More Poker Fun and The Whole List of 100 Stupid Things About Me

I’m finding that my game struggles when I don’t hit any cards. This sounds like a stupid statement but my game is struggling to adapt right now. Maybe the influx of new players is causing some of this distress because they call raises with marginal hands and hit parts of the flop that I miss. It’s adding to my frustration as I’ve been leaking some bankroll lately.

To combat some of this I played the 15,000 on FT last night and gave an uninspired effort. One example of the donkeyness that is killing me right now is me raising from the button with JJ and getting called by the BB. The flop if Q,10,2 and the BB checks. I continue with a pot size bet trying to find out where I stand. The BB calls and I’m worried. The turn is a 3 and the BB pushes. I figure he has a queen, hit two pair or flopped trips so I fold. He shows pocket 3s for turned trips. I guess I don’t understand the logic of calling a big flop bet with big over cards on the board in hopes of hitting my 2 outer. More of the same ensued and I get eliminated in the middle of the pack.

I also played a 5+.5 Omaha h/l tourney but with different results. I cashed in this one and was sitting in the top 6 with 18 remaining before the eventual demise of my game. I played well and capitalized the couple of times I had the nut high and nut low. In the end the blind structure caught up to all of us and it became a game of pure luck as chips flew back and forth. Short stacks would triple up over and over again until I was in the short stack position. I tried to play my good hands strong but weak flops that completely missed were the norm for me. I ended the night in 13th.


*********************

1) I was born in a town smaller than the subdivision I now live.

2) I was adopted.

3) I went to a World Series game 1980. The Kansan City Royals beat the Phillies and I instantly became a Royals fan. Some of you may remember that was the year of George Brett and his hemorrhoids.

4) I played the clarinet from 5th grade through my junior year in high school.

5) I took Spanish in college. The significance of this is that I got a C in the class and didn’t learn a thing.

6) I played soccer from the time I was little until my 2nd year in college. I received honorable mention for region 4 after my freshman year for my play as a goalie on a team that won two games. The next year we made it to the region finals with a 14-5-3 record and I didn’t get a vote.

7) I’ve played fastpitch softball for over half my life.

8) In 1996, I was statistically 1hit away from being the leading hitter for the ISC world tourney. I was 5 for 9 and needed one more at bat with a hit to be the leading hitter that year. My 4 out were strikeouts and I had 4 walks.

9) I was in the musical “Bye, Bye, Birdie” during my senior year in high school. I played a few small parts with my only line being “He’s coming, he’s coming….Conrad Birdie’s coming”. This was quite comical for a 17 year old kid in the mid 80’s.

10) I spent an hour in jail for driving with a suspended license. Back in 1983, I got a speeding ticket and didn’t pay for it. In my infinite wisdom I didn’t realize I had to. Anyway, I eventually paid for it but didn’t apply for reinstatement. 3 years later I got pulled over and arrested. I was fun being picked up by a paddy wagon and handcuffed. All charges were dropped after I applied for reinstatement and showed proof at court. Of course the court cost was something like $500 but it isn’t on my record.

11) I was married on New Years Eve in 1992.

12) I bought my first home 6 months before I was married and lived there for 6 ½ years before buying my second home. I lived there for 6 ½ years before buying my third home. I have five more years in this house before I must move.

13) The only time I have been to Las Vegas was in 1990. The ASA “B” Nationals was held there that year. The team I played on consisted of almost all 22 and 23 year old guys and I’m not sure if I ever went to sleep. In reality, I got maybe 12 hours of sleep in the 4 days I was there.

14) I want to go to a WPBT event but can’t afford it at this time.

15) I have three children that consume much of my time and I would have it no other way. There is nothing I love more then being involved with there events and helping guide them through life.

16) I love science fiction and have spent a large amount of my free time reading Sci-fi books. The first book I read was The Hobbit when I was in high school and have read hundreds of books since then.

17) One of the most exciting days of my life was when I heard that Lord of the Rings trilogy was being made. And even though I love the movie version, I was disappointed that so much was left out.

18) I played D&D from 6th grade up until my sophomore year in college. It was a blast living a life of make believe with magic and swords. To me a great time was spending a weekend playing this game non-stop from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Man I was a geek.

19) I was a tweener in that I was a jock, and a good one and also a band geek. I was in both the math club and science club but used much of my free time playing sports. In some ways I think I had no identity because of my lack of affiliation to a high school click.

20) I spent many Friday and Saturday nights hanging out with my friends and getting drunk while in high school. Much of this was induced by peer pressure and trying to fit into a culture that I wasn’t comfortable with.

21) You can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been drunk in the past 5 years. It takes two hands for the previous 10 years. It would take a computer to count the times before the age of 30.

22) I have no grandparents left alive.

23) One of my favorite rides at Disney World is the Buzz Light-year ride.

24) One of the worst days of my life was when my wife and two daughters were in a car accident. I got a call at work that said they were at the hospital and that they had no more information. When I arrived I saw a little girl that was severely injured and my thoughts were “poor thing, I hope she’s all right”. Minutes later I found out it was my oldest daughter. She had a broken leg and a skull fracture to go along with having a few teeth knocked out. She was later flown to Loyal Medical Center and spent 4 nights there before being sent home. My other daughter was bruised and battered but ok. My wife had a lacerated spleen and was in the hospital for a week. She could go back to work for a month and could do nothing that involved physical activity. It was a frustrating time in the life of my family.

25) While in Milwaukee for a college soccer trip, a group of us players found a car with the keys in while walking back from downtown to our hotel. It was 3:30 in the morning and we were drunk so we borrowed the car and drove to our hotel.

26) In an act of kindness, I let a cocaine addicted friend of mine stay rent free for a couple of months while he went through out-patient rehab. Hr was without a job and living in a car when I took him in. He has been sober for 8 years now.

27) I’m the Moderator of the church I attend.

28) I drove 4 hours to watch one fastpitch softball game, that started at 9:00 at night, and drove home when it was over so I could go to work the next day.

29) I have played soccer in Germany.

30) I have played fastpitch softball in Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. I almost added the Czech Republic but plans fell through when I had a family wedding to attend.

31) I love fishing but I’m too cheap to get a fishing license. The good thing is that I have relatives that own a 40 acre lake thus no need for a license.

32) I will still vote for Denny Hastert for the House of Representatives.

33) It is an honor to use the right to vote but very hard to find someone worthy to vote for.

34) I find it funny that some of the people we now hang out with are people we probably wouldn’t have talked to in high school.

35) When I was younger I felt that I would be dead by the age of 35.

36) I think that being a stand-up person is as important a thing as anyone can be.

37) I should thank my wife every day for putting up with me because of the idiot I am.

38) I should also thank my wife for making me go back to college and finishing my degree.

39) I don’t do either of the things in 37 and 38 nearly enough.

40) I know that I could have been valedictorian of my high school class if I would have had the drive. I was easily in the bottom half as far as grades go.

41) My main goal in high school was to stay eligible for sports, drink as much as I could get away with and to get as much action as I could. I had success in all areas but not to the extent that I would have preferred.

42) Back in my early 20’s, I would drive up to Milwaukee to see a girl I thought I was in love with whenever I had a chance. The feeling was not mutual.

43) I would much rather sleep until noon and make much less money then get up every morning and go to work. And yet I still get up.

44) I question my ability in all things that I do and thus grow.

45) I enjoy the new cyber friendships I have gained and wonder if I will ever meet any of you.

46) I regret some of the stupid things I’ve done and said to all the people I’ve hurt in my life. But not all of them.

47) I was ready to fight a co-worker who made a derogatory remark that I construed was about my wife. It was at a company meeting in from of the chairman of the board and I didn’t care. I can always find another job.

48) I find that this exercise of making a list is deeply comforting in some ways.

49) I have chewed Skoal for over half of my life and it scares me to think that it may cause my demise.

50) I quit chewing for 1 year back in 1998-1999. I started again when my Organic Chemistry teacher told me how nicotine helps the synapses fire during recall memory exercises. I am an idiot. I did ace the final though.

51) Going back to school at the age of 30 was the best thing that I could have done. I got much more out of it and had a 3.87 GPA after I returned. That’s twice what my high school GPA was.

52) One B that I got was during the time my son was born. School was not all that important but I drove through it. I didn’t get another B the rest of the time.

53) I love cooking on the grill. In the summer I cook 75% of the meals we eat on the grill.

54) I will do nothing if given the chance.

55) I find that stereo typing people pisses me off unless it’s me being the one doing the stereo typing.

56) I will play an entire season of any sports game on the computer without playing any of the games myself. I’ll let the computer play both teams.

57) I enjoy being with my wife’s side of the family at least as much as my own side.

58) I enjoy singing in my church choir just about as much as anything else I’ve ever done.

59) I have called in sick to work because I wanted to play poker on the internet.

60) I really want to go to Las Vegas for the WPBT in December. Did I say this already? It‘s worth repeating.

61) Another of the worst days I’ve had was the day my oldest was born. While being one of the greatest days of my life, she had many health problems and stayed in the hospital for 12 days after she was born. When we finally got to take her home we didn’t know what to do because the nursing staff had taken care of her for virtually all her life.

62) The joy I see in my children’s eyes makes me cry at the weirdest times.

63) I have cried during a chick flick.

64) I was never emotional until the car accident that my wife and kids were in.

65) I still have a hard time letting my wife know how I feel because it isn’t manly.

66) I fly off the deep end at stupid things when understanding is needed.

67) I think that living the life I grew up in has had a negative impact on how I treat my family.

68) I battle constantly to keep ahead of the idiocy that wants to manifest itself in me.

69) I used to think my mother was an idiot when I was younger. Now I realize it was me.

70) I would much rather do something tomorrow if I can put it off until then.

71) I’m envious of many of the relations that have been built through a stupid blog. Friendships that occurred because of a common interest. In some ways these friendships that many of you have are better then I have with the people I see everyday.

72) I miss my friend Paul and wish he’d move back here.

73) I have the ability to lose 15 pounds in a month yet would rather be over weight the work out.

74) Some of the most enjoyable times in my life have been coaching my children’s teams.

75) I was the manager of a team that tied for 5th place in the 2003 ISC II Tournament of Champions. We got knocked out by the eventual champions in a game that saw a total of three hits. Two by them and one by us.

76) The next year we didn’t advance to bracket play. In our must win game, we held a 5-0 lead when our pitcher fell a part. By the time I got him out of the game, the momentum had change and it was over.

77) In 2005 we lead in every game and went 0-4. Then I retired.

78) I find that dealing with grown men is much harder then dealing with children.

79) If I was single I would move to Las Vegas and try not to lose everything that I have.

80) I love playing the blogger tournaments because of the level of competition they provide.

81) I ran track in high school because we didn’t have baseball. I didn’t like track but it was better then going home or working.

82) I could run the 1600m in under 5 minutes and the 800 in 2 minutes.

83) When I was in 7th grade I ran a 10k in 36 minutes without training for it. I was too young and dumb to realize that running over 6 miles in 36 minutes was good. I was mad because 15 people beat me. The fact that most of them ran these events all the time and were very good didn’t matter. I should have won, lol.

84) When I came around the last turn and had maybe a ¼ mile left to go I broke into a sprint until the finish line. That was a failure in my eyes because I had too much energy left.

85) The best time I ever had was 32:36 when I was in high school. It was the last time I ran one of those.

86) In 2002 I went to a GI boot camp to get into shape. I lost 35 pounds and was in better shape then almost any point in my life. I had made the decision to run in the Chicago marathon because I was already running 20-25 miles a week and could easily start the training regiment. Then I tore cartilage in my knee playing ball and have not run another step.

87) I’ve gained 40 pounds since I quit running.

88) I enjoy the company of my high school friends much more now that I don’t see them as often.

89) I had a girl friend in high school that died on the way home from a basketball game. She was a good friend and is missed by everyone who knew her.

90) I had a friend that died from AIDS. He eventually came out of the closet after he was diagnosed with the illness. We all new anyway and we didn’t care.

91) Did I say that I want to go to the WPBT event in December?

92) I played goalie in soccer for all but one year in my life. During my senior year I played mid-field and was second on the team in scoring.

93) During my 3 varsity seasons playing soccer, we won over 75% of the games we played. We were a disappointment for the school because we had a history of making it deep into the playoffs in addition to many state finals. We didn’t live up to expectations.

94) We made it to the state finals in basketball during my junior season. I think I played 20 minutes the whole year but I was still a part of the team. We lost in the quarter finals to the eventual champs.

95) The first time I smoked pot was with my degenerate step sister. It was a wonderful experience that could have led me down the wrong path. She’s in jail now and I’m writing this. I guess I got back on the right one.

96) One thing that I really don’t like is going to the dentist. It makes my blood pressure rise just thinking about it.

97) I can still play the clarinet without much trouble. I will even play the piano now and then even though it’s been 30 years since my last lesson.

98) I can get lost in front of the TV if I’m not careful.

99) I was a DJ for about 3 years before I met my wife. My buddy Paul and I would play clubs and weddings and parties almost every weekend that I wasn’t playing ball.

100) I find that writing at times is a hard thing to do. The times I write the best are the times when an inspiration hits and the words flow. It doesn’t happen much for me but there are a couple of posts in the archives that meet the description.