good bye everyone

[pico]

hi,

i have decided to take a break also. and yes it is because i lost bunch of money and i am in a slump. i think i need to take a break go out and do more outdoor activities instead of pay attention to sports all day long. (all my friends have said i gained some weight lately) it has been fun posting on this forum. i especially appreciate the inputs i got from bbd and ganchrow...you guys thought me a thing or two on handicapping. i realized i did spent too much time pondering which teams are going to win rather than spending time on enjoying life. last couple of days has been brutal i have lost every single one of my bets. and tongiht i went out with my friends and realized what i am missing. there are so many cute girls out there...only if i want to spend more time talking to them rather than spending every single moment thinking about which team is going to cover. my last bet for tonight was pittsburg seattle over..and it went under. i was in the bar with couple of gorgous girls and all i can think of is that when will seattle/pittsburg going to score some runs. i think that is quite sad. and i think this is a good time for me to take a break. to be honest, i was pretty pissed the game ended 3-0 and i blew off my friends and i had no desire to take those girls home. now i am drunk with self pitty writing this post. i am not sure how many of you have experienced this, but i think there is more to life than gambling. i started off as a recreational gambler then i had the hottest streak imaginable last year. ever since, i spent most of my energy picking teams etc. i do realize i get this rush when my picks come through but it is devastating when you hit a losing streak...not only it effect your mind but it also effect the people around you. when i am losing, i realized i tend to alienate my friends and loved ones. sometimes i even have the overwhelming urge to chase my losses. this self-destructive behavior has to stop. according to my calculation, i wasted about 2-3 year of my prime life to gambling. and if i tally up all the win/loss for the last 2-3 years, i think i am about break even. all that energy and time just to break even...what a waste of time. but i am not saying i am quitting, this is just a break to clear my head so i can figure out what i am going to do next. money is not the issue here, since if want to i can fund my pinnacle account within a week, but is it really worth it? with my current state of mind, if i put more money into my pinny account i'll probably going to lose it all in a month or two. right now, i am going to europe with my gf for couple of weeks, and i'll try to avoid all the casinos where ever possible. hopefully i'll be ready to make some wagers after the all star game. even though this is a short break, but i think if i keep betting, i'll just become more depressed every day. good luck to you all. hopefully i'll see most of you when i return from my trip. this is an awesome forum, i feel like i can speak my mind with minimal censorship.

auf wiederzen and good bye see you all in couple of weeks.

[bigboydan]

Sorry to hear your leaving, but I do wish you well enjoying your gaming free days.

[onlooker]

Have fun on your time off, and we will see you when you return.

[LargeMouthBass]

LOL... you too? Visit Amsterdam, I heard it's fun there.

[pico]

LOL... you too? Visit Amsterdam, I heard it's fun there.

amsterdam is my first stop, then paris, milan, rome. i really need to take a break. i really need some crystal kush to clear my head.

this is not good, i just wrote a long letter to my ex...i really need to sober up...i hope my gf doesn't find out about this.

[DarthV]

amsterdam is my first stop, then paris, milan, rome. i really need to take a break. i really need some crystal kush to clear my head.

this is not good, i just wrote a long letter to my ex...i really need to sober up...i hope my gf doesn't find out about this.

Yes. Amsterdam is a good idea. I recommend the White Widow. Two joints. Go to the Bulldog Cafe in the Liedseplien. Smoke the two joints. Go out of the cafe. You'll be facing the square, probably with some buskers trying to make a few bucks off of performing gay monkeys or something like that. turn left and go about 220 yards. You will come to a bridge over a canal. Go over the bridge and you'll be looking at the Marriot Hotel. Great breakfast buffet for about $20 bucks and a favorite haunt of the old day hash smugglers. But you don't want breakfast right now. You have other business.

Hang a left at the Marriott and start walking along that street. You will see the Holland Casino to your left across the canal you just crossed. Avoid it like the plague or another Bodog deposit. It's a real ****ing rip. Keep walking down that street with the canal on your left. Once you get past the casino, go another two blocks, the canal still on your left and then on your right, you will come upon a huge kind of reddish brick building very much like Central Station where you probably got off the train from the airport. That building is called the Reichmuseum.

Buy a ticket and go inside. Ask where you can find the Night Watch. If you are an American keep it to yourself. Better yet, try and pass yourself off as a Canadian. The Dutch like Canadians. I'm not sure why, but they do.

Once you have directions to the Night Watch, go there. It is a huge painting by Rembrandt. There is a small bench in front of it. Sit on it and stare at the painting. Give yourself at least 45 minutes and wonder about what kind of a life those boyos must have had in those days. Every once in a while have a look left and right, there are a couple of Rubens, I think they are, on the walls to the side. Fabulous too.

And you'll realize there is a lot more to life than wondering if that Bodog check is ever going to get to you.

A couple of other things. Beware of the red sidewalks. If you are crossing one, or worse yet, walking down one, and hear a bell ringing, it will be the one before your bell is rung when some 6 foot 7 Dutch son of a bitch on a bicycle runs you down or knocks you into a canal. Red Sidewalk = bike path = not a good place to be after two joints of White Widow.

And the other thing. If you are walking along and come along two tracks in the road with rails in them, be very careful. Never stop and stand between these tracks or your last vision on earth might be of some pretty and huge yellow thing running you down and making jam of you.

Remember, White Widow, two joints, Bulldog to Marriot, take a left, avoid red sidewalks and tracks in the road, Reichmuseum.

It doesn't get any better than that. Take it from me. I've been there. Many times.

And stay away from the Holland Casino.

[DarthV]

i hope my gf doesn't find out about this.

She probably won't. Unless your real name is Picoman, in which case you are probably toast.

[punchmaster]

well here

amsterdam is my first stop, then paris, milan, rome. i really need to take a break. i really need some crystal kush to clear my head.

this is not good, i just wrote a long letter to my ex...i really need to sober up...i hope my gf doesn't find out about this.

go ahead and fund that pinnacle account and go out with a win- Gutierrez/Perez, under 7.5 rounds for Friday.

[pico]

the last time i went to amsterdam. i got off the centraal station and the first coffee shop i see was route 66 (or was it route 99...smoked too much to remember). the lady working there was a pretty cute lookgin dutch woman who is pretty amicable. i went to couple of other places, but the quality are all about the same. when i go back to amsterdam, i'll visit that coffee shop again. i don't like the red light district...filled with creeps and the girls are so so, i am going to avoid that place. since i am going to go with my gf, i'll probably take a tour bus or rent a car to see the dutch country side. see a couple of windmills and dams. there is nothing that interesting there besides the smoke. i already been to the reichsmuseum and van gough museum. not a big fan of museums, since i can look at the pictures on the internet...i am not that high cultured, so i don't see what is the big deal looking at bunch of oily paintings.

never been to paris, milan or rome, so it'll be interesting to visit those places.

if my real name is picoman, i think i'll be the only person in the world with that name

[pico]

go ahead and fund that pinnacle account and go out with a win- Gutierrez/Perez, under 7.5 rounds for Friday.

no money to do book to book. bank wire takes a while. i need a break to clear my head.

[Stumpage]

"Better yet, try and pass yourself off as a Canadian. The Dutch like Canadians. I'm not sure why, but they do." (Originally posted by "DarthV")

http://www.bouwman.com/netherlands/Liberation.html

That's why.....Excellent post, by the way.....

[austintx05]

if you didn't waste your time gambling, it would've been wasted in some other fashion. Be a man, accept your losses and move on.

[pico]

if you didn't waste your time gambling, it would've been wasted in some other fashion. Be a man, accept your losses and move on.

don't you get tired of doing something for so long you just need to take a break. even if you become the oil master for the swedish bikini team, you'll get tired of it one day.

[dodif]

do not go to any of the bulldog coffeeshops. its a commercial ripoff joint with some below average chron IMO. Go to Barneys and get the Willie Nelson, it won the cup in 2005. The best bud is called La Confidential and its at the Grey Area and they also have an unpressed hash that is fantastic. The best weed in Leidseplein is at The Rookies. If you got the money stay at the Hilton Amsterdam. The number 5 and 12 trams dont have anyone checking tickets so u can ride them free all day.

[Dark Horse]

Funny the Marriot was mentioned. During my time in Amsterdam a friend of mine was bartender at the Marriot. I was just out of school, kid with no money, but he would mix me up the most exotic drinks in the world, and all for free. Coffee shops are everywhere, with the 'hasj' menu on the wall, so don't worry about which one. There's a yearly hash/marijuana contest in Amsterdam (American friends of mine used to be on the jury), and if you're in luck that may be around the time you're going.

To get into the feel of the city take a walk from Central Station to the Dam, then take Kalverstraat to Leidsestraat to Leidseplein. Here try a 'Broodje van Kootje' sandwich. You're now also very close to Paradiso and de Melkweg (Milky Way), if you like music. If you're there during football (soccer) check out a Ajax game in the Arena stadium. If you're there in May, take a train down south and you will see tulip fields in every color of the rainbow as far as the eye can see.

In Paris you can't miss. Buy a bottle of Suze and lay down in the grass of the Tuileries. Get a bottle of wine and sit down on the shore of the Ile de France. You don't need a car here. Everything can be reached very easily through the Metro, maybe the best subway system in the world. I always liked to go the Pere lachaise, the cemetery where Jim Morrison is burried, along with other legends like Edith Piaf and Chopin. Nice area to hang out is Boulevard St. Michel/Blvd St. Germaine. If you haven't seen Montmartre, where Picasso and the dudes used to live, it's a must. Museums galore. But there's a time for culture and a time for pop culture. I once spent a week in Paris, with some friends, just playing every pinball machine we could find.

It's a great drive from Paris down to the south of France. I would take the drive down via Dijon and Lyon. Many little towns along the way, with town squares and great coffee. I got shot at in this area, and even spent a few days in jail. (The French police/gendarmerie are the biggest assholes you'll ever meet.) If you smoke, Gauloises or Gitanes are the way to go in France. Just a tiny step from inhaling cigars.

Italy. I would suggest Florence or Rome over Milan, but it's been a while. My next time in Italy will center mostly on Venice.

[jjgold]

Good Luck Pico

Come back soon

[BatemanPatrickl]

Take care man. I knew you for 3.5 seconds but you seem like a good guy.

[crackerjack]

We'll see you on these boards by Sunday

[capitalist pig]

Have fun.

Later

[moses millsap]

Goodbye.

[Santo]

Certainly burnout does happen, I'm nearing that stage myself. I'm moving on from Full Time Gambling come October, will scale things back to just the quick stuff rather than market monitoring etc.

[Dark Horse]

Me too. Quick stuff was a lot more fun, it seems now.

[Santo]

My quick stuff is still +EV, and I think I have enough of it at a high enough kelly to cut out a decent portion of the variance (and better, 90% of it doesn't rely on the US market any more)

I plan to keep that going as a sideline, and do a combination of academia/consultancy with my time. A bit more social, quite a bit more interesting and intellectually stimulating.

[Dark Horse]

Pretty similar here. Except that I'll shift mostly to the stock market.

I'm taking a beach chair to some tropical island, add a laptop and a beer, and that's it. F*ck the scores.

[DarthV]

if my real name is picoman, i think i'll be the only person in the world with that name

No, I used to date a Karen Picoman when I lived in California.

Anyways, good luck and happiness in whatever you do. A good post by Dark Horse on your expanded tour itinerary. I also recommend the Abraxas coffee shop. If your in Dam square walk up to the front of the old palace and then go around the left side. There is a street there called Outzids Achterbergval or something like that. Take a left and go a block. There's a little alley there to the left and Abraxas is in there. The Turk that runs it is the best judge of hash in Amsterdam.

[buztah]

Welcome to the Hotel California. See you again reaaalll soon, pico. We've all been there while staying here.........

[spliff]

take it easy, see you in fall.

[pags11]

GL picoman...