A weekend of poker happenings - but surprising short and sweet

I went into this weekend thinking Friday night would be all there was. Friday night was Bourbonators. My monthly home game...with the whisk(e)y, scotch or bourbon of the month. Num num!

We had 11 guys show up this month and pony up the $5 for booze and $5 sng. Yeah, this is definitely not High Stakes Poker. The range of these guys goes from almost need cheat sheets to some pretty solid players. One guy is a regular at a local indian casino playing limit hold'em.

The first hand of the night told me it might just be one of those long poker nights...8 of the 11 guys called the first hand. Wow. I played button down tight poker all night. It only helped so much, I got a guy to call me all in when the blinds were big and my stack was small. My AK of course lost to AJ...it's just one of those nights. The second game didn't go much better. Since it was my house, I got everything pretty well cleaned up before the game ended. Yipee.

Saturday morning, the OhKids were up bright and early. Dad was not real excited, but that's life in the fast lane (I could feel the love of Sam Houston). For some reason, while I collect my thoughts in the mornings, I fire up the laptop and play poker while the different areas of my brain come back on line. This particular morning, I must have had enough brain function to win a satellite token on FTP. As you've already read...I used it in the AIPS Main Event.

AIPS ME was fun. This was the biggest pile of dough I've ever spent on an online poker tournament. Here's the run down...I played for 43 minutes. I saw the flop 4 times. Folded the flop twice. Took the blinds once. I even flopped 4 of a kind. It might have paid better if I'd only chosen to play 93o from UTG. For some reason...this tight player folded it preflop. When I finally grew a pair and played hard QQ...I ran into KK. He didn't fold them either. It was pretty cool to have Shamus from over at Hard Boiled Poker and Chris from Ante Up! at my table. They are taking comments over at the Ante Up! blog. I'm sure they'd love to hear your suggestions for next years AIPS events. I know I'll be playing more of them!

Final poker news for the weekend...it's official! I'm going to play in the Minnesota state poker Championship in Fargo! Whew! OhCountess and I booked a room and are arranging proper care for the OhKids. I'm totally excited for this. I'd really like to cash this time, but I do need to make it through a field of about 150-200 people. I just really wish Fargo wasn't so damn far away. Wish me luck!