I've been on a pretty sick run this last month as far as internet poker goes...
I haven't been a huge online guy, but its what people are doing, and its part of my business model so I've acquiesced to the trend... funny thing is that since the reversal of freedoms act got through the senate last November basically outlawing online poker, It has only seemed to get stronger. Which I love! Democracy at work!
Anyway, I've been playing a lot of tourny's lately, which I didn't do much of in the past... mostly cash games, and mostly PLO. I've done well in them. Well enough to have been able to transfer over $3,000 to friends so that they may feed their poker appetite...
Anyway, over the last month or so I have had some pretty good results...
- $5 90 person tourny's 2 wins 4 seconds and 3 final tables with one busto
- $20 45 person 2 wins 2 seconds 1 4th and 2 busto
- $20 90 person 1 second 1 3rd and 3 final tables
- $50 54 person 1 3rd 1 second and a busto
Riverchasers events 2 final tables with a second and 5th (or 6th) one was HORSE where I lost against AlCantHang and the lovely Mrs. Canthang
I took second in the Mookie last week basically donking off to Bayne_s because of getting a little apathetic to the cause and finally pushed with 10 J thinking he must be bluffing this time...
I also won back to back entry into the FTOPS #6 and the Main Event on Sunday... which is where the story begins
So the wife started back to work about 4 weeks ago. Part-time, and more so to give her a break away from the one short of a starting basketball team brood. She works mostly at night maybe twice a week and a Saturday. I've had good results with getting them to bed by 8 and having the night all to myself to play online poker or other degenerate things (such as work).
Last night was the FTOPS #6 which I qualified for in a $26 sat the night before. I was really looking forward to playing in this and actually doing well. I've been running pretty good lately and didn't worry about the AA getting cracked by 88 thing(which just happened to me in a $20 45)
I got all 4 into their sacks at about 8:30 and was amp'd up to have a nice relaxing night in front of the virtual ATM. The tourny started and I was greeted with a ton of railbirds stopping in showing their support, as well as a bunch of IM windows pinging me with words of encouragement.
then it happened...
The 2 year old (female) starts screaming at the top of her lungs about how she wants apple juice... So apple juice it is. I timed the hands out perfectly to be able to run into the kitchen, obtain a sippie cup, fill it with 100% apple juice, run up the stairs, throw it into her crib, and rush back down the stairs in time for the next hand (where I would be happy enough to see AA)... Only something got in the way...
The apple juice wasn't enough.. she wanted water, and then an actual apple. Trying to negotiate with a 2 year old, in a dark room, at 9:20 pm, is near impossible. I tried the drill instructor style "GO TO BED" with the mean look on my face which only resulted in more tears... I submitted to the actual apple request, but she didn't quite get that I couldn't pull it out of my butt, and had to actually leave the room to fetch it. Which made the screams worse than the sounds coming from a possum trapped in a snare.
As I rushed out of the room past the infants (male) room, I hear him screaming. I decide to attend to him later and get the apple and see if I can get a hand in between the travel. That's when I noticed the clock was on me with AA. As I dive into the couch to press raise, the timer counts down to zero and the big blue tab that says I'm Back pops up. (FOOK)
I obtain the apple and run back up the stairs to an ever increasing screaming match between two opponents who don't even know that they are competing. The 9 year old (female) looks out her door, looking exactly like my wife with an expression of scorn and says "what are you doing?, Laney is crying?" (as if I didn't already know that).. i basically tell her to shut up, and get back in bed, and step sideways into Laney's room with the apple as if it were the answer to all her prayers. TO NO AVAIL! mini wife is now inside the offenders room with arms crossed and tapping her foot... I decide to recruit her for help by saying, "Hey C, take Laney into my room and sleep with her on my bed"... She obliges and off they go. As they pass the boys room, she states the obvious that he is crying...
I grab him, and just reside myself in the fact that he will now be playing the tourny with me, on the couch, hopelessly falling asleep in my arms.
By the time i get back down stairs, it is quite obvious that I have missed about 20 minutes of playing time... Two IM boxes are up with frantic posts of "WHERE ARE YOU", and "DID YOU LOSE YOUR CONNECTION?" and other stupid friggin questions.
I fold for the next 30 minutes, completely card dead, while the boy falls asleep again, and while I hear the other two jumping rope above my head...
Break comes and I decide to put the boy back in his crib, and relegate the other two back to their own quarters. While doing so, the boy wakes back up, again with shrieks that would crack the plate glass in any local church. I grab him back up and try to rock him to sleep without success.
I don't make it back before the break ends, and I'm down to just over 1K. The IM's keep coming with questions of why am I not there, what is going on?, how do you blow this off like its a $50 tourny, and so on... which only enrages me more. I'm on the brink of needing a new laptop because I can only respond with one hand (the other is holding the boy) and I am pounding the keyboard with the fervor of a steel driving man.
I make some successful moves to get back up to a little over 3k. We are down to about 1500 players from 2551, and I pick up AK pre flop where I raise the pot of $560
folds around to the BB and he flat calls with 57o... flop comes 5 5 10, and I'm gone.
I didn't even give the hand a thought to do any type of analysis, but either way I'm gone because the turn came A and the river brought a K, so either way, with my short stack, the money is going in that hand. My only peeve was this guy only had about 800 more than me, and to flat call with 5 7 is just super donkish.. I wish he was in a wheel chair..
the point to this is that that was the only night the kids ever gave me an issue. The only night that I didn't want or need it.
So, the main event is on Sunday, and the wife and kids are off to the beach house on Saturday, so I'll be by myself. I look forward to peace and quiet and being able to focus on tournament I really want to do well in...
