Good holiday weekend

I've thoroughly enjoyed this holiday weekend. Really. Friday night we had my daughter's softball game...which although a blow out courtesy of the other team, it was pretty enjoyable. My son and I took the opportunity to pass baseball outside the fence, and the boy was actually beaning it at me for once. Particularly early on, he was wicked accurate too. As he got tired, I could see the shift. This imaginary line needs to be noted from now on during games. Later that night Big Red and I headed out to Frank and Julie's new house for a card game. Frank opted to run the tournament(s) in the style of the Imperial Palace, since we'll be going there in about a month. I had told everyone that Las Vegas tournaments for the most part are fast paced, and involve a great deal of the luck factor at the paltry levels. Starting with $1,300 in tournament chips, the blinds immediately start out at $25/$50 and move up every 15 minutes. You've gotta hit your dinger early and keep on hitting away at it. I finished 3rd and doubled my $10 buy in. Big Red took down 2nd and Jim B took down the top spot. That was actually the second tournament of the night, Big Red and I had missed the first due to softball. We played another after that and then started up a cash game. All told for the evening I think I made like $10-$15, and drank a lot of Miller Lite. The most memorable event for me was the shocked expression of the guy at the end of the table (whose name escapes me...and probably just as well I don't mention it here) when after my big bet on the flop, the turn and the river, and him calling along for the ride...and I turn over my pair of ducks, and he quickly turned over his King...something...telling me he had three of a kind Kings, to which I grinned and had him check the board again, for the other 2 lying there, and using the two Kings on the board that it gave me the boat. That was a big pot! It carried me on to 3rd place when I went card dead. The look though was worth much more than the pot was. Matt Damon couldn't have done it any better. And he was way up on a roll at that point, because he had been the top place finisher in the first tournament that they played. He just missed it. Rather he was just blinded to it. I don't even think he had a very strong kicker, if his Kings were to have faced someone else with just a King. Sorry to say it folks, but those are the moments that I live for. I know...that's mean!

Saturday evening we headed over to Matt and Jody's for a cookout and to watch some of the UFC fight on Pay-Per-View. We didn't actually stay for the Liddell/Jackson fight, because it was late, and I had developed another one of my killer headaches. Nothing was touching it at all. I just wanted someone to drive a spike into my temple to relieve the pressure. I didn't even join in the poker game that came together, since I just couldn't focus. We did play several games of volleyball and injured several adults. It does suck to get old. The bones and muscles just don't do what they used to. I also got involved with Tennis/Bowling/Baseball games on the Wii, that they had set up in the basement. The kids absolutely LOVED IT! I did too, it was a blast. I think I may have thrown my arm out pitching! I slept in the next day, the headache was still there, and actually didn't go away until later in the afternoon on the drive back from my parent's house. We'd gone over there to have lunch with the folks. The kids had a good time, at least Cole anyway. He got to shoot hi BB gun, and play with his little compound bow. Just ran around and got to be a boy! Upon our arrival at the house...Big Red and Whit headed to the store...and came back with a Wii of their own! We also called some friends, and had people over that night for another round of cards, this time just a cash game. Buy in for $10, initially, later on if you busted $20 was okay too. Good crowd. I made some monster plays, with AND without cards. Sorry JJ. but I just didn't think you were all that fond of your cards. When you offered to pay me a buck instead of the 10 I had bet to see my cards, if you folded, I knew I had you. You really did make me for the set, didn't you!?! I showed, that I didn't and you would have had me. Sorry dude, but you and Matt are the only 2 people there that I can even hope to run a bluff on. Not that you both aren't good players, but it's because you are that you pause in the face of a big bet, because you're actually paying attention. Some of the others, wouldn't have even considered that they were up against anything more than a pair of something. At one point thanks to Cowboys, which held up against a few callers, I scored a BIG POT. I think at one point I had just under $40 in front of me, still working with the initial $10 I'd bough in for. But one big call against JJ didn't materialize for me, and I gave away a chunk of it. I was open ended and with the bet he made I knew he didn't like his cards that much...I think he had top pair, which wasn't that high and his kicker was weak. I had an open ended straight draw and called the seven bucks after the flop. The cards after that just weren't all that great, and I had to go into hiding. I cashed out up, with $16-$17-ish but that was a far cry from where I'd been. Matt cashed out for $65 I think, BUT he was in for around $50, suffering some monster beats early on. I really don't like starting out with $10 at these cash games. Either way though I'm playing cards.

Today, we're heading over to Big Red's aunt's house for a cookout and some more volleyball. Ouch, this is gonna hurt! Poker tonight is highly unlikely...but maybe I'll take chips just in case! : )

I'm off tomorrow, and hopefully I get a little online play in to inch closer to that Poker Rewards bonus. I want to put that thing to bed, so I can actually say I finished up with more than I started out with. I'm down $70 from where I bought in, due to some tough beats. Since then, I've just been treading water. I did loosen up my play a great deal, since I was really cheating myself out of pots, and was relying on the Big Hands to hold up over time, but the money available to me on that site just wasn't there to allow me to sit back and wait for Monsters and the little pots they were tending to afford me. When I got action from others when I had 'em I was getting crushed by garbage...and for a while it was affecting the game. Instead lately I've been relying on post flop play, and my ability to walk away from bad hands. Some of these yo yo's just don't know when to walk. I'd like to profit (by play) back to at least where I started, and just count the $100 in bonus dollars as gravy, but then again, money is money. And coupled with the $50 Visa card I got from PokerSavvy, when I finally finish both promos, I'll be up from my initial buy in. I should be able to coast through another 300 hands to get there. Then the decision is where do I go then? Play for bonus but don't play just for the bonus.

Anyway how's that for an uber post...I gotta go.

Regards,

cheer_dad