speaking of gabes, shawn pmed me the other day and said crazy gabe was playing 3-6 at commerce. so sick. as shawn says “i wish i was good enough to play the big boy games”.

been playing 40 at oceans a lot. was up like $5k last night basically because i made a set like every time i had a pair, but only won $275 before leaving. playing overs + flopping two pairs against lagatic jason = bye bye chips. been having fun playing there lately though because game is sick good and im running good. hopefully it will last awhile.

no new wine this week, drinking wine is not synching up with my schedule at all. fortunately im hosting a wine tasting potluck here next weekend with some friends so i can drink plenty then. the phillips hill 94 point gary vaynerchuk pinot will be here by then so we’ll give it a whirl.

yeah so other than that not much to report. i tried to watch raising arizona on my ipod, remembered liking it as a teenager, and it was just so tiresome and bad. seems like i turn off most movies halfway through nowadays. another thing people are bad at is playing survivor. current season showed lots of promise but people’s consistent stupidity and misjudging of others around them make it frustrating. the dominant players are just destroying the naive ones. yawn.

more negativity later.

i guess i should actually talk about poker since this is a poker named site. i won two 30+ bb pots in the last week playing 40 at oceans.

hand 1 i have red TT on the button in the greatest game ever. two limpers, lag preflop but passive fish otherwise raises, next guy complete lunatic lagball 3 bets, biggest lagball idiot ever caps it, i call 4 cold, bb calls, limper calls. it should tally up to 7 of us for 4 bets cause that’s what it was. the flop is 982 with two hearts. checked to initial pf raiser who bets, i decide his bet looks like an overpair, two callers and i call because i dont want to pay 4 bets to see the turn and i think im beat and i know NO one will fold for two cold as their eyes are already glazing over at the mound of chips in the center of the table. everyone calls and 7 of us see the turn.

the turn is a 7 making it two diamonds on board too now. checked to hugest lag fish ever on my right who bets, i raise, 3 players call two bets cold, original flop better says “this hand wont be good on the river” or something retarded and folds what im sure is the winner. last guy cold calls i think merely because everyone else did too and he didnt want to feel left out. turn better calls which makes me happy because a 3 bet wouldve caused vomiting for sure.

 the river is the lovely 5d completing a backdoor flush, idiot end straight and a miriad of two pair hands. checked to me and i decide checking will earn me the most here. guy on my right gets all excited like he’s certain his hand is good and announces “i have a deuce!!” i say “i can beat a deuce.” big blind says “pair of nines”, i say “i can beat that” and turn over my hand, one pair for a $2400+ pot. see poker is easy after all i just imagined that 200bb downswing i suffered since 2008 started.

last night i get 88 6 or 7 handed and raise doc jose who limps utg directly on my right, huge fish on my left calls, sb calls, bb calls, the doc respazzes, i think about capping but want to raise jose’s flop bet so i call, but now short bus on my left random caps. everyone calls, 5 for 4 bets, smiles all around.

 the flop is Q98 and it’s checked to me and i bet, guy on my left raises, blinds call, doc check-3 bets, i cap, they all call.

 the turn is a 7. i bet, fish raises, blinds fold, doc calls two cold. i decide that fish possibly has JT but i dont care because he can also easily have any two pair and cant have QQ or 99. so i 3 bet, he caps, jose gets dragged behind the truck for two more. i cap certain that i will suck out because im better player than ten each of these two guys put together.

lo and behold the river is an 8. i bet knowing it’s an error as soon as i do it (easiest c/r ever!). fish calls with his JT and jose folds (??!!??). i scream “I QUADED UP FUCK YOU ALL RETARDED BITCHES!!!” and muster enough strength to throw the whole table up and over, killing the two blinds.

 actually that part didnt happen, but i did quad up and win a $2600 pot and it made me glad inside.

poker sucks.

mary and i love going out to dinner with chris (death donkey) and his lovely wife courtney. last night we headed to pcg in solana beach. mary and i had been there before, but chris and courtney hadnt. our first choice was sake house in leucadia, but they were too busy. anyway we were seated right away and the pre-dinner drinks were good. mary had a raspberry mojito i drank half of and i had a glass of zin (i think it was random ridge) that featured a fruit on the flavor profile i cant put my finger on… was light bodied, but very good.

 appetizers featured a weird spring roll that had sweet applewood bacon covered in maple syrup that was as weird and kind of gross as it sounds but we ate it anyway. the rib sliders which were little pulled pork sandwiches basically were really good especially with the sauce they came with. there was something else unexciting. i had a thick and pretty delicious shrimp chowder we all shared. me and chris each ordered a special reserve pinot noir they were serving by the glass that was too cold and very closed. it had opened up a little by the end of the night, but by then i had had plenty to drink. i dont remember the name of it, but i would avoid it again if i had. been having bad luck with pinots lately, about 5+ bad ones in a row. although i do like them in general, the best wine i ever had was a sine qua non pn, you can find it in my cellar tracker ratings here im on there as mike l. unfortunately i dont know how you can search by just username on there…

 anyway the entrees: i had ribs which was basically a big rack of small ribs with some sauce on the side and some mashed potatoes. the ribs were okay although not super tender, they were very plain but great with the sauce that came with them. mary had some mahi that was really fishy tasting to me and she didnt love either. it had a lot of mushy vegetables and sauce and stuff on the plate, pretty underwhelming. the white chocolate bread pudding is really good. i had a rombauer cab sauvignon with my ribs that was big and bold.

 so all in all that was better than i remembered it being having been there a few times before. nowhere in the realm of arterra or market, which are still the best SD area restaurants we’ve been too, but defintely serviceable in a pinch.

oh at some point people put on their blogs something like:

 i am mike landucci

professional poker player 7.5 years

live in oceanside, ca

4 kids, lovely wife

love wine

my brother tom wants to go to a hockey game so it’s off to ebay

plugs for deucescracked.com who made this blog possible and winelibrary.tv run by the rad gary vaynerchuck. or has tom calls him bary vanderchuck.

 yeah.

$2.99 at trader joe’s, this wine is just killer. im very picky about wine, but this one is all the right things about aussie shiraz. the fruit is really big and balanced (rare for cheap wine), vanilla oak all over the place but no oak monster craziness. alcohol is in balance. nice finish. gonna go back for a couple cases more soon before it’s gone.

a little break from poker lately, not really feeling it. had a good coaching session saturday at commerce and played a lot of 40. was good to hang with damon who is just a sick poker addict. i had to tear him away from the tables at 530 am or we’d still be there.

thinking up some sort of wine dinner/party at my house. need. more. wine. and yes i am drinking wine here at 12:28pm on a thursday.

Or do I need to be formal?

 nah it’s better this way.

commerce tomorrow with damon, about ten hours of 40 and then get to coach my favorite student for 5 hours, hopefully some interesting hands will come up.