Back to Hot, Humid Biloxi

Well I have returned to Hot, Humid Biloxi.....

The drive home was...well, UNEVENTFUL! My car had no issues, which was nice. We visited the Hoover Dam...which would have been nice if it hadn't been 315 degrees outside and the tour would have just entailed me and Rick and not 135 other knuckleheads. Crowds...pushing....@*#@$# I hate that! Gabe and Claudia decided NOT to join us, but to stay behind in Vegas for a few days. Gabe wanted to play the Main Event at the Orleans...a $2000 buy in that I would expect maybe 50 players to attend. Monster.

Rick and I decided to skip the Grand Canyon tour. Three reasons. #1 Gas is $4 a gallon and the Canyon was a 225 mile 'diversion' #2 We wanted to make it back to Biloxi to play the Sat and Sun $235 buy in tourneys and #3 Squirrel gave me a guilt trip about "thinking maybe we could see the Grand Canyon together since I've never seen it either." Sigh.....okay. Skipping the Canyon! My new favorite thing in the world is RED BOX! Yeah...at every Wal Mart in America (except, as it turns out....BILOXI!) you will find a vending machine in Wal Mart where, for $1 a day, you can rent a movie..and return it to ANY RedBox in America. So in Las Vegas, we rented 3 movies. Finished them by the time we got to Albuquerque. Returned them to the Wal Mart right next to the Toyota dealership where my car spend 4 weeks getting the engine rebuilt after it blew up on the way TO Las Vegas! We rented 5 more there. Finished them somewhere in the middle of Texas...and returned and rented 5 more.

We pulled over ONCE, at a rest area somewhere in Texas, and slept for 5 hours....and continued home. Finished those movies...I dropped Rick off at home...and decided to return them at our Wal Mart. The greeter had no idea what I was talking about. And bless her heart and her 28 IQ...she kept trying to tell me I could buy some movies there but not rent them. Yeah, Yeah...thanks Sweety...have a nice day! So after calling Red Box, I get to send the movies (at my cost) to somewhere in Illinois now. Perfect.

Saturday. $235 buy in. $20k guarantee. Biggest field I have ever seen...around 160. Of course I forgot to change the time on my phone, so when I set the alarm for 9:45am...it was actually 11:45. Lovely. And Jessica no longer works there...so the 'ol call ahead and get me a seat system is no longer in play. So I got to race over there and go in as an alternate! DAMMIT!

On the drive there I had a nice conversation with my backer...who wasn't the least bit down and out about how our Vegas trip went. AND she decided she wants to be in on my action on the local tourneys. That is cool, it takes a lot of trust on her part to want to do that...since the results from these tourneys don't post anywhere, she is pretty much taking my word on how they go. Realistically I could win one and never tell her. However...that would make me a total weasel. And a moron. And invite Bad Karma. And screw over the one person who has stuck her neck out and taken a chance on me when others wouldn't.

Yeah, that would be a brilliant move. But I know there are those out there who do that kind of thing...and it makes me sad for them. So I agreed to that deal with her. And also agreed to sit down and work out the spreadsheet in the next few days and figure out how much exactly we lost in Vegas. She of course, was about to board a plane with her husband to go gallivanting in Paris for two weeks....NICE! Me? I'm about to lose to tournaments at the Beau Rivage, weed through 7 weeks of mail, figure out who I owe money to...spend a few days working in the yard, washing my car...taking Cheryl to dinner...hmmmm...who has the better end of this relationship? I think my backer!!!!!! Good for her!

Yeah, so I get to the Beau and whoa...what a crowd. I see that Eric Comer, who I had heard was offered the job but never heard for sure if he took it or not...was indeed the new poker tournament director. Hmmmm. Eric and I have a bit of a history. Some of it good, some of it not so good. He is quite fiery...which I actually kind of admire and respect. I actually think we have a lot in common, which should easily spell out why we have had our issues in the past. Those who I closest to in poker, I usually started out with despising at one time!

Eric has had some 'episodes' in his poker life that have sort of changed the course of his career. I have had some 'episodes' in my poker career that have also created some roadblocks during my travails! I think Eric and I are probably a couple of nights of drinks and shots away from being really good buddies. I will say this...Eric has as much poker knowledge as anyone I know in poker...and his presence at the Beau Rivage is a GAIN for them. Johnny Grooms is one of the best in the business, PERIOD...and he usually knows what he is doing, and hiring Eric to run the tourneys there should pay off for them. He will be overseeing the upcoming event in August as well, an event I am very excited about..as I try to run down Cub (Matt Culberson) for the ROUNDER OF THE YEAR contest!!!! I think, too that Eric and I may have worked out a 'call ahead seating' agreement...so I am feeling a little more relaxed about things now! Takes very little to keep Monkey happy! Well........

I am not going to go too much into detail on the next two days....lets just say that both days I made it to the 300/600 blind levels and both times lost coinflips to knock me out of what would have been nice scores. Kind of a bummer. On Saturday...this one kind of pissed me off, because the player it involved was a guy I have always liked, and respected....but after this, I feel like I now owe him a couple of beat downs, maybe even a slow roll. Bert...whose last name escapes me...but ya'all know him...he always has a white fedora on, he's older, very quiet. Cant believe I cant remember his last name...but you know him if you play down here.

Anyway...I pick up 10-10 at cutoff, I have 4200 chips. The blinds are 300/600...a standard raise would be about 1800...leaving me with 2400. Kind of tough to raise 1800 and leave that behind. So I was stacking my chips, counting this all out, figuring out the math on it...before finally thinking...well, there is 1400 in the pot....an all-in here isn't the worst play. So I shove all in. Well, it comes to Bert in the SB and he very annoyingly announces "all that damn stacking...oh let me see, this over here, this over there....(mocks my stacking) let me show you how easy it is....just grab them all and stick them out there!"

He was basically clowning me. Okay Bert...so you have a good hand, I GET IT! Its not like I'm stealing with crap! He turns over AK. Congratulations Bert you have AK...and of course you will flop not just the Ace but the King as well. I lose. Goodbye, and good luck everyone. Bert, welcome to my shit list...hope you enjoy the stay there.

While I was there this weekend, I found out just how many people are reading this. Wow. I was quite amazed. Flattered? I'm not sure. I guess so. I have had a blast writing in this. I'm not sure this is much of a contribution to society, or if anyone is really benefiting from this. I know I am. I always feel after writing that I have cleared my (mental) inbox of everything that I am feeling! The one thing I feel its causing in me though, is that now I feel like every time I sit down to play a tourney that I am expected to make the final table.

I cant think that this is a good thing. Maybe it is. I don't know. I do know that when people beat me they act like they have accomplished something major. Hmmm...that's funny to me. I'm no different than anyone else I don't think. The cards are the same. I had a guy make what I thought was a ridiculous play against me either Saturday or Sunday, don't even remember which day it was. He knows who I am I guess...and after the play, I made a couple remarks, not incendiary or anything, just remarks alluding to his inability to think his top pair with bad kicker was good against the board that was out there. He insisted on finding me on break and breaking down WHY he thought his hand was good there.

It cost me about half of my stack to bet behind his check on the river, betting the pot into what I was trying to represent the whole way down as a set. He called and took it down. I think a good player insta-folds to my bet there. But I don't know, maybe it was just a situation there where both sides were glued to their thinking. He NEVER saw my SIDE, and I NEVER saw his. But sometimes, you just don't WANT TO hear what they were thinking? But maybe I'm being stupid here...maybe I SHOULD WANT to hear what they are thinking, to help ME as a poker player?

You know...because sometimes you are left asking yourself...."what the (@#*@ was that guy thinking on that hand" well when they are willing to come up and TELL YOU....I guess you might just want to hear them out, huh? After all, I do NOT think I have this whole poker thing completely figured out, and am ALWAYS looking for ways to get better. That might be a step in the process.

That's about all I have for you guys. Some exciting news...after being banned from having chat by PokerStars for LIFE....that happened last July, that's over a year....I sat next to a guy from Stars out in Vegas who gave me the blueprint to getting it back, and VOILA!!!! I got it back! Played on Saturday and Sunday...and no kidding, cashed in 8 of 18 MTTS and/or SNGs that I played in. Took 3rd in a 20/180 (good for $450) that I should have won.

The next day I get a text from Ronnie at the IP, who has the guy who won standing there telling him how he beat me in it. Nice. Small world. Yeah the guy beat me. Whatever. I raise with 55. He calls in the BB with AQ. Flop comes 10-6-7....he checks. I bet the POT. He CALLS! Turns a Q. He checks I check...ace on river. He checks again...I'm not betting another penny. He turns over AQ. Yeah....beautiful play. Love those guys who call big bets with nothing other than OVERS! Yeah I made a horrible play because I was trying to hold out for 2nd place money ($780) when I had an open ended straight draw to his top pair betting into me. I should have shoved it right there but I folded. 3rd place sucks. What sucks more is when they go around bragging about how they beat you....especially when they suck!

So I plan to play most of the nightly tourneys this month at the Beau Rivage....and when I am not there, I will be at home playing on PokerStars mostly, under the username ThePokrMnky....maybe I can make a big score or two before the August Beau Rivage event arrives. I am also entertaining thoughts of going to WinStar in Oklahoma for a big 3 million guarantee tourney they are running there. I got buddies now living in Dallas who I would go stay with. We'll see what happens. Off to take Squirrel out to dinner for Sushi at some new Sushi restaurant here in town.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading this and giving me such nice feedback, as well as to all of you who have been following me while I was in Vegas. Sorry I wasn't able to bring back a huge score for us in Biloxi to get excited about...but hey, we GOT A LOTTA POKER TO PLAY THIS YEAR!!!!!!!! See ya all soon!!!!

MONKEY