Thursday, June 30

Last day of the month...and it has been a hectic month at that....Can't believe that tomorrow is July 1st already...unreal!!!!

Well, I'm back from the audit in VA...looks like there will be more updates like the one below in the coming days, as I am now the lead compliance auditor for Bath & Body Works. Means lots of travel in my future as I visit the vendors, audit their systems and processes and ensure that they maintain the high level of quality we damand and our customers expect. Lot's of work...and I'm not sure how the travel schedule will fit with the family schedule and such, especially with the new baby on the way.

Speaking of such, we get to find out the sex of the baby on Tuesday when we go in for the ultrasound...so we'll be able to start working on names and decorations for the baby's room....YEAH!!!!

And it's time for Origins....how cool is that. Jason and Kristie arrived last night from the Philly area and are probably hitting the convention center as I type this for their first day of events. I'll be joining up with them later this evening in time for the first night of poker and whatever other mayhem I can fit into the evening, then spending the rest of the weekend with them (and the rest of the gang) at the convention center. Way cool.

Not much else to speak of...had a good week at the $5/10 tables on UB...made about $300 over the couple of days in VA from the hotel room, so that was pretty cool. Considering I'm only playing for an hour or so at a time, I'm very happy wth the results.

Probably won't get to update much over the weekend, but will fill everyone in when I can.

Lynchburg, VA update

Nothing exciting to post at this point....just returned from the first day of a vendor audit here in VA. Couple of minutes to check my email and such, then off to dinner with the gang here. Will update more later. Also, anyone reading this looking for poker updates should click the link on this page for Tao of Poker for the best coverage of the WSOP on the internet.

~quick update~

Man, do I love the soft $5/10 games on UB....just cleared a quick $160 in about 30 minutes on UB....players calling down raises with third pair and such, chasing flushes.....everything rolling my way tonight. Only hand that had me groaning was a multi-way pot that started with me in the BB with A8os....5 players see the flop for the minimum and it hits 8K8...I check from early position and so does everyone else to the button, who opens the pot....everyone calls...2 on the turn and we check to the bettor, who opens the pot...I raise for $20 and everyone folds to the button, who raises me back. I cap at $40 and the river hits an A, so I've made my boat...I open, he raises, I re-raise, he caps and I call....and we both flip A8os for a split pot.....I was already counting the $160 pot and instead make about $20 on the whole thing.....crazy, crazy cards some nights on UB.....lol.

g'night all

Time flies

What a rough couple of days....Headed to NY/NJ early Wednesday morning for a business trip...flight at 6:30am, so that was a rough morning to say the least. Spent about 4 hours with the vendor, reviewing their response to our audit last month and their plan of corrective action in the coming months. Went very well and the company is on the right track to make the improvements needed to meet our certification requirements. Finished up around 2:30pm.

Decided to head down into NYC, as Andy (another auditor on the trip) wanted to try and pick up some gifts down in Chinatown. Now, for anyone not familiar with Chinatown, it is a collection of small ethnic shops selling all kinds of food, trinkets, etc that give it the feel of a flea market. Most of the stuff is pretty cheap...NY t-shirts, hats, etc., scarves, cheap watches, etc. However, if you're persistent, you can haggle with the vendors and get a decent deal on what you're buying...also, if you ask the right person, you may be able to find designer knock-offs of purses, clothing, watches, etc. This is what we were looking for...Andy's fiancee has a huge collection of designer purses and Andy was hoping to save some money by getting designer knock-offs of the latest fashions at a fraction of the price....so we wandered around the shops while he asked the vendors for Prada and Louis Vitton purses....we met with blank stares and negative responses for about an hour....

in the pouring rain....

and the general smell of Chinatown, which at times borders on open sewer...

anyway, we finally found someone willing to pull the purses for Andy from some back hidden closet and wheel and deal with him. And by this time, it had stopped raining, so things turned around for us. Ended up finishing the shopping and headed to a good mexican restaurant on Broadway that I know and downed a couple of margaritas and nachos......mmmmmmm.

After that, we trekked back into Chinatown to pick up the car, which was decorated witha parking ticket from NYC finest for illegal parking....which was strange, as everyone else was parked on the street, but I guess we needed a permit or something....just glad the car was still there and not towed. Ninty minutes later (8pm) we're over in NJ and at the hotel for a relaxing evening or hotel room TV and checking emails. felt REAL good to get the shoes off and unwind from the day. Contemplated playing some poker on UB, but decided against it, as there were some huge stacks sitting on the $5/10 tables ($1000 plus) that indicated some hot players (max buy-in to the $5/10 is $500) so Idecided against it, as I was pretty tired and didn't feel like poker.

Thursday found us at a distribution center that one of our vendors owns for shipping finished goods for a mini-audit. Nothing surprising, except for my growing auditor expertise and randomly walking out into a warehouse, finding a pallet and then having the vendor struggle to pull a history and status from their inventory program. I had found a pallet of body wash from 2002 that was labeled as rejected in their racks and wanted to know why it was rejected and hed been sitting there for 3 years....they looked up the location and their system showed it as an empty location....hmmmmmmmm....gotta love throwing the locals into a tizzy with a simple request. They spent the next hour trying to figure out what was going on.

Anyway, had a nice lunch at a NJ deli with outdoor seating on a tree covered patio...was very relaxing and then headed for Newark Airport for the flight home....nothing significant to report, except I hate flying commercial after getting spoiled by our corporate shuttle. I also realized that I could have been upgraded to first class if I had read my frequent flyer ticker on Continental and asked to be bumped up....oh well...next time.

Finally get back to Columbus and have to haul myself and my bags across the airport to get to the car....head out of the towards the expressway and propmtly rear-end an elderly couple that was headed home from a vacation in Hawaii.....the car in front of tham had panic braked, so they slammed on theirs and I hit mine, but slid into their bumper. Thankfully no one was injured, as i only hit them at 5-10 miles an hour I would guess...scratched their bumper and bent my license plate...we exchanged information and wnet on our way. I'm going to call and check up on them today and make sure they are ok. Last thing I need right now is a claim on the insurance and have my rates go up....first accident that was my fault since I was 16....so not bad over 20 years, but I still don't want the hassel.

Anyway, time to get some work done and try and slide through the day. Big pans for the weekend, as I have some friends coming into town for a local card tourney tomorrow and then some good times afterwards. Can't wait.

Weekend Update

Happy Belated Father's Day to any dads out there this morning. I had a pretty cool weekend overall...spent some time with the girls on Saturday after getting the prerequisite lawn mowing done on Sat morning...I think I upset the neighbors a bit, as they were all trying to have a garage sale Sat morning and I was mowing and making it hard for them to talk....oh well. And the lawn mower has been acting up since it ate a welcome mat a couple of weeks ago in the garage...just another sign of too much crap in the garage when I try to wedge the lawnmower into the garage (of course it was still running....sheesh) and the welcome mat falls off the stack of stuff and proceeds to get torn to shreds and stall out the motor on the lawn mower. I've run it a few times since then, but this weekend it was really bad...of course, it could also be the dregs of the bottom of the gas can as well....will get new gas this week and hopefully that will solve the problem.

Played some cards on Sat evening as well....first some Magic with Mike at his place for a couple of hours. Was great fun to joke around and play the game casually again....not enough to regret selling all of my cards mind you, but fun none the less...looking forward to this weekend with Dave and Burton at the tourney on Saturday, should be tons of fun.

Sat evening found Mike and I at a 26 man $20 poker tourney over on the west side. Bunch of guys that Mike knows from work amongst some other poker players, was a great atmosphere, as the guys made me welcome and we all had some fun. I liked the tourney, as they started you with $15,000 in chips, blinds at 25/50 for the first hour, then doubled every 30 minutes. Mike went out early (can't remember the details)...I do remember a couple of hands that led to my demise about halfway through the tourney....first was catching KK in middle position in the first hour...raised to $250 and got the blinds to call me. Flop hit 494 and I felt that I was in great shape when the blinds check to me....I bet $400, small blind folds and I get called from the big blind...I expect he's on AK or something and hoping to catch an A (they had been hitting all night), but I feel that I'm ahead in the hand at this point. A 10 hits the board on the turn, still putting no scare cards against my KK on the board...he checks and I fire $1000 into the pot...he thinks for a couple of minutes and then calls the bet. I'm not sure what he's thinking at this point, as I don't feel he has a 4, and am thinking that maybe he has QQ or JJ and is having trouble letting them go. A deuce hits the river and he checks again. I fire out a $2000 bet and he agonizes over the decision and finally calls me....I flip the KK and he happily flips over J4 for a set and the pot. Why he played J4 from the big blind with a 4xBB raise is beyond me, but it paid off for him.....and in what would become a theme for the rest of the evening sets of 4's won numerous pots when out gunned at the table...took down KK, AA, etc for the better part of 2 hours. Was amazing. Anyway, I got knocked out after moving tables and getting cold cards for the next hour, finally blinding out and getting pushed from the small blind for my last 6500 in chips...I had K-10os and decided to take my chances...he had A9 and caught a 9 on the flop to take the pot and knock me out. Was a good game and I hpe to play it again soon.

Sunday found the Villa family on the road to Toledo...spent some time with Jen's family first, always an entertaining time, then headed over to see my dad at his new condo. Had a nice visit with him and got to give him his new computer...actually saw a tear in his eye when he realized what daryl and I had gotten him. Spent most of the afternoon setting it up for him and showing him how to use it. Hopefully he'll read this blog later today and see the update.....Happy Father's Day Dad...

TTFN

Friday Morning

UGH...what a day and night. Spent yesterday in NJ for a Microbiological professional meeting, which went very well and was very imformative. Ended up meeting a bunch of co-workers for dinner (beer and filet...yum) that was filled with laughter and good times.....then the evening comes to a crashing halt at 7pm when we get to the airport and find that the company shuttle from NJ to Columbus will be delayed from 7:30 to 8:30 due to a flight backlog in the NJ/NY area...so we settle down for some mindless TV and wait


and wait


and wait....announcement, flight will be further delayed until 9:30

and we wait

and wait

They start boarding at 9:25 and we're in the air at 9:40...get back to Columbus at around 11:10, which puts me home at 11:35 or so....talk to Jen, check email and such, get to bed around 12:15....

Wake up with a leg cramp at 1:27.....HURT LIKE HELL!!!! Still does as a matter of fact....has to be about the worst way to wake up from a deep sleep....no, check that....getting kneed in the groin by a 4 year old when she jumps on the couch to wake you up from a nap is the worst way....I stand corrected.

So here I am...bleary eyed and getting ready for work at 6:20am....going to be a long day.

Have plans on attending a home game tomorrow night, so looking forward to taht...will ned to get some sleep tonight or I'll be drooling on the table by 10pm.

TTFN

Wednesday morning

Not much going on over the last couple of days. Julie, Dave and Jonas are safe and sound in Toledo after getting through the initial stay at the hospital and through the courts. Looks like the adoption is official and he is officially part of the family....YEAH!!!!!!

Had a pretty good night on UB last night...hit a fairly loose $5/10 table and was able to walk away with about $180 in profit after about an hour....also played in a TV qualifier tourney at the same time and qualified for a second tourney to try and get a seat in a televised event in Vegas. SO...I have to place in the top 3 in a tourney on 6/26 to qualify for an all expense paid trip to Vegas over the July 4th weekend to play against other online players in a live game for a bunch of cash. Will screw up the plans I currently have for the holiday weekend, but I'll worry about that if I happen to wade through 1500 other qualified players and win the seat. Had to work out an error by UB on the issue, as I had qualified for a TV tourney a couple of weeks ago to play on 6/19 for a shot at the Vegas trip. Found out last night that they had canceled the 6/19 tourney and moved it to 6/26...so I played last night to qualify for an event I was already qualified for (wasting my $5 entry)....so I did what any self-respecting poker player would do when faced with loosing any amount of money, I complained to customer service, and they very quickly refunded my money, so that ended up all good for me. If things don't go well for me on the 26th, I'll just have to try and qualify again in July with the $5.
Not much else to speak of...supposed to be a departmental re-alignment today....no job losses, just a realignment to better support the needs of the business. Outside shot at a promotion for me, but I'm not counting on it. Will keep you all posted....TTFN.

Quick Update

Nothing of much importance to note...pretty slow day at work today, just getting ready for the audit in VA in a couple of weeks, pulling old reports, making travel arrangements, etc. Looking at the possibilities of buying a new home, so we'll keep you posted...if interested in what we're looking at, lookup www.realtor.com and MLS number 2521264. The pics don't do justice...the house is really cool, multi-level home, lots of hardwood, big back yard with a multi-story deck, big unfinished basement, etc....hoping we can pull it off...will need to be doing some finishing touches to our place to get it ready to sell if we decide to persue.

Was able to get some poker in last night after the girls went to bed...rebounded from my loss on Friday to post about $70 in profit last night...decided to try my hand at two tables at the same time, playing $5/10 and $4/8 on UB....I don't personally like to multi-table, as I loose track of player tendencies, but i do play much tighter, as I can't afford to waste time with marginal hands. Didn't have much luck with the cards and was positive about $35 on each table...nothing to speak of, but did clear about $10 in bonus money instead of $5 like normal, so that is a benefit.

Planning on getting some gaming in with Burton tonight...either testing for Regionals or playing Settlers of Cataan in preparation for Origins at the end of the month. Either way, I'm sure we'll have some fun. Will fill in tomorrow on the evenings activities. TTFN

Welcome Jonas David Deal

Some quick photos to welcome Jonas David Deal to the world. Cute as a button and was great fun to get to meet him yesterday.

Julie and Jonas say hello to everyone

Ashley, David (proud daddy), Danielle and Jonas at the hospital.

Hello world...here I come.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed for his close-up

Streak ends

After 9 straight positive session at $5/10 (up $950) I just dropped my first negative session this morning over about 45 minutes of play...($-172). Had been playing pretty even until the following hand came up:
BillJoel is at seat 0 with $687.
SlickMaster is at seat 1 with $858.
bhickey is at seat 2 with $427.
rjr1647 is at seat 3 with $513.
vandy1120 is at seat 4 with $66.
MVilla888 is at seat 5 with $336.50.
tqo is at seat 6 with $51.
pokerclem is at seat 7 with $536.50.
ru1992 is at seat 9 with $431.
The button is at seat 7.
ru1992 posts the small blind of $2.
BillJoel posts the big blind of $5.
BillJoel: -- --
SlickMaster: -- --
bhickey: -- --
rjr1647: -- --
vandy1120: -- --
MVilla888: Js 8s
tqo: -- --
pokerclem: -- --
ru1992: -- --
Pre-flop:
SlickMaster calls. bhickey folds. rjr1647 calls.vandy1120 folds. MVilla888 calls. tqo folds.pokerclem folds. ru1992 folds. BillJoel checks.

Flop (board: 8c Kc Jd):

BillJoel bets $5. SlickMaster folds. rjr1647 raises to $10. MVilla888 calls. BillJoel calls.
In hindsight...I should have raised here I think, but I'm pretty sure that BillJoel would have called down anything with AJ at this point....maybe not....

Turn (board: 8c Kc Jd Jh):

BillJoel checks. rjr1647 checks. MVilla888 bets$10. BillJoel raises to $20. rjr1647 folds. MVilla888 re-raises to $30. BillJoel re-raises to$40. MVilla888 calls.
OK...I know he has a J at this point, but I don't think he has KJ since he didn't reraise post flop. I figure him for AJ or 10-J at this point (as he had played 10-J in previous hands.

River (board: 8c Kc Jd Jh As):

BillJoel bets $10. MVilla888 raises to $20.BillJoel re-raises to $30. MVilla888 calls.

Sigh...smelled a rat on the reraise and pretty much knew he had AJ at this point....had to call it though....

Showdown:
BillJoel shows Jc Ad.BillJoel has Jc Ad Jd Jh As: full house, jacks full of aces.
MVilla888 mucks cards.(MVilla888 has Js 8s.)
Hand #6413407-3469 Summary:
$3 is raked from a pot of $192.BillJoel wins $189 with full house, jacks full of aces

So, instead of turning around my session with a huge pot, I drop about $85 on this hand and can't recover...hopefully will turn it around again this evening after the girls go to bed.

Day home from work

Jen had a rough night last night and we ended up at the baby doctor to make sure everything was ok...baby and Jen are just fine, so thank goodness for that. So if anyone tried to catch up with me at work, I'll get the messages tomorrow. She's feeling better now (after some rest) and I'm going to get dinner started soon. One of our neighbors watched the girls at the last minute for us, and then made us a nice chicken cassarole for dinner, since we weren't sure what the outcome of the doctor's visit was going to be. Was very nice of them, and Jen and I will have to reciprocate in some way.

Also, a fun note from last night...I was wandering the aisles of Blockbuster when I ran into the same neighbor (Lennie) and her two boys...they had been looking for Star Wars 4 & 5 (the first 2 from the series in the 80's) to watch, but they were out of copies at the store...I had mine and was happy to let them borrow them...made my evening to see the eldest sone (7-8 years old) light up and he started bouncing around like it was Christmas...just doing my best to mold the sci-fi geeks of tomorrow.....lol.

Planning on some poker tonight on UB...(finally)...haven't played since Sunday and I should be able to get some hands in tonight (especially after I got a nap in this afternoon as well....sweet). Will follow up with any report from the session later tonight or tomorrow. I'm also going to pour over my PT stats for awhile, as I have been looking more and more at my V$IP (vol. money in pot...basically how many times I play hands) and I am consistently a 30% player...have been for the past 6 months even though I try and play 'tight'....my aggression factor is solid (1.8) and I have a decent win at showdown percentage (46.9%) which all places me in a slightly-loose, solid, aggressive player (per PT rating rules). I'm a pretty decent $5/10 player...with a 71% session win rate...although win I loose, I tend to drop $200 or so, and some of my 'positive sessions' are for $25.00...so that is not a fantastic stat to base anything on...but it's nice to look at.

Anyway, I don't think that I play out of the ordinary hands....if anything, I probably play week Ax hands more than I should...here are my top/bottom 5 hands by profitability...

Wins
KK 75% win +597
AJo 68% +477
JJ 69% +367
QQ 68% +355
AKs 89% +260
33 54% +257

Losses
A5s 21% -255
AKo 54% -253 (I obviously need to learn to let go of big slick)
J10o 24% -228
J10o 24% -228
Q8o 6% -219
KJo 37% -173

Interesting....Q8 is one of my favorite pet hands....I think I won an online tourney last summer playing Q8 and hit a full house on the flop, so I tend to play it much more than I should (yikes...6% win rate with it...yuck). In general, it looks like I need to let go of playing "paint" cards quite so much, as I'm loosing a good chunk of change playing those hands...I think I get bored too easy playing tight at the tables and will then play paint cards with the perception that they're 'good'.....this was actually a very informative blog to write, as I see some holes in my game...I do believe that you have to 'give action to get action' at the tables..so I have to play some of them, but I'm playing too many of them based on these stats. While I doubt that I'll ever get myself to a 20% player, I would like to tighten up to 25% and get rid of some of these weaker hands from my playbook.

Thanks for reading everyone...any feedback would be appreciated.

Made the big time

For any fans of poker blogs, please check out the link below "Tao of Poker". This guy is the best and is currently doing live coverage blogs from the WSOP...much better coverage than we're seeing from Cardplayer or any of the other sites. Up to the minute play and results...very cool, and very well written....and to top it off, he's added me on his links for poker blogs...how cool is that.

Not much poker to speak of...finally received confermation that my cash out from UB has occured and now I'm waiting for the transfer from Netteller to my home account. Of course, UB is now offering a 50% reload bonus for the next couple of days, so I may trya nd pull more cash off UB, let it hit Netteller and then redeposit it back on UB to up my bonus amount again...I currently have about $350 in bonus cash to clear, but another $100 in free money is always cool. Hoping to play some poker this weekend, either in a local home game or definately some UB. Have a half day on Friday here at work, so we're trying to plan an outing with the girls...maybe the zoo or something if the weather cooperates.

Not much else going on....take care all.

House hunting and allergies

Had some fun last night looking for a new house...saw a very nice older brick home (1910) in Pataskala...had a nice lot and the house was spectacular, but it was the showpiece of the neighborhood...neighboring houses were probably only worth half as much and the house was about 100 yards from a set of railroad tracks...sad, as the house had everything we wanted, but the location wasn't that great.

Saw a very interesting house in an older development...was a 4xlevel house, which sounds odd, but the main floor consisted of a center kitchen area, then two side levels about 3-4 steps down that went to a living room and a dining room. House had tons of potential (3 level deck out back), mature trees, huge residential lot. If we had the finances ready to go, we'd probably put an offer on it, as it was that cool. Keep your fingers crossed for us to hit something in the MegaMillions tonight....$25-50,000 would put us in the new house easily.

Seems like seasonal allergies are starting up for me....lots of itchy eyes and sinus headaches over the past couple of days. Will probably have to start taking something soon, especially if it keeps getting worse. I hate this time of year.

Added a bunch of poker blog links on the site...Starting to look like a real blog now and I'm actually learning how to manipulate the web site...thank goodness for slow days at work....lol.

No poker since the big win on Sunday....waiting to get my cash out cleared from UB and then will probably play later this week....hopefully the cash out curse won't hit me again. Jen has to work on Thursday night, then we have Fri and Sat completly free...we'll have to come up with something to do, hopefully the weather will cooperate, maybe a zoo trip or something.

Well...enough for now...time to get some work done.

Start of another week

Looks like a good one here at work...boss is in Europe for the week, so that should keep things more relaxed here today. I have to cover for a couple of my direct reports today that are out on vacation, so that will keep me busy, but not overly so....so that is a great thing. Going to look at some new houses tonight in Pataskala after work with Jen and the girls, so that should be fun. One of them is an old brick Victorian style home in Pataskala, so that should be cool. I don;t think we're seriously considering moving right now, but if the right house comes along...who knows.

Have had a great run at poker over the last few days....played Sat evening and was up about $70 at the $5/10 tables on UB after slipping down $200 at the beginning of the session, was able to get a rush late and end up positive for the session, so that was cool...then verything clicked last night...was hitting sets and nut flushes left and right....ended up $300+ for the evening, so I'm back on a winning streak now (6 straight positive sessions for about +500 over the last week)...was able to pull money back of the site and still have profit to play on...so we'll see if the cashout curse hits again. I was studying more of my pokertracker stats last night as well...found the detail areas that show my day/time session stats....looks like I'm more profitable on the weekends and late in the week (Thur-Fri) than Mon-Wed....not sure if that means more casual/weaker players are playing on weekends, or better players early in the week...will have to keep an eye out on those stats. Going to keep looking at PT and trying to find any additional gems or holes in my game....it's still saying that I play too many hands....as I'm in pots about 30% of the time...I guess statistically a tight player should only be playing about 20% of their hands....but I like to see cheap flops with suited connectors, small pairs and such, as there is a huge upside when you hit those hands...and I don't want to get labeled too tight, as you don't get action on the big hands. Trust me, when monitoring a player online and they're only playing 15-20% of their hands and they come in for a raise, they have a monster and you have to bail unless you have one as well...it's funny to watch other players bet aganst them with their Ax hands and get run over by KK or AA every time. then they complain about their 'bad luck' when all they have to do is pay attention and realize that their opponent is only playing with top hands.

Nothing much scheduled for this week...meeting with a life insurance adjustor tomorrow to review my policies and probably getting Jen one as well...have to make sure the girls (and new baby) are taken care of just in case. May also look over my 401k and such to see if we're on the right track for me to retire someday.

Time for breakfast....TTFN.

Friday - end of the week, finally

So much to talk about this morning...where to begin.....

Bachelor days are here...Jen and the girls are in Toledo for a couple of days while her dad has some 'minor' surgery....no surgery is really minor, especially at his age, so my thoughts will be with her and her family today as they await the outcome. The optimist in me says everything will be fine, he's a tough old man. That being said, dinner last night was typical of bachelor-hood days...taco-bell.....mmmmmmmmm.

Went to see a house out in Kirkersville last night...5 acres, pool, barn, 4 bedrooms, den, bi-level house. It was nice, but nothing that 'took my breath away'. Have an appointment on MOnday for all of us to see it, as well as other houses in the area I hope. Loved the land the house sits on, just not enamored by the house....solid and in good shape, but just not a wow.

Played some poker last night at Bishop's house...great game (Grasshopper, Froggie, Bishop, Queen, Ice and Chris?..can never remember the big guys name)....had a blast goofing around and such....I played a very aggressive game, playing lots of hands and got burned for it...I think I was the first out in each game....was getting good starting hands, Ax suited, KK, QQ, AK, etc but missing completly on the flop and running into flushes and such. The Queen was red-hot, as she took down both games on the night, ousting Froggie both times...in the first game, he had a 4-1 chip lead on her.....4 straight all in bets from the Queen with a weaker hand that she caught cards with and she takes down the first game. She and Froggie end up pretty much even heads up in the second game and she does it to him again....was actually pretty funny at the time, but had to be rough for Froggie to play that well and walk out down $20. But like I said...the night was fantastic and I made a great time joking around with everyone....as Grasshopper said..."what is the worst that could happen?"

Planning on playing at the Preacher's game tonight, so hopefully I can catch some cards and make some money....of course, I'm also hoping to win the Mega-Millions lotto tonight (102 million), so hopefully it will be a great night for me.....wheeeeee.

Looks like a quiet day at work today....at least so far, as the building is pretty quiet right now...time for breakfast. TTFN.

Poker League Follow-up

Quick announcement...for any local Columbus poker players reading my blog, you should all try and get over to the Classic Bar & Billiards on Stygler Rd in Gahanna on Tuesday nights. Great bar and some fantastic poker in the RatPack Poker League. Games start at 6:30 and 9pm and last about 2 hours. Drink specials to poker players and prizes for the winners of each tourney. Had a great time last night and highly recommend it.

Speaking of last night....how's this for a quick tourney exit....first hand in the second session, I was sitting under the gun with A-Jos and limp in (as do the other 3 players at the table)...flop comes down Jc-3c-5c, giving me top pair but putting a flush on the board. Blinds check to me and I bet 20 (blinds 5-10)...Button folds and blinds both call me...Turn comes with Ad giving me top 2 pair, both blinds check again and I fire 50 into the pot...small blind folds and big blind (Flanders) smooth calls me....I should have had warning signals going off in my head, but was enamored by the top 2 pair I had just hit...river gives up a blank, Flanders checks to me and I fire 100 into the pot...he quickly calls and flips 2 clubs over for a flopped flush and takes the pot and about half of my starting stack.
Next hand, I see A-10os from the big blind...everyone limps in to me and I raise to 20 again...all call....flop comes A-xh-xh, putting a heart draw on the table and my top pair with solid kicker. Flanders checks from the small blind, I push 20 into the pot and Rick calls me (can't remember what Flanders did)...turn brings a club and I fire another bet into the pot (40), which is again called by Rick....river brings a 10h, giving me top 2 pair again, but completes the heart flush....I go all in and Rick calls and flips 2 hearts for the flush and takes me out of the tourney....two hands, top 2 pair in both and get beatin by flushes both times...good thing this was for fun and free.

On the family side....Ahsley is well on her way to being potty-trained...had an almost perfect day yesterday and is getting the hang of getting to the bathroom when she has to go....hopefully today will go as well and we'll be able to stop supporting papmers for a few months. Back to work now....