Off To A Slow Start

Hey Gang! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Hump Day!

As you may already know, today is my 41st birthday, and the thing is, I don't feel a day older than 39! Must be all that clean livin'. However, for what should be a pretty good day, it's gotten off to an ignominious start. I'm sure it'll get better, though.

First of all, I went down to the Silverton to play a little poker last night. Oh holy shiat what a mistake that was. The tournament starts at 10 pm, but if you play two hours at the cash game during the day, you get your $2000 add-on for free. So I went down at 8 pm and got the last available seat at the 3/6 game that was going on. Normally, it's a pretty soft game, and I can usually count on making a few bucks.

But not last night--Absolutely nothing held up. Pocket Aces, pocket Kings, flopped trips, flopped straights--not one good hand lasted past the turn. I swear, every dealer that sat down either paired the board, or put four to the flush or four to the straight on every hand. It was ridiculous. And of course there were a couple of donkeys calling two raises cold with junk cards and making their hands on the river every time. So it's beginning to look like 3/6 is going the way of 2/4 has for me--it's just too cheap for other players to call raises, and I kept getting run down. So I'll probably stick with 4/8 as an absolute minimum.

Of course, a lot of this is sour grapes because I lost about $160 to a couple of complete donkeys, but the truth is, calling two raises cold with Jack/four 'because they're suited' was just about enough for me to flip my shiat right there at the poker table. But I didn't say anything...

Luckily the tournament started soon thereafter, and I got back into the no-limit frame of mind where big hands had a chance of holding up. I was doing ok, busted a couple of guys, lasted past the re-buy period, but went all-in with Ace-Queen of hearts, when the flop came Queen - Deuce - Jack with two hearts, but lost to Ace-King when a King hit the river.

Seriously, I don't think I've won a single hand with Ace - Queen in all of 2008. Amazing.

Once I was eliminated (in 13th place) I still had $40 worth of chips in my pocket, I decided to go play one hand of Pai Gow and try to double it up. I got eights and Jacks, the dealer got nines and Queens.

Damn.

On my way out the door, I had to walk by the Megabucks machine. Before leaving the house, I had talked to the Future Mrs and told her that my plans for the evening were to win the poker tournament and then win the $20 million+ Megabucks progressive. She was cool with that idea. Since I was already batting oh-for-one, I decided I couldn't let her down, and I put thirty bucks in the machine.

I actually played for quite awhile on that $30, getting enough love to keep on pressing the button for a good twenty minutes. Of course, I didn't quite hit the jackpot, but I made enough to triple up and cash out for $90 before deciding that I just wasn't going to win back the poker losses in the same night.

But technically, I lost the poker money yesterday, but the Megabucks money came after midnight! So I guess I'm off to a decent start, after all.

Once I came home, I was exhausted. I tried to watch a little TV, but fell asleep in the chair, with the ice in my diet Coke melting before I'd even finished half a glass. So I turned off the lights and the electronics and shuffled off to bed. I don't know why, but I was up pretty early this morning. And I've already talked to a couple of the peeps back in Nashville who called to wish me a happy birthday.

I've got no plans for most of the day--just a lot of relaxin'. Later on, I'm having dinner at Grimaldi's with a few friends, and maybe a cocktail and cigar afterwards. Then once everyone heads home for the evening, I'm meeting up with my very most favorite lady in the whole world at a nice, kinda romantic spot where I will get to enjoy the pleasure of her company for a couple of hours. As you may have guessed, I'm looking forward to that even more than the pizza, booze, and cigars all put together...

So even though I'm gettin' old--much older than I wish I was--I still feel like it's gonna be a great day after all is said and done.

Mikey