First, let me back up.

This Summer, Stacey’s Dad – Bob – and I decided to play in the WSOP Main Event as a “bucket list” event that all poker players dream of. We trained for a couple of months with nightly “heads-up” tournaments, and tactics puzzles which Stacey helped us construct. We trained with some local tournaments, and Bob played in the WSOP Senior’s Event, which he cashed in and finished in the top 5%. We were ready for most anything…

About ten minutes before we began playing the tournament on Day 1C, I walked up to my table (188, seat 4), and noticed that it was the only one without a dealer, chips, or other players seated. I thought it was strange, and half jokingly said, “Well, it looks like I don’t have to play today.”

As Bob and I were trying to figure out what was going on, I was approached by a couple of slick-looking guys asking me what table I was seated-at. I informed them of 188. It was then a whirlwind of being informed that I was playing at the ESPN featured table with World Champion Joe Cada, and that I was offered a Full Tilt sponsorship for the rest of the Main Event.

For the next three and a half hours, I was filmed, announced, and observed at the ESPN featured table. At any one point, there was something like 10 cameras and a microphone on me: I was nerve-wracked. The experience of my thousands of hours playing poker melted away in the spotlight at that table. Before I knew it, I was down to 9,500 chips of my original 30,000 starting chips from playing nervously and making poor judgment calls.

When the table finally broke (we dispersed to one of the other 300 tables in the arena), I was relieved to be getting back into the regular groove of playing the game that I trained so hard for. By the end of the day’s play (approximately 11pm), I was back up and over my starting stack to 45,500 chips. Bob also finished above his starting stack with something like 38k.

Throughout this time, both Bob and I were caught on film multiple times as well-known professionals played big hands at our tables, got knocked out, or gained extraordinary amounts of chips.

We both made it to late Day 3 (Monday the 12th), but then got knocked out on some rough hands. We had a great time, but barely missed making it to the money round on Day 4.

TV Time

I wasn’t positive that I would be on TV until I received a phone call from ESPN. I spoke with a representative about confirming my background, name, city of origin, education, poker experience, etc. She said that I’m “likely” to be in a hand in one of the episodes. And, given that I was mainly filmed on Day 1, I am assuming it will be in one of the early episodes.

So, there you have it. Hopefully by Tuesday we’ll see me play.

I’ve attached a couple of photos from the trip. I’ll download more from my iPhone and share more of the story soon.

The other night, Stacey and I went to Albertson’s to purchase some milk, bread, and something else that I forget right now. As we were checking out, there was a tall, Pillsbury-looking Asian guy in his 20′s in front of us. His assortment of goods included:

• 2 bags of spicy *hot* Cheetos
• 2 king-sized Kit Kat packages
• 1 jar of nacho cheese sauce
• 1 bottle of Brüt champagne

Having experience as a “gamer” myself, I knew this guy was in for a long night of fun. No other male demographic buys this dinner assortment late at night. And, I couldn’t help but be a little bit jealous…

(Nacho image courtesy of Opessoa)

• Guacamole
• Fried Chicken
• Fish and Chips (sans-chips)
• Egg, Tomato, Provolone & Basil Sandwiches
• Sweet Potato Fries

Guacamole

Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic, 1 fresh whole tomato, 2 avocados, 1 tablespoon lime juice, 2 tsp salt.

Process: Finely mince garlic. Dice tomatos. Slice avocados into baby-finger sized chunks. Mix together with fork, including the tomato juiciness, smooshing avocados in the process. Add salt and lime juice, mix until smooth. Serve with corn chips or other good foods.

Fried Chicken

Ingredients: 12 pieces chicken leg or thinly-sliced breast, 3 cups apple juice, 1 cup water, 4 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp cinnamon, 2 eggs, 1 tbsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/2 cup corn starch, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups canola oil, 2 paper bags.

Process: Brine the chicken in the apple juice, cinnamon, salt, and water for 30-45 minutes. Mix egg, cayenne pepper, and black pepper together in bowl. Fill double-layered paper bag with corn starch and flour. Heat oil over medium-high heat in large pot. After brine, dip each piece of chicken into egg mix, and place in paper bag. Shake the paper bag until the flour/starch mix covers each piece. Progressively, place each piece in the pot, and fry for approximately 5-7 minutes each piece, depending on thickness of meat. After fry, let each piece rest on paper towels to let excess oil run off. Eat with glee.

More to come…
*Disclaimer: I am not a chef, nor claim to be. Use the recipes with caution and joy

(The look on Lily’s Face says it all)

Lily’s big kick of the trip was seeing the sea lions down at the harbor. The last couple of days, she has intermittently yelped out with “awh awha awh awha” emulating sea lions, followed by “shh” because some of them were sleeping.

In the picture, you will notice that some of the sea lions are on a float with a metal cage. That is there for their safety, as it helps the state wild-life officials in assisting them when they get caught in ocean debris.

I titled this post Mmmwa!, since that is the sound that she makes when kissing you. It’s my favorite good-night ritual she has of-late; a loving snog before bed.

Another one of my favorite habits she has is that when swinging, Lily cranes her neck back with joy and guffaws at the upside-down world. Although, earlier today, I found trappings from a meal, hidden in her neck folds – only exposed at the crescendo of one of these laugh-capades. Oh blissful joy, uncleanliness joy.

Needless to say, I got sick. With Lily putting her hands in every box, drawer, or other type of container she can find, my immune system wasn’t able to handle it.

In the search to regain health, I’ve decided to try something new and see how it works: work begins at noon and ends at 8:00 pm. I work until late evenings most nights, anyway. So, this won’t be much of a difference. It does however, allow me to spend my mornings going for a bike ride or spending time with the girls.

We’ll see how it works.

If you do – or if you were to – work for yourself at home, what hours do you prefer?

Stacey and Lily have been super-troopers lately, allowing me to work late nights. You see, I entered a recent competition here in Corvallis, called Startup Weekend. It’s a group of entrepreneurs who gather together at Belle Valle Cellars, and we had a “business blitz” trying to see who could start a new business and get the furthest in two days. I made a pitch, it appealed to an enthusiastic small group of people, and at the end of two days, our team won the competition.

Our business is called SherpaDash and it’s a web software company that looks at how your website is performing, and gives you marketing recommendations to improve its performance.

I’ll spare you too many details, but it’s been exciting and I’ve truly relied on the support of all the family in understanding and time in allowing me to work extra on launching the business. So thanks, everyone.

One exciting element to it is that I will be traveling up to Portland on Wednesday with my team to pitch in front of a bunch of investors, VC’s, and entrepreneurs to get feedback and possibly win $15k in business services.

I’ll keep you posted, and thanks again to all of you who have supported us this last week.

Chelsea took me to her favorite Puerto Rican restaurant in San Rafael, Sol Food. We both ordered the Arroz con Picadillo, which was a beef, rice, fried plantain, and beans dish. I really enjoyed trying fried plantain for the first time. It was like a rich, oily chip to scoop up the tasty beef and rice. The limeade was also fantastic, and served in an audaciously large glass jug.

This morning, Chelsea and I went for a jog/walk, the headed out to get lunch at a local-to-Sebastopol café called Peter Lowell’s. Peter Lowell’s is a pescatarian (effectively vegetarian) café, with free wi-fi, and lots of natural sunlight – a big plus. I ordered the fish sandwich, which was Ono, served on Sourdough with Lemon Aioli. To drink, I had the french press coffee.

The coffee was smooth and very tasty. The olives on the side of the sandwich were juicy and salty. Unfortunately, the fish was overcooked and dried out. With too-large of a serving of aioli, this left a soggy sandwich and chewy texture. At least the coffee was good. Oh, and the bread. Stacey would have loved the crunch and dough of the bread.

I had a second cup of the coffee, and enjoyed the service of their free wi-fi, for a bit more.

Chelsea and I then walked around downtown Sebastopol (not an overwhelmingly large challenge). One of the more interesting shops that I had to go into was Incredible Records.

Apparently the owner, Jonathan Lipsin has been a part of the music industry for 40 years. A sign in front of the building reads that there is a movie being made about his life and music history, and it will be played in town January 2010.

Chelsea and I got to meet Jonathan. As with any awesome community-driven icon business, the man himself was there running the register. He was very friendly and after learning of our roots in the Mendocino Coast, he recounted his story of living in a commune on the Navarro River. Totally cool.

Inside, there were original drawings by Jim Morrison of the Doors, signed posters by every famous Rock n’ Roller and Blues guitarist over the past 40 years. It was amazing, and a great experience. Jonathan said that he likes to personally think of it as similar to an old-style trading post. You don’t always get what you came in for. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I couldn’t agree more. Good luck duplicating this “Record Store” Borders.

This evening, I had the fortune of joining up with Grandpa “T” Terry, who came down from Fort Bragg for the evening, and Lily’s Great-Grandma Lilly. We all went out to eat Chinese Food at Gary Chu’s in Santa Rosa.

Corn and Crab Soup

Grandpa with a dumpling

As you can see, the food and the family has been great. And, I’ve only been here one day.

I miss Stacey and Lily tremendously. I got an upwelling of emotion seeing a mom help her little boy walk across the crosswalk today. I wanted to be with my girls. In fact, this is actually the longest duration that Stacey and I have spent apart in six years – the entire time we’ve been together. But, it helps me feel connected to document and share this trip. So, look forward to more updates throughout the week.

Cheers!

It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I succeeded in not drinking coffee yesterday. It wasn’t too difficult, as long as I had ibuprofen on-hand (I get real bad caffeine headaches). Today, the goal repeats itself.

Goal: Don’t drink any coffee today.

Confession

In 2004, I was road racing pretty seriously. The collegiate series in the Northwest is pretty competitive, and I was doing well in the Men’s A, Division I group (the toughest).

On the drive home from the omnium in Seattle, I saw a Krispy Kreme donut on the side of the freeway. “I’ve never had one of those,” I exclaimed, ominously, to Stacey. “Well then. We’re just going to have to get you one.” My fate was sealed.

If you know me well, you know that I have a ridiculous sweet tooth. And, a bottomless pit of a stomach, especially when I am in training.

“Kid in a candy store” doesn’t even begin to describe it. More like heroin addict on a poppy farm.

I saw the donuts, glistening under the heat lamps. They were singing to me. “Fa la la, Andy. Come to us, Andy. We are custard filled, jelly filled, sweet as can be, Andy.”

I glided forward, entranced by the hypnotic song of the Krispy Kreme donut line. “I want all of them,” I said to the person at the counter. “Umm. Sir, you can’t have all of them. Which ones would you like?”

“How many can I get?” I replied. A small pool of saliva had accumulated around the base of my sweating hands on the counter.

“Would you like a dozen?” The now-scared teen asked, hoping I didn’t hit maul for being so presumptious.

“Yes. I want that.”

A “Baker’s Dozen” assorted donuts

1. Bavarian
2. Bear Claw
3. Chocolate Cake
4. Chocolate Bar
5. Cinnamon Swirl
6. Creme
7. Custard
8. Custard-Filled Maple Bar
9. Glazed
10. Lemon Jelly
11. Maple Bar
12. Maple Donut
14. Original

I took my new friends back to the car, offended that they ever had to spend time with that mean kid. I promised to treat them better.

On the drive home, I did treat my friends better. In the four hours between Seattle and Portland, I assimilated all thirteen of them.

(Originally published on Mtnracer)

Photo courtesy of Trimilique

Stacey was the perfect wife and mom tonight. She was frugal at Fred Meyer (you can be proud, Wanda), requesting that I put back the Columbia Gorge smoothie ($2.99). Instead, she offered to make me smoothies and pancakes for dinner. I sighed, thinking this was just going to cause additional dishes. After sharing this thought, she said, “Don’t worry, honey. I’ll make dinner and do the dishes.” WOAH!#$@ I was blown out of the water. All I could do was say yes, and not ask this beautiful alien what she did with my real Stacey (just kidding).

Anyway, I love you honey. Thank for Brinner. It was great. Lily and I both thoroughly enjoyed your concoctions.

Thanks, Lily. You are beautiful.