Just got a voice mail from the wife this morning, claiming I forgot to kiss her goodbye before I went to work. Problem is, I did give her a kiss, so I called her right back and gave her the details of where and when.

“Oh yeah,” she said, “You did give me a kiss.”

“It was spectacular for me too, honey.”

****

Songs that the live version is better than the studio version: (feel free to add more)

Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me
Arch Enemy - Bridge of Destiny
Kreator - Violent Revolution

That last one is seriously goosebump-inducing, just not for anyone I happen to hang out with.

****

Working on a post. In it, I press a button.

I’ve been kind of MIA, in the online sense. I’m pretty sure this has been the longest I’ve gone between blog posts and generally speaking, it’s been for a reason. Life at work took a turn. Busy? Yes. Sucky? Yes. In fact, the last you heard from me was via Blackberry updates from Vegas, a trip I’ve not yet even chronicled. When I returned home from that trip, things just got so incredibly messy. I’ve worked for my company for 18 years and I’ve never been so busy wading through a clusterfuck so large in my entire life.

Will things die down? I sure as shit hope so.

July’s poker has been just as bad. Is it related to everything else going on? It would be hard to say no.

I thought yesterday was going to be the last straw. I had a meeting with my direct superior to talk about how poorly one of my managed projects was received by the user base. My wife called me mid-morning in tears because she lost, YES LOST, her last month’s paycheck somehow. I went home and promptly lost online playing 2-7 triple draw, which is at least a fun game for me to play and learn right now.

Mentally, I’m exhausted. That exhaustion translated directly to me physically, and after a while I felt just absolutely wiped out. I was approaching my limitations in enduring what was going on around me. So much so that I checked Expedia for one-way tickets to Brazil. Well, not really, I could never leave the wife and kids. But still, a far simpler life awaits me somewhere. Most likely, somewhen. When I retire and the kids are out of the house, I plan on relaxing like no man has ever relaxed before.

Until then, I’ll update when I can and dodge bullets when I can’t.

Best part of poker: won every 2/5 nl session I played for $2200.
Worst part of poker: lost every 1/2 nl session I played for -$1270.
Best poker correlation: sober at 2/5 > drunk at 1/2.
Best part of Green Valley Ranch: Steel Panther.
Worst part of GVR: tilting toward oblivion after the show.
Best unexpected perks: Free Steel Panther t-shirt (ty Otis) and having poker pro Brandon Schafer ask us to help him drink his VIP booth quota of alcohol.
Best hotel: The Palms has so much amazing eye candy walking around that it’s borderline ridiculous.
Best part of returning home: sleeping in a bed.
Worst part of returning home: work and meetings and interviews on Monday.
Best saying I just now made up: Home is where you don’t have to wipe the toilet seat before you sit down.

(It’s also where the heart is.)

G-Rob arrived and we went to play at the MGM.
Lost $500 at the 1/2 nl game after getting rivered for a $700 pot. It was pretty ugly and put me in a semi-sour mood.
Otis got off work early so we went back to the Palms for some -ev gaming.
Lost $900 at pai gow and $100 on roulette. Got a bit titly.
Lost $400 more at Texas hold ‘em bonus table game. Got very tilty.
Then something happened.
I went on a run.
I took my next $300 buy-in and ran it to $3350. It was kind of sick.
Then, in an even sillier move, played 2/5 nl.
I won over $900 there.
Otis won $2500.
CJ won $1300.
G-rob wasn’t able to join the fun unfortunately.
I finished the day up over $2k.
Steel Panther is tonight.

Met Otis.
Met Pauly.
Hit quad Jacks at video poker.
Would later show pic to Mean Gene.
Heard my name called out in hallway of Rio. It was Spaceman sporting the Mountain Man look.
Decided to play 2/5 NL at the Rio.
Doubled up. TheMark sat down. We didn’t play any pots together.
Made a hero call with 86o. Picked off a bluff and got berated. Felt good.
Played with some aggro Canadian kids who were originally from Russia.
Good kids though.
Cashed out +863.
Drank at hooker bar with the working bloggers.
An impromptu dance show started at 4am. Most surreal moment in Vegas I’ve ever had.
Slept on Otis’ couch.
No way G-Rob fits on that thing.
Slept way too little.

Things started out the right way when we were delivered our food/bar tab at the local Mexican food place (hammer is good):

Then Drizz showed up to the house bearing gifts:

Lastly, my daughter donated her dry-erase board for the evening’s Digital Cable Classic Rock channel prop bets. Otis cleaned house in that regard.

I suppose part of getting lucky in poker is playing horribly and not losing. At least not too much.

Tonight, I sucked out on Wes all in pre-flop with AK vs KK. Not one of my prouder moments.

Then, I mis-read the board thinking I had a double belly-buster straight draw against G-Rob. In reality, I had a gut shot. Sadly, I hit. Then I rubbed it in. Mainly because G-Rob would have done so against me. But still, that’s no excuse.

What’s even worse is then finishing down for the evening $113. Really, it’s a small loss. But given how absolutely horribly I played, it’s a blessing.

So let me say this. Publicly.

Glad I could host.

Glad Drizz had a good time.

Sorry for sucking out Wes and G-Rob. I played bad, knew it, and still continued.

It’s a good wake up call for me. Don’t drink and play. At least too much.

Embarrassed am I.

Excitement mounts as I start this lovely Friday, the 2nd of such in this month of June that should prove to ROCK! \m/

Last Friday started out glum with nobody except a few diehards willing to play live poker at my house. Alas, the game crumbled and my house was empty. G-Rob called (one of the diehards) and mentioned the 7:15pm tourney on Stars, a $10+1 with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on. I signed up so I could play virtual cards with my home town fellow blogger.

He busted in 20 minutes.

I did not.

Like I mentioned last post, the key hand was avoiding getting coolered. I’m pretty sure we were not in the money, however we may have been close. I had about 70k in chips and I think the blinds were 600/1200 with an ante. I had pocket Jacks in middle position and re-raised an UTG raiser 4x his bet. One guy on the button then pushed all-in over the top for 50k and it was folded back to me. It was a dilemma. I really thought about folding.

Especially when the phone rang.

It was my cooler of a wife, who while I love dearly, simply cannot help herself from unwittingly destroying any chance of me winning at poker while she’s around. She was an 8-hour drive away up in Virginia beach and yet she found the perfect time to call me, right in the middle of a decision for 2/3rd’s of my chips in this tournament wherein I’ve lasted longer than I imagined.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hey. How’s it goin’?”

“Honey, I’m RIGHT in the middle of a huge hand right now, I have Jacks and just got re-raised. Can I call you back?”

“Alright.” But you see, it wasn’t “alright.” It was that exact tone that 12 years of marriage allowed me to translate thusly: “It’s not alright. I miss you, I want to talk to you, the kids are in bed, I have time to chat. CHAT WITH ME!”

She hung up.

I had clicked my time bank and it was ticking down. Then I had this thought: “Hey, she hung up. She’s in another state, another area code, another ZIP CODE even. I have to call.”

I clicked call. Push-monkey had 66 and didn’t suck out. Tough call, but in the end it still was a $10 MTT.

I called my wife back, a 3rd place chip stack fueling my ability to “chat.” She was mollified.

****

FYI to Jordan: Once it got heads up, we were both pretty even in chips and my opponent typed “DEAL” into the chat box. We both agreed to sit out (got to fold KK once, yay!) and I fired off an email to Pokerstars support. Within perhaps 2 minutes, an online host was at the table and stopped the tournament to discuss a deal. I offered an even chop $2600 each, with the remainder to go to the winner. The host confirmed the deal and we both had to type “I agree” into the chat box to formalize it. Then the host re-started the tournament and off we went.

****

I leave work tonight as soon as humanly possible to go hit up Total Wine for some alcomahol. Grey Goose, and for a very special guest, Captain Morgan rum are on my list. We’ll be raising a toast and/or dial-a-shotting some other local bloggers who couldn’t make it.

SpecialK is kicking special ass over in Iraq, uncorrupting databases that were either attacked by nasty terrorists or Microsoft Vista. Not sure which.

And TripJax couldn’t make it due to in-law health concerns, so hopefully all turns out well for he and his family. We have your number and hopefully can remember how to dial a phone.

Hell, even Shep’s playing tonight. Fun indeed.

I actually chopped with 2nd for this, but won the extra $100 on the table. $2708 for me.

Mainly, because I’m lucky. I have a funny story about my wife (cooler) that I’ll share later. It was a turning pt. in the tournament for sure. Until then though, let me be Barry Horowitz and pat myself on the back.

Ouch. I need to stretch more.

I enjoy Friday just like any other person. However, this month, I plan on enjoying them even more.

Friday the 13th - Normally an unlucky day, I hope to host a poker game at my house. The beautiful part about this is that I’m still home alone with no distractions, so there is a chance, albeit a slight one, that I can win at my own home game. The only negative is that of this writing I only have 4 people committed to playing. I won’t let that get me down though. Of all the Friday’s, this week’s is perhaps the least exciting.

Friday the 20th - Minnesota meets G-Vegas. A certain blogger vacationing in the Charleston, SC area is willing to make the drive to the upstate area for some patented and perfected good times. He’s picking up Columbia’s last remaining Pirate and should be able to join myself, the Upforpoker crew, and Charlotte’s most famous poker playing thespian. Mmmmmm…..thespians….

Friday the 27th - I’ll be in Vegas. Yeah big deal, I’ve been there before, so what. So what? Maybe you don’t know, but Steel Panther, formerly known as Metal Skool, will be playing the Green Valley Ranch Ovation theater that night. And yes, I’ll be there. I recommend you right now go listen to the song “Asian Hooker” on their myspace page.

That is all.