I'm officially old today

My wife surprised the shit out of me



I had a surprise party at the casino including a room so I could stay up playing poker all night. Every year it takes me longer to recuperate from "all-nighters". I had no idea she planned it. It was the best birthday party I have ever had!

I ended up down $60 playing $1/$3 NL. The big swing hand of the night was when I raised pre-flop with QQ, got one caller and the flop came 5K5. I bet a little over half the pot as first to act and the villian shoved all in. I just could not see calling without a King in my hand. He stated "I have a black 5 in my hand. I'll show you no matter what you decide to do". I did fold and he showed Q9 off suit for the complete bluff. That would have doubled me up from what I started with ($360). Oh well.

Hope the tables are treating you well. I'll probably be back online playing later this week.
Stay patient...

Live tournament time again

Tonight was the once a month live tournament that I play in. I really don't want to bore you with details: I finished 5th, and stayed in first place overall after the first 3 tournaments.

But I did want to discuss a couple of hands. I hit a set of 4's twice. The first time there was a 349 rainbow on the board. I checked and (super loose) player bet into me. I think it was about 1/2 the pot. I had him covered but not by much. Now here was my tough decision. I put him on two overcards. Do you call and hope he hits a top pair, or re-raise in case he has the straight draw and take him out of the hand right there or race him for your tournament life if he calls? That's question #1.

Question #2: Player under the gun (super-aggro) bets 2x BB and I was BB with 44. I called. Flop is KQ4 rainbow. I check, he checks. turn is an 8. Do you bet here or try to induce a bluff from the super-aggo that probably bets on 90% of the pots he is involved in? And if you bet, how much (I have him covered by a margin of about 2-1)?

Question #3: This is an easy one. 5 handed and you have 12K in chips. UTG player has 13K in chips and bets 4K into 1k/2k blinds. You are next to act with JJ. You are 4th in chips with 5th at about 5K in chips. What do you do? Raise all in? Call? Fold?

You can answer what you would do now and then comment on what you think about what I did.... Scroll down for results of the hands











Question 1 result: I called and then checked the turn 6. He checked behind. The river was a 5 completing the straight draw and I bet all in (dumb on my part). Anything I beat won't call, anything I will instacalls. But he folded and I won. It did disguise the fact that I slow played a set from the flop.

Qeustion 2 result: I checked the turn and so did the super aggro. River was a 3 and I bet 4K. He tanked hard and couldn't figure out how that card helped me so he called with Ace high.

Question 3 result: I said easy answer because looking back, I could have called the UTG raise putting him on several Ace or King combinations and try to see the pot. My read on him was any Ace. I actually raised all in, MP called with QQ and UTG called with AK. Flop produced an Ace and I went out 5th.

I'm still in first place overall after 3 tournaments, with the top person after 13 tournaments getting a Main Event buy in next year and travel expenses. Hope the tables are treating you good!

Stay patient....

Sooooo Tired

I can barely keep my eyes open. I shouldn't have started this tourney, but can't really quit it when I am first with 16 players left.... It is 4:37am here. . . I thought the weekend was over; just one more tournament...


Then get sucked out on with QQ vs AJ. Not really a suckout, but a coin flip. Too much work for only ~500. Good night....


Made the final table.....

Another Daily Double Score

I played the $10 Daily Double Sunday night and cashed in both, but didn't go far from there. I really was focusing on a $75 SNG and might have missed a few hands I should have played.


Gavin Smith was directly to my left. It was interesting because he never talked to anyone. He eventually sat out after he was short stacked. I'm in first at this point.


Still in first place. Really won't be happy unless I hit first. Next, you can see the 3 tournaments I am playing in: DDA, DDB and $75SNG


Down to 3 in the SNG and I lose a big hand all in to Petie and then another hand to aggressive betting by donk64. No fun short stacked. . .



I end up finishing 3rd to a suckout, but I was short stacked anyway. I'll take another cash any day. No Gavin shirt for me, although Petie informed me he has 7 and he got Gavin's tonight. I was disappointed in Gavin that he quit playing once he was shortstacked. Maybe he had something else come up. I sure hope he doesn't always do that.



In the DDA I just barely cashed.

I cashed in the DDB but the table closed immediately, so no screen shot. I'll get a double bonus but I'm sure not the best double. I still love playing those Daily Doubles...

Hope the table were good to you this weekend like they were to me. I get to play hookie tomorrow and play golf. What a great life!

Stay patient......

Daily Double Score

Last night I finished 3rd in the Daily Double A for a nice little score of $1600+. But the really really sucky thing was that I bubbled the Daily Double B. With 18 spots paying, I was in 19th place and shoved with 22. A big stack called with AJ and hit a Jack on the river. I'm not sure what the double cash would have been, but I am kicking myself for not making it. **edit** I did get the double bonus even though I didn't cash. See below.

Fantasy Draft

So here we go again. Last year, I got a D for my draft from my online critics and so I tried to make a change in my roster. I traded Tom Brady away for Matt Lienert prior to the season starting. That move was an F and my season sucked balls.

Here's this season's draft results:

Pick Position Name
5th RB Steven Jackson
20th RB Willis McGahee
29th WR Chad Johnson
44th QB Matt Hasselback
53rd WR Santonio Holmes
68th TE Dallas Clark
77th RB Matt Forte
92nd WR Nate Burleson
101st DEF Green Bay Packers
116th QB Donovan McNabb
125th WR Vincent Jackson
140th K Adam Vineteri
149th TE Donald Lee
164th DEF Seattle Seahawks
173rd K Robbie Gould

You can obviously see that I picked as if no one on my team will get hurt. If everyone did stay healthy and played well, I have no issues with bye weeks or backups. Maybe that was dumb, as a lot of guys will take 1 defense or 1 kicker only and plan to pick up another one later in the season. But our transactions cost $1 per drop, per add, and per trade. So I figured I would make the best team I could and plan on minimal transactions.

So what's your grade for me?

Tag -you are it.

The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. They, in turn, answer the following questions.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago: I was 3 years into a marriage that was just about to take a turn for the worst. We didn't fight at all the first 3 years. Not just a little, I mean NOT AT ALL. Then we went through 3 years of catch up where all the things I did wrong in the first 3 years were now handled as "you always do that and I hate it". Then why didn't you say so? "I thought you would change/grow up/morph/???". The kicker was when we had a blow up about me doing something wrong at a party 18 months prior. I might have done something wrong, but don't wait 18 months to bring it up. I couldn't freakin' remember the party, much less what I did there. And she didn't care much for kids (and I had 2 already and wanted more). That didn't work well with me. Anywho, I was divorced shortly after, and am sooooooo much happier today.
   
2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today:
   
   • Catch up on a couple of blogs.
   • Get this post done that I have known about for about a week.
     
   • Get enough work done to just be productive for the day
     
   • Call my 7 year old after school to see how his first day in a new school district was.
     
   • Go straight from work to a fantasy football draft, then rush home to try to get there before my wife falls asleep (so we can talk -right?)
     
3. Snacks I enjoy: chocolate anything and beer
   
4. Places I've lived: Colorado Springs, CO - Saint Louis, MO - Denver, CO - Lake Saint Louis, MO - Lakewood, CO - Wentzville, MO
   
5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Start a company where kids can work at and learn to become adults. They could work around High School or College, Sports, Activities, Weekends. It is so hard for teenagers to find a job that they can work a few hours or only weekends or one day a week. And most of the jobs don't teach them much other than: don't grow up to work full time in a fast food restaurant. Then I would make sure my wife and kids were happy and I would coach kids sports full time (*and of course play lots of high limit poker. Just because I could).
   

And I'm too freakin' busy to go tag a bunch of people, so if you are reading this and you haven't done it yet: YOU ARE TAGGED BY JAMYHAWK. Do it now!

Congratulations TheCloserX5

Ever since I got TheCloserX5 into the blogger tournaments, he has been obsessed with winning one, especially the Riverchasers. He proudly keeps his Riverchasers jacket at work every day just so he can hang it on the back of his chair and proudly display it's emblem for everyone to see (Thanks Riggs for that).

Well now he won his coveted tournament. Congratulations Rich! BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Oh the insanity....

How freakin' ghey is the DMV? That's Department of Motor Vehicles in case you were thinking it was Dude from Milli Vanilli.

I have been going to the DMV every year for the last 24 years. I cannot recall ONE TIME that I got it right the first time. If you are outside the state of Missouri, maybe this is all new to you. But in Missouri, to register a vehicle or to get a driver's license you must go to the DMV. You must bring with you several documents: some relevant, some not. And they change which documents you must bring every other year. So if you remember what you brought last year, and try to bring those documents again, they will "GET YOU" and laugh hysterically as you walk out pulling your hair out crying uncontrollably because there is a new form you forgot and you just waited in line for 45 minutes and wasted your lunch hour just to find this out.

So now, I check the internet. I make sure to have all my forms. I now know that I must have proof of identity to get a driver's license and I must prove where I live. So I go in yesterday and wait patiently for 20 minutes (a nice short wait this day) and get to the counter where I smile real big with my documents in hand and say "I would like to renew my license". I hand the clerk my current driver's license which is UNEXPIRED and has a PICTURE OF ME and required me to show a BIRTH CERTIFICATE TO GET IT as my PROOF OF IDENTITY. And she politely replies with a big smile: "I'm sorry, we no longer accept these as proof of identity." "Come again? Say what? What choo talkin' bout Willis? I know I'm dreaming... "

"The new Proof of Identity law requires that you show a birth certificate or current passport to renew your license". So let me get this straight: I show a birth certificate to get an ID that is certified by YOU to be valid proof of who I am not only in the state of Missouri, but throughout the United States. Then, when I want to renew this ID, it is no longer acceptable as a form of proof of who I am? This specific ID which you will certify as my PROOF OF IDENTITY is not acceptable to you as my PROOF OF IDENTITY? Anywhere else I go, they are supposed to take this ID as INDISPUTABLE PROOF OF WHO I AM, certified by the SEAL OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, but the state of Missouri won't accept it???????

So I turn and start to pull out the few hairs I have left at age 39, and begin my walk of shame as all the clerks in the office stand and laugh and point to me as I walk out crying hysterically. They got me once again.