What do you see when you look out your front window in the morning? Usually, I just see a lawn that needs to be mowed, the street, maybe a stray jogger, that sort of thing.

Today was different. Today, I saw nine (that's right, nine) wild turkeys wandering around, pecking aimlessly at whatever food my unkempt yard might have to offer.

"What does this post have to do with poker?" I hear you saying to yourself.

Well, for one thing, your average wild turkey plays better than I do, despite having a brain the size of a walnut (A turkey brain weighs about 7 g (0.25 oz)**). Beyond that, not much. Maybe I just like turkeys.

I took last night off after massively tilting on Wednesday. I signed up for an Omaha/8 SnG, and a guy found a way to angle shoot his way right into my head -- he (probably) faked having a really awful connection and took at least 60 seconds to act every time it was to him. Since he didn't fold, the first four hands took more than twenty minutes. For whatever reason, this really ticked me off, and I dumped my way out as quickly as possible thereafter. I'm pretty sure that he was faking the connection problem, as once he accumulated a stack (courtesy of me) his actions were much faster. I went to sit at a ring game, but fortunately my router saved my (turkey) bacon by dying and the few bucks I have left lived for another day.

Either that session or this morning could be a sign that I should get good and liquored up tonight, but you know, I can't say that I especially enjoy Wild Turkey.

(** Reference: Ebinger, P. and Rohrs, M. Volumetric analysis of brain structures, especially the visual system in wild and domestic turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), J. Hirnforsch, 36:219-228, 1995.)

FYI, from Travelzoo:

"If you're thinking of heading to Vegas, luck is on your side as we just found great fares from 40+ cities of $39-$99 each way on many major airlines. These are some of the best prices we've seen this year and they're valid for travel select dates now through December."

Additional information here

You probably didn't know this, but next week is "PC-Turnoff Week". As officially declared by the "PC-Turnoff Organization". They want you to shut off your kids' computer for a week. "Give Your Kids The Gift Of Boredom"!

My question is this: How will the kids make enough money to pay for their future college tuition if they're denied access to Party Poker for a whole week?

I need a cause. Unfortunately, being cynical, sarcastic and lazy all at once rules out a lot of the more common ones on offer. Not to mention PC-Turnoff Week.

Guess I'm out of luck.

One of the more amusing things I found on the PC Turnoff people's website is that their founding members just happen to own a company that sells software to allow parents to monitor their childrens' computer usage. Hey, at least they had the decency to admit it.

Norman Chad apparently dabbles in the written word. And here all thought his entire raison-d'etre was to act like a tool on ESPN coverage of the World Series of Poker. My bad. I hear the Washington Post is a pretty good gig, if you can get it. At least we can count on Norm for a fabulous assortment of malaprop metaphors and stupid-ass similies.

From his latest column:

"Can we have a moment for Greg LeMond? He's a three-time winner of the Tour de France, but he's faded into obscurity. A three-time winner! If there were no Lance Armstrong, this guy would be America's greatest cyclist. Instead, he gets all the respect of the best shortstop in Vermont"

Greenland, Norm, Greenland.

Using a minimal number of words.

Family obligations = no Friday night home game crashing.

I suck at $25NL. Played a $1 O/8 tournament for more than two hours. Total profit, $0.29. That's a lot per hour. Bounced on a three-outer that flipped a scoop from me to my opponent.

Worrisome trends in the golf game.

Sunday was too fricking hot.

I suck at miniature golf too.

Family obligations = no Sunday night home game.

Why must it be Monday already?

Here's a chance to play WPT style with some of the worst players this side of Gary:

THE LITTLE RIVER CASINO & RESORT PRESENTS
THE GREAT LAKES POKER CHAMPIONSHIP (TM)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Little River is hosting the inaugural Great Lakes Poker Championship (TM). This championship will be the premier Texas Hold’Em poker event for the Great Lakes region.

Anticipated prize pool of $120,000
Event dates: November 17, 18, & 19, 2005
Buy-In: $300 entry fee & $50 registration fee.

Registration is open from Tuesday September 6, 2005 through November 1, 2005. Register during room hours.

All participants receive a commemorative gift.
Participants and a guest are invited to a banquet on November 17th or 18th.
Qualifying rounds held on Thu & Fri Nov 17 & 18.
Semi-final & final rounds held on Sat November 19.

GLPC SHOOTOUTS (TM)
Win a shootout, Win a seat in the GLPCTM!
Shootouts held every Wednesday in June, July, August, September, and October at 5:00p, 7:15p, & 9:30P.
Buy-in: $45 entry fee + $5 registration fee.
Shootout winners are awarded a seat in the GLPCTM.
2nd place winner receives $100.

Call or stop by the Poker room for details: 1 888 723-POKR (7657)

I'm an idiot. I know. There's proof.

I'm flipping through a large stack of bills at lunch today and notice that one of my credit cards has a couple hundred in charges on it. "That's odd," I say to myself, since I haven't used the card lately, so I look at the detail. It shows a handful of small cash advances, together with your typically enormous bank fees for credit card cash.

It takes a minute before it hits me. I've been using my credit card (issued by the same bank) as my ATM card. Dammit. I pull out my wallet, and sure enough, I have the blue credit card, which happens to look almost identical to the blue ATM card, parked right there in the second slot. When I restocked the wallet after Vegas, I must have put in the wrong card. How dumb is that?

Tying my general idiocy into an ongoing theme here:

Now, I am one hundred percent positive that when you navigate the 37 levels of prompt screens at my bank's ATMs to make a simple withdrawal, you have to tell it where you want the money to come from. I know for a fact that I selected "Checking" each and every time. And yet, instead of a helpful "You're using a card that's not linked to your checking account you fricking idiot" screen, the machine just gave the the money anyway and charged the credit card.

Today's real lesson: The damned ATMs are rigged too.

{Warning: Contains all the things you hate about bad poker blogs: Hand histories, bad play and an arguably bad beat. I just feel like spewing and don’t have anything interesting to say. I’m not making you read this crap.}

With the crashing and burning of the entire Party network last night, I had to make alternate arrangements for purposes of tilting off bankroll. The answer: Pokerstars!

What to do with $9? Scratch that. What to do with three dollars and change (after an ugly O/8 SnG)?

Play with the dollar donkeys, of course!

One of the many things I like about Stars is that they offer a wide and regular selection of extremely low buy-in multi table tournaments. I rarely play them – I’m not a fan of 1500 player MTTs, they take too long -- but I utilized my huge stake to buy into three – Stud H/L, O/8 and NLHE – all starting within a half-hour. If only I’d had more money in my account, I could have added two or three more. Three it was.

As you might expect, the standard of play in a dollar MTT is just a bit on the low side, which makes it frustrating at times. I’ve been giving some thought to the hand that busted me in the NLHE event, and would be interested if anyone disagrees with my analysis. I don’t have the hand history at the moment, so some of the information will be a little sketchy.

Blinds are either 150/300 or 200/400. I think it was 200/400.

Irrelevant Limper is in EP with a forgotten # of chips
Hero is in MP (somewhere) with Ad Ah with about 5,000 chips
Villain in the BB with about 6,000 chips

Preflop: Limper limps. Hero raises to 1,600 (4xBB). BB calls. Limper calls.

Flop: Kh Qd 6c

BB bets 600. Limper folds. Hero pushes.

{In retrospect, I’m just not sure if this was a mistake. I could have simply raised to gather information, although I’m going to have a hard time getting away from the hand, since the board isn’t too tremendously threatening, and I’ll be hurting chipwise if I do have to let it go.

My thinking at the time was that the BB – who I had absolutely pegged long before this hand as a horrible player – called preflop with AK, maybe AQ, or an underpair. He didn’t reraise, so I don’t think he has KK or QQ, although KQ is a possibility that should scare me. If he has K6 or Q6, so be it. I want to take the pot right here and not let him draw out if he has, say, JT, so I need to give him the worst odds possible. The end result is the decision to push.}

BB calls and shows Ac Jc

{My initial reaction: WTF?! You called a push with that? An overcard, gutshot and a backdoor flush draw?!}

{Next reaction, before the remaining two cards are dealt: Oh, XXXX, this is RiverStars. No ten!}

Turn: 5c
River: 4c

BB wins pot, Hero shakes head in disgust (after being 86% to win preflop, 80% on the flop and even 72% on the turn) and goes off to lose a few bucks chasing the Bad Beat Jackpot once Party comes back up.

This isn’t intended to be so much a bad beat story, since the result was largely irrelevant (so I lost a dollar, it’s not the end of the world). I’m just having trouble deciding if I made the correct play or not.

Anyway, I also wanted to relate a highlight from the same tournament. A couple levels earlier I’m dealt the Hammer (7s2c) in MP. I raise to about 4x the BB and pick up the blinds. I show, of course. The very next hand, I’m dealt AA. I couldn’t have asked for better timing. I’m thinking I have to have the table image of a maniac, right? So I raise more than I would have otherwise (to 5xBB), looking for someone to say “he just went nuts with 7-2o, he’s probably got junk again”.

Picked up the blinds.

Dammit. I hate it when the dollar donkeys use common sense.

I'm not involved in this hand, I just loved the showdown. You can make truly retarded plays when you have a huge stack:

PokerStars Game #2143307889: Tournament #10124303, Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2005/07/19 - 23:55:37 (ET)
Table '10124303 68' Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: copenhagen12 (5585 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: brucom (20241 in chips)
Seat 3: rideonbrotha (16970 in chips)
Seat 4: KenyBuck (4502 in chips)
Seat 5: man_from_oz (43389 in chips)
Seat 6: on_thg (6120 in chips)
Seat 7: FerrisPGMer (4310 in chips)
Seat 8: Ldyshark (1263 in chips)
Seat 9: emeraldbay (2440 in chips)
copenhagen12: posts the ante 50
brucom: posts the ante 50
rideonbrotha: posts the ante 50
KenyBuck: posts the ante 50
man_from_oz: posts the ante 50
on_thg: posts the ante 50
FerrisPGMer: posts the ante 50
Ldyshark: posts the ante 50
emeraldbay: posts the ante 50
Ldyshark: posts small blind 300
emeraldbay: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to on_thg [4d 7h]
copenhagen12: folds
brucom: folds
rideonbrotha: folds
KenyBuck: folds
man_from_oz: calls 600
on_thg: folds
FerrisPGMer: folds
Ldyshark: raises 613 to 1213 and is all-in
emeraldbay: calls 613
man_from_oz: calls 613
*** FLOP *** [3d 6s 3h]
emeraldbay: checks
man_from_oz: checks
*** TURN *** [3d 6s 3h] [Th]
emeraldbay: checks
man_from_oz: checks
*** RIVER *** [3d 6s 3h Th] [Qh]
emeraldbay: checks
man_from_oz: bets 1200
emeraldbay: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
man_from_oz: shows [2s 7c] (a pair of Threes)
Ldyshark: shows [4c 5c] (a pair of Threes - lower kicker)
man_from_oz collected 4089 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4089 | Rake 0
Board [3d 6s 3h Th Qh]
Seat 1: copenhagen12 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: brucom folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: rideonbrotha folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: KenyBuck folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: man_from_oz showed [2s 7c] and won (4089) with a pair of Threes
Seat 6: on_thg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: FerrisPGMer (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Ldyshark (small blind) showed [4c 5c] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 9: emeraldbay (big blind) folded on the River

Verdict: HAMMER!

Because I'm results-oriented: Two more O/8 SnGs. One first, one second. I'm also closing in on the money in a massive Stars $1 NL crapshoot. I'm hoping to outlast a few more people so I can win $1.43. Yeehah!

The streak hit seven. I got in two more low buyin Omaha/8 SnGs before bed on Sunday, and was extremely fortunate to cash in both (2nd and 3rd). One of the players in both was an extreme LAG -- he'd raise with just about any hand, and if he was in, he was raising to the river. In the first SnG, there were two of us on extremely short stacks. The LAG had more than half the chips in play. He got into it with the other decent-sized stack and lost two hands in a row to go on life support. The new big stack then wiped him out, and I strategically folded to 2nd instead of 3rd.

Alas, the run ended there. I got in five more last night, and the cards, especially in the first two, were grim. With Party's crapshootastic structure (800 starting chips), you're in big trouble if the blinds are already at 50/100 before you see your first Ace in the hole. Add in a single flop whiff -- say a J-J-9 flop when you have A-2-3-4 down -- in a raised pot, and you're instantly on the watch list for imminent stack death. I ended up going an ugly 9th-8th-4th-2nd at Party for a small net loss.

I did also give a shot to one SnG at PokerStars. The structure is much better -- 1500 chips to start, 9 players vs. 10 -- although the extra chips also mean that it can take a lot longer to play. I managed a 3rd, briefly being the chip leader when we were down to 4 before losing a single hand to go onto the respirator. When nobody has more than about 4 BBs, things get a little crazy.

I was thinking this morning that I wish I still had some programming skills and a little free time. I would like to write a simulator that will play (thousands of times, a la the twodimes calculator) Omaha/8 hands against random opponents for purposes of getting a better feel for hand ranking and EV. I think if I were going to do this, I would start simply, using the assumption that everyone stays in, and then once I had that working, I'd try to refine it to provide some basic level of intellegence -- say, folding K-9-4-3 rainbow preflop outside the blinds or no pair, no draw post flop. If you eventially got it to a decent level of sophistication, you would certainly have a better understanding of the game. You can't just sit around and hope for AA22 double-suited, after all.

{this just in: I'm still an idiot}.

It looks like twodimes does have a calculator for O/8, so I can at least do some individual hand odds calculations (AdAc6dh is a slight dog to 5c4c3h2h!). CardPlayer also has one, and there are a couple of downloads available.

Since I never bothered to learn C or any other object-oriented programming language, it's pretty unlikely that I'll ever attempt to do anything with this, but I still think it would be a fun and useful project. Maybe I'll just go buy SuperSystem 2 instead.

It's no great secret that I've not had a great run of late. I cashed out the bulk of my bankroll to pay for Vegas, and didn't redeposit the money I brought home. Add in some poor play and a few gruesome suckouts, and you have a recipe for liquidation of much of the remaining balance.

So it was really, really pleasant to have a good day yesterday. Playing (thanks Bob) low dollar Omaha/8 SnGs, I went 5-for-5 in cashes. One first, three seconds and a third. Tripled my pathetic Party bankroll. Not too shabby considering that I'm not exactly an O8 expert.

Anyway, I think a winning session just might rekindle some enthusiasm for the game.

It was also really great that 144 people signed up for the Charlie tournament, meaning that a couple thousand dollars was raised for a good cause and in memory of a fellow blogger. Because of the usual Sunday routine (=no poker activities for me), I only managed to play for about 15 minutes in the second half of hour 1. Nothing special. Folded for an orbit or so. I had to take off, so I started going all in on every hand beginning with the first decent hand I got. Donkey style. I think I finished 120something. Congrats to those who did well.

Small sample size, I know, but ...

Last Five Hands I Saw Crack AA (low limit hold'em) out of the seven times I saw it shown down:

1. 6-5 sooted
2. 5-2 sooted
3. 10-10
4. 7-6 sooted
5. 10-8 sooted.

I was the victim on the 10-8 sooted. He caught runner-runner diamonds to make a flush (he did also turn a gutshot draw, which filled as well). Called two cold preflop, called my bet on the flop with two hearts *and* a pair of threes on the board. If I had infinite time and an adequate bankroll, I'm fairly confident I eventually would have taken every nickel of his lunch money.

Between that and losing set-over-set, it was easy to kiss that buyin goodbye. Some days the game is not your friend. I also kicked away a cash in a Omaha/8 SnG the other day. I have the second biggest stack of four left. There are two players on life support. I get a hand (AA2Q, three suited) and tangle with the big stack. He calls me all the way down. The last card brings no low and he rivers a set, knocking me out. If I'd just folded about three more hands, I would have made the money with enough chips to take a shot at winning. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Letting your ego get in the way will cost you money.

Back to hold'em for a moment.

I've been kicking around an idea that I hope to test the next time (which may be a while) I happen to hit a cardroom or waste time playing $0.05/$0.10 or something. I'm thinking that if you have a table where virtually everyone will call whatever number of bets to see a flop, it may be +EV to raise pretty much EVERY time you enter a pot, ESPECIALLY if it's from early position. This seems to be counterintuitive, and I'll be interested to see if Sklansky has any math on this in SSHE. If you can have a reasonable expectation that at least 7 people behind will see the flop for two bets, wouldn't you want to maximize the amount of money in the pot if you're going to play -- even something speculative like JTs or pocket fives -- from early position? Similarly, if someone has raised and you're on the button with multiple persons having called two cold, would it not be +EV to get more money in the pot, again raising with any playable hand? (Remembering, of course, the official motto of the low limit player: "I ain't folding for ONE BET".)

Okay, answer that if you must, but I don't need a reminder that I'm an idiot. I already know. Besides, you should save that mental energy for taking all my chips in the Charlie tournament. Tomorrow night, PokerStars. Visit most any blog on the right for full details.

I feel like I just won the Super Bowl. Somebody at a $25NL table just asked me ...

"on thg.....you ever play this game before?"

All because I innocently checkraised $10 to win a $2 pot. I had the antichrist, you see, and had to do it.

Now they are afraid.

The whole table is talking about me. I am "the fish".

And to make it even more awesome, I just took half of that guy's stack and also won a pot wielding the hammer. Whoops, there goes the rest of it! Too bad, guy.

I am one evil microlimit-playing bastard.

Enough about me. Go sign up for the Charlie tournament already, willya?

A friendly reminder, not that you need it since nobody reads this blog alone unless they're really, really lost.

Charity tournament in memory of Charlie Tuttle. Sunday, 6pm. $20, all going to a VERY good cause.

There will be free chips available for the taking -- as long as I get my Party cashout in time, I'll be signed up, even though I won't be able to play. I may get a minute to pop in for purposes of going all in every hand, or I may just be posted and folded. Either way, if you're at my table your chances of winning (bragging rights) go up.

Visit virtually any of the blogs on the right if you need more info.

----

I think I figured out what's been wrong with my tournament game. I'm playing in tournaments with too many players. The 9:00 pm multi on the site I used to frequent all the time had all of 144 entrants. Enough to exceed the guarantee, but not the 1200-2500 person crapshoots on Party et al. To add to the pleasantries, 98 of the 144 busted themselves out during the first hour.

Oh, and I still busted well before the money, calling a fishy smelling push with top pair plus gutshot and flush draws. Villain did have a hand, and I missed all 9000 outs.

----

The ol' poker bankroll is getting perilously thin. I've been stuck in neutral in cash games and taking sizable hits by failing to cash in tourney after tourney. I may have to consolidate at one site just to have enough to sit at a 2/4 table. Sad.

Freerolls here I come!

So I have a lot of free time on my hands while I'm folding, folding, folding in these two multitable tournaments. As part of my ongoing mission to make you, the reader of this drivel, want to claw your eyes out of your head, I present:

"The Last Five Books I Read", by someone who gets about four channels on his TV.

1. Selected stories, The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway : The Finca Vigia Edition.

I wanted to read some of the Nick Adams stories, and so I did. Regrettably, I did not do so while lounging on the patio with a glass of whiskey close at hand. This only further proves that I'm an idiot.

It's kind of funny that I read a fair number of books that involve fishing. I haven't been fishing since I was about 12. One of the neighbor's kids (as opposed to neighbor kids, he was about ten years older than me) took me along to chase sunfish in a bayou.

Speaking of younger days, I think we read "Up in Michigan" in 10th grade English. Considering that this is an uberconservative small town and that story is as close to literary porn as you get, I'm starting to doubt my powers of recall.

2. Tony Horwitz, Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

When I get around to having my inevitable midlife crisis, I hope I end up taking off to interesting places. I don't know that retracing, in part, the eighteenth century voyages of British explorer James Cook would ever cross my mind. I'm thinking a drunken month in Vegas would be much more likely.

Speaking of which, if I ever win the lottery, I'm going to front an all-expense paid trip for the entire Al Can't Hang crew to the Cooktown (Australia) Festival. Sounds like the absolute mother of all drunkfests.

We returned to the garage behind the police station to empty the rest of the sea chest. At some point it dawned on me that I'd comsumed little except beer for the better part of forty-eight hours. Even Roger looked wrecked. He leaned against a tree, staring numbly at his watch. "It's stained with vomit not my own." He wiped the face with his gut-smeared smock. "Three P.M. I've never retired from the field this early." "We started early. Beer o'clock." "That's true. I haven't completely disgraced myself."

A recommended read.

3. Nega Mezlekia, Notes From The Hyena's Belly

My recent reading list has definitely been concentrated on far away places. The way I see it, I'm a fat white guy, rapidly approaching middle age, with a mortgage, student loan payments and job that keeps me pretty well tethered to my desk. The odds that I'm ever going to see, say, Victoria Falls or Kilimanjaro are pretty long, so I may as well read about those places as a poor man's substitute.

This book wasn't quite what I expected. It's the highly personal story of someone, now an engineer in Canada, growing up in the middle of the 1980s Ethiopia-Somalia war. You read about child soldiers -- this gentleman was one. Somehow he survived, made it out and made a life for himself.

Intense.

4. James Dodson, Hogan: An American Life

This is an exhaustively detailed, meticulously researched "official" biography of legendary golfer Ben Hogan. It's slow going, but I never found my attention wandering. Worth a read if you have an interest in golf-related subjects.

As an aside, I really enjoy James Dodson's writing. I have, I believe, each of his previously published works, which tend to be reflections on his personal journey through life, filtered through the lenses of golf, travel and fly fishing. I always feel uplifted when I finish one.

As a further aside, there are several obvious editorial glitches in this book -- names spelled incorrectly, glaring typos, that sort of thing. I almost expect such things in, say, John Grisham novels, but here it was kind of annoying.

5. Alexandra Fuller, Scribbling The Cat: Travels With An African Soldier

Okay, one more piece of faraway lit. The author grew up in southern Africa, primarily Zimbabwe, and had a NY Times bestseller with her memoir, Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight. This is in part a followup tale, centered around an odd relationship she has with a former soldier in various African wars. Both are white, in a place far different than it was in their younger days.

I'm kind of running out of steam here, but i'll sum it up in one word: Intense. I would suggest her other book as a terrific read, and suggest this one only if you enjoy the other.

Other Recent Reads:

Sara Erdman, Nine Hills To Nambonkaha: Two Years In The Heart Of An African Village. Very well written.

John Heminway, The Imminent Rains: A Visit Among The Last Pioneers Of Africa. Dated, but engrossing.

Cook's Illustrated, Best American Side Dishes. Now I'm hungry.

----

MTT Update: It took until Level 3, but I have finally received my first pair (of the three initial cards) in stud! Yay! And then I get 2-3-4-5 of diamonds for my first four cards. Make a wheel on sixth street, six-high straight on seventh. Still lost. Crap.

Out of both. I suck. Getting blinded off in the NLHE event, I pushed my 4xBB stack in from the SB with 99, called by ATo and QTo. Ace on the river. Time for another $5 Omaha/8 SnG.

----

A quick O/8 comment: People that play the $5+1 SnGs are, for the most part, idiots.

I'm dealt AA2K, one of the aces is sooted.

Flop is A88. Top boat. Turn and river are a 7 and a 3. It's capped about five ways all the way down.

I lose the high to someone with 88 down -- the only hand I possibly lose to -- but take the *entire* low with my 8732A.

We split a 1500+ chip pot -- at the 15/30 level.

Monkeys.

Had a comment the other day that I haven't posted (much) lately. It's true.

The reason is simple. Do I really want to bore all 27 of my readers with the dull stuff that makes up my life?

Umm...

Do you want to hear that I actually left last night's BG home game up (a whole $21) for a change?

How about that I managed to break 80 for the first time this season today?

That I'm busy wasting money on a $30+3 NLHE multi (playing way too loose) and a $10+1 Stud multi (getting rolled up crap) at the moment?

Probably not. Thus the lack of posts. Makes sense, does it not?

Holiday weekends are the best. I'm sitting here eating an early lunch, after getting in a quick eighteen holes -- fifth day in a row I've gotten out there. Nothing beats being the first group off. If we hadn't had two rain delays, I would have been home by 9:30.

I got in a quick Omaha/8 SnG with Bob on Friday night after taking a quick 10BB off a loose/passive 2-4 table.

Saturday featured an impromptu run to Trump Casino in Gary. (You can read a quality trip report from BG). First time I'd ever been there, obviously. Not a bad room, quite a few tables and yes, the chips are every bit as filthy and disgusting as you may have heard.

The real purpose of this post is just to mention how much maigrey rocks. She pretty much owns Trump of Gary, and it was pretty funny to watch all the dealers do a double take as they came in (limit? what are you doing playing limit?). Nobody I know plays 3-6 limit (with a full kill) with as much panache. What I wouldn't give to be able to play loose-aggressive that way (at least at a level higher than Party $0.50/$1.00). BG had a great run and I donkeyed my way around to a winning session with some marginal hands, but Maigrey had that table dominated. I have to say I was pretty zoned out -- getting up at 5:30 will do that -- it was still a lot of fun.

All this, plus a cookout and fireworks still to come? Cool.