This morning I woke up a bit groggy after developing a fever, stuffy nose and brutal cough Monday afternoon. Jared came over at 10:30 am, and while chatting in the driveway I talked him into going to the market to get half a gallon of milk and some make stuffy noses go away medicine. I was wearing tan slippers, blue pajamas with white bucks on them, and a brown fuzzy hoodie. For Christmas I bought my Yaki tribe American Indian roommate a fiberglass recurve bow with some arrows and a bag for goofing off in the backyard. It’s been a big hit, tons of fun for everybody, and we were chatting about that. That got us talking about this dude named Lenny that I met at the lake who is a bowhunter and how I wanted to get into it. I was trying to talk Jared in to getting into it with me, and after his speech of, “Give me $3 so I can afford a burrito at El Pollo Loco” and said burrito, I talked him into going to the Sportsman’s Warehouse with me to look at them, and then talked him into buying a bow with me.

Yes, one half mile trip to the supermarket led to Jared and I walking back into the house almost five hours later with two compound bows and all the toys to go along with them. Boy these things are fun too :). I’m stoked to get two of us into it so now I have a hunting buddy right here in Nevada rather than on the other side of the country in Washington.

Christmas time is awesome. You get awesome stuff, your buddies get awesome stuff, and while buying awesome stuff for your buddies you inevitably buy awesome stuff for yourself.

Soooo, anyways - Christmas was awesome. Had a good time in San Diego as usual, picked up Shelley Tuesday afternoon, drove her to her Mom’s house, and was home the night of the 23rd. Finished shopping on the 24th, had a good dinner with Grandpa and Grandma, and that’s getting tough since my grandpa is getting pretty old. He’s 84 and thought he was 82.

Christmas day was great, spent the morning with my fam, went and picked up Shelley, and then we all went to fam’s place in Orange County. Love love love love love them! The gift exchange went great, basically everybody contributes a $20ish present and we exchange them white elephant style. Everybody got what they wanted!

Mi mum

Friday afternoon Shelley launched an adventure to, well, somewhere. We just knew that we had our first weekend off together. We were thinking of going to Kernville to chill and to pick up the rafts for some trips around here this summer. Instead of the snow, since the day was so beautiful we decided to go to Santa Barbara, with a loose plan of wine tasting.

We walked into the first place around 3:30 pm, Summerland winery. A few years ago Maria Ho and I had a bottle of their Pinot Noir and it was almost lifechanging. Needless to say my favorite bottle ever. I found six of them at a Ralphs this summer, drank them within a week, and have never seen them other wise.

About 5:30 pm we walked out with 30 bottles of wine and a membership to the wine club :).

Turned out to be an awesome weekend, we did some tasting up near Solvang in the Santa Ynez valley. Only wish we had more time. Gavin and I’s bet kinda threw a little bit of a wrench in the system and I was forced to use the “dump wine here” bucket for the first time in my life, but I’m still good with just a few days more to go to ship what is now a $500 bet.

Been playing a bunch online lately, super happy with my play but only disappointing results to show for it. Been running poorly in the cash games as well lately, but nothing too bad. Just a couple thousand or so.

Off to the PCA on Saturday, super stoked for that, then Biloxi on the 13th, and LAPC in February.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Last night I found myself sitting on a bicycle riding downhill toward Garnet street on my way to meet friends on a “Ugly Christmas Sweater Pub Crawl.” These were all the details I knew. They went shopping earlier in the day for gear and had left me a sweater. Not only was it hands down the ugliest article of clothing I have ever worn, it was also subtly amazing. There was this old hairy man head stuck to the sweater with a miniature pick. Little yellow thing. Ugly as all hell.

Anyways, not only was it ugly, it wasn’t even warm. I was freezing as I was rolling downhill toward the bar, jingling my bike bell at the drunk people on the sidewalk making fun of my sweater. At that point I realize that they could be getting me. If they were, they were doing it perfectly. In fact, it’s so brilliant that I’m going to have to do it to somebody. Alas they were not getting me, and this is right after a shot of jack, a sip of bud light, and a shot of jack, queue pic.

Turns out though that chicks dig ugly Christmas sweaters. Shelley was like, “You’re going to an ugly Christmas sweater party without me??” While ordering another bud light, I was, er, I dunno. What do you call it when beautiful women want to talk to you only because of an ugly ass sweater? And wtf btw. I talk to more hot chicks in a short period of a time than ANY OTHER TIME AT A BAR this year due to this f’n sweater. Note to self: F fashion, dress ugly to meet hot chicks.

The one on my right in the above pic is the one that started it all. Something like oh my god how much for your sweater to which I responded “One dollar.” It was sold, however I wasn’t going to be allowed to get out of the thing that easy. I guess ugly Christmas sweater parties are the in thing this year and this thing was in demand.

Anyways. So I’m in San Diego. PB. Last week was started with the $15k five diamond main event, that went horribly, making it to day two with 15,800 (we started with 45k), and then on the 2nd hand in my big blind playing 400-800/100 the cutoff opened to 2300, I found 98ss and shipped, and the damn nut nine high didn’t hold over his kings. That afternoon I don’t think I did a single productive thing, however I did finish the solo campaign in End War (sick game. RTS with voice command, a first ever for gaming and just as cool as nerdy imo). I also got into NHL 09, probably the sickest sports game I have ever played, and the first time since 2005 that I’ve gotten into a sports game. The rest of the week was filled with taking care of things, and I got everything done yesterday at 2pm and drove south.

Wednesday was pretty crazy. I was at the lake in the morning and had to drive back the north route because Railroad Pass was closed due to snow. Snow? Yeah, it snowed again here in Vegas. Best one since 1979 though, and there’s still snow in my backyard. We got 6″. The craziest moment was when I was driving in 4wd past the boat and motorcycle with christmas lights on them (on one of the side streets by my house a house put up Christmas lights and did the boat. About three or four days later their neighbor put up lights, moved a motorcycle to the front yard, and put lights on it. <3 rednecks. As I was driving past this, watching the kids build snowmen between the boat and bike, I was passed by a snowmobile on my left.

I live in Las Vegas valley and I was passed by a snowmobile at 6pm Wednesday evening while driving down the street. LOL.

OK that’s all.. I’m probably not going to be playing many tournies as I’m going to be taking a bunch of time off in the next few weeks, but am super stoked for the bahamas and am leaving on the third. Talk atcha later :).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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I’m tired, but just thought I’d let y’all know that I’m still in, 85k at 3-6/1k, 13 left playing for a quarter mil. I had 50k like 3 hours before dinner, couldn’t ever break out, and have been grinding 10-30 bigs for most of the tourney.

GL me.

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Can’t believe it’s been a week since I updated. So, here’s what I’ve been up to:

Wednesday (before Thanksgiving): Woke up, packed, *sigh*ed at the rain, and drove south. What wire is loose in my loom that makes me depressed when it’s cloudy for one of the five days per year here? I mean seriously. The bar up the hill will give everybody that walks in it’s doors one free drink any day that the sun never shines. The last time they had to do it was early December, 2006. No joke. They may have had to give away teh booze on the day before Thanksgiving too. Could you imagine?

“Honey, the honeybaked ham will be ready in twenty minutes and my father will be here anytime.”

“Gotta go to the backstop honey, they’re giving it away up there!”

So, it’s the one gloomy day of the year and naturally that makes me feel gloomy. It kinda woulda been nice to make a fire and brew a pot of my favorite French Roast/Hazlenut Cream (thanks Lars) blend of coffee. Instead I drove to LA, with a stop at Fish’s place to swap glasses back, and hung out with the fam.

Almost immediately upon arrival I have this interaction with my little brother. He just turned 18 and the entire family is feeling old as a result. We’re all sitting on the couch and he asks if I want to read his paper. I say, “Sure, da me lo.”

“Isn’t it ‘lo me da’?”

“Ummm, no, I’m pretty sure that it’s ‘da me lo’.”

“No, it’s ‘lo me da’, wanna bet?”

Now, I’ve never seen this kid make a bet ever, but I’m pretty sure I’m good here.

“You got action. How much?”

He digs into his pockets, empties them, counts several wadded up bills, and ships it on me. Damn kid goes all-in. “Twelve bucks.”

I’m laughing now. I’m like really? You’re that sure? Mom’s over there chuckling, saying he’s in Spanish II, but damnit I used to live in Mexico and I actually have interacted with people that actually speak Spanish, but the kid just shipped it!

He comes out of the computer room like 5 minutes later and sheepishly hands over his twelve bucks. Busto. Those three Bud Lights I bought that night at the country bar were delicious :).

Thursday was Thanksgiving and awesome. I loooooooove my extended family.

Friday I left early to drive down to Fallbrook where Shelley’s family lives. I got there and we went to see their horses down at the stables. Now, this was my first encounter with an English riding stable. I’m just going to say that where I come from the horses have way more fun. It was all very proper really, plus I got grilled by step-father in such a way that almost had me driving back to Vegas. It was one of those “oh you live in Vegas and ‘gamble’ for a living I know what you’re like” kind of attitudes that drives me nuts. Things recovered nicely though and we talked shop for a good half hour that afternoon. His job is pretty fascinating as he’s the manager for master-plan developments, from start to finish. He did Anthem here in Vegas for example. He was involved in the land swap with BLM that was a sick bluff to get the land all the way to the final property being built. We talked about the similarities of our professions, calculated risk, return on investment percentages, etc., and it was good dialogue. Yeah, so basically what these developers did was swap 100ish acres in Lake Tahoe for like 5,000 acres of desert south of Vegas. Long story short they made the Tahoe property seem very valuable to the BLM and the desert un-valuable. They make the swap, get Henderson to annex the land, re-zone for whatever it is they want, grant permits for whatever they want, and *poof* you have Las Vegas’ version of Agrestic. The perfect utopian community. And a gold mine for the developers. And damn they got in and out at the right time, eh? I have a buddy who bought a place in there in 2006 for like 350k, and it’s worth something like 225k now. Oops.

Anyways, we drove back to Vegas without hitting any traffic remarkably. Saturday was the start of the Bellagio Five Diamond with a $1500 NLHE. They dropped a bunch of the buy-ins last minute back to how they were in 2006 and I think I like it. It’s a trend that’s going to continue across the board imo and has to simply because there is less money in the poker economy these days. I dodged having to buy noodles by sucking out on Kathy Liebert in a silly spot, and honestly cannot remember how I busted sitting here Wednesday morning. Poker tournaments are such a blur.

The good news though was that I busted in time to make it to the Palms and see The Smashing Pumpkins. I was super stoked for this show. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was the first (two?) CD that I ever bought. Right along with The Presidents of the United States. She’s lump, she’s lump, she’s lump, she might be dead. Lump lingered last in line for brains… hahaha that’s gonna be stuck in your head all day now. I had a Duran Duran and Depeche Mode cassette in there before that, but it’s still a special band for me. Shelley and I got there right on time, ran into Jon Turner and Tracey at the door, and before the show started I said, “I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those shows I remember for the rest of my life.”

Well, it wasn’t. I mean, I’ll always be able to say I saw em or whatever, but, meh. It was unanimously disappointing.

I get a text while peeing during the show:

“are u standing next to me or is this your long lost twin brother? oh its zj btw.”

While walking back I respond, “I’m moving now, I’m at the Pearl.”

I go back to Shelley, bout fifteen heads back right in front of the bassist. Justin Bonomo taps my shoulder. LOL. He’s standing next to Shelley on the other side of her, had been for the whole show pretty much. We ended up going to Naked Fish after, what seems to be turning into the poker player’s favorite sushi place, and we almost ran them out of fish. Good times.

Sunday was, well, Sunday. This one was quick and painless, getting me done nice and early so I could go to the bar and un-asplode my head. My truck would end up staying there that night, however, and here’s why:

Gavin and I made a bet in Vancouver while drunk with these conditions. I must buy a breathalyzer. Upon delivery of said breathalyzer, 30 days from that point I cannot drive my truck without first passing a breathalyzer test. It doesn’t matter if it’s noon and I just woke up, I still gotta take one. I also have to video it. And, if I blow a .08 or higher, I cannot drive the truck. Or any other vehicle (obv in the spirit of the law). One thousand dollars.

He might win for the simple pain in the ass-ness of the bet. It’s annoying to do every morning. Thing takes 60 seconds to count down and warm up, then I gotta blow, wait, all while being videoed knowing that I don’t know what in the world Gav’s going to do with this video. The whole not driving while over the legal limit is a pretty good habit to have and I’m glad to have the thing in the truck.

So, truck stayed there Sunday night. Monday I rode the skateboard back to the truck. My poor manager Katie. She e-mails me and says, “Give me a call when you get a chance so we can catch up.” I decide that while rolling down the street on a skateboard, this is a good time for a business call. Makes sense to me.

Get the truck, come home, decide to play online, decide to play 10-20 PLO, and decide to quit after two hands where I got a guy to bluff off $1k to my top two pair blind vs. blind. I love PLO. And Euros. And Russians. And Brazilains. And especially northern Europeans. Man, I remember when somebody said “batshit insane crazy player” you automatically pictured that Vietnamese guy down at the Commerce. The Asians don’t get enough love for being crazy anymore thanks to Poker Stars and teh intranet. It sure is fun though, when contemplating some tough call, to hover your mouse over their avatar, see “Sao Paolo” or “Svinsk” and instantly start high fiving roommates on your way to the call button :).

Tournies went not so well that night, as I blew brains quickly once again, went back to the bar once again, and left my truck there once again. Turns out that gambling on over/unders at the bar with a breathalyzer is both fun and profitable.

Tuesday, woke up, won $ online, rode motorcycle to favorite Mexican place in Las Vegas, ate much Mexican, read some Watchmen, rode back, gave $ back + interest and late fees online, sucked at tourneys again, and was at the bar (again) by 8pm.

Same cabbie as the night before took me home, then the same cabbie took the rest of my roommates home. Turns out this cabbie is a local legend. The first night, my 0.14 ass is giving directions in the back seat. “And then turn right on Shamrock, and it’s down…”

“Just past that big blue boat? That, eh, eh, piece of ship or whatever?”

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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