Turkey

First, here's to Brian McBride for a great Thanksgiving brace to defeat Bolton 2-1. McBride hasn't been getting a ton of chances for Fulham, so it's nice to see our Yank make it stick (much better than Landon Donovan fleeing Leverkusen when the going got tough).

OK, back to the inaction. I'm forty miles from Tunica in Memphis, and the Closet Poker Player can't get permission to make the trek down. Played a bit with my family and aunt's family (a new cousin-in-law plays). We played a freeroll with no cash or prizes, which affects play a bit (does the term call mean anything to anyone?). Had a massive bad beat against new cousin-in-law (finishing his degree in Missouri), I raise pre-flop with my brother-in-law and new cousin (AQ0). Flop comes QTx, he bets, I raise alot, brother-in-law calls, he raises all-in, I call, brother-in-law folds (KK if you can believe that--not sure how he did that). I call, cousin-in-law flips over QJ, Q comes on turn, and the J comes on the river. Next night, his wife (my cousin) picks off two of his bluffs (basically his whole family called any time he would raise or bet at pots, so I don't see alot of future in their marriage--basically, I can deduce that their entire family thinks he is a liar including his wife).

I'm at a stupid Starbucks paying T-Mobile for the privilige of being online (Memphis must be the least wireless town in America as I rode around for 45 minutes trying to find free internet access), so this won't be too comprehensive. I commented on my last posting, and I want to spend more time exploring feedback from Wes, scurvydog, and will. I think scurv is particularly on to something, although it may be a bit more complex than he gets.

I've read a couple of great books (I'm more of a book buyer than a book reader, so this is an impressive feat). Of course, related to poker (which my wife mocks as the only book I can now read). First is Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers by Katy Lederer. Terrific read, short, very well-written (OK, that's probably a bit of a stretch for me to be qualified to say). Katy is Howard Lederer and Annie Duke's sister, and she wrote this pre-poker explosion. Chronicles their childhood, Howard's travails and rise, some insight into Annie Duke as well. Really interesting stuff. The second I've written about before, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time by Michael Craig. This is a book about Andy Beal, the Texas billionaire who repeatedly goes to Vegas to play in a game of increasingly outrageous stakes against the best of the best: Doyle Brunson, Howard, Jennifer Harman, Chau Giang, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, and more. A great read, and the implications of even more interesting stories are really intriguing.

OK, I'm going to cruise. I'll work on a further exploration of that last couple of weeks, as well as my motivation for playing and next steps, probably tomorrow.