I think I have slowly, over the past couple of months eroded away into the landscape of bloggers...once a reliable source of...well, SOMETHING...I have been ensconced in fatherhood, and the operation of my poker club on Pokerstars...to the point that I just don't ever seem to have a reason, nor the time, to sit down and rip off a blog post.
A lot of people keep asking if I am playing the WSOP this summer. The answer? No. I'm not. Why? Because of that incredible, ridiculous, upper-management directed sham of an 86 placed on me in Hammond back in the fall, all over a sentence spoken to a Russian, excuse me, Belorussian, girl/dealer...who happened to mention it to a dealer seeking superstardom in the hierarchy of Harrah's/Caesar's...who then placed it into the hands of the guy who has been pining for me to 'slip up' since having to be forced to allow me back in to the WSOP two years ago....when I should have NEVER been 86'd in the first place.
Yeah...I know...its all so hard to keep up with. Frankly, at some point you just have to stop giving a shit about things you have no control over. And when someone is so determined to see you kept out of something..so much so that they will pretty much stoop to any tactic to bring it about...well, you grow exhausted, and while I am a fighter, always have been...I just kind of lost the passion, the determination, and really...the interest, to keep fighting to right the wrong. There are some poker players, mainly haters, jealous assholes, who delight in my exclusion from the WSOP. But you know what? Losers? There are a LOT more important things in life than being able to play in a fucking poker tournament. It's taken me awhile to come to the conclusion that they needed ME a lot more than I needed them. And that might sound cocky...but if you really think about it...it's not.
So yeah...long story short....no WSOP for me this summer. And I didn't play last summer either...aside from one week...where I managed to finish 175th in the Main Event...before my KK fell to the 10-10 of eventual final table bubbler Elizabeth Hille....her making $509k..me, $44k. Quite a difference it makes when you get two-outed in the biggest tournament on the planet. Such is life.
A lot has happened since last year. Most of it good. Something very interesting happened this week. I opened my mailbox...and there was a check from the Harrison County (MS) Clerk. Hmm. I opened it up and immediately saw the part attached to the check...telling me what it was for...before seeing an amount. 'Harrison County vs. Jody Wheeler/Melissa Rivers' The two assholes who robbed our house ...wow...two? Was it three now? Years ago? I can't even remember. About a year ago, I got something from the County asking me to fill out...something for Victims Recovery something or other...and telling me that the two jerks were about to go to trial. That was the last I heard anything about the case. They broke in, stole a safe containing $35,000 in cash...and pillaged through all our drawers and found a VERY expensive engagement ring that Claudia Crawford had asked Cheryl to hold/hide for her after her first of several breakups with Gabe Costner. That ring was worth almost as much as the cash they took. There were some rumblings that the cops were going to negotiate a plea of some kind with them if they returned the ring. That Jody's skinny little skank girlfriend...who I knew from hanging around the poker scene as a model with Rounders Magazine...had been seen wearing the ring. I would have loved to see Claudia run into this girl and see her wearing it...there is a good chance she would have bit that bitches finger clean off!!!
Well, I pretty much resigned to ever seeing a penny from this nightmare. So when I stood out there in the street looking at this check....I was both cynical, and excited at the same time. What were the chances that I would turn this thing over and see a 5-figure payment? I know...slim. And I was right. I turned it over...and it said $410.21. Oh. Gee. Isn't that wonderful. Granted...it's $410.21 more than I thought I would ever see from these two slimeballs. Well, I called the Clerk's office the next day to find out...was this a one-time payment? A payment of .65% of our total loss? Was it a partial payment? Did these two get out of jail? Why didn't I get a letter explaining something...anything about this payment, or what happened to these two? Well...good news. Maybe. I was told that this payment...is a MONTHLY payment....for as long as they are on probation...which right now is scheduled for 5-years. Well...there is a lot that can go wrong with that scenario..one of them being that they get OFF of probation sooner. Should they stop paying...well that would be a probation violation, which could land them back in jail...so that one isn't too likely. Unless they had a special fondness for jail.
I will just root for them to stay on probation, and for me to get $4800 a year for the next five years.
Next piece of good news was my house in Pensacola FINALLY getting the sewer situation resolved...and for a reasonable cost. For $2500 a plumber came in, filled in (called 'abandoning') my old septic tank...then ran the necessary lines and tapped me into the cities newly completely sewer/water lines. Which means after sitting vacant for a YEAR without a tenant...costing me some $10,000 in rental income....I am finally able to get a tenant in there...which will happen after I get the yard looking good, and get it cleaned up and everything functioning properly. Can't wait! Hopefully get a tenant in there by June 1st.
Carley Grace turned 1-year old a couple weeks ago. It was marked by a big party at...ugh...Chuck E. Cheese up in Florence, Alabama. We were supposed to go to this park where we had rented a big pavilion, but there was a 100% chance of rain that day...and yes, it DID rain in fact...so we had to move it. And boy did it leave a big, stinging red welt in my wallet...as over 25 kids ($12 per kid) showed up. Add in their fees, the automatic pizza charge...everything else, and a $65 cake...and it was a $500 birthday party. But the most important part was that she had fun. She is just now starting to walk. It is the cutest damn thing ever. Watching her go from walking just two or three steps....then to five....and a couple days later...EIGHT...and she gets this big huge smile on her face, knowing she is accomplishing something amazing; it just makes me and Squirrel smile so much. On top of it all, she is really starting to develop quite the little personality. I wish I'd known 20 years ago how much raising a child was/is...I really do. I'm sure would have 3 or 4 of them by now. It is, hands down..the greatest thing I've ever been a part of in my whole life. For those of you who have kids you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! For those who don't? Well, I suspect you are like I was before I had kids...and your thinking something like...."dude...please, this is boring, shut up about the baby thing." I understand...I do...that was me for 40 years!!!
So yeah...it's Mother's Day today. Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there...especially mine!
The Pokerstars Poker Club is going awesome. Though...I will say...it is also the daily source of monster frustration. We have a tourney next weekend, a freeroll, for the Top 15 players who bubbled the most last month. I was third...with 22 bubbles. I had 5 today. There really is nothing more annoying. And man, I have got some players in my club who are just...well, they, and some of the plays they make simply defy poker logic. Part of me feels like I should just NEVER play...and just make my money running the club. But I feel like, as the host...I should be in there playing. But my gawd...it reminds me of the days when Pokerstars was going strong here...play many many hours...get deep, and take some ridiculous beat to lose. It's so incredibly hard sometimes not to lash out in a rage...I mean, you all know how it is, if you play poker...the guy calling you with whatever...overs? Bottom pair. Gutshot. There is no one specific play you can settle on. It's just a collection of all of them. Over and over and over. But all these people playing? They are paying our bills right now. So I have to bite my tongue. To the point that I have holes in my tongue.
Part of me feels like they all make these crazy, insane plays against me because they are just dying to knock me out. Why? Maybe its my imagination. But its either that or they can (a) see my cards and (b) know what is coming on the turn and river...and maybe even the flop. Guy calls a raise, and a RERAISE...with 48 spades....and beats my flopped set with a river flush in my highest buy in tourney today. Just left me shaking my head.
The schedule has gotten a lot better...the 5 and 10 buy in games are quickly fading off...replaced by more 30 and 50 games. Which draw a lot more players. I have currently got 5 openings in the club...and I have 10-15 players who are logging only 1-10 games a month. As soon as I find players who want to play the bigger buyins...and on a more regular basis...they are getting in. With only being able to have 100 members, I am striving to get as MANY of those 100 players playing a decent amount of games every month. I mean...summer is coming, and I know things will slow down quite a bit, with a lot of players playing events in Vegas, myself included. Which is why its really important/vital...that I get the back end of my club turned over and filled with active players.
If you are interested in getting into my poker club...shoot me an email. I currently have 5 confirmed openings. ThePokerMonkey1@aol.com
I finally caved in and agreed to run some Mega Satellites for members of my club to win a seat to the WSOP Main Event. I really wanted no part of it...with the way they have treated me over this BS in Hammond. But then I thought about it...and I guess I can't let my issues with 'them' extend to my players. And hey...maybe one of my members will win the damn thing...and take on my cause as a way of showing their appreciation! Hey! I can dream!
Cheryl had a rough month. About five weeks ago...she comes into our room crying. Saying her daddy was told by doctors in Huntsville that he had less than a year to live. That he has what appeared to be a huge cancerous tumor in his stomach. She raced home to be with him. Then he was admitted into a special ward in Birmingham that specializes in the type of thing he was suffering from. Everything was pointing to cancer. Her brother came down from Huntsville...and she drove up from Biloxi. I took care of Carley on my own for 4 days then another 4 days. He had a major operation...where they removed parts of his pancreas, and two or three other internal organs...and rerouted his entire intestinal tract. Then...after 5 days of recovery, his biopsy report came back....NO CANCER! Wow...what a relief. Needless to say...it was a remarkable bit of news for the whole family. Well...she went up to get him and brought him back here...where he is staying with us for I don't know how long as he recovers.
It's the NHL Playoffs and my Rangers won a very exciting Game 6 today...to extend the series to 7 games...which they have to play tomorrow night in DC against the pesky Caps. No road team has won yet in the series. But I have a really good feeling about my Rangers winning tomorrow night.
Okay I'm tired and going to bed. See ya.
Oh...right. Almost forgot. I am going to go to Vegas and play 17 days worth of Venetian events. If you are interested in buying up some shares...again, send me an email....to ThePokerMonkey1@aol.com. Not sure how many I will have available to sell...as I already have quite a few guys wanting pieces of anything I have to sell.
Bon Soire!
MONKEY
A lot of people keep asking if I am playing the WSOP this summer. The answer? No. I'm not. Why? Because of that incredible, ridiculous, upper-management directed sham of an 86 placed on me in Hammond back in the fall, all over a sentence spoken to a Russian, excuse me, Belorussian, girl/dealer...who happened to mention it to a dealer seeking superstardom in the hierarchy of Harrah's/Caesar's...who then placed it into the hands of the guy who has been pining for me to 'slip up' since having to be forced to allow me back in to the WSOP two years ago....when I should have NEVER been 86'd in the first place.
Yeah...I know...its all so hard to keep up with. Frankly, at some point you just have to stop giving a shit about things you have no control over. And when someone is so determined to see you kept out of something..so much so that they will pretty much stoop to any tactic to bring it about...well, you grow exhausted, and while I am a fighter, always have been...I just kind of lost the passion, the determination, and really...the interest, to keep fighting to right the wrong. There are some poker players, mainly haters, jealous assholes, who delight in my exclusion from the WSOP. But you know what? Losers? There are a LOT more important things in life than being able to play in a fucking poker tournament. It's taken me awhile to come to the conclusion that they needed ME a lot more than I needed them. And that might sound cocky...but if you really think about it...it's not.
So yeah...long story short....no WSOP for me this summer. And I didn't play last summer either...aside from one week...where I managed to finish 175th in the Main Event...before my KK fell to the 10-10 of eventual final table bubbler Elizabeth Hille....her making $509k..me, $44k. Quite a difference it makes when you get two-outed in the biggest tournament on the planet. Such is life.
A lot has happened since last year. Most of it good. Something very interesting happened this week. I opened my mailbox...and there was a check from the Harrison County (MS) Clerk. Hmm. I opened it up and immediately saw the part attached to the check...telling me what it was for...before seeing an amount. 'Harrison County vs. Jody Wheeler/Melissa Rivers' The two assholes who robbed our house ...wow...two? Was it three now? Years ago? I can't even remember. About a year ago, I got something from the County asking me to fill out...something for Victims Recovery something or other...and telling me that the two jerks were about to go to trial. That was the last I heard anything about the case. They broke in, stole a safe containing $35,000 in cash...and pillaged through all our drawers and found a VERY expensive engagement ring that Claudia Crawford had asked Cheryl to hold/hide for her after her first of several breakups with Gabe Costner. That ring was worth almost as much as the cash they took. There were some rumblings that the cops were going to negotiate a plea of some kind with them if they returned the ring. That Jody's skinny little skank girlfriend...who I knew from hanging around the poker scene as a model with Rounders Magazine...had been seen wearing the ring. I would have loved to see Claudia run into this girl and see her wearing it...there is a good chance she would have bit that bitches finger clean off!!!
Well, I pretty much resigned to ever seeing a penny from this nightmare. So when I stood out there in the street looking at this check....I was both cynical, and excited at the same time. What were the chances that I would turn this thing over and see a 5-figure payment? I know...slim. And I was right. I turned it over...and it said $410.21. Oh. Gee. Isn't that wonderful. Granted...it's $410.21 more than I thought I would ever see from these two slimeballs. Well, I called the Clerk's office the next day to find out...was this a one-time payment? A payment of .65% of our total loss? Was it a partial payment? Did these two get out of jail? Why didn't I get a letter explaining something...anything about this payment, or what happened to these two? Well...good news. Maybe. I was told that this payment...is a MONTHLY payment....for as long as they are on probation...which right now is scheduled for 5-years. Well...there is a lot that can go wrong with that scenario..one of them being that they get OFF of probation sooner. Should they stop paying...well that would be a probation violation, which could land them back in jail...so that one isn't too likely. Unless they had a special fondness for jail.
I will just root for them to stay on probation, and for me to get $4800 a year for the next five years.
Next piece of good news was my house in Pensacola FINALLY getting the sewer situation resolved...and for a reasonable cost. For $2500 a plumber came in, filled in (called 'abandoning') my old septic tank...then ran the necessary lines and tapped me into the cities newly completely sewer/water lines. Which means after sitting vacant for a YEAR without a tenant...costing me some $10,000 in rental income....I am finally able to get a tenant in there...which will happen after I get the yard looking good, and get it cleaned up and everything functioning properly. Can't wait! Hopefully get a tenant in there by June 1st.
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| My two favorite girls on Carley's birthday. |
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| Me and my angel...dontcha love her little birthday outfit!?? |
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| Carley was covered from head to toe in frosting...as we let her devour her own portion of cake. |
Carley Grace turned 1-year old a couple weeks ago. It was marked by a big party at...ugh...Chuck E. Cheese up in Florence, Alabama. We were supposed to go to this park where we had rented a big pavilion, but there was a 100% chance of rain that day...and yes, it DID rain in fact...so we had to move it. And boy did it leave a big, stinging red welt in my wallet...as over 25 kids ($12 per kid) showed up. Add in their fees, the automatic pizza charge...everything else, and a $65 cake...and it was a $500 birthday party. But the most important part was that she had fun. She is just now starting to walk. It is the cutest damn thing ever. Watching her go from walking just two or three steps....then to five....and a couple days later...EIGHT...and she gets this big huge smile on her face, knowing she is accomplishing something amazing; it just makes me and Squirrel smile so much. On top of it all, she is really starting to develop quite the little personality. I wish I'd known 20 years ago how much raising a child was/is...I really do. I'm sure would have 3 or 4 of them by now. It is, hands down..the greatest thing I've ever been a part of in my whole life. For those of you who have kids you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! For those who don't? Well, I suspect you are like I was before I had kids...and your thinking something like...."dude...please, this is boring, shut up about the baby thing." I understand...I do...that was me for 40 years!!!
So yeah...it's Mother's Day today. Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there...especially mine!
The Pokerstars Poker Club is going awesome. Though...I will say...it is also the daily source of monster frustration. We have a tourney next weekend, a freeroll, for the Top 15 players who bubbled the most last month. I was third...with 22 bubbles. I had 5 today. There really is nothing more annoying. And man, I have got some players in my club who are just...well, they, and some of the plays they make simply defy poker logic. Part of me feels like I should just NEVER play...and just make my money running the club. But I feel like, as the host...I should be in there playing. But my gawd...it reminds me of the days when Pokerstars was going strong here...play many many hours...get deep, and take some ridiculous beat to lose. It's so incredibly hard sometimes not to lash out in a rage...I mean, you all know how it is, if you play poker...the guy calling you with whatever...overs? Bottom pair. Gutshot. There is no one specific play you can settle on. It's just a collection of all of them. Over and over and over. But all these people playing? They are paying our bills right now. So I have to bite my tongue. To the point that I have holes in my tongue.
Part of me feels like they all make these crazy, insane plays against me because they are just dying to knock me out. Why? Maybe its my imagination. But its either that or they can (a) see my cards and (b) know what is coming on the turn and river...and maybe even the flop. Guy calls a raise, and a RERAISE...with 48 spades....and beats my flopped set with a river flush in my highest buy in tourney today. Just left me shaking my head.
The schedule has gotten a lot better...the 5 and 10 buy in games are quickly fading off...replaced by more 30 and 50 games. Which draw a lot more players. I have currently got 5 openings in the club...and I have 10-15 players who are logging only 1-10 games a month. As soon as I find players who want to play the bigger buyins...and on a more regular basis...they are getting in. With only being able to have 100 members, I am striving to get as MANY of those 100 players playing a decent amount of games every month. I mean...summer is coming, and I know things will slow down quite a bit, with a lot of players playing events in Vegas, myself included. Which is why its really important/vital...that I get the back end of my club turned over and filled with active players.
If you are interested in getting into my poker club...shoot me an email. I currently have 5 confirmed openings. ThePokerMonkey1@aol.com
I finally caved in and agreed to run some Mega Satellites for members of my club to win a seat to the WSOP Main Event. I really wanted no part of it...with the way they have treated me over this BS in Hammond. But then I thought about it...and I guess I can't let my issues with 'them' extend to my players. And hey...maybe one of my members will win the damn thing...and take on my cause as a way of showing their appreciation! Hey! I can dream!
Cheryl had a rough month. About five weeks ago...she comes into our room crying. Saying her daddy was told by doctors in Huntsville that he had less than a year to live. That he has what appeared to be a huge cancerous tumor in his stomach. She raced home to be with him. Then he was admitted into a special ward in Birmingham that specializes in the type of thing he was suffering from. Everything was pointing to cancer. Her brother came down from Huntsville...and she drove up from Biloxi. I took care of Carley on my own for 4 days then another 4 days. He had a major operation...where they removed parts of his pancreas, and two or three other internal organs...and rerouted his entire intestinal tract. Then...after 5 days of recovery, his biopsy report came back....NO CANCER! Wow...what a relief. Needless to say...it was a remarkable bit of news for the whole family. Well...she went up to get him and brought him back here...where he is staying with us for I don't know how long as he recovers.
It's the NHL Playoffs and my Rangers won a very exciting Game 6 today...to extend the series to 7 games...which they have to play tomorrow night in DC against the pesky Caps. No road team has won yet in the series. But I have a really good feeling about my Rangers winning tomorrow night.
Okay I'm tired and going to bed. See ya.
Oh...right. Almost forgot. I am going to go to Vegas and play 17 days worth of Venetian events. If you are interested in buying up some shares...again, send me an email....to ThePokerMonkey1@aol.com. Not sure how many I will have available to sell...as I already have quite a few guys wanting pieces of anything I have to sell.
Bon Soire!
MONKEY
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