Results from the fall

Been awhile since I’ve bored many all two of my loyal readers, partly because I’ve been busy, partly because I’ve been lazy. Still feeling lazy but figure I have got to do something different and it’s time to try and get back into some sort of routine again so I figure I start here.

Busy is both in looking for work and clearing up the loose ends from my former place of employment. Finally got my IRAS opened up to get my 401K moved. Still dicking around with COBRA. I opted for it, with my condition I couldn’t do anything else, but I am trying to get this subsidy that came in with the stimulus package straightened out as paying only 35% of the cost right now is really necessary. They say they are working it out with the health provider and payroll company but as far as I can see that should have nothing to do with me. I read it as my part consists of filling out a form to see if I qualify and I either do or don’t and if I do I pay the 35%. Everything else has to do with the former employer and the Feds. Can’t seem to find out what’s going on either as either they aren’t responding to my emails or they are blocked. Hard to tell which. I’ve sent a number of them from both my online and Outlook accounts. About half have come back NDR, the other half, nada. Have put delivery and read receipts on the Outlook emails and those that weren’t NDR haven’t sent back a receipt so I have no idea whether I’m blocked or being ignored. Guess I may have to make a phone call next week. Still have to make a visit there since I just remembered the other day that I left a piece of equipment there and going to have to pick it up unless they feel like shipping it to me. Since everyone but the HR person has been treating me like a leper since I left it’s not a call or trip I really feel like making. The way things have gone over the last few weeks makes me think that a remark made by someone about a month before I was let go was taken very seriously. More on that later.

Busy has also been looking over the south 40 and checking out my work of last fall. Results are about 50-50. Have had a lot of rain so far this spring so I’m glad I got the plants in last fall. It was tough but this spring it would have been damn near impossible. On the bad side, the hollies didn’t make it. They were so small however I think I’m going to reorder and put them in pots for a year or two and see how they do that way. The spruces have all but given up the ghost though they went in so late I wasn’t expecting much there though one seems to be hanging on. The cherries are 50-50. The Black Tartarian is doing well but the Bing also went in late and it’s just looking like a stick. Since I already have a Bing doing at least the right one is growing since you need two different verities to get fruit. Both my walnuts look like kindling. The new one doesn’t seem to have taken; it’s the other that has me pissed. It’s about 4 years since I planted it and it was doing well, about 5 ft high and an inch around. Some buck used it as a rub and seems to have killed it. Time to get out the bow. The Japanese maples were both doing well until someone decided that since the weed trimmer was out of action they had to get real close with the lawn mower. Well the blades didn’t get it but the edge of the deck did. What’s left is still growing but if it survives it’s going to look funny with a crooked trunk. The other is doing well. The surprise is the freebie red maple that the Arbor Day Society sends with your order. Another late planting I really didn’t think it was going anywhere specially since the other red maples were leafing a month ago yet lo and behold the damn thing has put out a few leaves this week. Damn things are the Timex of the tree world. Another red maple I got years ago has been transplanted 4 times, once in the midst of summer and it thrives. Wish my walnuts were like that. This leaves the berries. The blueberries are doing well. Of the 15 planted looks like only one, so far, ain’t making. Thought it was going to be 3 but the other 2 have started kicking up new leaves from the roots. The blackberries are doing just as well. 14 of the 15 canes are sprouting. Going to have to set up the trellis soon. Raspberries are a different story. The goldens seem dead. See nothing coming up around them. The reds were about 50% but Dad went through the rows with the tiller and was a bit frisky. Looks like about 3-4 canes still surviving. Good thing I prefer blackberries. Normally I would be planning on replacements for this fall but looks like I’m going to have to wait until the financial situation straightens out.

Busy also meant a bit of poker but this has gone on long enough so I’ll discuss that in my next post. Thanks for the eyeballs.

Life's a bitch

OK, time to make a little noise. I am still alive, contrary to popular opinion and/or wishful thinking. While there has been a lot going on the last month I just haven’t felt like writing about anything. As some of you might have gathered from my last post my ass is now out on the street, employment wise. After 18 years I was “restructured” to the unemployment line. The last few weeks have been given over to the general depression that follows such an event and navigating my way around the world of unemployment. Getting compensation, COBRA, finding a broker to rollover my 401K, not something I’ve been experienced with lately. Add in the regular gym trips to rehab the arm and things are a bit busy at times. The gym trips are especially important. Finding a job at my age is going to be tough, getting one with a crippled right arm is going to damn near impossible so I need to get it into working shape ASAP. Not that I wasn’t trying before, just that there is even more incentive now.

With everything else going on there hasn’t been a whole lot of time, or money, for poker so no tales to really bore you with. Right after I got canned my nephew and I made a trip to AC as I wanted to pay off my Christmas gift to him, an entry into a $100 tourney, while I still had some cash available. We wound up playing at Showboat, a place I usually do well at for tourneys but my cash play there sucks. Well, this time my tourney play also sucked. Bled chips early. I would get a small to medium pair in early to middle position an, depending on the cards and position, limp or make a 3xs raise. The guy right to my left would go on to raise. In most cases I planned to fold yet by the time it would get back to me there a 5 or 6 callers in the hand and the pot is just too big not to go set mining because the raise wasn’t that big compared to my stack size and if I do hit I’m gold. Of course I didn’t hit and as this happened about 5-6 times I bled a good bit of chips. The way these guys were calling I was just dying for pp As but no such luck there either. I went out around the 4th level when I shoved with TPTK on the flop and the caller with the pp caught his set on the turn. Ah well. The nephew did much better than I but missed the cash, going out around the bubble. As I waited I played some cash thinking that maybe since I sucked at the tourney I could do something there. So much for wishful thinking. Cash ran true to form and I sucked at the tables losing about 2/3 of my buy in. All in all a very unprofitable day.

Well, making a trip to the Shore this weekend, temps supposed to be in the 80’s. Most of the time will be spent lounging on the beach but I hope to be able to afford some poker if only 2-4 limit, which is usually pretty profitable for me. Hopefully will feel like boring you with some stories then. In the meantime, thanks for your support.

Someone's happy

Another wayward vagabond is on the street

Crap cops are alive and well

A break from my boring idle poker ramblings for a bit. First off I would rather be writing about what a wonderful time I had at Eh-Vegas. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Not that there wasn’t a wonderful time, I’m sure there was, just that I wasn’t able to make it. When I got back behind the wheel 2-3 weeks ago I was sorely tempted to make the run. Hell it was the thought of making the trip that was one of the motivating factors to start retraining the arm that quickly. WTF, it’s only a 7 hour run, a walk in the park in my old traveling days compared to when I was nonstopping to Chicago, Sheboygan, WI, or Whitewater Lake in WI. Well this weekend showed me it was a wise decision not to attempt the trip. I’m not even ready for an AC poker run let alone a real road trip. Most of my driving since I started again has been mainly really local, to work, the store, the local RPT game, nothing really over 15 mile. While I feel the arm gaining strength there are still times I have to get it out of the way because it has grown tired or it hits me with a bit of pain. Saturday I took it up a notch. I went to a game a bit more than just a 5 min ride from the house. When I got knocked out of there early I decided I wanted to hit the farmer’s market. They have a lot of great stands there but in particular there is a dried fruit and nut stand with exceptionally cheap prices and a candy stand that is the same not to mention it is one of the only places left to buy Jujubes. They are only open on Fridays and Saturdays and I usually head up there when I am jonesing for black licorice, nuts or jerky. Saturday I was jonesing for fruit and nuts so off I went after the poker game. Well between the poker game, the trip to the farmer’s market and a few other odds and ends I wound up putting about 50-60 miles on the car and by Saturday evening my right arm, the good one was tired. So if the right arm got tired with that little bit of driving because the left on can’t spell it yet I’m definitely not ready to hit the open road. On a brighter note however I hit the gym on Sunday and was able to get in a whole raft of exercises on the arm. I’m paying for it today but it felt good.

Now here is what all two the throngs of my loyal readers have been waiting for. The crap cops are alive and doing well. No shit. This weekend I get a call from the rehab hospital I was in that didn’t have to do about money. Now that they are finally paid off they decided that it was OK to do a follow up study. They wanted to know how I felt about their services and how satisfied I was. In addition they did a follow up on me asking questions about my progress. How was I walking? Any problems getting in and out of the tub to shower? Was I shaving? Didn’t know how to answer this one. Shaving for me can be problematic at the best of times. I might not be shaving but it’s probably more because I’m lazy and hate to rather than any result of the stroke. Then, at the very end, they actually asked it. It shouldn’t have surprised me but it did. Out came, The Question! Was I having any problems moving my bowels? Cripes, these people just don’t give up. Couldn’t help it, I totally cracked up. Makes me wonder if I said yes if they would have Fed Exed a laxative over. It must be ingrained. I mean, I can understand them worrying about it while I’m in the hospital. They have to play CYA, make sure no one is suffering and they don’t have complications on their hands but to ask it in a follow up survey? Sheesh. It was good for a laugh though.

OK, time to wrap this one up. Will be back with more boring poker stories in the days to come now that I’m out and about. Thanks for lending me your eyeballs.

A lot of poker, though nothing special

Back online for the Skillz game tonight. Ok, Ok, I did play the Brit game Sunday but was gone so fast I don’t think it should count. Kept running flopped sets into turned flushes and straights. Not good if one wishes to go far. Should probably take tonight and tomorrow off too but I like PLO so just couldn’t resist. Not really feeling it just yet but we’ll see how it goes.

Played a little free bar poker with RPT last night. Haven’t been out to one of them for awhile. Never know how I’m going to do in these games just because you never know who is going to be at the table. You have some very good players, you have the chasers and calling stations and you have some folks who haven’t a clue, they are just sitting down to try it out. Making it even better is that it’s free so the tendency to donk is magnified. Combine this with the blind structure which, after the first hour or 90 minutes starts to turn the game into a push fest against the big stacks and you aren’t getting classic poker here. Hey, it’s free poker, not the WSOP, so who cares. It’s a way to kill a few hours, have a few drinks and, if lucky enough to sift thru the mine field maybe win a few bar tab payments. Rigg’s company runs the games and does a damn fine job of it.

So I’m out for the first time in awhile for one of these and first hand I’m BB, structure is 200 to start with 1-2 being the opening blinds, and I get Qs-Ts, a hand worth playing in the blind and even defending against a standard raise. First two fold but MP goes 12. Now, for a lot of RPT players that would be a regular raise but I don’t get that impression from her. That big a raise signals a large hand, A-Q at least, big pair more likely so I figure I’m tossing. Before it gets to me however there a 3 more callers so with 51 chips in the pot I figure it’s worth my 10 to call. Normally I don’t give a rat’s patoot about pot odds when it comes to tournament play but here I figure if I smack the flop I’m going to stack one of these people. Chipping up early is important in these games because after about 90 min it turns into a bingo fest and also you get a lot of young kids who watch a lot of poker on TV and believe the game is played by bullying people off their hand and there are usually a few of them sitting with big stacks and if you are at their mercy if you don’t have the ammo to go with them. Two of these callers give me this impression and I get the impression that the original raiser is going to have problems letting go the big pair unless an ace hits the board and she’s not playing them. I smack the flop. It comes Q-x-T rainbow. I check. Normally I won’t slow play two pair, especially with the draw on the board but I just know one of these characters is going to bet so I want to see what happens, planning to check raise depending on the bet and the players. Well, the original raiser leads out for 25 and all the callers fold so since there is no sense pot building by smooth calling I raise to 75 figuring to try and take it down. After all, if she should be playing A-K why give her the chance for a J although she doesn’t strike me as the type to C-bet if she misses the flop. When she calls I figure A-Q or pp paint, likely Ks. As or Js are likely but might have brought a bigger preflop raise. A lot of people in these games hate to play them. Q’s or T’s also possible but since I had one of each it’s not as likely plus most people in these games would check that flop with a set. Just to let you know, I never have played with these particular people so I have no real reads, just going by my gut and the way they talk and acted before the game giving me impressions to mark up against the general type of player in RPT. Hell, I could be wrong as hell and be going home real quick. The turn put an end to that; it comes a Q giving me the nuts to that point. I value bet another 50 and she calls. River is a brick and I shove, she thinks then calls saying if I have a Q I win. I say I have the Q, along with the T, and she’s the one leaving early. That and one other hand have been the high point of the week. Everything else has been downhill. After that pot I took a few smaller ones but wound up bleeding most of my chips off to the chasers. Three times during the course of that game I spiked a set against a flush draw flop. All 3 times I went pot on the flop and pot on the turn after it bricked. All 3 times I got called down and lost to the flush when the third suited hit the river. Swore that I was forgetting the pot the next time, I was shoving against flush draws from now on. Wound up going out in 8th or 9th place thanks to the chasers. You figure it in these games. At least I made it to the free munchies but even they were a disappointment, no corn dogs so I consoled myself with chicken fries. No sense getting upset, it’s free; had a few drinks, played some poker, got some munchies, saw some friends. Life is good.

If you look at the opening statement you will realize I started this on Tuesday while waiting for the Skillz game to start. Got knocked out of that one so fast that I never got around to finishing it and have stayed away from the computer the rest of the week so working on it today. In the intervening days I played a couple of more RPT games and, last night went back online for a bit. Live recaps first, then cyber.

Thursday I went to another RPT game. Used to like this game even if the prize was smaller than that at other venues. Place is close to my house, they run 3 nights a week. And they were reasonable on drinks and pizza, not to mention I usually do well here. Thursday is making me rethink playing here in the future however. Not the game, the play was donkish but that’s nothing new. The waiter that used to be there is no longer there and his replacement has some attitude problems. I have been playing there for over two years 2-3 times a week before my stroke, was never asked for a credit card to secure my tab, never had a problem getting a drink or food, Keith, the waiter, was always around checking if everything was OK. It’s not a big place and getting up and going to the bar ain’t a big deal but when I’m sitting at a table I resent having to go to the bar to get my drink especially since I’m going to be expected to leave a tip there. I don’t mind tipping but not when I’m doing my own walking. The bartender gets tipped when I’m drinking at the bar, at a table it’s the waiter. So back on track the new waiter asks for my credit card and when I sigh and remark about how sad it is to be gone so long that they start asking for the card I get a whole lecture on how she’s responsible for skipped tabs and how she’s working 3 jobs to pay the bills, etc. I don’t mind giving the card, I was just expressing a regret, more to myself, I didn’t need the attitude. The course of the night would show why this lady needed 3 jobs to pay the bills. I was there two hours and think I saw her twice. She seemed more interested in chatting with the bartender and those customers that either she knew, or were younger and better looking than a crippled old, ugly fat man, than she was in serving said fat man. I was at least two drinks and maybe a slice or two of pizza under my normal level that night. If that is going to be the state of service there in the future I may have to pass on games there.

The poker was no better than the service but that is to be expected at this place. It’s a bigger Donkament than the Numbblowme. I really knew I was in trouble when a certain player sat at the table. I had played with this guy quite a bit, some at RPT but more often at a game run by a different company. I won’t say a competing company since comparing them there is no competition. I usually went to this game for two reasons; one a change of pace because they ran a different structure than RPT and two, I loved the drink and munchie specials at the place it was held. Number two is always an important factor here. In the other group his guy was considered a really good player since he was always near the top of the points standings. Maybe he was different at other games but when ever I played against him he was a total calling station and chaser. He also happened to be one of the luckiest chasers I ever saw. More than once I watched him call off his stack with nothing more than a mid-level flush draw and catch and near felt some poor bastard with top 2 or a set who would try to chase him off that draw. More than once I was that poor bastard. So I knew it was going to be an interesting night. As on Monday night I chipped up early on a bit of a donkey play. I was otb with K-Ts with 5 limpers in front so I call figuring the blinds are going too also so might as well see a flop. Again I smack the flop pretty well, A-K-T with a flush draw. It checks to me so I throw out a pot sized bet figuring it’s pretty useless because with that many people and that many possibilities I’m getting callers, someone may even have the Q-J but one needs to see where one stands. I get 3 callers but no raisers so either they are all drawing or someone is playing it cagey. That is rendered moot when the Q hits the turn. The blinds check and utg leads out for 25 which is about 1/3 the pot. The other two call which makes it about 150 in the pot so I throw my quarter in figuring I might as well take a chance on the 4 outer. Boooom, the river comes a K and I’m set. This is where my brain glitched. UTG bets out for 25 again and again the other two call. Me, not thinking that, in this game at least one of these characters isn’t going to fold that straight no matter what and more likely none of them will, only value bet another 50. I should have shoved and I know I would have had at least one of those stacks if not all three, especially after they all call and they all had that J and all seemed dumfounded when I announced boat. I guess they figured we were all chopping and I was just an idiot for raising. In a sense I was if you phrase it raising it so little. Of course that was about it for the night. I bled most of those chips back the same way I did Monday night though it was thru all ins rather than pot sized bets, I did learn that lesson. However I should have realized even all ins weren’t good enough with my “buddy” at the table. He’s willing to call off his stack with a draw and he did it a number of times. Couple of people got him but both times he was against me he hit his draws taking a large portion of my chips. He eventually got knocked out but someone else took his place, in more ways than one, and I headed home fairly early. Well, it was a fairly cheap night thanks to the service or lack of it. Well there’s more poker and actually a story about the poop police in the offing but this thing has run a bit long, I’m a tad tired and bed beckons.

Hope your eyeballs haven’t gotten too dry getting this far. I appreciate the effort. Thanks.

So much to do, so little time

Online poker vacation started around 10:30-11 last pm. That’s when I donked out of the Sniper on AP. Cashed another though just barely. Between KOs and money I got back my buy ins for the Sniper and the Shark game with maybe a buck or two extra. My play in those two was even worse than it has been lately. Could not focus at all.

Opening table at the Shark was ok with Mojo and 36Lightening there. Bit of chatter making it enjoyable. Was on a roller coaster ride for the most part, donk off, chip up, donk, chip. Just before the table was broken I chipped up to put me in the top 10. Lost Mojo somewhere along the way and Lightening got moved to another table with the break and I just didn’t feel it at the second table and played donkey, jackass while there and was soon gone.

The Sniper I played more out of habit and to give me something to do while waiting for the Shark to start. Doubled up early and then sat there and piddled around for a couple of hours. Didn’t even get a KO for about an hour and a half. Lost about half my stack then doubled again, this time getting my first KO. Bled some chips and then hit a double KO on a couple of shorter stacks. Again up and down for awhile, never really getting a decent stack or getting much above 40th place. Finally went out when I ran my A-J into the table bully who actually had a hand when I shoved. To show how much apathy had set in, or how unmemorable either game was outside the banter, I can’t even really remember any significant hands. Definitely thinking the break is necessary. Hoping I feel up to the Brit game on Sunday but might not make it back until Skillz on Tuesday. If I don’t feel like playing that it’s definitely going to stretch until next Sunday’s Brit game. Can’t imagine going that long without poker but if the funk lasts that long it’s gonna happen. See you around, sooner rather than later I hope.

Thanks for at least pretending to pay attention.

Break Time

OK, last night told me that it’s time to take a few days off from poker, online style at least. Even though the hot streak continues with the Sniper on AP, cashed another one last night for a small amount, I made some real boneheaded plays in it, the Skillz and the Mookie. Time to give my eyes a rest. Some of the plays were pure dee jackass, others, at first glance, might seem to come under the category of “that’s poker” but upon further review I decided that they were plays I could, and should, have gotten away from. Been playing online every night for almost two weeks now, which is a long run for me, and during the run the last week has consisted of some late nights, so combine that with the aforementioned donkery and it means that, after tonight, it’s time for a few days off. Would start to night but there is a regular game I play in, more for the enjoyment than the win, so I’ll go donk off in that one before I shut it down. Maybe I’ll catch up on some reading, maybe go see Watchmen this weekend.

Speaking of the Mook, I found it a frustrating game last night (another reason I’m taking a break. Frustration is not good). The table was a tight as a bull’s arse in fly season. Typical deal went, fold, fold, raise, everyone fold. It was mostly a preflop game, seemed like very few pots were actually played and when they were they wasn’t hotly contested. Seems like the only time someone called my raises were when I was playing position more than the cards. Every time I raised with suited connectors one of the blinds reraised, usually big enough that I had to dump them. Yet I had A-A 4 times and got action once and the same for K-K and that was from a short stack. That kind of thing does nothing to lower the frustration factor. I’m not making any indictments here either, hell I was as guilty of the same style of play and did more than my share of folding to the raises rather than mixing it up though I did defend a couple of blinds with less than premium hands but which I considered playable enough to see the flop. Got lucky with them too. No. just stating a fact, that it was a slow table and not much could be done about it. Of course the general distractedness I have felt the last couple of days also plays into my feelings on the situation. Anyway, we’ll take a couple of days off, recharge the batteries and be ready to bounce back into the BBT in a few days.

The Sniper was also frustrating even though I did cash it. It was frustrating for the opposite of the Mookie. Instead of a TAG table it was LP. I think I was the only one raising preflop unless someone had aces or kings but once they limped they had a strangle hold on that bet. If I had 5 limpers and raised pre I had at least 4 callers to the flop. I was getting creamed coming and going. If I had A-Q in a late position and raised and spiked my A I would get some guy in EP have A-K, who limp called to start, and check called it all the way down. OTOH, I had aces and kings cracked a couple of times by guys calling the preflop raise with hands like K-7 or J-8 and catching 2 pair. Now obviously it wasn’t all the time since I lasted a while but it seemed every time I chipped up I’d wind up bleeding off a quarter to a third of my stack in that sort of situation. The water torture at the poker table, slow death, chip by chip by chip. I felt I was going crazy trying to figure what I could do to get someone off a hand and make my hands hold up but when I guy is willing to call off a third of his stack to a preflop raise with K-7 off just because he already limped in; there ain’t much you can do. Of course, what the hell he’s doing limping in OOP with K-7 when he has less than 10 BB left any way is probably a better question. I realize people do these things, especially in lower limits online, and have lately come to take a Zen approach to it. Learn to keep myself calm, accept that it happens and just hope my hands hold up. Nothing else you can do about these players. Trying to throw punches at them in the form of increased aggressiveness is like trying to punch Jell-O, it’s just going to give and do its own thing anyway. You can only play your game and hope they slowly slip away. If it’s their night to catch cards, so be it, move on to the next game, the next night the whatever. One game does not a career make and $4-5 ain’t gonna bust me. I’ve gotten pretty good at taking this approach and think it’s improved my game some as it allows me to think more about it without the “I’m gonna kill that stupid bastard” attitude screwing up the rest of my game. So the fact that I found myself in exactly that attitude tells me it’s time for a couple days away from it.

Of course I will admit that last night was almost the perfect storm on the frustration front. Between the tightness of the Mook when I actually have caught A-A and K-K at least 8 times between them in one game, the general ‘tardness of the Sniper, the fact I could not win one race when I was behind and my tiredness all combined to try and drive my BP thru the roof. I relaxed and didn’t go off the deep end but still felt frustrated and let it affect me. Timeout. So I’ll play the Shark game tonight, have some fun and spend the next couple of days relaxing and catching up on some things, maybe even getting out to an RPT game to have a few drinks and play a live game. Haven’t done that for awhile except for their team heads up match last Sunday, which, while fun, ain’t exactly your typical game. I mean after all, if one doesn’t notice CK sitting by one’s side something is definitely wrong.

More boredom later. Drop in again