do 120Hz (120 times a second) and some gamer specific models are rated as 144Hz. You'll even see some displays listed as 240Hz or 480Hz. Plasma displays don't work like LCDs do, but to complete with the Hz-heavy marketing used by LCD manufacturers, they typically list plasmas as 600Hz. Unless you're doing 3D (which requires 120HZ or more), you don't need to worry about this too much. For fighting games, 60Hz is fine as most games run at 60 frames per second anyway.Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-41497586711870556192014-04-22T11:04:00.000-05:002014-04-25T14:55:46.077-05:00Killer Instinct - Jago/Shadow Jago Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
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The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
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Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
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Notes on Jago's/Shadow Jago's Auto-Doubles: (Currently Jago and Shadow Jago play exactly the same in Vs. Mode.)<br />
<ul>
<li>Like a few other characters, his MP involves him throwing an elbow.</li>
<li>His only auto-double to crouch/hit low is his MK. So if you see a sweep: MP+MK!</li>
<li>His MP has a very distinctive hard fist sword slam attack.</li>
<li>His only auto-double to swing his sword is his MP. So if you see a sword swing: MP+MK! </li>
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Light Punch</div>
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Heavy Punch</div>
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Light Kick</div>
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Medium Kick</div>
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Heavy Kick</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-2343737997605845982014-04-22T10:56:00.001-05:002014-04-25T14:50:17.103-05:00Killer Instinct - Spinal Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
<br />
The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
<br />
Notes on Spinal's Auto-Doubles:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Only his light auto-doubles crouch So if you see him crouching, time for LP+LK!</li>
<li>His MP and HP look awfully similar! Main difference is speed and the order of the shield attack.</li>
<li>Like a few other characters, his HK involves that telling stomp!</li>
</ul>
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Light Punch</div>
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Medium Punch</div>
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Heavy Punch</div>
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Light Kick</div>
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Medium Kick</div>
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Heavy Kick</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-66171454540628346972014-04-21T14:22:00.000-05:002014-04-25T14:46:36.233-05:00Killer Instinct - Orchid Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
<br />
The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
<br />
Notes on Orchid's Auto-Doubles:<br />
<ul>
<li>4 out of the 6 auto-doubles involve a crouch so don't rely on just that.</li>
<li>Like a few other characters, she throws out an elbow during her MP.</li>
<li>Like a few other characters, she kind of "headbutts" during her HP auto-double.</li>
</ul>
<br />
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Light Punch</div>
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Medium Punch</div>
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Heavy Punch</div>
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Light Kick</div>
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Medium Kick</div>
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Heavy Kick</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-7819739548194653962014-04-20T13:36:00.001-05:002014-04-25T14:38:10.426-05:00Killer Instinct - Thunder Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
<br />
The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
<br />
Notes on Thunder's Auto-Doubles:<br />
<ul>
<li>Both his light auto-doubles involve a crouch.</li>
<li>His MK also involves a crouch, so be careful.</li>
<li>Like a few other characters, he throws out an elbow during his MP.</li>
<li>Like a few other characters, he headbutts during his HP auto-double.</li>
</ul>
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Light Punch</div>
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Medium Punch</div>
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Heavy Punch</div>
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Light Kick</div>
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Medium Kick</div>
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Heavy Kick</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-33273186931823919562014-04-20T06:55:00.000-05:002014-04-25T14:35:17.612-05:00Killer Instinct - Sadira Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
<br />
The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
<br />
Notes on Sadira's Auto-Doubles:<br />
<ul>
<li>Only her light auto-doubles crouch. So if you see crouching, time for LP+LK!</li>
<li>His MP and HP as well as MK and HK look awfully similar! Main difference is speed.</li>
</ul>
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Light Punch</div>
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Medium Punch</div>
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Heavy Punch</div>
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Light Kick</div>
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Medium Kick</div>
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Heavy Kick</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-22461279994657906132014-04-17T06:31:00.002-05:002014-04-25T14:33:47.274-05:00Killer Instinct - Glacius Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
<br />
The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
<br />
Notes on Glacius' Auto-Doubles:<br />
<ul>
<li>Both his light auto-doubles involved a crouch. </li>
<li>His MP auto-double also crouches, but it's easily singled out by the "whiplike" hand!</li>
<li>His HP hits you with a distinct giant ice ball.</li>
<li>His HK, like a few other characters, does a big stomp... in fact, it does two!</li>
</ul>
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Light Punch</div>
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Medium Punch</div>
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Heavy Punch</div>
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Light Kick</div>
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Medium Kick</div>
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Heavy Kick</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-60498547760981858472014-04-17T05:38:00.000-05:002014-04-23T10:52:18.753-05:00Killer Instinct - Sabrewulf Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
<br />
The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
<br />
Notes on Sabrewulf's Auto-Doubles:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Only his light auto-doubles attack low. So if you see your feet being attacked, time for LP+LK!</li>
<li>His MP and HP as well as MK and HK look awfully similar! Main difference is speed.</li>
</ul>
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Light Punch<br />
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Medium Punch<br />
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Heavy Punch<br />
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Light Kick<br />
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Medium Kick<br />
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Heavy Kick<br />
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-6797402159249478432014-04-15T17:25:00.001-05:002014-04-22T12:06:23.417-05:00Killer Instinct - Fulgore Auto-DoublesCombo breaking in Killer Instinct is relatively straight-forward. If your opponent is attacking you with light attacks, you tap both LP+LK at the same time to combo break him. If he's attacking you with medium attacks, then tapping MP+MK will combo break. And, of course, if he's attacking you with heavy attacks, simply hitting the HP+HK buttons will break the combo.<br />
<br />
The real trick is being able to tell which attack your opponent is using. Because if you hit the wrong combo breaker (ex: hitting MP+MK when you're being hit with light attacks), then you're going to be "locked out" with a giant X and an exclamation point over your head. And then for the next 3 seconds, you'll be helpless to a combo onslaught.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Without getting into too much detail, there are several components to a combo. And other than the opening move (and most ending moves) each of the middle components of the combo can be broken. However, the easiest combo component to identify is an auto-double. This is where you hit a single button during your combo to get an automatic two-hits on your opponent. The speed, damage and animation for an auto-double is different for every button for every character. That means that each character has 6 possible auto-doubles to choose from when doing his combo. During the heat of battle, it can be hard for a beginner (and sometimes veterans!) to discern them all.<br />
<br />
So, in an effort to train my brain into recognizing all the various auto-doubles of each of the 8 characters in Killer Instinct, I created a series of animated GIFs so that I can see them all side-by-side. Note that I've slowed the animation of the moves down to 1/2 speed to make them a bit easier to see. In a real combo, these animations will look *much* faster.<br />
<br />
Notes on Fulgore's Auto-Doubles:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Like several other characters. His HP auto-double has a very noticeable headbutt. </li>
<li>Both his light auto-doubles crouch.</li>
<li>His HK auto-double is the only kick auto-double that does not sweep.</li>
</ul>
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Light Punch</div>
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Medium Punch</div>
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Heavy Punch</div>
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Light Kick</div>
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Medium Kick</div>
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Heavy Kick</div>
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Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-73447703382297047452014-02-13T16:20:00.003-06:002014-04-17T11:16:22.986-05:00My Top 10 Best Playing Fighting Games of All Time<br />
<br />
This is *my* list. I'm not an expert in all of these games, and I certainly have biases. But in any case, these are, in my opinion, the best playing fighting games in existence today. Some of the rankings could easily be reversed and some games might have made the cut had I made this list on a different day (like KoF '98 for example), but this is how I see them today.<br />
<br />
10. Street Fighter Alpha 3<br />
The best in the Alpha series. This game offered tons of characters and 3 different styles of "supers". The gameplay was smooth and the animation was great.<br />
<br />
9. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3<br />
Lots of people (myself included) knock the MK series because, well, most of them suck. And of those that do like the MK series, many would probably say MKII was the best in the series. I can respect that. But while MKII was great, I think the series didn't reach its apex until UMK3. Sure, it has dial-a-combos, but with its varied characters, smooth gameplay and crazy juggling, the series peaked here.<br />
<br />
8. Samurai Shodown III<br />
This game is similar to the MK series in that many people will state that the second installment was the best. I again disagree. I feel like SSIII keeps all the great gameplay elements from SSII, but adds more characters (though I'll miss Cham-Cham) and gameplay options like the Slash/Bust versions of each character.<br />
<br />
7. Killer Instinct (2013)<br />
What a redesign! I haven't had a chance to play this as much as I'd like, but no fighting game not named Street Fighter has captured my interest as much as this game has. It's a *vast* improvement over the older two KI entries. There is a ton of thought that went into the gameplay. Although in some cases, it may be overthought. A valid complaint is that the game at higher levels might get too rock-paper-scissory, but I still think that this game is a blast to play. It needs more characters. Hopefully they'll continue to update this title.<br />
<br />
6. The Last Blade 2<br />
This is how you make a 2D fighting game with weapons. SamSho was very good, but this is better. There are two different types of styles that can be summed up as "powerful" or "quick", and both are useful. The characters all control smoothly and are well balanced. Many people haven't played this game because it came out during the last days of the fighting game era before its resurgence in the late 2000s.<br />
<br />
5. Garou: Mark of the Wolves<br />
If you don't count spinoffs or other platforms, this is basically Fatal Fury 8. It cuts down the cast of characters drastically, but ups the gameplay enough to make it the best in the series. It''s a highly technical, fast paced game.<br />
<br />
4.Soul Calibur II<br />
I was never really that good at SC games, but this game was tops. SC was known for realistic looking animation and fighting styles, and this game basically just built upon its predecessor. It successfully walked the line between amazing looking button masher and elegant highly technical fighting game.<br />
<br />
3. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike<br />
After two tries, Capcom finally got SFIII right. After dumping all of SFII's beloved cast except Ken and Ryu, Chun-Li makes her triumphant return in 3rd Strike. The parry mechanics and superb combination of animation and technical elements made this best SF made until the late 2000s.<br />
<br />
2. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix<br />
On its own, any version of SF2 would have fallen to the 3rd spot below SFIII:3s. However, the HD remix of SSF2T is a thing of beauty. David Sirlin, a very talented game developer and fighting game community member, was hired to re-balance the game when it came to re-release it with HD graphics. He used top notch fighting game players and lots of gameplay testing to create what I think is the best SF2 game ever. He streamlined many of the special move motions and removed hard-coded randomness from the game. This game is how SSF2T *should* have played all along.<br />
<br />
1. Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition 2012<br />
No other game comes close to being #1. This first iteration of SFIV single-handedly revitalized the long lethargic fighting game genre. The Super and AE updates/re-balancing patches have only made it better. And soon, we'll have the Ultra version of SFIV to enjoy. No other game offers this level of near-perfect gameplay. This game is immediately familiar to old-school SF players, but also offers tons of new mechanics for the hardcore players. The addition of the Focus Attack was genius: allowing new setup possibilities and giving us another option other than jumping-in to close the distance between fighters. And the discrepancy between the top tier and lowest tier of characters is the smallest yet. Every time the community discounts a character as being low-tier, someone proves them wrong by winning or advancing very far into a major tournament with that character.<br />
<br />Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-26276698540593378572013-06-13T15:05:00.000-05:002013-06-14T21:20:04.031-05:00Moviehouse & Eatery ReviewMoviehouse & Eatery<br />
8300 N FM 620 Bldg B, Austin, TX 78726<br />
512-501-3520<br />
<a href="mailto:info@themoviehouse.com">info@themoviehouse.com</a><br />
<a href="http://themoviehouse.com/">http://themoviehouse.com</a><br />
(FYI: Don't go to .net, that's another unrelated theater in NY.)<br />
<br />
First of all, I have to get this out of the way... the name is -terrible-. Normally, something as trivial as a name wouldn't come into discussion when doing a review, but "Moviehouse & Eatery" is just really stupid. It's like naming a pizza joint that serves beer, "Pizzeria & Bar." It makes googling it hard to do and talking about it really awkward. It's not even "THE Moviehouse & Eatery." It's just "Moviehouse & Eatery." With an ampersand. It's owned by Galaxy, the same people that own Flix Brewhouse, which has an equally stupid, but at least less terrible name. Yes, "Flix Brewhouse" is an obvious play on "Alamo Drafthouse Cinema," but at least you can talk about without your conversation deteriorating into an Abbott and Costello sketch. *SEE BELOW*<br />
<br />
So, yeah, the people at Galaxy can't be accused of being original with their naming. In fact, nothing about this theater is original. They've basically ripped off things from here and there and threw them in a blender and hoped for the best. The took the La-Z-Boy recliner seats and waiter-call buttons from iPic, the in-movie dining and bar from the Drafthouse, the giant screen from IMAX, and the stadium seating and concession stand from (insert any generic theater here.)<any generic="" theater=""><any generic="" theater=""> They also threw in some D-Box motion seats for good measure.</any></any><br />
<br />
The result? Well, not to sound obvious, but... mixed.<br />
<br />
The theater is broken down into different sections: Dine-In, The Big House, and General Admission. If you go on their site, you'll also see a "D-BOX" section, but that's really just two rows of seats in the General Admission theater. I have experienced the Dine-In section twice and the D-BOX/General Admission section once. To be fair, I've never seen a movie in The Big House, but as far as I can tell, it's pretty much an IMAX type of thing: BIG.<br />
<br />
The movie experience begins with acquiring tickets. Most theaters offer online ticket purchasing nowadays, and M&E is no different. Well, no different until you actually go through the process of buying the tickets. If you're buying a General Admission ticket. No problem. It's pretty straightforward. You buy your ticket online, show up at the theater, they give you a paper one at the box office and then you wait in line to get into your theater.<br />
<br />
However, if you're buying tickets for Dine-In or D-BOX, it can be a wee bit confusing. The Dine-In reservation screen layout isn't quite set up like the real theater. In order to encourage patrons to buy tickets in certain areas, they put spaces between seats that do not exist. Also, the front row seats were much closer to the screen than I was lead to believe by the seating chart. And with D-BOX seats, it was even more confusing. Remember that D-BOX and GA seats are for the same showing in the same theater. But since the D-BOX seats are reserved and General Admission seats are not, if there are still any seats available for GA, the system will still allow you to get to the seat selection screen for D-BOX even when they are sold out. I went through this very thing trying to get Iron Man 3 3D D-BOX tickets. It was quite confusing, and it didn't help that when I got to the D-BOX seat selection screen that it didn't tell me which were setas were D-BOX and which weren't (because they were sold out of D-BOX.) So, the online ticketing could use some work.<br />
<br />
Once you arrive at the theater, you won't exactly be blown away. It's a big plain building with little charm or character. The interior is nice and safe. They have a two-seat D-BOX demo area in the lobby to the left, a traditional concession stand in the back center, and a bar area off to the right. The theater is in a newer, nicer part of town, so everything is crisp, clean and new, but really, they could have done something to spruce it up a bit. It lacks something... like some soul (Paramount), elegance (iPic) or grittiness (Drafthouse Ritz.)<br />
<br />
If you're going to a Dine-In theater, you'll pass through the bar to the right. It's a nice enough bar. Nothing too special. They had some TVs playing ESPN and some comfy couches. Not bad. Not great. If you're going to the GA/D-BOX (and presumably The Big House) theaters, you'll pass by the concession stand. It's your typical AMC/Cinemark style concession stand with hot dogs, popcorn, candies, sodas, nachos, etc.<br />
<br />
Which leads me to the topic of food. If you have "Eatery" in your name, you better damn well have some good food.<br />
<br />
The concession stand food is typical. If you've been to a megaplex cinema of any kind in the last decade or so, you'll know exactly what to expect. The menu might be a bit on the smaller side since about half of the theater offers Dine-In (i.e. "real") food, but everything you've come to expect is there. I had some popcorn, a Coke Icee, and a hot dog. They were all perfectly fine. The prices were in line with other theaters (i.e. way too high for what you're getting.)<br />
<br />
The Dine-In food is were it's really at, though. I went to two Dine-In showings and both times the food and service was excellent. I fell in love with their pepperoni pizza. It's got huge, thick cut slices of pepperoni that are perfectly seasoned and, much to my delight, very crispy. The crust was thin, crispy and flavorful. The sauce and cheese was also great. I'm not a fan of fancy food, but to me, this seemed like a good take on a gourmet pepperoni pizza. I also had some of my wife's fried mozzarella, and wow. It might have been the best fried mozzarella I've ever had. Seriously, it was tasty. A good balance of breading and cheese, and it tasted fresh, not frozen. Their side salads were also great. Crisp veggies, crunchy croutons and a flavorful balsamic vinaigrette. My wife had chicken strips, and again, everything seemed fresh and flavorful. The white gravy was delicious and tasted home-made. In everything we tried, they used quality ingredients and didn't mess with the formula too much. I don't need weird cheeses or adventurous sauces. I like to be able to pronounce the ingredients without having to wiki them. So, kudos to them for that.<br />
<br />
The prices for the Dine-In food was reasonable. It wasn't cheap, but again, it's in line with the Drafthouse or Flix Brewhouse. However, one of the strange things that I noticed is that a soda at the concession stand still costs the "movie concession stand price" of about $5-$6. However, if you order a soda at a Dine-In theater, it's restaurant-priced at around $3 and comes with free refills and a waiter to bring them. Nice.<br />
<br />
Well, since the Dine-In food is so good, you might wonder if you can have it on the GA side of the theater, and the answer to that is, "Yes, technically you can." While the Dine-In theaters have comfy recliners and a fold out table for your food, the GA side is basically just a seat and a cup holder. No waiters and no tables. But if you must have some of that tasty pizza, and I do recommend it, then what you can do is go to the bar area and place a to-go order with the bartender. They will package your food all up as if you were literally taking it to go, but you'll just be walking to the other side of the building. The real bummer is that you'll have to balance all that tasty food on your lap or place it on the floor in front of you.<br />
<br />
The staff. Overall, I found that the staff at M&E to be friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The awesome bartender is the one that explained to me how I could get Dine-In food on the GA side. The box office personnel were very accommodating and helped me understand how the Living Social credits I had purchased were to be used. The concession stand folks were attentive and even gave me free cheese for my hot dog. And the wait staff in the Dine-In theaters were always prompt and accurate. Everyone smiled. It was a very good effort by all. Nice job!<br />
<br />
So how was the movie experience itself? Very good. I mean, would you expect anything less these days... especially from a new theater in a nice part of town? The movies were all presented as they should be. Good clean sound. Not too loud, not too soft. The picture was clear. Much like the Drafthouse, the theater does ask its patrons several times to be quiet and respectful during the movies, and in my showings, they were. Unfortunately, unlike the Drafthouse, this theater does have annoying advertising play before each film. This is really a shame. I understand that they need to make money, and that theater is really just a part of the Galaxy chain of theaters, but still, I can't help but be disappointed when I'm being force fed Samsung commercials after I paid $10-$20+ for the privilege of being there.<br />
<br />
So, in summation, the name is so awful that I had to mention it, the online ticketing system is less than stellar, the decor and atmosphere is uninspired, the concession stand food is on par with the rest of the industry, the dine-in food is delicious, the service and staff are wonderful and the movie experience is very good. It might be a little out of the way for a lot of folks, but I would definitely recommend this theater. It gets a solid B from me.<br />
<br />
<br />
* Abbott and Costello sketch: "Lou Goes to the Movies"<br />
by Rob Nava<br />
<br />
[ Curtain rises. Bud Abbott is reading the daily paper leaning up on a lamp post in the park. ]<br />
<br />
[ Lou Costello enters stage left.]<br />
<br />
C: "Hey, Abbott!"<br />
<br />
A: [Looks up at Lou. Puts paper away under arm.] "Oh, hey, Lou! Whatcha been up to?"<br />
<br />
C: "Nothin' much. I just went to see the latest Iron Man last night at Moviehouse & Eatery."<br />
<br />
A: "Oh, yeah? Which one?"<br />
<br />
C: "3"<br />
<br />
A: "3 what?"<br />
<br />
C: [ Surprised ] "Why, Iron Man 3, of course."<br />
<br />
A: "No, I mean which theater."<br />
<br />
C: "I already told ya, The Moviehouse."<br />
<br />
A: "Which moviehouse?"<br />
<br />
C: "THE Moviehouse." [Getting flustered.] "The one with the eatery!"<br />
<br />
A: "You mean the Drafthouse?"<br />
<br />
C: "No. The Moviehouse and EATERY. Not the Drafthouse." [Now very flustered.]<br />
<br />
A: "You mean Flix Brewhouse? Well, why didn't you just say so?"<br />
<br />
C: [ Throws hat on floor. ] "No! Not the Brewhouse! Not the Drafthouse! The new one. The one with La-Z-Boy seats and the fancy food!"<br />
<br />
A: "Ah, you mean iPic... the, uh, the old Gold Class Cinema."<br />
<br />
C: "Oh. Forget it. I didn't much like it anyway." [ Picks up hat. ]<br />
<br />
A: "You didn't? I heard iPic was very nice."<br />
<br />
C: [Wrings hat with both hands in frustration, mumbles to himself, and walks off stage right.]<br />
<br />
A: [Looks towards the audience and shrugs. Pulls out his paper and starts reading again.]<br />
<br />
[ Curtain falls. ]Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-91171034272882840272011-12-25T23:44:00.008-06:002011-12-26T01:02:51.866-06:00Vegas 2011 - Dec 16th-20th Days 9-12<p class="p1">Sessions: 13<br />Net Result: +$1549</p> <p class="p1">Claire's here. That means several things happen. The first thing that happens is that blog updates go out the window. I simply stop writing. Claire doesn't like to spend much time in the room during the day, and that's when I write, so there you go.</p> <p class="p1">The second thing that happens is that I can't find shit anymore. Where's the toothpaste? Who knows? The phone charger? No idea. Where's my goddamn hair tie that I've put in the same place in my bag every damn day since I've been here? No. Frickin'. Clue. Ugh! Shit just starts disappearing!</p> <p class="p1">The third thing that happens is that I lose track of how much I'm spending. Taxi cab rides. Dinners. Table games. Souvenirs. She pays for some things. I pay for others, and I simply lose track.</p> <p class="p1">But, ironically, the most important thing that happens is that I'm a lot happier. She drives me crazy, costs me money, aggravates me and completes me. Without her, I live in a sterile, soulless world with little meaning. She brings passion to my life. And it's like with anything else, the more you put in, the more you get out. So despite everything, I'm very glad she's here.</p> <p class="p1">So, anyway, that was a long way of saying that my updates stop when Claire arrives, but I wouldn't have it any other way.</p> <p class="p1">However, since I still need blog closure on this trip, I'm going to wrap up my remaining sessions in one big post.</p> <p class="p1">Sessions 17-29: Imperial Palace, MGM, Excalibur, Treasure Island, Planet Hollywood $1/$2 NLHE (21h 15m); Treasure Island $1/$3 NLHE (1hr 0m); Excalibur $2-$6 Spread Limit (0h 45m); Bill's Gambling Hall 50c/$1 NLHE (0h 15m)</p> <p class="p1">Buyin: $2924<br />Cashout: $4473<br />Result: +$1549</p> <p class="p1">First, let me get those weird games out of the way.</p> <p class="p1">The $2-$6 spread limit game at Excalibur is exactly what it sounds like. You can bet anywhere from $2 to $6 on every street. There is only a single $2 blind too. As you would expect, this game is suck out city. I fully realized this before I sat down, and I only sat down to kill time while waiting for a $1/$2 seat.</p> <p class="p1">It went about as good as you'd expect. I'd lose with AK with an A on the flop, and win with junk like 74o when I rivered a straight. Pretty stupid. And at that limit, it's almost impossible to beat the rake. I ended up down $14. No big deal.</p> <p class="p1">The 50c/$1 game at Bill's is what they were calling "mini hold 'em." The only reason I played this game is because Claire saw a dealer friend of hers from Imperial Palace playing there. Plus, she'd been running bad and the thought of really low stakes poker was appealing.</p><p class="p1">To give you an example of how tame this game was... I had QQ and raised to $5 (normally I'd make it $12-$17 at $1/$2,) and I've never seen player cards hit the muck so fast. It was stupid. My 25c/50c home game played bigger than this game.<br /><br />Anyway, Claire doubled up from $40 to $85 with QQ versus the big stack ($170 or so,) and the game broke shortly thereafter. We were there about 15 minutes tops.</p><p class="p1">The lone $1/$3 game I played was at Treasure Island. They had two games running so Claire and I were able to sit a different tables.</p><p class="p1">I made a very poor decision to play at this game. I bought in for $200 and the next smallest stack was $500. It was short handed and very aggressive. I should have gotten up immediately. This was not a good table.</p><p class="p1">There was one table bully with about $1200 in front of him. He talked a lot. Everyone hated him. When he left, one of the guys started really bad mouthing him. Apparently the bully had sucked out with a set of 2's against this guy for about $900 and that's what got him going. </p><p class="p1">What the guy talking shit didn't know is that the bully was still in the poker room... cashing out. And he overhears this dude talking shit about him "behind his back."</p><p class="p1">So the bully returns to the table and the sore loser makes a very transparent apology. "Sorry, I thought you'd left." was the extent of it. ;)</p><p class="p1">They exchange loose/vague threats and each claims to not be afraid of the other. The bully says he'll play the talker for any amount any time. The talker invites the bully to sit back down at the table. Blah. Blah. Blah.</p><p class="p1">In the end, I end up busting to the talker. Who, quite honestly, by this time was just as annoying as the bully. </p><p class="p1">Then I busted again.</p><p class="p1">Yes, I know... I should have left! But you guessed it, I rebought for $200. I'm in for $600 now.</p><p class="p1">By this time, our table was down to about 4 players. We ended up combining with Claire's table. They normally play 9 handed, but they allowed us to go 10 handed.</p><p class="p1">Not long after we combined, one of the guys left and we played 9 handed again.</p><p class="p1">I pick up QQ. I raise to $17.</p><p class="p1">One of the many big stacks calls me.</p><p class="p1">The flop is J high with two baby cards. I'm out of position so I lead out for $45.</p><p class="p1">The big stack raises me All-In. I have about $170 left. My stomach churns. Again? Really?<br /></p><p class="p1">Fuck it. I can't always be beat. I call.</p><p class="p1">The guy doesn't like the call. I can tell. I flip over Queens. He nods and says he's on a draw.</p><p class="p1">I notice two spades on the board. No spade on the turn. King of Spades on the River.</p><p class="p1">Fuck. A King *and* a spade? Vomitous. </p><p class="p1">I look at him, and he says, "You're good." and throws his hand away. WTF? What kind of draw was he on?? Fuck it. Who cares? Ship me that pot before someone notices I have an underpair to the board. ;)</p><p class="p1">Now I'm just under $400. I play for a bit longer. Claire's down now too. Not too much. She's down like $40.</p><p class="p1">I look at the table and finally come to my senses. Let's get out of here! I leave down $236.</p><p class="p1">On our walk back to the Mirage, I explain to Claire how I've not been properly assessing my tables. Or at least how I've not been willing to leave tables that I know are bad just because I'm down. I made a decision right there to never, ever let me "being down" keep me from leaving a table. Never again.</p><p class="p1">Smart.</p><p class="p1">We get back to Mirage and the table is so soft. The Mirage has consistently had soft games this trip. Very soft. I crush the table and in 45 minutes I make all the money I'd lost at TI back plus $3 profit. I'm quite happy! :-)</p><p class="p1">The remaining sessions were good ones. I never had another losing session, and by the end of it all I was up just over $2400 for my trip. This was about how much I was up last year. It averages out to about $200/day in poker profits. </p><p class="p1">Of course, it costs money to go and stay in Vegas. I have to pay for taxis and food and hotel rooms, but all in all, I had more money in my wallet when I got on the plane home than I had when I got there. I can't complain about that.</p><p class="p1">Untill next year!</p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-30672326846907702262011-12-25T23:43:00.003-06:002011-12-26T00:25:55.981-06:00Vegas 2011 - Dec 15th - Day 8<p class="p1">Sessions: 3<br />Net Result: +$321</p> <p class="p1">Claire flew in today, and I moved from PH to Mirage.</p> <p class="p1">Checking into the Mirage, I couldn't help but think of The Griswolds. If you recall, Clark and his family stayed at The Mirage in "Vegas Vacation," a movie that I've seen literally dozens of times. I guess Claire was thinking the same thing because before she arrived, she joked that we would get complicated directions to the room elevators just like in the movie. ;)</p> <p class="p1">(You know what would go great here, an embedded YouTube video of that scene from Vegas Vacation. But, alas, I could not find one. )</p> <p class="p1">Here's a video of the room.</p><p class="p1"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ENVlLSMaiXs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p class="p1">My first session today was really a session I played before going to bed, but as always, if the session starts after midnight, I count it towards the next day's sessions.</p> <p class="p1">Session 14: Planet Hollywood $1/$2 NL HE (1h 45m)<br />Buyin: $380<br />Cashout: $428<br />Result: +$48</p> <p class="p1">Fuck this game. It was volatile, aggressive, and big stacked.</p> <p class="p1">The tone was set early when I saw a guy go all-in for like $750 on a board of 5d 6h Kd 3s, and get snapped called by a $600 stack. The guy that went all-in flipped over AA. The snap caller (who had raised $220 on the turn prior to calling the all-in) flipped over 74o. The guy with Aces almost threw up.</p> <p class="p1">The Aces guy had made it $35 to go pre-flop and $100 on the flop. So he wasn't expecting a straight. I mean, I could have put the other guy on a set, but with that $35 pre-flop bet, two-pair or a straight seemed unlikely. The pocket aces guy still played that way too strongly, but yeah, pretty sick.</p> <p class="p1">I also saw pocket Aces lose 4 times at this table, including one of mine. All of them were raised pre-flop. No slow playing.</p> <p class="p1">My AA came immediately after another guy's AA had lost. The guy that just lost with them was on tilt and had the button.</p> <p class="p1">I made it $15 to go under the gun. He was the only one that called. It totally seemed like a tilt call.</p> <p class="p1">The flop was JJ5. I lead out for $25. He called. Turn was a 7. I checked. He bet $25. I called. River was an 8. I checked. He bet $25. I made a crying call. The guy flips over JTo.</p> <p class="p1">Ugh.</p> <p class="p1">On the very next hand, I picked up AQ. Great! I mean, people were playing total shit. It was very likely that if I raised and got called that I'd be going in winning. I led out for $12. I knew people would think I was on tilt so I expected some callers.</p><p class="p1">I immediately got raised to $35. </p><p class="p1">This guy was a non-believer. Fuck it. I re-raised All-In for just over $120. I'll be honest... I expected a fold. Instead, I got snap called. Ooops.</p><p class="p1">He says to me, "I just have Ace King." Ugh. C'mon!</p><p class="p1">No queen or 1 card flush or miracle straight for me. I busted.</p> <p class="p1">I rebought for $200. I shouldn't have, but I did. I should have found an easier, softer table. I *should* have, but I didn't.</p><p class="p1">Instead, I played for a while and bled down to about $45. I called a raise from the giant stacked button guy with 97s and pushed whatever I had left when it came a 9 high flop and a gut shot. I sucked out with two pair on the turn. The guy had AA. I'm telling you, AA was unlucky at that table.</p> <p class="p1">I played erratically, but eventually I got to about $50 in profit and called it a game. I was very grateful for any kind of win by this point. I wasn't exactly playing my best, and I knew it.</p><p class="p1">Time for bed.</p> <p class="p1">Session 15: Mirage $1/$2 NL HE (2h 45m)<br />Buyin: $200<br />Cashout: $280<br />Result: +$80</p><p class="p1">Later that afternoon...</p> <p class="p1">Just chillin' waiting for Claire to show up. Nothing too interesting.</p> <p class="p1">I did notice the face-masked dude from last year's Mirage sessions (pic <a href="http://twitpic.com/3gav31">here</a>.) This time he wore a red surgical mask. Really weird. I never got up the nerve to ask him why he wore a surgical mask to a poker game. He didn't wear gloves. And the chips are the dirtiest, most nastiest things at the table, so I can't imagine it was for a medical/cleanliness reason. I can only assume it's for "anti-reading" purposes. Maybe he has a horrible lip quiver that gives away his hand. I might never know.</p> <p class="p1">I will say that if you're at The Mirage, ask the cocktail waitress for an Orange Julius. They're fabulous!</p> <p class="p1">Session 16: Mirage $1/$2 NL HE (4h 30m)<br />Buyin: $200<br />Cashout: $393<br />Result: +$193</p> <p class="p1">The Mirage, at least during this trip, has had the calmest, most timid games I've played. If you raised $6, everyone, including the blinds would fold. I would raise or re-raise and steal so many pots. Easy. Peasy.</p><p class="p1">Honestly, no pots were even that memorable. I was just patient and played aggressively when I was in a hand. Pretty text book poker here.<br /><br />By the end of this session, I'd erased more than half of my $600 loss from the previous day. Things were looking up again.</p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-68972447581145804392011-12-15T15:53:00.004-06:002011-12-15T17:18:50.553-06:00Vegas 2011 - Dec 14th - Day 7<p class="p1">Sessions: 2<br />Net Result: -$603</p> <p class="p1">Far and away, the worst day.</p> <p class="p1">Also, if you've been reading these, you've probably figured out that I write in a very stream of consciousness manner. And I do minimal editing, So expect to see grammatical and typographical errors in most of these posts. They take a long time to write, and frankly, I just want to go play poker right now. </p><p class="p1">I just don't want some of you to read these things and think I'm a sloppy writer. I'm not. I'm just a lazy/rushed one.</p> <p class="p1">Someone should contract me to write a book...</p> <p class="p1">Session 12: MGM $1/$2 NL HE (4h 15m)<br />Buyin: $600<br />Cashout: $0<br />Result: -$600</p> <p class="p1">I cut and paste these blog posts. And I'm telling you, there's nothing I hate more than having to backspace over the "+" symbol in my "Result:" Putting that "-" there… just… ugh.</p> <p class="p1">Anyway, two more friends from Austin showed up today: Brian and Leigh. I spent most of the day with them just walking around. They're staying at MGM. Duy and James had mentioned that they moved the MGM poker room and put it in a temporary spot near the Lion Habitat. They also mentioned that they had found a super juicy game there, and that they made tons. So, I figured I'd go check it out.</p> <p class="p1">The room is shitty. The dealers hated it. I hated it. It was pretty ghetto. Apparently they're renovating the original poker room, and they're saying it'll return to it's normal place on January 9th. That does me no good since I'll be gone by then, but I played anyway.</p> <p class="p1">I sat down with $200 and was never up. I plugged away at the table, but it was pretty tight and passive. I couldn't make any ground. I was down $20 pretty quick. Then down $75. Then I was under $100. I almost re-loaded, but I won a few hands and got within $3 of being even. If I'd have gotten there, I had planned to leave, but I didn't.</p> <p class="p1">I busted with AK vs Aces. I wasn't happy, but I didn't feel like I was playing poorly, so I re-bought for $200.</p> <p class="p1">There was this one Israeli guy to my right that was sorta big stacked and aggressive. He also laid out the worst smelling farts in the history of man. Seriously. He first tried to pass it off as his Canadian neighbor's doing, but after the Canadian left, the farts remained. They were literally tear inducing. They were really, really bad. And since I just kept spinning my wheels at that table, I took that as just another reason to leave.</p> <p class="p1">But instead of leaving the room, I decided to request a table change, and I got one.</p> <p class="p1">I moved to my new table with about $125 left from my 2nd buyin. I figured, new scene, new table, new start. I reloaded for $200 more.</p> <p class="p1">My first hand, I look down and see Kd Qd. I call $2.</p> <p class="p1">This beatnik looking type dude raises to $12 from the small blind. He's really short stacked. He's got like $60 or so.</p> <p class="p1">He's got this bushy tuft of hair growing from underneath his lower lip. You know what I'm talking about? It's not a goatee. It's not a beard. It's that thing right in the middle and right below a guy's lower lip. If you picture a 50's/60's beatnik artist with sunglasses and a beret and that little tuft of hair growing out long and bushy, you'll visualize this guy. Oh, and yeah, he was wearing a beret. I shit you not. It was a leather beret, and it was being worn backwards, but he wore one nonetheless. Also, he was French-Canadian.</p> <p class="p1">Anyway, I call $12.</p> <p class="p1">The flop is Ad Qh 9h. Not super great, but it's OK for me. The French-Canadian beatnik makes it $15. Now, I can't call. Either I fold here, or I put him in for the rest of his chips.</p> <p class="p1">I raise to $75. I know he doesn't even have $50 total, but I didn't want to risk an all-in in case some other dude flopped a set or something on me.</p> <p class="p1">They all fold except the beatnik. He calls. Someone did flop a set. Him. A set of Aces. </p> <p class="p1">God! C'mon! First hand, and I run into Aces with a short stack? Ugh.</p> <p class="p1">After some grinding, I build it back up to about $325. I'm in for $600, so I'm still not feeling that great.</p> <p class="p1">I pick up QTo and limp in.</p> <p class="p1">The flop comes AKT rainbow. It's checked to me. I bet $20 which is slightly more than a pot-sized bet. It gets folded around to this middle aged, bald fat guy to my right… who just sat down 2 hands ago and won his first hand.</p> <p class="p1">I've learned from experience that people that just sit down at a table are more apt to fold when bet into because they don't know the table, they're not frustrated, and they're still optimistic about the session. It's easier to bluff a guy when he just sat down than that same guy after he's been playing with you for an hour.</p> <p class="p1">But not this guy. He didn't come to Vegas to fold hands. He calls. </p> <p class="p1">Not that big a deal. I still have a nut draw.</p> <p class="p1">Turn is a rainbow 9. Damn. I really needed that Jack.</p> <p class="p1">The guy checks weakly, so I bet again. This time I bet $40. The guy thinks for a while, but still calls. Again, he's meek and not very confident. He could be on the same draw that I'm on, and I have a pair at least.</p> <p class="p1">I decide I'm betting this river no matter what.</p> <p class="p1">The river is a 6. Not really a game changing card.</p> <p class="p1">He checks again. I bet $75. He thinks for a bit, and calls. Fuck. What does this guy have? Two Pair?</p> <p class="p1">A6o. Let me state that more clearly: Ace Six Offsuit. He called me down with a fucking weak-as-shit Ace. Maybe he had a good read, right? Wrong.</p> <p class="p1">He turns to me and says, "I thought you had two pair."</p> <p class="p1">Huh?</p> <p class="p1">So I say, "You thought I had two pair, but you called me anyway with an Ace with a weak kicker on every single street? Really?"</p> <p class="p1">Realizing how stupid that sounded, he said, "Yeah, well, I figured you might have missed your draw."</p> <p class="p1">Which is more retarded. </p> <p class="p1">"So, wait a minute. You said you thought I had two pair. AND. You also thought I had nothing? Well, which is it? Those are about the two most opposite reads possible… So what you really mean to say is that you had no clue where you were and just called because you could."</p> <p class="p1">After that he clammed up, which was about the smartest thing I'd seen him do in the 15 minutes he'd been there.</p> <p class="p1">The next hand I pick up AKo.</p> <p class="p1">The same guy raises to $5. $5. That's a fucking stupid raise. </p> <p class="p1">I raise to $20. I get one caller, and it's back to him. He reaches for chips and I say, "Dude, you just took down a bunch of chips with A6. You can't lay one down? You've been here for 4 hands and played them all."</p> <p class="p1">He calls anyway.</p> <p class="p1">The flop is beautiful. K 5 7 rainbow.</p> <p class="p1">He leads out for $30. $30? Really? Why would he lead out? It was sort of suspicious. I'd seen his hands. He'd literally played all 4 hands since he sat down. His hands were shit. I thought there was a chance he had two pair even, given how loose his play was.</p> <p class="p1">I raise to $60 to see what he does. The other guy got out of the way, and old fat bald guy raises to $90.</p> <p class="p1">What the fuck? A set? I have to make a decision here. I have $80 in this pot and about $110 behind. This guy could be doing this shit with anything from a set to King-Jack.</p> <p class="p1">I just couldn't bear to fold. I should have. The signs all pointed to AK being beat, but it was just so unlikely. The rainbow K57 flop for my AK was just too hard to fold.</p> <p class="p1">I went all-in. He calls.</p> <p class="p1">A set? Yep. He flips over 55.</p> <p class="p1">Jesus Christ. </p> <p class="p1">I'm furious. I storm out of there to the sound of his annoying voice saying "Sorryyyyy…" Normally I stop and lecture people about saying "Sorry" after winning a pot, but I just couldn't stand the sight of that guy for another second. Plus, the rest of my cash was in my room. And I needed to cool off.</p> <p class="p1">I knew that guy wasn't going to keep those chips. And as angry as I was, I was more sad that I wouldn't be there to take them.</p> <p class="p1">Session 13: Planet Hollywood $1/$2 NL HE (1h 0m)<br />Buyin: $200<br />Cashout: $197<br />Result: -$3</p> <p class="p1">I learned an expensive lesson at MGM. A lesson that every good poker player knows, but few can execute. Do not chase losses.</p> <p class="p1">If something doesn't feel right, leave. It doesn't matter if you're down a little or a lot. The only reason NOT to leave is if you feel you're still playing well, and are confident that you can win. If you're mad and playing like shit or feel like you'll play like shit if you continue, leave. Fuck the daily stats. The only stat that matters is the one that shows you as a winning player over the long haul. How many BBs do you win per hour?</p> <p class="p1">It's very, very, very hard to leave money on the table. Even a few dollars. But sometimes you have to. </p> <p class="p1">I put this into practice on this session. I was down quickly at this game, but felt I was playing fine. I got to within $3 of my initial buyin, and of course, I just felt like just getting my $3 back and leaving. But I fought off the urge to play to get even... to get back those last few dollars, and I just called it a day. I left. I was done. </p> <p class="p1">Tomorrow's a new day, and my long haul stats say that there are more BBs to win.</p> <p class="p2"><br /></p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-38599576598494303462011-12-15T14:20:00.001-06:002011-12-15T14:21:59.563-06:00Vegas 2011 - Dec 13th - Day 6<p class="p1">Sessions: 2<br />Net Result: +$346</p> <p class="p1">Just another day in Vegas...</p> <p class="p1">Session 10: Planet Hollywood $1/$2 NL HE (2h 0m)<br />Buyin: $200<br />Cashout: $207<br />Result: +$7</p> <p class="p1">This was a pretty short, uninteresting session. I played it at like 2am. I remember sitting down and losing $100 within like 20 minutes, but I don't remember how. I also remember climbing out of that hole and just wanting to go to bed.</p> <p class="p1">Session 11: Planet Hollywood $1/$2 NL HE (5h 0m)<br />Buyin: $200<br />Cashout: $539<br />Result: +$339</p> <p class="p1">I gotta start writing closer to the day that I play. I can't remember shit for this session.</p> <p class="p1">Let's see. What happened? All these PH sessions are blurring together. I suppose that's a good thing as long as their winning.</p> <p class="p1">Yeah, sorry, I got nothing. I'm writing this two days later. :-( </p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6198278.post-80358815164709876642011-12-15T13:50:00.002-06:002011-12-15T14:08:19.578-06:00Vegas 2011 - Dec 12th - Day 5<p class="p1">Sessions: 3<br />Net Result: +$425</p> <p class="p1">This is really a continuation of Day 4, and then it goes into Day 5. </p> <p class="p1">Session 7: Imperial Palace $1/$2 NL HE (1h 0m)<br />Buyin: $200<br />Cashout: $406<br />Result: +$206</p> <p class="p1">This IP session was a short one. I hit this game as I was heading to my room to call it a day.</p> <p class="p1">First of all, as I sat down I found a $5 chip underneath the table. Sweet! I was up before I'd even started. :-)</p> <p class="p1">The biggest story here was an Asian lady that new very little English.</p> <p class="p1">When I first sat down at this table, I didn't even notice her. I folded a lot (as I usually do) and joked and talked with my neighbors. She was quiet, and I hadn't played any pots, so she was invisible to me.</p> <p class="p1">Then the dude to my right got involved in a pot and showed me his hand. 6s 6c. He had raised in early position with that hand and checked the flop of 5s 4s 8s.</p> <p class="p1">The guy to my left bet $40 (about a pot-sized bet), and the Asian lady put out a single $100 bill in front of her. This is a call. Everyone knows this. The dealer will make her change after he puts out the turn. Or, he would have, if a guy two to her right hadn't re-raised to $160. </p> <p class="p1">That's when my neighbor with the 6s 6c showed me his hand. How could he call? He has 1 out to a straight flush. He's beat. So, yeah, he eventually folds. I'm not sure why he thought it was such a big deal to fold there. It was $160 to call. He obviously only had 1 out.</p> <p class="p1">The initially bettor to my left folds, and the action is on the Asian lady. The dealer says it's on her and she signals like she wants to see the next card. The dealer explains that she has been raised $120 on top. The Asian lady still doesn't understand, and is wondering why the dealer hasn't put out the turn. At this point, the entire table is trying to explain that her $100 bill was a call of the original $40 bet, and that she needs to put in $120 more if she wants to see the turn. She still doesn't get it. Frustrated, the dealer takes her $100, changes it to $5 chips, puts the calls in the middle and shows her that she still needs to call $120 more if she wants to see the turn. She says, "But I put $100 in already." *Sigh*. The dealer is now aggravated. "Do you want to call?!" he asks. She nods. Fine.</p> <p class="p1">She looks at her cards. At this point, she's got another $100 bill and like $75 in chips behind. The turn is a red Jack.</p> <p class="p1">She checks. The raiser goes all-in for $200+. He has her covered. She has all her chips sitting on her $100 bill, and she slides that passed the betting line. She calls.</p> <p class="p1">The river is an 7s.</p> <p class="p1">Homeboy to my right spazzes. He would have made the nuts. A straight flush. Hahaha. </p> <p class="p1">The dude putting in all the money flips over 4h 4c. A set of 4's.</p> <p class="p1">Asian lady flips over As 7h. Haha. </p> <p class="p1">The guy that lost is… well, not happy. She had called $160 on the flop, and nearly $200 on the turn for a flush draw and a gut shot. And hit it. Wow.</p> <p class="p1">After that, the whole table at that lady's lunch. She called and called and called everything. Pre-flop raises, flop bets, turn bets, river bets. She called.</p> <p class="p1">It didn't take long for her to dwindle back down to about $400. And that's when I picked up my hand.</p> <p class="p1">I had Ad Ts. I was on the button. Now, most of the time I just call $2 or maybe raise it a little bit if I feel like the table is weak, but this time it was raised to $6 from early position before it got to me. There were a few callers. Now, this is a 50/50 for me. Half the time I call, half the time I fold. I do not raise here. I decide to call.</p> <p class="p1">The flop comes Ks Qc 4d. Hmmm. I've got a gut shot straight draw, and that's about it. The Asian lady was in the blinds and checked. The table checks around to me. Now, at this point, I have to bet. I'm not strong here, but I do have a draw to the nuts, and I can possibly steal it with a pot-sized bet. I bet $25 into about a $30 pot. As you would expect, everyone folds except the Asian Lady. She could have anything.</p> <p class="p1">The turn is a Jc. That's the nuts for me, but it puts a flush draw out there. She checks. </p> <p class="p1">Now, normally, I wouldn't put her on a flush draw because it would have to be a runner-runner flush draw, and while that's possible, it's unlikely. She might have a pair of Kings or Queens. Maybe she even had a straight draw. I don't know.</p> <p class="p1">What I do know is that this lady calls damn near everything. If she's got ANY draw or any piece of this board, she's not going away.</p> <p class="p1">So, I push all-in for about $150. She calls. </p> <p class="p1">At times like this, I always flip over my made hand ASAP. This is so that 1) I don't misread my hand and 2) my opponent has a chance to see my strong hand which could make him forget that he has other outs. For instance, if I flop a higher set over a smaller set, and I show my hand, the other guy might only think he has outs to four of a kind. When actually he might have runner-runner outs to a flush. If he doesn't get that four of a kind, maybe he folds without knowing he had made a 4 card flush. I've totally seen it happen.</p> <p class="p1">Anyway, the river is a Kc. Fuck. Worst. Card. Ever. It pairs the board and completes a runner-runner flush draw.</p> <p class="p1">Now I'm hoping that having seen my made straight, that she just mucks. She starts to, but other people start mumbling about a flush and pair board. SHUT THE FUCK UP ASSHOLES! Don't remind her of those things. What if she backed into a fullhouse or a flush and didn't realize it? Let her muck or turn her cards over on her own!</p> <p class="p1">She starts sliding her hand face down to the dealer. Slowly. She takes a look back at them, and the dealer asks if she's mucking. She nods. Whew!</p> <p class="p1">After that double up, I was done. She had almost nothing left, and I was tired. Up over $200 in an hour is good enough.</p> <p class="p1">Session 8: Imperial Palce Freeroll Tournament NL HE (1h 30m)<br />Buyin: $5<br />Cashout: $0<br />Result: -$5 (27th out of 49)</p> <p class="p1">I earned enough hours to qualify for the weekly freeroll at the IP the next morning at 11am. The problem was… it was in the next morning at 11am. If I hadn't had to check out that morning, I would have probably just slept in. Freeroll tourneys are shit. You get very few chips, the blinds go up lightning fast, and it ends up a shove fest.</p> <p class="p1">I set my alarm and woke up in time to shower, pack and make my way down to the check-out desk before 11am. The poker room is right across from the hotel desk, so I checked my bags, registered for the tournament and checked out of the hotel. Just in time.</p> <p class="p1">Now, if this is a freeroll, why do I have the buying at $5? Well, when I registered, I was in such a rush, the guy asked me if I wanted to do something for $5. I didn't even hear what it was. I said, "I didn't hear what you said, but I'm sure it's a good thing, so here's five bucks." He thanked me and gave me my seat assignment.</p> <p class="p1">I thought I was contributing to the dealer payouts since this was a freeroll, and it was. But it turns out that with the $5 extra, I doubled my chips from 1500 to 3000. I mean, it's still shit, but whatever. It was a good thing. It went to the dealers anyway.</p> <p class="p1">I had put in 18.5 hours towards my freeroll entry. If I had put in 20, they would have given me 6000 in chips (which was the max.) So right off the bat, I had 1/2 the stack of 3-4 players at the table. It didn't end up mattering. The big stacks fell early, and people doubled quickly.</p> <p class="p1">I actually played about as well as you can play freerolls. I stole some. Played tight. I played well. </p> <p class="p1">I made it to the first break, but by that time, I only had 4.5 times the big blind.</p> <p class="p1">As I paid my big blind, which was $1000. I looked down and saw 9s 9c. I knew I was shoving the remainder 3000 no matter what. I didn't have to worry about action. Someone shoved exactly 4500 in front of me. I couldn't fold of course.</p> <p class="p1">I flipped over my hand. My opponent flipped over his: AKo. Fuck.</p> <p class="p1">The flop held an Ace. Pfft. No 9 on the turn or river either. In fact, the river was another Ace. Ah, whatever. It was only $5.</p> <p class="p1">Session 9: Mirage $1/$2 NL HE (1h 45m)<br />Buyin: $200<br />Cashout: $424<br />Result: +$224</p> <p class="p1">They serve Orange Julius's here. Just ask the cocktail waitress. They're so good!</p> <p class="p1">Anyway, I made money here because of one hand. </p> <p class="p1">There was a crazy aggressive guy to my right and two of the loosest callers ever to my left. It was perfect.</p> <p class="p1">I was under the gun. I looked down at Ad Kd. Sweet. Normally I raise, but there was so much action at this table, I decided to take a chance and just call $2.</p> <p class="p1">The lady to my left wasted no time. She raised to $7. Her husband, who was directly to her left, called. As did the whole damn table. Then it got to the aggressive guy to my right. I was waiting for a raise. He flat called. I was last to act on the raise. There was about $35-42 in the pot with all those $7 bets. I decided to just end it. I raised to $107.</p> <p class="p1">The initial raiser lady to my left paused for a good 1-2 minutes, and folded. Her husband insta-called. What? He was slow playing too? It folds around to the aggressive dude. He thinks for a while and says, "I just want to call because no one at this table puts in that much money. I kinda just want to get in on the action, but I have shit rags." He folds.</p> <p class="p1">At this point I decided that I was shoving my remaining $224 on any flop. The flop comes Jc 6h Js. I shove.</p> <p class="p1">The husband dude to the lady's left agonizes. He says, "I actually put you on pocket Jacks."</p> <p class="p1">He folds and shows AKo. I show him AKs. :-)</p> <p class="p1">Whew! I sure am glad he put me on Jacks! Haha. Of course, there was no way I'd shove with Quads, but to be fair, he could have put me on any pocket pair, and he can't call.</p> <p class="p1">Shortly after that hand, I left to meet Duy and James for dinner. We were supposed to go for steaks, but we ended up at Maggiano's, which is always yummy. :-)</p>Katsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12678067728607557042noreply@blogger.com0