Relocated

You can currently find the Howl located here

http://wolfshead.net/wolfshowl/

and we hope you will visit us in our new home.

Is it working?

Have to think my new site isn't working as Josie hasn't shot off her yap in it yet. (and I'm not doing any links on this site, you want them you have to use the new one)

For those who got 500 messages please try again, I've made some changes to the name servers.

Damn I'm Good

Okay, have done most of the modifications for my blog. Font color is a bit light but I'll find out where they hid that and get it changed. Otherwise I think I'm ready to give it a test drive. As of now and unless it blows up in my face all posts to my blog can be found at www.wolfshead.net or www.wolfshead.net/wolfshowl . All comments and suggestions will be appreciated. Thank You

More on moving. Need a favor

Moving this thing is becoming tougher than I would have thought. I thought I had found a good skin for my blog but it seems that the comments section doesn't work right, others seem to have problems with my blog roll so it's back to theme hunting. Modifying these damned things ain't easy either, it's looking like I need a class in writing code since good old drag and drop don't want to work. Anyway I would appreciate it if anyone could try the links in the message below or type them nto their browser to see if they can get to my site. I have tried 3 different computers and have no problems but Mojo says he's getting errors. Would appreciate any input. Thanks.

Moving

Working on a new site for my blog as part of an overall website. Who the hell knows when it's going to be finished but it is going to happen, very soon I hope. Once it does I will put the new link on this site but this is just a heads upfor those loyal readers, all 6-7 of you to be prepared. For those who have me on your blogroll a new link will be necessary, for those who don't it will be a good chance to add anew listing. Thank You

PS.

Well it isn't totally ready but the framework is up and can be found at www.wolfshead.net or www.wolfshead.net/wolfshowl

Online Origins, The Finale. Maybe

Seems I have to continue with the trip on the wayback machine. Might get scalped if I don’t. Actually this thing has gone on longer than I originally anticipated but as long as it’s being enjoyed I guess I can keep it up. It ain’t no Frantic Friday but I seem to have found an audience however small and after all I always did love to hear the sound of my own voice and the keyboard is only an extension of the tongue and one people can turn off a lot easier. Story is probably more interesting than my poker ones but that ain’t saying much. What is really interesting is that as I am in the middle of this tale I’ve gotten a Facebook friend request from Jeff, a great guy I originally came across in Lapub and though he wasn’t around for this gathering we met at a number of other gatherings in Chicago and elsewhere over the years. Glad to know he’s doing well. So for those who are interested, here goes.

We left our intrepid hero heading off in the wee hours to grab a few hours of alcohol induced sleep. 8 am comes awfully frikkin early after a night of partying. Luckily the hotel was close. I grab some zzz’s then I’m up and showered and back to the house. Linda, my greeter, has kind of adopted me for the weekend and I’ve become her chauffer. She’s a good friend of Lavona and is staying at the house so I pick her up for breakfast and we hit a small coffee shop for some fuel for the day. I find out that she is a school teacher, whoo boy if the school board ever finds out about these weekends <>. (BTW, the <> with a G inside is a holdover from the P* days. It’s basically the equivalent of :-> before such things were thought of. Damn hypertext kind of kills my use of it these days) I also find out she’s from Terre Haute, been widowed and divorced and has a couple of kids, one who lives about two miles from where I work. Small world. Of course she’s not the only one talking but no sense repeating my vitals. So we finish up and head for the house where everyone that is heading for the zoo is meeting. We get there and sit around for awhile and eventually about 30 of us divvy in to cars and head in to Chicago. I’m driving again, mainly because I like to drive and because my car takes 5 without squishing so no one is objecting. It’s a beautiful day as we head out, sunny but not ridiculously hot considering it’s July. Traffic is nowhere near what it was like the day before but the construction is still there so ain’t exactly a picnic.

We get to the zoo and split in to groups with plans to meet up for lunch in a couple hours. Seems there was a beer garden type place there, might have been called Beer and Brats but don’t hold me to that, that we decide to hit. Always loved zoos. I grew up about half mile or so from a local park that had a small one, mainly US type animals such as bison and deer but there was a couple of big cats there also. Spent a lot of time in the park and zoo. Also used to hit the Philly Zoo every so often, even had a membership there for a few years when I was married. So I was really looking forward to seeing what this place held. It was a great zoo, very nice exhibits and a bunch of us cracked up when we hit the monkey isle. They had this large pit with a high mountain type structure in the center and a very large pack of monkeys running around the place. What had us laughing our asses off however was that a few of these simians decided to get in to the spirit of the weekend. In addition to a couple screwing their little buns off a few more males were sitting on the side whacking away. Then of course some wiseass chirps in with “do you think we should invite them to Studio whatever the next time we go?” And of course the jokes start coming, pun intended. Lunch was pretty good as far as lunches at these places go. Had me a brat, first time I had encountered them, and a beer. First time I came across beer in a zoo also. Definitely added to the experience. So we do lunch and head on out to finish our visit and my passengers agree to meet at the gate we came in at in a couple hours to give us time to get cleaned up a bit before dinner. Dinner is at the house so nothing really fancy but walking around the zoo in the sun was a bit sweaty even if it wasn’t scorching. Yea, a shower was called for. So we finish the day trip, head back to the house then I go over to the hotel for a shower, a change and to pick up my bottle of Myers rum. I’ve learned in my travels that Pa doesn’t necessarily have the worst liquor laws in the country so I usually carry a bottle with me, just in case. I also later came to realize that hotel rooms were a necessity at these things but a hated expense as you spent so little frikkin time in them. Be that as it may, showered, changed and carrying the necessities I head back over to the party. I also found out the black rum wasn’t so popular as it seemed that I kept coming across leftover bottles of Myers at various places I stopped at in the visits I made over the years.

Forget what we had for dinner that night only that it was good, as Richard was a pretty mean cook. He whips up a lot of it and one goes grabs what one will during the course of the night. People are basically just shuffling in and joining the crowd. I’m informed that if I want to spend some computer time there are some available to use upstairs. Folks just kind of wander up and down all night, some working their shift in the chat room, others just playing around, checking email or giving updates on the goings on in Chicago. I take a wander on up later and find that there is a whole room with about half a dozen computers or so Macs in it to be used. It is then that I find out that most every one is a Mac freak and, as a PC user, I’m the lonely little petunia in the onion patch. It is also then that I’m asked if I have any interest in being a Tend, a room host. It seems that AOL in its formative years would offer folks like Lavona incentives to develop things like chat rooms to attract new users. They offered the hosts a 2 for 1 deal, 2 hours of usage for every 1 they put in working the room. Considering the cost of hourly time one has to consider it, especially if one likes to play online. I tell them I would think about it and let them know. After AOL went to a monthly fee all workers just got a free account which was nice. Anyway I wander back downstairs where a number of folks are running wild, mostly outside, with the Super Soakers and Silly String. Don’t know who wound up cleaning up the mess, if it was, but there must have been some nice neighbors as the battles ranged all over the yards around that house. As time wore on the group settled down to mainly conversation and silly practical jokes played on one another. One character disappeared upstairs only to come back down wearing one of the teddys purchased the day before. Didn’t do a thing for his figure. Anyway, as a newcomer I was usually able to avoid the soakings and the jokes but I did meet a lot of people including a couple who lived not far from me in De. They had just applied for jobs with AOL and informed me they were hiring anyone with computer skills they were expanding so fast and would let me know if they got hired and I was interested. Not long after they did get in and offered to try and help me but it was an offer I turned down for a number of different reasons. Big mistake on my part. So, again in the wee hours I head off to the hotel after making arrangements to join everyone for a farewell brunch before we all head out for home. At least I could get a couple extra hours sleep as plans for food weren’t until about 10-10:30.
So the next morning I’m up, showered, packed up and checked out and heading to an Old Country Buffet for food before I take off. No heading to the house and no passengers on this trip. Linda, my steady passenger all weekend was staying longer so had another ride back to the house and almost everyone else was booking from the buffet as was I. I wasn’t sure I had arrived at the right place as it was set in a shopping center but I then saw John standing outside so figured I hadn’t gotten lost. It was here that the only fiasco of the weekend took place. It seems this wasn’t the best place for a farewell meal. First they had a bit of a problem seating us altogether. Then, by the time that problem was solved they had started changing the buffet over from breakfast to lunch. As it was still fairly early most of us were more in the mood for eggs or waffles rather than ribs. We made the best of it, not letting something like this spoil what was a very good weekend. As we finished eating we said our farewells and headed our separate ways knowing we would be back in touch with each other in cyberspace within a day or so.

While eating I thought I was going to have to make a side trip to the airport as I left. One of the old timers with the handle of Godfather, and believe me he fit the name, looks wise at least, had a flight out that morning and was having problems getting to it. I volunteered my services but at the last minute he was able to hook up with a limo service and I was spared my first trip to one of Chicago’s airports. Made many trips to both of them since. So I said my goodbyes, pointed the Legend east and headed home, my first Live a success, in my book at least. The drive through Chicago was nothing like the trip in, Sunday traffic being at a minimum, something I couldn’t always say on subsequent trips. Somehow I got turned around getting on 80 and found myself heading towards Iowa but rectified the error quickly and was soon headed towards home. Ever notice how the trip home seems to pass by much more slowly than the trip out? Anticipation of something new does seem to help time pass. This feeling was abetted by the fact I was driving in daylight so had to behave myself compared to my late night travels. I actually didn’t get home that day as the family had a house in the Poconos that I decided to stop at and grab a bit of rest. It wasn’t all that far from home but on a homeward trip of that length the last couple hours always seem the longest and a rest seemed advisable since it was available. Was back home early the next morning and online that night, even though it was a Monday, to let them know I arrived safe. Thus ended my first live interaction of people met in cyber space.

I eventually decided to become a host and Linda was appointed my mentor to show me the ins and outs of keeping order in the room and making folks feel welcome. As time went on both AOL and Lapub grew. I attended a number more Lives not to mention other gatherings with friends I met through Lapub. The gatherings grew much bigger over the years as more folks got involved eventually stretching the whole week though the core was still the weekend. Those attending the gatherings just decided to get there earlier and do things together. I eventually started hosting a spring picnic at my place in late April/early May and ran about 5 of them until my marriage caused me to quite. In fact first words asked of me when I announced that I was separated a couple years later were, “when’s the picnic?” I even met my ex through Lapub, not one of my more glorious moments there <>. We were a tight community, not dissimilar to the blogging one though interaction was a bit easier.

Now that this tale is through I would like to dedicate to a very good friend, Tom. While Tom and his wife Jen weren’t part of this first gathering they arrived in Lapub soon after and as they lived in the Chicago area I soon met them at a Live. They’re good people and some of the best friends I’ve ever made, reality or cyber. Tom and I were kindred spirits and even resembled one another. While I was an inch or so taller and a few pounds, ok maybe more than a few, heavier we were both big, bearded men who loved a good time and good drink. In fact Tom’s only fault was that he was a Scotch drinker but that could be forgiven. In fact I still have a bottle of Johnny Red that he left at my house after one of my picnics. I made more trips to Chicago to visit with Tom and Jen and a few others that would gather on our own for a long weekend than I did for other reasons. I say this because I made my last trip to Chicago a few years ago for a very different reason than all those others. I went there for Tom’s memorial service. Tom had one other fault besides Scotch, cigarettes. He passed away from lung cancer at the age of 45. Tom was as good a friend as anyone could have especially considering we lived around 800 miles away from each other. I bring this up both to honor a friend and to ask other friends out there that if you smoke do your damnedest to quit. While we may not be the kind of friends that Tom and I were you are still friends and I am sure there are folks out there in the blogosphere you probably do have that kind of friendship with. If not for yourself do it for them. It’s a bitch to lose a friend so young.

Thanks for the listen.

Online Origins, Part 2, Cyberspace Meets Reality

Took time to post about Saturday’s game and a few other things but time to continue the trip on the virtual wayback machine. So off we go on another exciting into the history of my online adventures. Aren’t we all excited?

I was playing around on America Online for not quite a year, spending a lot of time in the chat room LaPub, mainly on Tuesday nights. I occasionally visited other nights but costs basically kept my time down and I had come to know the PubTends, the name given to the hosts of the room, from 8 to 10 fairly well. Oldwolf was the first person I had talked to as he was working the room when I first found out about. SeaSiren followed him and again I became very friendly. Oldwolf wasn’t really that old and Siren lived by a lake rather than a sea but who cares. So I was hanging around this chat room and after a few months I hear talk about something called Live out in the Chicago area, Wheaton to be exact. It seems that the founder of the room, a woman named Lavona had a gathering at her place on a weekend in early July. I said what the hell, I’m conversing with these people I might as go meet some of them. My family was aghast. You don’t know these people, they could be ax murders, was repeated more than once. Hell, I don’t know a lot of people I meet at the local bar or at the Jersey Shore either and I’ve survived those places. This is different in only distance. Besides, I’ve never been to Chicago. Since I’m new at my job I don’t have a whole lot of vacation time but it’s only a weekend so I decide I’ll leave Thursday night, take Friday and Monday off and do some major league driving. At the time I was driving an Acura Legend I had just bought before I had been laid off my old job and had never really had given it a chance to stretch its legs. I was used to a large part of the drive as I had been traveling from E. Lansing, Mi. to home and back the years I had lived in Mi. Besides the junkers I was driving then were nowhere near as good as the Legend.

So I packed the car when I got home from work Thursday, left a bit early, and caught a nap figuring on shooting across I-80 through the night. Got a few hours sleep, filled a cooler with a couple boxes of burgers and meatballs, my new job was IT manager for a meat processing company, as a donation to the event and headed out about 7-8 that night. Driving 80 at night in a car meant for driving is an experience not to be forgotten when you are young enough to do it and old enough to appreciate it. The Eastern part of PA you have to be cautious, it’s populated enough that the state troopers are usually out and about. I had it timed that it was still fairly early when I hit it. Nice cruising, making good time. I hit the central area of the state just as it was getting later. Here the towns are fewer and farther away from the highway. Cops are there but they are usually cruising, don’t have to worry about them sitting on the side of the road once it gets past 10-11 at night. Foot gets a bit heavier and the engine is purring. The western half of the state is deserted, ain’t even that many long haulers out right now which is how I had it planned. I’ve learned to be cautious through Ohio; those troopers are persistent and cut you no slack, so I want to make time before I get there. This is still the age of 55 even though my speedometer goes to 140. I never did pin that needle on this or subsequent trips but I gave the car the workout I had been wanting to since I bought it. Cranked it back down at the Ohio line but was still moving pretty well. Even though it was late, or very early, traffic picked a bit up once it blended in to the Ohio Turnpike but still not exactly bumper to bumper. I keep cruising and eventually pass my old turnoff when I would head in to Mi. in the old days, Toledo exit, think it might have been 5. A mile or two off that exit there used to be a place called Johnny’s Diner that I and a couple of friends had once hit on a road trip one night. Don’t ask. All I remember that something we ate had us driving back to E. Lansing with all windows and the sunroof open even though there was a steady rain falling. Just a short aside there, back to our adventure. So I’m booking on down the road and I’m soon in uncharted territory as I pass an exit we had once used to get to E. Lansing when we missed the other turnoff. So I’m booking along and soon I hit the Indiana border. Obviously I have hit the anteroom to the Great Plains. Ohio ain’t much but there are some dips in the road. Indiana was flat. Maybe not as flat as Kansas, which a friend once described as being so flat that he hated to get out of his car to take a piss because the people in the house 10 miles across the field might be able to see him, but it seemed damn flat to a Pa. boy like me. Don’t have any idea of what the cops in this state are like but it’s early morning, there’s no traffic and it’s a flat stretch of road. Maybe I can talk my way into just a warning if I get caught and off I go. Besides we’re only talking fine here, it ain’t a border state with Pa. so no reciprocal points. Not much to remember about the trip across In., not much there but farm fields. Do remember I had to turn off the ac as it was fogging the windshield so I opened the sunroof and somewhere along the journey I must have passed an herb farm because I smelled basil for about 5 or so miles. And I hit the outskirts of Chicago about an hour after the sun came up.

So now I made great time up one state and across 3. I now proceed to take over 3 hours to travel the last 60 miles of the trip. Little did I realize what the traffic conditions were in Chicago when you combined the morning of a work day with construction season? And I thought Philly was bad. Instead of my usual lead foot I needed a quick one on the break and my head on a swivel. Never knew when a closed lane would be coming at you. Fun part about this was I made several trips out to Chicago for a number of years and for the first 3 the construction was not only still going on but actually expanding, you would think they would finish one part then move to another. Not Chicago. Then all of a sudden it was gone. I made a trip and I saw no sign of construction anywhere. It was like Poof, the magic fairy made all traces vanish. Never did figure out how they did it. Anyhoo, I creep my way up the so called expressway until I hit the cross highway to take me out to Wheaton. My hotel is right off the main road but it’s a bit early for check in so I head for the gathering spot. It’s only about 10 min. away and I find it with no problem even though this is before the age of GPS. I do wonder if I’m at the right place though as I am confronted by what used to be called row homes in my younger days but when they are in this newer iteration they’re town homes. Nice looking place but seemed a bit cramp for a large sized party. Might as well find out and I head on up to the door and ring the bell. It’s opened by a woman about a decade or so older than I and I’ll never forget my introduction to the group. After all that time on the road to get here the first words I’m greeted with are “Who the hell are you?” Kind of left me a bit speechless. I finally manage to say that I’m herb, aka Wolfshead and find out I’m talking to Linda, known online as AFALindaS, who invites me in. While still wondering about the greeting I’m introduced to a few of the people who are there, most of whom I do not know as they aren’t regulars on Tuesday nights when I’m in the room. I meet Lavona, our hostess, and John, her husband. Her ex, Richard, is also there. Seems he does the honors in the cooking department for the weekend. I meet a few others that have shown up already and after giving them the boxes of burgers and such, which aren’t used that weekend though considering the quality and amount of food served I can’t complain. Anyway I grab a drink and fade in to the background and listen to the plans for the weekend.

Seems somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 people are expected and Richard is cooking lunch that dayv and dinner the next. The talk turns about the night’s activities some of which seems to involve a lot of Super soakers and Silly String and the anticipated reactions of the neighbors once they are brought in to play. I did say this house was in the middle of a group of town homes didn’t I? Not exactly the appropriate battleground for such items. What the hell, I don’t have to live here. There is also talk of a trip after lunch to a place that is basically a high class adult store. Have I mentioned the group around me right now is mainly women? Very bawdy women as I was to come find out. One of the adventures of LaPub was to see how far one could push the envelope. As I explained earlier America Online had its Terms of Service, rules you could not violate and overt sexual language was one of the no-nos. Suggestion and double entendre however became a well developed skill and pushing the envelope a time honored ritual. Well it seemed that it carried over to the Live get togethers. OK, in for a penny. A trip into Chicago for dinner and a night at a club s planned for dinner. Saturday it seems a trip to the Brookfield Zoo is on the schedule and then dinner and general mayhem. Sunday is brunch and everyone heading home. Sounds like a busy weekend.

So I head over and check in to the hotel and head back over to the house for lunch. Afterwards I get a couple of passengers, including my greeter from this morning with whom I seem to have a lot in common, and we head over to the adult store, going by the famous name of Studio 54 if I remember right. It’s an interesting place compared to what I’m used to seeing in an adult store. It’s not cheesy or set away from every thing else. The building isn’t the standard windowless cinder block structure nor is it garishly done. Actually it looked like a standard shop you might find anywhere. The front could be considered PG13 actually. Mainly sexy outfits and maybe a few less obtrusive accoutrements. Basically looked like a clothing store. The back room however was anything but. Videos, rubber novelties, whips, chains, handcuffs, you want it, you got it. Seems they were the main supplier to the strippers and drag queens in the Chicago area. Got to talking with the clerk and he said they had files on sizes and preferences of a lot of their customers. What a job. When we get back I find that some of the women had availed themselves of the delights of the back room. Some folks were in for an interesting night. Though not this trip I will say that subsequent trips did bring more than one proposition. It could be a high old time.

I head back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. Later we are headed in to Chicago to hit the North Pier. Dinner was to be at Dirty Dick’s, whose mottos were, the Shame of Chicago and You Can’t Kill a Man Born to Hang. This just keeps getting better. Then the plans call for a stop at the Baja Beach Club, an innocuous name. Was I to learn different. After a short nap I get ready and head back to the house to pick up a few passengers and we head to North Pier. One thing I notice when we got off the highways and on to city streets is that compared to Philly Chicago was a clean city. Parking was a lot better also and we head in to North Pier. We head in to dinner and I get my first look at Dick’s. It’s nothing fancy, basically a lot of picnic style tables and seats. Everyone mingles. Then I look over to the bar and above it looks like an acre of bras tacked to the ceiling. Hokay, great atmosphere. Sitting at the table I meet more folks who are attending the weekend but haven’t been to the house yet. Next thing I know is the waitresses start bringing drinks and a favorite, among the women at least, is something the mix at the table and slip a condom over. It obviously generates a gas as the condom starts to expand. Whether it was the actual drink or just the accompaniment to one I never really found out. Another popular one was something served in a flute shaped glass which the woman was supposed to pick up and drink without using her hands. Hard to see how the night could get any better. Food was ok but nothing special but the presentation was in keeping with everything else going on. One of the best dinners I ever had.

After dinner it’s still a bit early to hit the club so the crowd wanders. Some decide to get a bit of fresh air, others head for the virtual reality arcade in the pier and some of us just decide to wander the shops. Don’t remember much about them but on had a pretty eclectic collection of sweat shirts. One stood out, saying Because I’m The Fucking Queen. I remember it because my mother used to say it was because she was the queen when my brother or I questioned her when we were too old for the because I said so routine. Somehow though I don’t think this one would go over big with her however. After wandering around we decide to hit the club.

The club is another eye opener. Right after we go through the door there is a tub of bottled beer, Bud and Bud Light, the special of the night. How I noticed the beer is beyond me as presiding over the tub is a very lovely young lady wearing, if that is the word, a couple pieces of dental floss as tastefully as something like that can be worn. You bet that was an eye opener. What have I been missing doing my drinking in taprooms and fire halls for the last few years? After we get seated it seems that there are a number of scantily dressed members of the female persuasion peddling all kinds of different ways to part men from their money. Most popular seemed to be the two young lovelies in high boots and whips with a leather belt full of test tubes containing shooters. Seemed it was very popular for someone to pay them to go serve some one a drink in a most humiliating manner. Thank god I was a newbie this trip, no one wasting their hard earned dollars on me. Later trips I wasn’t so lucky. The show consisted of two guys playing grand pianos across from one another and running a singing war of very bawdy ballads. It was a hoot and I spent most of the night laughing my ass off. We closed the place up and headed back to the house to drop the passengers off, everyone making plans to eat breakfast wherever and meet later in the day to head to the zoo. Seems Linda and a couple others saw fit to allow me to tag along for breakfast so I head for the hotel and a short night’s rest.

Getting long again and I haven’t even gotten around to my picnics yet but we’ll take a break and continue later. Thanks for the listen.

Un-frikkin-believable

Channel surffing to find something to watch and ESPN Sportcenter was showing Flyers-Habs hilites. Would you believe that talking about a hockey game they found a way to slip in references to both the Yanks and Kobe Bryant? Wouldn't have thought it possible but somehow they found a way to do it. God help us.

It's Half Assed Because I Was High Schooled

Waiting for the Mookie to start. Flipping channels to see if anything worth watching. Yanks on ESPN again. What, third time this week already? Too bad the Yanks don’t play poker in the WSOP, ESPN would be covering it live wire to wire.

What’s going on with the blogs tonight? Comment I left on Waffles is no longer there. Waffles doesn’t seem the type to make one disappear. On to Josie’s and it says 3 comments but none are shown when I go to check. WTF is going on? I’ve entered the Mittelmarch.

On to the game. Seated at my table and recognize most of the names even if I haven’t had much converse with them. I see Julkeus, muhctim and Pushmonkey. Gary I’ve talked to. Trouble across the table in TwoBlackAces. See his name at too many final tables to take him lightly. MaggieO and DaBag make up the table. So far after 11 hands I’ve had a weak ace in 5 of them. Played it twice, in sb and otb. Won 1, lost 1, minimal pots. So far nothing major has taken place. Coop has joined the table. Take a decent pot when my ace gets stronger otb this time, A-K. Gary raised, coop and I call and flop comes A-Q-J. They both check, I bet 2/3 and take it. Been folding mostly but dump over 1000 to Gary. He raises, coop calls and I reraise with Q-Q. Gary calls and coop folds. Ace through the gate on the flop and I figure I’m cooked but Gary checks and I go 2/3s and he reraises and I fold. Get it back soon from coop however. I raise with A-Qs and he calls. Ace on the flop, he checks, I bet and he raises. I think a bit then call. Turn and he checks and I go all in. He calls, A-Q vs. A-8 and river bricks and I double. Soon take Julkeus out. I limp with K-Q off and he raises. I call and I hit a K in the door. I check and he shoves with about 900. I call and he has A-J and the Ks hold. Few small pots here and there as the tourney goes on. Mainly some steals. Have learned aggression pays.

Make it to the first break with about 6500. Gary is out. 23 Warsaw raises and Gary shoves his short stack. It’s only about 750 and I contemplate calling with 9-T suited but fold with regrets. Maggie calls and it goes to the flop and a check down to the river. Pair of 7s takes it but my T would have been good. Oh well. Lightning has joined the table as a shortie but soon doubles up. They must be putting all us nitty old men in one place. Where’s Mojo? Coop is out when his J-J loses to K-K. He hit his set but so did his adversary, Maggie. Too bad. Lightning has made a decent comeback from his short stack and guess who has taken coop’s seat. Shabazz Jenkins, wondered when he would show. Key Twilight Zone theme. Guess I’m going to have to link him this post just for FT’s persistence. Shabazz is gone, he shoves slightly over 900. I call with a weak ace and Lightning comes over the top. I fold and it’s Shabazz with A-Q vs. lightning K-K and the Ks hold. I soon take out microvillian when my T-T turns a set against his A-Q. Soon give it, and more, to muhctim. When I double him up with 5-5 against his 7-7. Thought he was C-betting a lo flop. Soon raise with T-T and get 2 callers but get no action when I flop a set and river a boat even though the turn is a K. Go into the second break with about 7500.mmThe rum is kicking in.

I get a few more chips after the break when my small pair gets no action but I get a double KO a few hands later. May have to continue this later. Game getting interesting and I’m buzzed. Do a double up when my A-K goes up against two all ins. BrainMc shoves his A-Q and Maggie comes along for the ride. Case ace hits but K kicker holds and I’m sitting decent. I do ok when my ducks flop a set against Warsaw. He min raise pre and I call from the BB. I hit the set and check as does he. Turn comes a Q and I check again and he bets. I minraise and he calls. River a blank and I shove my last 4900 and he folds. Couple hands later I chip up against AgSweep and my A-T hits top and bottom on the flop. Ag shoves bottom with gutter ball draw and my two hold up. My stack doesn’t last long as I shove Q-Q in to Dakota Black’s K-K. Board helps me not and my last chips go to OSU when he shoves top pair with a flush draw. I have 23 outs when I call with bigger draw, oesd and two overs but turn and river brick and I am gone in 16th place. Oh well, would love to cover final table but I’m shot for the night. GL all
‘
This is going to have to wait to be posted. Too tired to link and do the spell check. Didn't think one could get so screwed up on umbella drinks. Of course when you knock off the entire bottle maybe it makes a difference. Just found out that OSU won. Congrats, glad to see you put my chips to good use.

Thanks for the listen.

WTF Was I Thinking?

Quick hitter before the Mookie.

Was playing the Buy In League game at PA last night. Make the final table as short stack but somehow get to be chip leader at one point. Finally get to 3 way play and all about even. Play goes back and forth and the guy who was fighting me earlier in the tourney for chip lead, and took it after I got donkish, gains a decent lead on us. Finally I figure I'm tired and when he makes a play from the button I decide to defend my blind with a weak K. Having played with him a bit I know he is very good at playing big stack poker and isn't above bullying when he can. K hits, I bet and he shoves and I call. Of course A-K and I'm gone. Good game. As I'm signing out to hit the hay the screen pops up saying I won $25 for third. Whaaaaat? Somehow my mind was blanked, I never even thought of the frikkin payout. How the hell do you play a damned poker tournament, especially a buy in, and forget all about the money? Was I that tired? Have I degenerated that far? I play a frikkin tourney and forget about the prize money. Maybe I have ascended to a higher level where the beauty of the game is the thing. I check the lobby and find out that first was $60+. Not bad for a $3 buy in, games must be getting bigger. WTF was I thinking? This shit has got to stop.

See you at the Mookie. Thanks for the listen.

Is it just me

or does anyone else seem to think that ESPN is the house organ for the Yankees and the Lakers? Trying to get some info on ssome games tonight, including the Phils and it seems every 5 min they are cutting back to either of those teams. Don't know whose ass they kissed more tonight, Kobe's or Arod's.

Saturday night

So I’m getting ready to eat some dinner, leftover pizza, I’m a real heath nut, before getting ready to head out to Saturday’s poker game when I get a call from Doug. He’s calling to ask if I can give him a ride to Ron’s. Even though it’s a bit out of my way I tell him sure. I like Doug even if he is my nemesis at the poker table. Doug is a good player of the LAG-tard variety. He makes ck seem almost passive and it’s almost impossible to put him on a hand. Not to mention he’s also lucky as hell. He’ll bluff and bluff and somehow if he doesn’t buy it he winds up with the best hand by the river any way. Actually playing Doug is one of the reasons my game improved. When I started playing NL I was a very passive player and used to let Doug control the action. Even when I figured I was best I reacted rather than acted and more times then not let Doug catch something to beat me. I finally figured that if I wanted to win against him when I was good I had to be the first off the mark so as not to let him get there which in turn led me to a much more aggressive playing style. Nowhere near what he does but a lot more than I was. While it has helped my overall game it hasn’t seemed to help me much against Doug. This is because while I’ve learned to attack when good and win some pots from him Doug will still think nothing of attacking back every so often and somehow it usually all winds up in the middle and then he still sucks out on me somewhere in the course of the night. Actually I think Doug occasionally reads this damned thing. Either that or he’s bluffing in a different sense. A couple times last night I bet into him with strong draws and/or over cards and he called me down with middle pair. Now at one time Doug would never have done that. He may have made a play and come over the top but never just called yet here it happened and he took my chips a couple times. Afterwards I asked him about it and he tells me to forget it, my image is shot. What the hell is he talking about I ask and he just says he hears things. Now what he could have heard is beyond me as I haven’t played anything local but these games, not even the bar games, so there is no one who could be telling anything about me. There are only two places where I have talked about my game and that is the poker forum I frequent online and here and I doubt he’s reading posts in that forum.

Be that as it may I’m getting ready to head out. Game starts at 7 and while I’m usually one of the first there most folks don’t wander in until a bit later. Today however I’m going to be one of the later guys. Due to circumstances beyond my control things go FUBAR and I’m running late. I start rushing around and finally am ready to book when I get a call from Doug saying Wookie just stopped by his house and so he’ll ride up with him but can he catch a ride home with me. Again, no problem, it will save me time and off I go. I get a mile down the road and it dawns on me I was rushing around so much that I left without various items including my card protector. Nothing that was necessary but just some things I like to have but I’m not running back for them. The omens are not looking propitious for this game. I stop at the Wawa on my way to pick up a cup of soda and a bag of ice for the bottle of umbrella drinks I brought with me. Ron has a great selection of whiskies at the Manor but it’s getting warm out and straight whisky is a thing for winter drinking for the most part as far as I’m concerned. Beer and boat drinks are for the heat. While there I wonder whether to tap MAC for some back up cash as I only have 3 buy ins with me but I get overconfident and decide not to. Forgot about those damned omens. So I got my stuff and head out and finally get to Ron’s. Game is already in progress and my favorite seat is already taken. Damn, them omens are really starting to suck. Put the ice in the freezer, the drinks on the kitchen table and head in to the game room.

The game is mostly NLHE, .25/.50, with a $40 buy in or 75% of the big stack if you are late or rebuying. As the night goes on we’ll throw in a round of the Pineapple variations or PLO or O8 just for a change of pace. It hasn’t been going on for long so it costs me $40 to start. There are 6 already seated. Ron, our host, banker and owner of the palatial Snakster Manor is at the head of the table. Very good solid players, not usually given to flashy moves but he will occasionally have his moments. Going clockwise the next player is the above mentioned Doug. Next is Chris, a friend of Doug’s, whom I know nothing about. Next is Wookie. Wookie is puzzlement. I’ve played with him only a couple times, usually in tourneys, so really have no idea how his cash game is. Also he has usually been heavily into the beer when we’ve played before but tonight there is a glass of ice water at his elbow. He does partake of Ron’s hospitality with the whisky eventually but compared to what I’ve seen him do to a beer supply it’s exceedingly moderate. What effect no beer will have on what little I do know about his game is any one’s guess. Next to him and in my favorite spot, is Trucker, Dave. We ran across Dave at the RPT games and he’s a pretty nice guy with an offbeat sense of humor at times and he wound up being invited to the game and is now a regular. A retired Teamster and a decent player though he’s mainly her to have fun and socialize which does color his play at times. Finally there’s Pops. Pops is Ron’s father-in-law, a great old guy and has in-law quarters at the Manor He only sits in for about the first two hours of the game then calls it a night. Have to be careful around Pops; you never know whether he’s got A high or the freaking nuts. He has a tendency to get frisky at times. I’m informed that Darryl and Frank are supposed to show later. Darryl I figure is a given, he’s pretty regular. There was a time I would have said the same of Frank but over the past year or so instead of showing up early he’s come late when he has shown at all. Last couple games he said he would be there and hadn’t shown so who knows. I mention that my nephew said he might come after he’s done work at 11.

So I pull up a seat between Chris and Wookie as I like keeping Doug to my right and right away some one mentions that Darryl’s gonna complain I’m in his spot. No biggie as I say I’m putting in my claim for Pop’s seat when he leaves. It puts Doug on my left but I hate sitting down on the corner of the table. First or second hand I dust off some chips to Dave. Talk about insult to injury, he’s in my seat and taking my chips. According to him it makes his night, he doesn’t care what happens as long as he won a pot from me. I did say Dave has an offbeat sense of humor didn’t I, especially as far as I’m concerned. A couple hands later I spread some of the cheer to Wookie. I really should have paid attention to the omens. I put another $20 in the bank as I hate being caught short stacked and play goes on. It’s not too much longer when I ship the stack to Wookie when my K-Q runs in to his A-K and the K hits the turn. Oh well. I put the rest of what’s in my pocket on the table and it ain’t even 9 yet. It’s already been a long night. I win a small pot or two and Darryl shows up just as Pops is getting ready to leave. I go out to pour me a drink, he takes his seat and I grab Pops’. Pops had been up earlier but I think he may have gotten frisky and put most of them back. I take a couple more small pots and think maybe my luck is turning even though I donked off a few to Doug when he called me down with middle pair and caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. Then I’m in the cutoff with T-T and after a couple limpers I make it $2.50. Ron, otb, sits there and thinks with Doug doing all he can to get him to call. Doug finally persuades him and then calls himself and everyone else folds. Flop comes 2-7-6 rainbow and Doug checks and I go $10, which is about the pot. Ron shoves for about $30 more. I figure that Ron might have had connectors, maybe suited otb, and hit top pair, maybe top two. I call thinking that I might have him beat or if not I still have outs. The turn and river are blanks and he turns over a pair of ducks for the set. Never figured that because didn’t think it would take him that long to decide to play a pair from otb. True it was a small pair but my raise wasn’t all that big by game standard and with Doug intimating that he was playing pre there was enough implied money to make it worthwhile to set mine. A couple hands later I dust off what I have remaining to Doug when he makes a play to my A-Q suited and I shove on a low board with the overs and nut flush draw. True, I didn’t have enough to really force him off but he only had middle pair and as I said later there was a time he would never have made that call knowing that he couldn’t come back and force me off my hand later. So I’m tapped and might have gone home but it was still early and I wasn’t in the mood to leave. So I tell them to keep my seat warm and back off to Wawa and the ATM I go.

I pick up another 4 buy ins and return and cash half of it. We’ll see where we go from here. My luck starts to turn a bit. A small pot here and there and I finally hit a decent one. I pull 5-5 and call a raise by Chris. I figure I’m racing at best so far and probably behind as he’s been playing tighter than a bull’s arse at fly time. There’s another caller, Dave I think. Flop comes 3 low and Chris bets which makes me think that he’s got a bigger pair and we both call. The turn puts a straight draw out there and puts me open ended and scares Chris as he checks as does Dave. I bet the 5s with the OESD and Chris folds, Dave calls. River gives me my straight and Dave checks and I bet and he calls and I win and Chris kicks himself as he thought I had made my straight on the turn and he laid down best hand at that point. Playing way too tight. I win a couple more nice pots though not as nice as I would have wished. One was when we were playing PLO. I’m in the BB and flop quad Qs. How do you get paid off here? Everyone is going to be cautious with that pair on the board. I fiddle around and get lucky when the turn puts flush possibilities out there and a couple of small bets get me some chips from Darryl as he has the nut flush but had to size them right because even as he was calling me on the river he was figuring I had a boat but bets weren’t big enough to lay it down. Another hand I had –T-T again and smacked the set on the flop with Dave and Doug in the hand with me in the middle. Dave and I checked and Doug bet out which is what I was looking for. Dave and I both called. On the turn Dave bet out, I called and Doug folded. Damn, I wanted Doug in this hand, not Dave. Doug had the bigger stack and I wanted to use his aggressiveness against him. River pairs the board and Dave bets again and I raise and he folds. Doug says that he had hit top pair on the flop but that when both of us came along for the ride when he bet he figured he was cooked. Damn Dave, Doug with top pair and a big stack? I could have made up all my losses and then some.

Somewhere along the line Frank actually showed. Frank’s a hell of a nice guy and a decent player or he was. Somehow he’s come to the conclusion he’s got to be like Doug and all the other LAG-tards out there and it doesn’t work out so well for him. While he still plays a solid game he has Matasow like blow ups usually at the wrong frikkin times and winds up donking back everything he has accumulated and then some. Last night I felt a bit sorry for him for while he made a few plays he shouldn’t most of his game was solid, just unlucky. I got to him first when he raised and I called with suited connectors. I flopped open ended and turned the straight and when I raised the river he called and I had outdrawn his pocket queens. As the board was draw heavy he should never have made the call but then again I was a bit loose as I called a pretty substantial flop bet with my draw. A bit later he got it all in with Qs again against Dave’s 9-9. After the turn Dave started to congratulate him on the hand and it was no sooner out of his mouth than the river comes a 9. Poor Frank He buys back in again but a bit later he runs across Doug. Forget how preflop went but I’m sure there was a raise in there somewhere as Frank had A-A. Flop comes 3 spades and Doug shoves. Frank is in the tank and Doug tells him he has the flush. Frank is still thinking and he and Doug are going back and forth about the hand. Frank finally calls and shows 2 black aces vs. Doug’s 9 hi flush. Both turn and river brick and Frank is broke. There ensues a lively discussion on the merits of the call with Frank saying that as it was a cash game it was entirely appropriate while Doug insisted that in the specific situation it wasn’t. Doug’s argument wasn’t that drawing to the nut wasn’t correct in a cash game but rather when you don’t have anything left to rebuy it becomes more like a tourney situation and you have to wait for a better spot. Kind of agree with Doug on this one.

Before Frank bottomed out my nephew Patrick joined the game and his arrival jinxed me. I had been doing halfway decent and it looked like I had made a recovery but after he got there I went card dead. Oh I took some small pots here and there and gave some chips back the same way. There is a house rule about giving a half hour notice before leaving, unless you bust out of course, just your table stake not your wallet, and along about 1 Wookie mentions he’s going to give notice soon. I say I’m booking at 2 anyway myself and Doug right away goes 2:30. 2, I say. Anyhow somewhere along the line we get started on a round of PLO8 and since I always stay to the end of the round it somehow wound up closer to 3 before the game broke up, mainly because of two hands. One was a 3 hand pot between Doug, Wookie and Dave where Dave wound up shoving the river and Doug calling leaving Wook contemplating a $100 bet into about a $350 pot with the second nut high. Here things got a bit dicey as the table talk, while appropriate for a HE game was not for a hi/lo one. Doug, figuring Dave was all in and the bet had Wookie about covered so he had no more at risk started discussing the hand with Wookie. Basically he was telling Wookie that he had the same hand and that if he couldn’t beat it he should fold because he would lose money. Part of the problem is that Wookie didn’t quite get the hang of the quarter figuring that even if he lost half the hundred to Dave because of the lo there was still enough in the pot to make up for it. What was inappropriate was that one didn’t know whether Dave was playing hi or lo so talking Wookie out of calling was depriving him of half the bet if low or maybe even the whole thing if hi. As it turned out Wookie finally folded Dave had lock lo and Doug had 2nd nut hi, the same as Wookie had laid down. I heard Doug did offer to make up Wookie’s missed bet as we were leaving but don’t know if Dave accepted. Knowing Dave, probably not. The other hand was again Wookie, this time with Ron on the last hand of the night. Wookie potted the flop which left Ron in the tank trying to put him on a hand. Seems Ron had top 2 with a lo draw and wasn’t sure if Wookie had bottom set. Took him awhile to figure it out but eventually he decided Wookie did have the set which he did. The rabbit hunt showed it was a good fold as Ron would have gotten neither a hi or lo. As Ron is the banker however we spent some time waiting to get cashed out as this hand played out.

All in all it turned out to be a decent night. It was enjoyable playing with these guys again and when I totaled things up I found I was $15 to the good. Not a great haul but considering where I had been earlier I’m not going to grouse about it. Was actually up a bit more but a couple of draw heavy PLO hands that didn’t pan out cost me about a buy in or so. I’ll be waiting for the next one.

Thanks for the listen

Online Origins, Part the first

The game went off as planned last night, well not as I planned, but right now I’m still tired and I’m planning to spend a couple hours talking to my daughter so no time to write it up just now so we’ll just go with one I was working on for the time being and get to the gory details of last night a bit later. After all, I'll have plenty of time, I don't suckup for invites.

Between my trip to get jerky, the time of the year and Jordan mentioning a trip to Chicago it brought to mind my LaPub picnics. Most of you probably don’t know what LaPub was though it is possible some of my friends made at that time read this. It dates back to my earliest forays in to the online world and I made a lot of friends through it though many factors, mainly the development of the Web brought about its demise. So I decided to get a bit maudlin here and reminisce for a bit.

My online dicking around dates back to the days of the old electronic bulletin boards, usually run on DOS platforms. Still have a book listing the old BBS services and their modem numbers. Damn thing ran to about 250 pages give or take. There were no graphics, no chat, not a whole lot of anything but one could leave messages and download files. They were good places to go if you needed a small app to tweak something you were working on. It’s where the geeks and dabblers went to share, and show off, their abilities. The Internet consisted of the newsgroups and you needed a government or university account to access it and the Web, what everyone surfs these days, might have been a gleam in its inventors’ eye but I can’t really say for sure. The only comprehensive online service I knew about was CompuServe and it was about $15 an hour to access. I stuck with the BBS as most were free. I later found out about a service called Prodigy or P* as users called it. Prodigy had been around for a few years and had a graphic interface and charged a monthly fee which made it sound reasonable to check out.

Got my subscription to P* in the early 90s and it was decent. Lots of info at your finger tips and some of the first online shopping. Didn’t take advantage of the shopping but I did the info. In addition to all the standard info out there the message boards were the bomb. Need to know something, just post in the appropriate forum and you got dozens of responses within hours. (America Online had similar features but not quite as user friendly but more on that later.) Was a dedicated P* user for a year or two but then they slit their own throats by changing their pricing structure. They decided to start charging an hourly rate for access to certain areas, one of those being the most popular feature, the message boards. It’s tough to start charging for something people have had free for years. In addition America Online started to make its move and while they charged an hourly fee they offered all that P* had plus a bonus, real time chat. They are the two things missing from the current Internet. Search engines aren’t bad but the message boards on Prodigy and AOL were much better as the answers were always on point and hardly ever had to be sifted through as with search engines because keywords can be interpreted in many ways. And though there are chat features on the Net I’ve never seen any work as smoothly as those on AOL even though the bandwidth was a minor fraction of todays.

So on I moved and installed America Online, it wasn’t AOL just yet. Still have my America Online DOS floppy and my AOL for Windows floppy, they’re history. AOL was great but at $7.95 an hour I didn’t spend a whole lot of time there. Basically just buzzed around until one day I saw a banner flash for LaPub. LaPub, what’s a LaPub? Clicked on the link and was taken to a chat room, a virtual pub. I found out later that it was the first online chat room, developed when the forerunner of AOL was a Mac service and later moved to AOL. All the geeks behind it were dedicated Mac users and I found myself in a distinct minority as a PC user when I showed up at my first gathering but I get ahead of myself. I was welcomed by the host and made to feel at home by him and the 5-6 others in the room. It was a Tuesday night as I remember and the host changed on the hour. The chat went on for 3 hours, 9 to 12 Eastern I think, and then the room closed down. Not that you couldn’t get there but the hosts weren’t there and no one ever took advantage of the empty room. Of course you never really needed to as AOL gave you the ability to set up private chat rooms where you could invite those you wanted to speak with and keep out the riff raff. Also, anything went in private rooms but in the public chat there were rules of behavior and enforcing them was another of the hosts’ duties. Violators of the rules would be tossed from the room for a first offense. In fact it was called getting TOSsed as it happened for violating the Terms Of Service. If they came back and persisted subsequent offenses carried account suspensions with them, anywhere from an hour to a week. I mainly lurked my first couple times there not saying much (ain’t that a laugh) but went back on a couple subsequent Tuesdays. As it was $7.95 and hour I wasn’t spending a whole hell of a lot of time there as I had just gotten a new job and my pay wasn’t a hell of a lot more than that at the time. Be that as it may it was here that Wolfshead was born. I had registered my AOL account under my real name but I noticed that those in the chat room used non de plumes so I figured I needed one. I had been reading a series of books by Leigh Brackett featuring Eric John Stark, a wolfshead, a man without a place or people. Well I didn’t exactly have a whole lot of local friends as I had not gone to the local high schools as did my friends from younger days and then I left for college in Michigan and had started spending my break times out there and eventually lived out there for about 10 years. After I came back and started work in this area I picked up a bunch of drinking buddies but after I was laid off from there you kind of lose touch. My new place of employment was mainly old men and women in the office so no one there to pal around with and I had just bought a place in a semi country area so you weren’t running across neighbors sitting on the porch in the evenings. So I decided yea, Wolfshead was probably an appropriate moniker for the chat room. Needless to say most never understood the term and thought it referred to the animal itself and it usually just got shortened to Wolf but Wolfshead it was and Wolfshead it’s been for nigh on 20 years now. So I started spending Tuesday evenings in LaPub, a cyber version of Cheers. The people were friendly and the only thing missing was the alcohol and while the cost of it wasn’t really cheap it was probably no more expensive than my forays to real bars were running me and a hell of a lot cheaper than they used to run a few years earlier. And so it went for awhile until I attended my first get together of LaPub regulars out in the western suburbs of Chicago. And what an experience that was.

But it seems this missive is running on, I do tend to ramble, so I think I’ll finish it a bit later so as not to bore you too much at once. Thanks for the listen.

Had to take a day out

Just heard that the game is on again for this Saturday. Of course it was supposed to be on for last Saturday also so we’ll see. Hope so, I’m going stir crazy.

So crazy that I took a bit of a run around today. Supposed to stay off this foot but it’s a question of mental vs. physical health. Besides my car hasn’t been run for over a week, needs the exercise. First stop was the Farmer’s Market about 15 miles away. Zern’s is great, all kinds of shyt there though I can’t do a lot of strolling around to browse. Main problem is it is only open on Fridays and Saturdays so not a large window time wise to play with. Speaking of not a large window time wise it seems it was even smaller than expected. When I worked my trips were usually on Sat since the place is usually packed come the evenings. I found out a few months ago on a previous trip that they don’t open until 11 am on Sat. I had shown up around 10 and had time to kill. Today I’m smart; I don’t get there until 11:30. Real smart, everything still shuttered. I see people walking around getting ready so I figure OK, Friday, maybe a 12:00 opening. Hang around until a bit after 12 but nothing seems open. OK, change of plan. Time to hit the book store.

Original plan was to hit Zern’s then travel down Rte 100 to the 422 Expressway and then the Expressway to the book store, back down 422 to the supermarket, a Wegmans, great place with lots of goodies, then the liquor store and home. Not exactly a great circle route but as reasonable a loop as can be made with those places in mind. Zern’s not being open just screwed up those plans. Oh well. Hit the bookstore but not much on the shelves for my taste. Found a copy of Fear Itself by Walter Mosley. Mosley writes some great stories set in the Watts section of LA in the 50’s. Looked a bit better than the copy I already have and was only a buck so I picked it up and I’ll keep whichever one is better and sell the other. Next I hit the manga section for my daughter. I know this one is going to cost me as the last time I had her there she found a copy of Inu-Yasha and she started that series. Next time I was there I found 20 more to the series sitting on the shelves. I got her 2; let’s not get out of hand here. That being so I know I’m getting 2 more. I get to the shelves and get a nasty surprise. The 18 I left last time are still there, they were nos. 15 to 32. I had picked up 13-14. However I saw issues 1-12 sitting there also but looking different than the others. I figure what the hell; I’ll get her 2-3 to go in order as she has 1. Then I look. The damned things were $15.95. WTF? The pricing is half the cover for paperbacks but that still means $8 for these which is more than the price of the other ones new. Why so damned expensive? (For any Canadian readers I have you guys getting an even bigger reaming, they want C$ 25.95 for them. That’s hard cover territory. Can’t figure the discrepancy either as the C$ isn’t that far off the US one) Anyhow I got 15 and 16, lots cheaper, but I know that my daughter is going to spot these others and I’m going to get reamed somewhere along the line. Luckily I’ll be able to keep her occupied with the other volumes on her next trip as I can do a 2 or 1 offer but this summer is going to be tough. Anyway she still made out better than I did and now I’m back off to Zern’s.

Get back to Zern’s and surprise, most places are still closed. My main stops were the nut shop and the butcher’s. I find someone behind the curtains at the nut shop and ask what time they open. She says about 2. It’s about 20 mins. to so I head over to the butcher shop to check on them. On the way over I decide to stop for lunch and grab a crab cake sandwich at the seafood snack bar next stall to them. Nothing spectacular but not expensive and probably a lot better for me than the usual couple of corn dogs I cram down my throat when I’m there. Figure by the time I finish places should be open. Woman at the stand is very nice and as there is no business we have a nice chat. I finish my sandwich and head to the butcher shop.

While I used to visit the butcher’s when I held my old Lapub picnics around this time mainly because they had great ribs, I only went there for jerky this time. I used to frequent another stall but they have since closed so this has become my place for jerky. They have a great selection of it but the damned stuff s so expensive, even here, that one has to limit oneself unless the funds are in great condition. I also don’t eat as much jerky as I once did, too many crowns to risk it they way I once did. Ah to be young once again. As it is the stall is no longer a butcher shop. They now call themselves a deli and the cases are filled with an even larger variety of jerky, different types and sizes of cured sausages and salamis and cheese. Doesn’t really make a difference as I’m only after jerky but the larger selection is going to make behaving myself difficult. They have regular beef, steak and turkey, all in various flavors from regular to blazing hot. I like the steak but it is softer than the others and while easier on the teeth, disappears too fast so I’m getting plain old beef as I’ve never been big on turkey. I skip the various flavors of hot, the Cajun and the garlic and get a half pound each of original, teriyaki and PA Dutch sweet beef. Should last me awhile. On to the nut shop

Place was finally open. Nuts there are about ½ to ¾ the price in stores not to mention the greater selection. Also a good selection of trail mixes and dried fruit. My main staples are pecans, plain and glazed, pistachios and dried cherries. Picked up about a pound of each. They had some dates so I got some of them. Usually pick up some Turkish figs there too. They’re about half the price of Calmyrnas and just as good IMHO. Didn’t get any on this trip though. In a couple weeks. Also skipped the date nut rolls. Love them and so does my daughter but already bought the dates and don’t need to overdo it. Pick some up when my daughter comes down again. Next stop.

Next to the nut shop is the candy stall. This place is fantastic though I exercised restraint. It’s the only place left that I know of where you can get jujubes. Had to forego the pleasure however. Damn crowns again, not to mention too much sugar is a no-no these days. Years ago I used to cause jaws to drop when I’d ask for 5 lbs of the damned things. Would keep them on my desk at work. Hey, didn’t get up there that often. At least two co-workers pulled fillings when they raided the stash. The risk you take with jujubes. They also have one of the greatest selections of what used to be known as penny candy that I’ve seen since the sweet shops of my youth have closed down. It just ain’t a penny anymore. It’s a real bitch, you have money and you’re old enough that there are no longer parental restrictions on the good stuff but now your so old your body tells you to forget it. Anymore I only stop there for licorice. While they have a big selection of it my taste is for plain black, foreign made if it’s available. American black licorice is ok but Australia and the Netherlands have it all over us for licorice. Aussie has a much more intense taste while Dutch is kind of salty tasting. Finnish, Italian and German ain’t bad either. Unfortunately only US and Aussie are available here. Actually two types of US are there. Standard Twizzlers and a new brand, Kenny’s. Never heard of the Kenny’s before and the girl tells me it’s a bit harder than the Twizzlers and offers me a piece to try. Actually it’s also a bit more intense in flavor though not as strong as the Aussie. It’s also cheaper than Twizzlers. So I decided on a half of each and a pound of Aussie. Yes I know, the sugar again but every so often I just get a jones for black licorice and I have to poison myself. Also picked up some spearmint leaves for my mother. Wherever she usually gets them hasn’t had any her last couple trips and she’s been suffering withdrawal symptoms. Gotta help out where I can. Ok, finally done here, onward and upward.

Head back down towards home. Wegmans trip canceled as it’s now out of the way. Liquor store next stop. Quick stop there. Couple bottles of red and, since it’s pretty warm it’s umbrella drink season. Don’t feel like mixing so a couple bottles premixed stuff. A bottle of Rum Runner for the game tomorrow night and one for home. Want to pick up another bottle for home but forgot whether it’s Bahama Mama’s or Hurricanes that have the passion fruit in them. I hate passion fruit so guess I’ll have to pass on the second bottle. Will send my dickheaded nephew you out on a run later this weekend. Make a quick stop in the supermarket next door to the liquor store, just a simple one not as fancy as Wegmans, looking for some fruit pops. Useless visit as all they had was plain popsicles, did get fudgesicles though couldn’t waste all that extra walking, and my day of travel was over. Head home for pizza for dinner and a large Rum Runner and to bore everyone with this missive. Hell, when you don’t get out a lot and are as simple as I am you make the best of what is there. Now a short trip for poker tomorrow night and another week of sitting home behaving.

Thanks for the listen.

Web hosting

I've owned my own domain for a few years and it has sat idle. Now that I've al this time on my hand I'm thinking of putting it to use, maybe tranferring this blog there, maybe throw up a commercial page. It looks like if I want to do this however I'm going to need a web hosting company. It's a pain because I have a server here at home, originally planned as the centerpiece the home network and a family mailserver. Fios however does not issue a static IP unless you go business class so that rules that out. There are services for dynamic to static but if I'm going to pay for them I might as well check into web hosting and let someone else deal with the maintanance problems. I'm also eligible for free hosting with my Fios account but there you have to put Verizon in the site url and if I'm going to work my own site I want my own domain name up there. I'm paying for it, I want it up there. So basically this post is a question. Is anyone out there using a site host and if so is it any good and is the price reasonable? Would appreciate any comment on this.

Thanks for the replies and the listen.

Just some thoughts

Went out 21st in the latest Mookie. Best finish so far in the BBT5 but it wasn’t nothing to crow about as I never went above 7100 chips. Sat around and watched it for awhile. Interesting final table in the fact that except for RGC, who led the tourney most of the way the other 8 runners were all within a couple thousand chips of each other and even he was only about 15K or so ahead. About as balanced a final table as I’ve seen. Lots of chip movement for awhile before Mondogarage made the first mistake and depleted his stack and eventually left the table first. As it went along it seemed that a different person built his stack as someone went out so that the table stayed very balanced until it came down to RG and Tripjax. Sorry to say I missed the finish. Got up to take a whiz and swallow a couple pills and by the time I got back it was over. GG to the table and nice win Tripjax.

Looking over the schedule for this year’s WSOP. I see they’ve replaced the 50K HORSE with a 50K 8 game mixed and calling it The Player’s Championship and awarding the Chip Reese trophy to the winner. Sounds nice but unless you’re in Vegas you ain’t seeing nothing but NLHE. Seems ESPN coverage is driving things again and ESPN likes nothing but NLHE. Seems ESPN wouldn’t cover the final table unless it was only NLHE and a lot of the players are going along feeling that the TV coverage will up the participation. I don’t mind watching the NLHE but I really enjoy the other games. While I enjoy playing them I like to see how the pros do it. LCD screws me up again. Bad enough half of TV is made up of reality shows these days even poker is caving in to the wish of the masses. Is nothing sacred? Besides the game gives advantage to the NLHE specialist at the final table instead of favoring the all around player as a Player’s Championship and a trophy named after Reese should. Seems the WSOP forgot its roots, when it was something for the players not a TV event that caters to the masses. Big money wins out again. Kind of reminds me of coverage of the Olympics used to be like. All you saw were the events that the US did well in or had major followings. Well that’s what the people want to watch and what gets the ratings. True, but the people aren’t ever going to change their tastes if they aren’t exposed to different things. It’s funny, they won’t try different things elsewhere but they keep trying to cram soccer down our throats after years of failure. There goes that different drummer again. Since it seems my plans for Vegas aren’t going to work out I’m stuck with ESPN which means NLHE.

Enough for now. Thanks for the listen.

Another Mookie down the drain

Mookie starting. Not many familiar names at the table, Buddy Dank to my left and Bad Blood across the table but that’s all I recognize. Start OTB with Q-9. Not suited, easy fold. Suited, otb, I like Q-9, it’s the ultimate suckout hand. Xkm1245 notices that there are three monkey avatars in a row and brings up the see no evil, …, line. As I’m the third one I have to disabuse him of that notion as I definitely speak a lot of evil. Played two earlier tourneys and cards sucked in them and not much better here. Went out both of them when I ran pocket paint, J-J and Q-Q, into K-K. Can I make it a 3fer?

So far this game my cards would be a donkey’s dream, lots of sooooted. Right now, lots of folding. Tried to push the Hammer and it cost me. Back to folding. Damn, folded suited Q and flop brought the flush with OE straight flush redraw and two pair to one guy and set to another. What a haul it would have been. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Now it went from sooooted to weak aces. Need more patience because I can’t manufacture dick at this table, always a call if not a raise. Can’t even play my blinds, every one has been raised and none worth defending. Talk about being cold decked. Looks like I’m going to see how far folding can get me. Got some chips back. Had flush draw on a paired flop. Put out a value sized bet as a blocker from utg and it actually took down the pot.

Hey, finally, a real hand. Called bigdav’s raise pre with A-T and flop came x-T-T. He lays out a little over half the pot and I call. He checks the turn and I go about 3/4s and he folds. Hooray. BadBlood screws me up. In BB with 8-9 suited and first two guys limp. Just what I like, multi-way pot with suited connectors in the BB. Gold if you hit the flop, easy to get away from if you don’t. Blood spoils it all by shoving his short stack. Short maybe but still too big for a call at this stage. The suited cards keep coming, at least 8 straight hands suited. At least there was a K-Q and A-T among them. Nice pot off of Kajagugu. A-K in the BB with 3xs raise in front. Kaja calls as do I. Flop comes 3-3-6 and we all check. Turn a 9 and another check and Kaja bets slightly under half. I don’t believe he has the 3 and at best hit the 9 so I take a flyer and call. River brings a K and I check figuring on a trap but when he bets about 3’4s I chicken out and just call. K is good and I chip up a bit. Next hand is 8-8 but a preflop raise and all overs on the flop sends them to the muck.

Just gave most of my winnings to OMGItsPokerFool. Draw heavy board with flush and straight possibilities but can’t force him off his weak ace once he hit it on the flop. Gave up after 2 bullets. One of these days I’m gonna learn to fold once that ace hits. Couple hands later I’m forced off my BB with J-8 off with a 4xs raise and 2 callers. Flop is 9-T-Q rainbow. It figures. Q-Q in the BB. It’s either going to get folded to me or I’m seeing Ks. Glorioski Sandy, Flip74 raises and bigdav calls. Good chance there is no huge pair out there so I shove. Flip folds but bigdav has chips and calls with K-Qd. Good, only one over. Flop comes 9 hi but with two diamonds. Shit, make me sweat. Turn another 9, good. River a blank and I’m still alive, both figuratively and literally. Doctor once said I was going to stroke out playing poker. Made a liar out of him, I learned to relax at the poker table. I was asleep when I had the stroke. Still feel a rush during certain hands though.

Why does Shabazz Jenkins always wind up at my table in these blogger games? Not that I have any problems with him, or it, it just seems funny that with all the players in these games he consistently winds up at my table sometime during the game. Cue the Twilight Zone theme. Suited connectors and I think about raising but fold instead. Could have been a good fold as Mondogarage and bigdav get into a pissing match in a battle of the blinds. Mondo raises, dav reraises and Mondo tops him. Was there a real hand here or was it just a testosterone show? Dav folds so we’ll never know.

Make the second break though I’m scratching felt. Best I’ve done in any of the BBT5 tourneys so far though. Can’t seem to really add to my stack. Get up around 6 to 7K and then give a couple grand back. Very aggressive table tonight.

I swore I wasn’t going to mention Josie in this post but Tilt decided to put her right at my left hand. So much for good intentions. She dumps a lot of chips early when she calls an all in and it’s her A-6 suited against A-A. Gets them back from Shabazz though when she shoves A-K. Shabazz hasn’t played a hand since he sat down calls with K-Q. He gets a Q but Josie hit Broadway and doubles. And I go out. I get a couple decent hands and shove since I’m under 10 BBs but no action. Otherwise it’s weak aces and sooooted cards. Finally shove A-Q off into Columbo’s raise. He calls and it’s a race against his 9-9. Oh well, never was much of a racing man. It was fun as the Mookie always is.

Thanks for the listen.

It's spooky how she can keep it up

Just finished Janet Evanovich’s Plum Spooky. Not very spooky but it sure is funny. While not a new Evanovich novel, January of 2009, it’s not all that old. The main reason I decided to put it in here though is that she has a new one coming out in a month or so, so figure this one might introduce some folks to her work.

While she has other books out there Evanovich’s main body of work deals with Stephanie Plum. She basically brings out one book a year, titled with a number. In addition she occasionally adds another book around the holidays, what are called her between the number books. These between the number books are usually thinner than the regular books but the feature Stephanie Plum and follow the usual formula. Plum Spooky is a between the numbers book.

Stephanie Plum is a Jersey Girl, Trenton NJ to be exact, and the novels all take place in Trenton and the surrounding areas with the occasional side trip to the Shore or Philly. As introduced in the first book Plum is unemployed and her prospects aren’t great. So she winds up taking a job as a recovery agent for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bond agency, to the horror of her proper, suburban housewife mother, who wonders why she can’t work at the bank or the button factory like the daughters of all her friends. So that sets the background for the books. Evanovich writes to a formula for her plots. Stephanie gets a number of recoveries at the beginning of the story, mostly minor skips but usually one fairly heavy character, and the book traces her adventures in trying to apprehend her cases and get the rent money. Suffice to say Plum is not the most competent of recovery agents and thus follows some funny misadventures because while nominally a sort of who done it the books are mainly comedy and Evanovich has a knack for it. Her imagination comes up with some of the wackiest characters I’ve ever come across and you will split your sides laughing.

While Plum Spooky isn’t quite as good as some of her other works it’s still very good. The main problem as far as I’m concerned is there are a few periods in the book that seem to drag compared to the others but if you start with this book you’ll never notice it. In this one Stephanie is chasing a nerdy scientist who has broken the nose of his supervisor and run off with a piece of equipment they were working on. Not so dangerous until the geek teams up with a vampire looking partner named Wulf with a sinister reputation, not to mention supposedly paranormal powers. When the supervisor turns up dead with a broken neck and a hand print burned in his neck things take a decidedly more deadly turn. Helping Stephanie in her endeavors are her regular sidekick, Lula, a former ‘ho gone straight who is supposed to be a file clerk in the bail bond office, Diesel, a large, attractive, mysterious agent of some sort who claims to have some kind of special powers of his own and is related to Wulf and who complicates the hell out of Stephanie’s life, both professional and personal, and Carl, a monkey that Stephanie is involuntarily baby sitting. If you think a monkey can’t be an interesting character you’ve never run across Evanovich. In addition a large part of the book takes place in the Pine Barrens, the home of the Jersey Devil, and many other interesting characters according to Evanovich. Along the way we run across the Easter Bunny, Sasquatch and Elmer the Flame Farter. One of the disappointments of the book is that Plum’s grandmother, one of the more colorful characters in a series filled with them, only makes a cameo in this one. While they are not as fast and furious as in some books the laughs are just as loud as you might expect in a book that has Elmer and a monkey that can flip you the bird. There are even a few tense moments when Stephanie finds herself in the hands of Wulf and his pet scientist. You know she’s gotta get out of the situation however, the real mystery is how much destruction will be wrought as she does it.

All in all another good book by Janet Evanovich and, while maybe not up to the usual standards of the “number” books, a good place to start if you want to check her out or a worthwhile acquisition if you are acquainted with the numbers but were leery of the holiday books.

Thanks for the listen.

Grind, grind, grind

Why the hell do I play poker these days? I’m sure I could find some more productive activity for my time, like sticking burning splinters under my fingernails or being nice to Josie. Worst thing is I’m not even losing. Playing a couple hours a day of low stakes NL ring these days, usually .10//.20. Should probably throw in some tourney just to keep in practice as I get a bit loosey goosey in tourneys when I play long stretches of ring. Be that as it may I’m doing ok at the tables right now but it’s getting to be a real grind. Never have I seen such tight tables at these stakes. Admittedly that’s contributing to my winnings but it’s like trying to build a snowman one flake at a time. In addition it’s not really been giving me any blog fodder. Even given my deathless prose it’s kind of hard to make something interesting out of raising A-J off 3x’s and everyone folds 20 times. Even when I do get action it rarely goes beyond the flop. Today I’ve played 52 of 185 hands so far, 12 of which went to showdown, 6 of which I won. I have 33 other wins and am up 2 buy ins. That’s only because since I started writing this I doubled up against the big stack when we both flopped flushes with me holding the nut. The other 51 hands, 38 of which were wins had me up a whole half a buy in before that. Today the deck even smacked me as I’ve pulled K-K 4 times and A-A twice, the first time I’ve seen aces in my hand in almost a week. No action. None, nada, zilch. Twice I had them in the BB and not even a frikkin limper. And today I’m up big compared to the last few days. Usually it’s 4 hours of play and maybe up a buy in. Last night I wound up a whole 2 bucks, stuck in the same $4 range most of the night, up a few, down a few. Basically what I’m saying here is this is starting to feel like work except work had a guaranteed payoff and only half the frustration.

Probably play the Mookie tomorrow. At least that usually gives me material for here. Right now my mind is stagnating and I have no idea what to write about. Yea, I know, I’m pushing out a lot of words but mostly just a bunch of blather. Reading a lot and think about doing some book reviews but most of the stuff I’m reading is older stuff so not sure how of how much interest it will be. Especially since I have what, about 5-6 readers? Not like I’m Josie sucking up to (or bullying) everyone for links. Have a couple new books on pre-order but not sure when they will be in. One has been pushed back twice already. Summer movie season upon us but never was a big movie goer, usually wait until the video hits so nothing timely is going to come from there. Even Vegas is looking less likely this summer unless the Feds get off their duff and give me a quick resolution to my disability app. but that is unlikely. You know how fast the government is.

I see Josie has the first featured post on the Poker from the Rail site. Hell, she’s been crowing about it since before it happened. So much so that they probably heard her on the West Coast. Only thing is she says she got the spot without sucking up or other various techniques. C’mon Josie, no fibbing here. You’ll never get to heaven that way and considering that I’ve already got a waterfront lot and a reserved seat on the express elevator to the other place I sure don’t need to be spending eternity with you in the vicinity. ‘Fess up and maybe it will be forgiven. After all, the guys doing the selecting are guys. We know they can’t resist. I will sat they did make a good pick for their first selection as she does seem to have a large readership and gathers quite a bit of commentary on her blog. Hell, even I read it though mainly because she offers such opportunity for abuse. Face it Josie, you play poker, you comment here, you live in Boston, you crave abuse. Do you also golf? And by the way, that selection comment was not a nice one; it was based strictly on practicality. Don’t want you getting your hopes up.

Guess that’s enough for tonight. See you at the Mookie. Thanks for the listen.

A quiet Mother's Day

Got a new frikkin mattress the other day, memory foam. Lots of fun. It’s comfortable and supportive I will say that. OTOH it’s a bear to get out of when you have a weak side and are more than a tad out of shape. You sink in to the foam as you lie in it for a time and trying to lever up with only one good arm is a circus. If that is a circus trying to roll over is the whole 3 rings. I’m going to have to hit the gym just to be able to get out of bed. Or maybe not, just getting out of this thing is a workout in itself. But damn it is comfortable for a man with arthritis. Only my waterbed felt better.

Giving my ex a bit of a gift today seeing as it is Mother’s Day. Sundays I normally spend a couple of hours on the phone with my daughter but today I’ll not make the call as much as I want to talk to my daughter. I’ll let her have the time to spend with her mother. Now whether her mother will take advantage of it or appreciate it is a whole ‘nother story.

We’re going Jewish for Mother’s Day. Deli that is. Mom doesn’t want anything fancy and there is a great Jewish deli not too far away so we are headed there for dinner tonight. Mom’s a big fan of their soups; she could eat soup if it was 120 degrees out, and a corned beef or pastrami fan. As for me they have a great pastrami Reuben. I just love a pastrami Reuben with a thick slice of raw onion, regular, not red. In my younger days I visited a deli across the street from where I cashed my pay check every Friday. Got so that as soon as I walked in the door my glass of iced tea was on the table and the sandwich was on the grill. I hate being predictable. It’s a shame that place closed down. Pastrami now an occasional instead of a regular part of the diet. Probably a lot better for my health though.

Playing a bit of low level NLHE on UB while killing time on a Sunday afternoon. Couple of strange rangers to the left and right of me. Both put $10 up and they keep it up. Neither plays a lot of hands and when they lose, even the blinds, they restock. Haven’t the foggiest about what the hell is going on but I’m up a few bucks and they are contributing here and there so I can’t complain. Curious as hell though. My acquaintances with aces continue in this game. I’ve seen them twice today. Once when I was holding K-K and the other when I had Q-Q. I’m spending my time grinding out 30 to 60 cent pots and both times when I get big hands and it’s AIPF for a decent pot I frikkin run across bullets and there goes all that work. Only game more frustrating than frikkin poker is golf yet most poker players also golf. In fact I even did so for a number of years until my shoulder put the kibosh on it. Was even worse at it than I am at poker. Just goes to show you, we are nothing but a fucking bunch of closet masochists. Use us, abuse us and throw us away, we love it. No wonder I’m always in pain, I revel in it. I never knew this about myself. Just noticed a third one of these constant chip stack players has sat down. Have also noticed another thing about them. They bet a constant 4 times bb when they play and they also do not raise with an A-T when oop. Some kind of bot? If so they are not doing so hot. Whoops, take that back, one of them just played a hand to showdown. It all went in preflop and as I suspected, big pair against big pair. The suspect player had Ks vs. someone else’s A’s and hit the K on the flop to double up. Either a bot or some guy has an iron butt and rock solid patience. Just glad it wasn’t me finally holding A-A.

Back from dinner. So much for good intentions. Have been trying to behave myself in the food dept. lately but tonight was tough. Can feel my arteries clogging already from the pastrami. In addition the mushroom soup and onion rings were damned good also. At least I brought the carrot cake home for later. If I ate it there I would’ve had to been rolled from the place. We got there just in time because the place started to fill up about 15 minutes after we arrived. Was lots of fun because it was almost like being in a Chuckie Cheese from the amount of rug rats present. Every family that wanted to take mom out but had kids too young to go fancy decided to hit this place or so it seemed. Most of them were fairly well behaved though so except for one crying jag when a young boy conked his head it wasn’t all that bad. Passed a couple of the really fancy places on the way up and back and think they had to run shuttles in their lots. Lot of families out for dinner today.

Well, it’s early but think I’m going to call it a day, find a book and break in the new mattress while reading. I hope all you mothers out there had a Happy Mother’s Day and my best to you. Remind your families that every day should be Mother’s Day. (I think I got myself in deep with a lot of husbands out there) Thanks for the listen.

Damn!

Friday I decided to skip Power Poker for awhile and play some AP, .10/.20 NL. Ah, that’s the low limit table I am used to. Family pots, min raises, chasers, weak aces and calling stations. And suckouts of course, lots of suckouts. Took me a while to get used to after those tight ass tables at Power. Oooops, made a mistake, I was playing PL not NL. Oh well, most of the stacks were small enough that the pots made it all ins after the flop possible. Didn’t do as well as I do on Power as I lost a buy in or two due to early suck outs but came back and added a few bucks to the bankroll. Yea, I know, Cerus network, crap sites, security issues, etc., etc. Hey, it’s winnings, I play low limits and anyone who wants to take the time to hack the few bucks at a time I put out there needs the money a whole lot more than I do. With those kinds of skills he’d make a better living at an honest job.

OK, Sat game at the Manor called off. Damn. Remember a time when there was a waiting list to get in to this game. Guess the erratic schedule over the last year or so has sent folks looking elsewhere not to mention there probably is a bunch of donkey games out there. Not to say there weren’t donkeys in the game, after all you need someone to contribute, but there were usually some really good players in there. Even Riggs showed occasionally. As a new guy I think I was granted the donkey exemption when I got my first invite. Was really looking forward to this game too as I haven’t played a live game recently and also it’s been awhile since I’ve seen some of the players that were on the invite list. Not to mention I would have gotten some blog fodder out of it. That can be a risky proposition however since I don’t know how many, if any of those guys read this. Not that I’m worried about giving away my game, hell, I’m transparent as glass as it is but some of the others have holes in their game big enough to drive a concrete mixer through. Since no one sits down at these games thinking they got the ATM pass I would hate to be the one enlightening them by describing their game if the should by some chance come across this. Trying again for next Sat. Hope so.

I’m not making AC for a few weeks when an overnight trip is planned for Dad’s birthday. My brother and I ran across a pretty cool seafood place on the outskirts located right on the bay with good food at reasonable prices. Brother asked me if I could swing dinner if he gets the room, not a casino deal. Told him yea but how come I get stuck for dinner and he gives me the old, the room is more expensive bit. What am I, a dummy? I know he still has points from when he used to go visit his son in college. He’s getting a reduced rate if not a freebie. Have to check for the exact days we’re heading down. I’d like to get some poker in while down there but if it’s a weekend I may try to get my daughter down for the trip. If I do however it will kill any poker possibilities even though my parents would probably watch her for a few hours. Have to how it goes. May be a moot question anyway if the trip is midweek as my daughter will still be in school. Damn school where she is goes runs until late June before they let out for summer. Of course if I can do Vegas this June it might be a blessing in disguise.

Thanks for the listen.

And a Wacky Wednesday it was

OK Josie, a few words about the Mookie. Now maybe you are doing the Dank/Buddy thing just to make nice to Waffles but think of this for a minute. You have started, and pushed, your own tourney, The Very Josie. All well and good. Enjoyed playing the last one. However allow your mind to wander into the future. You can do that can’t you; you seem to have a good imagination concerning other things. Anyway think of the time you either grow tired ad bored of the whole blogger and/or poker thing or, heaven forefend, you can no longer manage to handle such things. Someone decides that since you are leaving the game they are going to take over the running of your game as homage to you. Have no doubts, it will happen because there is always someone out there with more testosterone than brains. So now, your tourney is out there, with your name on it, being continued as a tradition by some peckerwood without any sense. Do you want someone pushing for the tourneys name to be changed to that peckerwood’s just because he is running it? (Buddy, this is not to imply you are a peckerwood, just a general swipe at some future, possible Josie admirer. Course if you take over running the Very Josie at some point in the future I reserve the right to alter my judgment) Back to the tirade. So Josie, do you want tradition to go hang and have someone pushing to name YOUR tourney after some futuristic Mojo type just because he hasn’t the brains god gave bastard geese in Ireland? Just think about it the next time you start to write Dank/Buddy in your blog in place of the Mookie. Is sucking up to Waffles worth all that? Just think, the Very Josie is pushed to become the Very Mojo Whatever?


Man it was Wacky Wed. at least as far as the Tokers game went. A tight table at lower levels started getting 4-5 limpers at about the 5th. Usually people tighten up as the blinds get higher unless they are shoving. I figured I was going to end this one early given the structure and the fact I had a few other games coming up. Little did I know even when I took a big hit just before break time. I figured the structure would make this one a quickie but when it started I found out it was a triple stack, or almost. Actually it was some weird number close to a triple in keeping with the Wacky Wed theme I guess. Even wackier was that when I took a peek at the lobby to see the players I noticed that third place is listed as top prize. WTF. I mention this in the chat box and someone else mentions that no, they see it as 4th so I look again and sure as hell 4th place is now on top and third is low man on the totem pole. I recognize a couple of the players from the GFN Forum Wars I’ve been playing and the Poker Analysis league games but on the whole it’s mostly a new bunch so have no idea what to expect here. Well I go along, grinding out a decent stack, lots of limping and checking by the table with a well timed bet able to take pots. They aren’t big but keeping me in business until I take a big hit just before the break and drop down below starting stack. After the break both the PA league game and the Very Josie start up and things really became wacky. Who needs a toke when it’s all a blur anyway? I have no idea how things went after break as all 3 games were being played at a decent speed and Josie was yapping away like a Pekinese and I’m on a fast track to who knows where. All I know is that in this game I’m playing a lot of pots and winning with a lot of air. Eventually I notice I’m second stack. Next thing you know we're down to the bubble and my stack is just average. No, I didn’t lose any; it’s just that while I’m grinding along here the rest of my opponents are doubling up and getting knockouts. My way was effective but theirs seemed a lot easier. I keep muddling along and we’re down to 6 and I’m second stack again and I think do I really want to do this? 4th place is the top prize after all but no one seems to be making an effort to dump chips so I keep on relying on good old air. It got me this far. Finally it becomes 4 handed and I even have a way figured to go out in 4th as long as I have the proper position but no one seems to be trying to hit that spot so I think maybe the payout figures are a joke and keep on playing. We play 4 handed for awhile so now I’m sure someone is just fucking around and I have become chip leader by a small amount. I take out the former chip leader and now have a massive chip lead on the other two. I also KO the short stack and I think the second place finisher just decided to give it up as a few hands later they shove with nothing and I actually had a hand. I won. Or did I? It seems that it was no joke, 4th place actually got the bigger money. Something I need to file away for the future. Even better is that as strange as this game was it was played against the background of both the Very Josie and eventually the Mookie. Head was definitely spinning.

While I did well in the game I figured to basically be a blow off game the rest of the night wasn’t so hot, at least on the poker side. Overall I cam out about even money wise give or take but of course I lost money on Tilt while adding more on Cake. I can’t do anything right. The PA league game and the VJ started up the same tie and I was already in the Toker game. The PA game didn’t last long so Josie I never actually got to those 4 games at once. I maxed at 3 last night. Don’t remember much about the PA game. Was heavily involved on both the Toker and VJ tables while Josie was still making like a yappy dog and I was getting taken to task by Gary for busting her chops. Oh boy, another tripper . Actually Gary ain’t a bad guy who was at the end of a loooong day and we got things on an even keel. No problems Gary, I’m used to those reactions from men where Josie is concerned. She has some kind of strange effect on them. Anyway, back to the league game. Went out early on a hand where the flop was T-5-5. Flopped TP2K and bet the flop and got a caller. Turn was low so bet again and again was called. Figured no 5 there since no raise so I shoved the river and guess I was called as next thing I know I was out. Don’t even know what beat me as I was tied up elsewhere. More than likely some peckerwood called me down with an ace and spiked it on the river. Oh yea, don’t even know the river card, I basically shoved without even paying attention.

Do have to say that the V-Josie was fun. (No that ain’t a nice comment about you) even if the cards stayed away. Took an early hand off Gary with a T-T. When the flop hit with 2 overs he bet and I said what the hell and threw out a raise. He thought about it then called. Turn was a blank and he checked and I bet and again he thought and again he called. Aw shit I’m thinking, I can’t get rid of him, he’s got a higher pair. River brought me a T but also put a possible straight and maybe flush out there. He checks and I’m debating, bet or check. Was he drawing and did he hit and now trapping? Check is probably the proper move as I’m probably beat if he calls or raises. He might however be holding top pair with a weak kicker so the right bet might net me a bit more. I bet, hoping he don’t shove over me. He thinks for awhile and then folds calling himself chicken. I’m just as glad he didn’t make that call. After that it was all down hill. I couldn’t catch a dose in a $2 house of ill repute let alone a decent hand. Coop still whining about having his aces cracked by Cricket’s jacks and Mojo talking about having them about 5 times. Hell, the only time I see aces any more is in the other guy’s hand when I have kings or queens. Anyhow with Josie in the game I couldn’t even try to make a play as everyone knows she’ll call you down with any A-rag. : It was still interesting and fun, the chat alone worth it even if Josie dominates it. Give it a try come the first Wed in June. You’ll like it, Mikey does. Somewhere in the chat dept I found I had a reader in Lucki Duck. Thanks Lucki, you represent a higher class of reader, I hope, judging by the lowlifes I usually find in my comments section . BTW, speaking of the chat Jordan plays a mean game in the trash talk department.

The Mookie was not memorable. The cold cards traveled over from the table at the Josie and it seemed every player at my table knew it. Every time I tried to manufacture a bit of luck I wound up getting check raised. Talk about bleeding chips; I was hemorrhaging like my carotid was cut. Somehow I scratched felt to the break but decided I wasn’t going anywhere so popped a sleeping pill figuring it and my demise in the game would t6ake effect about the same time. Actually the demise came a bit sooner when I made a stand with K-Js against an A-K. So I watched the end of the Very Josie and saw Jordan climb out of a big hole to take out Josie but come up short when Mojo hit Broadway to his flopped trips. Good game Jordan and nice win Mojo. There was one bright spot to the Mookie. Seems Josie has a thing going for Riggs and so was railing him at the final table and saw him go down with A-rag. She commented on it in her blog and when Riggs commented explaining his play Josie decided to give him a poker lesson on the play of A-rag. Priceless!!! Hell, I’ll pay a dollar to see the elephant pull a football out of a monkey’s ass any day.

And on that note it’s farewell for now. Thanks for the listen.