Hanging on by a thread

We're home now, safe and sound. Okay, safe, but certainly less than sound. I feel like a Yugo that decided playing chicken with an 18-wheeler would be a good idea. I will be spending the next few days perusing the specials at Lungs-n-Livers R Us and hope I can stave off whatever disease that carrier monkey Gracie was incubating.

Upon arriving in Vegas, I believe that a brain will quickly divide its inter-cranial territory up into two regions. One half I’ll call “Reasonable”, and the other I’ll brand as “Ridiculous”. This is always what I think of when I hear someone talking about “R & R” in Vegas. You start out in the middle between the two, but sooner or later the juggernaut of Vegas forces you off the road to one side or the other. This being our Christmas trip after a difficult and annoying year, we went ahead and took the “Ridiculous” exit immediately.

To wit:

Dropping the Hammer on video poker at the Geisha Bar at 8 AM after 8 Heini’s and no sleep. Time. After. Time. In retrospect, constantly drawing to the Hammer Nuts may not have been a good idea, especially considering how difficult it is to hit a Royal Flush when implementing this “they’ll never see me comin’” strategy.

4.25 Days, approximately 14 hours of sleep. Upon waking I will commence documenting what was, in my opinion, the best one yet.

Brief Highlights

All right boys and girls, gather around for a little story. It’s gonna be a great one. You might laugh, you might cry, but most likely you will just be confused. Don’t’ worry yourself, though, you won’t be any more confused than I am at the moment.

The total trip time for the Mrs. and me is about 4.25 days. It is now about 4:30 PM on Day 3 (Monday) and I’ve been up for the last 38 hours, moving for about 30 of those. Sitting here at the wobbly table in our hotel room, I am having trouble coming up with words to describe the whirlwind of the last three days and there is still over a full day left to go. Here are a couple of tidbits…

--(Friday) You knew this was coming, but I found myself Human-Bobbleheaded drunk at the MGM mixed game. Poker played on Friday=0. I did get to meet Daddy, though, a rare and important event. That guy is a role model.
--(Friday) Mrs Head wins a $20 Roshambo match with F-Train (former blogsphere master champeen and all around helluva guy). Joe and I each put $100 on her to challenge and beat Phil Gordon at Roshambo. She does so with style in front of a packed poker room. I vaguely remember yelling “Oh, tits!” or “Oh, snap!” or something to this effect and then carrying her on my shoulders for a small victory lap. I’m a fookin’ reatard. Phil Gordon=Tilted. DonkeyPuncher really is Usher. Thanks, Commish!
--(Saturday) The tornado finally touched down (what other metaphor did you expect me to use? I’m live in fuckin’ Kansas) and the day goes by in a complete blur with all of the tourney festivities. The highlight of my day was taking $5 off Wil when I picked StudioGlyphic for the win. Thank God I actually scratched out a few notes, because the bar was open like a porn star with a deep itch to scratch. Worry not, we beat that thing inside out. The only poker of the day was played in the tournament, where I exited around 63rd. Poorly played on all streets is all I can say about that, but I did drop the hammer on Shelly.
--(Sunday) Betting on horses at the sportsbook and hanging out with the group. There was a lot of pain as, once again, the Chiefs choked and I didn’t hit a single damn horse. Licked my wounds at 3950 in Mandalay Bay with Mrs. Head, BG, Bill Rini, THG, April, and PokerProf. I’ll have my thoughts on the restaurant in a few days, but the one thing I do know is that our waitress made at least $300 in tips from that meal. Brutal but worth it.
--(Monday, 9 AM) I haven’t slept the entire night. Played craps with Mrs. Head, Jen Leo, Biggestron, CJ, Travis, Royal, Jaxia, and Pauly at the Casino Royale after a bender in the AlCanthang Crew Penthouse. Left at around 3 AM (maybe it was later) to continue bending and ended up in a 2/4 game at the IP with Iggy, TP, Pauly, Derek, Jaxia, and later in the early morn, GeekandProud. Ridiculous pots. I counted a total of four hands that weren’t live-straddled and played in the dark. Suckout donkey fun of the highest caliber, with the extra bonus being the extreme tilt of four different 2/4 pro’s who were sitting at the table when we took it over. Left the game at about 6 AM or so and drank Hieneken with the boys until about 11. I have finally earned my degenerate merit badge for this trip.

Of course, this is brief. So, so damn brief. Besides, it’s hard to write much more when all I can do is sit here and hope that at sometime in my life I will see my ultimate dream realized; Hot-swappable feet. Mine hurt so bad I feel like I’m walking around on nubs. If my vision was clearer, I might be able to check. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to head out again to drop the hammer on an unsuspecting video poker machine (I’ve got pics, but I have to wait to post them because I forgot the cable from my camer.). first trip report installment should be sometime Thursday if I’m still alive.

At 39 hours, I’ve got $20 on Death to win.

Last licks

Boy, I sure wanted to do more posts than the zero I have done thus far this week, but ’05 is making sure it gets some licks in before making an exit, which has put me on some serious life tilt. Quite a few bloggers seem to be getting bashed by ‘05’s flailing exit as well, so I won’t complain in detail as is my tendency. Sometimes it’s just your turn to get bashed in the groin a few times, whether you deserve it or not. One just has to suck it up and press on, even if it is easier to say than to do most of the time.

Vegas couldn’t be coming at a better time, and I know I’m not just speaking for myself. Let’s just hope that the poker gods take a sympathetic stance on the collective swollen junk and turn off the universe/luck doom switch for a couple of days.

On to more pleasant things…..

Mrs. Head and I decided to give ourselves a couple fo early presents this year in the form of new mp3 players. No, we did not get iPods. While iPods look fantastic, have a great UI, and are attached to a pretty solid iTunes software package, they are way too encumbered to convince me to fork over the cash Apple wants. I just can’t see why I would want to buy something that has a 20gb drive (or more) that doesn’t give me the option to store data like I need to, so I didn’t. For those that haven’t yet jumped on the iPod bandwagon, here is what the Mrs. and I purchased.

iRiver H10 20gb Player/Recorder

mobiBLU 1gb Player/Recorder Cube.

Both of these bad boys are pretty damn cool. While there’s certainly a case to be made for the iPod, these seem to have more cool features with some better inherent flexibility. Once I get a chance to play with both a bit more I may post a more extensive review, but for the time being I will say that both are money well spent and should serve us both well on the upcoming trip.

And speaking of trips…..

Only one more day till I make my 14^th trip to the beautiful city of dreams (mostly broken) that is Vegas. I was twenty years old and in the military when I made my first trip. I was shitbox broke which meant that I was kickin’ it at the Casino Royale with my fake ID and going to Little Darlin’s with the guys. Looking back it makes me eminently thankful that I’ve managed to climb up a few rungs and am no longer relegated to wallowing in the desperation pool of $2 BlackJack tables. That’s not to say that desperation only exists in the seedier casino’s, but I like my desperation to at least make the effort and wear a bit of cologne, knowhutimean?

9 years, 14 trips. On most of those trips I would spend the entire way there wondering if I would have a good time, wondering if I would regret the decision to go. Because of all the fine folks in this little community, I no longer wonder such things; I only look forward with glee. The things that life throws my way in an effort to tilt me and make me give fade into the background, and I am thankful.

See you all there.

One of those days

First, make sure to head on over to give Otis and Joe their deserved accolades for showing NaNoWriMo who’s boss by successfully hitting the 50K word benchmark. Enduring such a month of writing is definitely a tall order, so heap some praise on what are two of the ‘sphere’s best wordsmiths.

Bob was forced to withdraw from the competition because of an injury caused by carrying too much junk, rendering him unable to sit and type for any sustained period. Don’t blame him, blame Mother Nature and her bountiful gifts.

***
Anyone who knows me at all knows that nearly each and every new day brings a fresh annoyance with which I must deal. The latest?

Cyber Monday.

If you watched any local or national news program at any time on Monday you likely heard the term and saw segments devoted to it at least once per hour. Life is steadily becoming more and more of a waking dream gone wrong, with every dire prediction from sci-fi novels past coming to life right before our eyes, or at the very least waiting in the wings to do so. I’m sure I don’t need to tell any of my tens of readers that there is no such thing as Cyber Monday—some mid-level media douchebag somewhere in some meeting decided to coin the term (because that’s just what we need, more new terms) and media outlets tried as hard as they can to push the hell out of it so that the masses can be primed and ready to stretch the limits of their ever-expanding debt to corporations next year. Never mind that it is there weren’t any online retailers having “Cyber Monday Sales”, they said it so it must exist.

I guess we just add it to the big ball of nothingness wherein the situation in Iraq is going swimmingly and increasing the power of government to spy on its own population is actually good for us. Writing about it really doesn’t accomplish anything other than give me an opportunity drone on about an idiot subject that most have already forgotten about, but hey, some MTV-sodden kid might wander by here, so in the interest of saving the children I throw it out there.

You heard me right; I do it for the children.

What’s the over/under for WalMart Wednesday coming to fruition?
How about Take Your Child to Get a Credit Card Tuesday?
Throw the College Fund into the Economy Thursday? Anyone?

With things continuing at their current velocity I fully expect that in another decade we will have lost the calendar as we know it. Instead, it will be integrated into our TeleScreen360 as a multidimensional data model that will tell us hour by hour what holiday we should be celebrating (and consequently shopping for) and what is the appropriate style, color, and placement of the ribbon that we will wear for said holiday to demonstrate to our fellow patriots that we are not dissenters and/or potential terroristas.

As you can see, the ChristmaHanaKwanzikah season, per usual, is making me holly-jolly as hell.

***
I am, however, very thankful for the few things that do not make my giant head want to explode—

Booze, Bloggers, and Vegas.

Mrs. Head and I will be in town on the afternoon of the 9^th, and a few hours later I plan on being Human-BobbleHeaded drunk at the MGM for Joaquin’s Mixed Game festivities. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll jump into the games because I play each at the level of “barely functioning retard”, but I can guarantee that I’ll be losing lots of money to my bar tab.

Merry Christmas to me (and to you all in a few short days).

I dream of shots

Las Vegas is just getting too close for comfort. Lat night I dreamt I won just over half a mil on some strange Let it Ride/Video Poker hybrid using the remote control in our room at the Imperial Palace. The only other thing that I remember with any clarity from the dream was jetting straight over to the Wynn and getting a suite while Mrs. Head chartered a flight back home to hire a barber shop quartet to sing some variation of “Fuck Off” to her boss. I remember walking into the suite and being very drunk and surrounded by other similarly drunk blogging compatriots.

It was a good dream.

It wasn’t long after that I was stumbling out of bed hazily searching for a cold Coke and my Camel Wides so I could begin the day, when somewhere in the house I kept hearing a muffled beep. I thought it might be one of the smoke detectors crying out for a new battery, but the sound wasn’t nearly annoying enough. Shit, I must’ve missed a phone call. After leaving work on Wednesday I had left my cell in my coat pocket so as not to have to think about it all weekend, because many times I find myself longing for the cell phones of old that didn’t have the ability to speak up when they wanted attention.

I thought work may have called, so with a heavy heart I listened to the voicemail. The heaviness changed as I realized I had just received a dial-a-shot from Bobby Bracelet, BG, and THG. DAMNIT!

So, brothers, I offer my humblest apologies for not scoring the completion when the DAS went out. I humbly offer this post-Thanksgiving post-a-shot in return.

The Apple Pie Shot

Mix 3 Parts vodka (can be a mid-grade, you won’t be tasting it) w/ 1 part Apple Juice
Have 1 can of whip cream handy
Tin of cinnamon

The most entertaining way to do this shot is with two people. One person takes the shot and keeps it in their mouth, tilting their head back and not swallowing. The second squirts a bit of the whipped cream into their mouth and taps a small bit of cinnamon on top. Person #1 tilts forward and swallows. Porny, no?

Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to simply pour the liquor into a shot glass, throw a bit of whipped directly on top of the liquid, add cinnamon, and shoot it like a normal person. It’s just a bit less fun as they begin to have their effect.

Best of luck to everyone as they try to get through these next two weeks!

Done and Almost Done

At of 3 P.M. today, I reached the summit of Mt. NaNoWriMo.

Woohoo!

Now the bad news. It still isn’t finished. I think I have about 15K words left to write before the story will be finished which is something I never expected. Now the question is, can I get it truly finished (not just the 50K word goal) before we head to Vegas?

I hope so.

I love you, FullTilt

WOW.

All I can say is that if the FullTilt (bonus code: HHEAD) live event last night kicked much ass. Poker is fun to watch, but when it’s fun AND instructional like the show last night, it can’t be beat. The end got a little silly because of the blinds, but there’s nothing anyone can really do about that for a program of that type. I think FullTilt pulled it off as good as a live event could have been. It was good enough that I even hate FSN less for their continual Poker Superstars Invitational abortion.

Oh, yeah. Howard Lehderer? It's been said a milion times already, but here it is again. Best poker commentator EVER.

Rather than go on and on about the particulars, I’ll leave it at this: If you missed it last night, try hard to find a torrent or something, it will be worth your time.

Hope everyone had a great holiday! I’m thankful for a ton of things, but not the abuse I’m still taking at the tables. 2-outer river beats galore, and I’m losing my mind, but going back for more, nonetheless. Oh yes, one last thing. I had Mrs. Head hit me with a book when I was tilting a couple of days ago. That shit actually works! Shock therapy=Tilt be gone. Who knew?

Pokerstars just keeps getting better

I have stuck primarily with Pokerstars for my online pokering since I began, and they have never disappointed—from their customer support to nice software and of course, the tournaments. They were doing it right before anyone else. So a huge thanks to them for their WPBT support. If you’ve been under a rock or in a third world country, go read this to get up to speed. Sure I’ve strayed over to other sites, but Stars has always been my first love. That punk bitch PartyPoker thinks she’s all that and a bag of chips, sending me ultimatums and taking back my player points. She can keep ‘em, stupid bitch; I don’t care how good the fishing is.

Full Tilt (Bonus code: HHEAD) is definitely my piece on the side, though, with (IMHO) the best software out there and a player base that will hopefully balloon completely out of control pretty soon. They have also shown a ton of WPBT support and I would be absolutely remiss if I didn't mention them , too.

Right now my pokering between the two is about a 70/30 split. If your not playing at either of these two sites yet, just use the handy-dandy links on the sidebar and get to it.

Thanks again, Otis and Pokerstars + Full Tilt for "getting it"!

Emotion Commentary

Man, it’s hard to even put into words the size and ruggedness of the steel-toed boots poker strapped on yesterday and this morning. She laced ‘em up tight and went to work on my junk like a man-hating Lifetime producer. So here I sit with an icepack on my nuts and a fistful of anti-depressants, writing to you, dear reader, on the verge of a massive tilt-induced coronary of SirWaffle proportions minus the bankroll destruction.

Such is my dedication.

This situation lends itself nicely to a post that I’ve been brooding over for about a week now. I’ve been putting it off in the intense wake of NaNoWriMo, and lo and behold, it was covered in fine fashion by Hank who likely said it better than I could have. In taking on the more difficult task of writing the spearhead post on emotions, he has left me with the much lighter load of simple commentary.

(before proceeding, click on the link and read his post first if you haven’t already)

Winding up his post, Hank states, “In answer to the question, "Do emotional poker players have an advantage in tournament poker?" I think the jury is still out.” For me, the jury is in and they have reached a verdict:

Being an emotional player, be it in cash games or tournaments, is NOT where it’s at.

I repeat. NOT where it’s at.

I can say this with confidence because I am one of these emotional players. Watching these folks that have the ability to retain an ever cold and logical outlook makes me Scott's Turfbuilder green with envy. I have no idea where this emotionality comes from. Perhaps I didn’t get enough hugs from Mom. Perhaps I’ve been beat down by “The Man” one too many times in my short life. Whatever the reason, I am not, and it’s doubtful that I’ll ever be, a person with the ability to be completely emotionless.

Being emotional will cause a person to make frustration errors. Some emotional people will have better control and make less of them, but they will happen, and will happen more than those made by the person who can truly let the injustices and attendant frustrations slide off their back. If I get my aces cracked by runner runner gutshot backdoor shit cards, I’m going to be pissed. Carry this situation over multiple days or weeks and my heart starts in with threats of exploding inside my chest cavity if I don’t play those suited one-gappers out of position. Just once, you know, to get me back on an even keel.

Now, take the above and apply it to the roboticism of Hank and others like him. The aces being cracked will briefly annoy, but the cold precision of their play will continue unabated. Assuming that the skill level is the same (yeah, right. While I’m at it, why not go ahead and say that I play ball as good as MJ), if I make this error once per day that costs me at least 1 SB (and likely more) and Hank does not, just think about how much that he saves over the course of a year. And that’s just a loosely defined cash game example. What if the same loosely defined terms were applied to a tournament? I end up busting because I got trapped in a marginal situation and am either busted or have taken a hit to my stack. Hank’s cold logic avoids this foolishness and by doing so automatically gets an edge with which to travel higher on the placement ladder.

The conclusion? Be more like Hank and less like me.

But fear not, dear friends. I’m not one to simply discuss a problem, but rather, as corporate America has lovingly taught me, I must bring alternative solutions to the table. Think outside of the box and change the paradigm in order to assess the risk and take advantage of the current trends to fortify and streamline future margins and matrices, as it were (dear God, I seriously need a healthier work environment).

Get a big stick, preferably a giant bamboo stick like they use/used in traditional old-school martial arts training in the East. Give said stick to spouse, significant other, roommate, friend, or neighbor. Task this person with keeping a close eye on you while you play. When pesky detrimental tilt starts to arrive on the back of those ruinous emotions, have said designee whack you with the big bamboo stick. It will hurt and it will make you mad, but will help you recognize the absurdity of getting so angry. If it doesn’t, simply repeat until you DO recognize or are too injured to play.

Either way, everyone wins. Bankroll is intact and tilt is avoided, plus your designee has had a fantastic time doing something that would normally be considered “assault”. Pfft, assault, what a bunch of pansies.

My Tae Kwon Do grandmaster, Jin Yong Kim, used to always say, “You will NEVER have perfect Tae Kwon Do, but that doesn’t mean you should ever stop trying for it.” The same goes for getting rid of emotional play at the tables. You may not ever be perfect at it, but with constant effort and the help of a giant bamboo stick, you should never stop trying and consequently, get better at control.

Emotion is NOT where it’s at.

gdiiwtfdmph

Hey there, old friend! Smell that smell? Yep, I know ya do. It’s that sweet familiar smell of winter in the fucking Midwest. Monday-70 degrees, wind 5-10 mph. Tuesday—30 degrees, wind 40-55 gdiiwtfdmph (that’s goddamn it, I want to fucking die Miles per Hour). Every year it’s the same damn thing, old man winter wakes up and realizes he’s way behind schedule and so proceeds to shit on the entire region. Don’t think I’m just sitting here complaining, though. I’m actually sitting here complaining while actively working to get the hell out of this land that time forgot.

And since I’m on a complaining run, I might as well see it to the end. I’ve been pondering the last few weeks just why people feel it necessary to signal when going from on-ramp to highway. The on-ramp ends, it’s going to force you onto the highway proper, you don’t need to let everyone know because, surprise!, they already do. Why don’t any of them feel like a signal is necessary when decide to coast to a nearly complete stop before turning in some completely unspecified direction?

Oh hell, this whining is already tedious so I’ll shut up. Just know that every day I wish upon a star to be around folks that have an IQ higher than the speed limit.

Waitaminute…**puts hand on head and concentrates real hard**

I think I’m getting a vision of some sort….

Yes! There it is!

It appears that my wish will be granted on Dec. 9^th

Shit. That’s still too far away.

And if your wondering, the answer is “yes”, I plan on going on in this manner until Mrs. Head and I arrive to the sounds of –EV bells and whistles.

For those who might care, I’ve played some poker but not much. The little I have played has gone well, so it’s at least nice to know that the little skill that exists is not completely gone. My energies and copious amounts of time are being sucked down by NaNoWriMo, but I will get into a full-time poker swing the week prior to the WBPT event, as this seems to be the optimal amount of time to have a peak poker pump going then we land.

Oh yes, one last thing. For the Storming of the Castle messaging blitz I have Performify on my list, but that’s it so far as it seems everyone has been covered. If you got missed, just send me an email and I will make sure you get a shout.

Tired…must medicate….talk to you all laaateeeeeer!

Hello Saturday!

All you can do is get your money in with the best of it, but even that does no good if the doom switch is turned on. I kid, but now I have to spend the next couple of hours easing off of the pre-tilt I can feel rising inside me. Worst Feeling in the World, especially when you know intellectually that there is no reason to feel like that. With a finish in 62^nd in Pauly’s tourney, rest assured I’m going to have to shove 14 horseshoes in my ass before the final one in order to have any chance at the iPod. No pain, No gain.

NaNoWriMo Update: It has been taking ALL of my spare time, hence the very sporadic posting. I’ll be taking the day off from writing, but will have crossed the 25,000 word mark by the close of the weekend. It’s turning into everything I never thought it would be, and by that I mean that I seem to be writing an Oprah book (the tone is turning out to be very touchy-feely). So, manly men coming across this work, prepare to be severely underwhelmed. Females and other assorted estrogen-laden organisms, stock up on the tissue. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how the last half goes; it is what it is.

It also looks like I’ll be stuck in this god-awful city for a bit longer, since I didn’t get the job I wanted. The thing that I can’t seem to let go about it is: Did I fuck up, or did I simply lose out to someone better qualified? I guess I’ll have to file that one away with the other unanswerable questions such as, “How come I didn’t win the lottery this week?” and “How come there’s corn in there? I haven’t had corn in weeks!”

Oh yeah, and “Why isn’t Vegas here yet?”

Pre-Vegas Rushin'

The rush to bankroll up for Vegas is definitely on. Congrats to all of the bloggers who recently made some nice tourney scores. Seriously, it’s getting to be too many to count. Joe just hit for a nice win. Daddy is taking down anything even alluding to a farm animal, reaming it good. CJ, -EV, and SirWafflesWinsTourneys. The list is nearly too many to count or link. The world must be nearing its end, though, because I can now add my name to the list of Those Who are Scoring (this also happens to be the name of the list I desperately tried to get on in Junior High, but I digress).

First NL final table ever in the WWdN Invitational two weeks ago. Final table at Saturdays with Pauly. Final table at the Bill Rini Desert Shootout.

While playing like a weak-tight sissyboy (shut up, If you had Hank and Joe on your left you would too) I decided to jump into the NL $10+1 after the first break in the Shootout. To make a long story short, after busting in 9^th in the Shootout, I scored a 4^th for a nice $300. Man, anything seems easy after playing the tough blogger fields.

Just need to work on closing now.

Review: The Best Hand I Ever Played

The Best Hand I Ever Played was an entertaining, albeit short, read. It is a collection of 52 hands played by various professionals and big tournament winners. Each person recounts a brief tale of one of the best hands they ever played, hence the title of the book. Following the recount of the hand, Steve Rosenbloom throws in a section called “The Rake” where he dissects the strategic implications.

Upon receiving the book I was understandably excited and jumped in right away. After a couple of hours went by I realized that I had already ripped through over half of it and that my enjoyment was nearing an abrupt end. In the middle of “Oooh! New poker book!” euphoria I had failed to consider its length and consequently failed to pace myself.

Don’t expect any in-depth strategy lessons with this book, you won’t get them. This is primarily a poker book that tells a collection of brief stories; very brief stories. All of these things combined led me to a sense of mild overall disappointment with this book once I was finished. Perhaps I expected too much, that is always a possibility. I loved reading about the players and their favorite hands, but I was left wanting something more in-depth. The post-recount strategy sections were even briefer and felt like an afterthought; something just put there to fill space. Scattered throughout the book were handy-dandy little graphics explaining poker terms like “The Turn”. These definitely could have been left out. With ESPN increasing the poker coverage year by year I find it difficult to imagine that someone reading this book would find this most basic information enlightening in any way. Again, maybe I expected too much.

So, there’s how it all shakes out in my world. It seems that this book was devoted to pleasing everyone, which is understandable, but I believe that this is its downfall. I wouldn’t buy this book. I would, however, buy it for a friend or acquaintance as some sort of small gift, stocking stuffer, etc, and I would enjoy receiving it as a gift. The good thing is that it costs less than many of you spend on blinds in an orbit. It definitely couldn’t hurt to pick up a copy to read while your folding that string of Q3 offsuit’s you’re being dealt, just don’t make the same mistake I did and expect too much.

Sign up Reminder!

Only three and a half hours till bloggers clash in…

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly on Poker Stars
Saturday 11.5.05 @ 1pm EST
$10 + 1 NL
Password is hiltons
Tournament #14338880 (check under Private Tournament Tab)

Be there!

I’m just under the 20% completed (9,782 words) mark for NaNoWriMo. After breaking over the initial “howthefuckamieversupposedtowriteanovel” barrier the floodgates have opened. Here’s to hoping they stay open for the duration. Be sure to stop by and give some encouragement to the others who are willingly embarking on this masochistic quest.

I find myself fearing blind corners, thinking that my old battle axe of a college writing teacher is waiting there with her everlasting red pencil to cut me into ribbons.

Also, for those attending the festivities in Vegas, a reminder that it would greatly behoove you to attend the Full Tilt (Bonus Code: HHEAD) Shootout Tourney courtesy of Grand Organizational Wizard and All Around Kick-Ass Individual, Bill Rini.

See you all in a couple of hours! I now have to return to inflicting carpal tunnel on myself (not the good kind).

Going for it

There is no failure except in no longer trying. ~Elbert Hubbard

I decided on Halloween Day to give it a try after watching the event roll past me last year. I wasn't even planning on letting anyone know about it, but that would defeat at least part of the purpose. Day 2 is in the books, 28 more to go.

I really need to go back to Pauly's archives for his commentary on Tiffany Williamson. Watching her play last night made be feel damn near professional in my skills. To be fair, I think a lot of my thoughts on her play is due to editing, as I just can't imagine someone getting that consistently lucky to make it that deep into such a large field. There had to be some good play that got her there, we just didn't see any of it last night.

Busy now, more later. Shhhh, don't tell work :)

Deep Stack

Don’t be like me.

As in, I played in the $10+1 deep stack tourney on Stars yesterday and went out because of the biggest idiot move EVER on my part. It was, in fact, so dumb I can’t even bring myself to recount it in any detail lest I become so embarrassed that I run and lock myself in a dark closet for the rest of the week as penance.

And with that, I humbly prostrate myself before the NL experts in the ‘sphere and request advice and/or strategy for deep stack tourney.

DoubleAs , and I know others, have posted a lot of material on deep stack cash games but I’m curious how this might differ from the deep stack tourney strategy. I may be (again) showing my ignorance here, but it seems to me there would definitely be some extra considerations to take into account.

Regardless, it was certainly interesting to play with the deep stack format, even though it was kind of uncomfortable given the fact that I’ve never played in a deep stack environment before. I’m also curious to hear what everyone thinks of this format in general. I can see how the more skilled players would favor this, but the nature of online play being what it is, I can see that the time necessary to play one of these would certainly be a mitigating factor.

Have a great week, everyone. 39 days and counting until VEGAS!

Uggh, airports.

Umm….yeah…so I just finished the first interview of my life that I would actually describe as “grueling”. Holy hell, I think I accidentally walked my way into a full on serious ADULT-type job.

Throughout my work history I have always been able to tell where I stand with the interviewer in question. Their eyes and facial expression are normally transparent enough for me to gauge whether or not they like me and the drivel that I’m spewing their way. Not so this time. For the most part I may as well have been interviewing with a bunch of world renowned poker pro’s. These people gave away not a hint of what was going through their heads, so now I get to stew for a while wondering what kind of phone call or email I’ll be getting (if I get one at all :))

Time to get on the plane, be back soon.

(Funny thing, when I was younger I used to think that doing a bunch of “business traveling” would be really cool. Cell phone, laptop, rental cars and flights. Oops, wrong again, not cool at all. Mostly annoying and tiring, heh.

Edit: The job I interviewed for is not in the Adult industry, even though what I wrote might sound like it :)

Positive, for once.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting The Human Head, made with real bits of poker, so you know I’m good.

60% of the time, I win every time.

(Okay, I confess. I’ve had Anchorman on in the background at least 3 days this week while working on various things)

Good Stuff.

Wow, great times right now at PokerStars. I don’t think there is a need to enumerate much more than that, other than to say that last night things were almost PartyPoker-ish.

Again, Good Stuff.

Throughout all of my pontifications this year, both on and off-line, I have maintained that 2005 has just been kind of a generally shitty year for all (OK, backtrack…many) involved. Nothing too drastically shitty (ignoring New Orleans, current and ongoing political douchebaggery, and other various catastrophic events), just one of those years that nothing seems to go quite how it ought to.

As we near the end, I think that 2005 is getting tired and is ready for a nap. Over the last couple of weeks it dawned on me just how close we are to WPBT III: The Search for Sobriety (feel free to insert your own words or tagline here---My Dignity, Clean Shorts, Breath Mints, SoCo, Competent Wait Staff…you get the idea) . In other areas things have been steadily looking up, as well. Opportunities are poking their little heads out from the most unexpected places. I’m being flown elsewhere this weekend in pursuit of an opportunity with some serious potential that is unfortunately not poker-related, possibly resulting in our moving out of this (insert your own non-complimentary adjective here) city.

My holding is better-than-marginal, but I haven’t moved my stack in the middle….yet. I’m trying to finalize my read and keep in mind that 2005 could still very well deal me a nasty river card. This isn’t too likely, but then again a 2-outer never is.

Good Stuff.

Increments

What happened within the dead space of two months?

Too much and not enough.

I had to stop blogging for a while because it had simply ceased to be fun. Some intense self-loathing, for sure, for various reasons. I hardly read any blogs. I think I played poker twice the entire time.

We’ve all heard from various people in our lives all of the different quips that basically mean the same thing…”Do it right or don’t do it at all.” I didn’t feel like I was doing it right so I had to step back from everything even though I knew intellectually that there is no “right”.

Finally, at the ripe old age of 29, I’ve pretty much finished my Bachelors Degree (still have about 9 hours of lower-division straggler classes to finish, but those are a walk). I finished up a couple of certifications I should have completed long ago. Mrs. Head finished her MBA (emphasis on Global Management, if anyone is looking to hire. She’s like…umm,smart…and stuff). I am no longer dragging around the oppressive corporate black cloud (it’s not gone, just lightened up to a nicer shade of grey). This weekend was the time to get back to blogging and all of the other things that I so recently loved.

But what if I write something down and still hate it as I did before? It was a real fear. It’s one thing to leave for a while because you hate what’s coming out of you, but entirely another to come back and realize that you’ll be quitting yet another endeavor that you once enjoyed but now inexplicably can’t seem to do anymore.

I love it now as I once did. The drudge is gone, and I’ve gained a new perspective similar to those that come to light at the poker tables every once in a while. It’s not something that can be readily put into words, but you know that you’ve shifted to a new position and can see things that previously eluded you. You’ve just grown up another increment.

I live for the increments, like a junkie that lives for that next push. Most of the time, the junkie knows where to go for the next hit; increments aren’t so easy. When they make themselves known at the tables or in your life, be sure to treasure them because it might be a while before you get another.

Kumbaya.

Now that you’re all warm and fuzzy you may return to your regular poker schedule :)

I forgot to wear a cup

2 consecutive hands, I called obvious all-in bluffs.

2 consecutive hands, the bluffers hit their 3-outers.

I think I'm going to be sick. No cool prizes for me today.

Christ, my second post off hiatus and I'm already whining. At least I didn't post a hand history! It was really cool of PokerStars to do this freeroll, hopefully it'll happen again soon because I'm itching to exact some revenge.

Back to the tables now, gotta cheer the WPBT on!