First a sunrise beyond a cluster of clouds ready to burst open with rain.  Then a quick rainbow.  This all happened in less than 10 minutes.

A sunrise that seemed like it was hours at super brightness.

Sunset. Looked like the sky was exploding and on fire.

A great sunrise.

The absolute best and most defined rainbow I ever witnessed.  Pulled over on the side of the highway to capture this.

ADulay gave me the idea for this thread.

I do like sunrises, sunsets, rainbows and unique sky colors.  Here are a few.  Could not resist to capture them.

First one was about 20-25 minutes earlier than the second one.  It was a fantastic coloring of the sky with a gradual relief of the dark black cluster of clouds.

Governor Newsom from California.  Gotta love this guy.

On MSNBC Sunday Night. (See picture attached)

What does it mean to beat someone handily?
"with no difficulty"

I might be wrong............ but..........Oh Please. 

BTW Governor Newsom, you better concentrate on the State of Emergency for the weather you are getting bombarded by and not Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. Respectfully, Alrelax.

Seriously dude!  "Handily"? 

Patrick Mahomes:  Becoming the first player to win NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same year since Kurt Warner in 1999, and joined Tom Brady and Joe Montana as the only quarterbacks to win multiple regular season and Super Bowl MVPs. In the 2023 season, he advanced to Super Bowl LVIII, his fourth Super Bowl appearance in five seasons.

Since becoming the Chiefs' starting quarterback, Mahomes has led the team to six consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances from the 2018 season through the 2023 season, which is second place for the most consecutive conference championship game appearances by a quarterback. Mahomes' career accolades through seven seasons in the NFL have earned him widespread praise from sports journalists, and he is considered to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

Travis Kelce:  Considered one of the greatest tight ends of all time, Kelce is a nine-time Pro Bowler and a four-time first-team All-Pro selection. He holds the NFL record for most consecutive and most overall seasons with 1,000 yards receiving by a tight end with seven. He also owns the record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a single season with 1,416 in 2020, despite playing in only 15 games. He also briefly held the single season record in 2018 before it was broken later that same day. During the 2022 season, Kelce became the fastest tight end to reach 10,000 career receiving yards, and he became the fifth tight end in NFL history to reach the milestone. Kelce was named to the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team. During the 2023 season, he surpassed Jerry Rice in career playoff receptions en route to Super Bowl LVIII, his fourth Super Bowl appearance in five seasons.

Andy Reid:  Reid was previously head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2012. From 2001 to 2012, he was also the Eagles' executive vice president of football operations. He is the only NFL coach to win 100 games and appear in four consecutive conference championships with two different franchises.

Reid began his professional coaching career with the Green Bay Packers, where he served as an offensive assistant from 1992 to 1998 and was a member of the team that won Super Bowl XXXI. He held his first head coaching position with the Eagles in 1999, who became perennial postseason contenders under his leadership. Reid led the Eagles to nine playoff runs, six division titles, five NFC Championship Games (including four consecutive from 2001 to 2004), and an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIX. Despite his success, Reid was unable to win a Super Bowl title and he left Philadelphia in 2012 amid a team decline.

Hired as the head coach of the Chiefs in 2013, Reid helped revitalize the struggling franchise into one of the league's best. In 11 seasons with Kansas City, he has led the Chiefs to 10 postseason appearances, eight consecutive division titles, six consecutive AFC Championship Games, four Super Bowl appearances, and two Super Bowl titles. Reid also won the Chiefs' first playoff game since 1993 in the 2015 season, clinched their first consecutive division titles between 2016 and 2017, and won their first Super Bowl in 50 years in Super Bowl LIV.

A few thoughts and quotes from Mahomes.

"The Kansas City Chiefs are set to compete in a second-consecutive Super Bowl, and their third in the last four seasons.

After going through the process of preparing for the championship game so many times throughout his career, quarterback Patrick Mahomes understands the importance of dialing in his strategy ahead of Kansas City's matchup against the San Francisco 49ers.

While speaking to the media on Thursday, Mahomes explained the significance of understanding Andy Reid's entire game plan.

"We're pretty locked in this — I mean both weeks, but you're really locked in this week," Mahomes said. "You want to make sure you get the whole game plan in, get all your questions asked and answered so next week when you're reviewing you can just go into the fine details that you might not have the chance to do in the regular game week. I'll have that mindset all through practice. I'll make sure the guys have the same mindset."

The Chiefs will have their hands full against a stacked 49ers team that possesses hall-of-fame talent throughout the roster. Kansas City's coaching staff and players must have everything organized if they want to defend their Super Bowl title and claim yet another Lombardi Trophy."

KungFuBac's pick is the 49'ers.

My pick is the Chiefs.

I have to go with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes to get it done.

Any thoughts?

QuoteWell, let's try this again.

What else do you guys do besides hang out here and hit the casinos from time to time.

Saw this gem making the run south out of Minneapolis on I-35.

Of course I had to stop and get the "photo op".  That's what I do!

AD

I pass this all the time, it is on the west side of Interstate 35 in Owatoona, Minnesota.  Here is the story behind it.  And I pay special attention within eye-sight of this display because people that never seen it before have tendency to decelerate pretty darn quick!!

"In 1996, the City of Owatonna acquired one of these jet planes, a T-38 Talon "Thunderbird" Jet, from the U.S. Air Force to be used as a monument at the airport. The cost of the project exceeded the City's budget at that time, and the plane was put in storage. In 1997, R.W. "Buzz" Kaplan proposed that the plane become part of a signature display outside Heritage Halls Museum, which was ¼ mile north of the airport. Buzz thought the display should consist of three planes flying formation. The City proceeded to acquire two more jets from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona."

The jets, after being stripped down to reduce their overall weight, and repainted to make them resemble 'Thunderbirds' were then waiting on the engineers to figure out the best way to mount and showcase them. The engineers spent several months creating a design for the display that would not only be unique, but also practical as it would have to withstand the high winds that sometimes sweep through Owatonna and Southern Minnesota. Waymarking states that the current design "withstood 113 miles-per-hour winds when tested in a wind tunnel."

The formation the jets are in is called the 'bomb-burst formation' and is a truly unique display that hopefully gives others the same thought as R.W. "Buzz" Kaplan had to "create a breathtaking realistic display of aerobatic flight and to honor our United Stat United States fighter pilots who help protect our great country."


A fun fact you might not know about the three jets is that the pilots of tail-number 1 and 2 are Owatonna residents. Tail 1's pilots are "R.W. "Buzz" Kaplan and Betty "Bunns" Kaplan. Pilots of the #2 plane are MaryAlice "Bunky" Hanson and Capt. Jim "Cool Hand" Hanson.

Again, highly recommended.  Gambling is included in this Mario Puzo book.

Probably not in Barnes & Noble, but you can easily get a copy on EBay for $4.00-$7.00 paperback.

"Fools Die starts in Las Vegas, where a group of close friends, including John Merlyn, Cully Cross, and Jordan Hawley, spend several weeks gambling at the Hotel Xanadu. None of these now close friends have met before meeting in Vegas, and indeed they are not long term friends, but simply people who for their own personal reasons have decided to stay in the hotel to gamble. The trio has adventures both gambling and womanizing in Vegas. One night, after a huge $500,000 baccarat and craps win, a depressed Jordan kills himself in his hotel room. Jordan's suicide was in spite of tying a dramatic winner take all $500,000 hand of baccarat, betting against the casino's owner, Alfred Gronevelt. After Jordan's death, Merlyn returns to his family in New York City and continues his life. Cully Cross decides to stay in Las Vegas permanently, and through his prowess as a gambler and a hustler, he has caught the eye of Alfred Gronevelt, the Xanadu Hotel owner. Gronevelt eventually recruits Cully as a key employee, and as time goes on, he grooms Cully as his second in command, and Cully prospers running the casino, and acting as a casino host."

I understand.

Just to throw it out there, bankers side wagers might very well be a 55%, even a 60% or 70% advantage in a shoe.  I have posted them. 

But..............and However, on the other hand so is the players side, the players side might be a huge percentage over the bankers side.  I have posted those also.

And if it's not a solid bankers or players when the gambler starts wagering it, the forthcoming hands can immediately change in the opposite direction. 

Problem being, most bac players can not read randomness in a sense to give them an advantage.  Some can, most can not. 

This is why I lean towards (at least try to) building up a few wagers with positive progression and then following my strict M.M.M. That does give me a concrete barrier and advantage with win money.

But as far as 'mechanical triggers', 'betselection strategy', etc., there is none that will work consistently and repeatedly more than 50% of the time, IMO.

Hence, the fewer wagers the better. 

QuoteHi KFB! 

Actually not every successful player will bet as huge as 10-20k per hand, surely all successful players will bet very few hands per shoe, the best being just one-two (or zero) bets per shoe.


as.

With all due respect Asym.  I have played dozens and dozens of high limit rooms with high limit tables, anywhere from $100-$300 minimums and $10,000 to $25,000 maximums per hand.

I have never witnessed any single bac player wagering one or two hands and calling it a day.  I have witnessed numerous bac players absolutely, 'turning it on' with much larger wagers after a while, or at a certain point, and only for a few hands, say 2-3-4 or 5 for the larger wagers, but they will also wager smaller amounts as well.  But never coming in, wagering 1 or 2 and that's it.

As well, a few shoes to the people I play/played with, per shoe would be something like about 12-15. 

All B&M experience from the previous 3-4 decades. 

Nothing in life is to be feared it is only to be understood.  Now is the time to understand more, so we may fear less.

By, Marie Curie

NOTE:  Marie Curie was not an actor or in entertainment or gaming. She was an 1800s physicist and chemist engaged in pioneering research on radioactivity. She was also the first woman to ever win a Nobel prize and won two in fact. Her honors and tributes are amazing.

It's not what you do when you lose that matters, it's what you do when you continue to play the game.

Alrelax