Sun - April 1, 2007

Fri - March 23, 2007

Pre Vegas Warm Up

Last night I hosted a little Pre Vegas poker party to get into the habit of staying up late and gambling, so I invited a few friends over to help break in my new table:




Sadly, I did not play very well, but a good time was had by all. My trophy and "I'm kind of a big deal" shirt did not intimidate anyone!




Tim & Jessica weren't impressed with my suited AQ:




The crew:




My friend Tony ended up being the big winner... watch out for him at the DWF tourney on Weds night:




orange county wedding photographer

Posted at 02:29 AM     Read More  

Thu - March 22, 2007

Photo of the Month, March

Two photos this month.

This one reminds me of Texas:




This one doesn't:



becker

Posted at 02:54 PM     Read More  

Tue - March 20, 2007

MY NEW BLOG!!!!!!!!!!

...is still a couple of weeks away. :( (THE NEW BLOG IS HERE NOW)

I just wanted to tease it now, to give you all something to look forward to! I hire the same programmer as Jessica Claire and those crazy kids at "the blog is found". If you want to get on his waiting list, check out Infinet Design (but don't bug him until my blog is done!)

Write this down somewhere: beckersblog.com launches on April 1st (if you go there before it's time, you'll just end up right back here!)

During the first week of my new blog, I will feature an awesome wedding that I am shooting in Beverly Hills, a recap slideshow from Vegas, pics from opening night of the Angel game, some birthday love for my mom and a super secret surprise announcement!


Pay no attention to my friend Brian:

Posted at 04:31 PM     Read More  

Sat - March 17, 2007

Happy St. Patrick's Day

One of these days I want to head to Chicago for St. Patrick's Day! I'd also like to see a U2 concert in Ireland on March 17th. Not this year though, I am off to shoot a fun wedding later today. Photos tomorrow!

I hope y'all have a great day. Don't drink too much green beer and remember to designate a driver!

The Chicago River on St. Pat's Day:

Posted at 12:11 AM     Read More  

Thu - March 15, 2007

(RED) Update

It's been a while since I mentioned anything about product (RED), so I just thought I'd share a little update. Since it leached in October, over $25 million dollars have been raised for the Global Fund to help people who are dying of AIDS in Africa.

They still aren't letting small businesses become official partners, but they are still working on it and we will certainly let you know as soon as it's a go! In the mean time, I am just trying to do what I can to encourage people to do the (RED) thing! Remember, if you are a blogger, you can click under the (BLOG) RED badge to the left and get your own badge to put on your blog. I am proud to say that my blog is the top referring blog to joinred.com!



Go get yourself a (RED) iTunes gift card today!

Check back tomorrow for photos from Joshua Tree with Joe Photo.

Posted at 01:28 AM     Read More  

Sun - March 11, 2007

Mon - March 5, 2007

Just four more weeks...

...until Angels Baseball kicks off!

I have been getting very stir crazy waiting for baseball season to start. I can only watch the WSOP reruns so often. We are not going to make it to Spring Training this year, but I do try to catch at least one game per home stand, so if anyone wants to catch a game with me, just leave a comment or send me a note. Tony? Blake? Gary? You guys in?

You can enter to win a chance to get Opening Day tickets here.

Does anyone know if the Angels will be broadcasting more games in HD this year? It seems like the team from the OC would step up and broadcast most if not all the games in glorious High Def! I know there is some political junk floating around with the MLB Extra Innings package from DirecTv. I just hope the DirecTv picks up FSN-HD and lets me watch the games in HD.


.

Posted at 03:30 PM     Read More  

Fri - March 2, 2007

Wanna buy a nice Condo in Aliso Viejo?

Happy Friday everyone!

I gotta try to hook up my family with today's post.

Matt & April (my bro-in-law and sis) want to buy a nice new house in Mission Viejo with a big yard for Cade to run around in (and it's right around the corner from my place!)

They just put their condo up for sale and they are having an open house this Sunday from 1 to 4pm. You can find the details on the agents listing page. It's in great shape with brand new granite countertops in the kitchen, crown moulding and a nice fireplace. It's right across the street from a big park and close enough to walk to the Aliso Viejo Town Center.


And conveniently if you need a loan, you could drop my dad a line and he can help you out.

gary.becker at wmhml dot com


Gary Becker
Senior Mortgage Consultant
3100 E. Miraloma Ave., Suite 210A
Anaheim, CA  92806

Posted at 01:16 AM     Read More  

Wed - February 28, 2007

Sun - February 25, 2007

I AM GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER!!!!!!!

OH MY! I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT! I won the qualifying tournament yesterday and I am going to be in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas this summer.




I am still in shock. It's about 2am, I just got home and I am giddy, and wide awake, and still in shock. Oh, I already said that. It was unreal. I don't know where to begin.

First of all, it was a lovely day in Southern California (just gotta through that out there):




Jessica and I cruised up to the Hustler Casino in Gardena, to enter a the $100 buy in no limit tournament. I have never played in a real tournament before, so I really didn't have high hopes as you can see from yesterday's blog entry.

I knew I was going to be half way lucky when I got seated right across from Shannon Elizabeth. I shot her wedding reception a couple of years back. She didn't remember me, but she was still super nice and played pretty well:




The rest of this story is gonna have some poker lingo, so if you need to translate, check out Pokerworld.com

89 people started at the beginning of the day, and I folded my very first hand, but then on my second hand, I had pocket Kings, and then when a King came up on the flop, some guy went all in, so I had to call and bust him. Right away, I doubled up! It was a great start.

I decide that I was going to play very tight, and only get involved with strong hands so I mucked a lot of cards through the afternoon. I was very patient and just listened to my iPod and tried to get a read on the other players even when I wasn't in the hand.

The day just went on and on and on, and people kept dropping out little by little. When they first combined the tables, I had a nice sized stack and some dude sat down just to my left, and on his first had, he went all in, I called, he showed Ace King, but I had pocket Aces! I win again. The poor guy literally lasted 45 seconds at the second table. Sorry bro!

Anywho, after about 4 hours... It was down to 19 people and just two final tables. I finally got moved to Jessica's table, but she was hanging on by a thread and ended up getting knocked out after a few hands. She finished in 19th place but was the longest lasting female.

At this point, I had a decent stack and I was just hoping to finish in the top ten, so I'd at least get SOME money.

By the time we made it to the final table, I was actually in third place but only a few chips behind second and first place. At this point I was ready to have fun, knowing I'd at least get my money back, and I made sure to point out my shirt to everyone. I wanted to let them know that "I'm kind of a big deal"! I was trying to get into their heads and make them come after me.

After two people got knocked out, I was in a hand head to head with the second place guy. I had Ace of spades and the Jack of clubs . The flop came Queen of spades, Ten of hearts and King of spades. I flopped an Ace high straight, which is tough to beat. He moved all in with the 8 and 9 of spades and had a flush draw (a flush beats a straight). The Jack of spades came giving him a flush (and the lead), but giving me a Royal Flush draw which is an unbeatable hand. The two of spades came which actually gave me "the nuts" and I doubled up and now had more than half of all the chips in play.

I just sat back, folding bad and even mediocre hands and let the remaining players knock each other around until there were three!

Third place got about $1,500, second place got $3,200 and first place got $1,000 and the $10,000 admission to the World Series Main Event paid for him.

After just a few minutes, I was in the big blind with 6, 3 off suited which is a pretty bad starting hand, but when the flop came A, 6, 3, I was in good shape. The short stack guy went all in since he paired his Ace, I called and he was sent packing!

Down to two. I had about a four to one chip lead and I was liking my chances. I honestly kinda wanted second place because $3,200 is better than $1,000 and it's a long shot to win money at the Main Event. I even told the guy I'd rather have the $3,200 but, my competitive nature took over and all I could think of was... if I come in second, I am going to have to listen to my brother in law Matt quote the line from Top Gun saying "the trophy for second place is in the ladies room"

I couldn't live that down, so I just tightened up and played my best. It went on head to head for about 20 minutes. There were also about a dozen people standing around watching the action. I put him all in a few times, he folded, and he did the same to me. We took turn stealing each other's blinds until the moment of truth came.

I was in the small blind with POCKET ACES! I kid you not, it could not have been scripted any better. I limped in with my best poker face, just calling the big blind and he sensed weakness on my part and went all in. I instantly called, flipped the cards and screamed "YEAH!"! The look on his face was priceless as he let out a long groan as he flipped his Ace Jack of hearts. I had him dominated and covered. Even if I lost, I still would have had the chip lead so I wasn't too worried. The flop came, no hearts, but he did get a Jack. He had to get one more Jack to double up, but it wasn't to be. I was the winer winner chicken dinner after a couple of rags came on the turn and the river.

I was seriously in shock. I was shaking. Of course I told everyone it was my first tournament which seemed to really piss them off.

It was crazy. I am still floating. I still can't believe it. I'll be heading to Vegas in July and of course I'll keep everyone posted if I am going to be on ESPN 2! Or course I'll be wearing a thebecker.com hat and a thebscool.com t-shirt if I do get any TV time.





Y'all can just call me "Big Stack Becker" if you want! Watch out Phil Ivey... I'm coming for you!

Posted at 01:40 AM     Read More  

Sat - February 24, 2007

Wish me luck!

I am off of to play in my first ever real poker tournament this afternoon (and hopefully evening and into the early morning). I plan on losing... but I am hoping to get an education and some experience. If by some fluke of nature... I end up winning, I will take home a nice jackpot, and even more importantly, I will be invited to play in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas later this year. One of my life's goals is to play poker on ESPN2!

The thing I like about poker, is that anyone can do it, and do it well. I mean lets face it, my dream of playing Major League Baseball died at an early age because, I just wasn't a very good hitter and I couldn't throw strikes. I'll never be a professional baseball player. But, even though Texas Hold 'em is a hobby for me right now, if I ever did decide to really put my mind to it, I have no doubt I could end up with a World Series Bracelet.

I'll post the results when I get home tonight.

-----

Edited to add: My friend Kristin sent me this photo from the other night when I won at Mike Colon's place after his workshop (this photo is a sign of things to come):

Posted at 11:43 AM     Read More  

Wed - February 14, 2007

Happy Valentines Day

I hope everyone had a Happy Valentines Day. If anyone got engaged today, please check out thebecker.com! I saw a few people that hired the sky writers to propose, but it was funny because by the time the whole sentence was spelled out, the name wasn't legible anymore. Hopefully she saw it from the beginning.

Anyway, I am not really a romantic guy, it's just not my thing. And Jess and I had originally planned on going to a photography workshop together today, but I gave my own workshop yesterday, and I was exhausted. So, we just hung out, went out to lunch, test drove Porsches and then went to the casino to play poker! It was a fun day even though we didn't really celebrate the Hallmark holiday.

We did have a bit of a milestone, as I first met Jessica 3 years ago on Valentine's weekend. We've been dating on and off (mostly on) since then, and I gotta say, the last three yeas have been awesome and I am so lucky to have her in my life.

Here's a couple photos from the day we met:






Our first date was at the opening of the Mission Viejo Apple store. Talk about romantic!

Dang, I look a lot skinnier in those photos. Back to the treadmill tomorrow!

Posted at 11:40 PM     Read More  

Mon - February 12, 2007

Random thoughts Monday

Just some random thoughts for this Monday afternoon:

It was cool watching the Police open up the Grammy's last night. Does anyone know if they are going to be touring?

I was out of the country when the news broke about Anna Nicole Smith passed away. Sad. It's always tragic when people die at a young age no matter the circumstances. It's crazy how much her stuff is going for on eBay right now.

I ran into a friend of the family when I was at the movies the other night and she told me about a business she started with a friend of hers. OCerrandGirls.com is their venture and if you are looking for a part time personal assistant, you should give them a call. They are both bright, capable young ladies and can take care of the little things in life that seem to bog us down... like grocery shopping.

I don't like the 8 weeks between the Superbowl and Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season because there are no sports for me to watch on TV. I don't really like basketball or hockey so I've resorted to Tivoing Poker After Dark on NBC. I am getting excited for baseball season! I am not going to make it to spring training this year but I do plan on going to more Angel games than I did last year. If anyone ever has Diamond Club tickets they can't use or even just an extra ticket, you know where to send them and where they will be very appreciated!!!!

Also, when I was getting dressed this morning, I grabbed an old pair of jeans, and found $10 in the pocket! And those jeans were too loose (yay!) so grabbed another pair, and found a $20 bill in that pocket! You know it's going to be a good day when stuff like that happens!

I am dog sitting today. Trevor and Katie picked up a pooch over the weekend and asked me to watch it while their place is getting ready or something like that. I was half asleep when I agreed, so I am not sure what the deal is but it's a little boxer puppy. So cute!




Happy Monday!

Posted at 11:32 AM     Read More  

Thu - February 8, 2007

Last night in Cabo

I am flying home right now after a few days of chillin' in Cabo and I had a great time. I made some new friends and it was just a nice relaxing time with perfect weather. I am really excited about both of my weddings next weekend, and for the season to get started. I am energized, refreshed and ready to rock. I'll be back in Cabo at least once this year, and just got an inquiry for another destination wedding down there.

Here are just a few more snaps from the backyard of Villa Cortex taken yesterday afternoon:










JD, Steve, Jasmine, [ b ], Jessica, Kristen, Liana. Another 7 person self portrait taken with the point and shoot camera.

I am looking forward to being home for a while, but I am going to miss the infinity pool. I don't go on another trip until the end of March when I'll be out in Vegas for the wedding photographer's convention.

Posted at 05:41 PM     Read More