It's Official...

... Summer is here in Seattle. After 3 days of torrential rain and some hail and thunderstorms, the sun's finally out! Warm breezes and 80-degree weather, but that's not the true measure of the season... it's the fact that the neighbors mowed their lawn (or had it mowed), making mine look like a jungle. So I fired up the lawnmower right after getting home from work and proceeded to uncover steaming piles of dog-doo and get my workout dodging agitated wasps. When's Winter coming back?

... I'm a fat-ass! It wasn't long ago that I was working downtown and walking 6 blocks from the bus-stop to the office. I had time to play volleyball at the rec center and take some martial arts classes over the weekend. But for the last year and a half, I've worked near the airport and I sit in traffic for an hour on the way there, just so I can continue to sit on my butt, either in front of the computer or in the seat of the forklift. I've never been uncomfortable in my jeans, but they were digging into my new-found gut so badly today I had to unbutton them for the drive home.

... My coworker is resigning. Every where I've worked, there's always been someone who got pregnant (not by me!), went on maternity leave, came back for a month or two, and then quit. I knew it was coming with this one too. And the higher-ups haven't given me a clear answer as to what's going to happen once she's officially off the payroll. I guess I've been doing such a stellar job in covering her portion of the paperwork, they haven't really been on the search for a replacement. Great. More work, same pay. Damn my parents for passing on their workaholic-ness to me!

... My cousin is a Marine. He finished Bootcamp and was promoted to PFC at his graduation last week. He came back through Seattle to visit with his mom before he returns to SoCal for two more months of training and then off to where ever they require him. For his sake, and for the sake of all our boys and girls, I really hope the stupidness in Iraq is over or at least calms down very soon.

... I'm a corruptor of our youth. I took the above-mentioned cousin and my brother, who was in town to visit him, to their first strip-club and paid to pop their lapdance cherry. I guess Seattle has a ban on new strip clubs, so the stripper density is always high, even on a Monday night. The boys enjoyed the stage show, but at first weren't too excited about the private dances, thinking were just a little more close-up ass-shaking. They were pleasantly surprised when they found out lapdances were literally in-your-lap, and they definitely enjoyed the touching and squeezing that they got to do.

I couldn't help but think of Pauly and his Existentialist Conversations with Strippers(tm) when Sophie plopped herself down beside me and introduced herself. I told her I was just taking my newly anointed Marine of a cousin out for some fun, and she started going on about the military and the choices people make to join and that she could never do it because her will to live was too strong but that those who are in must have a stronger will... I really wasn't sure what she was talking about as I was in awe of some of the pole moves being performed on-stage to Gwen Stefani's new cheerleading son. And before I could turn to Sophie and ask her about her thoughts on Nietzsche, she popped me the question. :)

As for poker, not so good. Besides contributing to my already overly-sedentary lifestyle, the last few casino trips have netted the exact same result as the outing to the strip club: less cash and more frustration....

It's Not Just Me

Took a final shot at the WSOP Satellite... I promised myself smart play, no wild Hammer bluffs this time around. I stuck to it - stole when I could and folded a lot. Won a few hands and was in the top tier for a few orbits. Then I had a complete brain fart. Limped in EP with JT, and then called April's raise from the blind. Raised her on the flop with a 10-high board, and was all-in by the Turn. She had KK.

I was kicking myself for that play, for getting involved in the hand in the first place. Then I started thinking back to all the other times I've busted out in the past few weeks, which unfortunately have been a lot. Was I really taking as many bad-beats as I thought I was? Or was I just making bone-headed plays? One guy can't get this unlucky for this long, can he?


Yea, it really is mostly a whole lot of bad luck. Last night's Midnight tourney, I fold fold fold and don't try anything too fancy. Probably playing a little too scared, but everytime I was ready to commit myself to a late position steal/bluff; someone else raised before me so I had to let go. Correct thing to do, right? I survive half the crowd and the alternates and make it to the final table. I'm one of the short-stacks at only T2000 and the blinds just bumped up to 300/600. I have about 4 hands to go before they come around to me again. I get dealt the King of Spades. I have this strange tingling in my gut that it's going to pair up. It does... King of Hearts. Then the tingling makes me nauseous as I know they're going to lose for me again.

Remember I said once I've been really good at making reads, I just can never follow through and make the proper decision based on the read? Yea, I shoulda mucked 'em. Instead, I'm all-in and SB calls with AK of Clubs. "Of course... here comes an Ace or two," I say as I stand up. First card to hit the flop is the Ace of Diamonds, followed by a whole bunch of Clubs.

Sure, it's a game of skill. But it's hard to utilize any of that when I can't even see through the torrential downpour that's constantly hanging over me.

Week from Hell

This past week has just been ridiculous. Our warehouse manager was on vacation all last week, and I'm the default backup for him. My department coworker is still out on medical leave... I'm pretty sure she's not coming back, but she's making sure to take all of her vacation and sick pay. I don't blame her, I'd do the same; but in the meantime, the company isn't going to hire a replacement until they can stop paying her. All of which left me handling the jobs of 3 people all week. At least my overtime will be juicy.

Obviously, I've been a bit behind on my blog-reading and more so on posting. Last time I was here, I was on a roll with the sports betting. My advisory coworker picked 5 for 5 on Wednesday, bringing the account up to almost $400. So I doubled the bets on Thursday, and he bombed and went 1-5. He tries to claim he was 2 for 5, but one of the teams didn't cover the spread, so it's still a loss in my book. So I took the $150 left from the one win and put it on some of the favorites and 20-1 longshots in the Derby. Thanks for nothing, Giacomo. The last $50 went back on the Sonics first game against the Spurs... it would have paid 4-to-1 if they had won. Obviously they didn't, and so my quest for a $1000 came to an abrupt end.

Poker was an uncontrollable beast as well. FPP WSOP Satellite on Stars, 2nd hand dealt is QQ that runs into KK. In live tourney and ring games, everytime I hit a great flop, I got outdrawn on the Turn or River. QJs flops the Q and two more spades, and I turn a straight draw - another Spade comes and I'm beat by the K high flush. AJ with a J-high board. Oh yea, J2 hits his kicker.
I laid off the cards for a few days... easy to do with the extra work load at the office as well as from the online classes I've started. Friday the 13th was payday, so I decided to see if a bad luck day would be good for me. It was. Started with $50 after work... flopped some straights, rivered some flushes, and left an hour later with an extra $100! Came back with the wife after dinner, and the luck continued to hold up.

I should have quit when the clock struck midnight. I was up another $80 at the time, and as soon as Friday the 13th was gone, so was my good run. Seriously, I remember looking at the time... 12:30 am... and never winning another pot after that. I had a few nasty beats in a row, and that was that. The first one wasn't actually all that bad... I flopped Broadway with AT. Tons of action on the flop and turn, but I had to slow it down when a 2nd King hit the River. Full house anyone? Nope... Quad Kings! The only thing that made it okay was that it was my own wife that had the Kings. My chips were staying in the family, and she got a $60 Monte Carlo bonus as well.

But after that... I turned a 9-high straight during a kill pot (6/12). Some idiot playing 25o Rivered a boat. And no, it wasn't his Kill blind, nor his Small or Big. Two bets on the turn and 3 on the River... that pot cost me over $70. Flopped trip Dueces with Q2 in the BB. Outkicked by K2 in the Small. My all-in was with A5 and I flopped 2-pair. It was a family pot pre-flop and post-flop, so I was looking at getting back at least $60; until someone rivered a straight.

Fortunately, the wife held her own for the next hour or so as I mulled around the casino in despair. Tangent: everytime I busted out this week, I'd hang around to watch some table games, and I witnessed a $500 bonus winner at Paigow, a $600 4-card poker straight flush, and a 20-to-1 payout on quads at the Caribbean Draw poker... he had $50 out for a $1000 return. All part of some cruel joke being played on me, I'm sure!

Anyways, I came back from watching another table game winner to see my wife cutting off two stack of chips to cold-call a raise. The board was 258 with two hearts. I immediately knew she was on the flush draw. It got capped with 5 people involved including her. Turn was a black Jack. Capped again with 4 people in. The guy I was standing behind flashed his cards to his neighbors... his pocket Jacks hit their set. King of hearts on the River and lots of moaning and groaning. No one bet, and wifey showed her Q4h. No one had the Ace, and she did a little "gimme gimme" motion towards the HUGE pot. One guy who was in to the end showed his 25 flopped two-pair. There was a lot of loud, good-natured finger pointing, "How could you cap preflop with that???" to both the 25 and Q4. Someone noticed me standing there and said, "It's okay, she's just covering for him!"

It was over $200 in that pot, and after she finished stacking them up 6 hands later, I motioned for her to rack 'em up. With her Quad bonus, she had a profit of over $300. I figured I broke even for the day, as I had only used the money I won earlier in the day to play with.

Well, enough bitching for now. Have to get caught up on reading about other's winning play. That should help me get re-affirmed for the WPBT WSOP Qualifier tonight...

Sports Freeroll

Last week I got a flyer in the mail for a free $50 at BetonUSA.com's sportsbook site. I check it out, make sure I don't have to deposit any real cash (nope!) and sign up. Threw the $50 on the Sonics vs. Kings on Sunday... they make a 4th quarter comeback to win me $90!

I read the fine print about the free money: For clients who are eligible for the free $50 promotion you must wager the bonus a minimum of 10 (ten) times, minimum cashout is $1000, maximum cashout is $1500.

Minimum cashout is $1000.

So I figure I either get a lot of free sportsbook playtime, or I can make a cool grand. I'm not a big baseball or basketball fan, so I ask my two sports-junkie coworkers about their picks and bet $10 here, $20 there based on their advice. More wins than losses, and the freebie account got up to $250.

Of course I gave the free $50 back via their online casino... it's the same software that I killed myself on before, and after not winning a single hand, I quit. My buddy gets to the office an hour before I do, so I called him during my commute in and told him to get his picks ready for the day. He handed me his sheet as soon as I walked in... "I'm liking this, I should take it on as a side-job," he tells me.

One baseball game has already started, and his underdog pick is in the lead. I've got all $200 spread out over 8 games... I've never been so interested in baseball scores or the NBA Playoffs. And my interest won't wane as long as there's $10 - $999 in the account!

Wife coerced me into going to the Tuesday midnight tourney. I got kicked in the junk on the very first hand... she finished 3rd. Too bad I couldn't place a money-line bet on her!

Forsaken

Even after seeing Jesus and being promised I would win, I busted out unceremoniously in 44th. I got crippled when I tried to overplay the Hammer; and in retrospect I think I actually underplayed it. I raised my 7s2c in EP after Anisotropy limped in and he called. Flop came 3 clubs, including a 7 and a Jack. He checked, I bet out about pot and he called. Turn was a red 9 and here's where I pussied out. I don't have the HH in front of me, but I think he had almost twice as many chips as me. I should have just pushed on the flop; and definitely on the turn... instead I made a weak bet that was too easy for him to call. A fourth club fell on the river, and he made me call off half my stack to see his KcQs. If I had pushed, he might have had a tougher decision calling with a gut-shot straight and possible 2nd nut flush draw.

Don't worry Sean, I'll have the last laugh when T.O. is booted from the team and your precious Eagles don't even make the playoffs this year!

What sucks is I read him for a big club... I seem to be really good at reading people nowadays. The only problem is I still make the wrong decision based on the right read. Guess that's what separates the winning players from... well... me.

So I was down to T500; all-in with A3o against Derek's QQ and rivered a deuce for the Wheel. My next all-in hand was 77 with 2 callers: an AQ and Easycure's 55. There was a Q and a 5 on the flop; and I didn't hit the Jackpot 7 to triple up.

Ah well. My wife came back from NY on Saturday night, and she was itching to play some limit. The NL games at the NY clubs were too much stress for her with all of the business stuff she was dealing with as well out there, so she wanted to have some fun tossing chips out and chasing everything to the river. Although we got to play for 3+ hours and hang out with some friends at the Midway, as you can guess, since I've been forsaken by the Gods, Poker and all, we walked away empty-handed. It wasn't even getting bad-beat... it was just getting absolutely nothing playable.

I'm starting up some online classes to brush up on my IT skills, so that will definitely cut into my poker playing time. Which is probably a good thing for now....