Da Tins I Du

Hey, there! Caught me on the toilet. I'll be with you in a minute....

That's better. Its a good thing we know eachother so well or that would have been embarassing. You must really be wondering about me to just barge in like that.

In short, not much. I didn't play any poker to speak of during the entire month of September. I guess I was content to rest on my success from August (or worried about taking a downward turn). Even this month, I haven't played much even though I had intended to do so.

The new plan has been to try a different scene at Hollywood Park Casino. Its a little shorter distance from home and I used to play there primarily. But that was more than 18 months ago. My first session back there was on a Friday night when Kid Crash joined me and I staked him in the same $200 buy-in NLH game that I was in. In the end, he lost and I won enough to still turn a small win. Perhaps more important was that I found the game to be extremely soft. That's what I was hoping for. Now if only it could be that way every day.

In the two weeks since, I have only been back to HPC a couple of times. Fortunately, the games were every bit as easy as the first. One of the sessions was even in a $400 buy-in NLH game. It was made up of the same players as the 200 game. They just move down when they are losing and back up when they get on a roll. Sadly, that means they either hit-n-run on the 200 tables or lose-and-flee from the 400 game. So chips don't tend to stay in play for long at the lower game and the fishier players don't continue dumping in the bigger game. Still, the games are nice and soft.

I'd like to order the Erica Pikari Dust Ruffles. (Oops. Sorry. I'm watching Fight Club so I may fade in and out. But SMC already knows this.)

The down side, other than not playing enough, is that I haven't had a winning session since the night I played with Kid Crash. But not to worry. The losses were very small. I also managed to enjoy myself. This was partly due to the Thursday $20+15 multi-rebuy tourney. I used to play alot of HPC's weekly evening events. In fact, that's how I got started in serious poker...sort of. Years ago, I used to play tight regardless of the tourney format. But now I know differently. I play pretty damn loose in rebuy events and have a blast doing it. And if I happen to chip-up before the end of the rebuy period, the fun continues. This last time, I was really rolling in the first hour and got the entire table playing ultra-loose. It was great. Too bad I went card dead after the rebuy period when I had to tighten up a bit. No cash for me there.

Marla, you big liar! You tourist! I need this! Now get out!

I just read Brando's mini-rant about the WSOP-ME-Final-Table-pray-fest and am inspired to give my take on it: Jesus f'ing christ! What is wrong with you people?! Poker may be legitimized now but its still a form of gambling and that just doesn't fit in with religion. I'm not religious at all. In fact, I don't believe in a god. But if I did and fealt that my prayers were heard, I would probably use that power sparingly. Doesn't it seem like a bit of a stretch to invoke Jesus every time someone is all-in? Come on. What if someone in your family gets sick in the following week? You genuflect and get ready to pray the shit out of this one only to find that you've exceeded your prepurchased prayer limit.

Of course, that would only litteraly happen with a cell phone. But doesn't it seem a bit greedy, self-serving, and selfish to call on the man upstairs for every little thing? I think it does. If I was on the other end of the prayer line, I would eventually feel the need to say "fuck thou! I'm on a break." But, of course, God is omnipotent and loving and all-forgiving. Even being omnipresent, he couldn't have time for a social life.

Mother fucker! You hit me in the ear! Why the ear?

What's worse is that Lee Watkinson's wife/fiancee (don't get me started on that) wasn't just praying when he was all-in, she was quoting scripture. I think is was something along the lines of "He who brings false weapons against me shall not prevail." It was definitely something like that. And considering the fact that he was all-in as a dog, it didn't even apply! Please, folks, let the numbers speak. If a hand has 4% chance to win, it is not a miracle that allows that percent dog to suck out. It is just simple probability kicking in. Whatever! I'm too tired and drunk to go any further into it.

Truth be told, I left before the previous paragraph and went bar hopping. So while I was watching Fight Club before, I am now watching Real Genius on Mojo. Right now, Val Kilmer is rolling coins over both sets of knuckles, something I used to be in awe of but now do to pass the time at any poker table. That's right. I have magic fingers.

'Rue the day'? Who talks like that?

I'll leave you with that. No! Wait...

I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

SEEYa