Catching up

I spent a few more relaxing days at the end of last week and over the weekend reading, sitting around, and playing poker. Thursday night I played in the Stud Hi/Lo version of the Riverchasers tournament, and played in a few cash games beforehand to warm up. The cash games (at the very lowest stakes on PokerStars) were easily beatable, even by me, but the tournament, ah, was not. I did OK in the first hour, probably due to luck, and then went swiftly down. I found the cash games enjoyable, so I continued to play some of them over the next few days. I suspect I'm not getting any points from them, though, so I have to get back to the no-limit hold 'em cash games to try and make my bonus. I guess it would help if I at some higher limits, but I'm still not good enough for that. Friday I played in Kat's Donkament, with a far smaller field than normal, because of the Eh-Vegas event in Toronto (lovely this time of year.) I played well after the rebuy period ended, even though I had not built up a stack prior to the break. You can read meanhappyguy's very long post, to see his take on the final table. I guess I got impatient and busted out in 5th or 6th place. Dat is geen probleem. (Practicing my Dutch for our family trip to England and Holland in a couple of months.)

The rest of the weekend, I played in token satellites and Stud Hi/Lo cash games. The token satellites because the BBT 3 series is coming up. This is a series of tournaments that will culminate in a tournament of champions for the winners, with 7 WSOP seats at stake (2 Main Event, 5 preliminary event seats)! Last time, I did not play in the later starting tournaments, nor in the more expensive Big Game tournaments (other than the first one.) This is a better chance than I've had in a long time to win a WSOP seat. (There was a series of freerolls that Milwaukee's Best Light ran a couple of years ago that was unbelievably easy, and they were giving away 8 seats. I won a few events while they were still in beta, but once the crowds showed up, never really got close to a seat. I think there were 500 or 1000 players in each week's final, with one seat and a hundred set of poker chips. People were going for the chips, believe it or not.) The competition will be fierce, and I will be ready. I may have to adjust my sleep and work schedule, though, to make sure I don't fall asleep in meetings.

I also read a book about being a cheapskate, and did a budget for the first time in decades. The last time was when I was in my early twenties, and had bills and debts all over the place. That was less of a budget than a payment schedule. Now it's more about living within/below our means, and making conscious decisions about where our money goes, rather than just pissing it away 59 or 119 dollars at a time, and not accomplishing goals (such as a big plasma TV, heh.) I'm not getting any younger, and the next layoff might mean a giant pay cut, so we need to be prepared to live on much less than we do now, in my "peak earning years."

I'm making more of an effort to stay informed about politics and foreign affairs. For example, I'm skipping the scientific articles in the daily paper, and reading the Nation and World sections. I watched the first part of the movie about the Iraq "War," and learned that our clueless leaders not only lied about weapons of mass destruction (about which I knew,) but also intentionally and willfully mishandled the runup to the invasion, the immediate aftermath (orders to stand by while the country was looted,) and the short-term security and reconstruction effort (firing the Iraqi Army, turning them into insurgents.) Somehow, I had given the Bush administration credit for just misunderstanding what would happen, or for putting too much confidence in the military. But they really fucked up every step of the way. So, I'm trying to read meaty articles and opinion pieces, rather than stuff about which poll said Obama is ahead of Clinton, or which candidate has momentum. I've got a couple more books from the library, one about the financing of wars throughout U.S. history, and the other called "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror." These assholes work for us, not the other way around. If we don't want the police state to continue, let's make a change. I have voted for Green Party candidates when possible, and I believe that third and fourth parties are the way out of the horrible situation that is our government. However, voting for Ralph Nader is not the answer -- it has to happen from the ground up. Throwing away a vote on a Green or Libertarian Party presidential candidate is ineffectual, or worse. Electing 5 Greens or Libertarians to Congress could lead to a coalition government, with the minorities being the swing votes on issues important to one major party or the other.

Another habit that I've recently formed is working out, albeit only to the ultra-cheesy ":08 min." series of exercise videos. The ridiculously ripped leader and his buff guys and gals would have you believe that doing 8 minutes a day of pushups and biceps curls with no weights will make you look like they do. But it is better than not exercising, which is mostly what I've been doing for the past year. I think I've done a session or two for 6 out of 8 days. If I can first make it into a real habit, then I can start branching out into more difficult exercises, more cardio, etc.

OK, quite enough rambling and ranting. I'll be playing in the Blogger Skills Series tonight, with the game being HOE - Limit Hold 'em, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Stud Hi/Lo (the E stands for eight-or-better, which all cards making the low hand in Hi/Lo must be, in order to qualify as a low hand.)

:wq