Happy Halloween

Here comes da Hammer!

You know it must be Halloween when the hammer dresses up like a good hand and smokes A,K:



finchyz is at seat 0 with $9.
j madden is at seat 1 with $9.75 (sitting out).
jeffmangum is at seat 2 with $27.09.
Racquetball2 is at seat 3 with $28.19.
dennin is at seat 4 with $27.76.
Buk is at seat 5 with $19.68.
Zdiggidy26 is at seat 6 with $11.08.
trthorny is at seat 7 with $99.44.
pokerpeaker is at seat 8 with $25.
gofast36 is at seat 9 with $25.39.
The button is at seat 6.

trthorny posts the small blind of $.10.
pokerpeaker posts the big blind of $.25.

finchyz: -- --
jeffmangum: -- --
Racquetball2: -- --
dennin: -- --
Buk: -- --
Zdiggidy26: -- --
trthorny: -- --
pokerpeaker: 7h 2c
gofast36: -- --

Pre-flop:

gofast36 folds. finchyz folds. jeffmangum folds.
Racquetball2 folds. dennin calls. Buk calls.
Zdiggidy26 folds. trthorny folds. pokerpeaker
checks.

Flop (board: Ks 7d 2s):

pokerpeaker bets $.25.
dennin folds. Buk raises to $.75.
pokerpeaker re-raises to $3.10. Buk calls.


Turn (board: Ks 7d 2s Jh):

pokerpeaker bets $7.05.
Buk goes all-in for $16.33.
pokerpeaker calls.

River (board: Ks 7d 2s Jh 9c):

(no action in this round)




Showdown:

Buk shows As Kc.
Buk has a pair of kings.
pokerpeaker shows 7h 2c.
pokerpeaker has two pair, sevens and deuces.


Hand #47285948-3465 Summary:

pokerpeaker wins $38.13 with two pair, sevens and deuces.

(Granted, I did not play this hand great, but you win when you play your hand even slightly better than your opponent - usually - and he played this hand horribly.)



We've got trick or treating with the toddler and the twins tonight. The twins are Tigger and, um, Tigger (obnoxious twinning alert) and Jayden will be Dash from The Incredibles, probably the most appropriate costume in the history of Halloween. Expect photos posted early tommorow.


But after that, I'll be here:





And then here:







So that's the Mook, the Dook and the Spook in one night.


Sounds like more fun than a barrell of zombies. See you tonight!

When does the next World Series start again?

Last night I did something I had not done in front of a baseball game in 20 years.
I paced.
I also walked rapidly around the room, punched a pillow or two and said “Come ON” a few times under my breath and through gritted teeth.
My wife would tell you I act that way all the time, but only during Kansas basketball season and occasionally when the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in a meaningful game, which happens about once every five years. Yep, during a Kansas hoops season, that’s about the usual play around the house, cursing under my breath (Jayden imitates me now after all) and swatting a pillow after yet another turnover.
But last night the Colorado Rockies were swept by the Boston Red Sox, and that means a couple things. It means I owe a Boston blogger or two a Colorado beer. Worst of all, it means the fun is over.
I had forgotten how much fun that was.
I was a Kansas City Royals fan. I still am, actually. Years ago, as I grew up in Kansas City, Kan., it was good to be a Royals fan, as they won a lot and had players such as George Brett and Frank White and Bret Saberhagen. They won the World Series in 1985. Then they didn’t go the playoffs again, like, ever.
The Rockies were my national league team, but I wasn’t a serious fan until, well, that little streak. The one where they won pretty much every game for two months. That was fun. Really, really fun. And now it’s over.
Bummer.
This is not to bash the Rockies. No way. This is a love letter of sorts. They helped me rediscover my love for baseball. There’s a reason all those books sit on my top shelf and I own Ken Burns’ PBS series that made the game seem like God chose it as his own. I really used to love it.
But then economics played too much of a part in the game, and it started to turn me off. The NFL, for instance, would not have a team make the playoffs 14 straight years (although I’m starting to wonder about the Patriots) like the Yankees because all the teams share revenue and have a salary cap.
The unfairness of it all hurt teams like the Royals and later the Rockies, even if Colorado did give $374 billion to Mike Hampton, who thanked us by giving up only six runs a game. That and the fact that those two teams sucked for many, many years, while my Kansas basketball team continued to win, helped convince me that baseball was somewhat of a waste of time. I followed it always, but only the way you might follow a girl in the park with your eyes: You look, smile, linger a bit and then move on.
Well, that was then. This postseason, maybe, convinced me otherwise. The Rockies should be good next year. I’d be shocked if they weren’t. And if they aren’t that great, well, I know now to just hang in there, until August, and they’ll win 30 in a row and take the division again.
Only this time, I’ll be waiting until that streak happens, on Opening Day, counting the months until September and wondering if Holliday can win another battling title.

Edit: Speaking of Kansas, the football team, not the basketball team, is 8-0. That hasn't happened since 1908. That's right. 1908. My GRANDFATHER wasn't even born yet. Was the car around yet? I think Ty Cobb played back then. Indoor plumbing was still a dream (prompting me to never complain about diapers again; can you imagine fighting over who had to clean out the hole in the ground?).

Only getting bettah

Well, other than the fact that it looks like doctors replaced my balls with two blueberries, things are much better today. And I'm home today, by myself, for only the second time since the twins were born, to rest up. That's a nice reward for this, other than eventual sex without having to worry about having twins again.

I know all you females who had a C-section are just saying "waaaaaahhhh, deal with it," and you're right, this wasn't nearly as bad as that, but there is a unique, sickly pain with getting kicked in the junk that's hard to describe. Something like eating bad, Spicy Chinese and washing it down with five shots of Everclear, and then having to change three toddler diapers.

I played the Riverchasers for the first time last night and had a blast. I also caught some good cards and stole just enough and sucked out royally once to finish 13/104 for an incredible $2 profit. Who said tournaments aren't profitable? I ran Presto into Lucko's 7s, who managed to flop a full house just to add insult to the injury.

It looks pretty bleak for my Rockies now. They had their chances last night, but the Series isn't over. If the Rockies win Saturday we've got a shot at it, although stealing one from Beckett might be a pretty tall order, like me actually winning a blogger tournament again.

I'm hanging in there again, so you should too.

The Day After

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P.S. Go Rockies. That could also be referring to game 1 but I think we'll come back strong tonight. We'd better.

Today's the day of the rest of your life

Um, yeah, or tommorow's the day (if you're reading this Wednesday, then today is the day) I get snipped.
Fixed.
Neutered.

I'm not really nervous about it. Honest. The Mookie tonight will cheer me up. And I get part of the day off work, so that's always a bonus.


Um...

OK.


Update tommorow. If I can put the laptop on my lap without crying.

Poker Hell

Thursday night I flirted with purgatory. Friday night was a tiny slice of heaven, even if I lost and didn't catch many cards worth playing and had to lay down a set of 10s on a A,J,10 board when two players moved all in on it.


Saturday at the Luxor? Well, the first hour started pretty well at $1-2 NL. I scooped a pretty big pot by raising with A-K and getting an K on the flop and calling off a guy's stack. I got a full house with J-10. Then I overplayed a pair of 10s against an extremely aggressive players' Q-Q and lost a big pot.
The Gods saw my arrogance and decided to punish me.
J-3. Q-3. K-3. A-2. 8-3. 7-4. The crap started to come in bunches, sometimes for two or three orbits. And the table started to fill with donkeys. There was the muscled guy with a huge, hair-blown haircut who yelled at the cocktail waitress to bring him sour drinks and re-raised all in three times with A,10, winning twice. There was the guy who pushed many times with third pair. There was a youngish guy with a scruffy beard who enjoyed betting $2 into a $50 pot but would also raise with trash and blew through at least $400 after saying he needed cab fare to head to the airport. There was the guy two spots to my left who put $200 into the pot with Q-8 on a Q-high pot and his wife, who didn't even know her options after the flop came down. There was the Asian Q-8 played against, who called all that money he put in with 9-9 and got a 9 on the river and later re-raised all-in with A-Q.
And I continued to remain ice cold. J-8. Q-5. K-2. Every time I got a playable hand, like, you know, Q-10 sooted, a guy would raise and re-raise, so I'd have to trash it. So the old man who raised all in with A-4 on an A-high flop would remain unchallenged by me. So would all the others. They would continue to get drunker. I would watch with drool down the corner of my chin as they moved all in with Q-J. Meanwhile, I got 10,9 three hands in a row. I played them all three times. They didn't even hit a draw. When I got it a few times later, UTG, I pitched it, and the flop came 6-8-7, and yet another donkey pushed in $200 with...6-4.
Sigh.
You can't call in position and hope to take the pot away. Not with these calling stations. In my mind, you just have to wait for a hand. If you disagree, or know how to beat a table like this without cards, please comment and let me know because I'm stumped. I played a lot of trash in the hopes of catching something on the flop. I never did.
I've never had a more frustrating session in my life. Definitely not live, anyway.
It tells me I can beat the game. It also tells me I may have a few limitations. Whatever I did, Poker Gods, I'm sorry, because I don't want to remain in Poker Hell.

Last Day in Vegas

I don’t know if I’m in the mood to talk about poker or not, but here’s what I did in that hand I posted about yesterday. I folded. It probably seems like an easy fold to you, but, as is the general theme this weekend for both my $1-2 NL sessions, top pair is not only gold, it’s platinum, given the dearth of playable hands I’ve had and the even fewer I’ve had hit the flop.
Plus most of the players I”ve run against were willing to lose their whole stack on top pair, regardless of their kicker.
But I do play tight. I’m not an especially creative player. And I’m always worried in new situations of someone taking advantage of that.
Still, I folded for another day, Friday, when I got to play poker with Carmen and Miami Don.
The main reason I folded was not because of the bet, it was because he looked down at his hand before he called my bet. I’ve never seen a situation where someone looked at his hand before calling a bet if he didn’t have a hand. The exception is if he’s on a draw, and there was no draw out there. Given that practically everything beat me out there, and I knew he had a hand and wasn’t bluffing, I folded.

Friday was a good session only because I got to meet Carmen and Miami Don, who are great, funny people. I really enjoyed meeting them.




And, well, we played this:






A quarter of the male blogging population probably just dropped their laptops. Did you hear that? I think Waffles’ head just exploded.

Alas, the poker wasn't THAT interesting. In fact at the MGM it wasn’t interesting at all. I won the first hand I played and the last hand I played. I won nothing in between. I didn’t completely lose my buy in, but it got whittled down pretty well. The highlight of my evening was getting to fold a set of 10s, the best hand I’d seen by far in two days, on a J,A,10 board on the turn after one guy went all in and another player pushed $150 more on top of that.

I always question my ability when I have two long, significant losing sessions in a row. I’ve come to the conclusion that I think I played fine. You can’t make many moves at pots when four people are willing to call any raise. I bluffed a couple times and got called by third pair once and the other I gave up on the turn.

I played last night, at the Luxor. I'll write about my poker experience later. It didn't go well again.

Otherwise we’ve had a great time relaxing. Kate woke up today and said, “I’m ready to go home." I miss my kids. It’s the first time I’ve missed them in a while. Missing your children is a good thing. You stop taking it for granted that they’re going to be around forever.

The cigarette smoke is still sticking in my nostils, and the whirl and buzz of the slot machines are still ringing through my ears, and last night's buffet meal is slowly crawling through my gullet. It's hard to get Vegas out of my system, but I'm working it out.
It's snowing in Colorado. I may go for a run tonight regardless.

Poker will be around forever. Mindless fun will be around forever. My kids won’t. Especially not at the age they are now.

Viva, Las Vegas. See you in December.

Vegas, babies, Friday

Thursday night in Vegas, babies:

• 7 p.m. - We start to walk down the strip. It seems to be a slow period in Vegas right now. That’s OK with me. The poker probably won’t be as good, but the streets are emptier.

• 7:15 p.m. - Someone is selling bottled water for $1. Can you make a living selling bottled water out of your cooler?
And I wonder if the “ice cold” sales pitch works this time of year?

• 8:05 p.m. - If I get asked if I want to see a show or get another nightclub pass shoved in my face I’m gonna punch someone.

• 8:06 p.m. - Kate stops me before I punch someone.

• 8:07 p.m. - An angry black woman yells at me when I don’t take her pamphlet. I’m no salesman, but that doesn’t seem the best way to reach potential customers.

• 8:10 p.m. - We ride the New York, New York rollercoaster. Holy shit that was fun. I scream like a little girl on the first drop.

• 8:35 p.m. - I bow before the greatness that is the Bellagio’s poker room.

• 9 p.m. - We have a shrimp cocktail and lobster bisque at the Ceasar’sPalace food court. Yum.

• 9:15 p.m. - Sundae at Ghiradellis. We have not had a drink yet, but we’re all about the hot fudge sundae. I know, our hardcore partying is probably blowing you away at this point.

• 10:30 p.m. - I play $1-2 NL at Mandalay Bay. I play until 1:30 a.m. with a nit-like table. I get AA once and KK once and win small pots. I eventually lose $80, which I’m OK with. I made a couple nice bluffs, got caught once and generally hit no big flops and go card dead most of the night.
It was my first time playing live NL poker, and most of the guys at the table had played there for weeks, if not years.
I also wonder what you think about this hand:

I have J-A, the best hand I’ve seen in a long time, and I raise it to $`10. I get one caller in the small blind, a guy who was not one of the regulars but played pretty tight most of the night. The flop comes A,9,3 rainbow. That seems pretty good for me, so I bet $10, and he looks at his cards, pauses, then calls.

The flop comes a 6, and we won’t have a flush. He bets $15 into me. I call, but that worries me.

Another 9 comes on the river, and he bets $50. Do you call?


I’ll give you my answer tomorrow.




Friday, babies:

• 11:30 a.m. - After a night of blissful, heavenly sleep (Vegas is for sleeping; well, it is if you have infant twins), we are down at the pool. It’s hot enough to sweat but not hot enough to take a dip.

• 11:35 a.m. - “Something About You” by Level 42 plays, a song from my college days, when my roommate loved pop music and I had to play Iron Maiden extra loud to drown t out. All the music we’ve heard this weekend is from the 80s.

• 1 p.m. - Censored

• 1:45 p.m. - We hear a couple boning each other up above room. The woman is really going for it. OH YES OH YES OH YES!!!
Maybe we inspired them.

• 2:30 p.m. - We have lunch with Linda from Pokerworks. She’s my editor for the site and runs it basically. She’s a trip. I loved hearing all the stories from the poker dealing days. We had a great time and she even paid for lunch. If I can get Carmen and Miami Don to pay for a buy-in at the MGM tonight, this will really be a complete trip. Thanks, Linda, that was very nice of you.

• 5:30 p.m. - I probably look like a dork sitting here in the middle of the Luxor casino where I can get a signal staring at my laptop. But then again, me looking like a dork can’t ever really be helped. You are what you are.

Goddam I’m still sore. You would have thought I”ve never hiked before.

In a few hours, we’re heading down to the MGM to play poker with Don and Carmen. I can’t wait. I just hope my session goes better than yesterday. I think it will.

Vegas by the hour baby (babies)

Vegas, baby (babies?), by the hour


• 3:55 a.m. - Wake up. This is not as painful as it sounds for us, which only shows how entrenched we actually are into the twins.

• 4:25 a.m. - Leave for the airport from Kate’s house. Kate, surprisingly, does not bawl her eyes out. The girls are squealing up a storm as we leave. Maybe they’re as excited to be away from us as we are from them.

• 5:45 a.m. Breakfast at McDonald’s airport. I eat half a sausage biscuit.

• 7:00 a.m. - Our plane takes off, right after I’m admonished for not turning off my laptop fast enough by a flight attendant. Seriously, have any planes crashed because someone wanted to watch “Fracture?”

• 7:03 a.m. - I film our plane taking off. Kate gives me a wife look that clearly says “They said not to turn on any electronic devices.” I give her a look back that says, “That rule is fucking stupid.”

• 7:04 a.m. - Plane dips a bit. I quickly turn off video camera.

• 7:10 a.m. - Watch “Fracture.” Good flick.

• 7:53 a.m. (Vegas time, baby) - Plane lands. I see an advertisement for some hot guy Australian man show.

• 7:58 a.m. - Live advertisement for Chippendales in the airport. WTF? I come to the conclusion that Vegas has more gay men and horny old ladies than I previously thought.

• 8:03 a.m. - Advertisement for Luxor’s “Fantasy” topless show. Ahhh. That’s better.

• 8:35 a.m. - Get to Luxor. Someone steers us over to a “voucher” place. Dammit, less than a minute into the resort and we’re already being given a sales pitch.
Fat guy asks us what show we want to see. We don’t want to see any shows.
“NO shows?” he asks. He repeats his question three times after we answer no every time, which means he’s either pushy or stupid, and I have no patience for either. I grab Kate’s arm and we start walking around.

• 9:15 a.m. - OK, now what? Man, Vegas is DEAD at this hour. We walk around.

• 9:17 a.m. - See my first poker room. Woot. There are actually people playing poker at this hour? Not very many.

• 9:55 a.m. - We walk through the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. We’re bored. Kate says, “We don’t know what to do with ourselves without the kids.” Sad but kinda true.

• 10:25 a.m. - We’re having a hard time relaxing, which partly explains the detailed blog account. We talk about it and discover we are so used to going all the time, with Jayden and the twins and work and trying to get things done around the house, that even our “down time” at home is crammed with something because we don’t have the opportunity to do it otherwise, like play poker for instance. We’re still in that mode. By the end of the day, I hope we’re not.

• 11:15 a.m. - We get in our room. Woot!

• 12:15 p.m. - We meet CC for lunch. Blind luck that he happened to be in Vegas at the same time we were. He buys. Very nice of him, thanks. We eat at a deli in the Mirage that serves sandwiches so big they could feed all of Idaho.



• 1:30 p.m. - After a nice lunch, we walk back to the hotel, stopping along the chintzy souvenir stores along the way. Kate gets small T-shirts for the girls that say, “I (heart) Vegas” in pink.

• 2 p.m. - The strip by the harsh glare of daylight becomes a very skeezy place. It probably always is, but when you see it at night, you’re transfixed by all the lights and wonder and fun. In the daytime it just becomes a place where people constantly approach you and try to sell you a show or shove a porn card into your unwilling palm.

• 3 p.m. - Back in the room. Kate crashes. I learn the Luxor charges for high-speed Internet. Wow.Anything they can do to get you out of your room, I guess. I pay the $14.95 for three days. Blogging is expensive!

• 5:30 p.m. - Mess around on the Internet. Fight serious temptation to head down to play poker for a couple hours. Must.....not.....play......poker.
I’ll have my chance tomorrow with Miami Don and Carmen at the MGM.
Must......not.....play.



I resist the urge to play. We are going to eat soon at Mandalay Bay buffet. It’s our favorite. Later we’re going to go walk the strip again. Kate is zoned in her room. I am lounging in the Luxor casino.
Relaxing is easier by the second.

Rockies Mountan High

Today, in sports:


• The Colorado Rockies continue their incredible streak of winning 75/76 games in a row (and yes I'm exaggerating, but not by much) by taking a 3-0 lead on Arizona. I'd be surprised if the snakes won tonight. They seem pretty cooked to me. One of their best players is whining about how the Rockies weren't outplaying them, they were just getting all the calls.
That sounds like a poker player saying he always gets beat on the river to me. And we all know what we do when we hear a player saying that, don't we? We already count their chips as our own.

• The Kansas City Chiefs beat up the poor Cin-Cin Kitties by actually playing their ass off for a half. Yeah, they went back to their mostly sucky ways in the second half, but by then it was too late. GG Chiefs!

• My Kansas Jayhawks are taking the Big 12 by storm. And it's not even basketball season! That's right, the Jayhawk football team is ranked 13th in the BCS series and 15th in the nation. The last time the Hawks were ranked in football? 1996. Our coach probably weighs 400 pounds but the guy can lead a team. Maybe because he threatens to eat the players if they don't play well. Hey, whatever works, it's nice to treat Kansas football as something to watch instead of a funny diversion until basketball gets here. And the hoops team looks balla again. We might go to a nice bowl game and the Final Four in the same year. Rock Chalk!

• Boooo fantasy football. I scored 96 points, the equivalent of winning three buy-ins in a cash game, in my league and lost anyway thanks to LT's 15 TDs and 498 yards rushing (yes I'm exaggerating but not by much).

Then I played my first match at Fantasy Sports Live as a part of Sundays with Dr. Pauly. My QB threw 5 TD passes. Both my running backs went for 100 and scored. 2/3 wide receivers scored. My TE had two touchdowns and close to 100 yards.
And I took 7th.
Ouch.
Guess I shouldn't try to compete with Miami Don and Pauly and guys who make a living picking apart professional sports. Thanks, Minnesota defense.

Still, the site is a ton of fun, and I really don't expect to win much. It's just nice to have another fantasy team.


One last word: WE ARE HEADING TO VEGAS on Thursday for my five-year anniversary with the wife. I won't be playing a ton of poker because this is a spouse trip, not a blogger trip (I'm in for that too though), but I hope to sling some chips with Carmen and Miami Don Friday at the MGM. Guys?

No kids. Did I mention no kids? No kids. No twins. Girls, Jayden, I love you very much, but Daddy needs to do something other than cleaning up your diapers.

I won't post again until I'm there in Vegas, but expect brief daily updates until we get home.

And now, starring some of your favorite bloggers....

Is an article I wrote for Pokerworks with some of your favorite bloggers featured. Thanks to Kat, F-Train, Drizz, Joe Speaker, Chilly, Gracie and Jordan for the help.

Lord I was born a rambling man

I have 10 minutes to put together a pretty decent post, and that's probably not gonna happen, so I apologize for the rambling nature of this entry.

I cashed the Mookie last night for the second week in a row. For some reason I'm getting good hands there while the rest of my poker forays has been frustrating at best this week. That is such a fun tournament. Good people, good players, a decent structure and I love the double stack now. It's not so push-monkey that way.

I think I can officially now say I've stepped up my aggression. I probably still play too tight, and I'll always play too tight and hestitate to make a move I know I should at times. But I successfully stole several blinds and antes last night, and that was the difference to me making the final table in good shape. When the action is folded to me, now I"m thinking about stealing rather than just looking at my cards. I can honestly say this is the biggest and best change I've made in my game in the last year.

I still got lots of good cards and had some favorable flops, but I don't know many except Hoy who can make the final table in a blogger MTT without that. I certainly can't. I went out in the first money spot when my flopped top two pair could not hold up against a flush and inside straight draw. I don't think I was ahead by much there though.

OK, I'm pretty sure I'm going to Vegas. It appears Jordan and I will room together at the IP. I"m pretty nervous about this, given that I only know some of you by the Intertubes and I know you all know each other already. But I'm also thinking it will be fun. Right now I'm planning on heading out there Thursday and I'll stay until Sunday morning. We'll see.

I've entered the Sundays with Dr. Pauly contest at Fantasy Sports Live. I love fantasy football and I'm actually pretty decent at it - I've won our tough league three times in the last six years - so this should be fun. All I know is I'm staying the hell away from Drew Brees. Bastard is screwing up my team this year. I just made a deposit and got a $20 bonus. It was pretty easy. You should check it out. Although Miami Don is in my contest and I'm pretty sure he's a balla.

If life is a musical, my life is a cartoon

In the glory days, my head was filled with Metallica, Miles Davis and other spots of metal, with maybe a little hip-hop and pop music.
Now it's Little Einsteins.
"You can do it XX (I forget), you can win the race because you are an amazing music car!" (Sung to the tune of that classical music song they played over "Masterpiece Theater.")
Or it's Winnie the Pooh.
"My friends Tigger and Pooh, we're always here for each oooootherrrrr."
Or it's "Handy Mandy."
"Blah blah blah blah...Se Vamonous!"
Kill me now.
OK, so, yes, our toddler probably watches a little too much TV. But the goal of our existence right now is to try to make it past the twins' first year without killing ourselves, each other or Jayden. Jayden is the easiest part. I'm not sure if we'll make it through. We probably will. You don't have to recommend anyone for us. Or call the police.
So, unfortunately, TV keeps Jayden at bay for a bit while the girls get fed, changed and given some sort of sleepy drug so they zone out for ah hour. I'm just kidding on that last part. Or am I?
And so we pay for our bad parenting by having the song dance through our heads all day. They so inanely catchy that they stick there, like flypaper to our brain, and nothing gets rid of it. Not Rihanna's "Umbrella," something screamy from "Headbangers Ball" or jazz music. Nothing. Because I still keep up with music, but now it's just downloaded into my iTunes folder, where I can listen to it during my runs or workouts and that's about it. So that aforementioned "Umbrella" song is still new to me even though radio stations have played it about 1,893,238,987,983 times. Or so I've heard.
This does, at least, motivate us to turn the damn stuff off and read a book to him. While holding a twin. Which usually works. Jayden's even wanted to "read" to the twins himself, which is really damn cute.
Maybe I can develop a show where the music is hair metal from the 80s. They can put cute lyrics to "Rock You Like A Hurricane" if "Little Einsteins" can put lyrics to classic classical music.
• • •
Well, I moved up on Ultimate Bet to .25/.50 NL after building my bankroll there playing $.10/.25 (I started at $200) and got it up to $1200. Well, I lost a bunch, so I'll have to move back down for a bit again. Actually, I only lost $100, but that was in three days, and that makes me nervous. Of course my losses were to a bunch of suckouts (guy getting his two pair on the river, AA cracked by JJ, that sort of thing). I don't know why I always manage to get in a downswing just as I move up in levels. It's really discouraging. I don't think I'm playing scared.
• • • 
I realize Bodog is a sponsor of this site, but Tuesday's blogger tournament honestly seems like a good deal and one worth pimping for reasons other than sponsorship. If you are one of five bubble spots, you get your money refunded ($11), and if you finish in the top five, you get $109 in tournament dollars, which Bodog says is an entry to its big Sunday tournament but I think can be used for anything. Top three finishers get bonuses in cash.
There haven't been a ton of bloggers show up to this so the overlay could be pretty sweet. It starts at 6:35 p.m. tonight, which sucks for me since all three kids are still up, but I'm going to try to make it tonight. I can't resist that deal. See you there.

Pumpkin Pickin'

We made it out to a pumpkin patch Saturday, where you actually pick your own pumpkin. Jayden picked out a good one while the twins, in the stroller, hung out.











P.S. Rockies win!!! Rockies win!!! Who-hoo!!!!!!!!!!

Good Wednesday

The Rockies won their first game against the Phillies despite Baseball Tonight giving them about as much chance as me cashing in the Mookie.

Oh. Speaking of which...





I even knocked the fertile bad boy out himself. I bet $10 on Kansas to make it to the Final Four or win it all. Maybe I should bet on the Rockies?

Now, I know a 5th place finish isn't really worth a brag post, but this is my first cash in the Mookie since the twins were born way back in May. I had to give up the Mook for a long, long time, and to not only play it but cash against a group of tough mofos like yourself means a lot.
Life is finally returning to normal.
Well, as normal as it will ever be again.


P.S.S. I actually SENSED that Andie pooped this morning and I was right. No odor. I was just right. I have ESP (extra sensory poop) and that means I'm WAY too dialed into my kids right now. Thank goodness we're heading to Vegas on Oct. 16 for a break and to celebrate five wonderful years with Katers.

P.S. We call this foreshadowing. I visited the urologist today. In three weeks we're gonna make sure I NEVER have twins again.
More to follow...

Go Rockies! At least for now

Two hours to go before the Rockies game.
Yeah, I’m watching.
Yeah, I’m excited.
Yeah, I’m on the bandwagon.
I never thought I would be a bandwagon fan. I’ve been loyal to the Kansas Jayhawks and the Kansas City Chiefs (almost to a fault there) for many years. I was a baseball fan, too, for many years, to the point where I used to be able to tell you who finished 10th in the MVP race in 1984.
But I lost interest in baseball as the Kansas City Royals continued to turn in awful, terrible, no-good-very-bad seasons. And I became disenchanted when it wasn’t entirely the Royals fault they were bad. The Royals, as a small market team, didn’t have the $893 million other teams, like the Yankees, could spend on players. Heck, the Royals could barely afford the guy flipping burgers at McDonald’s.
As I began climbing mountains in earnest and added kids to my life, I barely have time for the sports I love, let alone the ones I don’t usually follow. So I made a deal with myself. I would follow the Avalanche, the Rockies and the Nuggets by reading the stories every day in the paper, and if the team warranted it, I would start to give them more of my time.
I was, in other words, willing to be a loyal fan if the team earned my time.
Some call this being a bandwagon fan. That’s true. My good friend Jared Fiel, who is such a Rockies nut he wrote a column Monday about how the games may be causing him chest pains, calls me a “Rockies Observer.” I’m OK with that as well.
I won’t have the right to brag about staying with the team through the years if they do win the World Series. But I might buy a T-shirt.
So I feel a tiny bit funny cheering so hard for the Rockies now. But, heck, I enjoyed the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup season (as well as the many when they made the playoffs). And Monday’s game was one of the greatest baseball games I’ve seen. It was fun for me to enjoy a team in postseason play again. That hasn’t happened to me since 1985.
There were more than 50,000 at that game, too. Three weeks ago, when the Rockies started their winning streak that got them into the playoffs, I don’t think there were 15,000 at the game.
So I may be a bandwagon fan. But I don’t suspect I’m alone either.


P.S. Two links you might find of interest:

• This is PokerTube, a site I recently discovered that puts poker shows up. I missed taping "High Stakes Poker" and was thrilled to discover it in full form on this site, edited with the commercials out. I don't know how this site gets away with that, but I'm loving it. I'm probably late the game on this as usual, but I don't know if I'll ever watch GSN's poker show on my TV again.

• I wrote a story on some of my favorite bloggers for Pokerworks. Yours too probably. It's not one of my best works but I enjoyed doing it, and the guys (and it was all guys for this story) gave me some great answers to my mundane questions.