2010 Movies Relative Rankings (7/29)

Here is the list of movies that I saw at the theater in 2010. They are rated (0 to 4 stars) and ranked relative to each other. Check for newer posts updating this list with new movies as I see them.

Last Update: 7/29 - Inception

#1 Grease Sing-A-Along (****)
Place: Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar w/Audrey (subbing for Claire)
Notes: I hesitated to put this in at all because this movie originally came out in 1978, but I am including it for two reasons: 1) It is a movie that I saw in the theater in 2010 2) It's not technically the same movie. All the songs (except the intro theme song for some strange reason) have animated lyrics and extras on the screen. They decided to get creative when they animated the "Greased Lightning" lyrics because they say "shit" (#*@$) , "tit" (a picture of a cow showing her udder), "the chicks'll cream" (whipped cream), and "pussy" (a pussy cat, naturally). The animation was all well done. Apparently they spent $100,000 re-doing the film. It's definitely a new experience. FYI: Grease is the gayest movie I'll admit to loving. And the sing-a-long version is even more awesome.

#2 Inception (****)
Place: Cinemark Pflugerville w/Claire
Notes: You'll notice that I didn't see this at the Drafthouse or in an XD Cinemark theater. We couldn't make it to the Drafthouse in our allotted babysitter time, and we DID buy XD tickets, but the XD theater's right front speaker was blown so we had to exchange tickets for a standard theater. Standard theaters suck. That being said, this movie did not suck. In fact, it was very good. It's the love child of Vanilla Sky (Abre Los Ojos) and Memento from the night they invited over The Matrix for a threesome. I'm suprised that it's so popular as its non-sequential presentation and nested realities can be disorienting for the less cerebral moviegoers. Had Nolan not directed The Dark Knight, this movie would have been relegated to the art house theaters. I would definitely recommend that people watch this movie, but honestly, it's not the movie of the century the way some people would have you believe. I think what's happening is that Inception is the first non-traditional, non-straightforward movie that a lot of people have seen, so they are astounded. If all you normally see is shit like Predators, Transformers and Twilight, then Inception seems like it's from another world. If you're already fans of Primer or Memento, you won't be as impressed.

#3 Toy Story 3 (****)
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Superb writing and direction. Funny and heart warming. The 3D and CG-ness don't even matter.

#4 The Kung Fu Kid (aka The Karate Kid) (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek with Madison
Notes: I really enjoyed this re-make/re-imagining. I have nothing but praise for Jaden Smith. His acting was quite good. He showed good range. His athleticism and martial arts skills were infinitely more believable than Macchio's. I enjoyed noting the parallels between the original movie and the new one. The story is still as far fetched as ever, but also still as fun. Jackie Chan was great too. The name is the worst part of this film as there is no karate in it.

#5 Kick-Ass (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: Enjoyable, aestheticized violence. Hit Girl easily steals the show. I never read the comics so no comment on adaptation.

#6 How to Train Your Dragon (***1/2)
Place: 3D Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Better than I expected. A bit preachy, but not overly so. Good use of 3D.

#7 Despicable Me (***)
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Entire Family (including Mom/Dad/Sister)
Notes: My parents and sister hadn't seen a 3D film in a long time (i.e. they don't have a 5 year old) so they were pretty impressed with the visuals. I'm more jaded. They were good, not great. The story was actually a little different than I expected, in a good way. My sister and Claire got a little teary-eyed, but it's not a sob story movie. Overall, it's a well made, enjoyable movie.

#8 Exit through the Gift Shop (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I saw this on Pete's recommendation. It's a documentary about street art. It was entertaining. There is no other way for me to describe it. It wasn't the best (King of Kong) or worst (Kurt and Courtney) documentary I've ever seen. The big hook, whether or not the entire thing was a hoax put on by Banksy, was irrelevant to me. I simply don't care. Unless you're really into documentaries or street art, I'd wait for it to show up on cable or on Netflix streaming.

#9 Iron Man 2 (***)
Place: In XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: I enjoyed it more than the original film. A bit too unbelievable even for a comic book movie. Iron Man does not have memorable villains.

#10 Shutter Island (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Well acted and directed. Interesting plot albeit with a pretty see-thru twist. Even still, I found it quite enjoyable.

#11 A Town Called Panic (***)
Place: Drafthoue Ritz w/Aaron
Notes: Saw this subtitled. It's stop motion animation, but technically, it's no where near the quality of Henry Selick's work. It was funny, but less so than I expected. Better if you're drunk/high.

#12 Get Him to the Greek (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I didn't know much about the film, but Pete had wanted to see it so I gave it a try. I knew nothing of Russell Brand going into this (his accent seemed almost fake at first.) The Drafhouse played his stand-up before the movie, and I could have watched just that for 2 hours. I found the movie very funny at times and more than a little bit sad in many places which I didn't expect. Couldn't stop thinking about how huge Jonah Hill was though.

#13 The Crazies (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Reminded a bit of Left 4 Dead. Pretty standard virus/zombie fare. It was basically a clone of 28 Days Later.

#14 Prince of Persia (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Pete
Notes: Better than I expected, but not great. The CG was abundant. High end production. I thought Chesty Jake was just fine as the Prince.

#15 Shrek Forever After (**1/2)
Place: 3D in XD at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Shrek's cultrual gags -were- cool, but they've gotten stale. The underlying story is pretty weak. I've seen better (and worse) kid's films.

#16 A Nightmare on Elm Street (**)
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: I like Jackie Earle Haley, and he does a good job as the new Freddy, but the make-up artist needs to get fired. He looks like he has Down's Syndrome. Also, the scenes were repetitive: isolate character, daydream, kill. Rinse. Repeat.

#17 Alice in Wonderland (**)
Venue: 3D at Drafthouse Village Baby Day w/Family
Notes: I love Tim Burton's twisted take on things, but this didn't work out so well. Maybe because Alice in Wonderland is already pretty twisted?

#18 Predators (**) NEW
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Aaron
Notes: I've only seen the original Predator movie, and it's been a while since I've seen it. I've heard nothing but bad things about Predator 2 and the Aliens Vs. Predator series. In any case, this movie was OK. Decent amount of action. Throwaway plot. Pretty standard stuff. I have to mention that the CG was pretty shitty though. It had the worst CG fire I've ever seen.

#19 Splice (**) NEW
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Discount Theater by myself
Notes: It's an Adrien Brody double feature! (I saw this the week before Predators.) While I had low expectations for Predators, I had high expecations for Splice. I saw Forrest's enthusiastic Facebook posting about this movie which piqued my interest. Now, I had never seen a movie based on Forrest's recommendation, but he seemed like someone that can appreciate good cinema. He even cited the director's previous effort, Cube. I loved Cube. Splice kinda sucked though. Ridiculous plot. Almost no suspense or horror. Terrible CG. And the strangest/grossest sex scene ever. No more recommendations from Forrest.

#20 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Lightning Thief (**)
Venue: Cinemark Plfuger w/Maddie
Notes: Say what you want in defense of the novels, but this is clearly an attempt to cash in on Harry Potter crowd. Far too little far too late.

#21 Youth in Revolt (*1/2)
Venue: Drafthouse Ritz Theater #2 w/Claire
Notes: I saw this because Master Pancake was sold out. That was a mistake. The story was terrible. The acting was mostly terrible. Michael Cera is the least talented 'actor' in recent memory. He plays himself in every single goddamn movie.

#22 The Spy Next Door (*1/2)
Venue: Cinemark Pflugerville w/Maddie
Notes: Man, Jackie Chan. What are you doing? You've fallen to Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) levels. I didn't expect much, and that's what I got.

#23 Furry Vengeance (*)
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Madison loved this movie. And while it in no way can be considered good cinema (luicrous plot, terrible special effects), it's almost so bad that it's good. But it's still bad.

2010 Movies Relative Rankings (7/22)

Here is the list of movies that I saw at the theater in 2010. They are rated (0 to 4 stars) and ranked relative to each other. Check for newer posts updating this list with new movies as I see them.

Last Update: 7/22 - Splice, Predators

#1 Grease Sing-A-Along (****)
Place: Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar w/Audrey (subbing for Claire)
Notes: I hesitated to put this in at all because this movie originally came out in 1978, but I am including it for two reasons: 1) It is a movie that I saw in the theater in 2010 2) It's not technically the same movie. All the songs (except the intro theme song for some strange reason) have animated lyrics and extras on the screen. They decided to get creative when they animated the "Greased Lightning" lyrics because they say "shit" (#*@$) , "tit" (a picture of a cow showing her udder), "the chicks'll cream" (whipped cream), and "pussy" (a pussy cat, naturally). The animation was all well done. Apparently they spent $100,000 re-doing the film. It's definitely a new experience. FYI: Grease is the gayest movie I'll admit to loving. And the sing-a-long version is even more awesome.

#2 Toy Story 3 (****)
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Superb writing and direction. Funny and heart warming. The 3D and CG-ness don't even matter.

#3 The Kung Fu Kid (aka The Karate Kid) (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek with Madison
Notes: I really enjoyed this re-make/re-imagining. I have nothing but praise for Jaden Smith. His acting was quite good. He showed good range. His athleticism and martial arts skills were infinitely more believable than Macchio's. I enjoyed noting the parallels between the original movie and the new one. The story is still as far fetched as ever, but also still as fun. Jackie Chan was great too. The name is the worst part of this film as there is no karate in it.

#4 Kick-Ass (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: Enjoyable, aestheticized violence. Hit Girl easily steals the show. I never read the comics so no comment on adaptation.

#5 How to Train Your Dragon (***1/2)
Place: 3D Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Better than I expected. A bit preachy, but not overly so. Good use of 3D.

#6 Despicable Me (***)
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Entire Family (including Mom/Dad/Sister)
Notes: My parents and sister hadn't seen a 3D film in a long time (i.e. they don't have a 5 year old) so they were pretty impressed with the visuals. I'm more jaded. They were good, not great. The story was actually a little different than I expected, in a good way. My sister and Claire got a little teary-eyed, but it's not a sob story movie. Overall, it's a well made, enjoyable movie.

#7 Exit through the Gift Shop (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I saw this on Pete's recommendation. It's a documentary about street art. It was entertaining. There is no other way for me to describe it. It wasn't the best (King of Kong) or worst (Kurt and Courtney) documentary I've ever seen. The big hook, whether or not the entire thing was a hoax put on by Banksy, was irrelevant to me. I simply don't care. Unless you're really into documentaries or street art, I'd wait for it to show up on cable or on Netflix streaming.

#8 Iron Man 2 (***)
Place: In XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: I enjoyed it more than the original film. A bit too unbelievable even for a comic book movie. Iron Man does not have memorable villains.

#9 Shutter Island (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Well acted and directed. Interesting plot albeit with a pretty see-thru twist. Even still, I found it quite enjoyable.

#10 A Town Called Panic (***)
Place: Drafthoue Ritz w/Aaron
Notes: Saw this subtitled. It's stop motion animation, but technically, it's no where near the quality of Henry Selick's work. It was funny, but less so than I expected. Better if you're drunk/high.

#11 Get Him to the Greek (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I didn't know much about the film, but Pete had wanted to see it so I gave it a try. I knew nothing of Russell Brand going into this (his accent seemed almost fake at first.) The Drafhouse played his stand-up before the movie, and I could have watched just that for 2 hours. I found the movie very funny at times and more than a little bit sad in many places which I didn't expect. Couldn't stop thinking about how huge Jonah Hill was though.

#12 The Crazies (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Reminded a bit of Left 4 Dead. Pretty standard virus/zombie fare. It was basically a clone of 28 Days Later.

#13 Prince of Persia (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Pete
Notes: Better than I expected, but not great. The CG was abundant. High end production. I thought Chesty Jake was just fine as the Prince.

#14 Shrek Forever After (**1/2)
Place: 3D in XD at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Shrek's cultrual gags -were- cool, but they've gotten stale. The underlying story is pretty weak. I've seen better (and worse) kid's films.

#15 A Nightmare on Elm Street (**)
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: I like Jackie Earle Haley, and he does a good job as the new Freddy, but the make-up artist needs to get fired. He looks like he has Down's Syndrome. Also, the scenes were repetitive: isolate character, daydream, kill. Rinse. Repeat.

#16 Alice in Wonderland (**)
Venue: 3D at Drafthouse Village Baby Day w/Family
Notes: I love Tim Burton's twisted take on things, but this didn't work out so well. Maybe because Alice in Wonderland is already pretty twisted?

#17 Predators (**) NEW
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Aaron
Notes: I've only seen the original Predator movie, and it's been a while since I've seen it. I've heard nothing but bad things about Predator 2 and the Aliens Vs. Predator series. In any case, this movie was OK. Decent amount of action. Throwaway plot. Pretty standard stuff. I have to mention that the CG was pretty shitty though. It had the worst CG fire I've ever seen.

#18 Splice (**) NEW
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Discount Theater by myself
Notes: It's an Adrien Brody double feature! (I saw this the week before Predators.) While I had low expectations for Predators, I had high expecations for Splice. I saw Forrest's enthusiastic Facebook posting about this movie which piqued my interest. Now, I had never seen a movie based on Forrest's recommendation, but he seemed like someone that can appreciate good cinema. He even cited the director's previous effort, Cube. I loved Cube. Splice kinda sucked though. Ridiculous plot. Almost no suspense or horror. Terrible CG. And the strangest/grossest sex scene ever. No more recommendations from Forrest.

#19 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Lightning Thief (**)
Venue: Cinemark Plfuger w/Maddie
Notes: Say what you want in defense of the novels, but this is clearly an attempt to cash in on Harry Potter crowd. Far too little far too late.

#20 Youth in Revolt (*1/2)
Venue: Drafthouse Ritz Theater #2 w/Claire
Notes: I saw this because Master Pancake was sold out. That was a mistake. The story was terrible. The acting was mostly terrible. Michael Cera is the least talented 'actor' in recent memory. He plays himself in every single goddamn movie.

#21 The Spy Next Door (*1/2)
Venue: Cinemark Pflugerville w/Maddie
Notes: Man, Jackie Chan. What are you doing? You've fallen to Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) levels. I didn't expect much, and that's what I got.

#22 Furry Vengeance (*)
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Madison loved this movie. And while it in no way can be considered good cinema (luicrous plot, terrible special effects), it's almost so bad that it's good. But it's still bad.

2010 Movies Relative Rankings (7/17)

Here is the list of movies that I saw at the theater in 2010. They are rated (0 to 4 stars) and ranked relative to each other. Check for newer posts updating this list with new movies as I see them.

Last Update: 7/17 - Grease Sing-A-Long, Exit through the Gift Shop

#1 Grease Sing-A-Along (****) NEW
Place: Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar w/Audrey (subbing for Claire)
Notes: I hesitated to put this in at all because this movie originally came out in 1978, but I am including it for two reasons: 1) It is a movie that I saw in the theater in 2010 2) It's not technically the same movie. All the songs (except the intro theme song for some strange reason) have animated lyrics and extras on the screen. They decided to get creative when they animated the "Greased Lightning" lyrics because they say "shit" (#*@$) , "tit" (a picture of a cow showing her udder), "the chicks'll cream" (whipped cream), and "pussy" (a pussy cat, naturally). The animation was all well done. Apparently they spent $100,000 re-doing the film. It's definitely a new experience. FYI: Grease is the gayest movie I'll admit to loving. And the sing-a-long version is even more awesome.

#2 Toy Story 3 (****)
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Superb writing and direction. Funny and heart warming. The 3D and CG-ness don't even matter.

#3 The Kung Fu Kid (aka The Karate Kid) (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek with Madison
Notes: I really enjoyed this re-make/re-imagining. I have nothing but praise for Jaden Smith. His acting was quite good. He showed good range. His athleticism and martial arts skills were infinitely more believable than Macchio's. I enjoyed noting the parallels between the original movie and the new one. The story is still as far fetched as ever, but also still as fun. Jackie Chan was great too. The name is the worst part of this film as there is no karate in it.

#4 Kick-Ass (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: Enjoyable, aestheticized violence. Hit Girl easily steals the show. I never read the comics so no comment on adaptation.

#5 How to Train Your Dragon (***1/2)
Place: 3D Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Better than I expected. A bit preachy, but not overly so. Good use of 3D.

#6 Despicable Me (***)
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Entire Family (including Mom/Dad/Sister)
Notes: My parents and sister hadn't seen a 3D film in a long time (i.e. they don't have a 5 year old) so they were pretty impressed with the visuals. I'm more jaded. They were good, not great. The story was actually a little different than I expected, in a good way. My sister and Claire got a little teary-eyed, but it's not a sob story movie. Overall, it's a well made, enjoyable movie.

#7 Exit through the Gift Shop (***) NEW
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I saw this on Pete's recommendation. It's a documentary about street art. It was entertaining. There is no other way for me to describe it. It wasn't the best (King of Kong) or worst (Kurt and Courtney) documentary I've ever seen. The big hook, whether or not the entire thing was a hoax put on by Banksy, was irrelevant to me. I simply don't care. Unless you're really into documentaries or street art, I'd wait for it to show up on cable or on Netflix streaming.

#8 Iron Man 2 (***)
Place: In XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: I enjoyed it more than the original film. A bit too unbelievable even for a comic book movie. Iron Man does not have memorable villains.

#9 Shutter Island (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Well acted and directed. Interesting plot albeit with a pretty see-thru twist. Even still, I found it quite enjoyable.

#10 A Town Called Panic (***)
Place: Drafthoue Ritz w/Aaron
Notes: Saw this subtitled. It's stop motion animation, but technically, it's no where near the quality of Henry Selick's work. It was funny, but less so than I expected. Better if you're drunk/high.

#11 Get Him to the Greek (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I didn't know much about the film, but Pete had wanted to see it so I gave it a try. I knew nothing of Russell Brand going into this (his accent seemed almost fake at first.) The Drafhouse played his stand-up before the movie, and I could have watched just that for 2 hours. I found the movie very funny at times and more than a little bit sad in many places which I didn't expect. Couldn't stop thinking about how huge Jonah Hill was though.

#12 The Crazies (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Reminded a bit of Left 4 Dead. Pretty standard virus/zombie fare. It was basically a clone of 28 Days Later.

#13 Prince of Persia (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Pete
Notes: Better than I expected, but not great. The CG was abundant. High end production. I thought Chesty Jake was just fine as the Prince.

#14 Shrek Forever After (**1/2)
Place: 3D in XD at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Shrek's cultrual gags -were- cool, but they've gotten stale. The underlying story is pretty weak. I've seen better (and worse) kid's films.

#15 A Nightmare on Elm Street (**)
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: I like Jackie Earle Haley, and he does a good job as the new Freddy, but the make-up artist needs to get fired. He looks like he has Down's Syndrome. Also, the scenes were repetitive: isolate character, daydream, kill. Rinse. Repeat.

#16 Alice in Wonderland (**)
Venue: 3D at Drafthouse Village Baby Day w/Family
Notes: I love Tim Burton's twisted take on things, but this didn't work out so well. Maybe because Alice in Wonderland is already pretty twisted?

#17 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Lightning Thief (**)
Venue: Cinemark Plfuger w/Maddie
Notes: Say what you want in defense of the novels, but this is clearly an attempt to cash in on Harry Potter crowd. Far too little far too late.

#18 Youth in Revolt (*1/2)
Venue: Drafthouse Ritz Theater #2 w/Claire
Notes: I saw this because Master Pancake was sold out. That was a mistake. The story was terrible. The acting was mostly terrible. Michael Cera is the least talented 'actor' in recent memory. He plays himself in every single goddamn movie.

#19 The Spy Next Door (*1/2)
Venue: Cinemark Pflugerville w/Maddie
Notes: Man, Jackie Chan. What are you doing? You've fallen to Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) levels. I didn't expect much, and that's what I got.

#20 Furry Vengeance (*)
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Madison loved this movie. And while it in no way can be considered good cinema (luicrous plot, terrible special effects), it's almost so bad that it's good. But it's still bad.

2010 Movies Relative Rankings (7/12)

Here is the list of movies that I saw at the theater in 2010. They are rated (0 to 4 stars) and ranked relative to each other. Check for newer posts updating this list with new movies as I see them.

Last Update: 7/12 - Despicable Me

#1 Toy Story 3 (****)
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Superb writing and direction. Funny and heart warming. The 3D and CG-ness don't even matter.

#2 The Kung Fu Kid (aka The Karate Kid) (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek with Madison
Notes: I really enjoyed this re-make/re-imagining. I have nothing but praise for Jaden Smith. His acting was quite good. He showed good range. His athleticism and martial arts skills were infinitely more believable than Macchio's. I enjoyed noting the parallels between the original movie and the new one. The story is still as far fetched as ever, but also still as fun. Jackie Chan was great too. The name is the worst part of this film as there is no karate in it.

#3 Kick-Ass (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: Enjoyable, aestheticized violence. Hit Girl easily steals the show. I never read the comics so no comment on adaptation.

#4 How to Train Your Dragon (***1/2)
Place: 3D Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Better than I expected. A bit preachy, but not overly so. Good use of 3D.

#5 Despicable Me (***) NEW
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Entire Family (including Mom/Dad/Sister)
Notes: My parents and sister hadn't seen a 3D film in a long time (i.e. they don't have a 5 year old) so they were pretty impressed with the visuals. I'm more jaded. They were good, not great. The story was actually a little different than I expected, in a good way. My sister and Claire got a little teary-eyed, but it's not a sob story movie. Overall, it's a well made, enjoyable movie.

#6 Iron Man 2 (***)
Place: In XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: I enjoyed it more than the original film. A bit too unbelievable even for a comic book movie. Iron Man does not have memorable villains.

#7 Shutter Island (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Well acted and directed. Interesting plot albeit with a pretty see-thru twist. Even still, I found it quite enjoyable.

#8 A Town Called Panic (***)
Place: Drafthoue Ritz w/Aaron
Notes: Saw this subtitled. It's stop motion animation, but technically, it's no where near the quality of Henry Selick's work. It was funny, but less so than I expected. Better if you're drunk/high.

#9 Get Him to the Greek (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I didn't know much about the film, but Pete had wanted to see it so I gave it a try. I knew nothing of Russell Brand going into this (his accent seemed almost fake at first.) The Drafhouse played his stand-up before the movie, and I could have watched just that for 2 hours. I found the movie very funny at times and more than a little bit sad in many places which I didn't expect. Couldn't stop thinking about how huge Jonah Hill was though.

#10 The Crazies (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Reminded a bit of Left 4 Dead. Pretty standard virus/zombie fare. It was basically a clone of 28 Days Later.

#11 Prince of Persia (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Pete
Notes: Better than I expected, but not great. The CG was abundant. High end production. I thought Chesty Jake was just fine as the Prince.

#12 Shrek Forever After (**1/2)
Place: 3D in XD at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Shrek's cultrual gags -were- cool, but they've gotten stale. The underlying story is pretty weak. I've seen better (and worse) kid's films.

#13 A Nightmare on Elm Street (**)
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: I like Jackie Earle Haley, and he does a good job as the new Freddy, but the make-up artist needs to get fired. He looks like he has Down's Syndrome. Also, the scenes were repetitive: isolate character, daydream, kill. Rinse. Repeat.

#14 Alice in Wonderland (**)
Venue: 3D at Drafthouse Village Baby Day w/Family
Notes: I love Tim Burton's twisted take on things, but this didn't work out so well. Maybe because Alice in Wonderland is already pretty twisted?

#15 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Lightning Thief (**)
Venue: Cinemark Plfuger w/Maddie
Notes: Say what you want in defense of the novels, but this is clearly an attempt to cash in on Harry Potter crowd. Far too little far too late.

#16 Youth in Revolt (*1/2)
Venue: Drafthouse Ritz Theater #2 w/Claire
Notes: I saw this because Master Pancake was sold out. That was a mistake. The story was terrible. The acting was mostly terrible. Michael Cera is the least talented 'actor' in recent memory. He plays himself in every single goddamn movie.

#17 The Spy Next Door (*1/2)
Venue: Cinemark Pflugerville w/Maddie
Notes: Man, Jackie Chan. What are you doing? You've fallen to Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) levels. I didn't expect much, and that's what I got.

#18 Furry Vengeance (*)
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Madison loved this movie. And while it in no way can be considered good cinema (luicrous plot, terrible special effects), it's almost so bad that it's good. But it's still bad.

2010 Movies Relative Rankings (7/7)

Here is the list of movies that I saw at the theater in 2010. They are rated (0 to 4 stars) and ranked relative to each other. Check for newer posts updating this list with new movies as I see them.

Last Update: 7/7 - The Kung Fu Kid (aka The Karate Kid)

#1 Toy Story 3 (****) NEW
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Superb writing and direction. Funny and heart warming. The 3D and CG-ness don't even matter.

#2 The Kung Fu Kid (aka The Karate Kid) (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek with Madison
Notes: I really enjoyed this re-make/re-imagining. I have nothing but praise for Jaden Smith. His acting was quite good. He showed good range. His athleticism and martial arts skills were infinitely more believable than Macchio's. I enjoyed noting the parallels between the original movie and the new one. The story is still as far fetched as ever, but also still as fun. Jackie Chan was great too. The name is the worst part of this film as there is no karate in it.

#3 Kick-Ass (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: Enjoyable, aestheticized violence. Hit Girl easily steals the show. I never read the comics so no comment on adaptation.

#4 How to Train Your Dragon (***1/2)
Place: 3D Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Better than I expected. A bit preachy, but not overly so. Good use of 3D.

#5 Iron Man 2 (***)
Place: In XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: I enjoyed it more than the original film. A bit too unbelievable even for a comic book movie. Iron Man does not have memorable villains.

#6 Shutter Island (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Well acted and directed. Interesting plot albeit with a pretty see-thru twist. Even still, I found it quite enjoyable.

#7 A Town Called Panic (***)
Place: Drafthoue Ritz w/Aaron
Notes: Saw this subtitled. It's stop motion animation, but technically, it's no where near the quality of Henry Selick's work. It was funny, but less so than I expected. Better if you're drunk/high.

#8 Get Him to the Greek (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I didn't know much about the film, but Pete had wanted to see it so I gave it a try. I knew nothing of Russell Brand going into this (his accent seemed almost fake at first.) The Drafhouse played his stand-up before the movie, and I could have watched just that for 2 hours. I found the movie very funny at times and more than a little bit sad in many places which I didn't expect. Couldn't stop thinking about how huge Jonah Hill was though.

#9 The Crazies (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Reminded a bit of Left 4 Dead. Pretty standard virus/zombie fare. It was basically a clone of 28 Days Later.

#10 Prince of Persia (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Pete
Notes: Better than I expected, but not great. The CG was abundant. High end production. I thought Chesty Jake was just fine as the Prince.

#11 Shrek Forever After (**1/2)
Place: 3D in XD at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Shrek's cultrual gags -were- cool, but they've gotten stale. The underlying story is pretty weak. I've seen better (and worse) kid's films.

#12 A Nightmare on Elm Street (**)
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: I like Jackie Earle Haley, and he does a good job as the new Freddy, but the make-up artist needs to get fired. He looks like he has Down's Syndrome. Also, the scenes were repetitive: isolate character, daydream, kill. Rinse. Repeat.

#13 Alice in Wonderland (**)
Venue: 3D at Drafthouse Village Baby Day w/Family
Notes: I love Tim Burton's twisted take on things, but this didn't work out so well. Maybe because Alice in Wonderland is already pretty twisted?

#14 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Lightning Thief (**)
Venue: Cinemark Plfuger w/Maddie
Notes: Say what you want in defense of the novels, but this is clearly an attempt to cash in on Harry Potter crowd. Far too little far too late.

#15 Youth in Revolt (*1/2)
Venue: Drafthouse Ritz Theater #2 w/Claire
Notes: I saw this because Master Pancake was sold out. That was a mistake. The story was terrible. The acting was mostly terrible. Michael Cera is the least talented 'actor' in recent memory. He plays himself in every single goddamn movie.

#16 The Spy Next Door (*1/2)
Venue: Cinemark Pflugerville w/Maddie
Notes: Man, Jackie Chan. What are you doing? You've fallen to Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) levels. I didn't expect much, and that's what I got.

#17 Furry Vengeance (*)
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Madison loved this movie. And while it in no way can be considered good cinema (luicrous plot, terrible special effects), it's almost so bad that it's good. But it's still bad.

2010 Movies Relative Rankings (6/21)

Here is the list of movies that I saw at the theater in 2010. They are rated (0 to 4 stars) and ranked relative to each other. Check for newer posts updating this list with new movies as I see them.

Last Update: 6/21 - Toy Story 3 and Get Him to the Greek. Also changed format to be more readable.

#1 Toy Story 3 (****) NEW
Place: In 3D XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Superb writing and direction. Funny and heart warming. The 3D and CG-ness don't even matter.

#2 Kick-Ass (***1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: Enjoyable, aestheticized violence. Hit Girl easily steals the show. I never read the comics so no comment on adaptation.

#3 How to Train Your Dragon (***1/2)
Place: 3D Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Better than I expected. A bit preachy, but not overly so. Good use of 3D.

#4 Iron Man 2 (***)
Place: In XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: I enjoyed it more than the original film. A bit too unbelievable even for a comic book movie. Iron Man does not have memorable villains.

#5 Shutter Island (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Well acted and directed. Interesting plot albeit with a pretty see-thru twist. Even still, I found it quite enjoyable.

#6 A Town Called Panic (***)
Place: Drafthoue Ritz w/Aaron
Notes: Saw this subtitled. It's stop motion animation, but technically, it's no where near the quality of Henry Selick's work. It was funny, but less so than I expected. Better if you're drunk/high.

#7 Get Him to the Greek (***)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
Notes: I didn't know much about the film, but Pete had wanted to see it so I gave it a try. I knew nothing of Russell Brand going into this (his accent seemed almost fake at first.) The Drafhouse played his stand-up before the movie, and I could have watched just that for 2 hours. I found the movie very funny at times and more than a little bit sad in many places which I didn't expect. Couldn't stop thinking about how huge Jonah Hill was though.

#8 The Crazies (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: Reminded a bit of Left 4 Dead. Pretty standard virus/zombie fare. It was basically a clone of 28 Days Later.

#9 Prince of Persia (**1/2)
Place: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Pete
Notes: Better than I expected, but not great. The CG was abundant. High end production. I thought Chesty Jake was just fine as the Prince.

#10 Shrek Forever After (**1/2)
Place: 3D in XD at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
Notes: Shrek's cultrual gags -were- cool, but they've gotten stale. The underlying story is pretty weak. I've seen better (and worse) kid's films.

#11 A Nightmare on Elm Street (**)
Venue: Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
Notes: I like Jackie Earle Haley, and he does a good job as the new Freddy, but the make-up artist needs to get fired. He looks like he has Down's Syndrome. Also, the scenes were repetitive: isolate character, daydream, kill. Rinse. Repeat.

#12 Alice in Wonderland (**)
Venue: 3D at Drafthouse Village Baby Day w/Family
Notes: I love Tim Burton's twisted take on things, but this didn't work out so well. Maybe because Alice in Wonderland is already pretty twisted?

#13 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Lightning Thief (**)
Venue: Cinemark Plfuger w/Maddie
Notes: Say what you want in defense of the novels, but this is clearly an attempt to cash in on Harry Potter crowd. Far too little far too late.

#14 Youth in Revolt (*1/2)
Venue: Drafthouse Ritz Theater #2 w/Claire
Notes: I saw this because Master Pancake was sold out. That was a mistake. The story was terrible. The acting was mostly terrible. Michael Cera is the least talented 'actor' in recent memory. He plays himself in every single goddamn movie.

#15 The Spy Next Door (*1/2)
Venue: Cinemark Pflugerville w/Maddie
Notes: Man, Jackie Chan. What are you doing? You've fallen to Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) levels. I didn't expect much, and that's what I got.

#16 Furry Vengeance (*)
Venue: Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
Notes: Madison loved this movie. And while it in no way can be considered good cinema (luicrous plot, terrible special effects), it's almost so bad that it's good. But it's still bad.

All my Xbox 360's

01. Launch Xbox 360. Died after 2.5 years. Fixed.
02. Arcade Unit bought used while they were scarce. Sold to Sean.
03. Arcade Unit bought as 2nd unit for upstairs. Returned when I found Premium Version (#04)
04. Bought when I found a Premium 20GB version at GameStop while they were scarce. Went upstairs.
05. The Halo Edition X360. Sold #04 to pay for it. E74'd and fixed. CURRENTLY IN LIVING ROOM.
06. The 1st Elite. 1st with HDMI. Sold #01 (after being fixed) to Mike to buy it.
07. The Red Elite (Resident Evil SE). Sold #06 with a 20GB to buy it.
08. Bought another Red Elite after finding a better deal on Dell.com. Returned #07. DVD went bad. Fixed. CURRENTLY IN GAME ROOM.
09. Bought 3rd Xbox 360 Elite for bedroom. CURRENTLY IN BEDROOM.
10. Xbox 250GB Slim (TBD)

Places I like to eat at...

Places I like to eat at...

As often as possible:
Tacodeli
Rudy's
Salt Lick
Chuy's
Homeslice
Rounders
Alamo Drafthouse

On occasion:
Hut's Hamburgers
Casa G's
Charlie's Steakhouse
Mangia
Saccone's
Freebirds
Serranos
Texadelphia
Pluckers
Whataburger
Hooters
Macoroni Grill
Olive Garden
Gattiland
Culver's

Special Occasions:
Gino's
Hula Hut
Maggiano's
Buca di Beppo
Alamo Cafe (San Antonio)
Mi Tierra (San Antonio)

2010 Movies Relative Rankings

Here is the list of movies that I saw at the theater in 2010. They are rated (out of 10) and ranked relative to each other. Check for newer posts updating this list with new movies as I see them.

Last Update: 6/3 - Prince of Persia and A Town Called Panic added.

[New Rank - Old Rank - Highest Rank - (Score Out of 10) Movie/Notes] 
01 - 01 - 01 - (8) Kick-Ass
                   Drafthouse Lake Creek by myself
                   Enjoyable, aestheticized violence. Hit Girl
                   easily steals the show. I never read the
                   comics so no comment on adaptation.
02 - 02 - 02 - (8) How to Train Your Dragon 
                   3D Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
                   Better than I expected. A bit preachy, but
                   not overly so. Good use of 3D.
03 - 03 - 03 - (7) Iron Man 2 
                   In XD theater at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
                   I enjoyed it more than the original film. A bit
                   too unbelievable even for a comic book movie.
                   Iron Man does not have memorable villains.
04 - 04 - 04 - (7) Shutter Island 
                   Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
                   Well acted and directed. Interesting plot albeit
                   with a pretty see-thru twist. Even still, I 
                   found it quite enjoyable.
05 - ** - 05 - (7) A Town Called Panic 
                   Drafthoue Ritz w/Aaron
                   Saw this subtitled. It's stop motion animation,
                   but technically, it's no where near the quality
                   of Henry Selick's work. It was funny, but less 
                   so than I expected. Better if you're drunk/high.
06 - 05 - 05 - (6) The Crazies
                   Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
                   Reminded a bit of Left 4 Dead. Pretty standard
                   virus/zombie fare. It was basically a clone of
                   28 Days Later.
07 - ** - 06 - (6) Prince of Persia 
                   Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Pete
                   Better than I expected, but not great. The CG
                   was abundant. High end production. I thought 
                   Chesty Jake was just fine as the Prince.
08 - 06 - 06 - (6) Shrek Forever After 
                   3D in XD at Cinemark Pflugerville w/Family
                   Shrek's cultrual gags -were- cool, but they've 
                   gotten stale. The underlying story is pretty 
                   weak. I've seen better (and worse) kid's films.
09 - 07 - 07 - (5) A Nightmare on Elm Street
                   Drafthouse Lake Creek w/Claire
                   I like Jackie Earle Haley, and he does a good job
                   as the new Freddy, but the make-up artist needs
                   to get fired. He looks like he has Down's 
                   Syndrome. Also, the scenes were repetitive:
                   isolate character, daydream, kill. Rinse. Repeat.
10 - 08 - 08 - (5) Alice in Wonderland
                   3D at Drafthouse Village Baby Day w/Family
                   I love Tim Burton's twisted take on things, but
                   this didn't work out so well.  Maybe because 
                   Alice in Wonderland is already pretty twisted?
11 - 09 - 09 - (4) Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Lightning Thief
                   Cinemark Plfuger w/Maddie
                   Say what you want in defense of the novels, but 
                   this is clearly an attempt to cash in on Harry
                   Potter crowd. Far too little far too late.
12 - 10 - 10 - (3) Youth in Revolt 
                   Drafthouse Ritz Theater #2 w/Claire
                   I saw this because Master Pancake was sold out.
                   That was a mistake. The story was terrible.
                   The acting was mostly terrible. Michael Cera is
                   the least talented 'actor' in recent memory. He 
                   plays himself in every single goddamn movie. 
13 - 11 - 11 - (3) The Spy Next Door
                   Cinemark Pflugerville w/Maddie
                   Man, Jackie Chan. What are you doing? You've
                   fallen to Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) levels. I 
                   didn't expect much, and that's what I got.
14 - 12 - 12 - (2) Furry Vengeance 
                   Cinemark Round Rock Outlets w/Maddie
                   Madison loved this movie. And while it in no way
                   can be considered good cinema (luicrous plot, 
                   terrible special effects), it's -almost- so bad 
                   that it's good. But it's still bad.

Quick FAQ on Street Fighter IV Focus Attacks, by Rob.

Wrote this up super quick for a friend...

What are a FA's properties?

- It is initiated by holding down MP+MK. You must be on the ground.
- Can be cancelled by dashing out. This is known as a FADC (Focus Attack Dash Cancel). It's very important.
- It absorbs ONE (non-armor breaking) hit. The absorbed hit does 'white damage' which will slowly recover if you are not hit while it's recovering.
- It absorbs both jumping and ground attacks.
- It does not absorb throws.
- You cannot die from 'white damage'.
- It can launch a (counter) attack hit by letting go of MK+MP.
- You can enter into the FA stance immediately after doing a special move. It will interrupt the special move animation with a FA animation.

What kind of attacks can you do?

- It has three levels of attacks.
- Level 1 pretty much acts like a normal attack.
- Level 2 will crumple stun if it hits.
- Level 3 is unblockable and will crumple stun your opponent.
- Level/Strength of attack is determined by how long you hold MP+MK.
- Not all characters have the same 'reach' on their attacks. Experiment with each.

What are some uses for FAs?

- Absorbing hits. This is especially useful for dealing with projectile chracters or for punishing (countering) jump in attacks. If you're far away, it's almost always a good idea to Dash Cancel out of the FA once the hit is absorbed. That way you're free to move/attack again.
- Building up your Revenge (Ultra) Meter. The white damage you take while aborbing hits will still build your Revenge Meter up even though you get that damage restored to your health bar. If you notice you're almost at enough Revenge Meter to get an Ultra. Try absorbing a fireball or something from a safe distance to get it over the top.
- Advancing on your oppoent without jumping. You can absorb an attack and then dash cancel forward to move closer to your opponent without taking real damage or jumping.
- Baiting people to do things like jump. If you start a FA, people might try to jump over you. If they do, then just Dash Back (B, B) to cancel out and punish their jump.
- Setting up combos or throws. If you FADC after certain special moves, you'll be free to unleash a big combo or Ultra or simply escape.
Example 1:
- Ryu does a dragon punch that connects. This normally pops the opponent up and Ryu goes up too and then comes back down.
- If Ryu connects with the DP and then FA, then Dashes (FADC), he'll pop the opponent up, but then be free to do his Ultra which will juggle the opponent.
- The command would look like this:
1. Dragon Punch: F, D, DF+P
2. FA: MP+MK
3. Dash Cancel: F, F (Don't let go of MP+MK until AFTER the dash comes out)
4. Ultra: D, DF, F, D, DF, F+PPP

Shorthand: DP, FADC, Ultra

Example 2: Let's say the Dragon Punch is blocked. That's OK. Now we can just change the ending to either a throw attempt or a dash away into safety.
1. Dragon Punch: F, D, DF+P
2. FA: MP+MK
3. Dash Cancel: F, F (Don't let go of MP+MK until AFTER the dash comes out)
4. Throw: LP+LK

or Dash Away to Safety

3. Dash Cancel Backwards: B, B (Don't let go of MP+MK until AFTER the dash comes out)
4. Phew! You cannot be punished for getting your DP blocked!

Tips (I'll update this as I think of new tips):
- Don't spam the dash cancels. Hit F,F or B,B exactly twice. Don't hit F,F,F,F. The dashes are buffered. So if you get attacked and you FA, let get of MP+MK to unleash your counter and and immediately hit F, F twice and only twice. This should absorb the hit, counter with your own hit, crumple stun the opponent and then dash you right up next to him ready for you to pounce. Don't worry that the action kinda pauses for a split second during the animation. The dash is buffered and it WILL come out.

Caveats:
- Remember: if you are hit while you are recovering white damage, the white damage will disappear, effectively making it 'real damage'.
- Don't absorb TOO many projectiles back to back, because you'll take lots of white damage... and all it takes is ONE jab and all that white damage turns to 'real damage'.
- Get to know your opponents auto-multi-hit attacks (like Ken's Dragon Punch, Ryu's Overhead Punch, Juri's Pinwheel, etc) because those will hit twice (or more) so fast that they'll break through the FA which can only absorb 1 hit.
- Get to know which attacks are "Armor Breaking". These will break right through any FA, even on 1 hit. You'll know it's armor breaking because you'll hear a sound like glass breaking and little glass shards animate on the screen at the point of the armor break.
- Do NOT overuse FAs. They are another weapon in your arsenal. Don't just FA all day. Use them to Mix up your game. Make them afraid to jump in or throw out random sweeps.

Vegas 2009 Days 1 and 2

"Vegas 2009 Days 1 and 2"

Day 1

Well, it's that time of the year again... Vegas Time, Baby! I'm here for 14 days this year. Yeah, yeah, I know. That's a long time. I've heard it all before, but I know what I'm doing. I was here 10 days last year, and when I left, I felt like I still wasn't ready to go. So, I'll be fine. People that can only take Vegas for a few days are people that either 1) Lose or 2) Didn't come here to gamble. ;)

I took the 7:45pm direct flight out of Austin on Wednesday the 9th. Paying a little extra to take the direct flight was smart. Staying up 48 hours straight before taking my flight was NOT smart. Especially since I worked Wednesday. I mean, I was fine at work because my brain's being engaged, but afterwards... wow... yeah. Definitely not smart.

Now, usually I don't get a room the first night in Vegas. It's just a waste. I normally get there in the evening, and play all night and get a room the next day. But I knew that wasn't going to work this time. While waiting to board my plane, I started reading poker room reviews and found that the Startosphere had a pretty soft poker room. I didn't even know they HAD a poker room. I usually like to play all around town, so I figured I'd hit that for a change. I also figured that I could stay there cheaply. So I made a reservation for a room right before I got on the flight.

I was pretty dead on the plane. I was lucky in that I was able to find a window seat even though I was in the last 25% of the people to board the plane. So I leaned up against the window and tried to fall asleep. The flight was supposed to be 3 hours, but felt like 6. I kept waking up every 5 minutes thinking we were almost there. It was kind of a bumpy ride too. Good thing I had taken my motion sickness pills. I thought some apple juice would calm my stomach down, but I couldn't even finish it. The twinkling lights of Vegas below never looked so good to me when we finally got there.

After picking up my bags, I headed over to the airport shuttle area and was besieged by people trying to sell me limo and shuttle rides. I saw a sign that said "Shuttle Rides to the Strip $6." Sweet. Let's do that. I walk up to the counter and say "Stratosphere." The guy asks if I want a round trip. I reply that I didn't, and he reminds me that I can't buy return trip 'tokens' at the hotel. I understand. He repeats this and looks at me like I'm crazy. "Are you sure? I'm telling you, you can't buy return trips from the hotel," his voice becoming a little condescending now. "One way," I repeat. He looks at me again, still in disbelief. "One way!" I exclaim a bit firmer. "Nine dollars," he says. Wait a minute. $9? I'm looking at the sign again: "Downtown Vegas $9" Are you shitting me? Theycount the Statosphere as Downtown? Whatever. Fine. I pay the $9. He directs me across the street where there are like 4 shuttles waiting. "Over there by the... oh, we don't have any shuttle available right now. Just wait by the bench over there," he says. Great. I pick the one shuttle company with no fucking shuttles available. Did I mention it's 30 degrees outside? I'm pretty sure I didn't, but you know what? It's 30 degrees outside.

I finally make it to the Stratosphere, and I go straight for the check-in counter. I'm really, really fucking tired. And... there's a problem. Great. The check-in lady disappears for about 5 minutes and comes back. "Sorry, Sir. We don't have any of the rooms that you reserved, but we can upgrade you." Great, just do it, lady. They get me checked-in to a room with a jacuzzi tub. Nice. I go upstairs, and the room isn't half bad. It's pretty huge and the jacuzzi tub looks like it could be very relaxing. Let me just lay down for a bit.

A few hours later...

What? What time is it? Midnight. Shit. Well, there's Day 1. Total Losses: My consciousness. Total Wins: None.

Day 2

I splash some water on my face, brush my teeth and head out. I'm looking for something to eat. I haven't eaten since lunch. I find a McDonald's, but decide to keep going. Nothing is open on the retail shops level. I keep walking further in further down the maze like corridors and keep finding nothing but closed shops. Eventually I make it down some escalator and see two things, an all night 50's style burger joint, and the poker room. Burger. Poker. Burger. Poker.

So I walk up to the poker manager. "Got any seats?" I ask. "No, but you're first on the list," he says. Dammit. Well, at least the burger place is right next door. I walk over there and notice that they have waitresses. It's a sit down place. Crap. I'm not gonna go into a sit down place when I could be called any minute now. So I just wander around, staying close to the poker room. I see that they have two tables running. Upon closer inspection, one table is a tournament. The other is a pretty small stacked cash table. Eventually, they call my name.

Session 1

Statosphere - 1/2 No Limit Hold 'Em

This was a pretty soft game. A couple of crazy Canucks. An angry Texan (not me), a Freddy Deebs lookalike, and some non-descripts. Freddy and the Canuck to my right are the big talkers. I watch and stay out of they way for while. I see the Canuck take down a big pot with a pretty mediocre hand: an 8 high flush. But at least he knows how to play poker. Crazy Canuck #2 literally has NO idea what he is doing. The first hand he plays after sitting down: he calls down a few bets, including a $20 bet on the river, and prompty flips over 84o. Board was 7QK82. What the hell? When someone does something like this, it usually makes me think he's sandbagging. Acting drunk. Acting stupid. He really couldn't be THAT bad could he? Freddy is to his right and immediately turns into a free poker instructor. He's giving this guy tips and reminding him of basic poker rules like how much a legal raise is. I'm thinking... Freddy, this guy's playing you. He knows what's up. He's just acting dumb. He's hustling, man. No one is that bad. Seriously. Several hundred dollars later, CC#2 is busted and gone. Huh. Well, I guess he wasn't acting after all, eh?

I play pretty tight poker. I always figured if I don't get a big hand quickly, I won't get paid off because people will pick up on the fact that I play like 4-5 hands an hour. Didn't seem to matter. I'd make it $12-15 pre-flop with premium starting cards and take down the pot after a flop or turn bet. I never had to show my hands for the first 2 hours or so. Then I had a huge hand where I flopped top set with an 824 board. I checked, some old black dude bet. I raised. He called. The turn came a 9. I figured that it was time. I shoved all in for about $110. He calls pretty quickly. The ONLY thing I'm afraid of is 99. Did I get THAT unlucky that he called with an overpair 99 and caught it on the turn? Nope. He turns over 22. Set over set. Ouch. Oh, well, better him than me!

Soon I find myself at about $560. I bought it for $150. This is looking pretty good! I lose a few hands, and start bleeding. I'm down to about $450 or so and start thinking that I should just get up and get some sleep. The table starts to break up. I count my stack: $425. Alright. Time to go. Up $275 on my first session? Not bad. I'll take it.

I head up to bed, it's like 5am. I look at the jacuzzi. You know, I don't get a chance to use one of these things very often. Fuck it. I jump into the jacuzzi and relax. Ahhh. After about 15 minutes, I realize that if I don't get to bed, I'll get no sleep again because I'll have to check out at 11. I set my alarm for 10:30am and crash out.

Alarm. Snooze. Wake up panicked! Shit, what time is it? I don't want to pay for another day! 11:01am. Crap. I take another quick shower and gather my bags. I'm down to the lobby by 11:20am. No late check out fees. Whew! Alright. I head outside and see sunlight for the first time since I've arrived. It's could as fuck!

I jump in a cab. Excalibur!

A $20 taxi ride later, I get to Excal, my usually destination in Vegas due to their extremely soft poker room and low room rates, and check my baggage in with the bell hops. I'm off to the poker room. Now, if you recall, last year Excal had put in Electronic Poker Tables as a test. People hated them. So, they put in live dealer poker tables again. Boo. I kinda liked the electronic tables. They were fast, accurate, the rake was lower and you didn't have to tip. The players were still live. I could still tell when they were drunk, on tilt or just plain stupid. Plus, the tournaments were tons faster so it actually made the tournament a little less bingo-y since you got a lot more hands per hour. Anyway, at least the new tablse are nice. The old Excal live tables were kind of run down.

Session 2

Excalibur - 1/2 No Limit Hold 'Em

There was really only one memorable hand in this session. I have AKo. I'm in the small blind. (I seem to get all my playable hands out of position!) Some elderly guy makes it $7. Some other elderly guy calls. Everyone else folds to me. Now, EG#1 hasn't been playing too crazy, but he has overvalued some stuff. EG#2 is a crazy one. He's been raising to $12, $17 and $22 with junk for about 30 minutes. He's lost a lot and is definitely on tilt. He had left the table for a while and everyone else had been pining for him to return. Upon his return, he reloaded for $300. If anyone was going to pay you off on a hand, it was EG#2. I make it $22 to go. EG#1 calls. EG#2 calls. This isn't surprising, but I need to hit! KT2 flops. Two spades. I bet out $40. EG#1 raises to $105. Great. EG#2 calls. Oh, wow, WTF? I've been waiting for 2 hours to get a hand, and I've folded the winner too many times. I gotta be good here right? EG#1 probably has like QQ or maybe even JJ or KQ and has put me on a continuation bet and wants to push EG#2 out because he knows EG#2 will call to draw out. Right? Right? Ah, screw it. I'm all in for $115. EG#1 calls and EG#2 calls. Man, I'm starting to doubt my move. Turn comes a 7. No spade. EG#1 bets out $100 more. EG#2 inst-calls. Yeah... maybe I'm not so good after all. I turn to the guys to my right (EG's are both to my left) and I show them my hand. They're telling me that I'm good... I'm seriously doubting it now. River comes a 4. Again, no spade. EG#1 bets out another $100. Shit. EG#2 folds. Well, I can't be be good. I flip over AK for one pair Kings witgh an Ace kicker. EG#1 flips over KJ. WTF? Hahaha. I'm good? Ship that shit over here! I drag a $400+ pot. EG#2 was clearly on a flush draw. Whew! I'm up $260 for this session.

I text Louis, Slob, Mizzy and Dre to see if they've made it into town yet. Today is Slob's birthday and he and the gang will be in Vegas for 5 days. Sure enough, they're already here and already at the Craps table, and Dre is already down and has moved on to play Casino War. Yes, he's high carding for $10 at time. LOL.

I check into my room officially, and the gang wants to play a little poker before dinner.

Session 3

Excalibur - 1/2 No Limit Hold 'Em

This was a quicky session before dinner. I actually busted during this session with KK. I made it $17 from middle position and got 3 callers. Flop is 764 rainbow. I'm not fearing this flop much. I mean, you can always be up against a set and not know it, but I don't think anyone was playing 35 or 58 for $17 against me pre-flop. I bet out $35. 2 callers. Okaay. Turn is an 8. No flush possible, but the board is straighty. Check Check to me. I push in for my last $80. Call. Fold. Crap. Guy in small blind shows A5 for a straight. God. Really? A5? Come on.

I rebuy for $100 and through a series of medium sized pots, someone manage to claw my way back into he black. We break for dinner, and I'm up $8. :)

Margaritaville for Dinner. Volcano Nachos seem extra yummy today. Maybe it's because I hadn't eaten for about 36 hours. This was my first meal in Vegas! After dinner, the gang wants to head to Caesar's for some more poker. Ok, let's do it.

Session 4

Caesar's Palace - 1/3 No Limit Hold 'Em

This was a hard table to play at. I don't normally like to play at hardcore poker rooms like the Venetian, Bellagio, Caesar's, etc., because the players are way better. I mean, the guys at Excalibur are there with family and might stop by the poker room to play for a bit for fun. The guys at Caesar's are there to play poker, and that's it. Not to mention, the buyin max is $500, so I run into guys with huge stacks playing bully. Nothing too crazy happens here. I don't bust, and I don't win any huge pots. The story here is that I was surrounded by the most diverse cast of characters ever. I had a 30 something Type A Hollywood Movie Exec to my left with a 20 something piece of eye candy in tow. Eye Candy has the entire room fixated on her. She's the exact type of girl that I hate. She's hot and knows it and expects you to know it and expects to get her way with everyone because of it. She actually looks like a younger Jennifer Aniston with large fake breasts. The only good thing about her is that she's distracting TypeA and making him show off. While TypeA is there, he's buying champagne, cigars and texting on his Blackberry. Speaking of which, this man has a Blackberry, and iPhone and and iPod classic all on the table. Why the fuck would you carry all of those things? He also has headphones which he never uses and is almost always engaged with either Eye Candy or his blackberry. In between that, he straddle bets or raises nonchalantly with nothing. Did I mention that he is to my left?

We also have a know-it-all loudmouth and his roommate. They're wearing "I Donkeys" and "DonkeyMagnet.com" Tshirts. He contantly refers to his shirt if you beat him in a hand, and is never at a loss for words. Turns out he owns that website and is in the poker T-shirt business. He hands out his cards to whoever will take one and is just contantly talking and reminding everyone of how much better he is than they are. The bigshot that he is, he buys in for $100, puts on his sunglasses and busts out within a couple of hours. His roommate is much quieter and a much poorer player. He raised me preflop with K7s, I had AK. We ended up all-in on a flop with nothing for either of us. I win. MrDonkey, the 'brains', berates his roommate, and surprisingly... not me. MrDonkey claims that he will be on MTV in January on "True Life: I'm a Gambler". So, look out for that one.

We also have a grizzled veteran who loves giving MrDonkey shit. He's very aggressive and big stacked. The best part of this guy was that he calls out MrDonkey for taking forever to make a $10 call, from his roommate no less, by saying "You know we're not on TV, right?" You see, MrDonkey likes to talk out the hand, out loud, in detail, with commentary on play, every single time. he wants you to know that he knows what you're doing. This is what prompts MrDonkey to go into his "I'm going to be on TV" bit. Haha.

Finally, we had a celebrity at our table. I don't know his name, but MrDonkey recognized him first. He was the guy that played the Fiance in The Hangover. You know the regular Joe looking guy? Yep, he's a regular Joe. Nice guy. They were having a DVD release party for The Hangover at Caesar's so I guess he just came out to chill and play some poker. He was newbie. MrDonkey had to explain to him what a donkey was. Hangover guy thought it was a sexual thing. LOL. Another weird thing is that Hangover guy only bought in for $120. Jeez. I guess times are tough in Hollywood.

Oh, um, I made $10 in this game. It was worth sitting there folding for hours just for the sheer entertainment value of this table.

The last and the worst session of the night...

Session 5

MGM Grand - 1/2 No Limit Hold 'Em

Bought in for $150. Played pretty tight poker for about 2 hours and lost the last of it to a 10 high board with JTs to AT who simply wouldn't let top top go after being raised and bet at on the flop turn and river. He was pretty stubborn. Anyway, it was a good call from him for whatever reason he had to call. I rebought for $100 and built it back up to $210. Then the table broke and I moved to another table where I just sat there for, I'm not kidding you, 3 hours playing 0 hands. I had a pretty good read for the players and 4 of them were just completely crazy. One guy had $1000, the other ones had $800, $400, and $600. I was waiting.. and waiting... and waiting... until finally I picked up 78s and limped in on the button for $2. Flop was K78 two spades. Bet from a crazy guy, raise from another crazy guy. And I'm thinking... these guys CANNOT have two pair beat. They've been doing this shit all night long with garbage. The 1st crazy was already calling the 2nd crazy guy before he ever realized that that I had gone all in for $163 before him. He's in shock. He hasn't seen me in a pot in 3 hours. He very very reluctantly folds. 2nd crazy guy had only been there for about 30 minutes. Plus, he didn't give a shit and instantly calls. He has J8s two spades. This guy was a true douche bag loudmouth. He starts calling for a King, and the dealer immediately produces one on the turn. River is a blank. Douchebag counterfeited my two pair. I bust again.

Normally that's cause for me to leave, but the thing was, I wasn't playing poorly, I was unlucky. I shoved thinking I could get the looser players to fold when I had a good hand. They didn't. We raced, and I lost. I bought in for $200 (the table max) and proceeded to them flop two pair twice more. Once I got beated on the turn where someone turned a higher two pair, and another time where I flopped top and bottom with KT and lost to two players with AJ. Other than those hands I had NOTHING the entire time. No Aces, No Kings, No AK. I got a few small pocket pairs and AQo one time where nearly everyone had already folded by the time it got to me in late position and the blinds didn't call my raise. Everything else was shit like K7, 82, 73, A2, A6, J3, over and over and over.

After my last bust, I left in disgust. I was up $104 for the day, but I felt like I was down $1000. Now I have an idea of what it feels like to bust out of the WSOP in 10 place and being super bummed at winning $800,000. Most people come to Vegas and lose. I'm up. I just need to be -more- up. Day 3. Hurry up and get here!

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Vegas Trip 2009 Coming Up!

"Vegas Trip 2009 Coming Up!"

It's almost that time of year again. My annual 2 week trip to Vegas, Baby! I leave on December 9th. I'll be joined by various people while I'm out there. Louis, Slob, Mizzy and Dre will be there from the 10th thru the 14th, Claire will join me from the 15th thru the 20th, and Bogh is coming for 3 days somewhere in there. Should be exciting!

Just like I did last year, I'll be posting daily blogs of my Poker escapades. This time it'll be easier though because I'll be armed with a Gateway 2032u netbook and my jailbroken iPhone which will provide network access to my netbook whereever I may roam. I've even purchased an extended external battery for my iPhone... yep, I'm all set on the blogging front! In fact, I'm test blogging this on my new netbook using my iPhone as the internet modem. Pretty sweet!

Vegas Day 10

"Vegas Day 10"

Well, sad times. The babies were pretty sick. There was talk of having to put the little one in the hospital. At this point, Claire decides that she *has* to go home today... two days ahead of schedule. She makes the arrangements for the new flight, and we head down to the Excal poker room to meet up with the others.

Session 1: Excalibur 50c/$1 NL Hold 'Em

I couldn't really concentrate on this game. I played for about 45 minutes before we headed out to lunch. I made around $45.

With the group together, we decide to use our 24 hour bus pass to head out down the strip for some food. I'd been wanting Italian, and I got a few backers... but where do we get decent Italian food on the strip? We get on the bus without knowing where we're going. I bring out my iPhone and google Italian food on the Vegas Strip, and I get a lot of hits for restaurants in the Venetian. Well, that makes sense I guess. The Venetian is supposed to mimic being in Venice, Italy, right? They all sound pretty expensive, so I keep searching and find a review for Maggiano's. It's got a good rating, and they supposedly offer a great group/family meal deal. None of us had ever heard of it (turns out its a chain owned by the company that runs Chili's of all places... and that one is coming to Austin soon,) but it sounded good. So it was decided. We need the Fashion Show Mall exit.

We get there and the place looks kinda fancy. I feel under dressed in my Pac-Man T-Shirt. Everyone else in our party seems at least half-way well dressed. Drat. Anyway, we get seated in a room with a great view of the strip. I ask for a family menu, and man, it's awesome! For $20 per person, we basically get our choice of two appetizers, two kinds of salads, two main courses, two pasta dishes, and two desserts. Wow! A single bowl of Rasta Pasta at Rain Forrest Cafe was $20. This was a great deal indeed. But how as the food going to be? Well, as it turns out, fucking excellent! Best chain Italian food ever.

Halfway through the meal, Claire checks up on the girls. The little one still isn't doing well. They're at the doctor's office again. I start feeling really bad and decide to also cut my trip short. My biggest regret was not being able to go to that $6000 guaranteed free roll at Monte Carlo the next day. (Turns out Brent chopped at the final table at that very same tournament for like $600!) But I figured I really should leave.

After our excellent meal, we had back to the hotel. Claire sits down for a bit more poker, but I head up to the room to bring down our stuff and then go to the front desk to settle our tab. Sad times. I hate leaving Vegas. People were telling me that I was nuts to want to go for 11 days. It was Day 10, and I could have stayed another 10 days easily... if not more. Oh, well.

The end tally for myself was +$1451.75. Claire started to make a comeback, but ran out of time and ended up -$550 or so. After I paid the hotel, and you figured in the meals and airline tickets, it was probably dead even. So... you know, playing tons of poker and earning a free vacation wasn't so bad, right?

In any case, I can't wait until the next Vegas trip! :-)

Anyway, here are the final session stats:

TOTAL: +$1451.75

December 10th
-Wednesday- (+$185.50)
6:15p in Excal .50/1 $200buyin
8:30p out $224.50
(+$24.50 / 2hrs 15mins)

10:00p in MGM 1/2 $140 buyin
2:15a out $181
(+$41 / 4hrs 15mins)

2:45a in PH 1/2 $145 buyin
6:15a out $265
(+$120 3hrs 15 mins)

December 11th
-Thursday- (+$106.50)
7:30a in Venetian 1/2 $250 buyin
9:00a out $0
(-$250 1 hr 30 mins)

10:15a in Excal .50/$1$100 buyin
1:30p out $456.50
(+$356.50 3Hrs 15mins)

December 12th
-Friday- (+$140.75)
8:00a in Excal .50/$1 $200 buyin
8:45a out $275.50
(+$75.50 0hrs 45mins)

9:00a in Excal Tourney $20 buyin
10:00a out $0
(-$20 1hr 0mins)

10:00a in Excal 50c/$1 $145.75buyin
2:30p out $251
(+&105.25 4hrs 30mins)

11:30p in Excal $1/$2 $463.25 buyin
4:00a out $443.25
(-$20.00 4hrs 30mins)

December 13th
-Saturday- (+$400.50)
4:15a in Excal 50c/$1 $100 buyin
5:00a out $200.50
(+$100.50 0hrs 45mins)

1:00p in Excal Tourney $30 buyin
3:00p out $0 10th
(-$30 2hrs 0mins)

3:00p in Excal 50c/$1 $100 buyin
3:30p out $122
(+$22 0hrs 30mins)

3:30p in Excal $1/$2 $300 buyin
5:30p out $430.50
(+$130.50 2hrs 0mins)

8:15p in PH $1/$2 $200 buyin
11:45p out $354
(+$154 3hrs 30mins)

1:00a in Excal $1/$2 $300 buyin
3:15a out $323.50
(+$23.50 2hrs 15mins)

December 14th
-Sunday- (+$507.50)
5:00p in Excal $1/$2 $300 buyin
8:15p out $599.25
(+$299.25 3hrs 15mins)

6:30p Excal Bonus $50 raffle
(+$50)

12:15a in Binion's $1/$2 $200 buyin
2:00a out $291
(+$91 1hr 45mins)

3:30a in Excal $1/$2 $300 buyin
4:15a out $367.25
(+$67.25 0 hrs 45mins)

December 15th
-Monday- (-$48.50)
4:15p in Excal 50c/$1 $318.50 buyin
8:45p out $226
(-$92.50 4hrs 30mins)

8:45p in Excal $1/$2 $300 buyin
11:30p out $344
(+$44 2hrs 45mins)

December 16th
-Tuesday- (-$247.25)
12:00p in Excal 50c/$1$196.25 buyin
1:00p out $77.75
(-$118.50 1hr 0mins)

1:00p in Excal $30 tourney
1:45p out $0 20th
(-$30 0hrs 45mins)

1:45p in Excal 50c/$1 $264.75
3:15p out $0
(-$264.75 1hr 30mins)

4:00p in monte carlo 1/2 $195 buyin
8:00p out $310
(+$115 4hrs 0mins)

8:45p in Excal 50c/$1 $164 buyin
10:30p out $195.50
(+$31.50 1hrs 45mins)

11:30p in Excal 50c/$1 $100 buyin
11:45p out $119.50
(+$19.50 0hrs 15mins)

December 17th
-Wednesday- (+$331.75)
3:00a in Excal 50c/$1 $147 buyin
7:00a out $113.50
(-$33.50 4hrs 0mins)

2:15p in Excal $1/$2 &300 buyin
2:30p out $468.50
(+$168.50 0hrs 15mins)

5:15p in MC $2/$4 limit $100 buyin
5:30p out $131
(+$31 0hrs 15mins)

5:30p in MC $1/$2 $151 buyin
1:15a out $276
(+$125 7hrs 45mins)

3:00a in Excal 50c/$1 $100 buyin
3:30a out $140.75
(+$40.75 0hrs 30mins)

December 18th
-Thursday- (+$30.50)
1:30p in Mandalay $1/$2 $195 buyin
3:00p out $263
(+$68 1hrs 30mins)

7:00p in Sahara Tourney. $65 buyin
9:15p out $0
(-$65 2hrs 15mins)

12:00a in Excal 50c/1 $220 buyin
2:00a out $247.50
(+$27.50 2hrs 0mins)

December 19th
-Friday-
12:15p in Excal 50c/$1 $100 buyin
1:00p out $144.50
(+$44.50 0hrs 45mins)

Vegas Day 9

"Vegas Day 9"

Kind of a slow poker day for me. Claire's been in town a couple of days now, and as I've already stated, she's been running pretty bad. She's down almost $1,000 already, and honestly, I've kinda lost my focus. I'm grateful that we're collectively still up, but I'm a little dismayed that the majority of my profits, which took me the better part of a week to cultivate, have been wiped away very quickly by her horrible luck. And I want to stress here that despite her results, she *has* been playing quite well from what I've seen. It's mostly been very bad luck that's put her in such a large hole. Sure, I saw a hand or two that I might have played differently, but certainly, her decisions haven't been horrible ones.

So I woke up and the first thing I thought was "It's almost time to leave Vegas. That blows." Then I start thinking, "Two-thirds of the profits are gone. That really blows." I sigh, collect myself and head down to the poker room where we all seem to convene at the start of everyday. Everyone is there. Honestly, at this point, I'm not even really feeling up to playing. Maybe I need a change of atmosphere. I kept hearing about how the game at Mandalay Bay was an easy game. Maybe I should head over there. I convince the Price Brothers to take the short trip with me, and we're off for the first session of the day.

Session 1: Mandalay Bay $1/$2 NL Hold 'Em
We get to Mandalay Bay, and the poker room is pretty hoppin'. They've got about half a dozen table spread, but they all look full. This is a good thing as we're less likely to all end up on the same table. But as luck would have it, all the players cashing/busting out are from the table I sit at, so I end up with Brent and Brian at my table anyway.

The first thing I noticed are two old dudes speaking something that *sounds* like Spanish to each other. And they're speaking it alot. Enough that the dealer reminds that that it's "English Only" at the poker table. These guys don't care. They continue chatting it up in what might be Italian or Portuguese, and the dealer is such a pussy, that he lets them.

I watch the table play a few hands, and right off the bat I can tell these two foreigners are action players. They're in every hand raising and re-raising. If that weren't enough, we also had a crazy old Asian dude that loved to mix it up too. After a while, I spotted a couple of tight/aggressive players. And now I'm thinking, "Great. Mandalay Bay is easy, huh?" I tighten up and just watch everyone. This is probably the toughest table I've played at the whole time I've been here. I don't plan on staying too long.

I end up in a hand from the small blind with 5s 9d. Certainly not a great hand by anybody's standards, but I'll call $1 to see a flop with any two cards. The flop comes a friendly 3s 4s 6d. I check. Crazy foreigner #1 checks. Crazy foreigner #2 bets $10. Crazy Asian calls. The lady on the button calls. I call. CF #1 calls. WTF? That many draws? Spades and straight draws I guess. Turn comes Tc. Nothing for me or a spade draw. I check. CF #1 checks. CF #2 checks. CA bets out $20. Huh? A different guy bets the turn than bet the flop? Anyway... Button lady folds. I call. CF #1 calls. CF #2 folds. We're three now. River comes 7h. Bingo. I made my straight, but I'd have preferred a deuce. Still, I'm thinking I'll just check and see what happens. Crazy Foreigner #1 immediately goes all-in for like $120. Crazy Asian is now agonizing over whether he should call. He takes a good 2 minutes or so, and finally gives it up. Here's the interesting part. Crazy Foreigner #1 throws his hand towards the dealer, face down, past the betting line, and starts smiling. Hello? I'm still in the hand, dude! He was so focused on Crazy Asian that he had forgotten about me. I point out to the dealer that he mucked, and that I should win! CF #1 erupts in anger and snatches his cards back out from the middle of the table. Now, his "mucked" cards were well passed the betting line, but not touching the muck pile which had been collected into a neat stack by the dealer as soon as the river had been dealt. CF #1 all of a sudden is an English speaker. "I all-in!" "No!" "I all-in!" "I all-in!". "I no muck!" I laugh and ask for the dealer to get the floor over to the table. Dealer explains the situation to floor, and both players plead their cases. Me, using standard English like, "He threw his hand away." and CF#1 with "I no muck! I no muck!" As usual, the floor pussies out and rules against me. CF #1 is still huffing and puffing, and I'm still laughing at him. I tell him to settle down and take it easy. I call. We both show a 5 for a straight, and the dealer chops the pot. You know, I think if I had just let him go a letter longer, CF #1 might have had a heart attack. It was so funny. I tell him "Well, that was exciting, huh?!" He looks to CF #2 and says something in foreign-speak that sounded like he wanted a translation of what I said to him. CF #2 translates my comment to him, and he smiles at me. I smile back. What an idiot.

A few hands later I ended up with AKs (spades) in the small blind again. A handful of people called the $2 blind, and I popped it to $10. I got 2 callers. CF #2 and CA. The flop comes tiny cards, 2s 3d 7c. Not so good. I throw out a continuation bet of $15, CF $2 calls, and Mr. Crazy Asian decides to raise me to $30. Usually I throw my hand away at this point. I mean, I don't really have much of anything here but a pair draw and a couple of back door draws to a straight or a flush. However, I felt like I had been playing really tight and re-raise all-in to $90 might take the pot down based on my table image. This was, of course, assuming CA hadn't flopped a set. He was definitely capable of calling $8 more pre-flop with 22, 33 or 77. Still, I had him on an overpair like 99 or TT. So, I pushed. I went all-in for $90 total. $60 on top of his $30, and a re-re-raise. He called pretty quickly. I guess he had me on either AK (which of course was correct,) or he was just mesmerized by his overpair. He flipped over TT. Crap. I flipped over Ace King of spades. Well, I could still hit an A or K, right? Turn was a 5c. River was a 4d. No Ace. No King. The dealer starts shifting the chips to CA. But, waitaminute! I have a straight, Mr. Dealer! I bring that to the Dealer's attention and he's like... oh, of course... trying to act like he saw it the whole time. I call him out on it and ask him flat out, "You didn't see my straight, did you?" He responded, "Of course I did." Yeah, right. I tell him that I'm going to tip him $1, but nothing more. He grunted.

Well, after that mess, I decided I'd had enough of Mandalay Bay. I ended up +$68 after everything was said and done.

The Price's didn't do so well. Brent lost $200, and Brian and Sean were down for the session so it didn't take much convincing to get them out of there.

We decided to head down to Margaritaville for dinner, and after that, I convinced people that we should go to the Sahara for their famed 7pm tourney.

Session 2: The Sahara $65 NL Hold 'Em

For $65, the Sahara offers a pretty decent tourney. It's pretty well known as probably the best bang for the buck tourney in Las Vegas. To be clear, I say $65, but it's technically $40 with a $25 rebuy/addon. You can use the rebuy up front (which in effect makes it an add-on,) or wait until you actually bust to rebuy. The odd thing is that if you bust, and you already used your rebuy, you can re-enter the tournament one more time as a 'new player' and get a new buyin with another re-buy option. You only get to do this once though, so it's not like it's an infinite rebuy tourney.

In any case, being the smart poker player I am, I oped to load up with my rebuy/addon as soon as possible. As anyone who plays poker knows, chips are power. Why wait? Anyway, first hand of the tournament, and the guy to my right and the guy to my left are all-in after the flop. No shit. It's AK vs. KK and the flop comes AKx. Ugly. The 2nd hand of the tournament. I get AA, I raise, one guy calls. The flop comes small cards... something like 9 high. He bets, I raise, he calls. Turn comes an Ace! He bets, I raise, he goes all-in. I call with a set of Aces. He's got JJ. Blank river. I win! That's two all-ins on the first two hands!

I sit on my stack for almost two rounds. I made a few raises and took down a few small-ish pots here and there. Meanwhile, the guy that had busted on the first hand had re-entered the tournament as a new player. And his luck had dramatically changed. By the end of the 1st break, he was by far the biggest stack of the tourney. It was crazy the number of chips he had. I was a pretty big stack, and he had me like 10 to 1. He just kept busting people, and they kept sending us new ones. I hang around for another round or two when I finally pick up a decent hand. AKs (spades). I raise a pretty good amount from the button with about 3 limpers and the two blinds yet to act. The ultra big stack is in the Big Blind and as agonizing over his hand. He's correctly pegged me as a tight player, but he ultimately ends up calling. The flop comes all tiny cards. He checks and I push all-in for about 2x the pot (sounds familiar, huh?) I probably could have just checked behind him, but I definitely couldn't just bet out with a continuation bet. The blinds had grown enough by then that I would have basically committed myself anyway with any decent bet. So, I bet it all. He thought for a little while, and finally nervously called. I showed AKs... nothing really. He had JJ. Turn and River were blanks, and I was done.

I looked over to see how Claire was doing. And not only was Claire still alive, but she was the big stack at the table! Apparently she had hit a set of 8's and got paid off pretty big. Well, it finally looked like Claire's luck was chaning! She stuck in there and played pretty a tight/aggressive game. She ended up taking down a couple more big pots and was basically in a position to cruise to the final table. There were 97 entrants in the tournament, and they were paying the Top 10 (final table.)

The prize breakdown was retarded. It was *heavily* weighted towards 1st place. I mean, like 60% of the payout was 1st and they were paying 10 places. I hate that. I agree that 1st should be well compensated, but it seemed way out of whack for a tournament that was run pretty quickly. Claire ended up surving and making it to the final table without a problem. Soon after they lost their tiny stacked players, the table offered an 8-way chop. Since the payouts were so heavily skewed towards #1, and everyone knew that one bad hand could make them go from 1st to last, they all opted to take it. Claire was paid out $450 for her efforts which netted her a nice $385 profit. Thing were looking up for her!

We got back to the Excalibur near midnight, and decided to play a bit more 50c/$1.

Session 3: Excalibur 50c/$1 NL Hold 'Em
I'll be honest, I don't remember a thing from this session. I made $27.50 in 2 hours. That's about all I can say about that.

By this time, Claire had been keeping close communication with her mom and the kids back home. Both kids had gotten pretty sick, and the little one, only 5 months old, was on a nebulizer treatment every four hours. Basically, she had to wear a mask that vaporized medication that she could inhale. She had some sort of bronchial infection (not bronchitis) that was making it very hard for her to breathe. Claire was seriously contemplating had back home a couple of days early...

Vegas Day 8

"Vegas Day 8"

This was a turnaround day. I was up +$331.75.

The first session is basically a continuation of Day 7.

Session 1: Excalibur 50c/$1 NL Hold ‘Em
Claire had been running bad. I mean she was losing with great made hands. Top pair/top kicker to two pair. Two pair to straights. Sets to flushes. That kind of shit. So we decided to take a break for a really late snack at Fatbuger around 2:00am. This was like, I don't even know... my 3rd time to Fatburger in a week? I was getting pretty sick of it. Anyway, after the break we returned to Excalibur and started this session at 3:00am. At this table, there was a crazy old Texas coot named "Murray". Murray was one of those guys that you felt bad watching lose over and over. I mean, he was a horrible player, sure, but you have guys at the table you want to see lose and guys you're like "Aw, shucks." when they lose. Murray was an "Aw, shucks." guy. He constantly misplayed his hands and pretty much made bad decisions whenever he could make them. He would go all-in for $75 with AA pre-flop with $2 in the pot. Or all-in with J9 with an AK9 board for like $60 into a $30 pot and 3 people behind him. He lost over and over and kept reloading... all the time getting drunker and drunker. And you sorta feel bad for the guy, and then.... Claire picked up Aces, made a pretty good pre-flop raise, and there's ol' Murray again. He goes all in for like $100 on a 9 high flop, no straight or flush possible and $15 in the pot. Claire thinks for a while, but if you'd been watching him play, he could have anything. Pocket deuces, two pair, Ace high. Who knows? Claire calls, and Ol' Murray has a set of 6's. Wow. I don't feel bad for Murray anymore. Now, he's a dick. That's about all I remember from this session. I ended up getting up from the table after Claire busted. I was down $33.50.

We go to bed.

Session 2: Excalibur $1/$2 NL Hold ‘Em
I wake up around 1:30p and Claire and Brian were already down at the poker room. I shower and head downstairs where I find Sean sitting down at the table next to theirs waiting for Brent to show up and for Claire and Brian to get up from their session so we can all go to lunch. I take a seat next to Sean, and we try to decide on a place to have lunch. Well, we sit there and sit there and sit there and Brian and Claire are still playing. Max might have been playing too. I have to note here that Sean and I were pretty much permanent residents on the "interested" list for a $1/$2 game, just waiting for a game to make. All of a sudden, we notice that the table where we were sitting at, you know, just killing time, lights up and shows a $1/$2 game starting literally right under our noses. Sean and I look at each other for a second and then immediately log in for $300 each. Four other dudes show up within a few seconds, and then we hear them blare out over the PA that a new $1/$2 game was starting. Sweet. The game lasted for 22 minutes. No kidding. Within 22 minutes Sean and I had busted three of the four players. Granted, everyone but Sean and I bought in for $40 to $100 each. But in 22 minutes I was up $168.50... just waiting for Claire and Brian to get up from their game. Not bad.

After finally prying Brian and Claire (and Max?) out of their seats, we head out to lunch at Hooters.

It's raining pretty hard and cold as a motherfucker, so after Hooters we decide to take a cab to the Monte Carlo. I had to rack up like 4 more hours of playtime at the MC poker room to get into their $6k freeroll on Saturday, and every else wanted to check out the casino.

Session 3: Monte Carlo $2/$4 Limit Hold ‘Em
All 5 of use show up at the MC poker room, and of course, they want to seat us all together on a new table. Yeah, no thanks. We didn't travel all the way to Vegas to play each other. We can do that back in Austin for free. So we decide to wait for open seats at one of the three $1/$2 games they already have running. After about 10 minutes, I say "Fuck, it." and ask for a seat at the $2/$4 limit table just to kill time. I convince Brent to take a seat next to me. Now, I hadn't played limit in a looong time. I knew it was a very bad game to play, but I was just gonna have fun for a bit. And holy crap... that game is horrible. There is no way you can beat the rake. The pots are tiny and they rake just as much as they do in NL. Plus, after you tip, you're lucky to make $5-6 per for a good made hand. The funny thing is that Brent and I won every single pot we played for the first 6-7 hands. Either Brent or I would take down the pot playing crap like 68o and just getting lucky. Brent gets called up to take a seat at the $1/$2 game right as the dealer is about to deal him in. Brent declines the card so I get it. It's a Jack. Next card I get... another Jack. Sweet. I raise and get 2 callers. I flop a set of Jacks and raise and re-raise as much as I can (which isn't a lot.) I take down what seems to be a monstrous pot, and after tipping and rake, I'm up a whopping $32 total after winning like 4 pots in 10 minutes. Right after that win, I get called up to $1/$2.

Session 4: Monte Carlo $1/$2 NL Hold ‘Em
I'm sitting to the left of Brent, and after about 15 minutes, Claire gets sat at the far end of our table. Curiously, there are 3 couples on this 10 person table.

Claire continues to have horrible luck. On one hand, some guy raises pre-flop in early position to $8. She re-raises to $25. The guy goes all-in for about $90. Claire calls. Claire flips over KK. Guy sighs and shows QQ. Flop... nothing. Turn Queen. :-( River. Nothing. Guy doubles up. About 10 minutes later, Claire decides to re-load for another $100. Immediately, she picks up another big hand. A loose aggressive player limps in, Claire raises to $10. Guy goes all-in for about $100 total. Claire calls. Claire has KK again. Guy has AA. She does *not* suck out a win. That $100 she had *just* reloaded... gone. Some time later, she flops a set to my flush. She makes a Q high flush to my A high flush, and loses pretty much every single way that you can lose with good hands. It's pretty ridiculous.

Meanwhile, I'm down to $30 from my $150 buy-in. I limp in for $2 with 67o from the Big Blind with damn near the whole table in. The flop comes 578 rainbow. That's about as good as I can hope for folks. I got a pair, and I'm open ended. I bet out $6. Loose-aggressive guy to my right raises to $15. Everyone start folding around until it gets to a guy in late position. He calls. I'm thinking... I got like $22 left. I go All-In. Loose-aggressive guy calls. Late position guy? He goes all-in for like $200. Great. He's got something huge. Guy to my left folds, and it's heads up all-in. I flop over the pair and the open ender. Guy flips over the nut straight: 69. Pfft. I'm pretty much drawing to a split. Turn comes 7. Trips. River comes a 5. WTF? Runner Runner Boat! Haha. I win! I looked this up. I was 2.42% to win that hand. Meanwhile, Claire's losing with monsters. Anyway, I drag the $90+ pot and proceed to turn that into $276.

One other thing to note about that table, the dealers were inconsistent. On one hand, I had KQs on the button and everyone was limping. I raised to $6 and got some callers. The flop comes all unders and the checking train starts. Check. Check. Check. Check. So I'm thinking... I'll take this down now... I'll bet $30. I go to put in my bet when the dealer starts to protest. I look to my right as I'm about to lay down my bet. Brent's betting. WTF? Brent's in this hand? And he's betting? OK, well, I'll just pull my money back and fold. Nope. Dealer's like. "You have to call or raise." I'm like "What? It wasn't my turn." He's like. Well, you were putting in $30 and he already put in $20. I protest, "But it wasn't even my turn when I put money in!" He sticks to his guns. I have to call or raise. Fine. I fucked up. I'll put in $20. Everyone else folds. Brent and I check it down. He's got JJ. I totally miss. Boo. But I'm OK with it.

About 10 minutes later. It's raised to $6 and I fold. I watch the action go around and the guy on the button throws in $11 across the betting line. I'm thinking... that's sorta weird. Why didn't he just throw out $12 or $10. Next thing I know the dealer is saying "Did you mean to raise?" The guy's like, "No, I meant to call." The dealer says, "He calls. Make it $6, sir." I was perplexed. I let the hand play out, and then I ask the dealer, "Why did he get to take back his bet pre-flop when he made a legal raise?" Dealer says, "Because he didn't mean to raise." And I say, "Aren't you the *same* dealer that made me put out $20 when I accidentally bet out of turn?" He's like, "Yeah, but that was different." And I'm like, "How's that different?! We both made legal bets!" His response? "Christmas spirit." I'm stunned. Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck that guy. I never tipped him again. I was very close to telling him that I couldn't wait until he was replaced by a machine (a la the electronic tables at Excalibur that NEVER made mistakes,) but I bit my tongue because I thought Claire was geting embarrassed at my protesting. Anyway, it's true. Within 5 years, live dealers will be the exception rather than the norm. And hopefully, only the *good* dealers will survive.

Session 5: Excalibur 50c/$1 NL Hold ‘Em
On our way back to our room... we wandered back into the Excalibur poker room and played a bit more. Nothing much went on here. It was a short 30 minute session. I made about $40.

I'm really starting to appreciate the electronic tables...