Vacation

New Years Eve weekend was a wonderful three days in a log cabin on a lake in the middle of nowhere. Heaven. Ten of the best friends anyone could want to spend a few days away with. We sat around NYE drinking and playing dealers choice for pennies away from the rest of the world and it was a great time. Was able to catch a quick nap the next afternoon and woke up freaking out for a few seconds that I'd brought on another bout of the #voodoodonkcurse by letting my hair down and goofing around with the pennies. It's all good. And it's going to be a really great year. Happy 2012!

Found My Balls ...Heh.

Went to the coast for a few days last week for vacation and to mix up some cash and tournament play. Played in the $1,000.00 Guarantee at Beau Rivage and finished third in addition to picking up a little bit of cash off the locals.

Am I learning to pay more attention to everything? Sure hope so. It seems to be making a difference. Been doing lots of reading, getting a little bit of coaching, fingers crossed that I can continue growing into a stronger player as time goes on.

Had a great virtual rail for the tournament. I wanted to share some of my favorites so that I can find them here in the future in case I need a reminder of where my head was at this day.

Stone: @jedi_balls: Nice balls. Are you playing today? (see pic above. This reminded me that indeed I do have balls as big as any guy at the table, they're just strapped to my chest, or in this case, remembered forever in a silly tweetpic)

Steve: @swhitelextown: Make it a payday. Ship It. Hoodie On. Game face on and look at your donks and take it down. You got this. (This came in at just the right time. Helped me make my own comfort zone regardless of the seat number and focus) ALSO: don't limp. Destroy it. Have position and make em tank. (reminder, position makes a big difference, don't limp)

Dave: @Djm182: grind #donkalicious grind. Pick your spots. Own the Game. One decision at a time (A little reinforcement here on things I've been trying to remember lol)

And thanks to @jedi_balls, @Roseyg917, @Jammenplayer, @suzysbad, @wisecapra, @rosietexecano, @djm182 for pulling me back to earth during the breaks. Sometimes it helps knowing that someone's out there. Big hugs to @mitchell1969 for recommending some reading material to help me improve. Have been reading and re-reading and will continue to read.

Happy Holidays. Wishing you lots of run good in 2012 and happiness too.

It's so nice to be free of the #voodoodonkcurse and be playing poker again ;)

About Poker & Stuff...

Stopped by a local poker room yesterday morning to check out the action.  I went to the desk and asked the poker host what table he had going on at the time (there was only one).  He had his back to me.  "Excuse me, Sir? What game do you have going?"  "2/5 NL with $200/500 buy-in."  He went back to watching the table and again had his back to me.  There were only five players seated, two of whom I recognized from last weekend, so I pranced my happy little ass around to the other side of the desk where you buy your chips.  Yeah, he still had his back to me.  "I'd like to buy in." I said as I slid my $200.00 onto the counter.   "Excuse me?"  Finally.  He turns around.  "I'd like to buy in".  He gives me A LOOK and said, "It's NO LIMIT".  Well, yeah duh (I'm thinking) looking at him and my money on the counter and at him, "I'd like to buy in."  Finally.  He slides me a rack. 
I set up at seat 3 doing a little happy happy joy joy dance that I was finally going to sit in a 6 handed game and not deal with a 10 player table like I'd been facing all year in tournaments.  And yeah, I played some poker.  Watching the 5 guys who were already there I realized I'd sat down with all of them last week.  It was a nice, friendly game-- a little less brutal than the previous meeting.  I was up just over $150 and was thinking about leaving and going to get some lunch before work when I looked down at A10d.  Maybe a few more hands, huh?  There were two players in so I called the blind.  Flop came diamonds.  The opening bets had pretty all much been $15 so I tossed in $25 thinking that would be enough to buy the blinds and I could go home.  Guys in seat 5 and 9 both called.  Well crud.  I'm thinking, well, I couldn't buy it and I'm not going to donk off the hundred some I was up and I know if these guys stay in I'm going to get killed on the river.  Right?  Turn came diamond.  I can't remember which cards were out there exactly but they were far enough apart to know a straight flush wasn't possible, and unless one of these guys boated up on the river, I still had it and shoved in $75.00.  Seat 9 folded the guy in 5 called.  WHAT?  I kept looking at the cards out there going over and over in my mind what could he possible have.  He hadn't won a hand since I sat down, had been betting on pretty much nothing, I'd already taken two small pots against him...  No, I still have this.  I THINK?  It's got to be a smaller flush.  Relax.  River card was 3h.  I remember that one because I slid in the $100 bill in front of me.  If I'd reached for chips I would have knocked them over... if he'd been looking at me he would have noticed I was shaking so bad I had to flip my hair until I got the shaking of my head back under control... I know the guy next to him saw that.  But he didn't look at me.  He thought about it for almost FIVE MINUTES, as I settled down and waited.  He had Qd, he called.  SWEET.  I played a few more hands and as the table had now become 8 players, begged off that I had to get to work.  After tips & drinks cashed out $572, felt pretty good after a year of tournaments and three months of total voodoo poker curse donk-a-thon play.  Not bad for an hour and a half work... Maybe I can get back into it, would be nice to start seeing regular cash again. 
So I grabbed the chips & four $100.00 bills in front of me and slipped back up to see Mr.Rude at the desk who first apologized for seat 5's earlier language (he and another guy had been tossing the N-word back and forth when guy sat down in seat 4 short time earlier), thanked me for playing and cashed in my chips all while presenting me with his front side and looking me in the eye. ;)   That's all for this week, not the greatest, but I'll take it.

Reflections

One of my goals for 2011 was to focus strictly on tournament play.  What an adventure! (...and blow to my bankroll lol)
Do I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do?  Yes.  Is there still room for improvement?  Oh yeah.  Has it been a waste of time and money?  Nope. 
 I've been playing poker about 15 years.  Did the online micro grinding thing for a while but chose to stop 3-4 years ago because it just wasn't as satisfying as sitting around with live bodies touching the chips and the cards.  I've done very well in cash games until recently but my heart has always been wraped around tournaments.
So 2011 was all about tourneys. Tunica, Vegas, Biloxi, Vicksburg, Vegas, Biloxi, WSOP-C, and was on the rail for the 3rd time at the WSOP.  Stepping up and playing with a different caliber of players than I'm used to has sure brought room for growth and I've cashed twice, second place both times. At the same time there were moments when I was terrified, confident, made a good read, donked off my stack and had nightmares.  All year long, I was working three jobs -about 70 hrs a week, trying to bounce back from an abusive marriage, Feb-Nov my boss at the full-time job found out he had cancer, went through chemo and died--a whole word of personal challenges going on there which definitely affected how much I could mentally and physically stand to play. Then came one hell of a blow to my ego.  The first part of December I sat down at a cash table and LOST. WTF? Yeah. That had NEVER happened before and was probably good for me in some warped, sort of way.  Obviously there is still plenty of room for growth and adjustment.
Would I do it again?  Yes.  In fact, I plan to continue with this goal into 2012 and do even better.  I've met and played with some great people and look forward to seeing them again. 

Poker & Snow

Had planned on playing in some of the Winter Poker Classic events in Tunica this week but when a friend posted this picture I decided to just skip the drive and stay home.  Between working 70 hours a week, volunteer work and the little bit of poker I've had time to go play, I'm burnt out.  Bad.  Looking at the Million Dollar Heater in Biloxi (January) and WSOPC Tunica (February) for next bit of adventure. 

Kids? What Kids! It's Poker!

Wow. I haven't written a blog post in 3 years 20some days. Been a little while. Guess somewhere I lost not only my sense of humor, but also the ability to write. The kids are grown now. They've moved out moved on and well, LilDD is living with me but she only comes in to sleep and do laundry. So, if I ever find time to redo my graphics for this thing, it's all about poker now. Yeah, twelve years and still playing.

A few things really stood out about the tourney yesterday that for some strange reason I wanted to write about.

There was a young kid sitting in seat 7. I think it was his first tournament because he was scared to death. The first hand he played (first or second hand of the game) the blind was raised from 50 to 300 by seat no 4. Kid tossed in one $100 chip and two $1,000.00 chips. Didn't say a word. The chips were somewhat similar in color. Dealer calls, "RAISE, Two Thousand, One Hundred" to which the kid's jaw dropped. Mouth open. "huh"? Guy in seat No 1. mentions, he should have said, "call" right? (I was waiting for the kid to whip out his badly worn copy of NLHEforDummies at this point). Dealer proceeds to explain to the kid to verbalize and yes the chips are similar in color, expensive lesson you just learned, etc. Fold all the way around the table to Seat No 4. who had the original preflop raise. He calls. After the flop No. 4 bets some inconsequential amount and the very green kid folds. I continued to watch him, he would toss chips in hand after hand but wouldnt' see anything through to the end. I used this to my advantage twice to fluff up my own stack a little bit.

I tweeted about the bald guy sitting in seat No.5. He started into the game shoving and trying to by blinds out of the gate at 25/50. The first time, I think maybe he had a hand. I was watching, not dancing the first two times he did it. Something felt a little off though. He was bullying, or trying to, but wasn't doing it in the normal arrogant way of a very experienced player (some of whom can be just about unreadable some days!) so the third time he opened up after the flop with 2,400 I had AQs and AQ7 hit the table, I went up over the top of him and he folds. Eye contact immediatley after from Patty, the other lady player at the table, told me she knew exactly what I was doing and I enjoyed giving him the spanking. He played some decent hands but when we switched tables I lost track of him and don't know how he ended up.

I never like playing a hand right after they move players around. My stack was decent I was having fun and I'll be danged if my first hand at the new table wasn't AKc. If I'd been any shorter stacked I would have folded it and just sat back and watched for a while. Only one other guy was in and I think the blinds were something like 400/800 at this point. I can't remember what came out on the flop, it really never mattered. The guy bets 2400. I call. I didn't have jackdiddly at this point but I just knew this guy didnt even have a pair. Turn, same bet same call. River, same bet same call. He was chasing and my A was good. The hand itself really doesn't matter. It was his reaction to me actually calling his bluff which will with me for quite a while. He blinked. Looked me and blinked again. And did this little head twitch shake thing. Blink stare twitch. He was still doing it 10 minutes later. Tons of fun.

Advanced Combat Training...

My son's travel agent has decided that he needs to get away from the lovely Arkansas weather for the holidays and is sending him to Iraq.
Right now, Mr.Blue is on the east coast for combat and survival training. We've had some pretty weird conversations the past two weeks. "Mom!" He told me. "While I'm there, I'll be in all my kevlar and I'm going to get SHOT!" At first I was thinking, well sure, you've got to get your shots up to date before deploying, but then as we talked I realized no, that's not what he's talking about. He's REALLY going to be SHOT. I guess part of the training is dressing up in your battle gear and then getting shot with simulation rounds coming out of an M-16 to make sure you can still function when you feel the impact of rounds hitting your vest or whatever. Probably no big deal after spending 2 weeks hauling dead bodies from humvee to humvee and crawling on the ground with M16s firing all around you... Another day he txted and said, "I died today" ..."they carried me and loaded me into another convoy and it was fun" Yeah whatever.





He's loving it. My geeky dorky non-athletic straign A-son has started to buff out and act like a guy and I'm so proud of him. He's ready to go and it won't be long and he'll be there.





We were able to steal a day with him before he left TDY. Well, not a day. Three and a half hours. It was wonderful...

As a mom, it's really bothering me that he'll be gone for christmas. And, by the time I get his mailing address in the sand, his packages won't get there until January. That's ok. He'll know before he leaves that care boxes will be on their way.

My son will be 20 years old 2 weeks before he leaves for the sand.

I was in the store this morning before work, and there was a man stocking candy bars and another man across the aisle filling up the chip rack. Of course, they were discussing the election last night. As I walked over to get my coffee I heard one of them say, ..."this isn't going to end the war in Iraq like everybody thinks. It's not going to bring the troops home." Oh Man. I wanted to say something. Something like... Well, I dont' know. I just wanted to say SOMETHING. But I bit my tongue and behaved. I still cry every time I'm driving down the road alone though. This is difficult. This is my baby boy. My only son. Going off into the middle of a war zone.

And WHAT REALLY TICKED ME OFF was on the radio over the weekend. Two different people mentioned hearing to me that there were NO u.s. casualties in Iraq last month. WRONG. There were TEN. Eight army, one marine, one air force. Two were not combat related, but eight were. and half of those were in the area my son is heading.

Ok. I think I'm better now.
For a little while, anyway.

NO NO NO NO NO......

How in the HELL do you stop crying and be an understanding, supportive, wonderful mom when one of your kids tells you he/she is getting ready to deploy?? How in the HELL do you stop crying and be an undetstanding, supportive, wonderful mom when your planned trip to visit your deploying child is cancelled because they have to go TDY for combat and survival training? How in the HELL do you stop crying and be an understanding, supportive, wonderful mom when another child calls you up right in the middle of all this and says, "ummm, Mom? I just talked to (my brother/sister) and he/she should be back before I go in (insert month here)....

That's it for now.
Isnt' it enough?

Before BabyBlue flies off into the wild blue yonder, both other KidBlues are going to play in the sand.

I may not get out of bed for a while.

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

Well... it's like this.

I thought Lil'DD was going to stay with me until she turned 30. No such luck.

Today she was sworn into the Air Force delayed entry program, just like the other two did.

I have THREE in the Air Force.
She'll go after graduation.

Going Green...

Since we bought the house last November, I've got all of the lights switched over to those energy efficient bulbs. Back in May, when we didn't run the a/c, our electric bill was 24 bucks. That's not bad for a huge 2 story house with all the extras. ...ok so, then I went and bought the hybrid. My friends no longer discuss cars with me, they do not want to hear that I get on average 52mpg and 47-48 when it rains. I complain about that 47-48, believe me. But that's ok. I love my car and the money I'm saving on gasoline is making my payments. We went down five weeks ago and traded DH's huge pick-up in on a ford escape. It's getting 2 1/2X the mileage of the old one, so we have 2 brand new vehicles parked in the driveway of our new house. You'd think I'd be happy, huh?

So anyway... we came home from a conference Sunday afternoon to find water all over the garage. The hot water heater decided to go out while we were gone. ...SO... we spend the deductible I'd put aside for the roof (dont' let me forget to tell you about the roof!) ...and ordered a tankless water heater, it's supposed to save me about 200 bucks a year by not having a pilot light, it's got some fancy hydro thingy that creates it's own electricity and uses minimal propane. Good investment? We'll see... DH's is putting it in tonight, lucky for me I'm working my 3rd job and won't be home until late.

Back to the roof. not this last hurricane that blew in, or the one before that, but that tropical storm that came first and hung around for a week? Well... we came home from working my 2nd job one Sunday afternoon and noticed water seeping through the ceiling in the entry way and down the wall next to the stairs in the living room. Insurance couldn't come out and look at the roof until after the first hurricane moved out, but we're getting a new roof. That's cool. Except now I spent the deductible on a water heater. ...it never ends. Since the last hurricane blew in too, there's more damage to the walls, so we'll be kiltzing and painting and we're not only waiting on the roofer to get to us, we're still waiting on the insurance company to get us a check. Our adjuster's national guard unit got called up so he's having to finish up his stuff long distance and it's taking a while. It's been a freeking month since we made the claim, and they're telling us when we do get the check, it will be made out to us AND our mortgage company, so we'll have to send it to the mortgage company and have them endorse it before we can get the roof done...

Hey. I'm loving the new girl in the office. It's nice to finally like my job again.
Gotta run...have a nice week.