Great Week and Weekend

I have been fairly busy lately but haven't had too much to blog about. Stacie and I got back from a 4 day business trip to Savannah last week. It went well during the day and we had the evenings to walk down River Street and enjoy dinner and drinks. We went with another coworker that did all of the driving for us since it is his territory and he has a company vehicle.

I played a little .01/.02 on the Saturday before our trip. This was the longest session I have ever done at a cash game. I was able to turn 4 into 14, so that's at least one more week of playing Wil's game. Yay!

I was doing pretty well in the Mookie and was poised to make it to the final table when my preflop push of JJ was called by the initial raiser's (wwonka69) 10s. He hit a ten, and as Mookie put it, "Brain takes one to the junk and is out." This bummed me out a little because I felt I was playing pretty well. I was especially intimidated with Hoy on my right. I was able to play some good cards and had DQB once against a pusher's AK. That was the only race that I was involved in and it went my way. I managed to lay down cards when I was beat and it felt like a nice clean run. I don't remember putting any beats on anybody and the table talk was great as usual. I was having a particulary good time with the gnome (blipboop) on my left. We'll see how this week goes.

Over the weekend I made my first attempt at some tokens for Don's big game. I first tried the $8 turbo and quickly found that was not for me. I then entered a $6 attempt and bubbled when my BB 2 pair on the flop was bested by the SB's better 2 pair on the flop. I decided to stop after that because I was cutting into my Mookie fund. I may try some SNGs for cash and build some more bankroll.

Thursday night didn't go so well with Clemson losing to Va Tech, but my Tigers managed to eek out a win against Ole Miss. For a game that looked like a trounce from pregame stats and Ole Miss player suspensions, they sure put a a scare in to Auburn. Their QB was doing a great job and it could easily have gone the other way. The rest of the Saturday games went the way I would like with Ga Tech winning and Univ of Ga losing. The Texas / Texas Tech game was a great one to watch. Man, even down 21-0, Colt McCoy showed alot of talent for a freshman to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Auburn still needs to have Arkansas lose 2 upcoming SEC games for us to make it to the championship and still have a shot at playing for the national championship. I just know you are wishing us luck.

Saturday also consisted of buying a new couch. This was a little unexpected. We have been wanting to replace our love seat and happened to see one we liked and said WTF. We bought the floor model and they had it delived to our place within 2 1/2 hours. Definitely didn't expect to be sitting on a new couch sorting the paper Sunday morning.

For Sunday, we made up for the lazy Saturday by cleaning house, washing cars and moving some plants in the front beds. I would have been much happier just sleeping on our new couch! We finished the weekend having a great dinner with some friends at Doc Chey's.

How To Blow A Chip Lead, Part 2

This was not intended to be a series, but my play indicates otherwise. In Wil's game last night, I was fortunate enough to catch some good cards and lay down some 2nd best hands before the break. This put me in good position to maintain a higher than normal chip stack.

After the break is where I was able to get some serious chips. Others may differ, but I was happy with the way I played the hand that put me in the chip lead. I had pocket Aces in early position and raised 3x BB with 1 caller behind me. I hit another A on the flop and I didn't see any hand that beat me or could reasonably catch to beat me, so I checked my trips. I thought this might show me being afraid of the A and would give my opponent a chance to catch a good card. I knew any bet on the flop and he would fold. The turn came another harmless card (9) so I checked again and gave him one more chance to catch and maybe get some more chips on the river. The river paired the board (another 9) for my full house. I hoped that he had a piece of it so I checked 1 more time hoping for a probe bet. Lucky for me, the river gave him trip 9s and he bet at it. Now I decided to do my over bet and make him think he beat my AK, KK or QQ. I tripled his bet which wouldn't leave much behind so I figured he would go all in anyway. I was correct and did my only successful slow playing of AA that I can recall. I completely realize the great flop is why I played the hand this way. I hope that means I am getting better at playing boards instead of trying to take them all down before or on the flop.

This chip lead didn't last long as I tried too many preflop raises with marginal / poor hands. I had plenty of chips to make it to the final table, but got stupid and greedy for some reason. I was drunk on my own power I tell ya. This is a perfect example of the other kind of tilt where you are still riding your rush versus a tilt caused by a beat. This of course quickly turns in to desperation tilt where I push with a crappy hand and Mow calls me with his QQ. This was a horribly blown opportunity to let others knock each other out and wait for a hand or two and then do some playing at the final table. Oh well, hopefully I can remember this next time. I need some more tuning up before 23Skidoo has his Atlanta bloggers home game next month. I will be playing against some of the best online players that also happen to live in Atlanta.

Things to do in Atlanta

Before we headed up to NYC for a touristy vacation, I started to think about things to see in
Atlanta. Stacie and I try to take a couple of days off each year and see what our own town
has to offer. Here is a list of things we recommend or are still going to do:

The Georgia Aquarium
Stone Mountain
Turner Field
See something at the Fox Theatre
CNN studio tour
Centennial Olympic Park
World of Coke
The High Museum
MLK Jr. tour
Piedmont Park - Our version of Central Park, it was even designed by the sons of Frederick
Law Olmsted
Fat Matt's Rib Shack
Get your drink on and have some good Thai food in the Virginia Highlands area
Put on your nice threads and head to the night clubs in Buckhead
Get a tattoo or people watch in Little Five Points
Grab an F.O. at the Varsity
See Peachtree Battle at Ansley Park Playhouse. A play with some jokes about local
celebrities and politicians may lose out of towners, but the premise and characters of the
story should equally offend / entertain everyone.
Hiking and waterfalls - north of Atlanta
Callaway Gardens - a little south of Atlanta

And the most obvious thing to do......call one of your favorite ATL bloggers - Surf, Mo, Weak, Ski, CC, Kurokitty

Casino Night

One of our vendors put on a casino night in our warehouse last night. The company they hired did a fantastic job with their equipment and dealers. We had a craps table, some slots, blackjack, and some poker. I have never played craps so I hung will my coworker and he showed me a few things. I am pretty sure I was the big winner for the night, but I was not eligible for any of the prizes. I don't know why, but we had a very small turnout from customers. This was a little embarrassing for us, but it worked in favor for those customers that did show. We had 8 customers that pretty much got to divide the prizes. This included a dozen touch screen thermostats, poker chip sets, a wireless weather station, and some poker table tops. The grand prize drawing was a trip for 2 to Vegas and 3 nights in the Wynn. Can you imagine that? You have a free 1 in 8 chance to win a Vegas vacation! Lucky bums.

I was too tired to play last night but I am planning on doing the Mook next week. I was going to dump all of my remaining cash on FTP, but now the PokerStars is going to continue to let us play, I may have to put some there to keep giving it away at Wil's.

Road Trip to Dad's

My brother and I met at my Father's this weekend to help him with some projects that needed an extra set of hands. Dad lives in South Alabama, near Dothan, and my brother is in Huntsville. Since the weather was great, both my brother and I decided to ride our bikes. That put us both at 4+ hour trips each way with the roundtrip covering around 500 miles.

Other than a severe cramp in my left ass cheek on the way from Atlanta to Auburn, the ride down was great. I like to stop in Auburn because it is about the halfway point and it is where I change from interstate to 2 lane backroads. It's also fun to go back to the old college town and grab a bite to eat. Once I get on the 2 lane, the twisties and occasional stops help keep the legs stretched and the rear end from going numb. I was really looking forward to this drive. This is a road I have been driving for almost 20 years and know how many great curves and hills are along the route. I had my mp3 player loaded with Pearl Jam, Switchfoot, Hoobastank, Five For Fighting, and Republika. It is very easy to go way over the speed limit with "Ready to Go" coming through the earbuds.

About 2/3 of the way into the trip, the sun had set and the night sky was crystal clear. As I was ripping down a long hill, I watched the full moon in my side mirror rising like a rocket ship behind me. It was so bright and peaceful looking, it became a welcome companion as I rolled in later in the evening.

We helped Dad do some trim work and painting on his storage shed while listening to Auburn get their asses handed to them by Arkansas. BOOOOOOOOO! Later in evening, we spent a few hours feeding and watering all of his and my aunt's horses. This was followed by a very late dinner. Dad's schedule is a few hours behind mine due to work and the difference in time zones. The late dinners and his smoking are the only drawbacks to my visits.

I got a late start coming back home on Sunday. My brother had to get back in time to cut his grass, so I decided that I would stay and help finish all of the "2 man" stuff. This put me leaving south Alabama a little after 3:30. I wanted to make sure I got home before it cooled off too much and became uncomfortable. The temp was awesome and I had one of the best rides I have ever done. I tagged along with a couple on a Harley for quite a while. They slowed me down just a bit in the curves, but made up for it on the straight stretches. I can't tell you enough what a thrill the drive was back up to Auburn. I loved carving through the sun dappled roads at 70 and jamming to great tunes. This time of year with the dry leaves gently raining down around you is one of the greatest riding experiences you'll ever have.

I fueled up in Auburn and turned on to the interstate and headed north by northeast. My shadow immediately jumped ahead of me and pointed the way home. I was worried that the rest of the trip was going to be boring and give my left cheek a workout again. The highway is great for nothing but covering long chunks of asphalt at near triple digit clips. With few curves, it can easily drone on you if you are running 115 miles. I was fortunate enough to get behind a couple of great pace cars and stay above 80 all the way home. I got in with a particulary rowdy bunch and were covering 2 miles a minute for about a 5-7 minute stretch. This is not my normal behavior, but the road was wide open for miles with great visibility. You can imagine that Stacie was a bit surprised when I arrived about 30-45 minutes early. I pulled in just in time for a great dinner, watched Smallville, and called it a weekend. I hope all of your's were at least half as fun as mine.

Fuck You Bill Frist!

For my friends / readers that don't normally go to my poker related links, you may have missed the hot topics about some recent legislation.

Here are some excellent recaps:

From Ryan:
http://www.absinthetics.com/blog/2006/09/30/the-moral-equivalent-of-online-poker/
http://www.absinthetics.com/blog/2006/10/02/tut-tut-looks-like-rain/

Pretty much everything from Wil and Joanne on Card Squad.

I am ashamed that I did not do more to help stop this. I sent the emails to the representatives, but I should have done more follow up when I got their lame ass reasons for supporting the legislation. I got the message about the phone march, but forgot to do it during my lunch or when I got home. In addition, I didn't join the Poker Players Alliance like I should have and help support the lobbying group. I guess a part of me didn't expect it would happen so I didn't do as much as I should have. Shame on me.

I am not very politically aware / active, hell, I don't even want to be on my homeowner's board. I am more the type that just gets pissed off when certain things happen. They don't have to happen to me, I just get frustrated and discouraged when I see too much government intrusion or abuse of powers by authority figures (Congress, the President, police, priests, foster parents, etc.) I absolutely start to lose it when special interest religious based intrusion occurs. I should be more involved instead of just being the guy that bitches and whines after things happen.

It is not just the poker legislation that worries me, it is more and more of our liberties and freedoms are being discarded lately. With abuses of eminent domain and the broad abilities to hold someone without representation or being charged with a crime, what is to say I may not lose my property or freedom some day because it suits someone else. Our current representation has been on a power kick and is getting all kinds of bullshit passed as long as you somehow connect it to battling terrorism. Our government's actions since 9/11 have frightened me about the future way of life in this country. I fear our future will be changed more by being "protected" from terrorism than by any terrorist's act. Bush wants our government to have some of the same powers as in England. Didn't we separate 230 years ago because we wanted freedom from religion and a heavy handed governing body?

I love this country and realize that I have a terrific life that is full of things that a majority of the world can only dream of owning. We have wonderful, hard working, intelligent citizens that live in some beautiful landscapes and most of us want for very little. I just want it to be a little more like it used to be and develop more wonderful opportunities. Then again, Canada looks really nice.