I played 2-5 no limit at Snoqualmie Casino last night for the first time in a couple of months. After a horrible start and an up and down session, I cashed out up 1/2 a buy-in.
My very first hand, I limp re-raised in a straddled pot with QQ and the raiser shoved all-in. I was pretty sure he had AA or KK and folded. It's possible I made a bad lay down not wanting to lose all of my chips on the first hand but I think it was right. Even so, it cost me half my stack. I had to add on a couple of times to have a healthy stack and was basically back to my starting chips when my big hand of the night came up.
I limped in middle position with pocket eights and 6 or 7 people saw a flop of Q-8-3 with two clubs. I bet $20 and a player check-raised to $70. He was one of my targets at the table, clearly willing to put a lot of money in on a draw or medium strength hand. Given he might be drawing and was unlikely to have QQ (and if he does, I lose all my chips), I re-raised him to about $170. He went all-in and I immediately called. The turn was a club, which I didn't like and the river was a blank. He showed KQ for one pair and I doubled up. Unfortunately I lost of bunch of those chips soon after on a bad bluff. I ground back over the rest of the evening and as noted cashed out well ahead.
I made a couple of poorly timed bluffs, but overall played pretty well though I was a bit rusty. Hope to go back soon.
Tuesday, August 31
Friday, August 20
Maybe There's Hope for Customer Service
One of the reasons I started this blog was a place to vent. Sometimes about stupid thing or frustrating sports teams, but often about bad customer service. And part of why I invested in a restaurant many years ago is I was so disappointed with the terrible service in restaurants that I felt if you could actually run a place with a brain and treat customers well, you'd succeed.
Monica have had some unbelievably bad experiences with people attempting to render customer services. Too many to list but here are a few examples. Monica ordered a hamburger without the sauce that usually comes on it. When it came with sauce she sent it back and they wiped the sauce off the bun and sent it back to her. We checked into a hotel and they gave us a key to the wrong room -- a room where someone was already checked in and Monica walked in on the couple. Fortunately they were sitting on the bed watching TV. And recently we tried out new house cleaners. You'd think people would want to make a good first impression to win your business. They called to say they'd be there between 2 and 3; that's a big range but OK. At 3:30 they called to say they were leaving Mercer Island and they arrived about 4 PM. I understand some technicians (plumber, electrician, computer repairman) could have a job be larger than they expected and run late. But how does a house cleaning job blow up and run over by two hours. We needed the house cleaned, but these people were "fired" before they ever started.
However, I'm glad to say that we've seen a few examples of good customer service of late which somewhat restores my faith in humanity.
(I thought I wrote about this before but can't find it.) Monica and I dined at Ruth's Chris Steak House in January. While nothing was so bad that we were really upset or I asked for a manager, we weren't exactly wowed the way we should be for fine dining. The only real problem was that Monica's fillet was undercooked then when they "fixed" it, the butter sauce made for a very crispy outside. I know from experience it's tricky to cook beef exactly right, but when you have "Steak" in your name you should get a steak right 95% of the time. Other things were minor and fixed as best they could at the time.
However, on the way home it dawned on us that they had problems with our table, our drinks, our salad, Monica's steak, and dessert. I send a nice but unhappy letter to the general manager to let them know about our experience. I got a phone call from the GM two days later who invited us to return on the house, much more than I asked for. Awesome.
And just this week. Expedia has a new "Priceline-like" feature where they'll sell you a discounted hotel without revealing its name. The downside is you don't know exactly which hotel you get and you can't cancel or change the reservation. I booked two rooms for our upcoming trip to Vancouver using this process. In reviewing my confirmation, I noticed that somehow the date got entered as 9/11 which is not what I needed. I called Expedia to ask if there was anything they could do since it was human error -- and I wasn't trying to beat the discount system. The customer rep called the hotel and they were gracious enough to cancel my reservation and refund a non-refundable payment. I'm not a once a month traveler, but I do use Expedia several times a year and they now have a very happy customer.
Monica made a massage appointment next door to the place where she works out and told the front desk person, who may be the manager, that she'd be coming from a workout. She'd done this before and it wasn't a problem. When she arrived, she apologized for being sweaty, and her massage therapist made some sort of snide remark about it. Monica decided to walk out since the guy apparently wasn't comfortable giving her a massage. At first I saw his side, but as I think about it, when I got for a massage they suggest I use the steam room or sauna first, so many people come a bit hot and sweaty. Anyway Monica told the front desk what happened at left. Later that night, Monica got an email from the manager apologizing for what happened, letting her know that therapist was no longer employed, and offering her a free massage if she'd like to come back. I think that's more than they needed to do, but they turned Monica from someone who will never come back and tell horror stories about the place into a likely regular customer... and one who will bring friends. And it cost them the price of one massage.
Monica have had some unbelievably bad experiences with people attempting to render customer services. Too many to list but here are a few examples. Monica ordered a hamburger without the sauce that usually comes on it. When it came with sauce she sent it back and they wiped the sauce off the bun and sent it back to her. We checked into a hotel and they gave us a key to the wrong room -- a room where someone was already checked in and Monica walked in on the couple. Fortunately they were sitting on the bed watching TV. And recently we tried out new house cleaners. You'd think people would want to make a good first impression to win your business. They called to say they'd be there between 2 and 3; that's a big range but OK. At 3:30 they called to say they were leaving Mercer Island and they arrived about 4 PM. I understand some technicians (plumber, electrician, computer repairman) could have a job be larger than they expected and run late. But how does a house cleaning job blow up and run over by two hours. We needed the house cleaned, but these people were "fired" before they ever started.
However, I'm glad to say that we've seen a few examples of good customer service of late which somewhat restores my faith in humanity.
(I thought I wrote about this before but can't find it.) Monica and I dined at Ruth's Chris Steak House in January. While nothing was so bad that we were really upset or I asked for a manager, we weren't exactly wowed the way we should be for fine dining. The only real problem was that Monica's fillet was undercooked then when they "fixed" it, the butter sauce made for a very crispy outside. I know from experience it's tricky to cook beef exactly right, but when you have "Steak" in your name you should get a steak right 95% of the time. Other things were minor and fixed as best they could at the time.
However, on the way home it dawned on us that they had problems with our table, our drinks, our salad, Monica's steak, and dessert. I send a nice but unhappy letter to the general manager to let them know about our experience. I got a phone call from the GM two days later who invited us to return on the house, much more than I asked for. Awesome.
And just this week. Expedia has a new "Priceline-like" feature where they'll sell you a discounted hotel without revealing its name. The downside is you don't know exactly which hotel you get and you can't cancel or change the reservation. I booked two rooms for our upcoming trip to Vancouver using this process. In reviewing my confirmation, I noticed that somehow the date got entered as 9/11 which is not what I needed. I called Expedia to ask if there was anything they could do since it was human error -- and I wasn't trying to beat the discount system. The customer rep called the hotel and they were gracious enough to cancel my reservation and refund a non-refundable payment. I'm not a once a month traveler, but I do use Expedia several times a year and they now have a very happy customer.
Monica made a massage appointment next door to the place where she works out and told the front desk person, who may be the manager, that she'd be coming from a workout. She'd done this before and it wasn't a problem. When she arrived, she apologized for being sweaty, and her massage therapist made some sort of snide remark about it. Monica decided to walk out since the guy apparently wasn't comfortable giving her a massage. At first I saw his side, but as I think about it, when I got for a massage they suggest I use the steam room or sauna first, so many people come a bit hot and sweaty. Anyway Monica told the front desk what happened at left. Later that night, Monica got an email from the manager apologizing for what happened, letting her know that therapist was no longer employed, and offering her a free massage if she'd like to come back. I think that's more than they needed to do, but they turned Monica from someone who will never come back and tell horror stories about the place into a likely regular customer... and one who will bring friends. And it cost them the price of one massage.
Thursday, August 19
Poker success
Made a nice comeback from my poker losses to cash out a big win last Thursday at Club Hollywood. Was a loose, weak game with people throwing money around. I made back my losses from the previous week and also ran good as opposed to running horribly bad. Big hand when my over pair and nut-flush redraw was actually behind on the turn and drew out against second-nut flush and the guy played the river poorly. Need to get back to Snoqualmie this week and play more no limit.
Also, Tommy is doing much better after a few days of recovery. In fact he probably has too much energy for his own good.
Also, Tommy is doing much better after a few days of recovery. In fact he probably has too much energy for his own good.
Saturday, August 14
Poor Old Dog
Tommy has been our foster dog for nearly two years. He's effectively ours as it seems unlikely he'll get adopted. He has a myriad of minor problems that make him a difficult adoption, perhaps the worst of which is that he's 13 and people don't want older dogs.
This morning Tommy slipped or stepped funny and badly sprained his front right leg. With two weak hind legs already, he was having a lot of trouble getting around. We took him to the vet and nothing is broken, which is the good news. The bad news is he appears to be in pain and is on bed rest for the next two weeks. We'll have to help him get outside and back inside to do his business. Yes, that's as much fun as it sounds. If there's a bright side, it's that Tommy isn't very active and we don't need to crate him to limit his activity. He does that on his own.
He's resting comfortably now, but is basically stuck downstairs until further notice. And he doesn't like to be picked up to be moved outside or brought back in. Fun, fun, fun.
This morning Tommy slipped or stepped funny and badly sprained his front right leg. With two weak hind legs already, he was having a lot of trouble getting around. We took him to the vet and nothing is broken, which is the good news. The bad news is he appears to be in pain and is on bed rest for the next two weeks. We'll have to help him get outside and back inside to do his business. Yes, that's as much fun as it sounds. If there's a bright side, it's that Tommy isn't very active and we don't need to crate him to limit his activity. He does that on his own.
Taxes
I finally finished my federal income taxes for 2009.
I've used TurboTax (or equivalent) for about 10 years. And as I look at the insane number of calculations and forms required to compute my taxes it's easy to remember why. However TurboTax has a horrible bug this year that wasted a ton of my time. It likely effects a small % of their users, but if it hits you, it grinds your computer to a halt. Basically if you have a large number of imported stock transactions AND you need to correct an error in these transactions which is common, the program uses a ton of memory and is very slow loading the imported transactions. Since I have a number of "managed accounts", I hit the limit quite easily. Fixing up the data that should have taken me an hour or two probably took 15-20 hours. All that time wasn't active -- much was click a button wait 5 minutes and do something else -- but it was too much. If I had known how long it would take, I might have taken a different route, like buying their competing software. Or paying someone to do our taxes. I'll have to see if they have this bug next year.
But they're done and I'm going to try to get a jump on 2010 taxes by doing a better job of tracking our donations.
I've used TurboTax (or equivalent) for about 10 years. And as I look at the insane number of calculations and forms required to compute my taxes it's easy to remember why. However TurboTax has a horrible bug this year that wasted a ton of my time. It likely effects a small % of their users, but if it hits you, it grinds your computer to a halt. Basically if you have a large number of imported stock transactions AND you need to correct an error in these transactions which is common, the program uses a ton of memory and is very slow loading the imported transactions. Since I have a number of "managed accounts", I hit the limit quite easily. Fixing up the data that should have taken me an hour or two probably took 15-20 hours. All that time wasn't active -- much was click a button wait 5 minutes and do something else -- but it was too much. If I had known how long it would take, I might have taken a different route, like buying their competing software. Or paying someone to do our taxes. I'll have to see if they have this bug next year.
But they're done and I'm going to try to get a jump on 2010 taxes by doing a better job of tracking our donations.
Tuesday, August 10
Poker update
Just hit the worst run of poker in my life. With Maor visiting from Zurich I wound up playing limit which was part of he problem. But really I missed most of my draws while it seemed every time I had a big starting hand people chased and caught on the river. Of course in a limit game even if they made a bad decision o get involved before the flop, their play is correct after the flop. This can lead to a wide variance when building big pots as a 2:1 favorite and losing.
Also hit some coolers and brutal suck outs. I ran flopped ace-high flush into flopped straight flush. That's a lose all your money hand though I could have lost more had I not realized I was beaten before all the money went in. Almost made a hero smooth call and saved two big bets. And I can't remember losing to more 2 and 3 outers ever. If a player has only two or three cards that will win him the hand, he'll get there 10% of the time but they sure hit a lot more than that...and in hands where the other guy would have lost a lot of money if he didn't hit.
Oh well. Can't change the past. Back to winning money later this week.
Also hit some coolers and brutal suck outs. I ran flopped ace-high flush into flopped straight flush. That's a lose all your money hand though I could have lost more had I not realized I was beaten before all the money went in. Almost made a hero smooth call and saved two big bets. And I can't remember losing to more 2 and 3 outers ever. If a player has only two or three cards that will win him the hand, he'll get there 10% of the time but they sure hit a lot more than that...and in hands where the other guy would have lost a lot of money if he didn't hit.
Oh well. Can't change the past. Back to winning money later this week.
Skeet shooting
Every December I make a list of things I want to do in the coming year -- new restaurants to try, places to visit, local activities to check out and so on. And every year it's the same list because somehow not much of it gets done.
I picked one item off the list a couple of weeks ago when Monica and I attended a Sounders game, well half of one. But this past week I did something very new a different even though it wasn't on the list, though it might have been had I known such a thing existed.
My financial consultant team at Merrill Lynch invited a bunch of clients and friends to the Seattle skeet and trap club to go shooting. I've never shot a gun in my life, aside from a water gun or nerf gun and neither prepares you for this. They spent an hour and a half teaching us and then held a competition.
My first challenge was that I'm right handed but left-eye dominant. They suggested I just close my left eye but that leaves me with 20/50 vision so I decided to learn to shoot left-handed. I surprised myself by hitting my first two practice shots but it was clearly beginners luck. It gets a lot harder once you aren't shooting straight on and the pigeons are going straight out.
Practice was OK. In the competitive round they split us into three groups bases on skill level; I was in the lowest group of course. I felt I did OK. I did better in the second round of 25 than the first round of 25 so that's improvement but still missed more than I hit. I guess most beginners did worse because I got 3rd place in the "cant shoot a darn" group. Yes Dad, there were more than three people in the group, probably 7-9.
Was fun to try something new and had a lot of fun. The food and wine served was an added bonus. I don't know if I'd do this again on my own but would be a great group activity. Only downside is my arms were sore for two days.
I picked one item off the list a couple of weeks ago when Monica and I attended a Sounders game, well half of one. But this past week I did something very new a different even though it wasn't on the list, though it might have been had I known such a thing existed.
My financial consultant team at Merrill Lynch invited a bunch of clients and friends to the Seattle skeet and trap club to go shooting. I've never shot a gun in my life, aside from a water gun or nerf gun and neither prepares you for this. They spent an hour and a half teaching us and then held a competition.
My first challenge was that I'm right handed but left-eye dominant. They suggested I just close my left eye but that leaves me with 20/50 vision so I decided to learn to shoot left-handed. I surprised myself by hitting my first two practice shots but it was clearly beginners luck. It gets a lot harder once you aren't shooting straight on and the pigeons are going straight out.
Practice was OK. In the competitive round they split us into three groups bases on skill level; I was in the lowest group of course. I felt I did OK. I did better in the second round of 25 than the first round of 25 so that's improvement but still missed more than I hit. I guess most beginners did worse because I got 3rd place in the "cant shoot a darn" group. Yes Dad, there were more than three people in the group, probably 7-9.
Was fun to try something new and had a lot of fun. The food and wine served was an added bonus. I don't know if I'd do this again on my own but would be a great group activity. Only downside is my arms were sore for two days.
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