Home Game #2 and a little Back to the Future

Night two of my three-game home game week is tonight. I have only played with this group once before, so I am still very unfamiliar with the players and their styles. I did find out, however, that the guy who bested me last time is a calling station who appeared to have a lucky night. If I had known him a little better I would have approached the final table a little differently. It looks like we will play a tournament with two tables followed by a cash game. Time for my run bad streak to end.

And ... I have brought back my blogroll from a link on my blog's main page to once again listing the blogs (with links, of course!) individually. I had saved the info from my old template and just copied it back in. Please note that I will be updating my list, so my more recent blogger friends are not yet on the list. I will link you up the first chance I get.

Gadzooks Donkathon & Mixed Health News

Donkathon

Home poker game week began for me on Saturday as I made the 100+ mile drive to the home of gadzooks64 for her home game tournament, perhaps appropriately named the Gazdooks Donkathon. Zooks actually had a decent sized crowd of 20 people for the game. The format allows for some donkriffic play -- $10 entry fee with one rebuy allowed if you bust out by the end of the fourth level, a $5 bounty of the head of each player, 7000 in chips, 20-minute levels, and blinds starting as low 25-25.

The game got off to a crashing start. By that, I mean one player (name not divulged here out of embarrassment), in getting his reading glasses out of his coat pocket, knocked a decorative plate off a wall above the coat rack. Despite the player's attempt to catch the plate before it hit the floor (he is semi-skilled in playing second base in softball), the plate met its demise. Heck of a start!

The short version of the tournament: I finished in seventh place. I was done in primarily by two hands. The first was in the early part of the tournament. I had been the ultimate card rack, including flopping a flush that was one card short of a Royal. My pocket Kings, however (note: calling poker blogger Rob), were cracked when one player at the table, who we were warned was the luckiest card player in the room, hit a set of 10's on the flop. I thought I was ahead the whole way and was shocked at the end of the hand to see that he had flopped top set. I was lucky I didn't lose most of my stack. The second hand happened just before we got to to the final table. We only had one rebuy at our first table and most players were relatively short stacked. I got pocket Jacks and raised. Another shortie pushed all in and I insta-called. He had pocket 10's. I had him covered, but we all knew what was coming next. After the flop he hit runner-runner to complete a straight on the river, taking most of my chips. If my Jacks had held I would have had a decent stack and would probably have cashed. As it was, we consolidated to one table and I finally had to push after 1 1/2 orbits when I got Q-J. Unfortunately, the Queen on the turn also gave the opponent a straight, sending me to the rail. The tournament paid the top four.

Thanks to Zooks for the invite to her home game. She has a great crowd of fun friends. I always have a good time playing there. It just sucks having to drive over 200 miles round trip, especially when gas starts getting near the $4.00/gallon mark. Oh -- and yes MOJO -- I did give Zooks a hug for you!

Blood Test

I had a blood test last week and the results were mixed. Along with exercising, I had been concentrating on keeping the sodium, fat, and cholesterol out of my diet. I did a great job on these per the test results. However, I had been told sometime earlier last year that my blood sugar level was too high and that I needed to decrease it. Unfortunately, that took a back seat with my focus on cholesterol and sodium. As a result, I now need to adapt my diet further and decrease my sugar and simple carb intake. In plain English, that means cutting out the sweets and snacks I love so much. Damn ...

So ... on the bright side, I am guessing that my weight, which had pretty much stabilized over the past several months (loss of about 25 pounds), will finally take that second dive that I have been waiting to see. I am pretty good at sticking to diets once I set my mind to eat properly, so I hope that future reports will include a lowering of blood sugar and more weight reduction. But damn -- I am looking so hot already that the females of the world will be clamoring for me even more. It is rough, I know, but what can one do?

Home Game ... and Home Game ...and Home Game

When I first started this habit of spending way too much of my time playing poker, I was fortunate to find a home game, courtesy of the father of my daughter's best friend. Most of the players were IT guys with the same employer, so I was definitely the outsider. Once I became a regular and adapted to their tournament, I was able to cash pretty regularly. We had a flat payout where the top three almost always got paid. I had a decent string of cashes at one point.

During the online poker heyday, we got to the point where the tournaments were pretty regular. We would play two or three times a month on Friday nights. This is where I first got really comfortable handing chips, although to this day I do not riffle at the table. However, we perhaps burned ourselves out on poker and some of the guys who were youngish married guys started having kids. Soon the home game faded into oblivion. For a short time I was without a home game.

However, I was soon to find out that some guys on my softball team played poker, and a new home game was born. We only played once at my house, using a tabletop poker board that had been found by a family member -- who shall remain nameless -- who saw it out on the street waiting to be picked up at a free community garbage hauling day. It was clean but a little warped, and my softball buddies loved chiding me about the shitty table. So ... my wife being the handyperson and creative genius that she is, decided to make me my own table during one of my trips to Las Vegas. After returning home from the trip, I did not go into my basement for a couple of days. When I went down I found this:

Talk about a nice surprise! My wife looked up plans on the internet, then ordered all the parts, hid them, then sawed, cut, hammered, and glued while I was away. Yes, it is very nice and has been great for the home games.

I was lucky, however, to have also get invites to two other home games. Poker blogger gadzooks64 lives about 100 miles away and has invited me to her home games when she hosts. I have gone several times over the past couple of years. I will be going tonight, perhaps wrapping a trip to the riverboat around it. Riverboat poker, home game, riverboat poker. Nice night!

A young woman with whom I worked invited me to her home game in town. It is an interesting crowd, including several university computer science grad students, many from different countries. I have only played this home game once, chopping second/third place and breaking even in a wild, loose cash game.

So ... I have gadzooks' home game tonight, the "international home game" Tuesday night, and I am hosting my regular softball/newspaper crowd game Wednesday night. Add in a few hours at the riverboat tonight and I should certainly get my poker fix over the next five days.

Here is to hoping that my big hands hold this week!

Updates: The Decision & Poker in Peoria

The Decision ...

Many thanks to the people who gave me food for thought regarding my work situation. Having met several of my blogger friends in person and having several more who I have not yet met but feel like I really know, I do have tremendous respect for the life experiences my friends have brought to the table.

All weekend long was just one big continuing conversation within me, weighing all the things I could, searching out as much information as I could. A common way I try to solve complex issues and problems, perhaps to my detriment, is to put everything into a massive equation and then hope for an adequate answer. I did not make my decision until less than 30 minutes until the deadline. Much to the surprise of my wife and my colleague next door, I declined the nomination to be head of my department. Of course, this puts everyone in my department in uncharted territory.

After speaking with several colleagues today, it appears that our next step, with administrative approval, will be to have facilitated conversations within my department to talk about some relevant issues and hopefully come up with a satisfactory solution. Of course, the administration could just say "tough" and make a decision themselves, but my place of employment usually does not work like that.

Poker Misery

As for poker in Peoria ... I tweeted that I saw some of the worst poker playing that I have seen in the past five years. There were terrible calls and beats, including a peckerhead who busted my Aces by calling off his entire stack to chase his flush draw ... and catching his card on the river, I regret to report. It seems that my run bad streak has started again.

The Decision: Part Two & Poker Sunday

The Decision Continues

About two weeks ago, I wrote a post regarding a decision I had to make at work: to be or not to be "the man." I had been in charge of the department once before, but that ended 12 years ago. My previous post briefly discussed some of the issues involved.

As I wrote, I declined the nomination. Only one person accepted a nomination: the person currently in charge. She made a presentation last week, and then a vote was taken. She and a few others were shocked to find that, given a choice between voting for her or no one, she did not receive a majority of votes. We have one more round of nominations. I have been nominated again. I have until Monday at noon to decide whether or not to accept. There is no doubt I will get enough votes if I choose to run. To the best of my knowledge, I would be the only candidate.

I appreciate all the thoughtful comments I received on the initial post. But now the stakes have gotten higher. I would have tons of support from the people I would supervise, but do I want to give up my situation now, which is pretty nice? I am on the clock and have 28 hours to make my decision. Tick ... tick ... tick ...

Poker in Peoria or Hammond

When faced with lfe's burdens, I often find comfort in poker. I plan to head out to the nearest poker room (Peoria) or drive a little further to my favorite Midwest room (Hammond). I am even thinking about playing in a low cost tournament tonight, but 25% vig just seems outrageous.

A Few Clearwater Notes

My wife and I are back home after a nice trip to Clearwater Beach, FL.  And yes – as we were leaving the temperature in Clearwater got back to being up to almost 80 degrees. Ah well …

We had a great meal at a place called Crabby Bill’s. In fact, as we were seated, Crabby Bill’s was being featured in a program on the Food Network.  After some broiled seafood and crab cakes, we left happy and satisfied customers.

I learned first-hand that you do not screw with pelicans. This guy was not nearly as friendly to me as I was to him.

Unfortunately, the one thing sub-par thing about the trip was the educational conference I attended. Outside of some interesting workshops on video gaming addiction and social networking , the rest were rather boring . But at least the trip was a killer!

We watched the sunset on the gulf from a pier, which was very nice despite the wind. Traditional sunset pictures omitted here.


It is back to work tomorrow. I think that I could get used to these two-day work weeks rather easily.

With my wife and son leaving on a snow skiing trip for the weekend, I should have some free time on my hands. The poker gods may be calling …

Deja Vu All Over Again Very Josie Style

As I recall, I won the initial Very Josie Tournament April 7, 2010 with the highest chip count on a chop. History repeated itself Monday night in the new version of the Very Josie. I outlasted a bevy of Josie's boy toys to win the initial New Very Josie. When it comes to the Josie, I am the first one in again!

I was never in a really great position until toward the end. After getting low in chips (a familiar story), I got some action on A-A, fading several outs that could have completed a flush and sent me to the sidelines. The big hand, however, occurred when I flopped two pair and raised all in. I believe that both grrouchie and Poker Grump called. Grump was hoping to hit a flush, but I am unsure what grrouchie had. My two pair held, grrouchie was out, and Grump was crippled. By the time I got HU against Rob, I had a huge stack and the tournament was mine to lose. However, I held on for the victory against a bunch of very good players. The best part, however, was that the hostess with the mostess, Very Josie (I'll even give her a link for hosting!) was knocked out early, leaving her cadre of male admirers to chat about her at the table with Josie being unable to defend herself. That was worth the price of admission!

But hey -- this was just a tiny little fun tournament among friends. To see what a REAL poker player looks like, check out the post by good buddy Memphis MOJO, who placed second in a WSOP circuit event in Tunica! Way to go, MOJO!!!