El Burro's Obituary

#1
Enrique Pena (Ricky) Velasco

VELASCO, Enrique (Ricky) Pena -- 28, beloved son of Enrique and Juanita Velasco and caring brother of Nelly Velasco and Jenny and Gary Geracci. Born in San Jose, January 22, 1975. Rick attended Bellarmine College Preparatory, and received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA and Stanford University respectively. Throughout, Ricky, tutored in math and chemistry. After graduating, Rick worked for IBM as a Research Engineer. Last year he moved to Las Vegas where he had a successful career as a professional card player. From an early age, Rick was an avid soccer player. During high school he played in the Varsity Soccer Team and was a State Finalist in Track and Field 300m hurdles. Throughout college, he played intramural soccer while concentrating on academics. Rick enjoyed spending time with friends and his large extended family. Ricky will be remembered for his ingenuity, determination, and generosity. Friends and family are invited to a remembrance service that will be held on Saturday, April 26th, 6:30 p.m. at St. Julie Billiart Church, located at the corner of Cottle Road and Curie Drive in South San Jose.

Published in the San Jose Mercury News on 4/24/2003.
 

CC-Management

Well-Known Member
#2
We became aware of "El Burro's" existance through the Mayor and other AP's. Everyone of them expressed thier admiration and respect for Ricky's playing skills and great personality. All in all Ricky seems to have lived a whirlwind life which ended in tragedy. His passing is a loss to the AP world. We here at CC.COM extend our prayers to his family. We believe Ricky is playing in the big casino in the sky and shattering EV records.
 

Rob McGarvey

Well-Known Member
#3
I became aware of Ricky when El Burro had a run in with ZG here at this board which turned into a major kerfufel. So much serious passion mispent. We can learn from both of them what NOT to do with our life, and to both of them, I am thankful for that.
 
#5
What I learned from Burro in three minutes.

Wow...

I just found out about this reading the Mayor's soapbox for the month (a draconian new at-work-internet-usage policy has cramped down on my reading list) and I still don't believe it reading it.

Having met Burro a few times and seen "the fire in his eyes", I can tell this is a case of the candle burning twice as bright for half as long. In only a three-minute meeting with Burro and OCKO last December, I learned:

* Double Exposure strategy is *NOT* a sufficient substitute for hole-card strategy,
* It's better to hit 17 vs a known dealer 18 than to surrender it.
* When the RC is between 0 and 6 at a game that is only -0.25% off the top, that's a great time for cover - variance notwithstanding.

Only three minutes, but from a life too short, that's three minutes I don't intend to forget.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE

Moose.
 
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