Beau Final Table, and Random Thoughts

ONCE THIS YEAR LET ME WIN WITH THE BEST HAND!

We are getting very close (three days) to the event where I basically had my coming out party last year. 6 cashes, 4 final tables, back-t0-back 2nd places...a great week that catapulted me into 'real tournament player' mode for 2008. Topping that will be very hard. I ran very good that week. But right now....I need something good to happen.

Thought that was exactly what I was about to have happen on Saturday at the Beau in their 15K guarantee tourney. Got there on time (well, ten minutes late, which for me is on time!). Had a good seat, seat 4. Had one of those days where I got NO CARDS but somehow managed to stay around. Got up to about 8k then ran AQh into AA...a guy who I had just seen limp then shove with AJ a while before. That hurt. Took me to 2500. But then moved in with AQ again, ran into a guy's AK..and spiked a Q. Little later, Shawnda served me KK and got doubled up by a guy wtih AQ. Then just kind of bobbed and weaved my way to the final table.

Down to about three tables and John Riola sends me a Red Snapper. Hmmm...wondering, was this a devious attempt to put the 'Snapper Hex' on me? Knowing that I usually (typically) do NOT drink the Snapper until we are in the money? Whatever, I drank it anyway...and the next four of five that followed, and suddenly I was in my zone. We have 10 left.....

We have already agreed to give 10th place $250. Big deal. I have managed to climb back to a respectable 3rd in chips. Diana comes to deal our table. I don't know Diana's deal, I really don't. I WANT to like her...I really do. I try very hard. But man, she is just SO grouchy when she deals. Mainly with the whole "I NEED EVERYONE'S ANTE!!!!" Well, she almost cost me $400.

I am on the button. I have NOT gotten AA all day. And I keep telling everyone 'they are coming...they have to be coming' and as I look at my first card and see the A of spades, I go into my act. "Ah ha! The first one is the NUTS! I wont even look at the 2nd one...it will be the mystery card...but the first one is THERE!" It folds to me. I look down and see the A of hearts! OH HELL YES! And I announce..."well, its about time!" Blinds are 1500/3000. I will not EVER min raise, and say as much...so I make it 7000. The kid in the small blind, who I know has me covered or is close anyway....moves all in. Music to my ears...I think.

He turns over JJ. Ugh..hate seeing a pair. Only takes one card to kill me...and THERE IT IS...right on the flop. A MOTHER(*@#&#&(!*@ JACK. I don't catch an ace. I want to puke. Well, Diana just grabs my stack and goes to shove it all over there..when I stop her. "Diana, please count my stack, I am not positive here but I think I may have about 2 or 3k left." To which she says "I don't think so, I think he has you covered." "Well, he just might...but I would feel a lot better if you would at least CONFIRM that." So she does, and low and behold, I have 3000 chips left. Hmmmm.....

The next hand I fold (lose 500 ante). Well, as fate would have it, the blinds mix it up and one of them goes out! Monkey makes $650 instead of $250! On the very next hand...and with a guy behind me who only has 6k (I could have maybe held on and made another $300, but I am there to try and win!) I pick up AK. Not folding this. Forget it. I'm all in and the guy behind me makes a convenience call of 3K holding 4d8d. Gee, want me OUT much? Here is your board..... 5-A-7-6-9.....he bets the river. I say "oh great...show me your stinking 8" expecting to see, you know...something kind of decent....but 4-8? Whatever. If I win that hand there I am back up to around 12K and maybe have a prayer. But that whacks me...and all I can think about is those ACES getting cracked, and how nice a deep run and a shot at $4500 would have been, especially as bad as this year has been going.

My March Madness brackets ALL have gone in the crapper. I mean...27 brackets and I can't even get a sniff of the money? Unreal! Then my Huskies make a big comeback against Purdue (Pur-who>?) and they are OUT of the tourney. I DO have my Sweet 16 pool starting up tomorrow, which I came one MEMPHIS flameout away from winning last year. Maybe I will get lucky there!

Saw 'ol Wild Bill at Saturday's tourney. Not sure how or when he went out...but he did, since I failed to meet up with him at the Final Table. Asked him how my feature on MONKEY'S BARN is progressing. Not sure he had checked it out yet. Think he did last night though...I expect to see it up very soon, hopefully at LEAST before the B.R. tourneys start this weekend. I sat down and did it on Thursday, took me about 3 hours. I am hopeful that you will all find it hilarious. I did. And isn't that REALLY the most important thing? Being able to make MYSELF laugh?

Played last night. Managed to very methodically chip up from 10k to 22k then we get to 200/400 and I pick up 10-10 which I have been running very badly with. I raise...but screw up...I drop one of the purple (500) chips on my way out to bet and instead of raising to 1300, make it only 800. A MIN RAISE! Both blinds call. The flop comes 7 high. They both check. I bet out 2500. There are two clubs. The SB smooth calls. Huh? Flush draw? Set? No...set would raise there...as there are 2 clubs and maybe a straight draw out there. I would THINK, anyway? Turn is 8 of hearts. He checks AGAIN! Now I am a little confused, but certain he is on a flush draw. After all, he is OLD. This guy has gotten AA 4 times already, and gotten paid off with them twice for a huge stack each time, both by absolute morons who should have never been in the hands in the first place. I am trying real hard not to become another one of his victims. I push all in. He calls. He turns over.....QUEENS! Whoa.....I did NOT see THAT coming. Well, losing to a better hand never upsets me too much. I tell everyone good game, good luck, shake the old man's hand...and boogie.

I come home, get online, and decide to play like that guy. I get AA 5 times throughout the night. Three times I get them behind an aggressive player who raises a lot, and simply FLAT the raise. All three times, I LOSE! Once to AQ when he rivers a flush. Once to 55...when he rivers a 5. And once to JJ...when he turns a JJ after betting huge on the Q-high flop and calling my all in. That was my favorite. Yeah...that plan went well. I went back to playing them the 'old way' and had much better success...making a final table and finishing 4th before calling it a night at 2am.

RANDOM THOUGHTS.....from SENOR MONKEY......

-When you are driving on the highway, and the speed limit is 70, why when a cop has someone pulled over (already) does everyone SLAM on their brakes and slow to about 45-50 mph, nearly causing a 108 car pileup? That is so stupid.

-Have you all seen that idiot (usually a redneck) who tries to secure a piece (or pieces) of plywood, or even a mattress to the top of his (usually a piece of shit) car and drive it home, usually on a road where he has to go in excess of 50 mph? He has essentially turned his pile of crap into a piece of crap AIRPLANE...and one of two things is going to happen, he is either going to TAKE OFF...or his 'wings' are about to become dislodged from the fuselage. MORON.

-Ambulances. How many times have you seen it coming in your rearview mirror...but then amazingly, it takes forever to catch up to you? Because it is only going about 72 mph. My question. IF the lights are flashing, wouldn't that indicate that someone is in DIRE need of medical attention? Where is the sense of urgency? I just saw that Travis Kvapil lost his job driving the #28 car in NASCAR. Maybe he should consider a career change. They could use him apparantly.

-You are in a restaurant. Suddenly you hear dishes crashing/breaking. You turn to look and you see a waiter/waitress standing there with 'that look' on his/her face. Everyone breaks out in applause. WHY? Here is a guy/gal who is probably about to get fired now, and you all start clapping for him/her. Real nice. That is just rude.

-If you live in a nice neighborhood...and everyone keeps their lawn nicely cut and manicured...how can you come home every day, pull your car into your driveway, get out of your car, walk to your mailbox...and then into your house...with 4 or 5 of your neighbors looking/scowling at you...every day with that RIDICULOUS YARD OF YOURS!??? Know what I do? I just go CUT their yard FOR THEM, and leave a bill on their front door! $45.50...services rendered.

-How long will it be before RED BOX puts BLOCKBUSTER out of business? Nothing like losing all your business to a freaking vending machine!

-I am about sick of this Obama/Special Olympics crap. Dude goes on a show, which I thought was pretty cool, and makes a remark that was clowning himself, and gets skewered. Well, if you notice...the polls seem to go something like this "BIG DEAL?" 55% say NO. 45% say YES. Hmmm...seems to me that if you look at how the voting went, that was about the same ratio wasnt it? So basically, for the next 4 years...we get to see the same poll results on every issue probably. Those who voted Republican....will vote one way, and those who voted Democrat will vote the other. People are idiots. And by the way, I HAVE a brother with Down's Syndrome, who competed in Special Olympics, and I was a volunteer for them...I am NOT offended by his comment.

-The highway project that has been going on in Pensacola since before I moved there (2003) is ALMOST done. 6 years? Incredible. When I lived in Atlanta...they would put down highways in three days. The weed in Pensacola must be amazing.

-The one piece of machinery that every man should own is a pressure washer. Those things are incredible. Oh...and if its a sunny day...you get a great tan while using them. Something about the constant mist in the air reflecting the rays onto your chalky-white skin!

I will be rooting now for Syracuse in the tourney? Why? Because I found a new handyman, after my previous one completely disappeared from the planet. This guy went to Syracuse in the 60's and played Lacrosse there with ERNIE DAVIS and JOHN MACKEY. He met Jim Brown as well. Served 30 years in the Navy. This guy is my new hero...and now he is my new handyman. What a life this guy has lived. I love it when I meet older people like this guy. Makes me ALMOST want to get old, too. Go Orangemen!

Okay..that concludes today's exciting blog. Hopefully the next one will be my BARN feature. Then it will be two weeks of (I hope) exciting reports from the Beau Rivage.

TAKE CARE

MONKEY