I DO Believe in Suckouts!

Riverchasers tonight. Short version? I finished in the points at 36th of 85. Longer version? I was sitting in dead last (70th) with 25 chips at one point.

My all-in 53o vs ATs and some folded limpers = 3A3Tx for 100 chips.

My J8h all-in vs Kx that flopped a pair? River straight in the Riverchasers. 360 chips.

Pushed/ground my way to 1,510 at one point and foldfoldfolded to the points. Out when my 99 met DDionysus' KK and IGH. Oddly enough, on the very next hand, DDionysus gets cowboys AGAIN and knocks out TOPKING333's 99. Sticky cards I tell ya.

So yah, not a great showing, but in the points and one hell of a lucky comeback to do it, so I'm not complaining. Now I get to chill and get some sleep. Yay!

Donkament tomorrow again? I could be in...

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Addendum: Just checked the results of the Riverchasers... holy shit... Congrats Waffles! He was sitting around my chip level as we waited for the points bubble and took it all down. Sellthekids had an $11 bounty on him and Waffles got him to triple it if he won (thereby taking himself out). Nicely done Sir.

Eh

First - In December 1900, Ladies Home Journal published this list of predictions for the year 2000. It's a great list. Some are bang-on, some get it half right and the take a strange left turn, some are relegated to extensions of the existing technology of the time, and some are completely nuts. One thing that struck me was how little knowledge of the interconnectivity of species in an ecosystem there was. There was little thought to wiping out entire populations of insects or the decimation of large mammals.

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I was completely wiped yesterday. Out with coworkers for drinks, a fantastic dinner, and more drinks, I strolled in at 1am, and was in bed around 2. I have cat. He doesn't do well when he gets all night alone to sleep and then I come home and don't pay any attention to him... so I didn't sleep well due to many a meow and batting of items off my nightstand. I do, however, have a spray bottle handy, and one very wet kitty (see I avoided the obvious joke?) later, I was able to snag a couple hours of rest before my alarms went off.

I also happened to receive my Wii that night, although I was too tired to unpack it. What's all this leading to? The Mookie. I'd come home, set up the Wii, played with that, and then fired up the Mook on about 4 hours of sleep and a full day of work. I finished 31st, which met my meager goal of finishing in the points, and maintaining my played/points streak (6/6, I missed two events). I was reading everyone right last night, but didn't realize that until after I folded my ladies to osu's AQs that caught nothing, but his all-in was enough to get me out of the tiny side-pot we were fighting for (the main went to the rockets that were all-in). I did make the right call when someone (TripJax? Not sure), re-raised my 3x BB bet with AQd and I called with my short stack and pocket 4s. Too bad about the A on the flop.

Al's Riverchasers tonight at 9 at FT. I've played in this once, maybe twice before, so we'll see if I can make the points this time with a very different field of regulars.

It also seems the next WBPT (#4) event is Sunday, and it's Limit HE. I have yet to ever play in one of these due to orignally not being a blogger, and then the events always falling at inconvenient times. I might actually make this one... although I'll be multi-tabling with that WSOP ME satellite on Stars methinks. Well, I HOPE to be multi-tabling and not grumbling about how I went out in 732nd.

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WPBT in Vegas in June. Looks like it's finally starting to gather steam. I plan on going, but I'm waiting on the seat sales to kick in, since I plan to fly out Thursday night and back Sunday night, meaning premium Vegas ticket prices (althought it's still < $700 CAD non-stop). Orleans? That's off the beaten track. Not that it matters as long as you go where the party's at and can slur your hotel name to the cabbie. But I wonder if cab fare will wipe out hotel savings? I'm still undecided on where I'll stay. I've got me a soft spot for TI, but that's on the other side of the world if everyone's staying at Orleans. Regardless, I'm looking forward to meeting my fellow donkeys

Hoy Redux

"I'm going to take down the BBT with 11th place finishes." - Me, tonight, post-knockout though.

I'll add a +/- 2 on that 11th though.

Not too much to say, played my game, got in trouble early on, but double-stacks means I can make some mistakes and loosen up a bit. Pokertart on my right was NOT helping though. Crazy westerners (well, west to ME) and their aggressive play and big blind stealing from their fellow Canucks. For shame! Naw, she played a solid game, I just had nothing to go to war with. Apparently though, InstantTragedy did.

It was suckout city tonight, especially near the final table. In the span of maybe 7 hands... AJo beat QQ with flopped trip Jacks, 88 beat 99 to knock out #10, I got knocked out 11th (hence the quote) when Tragedy's K6o beat my KQs with a 6 on the turn, A4 beat KK with a 3-6 straight, etc, etc.. It was nuts. We were calling each suckout, and they were hitting.

Other highlights? (note: I'm not in any of them), Wigginx and Sir Al facing off with AJo each (GOLD), and this hand.. only numerologically speaking:



So, I got me some points, added a couple more to the Yahoo list, and had fun... all before midnight. Can't complain.

The Landlord

Ok, this had me laughing out loud at work today. Enjoy.

The Landlord

Mixed Success

Well, a less successful weekend than planned. The Raptors game was a ton of fun, if only because of the 4th quarter. Poker, on the other hand...

I couldn't have won a token if you'd held my feet over hot coals this weekend. I think I played 6 or 7 Tier 1's and won 2 of them. I played 3 Tier 2's and lost 'em all. I think my best showing was 8th. Between these and the 2 or 3 attempts during the week, I spent more trying to get into The Big Game than if I'd just bought in. So I ponied up and paid. 53 runners, which is fantastic. Top 6 paid, and 6th paid more than 1st usually does in any of the other games. THIS is what The Big Game was meant to be. So, top 27 would get points... I finished 22nd. Yay points!

The deep stack at the club was abysmal. The phrase "card dead" doesn't begin to do justice. My BEST hand (statistically) pre-flop the entire night was pocket tens in the 3rd or 4th hand of the game. After that? Pocket 4s once, and pocket 3s once. I think I saw AQo and AJo a couple times, and missed the flops by a mile. I pushed at the end with M=5 when I saw A9c in the SB with the action folded to me on the first hand after the 2nd break. BB had KQo and called for probably 2/3 of his stack. KQJ rainbow on the flop, and no T for yours truly sent me packing. I think I went out 15th out of around 20 or so players. I don't think I've ever folded so much. Normally with that level of decrepitude in the cards, I'd be picking spots to steal, taking advantage of table image... but these tables are mildly LAG-y, so I was almost always facing raises. That or it's a weak-tight cash player who will call to the turn (if that makes any sense). With my stack dwindling fast in relation to the blinds, I couldn't afford to gamble that much for long. I think I would have cheered if I saw matching faces or aces at any point last night.

On the upside (other than ranking in TBG), there was the $3 rebuy mentioned below. One of the smoothest 4 hours in poker I've played. I was inexplicably tired at the beginning (despite a solid night's sleep and large brunch). But only paid 4 times total, including initial buy-in and add-on (so an inital re-buy and one additional one), and found myself with a comfortable stack at the break (M ~ 20). I sat out for a bit to make some coffee and returned with gusto. Blinds were easily stolen and big hands were winning. I dropped low (M ~ 5) once or twice, but chipped back up and took down big pots when needed. Cards were catching, and if I lost, it was when I had my opponents well-covered. The final couple tables were a bunch of fish with one or two halfway decent players left, and since I had chips (but not the lead until there were 4 left), it was easy pickings as nobody wanted to go out so close to the money. Top 3 is tough to actually play for at that point -- everyone hopes to fold to the win and let the others take themselves out. I exploited this, as anybody should, and the ATC and bubble philosophies worked brilliantly here. As the final tally indicates, it was a walk for the last 30 min or so.

Small tangent here - I love the whiners who have no argument. I turned a straight against a guy's AK/top pair. His comment "3 hours wasted. Who calls my raises with 9T?" Well, let's see... 9Ts in the BB and you MIN RAISE, I call every time. I put out a feeler bet at the flop draw and you min raise AGAIN, I call every time it doesn't commit me. Straight on the turn and you're history. Grow a pair. A REAL bet anywhere before the turn and I'm out.

I didn't make it back in time for the WSOP qualifier, but that's fine. I was in no mood for such a long haul after the club. I had already pulled my entry and will probably use it next week. As Fuel said in the comments... great start, now I have to finish. But if I don't, there's still plenty of time.

Here's hoping my Wii shows up soon... because I need more things to waste time with.

Time to Turn it Up a Notch

So the big game has cost me a double buy-in. I spent as much as just paying would have in tokens yesterday, and failed miserably. So I bought in. What's this mean? I'm going to have to cash. Unless I kick as at the club today, then I'll be less concerned :).

Not that I don't want all those points anyway.

Colour Me Impressed

It's not a new joke. In fact, it's been around the web a few times I'm sure. But Saturday Night Live just had a "Sofa King" sketch on. I'm sure it'll be on Youtube (and then off Youtube) tomorrow.

Our prices are 'Sofa King' crazy!
Our delivery is 'Sofa King' quick!
Our loveseats are 'Sofa King' comfortable.

The beauty of live TV... but it's impressive it got on, and past the censors. Let's see if it makes it to a repeat.

Still doesn't beat Sneed's Seed and Feed from the Simpsons though.

So Far...

Well... no token to speak of yet. 4 tries, 4 failures. Not even close really.

But THIS did happen:



Shame I've already got so many games going on tomorrow already. Maybe I'll play, maybe I'll keep it until next week. Regardless, 4hrs 18min. First win into the satellite after a bunch of the $16 DS and other rebuys. It was actually a pretty easy win. I think I've mentioned my love of rebuys in the past. Donkey play for the first hour, and then continued donkishness beyond that's easy to take advantage of. One just has to dodge the suckouts.

Winds of Change

This article, and this article feel like seeds. Do I expect sweeping reforms to take place in the next couple weeks? Nope. But the right people are finally getting the message. Of course, this just increases the rank smell of base-pandering that the original bill has, but so be it. For those of you who have contacted your reps in the past, and those who haven't... now is the time to start driving that message home again, take down the gambling bill!

A Weekend of Degeneracy Awaits!

Went out 25th of 77 in Das Mooken on Wednesday. Good for 36 points in the BBT. AKo apparently is no good against cowboys. Stupid cowboys... and the horse they rode in on.

Anyhoo. Went to The Rocky Horror Show last night and had the expected level of fun. I didn't have time to get dressed accordingly, but mayhaps those days are behind me anyway. That said, I was just about the ONLY audience member who participated vocally. Sure, some people picked up on SLUT! and ASSHOLE! or "Boooorrring" chants when the Narrator was on. Post-intermission a couple more participants spoke up for the obvious lines. But really, I was the only one who kept it up with any sort of regularity, and I missed a TON. On the plus side, it's not often that one is solely responsible for getting a sold-out 876-seat theatre laughing heartily. Ah dick jokes... do they ever get old?

Tonight I'll be missing the Donkament for the Raptors-Pistons game. Raps win, Heat lose, and the good guys get 3rd in the East all locked up, with 2nd still in reach. Andrea Bargnani may be making his return tonight as well. Plus, the 1st place Pistons vs the 3rd place Raptors should make for a great game.

Tomorrow will be focused on getting a token for The Big Game. I played a couple tier-1 peeps last night but really wasn't into it. Although I went out 7th (stupid bubble) in the first. I've only been able to play one of the Token Frenzies this week, and came damn close to tokening there too. Worse comes to worst, I'll just buy in on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday - now that will be a day of pokering. As usual, the Big Game and my club's monthly deep-stack long grind tournament fall on the same day (since they both happen on the 3rd Sunday of the month). Luckily, they're 6 1/2 hours apart, so I'll have plenty of time for both, and probably some cash in between. Could be either a very profitable or very costly day.

There's a couple holes in my tournament game I might work on getting plugged tomorrow... we'll see.



Uh-oh, Happy learned how to putt.

That Was Unexpected

As expected, I missed the WWdN due to seeing The Host instead. A worthwhile trade I believe, as the movie was plenty entertaining. I did, however, make it home with plenty of time to play in the second chance. What's this? Why it's PLO. Excellent. Not that I'm any good at Omaha, but at least I can lose quickly if need be. So up I did sign.

10:30 rolls around and so starts the tournament! Why, I am all alone at my table. In fact, not only am I all alone, but there is but one other seat. How queer! It's a head's up tournament and I have a bye! Off to Wil's table to see what's up. It seems he mistakenly set it up HU. Silly Wil. So I get up and do some things and return to round 2. I find Hacker at my table and we enjoy a brisk back-and-forth game until I finally take enough of a lead and a solid enough hand to move on. Then comes the waiting for the last table to finish and Wigginx appears across from me. This match lasts all of 5 or 6 hands. It seems that Omaha is, in fact, a game of the nuts. When one holds a J and a 2, and a J and a 2 appear on the flop, followed by another 2 on the turn and one's opponent is playing just as weakly as you are (but you're cleverly setting up a trap), it is possible your opponent has the other two jacks. Also, jacks full of twos beats twos full of jacks any day of the week. After that crippling loss, it took about 3 hands for me to give it all to The Wig. I hope he did well.

As much as I'd like to say I should have laid that down, I think I'm going broke with boat-over-boat every time. Although with a pair of twos on the board I should maybe think that 2's full of anything will get beat.

Mookatron 3000 tonight. More points needed. While Don and Oossuuu are running away with the top spots, I can't help but think that If I was able to play all 4 tourneys, I'd be close. Seriously. Extrapolating from my 2 data points (what? 2 isn't statistically enough? Fie to you!), I'd have over 200 points, putting me in 5th if I'd played in all 4 tourneys instead of 2. Fear us near-bubblers! So, I'm just going to have to win tonight... and Sunday.

Close?

Considering that I wasn't supposed to be around to play in The Hoy at all, I guess it's a bonus. I had a spare token sitting around, so I used that instead of buying in, so it only cost me $8.70 or whatever a level 1 peep costs. There were 52 runners, which is just scary for a MATH. Throw in double-stacks and this was going to be a looooong game. As expected, eliminations were slow to start, but picked up with the blinds. I played a solid aggressive game, but in the end, a series of boneheaded moves lead to my elimination in 12th. I'm not sure, but I think this means I missed At least I made the points in the BBT. as well (if they're going with the Poker Stars scoring system, then only the top 15% of the field gets points). That stings more than missing the final table and the money.

I'm at my best in two situations - either being the agressor or trapping. When I play a hand weakly (which happens), I usually end up shooting myself in the foot. My last hand went down like this (or a close approximation thereof):

I'm in the BB with KQo and an M in the same ballpark as 10ish. Button limps, SB limps. I think both were known bloggers, but I can't remember who exactly (edit: Lightning36 was the button). I go to raise and then decide to check and see what develops instead, figuring it's a strong enough hand to catch something with but weak enough to get away from.

Flop comes TQT and it's checked to me. Button puts out a weak bet and I call. Turn is an ace, I bet somewhere in the neighbourhood of the pot and the button re-raises. I'm shortstacked completely at this time and push. Easy call by the button as he happens to be holding QTc for the boat. River doesn't bring that 4th queen to split the pot and IGH as predicted by Waffles mere moments before (except he put me on KJ, which would have at least looked better).

Bah. Can't complain about the hand because it wasn't anything but a legit beat. I made two mistakes that I almost never make. I checked an unraised pot with KQo late in the tourney near the bubble in the big blind, and I gave no credit to my opponent holding a monster (or even a set). I walked right into a trap and got eaten by a Grue. Hell, I helped set the trap. It's not that I didn't trust my read, it's that I didn't make enough of one. My thought? "Q with a worse kicker than me. AQ gets raised pre-flop." I was right.. the kicker was the T, and it was suited, which is a perfectly acceptable "let's see if I catch" hand, especially on the cheap. Not like KQo, which is a hand that should be thrown in the garbage with TQTA is in front of you on the board and you're facing a sizeable bet by a solid player. See how earlier I said it was hand that was easy to get away from? Apparently not when your brain decides to reset after 2 1/2 hours of play.

Hypothetically, if I raised pre-flop, I imagine I'd be called on anything less than a push. So let's say I put a raise of 3-4x the BB in, get called and then TQT rainbow comes down. Do I still go broke? I make a continuation bet that will get called or possibly pushed... I probably still call in this situation because of the money I've put into the pot (and my now very short stack) and I still lose. Only chance I have is that QTs gets folded pre-flop.

Ah well. Wheatie's tonight, but I think I'll be going to see The Host instead. Maybe I'll make the second chance, as long as it isn't limit Razz/HORSE. Oh how I hate those for second chance tourneys.

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In other news - as expected (and I think I predicted pre-season) The Leafs missed the playoffs by ONE point. Let's look at the bright side... umm... that's one more point than they had last year? WAY TO GO TEAM!

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I'm a bit perturbed by these pullouts of deposit/withdrawl systems in Canada. There is NO push in Canada to ban online gambling or poker, hell it's provincially, not federally mandated. If anything, Canada would look to tax it. No, all I can figure is it's due to the U.S. situation. Tools. Both the US gubmint for the laws, and the payment processors for being such chickenshits.

So, no Neteller. Lucky me, I can still use a credit card to deposit on Tilt, but not withdraw. Can't use the card on Stars (gets denied by the bank), but they did have eChecks. Now that's down for some undisclosed problems (which worries the hell out of me security-wise). So that leaves ePassport which is for US accounts, and I have no desire to pay $50 to do a wire transfer to a Canadian account. On Tilt there's still Click2Pay, but I'm getting sick of signing up for more services... but since I never win enough to warrant a withdrawl, I'm not affected by that... yet.

Grr....

Donkery

Had fun in the Friday Donkament. I barely played, since I was up and down cooking, but I luckily septupled up on the first hand when most of the table went all-in. If I'd rebought to start, I'd have quintupled up instead. So I was able to coast on that for awhile. Ended up out in 9th of the 17 who joined.

Then I played a cash game on Stars. First time in awhile. I only half bought-in with $100 at the 1/2 NLHE. Got up to $250 when my multi-out straight/flush draws caught on the river against two fools.

Then on my last hand (button hit me and I was going to bed after that hand regardless of what happened).

Dealt QTo. A LAG who's been raising everything if it's unraised to him raises to $8 (standard for him). I call. One other caller. Flop comes QQ2 (two spades) and I'm laughing. Bet of $12 from LAG ATC and I re-raise to $36 to show I'm serious. Caller calls, and ATC raises another $24. I'm reading flush draws, and MAYBE another Q. I push all-in. Caller calls THAT and ATC calls (has me covered by about $20). $500 pot. 8 and 6 fall on the turn, the flush isn't filled.

Any guesses what ATC and the other caller were holding?







ATC = Ducks. Caller = does it matter?

I Take It Back

Well, my trip to Paris has been cancelled. The reasons are perfectly sound, but I am still disappointed.

On the flipside, I should be able to make the Riverchasers tonight (Al should be pleased) and The Hoy on Monday. AND I'll be able to watch the Leafs sputter to a near-miss of the playoffs. Go Raptors. Oh, and I'll get to watch Grindhouse on opening night. Unless I find myself in BC this weekend. I'll wave to Fuel and Schaubs if I'm there.

Played The Mookie last night - holy shit! 78 runners! I played my game, and bubbled in 10th. I was first for a bit, 3rd at the first break, 5th at the second, and generally stayed in the top 10 most of the night. Except once when Waffles took my chips when the card that gave me a straight also gave him a flush. I wasn't surprised.

Pissed off Al when my A7h beat his Jacks with a rivered straight. Something about me being a donkey. I dunno, my M was < 10, I had two all-ins before me, I was last to act in the BB and it would cost me 1/5th of my short stack with 4:1 odds... I think Al's the only one who disagrees with my call. I felt dirty about the straight though.

Went out when my JTh met the chipleader's 77. At least I wasn't crushed.

So 10th in The Mook puts me 25th in the BBT leaderboard. Not too shabby after one game. Still, would've liked to cash.

Vegas? Vegas? June 6-10 or something like that, right? Guess I should get on the booking of that.

Rise of the Jays

Okay, so big Leafs game tonight, because they all are now. Go Buds! Also, go Bruins!

Raptors now aiming for a division clinch and a home-court advantage.

Jays season started yesterday.

Yes, I'm a homer. But not a bandwagon jumper I thank you very much (okay, maybe the Raptors, but that's because I'm not a huge basketball fan).

Jays = wow. This is possibly the best team they've fielded since the back-to-back (+ strike year = 3 year champs! :) ) World Series teams. When the meat of your batting order goes from 1-6, (Johnson, Overbay, Glaus, Thomas, Wells, Rios), and then a guy like Aaron Hill who hits for average, and a clutch hitter like Zaun are in your bottom 3... well... I'd say you'll see a lot of hitting.

Roy Halladay is, bar none, the best pitcher in the majors. If it wasn't for freak injuries and a mediocre bullpen backing him up, he'd have at LEAST 3 Cy Young awards instead of 1, and he's a workhorse. A.J. Burnett at #2 is no slouch either, especially once his arm healed up last year. Chacin at #3 could be interesting - he reminds me of Jack Morris... he'll only give up as many runs as you can afford. Leading 1-0? He'll pitch a shutout. Leading 6-0? He'll give up 5, but not 6, and this team should be all about run support. Ohka's got something to prove, and Towers has a paycheque he wants to justify. I like what I've seen from Josh in the spring, and his attitude is great. Hell, he's learning from Halladay now, and that's got to be good.

Bullpen is tighter than last year, with the only big question mark being who's going to be doing the setup for B.J. Ryan?

Oh? And all those hitters? Pretty damn good in the field too.

2nd in the AL East last year behind the Yankees and ahead of the Bo Sox... 1st is VERY possible this year, and the Wild Card should be no problem at all. If everyone stays healthy of course.

I'm missing the home opener, but I'll be at the SkyDome (Rogers Centre be damned) a fair bit this season methinks.

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Oh yah, missed The Hoy last night, plan to make The Wheatie. I love the BBT concept. Unfortunately the only one I'll be able to make this week is the Mookie (maybe), and I'll miss the Hoy next week as well. See... I'm heading off to Paris for Easter weekend, and won't be back in time for the usual Monday fun. I can think of worse predicaments to be in.

Spring, When the Leafs Fall

Argh.

That's about as much frustration as I can muster as a Leafs fan. 40 years of losing. Maybe 4 or 5 years in there where the team played beyond their abilities to make it to the semi-finals.

Argh.

Missed the playoffs by what, a point, last year? Looks pretty good that they'll do it again this time. After that 7-2 debacle last night against the Rangers, it's do-or-die now. The Leafs have lost control of their destiny. Philly, the Isles and the Habs are left. They need to win 'em all or forget about it. Maybe it's a good thing I'll be out of the country when the last two games go down.

Can we please get an owner? Not an ownership group concerned solely with the value the franchise adds to the pension plan, or a guy who is more concerned about condos than championships. You know, someone who says, "Hey! I like the Leafs. I want to see them win the Stanley Cup again." and MEAN it, instead of just blowing smoke up the collective arse of the fans. Maybe a GM who knows how to make a trade and has a pair. I like Yanic Perrault just fine, but he ain't the guy to put us over the top.

Bah. I'll try an be positive - good young talent, great coach, great captain (although he'll be retiring in the next few years), and an alright goalie. Let's lay off Raycroft here shall we? 36 wins. Only Belfour had more in the blue-and-white, and there's 3 games left. A bad stretch in December does not a season make... although it does a season break.

Argh.

Sometimes I Get Art

This is interesting. Now, I'm not an artist, and generally my artistic sensibilities lie in the realm of "I like it." or "No sir, I don't like it." I've found some of the more out-there pieces of the past offensive, but generally if it's outlandish I see it as just there for shock value. But all art is open for interpretation and speaks to each individual differently.

That piece? My Sweet Lord. An anatomically correct, naked, chocolate Jesus? I like it. I haven't seen it, but I like the idea. Assuming it's as described, I think those that are offended are being ridiculous and reactionary and are close-minded buffoons.

Jesus, arms outstretched (I'd assume in a Crucifixion pose), no loin cloth, made of milk chocolate, displayed during the Holy Week of Easter. Brilliant.

I'm not sure what people are offended about. The nudity? Jesus was a man, with all them man-parts. Christianity teaches that mankind was created in God's image. I've never understood the religious issue with nudity outside of a sexual view. The problem there is that if they hadn't been so uptight about nudity in the first place, it wouldn't be viewed as sexual. But that's another rant. There's nothing about this work that seems to indicate it's anything but anatomical. David's nude, as are countless other works of art.

Is it the pose? I don't see why, Jesus with arms outstretched is hardly uncommon.

The chocolate? It's a medium. It's also a key part of this piece, which ties in with... the timing. There seems to be consternation that such a "blasphemous" display would be shown during Easter week. Well of COURSE it is. That's the whole point. Easter, which has its roots in pagan spring ceremonies anyway, has long been a source of confusion and disassociation with the Church. What do eggs, rabbits, and chocolate have to do with the death and ressurection of the Christian Messiah? Pink? Yellow? Lavender? Huh? So here's a statue that exemplifies this dichotomy succinctly and brilliantly. Jesus, in a pose that is all about Easter, made of a material that is inextricably associated with Easter, laid bare and human for all to see. As I've said a few times, brilliant. I love it. I'd love to go to NYC to see it.

So yah, I'm confused. Jesus is naked. Ok. Jesus is chocolate - not the first time, I think I can go out right now and buy a few chocolate Jesuses (Jesii?) if I wanted. People make no sense to me, but this sculpture does.



It's not the band I hate, it's their fans.

Less Than Expected

Well, as intended, I played live last night. Tossed in my $40 for the once again full tournament (55 runners). Played with abandon, raising and re-raising a slightly looser range than usual. The real beauty was the post-flop play. Two pair and buddy with TPNK thinks he's gold. Straight and the overcards are playing like they've got the nuts. Nothing at all and everyone folds.

Eventually though, I went dead and got slowly blinded away. With the blinds at 800/1600 and me with 7400 in the small blind, with one limper, final table bubble, I pushed with A5o. BB thinks and folds and the limper stares... I stare back. Finally he calls and shows 33. Great call on his part I guess. His pair holds up and IGH. No regrets. Althought the $740 first place would have been nice.

It was coming up on Mookie time then, and I was feeling better, so I abandoned the idea of the cash game and went home. Signed up, and lasted 20 min in the Mook. Who the hell let Schaubs have AA when I had TT?

CC tonight?


Door closes, window opens.

F _ C K

*insert endless swearing here*

Anyone want to buy a vowel?

I'm going to play live tonight and probably give away a couple hundred bucks to clear my head. Anybody in Toronto is welcome to come out to take what I give. Then again, I'm dangerous when upset.

Maybe I'll get home in time for The Mook and continue my donating ways online. One can hope.

Today is not my best.

Hoover

Out 14th of 60 in The Wheatie. I played a pretty good game, often sitting in the top 5, making moves when needed, and playing my strong hands properly. Traps were set and sprung, all was well.

Then I called home to discuss an upcoming trip and chipped down a bit. Got it all back. Then I got a phone call that distracted me into being blinded out and finally calling with my last 95 chips with K8o and meeting AKo and AA.

Looks like I'll be able to make both The Mookie and Kat's martini party after all. 'Nuff said.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Wheatie tonight. Fonkeramic play, moronic dialogue, hopeless fanboy/girl panting, tools with small tools bashing Wil, dicks with time machines, and all the old-school bloggers joining in the fun. What's not to love?

I think I'll go ahead and win it tonight. Have to make up for missing Los Hoy last night. Of all the MATHs to miss, I miss the one where WAFFLES takes it down. Congrats Sir, you're an inspiration to all us donkeys. Then again, if I can win a Hoy, then anyone can.

I'm hoping I'll miss The Mookie tomorrow, because otherwise it means I'm probably missing Kat's birthday bash on Friday, which would suck. I'm sure she'd understand though. After all, Kat is renowned for her patience and understanding.

Guess I should start winning some games since Neteller has done the completely unexpected and ceased Canadian transfers to poker sites. Note the sarcasm. Nice of a Canadian company to turn its back on its Canadian customers. Firepay and Citadel have already quietly stopped as well. Did I miss a memo? Are there plans afoot to idiotically ban online poker for Canadians too? or is it just because all the Yanks are using Canadians/Canadian addresses to finance their unholy, degenrate habit?

So, what reliable options does this leave? Guess it's time to join the PPA after all, even if I'm not a US citizen. First they came for...



What? You expected a dancing banana?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Damn am I zonked. In bed around 12:15 or so... awake at 4:30am. There is something very wrong with a world where it is 10:30am and I've been up for 6 hours already. But that's what I get for being the greatest friend anyone could hope for and driving someone to the airport so they can go relax in a ocean-front condo in Fort Lauderdale for a week. Joke's on them though, because it's gonna be 19 degrees here today! (That's Celsius you Fahrenheit-loving freaks. Talk about a hackneyed measurement system.) It'll be a miracle if I make it through the day conscious.

Good weekend though. ZERO poker content, mostly food-related. Go home now if you really want to read another fascinating high-level discussion of how much I suck. Didn't play a game (okay, one $3 rebuy WSOP super sateliite on Stars on Friday). Instead, I spent Friday at home bemoaning how much the Leafs suck for taking an 8 minute beating in the 3rd period to turn their 3 goal lead into a 1 goal deficit. We needed that win.. it was a gift that was thrown away. Also, I cooked for the 2nd time that week, which is something I hadn't been able to do for 2-3 weeks previously. Between some kick-ass steak fajitas, and some uber-tasty chicken and sausage stir fry, I was a happy camper. Saturday was helping run a couple errands and then a dual-birthday for 2 good friends. One rented hall, lots of booze, a decent live band, and 3am Chinese on Spadina and it felt like I was 10 years younger. Not so much the next morning.

But I was running a rooming house, with 2 friends crashing, and another coming by the next morning. Breakfast was made (by friend #3 - who had not been drinking the night before, but WAS leaving for Florida today), and enjoyed, and then the day was spent by me making the best roast beef I've yet managed, and some kick-ass french onion soup (but it's always awesome). I love my remote thermometer (which is in Fahrenheit you Celsius-loving freaks. Who bases their temperature on the fixed-points of the most ubiquitous and necessary compound on Earth and evenly divides it into 100 gradations? Really.) Watch some movies and get to bed in time to get 4 hours of sleep. Tonight? I imagine there'll be something involving a sandwich and leftovers. There's The Hoy too, but I have serious doubts as to my lucidity at that point.




Coupon's expired. No freebie for you.

Two days

Mookie = out in some unrespectable position.

CC's = out 6th of 15. I regret nothing. Even my last hand (KQ vs AA) almost made it when I turned two pair, but then the board paired giving my opponent a better two pair. It did get damned boring towards the end though. Weak-tight was the name of the game, with blinds being passed around. I finally upped my aggression to take more than the others and it was working until I met Mr. AA. No table chatter either.

Now comes the weekend, no plans tonight = chores and maybe poker. Or maybe games. Or movies. Tomorrow = HUGE double-birthday bash for some friends, conveniently located 5 minutes from my place. This should mean that Sunday = recovery from Saturday.

Things are, as always, good.



Monkeys make terrible butlers. Don't ask.

How Low Can the New 1st Go?

Obviously, it can get as low as 6th. Since that's where I finished in the Wheatie last night. Nice to cash in that beast. 54 runners I think. A few hours of work = $35.10, so a $24.10 profit. Let's call it 2 1/2 hours... so about $10 an hour. Wow. I think I can quit my day job now! :)

Not a bad game, didn't have a ton of cards, but they counted when I got 'em, and I was able to win enough pre-flop to stay alive. But it's the Wheatie, whatchya gonna do? The highlight was being named Wil's nemesis for the night (this is the 2nd or 3rd time now)... just before I got moved to a different table and he later got knocked out by some non-nemesis. Didn't play the 2nd chance, which I think had a bigger turnout than the 1st. Could be because the main event didn't get posted until the evening, while the 2nd chance has been there all week.

I loved the "I wish Wil would sign on." comments in the 2nd chance. He certainly attracts an... intriguing crowd. Have I mentioned I dislike celebrity hounds? See my post on Toronto on how much we just don't care. I like Wil, he was da bomb in Python, yo. Plus, I'd just seen the end of Deep Core the previous night, and he's just a total badass in the end credits. :) That said, I started playing because of his blog, and I started reading his blog because of Slashdot, not because I was really curious about what Wesley Crusher (DIE DIE DIE) was up to.

Where was I? Beats me. Got a new toy though, and it should stay being fun for the next few days. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures that will never be seen.

I'm audi.


Left a message... no return call?

Hrmph

No poker Thursday, no poker Friday. Woke up Saturday pretty bummed out for no really good reason other than I'm far to critical of myself. Poker Saturday!

Only a Tier 1 peep though. Possibly the luckiest game of my life. Let's recap a few hands quickly (note, I was shortstacked on most of these):

Me: KT. Flop: AK4. I check, opponent raises, I push for my last 150 chips. I'm facing two pair - A4. JQ river turn for the straight.

Me: 33. Push pre-flop. Meet AT. A on the flop... 3 on the turn.

Me: K9. Opponent: A8. Board goes nice and straight for the split.

And there were at least 3 more. I went from last to 1st and of course got the token. I felt dirty the whole way.

Then I went out for St. Patrick's Day and came home far too sober. Played in the Tier 2 and dominated it for an easy 1st place take-down.

And that ended my poker luck.

Sunday was the monthly $200 buy-in, 10,000 chip tournament at the club. 18 runners, I went out 7th when KJo on the button (2nd shortstack) met AA (shortstack) and AT in the blinds. Was mostly card dead the whole time.

Got home for the Big Game (hence the token games earlier) and went out 9th of 12. I place the blame all on FT on its lack of a time bank. Don and I got into it early on. I had ladies, he claims he had snowmen. He raised, I re-raised, he called. Flop was low crap and I bet the pot. He re-raised big and I hesitated. I thought, thought, thought... and then hit the raise button to go all-in and time ran out, auto-folding me and costing my over 1/2 my stack. Went from 3rd to last. Still outlasted Don due to Waffles being the definition of a luckbox last night. I avoided hands with him as much as possible. In the end, I laid down KJo to a re-raise (why do I always get KJo when I'm facing elimination?) and then went all-in with KTd pre-flop when my M was all of about 3. Didn't improve, and lost to someone's trips or something.

Ah well, Hoy tonight. Don't know if I'll be playing or not. Got a phone call to make.

Well, That was a Bust

Not the good kind of bust either. Which is shame, because there are many definitions of the word that are good.

As planned, I met up with one of my closest friends (who happens to live down the hall from me) for a drink and some grub. We chatted of many things, and my Cornish pastry was quite tasty, as was my beer. So far, so good.

I then wandered off to the club, where the tournament had just started, but I was still in before cutoff and got my seat. I'd just been blinded, but it was nothing. I also missed the first hand being Aces vs Kings with the Kings tripping and winning and sending someone home early. They kindly put me just right of Kat. I lasted maybe 20 minutes. I believe I chipped up a little bit and then sat around and folded and chatted for 17 minutes as I was seeing crap and there were many a raiser in front of me.

Then I found me some Cowboys. Raise and re-raise to 1500 in front of me. This is a loose game. Problem was, I wasn't paying enough attention to the guy next to me who had re-popped it. I re-raise to 3000 and he goes all in for 350 more. I know he's got Aces but can't not call that. Sure enough, my Cowboys go brokeback. I've got 350 left in front of me, which gets pushed with blinds at 100-200 and me seeing K9. My two callers actually had worse hands, but they caught and I didn't. So I'm out.

I wait for the cash game. People are dropping like flies so it starts about 15 min later. I take a seat and go for the max buy-in. I was feeling loose, but liked my reads. Except one that took about a 1/3rd of my stack (read a flush draw, he turned 2 pair). That said, I shut down the LAG next to me quickly when I refused to back down to his obvious crap. He beat me when he caught bottom pair against my flush draw, but his exposed 24o was enough to make him fold for the next half hour as he had zero respect after that.

Up and down, and finally at 9:30 is decided to finish my orbit and leave to make The Mookie. Down $70 in cash and $40 for the tourney in about 2 1/2 hours.

Made it to the Mook just as the big blind was about to hit me. Played like a fish. It's not that I was playing any looser than usual, but for some reason I just wasn't trusting my reads. That, or my raises were getting no respect. I folded at least two hands post-flop that I should have called or re-raised, and that cost me a fair chunk. Suddenly I was short-stacked and holding out for something other than card death. Tossed a couple weak aces, suited connectors and a suited king away due to poor position or raises before me. One of these folds was stupid at the time but ended up working out as the board filled in. Finally, with pocket 3's I pushed and was called by a weak ace that caught. Out I went in 27th.

Signed up for the second chance, treaded water for a bit, and finally threw in the towel. I like Omaha, but I just wasn't tuned right for it last night.

CC's Bash tonight - password is pokerworks, and it's the best kept secret out there. Small tourney, quality play. I, unfortunately, will not be attending as I have a condo to tidy up and a bunch of other miscellaneous things to get done. Yes, chores trump poker tonight.

BTW - What happened to those blogger 1/2 cash games? Neteller fiasco cause everyone to fear losing $200 a shot?

It's A Helluva Town

I love Toronto. Have I mentioned this? I've been all over the world, and I have not liked one single place more than home.

Yesterday gave me a "I love this city" moment. I was walking through the Eaton Centre (big honking multi-floor mall in the middle of downtown), and in the doors walks Andrea Bargnani. 7 feet tall, 250 lbs, 21 years old... and the NBA #1 overall draft pick. He's been tearing it up the last few months for the Raptors, scoring consecutive Rookie of the Month honours and has become a force on the team.

Nobody noticed.

At first.

Then, a kid smacks another kid and whispers "Hey! That's Bargnani!" No shit Sherlock, you see any other 7-foot Italians walking around?

Andrea strolls down the hall a bit, and one or two heads turn as he passes. He stops, scratches his head and looks around, seemingly a bit lost. Then he continues on.

Not one person approached him in a full mall in the middle of a city of 3 million. No, "Hey! Great game last night!" or "Andrea Bargnani #1!" not even an "Italia!!" (trust me, you hear it here). No, it's not because Toronto is a hockey town. The Raps have developed a pretty solid following since they started, and they've got some serious buzz this year with their play. They're 1st in their division after all, and 4th in the conference. I've seen Mats Sundin, Doug Gilmour, Pinball Clemons, Carlos Delgado, Roy Halladay and tons of other sports stars walk the streets undisturbed. During the film festival, stars are wandering all over the place, and the most anyone does is look or take a picture from afar.

Is it because Torontonians are respectful? Naw, it's because we don't really give a shit who you are, just stop walking so damn slowly in front of me.

I love my city.

It's Just The Wheatie

Not sure why, but Wil's tourney has taken a bit of flack this week. Some blogs focused on the donkey play inherent in it, and someone said to me "It's just the Wheatie."

Don't get me wrong, the WWdN's are pretty much only played for fun these days. The variance brought in by the non-regulars and novices keeps it interesting, but not necessarily educational. But where else can you play with a Team Poker Stars member for $11? Turns out Wil is also a writer, actor, geek, and totally not that loser ensign from that show about green babes. Yah, this we've known for years. What? You don't read his blog?

There's definitely a fair bit of fonkey play going on. But this is the granddaddy of the blogger tourneys. It's also the major feeder to the rest of them. Wil plays in another game, invites everyone over, and some of them might actually stick around a few weeks and decide it's worthwhile to improve their play. This of course means that the Wheatie is seldom a skill competition. The Mookie, MATH, The Big Game and CC's Bash have more-or-less kept pace with the bloggers' improvement though, so they're for fun and a means to test oneself.

But I, like everyone else, love the weekly Wheatie. It got me into this crazy poker world, and it's probably the tournament I most look forward to every week.

BTW - I went out 19th I think. And 16th in the 2nd chance, but that was pretty much on purpose.

Personally, I think it's great. $11 for one of the least-stressed games out there, and it gives hope that there are still those who are starting out and want to learn and improve. Surely we all remember when $11 was a pretty big buy-in for us and we had no idea how these players could know when to scare us off a pot... or why our top pair never held up. So I'm happy to see the new luckboxes and fish join in the fun. Some will even come back, and they'll start getting interested in improving their game.

I did love one guy's complete breakdown in the second chance when he ran into a hammer boat. Nothing quite like a newbie having no idea about the power of 72o. He didn't last much longer and kept ranting well into the observer chat. Not that anyone paid him any mind.

Although I think Wil needs a bot to answer the chat. It would have these responses.

- I don't have time to sign autographs and send them out
- I'm a member of Team PS because I was asked to be
- I'm playing in this tourney because it's MY tournament and I like the people
- Thank you for saying you loved me in Stand By Me or TNG
- I haven't really been a celebrity for years
- Greg Raymer

Maybe that would cut down the chat traffic a bit. That, and if Stars would implement an individual observer mute.

Anyway, yay to The Wheatie! May it continue for many moons.

Mookie tonight. If you're lucky, you'll get to steal my blinds for a while as I rush home to defend.

Danke Schoen

Goodbye Stardust.

Nothing

Mostly writing this as a means of avoiding some work. So feel free to pay no attention to it at all.

Missed The Hoy last night. Opted instead to get some groceries done and visit my family for dinner. Since I hadn't seen them for more than 5 minutes since before I went to Israel, I figured they deserved some of my time. But I didn't get home until 11pm, far too late to fire up a game. I fully intend to make the WWdN tonight though, and tomorrow will be pokerpalooza. I think it'll go down something like this:

Drinks with a buddy after work. Then I head to the club for some live action with Kat, and then I hurry home to make the Mookie and defend my title.

I actually want to play in the 2nd chance, since I picked it - PL Omaha Hi. No fargin' low hands, and no freakin' 16 hours of raising by the big blind. I have a severe problem with 2nd chance limit games, since they start at 11:30 pm EDT and I have work in the morning. Pot limit is at least something I can go broke on when I want to leave.

Worst case, I'll be registered and donating my buy-in for the main game. But the only reason I won't be there will be if I'm still alive in the freezout at the club... or down to my last $20 in a cash game. I SHOULD be in good form, having warmed up live.

Damn, but I miss live poker. It's been over a month. I COULD play almost every day if I wanted, but I just haven't had the motivation to make the 15 minute walk to my club.

Ok, now I'm fired up. Shame it's only 11:20am.

DST

Ever miss a clock change? You know, you forget the night before, and then sleep in... a lot. Then you don't turn on the radio, or any valid TV that might remind you, and you stay off the web. Then, when you go to meet up with some friends, you're an HOUR LATE because they didn't forget? No? Me neither.

Ok, once... a few years ago, I missed the switch back to standard time and the gf and I ended up at some friends' place 45 min early while they were in the middle of dinner.

This weekend however, I was actually awake at 2am, so I set the clocks ahead to 3 and went to bed. I guess I should set the last couple TVs...

Yah, that's kind of how exciting my weekend was. Friday night was spent getting some things taken care of at home, until I ran into one of my best friends down the hall from me (because he lives there). A couple martinis later and it was bedtime. Oh, one of those things around the home involved almost breaking expensive things in frustration at my on-going computer issues.

----------------

Ok, geek tangent. So a little over a month ago, my C: drive up and died. It was fine one night, I shut it down, and the next morning "invalid system disk". Shite. Reboot, BIOS checks, cable checks, etc... nada. No backup, no recovery disk... drive not even being seen. So out comes the drive and off to my folks' I go. I hand it to my brother to scan and see if it's recoverable. My mother comes back with "all that money on Computer Engineering and you can't fix it yourself?" I then explain the need for a VALID C: DRIVE to fix it. That or a bootable Linux disc, which I was also lacking. Anyway, the data was still there, so all documents, mail, photos, etc, were backed up. Luckily the bulk of my non-program stuff was sitting on separate striped RAID arrray, so I wasn't too devestated. The drive was in the death throes though, with bad sectors magically appearing.

So off to my favourite computer store to pick up a replacement drive. Once there, I decide TWO drives are better than one, so two WD 160GB SATA II drives leave with me. First experience with SATA for moi, and I like trying new things (feel the excitement). Get home, plug it all in and.... blargh. *many hours pass* I finally get a semblance of RAID 0 (mirrored) array up. WinXP installed! (took 3 passes to succeed), poker software on! Woohoo! Off to bed.

Next morning - BLARGH! Horrible horrible errors with the array! Faulty drives! Cats and dogs living together! Sigh. Why what's this? My Asus board doesn't support SATA II? I need to rummage through my parts bags to find jumpers to force the drives to SATA I? That would have been nice to find mentioned. Thank goodness I had my Archos WiFi kicking around to surf teh intarneets and find this stuff out.

And then success was met, and I was able to leave for Israel with the knowledge my computer lived again, and my C: drive was now wonderfully mirrored so I'd never have to worry about losing it again. Ever.

Until I got home and it turned out the drive on Channel 0 was faulty and the slave drive had to be duplicated. Not a big deal, because I could still fully use my system off the slave. That's the beauty of mirroring. Days pass and on Friday last I decide to finally fix this.

This obviously involves me duplicating the faulty source drive to the slave! ID 10 T errors abound. Ah, but I was not so stupid as to not back up my C: drive this time. Somehow, I was miraculously able to get back to Windows (drive faulty - data preserved, just outdated!) And restore the backup. Attempt # 2 - copy the RIGHT way. Array still buggered. No booting. Anger... rising. Unplug faulty drive, reboot.. yay! No array = no problems. Plug faulty drive back in, do NOT create array. Windows recognizes 2nd drive. Full scan... drive okay?? Ummm... scan good drive... no problems. Hrmm...

Blame motherboard and stupid VIA controller. Plug SATA drives into Promise controller ports (yay flexibility!). Create brand new mirrored array, duplicate the right drive. WinXP... success!! Turn off computer. Turn on again (gotcha gremlins!) Success!

SO, as of this exact moment, my C: drive is mirrored and operational. Let's see if it's still that way when I get home.

/tangent

---------------------

Saturday was the moving of aforementioned friend. By far the easiest move I have ever helped with. Nothing heavy (so much solid wood furniture, all so light). One truck load. Sweet. Home in time to continue fixing computer (covered above) and put together a to-do list of stuff I need to get done (as to-do lists involve).

Sunday was the capper to getting the computer to live, followed by me heading over to another friend's place to try and fix her computer issues (much less serious than mine). I think I've met with some success with that computer, but today should tell. It was a worthwhile visit and hopefully stopped some serious issues from escalating.

There is obviously a lack of poker content in there. Oh, here it is!

Saturday night - semi-functional computer. Fire up FT peep token and Stars WSOP $16 Turbo DS. FT is fine. Stars however, has a severe case of no slider. I found my self in a NLHE Turbo DS without a slider to increase my bets. No entry field either. So I'm relegated to min bets/raises. What the? Obviously my opponents are fine. Must be the computer... something missing in a system file (does the Stars client use Active X? Java? .Net framework?) or something. I sit out and reinstall the software, update, and.... nothing! Ok... sit-out, restore my most recent backup and... nada! Ermmm... restart! Nope. Back in the game that all purposes is a limit game for me now. I look like some sort of nutcase betting nothing but a BB into big pots. I scare people with my constant min-raises because I've shown some monsters with nothing but min bets. What the hell? It's too deep into the 1st table to sit out again and restore an older backup. I finally, mercifully go out in 3rd on the first table and do said restore. Load up stars and a cash game and.. there's the the slider! Whew.

It made for a very interesting exercise. Playing limit in a no-limit environment makes for some interesting choices. I'm still trying to figure out if I learned anything.

F-O-C-U-S

Think I've mentioned focus enough recently?

CC last night. I bubbled in 4th out of 18. Really not a bad showing, but I should have cashed, and I was feeling good about taking down the whole thing. Then came that dreaded distraction.

It wasn't a good day for me. I won't get into the details, but the game was not anywhere near my main focus when I started. Then I had a friend call with some somewhat major problems of his own as the bubble approached. I still managed to take the chip lead while talking to him, but then tightened up when I should have loosened and made some bad decisions. Stack got chipped away and suddenly I had an M of 5 with 4 players left. A4s in front of me on the button and and UTG limp with a bit less than double my stack, so I pushed. The limper called quickly and flipped over pocket Tens, and I didn't improve. Ah well, I still liked my game plenty.

Apologies to Kat for apologizing for knocking her out, I was distracted and it was a reactionary post. I really wasn't sorry because you had pretty much exactly what I figured you did in the position you were in.

Tonight - I plan to get some stuff done around the homestead. Yup, an exciting Friday planned. But that's because I have to be up stupid early for a Saturday to help a friend move. Why am I so stupid that I said yes?

Details, But No Film

The poker load on my shoulders just got a bit lighter. I, like everyone else in the universe, want to win each of the regular blogger games at least once this year. Glad I could kick that off with The Mookie, especially with the number of final tables I've seen in this particular event.

But I couldn't have done it without so many other people behind me *sniff*. There's Kat, who transferred $11 to my Tilt account so I could register, since for some reason, FT wasn't letting me deposit, and I didn't win enough a 0.05/0.10 cash game for the buy-in until 20min into the Mookie.

Then there's Mookie, for hosting this event every week. Without him, there'd be no The Mookie. His tireless dedication to setting up this tournament is comendable.

And there's my agent. Stanley Lipshitz... no, wait... he doesn't exist. Plus, he's a tool.

Of course, I couldn't have done it without everyone who folded to my bets, and even more importantly, called when I had them beat. You... yes YOU, are the true heroes.

[cue music]

Oh my God! Momdadgramma,Iloveyou!BillyandStaceygotobed!

-----

Wasn't that fun? No? More like long and tedious and unfunny? Fine... be the jerk, see if I am caring.

I knew it was going to be a good night when I doubled-up via Zeem and my chipstack was 4,444. 4 being my favourite/lucky number, this was 4 times as good. See how that works? Perfectly scientific.

I'd love to give all the minute details and screencaps and commentary on the game... but I just played poker. I made one small adjustment to my game that was hurting me, got cards exactly when I needed them, and otherwise played the same as I always do. This time, the stars were aligned properly. I'm thrilled that heads-up lasted only one hand, because I truly suck 1-on-1 and have seen my stacks dwindle far too quickly in that situation. In the end, it's the same old story - focus, make less mistakes than your opponents, be patient, focus, fold those easily dominated hands, focus, trust your instincts, and focus. Also, focus is key.

It's been a good couple of days. I do believe I'll pay a visit to CC's tonight.

Picture = 1e3 Words

'Tis late. Details at 11.

Meh... Yay!

Wheaton tonight, minus our illustrious host. Out in the high teens/low twenties. Called an all-in with AQh... discovered AKo in LOK1's hand. This hurt. Then came the flopped ladies into bdidde's pocket rockets. Ah well.

Not as bad as finishing 3rd in the $16 Turbo DS, sure it paid $72... but top 2 got tickets to the Sunday qualifier, and the hand that put me out was moronic on my part. I don't wanna talk about it.

Momentary lapses in concentration and judgment, that's all it takes. 1 mistake and you're toast. Strangely enough, poker is one of the few things that holds my interest enough that I can actually concentrate on it. Not that I have ADD or anything, but I like to be stimulated... mentally that is.

It's all okay though. My night ended with the phone call, and all is a bit more sunny in the world. I don't even mind that it lead to me sitting out an SnG on Absolute. Especially when she mentioned she was busy Friday because she had a poker game. That's about as personal as this blog is ever going to get.

I Meant to Push All Those Buttons

Another $16 DS down... not a great game, although I didn't dislike my play.

Hoy - not Gigli, not bubble.. out 14th... stupid move on my part. TPSK no good? Of course not, but it was more of a "either double up and sit out or get out and continue this phone call without distraction." No, not THAT phone call, but still one that was more important than the game.

That is all. Nothing more to see here. Today.

Stupid Button

Well, it hasn't happened in ages, but I actually pushed the wrong button last night.

Great weekend, no poker until around 10:30 last night. Fired up a $16 DS Turbo and a $3+rebuy on Stars. Played well in both, until I got blinded away in the Turbo and stupidly didn't push with an Axo just before the BB when we were 4-handed. 78o in a BB that took half my stack didn't hold up when I called the SB's raise and home I went.

In the rebuy (which I love), I was sitting pretty with 1 min to go to the break, with around $9,000 (M=60). Pocket 9's get dealt and a guy who's been betting with anything and everything for the last 10 hands has just rebought (again) and pushed before me. I call immediately, but then 2 to my left re-raises all-in, and has 425 less than me. I'm not willing to throw it all away against two all-ins, especially when I think the other was a raise to isolate due to a decent, but not great, pocket pair. So I plan to fold... AND HIT THE CALL BUTTON. Sunuvabitch. Any-two shows T2o, and the re-raiser shows QQ and I curse. Q on the flop totally negates my 9 on the river and I'm down to 425 in chips. I toss that away, rebuy twice and we go to break, where I take the add-on. So I'm at 5000 in chips, but instead of being in the top quarter of the players with an M > 42, I'm now in the bottom third with all the other donkeys. I should have left instead of re-buying, but I just couldn't quit like that... instead I gave away my 5000 and left about 15 min later.

MATH tonight... or as it's come to be known here - Bubbletime! Naw, I'll probably Gigli the thing.

Did I mention that I had a great weekend until the poker? Now if only I can find her number...

Who Got Game?

It ain't me.

CC's Bash and a couple $16 Turbo DS qualifiers last night... the less said the better. I played like an absolute donkey last night. To be honest, I haven't felt anywhere near the zone this week. Maybe it's just part of being off for a couple weeks, or maybe it's arrogance. I just know I've kind of been sucking. Bored, distracted, tired, drunk... oh, those might be contributing factors too.

At least I'll be out tonight, so I shouldn't have much of an opportunity to throw away money. Oh no, I'll be much better off spending it on food and alcohol.

Of course, I'll then proceed to continue flushing tomorrow when I attack $2 rebuys and log back onto Mansion. Good times.

Well Rested... NOW

+EV fun just ain't enough some times. Went out for a couple after work yesterday, but made it home with plenty of time to spare for El Mookie. A bit too late and too inebriated to make a proper dinner, in went the microwave pockets. Mmmmmm. Registered for the Wednesday ritual and then fired up a $16 double shootout on Stars. Holy donkerific table Batman.

Since it wasn't a turbo, I treated it like any 1-table SnG and sat back at the start. Occasionally I'd get in cheap with connectors, and caught me some straights. The sad part? even TPNK was enough to win a few times when flush draws were bet hard against me by the biggest LAG I've seen in a while. As it would turn out, it was LAG and me heads up on the first table, and me going completely card dead. Against this guy, Q6 would have been a good hand to go with, but I seldom saw higher than a 7 for a good 10 min. If I saw a K, he'd have an A, if I saw an A, he'd river bottom pair, etc.. In the end, I flopped top and bottom 2 pair, and pushed... into his top 2 pair. Whoops.

So I went out of that about 3 minutes after I went out of The Mook. Guin to my left was catching cards and playing hard. I ended up short stacked on a bad call and called an all-in with AJo (yah, I know... but M was shite), which ran into Guin's AQo and GScott's AK. Q flops and two of us are gone.

I then fell asleep in my chair until my cat woke me and I stumbled to bed, desperately in need of sleep. So maybe playing poker wasn't the wisest decision I could have made.

CC tonight... we'll see if I've got all the other crap I need to do done. I need to prioritize.

Quickie

Maybe I missed a memo that redefined the term "dominated" in poker. Last I checked, if you have KQ and you opponent has AK, you're dominated. Why? Because you share a card, but one of you has a better kicker, hence making that shared card all but useless to the one with the lower partner.

If you have JJ, and you meet KQ, the KQ IS NOT DOMINATED. Yes, the JJ is a favourite, but it isn't dominating a damned thing. JJ vs JT is dominating, but no shared card = no domination. Ditto for JJ vs TT, the TT isn't dominated.

Just thought I'd clear that up, since the term has been misused regularly for the past while.

A Matter of Perspective

New Blogger issues fixed, security settings were a problem.

Despite exhaustion, I played in the Wheatie last night. Played a game of stay-alive for awhile, got lucky when I needed it, and eventually found myself in the final 4. Much like the Hoy on Monday, I finished in 4th. The difference this time is that 4th paid out, and my exit was mostly by choice.

As I said, I was wiped. For some reason, 5 hours of sleep a night isn't working as well as it did before I went on vacation. I also, quite stupidly, signed up for the 2nd chance. Why? Because I figured it was a cheap, safe way to try out limit stud 8 H/L. I knew full well that it would take forever, but I figured I could just donk off my stack if need be. Anyway, the final table on the Wheatie and starting up the 2nd chance was a bit much for my compromised consciousness. It didn't help that the final table as boring as dirt (agriculturalists, spare me the lecture) -- quiet, and the players were scared. I SHOULD have been able to take their chips with gusto, but I was too distracted by the 2nd table and its active chat window (Wil was at my table), and too tired to think straight. So after a less than stellar chipping away of my stack, I decided to push with a flopped flush draw and JTs in my hand. I figured if I won I was golden, and if I lost, then I was one step closer to bed. I lost, but was happy to cash and get away from the paint-drying. I love me this Tuesday ritual... good turnout, and frequent cashes for yours truly. I still want a win, and last night was probably my best chance if I was more into it. Oh, and Hoy and Jecii? 2nd night in a row without seeing pocket rockets once.

Meanwhile, in the 2nd chance, I learned that I apparently am the Limit Stud 8 H/L master. Actually, I confirmed that the best way to win is to want to lose. I kept trying to give away chips with marginal hands (not terrible ones mind you, I have SOME dignity), and kept hitting straights, 2-pair (all kinds of 2-pair, sweet jeebus did I hit them), etc.. and at one point kept a solid lock on 4th place. I'd get within chips of being knocked out and then hit the low, followed by both pots, and then find I'd be back in the top 10. I finally went out in 13th out of 35... missing the money by 8. I probably should have sat out and auto-folded my way into the money :).

That said, Wil was totally my bitch in the 2nd chance... I had him folding all night long. Granted, I did have decent hands when I scared him off, but I think he gave me far too much credit. I know at least once he had me beat when he laid down split jacks against my straight draw, but my naked K was too scary for him.

Mookie tonight? I think so.

Same as it Ever Was

Ok, I truly dislike the new Blogger. Doesn't work with my Avant plug-in, also doesn't work with IE 6.. at least not at my work. (Yah, yah.. I should be working).

Regardless... there's posting to be done.

Been over 2 weeks since I've been able to play I think. Maybe got one game in (CC's perhaps?). Big computer problems (seemingly ongoing, but that's another rant), trip preps, and a week in Israel can do that. But breaks are good, and have traditionally resulted in my results improving. Apparently this is not the case this time around.

Logged onto Stars to discover that the WSOP satellites are back. Sweet. So I fired up a $16 turbo double-shootout to Sunday's qualifier. I like these, but I'm not sure why. It's probably the challenge of winning not once, but twice in a row. At my first table, I fought back from being the very bottom of the heap (and 2nd last in the whole game) to a sizeable chip lead to get heads up against a guy who by all rights should have been knocked out 7 times already but kept getting lucky. He continued his streak by eventually knocking me out. I believe the last hand saw him turn a full house with unconnected cards vs my pocket pair.

So I went on to the MATH. I should note I also had the last two episode of Heroes (not concurrently) playing alongside the game as I missed last week's. I was far more interested in the show than the game, but still managed to catch when I needed to and make the final table. From there I once AGAIN bubbled in the Hoy. I think that makes 3 or 4 in a row, and at least 5 or 6 total. Obviously, the bubble is where I'm meant to be on Mondays. I'll have to do something about that. Fuel played like a madman, taking Lucko's ATC philosophy to an extreme. J7o? Really? He made some claims against 2:1 money and 60/40 giving him the right odds, but I think I saw him fold about twice in the final table. That said, he came in 2nd, and he's been in the zone for a while now. Guess it's time I started doing some math again.

Wheatie tonight, 1st place or not!

E-H-V-E-G-A-S

And so ends the beginning. To those who came to Toronto on our sunny, warm (-6ish Celsius - just multiply by 9/5 and add 32 for you Yanks), fun-filled weekend -- it was great to meet you. For those who didn't come -- that's your loss. Worry not degenerates, for I doubt not that there shall be future opportunities, in more temperate times, to visit my fair city in search of good fishing and fun.

I'm sure Kat will have a full report up soon enough. Needless to say, it was great to meet Jules, Graham, Iakaris, PlatKat, and Gus, and to get some live action against Guin and Kat again (been awhile since our paths crossed live). The turnout was small when compared to the Bash or Vegas standards, but landslides start when a single pebble starts rolling.

Good food and great wine on Friday, was followed by some profitable live action against many drunks (I being one of them, just less-so than the rest). It was firmly established that Gus is a luckbox at the table, but that played nicely to my advantage when he rivered his flush and ran into my flopped boat. Passing out for 5 hours and waking up to creepy children's voices singing about teacups on your TV causes an unsettling environment when you stumble around in the dark at 6am with a mouth full of cotton.

I unfortunately missed dinner on Saturday, but made the tables. Bubbled in the inaugural Eh-Vegas tournament. This, however, was soothed by being able to drop the inaugural HAMMER of Eh-Vegas, and later seeing my pocket Tens turn into a big fat DQB! against Kat's full boat (not a suckout, I was ahead from the deal). Congrats to Iak for taking it down and Gus for placing. Our unfortunate 10pm closing time for the beer and liquor stores meant a dearth of alcohol at the games, but that didn't stop myself, Guin and Iak from playing cash until 4am or so. A down night overall, but not enough to wipe out the previous night's winnings, thanks to a big gain to nearly septuple my final, wallet-emptying buy-in. It's amazing what happens when your last $60 turns into chips... I focused, read the table like a book, and got the cards to do something about it. QQ5 on the flop and me with J5s (cheap flop BB special)? Yah, you don't have the Queen mr. better... why, you have AKo. THAT'S how I called your bets and raises.

These two days proved something else - I am Jules' personal walking, talking poker jinx.

A requested wake-up call from Kat the next morning 5 hours after I found my pillow had me up for brunch with the Two Kats and Gus (what a horrible band name). A surprise was discovered when our waitress came up to us and she happened to be the same waitress as at our poker club. Needless to say, she was tipped well, or maybe it was because Gus was dumping his Canadian cash :).

After dropping off PlatKat and Gus at the airport (29th busiest in the world, 17th in North America - apologies for my inaccurate information on the drive), Kat and I headed off to Fallsview, with hopes of Iakaris and perhaps VinNay catching up with us. Alas, it would turn out to be just the two of us, but we had fun nevertheless.. with 5 solid hours of winning poker. I kept up my roll from the previous night, reading the table with ease and messing with their minds. If I raised to $10 with rockets, what the hell did I minraise with? Why do I limp sometimes and then declare that limping is pathetic and raise 7.5x the BB? I called your raise with 79c? 35h? No way you put me on my straight. You raised on a raggy flop and I re-raised you hard? Surely I don't have crap in my hand. By the time I left, I think the table was sad to see me go, but happy that I wasn't taking their chips any more.

Then I promptly dumped my winnings into the slots, failing to follow the cardinal rule of "quit while you're ahead," as I was almost instantly up an additional $200 on those Blazing 7's I so love, but I pissed that away post haste. Back to the T-dot and the end of Eh-Vegas I. I can't wait for Eh-Vegas II - Electric Boogaloo. I can only hope that Eh-Vegas III will be in 3-D.

So now I suppose I shall look towards Vegas in June. Let's see how that works out, shall we?

Take a Look...

... and you'll find a world of pure procrastination.... lalalala

Oh Mr. Wonka (Gene Wilder, not the bloggers) and your chocolate factory. That really has nothing to do with anything. Look not here for poker content - other than for the second day in a row I was eliminated on the river (this time AK vs A8 with A on the flop.. 8 on the river). I'll live. Just some random thoughts.

Like, why is it so hard to make the information I need easy to find? I'm off to Israel in a week, and need an International Driver's Permit to drive my buddy's car while I'm there. CAA (think AAA, now replace the A with C cuz I'm a Canuck) offers these, but to mail in the application with pictures and license copies takes 3 weeks of processing and mailing. So I wonder if it's faster (ie.- right away) if I walk into the office... main site says nothing. Once I make my way to the CAA site of South-Central Ontario, I finally find one line that says it will take about 15min to do it in person. Easy decision.

I also have a bathtub full of rigid styrofoam packing (from various furniture, appliances, and electronics), because my condo doesn't deal with it anymore. I want to find out where I can toss this stuff, but it's a pain to fine. 3 different google searches before I found a pdf with a link to the proper site (toronto.ca, but it's on a chart that's connected to something else). The place is a 10min drive away, right where I figured it would be... which is more than I can say for the info.

I want a Wii. I just can't find one. Apparently there's a big shipment coming in this weekend, Toys R Us will have a minimum 20 per store. I expect they won't last. I'm hoping Future Shop and Best Buy also get some stock - they're both infinitely more convenient for me... as is EB Games and The Source... and CompuSmart.... and HMV... and anywhere else. Did you know Loblaws and The Real Canadian Superstore sell Wii's? Me neither.

Eh-Vegas starts TONIGHT! Now if only we knew what we were doing. Here's hoping it's downtown and close to my place. Queen St. anyone? College? Richmond even (although I dislike clubs)? I'm lazy... and if it's up at Kat's, my probability of going out tonight drops significantly. If it's at my place, probability goes up :). Still, I'll be sure to kick ass AND take names tomorrow night. I wonder if I'm anathema to Jules at a live table as well... hmm...

Toronto Life is pissing me off. How many times do you have to pay for a subscription before you get it?

Bell is annoying me too. My cell plan expired last year, so I've been wihout contract since May. That said, they've maintained the status quo with my bills (same price, same features.. I can just leave whenever I like). But it's time for a new, smaller phone. This means new contract (or $200 more for the phone - not worth it). I've got a corporate option that would run me $25 a month + whatever asinine fees they charge. 250 min, 1000 eve & weekend, bell-to-bell calling, 6pm-9pm free calls (how odd)... Bell itself can't seem to match this, which is fine, but it annoys me that they aren't even TRYING. Number portability FINALLY comes to Canada in March, so maybe I'll hold out until then and switch to Rogers... we'll see who looks better. I like me them Sony Ericsson phones.

And finally... another pic from the Creatures in my Head. This one's a great commentary on you SHOULD play when you've got the nuts.

1/2 Hammer

Well, made it home in time to play the Hammer Day tourney. Even had enough time to sober back up. I have to say, I think I played a damn good game. I had ONE re-suckout (AQo vs K8s, K on the flop, straight for me on the river), and that was it I think. Picked my spots and played my solid hands, watched the table and made the right calls.

Got hurt pretty bad (4th -> 9th) near the end when my rockets got cracked by a 99 that found a set on the flop. Mostly my mistake, but I have to give "Saab 9-5" credit, he hesitated on the flop just right for me to read a steal/pair. At least I didn't slow-play. I stayed alive, doubling up a couple times, but eventually went out in 7th when I pushed my TT (which is GOLD dammit) over JoeBrooklyn's 45h steal. 332 flop. 4 turn. 4 river. IGH. SICK. But 7th out of 158 is fine, and $46.41 for $7.90 ain't bad. AND 7th place = 1/2 hammer, so that's just like 1st place in this one. :)

Sox went out shortly after when JoeBrooklyn once AGAIN sucked out with a 4-flush on the river. Man, some guys get all the luck.

Had a blast, HUGE field with the Riverchasers and Bloggers joining forces, and gets me all warmed up for this weekend.


P.S. - Bone Daddy just went out in 4th, thus eliminating the last of the bloggers... another one down and now we're heads up with Saab and JoeBrooklyn, the two people most responsible for my elimination... go Saab. Aaaaaaaaand....... JoeBrooklyn wins. Well, glad my chips did some good.

A Harsh Lesson

Went out early in the WWdN. Decided not to play the 2nd chance, then changed my mind. PLO. Played aggressively, got me some good hands, and sat at or near the top for a good chunk. Eventually slipped away, came back, slipped away.

Me: 9sAhKsKh - all in.
Hacker59: 5dJc8cJd
(61/39)

Flop - As 7d Td (48/52)
Turn - 4h (60/40)
River - 6d (0/100)

And out I went in 9th place. PL Omaha's a bitch. Just look at the percentage swings. I've learned something today. I like Omaha, but I know squat about it.

-----

Addendum: I find it kind of funny that Hoy and I were trading 1st and 2nd place back and forth for the first hour of the game, and then we went out one place apart at the end.

Mild Annoyance

So we've all seen the paid reviews on a variety of the bloggers' sites. This started months ago, and I didn't really have a problem with it. I get it, some of you need the income, some just like it as a supplement, and some use it exclusively to play with.

But last week I really noticed it. At least 3 of the blogs I read had a review for a card room supply store on them. From what I saw, not one of the reviewers had actually used the site, but commented on how it looked, the free shipping, etc.. Whoop-de-doo. Hell, all the reviews sounded the same, and could have just been shipped out as boilerplate. Shit like that just reeks of sellout to me.

Fine, review products to your heart's content, but at least USE the stuff you're reviewing! Your opinion is useless if it's, "well, this LOOKS good from the pictures I've seen." Otherwise it might as well be a banner ad. Maybe it's just me, but I put a lot of research into any purchase I make, and try to find out as much as I can about any merchant I use before I use them. This has resulted in me being happy with just about all my decisions. If, for whatever reason, I'm actually looking for a site to buy a table or set on, and all I get is the same vapid review for it, then I'm not going to be filled with confidence. Hell, if I didn't already READ these blogs, and just stumbled upon them in my searches, I'd assume they were astroturf.

And to the company that pays for these reviews -- MIX IT UP. The poker blogger community is big, but it's interconnected. If you're sending out the same review option to the whole group, then you'll end up with 10 sites that are all reviewing the same service on the same day. This numbs the readers, who are your target audience. When they covered PSO a week or so ago, at least I KNEW that most of the reviewers used them, but seeing the same review 3 or 4 times made me roll my eyes.

I know the market is slowly evaporating in the US with this Neteller crap, so the options are becoming limited, but teh Intarweb is a big place.

Melted Snowmen


First, one of those stupid tests. But hey, if you gotta be from ATHF...



I am Frylock from Aqua Teen Hunger Force!!

Which Aqua Teen Hunger Force character are you??


So, played in The Hoy last night against my better judgement. I was wiped from not enough sleep the night before. But, I was staying up to watch Studio 60 anyway, so I figured I might as well split my attention as usual. Short version: Went out in 8th when my snowmen got speared by Shadowtwin's hockey sticks when the hammer flop came down. [Insert Pokerstars rant here... I'm far too lazy to get upset over a $20 buy-in blogger game.].

Longer version: I was shortstacked at the time, having jumped to my usual strong position early and slowly getting chipped away until the blinds mattered and my stack didn't. I had strong hands to start, but then went card dead. The few times I did go for a position move, I'd be re-raised out. It's really quite sad that we're all expecting to get sucked out on (or suck out) when we're in ahead (behind) on these online sites. I don't track hands, but I'm tempted to just to run the numbers.

Hoy made a comment when I flipped over aces at one point that I got pocket aces more often than anyone he's seen in these tournaments. As I said to him, God favours children and fools. I think it's actually just a matter of perception. I see aces probably as much as anyone else, I just have a tendency to show them as well. Usually because (a) I get NO action on them and need to show my dissatisfaction of it, or (b) my opponent goes in the tank before folding and I feel I should throw them a bone (in the blogger games at least).

Anyway, The Wheatie tonight, Eh-Vegas this weekend... good times.

It's Snowing Sideways

No, seriously, it is. Only 2-4cm forecast for today, and it's a bit chilly (-24 C with the wind chill). Enough about the weather.

Let's get the boring ol' poker content out of the way first. Ended up playing on Friday... Tier 1 that I got knocked out of, the 25k on FT where I went out in the 800's (being the first blogger out in our little girly chat), and then hung around until 53rd or thereabouts in the $2 rebuy... top 27 paid. The rebuy was fun, where I donked up a HUGE chip lead at one point by going all-in with paint and catching unbelieveable cards. I then donked it off with the same play... to the amazement of my table. "Some people like rebuys so much they go in with any two cards. *cough*astin*cough*. The 72o was a beauty." People just don't get the hammer. That said, I loosened up the table a whole bunch, and was above average when the break came. My usual play post-break worked fine, and then I got nailed by a bad beat and a bad call and eventually went down.

Now then. Stupendous Bowl anyone? Apparently the horses beat the ursine creatures. I don't get this interspecies violence. I'm sure Stephen Colbert will have much to say tonight. Sloppy game all around, sloppy weather, sloppy play, sloppy field. I guess Peyton deserved it, but I was cheering for Da Bears. I mean, c'mon! Lovie Smith looks like John Amos, and how can you not like John Amos? That said, Manning has one killer ice-cold stare when he wants.

What else? My new toy (see last post - Archos 604 wifi) is great. Now I just need to upgrade my wireless network so videos stream worth a damn. Music is fine, but videos are choppy at best when streamed. However, videos look fantastic when stored on the drive, music is good when you've got headphones (or, I imagine a full sound setup, but I haven't plugged the dock into my amp yet), and the web browsing is totally serviceable. A faster processor would have been nice though. Now if they'd just release their code like the GPL tells them too... or some hackers would get on it and homebrew some apps, it'd be golden. Major downside? The fact that MPEG-2 and AC3 need a "plugin" (read: generated security code to unlock the codec from the firmware) downloaded for $20. Should keep me occupied on my trip.

Isreal ho! I'm off in a less than two weeks to visit a friend. I'm really looking forward to it as it's the first time I've been out of North America in years, and I used to travel all over the world all the time.

And of course, Eh-Vegas THIS FRIDAY! Come one, come all to Toronto for the coldest blogger meetup of the year. Ok, I'll stop perpetuating the myth that's always cold here. It's not cold, you're just a pansy.

B'oh!

Mookie last night. Out 14th of 50. Waffles is back to being my cheerleader, but unfortunately he wasn't around long enough to stalk me from table to table as is usual in the Mook. I took the very early chip lead when I knocked out an AK with my set of 7s on the first hand. I got some decent cards for awhile to maintain, and then went on a sick run where I got:

K9o that flopped two pair to eliminate one player, 66, AKo, KK (knocked out Fuel when I flopped a set), AKh, KJo, in that order, consecutively.

This brought me to nearly double the chips of 2nd place. My table broke and my new opponents had less chips combined than I did alone. This is where it started to turn a bit. I still caught some hands, but there came a strange mix of repsect and disbelief. People would fold to me with hands, but then go after me assuming I was being aggressive with draws later on. This resulted in perfectly good pre-flop hands getting called and chased off post-flop. I stood up a few times and got smacked down by perfectly valid outs. I soon found myself dropping in the standings.

One hand I don't regret was flopping two pair on the flop against pokerpeaker's nut straight, which I felt he might have (for no good reason), and figured he deserved my money if did have it.

I stupidly folded on the turn to 3:1 odds when I had 15 outs (inside straight, flush, set and aces for over possibilities), I miscalculated the pot odds and let it go. I blame FT's lack of a time bank. This hurt me enough to tighten up.

Then my KQo ran into a KJo that caught the J on the turn, crippling me. All-in with A9-soooted vs snowmen with no improvement and IGH.

Eh, that's poker.

Then I donked off $100 in a 1/2 NLHE cash game to finish my night on a sour note. I think I'll avoid the poker tonight, maybe tomorrow too... and most of the weekend. Considering next week is Eh-Vegas, I doubt I'll suffer from too much withdrawal. Besides, with any luck, I'll have a new toy to distract me.