Haven't played in a couple days, due to family commitments and the lack of a useful balance in my poker account. I've been delayed in getting my Netteller account funded thanks to my new bank's inability to get the check printers to ship me checks. I haven't the faintest idea what's taking them so freaking long.

I have been working my way through the Small Stakes Hold'em book I picked up the other day at Barnes & Noble. It's dense, chewy stuff, but interesting. I've lost track of the number of times I read something and though "wow, I didn't play it that way at all. What a bonehead I must be." I'm starting to think that it's a small miracle that I've been a reasonable winner online (but for one awful NL session which my "bankroll" obviously could not handle) at microlimits and about break-even at casino poker. I have been aware of some of the concepts discussed in the book, but have only factored things like pot odds and outs into my play in the most rudimentary of ways. There is so much to learn.

I think that I will probably fund an account at one of the sites and work on these concepts at the micro-limits until I can do a better job of decisionmaking. Some of the obvious concepts (like folding garbage, especially out of position) I have had a grasp on, and can fine tune fairly easily. Developing a more aggressive posture will take a little work, and extracting maximum value with post-flop play is going to take a lot of work. We'll see if poker remains fun while I learn. I think it will, but it's anyones guess, really.

And that, folks, is all the poker content I have at the moment. I'll leave you with one of those unanswerable questions: Is there any moment more awkward than being at a wedding reception, and as soon as the DJ has gotten the initial dances (wedding party, bride/father, groom/mother) out of the way, he spins a back-to-back set of Next's "Too Close"* and Sir-Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back", the nasty version? I mean, this is before a single older person has called it a night, before anyone's too drunk to care, and in a room where a sizable portion of the people are pretty uptight by nature. If he'd played 2 Live Crew, that would have been a superb trifecta, but the guy fell short.

Anyone?

* in the event you're somehow not familiar, "Too Close" is a song about an er -- uh, let's call it a Viagra moment.