Monday, February 07, 2005

Someone please take this black cloud away!

Sheesh. Well, my wife's grandfather is now on his death bed as he called us over yesterday to visit with him because he thought he had a day or two left before he passed on. Since I didn't actually see my mother's parents pass on this was a new experience for me. I can't describe the sadness in the house, my wife may come off as "cold" or "uncaring" because she didn't cry yesterday like her sister did, but that's the way she deals with unfavorable things. It didn't help that her boss called yesterday and told my wife that she'd be running the kitchen today. Then Little Drizz slipped and split open his forehead wihle over at my wife's grandpa's place. His screaming probably actually broke the somber mood as we all watched the PBA on ESPN and laughed when the pros were throwing 4 balls down the lanes as a skills competition. The good thing is that my mother-in-law is living with her parents and is a nurse so she'll be to keep him as comfortable as possible till he dies.

To take my mind off all the real life crap, I did play a little poker over the weekend trying to clear out all these bonuses when more of them pop up! Luckily I had enough in my Party account to switch it over to Empire to start up the (Feb150, 25% max of $150) bonus. 1050 hands there isn't that tough since its each raked hand not $.25 or $.50 or $1 raked like Paradise, Pokerroom, or Absolute. Pokerroom seems to clear at a rate of 4 tables/1 hour = 100 "Points" while playing .50-1 and 1-2 NL. Not sure if it would clear quicker on the limit tables or not since the pots need to be $10 for .5 "points" and $20 for 1 "point". As for Paradise, I played 500 hands at $25 and $50 max NLHE and only 200 hands received "points". I don't remember it being this tough to clear the bonus there, so if there's time this week I'll try the $1/$2 limit tables and see if that helps to speed things along. I did manage to win a couple of buy-ins at Pokerrooom, hitting a nut straight with Q9s on the button vs AQ. I chased the straight down when I flopped a flush draw and inside straight draw. I called $2 on the flop and $5 on the turn with a $15 pot. I felt the 3 - 1 odds were close enough to chase 12 outs to the river. Had my opponent pushed anything over $10 I probably would have folded. I even picked off a bluff this weekend! A board of 7 - 8 - 8 - 2 - 9 two clubs and I had 44 in the SB. Three players into the turn and I flat called a $2 turn bet, and check around the river and the BB fired off a $10 bet into a $7.50 pot. Hmmmm... smelled like a steal to me and this guy had been playing a very good tight-aggressive game, I called, and he turns over AQs of clubs. Was this a correct call? Fishy call by me? There wasn't much I could beat but something about him smelled like overcards with a flush draw which is what I put him on. I'm liking the bigger stack NL games, you can push people off a TP no kicker hands with a scary board, you can bet without making it into a push all-in-bingo-game.

I did lose my $20 I won during a trivia contest at The Gaming Club, caught TPTK with AQ and a yidiot (no typo) called down with an inside straight draw taking half of my buy-in, then 3 hands later I get AA bet 6XBB the yidiot cold calls, a ragged queen high flop, I push, another queen on the turn and a blank of the river, of course the yidiot turns over Q7o for the trip ladies. Glad it was a freeroll.

Superbowl bets were not looking good early when Brady completed his first pass (I bet for an incompletion), the coin flip was tails (that snot nosed punk of a kid rigged it, the coin never turned over!!!), and Brady didn't even try to run (he needed only 2.5 yards for me to win the bet). But I got the game right (Eagles +7.5), Dirk Nowitski's points beat out LJ Smith's receiving yards, Dillion's Receiving yards over 11.5 with McNabb's under 6.5 yards on his first rush, and the 4th quarter was the highest scoring. Not sure how much I made but it makes the game even more fun to watch. My friend B put on a spread of food and booze that under any other circumstances I would have gone to town with wreckless abandon. Even thought the booze was mostly high-end stuff I settled for my old friend the Cap'n for one light drink to quell the black cloud that's been following me lately. Things will turn for the better next week I'm sure, as we pack up to move to our new house on Friday.

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