Donkin' In the Rockies

Knock Knock, Anybody There?

2011-11-08T20:40:00.004-07:00

Not for nothing, and yeah, highly doubtful Donkin' in the Rockies is even in anyone's blog feed anymore, but looks like I may have been talked into bringing this here lil' blog back from the dead.

Of course, it clearly won't be about online poker anymore...this here donkey cashed out nearly a year ago and, while I've been actively keeping up with developments from Black Friday and beyond, I've got no horse in that race, and I'm still pretty certain we're at least 2-3 years away, minimum, from the post-post-UIGEA world.

No, no, no, this blog will be about something else, here's a hint:

Okay, that's not all it's going to be about...but as The Good Doctor Mondo has suggested to me many, many times (backed up by our dearest old car-collecting friend), there may be a bit of room out there for a decent blog whose subject is one's first sports car ownership experience. And wow, we have certainly experienced our share of these last few months.

Now, I'm gonna need a new name for this thing, because Donkin' in the Rockies just doesn't quite seem appropriate anymore...

Checking Out

2010-12-30T22:06:00.004-07:00

And here is how my final online experiences ended:

(all in on the flop)

(all in on the turn)

(all in preflop)

Cashed out 95% of my roll a few weeks ago, and just played the rest. My last three $24+2 took my account to zero (Stars and Bodog already zeroed out). No regrets. No deposits since 2007, and I withdrew in the very very low four figures. My time is worth more per hour than what I ever got out of online poker, and frankly, when 80% hands play as 40% hands in reality, and a coinflip means you're actually a 6:1 dog, I just don't see the point.

It's simply not fun getting it in repeatedly ahead and loving almost every time, while having to read about the more successful exploits of others, who all to often seem to simply benefit more from living on the anointed side of variance.

So I leave it to the rest of you, I've got better things to do in 2011 and beyond. I'll leave the blog up for a bit, but I doubt I'll be writing here any further.

Take care.

Workin' On Da Cash Money Tip

2010-11-08T16:39:00.005-07:00

I must say, this has really been an up and down year for me, poker-wise. I've had some fairly decent successes (well, given my low buyin levels), and I've had at least my share of failure. But it's been an interesting year, to be certain.

Not too long ago, I took a look back at all of my records, those I've kept at home, as well as those from events recorded over at OPR and the like. As it turns out, I learned something I found interesting, and a bit unexpected. Of all of the best poker sites to make money over the long run, over all of the sites I've played on over the years, I've actually made more profit over at Full Tilt than at any other site.

I credit a lot of that to that long old chestnut of taking 2nd in a $16k guarantee ages and ages and ages and ages ago, (such that it doesn't even appear on OPR). Does my lack of ability to exceed that cash in the intervening time mean anything? I don't know, maybe I just got completely balls out of my skull lucky back then. But there were successes afterward, just not as much.

Which brings me to today...my tilt issues this year have been legendary, at least in my own home. So, I've taken a bit of time off of poker, and cashed out a nice chuck of what I had, in order to make The Good Doctor Mondo's birthday a lovely event. There's zero risk of tilt in that.

The most pleasant aspect of the whole deal was how fast the checks came in, especially given UIGEA. Of course, only one of them was in the four figures...and low four figures, at that, which probably helped.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Where Do We Go From Here? - Part Deux

2010-11-03T16:19:00.007-06:00

Continuing from my previous post on the impending Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives, if you haven't heard by now, there is one issue of great importance, and near-immediate salience to the Tea Party movement, that will surely make its presence known very shortly into the 112th Congress, and it is this:

The current statutory debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion will be reached some time between February and June 2011. At that point, if the debt ceiling is not raised, the federal government can no longer borrow any money, and can no longer pay its bills or service its existing debt, the government will be in financial default.

And on top of that, the government will reach that ceiling based on already passed current spending and debt service, meaning that no band-aid of cutting a few programs of discretionary spending here and there will prevent the ceiling from being reached. It could postpone it by a few weeks, hence the somewhat wide range of expected target dates.

Think about that for a moment.

There's a whole metric assload of brand new freshly minted Republicans and tea partiers storming in to Washington on a platform of "NO MORE DEBT", "STOP THE SPENDING", "CUT TAXES FOR THE MILLIONAIRES", etc., etc., etc., who will soon be forced to take a stand on a bill that will either allow the government to take on another trillion or two in debt, or cause all government borrowing to stop, the government to default on its existing loans, and immediately push the world banking system into panic, likely sending stock markets down 50% overnight.

There's no middle ground there, it will have to be one or the other.

To paraphrase, Whatcha Gonna Do when Debt-a-mania runs wild on you?

This brings us to a fascinating dilemma for Mssrs. Boehner and McConnell, as well as the entire new incoming class of Republicans, and their likeminded predecessors (Demint, Bachmann, Ron Paul, Issa, etc.). No extension to the debt limit can pass in 2011 without significant Republican votes. Same goes for the Senate.

Here we have an entire subset of Congress who adamantly refuses to add on to the debt. Well, here comes your chance to prove it. And just to add to the intrigue, to see how tightly you'll cling to those principles, a smart House minority leader (it won't be Pelosi) will tell his caucus to vote against it, thereby forcing the new House majority's hand. The Democrats may have learned a lot from watching two years of the Party of No...perhaps they put those lessons to use, putting the new far right on the ultimate spot.

So, you're the Republican-led House of Representatives. Do you want to be the party responsible for plunging the free world into an instant depression and worldwide bank panic when the United States defaults on its debt? Or were all those Tea Party friendly sentiments just more of the same common campaign lies, with you willing to sell out all those who believed you when you were preaching your "END THE SPEND" in front of your grassroots gatherings of a couple dozen folks? Are you willing to put yourself on the 2012 Tea Party hitlist like Scott Brown has already done? Are you willing to turn your back so quickly on those who got you there? Or, do you dance with who brung ya and stand by your principles and shut down the entire free world economy to prove a point?

If you're Rand Paul, you're already declaring "no compromise" in your victory speeches. Okay....goody gumdrops.

If you're Harry Reid (or the next Senate Majority Leader, please), let's put Rand to the test. No raise in the debt ceiling can pass without a lot of Democratic votes, but one can pass with the votes of all Republicans and a wee couple of Democrats. First thing you do is, you don't even schedule a vote on it until after the House votes. If the tea partiers in the House do show their backbone and vote down the higher ceiling, then you don't even have to risk anything....but if it passes the House and comes to you, just make sure you get about 46 "no" votes, and there you have it. The Senate Tea Partiers will be held to the ultimate test...and America will be able to see in very short order how strongly they hold their alleged core values.

I, for one, can't wait to watch this play out.

Now, this is true, even if the most hard core Tea Party members all vote "no", and the Democrats in the House vote no, a "yes" vote by the remaining Republicans in the House could still put such a bill at the 218 votes necessary for it to pass. Maybe. Depends on how you define "hard core". But then that makes vulnerable all of those who do vote for it to being put on the Tea Party 2012 hit list, as well, and there are plenty who won their 2010 races by slim enough margins that they won't take that chance.

From an Associated Press article via Huffington Post today:

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, planning to take over as speaker now that Republicans have won the House, said that over the next few months he'll look at ways to work with his new tea party caucus to pass legislation they will oppose like increasing the debt limit.

Of course, there are already plenty of indications of how this is going to work out, given how some of the Tea Party stars are already showing their stripes. After having campaigned as the ultimate Washington outsider, who does Rand Paul hire as his chief of staff? From the same article:

Tea Party hero Rand Paul moved immediately to name an insider as chief of staff for his Senate office. Doug Stafford, a longtime GOP operative in Washington, has been his top political consultant and is vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and as a consultant to the Campaign for Liberty.

So much for bringing a fresh outsider's perspective to Washington. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Personally, I'm banking on the Tea Partiers caving in to Boehner and McConnell's demands, for the most part, in exchange for some really sweet committee assignments and earmarks. You know, business as usual. Much like how Rick Scott led one of the greatest Medicare frauds in history and now runs on a "cut government spending" platform. Ambitious folk will say anything to get elected. But when the rubber meets the road, the newly minted members of Congress will lose their moral bearings the very moment the Armey/Koch troops come in to demand legislative repayment for all the attack ad funding that got them their seats in the first place. And so it goes.

Really, it's no different than their insistence on maintaining the unpaid-for Bush tax cuts for the top 2% wealthiest Americans, who are anything but middle class, and eliminating the estate tax which already affects less than 1% of the entire United States population, both of which scenarios are unpaid for and add to the federal debt precisely because they are unpaid for. But it's what the deep pockets that funded Crossroads GPS and the Tea Party Express wanted, so those are the positions you get.

This is not to dimish the serious nature of our rising debt at all. It is a major issue, and it needs to be tackled. We can start be eliminating all existing loopholes in the tax codes...you know, the ones that let companies shift all their costs to U.S. subsidiaries while shifting all their assets to subsidiaries in tax haven countries, so they can pretend they're not profitable here for tax purposes while they continue to make money hand over fist. There's a recent wonderful article about the phenomenon here.

We can also start by ending all farm subsidies now. Why the hell should your tax dollars (and mine) go to a direct handout, right? Sure, that will drive up the cost of food products, and probably put some U.S. farms out of business. But hey, no more government handouts, right? Though it's rather ironic how much of tea party country is in rural, farming America, ain't it. But I digress....

We can also stop with all these science and technology grants to companies where, you know, you build your 30 person design shop here, we'll waive all of your taxes and pay your infrastructure improvements with local tax dollars while you offshore the 1,000 employee factory that actually builds what you design, but in India. We can also stop buying future ultra tech weapon programs that we don't need today and aren't effective against small mountain terrorist insurgencies. Those are all places to start. I'm sure there's more. Beyond, of course, bringing back our entire expeditionary military from Iraq and Afghanistan and South Korea right now. That will save hundreds of billions per year.

But then, even if all of the previous two paragraphs were to come true in the next few months, none of it will prevent us from hitting that dreaded debt ceiling in spring of 2011, which brings us right back to the impending dilemma.

Time to go buy some microwave popcorn. In bulk.

Where Do We Go From Here?

2010-11-03T10:37:00.003-06:00

So the 2010 elections are pretty much in the books, pending a few likely recounts, and what did it all mean? What did we learn, and what lies ahead of us now?

Well, the most obvious takeaway is that the Democrats got their hats and asses handed to them on a paper plate. Nationally, the Republicans pretty much wiped the floor with the Democrats on every level, from U.S. House and Senate races, to governor races, and certainly in state legislative races. I wouldn't be surprised if electoral earthquakes were felt at the county dog catcher level.

The Democrats lost the narrative, and they very clearly lost the outside expenditure battle by a factor of about 37452 to 1. More notably, they failed to accurately portray the obstructionist nature of the minority party in the 111th United States Congress. The filibuster tactic was employed in the U.S. Senate more times since January 2008 than in any other Congress ever. Ever. The Republicans managed to filibuster more judicial appointments (and continue to do so) than at any time in previous history, and have acted in a manner completely contrary to their own position five years ago that holding up presidential judicial appointments is unconstitutional.

However, Harry Reid has also been an abject failure as Majority Leader, in my opinion. Faced with such a record number of threatened filibusters, he failed to actually require the Republicans to go through with their threatened filibusters by actually filibustering a bill. You know, by actually having to get up on their feet and prattle on for 96 hours straight about nothing in particular until you either give up or convince the majority to withdraw the bill. This candy ass tactic of pulling bills back without actually making the minority filibuster the old fashioned way allowed and further encouraged McDonnell in his obstructionist game.

If the Democrats learn anything from yesterday's elections, I hope it's that Harry Reid has no business continuing to serve as majority leader, because he sucks at it. His and Pelosi's lack of congressional leadership have at least as much to do with yesterday's failure as the Obama administration's failure to highlight the things they actually accomplished, that a majority of Americans would consider as good things (and yes, those accomplishments actually do exist).

I would have rooted for Reid's electoral defeat entirely, had Nevada Republicans not nominated such a batshit crazy basket case to represent them. Which brings me to my next subject: What of Sarah Palin, and what was the real value of her endorsement?

Patient Zero Mama Grizzly handed out endorsements to a few dozen candidates nationwide, in U.S. and statewide races. And how did things turn out? Well, approximately half of her endorsees won their electoral battles. This doesn't sound too shabby, right? But think again. This was an election Sarah Barracuda called an "earthquake". A greater number of House seats changed hands than at any time in the last 62 years. The Democrats were running scared and dropping like flies on the side of the road. This was the most encouraging environment for Republican candidates in decades, and yet Sarah's preferred candidates won only about half their races.

More notably, some of her highest profile endorsees (Christine O'Donnell, Tom Tancredo, Sharron Angle, Carly Fiorina) all went down hard. And it appears Joe Miller's candidacy is crashing, as well, though results won't be official there for a while. What does this all mean, other than the fact that she can't even get a candidate elected in her own home state?

It's instructive to take a look at her actual endorsees, some of whom ran effective campaigns and stayed away from some of the most outrageous sentiments expounded by those who lost. Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, Marco Rubio...in each case, these individuals managed to present themselves as thoughtful, bright candidates without a history of hypocrisy, and they campaigned on platforms of conservative-friendly policies, but without the most extreme rhetoric, without the most extreme positions, and without Palinesque levels of vitriol and vindictiveness.

In other words, people such as Haley, Martinez, and Rubio were just plain old-fashioned good candidates and most likely candidates who, in the current electoral climate, were perfectly capable of winning their races with or without Palin's endorsement and did not even need it. And those candidates who probably "benefited" the most from Palin's endorsements (O'Donnell, Miller, Angle) still lost either in spite of, or because of, those endorsements. Why? Because they were bad candidates. Either their own actions betrayed their candidacies, or they simply proved their own lack of qualifications. Ultimately, Sarah Palin will likely pay a higher price for those misplaced endorsements, as she as seen as even less unqualified as a presidential candidate than she was viewed in 2008.

That said, my contention all along is that she actually has little to no interest in (or stomach for) the two year presidential election process. Rather, the entire "will she or won't she" narrative is about keeping her in the public eye while the speaking engagement checks continue to roll in. It's all about the filthy lucre for Clan Palin. But hey, that's the New American way...prove your lack of job qualifications, but get yourself on TV and quoted often enough, and there's a seven-figure commentating gig for you on FNC. The ink's probably already being laid to O'Donnell's new daytime talker as I write this. The 2008 presidential campaign was the most financially successful reality show starring role. Lauren Conrad probably wishes she'd thought of it first.

So....okay. Given the jobless nature of this nascent, teetering economic recovery, and given the nature of midterm elections, the Democrats were likely going to lose a lot of seats. And they deserved to.

And now?

The next two years are going to require actual Republican contributions to any and all legislation that passes. They no longer get to be the Party of No. After all, they'll have the majority in the House, and no legislation can pass the Senate without the support of at least, at a minimum, no less than four members of the party not driving the bill, and that's just to get to 51 votes. It will take at least nine Republicans to get to a filibuster-proof majority on Dem-sponsered bills, and thirteen Democrats to get to a filibuster-proof majority on McDonnell-approved legislation.

This means Obama will not be dictating any sort of congressional agenda for the next two years (and given the watered-down nature of both the health care law and the Wall Street regulatory law, it's arguable how much he ultimately dictated those bills). It also means the Republicans have to actually be productive members of Congress and no mere procedural obstructionist roadblocks.

You wanted a chance to come off the bench and swing the bat? Now's your chance. Batter up. Prove you can actually legislate and not just bloviate. We're waiting. But beware, there's some pretty big traps out there, the biggest and baddest of which I'll address in my next post....

When Good Punkins Go Bad

2010-10-28T17:40:00.000-06:00

Don't let your Halloween end up like this.

Been a pretty transformational fall over this way...will explain soon...

Once More Into the Breach, Please

2010-10-15T07:28:00.005-06:00

Nope, it's not that time...not just yet. But it's getting close, the World Blogger Championships of Online Poker. Tasty, verily.

Royal Frush, No Crubs

2010-10-14T21:00:00.005-06:00

I finally got a decent session in, over the weekend. Felt refreshing to get to play prime time poker, and to come out a wee bit a head. Funnest moment was getting paid on a turned royal flush in PLO8:

Oh, what to do, what to do....

I came in the hand with what I recall was around an average stack, and made a smallish raise preflop (prepared to call a 3-bet if necessary). This flop was actually a bit tough for me, given villian's possibility of a Q or two...but I figured if I checked here, villian could pot, and I'm faced with a tough decision for all my chips. So I elected to bet out about 1/2 the pot as a feeler, and got min-raised. Damn.

But then, the pot wasn't huge...bah, I'll see one more card.

Yahtzee!

The most beautiful jack of hearts ever. For all I knew, I'd just caught the ultimate one-outer. Stone cold nutzo. Pot. Mine. Ship it. But how to get more in it.

I didn't figure villian had a flush, and given the flushy board, I thought villain was more likely to have boated than to have hit broadway or trips, but who knows? All I knew was that villain raised me on the flop. So if I check here, he bets, and I can minraise and maybe start a raising war? Maybe I made the ultimate donk call on the flop and had chased down quad queens? That should get me paid. Okay, check.

Villian checks behind. Ugh. Wasted opportunity.

King of crubs on the river....this could only be a good card, I suppose, because it makes more boats possible. I know I can't check here. But damn, villain could have hands that fold any bet here, so I don't want to overdo it. Can't pot it. Bet about 3k? Sure.

Bet 3k.

Villian calls, and shows this:

Wow, guess I gave villian way too much credit, or he was simply trying to use the minraise bluff to try to show more strength than he had. Or, he's just a fish. Just now, while writing this post, I bothered too look him up on OPR, and he's actually not a terribad Omatard player. In fact, he's certainly been more profitable than I have in the game, so I'm now inclined to believe he was trying the minraise bluff.

Which means, I guess I can take my river bet as an actual good bet that extracted real value. He's not likely enough of a fish to have called a pot bet in that spot. And who knows, given his actual holding, a turn bet may have lost him entirely. So I feel good now. That pot certainly went a long way towards helping me to a final-two-tables finish. Unfortunately, once we got down to about 20 players, I caught nothing but junk and never connected again, going out 15th of 234.

Oddly enough, while I've only cashed in four of 24 PokerStars events in October thus far, my two best finishes have been in the same $22 PLO8 event. Neither resulted in a final table, of course.

More oddly, all four cashes have been in Omaha events. Which also includes my Sunday heartbreaker...Down to 30 players of nearly 400, and I flop trip kings on a KQx board with one low card. All the money goes in. Villian did have a broadway draw an a Q.

Turn Q. Boom, guess who boated.

River Q. Fuck me. Too pissed to take a screenie.

Well, guess that's Omatard. Win on a perceived one-outer that was anything but. And lose to perfect perfect turn/river to lose in the one possible way you think you're safe.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Little to Post, So Sentences Are Short

2010-10-10T10:39:00.003-06:00

Poker? Total meh. I did learn a valuable lesson, though, in my last session. When you're already on mini-tilt because you're sorta not allowed to play the tournies you want (because of time constraints), you're far better off not playing at all. At all.

New rock project coming along....recording to start in a few weeks (as soon as our guitarist can finish up the three records he's engineering for other bands).

Baseball season ended the day the Rockies gave up a five run lead against the damned Dodgers and tanked to losing 13 of their last 14....at this point, I don't even care. As long as the Gints and Yankees fail.

Time to start focusing on writing a few CD reviews, once again.

Parties with friends equals reduction in weekend opportunities for pokery goodness.

And, oh yeah, it's now been 90 days since my last cigarette, yo.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

September Story

2010-09-29T11:33:00.004-06:00

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)

2010-09-20T13:49:00.002-06:00

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

2010-09-19T19:30:00.006-06:00

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?

2010-09-19T07:56:00.008-06:00

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"

2010-09-13T17:10:00.003-06:00

"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

2010-09-10T10:01:00.004-06:00

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...

Ending August On A High

2010-08-30T14:24:00.006-06:00

Played my last session of the month this past weekend, and it was a pretty good one. Somehow, through hook or by crook, I managed to cash in seven of fifteen events. Most of them barely more than mincashes, except for one notable deep run, and one that was aided by my catching a most fortunate four outer on the river.

This was a $4.40 buy in NLHE tourney, limited to 1000 players. I've been playing quite a few of these $4.40/1000 max events on PokerStars lately. I like the somewhat-limited field size, insofar as NLHE is concerned, because on the rare chance I can survive the donktastic play long enough to make a final table, the entire event can still be done early enough for me to get a decent night's sleep. And yes, by "donktastic play", I can sometimes be referring to myself, as happened here.

This was a 4-max event. With only four players per table, it usually stands to reason that marginal hands can gain increased value, as you're unlikely to be running into monster starting hands as often. So I actually like AJo in this situation. With around 8-10 tables left, and me holding around 10BBs, I decided to shove my AJo. Oops, ran right into AKo. Doh. The K on the flop made things a LOT worse, but the ten on the flop also gave me a tad bit of hope. Wha? Queen on the river? BINK!

So yeah, I will fully admit that every payout jump from there to the end had more to do with a lucky ducky river four outer than anything else. Cool.

Well, eventually, I did manage to parlay some good cards and well timed bets to make it to the final table, but in a pretty woeful chip position, holding around 5% or so of chips at the table:

At this point, I really expected to make it no further, and I was okay with that. However, I was not to be entirely denied. After a few orbits at the final table, I got it in BvB, and found myself in a classic race:

And once again, it took another bink on the river to stay alive and double up:

To be fair, I had a lot more outs this time, as any ace, queen, jack, or nine would have given me the hand. But once again, I'm reminded that no matter how few seats there may be at the table, just having a couple of high paint is no guarantee of leading preflop...

After a very well played game, chco9 lost his way soon after. Unfortunately, the near 600k in chips I had after that hand pretty much equated to my high water mark (though I would get back there when AK > the chip leader's A9o a couple orbits later.

In the end, with blinds and antes at 12500/25000/3125, I shoved my last 9 BBs on the with QJo on the button, and went down to K8s. The other two players each had six times my meager stack, so I was looking for a spot to get it in, and I was quite happy to just have two live cards at the time. But such is life.

Nevertheless, I once again set a personal best for most levels deep in a tourney (35), and really, how can anyone be upset about turning $4.40 into $280, especially given the four outer that should have ended my night at around twenty bucks?

So yeah, I'm pretty sure my August is done. I haven't done a great job of tracking month to month results. However, seeing as I've been pretty much a break-even MTT player at PokerStars, and yet this August saw me reach a 108% ROI and 30% ITM, I'm pretty sure this has to be one of my top three or four months ever, even if all of the actual profit came from two third place finishes.

Anyway, good luck on the felt, ya'll....and here's to August.

Just Because You Drive A Firebird...

2010-08-27T22:48:00.003-06:00

...doesn't mean you can drive one like Burt Reynolds' stunt driver

Brendan S. Eden is the luckiest man on the planet right now.

The 19-year-old Mason, Ohio, man reportedly was speeding at more than 100 mph when he hit a guardrail, went airborne and slammed into an overpass. The car broke into three pieces and threw him from the wreckage. The dashboard-mounted camera in a police cruiser caught the spectacular crash that left Eden in critical condition and shut down an Ohio freeway for more than six hours this morning.

Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/video-insane-100-mph-crash-caught-on-tape/#ixzz0xsBiwpnf

Wow.

Hope he lives through it, but I honestly wouldn't mind if he's never in a position to get behind a steering wheel again.

Feels Like Forever

2010-08-25T10:04:00.003-06:00

So goes the summer, I do suppose.

I haven't played much in the way of poker lately, and except for one horrendous marathon session (which ended badly), it's been pretty much a break-even proposition. Still having somewhat more consistent results in the various Omaha variants than elsewhere, but just not a whole lot going on.

For at least 7-10 days, I've been dwelling on the idea of writing an uber-post of sorts, detailing my thoughts on the proposed Islamic cultural center at Park51, Cordoba, whatever you want to call the location. Certainly, a couple bloggers I consider friends have written well thought out and articulate pieces on the matter. Both of which I disagree with (for differing reasons), naturally, but both are writers I respect and enjoy.

But then, for a while it seemed that anything I could possibly contribute to the discussion has already been better articulated by others. That, and I'm still lazy. And that I spent four days in hotter-than-ass Austin, and wasn't going to spend that time blogging...and I'd already spent enough time and words and energy debating this issue with friends in their Facebook comments, and in other forums.

At least I felt that way until the recent LOL-worthy highlarity over on Fixed News, where, in some rather ignorant, mean-spirited, misguided, and completely stepping-in-your-own-shit manner, the morning douches over there attempted to create some mythical guilt-by-assocation conclusions that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf somehow both supports terrorism, and is directly connected to some shadowy Saudi benefactor, and therefore, cannot be trusted or believed:

Yes, it's true, the "shadowy figure" funding the imam is none other than Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal....the SECOND LARGEST SHAREHOLDER of News Corp, the parent company to Fox News. C'mon boys, follow the money!! Really, if you actually think the proposed cultural center at Park 51 is to be a bastion for future terrorist training, because of the source of its funding, then you clearly have no other choice than to shut down Fox News, as it's clearly funding by terrorist sympathizers, and profits from terror, no?

The most awesome part of this is after Fixed News complained for months about how no one else would cover the supposed ACORN scandal (which was actually manufactured by intentionally misrepresented video editing), and how only Fox News Channel will actually go after the hard news, they're far too chickenshit to even name the person they're accusing as being a shadowy terrorist financier of Iman Rauf, even those that very same person is their own boss.

C'mon, Fox, keep following the money, that's right. I guess perhaps one could say that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal does support terrorism...after all, he financially supports Doocy, Kilmeade, O'Reilly, and Beck. Maybe Fox News should relocate out of Manhattan, after all, dem dere's some turrists.

Really, if that's the level of intellectual honesty that comes from the portion of the media driving the anti-Park 51 bus, that's all that needs to be said, for now.

Good luck on the felt, y'all.

Goody Gumdrops

2010-08-12T15:43:00.003-06:00

You got eight minutes or so? Snatch a dose of awesomeness. Pretty NSFW unless you got earplugs and can resist busting a gut.

And get us a cuppa tea, would you, Errol?

Let He Who Is Without Hypocrisy Cast the First Stone

2010-08-06T13:02:00.005-06:00

(WARNING - The post below does contain NSFW language, and opinions that are likely to offend the sensibilities of at least a couple of my friends. This is a rant against certain political hypocrisies, fear-mongering, and hatred, and is not intended as a personal insult to anyone not specifically mentioned by name, read at your own risk. Carry on.)

There's nothing quite like the hubris and hypocrisy of a twice-divorced man who cheated on his second wife, and divorced his first wife while she was in the hospital fighting cancer, now carrying the mantle in sacred defense of marriage.

Hey Newt, "Which one of your multiple marriages was the most sacred to you?"

(found and shared on Facebook)

You know, I can respect that opinions on this matter run wide and deep in this country. I really can. There are a lot of passionate arguments to be made in this matter, though I note that passionate argument does not equate to argument based on law and facts, one does not necessarily equal the other.

However, there are two fundamental arguments against marriage equality, that come from two different sources of people, which underscore the fact that for these two groups, their positions are truly rooted more in fear, bigotry, and ignorance than anything else.

The first is this -- all those who base their arguments on the principle of "marriage is under attack", or some other description rooted in a position that the sanctity of marriage is somehow vulnerable here. Well, if you've ever divorced your spouse, than fuck you, you don't get to make that argument, because you didn't give a flying fuck about the sanctity of your own marriage, so you forfeit the right to preach to others that marriage is sacred. Because it sure wasn't for you. And if you divorced because you were unfaithful to your spouse, like Newt Gingrich was (the 2nd wife, you know, the one he left his cancer-ridden wife for, in the first place), then that goes doubly so.

And second, there's the argument that Judge Walker somehow violated the constitution and is a "judicial activist". Never mind the fact that Judge Walker is a Republican named to the bench by the right-wing's hero Ronald Reagan, and has shown himself over the body of his work to be anything but a judicial activist. It should be noted that nowhere in the United States Constitution does the word "marriage" even appear. The Constitution is utterly silent on the subject. So no, gay marriage is not unconstitutional.

What is unconstitutional, however, is a state initiate designed solely to deprive basic citizen rights to those who already have those rights. In California, gay people had already obtained the right to marry, and Proposition 8 was intended solely to take away a right that already existed in state law, and that is clearly unconstitutional. Think about it. If California voters passed an initiative that took away a woman's right to vote, would that be any different? Of course not. The will of a state population to violate the United States Constitution does not make that violation constitutional.

Which brings me to my point. Many of the same far right dittoheads who claim that either gay marriage or Judge Walker's ruling, is unconstitutional, also claim to be "strict constructionists" when it comes to the Constitution. In other words, their normal argument is that the Constitution is to be read on its face, and not to be interpreted in any fashion. Except now, those same people want to claim that the Constitution somehow doesn't apply here, or says something it does not say. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Sharron Angle and Sarah Palin (among others), who after decades of claiming yourselves as strict constructionists, now to apply a completely different standard to Judge Walker's ruling. You don't get it...you no longer get to make that argument. You forfeit the right to argue against your decades-long positions of strict constructionism just because you don't like a ruling that actually strictly follows the Constitution.

If your argument against marriage equality is based on either of the above two positions, and you've ever been divorced, or cheated on your spouse, or even if single participated in a relationship with a partner outside *their* marriage, or even one time carried the mantle of fighting "judicial activism", or even once used the the argument of strict construction to support, say, the NRA...then fuck you, you don't get to make that argument now, because it makes you as intellectually dishonest as a newt. Or a Newt.

Of course, now there's the mud rising to the surface of those claiming that Judge Walker should have recused himself because he is gay (allegedly), and thus impartial in any situation involving gay rights. Really? Is that what you really think? Do you honestly think that a woman cannot judge a case involving, say, workplace harrassment, or a black man is de facto barred from judging a case involving alleged racial discrimination or profiling? Bullshit. You didn't stand up when Justice Clarence Thomas voted in the recent Massachusetts firefighter promotion lawsuit. You know why? Because you don't actually believe that, except when it comes to the gays.

Judge Walker shouldn't have recused himself anymore than a straight judge should have recused himself for the very same reason. One's sexual orientation isn't a basis for recusal anymore than the color of a judge's skin, or the form of their genitalia.

Obviously, the legal battle is far from over, for both sides of the argument. This was only a United States District Court ruling, there are certainly appeals to follow. And really, no one knows how this is ultimately going to turn out. I'm no lawyer, and I certainly don't know how this will end up, though I am extremely curious to see how the issue is ultimately decided, and the impact on the American legal landscape.

I do think it speaks volumes that one of the two lead counsel for plaintiffs in the case is none other than Ted Olsen, he of impeccable conservative credentials, even serving as President George W. Bush's Solicitor General.

But one thing is for certain. The usual windbags on the right are going to have to come up with a new toy to talk about this time, because on this, they're going to have to actually live by the same words they've preached to us forever. In fact, they may want to wear longer pants, be careful, their bias is showing.

If It Weren't For All You Pesky AA's

2010-08-02T12:49:00.007-06:00

I'd probably win more often.

Weird day. Truly.

Had AA eight times. Once got a walk with them in the BB. And once won a decent pot.

But also saw AA go down to JJ, 77, 33, 44, and in the ugliest example:

PokerStars Game #47587147383: Tournament #294420658, $4.00+$0.40 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXV (15000/30000) - 2010/08/01 18:41:57 MT [2010/08/01 20:41:57 ET]
Table '294420658 17' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: thepescis (141558 in chips)
Seat 2: Mondogarage (824833 in chips)
Seat 4: BadB19 (375429 in chips)
Seat 7: fudgeisback (359738 in chips)
Seat 8: Alphadoggg (1040442 in chips)
thepescis: posts the ante 3750
Mondogarage: posts the ante 3750
BadB19: posts the ante 3750
fudgeisback: posts the ante 3750
Alphadoggg: posts the ante 3750
thepescis: posts small blind 15000
Mondogarage: posts big blind 30000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [As Ad]
BadB19: folds
fudgeisback: folds
Alphadoggg: folds
thepescis: raises 107808 to 137808 and is all-in
Mondogarage: calls 107808
*** FLOP *** [4h 6d 7d]
*** TURN *** [4h 6d 7d] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [4h 6d 7d Tc] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
thepescis: shows [4d 5c] (a straight, Four to Eight)
Mondogarage: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
thepescis collected 294366 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 294366 | Rake 0
Board [4h 6d 7d Tc 8h]
Seat 1: thepescis (small blind) showed [4d 5c] and won (294366) with a straight, Four to Eight
Seat 2: Mondogarage (big blind) showed [As Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces

Notice the tourney's level number and blinds. Yes, this was the final table of a near 500-runner MTT. Wow.

Unlike the above hand, most of the instances where my AA lost involved me raising up anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 the BB, getting 3-bet, and then either having my 4-bet shoves called with far inferior hands, or me calling 3-bet shoves with AA, and seeing 4:1 dogs catch miracles.

So yeah, today was pretty gross, and I spent a lot of it on tilt, yet at the same time, pretty awesome in its own way, because after all the horrific beats, I was neverthess at the aforementioned final table, which by itself was a bit of a miracle.

From the final 24 players or so to the final table bubble, I was never more than 2-3 players from the bottom of the chip standings, but somehow managed to steal or catch just enough to not be the next man out. And then, with 10 players left, I was the low stack:

At was at this point (an orbit past the photo) where things really began to turn my way. First, I doubled up on arpoker35 when AKs beat either QQ or JJ (forget which), and the very next hand, I picked up KK UTG and, knowing arpoker35 might be on tilt and hyper aggro, I elected to flat call UTG. As I was sure he would, arpoker35 shoved, and my KK actually held, which brought us to the final table, and me in a much more comfortable position:

Eventually, we got to five handed, with all of us between 578k and 517k in chips, with blinds at 8.5k/17k/2.5k. The chip leader proposed a five way even chop, which I was okay with, but no one else responded, so we played on. And on. And on.

Still five handed, and I woke up once again:

Yes, that's the hand historied above. So gross. Instead of getting to 4-handed and being 2 BB shy of the chipleader, we had far more to go. At least that was the last time I had AA get cracked on this day. Of course, it was the last time I saw AA on this day...which was probably the only thing that allowed me to make it to a 3rd place finish.

I didn't stand much of a chance from that point:

So yeah, the day was both extremely frustrating and, by my standards, extremely profitable, probably my best day in nearly a year. And yet, my success was in one of my lowest buyin events. I had a very nice stack in the huge Sunday $3r get crippled (got kneecapped by my own AA yet again), and similarly in a couple other events.

But I still managed to nearly double my Stars roll (2nd place would have more than doubled it). And I do believe this is the first time I've made it as far as level 36 of an online donkament. Even the big FTP donkament I took 2nd in (for my all time high cash of about $1900) was over at level 26. So overall, I feel good...except for the level of tilt which caused the Good Doctor Mondo to have to leave the room. Yeah, it was bad at times...

So today was sunny, but with a few melancholy clouds on the horizon. Today, I'll take this. Next time, I'd like to order up the same, but without the side dish of tilt, please. And perhaps I can do without ever having AA....

Good + Bad =/= Indifference

2010-07-29T23:35:00.007-06:00

Ahh, got a few tournies in tonight, and ended up with a fairly reasonable night.

Made one final table (in Limit Omaha 8, 'natch), though I went out fifth when I got my chips in on the turn, whiffing my draw on the river.

I was actually in pretty good shape at the start of the final table:

Entered the final table in 3rd, but was pretty much alternately whiffing, and card dead, for most of it. No complaints there.

However, I do think I've got Jestocost beat for teh sick of teh night. Yes, all the chips went in on the flop:

And, oh yeah, before I forget, nezzi77 on PokerStars can felch the runny turds out of my ass, 3-bet overshoving 74o preflop on me a few players from the bubble (catches the 4, of course), to knock me out about 15 players from the money. Of course, I'd been playing tight, never showing down junk, and had raised the hand UTG...and I had a stack that wasn't really close to being in the danger zone, so there was no reason to think I'd suddenly expanded my range. 74o, really?

Naturally, even after that donktastic douchebag move of his, he must have tried the same stunt again, because he managed to crash and burn his entire stack and go out only four spots closer to the bubble than I.

Jeebus fucking crisps, if you're going to play like a douchenozzle, and manage to get just lucky enough to actually pick up the pot, the least you can do is learn something from the hand and not piss it all away two hands later.

And yes, I even looked your ass up on OPR, and yes, you've actually hit five four-figure cashes over the last year. All I can say is, it must be fucking nice to have the easy button when you play as badly as you did tonight. Ahh, I can be more compassionate than that...maybe you're just a tilt monkey, given your single $12 cash amongst nearly 30 tournaments covering over $200 in buyins since yesterday....

Some Doors That Open Are Double Doors

2010-07-28T17:11:00.002-06:00

Let's get the poker out of the way first...because it's less painful that way. Jeez, my last couple of marathon tourney sessions have completely sucked. Hard.

And, with all due respect to blogger buddy Jestocost, there's been some horrific beats in the process, such as AA < 32o, when the 32o called my 4-bet AIPF. I'm not kidding. Or when KK lost to to two different players holding JJ, when one four-flushed. Gross. Also a bit of spewtardy play after beats. So ugh.

Like when I knocked myself out of a $10+1 HORSE MTT on the exact bubble, when I tried to bluff my way through a Stud hand against the bring-in. 32 paid, I was 16th going into the hand, and I was last to act with an A showing. Why I didn't check/fold by the 5th card, I'll never know....

Okay, that's outta the way. At least until I get hosed again another 15-20 times in my next session, whenever that is.

But yeah, about those damn doors...

Well, just last week, I finally started making music with a new project that is still taking shape. The idea is something along the lines of psychedelic space rock, or what some hear as stoner rock, or in between. Think bands like Dead Meadow, Spacemen 3, parhaps a bit of The Black Angels, if you're familiar with any of those, but leaning much more towards the former.

Yeah, I'm feeling really good about this, though it's early, and we're still composing, woodshedding...hell, we haven't even decided on a name yet.

It seems promising, but perhaps potentially destined to be short-lived, as the singer/guitarist and drummer both have other bands. In fact, the singer is also the bass player in the drummer's other band, in addition to fronting his own other band. To them, this may ultimately just be intended as a side project for a few months, especially as one of them is putting the final touches on an album to be shopped to indie management, booking, and labels (his last band charted on CMJ, and has gotten some of the requisite indierockier love).

Still, I've been friends and big fans of both for a long time, and our bands have played many shows together over the years...I'm planning on riding this one as long and hard as I can, but yet the double door opens...

I was just asked to join another band that I've played many bills with over the years, going back as far as early 2006. An existing band I like a lot (have at least five of their records), and can pick up the material pretty quickly.

Being spoilt for choice can suck at times. I've been out of my previous band for three months, and was quite bummed I had no one to play with, and now, I'm getting more than I can possibly do. I don't have the space in my life to play with two actively gigging or recording bands right now. Or at least I don't feel like I do. It was different when the Good Doctor Mondo was in grad school and we had mostly weekends together. But that was a long time ago.

Ah, what to do, what to do.

Raise Your Hand, It's MeMeMeMe

2010-07-20T17:22:00.004-06:00

Um, meme time.

Obviously, this is in no way accurate, but I must say I like the results (taken from my last three pathetic blog entries):

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Ernest Hemingway

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

What, no patient of Dr. Gonzo? Well hell, since I can't have grapefruit these days anyway, what am I gonna do with all these syringes?

The silly irony is that all three of these posts were about my recent Omaha run. Which is now most definitively over. At least the run hot part of it. No doubt I'll continue to ride that horse way too long and lose my ass. Yeah. Ass.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Keep Hittin' It, Not Quittin' It (PLO8 Edition)

2010-07-10T09:29:00.003-06:00

The horse, she will not be broken. Well, maybe a bit dinged, but sweet that sweet little PLO pony, well, geez. I have to continue to stay away from NLHE, I guess. Played three events on Thursday...well, one was NLHE, but it's the $3.30 triple shootout I love so much (lost HU in the first round for the third straight time).

Two Omaha events. One cash. Not a mincash, but soooo close. This was the Stars $4.44 4-max PLO8 event, so going out 12th wasn't exactly quite bubbling the final table. Now, had my hand been able to improve (or even hold) on the river, who knows? But given my relative chip position once we got to 24 players or so, I really can't complain, and won't. Just continue to ride that pony, is all.

Today?

Lotsa fun for the Good Doctor Mondo and I at the Colorado Irish Festival. Of course, I don't have a lick of Celtic in me, and she's got a lot more Scot than Irish in her (we'll avoid the jokes about when she's got a little German in her...). But I loves me some Celtic music, Gaelic football, and yeah, even pipe bands. Should be tons of fun.

Part of me will still wish we were at Coors Field tonight. After all, not only have the Rockies won five in a row for the first time this year (to climb into the wild card lead and within two games of the division), all but one of those games has involved wild comebacks from several runs down, dramatic home runs, and three were walkoffs. Naturally, the only game I've been able to attend of this run was a rather pedestrian 4-2 victory over the Cards. But thank you Saint Ubaldo, just the same.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Avoiding NLHE, Part Deux....

2010-07-07T16:57:00.006-06:00

...and the Fangraph from Heaven (below).

Last night, the Good Doctor Mondo and I were watching the Rockies fall to the Cardinals 9-3 in the bottom of the 8th inning (more on that later), when I cruised the 2+2 forums and found the magic words "Turbo Night". Wahoooo!!!

What is Turbo Night? Well, it's nothing official, but it represents a night where PokerStars (and probably FTP as well, for all I know) is getting ready to reset all their servers. In order to get things wound up, they replace a lot of their tourneys for a number of hours with turbo versions of the same (and replace turbos with super turbos). FAST FAST FAST action yeah.

Anyway, I'm hardly about to start increasing my overall volume, but as the beloved Rockies were on their way down (more on that later), I thought what the hell, sure, I'll jump into this $8.80 PLO8 tourney. Heck, it'll be over in like 90 minutes, right? At 1500 starting chips and five minute levels? Sure!

Well, I still don't know whether it's simply continued run hot, or choosing better spots than my opponents, or simply better play (considering I pulled off at least two successful semi-bluffs), but my streak of relative Omaha success continued, with a 3rd place finish in a field of 112:

No complaints there whatsoever. I came into the final table 7th in chips, and really didn't think I'd make it past 6th with my stack. Once we got down to 3-handed, things were desperate, with 4 big blinds and an M of 2, and I had no room to maneuver, needing a big hand and no time to wait for one:

I did manage to get as high as about 26k, but back down to 18k and with a halfway decent but hardly dominant combo draw (I believe it was something like ATT5 double suited), I potted preflop and lost out to MIXX. But as I suspected, my 3rd place exist was a mere 90 minutes after the tourney started, so I'll take that super-small-sample-size hourly rate, thanks to Turbo Night. And, I'll take my current ROI in Omaha-flavored tourneys, which I'm thinking must be around 280% over the last couple of weeks.

Yeah, now that's sustainable.

Of course, my deep tourney run did cause me to miss certain moments of only THE GREATEST 9TH INNING COMEBACK IN COLORADO ROCKIES HISTORY. As those who follow baseball probably know, we put up a 9-spot in the bottom of the 9th last night against the colossally overmanaging Tony LaRussa. This on a night when former Rockie Matt Holliday punished us with a three run bomb.

I saw the clock and knew it was time for Mr. Late Night (Seth Smith, whose nickname was well earned during many notable PH appearances over 2009 season). And he did not disappoint.

Really, better than all the highlights, all the ESPN-hyperventilation....oh, scratch that part, ESPN would run a LeBron James ass-picking story over a massive humongous 9th inning comeback even during Baseball Tonight....is this, the Fangraphs WPA graph of last night's game. Unbelievable:

Anyway, I probably won't play much (or at all) until this weekend, but yeah, I'mma gonna stick with this Omaha kick for a lil' while.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Why Do I Even Bother With NLHE?

2010-07-04T13:09:00.005-06:00

Seriously.

I played my major online session of the week yesterday, and as has been the case lately, most of my NLHE action went for squat. Squidoosh. A big dump. What have you. I ended up playing a total of 25 events yesterday, all for pretty minimum buy-ins, the greatest being of the $10 variety.

Of the Hold'em section on my dance card, I only managed to cash in one two of fifteen events, and basically had my ample ass handed to me throughout the day. Crashed out of both Daily Doubles, and lost a potential really deep run in the Stars $3r when I took a bad river beat and staggered towards a semi-decent, but unfulfiling finish. All of my AA hands invariably seemed to be in the BB and got walks, and in some events, I really didn't play optimally or aggressively enough.

Flavors of Omaha, however, were again quite a different story. I played llll Omaha events yesterday, and managed to make it to the money in four of nine tries. Now, as usual, most of these were relative mincashes, where either decent draws on bustout hands whiffed, or hands ahead, sometimes with redraws, were run down.

However, my only truly deep run yesterday was, again, in an Omaha event, this being the 9:15pm MT PLO event on Full Tilt. It took me a while to get started here, where most of the first two hours found me well under average stacks, but not in any real kind of danger zone. Eventually, I was able to use a key triple up in hour 3 to build a stack, and found myself chipleader entering the final table:

As you can see, I had a decent lead, but not a truly dominating stack. Fortunately, I was able to pretty much stay on top for a while, usually taking pots down before the flop, or on the flop. There was one point where claptonic managed to take out two shorties on the same hand to jump over me, but I got my stack up, and once was as high as around 180k or so, at 4k/8k blinds. As things would have it, we got down to the final four, but that would be my high point of the day, as I began to see a steady diet of hands such as K973 rainbow.

And by the time we got to the final three, I was generally 2nd or 3rd in chips at 6k/12k blinds:

Alas, it was all soon to end, but not quite in tears:

No complaints here, in that I managed to fade 161 of the other 163 runners for a $100 cash on a $5 buyin. I don't think I missed a lot of opportunities in this one, I just couldn't get playable cards at the very end when I needed them.

But my recent Omaha runs have really left me wodnering why do I bother with HE events at the present time? I suppose the biggest reason is that I do like to multi-table, and there's just not enough Omaha MTTs firing up at a given time to let me play 3-5 events at once, especially in my $5-10 buyin range. Still, it wasn't an unsuccessful day on the whole, though it took that final event to be my Saturday saver, of sorts. And really, all of my significant cashes (being a relative word, of course), have come from Omaha, where perhaps antes don't kill me, or perhaps I can see four card possibilities better than two cards, I dunno...and so it goes.

Happy Birthday America, yo.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Has the Worm Turned?

2010-06-28T07:53:00.003-06:00

Perhaps, or perhaps not. But the horrendous bankroll slide seems to have stopped for now. "Horrendous" is a strong word, considering how micro I tend to play, but half a roll is half a roll, ya know?

But the last week has ultimately been pretty good. I only played two sessions, focusing mostly on non-HE action of varying types. Lots of HORSE, LO8, Omaha, etc., to a set of pretty good results, including at least three final tables. For once, I didn't go out 9th, 8th, 7th, or whatever. And the greater irony is that my best success this week came on Full Tilt, normally the scene of most of my ugliest crashes. In fact, I managed to nearly triple my FTP roll to get out of the danger zone, thanks to taking 2nd in a Rush PLO tourney, and chopping heads up in a $5.50 LO8 tournament.

No real hands of note there. Mostly, I found good spots, hit draws, and scooped more than I chopped. Though this one felt pretty good, because I was fairly certain I was only pulling the low:

What's the danger zone? Oh, a two digit roll that requires me to play no more than like a $2 buy-in. Or just put the whole damn thing on black.

That LO8 tournament was fun, but perhaps I should have played it out. Got to a 2:1 chiplead at one point before giving half of it back. Nevertheless, it was 12:30am here, and I really wanted some sleep before the Red Sox came to town for a three game set. I'll probably blog about that a bit later, but I managed to attend all three games, and we pulled off a series victory that feels a bit like a loss all the same.

I can only hope this is the start of something better.

Good luck on the felt ya'll.

Looking Back

2010-06-24T13:05:00.004-06:00

For the Good Doctor Mondo and I, this week has become both a time of reflection, and of celebration. It was a year ago yesterday, that my darling, sweet, wonderful, caring, generous wife went into the hospital with what was first diagnosed as pneumonia -- only to become a five month ordeal of comas, intubation, code blues, decisions about DNRs, hypoxia, neuropathy, re-learning how to walk, rehabilitation, and more and more fear, sleeplessness, PTSD, and emotional exhaustion than anyone should ever have to endure.

And seven months' time of constant forward progress since...rapid early on, and much more incremental now.

So here we are, a year later, and things are looking up. Way up. The Good Doctor's recovery continues, and we continue to be blessed with the love and support of many friends, family, therapists, and an entire community of well-wishers. I look at her every single day and know just how fortunate we both are to still have each other, and to grow even closer to each other each moment. I look upon each step she has been able to take towards health and independence with great pride, from when we got to give up the wheelchair, and then the walker, and now next week, we get to give back two of the four massive tanks that have supplied the Good Doctor with life giving oxygen, given how much lung operation she's recovered.

There is still a lot of uncertainly going forward, and an awful lot of healing left. But while I wouldn't wish this last year on anyone, and would do anything to set the clock back and somehow stop all of this from ever happening, I would not trade the effect this year has had on our relationship for anything at all.

Good Reason To Be Lazy

2010-06-14T14:27:00.002-06:00

Yeah, for the last couple of weeks or so, I've been meaning to dash off one of those typical bad beat posts. You know, the kind that come after 2-3 weeks and all sessions of nothing but losing to river 2- and 3-outers, every KK getting cracked open like pistachios, going out on absolute bubbles on 70-30s, etc.

Because, truth be told, it certainly has been like that lately. In fact, my bankroll's down about half from the start of this year, which is pretty much the height of ubersucktitude, from where I sit.

But then came the last lil' crumbs thrown my way.

Last night, I managed to win a Badugi MTT, of all things. Ya, Badugi. Whouda thunk it. Actually, my heads up opponent and I chopped heads up, because it was getting late for me on a Sunday, and after playing down 300 fricking hands just to get to heads up in a 45 man tourney...jeez. But I was marginally ahead in chips, so got the credit for the win and the TLB points, yay me.

Of course, it was a $2.20 buyin with a small field, so ship the whole twenty-five bucks.

This was at the same time as I made the final table in Stars' nightly $330 triple shootout. (Of course, 88 < 33 AIPF, thanks to the flopped trey, but this is not going to be a bad beat post, after all.)

On the one hand, yeah, my bankroll is still down 50% from January. On the other hand, I've actually made three final tables in my last three tournaments, so at least it kinda sorta feels okay at the moment. Of course, it's never in the tourneys that actually pay decent money, but sometimes, you have to dine on the crumbs you find on the ground, ya know?

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

What's Next, Deliverance?

2010-06-11T12:03:00.002-06:00

I have no idea what is more embarrassing for the hickish town of 90,000 in which I live...Longmontucky, the fact that Dog the Bounty Hunter nabbed some local coke dealin' drug dealer in town yesterday (who had basically been couch-surfing in town for the last several months), or the fact that Dog the Bounty Hunter's capture of some local coke dealin' drug dealer in town was the front page story of today's Longmont Times-Call.

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?

I've never seen Dog the Bounty Hunter, but my first impression is that BP's tried a junk shot on his hair and wardrobe.

BP Spills Coffee

2010-06-11T11:56:00.000-06:00

Gotta love the Upright Citizens Brigade. Let's get Kevin Costner on the phone, stat.

To borrow from Goat, your daily does of awesomeness.

A Worthy Cause, Donkin' For the Kids

2010-06-09T07:33:00.003-06:00

In what is perhaps a beneficial fit of approaching middle-age self questioning (I keed, I keed), fellow blogger
Oh Captain has worked together with Full Tilt to put together a charity donkament for next Wednesday, June 16th.

So one last time, here's the details:
Date: June 16
Time: 9PM CDT (Same time as Mookie)
It will actually be running in place of the Mookie. BDR will be broadcasting it.
Charity: Ronald McDonald House
$5 + $5(Tournament, charity)
Password= vegas1
Tournament#= 164273435

Tossing around a few chips for a great cause, you can't beat that. I'm planning on being there, won't you join us?

A Sure Sign of Spring

2010-05-28T10:19:00.004-06:00

Standing on my back patio this morning, I heard a series of blasts, which reminded me of, say, a blowtorch. Turns out it was this, just behind my house:

Of course, those who know me over at the Purple Row know this balloon was probably filled with San Francisco Gints fans. Or not, since it actually arrived upright.

Congrats to the winners of Main Event seats in the BBT5 Tournament of Champions last night, especially NYRambler and JJ, whose blogs I've read on occasion.

Here's to hoping you actually play the ME with your ultimate token, for the once-in-a-lifetime experience, instead of taking the cash. And let's hope your journey to the Main Event ends up more like this picture, and less like the landings over those over at McCovey Chronicles.

Last Chance at the BBT5

2010-05-19T22:49:00.003-06:00

Piffle. Bubbled the Mookie in 11th. So meh. I think I made a bad play play with about 15 left. I raised a suited A (hearts) UTG. Folded to the BB who called. Flop came ten high, I believe, but gave me the nut frush draw. Checked to me, and I thought hard about c-betting to protect my hand, but I was about 8th in chips at the time, and if I had to fold to a shove (maybe I call off there with the frush draw), then I'm hurt bad.

Check/check turn.

Blank river, so I didn't hit my flush. Check/check, BB had AT, so he won the pot. I think I could have taken it down on the turn, maybe. But I played it so weak tight.

Of course, I ended up 12th of 14, and never got any kind of hand again. Ended up shoving KJo UTG, and got overshoved by 88. AQx on flop, giving me 10 outs, but I whiffed, and went out 11th.

I'm pretty certain that's my last shot at TOC glory, for real this time. Only played two events (both Mookies), and took 9th and 11th. Not fucking good enough.

On the Band Front...

2010-05-13T21:49:00.000-06:00

....or in the rear view mirror...

I've been sitting on this post for a while because...well, because first, it doesn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things, and second, because the epilogue sorta sucks. This isn't meant to be a rant, though it will likely come off as one. This isn't meant to be vindictive, though I readily admit it does not come from a good headspace. I blog it because after about a month, I feel I have to...maybe afterwards, I can Leave It All Behind, so to speak.

That said, about a month ago, I left New Ben Franklins. And I'm still not even really sure whether I quit, or whether I got the boot. It doesn't matter really, but the taste in my mouth is still bitter, but perhaps some background is worth shedding light.

My participation in New Ben Franklins began back around 20 months ago or so, after I answered an ad on Craigslist looking for a bass player. As it was put to me, the band was to be a melding of alt-country songwriting, with big shoegaze tonality. Hell, I was excited. I'm not a country guy by any stretch, despite my abiding love of The Sadies, but I've always been a big fan of shoegaze, even if the term is somewhat amorphous at times.

Now, New Ben Franklins wasn't exactly a "new" band, but a new old band. The frontman/guitarist of the band started the project back around '92 or so, and had run the band a couple times over the years, in a couple of iterations. But it was new to me, and it felt fresh. Having been bandless for the previous two years, most anything would, and the situation felt welcoming.

Anyway, as bands go, the beginning weeks were fits and starts. We had to replace our drummer after a month, because he'd missed half the rehearsals...okay, so we did, and we moved on. We eventually picked up the Wedge on drums, and we started playing shows in late November or early December of 2008. Hell, we even did an instrumental surf tune I wrote years ago for The Florenteens, slightly westernized. Matinee Idol Tommy joined us on pedal steel, and stuck around. Things were good.

Winter into spring, the gigs became fairly numerous, at least for a local band without a huge fanbase. I had no trouble booking us shows at several of the local Denver haunts, we even got to play the Bluebird Theater, we shared bills with some bands I really enjoy, and we started talking about, and eventually, recording.

Somewhere along the line, things started to go sideways.

The new songs were more country, less sonic, more sorta singer-songwriter-y. It felt like more covers. More slow tempo, more desire by the band for me to play, as I now put it, mostly whole notes with dotted whole rests between notes...and yeah, I started to chafe against this direction. Time to digress...I'm pretty fuckin' far away from being Jaco, or Stanley Clarke, or Victor Wooten. I hope I'm never asked to play pop and slap, because that's just not what I do. Count amongst my heroes the Ox, Bruce Foxton, Graham Maby, Paul Simonon, so yeah, I probably do overplay. I'm certainly not one of those who's going to be happy just playing root notes on the 1 and 3 all night. I mean, I can do that, but if a band wants their bass player to do that more than about 15% of the time, then we're probably not right for one another. And that's fine.

But I felt like this band was changing, in ways that were just making the music not fun for me. And I became petulant and surly during rehearsals at times. Yeah, I can wear my heart on my sleeve, consider it a fault, I suppose.

But we *were* a band, and a team. And no matter what else, everyone connected with the band was so incredibly loving and supportive and helpful and understanding during the Good Doctor Mondo's hospitalization and afterward. We were a family -- sometimes a bit more dysfunctional than before, but that's like, what...98% of all bands that have ever pulled into a PA.

And then I felt dissed.

The 5-song EP was finished, and shit...one of the songs had no bass. Okay. And then the last song had a bass player that was not me. Fuck. Seriously. Fuck. Our frontman decided to have a mutual friend of ours come in and play bass on a track. That's when I really felt to begin I wasn't part of a band. No one had asked my opinion about it first. That's when I decided what was a band was really the frontman's show and project, 100%. The rest of us were just sidemen. That's how I felt, anyway.

But I stuck around. We continued to play a few shows. Our shows were usually pretty well received. But my attitude didn't really get any better. I'm not sure why it would. I was the only member of the band who'd been replaced for part of the recording. The one song that had no bass had no drums, either, and I get that. Still, if you're going to leave half the band out, it's a bit less dismissive of those guys if it's on, say, a 10 song full length record, ya know?

And new songs were being written. And more shows played. Even learned a bunch of Waylon Jennings tunes for a tribute show. And yet, nobody in the band...well, at least not the front man, liked any of the bass parts I came up with for the new material. Too busy. Not enough pauses, not what he wanted. Okay. I try something else. No dice. I try something else. No dice again. Fuck it, back to surly Mondo.

Then I go from beyond dissed to pissed. Or, dissed and pissed.

Randomly surfing Craigslist, I see an ad for a bass player that didn't mention the band, but was unmistakably an ad for a replacement bass player for New Ben Franklins. It had all the code words that made it unmistakably clear that I was on my way out. Of course, I immediately quit the band via e-mail, even with gigs booked out in advance.

And then I had that little tiny shred of doubt, the kind you get after you've 4-bet KK preflop, and are min-raised. Does he have AA? A 5-bet always means AA, right? Could I have been wrong?

Well, I wasn't wrong. Good read, Mondo. Shitty situation, but good read.

The frontman put the ad out on his own, without telling the other guys. He came clean to us about it a couple of days later. I guess his plan was to just keep me around until he found someone he liked enough to take my place, and then just spring it on me. And I'm not going to be anyone's punk. I do respect him for coming forward and admitting it after the fact, though because of the way it went down, I doubt he would have done so if I hadn't figured it out myself first and called shenanigans.

In truth, I was on my way out. As I told the band, I probably would have muddled along in the band until July, because playing the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase is one of the coolest things ever. It really is, and the band's been slated to make a return appearance this year. It's going to hurt not to be a part of it. Yeah, I think I was planning on sticking it out that long, and then leave. But not sneakily, like bailing the night before a show, or anything.

Like I said, New Ben Franklins has always been his deal...he's certainly entitled to do what he wants, like when he was interviewed in the Westword a few months, and made no mention of anyone else in the band at all. Whatever, I don't think any of us have any real ego in terms of press and adulation. But I'll readily admit to having a certain ego when it comes to bass playing. I've been told many times that I write interesting bass lines. Other bass players I respect have complimented me on what I've contributed to songs. But in New Ben Franklins, I felt as if my creative input was unwanted. Whenever the band wanted to add a cover to the set (we'd do 2-3 covers a show), it was never anything I wanted to play, despite what I most often pushed for being a song by one of the frontman's favorite bands.

Anyway, yeah, I'm still bitter. In a cruel epilogue, I'd spent 18 months trying to get the band into one particular Denver venue, my favorite, because I've seen so many bands there I love and used to play shows there in a previous band. Each time I came up empty handed, the room wanted nothing to do with us. Now, the very first gig the band actually booked after my departure (not including already-booked shows), is at this very venue, an irony that is not lost on me. Now, the band was added to the bill by the headliner, and it wasn't booked directly between the band and the club, but that's splitting hairs.

We are still family. I don't forget how genuinely friendly, generous, and human those guys are. Hell, I love them, even the frontman. Though I haven't seen any of them since the break, we've been in touch. I hope to remain friendly them. I hope exorcising my anger this way allows me to be friendly with them. But I can't, and won't, forget the way in which I was dumped.

I wish them each well both personally, and as a band. Though at present, I have no desire to see the band play.

Fortunately, there is no small amount of excitement for me coming up real soon, on the musical front...more on that later...

Live Bloggin' the MooDankie

2010-05-12T19:51:00.050-06:00

Over halfway through the BBT5, and I'm finally going to donate to the field tonight.

Will be live blogging, at least until I overshove my JJ into KK and AA.

Damn I got a tough starting table:

8:02 - Called a small raise from the BB, flopped trips, and took out The Blue Heron when my trips held against KK.1

8:06 - Pulled down a decent pot after 3-betting the turn against 1Queens Up1.

8:09 - Damn, gave back about a grand betting out on 4th and 5th streets to ShabazzJenkins' TPTK. May be time to slow down a bit. Only played that hand with QJo from BB because of Shabazz' 3x raise and two callers. Felt like good pot odds.

8:11 - First table change:

8:13 - Wussed out of my first opportunity for a Hammer steal attempt.

8:15 - Turned a boat, tried to overbet river, but villian folded. Still took a half decent pot (called flop and turn bets), but may have been a missed opportunity at a couple grand more chips. Maybe I should have shoved turn, but any non K or non AA hand folds there.

8:19 - Can't stop giving chips away to Wheelz78. May have folded to a river bluff.

8:21 - Raised KK 3x, three callers. J87 rainbow flop. My C bet was called and then overshoved. Hmm...did I run into a set? Thought about overshoving, but just called and Wheelz78 folded. PJS JR's JTo couldn't catch up, so I'm back over 6k. 3rd in chips. Been a relative card rack early. Hope it keeps up.

8:24 - 28 hands in, and I've already seen 8 flops, but have taken down 7 pots. More active than usual, but the cards have been coming.

8:30 - Raised 3x preflop from hijack. Riggstad pots it from cutoff. I 4-bet him to 65% of his chips, hoping for a shove. Alas, Riggs folds. Not a terrible pot, though.

8:38 - Damn, some good players (CK, Smokkee, Blinders) already out.

8:40 - Woke up to AA in the big blind. Raise and a call before me, so I reraise and get one caller . J high flop. Thought about check raising, but didn't want to give a free turn. Sadly, got a fold on the flop. Up to 8.1k, but I still feel like I'm missing chances at bigger pots.

8:44 - Damnity Damn Damn - QQ in the BB. Button raises, Shabazz calls from SB. I raise to 640, button shoves. I think and call. Button has 44. 4 on the turn. So sick. Down to 5.9k. If my queens hold, I become chipleader. Damn.

8:50 - In the first 62 hands, I've had AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, KQs twice...can't complain about the hands. Just hope it continues, since that QQ debacle dropped me to 11th in chips, whereas I'd been in the Top 3 the whole tourney before that hand.

8:55 - Picked up the blinds to go into the first break 13th in chips:

Some strong players ahead of me on the leaderboard. Lightning36, Hoy, Shabazz, OMGItsPokerFool...

9:10 - ShabazzJenkins knocks out two players when his flopped straight beats TP/straight draw and another straight draw. Both hit their straights, but not as big as Shabazz' on the flop.

9:12 - AKo and AQs in successive hands for smallish pots. The cardrackery continues, but folks aren't staying along for the ride. Still, back up to 8th in chips.

9:25 - 100 hands in, I haven't tossed many chips in over the last orbit or two. Quiet time in the corner, I guess.

9:27 - Pick up a monster the very next hand, and get paid through the turn. Back over 8k. muhctim, current chipleader, moves to the table two seats to my left.

9:34 - Time for another table change, I guess:

9:35 - Not many chips at this table. I'm only 11th in chips, but table chipleader.

9:40 - Irongirl just picked up a really nice pot with a flopped set of 7s. I don't get the call by RNallin on that turn with AJo, but whatev.

9:43 - Wow, awesome hand. Pick up QQ in the BB (3rd QQ this game). UTG shoves his 1700 stack, and there's a call in 2nd position. I raise to 4200, which would commit the caller. He shoves, I call. I'm up against AKo and 88. The A on the flop doesn't hurt when it's followed by a Q. Feels like justice after my first QQ went down. Up to 15k in chips, and 2nd biggest stack.

9:48 - Just noticed I've got BuddyDank, OMGItsPokerFool, and pushmonkey72 at my table. Just gets more difficult, don't it?

9:50 - Flip74 shoves, and I've got KK in mid position. I elect to double his bet, to isolate. Probably a good thing because the A on the board would have hurt me, if he hadn't had KJo. Up to 18k, still 2nd in chips.

9:54 - BuddyDank's out when bigdav1967 hit his dirty set of 9s on the river to take down KK.

9:55 - Going into 2nd break with 19k, 2nd in chips. Blinds to be 200/400/50.

10:02 - My how things change. Five of the top 9 in chips at my table. Current chipleader, but barely.

10:07 - Damn, made a bad fold with TT, villian showed 99 after I check-folded an ace high flop. Thought about a checkraise, but thought better. Or worse, as things would have it. Down to 16k.

10:19 - We've reached that point where a shorty is shoving preflop every single hand. Not the same shorty, but one of 2-3 of them. Up to 18k, but 6th in chips, 21 runners left.

10:26 - Karma is catching up to me for all my cardrackery in the first two hours. Nothing I can play here, especially in the fact of so many all ins, down to 14.5k.

10:30 - Final two tables, coming in 9th in chips:

10:34 - Only 16 left, but my poor cards have helped me slide to 12th in chips, well below average. First time I've been a relative shorty the whole tourney. Need to change gears, perhaps.

10:45 - Just got incredibly lucky against Irongirl, but bet it well. Raised A8hh from cutoff, she called from a blind. KT8 flop. I bet, she check-called. Check check on turn. Beautiful 8 on river. Small value bet called, she showed ATo. Caught from way behind, though when she check-called the flop, I figured her for ATo, or maybe slowplaying a set. Up to 27k, up to 4th in chips of 13 left.

10:51 - Final table bubble, but everyone's got at least like 18BB or so, so game's not really shallow yet. Lots of close-sized stacks.

10:54 - Hoy bubbled, leaving us with this final table:

11:11 - Crap, gonna be another 9th place finish. My c-bet with JJ on a Q high board made me committed to call NewinNov's shove. Yup, he had QJo.

11:15 - Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand out in 9th. My desperate less than 1 BB shove almost won, but Joanne pipped my KJ with AJ. Good luck on the felt, y'all. The mincash kinda hurts and sucks, but it was a fun tourney. Probably was also my one and only shot at a TOC berth, c'est la vie.

Ewwwwwwww

2010-05-09T15:35:00.001-06:00

For astoundingly huge chipleadl

PokerStars Game #43851931799: Tournament #268003178, $4.00+$0.40 USD Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit - Level XVII (600/1200) - 2010/05/09 15:31:29 MT [2010/05/09 17:31:29 ET]
Table '268003178 22' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Antep1982 (17176 in chips)
Seat 2: pdking (25457 in chips)
Seat 3: boxcar daddy (7478 in chips)
Seat 4: MRrsick (31093 in chips)
Seat 5: PACTAMAH (18998 in chips)
Seat 6: violetta 27 (11081 in chips)
Seat 7: BRUTUS83 (20280 in chips)
Seat 8: Scampi74 (16295 in chips)
Seat 9: Mondogarage (41083 in chips)
Scampi74: posts small blind 600
Mondogarage: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [6s Qs 3h 8c]
Antep1982: calls 1200
pdking: calls 1200
boxcar daddy: calls 1200
MRrsick: calls 1200
PACTAMAH: folds
violetta 27: calls 1200
BRUTUS83: folds
Scampi74: calls 600
Mondogarage: checks
*** FLOP *** [2s 7c 5s]
Scampi74: checks
Mondogarage: bets 1200
Antep1982: calls 1200
pdking: calls 1200
boxcar daddy: calls 1200
MRrsick: calls 1200
violetta 27: calls 1200
Scampi74: calls 1200
*** TURN *** [2s 7c 5s] [9c]
Scampi74: checks
Mondogarage: bets 3600
Antep1982: calls 3600
pdking: calls 3600
boxcar daddy: calls 3600
MRrsick: raises 25093 to 28693 and is all-in
violetta 27: calls 8681 and is all-in
Scampi74: calls 13895 and is all-in
Mondogarage: raises 9990 to 38683 and is all-in
Antep1982: folds
pdking: folds
boxcar daddy: calls 1478 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (9990) returned to Mondogarage
*** RIVER *** [2s 7c 5s 9c] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mondogarage: shows [6s Qs 3h 8c] (HI: a straight, Five to Nine; LO: 7,6,5,3,2)
MRrsick: shows [8h Qc Ah 6c] (HI: a flush, Queen high; LO: 6,5,3,2,A)
MRrsick collected 14798 from side pot-3
MRrsick collected 14798 from side pot-3
Scampi74: shows [As Ts 7h 9h] (HI: two pair, Nines and Sevens; LO: 7,5,3,2,A)
MRrsick collected 7821 from side pot-2
MRrsick collected 7821 from side pot-2
violetta 27: shows [4c Ac Tc 4d] (HI: a flush, Ace high; LO: 5,4,3,2,A)
violetta 27 collected 7206 from side pot-1
violetta 27 collected 7206 from side pot-1
boxcar daddy: shows [Jh 9d Ad 3s] (HI: two pair, Nines and Threes; LO: 7,5,3,2,A)
violetta 27 collected 24695 from main pot
violetta 27 collected 24695 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 109040 Main pot 49390. Side pot-1 14412. Side pot-2 15642. Side pot-3 29596. | Rake 0
Board [2s 7c 5s 9c 3c]
Seat 1: Antep1982 folded on the Turn
Seat 2: pdking folded on the Turn
Seat 3: boxcar daddy showed [Jh 9d Ad 3s] and lost with HI: two pair, Nines and Threes; LO: 7,5,3,2,A
Seat 4: MRrsick showed [8h Qc Ah 6c] and won (45238) with HI: a flush, Queen high; LO: 6,5,3,2,A
Seat 5: PACTAMAH folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: violetta 27 showed [4c Ac Tc 4d] and won (63802) with HI: a flush, Ace high; LO: 5,4,3,2,A
Seat 7: BRUTUS83 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Scampi74 (small blind) showed [As Ts 7h 9h] and lost with HI: two pair, Nines and Sevens; LO: 7,5,3,2,A
Seat 9: Mondogarage (big blind) showed [6s Qs 3h 8c] and lost with HI: a straight, Five to Nine; LO: 7,6,5,3,2

Unexpected Springtime Awesomeness

2010-05-07T17:15:00.003-06:00

If you're of a certain age, and most of us poker bloggers are, you'll certainly remember this game.

You're never too old to play Whiffleball. Hell, I spent the better part of a couple summers inside the Coral Gables Rec Center playing this on a makeshift field taking up their basketball court. Good times. This video just made my day.

Brought to you by Lucy Lager, the only girl that gets to go out with the guys.

Filling up the Dead Air

2010-05-07T07:41:00.004-06:00

So Big Al's BBT5 series is starting to round the corner into the homestretch, and there's been some really strong blogger players finding their way into the Tournament of Champions. Congrats to LJ for being the latest to join the list, having taken down this week's marathon Mookie. I seem to recall having bought a tiny % of LJ's action in the WSOP a couple of years ago, and while it was fun rooting her on, everything came up in tears that time around. Perhaps this time, things will be different.

Congrats also to the Black Widow for running really deep in the Stars SCOOP Lo Stud event the other day. I know coming up short of the final table always hurts...believe me, I've had far more of that than the alternative...but surviving 95% of the field in any kind of stud event inherently requires a ton of skill. And the ability to withstand the pain of stabbing oneself in the forehead repeatedly with a fork, but I digress....

I've played on SCOOP event so far, last week's $500k guarantee. Things started out fine, and I almost doubled up during the first hour, but all it took was one bad play in hour two to force me to scrape along the bottom for the next couple hours or so. I think I managed to outlast about 70% of the field, but came up well short of the money. And I took a decent stack post-bubble in the quarter-mil bingo donkament, and overplayed AQo. Results haven't been great lately, and I'm trying to make up for it by being too aggressive in less-than-optimal spots.

One SCOOP event is one more than the number of BBT5 events I've played, since Mookie night just doesn't work for me, I guess. But good luck to the rest of you trying to nail down one of the last TOC seats. I'd love to see this guy there. Not only do I respect his game, he's clearly one of the good guys.

Okay, enough for not...need to work on some long time catch up posts on the Good Doctor Mondo and my a lil' bit of music.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Oh well, I'll keep trying to play one big session a week for now, as that's all I really have time for in my life these days.

Feeling the Rush

2010-04-22T07:29:00.003-06:00

After another ten hour day in the office, I was sadly unable to make it home in time for the Mookie (or, The Buddy, if you're so inclined).

Now, I wasn't necessarily setting to play any poker last night. It's been a long week already, and miles to go before I sleep. But the Good Doctor Mondo and her mom were watching American Idol, and I just. can't. get. into. that. The audition shows are fun, but once everyone gets to Hollywood and is fed through the inevitable makeover process through the course of a season...makes me wanna gack.

So instead, I thought I'd try my hand at Full Tilt's new Rush Tournaments. Yeah, Rush poker with a tournament twist. I found two levels of 135 man SNGs, at $4.40 and $11. And I promptly tried a $4.40. The same Rush poker mechanism, but in a tourney with 2k starting chips and three minute blinds. So it's also a super turbo. And almost as promptly, I went down in flamed, with my AQ going down to KT on a TT8 board. Raised PF from the button, both blinds called, and I couldn't lay down to the check-raise after my c-bet on the flop.

So I fired up another one, as these seem to go off every five minutes. And on the very first hand, my AQ 3-bet AIPF went down to QT (who'd called my all in) on yet another TTx flop. Gross. I could sense a pattern forming.

So I fired up another one, and AK went down to QQ (oh, so now a Q is good).

So I fired up another one, and KK went down in flames. At least my conqueror had no tens...

So I fired up another one. And came home fourth. Way to go.

Actually, I found myself very fortunate in this one. Twice I had to catch a turn or a river in a really tight spot to keep going. And even when the final table started, I was 9th in chips, and pretty much roached my way up five spots just from other players getting knocked out by one or two big stacks. I think I only managed to pull down two pots at the final table.

All in all, the most valuable lesson I learned in these last night is that one of these 135 rush tournaments will go from start to end in under 80 minutes or so. But the play, at least in the $4.40s, is pretty bad, at least given some of the preflop calls I saw. Variance will be high. Once down to 18 players or so, the short stacks will stall, to lesson the number of hands. I haven't yet decided whether the quick fold is a great idea at that stage. If you have a decent stack (which I did at that time, around 5th-6th in chips), you may be better served by playing along with the stallers, to force the levels to rise and help the blinds swallow them up.

Anyway, it was fun, and the whole shebang was done just a few minutes after the DVR'd AI festivities were over, so I'm definitely going to try this again.

Besides, given the massive 122 player Mookie turnout last night, the 12:30MT headsup, and my work schedule...gah...it's looking less likely that I'll end up in any of the BBT5 events this cycle, such is life.

May the chips fall your way....

B(ad) B(ea)T Story Of the Day

2010-04-18T19:09:00.003-06:00

BBT5 is here, and I never got an invite to the Blogger Invitational today. Guess I'm not much of a blogger. Oh well. I realize my actual poker blogging is pretty crappy, so I doubt I merited an invite, but it would have been fun.

Had a heartbreaking day today...made it oh so close in Early Daily Double B.

Bittersweet, really. Deepest I've ever made it through any Daily Double, but once I hit a high of about 80k chips in level 22, I went through about 6-7 orbits of nothing better than Q2s in early position with massive stacks to my left. The type of card death (93o, 74o, T3o), at a table where no one was limping in, that I just couldn't make a move. I managed to double up once with AK, back to about 60k with 25 players left, and picked up AK again in position, in a three way raised pot preflop, but the J on the flop help the KJ short stack shover keep me from gaining any more ground, and it was all downhill from there.

Still, I was able to semi min-cash the big afternoon $3r, and an $11 huge field event, and even the 1/4 mil today, but didn't go deep enough in those to make a meaningful bankroll difference. So to get oh so close to a final table in a large-ish field event...bah. Nevertheless, I managed five or six cashes today, and came out slightly above breakeven...which doesn't make me feel any better about missing the Invitational, but there you have it.

Good luck on the felt y'all.

It's Baaaaaaaaaaaaaack.............

2010-04-16T07:48:00.005-06:00

Just when you think you're out....they drag you back in....

Truth be told, I'm probably going to have to settle for begging my way into the Battle Royale, as weeknight poker is just not really possible for me these days. But damn, I've always loved playing the Mookie in the handful of times I've been able to. Would sure like to start again.

I should be able to make one of the Invitationals, we'll see. Either way, this is yet another great thing FTP is doing to advance the cause of poker bloggery. Now, if they'd just do something about that RNG when I'm holding AA.....

Why A Stickshift?

2010-04-12T21:08:00.003-06:00

Cause it's drivin' my nuts.

Not much reportage worth passing on these days...the 50-65 hour work weeks continue apace, which is well and truly cutting into this donkey's time at the virtual felt. I've only managed to play one MTT session since my last correspondence, with pretty miserable results not even worth mentioning.

What is worth mentioning is this...back in the long long ago, when my darling Good Doctor Mondo first woke from her coma, and had several months in the hospital still awaiting her, I made to her a promise. She *would* be going to Rockies Opening Day in 2010. The promise was probably really for both of us, after all, we were pretty much powered by nothing but hope at that time. It would be quite a while before she'd even take her first steps, much less contemplate actually going to a ballpark.

So...........

It was an adventure, to be sure, given the limited handicap parking at Coors, the fact our seats were on the opposite side of the stadium from said parking, and us being occasionally on edge as to the duration of the Good Doctor's O2 tanks. Well, everything actually went very smoothly -- not to mention the 7-0 spanking our Boys Of Purple put on those Padres. A great great day all around, and now I can promise it will not be the last game she'll see this year.

And this past Friday, by itself, makes everything else we're dealing with...crazy-making long work hours and absences from one another, rigorous physical therapy, all everything else...pretty insignificant in the moment.

Play ball!

18 Outs Twice?

2010-04-03T20:23:00.004-06:00

No good, not for 250k chips. So sad.

Frankly, it's just been really refreshing to actually get back to playing some poker for the first time in two weeks. Managed five cashes, one absolute bubble (gack), one HORSE final table (but always in my smallest buyin, and out in 4th).

But a very fun session, all in all, even if I only managed to eke out a tiny tiny profit.

One reason it was so fun? Here it is:

My first ever Steel Wheel. Sure, it was Omatard 8, but a scoop is a scoop, no? Got paid off by both players, too...

On the Nature Of the Role Of Government...

2010-03-24T14:41:00.003-06:00

...brought to you by a graphic I came across today (original author unknown, at least to me).

Now clearly, not nearly every broad-based program the federal government has gotten behind has worked out in the most efficient or effective manner. In areas as diverse as food safety, fuel economy standards, and gosh knows online poker transactions, there's an awful lot that can be improved upon.

But to those who would simply parrot the standard issue Palin/Beckisms of "the government's taking over your lives, ZOMG death panels!", I would cordially invite you to skip out on the benefits enjoyed in all other areas of your lives where the government has actually made a positive difference -- perhaps a fresh coat of lead paint in your bedroom, or just rip out the seat belts and air bags in your car and hope you don't have a highway accident (because such equipment only reached the ubiquity of becoming standard equipment thanks to government regulation).

I'm not suggesting the recently-passed health care legislation is perfect. Far from it. The failure to pass some form of drug reimportation is saddening, when Americans have to pay exponentially more for the same medicine from the same manufacturer, than Canadians do (as well as those of other countries).

However, all the fear-mongering in the world, most loudly by those who stand to financially benefit from fear (Limbaugh, Beck, et al.), only reflects how out of touch with reality a person can be. See, Limbaugh and Beck don't actually care that much about policy -- their riches come not from policy one way or the other, but solely from inciting and stoking fear and anger, because it builds ratings. And without ratings, they have no portfolio at all.

All Quiet (Mostly) on the Poker Front

2010-03-13T09:43:00.004-07:00

Played a lengthy tourney session last Sunday, probably around 22 events in all. Meh. Lived up to the nickname my wife gave me "Almost". Five cashes, most of them of the true mincash variety. Bubbled one final table. Did manage to pull out a 2nd place finish in one tourney, though sadly (for my bankroll), it was only a $2.20 PLHE/PLO event with about 220 runners, so even winning it wouldn't have added a hundo to the roll. I think I managed to just about break even on the day.

Heads up in the PLHE/PLO was interesting, though. We came into heads up roughly even in chips, and went back and forth, back and forth, such that heads up was easily more than 100 hands.

Thought I was going to take a massive chiplead when I turned an 8-high straight flush in spades, during PLO level 26 or whatever it was. Unfortunately, I lost him on the river. At any rate, at one point I swung from down 4:1 in chips, to up 4:1 in chips, to back down 4:1 in chips...and eventually out. It was a very enjoyable experience, though, to be in a heads-up battle lasting that long. Both of us definitely had to change up our styles during it, to keep either of us from becoming overly predictable in our levels of aggression.

Anyway, not much else to report. I doubt you'll see me in any Mini FTOPS, as my Full Tilt roll's a bit low to take that on. Maybe I'll put in another session some time this weekend, but with the Good Doctor Mondo having scheduled a dinner out with friends, and several friends coming over, it may just not be in the cards. Heh. A pun.

Enjoyed reading the Mastodon weekend reports. Live bloggerments are f u n.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Don't Hold Out On Me

2010-03-05T17:44:00.001-07:00

Or I will cut a Keefe.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag - James O'Keefe & Sean Hannity

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Skate Expectations

The least Keefe could have done down in the bayou is actually hire a couple of talented Republican wiretapping operatives...I mean, aren't the Watergate burglars, I mean, bunglers, out of jail by now?

Wow. Just Wow.

2010-03-05T16:44:00.005-07:00

One way to successfully put me on tilt...

Deepish (well, just before bubble) in a huge field donkament...in this case, FTP's Daily Double A, when facing action from me...hem and haw in the chat box for about thirty seconds before deciding to call off all your chips in middle position with.........the mighty T6o.

Then proceed to flop trip sixes (I had ATs, by the way).

Then, berate me for the bad play of calling your bet. (Um, you, sir, acted after me in the hand.)

Then, proceed to brag about winning $300k online. When I checked, you are a lifetime -82% ROI on Stars, and while you have won a total of $26k on FTP, you've done so at a -13% ROI clip, and with nearly half of that lifetime total consisting of winning a WSOP ME satellite two years ago. Without that flukeament, your total lifetime losignitude is at least 50%.

Then, proceed to actually luckbox your way to 7th in the entire tournament, by having called off all your chips in middle position with..........the mighty T6o, for your only triple-digit cash of any kind since last September.

Well played, Chaconas, well played, sir. I can tell by your results since last weekend, you've put that money to good use.

A Toast to Skill

2010-02-26T19:05:00.002-07:00

What is skill? And more to the point, where can one find it?

I did not find it in a mouse...the mouse that's made it's way into my car's battery compartment shitting all over the microfilter, leaving it's wake of stinkass ammonia behind...

I did not find it in a house...at least not in the Blair House this week, where all I heard was the same old bluster and hustle of the venal and vain who collect their own free taxpayer-funded socialized Viagra (Boehner wasn't outside smoking, he was in the stalls, shtupping!)

I did not find it in my drain...nothing but a few old soggy lettuce leaves, from the detritus of long gone dinner.

I did not find it in the rain...all I caught that day was a cold, that a full week later leaves me hacking all night and waking the neighbors.

I thought I found it in the bass...but no, the Rolling Stones declined to keep me on speed dial when Bill Wyman checked out to marry yet another 16 year old.

I thought I'd check again, just in case.

Ah, there you are.

Skill...oh mystifying skill, the ability to read not only your hand, but the play of your opponents. Knowing when the 4-bet shove with cards lacking paint, because you've studied and learned, and applied those lessons well. That one weaktight jackhole who won't go to war with anything short of Kings, and will lay down to a turn of the screws. Ah, there you are.

Is poker a sport? I dunno, maybe once lime tossing and beer pong have been awarded full Olympic status, and not only for hashing out negotiations between bent figure skating judges, but I digress.

What poker is, is a game of great skill, taking months to gain one's feet, often years to play truly well, and a lifetime to master. The game is always changing, nearly as often as a deck is shuffled or a chipstack riffled. New games, new playing styles, ever morphing and evolving. Rewarding, yes, but always a challenge, always, which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill'

Typical, Yet...

2010-02-21T20:28:00.004-07:00

...the truth is, I do consider Stud and Stud 8 to be my worst games, so I'm not going to complain. Well, at least not much. They way I went out was pretty sick. AA underneath, and a nice low draw by 4th. Filled up to two pair and a qualifying low that would have scooped until 7th street not only gave villian a straight, but also busted my low.

Losing day overall (PokerStars was absofuckinglutely brutal to me today), but a final table is a final table.

Nice Lil' Rush Session

2010-02-20T17:08:00.003-07:00

Ahh, left Rush Hour with my first pretty decent winning session. Decided to mix it up a bit, with one table NLHE, and one table PLO. Over 400 hands (with about 230 of them NLHE), I managed to cash out up an average of 1.5 buyins in each. Three buyins over 400 hands in about an hour? I'll take it.

I think the real trick is not so much being a rathole, which is pretty disgusting, but knowing when to say when. I never got as far as up two buyins on either table, so after about 50 hands or so of treading water, I figured the rush, so to speak, was over.

I'll take it. These days, a small session like that was good enough to add over 10% to my relative pittance of a Full Tilt roll, and 10% at a time, for someone who is primarily not a cash game player, is a nice add to the roll.

Good luck on the felt ya'll.

The Winter Of Our Long Discontent...

2010-02-18T07:37:00.002-07:00

....is over. Spring Training camps open today. Woot. Hell yeah, hope springs eternal. Yes, even for you Mets and Cubs fans.

Frankly, for the first time ever, the Colorado Rockies come into camp as legitimate contenders, or even favorites, to win their first ever NL West crown, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Questions abound, to be sure. Will Jeff Francis return to his pre-2008, pre-surgery form? Will Dexter Fowler and Carlos Gonzales continue to develop? Will the increased attendance after reaching the playoffs in two out of the last three seasons make the line at the garlic fries line intolerably long? Did Jason Giambi agree to share his golden thong to the team if it dips into a batting slump?

We shall see. But for now, PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT. Hell yeah.

The Rockies are coming off a franchise-best 92 win season, with a roster not very much changed, and still quite young (if you don't count bench players Giambi and Melvin Mora).

Got my opening day club level tix for April 9th, just hope I can use them.

Finally got back to some tourney poker the other night, with only two mincashes to show for it. One of them hurt. After breaking the bubble in a $5 PLO8 with 500 or so runners, I was sitting okay in about 60th spot when my combo draws hit the flop for a nut flush, and then lost to runner runner QQ on the turn and river for a sick sick boat. Oh well. It was fun to actually donk around a bit, but overall, I didn't really have a lot of momentum on the night.

Lazy Sunday Means Go Fast

2010-02-15T07:19:00.005-07:00

What a great Valentine's Day, and one that even involved no poker whatsoever. Yesterday was the first day in about 19 or so that I did not have to go in to the office, or even spend more than ten minutes reading office e-mail. So the Good Doctor Mondo and I got to run a couple of errands before settling into my favorite Daytona 500 ever. Why was this my favorite? Because after all these years, my favorite, semi-long suffering driver pulled it out. Yeah, this guy:

Why am I a Jamie Mac fan? It's hard to put a finger on it, but I was watching that Charlotte race back in 2002, when Jamie stepped up from the Busch series to fill in for an injured Sterling Marlin, and won in his 2nd ever race. He comes across as bright, not the least bit cocky, and as I'm an anti-hypester...well, I never could stand the Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr. and later, Jimmy Johnson crowd. Jamie's had a career unnecessarily obscure. In the first two years of the Chase, where only ten drivers get to fight it out for the final title, Jamie was 11th and 12th in the standings at the cutoff. After that, they expanded the Chase to 12 drivers. But by then, Jamie had moved to Roush Racing, where he was always the sort of bastard unwanted stepchild of glamor boys Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle, and Roush favorite Matt Kenseth.

And coming in to this year, after Roush was forced to cut back to four teams, Jamie didn't even have a job until the offseason (this after winning at Talledega last year). Anyway, it's fantastic to see him get off to such a great start. No matter what happens going forward, he will always be Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray, may it not be the last time you see the Winner's Circle this year.

Oh yeah, it was only at this point when I realized the Stars $40 entry $1 million guarantee was THIS weekend, and not NEXT Sunday, when I caught up on CK's twitter feed. Normally, that would be an extreme FML moment, but not today. No, not today. One of the things the Good Doctor Mondo and I have learned over the past several months, is that life really is all about love. Having it in your life, sharing it, and who it is your sharing it with. Neither one of us have been much for Valentine's Day in the past. In fact, I really do not like holidays solely manufactured by greeting card companies, ya know?

But this year was different.

The Good Doctor Mondo and I traded presents, as well as with her mom, who has been with us since November, and then we went out to the best restaurant in Longmonth, Sugarbeet. Sugarbeet is a rare find, indeed...sitting nestled into a light industrial area, but serving truly gourmet, interesting, sometimes organic or locally grown, dishes. I could probably bore you all with a recap of what we ate, in my typical way that doesn't really give a sense of how wonderful it actually was. But what made it truly special is simply this. Last night was the first time the Good Doctor Mondo and I have gone out on a date...just the two of us, since before she got sick last June. Eight months. Last night felt like victory. Last night felt...normal.

So okay, I gave up a Sunday of poker, and may not get to play for a couple more weeks, given the mad schedule at work. But you know what? It feels good.

Good luck on the felt ya'll.

Livin' For a Workin' Workin' For A Livin'

2010-02-10T07:27:00.003-07:00

I've never been much of a grinder at the tables. The thought of 12-tabling 180 man SNGs for eight hours, just to eke out a 20% ROI rather makes my skin crawl. Poker as work does not always equate to poker as fun. At least not to me. It's one thing to have lightning strike, take down a major uber score or three, and then jet around the world playing WPT, EPT, NAPT events. It's another thing entirely to have to grind out 10-20 tables online like it's your job. Because that's what it is.

Well, the last several weeks of work have left me feeling as if I've been grinding in a similar fashion, but with almost no poker content whatsoever, and yet the next several months look to be even crazier, even more intense, and leaving me with even less time (and sometimes the inclination) to fling my chips around the felt at all, much less firing up a goodly number of tables. After a third or fourth straight twelve hour day, it's all I can do to be bothered to even check gmail or Facebook, much less spend any more time in front of a computer screen.

I am incredibly thankful that the Good Doctor Mondo's mother continues here with us in Colorado during her ongoing recovery. Though I know the time is ticking forward to when she has to go back to her own life in North Carolina. I just hope that when that time comes, and I'm still awash and over my head in crazy-making work hours, we can continue to manage and plod through.

At least the band's taking a bit of a short break later this month. I don't know how much more I can have days like last Friday where, having flown to Detroit the night before for a last minute business trip, my colleagues and I spent all day in meetings, then boarded a flight that left an hour late, scrambled back to Denver, and I still had a gig to play that night...rolling into the venue 20 minutes before go time didn't exactly lend itself to a quality show on the bass player's part.

Still, this 1st half of 2010 represents a great challenge and opportunity, for both myself, and for the firm employing me. I truly hope and expect we're both up to the challenge. Thundercats are go, or something...

Not Bad, Yet...

2010-02-06T22:25:00.001-07:00

....pretty fucking disappointing, considering I came into the final table 2nd in chips. Ran kings up into a 7th street full boat on the 5th level of Stud, which crippled me. Went out on the 6th round of LHE.

Still, I've been running so horribly in MTTs lately that I should be happier than I am.

Whatta Rush

2010-01-28T07:32:00.003-07:00

So the hot new action in the online poker realm is a new twist over at Full Tilt Poker, called Rush Poker. Essentially, Rush Poker allows a player to auto-fold hands they don't want to play, and the software then rushes you off to a new table in time for a new hand. Instead of sitting at a table (or 2 tables, 4 tables, whatever volume you play), you enter a pool of players, anywhere from hundreds to a couple thousand. And then, all those players simply go from table to table, hand to hand, and say, if you're in mid position holding that 92 offsuit you can't wait to trash, you can simply quick fold and move on.

There are three obvious main developments this leads to, the first of which is, a player can play many more hands per hour than otherwise. Whereas, in my limited ring game play, I may 2-table for an hour and see 150 hands, I saw roughly 2000 hands in my two hour experiment 2-tabling (or would that be 2-pooling) with the 10NL Rush Poker fish.

The next obvious development is this, you're not going to get reads on players, because you're leaving the table at the end of every hand. Now if you're in a pool for any period of time, you are likely to run into players now and again that you've seen, but unless you've actually played a hand out with that person, it's very hard to gauge things such as how they play position, level of aggression, whether they'll fold to a c-bet, etc. And because you're moving so fast, it's quite difficult (if not impossible) to take effective notes.

Finally, the third development is a clear economic boon to Full Tilt. After all, if hands are wrapping up that much more quickly, and more players are playing more hands so quickly, they're collecting that much more in rake. More power to'em, I suppose.

In my own experiment, I played roughly 2000 hands of 10NL, most of it at full ring tables. Around 250 hands of that came at 6-max, where I lost a full buyin, and I managed to win two buyins at the full rings. This was even with KK going down three times. Once to AA, once when 99 caught a set on the turn, and the other when I slow played a flopped set and allowed villian to runner runner broadway on me. Still, I managed to find around 5 BB/100 hands, when it could have been even better.

I think the idea is to play straight up, solid, semi-ABC poker. Bluffing doesn't really seem to work in Rush Poker, at least not at the 10NL level, but being the first to open raise will often cause everyone else to quick fold. What I've found in my admittedly small sample is that preflop aggression can work to pick up small pots, but whiffing the flop and c-betting often doesn't. Why? Because most players will quick fold the trash hands preflop and move on, so any flop with big cards is more likely than not to have actually helped your opponent.

Anyway, I'm going to play around with this some more as I get time, but I've been working 12-13 hours a day all this week, which is forecasted to continue for some time. I may be away from the tables for a bit.

In fact, I'm missing the entirely of the WBCOOP (thanks for the ticket, Stars, but do you have to always place such a bad beat on Mountain Time Zone by starting events at 4pm?!?!?)...

Good luck at the tables.

Bah, A Wee Bit Short

2010-01-16T09:59:00.003-07:00

Bah.

Played a very small batch of tourneys last night, three in total. The FTP $5 LO8, the $4 4-max PLO8 on Stars, and the $4 1000-max NLHE at Stars. Came up empty. Bah.

$5 Limit O8 - finished 45th of 221 (27 paid). Twice I had to bail two massive combo draws in big pots after scary rivers. The one I remember saw me holding AA54 double suited clubs/spades and a flop that brought two clubs and a deuce and a trey. The red king on the turn didn't help (I check/called), and the non-club K on the river hurt worse. So the low never filled, and all I've got is a pair of aces. The river fold was correct, I am certain, pot odds be damned, but it left me crippled.

The upsetting part to me of this is that I did not raise from the SB with this hand. I got a bit gunshy raising PF in this tourney, because the field seemed so loose that every late position raise saw either five callers or TWO re-raises on top by players who limped in early. My hope, preflop, was to pick up exactly the kind of draws on the flop that...well...that I did pick up. But if villian's caught virtually any part of that board by the river, I lose that hand.

$4 4-max PLO8 - finished 74th of 599 (60 paid). This one hurt, to the extent that I managed to overcome losing 1/3 of my stack in the first couple of levels, and played pretty tight afterwards, but as the blinds caught up and I found myself short, I shoved from position to get called by a mixed-bag hand. The flop gave him top pair, but gave me bottom two pair. Of course, it's Omaha, so nothing's a sure thing, but the turn gave him trips.

$4 8-handed 1000-max NLHE - finished 196th of 1000. This one hurt real bad. At first, I thought it would be a really really short tourney for me. Third hand in, I see a couple of Jacks staring at me from one of the blinds. Nice. Early position raises, and about four players (besides myself) come along for the ride. Now, I considered re-raising to isolate, but at these buyins, with the quality of players at this level, I'm likely to still see the flop at least 4-handed, so I elect to call. The flop was all low cards, maybe 9-high. I didn't want A-rag to get there, so I bet out, and the original raiser shoves...it's early enough, I haven't invested time, so I call. He's got QQ. Bah. But the J on the turn saves my bacon and sets me up for a long run.

I'm not playing a lot of hands at all, but saw KK once and QQ three times, and picked up nice pots with all of them. Given my rate of reasonable cards, I didn't feel the need to get out of line by trying to steal too often, and that strategy seemed to be working.

I manage to spend the entire first hour in the top 10 in chips, eventually falling backwards a bit through card death. But with 200 players left, I'm still something like 60th-70th, with a just above average chipstack, when we get to the last hand before break. Then this happens....and where the Mondo learns a powerful lesson.

I'm in the SB holding KQs, blinds are either 150/300 or 200/400, I forget. The BB is in the top 5-10 in chips, with 3x my stack. Folds around to the hijack who calls. (I have about 15k chips, he has about 11k) I hate this spot. I like raising here, but for the massive stack on my left, who has been pushing around a bit. The hijack could have anything, medium to big ace, middle pair, who knows. So I elect to call (the BB checked). The flop was great for me. Q54 rainbow, yeah. I think I'm good here, because AQ in that spot most likely raises preflop. So given possible holdings, I look like I have a monster here.

So I check, hoping to CR any kind of continuation bet. The hijack spot bets 1100, essentially just short of pot. Doesn't tell me much. So I raise to 2700 to show strength. I suppose I could have shoved, but that would have shown weakness, and I do think I have a monster here. Until he smooth calls. Dammit, dammit, dammit, I tell myself as the inconsequential turn comes out. He's got to have a set of fives, he's just got to. Why didn't I raise preflop, I ask myself as I donkey shove the turn. Actually, he had pocket fours, for the flopped bottom set, and I'm crippled.

I misplayed this so many ways...when he called my flop CR, I *knew* he had a set (only error was which set). So why do I shove myself to certain death there? Why did I not raise KQs from my spot preflop? Even with the huge stack on my left, I have a lot of FE in that spot that possibly makes up for the loss of showdown value of my hand?

Any suggestions how to avoid this type of leak? I know, I know, sometimes, you've just gotta actually trust your reads. Shoving into what I know is a made set is probably a worse blunder than not raising PF in that spot, but I'm interested in your thoughts.

So instead of a healthy stack at break, I'm 195 of 200, with about 8.5 BB left. Bah.

Either first or 2nd hand after break, the even shorter stack on my right shoves. I see 99 and overshove -- he could have anything, but with 8 BB left and an M of about 4, I'm not folding here. Well, two to my left overshoves. Gross. The shortest stack had 77 (putting me well ahead), but the big stack had QQ. Can I beat the mighty QQ again with a smaller pair, like I did in the first orbit?

Ummmm....nope. The Q of hearts on the flop nearly sealed my fate. The heart turn on the two heart flop gave me hope for a backdoor flush (I held the only pocket heart), but the river smited me, and IGHN. This one hurt. Bah.

Three tournies, beat at least 80% of the field every time, but zero cashes. Bah.

Long Time A'Comin

2010-01-10T13:11:00.005-07:00

Haha...no, not a major MTT score, though I did make another smallish final table yesterday.

After ten years in gigging bands, and after being involved in the recording of at least six different albums, I'm finally getting to play my very own proper CD release show. It feels good.

Of course, it's not as if New Ben Franklins are actually on a label, this is strictly a self-release. But we also had it properly pressed, as opposed to previous efforts with The Lime Twiggs, Jealous Lover Targets, and Subcity Six, which were all CDRs hand burnt on our own PCs, or The Florenteens' disc of a few years back where we had a friend put together 50 copies with artwork on the disc.

So we've pressed 250 copies of this lil' thing...I wonder how many folks will care. Or at least care enough to help us break even, so that we can record a full length later this year.

I'm quite pleased to have King For A Day, Action Packed Thrill Ride, and Primasonic playing this show with us. All are bands we have played with before (some multiple times), and all are really great gents. The 21st is going to be a blast, and I'm particularly jazzed to get to share the stage again with Action Packed Thrill Ride, a band I first became acquainted with early last year, and a band that's spent more time in my iPod shuffle this year than most.

So in the alt-country spirit of the day, good luck on the felt ya'lls. Wish I could join you for Sunday donkfests, but Saturday was my wad-shootin' day of the week this week....

Wha?!?!?! Freerolls?!?!?

2010-01-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers, you too can take part by registering on WBCOOP

Registration code: 755148

Taking One On the Chin

2010-01-06T17:15:00.002-07:00

The year is young, and the author is not...in fact, I'm looking quite a bit older and even Waffles-ish these days. Why? Nothing earth-shattering, but after walking the planet for 44+ years, I've finally taken a crack at growing a beard.

Why?

Dunno, just tired of shaving. And my band's pedal steel player grew one. I'd hate for him to be lonely.

Why not before?

Dunno...I hate shaving, always have. But after spending 13 years in uniform, followed by a decade plus in law firm environments, I just got so used to it, that I'd only take off on the weekends. My weekly two days of whiskers would be my two day vacation uniform.

But 2.5 weeks ago, I said to hell with hit. Hell, I haven't had a haircut since July, so let's try going full shag for a while, shall we?

Of course, having it come in mostly grey and white...well, it's hardly one of my more youthful moments.

But the freedom's been fun...and with windchill well below zero here right now, maybe it'll even keep me warm on the drive home...

Two poker sessions so far this year, around 30 tourneis, for which I can lay claim to one final table (7th of about 1250 in a $2 Cashout MTT), and yet a still-declining bankroll, even with five or six cashes. Because all but the final table were truly mincashes. Oh well.

No real poker goals this year, other than to continue to work on the emotional side of it, and to try to get to Vega$ at least once this year. Last year was tough for me to get away for some pretty big reasons.

I suppose I'd also like to grow the bankroll some more, but getting from something like $1600 online to $2000 online doesn't really open up the tourney buyin levels that much, so short of a miracle big hit, I'll likely end up in my current holding pattern of cashing roughly 19% of tournies, but being only marginally above breakeven in the process. Looking at it more like recreation now, especially as life and work are going to conspire greatly this year to keep my play to generally no more than once a week.

Where's the beard photo?

Why all the fuss, it's just a beard, even if a virgin beard.

The Cruel, Cruel Mistress

2009-12-28T09:12:00.003-07:00

Ah poker, how I hate you so. Sometimes. So after my last post, I've managed to put in two lengthy tournament sessions, with the expected horrendous results. As the Good Doctor Mondo reminds me, at least I'm doing a far better job of not letting emotional tilt ruin my days post-poker.

But my last two sessions have resulted in 15-18 tournies per session, with only a single min-cash each time, usually in my lowest buy-in of the day. Out on the absolute bubble twice, both times on 70/30s, losing on the river each time.

Had a nice stack in one of the early Daily Doubles yesterday, about 100 spots before payouts begin, when I picked up KK in the small blind, where I reraised an EP raiser. Bet out the Q high flop. Bet out the turn (which didn't improve the board and left no draws; call the overshove raise to find I'm up against KQo of all things. Naturally, the 2-outer Q hits the river, so fuck it, I piss off my stack in the other early DD about 40 spots short of $$$.

Go out the absolute bubble boy in a $10 NLO8 tourney on Tilt, when my A842 double suited (yeah, not great, but I was short) was called off by A862, who naturally hits trip 6s by the turn and left me with less than one BB in the BB.

Naturally, given my terrirunbad these days, on the absolute bubble of a $5 LO8 tourney, and the final remaining tourney I'm in, Full Tilt decides to polish off the day by sending its software tits-up. At least I got to share in the prizepool in that one.

Oh yeah, made a couple bad plays, shoved KK on the river into a QQ high board (had him on AK) when villian held....QQ. D'oh. This was in the Stars 1/4 Mil after tripling up early. Also went out near the bubble of the World Record (well, I guess finishing 31,000-something can be considered the bubble of 30,000 get paid and 160,000 started)...when I lost another 95% hand on the river. But not going to whine about a 10 FPP tourney.

Yeah, poker sucks for me these days. I won't even play Bodog given the abuse it's given me, though I've got a few hundo left there. No more whining.

Christmas was actually a pretty wonderful time in the Mondopad. The Good Doctor Mondo's dad came out last Wednesday to join her mom, who's been here for five weeks. The Good Doctor Mondo received a Wii for Xmas, which has been invaluable in her continued rehab, for balance and fitness reasons. She used one in her rehab hospital, and it's been a real aid in parts of her recovery. Of course, we both agree that Rock Band must be on the horizon. ;-)

Not much else to report. After 44 years on the miserable hunk of rock, I'm actually giving a half-hearted attempted at growing a pathetic beard. We'll see how it goes...

Happy New Year, and to 2009, don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

Oh How I've Missed Thee

2009-12-19T11:39:00.003-07:00

Not much to say on the poker front, as I haven't played a hand in over a week. Last weekend was spent doing an online document review project for work which remains ongoing. I'd be working on it again this very moment, if not for a server crash...

It's been pretty impossible to find time to play any cards at all these days, what with all the interruptions that would ensue if I tried to sit down for even a 45 player turbo SNG. While the Good Doctor Mondo continues to improve incrementally nearly every day, the fact remains that our daily lives haven't returned to anything resembling normalcy. Since her own abilities to do the most simple things, such as getting up to get a glass of water, require someone to go to the tanks to turn up her O's, or being behind her every step of the way on the staircase..well, I just can't trust starting a tournament with any sense that I can actually play it through.

In better news, the Good Doctor Mondo's oxygen requirements continue to trend down. At rest, we now have her on 1/2 the oxygen she was at when she first came home, and her needs under exertion are about 18% lower, so she continues to progress. In fact, her doctors do now see a likely eventual 100% recovery. This is great news, indeed. Given how terribly sick she was, and the normal 12 month horizon for lungs to reach whatever final recovery level they tend to plateau at, her current pace indicates a higher final plateau than anyone would have thought as recently as two months ago.

Hoping to find a way to get a "day off" of sorts to get some play in this weekend, however. Of course, poker is of little importance in the grand scheme of things, but I'm feeling a real sense of withdrawal, especially having missed out on the recent #WBPT shenanigans, and seeing a fellow blogger take down a tidy $27k score in the mini-FTOPS...well, I miss the game.

Which reminds me, while I do think Hoy can reach levels of internetz douchebaggery at times unmatched by us mere mortals, he's a hell of a player whose game I've respected for some time. Congratulations Hoy, on your huge score. Not your first, won't be your last.

Speaking of fellow bloggers, one of my favorite bloggers in the pokerverse has just written a well thought out piece on the pitfalls and vagaries of staking arrangements -- well worth the read. Thanks, CK!

Oh yeah, one lil' band snippet -- New Ben Franklins got our pressed CD back from the manufacturer yesterday, well in advance of our CD release show next month.

This makes me happy on so many levels...those who've known me for a long time know that this is either the 6th or 7th album I've been a part of recording, and yet the very first one to actually make it all the way to getting a proper pressing (even if it's just a short run EP). Feels good to actually have something you can find on the shelves of local independent record stores soon. Previous bands of mine may have hand-burned small volumes to sell at shows, but having one properly packaged, shrink-wrapped, and all that other jazz, is just kinda cool.

Well, good luck at the tables...glad to hear none of the #WPBT crew got hooker-rolled in Vega$, or lost a kidney, or got to be a bad man's boyfriend in the Clark County Jail....

Onward, Mighty Bloggers

2009-12-10T07:55:00.003-07:00

Ahhhh...I wish I were there. Be safe, be sound, be excellent, and most of all, do not be weak tight.

Set Twitter to Stun.

CD Review - The Woggles - Tempo Tantrum

2009-12-07T07:51:00.004-07:00

The Woggles
Tempo Tantrum
Wicked Cool Records

From my most recent assignment at Hybrid Magazine:

Over nearly two decades, Atlanta's prime purveyors of reverently retro rock and roll, The Woggles, have released a veritable cornucopia of albums, singles, compilation and tribute tracks, spanning a handful of lineups. Most of The Woggles' releases have had at least one toe firmly planted in a sort of southern trashy garage soul vibe. Yet their catalog has also clearly indicated an abiding appreciation of a wide swath of vintage flavors, such as surf music, spaghetti Western soundtracks, and other appropriate drive-in sonic fare. This appreciation is demonstrated by the way the band has sprinkled various tracks reflective of this admiration throughout their releases over the years, often either as b-sides to singles, or on tribute compilations.

Which brings us to their new release, Tempo Tantrum, which is essentially a retrospective collection of instrumentals (originals and covers), all but one of which have been previously released, though many on very obscure, out-of-print, issues. For those relatively new to The Woggles, this is pretty much a must-have record, in large part due to the inclusion of their instrumental cover of The Monkees' "Valleri", and their cover of The Fleshtones' "Theme From The Vindicators", each an homage executed with deserved respect, yet tinged with the raucous sweaty energy for which The Woggles have long been known. Even longer term fans who may not have kept pace with The Woggles' exhaustive release schedule over the years will find this collection an interesting recapping of the band's instrumental lexicon, underscoring the various lineup changes and guest players who have aided the band in its exploits over the years.

A couple of songs in particular stand out above the others. Notably "El Toro", a worthy homage to the spaghetti Western soundtracks of Morricone and Nicolai, but brought to date with rock drums and a driving bass line. Another highlight is "Los Angeles No Niseimaturi", which originally appeared on a vinyl only EP release a few years ago, and was apparently recorded as an act of sonic reverence towards Nokie Edwards-era Ventures. "The Elbow Twist" is a fine go-go combo organ driven stomper. Even the one true vocal track on the album, a cover of Dick Dale's "Mr. Peppermint Man" (taken from a 15 year old 10" vinyl tribute release appropriately titled "Dickheads") has 1962 stamped all over it. Given the very nature of The Woggles as a band, this is a good thing indeed.

The above notwithstanding, the band is now at a point where two of its last three full-length releases have been retrospective collections and The Woggles, who are indeed still active, have only put out one new release of new recordings sine 2003. Here's hoping that the Professor, Flesh Hammer, Dan Electro, and Buzz Hagstrom get back to the business of penning the best in balls-out revival retro rock and roll sooner rather than later. After all, as Meredith Ochs (of NPR's All Songs Considered) once said, a Woggles show "will change your life," and there is nothing like a brand new release of brand new songs, to give cause to bring The Woggles to your town.

Number of The Beast

2009-12-04T23:42:00.004-07:00

It ain't 666, because that would be one too many. Effin' 66...goddamn I hate that hand. Played a few turbos tonight, after the Good Doctor Mondo went to bed. Seven of them, in fact. All my play in and out in less than two hours.

Ran into 66 three times, in AIPF situations.

First time, AJ lost to 66 when the devils held up.
Second time, AQ went down when the ace in the door was followed by the case devil (another player noted he folded one devil).
The final fucking of the night? AK lost to 66 in the worst way. Ace on the flop, but two diamonds. Diamond on the turn. Diamond on the river. Yup, he held the fucking devil of diamonds.

Now up to 18 straight non-cashes in a row. I know that's hardly a long streak, but it's pissing me off. Especially as some of them have included large stacks, only to go out just a few spots off the bubble. JokerStars hates me these days.

I guess it's a good thing after all that I'm not in the WPBT Last Longer competition. Given how JokerStars is putting up the mobnies, I'd be sure to screw whatever team I was on.

Edit: Of course, right after I type this, I break my non-cash streak...with the mini-est of min-cashes, a whopping $3.52 in a $2.20 PLHE/PLO turbo MTT...naturally AA78 double suited couldn't keep up with 6543 rainbow in PLO.

Wha? December Already?

2009-12-04T12:19:00.003-07:00

What a long, strange trip it's been...2009, that is.

A lot of you poker bloggers worth your weight in bytes, or in cheeseburgers, or even bananas, will be taking your own long, strange trip next weekend for the 2009 Winter Blogger Gathering, WPBT, what have you. Drunken wheelchair races, getting rolled by hookers at the Geisha Bar, collecting bounties at Caesar's...what a way to start a winter, no?

For what it's worth, I would have loved to join the Last Longer on a team with Waffles and $mokkee, just to watch the incendiary fireworks between my teammates.

For the umpteenth time in a row since starting this pathetique excuse for a poker blog, I shall not be taking part this year. Oh, that was not my intention, to sit out. Not at all. But the events of this year have taken their toll, and it is too important for me to take care of the Good Doctor Mondo, now that she's at home, to take a few days off out further west than here. I do wish to all of you much much merriment, and lots of Aleve-laced waters when you wake at 3pm each day. If there's another such gathering next year, I really do hope to be able to join. As it is, perhaps I can make a run for the Vega$ border shortly after next April (when I have to be in North Carolina for a trial, for several weeks).

So how is the Good Doctor Mondo doing? Better every single day. Her first week at home was sort of a transitional week, where her mom and I were getting used to managing all the various oxygen-giving appliances, learning and administering the various medical routines (which the Good Doctor actually does much of herself), cleaning her trach tubes, and the like. But for the last few days, she's actually been able to sleep upstairs (gasp!) in our own bed. We truly feel like we are somewhat returning to some sense of normalcy.

Normalcy is relative, as she's limited to one trip up and down the stairs each day, and each trip takes a good 8-10 minutes with several breaks to restore her O2 saturation. But being in her own bed carries other benefits...she can now use the hand-held shower I installed last week...no more sponge bathing in the downstairs foyer bathroom. And now that we're together, we're both sleeping much better.

As I suspected, the Good Doctor Mondo's return home has, naturally, put a crimp in the amount of poker I've been playing these days, but it's more than a fair tradeoff. Typically, I'm either too tired to play after working a full day, then coming home and taking care of her until her routines are finished around 9:30 or so...though once or twice I've jumped on to play a couple of low buy-in 180 man turbos, to pretty much little success. It's hard to get in a groove when you start late and force the action, and feels like you're playing just so you can remember where the click buttons on your mouse are located.

I do hope to have a nice session on Sunday, though, depending on the weather. We've had a pretty significant cold snap here, and even with all the supplemental oxygen, it's really not a good idea for the Good Doctor to go outside in low double digits. So maybe Sunday will be a pokering day, we'll see.

Oh yeah, in other tidbits, my band just sent our five song EP off for pressing, so our January 21st show will be a CD release of sorts. We were hoping our Holiday Hootenanny show next weekend would have worked out as a release show, but we spent too many sessions mixing and remixing to have pressing/manufacturing done in time in an economical fashion. Sweet!

2 Turkeys, 1 Cup

2009-11-26T19:36:00.002-07:00

Bah.

Thought I'd play Dr. Pauly's annual Turkey Cup, and actually started off building a nice stack, until I misplayed TPTK against a -1000% ROI player who limped called AA against my preflop raise. When the Q hit the turn on an all raggy board, I really felt my TPTK was good. Put him on no better than AK, and called his turn shove.

Of course, I should have probably known better, when he min-raised my c-bet on the 8-high flop...

Still, limp calling AA preflop with three players to act is pretty dangerous poker.

Still had about 800 chippies left, and shoved AQo (yes, again) PF. I raised preflop, then a 3 bet and a call after me, so I shoved. It was my AQ v. AK v. AK. Hated my chances, but at least AK only had two kings left in the deck. Felt much much better with the Q high flop (though I was going to have to fade runner runner spades). Turn was pretty. River? Bah, a two-out K. If that flop had held, I've have recovered to a top 15 stack.

As it was, I was one of the first dozen or so out.

Bah. I fuckin' hate tryptophan tournies.

Click Your Heels Three Times

2009-11-25T08:40:00.003-07:00

and say "I want to go home...I want to go home...I want to go home..."

The Good Doctor Mondo came home this week, on Monday, five months to the day when she first went into the hospital. Life is good. Allow me to rephrase. Life is fanfuckingtastic. We have so very much to be thankful for this year, her very survival being first and foremost, as well as all the support we've received from our friends -- local, virtual, bandmates, family, colleagues, and otherwise. Cliches often become cliches because at their very core, they are usually essentially true...you truly never know what you have until you almost lose it.

That's not to say that there are not significant changes in our lives, even today. The Good Doctor Mondo is home, yet she will remain bed/wheelchair/walker-bound for a long time to come, in a way we can't really measure yet. Our home looks like some combination of a medical lab/dairy. You know those huge metal canisters that hold hundreds of gallons of milk? Well, we've now got four of those in our living room/den (now known as the master bedroom), except their full of liquid oxygen. Those, plus five portable oxygen cylinders. Plus two portable oxygen devices that resemble jet packs. Plus miles of tubing. Plus large, prominent, bold red type signs outside our house warning against open flames/smoking.

Anyway, that's our lives now. A schedule of medications, trans-trach cleanings, anti bloodclot injections, it goes on and on.

Yet we're thankful beyond belief, for this Thanksgiving, we do indeed have one another. And if you just hang on tight enough, you never have to let go.

So to you and yours, spare a thought this Thanksgiving for those in your own families who may be struggling with their issues, great and small. Because you never know what you have until you almost lose it.

Sick Flop

2009-11-12T12:33:00.002-07:00

Cliffnotes - 66 > AA > AA> QQ, and brought a howitzer, where a .38 cal would have done the trick.

PokerStars Game #35242067774: Tournament #211784419, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2009/11/11 22:10:28 MT [2009/11/12 0:10:28 ET]
Table '211784419 15' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: rafaberlin (1450 in chips)
Seat 2: mike_031000 (725 in chips)
Seat 3: tevoyarupiar (6100 in chips)
Seat 4: grant (1490 in chips)
Seat 5: heffs976 (7165 in chips)
Seat 6: Mondogarage (5593 in chips)
Seat 7: lupri30 (3000 in chips)
Seat 8: BecomTheBull (13265 in chips)
Seat 9: The Rogue (5790 in chips)
tevoyarupiar: posts small blind 50
grant: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [4s 2s]
heffs976: folds
Mondogarage: folds
lupri30: folds
BecomTheBull: raises 250 to 350
The Rogue: raises 550 to 900
rafaberlin: calls 900
mike_031000: calls 725 and is all-in
tevoyarupiar: folds
grant: calls 800
BecomTheBull: raises 12365 to 13265 and is all-in
The Rogue: calls 4890 and is all-in
rafaberlin: calls 550 and is all-in
grant: calls 590 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (7475) returned to BecomTheBull
*** FLOP *** [6c 6d Tc]
*** TURN *** [6c 6d Tc] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [6c 6d Tc Kc] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BecomTheBull: shows [Qs Qh] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
The Rogue: shows [As Ad] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
The Rogue collected 8600 from side pot-3
grant: shows [9d Qd] (a pair of Sixes) (oh, and wtf is this guy calling 4-bets here with, so LOL, but irrelevant)
The Rogue collected 120 from side pot-2
rafaberlin: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
The Rogue collected 1450 from side pot-1
rafaberlin collected 1450 from side pot-1
mike_031000: shows [6h 6s] (four of a kind, Sixes)
mike_031000 collected 3675 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 15295 Main pot 3675. Side pot-1 2900. Side pot-2 120. Side pot-3 8600. | Rake 0
Board [6c 6d Tc Kc 7s]
Seat 1: rafaberlin showed [Ac Ah] and won (1450) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Seat 2: mike_031000 (button) showed [6h 6s] and won (3675) with four of a kind, Sixes
Seat 3: tevoyarupiar (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: grant (big blind) showed [9d Qd] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 5: heffs976 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Mondogarage folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: lupri30 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: BecomTheBull showed [Qs Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sixes
Seat 9: The Rogue showed [As Ad] and won (10170) with two pair, Aces and Sixes

Where We Learn About Software Updates the Fun Way, and Pending Arrivals

2009-11-10T13:53:00.005-07:00

I guess sometime in the maybe-recent past, Full Tilt Poker implemented a chopping feature? Duh. I would have never guessed, as I hadn't made a final table on that site in about a year. I honestly had no idea whatsoever that FTP had implemented this feature in their software.

It's actually a pretty neat feature, as it allows chops based on ICM, or chips, or a custom amount, and players have to click whether or not to accept.

Anyway, I got to see it in action first hand, when my opponent and I did a straight 50/50 chops once head up in last night's $5 Limit O8 tourney. Sweet. At one point with four left, I had about 75% of the chips in play, but finally managed to start running badly, and my HU opponent ended up knocking out the two short stacks. I still started HU play with a 2.5:1 chip lead, but with blinds at 6,000/12,000, I only had to lose one pot for us to have virtually identical chipstacks, so the split down the middle was appropriate, especially in a four card game where a single river can turn a scoop into a "ZOMG how did I lose that hand?!?!?".

At least now, I have enough of a Full Tilt teeny tiny roll to not have to avoid logging on there (especially as Bodog's "random" number generator continues to treat me as if I were on my way to a leper colony. And the overall roll (split amongst three sites) is as healthy as its been all year...no real complaints.

Well, except for losing to the river three outer on the final table bubble of Stars' $3.30 triple shootout...everyone else was waiting for our table to finish, and HU took about 20 hands...had him right in my sights to have 95% of the chips, and someone flicked the doomswitch. Ah well.

Tonight is the Good Doctor Mondo's birthday. We had a small informal party for her at the hospital last weekend, but tonight it will just be the two of us, and some takeout Bonefish Grill...possibly while watching some of ESPN's final table coverage, who knows?

The one thing we do know is her hospitalization is coming closer to a close, and we couldn't be happier, though I'm really quite nervous about it. You see, the return home may not ultimately be because she's ready...but because her rehab hospital insurance benefit runs out 11 days from now. Fucking insurance companies. She's had some relatively minor issues (at least in light of everything else that has gone on) slow down her rehab and therapy over the last week, and I'm really concerned that when she's forced home, she would not have been able to have met the goals set out for her in rehab.

Nevertheless, we celebrate those things that we can, and today, my darling turns 40. There were times this year when I wasn't certain I'd ever be able to say this, but I can say to her now, "Happy Birthday Jenn, I love you."

After Three Plus Years...

2009-11-07T02:00:00.002-07:00

...and nearly 1300 tournaments, I've finally achieved Waffles status on PokerStars (check the ROI)

Like Crack On A Chipstack

2009-11-06T11:53:00.003-07:00

Given recent developments in my family situation and schedule...well, playing MTTs like I've always enjoyed just doesn't seem to fit any more. These days, it's work all day, go to the Good Doctor Mondo's rehabilitation hospital fifty miles away for a few hours, and then finally get home around 9pm or so at night. This is my daily life, at present, and everything else has to work around that schedule.

But there's got to be something more than that, right? How to squeeze in a bit of poker, at least in the couple hours at home between dragging my hang-dog ass in the door, and merciful sleep? How to feed that jones and yet still be able to maintain responsibilities? How to stand being in that outsized house by myself at night, restless at bitter at one's lot in life, and find a way to squeeze in the one solitary activity that pushes all that sad bastard crap aside for a while?

Well, I found the answer over at PokerStars. 180 man, $3.30r turbo SNGs. That's right, rebuy SNGs. Woohoo, with lots of value. Damn, the whole things are over in just over two hours. Of course, variance is high. I manage to play one, sometimes two a night (if they register fast enough), and still get decent sleep. So far, they're not half terrible bankroll builders, as long as you have the discipline to rebuy upfront and not chase a mincash by rebuying 3-4 times afterwards. Of course, always, always take the addon.

Now, this is an entirely different form of poker for me, in some respects, because most players are already into shove-or-fold mode within an hour of the tournament. I've missed out a couple of good late position shove opportunities, probably because of not being particularly well-versed in ICM. But I've managed to cash often enough to make a tiny bit of scratch, and a couple final table appearances haven't hurt.

Typically, I'm in these for only $9 (once in a while I'll do a second rebuy to top off just before the end of the rebuy period, if I'm low enough). And either way, it feels like getting a lot of poker for the money because even when I don't cash, I'm going out anywhere from, say, 25th to 40th place, and outlasting enough of the field for it to truly be bedtime at the end.

Played one of these last night, and finished 3rd, for a nice chunk of change. Sadly, went out when AT couldn't fade A9, when winning that hand would have given me and the chipleader equal stacks, and leaving villian with about one BB. Even going out 2nd would have been worth another one-fiddy. Hope to actually take one of these down, it's been a while since I've been able to get heads-up in a relatively decent sized field.

At least it's helping me overcome the life-tilt that has been Bodog's 11:30pm EST $2k guarantee turbo. Won some nice stakes in that tourney over time, but I swear I've been knocked out early the last ten or so times I've played this thing. In fact, my Bodog $Ts are completely gone, so I'm spending a lot less time on that site. Their RNG hates me these days with a passion in a way I'm not sure even Fraud Tilt Poker's ever had for me.

May you find the felt to your liking.

When Being A Calling Station Pays

2009-10-30T21:59:00.002-06:00

PokerStars Game #34633944073: Tournament #206545239, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XX (700/1400) - 2009/10/28 20:49:20 MT [2009/10/28 22:49:20 ET]
Table '206545239 8' 4-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: nerv1 (26823 in chips)
Seat 2: Mondogarage (83670 in chips)
Seat 3: Thxalot (102091 in chips)
Seat 4: ironrat317 (34156 in chips)
nerv1: posts the ante 175
Mondogarage: posts the ante 175
Thxalot: posts the ante 175
ironrat317: posts the ante 175
Mondogarage: posts small blind 700
Thxalot: posts big blind 1400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [Ac Qc]
ironrat317: folds
nerv1: folds
Mondogarage: raises 2800 to 4200
Thxalot: raises 7000 to 11200
Mondogarage: calls 7000
*** FLOP *** [2c Kh Kc]
Mondogarage: checks
Thxalot: bets 8800 (could be a value bet with a K, or protecting less than nut flush draw? pocket pair?)
Mondogarage: calls 8800 (why not, I do have nut flush draw)
*** TURN *** [2c Kh Kc] [3h]
Mondogarage: bets 8400 (okay, time to protect my flush draw now)
Thxalot: raises 8400 to 16800 (okay, he's gotta have a K, right?)
Mondogarage: calls 8400
*** RIVER *** [2c Kh Kc 3h] [9c] (not the nuts, but a lowercase yahtzee?)
Mondogarage: bets 7000 (trying to induce a raise here)
Thxalot: raises 53200 to 60200 (hmm...tell me he didn't play 99, plz)
Mondogarage: calls 39695 and is all-in (in for a penny, in for a pound)
Uncalled bet (13505) returned to Thxalot
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Thxalot: shows [6c 4d] (a pair of Kings) (holy CRAPTASTIC stone cold bluff)
Mondogarage: shows [Ac Qc] (a flush, Ace high) (thank you, come again!)
Mondogarage collected 167690 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 167690 | Rake 0
Board [2c Kh Kc 3h 9c]
Seat 1: nerv1 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Mondogarage (small blind) showed [Ac Qc] and won (167690) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: Thxalot (big blind) showed [6c 4d] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 4: ironrat317 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

That hand ended up setting me up for a really deep run in what was, I think, a 1000 player tournament. What even made this better was that at one point, a short bit before the money bubble, I was in the BB holding 52o, with less than one BB behind, when UTG raised and everyone else folded. I thought, fuck it, I got nothing left, and I'd be headsup either totally crushed, or with two live cards. So I called, and he flipped up something like AT or AJ. Flop comes A34 rainbow, and BOOM! I survived. And then thrived, big time.

Weird spot...with five tables (20 players) left, four of the top six stacks were all at the same table. All the chips. I came into that table 3rd in chips.

It was a real chance to make hay, and the tourney winner really would have been expected to come from us four.

Of course, I went out 15th, when small blind caught his OESD on the turn. (I was holding TPTK, and he waited to raise me all in until the river. Meh. Still, given the comeback, I could go away sorta happy.

"On the Road Again"

2009-10-21T15:40:00.003-06:00

...I just can't wait to get on the road again...

Wow. I was just getting ready to write about how it sometimes feels as if the healing process never, ever, ever gets there...when I get a phone call from the Good Doctor Mondo, telling me that tomorrow, we once again move her. This time, from a long term acute care hospital, to a rehabilitation hospital in northern Colorado.

This is simply wonderful news!

When I was touring the various rehab hospitals last week, one of the main points I took from them was that the average length of stay is along the lines of 14-21 days or so. Undoubtedly, this is in large part due to the thieves who run our insurance companies (don't worry, theirs is coming soon...). But the upshot of that is that there is now a high likelihood of the Good Doctor Mondo coming home in time for Thanksgiving.

Believe me, we will be giving thanks this year. For many many things. But perhaps simply for the very instance of the occasion most of all.

As for last night's pokering...that's a subject better left unsaid. Gawd I can be a donk sometimes, and my inability to fold TT on an 8-high board cost me a top 20 stack in the Bodog $50+5 10k guarantee after 2/3 of the field were gone...oh yeah, let's keep that unsaid.

"Satellite Of Love"

2009-10-20T11:44:00.002-06:00

Continuing the short-run of song titled posts...ah, who am I kidding, that could end as soon as I reach the end of my short leashed creativity tether.

But have I mentioned how much I love Bodog's $Ts satellites? Because I do. I do, I tells ya. Yes, yes, they can get quite frustrating at times, when you run 3-4 of them, which typically pay only one or two spots, and you finish 3rd or 4th in all of them. But when you win a couple...wow, certainly makes up for it.

Had a nice run the other day, winning three in a row. Two were $16 buyins, the other a $7r, but the end result of the three was a net gain of around $430T. Sweet. Maybe, just maybe, one of these days I'll take the plunge into the $100k (with juicy overlay) that these satellites feed in to. I think I'd first like to reach a point where the buyin is no more than 10% of my Bodog roll. And no, we're not there yet. Perhaps 2/3 of the way there, but not there just yet.

In the meantime, I'll keep taking a few shots at their $30-50 buyins, but my last two attempts at the $30 3k guarantee have gone down in flames to early donktardo play by villians that have gotten horribly rewarded on the river, such as calling into my PF, flop, and turn all-in bets (with me holding JJ) on boards with nothing but rainbow number cards with KQo, only to hit the Q on the river. Pretty gross, but when you're buying in with $Ts, the loss is easier to chalk up to the value of getting great notes on a fish. Well, sometimes.

On a similar note, I followed my own head, as well as the advice of a couple quality bloggers (as well as Tycou, whose blog I can't find), and cashed out my Sunday Million ticket for the $Ts. Now that I've exhausted the $T216 from that win, I can report that the overall results were...well, let's just say Waffles-like. That is to say, pretty much break even. I'll take it, I suppose...over a series of SNGs, and a decent cash in a $3r 180-man, the tournament bucks became right around the same amount in cold. hard. cash.

So overall, poker's actually been pretty good to me these days. Except on Full Tilt, of course, where I don't think I've cashed since...oh...2002, it feels like.

Taking a hospital night off, and rehearsal's bumped to Thursday. Aaaaand, one of my two blog sponsors re-upped for another 90 days (thus dropping a few $$$ into my FTP account), so I should actually be able to play the Skillz game tonight. Of course, it's on Full Trashmondo Poker, so my money is dead before I even register for it. Tonight it's PL Omatard Hi, which makes the previous sentence triply true. So join in for shenanigans, won't ya?

Surreality - Part 1

2009-10-19T13:58:00.001-06:00

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Click the photo for the punch line frame...

"Walk, Don't Run"

2009-10-15T13:50:00.003-06:00

I can't think of anything more emblematic of what has to be the best day in my life in a really, really, really long time.

You see, the Good Doctor Mondo took her first steps today, since falling ill. Ten of them, in fact. In groups of two or three, and most certainly not unaided. But she took steps. She walked!!

So yeah, I need some Ventures today. It's a great great day indeed. We're holding out hope for her to be home by Thanksgiving, we'll see!

Oh, and thanks to Waffles for linking that wonderful post by Kid Dynamite regarding new FCC disclosure...umm..."guidelines" regarding blogger endorsements. Not that anyone's ever actually asked me to endorse anything. But here, I'll endorse the FCC for their FCCing rules. Why? Because I think they're going to lead to much quality blogging and snark about the FCCing rules. Hell yeah.

CD Review - The Len Price 3 - Pictures

2009-10-09T13:21:00.004-06:00

So Hybrid Magazine's put up another one of my CD Reviews, and I thought I'd share it with you guys here. Frankly, the review probably undersells the CD, which is bloody brilliant. Of course, the full length CD doesn't hit the streets until January 10th, but whatev.

The Len Price 3
Pictures
Wicked Cool Records

The Len Price 3 – “Pictures”

England’s Medway Delta region has long contributed a steady stream of excellent, yet under-appreciated, garage rock and power pop bands, going back at least as far as Billy Childish’s earliest works, through to the present day. A good number of these acts over the years, from Thee Milkshakes, through The Prisoners, to The Bresslaws, often go unnoticed beyond the area’s working class pubs or the occasional hard core garage rock aficionados. With the release of The Len Price 3’s latest full-length, “Pictures”, there is now yet another opportunity for the broader audience to move beyond the past and revel in the underground legend that is the Medway sound.

In line with their previous work, The Len Price 3 (in which there is no one in the band named Len Price, naturally), the band once again paints a masterful canvas using a palette of colors appropriated from freakbeat, mod, and traditional power pop song structures, and borrows somewhat liberally from the same type of working class lyrical ideas typical of Ray Davies. The sound is big and jagged, with boomy toms, crackly snares, alternately jangly or fuzzy Rickenbacker guitars, effective harmonies, and enough ferocity behind the pop façade to hint at the frustration of one’s station, while never forgetting that rock and roll is still about fun.

The thirteen tracks that comprise “Pictures”’ clock in at barely more than 30 minutes, and most individual tracks are here and gone in under two and a half minutes. Within this idiom there is really no need for anything more. Get in, get out, quit fuckin’ about. The album’s opening eponymous track punches brightly with a meld of Mick Jones-spittled verses and a chorus that is very reminiscent of early Who, circa “Circles”, and provides a worth launching pad for the record. Additional highlights include “Keep Your Eyes On Me”, “Mr. Grey”, “Jack in the Green”, and the Daviesesque “If You Live Round Here”, the latter replete with cautions against pretentiousness and warnings to know your role:

You think you’re better than the population

Don’t get ideas so above your station

You’re gonna have to lump it, baby if you live round here

You say you’ve had an education

Round here, boy, that’s an affectation

You’re gonna have to lump it, baby if you live round here

“Pictures” is one of the more enjoyably buoyant and fresh-sounding pop albums to come out during this year. While much of the credit certainly goes to the boys in the band, a nod is due in the direction of Graham Day, one of the most enduring purveyors of the Medway sound from his founding of The Prisoners through today, and one of the producers of “Pictures”. In fact, much of the record bears his unmistakable hand. Other tracks on the album hearken back to the poppier side of bands such as The Easybeats or The Small Faces, particularly “Jack in the Green” and closer “The Great Omani”. As a whole, the record is a triumph.

As with many of their Medway contemporaries, The Len Price 3 do not seem to be interested in expanding the boundaries of popular music, or breaking any new ground. Rather, the band seems to be intent on simply making the most riveting and entertaining music they possibly can while remaining true to the very essence of their creation. To that end, “Pictures” meets the demands of that mission in spades. Perhaps this will be the record to break through to the masses that have heretofore missed out on one of the most vital subsets of rock and roll.

Something New Every Day

2009-10-07T23:00:00.004-06:00

$3.30r Satellite to the Sunday Million

$3.30r Satellite to the Sunday Million

$3.30r Satellite to teh Sunday Mirrion!!!

Of course, here's the fun part. I can't play this weekend, I've got Rockies playoff tickets (well, depending on what happens in Games 2 and 3, and the weather, of course)

I want to play in this so bad. But a Sunday Mirrion buy in also represents 40% of my current Stars roll, which would be entirely irresponsible.

So I guess I'm looking for advice. Do I just take the $Ts? Or do I try to sell one time pieces of myself and play the Mirrion the first Sunday after the Rox are out of the playoffs, in order to reduce the massive variance? (Of course, I'm lifetime -8% ROI on Stars, but a positive ROI on Bodog, I do believe.) Looking for some advice and guidance here.

I think the worst possible choice would be to just suck it up and play the Mirrion on my micro roll. But winning these crapshoot Satellites is unlikely to happen again anytime soon.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Tick Tock, Tick Tock - It's PLAYOFF TIME!!!

2009-10-07T09:58:00.003-06:00

ZOMG, only 2.5 hours before the Colorado Rockies open up the 2009 National League Division Series against the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Man, the excitement here at work is palpable, and yeah, I'm wearing a purple and black checked oxford to work. Gots ta support my boys. That said, I'm feeling rather skeptical about our chances this year. In the end, everything's going to come down to a couple of factors. First, how well can the Rockies' starting pitching keep Rollins & Victorino off the basepaths. After all, both Rockies catchers pretty much suck this year at throwing out runners.

Second, which Phillies' starting pitchers will show up? The Cliff Lee who handcuffed the Rox during one of his first National League starts? Or the very ordinary Cliff Lee from the past month? The Cole Hamels who shut down the world last post-season, or the current seemingly very ordinary Hamels?

A lot of writers talk about how the Rockies are much better against righties than they are against lefties, and this would be true. That said, the Rockies are a .500 club against left-handed starting pitching, so no, they are not ZOMG horrible in this department. The key will be whether or not Atkins and Barmes can avoid the punchouts and get on base. They've both had rough seasons at the plate (even though Barmes does have a couple dozen dingers), and the Phillies bullpen is fairly weak. So going deep into ABs will be critical.

I'll post more later on this....

The Good Doctor Mondo continues to improve. I haven't written much lately on this, because...well, I just don't blog much these days. Two weeks ago, we moved her to a Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) hospital down here in Denver, mostly because her insurance company would no longer cover a normal hospital ICU unit. That said, she is in the LTAC's ICU, and will probably be in there for another week or two. But she continues to make small strides every day in her recovery. We're hoping we can move her to a rehabilitation hospital in the next month or so. But as of now, we're at Day 107 of her hospital ordeal. And frankly, it's really fucking lonely living in a big house by yourself.

Poker continues to be a lollercoaster for me. A week ago Sunday was about the worst day ever. Bubbled *three* consecutive Bodog $100k satellites by one seat. Played about 20 tournies with no cashes...and just ran really really really bad. The worst part was that I had decided that if I could have hung on for two of the seats, I would have actually played one of them.

Results were a bit better this past Sunday, so perhaps I've stopped the bleeding a bit.

Nice Day, And A Nice Finish

2009-09-20T01:18:00.006-06:00

Thought I'd try one or two more quick Bodog tournies before bed, and I'm glad I did. This was a $7+1:

All in all, I managed to add around 50% to my Bodog roll today, and maybe 18% to my PokerStars roll, so no complaints out of me for a while. While I'm certainly no high-rollin' baller in these parts, I've finally managed to reach what appears to be a high water mark of the calendar year. And yeah, it feels good.

Better to be lucky than good?

2009-09-19T17:58:00.004-06:00

Sometimes, you just never know quite how lucky you've got to get, to get what you've got.

PokerStars Game #33040822484: Tournament #195646742, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (125/250) - 2009/09/19 15:09:57 MT 2009/09/19 17:09:57 ET
Table '195646742 214' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: illhustler (2983 in chips)
Seat 2: Mondogarage (4965 in chips)
Seat 3: lee trum (8530 in chips)
Seat 4: MrAura (8535 in chips)
Seat 5: sudnik (1101 in chips)
Seat 6: KaiLee04 (29865 in chips)
Seat 7: saldorf01 (9603 in chips)
Seat 8: Daigger (9315 in chips)
Seat 9: I'm a fn sta (4265 in chips)
illhustler: posts the ante 30
Mondogarage: posts the ante 30
lee trum: posts the ante 30
MrAura: posts the ante 30
sudnik: posts the ante 30
KaiLee04: posts the ante 30
saldorf01: posts the ante 30
Daigger: posts the ante 30
I'm a fn sta: posts the ante 30
saldorf01: posts small blind 125
Daigger: posts big blind 250
HOLE CARDS

Dealt to Mondogarage

I'm a fn sta: folds
illhustler: folds
Mondogarage: raises 500 to 750 (low pair, but open limping is weak)
lee trum: calls 750
MrAura: calls 750
sudnik: folds
KaiLee04: folds
saldorf01: folds
Daigger: calls 500

*** FLOP *** [8c 4d Ts] kaching, pays me my monay!

Daigger: checks
Mondogarage: bets 750 (only straight draws here, but figured overcards or pairs would call)
lee trum: raises 1750 to 2500 (?????????)
MrAura: calls 2500 (?????????)
Daigger: folds
Mondogarage: raises 1685 to 4185 and is all-in (not going anywhere, so get it in now)
lee trum: calls 1685
MrAura: calls 1685

*** TURN *** [8c 4d Ts] [4s] (GIN!!)

lee trum: checks
MrAura: checks

*** RIVER *** [8c 4d Ts 4s] [Qs]

lee trum: bets 3565 and is all-in
MrAura: folds
Uncalled bet (3565) returned to lee trum

SHOW DOWN :
lee trum: shows
(a full house, Tens full of Fours)
Mondogarage: shows
(four of a kind, Fours)
Mondogarage collected 15950 from pot

Oh SNAP! Really, who could have known I was drawing to one freakin' out. I don't think I would have played the hand any different under any circumstances. And I can probably count the number of one-outers I've ever caught on...well...one hand.

Nice triple up, just the same.

I ended up going out in this event around Level 16, when EP raised, I shoved QQ, he called with A7o (naturally), and the flop came 77J (also naturally). The A on the turn was just a gratuitous turn of the knife...

Today's been spent pokering it up in Jenn's ICU room, and I've actually managed to cash four times today, out of about seven events. None deep, except for turning $14.70 into T$162 in another one of those juicy Bodog $100k satellites. I really wish I felt like I had the bankroll to play the $100k itself, but right now, that would represent 20% of my Bodog roll, and about 15% of my overall online roll, so keeping the $T makes more sense.

Still, I haven't played a Sunday major on any site in at least two years...sure would be fun.

Clearing Out Some Cobwebs

2009-09-15T14:05:00.003-06:00

(BANG BANG BANG)

There. That's better.

The more time passes, the more many things stay the same...and time continues to trudge forward, with good things on the horizon, but seemingly further and further out every day.

The Good Doctor Mondo continues to get better. As of two days ago, when she was fitted with one of these, she can actually speak for a few hours a day. This has probably been the single greatest heartwarming development of our entire ordeal. I have no idea who Passy and Muir are/were, but I thank them.

Still, we're on day 85 in the ICU, with what appears to be another week or two in front of us. Still, we progress. The Good Doctor now undergoes physical therapy twice a day, instead of once, and we can see the results in her movements, and feel the slow return of a certain level of muscle tone. She even wriggled her toes for the first time a couple of days ago. Her arms and hands have come much much further, though she's still extremely fatigued by the least amount of work.

But we move forward.

Poker's actually been pretty good to me lately. I've only played once or twice a week, but usually manage to get one nice outcome per session, whether it's turning $10 into $T109 in a Bodog satellite, or final tabling a $4 FLHE MTT...at least I've been able to stop the bankroll bleed and even get it back up to where it was around 3-4 months ago. Which still isn't much, every so barely into the 4-figures (of which FT is still at a rollicking $20, lol). Mostly, it's been fun to restore some confidence in my game.

I've really enjoyed the nightly $3 triple shootout NLHE at PokerStars. I think I've cashed five of the last eight times I've played this (including one 2nd place finish). And the last three times I didn't cash, I went out heads-up at the first shootout table. Last time, I ran a rivered set into a turned gutshot, oh well. But I seem to be either just running pretty well in the shoothouts, or getting a better handle on how to play them. Oddly enough, I can't seem to turn that into success at true single table SNGs.

One thing I haven't talked about much this year is my beloved Colorado Rockies. Probably mostly because I've been hanging out at Purple Row and getting internet-talkin'-'bout-baseball over there. And partly because of our medical situation, which has limited me to attending only six games this year, all but one prior to June 23rd. But we're having a hell of a year, and are currently 87% to make the playoffs.

Still, how many of you have had AA go down to 66 after an all paint flop multiple times. That's why we play the games.

I've got very mixed feelings about going to any playoff games this year without my Good Doctor. She tells me I should go, but it just doesn't feel right. I'll have to sit and dwell on this one.

Either fortunately, or unfortunately (depending on your perspective), I will likely have to once again miss the Winter Blogger Gathering, of which I have never ever ever made one. Why? Well, it's actually a reason I don't mind in the least...see, based on present developments, the Good Doctor should be home some time early Novemberish, and she's shooting for her first public outing to be my firm's annual holiday party, as it's one of her favorite dress-up events each year. Which just happens to fall on the Saturday of the....yup...Winter Blogger Gathering.

So if I'm not there this year, it's because she's home, she's healthy, and out on the town. That's okay by me. I was truly looking forward to trying to get there this year, though....

For Richer and For Poorer, In Sickness and In Health

2009-09-01T14:35:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow marks the Good Doctor Mondo's 72nd day in the hospital, all but two of those days in intensive care.

Tomorrow also marks the 4th anniversary of the date we ran off to Vega$ to get all wedded and such, during our glorious "classy yet trashy" first sojourn to sin city as a couple. Between the chauffered limos and ultra luxe Wynn stay, and the midnight wedding in Chuck Taylors, with Elvis as escort, we could not have asked to have enjoyed ourselves any more.

I could not have imagined, not even a few months ago when this started, that not only would we not be home together for our anniversary, but that the Good Doctor would be continuing to face complications and hurdles that threaten to extend her life-as-ICU-patient untold weeks into the future. Still, we celebrate.

We celebrate that still have each other.

We celebrate that we are surrounded by friends and family who love us both dearly.

We celebrate that her prognosis has improved daily since the devastation of last week.

We celebrate that she may yet still be home before what we actually consider the more important anniversary of January 2nd - ten years to the day from when we first became a couple.

As one of her nurses reminded me on Sunday, just two days after everyone felt we were losing her, "at least you *will* have an anniversary". Kinda puts everything into perspective.

In sickness and in health.

Speaking of anniversaries, something my lovely wife and I can only aspire to is to match the 15(!!) years of wedded bliss of fellow pokah bloggah GCox and his lovely wife. Please stop by and wish him continued happiness.

I Think I Found the Biggest Online Douchebag Ever

2009-08-26T19:41:00.002-06:00

$5.50 Pot Limit 5-Card Draw on Stars. Started out pwning the table, and then had to fold to several raises to this one guy.

So....pretty short stacked at 400/800, and pick up JJ33x, so I pot. Same guy calls. I draw one. He draws one. I whiff. I shove. He calls.

Then calls time out and waits 45 seconds until he calls and turns over...the Royal Flush. Fucking douchebag motherfucking cocksucker. Slowrolled in a five fucking dollar tournament by a fucking mouthbreather.

Yeah, I told him "nice hand, but you're still a cocksucker".

LOL Fake Outrageaments

2009-08-19T14:38:00.002-06:00

I wish Barney Frank were my Congressman. I'm all about the 1st Amendment, because only in America would we allow this nonsense. "Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table."

Frankly, I think ...the poor woman simply can't stop confusing socialism with Nazism, which is odd, because she doesn't *sound* uneducated. She only carries herself as if she were.

I really don't mind that a lot of the rabble-rousers at these town hall events are actually organized plants of various far right groups. I mean, that's the American way, and that's their 1st Amendment right to be there and speak up. That's part of the American political process and, in fact, part of what actually separates us from totalitarian parties such as the Nazis, the Taliban, the North Korean Communist Party, Ahmendinajad's party, etc. The debate is healthy. Hell, I'm a big Obama supporter and I'm hardly 100% convinced of the wisdom of all the aspects of his plan.

But if you do want to exercise your 1st Amendment rights (as I encourage you to do) in a manner that reveals your abject ignorance of the most basic truths, don't be alarmed when your bald faced stupidity is reveled in by everyone else. I mean, that's a lesson Sarah Barracuda keeps having to learn nearly every week, no?

LOL Fake Mustache On A Photoaments

Since It's Been A While....

2009-08-18T13:54:00.003-06:00

Yes, it's been a while since I've blogged any further regarding the Good Doctor Mondo's continued recovery from her battle with pneumonia and its aftereffects. In part, this is due to a combination of a couple of factors. First, I've been updating hers and my Facebook pages daily, if not more often. And secondly, there's really very few people who read this blog, and even less who aren't already seeing the Facebook daily updates. Thirdly, I'm too lazy to blog this year generally...

BUT!

I just wanted to share the most awesome news we've had yet.

Yes, the Good Doctor Mondo is still in ICU, but she's been improving rapidly every day for the past week, to the extent that she's now spending chunks of each day virtually off the ventilator (only enough to add a small amount of pressure to her system, but she's doing the actual breathing), and writing on a whiteboard, and doing arm stretches, and such.

In fact, she's improving so much that...they're releasing her from ICU and moving her to a long term acute care hospital. The day after tomorrow. Or the day after that, at the latest.

We could not be more thrilled, she really is recovering, though she's still probably several weeks away from walking, but that will come too. She may be talking within a few days.

In some ways, I can't believe this ordeal is still going on. After all, she entered the hospital over eight weeks ago, and this is her 56th day in intensive care. But we can now truly see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's really happening. I thank each and every one of you who have send messages of well wishes and support over the past couple of months. This has been an experience I truly hope none of you have to endure.

But I'm getting my baby back, and the Good Doctor Mondo will once again be...herself.

Close, But Only Half A Cigar

2009-08-16T17:52:00.003-06:00

Erm.

No complaint outta me, but I did have a 2.5:1 chiplead at one point during HU at 400/800.

Still, as much as a drain as my roll's taken lately, I'll take it and be happy.

Pay It Forward

2009-08-12T10:02:00.003-06:00

I know this blog has taken on the patina of being much more about my Good Doctor's own battle with life-threatening illness, but at this point, it certainly appears that she is going to make it (recovery length be damned).

However, one of our felllow poker bloggah, the delightful LJ, is in a hell of a predicament herself. Or rather, her cousin is.

Her cousin Mitchell has been diagnosed with lymphoma, and has already had his spleen removed. Unfortunately, the chemo treatments have not had the desired effect, and here is where we all can jump in:

After meeting with a team of doctors, it was decided that my greatest chance of survival would be to start a new regiment of Chemotherapy called R-IVAC, followed by what is called a Blood Stem Cell Transplant. This new Chemotherapy is a different group of drugs with a much higher potency aimed at killing any and all remaining cancer cells. Because of the potency of these drugs, I will need to be admitted to the hospital while undergoing treatments. Each treatment will last five days with a two week recovery in between. Soon after my treatments, I will have another scan of my body to determine the success of the R-IVAC. Depending on the results, I will then need one of two types of Blood Stem Cell Transplants.

If after my next scan, there are any residual cancer cells remaining in my body, I will need what is called an Allogeneic Stem Cell Trans plant. This is where I need your help! An Allogeneic Transplant is where we try to find a donor whose DNA typing best matches mine. The hope is that the donor’s stem cells can be transplanted and start to regenerate new white blood cells that are then capable of destroying my cancer cells. Because finding a donor can be a very time consuming process, and I will need a Blood Stem Cell transplant within four weeks after my last scan, I am asking as many people as possible to get tested now to see if they are a potential match for me. This is possibly the only chance at survival I may have and here is what you can do to help:

First you need to call Lab Corp at 1-800-533-1037 and ask to speak to Sharon, Tanya, or David. Please tell them that you would like to be tested as a potential donor match for Mitchell Brown (Date of Birth: 1-5-1977). You will also need to let them know I am part of the Hackensack University Medical Center Friends and Family Account, so they know where to send the results. They may ask you a few questions and will then send you an easy to use testing kit. The kit will arrive with instructions and will require you to swab the inside of your cheek. It will also ask you some medical questions, which will help identify you as an eligible donor. You will need to follow the directions and mail the kit back to Lab Corp ASAP. When filling out the paperwork, please be sure to give Lab Corp permission to fax your results directly to: CarolAnne Carini, Transplant Coordinator at Hackensack University Medical Center. Her direct fax # is: 201-996-5691. Please understand that there is a cost associated with the kit that is typically not covered by your insurance. Lab Corp will bill you a charge of $150.00 after they receive your kit back in the mail.

After Lab Corp receives your kit and processes your information, they will then forward the results directly to my team of doctors at Hackensack University Medical Center (with your consent). Lab Corp will NOT disseminate your information to anyone else such as a national registry.

More information can be found on Mitchell's blog.

Sometimes, even when your own family is facing crisis, events hit home that illustrate that even when you do have it bad, there's always someone else facing at least a big, or bigger, hill to climb. Good luck, Mitchell.

A Better Evening

2009-08-05T22:15:00.003-06:00

Just an update from earlier...the doctors inserted a new trach a few hours ago, and the Good Doctor Mondo's been stable and reasonably comfortable this evening. In fact, if there's no further signs of trach complications, they expect to begin pushing her back towards further progress tomorrow.

I think that's how you spell relief.

Essentially, as potentially (and very nearly) catastrophic as this morning was, it should ultimately just become another bump in the road. I fucking crater sized pothole bump, but one which, once passed, is truly in the past. Hopefully, we can begin moving forward again in the morning.

As she's been sedated and asleep and stable this evening, I have sat here and played some poker, to some success. I played an $11 sat into Bodog's $215 5k guarantee and took it down. Took the $T instead of entering, since that doubled my Bodog roll. But I'm actually likely to put about $165 of that into one of their $100k guarantees soon. Why? Bad Bankroll Management, to be sure, but I've never played the $100k, and in the end, I'd still be playing it for $11. Actually, $22, because I was in two of the sats. Sadly, I went out 3rd or 4th in the other sat, and came really close to winning two of the $215 seats. Oh well. Seriously, I am untiltable in poker anymore, given the far far more important things in life.

Thanks for your continued well wishes, I know the Good Doctor is gaining strength through them.

Well, Crap

2009-08-05T14:15:00.004-06:00

Dammit.

I should probably just stop posting, because every time something good happens, it's followed up by something....not good.

Today's "something" was nearly fatal. "Something" happened (nobody's really been able to figure out the cause) which led to a blockage in the Good Doctor Mondo's trach, and she went into VTAC. I don't know what the acronym actually stands for (aside from likely Ventricular Arrythmia something something), but it means a potentially fatal arrythmia. Essentially, with her awake and moving around the last couple of days, something happened that caused her trach tube to be obstructed from getting air where it needs to go.

The doctors had to perform CPR on the Good Doctor, and during the process, she developed a pneumothorax, a small hole in the side of one of her lungs, because of a combination of the chest compression they had to give her, with the already weakened state of her lungs and chest wall muscles.

She has stabilized, and her oxygen numbers are actually pretty good right now. However, she's in a very fragile state, and she's been put back under sedation. Needless to say, any plans of moving her to a rehab facility are indefinitely on hold, and she's likely to be in ICU for several more weeks. It feels as if we're almost back to step one (though not really, because she's pretty much beaten the pneumonia itself).

With all that said, I *do* believe we've made it past this crisis. But now the healing has to begin again.

I can't help but think I shouldn't be putting this out on teh interwebz, but so few people actually see this blog, and I needed to write it *somewhere*. It didn't seem right to Facebook it. But I need the release...we almost lost her this morning, and I'm still kinda freaking out about it.

So yesterday, I went back to work. Today? I'm back to pull a 24 here at the hospital, but I'm going to try to go back to work tomorrow morning because...well, because I have to. But let's get her through today first.

If she's resting comfortably this evening, I may donk a bit to relieve some stress, as she's really too fragile for me to disturb, or wake up, or even to touch right now.

Some Long Awaited Great News

2009-08-04T16:45:00.003-06:00

Finally!!!

It's been a pretty whirlwind last couple of days in Mondoland...as of Sunday, the fine doctors removed all of the Good Doctor's sedation, and my darling wife has been awake and alert, and can mouth words. She's still on a ventilator and cannot speak, and she will likely be in ICU for at least another week or two, but ALL signs point to an eventual and full recovery.

Wow.

The last six weeks have alternately felt like an eternity, and an instant. But we're getting there, we're getting there, we're getting there.

So I don't even mind the horrific beat I took deep in the Sunday 1/4 Million the other day. After getting past about 28500 runners, but with a short stack, I overshoved QQ over a standard raise from EP. Flopped a set of queens, and lost runner runner Broadway to the donk who called my overshove with...you guessed it, the mighty A5. That was probably one time where I could have flat called and shoved the flop, but I didn't want to have to potentially fold to an A-high flop and leave about 4 BBs, so IGH around 290th. Ugh. Thought I'd have a major poker brag post coming, but it's not to be.

2nd bad beat...thought I could work from home tomorrow, and thus spend more time at the hospital. That's not going to happen.

But no matter -- all I keep returning back to is...ALL signs point to an eventual and full recovery.

And the Beat Goes On

2009-08-01T10:31:00.003-06:00

Seems like forever since my last post, but it's really only been about ten days. There's not really a whole lot going on, other than my continuing to sit by the Good Doctor Mondo's side in intensive care. Yeah, we're still there, it's been what, almost six weeks now, it seems.

The news is good, in many respects. The pneumonia which brought her here in the first place is largely cleared out. That's the great news. However, her long battle with the pneumonia has left behind extremely savaged, scarred and damaged lungs, and she's having a most difficult time trying to recover from the damage left behind. At times, her O2 needs drop a bit, only for her to require increases later. While her sedation needs are overall lower, they've had to restore some of what they previously took off.

The road remains endless, it seems.

My road to poker oblivion is much shorter, and the less said about that, the better. No bad beat stories today, and I have no other stories to tell. Since time eternal, fish find it fit to call good size raises to the river with nothing but 3rd pair, in the face of heavy PF and flop action. I could go broke playing with such bad players, including the one who knocked me out of a big field $3r just before $$$...who had only ever cashed in ONE tournament ever. Once again, I've lost over half my overall online roll. Except this time, it's only take me a week to do so.

Catharsis, Of Sorts

2009-07-22T07:34:00.002-06:00

Yeah, so I played the show last Friday, and I have to admit that things went well for the most part. We had a decent crowd, the room sounded great. You have to love a venue that's combo rock hall, BBQ joint, and bowling alley. The Big Lebowski approves.

Anyway, I know we showed a bit of rust (especially that suck ass bass player), but the energy level was high, and people seemed genuinely pleased with the performance. I suppose when we're rocking the fuck out that most of those little mistakes may not really reach the ears of individual audience members, unless it's glaring.

I managed to make it through the first seven songs of the set just fine, but then we played "Boy". This is a song our guitar player wrote that is particularly haunting and sad, and about fear and death. Not to mention the bass carries the melody, and about 80% of the tune, musically. Well, I asked for us to play that song, because the lyrics hit home with particular impact these days. We rehearsed pre-show, and I started crying towards the end of the song.

Wouldn't you know it, about halfway through "Boy" on state, I pretty much began sobbing uncontrollably, thinking about my Good Doctor Mondo, now in the ICU bed for a full month. It hurts just typing that last bit. Anyway, it was pretty brutal, but I somehow got through it and only donked a couple notes of the melody. Of course, we still have three more songs to play after that point, and I was pretty ragged the rest of the night, but I (and we) got through it. Cathartic...yes, it was. I think I *need* to do this band thing during our difficult process right now.

The Good Doctor's mother is back in town and staying for...ever? Certainly through the next six weeks of so.

Okay, happier stuff...I made TWO final tables on the same day a couple days ago. One in a Bodog $30 NLHE, and one in a $5r LO8 tourney. Yep, you read that right...a Limit Omaha 8 that is also a rebuy. Head asplode. Naturally, I didn't finish better than 7th in either event, but a final table is a final table, especially when it feels like forever since you got there.

Carry on.

What Does Go On

2009-07-17T11:59:00.003-06:00

Here we are, seemingly where we were an eternity ago...in the ICU, the Good Doctor Mondo hooked up like nobody's business. Time, while it passes eternal, seems like both an instant and an eon, even at the same time.

Today is her 26th day in the hospital, 24rd day in intensive care, and 22nd on a ventilator in a coma. And in some ways, nothing has changed. But she's resting in peace under the same sedative that killed the wacked out gloved on. Amazing how that stuff works under proper medical supervision.

Tonight I rejoin the band for the first time in a month. I'm not sure if I feel like it, or if I'll even make it through the show without breaking down from emotion or exhaustion. But everyone, from our families, to the medical staff, have urged me to do it. So I'm going to try.

What does suck is this...my firm informed me that they're no longer paying me until I come back. On an intellectual level, I 100% completely understand this. I mean, I haven't worked in the last...three or so weeks, I guess. I can't remember my last billable hour. But it sucks just the same, especially as a couple of the lawyers suggested this wouldn't happen. But I can't really complain, it is what it is, even if it makes me think it's "just another law firm" and not the "award winning best place to work in Denver". I'm just venting, really. They already paid me 64 hours in the paid-time-off hole. Fortunately, we've got a bit put away so I don't think we'll have to put the house up for sale and max the credit cards any time real soon.

If I can share one piece of wisdom, it is this. Don't just not take each other for granted, but remember to not take for granted all of the little moments you share with your loved ones, from the most mundane to the most significant. Because, in the end, they are all significant and equally important.

Have a good weekend.

And Now, Recovery?

2009-07-13T10:25:00.002-06:00

The Good Doctor Mondo has finally had her tracheotomy this morning, and she is out of surgery and back in her room. Much like my only poker bankroll, she is deeply sedated but relatively comfortable.

And now, we wait.

I've been told that events, such as the pace of reducing levels of sedation will be directly proportional to her ability to improve her lungs and oxygen saturation. I've been told any real significant improvement will still be slow, and I have no expectation that she'll even be out of ICU for another week or two.

But I actually got to give her a wee kiss on her lips! I'll say this much...surgical tape residue tastes like crap.

But the Good Doctor Mondo has never looked more beautiful to me.

Oh, brief poker comment to make this blog relevant, and the most minor of brags. That JokerStars $4.40 LHE event I final tabled last week? I've now played it three times over the last week and cashed...three times. Sample size, I know, but I seem to be getting a handle on when to be aggressive, and who I can push around, at this level. We'll see...when the Good Doctor awakes, I'm likely to be off of poker for quite some time, so I may play more limit today.

The Opposite of Awesomeness

2009-07-10T16:23:00.002-06:00

Thanks, doc. Thanks to your unfathomably stoopid donkeyfucker absentmindedness, the Good Doctor Mondo's tracheotomy has had to been postponed to 8am Monday morning.

Why?

Because as her surgeon, it was your job to ocommunicate to the nurses to stop her blood thinners 24 hours prior to surgery.

At least you had the good sense to not actually go through with the operation today.

And Yet, A Diversion

2009-07-10T12:57:00.002-06:00

Over the last week or so, the longer this medical drama has gone on, certain nurses and social workers here have been urging me to do the kinds of things I would normally do to reduce stress. I've already missed two gigs with New Ben Franklins thus far, and numerous rehearsals. And that's not about to change because I'm not going 35 miles down to Denver while my baby is up here in a medical coma. I'm just not.

The band's been wonderful about this, and after two shows sans bass, it appears one of my nearest and dearest friends is going to stand in for me at our next show or two, but I digress.

In order to relax while sitting in her room overnight, I've actually begun to play some poker again. Mostly to give myself some relief from all the constant phone calls and text messages to answer, and part because I can't sleep. Since she's under heavier sedation now, while I will never leave her...the immutable fact is, she probably isn't even aware of my presence.

Anyway, I've managed to play some, and for the most part there is nothing to report.

But I did make what I believe to be my first final table in a LHE event, a $4.40 $1k guarantee on Stars. Amazing. I won something like 22 of my first 24 showdowns. Then I lost when my flopped set of queens went down to runner runner aces, and from then, it was a case of hanging on. Went out 7th of about 970 runners. And then barely slept.

I have to admit it was a good distraction, and there may be a bit more of that to come.

I want to thank everyone in this poker bloggiverse for all of their thoughts, well wishes, healing vibes, prayers, what have you. It has to be helping, it just has to.

Brief Update

2009-07-10T09:41:00.002-06:00

It's now been just over two weeks since the Good Doctor Mondo was intubated, and to date, her progress has been interminably slow. In fact, she's pretty much as she was over a week ago. But there are some signs of improvement, and some signs that she may be beginning to give up some of this fluid in her lungs.

However, we're running into territory where keeping her on the ventilator risks possible serious, permanent damage to her mouth, throat, and vocal cords. As such, the doctors will be performing a tracheotomy in a few hours. The hope is that once they can lift her from the sedation she's been under all this time (because she'll no longer be on the vent), that she may actually be able to begin to recover.

Be well.