Friday. Big deal. Monday is just three days away.

I'm going in a big circle. Actually it feels like a small circle as it seems I just zoomed past this spot. I was in a Culver City studio five years ago today. I had thoughts it would be a milestone in my life to get me out of the circle I was in. No such luck. Here I go again: spinning, spinning, spinning. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty inside my little circle I enjoy greatly and would not give up for the World. There needs to be a break in the circumference soon though.

I am playing much less poker these days. O.K., I am still playing seven days a week but I am playing less per day. O.K., I am still playing about the same number of hours, I am just playing fewer tables. Fewer tables=less poker. See. I am playing live three times a week now. One for fun and two for blood. There is a player who can not play poker, is incapable of folding in the face of certain defeat, in incapable of not drinking heavily while playing, and is incapable of being happy with a small win or loss. Invariably, it is a big loss. By invariably, I mean EVERY TIME HE PLAYS. It amazes me. In forty sessions or so this year, he has been in the black twice. On Wednesday, he started with the "Here I go again," when he ran into a string of losses on hands he shouldn't have been playing. Actually, he had been playing quite tight for a while and was up. I just looked at him and said, "Simmer down. You haven't screwed up too much yet." I know it is not my place to tap the glass. Honestly, I just can't stand listening to him bitch about losing. I took note one night of all his complaints and it resulted in an astounding array of excuses for being a poker loser. Eventually, he devolves into the old, "Nobody runs as bad as me" argument. Bullshit. Nobody has the opportunity to run as bad as he does as nobody plays as many hands. For my part, I take very little of his money. In a session, I am looking to win 6 or 7 hands. With the way I play and the stakes at risk, that is enough to make it a good night for me. By my nature of play, his chips and mine rarely make it into the pot together. His absence at the table would impinge on my profit but not as much as it might seem. When it comes down to it, almost everyone there is paying me to play. I grin and laugh at their jokes, throw in the occasional blind bet, and answer their legal questions so they don't seem to mind too much. He ended up on the night to the tune of a few hundred and there was no pleasure in his face, voice, or demeanor. The saying can be true it appears; He's not happy unless he's losing. When he loses big, he is animated. When he loses small, he complains about how far he was ahead. When he wins, he is sullen. That is brain chemistry I do not grok.

Now, this is a young guy (for this group) with small children. It sounds as though he makes a good living otherwise but he can't go down this path much further without quitting or deciding to steer into the oncoming headlights one night on the way home. He's shown himself incapable of quitting. So, I try to calm him down. Am I a enabler or a noble soul? I can't help but think about his children and their screwed-up Daddy. Then I think of my children and wonder about their Daddy as well.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

As I found myself yelling at the television last night over something a 19 year old kid did or didn't do, I realized I was being ridiculous. I shouldn't be allowed to watch college football. I've decided to go exclusively with the EPL and have started a blog for my team over there (Know how I know you're gay?). It's soccer for goodness sakes. How upset could I get.

That being said. GO PIRATES! Every year needs a non-BCS party buster and this could be ECUs year (only if they can surprise a very good WVU team tomorrow and keep the dream alive).

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

I gamble legally tomorrow. Boy, if I can't get a story in Truckin' about a South Carolina gambling cruise, I just need to shut down. Hope CC is hosting tonight. If so, see you there.

I almost hit the bubble tri-fecta last night in the 2nd Chance Mookie. I bubbled Monday in the Hoy and Tuesday in the Mookie. Alas, I finished two off the bubble in the second chance. It was a good combination of games though, Hold Em and Omaha (high only), pot-limit style. I play Omaha High less than I play Badugi so it always takes a few rounds to reach my comfort level. I don't know why I bother though. Last year I made the final table of a 100+ player tournament playing O8. Of course, everyone else was playing Omaha High. I must have been playing great scoop hands till the final table. There, I got pissed when my nut low didn't take half the pot and knew there was a problem with the tournament. Oops. My bad. As soon as I realized what the game actually was, I started playing "correctly" and got knocked out in 5th or 6th. Henceforth, I shall only play O8, whatever the four card game is dealt.

Tuesday is Live Poker Day!

Back to the home game tonight. My turn to host so that means I have to pick up a bottle of scotch on the way home. We somehow got a hold of a sampler pack of single malts from Ted Turner's swag closet (friend of a friend of a friend who knows a guy or something) and proceeded to break them out last week and pass them around the table. As a long-time bourbon drinker, I am amazed at my quick conversion. So, I 'll be a kid in the candy store after work looking for the night's booty. Probably Macallan but who knows? See, poker is broadening my horizons and turning me into an Epicurean. I used to drink Busch and Evan William with Mountain Dew (how West Columbia is that?). Now I drink unpasteurized, cask beer and sip single-malts neat.

I had decided to ramp up my aggression in the Hoy last night which is an absolute necessity in that game. As a result, I went to under T300 chips in the first orbit when AK lost to A9 on a board of A5956. I can't imagine I played it well but I was almost out so there was no time to dwell on it. I was relieved not to be the first one out and after a triple-up, I felt as though I still had a chance. Pocket pairs holding up against overs got me to the final five and I was in a pretty reasonable position when I rivered an A against Hoy. Then someone obviously flipped the switch that exposed my cards to everyone. At a final table where players were pushing almost indiscriminately with a wide range, I picked up AA and KK within three hands. Both times, everyone folded to a 3x raise. I should have just pushed all-in to disguise the strength. A fifth place finish was my destiny. Oh yeah. Somebody stop Fuel. It might take a tank right now but someone needs to try.

Anyway, a bounty to WigginX who is a new face for me (as I am for him I reckon).

Instant Arrrrrrggression

Flamed out in the Mookie in the bottom third but was happy with my play. I came out swinging, raising early and often. This is not the best way to play in MTTs I know, but I needed to re-establish myself. Ended up pushing against a suspect raise with a good hand and got called by a good hand that flopped broadway. Such is life. At least I didn't get blinded off.

I also played a 6-handed SNG and resolved to raise or fold every hand, no calling allowed (except for completions out of the small blind). It made me remember observing and advising a buddy of mine a few months back while he played a series of SNGs. Back then, my advice to him was almost always "raise" or "fold." Now the Master has become the Student.