What?? No More Main Street Station Buffet?? (PART I)

There's a very important anniversary coming up for someone very special in my life. As many of you know, my wife Tonya Baltazar means a hellava lot to me. I don't know where my life would be without her, so if I could help her in any way possible I would.

I've been with my wife for a total of 11 years, and for most of the time, she's been, shall we say, a more than average size woman. I didn't care how she looked, what's most important is I loved her no matter what she looked like. But I could tell the extra weight was carrying a heavy burden on her daily life. Physically, she had a hard time moving and it took her a long time to get around places. She fatigued quickly if she had to do anything physical for a long periods of time.

For a period of 3 or 4 years, she tried everything to lose her weight: She tried everything from exercising to crash diets to fad diets, but nothing seemed to work. Then one day, I was at work chatting with my co-workers when the topic of weight loss came up. I knew someone who had lap band surgery, so I decided to talk to my wife about it...

Needlessly to say, the thought weight loss surgery peeked her interest, so for the next few weeks, she did all times of research on Lap Band Surgery. For those who don't know, Lap Bank weight loss surgery is basically a device on the top of the stomach to slow the consumption of food. It's an effective surgery but it becomes a pain in the ass because you had to adjust it from time to time. Then one night my wife said she saw something on the internet, "What about this gastric sleeve weight loss surgery?"

My wife explained the surgery to me where they about 25 perfect of the stomach. She found a web site with other's who had the gastric sleeve surgery and 100 perfect had high praise and high recommendations for it. The next couple of months, my wife because a disciple to this web site, reading all the stories of how much weight all these people had lost and the positive impact it had on their lives.

With each stories she read, with each smile she saw, with each happier person she soaked, the more she want to do the gastric surgery. There was one hiccup to this weight loss surgery, it was irreversible. If she decided to go with it, she never go back. I asked her if this what she really wanted. Admittedly, she nodded, "I want to see my kids grow up. I want to be there when each get married. I want to be a grandmother. I want to be there for everything is my kid's life" With that, I was convinced at her determination and as her husband and her biggest supporter I was going to help her get this surgery to make her dream of losing weight a reality.

After three months, and lots of paperwork, the time had finally arrived, Aug 16, 2012. The night before as we were packing her day bag, you can tell she was a extremely nervous. This was life-altering , major surgery and with any surgery there was an element of risk.  Around 8PM, the night before the surgery (I remember this night like it was yesterday) she called her three kids into our room, and with tears flowing she spoke from the heart, "In case something happens to me tomorrow, I just wanted to say that mommy is proud of each of you. I love all of you." She gave each of her kids a big hug and kiss...I had tears in my eyes too cause the thought of losing her would break my heart.

The next day, we arrived at the hospital early in the morning and after all the preliminaries, she was laying in the hospital bed. A blur of nurses, doctors, and orderlies prepared her surgery. I don't think she or I remember half of the things they were saying to us. All that mattered was my wife was going into major surgery, and I was thinking about all the great and beautiful times we had as a couple. My wife was getting nervous as the moment of truth arrived. I did my best to reassure her that everything would go smoothly, but even I was nervous.

That 30 minutes before the surgery seemed like the longest 30 minutes of my life. A million thoughts raced through my head. Will this surgery work? What if something goes wrong? What if doesn't work?? Finally two orderlies walked in and prepared to wheel her to the operation room. I gave my wife a big kiss and we hugged for a minute but it felt like an eternity, united in our love for each other no matter what happens for the next two hours. I shed a tear and said, "I love you with all my heart" then watched as they wheeled her further away from me. Her bed shrinking with ever feet away, until she disappeared around the corner leaving me with a hallway full of bustling nurses, patients, and doctors walking back and forth through the hallway. I stood there for a moment, frozen in time, said a prayer to myself, then walked into the waiting room...This was going to be the longest 2 hours of my life.....


PART II SOON: The Aftermath..."What?? No more Main Street Station Seafood Buffett??"

MY PRETTY PONY....WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN??

One of my favorite short stories was an obscure Stephen King short story I read when I was a teenager, called "My Pretty Pony". I believe it was part of his collection called "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" It's a story about a dying grandfather who gives a watch to his grandson, and explain the concept of time. According to it's wikipedia page, "My Pretty Pony" was actually a flashback scene of working Stephen King novel that was scrapped; it was to be published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym.

In my opinion, TIME is the most important commodity we have because it's the element in our lives that we can never get back. When we're young, time seems to run at a snail's pace: we want to grow up fast...lazy summer days sitting on a beach..that fun summer job life guarding checking out the cuties from the opposite sex.

Before you know it, you're an adult, then you get caught up in the hustle and bustle of your life, and forget to have the fun you had when you were a carefree child. You make excuses for not pausing to smell the roses (as they say) to savior the good moments of your life. Time starts to accelerate and passes you by without even noticing it. Before you know it seconds becomes minutes, and minutes becomes hours, hours becomes days, days become weeks, weeks become years, and years become decades. 

Chunks of time melts away, and sometimes you have regret: things you wish you've done before you got older. Things you should have said. Little things add up before one day, you're sitting in a rocking chair when your hair becomes grey, and with the wind bellowing through your face, you remember all the good memories of your life. 

Time is merciless...it doesn't wait for you. You can sit around the play the "What if" games, but as you're wondering about that...those seconds are ticking away....tick tock tick tock...

So do I have a moral to this....of course...take advantage of every second you're in this earth, and make it the best time of your life. 

Whenever I think of the concept of time, and it's importance, I always go back to that obscure Stephen King story.....

THIS JUST IN....POKER MELTDOWN AT PLANET HOLLYWOOD....FILM AT 11

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'Want to start by saying, everyone who plays poker no matter how good you think you are, or how bad you think you are, are bound to have a meltdown at some point. The key is minimizing those meltdowns. Alas, they do come when you least expect it. At times, you don't realize it's happening until you're shipping your entire stack to your opponent. 

This my poker friends, is the balt999 meltdown of Jul 2013:

LOCATION: PLANET HOLLYWOOD CASINO, LAS VEGAS, NV: 12:50AM (give or take a few minutes)

HERO: Poker dealer/poker player/occasional bingo player/occasional sports bettor/all-around good dad/winner of a Putt-Putt golf tournament when I was 6 years old

VILIAN: Aggressive Asian dude with a Golden St Warrior T-Shirt. Never said a word the entire time I sat until he muttered those deadly words to me (more on that later). Probably a good dude, just not when we're playing pots together.

SET UP: I'm sitting in Seat 7, Villain in seat 9. Been playing for about 3 hrs when the meltdown occurred. I have 225 in front of me...He's sitting with 200. I intended it to be my final orbit, and as you will see...it was. Villain had a habit of raising his button every time action was too him especially if there were multiple limpers in front of him...Only time he didn't raise he's button is if there was a raise in front.

HERO MISTAKE #1: Two limpers in front of me, and I'm dealt the lovely AQ off suit, and limp behind. I should have raised. AQ is not a hand I want to play with multiple players. Should have tried to reduce the field

HERO MISTAKE #2: I was tired and looking for an excuse to leave the game, but my stubbornness prevailed

HERO MISTAKE #3: Villain raised to $15 folded around to me...I nonchalantly toss in three red chips to complete the call. The play was to either raise or fold...learning towards raise. Because he was raising every button, his preflop raising standards was very wide...I could have made it $35-$45, and maybe take down the pot there or depending on his course of action, I could narrow his range and play accordingly. Although I would have been out of position the entire time.

HERO MISTAKE #4: Flop comes out KQ4...I checked, Villain Bet $25..I call...I think leading out is the play here. A probing bet of $15 probably would have giving me the information I needed. Cause he's folding a ton of hands in his range here...If he calls, I would definitely check the turn (Unless I hit a Q or A), and reevaluate according to his action. A raise, and I'm folding 50% of the time cause I don't want to play a big pot out of position.

HERO MISTAKE #5: Forgetting my #1 cash game rule: Never play a big pot unless I have the nuts or close to the nuts

HERO MISTAKE #6: The turn brings an 8...At this point the mistakes are compounding quickly and larger like a goddamn snowball as big as one of those wrecking balls. I check again. Villain bets $50. At this point, my feeble mind should have set off signals that this guy has the big hand to be betting this much....I peek behind his arms and see he has around $90 left...Another clue...HE WAS POT COMMITTED!!!!!!! If raised all-in, he would have been forced to call. And Of Course, I cant beat anything at his point...I guess a feeble QJ maybe but I seriously think he's not playing QJ Postflop that way.....Then it happens.....

Triumphantly, I announced "ALL IN" as if I'm some great player with the "Greatest Read in the History of Poker". The Villain instant calls...
"Do you have King" I gulped.
Villain nods,"Yeah" as he turns over KJ
River bricked out and I'm shipping nearly my entire stack two my left, leaving the remanence of my epic meltdown: $22.

I get felted a few hands later. I nearly reached into my pocket for another buy in but decide it was better to lick my wounds and not try to chase my losses.

EPILOGUE: As I'm driving home, I got over that AQ hand in my head, and list all the things that went wrong. As you can see..A LOT!!!!!! Despite this legendary meltdown, it by no means shook my confidence as a poker player. I had one really terrible session where I didn't lose because of a bad beat, set over set, or a horrendous river suck out...I lost because I played one hand terribly and in no limit that cost me dearly. Truthfully, this probably won't be the first or the last meltdown I'll have as I prod through the life as a poker player, but learning from it is the key.

And When I do, I'll have more of these......

Rather than one of these.....

I LOVE MY GUILTY PLEASURE -- 1980's MUSIC

I'm a child of the 80's....
I love everything about the 80's
Wall Street, Karate Kid (Macchio version), Just One of the Guys, Breakfast Club, and 3 O'clock High are among my favorite 80' movies

But most of all I LOVE THE MUSIC of the 80's!!!

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, I began thinking about what I wanted to write for my next blog. Usually, I'll have my iPod blasted throughout my room usually singing along like some Friday-Night karaoke singer on his 5th beer, thinking I'm in a capacity-filled arena. I usually set my iPod to "Shuffle" so some random song will start playing. I have 1,100 songs tucked away from Billy Joel to Justin Timberlake, from Human Nature to Alanis Morrissette, from Stryper to Nickelback, from Michael Jackson to Bruno Mars. The best part about setting my IPod to shuffle, sometimes you come across an obscure song from you childhood/teenager years, or to a happy time of your life (or a sad time in your life), or to a significant moment that changed your life forever. You hear the song, stop whatever you were doing and think about those moments in your life. For me, I'm usually smiling, dancing, cheering, and you feel you heart fill with precious gold that warms you all over, and for those 3-5 minutes the song is playing, you lose yourself in it forgetting about the troubles, stress, and the day to day grind that is your life.

Today, those 80's songs are guilty pleasures, songs are forgotten by the today's standards, but I love them and will always have them blasted in my IPod as I'm relaxing, playing poker, or working out...you never want to lose that part of your life that is pure and innocent....Believe me it'll keep you from going insane.

So I'm want to present some my favorite bands, singers, songs of the 80's:

Culture Club -- For the longest time I thought Boy George was a girl. Music was very infectious.

Stryper -- Christian Heavy Metal Band who wore Yellow and black. Saw them in concert for the first time a few years ago....one of the greatest moments of my life. Probably my favorite Heavy Metal Band of all time. I used to wear their Pin to school, and everyone would ask me if I was Christian...lol

Hall and Oates: "I Can't Go For that" is still one of my favorite songs of all time.

The Jets  --  I had a lot of Samoan friends and I thought they were related to this group -- Come to find out they weren't Samoan, they were from the Island of Tonga...lol

Cutting Crew -- "I Just Died in your Arms" another classic. Although they had another obscure song I love even more, "I've Been in Love Before"

Huey Lewis and The News -- I love this band! Another group where every song was infectious! They just looked a bunch of guys playing good music and having a great time! I've never seen them in concert..I would love to someday...not sure if they're still performing.


There you have it. My 80's guilty pleasure. I'm sure I left off enough 80's bands to fill two or three blogs, but I wanted to go as obscure as possible with my selections. Whenever a song from one of these bands start blaring my iPod, I know it's time to lose yourself.....and smile!

Poker with the Bloggers -- LIGHTNING36, PLEASE FOLD!!!

Poker is a social game. Poker is a people game. More importantly, poker is a "take as much money from your opponent as possible" game. However, there are times where you play people you don't want to take money from, but the circumstances drive you too....

Few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of playing $1-$2 No Limit at the Luxor with 3 bloggers, who I have the absolute respect, admiration, and huge fans of their particular blogs: Lucki Duck, Robvegaspoker , and Lightning36. The 3 bloggers arrived at the Luxor about 20 minutes after I was there. I was sitting in a very very very extremely extremely tight tight table!! (Did I mention the table was very, extremely, tight??) Lightning said they had enough to start a new game. At first I was apprehensive about joining the game because I have this thing about playing people I like cause I really don't want to take their money, and in the case of Robvegaspoker and Lightning36, they've been very generous tippers to me whenever I've dealt then, even tipping in small pots when they didn't have too. It was a definite quandary, it's the reason I don't playing where I work, and if I do, I NEVER play at the table if I've dealt it already. It's my belief you shouldn't play at poker room if you work there...it's a "conflict of interest" rule. Yeah, I know it might be a little paranoid, cause in 99% of cases, your regular players really don't care if you play with them, but I usually am uncomfortable if I'm check-raising a guy who tipped 15 bucks the week before...lol

The only reason I decided to join the new table was the table I was at was very very extremely extremely tight tight table!! (I have mention how tight my table was??). The first hours, the table really played tight, but I was enjoying the conversations with my fellow bloggers. We talked about an array of interesting topics, one of which was the whereabouts of "Backpack" Steve, a leech who used to hang around poker room begging for money. When I told them what happened to him, the bloggers, particularly Robvegaspoker was shocked yet not too surprised. It was definitely a delightful time, to the point where I sometimes forgot were in a card game..it was like we were sipping a cold one and shooting the breeze in a bar. But alas, the game of no limit Texas Hold em took hold of two of the us...one of which was me...the other was Lightning36.

Like many no limit poker hands, the hand started out nonchalantly, A player opened for $12 from a $90 or so stack....I'm sitting two seats later with Pocket 10's and call. My stack was a little over $200. Two more callers behind me, and Lightning in the Small blind calls. So we take the flop five-handed...The flop comes A A 10 A. I actually did a double take...did I just flop a boat?? Lightning, first to act checks, the initial raiser bets $20. Quickly, I raised to $40. I acted quickly because I'm a believer if you flop a monster you act the opposite of what you'd normally do. I see it too much as a poker dealer, when someone flops a monster, they put on the "Hollywood" Act as if they a tough decision to make. I can pretty much tell they have a monster by this act, and I'm almost always right. It's actually helped in my poker playing in identifying big hands and being able to either get away from them or lose the minimum. The 2nd part of this hand is why did I raise on the flop with a full house. My goal to extract maximum value for my hand and with 5 players in a raised pot, there had to be an Ace somewhere with my 4 other opponents, and I wanted to get that Ace to commit this stack to the point as early in the hand as possible where he is forced to put the rest of his chips in the next two streets.

Two players behind me folded quickly, the action was now on Lightning, who tanked. At that point, I knew he had an Ace, and I thought, "Dammit, this is not what I wanted." I wanted one of the other guys sitting with an Ace and Lightning would insta-fold his hand. Lightning hemmed and hawed for a long time, starting at me, playing nervously with his chips before sliding the $40 towards the pot. the initial raiser were all in for another 18 bucks or so. Since it wasn't a full-raise I could only call as did Lightning. The Turn was a 3...Lightning check, I instantly go all-in for around $140. I actually was hoping Lightning would see this as a sign that I had the goods and he would fold, but when he asked how much I had...I knew there was no way he was folding his hand. AFter another minute, Lightning calls....River was a 9....I announce "Full House" and turn over my Pocket 10's...Lightning shows AJ and the other player mucks claiming he had an Ace too.

I had mixed emotions scooping that pot. On one hand I was happy for winning such a monster pot, but felt bad that it had to come in the expense of Lightning. But I don't blame him, he played the hand very well. I probably would have played the hand the same way.  It was just a "cooler" hand that comes up from time to time where hands kind of play themselves. Lightning took the beat very well, and I  was happy when he texted me the next day saying he won his money back at Ballys.

Next time, Lightning comes to town, and stiffs me, believe me I will not be angry about it. I'll shoot him a sly smile and wonder what would have happened if he paired his Jack on the river :)

"DEALER, I'VE PLAYED IN ALOT OF CASINOS, INCLUDING NEW ZEALAND, AND NEVER HEARD THAT RULE!"

I've always tell people, the best part about being a poker dealer is no 2 days are alike -- the good and the bad...then you come across the third category -- The Ridiculous! This third category comes once in a blue moon, but when it comes across, as a poker dealer, you either laugh or shake your head...On this day, I had a little of both.

I'm dealing a standard No limit game, three players in the pot...First guy tosses out an 100 dollar bill and says, "$50, indicating he was betting $50 of the $100. I announce the bet to the table immediately. As a poker dealer, it's my obligation to quickly announce the bettor's intentions so the players involved know immediately what the bet is. The next player to act was an older gentleman from New Zealand, I know this for a fact cause I dealt to him earlier in the day and I overheard him telling someone he was from New Zealand, "Here in Vegas on Holiday". This native New Zealander looks at the bet puzzledly, then looks up at me,

"Is he allowed to do that?" He says.

"Yes, his bet is $50" I answer.

"No,  I mean, can he bet with the money?" He replies.

At first, I'm thinking, maybe the guy didn't see the $100 bill beneath his chips, which is an understandable objection, it's happen before when as player doesn't see the bills and objects that's it's "in Play", So I answer, "Yes sir, $100 bills play."

I saw this New Zealander's eyes bulge from it's socket, I could tell he was getting a little upset, "I never heard of any rule like that, why didn't he get chips?"

I hesitated, thinking, "Is this guy serious?" Finally, I answered, "I'm not sure, maybe he likes to play bills."

The New Zealander wasn't having any of that, "I never heard of a fucking rule like that. I've played in casinos all over the world, and never of a fucking rule like that!!

At this point, I wanted to nip in the bud before it escalated, the gentlemen sitting next to him, who was the third player in the hand intervene, "He's allowed to play $100...he had it on the table before the hand started."

The New Zealander finally folded his hand and the hand played out with the third player winning the pot. As he was dragging the pot with the $100 bill amongst the money, he showed it to the New Zealander, and said, "I can't take it off the table now, it's in play!"

The New Zealander wasn't finished, he directed his venomous tired at me, "I think that the fucking worst rules I've ever heard. You shouldn't be able to have Goddamn money on the table like that..."

I tried to explain the $100 bill rule to him again, simultaneously, telling him he need to the cool it with the language, but the New Zealander was still angry beyond belief. Then one by one, every other player on the table was trying to explain the rule to him, but it was to no avail. He truly believed that having $100 bills on the table was against the rules and continued his tirade for another 5 minutes -- a lot of it directed at me.

At the point, I tried to ignore him and continue on with the next hand. I actually called the floor over cause he was cursing up a storm and I wanted to the Floorman to explain the rule to him. If this New Zealander wasn't going to believe in the poker dealer (Dressed in all-black), maybe he'll believe floorman (With the nice suit).

The entire table spent the rest of my down, the players continued explaining the $100 bill rule to this guy to e point that it became comical. I wasn't really upset or angry with his guy, I was more shocked his bullheadedness not to listen to the poker players....

Yes people, that's

THE GOOD
THE BAD
THE RIDICULOUS

UPDATING MY BLOG!!!! NOW!!!

Been telling myself to update my blog, update my blog, update blog. Met a couple of bloggers at a Luxor on Thursday, and it made me realize, I need to continue this. Well today, I'll do just that. I'm not going to talk about one specific topic, I'll let my fingers to the walking and let the words flow...

I've been increasing my cash game poker play the past few months and other than a blimp at Harrahs about a month ago, I've done very well. I don't play as much as I would like mainly because of my family obligation and that fact that I work in a casino for 8 hrs, and I don't feel like spending my free time in a casino. Lately though, I've been consciously trying to play more. Rust is definitely a factor in my early sessions, but the past 3 of 4 sessions, I've found my groove and a comfort zone similar to the one I had when I was playing a lot a few years ago. More importantly, I've been self-analyzing a lot of the hands I've been playing seeing if I could have played them better, both winning and losing hands alike.

My tournament play has been very scarce which is completely by design. I hate playing long sessions but tournament poker you have to dedicate a lot of your time and concentration to thrive in them. I actually playedthe FIRST EVENT of the Binions Open (Where I sat next @Robvegaspoker for most of the day) and chopped up the final table for 2K,  but it came at a price...The tournament started on Saturday 2PM and we completed the deal at 6AM...Too top it off, I had to work at 11AM!! Needless to say, I was a complete zombie and it took me 2 days to completely recover physically. Poker tournaments are taxing, tough, and rough on the body/mind. Although it's the probably the most lucrative time to play tournament poker (WSOP time!!!), I'll probably only play 1 or 2 more tournament this summer.

Another aspect of my life which I've been giving a lot of my concentration as been betting Major League Baseball. I've been fascinated by the game cause it's the only sports where you can beat the game cause you can isolate certain statistics to correctly predict the outcomes of the game...The term is called sabremetrics, and I've been a student of this statistically science since the end of last year. This year, I've had some incredible winnings streaks and some tough losing streaks, but overall I am ahead. But with each passing game, I'm learning what statistics are more important than others -- (EXAMPLE, RBIs and ERA are not true measures of a baseball player.)

Well, that's a start...Once again, just wanted to get this blog updated and maybe it'll give me momentum to write and write and write...