Hotel @nyware

The Honeymoon continues with another 21 DAZE at sea-My bucket list for  Infinity Pools  is getting  shorter-with three pools down this month- Curacao, St Maarten yesterday and today in St Lucia.Love illusions? Swimming?

The Jade Mountain Resort in St. Lucia  has an infinity pool in every room. Weighing in at $900 bucks a night...and it goes like this-

 .

From Zerox To Infinity

Smooth Operator. No Chalk.Just Talk for the Sage on the stage

Tourism is taking something out of nothing and selling it. Il Dolce Far Niente – The Sweetness of Doing Nothing.

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging--- From Playing Poker in Macau to playing Terry O'Quinn's  Body Double in Hawaii, it's all been about LOST,

Heads Up!

Now 3 years  traveling around the world on Cruise Ships. Paradise Found because  The older I get the better my past gets

I like writing about Mexico, I just don't like the paper work. So here is a picture from one year ago this month in Cabo San Lucas. Time flys when you're having rum.

Every day I get to go to work---on a cruise ship! It is the In to my Sane-Doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result.

The actual quote is: Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. Like poker---sometimes making the right mistake pays off. I rather be lucky than skillful.

Remember , The Color of Money lyrics, " It's in the way that you use it..It comes and it goes..."
"Luck is an art. Luck just marches by any number of people, and they're looking in any direction but where luck is. I guess I know how to look in the right direction." Paul Newman
I wrote about this in relation to Poker in 2008,The number #1 thing I hate about the game I love .


The MS Noordam and I are starting another 21 Daze in Ther Carribean



Highlights From The past 21 days:

▼ 

• From Zero To Infinity-Pools That Blow Your Mind
• Curacao - Renaissance Man
• Bonaire -Shawshank Redemption
• ABC Islands-It Ain't Much If It Ain't Dutch
• Grand Turk-Escape TO (My) Reality
• Dominican Republic-1492
• Half Moon Cay Bahamas _Sea Horses
• St Thomas USVI
• Dam Ships
• La Martinique - Caribbean Flower
• Apocalypso Now
• Barbados -The Boat Yard
• St Lucia-Banana Republic Is Hiring
• The Statue's not the Saint (Maarten)
• Dam Ships- The Map is the Territory

From My Best Damn Poker Blog

The surest way to win a huge pot in NLH is to spot 'em the nuts and suck out!
When this happens: Hate the win, not the winner. I call this, Making the right mistake.




Last night, I was deep, heads up. I have position, and a guy raises. I call with suited connectors. I put him on AK.
I hit two pair 5's and 6's, and there is a King on the board. The guy shoves all in on the flop! I insta call, and am dominated as he shows two pair too-K6 suited! The river is a 5, and I suck out with a full house...When that happens, it gets me nervously thinking
"It's better to be skillful than lucky" Note to self...
These are the nights that I stay too long, and go home broke. I did. Why? Because luck lends but never gives.
Playing 'in the dark': betting that your opponents DON'T have the cards rather than that they do is a strategy, not THE strategy. I couldn't switch gears.
I did a lot of bluffing, and I got called down with bottom pair, even with scare cards on the board.
An Aggressive game is a game of strategy and deception. A passive game is one where money flows from bad to good players. A loose game is a game of money and odds; a tight one is a battle for the antes
It was Ready, Fire, Aim---unloading three bullets--- flop, turn AND river, into a pot, holding Squadush-"nothing", “zilch” or “zero" and , when I first arrived, in the passive game, taking it down.
As the evening progressed, and the game loosened up, the passive players busted out, and the tight aggressive came in It became a game of money and odds. I didn't make the adjustment well, and re bought 3 times.
Tilt, was everywhere in my game--I got AA busted twice, and KK and QQ. That's right.
The AA was with a flop of 743 garbage, he bets big ,I re raise all in, he calls, with a set of 7's.
Granted, too much respect for money makes you a bad NLH player....so I must be a great player, because I didn't think he could have anything.
I walked away from that session with knowledge: First, that my brain is the "most powerful computer." Second, when on tilt, my brain is the most powerful "broken computer .
"Tilt makes us sub-optimal for evaluating rewards, sizing up risks and calculating probabilities. It's like selling the car for gas money.I walked away with a less broken computer, less sabotaging behavior, and more insight into the fact that self-delusion is more than possible in poker - it's highly likely!

Karaoke Living Daring to Be Different in a Copycat World

Having no education can be an economic death sentence but a unique talent, grants you a global passport. Free to KNOW, GO and DO. Talent makes capital dance.I Sell my cleverness and buy bewilderment. The one is mere opinion, the other is intuition. I've found that luck is quite predictable. If I want more luck, I take more chances. Yet the paradox of choice  can sometimes create more problems than solutions. Choosing a life of excessive generosity and voluntary simplicity can be a refreshing option. 

The road to excess, has led to the palace of wisdom.The Japanese call it  wabi sabi - the ability to love an imperfect situation perfectly and go with the flow. It's living a full life by intentionally designing it so that you don’t have to sacrifice anything important or waste your time, money or energy. It's the law of least effort, the strength of weak  ties and < = > (less is more) 5-2=7 getting rid of things that don't serve you can actually be a value add. You can't have everything-where would you put it? 

I haven't  been everywhere but it's on my list.  

At sea, that always-on, 24/7, hyper-connected consumer culture is gone, leading  to a spike in creativity and focused, elegant ideas that cut through the clutter of modern-day existence. It also makes you more generous, more creative, more content and more simple. I am not trying to be better than anyone else just better than I used to be. 

It starts by knowing more-the more I know the better I am--traveling accelerates that "knowing". Yet, knowledge isn't the power---applying the knowledge IS...of positive intent, expecting the best out of everyone, and eliminating opportunities for anger in your life. Instead, opening up the dialogue for re-creation and the exultation of the possible.

Growing old is not optional, growing up is. Since I have not "unlearned" how to begin, it still is exquisite to venture out, but I have to consent to doing this alone.The vision must be followed by the venture----it's not enough to stare at the ocean, you have to get in your boat and row.

You spell time L-O-V-E and Time is nature's way of  not having everything happen all at once. Love is our inheritance.  Fear is what we acquire from our schooling.  The journey of the spirit is the unlearning of fear  and the acceptance of love back in our hearts.

When my life flashes before me, I wanna make sure it is worth watching--- It might  look like the fast motion video BELOW:



The Rolls Royce of the  Swimming Pool Universe

Some Incredible Views-From Zero To Infinity

Bora Bora With Bob Reif

US Virgin Islands Frenchman's Reef

 

Barbados

Waikiki, Hawaii

 

 

Singapore

Santorini

 

St Lucia

Los Cabos

Bali

 

Maldives

 

Burma

 

Action Sustains Hope

As good as it gets, all of these Caribbean islands  have white sandy shorelines with the same New Yorkers you might be fighting with for parking spaces back home only this time it's beach chairs.

ABC Aruba Bonaire and Curacao

A is For Aruba 

They speak a lot more Dutch here (in Aruba) than I expected. There's a lot of casinos, and a lot of the online poker/sportsbook sites who set up -offshore-shops.

B is for Bonaire, and I  haven't been there yet. So tomorrow I am looking forward to a  Life Is A Beach day

 Then there is "C" , Curacao, pronounced Curaçao. It is a quintessential port town with lots of activity and a quasi European feel, If you ever wished palm trees in Holland and 80 degree Januaries; complete with Amsterdam-like canals.

Freedom Without Restraint

The Caribbean White Sand/Coral Beaches with that signature  clear & warm turquoise water away from the masses of tourists, palm trees swaying in a gentle breeze- OK I'm sold.
Check please.



Mr Ed  and Ed- the symbols of travel, movement, and desire.

Holy Cow

After my trip to India, a place rife with professional thieves, beggars, con artists, and skinny cows, a vegetarian is only as lactose intolerant as his options.The happy go locals  will eat anything with wings except airplanes, and everything with legs except tables.

Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead said "It is easier to change your religion than your diet". After further  study, you don't have to change your diet or your religion to live in America, just keep an open mind and an open mouth.

It took Picasso 10 years to paint like Rafael , and a life time to paint like a child. Children are, after all,  completely gullible: they will believe anything and, more than that, will eat anything. I am eating like a child again!!!  It's not as important what I eat as how I eat-in my case frequently (6-7 small portions per day) with the 24/ always on, always  available cruise ship food options.

The Apprentice- "Everything in life is luck." Donald Trump

Although I am a Math Athiest, The hardest arithmetic I've had to  master is the one which enables me  to count my blessings. It requires a long apprenticeship (Think Gladwell's 10,000 Hours of practice rule or 10 years)  Cruising around the world, provides  a legitimate short cut for taking things with gratitude instead of for granted. 

The experiences at sea turned my can’t into cans and leveraged my Adventures (which was nothing more than bad planning) into serendipity a thousand unseen helping hands of  allies, synchronicity, and the Michelangelo effect.   

Coffee Is For Closers -"You call yourself a salesman, you son of a bitch?" Blake (Alec Baldwin) in Glengarry Glen Ross

I met a guy in Starbucks  this year, who said "What a gift... to be able to travel like that, selling art and get paid  too."  Ic ertainly am getting rewarded for my progress if not my ability. After all, the Raindance works because they never stop dancing-and i never stop selling.

Travel---It really is the best kind of gift, because you can't buy it, you can't find it, People have to give it to you.

I've met a lot of people who believed in me. My obsession with traveling is in fact my own  private religion, where the bulk of my  spirit has been actually invested.There is no doubt about it, the exhilarating state of mind that travel can evoke, when everything seems suddenly fresh, vivid, intensely interesting, and memorable.


Some thoughts while biking around Goa, India....

ZAMM-Zen and the Art of High Maintenance

There seem to be cows around everywhere I go. I am not sure if they have a charmed life, the ppl don't seem to worship them. It is, however,  revered as the source of food and symbol of life and may never be killed.  They seem to be walking neglected around  Goa city streets, living on garbage from the gutters.


Sacred cows may make the best hamburgers, but I don't eat my friends. As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists. As for milk and cheese- they are an utter delight.


Rules of the road when driving a motorcycle-
The horn is your friend. Use it often, use it well.Lanes don’t exist. Do not pass. Wear a Helmet! Cows have the right of way.

2012

The number one thing to do on a cruise ship (and off it in the ports of call) is not just EATING. It's Shopping.





2009