Weekend Update

Since I took Thursday off for my daughter's graduation I decided to make it a 4 day weekend and take Friday off too. As the girl was wrapped up in parties and the like on Friday, her mother and I were free to take on other pursuits, namely poker. During the day I had a successful run in an MTT taking 4th. I'm half kicking myself because I could have slowed down and placed second in the tourney without much effort. I had really become aggressive when we got down to 5 handed and moved myself up from 4th to 2nd in chips. The chip leader had me by a 2-1 margin and I was ahead of 3rd and 4th by about 3 -1 by then when my knockout hand occurred.

I raised in the big blind with 9-9 and got called by the chip leader next to me. Flop was a pretty 9-10-Q. I check because the big stack had been very aggressive after the flop and sure enough he put in a good sized bet. I put him on top pair, maybe KQ or AQ and hopefully not KJ. I pushed all in for about 5X his bet and he called and flipped over QJ for top pair and a straight draw to my set. Turn was the 8 and I don't pair up. Sucks for me as 2nd place paid twice what I earned but I was well ahead at that point and if I win that hand, I have a 2-1 lead over my closest competitor and can waltz into the final two. I had a good tourney, made good reads and really was pretty happy with my play when we got down to the last 7. I stayed more aggressive than I sometimes do and really pushed people around, even the chip leader, after I showed down a couple of good hands.

So last night the wife and I head up to the local horse track to play rather than the dog track where we usually play. A number of dealers and some players from the dog track were also playing. We got into a 4 table tourney. I start off pretty good and get myself a couple of grand up from my starting stack. The wife can't get anything going. Guy to my right is being very aggressive and I make him pay on a couple of hands. He tangles with an old lady across the table when he reraises her from the small blind with KQ. I'm sitting on AQ suited in the big blind and call to come along as does the old lady. Flop is K-Q-10. He bets and I'm putting him on a K so I fold my AQ. Lady reraises him and he pushes all in. She flips over AJ for the flopped straight and takes out his top 2 pair. And I'm glad I folded even though it cost me a bit.

I get card dead for awhile and the blinds and antes go up. Eventually I'm down to about my 6K starting stack with AQ in the 2nd to act position. UTG is a new aggressive player raises to 2200 when I push all in over the top of him. Everyone else folds and he calls and flips over A9. Flop is an ace, river is a 9 and I'm done. Ace rag takes me out again. And I lose again with AQ. When it's the best preflop hand again. I HATE ACE QUEEN!!!

The wife has doubled up at a new table and is doing ok though still a little short so I go to sweat her. She keeps hangingin in there and gets to the final table. Even though she is 8th out of 10 she keeps playing smart and making good moves. It gets down to 7 people and she is 5th in chips. Tourney only pays top 3. She calls in early position and the small blind raises all in. She has him covered by a little and foolishly calls. I say foolishly because the guy had to have an ace and maybe a big ace. She had KJ suited. He flops an ace and she is down to 1500 with blinds at 400-800. A few hands later she is all in with JJ and beats Ace rag to get a little breathing space. She gets JJ again and triples up as the guy to her right gets short stacked. She later takes him out. Then a couple of other guys at the table decide to get stupid. One guy with a decent stack takes on the big stack on a bluff and gets picked off by top two pair and is gone. The table gets down to four handed after my wife whacks another guy. There are 2 big stacks and her and one other guy with about equal stacks. The other guy makes some chips then gives them back with some questionable plays. Eventually he pushes all in against a flopped flush by the big stack and its sayonara to him. The wife takes 3rd for a $300 payoff and is very happy. So between the 2 of us, me online and her live, we have a pretty good day. So good we are going to do it again in a couple of hours.

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Update - the wife did not have a good night at the tables. She played some low limit holdem and got crushed then played in a tourney and did not do well. I was playing Omaha Hi/Lo during most of this and actually had some success. She came by after getting knocked out of the tourney and I gave her some of my profits to play some more holdem. I had taken my original $60 and turned it into 120 so I could afford giving her some cash. I played Omaha for a while longer until the table broke. Didn't do anything else and so I cashed out up about $25 even after giving the wife 25 as well. I went by her table and she was up to about $65 so I sat at the bar while she played.

I was looking at betting on the dogs a little while waiting. I looked at the race about to go off and thought, "I should bet on the 1-8 quinella (picking the top two dogs in any order)." But I didn't and just watched the race. Of course 8 wins as a big underdog and 1 takes second. The quinella paid $87 for a $2 ticket. Oh was I pissed at myself. The wife can see me sitting there from her table and she texts me "what are you so mad about?" I send her back one telling her I just blew $85 and she then understood. Well maybe you should bet some while you're waiting.

I didn't want to blow my profits so I kept it to a minimum but did some betting on Derby Lane and Jacksonville dog track races. Just missed about a $40 quinella on the next Jax race when the 4 dog nosed out the 1 dog at the wire. That didn't improve my attitude. So I decided I would bet $10 on the last couple of races and if that didn't hit, at least I still leave with a little profit. At Derby Lane there wasn't much there I liked so I just bet $2 on a quinella on the 1-8 dogs. If that hits I make about $50. At Jax there was a Class A race to finish the night. Class A races are for the best dogs. Often there is one dog who is a big favorite and some of the other dogs are at pretty high odds. Because these dogs are so good, one slip by the favorite or if he is bumped on a turn can make him not hit the money. So in class A races I have found it is often profitable to take the long shot dogs and hope one wins. This time I put the other $8 on the four longest shots. Wouldn't you know the longest of them all, the #2 dog jumps right out to the lead and holds it all the way through the race. Took $38 bucks on the $2 wager. It was a decent night for me.

To My Daughter

You graduated from high school yesterday. I watched you walk to the podium. Heard them call your name, your whole name not just first and last names, and watched you get your diploma. I watched this beautiful young woman, so confident and polished, and felt my eyes get wet. So many memories collided inside my mind.

I remembered your birth and when you were placed in my arms for the first time. How you were called the little girl with the name that was longer than she was. I remembered taking you to breakfast with me when you were but a few months old. Just sitting you on the table at the Sunrise in your little carrier while I ate. How the waitresses made a fuss about you. As you got older you graduated to a high chair and ate along with me. And the fussing continued, especially when those golden curls came in.

I recalled all the laughter you brought to our house. How your brother was like Martin Luther King and where Yo Land was. How much we spoiled you (and though I blame your mother and aunts, I am as much to blame as anyone) and how protective your older brothers were of you. All of those blond curls that made almost every woman who saw you jealous. Your sweet smile and disposition made you the darling of the family.

And now as you approach adult hood and prepare to go off to college, there is so much I want to say to you. I admire your maturity, so much greater than mine at this age. Hell you're probably more mature than me now when you come right down to it (after all I've never heard you yell at the computer). Your mother always told the boys "Make good choices." You have always done that. I worried about the boys getting into trouble as teens but my only worry about you was that someone would hurt you. And I will always worry about that.

I wish you all the joy and happiness you have brought to your mother and I. I wish your college years to be fun, rewarding, interesting, and educational. I trust that your good sense will guide you and your willingness to work hard will make you the successful woman I'm sure you will be. Your mother and I are so very proud of you and your achievements in high school. We were so glad to see how you blossomed this past year. And we so look forward to seeing what you will become in the future.

You think you want to become a pastry chef and if you do I'm sure you will be a fine one. But you have choices and if you decide this is something you don't want, the world is full of things you can do. Remember 2 things as your life continues to develop and you will be fine. One is that change is inevitable. Just when you get most comfortable with your life, some change will occur to turn it upside down. Accept and embrace the changes and you will find more opportunities in your life. The second thing to remember is to never stop learning. College won't teach you all you need to know, it will prepare you to learn what you need to know. As long as you continue to learn and apply what you learn, you will succeed in whatever you do. Enjoy your time in college. Your mother and I will really miss you, I think it's just sinking into me now how much I will miss you. But you will learn so much about yourself and will meet so many different people there. If it is anything like my college years, it will be the best time of your life. Good luck Sarah and never forget, no matter what happens, you will always have a place here. I love you.

Dad

Nice ends at Midnight

The above title refers to a line from one of my favorite comics Bill Engvall. He was talking about some guy dating his daughter and calling for her late at night. His wife said "Now Bill, be nice." and that was his response. I'll tell you where this links up in a moment.

I'm tired this morning. It was a hard week at work, systems were down at times and made it hard to do all I had to do. Luckily it was a 4 day work week as I don't think I would have made it another day. So last night, actually early this morning, I've nodded off in my Triptophan recliner when the phone rings. Now it's after 2 am. I look at the caller ID and it says Private. My wife's grandmother has her phone set up to say Private so I'm afraid this might be a call from her. She is 93 and has spent some time in the hospital lately so this could be an emergency. I answer. Hello. Helloooo. Now I'm getting miffed. No answer at all. So I hang up. Of course the call has woken my wife. I told her about the (non) call and we wonder if it was her grandmother or not. And we head up to bed.

A couple of hours later the same thing happens. Now I was really out that time. I was not Mr Sweetness and Light when I answered. And absolutely nothing on the phone. I was too tired to be too pissed off to sleep. Of course the dog gets me up about 8:15 to take her out. A zombie walking a dog, nice picture there. So I'm sitting like a zombie in my chair again and about 9 the phone rings. Private again. This time I'm thinking it probably is my wife's grandmother. So I answer. After a pause some guy asks "Is Christina there?" Like an IDIOT I say "There's no one named Christina here". I'm sure it was due to sleep deprivation or something. What I should have done was tell this moron that she was out for the day and to get his number so she could call him at 7am. Then while he was sleeping tonight, call him every 2 hours. Then call at 7 and ask him how he feels. But I'm not vindictive or anything.

Anyway I'm up and about after a fashion. Watching the French Open Women's Finals now. Two gals I don't really know playing. I do know the Aussie chick Stosur has bigger shoulders than me. She is strong looking. Maybe a little bigger than Venus Williams. I don't think she is gonna win though as the other chick, Schiavone, who is from Italy? is making a few more plays. And Shiavone won. First Italian women in the open era which is the last 40 years. My question is, why did a bunch of her supporters have shirts that read "Shiavone A reason to believe" or something like that IN ENGLISH. Why not in Italian or even French since this is in Paris? Why English? Weird

So I hope y'all have big plans for this weekend. Mine aren't big but will include visiting the local dog track/poker room to lay a bet or 5 down on the Belmont. Gotta do a bit of research on that. Also play a little poker I hope. Have a great weekend all. Stay lucky you nuts.

Hooray for Hollywood

We were talking a bit at work today about movies that surprised us with how good they were. Most of these were movies I had seen though not in the movie theater. One movie that all of us really liked was a Michael Myers (pre Austin Powers) flick called So I Married an Axe Murderer. We all agreed this was a surprisingly good and funny movie. Had some really funny moments. Co-starred Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia and Amanda Plummer. Terrific cameos by Alan Arkin, Steven Wright and Phil Hartman. Anyway this got me thinking about other not so well known movies that turned out to be so much better than I expected and now are movies I will always watch if they show up on tv.

First and foremost is a funny shoot em up called Snatch. Written and directed by Guy Ritchie while he was married to Madonna (but I won't hold it against him) and it stars Jason Statham. Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro and Brad Pitt also have smaller parts in it. Very funny if you can get by the English accents. If you get the DVD I recommend using the subtitle function the first time you see it. Ritchie likes to use the same actors on his movies so if you get a chance you'll want to see Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels which is also a pretty good movie.

Another movie I truly enjoy is a small movie called Nobody's Fool. Actually there were 2 movies with that title that came out in the late 80s and early 90s. The first starred Rosanna Arquette and Eric Roberts. Bleh. The good Nobody's Fool starred Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith. Also in it were Josef Sommer, Phillip Bosco and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Terrific movie, funny, sweet, sentimental and reminds me a lot about growing up in the Northeast. The guy who wrote that also wrote Empire Falls which HBO did as a miniseries. Paul Newman had a big part in that one too along with Ed Harris.

Kelly's Heroes - Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, your Love Boat Captain Gavin McLeod and a young Harry Dean Stanton. A number of other guys you'll recognize but not know their names like Stuart Margolin (Angel on The Rockford Files) and a cameo by Carroll O'Connor. A funny war movie that is just enjoyable to watch.

I believe I talked about In Harms Way before so I won't go back into that one. My last movie is the remake of The Italian Job. Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green and Edward Norton. Great double cross movie. Fun and just very watchable.

Those are the lesser known movies I love to watch over and over again. Just ask my wife. What movies do you make sure you watch if you see it's on the tube?

Pain is also a 4 letter word.

Picture of me from last night. Played in a tourney and did not play well. Didn't help that I hardly got anything playable but I also made a couple of bad plays that led to my demise. My final hand I raised in the cutoff seat with 4-5 of hearts and got one caller in the small blind. This guy played a lot of hands. I was getting short stacked by then due to my lack of hands and a bad play earlier but it was not desperation time. Flop is AK3 with AK of hearts. I have a gutshot straight plus flush draw which is not bad. My opponent checks and I bet about 40% of my chips. Opponent reraises me all in. I have to call I figure as I know I'm behind but I have too many outs not to call now. I figure he must have AJ or A10, possibly AQ but not AK. I was shocked to see he had A6 of diamonds. He gave me absolutely no credit for a hand. He was right but I played pretty tight and not many hands so I was surprised. Anyway I didn't improve and it was good night Irene

I went to play cash tables from there. It was fun but it was painful. I could not connect with the flops at all. When I did, I kept getting rivered. Twice I flopped sets but the river did me in. Limit holdem sucks that way. As for my hands, I got a lot of good looking hands that just got no help from the flop (or turn or river for that matter) and just ended up costing me money to play the hand. It got so bad I had the two red queens preflop. Raised. Got 6 callers. And the flop, river and turn were all spades. I lost to some guy with the 8 of spades in his hand. I did have fun and played with some fun people but it was painful watching every good hand get hammered. It was too bad too because the 2 people to my right were HORRIBLE. Playing every hand, calling and betting with 2nd & 3rd pairs. I got some chips off them but just gave them away with every hand that didn't hit. Oh well, that is how it goes in low limit holdem. I will play the smaller blind no limit holdem next time I think.

Well it's bed time for bozo. Good night all and good luck on the felt. Till then, stay lucky you nuts.

3 Hours of Pain, 15 Minutes of Fame

The title sums up my night perfectly. The wife and I went over to the local cardroom to play last night. Neither of us wanted to play in the tourneys last night as they were a little pricey but they were running a special where the top 3 hands each hour on the holdem tables get a bonus, $500 for the best, $250 for 2nd and $100 for 3rd. Plus one person at the same table gets a 20% bonus of what the winner got. It would be nice to hit something like that but when I play limit holdem I'm lucky to hit a set or a flush, nevermind quads which is what usually is needed to win. So I play Omaha Hi/Lo if there is a table going. When we got to the room, there was a line for Omaha so I signed up for it and took a seat at a $2 limit table while I waited. The wife did as well. I didn't have to wait too long for the Omaha table to open so I transferred over there down about $10. No luck on the holdem table for me.

Omaha is where the pain came in. I was drawing crappy cards for the most part and when I would get good cards, the flops were killing me. Early on I hit a Broadway straight (A to 10) on the turn and bet that with a few callers. River put a third spade on the board and I checked then folded to someone else who had the nut flush. That's the way Omaha goes oftentimes and if you don't have the nuts or very close to it, you are gonna lose. It just goes downhill from there though. I can't make anything stand up the few times I do play a hand. Get quartered on the low side a couple of times which costs me more than I make. Otherwise, just not hitting. Calling a few hands preflop and folding post flop or turn when I figure I can't win. And everytime I'm suited big I cannot make a flush, in fact my suit doesn't even flop. A couple of times I had good hands and was double suited and the flop was all in the other 2 suits and of course didn't hit my hand either. I did manage to get half one hand when my aces made a boat on the river. That made me a few bucks but otherwise I was just in a losing proposition.

What made this even worse is soon I am sitting between the 2 biggest fish at the table. One lady to my left is giving away chips to everybody. Except me of course as I can't hit a hand. The guy to my right is almost as bad and keeps raising preflop on marginal hands at best. This hurts me as the only good hands I get I'm having to call anywhere from 1 to 3 raises preflop just to see the flop miss me completely. One hand I have A245 and the flop is KQ9. Had to call 3 raises to see that crap. Another hand I had AKQQ with the AQ of clubs. Everyone stayed in the hand for 1 raise so I figure almost all of them have a low draw which means I should see high cards. Flop is J65 of diamonds. I'm toast. This is getting frustrating as hell. I do get a little luck once. I have AA76 with the A67 of clubs. Not a great hand but I'm in the big blind and no one raises. Flop is AQ4 with one club. I got top set and a back door flush draw but will probably have a split pot if I can win anything. I bet and a guy to my left raises. A couple of people call and I reraise. By now I'm getting short as I haven't won anything in an hour and a half or so. Everyone then calls. Turn is a crappy 5 and not a club so now there is a low and also anyone with 2-3 has the nut low and the nut straight. I do have a draw to a higher straight with my 6-7 and top set so I have a shot at the top end of this but I'm not happy. I check, guy to my left bets and 3 call including me. Turn is the 5 of hearts which completes a flush on the board but gives me my boat. I bet, guy to my left raises, guy to my right calls and I call all in. Guy to my left shows 2-3 for the nut low, I have the high with my full house and the guy to my right is shocked that the guy to my left had a low and folds his cards. He had something like 3-6 for the low.

That kept me going for a while longer but it's getting a bit late and still I'm not catching. Lady to my left buys back in for another hundred and in half an hour she is down to about 30. None of it came to me of course. Then the guy to my right goes broke and buys in for another hundred. Chips are leaving the table as a couple of people leave and I'm struggling to stay above water. Finally I get down to about $8. Call preflop for $3 with A247 with the A7 suited. Flop a low draw and straight draw. I bet $3, lady to my left goes all in for $5, two guys call and I put in my last 2 bucks. I'm about ready to leave but my luck finally changes. My low comes in though my straight does not and I am not quartered and get half the pot. Lady to my left is out, she won't rebuy again and this hand is the first time I got some chips from her. 2 hands later I get confirmation my luck has changed. I get into a hand with A249 with A2 suited. Flop is 569 with one spade. I bet, one guy raises and 3 of us call. Turn is a 4 which makes my nut low. Guy to my right bets (on what I wonder), I push all in and 2 guys call. I'm hoping for another 9 on the river for the boat but am denied. It is a 4 however which gives me a lower boat. Guy to my right bets and is called. He turns over a pair of 7s for 7s and 4s for the high and the other guy has A2 for the low and they split the side pot. I get 3/4 of the main pot with A2 to split the low and 4s full to take the high. Sweet. Finally making some cash, I'm only down about 60 for the day.

Get a text from the wife asking if I'm ready to leave as she is getting tired. She is up about $80 from where she started, of which $50 is from being in the right seat when a lady got the 2nd best hand for one hour. At this point I will be happy going home with some cash after being down to the felt. But while I wait for her to get to my table, I win 2 more half pots. Nothing special but decent none the less. By the time I get up I'm only down about 25 for the day and fairly satisfied with that. My table was breaking anyway since another guy left so I got up and cashed out. We will be going back again today to play a tourney. I'll let you know how that goes. Till then stay lucky you nuts

Is it time for my nap?

Man am I beat. It was a bit of a rough week of work and then to cap it off I had to ref a football game last night (Friday). It was a surprisingly good game but a fair amount of up and down the field. I got kicked in the leg on the 2nd or 3rd play of the game and man it hurt. I found after the game when I undressed that I had two scrapes of a couple of inches long parallel to each other so the kid must have got me with the bottom of his cleats. Ouch. It was a warm and humid night so we worked up a good sweat. Players did too, had a couple of them down with leg cramps in the 2nd half. At least I have a 3 day weekend to recover from this. I'll need them cuz as tired as I was last night I still woke up at 6:25 this morning. Of course the dog helped with that. I tried to rollover but she was having none of that. Thought she needed to go outside so I head downstairs to do it and the wife was already down there. She told me she just took the dog out so I don't know what was going through that dog's mind.

Hey one of my fave movies is on. I do like TCM. Turner Classic Movies shows a lot of older great movies. This one is a John Wayne flick called In Harms Way. Directed by Otto Preminger. A great cast, besides Wayne you got Kirk Douglas (playing a kinda bad guy), Carroll O'Connor, Burgess Meredith, Patricia Neal, Paula Prentiss, Slim Pickens, Henry Fonda has a small part as does Larry Hagman. Great war flick that doesn't glorify war but does present a pretty accurate portrait of the sacrifices service men and women make. Especially when you consider almost all the big characters die at the end. Really a good movie and underrated.

So I hope everyone has big plans for the weekend. For myself, not so big. The little girl who is not so little and about to graduate high school has her prom tonight. So I probably won't be doing anything much tonight tho I may hit the local poker room and play a little Omaha after she goes. The wife wants to go on Sunday and play a tourney so I believe I will spend some time there then. Monday is definitely a day of rest. I know there will be some drinking as well. I'll probably play some more online today but I do have a few things to get done so we'll see if I post anything else. But I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and if I win the Powerball tonight, no one will ever hear from me again.

Stay thirsty my friends.

The death of a thousand cuts

Tuesday night I had the joy of seeing the final episode of Dancing with the Stars, hence the title of this post. 2 hours, 2 freaking hours of that stupendously mind numbing crap to tell us who of the last 3 teams left was the winner. I was ready to shoot myself by the time 11 rolled around. Of course the wife and daughter loved it all. Network TV is just about completely worthless today. Look at all of the shows that are popular on the major networks now. Most of them are "Reality TV" shows like The Bachelor, The Apprentice, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, etc. Not true reality but a made up "reality". Unadulterated garbage IMHO. That's why almost all of the shows I like are not found on regular tv. I like reality tv just fine, but show my a real reality. I watch Deadliest Catch, Wildest Police Videos for my reality tv fix. Neither found on regular tv either. For regular shows I find the best shows are stuff like Saving Grace, In Plain Sight, Justified ( my newest fave - stars the guy who was the bad guy in the last Die Hard movie), Royal Pains is kinda fun too and my most favorite show that comes back on next week, Burn Notice. Why can't network tv be more like these shows. It used to be.



This also leads me into another show I saw last week that just made me want to pull out my hair. If anyone caught Grey's Anatomy last Thursday and you were in for a real treat. Now I know this is the season ending cliff hanger episode but my god could it have been any less real?? A guy is walking around the hospital shooting people and the police are standing outside the whole time?? This may have been the response back before Columbine but nowadays the last thing the cops are gonna do is stand outside and let some lone nut roam the halls killing people. And then they send in 5 guys to clear a whole hospital. What crap. And then one of the SWAT guys puts a bullet in the guy and knocks him down and then doesn't go over to him and disarm him or kill him or anything?? The guy just gets up and goes around looking for more people to kill. And then there's all these doctors and stuff, some who supposedly served in Iraq, and no one thinks to secure their area or ambush this guy. No you only have all of these supremely sharp medical instruments not to mention drugs and stuff but no one can fight back?? All a bunch of sheep. Oh no here comes the guy with the big bad gun. I must hide, I must run, I must stand there and let him decide whether or not to shoot me. What a bunch of HORSE SHIT.

Obviously these people never saw the program I did at work about being prepared should something go bad at work. It was about knowing your options, knowing exits, evade and hide, don't clump together and if you can't escape, try to surprise and overcome the shooter and take him down. It definitely was not hide and act like sheep and beg for your life. But then again, if one of them took down the killer, we would not have gotten that lovely anti-gun rant in near the end. It never ceases to amaze me how anti gun the liberal media and hollywood are. Unless of course they are making the next shoot em up blockbuster. It's amazing how so many people in this country do not want to take responsibility for themselves. Oh the government will take care of me. Look at the mess we have in this country from the government trying to take care of us. A huge budget deficit, an nasty new insurance law that may put us even deeper in debt, government bailing out Wall St and GM and Chrysler. When are we going to take responsibility for our own actions?

How did I get off on this rant? Damn I sound like one of these political bloggers. As much as I like to rant about the world I have generally made a conscious decision to stay off of politics for the most part when I blog cuz I get a bit worked up as my last paragraph shows. Anyway I did want to mention that Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl) has a new show coming out on of course TNT that looks like something I want to see. Name is Memphis Beat. Joe Bob says check it out.

Err Maybe I spoke too soon.....

Well, perhaps the poker gods have finally decided to start smiling on me again. I have had a fair amount of success Sunday in a couple of tourneys. Nothing major to speak of but being plus cash for the day certainly beats the alternatives. Then today I managed to pull a 7th place finish in a 200 person tourney for another $80. Makes me up about $135 over the past 2 days. And man did I need that.

That's all going on here now. Gotta head to bed now. Will write again later.

Whaddaya gotta do to win around here?

Well gang as good as I have been running in the live games, I have been running horribly online. All month it's just been a series of bad beats, river rats, runner runner straights and lets not forget our own bad plays. Because lord knows I've made some bad ones. I think lately I feel people are trying to bluff me more than they are and make some bad calls. Having said that, in the space of less than an hour I managed to get AA three times, raise every time to get 1 or 2 callers, and lost twice. And I lost to some crap hands like K-7. And amazing how many times I have lost good hands preflop to Ace-rag. People calling all their chips or most of them on A4 and beating QQ, KK AQ and the like. Just ugly.

Today hasn't been quite as bad but it still isn't running great. I just can't make a good hand stand up. Raised QQ preflop and got 2 callers. Flop is king high and one jerk has called my raise with K2. Of course. I know poker is like that but how long is it gonna last? I'm going broke here.

But enough complaining. This past week was fairly busy and I even ended up refereeing a football game on Thursday night. A lot of high schools play a spring game every year so I had to do a game this past week. It's been 6 months since I last did a game so I was a little rusty. 2nd play of the game someone runs right into my from behind. Welcome back to the football field!! Later on 2 guys were blocking each other and ran right up my back. Needless to say I was a little sore and stiff after that game. But it felt good to be out on the field again.

That's all from sunny Fla for today. I gotta cook some breakfast for the family and do some cleanup afterwards. I don't think I'll be doing any live card play though I am sure I will do some online stuff. Hopefully my luck will turn and my decisions get better. Till then, stay lucky.

The money is how we keep score

That title refers to what a poker player once said and I have to agree. Tonight the score is $380 for me to 0 for most of the other people in the tourney I was in today. And though the stack above is a bit more than I have in my pocket right now, it almost feels the same.

Yes I spent a 3rd night in a row in a poker room Sunday. I told the wife last night that since she was too tired yesterday to play and I had a little extra cash, I would stake her in a tourney on Sunday. So we went over to Derby Lane to play in the 7 PM tourney tonight. Or actually, she was going to play and I would play some Omaha while she played in the tourney. So we get there about 6:30 and she signs up for the tourney. I go to the front desk but there is no Omaha game going. Apparently the only one they had broke up around 5. So my choices were to play low limit hold em which was not really turning me on, playing a NL game with blinds of .50 and $1 which is about the max I want to play at right now, or play in the tourney. Reluctantly I signed up for the tourney.

Early on it looked like I was gonna have an untimely exit. I didn't get much in the way of cards then finally woke up with AK of diamonds in middle position. A very loose player under the gun pushed all in for about a third of my stack and the guy just to my right called him. I was debating going all in or just calling as I didn't want to have this guy on my right in the hand. He was also kinda loose and very aggressive. I decided to call as there were a number of people to act after me and it was still pretty early in the tourney. I didn't want to go all in and have someone wake up with KK or AA and knock me out right then and there. Well everyone else folds and the three of us see a flop of J-9-4 with 2 diamonds. I'm hoping the guy will check but of course he punches in a big raise. I think for a minute cuz I really want to see another card but I don't want to put in most of my chips on a draw. So I fold and of course a diamond hits the turn. All in was playing Ace Rag (of course) and my nemesis had QJ. Really wish I had reraised preflop when I saw that. But I have found I have much better results playing conservatively early. I tend to go out when I don't. Like 2nd hand. But I digress. Anyway, he gets his in the end.

A little later on I get involved in a hand with KQ suited. Guy in middle position raised 4X. I am in the big blind. Guy has not played many hands so I'm giving him credit for a hand. Flop is Q-4-2 and I lead out for a little over half the pot. Original raiser calls. All else folds. Turn is another Queen and I check as does he. River is a 10. I push in and he calls. I figure AQ for him but no, it's Q9 and I rake a real nice pot. I am pretty surprised cuz he had played pretty solid. Now he's shortstacked after raising a Q9 then calling all the way with it. And it's still pretty early. I continue playing my tight way and watch the guy to my right buying some pots and playing some crap but getting lucky. He gets into it with another big stack who has been playing a lot of hands and I thought I saw a tell on him the way he bets. I put him on complete air and he bets the guy off the pot. It was just the way he put his chips in, which can be a major tell according to my reading. I have been putting it in practice with some success. So I'm in the big blind when he raises 6x from the small blind. I have 5-5 and want to come back over the top but decide to call and see what happens. As do 2 other guys. Flop is 6-3-2. My nemesis bets 2K and with about 5K left my choices are all in or fold at this point. Well I don't put him on a set as he would not lead out for that much. I really put him on a middle A like A9 or 10 or maybe a KQ. I push in, everyone else folds and my nemesis thinks a long time which makes me believe he might have A2 or A3. He finally calls for a big chunk of his stack with A6. Which sucks for me until the river is a 4 making my straight. Man he was very unhappy. He had been pretty annoying to the whole table and this shut him up which I could tell made everyone pretty happy all in all.

Later on he raises with 3-3 and I reraise him just about all in. He pushes in and hates to see my QQ as I take him out. I start to go on a bit of a tear, getting some cards but also making some good reads and laydowns. Our table breaks and I need 2 racks to carry all my chips to the new table. Unfortunately most of one rack is green (25) chips but still. One guy jokes I am now the green chip leader, which I am actually but I still am one of the top 3 or 4 in chips in the tourney. My 2nd hand I get 8-8 in middle position. The guy to my right calls and I raise him up 4x which makes him very unhappy. Most of the table folds but the big blind pushes all in. Guy to my right folds and I call. Guy on my right is very unhappy when 2 aces flop. Guess he had an ace. My opponent on the other hand only had 4-4 and did not improve. Another knockout. If this was a KO tourney I would have done very well this time. Usually I don't do well in those type of tourneys. People start falling quickly and before I know it we are down to one table. I only knocked out one more person, luckily not my wife who ran her JJ into KK when she was getting pretty short.

Final table was fairly uneventful for me. Did not pick up too much in the way of hands. Kept my stack by going in aggressively in the right spots and made a couple of laydowns that helped. Got unlucky a couple of times when my better hands did not hold up against 8-6 and 9-6 but regained my stack. We got down to the bubble and the guy to my right and the guy across the table from him (who I almost knocked out twice) keep tangling and taking pots from each other. Finally one of the other guys takes out the guy across the table and we're in the money. Right before we break again I tangle with the guy to my right. I only have 7-4 of clubs and the flop is AQ5 with 2 clubs. He checks, I bet and he calls me. Next card is a blank and he checks again as I check back. Last card is the 2 of clubs. He bets 4K and I call him as I was afraid he might have the bigger flush. He didn't even see the flush. He had been drinking kinda heavily. I shoulda raised him all in, he probably would have called me. I did take quite a chunk off him though which crippled him and he was knocked out soon after. At 3 handed I cannot get a hand worth playing. Guy to my left kept raising me when I was small blind. This goes on for quite a while and it's getting late. Finally I get a playable hand with A10. I call, he raises, I push in and he calls with AJ. Neither of us improve and I'm out 3rd. I was unhappy but mainly just unlucky I finally catch a hand when he had a better one. Otherwise, 380 was a nice payoff for 3rd place in a small tourney.

So that was my weekend, more profitable than most I do admit. Now as Big Joe said to Oddball in one of my favorite movies (Kelly's Heroes) "Stay lucky you nut." Which sums up my view on the poker table.

Come to think of it, I'll put it all on the 7 horse

Good morning all
The picture says it all, too bad I didn't do what my titled suggested and bet big on Lookin at Lucky in the Preakness yesterday. Of course as the second favorite, I wasn't going to make a ton betting on him anyway I when I bet horses, which is not often, I do look for value in my bets. I did have a nice exacta going with the number 6 horse Jackson Bend with Lookin at Lucky which missed cashing by a nose. If the race was a little longer, Jackson Bend overtakes the 11 horse First Dude and I cash a decent ticket. As it was, between my different wagers I ended up losing $6 when you deduct my winnings ($5 on 7 to win and a $2 show on Jackson Bend) against my bets. Still when you add my Derby and Preakness winnings against bets, I am up over $40 which beats the alternatives.

So after I got to Derby Lane and placed my bets, I thought I would play some Omaha Hi/Lo while waiting for the race to go off. It was a struggle early as I did win one smallish pot but then got rivered twice in a row to lose hands the put me down $30. I kept to my guns, stayed tight and hit a few pots. There were a couple of real fish playing and one guy who hit quads twice in the first couple of hours I played. I am still waiting to hit quads. The quads guy didn't play badly but he did see a ton of hands. The thing about consistently winning Omaha is to not play very many hands, play even tighter than you would in holdem because most flops hit you close enough that you can often times justify staying in the pot and spewing chips till the river. Your occasional wins won't make up for all the extra bets you put in there. At least it doesn't for me. Let me illustrate with probably my best hand of the night.

I am dealt AA44 with an A-4 of hearts and clubs in the big blind. Pretty good hand. I don't raise as that usually lets people know you have AA and I don't want to advertise that if I can make a boat in the hand. If I had A244 with the ace suited I would have raised it in that situation. Anyway the flop is 3-5-9 with the 3-5 of hearts. I lead out and get called by 4 people. Turn is the 7 of hearts giving me the nut flush and second best low which is very nice. I bet again and get 3 callers. River is a queen of clubs which helps no one. I bet again and get 2 callers. I scoop the pot with the A-4 low and nut flush. The two callers have King high flush and Queen high flush with A6 as their best low hand. Omaha is a game of nuts, playing second and third best hands will oftentimes get you killed.

By the time the table broke up I was up most of my buy-in and that was only because I lost a bit at the end when I didn't make my monster draw. I made a number of laydowns where I wasn't best or wasn't drawing to the nuts and which saved me some cash. Guys next to me on either side both rebought while I was there. And I didn't make any monster hands, didn't hit a lot of draws or anything but by staying fairly tight I was able to minimize my losses so I didn't have to have huge wins. And I had a good time talking to guys who mostly are 20-30 years older than me. Might go back again today as the wife was too tired to play when she got home yesterday afternoon and she may want to today.

As my wife always tells the kids when they go off on their own, make good choices boys and girls.