Time to Push Back

I feel so beaten down by life right now. I could go on and on about all the things that suck right now and point fingers at the decimation that is my life but the reality of it all is that I have probably caused most of it if I actually took the time to go over everything.

I’m unmotivated.

Maybe its me going through a mid-life crisis, feeling self absorbed and rejecting criticism because I don’t want to look into the mirror for fear of what I might see…I know that much of this comes from trying to deal with the burdens of balancing my personal desires with my responsibilities. But the weight of financial hardship, trying to work through nine months of partial pay and feeling like a red-headed step child has left me bitter with tinges of surly.

Its time to work out of the rut.

Knock Knock...

Is there anyone out there?

Life has gotten in the way of this here blog.

I could write about it but it would be at least a long short story.

I hope everyone out there in the blog world is doing well.

That was fun

Well I did it...I played online poker for the first time in over 3 months. My buddy waffles sent me a little scratch so I could give it a try and what do you know...I had fun. The best part of it all was cashing in two out of the three MTTs that I played in which included a final table appearance in the PLO tourney I played in. I played weak tight for part of the hold'em tourney I cash but turned it around when I needed to do so and took 23rd out of just under 1000 low limit morons. Turbos take such skill.

This whole pandemic thing is driving me crazy. I understand that this flu is going to spread across the world but it is a flu and as such we will require bed rest and liquids to help us through the illness if we happen to get sick with this swine variety.

I'm meeting a blogger tonight. OSU is flying into Chicago for work and his Brother's graduation from college so we are going to get together for a beverage or something after my son's ballgame. It should be a good time.

Do We Have a Pandemic?

Since the Swine Flu is basically a regular flu that may just spread a little fast, I offer this.

Pandemic 2

Like Riding a Bike?

What can I say, my two fans have spoken up so I must move this thing along.

I have played no poker since the last time I posted so lets not even pretend that this here post has anything to do with the game. But what I can do is catch you up with a few things in life.

Since I’m learning how to write again, I think we will do this in a few short bullets and let it go at that.

1) Work still sucks and the part time thing because of our great economy is still kicking my butt.
2) Softball E. is having a very good season for her high school team with an ERA of just over 1 and averaging about 12 Ks per game.
3) Baseball E. is starting his season and has tryouts for his first travel team on Sunday.
4) Speedy E. living life and driving dad crazy.
5) Mrs. PE keeps me from losing it almost every day.
6) I have very little desire to play poker right now.
7) Well, I would like to play but cannot justify the use of the money since I had to spend my bankroll just to pay some bills.
8) I’m sure there are more things but like I said…I am learning to write again.

Have a great day.

ZZZZZZZZZ....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I've been asleep at the wheel for a while. So much going on with the family that I just have not taken time to update this part of my life. I'm not sure anyone is interested anymore since I left the blog-world a couple of months ago...Lets see if I can get back in the groove.

My Addiction

Having an addictive personality can cause issues with anyone. The fact that I know I have this issue helps me to look at the warning signs that mean I’m taking things to serious and thus, allow me to step away from things from time to time. But I’m not sure Facebook will allow me to step away.

I created my account to get in contact with my cousin. It had been about 20 years since I had talked to him and a conversation with my mom gave me the idea to see if he had a page. He did and we have had a couple of conversations with him since the first connection. Rob, I know I still owe you a story and I will get it to you eventually. But, what happened is a test of my resolve.

I find that I open up my home page and leave it open on my laptop. I will check for updates on a regular basis throughout the day. I will chat with friends that didn’t have my IM and make random comments to their updates. I am a Facebookoholic.

There…I have that off my chest…I feel better.

Life Goes On

No, I have not died…No I have not been playing poker online. I have had an interesting month since the last time I thought it was important to write.

Let’s start with life…

I was sitting in my chair a couple of weeks ago, watching TV and chatting on the girly box when my oldest daughter reminded me that I needed to take her to a friend’s house to take care of their dog. So I get up from my chair and my hand has fallen asleep. I have a slight tingling sensation but why worry about something like that. I probably just leaned on it wrong.

So we head to the house and I wait in the car for her to let the dog out and give it some food when I realize that my hand still feels asleep. Not like it was but kind of dead. This worried me a bit and I hurried home to contact a friend who’s girlfriend is an EMT or something like that anyway. She tells me to call the ER and talk to a nurse to see what they think I should do. By this time I feel the sensation in my forearm and a little in my bicep. So I give the ER a call and they say call my doctor because they will not give any recommendations without seeing me in person.

I call my doctor…I surly dude who doesn’t like the fact that it is almost 11:30 at night when I call. I tell him what is going on and he relieves my feels by saying it doesn’t appear to be a heart attack based on the fact that my chest doesn’t hurt and I’m not feeling sick. Then the hammer drops when he says it sounds like a stroke.

Iwalk into the other room and kindly as my wife if she could give me a ride. I think it would be a stupid move to get behind the wheel of a car if there was any chance of a stroke or heart attack happening so we head to the ER. I new I’d get in fast because they really don’t want dying in their waiting area and we get to the area where they check blood pressure. 178/143 is not a good thing and they sent me into a room and hooked me up to some machines.

They did an EKG and my heart came back strong. No issues there so the next best thing was to do a CAT scan. I was a little worried about this because of the feeling numbness in my hand but it came back OK. So they gave me a little pill and walked out of the room for about an hour. When they came back my blood pressure was back to normal and I checked out.

The lesson I learned from this is to make sure not to skip taking your medication…for a week.

Everything else in life has been solid. Mrs. PE is going back to school, Softball E is getting ready for her first high school season, Speedy E can’t wait for the summer because she has a job lined up and will be able to buy her own computer with the money she earns, and Baseball E is just finishing up with basketball.

On the poker front, I have played a few live tourneys and have final tabled two of them. No big monetary gains but solid play from me overall. Have been doing pretty well in the cash games I’ve played which seems to get handed over to my wife for bills but that’s OK.

I’m glad to be returning to the spring…life always seems to be better when the sun shines longer and the air is warmer.

Borgota Bound

Well not really but it sounded good. Check out the coverage here

Playing Poker and a Fundraiser

Man it was so cold last week.

Anyway, not much happening that’s new or different. Its seems my/our life revolves around driving whichever child has event on any given day.

I did play a home game since the last time I wrote here and it was much the same as last time. Get deep and miss the money…again. I can’t complain to much as I felt I was playing my A game for the most part. I didn’t have the chance to run my stack up like last time but instead slowly increased my stack by winning smaller pots.

It started off well when I won the first hand dealt when I saw a flop with AQ suited and had a free look at the turn. I caught the nut flush draw and re-raised a small bet from a middle position player who likes to take stabs and he called. The river filled my straight and my opponent check folded. This seemed to be the way my night went…I one a bunch of hands without having to show my cards.

A little later I chopped a big pot when I flopped two pair and turn the nut boat. He held the same J9 for the chop. That was the hand I needed to win to start running over the table. Eventually we got down to two tables and I had a super donkey on my left. He wasn’t afraid to call with any two cards and won a number of hands with crap. I was hoping for a double up through him and he gave it to me on an AK3 flop when I had AK and he had A5.

I busted a player when I was in the BB. I announced I was calling blind, mainly because the guy on my right would have pushed ATC. The button pushed the remainder of his small stack in the middle and it was folded to me. I called getting about 6-1 on my money and we turn them over…I had no idea I would have AQ and ran over his AJ.

At the final table I made a few moves by stealing some blinds and ran into the hand that would define my night. I’m in the SB and bets are at 750/1500 and I have 5800 behind. UTG limps leaving 6K behind. Middle position player pushes to 2600 and super donkey calls from late middle position. I turn up my cards and see QQ. I go all in.

I think this is a no brainer. I don’t really care about the short stack…I want super donkey heads up and isolated. If I beat him and lose to the shorty I still have a net gain.

Anyway, BB folds and UTG tanks. Now when he didn’t push I felt I was safe. In my opinion, you can only call here with one or two hands…AA or KK. I mean if you hand wasn’t good enough to raise with preflop then it can’t be good now. But if you look at the odds he was getting, maybe calling is the right move. We he eventually he only called and super donk came for the ride. The flop came 983 and UTG shoves about 1K into the middle and super donkey folds. UTG’s set of 9s is golden and I miss the money by a couple spots.

I think what we see here is a guy who probably miss played his 99 and then felt he had to call…which I’m not sure I agree with but I can argue both ways. I think a better move from him is to raise/shove preflop since he only had an M of about 3 anyway. I really think limping with that hand is the wrong play most time but it was a good move for him that time as it really didn’t matter how he played it…I was going to get knocked out regardless. That is unless there are three players all in, in front of me…then I can fold QQ. Doesn’t really matter…I had a good time and won a few bounties to break about even.

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

This weekend we are throwing a fundraiser tourney together for my daughters softball team. It is a $20 re-buy with basically $5 going to the team and the rest to the prize pool. If anyone would like to make a donation of a re-buy, I will be donating anything I win back to the team as well as any unused re-buy funds I have left. You can contact me by email through my profile to make arrangements through paypal or a funds transfer on full tilt.

Regardless, it will be a fun time and hopefully I can either win some money for the team or at least help them out with many buy-ins.

Have a great day.