GCox25

Black Friday

2011-04-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

Black Friday, huh? I was out of town and didn't pay much attention until I got to work today and caught up with Google Reader. I can't say that I'm all that surprised or all that disappointed about the proceedings. I don't play that much any more and it really won't change my life that much. I feel bad for my friends that were working in the industry, but I'm sure that they will bounce back, they are way too talented and are entirely too smart to let this be a major setback. Good luck to them. So, just one short political comment about this whole deal. Don't you think that maybe the deficit or perhaps unemployment might be something that these folks need to concentrate on, rather than keeping me from jamming my entire $12.59 bankroll into the middle after the flop with just the nut flush draw? It's amazing to me, it really is, but you know, I feel a little more every day like a dinosaur. Sing it Hank. It's surely time that this place went dark anyway. Please turn out the lights if you're the last one out. G

Mookie

2010-12-22T17:10:00.001-08:00

Okay, it's been a hundred years since I last posted, but what the hell? Let's play the Mookie tonight. You in? I am and some of my best buds in the entire continent are too, come take me out!

Poker Rocks

2010-09-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

Poker is awesome, especially on Full Tilt Poker.

Sarcasm fully intended!

Until next time, I fold.

G

Back From Vacation

2010-07-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

I just got back from South Padre and I can defiitely vouch, if you've never been there, you don't know what you're missing.

The family went down for a week and I joined them on Thursday for a 4-day weekend and it was stellar. I'm tired, old, hung over and sun-burned, but I would have stayed for another week or so if I could have. It was awesome.

Poker is almost non-existent for the time being and perhaps, for the near future, as well. Running bad has become more than a habit for me and although I still get my money in good, for the most part, I can't seem to win a meaningful pot to save my life. Meh!

BLOW!

Until next time, I fold.

G

Poker Tip

2010-06-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here's how you know when it's time to quit:

KK vs. AA four times in less than two hours.
AA < JJ twice in four hours.

If you still have money left after that, it's time to quit. I didn't. Thanks a whole fucking lot Full Tilt.

BLOW.

Old Man Softball

2010-06-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Dad

2010-05-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

I know there's been things written about Dads lately on the blogs out there. I still read them all every day. I'm sorry that some of you didn't have the kind of relationship with your Dad that I had with mine. I'm also sorry if you're tired of reading about my Dad, move along now if you don't want to read it, because I've still got a lot to say. One day I might begin to not miss him and not want to write about him any more, but I highly doubt it.

This Friday, my Dad would have been 74 years old. It doesn't seem possible to me that it's been 7 years now that he's been gone. He was only 66 when he passed away on February 9th, 2003. We had spent years worrying about and wondering how long he would last, then, it was over in a second.

My Dad worked nearly 40 years for the same company, a major Oil company, through the booms and the busts and, when he took early retirement during one of those busts, he and my Mom moved back to our home town of Bixby, Oklahoma. They bought a big place with several acres and he immediately went about setting up his garden. He was very proud of that garden and with good reason. The soil around Bixby is known state-wide as the "Garden Spot of Oklahoma" and his garden, like the others in the area, produced excellent fruits and vegetables.

Just a short time after he retired, he began to get sick. Of course, he wouldn't hear anything about going to the doctor, that's just the way he was. (and the way I am today because of it) Finally, after a few months of problems, he got down and couldn't function. My Mom called my Uncle Leon, Dad's brother, and asked him to come down and help her get him to the hospital right then. Leon practically had to carry my Dad out to the car and they went to the hospital.

In the coming days, we learned that his kidneys had shut down and he had been living in some serious pain for a while. The doctor even told us that had he not gotten to the hospital that very night, he likely would have died at home that evening. Living with your kidneys shut down is a difficult burden for everybody involved. He had to go on a new, very strict diet, which meant my Mom had to pretty much live on that diet as well. He also had to drive to the hospital three times a week (at the start) for dialysis.

Dialysis works pretty well, at least at the beginning, but after years and years of being on that machine, you realize that it is killing the patient over time. All the people that my Dad met at the hospital, already on dialysis, died off, over time, one by one. My Dad lived longer than most and eventually had a dialysis machine at home, which he spent upwards of half a day hooked up to, not being able to travel or do anything resembling actually having a life. My Mom, by proxy, had no life for those several years either. She spent most of her time looking after him, making sure he was comfortable and helping him function on a daily basis.

So, eventually, after years of treatment and numerous trips in and out of the hospital, he finally went in for the last time. We had made the trip over there that weekend and I spent Friday night and most of Saturday with my Dad. He wasn't himself, but he knew me, for sure. I could tell by the way he squeezed my hand and I could see it in his eyes.

Saturday evening, we had a snow storm blow through Tulsa and it dumped 5 or 6 inches of snow on the ground. My Mom had spent the night at the hospital with my Dad and I got up early Sunday morning, picked up coffee and joined her around 5:00 am. Dad was sleeping and appeared peaceful. We even pondered going home that afternoon, since I needed to get back to work on Monday.

By the time the nurses showed up and started making their rounds, we could tell that something was not quite right. Dad was laboring and he was very obviously not comfortable. The doctors came in and gave us the news that we did not want to hear. If there was any family close that would want to see him again, they better get here fast.

I called my Uncle Leon and gave him the news, then I ran to the parking lot and drove back to my Mom's house, through the snow, and picked up my wife and my two daughters. We made it back to the hospital with barely any time to spare. Everybody hugged Papaw one last time and then I grabbed his hand, one last time, and he opened his eyes wide and looked right at me....and squeezed my hand as hard as his frail body would allow....and he was gone. Just like that.

It was as if he was telling me goodbye, I love you and take care of your Momma all in one last instant.

They say that you are never really ready for somebody close to you to die and I can vouch for that saying. We had 6 or 7 years to prepare for that morning, we knew it was coming, and still, there is absolutely nothing that can be done to prepare you for that moment. I sat there in that hospital room for a while, stunned beyond belief and I honestly didn't know what to do. I couldn't believe that was over and I was never going to see my Dad again. That stubborn old man who had given me so much throughout my life was not going to be at the other end of the telephone when I called home any more.

Soon enough, we had arangements to make and all sorts of things to take care of. Things and aranagements that you never dream you'll be making for your Dad, at only 66 years old. Mom and I muddled through the best we could and over time, we've both gotten a little better with it. Oh, I still miss my Dad terribly, as does my Mom, but after 7 years, you become a little more jaded about it......except for the day he died every year......and his birthday........and their anniversary.........and every time I go to visit her and I take my little tour through my home town either starting or ending at the cemetary, depending on my mood.

My Dad wasn't my best friend when I was growing up. I wish that he had been, but now, at 44 myself, I know why he wasn't. He was preparing an immature teenage boy for the real world the best way he knew how. I've often said on this blog how hard a man my Dad was, and he was, but knowing what I know now, he was simply telling me "I Love You" the only way he knew how.

I wish this was a riverbank, instead of a grave yard,
I wish we were sitting and fishing and this wouldn't be so hard,
It was my favorite thing that we used to do, but now we can't,
I wish you were here and I wish this was a riverbank.

Happy Birthday Dad. Mom and I and the girls still love you and still miss you like crazy. If you get some time this weekend, I'll be fishing at Fort Cobb Lake, I sure hope you can join me.

Gary

3 Days In The Woods

2010-04-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

Well, the big turkey hunting trip is over. Oh, I'll be going again before the season ends, probably a couple of times, but the big one has come and gone.

I took last Thursday and Friday off from work and headed to the lake on Wednesday night. I got down there, unloaded all my stuff and began the process of getting ready to hunt. I had all my stuff laid out exactly like I wanted it and when the alarm went off and 4:30 am on Thursday morning, I was ready to roll on what would be a busy, 4-day weekend.

Bill and I hit the woods at 6:30, about 45 minutes before the sun would start peaking over the horizon. We trudged into the WMA, listening intently for early morning gobbles. We were NOT disappointed. There were gobblers sounding off everywhere around us in the dark. We walked to the specific spot that he had seen birds the previous weekend and sure enough, a big boy sounded off just as we reached the fence. He sent me in there to set up on this bird and he walked south, toward other birds gobbling and even further into the woods.

Sunrise rolled around and I was set up in a cedar tree. I had taken my snips out and cleared a small path into the tree and couple of shooting lanes, just in case that big boy decided to fly to me. He didn't. I could tell almost immediately that he had flown down east, over the creek and away from me. His gobbles continued to wane as he moved farther and farther from me and I knew he had been spared, at least for this morning.

Not long after that, I heard gobbling to my north. I packed up my stuff and was on the move toward the gobbling, closing the distance and already looking for a good place to set up when all of the sudden, BANG! I knew the direction it came from and I also knew immediately that Bill had gotten into them. Sure enough, sitting against a tree with my phone already out, bzz bzz bzz, my phone lit up. One down!

After a little while longer, I made my way down to where he was and we trudged out of the woods after a succesful hunt. I had to get to the airport in OKC and pick up my buddies that were flying in from Georgia and Florida. I picked them up and we immediately headed west, back to the trailer, to change clothes and get into the woods for the evening hunt.

We made our plan and Ken and Bill headed off to the east as Tom and I headed due north, making our way to the creek and picking out a spot to do some calling. Sure enough, not too much later, after a few raspy yelps from Tom, three birds snuck in behind us. We couldn't tell exactly which ones were jakes and which ones were hens, but it appeared that there was one hen and two jakes and they wanted to fly across that creek we were set up on.

It was about this time that I noticed a fisherman making his way along the creek bank on the other side. Unfortunately, the birds noticed him too and away they went, the way they had come in to begin with. This fisherman turned out to be a real pain in the ass. We had moved down the creek a little bit and spied a big bird, strutting and gobbling in the sun, some 1000 yards away from us. We got set up, Tom started calling and the gobbling started. Not just the bird, mind you, but the jackass with the fishing pole started gobbling also, ruining any chance we had of working this Strutter into our range.

So, we did what we had to do, we jumped up and moved a half mile further into the woods and down the creek. We picked out a good spot and got situated at the base of a big cottonwood and Tom started calling again. We hadn't been there long before we heard what we wanted to hear. BOOM! Straight from the direction Bill and Ken had taken. We would find out later that Ken had taken a nice, mature Tom at about 60 yards, his first big Rio Grande turkey and he (and I) couldn't have been prouder.

Tom and I stayed put for a while and I heard something trudging through the woods behind me. I looked over my right shoulder and sure enough, it was a turkey, on a little rise about 75 yards away from us. I couldn't tell if it was a Tom, Jake or Hen at first, but when he stepped into the opening, I announced "it's a two year old" with a cracking, trembling, high-pitched voice. Unfortunately, this big boy didn't offer Tom a shot that he was comfortable with and soon enough, he made his way off, away from us in the opposite direction.

It couldn't have been 15 minutes later, Tom had done a little more calling and the woods to the northwest of us came alive with 2 distinct loud gobbles, probably 200 yards away across the creek, but closing fast. He kept yelping at them and they kept gobbling, while running the entire time, and they were starting to get really close. These two Jakes came out right across the creek from us at about 35 yards. Tom worked his mouth call magic and soon they were right in front of us and he decided he was going to take the shot. BANG! Down goes Frazier! As soon as he shot, his bird dropped and he told me to take the other one. I already had my gun up but I was caught up in the moment. He said shoot him and I shot, but my aim was off. In fact, I wasn't really aiming at all. It all happened so fast and I had just watched exactly what I had anticipated watching for the last month or so. A Georgia boy had just shot his first Rio right in front of me, almost like I had the script drawn up in my head and I was so proud for him that I missed my bird.

Of course, in my mind, this weekend was not about me. Oh, I would have shot one (or missed, depending on how you look at it) if he'd walked out in front me, but this weekend was about the visitors taking birds and in one evening hunt, they hadn't even unpacked their bags at the trailer, they both had turkeys on the ground. It was like a movie playing out exactly like I'd imagined it. If I had taken the time to script the entire first day, I couldn't have possibly written it any better.

So with the first evening hunt out of the way, we went back to the trailer and the boys cleaned their birds while I russled up some dinner. Many beers were drank and many hunting stories told as we got to know our guests a little better. We finally hit the sack, after an hour long trip back to the WMA so Ken could go back in and find his stool, around Midnight. The next morning, 5:00 am came early. We ate a bite and drank some coffee and headed off to Bill's property to see what the turkey gods had in store for us this day.

Tom and I took our position on the south fence line in a ground blind. We set out my decoys at about 15 paces and settled in to watch the show. When I say watch the show, it was an awesome display. There were probably 50-60 birds roosted in the cottonwood trees about 500 yards in front of us. They were gobbling and yelping their heads off and when they flew down, some of them landed just out to our left 2-300 yards away. The biggest Tom of the bunch flew down inside the fence line and chased around some Jakes for a minute before noticing my strutter decoy and starting toward it with bad intentions. Unfortunately, he decided better of it and proved how he had gotten to be 3 or 4 years old to begin with.

Later that morning we had two different sets of 3 Jakes come in to the decoys and gobble their heads off. They spent a good hour or hour and a half in front of us and we were laughing, joking, smoking cigarettes and generally trying to shoo these Jakes off but the would have none of it. Finally, they decided to head off somewhere else, probably in search of cough drops because they had been gobbling so much.

Not even a half hour later, we saw three birds come out of the trees heading straight toward us at a trot. We wrongfully assumed that it was one of our groups of Jakes and by the time I noticed the beard on the lead gobbler, it was almost too late. Tom grabbed his shotgun and swung on him and dropped him at about 35 yards. He had the video camera rolling, but the bird moved out of the viewfinder and the only thing you see is the end of Tom's shotgun stick out of the blind and go bang! Then you hear us scrambling around trying to get out of the blind and go get that turkey. Pretty cool even though he didn't get the shot on tape.

The Friday afternoon/evening hunt was spent on the WMA again. The wind was blowing 1000 miles per hour and it made it very difficult on us. We couldn't hear the birds (if they even were talking) and they sure couldn't hear us calling at them. To make matters worse, as we were pulling into our spot on the WMA, a truck with two dogs in the back was pulling out. They had apparently been in there trying to shoot hogs and had the dogs running loose. Every turkey in that area was probably rousted out of there by the dogs. We called it quits a little early on Friday night and headed back to the trailer.

On Saturday morning, we were joined by Bill's son, Justin, and one of our other hunting buddies, Howard. We all headed up to Bill's place with Ken, Tom and I set up on the south fence line and Howard, Justin and Bill to the north of the feeders. The birds flew off the roost to the west and all the way over the barbed wire fence. They had a little sorting out to do and they took care of that business right off the bat in full view for us sitting on the south fence line.

You see, there is a pecking order in the turkey world. There is a Boss Tom, 2nd Tom, 3rd Tom, etc. right down to the one year old Jakes. The hens have their own order, as well, but we aren't concerned with that, since we can't shoot the hens. Anyway, they had lost one that was a little ways up their pecking order and there was a little fight going on at daylight to see just which 2-year old or Jake was going to move up a spot. They settled it in about 10 minutes.

Ken, Tom and I sat in that ground blind and again were treated to a good show from 3 Jakes. These turkeys didn't care that we were sitting some 20 yards away from them, cutting up, laughing, smoking cigarettes and/or standing up in our ground blind. They were oblivious to us being there. We took turns making these three youngsters gobble their heads off and when I tell you that we could say or do just about anything and they would gobble, believe me, anything at all.

Pretty soon there was a loud BANG! from the area north of the feeder and sure enough, Justin had shot himself a nice 2-year old gobbler. The 5 hens that were with him came running and flying into our field and one made her way to the three Jakes, stopping for just a second as they all strutted and drummed for her, begging her to pick them. She soon made her way to the corner of the field and when she did, she was joined by the other big strutter that was with the group when the shot rang out. He proceeded to put the beat down on these three Jakes for even attempting to step in on his lady.

We finally called it a day and a hunt at around 11:00 am and went back to the trailer to start preparing the food for that afternoon. My wife and daughter joined us from the city and one of our close friends and her son, Charla and Mason, came down as well. We ate good (fried turkey, cooked up by Ken and charcoaled backstrap, tended to by Tom at the grill) and then went to the bar and set up the karaoke for the evening's entertainment. It was sure nice sitting around, shooting the shit and drinking beer while others did the cooking. I kind of liked that. We may have to make that happen more often in the future.

Karaoke went off without a hitch, in fact, it was probably our best crowd in more than a year, with more than 25 singers on the list. The only other better crowd I can think of was when Tragady, Oossuuu and crew drove down before the OSU - Texas Tech game last fall. Diane even made it down at the last minute in what I think was a surprise move on her part. Very nice surprise indeed.

Sunday, we got up and I drove the out-of-staters back to the airport and then went home and passed out for a couple of hours. Trust me when I tell you, even if all you do is sit in a ground blind, hunting can flat wear you out.

It was a fantastic 4-day weekend though. I made a good new friend. I got to hang out and visit with an old friend. I got to hang out and hunt turkeys with my best hunting buddy and I also got to hang out with my best friend on Saturday night. It doesn't get much better than that in my books. To Tom and Ken, boys, I had a blast and I hope we can do it again soon, whether it's in Georgia, Florida or Oklahoma. Good friends and good times. To Bill, I hope you already know, but I'll say it again, thanks for everything brother. None of this would happen without you and I appreciate it. And to Carrie, my beautiful wife and my best friend, thank you for being you and thank you for letting me be me. I love you and will always be indebted to you for your understanding.

That's about all I got, if you read this far, you're either a hunter, a good friend or one of the people mentioned above.

Thanks for reading.

G

Turkey Season

2010-03-30T16:19:00.001-07:00

***Warning - No Poker Content Whatsoever - Please move along, nothing to see here.***

Turkey season opens next Tuesday, April 6th, here in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, due to work obligations, I won't be able to hunt on opening day, but I am taking off Thursday and Friday next week to make an extended weekend hunt in Caddo County.

I have my good friend Ken coming in from Florida and he is bringing his good buddy Tom with him from Georgia. These gentlemen are hard-core turkey hunters and two years ago, Ken harvested his first Rio Grande turkey right on my buddy, TurdChaser's place, just north of our places at the lake.

Ken is the guy that called in this big sonofagun for me two years ago. He's also good friends with Surflexus for you poker bloggers in the know. By the way, I got a call today from Surf and all is good.

For those interested, who know nothing about turkeys, there are 4 sub-species of turkeys that are prevelant in the United States. (There is actually a 5th sub-species, called Gould's, but they are mainly in Mexico or just across the southern borders of Arizona and New Mexico) For the purposes of our discussion, there are 4 main sub-species in the US and harvesting one from each sub-species is called the Grand Slam. Here are the different sub-species of wild turkey in the United States and a little about them.

Osceola

The Florida (aka Osceola) Wild Turkey, meleagris gallopavo osceola, was named after a famous Seminole Indian Chief of the early 1800's by W.E.D. Scott in his 1890 description of the bird. They are a unique and highly sought after subspecies of the wild turkey since they are found only on the Florida peninsula. There are approximately 80,000 Osceola turkeys roaming the southern portions of Florida today.

The National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) only recognizes birds as Osceolas if they are taken south of a line drawn between Taylor and Dixie counties on the Gulf to a line running between Nassau and Duval counties on the Atlantic coast.

Eastern

The eastern wild turkey is the most populous of the five distinct subspecies found in the United States and can be found throughout the eastern United States and has been transplanted to some western states as well. L.J.P. Vieillot first described and named the eastern subspecies in 1817 using the word silvestris, meaning "forest" turkey.

The Eastern Wild Turkey inhabits the eastern half of the U.S., and can be found in hardwood and mixed forests from New England and southern Canada to northern Florida. The western boundary of their range extends from east Texas up through eastern Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska and then on into Minnesota. It has also been transplanted to California, Oregon, Washington, and Ontario, Canada and other areas west of the Rocky Mountains.
The Eastern, which has adapted to many habitats, utilizes both hardwood and softwood forests, open pastures, and agricultural fields.

Rio Grande

The Rio Grande wild turkey is native to the semi-arid areas of the southern Great Plains states: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Northeastern Mexico. It received its common name from the Rio Grande River, which is the water supply bordering the brushy scrub, arid country of some of its prime range in western Texas and northeastern Mexico. This subspecies was first described by George B. Sennett in 1879 who said it was intermediate in appearance between the eastern and western subspecies, hence its scientific name, Meleagris Gallapavo Intermedia.
Originally existing in the millions, this turkey had depleted to extremely low numbers by 1920. Formal programs involving trapping and transplanting were initiated in the 1930's and today it exists over much of its ancestral range. Texas has the most Rio Grandes with a population estimated at over 600,000 birds.

The Rio Grande turkey was originally found in the southern Great Plains, western Texas and northeast Mexico. They have expanded their range and been introduced into Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, and California. This race of turkeys generally occurs in areas having 16 to 32 inches of rainfall.

The Rio inhabits brushy areas near streams and rivers or mesquite, pine and scrub oak forests. It may be found up to 6,000 feet elevation and generally favors country that is more open than the wooded habitat favored by its eastern cousins. The Rio Grande is considered gregarious and, nomadic in some areas, having distinct summer and winter ranges. They may form large flocks of several hundred birds during the winter period. It has been known to travel distances of 10 or more miles from traditional winter roost sites to its nesting areas. Since the areas they are found usually do not have many roosting trees, they will often use the same tree which makes finding them a lot easier. Their range in a lot of cases is determined by the location of their preferred roosting tree, the cottonwood.

Merriam's

The Merriam's wild turkey is found primarily in the ponderosa pine, western mountain regions of the United States. Within its suspected historic range in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, the Merriam's was relatively isolated from the other subspecies of wild turkey. Current evidence supports the hypothesis that it was a relative newcomer to western American wildlife when the Europeans discovered it. It was named by Dr. E.W. Nelson in 1900 in honor of C. Hart Merriam, the first chief of the U.S. Biological Survey.

Merriam's turkeys were historically found in the ponderosa pine forests of Colorado, New Mexico, and northern Arizona. They have been transplanted into the pine forests of Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota. Merriam's turkeys can be found not only in ponderosa pine forest but also other vegetation types in elevations ranging from 3,500 to 10,000 feet. Their normal range receives annual rainfall amounts averaging between 15 and 23 inches.

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As you can see by the above descriptions and ranges, (borrowed from www.wildturkeyzone.com) there are alot of similarities between these 4 sub-species and alot of major differences between the 4 sub-species. The most notable difference between the birds is where they inhabit. You can hunt Osceola's only in Florida. Easterns can be hunted all across the eastern United States, all the way to Eastern Oklahoma. Rio Grandes are Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas birds, for the most part and Merriam's, you have to go west and/or north usually to hunt them.

Oklahoma is a rare state, in that a proactive hunter could hunt three of the four sub-species of wild turkey right here in our state. We have Easterns on the far eastern edge of the state, Rio Grande's all over the central and southwestern parts of the state and a few Merriam's, way up in the northwestern part of the state. (the Panhandle)

Ken is one of those avid hunters who has harvested the Grand Slam, as we call it. His only Rio Grande came two years ago, like I said, on my buddy TurdChaser's farm, in Caddo County. He's returning this year to try and run into the "one that got away" two years ago. His buddy Tom hasn't hunted Rio Grande turkeys at this point either, so he's in for a darn good time, I can assure you. Having hunted both Eastern's and Rio Grande turkeys, the Rio's appear to be the dumber of the two turkeys.

Hunting turkeys is a challenging, sometimes demanding, sometimes confounding sport. Turkeys are smart, just like deer. They have excellent vision and hearing, allowing for little to no movement in the woods, or your position will be given away. I've heard it said that if turkeys could smell, like deer, turkey hunting would be next to impossible.

There are two basic ways to hunt turkeys. The first is from a stand or ground blind. You try to put yourself between where the birds are and where they want to go and coax them into range by calling to them with hen calls. You can use decoys, which look astonishingly like the real thing, to help draw the wary birds into range, as well.

The other strategy and one that is the most work and by far the most fun, is running and gunning. This involves taking off through the woods, calling now and again, trying to get a Tom to answer you with a gobble. When you hear the gobble and pinpoint the Tom's position, the fun starts. You have to determine where he's headed and get yourself between him and there without being seen or heard. On big land, like the public hunting we'll do on the Wildlife Management Area around the lake, you can cover miles easily chasing turkeys.

I'm not sure if we'll have any success this next weekend, but I'll be reporting it here, good or bad, success or failure, to let you know how we did.

I know that some of you who read this blog are not hunters and don't really understand the passion that I've developed for the sport, but here are a few things for you to consider.

If you've never heard a big Tom blow up the woods with a shock gobble, in the pitch blackness of morning, from less than 200 yards away, you don't know what you're missing. It will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

If you've never seen, heard or felt a big Tom "drumming" within, say, 40 yards of your position, it's almost unexplainable. Not only does the hair stand up on the back of your neck, goose bumps are performing heat lap trials, racing up and down your arms and it feels as if your heart is gonig to jump completely out of your chest.

If you haven't sat out in the quiet woods with a buddy or two, drinking coffee and talking about past and future hunts, well, you probably never will and anything I could say to convince you, probably wouldn't work. Suffice it to say, I say you have no idea what you're missing.

This 4-day weekend will be a fantastic time with old and new friends. Whether or not I am succesful in harvesting a bird, whether or not I am able to call in that big Tom and whether or not I make the shot or miss the shot, it will be a great time among friends. The things highlighted above will make it all worth my while, even if I never see a turkey.

Until next time, Camo Up!

Why?

2010-03-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

After I put up that post Thursday night, I sat back and reflected on the month that was, the first winning month of poker for me in at least a year, if not longer. Why did I have a winning month, as opposed to the constant bad beats, tiltage and general poor play that has plagued me for the last couple of years?

Why is indeed a good question and I'm not sure I have any concrete answers for you, but I thought I might discuss a few things I've been considering.

First off, and I've mentioned this here before, but I think Rush Poker allows me to be even more patient (nitty) than my normal game because of a couple of different reasons:

1 - I can fold for a considerable amount of hands in a row without it feeling like I'm waiting too long to drive the action. (i.e. waiting for the monster hands)

-I think, as much as anything, that sheer boredom sometimes encourages (my) bad play and it's pretty easy (for me) to become bored and think that j-9 s00ted looks good for a raise, when you've folded the previous 47 hands.

2 - I can continue my nittish ways without fear of being labelled a "tight, nit" by everybody at the table, due to constantly switching tables.

-I realize that there are people out there taking notes, I do it myself, when they run into certain players over and over again. I mean, some of these guys are playing 4 or 5 tables at a time, so you are bound to run into them more often, it only makes sense to take notes if you discover something about one of them. But, for the most part, alot of these players are not taking notes, that's been proven time and time again over the last 4 or 5 years, and to them, you're a blank avatar and they are playing their two cards and their two cards only. I think this certainly helps me (and my image) at the Rush tables.

So, did I somehow become a better player last month than I've been for the last two years? I don't think so. I will say that I think on a couple of different (big) hands that I played them better than I would have in the past, thus earning more money from them, but no, I haven't changed very much from where I was two years ago.

I emplyed the two things that used to allow me to make a little scratch at the virtual poker tables. Patience and a lack of distractions.

I quit surfing the web while playing. Basically, Rush Poker made me quit surfing while playing, due to the sheer speed of the game, but I eliminated some of the distractions that were causing me to miss the value in some hands and to misread the actions of the other players in other hands. I still have the TV on in the background, but I finally decided that if something was drawing my interest to the TV instead of the computer screen, I sat out and watched TV, rather than trying to do both.

Patience has long been a standard in my game and I think anybody who has played against me can vouch for that, but, I took it to a different level over the last month. When I bought in and started playing, I paid strict attention to starting hand selection, as well as position. Position is the one thing that allowed me to float around at the starting stack without getting blinded down a little at a time. I almost always opened for a raise in LP in an unopened pot. Even if it was just a min-raise, I raised when it folded around to me. You'd be surprised how many people already have folded in that instance. I raised with a lot less than premium hands in this position, but they are easy enough to fold if you get called and miss the flop or if you get re-raised from a later position. By far, I got alot more walks than having to face a re-raise.

Tilt is something that every player battles in their own distinct way. For me, it starts with a bad beat, regardless of how poorly I might have played the hand. When I get sucked out on, I generally sit out for a minute and try to collect my thoughts before resuming play. It happens, that's poker and it's part of the game are phrases that don't really help me deal with it, personally. Almost without fail, the best thing for me to do at that point is to log off and call it a night, because I'm probably not going to play very well from that point on.

And that's exactly what I've done for the last month or so. When I take that beat that we all take on occasion, I tried my best to remain calm and collected, but, if I felt like I was steaming and not playing my best, I logged off and quit playing for the night, even if that meant not collecting on as much of the bonus as I could have otherwise. I can assure you, that alone saved me money during the last month.

So, where do I go from here?

It's funny, after playing nightly for the past few weeks, trying my hardest to earn that bonus and putting in way more hours than I had previously, I sat down last night with no bonus to clear and played, maybe, 100 hands at $25 NL. I finished the session down $1.34 when I had to take a phone call from a friend. When I got off the phone, I fired it back up and turned around to see the K-State game coming on and promptly turned off the computer and watched a good basketball game. While I may have played my ass off for the last 30 days trying to collect that bonus, I am certainly nowhere close to the poker player I was 3-4 years ago, when I'd rush home from work, fire up the computer and play into the wee hours of the morning. Age has something to do with that, I'm sure. I would say maturity too, but too many of you know me too well to let that slide, so I won't even pretend.

For now, I'll still be playing on occasion, perhaps even nightly, but my sessions and swings will certainly be much shorter and much smaller, as long as I can maintain this focus and this patience.

Until next time, I fold.
G

Bum A-Rushin'

2010-03-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

Feb. 24, 2010 - Full Tilt Account Balance $22.45

That's the day I accepted the Full Tilt bonus offer that I had 30 days to finish and earn my $100.00.

I started out grinding .02/.05 NL tables on Rush Poker and eventually worked my way up to the .25/.50 NL tables and I cleared 90% of the bonus, which is a personal record, at least for the last few years.

Between the $90 I earned from the bonus and the $50 stipend on the 15th of the month, I was up to $162.45. Last night, when I logged off, that balance was $303.59. I haven't exactly been running like Zeus, but anything better than "Doom Switch Permanently Activated" is a plus as far as I'm concerned.

I will probably continue to play some Rush Poker on occasion and may even dabble with some SNG's too, we'll see.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Shhhhhh!

2010-03-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

Don't tell anyone.

It appears, and I know I'm jinxing myself by saying this but, the 2-year period of "run-bad" might have slowed a bit.

I hesitate to say, or even think, that I'm running good, because that definitely is not the case, but, for the last 10 days or so, I'm in the black by a significant amount, compared to where I was, wallowing in self-pity, just a couple of weeks ago. How's that for a run-on sentence?

I'm still playing Rush Poker, for the same reasons, the bonus and I'm like a meth addict, needing my fix. The one thing that I've done to switch things up is I've switched to the full ring, 9-handed tables. This allows even more time for patience, waiting for just the right spot, without getting over-anxious due to the blinds eating away at my stack. I'm not sure if that is the end-all and be-all answer that I've been looking for, but it sure seems to have worked alot better for me in the last couple of weeks. I'm only playing $10 NL so there are never going to be any major swings upward or downward in my roll. Well, you have to have a roll first, which I don't, so a downward swing wouldn't last long.

You ever hear the term "roaching"? I'm not sure where I heard it first, maybe Bayne's blog, but it basically means sitting back and folding at the money bubble to sneak into the money or to sneak up a spot on the payout structure. I'm good at it. Unfortunately, for the last month or so, I've been roaching my "bankroll" winning $2 one night, giving away $5 the next, trying to stay afloat with some money in my account. I attribute this to my extremely tight nature and the fact that I've basically quit playing tournaments. I know I said I was going to go back to the SNG's that I used to be succesful at a few years ago, but I can't seem to drag myself away from the cash tables or Rush Poker.

The 6-max tables have never been good for me, I've known that for a while, but I got hooked on them a while back and have basically played nothing but 6-max for the last year or so. Maybe I am on to something, at least the 9-handed tables seem to suit my nittish strategy alot better than the 6-handed tables. That makes sense, not sure why I've been so thick-headed about it up to now.

I'm still playing basically the exact same fold-a-lot, nitty game that I've always played, but with Rush, there are still people willing to gamble it up. I've caught my share of hands over the past 10 days, not really outplayed anybody, other than squeezing in a few value bets that paid me off here and there. Other than that, it's been the standard K-K vs A-A a few times, (on the bad side once) and flopping a set vs. an overpair several times. It sure is nice when it's the other guy that can't lay down Q-Q on an all-under flop, instead of vice-versa. Anybody else ever fold K-K pre-flop in a cash game? I can't seem to make myself do it and I'd guess I'm 50-50 on being right and getting stacked.

I did flop my first Royal Flush in so long I can't remember. I limped along with 137 other people at the table, with A-J spades, and caught my miracle flop.

K-Q-10 - all spades. I know, what the hell? How do you get paid?

I checked it through on the flop, bet the pot after 4th and got a call and then bet approximately 86.33 percent of the pot on the river and got a call. Wow, I made 7 bucks with a Royal Flush. The caller flopped a flush too, with 9-2, in EP. Nice call there. I just wish he'd not been an American, maybe he would have re-raised me at some point and really paid me off.

-----

Here's another question for you. Why is it that, when I flop a set with, say, 7-7, it's ALWAYS a highly coordinated flop with straight and flush draws everywhere? I can promise you, every time it happens, the flush or straight card hits the turn, without fail. I've finally stopped trying to be tricky on the flop just because of this. Every time it happened before, I would check my set, the scare card hits the turn and I'm looking at a pot bet from the other player. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I know that he doesn't have it, most of the time, but it makes for unduly hard decisions in a $10 NL game. I'm a big fan of making as few tough decisions as possible in a cash game, even if that means scooping up the blinds and moving on to the next 9-3 off-suit.

Another thing that appears to be out of whack and it's probably written in the fine print somewhere, I'm just too lazy to look, but what's the rake like on Rush compared to a regular ring game? I know of a couple of times I've gotten my stack in against another player with a full stack and not quite doubled up, like 5% less than a true double up. Is the rake more on Rush? Like I said, I'm sure that it's written down somewhere on the site, but I'm just too lazy to look it up.

-----

So, the great experiment continues. I'm really only playing an hour or two a night, trying to clear as much of that bonus as I can and also being entirely too nitty when it comes to protecting what puny bankroll I have left at FT. Like I've told some of my friends via IM, I'll probably continue to play after the bonus expires, but it won't be as much, maybe an hour a night, when I get home from work. If I'm ever able to work up to some type of playable roll, maybe things will change and I'll get more serious about it, but for now, I'm happy where I'm at. (and overjoyed that the doom switch has been temporarily switched at least to intermittent) It's just a matter of knowing when it's turned on and when it's turned off. ;)

I know I'm not ever going to be anything more than a casual poker player with a bad habit. I came to grips with that a long, long time ago, but I do think I can consistently win at this game, at the limits that I choose to play. That's the main reason I continue to play, that and the whole competitive nature thing.

Until next time, I fold.

G

The End Of An Era

2010-03-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, maybe not an era, but we had a nice, little 4-year run there.

After much deliberation, I've decided not to host Okie-Vegas 5 this summer. I've talked it over with my family and as busy as things are in our lives and as tight as money is right now, I just don't see any way I can make it happen. I probably should have decided this a year ago, but I felt like I owed it to a few people to do it one more time. The big plans of moving the dates, so that more people could attend, were just more trouble than it would have been worth, in my opinion.

I'd like to personally thank each and every person that made this trip over the last four years, because you've all brought something special and unique to the party. I've learned alot from, and about, each and every one of you and I've had a blast trying to be the ringleader. I consider myself a very lucky man to have been able to make as many good friends through this humble little blog as I have over the last four or five years. When I started this blog, all I wanted was to be a part of this little community of poker bloggers. Mission accomplished.

To my co-hosts over the years, MrsGCox25, my daughter Casey, the fabulous Miss Maudie, the Orange One - Oossuuu, DuggleBogey, Turd-Chaser and many others, thanks for all your help and support. I could not have done it without each and every one of you and I really appreciate all that you've done over the years. If one of you would like to take up the reins, I can assure you I will do my very best to clear the calendar and be a part of it. If not, I completely understand.

If any of you were dead-set on coming to Oklahoma this summer, shoot me an email or IM (I know, I'll leave it turned on for the next few nights) me and we can discuss some alternative plans. We still have a lake place that we will be spending every available minute at this summer, so coming to Oklahoma for a visit is not out of the question. We'll just need to coordinate dates and times, etc. That coordination (read:work) was just more than I was willing to do this year with the types of numbers we've had in the past.

Again, if you've made the trip in the past, I send you my sincere thanks, because, like I've said in the past, this doesn't happen if you don't book the flight, drive in from neighboring states or make that committment to come to the Flyover/Koozie state in the heat of the summer. Each and every one of you have become a great friend of mine and my family and friends here in Oklahoma and I wouldn't trade the memories of each one of these events for anything.

Thanks again.

G

An Open Letter....

2010-02-25T16:19:00.000-08:00

.......to nobody in particular or to anybody that still stops by here from time to time.

If you've read here lately, you'll remember my absolutely UN-glowing review of Rush Poker. It's down the page just a little bit, feel free to jog down there and read it first, it won't take a minute.

Here's the follow-up:

I've been playing more Rush Poker lately, mainly to try and clear that damn bonus and because I still want to play poker. Rush poker is actually a great game for my particular (non)skill-set. I can fold for hours and with Rush Poker, it never seems like hours. I can literally fold 23 hands in a row and still feel like I'm not playing that tight. The sheer numbers of hands played in a 30 minute or hour-long session was unfathomable just a few short weeks ago, at least by somebody that could not and would not tile 124 tables of $25 NL.

What I've found in Rush Poker is something that I've talked about here in the past plenty of times. I'm just not that good at Poker. There, I said it. Again.

I could bore you with story after story of getting it in ahead only to watch the inevitable runner-runner suck the pot away. That's not a dollar that I owe you as I did not call out any of the hands.

Anybody ever see this one during a Rush Poker session? I've folded for 46 hands in a row, been the small and big blind 23 times during those 46 hands and look down at A-K s00ted, again, in the big blind. Magically, I get a walk. Or, after folding for those same 46 hands, I get 8-9 s00ted in the cut-off and think, you know, I'd like to see a flop with this hand. Raise, re-raise, jam and, of course, I meekly fold.

The beats have been bad, but no worse than one would expect when playing so many hands in such a short time. I don't think the blind-assigner in the software is fair, but I'm probably not paying close enough attention. I think a straightforward game should and would make consistent money on these tables, if one can stand the inevitable bad beats. For me, it starts to snowball. I never get enough value from my good hands. It's like the other players can see my cards. My value bets are met with insta-folds and my blocker bets are met with insta-jams.

Here's another typical scenario that happened last night. I've moved over to the Omatard tables and I call a raise with J-J-10-9 double suited. I flop top set and a straight-flush draw on this flop - J-spades, 8-spades, 4-diamonds . The pre-flop raiser bets the pot and I re-raise the amount of the pot. He uses up his time and calls. The turn card is the 7 of hearts, completing my straight, he checks, I bet the pot and again, he calls after a lengthy delay. The river is, of course, another 7 and he checks again, but this time, I've wised up. I already know that this sonofabitch has 7-7 in his hand, so I check behind and, of course, he shows 7-7 and takes down a good-sized pot. (Yes, that's a bad beat story, but if you want your $1, you have to come to Okie-Vegas)

What's the moral of this story, you ask?

Apparently, I am really bad at poker and cannot win a hand to save my life. Oh, I'm going to continue to play because I like to play, but I'm done even remotely considering myself any good. In fact, I might just start jamming every draw I have and see what happens. It certainly works for most of the other retards out there.

Until next time, if I check-raise you, go ahead and call, I guarantee you'll get there.

G

M.D.

2010-02-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

Muscular Dystrophy

Overview

Muscular dystrophy is a group of disorders that involve muscle weakness and loss of muscle tissue that get worse over time.

Symptoms

Symptoms vary with the different types of muscular dystrophy.

All of the muscles may be affected. Or, only specific groups of muscles may be affected, such as those around the pelvis, shoulder, or face. Muscular dystrophy can affect adults, but the more severe forms tend to occur in early childhood.

Treatment

There are no known cures for the various muscular dystrophies. The goal of treatment is to control symptoms.

Most of you that have known me for a while or that have read here for a while, know that I don't have much of my family left. I have my wife, my daughters, my Mom and my Mother-In-Law. That's it, as far as immediate family.

You might also remember that my Mom comes from a large family and on that side of my family, I have a ton of aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousings and third cousins, literally too many to name.

We got a call last week that one of my little 3rd cousins, G, had been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. They have their first appointment at the MDA treatment center, here in Oklahoma City, this week.

My cousin, D, is the grandmother of this little one and her daughter, N, the mother of G, is my second cousin. She is in the same group of great-granddaughters of my Nanny, that my girls are in. When I first got the news, relayed from my Mom last week, I didn't know exactly how to handle it. I've dealt with health issues of loved ones more than most, but it was always adults, not kids. This isn't supposed to happen, at least not at 7 years old.

I'm still not sure what, if anything, I can do to help, other than being there for my family and helping them out with anything at all that they need help with. I've certainly prayed more in the last few days than I have in a while, hoping for some type of help from above.

I'm writing this down for you today to ask for your help. If you believe in God, pray for my little 3rd cousin. If you believe in another type of almighty, please, by all means, pray to him/her/it for some type of help from them. And, if you don't believe in any type of God, please, send your good thoughts and vibes toward the middle of the flyover state this Wednesday. I know little G can use all the help he can get.

Thanks for reading,

G

RIP

2010-02-09T15:40:00.001-08:00

Rest in peace Dad.

I love you and miss you a little more every day.

Gary

Rush Poker

2010-01-25T17:14:00.000-08:00

I've read alot of posts about Rush Poker on Full Tilt lately and, after playing 3 or 4 sessions now, I only have one small sentence to direct toward Rush Poker and Full Tilt.

Go Fuck Yourself!

Thus far, after probably 1000 or 1500 hands, I've flopped exactly one set. Oh, I've had a billion small pocket pairs along the way, but to no avail, I fold.

Tonight, I re-raise a light raiser with Big Slick, flop my Ace, but just don't take into account that he played A-7 offsuit, and, you know, go broke when he flops two pair.

If you want a dollar for the bad beat story, read that sentence two paragraphs up, I'll just have to owe you.

Until next time, I'm on mad, flaming tilt, so stay off me.

G

What A Man Will Do For A Duck - Part 2

2010-01-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

After writing up the last post, I immediately determined that I probably needed to chronicle an actual hunt for some of you to hopefully give you some idea the extreme lengths that this sickness leads us on occasion.

Three weeks ago, we got one of the biggest snowstorms to hit Oklahoma in a very long time. It dumped 14 inches of snow on the central part of the state in less than 36 hours. Now, we've had that much snow on occasion here, but very seldom does it all come from one storm. Normally, it is a couple of storms lined up in succession, pounding us a day or so apart, before we get that much, but this time, we even had blizzard-like conditions for a while, due to the strong north wind that was incessant during the storm.

Now, most of that snow has vanished, save for a few large piles here and there on the side of the road or in parking lots. Last Wednesday, during the day, our temperature dipped below the freezing mark of 32 degrees (Fahrenheit, for my Canadian friends) and continued to plummet. It did not venture above 32 degrees until some time yesterday afternoon. It hit lows of 1, 2 and 3 degrees during this little cold snap, which, again, for Oklahoma, is fairly unusual.

I preface this story with the weather just to give you a little idea exactly how brutal it can get in this sport and to tell you this, we never once thought of NOT going duck hunting this weekend. NOT going never even entered our mind, especially after traveling around the lake and seeing exactly how many birds are wintering here right now.

Friday, I left work at 2:00 pm and headed west to the International Headquarters, arriving around 3:15. Rather than going straight to the trailer, I decided to drive around and look at a few spots to see if there was any open water and if any ducks were present. I found my bullseye right off the bat at a little place we sometimes use in the summer. If you've followed this blog and seen any of the youtube videos, it is the spot where WeakPlayer, WeakWife and Weakbaby joined us 2 summers ago in a prelude to Okie-Vegas 3. It is very shallow water and has a very hard bottom, which makes it much easier to set decoys, retrieve birds, etc.

It was completely open water on Friday afternoon and there were probably 4 dozen birds loafing there, just hanging out. I determined immediately that this would be the easiest to get to, perfect for a north wind and what we like to call "the easy button." Unfortunately, come Saturday morning, it wasn't nearly as easy as we'd have hoped.

We awoke to a frosty, bone-chilling 5 degrees. We loaded up the gear, dressed for the weather and headed for the lake. My buddy, Tony, had brought his boat down and, as it turns out, that was a very good thing. We got to the boat ramp to find the entire lake frozen over from shore to shore with an inch and a half of ice. In fact, there was another group of hunters there, pulling their boat out of the water because, they said, the ice is too thick to launch.

Pfffftttttt! (This would be the spot where all 3 of us rolled our eyes and said, to ourselves, yeah, right!)

These boys just did not want to hunt ducks as bad as we did. Tony backed his boat down the ramp, into the little spot of water and wham! He found the ice. So, thinking logically, we would probably decide to save his boat and trailer and pull out and wait for the ice to give a little or maybe try to break out a bigger spot, right? Wrong! He pulled forward, threw it in reverse and slammed into the ice even harder, breaking enough of it that we could now get the boat off the trailer. That was half the battle. He also broke several things on his trailer including the back up lights.

Now, he fired up the motor and began blowing water out to make a spot to turn around. In a few minutes, after parking his truck and trailer, we were in the boat and headed to our spot to begin clearing ice, waving to the "duck-hunters" back on the ramp. We got there in short order, although, without the boat, we'd never have been able to hunt on Saturday. (or Sunday, for that matter) We broke open a hole with the boat and jumped out to begin the process of clearing the ice.

An hour and a half later, we had the ice moved, the decoys set out and began preparing to hunt ducks. No less than 5 or 6 ducks hit the water, right in the middle of the decoys, before we could get ready for them. We determined it was going to be a good day right then and there.

By 7:30, after Legal Shooting Time had come and gone, we were in the boat, had the blind up around us and were sipping coffee, awaiting the arrival of more birds......and they did not disappoint.

We got our fair share on that Saturday morning, and we were out of the water and back at the trailer, cleaning birds, by 11:00 am. That's a 3-man limit of 18 birds and, had we been more selective, we could have easily had 15 mallards and three "others" to make the limit, but, we weren't very patient. Of course, as soon as we finished and started picking up decoys, the mallards started flying by the 1000's. That's pretty much the way it always works.

Saturday afternoon, we took a drive around the lake. The wind was supposed to shift out of the south, so our little "easy button" spot, wasn't going to be perfect anymore, due to the south wind. We went around and looked at a few coves, all frozen over solid, and eventually made our way to the refuge spot of the lake, where hunting is not allowed. To our amazement and surprise, there were literally 10's of thousands of ducks and geese all over that end of the lake. They're not stupid (except for the Gadwalls, Wigeons and Shovelers) so they know which end of the lake they DON"T get shot at on. Hence, that's where most of them rest and roost.

There were dozens of little holes of water in the main body of the lake, kept unfrozen by the sheer numbers of birds, and those little holes were holding 4 and 5 thousand birds apiece, it seemed. It's really difficult to actually assign a number to the birds we saw, but, suffice it to say, we knew we were going to limit out again on Sunday.

We finally debated long enough and decided on a spot. In fact, Tony and I jumped in his boat and headed across the lake, breaking ice the entire way, to see how deep it was and if it was a hard enough bottom to walk around on. It was. While we were there, we noticed a truck sitting at a nearby dock on that side of the lake and it was quite obvious, they were watching us. Not good when you are scouting out a good spot to hunt on public hunting grounds.

When we got back to the trailer, we got some phone calls from friends and soon enough, we had 6 lined up for Sunday morning. Howard, Chris and Nathan could not fight the allure of killing a few ducks, regardless of the weather and the work involved, so we had our plan and our hunting party ready. We hit the sack early in anticipation of that 4:30 wake-up call.

We got the boat in the water again, with a bit more work involved than the previous day, and 3 of them started across the lake to the new spot. Unfortunately, the temperature was 2 degrees on Sunday and the ice was twice as thick as it had been the previous day. They had a helluva time breaking ice and getting across there and by the time they got close, they could see the bad news that awaited them. The bastards that had watched us test the spot the previous evening were already there and already set up. That's one of the real pissers to hunting public land, but there was no give-up in our bunch. Plan B was now in full effect.

They headed back across the lake to our side and headed just east of the spot we had hunted the day before. It wasn't perfect for the wind direction, but it was going to have to do. We drove back around and met them and began the process of moving the ice and setting the decoys. Let me just say now that the work associated with duck hunting is much easier and goes much faster with 6 guys that know what they're doing than it does with only 3 guys that know what they're doing.

The ducks didn't start flying as early as they had the previous morning and at one point, we even thought of packing it in.....that is until.......they really started flying. They had slept in because of the cold weather, but when they began to start making passes down the lake, it was on!

Yes, we got our 36 birds for a 6-man limit on Sunday. We had to hunt until around 2:00 pm to get there, but that is almost always the case with that many hunters. Again, as soon as we finished and started picking up the decoys and chasing down the cripples, the mallards started flying out by the 1000's again. It's almost as if they have a scout set up and as soon as we unload the guns and hit the water to pick up the decoys, he goes back and tells them all that the coast is clear.

So, there's you two different days in the life of a duck hunter in extreme conditions. Like I said before, it is a disease, and once you are afflicted, there is almost nothing a man won't do for a duck.

If you've never experienced it, I feel a little sorry for you. I know most of you that read this blog have your own vices, as do I, but the exhileration and the thrill of getting a 6-man limit is pretty incredible for this old country boy. By the way, those ducks are all in mine and Bill's freezer down at the lake. Can you spell S-H-I-S-H-K-A-B-O-B, I know that you can.

Thanks to my buddies Bill, Tony, Howard, Chris and Nathan for the memories, because those memories are something that you can't put a price on. The stories of Sunday's hunt will get bigger and badder every time they're told. I just hope I'm in the blind to hear them.

Until next time, I fold.

G

What A Man Will Do For A Duck

2009-12-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

"Lately people ask me crazy questions, like why exactly do I hunt?"

That's a song lyric on a duck hunting CD that I picked up off the Duck Commander web-site. I would credit the artist here, but I don't know who the artist is, for sure. It's really not music that most folks would enjoy, but for a duck hunter, it's a pretty good CD.

So, why is it, exactly, that I hunt?

First off, it's a sickness, a disease, if you will. When I first started hunting, I planned my hunting trips around my work and my life. When you become ill with this disease, you start planning your work and your life around hunting season. If you've never hunted, I cannot explain it to you, but trust me, it is something that I will do for the rest of my life and I'm disappointed that I had to wait 40-ish years to get started.

I've told this story often on this blog and other places, but when I was a boy, my Dad was a deer hunter. Unfortunately, as I grew up, I was heavily involved in sports and didn't get to enjoy the outdoors with him as much as most young men who have Fathers that are hunters. He practically gave up hunting to follow me around from sport to sport and game to game back then and I often wonder if he regretted that.

My Dad and Grandpa were serious fishermen. We spent every summer back in my youth around Lake Eufala, chasing those big old catfish. My Grandpa was one of those guys that could throw a bare hook in a mud hole and pull a fish out. I fished with them often, but never had the bug that they did about it.

I didn't have the luxury that alot of hunters had while growing up. I didn't get to hunt with my Dad and the rest of my family and learn the "tricks of the trade." There is hardly a day goes by now, whether in a deer stand or a duck blind, that I don't think what it would have been like 30-ish years ago to have gotten to enjoy that with my Dad.

About 4 or 5 years ago, I met the man that has become like a big brother and best friend to me. I am an only child and never had any brothers or sisters around when I was growing up, so, being that close and being around someone as much as I was with Bill, was something entirely foreign to me. It took some getting used to, for sure, but now, some five years later, he's probably my second best friend in the world.

My wife, God bless her, is and will always be my best friend. After all, she's allowed me to be me for 15+ years now and she is also the one responsible for allowing me, with no questions asked, to chase this passion that has come over me in the last 3 years. I'm often asked by people that hunt, but that don't know my wife, "what does your wife say about all this?" Well, she takes it in stride and she lets me get after it. There are worse things I could be doing and I think she realizes just how diseased I've become about hunting. My wife is the best wife on the planet (also documented here many times before) and I could not ask for more when it comes to a mate and a best friend.

Bill is as hard-core as it gets, not only when it comes to hunting, but pretty much in his entire life. He won't quit a job until it's done, whether it be plumbing somebody else's new trailer or putting a roof on the new porch that was just built. Hunting? Well, you won't find anybody that takes hunting any more seriously than Bill. There may be some guys out there that are just as hard-core, but there are none out there that are any more hard-core than my hunting buddy.

I enjoy dove hunting, turkey hunting, deer hunting, goose hunting etc. I like it all, but to me, there is something entirely addictive and special about sitting in a duck blind, whether it be on the side of the lake or up at Bill's farm. The camaradarie of duck hunters sitting in freezing temperatures, breaking ice, throwing decoys and what we call, "putting in work" is unmatched by the other forms of hunting, at least for me.

We get up at 4:00 am when we are hunting public spots and spend the next 45 minutes gearing up for a cold morning. We hit the spot around 4:45 am and begin toting the gear into the spot where we sit up. Once all the gear is in place, we begin the ice-breaking process, which can take 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the temperature the night before. This weekend it took all of two hours both mornings.

After that job, with a full lather of sweat in 15 degree temperatures, it's time to toss the deocys out. This is the easy job, compared to breaking ice, but means more time in the water, which also means more opportunity for bad things to happen. Walking around in the lake, before sunlight, in waders is a job. It doesn't appear that way, but if you haven't done it, in the dark, in freezing temperatures, well, trust me, it's more of a job than you would ever imagine.

After the decoys are set, it's time for coffe and time to await the arrival of Legal Shooting Time. LST is 30 minutes before official sunrise. Alot of hunters out there have no idea when that is, because we hear them, banging away at birds that they cannot even identify, well before LST. We heard a shotgun blast last weekend a full 25 minutes before LST. That's just crazy. I understand how it happens, because we had ducks in our decoys before LST also, but when you can't even tell what type of duck it is, well, it's too damn early to be shooting them.

The carmaradarie that I mentioned above is not just limited to me and Bill. We've shared duck blinds with a host of other people, including his other hunting buddies, his family, my friends and even some friends that I met on the internet. ;) What's that? Me? Would I invite some complete strangers out to the middle of nowhere, in Caddo County, to tote shotguns and shoot ducks with me? You're damn skippy I would.

After my experiences with IIF's through this very blog, I've met, hunted with, housed and enjoyed the company of no less than 7 or 8 complete strangers that I met through a Duck Hunting forum on the internet. They've all turned out to be guys just like us, hard-core hunters that are stricken with the same disease that we have. They also provide a host of new hunting stories, from their experiences with their own hunting buddies wherever back home might be.

The duck blind is kind of like the poker table, with the exception being everybody in the duck blind is your buddy. Whereas only a couple of folks at the poker table (somebody has to be the fish) might become your buddy, everybody that gets up well before dawn, puts in the work required to hunt ducks and sits back in the blind with a cup of coffee is indeed, your buddy. To all the buddies that I've shared a blind with, thank you. I've learned something from each and every one of you and I appreciate the opportunity, not only to hunt with you, but to get to know you as well.

To Bill, my hunting buddy, I can never repay all the time and all the lessons you've shared with me. All I can say is thanks, I appreciate it and I hope you know that I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Here's to as many duck hunts as we can get in between now and January 31st.

Until next time, I break ice, I set decoys and I shoot the easiest bird of the bunch coming in.

What a man will do for a duck!

G

Cash Game Failure

2009-12-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

Since starting this humble little blog a few years back, I've been a winning player, (for a while) a break-even player (for a while) and a losing player. (for more than a while now)

For the last two years, I've been a steady-spewing, cash game failure and it really pains me to admit that. Having now admitted that (and thrown up a little in my mouth) I have recently had a revelation:

When I was a winning player, I played SNG's almost exclusively. No blogger tournaments, no cash games, no Blackjack, cough! So, with that in mind, I'm heading back to the single table SNG's for a while. I'll be at the lower limits for a while and see how it goes. Perhaps I'll play a game or two a night, perhaps more. We'll just see how it goes.

--

I'm a little saddened about the upcoming gathering in Vegas.

Two months ago, I really had no desire to go to Vegas in December. I didn't have the money to go to Vegas and I didn't have the time to take off and go to Vegas. I really didn't care either.

Now, while reading others posts in anticipation of the gathering, I'm definitely bummed that I can't go again this year. I know how much fun it is and I really wish I was going to be a part of it. Damn, I sure hope everybody has a great time and definitely have a Jack and Coke for me. Dial-A-Shots will be welcome and my phone will be charged, should you get the urge.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Crack

2009-11-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

I got bored last night.

I've been opening up a couple of small stakes PLO games on an almost nightly basis and playing my normal fast-paced, loose-aggressive, um, okay, I'm sitting back and waiting on the nuts and hoping somebody is foolish enough to pay me off. Anyway, I played for a while and was getting no traction and decided to look at the tournament lobby. I haven't played a tournament in 6 months on Full Tilt, but, what the hell, I scanned the upcoming tournaments.

$14+1 Super Turbo KO PLO Tournament - starts in 12 minutes and there are 45 people signed up. Hah, make that 46.

Hah!

12 minutes later and there are 175 signed up and we're off to our first tables. The blinds are 15-30 and I have a starting stack of 300 chips. WTF? This is not what I signed up for. Apparently, it was what I signed up for, I just didn't know what the hell I was signing up for. Apparently, these are the crack tournaments I've heard a few folks talk about along the way on Google Reader.

Well, to say I played tight would be an understatement. I sat back and folded my first unplayable hand as 4 upstanding part-time poker professionals got it all in on the very first hand. One guy had a pair, but the genius with A-J-9-6 (complete rainbow) hit runner, runner 6's to take down the 1200 chip pot. Wow, I thought to myself, I guess I'm going to have to gamble.

I finally saw a flop with A-Q-Q-10 (one suit) and was lucky enough to flop my set. The same douche that won the first hand also flopped a set (middle set) and was pissed at Full Tilt when I won the hand set over set.

I continue my typical folding exhibition, check the tourney lobby and we are almost to the money bubble. I've folded way longer than this before, what gives, I thought to myself? I check the start time and the current time and guess what? I was right, we hadn't been playing 45 minutes yet and we were down to the money bubble.

27 spots pay, we are hand for hand with 28 left and I'm in 25th. Of course, by now, there are 4 or 5 LARGE stacks at my table and the blinds (which seemingly increase every fawking hand) are completely out of control. I pull up the other 2 shorties' tables and begin to keep tabs on them. One hand - fold, two hands - fold, thinking I can slide in there and then gamble. No such luck as I look down at A-A-J-10 double suited. I jam it in and, as these things so often go, I get called by a mega stack who has a 2 in his hand. Two more 2's on the flop and I'm gone....in 28th place.....no $1.25 profit for you folder-boy. I was so looking forward to super-sizing lunch today too, damn!

While I can see the benefits to these things, (they certainly don't take much time) they are definitely not for me and my style of play. (If you can even consider what I do these days a style)

Until next time, like my buddy Jordan, I fold.

G

Long Term Fail!!

2009-10-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, more than a month since my last post, I'm a really bad blogger these days. But, I have an excellent excuse:

I'm a crotchety old bastard that really is finding it hard to give a shit anymore.

I'm still playing a bit of poker on occasion and I'm spending as much of my free time in the woods as humanly possible. I'm still enjoying the poker some, but since running into the "Full Tilt Cashout Curse" I've been running pretty rough.

I apologize to both of you that still stop by here on a regular basis expecting my normal drivel, I just don't have it in me so much any more. I'll try to do better, but I make no promises.

G

15 Freaking Years

2009-09-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

5,475 days of wedded bliss. Ha ha, no really, for the most part, it's been bliss.

noun:
1. great joy or happiness
2. spiritual joy; heavenly rapture
3. any cause of bliss

It really is as simple as that. I've written on this blog many times over the last 4 years or so about how cool my wife is and how lucky I am to have her.

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll know that yesterday was our 15th wedding anniversary. There are only so many words of praise that I can manage to write down without starting to use the same words or phrases over and over again. I know, you've already heard them all, but today, I thought I would share some of my "true secrets" to a lasting and loving relationship, GCox-style. You can thank me later.

1 - This one comes with a prerequisite, that being, you can usually only determine this after you're married and have lived together for a few years. Make sure your mate is your best friend. Sometimes, this is not attainable, hence, my status as "divorced" from my ex-wife. However, if you work at it and you truly love the person you're with, you can become their best friend and vice versa. Sometimes it takes more work than one or the other is willing to put in, that's when divorce generally shows up.

2 - This one is pretty near impossible, but if worked at by both parties, is achievable, I promise. Don't argue. Some say, don't go to bed mad, always apologize, etc.etc. I say, don't argue in the first place. It doesn't solve the problem and only pisses off the person who loses the argument. MrsGCox25 and I have had, maybe, 3 semi-arguments in our 15 years of marriage and I can honestly say, I can't remember now what they were about or who won. Save for the very first argument, which actually occurred prior to our wedding. I won and I felt bad for about a month afterwards.

3 - Listen. Very simply, shut your pie-hole and pay attention to what your spouse is saying. You've heard the expression, "I see your lips moving, but all I hear is blah, blah, blah." Don't be that person. Listen to what your spouse has to say always.

4 - There comes a time in every relationship, sometimes sooner rather than later, when one of the people does not feel like the other cares anymore. Show her that you love her as often as possible. Don't just tell her you love her, show her that you really mean it when you say "I love you." This can be a simple kiss on the cheek or an expensive dinner out on the town, your choice, but be sure that she knows.all.the.time. My wife and I have a rule, don't leave the house for work, play, poker, beer, etc. without a kiss and an I love you. It works for us.

5 - Bite your tongue. There are always going to be times when you want to laugh out loud at something your spouse has done. Bite your tongue. There are always going to be instances when you want to say "I told you so." Bite your tongue. And there are always going to be those times when you just feel like arguing. Bite your tongue. It's not worth taking the chance on hurting your spouses' feelings.

That's it. It's really simple as far as I'm concerned. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but, after being divorced once, I figure I do NOT want that to happen again, so I took both of the things that I did right the first time and amplified them. I then took a huge laundry list of the things I did wrong and reversed them. Problem solved.

I've talked about it here alot, but I've been extremely lucky that my wife and I are so much alike.

-we're both Capricorns.
-we're both only children.
-we're both very competitive.
-we're both very attractive.........okay, she's very attractive.

You get the point. We nearly always know what the other is thinking and we finish each others' sentences often, like twins are known to do. We have a tremendous amount of respect for, not only each other, but for each others' independence, as well. I don't need her hovering over me 24/7 and she doesn't need me hovering over her 24/7. Only children are typically very independent, opinionated people. We are, so spending time alone, pursuing hobbies by ourselves is something we don't mind doing. It's a real blessing to be married to your best friend and if you work hard enough at it, you can make it happen too. I highly recommend it.

So, in conclusion, and I'm paraphrasing here for my slower readers, to make a marriage work, YOU have to work at it. Period. Just like keeping a good job, YOU have to work at it. Just like maintaining a beautiful lawn at your house or keeping that shiny new BMW looking new, YOU have to work at it.

May you all be as lucky as I have been and work as hard as I've worked to continue to be lucky. Work at it.

Good luck.

G

PLO Hand

2009-08-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, time flies when you're..........working your ass off.

I can't believe it's been nearly two months since Okie-Vegas. I also can't believe I've only posted 4 times since then, but you know me, slacker, in the most profound sense of the word these days.

I'd like to regale you with tales of 3 and 4 figure upswings in the bankroll, but, unfortunately, when you're playing $10 and $25 PLO -and you play as tight as I play- those swings are few and far between. I've had some good nights and, in general, have moved the bankroll upwards on a continuous trend, but playing at my limits does not lend itself to large upticks.

I'm still enjoying the game very much, such a relief from the grind that NLHE had become, and I think I am making strides at becoming a competent PLO player. I'm beginning to see why most like this game more than O8, who wants to split a pot anyway? I still see some horrendous play on a nightly basis, as well as the obligatory table captains who feel the need to educate the fish as to why they shouldn't call down THEIR raises with only a gut-shot straight draw. Guys buying in for $5 at a $25 PLO table, then playing every hand until they bust.

I had an interesting hand the other night and I took some crap from another player afterwards. I'll let you be the judge:

I have As - Kd - Ks - Jd in the big blind and call a pot-sized raise from the small blind with three other mouth-breathers.

Flop is Qs - 10s - 8h.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm probably gonna gamble for stacks here if it comes right down to it, however, the SB leads out with a pot-sized bet and I just call, hoping to bring along a few more to the turn. No such luck and they all fold.

Right now, I am putting the SB squarely on A-A and know full well that I have to catch one of what I think are at least 19 outs twice. (2 Kings, 3 Jacks, 4 Nines and 9 diamonds and the lone Ace if he indeed has A-A)

The turn is the 7 of clubs and I really don't see my outs changing much, still 19, at least by my poor count.

He, of course, bets the pot and I decide I'm going to the rail, if need be, with this hand and jam the rest of my stack in over the top. He debates, uses up most of his time and calls with ?????????

The river is the beautiful 9 of spades and I make my hand both ways with the nut straight and the second nut flush. He's mad now. I mean REALLY mad. Irate, in fact.

What do you think he had and what do you think he called me after I stacked him?

I'll give you a hint, he didn't wish AIDS on me, but it was pretty damn close.

----

On an unrelated note, I've received several inquiries about whether or not I'll be attending Vegas in December. It is still on my radar and I will be trying to make it work, but unfortunately, until you read BOOKED across the title of a post on this blog, I'll have to remain a maybe. It's not that I don't want to fly out and hang out in Vegas for a few days, far from it. December is a very busy month around GCox-ville.

We have to do some travelling around Christmas time, plus December is a huge hunting month, plus, I would have to come up with the money to fly out there and still have some semblance of a bankroll, once there. I'm not saying I won't be there yet, but it will be difficult, but something I am definitely working toward. I do want to be there, believe me, I promise you that.

For any of you thinking about that have never done it, you need to do it. There's no telling how many more of these things there are going to be, so you might not ever get another chance. Trust me, it's a once or twice in a lifetime thing and you won't regret making the trip.......unless you get rolled by a hooker, that is.

Until next time, I fold.
G

Welcome Back

2009-08-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

It's like going into the closet and finding that old pair of shoes that were always your favorite, trying them on and they feel just like they did 10 years ago....

I must say, I'm stoked about the trade.

Welcome back Pudge, I wish you'd never left.

It's Hard.......

2009-08-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

..........being a baseball fan of a small market team. At least, that's what they keep telling us about my Texas Rangers.

I would think the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex would be anything but a "small" market, however, I understand the logic behind it. Their markets are based on television markets more than their fan bases. Large market teams get more exposure on television in their home markets, more exposure on ESPN and more exposure nationally than their small market counterparts. That all means more money coming in and the ability to spend at will on free agents, etc.

My Rangers are having a fantastic year. If you'll remember when I last wrote about the Texas Rangers, I said something along the lines of anything around .500 baseball would be a huge step forward for this club. Well, they've taken a monumental step forward without really adding any key pieces since last off-season. Almost every move they made was internal, rather than going out and signing high-priced free agents who don't want to be in Texas anyway. I think that's about to start changing.

Last year, the Rangers had the #1 ranked farm system in all of baseball. This year, we are starting to see some of the real benefits that come along with that ranking. Namely, youngters coming up and performing well on the big stage. They've called up pitchers on an as-needed basis and with the exception of some growing pains from Derek Holland, they've all performed admirably. Holland is really starting to get into a nice groove, using all his pitches and throwing that nasty change-up after a 95 mph heater on the hands on a regular basis. I really like his future.

Derek Holland is currently 5-7 with a 5.04 era. That's not great but he is working it down from there and if he throws anything like his last couple of starts, that will continue to drop down the rest of the year.

Tommy Hunter came up next and has stepped right into the spot vacated by Matt Harrison. All he's done is start 9 games, going 5-2 during that time with a 2.26 era.

Dustin Nippert got the call after Brandon McCarthy went down to injury. All he's done so far is go 3-1 with a 3.62 era.

How about the golden boy of the minor league system? Neftali Feliz was called up to work out of the bullpen just a few weeks ago. All he's done so far in 4 appearances is record 3 holds, struck out 13 batters in 6-2/3 innings and fashion an era of 1.35. By the way, he throws the ball 100 mph without breaking a sweat.

Had you told me that we would lose 4/5 of our beginning rotation at the start of the year, I would have thought very bad things. Thankfully, somebody decided that Scott Feldman should be a starter, not a reliever. After 3 horrendous outings from the bullpen, all he's done in 21 starts is go 12-4 with a solid 3.90 era, keeping the Rangers in nearly every one of those starts while he was in the game.

Add in Kevin Millwood's solid season, a hard-luck 9-7 thus far with a 3.38 era, and the pitching appears to be in good shape, as long as the youngsters hold up. I think Millwood easily reaches the 180 innings he needs to trigger the option on his contract for 2010. Do I expect them to overtake the Angels in the AL West? Not really. I think the Angels are a very solid club with good starting pitching and I don't think they will go on any prolonged losing streaks with their club. I also think Mike Sciosia, although a huge cry-baby, is a solid in-game manager.

The thing that I haven't talked about yet, but will now, is probably the Rangers biggest off-season move last winter. They signed Mike Maddox away from the Brewers to be our pitching coach and I don't think anybody can argue with how great a job he's done thus far. They look like a completely different group of pitchers out there, pitching with a purpose and not backing down. I applaud his work and the work of Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels in getting him signed away from Milwaukee.

The hitting thus far has been a bit of a disappointment. Although they lead the league in Home Runs, as usual, their batting averages and on-base percentages have been fairly average. Of late though, they've started hitting the ball better and moving runners around, so there is still hope that they have a strong finish ahead of them. Josh Hamilton appears healthy for a change and has been swinging a hot bat for the last 10 days or so. Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler are poised to come back from their injuries this week against the Red Sox and that can only help an offense that has struggled to score runs.

I think the Wild Card is a possibility and I still haven't given up hope on winning the AL West. This team, with these pitchers, could go on a tremendous hot streak if the hitters catch up with the pitchers. If they get both of those things going at the same time, they're going to be a difficult team to play down the stretch.

With the trading deadline passed and nothing at all happening on the Rangers front, I'm a bit torn. Part of me would liked to have seen them make the move for Halladay, just for selfish reasons. (basically to make the playoffs this year and possibly next year, as well) The sane part of me though looks at their deadline non-deal making and applaud them whole-heartedly for standing pat and not trading away any of these kids. There is a reason that their minor league system is ranked #1 in baseball and you're going to see the fruits of those signings in the next few years in Arlington.

I expect Justin Smoak will be the first baseman next year in Arlington. I expect Julio Borbon will be the center fielder next year in Arlington. I expect to see at least Derek Holland and Tommy Hunter in the rotation in Arlington for the rest of this year and next year as well. I almost expect Neftali Feliz to be in the rotation next year, unless they make him a closer. The Rangers are loaded with young talent and as we have to say difficult goodbyes to veterans who have been around a while, it is time to let the young kids play. Hank Blaylock and Marlon Byrd probably will not be back with the team next year and I hate that. Hank's injury problem really ruined a chance at a great career at 3rd Base and Marlon will simply be a victim of the numbers game in the outfield. With Murphy, Borbon, Cruz and Hamilton all able to play multiple positions out there, the need for an outfielder is miniscule at best. Byrd and Blaylock will both be allowed to walk after this year.

I sort of expect one of either Taylor Teagarden, Jarrod Saltalamachia or Max Ramirez to be traded in the off-season and it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see one of either CJ Wilson or Frank Francisco traded away as well. With the depth that the organization has at catcher and pitcher right now waiting in the wings, they could fill some holes this off-season.

But, if you made me choose, I'd say the Rangers trade nobody, re-sign nobody and sign no free agents. They've said all along that they were going to stick to the plan of rebuilding from within and so far at least, they are on the right track.

Go Rangers.

PLO Experiment Continues

2009-08-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, because of my so-frequent updates on this blog, BAH!, I have been playing PLO Cash almost exclusively for the last several months. I have money strewn out on 3 or 4 sites and, on most nights, I can find a .05/.10 or .10/.25 PLO game running.

One of the sites that I'm currently playing on, which shall remain nameless, I find the same usual suspects almost night in and night out. Some of them are very bad and a few of them are pretty good players. They recognize me, as I do them, and we mostly stay out of each others' way, hoping to prey on the people that we already have notes on. (and there are plenty of bad players to go around)

I sat down last night at a .10/.20 PLO 6-Max table and settled in, waiting for the BB to come around to me. It was apparent, almost immediately, that the player to my left was going to raise pre-flop every hand, continue to raise and re-raise every street and get all his money in the middle with ANY type of hand or draw. I waited patiently through a couple of orbits and finally found A-K-K-10 double suited and called his raise, along with two others who were just dying to get some of his money.

The flop came out K-9-3 rainbow. I checked from out of position and my new buddy immediately bet the pot. Two folds before me and I re-pot and he insta-calls. The two of hearts comes on the turn and I shove the rest of my stack into the middle and again, he insta-calls........with Q-10-7-5 and nothing suited. So, looking at that board, he has 4 outs tops. He has to catch a jack or he simply calls off nearly his entire stack and doubles me up in the process...................wait for it...................ha ha, no $1 for a bad beat here as another 2 comes off on the river and I double up with a full house.

How in the world do these people still have money in their accounts? I can see where they might go a while picking up mostly uncontested pots from weak-tighties like me, but sooner or later, they're going to have to show down a hand and if they cannot or will not fold when they get played back at, how do they continue to fund their accounts?

He ended up playing through two more $20 buy-ins while I was at the table, unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on any of it. I understand that $60 is nothing in the grand scheme of things, but I know this guy plays that way every night, despite the limits at the table and despite conventional wisdom telling him, you should probably fold in this spot.

I'm a really good folder, in fact, I haven't really sat down and looked at my stats, but I would bet they aren't much looser than when I play NLHE. I don't see alot of flops with speculative hands unless a couple of things have already happened:

-If I double early then I will relax my starting hand requirements some, in hopes of hitting a big flop and being able to stack another player.

-If the table has a bunch of limpers and I have one of those nicely connected, double suited hands that everybody loves to play.

-If we have that one douchebag at the table that is trying to run over everybody with aggression.

Obviously, I wait for stronger hands more often than not on the last item there, but there are times when I'm going to play back at this guy, just for the sake of playing back at him and to let him know that I can only be bullied for so long. Sooner or later, he's going to have to call a check-raise or a shove and show down a solid hand against me and by playing back at him early, with less than stellar hands, I plant that seed in his mind. Of course, he isn't going to fold anyway, so, waiting for the primo hand or a great flop often works better in this situation.

I tend to play PLO almost exactly like I play NLHE:

Very tight pre-flop, sticking to a fairly strict set of opening hands, hoping to flop large. BTW, why is it that when I flop my top set, it's always a double-suited or straight-connected board? Anyone?

Fairly tight post-flop, unless I flop top set on a draw heavy board. Depending on the action before me, I have folded in this spot, but more often than not, I get as much as I can in the middle here and hope to dodge the outs or make my boat.

Basically, I play it as close to NLHE as I can, call alot, fold when appropriate, and jam when I make the nuts. It's a particularly nitty style that works for me and fortunately, there aren't a lot of online players that pick this up until it's too late.(obviously, bloggers excluded)

There are still a bunch of bad players out there, particularly at the lower limits, where I currently reside. I plan on continuing this little experiment for the foreseeable future or until I run out of money, which doesn't look to be a problem these days. Bankroll's in good shape for my limits and as long as I limit my exposure to higher limits or blackjack, I should be fine.

So, in summation, don't look for a whole lot more updates here than you've been getting for the past 6 months. I'm lucky if I have/take the time to post here more than once a week, sometimes even longer. I'm not sure of the reasons behind this, but Facebook surely isn't helping.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Goodbyes Are Sad

2009-07-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

Goodbyes suck.

When it comes time to say goodbye to a family member, there is nothing anybody can say that can make you feel better. I'm still in a horrendous mood. I'm the old cranky bastard that screams "get off my lawn" to the neighborhood kids. I was gonna be that guy eventually anyway, but when I'm in a bad mood, I am already that guy.

Thank you to everybody that commented and sent their condolences and best wishes. Burying your Grandma is extremely hard for anybody, much less a schmoe like me, but well wishes from people that I consider friends makes it a little more bearable. Don't get me wrong, I could NOT bear it, but it was sure nice to read all of your comments, Thanks again.

Prior to interruptus del lifos, I was hanging out with my friends, slinging cards, drinking a few beers and, in general, having a good time. Let me repeat that, I had a great freaking time hanging out, slinging chips, plugging penny slot machines and getting to know a few special people a little better.

If you've read their recaps of the weekend, you already know that we had a large time here in the flyover/koozie state. If you didn't know that Oklahoma was the koozie state, well, you don't pay close enough attention. You'll probably never buy a ticket here anyway, so whatever I could say wouldn't hit home with you and, if I can't hit home with you, well, you probably wouldn't have a good time here anyway.

We had a great group this year, along with my now-traditional co-hosts: MrsGCox25, my daughter Casey, Miss Maudie, Oossuuu, Turdchaser and IceBox. If you've never enjoyed a beer at the Crows Roost Bar or over on TurdChaser's porch, well, I'm sorry for you, because you are missing out.

My #1 girl, Kat, from the Great White North, is our annual "longest traveller" as well as "she who books her flight the earliest." She flew in on Wednesday morning and had a hankering for some wings and beer. Unfortunately for us, the local Buffalo Wild Wings was closed for renovation, so, we did what any sane person would do and drove another 50 yards or so, to Jason's Deli and devoured a monstrous Reuben Sandwich. I'm pretty sure that turned out alright.

After a short afternoon nap, we headed to Oossuuu's house and met his roommates for the first time. They laid out a great spread of hamburgers, hot dogs and all kinds of the "Official Beer of Okie-Vegas" - Keystone Light.

We had a nice little one table SNG(which I managed to chop 1st, btw) followed by a nice little cash game. (which I managed to donk off all my profit from the sng, tyvm.) After driving home, we crashed, not to be up and about until well after Noon.

On Thursday, we headed to Norman-town around 2:00 pm in the afternoon and straight to Riverwind Casino. After drinking one $4 beer and dropping a quick $40 in the poker slot machine, I was off, in search of a slot machine I might be able to win at and, oh boy, did I find those machines????? Penny slots my friends, penny slots. I ended up covering my early losses and 2 rounds of beers with my first try and later, I would pocket a cool $100 on those penny slot machines. BIG-time gamblers down here in the koozie state, you know?

After getting myself back to even, we headed to Ozzie's at the airport in Norman, for a meetup with Maudie, Oossuuu, Greg and chicken fried steaks, bigger than your head. Once done, I was miserable and, when we arrived at Maudies, for some kitchen table poker, I told Maudie, "a very small piece of pie, please," which, she managed to completely ignore and served me a monstrous piece, with some vanilla ice cream on top. Oh my, it's no wonder I'm as fat as I am.

We played a little nickel-dime-quarter kitchen table poker with games such as Guts, Drops, Mexican Sweat and ........ Omaha Hi. That's right, I doubled up my $10 buy-in with one hand of PLO. Unfortunately for Greg, Oossuuu's roommate, he ran into the tight-box that raises only with A-A and a couple of suits, flops top set and turns a boat. He unfortunately made Broadway on the river and was compelled to call my $3 shove on the end. Overall, one of the best nights of any of the 4 Okie-Vegases thus far.

The next morning, Friday, we rose, showered and awaited the arrival of Special K, fresh off a cross country flight that saw him connecting out of his home town, that had to be a bit weird for him. We followed his progress on Facebook and soon, got the call, he was in the vicinity.

After a quick man-hug, we loaded up and headed to Eischen's, Oklahoma's Oldest Bar, but also home of the best fried chicken in Oklahoma. Can I get a witness? They bring out wax paper, pitchers of beer, fresh pickles, white bread and fried okra and you eat with your hands. It is my kind of place, no doubt.

After lunch, we directed the visitors to the less-than-fabulous Lucky Star Casino in El Reno, OK, as Carrie, Casey and I made our way down to the lake to prepare for yet more arrivals. I would have liked to have played with my visitors, but the way things worked out, I'm glad I was already at the lake. They definitely had fun tilting the locals without me.

Yestbay arrived from the DFW metroplex shortly after our arrival at the lake and was greeted with the blast furnace that is western Oklahoma this time of year. We quickly got him settled and awaited the others.

After their arrival at the lake, we quickly organized a little SNG (which I also was lucky enough to chop) and played until the arrival of Tragedy and the Mrs, fresh from West Texas. We played some cash games, but soon enough, it was time to head down to the Crows Roost Bar and a visit with the locals.

Apparently, unbenownst to me or the others, my wife and Katitude had already headed that way and were enjoying multiple free cerveza due to somebody's ability to please the locals. I won't mention names, cough, but Kat was a big hit at the Crows Roost Bar.

We had a few beers before they turned the lights on and told us to GTFO! And then, we enjoyed a few more on the porch before finally calling it a night around 3:30 am.

Saturday, we headed to our favorite spot on the lake, JetBoat Cove! We arrived en masse and took over the entire area, drinking a few beers, and also meeting Sure Thing On A Blanket, fresh off a job interview. The reason we knew that were the scars on her knees. Funny shit, I promise. Funnier if you were there, but funny nonetheless.

After sending out the visitors for a quick tour of Fort Cobb Lake on the Redneck Yacht Club! My good friend KK stopped by in her party barge and took a full crew out on the water for a tour and some deep sea diving off the top of the boat. The videos are priceless, I promise.

After breaking things down, we headed back to the trailer. MrsGCox25 started on the mexican food and we started on the poker tournament. We played the first four levels outside, in the sweltering heat, before breaking for dinner. I was never the same.

I managed a double up when I couldn't lay down my Kings pre-flop (to a re-raise) and managed to flop top set. Tragedy couldn't get away from his Aces and my Kings held up to double me up.

Anyway, after folding for 16 hours straight, I got it in with J-10 s00ted, against...........wait for it............Greg's Aces. I flopped a pair, turned a gutter ball and bowed out gracefully in around 5th or 6th place.

Kat managed to take 3rd, Yestbay took 2nd and newcomer Greg, took the whole thing down. Nice tourney with good friends and overall, a good time was had by all. However, the good times were just starting.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out on the porch, doing dial-a-shots, telling lies and getting to know each other a little better. It was the best time of the whole weekend for me.

Sunday, we headed back to OKC after everybody hit the road and Kat and I met Maudie at Chili's for some lunch before her flight took off. After lunch, I dropped off Kat at the airport and made my way home for a long nap.

Overall, as good or better than the previous 3 imho. I've had a great time every year, this year, even moreso. We missed a few folks this year, but the ones that were here, will always be welcome and invited back to my house any time, I can promise you that.

Thanks to everybody that made the trip, I had a fantastic time.

Thanks to all my co-hosts, I love you all just like family.

Until next time, I fold. Can I get a witness???

G

***BTW, no links, because I'm a lazy bastard, but you can find everybody here in the links to the right.****

Saying Goodbye

2009-07-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

As I drove away from the airport this afternoon, after saying goodbye, to Kat, for the last time this weekend, it kind of hit me.....right in the face.

This weekend, which was our 4th such Okie-Vegas gathering, was just as cool and just as much fun as any of the other three. I had an outstanding time and soon, I'll write another write-up or two. But, right now, I have to prepare to say goodbye to the matriarch of our family.

After an outstanding lunch on Friday, we ushered the visitors to the Lucky Star Casino and my wife and daughter and I drove on to the lake place to prepare. About 5 minutes after arriving at the lake, my cell phone rang. It was my Mom and I knew immediately that it was the call I didn't want to take.

Nanny was 96 years old and had lived by herself up until just two years ago. She was, by far, the toughest woman I've ever known. She survived the depression. She raised 7 kids almost completely by herself during tougher times than most of us have ever known. She survived being run over by a car in her 80's and was back in Tunica, plugging slot machines, less than a year later.

Alot of my youth was spent at Nanny's house, shoot, 41 of my 43 Christmas Eves on this earth have been spent at that little white house next to the church. She had an effect on everybody she met and we will all miss her very much. I don't know all the numbers exactly, but there are dozens of grand-kids, great grandkids and even a handful of great, great grand-kids, all shaped and influenced in some way by my Nanny.

I'll write up Okie-Vegas 4 one of these days, but for now, I say God Bless and Godspeed, Nanny. We love you, we'll always miss you and we'll never forget you.

I love you,

Gary

It Has Begun

2009-07-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

Presto is indeed "gold" for me against Oossuuu. Who knew?

Let's Get Ready To......

2009-07-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

......go on a much needed, well-deserved vacation.

Tomorrow night at approximately 4:29 pm officially, I am on vacation for 10+ days. I'll probably check out un-officially somewhere around Noon, but when I clock out tomorrow evening, I'm headed straight to the lake to enjoy some fishing and some fun in the sun.

If you know me, that means that I'll be roasted-red sunburned by the time you make it here for Okie-Vegas, which begins, by the way, next Wednesday when I pick Kat up at the airport. After a few emails and a few conversations over some cold beer, we've got our typical loose agenda and our guest list.

Hosting with me, as always, are Miss Maudie, Oossuuu and the lovely and talented, MrsGCox25, as well as Turdchaser and IceBox.

Kat is flying in from Canada. SpecialK is flying into DFW from the Carolinas and then driving up from Texas. Instant Tragedy and his crew are driving in from West Texas and last, but not least, Yestbay is driving up from the Dallas area. A smaller crew than the last couple of years, but about the size I expected this year, what with the economy in the shitter and the costs associated with travel. That's okay, we'll still have a big time, I can promise you that.

Here's the loose agenda, if you're interested:

Wednesday - I pick up Kat at the airport and we head to Bricktown, here in downtown OKC for some sightseeing and lunch. Once the heat wears us completely down, we'll head back to my house for a little relaxation before heading to Oossuuu's house Wednesday evening for a little pool party, hamburgers and poker. I hear he's arranged for a little 2-table $20 buy-in NLHE tournament right there on the premises with some of his home game buddies. Bets on who lays down the first hammer??? We're going to try to work in the Mookie Wednesday night, but without Buddy and Joanada here, I don't think we could ever top last year's broadcast anyway.

Thursday looks to be the day that Kat, Oossuuu and I get to sling some chips with the locals. We'll probably end up going to Riverwind down in Norman, just for convenience, since we are meeting Miss Maudie at Ozzie's for dinner and Chicken Fried Steak bigger than your head. Following that, we'll all need a nap, I mean, we'll head over to Maudie's house for a little desert and some nickel-dime-quarter dealer's choice poker at her place.

Friday will see the rest of the arrivals. Special K will be up some time after Noon and we plan on heading to Okarche, Oklahoma for fried chicken at Eischen's, the oldest bar in Oklahoma. It's really a restaraunt, although they do serve beer, but we'll load up there on food and need another nap, no, we'll head from there to El Reno and the fabulous Lucky Star Casino for a few hours of poker with the locals. Depending on what time Yestbay is going to be arriving that evening, we'll head to the lake from there in time to get things cooled down in the trailer and things unloaded from the vehicles.

That evening, after Yestbay arrives and Tragedy and his crew arrive, we're going to just hang out. We might play a little cash game at the trailer or we might just head down to the Crows Roost Bar and knock back a few cold ones.

Saturday is tournament day and, rather than drive all the way back to the city, we're going to stay at the lake and do it down there this year. MrsGCox25 has a mexican fiesta menu planned this year, with enchiladas, stuffed jalapenos, 7-layer dip and, of course, that world-famous OkieCaviar salsa that she debuted last year. I'm pretty sure a couple of folks made themselves sick on that last year, including me, but it's too good to pass up.

The plan is to play the tournament around 1:00pm-ish and have it over some time around 5:00 pm and then play cash games and hang out at the trailer for the rest of the evening. Of course, if anybody wants to get up and ride jet ski's on Saturday morning, we'll be ready for that too. We'll head back to the city around 11-ish on Sunday morning in order to get Kat to the airport on time and I guess everybody else will head home from the lake and it will all be over again, seemingly before it started. Time does fly when you're having fun.

I guess that's about all I know. If you couldn't make it this year, well, I understand completely and we'll be sure to hoist a cold on in your honor. If you are coming, I'm grateful and I can't wait to see you. If you thought about coming and just didn't pull the trigger, well, you're missing out. Make plans to be here next year, when, we're going to do our best to move the dates around either before or after the WSOP in hopes of accomodating a few more people. I'm looking at you, Reverend Al and F-Train.

Of course, dial-a-shots are welcome at any and all times, just be patient, we don't get great reception down there in the middle of nowhere.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Truckin' Is Out

2009-06-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

Truckin' - June 2009, Vol. 8, Issue 6

Welcome back to the birthday issue of Truckin' as we turn seven years old this month!

1. Pink Dragons by Paul McGuireCharles was skeptical and accused me of being a CIA or DEA agent, not to mention the evil offspring of George Bush. There was a strong anti-American sentiment in New Zealand and Charles epitomized that angst. When I unfurled a wad of multi-colored Australian dollars, he abruptly ended his rant and asked me how much I needed... More

2. Holly of Houston: Google Me! by Johnny Hughes Holly was a former board member of Houston's chapter of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She had donated $140,000 to the Texas Strippers for PETA tour. Her frequent comments in Texas newspapers were strongly anti-gun... More

3. I'll Read Your Madness Later by May B. Yesno The agent freezes; there on that glorious bed lay two figures. The face and name was banging a woman. The woman clawing gently on the back of the face and name, eyes silted in pleasure, yet aware enough to look at the agent coming through the doorway... More

4. The Collector by Milton T. Burton He was questioned by two detectives from the Organized Crime Squad---one older, tall, thin and gray haired; the other younger, short, thickset and bald. Raymond Chandler said they always came paired that way. But the old man didn't read Chandler... More

5. Morrison's Lament By Michael Friedman Society no longer values the divinity of the self, so I find myself amiss all of the technology, discontent, and terror and although it takes only a moment to imagine that I am free from the nastiness that the universe leaves on my lips with every gut-wrenching soul kiss... More

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been...

From the Editor's Laptop:

The June edition of Truckin' marks the seventh anniversary of this monthly rag. I'm honored to have a stellar cast of writers this month including veterans Johnny Huges, Milton T. Burton, and May B. Yesno. And Michael Friedman makes his debut with something inspired by the Lizard King.

Please spread the word about Truckin' and increase your karma tenfold! Tell your friends and family and co-workers about your favorite stories. The contributors write for free and you'll be doing me a huge favor by helping get their name out and about.

If anyone is interested in being added to the mailing list, or perhaps you are interested in writing for a future issue, then feel free to contact me.

Seven years. Hard to think that we're still alive and kicking despite the many instances when I wanted to pull the plug and give up forever. I have to sincerely thank the writers for sharing their blood work. Thanks for taking this leap of faith with me.

And a special thanks goes out to you, the reader, for your loyalty and support over the years.

Be good,
McG

"Do one thing and do it the best you can." - Harry Snyder, founder of In-N-Out Burger

Thoughts

2009-06-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

Since it is now just 3 short weeks away, I give you the tourney structure. A tad different this year as we will be doing the tourney at the lake place, rather than our house in the city. If you need directions, give a holler.

2009 OKIE-VEGAS TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE
SATURDAY, JULY 11TH, 3:00 P.M.

$40 BUY-IN – 5000 CHIPS
ONE SINGLE $20 ADD-ON OR RE-BUY(during the first hour) – 2500 CHIPS

I treat the add-on/re-buy as a save just in case somebody takes a horrific beat during the first hour, they are able to get back into the tournament, however, after the first hour, you may use it as an add-on after 60 minutes (three levels) if you haven’t rebought –OR- you can re-buy immediately and sit down with 7500 chips. Your choice.

BLIND LEVELS

10-20 - 20 MINUTES
25-50 - 20 MINUTES
40-80 - 20 MINUTES

Break-color up

50-100 - 20 MINUTES
100-200 - 20 MINUTE
200-400 - 20 MINUTES
400-800 - 20 MINUTES

Break-color-up

500-1000 - 20 MINUTES
1000-2000 - 20 MINUTES
2000-4000 - 20 MINUTES
4000-8000 - 20 MINUTES

I fully expect the tournament to be over at this point, but if not, we will continue on probably capping the blind levels at 4K-8K. I expect to have one table of players and will decide on the payout structure after the first hour when I have a total amount in the prize pool. It will probably be something in this neighborhood though:

1st – 60%
2nd – 25%
3rd - 15%

The cash game to follow will be $.50-$1 NL with a max buy-in of $100.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to call me on my cell phone, if you have it, or shoot me an email at work. That address can be found here on the blog.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Boog And Me

2009-06-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here's my boy Boog last January. He was still a bit small for those big old ducks, but hopefully we'll have him out there in the lake this year, fetching them up.

Agenda + A Bad Beat Story

2009-06-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

Well, after few emails back and forth yesterday, it appears we have settled on a "loose" agenda for the upcoming Okie-Vegas 4.

In case you are unaware, the dates for OV4 are July 8th through the 12th, right here in fabulous Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That's in the "flyover state" for those of you unfamiliar with our little part of the country.

Wednesday will be day one of the arrival(s). As of now, I only know of one arrival, that being Kat from the Great White North. The tentative plan for Wednesday will be for anyone interested to meet up at Oossuuu's house on Wednesday evening for a little cookout, pool-time, maybe a few Keystone Lights and then to play the Mookie. No live broadcast this year as Buddy and Jo are busy planning their impending nuptials, so they unfortunately cannot attend. Perhaps we can hook up through the miracle of the interwebby, girlie chat thingy though and supply a bit of drunken humor.

Thursday will bring a trip to Norman, America, home of the fabulous Miss Maudie and the now-annual trip to Ozzie's for chicken fried steak that is bigger than your head. There have been enough bloggers make this trip and enough pictures posted regarding this, if you look hard enough, you can find them, but suffice it to say, it is so big that they have to bring your side orders on a totally different plate. Ummm, okra.

Following this excursion will be an immediate 2 hour nap, er, I mean a one-table SNG at Maudie's house. I've been told that there might be some desert involved, as well as a few Keystone Lights to boot.

Friday, and this is the part that is still "loosely" planned, we are thinking of a road trip to Okarche, Oklahoma, population +/- 1100. now, you might be asking yourself, what in the world could be worth driving an hour out into the country for? Fried Chicken, that's what. Eischen's Bar, which bills itself as Oklahoma's oldest bar, is actually a restaraunt in this little town and they serve Fried Chicken that is famous state-wide.

You don't go in and order a 2-piece meal here though, it's a whole chicken for everybody and it's well worth the trip as the leftovers that you take home are as good or better than they were the day you ate them.

After the Eischen's trip is still a bit up in the air. I'm waiting to hear from a couple of people regarding attendance and arrival times, but we might be skipping the trip to the lake this year. If not, of course, we will drive straight to the lake after Eischen's and play some poker down there. (and maybe sneak in a trip to the world famous Crows Roost Bar) If we do decide to skip the lake, we'll probably head to the Lucky Star Casino for a while on Friday and sling some chips with the locals there in El Reno.

Saturday is shaping up to be just like every other Saturday in the past. A little barbecue, a little poker, a little karaoke and whole lotta Keystone Light. I'm working now to woo a few local friends into coming over and we will hopefully have a full table for the tournament.

I'm going to change the structure just a bit this year, as last year took 19 hours to play down to the final table and it was entirely too long, so it will be a bit quicker structure. I'm working on that and finalizing the rest of the plans, but if you would like to join us, come on! We'll find a place for you to stay, if need be, and I promise you won't regret making the trip.

--

What do you think about a short post containing some actual poker content? I know, I know, dogs and cats are now officially sleeping together, hell hath frozen over, etc. etc. etc.

I had to tell this story, because I played this hand about as poorly as one can play it and you know what? I sucked out and doubled up! Score one for the donkeys out there. I won't even owe you a dollar because the bad beat was administered by me, not against me.

First off, a little background. I was tilting due to a couple of 60-40 spots playing PLO that, needless to say, went the way of the 40%, as is often the case, what, 2 out of 5 times or so, right? Anyway, I had an old site slide me $10 free money last week and I had managed to get that up to about $25 and I jumped on a .25/.50 NL table, shortstacked, with my whole roll. It was 6-max, so patience was out the window.

I was in the big blind with 4-5 of diamonds, nice little sooted connectors that usually either play very well or are very easy to get away from post-flop. There was a raise to $1.00 ahead of me and everybody else at the table called, so I called too.

Flop was 2-4-6 with one diamond.

With my gutterball, small pair and backdoor flush draw, I forcefully checked. The original bettor bet the near $6 pot and everyone folded around to me. I am hovering over the foldl button when something evil takes over my body and I ship the rest of my chips in with what I believe are 9 outs twice.

This is one of those sites that does not turn over hole cards until the end, giving the loser the opportunity to muck, but they also have the hand replayer so you can go back and see what they had.

When he insta-called, I knew I was going to need some help and here came the help. Diamond on the turn and diamond on the river for runner-runner flush and it wasn't even crubs. I looked back and the opponent had 10-10 and was way ahead of the donkey in the 2 seat.

Oh well, I didn't hang around for the berating. I was already in a bad mood and didn't want to read his insults or type back any of my own, so I checked out, $25 richer. He probably got me tagged with all kinds of flowery names, but he probably won't see me at that table again any time soon.

What a donkey am I!

Until next time, I suck out runner-runner!

G

So, Who's In?

2009-06-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are one month away from Okie-Vegas 4.

It doesn't seem possible that it is that close. When we (meaning all my smart friends) put the web-site up with the countdown on it, it seemed like it was years away and yet, now, it's just a tad over 30 days. I'm nowhere near ready for it yet, but that should change in the coming weeks.

Right now, it appears that we will have a much smaller group as there are a lot of people that are either still "on the fence" or otherwise tied up in Vegas during the time we will be gathering.

I know that Tragedy and his fiancee will be making the drive in from Texas.

I know that Kat (God bless her) bought her tickets in January and will be flying in to OKC International Airport.

I know that Oossuuu will be joining us locally and perhaps even hosting the Mookie pre-party on Wednesday night. (if not, he'll be joining us at my house for sure)

I am assuming that the fabulous Miss Maudie will be joining us at times for the usual hijinx in and around OKC.

We have one added wrinkle this year. We are still going to eat Chicken Fried Steak bigger than your head at Ozzie's in Norman, perhaps on Wednesday this year, depending on travel schedules. I am going to include a little side trip to Okarche this year, home of Eischen's, Oklahoma's oldest little bar. They serve some tremendous fried chicken down there and it is worth the couple of miles out of the way to stop there and eat.

It is also only about 15 minutes north of one of the casino's here so swinging through either before or after a little poker will work out just fine. It is also sort-of on the way to the lake.

I guess if anyone that I didn't mention is planning the trip, I probably need to know here in the next few weeks. I've heard from many people that "we're gonna try" or "we'd love to" or "we're thinking about it." It's time to get off the fence and make those plans.

I've even been playing a little poker of late, trying to get myself stoked up for the event. Unfortunately, I'm more stoked for the Keystone Lights at the lake than I am about the poker, but you know, that's nothing new either.

Let me know if you have plans to attend, so I have an idea how many to expect. Also, if you've already booked, email me your travel info and I will start my annual airport run spreadsheet.

Until next time, I fold.
G

Special Weekend

2009-05-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

I went and did something I haven't done in more than 13 years this weekend.

It started off the way so many weekends at Fort Cobb Lake start off, with karaoke rocking the Crows Roost Bar on Friday night. Some time around 1:15 am, it came to a close and we loaded up our equipment and headed back to the trailer.

My wife and mother-in-law beat me home and had the frozen pizzas heating up in the oven and by the time I finished hauling all the equipment inside the trailer, they were piping hot and ready to devour. And devour I did, I don't even remember the pizza or that last beer I drank, as I woke up around 7:30 am, still groggy, but in definite need of coffee.

I got up and wandered around the house, turning on the coffee pot and straightening things from the night before. I knew I had a full day of yard work to look forward to, but was hoping for nice weather and to finish it early. I stepped outside with my first cup of coffee and made my way to the newest addition at our place. The dog run.

My buddy Bill and I finished the fencing last weekend to allow the dogs somewhere to roam outside of the porch and the trailer. All that is left is to add a doggie-door on the back side of the porch and it will be ready for their approval. Anyway, I headed out to the dog run to rake leaves and try and get it semi-presentable for our dogs to go about their business.

I sat my cofffee down, grabbed a rake and the skies opened up. We've received more than our fair share of rain lately, in fact, the last count I heard was 14 of the last 15 days, including several very hard, very long downpours. Lord knows we need the rain down there as the drought lasted nearly a full year, but enough is enough.

It finally subsided and I took care of bagging the leaves, mowing the grass, weedeating and general maintenance that comes with owning a lake place. It was now about 11:30 and I was happy to be finished with the "work."

The girls were packing up to head home as they had to attend a baby shower for a family friend and I was ready for nap, but it appeared that would have to wait. As I lay there on the couch daydreaming, I heard the door of the trailer swing open and in came my buddy Bill's dog, Storm. Right in my lap. Licking me all over.

Now, Storm is our hunting dog, so she and I have developed quite a relationship over the last two hunting seasons. She minds me almost as good as she minds Bill and Rhonda. If Booger turns into half the dog that Storm is, well, I'll have me a good little duck dog and a very good buddy, as well.

Anyway, Bill wanted to know if I was ready to go.

Let me preface this with a little post-dated information. I haven't fished since well before my Dad died. In fact, before he got sick, some 14 years ago now, was the last time I had been fishing. After they retired and moved back home, I would take a Friday off work on occasion and drive over there on Thursday night to get up and go fishing with them. I still remember that last trip like it was yesterday. We got into the catfish pretty good on that Friday morning at Fort Gibson Lake, over on the eastern side of the state.

Back in the early days, when I was growing up, my Dad and GrandDad and I fished all the time. There was hardly a weekend that went by where we didn't go fishing at some point. Even during winter, we would drive down to a heated dock at Lake Eufala and fish for crappie inside the marina.

Bill and I had talked about going fishing last year and we just never got around to it. Between prepping for the next hunting season and working around the trailer and riding jet ski's, etc. we let the summer slip away and I never wet a hook. We were determined not to let that happen this year and I had already bought my fishing license so I was ready to go when the time was right.

Saturday afternoon was that time.

Much like my first deer hunt, now 2-1/2 years ago reminded me of spending time with my Dad, sitting there on the bank of the lake with a couple of lines tossed out on bottom, waiting for a nibble reminded me of the past. I very much enjoyed that time on Saturday and we went again on Sunday for a few hours. I even managed to sneak in a call to my Momma from the lake while we were fishing and wished her a Happy Mother's Day.

I'm excited to say that it was sort of like riding a bike. I missed the first couple of bites I got on Saturday, but soon enough and all day Sunday, I was catching fish with regularity.

I didn't want that weekend to end, but, of course, it did and I'm back at work today. The emotions that I've started to feel as I've aged are none too comfortable and often times, I find myself keeping my mouth shut and my head down, trying hard to bottle it up. It only comes out later, when I have a chance to reflect, by myself, on the events that occurred. Again, it's hell getting old.

Until next time, I fold.

G

What Okie-Vegas Means To Me

2009-04-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Almost 4 years ago now, a few of my online buddies and I hatched a plan for yet another blogger get-together. It was almost certainly while we were all still playing online poker every night and it was almost certainly after having had a few pops throughout the night that the plan came together.

I had just made my first trip to Vegas the past December and had met a ton of people that I had been reading on a regular basis. We won't get in to how that trip actually came about for me, but suffice it to say, it wouldn't have happened without the kindness of another blogger.

Anyhow, after spending the majority of those 3 days liquored up and slinging cards or hanging out with a bunch of like-minded, very nice poker bloggers, I felt like more of a part of this group than I ever had before. Prior to Vegas, I had been blogging for about 7 months or so, with the only reason being that I wanted to get to know some more of these people that I had been reading on a daily basis.

Fortunately, some time during the summer months, I had the opportunity to meet up with Maudie and DuggleBogey at one of our local Indian Casinos and played poker for most of the evening. Once we were all seated at the same table, the three of us had a blast chatting and getting to know each other. Maudie even dropped the hammer that night for a winner against, as I remember, a drunk aggressive guy two seats to my right. Duggle also called out my hand on one occasion, nailing it like he had known me all my life.

Anyhow, after that meetup and the subsequent trip to Vegas in December, where I had a very LARGE time, btw, I really began to feel like I had somehow managed to become a part of this little group and really began to feel like I fit in within it.

My online crew, which consisted mainly of Jordan, TripJax, DNasty, SteelerJosh, WillWonka and Kipper back in those days, somehow hatched a plan for that very summer. What it turned out to be was Okie-Vegas 1. Unfortunately, the whole crew couldn't work it out to make the trip, but when I picked up TripJax and SteelerJosh at the airport, that first time, we instantly became better friends than you can become online.

Don't get me wrong, I have alot of online friends that I've never met and that I genuinely like, but meeting somebody face to face, shaking their hand (or in my case, hugging it out) and getting to know them in person, that ups the ante, at least for me.

TenMile drove down from a nothern state and joined our hijinx for a while that first year. DuggleBogey and Maudie, of course, met up with us at the casino and joined us for the 2-table home game tournament in my blistering garage that year, as well.

After that first year, I wasn't really sure there would be another one, but, of course, it did happen and we had more show up that 2nd year and even more than that last summer for OV3. Okie-Vegas 4 is definitely going to happen this summer, July 8-12 in case you didn't already know, and after that, who kows? Okie-Vegas 5 the following year?

That's not something that I'm willing to commit to just yet, but if things go the same as they have the last 3 years, I'm sure I'll be committing to it after a couple hundred Keystone Lights on my front porch at the lake. You see, it's not the poker, it's not the nature of meeting up with virtual people from online and it's not about the partying. For me, it's all about the people.

I'm not going to name names, because I will inevitably leave somebody out and I certainly won't mean to exclude anybody. For me, every single person that has been to my lake place or my home in OKC or to the casino with us during one of these events, is like family to me. I grew up with no brothers and no sisters, an only child, which will probably explain alot to the psychology professionals in the group, but I've never had a big problem making friends. That's one of my specialties actually and I, more often than not, find that nearly everybody we come into contact with, has something in common with us. It's just our job to find out what that "in common" is and then take it from there.

I don't consider what I do to be anything that any one of these folks wouldn't do for me, were the situations reversed. I enjoy being the host, as does my wife, and anything more than that, well, that's just us. We are pretty simple folks down here in Oklahoma and it doesn't take a lot to make us happy or for us to have fun. We fit in with just about everybody in just about any situation and through the 3 years of doing this so far, we haven't run into one person yet that we wouldn't invite back into our home again.

The question I got from my Mom and from alot of my local friends was "so, you've invited a bunch of people that you've never met and only talked to on the internet into your home?" That's correct, that's exactly what I did that first year and that's exactly what I've done for the past two years as well. And, that's exactly what I'm doing this year. I've met most of the folks at some point or another during my two trips to Vegas, but if you are on the fence this year, let me extend the invitation to you, personally:

I would like it if you came to Okie-Vegas this summer. I promise you that you won't feel out of place and I will personally guarantee your safety and well-being at my lake place and in my house. The Keystone Lights are already cold and I'm sure there is still a bottle of Southern Comfort somewhere in that trailer at the lake.

To all my great friends who have made this trip in the past, please come again this summer if you can make it happen. As I've told alot of you, I know we all have things going on with family, jobs, etc. etc. but if you can make it happen, I will promise the opportunity to crack my Aces with 7-9 off-suit. I'll probably go on high-ball tilt immediately, but I'll get over it in a few beers.

It has been and will always be about the people.

GCox25

BBT4 - One Man's Opinion

2009-04-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

There have been alot of posts up lately regarding the attendance (or lack thereof) in the BBT4 events at Full Tilt. As always, I have an opinion about the subject. The difference this time, you ask? I'm going to take the time to expound on my thoughts, something that is all too infrequent around these parts lately.

To quote that pop icon from the 70's and 80's, Phil Collins: I don't care anymore!

Back in the "good old days" of online poker and poker blogs, playing in a blogger tournament was more about the social aspect than the competition. Sure, we were all competitive and we all wanted to win, myself included, but playing in these $5 and $10 tournaments was not the end of the world. If somebody sucked out on you, well, you got mad, but you got over it soon enough and the next night, or two nights later, you were still sitting at the same tables with the same people.

There was good natured ribbing between alot of bloggers back then and I have always been nothing, if not a social player. I don't play the major tournaments, looking for a huge score, mainly because I can't afford to play those tournaments, but also, to an extent, because I don't take myself or my poker game that seriously. I think alot of bloggers out there feel the same way about their poker games right now. I also think there are alot of bloggers out there right now that take themselves and their poker games way too seriously, to the point of becoming a pain in the ass.

The drama, that's been mentioned on other blogs and that I've written about here before, is something that I can do without, personally. I don't need any more drama in my life and I don't want any more drama in my life. Making it through this old world is hard enough right now and with work stresses rising on a daily basis, personal stresses rising on a daily basis and money stresses rising on a daily basis, the last thing I need is something more to stress out about. Fuck it, I don't need it and I won't subject myself to it on a regular basis any more.

One of the things that has caused me to not play many (I've played 2) BBT4 events is the lack of social skills that was put on display in the last series. I'm not going to single any one person out, but if I really needed any advice on how to play a particular hand under the gun, do you really think I wouldn't email you or IM you and ask you your opinion? There are so many good poker players in our group and competitive people in our group, that there will always be a certain degree of snobbery, even jackassery, however, blasting somebody in the chat box, calling somebody names because of the way they played their hand or even making veiled insults in either direction is completely uncalled for, in my opinion. For some of these folks to think that the average blogger isn't smart enough to pick up on an insult is beyond me. We have doctors and lawyers in this group for God's sake, these aren't your typical $5 online pro's.

As I said before, I'm a social player, first and foremost, if I go deep in a tournament or, heaven forbid, win a tournament, that's just icing on the cake for me. And really, these days, there is almost no chance in hell of that ever happening again. I don't play enough, I don't read enough and I don't put in the hours required to play good, solid poker for 4 or 5 hours at a time. With age comes distraction and for me, that comes in the form of "I could be doing a hundred other things right now" and most often leads to Aw-fukkit decisions in the games or tournaments that I'm playing, because, when it gets right down to it, those other hundred things are more important than the $10 I have invested in a particular tournament.

As for me, I simply don't care any more. I don't care about ever playing the WSOP, it was a pipe dream in the first place, but now, I couldn't take the time off to do it even if I did have the opportunity, so why bother?

I'm sure there are a plethora of other reasons for the lack of attendance in these events, such as:

-Start times
-Money troubles
-Static from significant others

and many more that I don't know about or haven't thought about. For me, it will always come down to this: The ends don't justify the means for me any more. I don't care any more and when you don't care, you can't force yourself to start caring and you can't be succesful at whatever you're trying to do if you don't care.

I'll still play in a few odd events now and again and I'll always go out somewhere in the middle of the pack because I honestly don't care. I would like to thank Al, personally, and all the people at Full Tilt for what they've done for our group of misfits, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't care to participate fully.

I probably won't ever participate like I did in the past and that is no reflection on anybody but me. I'm older now, I go to bed earlier than I did in the old days and, most of all, I'm even more persnickety now than I ever was in the past. My problem, I know, and I've figured out how to best deal with that in my own little way. I'm prone to believe that others have figured out their best way to deal with their problems, as well.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Disappointment? Really???

2009-04-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm going to talk a little bit today about Sooner-ville. As most of you know, I'm a big-time fan of my home team, the Oklahoma Sooners. I follow their football and basketball teams about as closely as humanly possible and while I have to say, on the whole, I'm very proud of their teams this year, I'm also a bit disappointed that they didn't achieve a little more.

The football team lost to Texas in October, which, if you're from around here, almost immediately makes it a bad season, however, they recovered nicely from there and went on to win the Big 12 Championship and play for a National Title.........again.........and lost.......again. It has started to become a recurring theme around here.

Lose a game you probably should win early in the year.
Get hot at the right time and win out.
Get a little help along the way and.......presto!
You're in the National Championship game.

Our poor showing against Florida, who proved to be a much better team than my beloved Sooners, was just one of many since the magical run in 2000, Bob Stoops' second season in Norman, where we did win out and beat an over-rated Florida State team for the title.

There is always talk, year after year, about the disappointment felt when our Sooners lose in the Title game. (4 times and counting since 2000) But, really, do we have that much to be disappointed about? I mean, for heaven's sake, Bob Stoops has completely revitalized our program, from the depths of the Schnellenberger/Blake era to a perennial national title contender. Do we really have that much to complain about around here?

All he does is win baby, which is what he was brought in here to do. Forget about cleaning up the program, which he has done completely and should really be a model for other programs around the country. Forget about graduating players, which is never, ever going to show the success rate that the educators want and remain truly competitive for the Big 12 Championship and National Titles, year after year.

He's bringing in good kids, for the most part, and great athletes, almost without fail and reloading every year for another run at a title. How much better could it get around here?

Moving on to Men's Basketball and hopes were high around here in what would surely be Blake Griffin's last year in Norman. He did not disappoint, in the slightest. The concensus player of the year in the country played his tail off all year and, but for a couple of games he missed due to a concussion, we would have surely been a #1 seed in the tournament. It might not have mattered in the end, because if you watched North Carolina dismantle Villanova and Michigan State in the Final Four, they were probably where our run was going to end anyway.

I knew going in to the tournament that it was going to take a well-balanced team, with a load of seniors and an inside presence to beat the Sooners and folks, that is exactly who beat them by 12 points in the Elite Eight. North Carolina was a far better team and the 12 point difference, which doesn't look so bad if you watched the Final last night, was not really that close. We got some garbage buckets toward the end of that game, but when the game was still in doubt, we could not get closer than 8 or 9 points at any time during our run. They are that good and my hats off to them.

The questions abound for next year though. Taylor Griffin graduates and is gone and his brother, Blake, will surely follow him and be the #1 choice in the NBA draft this year. Not that the cupboard is completely bare for next season, but you are losing the National Player of the Year and a solid, senior, 4-year starter off your front line.

Coach Jeff Capel, who seems to be mentioned with every opening across the country, has a good, solid class coming in. Two McDonald's All-Americans arrive on campus this summer/fall, including a true point guard, which Coach Capel has coveted since he took over the Sooner program. Austin Johnson, the senior point guard this year, was good, and often times very good, but he was never a true point guard. He started nearly every game of his career at OU and was solid, but was not playing the position best suited for his game the entire time, which would have been the 2 guard.

Next year, Willie Warren, the Big 12 Freshman of the year this year, will be a lock for the 2 guard position and, I imagine, will play his share of the point at different times throughout the year. Tony Crocker is back for his senior year and, although he is better suited for the 2 guard position, will most likely play the 3, due to his size and his defensive ability. He creates matchup problems for other teams as well as for the Sooners in certain situations. When he plays, we have a 3 guard lineup and if we run into a team with size, we have a hard time matching up with them, and vice versa most of the time.

I expect the Sooners to be a solid team next year, as we will more than likely have two freshmen in the starting lineup when the season rolls around. Good enough to challenge for the Big 12 Title? Perhaps, depending on the impact of the freshmen. An NCAA tournament team? I would think most likely yes, as the club has a good nucleus to start with a mostly winning tradition. Willie Warren is coming back for his sophomore season and I fully expect him to average around 25 points a game next year, without the inside presence of Blake Griffin.

Coach Capel has done a good job so far in rebuilding this program after the Kelvin Sampson debacle of a few short years ago. I was a huge fan of Kelvin Sampson and his style of play. He won consistently without the McDonald's All-Americans because of his style of play and while it was often times considered "winning ugly" it was still winning. Coach Capel inherited a pretty lean team after Sampson left, losing 3 or 4 solid recruits because of Sampson's exit to Indiana, but he's building them back into a winner and I expect that to continue.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment around Sooner-Ville is the fact that the Lady Sooners of Sherri Coale did not win a National Championship during the reign of the Paris twins. When Courtney arrived on campus four years ago, from the very first game she played, they expected to win that title that never came. If you watched that game against Louisville Monday night, you could see the disappointment in all their faces when it was over.

But, to be perfectly honest, even if they had somehow gotten tough in the last 20 minutes of that game and put a much less talented Louisville team away, they still would have had to play the machine that is UConn for the title and, well, stepping back from the rose colored glasses for a minute, they were not going to win that title this year anyway. UConn is not going to be beat and I full expect them to beat Louisville by something close to the 33.5 points that they've already handled them by this year. Perhaps the game would have been closer with my Sooners, but still, they beat us by 28 earlier in the year and this is no coincidence. They are that good.

So, Courtney Paris, who wrote and re-wrote every record in the books for the ladies game is gone, along with her sister, Ashley, who just might have been the MVP of this team her senior year. She worked harder in the off-season and reshaped her body and will almost surely play in the WNBA next year because of that work. She might have played pro anyway, but in my opinion, she most definitely helped her chances with the off-season work that she did. She was in better shape and played at a much higher level from the first game through the Final Four than anybody on that team.

Courtney, on the other hand, appeared out of shape and tired toward the end of that game, in particular. The game caught up with her in her four years in Norman. She started out as a freshman, dominating the women's game and continued that domination, for the most part, through her senior year. However, as with the men, if your outside shooters do not make shots and the other team is able to collapse bodies all around the big people, their game is much tougher to play.

Whitney Hand, the freshman 2 guard, will almost definitely continue to excel, as she was the life of the team during the tournament. When Louisville went to the box and one on her in the 2nd half Monday night, the Sooners did not react and the coaching staff did not react in time to take advantage of the situation. I, being the Tuesday morning quarterback in this case, thought they should have substituted in a bigger player for Hand and posted up the Louisville guard that was hawking Hand all over the court. Oh well, I'm also a big proponent of "dancing with the one that brung ya" so I can see Coale's thinking as well.

On to the future though and it looks bright for the Lady Sooners. I can see a fast breaking team that shoots a ton of treys and runs other teams out of the building. They have a lot of young, good players and I don't see them letting off the throttle any time soon.

So, goodbye to Blake and Taylor Griffin, goodbye to Courtney and Ashley Paris and bring on the newcomers, we're ready to continue supporting a winner. Good luck following in their footsteps because, they were, if nothing else, winners.

Thanks for the memories.

State Of The Flyover State

2009-04-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Subtitled: What a freaking mess!

The economy is in the shitter.
My 401K is tanking on a regular basis.
I'm 43 years old and have resorted to mega-strength reading glasses to read the newspaper or computer screen.
People are losing their jobs right and left, thankfully none at my company...yet.

What else can I read on a daily basis or experience on a regular basis that would leave me with more of a feeling of dispair. Wait, don't answer that, I don't really want to know the answer.

There are alot of things right around the corner that I am really looking forward to:

Turkey season opens next Monday, the 6th, here in Oklahoma. Expect more pictorial evidence this year.

Major League baseball gets under way this weekend. My Rangers might not challenge this year, but they are getting better.

Summer is right around the corner. Yes, it freaking snowed here last Friday, but I can feel the changes in the air.

Okie Vegas is right around the corner now, just about 100 or so days away. While I wasn't too excited about hosting again this year when last years event was over, I'm slowly warming to the idea again and anticipate the usual hijinx and douche-baggery that always seems to happen. If you are at all interested, stop by the blog and leave a comment or leave me a comment here and let me know. I'll probably start working on a list of attendees soon, as well as some type of loose agenda. I heard from Oossuuu this week and he appears to be ready to roll with us, as well. Maudie? How about you?

I've been playing a bit of on-line poker lately, to mostly up and down results. Or, same song, second verse, been there, done that, whichever worn out saying you prefer. I'll win a buy-in or two one night, just to turn around and spew it off the next or vice-versa. My focus is poor, at best, and my results are indicative of that. I'm really starting to lose the ambition to run home and play nearly every night after work. Not completely, but pretty close.

I'm pondering trying to quit smoking again. I've failed in every attempt I've ever made regarding smoking, but at now $5.00 a pack here in Oklahoma, it's something that must be done, not only for my health, but for my wallet, as well. Wish me luck on this one, because I've never been able to pull this one off before.

I guess that's about all I have, until next time, I fold.

G

PLO

2009-03-19T15:16:00.000-07:00

Poker content, here? Really?

I've been playing alot of PLO of late and I have to say, I freaking love the game.

Of course, I'm playing at the lower levels (mainly 10 cent/20 cent) so some of the play that I've witnessed has been somewhat horrendous. However, I feel like I'm starting to get a handle on how I am going to be classified as a PLO player.

First off, I won't and will never be the aggressive guy at the table. I've seen too many times where I've raised with A-A-x-x when my x-x were either coordinated with my Aces, flush or straight possiblilities, etc. and then when I whiff the flop, there are still 4 folks in the hand waiting to check-call my continuation bet. It has happened over and over again and, although I don't play that many hands, my raises get no more respect than in a $10 NL game.

Secondly, I can't stand being as entirely passive and weak-tight as I am in NL tournaments. It is impossible to make any money by check-calling people down to the river, no matter if your weak-ass 2 pair is good or not. The only way to make money in the game is to consistently build pots pre-flop, post-flop and on the turn and then to consistently show down the nuts when you are called down.

I've watched the LAG-tards over and over again and the same story unfolds nearly every night. They buy in for the max ($20) and begin to throw out a pot-sized raise pre-flop on every single hand. They also continue to fire pot-sized continuation bets after every street, unless another player shows aggression and often, they build up a huge stack of chips and run off all the shortstacks at the table. Of course, the alternative is when they cannot find the fold button, get played back at and go broke immediately.

My basic strategy is to play solid starting hands, although playing at the 6-max tables, I have defiitely opened up my range a bit over any previous attempts at this game. What I'm looking for is what everybody else is looking for, big pairs, suited connectors and or very coordinated starting cards. There are times, in the right situations and against the ideal opponents, where I will open up my range even farther, but there are far more instances when I find myself clamping my range down in an effort to flop huge and trap the over-aggresive player that is continually raising every hand.

I am also trying to build an image with the players at my table. Just as I am taking notes on them and their habits, starting cards, etc. I am hoping that they are paying a bit of attention to me as well, seeing me as a weak-tight calling station. (which is basically true, but I'm trying to add in the fact that I don't know what I'm doing.) I make odd bets at odd times, most often met with a fold from the over-aggressive players and I've tended to just call lately, until the river and then spring my trap. It's amazing to me that I can continue to play this way, night after night, at the same tables, and the same names keep appearing and trying to buy pots from me and still call when I re-raise. Every night it happens and, at least so far, I'm making a profit every night.

Obviously, I'm not going to every pay the rent playing poker and let's hope I don't ever have to or we will be living in a van down by the river, but PLO has my full attention right now. I've always preferred the split pot games in the past, but I am digging PLO, at least for the time being.

There you go and you already know, until next time, I fold.

G

Spring Is Nigh

2009-03-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Man, it feels like spring time here in Oklahoma and has for about the last week and a half. It's kind of nice, but with spring time comes warmer temperatures, which leads to higher pollen counts and allergies off the charts. It also leads to our crazy spring weather here in the fly-over state. We've already had one batch of tornadoes this year and that was in February, which is almost unheard of. Oh well, spring leads to summer, which in turn leads to fall and winter, so the years just keep flying by at a breakneck pace.

My thoughts on the BBT4:

None, nada, zip. I haven't played an event yet and right now at least, I don't see me playing an event in the near future. I have no comments on anybody's behaviour since I haven't been at any of the tables and to be honest, I don't care. Feel free to make a spectacle of yourself or anybody else that you feel deserves it. I have nothing to say about it either way.

I wish everybody that I know the best of luck in their attempts to win a seat and I tip my hat to the folks that made it all happen, but other than that, no comments at all from this peanut gallery.

Spring also means that baseball is right around the corner, well, actually, it's already started if you follow spring training as closely as I do. I know it means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, but my Rangers have looked at least competitive this spring. Here's to hoping their pitchers can stay healthy and produce at least near what their normal numbers used to be before they started pitching for the Rangers. If they get any pitching at all, I know they will remain competitive at least, because their offense will be at least in the top 3 in the American League.

Another thing that I now look forward to every spring is turkey season. It opens in 4 short weeks and we have our work cut out for us this year. My buddy, who has the land where we hunt, has no turkeys on his place and this past weekend at the lake, we found out why. Coyotes! So, for the next few weekends, we are going to be targeting the coyotes and see if we can clear them out so our friends, the turkeys, can make their way back there to roost.

We're also about to embark on fishing in earnest, at least during the spring while the water is still a tad cool. We just got our jet ski's out of the shop and they are tuned up and ready to roll, as soon as the water temperature warms up a bit. I'm looking forward to that for sure, as well. There's nothing better than a relaxing day at the water's edge, tipping back an ice cold Keystone Light and hanging out with your friends and family.

That's about all that's happening around here.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Look Above

2009-03-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, I have a banner again! How cool is that?

Of course, I had to promise to never, ever log in and go into my template again or risk the wrath of the wingman. My main man, my #1 wing-man and the World's Greatest Grandpa, Tripjax, spent a good 60 or 80 hours behind the scenes, cleaning everything up and making it look pretty again.

Suffice it to say, I will NOT be messing around with things that a simple, country boy should not be messing around with. Give me another Keystone Light and I will sit down and shut the hell up.

Thanks again bro, I owe ya, big time.

Until next time, I fold,

G

A Quick Pimp

2009-03-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

My obligatory link to online poker, woo hoo, only one more month to go.

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Also, I received a request for a link up and I am never one to turn those requests down, so stop by Bonusprof.com and check them out.

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Look for a few changes around here coming up soon. My main man Tripjax is busy behind the scenes fixing all the html screw-ups that I've somehow not been able to avoid over the last two years. Apparently, it's ALOT of work. Ha, just another example of e-tardedness.

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And finally, in case you've been under a rock, the new issue of Truckin' is out, head over there now and check out all the great stories this month.

Until next time, I fold,

G

Fence Repair 101

2009-02-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

More like remedial Fence Repair Basics when it involves me.

I got home from the lake last Sunday afternoon to find that the wind, that had gusted over 60 mph on Friday night, had blown over part of my back fence. Luckily, the damage was only to the posts, but I still had to something relatively quickly in order to keep the dogs in the yard and the unwanted out of the back yard.

Home Depot is your friend....or so I thought. After assessing the damage and making a mental note of the required items needed to fix the problem, I set off for the big orange building. I had to buy some treated timbers for the post, a pair of post hole diggers since mine were at the lake and some Quikrete to secure the posts in the ground. I had plenty of screws and my drill gun waiting at home from the last such occurence.

Here's a couple of tips that anybody tackling this type of project should remember:

1. If it requires a trip to Home Depot for supplies, you might as well set the time aside for a second trip to Home Depot, because absolutely no home repair project (at least for a non-technical wizard like myself) will be finished with only one trip to said orange store. You are always going to need at least one more item that you don't have around the house and that you didn't pick up the first time you went to the store. Plan for it, embrace it and get in your truck and go back to the orange store.

2. This tip is for fence repair, in particular. Go with screws and a drill gun rather than nails and a hammer. Hammer....thumb......I don't think I need to elaborate here.

3. Wear gloves when you are on the working end of a shovel or post hole diggers. I'm currently typing this post with two pinkies and an index thumb because of the amount of blisters all over my hands.

4. One sack of Quikrete per hole, unless you have dug down 14 feet and have 22 foot posts. It makes for a pretty good mess above ground if you try and use two. (at least that's what I've heard)

5. Allow your wife and children to offer their opinions without snapping into a semi-postal state. I'll let the married folk out there explain this further in case you don't already know.

6. Allow your wife and children to get on the business end of the post hole diggers if they are so inclined. That way you know your lunch will be ready on time, because they won't be out there in your business for very long if they are trying to operate post hole diggers.

7. Buy one of those really expensive augers that you will use twice in the span of about 8 years. Trust me, if you haven't been on the working end of post hole diggers, that fawking auger is well worth whatever they are asking for it.

8. Finally, be sure and check your work, inspecting all areas of the fence before turning the dogs loose in the back yard. They could find a small hole that you didn't patch and get out, costing you two more hours of your life that you will never, ever get back.

Just a couple of tips, not like any of that has ever happened to me.

Until next time, I fold,

G

Pimpin's Hard Too

2009-02-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

I haven't taken the time lately to pimp anything or anybody, so I would be remiss at the moment. I need to take care of a couple of things right here and right now.

First of all, whether or not your political views match up with this guy, (which mine are basically a mirror image) you need to stop by there on a fairly regular basis just to see what TFG is up to. I have actually belly-laughed out loud in my office a few times in the past few weeks. It helps that we've actually met and shared a few cold ones, but his humor is awesome.

Second, The Good Reverend was kind enough to offer me a chance to write up a little post about the micro-limit SNG world, since, as you already know, I am the Low Limit Grinder. You can go to Al's Poker From the Rail Blog here and you can view my article here. Take a look, it won't kill you and thanks again Al, I appreciate the opportunity.

Lastly, I was recently asked to complete an interview at bloginterviewer.com. They are some nice folks over there and if you have time, feel free to take a look at my interview and even place a vote for me if you feel like it. I'm on the campaign trail, you know?

That's all I have for today.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Blogging Is Hard

2009-02-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

At least it has been for me lately.

I haven't been able to find the motivation to put anything down on the virtual paper of late, even though I've been playing considerably more poker in the last month or so than in several months prior. I'm mainly dabbling at the lower limits of Limit Hold Em and Pot Limit Omaha. So far at least, the great PLO experiment is going pertty well. I don't want to jinx myself, but as most of you already know, there are some really bad PLO players out there, especially at the lower limits.

I remember back to the days when I used to throw up two posts in the same day, sometimes a couple of times a week. I couldn't wait to get to work back then, because the first hour or so of my day was spent rehashing the play from the night before. Now, some 4+ years into it, it seems like it's all been said, done and rehashed to death. So, what's the point in keeping this up you ask?

For me, it's the community. Yeah, the perks of blogging are great, what with all Al does for us with the BBT4 coming down the pike and all the extras we have thrown our way from Full Tilt. But when it gets right down to brass tacks, at least for me, it's the relationships I've developed and the friendships I've made that make it all worth while. If you have any questions about that, go over to the OkieVegas Blog and click on OkieVegas 08 at the top of the page. Watch that little video and you will start to get an understanding of how and why I feel the way I feel.

I probably won't be much of a participant in the BBT4, just like I wasn't much of a participant in the BBT3. I don't have the time, the patience or the money online right now to really give it my best effort, so I'm not going to waste my time pretending I care. I may play the odd event on occasion, if I'm bored and the game suits me, but my name will be nowhere to be found on any leaderboards or final tables, I'm sure.

Good luck to all of you and do me one favor. Don't forget to say thanks to the folks that make these things happen. The second or third time we start to take these things for granted, sooner or later they're going to take them away from us. Thanks Al, for all you do for the blogging community and have a great vacation, bro.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Okie-Vegas Blog

2009-02-16T15:10:00.001-08:00

Check out all of Kat's hard work here: OkieVegas Blog.

The dates are set, more to come soon.

Until next time, I fold.

G

One Of Those Nights

2009-02-09T15:32:00.000-08:00

Truly, it’s been more than a year since I had a night like last Thursday while pokering on the interwebs. I’ve scored much bigger wins than last Thursday, but it’s been a long time since I did as well overall.

First, it was not a big score, by any means. I’m playing .05 / .10 Pot Limit Omaha, for crying out loud, the swings cannot possibly be very big. Second, I was playing my normal, weak-tight game, and by tight, think of that guy in the commercial that says “I wonder what else I don’t know?” and the interviewer says, “Do you know you’re wearing size 28 jeans?” And then the top button of those pants comes flying off like a Mig Jet, flying around the room before finally shattering the vase on the table beside the interviewer. Yeah, that’s how tight I’m playing right now, okay, that’s how tight I always play.

Anyhoo, I log into my new, un-named site of choice for the evening and pull up the 6-max PLO tables and find one to my liking. No big stacks and lots of folks under $10 at the table. I buy in (short) for $12 and wait for my turn in the BB. I immediately begin to notice a pattern with the player two to my right. (the button on my BB for about the next hour)

He is raising every.single.hand. and continuing to fire pot-sized bets, regardless of the flops, the callers or any actions from the other players. He is also calling re-raises from anybody and everybody at the table and, more often than not, showing down less-than-premium holdings when it gets down to a showdown. I immediately make a note on him, tag him green and wait for my chance.

We play a couple of orbits and this guy is running over the table, raising and re-raising until the opponents either give up and fold or he hits a miracle card on the end to keep winning pots. He ran his $4 up to over $25 in just a couple of orbits. Unfortunately, during this time, I am doing a ton of folding, in fact, I don’t get to play a hand due to his action until there are only he and I and one other player left at the table. I’m sitting around $10, the other player has about $10 and our LAGGY maniac has a bit over $20 at this point.

Then it happened. The switch was thrown. All the planets in the universe aligned and the poker gods deemed it my turn to get on a roll. First, I picked up A-K-J-J with the AK suited, in clubs. Our aggro boy raises, the other guy calls and I call and we see a flop of J-8-3 rainbow. The other guys checks, I check and aggro boy insta-pots it. The unfortunate other guys re-raises the size of the pot and I smooth call, as does aggro boy.

When the turn peels off another Jack, the other guy bets, I call (putting me all in) and aggro boy re-pot-raises. I triple up to almost $30, bust one guy (who rebuys for $6) and take aggro boy down a notch to around $15.

Very next hand, I am dealt A-A-K-x, double suited in the small blind. The button (with $6) open raises and I re-pop it, as does aggro boy. We get it all in 3 ways pre-flop and when the beautiful Ace hits on the flop, I have a lock. Looking at their cards, I don’t even have to worry about back door draws, as neither have a pair or a flush draw. Sweetness.

The other guy does not rebuy, but our aggro friend starts rebuying for odd amounts. One time it’s $2, next time $10, next time $6 and so on. We play heads up for probably 6 hands and I bust him 3 more times. My original $12 buy-in is now up to almost $75 and I am feeling invincible against this guy. Unfortunately, the table quickly filled back up and he decided he had gifted me enough money for the night.

He has two notes now:
Over-aggressive LAGTARD.
My new best friend.

It’s not a large amount of money, by any means, but it sure felt good playing cards against this guy. He is just the type of player that typically gives me a lot more trouble than any other kind. I don’t ever have an answer for the aggression, especially if I don’t have the cards to fight back with, but Thursday night was different. I was lucky with starting hands and I was lucky on flops and, thanks to his over-aggresiveness, I was able to maximize every winner I made.

Once I had him identified at the table, which is often the hardest thing for me to do, I was able to sit back, wait for cards and trap him into situations where I couldn’t really lose. Obviously, there were times when he did still have outs, but compared to my outs, he was drawing awfully thin most of the time.

He eventually did slow down when I was in a hand with him, but having the stack that I had, he still wasn’t able to get away from hands where he should have folded before the flop. He played every single hand, almost always for a raise and it took him nearly $50 to figure out that I wasn’t calling him down or re-raising him without a solid hand.

Those nights have been few and far between for me for what seems like two years now, so I went to bed last night feeling pretty damn good about myself. It’s nice when you can get into that situation and make the most of it and I certainly felt like I did that last night.

Until next time, I fold. (unless it’s against my new best friend)

G

Truckin' and other miscellaneous shit

2009-02-03T19:05:00.001-08:00

First of all, if you are not already reading this, then that would be your bad.

Truckin' - February 2008, Vol. 8, Issue 2

Welcome back to the latest issue of Truckin'...

1. Kitchen Table by Paul McGuireThat's cool. You're a chick. And chicks are supposed to like sappy shit like Coldplay. I need something that I can play air guitar to. Not 'insert and remove tampons from my ass' kinda music... More

2. A Proper Bow-Tie by Betty UndergroundI lay out the pieces of his tuxedo, he finishes the primping process. Gathering the necessary toiletries strewn across the bathroom floor one by one, as he needs them. The hair dryer goes off. I run my fingers through his dried, loose, locks and secure them in the back in a short ponytail while he tones, moisturizes and brushes. In that order... More

3. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Joe Ely, and the Cotton Club by Johnny HughesElvis bragged about his sexual conquests, using language you didn't hear around women. He said he'd been a truck driver six months earlier. Now he could have a new woman in each town. He told a story about being caught having sex in his back seat. An angry husband grabbed his wife by the ankles and pulled her out from under Elvis. I doubted that... More

4. First Impressions: Buenos Aires by Jonny VincentI tell him I'm from the Future, from the 21st century where people are used to paying for goods and services with this futuristic method of payment called credit cards. I apologise yet again and claim full responsibility for my own lack of research into his quaint and backwards and medieval system. I tell him I have no gold, no jewels, no currency and nothing to barter in exchange for the consumed food except these futuristic and useless credit cards... More

5. Pancakes by Paul McGuireI just have to tell people the pancakes story and it perfectly explained Sabine. I sat through her bizarre routine every day for a year as she slipped into a trance and maniacally prepared her pancakes. She cared more about the pancakes than her own art. More than herself. Heck, more than me... More

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been...

From the Editor's Laptop:

Welcome back. I can thank our devoted readers enough for returning. This issue features two stories from yours truly... a series of random fictional pieces inspired by some of my old days in New York City. Betty Underground returns with another flirtatious and salacious tale. Johnny Hughes contributed one monster of a story involving Buddy Holly, Elvis, and the thriving music industry his hometown of Lubbock, Texas. And lastly, we have a new scribe to add to the Truckin' roster. Jonny Vincent is known in most circles as a professional poker player, but I happen to think that the Aussie one of the most hysterical writers on the intertubes. You'll see why with his observations about moving to Argentina.

Truckin' needs your help with a wave grassroots promotion. Spread the word about Truckin' on your blogs and whatever social networking sites you are currently addicted to. Please tell your friends about your favorite Truckin' stories. The writers definitely appreciate your support, as do I.

And as always, please let me know if anyone is interested in being added to the mailing list or perhaps you are interested in writing for a future issue.

Before I go, I have to give a hearty and sincere thanks to the writers for writing for free. They expose their guts, blood, and soul to the universe. Their dedication inspires me and I hope it inspires you too.

Be good,

McG

"If you are innocent, you can get away with anything." - Hunter Thompson

--

I would be remiss in not stating that I was still playing a few online poker tournaments per week. You should too.

--

Until next time, I fold,

G

Who Wants To Come To Oklahoma This Summer?

2009-01-31T15:20:00.000-08:00

In an effort to give you plenty of notice and plenty of time to plan, should you want to make the trip, here are the dates for Okie-Vegas:

July 8th - 12th. Okie-Vegas 4.

First of all, these are the dates that work best for me. They are open for debate and discussion, so the are NOT written in stone as of right now. If you need or want different dates, convince me. Leave me a comment here or send me an email or call me on my cell phone, you know the digits. Tell me why I should change the dates and I will take it under advisement.

If things go as I anticipate they will, we will definitely have to use Oossuuu's new house to put people up this year. We had maximum capacity at the GCox house last year and several people have told me they would like to make the trip this year that didn't come last year. I also need to get in touch with Miss Maudie, down Norman way, and see if she is up for helping out again this year.

This is kind of the pre- post that I normally put out to gauge interest, so, if you are interested, let me know. If you are in, let me know. If you've made the trip in the past and definitely cannot make it this year, let me know.

I will wait on the schedules and agendas for a few more months, but I'd like to compile some type of list of possible attendees, so, even if you are a 10% maybe, I'd like to know that, as well.

By the way, we don't have too much fun, so if you are looking to get away for a few days and hang out with a bunch of drunk, degenerate gamblers, well, I can't make any promises. ;)

Until next time, I fold.

G

Memory Lane - Baseball

2009-01-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

Being 43 years old now and having gone through quite a bit of time on this earth, these Memory Lane-type posts become easier and easier to write. The hard part is remembering them when you get to my age.

Thankfully, I got a phone call from an old friend last night. He basically called just to shoot the shit and catch up on what's been happening down here in Oklahoma. He lives 2 hours north of me in Andover, Kansas.

After the conversation with my buddy, I started thinking back to the summer of 1982 and what a magical summer that was for me. My Aunt and Uncle lived in Great Bend, Kansas and my uncle was the coach of the local junior college baseball team. He called my Dad that spring and asked if I could go up there that summer and play baseball for the local American Legion team. Now, I was 16 years old and had just started driving the previous January and I had also never been away from home for more than a week at a time before, so I was a little apprehensive.

After a few discussions, the plans were made and it was decided that I would move up there, spend the summer with them and play baseball. I remember the first practice like it was yesterday. I walked out onto that field with my cool-ass blue converse spikes and everybody there had red cleats. My shoes, my uniform and my attitude stuck out like a sore thumb.

Soon, we were taking batting practice and I had a good day in the cage, lining pitch after pitch into the outfield for what would have been singles and doubles all.day.long. After my turn in the cage, I went back out into the outfield to shag and was approached by two motley looking characters. We'll call them Troy and Randy, because, well, that's what their names are. They sidled up to me and we began talking. They knew I was Leon's nephew and they knew that I had come up there to play ball for the summer and they basically befriended me right then and there. We became fast friends (and still are to this day) and the three of us spent virtually the entire summer together, save for a few "date nights" with some of the local girls.

Anyway, the part of the story that I wanted to write about today involved a baseball game on July the 4th in Newton, Kansas.

I was plugged into the 4th spot in the batting order from day one and I was having a great summer. I was hitting over .400 and driving in runs at a rate of 1-2 per game. Troy batted 2nd and Randy batted 3rd, followed by me at cleanup. The problem was that we couldn't sweep a doubleheader to save our lives. Every game day in Kansas that summer was a doubleheader and we finished that summer with a record of 16-16.

We travelled to Newton, Kansas for a July 4th doubleheader and their park was full. It was a Saturday and the whole town showed up for the game and to watch the fireworks later that evening.

One quick sidenote: You know when you're in high school and you run the 40 yard dash or the 100 yard dash? Most kids are timed with a stop watch, right? Well, I'm a big fellah, for those of you that don't know me, and when I ran one of those dashes, they timed my fat ass with a sundial. I was slow. Of all the ability that I did have on the baseball field, speed was NOT one of them.

Back to the game and I come up with two on and one out in the top of the 1st inning. I get a fastball down the middle and take a hack, sending a blistering line drive right back up the middle. Both runs come around to score and I look up as I'm rounding first base and the center fielder is running toward the outfield fence, away from the infield. Apparently, my single had hit a rock in the outfield and skipped past him and I found myself cruising into 3rd base with the ONLY triple I EVER hit, in my entire life. Yes, even little league. Nice start, 1 for 1 with a triple and 2 RBI's.

Next time up, in the top of the 3rd inning, I came up with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd. The pitcher started me off with a curve ball in the dirt and I took it for ball one. The next pitch was also a curve ball, but it was a hanger, right my wheel house and I stroked it right down the left field line for a clean double. 2 for 2 with a double, a triple and 3 RBI's. I do like Newton, Kansas.

The top of the 5th rolled around and I had to lead off. Newton had changed pitchers and their new guy was throwing pretty hard, much harder than the first pitcher. I dug in and took two high fastballs for balls one and two. Now, with a 2-0 count, I was digging in with a purpose. I was looking for one pitch, a fastball, in one spot, belt high, and I planned on putting my best swing on it. Sure enough, I got the pitch I wanted, put a good swing on it and sent it about 400 feet to straightaway left field. Home run and another RBI. 3 for 3 with a double, a triple and a home run and 4 RBI's.

When it came time for the top of the 7th inning, we were ahead by a couple of runs and it looked like I might not get another opportunity to hit, but my boy Randy scratched out an infield single with two outs and I rolled up to the plate with runners on 1st and 3rd and two outs.

I smoked the first pitch down the left field line for what probably could have been another double, but I took a wide turn and held on while both runners turned toward home. I had done it. I hit for the cycle and I drove in 6 runs in the game. As I made my way back to 1st base, I heard my coach asking the umpire for time. He was sending in a pinch-runner for me and as I took off my helmet and started to the dugout, I received the only standing ovation of my life, from the opponent's crowd. Even the guys in the other dugout were clapping for me. It was certainly one of the most memorable ball games I ever played and will remain a special memory for me for the rest of my life.

My parents had driven in the night before and were on hand for the game as well. They didn't get to see too many games that summer, but I was sure proud that they got to see that one. By the way, after such a memorable game, how do you follow that up? My only 0-fer of that summer. 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. My big head was brought right back down to earth.

Troy, Randy and I remain good friends to this day, in fact, you might remember about a little softball trip that I used to make every spring back to Great Bend, Kansas. That trip was to meet those same guys and to play softball just a couple hundred yards from where our first meeting took place, on the baseball field at Veterans Park. Until last year, we had made that trip for 14 consecutive years and I am already looking forward to making it again this spring.

Thanks for reading.

G

Real Poker post

2009-01-28T16:19:00.002-08:00

No, really, I'm going to talk about poker today. Really!

Suffice it to say that the last 6-9 months have been pretty lean on the poker talk on this here blog. I'm sure I don't have to tell both of you that. I do appreciate both of you for stopping by here on at least a routine basis, say, once a week, which is about the frequency with which I post these days.

Since my deposit into new, un-named Poker Site, I've been grinding for an hour or two per night there and at FT, as well. My evenings start out with a little 6-Max Limit Holdem on both sites, after which, when I'm damn good and bored, I switch it up to very low limit PLO. I'm talking the 5 cent/10 cent variety. In an order to not cause myself a coronary, I even make myself play the CAP tables at FT, because presumably, that's how I roll these days.

After burning through nearly 4 figures of bankroll in the last year+ at the tables, I'm almost in slow motion these days, but that's okay, I can live with it for now. I'm taking this opportunity to a) play less than I have in the past, which is fairly easy for me right now and b) preserve the paltry amount of bankroll that I currently have on-line, while not risking large portions of it at one time. Mr. Conservative, if you didn't already know.

The news thus far has been enlightening and somewhat surprising. The players at these lowest of levels are for the most part, horrible. Of course, that's a double-edged sword on most nights. These same unintelligent folks that you WANT calling 3 best cold with 5-7o pre-flop occasionally flop a straight and kick you square in the nut-sack. But, for the most part, the recent foray into the cash tables at both sites have been profitable.

I'm up a fairly substantial amount at the un-named site and up just a smidge over my monthly stipend currently at FT. Anything in the positive at FT is a bonuse for me, after the last year of junk-kickings I've received there.

So far, the PLO games on the un-named site have been very juicy. I've been able to double my piddly $10 buy-in in each of my last two sessions there. It doesn't add up to a whole lot of money at this point, but right now, slow and steady is winning the race for me, personally. I'm starting to get a feel for the game that has been eluding me for more than a year. Even the Limit Holdem tables have seen positive session after positive session, albeit very small positiveness.

I've run into several of my former "friends" while playing Limit Holdem at FT and so far, my notes, such as "donkey" or "light raiser" have been right on track and allowed me to squeeze a few more bets out of a several opponents on a couple of different occasions. Apparently, their notes on me, "tight-ass rock" are not still saved in their client.

I've been playing very straight-forward, ABC poker for the most part and only opening up my starting hand requirements in position or to be heads up with a known spewer. It's something that I've known for a long time, but position is one of the most important things you can use to your advantage in poker. Even in 6-Max games, playing alot of hands out of position will lead to major spewage of chips in most cases, so I've been very careful about the hands I play and when I play them.

My conservative nature leads to missing out on a few bets here and there, but after seeing opponent after opponent show me the nuts, (that they made on the turn or the river) slowing down is just something that makes sense to me. While I have missed out on a few bets, I've also saved a few bets here and there, so I like to think of it as a wash.

After wallowing around trying to change up styles and play with more reckless abandon, I've finally come to grips with just exactly what kind of player I am and what I have to do to be succesful. I am a tight player and there is nothing that I can do to change that. I've tried and it just doesn't work for me in the long run. So, if you happen to sit down at a table with your stat program running and you see a guy that is seeing < 10% of the flops and he re-raises you, you probably better re-think your starting hand requirements against him.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Weather

2009-01-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here in my little portable office (jail cell) listening to the weather outside. Ice pellets abound here in OKC and the constant tap, tap, tap on my metal building remind me of the perils that await a big, clumsy fellah on his path back into the main office.

Here in Oklahoma, we don't get real winters most years. We have an occasional snowstorm, fairly cold temperatures for 2-3 months and alot of clear, sunny winter days. What we do get most years is blanketed with a sheet of ice. Sleet, as the talking suits call it on TV, comes down on those coldest days and blanket everything in their path. Getting to and from your car can be a career-threatening trip if you don't take your time.

Car doors, frozen solidly shut. Windows on said cars, iced over in one inch thick sheets of ice. Honestly, I could ice down a 30 pack of Keystone Light with the ice I've broken off the windshield over the last two days. And drivers, don't even get me started on the jackassery on the roads when this stuff hits.

If I could, I would most definitely stay at home, start a roaring fire and hang out on these days. But, I don't call in to work and stay home. I've called in sick a total of 3 times in almost 12 years and calling in to say I won't be in when there is a little ice on the roads is not an option either. i just get up an hour earlier and try to beat most of the jag-offs in to work, avoiding most of the traffic in the process.

I've always been taught to be a defensive driver and there is no better time in the world to be a defensive driver than when the roads are covered in ice. It's a complete parade of morons here in Oklahoma when the weather turns bad. There were so many accidents yesterday that nary an ambulance was on stand-by in the entire city. They were all out, working accidents and transporting people to the hospital. Police stopped taking accident calls unless they involved an injury. They actually told people, on the news, that if they had an accident and no one was hurt, just get your car off the road and do NOT call the police.

Here's a sample from this morning: I'm tooling along somewhere between 30 and 40 mph, trying to stay in the ruts that the sand trucks have made and some moron in a Hummer passes me doing at least 60 mph. I would have paid ALOT of money to see that jackass end up in a ditch. I wouldn't wish harm or physical pain on anybody, but that dumbass deserved to have a wreck and pay some expensive bills putting that piece of shit back together.

Oh well, this weather makes for long, boring days at work, as the majority of our customers are staying home and staying warm, while I sit here, reading blogs, typing up this worthless excuse for a post and waiting for lunch time to arrive. Damn, I'm hungry already and it's only 8:47 am. I should have stopped at McDonald's. Mmmmm, McGriddles.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Update

2009-01-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

How about an actual blog post with possibly some actual poker content?

I know, I know, what's the world coming to, right? I still don't see this becoming the habit that it once was, but you never know, hunting season is just about over until late April (turkey season) so perhaps a little poker is just what the doctor ordered.

--

Poker

I've been playing a bit. I reloaded on an unnamed site and have been grinding away, at the low limit tables naturally, and have seen some success. I also got my monthly stipend from FT and have been floundering around there for the past few nights to more or less breakeven results. After being a losing player for the last year +, breakeven sounds pretty good right now.

Last night, I dipped my toe into the PL Omaha tables to mixed results. On FT, I played the CAP tables, because I'm scared, and lost a few dollars here and there, but on the unnamed site, I ran up a $20 stack into almost $50 simply by sitting back, folding alot and biding my time. I was able to identify a couple of players at my table that were massive gamboolers and I simply waited to make the nuts and pounced, getting paid off handsomely twice with Broadway Straights.

I don't anticipate a return to poker as I once played it, as I'm simply playing an hour or two a night right now when I get home from work. It's been fun and I will continue to grind away, just not for the extended periods that I used to play every night. I just don't have that in me any more. I even thought about playing the Mookie last night, which is the first time in months that I've even given it a second thought, but in the end, I watched the OU basketball game and went to bed early.

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Life

The wife and I both turned another year older in the past three weeks. Those damn birthdays seem to roll around faster and faster, the older you get. 43 is the new 33 though, right?

I'm going to include the work portion in the life portion here as nothing has really changed about my job. I'm still relatively busy doing what I do and luckily, as they say here in Oklahoma, we have a fairly recession-proof state.

While our business has definitely slowed down from the pace we set for the last 2 or 3 years, we are still busy enough that any rumors of layoffs have not reached the masses of minions that I currently belong. Here's to hoping that continues and we are all able to keep our jobs.

While work hasn't slowed too much, my 401K has taken a mighty hit over the last 3 or 4 quarters. I've been at my job for nearly 12 years now and during that time, I've been able to build up a decent amount of money in my 401K account. Unfortunately, I've watched nearly a full 25% of that total go down the shitter in the last 9 months or so. They keep telling us to hang in there and stay with it, but if this continues, I will be forced to do something, whether that be to make changes to my account or whatever. Fairly unnerving at this point.

Another unnerving event occurred the first week of January. My beloved Sooners lost yet another BCS bowl game. Big-Game Bob, as he became known after a magical 2000 season, just his 2nd at OU, has become more of a Big Game BLOW!

Taking nothing away from the Gators, my Sooners again failed to live up to the hype on the game's biggest stage. They wasted opportunity after opportunity early in the game and you cannot do that against an opponent as good as Florida. While I still don't think Tim Tebow deserved the Heisman this year, he certainly played his ass off in the Championship Game and pretty much willed his team to victory, even though I think that jump pass is pretty gay. Well played to the Gators and their fans and congratulations from a Sooner fan.

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Politics

I'm not a political guy. While I would call myself a Republican, like most of my home state, I don't join discussions regarding politics and I very seldom let my own, personal views be known, outside of my family and closest friends.

It was certianly a historic day earlier this week when Obama was sworn in as Commander in Chief. I didn't vote for the man, but I can't help but think he deserves my support for now, at least until he proves he's just another minion in a suit, looking only to serve his own purpose, rather than mine. Here's to hoping he can bring about the change he so eloquently talks about in nearly every one of his speeches. I'm not holding my breath, but the country most assuredly needs some change right now.

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Hunting

I'm saving hunting for last, so hopefully the PETA-challenged folks out there will quit reading before they get to it.

This weekend is the last weekend of duck season here and after that, we have three more weeks of goose season. Following that, we have to wait until April for turkey season to open and then wait all summer long to get back to it in the fall.

We've had a fairly successful season thus far, despite the fact that I didn't get a deer this year. We have lots of duck and goose in the freezer already and are hoping for a little bad weather here in Oklahoma to come our way in the next few weeks.

We haven't had much weather to speak of this winter and are in the midst of one of the worst droughts our state has seen in a good while. The farmers definitely need some type of moisture and we haven't gotten any measurable amount since a two day rain back during the summer. The crops are showing the effects of no rain as well.

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Well, that is about all that's going on in GCox-ville currently. The wife and kids are good and I have it about as good as one man should be allowed to have it. I don't have alot of complaints and my family still allows me to do just about whatever I want to do.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Running Goot!

2009-01-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

I learned a few things about hunting this weekend that, while I pretty much knew them beforehand, they were definitely brought to full fruition this past Saturday morning.

Our lake place is surround by a WMA, which stands for Wildlife Management Area, which, if you are in to hunting, means public hunting. All of my hunting up to this point has consisted of private land, which, in laymans terms, is much simpler, as well as much safer.

Public hunting means that every spot is taken up on a first-come, first-served basis. If you get to the spot first and throw out your decoys, the rest of the hunters have to give you a 250 yard buffer. While that may seem "right" and "fair" to most of you, what that actually means is that you have to get up out of bed a full 2-1/2 hours before you would normally be getting up to go duck hunting.

So, with that in mind, last Saturday we rolled out of the sack around 3:15 in the AM. You see, we had our spot picked out on the lake where we thought the ducks would really want to be and my buddy Bill will not be beaten to a spot once he decides that's where he wants to set up. Around 3:45, with 20 degree temps and a gusty 25 mph wind blowing from the north, we were waist deep in Fort Cobb lake, setting up decoys, breaking up whatever ice was around and staking our claim to the spot.

We got everything hauled into the spot, all the decoys in the water and sat back with a cup of coffee, patiently waiting for shooting time. Now, shooting time is 7:15 am. We were sitting in the sub-freezing weather, fresh out of the lake at 4:30, with nearly 3 hours to go until shooting time arrived.

It finally did arrive, of course, and by 11:15, we had a three man limit of 18 birds in our possession. It was my first experience with shooting a limit of birds and it was worth every second we spent huddled up, trying to stay warm that morning before sunrise.

We were set up in the north end of a little cove, protected a bit from the wind and exactly the spot that a passing duck would want to be. We had the decoys set up in the far north end of the cove, just a few feet from where we sat, anxiously awaiting their arrival. Nearly every bird we saw fly through the mouth of that cove immediately hooked it north, right to our awaiting shotguns.

They flew into the decoys completely unaware of the trouble that was waiting for them and along with the 18 that didn't make it out, we somehow missed only 3 birds on this particular morning. They were given a reprieve from the gods of duck hunting and allowed to live another day. (or at least to get swatted flying into somebody else's spread.)

Duck hunting (and goose hunting, for that matter) is unlike anything I have ever done. They compare to deer hunting in certain ways (mainly the cold weather) and a little bit to dove hunting (the difficulty of actually making the shot) and even turkey hunting to a certain degree. (the fact that you have to remain completely still until ready to fire) However, once waterfowling gets in your blood, it is something that takes over your entire being.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm still going to hunt whatever is in season, but I will be spending the next 9 months of my life, as soon as waterfowl season is over, planning for and talking about duck hunting and goose hunting. One can spend an inordinate amount of money (and I have) on decoys, camo gear, shotguns and ammo, etc. just to spend a couple of hours freezing your ass off, waiting for the birds to come in and somedays they never come in. Those are the days we call "paying your dues" and I've done plenty of that over the last two years.

But, for every morning I've paid my dues thus far, last Saturday morning more than made up for it. There's just something about a big, fat Greenhead hovering above the water, waiting to join your spread of decoys and then, BANG, just as suddenly, he's floating upside down among your decoys, waiting on the dog to pick him up and take him to shore.

Shooting a limit of ducks compares favorably to poker. You know those sick runs where you can't win a coin flip forever and then suddenly, out of the blue, everything clicks and you make great laydowns and you win every coin flip for a night or two nights? The big cash comes into play and you actually win a freaking tournament? That's what shooting a limit felt like Saturday afternoon. I finally quit paying my dues and got paid off.

Until next time, I ride the hot streak!

G

Tonight's The Night

2009-01-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Give em hell, Bob.

Boomer Sooner!

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Haven't play many online poker tournaments lately, too much huntin' goin' on round here. More of the same starting tomorrow down at the lake. I may have to start working during the summer and taking the entire winter off. Yeah, that's the ticket.

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Truckin' -- http://mcgtruckin.blogspot.com/

Truckin' - January 2008, Vol. 8, Issue

Welcome back to the first issue of the new year.

1. The Mollification the Foul Temptresses by Paul McGuireThe hookers at the Rio were a combination of famished vultures and parched vampires ready to pick apart any carcass. Any john. Any drunk. Anybody in their path. They were evil personified.... More

2. The Orchard by Joe SpeakerI reach for her hand, probing, touching it delicately. We don't form a fist when we come together, nothing like the taut intertwine of fingers you see lovers form, those Gordian knots, unwieldy like a stone fortress. Our fingers hang off each other's loosely, three of mine, two of hers, vice-versa, and they dangle. Spider webs in the wind. Tenuous connection... More

3. Hector by David PetersonI remember clearly when the cops came and took Hector's mom away. He seemed rather nonplussed by the whole thing as we stood on the curb watching a bedraggled and wild-eyed woman being escorted from her home in cut-off jeans, a loose-fitting white tank top and handcuffs... More

4. Flight #22 to Denial by Sean A. DonahueHer eyes were black as the night. Her black hair cascaded near her high cheekbones and tanned complexion. Her body wasn't made for sin but for pleasure, and the glasses she wore on her head framed her face perfectly. The only thing that didn't make sense was that it was raining over her head... More

5. Running it Twice by Andrew MoxonThere are, however, certain points of opportunity. Soft places in time, when the cockpit door comes open and we second-timers can take over. That's when things can change. Sometimes, every so often, we walk through that door and start flipping the switches... More

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been...From the Editor's Laptop:

Welcome back to the first issue of 2009.

It's hard to believe that Truckin' began in 2002 and we've come a long way since then. This issue features five stories which includes the debut of Andrew Moxon. The always venerable Joe Speaker returns with a zesty piece titled The Orchard. Sean Donahue is back after a short absence and David Peterson makes a splash in his second consecutive issue. And of course, I share a tale that has been told many times before involving Las Vegas working girls.

Truckin' needs your help with a tinge of grassroots promotion. Please tell your friends about your favorite Truckin' stories. The writers definitely appreciate your support, as do I. Spread the word on your blogs and whatever social networking sites you are currently addicted to.

And as always, please let me know if anyone is interested in being added to the mailing list.

Before I go, I have to give a hearty and sincere thanks to the writers for writing for free. They expose their guts, blood, and soul to the universe. Their dedication inspires me and I hope it inspires you too.

Be good,

McG

"Nothing happens unless first a dream." - Carl Sandburg

* * * * *

Tao of Pauly -- http://mcgrupp.blogspot.com/
Tao of Poker -- http://www.taopoker.com/
Truckin' -- http://mcgtruckin.blogspot.com/
Coventry - http://phish-coventry.com/
Twitter - http://twitter.com/taopauly
FSL - http://www.fantasysportslive.com/
Las Vegas Blog -- http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/

Why Even Bother?

2008-12-29T18:33:00.000-08:00

If your heart isn’t in something completely, why would you even waste your time trying to accomplish said something?

Too often, of late, and really, for about the last year, I’ve found myself pondering that exact question.

Why even bother?

I’ll be the first to admit that since about the middle stages of 2007, I’ve been a losing online poker player. No whining about that and really, no excuses for my play. I’ve played poorly on way too many occasions to ever bitch about the inevitable bad beats that occur when one is running poorly. And I do mean POORLY.

Compounding a bad run with poor play is inexcusable for someone who actually thinks they know a thing or two about this game we all play on a fairly regular basis. I have compounded a bad run with POOR PLAY over and over again for the last year and a half.

Again, I don’t have any excuses for it, other than this: Apparently, I don’t give a shit any more.

I don’t care if I play poorly.
I don’t care if somebody sucks out on me.
I don’t care if my money is going in ahead or behind.
And last but not least, and this is supposed to be a GOOD thing, I don’t care about the money any more.

I have become a numb, apathetic rock, seated in the 3 seat at a 6-handed cash table or in the 5 seat at a full table.

Oh well, another 2 outer? Who cares?

Oops, he did have A-A? Who cares?

Ha ha, he flopped a straight flush with suited connectors? Who cares?

I certainly don’t and haven’t for a good, long while when it comes to poker results. When playing poker, one isn’t supposed to focus on results, just making correct decisions, because in the long run, if you consistently make good decisions, you will be rewarded. I can vouch that the long run is definitely longer than a year and a half. Personal experience sucks!

Again, I have nothing and nobody to blame this on but myself. I have continued on and tried to play, regardless of results, when clearly, what I needed was a break, and an extended break at that. But, hell, I’m too stubborn for that. I’m smarter than most of these people that play at the lower levels. This is bound to turn around. Hmmm, so far, yeah NO!

This certainly isn’t meant to be a pity party for poor old me, quite the opposite in fact. This is supposed to be the cold water to the face, the wake-up call to myself, if you will.

You see, a few days ago, I went busto. AGAIN.

I get a little stipend from the good folks at Full Tilt every month around the 15th, but I have spent the last 4 or 5 months blowing through that in fairly short order and then waiting around on the 15th of the following month so I can get back to playing a little bit.

No more.

I’m taking that break that I’ve never been able to take before, at least from Full Tilt. Perhaps I’ll let that little stipend build up for a few months so that I might actually be close to bankrolled for the limits that I will be playing, when, or better yet IF, I decide to make a go of it again.

I’m doing something I’ve only done about 5 times since I first began playing online, some 4+ years ago. I’m going to make a deposit onto another poker client. Which client you ask? I think I’ll keep that to myself for the time being, although anybody with any brain would be able to find me if they wanted. My screen name is the same on virtually all the clients that US players are allowed to play on.

It’s been a long time since I played on this particular client, but let’s just say I have fond memories of the times from before there.

My plan for 2009 is up in the air right now. I honestly don’t know what I want to do or have any idea how I would go about making it happen, so I will be flying by the seat of my pants. If it’s an MTT, so be it. If it’s a cash game, so be it. Perhaps it’s time that I got back to playing a butt-load of SNG’s. I used to be pretty good at them, of course, I used to be pretty good at poker. Not so much nowadays.

So, the doom and gloom from the past year and a half is behind me, for now. I plan on playing poker, like always, on at least a semi-regular basis and my plan is to re-read a few books, possibly join one of the strategy sites and try my best to get my mind back around this game that has been kicking me in the balls for the past year and a half.

Much easier said than done for me at this point, but that is where I’m at and that is the direction I will be heading.

Until next time, make Jordan’s poker and may Tripjax’s felt be with you,

G

Merry Christmas To All....

2008-12-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

........and to all a good night!

I hope everybody has a safe and healthy holiday season and a very prosperous New Year!

G

Get Busy

2008-12-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

I've detailed many times on this humble, little blog, the many things in my life that I have to be thankful for. From my Mom, to my loving wife, my wonderful daughters and even my caring Mother-In-Law, the list seems to get a little bigger every year, which, in no uncertain terms now, means I'm getting old.

I've pretty much come to grips with the fact that play time is over. I'll be forth-three in about four weeks and the time for fun and games is over. With the current state of the economy and the fact that my kids are almost grown, I need to get on with the living, cause it ain't gonna last forever.

I took the entire week of Thanksgiving off from work this year and hunted a total of 8 out of 9 days during that stretch, unsuccesfully, I might add. I was also able to spend nearly two full days with my Mom, which, at this time of year, is even more important to me. Our family has always been close, but the holidays seems to draw us even closer. I enjoyed that time immensely and if I could, I would spend that much time with her every week. Unfortunately, work and life get in the way, and that two hour drive is always staring at me, as well.

I was up around 4:00 am every morning to go deer hunting and when Thursday rolled around, my eyes opened at 4:01 am, without the hint of an alarm clock. (another cue that you aren't as young as you used to be, for you youngsters out there) Anyway, Thanksgiving morning, at 4:15 am, I'm trolling the streets of my little home town, finding a cup of coffee at the local convenience mart and I'm off the cemetary, to spend a little time with my Dad.

It had been nearly half a year, probably around Easter of 08, since I made the drive out west of Bixby to visit with Dad and I was looking forward to it very much, like I do every time I go. My girls, my wife and even my Mom have made the trip out there with me in the past, but I relish the times when I go by myself. I stood there, shivering in the cold, and hung out with my Dad for at least a half an hour, telling him all about my hunting adventures and all the things going on in my busy life until, finally, as if on cue, I caught a falling star out of the corner of my eye. Dad always finds a way to let me know he's there and this was just another example of that. With a tear frozen on my cheek, I said my goodbyes, told him I loved him and headed back to the truck. It was time well spent in my book.

I finished the tour of my home town by stopping through at my Grandma and Grandpa's little house, the house in Southtown, where I grew up, my Mom and Dad's original house when they retired and finally, a quick run by the school where I spent all but my senior year roaming the halls. It's always great to get back and reminisce about the good old days, even though that simpler time will probably never be seen again by me, or my kids or even their kids. I love that little town and will always be a Bixby Spartan at heart.

As I've also said before, I feel a particularly close presence when I'm sitting in a tree stand or a ground blind. It feels like my Dad is right there with me and it is a very special time for me, something I will probably do for the rest of my life. I also feel that same type of emotion when I get to spend time with my Mom, even though it never seems like enough time. With work and the kids' school, we're always in a hurry to rush back to Oklahoma City, to get on with our lives.

I heard this line in The Shawshank Redemption a long time ago and it never struck a chord with me until I started this post today.

"Get busy living or get busy dying."

It's about that time for me, so, until next time, I'll get busy living. I hope you do, too.

G

More BCS Thoughts

2008-12-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

Actually, more thoughts to some of the Texas fans out there. Not necessarily WillWonka or Mookie, but more toward the blathering idiots that can't seem to let it go.

Last Saturday, in Stillwater, prior to the Bedlam football game, some bozo from Texas hired a plane to fly around Stillwater all day long, trailing a banner reading Texas 45 - Oklahoma 35, the actual score of the game, back in October, like, apparently, we had forgotten that.

This motivational poster is just for that type of fan:

That Brag Post You Knew Was Coming

2008-12-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

As usual at the first of the month, I am still trying to play online poker tournaments on at least a semi-regular basis. You should too.

Now that that's out of the way, HOW ABOUT THEM SOONERS!!!

I know, I know what you're going to say, it's rigged, it's fixed, they got BEAT DOWN by the Longhorns in October on a NEUTRAL field, for God's sake. You know what? That was October. I dare you to find me a hotter football team in the entire United States right now. (All apologies to Alabama, because I think you are going to lose to Florida in the SEC Championship game. Sorry, just my opinion)

First off, my boy Instant Tragedy wanted to place a side wager on the OU-Texas Tech game, which I accepted, even though I thought Tech had a good chance to beat us, even in Norman. So, after a pretty awesome display at home by my Sooners and their fans, IT will be regaling us with his version of Boomer Sooner next summer at Okie-Vegas 4. I'm quite sure he at least knows the tune now after hearing it over and over again during that game.

Then, this comment following the OU-Tech game:

WillWonka said...

G,

You may find this hard to believe; but I'm actually cheering for your Boomer Sooners. But knowing my luck, OU would then go ahead of UT in the BCS and get the chance at the National Title even though Texas Beat OU. Of course Tech beat Texas.

And of course, truer words were never spoken. Will, you should have been rooting harder for Baylor last Saturday. Had they upset Tech, then you win the tie-breaker with us, regardless of BCS ranking.

Then, my boy Oossuuu754 and his orange and black Cowboys from Oklahoma State stood in our way, coming into the Bedlam battle with their best team in a good long while. They are well deserving of their #14 BCS ranking, I can assure you, however, when it comes to high-powered offenses, there was only one standing at the end of the game.

Now first off let me say that I in no way, shape or form, think that OU is any better than Texas. They have a good squad, unfortunatley for them, they lost after they beat us and that usually always spells disaster in the BCS rankings. Every year, it comes down to 3 or 4 or 5 teams and it usually boils down to who lost last when it comes to who gets left out. That's the system in place and that's the way it's been for the last 8 or 9 years, so why argue about that now?

Until there is some sort of playoff in place, there is always going to be a team or a couple of teams that deserve to get their shot and don't, because of the BCS system. Sorry about your luck.

Oklahoma was fortunate to get hot at the right time and nip Texas in the BCS rankings. Do I think Texas is a better team than OU? They were in October, not so much now. Do I think OU is a better team than Texas? They weren't in October, but I like their chances right now. That's what it comes down to, getting hot at the right time, impressing the voters and..............the last criteria that I believe favors my Sooners...........STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE.

Oklahoma is the only team in the land to defeat 4 teams ranked in the BCS top 15. Texas Tech, TCU, Cincinatti and Oklahoma State are all in the top 15 in the BCS standings this week and we beat them all. Granted, only one of those games was on the road, but we still had a much tougher schedule than Texas had this year. Joe Castiglione, our athletic director, designs that schedule every year to give us the best possible chance to succeed in the BCS and obviously, he knows what he's doing.

As for Mack Brown's argument that they should use head to head to decide the champion, that doesn't work, and he knows it. You can't use head to head, then the BCS standings to eliminate Tech and then go back to head to head to eliminate OU. You use head to head and if it's still tied, you go on to the next tie-breaker, as dictated by the conference. His argument made sense to him because it's the only argument he and the Texas fans had at their disposal, because any other alternative tie-breaker went in our favor. Yes, they beat Missouri this year and yes, they beat OU this year, but you know what? They lost to Tech and opened the door. All they had to do was beat Tech, catch that interception on the previous play or tackle Crabtree before he scored, beat Tech and all their problems are solved. Again, sorry about your luck.

So, my Sooners backed in to the Big 12 Championship game against Missouri this weekend. I don't happen to see it that way, but everybody is entitled to their opinion. We'll still be playing hard saturday night, because you know what? A trip with destiny, a chance at yet another National Championship awaits against either Alabama or Florida, if we can beat Missouri.

Texas' gripe: We beat OU head to head. Sorry about your luck.
Tech's gripe: We had to play the game in Norman this year. Sorry about your luck.
OSU's gripe: I have no idea other than that it wasn't Bradford's right thumb that got hurt. Again, sorry about your luck.

I've talked about luck in poker alot right here on this blog and my Sooners have needed a good bit of luck to get where they are at right now. You have to put yourself in position to get lucky and they have done that better than anyone in the country this year.

One more subject before I quit tonight: Heisman Trophy.

If anybody doesn't think the sight of Sam Bradford hurtling through the air, upside down, trying to score a touchdown isn't going to sway the voters. Hmmm, well, maybe it's his statistics as well, but I think he is the hands down Heisman Trophy winner this year. Apologies to Tim Tebow and to Colt McCoy, but it's a one-man race right now and his statistics far outweigh anything the other two have done, in my humble opinion.

Boomer Sooner.

G

The Wager Is On

2008-11-18T15:42:00.000-08:00

This Saturday night, prime time game of the week, The University of Oklahoma vs. Texas Tech University.

As a die-hard Oklahoma Sooner fan, I'm very much looking forward to the game and will probably be spending the evening at the Crows Roost Bar at fabulous Fort Cobb Lake, drinking can beer and chain-smoking Marlboros, in between trips out to the vehicles for some shots of whiskey. Damn, I love the lake.

So, I don't know if anybody read the comments to my previous OU-TT post, but my good buddy, Instant Tragedy, was kind enough to offer up some action on the game with me. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but you have to let the little guys dream, right? Anyway, on to the wager. Next year, during Okie-Vegas, the losing bettor must sing the fight song of the opponent's school loud and proud, perhaps live on BuddyDankRadio, through my PA system that will be set up in the living room.

What's the Tech fight song, you ask? Not a clue, nor am I too worried about finding out. One thing I mentioned to Tragedy though, while watching the game on Saturday, be sure to turn up the volume as loud as you can every time OU scores a touchdown. That will give him a tremendous head start on learning Boomer Sooner.

Seriously, I'm taking the Sooners and laying 7 points, which seems to be the popular number. I can't imagine how good a program you have to be to still give points to an undefeated team that is ranked higher than you in every poll and in the BCS standings. Respect, I guess you could call it.

I tease about how bad the Sooners will beat the Red Raiders, in truth, I expect a close, hard fought game. If you ready my previous post, you will note that I do expect the Sooners to win, I just don't expect a huge blowout in any way, shape or form. The game will probably hinge on turnovers, much like most big games, and I anticipate our crowd to be rather boisterous, since Coach Stoops, more or less, called them out during his weekly press conference this week. I'm not sure how much difference a louder than normal crowd could make on an offense as good as Texas Tech's, but it can't hurt to have 85,000 or so on your side.

59-2
That's OU's record at home during the Bob Stoops era. 60-2 after Saturday night's game, I would expect.

Good luck IT, I think you're going to need it.

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Vacation

My first extended time off from work since Okie-Vegas in early July begins this friday night wtih a trip to the lake for karaoke that evening. I'll be getting up early the next morning for opening day of rifle season here in Oklahoma. Some folks appear interested and have asked, so I will tell you that I've been out probably 6 or 8 times during archery and blackpowder season and have not seen anything worthy of shooting at yet. Yearlings and spikes are about all I've seen thus far and I am looking forward to this weekend and next week and seeing some of the big boys out and about, chasing down does. the rut is almost in full swing and if we could just get a little weather down here, it would help a ton.

I am taking the entire week of Thanksgiving off this year, mostly to hunt deer. Oh, I'll still be going over to my Mom's house on Wednesday to help her out with cooking the turkey and setting up tables and chairs for 30+ relatives on Thursday. I'm doing something a little different this year. I'm still cooking the Butterball in the oven on Wednesday night, but I'm also taking one of the turkeys that I shot this spring over and will be frying up some wild turkey on Thursday morning for those of my relatives with the guts to try it. If you've never tried it, I highly recommend it. Here's the short version of the recipe:

Cut breast meat up (against the grain) in 2 inch by 4 inch chunks, approximately 1 inch thick. Marinate overnight in "secret" marinade. (main ingredients:beer, chili powder, cayenne pepper and cilantro) Pat dry before dipping them in an egg mixture and coating them with catfish batter. Any type of fish batter will do, I prefer Zattaran's Cajun Fish Batter. I also add a bit of cayenne pepper and black and red pepper to the batter. Fry until golden brown and serve hot.

Astin, I'm curious to know what you think. Since I started hunting a little over a year ago, I've cleaned, cooked and eaten everything I've managed to kill and I've liked everything so far. In fact, of all the things I hunt, I've cooked every bit of it and even my wife has commented about how good the meat is every single time. The bonus to eating wild game is that the meat is also very good for you as most of the meat is very lean. It takes some getting used to in order to cook it just right, but after a few tries, you know the duck has to be cooked very slowly or it gets tough and the deer needs to marinate less time than the birds.

Our wildlife eats very well down around the lake place and that is reflected in the flavor of the meat nearly every time. I've yet to taste anything I've cooked that I would call "gamey." My wife and friends have all agreed thus far and even a few internet-famous bloggers had some of my deer burgers this summer and I heard no complaints from anybody.

So, my next week is going to be chock full of hunting adventures, time with family and more hunting adventures. I hope to put two deer in the freezer between now and the end of rifle season, since I've been shut out thus far, but waterfowl season is coming on very fast. It's already open, meaning we could already be hunting ducks and geese, but the birds don't make their way this far south until a little later in the season, especially with all the warm weather we're still having up north of us. They should be moving down very shortly though and then they'd better watch themselves very closely, because I will have a call and a shotgun waiting for them on the other side.

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Poker

Poker is still going at a fairly stagnant pace. I've limited myself recently to only one or two SNG's a night to try and combat the tilty issues I've been dealing with lately. It seems to be working, although at a very slow rate of return, and I plan to continue playing whenever the mood strikes me. Who knows, I might even play in a blogger tournament one of these nights?

Until next time, I clock out and go on vacation, Friday, at 4:30 pm CST.

G

Okie-Vegas Story

2008-11-14T15:42:00.000-08:00

I know it's been nearly 6 months but I got to thinking the other day about Okie-Vegas and remembered a story that happened at one of my tables that I thought I would relate today. How's that? Actual poker content on this humble, little poker blog. Astonishing!

Anyway, Surflexus and I had driven down to Newcastle Gaming Center to meet up with Oossuu and Maudie for their afternoon tournament. Needless to say, we were early and Oossuu suggested we jump in the truck and head over to Riverwind to meet up with Maudie for a little lunch. Coolio and off we go on about a 20 minute drive over to the other, nicer casino. We got there and had around 45 minutes to kill before Maudie was supposed to arrive, so what should we do? We sign up and play a little $1/$2 NL to kill some time.

Surf and Oossuu get seated together and I take a seat at a full table by myself. My table was full of regulars, as no less than 5 or 6 of the guys obviously knew one another. I sit down and fold to near oblivion before finally picking up pocket Aces, raising, getting 3 callers and C-betting the A-x-x flop. Everybody folds and I win a pot to get back ahead of my starting stack. I had literally played one hand in three orbits at this point.

The guy to my immediate left, who was friends with nearly everybody at the table, mentions the interest list for $2/$5 and goes to sign up for that. Soon enough, his name is called and off he goes, with his seat being filled by a typical youngish, hoodie and I-Pod wearing wannabe. Soon enough, my suspicions were confirmed.

He got into a hand with an older gentleman one seat to his left and raised pre-flop. The old guy (probably 70) smooth calls and it folds around. I forget the exact way the cards fell, but the young kid made Broadway on the turn and sneakily (foreshadowing) checked to the old guy, who promptly checked behind. They both have about $100 or so in their stack and when the 3rd heart fell on the river, the younger guy moved all-in and was snap-called by the old guy. "Nuts" the kid declares as he flips over A-Qo for the broadway straight. I look at the guy next to me and ask "Nuts?" and he is just as puzzled as I am.

The old guy proceeds to slow roll him and flip up J-6 of hearts and declares "3rd Nuts" and the table roars with laughter. The young kid was obviously embarrassed by his faux pas and immediately racked up and requested a table change to the $2/$5 table. Three others at our table did the same and I have to admit, I thought about it for a minute, but realized Maudie would be there any minute for lunch, so I racked up and went for a smoke.

You can't make that kind of stuff up, it really happened.

--

I'm still playing a bit on Full Tilt, some good, some bad and I plan to continue to play a bit here and there. I've been limiting myself to one SNG per day for now, due in part to my lack of patience and in another part to a lack of bankroll. I don't have much and I don't plan to reload, so if I go busto, I go busto, at least until the 15th of next month. ;)

Until next time, I fold.

G

OU-Texas Tech ----- Prime Time

2008-11-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

I am sure this post will upset at least one person that I consider a true friend and for that, IT, I will apologize in advance.

You see, for as much a homer as he is for his Texas Tech Red Raiders, I am just as much a homer for my Oklahoma Sooners. Two weeks is a long time to wait for this matchup, but I am in the mood to start discussing and disecting it here today and am liable to be in the mood for it early and often in the next two weeks.

First off, let me say this right off the bat, I am a HUGE fan of Mike Leach. He is a bit quirky and definitely a different breed of cat, but the man can coach. I often say this in defense of one Mark Mangino, Kansas head coach, when somebody starts bad mouthing him. You know what, Stoops would have never brought him to Norman on his first staff if the man couldn't coach. Same goes for Leach.

The game is set to kick off in prime time, at 7:00 pm on ABC, from Norman, Oklahoma, for a national audience.

Within that simple sentence is what I see to be the deciding factor in this game. "from Norman, Oklahoma." You see, my Sooners typically play pretty well at home, as evidenced by the following set of statistics:

59-2 at home during the Bob Stoops era. (Losses to TCU and OSU during his first 10 seasons, other than that, nada)
6-2 vs. Texas Tech with Mike Leach as Head Coach with both losses occurring in Lubbock. (I won't even go into the 2005 game and the instant replay debacle or this could/should be 7-1)

I'm not saying any of this to discount the Red Raiders' chances in two weeks, because I believe it will be a hard fought game. I do not expect a blow out. With the cast of athletes Tech puts out on the field, I believe they will definitely be able to score with OU. We've certainly shown a propensity for giving up the big play, both on defense and in the kicking game, so with their offense, I don't expect to shut them down completely. On the other hand, I don't expect them to be able to shut us down either.

I think the game will hinge on turnovers and quarterback pressure. Whichever defense is able to get to the other team's quarterback and is able to come up with turnovers, whether it be fumbles or interceptions, will have the upper hand in this game. Harrell has only thrown 5 interceptions all year and Bradford, 6. Harrell has also only been sacked 5 times compared to 7 times for Bradford. What does that mean? If either team is not able to get decent pressure on the other quarterback on a regular basis, I would expect this game to be a high-scoring shootout.

Graham Harrell
Texas Tech 10 463 332 71.7 4077 8.8 5 36
Sam Bradford
Oklahoma 10 330 224 67.9 3406 10.3 6 38

It doesn't get much closer than that right there and I expect both of these quarterbacks to continue on and play as well as they have all year. The difference could be defensive pressure, which both are unaccustomed to with their great pass blocking offensive lines. By the way, they were #'s 1 and 2 respectively in the nation.

Here are some of the rushing statistics I found online:

Oklahoma 10 424 1943 4.6 42.4 194.3 30 102 70
Texas Tech 10 257 1326 5.2 25.7 132.6 25 87 49

A bit of difference here, mainly in the attempts, but also a huge discrepancy in total yards. OU was #19 nationally and TT was #68.

The only reason I bring this statistic up is that in the past, OU has had great success keeping Tech's offense off the field because they were able to run the ball effectively and eat time off the clock. In my opinion, other than getting alot of pressure on Graham Harrell, being able to run the football at will is the second most important thing that OU has to be able to do in two weeks. If they are able to run the football like they did against Texas A & M, it will be a very long day for Tech's defense.

Having said that, we have not been able to do that the entire year. In fact, we've worn out our own defense at times, because of how fast we score, much like Texas Tech does with their high-powered, quick-strike offense. The ability to keep their defense off the field will be a huge boon for whichever team is able to do it. Personally, I hope it's the Sooners as my buddy, IT, hopes its' the Red Raiders.

Turnover margin is another key stat as neither team gives it away much, but the Sooners have an edge here, as well. Oklahoma is +16 in tunrover margin and Texas Tech is +10. Turnovers will decide this game if they are one-sided either way.

The OU pass defense is ranked 3rd in the Big 12, while Tech's pass defense is ranked 6th in the Big 12. This is not a big enough difference to even compare, other than it is one more statistic that OU has an edge on Tech, at least thus far in the season. OU's cornerbacks started the year as young, unproven, first-time starters, but I've been impressed with their ability to cover receivers one on one. We lost a key component of our defense in the Texas game when LB Ryan Reynolds went down with his 3rd or 4th knee injury. That was a devestating loss for us as he was by far the most experienced linebacker on the team and was the emotional leader as well as one of the captains on defense. Since then, Austin Box has stepped in and, although at times he's appeared lost, for the most part has done a solid job. He will be coming off his best game as a Sooner against Texas A&M but if the defense is going to hold the Red Raiders down at all, he'll have to have a consistent game.

Kick-off coverage is one area that the Sooners have been flat-out poor at all year long. They are the only team in the nation to allow 3 KO returns for touchdowns, along with a number of other huge returns deep into their own territory. We had a luxury for the last few years of a kick-off specialist who could boom kickoffs deep into the end zone. That isn't the case this year as the other team is fielding our kickoffs routinely at the 10 or 15 yard line. I'd like to think the coaches could do something in this area, but as we've seen throughout the season, it is still a major problem.

The kicking game, should it come down to it, is a wash, as well. Both teams have kickers on their team that they do not have full confidence in, in fact, Tech's kicker is a former walk-on and the OU kicker is a redshirt freshman. Neither have had to make a kick with the game on the line and I know that both teams will be nervous sending out either kicker in that spot.

So, as you can see above, I rate this game as very close to even. In fact, I might give Texas Tech a nudge toward the favorite because of their record this year and the momentum they will have coming into the game. However, the fact that the game is being played in Norman and the fact that the Sooners have routinely played on these big stages can't help but give us a slight edge in the experience factor and the comfortability factor.

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long Sack
Harrell, Graham 48 26 1 250 2 30 2

This was Harrell's line from the 2006 game in Norman. OU won that day with a former wide receiver playing quarterback 34-24. I would guess that if he has a line like that two weeks from now, OU will win again.

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long Sack
Harrell, Graham 72 47 2 420 2 60 0

This was his line from the 2007 game in Lubbock, when Bradford got a concussion on the first offensive possesion. Halzle came in and played well in the 2nd half, but wasn't prepared in the 1st half and they dug too big a hole to come back from. Obviously, if Harrell has this type of line in two weeks, Texas Tech will probably win the game.

This is another case for the "Playing in Norman" argument. You can see the disparities in his statistics from those two games and he is obviously more comfortable playing at home, as are most college players. You can't discount that fact when discussing deciding factors in this game.

Both teams have great quarterbacks, solid offensive lines, play-making receivers and solid, if not great defenses. Both teams have questionable kicking games, although our kick coverage is a bigger question. Both teams have good, solid running backs, although our running backs are used to running the ball more often.

In the long run, the advantages for each team are minute when you consider them and the disadvantages are minute when compared to the other team. The one thing that can be argued, in my opinion, is home field advantage. You can't take that away from my Sooners this year. That and the fact that they are trying to scrape back into the BCS and BIg 12 picture should provide enough motivation to go out and play a solid game in two weeks against Texas Tech.

Well, that and somewhere around 85,000 rabid fans and a prime time TV audience. I expect a good game and would not be stupid enought to take Texas Tech lightly. It can and has happened in the past, so the Sooners will have to come out with a solid game plan, execute it near perfectly and leave it on the field. Stoops will make sure that happens.

Just my opinion, I've been wrong before.

G

Link To Poker

2008-11-05T16:40:00.000-08:00

My monthly link requirement: Play onine poker tournaments at Sky Poker.

Does this count as a post? Sorry, not much going on around here lately worthy of wasting your time.

Hunting is going, it's been really slow due to the warm weather, but we are still out there looking for the big boys. Hopefully, we get a little cool weather around here soon, the rut may never happen.

The election, you ask? I have absolutely no comment either way. Yes, I voted and No, I don't care to discuss who I voted for and what I think of the result.

Until next time, I still sit out.

G

A New Game......

2008-10-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

...........requiring as much or more patience than poker.

I'm still playing poker during the week nights, but not nearly as much as I used to play. My patience, you might say, has been worn thin by a combination of one-outers and bad play by myself. Maybe I'll get over it, maybe not, that remains to be seen.

I have, on the other hand, been engagin in a new pursuit that requires the patience of Job. That patience that I used to be able to exhibit at the poker tables has been transferred over to deer hunting.

You might recall that last year, my first year to ever hunt period, let alone deer, I killed a deer on opening morning at 8:06. Well, suffice it to say, that was just dumb-ass beginner's luck. I've spent a total of 6 mornings and evenings in the field thus far and have not even raised my bow or gun yet with conviction. Oh, I've had small deer around that I could have shot, but nothing that would resemble something I would actually shoot at as of yet.

I've had a couple of yearlings and one particular spike that just seem to love my stand and will not leave me alone. In fact, I think the spike was playing ring around the rosey with me last Saturday evening as I had him in the scope at least four different times. Still, I'm looking for bigger game than a 2 year old. Besides, those type of deer are the ones that you pass on in hopes of him living 3 more years and turning into a respectable, mature buck.

I've spent the last three weekends sitting in that tree stand, being patient, biding my time, waiting for that one particular opportunity to present itself. It just hasn't happened yet, but I'm a firm believer that it will, sooner or later. I just have to continue to show that patience that I know I have inside me and continue to spend as many days as possible in that tree stand and it is bound to pay off. There are entirely too many deer around our hunting spot for it not to pay off eventually.

With that said, I am taking off this Friday from work and heading down to the lake place on Thursday evening, immediately after I get off work. It would be a great trip regardless of the circumstances, but I will be joined by my hunting buddy and best friend, Bill, and his father, Neil. We always have a good time on these adventures and I'm sure this weekend will be no different. Waterfowl season opens on Saturday, although we haven't seen huntable numbers of ducks and geese just yet, we will probably still spend a little time preparing for that season, digging pit blinds and setting out decoys.

The wife and family will be down on Saturday, as we have to sing at the bar on Saturday night. Anybody going to be in town? We might have an extra spot at the trailer and at the bar if you are so inclined.

Until next time, I hunt.

G

PS: The big fella in the background is the one I'm looking for.

Texas Rangers Baseball Team - FAIL (up to this point)

2008-10-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

My favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers, have largely been a failure. From their original roots in Washington DC to their present home, Arlington, Texas, they've made the playoff all of 3 times in the last 35+ years. That, however, does not stop me from being a Rangers fan, in fact, it will make it all the more sweet when they do finally make the playoffs and, I hope, bring home a World Series Championship to Arlington.

That being said, I don't see it happening in the next year or so, but I do think they are on the right path to building a consistent winner. I like Ron Washington in the manager's job, the players really seem to respond to his managerial style and I love the fact that Nolan Ryan and Jim Sundberg are in positions of leadership. Who better to learn from than ex-Rangers, All-Stars, Gold Glovers and Hall of Famers?

I also make no bones about the fact that I am a homer. I watch the Rangers nearly every time they are on TV and follow them on the internet when they aren't televised. I haven't bought the MLB package yet, but I will probably be looking into that in the future. This is not a non-biased blog, so don't expect that. I've been a fan of the Rangers for nearly 30 years and I will always be a fan, win, lose or draw.

Major League Baseball is as much a business as the NFL, NBA or NHL these days and if you have to pick a scapegoat for their recent failures, you might as well start at the top. Owner Tom Hicks has enjoyed much success and made a ton of money in most of his ventures, both inside and outside the world of professional sports. The Rangers, however, have been the thorn in his side.

Regardless of whether or not you are a fan of the Texas Rangers, most would have to admit that we normally have a very strong lineup of hitters. Pitching has always been our downfall and really, even the years that we scraped into the playoffs, there were no big name, shut down, staff aces on any of those teams. John Burkett, Ken Hill, Roger Pavlik, Rick Helling, Ferris Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, anybody?

Coming into this off-season there is a new push down Arlington way and that new push is being led by none other than one of the Rangers' favorite sons, Nolan Ryan, as President of the organization. He has met individually and collectively with the young pitchers that the Rangers have in the farm system in hopes of instituting a new mantra across the organization. He is preaching the virtues of being in excellent shape, starting with conditioning and stretching, and carrying that over into throwing more pitches.

These past few years, the Rangers have been an organization that coddled their pitchers far too much and I, for one, am glad to see Nolan taking an active interest in developing our own pitchers from within the organization. How can a young kid with a decent arm NOT get better by listening to a 1st ballot Hall of Famer? And before any of you point out that his record was just a shade over .500 for his career, the Man threw 7 no-hitters and pitched until he was 46 years old. 1st ballot, guaranteed shoe-in Hall of Famer, no questions asked.

Nolan was a work horse and was almost fanatical about his conditioning. That cannot be a bad thing in my mind. Look at it this way:

Nolan's 1st full year in the big leagues was 1968. He retired in 1993. That means he pitched 26 major league seasons for the Mets, Angels, Astros and Rangers. His overall won-loss record was 324-292. He averaged 207 innings per season during those 26 major league seasons. In fact, take away the first, second and last year which were not complete seasons and for the other 23 years, he averaged 217 innings per season, with a high of 332 innings for the Angels in 1974. That, my friends, is a work horse.

Contrast those numbers to the Rangers pitchers of last year:

The highest innings pitched total on the team was 171 and only three Rangers pitchers even broke the 100 inning mark for the year.

Injuries played a huge part in that last bit of statistic, however, with the new conditioning plan that Ryan is trying to implement, I think the pitchers will be in much better shape all around and would be able to avoid alot of the injuries that have occurred not only last year, but for the last 3 or 4 years.

So, all that being said, here's my predictions for the pitching staff for 2009.

Kevin Millwood-Millwood was 2nd on the team in IP in 2008 with 168+. This number needs to be over 200 if the Rangers are going to have any chance at all of being competitive. They need Millwood to step up and be the leader of the staff next year, he is certainly being paid to be the leader, it's time to get his ass in shape and get the job done.
2009 Prediciton: 15-17 Wins

Vicente Padilla-He had the best year of any of the starters last year, finishing with 171+ innings pitched and 14 wins. His 4.74 ERA was a little high and he battled injuries for a short time also, but for the most part, he was our most consistent pitcher from Day 1 through the end of the season. Still, there is definitely room for improvement and being the 2nd highest paid player on the entire team, now is the time for that improvement.
2009 Prediction: 14-16 Wins

Matt Harrison-He went 9-3 in a rookie season that he surely didn't expect to finish in the big leagues. He was called up after a number of injuries beset nearly every starter on the staff at some point. Although he had a nice win-loss record, his ERA was 5.49, which is unacceptable, however, he certainly kept his team in the game despite giving up runs, to the point that he won 9 ball games in less than half a season in the big leagues. That has to count for something. If your winning percentage stays at .750, I, personally, don't care what your ERA becomes.
2009 Prediction: 8-10 Wins

Scott Feldman-After starting the season with 3 or 4 hard luck decisions in which he pitched very well, he had an up and down battle the rest of the way. He certainly showed that he has the ability to get big league hitters out, just not on the regular, consistent basis that is required of a quality starting pitcher in the major leagues. Perhaps with this year under his belt and coming into next year in better condition, he can contribute to the rotation.
2009 Prediction: 10-12 Wins

Kason Gabbard-Brandon McCarthy-The jury is still out on these young guys, as injuries have plagued them both. They have both shown the ability to get major leaguers out, but we've only seen glimpses of their ability due to the injury situation. I hope the new condition program and Nolan's guidance can get these guys healthy, so that we are able to make an informed decision on them, whether that be good or bad. For what it's worth, I think they could both be quality starters in the major leagues, if they could just get and stay healthy.
2009 Prediciton: Injuries preclude even a wild guesstimate at this point.

?????-There will almost certainly be an addition to this group, either through free agency or via the trade route. There aren't alot of rumors circulating right now, but the Rangers will probably have to move one of their catchers and they will surely be looking for pitching in return. Dontrelle Willis is one of the most promising names I've heard mentioned. After 3 consecutive poor seasons, he would probably come on the cheap and could be a good fit. He certainly has the talent, as he's shown in the past, it will just be a matter of whether he can get his act back together. Another name that would not come cheap is Justin Verlander, also a Tiger. The Tigers are in need of a catcher and we are prospect-strong at the catcher position. I'm not sure how much we would have to give up to get Verlander, but that's a trade I would have to consider to add his arm to our rotation.
2009 Prediction: Let's hope the Rangers sign a proven ML pitcher to add to their rotation, because if they don't, it will be a parade of youngsters that aren't ready to pitch in the big leagues, taking their lumps.

Bullpen-2009

The bullpen was mediocre at best last year, with nobody really stepping up to lay claim to the closer's job. I don't think they will be in the market to sign a FA closer and I really don't have a problem letting Frank Francisco and CJ Wilson battle it out for the job in spring training, that is, if they don't try to make Wilson a starter again AND assuming he's healthy going into the spring. I think either of those guys would be adequate in the closer position and if they falter, they can always go to closer by committee.

Jamey Wright-count me in the group that thinks Wright should be re-signed. He can fill a variety of roles, including set-up man, long man and spot starter. He still has a live arm and if he could be signed on the cheap, I think he will do an adequate, if not flashy, job. If he isn't re-signed, look for Nippert to be asked to fill his spot.

Josh Rupe-I expect Rupe to be in the exact same role he was used in last year. He was the primary long man, when healthy, and occasional late inning matchup RH out of the pen. He did a good job last year and I expect him to get better with experience.

Benoit, Nipper, Loe-All these guys have had their moments in the big leagues, just somehow need to become more consistent. Benoit is surely on his last legs with the organzation that has stuck by him for a long time. If he could get back to his 2007 form, that would be a real shot in the arm for the bullpen.

After those names, it's a coin-flip. I'm sure we will see the same old non-roster invitees auditioning for jobs in the spring and we will end up with a LH specialist, ala Mahay or Guardado and some long time minor leaguers trying to find their way into a major league bullpen. I do expect Madrigal to earn a spot with his live arm, but he still has a lot to learn about pitching. Hopefully, the new regime will get him in shape and help his development.

I would say that I hope they leave the younger starting pitchers, who are starting to develop, in the minor leagues to start and gain that starting experience, rather than rush them to the big leagues and stick them in the bullpen. If they determine that some of them are ready for the big leagues, by all means, bring them up and stick them in the rotation. I have no problem with them learning on the job if the higher-ups think the youngsters are ready.

2009 Prediction: I think Francisco lays claim to the closer job and becomes a quality, ML closer. He certainly has the stuff, if he can get the mental part of it handled. Beyond that, I have no idea which way they will go, other than cheap.

Everyday Lineup by Position-2009
Catcher-I am in the camp that sees Gerald Laird being involved in a trade this off-season. I like Gerald and he had a decent year last year, so his trade value is highest among our crop of catchers. I think Taylor Teagarden and Max Ramirez are the catchers of the future for the organization and I think Ramirez should spend a full year, catching every day at AAA. Unless they decide he should play another position, he should catch every game possible to hone that craft. If he can't handle that then he needs to be moved to wherever they feel he can be the best player and stick him there, because we know the kid is going to hit. Saltalamachia can back up Teagarden in the big leagues, unless something of interest comes along in the trade market with his name being asked about.
2009 Prediction: Taylor Teagarden claims the starting catching job in spring training and Geral Laird is moved in a trade for a starting pitcher.

1st Base-Hank Blalock and Chris Davis are the options right now at the big league level. I am of the opinion that Blalock should be re-signed (the Rangers hold his option for next year at a little over 6 million), because I feel like he can put up the same numbers he put up just a couple of years ago, if he can ever stay healthy. I would love for him to be healthy enough to move back to 3rd Base, but even if that doesn't happen, between DH and 1B, if healthy, I think he will put up good numbers. He's too good a hitter. Davis is in that same boat and we are lucky that he can play an adequate 3rd Base, because if Hank can't move over there, Chris is the man, in my opinion. He has hit at every level and should start the year in the big leagues, playing 3rd, 1st and DHing on occasion.
2009 Prediction: Rangers re-sign Blalock and he and Davis share 1B and DH duties, providing a quality tandem of LH hitters.

2nd Base-Ian Kinsler is entrenched at 2nd Base and was on his way to his best season ever last year before injuries ended his season. I'm a big fan of Kinsler and, although his defense has been questioned by some, I think he's a great 2nd Baseman. He has as much or more range than anybody in the game and gets to a lot more balls than most 2nd Basemen.
2009 Prediction: I expect Kinsler to pick up right where he left off. He should hit around .310 with 25 or so homers, while scoring over 100 runs in this lineup.

Shortstop-Mr. Ranger for the time being, Michael Young needs to get healthy this off-season. After a couple of different hand injuries this year, he missed getting 200 hits for the first time in 6 years. I wouldn't trade him for any shortstop in either league due to his leadership ability and his ability on the field.
2009 Prediction: I see Michael Young healthy and back in the .315 range with over 100 RBI's.

Third Base-Should be Chris Davis (or Hank Blalock, if healthy and able) in most instances. If Blalock is let go or injured, the Rangers may have to look at Travis Metcalf or outside the organization for a replacement. There was a rumor somebody like Casey Blake could be signed as a FA this off-season, as well.
2009 Prediction:Rangers sign a veteran 3B via free agency to a 2 year deal for minimal money, thus, they get minimal production from the position as well.(anybody remember Ben Broussard?)

Right Field-It's time for Nelson Cruz to either become the star he should be or be cut loose via trade or whatever. He has nothing left to prove at AAA after his MVP season last year. Translate that to big league success or hit the bricks, Nelson.
2009 Prediction: Nelson Cruz becomes the major league outfielder he is supposed to be. I don't expect the kind of numbers that he put up at AAA, but I think he learned alot last year, so I expect him to play a full season in Right Field and put up decent power numbers, say, 25 or so homers and 80+ RBI's.

Center Field-Team MVP Josh Hamilton has a strangle hold on this job, until Pedro Borbon Jr. is ready to move up. With Cruz in right, Josh will play the majority of time in Center Field, where he is quite capable. I expect him to get healthy as well during the off-season and to show up in the spring in great shape, ready to continue the assault that he put on the AL last year.
2009 Prediction: More of the same, .330 average, 30 or so homers and 110+ RBI's.

Left Field-David Murphy was well on his way to establishing himself as an everyday player at the big league level, until injuries derailed his chance to win Rookie of the Year. I felt like he was right in the race until he hurt his knee and I feel like he will be the everyday left fielder next year, as well, with occasional days off against LH pitching.

Designated Hitter: Let me say first that when the Rangers signed Milton Bradley last year, I thought it was a horrible move. He proved me wrong and proved to me that he could be a team player and team leader. Washington likes him and, by all accounts, the players all like him as a teammate, so I think they should re-sign him. That being said, I think a 2 year deal for 10 million would be a steal to keep his bat in the lineup. If they don't re-sign Bradley, look for Blalock, (assuming he is re-signed) Davis, Hamilton to fill the spot as days off are required.

Utility Infield: Ramon Vasquez, German Duran, Joaquin Arias and Travis Metcalf will probably all battle during spring training and although Vasquez gets my nod, all will probably see action in the big leagues at some point. Ramon Vasquez proved his worth last year, playing every position in the infield and hitting .290 along the way.

Outfield:Marlon Byrd is arbitration eligible and Frank Catallanato is signed through 2010. Assuming they can't move Catallanato in a trade, those are probably your backup outfielders. I think Brandon Boggs could use a full season at AAA anyway. He played pretty well in limited duty, but an outfield of Boggs, Mayberry Jr. and Borbon at AAA Oklahoma makes sense to me.

I've probably painted a rosier outlook than most out there would like to see, but that's just me. I'm a glass half full kind of guy and I will always expect the best out of my favorite team.

Here are my top priorities for the Rangers this off-season and next spring:
1.Sign or trade for a quality, proven, healthy starting pitcher. Don't go to spring training audtioning for 3 jobs in the rotation.
2.Sign Josh Hamilton to a long term contract extension. If he is as good a guy as everybody says he is, he will make a nice compliment to Michael Young for the next 5 or 6 years.
3.Make the Blalock decision. If he's healthy, get the deal done, if not, cut ties and start making alternate plans for 3B next season.

That's about it for me, I look forward to following their deals and all the off-season happenings involving my Rangers. If you are a Rangers fan or just a MLB fan in general and you have a comment, feel free to leave it for me. I'm always interested in talking baseball with other fans.

Thanks for stopping by,

G

LeTune Challenge

2008-10-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky enough to have been chosen to play tonight in the LeTune Challenge on Full Tilt. I will simply be trying not to embarrass myself. Thanks to all the great folks at RakeBrain for putting on the tournament and for inviting me.

--
(Shamelessly copied and pasted from the RakeBrain site)

The time has come. On Thursday, it is time for the LeTune Challenge poker tournament at Full Tilt Poker. With the success from last Rakebrain tournament; LeCheese Challenge still ringing in our ears, the starting field is now greater and harder than ever. 36 of the best poker bloggers, 4 tables and a game of pot limit Hold’em and Omaha till the death. And I assure you, where LeCheese failed I will succeed.

Sponsored by RakeBrain.com this tournament is the sequel to the ever so popular LeCheese Challenge, with some minor changes. Due to his poor placing in the last Challenge LeCheese has been replaced by myself, LeTune and as promised we have added a table, looking at a 4 table, 36 player starting field. The game is, like last time, a mixture of Texas Hold’em and Omaha, both in pot-limit format. This to minimize the prospect of simple all-in poker and optimize for some real poker gaming.

$450 to the winner and a $100 bounty on me, seeing as anyone good, or lucky, enough to kick me to the curb deserves an extra Benjamin Franklin.

Participating poker bloggers:
MrSubliminal - MrSubliminal
BadBlood - BadBloodonPoker
ToastOnTilt – GolfandPoker
mookie99 – Mookie99
AlCantHang – AlCantHang
HighOnPoker – HighOnPoker
Gcox25 – Gcox25
StatikKling – Mattahfahtu
Babaghanoush – HardboiledPoker
katitude – PokerKat
VinNay – runner-runner-rebuy
Pokerpeaker – PokingandPeaking
BamBamCan – Bam-baminbedrock
Buddydank – Buddydank
Jaxia – Stealtheblinds
emptyman – PokeryGoodness
huntvegas – HuntVegasPoker
TNSpaceman – JasonKirk
numbbono – DonkeysDraw
Schaubs – Lolaschaubs
ck31 – Bwop
pvanharibo – LawChica
lucko21 – PokerCash
drchako1 – PokerDoctor
Fuel55 – Fuel55
$mokkee - $mokkee
NightRanger - NightRanger
MiamiDon - MiamiDon
PirateLawyer - PirateLawyer
DDionysus - DDionysus
bdidde - Biggestron

RakeBrain people

LeTune – Rakebrain
gifted08 – Rakebrain member
woodo75 – Rakebrain member
td8507 – Rakebrain member
Vadim331 – Rakebrain staff

As you can see the competition will be tough with players such as gifted08 and td8507 dominating the Rakebrain rake leaderboards. Watch out for these guys and do us all a favor and take them out ASAP, if even possible. They have probably played more than all of us together.

Additional tournament info:
Name: LeTune Challenge I
Tournament ID: #63909297
Poker room: Full Tilt Poker
Starts: Thursday 16th of October, 19:00 EST
Prize pool: $1000
Good Luck All/LeTune

The Low Limit Grind (er)

2008-10-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back in the game, somewhat.

After bouncing around for the last month or so, seeing myself play for 10 minutes here and 15 minutes there, I've returned to Full Tilt with a bit of a renewed interest in the game. I have to admit for the last several months, I've had very little desire to play the game and it certainly shows in my results. However, after logging on to Full Tilt on Monday night and discovering I had a whopping $7 left in my account, I put my head down, strapped it on tight and started grinding again. I have to admit, it has felt good the last three nights logging off after a 1-2 hour session and booking a win, albeit a very small win all three nights.

I have no idea what I did to run my balance down to $7 but it was certainly down there on Monday. I'ver never been the kind of player that kept too close an eye on my bankroll. I don't pay bills out of that money and I certainly have never had any type of life changing money at any of the online poker sites. I am and have always been a social player, playing for the entertainment and for the challenge. I've always enjoyed playing the blogger games more than the grind-it-out cash tables even though my results in those tournaments have been less than stellar. (read: horrid)

I'm not really sure if it was the semi-break I've been on now for a few months, only playing a handful of tournaments and even less cash games, or if it was the fact that I only had $7 in my account and I leapt at the personal challenge it would be for me to run that back up to a playable amount. Regardless of the reasons, I jumped back in Monday night with a different level of concentration and a different sense of purpose. I am slogging away currently at the lowest limit tables that Full Tilt offers. (surprise!!!) I'm playing the .25/.50 Limit Hold Em tables for the time being, the 6-max variety and, so far at least, my results have been solid.

I've also been turning off ALL distractions while I am playing. No TV, no girlie chat and no web-surfing between hands. I find that I pay much more attention to the other players, their aggression, the cards they show down, etc when I don't have 42 windows open, the music blaring and the TV droning on in the background. This has allowed me to get back to making notes on individuals. These notes, along with a propensity to only play hands when in position, have led to having a good general idea of what just about all my opponents are holding. It's not always perfect and I'm not always right, but using the tools that I know how to use has definitely made the last three nights more tolerable.

The play is, as always, horrible at this level and nobody will lay down any type of draw for one or two bets, but, as long as I can avoid the bad side of variance for a while, I think I can continue to add to my bankroll, one little bit at a time. It's pretty frustrating to play extremely solid poker for 2 hours and know that you only have $5 worth of profit to show from it, but being where I'm at right now $$$-wise leaves me very little choice if I want to get back in the game.

I am trying to be smart with my table selection and I am definitely seeking out the players that I have notes on, regardless of whether I know anybody else at the table. One thing that amazes me is the number of people that have Iron-Man status at the .25/.50 level. There is generally at least one per table, if not more, and some of them are just plain bad players. I guess an endless supply of money and playing at the lowest level at Full Tilt allows them to put in the necessary time to qualify, but I don't see how they can be making any money at it.

After spending the last 2-3 months pretty much on the sideline, it felt good to get back in the fray and toss around the chips these last few days. Who knows, perhaps I will regain the drive that had managed to escape me over the last few months and get back into playing on a more regular basis. Of course, I'm going to be spending alot of time at the lowest level, in order to get back to 1/2 or 2/4. Maybe I can do it and maybe I can't, we;ll just have to see how it plays out.

--

The play has been fairly horrid at the levest levels possible.

Here's a sample from last night.

I pick up A-A in the small blind, 4 callers before me and I pop it. Everybody calls and all 6 of us see this flop:

A-4-4

I lead out and the big blind raises, which runs out the other 4 players. I re-raise him and we cap it.

The turn is an 8. (Rainbow board, no flush draw) I check, he bets, I raise and we cap it again.

The river is a 6 completing a miracle straight draw I guess and I check it to him again and he bets again. I check-raise him and he finally slows down and just calls.

What could he have had here that would have led him to believe he needed to raise me? A-2 off-suit.

I suppose he might have put me squarely on K-K and thought he was crushing me, but even the, capping it twice? I sometimes do not get their thought processes. I understand that he doesn't know me from Adam and has no idea of my overall tightness, but come one. A-2?

Fortunately, that type of play is pretty typical at this level and I hope to be able to take advantage of it as often as possible in the coming days and weeks.

--

Truckin' is out, but if you didn't already know that, there ain't much hope for ya.

Truckin' - October 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 10

Welcome back to another issue.

1. Maisy Wednesday by Paul McGuire She always wore bright lipstick which brought out a little gleam in her lips. She frequently smiled, but never initiated any sort of conversation... More

2. Happy Anniversary by John 'Falstaff' Hartness As we stood outside the courthouse in our newly wedded bliss (which also somewhat resembled the look of people who have just survived a tornado, as it happened much faster than we expected) we decided that since Suzy didn't have to be at work for another couple of hours, we'd go have lunch. So we scraped together a few bucks and trundled over to a nearby McDonald's... More

3. A Lock of Bonnie Parker's Hair by Johnny Hughes They was real famous and in the newspapers and all robbing them banks, when banks were unpopular. I asked Bonnie for something to remember her by. We didn't have a pencil for an autograph. She pulled this little pair of scissors out of her purse and gave me this... a lock of her hair... More

4. Whiskey Kisses by Betty After Dark Held apart by distance and circumstance, brought together in soft voices, the pieces of who we are fill the room with every drink we pour. The gaps in our lives slowly closing as the light from the window crept into the room. There was something unavoidable that connected us, but the details were never as clear as they were this night.... More

5. What I Knew? by Dusty Rhodes Just walk up and ask her you idiot... You've been friends for four years... she doesn't have a date and either do you... Quit being a pussy and ask her... Christ dude... what are you nervous about... More

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been...

From the Editor's Laptop:

Thanks again for wasting your precious time with Truckin'. This month's issue features veteran Truckin' writers including the legendary Johnny Hughes with another Texas tale. Dusty Rhodes and John Hartness both make triumphant returns to the Truckin' roster. Betty After Dark will whip you in a deviant frenzy with her latest sultry tale. And I shared a new piece of fiction called Maisy Wednesday.

Please tell your friends about your favorite Truckin' stories. The writers definitely appreciate your support.

Also, if you know anyone who is interested in being added to the mailing list, well, please shoot me an e-mail.

Before I go... I can never thank the writers enough for writing for free and exposing their guts, blood, and soul to the universe. Their art and dedication inspires me and I hope it inspires you too.

Be good,

McG

---Tao of Pauly --- http://mcgrupp.blogspot.com
Tao of Poker --- http://taopoker.com
Truckin' --- http://mcgtruckin.blogspot.com
Coventry --- http://www.phish-coventry.com
Las Vegas Blog --- http://www.lasvegasvegas.com

"A cult is a religion with no political power." - Tom Wolfe

--

Until next time, perhaps I'll try check-raising,

G

Poker and Dads

2008-10-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

*Crickets chirping*

That one will always be my favorite.

So, posting frequency here is about as often as once in a blue moon, every so often, hell, three times a month? Life is in the way right now and will probably continue to be in the way for the a good, long while. I appreciate the comments on the new pup, he seems to be a real go-getter and I am looking forward to training him. After a bit of research, it seems most of the commenters are correct, the mutts do appear to be easier to train than the pure breds. Thanks for the information, I do appreciate it.

--

I have played a bit of on-line poker of late. Quite poorly, I might add. When you are playing as tight as I play, along with playing poorly in most instances, the on-line poker game becomes quite boring, quite rapidly. I don't do anything well when bored, thus, my poker play usually consists of logging on, cracking a beer, finding a table and taking a seat. This is normally followed by folding for 20 or so hands, picking up a legitimate hand and raising, only to see 5 callers, normally out of position. After a hideous, well-connected flop that misses me entirely, they all check to me and when I fire my continuation bet, they either all call or they get into a raising war. The few times I've been able to narrow the field, I usually get beat by some ridiculous 3-5 off-suit hand where the guy was getting 645 to 1 to call pre-flop. Yup, NH sir.

That is usually followed by a quick log-off and me finding something else to do to occupy my time. I never thought I would say it, but I am losing the patience to play the game the way I play it. I have tried the aggro style and it simply does not work for me, too much variance and all that. Unfortunately, if I cannot remain patient, I find that I don't have any success at all and that takes all the fun out of it for me. My typical sessions of late have been 15-20 minutes long. I've had a few longer sessions, where I started out well and was able to build a bit of a stack, but it seems that if that doesn't happen, I'm out of there and that's just the way it's going to have to be for a while, I guess.

--

Big Pirate had an interesting post today on what question or questions you would ask your Dad, given the chance, and I thought I might tackle that today from the perspective of someone who has lost their Dad. Most of you know that my Dad has been gone for 5-1/2 years now and I think it's pretty well documented that I miss him every single day. One thing I would tell everyone out there that still has their Dad around, "Do not take it for granted. Go see him and hang out with him as often as possible, you will not regret that later in life."

Anyway, back to his question. My Dad was sick for 6 or so years prior to his death and we spent a fair amount of time together during those years. I was able to talk to my Dad and ask questions in ways that I never would have dreamed of when I was a younger man. So, I found out a lot of things that I never would have dreamed of due to his illness and the effect that it had on him during those 6 years.

So, I don't really have any advice on questions, those things just kind of took care of themselves at that point. I can tell you, though, of the void that is created in your life when you lose your father. Especially if you were close to your Father, like I was and like Big Pirate apparently is, as well. Take that time that you get to spend with them during these years and hold it as close to you as possible. Take every opportunity to play cards or drink a beer with them, because sooner or later, that opportunity is going to be taken away from you. I hope for everyone's sake, that is a long time away, but, speaking from experience, no matter how long that time is or how often you get to hang out with your Dad, it is never enough when they are gone.

Sometimes, still to this day, I find myself with my cell phone in hand, dialing my Mom's house, to ask my Dad a question about some random occurence. I've become very emotional since he's been gone, as well. Perhaps that is just a sign of getting older and is something that most men go through at some point in their lives, but prior to his death, I was very non-emotional and now, a song on the radio can sometimes make me cry.

I wish this was a riverbank, Instead of a graveyard
I wish we were sittin and fishin and this wouldn't be so hard
It was my favorite thing that we used to do, but now we can't
I wish you were here and I wish this were a riverbank

That's a new song out by Jeff Bates called Riverbank. Most of you probably won't care for it much, but it strikes home pretty hard for me. It's hell getting old, you know?

So, to sum this up, the questions will have to be yours. Nobody can tell you what to ask or what you want to know, but, if there is something that you want to know, it appears to me that you have been given the green light from your Dad, ask away. Good luck with it and remember, treasure all those moments you get to spend with your Dad and make the time to do it as often as possible. I promise you that later in life, they will be some of the most precious memories you will ever have.

Until next time, I fold.

G

New Addition

2008-09-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

Meet the newest duck hunter in the family:

I would like to introduce Booger.

He's not a pure bred lab, so he won't be the easiest to train, but, come next summer, he and I will be spending alot of time together in the great outdoors.

The Lake Place - How It Came To Be

2008-09-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

I never really considered myself a "lake" person, certainly not in my adult years. I hadn't fished since before my Dad got sick and hadn't spent any vacation time at a lake since my early teenage years.

My Grandpa and my Dad were both big-time fisherman. They loved to catch catfish, cook catfish and eat catfish and I, along with most of the other members of my immediate and extended family, spent just about every Memorial Day week and weekend at Lake Eufala. It used to be the biggest man made lake in the world and might still be, for all I know, but Memorial Day weekend almost always coincided with the catfish spawn at Lake Eufala. I can remember those days like they were yesterday, catching as many fish as you wanted to, cleaning them and then frying them up over a campfire. Best fish you ever tasted right there.

It started out in tents when I was small and as I grew, my Dad's taste for the lake grew too, eventually leading to the purchase of a tiny, pull behind travel trailer and then finally, a bigger, nicer, pull behind travel trailer. We weren't really roughing it when we camped out, but when compared to what I experience at the lake nowadays, we were still roughing it pretty much.

It all happened one night about 10 years ago now. The wife and I were sitting in a local watering hole with some friends of ours, drinking a cold beer and discussing upcoming plans. My wife casually mentioned that our anniversary was coming up and we were thinking about what we could do to celebrate this year. In all actuality, she was thinking abuot what we could do to celebrate, I was pretty much along for the ride.

Our friend Ray piped right up after hearing this, "why don't y'all take a few days and use our trailer down at Fort Cobb Lake?" I looked at the wife and then looked back at Ray and asked, "where the hell is Fort Cobb Lake?" He went on to explain that it was a short drive, about an hour and fifteen minutes, west and south of Oklahoma City. Hmm, the lake, I thought. I haven't been to a lake in like 10 years or so. After a few more rounds of beers it was decided. We would take off the following Wednesday, follow Ray's carefully written directions on the back of a bevnap and spend an extended weekend at Fort Cobb Lake.

We set out the following Wednesday after work and arrived in short order at Ray's trailer, somewhere around 7:00 pm. We had big plans to head over to the local steakhouse and enjoy a fine meal that night, but after unloading all our belongings, we found ourselves pulled up against the red plastic padding at the local bar, the Crows Roost Bar to be exact.

We drank a few beers, played some darts and the wife and I sang along with every song that came on the jukebox. We met some really nice folks who treated us like they had known us their entire life and somewhere around 2:00 am, we found ourselves heating up hot dogs on the stove. So much for that nice steak dinner to start off the trip.

The next 3 evenings were pretty much rinse and repeats of the first evening there and we felt like we were really making some good friends, however, when Sunday rolled around, we were ready to get back to the city and to our regular lives. We'd had 4 days and nights of fun time away from the city, away from the responsibility of our daughter and away from the hustle and bustle of the real world, such as it is in Okalhoma City. I was ready to go home at that point and didn't really think twice about leaving.

Fast forward a month and sometime around the 1st of October, we got a phone call from the Crows Roost Bar. Shirley, the owner of the bar whom we hadn't meet during our time down there, was calling, wanting to know if we wanted to drive down and do karaoke for their Halloween party. We didn't quite know what to say, especially since we hadn't met her, but she assured us that the word of her patrons that we had met was good enough for her. We sort of agreed, contingent on being able to stay at Ray's trailer again and after a couple of phone calls, the plans were made. We would be down on Friday night and do the Halloween party on Saturday. That was only the start of things to come for us and the Crows Roost Bar.

Fast forward some two years later and it is Sunday morning, following a karaoke show at the bar and we are stumbling into the cafe/store to get some much needed nourishment following a drunken evening of karaoke right next door. John, a neighbor of Ray's and a friend of ours as well from Oklahoma City, asked if we had seen the picture on the front door. No, hadn't really noticed. He said it was a picture of a place for sale just down the street and it was a really nice place, we should take a look at it.

By this time in our lives, we were starting to consider a place at the lake, but had no real sense of urgency regarding the matter. Things were working out great the way they were, but still, we almost HAD to go look at the trailer for sale. And we did. And we offered the money on the spot. Well, the current owner told us, y'all are the second group through today and they said they wanted to buy it too. I'll tell you what, I live in El Reno, here's my cell phone number, first one to the bank and the first one to meet me in El Reno wins. I was in El Reno at 5:15 pm on that next Monday night. I left there with the keys to our first trailer and our first piece of property at Fort Cobb Lake.

Two weeks later, I had a U-Haul backed into our driveway in the city and spent all day that Friday driving back and forth between our house and the new trailer. Loading, unloading and unpacking, we spent our first weekend at the new trailer. I fell in love with it down there for a lot of reasons, that old trailer being one of them, but that first weekend just kind of locked it all up for me. This was going to be my getaway, my retreat, if you will. I've told this story to just about anybody that will listen, but two years ago, during the first Okie-Vegas, Tripjax, SteelerJosh and I were sitting on that old porch, drinking a cold beer and I said, "Boys, this right here is what this place is all about for me, it's why I love it as much as I do." They both looked puzzled and asked what the hell I was talking about and I said, "You hear that?" Nope. Exactly!

No sirens, no traffic snarls, no smog blocking your view of the stars at night. Just the occasional boat going across the water in the distance or the bob-white of the few local quail in this area. It has been my escape for nearly six years now and I love it even more now that I ever did before. Of course, the new double-wide trailer helps and the new screened-in porch helps, but of all those things, I still love getting down there early on Friday evening, while I am nearly always by myself, cracking open that first beer and sitting back to relax on that porch and not hearing anything that you hear in the city on a regular basis. Birds, animals, maybe an occasional boat. It is very serene and very calming and I almost always curse when it is time to go back to the city on Sunday.

I've often thought "If I could just find a way to make a living down here, I would move down here full time and not even worry about a place in the city." Of course, that's my ultimate goal and the wife and I's ultimate plan. It may take 25 more years, but we eventually want to retire to that place at the lake and live down there full time. I can hardly wait for that day to get here. Twenty five years seems like an eternity, but like they say, time flies when you are having fun, which I can certainly attest to. The wfe and I recently celebrated our 14th anniversary (Septembe 1st) and I am, as usual, late to the party on this, but sweetheart, I couldn't possibly imagine spending another 14 years with anyone but you. You are the straw that stirs my drink and you always will be. I love you and can only hope that I show you enough how it is that I feel about you.

For the rest of you that have read this far, I thank you for stopping by and for putting up with non-poker content. Of course, any content is more or less a surprise around this barren blog of late, but I am trying. I have several storeis in the works, it's just a matter of time before I actually finish one of them and post it up here. Also, no matter if it is a lake place getaway or whatever in the world floats your boat, I hope each and every one of you can find that place in your lives that is special to you like my lake place is to me.

Thanks for stopping by.

G

Truckin' and other stuff

2008-09-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, blogging is really hard work when you aren't playing much online poker. When I started this blog, I was playing every night of the week, all the time, now, eh, not so much. I have played a bit lately, but hunting season is under way here in Oklahoma and I expect that to start consuming a ton of my time.

We've already started hunting doves and killed about 150 or so thus far. They are difficult to hit, no doubt, but they are sure fun to hunt and all the more rewarding when they are on the skewer on your grill, wrapped in bacon with a nice jalapeno and a piece of cheese, after a great day in the field.

--

Truckin' is out, you should go check it out.

September 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 9

Welcome back to another issue of Truckin'. We have a six-pack of stories this month.

1. Feline Existentialism by Paul McGuire You're only one step away from nothingness. Your mere existence is utterly meaningless. What has more value? The zit on the ass cheek of Bono, or a religious missionary that has been burned alive by tribal elders? ... More

2. A Different God by Nick Cantwell The slow walk along the dusty path was always a time for reflection. Reflection on his life, his family and his standing. But as ever, his thoughts turned to his loss. His daughter had only been nine when the disease had taken her. And since that day, he had walked the same path three or four times a day. Asking questions. And hoping to receive answers... More

3. One Night Out Part III: 120 Minutes in Sodom by Sigge S. Amdal A show came on and six little dancers brushed past us from the dressing room. Barely legal naked nymphs with eyes too predatory for my liking. Reptile folk with nice legs, ripe breasts and hands long into your pockets. The moment our over-priced beer arrived, in slender glasses akin to lab equipment, my phone rang... More

4. Fatty McLiarson by Bob Respert Emily and I had been talking for quite some time over an instant messenger on the computer. Her in ski-country and me in the suck-belt. Ugh, the Midwest. What a fucking dump. Nice job basing almost your entire future existence on the American factory worker and his union. Well played, Midwest. I can see the abandoned factories now... More

5. Journey of 35,000 Miles Began with One Bong Hit by Rob Hogan I was surrounded by a room full of strangers who shared in my pathetic tales of a failed marriage, while enthralling me with their own stories of bad relationships and piss poor decisions. It was an instant camaraderie that connected us on the most basic of human levels. For once in my sad excuse for a life, I felt like I belonged... More

6. The Long by Dan England The ridge looked like the back of a stegosaurus. It was long and thin, yet it also had many long, technical towers about three times our size that we would have to climb over. And once we got on the ridge, there was no getting off. No wonder many climbers considered it the toughest ridge in all of Colorado... More

--

The new truck is phenomenal, I love it and everything about it. I really thought I wanted white, but "cool vanilla" is working really well for me right now.

Have a good one.

G

Reference Last Post

2008-09-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend

2008-09-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the wife and I finally did it. This weekend, in the midst of the most ridiculous discounts and allowances ever on pickup trucks, we traded in my old Dodge on a newier, flashier model.

Wait, you're thrilled to be driving a new truck, right? Yes, despite the still-exorbitant prices and the fact that we now have a payment we haven't had for five years, I am happy with the truck. It's a beauty, but it was still a bit sad when it came right down to time to give up those old keys.

You see, that old truck was my Dad's truck and it was one of the last few ties that I had to him. It didn't matter who, what, when, where or how, when I got in that truck and fired it up, I had a special memory of my Dad. I will still have all those memories of my Dad, just not when I go out and get in my truck to go somewhere any more.

The new truck is stylin' for sure. It's a 2008 Dodge 1500 Quad Cab. Suffice it to say, Dodge has come a long ways in designing eye-catching pickup trucks since 1998. It has the Hemi-power, which is cool too, but not so cool as to make me forget about all the things that made that old truck so very special to me and my family.

To this day, every time my daughter got in that truck to go somewhere with me, she sniffed really hard and said, "I love that smell." What smell is that, you ask? Stinky, smelly cigarette smoke. My Dad was a smoker and when I got the truck, it smelled of cigarettes something fierce. My daughter has fond memories of riding in Papaw's truck and that smell triggers her memory back to happier times. You see, when Papaw was driving that truck, he was still superman. He wasn't sick, he wasn't in the hospital or bound to a bedroom at home, he was "Papaw of the Year."

As most of you know, I smoke, as well and that smell is something that has never gone away from the cab of my old truck, my Dad's old truck. So, every single time my daughter Casey climbed into that truck with me, she was reminded of those happier times, riding around the big town of Bixby with her Papaw. It makes me a little sad every time she says it, but I wouldn't take those memories away from her for anything.

So, we've turned a new page and started a new relationship with a brand new pickup truck. I can't say that I'm happy about right now, at this point in my life, but I have to agree that it was time to make the move to a new vehicle, even though there was nothing apparently wrong with my old truck. It was 10 years old and had turned almost 110,000 miles, 34,640 of which were logged by Superman, the rest by little old me.

Thanks for stopping by and living some memories with me. I have a bunch of them, I'm just never too sure when they're going to flood over me and, eventually, end up here.

G

A Real Poker Post?

2008-08-26T15:00:00.001-07:00

Nah, not really.

I did play for about an hour last night. I dipped my toe in the $1/$2 Limit waters on Full Tilt for a while last night, initially running my $50 buy-in up over $100 and then back down to around $30 and finally settling for stopping at $54. That's right bitches, I made $4 an hour. A few more nights like this and I'll have to get another day job just to be able to afford to keep playing online.

Oh well. it was kinda nice, but nothing that is driving me crazy every night. Hunting season opens this Monday here in Oklahoma and I have lots of other things on my mind and occupying my time, so poker is probably a distant third or fourth at this point.

I'm still around and I might even play a blogger tourney one of these nights. Crazier things have happened, you know?

Until next time, I fold.

G

The "Want-To"

2008-08-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

What do you do when the "want-to" is going away?

Me, I usually just move on to something else that has my attention at the moment. I'm usually occupied with more than one thing at any given moment, but there have been several things that have kept my attention for longer than brief periods in my life. Poker was one of those things. Blogging was another one of those things.

Nowadays? Eh, not so much.

I'm not sure what the culprit is now but I'm seriously bored. Bored of playing poker and bored of trying to write down something that maybe somebody will deem meaningful. I still take the time out of almost every day at work to write something, it just hasn't translated well when I got home to post it of late and for that, I'm sorry.

For one thing, I'm not playing all that much poker lately. That almost certainly has an impact on this humble little "poker" blog, you know? During Okie-Vegas, I played more than I had in weeks, but shortly thereafter, I've gone right back to playing for a little while at night and then taking the inevitable bad beat and logging right off to do something of more importance to me. Right now, that's just about anything else that I feel like doing at the time, because investing a couple of hours to win $20 is not at the top of my priority list right now.

I've still played in a few of the blogger events in the last couple of weeks, including a final table at a Mook a few weeks back and a 2nd in the Riverchasers event last Thursday. It was just a two table SNG, but still nice to make a little run. Unfortunately, it really didn't do much for restoring any momentum in the rest of my game or my attitude. Poor, on both counts. I plead guilty.

I'm not sure where we're going to be heading here at Low Limit Grinder in the upcoming months. I'm almost certainly going to miss the Bash in September and probably Vegas in December as well. With the Google fiasco going on and my lack of zeal at the tables, making one of those trips looks completely unattainable at this point. Not that I don't want to go, you understand, but with other things taking the front burners on my stove, I'll probably be sitting out this year.

Hunting season opens in less than a month here in Oklahoma and all of my resources and focus has pretty much been on that of late. I would imagine that all of those resources and focus will remain on that until well after the first of the year, as well, as it has become more important to me than most other things.

I'll probably still be showing up on occasion at the Mookie and some of the other tournaments, as well as trying on a regular basis to come up with something of note to post here, but I'd bet that hunting stories will be more prevelant here as opposed to the bad beats and hand histories. That will make better reading anyway, in my opinion.

--

Pauly's tourney is tomorrow, be there or be square:

Here are the specific details...
1. Tao of Poker birthday tournament is open to all readers.

2. No chops whatsoever for the Borgata Package ($5,000 seat + two nights).

3. The 5K seat is a must play.... meaning you cannot take the cash. You have to play the event on September 12th.

4. Package does not include transportation. You have to find your own way to Atlantic City. So if you live in Sweden and win the seat, you are responsible for airfare.

5. Most importantly... have fun.

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Also, mentioning Pauly, he's back with another issue of Truckin'. Stop by and waste an hour or two.

Truckin' - August 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 8

Welcome back to another summer issue of Truckin'.

1. Even More Existentialist Conversations with Strippers by Paul McGuire On the third day of Prozac? That pretty much summed up my visit to the afternoon shift. The stripper was drunk, sedated on happy pills, sloppy, and slurring her speech like Albert Finney at happy hour... More

2. Explaining Amphetamines With Words by Sean A. Lovelace See the thing is an injection is a lot like a bullet from a gun, or words of anger, or like kisses—you can't get it back. And that Valium was working, working its way through his body, his veins, slowing things down, slowing, his pulse, his already pretty-fucking-slow pulse, and then he was, he was, well, he was dead... More

3. Black Hole Sun By Betty Underground I couldn't get her face out of my head. Blank and full of jealousy. Not directed at me, but me as part of the female species. As a representative of the sex that threatened her the most... More

4. Separate From Things We Didn't Want A Part Of by Philip D. Brown My friend fell asleep but the girl didn't and though it was dark I could see her watching me. She didn't look capable of sleep or even rest so I told her that I could help. She told me that needles were out of the question because they were an invasion she wasn't willing to accept... More

5. Capistrano By Brad Willis If the doctor says I'm living, he obviously is lying or seriously misguided. If he tells me I'm living, I'm going to laugh and tell him he better get busy dying for me, because somebody fucking has to... More

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Until next time, I fold.

G

My Newest Challenge

2008-07-28T15:40:00.001-07:00

I've undertaken alot of challenges right here on this blog in the last 3+ years. There was a SNG Challenge, a HU Challenge and endless self-challenges where I took the last pennies on a particular poker site and tried, to no avail usually, to turn those pennies into a playable bankroll. I am one of those kinds of people who take most of these types of challenges personally. I play better when I'm challenged and I try harder when I'm challenged.

That leads me up to today, where I have begun what thus far has been the hardest self-challenge for me to conquer to date.

As most of you know, I started hunting in earnest last year and I jumped in with both feet. What started as an innocent "free" weekend trying to shoot doves last September, turned into an obsession that saw me kill my first doves, ducks, geese, deer and turkeys in the last year. We are rapidly approaching the beginning of my second hunting season again, with dove season opening here on September 1st, and I have challenged myself again.

Waterfowl (ducks and geese) hunters are an odd lot, myself included, spending the coldest, wettest days of the year, sitting in blinds on the edge of ponds, lakes and rivers or sitting in a pit blind in the middle of a field with no shelter from the elements trying to shoot those elusive waterfowl. It's an obsession that requires patience, fortitude and even a bit of intelligence. You have to know where the birds want to be or you have to be smart enough to get the birds where you are if you are going to have a succesful hunt.

In order to get them where you are, you have to be able to blow a duck call or a goose call with at least a little aptitude, otherwise, the birds are going to go where they want to go and fly right over your spread of decoys without so much as a second glance. Last year, I hunted alot in open fields and at the edge of ponds, sitting there trying to be still and waiting for the birds to come close enough to shoot at. My buddy Bill is a caller, but most times, he was calling by himself. The few times that we went hunting with other people who could blow a call, our results were usually much better than when he was calling solo. Thus, my newest challenge:

Learning to blow a duck call and goose call well enough to help out this year in the blinds.

My wife and daughters bought me a combo pack for Father's Day, consisting of a duck call, a goose call and a hunting video. More precisely, a waterfowl hunting video. I had watched deer hunting videos and turkey hunting videos, but had never seen a video where the guys (and gals) were hunting ducks or geese. After watching that first video 43 times or so, I've gone out and bought 5 or 6 other videos, showing nothing but waterfowling. I plug them into the computer when I get home from work, crack open a cold Keystone Light and grab my calls, calling along with the guys on the video in an effort to perfect my technique.

Needless to say, there is much more to it than just grabbing a call and blowing. I have the Aflac duck call down pretty good at this point, which is NOT what you are looking for if you are sitting in a blind trying to call ducks in to range. My goose call is a bit better at this point, but I'm still working on the duck call as well, nearly every night, as season approaches swiftly. We are about two months away from getting to put this practice to use in the field, but I plan on being ready to call as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

It is certainly cutting into my time at the poker tables, but surprisingly, I haven't missed it all that much. In fact, I've found myself, on at least two occasions, turning off the computer after practicing for a couple of hours and never even logging into a poker client. Who would have thunk that? Certainly not me at this time last year.

--

Brotherhood - An association of men, such as a fraternity or union, united for common purposes.

Fellowship - A close association of friends or equals sharing similar interests.

Those two definitions above state what is the obvious for me when it comes to hunting. I've mentioned before how feeling like part of the group has always been important to me when it comes to blogging and our special group of poker bloggers. Not only is that still important to me, but being part of my hunting group, fitting in and getting along, as well as all those special times that we share in the field, that is all of mega-importance to me, as well.

As Bill has become not only my hunting buddy, but probably my best male friend as well, it has become much more important for me to not only be included whenever he and his family goes hunting, but it is almost like I am a member of his family and that is very important to me, as well. I'm up early to help with any of the set up that goes along with the hunting and I'm there late to help with any cleaning that needs to be done, every single time I go with them. I just feel like if I am going to be lucky enough to get to go, then I cannot be outworked by anybody while it is going on, because I want to be asked back every single time they go. So far, that has worked out wonderfully for me.

I've spent as much time in the field this summer, since turkey season ended, as we did during hunting season. Almost. There is typically alot of work that needs to be accomplished during the summer months to ensure that the winter months are as much fun as possible. We've moved dirt and dug out a very nice duck hole that will be full of water this coming winter and we've also begun building a permanent blind along the banks of that hole, giving us what we think will be a great chance to kill alot of birds during the upcoming season.

We've cleaned out a bunch of stuff, filled feeders and straightened out endless bags of decoys, all with the purpose of being ready when the time comes to hit the field and start hunting. It's more work than most people realize, but it's almost as much fun as the actual hunting because, again, of those two words definied at the top of this section. Here's a quote from one of my video's and if I knew the guys name, I would cite him, but I don't have that with me today. It goes something like this:

"When we first started hunting, it was 80% about the hunt and 20% about the fellowship. Nowadays, it's 80% about the fellowship and 20% about the hunt."

Those two sentences tell you exactly what it's all about, as far as I am concerned, and that has been that way from the very start. I have been very lucky from the start, being asked to go hunting with a great hunting family and being treated like a member of that family from the beginning. It has pretty much always been about the fellowship for me, from the start, and I wouldn't trade the memories I already have or the memories we have yet to make for anything in the world. It's a special bond that develops out there and it's very difficult to explain, especially for a man that is short on emotions and long on being a man.

I plan on continuing this pursuit as long as I have the opportunity and for as long as I am able to drag my butt out to the field, meaning for the rest of my life. It is something that gets in your blood and is something that you can't get out, at least if you are anyting like me, you can't get it out. The hardest part for me has been the waiting, since turkey season ended until September for it to all start over again. It is getting closer and closer and I am more than ready to get back out there and start hunting. Until then, I plan on continuing to practice my calling, helping out with all the chores that accompany this pursuit and being ready when the times comes for those shotguns to go bang, bang, bang.

Until next time, I pracitce.

G

PokerIntensity.com

2008-07-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

One of my readers runs an online poker review site, PokerIntensity.com, and he contacted me about writing a review of his site. I gave it a good looking over and generally liked what I saw. Below are my thoughts:

PokerIntensity pretty much has the best poker rooms covered in terms of reviews, and the reviews are thorough and well written. Everything that I like to see covered is there, from bonus requirements to contact and payment info. The reviews are honest and objective, with none of that cut-and-paste poker site promo drivel alot of "review" sites try to get away with. PokerIntensity is a credible source.

If I could ask for anything, it would be more reviews on more poker rooms. While I generally stick with the same few sites, occasionally I like to see what else is out there.

Besides reviews, there is a good amount of strong content in terms of poker strategy articles, industry news and poker room news. The benefit here is that you can enhance your online poker game and keep up on current events at the same time.

Last, but not least, there's the free poker odds calculator. This is a web-based tool that'll help keep the poker-playing numbers-crunchers sharp.

If you'relooking for honest reviews of poker rooms and a great resource for all things poker, PokerIntensity.com is the spot.

Until next time, I fold.

G

Teh Suck

2008-07-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

That's about where my poker game has been since around the beginning of the BBT3.

No cashes, no deep runs, no final tables, nada! I've been playing alot of online poker tournaments, though.

However, after playing live during Okie-Vegas, I think I've discovered a few things that will hopefully help me back on the right path toward eeking out a little profit now and again.

I don't play enough live poker to even be comfortable at the table. I have 5 or 6 casinos within easy driving distance of my house, but the fact is, I'm too lazy to change clothes and head out to one after work. The story of my life. I get home, change into my shorts and I'm done as far as leaving the house goes.

However, with Okie-Vegas in full swing last week, we played alot of live SNG's, two live tournaments and I had two sessions at the 1/2 NL cash tables. They were short sessions, but the first, paid for lunch and my buy-in to the tourney, courtesy of A-A, of course, and the second, I was wise enough to get up and walk away before anything disastrous occurred.

We also played a bit on-line while everyone was here. I dabbled in the HU sng's on both Stars and Full Tilt, after watching Oossuuu and Surflexus dominate much weaker opponents. I'm still haniging around the bottom feeding section, playing the $5.25 variety, but so far, I have won 9 out of 12 that I have played this week.

I also had an uninspiring run to the final table and the final money spot last night in the Mookie. I got lucky, lucky, lucky on approximately 97 hands just to get to the final table and had another huge four flush suckout once there and eeked into a 6th place finish. It wasn't necessarily how well I played, but it still felt good to make a final table again.

I eventually ran A-K into LJ's pocket rockets and was sent to the rail, but not before sucking out on Kuro's pocket Aces on the bubble of the final table. Sorry bro. I was fairly short stacked and found A-10 diamonds and raised UTG, virtually committing myself to the hand. Had he pushed pre-flop, I doubt very seriously if I could have found a fold there anyway, but after a low, 2-diamond flop, my money was most definitely going in the pot, regardless of his action. I got lucky and spiked the flush on the river.

Also of note, A-K is a drawing hand. Found out that little tidbit last night as well. Thanks for the heads up. BLOW.

Regardless, my money is going in there every single time in that situation as well. LJ raised before I acted, and with A-K in that spot, her dominating chip position and the fact that her range was pretty wide, I'm jamming there every.single.time. She had probably half the chips in play at that point or thereabouts, and I felt like her range was any Ace, any 2 paint, etc. Turns out she had Aces and IGHN. GG to LJ and well-played the rest of the way to take it down.

I was just lucky to even still be there at that point anyway, so to eek into the cash was certainly a bonus.

So, in short, I don't think I'm playing any different or any better than I was before OV3, it's just that my results have been a bit better. Here's to hoping that continues.

Until next time, I fold,

G

Pay It Forward

2008-07-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

I was going to try and continue with my day by day recap of the events of Okie-Vegas, but after reading others' posts and takes on the adventure, the bulletted, timeline approach just seems rather boring. To be certain, there were moments that I won't soon forget, there were moments that I'd like to forget and there were moments that I will probably never forget. It seems to be that way every year.

When Jordan, TripJax, SteelerJosh, DNasty, Kipper, WillWonka and I hatched this idea, now some three and a half years ago, we had no idea we would be starting some type of annual gathering here in the Sooner State. I volunteered Oklahoma because it is centrally located, for the most part and because of the lake place. "Come on down, I'll take care of you, I promise." I had no earthly idea and absolutely no expectations beyond that first year.

Much like the first time I walked into the Thunderbird Casino nearly three years ago now, my eyes were wide, but my expectations not so wide, if you know what I mean. Putting faces with names and avatars was a first-time, very cool experience for me and I have enjoyed every such meetup since then, but this thing that is starting to take on a life of its' own here at Okie-Vegas, well, it's different.

There have been a lot of great folks say a lot of very kind things about me, my family and my friends after these events and, for the most part, they're all true. Well, at least the part about my family and friends is true, maybe not so much about me. The different invisible internet friends that have made this trip have all turned out to be the type of people I would invite into my home if they lived across town or down the street. I fully mean that, because through my relationships with friends, and my wife's friends and friends of neighbors, etc. that is certainly not the case.

I'm no saint.
I'm no more a great guy than the next guy.
I'm not Father of the Year.
I'm not Husband of the Year.

I'm just a regular guy and I have a regular life.
I live in a regular house, drive a regular truck and work a regular job.
I've got regular bills and regular pets.

What I do have that I wouldn't term regular or trade for anything in the world is this:

-I have a great wife and loving family, both of which were on display the entire weekend.

-I have a great set of close friends in my life, which was also on display the entire weekend.

-I have a great set of Friends from all over the globe that I met through chance meetings at poker tables and via the internet, through blogging.

Not much more a regular guy can ask for, is there?

As I get older, I'm finding myself with less and less tolerance for jackassery or douchebaggery and this unfortunately shapes the way that I deal with people in most instances. I'm curt, terse, some would say even mean, not generally on purpose you see, that's just the way I am. WYSIWYG, to quote a blogger far wiser than I. There's not much play in my game any more, that is to say, i'm pretty much me, all the time, every day. Sometimes that's okay and sometimes, well, not so okay, depending on who you are talking to about it.

Back to this group though, what I've found with the bloggers as a whole is that the cliques that everybody seems to worry about and the Lists that everybody wants to be on mainly exist in our heads. Last Thursday night, at my little beer bar at the lake and at the trailer, there was nothing but A-Listers all around. Saturday at my house during the tournament, again, not a B-Lister to be found. As far as cliques go, I'm proud to be in any clique that anybody happens to imagine, whether it be in Vegas, at the Bash in September or during Okie-Vegas, because the fact of the matter is, these meetups are what YOU make out of them. If you are quiet, reserved or sullen, you probably aren't going to be sitting at the Pai Gow table with Otis at 2:00 in the morning at the IP. If you stay to yourself and don't jump into the fray, meeting as many people as you can, you probably won't end up at a craps table at Casino Royale at 3:00 in the morning, on the end of one of those epic benders with AlCantHang.

I've been extremely lucky from the very beginning of this blog. As I've said many times, I know I can't write as well as some out there and I know that I don't discuss strategy as well as others out there, but you know what? When it comes to getting to know people and hanging out and fitting in, well, I can hold my own with that any day. There aren't a whole lot of groups out there that I don't have something in common with and even if I don't, I'm also a pretty good liar. ;)

What started with a few emails back and forth between myself and Jordan 3+ years ago evolved into an email exchange with Maudie and DuggleBogey and eventually became my first blogger meetup. It has been all down hill from there. Had I not been shown the friendship and sincerity right off the bat of the few bloggers that I contacted, well, who knows? I might never have made a go of this blogger thing and might be minus a very large number of IIF's that I call Friends with a capital F. That would almost certainly be my loss.

So, in short, all the nice words from all the bloggers who attended are just that: Words. I didn't do anything last week that Jordan or Maudie or DuggleBogey or TripJax didn't do for me when I first started blogging. I didn't do anything Iggy or Otis or Joaquin or Pauly or Derek or Drizz didn't do for me during my first trip to Vegas in December 2006. I didn't do anything that Surflexus or Katitude or Joanada haven't done for me during the 1000's of IM conversations over the last few years. All I am trying to do is to make people feel comfortable and allow more of the types of meetups that I have experienced over the years to take place, because when it's all said and done, that's what this whole experience is about for me. If you can't see some type of gratification or make some real friends, why even bother?

Pay it forward.

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Until next time, I fold.

G