Tuesday, March 29, 2011

[ ] i went to NCAA games last week

So, Mrs Murphy got me pretty good last week. I was under the impression that we were going to Chicago last Thursday-Monday for my "surprise" b-day weekend. Well, we got in the car Thursday to drive to Chicago, but about 30 minutes into the trip, she broke the news to me that we were going to the airport and flying to Lakeland Florida to go to Detroit Tigers spring training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Winning!! It was pretty awesome! Literally everyone i knew had known about this for months and nobody ruined the surprise. 3 of my friends were in on it to, and they met us down there. We are all pretty die hard baseball fans, but none of us had ever been to spring training. It was pretty sweet. We are already talking about planning to go again next year. I ended up catching 3 home runs during batting practice the first game which were my first 3 balls ever at a game. I ended up catching the one barehanded which at the time was pretty sweet. Fast forward to the game. We are sitting in the 2nd row down the 3rd baseline and a scrub for the Braves lines one foul. The ball is hooking and i realize it's coming right for us. I lean forward, beer in my right hand, reach out my left hand, and snag the line drive!!!!!!! Aside from the tigers winning the game in the bottom of the 9th, it probably got the biggest ovation from the crowd. I think the best part was that i didn't spill a drop of my beer AND didn't drop the ball either. I couldn't get my ring off my hand for the next day since a few of my fingers were swollen, but it was well worth the pain. It's funny how many people during the rest of the game came up to me to tell me what a great catch i made lol. I was standing in line to re-fuel and i even had a few people congratulate me there and we weren't even in my section anymore. All in all it was a great trip. I ended up getting a pretty bad sunburn on my face and scalp, but it's pretty much gone now and i have a nice tan at this point. It sucked having to come back here to 40 degree weather, but whatever...spring is a coming! I got asked by a member who i played with once at the end of last season to be his partner for the mens league over at the country club, so i'm pretty excited about that. I would probably rather partner up with a friend, or someone more my age, but this guy is a department head over at the University, and kind of a big shot, so he's def a good guy to get to know. Season starts April 20th and runs through Sept so it should be a really good time. There is actually decent money to be won but i just like the competitiveness of it. Hitting shots when they matter is a whole lot different then messing around with friends on a Saturday afternoon. Plus it should help my tournament game playing in a competitive round every week. Ok, Tigers/Yankees game just started, so going to make some coffee and watch the game. Sorry for the 2 week gap in posts...it's been a busy 2 weeks! Murph

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Update

So, gonna make this quick so i can get back to actually paying attention to the basketball game. Poker has been pretty blah this month. I'm up some money, which is more then i can say for last month, so i guess that's a good thing. I was actually having a really good month to start until the -11 buy in day.


Heading to Chicago tonight until Sunday. Mrs Murph has been planning my B-day for months, and the weekend is finally here. It's a complete surprise, so she won't tell me anything she has planned and it's kind of enraging. I hate surprises, and i like knowing where/what i'm going to be doing everyday when i wake up in the morning. I'm thinking she bought tickets for the 1st round of the NCAA tourny though since she told me to take Friday off work, AND one of the regions is in Chicago, but aside from that, i'm in the dark. I'm hoping for a fun weekend though!


Golf season is pretty much here which is money. The country club opened the course this week, so i think i'm going to try to play Sunday when we get back into town. The weather isn't great (forecast says high 50's), but i've been itching to play for a month now. I hit balls for the 1st time since November on Monday and it's like i hadn't stopped playing. It was amazing how well i hit the ball when i hadn't touched a club for months (didn't do any chipping or putting which i'm sure will take a few weeks to get back). I'm hoping to have a very good year golfing, and plan to play the same 6-7 local tournaments i played last year, plus a few at the country club. I changed my work schedule around for the spring/summer, so i should be able to get out and play 4-5 times a week if i want (probably won't play too much on weekends though), so it'll be like playing 3-4 times a week.


Alright have a good weekend all, hope all of your final 4 teams are still alive after the weekend (i have 3 #1's and a #3) going to the final 4. Run good one time please!!

Murph

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

RACK HIM

Ok, as mentioned in my previous post, i plan to list my top 5 moments in my life. Since i don't actually have a top 5, that could be tough. I do know of a few though, so i'll start with #5. Calling into the Jim Rome show and getting racked. (You know you've led a fascinating life when THIS is a top 5 moment).


I've been huge Romey fan for close to a decade now. I've gone through periods of listening where i'd listen to all 3 hours just about everyday, to not listening for 4 or 5 months. Currently, i'm probably listening to 30-40 minutes a day. I don't actually remember the date (or year for that matter), but it was probably back in 2002. I was sitting around listening to Romey and he was talking about Tiger Woods and Steve Williams (his caddie). I decided i needed to be heard and said screw it, i'm calling the show (for the 1st time ever) and if i get through, i'm going to go off on the 2 of them. I call a few times and get a busy signal, but after a few tries, the phone starts ringing (YES!!!!!!!). After a few rings, J Stew answers and asks what i want to talk about. I tell him i plan to blow up Tiger and he says ok and puts me on hold. 15 minutes go by...nothing. 25 minutes go by....nothing. Now i'm both A)getting nervous and B)thinking he isn't going to go to my call. As i'm waiting, i'm becoming more and more nervous because i don't want to flame out mid-call. I begin to jot down some point form notes (like most clones) about what i want to talk about. If you don't know, Rome has a VERY short leash with callers, and ANY stumbling and you will get hung up on. So another 10 minutes go by, and i start thinking my point form notes aren't enough. I begin to literally write out my ENTIRE rant, word for word. (this is fairly common when ppl call into his show. See peoples calls ERRRRRR reads). After another 10 minutes or so, i've got my entire call written down and i'm reading to go.


At this point, it's been close to an hour of being on hold, and i'm starting to think i won't get on. My ears perk up when John Feinstein is his next guest, and they spent the next 10 minutes talking golf and Tiger Woods. Now i'm practically shitting my pants. I KNOW when he gets back from commercial, he's going to go to my call since that is specifically what i told J Stew i wanted to talk about. Sure enough, he comes back from break, and says lets go to "____ in _____). I"M ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My call errrrrrrrrrrrrr read goes off without a hitch, and i hear the most beautiful words you can hear when you end your call....RACK HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If i had to guess, i'd say my heart rate was beating over 200 beats/minute while i was going off on the phone. I hang up the phone literally shaking and the funniest thing ever happens. A buddy of mine calls me up and says "OMG were u just on the Jim Rome show? " He was just randomly listening and heard my name and city i lived in, and heard the call. Since this was so spur of the moment, i hadn't told anyone i was calling into the show. If i had planned this better, i probably would've told everyone i know i was calling into the Jim Rome show today.


Anyway, lame to most i know, but being such a die hard fan, and getting my call racked, was F ing amazing!! I was all set up to be the huge call of the day too, but Don in Nocal (a regular caller) called in like 15 minutes before the show was over and stole my thunder and Rome gave him huge call of the day.


For a while, i had Rome as my voicemail on my phone. I basically rigged it so i said
"Hi you've reached"
"___ in ____" Jim Rome from the call
"i can't get to the phone right now, but leave a message and i'll call you back
"Rack him" again Jim Rome saying this


Ahhhh the good old days.

Murph

Thursday, March 3, 2011

[ ] gg February


I probably won't be doing monthly reviews but since this was my worst month of all time, i figured i'd make an exception. The graph pretty much sums up the month. Was stuck 3k 5 days into the month and it was an uphill battle the entire time. I made a pretty nice comeback though, so all things considering, it wasn't that bad. I'm not 100%, but i also think 80k hands is the most i've ever put in for a month. It's wierd, when i'm losing, i always want to play more but when i'm winning, i don't mind putting in short sessions, and only playing 40k hands/month. The way things were going at the end of the month, if Feb was a typical 30/31 day month, i bet i would've finished in the green. It really doesn't matter though since we as poker players shouldn't judge ourselves on a month by month basis (but most of us do). Anyway, so long Feb 2011...you won't be missed.
I have a plan to blog about my top 5 greatest moments of my life at some point. I'm actually not even sure what they are since i haven't really though about it too much, but my next post will be the start of the top 5. Spoiler alert....it was when i got racked on the Jim Rome show. If you don't know what it means to get racked, kindly never come to this blog again...thanks.
Murph

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Weekend Wrap Up

So friday i ended up going out for dudes night out. We went to the local AHL hockey game at 7pm. I realized what the best (only?) good thing about going to a hockey game is. There are TWO long breaks. This lets you grab a few pops before the game, after the 1st period AND after the 2nd period without having to miss any of the action. So after the game we are walking to the parking garage and my buddy says "man cops could make a killing if they just sat at the parking garage exit and gave people BAC tests since most of the people were leaving the game waxed (us included). He then proceeds to turn the wrong way onto a busy one way street exiting the parking garage (i couldn't make that up if i tried). Thankfully he was able to turn around before A)getting into an accident and B)blowing a 0.15 on the BAC and picking up a DUI.

Next stop was a local watering hole etc etc etc. The cab back to his house was interesting. The cab driver would not stop talking to us and the only thing that actually got him to shut up was when i had to open the car door while we were driving becuz i was seconds away from puking. His tone changed very quickly once he realized i was ready to yack all over his cab. Thankfully, we made it back to his house without me puking everywhere but i'm still bitter since the plan when we got into the cab was to hit up taco bell, but by the time we got there, the last thing in the wolrd i wanted was taco bell.

Let me tell you your body DOES NOT recover the same way after a night of drinking like it did in college. I felt like shit all day Saturday, and this wasn't helped by the fact that i had to drive an hour and a half home at 8am to meet Mrs Murphy and the home builder.

Saturday night we planned on just relaxing but our friends asked us if we wanted their tickets to the basketball game, and since they only have 2 home games left this year, we figured we should probably take them and go. Thankfully we pulled out a W and had a good time at the game. Maybe we'll end up avoiding the NIT after all.

On the way home we hit up one of those redbox movie rental things (1st time i've ever used them). We watched "Buried". It's the movie where Ryan Reynolds is buried alive in a casket and he is the only person they show the entire movie. I won't say too much about it in case you haven't seen it, but i had very high expectations for the movie since it got an 88 on rotten tomatoes and halfway through the movie i was on life tilt. At that point the movie was God awful!!!!! The end of the movie ended up being awesome and it saved the movie, so all in all i'd say it was a good rental.

Ok, time for some dinner. Mrs Murph made Chicken stir fry (for those that read Doubleflys blog, i won't be posting any food shots...sorry).

Murph

Friday, February 25, 2011

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaack

Due to popular demand, i'm going to start blogging again. I figured since a few of my "friends" over at a certain poker forum were checking this blog first thing every morning, i'll leave them a nice surprise when they check back.

I'm not really sure what the breakdown of my blogging is going to be. I'm thinking 50% life, 50% poker. I don't want to give out too much personal information since there are a few crazies on the aforementioned poker forum that for some reason really want to know more about me and i really don't feel like coming home one day seeing a ransom letter on my dinning room table saying they have Mrs. Murph (joking obv...mostly).

Poker: Poker has been going about has bad as it has ever gone for me. I'm on my way to booking my first losing month since i've been playing professionally (2+ years). If i don't have a pretty huge last week of Feb, i will have lost $$$ at the tables. The good news is that i bought the FTP 5k bonus this month (coincidence?) AND i shipped $600 in the super bowl squares pool, so all that taken into consideration, i'm going to end up having a decent month bankroll wise, but that doesn't take away from the fact that i'm probably going to end up booking a "losing month". December 2010 i had my worst ever month to date, so having my 2 worst months as a poker player in a 3 month span hurts.

I think i've been running situationally about as bad a humanly possible. I'm 7 or 8 buy ins -ev also, and it's just destroyed my confidence. What's wierd is that my stats have been TIGHTER this month than ever before (shouldn't i be going on tilt and playing more hands when getting crushed?) W/e though. I shipped 1k these past few days, so i'm on the uptick hopefully.

Life: Leaving Mrs Murph behind and having a dudes night out tonight, so pretty jacked about that. Dudes night out isn't quite the same though when you're in your 30's, and have friends with kids, but it still should be a good time. There is a chance some live poker will be involved, so if we hit up the casino, i'll post some interesting hands.

We are 98% sure we are going to be building a house this spring. We meet with the builder tomorrow for the 2nd time, and if all goes well, we should be breaking ground next week. Pretty excited to be moving into the neighborhood that our plot is in as it's one of the nicest subdivisions in town AND it's less than 0.5 miles from the head coach of the football team (rather not say the school for reasons mentioned above).

Pretty jacked about golf season too. We joined the country club last year, so i plan on playing golf at least 3-4 times a week. Course is one of the tougher courses around, so it's a very frustrating course to play, but i like a challenge, and all the members say if you can go low here, you can go low ANYWHERE, so as frustrating as it's going to be playing almost all my golf there, it should take my game to the next level...i hope.

Ok, gonna grab something to eat. I'll try to update a few times a week. I kept this thing going for almost 2 years on a pretty regular basis, so i think i can do it again.

Murph

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

It's golf season baby

So, i decieded to dust of the clubs and begin golf season a little early. When i left the house, it was like 50 and pretty sunny...relatively calm outside. By the time i teed off, the sun was pretty much gone, and it was insanely windy...probably 25mph winds. What do i do?? Slap a 38 on the front 9 of the U of I orange course!!!!!!!!!!!! It was wierd for a 1st round. My ball striking wasn't great, but my short game was pretty silly! So i get to the back 9 thinking man i could really put together a nice round here...7 bogeys later i step to the 17th tee a beaten man lol. Oh well, parred 17 and 18 for an 81. All in all a pretty good day. I literally lost my swing on the 13th hole though...i rolled a tee shot...then another...then another...6 more later, i gave up (technically it wasn't an 81 since i just used a muligan here...it didn't matter since my 6th drive was pretty much next to my 1st...about 75 yards away lol). Then i rolled my drive on the 14th too, so considering that, i'm happy with the round, espeically considering it was so windy during the day that downwind from 158, i played a pitching wedge, and into the wind, from 160, i hit a FOUR IRON!!!! So yeah...good start to the season!! I'm actually planning on playing the Illinois state amateur this year...the qualifying is a sick course here, so i'm not expecting much, but i'm excited to play some tournament golf...i figure i'll just really put in the practice hours a month or so b4 the qualifier...i'll keep u all posted...i'm looking for a caddy, so if you live in the area...hit me up!


So, here is probably the sickest hand of poker i've ever been involved in. Sorry the hand didn't convert like it should've, but i think you can still get the jist of what happened. This hand bascially sums up the month for me. Thankfully i finished in the black for the month, but made less than 1k. For those of you that know the reference, this hand really was the ultimate matty. He turned over QQ all in on the flop, and i was like "yeah"...the flop came down, and iwas like "fukc fukc"...the turn came and i was like "yeah yeah", then the river came, i threw up all over myself...good times!

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 playersThe Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: $211.60UTG+1: $546.80Lesmurphy (UTG+2): $579.85MP1: $150.70MP2: $106.80CO: $214.50BTN: $167.70SB: $200.00BB: $40.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Lesmurphy is UTG+2 with K K
2 folds, Lesmurphy raises to $7, MP1 calls $7, MP2 calls $7, CO raises to $38, 3 folds, Lesmurphy raises to $100, 2 folds, CO raises to $214.50 all in, Lesmurphy calls $114.50
Flop: ($446.00) A Q 6
Turn: ($446.00) K
River: ($446.00) Q
Spoiler: Final Pot: $446.00Lesmurphy shows Kc Ks (a full house, Kings full of Queens)CO shows Qh Qs (four of a kind, Queens)CO wins $443.00(Rake: $3.00)

Murph