I'm still in Florida, but I forgot to update you all on this.

I won one of the MSNL fantasy football leagues. It was 1k to enter, and had a bunch of the 'old guard' of MSNL in it; guys I grew up reading and posting with a couple years ago. It was fun to play in, but the software on myfantasyleague.com was pretty brutal.

Anyways, I had Randy Moss and Carson Palmer have sick years for me, and I won 1k for having the best regular season record, and another 7k for first in the playoffs- all this despite Shaun Alexander, my number one overall, being absolute garbage all year.

Ship Ship Mcgipp.

Lots of Florida happenings this week, and a brand new year starting in a few days. In the new year, I'm going to write a serious article called "The Obsession," and another one called "Elitism." I'll also likely have weekly 'articles' that I write entitled "On the matter of..." and a top ten list. I've decided I'll probably put some effort into this blog in the future, since I usually enjoy writing.

Talk to you in '08.

Merry Christmas.

Did the whole Christmas Eve thing last night at the uncle's. Got some stupid gifts from my relatives, as usual, but pulled out what I consider to be a very nice money clip from my uncle and a nice coat from another uncle. I can't really complain, I'm very hard to buy for since I have everything (and anything I don't, I just go buy for myself). My parents bought me some pretty standard clothes and other random things.

I got my parents a cruise. I think they'll like the vacation and definitely deserve it. I also got my dad a snowblower, which he needs. The older I get, the more I realize that everyone is really hard to buy for (especially when you start shopping two days before Christmas).

I'm a huge fan of the holiday season: I love A Chistmas Story (which was filmed near my house) and It's a Wonderful Life. I also enjoy Christmas music and all the trim that goes with the holidays.

Tomorrow, I leave with the family to Florida. We're going to watch my best friend play a few games in a basketball tournament, but we'll probably hit up a theme park or two while we're down there, I'm never going to be too old for that.

I played live poker two nights ago for the first time since I turned 21. I sat 2-5 at the boats, which was the highest they ran (it was a Sunday night). I ended up dropped a stack early in this hand:

5 limpers, I complete T8o in the sb.

Flop: Td 8d 2o.

I lead 35, bb makes it 105... MP flats. Back on me, I shove... ALL IN! BB calls pretty fast, MP calls almost instantly.

Turn: Ko

River: 3d

gg money.

MP scoops with the sick call, call, call line with the nut flush draw which makes the stone cold nutters on the river.

I got moved to the must move table, shoved KJo over a 3-bet (i opened to 25, button call, bb makes it 95, I shove) and then played a bunch of small pots and this decent sized one:

straddle to 10, utg limps, I make it 50 with 37o, utg limper calls.

Flop: Kc 6c 3c

check, I bet 75, he calls.

Turn: 7o

check, I bet 135, he calls.

River: 5o.

check, I check behind because I thought I'd be v-towning myself a lot live, but I would def bluff that card.

He had K8o, which was gay because that was one of the few hands that might have called off a hundred or two on the end.

So I ended up about even in two hours. All told, live poker is pretty annoying most of the time, and this was no exception.

I'm peacing out now to some family's house for the day, but I finally talked a friend of mine into playing 10-20, with me getting half his action. He's never even played 5-10 seriously, but he's definitely a winner at these stakes; mostly just lacks ambition and work ethic. He's up a chunk now, so I hope he sends me a strong four-figure Christmas present.

Happy Holidays.

Are ****en terrible.

I was a pretty big Bulls fan during the Jordan era (quite obviously the illest of all time, iller than EM2 at degen gambling and three times iller than Lebron will ever be), and lately I've been pretty excited about the team they've got. I'm a big fan of their guards and Deng and some of their recent offseason acquisitions, which is why it pains me to say that they're so terrible this year. We sat first row behind the basket for the Bulls-Celtics on Friday. They were good seats for an entertaining game (a few thunderous put back dunks, Ray Allen being silky smooth as always). Somewhat sad that it was a blowout, but more importantly:

I won money prop betting.

I lost 50 bucks betting that Kendrick Perkins wouldn't get 10 points. Honestly, they guy is a huge stiff and the worst center in the NBA, but he got some garbage points early and had 14 by the third quarter, sigh.

I then GAVE 1:1.41 to that Rajon Rondo would NOT score 16 points. If he scored 15, we would push, and to break the tie, he had to have 7 assists for Jimmie to win. If he had 15 points and 7 assists, he had to have 5 rebounds. So basically, I was banking on him scoring 14 or less, or scoring 15 and not filling out the stat sheet. He flopped- ship the hondo.

Then I gave 7.5 to 1 that today's fatass wouldn't hit the three pointer. Jimmie thought he was going to make it for some reason. Guy shot it straight as an arrow, but he's fat and he threw it long and clanked it hard and failed. Thank you armchair 3-point shooter. Ship 50 more and the prop betting win for the night (although not the weekend).

Lots of traveling yesterday, 5 hours worth of flights and layovers and 3 hours worth of driving home.

Today's my momma's birthday, so we're going to breakfast now and a Japanese steakhouse for dinner. In between, my best friend is coming over to watch Da Bears, who are terrible, but at least I get to watch Brett Favre (Fav-RE) throw it around this afternoon in the frigid cold, that might be kind of fun.

GG will write a Christmas write-up soooon.

On Wednesday me and the entourage went to the Celtics- Pistons game. We sat about 10 rows up in a corner section for about a hundred bucks a ticket. The game was phenomenal. Ray Allen and KG both went for 20-something, and Ray had two sick, sick, sick threes in the fourth and a naaasty reverse dunk on Chauncy Billups. So nasty. With 6 minutes left the C's were down like 10, but with those two threes by Ray and one from deep by Eddie House the evened the score with 15 seconds left. The Pistons came down and turned it over with 5 on the clock, and Paul Pierce missed an open 15 footer after a timeout, leaving 1.7 on the clock. The last possession of the game was really gay- Billups caught from about 18 feet out at the top of the key, pump faked- got (get this) defensive specialist Tony Allen, who only played 1.7 seconds all game, to fall for the fake, jump into him, and foul him shooting a jumper.

Billups was cash money, as one would expect, and the Pistons won by two.

Seriously, that's the gayest ending ever. A defensive replacement comes in and blows the game? Lunging that hard at a jump shot with time winding down is such an awful mistake. That's why I hate putting people in the game who haven't played the rest of the game. He wasn't in the flow enough- besides, he had a bum knee. When I'm a coach, there's no way I'm sticking a guy in there for a specific reason if he hadn't played time during the middle of the game.

Aside from the C's losing, the atmosphere was great. Starkey went and tried to buy beer for everyone, but they wouldn't sell it to him since he had an out of state license and is not 25 (he's 24). He was pretty pissed about that, but I obviously didn't care. I lost 150 bucks in side bets. Some moron was taking a 3-pointer for a few thousand bucks or something at halftime, and Jimmie bet me 50 bucks he wouldn't hit the rim. I was like wtf this fat ass has to be able to throw it close, so I accepted.

Guy threw a 17 footer from 21 feet away. He looked like he hadn't lifted more than the remote in the past 6 months, so it was probably a bad bet- but hindsight is 20:20.

I lost another 100 bucks on Rajon ****ing Rondo. He had 10 points in the first quarter, and I thought he was poised for a big game because he was getting easy buckets. Jimmie bet me a hondo that he wouldn't break 20. He barely played in the second quarter. He got two garbage buckets in the third quarter, but he missed his only free throw attempt, and didn't shoot a shot in the fourth. So stupid.

We had such a good time we're gonna go again tonight. Before hand we're going to one of the sickest steakhouses, Ruth's Chris. There's one in Indy and a good friend of mine loves it, so we're gonna go to the one in Boston. I haven't had a thirty dollar steak in a while, much less a fifty dollar steak, so I'm excited. Rob is headed up to the game too, and we're supposed to meet up after. I'll let you guys know if we do anything exciting.

Everyone else is sleeping (we're all on weird, opposite, sleep schedules) right now but I have been up all night and played a little sesh. Only 4-6 tabled on my laptop, but it went pretty well.



I felt like I played marginally, to be honest. I went stretches where I played really straightforward and well, times when we got deep and it got sticky, and times where I just plain spewed. I'm basically not angry, because I'm going on very little sleep, so I think I did my best.

A few fun hands, let me find them...

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HAND #1
------------------

Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: $569
MP: $2,558
CO: $5,750
Hero (BTN): $2,495.50
SB: $787
BB: $2,379

Pre-Flop: A K dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG calls $20, MP folds, CO calls $20, Hero raises to $120, 3 folds, CO calls $100

Flop: ($290) 8 K 6 (2 Players)
CO checks, Hero bets $215, CO raises to $3,715, Hero calls $2,160.50 and is All-In

Turn: ($5,041) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($5,041) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $5,041 Pot ($3 Rake)
CO showed 5 A (a pair of Eights) and LOST (-$2,495.50 NET)
Hero showed A K (two pair, Kings and Eights) and WON $5,038 (+$2,542.50 NET)




------------------
HAND #2
------------------

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $2,414
SB: $3,941
BB: $642
UTG: $1,970
MP: $4,132.50
Hero (CO): $2,540

Pre-Flop: 7 7 dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP raises to $70, Hero calls $70, 3 folds

Flop: ($170) 7 7 T (2 Players)
MP checks, Hero bets $100, MP calls $100

Turn: ($370) 8 (2 Players)
MP checks, Hero bets $260, MP raises to $520, Hero calls $260

River: ($1,410) K (2 Players)
MP bets $700, Hero raises to $1,850 and is All-In, MP calls $1,150

Results: $5,110 Pot ($3 Rake)
MP mucked T T (a full house, Tens full of Sevens) and LOST (-$2,540 NET)
Hero showed 7 7 (four of a kind, Sevens) and WON $5,107 (+$2,567 NET)




------------------
HAND #3
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Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: $9,245
BTN: $5,543
SB: $750
BB: $5,687
Hero (UTG): $4,925

Pre-Flop: 6 6 6 6 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $150, CO calls $150, 2 folds, BB calls $100

Flop: ($475) 3 3 6 (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $350, CO calls $350, BB calls $350

Turn: ($1,525) 7 (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1,100, CO folds, BB calls $1,100

River: ($3,725) 3 (2 Players)
BB bets $4,087 and is All-In, Hero calls $3,325 and is All-In

Results: $10,375 Pot ($3 Rake)
BB showed 7 7 (a full house, Sevens full of Threes) and WON $10,372 (+$5,447 NET)
Hero mucked 6 6 6 6 (a full house, Sixes full of Threes) and LOST (-$4,925 NET)




------------------
HAND #4
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Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $1,137
UTG: $11,005.50
MP: $1,970
Hero (CO): $2,088
BTN: $1,970
SB: $3,616

Pre-Flop: 7 A dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP raises to $80, Hero calls $80, BTN folds, SB calls $70, BB folds

Flop: ($260) 5 Q 4 (3 Players)
SB checks, MP checks, Hero bets $160, SB folds, MP raises to $660, Hero raises to $2,008 and is All-In, MP calls $1,230 and is All-In

Turn: ($4,040) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($4,040) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $4,040 Pot ($3 Rake)
MP showed T K (a pair of Kings) and WON $4,037 (+$2,067 NET)
Hero mucked 7 A and LOST (-$1,970 NET)




------------------
HAND #5
------------------

Poker Stars, $10/$20...

Down like half of 50-75k or something retarded right now. Lost a decent amount at 50-100 and 25-50 to Durrrr and ADZ.

Just ran really bad. No worries, we're going to get it back right now! FTP went down, but we're going to 50-100 it up on Cake... Hollurrr.

Probably going to try and see Rob (Bobbo) later in the week for dinner since I'm out in Boston. Going to see the Pistons play the Celtics at the Garden tonight, 10th row.

Ship Ship McGipp, let's go comeback plz.

I'm off on a flight to Boston with my boy Starkey here in a couple hours. Going there for 4 days or something until the holidays to just chill out with Jimmie G and his crew. We'll prob sit courtside at a Celtics game or two, play ultra high stakes NLHE online, play some basketball, and get expensive food.

That's how we roll.

I'll hit you up with a pre-Christmas update in a few days, or update you on any stories that happen while I'm out on the East Coast. I'm up about 80 this month in about 13k hands, with 60 in 5k hands coming from Bryn.

I got in a car accident today on my way down to Caesar's Indiana Casino. It was snowing fairly badly and we knew we'd have to drive slow, but we were determined to get there. My friend Starkey was driving- it obviously wasn't his fault, he was merging onto the expressway at a reasonable speed, and when he was shifting lanes left the car just kept going.

Just before the accident, I kept thinking we were going to regain control for sure... we spun so slowly it seemed. Anyways, we got about 180 degrees and crashed the side of the Expedition into the concrete median. I was on the driver's side in the backseat. I'm completely fine, except I jerked my head pretty hard (but didn't hit it, as far as I know) and experienced short term memory loss immediately after the accident. Basically, I just kept repeating that I was having trouble remembering things... I felt like I had been transported into that time and place, like my life was a dream. So weird.

Piece by piece I talked my way through the last weeks and days and hours until the accident until I pretty much regained my memory, but I still feel really weird about the hour or so after the crash. The police officer must have thought I was crazy, because I know I kept repeating about me having memory loss. Anyways, no cars were coming so everyone is alright. My friend Will's got a pretty big bump on the back of his head, but he'll be okay. I don't think we're even going to go to the ER.

So I'm back at home now and probably going to just relax and watch some movies for the next several hours and tonight and stay away from everything. I know everyone wants to make sure I'm okay, but I don't need ten thousand instant messages- don't worry I'm alright. I'll get things straightened out and be fine.

Peace.

So every year there is a frat at my college that blasts a song, on repeat, like 24 hours a day (literally) during Christmas time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5rOO2v2dU

That's a link to the song, with a random music video with it on youtube. I'd never heard of the song before I got to Butler, but everyone has a very love/hate relationship with the song on campus since it's so overplayed. Now that I'm not living on campus and not hearing it at all hours of the night, I'm pretty excited to listen to it. I really like Christmas and Christmas music, I need to make another CD or just add songs to my ipod so I can listen to them in the car. The only songs I highly recommend listening to in moderate doses are the Christmas songs by Alvin and the Chipmunks. Those songs are sweet the first dozen times you hear them, and the next dozen make you want to blow your head off just a little bit more each time.

I haven't been playing too much poker, but when I have I've been playing bad. It's funny, because I was at the top of my game in November and early December, and I'm still thinking about the game well, I'm just tilting a little and not playing anywhere near my B game. I'm going to try hard to take a break and not play much until the PCA to be honest, besides some random high stakes here and there while I finish finals and enjoy the holidays.

If you're familiar at all with the economy, you might enjoy this next clip. It was posted in the EDF forum, and is truly gold. I'm moderately informed about the subject, so it's hilarious, and anyone who is even more into computers/business will think it's amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi4fzvQ6I-o

On a very exciting note, I've set my alarm for midnight because Back to the Future 3 starts. The Back to the Future series is amazing, and I haven't seen the third one for many years. Very stoked.

Completely unrelated: I should start compiling a list of people who want to fight me at the PCA. I don't think I'm bringing that much of my entourage, but I think I have to look out for people like Gambler2k4, who is a mid/small stakes donk who threatened physical harm to me because I talked some **** to him and beat him out of a few grand. I suppose It would be wise of him to threaten to fight me, because I know he wants nothing to do with sitting on the opposing end of a poker game with me.

So I wake up this morning a little after noon and there's snow all over the ****ing ground! At leat 4 to 6 inches of ****ing snow all over the place. I had my final class today at 2:30 so I had to warm my car up, take an empty water bottle out of my car and clean off my windshield (who says that the trash in my car isn't useful), and drive on the treacherous ice to campus.

I watched a bunch of dumbass presentations in my class, daydreamed, and went to get a sick french dip roast beef sandwich.

Tonight we were in the final four of our intramural 3 on 3 basketball tournament. I was really happy with how we'd been playing thusfar in the tournament, even though we had missed someone in our first and second round games. Well, today we were down two people, two really important people, and we were playing a team with a lot of size. We started off alright, but faded in the second half with no subs. Really gay result. I'd been playing so well lately I was very disappointed that we were shorthanded today- but no excuses, I came up short and we got beat pretty badly. Again, I'm really pissed, because we were definitely one of the top few teams in the league at full strength and if a bounce or two would have went our way... ****en maybes. Kind of ****en pissed about that.

Pretty off topic, but if I had to give up poker or basketball for the rest of my life, given the amount of money I've already made from poker, I'd easily give up poker. I don't know how I'd live without being able to play basketball- for sure I wouldn't find anything I enjoyed doing while working out. I mean, I can lift and such, but I really hate doing cardio now; running doesn't appeal to me at all. I asked a friend who is keen on both poker and basketball the same question, but he said he's rather give up basketball. But I'm better than him at both, so my opinion is more important!

It's a great time of the year for college basketball. I'm getting a chance to watch quite a few 'Heels games, which is a treat because they're so good, and pretty much every night I can find a good competitive college game on, even if it is the nonconference schedule.

I'll try buying those plane tickets tonight, I hope I remember.