Armed for the New Year

On a whim today, I decided to take my Dad up on an offer to head out to the gun show with him. Normally, I avoid these things like the plague since my tolerance for being around long beards, camouflage, and constant talk of “stopping power” is low. However, I have been wanting to purchase a gun for the house so that when I have to go away on business I’ll feel better about leaving my wife here alone, so off I went. I ended up getting a very respectable Ruger P90 .45 Special Edition at a good price, and am getting itchy to go shoot some stuff next weekend. I almost bought a really nice Sig Sauer .45, but it cost about $300 more, so I passed on it lest I catch a shit avalanche.

My inner senior citizen took over again last night, and instead of ringing in the New Year, I slept it in. I began the evening with some poker and the best intentions imaginable. After firing up Party to try and run up my free cash some more, I decided to jump into a step 1 tournament. I’m not sure what got into me, as that isn’t the smartest of moves considering the fee took nearly 25% of my free money. I played well down to 4 people, then a bit of disaster. The nutjob to my left who had been playing crazily the entire time, got his stack knocked down to t175. He goes all in on the next hand with AK (because of course my SS opponents get great cards and flops) and doubles up. Next hand, he pushes again, with what, AK of course. Double up again. Now it’s my BB (I have t1500 and get Q10s) and he pushes again. I figure at this point he is simply being an ass like he has been the rest of the game so I call. What do you know, AK again. AK 3 times in a row and hit every single board. Down to about t600, I have one more orbit before I have to push, and end up with AK in my BB a few hands later, so I push. Only Mr. Nutjob calls with/82o, and of course he wins with a turn 8 and a river 2. Ugh. No tilt though, I played well, except perhaps for the call with the Q10 for 2/3 my stack. Anyone think that was the wrong decision? I wonder how long the odds were to get 3 AK’s in a row and have them all hit. Oh well.

After that I jumped into a PL game, and blinded off about $2.50 before my parents stopped by with some belated Christmas presents, so I decided to quit since I didn’t seem to be getting any cards anyway. Most times I am of the mind, “If you fight and run away, you’ll live to fight another day” if I feel like the cards are not coming. Especially on Party, where things seem especially streaky. I know this is not reality, but perception is a powerful thing.

After the p’s left, I watched Spiderman 2, and was once again disappointed. Growing up, I was a rabid Spiderman comic collector and fan, and I have been fully let down by both movies. IMO the problem with them is they try to have a cheesy comic feel to them, and at the same time try to funny, dramatic, and action packed all at the same time, and succeed in doing NONE of these things well. It simply ends up being an over glossed, big budget, special effects laden piece of crap. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t waste your time, seriously. Rent Hero, instead. How that movie did not get more attention is beyond me. Perhaps there are even more people with illiterate tendencies out there than I had originally suspected? Stupid subtitle haters.

Our home game tonight should provide some interesting fodder for tomorrow. It’s been about two months since we had one, but I fear we are going to be shorthanded anyway, so it should be double interesting since we are going to play $20 max NL ring instead of the usual $5 tourney format.

I was honestly going to try and write something profound about my goals for the new year where poker is concerned, but I honestly haven’t had very much time to think about it fully. So for now I’ll just hitch my wagon to one of Maudie’s resolutions: To add at least one more digit to my bankroll. The post drunk wilderness I’ll be wandering in tomorrow should provide ample opportunity for some New Years profundity, so check in with me later.

I’ll shut up for now, leaving one resolution I should be able to keep, and one that I will definitely be able to keep.

Should: Keep Thinking Big
Definite: Have a Head that is Much Bigger

Back Home.......Thank God

What the hell is there to say? I’m back from Christmas in Boise, and didn’t get online even once. I also didn’t get in any poker. NONE. Things turned out pretty much as I speculated before we left, in that the trip ended up being more of a job than a good time. Along with all of the folks that needed to be seen left no time to play our wonderful game.

There were some highlights, however (if you could care less about food, skip this):

The Milky Way---This is an independent fine dining establishment that we went to the day after Christmas. I was there one other time shortly after they opened up a couple of years ago, and I was glad to see that they have done well and reopened in a larger and altogether nicer location. I ordered a new dish called the The Big Huge Pork Chop. It brought me near to tears with the first bite of perfectly cooked pork and it’s heavenly Portobello chipotle glaze, along with sweetened fried potatoes and assorted veggies. Other delights of the evening included a Portobello Wellington as well as a dish that can only be described as a haute chicken pot pie. Nothing short of amazing, and along with a couple of bottles of a very respectable Cabernet Sauvignon, a very reasonable check, coming in at under $200 (w/tip)

Shige—This place is a Boise mainstay, but no less worthy of mention. I have eaten my share of sushi in a variety of places all over the country, and the fare at this establishment remains in the upper regions of my list. If you factor in the pricing alongside the sushi, it hits the top. To this day, their unagi makes me want to twirl around and sing. Yes, it’s that good. Their service is always for shit, but it is a mild inconvenience when compared to the goodness Shige offers up.

If you’re ever in Boise, get yourself to one or both of these places as many times as you can.

The last highlight of the trip I deem worthy of its own little section. Due to the generally large amount of unhappy shit that had to be dealt with this holiday, my wife has officially jumped on my bandwagon and has signed the bill (which I quickly made binding) which states that next Christmas will be in…….wait for it………VEGAS!!!!! Believe it or not, I think she may be more excited about it than I am at this point. We now have 12 months to save and plan for a nothing-short-of-fabulous, fuck familial expectations and all of the unhappy shit they come with, holly jolly Christmas. I’ve been to Vegas nine times, but was on a pretty tight budget every time except the honeymoon. Come Christmas ’05, we are gonna Turn This Mother Out (pardon the MC Hammer reference). Poker, Shopping, and Fine Dining at all times, sounds good to me. I love my family, including the in-laws, but it's time for a damn break.

My apologies to those of you who showed up here after my absence hoping for poker content, instead finding that I have blogged a couple of meals instead. For those of you out there who love food as much as I do, I hope you got at least a little something out of it, because I’m thinking of adding food thoughts from time to time, being that I love to cook and all.

If I can snatch the time tonight, I’ll be on the PL tables trying to run up my free PP cash that I managed to quadruple before leaving. Christ, if the cards drop even slightly in my favor I will keep running it up. This should probably segue into my explanation of why I hate PartyPoker, and I will try to do it soon, just not right now. Some might form the opinion that I am full-on retarded for not playing on PP most or all of the time, and they would in many respects be correct, I suppose. I can only assure you that I am NOT retarded. I am simply neurotic and not earning as much as I suppose I could be.

Thinking Big. Head Much Bigger. You know the drill. I’m still behind on my rest, cleaning/unpacking, and schoolwork, so if you don’t hear from me tomorrow, worry not. Should tomorrow find me post-less, I will definitely be speaking my New Years mind on Jan 01. Have a safe and oh so prosperous New Years holiday!