Catching Up On Time Lost

I know that since the inception of this blog, I've definitely been a feast or famine poster. Lately, it's been lots of famine. Where have I been? I certainly haven't been spending much time on Twitter or even Facebook. I've had a lot of personal stuff in my life that needed a much larger portion of attention then normal. I'm hoping this is coming to an end soon. I frankly really miss writing and writing about poker.

I recently nuked the stuff in Google Reader. It was time to take the pressure off the idea of catching up and starting with a clean slate. I had almost missed a post by a blogger I'm proud to call my friend. Lightning36 has been around these parts for years and we've shared barbs on more then one occasion on our love for our baseball teams. In case you didn't know it, Twins fans and White Sox fans don't exactly, um, we, um, OK, I don't like the White Sox. But there's more to life then poker, baseball and the pursuit of yet another Central Division title.

One thing that actually sucks about working where I do is that no one ever comes here for a good reason. While I work at one of the worlds premier medical facilities (I personally think it's the best in the world, Doc Chako, it's up there right?), people come here seeking hope. I see Lightning just updated things, but he's going through a really scary time for a dad. Read this, and keep them in their thoughts. As a father, I don't even want to imagine going through this.

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So, in other news, I was reading on Twitter about CK thinking about cashing out most of her online bankrolls. I'd really been think about doing it too. With the impending onset of the ridiculous UIGEA, and the possibility of Full Tilt going before a grand jury has got me a bit squeamish. I didn't pull everything out, just a nice tidy profit. It was enough to force me to move down. I guess I'm in rebuilding mode. I made Iron Man 2 consecutive months. Yeah me! Too bad it actually cost me money to do it. Yo, I suck!

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Which get's me to some pimping time before the whole thing passes me by! The great and powerful Oz, otherwise known as Sir AlCantHang, did it again with the BBT5. Full Tilt Poker has pumped up prize pool with $50,000 in cash and goodies. My goodness!

As I catch up on my reading over the last week, there's some discontent about who actually got invited to the Invitational portion of the tournaments. Now, I have to say it, I was a little disappointed I didn't at least get an invite. Not sure if I would have gotten the time to play, but heck, I'm still blogging about poker and would definitely done a fair share of pimping (hint: my pagerank is 3 - 4 depending on the wind...just sayin'). Oh well. I guess I'll just have to but Al a drink in December and hope for BBT6.

We'll have to see how many of these tournaments I'll get to play. I wish I would have know about it before I took the amount of money out of my account I did. D'oh!

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It's been a little over two months since I last played poker in my bar league. It's been nice getting that extra night at home with the wife and kids. OhCountess' career has been taking some exciting turns so time together has been tougher, but I do miss playing live. I might just take Lightning there tomorrow night if the stars align and this go well for he son tomorrow.

I did get to play some live poker a little over a week ago in a local home game. The guy to the right hosts a fairly regular game. I had played in it a few years ago. It's been +EV for me, which is always good. He hadn't given up on my completely and continued to send me reminders of the game.
This game is a lot different then the bar poker games I had been playing. These guys are much better then the bar players. 3 and 4 betting are always possible here.

We had 9 runners on this night. My immediate reaction? Yo! A Sit-n-go! We start the game pretty deep stacked, which if you ask me, ROCKS. Tight/aggressive early and then when the time is right, Loose/aggressive with a touch of looking to gamble.

Everything went pretty much according to plan. I minded my own business, started chipping up fast late and I think I even got to be chip leader for a moment when we made the bubble (3 people). The top two getting paid. This is when I did something I do sometimes when I play live.

Online poker has one big advantage for me...real time, live chip counts. I don't know why I can't get myself to pay more attention to this live, I'm lazy but I forget to put on the gambling brakes and slow down when I've been in gamble/shove mode. This is going to shock the stuffing out of you, but for some crazy reason I played AQo like this.

I'm on the button of this self-dealt game. I squeeze AQo and raise it 3 bets (at this time, standard raise). Little blind folds, big blind shoves. Well I think for about a half a second and I call. Yeah, dumb. He tables AK. Five cards later, my stack is decimated.

I had started yawning a little earlier and I know I don't play well tired. How do you slow down, do a chip count inventory and keep yourself from insta-calling with AQo? No, really, I'd love to know!

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One last thing. Grange95 has a post a couple of weeks ago that's still rattling around in my head. It's in the spirit of my Luck, Lucky and Luckier posts (here, here and here). I've been really thinking about why people consider poker to be nothing more then another casino gambling game. Go read his post and keep bugging me to finish the thoughts of my comment...kay?

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So, your to do list (because you go to blogs to find your busy work):

• Go send your good karma to Lightning36
• Tell me I'm crazy for taking the cream off the top of my bankroll
• Play as many BBT5 events as you can
• Tell me how to take my foot off the gas late in a tournament
• Go read Grange95's post and bug me to finish a friggin' thought.

Thanks for playing, and in the words of the great Apu...Please, come again!