Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Tournament Expectations

Softball was cancelled last night due to downpours that lasted for a couple of hours, so we packed up Little Drizz and decided on some Chinese buffet. Panda Garden in Brooklyn Park used to be THE place for a decent Chinese buffet... now I can see why we've avoided going there for the past four years. Maybe I'm being a little harsh since I spent 99% of the time trying to get Little Drizz to sit down and eat rather then jump around and fling mandarin oranges at people. We were one of three parties in the aging restaurant during the middle of what should be the busiest time. Wallpaper was yellowing, smell was less then desirable (not nearly as a bad as the Plaza), and there was a strange stickiness to the floor (but that could have been where Little Drizz's jello went). I have no idea what caused the little guy to be a brat last night, but we could only hope to contain him as we tried shopping at Target after dinner with similar tantrums being thrown. I questioned the wife about wanting another one of these bundles of joy, she just smiled back. Yeah, thanks hon, I'll try to enjoy the wonder years as well, with or without Winnie Cooper.

After getting home and putting the soon-to-be-terrible-two-toddler to bed, I sat down to watch a little of the Daly/Woods vs. Goosen/Mickelson golf outing. For the first few holes I wondered why Tiger even needed a partner, it didn't seem like Johnny even showed up. Maybe he played better on the back nine but his short game stunk for what I saw (the author acknowledges he shouldn't talk about other people's short game since his own has sent many people ducking for cover). I wasn't in the mood to watch golf (I need to be half-sleep and wanting to take a nap for golf viewing, something about watching hole #5 and getting up on hole #12 is relaxing) and the loving wife looking like she wanted her husband out of the room, motioned for the computer downstairs and said "have fun!". She didn't have to twist my arm much.

I fired up PokerStars in search of a $10 tourney and found a limit O8 tourney with only 350 people in it. Perfect! Also, checked in at BoDog to see if the fishes where swimming in the PLO8 waters. BoDog was uneventful for 1.5 hours as most of the regular players showed up and they were taking the scoops while I chipped away a small 15BB profit. Maybe not so small, hell that's a decent win for once. What? No, I'm not trying to jinx myself, but its nice to not have to whine about losing for once, even if its for only one day. Felicia informed me of a decent nickle and dime LO8 game with Sean the blogger formerly known as Anisotropy. I managed to rack up an eight cent profit in two hours from cool people who liked to raise the low only (Al would probably like to have a word with these people about raising the low). Even my $1,000 stack couldn't persuade them to stop chasing that damn low when I flopped/turned a decent flush/straight/full house.

I'm still playing in a tournament?

Oh yeah, I dozed off after not playing a hand for a couple of orbits but managed a couple of 3/4th and a couple of steals to get into the money as the reverse bubble boy (is that what you call the first cashing player out?). It wasn't overt skill, but a little tightness and a little well-placed aggression (thanks again Iggy) that I made the money once again (I failed to mention a 57th/880 on Thursday night playing with Chad at Stars). I'm still eyeing that final table/first place prize like a geek with his nose pressed up against the glass at a local GameStop awaiting Everquest's new expansion pack to come out at midnight. But, to get there you need that one lucky hand. The difference in the last two tournaments and the past five month is that I didn't get unlucky, my hands have held up while being favored. This is certainly a breath of fresh air since the five month fog of beats is dissipating enough for me to scratch out a profit again. I've been told to hit the books again, and I shall... if this new casino bonus whoring thing pans out. I'm hitting up Sound of a Suckout's video poker bonus offerings at the different online casinos. I hit a royal flush in my first 8000 hands and I'm slightly ahead while trying to clear the bonus following the advice laid out on his site. If successful (even if its just clearing the bonus) I'm taking the money to buy some new poker books and with the gained knowledge get myself back in the black for the year. Or at least have a better understanding of why I suck :)

Thanks for dropping by, now if anyone has a clue on how to operate this let me know. I bought one at Target last night but have zero clue on why the iTrip stations don't pop up on my iPod. I loaded the driver last night, and the stations show up on iTunes but not the iPod. Maybe I'm just an iDiot.

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