NDPT 2009 begins tonight

The new NDPT poker tournament year will officially get under way tonight at the house when the 25 signed up miscreants and malcontents show up and we get the cards in the air! Uncle June has predicted victory for us, in the form of him in 1st place and me in 2nd, as it was last year. And I think the year before (at least for him.) This has been a trend for him/us since we started celebrating our birthdays at the first NDPT gathering of the year. Today is his birthday, yesterday was mine, and we got in some serious celebrating last night. We even had a shot called a "Chocolate Cake" that was VERY tasty! I'm gonna have to find out how to make it. After drinks and appetizers at the Outback we headed to the Eagles for the weekly drawing, which none of us won. That's okay, though I'm saving up my luck for tonight. : P

Today has been long and I'm sorta dragging, but there's no time to let up now. There's a lot to get done! I leave work at 3:00pm. Pick up my daughter at the high school at 3:20pm and take her to the house. I'll have a few spare moments to maybe set up the tables for tonight in the basement, and count out some of the chips. Leave to pick my son up by 4:30 from basketball practice, and take him to the bowling alley, so he can pre-bowl tonight, in advance of Saturday morning, since he just learned that he's in a basketball tourney all this weekend. He must finish 3 games by 5:30, since another league starts. Then I get him home, and changed and packed up because he also plays the first basketball tourney game tonight at 9:00pm! Thank goodness, the mom of one of his friends is taking him, since we already had the card game scheduled. So she will be stopping by later to pick him up.

Then, if that weren't enough, Whit has a basketball game to cheer at tonight at 5:15pm, then immediately following that one of her girlfriends is having her Sweet 16 party, so Whit is driving a friend and herself to the party. Who knows when she'll return! I'm kidding, she's a responsible young lady, when she wants to be.

Somewhere in the midst of all this turmoil and rushing around, I've got to get ready for the tourney and all you happy people. So, if I'm running a little behind cut me some slack. Regardless, there will be a card game running at the house TONIGHT!

Oh and another thing... drunken online poker is somehow profitable to me. I three tabled latenight again on Bodog and moved up another $35 at the .10/.25 NLHE level. Was 500 hands too many? : )

Regards,

cheer_dad

Lots of stuff going on...

So, there's a lot of stuff going on. We are perched on the edge of the extended holiday season, what with Thanksgiving being next Thursday. (I swear the day after Halloween I walked into K-Mart and they already had their Christmas MUZAK tracks going.) What the hell! I hadn't even stolen all of the Reese's Cups out of Cole's Trick or Treat bag yet, and I'm listening to the sounds of Christmas already!?! C'mon people, this is nuts. So, there's Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and don't forget the Christmas shopping. I'm really contemplating this being the year of me shopping ONLY online! Why not, anything I buy, will likely be returned anyway. (Sorry Big Red, had to throw that out there!) : P

Then, don't forget work. It seems that "everything" gets put off until the end of the year at work to be accomplished. Right at the time, that everything else has to be done, and when everyone is trying to use the remainder of their "Use or Lose" leave balance and taking extra time off from work to spend time with their family and friends. I try to be a decent lead to my team and not hog the days surrounding the holidays. I like to think I'm pretty decent in that respect.

Also, there are a lot of poker games going on. Shuman is having another cash game on Friday. JR is hosting on Sunday at the Eagles our latest NDPT tournament. Then, December hits and we will be trying to fit in another regular season tournament for the NDPT, and then the follow-up Year End $50 tournament. Also, the Yanok's will have their December Qualifier on the 12th, to be followed the next day by their Year End Game, which is a freebie to all who have contributed throughout the year to the pot and scored a win/points. The prize pool will very likely be $1,000 for a max of like 16-18 people playing! Not too shabby!

And, don't forget Big Red's 40th Birthday Party on November 29th to be held in the Eagles banquet room, with JINX'D performing and kegs... Then, I have Whitney turning Sweet 16 on December 2nd. I think she'll be demanding to take her driving test that day too. Hello insurance rate increase!

Cole, is also trying to get in on the busier side of life. He's trying out for the basketball team at his Elementary School. He attended the clinic, and now he is in tryouts for going on the 3rd night tonight. The field has been narrowed from 33 kids to 17 now, and the coach is keeping 12. Keep your fingers crossed for the little guy, he's been hustling his little heart out! He told me last night, that if he didn't make it he'd be "crushed" and that's a quote! I let him know to do his best, but that if it didn't work out, we'd keep working through the off-season and keep on trying.

And speaking of basketball, now that football cheering season is over, basketball cheering season begins. And it's no secret they play a helluva lot more basketball than football games. Who needs a life anyway.

Finally, to help put me in a festive state of mind, I had a "run-in" phone conversation with the high school principal, complaining about how Geometry is going. Not just whining for my daughter, but this seems a problem apparent for almost all the kids in the class. I'm sure there's bound to be a chess geek in there who's getting it all, and bored, but he's not my problem, and will likely never get laid anyway. : ) The principal and I were doomed never to see eye to eye when during the course of the conversation he brought up the ole standby analogy of the Bell Curve. I immediately shut down. He might as well have cracked my Aces, with a 7-2os. I despise the utter concept of the Bell Curve. The idea that curriculum cannot be taught and some will excel, some will fail and the majority will exist in the curve of mediocrity. Well, fuck that! I don't subscribe to your point of view. To quote Stand and Deliver "...the students will rise to the expectation of the teacher!" However, the teacher MUST get the point across. I don't completely fault the teacher though, but the methodology and curriculum itself. There is no discovery in the methods of many of the subjects being taught today in our schools. Learning based on raw memorization of facts, and in the case of Geometry of postulates, and theorems, provides no means for discovery and understanding of concept. They preach logic, but do not teach logical thinking. You cannot read about it... you must experience it and also learn by 'great' example. There's got to be a better way, than how it is being done today, and how they were doing it nearly 25 years ago for me. Man... I feel old. But I'll stop on the GEO rant now! Before my blood pressure caps.

As you can see there's a lot going on, and I know there are some things I've left out. I'll try to keep up with the blog, and hope you keep stopping by to see what's up. But let me apologize in advance for my potential failure.

See several of you tonight at the Eagles. I'm in need of a little liquid sanity!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Holding pattern

I'm in a bit of a holding pattern. Of course I'm talking about whether I'll be playing cards tonight with the Jackson crew. (Recall my recent foray into the depths of pokerdom with the sharks, at Bob and Cassie's home. Coming away down only $20 after 6 hours, was actually nothing to be ashamed of, considering the night's loser walked out $1,500 lighter.) But enough with the recap...the reason for the holding pattern, is I'm waiting on Matt to call me today, to let me know where "tonight's" game is being held, if there will be one. Then, I need to find out when I can be there, and Matt, and maybe even JR this time. Cole has football practice til around 8:00pm or before. Matt said his kids have a game, so it would be about that time for him too. I'm just torn about whether I want to leave after getting home at 8:15pm-ish, to get wherever I'm going, get situated and then be able only to play up until midnight. I do have to work the following day, after all. It would be a truly dismal experience if the cards ran as cold as they did last time. BUT, it is poker and I could be playing it tonight...and well it's rather likely now isn't it. Unless of course Big Red changes my mind.

Several of us met last night at BW3's, with our children all in tow! The Murrays, the Jacksons, the Wolfes, and the Rubles (JR and his mom...who by the way is VERY COOL!) Several 23oz glasses later and the conversation and laughter was reaching new heights. Matt and I continued to discuss and re-analyze the previous "game" from last Friday night. One statement that struck me...and was true was... "Yeah, you were pretty down on yourself on Saturday, after that game." Then, later he added, "Aside from needing to loosen up a little bit, I can only fault your play on that final all-in bet on the turn(speaking here of the hand I busted on versus Carl.)" He went on to say, "The only hand that 'could' call you here, was the one that beat you. He was first to act...and when he checked to you, you should have followed right in behind him, and just see what materialized. Now, that isn't to say that when the river hit, and Carl bet out small or substantially, even to the point of putting you all-in, you might have had to make the call there, but that it was different." Either scenario...got all of my money in the pot, and away from me...but the second approach would have in fact been smarter. It would have at least given me more analysis time, to run it all out in my head. Online, I would have been less-inclined to make that call, because I was staring right at the 'four to a straight' and all he needed was a 6, which he had to torpedo my 9's over 8's. Why online would that have been so much easier for me? Why wouldn't it be just the opposite. At any rate...I want another crack at the game. I learned some things, and I hope I have, and will make some adjustments.

I'm hovering back around $101.xx on Bodog, after getting involved in some miserable hands. A lot of flopped 2-pairs for me, being turned and rivered into losing hands. Many times I've been able to drop them. But it's been expensive in terms of wasted bets. It has also, made me look a little weak. I even had the common sense to drop my cowboys the other night, when the board looked like Q-10-J-Q, and the guy to my left went nuts, and bet out hard. I made him for at least a Q, if not Q-J. Either way, I was behind, despite not starting there. Heck even Big Slick would have crushed me here, but I couldn't put him on that. Don't know why, just couldn't, but I could put him on the other two.

As you can see from the previous Blog Post that I'm signed up to play in the PokerStars' Bloggers Tournament. Hopefully that will pan out for me, and Cole's game will be over in time on Sunday. Notice I'm hopeful that his team will still be "in it, to win it" by then. I'll know after this coming Sunday if they will advance to the next playoff round, which is the following Sunday, and the same day as the Blogger Freeroll. I'm excited and looking forward to it. Wonder how many will sign up?

There's a lot going on in the month of October. The Red Snappers are headed to Bedford, PA, for a craft show extravaganza on Saturday, along with Patty, Libby and Ellen. Not sure but Shuman even mentioned maybe throwing together a cash game, this weekend sometime. Cole's playoff game is Sunday, then Monday (the 8th)is Columbus Day, then the next two days I'm off, and will be "staining" the accursed decks at my house. On the 9th, it's COLE'S B-DAY! The following Thursday the Jackson crew may have another game, depending... The 13th (afternoon,) is Cole's party. That evening JR is hosting his first tournament at his home, in his newly finished poker room...and did I mention there will be a KEG! The following day, Cole's playoffs could continue! Then on the 20th, is NDPT #10, although turnout may be diminished, due to WVU Homecoming Football game, and Bridge Day, etc... for some of my usual suspects. The 26th is our Anniversary! The 27th is Michele and Jeff's wedding reception, which we have to attend. Add all of that up and throw in football practice schedules for 3 nights per week until the bust out of the playoffs, and as you can see I'll be busy for a while. Maybe I'll get lucky, and Wheeling and Chester will have their table game/poker operation up and running by November 1st, and I can treat myself to a "Month-Well-Done."

For those not playing at the Jackson game tonight...wish me luck! Not them, just me! C'mon LUCK ME UP!

How's that for a post?

Regards,

cheer_dad