Getting Cravings

Last night I didn't go running. Instead I headed to the bar to watch the kstate game. I should have went running. It would have been a lot less painful. 

Today I trimmed my lawn and played poker. All of my tourneys were a bust. The theatre had planes showing tonight so we took the kids to see that. 

Besides running the weed trimmer and sweating for an hour and a half I did not get any type of workout in.   It was a lazy day. My calorie intake was low today. 

I bought some light calorie items to snack on between meals. I'm still hungry all the time and craving a pig out session.     So far I've been able to resist the urges. 

Tomorrow we have volleyball all day.  Then Monday we will have the 5k as well as walking around the park all day. I'm hoping ill be under the 220 mark when I weigh in Wednesday. 

I'm Getting a Third Arm

This morning I told my oldest son to make sure he stopped by my office after school. We were going to have the doctor look at his shoulder. He said "Dad,  I know what it is. I have been seeing some of this on tv lately. I am getting a third arm."  I couldn't help but laugh.

It ended up being overactive scar tissue layering up. The doctor gave him a steroid shot in it to see if it will flatten out, or at least quit growing.

Tonight I got off work late. I thought about playing in a couple tournaments but decided instead to keep with my fitness. We drove to the track and ran 2 miles.  

I burned off 315 calories according to RunKeeper. 

I have been incredibly hungry between meals since I started all of this. I'm going to find a low calorie snack to start munching on so that I can eliminate some of that rumble. 

With the 5K coming on Monday, I will get some type of activity in tomorrow then let my legs relax for a couple of days. They are getting really tight. 

Volleyball Fun

We had a couple nieces come over to watch the kids while we went to play volleyball last night.  The gym's temperature was 82 degrees.  It felt like we were playing in a Sauna.  If I'm going to play in that type of heat I'd prefer to be in the sand with a beer close by.

It was fun getting back into volleyball.  We didn't keep score.  We didn't get competitive.  We just volleyed.  It was a good practice as several of us may be playing in the sand volleyball tournament this weekend.  I am not sure if I am on a team or not.  I was called a day ago and asked if I wanted to play.  They needed to find a couple more players.  I'm not sure if that has happened yet.

If not, I may just show up at the court and see if anybody needs an extra player. 

After volleyball, I worked on the alphabet with my youngest son, while my wife went over sight words with my oldest son.  Then I read some learning to read books with my youngest son.

When the boys went to bed I pulled out the laptop and fired up some full ring NL for a half hour of play.  A half hour is a ridiculously short amount of time to play.  I got lucky and made a few dollars, It could have been more, but I was trying to force something to happen and ran into a couple of hands.

While I was logged on, I checked my friends list to see who was playing.  I saw one buddy doing well in a 60.00 tournament.  That pulled me back in.  I wanted to be playing deep in a tournament.

It was time for bed so I shut down the computer.  I read a little card player magazine before I fell asleep.  Tonight I may have to fire up a couple tournaments.  I'm thinking the 2.20 100.00 guaranteed and the 3.30 PL HO.

Wednesday Weigh In #1

After running 3 miles last night and only eating 1700 calories yesterday and 140 for breakfast this morning, I was starving by lunch time.  I need to hit the grocery store and get some lower calorie snacks to get me through the morning. 

Normally my 140 calorie breakfast holds me over.  Today it didn't do much at all.  At lunch I consumed over 1000 calories.  Yum!  It was still a lighter meal than some that I eat.  What I was really craving was a salad.  That never happens.

After lunch my body felt like it was on fire.  I'm hoping that's just the feeling of the food getting digested.  I sometimes feel overheated when I eat. 

I weighed myself this morning and was 220.6 pounds.  I am only going to weigh in weekly on Wednesday's going forward.  That will be 5 more weigh in's including the Oct 2nd final weigh in.  Two pounds a week would get me down to 210 by that time.

We'll call these posts the Wednesday Weigh In. 

3 miles

Today the kids had their first day of school.  We got up early to get ready and walk to school. They are in first grade and kindergarten. 

Tonight I made baked fish instead of fried fish. We had mashed potatoes with it instead of fried potatoes. I had a total of about 1700 calories today and feel that I ate pretty well. I could have eaten more. 

After we ate we all loaded up and headed to the track to get some exercise. I ran/walked 3 miles. RunKeeper said I burned around 460 calories. 

After that my calf muscles and thighs are tight. I drank a ton of water after we got back. 

Tomorrow night we start playing volleyball on Wednesday nights. Another way to get more exercise. 

I'm giving poker a little break this week. I played quite a bit Saturday. Right now I am focusing on getting in shape.  Also, with this being the first week of school we are getting into our new routines of going to bed early and getting up earlier. 

Saving Money and Impoving Your Lifestyle the Smartphone Way

My new Iphone is more than I could have imagined.  I am taking advantage of a ton of different apps to improve my lifestyle and save me money.  I have a couple running apps.  RunKeeper will probably be the one I use most often.  I will be getting a calorie tracking app.  Combined those 2 apps should help me to lose that 10 pounds by October.

With prices increasing everywhere, if your not doing something to make improve your situation, you will actually be doing worse.  I have the gas buddy app to find the lowest price gas on trips.  Compete oil companies.  I, your consumer demand it. 

GPS saves me miles and time. 

Amazon and Ebay apps allow me to price items instantly when I'm shopping to make sure I'm getting a good price. 

Groceries keep going up in price.  For what I used to spend 200.00 on 3 years ago, I now have to spend 600.00.  That's pretty drastic.  Off name brands are catching up to name brands in price.  There's still a few ways to save but not like there was.  I will be checking out some grocery store apps like Dillons to see how that can save me money.  Living so far from options, limits how much I can save in this category.

I'm always trying to find new ways to make my money go further.  It looks like I should be able to find a lot of help with the Iphone.

Got a Short Run In Tonight and My Weight Loss Plan

There was a lot of stuff going on after work tonight.  Since I'm done making excuses I decided to run after dark.  I thought about driving to the track but didn't want to so I decided to try a new route, in an effort to avoid being bitten by dogs. 

I started out heading down the dirt road at the edge of town.  There were no street lights and a decent sized bark was coming from a block or two down the road so I turned and ran the opposite direction.  I made it all the way through town and started to head out in the country when I heard a train coming.  As I did I thought I saw the glare from eyeballs in the weeds beside the road.

My first thought was I didn't have any lights shining so it must be a reflection off something else.  As the train started to pass I noticed the glare start bouncing towards me.  Right then I realized I was about to get trampled by a deer.  He saw me at the same time.  He did a 180 and headed back towards the train.  I didn't hear a splat, maybe he turned before he ran into it.

I decided that was a close enough call for this evening and ran back into town.  I thought about running into town but each street that I went past I remembered a dog that wanted to eat me from a couple years ago.  Me running in town after dark is a bad idea.  Even in the daylight, it's still risky.  I see other people running all the time.  Do dogs not raise their hackles and run at them.

I followed the same route back to the house glad I didn't get trampled or chewed on.  I may take a walk tomorrow to find a route without dogs.  The bad thing is that may not work since a lot of dogs are not on leashes or fenced up and the ones that are fenced up can easily jump the fence.  I've had dogs come at me from 2 blocks away.

If mace was less expensive I would carry and use it each time I ran.

While I was running I had my running app going.  It tracked my route and kept track of my pace and my mileage.  I ran 1.25 miles.  It says I burned 200 calories. 

When I got into the house I decided to do some research to see how many calories I need to burn to lose the weight I want to lose.

It was a little discouraging to see that you should not try to lose more than 2 pounds a week.  I also figured my BMR and how many calories I need to burn to lose the 2 pounds per week.

From the calculations I would have to stop eating completely and run 10 miles per day.  Maybe I figured that up wrong.  It was alarming to calculate how many calories I consume per day. 

Today was a light day and I consumed close to 2500 calories.  Most days I would not be surprised if my calorie intake was closer to 6000.  I didn't eat supper and I ate a light lunch.  Plus I drank water all day.  Water is my normal fluid choice.

I do eat breakfast every morning as that is supposed to start your metabolism process earlier.

If I run/walk 5 miles per day and watch my calorie intake so that I stay around 2500 calories I should be able lose 2 pounds per week.  That would be 8 pounds in 4 weeks.  That's a little shy of 10 or even 12 pounds.  With that much exercise my BMR should increase possibly help me get to my goal weight of 210 pounds in 4 weeks.

No Running this weekend

My inner thighs were missing skin on Saturday and I was still sore on Sunday so no running this weekend.  I got new boxer briefs that are a little tighter yesterday so now hopefully I don't have that problem any longer.

I downloaded a couple of running apps for my new iphone.  They are mainly to track my milage and my pace.  More for later than right now.  I'm still excited about using them.

This weekend I'm going to enter the 5K and play in a sand volleyball tournament.  I am not ready for a 5K but think I can beat my previous time.  Even if I walk half of it, it will still be good to get out and get the excersize.

I have 4 weeks to try to lose 12 pounds.  This is a pretty substantial goal.  I think it is doable, and I would love to see it work.  In order to do this I have to keep running and watch my eating. 

My weigh in this morning was exactly 222 pounds.  I am fluctuating by a couple pounds right now between 220 and 222. 

Running Again

Tonight I went running  I ate my steak, baked potato and salad.  I feel better about myself. 

My legs hurt, my inner thighs are close to bleeding, I'm not sure if I will be able to move in the morning. I feel better. 

Now I just need to keep it up. I ran in 100 degree heat. It has been pretty cool so far this year so it seemed really hot.  I was sweating profusely. Surely that will jump start the metabolism. 

I think I'll go running again tomorrow. 

Changing My Mindset To Get In Shape

I was tired again last night and did not go run or walk or bike or exercise.  I did decide to eat cereal instead of a steak and baked potato, but that didn't come close to filling me up so I had some fried jalepeno's, fried french fries, and a fried corn dog.  Oops!

I weighed myself again this morning and weighed 222.4 pounds.  I did flex my stomach muscles quite a bit throughout the evening yesterday.  Not sure if that helped.  I think there are some muscles left down there.  Their not visible any more.  Maybe I can lose weight by just thinking about losing weight and not doing anything about it.  I wish.

The time for excuses is over.  It's time to hammer down and get with the program.  This is the last week before the labor day 5K.  I've procrastinated the whole summer away. 

Tonight I am going to run.  I am going to drive to the track and run/walk at least 2 miles.  I should have more energy since I went to bed a couple hours earlier last night.  Part of my being tired is from eating unhealthy, not getting enough sleep, and not exercising. 

I will have my steak salad and baked potato tonight because I will have earned it. 

I'm ready for the sore muscle's and knee's that come with running.  I'm ready for the good feeling that I get from it to.  I know that if I start and do it for a while I will feel better and want to continue.  Getting in the right mindset is the hardest.  I've worked up to it, now I just need to take that first stride.

Bad Beat and Still Pulled Out a 3rd Place

This is the type of beats I am getting over and over as I get into or close to the money in tournaments.  All in on the turn and river brings the nasty.

villain 1 Posts Ante 1000.00
villain 2 Posts Ante 1000.00
hero Posts Ante 1000.00
villain 3 Posts Ante 1000.00
villain 4 Posts Ante 1000.00
villain 4 Posts SB 5000.00
villain 1 Posts BB 10000.00
villain 2 Folds
hero Raised to 32500.00
villain 3 Folds
villain 4 Folds
villain 1 Calls 22500.00
villain 1 Checks
hero Bets 75000.00
villain 1 Calls 75000.00
villain 1 Checks
hero All In 145333.00
villain 1 All In 59054.00
villain 1 Shows Qh,9d
hero Shows Ad,Ah
villain 1 Won 343108.00 from Pot 1 with Queen High Straight
hero Won 86279.00 from Pot 2 with Pair of Aces

I ended up coming back from this and continued on to take 3rd in a 1.10 500.00 guaranteed game for 66.87.  I lost another 1.10 game, a 1.10 rebuy game that I added onto and a 3.30 game.

I'm happy with my results and am going to reward myself with going to bed early.

Final Tables - This Is What I Play For

My body was aching all day at work yesterday.  My back felt scrunched and all of my joints felt swollen and irritated.  By the time I got home all I wanted to do was kick back the recliner and not move.

That's not what happened however.  Instead I played with the baby until my wife got home.  Then we sat around playing on iphones for a little bit while the baby crawled back and forth between us.  After an hour of relaxing on the couch I got up to grill some pork steaks.

After supper I hit the recliner and found a few tournaments to get into.  I got in the 3.30 PL HO game, a 5.50 Holdem tournament, a 5.50 7 card stud tournament and a 3.30 rebuy tournament. 

The 5.50 holdem game was my first loss.  The other 3 games were going well and it was looking to be a late night again.  I had accidentally gotten in the stud game thinking it was a holdem game.  I started out in fire in it maintaining a top 5 stack until we reached the final table.  I got majorly sucked out on twice by the same player calling down bets until the last card when he would hit just enough to beat me.  I finished 6th in that game for a little more than double my entry.  I should have won that game.

In the 3.30 rebuy game I could never get anything going.  I was winning enough pots to keep me alive but when we got down to 3 left to the money I was severely short stacked with 4 bb's.  The bb was to me next so when I saw KQ suited I thought there wouldn't be a better time to shove.  Big blind had KK and knocked me out 3 from the money.  It was 22.00 just to make it to the money.  I don't know if I would have made it had I waited any longer, I probably would have.

The 3.30 PL HO was good to me again.  I managed to sneak into the money and make it all the way to 4th place before I busted out. 

It wasn't a real profitable night as I only made 4.00.  A little deeper run in any of the tournaments would have helped out tremendously. 

Weight Loss Time

Yesterday I weighed in on the scale at home to see what my actual weight was.  I was guessing about 222.  I had been hovering around the 220 mark for about a year after I had dropped 25 pounds a couple summers ago.  I was happy to see I was not too far off the mark at 223.6 pounds.  That's still 17 pounds from where I had been 2 years ago. 

It's time to get active again to get fit.  There are a couple reasons for this.  First, Grrouchie suggested a friendly competition to see who could get smaller by the time I leave for Vegas.  As a gambler I feel compelled to win this one.  He has the motivation and the fact that he has been doing this for a while going for him.

I will just be starting out and need to dig down deep for motivation.  I feel so tired when I get off from work, that I don't want to move.  In the morning I am getting kids ready. 

I need to find a route to run that dogs will not bite me.  I have been down several different roads in the evening and every time I have had a dog run up to me aggressively.  The high school track is nice but I don't like to drive to go run.  I would like to take off and end at the house.

The second reason I am wanting to get in shape is to run in the labor day 5K in town.  I have to beat my previous time from 2 years ago.  I ran all summer preparing last time but ended up running the entire thing with my wife.  This time I will run to beat my previous time. 

My ultimate goal is to lose 13.6 pounds by October 1st.  That's almost 3 pounds a week.  If I hit it hard I should be able to drop 6 in the first week and 1.9 pounds each of the following weeks.   I am planning on achieving this by running and cutting down on my food intake as well as cutting back on the beer. 

I'm going to be sore the first few days as I am completely out of shape.  If I get down to 210 I will be the lightest I have been in years.

Feeling the Poker Flame Creeping Back

Last night we went out to eat at a Chinese Restaurant out of town after we did some grocery shopping.  When we got back I noticed that the neighbor had finished mowing our yard.  I had started the night before.  It was very nice of him, but I was concerned as he has been running a high blood pressure and probably should not have gone out of his way to help us like that.

He hasn't mowed in a lot of years and mowed his yard a couple times in the last few weeks.  I think he really enjoys it.  He has done some work to my lawn mower lately as well. 

After we got settled in for the evening I loaded several tournaments.  I didn't have a burning desire to play, but I figured I might as well give it a try. 

Once again I called an all in with the best starting hand to lose and get knocked out of a 5.50 game.  I re-entered which I usually don't do.  The very next hand I had 99 and went all in myself to get called by a K2.  What, a K2 for 3/4 of your stack.  How do they not call when I have an AA or a KK?  How are they still in the game close to an hour in.  He catches his K of course and I do not re-enter again.  I'm a little bit disgusted at this point

I considered calling it a night but I found 4 tournaments I could get into still.  There was a 5.50 deep stack turbo with over 300 registered, a 2.20 knockout, a freeroll, and a 3.30 badugi tournament.

I started out well in all of them and realized I was going to have a late night of poker.  The freeeroll was the first loss as I was playing kinda crazy in that.  The rest of the games kept going for the next couple hours.  I had 7 knockouts in the 2.20 game and ended up going out just inside the money bubble when I had AK and called all in against a super aggressive player.  His 93o held.  I had a large enough stack that I did not need to call him.  It should have been free chips and a trip to the final table.  Instead the donktard strikes again.

In the 5.50 game I held in the top 10 for most of the tournament until we got close to the money bubble.  The blinds were going up ridiculously fast and soon I was in all in or fold mode.  I finally got a hand to push with, AJ, unfortunately the blind woke up with KK.  He spiked an additional K on the flop.  The turn gave me a flush opportunity but the river said "BRICK".  I had gotten to the second pay stage for 11.00.  I needed a good run in at that point to have a chance to make any kind of money at this tournament.

In the badugi tournament, I hovered in the top 4 until there were 8 of us left.  Top 4 got paid.  First was looking pretty nice.  With 8 left I went all in against a player drawing 2 with a 10 high badugi.  He was making that call whether he was still drawing or not.  This time he had that miracle draw and stood the next 2 draws with a 9 high badugi.  That put me down with the short stacks.  Not long after I had a J high badugi and went all in and stood all three draws against another player that stood all 3 draws.  He had a J high badugi as well with a better 2nd low.

At the end of the night, I was exactly break even for the night.  Try again next time.

I have a few wishes that would help me to make more money.  I wish the payout structures were better on carbon.  I wish they would eliminate the re-entry.  If people want to re-enter they should play a rebuy tournament.  I wish there were more better structured tournaments.  I wish there were a few more entrants in the well structured events.  I wish they would mimick poker stars.

If I play a little bigger, it opens up quite a few better structured tournaments, with a little larger field.  Some of those are not re-entry and even the ones that are, people are not re-entering as often, or playing it like a rebuy tournament.  I will just have to live with the payout structures and make the final tables more often.

I feel a little bit less burned out with a couple semi-deep runs.  Now I feel like I need to get back to those final tables.  That's what gets me fired up.  The thought of reaching those final tables.

Feeling Burned Out on Poker

The boys are at my parents this week.  We still have the baby, so we are still limited on what we can do.  The boys are actually easy to take care of now, and here we are with a little girl that needs constant eyes on her. 

It would be nice to sneak out for a dinner somewhere while the boys are out.  I cooked a full meal last night and it just seemed wierd to be cooking a meal without them there to eat it.

This would be a great week to get in a load of poker.  I'm just not feeling it.  I played a little last night and couldn't get into the games at all.  Should I go to see a doctor?  This isn't normal.  I have had a craving to play for the past however many years.  Now I have no idea what I want to do.  Poker is what I do.  It's been my past time since 2004. 

I don't want to be burned out.  I was rocking the tables before we went on vacation.  I was finally getting somewhere.  If I'm not feeling it, I can't play.  I have to be ready to sit there for hours on the same game and if I can't do that I'll just be giving money away.

Goals keep me focused and playing hard.  I don't have any goals right now.  Studying keeps my mind open and keeps me wanting to try new things.  I have a new cardplayer magazine I haven't touched yet.  It may be time to read that until I get that fire burning again.

Maybe it's my new position.  Maybe I have finally gotten to a comfort zone in my financial needs.  If so I better find something to do before I drive my wife nuts. 

More than likely it's going to be a short phase.  I bet when I put together a plan and start reading some card player, I will be back to wanting to play as much as I can again.

I can still feel a little burning deep down.  It's just not raging out of control like it usually is.

Pop's

This weekend I went down to OKC for some fun. We played cards and drank Friday night. Saturday we had a garage sale. I bought a pair of golf shoes at another garage sale for 10.00 and sold them for 15 at Mizike's house. 

After the garage sale we ate at a Mongolian resteraunt then went to the casino where the slots had their way with me. 

That night we took it easy and I played on my new phone. 

Sunday we went out to eat at pop's on Route 66. They have hundreds of flavors of soda. I got a blueberry soda with lunch. That's all I can think of now it was so good. 

I forgot today was Monday after I got home from the eye doctor and missed my local game. I programmed it in the phone so I don't forget again. 

All In Flush Draws

Last night I was overanxious again and lost 3 tournaments without having a chance. 

Today I got my IPhone in.  Tonight I played with it for most of the night getting it set up, installing apps, and figuring out how to use a touch screen phone.  It's quite a change to go from a flip top to this.  Now I don't have to have so many devices.  I will have them all in one, a camera, gps, phone, internet.  It's a big change.

After I ran down the battery and had to put the phone on the charger, I got around to playing a tournament.  The only thing I could get into was a 2.20 knockout.  I ran well and took out 7 players.  My luck ran out once we got into the money.  I lost a few races and finally lost with trips to a flush.  It burns me how much I lose to caught flushes.  '

If a player bets big all in against me with a flush draw, and I call, they have won 100% of the time the last 2 days.  I know, I know, its only like 10 times out of a huge sample.  It still gets to me.

Even with losing those hands I have still managed to make a profit the last few days.  The all in flush catches are the main hand I am losing big to.  If I win a few of these I will be doing even better.

Crying River Calls Cost Me

Last night I got online to play poker for the first time in over a week.  I started out rusty, wanting to call down every hand that beat me in full table NL.  I was losing money over and over.  As I continued to play I started to slow down and get a little self control.  I started to do o.k. on a couple tables.  I put a couple people to the test for most or all of their chips a couple times when there were 2 cards to a flush on the board.  They called every time and would get there, every time.  It was kind of sickening.  I decided, since it was working for them I would try.  It didn't work for me.

I eventually climbed up a little from the deep hole I dug myself into at the beginning of the night on NL.  I decided to play 1 2.20 super turbo sng before I called it a night.  I won it and ended up making a little profit for the night.

I'm looking forward to playing tournaments some more.  Last night I got home late and missed out on all the good tournaments.  Tonight I will be getting back in the scene. 

While I was playing last night I started watching Breaking Bad on Netflix.  I was hooked after the first episode.  It got a little slow on the 3rd episode but by the 4th episode I wanted to keep watching instead of go to bed.  I decided I would wait until this weekend and do a Breaking Bad/poker marathon.

Vegas Trip Booked

Maybe I was too anxious to play.  Maybe it just wasn't my night.  I made it from 12 players down to 6 before I busted out of the tournament with A3 suited in the BB losing to K10o as he spiked a 9 on the river to get a straight.  I had enough chips to cover the small blind and ante the next hand if I didn't want to call all in with that hand.

The blinds increased rapidly after the first 2 hours.  With the ante's and blinds out there you can triple up just by winning a hand.  Everybody plays short stack at that point and it's not a long waiting game for players to go out and the others to reach the money with blind jumps from 200-400 before the break to 500-1000, then 1000-2000 with a 500 chip ante.  Starting stack was 5000. 

You have time to play early on, but really need to be trying to get 1 or 2 people's stacks in order to play stay alive longer after the break. 

The first couple of weeks I played it was a small game with 6 - 8 players.  It is getting bigger now and will take a little more strategy to win, as well as some good cards. 

I'm starting to figure out each players styles and have been playing really loose myself which should work out well for me the next couple of weeks when I start to use that against several of the players who have noticed.

After the game, I got home and booked my flight and hotel at the Riviera in Las Vegas, Oct 2nd - 6th.  I have gotten in my Southwest Credit Card and have started using that so that I can get my free rewads points towards several free flights to Las Vegas.  I booked my trip on the card and upgraded my antiquated flip top cell phone to an I phone 5 on the card.  We also ordered my wifes contacts on the card.  We are 1/3 of the way to getting our 3000.00 spent in the first day of a 3 month period. 

We were waiting to purchase these until we got the card.  They were items we were going to get anyway. 

Back and Ready to Play

We are now back from vacation.  It was a relaxing week with hardly any electronics.  I did take my tablet to read and play a couple games on but it messed up part way through the week so I really didn't have any electronics the latter part of the week. 

It rained a lot while we were in the mountains, but we still got quite a bit of hiking, driving and fishing in.  I caught rainbow trout, brookies, and brown trout on the fly rod.  We also drove up a mountain pass that was 4 wheel drive only access.  I didn't need 4 wheel drive on the side we came up but the other side it sounded like I may have needed it. 

My Explorer was good and dirty when we left the mountains.  Mainly due to the road our cabin was on. 

During the rainy part of the day I took naps and played cards.  We taught the kids to play kings in the corner, pass the trash and war.  We played pinochle with my parents while the kids watched t.v. when the baby was asleep.

On the way home I about tried to avoid the storm below as my truck was good and dirty and I didn't want it washed off right away.  The mud formed a good pattern.

We drove right into the core of the storm and within seconds everybody was pulling off the interstate.  Hail, high winds and massive amounts of rain were coming down. 

We pulled up the storm on the iPhone and saw that the storm was moving slowly right along interstate away from us.  If we didn't get through it we would be following it at 10 mph for the next forever.

We started to drive through it again.  I told the kids to duck towards the middle of the vehicle as I thought we were going to lose windows to the hail.  The wind was blowing hard under the cell.  It had to be blowing close to 80 mph to 100 mph.  The grass was laid flat and you couldn't see hardly anything.  Hail stones were slamming into the windshield and busting apart so fast that the wipers were shoving mounds of ice off the windshield.  It felt like we were on the outer perimeter of a tornado.  The radar didn't even show red.

The road was flooding as we drove through, then all of a sudden we could see the other side.  The rain was coming down all nice.  I told mom that we had just gotten through the power wash and was now in the no spot rinse cycle.

When we finally got to a stopping point I saw that the hail stones did not dent the vehicle but had gouged through the paint and pitted my windshield in several places.  It must have been some jagged hail.

Tonight I get into poker full steam again with a local game.  It was a nice break but I'm ready to play again. 

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Time To Unplug

This was my last night before vacation to play some poker.  First I had to get things ready to take to the mountains.  Then we had cake and ice cream for my birthday. 

After that I had a little time to play poker.  I was a little late for some of my games but did get in a 2.20 knockout.  I also loaded 5 full ring NL tables.  I knocked 1 person out of the tournament and finished in the money for another 2.29.  The biggest part of the night was that I played solid NL poker.  I ended ahead 5.00 in those games. 

From what I saw tonight they are so much better than 6 max.  It did help I got a triple up when I flopped Quad 9's and had 2 players betting into me.  They both caught their flush and straight on the river. 

To top off a good night I pulled up the PL HO game to see how that was going and low and behold, who is at the final table?  The one and only - FLUSHHDRAW.  It was great to see him take a 2nd.

Yesterday evening I got an early birthday present.  My daughter who is 5 months old and crawling already, decided she was going to stand up on her own.  She pulled herself up on our ottoman and was standing there long enough for us to snap a couple of pictures.  My boys were really excited to witness it.  She crashed down after a minute but was back up again before long. 

This will be my last post for a while, as it is now vacation time.  We won't have internet where we are going.

Ran Out of Oomph

Tonight I should have been packing for vacation but poker pulled me in again.  I loaded up 4 tournaments, a 2.20 badugi, the 2.20 100.00 guaranteed, the 3.30 PL HO, and a 5.50 1000.00 guaranteed.

I was running o.k. in all but the badugi tournament.  I soon lost that, and eventually got taken out in the 5.50 game.

I had a good run in the 3.30 game and the 100.00 guaranteed, finishing 4th in the 3.30 for 16.00 and 2nd in the 100.00 guaranteed for 28.00.  I started getting tired in the 100.00 guaranteed and pulled off a masterfull bluff on a 3 diamond board.  I bet the flop turn and put him all in as a 4th diamond fell on the river.  He must have been done because he called the last half of his stack with a mid pair with no diamonds.

After that I started to rebuild my stack when the board flopped 3 spades out on the flop.  I had Ko10s.  I thought about the hand earlier and bet pot.  He went all in this time.  I recklessly called.  He showed As Rag.  An ace hit on the flop and the game was over.  He knew how I played almost the exact same hand earlier and knew I would bite.  I should have been thinking more clearly and I could have avoided that situation.  I guess I ran out of oomph and was done.

New Month - Last Month Wasn't Bad

It's a new month.  Last month went o.k. with poker.  I took a promotion at work so I didn't get to play a lot and I think that actually helped me out. 

This month I will start out really slow.  I usually get killed on my first session of a new month so I will do a small session tonight so I don't get killed.

This is one of the first months in a long time, that I don't have a plan of attack on the poker games.  I did well last month on hyper turbo's, and tournaments.  Hyper turbo's are hyper swingy and I'm not a big fan.  They can be fun to dabble in once in a while, but that's not my game.  The knockout tournaments have treated me well.  I must be figuring out how to play them. 

The badugi tournament is fun, but I have not cashed in it yet.  I have came close a couple times.  I may continue to try that one a few more times. 

I am going to take it easy again this month.  I am starting out with a vacation to the Rocky Mountains for a week.  I won't have any internet access the next week, so no poker.

When I get back I will be busy with work again.

When I do play, these are the tournaments I will be looking to get into:

2.20 100.00 guaranteed
2.20 knockout
3.30 PL HO
1.10 1500 guaranteed rebuy
2.20 PL Badugi
5.50 Sunday Tournament

I still have a 33.00 coupon and a 215.00 coupon that I may try to use sometime this month.