Full weekend

Friday night I got permission to go play at a local game that I had been invited.  It was a rebuy tournament for the first 2 hours.  I was playing tight but got outdrawn on the river to get busted out for a lot of chips at the end of the rebuy period.  I bought back in but busted shortly after break.  My live poker skills have diminished terribly. 

Saturday we had our nephews 3rd and 4th grade football game to go watch an hour and a half away.  On the way home we saw several tarantula crossing the road.  The first one I saw was about the same size as my hand. 

We stopped by some friends house out in the country.  It was a really nice place and had a great outdoor area with lots of decking and a pool.  We sat around visiting there while the boys got to ride a 4 wheeler and pet some horses. 

We needed to get back to town as our friends from OKC were coming up for the fundraiser dinner that evening.  We got back right after they had arrived.  Everybody was a little tired so we sat around until it was time to get ready for the dinner.  We were all pretty pumped about the night out without the kids, a steak dinner and some alcohol.

They had an auction after the dinner.  Everything was selling well above regular price, and it was fun watching people bid each other up.  Towards the end of the auction they brought out plates of cooked steaks for auction.  One of our party was making fun, saying that they are getting a little crazy if they are selling already cooked steaks.  My wife said that means it's almost time to go.  She raised her arm and said woo hoo.  The auctioneer pointed in our direction and said SOLD!  At this point my buddy is freaking out.  He doesn't know what his wife just bought or for how much.  He just knows that everything has been going extremely high.  When they told him he paid 25.00 for a plate of ribeye's he was quite relieved.  It was our joke of the night.

Later at the bar, his wife was getting a little wild and kept raising her arm.  There was a bell right above her.  If you ring the bell, it symbolizes that you buy the whole bar a round of drinks.  She got lucky this time and missed the bell.  It was quite a night.

On Sunday, I took a 5 hour nap.  The last week had caught up with me.  When I woke up, I logged into some tournaments.  After a lot of play I was bubble boy in 3 different tournaments.  It was pretty ridiculous.  The last 1 I was sitting in 6th with 13 left, and 11 getting paid.  I had KK and called all in on a J high flop.  The other guy had QQ and hit a Q on the river.  I usually fold hands like this preflop near the bubble because I lose there 99% of the time.

 

Pre-Dinner

Tarantula Crossing the Road

Exhausted

Last night was one of those nights you just put behind you and move on.  After working late trying to get way too much accomplished at work, I was exhausted.  My wife was out of town picking up diapers and formula, so I lay on the bed and tried to get a game of FL Badugi going. 

There was nobody joining so I fired up a game of Omaha Hi/Low.  My lows would not get there and my hi's kept getting drawn out on.  It wasn't pretty.

I am taking a break from tournaments for a while.  They take a lot of time, and I have been feeling too tired to put that much time in this week.

My wife brought home Chinese.  It's a treat since we have to go 25 miles to get it.  We ate and decided to go to bed early.  I haven't slept well the last couple nights.  My shoulder has been hurting from playing a volleyball tournament over labor day weekend.  Instead of going to sleep I decided to see if I could manage to win back any of the money I lost in Omaha, playing NL Holdem.  I loaded up multiple tables and got to work. 

In an hour and a half I had AA once, and ran 2 full houses into 4 of a kinds.  At the end I did get some money back, a total of 26 cents.  I'll take it.  It was all thanks to a last minute heater I went on.  I was glad i played out until the blinds.

This weekend we have some friends coming up to attend a fundraiser dinner with us.  The house is a little bit of a mess and we have a lot of cleaning to do by Saturday.  There's an overwhelming amount to do at work as well.  I stay busy.

Wednesday Weigh In #5 - Las Vegas In 1 Week

This last week I slipped a few times with some larger meals, donuts, snacks, and lack of exercise.  That's probably why, when I stepped on the scale this morning, it said 213.8 instead of 212.

With one week left, I am going to push hard to try to reach my goal of 210 pounds.  It hasn't been too hard getting to this point, just a little change in eating and drinking habits, some studying on weight loss, and a little more execise. 

I have noticed a little change.  Mainly in the mid section of the body.  My handles are dissapearing.  Nice!  I can look straight down and see my feet.  Whhhaat?  My step is a little lighter and my back hurts a little less.  I feel a little more energetic. 

I thought 210 would be my ideal weight for my 6'3" height.  Maybe if I was ripped.  It's pretty close.  I still feel like the belly sticks out a little too far.  I don't know that I'd want to get much below 190.  I look at some of my high school and college pictures and I was pretty scrawny.  I want to still be a little intimidating.

Next week at this time I will be in the air on my way to Las Vegas.  There is a lot to do at work so it will get here pretty fast.  I'm ready for the Vegas tourist lifestyle.  Gambling, poker, buffetts, drinking, wandering around and checking stuff out.  We don't have anything planned.  I am hoping to meet up with Grrouchie at some point during the trip. 

My other friend and his nephew will be arriving out there before I do.  They should have a shot poured for me by the time I get to the hotel and checked in. 

After the shot, it's downstairs to the poker area for a little poker play.  If they don't have a game going, I'm going to go find a game.  I want to start this trip off right.  The last couple of trips have involved very little poker.  It used to be all about the poker.  The last few times those pesky slots have been trying to take our money.  Darn them and their mini games. 

I would really like to get into a couple/few tournaments.  With the Wynn being fairly close I may try to get in some tournaments there.  Last time we were in town we tried to hit up some of our old smaller tournaments.  We would sit there and wait and the games would never take off.  I played 2 sessions of poker the whole trip.

Exciting times are ahead. 

The Poker Maximus Series Is Over - Time To Settle Back Into The Norm

The Poker Maximus Series is over.  This weekend was crazy with poker.  I played games that I hope I have a chance to take a shot at again sometime when my bankroll gets larger.

We went to the high school football game Friday night.  Our team lost but played well against a team that looked very good out on the field. 

Saturday I got up and started playing NL cash.  I had a pretty good run and felt confident that I would do well in tournaments the rest of the day.  I played a ton of tournaments.  It didn't go to great.  I only made 1 final table in the PL HO where I finished 2nd.  That still left me down for the day.  I got in another tournament and played some HU SNG's while I was playing it.  I got talked into playing at higher stakes than I should have, with a player that I kept beating.  When the dust settled I was up a couple hundred dollars after hours of playing.  I was in 1st in chips on the tournament, with 3 tables left.  I was the table bully, and was doing really well, until I fell asleep.  I finished in 14th place. 

Sunday was Main Event Day with 6 Main Events going on and the 4000.00 guaranteed game.  I might have pushed it too hard on Saturday, because I wasn't wanting to play too bad.  I still played.  I was doing o.k. in the 2.20 and 215.00 games.  I couldn't do anything in the others and busted out when the blinds got high enough I had to push and pray. 

I lost the 215.00 game when I took a chance and raised AK suited from early position.  I got 2 callers as usual for that table.  All low cards and 2 of my suit hit on the flop.  I pushed hoping to get the other 2 players out of the hand.  I got called by big blind who had QQ.  My A K or other suited card did not fall.

In the 2.20 game I got to rolling right after we got into the money.  I doubled up then doubled again right away.  I became 2nd big stack at the table.  Then I ran into the big stack with JJ.  He was directly to my left and would re-raise me every time I raised.  This time I shoved my stack.  He called with K 2.  The rest is history.

I played fairly solid in the Maximus Series and had some semi-deep runs.  I cashed in most of the Maximus tournaments up until the end.  The last 2 days were a little harsh.  Luckily I had bought into most of those games with tickets. 

Now that the series is over and I have taken my shots, I will settle down again for a while.  At least until next week when I leave for Las Vegas. 

It will be back to playing after 8:00 on the few games I can get into.  Back to familiar territory with familiar faces (avatar's), with some extra poker thrown in on the weekends when we aren't doing somehting else.

I Love A Rainy Day

There were clouds rolling in last night as I got off work.  The air temperature was dropping as the wind slowly died down.  We were planning on going to the Jr. High football game.  They had to reschedule due to the rain and lightning. 

I cooked supper, then played around with the kids for a little bit.  Around 8:00 I decided to see what was going on in the poker world.  There were a few tournaments I could still get in.  I also registered for a 10.00 NL cash game.  The 3.30 PL HO game was over as soon as I started.  I had to re enter and lost again just as quickly.  My hands just would not hold up.  I got in a 2.20 game.  I also got in a 5.50 game. 

We reached the money in the 2.20 rebuy game first.  I had a middle of the pack stack when I got pocket jacks.  The big stack called my 3 bet with an A5 and caught an ace on the flop.  I checked waiting on him to bet and then raised him trying to get him to go away.  He called.  We checked it down from there and I lost a large chunk of my stack.  The next hand I had AK and went all in.  I was called by QQ and eliminated in 14th place with one tournament remaining.

I was disappointed that I did not reach the final table after getting so close.

The 5.50 game had 15 minute blind levels so I was able to wait for opportunities to play.  I eventually made it into the money on that game as well.  As we worked up the pay scale, I was also increasing my stack.  When we got to the final 2 tables I was 9th in chips.  We got down to 12 and I was the 2nd lowest stack.  I could have skated into the final table but was hoping for a double up and a shot at the win for close to 400.00.  I ended up getting it all in pre-flop with 10 10 to the big stack's 9 9.  He ended up catching a straight to the 9 on the river eliminating me from my last hope of the night to make a final table.

On a night I wasn't going to play, I was able to make a few dollars.  It was nice to have a couple good runs.  I have the taste of 1st still in my mouth and as I got closer, I started salivating.  Then it was taken away.

200th Post!

This is my 200th post.  So far my poker adventure the last year has worked out.  I have learned a ton.  I still have tons to learn. 

This is what I have learned in the last year.  I suck at NL Cash.  My results are negative stellar.  I would love to be good and play somebody like me.  I am o.k. at SNG's.  It is not a very profitable game for me.  Tournaments have had the best results for me.  Breaking that down further, tournaments with long blind levels and deep stacks have shown the best results.

Over the year I have tried many things to help me to make a buck at online poker.  I paid for and downloaded poker tracker software.  I'd be lying if I said this did not help out a little.  Mainly to improve my play by seeing how others are seeing my play.  It helped my see what percentage certain hands were winning and losing and the amount I have won or lost with those hands.  It also helped me see that I do not belong at a NL cash tables, unless I'm just there to have some fun.

I tried Table Tracker out for a short time.  It wasn't a big help since there were so few tables to choose from in the first place. 

One thing that has helped out a lot is getting a subscription to Card Player Magazine.  There is a lot of technical writing in there that has helped me to improve my play and see why others have made the plays they have.  It's nice to get some new ideas once in a while from people who know what they are doing.

During this last year I lost rakeback on Carbon, and decided to switch to Lock to get rakeback.  It seemed like a sound decision and was working out really well.  I was getting rakeback, deposit bonuses, and cashing in on points.  In the course of a couple months I was building my bankroll quickly and looking to move up to play games I have never had the opportunity to before.  That all faded as I heard rumor they would not be doing cash outs any longer.  I hit the cashout button in August and it still has not processed.  I went back to Carbon as there are still players saying they can get money off there.  It just takes a long time. 

I took advantage of the deposit bonuses and attempted to grind enough hands at the lowest limit to get me to the maximum tier I could reach in a month.  The VIP points did not help my upside down graph that is supposed to show my earnings.  I decided to try something new.  I would just play for fun and not worry about making or losing money.  I got back into tournaments and SNG's and started making a profit for the 1st time in almost a year except for my stint playing on Lock.  My bankroll was growing again and I was playing the games I love. 

As the Maximus Series got closer, I decided to pre-register in a bunch of tournaments.  I told my wife that I would be disconnected for a few weeks from family activities on the days I played.  I had tried the rest of the year to play late in the evenings as it was getting close to the kids bedtime, so that I could still do family things.  This opened me up to play some longer blind level tournaments, that I felt that I could do some good at. 

On the first Sunday I ran well in all of my tournaments and finally cashed in the 4 digits.  The next couple days my streak stayed alive and I final tabled a few more tournaments, increasing my bankroll even more.

Since my winning streak I haven't had a lot of success.  I have made a few semi deep runs in tournaments to keep my bankroll even. 

I have considered withdrawing some of my roll.  It sounds like I may lose the bonus I have going now if I do so I will wait until I clear the bonus.  I am going to keep enough money on the site to play up to 5.50 tournaments and SNG's and 4.00 NL cash.  I know, I know, but I have to get better at cash sometime.  I have years of tournament experience and now I have close to a year of cash game experience.  One of these days it may start paying off.  Plus, I can play shorter sessions at cash, giving me more time to spend with my family. 

If it was all about poker, I'd be all about tournaments.  I'd lock myself it a padded room and play hour after hour.  Fortunately for me, I have already committed to having a family.  They have put up with an extraordinary amount of poker for the last year, quite ofter pulling me away from them.  It's impossible to balance the two.  I have to follow my dreams.  If I give up on them I will become a shell of a man.  I have had dreams fade away, this one has taken others over.  I may not be playing next year, I don't know.  I have taken year long breaks from it before.  It defines who I am now.  I'm a poker player - fisherman - husband - father - business professional - fun guy - etc.  Not necessarily in that order.  One of my dreams that I have fantasized over is for poker to provide some trips for me and my family to exotic locations around the world.  I understood then as I do now, that this may be years in the works.

When I hit 400 posts, I hope to look back and say that I'm glad I put all of this time and effort into this game.  Looking back 200 posts, I can say today, that I am glad I put all of this time and effort into this game. 

Wednesday Weigh in #4

After a week of not doing so well on my diet/excersize, I was happy to see that I am now down to 215.8 pounds.  With 2 weeks left to go I am still on track to reach 210 pounds.  I will have to do a little more than I did this week in order to get there, I feel.  I have changed my eating habits.  That is helping the most.  Last night I cooked my normal 3 cheeseburgers for supper.  When I got done with 1 I was full, so I put the rest in the refrigerator for later.  In months past, I would have at least ate 1 more just to eat. 

I thought hard about running last night.  After the day I had at work, I decided I was going to play some poker even though I had planned for a break for the night.  It helped me to get my mind off of work.  The kids were playing the xbox right next to me so I didn't get in any games that I would have to concentrate too hard on.  I played a bunch of 6 man super turbo's, heads up's, and finished the night with some cash games as my wife came in to watch T.V. with me after the kids were in bed. 

I started out losing, then losing, then losing some more in the sng's.  It was like the rest of my day.  I could get all my chips in with the best hand and see the runner runner flush coming.  Then it changed, just like that, along with my attitude.  I went on a winning streak.  I went from being quite a bit down to being up a little.  I thought about quitting at that point, but felt that I had been playing good all night, so I continued.  The streak continued and I had a good profit for the night.

In 2 weeks, I'll be leaving for Las Vegas.  Tonight I have a poker Maximus game, I have 2 on Saturday and 6 of the Main Events on Sunday.  We have quite a bit of football to watch on Thursday and Friday nights.  The weekend after this we have a dinner we are going to.  My schedule is booked.  I've got to keep myself busy.

The Brakes On The Van Didn't Need Changed

After all the delaying I have done the last several months I found out that the brakes on the van did not need changed.  Saturday morning I pulled the tire off the passenger side and there is more than half a brake pad.  I put the tire back on to check the other side and saw the same thing.

I thought it was strange that they should need to be changed so soon.  A rock must have gotten wedged in the brakes making that horrible squeaking sound a while back.

Friday night I goofed around and played a few sng's and tournaments with a friend.  Neither of us had any luck.  I was playing a poker maximus PL Omaha game and finished 31st in that as one guy got extremely lucky to catch the 2 cards he needed to beat me on the turn and river.  It seemed like I was going to easily make the final table.  I had the made hand, but then the absolutely horrible play of this guy takes me out.  Boo!

I had a couple other decent runs in Maximus games this weekend including a 36th place in a 2.20 holdem game. 

I barely played Saturday, but on Sunday I played quite a few games.  I started out well in several of them then would run into some ridiculous play that would hit by a big stack at my table playing a hand like 4 6, calling my re-raise with AA and him catching a 4 4 6 on the flop.  Wow!

Tilt may have caused me to quick exit out of a couple of games.  NL cash games were going well and I was up 23.00 in those at the end of the night.  I had one decent run in a Maximus game at the end of the night, to break even for the weekend.

I am thinking that where I play in the house is affecting how I play.  I heard that it takes 25 minutes once you are distracted to get back to the concentration level you were at before you were distracted.  My big wins have came when I was playing at the back of the house away from any noises.  I felt fully focused and was able to play well.  This weekend I played in the front of the house and even though I had the door closed I had a couple people come in to get something.  On top of that I could hear the doors opening and closing and crying and talking. 

Since I didn't have much luck on the tables last night I was able to get to bed early.  There's always a silver lining.

This week I don't have a lot of games scheduled for the Maximus Series until the weekend.  I will probably just play Wednesday night and spend the rest of the evenings with the family. 

The Brakes On The Van Need Changed

There was a Junior High football game last night.  My nephew is the starting quarterback for the team so I went to watch him and the team play.  It is fun watching them as they play together well.  It was out of town and was almost 9:00 by the time we got back.

We got the kids ready for bed, then I fired up some poker.  I was still able to get in the 1.10 Maximus game, it had an hour of late registration left.  There were some big stacks already when I registered.  I was able to double up pretty quickly.  About an hour and a half later we were getting close to the money bubble.  I had AKo and called a raise from early position.  They checked on a 9 high flop and I pushed.  They called with a set of 9's.  I was played.  It was mainly due to my late entry and trying to build my stack.  I still had a ton of play left with the long blind levels and should have played the hand differently.

While I was playing that game I also loaded up some NL cash.  I was owned in those as well.  Every decent starting hand I had was called down with crap and then they caught.  I was down a few buy ins in cash.  I moved to a different level and played for slightly higher stakes.  The hands I have gotten the rest of the week started coming and I was able to clean house for a few rounds. 

At the end of the night I was up 1.00.  I WIN!  The streak continues.

This weekend I am going to play all weekend and cap the weekend with an entry to a 215.00 game.  I have a couple of tickets for these that need to be used before I lose them.  With the way I have been running this seems like the best time to use one of them.

First thing tomorrow, I am going to change the brakes on the van to get that out of the way.  Then I'm going to run.  I haven't ran in quite a while.  I have had a couple opportunities to go after dark.  For some reason I'm scared to run at night.  Maybe its because the deer tried to jump on me or the dogs have tried to attack me.  It just feels all wrong.

I'm getting excited about our upcoming Vegas trip.  Wait.  I've been excited about this trip all along.  It has been a long wait.  The Maximus Series is taking a little bit of sting out of it.  With less than 3 weeks, I feel like it will be here in no time.

Magical Week Of Poker

Last night I was going to change the brakes on the van and go for a run.  Once I got home I got my tools ready to change the brakes, then went in to log off my Maximus game I had registered for.  It was a 2.20 game with 10 minute blind levels and 7500.00 guaranteed.  It was too good of a game to pass up. 

My wife said that I can change the brakes this weekend if I want so I left the game pulled up and found a few others to get into as well. 

The other games sucked.  I lost with trip aces on the flop in one, and played pretty horrid in the others losing in them shortly after.  I was still doing o.k. in the Maximus game, and had time to get in another set of tournaments.  I loaded 2 more tournaments and 3 NL cash games.

By this point I had around 30.00 invested in tournaments.  The cash games went really good and I got up by 3.00 on each of the tables after a couple hours of play.  I was getting fairly deep in a couple tournaments so I logged off those.  Once I got into the money on the Maximus game I struggled just to stay in the game and work up the ranks to get a better payout.  I finally went out in 78th place to break even for the night.  

That left me with the 5.50 500.00 guaranteed game remaining.  There were 30 of us left and 17 got paid.  I had gotten lucky against the big stack and caught a full house against his 3 of a kind to give put me in the top 3.  When we got to 3 tables I had figured out the big stack and was adding quite a few chips to my stack from him.  He was taking them just as fast from all the other players.

We reached the final 2 tables and he got moved to the other table.  I watched as a player on the other table worked him down and took him out.  I finally had playing room on my table and went to work building my stack.  I was in 1st when we reached the final table. 

I maintained my stack and took a couple shots at the short stacks throughout the final table.  When we got to 4 left I called an all in from the short stack with A8c.  He had A10o.  He doubled through me.  The next hand he doubled again through the new big stack.  He now had a monster chip lead.  Play didn't last long for the other 2 at the table.  We were heads up.  I had 40,000 chips to his 350,000 chips.  I was determined that I could come back from that as I was still sitting with 20 bb's. 

We battled back and forth and I had worked up close to 100,000 chips when he raised his normal raise.  I had 65o and thought if I hit with it, it would be disguised well enough to take some more chips, so I called.  The flop was 2 3 4 rainbow.  I checked and he led out a fairly large bet.  I went all in.  He called and had 4 2.  A 4 fell on the turn and put me out in 2nd place.

The last 4 times I have played, I have finished 1st or 2nd in a tournament. 

Wednesday Weigh In #3

Lately I have been lazy about getting out and running or walking.  I need to get on the ball as I only have 3 weeks left to reach my goal of 210 pounds.  I have been eating a lot better most of the time, watching my calorie intake and trying to eat more proteins and fiber.  I'm also trying to eat early in the morning to start my metabolism.  Exercise along with what I am doing would really be helpful.

When I stepped on the scale this morning I weighed in at 217.4 pounds.  I have lost around 5 pounds and if I keep going at this rate 2.5 pounds a week I will get to where I want to my goal weight. 

At times I feel hungry, but not like at first.  I was trying to cut too many calories out at first.  I wasn't getting enough calories.  Now I'm trying to eat right at 1750 calories throughout the day.  I will be able to eat a little more than that if I get some running or walking in, in the evenings.  Tonight I am unregistering from the Poker Maximus Game I am registered in so that I can work on the brakes on the Van as well as go for a walk or a jog with the family. 

Last night I got in 4 games.  The 3.30 PL HO, a 2.20 500.00 Guaranteed Rebuy, the 1500.00 Guaranteed 1.10 rebuy, and a Poker Maximus 11.00 event.

I lost the 3.30 PL HO before we even reached the Omaha portion when my Jacks couldn't hold up on the river when the other player caught a 2nd pair.  I ran for a few hours in the Poker Maximus Game.  One player was playing very aggressive.  I had AK and decided to put him to the test.  He passed the test with pocket Q's.  I didn't improve and my stack was cut down dramatically.  I'm not sure what I went out on, but we weren't even past the 3 1/2 hour re-entry mark. 

In the 1.10 event I ran well until we were getting close to the money.  I ended up losing with my KK to an AJ in an all in situation.  The 2.20 rebuy event was my bread and butter.  The 10 minute levels gave me time to work some magic and wait on better spots to play if I needed to.  When we broke the money bubble I was sitting in the top 6.  When we made the final table I was 7th.  I went card dead a little before the final table and was waiting on a hand.  The blinds jumped up a couple notches taking me from 40 BB's down to 10 BB's.  Eventually I was down to 5 BB's with 6 left and had to make a move if I wanted to stay in the game.  I had A8, first to act, and went all in against the other 2 shorter stacks.  They were double my stack.  The BB called and had QQ.  An 8 on the river and the flop kept me alive.  The next hand I had KK and called an all in to double up again.  I moved from last to 2nd in 2 hands. 

There was one player on the table that had over 200,000 chips.  I was around 90,000.  He was two to my left the final 3 tables and it was difficult to get around him to play the rest of the table.  One by one the other players would get shorter stacked then go out.  I tried to maintain my stack but didn't have the opportunity to build it without risking it all.

At heads up big stack had a 4 to 1 chip lead on me.  We had a good battle for quite a while.  I was about to catch up to him when I got pocket 7's.  He raised and I 3 bet.  He went all in.  I called.  He had AK and caught AAK on the flop turn and river.  I was pleased with a 2nd place finish. 

Now I Have Options

After winning last night I have been doing some thinking on what to do with the money.  Should I leave it on the site and play larger buy in games?  Should I cash out a portion and put it in my poker fund and still play larger buy in games, and add it back to the site if I need it.? Should I cash out most of it and keep playing the same limits?

The good thing is I have options.  I have just moved up to playing 3.00 and 5.00 tournaments and am still getting my feet wet in those.  I will probably continue playing at this level.  I may throw an 11.00 tournament in every once in a while.  I am thinking I will leave around 110 buy ins online for 5.50 tournaments and put the rest in my poker fund. 

It will take a while to get the money.  I'm still waiting on my cash out from Lock.  It shows that it is processed finally in the cashier window.  I may get a check from them after all.  I don't mind waiting a few months for the money.

I will feel more secure not having it all online.  If I want to play bigger later on, I can add some of it back to my account. 

I had registered for a 11.00 Poker Maximus Game for tonight.  I decided to play the local game instead and unregistered.  I used that money to register in 2 5.00 tournaments yesterday.  I'm glad I did as 1 was the win and the other got me 48.00 for a 19th place finish.  I also cashed in the 1.10 and 2.20 Maximus games.  It was a great day.

Tonight I will play the local game.  I can get to bed a little earlier tonight and hopefully get a run in.  I'm tired of not eating everything I want to eat.  If I run more I can eat more and still lose weight. 

With the day I had yesterday, I cannot wait to get back online and play some more deep stack long blind level tournaments.  I was able to stay in the zone the whole day.  I was playing the players.  I had several people talking poorly about how I played.  More people started coming after me, allowing me to open my range, then I tightened it back up and took person after person out.  Their trash talking back fired on them big time. 

In the game I won the players were all friendly.  It made the game so much more fun.

When I went out in 19th place in the 2.5K guaranteed I thought that was my one shot for the day at a deep run.  I played a hand I shouldn't have and got busted out of the tournament way before I should have went out.  It should have been an easy road to the final table from there.  Of course losing there gave me more motivation to reach a final table on another game.

Big Win

Friday night we traveled to the high school football game over an hour away. The boys played well and won. 

Saturday we traveled over an hour away to a pee wee league football game. 

The boys did well there too. My nephew was the star of the game with his 360 spin breakaway touchdown run. 

Afterwards my wife wanted to come home. I was able to play poker all afternoon. I broke even for the day. 

Today we Had church.  Afterwards I cooked lunch then get ready for the poker Maximus series. I finished 90th in the first Maximus one dollar event for 35.00. 

I was also registered in a couple five dollar events.  I placed in the money in one of those as well. 

And the other one I stayed in the top 20 the length of the tournament. It got down to the top five and I was still running like a king. I ended up winning it for 1400.00. There's nothing like a 1500.00 day.  I still feel like I'm dreaming. 

Looking Forward to Poker Maximus Series Starting This Weekend

We went to the Junior High football game in town last night.  The baby was a mess and the boys were pretty good, considering they are boys.  They got their showers last night.  I was a little more prepared this morning, but still could not get out of the house when I wanted to. 

The baby woke up in the middle of the night and so did I.  I'm glad she only wanted a bottle because that's all I was good for. 

I'm ready for my wife to get back home.  I hope she had a good time when she wasn't in seminar's.  She deserves it.  She will get to pull the single Mom thing when I go to Vegas. 

By the time I got back from the football game, got the baby fed, boys showered and baby to bed, there was very little time left for poker before I needed to get to bed myself.  I got in 1 6 man 5.50 hyper turbo SNG.  The regulars filled the rest of the table as they keep playing to get higher on the leader board.  I was happy about that.  The regulars sometimes get complacent as the day wears on and I was able to take advantage of that.  I ended up taking every person at the table out to win the SNG. 

We have a High School football game out of town tonight, then a young kids football game out of town on Saturday.  I may get to play some tournaments Saturday evening.  Sunday the Poker Maximus series begins on Carbon.  I will get to play some long blind level, deep stack poker with larger fields almost daily for a couple weeks.

Last night I loaded a little money onto America's Cardroom.  I checked out their tournament lobby and liked their normal length of blind levels.  If I remember right the blinds were between 12 to 15 minutes. 

The Single Dad Chronicle's

Man was I thinking this week was going to be tough.  My wife is out of town and I have a 7 year old a 5 year old and a baby that I have to be responsible for all by myself.  I know I'm spoiled by everything my wife does with the kids and the housework.  That's all being reinforced this week.

The house needs cleaned the dishes need done.  It looks like a Kansas Tornado hit the inside of the house.

This week kind of reminds me of Big Daddy.  The kids have had run of the house deciding what to eat and what to do for fun.  I need Scuba Steve.  At least we aren't eating meals of ketsup packets.  Meals have been my contribution to the family so the kids haven't got to pull too much over on me in that category.

So far the baby has been somewhat easy to care for.  She is exhausted after daycare and cranky in the evenings.  We cook supper while feeding the baby at the same time.  She's ready for a bottle and a nap by 7:00.  The last 2 nights I have woke her up at 8:00 to change her diaper, get her in PJ's and get her up to play for a little bit.  She isn't interested in playing and is still cranky so I give her a bottle and put her back to bed for the night.  She's learning to sleep through the night.  I try to feed her good in the evenings because I'm a heavy sleeper and if she doesn't outright cry I won't wake up.  She whimpers and my wife is there with a bottle.  I don't even notice my wife gets up out of bed at night.  I sleep through that too.

The boys show me their homework after supper and we work on that.  Afterwards it's everybody on their own time.  I logged into some poker while the one boy hit the T.V. and the other got out the Matchbox cars.  Around 9:30 I round them up and tell them it's bedtime.  I have them brush their teeth and get a drink.  They disappear as I'm still in a game.  I have to round them up again and get them back on track.  We probably should have done showers.  Now I'm responsible for the stinky kids.  Tonight we'll take showers.

The mornings are the most hectic.  Last night I couldn't get anywhere with poker and ended up playing more games that I also did nothing in.  It ended up getting late and I didn't get the diaper bag ready or the kids clothes ready.  This morning it was a mad dash getting breakfast going, finding clothes, making sure I got everything in the diaper bag, giving the baby a bath, and getting myself ready and out the door earlier than I ever leave so I can drive 30 miles to drop the baby off at daycare and get back to work at a decent time.
On top of all that the baby needed a second diaper change this morning, the ookey kind.  Maybe too many green beans last night.

Tonight we are going to a junior high football game.  I'll be out of my natural element with 3 kids.  Oh jeez, what am I thinking.  My hair is going to be gray after this.  I can handle just the 2 boys o.k.  They are old enough to do some things on their own.  Throw a baby in the mix and I feel like I'm at a loss.  The nieces and nephews were wanting to come over last night.  I had to say no.  I'd have been too overwhelmed.

My wife doesn't get back until tomorrow night.  We will meet up with her at the high school football game out of town.  It can't get here fast enough. 

Wednesday Weigh In #2

This morning I didn't feel light, like I have the past few days.  It's been a couple of days since I have exercised last.  I was still hoping to break the 220 pound barrier.  When I weighed in I was at 219.6.  Whoop Whoop!

This week I am a single Dad.  My wife left me for a conference in Omaha.  My daughter was cranky so I put her down for a nap around 7:00 yesterday evening.  I woke her up around 8:00 to change her diaper and put her in pajama's.  She took some formula and went right back to sleep.  I figured, "Why not play some poker." 

I got in a 3.30 guaranteed game and a 2.20 bounty.  I lost the 3.30 a little before the money.  I took 6 people out in the bounty and finished 7th for 7.00.  I had the chip lead going into the final table but came up against a table full of ringers.  Usually a few people at the final table play poorly.  Not in this group.  We played until we were all short stacked to around 3 BB's before anybody started going out.  It was the toughest final table I have been on.  I couldn't find a weak spot, so I must have been it.

I started looking at the Poker Maximus Series coming up and decided I am going to play in almost all of the 1 and 2 dollar, the 5 dollar NL events as well as the main events for the 1, 2, 5, 11, 22 and 215 dollar events.  I'm registered for a ton of tournaments during that time, somewhere around 130.00 worth of tournaments, not including the 215.00 tournament that I had won an entry into.

Last night I noticed that the tournament lobby on Carbon has changed.  It's a little confusing trying to find the blind level times.  Once I played for a little bit I started to figure everything out.  I passed on a couple of tournaments because I couldn't find how long the blinds were.  On some it is in the name of the tournament, on others you just have to know how long a turbo is and how long normal is.  I guess 5 minutes and 7 minutes.

In less than a month I'll be in Las Vegas.  I shouldn't book my trip so far out.  I get so anxious about going.  We will blow some money on slots but I would really like to get in a lot more poker while I'm there this time.  I want to get in a few tournaments with good starting stacks and longer blind levels.  Binion's had a good game last time I was there.  I would like to find a game about like that one on the strip.  I might try out the Wynn's tournament the first day. 

Part of our stay we will gamble at Harrah's.  I have been hearing good things about their comps.  I am hoping to gamble enough to get part of my stay payed for next time I'm in town.  With free flights and comped rooms I could afford to go out more than once a year.

1.10 Satellite to Maximus ME

Sunday we played volleyball.  We had 6 games, 30 minutes each.  My shoulder wouldn't hardly lift my arm any more.  My knee hurt.  My back hurt.  My hip hurt.  I'm starting to think I may be getting to old for this stuff.  I'm still to young to admit it though.

That night I could not sleep as no position was comfortable.  When I woke up I was in no shape to run the 5K.  My son wanted to get in it so my wife got them all ready to go.  I decided if there was still time I would give it a go anyway.  Lucky for me the race started earlier than what was in the paper and I didn't have to run. 

We went to the park to enjoy the festivities.  I ended up leaving after a few hours to go home and gets some rest.  I was still achy and had some jerky on the dehydrator I needed to check.  Everyone else arrived home a while later as I was getting the 2nd batch of jerky on the dehydrator. 

Everybody was doing their own thing so I logged onto Carbon to play a couple tourneys and a couple of SNG's.  The SNG's didn't go well.  I busted pretty quickly in the 1.10 tourney.  I had found 1 other tournament that interested me.  It was a 1.10 rebuy for a 215.00 ticket to the Maximus Main Event. 

I was doing o.k. in this tournament and holding a top 10 position out of the 48 registered.  I never had to rebuy and chose to add on when break came.  I'm glad I did.  As it was got close to the final table I was still in 5th in chips.  The 2 other big stacks on my table both went all in.  I had AJ and had notes that they will play A rag all in a lot.  I called to see their A5o and A7o.  I got my jack and became 2nd in chips. 

Even with that win I wasn't sure I could pull out a win since 1st in chips had a 3 to 1 advantage on me. 

The final table went fairly quick.  I worked on shortening the big stacks chip lead as did the rest of the table.  We finally got down to 3 left. 

At this point we were all fairly close in chips.  The tournament only had 1 seat we were playing for.  I had a good read on the short stack and worked on him until he had to go all in.  I had slightly more chips than the other player at this point.  He went all in the first hand of heads up.  I didn't have anything.  The next hand he went all in again.  This time I had 66 and called.  He had 44.  A 6 out of the gates all but sealed the deal and I won a seat in the 215.00 250,000.00 Guaranteed Poker Maximus Main Event.