Back home again...

Vacation was wonderful! We stayed at the Grand Casino in Gulfport, MS. They had wonderful food (2 more days and I would have turned into a crawfish) and an awesome pool area complete with a waterfall and a lazy river. I managed to win just enough money playing poker to cover our expenses. We took a quick trip over to New Orleans (more great food!) and had a blast.

US Open...

I'm leaving to go to the US Open in North Carolina today. My friend and long time co-employee Scott Parel has qualified and will be kicking Tiger's ass this weekend! If you are a golf fan, then keep an eye out for him. Scott has worked with me on and off for over 15 years and has periodically taken time out to pursue his dream of becoming a professional golfer. This is the second time he is playing in a major PGA tour event. He played in the 2003 US Open also.

http://www.wagt.com/video/1610456.html


After I get back from the Open my wife and I will be heading to Gulfport, MS for a week of rest, relaxation, poker, and lots of seafood. Lets hope the weather holds up. It is suppose to be a bit cooler and drier than the last couple of weeks but we may have to dodge a few thunderstorms. The great thing about Gulfport is that if it rains on the beach, the poker room is always dry!

Quiz.....

My scores confirm that the transformation to the dark side is 100% complete. I am now ZERO percent fundamentalist!!! Now I can die and go to... well atleast I can feel better about living.

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect tomodern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern - 82%
Classical Liberal - 79%
Modern Liberal - 79%
Evangelical
Holiness/Wesleyan - 50%
Neo orthodox - 46%
Charismatic/Pentecostal - 39%
Reformed Evangelical - 18%
Roman Catholic - 18%
Fundamentalist - 0%

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Close but no cigar...

4 hours and 15 minutes of gut wrenching poker ended with a very near miss. Out of 185 players I finished 12th. 1 - 5 place got a $13k price package so I was pnly 7 positions from making it to the WSOP main event. I have played in 3 buyins for WPT and WSOP tournaments and finshed 12th twice and 8th once. If I keep getting that close, then one day I'll make it.

This is how close I came. Late in the tournament with about 5000 chips (getting kind of low at the point) I caught KK in the big blind and got all my chips in the pot only to find an opponent also had KK. If I had not split that pot I would have been near the lead and had enough to survive the coming frozen wave of cards. I didn't catch many cards after that and stayed alive just by stealing blinds here and there and dodging the bigger stacks for what seemed like hours. I finally went out with A T against a small pair when I was nearly out of chips but the cards didn't flop my way. I don't really think I made a poor decision the entire time. The only other tough beat that I had was when I raised on the button late with KQ and a guy called my raise from the blind with K 6. The flop came K 6 T. Luckily he had a shorter stack than me so I only lost about 40% of my chips. That hurt but I bounced back. I can't believe he called that. He had been playing pretty tight, but I guess he got tired of me stealing his blinds.

I have played many tournaments but these WSOP satellites were very tough. Not the usual party poker events at all. I can only imagine how stressful it would be to play 10 hours a day for 2 weeks. My hat is off to the guys that make the final table this year. It is more difficult than you might think. I am use to long nights of concentration and attention to detail but 4 or 5 hours of intense poker wears me down mentally and emotionally.

Well I still have a couple weeks, maybe I will try again this weekend. I think I'll have a cigar anyway.

I'm back in!!

I took the conservative approach and pocketed my winnings from the WSOP tournament last night. Then I bought back into a lower stage of the WSOP satellite tournaments and I won again! I'm really playing well right now and feeling good about my decisions. So now I'm one step from the WSOP in Vegas PLUS i'm up $400 win or lose. Let's hope that the server doesn't crash again this tonight. Maybe it was good that it happened that way.

Wish me luck

Technical Difficulties...

Well I didn't lose....

The PartyPoker site crashed during my tournament last night, so they gave me $500 to buyin to the next WSOP satellite. I was definately pissed becasue I had to wait until 3am to find out that the tournament was not going to restart. Since they gave me real money instead of a tournament buy-in I now have to decide if I actaully want to buy back into the next tournament or pocket the $500. I may drop back down to the $50 level and win my way in again. Even if it took 5 attempts I would come out ahead $250. Atleast I'm still in the running. I'll keep you posted.