From the Peak to the Valley

I debated for the last few days on how to approach my next entry. Since I hadn't written anything since last week, when I cashed my first tourney...then went out close to the money in the next...I didn't know if I should pick up where I left off, and do it in segments, or just summarize the whole week.

It would be very hard to do that though and hold any kind of thrill in writing the first part, due to the last part. Let me sum up by saying that so far, 2009 has been a kick in the nuts. I swear...I do NOT understand, sometimes the way our lord operates. I really, truly don't.

Its funny how I can go from having SO much to say about something to having it being relegated to this, "made my first FEATURED EVENT final table of the year, where I won $3200 for 4th place." But that's about how meaningful its become to me in the matter of a week. Yeah...last Friday, played the $550 and had one of those damn tourneys where just NOTHING goes your way. Busted out at 3:55pm. With the blinds at 400/800...in the BB with 88....4 guys limp for 400, and the guy in the SB, who has been kind of tilting all day....moves all in for 5400. I have a paltry 3900. But I have a chance to turn that to 10K. Hmmm. I finally decide to flip a coin. Heads I will call, tails I will fold. Comes up heads. He has AQc. Dude across the table tells us he folded and ACE. With that I start to get up, knowing that to be the kiss of death. CORRECT. Doesn't hit one ace...hits two. Sweet. OUT! Quickly go sign up for the $230 event at 4pm.

Not much to say. I play good. I see my good hands hold up. Get one courtesy double up with KK. Later get a courtesy double up from the donkey who would eventually make a total donkey play against me at the final table and take me out 4th. It was a fun night. Lots of snappers were consumed. Took a fun picture that I have inserted for Bill to either use or ditch...its me and the Pokerstars Monkey, posing for our first photo in the 'contest' they are running.

Was hoping to be posing with it after WINNING...but that didn't happen. Yeah, 16K would have been nice. Real nice. But it didn't happen. Brandon Jarrett was there sweating me the whole last two tables, in between drinking to the point of ridiculous. Look, if you are 140 lbs dripping wet, do NOT try to out drink me. YOU WILL LOSE. And he did. Later, at Waffle House...with RON (fellow final tabler) and Glen aka "Ratchet" (fellow final tabler) and Greg aka "GMONEY" Cash he passed out at the counter...before I finally deposited him in my car.

BTW, nice freaking Waffle House experience! Its nice to see that racial tension is still alive and well in the south. My gawd. Can a Monkey just get a meal dammit!?? Half the place is black on one side, white on the other. The white side has a white waitress, the black side a black waitress. The white waitress is an old BITCH! I mean..total hag...should have been flying around on a broom! I decide to sit on the other side. Who cares!?? I just want to eat! Ya'all wanna have a race war? Do it on your own damn time. But what happens? The black waitress IGNORES US! Comes over ONCE to say "I'll be with ya'all in a minute" and 20 minutes go by before I ask the girl behind the counter who is, I guess, a busser or dishwasher or something...18 years old, if I can tip her $20 to just PLEASE WAIT ON US! She complies. THEN....all of a sudden the black waitress comes back and now has total attitude as to why someone else is waiting on us. I told her the next time I saw her I didn't want it to be in a funeral home after I died of starvation! It was not my BEST Waffle House experience.

This got us back to our hotel at 7:15am. Great preparation for someone looking to play in the $1070 at noon. Well, lucky for me, our power went out in the hotel...which meant our alarm clock didn't work. And for some reason, it canceled out our wakeup call we had left with the front desk. I still thought I had time to make it though...and was certain the levels in the $1000 would be an hour. I get there at 12:43. Go to register...."Sorry Sir, registration closed three minutes ago." Huh? You gotta be kidding me. You know what? GOOD! What I should have done next was go back to my room and fall back asleep. Because what would ensue...would be the biggest live game beat down of....maybe my poker life. I don't know though, nothing really matches that run I had in New Orleans in the fall of 2007. That was historic.

Before I forget. Lets talk about my wonderful lodging experience. Not only did I get this....but at least 15 others who just TOLD me what they went through. Gawd only knows how many OTHER players went through this crap. And I will say THIS...its not the FIRST time this has happened when playing at an event at this place. I was ready to KILL this guy at the front desk.

Friday. 11am. Brandon is not playing. He is staying in bed. Prior to my arrival, Brandon got a room for us. Was told we would have to change, on Friday, from the Main hotel at the Casino, to the Veranda, across the street. Hate that. But, whatever. I decided to make a stop in the lobby to attempt to tip someone in hopes of staying in our room and avoiding the hassle of moving. I had already heard horror stories from people about how they had been forced to moved once, twice, some people even THREE and/or FOUR times in the course of a week and a half. Due to Harrah's and their reservation system. That, in a word...is a JOKE! That is simply ridiculous and should NEVER, EVER happen. But it does, it did, and I suspect, WILL continue to as long as they attempt to run poker tourneys up there in that piece of mud on the banks of the Mississippi.

I speak to 'Howard.' Howard has no interest in my $50 tip/bribe/gift. Howard tells me we have to move today, but that there is a room waiting for us. Dammit! Fine! Whatever. Tell him I am in a tourney, that my friend is sleeping, but that at the first break I will try to get everything together and get moved. I give him my phone number to call me if there is some emergency that requires immediate vacating of the room. I go play. Or try to. This is the tourney where nothing goes my way all day. About one hour in I get a text from Brandon saying "We have to be out and they are saying they don't have a room for us until Saturday." W T F!!!??? I tell him to meet me in the lobby RIGHT NOW! I get up from the table...after I get to the button, and sprint over the to front desk. I get Howard out there...and as Brandon is coming out of the elevator, I lose my shit! This guy DENIES ever telling me that we had a room available to move to. I stop short of climbing over the counter and chewing the cateroid (sic) artery out of this weasel's neck. What do I do? The guy is completely LYING! He fucked up. He made a mistake. And instead of acknowledging this...he tries to cover his ass by saying he NEVER told me we had a room. Well, I make a few VALID threats, drop a few names (in upper management at Harrahs) to catch his attention, and tell him if he tries to put us out on the street without a room, I will press charges against him. I then run back to the table.

About 15 minutes later, I get a text from Brandon. "We have a room across the street at Veranda. Come help me get moved out of this room on your break." Hmmm...imagine that. So on our 15 minute break we move everything out of that room, into my car, and he takes it all over to the Veranda. And Howard? He was nowhere to be found. Shocking. Ya know, you just HAVE to love Harrah's, dontcha?

I will not bore you with Saturday. It was a nightmare. Nothing held up. SNGS, kept getting down to 4 and getting coolered. I lost a dime on the day. But was still feeling okay because of the $3200 I had won the night before. No biggie right? That's poker! Why cant you ever follow up a good day with another good day? Why not? Cuz that's just not how it goes, isnt it? Whatever! Lets have a good Sunday, and lets hope we have a great Super Bowl!

Sunday arrives. Show up for the noon Mega Satellite. Big field. 225 players. Nice. Start with 5000 chips. Get up to 6000 by level 2. Table is pretty soft. Some real bad players. Another one of these...6x/8x/10x blind raising fun-fests! Asian lady comes to our table, raising, literally, every other hand. I finally call her with A10c. Flop comes down 8c9c9h. She just open shoves 1700 into a 2000 pot. WTF? Two other people had called her preflop raise. The first guy folds. With only one person to act (the BB) behind me...I think about it and decide to flat call. SO what happens? The guy in the BB shoves all in! Jeezuz. Well, obviously he has a NINE! I cant put HER on a nine...no way, not shoving. She must have either an over pair, or maybe has a worse club draw. I have too much of my stack in there to fold. Dammit....semi-reluctantly I call. He has, of course 9..but a 10 kicker...crap...which kills my 10....she has J10...open ended, hmmm..yeah okay. Nice raising hand. Yeah, I pretty much need a club, and need to fade a boat. TURN CARD IS A 7 OF CLUBS! I am turning away from the table to silently thank the poker gods and do a silent fist pump...when I hear that sound we all know...."OOOHHHHHHHH!!!! @O*#@*( " I don't even want to turn around...but I do...and I don't see a boat. I SEE THE OTHER FREAKING NINE! Son of a bitch hit quads on the river! And I am out. And thus... would set the tone for Sunday.

I would go on to lose 6 out of 7 sngs. The only one I won, I actually chopped with the guy. I was finishing either 4th, or 8th. IN every one. It was freaky. Heads up. I min raise with AA. Guy insta shoves. Okay, I call. He shows K10. IM DEAD! We all KNOW I'm dead. Its K10. We know how that goes! FLOP? A-3-9. Wow, I flopped a set, should be good right? Turn? J. River? Q. Thanks for coming out MOnkey. That was only a small snippet of my day, but that was my favorite kick in the nuts. Maybe my second was one that involved Bruce Meyers, remember Bruce? That guy I just said all those nice things about in my last entry? Yeah with 4 left, I raise with AQ. He calls with K10. The flop comes Q-10-5. My only bet after the flop is all in, and its quite a bit. Bruce calls. "Bruce...what are you doing man!??" What hits the river? Another ten. Duddddddddde.

THen the Super Bowl Starts. Lets just say I REALLY needed PITTSBURGH (-6.5) and the UNDER (46.5) to have a REALLY nice day. I think you ALL watched the game. When PITT was up 20-7, lets just say I was feeling, um.....real good. As a side note, I was still in two Survivor Pools, both which had 3 left in them. They both were taking PITT, so I gambled, hedged if you will...and took Arizona. So either way...I had a good chance to be a big winner on this day. When Arizona took a 23-20 lead, my mood shifted some...but Arizona winning, and the UNDER coming in...would still make for a 'decent' day. But then Ben "RipMyFuckIngHeartoUt" Roethlisberger would do to me what he did in 2006 against my Seahawks. He would march his Steelers downfield on another unlikey drive that would culminate with Santonio "I knew I was gonna be the MVP" Holmes tiptoe-ing his way into the endzone for a game winning, but not point-spread beating, TOUCHDOWN. Oh...and did I mention? It also resulted in them hitting the OVER! Isn't that beautiful!??? In a strange twist of irony, as I sit here writing this, the mail man just came to my door, had something to sign...and OH...look, its this weeks issue of Sports Illustrated...with who else? Skank-tonio Holmes on the cover!

So....The Super Bowl....SUCKED! I did manage to win the 4th quarter on one of my $25 boards for $875. But considering I was IN for 44 boards at a total cost of $1600, it was a small victory.

I went against my better judgement and played the last Mega at 9pm. Another $550. Only 52 played. 4 winners. But the longer we played the more optimistic I was getting. Kept picking up hands when I needed them...but didn't get any action on them, so never could get a double up. Then, IT HAPPENED. My chance at a triple up, and to get right back into this...and hopefully, win my way into the Main Event! IN the BB, I look at 33. Blinds are 300/600. First guy raises to 1800. He has been raising my BB a LOT! It could mean ANYTHING. David Robbins, who always is pretty chummy with me...calls. Hell, I HAVE TO CALL...and hope to gawd I can spike a 3 or just a really good flop. Which is what I feel like I do when the flop comes 2-2-4. I shove all in for 3400. The first guy hems and haws...and finally folds. David Robbins: "Sorry Monkey, I was hoping that he would call so I wouldn't have to...there is just too much in the pot for me to fold" and calls with ACE QUEEN! Come on Dave..........give me a break man! What hits the river? Of course! Does it matter? I'm out! SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!!!!
At about 8pm my throat started feeling scratchy. What the hell is that? Tried to cough it out. No good. Dammit. Grrrrr...that better be gone tomorrow.

I go sit on the wall. Fuming. Not knowing what to do next. Text Squirrel what had happened. She instructs me to go to my room, get some sleep, and come home in the morning. Yeah Yeah. On my way to the front door, I pass my favorite little casino table game...the WSOP HOLD EM BONUS POKER game. Ah what the hell....seems like a good place to unwind. Buy in for $200. Play for about three hours. Up, down, up, down....ARGH...enough. Cash me out. Lost $40. Big deal. Go to my room. Crash.

Wake up with THE FLU! OH HELL NO! Head feels like an anchor! Chest feels likes its filled with SOS pads. Cant quit coughing. NO! NO! NOOOOOO!!!!!! About 12 Squirrel calls asking me if I have left yet. Oh my god. I am in hell! I finally pull myself off the canvas at about 4. Get packed and get outa there. Check out. Somehow I don't get charged for that day. Might have had something to do with not having TV in our whole building for all of Saturday. Not sure. Drive over to Waffle House and have a little better experience than my last one there. Still not great. Just not as bad as the last. Go buy some cold medicine. The non-drousy kind. And hit the road.

One hour into my trip I get a phone call from Squirrel. She is with Claudia, who had spent the night from the night before when they all watched the Super Bowl and played cards til late. She is scared. She is cramping real bad. She calls her doctor and is told to come in the next morning. Hmmm...that sounds a bit scary. A half hour later...Claudia calls me! They are on their way to the emergency room! Cheryl has blood running all down her legs! OH MY GOD! I lose it. I pull over somewhere...having a panic attack. I don't know what to do. Who to call. This sounds like the worst case scenario. We are 12 weeks into our pregnancy and SHOULD be in the clear, we thought. But this cant be good.

I call my Mother. She freaks out. But tries to keep me calm. I am anything but calm. Now her family starts calling me. And her other friends. We are ALL just waiting to hear something from Claudia...who is in there with her. Finally, after about two hours...I get a text message from her...

"S H E L O S T T H E B A B Y"

I just started to cry. I cried for about 30 minutes before my phone rang. I don't even remember who it was. I don't remember the next few hours. Just sitting there, on the side of the highway...wondering what I did to deserve this. What Cheryl did to deserve this? Why this is happening? Realizing at that moment just HOW UMIMPORTANT POKER is to me at this moment. How unimportant EVERYTHING is. Was this God punishing me? Or was he saving our child from a dark, cruel world that our baby was going to enter unprepared for? I don't know....

I drove the last 4 hours in stunned silence. No radio. Just staring at the road. I got home and sat in the driveway for 15 minutes. I wasn't sure how to act. Do I try and be 'strong' and not break down? Do I break down and show how upset I am? Do I just take her and hold her? SHIT! Claudia was still there, in bed with her...comforting her. Thank GOD Claudia was there! Oh...I don't know what she would have done had she been home alone when all this happened. I thanked Claudia, wished her Happy Birthday, as she had just turned 24 at midnight...and she went home. I then laid in bed...and just held Squirrel. We fell asleep together.

The next three days would see tremendous support from our friends and family. I would finally kick this damn flu...after not MOVING from my bed for two days. I sent out a mass email to everyone on my list after she recommended I do so, since so many people know about our little 'Squirrel/Monkey' on the way...and to have to deal with constant reminders from people with comments like "how is the baby coming along?" "is going to be a girl or a boy?" "what are you going to name it?" would have just been way to painful for us both. So I sent out a very short letter on Tuesday to everyone. I have received over 150 emails from people in the last three days that have been so amazingly supportive and inspiring. I am amazed at how many people have had to endure this heart-breaking experience. I guess this is just another painful chapter in our lives that we have to grow from. Squirrel appears to be handling it as well as I could have expected her too.

Its kind of strange. We just saw that movie "Marley and Me" and in the movie, they get married, and before having kids, get this dog...this crazy dog...and finally she gets pregnant. And has a miscarriage. And it was terrible. But then they succeeded in having a baby. Then two more! I immediately started thinking about that when I saw the movie...praying to God that this wouldn't happen to us, and it DID. So strange how life imitates art sometimes.

So what is next? Well, I'm not sure. I have my airplane ticket to go to Vegas to play the Deepstacks at Venetian, set to leave this coming Tuesday the 10th. But if Squirrel wants me to stay home with her, I would be willing to scrub this trip. Its really up to her. Of course I want to go and play and win us some money...but I have to do whatever is most important to US. So I may be there, and I may not be. Its her call. I know one thing...there is a REAL good chance that I will NOT be going to Tunica again. Maybe ever! Last time I was up there in September, my dog Tuesday died. And now, on this trip...my first child. On top of every other reason not to go up there....I've just really had a stomach full of Tunica.

In another interesting twist...what the hell is going on in New Orleans? Jason resigned? And some gal no one has heard of is taking over? What does that mean? Can we expect the May event now to SUCK? As all the others have sucked? Nice that I have been talking it up for the last month. And is the Beau Rivage having the Spring Break tourney that they had last year or not? Cant find it anywhere on upcoming schedules. Tough to plan a schedule when you cant even find out what is on the board.

For now...I am sitting at home...comforting Squirrel and getting my ass handed to me on Pokerstars!

http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/