A Crips Weekend with the Bloods

No, not gangs and certainly not bad people. Let us have no confusion here (other than the natural type that is caused by my pre-alzheimic mind set and my poor typing skill-thus establishing who the crip is).

I got to play some cards with Mr. Bad Blood and a few other friends at the Blood household on Saturday. A portion of the bounty went for the fine cause of breast cancer research.. . .and the breasts were grateful! I certainly had a good time and the camaraderie in itself was well worth the three hour trip from Charleston.

I picked up my good friend the Big Pirate in Columbia and we drove to Greer where we met with 19 other friendly card players. . . some of whom I recognized from my New Year's day sojourn to the same venue. I met some others who were old hats to the venue, but new friends to me. As the tourney wound down, Wes found his way to some cash. Your truly, being very short-stacked, found that AKs was no match for a gigantically stacked 10 7 when a 7 hit the flop. I never caught up and bowed out to finish 6th. I settled in for a little cash game in the kitchen, til finally had to give up the ghost and drive back to Columbia.

Wes was kind enough to allow me to sleep on the sofa, as it was after 1 by the time we arrived in the capital city. My tired old eyes were grateful. I was pleasantly awakened by Hank and Jackson who told me, among other things, they were just about ready to start kindergarten and first grade-respectively, I believe. I believe it was also Hank's birthday, so I am sure they had quite the festive day ahead planned. Either way, they were determined to show me how most of their toys worked. . .you know the kind of toys that bring grumbles from the bear cave that parents like to sleep in until a decent hour has arrived. So, rather than have the boys get into further trouble on my account, I made my graceful exit, and continued my trek home to the holy city. It was there in my home sweet home where my lovely bride awaited with loving and satisfied arms, having had a rare night (without the bastard) to spend with her BF. All I had to do was extend the courtesy of a warning call home before i got there. . .it always embarrasses him when I walk in on them.. . .and after all, he is only taking pressure off of me. hehe.

I think I shall stop for now, for my twisted humor may yet get me into trouble with those who do not understand. . .ahhh wtf, joke 'em if the can't take a f. . .

Til next time. . . Ya'll come back now, ya hear!

Five Months??

I was visiting the blog of a friend who shall remain nameless, and I noticed that he had a list of blogs which he follows that has a meter that tells you when that person last posted. I noticed it said that I had not posted in five months. This can't be true. I believe it to be much longer, for I have forgotten what it is like to post on the internet. I do not know what it is to type out little things about ones life and love and family and work and put them out there for others to read. Therefore, I shall post today so that I will not have the dreaded "Last Post: Five Months ago!!!" sign next to my name. I will also be playing cards in Cemfred's Skillz game tonight and hopefully I will see some friends.

Further Musings of a Slacker

Sometimes words on a page do not convey the intended effect that they have in the mind when they are written. To the extent that one is able to convey ideas, emotions, humor, humility, hubris, etc., when intended, he is successful at his endeavor. Yesterday, I sought to shed hubris, embrace humility, and give grateful homage to friends who are appreciated while enjoying a little self effacing humor. There was not one inkling of self pity in what I wrote. As much as anything, I was attempting to motivate myself to make a renewed effort to write.

It is the season of the BBT, but you won't read about that here. I will suffer my bad beats in silence, and you will suffer my donkey suckouts however you wish. In the end there will be only one winner. My goal is to make the best decision I can-not go out on stupid plays. If I am successful at that, it does not eliminate the problems caused by not catching cards or (the much worse problem) catching second best cards. If some one pays for all seven, they get to play all seven. We all vote with our chips. Sometimes our candidate is the set that falls to the straight, and sometimes we back the dark horse pair of 7's that hold out against all odds. Either way, my goal is to have fun, make friends, and win more than I lose. The first two goals I know I can achieve.

Thanks for stoppin by. . .

Come back and see us now, ya hear.

Life in the Slack Lane

Over the past month I have been a slack, lazy degenerate. If you don't believe me, ask my wife. The dear soul puts up with a lot. So much so that when she dies, she gets to by-pass the traffic lane and go directly to the front of the line. Well, that is if she is going somewhere that the front of the line is the kind of place one would like to be. On the other hand, if she is going to one of those "other" places, she will be allowed to lollygag in the back of the line for as long as is necessary for the powers that be to forget about her and send her to the other line out of shear bureaucratic inefficiency. Such are the advantages of loving a slack ass, as she loves me.

I must say there is really no one area in my life where I have excelled more than any other in slackatude. I have not written, I have not read. I have no idea what is going on in the lives of the writers of more than a few of the blogs that I used to happily follow. There are lots of people out there that really write marvelously talented musings almost every week, if not several times a week. I have been lucky enough to make friends with a few of them. And while there are others who I can't quite call friend yet. . .yet being the key word. . ., it is only a matter of time before friendship will break out. To paraphrase Will Rogers- I haven't met a poker blogger I didn't like. Either way, I have read almost nothing for the last month, left no comments, made no new friends. . .Truly, If I had a conscience, I'd feel guilty about now.

I have no delusions. If I stopped blogging and playing poker tomorrow, there would be few if any who would miss me. Other than my nominal contributions to whatever tourney I am playing at the moment, I just aint that important. However I do write something so that I can be, or at leasr feel, a part of. . a friend among. . .a player in the company of. . .this nice little community of poker players who like to read and write and play. It allows me at it's best to not take myself so damn seriously, while I get to put faces and names and personalities and lives. At it's worst, I get to expound a little self indulgent ignorance for the world to ignore.

There are several folks who write regularly that I am very grateful to read. I am mentioning a few because they pop to mind as I type. . .there are more. . I promise. If I forget to name you, please realize that early onset Alzheimer's is not a pretty thing. If you have read anything I ever typed, you know how fond I am of the Tuck Fards (true and honorary), Bam Bam, Lee, Suzy, Don Baywolf, Memphis Mojo, Cemfredmd and all the others who take time to show up there even once in a while. They are a friendly group.. . . Who has not played there and not felt welcome? It really is refreshing. There is also the crew at BDR, not least of which is Buddy himself. Witty, entertaining, not a bad poker player, humble, and always fun to listen to. Joanada, Numbbono, Rambler, Scotty Mc, OhCaptin, Katitude, Pushmonkey, Brainmc among the others I have met there, are all nice folks, all add up to give these faceless on line tourney's the feel of a home game.

Who hasn't read read Julius Goat and split their sides laughing from time to time, or been able to take a step back when needed to realize how not to take ourselves too seriously- sometimes all in the same post. If you want to read some one with some genuine insight into the game and an art for putting it down in a way that is fun to read, there are more than enough true poker bloggers out there, but Emptyman is as good or better than most. Then there are the genuinely nice people, really talented writers or just plain interesting reads whether they write about poker or not, like Katitude, Oh Captain, Big Pirate and Lightning.

I write because you folks make my life a little nicer when when I get to read what you have to say. I write to give back in some small little way. Hell, let's face it. I'm the guy who writes and makes most people say, "Jeez, what a load of crap. I can do way better than that without even trying." Thus, inspiration is served!!!

I haven't had the chance to say this lately but. . .

Thanks for stoppin by, ya'll come back now, ya hear.

WOW, Check it out

Royal frush, eh?? My only comment was "Thank you sir, may I have another?" As much as I hate O8, I love 7hl. Not that I play 7hl any better, but I tolerate the variances a little better. I can't play it for cash. I get killed. But I do like playing it in tourneys. And now, the TFII is featuring 7hl as it's game in the second hour. I ended up finishing third. My attention span was severely hampered by the return of heroes. Admittedly the show is lacking from it's past glory, but I keep hoping . . .

Equal Opportunity H8

The opportunity to H8 O8 presented itself once again last evening. And while I was enjoying the TF crew's hospitality, I actually finished 2d in the O8 portion. Whilst over in the nlhe section, I struggled with a variety of decent starting cards that mostly never connected. I did have the luck to hang in while mostly nursing a small sized stack, and I did eventually catch AA, ran it into Carson's 66, and can only presume I lost. The O8 screen popped up, I made my play while the nlhe screen disappeared, as it is apt to do when the wrong buttons are chosen and a tourney ends for this participant. I figured out how to fix that problem though. Now, I could concentrate on a game I really dislike. heh. I waltzed into a 2d place finish in O8, winning with hands that had no right to win, and losing with hands that had no right to lose, but as is the case every week, having a better time than I deserved to have. Thanks everybody!!! (And yes, I still h8 O8)

I h8 O8

The game kills me. I am not much (any) better am OH. It does not seem to matter what the flop is, you can never be comfortably ahead. Even worse, you can have a scooping hand that gets scooped. I am pathetic at it. I fold top two pair to watch bottom two pair take the pot. I call with A2346, and trip 6's to watch A2345 put me on the rail. I h8 the game, but on Monday nights at the Tuckfard I and the Tuckfard II, I love the the company. Anyhow, I plead with the poker gods to convince Carson to change the format of the TFII back to HORSE, but however my plea is received, it shall not stop me from showing up. I was the bubble boy in the TFI, and the bitch boy in the TFII. I still didn't have a better time playing anywhere else on the net. Next week, I shall return!