Quick Thoughts - June 28th

Seven and a half more days.

A little over one week.

Just about 188 hours. But who’s counting, right?

10AM next Wednesday, I leave to begin my 10-day odyssey into the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.

Do I seem a little too excited?

Naturally, with just over a week until I leave Logan Airport for my 6+ hour flight to McCarran International, I’ve hit a hellish stretch at work. 11 straight days of non-stop projects and cases, when I’m used to running no more than two a week. Figures.

Anyway, because of the time spent at work running my ass off, and the time it’s going to take me to figure out what I need to pack, (not to mention the inevitable binge drinking and next-day hangover to celebrate the Birth of our Nation next Monday), this is going to be a very short post today. I won’t be posting again until I’m settled into my hotel room at Harrah’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

My goal is to be able to post everyday with an update of how I’m doing and what has happened throughout the tournament. Might not be the most interesting for you guys, but hopefully someone will enjoy it. I’ll probably post in the mornings, as the playing hours are scheduled to be Noon-10PM PST, so if I’m still around at the end of each day I doubt I’ll be in the mood to post at midnight…

Quick Thoughts while learning to control my heart rate…

n Let me explain that title. I have only one tell when I’m playing poker – I can’t control my heart rate effectively. Anytime I mutter the words “All-In”, my heart rate goes up to about 140 beats per minute, and you can actually see my pulse in the side of my neck. This is actually not a bad tell, since the same thing happens whether I’m bluffing or I’ve got the stone cold nuts. But it’s still something I need to learn to control, and fast.

n Ha – “stone cold nuts”. Wonder how many times that’ll rack me up in the next couple of weeks…

n I think Jeremy Roenick actually did get taken a little bit out of context in his interview at the Mario Lemieux golf tournament the other day. As a person who knows something about the business of editing video to get a specific point across, it’s not all that hard to take a couple of clips that are relatively unrelated and splice them together to make a new clip that can really stir the pot. Somewhere, I believe, someone decided to make the story better than it was and start up a faux-controversy. It’s sad, but that’s today’s media.

n Speaking of video editing, I thank those of you who took the time to watch my Red Sox Video and pass along comments about it. Makes it that much more worthwhile for me.

n I need to offer a Mea Culpa to last week’s “Mea Culpa”. I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking when I penciled in Jose Guillen as my Dark Horse for the NL MVP, and thankfully Vinny called me on it yesterday. I was wrong – I think I was listening to the radio and they were talking about Guillen. The actual Dark Horse candidate that I meant to put in was Andruw Jones from Atlanta. If the Braves can turn it around in the second half and get back atop the NL East (or at least into Wild Card contention), Jones is probably going to be a big reason why. Same goes for Bobby Abreu from Philadelphia, who was Vinny’s choice.

n Hmmm, let’s see. ESPN’s scouting report on Salim Stoudamire is something along the lines of “Best pure shooter in the draft, but character questions and his general commitment to the game raise serious questions about him”… Who else thinks he’s a Blazer by the end of tonight? I mean, doesn’t that scouting report just scream “Portland”?

n Speaking of tonight’s NBA Draft, ESPN.com’s Daily Quickie had a great “drinking game” in today’s edition. Check it out, and be prepared to call-in to work with tomorrow’s hangover.

n Yeah, like anybody who reads this is actually going to be watching the draft…

Quote of the Week(end):

Wow, two weeks in a row I’m going to have a quote from a round of golf…

After I made yet another horrible chip in my Sunday round of golf…

“You know, the only distance I can judge correctly with my sand wedge is how far to throw it.”

Yes, I had a bad round of golf Sunday. But it’s just a game, and I’m sure that sooner or later, I’ll remember how to swing my clubs correctly. It’s amazing – when I started playing golf I was able to break 90 in my very first season of play (88 in my 4^th round ever). Now, it’s a victory when I break 110. Gotta work on that.

OK guys, that’s it and that’s all. Wish me luck – I’m off to make my fortune in Vegas!

posted by Big D @ 1:57 PM