1:10 am in my third hostle, am gonna give you the adult photo book this time.

Just after crossing the Golden Gate bridge for my first time ever, my mood the highest it would be probably all day. The fog would follow me for all 350 miles I had planned for over 95% of the coast. It was a wet, cold, and gloomy fog, and throw in the fact that the Shoreline Highway (CA-1 from Frisco to the 101 right by the drive-thru redwood tree, which I didn’t see cause they wanted to charge me $3 and I went all Chainsaw on their asses) is extremely windy (wine-d) and windy (wind-y). Took me 3.5 hours to cover 100 miles to here:

This was Gualala (Gua-La-La… love it), cool spot little town on the beach, and my last look at sunlight until I would leave the coast and head through the redwoods. I severely underestimated the road and ended up pushing it really hard and still didn’t make it to my destination, the Redwoods State Park Hostel, until 10pm. Everybody was asleep lol. Woke up at 8:30, made coffee and pancakes with a Euro named Adam and a family from Rhode Island, then left to head north for a bit before finding a hotel somewhere and playing online.

Shortly after crossing the Oregon border I pulled off the highway to check out a “viewpoint” which turned out to be a steep trail but this old dude told me that if I “ride my motorcycle over there by that guard rail there’s a parking lot that cars can’t get to where the trail is easier.” Seems like he knew what he was talking about so I found myself riding my laden street bike along a dirt singletrack against traffic just separated by a guard rail, and sure enough after 75 yards or so I found an old parking lot. Prob from before the guardrail, it was just before a bridge crossing. So I walked down the trail.

Mid hike the fog lifted pretty much for good. I’ve had it awesome for the entire Oregon coast and have loved it. About 30 miles later I came across this gem of a beach:

Just before leaving I met a couple on a bike who recommended Bandon, OR for my next stop, and they hit the nail on the head. T’was perfect. Got an awesome room cheap, played online, took 15th in the 75k by punting while recording live for PokerVT, and then headed to the bar. The ones in Old Town were closed, so I ended up at the Quarterdeck in Uptown (no more than half a mile up river from old town). This was an awesome dive bar experience and several of us were in like a six person karaoke rotation, with the KJ throwing in the occasional Scaryoke where he picked the song for you. He made me do Sloop John-B by the Beach Boys in honor of my “thongs” (Rainbow sandals). We were having a great time until this awesome (in the lol way) greasy redneck sticks his head in the door, yells at Courtney (the hippie chick with the awesome voice who now was a jeweler in town and has lived here all her life), and two girls walk out the door with their tails between their legs. Then the bartender said 12:45 to the KJ, things died, and I went to the hotel.

Next day I packed the bike, put on all my gear, and pulled onto the 101. Caddy-corner to the hotel is a restaurant that looks awesome, and it was. My picking awesome restaurants while riding by skill has been top notch this trip, I’ve had some amazing meals. 100 yards later I take off my gloves, camel back, helmet, glasses, iPod, leather jacket, and head into the diner.

So after the day before being my favorite stretch, today got awesomer. The whole Oregon coast is just amazing. I’m sure I could spend just a week here, but I think if I took my time thaaat much Shelley would kill me before I got back to Vegas.

After riding past mile after mile of sand dunes on my left and forest on my right north of Coos Bay the road returned to the coast and climbed a hill. Near the top was the crowded Sea Lion Caves, too crowded for my taste but I stopped in for a break anyways. I got suckered into paying $11 because the cave is the largest sea cave in the US and they had an elevator down to it. Glad I did:

From there I left the parking lot and got stuck about six cars behind a construction truck in the only lane going 12 mph with a LED sign that said “Do Not Pass, Wet Paint.” I assumed that this couldn’t take long, followed, and we went like 3 miles at this speed. When he pulled off I passed those 6 cars super fast like, and the guy was yelling at me or something. Apparently the paint I passed over was still wet. Then why did he go so slow only to pull off early is what I yelled back at him, but I don’t think he heard me. I made it across the bridge to Newport, saw the Rogue Brewery and decided to stop in for a tour, but got distracted on the other side.

This lighthouse was open to go snoop around in and I took advantage of that, my helmet on the whole time because I thought it was gonna be a quick stop. I spent enough time there that I thought it’d be better to continue along, and I’m glad that I did. I came to a turnoff about 70 miles from my destination called the “Three Capes Scenic Loop”. I rode for about ten miles through awesome country, and then finally found the spot I was looking for.

The sandbox there turned out to be a hang glider launch spot, dedicated to a dude that died this year and was a pioneer of the sport. I spent about 20 minutes chilling out there. Way off in the distance are three islands and I could see that the middle one was an arch. I kept going, eager to get a closer view.

I then continued along the backside of the third Cape, found another lookout point and lighthouse, and spent some time at another awesome place.

Tomorrow I head up to Rick Fuller’s place, then into Canada on Wednesday.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Since it’s my birthday today and they close the gate at 11pm, that means that I have 4 hours to get somewhere and back. We get the children’s edition blog today:

I camped here night two. Night one was in LA and the garbage man is loud in the morning.

I hung out with these kids Kelly and Yudi who have been on the road since May and went to CU Boulder.

This is what my campsite looks like at 7:30 am!

This is where I met Mike and Mike. And Andy.

Hooooooray bunge cords!

The sun brought great happiness to the land.

This is Point Sur Lighthouse, where tours happen at 10am and 2pm on Saturday and Sunday!

A blonde woman, mid 30’s and good looking, got out of the Ferrari wearing Rainbow sandals. God bless America. She even talked to me.

Kite Surfers

This was just another turnout.

We miss the sun.

The End!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

PS - And to all the UB haters, stop hating. I’m not being immoral or irresponsible with this decision.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

So the WSOP was, well, disappointing. I mean, it could have been much worse, like zero cashes, but scoring a 26th (that made a $20 pay jump at 32), a min+1 cash in a $1500, and a 2/3 min cash in a $2500 is not going to put you in the positive when all is said and done. I lost $400 in cash games over 74.25 hours. I played a lot of damn cards, worked over 250 hours, and lost about $60,000 in the process. And some of y’all think this is living the dream :). It’s not all roses.

The good news, though, is that I’m still in the Venetian $5k main event with an above average stack. The gooder news is that I can win this thing, get out of makeup, and put a lil money in my pocket. The goodest news is that I have like twelve months of run-good stored up from the quarter million downer that I’ve enjoyed for the last year plus. Unfortunately though, there’s a ton of sickos still left.

So I started tapping into that run good today. Things always seem to go just the worst right before things get good, and this last week was torture. This Sunday I played the Dream Team event as team PokerVT with Jon Turner and Adam Junglen. The registration guy was very laughibly visibly disappointed that Jon/I were replacing Daniel. So thirty minutes in some stripper to my right open limps at 100-200 (10k starting stacks). I raise to 800 w/AKo. Somebody representing “TheMavenVT” and “Ari’s Training Center” (Ari, love you. David, don’t know you. I think y’all are brilliant businessmen. But I also think it’s all pretty lol, in the like lol you guys are nuts for trying can’t believe you’re getting away with this but *shrug* wp way)… so this guy re-raises to 2200, I go arr-in for 10,800 effective, he snaps with AQ, queen on the window, turn me the nut diamond draw, brick. Next hand I shove 800 or so TT UTG+1, another one of “them” (there was like eighteen of them) calls me on my immediate left with A7o, I have my backpack serving its function and am standing up on the turn because I knew the ace was coming on the river. BJ Nemeth lol’d at me. He’s like, “You were good on the turn and leaving. You must think you are cursed.” I was getting there.

I get home at 3:15pm, get to register for the 500 and the 750k which I’m stoked about, and within half an hour I play this hand. SB limps, I raise the BB at 150-300 to 2.9x with AA. Flop 862r, check, I bet, he raises, I shove, he snaps me with 56o, I go bust.

**** poker.

So, I spend the rest of the night playing a game called Pandemic 2 where basically you are the intelligence behind the life cycle of a worldwide outbreak. First you choose Virus, Bacteria, or Parasite. Then you randomly show up in one of 30 world regions. Your goal is to evolve the disease expertly enough to wipe out the entire worldwide population. I felt better by 3am, even though I only won once. Several times I just got stuck on Madagascar or Japan and wiped out the rest of the world so felt fine knowing that the Earth could be repopulated by animals that like to “move-it move-it” and the world’s greatest jet-ski and motorcycle manufacturers.

*disclaimer* I’m not really serious, just giving you a first hand look at how a poker player feels at the end of a long WSOP. */disclaimer*

So, on to the Venetian main event. $5k gets you 20k in starting chips. A $10 staff bonus (tips basically) gets you an extra 5k in chips.

…

Blinds start at 50-100 with 25k effective except for the guy who looked like a monk in the 9 seat who said he was against tipping. Kidding (Thay3r). I’ve had retarded tables every table, with no more than two good spots at any given table ever. So, I’ve had to make spots. New guy to table raises, I call JJ, they can’t help but squeeze cause they’re all sick ****s, they do, we shove, they fold. BadBeatSlayer raises, Mexican dude calls, we have XX on the button. Re-raise. JForest comes to table, he opens in late position, I shove Q3o. Those were all today, yesterday I flatted ATo on the button v. a cutoff open with a 22 big blind stack partially to induce a squeeze from the big blind, he did, I called, had the best hand, and held.

And, I finally turned on the run good. After getting 2 outed for a 50k pot early in day 2, dropping me to 20k, from there I shoved 99 and beat KQhh. Next hand open/4bet shoved 33. Folded until moving to a new table, folded for 2 orbits, found AQcc in the BB when a 15bb stack opened, I shoved, ran into AK, and made a running club flush. I was rooting for the board to double pair. Then an orbit later I opened the button, they folded. Opened the cutoff, a sicko in the SB re-raised to 16k, I StandUpAndHighFiveTheDealerFirst shove 90k w/TT, he snaps with JJ, we flop a ten and hold. That was the last actual hand that I had and happened 4 hours before the end of play. For the rest of the day we all took turns outplaying each other and I chipped up to 271k when we popped the bubble, then blinded down to 241k to end day 2.

Anyways, people have gotten better at poker. It sucks.

Lastly, one big piece of news. This weekend I was offered and accepted a short term endorsement deal with Ultimate Bet. I have agreed to wear a UB logo in every tournament I play until Aruba in the first week of October as well as blog a few words here and there for their site which should be fun with the motorcycle trip coming up. I’m very happy with the progress they’ve made in the past year, and am pleased to have the opportunity to work with the company and meet everybody involved higher up while in Aruba. I’ve been wearing their logo the last two days and made my first day 3 this summer :).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

I busted my ass this year and have had disappointing results. I got sleep every night, I didn’t party, I played a tournament almost every day and cash games in between. I made sure to take time off and got to the lake and Mt. Charleston. I ended up three for twenty-something, 26th or something in $1500 HORSE, min+1 cash in the $1500 LHE, and a 2/3rd’s min-cash in the $2500 Mixed Hold’em. I lost about $500 in cash games over like . I’m behind in my prop bets, fixing to lose about $1500 (unless Fricke and I can cash for more than Gavin and Seebs in the main).

So, I’ve been super busy, and haven’t had anything too exciting to talk about. The show has gone well, I’ve been happy with that. I got my jet ski back last week and rode it yesterday, that was sweet. I mean, I can’t really complain, but I am disappointed with how this year’s Series has gone, esp with me putting in more effort than any other year.

I play the main tomorrow and am pretty excited for that. Due to divorces and death threats this will only be the 2nd year that I’ve played the main, and after getting 300 big blinds in last year with the nuts and having no chance to win, I’m ready for another go. Still have two tables going this Sunday, started well with a 3rd in the $100 PLO/8, am probably even for the day freerolling these two.

What I’m most excited about now though is that I’ve decided to ride my motorcycle cross continent. Planning on leaving July 22nd, head from here to LA, up the Pacific coast to Vancouver, across the Canadian Rockies through Banff, Calgary, across the Canadian midwest as fast as possible to Minneapolis, and to Chicago by Aug 7th for Lollapalooza. Stay for Phish on the 11th, leave the 12th for Court on the lake in North Carolina, hang there for a week. Fly back for Legends, play, come back to NC, ride South around Florida, across the Gulf Coast, hopefully hit a hurricane on the way, and return to Vegas through Colorado.

That’ll yield some good blogs :).

Peace and good luck,

Devo

Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »