I'm a champion

OK, so I didn't place in the tourney at Rascal's, but I did come home to challenge T at scrabble (one thing that Paul Phillips and I have in common) and Q at Gin at the same time, emerging victorious at both. I've just learned Gin, but I'm enjoying it. Gin has a lot in common with poker; putting your opponent on a hand, strategizing and remembering what they've discarded are all things you must consider.

Like the big geek that I am, I've been tracking my record against T in Scrabble and tonight's 194 point margin of victory was my largest since I started keeping track. 2 bingos helped me break 400.

-tmo

to the brick and mortar

I was just leaving Home Depot when my cousin K called me. He's in town for Thanksgiving and was heading down to a little card room to play in a $30 tourney with a buddy of his. After getting the green light from the Boss I headed South to Rascal's. The name should really be "Bandits" for taking a 20% cut (25+5), but no one seemed to mind, they were there to Gambool. In the first round I saw two baby flush draws call all in bets after the flop and knock out TPTK and two pair when they caught their flushes. Neither of them were drawing to the nuts mind you, nor did they have over cards.
Blinds double every 12 minutes so it was little more than a crapshoot. The only thing that didn't make a pure crapshoot was the fact that they gave you T4000. I don't think I exagerate when I say I didn't have a pocket pair for the whole tourney. After the fourth round I had won two small pots and K was still looking for his first win. After slowly bleeding away, I got moved to a table under the gun. With T3400 and the blinds at 800/1600 (meaning I would be left with T1000 after the blinds passed me), I shoved all in with KJo. Guy to my left calls, as does the BB. K on the flop and I'm ahead. Unfortunately I'm all in so I can't push out the BB who has AQo and catches an A on the river to send me home.
K, on the other hand, went on a little rush and caught some nice cards to make it to the final table and then go on to win the whole kit and kaboodle. Pretty exciting. K is mostly a limit cash game player but I think he's getting bitten by the no-limit bug. It would exciting to see him at a final table some time.

-tmo

driveway moments

I admit it, I listen to NPR. It's the source for most of my news since we don't have a TV and I get up too late to read the paper in the morning.

Every time they have a pledge drive they talk about "driveway moments," those stories so captivating that you sit in your car in the driveway unwilling or unable to turn off the radio until you hear the end of a story.

Yesterday I heard perhaps the most riveting story I've heard this year, and perhaps ever.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080

You just have to listen to it to understand. The really quick version is that this man goes in search of the truth, something that has plagues him for almost all his life, the feeling that something had happened to him. This isn't some alien abduction story, it is far worse. In fact, I think it would be less disturbing if aliens had perpetrated something on him, but instead it was another human. The truth is that when he was 12 years old, he had a "transorbital lobotomy" performed on him. I mean, I can't even begin to imagine what I would do if I learned something like that. It was amazing.

On a much, much ligher note. My friend Daniel was on the boob tube. There he was, "Mike Hanson," on CSI: NY. Daniel has been in LA, and before that NY, pursuing his dream to be an actor. It's great to see him doing what he wants to do. I'm hoping he hits it really big so i can be interviewed by E! or ET or anyone else and I can tell embarrassing stories about him.

-tmo

sticking it to the man

I had to perform the unpleasant job of paying a parking ticket today. So I parked within 15 feet of a fire hydrant. Big Deal. The probability of a fire happening when I was parked there is tiny. And it's not like I was right in front of it, I was a good 5 feet away. AND it was on a corner so if a firetruck needed access, it could reach it. It wasn't even a particularly noteworthy apartment building either. I'm sure if it had burned down, some developer would have put in some much nicer (and probably much more expensive) units.

Before I wrote out my check I noticed that I could pay online. Saves me 36 cents AND I get airline miles. Not to mention, the city has to pay some credit card processing fee so they end up getting less. HAH!

I'm such a rebel.

BTW, my friend Daniel is going to be on CSI: NY this week. Not sure what his character is, but I know the episode involves poker so I'm there. Unfortunately we still don't have a TV so I'm going to have to crash my friend's house. I'm actually a little bitter that he didn't call me to come down and see the taping. I could have been a consultant or something. Apparently the show hired some pro poker player to consult on the show but I still think I could have added some imput. I could have told him how to handle a suckout or how to order cocktails (two things I do with frequency when at the Casino).

Speaking of poker. I just crashed and burned at a 30-person sit-n-go. I only have myself to blame really. Too much fancy play syndrome. oh well.

-tmo

satisfaction

There are few things more satisfying than coming back from a huge chip deficit -inflicted, by the way, by a suck out- and winning a match heads up. Granted, this was only a $5 + .50 sit-n-go, but none the less, I felt good. Maybe not as good as winning the WSOP main event, but every great journey starts with a first step.

Even more satisfying, and restoring my faith in grand scheme of the universe, was the fact that in all the key hands heads up, I always went into it with the best of it.

-tmo

Rainy Days

100% chance of rain. It must be so easy to be a Weather forecaster in Seattle. Between November and February all you have to say is "100% chance of rainy today. Highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s. Mostly cloudy."

So I notice that Anderson Cooper is replacing Aaron Brown as CNN's Prime time newscaster. Sad day for those of us who remember Aaron from back in the days when he was a local newscaster. I guess standing out in hurricane winds wasn't for naught. I still would have liked to have seen Cooper been hit upside the head with a palm frond or something.

Not much poker lately (the last two days). Been busy firing a Soda kiln as part of this Soda fire class I'm taking at Pottery Northwest. It's a great place for anyone who wants to take classes. There is something very appealing to a pyromaniac about something that exceeds 2200 degrees F.

On Rain. I like it when I can sit inside and listen to it hit against the window. I don't like hiking in it. and I much prefer it over snow. My mantra is "you don't have to shovel rain."

-tmo