Ayup Gary, Ayup..

I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon in the pouring rain all southern style fishing as I image Gary and his mullet doing many an afternoon. The town I live in had the annual fishing derby for the children. The good folks as park and rec took 200 assorted fish and threw them into the pond by us. The fish were then onslaught by screaming children swinging hooks around everywhere trying to catch a fish or an eyeball or some other parts. At least the rain kept all but the most die hard fishers inside. Despite the cold weather and the soggy everything it was a bit of fun. One of our neighbors who fishes a lot came by with some shiners (live fish) and we ended up catching a couple of 13" trout as well as missing a HUGE bass that bit through the line just as I had him on shore and flopped back into the water. Bastard! It turns out that this cost my son his trophy as he finished in 4th and much like his father was the bubble boy. He was not very pleased by this and his rotten attitude did not make the afternoon at all pleasant. Eventually it was my fault for not catching the fish the right way. Apparently I can not out fish the 6 year old who won 3rd and I should give up now. Dammit Jim, I am a programmer not a fisherman!!!!

The day did not improve all that much as I just had the worst luck possible at the Big Game. I then coupled that with frustration and pushed myself out when I did not need to. The one thing about playing Jecii is he barely bluffs and if he bets huge into you he has something. I knew this and was just tired of everything missing. I swear it was a comedy of errors. I raised pocket pairs several times and got called and each time the person crushed the flop. Like against said Jecii the first time when his 89o spiked trips. The only good hand of the night was when I kneecapped Tripjax. He limped the small blind with A8o.. the flop comes ATT.. I have T3o.. and I check/call and then push the river against him. He of course can not fold to me and pays me off instead. Open raise those small aces if your going to play them out of the small blind.. and never stack off on that kind of board against a non-raised pot. Poker has a funny way of rewarding crap cards if they are allowed to limp in. My final hand of the night came against Jecii again.. I open raised my AJo (I know stupid) and the flop comes 9Jx. I figure this is a good flop. I lead out for 500.. and Jecii makes it 1500.. and I say "I know he has me beat but this is getting too frustrating".. so I pull the cord and eject the rest of my chips. He flopped a set of 9's. Card rack. I thought he might have a good chance of folding to the money with the early chip up but he bailed around 12th. Oh well.

I also tried a PLO game. Now I am tre suck at PLO but I look down and see an AT3T spades. I raise it Trauma style.. trying to build a pot so I can push someone off on the flop. Anyway I hit the deadly top set with T86. I push a pot sized bet. Cold Called. Turn is a 7. Another pot sized bet which puts me all in for my full 4K. Cold Called. Dude flips over 526A for a five high diamond draw and a gutshot straight draw. Now I am not genius in PLO HOWEVER a five high flush and the ass end of a straight draw seems like two great ways to get stacked on PLO. However it being donkey day the nine hits the river and my set goes down in flames. Again.. the hands you play in PLO are things like QQJK s000ted. So even if he makes his draw many many many times he is going to be beaten. It was just a real bad play in my opinion. Although I might concede that I played my top set too hard.

Anyway.. tonight is the MATH. I was looking through the standings of the Battle of the Bloggers. While 34 out of 159 is statistically the higher end of mediocre I should be able to do better. I got a chuckle out of Veneno in last. Followed up by my boy Smizmitch. heh. Not so funny have Ick, Bayne, Jordon, and even Bone Daddy ahead of me in the standings. Crazy crazy crazy. Oh well. See you tonight.