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

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Catch me if you can



Not gonna be posting much for a bit. I am in the process of moving this week/weekend and won't be online much. In fact once I hit the new digs I won't be on at all until Monday when the cable/internet guy comes out. So unless someone close by has a signal I can steal to get online, it's doubtful I'll be around at all.






I hate moving. Really. Hate. Moving. But after being here for 13 years it's time to move on to a smaller place. And it puts us right behind my mother in law and her mother, who both need more watching over. Much as I don't want to move, it's the right thing to do now. So I'll be online very little if at all over the next few days. See y'all later. Hmm got a thunderstorm coming it sounds like. I do like sleeping when it rains. Good night and stay lucky you nuts.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Where were you......................................



26 years ago today?


Good Morning and Happy Easter everybody. I have been anticipating this day for awhile. About 40 days now. I gave up pizza for lent. That may not have been too bright of me. One I do like pizza. A lot. Two the PQ and I usually have pizza for dinner on Fridays in Lent as we can get it with cheese, onions, and mushrooms to avoid meat. Its not that hard for me to avoid meat on Fridays as I like fish, clam chowder, shrimp, etc but for the wife, not so easy as she hates seafood. But I have missed having pizza.



26 years ago today I was in Irving Community Hospital outside Dallas, Texas for the birth of my first child. I remember the discussions about a name while my wife was pregnant. She wanted a nice normal name for our child. We talked about naming him after me if we had a boy but I remember the hassles it caused with my older brother being named after my dad once he got older. Calls for one or the other, mail, etc. And I didn't want that. I wanted to give him a name that stood out, a name that had a proud history. Like Marcus Aurelius. Great Roman emperor, proud name, flows trippingly off the tongue. My wife was not so keen on that. He was named David William instead. Lets just say I didn't win any round of the naming wars with our 3 kids. David is my middle name and I have always liked that name. William was my grandfather's name who had died a little before the pregnancy.



I did not win any of the naming wars that occurred with all of our kids. Of course if I had we would have ended up with kids named Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Aquinas, and Lisa for their names instead of David, Patrick and Sarah. So maybe I didn't lose either. Neither did they.



Anyway, David was born early today 26 years ago. 26 years. Sure doesn't feel that long ago when I think back. One of things we keep finding as we pack stuff are old photos of the kids from when they were young. Some really cute ones. It makes you think, really brings back memories when you look at them.



David was a really good kid. Quiet and liked to read a lot. Played video games, was a good athlete, and very good in math. We thought he might go to college as a math major. He also surprised us all by trying out for and joining the madrigal singers in high school. The madrigal singers dress up in Renaissance style costumes and perform a capella in public performances. There is usually around 10 or 12 of them in total. David was never one to perform in public so that really surprised us. But he really enjoyed it and grew into it. From his sophomore through senior years he was a member and we could tell how much he loved doing it.



After high school he didn't want to go to college, at least for a while. So he took a job at a local restaurant run by the son of a family from Wisconsin who also had a restaurant up there. A bit later he and a buddy went up to Wisconsin and ran the restaurant up there for a few years. Not too bad for a kid only 20 years old. He stayed up there 3 years before coming back to his mother (who was always sad when he went away) and I (who was not so sad when his kids moved out). He got a job working in the Clerk of the Courts office for the county which is where his mother has been for the past 20+ years. He did very well there but about 18 months ago was laid off due to budget cuts. None of his bosses wanted to lose him but the personnel policy at the time dictated he was low man on the totem pole. Even the Court Clerk wanted to keep him and has asked my wife numerous times since then how he was doing and also if he would come back because he would love to rehire him.



But David landed on his feet. While all this was going on the county emergency communications department (911) was looking to hire some people on and they gave first preference to people who had recently been laid off. My wife's sister has been working there for almost 25 years and is a pretty high muck-a-muck now. She told him to sign up and take the interview. He did very well and was hired. Did extremely well in training and they were very happy to have him. 911 is a good place for him. David is generally a very calm person, unlike his father in many ways. He has a very dry wit that I enjoy so much. He loves to see the little foibles in our lives, point out our idiosyncracies. He makes me laugh.



So Happy Birthday David, heir to my (miniscule) fortune. You bring great joy to your mother and I.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Happy Friday



Good Morning Fellow Former Online Poker Players.




Well it's Good Friday today and you know what that means. No I'm not talking about the religious connotations of the day though based on the probable state of my soul, I probably ought to be. Nope what I'm talking about is the fact that the stock market is closed today. Which means my employer is closed today. Can you say Day Off? I thought that you could.




Unfortunately it does not mean I will spend the day playing poker online and I probably won't spend it in my local card room either. We are in the process of packing up our stuff as we are moving at the end of the month. Not very far, just up the road a couple of miles so my wife and be near her mother and grandmother. This should be the 2nd to the last time I move in my life with any luck. The next time will be when I retire and move somewhere with less people. I'm aiming for Montana but everytime I mention that to the PQ she starts thinking about "The Shining" and that about kills it for her. Maybe we'll move near Vegas, but far enough from the city so that there's some room. Or out near Tahoe? Just anywhere that's not far from gambling but has enough room so that I don't feel surrounded by people. Of course PQ wants to stay close to our kids so that in the event they ever marry and have children she can be near them. So one of them better move somewhere away from the cities.




It's only 10:30 am and I've already learned 2 new things. I didn't know Jason Statham was a member of the British National Diving Team. I also didn't know that actors Marcus and Paul Giamatti were sons of former baseball commissioner A Bartlett Giamatti. Amazing things you can learn when you're not out there earning the almighty dollar. Well time to wrap this up, need to hit the showers, drop off some crap at the hazardous waste site, pick up my son and get to work in here. I'll write some more later with a little luck. I'm sure some of you will be trolling around since playing poker for play money just ain't your style. It ain't mine either. I'll see y'all later. Until then stay lucky you nuts.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Whats lower than nuthin?

I'm not gonna rehash the same old things everyone else has been saying about the latest power grab of our elected representatives and their bureaucratic minions. Suffice to say that the past 20 years have seen repeated actions by the people we elect to make our lives easier actually making our lives harder. The UIGEA is just another example of how our government knows what's best for us more than we do.

I do believe the government has a case against the big 3. Face it, you may hate UIGEA but it became the law of the land and it appears all of the major poker sites stomped all over it. I doubt any criminal prosecution will take place but you can bet any assets they have in this country will be gone. Combine those losses with the lack of cash from US players and I have to think PS, UB, and FT are pretty much done in the US market which will then open the way for the local casino companies to open up online poker as soon as Congress "saves" us from the horrors of unregulated offshore online gaming.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but this all could have been done years ago without having to go through all the rigmarole of UIGEA. Congress could have opened up a regulated US industry in a heartbeat but if they did that they would have opened up the market to the likes of Full Tilt and Poker Stars as well. And as established big boys on the block, it would have been difficult
for Harrahs or Wynn to catch up to them. But in making them criminals, Congress can now block them from establishing a US presence once they open the market to online gaming. Which gives the local casinos a leg up in the battle. The reason I think a conspiracy is going on (or at least the right palms are getting greased) is because by opening the market years ago, the government could have made all that tax revenue. Why should they care if they are getting the tax money from Full Tilt or Harrahs or whoever, taxes are taxes. So pardon me if I seem a bit paranoid here.

But enough of that. Last weekend the PQ and I decided to head down to Sarasota to play in their Saturday night tourney. I wish I could say it was a successful day but it was not. I played ok, not great. I have been working on changing my game and made a couple of good plays but also a couple of dumb ones. I did get an all in with Aces over Kings and take a huge chunk out of a guy but that is about the best I got. I didn't get a ton of good hands and never caught with my small pairs all day. PQ got knocked out when she ran JJ into AA. I ended up going out a good bit later when I ran AQ suited from the button into AA in the big blind. That just sucked. I had seen this lady push hands like K9 suited and J10 but of course this time she's sitting on the big ones. Oh well.

We played some 1-2 no limit for awhile but I could never hit a hand worth a damn. I did make a couple of aggressive plays to get people to believe I had a hand but I couldn't do that too often without showing an actual hand. I got short stacked and took a stand with A9 on a 9 high flop. Got called by one clown with crap who of course went runner runner for a 7 high straight. That was my night in a nutshell. I didn't feel too bad about my play, just disappointed in my results.

Tax day has finally come and gone. Phones today were maybe half as busy as yesterday and the previous couple of months. I spent today getting caught up on workflow again. I have some more catching up to do but I am getting a handle on it. Got a call today from a financial advisor who had a former client looking for their cost information. Not a big issue but the lady had something like 14 accounts. Then I asked the advisor the big question, how long ago did she transfer out. Turns out she transferred her accounts out in June of 2007. FOUR YEARS AGO!! And only now is she trying to get her cost information, probably because she sold a bunch of securities and needs the info for her taxes. It never ceases to amaze me how long people wait on these things. People, you gotta pay your taxes sometime, unless of course you are like John who works with me. Lately his mantra has been, Buy High, Sell Low, and never have to worry about taxes.

Well it's getting late and I'm getting tired. I hope everyone is dealing with things ok. Good Deadliest Catch tonight. Stay lucky you nuts, luckier than me at least.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I got nuthin

What the hell am I doing up at 6 on a Saturday morning anyway? Perhaps because I was falling asleep at 10 last night? Perhaps because I'm so used to getting up about then? Or perhaps it's just a sign that I'm getting a little bit older, not to mention a bit crankier too. Work is still kicking my ass but it's that time of the year. It's just a case of nutting up and pushing through. There are some changes coming there that will impact my job in a good way but the best part of that probably won't be felt for at least a couple of years. Till then this time of year is gonna just be a bigger pain that it was. And it was never a picnic as it was. But it does keep me interested and that makes it a good job.

Didn't do much this week. Played very little poker online, missed all the tourneys except for a short appearance at the Booze Cruise as I just was too tired to play well. I did get a couple of books to read, as I read a lot when I'm not busy online. For you Josie here they are. I just finished "The Vigilantes" by WEB Griffin on Wednesday and I am almost through "The Program" by James Swain. Time for a little break. I like to read. A lot. I always have and I read pretty fast. Griffin is perhaps my favorite author still alive as I have been reading all of his series since the 80s. Swain is a more recent addition to my reading list. He is a local guy, he lives about 10 miles up the road, and he sets some of his books here including one series where the hero lives in Palm Harbor. So when either of them come out with something new, I try to grab a copy from the library or if I can find it cheaply, download it to my ereader. I got 3 of Swains books that way. If you like Military fiction, there is no better than Griffin but since most of you are more the gambling type, read some of James Swain's Tony Valentine series. I think you'll like them.

I think love of reading is one of the best things I passed to my kids. They all read a lot and it helped with school and work I believe. Of course I wouldn't call what they read as "the classics" yet reading is still reading. It keeps them from ruining their minds watching Survivor, American Idol, etc and they couldn't care who Paris Hilton is doing or what Kim Kardashian is wearing. Ok back to our regularly schedule post about nothin. Thursday we went to Orlando to pick up the daughter and bring her home for the weekend. I really didn't want to but she really wanted to come home and I didn't want the wife to go alone to get her so I volunteered to go with her. This is probably why I was so tired on Friday night besides going in early and working late too boot.

Today is now Sunday. Last night the PQ and I both played in the Saturday night tourney at Derby Lane. I lasted about 2 hours. I played ok, made a couple of mistakes that cost me a bit but nothing too bad. My biggest problem was every time I tried to bluff or steal I was called and my opponents hit big hands against me. Two guys flopped trips with so/so hands and one got top pair and called my river bluff saying "I know I'm beat but I guess I gotta call". I probably should have bet a bit more that time. PQ did much better and went out just short of the final table when she pushed AJ into AK. She got off to a good start but we both have problems in the middle of tourneys when we are not aggressive enough and she let herself get blinded down.

I went to the 1/1 no limit cash table and bought in for $60 deciding if I lose that I'm going to sit in the bar and do some sudokus I brought with me. But I never got to them. I lost $20 early when my two pair got flushed but a bit later I picked up 7-8 of clubs in mid position and flopped the joint when 4-5-6 came down. There were 2 hearts which worried me so when it was checked to me I bet $6 into an $8 pot. I got two callers. The turn was a nice 2 of spades. This put two spades and two hearts on the board but also gave anyone with a 3 a straight. Small blind bet $8 and the big blind who was very aggressive called. It came back to me and it was time to quit fooling around so I pushed all in for another $24 on top. Small blind called and the aggro big blind (soon to be known as my ATM) starts yammering and posturing trying to decide whether to call or not as he shows A6 of hearts. I didn't want a call as I can see a heart on the river and my day is done but I said nothing. The dealer warned him not to show his hand as there could be more action between him and the small blind. He was more interested in looking like he was on TV. Eventually he talks himself into a call. River is a queen of spades and they both check. Small blind had 8-3 for a 6 high straight and my ATM had a pair of 6s. They were surprised when I flipped over the 78 for the 8 high straight. That got me on my way.

A bit later I pick up AA UTG and I raise it to $4. I get 3 callers including Mr ATM in the small blind. I see a beautiful AQ7 rainbow flop. It's checked to me and I bet $5 like it was a scared continuation bet. One guy folds but the guy in seat 1 calls. My ATM raises to $21. I probably should just call here and I would if we were heads up. I know he hit that one good, probably 2 pair or a set but I am more worried about the guy in seat one. He has been pretty tight and I don't want to call and price him in with a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw only to see him turn another card to his flush and me not be able to push him off. So I went all in over the top for another $75. Seat one folds and my ATM goes into his act again. He shows AQ and I look away. I want him to think I'm nervous, maybe I have AK and he has me. It must have worked cuz he calls and is drawing very thin to running queens which don't come. Next thing I know I've turned $60 into $200.

Luck turned bad for a bit as I got rivered twice in a row by a flush and two little pair when the deuce came up. I tightened up my play and picked my spots. Had to fold QQ when it flopped and turned badly. Stayed out of trouble a couple of times and watched some other hands not come in as my stack dwindled a bit more. I got down to about $125 and was figuring on quitting if I got down a bit more when I got QQ again in the big blind. My ATM had decided to leave by then and was replaced by another guy who was aggressive but tight as he stayed out of many hands but when he was in, he was usually in hard. 2-3 people call and it gets to him and he raises to $10 on the button. I call as I am putting him on AK -A10 or a mid pair. I have him beat there I figure but he only has $25 behind so I figure he calls with a big A if I push in. So I call. Fortunately everyone else folds and the flop is 9-3-2 with 2 hearts. I bet $25 figuring he dumps a big ace unless he maybe has A9 or 2 hearts and if he has flopped a set well good on him, I'm not dumping QQ there. He calls and flips up JJ. He hated to see my QQ. That put me up over $160.

A little later PQ comes by to tell me she went out in 13th and was kinda tired as well as hungry. I'm ready to go as I'm hungry too as well as a bit tired. We hadn't eaten since lunch 12 hours before. I cashed out with $170 and considered it a very successful night even though my tourney went a bit poorly. After a trip to IHOP we got home about 2 and I was asleep by 3. And now it's shower time as we are taking the girl back to school soon. I hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday though I'm sure it's not sunny and 80 for everyone today like it is for me. See ya on the tables, though probably not tonight. Until then stay lucky you nuts

Sunday, April 3, 2011

It's another Lazy Sunday in the South


Wow, feels like the weekend just started and it's already Sunday afternoon. I just finished cleaning up the dishes from breakfast for me and the PQ. She is a bit down today as she was doing very well in the tourney last night and then got blindsided and knocked out soon afterward.


I was long gone by then. I never got it going, had no really big hands. Best hand was probably AQ which I got 4 times but I would raise, get 3 callers, flop nothing and have to dump to someone elses bet. Did that like 3 or 4 times. Otherwise I got pocket 6s once and pocket 7s once and that was it for 2.5 or 3 hours of play. It was fucking horrendous. And the worst part was this calling station to my left. She called every raise I made and I couldn't get her out. She hit every time or kept calling my bets until she hit. I raised with the 6s and she called. Flop was jack high nothing and I bet, she called. I bet almost a pot sized bet on the turn and she calls and rivers her ace. She proceeded to spew off my chips to everyone else at the table but it seemed like everytime I went with a hand she was there. Of course for the first hour or 2 she called about 70% of the hands.


This was how ridiculous it was. I had KQ of spades in middle position and it was folded to me so I raised to 300 when blinds were 50-100. Of course she calls me. Then the button raises to 1200. Now he has been pretty tight so I am putting him on at least AQ and probably better. So I dump it. She calls him again. Flop is Ace high all diamonds. Guy pushes in for another 3K and she calls him. He had KK, she had J6 of diamonds. Yes called a raise then called a big reraise with a shitty J6 and is of course rewarded. Unfortunately I could never get the cards or the flop to make her pay for it either. It just sucked. Then I went through a horrible run of cards, couldn't buy 2 face cards or a pair. I tried to steal twice and got reraised both times. I got lower and lower then in the big blind I got A10. Guy in mid position raised. He hadn't shown me too much so I put him on anything from a low pair to KQ to a low to mid ace. I pushed in and he called as did one other guy. He had AJ of course, other guy had KQ and hit his king to win the hand. Goodbye to me.


The PQ was doing ok and a little after my knockout she doubled up twice to get up to almost 40K which left her in good position. I looked at the waiting list for the cash tables and it was looooooong so I decided to hit the bar and bet on the doggies instead of playing anything. A few screwdrivers later I was feeling a bit better. The dogs were as unkind to me as the cards but I didn't expect any better from them. I drank and bet for about an hour and a half and as the PQ was still in the tourney I decided I would play a bit of 1-1 no limit. Good decision on my part.


First hand I am in the big blind with a 7-4. Pot is unraised and the flop is QQ7. I bet and get one caller. Turn is another queen. I'm wondering if the other guy has the 4th queen and check but he checks back. River is a 2 and I decide to bet again. He calls and flips up 66 so I take it down. Sign of good things to come.


A few hands later I get 10-10. Old dude in seat 10 raises to $3 preflop. Now I haven't played here enough to know his range so I'm figuring him for a decent hand but nothing special. I thought he might even be playing something like J-10 suited. So I call as do about 4 others. Flop is K87 with 2 spades. Old dude bets $4 and I call as do 2 others. Turn is another K. Which makes me think he may not have bet on AK or KQ and I might still be ahead. But he also could be on the flush draw as well so I don't want to go hog wild not knowing what range he is playing. He bets $7 which is only about a quarter of the pot. Guy to my right folds and the guy to my left who was in folds as well. The dealer didn't look at me and I said "Uh, Joe, do I still get to act in this hand?" He then realizes he goofed and skipped right over me but no harm done as he didn't ship the pot and no one turned over cards. I was leaning toward calling but I still thought there was a good chance I was ahead so I called. Old guy looked a little pissed. Glad I didn't raise which I was also considering. River was a beautiful 10 of spades making the flush draw as well as filling my boat. Old dude looks at me then puts out $10. I think for a second and raise him to $25. He looks at his stack and considers going all in which I'm calling even if he is playing KK or K10. It might cost me but I'm not tossing this one. Eventually he calls and is he pissed when I flip over 10-10. Seems like reading him wrong was a good thing as he had AK.


A little while later the PQ walks up and she is pissed after getting knocked out. What killed her was she was rolling along and gets KK. Raises to 5X the big blind and gets one caller. Flop is 458. Seems pretty safe and she bets and gets raised. Gets all in with this clown who called her raise with 76 suited and was rewarded with a flopped straight. She didn't improve and took a big hit. With the blinds the way they were she went out a little later when she pushed with A8 and ran into A9. So she comes up to me and says lets go home. Well I'm all for that as I'm actually ahead of the game. I play the next hand with a K10 of clubs and river a flush right when another guy did. One other guy had hit a straight on the turn and didn't notice the flush on the river. Guy to my left bets 10 on the river, straight calls him and I consider my actions. I'm wondering if he has the Ace high flush and decide to keep my profits intact by calling him down. He shows the 9 high flush and hates that I have the King high. I pack up and walk out with 140 bucks after starting with 60. Much happier than I was an hour before.


Got up a bit later this morning. Was gonna take the PQ out for breakfast but she wanted to stay in so I started cooking. Made some bacon and created omelets with bacon, cheddar, onion and mushrooms for us both. Breakfast cooking has always been my favorite kind of cooking. Cleaned up while the PQ headed to Sams with her sis. Apparently I'm making dinner tonight as well so I had her pick up some chicken along with a few other things there for me. I'm gonna head out to the supermarket for a few things I don't want to buy in bulk and then I'll start dinner. I hope to see some of you tonight in the finals for the Survivor Donkey Island tourney. I posted my views about Survivor on Josies blog (I can't stand that or almost every other "Reality" show) but I have enjoyed the tourneys and have to admit it does spice them up for those involved in the Survivor game. For me it's just fun to play but it goes on so late sometimes and work has been beating me up so badly - and will for the next 2 weeks at least - that I pay for staying up too late the next day. But I plan on being there tonight. Till then stay lucky you nuts.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

What's your favorite station?

Mine is whatever one gives me cash.

Allow me to apologize for my sparse posting lately, work is living up to it's name. I've been in early and worked late almost every day and I expect to do a lot more of that over the next few weeks. Tax time combined with a change in the regulations creates much more work than usual.

Time for a recap. I mentioned yesterday (Saturday) I was playing in a freeroll tourney sponsored by a local radio station last night. It was a fun tourney though the turbo style of it was not my cup of tea. We started with 2000 chips, 10 minute blinds starting at 25-50. So it got up to fold or shove very quickly. And I'm a take my time kinda guy. 4th Blind level is 200-400 and I'm sitting on the button at just under 2K after tossing my blinds to raises on previous two hands when I wake up to JJ. 4 people had called the big blind when it came around to me and I pushed all in. Amazingly everyone dumped their hands and I basically double up. The very next hand I get AQ and push again and steal a couple more blinds. Then the next hand is also AQ. Now AQ is my nemesis hand. I can't win with it and I can't beat it either. I've lost with worse hands, better hands and far better hands against it. So I don't like seeing it, whether in my hand or my opponents. This time I just call with it since I've now taken my stack from 2k to over 5k. Flop is A-6-3 of spades. I've got the queen of spades in my hand. Its checked to me and I push in and take down another pot putting me up to 7k.

Now I'm sitting pretty good but with the blinds increasing, people are really pushing things and we're losing players fast. A little later the blinds go up to 400-800 and I look down to see AK in my hand. Guy to my right calls and I raise him up to 2500. Everyone folds and he pushes in for another 1000 which I immediately call. I'm hoping he is on an Ace Ten or Ace Jack but he actually has 6-6. I'm a slight dog but it gets worse when a 6 hits the flop along with an Ace and Jack. I see a 10 on the turn but I don't get a Q on the river and take a big hit. That hurt. I nurse my stack a bit, dodge a bullet when I toss 44 away after an all in raise and call and see AA vs QQ. I finally decide to push with K10 in early position before the blinds come around again and I get even shorter stacked. I get called by the small blind and the big blind folds after a bit. I figure this is probably it for me but the small blind flips over Q7. He doesn't improve and I double up while he goes on life support and soon exits the building.

I hit the first break and our table is dissolved. From the 15 or so starting tables we were down to 4. When we get back from break we get the news that the top 13 get paid, $97 for 2-12 and $971 (the radio station was at 97.1 on the FM dial) for first. I play smart, don't get many hands but make a couple of timely steals then knock out a shorty when his AQ doesn't improve against my 9-9. The blinds keep increasing and people keep dropping like flies. We are about an hour and a half into the tourney and already down to 2 tables when I get AK in early position. I push all in and get called by a guy to my left who pushes all in over the top of me. I figure he has a big pair but he flips over A-10 suited. We both get an Ace on the flop but he doesn't improve and a king hits the river which costs him nearly 2/3 of his stack. I was a bit surprised by his all in after mine as even though I was short I hadn't played much. Of course he was at my first table and saw my all in with K10 so maybe that was why he did it. He ended up out soon afterward.

Both tables got down to 7 players in short order and we went hand for hand. I had a couple of decent hands but in bad positions. I was short enough that I was in push all in or fold range and really didn't want to push a mid pair into AK and be out. Also though I was about the shortest stack at my table, there were a couple of people at the other table who were really short including 1 lady who had less than a big blind left. Most of my table felt the same way and since 2nd paid as much as 13th, the important thing was making it past the bubble. UTG I pick up 88 and decide to dump it since I was first to act. Good thing as the blinds both had big hands, AK and AJ. An ace flopped and the big blind almost went out as the small blind's AK took him down. I also folded AJ a few hands later and I think I should have pushed that one as I was in position but the other table had two all ins and I figured to wait that one out. Turns out the small stacks both stay in and I'm regretting my choice as every other hand I see is crap. But I keep winning some blinds and my stack stays about even. Finally one of the other guys gets knocked out and we're in the money.

Play goes quick after that. I don't get anything going but a couple of others get knocked out including AA getting cracked by 66. We get down to 10 and combine the tables to one. I'm pretty low but not the shortest however the gal who had less than a big blind before is now one of the bigger stacks. We play for a while and the shortest stack gets knocked out when it's break time again. When most of the players got back some discussion started about a 9 way chop of the prizes. I was all for it considering I was about the second shortest but I just said I'd go along with everyone as I didn't want to pressure the bigger stacks however all of them realized that one bad hand and they were out. So we chopped it 9 ways. Everyone got near $200 which was sweet, especially since it was a freebie tourney.

I left off this post last Sunday and it's now the following Saturday. I've been so tired at night I just haven't had the will to post. Afterwards I was talking to the DJ and let him know how much the PQ was wanting to take him out of his tourney. He got a good laugh at that and wanted me to tell her he'd be waiting. Well it's Saturday again and she is gonna take a crack at him tonight. I might as well.

Sunday I did run by the Hard Rock for a little while but the poker room didn't have much going on and no Omaha tables going so I decided to use my free play on Video Poker and that was about it. I of course hit nothing and tossed in another 50 bucks to boot. Some other guy sat next to me a while after I started and hit quads like crazy while I couldn't catch a cold. He walked out with four or five hundred bucks. I was pissed. Seemed like my luck had turned back again. I didn't play in the Sunday night Donkey tourney, I was too damned tired and went to bed pretty early.

The rest of the week passed in a blur pretty much. I did play in SmBoatDrinks tourney Tuesday but got proof about my luck there. No biggie. Skipped the Wednesday Dankoment as I was again too tired to play that late. Haven't played any poker since so today I guess I'll see if things are better. Well the PQ called and we have some errands to run so I'm off. Hope everyone has a good weekend. I will try to win the Powerball tonight as well so maybe tomorrow I'll be a rich man. Doubtful but if you don't hear from me again, well you'll know why. Anyway stay lucky you nuts. I hope to as well.