Enjoying The Time Off

I have managed to give back most of my pre-holiday SNG winnings in the past couple of days. I capped it off with a midrange performance in the WWDN last night. Wil himself was able to take a good bit of chips from me after a tried a stupid bluff and I thought I was pot committed after doing so. I finished out the hand even though I was beat to all but 6 outs. Cfinnn put the finishing touch on me when I went all in preflop with QQ and she called with AK suited that paired on the the flop. She had quite a roll and I'm glad she was able to cash with my chips. I also greatly enjoyed railing ISS Spock. Congrats to him as well for his cash in the tourney. We were all having a great time coming up with Star Trek puns. Wow, I just realized that my non-poker, non-Trek friends have completely tuned out now.

Busy poker night tonight. I've got a live game at 7, PokerSavvy freeroll at 9PM, and the Mook at 10 PM. I hope I am doing well enough in the homegame to miss the other two, no offense Mook. I'll be there next week.
*Update* There is no Mook tonight anyway so I won't feel bad about missing it.

I am all about the freerolls lately. PokerSavvy has a few a month that I'm able to play in but only 1 cash finish so far. I did manage to finish 357th out of 5000 last night in the $1k PokerStars freeroll for a whopping $.70. Not alot of money, but it is my best finish ever for a tourney with more than 150 people. Hey, if it was the WSOP, that would have been quite a haul. Of course the WSOP doesn't have 5 minute blinds. I am also signed up for PokerSavvy's $1K later in January.

Christmas went well. We had a low key weekend with Stacie's mother in town. Santa was good to us. I have my usual after Christmas shopping for myself to do. I always think of little things I would like after it is too late. I am going to buy a couple of sets of Copag cards and a button timer. Ebay is great for these kind of items. Maybe one day I'll buy some new chips and a table. One of my neighbors built a kick ass table that is the envy of our home game players. I doubt I will build one, but I've been keeping my eye out for a good sale at Sports Authority.
My brother and his family are heading in for a visit this weekend so we can do our gift exchange with them. They'll be gone by New Year's Eve and I'm not sure what we are going to do this year to celebrate. We'll probably do the usual and be in bed by 10 so we will be well rested to watch Auburn win the Cotton Bowl.

Good luck to Clemson in their bowl game this Friday and I hope everyone has a safe weekend.

The Week in Review

Long time no hear. I have just been chillin' at the crib. I got my Christmas shopping done early so I've had a good bit of time on my hands. We took Monday off and really enjoyed the unusually warm weather. Stacie spent all day Saturday and some Sunday morning doing her Christmas baking. We then loaded up Santa's motorcycle and did some cookie deliveries.

On the poker front, I completely bombed out of our home game last week. I wasn't in a good place before the game, but I had a great time and didn't really mind just hanging around after I was the first one busted. I was able to make up for it with another SNG win to boost the bankroll. I also played in the WWDN Tuesday night and feel that I was playing some of the best poker in my short poker life. I still didn't make it to the break, but I was very pleased with my play. I was able to control the table until Wigginx (?) made one unfortunate suckout on me. He knocked out my KK with his mighty Q 10 when he rivered 2 pair. I was very disappointed to not make it further, but at least this time I got my money in as an overwhelming favorite. I hope to make up for it tonight in another home game.

*Update....I didn't do too hot in the home game last night. I was trying to play these guys like I do the $5 SNGs and that isn't gonna work. They are much better than that. I did a poor job switching styles and maybe I'll learn by next week's game. We are doing about one a week during the holidays so it's keeping up our poker fix.

Entertainment Reviews:

They cancelled Day Break and that bummed us.

I have officially stopped watching CSI Miami. I realize it has always been cheezy, but when Horatio superceded Homeland Security to save south Florida they jumped the shark and I said "enough."

Superman Returns - too boring to finish.

Miami Vice - also boring, but I felt compelled to finish. I want my 2+ hours back.

Nevada Smith - Old Steve McQueen movie that I did enjoy.

Movies we'll be watching this weekend - Talladega Nights, World Trade Center, and the second installment in the Pirate's series. I have been double dipping with Blockbuster giving free movie rentals for the address labels from Netflix. The promo ends today but I should be good through the New Year Holiday.

Post #100 and I Still Suck At Cash Games

I have been trying more cash games so I can clear some bonuses at Full Tilt. I am positive that I am losing more than the bonuses are worth. However, I am able to make it all back with my 9 man SNGs. I think this is where I need to stay to keep enough of a bankroll to play in the blogger tourneys each week. As long as I can end each session with an addition instead of a subtraction, I'll keep coming back for more.

This guy and I went heads up for quite a while. He is a much better player than I am, but I was able to catch some great cards and maybe show a little good play here and there.

Here is the link for my Mookie win profile. It's easy to tell what I was thinking about that day.

This is my 100th post. It has been mostly poker related so hopefully my friends and family weren't too bored. It will have more travel and other stuff this year so hopefully that won't bore the bloggers. Can't please 'em all right? Mainly, it's been a way for me to reflect on my interests and gives me sort of a scrapbook of how our life is going. I hope to see you at the 1 year anniversary mark in a few months.

Hey, I Final Tabled My Namesake

I tried my best to go back to back, but JJOK had other plans for me. I had him pegged for a lower hand than me when he pushed, but he was able to grab two of his 3 outs and punished me with his evil 9s again. He had my number last night and was able to push me off of the winning hand at least once. I fell a little short of cashing, but as usual I had a great time. Congrats to JJ on cashing in the second chance tourney as well.

I have a full holiday related weekend starting tonight and a live game next week, so until then, good luck to all.

James Kim

I just saw the sad story this morning that James Kim and his family are missing. They have not returned from their Thanksgiving trip in Oregon. I remember watching James on TechTV (before it was absolutely screwed up by Comcast) and still read his tech blog on CNET. I hope everything turns out well.