Sorry for the lack of updates, been a hectic week.
First off, my girlfriend's dad had a stroke Saturday night/Sunday morning. He seems to be doing ok, we visited him on Sunday.
Poker has been ok this month. I started out doing pretty well the first two weeks in terms of volume of games, falling slightly short of my 150 game goals. The third week was a waste, I was too stressed out and had too much going on to really play much.
Tonight I'm going on a little brewery tour with two of my friends, Tom and Clay.
We're leaving from Chicago this evening and heading to Holland, Michigan to New Holland brewery. We'll then be in Grand Rapids tonight for Founders, and stay the night there. My old 6 max buddy JJ will be meeting up with us for the first leg of the tour.
Tomorrow we'll head to Battle Creek/Kalamazoo/somewhere else I forgot, to go to Arcadia, Bell's and Dark Horse breweries before heading to Cleveland to hit Great Lakes and Willoughby before staying in Cleveland. I'm trying to have a drink with bcm and his brother bpmst that night, but I know he's moving into his new house so it may not happen.
Friday we'll head to Pittsburgh and to "Church Works Brew" or something similar to that for lunch. It's a brewery in a former church, the pics online looked really cool.
From there we'll head through DC to Delaware to DogfishHead brewery and spend the night there.
Saturday we'll head to downtown Philly and to Monk's Cafe, one of, if not the best Belgian beer bar in the US. We'll try to hit an Iron Horse brewery on the way out in the suburbs before getting to Selinsgrove Brewery in middle PA for early evening brews. We'll likely spend the night in Pittsburgh or Cleveland on Saturday and then head home on Sunday.
I'll have pics and beer reviews in the 2p2 beer thread (located in the lounge) and I'll throw up anything decent on here when I return.
I bought a Sprint broadband card for the trip with the laptop, so I may get a few games in, but not likely many, if any.
If by any chance you are in one of the cities I mentioned above and would like to grab a drink, feel free to leave a message on the board here and I'll contact you. Or PM me on 2p2 (ChicagoRy is my username), I'm not sure if I'll be able to get into my email on the road.
Until then, gl with the games.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Beer Tasting and Power Outage
Last Wednesday we had a beer tasting. Myself and my friend Clay had 4 of our beers on hand at my place, and our friends Tom and Steve brought over 3 of their own. We even bought a few cheeses to go with the different styles of beer, and grilled some hot dogs and burgers as well.
It went over really well, I was pretty impressed with their beers. They have been brewing for about 6 months (probably a year for Clay and I). They've had some struggles and almost quit a few times, but I really enjoyed their beers. Their stout was very flavorful and chocolaty. Their grapefruit ale tasted like it should have, and though I don't enjoy grapefruit, I did enjoy this beer. And finally, their maple syrup golden ale didn't really turn out as good as expected. They had some carbonating problems that hurt this beer, and despite 3 separate injections of maple syrup, it had no maple syrup flavor evident at all.
On our end of the tasting, we served our "dark witbier." It's kind of a new thing going on in Montreal/Quebec right now, based on some old recipes. We looked at a base recipe for this Belgian beer in a magazine and boosted the abv to 6.5%, changed the amount of coriander, dried licorice root and star anise as well as the time we added it to the boil. We also added our own little touch, using honey tangerine peels in the boil. This really made the beer, it is so refreshing and has a great Belgian yeast taste. The small amount of hops we used are just for balance. Very happy with how it turned out.
Our second beer was our hoppy red ale, or "Indiana Red Ale" IRA. Kind of a long story about the naming of that beer, so I'll skip it for now. This is a pretty solid red ale, very flowery aromas and pungent, almost smooth hopping, though it is very hoppy. Really good, off hand I think it's 6% abv.
We then went with our Imperial Stout. This was 8% abv, boosted by a little late sugar addition bc we weren't efficient enough with our grains. Vanilla lactose and coffee were added, the former at the flameout, the latter after the second ferment right before kegging. It's a very good beer, the coffee amount was very key this time. We added a little less lactose than our last stout, at the same time as the coffee. It wasn't very evident in the beer, however. I was pretty happy with our latest stout, I think we're only one or two batches away from our "ideal" stout. I think we're going to boost the chocolate malt, lactose and alcohol in the next batch and add some orange peels to make a little "orange chocolate dessert stout." 11% ABV sounds about right for a nightwarmer.
Our last beer was our previous "milk/coffee stout" that was 6%. It's very roasty and the coffee is really evident. There are strong hints of vanilla and perhaps some sort of dark fruit in it. Good beer, but more of a specialty beer for us rather than our "holy grail stout."
----------
So as you might recall, I have a 150 games a week requirement for myself.
Well, I had 10 games in by early Saturday afternoon, then went to pick up my mom's car at the auto shop and bring to her house. Turns out a huge line of storms were hitting and I ended up staying there for like 3-4 hours. An F1-F2 tornado swept through the area, damaging a lot of neighboring towns along the path, also knocking out the power in my town. We saw the huge funnel pass right over my mom's neighborhood, I was out back watching it with my brother. Leaves were falling from the sky, as well as the occasional stick.
The point is, I fell a little short with my games. I ended up at about 130 I believe, and would've had my goal if I wasn't screwed by our power problem. My town wasn't even hit with high winds or really much lightning, our power just goes out way too much.
I ended up spending the night on our deck. We picked up some firestarters and put them in our little tiny grill and made a fire. My buddy and I got a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label and just bullshitted out there all night. Two guys from a few houses away that I know from high school came by as well to hang out for a bit. All in all the night was somewhat salvaged.
Our power was restored sometime between 3-5am, but went out this afternoon again for a few hours. We didn't even have storms today.
I went golfing this afternoon after a little bit of a rain delay, and on the 6th hole about 30 minutes south/west of my house we could see huge damage from the tornado. It touched down about 100 yards from the golf course, leveling a house, a barn, power lines and trees. It was pretty crazy.
I shot a rough 111, but this is a much harder course than we usually play. Still, I think I had 3 drives over 150 yards, I was just all over the place with my drives today. Nubbed a few, got under a few others and popped em up, just couldn't get it right until the last 3 holes. On the last hole I cracked the ball about 230-240 down the middle through a choke in the fairway. I always manage to hit a good drive on this hole, but this one was probably my best drive of the year. I've been using a 3 wood to drive the last few times out, my driver is messed up and I need to get a new driver head.
I also sunk an 80 foot or so putt from the fringe today, if it weren't for the fact that I was on the fringe and the ball hit the pin and went in I'd of probably been off the green. My speed was just way too fast but my line was pretty good for the speed. That saved me a bogie, ha.
Back to poker, I'm going to try to add the games that I missed due to the storm to the rest of my 3 weeks of the month. I realize I've only accounted for 28 days in my "150 per 7 days" goal for June, so I should also have a few extra days of play. Topping 600 games would be huge for me.
I'll have some other stuff coming up to talk about soon as well.
It went over really well, I was pretty impressed with their beers. They have been brewing for about 6 months (probably a year for Clay and I). They've had some struggles and almost quit a few times, but I really enjoyed their beers. Their stout was very flavorful and chocolaty. Their grapefruit ale tasted like it should have, and though I don't enjoy grapefruit, I did enjoy this beer. And finally, their maple syrup golden ale didn't really turn out as good as expected. They had some carbonating problems that hurt this beer, and despite 3 separate injections of maple syrup, it had no maple syrup flavor evident at all.
On our end of the tasting, we served our "dark witbier." It's kind of a new thing going on in Montreal/Quebec right now, based on some old recipes. We looked at a base recipe for this Belgian beer in a magazine and boosted the abv to 6.5%, changed the amount of coriander, dried licorice root and star anise as well as the time we added it to the boil. We also added our own little touch, using honey tangerine peels in the boil. This really made the beer, it is so refreshing and has a great Belgian yeast taste. The small amount of hops we used are just for balance. Very happy with how it turned out.
Our second beer was our hoppy red ale, or "Indiana Red Ale" IRA. Kind of a long story about the naming of that beer, so I'll skip it for now. This is a pretty solid red ale, very flowery aromas and pungent, almost smooth hopping, though it is very hoppy. Really good, off hand I think it's 6% abv.
We then went with our Imperial Stout. This was 8% abv, boosted by a little late sugar addition bc we weren't efficient enough with our grains. Vanilla lactose and coffee were added, the former at the flameout, the latter after the second ferment right before kegging. It's a very good beer, the coffee amount was very key this time. We added a little less lactose than our last stout, at the same time as the coffee. It wasn't very evident in the beer, however. I was pretty happy with our latest stout, I think we're only one or two batches away from our "ideal" stout. I think we're going to boost the chocolate malt, lactose and alcohol in the next batch and add some orange peels to make a little "orange chocolate dessert stout." 11% ABV sounds about right for a nightwarmer.
Our last beer was our previous "milk/coffee stout" that was 6%. It's very roasty and the coffee is really evident. There are strong hints of vanilla and perhaps some sort of dark fruit in it. Good beer, but more of a specialty beer for us rather than our "holy grail stout."
----------
So as you might recall, I have a 150 games a week requirement for myself.
Well, I had 10 games in by early Saturday afternoon, then went to pick up my mom's car at the auto shop and bring to her house. Turns out a huge line of storms were hitting and I ended up staying there for like 3-4 hours. An F1-F2 tornado swept through the area, damaging a lot of neighboring towns along the path, also knocking out the power in my town. We saw the huge funnel pass right over my mom's neighborhood, I was out back watching it with my brother. Leaves were falling from the sky, as well as the occasional stick.
The point is, I fell a little short with my games. I ended up at about 130 I believe, and would've had my goal if I wasn't screwed by our power problem. My town wasn't even hit with high winds or really much lightning, our power just goes out way too much.
I ended up spending the night on our deck. We picked up some firestarters and put them in our little tiny grill and made a fire. My buddy and I got a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label and just bullshitted out there all night. Two guys from a few houses away that I know from high school came by as well to hang out for a bit. All in all the night was somewhat salvaged.
Our power was restored sometime between 3-5am, but went out this afternoon again for a few hours. We didn't even have storms today.
I went golfing this afternoon after a little bit of a rain delay, and on the 6th hole about 30 minutes south/west of my house we could see huge damage from the tornado. It touched down about 100 yards from the golf course, leveling a house, a barn, power lines and trees. It was pretty crazy.
I shot a rough 111, but this is a much harder course than we usually play. Still, I think I had 3 drives over 150 yards, I was just all over the place with my drives today. Nubbed a few, got under a few others and popped em up, just couldn't get it right until the last 3 holes. On the last hole I cracked the ball about 230-240 down the middle through a choke in the fairway. I always manage to hit a good drive on this hole, but this one was probably my best drive of the year. I've been using a 3 wood to drive the last few times out, my driver is messed up and I need to get a new driver head.
I also sunk an 80 foot or so putt from the fringe today, if it weren't for the fact that I was on the fringe and the ball hit the pin and went in I'd of probably been off the green. My speed was just way too fast but my line was pretty good for the speed. That saved me a bogie, ha.
Back to poker, I'm going to try to add the games that I missed due to the storm to the rest of my 3 weeks of the month. I realize I've only accounted for 28 days in my "150 per 7 days" goal for June, so I should also have a few extra days of play. Topping 600 games would be huge for me.
I'll have some other stuff coming up to talk about soon as well.
Monday, June 2, 2008
June Goals and Updates
I'll begin with poker and the last month, etc.
I did ok in May, though I feel I ran below expectation. I didn't really take many 220 shots, I ended up going 0-3 in the 220s and 3-0 in the 200s, but the way things were going I didn't really want to risk a big run of variance wiping out any monthly gains, so I just didn't take any meaningful shots. I also seemed to run the worst when I was playing my best AND wanting to take the 220 shots, so it just didn't work out. I'm not too worried though. I shouldn't have to really cash out any more this summer unless I want to, so my online br should be more than enough to not worry about -2k or worse days every now and then.
I played a ton more at the end of May and for once it didn't feel like work, I actually did not mind it at all.
I'm going to continue with that motivation and mindset into June and as per Bcm's suggestion I'm going to make a few goals.
First, I want to play a minimum of 150 110s a week. There's no reason why I can't do this, especially considering the swings are really not bothering me much at all anymore, despite my lack of putting in games (which basically equates to downswings lasting longer than a week sometimes compared to 1-3 days if I played regularly, much less stressful).
I'm not really going to be worried about a monetary goal at the moment, but after I get to +2500 this month I'm going to take a prolonged shot at the 220s and hopefully run decent/continue to play well in them. I may loosen my games/week once I get into the 220s, but not by much, mainly b/c of the whole "longer downswing if you don't play much" theory.
I am, however, cutting myself off of the Dark Lord beer (previously mentioned in the blog) until I book a 10k month. I'll include all forms of poker for that goal, as I have played a little hu cash lately and will continue to work on playing more. This will no doubt provide some motivation for me to play a lot more at a higher level and take smart, focused shots. It will also probably provide me with Dark Lord until my birthday in November (I have 10 22oz bottles of it left, I drank one and gave one to my good friend for his graduation from college).
I also will set a minimum of 3 days to be stuck on the same number (in thousands) of vpps for the month. Basically, this means if I had 0 vpps on June 1st I would have until the end of June 3rd to have over 1k vpps. If I got to 1k vpps on June 2nd I would have until the 5th to break 2k vpps, etc. This means I'm playing a minimum of 40 games every 3 days, and usually more. It should ease the burden of making up to the 150 games goal every 7th day.
In other poker news, bcm's blog is shutdown again, croixdawg is starting his up again. Primo is in vegas chilling with cwar, hokie is in AC and I'm sure a lot of people are heading to the WSOP. Good luck to everyone in the series, especially those of you in the HU event.
I started work on redoing the 2p2 HU forum sticky thread, I reorganized and added some new husng links, so check them out if you haven't already. There's some good info in there.
In non poker news, my business has been picking up finally. The weather is finally getting good so I can work when I need to and people are wanting work. Things are getting low stress finally and I'm almost at the point where the work is 100% routine, but still a few kinks I'm working out.
A few weeks ago I weighed myself and I was about 35 lbs heavier from the last time I had checked my weight (In the hospital in January, so perhaps I had lost 5-10 lbs?). I attribute most of this from quitting smoking, also perhaps an increase in the calories of the beer we've brewed, but we don't measure the calories in our beer so I can't be sure (we have made much heavier, stronger beers, so I'd assume they are going up in calories).
I'm not too worried about it but I'd like to lose some of that, I felt I was an ideal weight in January. Since that last weighing I've checked myself once since then and was 10 lbs lighter, so who knows. I've been walking a lot at night and trying to bring the girlfriend along as well. I've also passed out a lot of flyers for my business, so that has helped increase my exercise.
I'm thinking ahead to some longer term options, and might buy my brother and I a membership at the health club near him this fall/winter. I used to play racquetball with my dad and brother when I was younger and it was fun, but mainly to play basketball. I love basketball and despite being really out of shape in terms of endurance I am still pretty solid. A rec league or something similar would be really fun. I know of a really competitive one in the city, but that would be longer term, as I would have to really be on the top of my game/in shape to play with those guys.
I'm going to have to cut this short, but I'll update more frequently this month.
Good luck to you all and expect another Q and A post very soon.
I did ok in May, though I feel I ran below expectation. I didn't really take many 220 shots, I ended up going 0-3 in the 220s and 3-0 in the 200s, but the way things were going I didn't really want to risk a big run of variance wiping out any monthly gains, so I just didn't take any meaningful shots. I also seemed to run the worst when I was playing my best AND wanting to take the 220 shots, so it just didn't work out. I'm not too worried though. I shouldn't have to really cash out any more this summer unless I want to, so my online br should be more than enough to not worry about -2k or worse days every now and then.
I played a ton more at the end of May and for once it didn't feel like work, I actually did not mind it at all.
I'm going to continue with that motivation and mindset into June and as per Bcm's suggestion I'm going to make a few goals.
First, I want to play a minimum of 150 110s a week. There's no reason why I can't do this, especially considering the swings are really not bothering me much at all anymore, despite my lack of putting in games (which basically equates to downswings lasting longer than a week sometimes compared to 1-3 days if I played regularly, much less stressful).
I'm not really going to be worried about a monetary goal at the moment, but after I get to +2500 this month I'm going to take a prolonged shot at the 220s and hopefully run decent/continue to play well in them. I may loosen my games/week once I get into the 220s, but not by much, mainly b/c of the whole "longer downswing if you don't play much" theory.
I am, however, cutting myself off of the Dark Lord beer (previously mentioned in the blog) until I book a 10k month. I'll include all forms of poker for that goal, as I have played a little hu cash lately and will continue to work on playing more. This will no doubt provide some motivation for me to play a lot more at a higher level and take smart, focused shots. It will also probably provide me with Dark Lord until my birthday in November (I have 10 22oz bottles of it left, I drank one and gave one to my good friend for his graduation from college).
I also will set a minimum of 3 days to be stuck on the same number (in thousands) of vpps for the month. Basically, this means if I had 0 vpps on June 1st I would have until the end of June 3rd to have over 1k vpps. If I got to 1k vpps on June 2nd I would have until the 5th to break 2k vpps, etc. This means I'm playing a minimum of 40 games every 3 days, and usually more. It should ease the burden of making up to the 150 games goal every 7th day.
In other poker news, bcm's blog is shutdown again, croixdawg is starting his up again. Primo is in vegas chilling with cwar, hokie is in AC and I'm sure a lot of people are heading to the WSOP. Good luck to everyone in the series, especially those of you in the HU event.
I started work on redoing the 2p2 HU forum sticky thread, I reorganized and added some new husng links, so check them out if you haven't already. There's some good info in there.
In non poker news, my business has been picking up finally. The weather is finally getting good so I can work when I need to and people are wanting work. Things are getting low stress finally and I'm almost at the point where the work is 100% routine, but still a few kinks I'm working out.
A few weeks ago I weighed myself and I was about 35 lbs heavier from the last time I had checked my weight (In the hospital in January, so perhaps I had lost 5-10 lbs?). I attribute most of this from quitting smoking, also perhaps an increase in the calories of the beer we've brewed, but we don't measure the calories in our beer so I can't be sure (we have made much heavier, stronger beers, so I'd assume they are going up in calories).
I'm not too worried about it but I'd like to lose some of that, I felt I was an ideal weight in January. Since that last weighing I've checked myself once since then and was 10 lbs lighter, so who knows. I've been walking a lot at night and trying to bring the girlfriend along as well. I've also passed out a lot of flyers for my business, so that has helped increase my exercise.
I'm thinking ahead to some longer term options, and might buy my brother and I a membership at the health club near him this fall/winter. I used to play racquetball with my dad and brother when I was younger and it was fun, but mainly to play basketball. I love basketball and despite being really out of shape in terms of endurance I am still pretty solid. A rec league or something similar would be really fun. I know of a really competitive one in the city, but that would be longer term, as I would have to really be on the top of my game/in shape to play with those guys.
I'm going to have to cut this short, but I'll update more frequently this month.
Good luck to you all and expect another Q and A post very soon.
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