Short Time Play

A new title design to spice the site up a bit. Not sure if all the kinks are worked out, but I should get it resolved in the next couple days.

My wife's favorite day of the week is Friday's, when her Entertainment Weekly comes in the mail. It is indespensable as a resource into our world of television and movies (and music, but really TV and movies). One of her favorite parts is the back page Stephen King article. Last week's Confessions of a TV Slut rings true, especially his rants on our favorite shows: 24, Lost, American Idol, and Veronica Mars. There's very little poker devoted to the EW pages, but we have to have something to do. Major miscue on Wednesday was missing Shakira on American Idol. We TiVo'd Bones and Lost, missing the AI results show. Video footage of Shakira's performance with Wyclef Jean. We used to have a saying in high school, "Shake it, don't break it. Took nine months to make it." Shake it good golly miss molly!

Played a little 7 card stud hi/lo to kill time Wednesday after crashing out of a SNG in 3rd place (K9 vs KT on a board of T9xxK). It is an absolutely great game as I never know where I am in a hand. Won the low in one hand when I thought I had the hi, caught quad tens. Ended up doubling my buy-in to get my Party bankroll slightly above $2800, with a final LHE push to stand at $3000 on Party. I needed to have a +$3.82 day to get above +$2,000 for the month, which I was able to get done.

The response to the Relationships and Poker series has been, to put it mildly, humbling and a bit overwhelming. It has generated some great responses on other blogs. I was donking away at $0.10/0.25 NLHE at FullTilt (trying to find any NLHE game that I can beat) and to my left is fatbaldguy60. FatBaldGuy shares his journey with his wife who has had her own challenges with gaming, online poker, and bankroll management. Of course, he watched me slow play my aces into a flush after winning the blinds twice with them, but I dropped the hammer for him UTG on his last hand at the table. Never could get paid off with my good hands, so I tried to pay off everyone else's as they obviously don't know how to play at those stakes. I think those games are tougher than the $5/10 NLHE as these guys want to hang on to every nickel that they have...

SloeTimes has a great post about his motivations, as well as how he has passed through challenging times with his wife. He seems to have made it through the storm with a behaviour and relationship adjustment. Check both of these out if you have a chance.

Ended up jumping to a FullTilt $3/6 table to try and win back my $14.65 NLHE loss. I thought it would turn into a $214 loss for a while with AK vs AK (flush), QJ vs. KK, rivered straights, etc, but thanks to rivered set, KK, KQ vs QQ, flopped top set, and open ended straight draw turning into runner-runner trips, I walked away up $2.35 for the night after about three hours of play. Hourly rate? Look, don't believe all these experts and their hourly rates. Not losing $300 is a good hourly rate. Getting unstuck is a good hourly rate. Going bust in yet another NLHE game is a good hourly rate when the buy-in was $12. I would guess at least 20% of my play is goof-around poker, where I'm playing lower limits and watching TV (or working). Is this productive? Probably not.

Monday will have a new post from the wife of a blogger. Very, very insightful stuff that was really beneficial to me after reading it. It looks like we'll be spending spring break with the boys near G-Vegas. BadBlood is trying to organize a game to entertain me (or maybe it went, "...guys there's a whale swimming up from the ATL! Can you get the marked cards ready?") TripJax had a post on the Diablo Stache, which immediately brought me to Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday in Tombstone. Are there any better lines for one character than these?

• I'm your huckleberry.
• (You retired?) Not me. I'm in my prime.
• (What is that Holliday? Twelve hands in a row? Nobody's that lucky. NOTE: movie made before online poker) Why Ike, whatever do you mean? Maybe poker's just not your game. I know! Let's have a spelling contest.
• (How are you?) I'm dying. How are you?
• I have two guns. One for each of ya.
• Why Johnny Ringo. You look like someone just walked over your grave.
• You know, if I didn't think you were my friend, Ed, I don't think I could bear it.
• Make no mistake about it. He's not after revenge; it's a reckoning.
• It would appear the strain was more than he could bear.
• I stand corrected, Wyatt. You're an oak.
• (Nobody move.) Nonsenese. By all means, move
  

Have a great weekend, and good luck at the tables. Go see V for Vendetta or Inside Man if you have a chance--both really good flicks.

ADDENDUM: 2+2 post of Hellmuth jumping into a UB $50/100 NLHE game. He's their patron saint for sure--and beware these 2+2'ers.