Back in the Game

Well things worked out and I won a little contest on FCP that got me $50 put on my Full Tilt account. That was good because I was missing poker a lot.

I had money on Stars but it was the money I was holding for the Sickie Threads Fantasy Football pool. Pat said he would be forwarding my money last Monday so I was home sick and decided to jump in a $4.40. It went well...




That helps. That night Pat put $50 over at Full Tilt and I let it sit there and I played a bit at Stars with the $216 I won. I played a couple more $4.40's and finished near the bubble. I was feeling good, playing smart, confident, etc.

So this weekend I decided to jump back on Tilt and see if I can build that up.Played in a $3.30 Knockout. Some 800+ players, knocked out 3 to get $1.50 back and then finished somewhere in the money for another $6 or something pathetic. Then I played a couple low limit SNG's and won some more money. Played a Sat into the Midnight Madness. Finished 76th for $32. Not bad. Was doing really well for awhile. 1600+ started but I really wanted to get deeper.

Sunday I played a few $750 and Sunday Million Sats with no success. That is fine since a fellow FCPer took down the Sunday Million last night. I jumped in a $5.50 MTT with 450 players and sadly again finished 44th for like $8.xx. just can't seem to finish these things.

Jumped into 2 $2.25 180 person SNG's. Finished one in 50th and won the other for $97.50. So that brough up my FT account to $166. So in one week I turned the $50 into close to $400. So that means I get to play some more.

Tonight I played a $7 Sat. Won that for a seat in FT's $55 $50K Guaranteed. That didn't go well. Got it all in early with a very aggressive Bruce Buffer (Ringmaster of the UFC) with AK vs his 66. Tough spot. I raised in EP to 90 (4xbb) and I got two MP callers and he repopped on the Button for 680. He had been doing this and either folding to more aggression or taking the pot down there with no showdown. So I reraised all in, the others folded and that was that. He is a "pro" so if i beat him I would get the buy-in back and have a decent stack early. Figured it was the right play. Left with about 355 after that. Doubled up with KK two hands later. Then doubled again later with 66 and then lost it again with AK<66.

Jumped into a Midnight Madness Sat and took that down and jumped into another $2.25 180. MM was a mess and I finished 17th in the 180 for some little stupid amount.

I am getting deep and playing pretty well I think. Some missteps here and there but nothing I can't work on. Good to have a roll again as I love this game.

Busto!

Yup. It happened. Busto. Terrible but oh well. I just don't get it. Was running great. Making strides in my game, winning by playing good more than getting lucky and then boom, the hammer fell and it has just been a sick long ride to $0. Yesterday was pretty much the end of it. KK lost to 45 when I got all in on the flop of 24Q. A on turn, 3 on river. All in preflop near the money of an MTT with 66 all in preflop against 98o. Board was QJQ4J. Last week I lost 4 times with KK and the best hand I was up against was JTo. Yeah, bad beats, blah blah, we all deal with them. Yes we do, trouble is that is all I have experienced the last month and a half is bad beat after bad beat.

I realized when it started sometime last week. I was at my monthly home game and it struck me...I was in the BB short on chips. SB was aggressive and playing at me all game long with his nice large stack. It folds to him and he raises 3xBB. I look down and see 66. I call. Flop comes 556. He immediately pushes all in. He flips over 77 and I flip over 66. Turn, 7. GG me. 2 outs and he hits and knocks me out. Since then I have gone busto.

Oh well. I will be back. Still an overall winner the last 4 years but I need a nice long break. Guess I go back to playing WoW and my new Xbox360. I still have a $26 token sitting on Full Tilt. Have not decided what to use it for yet but I will use it soon.

Bubble Boy

I swear to go I am tired of finishing on the bubble or short of the bug prize. Played 2 $5.50 MTT's at Full Tilt. 29th and 57th. 27th and 54th paid. The first one was the killer though. I was top 9 stack for over 2 hours. Playing great, picking my spots well, etc. Then I get half my stack all in against another who has TT to my JJ. He spikes his ten. I then get AT suited and lost half my stack to A8o who hits his flush. 2 hands I go from top 9 with 30 left to 28th. And soon after I was out. Sometimes it is just better to bust on the first hand.

Then yesterday I played a $3.50 Triple Shootout for the Sunday Million. Top 2 get a seat. Crush the first two tables and as expected finish 3rd. Sure it was for $70 but I want the $215T! Gah!

So Saturday was the final month of the Grand Prix at my monthly home game. I have explained this before but quickly, we play 2 games 1 Saturday out of a month for 6 months. We gets points based on our finish. Buy in is $25. $22.50 goes into that tourney and then $2.50 from each player goes to the Grand Prix. We have anywhere from 7 to 16 players that play. Going into Saturday night I had about a 3 point lead.

The first game had 12 players. Lots of points to be had. We have a guy that comes that plays the big games like the Belaggio Cup and such. He finshed well last year and got a big head over it. We were on two tables and he was on mine and he was just killing our table which is opposite of how he usually runs at this game. I got into a big hand with him with JJ on a T high board and he played it well just letting me do all the betting then showing me his KK at the end to take 60% of my stack. I was pissed. I was on tilt. Next hand I get Qs9s. I limp and see the flop which comes 942 one spade. John bets, Danny (who is 2nd in points) thinks and makes the call and I push for 420. All fold to Danny who quickly calls and flips over 22 for a set of ducks. I hit runner runner spades to win the hand. I would have been out 12th at that point. Not good for the points!

I tighten up and slowly build my stack. With 5 left I look down at AA. I raise it 3xBB and get 3 callers. Flop comes 672. Gary leads out for about half the pot leaving him with just about 400 behind. It folds to me and I take some time and then push all in. He goes into the tank for awhile and eventually says there is only two hands he thinks can beat me as he believes I don't have a set. So that means obviously, he has QQ. He finally gives in and calls I show the AA and they hold. Eventually I get heads up with Ray who has the monster stack and lose with 75s vs AK. I finish 2nd for 7 points and $81.

So the start of game 2 has only 7 players. For Danny to win he needs to win this game and I need to end up last. Well without going into much boring detail, I finish last and Danny wins. I end up losing the Grand Prix by .39 points. .39!!!! Ugh.

I hate this game.

Just more Poker ramblings

So let's see. What poker adventures have I gone on since last posting?

$4.40 and came in 6th. I wished I finished higher but I was card dead once I hit the final table.

Full Tilt just started some 180 mans and I tried one out at the $2.25 level. Little tighter than Stars' $4.40's but they get the job done. I finished 11th for something weak. Need to make the Final Table to make any real money.

Played a $6.60 Super Sat to FTOPS $1,000,000 Tourney. Was doing well early on. Doubled up on the very first hand and was good to go and was down to 3 out of the starting 20 or so. The chipleader was pretty aggressive and I got QQ on the button, decided to limp hoping one or the other would push or raise. SB folded and on cue the BB raised and I repopped him for my remaining chips. If I win we would be close and the SB was really short. He showed A5o and hit his wheel straight on the river. So I won something like $14.xx. Bah!

Played a $1.25 90 person Deepstack SNG. Finished 10th i beleive for a whopping $1.80 or something. lawl

Played in a $5.50 MTT. 534 players and I finished 143rd I think? Somewhere around there. Was doing good and just played on hand stupid and that killed me.

Played a $3R to the Sunday Million. Finished 9th. Top 8 got a seat. *sigh*

Played a $2.25 18 person tourney. Was sitting 2nd out of 12 when I got it all in after an A high flop with AK vs AQ. Q hit on the river. Then I got it all in preflop 10 hands later with AK vs AQ who hit runner runner runner for the flush. Yup.

Big home game this weekend. Last month of the Grand Prix and I am holding onto a slim lead. I will let you know the results when I can.

My sad weekend of poker

Right off the bat I will say that I played pretty well this weekend. Sadly though I got nothing much out of it.

Friday night I played a $5.50 90 man deepstack SNG on Tilt and played well and finished 19th. 18 get paid. JJ < QQ.

I played a whopping 281 hands in one session of .01/.02 NLHE while nursing a huge headache on Saturday evening. I started with the usual $3 and got it up to $5.65 then all the way down to .56 and then finished off at $3. So no lose no win, just even. Oh well.

Yesterday I felt adventurous and jumped into a $500K sat on Full Tilt where the winner wins a seat to the $50+5 qualifier that was giving away some 200+ seats. I of course did what I do in every sat I play well in, finish 2nd.

Then I jumped into a $24+2 $17.5K Deepstack. Got nowhere fast and finished somewhere around 62x out of 1199. That was just bad cards IMO.

Then I was upset and jumped into a $4.40 where I promptly got knocked out 15xish when my flopped set of J's got runner runnered by a dude chasing a Q high backdoor flush draw. *sigh*

Finally I jumped into the FT $5.50 at 8pm and played wonderfully till it got close to the money. I raised with 99 and had the SB push all in on me. If I fold I was going to lose 60% of my stack in the next two blind rounds so I called. He had KK and I was done even though I flopped an OESD. Oh well. 67th out of 576, top 54 get paid. I played well I think so I am fine with it but it just sucks being on the bubble so much this weekend.

Taking a few days off I think and then get back in it. Maybe.

Poker Poker Poker!

Really that is all that I have to talk about these days as it has been pretty much sleep, little World of Warcraft, sleep, headaches, sleep, GTA, and poker. The most exciting bit of news I guess would be the fact that I one a tourney. Not anything monumental, just a small one. It was the Full Tilt $3.30 HOSE tourney. What is HOSE some of you may ask? Well it's a mixed game tourney, after each 10 minute blind level you change games. In HOSE you play:

Limit hold em = H
Omaha Hi/Lo = O
7 Stud = S
7 Stud Eights or Better (Hi/Lo) = E

Now I thought I was in a HORSE tourney where Razz is played after the O and before the S! I was quite surprised when that didn't happen as I can honestly say Razz and hold em are my two strong games. But 3 hours later I finished the winner out of 68 person field. I started heads up with 22K in chips and my opponent had 80K and I quickly widdled him down to 0. It was quite impressive I believe. I don't really remember. He was easy to push around actually.

It was good to get this win. Add it to a final table earlier in a MTT and I seem to be on a good run. Let's hope it holds for a bit.

Haven't played much of the .01/.02 NLHE. There is only one new session of 85 hands and only a .18 profit so I am up $7.18. Blah!

I think I am going to play a couple semi-big tourney's this weekend and will post my outcomes. Wish me luck!

Weekend of Poker

Got a little poker in. In regards to the .01/.02 Challenge, I only played one session. 147 hands and lost the $3 buy in. So I am up $7.

At FCP TB17 started a fun thing to do to go along with Star's in $11 100K Tourney on Sunday. He got 10 people to become captains of a team and pay $50. They would hold a draft, send out stakes, and then the team with the most money won at the end of the tourney wins $400 and 2nd gets $100. Ten captains quickly signed up and they held the draft Thursday evening.

I was drafted 29th by Zsta's Flying Assholes. I decided to keep the stake instead of buying myself in and seeing if I could do better on someone else's dime. 17500 people start this tourney, 2625 is when the payouts begin. I had finished about 10K the first two weeks of this tourney.

Started off slow. Played tight. 10 minute levels are fast but you start with 3000 in chips so I think I have time to find good spots. I finally got dealt a decent hand, 99 UTG. I decided to limp as someone in MP just got donked and I want him to make a move. A few callers and my guy on tilt wasn't and folded. The SB raised it 3x the BB and three of us went to the flop. Flop came A9K two diamonds. SB bet 300 and I raised to 900 and the other guy folded. SB pushed. Please don't have AA or KK. Whew. HE had AQ, no diamonds. Shortly after I raised with KQ suited and a low stack pushed, one called and I called. Flop came KJx. I bet, the other guy called. Blank on the turn and I put him all in and he called with J7. The other guy had J9 and I knocked them both out and was sitting nicely with about 10K in chips. Then the cards went cold. I got through the second break, already into the payouts when I was UTG with KQs and an M of about 2. I pushed and got one called by one player who had KTo. Of course as the you would expect it was all good till the river when he spiked his T and I was out in 2150th.

By that point there was only 2 of my team left. Seacucumber dropped out around 1850th and it was left up to Donkmeister.

Well the wife jumped on the computer and I did something else and I came back an hour or so later to find Donk looking good. About 300 left and he was in the top 50. Make a long story short, we are down to 18 players. Donk is still playing and tobeytobey who plays for Naismith's Unmentionables is left. Donk has to finish one payout higher if we want to win. A deal is made between both captains to chop the payout. Each team gets $200 and $100 is left for the winning team instead of $400 for 1st and $100 for second. Soon after, tobey exits in 18th. Donk needs a final table to win it for his team and he does so in impressive fashion. He ends us sadly though finishing 7th after his QQ runs into AA. Still a great achievement to finish 7th out of 17,500. He as kind enough to send $250 of his winnings to our captain to be split amongst us. Class act. Sadly we redraft this week. :(

$2.67 to $?????

I like poker still, just don't play it as much or study it as much as I did. Actually I have been much more successful since not thinking and reading it all day at FCP and TK. So I have some money in my Stars account and decided to take $2.67 ( I think I did that because it made my BR an even number lol) of it and sit at a $.01/$.02 NLHE table and start playing to see how much I could run it up to. I have tried this before but got bored and played that Smash style and it got boring. This might too but we will see what happens. I started on the 18th and I am keeping a spreadsheet of the action. Here are my current stats:

7/18 103 hands +3.58
7/19 239 hands +5.26
7/19 115 hands +0.84
7/20 114 hands +0.32



571 hands +$10.00

So from this point on I will update and discuss anything interesting as I play.

Praying for Money

That is what the new WSOP Main Event Champion did early this morning. Everytime Jerry Yang had to make a big decision at the table, he would pray. He would pray to the Lord that certain cards show up and that he wins. He would pray for $8.25 million.

Isn't that a bit selfish? Okay, so he is going to donate $825,000 to three charities. Ok. So that makes it ok? I don't see it. What about the other 6,000+ players. Don't some of them need the money? Did God decide he hated everyone else and only like Jerry and gave him the bracelet and the cash?

Well from things I have read around the web it seems like a hot topic. Some are saying the guy is a tool for doing it. I agree. It's no different than a super bowl champion saying god was on their side that day. Does God really hate the Bears and loves the Colts? You would think if he really liked a team enough to help them win the Super Bowl we would see that one team win year after year. If the devil liked another team than maybe the Super Bowl would always just be the same two teams each year.

Others say we have it all wrong. Supposedly he was saying..."God let me win and I will glorify you." Oh, so I can just tell the big man I will glorify him if he puts an Audi RS4 in my driveway and in the trunk $3,000,000. I will get a "I love GOD" license plate holder and a GOD money clip! Sweet. If this is all you had to do I would have done it long ago.

I don't mind praying. I don't do much of it, but I do think seeing grown men pray to god asking for such things to be quite telling. I am not a Christian, I am not a religious man, I believe in God, but maybe I missed the part in my church days where God will heed the prayers of selfish individuals if they promise to glorify him. I will see if it works. You will be able to tell if all of sudden the entire Bush administration disappears and I am driving a brand new Black Audi RS4.

National Don't Use Mirrors Day

I don't know if you knew this or not but it seems today is the day where people, especially rednecks driving big 18 wheelers.

The wife and I were driving back from the rental car place and this large North American Van Lines Van simultaneously puts on his blinker and turns onto our lane and we were beside him.

I was driving to work this morning and a car changed lanes on me and I had to go into the center turn lane to keep my car in good condition and then late on another big rig decided to turn on his turn signal and enter the lane at the exact same time. At least this time he saw me and swerved back before he hit me because I had nowhere to go. One guy on my ass, another guy beside me. Would have been a fun ride I suspect.

So all you readers, head on out on the highway and do whatever you want. It's a free-for-all out there!

You know what I find completely lame?

People who claim to be drunk when they are posting in a message board. They do all the cute things like leave out letters and transpose letters and such to give the full effect...but it's just plain BS. If you are one of these people, stop it. You are lame.

Hahahahahahaha...hahahahahahaha!

Don't go ganking people in WoW



WoW player harrasses woman in-game, gets beat up by woman's husband IRL

Bronco Carson, a World of Warcraft player from Mexico, reported to police on Saturday that three men broke into his home and beat his arms with clubs and totalled his computer. The reason? Carson had been repeatedly ganking the WoW character of the wife of one of his assailants.

Carson reportedly told police that he had been "making it hard for her to get far in the game." The woman had already threatened Carson online, and Carson said that he had already been constantly harassed in-game two weeks prior to the attack.

And then Carson made the mistake of giving the woman his address, telling the woman that "if her husband was man enough to just come meet me to settle this."

The result? Carson got two broken fingers and a fractured wrist during the assault. His computer and entertainment center were also totalled by his three attackers before they left. "I knew that I might be messed with in the game but I didn't really expect her husband to come looking for me," said Carson. "I couldn't have been more wrong."

Now let this be a lesson to everybody. Taunting people behind the relative safety of the Internet may be fun, but don't be stupid enough to give out your real home address. If you do, then it's a whole new ballgame.

Why is it that?

People who have large SUV's drive like complete idiots? Nothing more enjoyable than sitting in your lane doing 75mph while the big SUV driver behind you rides your ass and then starts changing lane after lane for over 1 mile almost killing himself and 4 people and you pass right by him and he ends up right behind you. They don't like it when you laugh at them.

How Come?

Lady School Bus Drivers are always 4ft tall and 6ft wide?

Movie Review Monday

Every Monday from now on I will review movies I have seen in the last week. This week there are 4 movies to be discussed, Blades of Glory, Pursuit of Happyness, The Prestige, and The Illusionist.




The First movie is Blades of Glory with Will Ferrel. I am a big fan of Anchorman and Talladega nights so I was excited to see this movie. I needed a good laugh after a bad Friday. The movie just didn't hook me like the other two movies did. It had some really good laughs but they were few and far between. I agree with my wife that Will and Jon Heder just didn't have a good chemistry to make it work.

Will Arnett was excellent in the film. Amy Poehler was iffy. I just find her better suited for the lame skits on SNL rather than on the big screen. She is an excellent overacter that might pass on SNL but should not be allowed to do it when I have to pay $10 to see it.

Jenna Fischer was the best part of the movie for me. She is so cute. Her and Will were the main reasons I wanted to see this movie and it was well worth it to see the scene between her and Will. I won't spoil it but it was pretty funny.

All in all I would wait till DVD to see this or possibly even wait till it hits HBO or whatever. Cute, funny in spots, but no real cohesiveness to it.


The next film is Pursuit of Happyness


This got a lot of hype when it came out and obviously good enough to get some Oscar nominations. Maybe I was expecting more than what I got. I have to admit I didn't give this movie my full undivided attention. It again, just didn't hook me. Don't get me wrong though, it was an good movie. But many told me it was GREAT and AMAZING and it just fell short in my opinion. But that usually happens to me when movies are hyped up and I wait too long to see them and then I get disappointed.

Will Smith was excellent and his kid, Jaden Smith, was just as good. It's a story about a salesman who is having a hard time making ends meet. His wife leaves him and he takes his kid and starts and internship at Dean Witter. It's a pretty basic movie and doesn't thrown any surprises, just straight to the point. I would see it if you haven't yet, even if you don't think it is the best movie ever, you will still enjoy yourself.

Next on the list is The Prestige


This was a good movie. This was far superior to The Illusionist which I will bash soon enough. This movie was enjoyable from start to finish. The characters were well developed, the actors were good, the writing was great, and even though it through twist after twist at you, when it was over you felt satisfied.

I cannot find anything bad to say about this movie other than I think it was vastly underrated. It seems to me that people either like the Illusionist or this and rarely both. I have to agree 110% with the people that liked this movie over the Illusionist. It did everything right that the Illusionist failed at. So why not get into the Illusionist then...




This might contain spoilers and I will try and warn when it does.

This movie fails on so many levels. The movie crawled at a slow pace and barely kept my attention. It was so slow that it took me 4 or 5 tries to get through it without falling asleep. This movie had so much potential but for some reason it tried way too hard to pull off what it wanted to pull off that it missed the mark by a mile. Watching this and then thinking back on how they tried to set up the twist made me think about the movie The 6th Sense. The formula that M. Night used was attempted here but when it was all said and done it didn't work. When the final twist was presented the motivation of the character who figures it out was missing. It was just a, "okay, this has gone on way too long, we need to wrap this up so let's just show the whole twist and call it a day". And that is exactly how it comes across. There is no rhyme or reason on how Giamatti's character figures it all out when he does.

I like Edward Norton. But I don't like Edward Norton in this. Bad writing and bad directing clearly made this one of his worst performances. He was dull, unemotional, cold, and monotone throughout the movie that it made it painful to watch almost the entire movie.

This movie was a waste of my time and I will say with no reservations that if you haven't seen it yet, do not bother. You didn't miss anything. Unless you are sick and/or have insomnia, then go right ahead and watch it as it will help you sleep.

My Treck Across the Globe! (World of Warcraft Style)

So in light of the post about my addiction to WoW on my wife's site (see links bar) I decided to do a little story about what I did today in World of Warcraft.



I started off in the The Charred Vale in Ashevale. I was there working on a quest for Collin from Stormwind where he needed me to get 8 Crystalized Scales from Basilisks from this specific area. I got most of them the night before but I needed 2 more before I could head off on my long trek to Stormwind on the other side of the world. Finally after killing about 20 I got my final two scales and thus began our little story. The first leg was a quick teleport back to Darkshore by using my Hearthstone. Once in Darkshore I jumped on a boat to Menithil Harbor across the Sea.





Now we have set foot in Menithil Harbor, located in the Wetlands.



You will see a Red X on the above shot. That is where I decided to stop off and play with the tiny red dragons called Lost Welp. Here is a photo taken while we played with them. Cordy especially enjoyed them.



From there we headed to Dun Algaz. This is a mountian pass that will get us to our next area, Loch Modan, where we spend little time as we just hang a right to Dun Morogh.



Dun Morogh:


Cordy was very excited to see snow that I asked one of the Dwarves to take a picture of us.


From there we headed to the Dwarven Capital of Ironforge. From there we could take a tram to Stormwind and finsh this trip.

Us at the entrance of Ironforge:


Cordy was happy to get inside. She was excited about the snow but she got pretty cold and decided to warm herself up...aggressively.


From there we headed to the Deeprun Tram that will take us straight to the Human Capital of Stormwind where we an drop off the Scales to Collin and be done with this quest.

Tram:


Once we got to Stormwind we head off to the Mage Quarter to meet with Collin. Luckily I remembered he was there or we would have been searching for hours as Stormwind is HUGE!



We recieved a nice wand that I cannot use but should make some good money from selling it so off we went to explore. Cordy got excited when she saw her favorite shop in Stormwind, the Cheese Shoppe.



We grabbed her some cheese and then headed to the gates and on our way to new quests and adventures. Here is a shot of us leaving Stormwind.

I Gotta Point This Out, It is Really Good Stuff

My wife has created a new blog, The Park Bencher. You can find the link right over there ---------------------------------------------------------------------->

Seriously, check it out. It is pretty funny and it has been getting some serious traffic in a very short time. This is your chance to get on the ground floor. Do it. Then come back here.

The Poker Gods Have Finally Smiled Upon Me

Yes, the poker gods took a little hiatus but returned to my part of the world yesterday. After entering yet another tourney on Stars with the intention of keeping myself entertained for an hour or so I ended up playing in it and winning the damn thing. I have been obsessed with winning this tourney for months now. I have finished 2nd twice, came in 3rd 3 times, 5th twice, 9th, and a handful of 10-18th place finishes, but the coveted 1st place just never came.

Started out like any other tourney, not very exciting. I seem to play a few hands early and then shut down and go into tight mode in this thing. The play is horrendous and you can accumulate chips by being extra patient and wait for your spot. It's not hard to get paid off nicely with your good hands. I got to the first hour without a hitch. Sitting a little under average and about 86 people left.

Second hour was a roller coaster. Got up quickly to above average and then slowly bled off chips for a half hour till I blew all but 800 chips or so on a race with a shorter stack. I obviously lost that race and was I believe 51st our the 53 remaining. I had a full round before the blinds came around so I tightened up and hoped to see something pretty before the blinds caught up and I would be pretty much forced to push. Sadly nothing came and I was in the BB w/ T8o. Got to the flop cheap and saw an 8 hit and pushed. three callers and was happy to see another 8 on the river and I tripled up to over 3200. From there the cards were not cooperating and I got moved to another table with someone from FCP. I got dealt AA shortly after the move and got a couple callers on a big raise and one caller when I pushed with my flopped set. I was now up to around 10K and was looking to hit the money.

In no time at all we were down to 18 and in the money. Nothing to get excited about but I felt a little good about it since the day before I finished 19th and 24th. Sadly I don't remember much of how it all went down from here to heads up but I remained patient and made sure not to put myself into any sketching situations. Soon enough we were down to 5 and me and the other guy from FCP were still alive and running well. With 2 people from FCP on the FT we had some railers from the site cheering us on. I think knowing people are watching who know me makes me play better. Makes me not make the usual dumb moves I make in the end game. My boy left in 4th or 5th after his AQ ran into Ben's AA. He was pissed but there was no way to think he had AA in that spot. Unlucky, nothing to hang his head on.

I ended up heads up with Ben. I will state right off the bat I hate heads up and the pressure to be here at this juncture again made me uneasy. I wanted to win this. I am tired of 2nd. I like the the second place $ but for me, I wanted to win. I have not won anything over 18 players in a looooong time and I wanted it badly. Luckily Ben was very passive. Usually I get heads up with maniacs and I can't get any decent cards to fight back and eventually push with crap and lose. This was different. I was getting terrible cards and he had the deck hitting him in the face every hand for the first 20 minutes of heads up but since he was passive he would fold to many raises and fold to me preflop a lot so I knew I was not in any rush. We started off pretty even, then I was down to around 50K to his 220K, then I get back to around 100K. It was a teeter-totter for a good 40 minutes. But the time came after taking the lead and then blowing it that I had almost given up. I was dealt A8 and pushed my 90K in. He insta called and I though I was done. He flipped over 88 and I knew I made my one stupid move. But right there on the turn was an Ace and I sucked out and had a good chip lead. Two hands later I flopped a trip 7's and took all but about 14K of his chips and then finished him off in the next hand to win.

It was a good feeling. I liked my play all up to the push with A8. I still had plenty of chips and no reason to do it but I was on tilt and was getting tired. But I am happy to have some money to play with online and happy to get that monkey off my back. Here are my personal stats on the tourney to prove how tight I am. Also, before heads up my won at showdown was at 89%, a 45 minute heads up match killed that.

You finished in 1st place (eliminated at hand #9085015484).

453 hands played and saw flop:
- 27 times out of 120 while in small blind (22%)
- 35 times out of 118 while in big blind (29%)
- 28 times out of 215 in other positions (13%)
- a total of 90 times out of 453 (19%)

Pots won at showdown - 26 out of 38 (68%)
Pots won without showdown - 90

Gotta Fight That War on Tear Raa, Bra!

So Tom Delay (R-Texas) was on Meet the Press yesterday morning and inspired me to post something on my blog. I was laying comfortably on the nice King sized bed in our comped $400/night suite up in Northern Michigan while my wife was taking a shower and flipping through channels till it was my turn to get cleaned up. I came across Meet the Press and this wacky guy talking with a horrid speech impediment. Mr. Delay cannot pronounce the word terror. In the span of like 2 minutes he said it about 4 times and I was just in awe. The best I can come up with is "Tear RAA". How can people take someone seriously when they talk like that? (Oh wait, GW, nevermind). When hanging out with his little congressional buddies does he use the word bra instead of bro because of this terrible problem of his? "Hey bra! Ready to go vote on that bill, bra?"

Then he decided to become a funny talking hypocrite when he stated that he believe the protesters at the mall in D.C. on Saturday were unpatriotic and aiding and abetting the enemy by wanting to impeach the President and wanting the administration to come up with some type of timeline for withdrawal in Iraq. I wonder if he thought the same thing when people walked the streets asking for President Clinton to get impeached due to a BJ he received in the oval office? Oh wait, Democrat...Republican...oh! I get it now! Jeez, there I ago again missing the point. Towing party lines, blah blah blah.

I find it odd that this guy is a congressman and never heard of the 1st Amendment. I guess it only works if the protest doesn't go against your beliefs. I am sure he had no issue with the Bush supporters spitting and trying to start fights with the anti-war protestors. To him they were his bras! He probably thinks of them as Freedom Fighters or something.

I can honestly say I knew nothing of this guy but after watching for 10 minutes I now know what kind of man Tom Delay is. Just another waste of oxygen in my humble opinion.

Still Alive

I haven't had much to post the last month or so. So life got boring. Just some poker here and there, school, World of Warcraft, and just life. Slowly working on my screenplay. It's a horror script. Liz will be writing the dialogue and I will provide the story and plot. Who knows? Have you seen some of the crap that gets made these days? I think I have a fair chance as anyone else in selling it or something.

Well that is that. I will attempt to post more again to all my 1 or 2 readers. lol

Be sure to check out the Park Bench link. New blog started by my wife and some of her friends. Still new but worth a read.

Those Damn Democrats Always Bothering Them Poor Republicans!

"We were in the middle of a war, working in very difficult conditions, and we had to move quickly to get this Iraqi money working for the Iraqi people," Bremer told lawmakers. He said there was no banking system and it would have been impossible to apply modern accounting standards in the midst of a war.

Republicans argued that Bremer and the CPA staff did the best they could under the circumstances and accused Democrats of trying to score political points over the increasingly unpopular Iraq war.

"We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn't, in my opinion, constructive," said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican.

STORY



So this is the response when asked why $8.8 Billion seems to be unaccounted for. We supposedly sent pallets of cash to Iraq and now we can't seem to find some if it? Yeah, cause we can afford to lose that amount. I don't care if the Democrats are looking for points, I would love to know what happened to all that cold hard cash. Just Republicans screwing up and not taking responsibility for their actions.

I Think She May Be Mental

Yup, another blog about my Business class teacher. What a nutjob. Monday almost put me over the edge and the rest of this semester is going to be very trying for me. As seen in this blog, I tend not to let stupid people act a certain way towards me without me letting them know it. Sadly my hands are tied on this one as I found out that this freak is the head of the department so any and all complaints about the business teachers go straight to her. Must be why she hasn't been fired yet.

I found out about that site where you can rate professors. Looked her up last night and BINGO! I am not crazy. Rude, mean, argumentative, treats students like 3rd graders, etc. All the things I have experienced in 12 hours of class. This week she yelled and screamed at a student who was just clarifying his notes and she thought he was trying to argue with her. She started in with me when she told some girl on her cell phone that she better call the 888 number to have it added to the no-call list. Earlier that day I saw that it was not totally true and she started to fight with me on it and I eventually gave up when she kept repeating to me that she got the info from a government site. I asked her if she believed everything the government tells her. I doubt she liked that but oh well. I am 34 and refuse to sit in a class I paid money for to be treated like she treats us.

I'll leave it at that for now. I suspect things will continue to escalate as the weeks go by.

King of the Road!

I don't know what it is like in your area but here in the Metro Detroit area people think they own the road. It irks me. Really irks me. The lack of common sense and the lack of consideration from people around here drives me up a wall. (No pun intended)

Today I dealt with two individuals. Both lacked common sense and one was just trying to be the King of the Road. In the first instance I was merging onto a major freeway this morning on my way to work. As I was heading down the on ramp I noticed that there was a car in the lane I needed to merge into. Now, normal people out there in the world would do a couple different things as the person in the inside lane while traffic was merging. If the the next lane over is clear you would move over to allow the mergers on the freeway, or if that is not possible you will slow down and let anyone ahead of you in, NOT try and cut the merger off. Yes, I was coming down the on ramp at about 75mph and I was ahead of him. To his left was no one, behind him, no one. But he wanted to pinch me off for some unknown reason. I was so clearly ahead of him because when he laid on his horn I looked over to my left to see no one. His front tire was equal to my rear tire. How in god's name he thought he had the right of way is beyond me. I got in front of him, waved to him and hit it up to 85 where he couldn't keep up. For someone in such a hurry he sure wasn't able to keep up.

The second instance is one that happens a lot here in Michigan. We have what is called a Michigan Turn-Around. When on roads that are split by a median we have a turn off so that you can head the other direction. They are commonly two lanes. Common sense would dictate that the driver on the inside lane would be expected to turn into the inside lane and the outside driver to the outside. Well here in good ole Michigan it works this way, Inside driver will go wherever he damn well pleases which is usually the outside lane while cutting off people already there. Of course that happened to me this morning. Of course I made sure to get my spot back by speeding up and slipping ahead of him for kicks. It's nice to have a car that goes quick.

In is common in the Detroit area to be driving down the freeway and put your signal on and the person in the lane you are trying to merge into (who would be about 5 car Lengths back) gun it not to let you in. Everyone has to be in front of everyone. It's really weird. Sometimes it is just fun to turn the turn signal on to watch people freak out that they might have a car in front of them.

I am not a perfect driver. I have made mistakes in the past. Unlike most drivers, when I accidentally cut someone off I do my best to show an apology. Unlike the guy who pulled out in front of me and I had to slam on my breaks not to drive straight into his trunk. His reaction for his bonehead move was to flip me off. Yeah, that makes sense.

So to all you stupid drivers out there. Wrap it around a tree.

Business Class continues to be...odd

So I had my second meeting last night in my Business class. The teacher was in rare form tonight. She was sick so every now and then during her lecture she would hack up a lung in a very non discreet way that at times was revolting.

Part of our lecture was based around free trade and how it effects various economies around the world. AS with every class it seems, there is that one student who has a story or comment for everything that is said. He would not let a lot of things go and was constantly challenging everything she said. At one point our $7 trillion deficit was brought up and the fight began. I can't remember how it exactly went, but the kicker was that he brought up the funding of a war and she freaked out saying that the money spent on the war has nothing to do with anything. Which is odd to say the least.

Another interesting moment was when she was discussing the recent news about Chavez. At one point she got all bug eyed and said that Chavez was going to hook up with Iran and that was a terrible thing. Someone asked why and she said, "Well with them being allies, Iran will send their nuclear bombs to South America and then have a clear shot at us!!!!!" Wow. She watches too much FOX News I think.

At the end of the trade lecture/discussion we said that for the most part the whole country was in favor of free trade. "Congress and many Americans, well, except for the unemployed," she said with a little shrug of the shoulders. Yeah, screw those people who don't have jobs lady. Sure, screw those people who lost their jobs to outsourcing which you have preached for the last hour is a great thing because companies will save money. Screw the people who go homeless or whatever. Crazy lady.

Also we have a new girl sitting in the middle of our group. I find watching peoples interaction with others very interesting. Rachel, a nice girl in our group entertained me last night with her interactions with the new girl. To get a feel for the situation I will try my best and describe each girl.

Rachel is probably about 20. She is tall, slender, normal looking girl. She definitely likes to appear presentable. She is smart, getting her accounting degree.She was wearing jeans, a shirt, and a little sweater and kept her scarf on during class because it was cold.

New girl is dressed in jeans that are 4 sizes to small and even though not fat, she had enough fat to be pushed up out of her jeans. You could see this because she was wearing a skin tight shirt that exposed her entire stomach and made her a)ridiculous fake boobs look scary or b) she was wearing a crazy padded bra that made her look like a mutant. Her belly button was jeweled up. She had a ridiculous looking tan. Terrible amounts of makeup. Her hair looked fried and ratty and oddly enough her top front teeth were silver coated. Then add on her nervous tick with her large portruding tongue piercing. Not bright at all after having two group discussions where her input had zippo to do with anything any of us were talking about. Example; we are on the side of the class that has to create an argument against free trade. Her input..."in japan if you die they will not touch your body for 3 days". Wow.

So of course all the 18 yr old boys in class liked new girl. Probably cause she looked willing to do anyone during the 20 minute break we get. Anytime she moved or talked Rachel would just look at her with a "Wtf, is with this whore" look. It was great. I laughed each time. This should be an interesting class if new girl comes back to sit in our section.

Well it is finally cold out and other ramblings

I was getting pretty used to the nice 40 degree December nights. Now we are down in the 20s and it is cooooooold. We had a little ice storm this week but other than that still not "winter". Supposed to get some snow later in the week but I am not holding my breath. My wife was telling me that there are a ton of places that recorded no snowfall in December this past year that have not done that for 100 yrs or more. Yeah, the weather isn't changing. Yeah, Global Warming is some crazy persons made up conspiracy. Please, some people need to get their head out of their ass and recognize what is going on around them. Must be a sad existence to live with blinders on and not actually use your mind to...think. Oh well, who cares what tree huggers think anyway. Feh. And don't get me wrong. I am not out fighting that fight like I should but I recognize that there is an issue and will do what I can within reason. I still love spraying the cat down with a big can of Aqua Net.

Last year at the beginning of my blog I mentioned my hatred for bicyclists that fail to obey traffic rules. I almost saw another man get run down at a 4-way stop because he believed he was immune to the rules of the road he was using. If the car in front of me didn't stop when he did it would not have been a pretty site. Another incident to illustrate my point about people who fail to use their head. In his case, not using it could have resulted in losing it.

So I am back in school. Started last week. I am taking a business class and a Intro to Law Office. Been awhile and I have to say the first business class was an eye opener. Since when was college run like a High School. I pay money to take a class and I am nto allowed to go the bathroom without prior approval? I lose points for attendence if I do? Wow. I was shocked. Also I found the teacher to be quite the trip. She went on some tangent during her 2 hour long syllabus review about how we are to be nice and considerate to people in the class and out of class in our everyday world. Which I would love to do if it wasn't for all the stupid people I deal with on a daily basis. Anyway, she goes into this church like sermon telling us how to be good human beings and then out of nowhere gets back to "teacher" mode and says that if anyone disagrees with me during class and challenges her then she will have security remove that person because she refuses to feel threatened and will avoid all confrontations this way. WTF? Are you serious? This should be very interesting since she seems to make it known what a GW Bush supporter she is.

The other class is one of those blow off classes. I was reading the 2 chapters I have to have read for tonights class and was laughing my way through it. Actually I gave up in Chapter 2 because I already know what a cell phone is, what a copy machinge and fax machine do, what a calendar is, and how to use an email program. Crazy stuff. Looks like it gets better in a couple of weeks.

Poker is okay. Not great, but not bad. I don't take it as seriously as I did last year. Hopefully that will make me relax more at the tables and then see some profit this year as opposed to last year. Still ahead since I started a good amount but I enjoy winning more than losing.

My wife isn't allowed to pull up Youtube.

So this is for her. This is a show by the guys who did Shaun of the Dead and the upcoming Hot Fuzz. This was a TV show they did called Spaced. Sadly I can't seem to get it on DVD anywhere. Poo!

The New Year

Well 2007 is finally here. A new year of new adventures and new things to talk about...hopefully. Today I will just ramble on about things.

-New Years just isn't that exciting anymore. This year we sat on the couch and watched movies. I made us a nice dinner and that was about it. Played some poker and watched the TV. And that was fine. I didn't feel any need to go out and spend $200 a ticket to eat some chicken, pay for drinks and dance. Years ago I would have been up for that, but now, blah.

-The weather is odd. It is Jan. 2nd and we have yet to see a substantial snowfall here in SE Michigan. At least by this time of year we have had a couple. Each year the winters get milder and milder. Couldn't be that Global Warming BS that Gore keeps bugging us about though, right?

-Poker has changed for me. I had a rough 06 on the tables compared to my 05. My initial dream was to make it big or big enough to buy some cool stuff with my big winnings. Sadly, that didn't happen. I actually went busto for the first time this year and it was not fun. I then rebuilt my BR by selling stuff on ebay and decided on a cool plan. That plan lasted one week before I wanted to just throw my computer out the window. Now, I am playing for the fun of it. I love the game and am okay at it and getting better, but the pressures I put on myself last year did nothing for me. So far this year I have been doing reasonably well compared to the last 4 months and just plan on enjoying myself.

-I start going to school again next week. I am going for my Paralegal degree. Hopefully I can land a decent job with it and then maybe go to law school while working and get some reinbursement. Either way, if we decide to stay here or move out East, a Paralegal can always find a job.

-Working on a Horror Movie Screenplay. Kind of hit a bump and need to really figure it out. I have been watching so many movies lately that I just don't know what direction to go in. I love movies like Hostel. I also love movies like TCM and Last House on the Left. And then there are movies like Feast and especially SLiTHER. Ugh.I will keep you posted.