Great food, unexpected consequences

Hawkette made this wonderful appetizer. It was very simple. She cut whole jalapenos in half, scraped out the seeds, filled them with cream cheese and then wrapped them in bacon. We grilled them and they were fantastic!

However. Important lesson learned here. She de-seeded them with her bare hands. BAD IDEA! After "googling" her situation, she realized you are supposed to wear rubber gloves when working with the insides of hot peppers. Who knew?

Her hands were burning all night. She used ice water, lemon juice, and rubbing alcohol. Each helped but only lasted briefly and then the burning returned. Finally, she fell asleep, but she will never make that mistake again.

Good thing she didn't grab something she shouldn't have right after she gutted those peppers.

tough one to lose

I've been playing a lot more HORSE lately. Just enjoy it so much more than Texas Hold 'em.
This was a tough hand to lose. I couldn't figure out how I lost it at first thinking he had a straight.

We are 3 tournaments into our "wannabe" poker series and I am sucking. I went out around 32nd last night (out of 36). No excuses other than I played poorly. I bluffed off half of my chips when I read a calling station as having 2nd pair. He actually had top pair with a weak kicker. My bad. I don't know if I forgot how to play in these type of tournaments or what. But bluffing into a calling station that will never fold is just plain dumb.

I told my wife all about how to stay tight, be patient, and stay out of pots unless you are sure you have someone beat, and she is now in the top 3 after 3 tournaments. She is playing great; I am not...

Congrats to WillWonka for making the final table. He did great last night.

"There was one?"

What an incredibly awesome quote from a movie I haven't seen in probably over 10 years. Do you know it? The line before it is: "Son; There ain't no draft no more".

Anyway, I've been super swamped with fooball and life. I got home last night from football at 9pm and the whole house was dark. My wife and toddlers had already gone to sleep. I hate that. It sucks to leave for work early in the morning and get home after everyone is asleep. Maybe once in a while isn't bad, but 3 nights a week I do it now.

Of course, I volunteered so it's my own fault. Coaching is fun. I love watching these kids learn. It's fun to see how far they can go. Most of my kids have never played football; a lot of them have never even watched it. So to see them go out and run plays now, is awesome. I just hope we can be competitive on the field. We have 6 out of 22 kids that have played before and most of the other teams we play have the opposite ratio (6 new kids and 22 experienced). But we are progressing.

Tomorrow night is my 3rd "wannabe poker series" tournament. I fared better in the 2nd one lasting all the way until 12th. Hawkette finished 5th and is now ranked 8th on the leaderboard. It's a long season, so no worries here. Wish me luck.

Did anybody do any good on Fulltilt Poker this weekend? It seems a lot of people did. I increased my bankroll by 75%, I have a friend that hit a big tourney for 7K, and another that won almost $1200 in a $75 SNG. It's great to hear when people are doing good.

I just drafted for fantasy football. It was so bad, I'm not even sure I can post it on here for critique this year. I'm in two different leagues and it appears I will do poorly in both. But..... I made some great waiver wire moves last year and took FIRST PLACE in one, so who knows what will happen.

Hope the tables treat you right! Stay patient....

The Sickest Hand Ever

The debate about who the best poker player in history is can be a bit tiring. The ones who count bracelets claim that it must be Mr. Hellmuth, the ones who are keen on relentless aggression often give the title to Stu Ungar and all-round poker enthusiasts often have Chip Reese as their #1 player.

I’m not going to get into this debate, but I think it’s fair to say that Phil Ivey is up there among the best – his performance in this year’s WSOP didn’t exactly lower his value on the poker stock market.

To prove my point, just watch this hand. Many of you have probably seen it already. But it’s a poker classic that is worth seeing a countless number of times. In this hand, Ivey degrades us all to video poker players.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I just realized that my last post was #400. That's a lot of hot air I put on the internet.

Check out this pic of Pujols with Shaq:

Heading into August

Wow! I have been busy. Here are some quick points:

-We started our monthly "wannabe poker series again". Last year I finished 2nd in points after 12 tournaments. I was the 4th person to go out in the first tournament this year. Not a strong start at all. The very 1st hand of the tournament, I limp in with 34 sooted. Flop comes 34J. A player that I know will fire with complete air bets the pot. I just smooth call, hoping to get another bet from him on the turn. We are heads up and the turn is an Ace. He fires another bet out the same size as the flop bet. I read this as weak, no Ace in his hand, so I smooth call again to see if I can get another bluff bet from him on the river. The river brings a 5 (no flush draws on the board). He bets out about 3/4 of the pot and I decide to only call, just in case he has a J5 in his hand. He flips over a K2 for a runner runner straight. I'm down to 2,000 in chips from a starting stack of 5000 on the first hand. I never really recovered and shoved with A10 only to be called by 88. I'll take that any day, having two overs, but in the end the snowmen held. Luckily, there are 11 more tournaments to go.

-Football season has started for me. I'm the head coach of my 8 year old's team. That means that 3 nights a week, I will go straight from work to practice and then get home at 9pm, just in time to tuck in my 3 and 4 year olds. I hate missing an entire evening with them, but I'm sure I'll be doing the same for them when they get into sports.

-Online poker has been poor for me. I will build up my bankroll a couple hundred then lose a couple hundred. Back and forth. I feel like I'm getting nickle and dimed by the juice. Poker is like a lot of things in that you have to get in a groove to keep it going good. You know what I mean. Your making good decisions, good reads, good laydowns. But, if you stop playing for a while, you start making poor choices or whatever; your just not in your groove. That's where I'm at now. I'm not playing enough to feel like I'm getting any better.

-My buddy Mike Eise is trying to go pro. He's the one that won a bracelet this year in the WSOP. Anyway, he found a sponsor and is going to play in some circuit events and WPT events. Good luck to him. I really hope he makes it. I still owe you a write up on everything building up to his bracelet win. Hopefully, I can get it done soon.

That's about it. Hope the tables are treating you right.... Stay patient.