I'll say this for you Sully

When your luck turns, it really turns. Got to see one of my all time fave movies this past weekend, Nobody's Fool and that is a line from the movie. And yes my luck has changed a bit. PQ and I went out to Derby Lane Saturday night to get in a little fun and games on the green felt. She was planning on playing the 8pm tourney and I wanted to play a little Omaha 8. The last few times I went there on a Saturday night they didn't have an Omaha table going but when we got there this time they had a full table and a waiting list. So I signed up for that while the wife signed up for the tourney and then we went to get a bite to eat before we played.

After we ate the wife went to play her tourney and I was still 3rd on the list so I decided to play a little 1-1 no limit holdem while I waited. I didn't get anything going and lost a few bucks but soon I got called to the Omaha table. I sit down and the guy next to me is sitting on about 700 bucks. Now this is only a 4-8 limit table so I asked him what happened and he said the table had been totally wild earlier and he hit some hands. He usually does ok for himself but he said he was all in for his last bucks out of $250 he brought with him and hit one hand and from there it just snowballed. I hit a couple of hands early and got myself up about 50 bucks and figured maybe my bad luck had finally turned. Played for about 3 hours and was up and down a bit but I managed to hit a pretty big hand and ended up ahead for almost 50 bucks so I was relatively happy. PQ stayed in the tourney for a good while but ended up just missing the final table when she ran Jacks into Aces and it was good night Irene.

The next night I decided to play the Survivor Donkey Island tourney. I didn't realize it was a super turbo at first until I notice after an orbit or 2 the blinds had gone up 4 times. I made a couple of hands and bluffed a couple but had to give up some chips when I raised twice and got reraised all in. I just didn't have enough to call though I thought about it once with KJ. Guy who reraised me had played pretty tight so I had to give him some credit. Later on as the blinds got bigger I got dealt the awesome 2-4 of diamonds. I pushed all in and got called by Buddy Dank with JJ. Unfortunately Buddy couldn't overcome the glory of the deuce four and my rivered straight put him on life support. A little later I tangled with Lightning on a hand with 4-7 of spades. I flopped the flush draw while he flopped 2 pair. He didn't bet the flop (I think he had a problem with his computer) and I was content to take a free card. Turn was my spade and when Lightning pushed in I was more than happy to call for all my chips. He lost most of his stack there and went out in 4th. Sorry Light. Ended up getting heads up for the title with Twoblackaces who had been catching against everyone it seemed. He had me by a grand or so at the start but I went on a minirun and got up by about 2-1 then gave it all away when I felt he was pushing me with shit. He was, just a crap hand like KK. That put me down a good bit and when I pushed with AK he called with Q5 and hit both the Queen and 5 so I went out in 2nd. Still a damned site better than what I had been doing and it was nice to bank 60 bucks. And though 50 and 60 bucks are no great scores, compared to what I had been going through, it feels like a huge win.

After seeing Lightning and Josie writing about their blogoversaries I decided to look back at my blog posts to see when I started this mess. I actually just passed my 3 year anniversary this week. That's kind of misleading though as I started this in 2008 then didn't blog at all in 2009. I picked it back up in February 2010 so I am either 3 years old or 1 year old as a blogger. Or maybe 2 years old.

I want to go start by mentioning what started me blogging. There once was an Army Major named Andrew Olmsted. Guy like most of us, had his faults, lived his life, blogged a bit, etc. He volunteered to go back to active duty knowing it would almost definitely mean going to Iraq and he was killed there in an ambush in early 2008. I had not started reading bloggers online with the lone exceptions of the Sportsguy, Bill Simmons, on ESPN.com and the always entertaining Dr Pauly. But after seeing his final blog post - published posthumously - I started paying more attention to other things than poker and sports online and started reading other bloggers. I started reading a number of people regularly like the entertaining and informative Rachel Lucas and the very entertaining Hurricane Mikey. And I cannot forget the irrepressible Jay G who is Marooned in Massachusetts (with a wife, 2 children, and a number of lethal weapons) and the kindly Breda of The Breda Fallacy. I didn't often comment on these blogs but I did find some thought provoking topics and a lot of entertaining back and forth.

After reading Maj Olmsted's final post, I read all of his old posts. I really wish I had started reading this blog prior to his death. He talked about topical issues but also about serious things. He was always willing to discuss differing viewpoints without rancor or name calling and unlike some blowhards on both sides of the politcal spectrum, he admitted he didn't know everything and was willing to compromise. Reading him made me want to be better myself and also to want to put my own views, such as they are, on paper. Virtual or otherwise.

I know I am no great shakes as a poker player, husband, father, or writer. But I do believe there are many things around me that are just plain wrong. And the collective wisdom of society that supports so many of these things is not only wrong but even dangerous.

Many bloggers would point out the foibles of our government, our laws, our leaders, and even our neighbors. Like gun free zones. It sounds like a good idea doesn't it? An area where guns cannot be brought making us all safer from a maniac with a gun. My work is one example of this, not only can I not bring a gun to work, I cannot even have one in my car and park it there.

I think this zone creates a number of issues. Mostly it takes a weapon away from the law abiding but unless you have metal detectors and armed guards to enforce it, it allows the lawless to go on a spree without fear of someone stopping them. How can we? We're all disarmed. But I digress, I do that a lot.

Lately I've been reading a number of poker bloggers, not pro players, just average joes, johns, petes, etc. Basically guys and gals like me. I enjoy it greatly and they're a lot of fun. Even met a few in Vegas. We have families, problems, occasional great successes, and reading them sometimes inspires me to do better, be better, live better. I want to thank you all for keeping me entertained and brightening some days that needed it. I wish I was better at this writing, it just doesn't flow easily from me most days. Unless I am getting on a rant, then it flows but it's nearly unreadable.

Anyway let me wrap up this long and nearly unreadable post. I'm gonna hit some virtual tables to see if the luck is holding up still, might as well take advantage of it while I still got it. Hope to see you all out there. By the way, if you get a chance read Andrew Olmsted's last post. You can find it at http://andrewolmsted.com/. This linking thing is a bit beyond me still so just copy the address and paste it in. It made a difference to me, I hope it does for you too. And like me, I hope you stay lucky you nuts.