Friday, April 30, 2004

Weekend with the Parental Units

This turned out to be my first losing week since I began blogging. A -$138 week to be exact. The sad part is that through last weekend, I was actually up a couple hundred dollars thanks to my short term luck at a few $5/10 tables. You know, the tables I said I wouldn't play at. The -$400 Monday session at those same tables was the appropriate negative feedback I needed to get back to reasonable playing levels with renewed discipline. Last night's efforts at the $1/2 saw me win a very decent $92, setting the stage for the upcoming weeks.

In other news, my parents are visiting this weekend, up from their new home base in Naples, Florida. My kids haven't seen them since Christmas last year so it should be a fun time for all. I'm looking forward to watching the DVD of the WORLD CHAMPION New England Patriots 2003 season with my dad. Did I mention that the Patriots are WORLD CHAMPIONS? I hope so, 'cause they are.

I went down to Florida to see them play Miami with my dad last October and saw the thrilling overtime win in which Tom Brady threw an 82-yard touchdown pass to Troy Brown to win the game. The Dolphin fans could only muster "How 'bout them Red Sox?" as the previous Thursday was the day Tim Wakefield gave up Aaron Boone's homerun in the bottom of the 11th inning, capping off the latest in a series of Red Sox post-season implosions. Luckily for the Patriots, the Marlins were in the post season which forced the infield dirt to be kept intact at Pro Player Stadium. Olindo Mare missed two field goals in that game, both of which were attempted from the infield dirt left on the field. Had he made either one, the outcome most likely would have been different.

Speaking of the Red Sox, it will be interesting to see how they manage to screw up this year. Right now, as I type this, they have the best record in baseball yet are playing without two of their key offensive stars - Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon. By the way, Trot Nixon rules. He always hammers Roger Clemens when they face off and is just such a clutch performer it's hard not to like the guy. This year, the Sox have obviously upgraded their pitching tremendously with the addition of both Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke. In fact, the Sox lead the majors in ERA and their bullpen hasn't allowed a run in close to 30 innings. I've been a fan of the Sox since 1976 when I was 8 and can't remember when the Sox had such great pitching. It was always the hitting that got them through. They had years when they'd have a couple of decent pitchers, one of them usually Clemens or Pedro Martinez, but never a year when the whole starting rotation was so deep and the bullpen even deeper.

It's tough for me to feel sorry for the Yankees right now, given their payroll (I know the Sox' payroll isn't far behind). And poor Derek Jeter. He'll break out of his slump, but it's nice to know that someone who basically has everything going for him is human too. I apologize in advance to a known Yankee fan.

Well that's basically it, good luck at the tables this weekend to all who play. Unless of course I'm at your table...

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Time For a Little Break

Well, when you play with fire.....

Lost my bankroll last night on what was supposed to be simply a 20 minute session at the 5/10 tables. I was due for this, no question about it, as I had been risking an under-funded bankroll at this table knowing full well what could happen.

I'm chalking it up to a lack of patience as the grinding process had grown thin the past week or so. But I really hadn't taken a break for a while, so now is certainly as good a time as any.

You know, there's nothing like the feeling of your testicles retreating back into your body cavity after you've flopped the nut full house holding KK and an A comes up giving someone else the better full house. Nothing like it. I knew I was in big trouble after that. Hello Mr. Tilt.

So my current status is -$1000, still a nice comeback from -$2100. But now it's time to take a break, and reload and head back to the tables at which I'll be properly funded.

Also, my parents will be visiting on Thursday so I'll probably be busy all weekend and Party Poker will take a back seat to real life for a brief moment.

Good luck to the rest of you all during my small hiatus. I'll post anything moderately interesting since I'll be doing some poker-related reading to brush up a bit on my deteriorating skills.

Sunday, April 25, 2004

My Sets Are No Good

I know it's all variance, but I sure as hell hate it when my QQ and KK both flop sets with a broadway straight draw. Sure enough, it gets hit on the river.

The most annoying one came today at a 5/10 table of all places. Had KK, flopped AKx. Just kept betting. Turn was a Q. Warning signals started to flash, but I ignored them. River was a J. Knowing I was fully screwed at this point, I still called the $10 bet just so I could see the bozo's 10,3 diamonds. Gotta love that runner, runner shit.

Still up for the weekend which is good. Made a couple of more cashouts and my debt to mankind and Party Poker has dwindled to under $600. I feel pretty good about that for sure considering I started March at -$2100. Just got to keep on truckin'.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Week 5 Update

Playing in my home game tonight, so no online action for me. Considering that yesterday was my 36th birthday, I hope to use some of that good karma to win some cash to go along with some birthday loot and buy something nice. Can't seem to find a damn iPod mini anywhere, but perhaps a full blown iPod may be in the works depending on my success/failure tonight.

Week 5 was great online, see the results??? Almost 2/3 the way towards getting to zero....

Week 1: +$260
Week 2: +$144
Week 3: +$199
Week 4: +$201
Week 5: +$508

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Home Game Freeroll

These last few weeks of poker profitability has prompted me do a lot of talking at work about playing poker, both online and in home games. Slightly intrigued, my co-workers who were familiar with the game wanted to test the waters by playing in a tournament, but really didn't want to do it for money. You'll have to understand that my co-workers and I are all engineers who by their very nature are extremely cheap. Let me give you a few examples.

One guy who doesn't want to pay the extra few dollars a month for local trash pickup in his neighborhood brings his trash to work and dumps it in the dumpster here every few days. Another guy refuses to get cable tv because the few channels he can receive over the air are enough. Going out to lunch is like pulling teeth; trying to pick an affordable place that gives you enough food for only a few bucks gets tiring.

Anyway, given that I'd feel bad playing these guys for money anyway, I decided that I'd both play in and setup for them a freeroll tournament. We ended up having eight players, only me having played for money before. Some had played on the computer against computer opponents, but nobody had played online with live players. In order to make the tournament flow and not take all day, I made the blinds go up every 30 minutes. Everyone started with T100 and the blinds began at 1/2.

Leave it to my co-workers to play a practical joke on me though. First a bit of background. For the last two years in January several people would get together at my house for what we call the annual "Madden Bowl." It's basically a round robin tournament where we play the latest year's Madden NFL football game on my Nintendo game cube. Two years ago, I made it to the finals, but got soundly squashed by a buddy who was using the Green Bay Packers and Ahman Green to run roughshod through my defense at will. Prior to the finals though, it was a pretty easy challenge beating my co-workers at the game. So for this year's game, I really didn't practice too much because I wanted to keep a pretty level playing field. Little did I know that two of my co-workers spent the ENTIRE year practicing on their X-box/PlayStation2 without telling me. Basically it was a major sand-bagging job pulled off at my expense. I got supremely toasted at this year's Madden bowl and had to hear about it on a daily basis for weeks.

So before this poker tournament began, I told them that there would be no sand-bagging this time. I wasn't going to pull any punches at this tournament as I had nothing to win and everything to lose. That didn't deter my two buddies from scheming something though. Collusion? No. Turns out the first hand of the tournament, four people went all-in. I was initially flabbergasted. Did they understand the game? Did they realize that three players were now out of the game? Yes, they understood, it was just a joke that they pulled on me. They realized that they wouldn't be able to sand-bag me like they did with Madden, but they had to do something.

Anyway, once the tournament started for real, I sat back and watched the newbies play. It was a loose game and many people were paying to see the flop. Since I could see a flop cheaply for a while, I did. But I didn't get really any cards to play. After the first round and a half, I hadn't won a single hand and was whittled down to T55. At the 2/4 level, I'm dealt A2 off and decide to see a flop. There are about four callers and the flop comes 3,4,5. Well, time to go all in. However, much to my chagrin, I get two callers. Now I'm a bit scared, especially when the turn shows a 6. Now whoever is holding just a 7 is going to take me out of the game. Great. Luckily though, nobody has a 7 and I triple up. Now I've got some ammo to play with.

The first casualty of the tournament is a buddy named Bobby who's holding JJ. He's betting big and actually manages to put two other people all in. Unfortunatley, the board shows 6,7,8,K,9 and the two other people have 5's. Ouch, bad beat on the river.

I managed to win a few more big pots with an A,2 that flopped two-pair, and an A,A that held up. I get to be the chip leader pretty quickly with these wins and it's not too long after that I end up winning. As I told my wife before I left for the event, I was sure that I'd win since there was no money involved.

Overall it was fun and the other players admitted to having a really good time. They'd be willing to do it again in a few months which is fine with me too. Also, I get to be the one doing the trash talking for the next few weeks as revenge for the Madden Bowl debacle. So I got that going for me...

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Couple of Tournaments

I will have some write ups of a couple of tournaments I played this weekend. One was a free-roll local home game with guys I work with who aren't really comfortable playing for money. So I offered to do a tourney with no buy-in and no prize, just the pride in winning.

I also entered a WSOP satellite qualifier.

Got a bit crazy again and played at the 5/10 tables again. Won $240 and coupled with some 1/2 winnings pushed my debt near the triple digits. Only down $999.27. But I rounded up for the status report in the upper left. I'll be concentrating on the 1/2 for the rest of this week as my luck at the 5/10 is sure to run out. I keep telling myself that anyway...

Friday, April 16, 2004

End of Week 4 Update

For those keeping score at home, here's my post Week 4 tally for Party Poker:

Week 1: +$260
Week 2: +$144
Week 3: +$199
Week 4: +$201

Week 4 could have been much worse. Last night I strayed once again from the game plan after getting hosed in the $1/$2 game. I dropped $119 there, which is absolutely inexcusable and rather silly. Not only did I suffer some bad beats early, but I tilted once again. It's amazing how you can feel yourself going on tilt and be powerless to stop it. It's almost like getting that extra lap dance when deep down you know you don't really want to spend the money.

Solution: Off to the $5/10. I cashed in for $100 and relatively quickly got it up to $235 or so. Dropped down a bit, then back up, then back down to below my initial $100 buy-in. Finally managed to get back to $204 and called it a night at 12:30 AM. My feelings were both happy at recouping my losses and angry at letting myself jump out of my disciplined mindset and go to where disaster could have struck. Luckily for the second time in this 4 week timeframe it didn't.

Perhaps a break is in order for a couple of days, or at least one day. I'm probably forcing things now and getting caught in fancy play syndrome.

I hope I can snap out of it and get back to the normal swings that the $1/$2 tables provide.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Hollywood Home Game Thoughts

This past Sunday night I was able to finally watch the WPT version of the Hollywood Home game. I hadn't seen this episode before so it was "new to me." Anyway, there were a couple of decent moments of poker playing, but after a while it actually became painful to watch Fred Willard play.

Now, I'll have to give props to Fred Williard, simply for his appearance in "This is Spinal Tap," the greatest Rockumentary of all time. But his poker play was simply awful.

One of the things that either endears me to celebrities or not is the choice of their charity. Norm McDonald, whose brand of humor I think is brilliant by the way, chose to play for a camp for sick kids. Excellent choice. Richard Karn, known for his role as Al on Home Improvement, played for the cancer research center at the hospital that treated his mom for cancer when he was younger. Another excellent choice.

Then there's Lolita Davidovich. I didn't quite catch the exact name of her charity, but she was playing for something with the word Heifer it in. At first, I thought it was some charity to save the cows and was ready to slam her for choosing such an odd charity. But, I figured, I'll do some research on it before I make a rash judgement and tell her to go eat a hamburger. Well, it turns out her charity is pretty decent as it's main goal is to end hunger in impoverished areas. Ok, I stand corrected, good choice for a charity indeed.

Poor Lou Diamond Phillips. Couldn't catch a break with his great starting hands and his professional-level ability to shuffle chips. Must have been a stack of 10 or 12 he was working with, manipulating them like the masters. Oh well.

In the end, Richard Karn took the title and will go to the WPT finals at the end of the season. Good for him. He probably won't last long, but you never know; he did show some level of poker playing competence.

Monday, April 12, 2004

The Fun Continues

Did some standard $1/$2. Won $67. Cashed out another $100. Short post, this is.

Happy Easter

Aw hell, let's just play like we're drunk. --Teddy Ballgame, local homegame player

Due to it being Easter, but mainly due to my wife inviting over another family with 2 boys to run roughshod through my house on Sunday; I felt it would be wise to begin drinking early. One Bloody Mary before the guests arrived and a few more Heinken's during the visit gave me enough tolerance of the goings on to remain moderately content until everyone left.

So why did I find the need to play poker while somewhat inebriated? Well, Iggy does, so it must be OK.

Note to self: When joining an Omaha game, make sure that it's Omaha Hi/Lo before you start playing for the low. I didn't realize that I wasn't at a Hi/Lo table until about 20 minutes into playing. Somehow I was up $20, and it didn't strike me that I hadn't had to split any pots yet. The funny thing is that this is the second time I've done this. Sheesh, what a maroon.

Then I managed to win about $20 more at $1/$2 7-card stud.

Then I managed to lose that and $20 more at $1/$2 7-card stud.

Then I managed to lose $50 at Omaha Hi/Lo.

Then I reminded myself that I should be playing Hold 'em, the game I know best, the game I've been playing decently the last few weeks, the game about which I've tried to read a few books.

Then I won $34 at a $1/$2 Hold 'em table.

Then things felt right again and I noticed I was sober....

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Status

Had to just post because I made another cash-out. Woo.

Start: -2100
Now: -1398

Streak Rising

Up to five consecutive days with a net gain online. It would be six if you included offline, but that's neither here nor there.

Managed to use the Party Poker buddy list to my advantage and tracked down Pauly of Tao of Poker. Found him sitting at a $25 no limit table which is normally not my thing. But there was an open seat and I decided to take it anyway. Pauly seemed to play pretty tight early on, then more than doubled up with AK, going all in pre-flop. You can get the details at his blog, but it was a pretty sweet win.

Normally, I'm playing on the limit games, so I had to tighten up at this table. I did manage to find a pair of Q's down and raised the pre-flop betting to $2. I think I had two callers. Then when another lady showed up on the flop (Q,7,6), I bet out with $4. I had one caller, Capt_Kirk, or something to that effect. The 4th card gave the board a flush draw, and I really didn't want that to happen, so I went all in. Kirk followed suit and I kind of groaned figuring I'd be out drawn. Thankfully, Kirk was holding 7,6 and flopped two-pair. I guess he didn't expect a couple of Janeways in my hole. Ok, that was bad.

Anyway, managed to double up and finished up $16 on that table. Pauly left shortly thereafter and I went back to my $1/$2 limit games and won another $18 to put my daily net at +$34.

Friday, April 09, 2004

The Hammer Strikes!!!

What a truly amazing run of cards I had last night at my home game. Let me just preface this post with a hint that The Hammer was unleashed in full force.

I had a feeling I'd be doing pretty well, when during the very first hand of 3/6 Hold 'em I was dealt K,Q clubs. The flop was Kxx and I bet out. By the end of the hand I was up against a guy who'll chase anything, most likely having an A this time. This guy's an accountant and great with numbers when it involves banking. When it involves real math, like calculating pot odds and outs vs. cards left, he's a calling/chasing station. He calls me down to show A,10 offsuit. Meanwhile, my Q paired up as well so it looks like he was chasing the straight as well.

The next hand is 7 card stud, high only. We play a lot of hi/lo games, but as it's dealer choice, the high only option was chosen. I'm dealt K,K down with a 4 showing. The calling station from the previous hand shows an A and bets out. I call, 4th street brings me a 3rd K and pairs the A's for the calling station. At this point, my hand is so well hidden, I decide to just call and see what happens. I also don't want to be betting into trip A's. 5th street brings me the case K. Unreal. As it's still only 5th street, I decide to again just call. The last two cards see me raise for all I'm worth. Turns out waiting a bit seemed to help pay me off as another player drew his straight and raised me during the showdown. Sorry Charlie, 4 of a kind beats a straight. After the first 2 hands, I'm up close to $60.

There were a few more memorable hands. In an Omaha/8 game, I'm dealt nothing super, but decide to see a flop. J,J,2 arrives and lo and behold, a 3rd J actually is in my hand. I simply call the betting at this point, but when 4th street brings the case J, I'm amazed at my luck. I begin to raise, and to my surprise, am called by 3 people. I'm thinking that this is Party Poker come to life right in front of me. Turns out, 2 others were holding A,A and K,K respectively and understandably thought nobody had the 4th J. Oh well, I get to sweep up another huge pot.

Then, it comes.

Hold 'em 3/6 and I peek down to see The Hammer. "Self," I say, "this is a great hand to just bluff big time." I hadn't needed to bluff a hand all night, but with what I've been showing, mixing it up now seemed like a good idea. The guy in seat 4 brings it in pre-flop with a $3 bet and I bump to $6. One more caller including the original bettor see the flop. I'm very curious as to how well I can play The Hammer post flop. Well, it turns out to be really easy. I see a 2, then a 7, then an unbelievable second 2. I flop a boat with The Hammer! Now, let me say that usually, well maybe almost all the time, whenever I'm pre-flop raising at our home game, it's no surprise that I'm usually holding a high pair or A,K through A,J. So when the 2,7,2 flop hits, nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to put me on 7,2. I max out the betting whenever I can, and 1 caller shows me AK after the hand is over. I say "Well, I normally don't raise this hand pre-flop, but...." After I show my 7,2, the table is in shock. Both at the fact that I raised pre-flop with 7,2 and with the fact that I flopped the boat when I did it. It was truly my night.

A couple of other unlikely hands earned me more cash. A J,9 offsuit that I limped into flopped 8,10,Q. Sweet. An Omaha/8 game where I held A,2,7,10 flopped J,9,4. Runner, runner of 6,8 let me take both the high and the low.

All in all I won $267 at my home game. Now here's my connondrum. How to split it up between giving money to the wife to buy clothes vs. getting lap dances this weekend. I've always been told that life is full of tough decisions.

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Crazy

Ok, make that 4 days in a row winning. Won $73 in less than 1 hour at a $1/$2 table. I was drawing to the nuts several times, hit them, and had players raisng back into me. Crazy.

So I made my 3rd cash out.

I won't be playing tomorrow online due to my home game on Thursday night, so my weekly summary continues as such:

Week 1: +$260
Week 2: +$144
Week 3: +$199

Quest for Zero update:

Starting point: -2100
Current status: -1497

So far I'm pleased with the results, to say the least.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Quick online update

Managed to put together a 3-day winning streak at the $1/$2 tables. Won enough to make another $100 cashout and then actually win the following day. What curse???

Starting point: -2100
Current status: -1570

Saturday Home Game Tournament Recap

This was the fifth local Hold 'em game that I've played in, each being a $100 buy-in with roughly the same payout and structure. If we get 15 or more entries, we will pay out 50,25,15,10; otherwise we'll do 50,30,20. The turnout for this event topped off at 13 players, 3 of whom were former winners. With 13 people, we divided up into 2 tables of 6 and 7 respectively and drew our seats. I was at the short-handed table with 2 former winners so I was geared up for some good poker.

The rounds last just over an hour in our tournaments, with the blind structure moving from 1/2, 2/4, 5/10, 10/20 and 25/50. The buy-in was a 1 for 1 deal, $100 gets you T100 in chips. The first level was pretty uninteresting for me as I only managed to pick up 1 playable hand, pocket K's. I raised the BB up to $5 and was only called by one player. Of course, the flop brings an A; but I need to test the waters to see if my opponent is holding one. I bet out another $5 and he folds.

Round two at the $2/$4 level is also pretty uninteresting. I'm dealt Q5 in the big blind and get to see the flop for free. The flop comes Q5x and my two pair looks pretty strong at the moment. I check and there is 1 bet and 1 call of $5. I call and see another rag on 4th street. I bet out at $10 and am raised by player 1, caller folds. I re-raise and player 1 folds admitting to holding K10 offsuit and trying to buy the pot. I stay roughly at the T100 mark for a while.

Late in round two, I'm holding 10,5 offsuit in the BB and see the flop for free. Flop is K85 rainbow. I call another $5 bet with two other callers and see a 2 on 4th street. Here's where I made my first move. Two checks to me and I go all in with my remaining T65 or so. One player immediately folds and the second begins to stare me down. He's a former winner but I'm pretty sure he will fold to my bet based on the cards I've shown to this point. After a couple of minutes he says, "I'll let you have this one." This bluff gets me back to the T100 level again and we close out level two.

As level 3 begins, we move to just 1 table and we're down to 8 players. I'm probably 6th in chips with 2 obvious short stacks. With the blinds $5/$10, short stack #1 moves all in UTG for about T25. I look down to see pocket A's. I decide that I'd really just like to play this guy heads up, so I match his all in and raise T50 more. Folds all around and we flip up. He shows 99. The flop comes 10,J,Q and I'm thinking I'll get busted with an 8 or 9. The K gives me the higher straight, so he has 6 outs. They don't come and I grab his T25 and we're down to 7 players.

Not too long after, I'm dealt AJ UTG. I limp in with T10 and there are 2 more callers. I tell myself that if an A shows up on the board or if the board is garbage, I'm going all in again. The flop comes 962 and I proclaim "All in." As expected the three other limpers fold and I take the pot. Somewhat risky, but based on their passive calls pre-flop I figured I could take this one down.

After another go around, I'm the BB and see a lovely 96 offsuit. Two others limp in and the flop comes 982. Top pair, but with a garbage kicker. I check and and one of the former champs, the one I bluffed earlier with 10,5 offsuit overbets the pot with a T50 bet. The second caller folds and the action is on me. I think that this is a bluff by this guy, so I go over the top all-in. He can just barely cover my additional T98, and he thinks about it for quite awhile. At this point, I honestly want him to fold as I don't really feel that this top pair is too strong. He finally says "Well, I gotta call you this time." He flips over 9,10. My spirits immediately sink as I'm outkicked. Looks like I'll need major help on this hand. The turn sees a glorious 6. The remaining players all let out a "Whoa!!!" as I leap into the lead. At this point, with 44 unknown cards, he has 7 outs, the three remaining 10's and the 4 7's which would give him the straight. There's over T300 in the pot now and this pot would probably put the winner in 2nd place chip position-wise. I'll leave it to you to figure out which card comes on the river.

A seven. More "Whoa's" from the table signal my exit from the tourney in 7th place. Looks like I misread this guy a bit as a T50 overbet into a T30 pot should have signaled top pair to me. Then I should have known I was out-kicked. If I simply call his bet of T50, the 6 on 4th street would have for sure put me all in and I figure he'd call me with his top pair and inside straight draw judging from the type of player he was. Bottom line was I misread him and should have folded to his bet, but for a split second I thought I would take it. Such is Hold 'em.

I felt decent about my play, disregarding the final hand. This is the second tourney in a row where I've gone all-in with top pair against one other player only to be out-kicked. I'll have to re-assess that tendency.

Luckily for me, there was a side ring game going on with all the losers who were eliminated earlier and a couple of other onlookers. Managed to make back my $100 and then some with some good tight play.

We will probably have another tournament next month, so I'll be brushing up on my no-limit play during the next few weeks. I think I can compete pretty well with these guys but I just haven't brought home the big prize as my best finish is 4th.

Monday, April 05, 2004

Big Post to Come

I'll have a report on my home game tournament held on Saturday and a recap of my online stuff shortly. I want to make a decent write up on the tourney but haven't had the time.

To cut to the chase, I finished 7th out of 13th, my worst showing ever. But wait until you read how I got knocked out....

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Minor Consolation

Well since I obviously didn't get the call from the Travel Channel, I felt the need to take my vengence out online. All the cards that didn't fall my way last night found their way into my hands tonight. Odd how that happens. Anyway, finished up $87 again. That's twice this week. Interesting.

Maybe it was because I finished my chores first like a good boy. Karma is everything.

So now I've completed 2 weeks of what I call more disciplined play (I like to kid myself).

Week 1: +260
Week 2: +144

For those interested, my playing weeks start on Friday nights. The quest for ZERO continues....

It's almost 5pm...

....and the damn Travel Channel hasn't called me yet. What's up with that? I'm sitting here by my phone and it's eerily silent. I did have one outside phone call that got me all excited. An unknown area code 715 made my heart rate jump up a few bpm.

Just a telemarketer from Wisconsin. Crap.

It is the curse

Had probably my worst night at the 1/2 tables yesterday since I began trying to recoup my losses with "better" play. Ugh. Down $98 dropping my bankroll to $317. At least I didn't go on tilt and jump to the 15/30 tables.

The last $32 or so was spent at a table with a buddy I used to play home games with who lives up in Connecticut now. We used to work together when I lived in Massachusetts and all of a sudden last night, he starts chatting with me in the Party Poker chat window. It's almost like he tracked me down. We hopped on another table and shot the shit for about an hour and a half and I played pretty loose.

I have been putting off so many chores around the house that tonight I promised my wife I'd take care of everything. A break from poker might be good for me too, but I doubt that will happen. I've got this nice cold sore which prevents me from "other" activities I could be doing during the evening, but I'm sure none of you want to hear about that. So I'll probably rush through them and end up playing for a while.

One of the "chores" is to shrink about 60 digital images my brother-in-law took on our digital camera and email them to him. Don't see why I can't be playing poker and doing that at the same time. Right? Right.

In home game news, we'll be having a $100 buy-in NLHE tourney this Saturday. I've done reasonbly well in the four that I've played in so far, coming in 6th, 4th, 4th, and 5th out of about 17 people on average. I hope to break into the number 1 spot this time with my new chips we'll be using. It would suck major ass if I got eliminated early and had to wait for the tournament to end to get my chips back. But thankfully ring games break out among those who are eliminated early and I've twice remade over half my buy-in during this time. I'll try to write up a good tourney report and post it on Sunday.