Hella Hold'em

Poker!!!

I've got a date tonight with the glorious game that so birthed this wonderful blog.

Ryan, a frequent attendee of Scott's Diamond games, is hosting the second instance of his own game, from now on affectionately referred to as the Trojan Wars. You see, Ryan hosted this game last year, but I had made such a donkeriffic move in that tournament that I never got around to naming the game. In a combination of verbal and written discourse that I could never do justice to by explanation alone, Ryan mistakenly referred to his game as the Diamond game, much to the dismay of Scott (who has been running the Diamond games for years).

Suffice it to say, when I received the Trojan condom in the mail along with the official papers declaring Ryan's game as the Trojan Wars, I just about lost it in hysterical laughter.

So, I'm heading off to the Trojan Wars tonight. Randy will be joining me, and I expect to see a few familiar faces from the Diamond games. I haven't seen the guys in a while, so I'm looking forward to that (aside from looking forward to actually playing poker).

I think this is a rebuy NLHE tourney, though I only have enough scratch to walk in with one buy-in. The proverbial "money is tight around here" complaint hasn't changed a single iota. I'm flying in on a wing and a prayer for a little luck, and the wisdom not to do anything completely stupid.

I don't have a game plan, really, in terms of playing. I've had a tendency in the past to play entirely too weak-tight after a long stretch without poker, so I suppose my initial emphasis should be on shaking off the rust and avoiding my timid tendencies.

There are rumored to be 25+ people attending this game, so the prize pool should be ripe. If anybody's got any luck to spare, I'm humbly but gladly accepting donations!

Can you tell I'm catching up on my reading?

Thank you, Gracie, for your post about tilt-shift miniature faking. It goes quite well with my photography hobby. I love your shrunken dogs!!! Now to shrink my felines, mwahahaha.

If I have any success, I will be sure to share.

I don't know why, but every time this chick pops onto the radar, it's like I'm driving past a car wreck and have just GOT to look!

Cliff's Notes for Brandi's latest, by Waffles

This here blog turned 3 years old the other day. Ringing in the new year is always a time to reflect on the previous year and look forward to new possibilities.

My 2007 Year in Review begins with the first few sentences from the first post of each month of 2007:

January: Tomorrow, this blog turns 2 years old. The cliche thing to do around this time of year is to draw up some resolutions for the new year. I thought I'd first look back at last year's resolutions, and see how many came to fruition.

February: Empress has live poker again!

March: Chances are slim that I'll play poker tonight. I'm sitting at Empress right now, on the list for 5/10 holdem. Ninteenth on the list.

April: No posts

May: Learned an interesting lesson last week at a poker game. NLHE, hosted by Ryan (a regular attendee of the Diamond games).

June: If you haven't watched the WPT Mandalay Bay episode yet, or don't want to know what happens, stop reading now! Spoilers ahead!

July: "Run over" does not begin to describe the past hour or so I've spent on Full Tilt. 4 SnG's. Four 8th or 9th place finishes. Ouch.

August: Welp, it took a while (5 hours or so), but I doubled my buy-in tonight at Majestic. If ever there was a session that qualified for the label "grinding out a win," this was it.

September: I'm back to an empty tank in terms of my bankroll. I spent what I'd won in July on fantastic weekends seeing Dave Matthews Band in Indianapolis and in Milwaukee (close enough). I pulled out most of my Full Tilt money to pay off the October Vegas trip that I charged.

October: Ever had one of those yawner sit n go's? You know, the kind where you're fold fold folding because your cards suck THAT bad, but nobody else is doing anything?

November: I drank the Apple Kool Aid.

December: I hope you're all enjoying Vegas! Wish I was there!

And thus went 2007 in my world. Let's see how I did with my 2007 resolutions:

My poker goals for 2007:

• Reseed my B&M bankroll and continue playing $5/10 limit holdem - Nope. Never got there.
  
• Learn to play the player and not just my cards. - Still working on it.
  
• Make it out to Vegas at least once this year. - I did, but it wasn't a poker trip.

Last year, I wrote that "Sometimes, life, family and work have to come before poker - but that doesn't diminish my love for the game." That holds true today.

As I look forward to 2008, poker remains a hobby, though it is no longer my primary passion. 2007 saw me add photography and birding to my list of hobbies, and one of my goals of 2008 is to add meteorology and weather photography to the list. I still intend to play poker each chance I get, but like last year, my financial situation doesn't lend itself well to seeding the bankroll I'd need to play poker seriously. And I'm OK with that. I spent a chunk of change on new toys in 2007, and I'm going to spend 2008 enjoying them (and paying them off!)

I may not see as much live poker as I'd like to in 2008, but I still get my fix via the TiVo :)

I suppose my resolution for 2008 is to continue to enjoy and improve my skills in ALL of my hobbies - including poker.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2008, and the hope that everybody finds something to love and enjoy and feel passionate about.