Here’s what I did.
NOTHING!-I took a 6-week break from poker…it was REALLLYY hard to do! Went to bars, drank, girls, ya know- anything to get my mind off poker. No poker books, no B&Ms, no ESPN or Travel Channel poker, no TWO PLUS TWO!!!!
I got drunk and lost my glasses twice and prolly spent well over a grand in alcohol.
For the past week I’ve been playing in 50 hand intervals and then evaluate my play at the end of the session. This is something I wanted to do in the beginning but for whatever reason- being stuck in a game, having a great session, ect., ect. I rarely did.
Over my first 18k (pre-6 week break) I was a break even player overall. 18/9/2
I’m back on pokerstars and only a few regulars are still there. I guess the other regulars moved on.
My game is microlimit limit hold em full ring.
I feel that all the information from this site, all the books and advice settled and I subcounsiouly formed my own style.
I’ve been playing three hundred hands a day for the past three days and although I may be running goot…I am winning 7bb/100 with 400 hands being at .25c/.50c limit and the balance at .10c/.20c. My stats over the 1,000 hands are 20/10/2.1 FINALLY!!! I was not really trying to play 20/10 poker I just remembered stuff from the past and used it to my advantage.
I’m REREADING SSH and gonna try to play one hundred hands a day. I think I’m finally a winning pla
In what appears to be a completely wide-open affair at six furlongs on turf, classy Bob and Jackie looks to rate a big chance cutting back in distance for Richard Baltas as he faces sharp recent winner Gregorian Chant, defending champ Cistron and Brazilian-bred Jolie Olimpica, who will be facing males for the first time in North America in Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 San Simeon Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.
Second, beaten 3 ¾ lengths as the 2-1 favorite by rising star Hit the Road (who took this past Saturday's Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile) in the G3 Thunder Road Stakes at one mile on turf Feb. 6, Bob and Jackie will be sprinting for the first time since his debut at age two on Oct. 20, 2018, when he was a close second going 6 ½ furlongs down Santa Anita's hillside turf course.
A three-time minor stakes winner at one mile on grass at ages two, three and four, Bob and Jackie has won four out of his 10 lifetime starts — all in combination with Heriberto Figueroa, who will be replaced on Saturday by Drayden Van Dyke. Owned by Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran, Bob and Jackie, a 5-year-old horse by Twirling Candy, has ample natural speed and will likely be in close early attendance, despite the fact he's cutting back in distance. With an overall mark of 10-4-3-1, Bob and Jackie has earnings of $269,551.
Trained by Phil D'Amato, English-bred Gregorian Chant, who was cutting back in distance off of 11 consecutive routes, came roaring from off the pace to register an emphatic 2 1/4-length win in the restricted Clockers' Corner Stakes versus seven rivals at six furlongs on turf Jan. 24 and appears to be a horse who's perhaps found a new niche in partnership with jockey Juan Hernandez. With the likes of Cistron in the lineup, Gregorian Chant, who is owned by Slam Dunk Racing, Old Bones Racing Stable, LLC and Michael Nentwig, should have a solid pace to run at on Saturday as he seeks his first graded stakes win.
A winner of last year's San Simeon two starts back when it was contested at 5 ½ furlongs on turf, John Sadler's Cistron has been idle since running fifth in the G3 Dayton Stakes at 5 ½ on turf on May 23, 2020. A G1 winner on dirt, Cistron, a 7-year-old full horse by top sprinter The Factor, will be ridden for the first time by Umberto Rispoli. With an overall mark of 29-6-7-6 and earnings of $762,719, Cistron should show plenty of early zip off the bench as he seeks his fourth graded stakes victory for Hronis Racing, LLC.
A Group I and Group III stakes winner versus males at age three in her native Brazil, Richard Mandella's Jolie Olimpica will be suiting up against males for the first time in America as Mandella seeks to keep her at six furlongs on turf. Second, beaten 2 ½ lengths as the even money favorite by Charmaine's Mia (who came back to take the G2 Buena Vista Stakes) in the six furlong turf Las Cienegas Stakes Jan. 9, Jolie Olimpica will be making her second start off of a seven month layoff and should give a good account of herself with regular rider Mike Smith back aboard. A 5-year-old mare by Drosselmeyer, Jolie Olimpica is owned by Fox Hill Farms, Inc., and has won a pair of graded stakes for Mandella in five stateside starts and she's compiled an overall mark of 8-5-3-0.
GRADE 3 SAN SIMEON WITH JOCKEYS & WEIGHTS
IN POST POSITION ORDER
Race 7 of 9 Approximate post time 3:30 p.m. PT
First post time for a nine-race card on Saturday is at 12:30 p.m. For additional information, please visit santaanita.com or call (626) 574-RACE. All of Santa Anita's races are offered free of charge at santaanita.com/live and fans can wager at 1st.com/bet. For additional information, please visit santaanita.com or call (626) 574-RACE.
The post Santa Anita’s San Simeon Wide-Open Fields Includes Bob And Jackie, Defending Champ Cistron appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
I think it's fair to say that most people in the racing industry were disgusted when they read the federal indictments last March of 27 people, including trainers, veterinarians, and drug makers. The very first person from that group of 27 was sentenced this week to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding.
I've reported on companies affiliated with Scott Robinson for several years now, and I had reason to suspect the conditions under which he and his co-conspirator Scott Mangini made illegal drugs were poor. Even I was surprised at some of the details in court documents filed around his sentencing, and I don't think I've been so horrified by a legal document since the original indictments.
The pre-sentencing report filed by the prosecution is littered with strong language about Robinson's involvement in peddling products designed to act as performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) or as substitutes for more expensive prescriptions. Possibly the most upsetting part of the document, which you can read here, was intercepted messages between Robinson and Mangini describing issues Robinson was seeing with products headed off for sale. Robinson describes “blood building peptide has black particles” floating in it, and a bug floating in a bottle which was “crimped,” suggesting it was a bottle of injectable product. Despite these quality concerns, Robinson kept selling the stuff, and presumably, his customers kept injecting it.
In case you wondered, as I did, what happens when you inject a product that's contaminated with bugs and other solids into a horse's muscle or vein, safe to say it's not a pretty picture. Solid particles would travel with an injected substance through a horse's veins, through the heart's atrium and ventricles, and via the aorta to the body. The vessels and capillaries it would travel through on its journey get gradually smaller, some as small as six to eight microns. The smallest particles visible to the naked eye are around 40 microns, so anything of that size will likely be stuck somewhere. In humans, the trapping of a solid particle somewhere in the circulatory system is known to cause anaphylactic shock, pulmonary embolisms, heart attacks, vein irritation, and death. If a horse in this situation is very unlucky, tissues would slowly die as they become unable to receive proper blood flow and oxygen. It's a painful experience for the animal.
According to one testing expert I spoke with, the reaction could be instant or it could take enough time that someone may not connect the horse's death to the injection it received. That likely means we won't know how many horses may have been sickened or killed by the products Robinson peddled.
Robinson's attorneys, of course, did their best to minimize the amount of time he would spend in prison after entering his guilty plea. That's their job. Prosecutors were pushing for the maximum sentence of 60 months, and defense counsel asked for 0 months. The judge landed on 18 months, which Robinson will begin serving later this year. One of the arguments made in support of Robinson grossed me out even more than his dismissive responses to concerns about the safety of his products – his attorneys suggested the judge should go easy on him, in part, because of how much he loves horses.
The defense pre-sentencing report, which you can read here, summarized character references provided by friends and family of Robinson. More than one discussed Robinson's disdain for mistreatment of animals, particularly racehorses.
“From my three years of work with Mr. Robinson, I have become aware of his great knowledge of and love for racehorses,” wrote his psychiatrist, Dr. Ronald E. DeMao. “Horses and horse racing have literally 'been his life.' It is inconceivable to me that he would ever do anything to intentionally harm a horse. In fact, he has developed products to aid in the physical health and rehabilitation of horses. I have heard him speak in very pejorative terms about others who 'dope' or harshly train racehorses.”
Writing of his “genuine concern for the way some horses are treated,” regenerative medicine physician Dr. Michael Heim said: “A story that has always struck me in a powerful way is Scott's description of a practice in horse racing called bleaching which, to the best of my knowledge, is when a horse is injected intravenously with bleach in order to improve physical performance for a short time but at an obvious cost to the horse's health. Scott has described to me how he has been able to spot such horses in a deteriorated state, purchase them, and subsequently nurse them back to health. As an animal lover, I find any practice such as bleaching to be detestable and applaud Scott's efforts to help even a single horse regain health.”
I'm left wondering whether, in his concern for racehorse welfare, Robinson ever reported to a racing commission, law enforcement, or the FDA people he thought were injecting bleach into horses. Or did he think that might be a bit hypocritical?
I don't find the notion of sentimentality over horses very compelling when it's coming from someone pleading guilty to the acts described here, or in the federal indictment. “I love horses,” will not save you if you have a hand in hurting them.
The prosecution evidently didn't find this part of Robinson's argument compelling, either.
“The claim in one such letter that Robinson “spoke in very pejorative terms about others who 'dope' racehorses contradicts the slate of products Robinson offered for sale … Far from decrying 'dopers,' Robinson catered to them through his various ventures, and reaped millions of dollars in sales from these businesses.”
But let's broaden that conclusion, shall we?
When much of the world reacted with outrage to the now-infamous photo of trainer Gordon Elliott grinning astride a dead horse in Ireland, the response from many in the racing industry was to talk about how much they love horses – or in a few cases, how much Elliott loves them. How many times have we seen this response? Horses die at Santa Anita, and well-intentioned people in racing post photos of themselves snuggling foals with the naïve belief that this will absolve whatever sin is in the headlines this month. A series of drug positives from a prominent trainer makes headlines; a racehorse winds up in the kill pen after struggling home last; a jockey is caught with a buzzer – we love our horses, all of us love them, these are just a few bad apples. 'Feel sorry for us!' they cry, 'People think we're mean, just because animals are dead.'
Anyone in public relations or in professional sports knows that the best defense is a good offense. By the time you're reacting to another welfare embarrassment, you've already lost, and that's because repeated protestations of love start to sound hollow when there keep being reasons to renew them.
It's not exactly the same, of course. The sport as a whole is made up of many individuals of different mindsets and levels of feeling for their horses, while the defendant here is one man. But it's worth remembering: when we speak to the outside world, much like a school of fish, the world sees one body, and it's going to judge us by what they see us do, not how we say we feel.
The post Voss: ‘I Love Horses’ Only Takes You So Far appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
