November/December Melancholy, a Great Poker Session, and a New Year Has Come. On to Las Vegas!

Greetings and welcome to 2023! Blogger Tony Bigcharles recently pointed out in his blog that I had not published any posts in December 2022. Aside from being busy with the holidays and family visits and such, I have just felt not quite right ever since mid-November. The death of my friend's daughter hit me tremendously hard. Unfortunately, it was followed up shortly thereafter by news that another former colleague had cancer throughout his body and was on the brink of death. He died the next day. Despite his many friends at our former workplace, I was only one of two people to leave a message on the online memorial site. I was reminded of the quote from Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby: "Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead." I have tried to live that quote to the best of my ability. I decided to cancel my December trip tp Las Vegas. I just felt like staying home.

My wife and I had planned to have our family together for the first time in several years, but unfortunately the weather and Southwest Airlines kept that from happening. My two daughters still live in central Illinois and were scheduled to fly to Arizona on December 23. Talk about bad timing. However, my son and his girlfriend were able to make their flights from Seattle, so at least there was that. My daughters, however, will be flying in to visit on my birthday later this month.

The poker year ended with a big bang. After going to an appointment on the opposite side of the city, I decided to try my luck at $1/2 NL poker at Lone Butte during the day. I was expecting tight play. Man, was I wrong. I felted two players on one hand when I had A-K on a flop of K-K-rag. A few minutes later, a new player transferred to the table with over $500. I raised with J-10 and he was among a few callers. The flop was 10-rag-Jack. I led out big and only he called. The turn was a beautiful 10. He bet and I called. The river was some sort of rag. He checked. I thought for a bit about what he might call. I put out a bet of $50 (into a pot of ~ $125) and was surprised when he re-raised me to $125. I went all in and he said "I have a 10" and called. I flipped over my cards, he nodded and said "nice hand" and immediately left the table. I was only there a short time, having bought in for $200, and I was already well over $1,000. I stayed for some time and finally cashed out for over $1,600. I had not had a session like that for a loooong time. Of course (u see), I had to see how far my good fortune would last. One word: Ha! I returned to Lone Butte the next day and surrendered $300 back. I then went to Talking Stick and gave back another $400. So much for my end of the year heater. 😁

I have only played twice in the first eight days of the year. However, I posted wins in both sessions at Talking Stick, so 2023 is off to a good poker start. But to make it even better ... where could I go?

In just over 24 hours, I will be heading out to Las Vegas for my initial 2023 trip. I'll be staying at a mid-Strip hotel and most likely will be concentrating my efforts on Bally's while hitting other select poker rooms. My poker buddy Larry will be flying in Tuesday night, and old online poker friend AgSweep should already be there when I get in. I might or might not see Tony Bigcharles, as we know that he doesn't plan ahead and changes geographic poker locations more often than some people change their underwear. Anyone else? I'll be around during the week, so hit me up if you're available. 

I am looking forward to 2023 and hope that this will be a great year. I seemed to be doing fine in 2022 until the end of the year. I hope all my readers, poker buddies and online friends are all off to a good start in 2023. Cheers!

Thanks for reading. 😊