WSOP Freeroll, Take 2!

Seems Saturday wasn't a good day for WSOP Satellites. I didn't make it anywhere as close as JoeSpeaker did, outlasting only half the field of 3000 in the Party WSOP Freeroll. I had vowed to play tight, and thought I was on the path to righteousness when I made the decision to fold JJ to an all-in on the 3rd hand. After an hour into it, I was cruising along just above average when I got moved to a new table, right behind a big stack with about 6x the average.

He used that stack to his advantage, pushing me off pots or calling me all the way down. I don't know why I let it get to me, but I decided I needed to double up through this guy just once. I started limping in with almost anything, hoping to catch a miracle flop. He min-raised when I had a low pocket pair and there was a caller behind so I thought it would be a prime time to push. I did, and unfortunately he could easily afford to call me with Ace-rag. Of course there's never an Ace on the flop when I need it in a race, and yet it gleefully drops for someone else when my tournament life is on the line.

Pitiful. I seem to do fine getting myself to the big game, but then I choke when it's time to play ball. Yea, I qualified again late last night, wading through 3450 others with hardly a worry. I just need to stay in that state of mind and pull a repeat performance come next Saturday.

Poker Gods Smile Upon Me

Yesterday turned out to be a very good day for me. I got the message that no skeletons were found in my closet, and therefore I was cleared for hire. I talked to the new boss about what shift I'll be starting on and such - it's a large telecommunications company, so they have support needs around the clock and I noted my preference for the night shift, as that's when my buddy works. There's also obviously less pressure from the hecticness of normal business hours, and it'll be an easier commute for me during those off hours (and it will be quite the commute). But it sounds like I'll be starting a 1p-9p swing shift for my training, and then I'll get placed more permanently after a few weeks.

So I let the news slip to two of my current coworkers, and they were excited for me. I've only been here for 2 years, but they're certified lifers at over 6 years each, and I guess I gave them a glimmer of hope and allowed them to live vicariously through me! A lot of discussion at lunch time about the various ways I can break the news to the higher-ups, ranging from giving the classic "Take this job and shove it," speech to just going AWOL. As upstanding as I'd like to try and be, the question "What have THEY done for ME lately?" keeps coming up. Well, other than provide me a job and steady paycheck... but you get my drift. So I've plotted and timed out my escape route, and it may cause a bit of a scramble but I think it'll be a fair proposition for all parties involved.

Obviously, morale isn't at a high point, and I'm not concerned about burning bridges. I started here as a temp, and it was only supposed to be a temporary blip on the radar; it's absolutely nowhere near to close to the career path I want to be on. I've made some good friends, learned a few things, and can drive a mean forklift now... but somehow I don't think: "Able to crossdock 20-feet beams of lumber through an 8 foot bay door" as a skill on the resumé would really impress any IT recruiters.

And there'll be no more of having to deal with this...


So I'm obviously thrilled about this new opportunity, and I really owe it all to the Poker Gods. Huh? How's that? A few months back, I got a call from a friend to meet him for a low buy-in Poker tourney after work. And while I busted out early because of a silly chip miscalculation; I got to hang out with my buddy - the one that told me about the job opening and put in a good word for me during the interview process! So even though I didn't cash on that particular day, it's turned out to be my most profitable Poker tourney yet!

I'm not sure exactly what I did to curry the Gods' favor yesterday, but boy, did they shower me with it. After everything that went on during the day, I spent the evening partying it up on Party Poker. I actually didn't fare too well in the cash games... I blew a buy-in at the PLO table when I accidentally clicked "RAISE ALL-IN $12.86" on the River when I was trying to switch windows. Of course, I had missed all of my draws and my nemesis just had to call with his Full House.

It was okay though. The $20 I lost there was more than worth the price of where the night was headed. The window that popped up that made me misclick was the beginning of the 3:50 AM (EST) WSOP FreeRoll Qualifier. The one that had about 2100 entrants in it. The one that found me tripling up early on. The one that I flopped Quads twice and got paid off. The one that I ended up on a table with no other live players (everyone was away) so I chipped up quickly by raising every hand. Just how lucky was I? One person whose blind put him all-in had AA against my J9. I rivered Trip 9's on him.

Yes, the Gods were smiling upon me. It took four hours, and lots of folding folding raising folding to work my way down to the last 80 or so - that's about where I dozed off after raising pre-flop with AJ and woke up to Party's warning bell just in time to bet my TPTK. Then I got a really good wake-up jolt when my Pocket Queens held up against AK, giving me enough chips to glide into the top 50 and into the Saturday WSOP Freeroll Satellite.

Wish me luck, and pray for the Poker Deities to keep an eye on me for just a few more days, so that I can escape unscathed from my current cubicle and freeroll my way into the WSOP. :)

Deal or No Deal

How can a game show that requires absolutely no skill whatsoever be so riveting to watch??? Completely idiotic, yet I can't turn away. Must appeal to the gambler in me... it's like Roulette, just cross your fingers and pick a number. Then do you take the guaranteed cash or try and parlay it? My favorite was an episode last week where she got her Deal to ~$90K, and she almost accepted, but her family adamantly told her NO DEAL! Then she hits two big numbers in a row and her Deal dumps down to ~$27K... her family is now sitting down and tells her, "Ummm... you do what you feel, it's all you now..." Gee, thanks! Here's a funny screenshot recap from TVGasm.

Anyways... I got a call late Tuesday offering me the job I've been stressing about! w00t! But the waiting's not over yet. I took a sick day on Wednesday to go uncomfortably pee in a cup, and HR is waiting for the results of that and a background check before I'm "cleared for hire." I've been a good boy, so I don't have anything to worry about; but the waiting is still killing me!

I got offered the salary I asked for, which was a little bit higher than what my friends on the inside told me that position paid, so I was expecting to have to get into a little give and take conversation. But my wife says I probably lowballed it if they offered me what I asked for straight up. Oh well. It may have been a factor in getting me selected over someone else who asked for higher; and it's a goodly amount more than what I'm making now so I'll gladly take that Deal.

I've stayed true to my word and kept away from the live tables... but it's hard to pass up logging into Party to claim the free money they seem to be giving away to everybody. They only gave me $35, but I worked that up to about $80 in one night thanks to a SnG win and 200 raked hands at the Omaha-Hi. Last night, I signed up for 4 of the $500 Freerolls ($100 for 1st), one starting every hour... Multi-tabling MTTs is tough - but I outlasted over 4800 others in two of them for a whopping $0.75 in more free money!!! Yes, that decimal is in the right place.

Somehow, I missed seeing the WSOP Freerolls they're running. Good thing Iggy keeps up on these things and makes sure we're all informed! Given that I've got two weeks before I start the new job (if nothing goes disastrously wrong), I think most, if not all, my spare time will be spent playing at Party. A completely free ride into one of the WSOP Main Events? DEAL!

It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp

Didn't watch much of the Oscars, just had it on in the background, but dammit if that song didn't get stuck in my head! I'm gonna have to make a trip to the video store to picks me up some Hustle and Flow.

First off, the Midway finally reopened last Tuesday. The place was cleaned up - brighter paintjob, new felts, heck, even new bathroom sinks! The poker room was rearranged and they were able to squeeze a fifth table in. Saw some familiar faces in there, both playing and dealing. They had a 4/8 game and a 10/20 game running already! Had we known, we might have brought enough to consider playing in the 10/20, but instead we plopped ourselves onto the 4/8 table for a few hours before getting cleaned out. The comped food was good and Wifey flopped Quads for a $150 payout, so it was a pretty cheap night out. The one thing that was odd was hearing the new dealers calling all of us regulars Sir or Ma'am instead of by name. It didn't quite feel like home yet, but I'm sure a few more sessions and we won't even remember that it had been closed!

Those few more sessions will have to wait though. I'm in the middle of a transitional period, so I need to take a little break from the felt until the dust settles and I see where all my chips fall to rest...

I mentioned a few weeks ago I put up a lame showing during a job interview, but I still got a call-back last week and the 2nd interview went much more swimmingly! It was a lot easier to talk about my personality traits and past management experience than it was to try and spout off the correct UNIX commands at will. The interviewer wrapped it up by saying I was a bit light on experience, but I showed an aptitude for learning and would fit in well with the team... plus, I had two really good internal references and that would be taken heavily into consideration.

I was emailed an application package a few days later on Friday, so I've digitally signed the forms, agreed to the background checks, etc. and submitted my info. So now I just wait for the offer/denial letter. The waiting is stressful, and I'd love to do my relaxing at a Poker table; but I'm trying to be on my best behavior - because you know, the Company has recruiter-spies watching me and would never hire a degenerate gambler! Seriously though, I've put a lot of little things off to the back burner over the past few weeks, pending the outcome of this application. One stress at a time.

Here's a question... how do I go about "resigning"? I've never voluntarily left a job - worked for the family until I left for college. Worked for the college, so my job was up when I graduated. Worked for a dot-com that went bust. Had a contract job that was unexpectedly cut short.

Now I've been with this company for two years and have myself some vacation and sick time built up. I've told a few coworkers about my interviews, and they told me that if it's a go, to use up my sick days and then call in and say I'm not coming back. While that would be fun, I'm not that much of an asshole. I definitely want to be courteous and give 2 week's notice and potentially train my replacement, but I want to make sure I get maximum value for my time and not get screwed on losing out my sick and personal days (like I did with the new calendar year, grrrr).

Any suggestions on how to, or how not to, leave a job would be appreciated. Granted, this is purely hypothetical right now and could just all be for naught... but damn...
♪ it's hard out here for a pimp (you ain't knowin)
When he tryin to get this money for the rent (you ain't knowin) ♪
♪ For the Cadillacs and gas money spent....