It's been a pretty weird month. I've played some poker. Had two back-to-back nights of run-bad on Bovada. One night I literally went 0-15 in tourneys. Losing with every imaginable big hand in every way you can possibly come up with. It was comical. So having had enough of that BS I decided to go to Nugget and play some live poker.
The first night...it took 4 hours to finally get a 1/3 NL table going. In the mean time I lost $300 playing 4/8 limit when no matter what I had in my hand, it was losing. Flopping sets, flopping straights, flopping flushes....nearly never held. It was always 9 to the flop...7 or 8 to the turn and 6 or 7 to the river. It was a joke. How anyone sits and plays limit poker for any significant amount of time and doesn't come away wanting to either kill someone or themselves is beyond me.
I think the worst part of playing limit poker is the annoying conversations that take place at the table. You are listening to people attempt to have meaningful chats regarding poker, something none of them know anything about. It's painful. Two guys in a hand vs. each other...not saying anything throughout the hand...but then once the hand is over...we get the pleasure of hearing them share their mindset on the hand from beginning to end, what one guy put the other guy on. And it just devolves from there...until finally....you envision yourself removing a bullet...writing both of their names on it...then selecting an angle where if you shoot them you stand a good chance of killing them both with the same bullet!
Yeah...limit poker sucks!
So finally, a NL limit table opened. I was excited just to be able to make a $30 bet on the flop or turn and maybe get lucky and win a hand when I have it. Well...that didn't go as planned either. I was getting called down with junk, usually when I was bricking 17-outers while bluffing the flop and turn. It was a lousy session...I lost a good amount for the night.
But I returned the next day, a Saturday, mainly because they were giving away $100 or $200 every half hour...pulling names out of a drum. I filled out about 70 tickets the night before so my sore hand forced me to go back. I went back...and I ended up winning $625 for the session, which ended at 4am. My name was never drawn in the hours between 10am and 12:30am. Guest appearances were made by Gabe Costner and Kai Landry.
As for circuit events? I've decided to travel today to Palm Beach Kennel Club for the first WSOP-circuit event of 2014-15. It was nice of WSOP to add a second event to the PBKC...as they draw very well there. I was a little surprised, however to not see it mentioned on the Cardplayer schedule and the WSOP site itself doesn't even have the schedule for the new season up. Weird. Also not on the schedule is the 3rd event of the WSOP season (after Foxwoods) at the IP in Biloxi. And since I've just learned that my two-year ban at IP is about to be over I would hope to see that show up there soon so they can hopefully get a better turnout than they traditionally seem to get there.
Leaving to go play poker is getting harder and harder the older Carley gets. This past two weeks we first broke her of the habit of wanting a bottle. That was a lot easier than we thought it would be. What we feared would be impossible, shedding the pacifier? Proved to be even easier...but it was kind of by accident. Carley got a little cold sore on her mouth, which was something called Stomatitis, something common in toddlers. It resulted in a terrible fever that persisted for 4-5 days, and more sores on her mouth. She was absolutely miserable. Well, during that bout with sickness, she couldn't put a paci in her mouth...and now that she is completely recovered, she has forgotten all about it. Wow! No bottle, no paci! And in the last week...she has turned into a little chatterbox. She is getting so funny, and smart. It's amazing watching her transform from baby...to little girl.
When we went to Squirrel's family's house two weekends ago...Carley saw me packing and started freaking out...because she thought I was leaving her again. It killed me....even though she was coming with us. She was bawling...and we had to explain to her that she was coming with...that I wasn't leaving her. So when it came to this trip to Palm Beach..which I think will be my last trip, poker-wise, for 2014...I decided to wait to pack until I dropped her off at daycare. Yeah, it will suck when she comes home chanting 'Daddy? Daddy?' and I'm not here. But she is getting a lot more responsive to Facetime...so that is at least some relief.
There were two events I wanted to play...the Palm Beach event, and the big Hard Rock event a little further south. And both of those events consume all of August. Last year, in that $10m Guarantee $5k buy in...I min-cashed. It's a field of great players and the structure is awesome. So it was hard to decide what to play. I couldn't play both...I just can't do that to Carley...or Squirrel. It's too much work for her...and not to mention, I miss them both a ton when I'm gone. That month in Vegas this summer was really tough...I couldn't do that again.
So the plan is to play the shorter tourney...and the one with smaller buy ins...and if I should happen to run pretty well, maybe just fly down to Ft. Lauderdale at the end of the month and play the $5k Main Event only.
I decided to play on my own dime for this event...but am throwing all of my backers from this summer, both MY package and the package for the Grinders, aka 'Minions.' I've told them that if I cash for over $20k in cashes at PBKC, I will throw them all 10% of my winnings...paid out over equal shares to anyone who was involved in one or both. I'll be honest, I decided not to sell a package because I don't think I'm worthy! I haven't done much lately that I feel warrants getting backed! So I will hope to go down there, play well, and have some hands hold up at crunch time and come back with something to show for it. And if not? Well, at least I will be the only one who suffers!
The other reason I'm not selling a package, is that I have some personal stuff going on with my family back home in Seattle...and at a moments notice, there is a chance that I might have to hop on a plane and fly home to deal with it. It wouldn't be right to sell to investors knowing that I have that floating around out there. Kind of irresponsible.
In the news this past month has been totally dominated by the fighting in Ukraine, and then the shoot down of a Malaysian airliner. It's absolutely sickening the way its been handled...and I hope the world comes down hard on Vladamir Putin and his band of idiots in Russia. Watching that whole mess, it really makes me appreciate our own NTSB and FBI for the way they handle plane crashes. First and foremost is their total respect for the dead. Secondly, the way they totally seal off a crash scene...then catalog each and every piece of debris they find..in an attempt to find out EXACTLY what happened. This crash scene in Ukraine is a total shitshow...and I feel terrible for anyone who lost a loved one in that tragedy.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East...I think they are now up to 22 days of bombing the shit out of each other. Facebook has been one big adventure. I have friends that are both Jewish and Arab...and there have been some incredibly spirited debates supporting both sides while decrying the other. The whole thing is sad. Saddest in all of it, is all of the innocent children that have been killed and wounded in Gaza. As a father..it really breaks my heart seeing these kids. I don't have any hardcore feelings either way as to who is right and/or wrong. My only thing is that I can't understand some of the views of Hamas, such as their message to fellow Arabs/Palestinians being that Israel and all Jews needs to be wiped out. I mean...you can claim hardships all you want...and maybe they are warranted, but when you are living by a mantra that your neighbor needs to die? It's hard to feel sorry for you.
About a week ago...I made a post on my Facebook that pissed some people off. Totally not the goal. I suppose instead of using the words Jews and Arabs...I was supposed to use the words Israelis and Palestinians. And by saying 'this is the place to be' some who hadn't been embroiled in my days-long thread on Facebook or known about it...took that to mean the Middle East was the place to be. I was guilty of having tunnel-vision. My own friends who are from Israel and Gaza and contributing to the debate had no problem with it because they knew what I meant, but because my Facebook wall posts are open to everyone, including people who aren't friends....and all of my FB posts ALSO post to Twitter? Well...it got a lot more visibility than I'd contemplated.
So I get a message from a friend of mine who was aware of the beef I had with a certain woman of Israeli descent two years ago after all that shit happened at Hammond. When that whole thing was going on...she decided to bash me on her wall, saying I'd been at her table during the WSOP Main Event (the year I cashed 175th) and that I'd done and said all these sexist comments...none of which was true. In fact, what actually happened, was that I mistakenly thought SHE was a HE. And during a hand we were in, I respectfully called her 'sir.' She didn't correct me. She didn't even make a facial expression that would suggest I had made a mistake. Instead...on the 15-minute break...the dealer told me. I felt so stupid, and embarrassed. But holy crap...I couldn't be the first person to have made that mistake!!!
I will let you judge for yourself. Does that not look like it MIGHT be a man? Well...that day at my table...she looked like a freaking man! And after the break I did everything I could do to try to make up for it, being overly nice. Guess it didn't work, because the first chance she had to trash me, she took it. She even went so far as to say the WSOP had TAPES of me acting in the ways she accused me of. Hilarious...this was on day 1...where there was a whole ROOM full of tables...and somehow she thinks there was a hidden camera filming me? Anyway...her name is Breeze Zuckerman...and once she saw my comment on Twitter she went nuts! She posts my comment then calls me a racist idiot pig.
First of all...I'm not sure what in my comment would have led to anyone considering me a racist. Last time I checked, Israeli's and I are the same 'race.' If anything, she could have screamed that I was Anti-Semitic, except that would be pretty stupid too, since I'd been supporting the Israeli's all throughout the threads on my wall. Nope...the easy to figure conclusion was that my buddy Breeze saw my post and just went with her knee-jerk reaction...instead of doing about 3 minutes worth of research. She then tried to rally all her 'friends' to inform them all of what an asshole I am. Well, I reached out to several of them...sending them messages explaining in detail my 'history' with Breeze..and the reasons for her bitterness. I also explained my position on the skirmish in Israel. Three of them responded very positively.
Ya know...what the fuck is it with miserable human beings? Okay, in fairness, and I say this because I've seen a lot of heated discussions as a result of this conflict, this particular issue has really caused people to react with a lot of ire. I get it. It's a very heated subject. And people have some serious personal feelings about it. I lived in NYC for five years and several of my very good friends are Jewish...and I've asked a lot of questions over the years, as a kid raised in Seattle and Montana, we had very little religious and racial strife where I grew up. The answers that I've gotten from my Jewish friends have educated me to the situation, but also led me to want to know more, and wanting to understand the views of the Palestinians. To be frank...the whole thing is a mess.
But these people who just decide that when they see something they don't like, or agree with...that they just declare war on the person? It's incredible. And to be honest...the way a lot of these people act? Is a microcosm of just how irrationally the two sides are acting over there! I might agree more with Israel's plight in all this...but it doesn't mean I think they aren't making mistakes along the way. And I obviously find a lot of fault with Hamas' handling of the whole conflict as well. But the reactionary attitudes of some people when simply discussing this situation? They prove just how closed-minded they are to the other side's feelings. And until that ends...there will never be peace between those two sides. Ever.
As for Breeze Zuckerman? And her constant attacks on me? Pffft....whatever. I really don't care about that broad...she's got her own problems that I can't ever begin to hope to deal with.
Incidentally I will be meeting up with the dealer who started all of my nightmare with getting banned in Hammond and subsequently all Caesar's owned properties while I am down in Florida. We talked last August about the whole mess...and she assured me she wanted to help me get back in, that what happened between us was just a misunderstanding. But I didn't do a very good job of following up with her on it. Well I've gotten more proactive about it because I really do NOT want to be sitting out another year of WSOP events next summer. My current goal is to get Cheryl to take a month off of work...and have her and Carley come out to Vegas with me, and rent a house with another couple with a kid about Carley's age. Make it a much better time for all of us. Well...so with that in mind, I'd really like this ban to be worked out and eliminated. So her and I are going to get a letter written and get it sent off to the appropriate people while I'm down there.
Well? I think that's about it. Oh! Football season is almost (finally!) here and once again, my four major pools are about to get kicked off. I sent out the first invite of the year yesterday. I always get so excited for football season to start! I also opened up my 4 fantasy leagues last week...and am close to getting those 16-team leagues sold out. If you are a reader that is NOT on my distro list...and would like to get involved in my pools and/or fantasy leagues...shoot me an email at ThePoolMonkey@aol.com and I will get you involved!!!!
Time to go pack...and get on the road to Palm Beach!!!! Hopefully I have some good news to report in the next 12 days in what will likely be my last poker road trip of 2014!
MONKEY
The first night...it took 4 hours to finally get a 1/3 NL table going. In the mean time I lost $300 playing 4/8 limit when no matter what I had in my hand, it was losing. Flopping sets, flopping straights, flopping flushes....nearly never held. It was always 9 to the flop...7 or 8 to the turn and 6 or 7 to the river. It was a joke. How anyone sits and plays limit poker for any significant amount of time and doesn't come away wanting to either kill someone or themselves is beyond me.
I think the worst part of playing limit poker is the annoying conversations that take place at the table. You are listening to people attempt to have meaningful chats regarding poker, something none of them know anything about. It's painful. Two guys in a hand vs. each other...not saying anything throughout the hand...but then once the hand is over...we get the pleasure of hearing them share their mindset on the hand from beginning to end, what one guy put the other guy on. And it just devolves from there...until finally....you envision yourself removing a bullet...writing both of their names on it...then selecting an angle where if you shoot them you stand a good chance of killing them both with the same bullet!
Yeah...limit poker sucks!
So finally, a NL limit table opened. I was excited just to be able to make a $30 bet on the flop or turn and maybe get lucky and win a hand when I have it. Well...that didn't go as planned either. I was getting called down with junk, usually when I was bricking 17-outers while bluffing the flop and turn. It was a lousy session...I lost a good amount for the night.
But I returned the next day, a Saturday, mainly because they were giving away $100 or $200 every half hour...pulling names out of a drum. I filled out about 70 tickets the night before so my sore hand forced me to go back. I went back...and I ended up winning $625 for the session, which ended at 4am. My name was never drawn in the hours between 10am and 12:30am. Guest appearances were made by Gabe Costner and Kai Landry.
As for circuit events? I've decided to travel today to Palm Beach Kennel Club for the first WSOP-circuit event of 2014-15. It was nice of WSOP to add a second event to the PBKC...as they draw very well there. I was a little surprised, however to not see it mentioned on the Cardplayer schedule and the WSOP site itself doesn't even have the schedule for the new season up. Weird. Also not on the schedule is the 3rd event of the WSOP season (after Foxwoods) at the IP in Biloxi. And since I've just learned that my two-year ban at IP is about to be over I would hope to see that show up there soon so they can hopefully get a better turnout than they traditionally seem to get there.
Leaving to go play poker is getting harder and harder the older Carley gets. This past two weeks we first broke her of the habit of wanting a bottle. That was a lot easier than we thought it would be. What we feared would be impossible, shedding the pacifier? Proved to be even easier...but it was kind of by accident. Carley got a little cold sore on her mouth, which was something called Stomatitis, something common in toddlers. It resulted in a terrible fever that persisted for 4-5 days, and more sores on her mouth. She was absolutely miserable. Well, during that bout with sickness, she couldn't put a paci in her mouth...and now that she is completely recovered, she has forgotten all about it. Wow! No bottle, no paci! And in the last week...she has turned into a little chatterbox. She is getting so funny, and smart. It's amazing watching her transform from baby...to little girl.
When we went to Squirrel's family's house two weekends ago...Carley saw me packing and started freaking out...because she thought I was leaving her again. It killed me....even though she was coming with us. She was bawling...and we had to explain to her that she was coming with...that I wasn't leaving her. So when it came to this trip to Palm Beach..which I think will be my last trip, poker-wise, for 2014...I decided to wait to pack until I dropped her off at daycare. Yeah, it will suck when she comes home chanting 'Daddy? Daddy?' and I'm not here. But she is getting a lot more responsive to Facetime...so that is at least some relief.
There were two events I wanted to play...the Palm Beach event, and the big Hard Rock event a little further south. And both of those events consume all of August. Last year, in that $10m Guarantee $5k buy in...I min-cashed. It's a field of great players and the structure is awesome. So it was hard to decide what to play. I couldn't play both...I just can't do that to Carley...or Squirrel. It's too much work for her...and not to mention, I miss them both a ton when I'm gone. That month in Vegas this summer was really tough...I couldn't do that again.
So the plan is to play the shorter tourney...and the one with smaller buy ins...and if I should happen to run pretty well, maybe just fly down to Ft. Lauderdale at the end of the month and play the $5k Main Event only.
I decided to play on my own dime for this event...but am throwing all of my backers from this summer, both MY package and the package for the Grinders, aka 'Minions.' I've told them that if I cash for over $20k in cashes at PBKC, I will throw them all 10% of my winnings...paid out over equal shares to anyone who was involved in one or both. I'll be honest, I decided not to sell a package because I don't think I'm worthy! I haven't done much lately that I feel warrants getting backed! So I will hope to go down there, play well, and have some hands hold up at crunch time and come back with something to show for it. And if not? Well, at least I will be the only one who suffers!
The other reason I'm not selling a package, is that I have some personal stuff going on with my family back home in Seattle...and at a moments notice, there is a chance that I might have to hop on a plane and fly home to deal with it. It wouldn't be right to sell to investors knowing that I have that floating around out there. Kind of irresponsible.
In the news this past month has been totally dominated by the fighting in Ukraine, and then the shoot down of a Malaysian airliner. It's absolutely sickening the way its been handled...and I hope the world comes down hard on Vladamir Putin and his band of idiots in Russia. Watching that whole mess, it really makes me appreciate our own NTSB and FBI for the way they handle plane crashes. First and foremost is their total respect for the dead. Secondly, the way they totally seal off a crash scene...then catalog each and every piece of debris they find..in an attempt to find out EXACTLY what happened. This crash scene in Ukraine is a total shitshow...and I feel terrible for anyone who lost a loved one in that tragedy.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East...I think they are now up to 22 days of bombing the shit out of each other. Facebook has been one big adventure. I have friends that are both Jewish and Arab...and there have been some incredibly spirited debates supporting both sides while decrying the other. The whole thing is sad. Saddest in all of it, is all of the innocent children that have been killed and wounded in Gaza. As a father..it really breaks my heart seeing these kids. I don't have any hardcore feelings either way as to who is right and/or wrong. My only thing is that I can't understand some of the views of Hamas, such as their message to fellow Arabs/Palestinians being that Israel and all Jews needs to be wiped out. I mean...you can claim hardships all you want...and maybe they are warranted, but when you are living by a mantra that your neighbor needs to die? It's hard to feel sorry for you.
About a week ago...I made a post on my Facebook that pissed some people off. Totally not the goal. I suppose instead of using the words Jews and Arabs...I was supposed to use the words Israelis and Palestinians. And by saying 'this is the place to be' some who hadn't been embroiled in my days-long thread on Facebook or known about it...took that to mean the Middle East was the place to be. I was guilty of having tunnel-vision. My own friends who are from Israel and Gaza and contributing to the debate had no problem with it because they knew what I meant, but because my Facebook wall posts are open to everyone, including people who aren't friends....and all of my FB posts ALSO post to Twitter? Well...it got a lot more visibility than I'd contemplated.
So I get a message from a friend of mine who was aware of the beef I had with a certain woman of Israeli descent two years ago after all that shit happened at Hammond. When that whole thing was going on...she decided to bash me on her wall, saying I'd been at her table during the WSOP Main Event (the year I cashed 175th) and that I'd done and said all these sexist comments...none of which was true. In fact, what actually happened, was that I mistakenly thought SHE was a HE. And during a hand we were in, I respectfully called her 'sir.' She didn't correct me. She didn't even make a facial expression that would suggest I had made a mistake. Instead...on the 15-minute break...the dealer told me. I felt so stupid, and embarrassed. But holy crap...I couldn't be the first person to have made that mistake!!!
I will let you judge for yourself. Does that not look like it MIGHT be a man? Well...that day at my table...she looked like a freaking man! And after the break I did everything I could do to try to make up for it, being overly nice. Guess it didn't work, because the first chance she had to trash me, she took it. She even went so far as to say the WSOP had TAPES of me acting in the ways she accused me of. Hilarious...this was on day 1...where there was a whole ROOM full of tables...and somehow she thinks there was a hidden camera filming me? Anyway...her name is Breeze Zuckerman...and once she saw my comment on Twitter she went nuts! She posts my comment then calls me a racist idiot pig.
First of all...I'm not sure what in my comment would have led to anyone considering me a racist. Last time I checked, Israeli's and I are the same 'race.' If anything, she could have screamed that I was Anti-Semitic, except that would be pretty stupid too, since I'd been supporting the Israeli's all throughout the threads on my wall. Nope...the easy to figure conclusion was that my buddy Breeze saw my post and just went with her knee-jerk reaction...instead of doing about 3 minutes worth of research. She then tried to rally all her 'friends' to inform them all of what an asshole I am. Well, I reached out to several of them...sending them messages explaining in detail my 'history' with Breeze..and the reasons for her bitterness. I also explained my position on the skirmish in Israel. Three of them responded very positively.
Ya know...what the fuck is it with miserable human beings? Okay, in fairness, and I say this because I've seen a lot of heated discussions as a result of this conflict, this particular issue has really caused people to react with a lot of ire. I get it. It's a very heated subject. And people have some serious personal feelings about it. I lived in NYC for five years and several of my very good friends are Jewish...and I've asked a lot of questions over the years, as a kid raised in Seattle and Montana, we had very little religious and racial strife where I grew up. The answers that I've gotten from my Jewish friends have educated me to the situation, but also led me to want to know more, and wanting to understand the views of the Palestinians. To be frank...the whole thing is a mess.
But these people who just decide that when they see something they don't like, or agree with...that they just declare war on the person? It's incredible. And to be honest...the way a lot of these people act? Is a microcosm of just how irrationally the two sides are acting over there! I might agree more with Israel's plight in all this...but it doesn't mean I think they aren't making mistakes along the way. And I obviously find a lot of fault with Hamas' handling of the whole conflict as well. But the reactionary attitudes of some people when simply discussing this situation? They prove just how closed-minded they are to the other side's feelings. And until that ends...there will never be peace between those two sides. Ever.
As for Breeze Zuckerman? And her constant attacks on me? Pffft....whatever. I really don't care about that broad...she's got her own problems that I can't ever begin to hope to deal with.
Incidentally I will be meeting up with the dealer who started all of my nightmare with getting banned in Hammond and subsequently all Caesar's owned properties while I am down in Florida. We talked last August about the whole mess...and she assured me she wanted to help me get back in, that what happened between us was just a misunderstanding. But I didn't do a very good job of following up with her on it. Well I've gotten more proactive about it because I really do NOT want to be sitting out another year of WSOP events next summer. My current goal is to get Cheryl to take a month off of work...and have her and Carley come out to Vegas with me, and rent a house with another couple with a kid about Carley's age. Make it a much better time for all of us. Well...so with that in mind, I'd really like this ban to be worked out and eliminated. So her and I are going to get a letter written and get it sent off to the appropriate people while I'm down there.
Well? I think that's about it. Oh! Football season is almost (finally!) here and once again, my four major pools are about to get kicked off. I sent out the first invite of the year yesterday. I always get so excited for football season to start! I also opened up my 4 fantasy leagues last week...and am close to getting those 16-team leagues sold out. If you are a reader that is NOT on my distro list...and would like to get involved in my pools and/or fantasy leagues...shoot me an email at ThePoolMonkey@aol.com and I will get you involved!!!!
Time to go pack...and get on the road to Palm Beach!!!! Hopefully I have some good news to report in the next 12 days in what will likely be my last poker road trip of 2014!
MONKEY
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