Random thoughts about my interests which include (in no particular order) poker, finance & investing, politics, football and whatever else I happen to see that piques my interest

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Weekend wrap up

Well here it is Sunday night and I realize I haven't posted since Monday. Bad Bad Me. I should be severely punished. I think I will punish myself with a beer shortly to celebrate the end of Lent and the end of my beer fast. Yes I gave up beer for Lent, fool that I am. I did manage to forget once and drink a beer early in Lent but after I remembered, I managed to avoid drinking any. My wife, (the empress) managed to forget a number of times and suggest I have a beer 3 or 4 times but I managed not to have one. The first time I even said yes and then remembered at the same time as my daughter (the empress in training) that I couldn't have one and had something else.

I had a busy week and there is much to talk about. I doubt I have time for all I want to get through but here goes. First and most importantly, is the NCAA tourney. I have no particular rooting interest here as the 2 schools I truly root for are Providence College and the Univ of Florida, neither of whom made the tourney. So my bracket this year has no hometown bias and I tried to pick teams based on actual results rather than my biased opinion. All of my final four teams are still alive, so I am better off than those who picked teams like Georgetown and Duke to make it to the there but I made my share of bad picks too like Drake and Vanderbilt to make it to the sweet sixteen. My best pick was Davidson over Gonzaga and Georgetown. The one that is hurting me the most is Pitt over Mich St and Miss St over Memphis. At least Miss St almost got to OT vs Memphis. I also took Butler over Tenn and then over Louisville so thats gonna hurt if either of those 2 make it to the final four. Butler did take Tenn to OT so I was not far off that pick either. I am a bit better than average in my pool, 51st out of 131 but a few breaks and I can make up a good bit of ground.

As for my short term investments in the tourney, I am a bit better there. Won both picks today to make it 3-1-1 for the tourney. Bad pick was Oral Roberts getting 12 against Pitt and getting hammered instead. I did take Stanford giving 15 to Cornell and they covered easily. My other action in the first round was a 3 team tease of Gonzaga +6, Temple +11 and Xavier -4.5. Xavier made me proud by coming back and covering for me. Both Temple and the Zags managed to lose exactly on the number so I didn't win but I didn't lose either and the bet was a push. The Zags were even leading late but managed to let it slip away but Temple was never in their game and really got a back door to hit the number, so no complaints there. Today's 2 bets were UNC -11 over Arkansas. Never in doubt as UNC jumped on them early and won going away by almost 30. The other pick was Miss St +9.5 over Memphis. That one went down to the wire as Miss St fell behind by double digits, clawed back to tie, then went down by almost 10. Memphis managed to brick enough free throws to keep Miss St in it and they actually had a 3 pointer off the rim at the horn that would have sent it into OT. Still it was a betting victory and I will take that anytime.

Other happenings this week involved playing poker yesterday. I did not do well in the tourney though I last about an hour longer than last week at least. I could not get anything much going and my best hands almost always were outclassed. I was way down early, clawed almost back to even, then the hand I kicked myself for. Pick up 10-10 sitting 3 spots left of the big blind with 2 callers already. Blinds are 25-50 and I raise to 300. Guy next to me raises to 1000 which would leave me maybe 500 if I call. I figured he had something like AK so I was planning on pushing all in and taking my chances when the guy on the button pushes all in. Folded to me and I have to think. Guy had plenty of chips, more than covered me but the guy next to me has him covered if he calls, and I am pretty sure he will by the way he is playing with his chips. I felt ok going heads up with tens but I gotta think this other guy has at least pocket jacks or queens, maybe even American Airlines. So I fold. Other guy calls and both turn over AK. I turn green 'specially when a 10 flops and 2 sixes by the river for my boat. After that I don't get much, barely hang on and lose when my next 10-10 runs into queens.

Well thats all for tonite. I had a very good run playing $2 limit holdem after the tourney so all in all a good nite. And really even a bad nite of poker beats the hell out of a good day at work. So off to bed and I will continue tomorrow

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