"gung hei fat choi" to everyone. last night I spent more than an hour dialing to hong kong to every phone number I got only to get the "sorry, our network is busy at the moment, please try again...". I did get maggy and my aunt Helena on the line.

it's sunday and I'm home at 3:16pm. got eliminated an hour into the poker tournament. I turned my way of play completely around this time: stone-cold bluffs all the way. that was good enough to double my chips until I got three nice hands: out-bid, out-raised, out-drawn and I was out of there. it was one short day of poker, but I'm happy I didn't play chicken like last time. still got a long way to go. need practice.

17 days and counting... (: .e  15:26  5 comments [ leave comments ]

hate to get political but I went to cast my ballot this afternoon, and this is how I feel about this election:

"if it's not a clear choice, it's not a good choice."

.e  20:58  5 comments [ leave comments ]

(continued from this post) ... I was short-stacked and on the big blind with 8-7 off-suit in my hands when someone with about the same chip count as me went all in. the small blind and those who called folded and it was on me. I called and ended up hitting a straight beating his high pair. I raked in all of the guy's chips, the calls and the antes, and that was enough to put me in the comfortable position as the 2nd chip leader with close to 50k chips and 7 people left at the table. a few bad beats and good raises by my honorable opponents set me back down to 20k. two more players got eliminated and the high-stacks began to coast, hoping the blinds (at 6k/3k 1k ante) would grind out a few more players. I took the chance to move in on other short-stacks and took three of them out to become to chip leader. then it was heads-up poker. I came out on top first with more than 120k in chips, and then things went the other way after a few all-ins. I was able to come up even with the other guy again when the blinds hit 12k/6k 4k ante. I started betting aggressively pre-flop whenever I feel weakness from the opponent. that was able to get 80% of the total tournament chips on my side. my opponent Josh ended up having to go all-in and I called, and that was the end of the tournament that evening.

big thanx to
- Todd for organizing the tournament and being the dealer at the final table
- Sergué(?spelling) for keeping the points and running the games
- JF and Dave for the exciting showdown (and your chips, hehe :)
- Cindy for making me admit my age, and
- Josh for the heads-up action

throughout the tournament I knew I made quite a number of mistakes, such as bad reads and, especially, wimpy raises and folding to obvious bluffs out of fear of being eliminated. during the heads-up, I was checking/calling too often when I should've raised. I'm glad I realized those problems early on and was (more or less) able to correct myself. in short, I still have a LOT to learn. .e  02:27  5 comments [ leave comments ]

my sundays are usually laundry, cleanup, brunch, a bit of programming and trying a new restaurant with maggy. last day of relaxation before the work week begins. however things have been different since last week: soccer season started and will occupy my sunday nights for the next four months, maggy will be in hong kong for a month and today (and maybe the following sundays), I play in the red hot poker tournament.

I read about the red hot poker tour (created by a well known canadian poker champion Daniel Negreanu) online and decided to go check it out this afternoon, and ended up registering for today's tournament held at Elephant & Castle in the Rideau Centre. I sat at table 4 and was off to a slow start: no wreckless betting like I'm accustomed to in my home games. each player starts with 4000 chips with blinds at 50 doubling every 20 minutes. by the time the blinds goes to 600 with a 100 ante, I break out of my folding habits and make several aggressive bets over a few games. that is good enough to get me 8k chips and advance to the next table. there has been more actions at the other tables and it shows when I sit down at the new table: almost every player has over 15k chips, and the blinds are up to 500/1000 with 200 ante and begin to grind me down. I have no choice but to wait my chance coz I don't have enough chips to bluff anyone at the table out. my chance comes when I get the pocket Kings. after a few pre-flop tangos I go all-in against the high-stack. he calls and I flip my K's and him two 6's. the flop comes a 6, and I am in trouble. then I hit a King on the turn and the river is no help to anyone. I happily double up. then the bad cards start to come in and I hang in there the best I know how. three hours have passed and I make it to the 8-person final table: tired, excited, surprised and short-stacked. I have on me about 20k chips and the blinds are at 2k/4k with 500 ante, and I am next in line to be big blind. I bluff my way to pay for the two blinds. a round later I am big blind again holding 8-7 off-suit in my hands. some guy goes all-in. I hold the table up for a good minute, and then I call. strange that I called but, first, I like connectors, suited or not; second, he is the guy whom I beat with the two cowboys >:). the flop comes and he hits a pair of face cards. the turn card is no help to him but gives me an open-ended straight draw...

I'm getting tired of talking about poker. let's talk about the soccer match.

tonite was our team's second game. a 7-2 win to offset our 8-4 lost last game. I'm playing defence, not a familiar position and still trying to keep up. I was ok with the position I play until I got a ball in my crotch from blocking a shot (a bad shot/pass/whatever) in tonite's game. I almost blacked out and had to exit the field. I continued to take more abuses in the second half before the end-of-game whistle.

like usual, I came home in pain (more so this time than ever). I treated myself to a hot bath, and now I'm writing in my blog. time to hit the hay. g'nite! .e  23:58  3 comments [ leave comments ]

maggy is now in hong kong and will be there for a month.

monday I drove her to the airport at 7am and arrived at work before 8am. by 9 I got a call from her telling me that the U.S. customs officer wouldn't let her transit in chicago without a visa. not that it mattered because the flight was cancelled anyway. United Air rerouted her flight through Toronto the next day to avoid the hassle. the return flight is still pending. I was back at work by 1pm.

tuesday morning the alarm clock woke me up at the unfriendly hour of 5am. got mag to the airport by 6 and everything went without a hitch. I showed up at work for 8am again.

it takes some getting used to not having mag around. don't really feel like cooking for one. but I'm cooking a big meal tonite that will last me for days.

turns out xavier is not allergic to fish, yay! I should invite them over for dinner again. .e  23:46  6 comments [ leave comments ]

I'm not feeling well and missed work today. so tired, heavy-headed, prolly shouldn't have walked in the snow for so long...

I went to pick up my new glasses today. they're pretty nice. I'll try to wear eyeglasses more instead of contacts since I look at the computer screen more than 12 hours a day. I want my eyes to be functional past the age of 35.

another thing, I got the ugly ontario plate on my car yesterday. I miss my old plate. I asked for the price for customized plates and I blacked out. I really wanted to get 001 EGR for the new one. I guess it's not rational to spend that much money on numbers and lettres.

people had forgotten their beer, cheese and dessert in my fridge from the new year's eve dinner, I wonder what I should do with them. hmm... .e  18:08  3 comments [ leave comments ]

mag and I found ourselves on Sainte Catherine street in Montreal just as my car's trip meter rolled past 200km. it was january 2nd, the second day of 2006, and montrealers and tourists alike gathered in this downtown shopping area. many looked lost because most stores were closed. mag and I, however, had a pretty good idea where we were headed.

after a short drive, we arrived at Resto Lychee on Mont-Royal avenue east, between St Laurent and St Denis amidst the entertainment district. the restaurant has trendy ambiance music and contemporary settings. the dining area has comfortable seating and original paintings on the walls to please the eyes. it offers a selection of asian fusion dishes influenced mainly by Thai and Szechuanese cuisine. the menu is extensive without being overcrowded. a quick browse in the menu revealed a careful selection of interesting dishes from the very unique and tantalizing of what asian cuisine has to offer.

we started with the dumplings with peanut sauce, a delightful szechuanese appetizer in a sauce that speaks to you with a thai accent. next was the green papaya salad which was zesty and refreshing. then we had the sautéed eggplants and the shrimp red curry (red curry shown in picture to the right). the picture taken from my camera phone does not do the food justice. the presentation was nicely done and surpassed only by the delectable taste and smell of the red curry. accompanied with steamed rice, the dish is one of my favourites. familiar items on the menu include: fried spinach, soupe tum yum, general Tao's chicken and pad thai, along with some in-house specialty items with duck and seafood that are one of a kind.

with its customer-centric mentality, wonderful menu selection and graceful blend of culinary creativity and traditional asian cuisine, had Lychee opened its doors in Ottawa, it would be a force to be reckoned with for the existing local asian restaurants. .e  23:57  20 comments [ leave comments ]

The past week has been a lot of shopping, eating and drinking. I need a break.

this christmas I decided to build individual gift baskets for everyone. so there were several trips back and forth dollarama to get all the necessary material for the construction: baskets, ribbons, clear wrapping paper, packaging tissues, scotch tape, etc. then it was off to the mall to hunt for the gifts. the strategy was to have one main gift and then fill the rest of the basket with fillers. my favorite fillers include chocolate (eg, ferrero rocher), liqueur samples, mini ice wine bottles, perfumes, incents and ready-to-serve shooters.

on xmas eve, mag and I went back home to have dinner with mom and dad, edward, regina and aunt belinda. we gave them their xmas gifts early coz we were not meeting them on xmas night. we got edward a mini keychain flask (filled with rum), regina a kangol tuque, my parents a passport for the niagara falls wineries. we also had baskets for Yeuk-si, Patricia and Pearl who weren't there that night.

I got up (way too) early on boxing day morning to leave for toronto. beside locking my keys in the car before we even got the chance to take off, I'd say the trip went well. we skipped the scenic route and arrived directly in Vaughmills, one of the biggest shopping malls in toronto. finding a parking was next to impossible. I asked mag to go in first without me, she was already shutting the car door before I could finish the sentence. (:

we stayed in the Courtyard hotel where we met up with wilson, and we went to visit fai together. wilson had opened a restaurant in montreal six months ago, and he seems to be handling it quite well. we had dinner together (with patrick) at a restaurant before we headed back home on the night of the 27th.

on the 30th, bob organized a party at his place and many showed up: ali-john, maryse, guillaume, john, christine, veronique and boyfriend christian, catalin(?), andrea(?), manu(? - johnny's brother). there were tons of food and sweet sweet desserts. I left at around 10:40 to pick mag up from work.

on new year's eve (yesterday), it was my turn to throw a dinner party. bob, karine, xavier, marc-andré, john and christine joined mag and I for dinner, a belated house-warming toast, a farewell to 2005, and a big welcome to 2006. guillaume couldn't join us for he had something else planned. we also used the occasion to give them the xmas gifts that we didn't have a chance to give them during the xmas holidays. the night's menu was:

entrée

• french onion soup
• chicken florentine
• greek salad with light feta and sun-dried tomato

main course

• grilled spring lamb chops with grilled zuchini and mashed potatoes

dessert

• porto and french chocolate truffles (which karine kindly donated from her gift, ours melted from the heat in the kitchen)

I was drinking red wine and porto all night, and I was perfectly fine, well, until the countdown and the champagne toast at midnight. the bubbly hit me and hit me hard, and I went down like a flaming blimp. I'll stay off sparkling wine for a while.

2005 finally gave me something to be thankful for. I'm thankful for friends, family and the time I spend with them. and I'm also thankful I didn't need to see my december credit card bill before the year ended.

cheers, to 2006! .e  18:09  3 comments [ leave comments ]