Quest of a Closet Poker Player

I’ll have more in the morning after a good night’s rest, but how do you get unstuck when you’ve sat down with Keith Sexton at an $8/16 HORSE table on FullTilt, only to watch your previous little score in a $5/10 PLO game with JJ Liu earlier (AAKX held up) evaporate like the Patriots’ lead?  How about this?

DMQ, meet my new best friend, the Royal Flush.  A nice $300 pot which got me close to unstuck and was good enough to call it a night.

Growing up in Mississippi, the only team anyone ever pulled for in the NFL was the Saints.  I had my second team that would come and go (the Dolphins in the 70’s then the 49′ers once Jerry Rice from Mississippi Valley State was there).  With Archie Manning there in the 70’s, it cemented the bond that the Magnolia State had for the Saints.  Archie lost the Heisman to Jim Plunkett, who handed the Lamar Hunt trophy to Mr. Irsay.  Plunkett also was the top pick in the draft, with Manning #2.

To say that the Saints have been an inept franchise is not really doing justice to the term putting it mildly.  Manning never had an offensive line, and if you recall the Saints famously drafted Russell Erxleben in the first round, the 11th pick overall, the highest any kicker has ever been taken.  Their reasoning:  they mainly punted after calling a run play for -2, Manning running out of bounds as he ran for his life for -4 yards, then was sacked on third down by normally a defeensive end and a linebacker for a loss of 7 yards.  He won the NFC Offensive Player of the Year 1978, the first year the Saints didn’t have a losing record in their history (8-8).
I grew up hating Ole Miss, but I think every Mississippian has an affection for Archie Manning.  With the Bears’ romping of the Saints and the Colts conquering of the Pats, Manning’s loyalty will not have to be questioned.  He’ll be able to pull for his son to take it one more time.  I’m sure many people aren’t big fans of Peyton, but I find it difficult to find too much fault with someone who works as hard as he does at anything.   This has been a bizarre year for the Colts as Manning’s offense hasn’t always clicked on all cylinders.  Maybe that’s just what they needed to get them over the hump, some adversity during the season.

I’ll have an addendum in the AM, after I’ve come off of my first Royal Flush high…

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 2:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized.