Leaving Las Vegas...

It's been a long while since anyone has posted anything on here but I figured that if a few of us almost died in a fiery plane disaster it should be put out there for the world (2 people) to see.

Vegas was great. Cabanas to relax in, March Madness to wager on and watch, Ryno's puking to keep us up all night, mechanical bulls to ride, really just a great trip. The plane ride home however was a near disaster.

First off I need to say a little something about the airport and the airline (US Air/America West). We got to the airport an hour and a half early and the line was so long that we wouldn't have gotten to check our bags for about 3 days. I have no idea what the hell was going on but it was like that last year so it was no fluke. There are apparently 300 flights leaving Vegas at 11 PM Sunday night and they are all with US Air/America West. One huge line. We knew there was no way this was going to work without a little "greasing of the wheels". So Nutty took off in search of a better way. He didn't return for a while so I headed in to see if I could find someone to help us out. I ran into Nutty and he said to run and get the bags and follow him which we did. He ran into a sky cap that was taking bribes to let people skip the line. He would take you in through a different door, for a price (ours was $65), and then check you and your bags in. He had people lining up to pay him. At one point when we were standing there the other sky cap told him that if he kept it up at some point he would get caught. But hey, it's the American way. That guy made a killing, probably got fired, but he made more that night in than the previous 3 weeks.

So not a great start to the trip right? It only got worse.

We got to our gate in plenty of time and everything was on track. They were actually asking for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for a first class ticket the following morning as well as a voucher for a free flight. Good deal. Unfortunately I had to get back to MN for an interview so we refused.

So finally we got to board the plane. Ryno and Nate were about midway up just behind the wing on the right and I was in the very last row on the aisle on the right hand side. No problems. It was a quiet plane, everyone was tired since it was 11 PM and we're leaving Vegas. I fell alseep before we even left the ground. Then it started to get interesting...

I woke up when the plane shook violently, there was a loud BOOM and then is a flash of white light that filled the plane and the sky on our right. We began to slow down and fall to the right. I asked the guy sitting on the window what the hell just happened. I thought we hit another plane of something else. He turned and said the engine is on fire. At that point flames and sparks started to fly down the right side of the aircraft and the engine was making a loud ugly metal on metal noise. The plane was shaking a bit but still falling.

Ryno and Nutty were just behind the wing and could see the flames as clear as day. Ryno is a horrible flyer, he hates it, so Nutty told him not to look. People were talking quietly and scared but there was no screaming or shouting. Some were crying and a few were throwing up but it was eerily quiet.

The flight attendant in the back turned to me with a freaked out look and asked, "Are we on fire?", to which I replied "YEAH". She sat down in her seat, buckled her belt and called up front. She did not put my nerves at ease with that little display. That is when I decided to turn on the old cell phone in case I needed to make a goodBye/I love you call to my wife.

We were still falling a bit but it seemed like the pilot had some control when the head flight attendant came back from the front followed by the First Officer. They both were trying to calm everyone down saying that everying was ok and there was no need to panic. Of course they both looked at the engine, which was still on fire at the time, and headed back up front quite quickly. I'm not saying they were running but they were not walking.

Shortly after that the fire was put out. Sparks were still flying by the window but it didn't feel like the thousands of gallons of aiplane fuel were going to ignite anymore. The pilot had control of the plane, we weren't falling anymore but it was not smooth. He came on the intercom to let us know what was up. He was calm and told us the engine "overheated" and that we would be back on the ground in Vegas in about 7 minutes. He mentioned that the plane was made to fly with only one engine. Now that is probably correct but I doubt it is recommended and judging by how rough and jerky the rest of the flight was I doubt the pilot enjoyed it too much.

Two other points about his comments I have to mention. The engine overheated. My car has overheated and there were no flames. I know he couldn't just say the damn right engine just blew up but c'mon buddy, overheated, we could see the flames. The other thing was that we were only 7 min from Vegas. I had no idea how long we were in the air since I was sleeping, so one of my thoughts after the explosion was where the hell are we going to land. How far are we from Denver or a really large corn field? I was quite happy to hear that we were still near Vegas.

I thought to myself that we should be ok, that was until he started the U turn to head back to Vegas. We were all over the place. I thought we still had a good chance of going down here. We made the turn, in two pieces, so he could level off in between. The rest of the way was harsh. Bouncing all over the place, jerking left and right everytime he was trying to keep it steady. It was at this point I called my wife to let her know we were ok but that we were going back to Vegas because our engine blew up. It was 2 in the morning here in MN and she was scared to death. I told her I would call her when we landed.

Then Vegas came into view. It was the first time we had a point of reference on the ground and the first time I could tell that we could not fly straight. We had to fly in a right hand turn basically since all the power was coming from the left. As we came in to the runway, at an angle, things felt strange. It was by far the roughest landing I have ever had. We bounced a few times on the runway but we weren't straight, we were jerking side to side. Shit was falling off the back wall where the non-calm flight attendant was sitting. Finally he had us straight on the ground and he hit the brakes and reverse thrusters, except we only had one reverse thruster. We were again turning and jerking to a stop. It took a long time, I thought what if we run out of runway? About half way down the runway the fire trucks started following us, lights flashing. We finally came to a stop and the fire trucks came up and sprayed us down to make sure the fire was out.

The pilot told the flight attendants to prepare the doors. We were still out in the middle of the airport, nowhere near a gate, so we assumed that we are going down the big yellow banana slides. It would have been just my luck to survive this freaking thing only to get hurt on a f'n slide. The pilot came on again and said the fire department said we are clear to go to the gates and the flight attendants can disarm the doors. We pulled to the gate with the fire trucks following.

When we stopped the flight attendant said to stay seated until we have further instructions. She said they had to figure out if we were getting a new plane or if we were going to take the same one. Are you f'n kidding me?! There is no way in hell I am flying on this plane, ever. Eventually a gate agent got on and said that people could get off and to bring your stuff. We did.

When I got off Nutty and Ryno were already talking to the gate agent trying to get rerouted. At this point we didn't know when we would get another plane or what. The eventually announced that a new plane was there and the flight attendants were there but that we needed to wait for the pilots who would be about an hour and a half. Our pilots walked off the plane to a standing ovation. I guess they had to get debriefed or something. So we ended up not getting rerouted since it was going to be a huge pain in the ass and it wouldn't have saved us any time. We then called our loved ones and let them know we were ok.

I never thought we would get Ryno on that next plane, but he manned up and did it. Only 2 hours later and we had to get on the same type of plane with the same airline and sit in the same seats. That was some freaky shit. I was in back again so I could see everyone during the flight. Everytime we bounced or there was any noise every head on the plane popped up and started looking around. The woman next to me had her eyes covered half the flight until she finally fell asleep for a bit.

It was a horrible experience to go through. I'm glad my wife wasn't with me because I wouldn't want her to have that memory everytime she gets on a plane for the rest of her life, like we will. Of course with the delay and the no sleep for 24 hours I rescheduled my interview the next day. I guess we should have given up our seats after all.

Stupid Parents

On Saturday our team had a game up at a northern suburban school that will remain nameless. They are not a good team and we don't normally play them as they are not in our conference but they are in our state tourney section. They were 2-9 having only scored 6 goals coming into the game and we were around .500 in one of, if not the, toughest confernece in Minnesota.

As is becoming a habit, our team started slow and let the opposition get an ugly goal when one of our defenders had the ball deflect off his leg and into the net. No big deal, just get it back quickly and put this team away. Which is what we did.

The problem is that when a team is severly overmatched and nearing the end of a frustrating season they tend to play differently. They tend to play cheaply and a little dirty. These guys slid at our players legs everytime they were near the ball, most of the time they didn't come close to the ball but had no problem hacking our guys' ankles and knees. It was actully getting dangerous. Our head coach started getting on the ref because he wasn't calling anything and was just letting the game get uglier and uglier. Finally he started to call some of them when one of our players got hurt.

Let me add that the ref was awful. He never had control of the game and didn't appear to know what he was doing. Our guys were in danger and he did nothing. For those who might not know, slide tackling is legal when done correctly. You have to get the ball first and it can not be from behind. Having had 3 knee reconstructions I know the reason for such rules. If a player does slide in from behind it is an automatic yellow card. (2 yellows and you are ejected).

Eventually he started to call more fouls and throw yellow cards their way, 6 or 7 I think by the end of the game. We ended up getting a red card when one of our players, sick of being kicked, reacted and pushed one of their kids pretty hard. Clear red card. But their kids continued to hack, grab jerseys and bitch at the ref.

Now for the parents...
It started with their coach, who was complaining to our coach that we shouldn't be yelling for the ref to make more calls because his kids weren't doing anything wrong. This is a guy who is hired by the school to teach these kids the correct way to play the game and, in my opinion, to help them grow up and become adults. They obviously didn't have a ton of talent but that doesn't mean they shouldn't learn to play the game correctly. There was a little back and forth with the coach and then their parents jumped in. It was pretty clear from the start of the game that many of their parents didn't know the game by yelling idiotic comments that are more appropriate for a football game than a soccer game. But now they were yelling at our coach for influencing the ref to make calls against them. That the ref was jobbing them because we were complaining.

It was pretty ugly. The things they were yelling at the ref were really harsh and everytime one of our guys made a strong clean play they would scream and yell. At one point their left defender yelled at his own fans telling them that the play was clean and to shut up. If a 16 year old kid has more sense then these 40 year olds about how to act at a High School soccer game there is a problem. They also had a few kids on their team yelling at their teammates to play clean and stop hacking, of course it didn't help.

So this team had a horrible season and I know they are frustrated and I know they didn't want to watch their kids get beat again. (The eventual score was 3-1). But you have to lead by example. You have a grown man coaching a soccer team to play in a vicious and dirty manner. At one point one of their kids got tackled off the ball, a pretty good play on our defender's part, and yell at the ref for a call. He didn't get one nor did he deserve one. So he decided to do what any normal soccer player would do. He took off his shirt, grabbed the corner flag out of the ground and toss it on the field and then take himself out of the game forcing his coach to put a sub in for him. The coach didn't yell at him or tell him to get in the game, he just put in a sub. I would never let that kid play again. Of course if the coach had any sort of control over his team and taught them to play the game correctly they wouldn't act like that in the first place.

And when the parents are screaming obscenities at the refs and our coach how are the kids supposed to realize that they are wrong. I hated to see it. We talked to our team at halftime and said that you are not to talk to the ref, do not react to the other team when you are getting hacked, we will just finish up the game and go home. Of course one of our kids didn't control his temper and pushed a kid but as soon as he came off the field I walked him away from the bench and had him cool off. I told him that he can't do that and that he should feel bad for leaving his team short handed. And he did. He knew it was wrong. That's how you help teach these young guys how to act. Not by screaming at everyone who is not seeing things your way.

Look we yelled at the ref, not the classiest thing in the world of coaching, but we felt like our players were in danger. It's not a pretty thing. Part of the problem is the bad reffing but at some point as a parent you need to step back, cool off and realize that screaming isn't going to make him a better referee. Tell your team to keep working hard, to play cleanly and play the game. If the coach yelled once to his team to stay on their feet more and play the game they would have stopped for the most part, but hey, his guys weren't doing anything wrong according to him.

Finally I will say that they did have a few parents on their side who were staying positive and trying to root for the kids. They were yelling to play clean and we appreciated that. And again they had a few kids who were on the field yelling at their parents and teammates. Just an ugly situation that made for a shitty Saturday. I doubt we will be playing against them next season.

This shit is hard...

While we were getting updates to the WSOP on this site we had over 80 visitors that week, then we stopped posting stuff. This posting thing is hard.

I'm really going to try, I swear.

Nutty's Recap From WSOP

Just received a little wrap up from Nutty:

Honestly, when I got knocked out of the WSOP I thought I would be crushed. With the expectations I put on myself and my want do well for others, I thought I would take losing a lot worse. Fact is, I had agreat time. I got to play poker in the world's largest organized game. I wasn't first out. I played pretty good and just had a little bad luck. But the best part of the experience was the experience. It was kind of an impromptu party in Vegas for all that could come. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

Now to the poker. As I waded through what seemed an endless pool of poker tables and poker players I could not have been more nervous. I was the first person to sit down, talk about anxious. As others started sitting down I tried to break down the wall of uncomfortness with a witty line here or there, it seemed to work. Our table was unusually chatty. I bonded immediately with the players on my left and right. I don't know if you're supposed to do that. Actually, I didn't know a lot of what I was supposed to do since this was my first live tournament. The first 2 hours seemed to last days. After that it started to seem like a regular game with your buddies. As far as cards go, I got a tad unlucky. Got my Aces busted twice against QQ's and JJ's. Even had Aces taken away because of a misdeal. I did get a straight flush, diamonds to the king. Unfortunately, no one had the Ace high flush or I could've made a lot more money. All in all it was a lot of fun and I hope to do it again.

Thanks to everyone for all of their support. See you at the tables.

Nutty

Dave's WSOP Ends on Day 2

Dave made it to Day 2, which is a hell of an accomplishment on it's own, but he was severly short stacked and didn't make it through to Day 3. I haven't received an update from him yet but I will post it once I do.

Dave Update from WSOP

Nutty is out on what sounds like two bad beats. He had pocket Aces twice and lost both hands. I got that info from an update from the other guy we know there, Dave. Here is his update:

My first day at the Main Event is over and I made it through. Barely, but I made it. 2,100 of us started at noon Sunday and play ended at around 3:00 am with around 860 of us left. Started with 10,000 in chips and unfortunately, I am down to 6,150. The good news is I'm still in and there are a lot of people who aren't including Phil Hellmuth, Doyle and Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow and Phil Gordon to name a few.

Here are the highlights from what I can remember:

Early on, I just called with pocket 4's. The player to my left raised to twice my bet. I had been folding small pocket pairs a few times to raises, so I decided to just call. I hit a 4 on the flop and there was an ace out there as well. I checked and the raiser bet half the pot. I did the "think about" and called. A nothing on the turn and I bet out 800 which he called. Another nothing on the river and I bet out 1600 which he called. He was pissed when I flipped up my 4's to show the set. That got me up to about 14,000 in chips where I ended the first break.

One of the first hands back from the break, I get pocket 9's in first position and I just called. Folds all the way to the big blind who raises to 800. I call. The flop comes 8 high all different suits. He raises to 500 and I raised it to 2000. He thinks for a while and then calls. A queen comes on the turn and I am thinking, "oh shit" at this point. He checks and I check behind him. Another queen on the river. Now I am thinking "holy f*cking shit, this really sucks". He checks and I decide the only way I am going to win the pot is by betting. I bet 2000 and he calls immediately showing my KQ offsuit. This knocks me down below 10,000 chips. Can't believe the guy called the first raise...

About an hour later, I am down to around 8,000 in chips, I get KQ hearts in early position, I just call. Folds to the small blind (an old English guy, decent guy, not a great player) who raises it 3x the big blind. I call the raise and it's heads up between us. Flop is A-10-4 (A and 4 are hearts). He checks and I bet half the pot. Turn comes the Jack and I hit my straight. He bets half the pot and I call. King of spades on the river to which he checks. I bet 2,000 and he thinks and thinks and thinks and then folds and tells me he had A-8 offsuit. I'm back just above 10,000 in chips.

The next few hours don't go so well, not getting much for cards and every time I get decent cards I either get re-raised by the really big chip holders or completely miss the flop with my cards. I am hanging around 8,000 when we finally get to the last level of play for the night. Two hours to go at 200-400 with 50 antes. I get AA once and I was able to win a small pot with that. I get moved to the final table I'll be at for the night and I am not getting much for hands for a while. I am just waiting for anything decent at this point to make my move as I am now down to about 6,000 in chips. In late position, I get A-8 spades (the deadman, one of my favorite starting hands). Two people call in front of me. I raise all-in for my first time of the tournament. Everyone folds and I am back in business. I get KK a couple of times and am able to re-raise and win a few pots with them. I work my stack up to 12,000.

And here is the hand of the tournament for me. I get AK diamonds in late position. Gold mine. I raise to 1500. The guy to my left (a decent guy from Brazil who is sitting on 25,000 in chips) re-raises it to 3,600. I immediately think "move-in, even if he has a high pocket pair, I need to make a stand right here". And then conservative Dave decides he hates AK so much that this isn't the hand I will go out of the tournament on. I fold and he shows me AQ of spades. F*CK!!!! I know I could have lost to a Queen or he could have hit the spade flush, but dammit, that was where I should have gone in. Live and learn.

Oh well, I made it through. Unfortunately Nutty got unlucky and had his pocket Aces cracked TWICE and got knocked out after that. I play again on Wednesday at noon and am severely short-stacked vs. the field at this point. But I have a chip and a chair and the blinds are only 250-500 with 50 antes, so I won't have to go all-in right away.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Dave

Nutty in the WSOP

Nutty (and his boss) both won seats to the 2006 World Series of Poker. One of his family members is blogging a little while they are down there.

Check it out here.

As you will see Nutty was eliminated last night. No details yet and I haven't heard from the Vegas party as they are either still sleeping from drinking themselves silly last night or they are still drinking themselves silly since last night. No shame in going out on Day 1 however. I checked in on the some standings from this year's WSOP at CardPlayer.com, the official magazine of the WSOP. Some notables going out on Day 1 include Phil Gordon, T.J. Cloutier, Mike "The Mouth" Matesow, Jennifer Harman, and Sam Farha. Not bad company for Nutty.

His boss is still alive as far as I know. The online standings aren't totally updated through last night's event.

Crash and Burn

Wow. We really let this thing crash and burn over the winter, spring and summer. Well I'm going to fire it up again damn it.

Seventy-one point three degrees

For Christmas, I got a weather station thingy. Nothing flashy -- it reads the temperature inside and outside with a wireless thing.

It displays the temperature down to the tenth of a degree. So, it's never 80 degrees -- it's 80.4 or whatever. Couldn't they have fucking rounded that shit up?

Right now my house is 70.3 degrees. Does the .3 matter? Wouldn't I be just as happy with plain ol' 70? Like woah, it's up to 70.7... I thought I felt 0.4 degrees warmer!!!

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Yes, I'm drunk.

Merry Christmas!!

Not sure anyone is even reading this anymore, but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Drink plenty and forget about the damn commercialization of Christmas and get intouch with your innerself as you puke your guts out from all the liquor and sugar.

Rock on!!!