Brickin The Nutz

It is Friday and I am looking at a long drive home tonight. The weather man says 4-6 inches of snow so I think I'll get home 45 minutes later than normal. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Being Friday, I'll be playing tonight. I'm looking at Razz, PLO and maybe a random hold'em tourney for the night so look me up and we can chat.

I started a new blog called Brickin The Nutz. It will be dedicated to Razz for the most part and will also have a few guest bloggers throwing their Razz ideals out there for the world to see. Check it out if you have a chance.

That's it for today...have a great weekend.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I have a couple things after a nice holiday vacation.

The Good

I made three final tables last night on a night I wasn’t even going to play. We got home from up north about 8:15 and so after getting the van emptied I was ready to play. I signed up for my favorite Razz tourney and for both the Mookie and the Dookie. After a couple hours of play I was on the final table of each event. . In the Mookie I chipped up early playing more hands than normal and got a big double up when in the SB. I had 66 and limped and the BB re-popped it. He had done that a couple of times so I pushed figuring he would fold his steal. He calls with AK but my 66 held. I won another big hand with JJ over TT and took the chip lead with QQ over 88. In the Dookie I really just played solid hands as I wasn’t focused on it and moved into 3rd and stayed there much of the tourney.

The Bad

I got a text message from work on Wednesday while I was ice fishing. The production manager was fired and so I will get to do some of the stuff that he use to do. More stuff on my plate.

The Ugly

Razz was Razz as I had chasers suck out and pay me off and I eventually went out 7th or 8th vs. a big stack with 2 pair showing with one of them being 9s and I was drawing to an 8 and missed. In the Mookie I went card dead and tried to make some moves. I ran AK into TT and lost to miss the money by a spot or two. In the Dookie I got all in like this

Fuel55 shows [As Jd Kd 5d]
mookie99 shows [6d Ah 5h 8s]
pokerenthusiast shows [Qh Ks 3c Ad]

Best high and low pre-flop is no good as fuel continued to dominate the Dookie.

So there you have it…The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Nebraska....errr...Omaha

I played a little last night. Started with a $5 Rebuy and had a slightly below average stack after the first break. As we got closer to the money I was short but had equity. I turned up the aggression and stole blinds to chip up a little. I eventually ran in to A4 with my K8. I never really got anything going as I missed a bunch of flops and as in scranmble mode for much of the tourney. A bit later I donked out of a knockout tourney when I over played AK and lost a coin flip when I didn't need to do it.

Eventually I hoped into the Razz 2K and made a nice run. With a nice stack I triple bricked with A234 to end with a 9 and lost to an 8. That hurt because a few hands later I got involved in a hand with Jim Mcmanus and would have busted him if I hadn't been short the 3500 chips I had a few minutes earlier. Winning the pro bounty would have been but I really wanted the t-shirt. He busted out on the next hand. Anyway, I missed the cash by a couple spots but played as well as I have in a while.

I took a break and signed up for the deepstack PLO tourney at 9:45. I have final tabled this a few times and I really like the deep stack structure. SLB and I had been chatting and I got him to join me for some fun. Anyway, a few hours later and we were both sitting on the final table.


I hit a big hand against him near the final table bubble but he battled back and was knocked out in 8th. I battled hard and picked my spots and eventually got heads up. In the end I ended here.


It was a lot of fun but I wanted the win. I got very lucky vs. the big stack near the final table bubble when myKKxx beat AAxx when I hit a runner-runner straight.

Have a great holiday.

X-Mas KORD Winner

Again, I fail to reclaim my title of KORD as SLB159 takes the title. He outlasted a field of 13 players to take down his first win in this event. He beat out Margari789 in a very good heads up duel that saw SLB give up the big chip lead only to see him fight back and win the event. Margari789 made it to heads up without, I believe, getting one knockout in the tourney. Bayne earned the last cash spot by playing his usual solid game. Bayne also one the $10 bounty for knocking out Surflexus.

I want to say thanks to everyone who came out and played. I think I will keep the format the same because I kind of like the whole knockout thing. We had a couple of unknown players, including Margari789, get into the mix tonight like smurfberry, alex j beeson and elgorde which were all nice additions to the field. And with the ATL connection hitting the tourney, Georgia was well represented.

As for me, I bubbled again. That is two in a row. Anyway, the results for the year based on top 10 finishes are below.


I don’t know what this means other that I’m really good at missing the prize. Congratulations to the money winners this year and we’ll see you next year at the monthly KORD.

We have a Winner and the X-Mas KORD

We have A winner. I watched the whole tourney with all three screens up(what a loser I am) and saw some good play, some bad play, some tiltish play and some suckouts. There were coolers and commenters. There were card racks and card deadness. Weak/tight play and agro pushers. In the end we saw one tight aggressive player vs. another tight aggressive player. Funny how good solid play comes to the top. Congrates to Jeci on winning the trip.

Reading through some of the predictions I saw that few people felt huntsvegas had much of a chance. I don't really know him but have blogged a little bit about him when he and surf went to Tunica and so I had a little interest just because of those circumstances. He led the way through much of this tourney and accumulated chips through out. He got crippled after a calling a push at one point and came back to take the lead. Well played and an unlucky cooler at the end.

Just a reminder that the X-Mas KORD is tonight at 8:30 central time. It is a knockout tourney and should be a lot of fun as Razz is such a skill game. Surf put a bounty on his own head and I will throw A little extra to the winner as well as posting a banner in the winners honor. The password is pokere and only cost $7.70($2 bounty on each player) on Full Tilt.

Have a great weekend.

Its Chistmas KORD

Wow...the end of the audit season. I really only have two out side audits a year but they come about a month apart. This last one was much easier because we on make one product that falls under the scope and it is made for one customer. Easy peasy.


I also want to remind everyone that the Christmas KORD will be on Friday night at 8:30 central time. The cost is $7 + .70 and there is a $2 bounty on each players' head. The password is pokere so jump on to Full Tilt Friday night and play. I forgot to do it money added so instead I will be sending the winner $10 just because I am nice. Also, there will be a $10 bounty on the head of Surflexus as he is the current KORD and he felt so good about being a donkey razz player that he placed it upon him self. So think about it...Win the tourney and you get a nice little payday plus you will knock out a few players at $2 a pop, you knock out surf and you get another $10. Just they way you want to start a weekend.

I played a little poker last night as I tried to push aside the remaining audit tilt I was feeling. I started with...fuck, I don't remember what I started with but I didn't cash. Anyway, I played the $3 turbo because of the skill it takes to play that and didn't cash and also played the $5 razz and missed the money by a spot or two. What a stupid friggin game. Anyway, I started the Dookie, limit hold'em...turbo. What the hell is turbo limit hold'em? I can see no redeeming value to the game. So with that said I cashed and ended the night up $5. I am so skilled.

One of the fun hands I was involved in was semi early in Razz. A little hand history but some explanation to go with it.

Seat 1: giantfishy (1,450)
Seat 2: YoungGuns73 (3,176)
Seat 4: pokerenthusiast (2,361)
Seat 5: waryur (1,852)
Seat 6: pokerjulien (1,956)
Seat 7: posmoss (1,380)
Seat 8: davedutch (2,738)
giantfishy antes 15
YoungGuns73 antes 15
pokerenthusiast antes 15
waryur antes 15
pokerjulien antes 15
posmoss antes 15
davedutch antes 15
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to giantfishy [6d]
Dealt to YoungGuns73 [8h]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [Ad 5d] [4s]
Dealt to waryur [Kd]
Dealt to pokerjulien [Ts]
Dealt to posmoss [3h]
Dealt to davedutch [5h]
waryur is high with [Kd]
waryur brings in for 25
pokerjulien folds
posmoss completes it to 80
davedutch raises to 160
giantfishy folds
YoungGuns73 folds
pokerenthusiast calls 160
waryur folds
posmoss raises to 240
davedutch raises to 320
pokerenthusiast calls 160
posmoss calls 80

One of the things I like to do is keep in control of the pot size. Most of the time I wont reraise unless I'm trying to isolate someone or someone calls with a high card up. In this case I had to opponents driving up the price. I have the nut draw possibility just like they do. This really isn't the time to be capping the bet because nobody has a made hand.

*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [Ad 5d 4s] [2c]
Dealt to posmoss [3h] [7h]
Dealt to davedutch [5h] [3d]
pokerenthusiast checks
posmoss bets 80
davedutch raises to 160
pokerenthusiast calls 160
posmoss raises to 240
davedutch raises to 320
pokerenthusiast calls 160
posmoss calls 80

We all hit good cards here and my two opponents proceed to get as much money into the pot as they can. Without having a made hand this is questionable but the one player is now short on chips and has to call everything down. At this point I am going to chase to the river because of the amount of chips in the pot. This is the draw back to throwing all that money into the middle early as players get priced in to chase.

*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [Ad 5d 4s 2c] [3c]
Dealt to posmoss [3h 7h] [9c]
Dealt to davedutch [5h 3d] [9d]
pokerenthusiast bets 160
posmoss raises to 320
davedutch raises to 480
pokerenthusiast raises to 640
posmoss calls 320
davedutch calls 160

I have the nut and I have not had to force a bet yet. Check calling to this point looks to be me sitting on an 8 or a 7 when I have the nut. I bet out here because I know the shortie will reraise.

*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [Ad 5d 4s 2c 3c] [6s]
Dealt to posmoss [3h 7h 9c] [Td]
Dealt to davedutch [5h 3d 9d] [Th]
pokerenthusiast bets 160
posmoss calls 85, and is all in
davedutch calls 160

I don't like this card because it gives my hand more merit. They now know they are behind and check call my bet. I needed davedutch to catch the 6.

*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [Ad 5d 4s 2c 3c 6s] [2h]
pokerenthusiast bets 160
davedutch calls 160
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pokerenthusiast shows [5d 2h 4s 2c 3c 6s Ad] 5,4,3,2,A
davedutch shows [5s 2d 5h 3d 9d Th As] 9,5,3,2,A
pokerenthusiast wins the side pot (470) with 5,4,3,2,A
posmoss mucks
pokerenthusiast wins the main pot (4,225)

davedutch called me down because of the large amount of chips in the pot. He knew he was beat and gave me 320 extra chips because he helped make the pot so big early. Control the size of the pot. He could have gotten away if he doesn't cap it.

Good luck to everyone playing to night for the TOC and the trip to Aussieland.

At Home and on the Tables

Busy, busy, busy is all I can say. I have an audit on Wednesday so I probably won't have time to write much. I do have a couple of things to write about so let us get started.

First off, we bought my son a couple of floor hockey sticks because kids should be able to play with weapons. Anyway, we were playing in the basement and I was kicking his 6 year-old butt when the puck went into the corner. Now when I played hockey I always enjoyed the physical nature of the game so when he slashed me across the shin I brought the butt end of the stick into his forehead. As he grabbed his face in pain I gave him a hip check and proceeded to hit a wrist shot into the corner of the net to take a 19-0 lead. The little punk kept crying so the game was declared a forfeit and I skated to the bench as the trainer(mom) came to check him out. This was just a decoy as he slide the puck to his forehand and scored to ruin the shutout. I was so pissed I cross checked him into the foosball table. Little one-legged men flew everywhere as his 48 pound body slammed into the corner of the table. He got his goal but I got my revenge. (This is fabrication of the truth and in no way be considered real. He actually kicked my ass by dropping down to one knee and flipping me over onto my back as he slashed me across the chest. Little bastard)

We did play down stairs and I did hit him above the eye with the butt end of the stick but he shook it off and continued to play. No blood, no stitches and no bumps. Maybe I'll get him onto a floor hockey team at the YMCA.

Most of the drama that has happened over the last few weeks has died down. We had a talk with Speedy E about some of the things that happened and the repercussions of her actions. She has been going through a testing phase and had failed the test. I think she is trying to get back to a passing grade but she still has to be careful about what she does. I remind her of our discussion when she gets close to the edge and for now it is working.

Softball E is being taught new pitches which is a good sign. Her mechanics are in check and thus she can add more to her skill set. But we also found out she might need glasses. She has trouble seeing certain things and after her trip to the eye doctor, we will know more.

Now I have a poker situation. you are 6 players from the money with a slightly below average stack. You will money for sure if you fold your hand on the big blind. An early position player limps to 400 and the big stack raises to 1000. He has shown some good hands but has been hit in the face by the deck. It is folded to you in the BB and you see 9T of hearts. if you fold you have 6700 chips. If you call you have 6100. What do you do?



I called and so did the limper. About 3400 in the pot. The flop comes 8h7h4c. What do you do?



Lets go over the action to this point. Pre-flop I called for a few reasons. I was getting a good price with sooted connectors and I knew the limper would call giving me better odds. I put the player on a premium hand but the implied odds were to good this late. I can still fold if the flop misses me and get to the money. I have already doubled through the big stack twice so I know he has trouble throwing away a good starting hand. I also know that he could have a respect for me because I showed the better hand each time. When the flop comes I look at my outs and see that any heart gives me the flush, I have two over-cards, and I have six other outs on the straight draw. If both players hold cards like AK,AQ,KQ or AJ then I have 21 outs to a better hand. Big stack doesn't have a medium pair...he would have raised much bigger or limped. original limper could have a pocket pair but he over valued them so I think he would have raised with a pocket pair. The only draw back here is if someone has two hearts with one being bigger than mine. I still have 12 outs if my range of hands is correct which gives me about a 50% chance of taking the lead. When all is said and done I have a few choices in my action, being first to act. I can check call, check fold, bet call, bet fold or push. I can't fold here because I have way to many outs, unless I just want to cash. Check calling might be an option but and bet will commit me to the pot(I left out check raise because anyone who bet would be committed to the pot). Any bet would commit me to the pot for the most part so I took what I though was about a coin flip and pushed with all my outs. If the limped has Ax suited he isn't getting odds to call and the big stack will only call with a big pocket pair and I am ahead of that based on the number of outs I have. Well, the limper had A5 of hearts killing some of my outs and the big stack had KK. so I had 8 outs and had to avoid the rest of the hearts. The KK was in a terrible position even though he had the best hand. In the end I got the odds for the play but it didn't come through and the KK won. I looked at this as a chance to gain a ton of chips even though I'm taking a chance at not cashing. Was this a good move or a bad move. I think I make 2.5 times my buy-in if I fold the hand and play for the cash. I had a chance at the final table and the bigger money it has if I hit the hand. I think I played it the right way. If the dude doesn't have A5 hearts then he folds and thus the big stack has to make a call vs. a guy who has double through him twice already. I only need this to win 1/3 of the time to be the right play and I think it will work at a higher rate.

That's all for today...have a great day.

The Winter Classic

I wasn't lucky enough to be able to go to the Winter Classic. Instead I spent the weekend watching it rain and freeze on the windows of my car.

I don't have much to write about. I'm sitting in the clean room waiting for part of a test to finsh but to lazy to take off all the clothing that helps keep it clean. I have 10 more minutes to go for the test to finish so instead of leaving the room and coming back, I sit here and write.

Last night I got home ready for a nice evening at home. We made breakfast for dinner with sausage, eggs and a nice hashbrown mixed with pepperss and onions. A little hot stuff to help it out and I was ready to go. Then I remembered I had a meeting in 20 minutes. Problem was that the meeting was 25 minutes away. I flew out of the house with an unfinished plate of food sitting on the table.

I eventually got home 3 hours later and sat down to write an e-mail that had to go out and when I was done it was time to go to bed. An evening full of excitement.

I did talk to surf for a couple of minutes as he and his wife tailgated the Falcons game last night. What a way to spend the night. I guess that would work very well because you would have to drink a lot to want to sit through one of their games. I got home in time from my meeting to watch the end of the ass kicking they took. At least an insurance guy quit his job to become their quarterback.

That is it for today. Have a great day.

Coming Back From the Dead

It was a strange weekend with all the bloggers gone. I sat around with almost nobody to rail and felt deep pitted envy as people congregated at the WPBT Winter Weekend.

So Friday night I went and watched a R&B band play at a venue not to far from the house. they rocked pretty good but don't ask me the name of there group...I don't remember. Anyway, we got home without incident and I called it a night. I may have played a little but I don't remember playing.

Saturday I drove Speedy and Mrs. PE to the train station for their overnight trip to Chicago. My son really wanted to go and even packed a bag but in the end relented and stayed with me. From there we headed to pitching practice followed by a trip to the YMCA to sign my son up for basketball. He is such a little sports fanatic. Anyway, after some lunch and a trip to the movie store, I was home with my two remaining kids for the night.

My son through on his movie, something about hot wheels I think, and Softball E. went upstairs to hide like teenagers do so I fired up the laptop for a bit. I jumped onto Ultimate Bet to see what I had left there and saw a whole $5.65. I had withdrawn most of my bankroll from there months ago but left $50 to donk around with when I didn't feel like paying attention. So I jumped into a $5.50 PLO tourney for the last of my roll and what do you know...I ended up in 2nd place. It was a fun tourney in that the players liked to limp into pots and would fold most everything. this worked out well after the blinds got high and I moved into the top 10. As the tourney came to a close I picked my spots and had an even stack with my opponent when we got heads-up. This guy liked to limp so I raised a lot and after a while he got sick of it and pushed back with his QJ77. I had AAQJ but couldn't take it down as he spiked a set. It was all over a few hands later.

At some point during this tourney I opened a $3 knockout on Full Tilt. To make a long story short I went deep in it also with another 2nd place finish. This one hurt the same as the other one as we got it all in with each of us holding top pair but I had the better kicker but he caught his kicker and I went home. Still, 2 for 2 final tables is always nice.

after this we had dinner and watch a movie. At some point I fired up the $3 rebuy and made another nice run but missed the final table. In this one I was chip leader for much of the middle stages as a super donkey kept paying me off.he would then chip back up vs, other players and pay me off again. I eventually had to bust him but he helped me out a lot. My down fall was trying a resteal and ending up in a coin flip that lost. I had targeted the big stack and made my movie knowing he wouldn't fold. He woke up with JJ vs. my KQ and I couldn't catch up. I could have folded to a final 2 table finish but I really thought I was ahead considering his 60% flop seen numbers. You have to win a coin flip to go deep.

The rest of the weekend was spent picking up the wife and kid and going to a christmas gathering with friends. I even did most of the stuff on my honey do list so I have that going for me.

How About Some Blackjack

One of the most played games in any casino is blackjack and at Backgammon Masters, you can fill that need by playing online blackjack at their site. They have many things you can use to improve your and get you on the road to blackjack heaven.

To start, if you need to learn more about the game, you can get basic blackjack strategy to help you on your way. They talk about the history of the game as well as how to play the game in general. Who couldn’t use a little learning to improve any aspect of the games we play.

One of the great things about this site is that it is available in 12 different languages. It doesn’t really matter to me but it will make it easier for all those people out there that have English as a second language.

The also have a live support feature so you can have contact with a site rep. if you have any questions that come up during play. The live support feature is only available in English.

So in the end, if you are looking for 21 blackjack basic strategy are even just looking for blackjack articles, check them out and see how good your blackjack really is.

This was a paid review

Riverchasers

I played the Riverchasers last night and did well early. It started with KQ in the big blind when I called a late position raise. This raise could be an early steal but more than likely any ace, any two face cards or some kind of connecters. The flop comes Q72 and I bet 180 into a pot of 225. My opponent come back over the top to 750 and I tank. I ask my self if this is him representing TPTK or maybe a flush draw with the 2 clubs on the board? He could have a pocket pair. I re-raise to 1500 and he eventually folds. This was a good start to the tourney. I probably fold if he pushes.

The next nice hand I get is 69 in the BB. The flop comes Q99 and I check raise my opponents raisefrom240 to 400 inducing a call. I don't want to see another Q though. The turn is a 3 and I make a pot size bet and he folds. The biggest hand of the day was getting a free look from the BB with 53 off suit. In a blind vs. blind hand I flopped an OESDwith the flop of 468 2 spades. The SB bets out and I call getting the right odds. The turn is a 7 giving me the straight but putting a flush draw on the board. The SB pushes 1500 into the pot and I think a bit. He could push with the flush but can I get away from it. I will still have chips left and I can stack him if he doesn't. It costs me 1500 to win 2100 and I think I am ahead at this point. I'm more worried about a higher straight than the flush but I make the call and he has top 2 pair and I hold up.

I lost my first big pot when I completed from the SB with QT suited. The flop is T46 and I bet out and the BB pushed. I should have folded but I couldn't pull the trigger and he showed AT. Down to 2400 chips at this point and I go into aggressive mode. I started picking random hands to raise with and eventually got a call when I held KJ suited but by a QJ and I double up to 5.5K. A couple of hands later the cut off raise while I am sitting on the buttona and I push with KQ figuring this to be a big stack steal. It isn't often that you are actually stealing with AA and even though I flopped a K, I was done.

We'll thats it for this week. I have one other post to put up either today or tomorrow but after that I'm done writing until Monday...unless I change my mind. And to all you bloggers in Vegas...Have a great time.

Looking for an Online Casino

If you are looking for an online casino and don’t live in the US, you may want to consider Commodore Casino English Blogs for you gaming needs. They have everything that a gamer needs to fill endless hours of fun playing there favorite online casino games and many more.

If you are looking for table games, they have a full selection. You can play Black Jack, Pai Gow, Craps and many others including Texas Bonus Poker for the poker player in us. Texas Bonus Poker is a variation of Texas Hold’em that requires bets as each Flop, Turn and River card is dealt. You also have the option to fold if you think you are behind the dealer. They also offer Slots, Video Poker and Lottery games if you like the chance of a quick big payday.

But the game that sets them apart from other online casinos is their 3-D games. This new game puts you at the track for your horse betting fix. There are different views to choose from so that you can find the seat that best fits your personality. Games stakes range to fit your budget and you get to pick your horse…just like at the track. Odds are set for each horse in the race and you win just like the race track. Good fun at the race track on your computer.

So give them a try and win.

This was a sponsored review.

The Truth and the Mookie

Sometimes playing a solid games works and other times it doesn't. Last night was one of those nights when my game was working well.

I started off with a very solid table in the Mookie and stayed uninvolved early like I normally do. I like the idea of showing tightness against players that I know pay attention. Anyway, The first hand I played was 55 from early position. I raised to 90 and got two callers and saw a flop of 732 with two diamonds. I think this is a fine flop for me figuring that anyone who called would do so with high cards. I bet 210 into the pot and the next player raised it to 750. The other player folded the action to me. Now this send out some warning signs but it could easily be someone testing my continuation bet with AK or a flush draw. I take my time and re-raise it to 1410. This gives me the option to fold without killing me but also shows that I'm not messing around. My opponent use must of his time bank before calling. Now I'm thinking I may be in trouble...but wouldn't he push if he thought he was ahead...I did have half of my stack in the middle. He is on the flush draw is my guess. So the turn comes with a 7 and I tank a bit as first to act. I have about 1500 left with the board showing a pair of 7s and a 2. I had put him on a flush draw and his actions to this point indicate that I am ahead. I don't want to see the river but how do I bet him off the hand? I make a bet off 777 into the 3K plus pot and he lays it down after much deliberation. Now at 4.5K I didn't play another hand for 30 minutes.

I won a few small pots with raises but lost a bit when I lost QJ vs KJ. The flop was JAA and it checked around. On the turn I slow called a bet with intentions of check raising on the river and it set up as planned. My opponent made a min-raise and I re-raised 4x his bet to look like I wanted a call. I think it would be hard make this call with anything but an ace but he did and I'm at 4K. I then hit back to back hands vs. the same play a bit later when I raised his limp, causing him to fold followed by getting TT and raising his BB. He pushed and I had solid odds to call getting better than 3-1 and he flips over K9. My hand holds up and I'm at 6.1K.

My stack fluctuated a bit for a while but I maintain it with a few steals when I get dealt 88 in middle position. I raise it to 1600 and my opponent pushes. I know this player, as we all do, and I know he could do this with a number of different cards. If I call and lose I am down to 200. I look at the situation and realize we are getting deep and that both of us need some chips. He has made plays like this in the past and realize that with his range of hands I have to call. I figured him for a low pair and hoped it was lower than mine. He could have a bigger pair but it costs me 3200 to win 7100 or about 2.2-1. I only need to win 29% of the time to be a winning hand over the long haul so I call. He has 55 and I am happy. What more could I ask for? I made a read and was right and have my opponent on the ropes. A 5 flops and I'm crippled.

It was a tough call for me and I got penalized for making the right decision but I'm fine with that. It would have been nice to be sitting with around an 11K chip stack but that is life. 2 hands later with a short stack I get quads.

That's 2 Mookies in a row that I was on my game and got nothing for it. I made my own mistakes last week but it sucks when I make the right call and get treated like waffles for it.

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

The truth shall set you free. Speedy now realizes this as I broke her stubborn spirit with her confession last night. Final punishment was delivered in segments that were related to her mistakes.

No T.V. for a week for using my phone without permission. This was not that big an issue but she has to know that she has to ask first.

For calling her boy friend while being grounded from the phone she got phone privileges taken away until Christmas. We would let her have 5-1- minutes once a day during the last phone grounding but this is none at all.

For lying we took away the computer until Christmas. This will be hard for her but she will get use to it. She will be able to use it for school if she ha to use it.

We also took away playing outside in the snow until this weekend. This really isn't much of a punishment because it covers only a couple of days but it is something she likes to do and I'm still upset over everything.

She can earn the right to go to Chicago on Saturday if she behaves. Yes dad can still be forgiving. Stay tuned for the next episode of "Almost Certain Death"

Almost Certain Death

Speedy Enthusiast almost died last night. It near demise wasn’t caused by the snow storm or an unfortunate accident. It was caused by something that we can all avoid but sometimes fail to understand. She lied.

I forgot my phone yesterday morning. It was on the charger and in my rush to get to work I left it. I thought about it a few minutes after I left home but I went many years without a cell so I figured I could last a day. Now let us move to 6 pm last night.

I arrived home with all the lights on but nobody in the house. I walked towards the kitchen I saw my phone and went over to get it. It was on, which I thought was strange. I had turned it off when I put it on the charger but maybe I forgot this time. It says I have a few messages so are put it to my ear and hit delete as the information I’m hearing has already been taken care of or doesn’t require an action…Until the last one. “why have you been calling my phone and hanging up? Please stop or call the right number.” I saved the message.

I don’t really understand what has happened at this point so I look at the numbers that have been stored on the phone and realize that ther are a bunch of number that don’t have the names attached to it. The problem here is that anyone ho has my number has been stored and thus a name will show up if someone calls. I look to see when the calls were made and see that Speedy was the only one home at the times indicated on the phone. The real kicker here as that she was grounded from using the phone because of things she had done a few weeks earlier. Now I’m pissed.

When she gets home I sit her down and tell her she has one chance to give me the right answer to the two questions I have. Why did you turn on my phone and why did you make eight phone calls. She failed both questions.

I noticed that the one number on the phone was that of her boy friend. She insisted she didn’t call him. I explained that I had no reason to call him and that the call was made while she was home. I even showed her how I can tell if the call was incoming or out going. She still insisted she didn’t call. I am not happy. I give her another chance buy saying that she cannot go on her girl scout trip to Chicago, with her mom the girl scout leader, unless she answers correctly. She failed. She will not being going to Chicago but mom will.

Around this time, Mrs. PE was check messages on our regular phone. There was a message from her boy friends saying that he was sorry for missing her call and that his mom didn’t tell him right away about the call. She says that she didn’t call.

Maybe this is all circumstantial evidence but it points in one direction. We sit down again and I explain that either she was lying or that her boy friend and his mother were lying. She says she isn’t lying so I say that I’m going to call her boy friends mom and explain that they can no long talk because he is lying to about my daughter and that she must be a bad mother for lying for her son. Speedy didn’t back down. She still insists she didn’t lie. I called the mother and told her that Megan was grounded and could not talk to her boyfriend until I said it was OK. I’m not sure how long that will be.

I don’t really understand why she can’t admit she was wrong. I’ve explained that the she gets in far less trouble by telling the truth. Did I like the fact she used my phone without me knowing it? No I don’t but there are a lot of worse things a kid could do. I would have added a week to her sentence and it would have been over. Now she gets nothing. No T.V., computer, phone, no trip to Chicago, no dance this Friday, no reading unless it is for school, no riding the bus home and waiting for mom to get home and no freedom. She is done. I can not tolerate lying and will not let it go. This is not a white lie, this is blatant disrespect and insubordination. It is also stealing in that she took something that didn’t belong to her and used it without permission. I am a surly bastard right now.

As the Director of Softball

Not much to say today about poker.

I have almost finished stage one of the action plan that I feel in needed to move the softball part of the organization in the right direction. One of the first things I did was lo make a list of things that are solid with the program as it sits. I then looked at the areas that need help and made a list called Things We Know.

Things that we know:

We have a transition league that seems to be successful.
We have a minor league that seems to be successful.
We have a major league that seems to be successful.
We have a junior travel league that struggles to put a competitive team on the field.
We have a 12U travel team.
We had 5 area girls try out for a proposed 14U travel team.
There are about 22 area girls playing 14U travel for surrounding area teams.
We had no 10U travel team last year and have none planned for 2008.

From this point I looked at other established programs to see what they had done in the past, both good and bad, to see if I could speed up the learning process for the administrator of our league. I found some great information on the web and realized that many of these solid organizations have had the same issues that we are seeing and thus we can try and learn from their experiences.

I have also come up with a plan to field semi-travel teams that are made up of in-house all-stars for each age group that doesn't already have a travel team. They would play in one or two tourneys only but it will give them a chance to experience some of the benefits of playing travel ball. Additionally, it will give some of the parents a chance to see what playing ball is really like and to give hopefully a nudge to one of these parents to become a coach for the next batch of young ladies who want to play travel ball.

I have also looked at how we coach the kids and hope to create a guide book for coaches to follow. We already have a book that shows drills for all aspects of the game but I think giving the volunteer coaches a structured method of coaching these kids will help focus the group as a whole. My experience has shown that if you structure the practices so that that kids know what is coming next, they are better prepared to maintain focus and thus will improve more efficiently. In the end, what we want is to give the girls a chance to improve their skills and to have fun.

As a coach for both travel ball and in-house teams, I only look for three things to happen. Number one is that the kids have fun. This really goes without saying because we are not trying to develope world class players. That is for the private club teams to do. Number two is putting in the effort. All I can ask from the kids is to play hard and stay focused. They don't have to be slaves to the game but their parents have paid money for them to play so I think they should put in the effort. The last thing I look for is improvement. I don't think I've had one player that didn't improve while I coached them. This isn't that amazing but I think I get more out of having a player who had no clue at the beginning of the year turn into some what of a player than a good player who just got a little better. It is really fun watching the kids gain confidence during the season.

Typical Overall

Sometimes the weekends are good while other times they are bad. With the winter weather coming in I wasn’t sure how last weekend would end up but I guess it was ok overall.

Friday night I arrived home from work and loaded everyone into the car for the holiday under the stars event that my town puts on every year. It is semi boring but the kids have a good time and it takes place down town so we can head into a couple of the bars and have a warming drink if needed. Anyway, it sounded like the added a few things by putting things in the town square so we parked at the middle school and took the shuttle to our destination. There was a tent for arts and crafts and other similar things as well as cookies and hot chocolate but it was at least 100 people deep and the tent was packed so we didn’t stop. There was also an ice skating rink…er…and area that had plywood with water frozen on it where the kids could rent skates and go ice skating. That was a joke so the last thing was the Santa line. It was the longest line ever so instead of waiting we made the decision to head down town, a few blocks away, and see what there was to do down there. The place was a ghost town and all of the businesses were closed except the bars and the one place there is to eat. At this point I am very disappointed because a hot drink with a shot of random alcohol was what I needed on the cold blowing night. In the end we headed back to the shuttle, jumped into the van and went and got some hot chocolate and/or various flavored coffees at the coffee shop down the road. By the time we got home the donkament had started so I didn’t even have that to settle into for the night.

I did have a conference invitation sitting on my screen when I got back and I chatted with random bloggers playing various games of skill on Full Tilt. Eventually, GCox, Numbono, IT, Surf, HOP, and I got a last longer bet going on the $5 Razz tourney. In the end Surf took down the last longer and ended the tourney in 3rd place for a nice little prize. The evening ended for me on the Razz cash table where I ended up almost 3 buy-ins with the great skills I posses.

Saturday I put up some outside Christmas stuff in the sleet and snow but I refused to put the lights on the gutters. The ladder was no place to be with ice growing everywhere and we instead started putting up all the inside stuff. We got much of it done and only had 4,271 fights as we tired of the chore. The evening ended with me playing a little but having a great time as IT, Surf, NB and I had a last shorter bet going for the $1 Fergie on Full Tilt. The first one out wins $5 from the other players unless he is the very last overall and then it is $10. I get dealt T5 UTG and push. One player calls me with 44 but I hit a T on the flop. Praying for a 4 I realize the guy needs one more diamond on the river to hit a flush and he does to knock me out. Everyone else is still alive and I take it down. I missed the last spot overall by 1 place. Still, I made money so all is good.

Sunday was normal and with the weather improving a little I put up the lights on the gutters before heading to a friends house to watch some football. When the game was over I headed to a softball meeting to get voted into the Director of Softball position and then went to the bar for a couple of drinks to end the evening. By the time I got home it was almost 10 and so I sat down, watched a little T.V. and crashed like a rock around midnight. Pretty much a typical weekend with a couple of drinks added.

Are You Looking for an Online Casinos?

If you are looking for an online casino, you may want to consider Gamblux. They have all the information you need to find the right online casino you are looking for. They have bonus offers for those who like to chase the best free money and also have a list of the percentage payouts for the sites that they promote. There is also sections for casino news, articles on the different games and casino guides on how to play. So give them a try if you are looking for the best action in town.

This was a paid review.