See You Next Year!

Seeing as how I only get around to posting once a week, this is most likely my last post of 2005. Wow... another year gone... unbelievable.

Had a wonderful Christmas with the kids. Took them to see Santa on Friday - it only took 2.5 hours of standing in line to get to him. At least there was some entertainment in the form of a lady who couldn't keep track of her two little hellions... one of them ended up on the other side of the food court yelling "Mommy!", and my wife stopped the other one from leaving the mall while the mother was busy trying to keep her place in line. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to be parents. And you would think that the kids would have been told to remain well-behaved, what with Santa himself just a few yards away!

When my little ones finally got on the big man's lap, they ended up asking for things that weren't originally on their list, so the wife and I spent Saturday morning fighting the last minute crowds at Toys 'R' Us and Target so that Santa's reputation didn't get tarnished.

I've said it before: kids + Christmas = -EV.

The four-day weekend was nice, and I get another one for New Year's. I'll probably spend some of that time playing some more Omaha... tried out one of Full Tilt's PL Omaha SnG's and scored a 2nd place finish in my very first one. The pivotal hand was raising in LP, just for kicks, with 6969 double-suited and catching a 69x flop. The action was fast and furious and I wasn't quite sure exactly what I had, but I was all-in, won the hand and busted someone out. A series of nice flops right after that and I chipped up enough to sit back and cruise into the money. I put some of the SnG winnings into a .05/.10 PL game, and tripled-up when my Straight Flush was bet into by the Ace high flush and called by the King high flush. I guess scoring $15 in a nickel/dime game isn't too shabby... but why can't this shit ever happen to me in a game with dollar limits???

Tomorrow is my 3rd wedding anniversary, which really doesn't reflect the nature of me and my wife's relationship, as we're coming up on our 10th year together. We had a couple of kids, bought a house, ran a business, went through our share of ups and downs, and then got around to finally completing the formality of marriage just a few years ago. But it's still an important day, and as much time and money as we've spent on the kids the last few weeks, mommy and daddy will be treating themselves to some well deserved quality time together tomorrow - "quality time" meaning a nice steak dinner followed by a few hours of live poker playing!

Have a happy, fun, and most importantly, safe New Year's, and best wishes to everyone and their families for a healthy and wealthy 2006.

Titan's Fan

Wow, been spending hours reading all the Vegas trip reports. So much for putting up a post of my own, let alone trying to get some actual work done at the office. :)

So yea, I'm a fan of the Tennessee Titans, or at least of Air McNair. Unfortunately he's been stuck with a pretty sad supporting cast the last few years, but it was fun to watch a Seahawks/Titans game. I almost broke my neck jumping from bandwagon to bandwagon at halftime! The better team pulled through though, and it sounds like the 'Hawks game against the Colts this week will be nothing more than an exhibition game. Saving their best for the Superbowl, I guess. Anyways, football is not what this post is about...

Having finished most of the Christmas shopping and house decorating, completing the Advanced DB Administration and SQL class, and shooing away the visiting relatives - that left a lot of time for some poker playing this past weekend! Oddly, none of it was spent in the casino. In fact, after the beating I took in November, I don't think I've played a single hand of live Poker this month. It's not that I'm scared... I tried going down to play at lunch a couple of times but there were no games running. Could be due in part to the new smoking ban that went into effect in Seattle a few weeks ago. No smoking indoors nor within 25 feet of the entrance, although I don't think that part is being heavily enforced. The Indian casinos aren't bound by the new law, so maybe that's where all the players are at nowadays. I've been way too busy to go fishing around, but I definitely feel an urge to go pull an all nighter at the Muckleshoot again pretty soon.

Hey, if people are concerned about their health and not want to leave smelling like smoke after a Poker session, they should have just opened an online Poker account. Then they could enjoy sitting at home in their shorts, watching some football, and check-raising on a stone-cold bluff, like I did on Saturday and Sunday. Been putting my time in at PokerBlue to qualify for their weekly Freeroll (of which nothing came about); and I've somehow managed not to blow through the entire Titan Poker freebie as of yet. I dipped it down to $20 but worked it back up to almost $80 now. I don't think I've been playing enough for the additional $25 bonus from Instant Bankroll, so I guess I'll just have to try earning that part on my own.

Grinding away at the $.50/$1.00 table is not my ideal choice of game, but I realize it's what I gotta do with what I have, and at least I'm getting to play. Since I actually had some time to invest over the weekend, I decided to mix it up with an MTT, and signed up for a $1250 guaranteed, $3 buy-in with rebuys/addon. Got some good hands to chip up early on, then blew it with pocket 9s. The Flop was 237... no one would be playing the Hammer here, would they? I figured my overpair was good, that is until A5 called and caught the gutshot Wheel on the River. I rebought, then doubled up just before the rebuy period ended, and of course took the add-on. Invested $9, 30th place paid $15, and 1st was almost $500.

I had nothing to play with for awhile and was down to about 10xBB. I made a big raise with A5s in MP, the SB pushed and the BB went in as well. Okay, I'll tag along. It was Pocket 8s and Big Slick against my measly A5 of Hearts. I was in pretty bad shape... an Ace hit the flop, so at least I pulled into 2nd. Not enough cards for a runner-runner Wheel, and the board was all black - the three of us had red cards, so no flush possibilities for anyone. My only hope was a five... just like the lovely 5 of Spades that fell on the River. :)

Big Slick boy was pretty pissed. "WTF??? You lucky bastard. Oooohh, you are SO mine!" Next hand, I had AT and caught a Ten on the flop. He pushed the rest of his chips with J5 and I took him out. Rather than taking the beat like a man, the guy hung around and tried to harass me. "You're on my hit list... I'm gonna find you every time you play... keep playing like that and I'll clean you out..." I tried the Sorry this is my first time playing line, but that didn't back him off.

The amusing part was that he even followed me after I got a table change. His new goal in life was to see me bust out on the bubble. He apparently knew one of the other guys at my table and offered up a bounty on me. "Double if you take him out in 31st!" He kept chanting 31, 31, 31 in chat... I think I was the only one that didn't have him on Ignore at that point. I asked if he would be my fan club president. "Only if you bust out 31st." Unfortunately, he witnessed my AA losing to TT (hit the Set on the Turn) and I went out in 39th.

I think by then, he was done steaming and was just amusing himself and probably having as much fun as I did. He was talking to his buddy about tilting people by playing 72o... hmmm... so he's one that can dish it out, but I don't think he likes the taste of his own medicine.

So for those of you playing on Titan, the next time you see my new buddy chillinaz, be sure to drop the Hammer on him and tell him skitch sent you. Who knows, he might become your biggest fan too!

Bummer

This past week has been nothing but a series of bummers:

• Not going to Vegas.


• Flop 2 pair with AT on a AQTxx board. Lose to a slowplayed AQ.


• Forgetting to check the Christmas lights before putting them up and having to restring almost the entire house.


• Flop 2 pair with J3 in an unraised BB. Turn the Fullhouse. Lose to slowplayed QQ when Q rivers.


• Finding out company is not able to offer Christmas bonus this year.
  
• Not going to Vegas.


• First to bust in a 3 table SnG with KK losing to a 47 who flopped the straight. At least they were suited!


• Wife erasing last night's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show before I got a chance to re-watch some of the jigglies in slo-mo.


• Did I mention, not going to Vegas?

More evidence that I'm just a bad luck suckhole: neither my wife or I have come away from the tables with any significant wins in the past few weeks. So she goes off to play the other night and I opt to stay home. She wakes me up at about 6am the next morning by slapping a fistful of 100s across my face. She hit a Quad jackpot for about $300 and they also held up for another $200 High-hand jackpot. If I had been there, the Quads probably would have already been hit by someone earlier (has happened to me twice before) and the high-hand would have been beaten with 2 minutes left to go.

I feel like a living Voodoo doll or something. If any of you want an extra edge in Vegas this weekend, buy me a ticket there and I'll sweat your opponents at the final table! Trust me, you can't lose!