riverchasers

sigh. i was doing really well until i got annoyed at mystic joe. i picked up 88, he re-raised my raise, and i thought he was messing w/ me. flop is 664, i check, he bets, i go over the top, and of course he calls w/ QQ. boooooooo. oh well, now i can make it to a couple parties. i would have preferred to make it to the final table, though. : )

uh oh, i outed myself

as a blogger. last night at a small work gathering i told a few friends a way to find my blog. if any of them actually take the step of finding it, or remember my clue, i'll be impressed, but it is now out there. at first i was annoyed at myself, but then i realized that i write very little about work on this, and aside from one or two things that MAYBE would be better for the big bosses to continue being unaware of, i don't think i have much to worry about. plus there were no big bosses at this gathering. there's another girl at work who has a blog and she uses her name! although she doesn't write anything remotely personal, it's all about pop culture, celebrities and tv.

overall it was a fun night, though i did miss the mookie and the dookie, and i was pretty pumped to play the latter. i enjoy the HORSE.

i'm running BAD

i think it's a combination of bad luck and terrible play, but either way, i'm in a slump. saturday i final tabled the freeroll for my third consecutive time. and again, for the third consecutive time, i failed to cash. this time was the worst. i went completely card dead during the final table, and watched my stack go from almost 11k to 5k. i know you're thinking, why didn't you steal a few blinds? well, i might have tried, but my cards were of the 62off, 83off variety CONSTANTLY. the best hand i recall receiving was K4 off. and when i did pick up, say, suited non-connectors, maybe twice, there was always a raise in front of me, and 52 suited is just not a hand i'm willing to re-raise with. so i go out in sixth when i finally pick up KQ suited, a dude who has been raising a lot raises, i re-raise, the guy next to me goes all in, and i know i'm finished. third raiser shows JJ, hits another jack on the flop, and as it turns out the initial raiser had KJ, so i woulda been out no matter what. i leave the table and the remaining five chop for $200 each.

there was no investment in the freeroll, not even a $20 rebuy, and that's sort of the theme of my losing. it's not like i'm losing insane amounts of money. i usually buy in at the ftp cash table for 12 bucks. but i know i'm losing, and it still bothers me.

despite a solid cash start on full tilt last week, i'm now bleeding money at the .25/.50 limit tables, so i think i need to hold off on cash for anytime soon. actually, what i really need, i think, is a break.

so last night i played at a local sng and made a horrible, horrible play. really loose player raises, i pick up A8, which is a terrible hand and should have been folded immediately, but instead i decided to get fancy and re-raise and he smooth calls. i don't hit the flop, it's a bunch of rags, and i move all in, he calls, with a set of sevens. um, oops. didn't think he had anything, but as i said, should have just folded. second mistake was re-raising w/ a marginal hand at best. third mistake was not giving up the hand when i didn't hit anything. terrible, terrible, terrible.

monday at the hoy was even worse, again due to a mis-read. i picked up tens, didn't re-raise an initial raiser so no clue where i'm at, flop came w/ a king, didn't believe dude who bet had a king, but he did, and i'm out in last place.

so yeah, about that break. any advice from the poker players who read? should i just go back to basics, read some books, and stay away from poker for awhile? do you play through?

i have a trip planned to vegas for the weekend after next, and i'm seriously considering trying to cancel it. i can't play w/ this kind of attitude, and to go for five days and not play poker just completely moots the point of the trip!

blech

today was a rough, rough day. i stayed out until 5am, which i admit was not my smartest move, but at the time the conversation (yes, i stayed up till 5am and all i did was talk) seemed important. and things would have been fine, if not for two really unfortunate events that totally fucked me. first, at around 7:30 am the ceiling above my bed started leaking. drip. drip. drip. i tried to sleep on the couch, but that wasn't working, and once my upstairs neighbor finished his shower the leaking stopped. so i finally fell back asleep around 8. but then at 9, my buzzer rang. adriana (the lovely woman who cleans my house every other week) decided today was a good day to show up insanely early. so instead of sleeping until 11 and starting my day on the later side, i was forced up at 9am on roughly two hours of sleep. the second time in two weeks i've had to do a lot of work on less than three hours of sleep, and it SUCKS.

tonight i'm going to try out this $1 rebuy tournament hosted by katitude that i'm always reading about, and then i'm off to bed.

no real plans for the big w/e. i may have to work on sunday or monday, so just as well that i didn't plan a vacation. tomorrow is my adorable cousin jack's first birthday party, and that should be good times. more than anything i want to spend my weekend watching the last six or so eps of 24, veronica mars, and ugly betty. not to mention i STILL haven't seen the season finale of 30 rock, or the last few office eps.

if it's nice on sunday and i'm not called into work, i'm considering a walk over the brooklyn bridge for the first time. i've always wanted to do it, and for some reason this weekend seems like the perfect time.

i prob won't play much poker since sitting at my desk is killing my poor, stressed out neck muscles, but i would like to hit a freeroll on sunday.

lost

warning: spoilers ahead, do not read if you haven't seen last night's episode




well, i don't have much time, but here are my two main thoughts

1) if those were future "glimpses" rather than flashbacks, then how was jack's dad alive? jack at one point rants at the doctor, "go get my father, if i'm more drunk than him then blah blah blah." but jack's father died before he left for the island. my initial crazy thought was that somehow jack and kate had been there before, and they caused the plane to crash, but that's clearly hogwash. i kept doing double takes, is that kate? is that kate?

2) whose funeral?? i would like to think locke stayed on the island, but for some reason he was my first guess. who among the castaways would be in the us and have NOBODY at their funeral? and jack seemed so connected w/ the person.

i def want to watch again at some point, i'm sure i missed some nuances. i also want to re-watch from the perspective that this is all happening after the island. lost doesn't seem to have this parallel universe thing that heroes has going for it, but is this is the only way it ends for jack and the person who died? do we know for three more seasons how it ends? no way, they have to be on the island, right?

r.i.p. veronica mars

i'm still about six eps behind, so i couldn't enjoy my last ever v.m. episode tonight, but i'm going to take a moment of silence anyhow for the best show on tv that nobody watched. nothing topped season 1, but it's still a sad day. i read today that dawn ostroff intimated at the upfronts that there's still a chance vm could come back, but rob thomas was quoted as saying he had no idea what she was talking about, and apparently kristen bell is out of contract in a few short weeks (not to mention that she's already signed on as the narrator of gossip girls). sigh.

heroes

warning: spoiler alerts, do not read if you have not already finished season 1 of heroes. i'm not doing anything fancy like astin, so just don't read anymore.




well, the consensus (astin, gilbert cruz) seems to be it was a terrible season finale, and i agree wholeheartedly. i can't believe the whole season built up to this non-event. here are some questions i have that i emailed a friend this morning:

so nathan flew peter away so he'd explode outside ny? what about peter's dream -- when nathan was walking out of the office -- was that the way it goes only when he explodes in ny? how did sylar survive? and lift up a manhole cover?

was peter in some kind of alternate universe when that guy who he cared for was talking to him? LOVED that reveal by the way. why did mom and linderman (rip?) want the bomb to go off so badly? and were they later implying that nathan is "bad?"

who's the dude who can see the little girl when she thinks about him? um, HELLO, why didn't anyone ask any follow up questions!?

as for poker, missed the hoy last night in favor of some good old fashioned human interaction, and probably gonna miss the mook due to dinner plans. on the plus side, i've started playing .10/.25 cash and have been doing really well! i already used up my 1k hands on my trial version of pokertracker, so gonna have to make a decision soon on whether to try pokeroffice.

anyhow, could go on about both poker and heroes, but i have to finish up this letter motion and plan a friend's departure party.

i got pokertracker!

and pokerace hud. i'm still not sure what everything means and how to understand all the stats, but i'm hoping it will come w/ time and more play. i am going to look into pokeroffice also, which a friend recommended, since i'm still in the trial phase of the aforementioned two. so far the only thing i've is that my v$p was very high, and i def want to work on getting that lower.

final tables

so i made the final table at the local freeroll two consecutive days, but couldn't make it past 8th. today hurt -- i pushed w/ aces, got called by KQs, and he rivered a flush. yesterday i was even more short stacked and despite a raise and call i thought it would be a good idea to push. bad one, and my KJ got beat by K10s which made a flush on river. bad luck w/ flushes this w/e. today's freeroll was especially rough cause there were lots of annoying yellers in the early rounds (thank god i wasn't super hungover), and then a super whiney princess got moved to my table shortly before we made the final table. i basically like everyone i play with. some of the guys can get a little nasty (see the guy who told me, after i cashed a tournament, that he was sorry for how he spoke to me but hates female poker players) but i generally get along with everyone. NOBODY has ever annoyed me as much at the table. i kept my game up and didn't let it get to my play, but omg!! she got mad at the dealer for telling her not to show her boyfriend her cards and instantly whines, "why are you yelling at me? you've been yelling at me all day." this is said in a sing-songy nasally voice to the dealer who wasn't yelling at all, and was just trying to help her out so none of her hands were ruled dead. jeez. she also screwed over a friend of mine by convincing the dealer to move her seat and thus avoid the bb, but whatever.

after doing some work, hitting a sample sale, and having lunch w/ a friend (see, i do other things besides poker!), i decided to buy into the ftops me satellite. bad idea. bye bye 110 bucks. i started off well, but ended up out about halfway through the pack. booo.

can you say suckout? my big blogger game is horrible. i decided to race w/ 2s against AK and he hit his king early on. i also got greedy after catching a flush and turned out blinders had higher flush. oops. anyhow, made another bad play w/ 22 and then decided to raise pre-flop w/ KQ suited. fuel something went all in, and with only 900 left i decided to call, and figured i'd just go to sleep early. he has queens, and i end up RIVERING a king. sick beat. now i'm out, i called utg w/ AK, don re-raised all in, then blinders did. i shoulda folded, but figured the chance to triple up was too good. don = 10s, blinders = Qs, and i was outta there. oh well, at least i used a token.

meanwhile, my neck and shoulders are once again in pain. i thought getting a desktop pute would help, but i don't feel any better!! time to undergo some massage therapy.

mookie

argh. these bloggers are just a tough bunch. i know i'm not as good or experienced a player as many of them, but i know i'm not a total sucker. i just get so frustrated sometimes!! i lost a pretty big pot early on when i decided to race w/ hoy who was down to 900. he had A9 (or 8, not positive), i had 33, and he flopped a pair of 9s. that left me w/ not very many chips, but i tripled up when i had A4, the board had two pair, and I'd been called by 56 and 92. then i lost another huge pot to the eventual winner when he had 33 and i had AQ. unlike hoy i couldn't connect and that brought me way down. somewhere in there i made up some chips with AA and KK, but i ended in 11th or so place on a hand i've blocked out.

before he cheats

it's been awhile since i've been this addicted to a song. the other night i was working late and blasting it in my office when my friend jen came by and said, "you have to see the video!" she directed me to launch at yahoo, and i was hooked. it's here for anyone who hasn't seen it (where does one even see videos anymore if not the internet?). i'm not a big fan of the ending, which jen says is some kind of stephen king/carrie allusion, but the song is just fantastic. i never watched her on american idol, but i'm thisclose to buying her album from itunes. "i might've saved a little trouble for the next girl!"

oh yeah

abc? that new about the geico cavemen? helllll no.

maybe the creators of third rock have a little trick up their sleeves, but those commercials are seriously the most annoying on tv right now. i ff through most commercials, but i've seen enough of those to know that they're barking up the wrong tree.

7 things

i was tagged by jordan, so i'm gonna write seven things you don't know about me. i'm a little scared, though, cause:

1) in my first year property law class, my professor (the lovely ann burkhart) had us go around the room and say one thing that people wouldn't know about us. i chose to mention that i had a penchant for breaking bones (including broken wrists four years in a row) but those days were behind me. well, not even a month later i sprained and fractured my ankle, my first serious injury in over four years, which started me down the long road of crutches that readers of this blog are probably very sick of hearing about.

2) i'm irrationally scared of bees. i've been stung, and i know the world doesn't end, but just seeing one completely freaks me out. everyone always tells me not to run around and just stand still, but the last time i was stung was while i was standing motionless waiting to catch a lacrosse ball.

3) i played semi-professional soccer. it wasn't for very long, because i moved to california for a job a few months after i started training, but for a brief period i was part of the team.

4) the first time i got drunk was my sophomore year of high school when i went on a trip to aruba with my friend pam and her father. i think it took two glasses of wine at dinner. the second (to me the more "real") time was at a big spring party late in my senior year of high school, at a camp that my friend's mom owned. all i remember is roaming around drunk trying to score weed, which i'd always wanted to try. i didn't succeed in my quest, but i did puke out the window of alli gold's car on my way home. the first time i ever smoked pot was at a steve miller band concert the summer after i graduated high school, and i didn't feel a thing. yes, i was a late bloomer when it came to drugs (and sex, and rock n roll) but i think i've made up for lost time.

5) when i was in junior high/high school i used three vcrs to tape about eight different soap operas, and then i would come home from school and watch/ff through them. my parents were worried about me, but since i was playing sports, getting good grades, and had at least a couple friends, i think they figured it wasn't worth messing with. i stopped watching when i went off to college, and a summer internship at one life to live cured me of my soap opera addiction for life.

6) i discovered poker when i had my first surgery on my left ankle and caught the 2003 world series on espn. despite having scoffed when i heard they were televising poker ("who'd wanna watch that??") i was hooked from the first episode. i picked up my laptop, googled poker, found pokerroom, and started playing. it took almost six months before i made my first real money deposit, but here i am over two years later getting made fun of left and right from my friends for being totally addicted to poker.

7) after attending the 2002 world cup in korea, i made a vow to attend every world cup during my lifetime. i made it to germany in 2006, and am already getting excited for south africa 2010 (assuming it actually happens there).

alan says i'm supposed to tag seven other people, but fuck that. i'm not sure i even have seven readers, and most of them have already been tagged. however, in the spirit of trying to continue this, i tag:

michael morrison
mike oliver
clay
eric

oh veronica, say it isn't so

ok, i'm pissed. cw renewed one tree hill and cancelled veronica mars!?! wtf!

i like whitney pastorek's post suggesting a coming together of logan's from gilmore girls and vm -- that's a show i would watch.

super big yay for men in trees being renewed. i thought the long drought meant cancellation for sure, but abc pulled a surprise.

boo on the cancellation of jericho.

yay for 30 eps of the office!

boo and yay for friday night lights -- sooo glad it was renewed, and personally like the 10pm friday timeslot cause my dvr doesn't record anything else then. but the boo is b/c who the hell watches a show on friday at 10? until nielson starts counting dvrs, fnl is gonna sit at the bottom of the ratings (of course it should absolutely be at the top).

i'm pretty excited for a new abc show called miss/guided starring judy greer. i think every alum of arrested development should have their own show. where the hell is jessica walters?

a little surprised to hear jj abrams next project is about cancer patients told from the patients' point of view. he's definitely moving away from alias and lost type shows!

so tired

i never should have played in the hoy last night. i had planned to go to bed super early, and even turned down a free lcd soundsystem ticket! (the thought of hanging out there for an hour and a half before they went on was too much for my tired body.) since i was still watching heroes i used up a token and went for it. and despite some early losses w/ stupid calls and people re-raising me, i ended up building a decent chip stack in the middle of the tournament (yay QJ making a straight). then i donked most of it away w/ 72. yup, after reading about all these people throwing down the hammer i saw it suited and thought, i'm gonna give it a try! unfortunately my flush draw never filled, and had i been smart i woulda just gone over the top of the guy who was betting. he may have had me beat, but then i woulda been out way earlier and that would have been ok cause i needed to go to sleep anyway.

instead i hung around and tried to play as long as i could, but then i made a tired move one off the button thinking i'd pick up the blinds w/ Q7 and instead ran into QQ. i immediately fell into my bed, but the smarter course of action would have been not to play at all.

meanwhile, heroes! these last few weeks have been great! loved the ep in the future, and can't wait for next week. while i didn't exactly "call" what's happening now, i do think i was right about nathan in my post ages ago, at least partially. (uh, partial spoiler alert, maybe) i don't think that sylar has taken over his body when he comes out w/ that nasty look in his eyes in peter's dream, but now i'm wondering if sylar has taken over peter's body, and that's why he looks so mean. does he know? is he gonna stop the bomb?

i'm also a little confused about the little girl. how have they been using her to track for all this time when her parents were just killed maybe a month ago? they used her while her parents were still alive? or they just started using her once her parents were killed -- ah, maybe that's all the talk about the new tracking system. part of the problem is that i'm usually playing poker while i'm watching, and i miss some stuff. loved hiro's dad "coming out" to him, and the joy on hiro's face when he realized that he is ready for his mission. favorite line was the little girl saying, my other hero is here! (meaning matt).

i keep forgetting to watch the past few veronica mars - i'm totally psyched for these last few episodes, but extremely excited for this new show that might get picked up by the cw where she is w/ the fbi. i think the college setting turned out not to be the best for our hero, and a new setting better suited for her talents might be good. although i still want to know wtf w/ mac and her real mom. how random were those episodes!!

in the money

i finished in the money. took 283rd place. i'm not really sure if i did the right thing. i picked up JJ in bb, guy in first position raised to about 3x, and i went all in. even though my m was only about 5 i thought about folding, cause given how fast players were dropping i figured maybe i could pick up another 100 or so if i just folded out. but jacks were the best hand i'd had in hours, and if i won i'd be in a decent position to try to finish strong. so he has AK, flop is 332, turn is 5, and river is...king. blech. so annoying. it's my biggest online win, though, and seeing as i played two satellites to even get into the tournament, i'm proud of myself for cashing. i picked up 539 bucks for it, which is more than my ftp account has ever seen. : )

now that i'm thinking about the hand, i probably should have just called his raise. that way if an ace or king comes, i can get away from the hand, and with that flop, i'm not sure he's going to call another 20k w/ AK high, although i know players do it all the time. he woulda been out of position, though, and i might have been able to get him off his hand post-flop. sigh.

whoa

happyloser12 raises pre-flop, i called w/ 10s. flop came 983 w/ two clubs, i checked, and he cbet for half the pot. this is a perfect example of where i think i lose out on money by fear. i re-raised him, thinking i don't want a flush, straight draw two outer or anything like that. maybe it's too remote, so in a sitch like that i should just call, and then maybe bet out on the turn? not really sure, but in the end he folded to my re-raise.

a few hands later blinds are 100/200 and he raises to 600 in early. i re-raise to 1200 w/ QQ. some loser then re-raises to 1800, and happyloser folds. i debated about going all in (he only had about 2300 left) but i figured if an ace or king came i'd at least have the option of not losing all my chips. to my great joy a queen comes, he pushes all in, and indeed has AK suited. the turn and river are both clubs, and i'm moaning and groaning when i realize that the last club also paired the board, and i won the hand w/ a full house. meanwhile happyloser pipes up that he folded JJ. if only he'd stayed in the hand!! i'm now in 7th place and about 23k in chips. 1450 players left, and 405 make the money.

i won this seat for 3 or 4 bucks, so as far as i'm concerned it's just free experience, but my bankroll could really use even 405th place money (449.25).

my moment of glory

i'm currently in 10th place in ftops 3. i was in 8th when i opened up blogger, but what can you do. there's one pro in the top 10, andy bloch, who is 6th. there are still just over 1900 players, so it's not like i can cruise control into the money, but it's better than being out already!!

my goal is to not have any of my mike matusow style blowups where i bluff off all of my chips. i'm gonna try to play tight but not stupid. some guy called phateo called me a stupid lucky moron. i had fours and limped in. everyone checked the flop (K55) so i threw out a half pot bet thinking if anyone calls i'm done, and if everyone folds then sweet. he called. turn is a lovely four, so i bet out again and he min raises me. i prob should re-raised there, but instead called, and then raised his bet on the river. i didn't put him all in though. a few hands later i flopped a set of nines and he cbet half the pot but when i put him all in for just a few more he folded. blech. he said he had KK, and there was an ace out there, but also two hearts.

that is one of the biggest holes in my game, i think. i often don't make as much money as i should because i bet big trying to chase away straight/flush draws when maybe i could be keeping in middle pair.

anyhow, i rivered a flush and didn't put the other guy all in b/c i was worried he wouldn't call. i bet around half the pot and he called, and it turned out he'd made a straight on the river. so i'll never know if he woulda called for all his chips, which is too bad.

then a few minutes ago i caught two pair on the turn to a guy who had me kickered (A8 v. AJ). sweeeeeet. unfortunately, w/ three callers i raised to 4x bb in mid/latish position w/ KK and everybody folded! : ( again, i was trying to chase out A rags, but who knows, i coulda made a sweet pot w/ my hidden KK. oh well.

i totally missed the blogger bracelet race, which is a bummer, but i'll try to make the hoy tomorrow.

i am a little miserable b/c i just found out i have to meet someone at work at 7:30 for a meeting. so not only do i have to be up mad early, but i have to be alert and in a one on one situation. and i have to keep my eyes open during the whole meeting. i'm scared, mostly cause i refuse to give up my shot at ftops money in order to get sleep for work. certainly not the choice my team would like me to make, i'm sure...

my new pute

i'm typing on my new dell desktop. i got it in part so i could play more poker on a bigger screen, and also get some poker software. my big problem now is how to try and play on full tilt getting rakeback, since i'm already a registered user. pokerstars will let you transfer money directly from your bank account (although sadly they don't have rakeback), but i fear that if i want to use neteller with my full tilt account i can't start a new one.

had a nice brunch at august w/ the 'rents this morning. i was there once before and my eggs had a funny taste, which i can now unequivocally state is due to the cast iron skillets that they serve some of the food in. but the steak portion of my steak and eggs was outstanding, so my next visit will be for dinner when i can have a much bigger portion.

i woke up completely drunk from the night before, so was pretty impressed with my ability to get up at 10 and seem coherent enough for my parents not to notice. this weekend was particularly alcohol-filled (fueled?) so i'm gonna try to give my liver a little rest this week. supposed to go see lcd soundsystem tomorrow, but i may end up selling my ticket and taking a night off.

ftops event #3

yay! finally a satellite leads to something besides losing money. i qualified for the super satellite a couple weeks ago and just finished playing the satellite. this will be my first and probably only ftops event, but i like the idea of playing in a $300 tournament. right now there are almost 2000 people entered and only 351 make the money, so i don't have any grand illusions, but it should be fun.

i got pretty lucky w/ A10 suited and went over the top of a pre-flop raiser who had a set of 8s. i scored a third heart on the river and doubled up. then i flopped two pair w/ AK a short while later and my only caller pushed w/ AQ.

i'm playing for a token right now cause i'm thinking i'll try my luck in the second blogger bracelet race. i went out 7th from one last night (ugh) and don't really feel like buying in. plus right now there are only 15 people entered, and i'm not sure how that will work as far as paying the winner.

if i bust out of ftops super early i may head over to play in a live tournament. i didn't make it to any of the freerolls this weekend, due to being extraordinarily hungover/drunk and mother's day.

hurray, my computer is fixed!

after a long week and a half, i finally got my computer back from the apple store last night. it still needs some kind of new board, but they didn't have that part in stock so i'll have to return it to them again in a week or two. luckily my new pc just shipped out yesterday and should be arriving tomorrow, so i'll have a back up this time. very excited to start playing more seriously w/ all these programs that everyone else uses to track their hands, plus now i'll be able to play on pokerstars!

i had a horrible mookie last night. thought this dude was making a continuation bet, but turned out he flopped three jacks, and he must have been dancing in his seat when i stupidly put him all in to lose 2/3 of my stack. then i lost chasing an ace high flush draw to a guy who flopped two pair. oops. i only had my lead b/c of a really lucky straight that i hit on the river in one of my first hands. poor guy w/ top pair had me betting into him on both the flop and turn, but a beautiful 7 hit the river and i got more than 2/3 of his stack on the first hand i played. i always get a million small pairs in these blogger events (5s, 6s, 3s) but never ever seem to get the big hands.

my next move was so sad that i'm still feeling sick as i write about. i entered into a super satellite to ftops #1 and went into the final table w/ a GINORMOUS chip lead. as in, seven players left, and none of them have more than 5k, and i have 26k. and what did i do? i blew it three handed and let the other two guys take the satellite token. as it turns out, i couldn't have played in it anyway, so making the $15 was probably the best course of action, but it didn't feel that way at the time. my major bad move was putting one of them all in w/ KQ and letting him double up w/ A6. um, oops. i've been playing so bad lately it's hard to believe.

i think i'm probably not going to play for anymore ftops spots, cause i want to try and start building a bankroll, and these satellites are a recipe for losing money. until my end game gets tighter, i clearly can't handle tournaments where only 1 spot takes the prize/money.

i have lots more to write, but as it is i'm breaking my no blogging at work rule, so more to come in the next couple days. i'm finally getting a little room to breathe at work, and even had the time to play in a few tournaments at a local club, where i met some super cool bloggers. i felt like a TOTAL STALKER, but mostly it was kinda cool. i had emailed w/ high on poker re: his potential home game (and yes, my friends were incredulous when i explained that i might be playing poker w/ a random guy whose blog i read online) but it ended up not working out so it was cool to meet him in person even if he did bust me out of the tournament w/ his A9 to my AQ. i had been playing w/ tripjax at my first table for ages before i realized he was the same guy whose blog had informed me a few days earlier that he was in the city on business. yay for cool poker bloggers!

ok, back to work!