September Story

A picture is worth 37 words.



All the money went in on the flop. Villian called pf, I popped it x3 or so, villian called. I shoved the flop, naturally. Notice the number of chips in the middle, this was very late in the $32k Rush. So I go out around 65th for $114, instead of a deeper run towards four figures. Yup. Figures.

An awful lot of close calls this month, and pretty much nothing to show for it.

Bad Beat Story (Non-Poker Division)

Recently you registered at coloradorockies.com for the opportunity to purchase 2010 Division Series tickets for games to be played at Coors Field. Unfortunately, your entry was not selected.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt, you lose.

Do not pass go, do not collect $200, you are forced to watch WTBS and Skip Carey instead.

UPDATE: But for the ultimate post-river suckout, so to speak, a friend of mine got picked and gave me his code, so yay Mondo, and yay Rockies! First round playoff tix to be in the can in about 19.5 hours. Now, all we need to have happen is to actually make up that pesky 1.5 game deficit...

Brutality Hits More Than Once

Yeah, this was my exit hand. I bet roughly 3.5x pf from UTG, he called. I shoved the flop:



Okay, so that stuff happens, but not usually for a 1.5m chip stacks deep in the 3r, gah:



I'm still rather curious about that call. Yes, I was gambling that he didn't have an over diamond (or two), by representing a big diamond draw myself. But facing the all in from me, how do you call there with nothing but 3rd pair and an OESD, when there's already a flush on the board? Interested in any thoughts. Was that call proper?

Three times 5+ hours deep in that tournament, I'd managed to get a top 20 chipstack, but a rivered chop about 45 minutes before this, blue my chance to get a truly dominant stack. Oh well. Frankly, I'm far more pissed off at the Colorado Rockies blowing a five run lead against the "phoning it in" Dodgers.

So what about hitting more that once? Well, I also had a deep run going in the JokerStars 1/4 mil lottery today, until another sick suckout took me out in 608th, where winning the hand would have given me a top 100 stack. Bah.

Really close today. At least I eked out a very small profit on the day (had tons of non-cashes...)

Fancy A Cuppa For the Road?

Aside from yesterday's donkarama, this weekend has been about things a hell of a lot more fun than poker often is. Yeah, British cars, British car shows, and mountain drives. Of course, not only does my very non-smart phone take crap photos, it doesn't help when I inadvertently delete a bunch of then while trying to e-mail to myself. Multi-point fuel injection? Fuck that shit. Multi-point epic fail, is what that was.

Anyway, yesterday was the grand tour of the Colorado Conclave, where just about every British car club in Colorado put their wheels on the road for a four hour cruise/rally through the mountains west of Arvada. We made our way through Clear Creek Canyon, back roads to Morrison and Evergreen, all over Jefferson County, out to Idaho Springs, over Lookout Mountain, and Squaw Pass. Beautiful times.

Of course, the Good Doctor Mondo and I do not own a British car. At least not yet. Our dear friends Mandy and Evan had invited us to join them on the sojourn, as a caravan of sorts. the Doc and I took turns driving Evan's lovely red 1972 MGB:



Mandy and Evan made the trip in an even cooler 1959 Jaguar XK150. This is one seriously badass coach:



V-12 power, deep throaty exhaust, and some pretty serious pickup for a fifty year old car. I mean, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agents would drive these cars. The XK150 was actually the predecessor to the iconic Jaguar E-Type. Back in the day, Jaguar was known for making the fastest production cars over there, period. Wow. I could listen to that exhaust note all day long.

Anyway, the day started off great. Damn, chilly, and foggy. Perfect. I mean that! I mean, if you're driving British cars, driving these cars in British weather just adds to the experience. Everyone at Starbucks was looking at us weird, as we pulled up with the top down, but we didn't care, we loved the chill. We grabbed our coffees and scones, and rolled down through the mist, to Arvada, where the tour began...top down all the way. The entire cruise was just a thing of beauty...the aspen are changing color, and we got to see an awful lot of it.

Unfortunately, the day didn't quite end as well as it started. The XK150 had developed an arcing problem, and once we were back down into the Golden, CO area, the car kept cutting out, and eventually needed towing. So that certainly didn't make Evan and Mandy's day.

Our scare was a wee bit worse. The Good Doctor Mondo took two oxygen tanks with her, since we knew we'd be out for a long time...all well and good. Well, once back in Golden, we were going to enjoy lunch together before the drive back to Longmontucky. Seemed like a good point to switch her tanks out...oh crap. The backup tank had been left on, and was absolutely empty. Emergency, yeah. Her first tank had just a wee bit left. The Good Doctor Mondo didn't want to go to any kind of emergency center...but by sitting perfectly still, and not talking, she was able to keep her oxygen saturation around 80% (ours is normally 95% or so), while I drove the MGB like a bat out of hell for 40 miles. I really didn't know I could get one of those going so fast. Anyway, all was made okay in the end...

Sunday was much less dramatic, really. But it was really cool to go back to the car show proper, and lay eyes on everything from a dozen Sunbeam Tigers, to Jensens, to E-Types of many years (among many other Jags), Lotuses of every flavor, back to the early Elites, and even a Lotus 7, an Allard J2, some beautiful big Healeys and Sprites, more TR-4s and TR-6s than one could shake a stick at, and even an immaculate DB4. Very inspiring.

All in all, a great weekend.

"Do As I Say, Not As I Do"

"I don't think Americans should be pitting Americans against each other," - Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), while trying to justify $700 billion in non-offset spending directly into the pockets of the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

That's right, Jon, you're all against your self-styled concept of class warfare....that is, except when you're trying to punish those long term unemployed because...well, they're not in your class.

"[C]ontinuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," - Sen. Jon Kyl in justifying his party's six week filibuster of extended unemployment benefits.

That's right, you're only against helping those who are probably too poor to donate to your endless campaign PACs. I get it. I understand. It's hard for those without any class to avoid either class warfare or hypocrisy or, in your case...both. Simultaneously. It's really hard for your most moneyed supporters to host fundraisers for you on their new yacht when they won't get that second yacht until they can get the working class to pay for it.

I've got your new campaign slogan, for when you need it:

Jon Kyl, taking bread out of the mouths of babes to feed caviar to investment bankers since 1986.

How about:

Jon Kyl, helping to subsidizing shipping jobs out of America since 1986.

Hmmm...maybe lacking a bit of pizazz, but not missing any truthfulness. Note to self, hire Peggy Olson away from SCDP to come up with ten better taglines in the time it took me to write this post.

Hmm, Jonny boy, if you're so against this perceived "class warfare" would you care to explain why you've voted at least three times against raising the minimum wage in this country? Oh yeah, because subsistence wage dollars don't go into your PACs...

Yeah, if there's a hell below, we're all gonna go. You too, Jon, you fucking hypocrit.

Rocktember is the Slow Time

For posting, and for poker. At least over here. After last weekend's session of 20-something tournies, 33% ITM, and yet still saw my bankroll drop....actually, finishing 16th in a 1000 player MTT sucks when you're out because AA < 44 and QQ < TT, both times losing to gutshots on the river. Shot in the gut, indeed. Woulda coulda shoulda been a very profitable day.

Well, let's just say it's time to refocus for a few weeks on something much more fun. The 2010 Colorado Rockies!!





Rocktember is a time when fresh players bloom by stealing their way to home plate and into your hearts.

Rocktember is a time when fans of the San Diego Padres begin quaking in their boots (a 2007 to remember, yo).

Rocktember is a time when the boys in purple just. can't. lose.

Rocktember is a time when the usual national media suspects begin diminishing the peformance of Rockies' hitters because they play 1/2 their games in Coors Field...and yet completely disregard the success of Rockies' pitchers who also have to play 1/2 their games in Coors Field. (Oh yeah, for the SABR nerds out there, the Colorado Rockies have the most valuable pitching staff in baseball, as measured by WAR, for the 2nd year running. Smoke that.)

Anyway, Rocktember is simply that month before Rocktober, and yeah, good things happen then, too. And it's hard to focus on recreational poker weekends when the boys are in town. Went to the game yesterday, going to the game tomorrow, and next Wednesday, and outta fairness to my one good half...well, there will be no poker this weekend, for sure. I'll just have to do with watching Troy Tulowitzki cross home plate after another game-tying dinger:



Best seat ever, thank you Stubhub.

And to the San Francisco Gints, your season is about to climb into a hot air balloon. Those who know me know where that's going...