Happy Thanksgiving!

This is always the busiest time of the year at work for me, so I am certainly thankful to have a few days off. Nothing like crawling to the finish line.

Where has this month gone? Christmas is only a month away and two weeks from today I will be heading to Las Vegas to meet up with many of my fellow poker bloggers. I have only met a handful in person, so this should be quite interesting.

Only a sister-in-law and a niece are joining my family for dinner, so there should be plenty of leftover turkey. I got the biggest one I could find -- about 22 1/2 pounds. Turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, maybe turkey chilli ...

I hope everyone celebrating the real Thanksgiving has a nice restful, food-filled, football-watching, pleasant day. The best of health and happiness to you and yours!

The Wussification of the American Male

This afternoon I actually took a break away from poker to run errands. After all, it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and I was not registered in the Online Forum Challenge donkathon scheduled for today.

One of my stops was at the local Kohl's store. While there I decided to try on a few pairs of pants. However, I was prepared to see the usual scene near the men's dressing room that disgusts me to no end.

I guess I was fortunate when growing up in that I attended a Catholic school and wore a uniform every day -- navy blue pants and a light blue shirt. My mom ordered our clothes from Sears, therefore we never spent much time shopping for clothes. They always seemed to come folded in nice plastic bags. Anyway, I digress.

Waiting right outside the men's dressing room was a middle-aged woman. And I mean right outside the dressing room. Wanting soooo badly to go in there and help her poor, inept husband try on a pair of pants or a shirt. Really.

I have seen this same scene repeated so many times. Sometimes the women get really ballsy and go right into the dressing room with the guy. Where a bunch of guys are in the stalls taking off their clothes.

Now, the first thing that pisses me off is that that these women somehow think that it is okay to invade the men's dressing room. Were I to go into the women's dressing room to "assist" my wife -- hoo hah -- how long would it take for store security to come rushing in?

But what really sets me off, however, is how these guys are such wusses that they have to have their wifey or their mommy help them try on clothes. I mean -- geez -- do the women hold their guy's schlongs when they have to take a piss?

I see family dynamics in action every day in my job. There is a totally different dynamic with fathers and daughters, though. The fathers are usually there as the "protector" for their daughter and largely stay silent and in the background. They are making sure that their daughter doesn't get dicked around. But they let their daughters stand on their own two feet. Well done, mates.

Mothers and sons though -- awk! The mothers always want to do the talking for their poor sons. After all, it's a mother's job to take care of her little boy, right? The sons? They sit back like the wusses they are and let their moms handle business. Sometimes the mothers call for their sons because the sons are "just too busy."

One time I had a mother call me on the phone to try to arrange her son's transfer from an out-of-state university to my school. She, of course, knew nothing about what her son was taking, but she was trying to arrange things for him. After getting several vague responses from me due to FERPA regulations, she finally asked me, "Shouldn't my son be doing this?" I somehow contained myself from saying what I really wanted to say and instead answered "Ma'am, if your son has been attending a university halfway across the country, he certainly is capable of handling his own transfer of schools."

When I was a young guy the absolute last thing that I would have wanted was to have my mom doing things for me that I should have been doing myself. In today's world, however, it seems almost standard that guys are wusses and mommies or wifies are the great enablers.

Enough of this mini-rant. It's time for me to grab a brew, tug at my crotch, and play some poker. After all, I am a man ...

New Additions to lightning Household

Seems like my wife and kids can never leave well enough alone when it comes to pets. The newest ones: two degus. Degus look like rats but are really closely related to chinchillas -- of which we have two!

Never a dull moment. Always more mouths to feed. I need to find a way to put them to work ...

Even a Blind Squirrel ...

Always good to win a Shark tournament even if the top prize won't make you rich. Shark players are tough!

Could Someone Please Explain This to Me?

I felt ill at work Wednesday morning and left after two hours. I did not make it in yesterday either. Feeling like crap while at home, I , of couse, fired up the laptop and played in three private tournaments. The results:

The Mookie -- 3/19 -- final table

CardsChat Freeroll -- 9/73 -- final table

Shark Home Game -- 1/39 -- win

So ... I felt like garbage and cashed in all three smallish tournaments, final tabled them all, and even won one. I run goot when I feel bad?

Trip/Tournament Report: WSOP Circuit Event -- Horseshoe Hammond -- October 16, 2009

Waaaay back when, I used to delight in going to Opening Day when the baseball season began. So ... when I saw that the 2009-2010 WSOP Circuit was going to start at the Horseshoe Hammond, it seemed like a natural for me to go to the opening event -- a $345 NL tournament on October 16.

Harrah's allowed a three-hour preregistration the night before. I heard that 500-600 people chose that option. I got to the casino about two hours before the opening hand. I was surprised to see that there were 200-300 people in line ahead of me. It took 75 minutes for me to get to the front of the line. After I registered, I saw at least another 200-300 still waiting in line. Last year's opening tournament attracted over 1,100 entrants. It would be interesting to see how Harrah's would handle this large crowd.

The tournament began on time at noon. Most of the tables were set up in The Venue -- the small second floor concert hall in the complex. My table was in the regular poker room on the main floor. Starting chip stack: 10,000. Levels: 45 minutes! This was one heck of a structure for an inexpensive tournament. No matter what, I expected to get in a lot of poker for my money.

The worst part of the tournament was that Harrah's allowed alternates to come in for several hours. I believe that over 300 alternates came in, bringing the total up to 1,412. First place paid almost $80,000 -- not bad for a $345 buy in!

My table had solid players. Too solid, in fact. We kept passing about 40,000 chips back and forth for several hours. I got some big hands the first hour or so (A-A, K-K), but couldn't drum up much action. However, I limped in with 2-2 and hit my set on the flop. The guy to my left didn't believe my check raise, so he reraised me. Two hearts on the flop kept me from flat calling, so I reraised his reraise. He reluctantly folded. Too bad he only had top pair, top kicker, or I might have busted him.

I took a big hit when I flopped top two in an almost family pot. There was a realistic straight possibility on the board, so I didn't want to push as hard as I would have liked. I got rid of everyone but one seemingly tight player who apparently chased a flush to the river -- and hit it.

We kept seeing the average stack size going up as players were felted, but we just kept passing the chips back and forth. After 6+ hours we had only lost two players. Soon we were moved upstairs.

The last two hours I played were very frustrating. Sensing the need to make a move since my M kept dipping lower, I kept seeing rag-rag, paint-rag, and rag-rag. Our table was finally broken and I was moved to a new table where half the people had decent stacks. A guy to my left was calling almost all the all-ins, so I knew I couldn't bluff. I was hoping to go all in before the dinner break and either double up or go home, but the cards did not come. And I wasn't even hungry.

Right after the break, I had A-9sooted and pushed. One guy thought long and hard, but folded. I stayed alive. Another orbit or two later I was praying for a good hand. I was dealt A-Jos. A raise came from under the gun, and I pushed all in. Everyone else folded. The original raiser called -- putting almost half his stack at risk -- with Q-10hearts. Of course, you know how the story ends. The flop brought a Queen and two hearts. He faded the few outs on the flop and river. It was over. Just before 9:00 pm.

They announced that a new Horseshoe Circuit record had been set with the 1400+ players. They also gave players interesting news -- that they should be prepared to play until 3 or 4 am to complete the day. Looks like letting all those alternates in so late screwed up the expected timetable.

Although I ended the tournament sooner than I would have liked, working with 10,000 chips and 45-minute blinds was great. The banter at the table picked up after a few hours and was pleasant. I had a good time and can't wait for my next chance to get in a quality tournament. If I could swing it time-wise -- the next circuit destination at Horseshoe Southern Indiana?

A Day for Rejoicing, a Day for Mourning

Yesterday, October 19, was a bittersweet day for me indeed. On the bright side, my mother celebrated her 84th birthday. Within the past several years, my mom has had open heart surgery, knee replacements, and lord knows how many trips to doctors, hospitals, and rehab centers. Still, she carries on. Ever since my father passed away she has said that she is ready to go. However, good family genes are confounding the situation. All her brothers and sisters (with the exception of a brother who died in an auto accident) lived long lives. With my mom's medical history, I would not be shocked if she passed away at any time. With her family history, however, I would also not be surprised to see her live to celebrate many more birthdays.

The down side of yesterday was that a friend from work was buried. Tom was a member of the maintenance crew and always stopped to bs with me about softball. Yeah -- two softball junkies with broken-down bodies reliving their past glories. It didn't dawn on me until yesterday that Tom was the only person outside of my family who came out to a softball game just to see me play.

I was horrified to realize at the end of the day that I had missed the brief visitation hour before his funeral. However, I am reminded of Wolfsheim's quote from The Great Gatsby: "We need to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead."

Miss you, man. Show those dudes up in heaven that the stroke can still be there long after the legs have gone.

Warning: Actual Poker Content

Online Forum Challenge

Today I played in one of the Online Forum Challenge tournaments. It was funny that even though there were 786 runners, fellow poker blogger Smokkee was seated at my table at the start. I only remember us going at it one hand.

I decided to play pretty tight since there is so much donkey play in these tournaments. The best I could do today, however, was 68th place. I was in the money, but missed all the bonuses and was not able to score any points for CardsChat. Hard to believe I actually won one of these some time ago.

A Day at a Rockford Charitable Games Event

Saturday was reserved for my first trip to a Rockford Charitable Games event in East Peoria. In Illinois, we have very few poker rooms. They are located in the riverboat casinos and are not exactly the greatest. Our only other legal options for playing b&m poker are organizations like Rockford Charitable Games. Charitable organizations contract with them to hold poker tournaments as fundraisers.

The event was held in a local VFW hall -- a common place for charity tournaments. The tables were not the best, but were functional. The dealers were all very good, however. Having only one person taking money for the opening tournament, however, made for a long registration line.
I played in the first tournament -- a $25 buy-in with a $5 add-on for the dealers. My table had people playing pretty tight, so I loosened up and won a few pots in the beginning. However, I spewed chasing a few pots and eventually went out when I flopped top pair but was out kicked.

The cash games were soft -- not surprising. I ended up a little bit ahead, but nearly what I had hoped. Several times when I flopped sets or had the nuts or near nuts I had no takers.

The highlight of the day, however, was getting to meet another poker blogger, the lovely gadzooks64 . I let her know that the event would be in our neighborhood, and she came out for a few hours in the afternoon. We didn't get to play together, however, but it was still nice meeting one of our fraternity.

I have been disappointed that Illinois Charitable Games, which used to be my main b&m "home game," has apparently gone out of business. Unfortunately, the Rockford group does not normally travel this far south. If they take over the territory, however, I think they will find that central Illinois is full of decent poker players -- and a fair share of people who like to play regardless of their skill level.