THE PERSISTENT IRRITATION

Get your Top Chef on

Episode 12 of Top Chef airs tonight on Bravo. If you're in the Wheeling area tonight, stop by Rick Tramanto's to watch the show where it was filmed. From the Daily Herald:

Five Top Chef wannabes, including Chicago chef Stephanie Izard, took over Tramontos Steak and Seafood during the elimination challenge that will determine the finalists, and you can watch the episode tonight at the Wheeling restaurant.

The restaurant, 601 N. Milwaukee Road, will hold a viewing party from 7 to 10 p.m.; the airs at 9 p.m. on Bravo. Televisions will be set up through out the restaurant and the upstairs RT Lounge and hors doeuvres will be complimentary.

In addition, staff will create appetizers based on the episode and develop cocktails inspired by the remaining contestants. Chef Rick Tramonto, who appears as a guest judge for both the quick fire challenge that grants a contestant special privileges and the elimination challenge, will be on hand and will sign copies of his cookbooks.

Check it out if you can. And if you can't make it up there, at least tune in at home. You just might see some familiar faces.

Free food, cheap beer, pie

Schadenfreude, Chicago's first deputy commissioners of sketch comedy, will hold their sixth and final PBR-sponsored rent party on Saturday, May 24 at the Gallery Cabaret, 2020 N. Oakley. From the website:

We wind down the PBR tour by coming back where we started. The Gallery is our home away from home and we are glad to be back in our building. We are not approaching this as a wind-down though, if anything this is our grand finale. We will use the services of Mike and Duaneonce again, but we will bring our friends Don Hall and Joe Janes in to kick you in the teeth. Did we mention the return of Jill Benjamin? She’s in the house. What’s a rent party show without our favorite stand-up in the land Robert Buscemi? And Bertha Mason comes by to bake some pies for the crowd and Gall Cab owner Kenny is going to take his shirt off. 9pm. $10. Free food.

Check it out if you can.

A neat trick

Consider the following tournament scenario:

1. You are in middle position with a pretty good stack (which is to say, not short stacked)

2. You get a few limpers on your right

3. You have an Ace with a middle kicker or a suited King and middle kicker

A good strategy is to go all-in. This gives you a good opportunity to steal the blinds and all those bets that limped in before you. As for the people on your left, they'll want to steer clear because the pot odds don't make it worth it unless, of course, they have a high pair or big slick. When I am considering this play, I pay attention to the people on my left, to see if there are any indications that they have a hand worth keeping. 

Suppose I'm in the fifth seat, blinds are $5-10 and two people limp in in front of me. There's $35 in the pot. Suppose I have A-9 and a $175 stack and raise all-in. The action comes to you and you're holding 8-8. 

Do you want to make that call? Sure, you're a 3:2 favorite, but is that enough for you to risk your whole stack? And besides, what if I really have a higher pair, or someone else to your left has a better pair? Then you're really in trouble.

I used this play a few times during Game 11, much to the frustration of the people on my right. People knew I didn't have a made hand, but neither the blinds nor the limpers wanted to challenge it. It just wasn't worth it.

In fact, in one instance I did this with A-9 off-suit. The all-in bet pushed Jeff H. out of the hand, and he was on the button with A-10. So, when used correctly, the system works. Give it a shot next time you have th opportunity.

This is our moment. This is our time.

Courtesy of the Obama campaign:

Viva Pedro!

Sorry for the delay.... computer problems kept me from posting this earlier. Hats off to Pedro for a big win against eight others in Game 11 of the 2007-2008 season. This is the second time he's bested Jeff H. in heads up action.

Spiral Jetta - the novel

 

Here at the PI, not only do we play good poker; we also edit critically acclaimed documentaries, create music, solve the mysteries of the universe and occasionally perform comedy in international waters.

Although she has never joined us at the table (in her defense, I don't think she was ever invited), author Erin Hogan and friend of the PI deserves high praise for her upcoming book, set to be released in coming weeks.

Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West explores massive art installations that were created in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as smaller-scale but equally impressive neuroses that the author presumably developed around the same time.

In an age where people can't go to Target without using a GPS system, Hogan travels with only the vaguest idea of where she's going. Most of her destinations are far off the beaten path, with remarkably little written about how to get there. While some may rely on geological surveys to find their way, Hogan instead pursues the more urban approach of driving up and down the same stretch of road until the threat of rain makes it not worth the effort. Besides, it's getting late and there are cocktails to be had.

Despite her efforts, Hogan manages to find several impressive installations on her list, including Lightning Field in New Mexico, Double Negative in Nevada, and Spiral Jetty in Utah. An art historian by training, Hogan mixes scholarship and personal experience to describe these amazing and sometimes not-so-amazing pieces of work. Heavy on self-deprecation and light on pretension, Hogan makes western land art a worthwhile destination for anyone in need of a road trip.

Erin also uses this trip to conquer fears of solitude, the unknown, and general disorder that she has successfully avoided while living in the city. While she proves victorious (evidenced by her ability to navigate dirt roads, steal wi-fi from hotels, and chat up drunks), one imagines her returning home relatively unaffected by the adventure. Hogan buys the American myth of rugged individualism, but she's held onto the receipt so she can return it as soon as she gets home to civilization.

Check it out if you can.

At the Death House Door

Erstwhile player Aaron W. has a new project.

"At the Death House Door" premieres this weekend at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and will run on the Independent Film Channel later this month. From the Chicago Reader:

Few talking-head documentaries have glued me to my seat like this Kartemquin feature about the Reverend Carroll Pickett, who served as chaplain to 95 Texas inmates as they awaited execution by lethal injection. Pickett recorded his impressions of each inmate's last day on cassette tapes, excerpted here, and his interviews show a loving and thoughtful man's gradual transformation from advocate to vocal opponent of the death penalty. Directors Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and Peter Gilbert (With All Deliberate Speed) also focus on inmate Carlos DeLuna, who was almost certainly innocent of the crime for which he was put to death in 1989 (suffering horribly in a botched procedure). The intersecting stories of Pickett and DeLuna show that capital punishment exacts a toll not only on its victims but on its perpetrators. 98 min. James and Gilbert will take part in a discussion after the Saturday screening. -- J.R. Jones

Check it out if you can.

And now we have Tom Hanks

Superdelegates take note:

 

The junior Jedi from Illinois

Holy crap is this excellent.