DONALD STERLING SCUMBAG -- Interesting article about this guy!

In the midst of this Los Angeles Clippers' Donald Sterling controversy, (Why would say you don't want black people to attend your basketball games when the majority of players are African Americans), I read this interesting article about Donald Sterling, and why this latest episode shouldn't surprise anyone who knew about this horrific human being:

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/73622210/why-the-sudden-protest-against-la-clippers-owner-donald-sterling

TALES FROM THE BOX: THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BROTER "THE POSER"

Once again, I bring another tale from the behind the felt of a Las Vegas Poker Dealer...as I present

 

THE FURTHER

 

ADVENTURES

 

OF

 

BROTER "THE POSER"

 

 

For those want to understand the story behind Broter "The Poser" please click this link for a past blog post I wrote about this piece of work.

 

So I'm standing around, waiting for my turn to get into the dealer box to make or shatter the poker dreams of the young and old alike, our hero BROTER strolls into the poker room wearing his typical phony plain looking suit. Top two buttons of his white collared shirt unbuttoned. BROTER begins his typical sprint around the poker room, with a shit-eating grin plastered to his face, trying to make sure all the poker dealers, poker players, cocktail waitresses, and anyone within eyesight that the "Great, and almighty" BROTER has graced us with his presence.

 

The first thing BROTER does is to try and get a seat in the poker game, but alas, there are two No Limit games running, but the game is full and there is a small list. So a dealer puts BROTER on the list, at the same time, BROTER is staring at his phone...I guess trying to see if the president of the Poser Associations of America send him a text proclaiming his awesomeness!

 

So BROTER stands around by himself for a moment, stunningly surprised that no one from the poker room is doing him a favor by asking about his life. BROTER begins milling around to looking for someone to talk too...he sets his radar on the nearest person...which happened to be...YOURS TRULY, RONALD VELACION BALTAZAR

 

Unsolicated, he shows me a woman on his iPhone, a very attractive woman I must say and begins his rant...the way only BROTER can do, and without a single salutation, the rant starts, "I got this girl's phone number yesterday, but I'm not sure I'm going to call her. Because I have another girl I've been talking too. I know I can get this girl in bed, but I don't know if I want too cause I have this other girl I've been talking too."

 

Of course, I'm nodding my head putting up my best "customer service" smile, but all the while, I'm thinking, "Are you being fucking serious??!! Why would tell me about all this unsolicited? Does this fucking douchebag think I'm going get down on my hands and knees and bow to the feet of this clown?

 

Finally, BROTER gets his seat, and I'm spared anymore crap from his bubbling idiot. I walk over to another dealer and tell them the story of BROTER blaring at me...we share a laugh....

 

This was the latest, but it's definitely won't be the last...

 

SO STAY TUNED FOR MORE ADVENTURES OF

 

 

BROTER "THE POSER"

 

 

 

THINKING OUTLOUD!

I saw this on the internet about two weeks ago and it got me thinking about my spiritual being:

I've had a lot on my mind lately -- my mind is always racing with different topics going in and out of my head. Many of these thoughts are fleeting to the point that sometimes I don't remember ever having them. Then there are thoughts that stick to the mind like a desperate fly trying to wiggle away from flypaper -- it becomes exhausting. I've spend nights laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure things out.  There are times at work where my mind wanders, and I'm staring at nothing in particular, with all these random thoughts shooting through my head. Sometimes I don't realize where I am or what I'm doing. It's the same when I'm driving home where I keep the radio off, and I get hypnotized by the highway - my mind races a mile a minute.  It takes a me a few seconds to gather my thoughts.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not depressed or anything...in fact, I'm very happy, but even the happiest person has an ounce of doubt about how they're lives have gone or is going to become. I'm 40, which is young by today's standards, so I've have plenty of time to pave the road I want to create -- to avoid the pitfalls of getting boggled down in the day and day grind that is my life.

Maybe I just need to think more outside the box, become a complex thinker, and maybe I won't have so many of these random thoughts racing through my mind.

On FEBRUARY 24, 2014 -- CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY (THE GREATEST THIING I EVER PURCHASED!!!!)

I have one guilty pleasure: Professional wrestling...WWE to be exact.

Yes, I'm 40 years old, and still love the WWE. I remember watching the Monday Night Wars between the WWE and WCW, when professional wrestling was at its apex. The product was incredible on both sides.  "The Attitude Era" of the WWE was insanely good with the emergence of Stone Cold Steve Austin...I watched it every week, every month, every chance I got -- It became MUST SEE TV! But by 2004, I slowly lost track of WWE. I mean, I knew what was going on but didn't watch RAW or SMACKDOWN for a couple of years. In meantime, I wanted a ton of WWE DVD on Netflix, and once in a while, I'll tune in to RAW. It wasn't until December 2013 when I watched an episode of RAW. I remember the first match was Fandango vs. Daniel Bryan. I knew little about either guy. Daniel Bryan did this "YES" Chant that captured the imagination of the fans...and Fandango was a Ballroom dance with a very catchy entrance music. Speaking of Fandango, I saw on YouTube that Fandangoing became an overnight sensation...I remember reading about it on USA TODAY and saw a feature story about it..but again, that didn't turn me back to it.

For a first few weeks I had to acclimate myself to the product: Of course I knew the WWE Stalwarts: John Cena, Randy Orton, Big Show, Kane, Rey Misterio, CM Punk and Christian. But some of these newer stars I had no clue who they were and had to Wiki a few of these guys to understand their character. These characters included: The Shield, The Wyatt Family, Sheamus, Dolph Zigglar, Damien Sandow, and 3MB....just to name a few....

By January 2014, I was full engulfed in the product....and loving any minute...then on an episode of RAW, they introduced the greatest thing ever created:

WOW!!! I GET ALL THE PAY PER VIEWS ever produced from WWE, WCW, and ECW for the low low low price of $9.99. It was a wrestling fan dream. I get access to all nearly everything WWE produced any time I want??? I couldn't wait to get my hands on this....

Then the big day came...Feb 24, 2014!!!!! I ordered it right away and since then....I've been watching as much WWE, WCW, and ECW wrestling as 24/7 would allow!! I can't get enough of it! I've started with 1995 (Not sure why I chose that year) and watched every WWE PPV from that year.....It was the generation with Diesel as champ....some of the other great characters during that era was Razor Ramon, Goldust, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, British Bulldog, Owen Hart, Pyscho Sid, and of course, The Undertaker....

The greatest thing about The WWE Network is there is SO MUCH FOOTAGE that it'll take you years just to get through it. Since I've purchased it, I've spent most of the free time watching old WWE, WCW, ECW matches....The nostalgia is incredible...goes back to your youngers days when wrestling was awesome.

I think the best aspect of the WWE Network is it make you into a fan again....it's exactly what it did for me!!

WWE became MUST SEE TV AGAIN!!!!!!!

15 Years Ago I wrote Blackjack Book...Today, I Finally Got it Published!

15 years in the making....Back in 1998-1999, I wrote a blackjack book, and sold it on eBay, and actually did quite well. I was able to make a decent chunk of change selling this book. I hate to blow my own horn, but I got rave reviews from those who purchased it. But a funny thing happened, I stopped selling the book because I got into poker and played less blackjack. For the next 15 years, this blackjack book was put in storage never to be heard from again.

Flash forward to January 2014, On a cold Saturday afternoon, I was cleaning the garage and came a copy of my blackjack book, as it turned out....its the only copy I had left:

 

 

 

 

For next 2 months, I decided to re-write and edit this book. Then I heard about a self publishing program on Amazon, and decided to look into it. After much research, I saw that it was absolutely free to self publish on Amazon, and decided to get it done. Well, after 3 weeks, I finally got my book published on Amazon. Hopefully, it'll be as successful as it was 15 years ago. Check out the link to my book...Very proud of this

 

 

 

 



ALBUQUERQUE -- THE DARKEST TIME OF MY LIFE -- PART 1 (INTRODUCTION)

Albuquerque, New Mexico...I lived there from 1997-2000. It's a time of my life I try to block and never talk about. It was a time of frustration, confusion, bad decisions, and most of all a lot of heartache. It's been 13 years since I left Albuquerque and haven't really talked about my time there to anyone: Not my acquaintances, not my friends, not even my wife...My wife and I have been together for 11 years, and she has been trying to get me to open up about my 3 years in Albuquerque for a long time, and each time, I've shunned answering her. I didn't want to open Pandora Box. I didn't want to believe of the things that happened there happened to me. I've been trying for so long to erase my memories of that time of life for 13 years. Because every time I think about those "Albuquerque" years, I get depressed, sad, and always shed a tear. I always have a myriad of emotions every time I think about those 3 years

Lately though I've been doing a lot of remising about my life...or the good times and the bad times. I believe my time in Charletson, South Carolina was some of the best times of my life. I believe my time in Las Vegas, NV was some of the best times of my life, but in between I lived this Southwestern state and became the worst time of my life.

So this blog entry will be more therapeutic for myself. To finally open up about Those Albuquerque days...I'm about to opened up Pandora's box and reveal every detail of those 3 years, and why it scarred me for a long time...I'll probably be crying a lot as I type these words in because it will bring huge emotion and I hope you, my blog readers, will bear with me as I pour my heart into this blog entry. It something I probably don't want to do, but something I NEED to do:

I will divide these blog into 3 parts representing the 3 parts of my Albuquerque time:

PART 2: YEAR ONE (Adjusting to my new life and Meeting Gina)
PART 3: PROFESSIONAL (How a Group of military people treated me like dirt)
PART 4: PERSONAL (My First Marriage -- Scarring my heart)

THIS IS A POKER BLOG -- LET'S TALK POKER

It's been awhile since I wrote about my favorite leisurely pastime: the great game of poker, so let's talk about this game shall we...

I used to play a lot of online poker when it was readily available, and I used to make pretty decent money at it. In fact, I hate to pat myself on the back (but I will), I made some very supplemental income. According to number of websites, I've made over 35K in tournament winnings, not to mention I've carved my teeth in the 2-4, 3-6, 5-10 Limit cash games on Paradise Poker and Poker Stars. The best part about playing online was these ridicously high prize pools for micro buy ins. You can play a $5 tournament on Pokerstars and if you can navigate through 5,000 people, there a huge pot of gold at the end..usually between 3K-5K. It was insane how much money you can make playing online poker. Although I never made "life-changing" money, I did pretty well, that was able to withdraw $100 here, $300 there, $900 here. Checks would come in a week or so, I never had a problem cashing them..it was the ultimate "second job". It was lucrative, addicting, and fun, then every online poker players with dreams of playing poker a living in the UNITED STATES shattered when this happened:

BLACK FRIDAY (And I'm not talking about the busiest shopping of the day), I'm talking about Apr 11, 2011.

I remember I had just cashed in a $2 tournament on PokerStars, ran some errands, and when I went back on my computer to log onto PokerStars, I got this:

Of course when the reality of not having online poker set in, I had major withdrawls. For weeks, I logged on to PokerStars and tried to get on hoping this was just a bad dream, but everytime I would get, it would tell me I couldn't play online poker....it sucked!!

FAST FORWARD to Apr 30, 2013...The day Ultimate Poker opened it's legalized, regulated online poker in the state of Nevada. Funny, I wasn't rushing to my computer to make a deposited because something unusual happened on my way to online poker riches...I didn't have the desire to get back to online poker. I began to play a lot of live poker, not that I didn't play live poker before "Black Friday", but I concentrated my efforts into being a decent live poker player...that by the time poker was legalized in Nevada I was conditioned by the "live" poker way and initially I was stubborn to get back into the online poker. I'm lucky enough to be a resident of Nevada, therefore online poker is legal, and thus I can play.

My wife deposited money into WSOP.com, the other online poker site and began playing small sit and go's. I watched her for weeks having no desire to play myself, but as the days and weeks passed, I began to get intrigued (mainly because my wife was cashing a lot). Finally, I set up an account and played a freeroll. I played for an hour, busted out, and smiled because I felt the juices flowing through my blood and began to remember why I loved online poker so much. It was the convenience and the addiction of the thrill that hooked me again.

So, two weeks ago, I made a small deposit on WSOP.COM and started at the VERY BOTTOM of the ladder, 2-tabling 1c-2c No limit....NOT 1 DOLLAR-2DOLLAR NO LIMIT, 1 CENT-2CENT NO LIMIT!

Although I'm playing at below micro limits, I'm trying to look at it as playing for real money. Trying to play my "A", and making the right decisions. The thrill of winning (even it's it's 30 cents, 14 cents, or $1.26), is back and I'm loving online poker again.

From here on out, I'm going to blog about some of my sessions trying to grind from the bottom. Not thinking about money.

Yes, online poker is back (In Nevada) and loving every minute of it.