Hey, is that a jack in your ace?

my tentative deadline for new york may be post-poned for a year. villa antonio is expanding into Balantyne within the next eight to nine months, and it's possible that I may get a weekend night. i've been working on background music for my songs (such as drums, strings, etc) so that I can have something to play along with. It's more entertaining for the guests, and by June of next year, I should have over one to two hundred songs with background music. **hopefully that will last a night ;-p**

you guys should come up to South Boulevard. Although it's a four-star restaurant and known for its fancy atmosphere, not everything is as expensive as you would think. you can share a Calamari appetizer with three people and spend less than $10. With free bread and a pepsi, your hunger is bound for satisfaction. There is no dress code, and the people who work there are very nice to their guests. It's a fun environment. You won't go without getting a laugh or two.

I'm doing okay. In the past week and a half I've had progressive results. My instincts are getting better and so is my read. I have a habit of building up a nice stack of chips early on in the game and then letting it dwindle as the night goes on. Eventually, I pick things up a notch at the end and come out aggressively successful. This sounds great, but in an opposite position, I could find myself in a predicament as soon as I could feel lucky otherwise. That's one reason why poker amazes me so much. I grew up with it as a kid. Every Thanksgiving the family and I would travel to Georgia, and if the men weren't eating turkey, we were slappin' cards on the table and rakin' in chips. I was never good at betting. Sometimes I would raise twenty cents with nothing in my hand. We played a lot of five-card draw and seven-card stud along with aces, dueces, and one-eyed Jacks as wild cards. Wild cards were determined by the dealer, but the majority of hands were played straight up. When somebody needed chips they would usually depend on Dr. Pepper or the ace of spades to help increase their luck. That somebody would usually be me, hence the fact that I would bet most of my chips with a pair of ducks in the previous hand. Since poker was in the family, I never considered it very serious. I think that's an advantage in my game. It helps me keep a cool about what's going on at the table. Taking poker too seriously is what makes it such a habit to some people. When it becomes a habit, you tend to get greedy, resulting in excessive raising and a lack of logic.

I think texas hold'em is roughly 34% luck and 66% skill. When you're playing with the same five cards as the other players, the number of possibilities drop and the word "bluff" has a whooooooole new meaning. Five-card draw and seven-card stud are always fun, but I prefer texas hold'em because you rely on your skill more than you do luck. I like to practice online with fake money. I go to PokerRoom.com and play for about thirty minutes in the afternoon. I feel it's necessary to tone your skills. Concentrating, observing, and positively thinking in times of loss are skills involved in a game of hold'em. If you can hold a steady game while sitting at a computer, you're more than likely to succeed even greater stamina at a table. And yes...I used the word "stamina".

This entry is extremely long and is now over.