all right - been a weird week - but ok - almost became a minister - LOL - thought about signing up with the Universal Life Church, but anyways...

I just woke up a couple hrs ago - I'm going to play a couple of the regular soft Pokerstars $20 tourneys...

it's time to really crack down tonight - no mistakes - play perfect poker.

RB

RESULTS - two $20 tourneys and one $10 tourney.

one 4th place finish for $360, and one 41st place finish (dishwater money but a profit) - in the $10 -

it sorta worked tonight a bit -

RB

I gotta tell you guys something about this book "A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey" - you know, the addiction memoir that Oprah endorsed and now feels betrayed by all the innaccuracies?

I grabbed that and "A Drinking Life" at a point when I was thinking about quitting drinking. This was maybe a year ago - before Oprah endorsed the book.

I grabbed the first one - "A Million Little Pieces" - and started to read.

I got thru maybe 10 pages - couldn't read it - just couldn't relate to it - didn't like it - felt pretenteous, I dunno... truth is, I sorta felt it sucked - I dunno. I did

went to "A Drinking life" which is a WRITER'S take on the life on drinking...and how he realized how destructive it was to him and his writing, and he said "I'm done" - and that's it - he was done. - That book inspired me.

so - in all this controversy, I had the displeasure of wanting to get rid of this "Million Little Pieces" book even before it became fashionable to get rid of it. And now it will probably be impossible to do so at used book stores -

suckers

POSTEDIT: - if someone were to check the facts of this story, it'd find them totally in line with the truth except for one detail - it is implied I got rid of my copy of the book when it was still possible.

I did not - I was too lazy to go to the used bookstore - I dunno - maybe I'll keep it for the "I love 2005" - segment on VH1 - :)


============================================================

Oh god, to be there in the used book stores when the decree is announced - "WE'RE NOT TAKING ANY USED COPIES OF THIS BOOK BACK!!" - lol - I can see there being a sudden um, glut...

RB

damn -

played 4 $20 SNG's in a row - took 4th in one and 2nd in the other 3 -

I SHOULD have gotten one finish - maybe it's time to just play a $50 SNG instead of 4 $20's at once -

nah - too hard - these fish in LL SNG's are ripe for plucking -

LOL - gave up on the 45 player sng after one time - lazy, lazy, lazy - all I REALLY wanna do is just win at poker. -

but that was a nice little blip - a nice 90% ROI on a session.

RB

this was an undiscovered Townes Van Zandt song to virtually EVERYONE till 2003 - some early demos he did before his first album - now released as "In the Beginning"

Even early, you can see he's hitting the target nearly every song. These 10 demos pretty much were introduced to EVERYONE who's a TVZ fan at the same time - as they went lost for a number of years and relocated in 2003.

And to be honest, Townes' output later in life before died was pretty sketchey - lots of remakes - LOTS of remakes of his old songs - a few new ones - the better production was marred by a more tortued Townes, his voice and body on the last ravages of alcohol.

But he knew he'd be famous after his death - so he left a very long lasting legacy, lots of cool live recordings, and now well, I guess one of the songs on this album might have had a live release somewhere - - but essentially Ten new songs at some of his best - and actually trying to be a bit of a hippy sometimes - a couple tunes have that folk-rock groove Dylan pioneered so well about the time of Blonde on Blonde.

it's become one of my favorites of all his albums, and yet it's his oldest and newest - LOL

I need a friend like Townes right now...

RB

--------------

Black Crow Blues, by Townes Van Zandt -

Babe don't lie lonesome after I'm gone
Don't mourn your young life away
Just lower me down with a prayer and a song
just 'fore the breaking of day
just 'fore the breaking of day

it's a life worth living, but we all gotta die
all your crying can't do me no good
just lower me down with a quick said goodbye
pour in the black Texas mud
pour in the black Texas mud

It's a hard road you're travelin', you can't walk it alone
find a big man to stand beside you
take him down to the river, and show him my bones
tell him there lies a friend I once knew
there lies a friend I once knew

The black crow's a-screaming, the yellow sun's warm
and the grass tumbles tall down the hill
there's a cold wind building, it's bringin' a storm
when the call of the black crow goes still
when the call of the black crow goes still

maybe be the worst bad beat I've given to someone - and best yet, the bastard deserved it - LOL.

I like this hand -from my first 45 player SNG.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (7 handed) converter


BB (t4165)
UTG (t3000)
MP1 (t3865)
Hero (t2150)
CO (t5700)
Button (t3935)
SB (t2015)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 8c, 8h.
2 folds, Hero raises to t450, 3 folds, BB calls t300.

Flop: (t975) 5h, Kc, 7d (2 players)

BB bets t3715 (All-In), Hero calls t1700 (All-In).

chump called my raise preflop and when he overbet post flop, I knew from observation of previous hands that he probably didn't want a caller and he was willing to call all in with middle pair - I did the math and thought I'd be ahead over 50% of the time so I called - He has K8 spades. The fact I read this guy right (the overbet still meant he didn't wanna be called) - and that he hit a lucky 3 outer this time pissed me off to no end.

Turn: (t6390) 2h (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t6390) 8d (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t6390

that felt good. - - one out babee - one out only, please

man - I know it's closer to 1 in 22.5, cause it was one out twice, but still - whew...if I make the money in my first game and cover my losses, it'll be worth 8 more bad beats to follow.

RB

I have brought in a parking lot chair (chair left in a parking lot dumpster area) - and I am setting my case of chips on it - my nice faux clay chips that are great for riffling and shuffiling. My friend will hate it - she's been helping me turn my apt. into less of a dorm room, but there's only so many things you can put up with "just in case I bring a girl home" before you say fuck off cause the fact is, no one will be coming by probably before Valentine's day :(

I need a change - I've taken out 99 dollars - 9 SNG entries, and I take each entry off the stack at the end of the match, and add stacks of chips to everything on the right that I win - if I win 78 bucks I drag out 3 green and three whites and stack them on the same part of my desk.

let's see if it ends bigger then it starts.

I'm actually playing 45 player SNG's this week - I am of the feeling that it's a nice payoff for what is BARELY any more difficult then a regular SNG.

I'm like any gambler - I like big payoffs, but I'm happier when I get $1700 from a ten buck tourney then I am when I get it from a $100 one, even if the $100 one is easier to beat cause it's smaller - and in this case, the difficulty difference is almost non-existant - and anyone who gets to the money in one will find some really bad competition if he can just keep his cool and play a short handed and heads up game. Lots of passive players who lack this experience in these - IMHO.

So this is my poker playing for the next two days - I've dropped my BR down to $541 (from a start of $300) and it's time to play some games I think I can maximize my chances of profit without a big risk.

see ya at the tables.

RB

mano mano mano...

Whiskey takes his first BR hit of the year at the EXACT same time he finds a really good source of smokable resin in one of his pipes...

concidence? - Me thinks not...here's why.

MTT's - have blown since the beginning of the year when I made 4th in the $180 SNG - I'm ahead still in tourneys, but declining. However, my NL SNG results are still way up there - in fact, that's pretty much my salvation right now...

I was desperate to make money, (as opposed to slumming at cheap tourneys or worse yet, raising my limits I play at) - so I went for some NL, and took about $50 - and took about $50 in a couple other spots, but I did do the MTT superstars withdrawl from my BR as well, and in retrospect, that was a bad waste, not a poker game - I may have to go back to the micro tourneys for awhile, but I feel like my game is just off this week.

and somehow, my NL and SNG results canceled out my Limit and MTT results last week, but this week is starting on a down note - I'm about to dip back below $600 - I MAY go play a couple NL tables for a couple hrs...I can usually make money just sitting tight, hitting a monster, and then optimizing my chip extraction from whoever I'm facing by certain techniques. - whichever ones I think will best work. Mike McDermott would normally underbet the monster, but overbet vs. KGB, or in my case, a guy who isn't afraid to commit all in with top pair. - whatever I determine.

so I guess it's NL slumming for the next couple days...LOL - I should cash out $100 and go to Party. - but PS will be fine.

Everyone at this limit is a fish - Ed Miller's NL Holdem Ring game book isn't out yet - LOL.

RB

made 25 bucks in 7 hrs of my deepstack tourney last night, and I busted in the 2nd round of the MTT superstars.

pretty lame - you play 4 handed for 3 tables - same 3 guys - points are 10/5/2/0 -

So I took 3rd one time and 4th the 2nd - which means I need a win.

Normally points would be a little better distributed but one of 2+2's shining stars choked the chicken when he should have been playing poker so the same two guys made the top two -

actually, one guy took 2nd all three times - talk about being an owned bitch heads up - LOL -

So we get to the third round 3 handed - and not only do I have to win but I need this other guy to finish 3rd.

So what's gonna happen - he'll get a slight chip lead and sit out - meanwhile I can't play any hand vs. the other guy cause he can just go all in no problemo on any hand I COULD win because I can't bust him and let the other guy move up.

It kicks into this implicit collusion thing where the two don't even have to play and I can't play one of them - crock of shit - so when I got qq I snapped off the asshole - figured if I was gonna lose I was gonna at least get the cash for the buyin back.

now THAT'S a bullshit tourney structure when the game naturally declines towards a 2 vs 1 structure -

Sucks when you can't play to win a poker game. I'll be skipping lameass formats like this in the future...

RB

whiskeytown: where's heywood, tiger?
TIGERSTUMP: uk manchester budi
whiskeytown: that's cool - love English films
TIGERSTUMP: porn
whiskeytown: what I would give for a girl that moaned in a British accent...
TIGERSTUMP: lol

so basically, it's hr 3. of my Deep Stacks tourney.

Slightly below average stack - (only about 2K) - 210 left - 63 make the money - and I've just smoked a bowl, folded junk, flopped a set and moved to 21K, and watched Sex in the City on the other side of the DVD screen where they have an episode about shoes.

so yah, overall - I'm feeling good....:)

I will NEVER understand their obsession with shoes or outfits - (actually, I do like my stage performing suit) - . But I will say this.

Shoes are to Women what Guitars are to men. For all intents and purposes, they serve as an accessory to your lifestyle but you cannot possibly need as many as you do - the equivlent would be as Bibles are to Pastors - seems like you're always ready to get some more.

ya know something....

I feel like doing something interesting and unusual.....but part of the joy in it will be that no one will ever know it's me doing it, so I can't rat it out - sorry...

pax
RB

this is too good -

been listening to the Alan Lomax recordings and to one song in particular - Bean Phaidin - by Colm Keane.

Background - Alan Lomax was a 1950's archivist, recording traditional music all over the world, capturing it for future generations - (god I love being alive in these times) -

anyways, It's got the most gentle flow... and it's so beautiful, and I'm thinking - HEY - I've got the CD - let's read the story behind this song since there's nothing about it on the internet - (except I think I see it listed under possible wedding songs...)

and it's a love song all right - a woman is in love with another woman's husband - and it's a song of that unrequited love and heartfelt Irish passion and lust and loss - here's the English translation...

The Eng. translation of the song is called "Pat's Wife"

It's a sharp pity I'm not Pat's wife
and the wife that he has should be dead.

I would go to Galway and I would come home
in the boat with him

I wish that your feet may be broken, Pat's Wife
and your bones too.

I would go west by Rusheen wave,
and round by top of Sawleen

I would go to Matthew Casey's house
in the hope that I would see Pat's Wife

- ah man...I laughed for five minutes afterwards. I can see how it could be played at a wedding, but I wouldn't go advertising the translation - LOL....

-----------------------

decided to sign up for a $33 deep stacks tourney. They always said the longer the tourney the more likely skill will rise to the top, right? We're thru half the field after two hrs. and average stack is 10000 - I only have 6600 right now...

but it's half hr. blinds - after 2 hrs we're going to $75/150 -

plenty of time - but it's time to start opening up the aggressive game, me thinks...

RB

I've got something to say that ain't complete bullshit - how about that - LOL.

In the process of cleaning the apt. and turning it into the ultimate chick trap, I have put up a bent poster of Townes Van Zandt - I bought two and this one got a bit wrinkled - I want to buy a 3rd and put it in a frame.

I've been drifting back to Townes in my dark times - If they ask you the question about who you could have dinner with? - I think of Townes Van Zandt - My biggest regret was not being a fan when I could have seen him play - he died on Jan 1st. 1997. (same day as his hero, Hank Williams) - I've seen the documentary on him and I've watched the trailer about 5 times today.

Funny, I was reading this thing about the burden of 30 something men. We're expected to be sensitive and emotional and open, yet gentleman but we're supposed to be able to take action and pin the girl to the bed when she wants it...LOL -

A combination of that and my spirituality have put me where I am today, and by and large, I'm happy with it. I'm proud that when a woman is talking to me, I can listen to her and remember her and not stare at her big boobs - (sometimes I can't look them in the eye though....LOL) - but no one talks about that dark side -

when the sensitivity opens up too much and everything comes at you like a shotgun blast - a starving orphan in Africa or a bad first date makes you want to go on a week drinking bender, and you pretty much disregard everything like politics, gossip, and movies as "a fucking bitch" - As Townes said, once you've had the blues, everything else is meaningless - a fucking bitch.

I've been looking to Townes more - trying to learn everything about him - He's walked this road I'm walking. He started me on it, and the way he died was one of those factors that got me out of the Whiskey.

Guys like me and Townes are in general states of aloneness - even in crowds of friends and side by side with lovers and children. But being alone isn't being lonely, and to quote Townes again, the difference between being alone and being lonely is like the difference between being broke and being poor.

And I'm trying to connect with him because I don't want to go the way he did. For all the glory of dying like a rock and roller (and he died at 52) - the booze took away his gifts - I think there is something in a guy like Townes that just tears you apart from birth to death, and if you write it out, you can tone it down - make it burn less, but the easy answer is to drown the fucker in whiskey and heroin and other drugs. Less work and you can do it with others.

But before that, he left us with some of the finest songs ever heard. He made his mark - he's a legend - he was a cult figure, a drunk depressive, and a bluesman, but now he's up there as one of the finest songwriters ever. Sheeeit, Bob Dylan covers his songs sometimes live in concert - Townes was the shit.

Townes was, and is, and will forever be, my hero.

RB

Lisa Loeb has a new TV show coming out - #1 single - a dating show and the title is a play on her career as a musician - actually, I think she was the first artist to have a #1 song who wasn't signed to a major label - Ethan Hawke's neighbor - you can find the banner all over at eonline.com with her face smiling at the camera. Or you got the Retrocrush gallery here

Confession - I have thought this woman is beyond beautiful for about 10 years. She transcends it - I have crushed on this woman so badly over the years that it hurts to see her dating other men on TV - LOL - but since I may have a date of my own on Sun, I better get over it -

but ow....ow ow ow owo owoowwww.... I don't usually see a beautiful woman and imagine her dressed up in a trashy Holloween costume, but yah, give me a nice night on the town and a hot date and give me a choice between her, Angelina Jolie, and Jessica Alba, and it'd be tough. (notice a pattern - I'm not a big fan of blondes) - but in the end it's about personality - and I dunno - those female singer-songwriters - all their breakups seem to be about how the breakup happened cause he couldn't communicate with her - I never understood that, but then, I'm the great communicator. - LOL

liked the singles, never bought the album. Actually, I only liked 2 of the three singles I've heard, but anyways....LOL - I suspect this will cause a resurgance in her career, and in pathetic guys who are taking her face and photoshopping it onto god knows what adult film star's body - LOL.

Tivo it..

--------------------

poker sucks - I think I'm up 20 in ring games and 20 in tourneys - took a nice SNG run again with a 4 tabler that produced two wins and a third, but pissed it away on a couple 39 buck SNG's and some tourneys that failed - what can ya do....ah well.

I think I'm getting too tricky in my play - taking too many risks now trying to be AGGRESSIVE - I pushed on a 3 club flop last night with pocket 9's (one club) thinking anyone without one club will fold and anyone with two - well, odds are one in a hundred.

why I thought this was a wise move 15 minutes after the start of the tourney is beyond me but I got called by JT clubs and goodnight, babee. -

ah well - a new week, a new game.

That's all, really - all I really wanted to do was declare my unrequited and unappreciated love for Lisa Loeb. The poker info was optional....

RB

One by one my hair is turning gray
One by one my dreams are fading fast away
One by one I read your letters over
One by one I lay them all away

Woody Guthrie

my hair went in clumps of 4 or 5, me thinks - ...WRB

I was playing two .50/$1.00 games - then after two hrs of static, I pushed it to 4 and I was even at $120 - $30 per table spread out amongst 4 tables.

and I wanna give up - this is bullshit grinding, and so many times I got my ass handed to me by dogshit players... - I have someone raise with 45 suited and I'm there with AQ - flop comes A23 - :( -

so I go looking for an album - a lonely 3am album, and I find Hayden - Everything I Long For - recently voted 23 in a poll of top 50 Canadian albums of all time - it's fairly sketchy here in the States, but esp. in the North, here in Mpls, for example, we can fill a bar with Hayden fans.

Hayden was part of the Indie Rock scene from Toronto in the mid 90's - (He hated being considered folk, and he does rock, just very LOW KEY rock - as in an octave down - LOL) - I caught him when Muchmusic actually played just Canadian artists and it was the height of the indie rock scene - he was signed to Outpost Records and when he came thru on tour, I was so fucking there - and even bootleg'd a show, a track of which has become Internet distribution legend - (a cover of Cohen's Famous Blue Raincoat) - that track is now available via filesharing and search engines thanks to ME - that fucking rocks, I'm sorry.

So anyways, it's lonely candle lit 3am album, sitting on the floor strumming about a girl you had a crush on but went to Paris to meet up with an old ex-boyfriend. And the whole album has the vibe of skipping work and staying in bed with someone - but you gotta fake a good sick call :)

and strange things happen to me - when I listen to an album I worshipped 9 years ago, I go back 9 years, - I remember being in my mid 20's and looking so confident people thought I was a label executive. I thought I was a rock and roll star. - but all this confidence was from the fact that I had found some of the coolest music in the world, and I didn't have to share it - isn't that weird....

weird how we fall in love with bands and share them with close friends and pick up that smug attitude when we realize how cool the stuff we like is and how uncool everyone else listening to the Spice Girls are - LOL.

man, I miss my 20's - lot of friends have moved on - lot of years -

been a lot of pain in my 30's - an awful lot of it - more then all of my 20's combined, and I've got 7 more of these bastards.

but hey, I ended almost 50 bucks up - which is pretty good for one hr at 4 seperate buck tables.

I think I'm gonna find all my Hayden CD's and rip them to mp3 - keep them handy - gives me something to do till breakfast - LOL.

-------

PS - I think I made a classic fucking blunder - I think my boss comes here and reads the blog - (he knew I went to Vegas for a blogger's tourney) - I suspected when I said I didn't wanna work hard anymore in the blog last week and the next day he thanked me for all my hard work - LOL.

Sol, if you're reading this (or any of my coworkers) - go away - I'm going NORML and I don't want you to know - LOL.

I hate it when my blog life and my real life cross - I think it cost me that redhead cause if she has half a brain she did some simple google searching and found this site and I don't think anyone I want to date should ever be allowed to see this site - - maybe for the 2 year anniversary I'll burn it all down and start over...

maybe I'll just delete it all and start over tomorrow - I dunno....

they're just words anyways, nothing so important that they deserve to cause anyone or me unhappiness.

so save your fav. posts now - I think I'm gonna burn the fucker down out of spite.

RB

all right - I admit it - something's bugging me - something I had a lot of hope for, actually, though you're not supposed to have that.

but I just feel like holding back a bit... - I am sort of feeling like lately things not poker related don't need to be out here anymore.

so I'll just say it poker style -

I'm thinking about going back to Vegas on Valentine's day.

RB

I placed high enough in the 2+2 MTT Superstars tourney to come back next Sun. and try again.

I'll tell you what though - everything else about my poker game - downswing - my luck has gone sour - hideous - AA and KK cracked this session I'm finishing - and I RAISED or reraised - but one called a raise with 39 suited, the other with 55 and flopped trips on a 275 board -

I can no longer avoid facing the facts - too many things the last two weeks have gone ballistic - my luck has offically gone sour.

fuck.

RB

just finished two $11 tourneys in 30 min - busted out of both -

first I raise with AA and get a caller on a KQ2 board - I get one player all in and he has KJ - he turns a J.

2nd tourney - I get the money all in with 99 on a 232 flop and KQ calls. Turns a K

I am NOT supposed to be playing cards anymore tonight - I knew I was in for a downswing after winning 5 SNG's in a row - but fuck almighty, brothers - must it be harvest or drought? - LOL - .

RB

oh good - I got enough resin for one more good hit, it feels - :)

it was a day of deleting old phone numbers in the cell - I hate doing that, but friends move and I don't get the new number - deleted three - considered adding one but I'll wait and see if she calls me back first :)

got a fifth win in a SNG but all my MTT's have been mostly junk this week - played two satellites for the 215, which I historically have done well at, and I"m still in one. But overall it's a bit down from yesterday, and I broke the $800 mark on the BR today. But now we're back to 700 -

tomorrow are the 2+2 MTT superstars. The best of the 2+2 MTT forum will play a structure similar to Poker Superstars invitational - 6 handed tables, multiple rounds, etc, etc...

three tourneys every Sunday - and somehow they accepted me - I think we're getting a couple big names too - we'll see. Maybe someone like Gavin Griffin or ZeeJustin or Gigabet.

so I'm doing that - pray for me - LOL.

I feel better - just needed the weekend to start real bad - a real one - (i.e. - 4 days - LOL)

RB

thanks to Dr. Chako for this one -

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fifth Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Ah fuck....enough of the pissy pot - Felicia must be ashamed of me - LOL - here she is recovering from cancer and I'm bumming cause my high five figure job isn't "happy enough" and I just happen to be feeling the overwhelming urge to get laid - LOL -

I get so obsessive about things - can't be good for relationships - also works for shit when you want to have a drink or a toke - great for poker though - esp. studying and playing - LOL

anyways - Mason Malmuth has been giving super high notes to this book so I immediately did an Amazon.com at work and will be reading it next week

Tonight I hope to get thru a lot of Phil Gordon's Little Green book, which like his DVD looks very good.

RB

Sick and Tired - by Everclear - (lyrics by Art Alexakis)

I break every day
Stressed out in every kind of way
I am sick and tired of bein' sick and tired
All I need and crave
Loud life with the power to fade
I am livin' 'cause I keep it all in, keep it all inside
Yeah, I keep it all in, keep it all inside

Love don't work for me
I want women who are out of my reach
I am sick and tired of livin' all alone
All I need for sure
Big love with the power to make more
I am livin' 'cause I keep it all in, keep it all inside
Yeah, I keep it all in, keep it all inside

I know I'm close to the fall
I know I'm dangerous
I'm afraid I'm going down

I blame my family
Their damage is livin' in me
I am sick inside and tired of my life
All I need, I swear
Go out with the power of a nightmare
I am livin' 'cause I keep it all in, keep it all inside
I keep it all in, keep it all inside
Yeah, I keep it all in, keep it all inside

I know I'm going to fall
I know I'm dangerous
I know I'm not going down alone
I keep it all in, keep it all inside
I know I'm close to the fall
I know I'm dangerous
I know I'm not going down alone
I'm not going down alone, I know

I'm still in a foul mood - so you get to suffer for it - but I had a funny thought last week -

I'm doing more odds calculations even when I'm not in a hand to get in the practice - - the rule of 4 and 2 -

as I illustrated from the Phil Gordon DVD - (which you all have and should have watched by now. - at least the bloggers who read this thing - LOL)

9 outs on the flop * 4 = 36% chance of getting it, approximately. If it's the turn it's times 2 - = 18 percent

because of the high amount of implied odds in NL, this rough guesstimate works well - though when using the rule of 2 you sometimes come a couple points shy with a lot of outs - 9 outs are more like 19.2, not 18 percent - but again, those implied odds give you wiggle room.

And I was sitting there and thinking - I've got a 23% chance to hit a card I need on the river -

and instead of seeing the last card, I wanted to take a couple of Dungeons and Dragons 10 sided dice and roll a percentage roll to see if I hit the card -

oh lord, the good ol' days - LOL

---------------------

Wal-mart is getting called to the carpet in MD for their crappy health care benefits - about time - if there was ever a company that harkened back to a time when Robber Barons held monopolies and employees were treated like cattle, it's Walmart. The argument of "go work somewhere else" doesn't fly when a corporate entity moves into a small town, drives out the competition, and pays a pittance wage to the people who can only find work at the big retailer in town.

---------------------

RB

I tried to go back to that positive thinking thingy again - and the most positive thing I could do this morning was go back to bed when I got off work - normally I'll last a few hrs and crash around 11am - not today - crashed when I got home and slept till noon -

Finished the Sopranos - season 2 - but not before like a dumbass I found out on IMDB that Richie gets capped in episode 25 - ah well.

then it's 2pm - lines at the DMV are dead, so I went out (illegally in my truck, probably) and got my new tabs (and plates - apparently you gotta change every 7 yrs) - and got a new endtable for the bedroom so I can leave my smaller one by the chair for niceties like pizza and coke.

Then after that was done, and it was 4:00 - I sat down and opened up 4 seperate $10 SNG's - one after the other on pokerstars - and I said I wasn't going to obsess or worry or think about anything but making money on these games. But of course, I started pretending I was explaining to a friend the moves I was making - I did this before and scored 3rd in a 180 SNG, so sometimes I pretend I'm talking poker with someone who's interested -

and I tried to forget it all - ambitions that remain unfulfilled - songs that won't crawl out of the womb and a job that seems to be leaving me more and more unfulfilled and unhappy -

all of it - out the window -

4 SNG's - one bust in 8th, - three finishes in First. Sat at the three winning tables with a guy who called me Mr. Weak Tight - he said I only bet if I had it -

Here's how you can tell who the pros are - I pointed out that I was winning all our tables, but I didn't dissuade him from labeling me mr. weak tight - Weak tight guys can bet K2 into a 363 board and get folds from everyone - cause we only bet when we got something - LOL - and I pulled that stunt a lot in the mid rounds. Made a great call at my last table heads up with AT vs A8 - but he pushed and I had to make the call - toughie - but blammo -

I keep telling myself this year is gonna be much better then last year, but I don't believe it - I don't doubt my resolve, but I doubt the hands of providence - I doubt the swings of luck - I guess I believe there are forces beyond my control trying to prevent me from achieving true happiness - that's BS - but it's hard to shake a feeling you've had for 5 years.

I think way too much...way too fast - way too often. - but it beats being a moron, I guess.

RB

Week in review...

certain factors have raised my aggrevation level a bit - we shall review them in order of aggrevation. Total Aggrevation Factor - (TAF) - on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the worst.

I'd rank my best night in vegas with the two Doofus's from Dec. at about an 8.5, BTW

1. - spend my Vegas BR on furnishings that were deemed necessary if female visitors didn't mistake my apt. for a bad dorm room - no Ipod - just a table and chairs and a couple other things -

TAF = 2

2. - was hoping to meet up with the redhead mentioned a couple times - got postponed again - which was too bad cause the gig she was supposed to come to kicked ass -

TAF = 3 - would have been lower but bandmates making out all over the place pushed it up a bit -

3. - Pizza order tonight - three meats - but nope, despite what the receipt says - the pizza has pineapple instead of pepperoni -

TAF = 5 - dinner an hr. late = sad - esp. when you coughed up $25 for the large and the tip for the delivery.

4. - Work tonight - come on and get dumped on while the other folks on shift talk DVD's and movies for 2.5 hrs while I'm scrambling to get stuff done - happens more then I care to admit.

TAF = 6 - but this number increases the more I bust my hump and see no one else doing the same and little rewards for it.

5. - Go out to my car, and I see a tkt. - forgot about my tabs and the fuckers nailed me right on the 11th -

TAF = 9 - ah hell - that's a 10 - really pissed me off.

6. - I'm out of smoke and two weeks from a refill - I better have some by Valentine's Day, dangit - one way or another I'm gonna be happy this year on Valentine's Day - LOL - and I'm too broke to fly out to Vegas again this year for V-day.

TAF = 4 - or maybe that's the sole source of my aggrevation - glad I have some resin still - LOL.

SO - add it all up and that's 30 points of TAF - I get 20 more points and I can bump someone off and get legal safety as "justifible homicide" or "Temporary insanity"

all my enemies better be nice to me this week or I'm gonna go Tony Soprano on someone's ass -

and I haven't seen Thurs. or Fri. yet. - wonder how many days I can stay in bed before someone sends a search party - hmmm...

-----------------

this shit has ruined my game - I only got about 10 in this week but it was mostly a drag - nothing came in - and what I did today, for example, was blown just by my mindset if not the cards.

I'm revisiting amateur hr. and forgetting to raise with KQ suited in late position or just shrugging and calling with AK in the SB when I know better - my mind isn't concentrating. I can't focus on the game this week, so I gotta let it go until this all settles down again.

as the good book says - God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

some days I'm not sure if I fall into the first or second category, but either way, I guess I gotta get rain sometimes....

RB

Someone's out to piss me off this week.

Who the fuck reads pepperoni on a pizza receipt and think it spells pineapple.

Week started out good but is just degenerating into a total pile of shit....maybe I'll take tomorrow off...

RB

:) - I just recovered a memory - :)

So, last week, I did a snowboarding thing - I hope date, but thing - we get to the bottom, take the lift to the top - go down with one in front of the other somewhere, and so forth back up.

and I'm sitting here thinking of that. Going up the hill with the girl, coming down the hill with the girl...

And then I'm running up the steps with some other freckled girl. It's not snowboarding - it's the Manteca Waterslides in Manteca, CA -

I don't remember how old I am - not teenager yet, or still awkward enough where it was sorta cool but not a big deal - we met her and her friend and for some reason as we're all going down the water slides. My brother, her, and I and she wants to tell me something but can't so she tells my brother and we go down the slides - Me first, then him, and then her -

and he's supposed to convey the message to me as we go down the waterslides.

WHHIIELLLREEUUUUUU GOOOOO OUUOOWWTTT WIIIUTHSEEHEHEYRRRR

YEYAAAHAAEYYYYSSAHHHHHH

- BAM - got a girlfriend - piece of cake. We trade numbers - I go back to Montana - bam - first heart I ever broke, I guess.

The Manteca Waterslides are closed now, I see - Folks around there, esp. the kids who are now grownups - probably see it a New Yorker remembers Coney Island.

Man....worst negotiation EVER for the start of a relationship...whoo - LOOL -

There's a post on 2+2 about James Dobson wanting to ban all gambling, including casinos and online. It was suggested it was the future of the right wing party.

Here's what I wrote in response -

-------------------------

Corrupt Religion and Corrupt Government have always worked well in theocratic states, with Religion being the tool by which the Government justifies the heavy handedness of the Government.

Fortunately, for as heavy as much of the Republican party is on "Family Values" - the guys that grease the money machine aren't really that eager to embrace Dobson.

Global Multinational Corporations have replaced Religion as an opiate of the masses - and instead of a pulpit, they use the wonders of 21st Century Media to give us advertisemets for products that bring in the money that fuel the machine. that's who Government sleeps with now.

Dobson is a hassle - A hassle I'm familiar with. I used to work in Christian Radio in a previous time and listened to a lot of his programs.

He's coming from a sincere place - he thinks by putting more "Godly" men in political power, he can make the nation a better place for Dobson and Dobson's radio listeners and that whole "Fundamentalist Christian" group of men who struggle with temptation. He also believes he represents the majority of Americans. I think at that point, he's wrong. I also disagree with his mindset that there is a Biblical Commandment by Jesus to set up a theocracy in his name, but that's for another forum.

That's Dobson - Whereas I would lump Pat Robertson, for example, with the worst of those Catholic popes from the Middle Ages - the ones who committed henious acts that God would send a Pope to hell for under the guise and authority of a "Godly Man"

For what it's worth, I think the modern popes are like James Dobson, but they're missing the lessons of their own history - Theocratic states become corrupt and oppressive. Religion and politics need to stay seperate, if for no reason then I can still call myself Christian without being ashamed of it's association with people like Pat Robertson.

Dobson is a hassle, but not danger. Your average American Right Wing male may bitch about Family Values to get the votes so they can make the money with the multinational corporations, but he likes a stoogie, porn, and a card game as much as the next guy. They won't let a guy like Dobson take the reins.

SHORT SUMMARY: - Men like Tom Delay won't allow men like James Dobson to call the shots.

RB

PS - I'm giving serious thought to retirement in another country.

blog blog blog with impunity - phhhft...

Somedays you need a quickie - I know what Iggy would say - I need about 10 quickies - so here you go - now with 20% less vulgarity - LOL.

-------------

I'm in a foul mood, with bald faced liars smiling to me while they withdraw money from my wallet and say "hey, that's the game"

But it's not poker, it's politics - and one of the worst God Damn liars - Tom Delay, has stepped down as leader of the biggest pack of liars in Congress.

I voted Rep. in 2000 - I understand the lure, esp. for the Religious Right, of a guy like Delay - preaching family values - and if he embezzles funds and shuffles money, it's not Right Wing Christian money, right? - so all should be forgiven, esp. if he didn't technically break the law, just fractured it -

Maybe - but I hope he goes to jail anyways. - I'm glad he lost his job and I'm glad his antics have probably cost the Republicans the 2006 midterms. It COULDN'T happen to a nicer guy cause a nicer guy wouldn't have gotten greedy like the Exterminator from Texas.

I shouldn't make fun of a guy's job - jobs come and go - and we're not all lucky - but Exterminator? - a bug guy? acquainted with vermin? - Nope - doesn't suprise me - he just traded up for a richer class of vermin.

What Democrats need now is a similar plan to the Contract with America - they need to lay out their platform and say "If you make Congress a democratic Congress, here's what we'll push forwards.

First things first, the Republican Filibustering will fire up into high gear - but that's the way it goes -

------------------

I will be attending meeting of NORML - (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) - I think if this became a Democratic Party platform, you'd get that 5-10 percent of weed smokers that stay home. - LOL - these days an extra 5-10% is the victory.

------------------

I'm working on a few writing projects - my top 10 albums of all time - some songs - a reanalysis of Christian Faith from a Progressive/Liberal mindset as opposed to a Conservative Bigoted Rightwing version - nothing really sticking to the wall as something I'd like to expose to the public - same with the newest tracks/songs -

There is a little fun thing called Feburary Album Writing Month, where you try to get 14 songs in 28 days recorded - I MAY do that - we'll see what free time looks like - that'll devour the whole friggen month pretty easy - plus then you end up with 14 ok songs instead of 2 or 3 great ones -

I shoot for Quality over Quanity, obviously - most times - except with the blog - LOL

My problem is I spend so much time around the greatest writers and songwriters in the world - I can write a good song but at the end of the day I say "yah, but it's not as good as what Townes Van Zandt did" and I wanna toss it -

---------------

"and everybody out here, they wanna live somewhere else
I wish I could find a place and stay there by myself
and bit by bit I swear I think I'm losing all this city's confidence"

- Great lines - watch the video - I wanna be the guy driving - Jim Cuddy - LOL - great alt-country voice too - damn...


--------------

The "Your Blog Sucks" t-shirt is going to a co-worker in CA - (she flirts a lot - I caved and she wants to insult a friend's blog - what can I say) - so you're on your own for getting your own - but then, they've gotta be custom made - I like the idea of making your own shirt and saying exactly what you want instead of paying someone else to say what you think they want you to say.

--------------

I am probably going to find a way to add my BR growth to the site, kind of like the banners up top - I'll have to republish the index about every week, but I think it'll be good for you guys to see where the BR is at and bitch me out if I sign up for the $215 tourney before I get about 2K in the BR - LOL - (no one said anything about satellites though) -

--------------

Band has a gig on Tues, the 10th at the Uptown Bar - come out if you're local - we're on about 11:30 - (last) but our friends the Intangibles are on first - they're just hard to wrap your mind around, that's all - [rimshot]

--------------

the Pokerstars PCA is going on - I feel good that I can win a satellite this year for one of these events, even if it's a FPP event - I'm just nailing my game and I haven't even FINISHED Harrington on Holdem yet - LOL -

My fav. female poker player - Jennifer "Jennicide" Leigh is doing well after day 3 - good for her - a few other names I recognize. Nothing standing out anymore though.

-------------

I would like to make some color changes to the blog - we're using standard templates but they're borrowed by a lot of people, including my new good bud Poker Doctor - I never liked lime green anyways - I'm thinking a dark brown/blue - sort of a wild west meets Radiohead -

I'm not good with visuals or design - and I can't program to save my life - every modification I made to the template so far has been a bastardized hook/crook job that took about 10 saves to figure out right - LOL - but visitorship is down - in part cause of the holidays and in part cause I said I was going on vacation - :D- so now's the time to screw stuff up.

--------------

I liked this picture Pauly took -



he joked that I was beginning the prayer service at the WPBT - I probably have more religious education then anyone at the WPBT (biblical studies minor in college) but I don't see myself becoming the Father Dowling of Poker - LOL -

wish I could have hung out with him and Iggy - but moreso, I wish I had done so when I was still boozing. - LOL I keep begging them to come out so I can get them stoned in MN, cause I still can use that one - LOL -

---------------

I guess I'm all out of things to talk about - (did I mention I scored $400 in tourney wins and 500 in TLB points this week on Pokerstars - LOL - ) -

One more thing - you might notice some funny changes to the blog, esp. to posts - I have decided to start showing some restraint and started deleting posts that I felt were inferior to others - and I'm gonna go back to April and wind my way up...

Why? - for one - I have no editor and my mouth goes non stop - It takes 3 days for me to realize I should have shut my mouth, and then I can correct the issue - SO - I'm gonna go thru and clean house a bit -

but mostly, I think some of the stuff I wrote pre-sobrity sucks dogass - LOL - I once had a friend tell me that we (him and I) were overly-sensitive guys - meaning that we are too emotional, essentially - LOL. But I got dragged into the nice part of that over-emotional side. Too deep into introspection and too far away from action - too much into victimization and not enough vengence. This has become unacceptable to me as of late.

Once in a while you need a different kind of emotion - the kind that sends you into the temple and overturning the moneychanger's tables - that righteous indigniation over fuckwads like Pat Robertson, who said Ariel Sharon's stroke was judgement from God. - there's a need for guys like me to kick guys like that in the balls - hard.

prepare for ball-kicking in 2006 - I'm sober, pissed, and I've been celibate for way too long - balls are going to be kicked.

but for now, maybe I'll play with the template for the site - hope you have a rocking weekend -

pax
RB

allrighty - what happened in 24 hrs...

not much - got home and signed up for a 800 player 5.50 tourney - ended up taking 8th - busted when I reraised with JJ, ran into 99 - and the mofo flopped a 9 but I took A2 vs AQ and hit, so I totally recognize the swings.

when we were 27, I was average stacked - 25 times BB - and twice my opponent to my left got AA - took out 2/3rds of my stack and left me with about 11 tiems BB in 7th of 14th when it was all done - overall, I'm amazed I didn't bust there, esp. since I had J7 in a blind, he limped UTG with the monster, and I flopped top pair.

One of my fav hands - I'm in MP and I limp with 77 - we have a LP and a BB -

flop comes AK4 with two hearts - it's checked around
turn comes the 2 of hearts, BB checks and suddenly I just see the hand...

"They're all scared - one bet will drag this pot - probably about 2.5 times the BB - and if I get repopped, easy laydown, but if they don't have a draw to a monster, they're leaving when I bet.

I bet, they fold, and I pick up enough blinds to keep grinding - (I was 12-20 times BB for most of the last 2 hrs, but the difference is the 2nd hr everyone else starts ending up in the same spot - LOL.

I had this weird thing going - I imagined I was playing a tourney and giving commentary. I think this would be a great idea - Pokerstars has been doing some tourney replays and will be doing some with the guys at the PCA - Get Greg Raymer on there, and have him discuss every hand he plays and what his thought process is - but of course, that leaves him wide open to being exploited - that may be too much info to give away about your game.

So I'm playing like I'm imagining I have observers, and I'm making a fold and thinking "see, that was KT offsuit, but I have terrible position on a full table - not worth it" and I think I played better as a result, actually -

It was a good tourney even though I didn't sleep till 1pm - only made 91 bucks, but had JJ held up vs 99 - who knows...

another day.

RB

I was writing a response to this post when I came to a conclusion.

I realized that unlike, say, the Whiskeytown of 2004, I don't pray for dying like I used to - LOL - I'm not overjoyed about my life - I'm made do with bad hands like 78 offsuit or A/rag in early position cause other doors/hands were closed to me right now, but I'm playing them to the best of my ability and raking in enough chips to stay ahead of the blinds. And now I'm in the running for a final table - just had to get thru the dry spells.

Things change. - I've been saying that a lot lately - whether in response to my life or in response to an asshole that caught runner runner on me -

but things change. Good....fruck -

RB

this song just rocks - all the best songwriters come from Canada -

Somewhere else - by Jim Bryson -

I used to look for you out in the daylight
I took highways and sidestreets and back lanes
Slept under open skies
Life can be cruel
Life can be sweet if I want it to be

This town that I once called home
I just can’t hold on to
It’s got bus stops and strip malls and people
I never really talk to
She said life can be sweet
But life is so cruel cuz I let it be

Everybody out here
They wanna live somewhere else
I wish I could find a place
and stay there by myself
Bit by bit I swear I think I’m losing
All this city’s confidence
I swear I've lost
All this city's confidence

Ok - this is a legitmate poker post which has legitimate news and info for the blogger community and may be of particular relevance to the WPBT Winter Classic community.

I have watched Phil Gordon's Expert Insight DVD that we got at the tourney from our friends at Full Tilt. It's pretty darned good... Here's some of the best stuff.

1. Phil doesn't waste time with poker catchup filler - no introductory chapters on how to play - I caught Howard Lederer's first DVD in a bin at a drugstore, and I knew virtually everything on it - with Phil, you dive right into the final table with faux characters like "Butch" from the cool kids crew and a woman named Harmony who is one of the top female players in the world. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson plays himself however.

I don't think there's anything more misleading in poker's image then final table televised poker. Edited in a way to leave in action hands, the general impression is a final table is all reraise/all-in/showdown every hand when actually we had 20 hands of raise/fold that never made the final table cause who cares if heads up the SB raised with AK into a 72 BB if the BB folded?

if he REPOPS, however, he becomes a pro if it's televised :) - it'll become an action hand that's televisied - swear to god....I think I'll try it sometime just to get some tv time and establish my image as a manaic on television - LOL -

BUT - in truthfulness, we have few sources for final table poker - Dan Harrington's book - Harrington on Holdem, Vol 2 - is the best - but Phil's is the funniest and I've missed something all these years..

I missed the rule of 4 and rule of 2 -

I'm trying to do pot odds as fractions in my head or decimals and it wasn't working - Phil describes the rule of 4 and rule of 2 as ways to compute pot percentages - basically post flop - you have 9 cards you think will give you the best hand - that's 9x4 = 36% chance to win the hand. - It's then easy to figure out bet percentages - if he's betting 100 into a 400 pot - that's a 20% pot odds - so I can easily call this with my % pot odds and can maybe even justify a raise to get a free turn card.

So THAT is great - easier then going 47 cards left - 7 outs, 40/7 which is sorta 5 and 3/4th to one blah balbahob

and I was GREAT at Math, so the way Phil describes it - (with decimal and percentages instead of ratios and fractions) - is so much easier for me to wrap my brain around -

He stresses Position - He stresses it early in it's own chapter, but virtually every following example hand he goes back to, his first analysis after his hand is position. Is he in or out of position. It's even more important to him then whether the raiser is a manaic, as far as I can tell. Not to sound modest, but a lot of the stuff he's preaching has become much clearer to me in recent months, but to hear it again helps a lot - esp. when it's entertaining.

and no FILLER - it went over 100 minutes and even covered short stack play. It also got a couple tricky sections in there about tells where characters will do certain things again - and they kinda see if you catch it.

This was an awesome DVD, and everything in it becomes pretty much solid poker from the bubble on up to the final table - so it's a nice compliment to Dan's book.

sidenote - can I just get an aside and talk about how fucking cool Phil Gordon is? - In addition to all his antics at the MGM that I miss, I've been to his website and especially the travel section - http://www.philgordonpoker.com/travel.html - is awesome. I use poker as an excuse to travel and work and hope to make enough money to retire and do that sort of thing. He just got rich and retired - good for him.

Good guy, good CD - and that is that.

I gotta meet my boss tonight at work. I'll have to dive in the shower and clean up. I don't really think I wanna meet this guy a lot....holy moly - do I ass kiss or be tough? - I used to be able to pull off the impressionable eager upstart looking for knowledge but I've drifted into grinding techie who wants more pay, more 3rd level tech experience, and less experience with management. And they've been trying to sell me on management for a bit now, but I think I'm more 3rd level tech status -

good times.

RB

Verbena - Into the Pink-

a little known 2nd album by a Carolina band - it had the stamp of Dave Grohl's production and I had seen one unimpressive video.

Mid 90's - I'm out of radio and a contractor for Rainier Technologies - telling myself I'm not a sellout because I'm well fed and middle class - (I was in a Tom Joad phase) - and I was sitting on the bench - (a step away from layoffs if you ask me) studying technologies - they're wanting us to know stuff.

I lose it - Lunch comes and I gun it for Uptown, where the counterculture of the mid 90's still found peace - Uptown reminds me a lot of NYC for some reason - all the foot traffic and weird stores - LOL -

then I went to Cheapo records where they had set up certain albums and listening stations - an employee recommended it so I eavesdropped it -

this is a good "fuck you album" - Like when you're at the poker table and you need something to remind you to tell your mouthy opponent to fuck off.

It's funny - having the right band in my headphones can actually make me feel superior to others - I'm privy to some special drug they're not privy to - it's as much a confidence booster to me as alcohol ever was...

I show up after a 100 min. lunch break - my fellow employees didn't notice I had been gone that long - everyone was dicking around...

It's good stuff - gotta get that Ipod Nano - LOL...

RB

alrighty - Whiskeytown's poker plans.

Bankroll is at 700 - took 3rd in a 180 player SNG - so I've got some money room and here's how I'm gonna play.

1 - Pokertrack everything - my Aggression Factor is a lot higher, thank goodness, both in limit and tourney games, though it's pretty weak preflop - I lost a lot of that if I don't pull the preflop stats, but I think I can play better post flop anyways....so I'm not sweating it -

It's more then just raising - it's calling/checking less with marginal shit to begin with.

2 - trying to build my limit BR - start with 300 in .50/$1 - play on till I get 300 times the BB for the next level, etc...no sweat...

3. - Ok - Ipod nano - 16000 FPP's - not even close to that BUT I have played several of the EPT FPP qualifiers and cashed them out - I was at 900 and am at 5600 - SO I get a few more - get to 16000 - THEN become silver star by getting 1500 in one month - shouldn't be a problem once I get the 16000 FPP'S

those are all the rules I have for myself right now but I'm keeping tourney buyins under 22 except for the $36 one we see some days...those satellites are easy.

that and keep dodging the bad beats - fucking KT - cocksucker.

RB

are you kidding me...

I can't take two weeks off -

Here's an essay I wrote - feel free to clip and pass on to your favorite poker sites anytime anyone starts talking about the ratings of the WPT dropping or losing revenue or whatever.....

---------------------------------------

I've been thinking about AA recently - and about how whenever I'm up against them, I shrug as if to say "ah well, I went up vs. the best" - kinda like a boxing tourney where you accidently draw first competition with last year's champ - you were sorta just not gonna win it - and the only smart thing you can do is seriously examine you were in the hand and hope it was justified - like you had KK.

In fact, everyone winces - here in Minnesota, Canterbury Park has AA Tuesdays. If pocket rockets get cracked, it's 75 bucks to you - the 2/4 and 3/6 games are full by noon - LOL. There are a lot of people in MN who believe they're SO unlucky, they'll fill the casino on this day thinking their luck will suck and they'll make money. This is what we have.

And for those of you laughing - get bent - we've had the same thing in poker for years. It's just called Razz and lowball - - a bunch of people playing a game partially because they believe their luck is so bad, their hands are good.

Actually, the Excalibur in Vegas has a wheel to spin when they get cracked, but it's a consolation prize - a few prizes are less then a NL buyin - but the point is, poker rooms can actually increase business by holding giveaways to the losers of AA - that tells you two things.

1. - Cardrooms make shitloads of money
2. - AA doesn't get cracked all that often in real life.

But we all wince when we see AA get cracked - and we tap the table out of respect if it was played right, and if played wrong (like slowplayed with 4 limpers already in the pot) - we'll usually go out of our way to educate them - that's not the strength of Aces, etc, etc - as if we feel they MUST know how to play those right, even though educating him will only cut into our profits that day.

I think we see Aces in the hole as like our daughter's virginity. It SHOULDN'T get cracked - it will sometimes, but it SHOULDN'T - they should remain pure and uncracked - even if she's 33 and has breast implants and dances around a pole at the strip club -

And so when they do, the guy who did it sometimes acts like he just got caught boning the father's daughter. Some shrug? - some talk smack - but I would imagine the reaction is very similar in both situations.

So, next time - just silently think to yourself -If you're doing the cracking - think this -

- "I'm fucking your beautiful virgin 21 year old sorority cheerleading daughter"

and if they got cracked - think this...

- "This arrogent little fuck just deflowered my baby princess"

----------------------------------------------

there - if THAT doesn't improve the WPT's ratings, then nothing will.