DAY ONE in Council Bluffs

Good News...Bad News.

Good News. We got to Omaha/Council Bluffs in a reasonable amount of time. Kai only got ONE speeding ticket...by a Missouri cop who looked like a lead actor straight out of an 80's porn flick. I half expected him to rip off his pants in tear-away fashion and start gyrating his hips...to demonstrate to us that we had been punked out on highway whatever highway that was. Didn't happen. He was just trapped in the 80's. 

We arrived. We joined 10 dealers at their hotel for some late night mixed game and Jack Daniels. Despite gaining an early advantage on these 'pros' I eventually got stacked by the same guy twice...and left with 145 reasons to give them shit all day the following day.

We got to the Horseshoe on time...well, for US on time...only 15 minutes late. Not so much the case today...as it's already 12:45. But I had to take care of my pool responsibilities today, as I push to get my NCAA TITLE GAME Squares sold...my Baby Pool filled up...and start talking up my Masters Pool that happens next week. Somethings have to take a back seat...and today that is poker. I'm not all that devastated about missing the 25/25 level anyway...where you inevitably have those idiots raising from 25/25 to 300. And getting 6 calls. Pfft. Whatever.

The turnout was nice. 355 players. And I am happy to announce that ALL FOUR of us Biloxi Boys....Me, Kai Landry, Tim Burt and David 'Lurky' Nicholson all cashed. I busted 32nd...another min cash....went card dead at the WRONG TIME...blinding down from 81k to 55k and forced to get it in with 66...where I ran into a guy with KK. Tim Burt would run KK into that same guy who just happened to have AA...and he busted right at the end of the night...picking up a couple more pay spots than I did. Kai and Lurky are still in the tourney...as they played down to 25 players. First is $23k. Second I think is $15k. I know Kai needs a win as bad as I do...so I will root hard for him.

Today is Day 1a of a two-day $350 tourney. Should be a nice turnout again. As far as the quality of players? Not bad. My first table was actually quite good. But then I got moved to a less impressive table. A lot of faces I've seen a bit of. It was a pretty tame day as far as "I can't believe I just fucking saw that" moments are concerned. My last table of the night was pretty gross...as we had me, Nicholson, and Mark aka 'Pegasus' at our table...and easily more chips on our table than any other. I made a couple big folds preflop that I might wish I had gone with now....JJ behind a raise and a spastic all in...that I kind of thought had AK probably. Then I raised at cutoff, to 7k with 99...only to have Nicholson shove 44k with AQ. (I saw after I folded). I had 80k at the time....just seemed like a bad call. But I don't know...maybe should have pulled the trigger.

Played a little cash game after busting at 1am...waiting on Kai to finish at 2 and bag his chips. Bought in for their maximum of $300 and cashed out with $525 in one hour. In other words, my profit in one hour was the same as my profit playing 12 hours of that tournament. Kind of depressing. Discovered that the cash game players here are....ugh....awful. Might be some money to be made here in cash game. But I hope to be spending long, long hours in every tourney. I guess I picked up either 2.5 or 5 pts for my cash yesterday...getting me closer to the Freeroll points I need...which we all figure to be about 90 points probably. I really want a spot in that tourney for the 2nd year in a row. 

I'm into my 2nd week of the Zija nutritional products...which feature weight-loss programs and energy products. I take a capsule in the early day...and then one in the afternoon. In between I drink a Moringa-fueled 'SmartMix'...that works to increase my energy levels....as well as curb my appetite. I was excited to see how I would feel yesterday during the tourney...and admittedly, I felt a lot more alert and sharp than usual. But I want a more extensive sample size on time before I can conclusively decide that these products really are doing the job for me. But so far, so good. I haven't had any drastic weight loss in the last two weeks. I've been pretty much hovering around 250-252...which is still down from the 265 I weighed in January...but I'm ready to take off another 10 lbs....to get to 240 would be ideal. 230-235 being perfect. But that might be tough. 

I have had no fewer than 5 people that haven't seen me in awhile tell me that I look like I've lost a lot of weight...almost all telling me they can see it in my face, and that I look younger. That made me feel awesome!!! And definitely inspires me to keep on keeping after it. It's a good feeling not wheezing when bending over to tie my shoes!!!!

Okay, I really need to wrap this up and head over...I will arrive in Level 3 I guess...with the blinds at 50/75...which, with 10k in chips...is just fine.

MONKEY