CARDRUNNERS
What's Your Edge
Brian Hastings : Poker Blog 
sister and me with our boards, unfortunately no action shots
The next day, we headed to Walt Disney World, Joe 'LL2' Ward's favorite place on earth. I know it is commonly thought of as a place for kids mainly, but if you haven't been there at least once you are missing out. There is some great stuff to do in Disney World. I have been there with my family I believe 7 times now, so I wasn't concerned with trying to see everything this time, I just wanted to do a few things I felt like doing and relax. Each night we were there we ate a great dinner out. My favorite was at Narcoossee's at the Grand Floridian resort. I had an Ahi Tuna dish that very well may have been the best tuna dish I have ever tasted, it was very rare, almost like sashimi, and featured an Asian sauce and spices that were very spicy. I probably consumed about 7 glasses of water due to the spiciness, and at one point the waiter just started bringing me 2 at a time. If you like spicy food, you'd love it. My parents and sister also enjoyed their meals very much.
On the second day there, I planned on sleeping in while my mom and sister went to Disney's Hollywood (formerly MGM) Studios. Then, my dad received a phone call around 8:30 am. There is a new American Idol attraction there in which people can audition in the morning and maybe other times of the day in order to appear on the show. There are seven shows during the day and the winner of each advances to a finale at 7pm, with the winner of that getting a free pass to cut the line at real American Idol auditions. So anyway, my sister had auditioned when the park opened, and she was going to be on the first show at 10 am. My dad and I quickly showered and then called a cab since we were kind of in a rush (we were instructed to be there at 9:30). We called at 9 and the company said 10 minutes, ok cool. We met the cab in front of our resort at about 10:12 am or so. The cab driver was apparently very unhappy that we were 2 minutes late. My dad tried to start a conversation with him, and he mentioned something about us being late. I responded, "Sorry about that man, I tip well" or something along those lines, and I really did intend to give him a decent tip, because cab drivers are on a tight schedule and all. Then, for the rest of the 10 or so minute ride, EVERY TIME one of us tried to talk to him, he would spin it back into guilt tripping us for being 2 minutes late. For example, he made a smooth pass of a car on a 2 lane highway, my dad said, "Nice pass, you're a pretty smooth driver," cab driver responds, "Yeah I am, but I don't make any money because I wait around for people too much." A PSA to cab driver's: if you are trying to earn solid tips, being an asshole and making the passengers feel guilty for minor things is NOT the way to do it. Just be nice. I gave him a $2 tip on like a $17 ride, and honestly I think that was too much. What a jerk.
Anyway, we made it to the park, and got in to see the show. My sister was up third. The first two people were, surprisingly, middle-aged, probably both between 35 and 45. I don't think I've ever seen this on the real American Idol. They were okay, although the lady who went second sang "Waiting for Tonight" by Jennifer Lopez which was kind of weird for American Idol I thought. My sister chose to sing "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger. Her taste in music is much better than most girls, obviously. She did a pretty good job and the judges (who were trying to act like the real American Idol judges) had all good things to say. The audience of about 600 people voted and she ended up winning and advancing to the finale!
As it was still only about 11:30am after we got out, we had plenty of time to kill before the finale. We decided to go to the Indiana Jones stunt show, which I hadn't seen since I was 14 or so. I was very excited for this. A few minutes after we got into our seats, I was checking email on my phone waiting for the show to start when I heard a voice announce, "If anyone 18 or over wants to be an extra in the show, shout and wave your arms!" I had never done anything like this in my life, but after just seeing my sister performing on stage, naturally I wanted to try. I got up and shouted and waved, and sure enough, I got called on stage along with about 20 other people. We signed some waivers and put on some Arabic costumes and then headed for the stage. Most of the extras' tasks were simple, like running around as a group, yelling, pointing, etc. But then, one of the performers said, "I need one of you to come over here and do some acting, how about....you (pointing to me)! Would you like to come act out a death scene!" I have never acted in anything in my life, I have never been in a school play or anything. So naturally my response was, "Sure, I'd love to!" I was instructed to look menacing and pretend to hold a knife in my hand and walk slowly toward the stuntman, who would shoot me with his imaginary gun, and then I would fake getting shot and act out dying in a very elongated fashion. Hilarity ensued, as I was pretty terrible at looking menacing and acting in general but as a result it was very funny and I think the crowd enjoyed it quite a bit, for one reason or another! I had an awesome time doing this. Here is a pic of me with the extras on stage, I think I am in the yellow:
After that, we killed some more time. It was raining for much of the day, but that didn't stop us from having fun. The new Toy Story ride there is awesome, although my sister bet me $1 that she would outscore me, and she won :(
We headed to the finale around 6:30. There were 7 performers, and my sister went 5th. The competition level was naturally much higher, some of these people were very impressive. Rachel didn't win, but she had a great time doing it and we had a great time watching. Here is a picture of her from the show:
The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful, aside from meeting up with the aforementioned Joe Ward at ESPN Club. We watched game 2 of the Cavs/Magic series, in which LeBron hit his incredible buzzer beater for the 1 point win. Unfortunately his teammates did not play very well in the series and they lost in 6 games, so there will be no LeBron/Kobe final, which would have been really cool to see. It was nice seeing Joe and we had a good time. He headed with a group that we met there to the piano bar down the boardwalk but I was too tired as I had been out since the morning and just called it a night. My family headed home on Sunday the 24th. Despite a LOT of rain, it was one of the best vacations I've ever had, and certainly one of the most eventful.
Over the past week and a half or so I have been getting back into the swing of things with poker. I hardly played from spring break through vacation, so I was actually very excited to get back into a daily grinding routine. Fortunately lady luck has decided to welcome me back in a grand fashion, as in these past 9 or 10 days I am up a hair short of 200k online, and also had 15% of Alec Torelli in the 40k WSOP event, which he finished 6th in for about 330k, giving me about a 50k score there. My online play has been mostly 25/50 PLO, with some 10/20 and a trace of 50/100 as well, which I ran very good in. I don't expect to maintain running quite this good, but I am feeling very confident again just 10 days after feeling very rusty and much less confident. I also intend to grind a good amount in Vegas, at least until my 21st birthday on June 24, at which point I can promise nothing :)
So speaking of Vegas, I am heading there tomorrow, and staying in a house with Taylor, Andrew, Joe, Scott (irockhoes) and a few other friends, 9 of us in total. I am really pumped to get out there as I had a blast last year, and even moreso because I will actually turn 21 and be able to play some this year. I will be playing the main event, likely the 5k 6max NL, and perhaps some live PLO cash, depending on what kind of games run. Mostly, I am there to have fun though. I very much look forward to it.
I have to run, I meant to post a few hands too but this is long already. I will do a more poker focused post in the near future.
Jun 4, 09 21:05:43
i told u i would comment ur blog at lunch today stinger..and u def did work hard on this one u weren't kidding!!! i kinda wanna go to disneyworld now..lol
Jun 5, 09 20:26:29
Love the blog, incredible detail. appreciate the time you took to write it.
Jun 5, 09 21:58:52
i think it's important to blog about stuff like this...
get ready for some basketball... i'm going to drain 3's like steve kerr
Jun 6, 09 08:42:22
that's cool that you had lunch with some CR members. it's cool that the top CR pros seem to be real down to the earth kinda guys. gl at the WSOP. can't wait until you can start playing live. hard to believe you're only 20...
Jun 6, 09 09:30:52
If you ever feel like surfing again, you should come to Australia! The Aussie millions is during our summer and if you dont feel like the tourney the cash games seem to get pretty big. Blog On
Jun 6, 09 12:04:08
very nice blog
now where is my lunch invitiation?
BARCAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MES QUE UN CLUB!
Jun 6, 09 12:04:28
very nice blog
now where is my lunch invitiation?
BARCAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MES QUE UN CLUB!
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Brian Hastings : Poker Blog
Stinger885
Ithaca, New York
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