Vegas Update, End of April, and other news

April has not been a good month. Quite frankly, I am glad it is almost over. I am really hoping that May shapes up to be better, because I am in need of a good stretch of fortune (and I don't mean the monetary kind, though that would be nice too.)

Well - I am possibly going to be about the only blogger out there in our little world to hold a certain distinction. It is 95% official - I will NOT be going to Vegas in June. I am leaving the 5% open in case a strange twist of fate happens within the next week or so, but at this point you can pretty much count me out. When I know for sure, I will contact CJ and remove my name from the list of attendees and make the next person on the waiting list a happy person indeed.

Why, you may ask? Well, I wish I had a simple answer to that question. I will try to explain, but unfortunately it is hard to describe something that doesn't have one particular reason.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I got married 11 months ago. I have not lived with my husband that entire time, as he has been in Toronto on contract - 1700 miles away. Last fall we decided to put our house up for sale and move there. We met with a realtor, went through all our stuff, and packed everything we didnt use on a day-to-day basis. However we never proceeded past that point. Basically, we both knew that living in Toronto permanently wasn't what either of us wanted, and it didn't make sense to leave Calgary and pull my daughter out of one of the best schools available. (She is currently finishing grade 7 at a Fine Arts school.)

Because he is a computer contractor, we never know where his next job will be, but we really want to make the move south to the States if possible. Specifically, Las Vegas. Now I know what instantly pops into everyone's mind is that we want to move down there for the 24/7 poker, but honestly that isn't the reason. I will admit it is partially for the weather, I am a sun-seeker and would much rather sweat in 104 degree desert heat than live with snow 8 months of the year. The main reason though is just that we simply love Las Vegas. Enough so that we dragged countless numbers of friends and family with us from across the continent to get married there.

He does have a few leads in Vegas for jobs, however the most recent offer has come from Chicago/New York. Basically, my point is - we have no idea where he / us will be living next month, let alone six month down the road. It has become pretty much impossible to plan a trip there when we could be moving at any given time, to anywhere in North America.

I am now trying to decide if I should play in the WPBT tourney on Sunday. If I won that, I would be going to Vegas for sure. Even if I don't win, I certainly don't mind contributing to the prize pool for those that do go. Whether or not I play, I will definitely be on the rail cheering everyone else on.

So, as I said - there is still a 5% chance that I will go. I will update as soon as the decision is finalized one way or the other. If not - I will have to wait for the next blogger invasion to hit Las Vegas. The thought of not going is, quite honestly, devastating to me, but sometimes these decisions are not ours to make.

Slacking

I know, I know, I am seriously lacking in my posts this past week. I had a house full of people all weekend and was unable to play in the WPBT event Sunday night, but I did manage to watch most of it. Congrats to Bob who won the event - I am really looking forward to playing in the next one on Sunday night!

I should be back to posting on a regular basis now.

Tournament Trials and Tribulations; Truckin'

I certainly made up for my recent lack of poker playing this weekend. Friday night I hit the ring games on Stars and Party. Nothing much to report here, though I did end up a few bucks at the end of the night.

Saturday night I decided to play in a few tournaments. For lack of any better options, I joined the 50FPP on Stars. 702 registrants, only the top 9 places play for a prize pool of $250.00. Now obviously you don't play this tournament for the money, but I thought I would use it as a warm up for the $20NLHE tourney that started an hour later. Since I have been playing a lot of O8, it can't hurt to get back into the HE grind with a freeroll. Well - over three and a half hours later, I finished in a heartbreaking 15th place. In any other tournament, 15th would have paid a decent amount of money, but in this case I failed to cash. What hurt the most though was the mental anguish of being that close to the bubble and not making it past.

Again, for lack of better options, (and since I missed my chance to play the $20NLHE) I then decided to play in the $1 O8 tourney, which is becoming somewhat of a nightly ritual for myself and some of the other bloggers.

Very first hand and I am in the BB with AJ55 rainbow. Eight players remain in the hand when the flop comes 5,K,10. I bet out, it is raised and reraised until the betting is capped. The next card? Another 5. There was no chance to slow play as all rounds of betting were capped on every street. I ended up with a stack of approx. T6000 and first place going into the second hand. Three hands and two boats later, I had over T10000 and a commanding lead.

This continued for the rest of the tournament. I held first place for approximately 3/4 of the game. I did drop down several times as stacks would catch up, but I only fell out of the top 30 places once, and would eventually win another hand to reclaim my lead. There were 925 players in this game, and the top 81 places paid. I wish I had a better ending to this story, but I finished in 56th place when I lost two major hands back to back.

In other, much more interesting news - Pauly has published the April edition of Truckin' and I am honored to have been asked back to submit another piece. If you have never read this amazing literary e-zine, you are seriously missing out. This issue features stories by ThePokerGeek, Grubby, Joe Speaker, Sigge S. Amdal, and of course, the editor, writer, and founder, Mr. Tenzin McGrupp. Show some support for your local bloggers and writers by visiting the site, and if you enjoy what you read, please leave a comment and pass on the link to a friend!

Random Thoughts

I am planning to stay in this weekend and play a bunch of poker, so hopefully I will have something somewhat relevant to write about after that. I have been playing a bunch of small-entry tournaments on Stars, and have placed in 8 out of the last 10. Unfortunately, there is little to no money to be made doing this, but I am just taking some time to work on my game again. Otherwise, I have just been sweating some of the other bloggers in their quest for greatness.

So, for lack of anything better to write, I will leave you with a list that was part of one of those "fill in the blanks about yourself" emails that a friend sent me.

10 Things you probably didn't know about me

1. I am left-handed
2. When I play baseball, I catch and throw with the same hand.
3. I was supposed to be born on leap year day, but was 5 days early. How much would that have sucked?
4. I hate chocolate
5. I love liver and brussel sprouts
6. I am a natural blonde
7. When I was 12, I was told by a bone specialist that I would grow up to be very tall. I am still 5'4"
8. I have worked at more than 35 places in my lifetime
9. My favorite movie of all time? Fargo
10. My favorite thing to do: Sitting in a boat with a cooler full of beer, fishing for the entire day.

What can you buy for $1.91?

What a weekend. It has finally warmed up here, and I actually spent some time outdoors enjoying it. When I wasn't outside, I was hitting the tables with a vengeance.

Unfortunately, they were hitting back.

I ended up being down overall, but after not playing for the better part of two weeks I didn't expect much different. Friday night was pretty crazy at the tables. Quite honestly, I played with so many different people that it would take forever to link them all up. (Plus, I was drinking beer and didn't take notes, so that makes it a bit more difficult.) I know Pauly was there. Al was too - and made the money in one of the O8 tournaments I was playing / sweating. Rod, Felicia and Maudie were definitely playing as well. Basically, just assume half of the blogroll showed up, and you would be about right!

My good news for the weekend? I did make the money in two tournaments:

Tournament #1
177th place of 2077 players, top 225 pay. $2.00 NLHE. Profit: $1.32

Tournament #2
162nd place of 1999 players, top 180 pay. $1.00 NLHE. Profit: $0.59

Nice, eh? Any suggestions on what I should buy with my whopping profit of $1.91?

Here is my list so far:
- Two packs, less one piece, of gum.
- An extra large, one-cream two-sugar coffee at Tim Hortons, which leaves me $0.36 to spare. (Plus I can RRRRRRRrrrrroll up the rim to win. If you aren't Canadian, dont ask)
- A third of a can 'o Spam
- Three boxes of Kraft Dinner
- Forty-two packs of Sapporo Ichiban Ramen Noodles
- One twelfth of a bottle of SOCO
- Two bottles of pop

Serves me right for playing such low limits.

In other news, Iggy has posted the details for the WPBT WSOP Satellite:

Sunday, April 24
7pm EST
$30 +$3

That is going to be one helluva time, watching one of our own kick some ass at a WSOP table!

Friday Night Poker and the WPBT Leaderboard.

Believe it or not, I actually played some poker last night.

I didn't play well, mind you, but I did play.

Pauly, Maudie and I tried our luck in the PokerStars satellite to the Bellagio WPT event. I busted out early when my all-in raise with KK met AA and 99. Sure enough, the 9's found a set on the flop.

Maudie lasted way longer than I did, but we ended up railbirding Pauly as he lasted somewhere into the top 30's out of 311 players. Unfortunately, only the top 2 places advanced.

I continued on to Party Poker, where I proceeded to lose a little more money (oh the shame!) before calling it a night.

However, I have renewed gusto to play once again, and after my semi-unplanned hiatus, I am going to return in full force this weekend. Reading the WPBT Leaderboard today certainly helped. I am currently in 19th place - no complaints here!

Well, I am off to hit the tables. Good luck to everyone, and enjoy your Friday night!

Return from the Abyss

Every day for the past ten days I have opened up blogger, gone to the create message page, and closed it within five minutes.

Quite honestly, I just had nothing to say. Nothing that I wanted anyone to read, anyways.

I would then go and open Party, or Stars, or whatever, and sit there for an hour, trying to decide if I should play. I did manage to sit at one table, saw one orbit, dropped down five dollars, and promptly bailed.

However I am happy to report that I seem to have come out of my funk, even if temporarily, and plan on playing some poker over the next few days. Hell, I may even start tonight.

I may even write something poker related on my blog - though I am not promising anything. I don't want to get ahead of myself here. Baby steps.


Quitting smoking update:
Thanks once again to everyone for the support you have sent me through the comments on here and the emails I have received. I am on day 10 now.

When I started the patch, I really thought it was the way to go. Though still hard, the first week was easier than any other time I have tried to quit. However the second week was way, way worse. I think it is because you are going through all the same nasty little withdrawls, and then you realize that you still have some nicotine pumping through your system, though in a very low dosage compared to actually smoking.

I am considering giving up the patch next week, and trying a few days without it. If I feel way worse, I will continue on and complete the program. Really, I just want to be free of the addiction completely so I can move on with my life.

Maudie is completely right in the comment she left me - it is just a matter of sucking it up and moving on.

Quick Update

Well, as I begin day seven of not smoking, I feel almost ready to communicate with people again. Thanks again to everyone for your support through the comments and emails I received.

I decided to go MIA this weekend to have some time to myself. I barely even looked at the computer. Instead, I read a few novels, did a bunch of writing, played hours upon hours of Playstation, barbequed every meal, and did a whole bunch of deep-breathing exercises. It is amazing how entertaining breathing can be when you play exorcist to the toxins in your system, experiencing your first good hit of oxygen to the brain in almost two decades.

However, as great and magical as the benefits may be or sound, it is still brutally hard. I truly feel as though I have lost an old friend, and when I think about having a smoke and remember that I can't - it is crushingly devastating to my soul. Fortunately, those times are fewer and farther between with each day that passes.

I have some things on the agenda for this afternoon, but I think I may finally feel up to playing some poker tonight.