Costa Rica pics

I spent the first 3 nights in jail.

More pics coming....

Sun > Snow

Costa Rica was awesome! Just got back yesterday from 30deg weather to -10, sweet...

Everyday but the first was 30deg, sunny, no humidity. The first couple of nights we stayed at some ranch in the national park. There we did the forest hike, horseback riding, canopy tours (zip line adventure), tubing, and the mud bath. The hike was dissappointing, 2 hours and not much viewing in terms of wildlife. The best part of that was swimming in a frigid waterfall, scenery was unbelievable. Mudbath/hot springs was a complete waste of time. Horseback riding didn't hurt as much as I thought it would (per the boys) though it wasn't too exciting. The canopy tours was amazing. It was more than just a couple of zip lines, there were numerous! In addition there was a wall climb, tarzan swing, freefall drop, in was a whole adventure! Tubing was a blast as well. Bouncing off rocks in white water rapids, I even wiped out once.

The rest of the vacation we relaxed at a 5star resort. A mixture of on the beach and on the pool. Did some snorkeling, jet skiing, and drank a lot of fruity drinks.

Shitty part of the trip was when our plane for our return trip decides to crap out. Makes an emergency landing in Cancun, tries again and fails. We were at the airport at 11am and sent back to our respective hotels at 5pm. Would have been good if it was still early but pretty much all we got was another night's sleep and free dinner and drinks. Had to wake up at 4am the next day.

I'll post some pictures later.
Make Costa Rica an option for your next vacation, well worth it!!


So WTF happened when I was gone?

• Neteller no longer deals with US players
• US players waiting >1 week for their cheques
• Booya Poker shuts down
• Mansion changes time of its $100k guaranteed, plus no deposit options for us players

Anything else?

Off to Costa Rica!

Heading out to Costa Rica tomorrow. A week of jungle adventures, rafting, zipping, tubing, climbing, and much needed r&r.

One of you better take down a Mansion $100k while I'm gone!

See ya next week.

Happy Holidays!

Hope everybody's holidays have been going good so far!

Haven't really played much poker lately. Played some online saturday, some live with the cousins on xmas day. Will probably hit some tournies tonight.

Got my Nintendo Wii, man this this is awesome fun. Have only tried Wii sports and Super Monkey ball (which is like Mario Party). Haven't even tried Zelda yet. Went boxing day shopping today, picked up some nice clothes which I rarely do anymore. Planned to play lots of poker these next few days, but I don't know if I'll have the time to. Have to clean up the house, its a mess. Plus all these new games and movies I picked up.

For New Years, going to head down to Niagara, play some cash games. Happy New Years everybody! I'll probably only do one more 2006 recap / 2007 goals post by the end of the year. Unless I win big and do a brag post before then!

Last Year of my youth

Today mark the beginning of the last year of my youth. I turn 29 today. Not looking forward to 30. To me, I consider that to be a grown up, I'm still a kid at heart. When you turn 30 are you supposed to stop playing video games, and watching cartoons (simpsons/family guy)? I hope not. :)

I guess the poker gods didn't know it was my birthday, not so nice to me on the weekend. I hate the mansion poker dome tourney. I always make the right reads, but luckboxes always prevail. Frustrating. Plus watching that show makes me more angry that players that bad can make it.

No poker for me this week, some but not much. Booya on tuesday to finish up the Poker Night in Canada league. Hope to maintain my 2nd place for $1250. Fri/Sat night I'll prob hit one of the Mansion $ added tournies, have yet to play one yet.

Razor Collectables Poker Cards

I dunno why, I bought a box of these off of eBay. Collectable I guess. Not sure why I like to collect things, I just do. Ended up with a Josh Arieh and Chris Moneymaker autographed cards. Yeah.

Collecting sports cards was fun as a kid. Opening these packs up brought back memories.

WSOP: ME 1D - ESPN 9pm est Tonight!!

Tonight on ESPN 9pm est - World Series of Poker 2006 Main Event - Day 1D

Remember those Where's Waldo books? Here's your chance to look for me!

If you don't have ESPN, you can watch it free from your computer

Download TVU Player from download.com

Hints to find me
- Good looking Chinese guy
- 3 seats to the left of Robert Williamson III
- wearing Poker Stars hockey jersey
- Shades if i'm in the hand

Happy hunting!

EDIT: F*CK I'm so stupid, i thought it was on at 9pm, was actually 8pm. Day 2 is on at 9. If you downloaded it, please let me know, thanks.

Cruise Report!

Finally got back home, 2am this morning. My Honeymoon Cruise (albeit 8 months later) was awesome, and if you feel like reading here are the highlights of what happened... I'll probably edit throught the week and add pictures later, don't really feel like typing out a novel.

Day 1 - San Juan Puerto Rico
Flight at 645am via US Airways with a connection in Philadelphia. Got to Philadelphia and hopped aboard my next flight. Delayed 3 hours sitting on the plane!!! First it was a computer problem, then after we pulled on the runaway they said the pilot's cabin door would not lock. Stupid terrorists, stupid us airways. Arrived in San Juan, boarded the ship: Royal Caribbean - Adventure of the Seas. Didn't do too much, was tired. Played at the Casino, they had 1 poker table. 5/10 limit. No foldem, played an hr, made like $5.

Day 2 - St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands
Shopping during the day, and Koki beach in the afternoon. Probably the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Water was crystal clear, drop a pin and you can find it no problem. Beautiful and friendly island. Poker play that night netted me $65 or so.

Day 3 - St. Maarten
Same thing shopping through the day, beach early afternoon, casino late afternoon. Right off the dock, place looked like disneyworld, all colourful. Picked up some Guavaberry rum. Only made in St. Maarten. Guavaberry Colada was simply delicious. Maho beach is the coolest beach experience you might ever find. Beach is located right in front of the airport. As planes land, the land right directly above you! And I"m not talking about just dinky little planes either, were talking 747s. The worst though was the take off. For some reason we decided to camp out right below the flight line. When the big plane took off, so did all our stuff on the beach! A buddy that we made on that trip also got attacked by a barracuda. Cool shit, though I didn't see it. Casino Royale was small but nice. Poker room did not open until 9pm. So played BJ with some high roller betting $500/hand. I was betting $10. Looked funny. No poker play that night.

Day 4 - Antigua
Little small island, not much to do. Went to the beach and rented a jet ski. Didn't wipe out, though I sorted wanted to. Did some crazy stuff, but not pushing it as hard as I could of. On the beach found a lizard and got it to crawl up my arm and chill on my back for a while. +25 from poker that night.

Day 5 - St. Lucia
Woke up early in the morning to go Deep Sea Fishing. Was so hyped. 4 hours later came back with absolutely nothing. Not a single fish for the boat. What a bummer, ended up costing $135 for 1 beer, 1 coke, 1 sprite, and a boat ride. Saw some seagulls though! Decided to tryout some Bingo. We won our 1st card after 6 numbers were called! $100. Expensive $35 package though. Did a rock climb on the ship, man was that hard. Still made it too the top, but was exhausted afterwards.

Day 6 - Barbados
Great, we arrive and find out its a national holiday. Pretty much everything is closed. Greedy taxi drivers there, try to rip you off. Boatyard beach was sweet. Did a glass botton boat ride / snorkel thing. Same some sunken ships, some fish, and some sea turtles. Wanted to swim with sea turtles, but the excursion was fully booked. Poker play that night +$80. Bingo for a cruise that night, not even close to winning.

Day 7 - Sea Day
Finally checked out the pool on the last day! Small ones, I expected some large connecting pools. Salt water too. Pretty much suntanned throughout the day. Bingo that night was the final guaranteed jackpot, $3800. We got to 1 number to go, but the guy next to us won instead. Baaad poker night, -$200.

Day 8 - Travel Day back home
Biggest waste of a day that I've ever had. Woke up at 8am. Lined up to get out of the boat, lined up at the airport. San Juan airport only has 1 gate that everybody passes though! Our flight to Philadelphia though stupid US Airways was supposed to be at 2:30, boarding at 1:50. 1:50 passes by, nothing. I line up at the desk. 2:30 comes, nothing. I get to the front of the line. WTF happened to my plane. "Sir your flight was cancelled". WTF!!! No annoucements, board still says On Time! Ended up taking a flight through Charlotte, and got hope a bit before 2am. 3 hrs later than I was supposed to. And I still don't know where my friggen luggage is!!!!

Food & Drinks
Food was pretty good. If you ate on the ship, standard buffet breakfasts and lunches. Dinner was where it was at. Ate plentiful starters, steaks galore, and pigged out on the lobster tails. Didn't get wasted on the trip. Drinks were crazy strong. Drank a lot of girlie drinks. Tried a national beer on each island. Carib was good, so was the Barbados one, Pitan brand was ok. Brought home a lot of hot sauce and a bunch of jerk sauce. Plus a 1L bottle of Mount Gay (hehe) rum for $8. Alcohol was dirt cheap, but didn't want to carry too much back. We can't bring back too much anyways. Also a carton of Marlies for $12, sweet. Only polished off 1 pack though (social smoker).

Poker
As you can imagine poker play was no foldem holdem. 1 7man table, waiting list everyday. Longest I waited was 1 hr. I was one of the only ones raising preflop. Only a couple of other decent players, and tells galore. Though it was a bit tougher playing against several Deaf players that made up a large group on the ship. My best hand was quad Qs, which got called down. Worst hand I saw was..
Raise, reraise, call, blinds fold.
Flop AA6
Bet, raise, call, call.
Turn 3.
Bet, raise, call, call.
River 4.
Check, bet, call, call.

Original preflop raiser had QQ, reraiser had AK, Caller had 75o. Ugly ugly stuff.

Biggest pot I saw was when quad 10s beat a fullhouse and a doofus thinking 2 pair was good. Capped at turn and river.

On my last day, kept loosing to the same garbage, 2 pairs, and aggressively playing strong draws that never hit. Won 2.5 hands in 2 hrs.

Conclusion
Awesome trip. Everybody should tryout a cruise if they haven't already. Didn't get seasick at all, felt it a little the first day, but fine every day after. Took that Bonimine stuff, worked like a charm. Sea days stink, beaches rule. Could like there all day. Especially at Koki beach, where even they take your food order for you while lying on your chair. Spent around $7k for the whole trip, so was pretty pricy, but definately worth it. Gratuities kill ya, automatic 15% plus also a line on each receipt that says "Additional Tip". Will more than likely do another cruise in a few years, thats if I don't win a poker cruise trip first!

Bon Voyage!

I'm off to enjoy a 7 night southern caribbean cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean "Adventure of the Seas". Been a few years since my last vacation so this will be a much need break. Boarding out of Puerto Rico, then stopping off in Antigua, Barbados, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten. Unfortunately the World Poker Showdown happens in St. Maarten a couple days after I arrive there. Will check out the casino there though. Best of luck with your online gambling this week!