Quest of a Closet Poker Player

I had a bunch of stuff to talk about from the weekend, and I’ll still have some fairly limited drivel, but IGGY joins us here at PokerWorks?  It can’t get much better than that.

Others have spoken with eloquence about the famed munchkin and his place in our tiny universe, so I’ll let others pile on with the euphoric rhetoric that will accompany this.  I’m glad IGGY’s back, and to have him on our team is just a big, big boost to all of us, IMO.

In no particular order, here is a quick synopsis of the weekend:

• My PokerStars bankroll is now at an all-time high, $5,059.65.  I’ve gotten there in what for me has been a very strange manner, not as part of some grand quest to build through my bread and butter, LHE.  No, here is what I basically have done over the past week or two:
• Open up Stars
• Hit a $1/2 NLHE table, putting whatever money will leave me with $XX00 (so for example, $159.65 or $59.65, more often the latter)
• Run that up by $100 or 200
• Close out, head to a $0.50/1.00 PLO table
• Do the same
• Hit Triple Draw
• Hit HORSE
• Head back to a NLHE table
• I’m not quite sure what buying in light or very light does.  Maybe it gets me called down more often, maybe I play differently and either tighten up or play more aggressively when I’m in a hand.  I think it has helped me tremendously in getting away from marginal hands for sure.
• Next weekend highlight:  I booked my itinerary to the WPBT, so I’m headed to join the gang.  Sweetie wants to visit her best friend in Hilton Head the following weekend, so I asked about going to the WPBT and received permission.  I arrive Wednesday evening and fly back on a redeye on Sunday evening.  America West Vacations has been my secret to look for screaming deals, and this was no exception.  They’re now called US Airways Vacations, but they always have screaming deals for flights and hotels to Vegas.  Imperial Palace, where everyone is staying, was booked for Friday night, but using America West Vacations got me a round trip ticket plus four nights there.  If anyone needs a room and wants to bunk with me, let me know at csquard@gmail.com and we’ll see if we can make it work.
• 23skidoo invited me to a blogger tourney Saturday evening at his home here in the ATL, and it was a great night.  Others from the area included weak_player, surflexus, BrainMc, weak’s wife, and a few others.  The only real downer was that skidoo’s neighbor had an emergency with his newborn (less than a week old) and had to rush to the ER.  skidoo’s wife, who had admirably called him down to cripple him, left to watch their other child, and skidoo took over the neighbor’s chipstack to great effect.  It was a +EV night for me in many ways and I didn’t get robbed, so I was very happy.
• Casino Royale.  Great flick, although of course the poker was as always a bit dumb.  I won’t give away the last hand nor the hand that Bond lost his initial $10MM buy-in on (that hand has been shown in the trailer), but the real hand that was beautiful was when he plays an evil gopher-type who works for the villain.  This guy is stuck a couple of buy-in’s and acts rude when his hot Indian wife tries to say hello (who Bond is checking out and vice-versa).  I think we enter the hand with an ace on the board and the evil gopher-type has either continuation bet or they check the turn, I can’t remember.  A king comes on the river, there is a bet, Bond raises, this guy moves all-in plus gets his chequebook (notice the spelling) out to toss another $20k in (they talked the whole time in dollars yet had the European bricks, which also was odd).  The Linda-like dealer says you can’t do that, then he tosses his keychain/card protector from his Aston Martin on the table and says that it plays.  Bond says it’s OK, let him try and win back his money.  Bond calls and slowrolls his pocket rockets as the evil gopher-type shows KK (slowrolling was another theme of the movie).
• We’re packing for our trip to London.

It will be a busy day for me, and I hope to use the time as a big time of reflection.  These next weeks will be very important to me as I chart a new path for what we do in the coming year and beyond.  It should be an adventure, but I need for it to be much more.  I can’t rely on poker as an escape from my reality.  I don’t believe poker is the root cause of the challenges I have, but it contributes and definitely muddies the waters a bit.  It’s easy to focus on what’s in your life in the next few months; I’ve always tried to focus on what does it look like three-five years from now.  And that either looks not good or good, depending on what happens over the next few months.

I also picked up a new laptop this weekend.  My laptop is on the major fritz, with the wireless kaput (I have a Linksys USB deal which works in place of the existing wireless) and the screen has gone black (again, works fine with a monitor).  Combine that with a screwed up operating system and other messed up stuff, and I was in a quandary.  I’d bought the three-year service agreement from Best Buy, which normally is a revenue scam but with laptops is money well spent.  I’ll have to drop the laptop off for six weeks, they said, so I needed another one.  If I could figure out how to get the new laptop connected to my server here, then I’d be set.  That and how do you get your iTunes to transfer?  My brother Econ told me it was impossible, that iTunes doesn’t transfer computers.  If that’s the case, then it will be a pain to deal with for sure.  Anyone who knows anything about any of this, please email me at csquard@gmail.com or, if you dare, try and leave a comment.

I have $150 at FullTilt, and I’ve built that back from being down to $20.  I’ve gone busto there a couple of times, and I just have hesitated moving any more of my bankroll to FullTilt.  No particular reason why, but I just haven’t wanted to tempt the poker karma anymore.  It’s why I’ve avoided hitting up the FullTilt tourneys so much.

Next post will be from London or the surrounding areas, so thanks again for stopping by.  And again, welcome to IGGY for joining our PokerWorks team of basically Poker Blogger Senior Citizens.  I’m probably the spring chicken of the group, as well as being the best looking of the bunch.  Which is like being a tall midget, I guess…

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 7:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized.