SNAP

This morning I woke up to this tree branch down in the yard.  My wife woke me up a few times during the storm.  I kept telling her to go back to bed, let me sleep.  She kept insisting that the wind was going to blow over the basketball goal into a car.  I had parked last night so that would not happen.  The wind didn't sound too bad.  Apparently I should have been concerned about parking under this tree on the other side of it.

This is the 2nd huge branch we have lost this year out of this tree. 

Last week or the week before I decided I was going to get in a nightly tournament because I was going to have so much free time.  So far I have not figured out where that free time is.  I have gotten in a couple cash game sessions and have done pretty well.  I am up about 6 buy ins at the lowest level I can play.  Three buy ins came from one player the night before last.  He would push all in with any top pair.  It was fun to keep picking him off.  It got late and I needed to get to bed or I think I could have gotten more out of him. 

My wife and I have been enjoying playing 2 handed pinochle lately.  Since we started playing this weekend, I have went on a 6 game winning streak.  I'm bragging now because the streak will end soon.  I don't know how I pulled out a win in a couple games last night.  I have self proclaimed myself to be "The Comeback Kid".

Monday Night Muck Em - 35 Pounds Lighter

We had a fish fry on Wednesday night and followed that up with fireworks.  My wife's sister from Missouri was visiting.  We had lots of kids blowing off all kinds of fireworks.  At one point I think 6 kids as well as myself were in a line shooting roman candles.

Over the weekend we traveled to my parents in Northwest Kansas and pretty much just took it easy and ate.  Love food!  My back and right side were achy so I didn't have the desire to do too much.

Monday night I was excited to defend my run at the previous Monday Night Muck Em.  The cards were not as kind to me this time and neither was the person to my left.  Every time I hit something she had something better.  I stayed alive to make it to the final table.  At the final table I made it through 1 blind level but had not gotten any starting hands.  I had 2 BB's left and made an all in call from the BB with a flush draw as well as an inside straight draw.  I missed and was out in 7th place.

I made it a long ways for not getting cards and being destroyed when I did get cards.

There's always next week.

On a good note, I stepped on the scale the other day and saw a number on there that I have not seen in a lot of years.  I finally hit the 210 pound mark.  Last October I had dropped to 215.  It has taken me all of this time to finally lose that last 5 pounds.  The good thing is that I have not had to try since last October.  I made some eating changes and walk more around town when I need something, but was not specifically trying to lose weight.  It just happened, slowly since last October.

Now that I have reached 210, I have lost 35 pounds from my heaviest point.  I feel better and can notice quite a bit of change around my mid section.  There is still room for improvement.  It may be time to start toning now.  I'll start out by doing some sit ups and push ups each night.  With 35 pounds of weight being gone, maybe I can lift myself now.

Lesson Learned Teaching My Boys About Money

As the clock hit ending time yesterday, I was out the door.  For the first time in a long time, I was off work on time and did not have a sporting event, or anything planned for me.  Instead I had my own plan.  I was going to grab the boys and walk over to the fireworks stand that opened that morning.

When I walked in the door my youngest boy was right there.  I said, "Get your shirt and shoes on, lets go to the fireworks stand."  He started scrambling about, like he had just drank 3 Mountain Dew's and had 5 bags of skittles.  I walked through the hallway door and saw my older son and told him to get ready. 

They had waited a whole year for this moment. 

A week and a half ago they had made 20.00 a piece picking up several trailer loads of branches at my parents house after a big windstorm came through.  I had told them that they should save their money for buying fireworks.  I knew they had been to the store several times since then and knew they wouldn't have any money.  I thought it would be a good time to make a point to them.

I told them to grab their money.  My youngest looked at me with disappointed eyes.  My oldest smiled and told me I owed him money.  Backfire!  He had loaned his mom the 20.00 he made at Grandma's house. 

They had also both taken on a mowing job at our neighbor's house.  They have mowed twice and have not gotten paid, so I told them I would front the money, but not before I talked to them about saving for the things we will really want.

We hit the fireworks stand and both boys surprised me.  They had a plan, all on their own, to not spend all of the money they had just gotten.  They really wanted certain things but would pick it up and put it back, trying to get the most, bang for their buck, as some would say this time of year.

Myself on the other hand could use a lesson of the same accord.  I took 30.00 with me and walked to the cash register with 50.00 worth of fireworks.  I had asked my oldest son to borrow 20.00 from him until we walk by the ATM on the way home.

When we got home we blew up a whole bunch of firecrackers and smoke balls.  We finally went inside and started to watch Real Steel.  As it was getting dark we paused the movie and went back outside to blow off some nighttime fireworks and watch some of the others going off around town.  We saved some back for tonight and went back inside to finish our movie and go to bed.

Monday Night Muck Em

My plan to start out slow and pay attention to the other players did not work out last night.  My first 4 hands had an Ace in them and I caught either the Ace or the other card.  I would bet and by the turn would be raking the pots.  Not a bad way to start out. 

It took a little while but I finally started to settle in and really get focused.  The player to my left was amassing a huge stack.  Mine hovered right around the starting stack size all the way to just before break when I decided to play some less than steller hands to try to build my stack. 

The most notable was calling a small all in with K6 of diamonds.  K Q and 6 fell on the flop.  Big stack to my left bet out big and I called.  Another K on the turn made me feel better, especially when big stack made a bet of the same size as his last bet.  Had he had the KQ he would have normally bet bigger.  I called.  Turn was a blank.  Big stack bet and I raised.  He called and I took down a healthy pot.

After break I started getting slapped in the face with cards.  It didn't matter if I folded or stayed in my hands seemed to be the winner most of the time.  My stack got huge.  With such a lead I just waited on hands and pounced.  At the final table I knocked out all but 1 or 2 players on my run to 1st place.

I only lost 1 pot that was disheartening.  It was early in the game and I had 4 6 off in the BB.  Nobody raised and a 4 6  fell on the flop.  I bet the flop and turn trying to chase 3 players off.  They stayed in and a 2nd jack fell on the river.  I checked.  There was a 1/2 pot size bet from across the table and I folded.  She showed her trip J's. 

Part of my success last night was making good lay downs, staying focused, and getting extremely good cards.  I haven't ran that well in a long, long time.

Getting Back in the Scene

My first batch of bierocks are pictured above.  Mom showed me how to make them a couple weekends ago.  Mine are not as pretty as hers but sure were tasty.

Tonight I get to join the scene again in the Monday Night Muck Em.  It's been several weeks since I have been able to play.  Baseball is over now.  I plan on playing tight at first and feeling out the competition for the first few rounds. 

I am considering putting some time into online poker again, now that I will have some free time.  If I do it will likely be 1 tournament a night at a little higher buy in than I usually play.  I haven't had time to check out the tournament scene in a while.  I am thinking if I can find an 11.00 tournament that has a decent starting stack, 10 min blind levels and a relatively short re-entry period, I will play it.  Most of the tournaments have a 3 hour re-entry period and that is too long to try to outlast the re-entry - all in re-entry - crowd.  I might be able to do o.k. at the game, but it isn't my favorite game.

I like a tournament where people are at risk of their tournament life if they lose.  Myself included.  If somebody really loves that 7 5 offsuit, they won't be able to rebuy over and over until it works out for them.

I'm also considering playing a couple of the other local games for a while since things should be slowing down. 

I have had a pretty good break from the game, and I'm ready to hit it again full steam. 

No Poker, Baseball, Booking a Trip to Vegas

The poker scene for me has been nearly non-existent the past few weeks.  Baseball has taken the front seat.  Usually with 3 or more games a week.  One of which is always Monday night. 

I'm sure I have fallen below middle of the pack on the leaderboard for this year.  I thought I could walk away with the lead, but I have to work my butt off to have a shot at top 6.  Everybody is getting better and quickly, or I am getting worse and quickly. 

This is the last week of baseball and then it's on to poker for me and swim meets for the kids.  My first year of coaching baseball has been an interesting one.  We had lots of rule changes, a lot of new kids to the game, and myself being new to coaching the game after never playing.  It's a great feeling when the kids finally catch on to something or get excited about the game.  It also takes a lot of patience when they are not paying attention to anything that is going on and not trying to improve.

I'm ready for some home time.  I'm ready for some poker on Monday.  I might even deserve some Sunday and Friday poker.

I have started booking my next trip to Vegas with my friend from Ohio.  I booked our plane tickets to fly out on the 26th of September and back on the 1st of October.  I used points from my Southwest card and in the name of FREE, I scheduled the first 2 nights with comps from the Riviera.  I'm hoping to get the last 3 nights at Harrah's or the Quad so we can have quick access to poker.

I know better than to book a trip 3 months out.  It takes f o r e v e r !  I have plenty of other things to look forward to between now and then.  We are planning a trip to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City.  I have another bass tournament in Oklahoma in September.  O.K. that's only 2 things.  I may have to take a pre-trip trip out to Vegas for Christmas in July. 

I wouldn't have to pay for my flight or hotel.  I just don't know if I would want to go out by myself.  It would be different than what I'm used to.  

Monday Night Muck Em

We did not have a game on Memorial Day.  This week we had decided to do a non points larger buy in larger stack game.  I was concerned considering my recent results. 

We started the game with 10,000 chips, 4,000 more than usual with the same 20 minute blind structure. 
25-25
25-50
50-100
100-200
200-400
break
500-1000
1000-2000 500 ante
2000-4000 500 ante
5000-10000 1000 ante
10000-20000 1000 ante

Notice the gaps in blinds after break. 

I went into the game ready to broaden my range and play more aggressively.  As soon as we started I realized that was not going to happen.  The guy directly to my left went on a heater all the way to break.  It was a one man show and his stack was enormous.  I won 1 hand pre-break.  He had just went to showdown 4 times in a row with close to nuts hands.  I didn't have anything but ended up betting him out of the pot.

At break I was sitting on close to my beginning stack.  The first hand back I was dealt pocket J's and had 2 smaller stacks go all in before me.  I called and faced 88 and 9 10o.  I took out both players and had a decent stack to play with.  A couple hands later I had 10 J suited and called another small stack's all in.  I hit a J on the flop to win that hand. 

I coasted to the final 4 from there.  We were pretty even stacked with 4 players left and I proposed a chop.  That would have given us all 2nd place money.  The pre break dominator shot it down right away so we played.  The blinds then jumped to 5000-10000.  I had 3 bb's which was 2nd biggest stack, but thought if I could push the blinds out of the hand 1 time I would be set to do some damage, when I looked at my Q8 of diamonds.  I was called by the big blind with almost all of his chips with a J10 off suit.  I hit a Q on the flop but he turned a J and then rivered a 10.  I got my buy in back plus some. 

Most of the time I would have waited for 1 more person to go out to make a play like that.  In this situation I felt I needed to make that play to give me a chance to win.  It almost worked out better than expected when he called and I spiked the Q. 

The person who turned down the chop finished 2nd, so it didn't hurt him to turn down the chop.  I have no hard feelings about it either.  He played well and deserved to have a shot at 1st place money and bragging rights.