And I'm out, in less than an hour.

I can't say that I played poorly, because I didn't. I followed goal #1, which was to make smart decisions. And was about the average chip stack after just under one hour. Unfortunately, this happened.

I got pocked queens

And I ran in to a guy who had been extremely aggressive, and overly so throughout the tournament, and he had made a couple of egregiously large bets at me and showed down middle strength hands...with pocket aces.

In that situation, the cards "play themselves." Maybe I could have folded pocket queens there, but with his aggression being as it was, I thought he'd try to bully me with any Ace. Unfortunately, he had two of them.

Such is poker, such is life.

Oh well. Try again Wednesday.

Immediate, pre-tournament goals:

1) Make smart decisions
2) Open up my range a little bit with what hands I'll play, and when.
3) Finish in the top 500 of the 1700 entered. Once I get to 500, anything can happen. I need to finish in the top 153 for anything important to happen. That's probably unlikely, but hey...life is weird sometimes.

Also, while taking my afternoon nap, I dreamed about poker. Two unfortunate notes about that. First, I dreamed that it was a heads up tournament (meaning you only play against one other person at a time), and that the top 127 got paid. Luckily, there were only 132 playing, so I was in good shape. And secondly, in my first round, I was dealt four nines! Of course, normally in no-limit hold-em, you're only dealt two cards. So, I think that statistically, that may be an impossibility. But I'm keeping my hopes up.

You may notice the Pokerstars ad to the right of this post....

Well, this week, I'm going to compete in two tournaments as part of the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. Maybe 3.

It's completely free to enter if you are a blogger (as I am), even if my blogs don't currently have much poker content (which they don't.)

As many of you know, I've been trying to play more and more poker over the last few months. I really enjoy the competition and the mental games that go along with it. The problems that I am having with poker, currently, are twofold:
1) Time. Most days, I may have an hour to really get engaged, and spend time with it. For me, right now, to be successful, I have to get in to the zone (HELLO BRITNEY SPEARS!) I have to stay focused, and be constantly mindful of myself and my opponents. When you're needing to set aside 5-6 hours to play in a huge tournament, that's not good. So I've been trying to play one table tournaments when I can, which last about an hour.
2) Money. I don't have much of it. As a result, when I actually do get to play, I tend to be playing against people to whom a dollar entry fee is nothing. To me, with the rules I set up for myself that mean I can't risk more than 1/20th of my bankroll in any given week, that's a lot. I'm trying to do things the right way, so that I learn, while also keeping my money above board. I made a promise that I wouldn't add any money to my account after my initial 30 dollar entry that I did on a whim 4 years ago. Of course, now it's illegal to deposit anything. And I've only really been playing for about 9 months or so.

So we'll see what happens. I'm going to play in one tournament today at 4PM, and another on Wednesday at 4PM. And then *maybe* in the Final World Championship event on Sunday. The prizes are entries in to some very big tournaments, not cash. But we'll see what happens. I think playing against some good to great players will be a good experience for me, and make me think in a different way about the way I play. I'll keep you updated on my progress this afternoon.

I mean, I know I'm old, but it's been 10 years since this song was released.

Good lord I'm getting really old.

Lots to catch up on!

SO much to catch up on, what with Christmas now 2 plus weeks ago, and we're two weeks in to the New Year. Happy New Year, btw. Hope everyone celebrated in good form. I was folding laundry at midnight. That's just how I roll nowadays.

People who know me know that I don't set resolutions. I always say that if I'm going to "change" something about myself, why not change today. That being said, I do have goals that I set for myself in the calendar year. For example, one of mine this year is to run for 600 miles. I did 524 last year. So I think it's possible, provided I stay healthy. Many of you know I've also been playing poker more lately. I have a goal with that too, to basically triple the money I have invested. That's going to mean I've got to win a couple of tournaments. I think I have the ability, it's just a matter of making the right decisions at the right times.
Outside of those two, I've got some others that I'm going to keep private. But they are there. And they have ways of being "measured." So don't think I've gone soft and started making resolutions.

Basketball season has been going well from my perspective so far. I've made one massive mistake (for me), in that I announced a guy having made a basket, when it rimmed out. A person alongside me at the scorers table said, "it didn't go in, Mike," to which I replied, "Yes, it did." It was the Western Michigan game, and Grandma and Grandpa Cation were in house for their first game. David Kool was the guy's name. I'll probably remember that until the day that I die. I still feel pretty awful about it. Oh well!

My neighborly drama has increased. The couple that have been living next door had a night in December where there was loud moving of furniture (which I interpret as throwing of furniture), and screaming. Since then, it appears that someone else has been living there, as they've been gone while the U of I was on a break. The replacement neighbor has been a miserable schmuck, thumping his bass at all hours of the day, and with any type of music. On Sunday morning, it was flipping Coldplay. Why in the hell do you need loud bass to listen to Coldplay. I had to send them another letter pleading them to at least turn down the bass. And then there's MORE drama. The male in the couple has not been spotted for weeks, and according to his facebook page (yes, I stalk occasionally), he's been out of the country. But now his relationship status has changed from "In a relationship with XXXXXXX XXXX" to "In a relationship." Now, I do know that this COULD mean that she no longer acknowledges the relationship on facebook. Last night, her car was back in its normal spot for the first time since that fight three weeks ago. Part of me is hoping that this means that the guy is no longer in the picture because he's the one who cranks the music and the bass (aside from the mystery stranger that's been staying there for the last 3 weeks). But I also don't wish that upon anyone, because it is horrible karma. So stay tuned.

Mark McGwire: You cheated. You get no sympathy from me when you say "you wish that you'd played in a different era" or "you wish there had been testing." None of that made you insert drugs in to your body. For 8 years. Just admit you cheated and that's it. End of story.

Porn co-worker is back at it. It's mostly college humor stuff, girls flashing and what not, but still. Keep it on the down low, you fat jerk.

I wish I liked the taste of tea.

For those of you in Champaign-Urbana, may I please take the time to recommend Sammy's for a wonderful breakfast. Try the Mexican skillet...ask them to add avacado. You'll thank me later.

So, my busy season begins here in the next couple of weeks. This spring, I'm announcing the following sports: basketball, baseball, both tennis(es), and wrestling. I'm happy to take the paychecks, but I have a feeling my throat will be tired by May (TWSS).

Vegas is just one month away from me. If any of you have any suggestions on things I might not have experienced yet, please let me know.

I promise to have updated this blog twice before then.