Congrats to Chad, Al, Don, Mook, Surf, etc. etc.

Very fun night last night. I told you the Mookie is a slit. I can't stand the salty wench, and she continues to suck the life out of happless players, stripping them of their hopes and dreams, but last night was special. I went out in the low 40's I believe. I had shit for cards all night. I never saw a pair, and twice saw AK. I looked at my stats when I exited with 99 v JJ to Otis. I played a total of 8 hands out of 124. So I cetainly got my $11 worth.



Mookie made it to the fnal table with Surf and OhCaptain making up the last three. Ohcaptain played some stellar short handed poker IMO coming from way behind to almost the chip leader without seeing a damned flop. I was railing Mookie pretty hard, as were others, hoping, no praying, that he would win. Alas, in the end, it was not to be. Surf lucksacked his way to KK and AA one to many times, and Mook was left in second place. Still a very well played final table.



While listening to Buddydank Radio, which was a little dry last night, but still a very good show, ScottMc is a very funny dude, updates were being given on the progress of chad in the 28k and Don in the 50/50. Both were well chipped, and in the money. Chad ended up taking 6th in the 28k and Don got ran down by KJ v AJ in 19th I believe. Congrats to both on their runs.



Al's 1000th post is up for all to read. Very cool to see someone celebrate a milestone like that when the likes of me is on his 109th post. Plus we drink together, so, thats a bonus. Another event to prove that we only drink out of celebration, and no other reason!


Well done sir! Now go tell the worst poker player ever that 1,000 quality posts are better than 1700 ghey 3 line rants, advert posts, and World of warcraft rundowns... (actually not really, that shit is pretty good to) but F him! Man ass eating slug!

Hate Giants more than I hate the Cowboys! *and the Mets!

This is probably the only 3+ minute you tube video I have ever watched because it kept my interest the whole way through... Pretty funny



I know that the Mets have picked up Johan best fucking arm in the world, and that makes me sad for him. I predict that he'll have 20 of the Mets' 91 wins this year, and they will still miss the playoffs... again.



Congrats to BuddySkank for taking down the skillz series last night. My UTG steal with AK was exposed by his call with A6 and I was punished. I don't like to complain, but A6 is gold. Just kidding of course because he had every right to call with the likes of even Q high there because of my 5k stack vs his 14k I think. Just glad he went on to win it.

Oh, and I missed the Bodog blogger tourny last night because I'm stupid. completely flaked. Sorry Smokes!



Tonight will be fun, and at least a shot at redemption for me. I need a win in one of these friggin things. I have been second place in a all of these events. I won one RPT and one Donkament on a friday. I believe I have a second in the Hoy, and two seconds in the Mook. Its about fucking time for me to win a race down the stretch here...



Watch the video, its funny!

Ooh yeah Master Chief!

Weekend = bad... 20 month old Boy vomit and craps all weekend with several stops to the ER over night. 7 and 8 year old get same thing and go into the tank all day sunday and monday. 3 year old is fine, right up until I bring her home from a basketball game on Sunday afternoon. She walks into the house, says hi to Mom, and pukes on my couch.

I didnt sleep at all on Sunday night being up with at least one of the two smaller ones all night. 6am rolls around and I get it. I hear alot of folk coming down with this. Even on the interwebs.

I always thought of something like this being a failed terrorist attack. Like they try to poison the water or air with a virus that will kill hundreds of thousands, etc. etc., only they screw it up, and all we get are a bunch of sick people who think they have the flu for a few days.

Not much poker over the weekend at all. Al got me to play in the tuckfard last night at 7 on Tilt. I was Gigli. Then a $2 HORSE tourny with some friendsm then a $2 9 person non-turbo nlhe with Snakster.


Good Lord. Never again.

HUC6

Play in this people... its fun! This time maybe lucko wont luck sack me out of three buyins in the first round :)

Seriously though, lots of fun!

So go to Recess' page and fill him up with $30...

Random thoughts over the last few days...

1) I find it amazing that a 9 year old girl can be more of a man than her father

2) Parents more interested in their daughter scoring points than the team winning suck

3) Taco in a bag is the most awesomemust comfort food in the world...

4) Ashley Judd is hot

5) realizing how many people really don't have a clue as to how to play poker

You just told me that you felt alive for the first time at a f@!king card table!

You're Goddamn right I did!

Wifey and I got into it again last night about poker and gambling. She/we were watching a new show, Moment of truth, were folk take a lie detector test, and show personnel interview the contestants friends, and then ask him/her questions while family members and friends sit idlely by. As you answer questions correctly you move up in money earned. But if you answer one question wrong (lie), you lose everything. (answers are yes or no) Here is a taste

Last night some asshat, now a personal trainer, and a former NFL player, answered some pretty hard questions. Another feature is that your friend, or wife, or whoever you have there has the ability to hit a button, allowing you not to answer any particular question.

Mr. NFL player got through the first 8 questions fairly easy, with minor embarrasment. Then comes this beauty... "have you ever had sex with a man?" bbllahahhaaaaaa!!

GOLD! Why is this question even being asked? and since it is being asked, does he even really have to answer it? His wife is sitting there, a hot little thing named Catia, and just smiles like there is no way he answers yes. You could see the guy looking at her in an attempt to non-verbally get her to push that button. She didn't, and of course he answered yes.

He answered two more questions about her having a reason not to trust him, both were answered yes, as if anything could surprise her after he admitted having sex with a dude! Then he answered in the affirmative that he was holding off having kids because he wasn't sure if Catia was his life companion. Then the douche lies about touching someone inappropriately while training them and he loses everything, AND, admitting that he had sex with a dude!

I don't see this show being on after another season, 'cause quite frankly, who would put themselves out there like that for a measely 100k? Christ after taxes, and fees you'd be lucky to clear 40 of it.

At any rate, the next contestant had to answer a question about his gambling addiction. He worked at a Horse track as a marketing rep, and admitted to losing his first wife because of his addiction. Sports betting and horse racing were the culprits. Then he mentions poker.

Wifey looks at me as I jam QQ into AA against lightning in the very first hand of the Mook...

So wifey takes the opportunity to utilize that example to tell me that I am in denial. I hate that word. Denial. almost as much as entitlement. Two of the gheyest words in the english vocabulary...

See, she equates my poker HOBBY, as an addiction. She should I guess because of her experience. Life long thereapy sessions over addiction problems in her family have led her to the conclusion that everyone is addicted to something. So I ask her, am I addicted to flyfishing? Reading? Walking? Breathing?

I explain to her, no, TELL her that if I had an addiction problem with gambling, I would be betting on sports game, which I never do, or horse races, which rarely do, or playing black Jack, Craps, anything else at the Casinos while i'm there to play poker, which I NEVER do.

She said something about fantasy football being an indicator of having a gambling addiction. I came back at her and said, this was the first year in 5 that I participated in any FF league. Heck I even paid my entry fee to Skidoo's pick'em league this year, and bailed on picking games around week 4 because I didn't have the time every week to look through the schedule and THINK about who I would pick....

Please tell me people, do I have an addiction? a habit? I/ most of us, don't gamble when I play poker. I just don't. Too many factors go into every decision made to consider it a gamble. In the end of any certain hand, flop, turn, or river, we might decide to gamble on any one instance, but for the most part, the totality of the game is not one big gamble. Theres just too much math, analytical thinking, and phsycology that goes into every decision.

I don't think she has that much of an issue with it. She's just irish, and needs to be right about the argument. Stubborn little vixen. Maybe thats why I married her. For her feistyness (sp?).

But the argument is really getting old.

Love people! Show me some Love!!!

Although this is kind of the ghey royal, only one of the proponents in my hand, this is my first Royal online.

Thats right. My first and only Royal online.... that I can remember.

I have played over 1800 sng's on FT, countless other cash hands, and this is the first of its kind on FT.

For those that rail frequently and want to dispute this, do so in the comments. I really don't remember ever catching a Royal. (and I got paid!)

The hard deck for this hop was 10,000 Ft.

Last nights skillz game was fun. I love LO8 and will continue to play all of the non nlhe games whenever offered and I have the time.

Just some things... Lots of ripping going on, which is fine with me. I think it makes for a very fun time, and just adds entertainment value to the game. The issue becomes however, when some people, who don't necessarily understand the musings of some people, take it serious, or less than comical.

It's a very fine line... On one hand, we want and need the new players for Al to continue to work his magic. On the other hand, if someone can't take a joke, I think its on them to grow thicker skin.

I saw at one point Miami Don kind of getting into Jec a little for not posting trip reports. I think his point was that Jec kind of owed it to the community to post a day by day recap, and was just pointing out his opinion. Which he is allowed. Jec got a little aggrevated about it, or at least the way the opinion was given to him and some things were typed that weren't necessarily cordial.

I don't begrudge Don his opinion at all. I myself would have enjoyed reading a day by day recap as well. But I didn't expect it, and don't necessarily have an issue with Jec for not doing so... And I certainly have not been a part of the "community" nearly as long as most have. But I must state here that I don't think Jec "owed", or "owes" anyone anything. Also, Jec wasn't much of a poster anyway before hand, so I don't understand the expectation. He has indeed promised a recap. Opinions aside, I don't think anyone is at fault. I just think things could be nicer during the games. And thats all I have to say about that....

In other news... Snakster put up a post yesterday about 6 max sng play and wether outlplaying or outlasting the competition is the better play. Then this morning he sent me an email saying he read fischmans advice on it, ans was surprised to see his advice on being super aggressive.

This is my response...

The resounding theme in his advice is aggression wins, but he also clearly states that in the beginning there is no need to bluff... His advice basically relates to clearly outlasting the top three. He does however advocate overbetting pre with a premium hand as to make sure you get less calls with marginal hands. So yes, that would be aggressive. Its just making sure that the holdings advised to make those plays with are premium hands. Once to the bubble, it is right to play super aggressive. Especially at the $6-$20 level in the 6 max's, most are trying to cash and will lay down bigger hands, and make no moves at all without a top 5 hand. Exploiting this will allow you to win more sng's than by playing to outlast mode. By playing this way you should be able to accumulate a lot more chips, enabling you to WIN more than just take 2cnd place money. It takes 3 second places to equal first place (net) money. That is $18 for $36. A first place win gets you $24 for a buyin of $6... both netting $18

So one win is worth 3 seconds.... play for first everytime. You wont get there consistently trying to outlast everyone all the way through.


And some general nuggets I picked up from last night's girly chat with Snak and Al....

I had asked Al if he was at the pub... "no, I'am at church reading the bible to orphans"
Al and I both trying to convince Snak to play in the skillz game... "I'd rather have root canal on my johnson"
lucktruck recounting a hand in PLO... "his 9 may as well have been an apple" (explaining his opponents ridiculous call with what was on the board and in his hand)

Variance and SA

I've been asked more than enough times what variance means in poker terms. They always expect a literal meaning to something that resides in the mathematical relm. And what I get back most of the time when I ask, what do you think it means, is something along the lines of well, the amount of times I run good vs the time I run bad (again, something literal to show statistical percentages?).



In absolute terms, there really isn't anyway to describe Variance. I've always had an issue getting across that point. Until today. Poker Math put up a very nice post describing exactly what it relates to (notice I didnt say means).



"The truth is that there is no meaning. Variance doesn’t mean anything, it just is.
It does have some relationship to other things but it doesn’t quite make the jump to meaning something.
It’s related to the idea of a moment. For discrete distributions the nth moment is defined as sumi[xinP(xi ] which is just E[ Xn ]"



(You’ll usually see this discussed in terms of continious distributions and integrals will be used instead of sums. For any of you who don’t know any calculus, it’s just fine to use summations and discrete distributions for illustration).


The first moment of a distribution is the mean — the average of all the values. The second moment is the average of the square of all the values. The variance is the second moment minus the square of the mean, it reflects how the values of X are distributed around the mean. It measures that and gives high weight to values that are far away from the mean. That’s what it does.


That doesn’t mean anything, it’s just what it is. People who insist on discovering a meaning should take more literature courses and fewer statistics courses. <<<<<<(I love that line)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



One of my summers in the Marine Corp, way back when, was spent training to become of pilot. Pilots, especially fighter pilots use something they refer to as "SA". SA stands for situaltional awareness (a term most of you will know or at least recognize from reading some poker books).



This term has been corrupted on many different levels to the point where Walmart now uses it to train "team" members.



The point of it is to determine how to execute a decision based off of what was, or is, going on around you, not just based wholly on absolute data you have, but to recognize contributing factors as well.



This is something I use regularly in live games. I think there is 10x more info you get in a live game than you do online. And I dont use it while playing online much because I"m usually doing 14 other things and not just paying enough attention.



I will however post more on this in the upcoming week. I have a lot of data on this that I have recorded over the years of playing live poker. Hand histories that have related info such as who was in the hand, their chipstacks, my observations from their play before the noted hand, their actions, etc...



I found this while cleaning out an old laptop over the weekend. good stuff.

Neighbor > Wife

Ok, so we've been married just a little over 11 years, and together for over 15. I've lived in my current house now for just about 3.5 years. my neighbor has known me for just about that much as well. There's the set up...

Mrs. Riggs belongs to a MOTS (Mothers of Toddlers something) group. I think it may even be MOTTS, but whatever. The point is that they get together every other week and have some little pow wow involving recipes, they have guest speakers on everything from marital advice, child rearing, to financial bull shit, etc. etc. etc. Moreso just a way to meet moms in the same situation you are in and bitch to each other because they know their husbands aren't listening.

Like Howard Stern would say, a bunch of yentas showing up in their suburbans and oddyses, ditching their kids for two hours on some teenage babysitter, and comparing to everyone else how much shittier their life is than the next. You know with the kids and all...

I digress.... The meat here is that wifey brings home a two page questionare, which when I first glanced at it, thought it was something my 7 year old did for her 2cnd grade spelling test. It had crayon drawn around the sides, and I wasn't too interested in its content because of things I had on my own mind. Just getting home from coaching a basketball game, and on crazy Ref Tilt, knowing i probably have 15 emails in the inbox that need attention, etc. etc. etc.

She lays it down in front of me and says, grade this. I'll skip the part where I forget about it for two hours, and she gets all jammed up and we argue, blah blah blah...

So I grab this thing and its basically a how well do you know your partner type thing, with questions of what size clothes does he/she wear, pants, shirt, shoes.... favorite color, favorite tv show, favorite thing to do while relaxed, and so on.

Total of 45 questions, and she has answered all of them. Waiting for my perusal. Now let me make this clear. These are objective questions. There is only one answer. (unless you are a woman, specifically my wife)

For example. What is your Favorite Color? she answered blue, I said no green, ans she argues that well, you always wear blue, and your truck is blue and you once told me that blue AND green are your favorite colors so I'm taking that as correct. Another objective question... your shoe size? I'm an 11. She put down 10. I said look at my shoe here. and she argues. I always buy you tens. I said you haven't bought me shoes in like, ever. at all.

ok, so now we move onto the other questions, about favorite thing to do when relaxing, favorite Tv show, favorite day of the week, and favorite book. These are her answers:

play online poker
WSOP on ESPN
Friday night (poker night)
anything poker

A total of 30/45 of her answers were poker related. When asked what my favorite food was she answered Poker Soup (ok kidding, but you get the point).

It was obvious my wife relates everything I do, and obviously my complete existence, to Poker. And apparently has an issue with it.

I go through the rest of the test and she gets 24 of 45 questions corrrect. Which by the litte answer key on the left stated that we are complete strangers.

Now its my turn to answer. I kinda dig this shit too 'cause I know everything about her. Her tells are worse than 30 year old noob coming into the borgata thinking he's gold because he read two books, and watched a few shows, took down a $20 tournament at his buddies house, and now has 2 years of experience under his belt...

again I digress...

I go on to score a perfect 45 out of 45. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM! NUTS!.... Well, that is 45/45 if she had the same likes as when we were just married. Its amazing how 11 years can change a chic with kids and such. Example.. where is our favorite place to shop for clothes: I put Express. She laughed and said its a mens clothing store now, but it used to be

Seriously though, all of my answers where correct if they applied to her life 11-15 years ago. SO we sat and discussed what these results mean. For me, it basically meant that I have ignored her pretty much since she said I do. Which isn't entirely too far from the truth really. I mean a career, kids, business opportunities that consume me for months on end. It made sense. And her fault as well. She had the kids and other things as well that just seem to get in between any realtionship. Status Quo type stuff for marriage and children.

For her... She really thinks that my life is made up of poker, and that is it. When I stand back and look at it from her side, it kinda may seem that way. Online most nights of the week, the business, the meetings in Vegas, AC, or some casino. And the fact that there are live games whenever I get the urge, which is pretty much most of the time.

So, we have set a plan to change that for both of us. Now, that doesn not mean that I cut back in anyway on poker related things. I still have a business to run. But it means she will look at the other things I am doing moreso instead of just the poker. As far as my part in figuring her shit out, well, thats a little harder. But its on the list for the '08 resolutions, and should be easy to figure out. :)

On a side note, my neighbor came over and looked at it and decided to answer for me. he went 40/45. Wifey said we should get married. I told her if that did it for me, I would be the luckiest guy in the world...

This guy walks into a bar...

Waffles put a post up about the rumblings going on over the internets, and more prevelant in the poker forums about Brandi Hawbaker.



I don't, or didn't (thanks to waffles) know much about the little drama going on but once I started reading, I was hooked. Hot chics and trouble always go hand in hand and are better than any news pertaining to national security, the economy, or who is going to go to the superbowl.



While reading I becam obsessed with seeing this chic naked. No reason why, other than I guess I'm a dirty guy who likes boobs.



And in some sicko way I thought seeing her naked might lessen the severity of judgement I lay down on this retard based off of what I was reading about her antics.



Now, I usually go straight to the source when I am looking for naked photos of celebrities, or infamous people. But i didn't feel like getting ripped again, and I knew this one was going to be a doozy. I could see his reply go something like, "seriously, are you kidding?" (when I asked him about Robin Tunney recently, he laughed and called me an infant!)



So I decided to venture out through google all by myself. I understand that this is probably old news for all of you, and most likely boring as well, but I am soooo proud of myself I just have to share.



This is what I came up with:



Silly Brandi

Slutty Brandi

Stupid Brandi

and hot Brandi


Be kind to me for being noobish :)

(editors note: I'm sure these pictures are just the tip of the iceberg, and probably a little JV. If anyone wants to enlighten the audience of where some other are, feel free to do so in comments)

Bluma!

Several thanks to different folk for different things today.

First is to Mook for setting me up with some plays for the Girls Bball team. We lost a game we were expected to be blown out in by a very fast, run and gun type team. What he gave me allowed us to slow things down and we actually had the lead going into the 4th period. Some unlucky transistions, and we lose by two buckets.

After the game I went to a charity benefit that some folks were running, I knew the tourny was over but there was a cash game going on and I couldn't resist. Snakster was there and won. Go read his recap. He also gave me a Christmas present since I hadn't seen him since before the holidays. What a nice gesture, and completely unecessary, but thank you! Good lookin' out!

I was with a friend who was celebrating his 46th birthday and he was anxious to play. The table had 8 players already and some money on the table. Considering it was only .25/.50 no limit holdem, I didn't expect much, but there was over $1800 in the til. The game played more like a $1/$2 game at the Borgata with $15 preflop raises. So funny.

I bought in for $100. the first hand I played was 66. There was a raise, and a call so I smooth called, with the blinds both just calling.

The flop came 5 6 9. It checked to me and I checked knowing that the BB was just a blaster and was sure to put a significant bet out there. He did. About $20. Another guy called, and I shoved for about $70 total. Blasters hands were shaking so I immediately thought he flopped the str8. I mean he was so sure of his hand I knew I was dead. First caller folds and blaster tables JJ. I giggled a little and showed him my set. He grimaced and threw his cards into the muck when the turn and river blanked. I asked him if he thought I would make that move with out at least KK-AA or the str8 or set? He said "whatever", and I said, I'm sorry.

Now, there was another guy there, who was pretty much unknown. Obviously a real douche, (at least drunken douche), who was the epitomy of a Metro Sexual. Dressed the part and wouldn't shut up about his Corvette in the parking lot. He was pushing people around at the table always asking if anyone wanted to go all in blind, heads up for his stack, which was over 300 at the time. I later found out that he had bought in for over $500. He was doing a lot of string betting and people started getting very tired of his antics. He was being quite endearing to most with his shut the fuck up's and I'll do what I want type comments. I was tryin to be the nice guy and let him get off a couple of times, but he kept going and going.

He played every hand with $20 preflop raises, and $50 flop bets no matter what came. It was getting tiresome. One guy took him up on his offer for all in blind. They were dealt 2 up cards each and the the board then dealt. Hero won with about $80 in his stack when he caught one of his cards that were behind to his A. Beautiful!

Then he starts getting into me a little. At that point he had already gotten in to two direct conflicts with seperate people. One of them a woman. Almost comical, but I was trying to keep the peace. then he gets after me with the all in blind routine. I told him I wasn't interested, and that I was there to play poker. He said that it was poker and called me a name. I looked him up and said "infant, stop talking", as I closed my hand and said shhhhh. This kind of jammed him up a little, and he came back yelling "INFANT??? INFANT???". I said, listen, you are now disrupting the game, and you need to close your mouth. He replied by telling me to "suck it", and that was just about enough for me. I got up out of my seat rather quickly, and another player stopped me saying, let it go. I looked at him and said if he didn't stop, or said one more word, that he would spend the next 5 minutes picking up teeth.

Now, I'm not exactly proud of myself, and moreso embarrassed than anything else, because I let this idiot, who was very drunk, get to me that way. After watching him blast off with absolutely nothing, stealing and showing complete crap, and losing several hands just by being called down, I figured the best way to make myself feel better was to just take his money. I limped mp with K 10 and saw a flop of 10 Q x... two diamonds. he bet and I reraised and he called. turn was another diamond, he bet out and I jammed. He was all tore up and I figured he was posing with yet another stupid bluff, when he asked me if I caught the flush. I sat silent, and he made the call. I had him covered by about 80, and he tabled 10 10 . I had no diamonds at all and was drawing dead. Karma is gold!

I wan't to upset, I just wanted to get into it with him and lost. He tried to leave but was so damn drunk I told him he wasn't going anywhere. He stopped drinking, we made him some coffee and we apologized to each other. All was well.

I was card dead and tilting so I folded for the next hour when I picked up Q 10 of spades in the small to a min raise. There was 4 of us in the hand. the flop came 10 high, and he first guy let out $5 with the second guy calling. I was running so bad I figured I might just fold here with the preflop min from UTG, opting to just get away with what might be a very strong hand. But after thinking about it I decided that a raise would be the better play. If I get reraised, I could easily get away. I made it $20. behind snap called, utg folded (?), and second called. Now there is $70 in the pot and I'm thinking there is no way I get away unless second jams the turn. He checks, so I jam. Behind me lines his chips up and tanks... I figure I'm dead to A 10 from the second guy and just assuming that Mr. Tank is on a draw. He is a very bad player and I had no idea of his holdings other than a draw. He calls, and second tanks. He ends up folding as well.

I look at the caller and ask what he has, which is when he tables 10 5. 10 5!!. I giggle again, and just say, man you are beautiful! River comes an unecessary Q and I rake the pot. That got me almost back to even for the night.

I had earlier ran QQ into KK for the rest of my stack after the K 10 hand so this hand almost made me whole.

It was a fun night playing with people I usually don't play with. Birthday boy wanted to drink for his birthday so I filled him up with some of the xmas present. I drank the neck, he drank the other half of the bottle. leaving me enough left to savor during the next few blonkaments. Good Times!

Did you say two fingers? Nah, you better make it three

Last two days online... 7 tournaments in a row...


AA v 10 10 - 10 on the river

presto vs. K 10 flop of K 7 5.. money in on flop - turn 7, river K

AK diamonds v AQ - money in on flop.. flop AK10 turn 4 river J

QQ vs Jc10d - money in on flop.. flop Qd4d3c turn 7d river 8d

88 v 44 - flop 8 4 2 money in on flop.. turn A river 4

do I have to continue?

At least running bad only seems to last about a week for me. I just don't know how much more I can take with these percentages being so much in my favor and still slapping me in the balls. Like when your 18 month kid walks up to you to give you a high five and misses.

See you tonight?

You're F'n A well told! - Jimmy Hawfa

Hoy requested some more "personal" stuff so I will comply. Plus I think it will add a dynamic of the insight to the readers of how I think and do things... so here is the first


Girls basketball post...

I started clinics in October. The clinics are for every kid, both boys and girls, 9-10. From these clinics are where we get new talent for the travel teams. My whole team from last year (8 yr - undefeated) all showed up for the clinic in addition to 15 new girls. This year we were entering a more competitive league (my first in it). I was advised to make cuts and field one team, putting the other girls back in the league from last year, which was really more of a rec league. We went undefeated last year in that league and were pretty much scorned because it was a different community.

I liked all of our girls from last year but lost two because of their wanting to play up with the 10's. both of these girls are sick and play extremely above their heads. I picked up alot of new younger girls with some talent, and just decided that I would field two teams in the new league.

I had a father agree to coach the second team and two others accept the assistant position with both of us. When we chopped the teams we had an issue distributing the talent.

My daughter plays a 2 guard. She is small but has a handle and sets pics like no one elses business. she is very heady about the game and knows where she should be and more importantly where and how the ball needs to be distrubuted among the other players based on who the competition is. I was excited to coach her again this year and really try to expand her ability as a point guard. Which is where she is more comfortable playing, but there is another girl who just has mad skills and because of her size and tenacity gets up the lane quickly and makes a lot of baskets. We play on ten ft baskets and my daughter is just to small right now to be able to drive the lane without getting fouled. Being as small as she is she also cant reach the basket from the foul line on a consistent basis so we would be giving up a lot of point/ shot opportunites with her running the offense.

So, that being said, when we started to break up the talent and discussing who would absolutely have to play on whose team (daughters with coaches, etc...) we found a little problem. There wasn't enough talent at the guard position to distribute fairly. I spoke about this with my wife, and I guess "C" had overheard the conversation. She came to me about a week before we had to submit rosters to the league and said, Dad, I think I want to play for coach Lee.

I have to say I was taken aback a little. I asked her why, and she said word for word, "I think we get after each other a little to often, and it disruputs the whole practice from time to time. I think each team would be better off if you and I were not together."

My mouth dropped for a second, and I said as a coach, not a father... Never mind what you think. I will handle the personel decisions and you will play where I tell you.

Now, I couldn't really understand where her request was coming from. I didn't know she heard the conversations with the wife. I spoke with the other coaches, and since both teams were practicing together we pretty much knew how each girl was progressing and were together on all drills and plays . Both coaches, separately, told me that it was clearly visible that I treated my own daughter a little more harshly than the others. Which is pretty much status quo I think for most coaches and their own kids.

At any rate, I went to her and said, listen I understand your point but I'm not yelling at you or treating you any different just because you are my daughter, it's because i want you to progress a little more faster so I give you more attention. she laughed at me and said "dad, i'm just trying to give you outs for when you have to decide on who plays on what team."

Now, I do teach her to play poker, and she knows how to play, and understands the jargon, but to go "outs" on me just really excited the hell out of me. My wife was sitting there and asked, what did you just say? she responded with a brief synopsis of her reply and wife said, "no, did you say outs?" C laughed and said yeah! Wife looked at me as rolled her eyes as if to say, ENOUGH! already...

So C is on coach Lees team and is progressing at a much faster rate than I could have ever done on my own. Lee is a great coach and very patient with the girls. He coached the HS Boys level for several years and has more basketball knowledge than I do.

I have the stronger team talent wise becuase my back court is so aggressive and has a little more experience than hihs team,but he certainly has more talent. I'm happy to report that C is having a great time with her team and we actually play each other on Friday and saturday. back to back games. I plan on double teaming her!


Congrats to Evy35 and Swimmom on going heads up in the Skillzzz game last night! Two WOMEN and two RPT'ers

Starting off

Well, 2008 goals aren't looking too good as of yet. My wife and I are disagreeing on so many things its almost as if there is no way we will come together. She's so goddamn stubborn sometimes (stupid Irish), that I think I will have to relent if I wish for sanity in the household. I don't like being wrong, but she tells me I am most of the time anyway. Go figure.

I just learned as well that my parents are going on a two month roadtrip this week. Good for them. 2 months on a cross country trip to see what has been seen already. I can't imagine, but that takes 60 days out of the year for me to spend time with Dad. What a cooler.

I'm seriously thinking about getting the poker x factor product to help with the online play. If anyone has any constructive feedback on that, let me know. Its $150, and $25/ month for the use as a subscriber, so its not exactly free. I'm just wondering if its worth it.

I haven't really done anything fantabulous with poker yet this year. what I have noticed is that every single SNG I have played, save one (AA first hand cracked), I have either bubbled, took second, or won. I'm only playing the $11 sng's so far with a few scattered $50's and 2 mtt's (both cashed, but stupid).

I have a million things going on with the business and am looking forward to getting them squared away and being able to focus on moving forward with some tangible results. Big things heading our way if I can pull this off. more to come on that.

My girls basketball team split this weekend. We won our first game of the season against a poorly coached team, that had some decent talent, but just very unorganized. We won 30-5 and I ran the second team the whole second half. Our second game was a little different. We held a 3 point lead going into the half. One thing that jammed me up was the fact that we had 10 fouls within the first 5 minutes of the game. The other team had none. I asked the ref to make sure those calls go both ways, and he looked at me like I called him a slit. My point is these are 9 year old girls. It is travel so its very competitive, but 9 year olds don't foul like adults. Most are pretty much the same when it comes to the rules. So being tagged with 10 fouls and the other team having none is pretty lame.

I was put on tilt in the third period when a parent gave me a look about not having his daughter in and the opposing team went on a 10 point run (which was almost half their score). With my starters not listening and doing the wrong things, I took three of them out, and the other team had a field day. We brought it within 2 points at the end but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit and we lost 26-23. They ran the offense fairly well, which made me extremely happy, but defensively, they were lost. Always being out of position, not filling the lanes, and just overall being at half speed was sucking the life out of me. I love my girls, and they are all hard workers. It was just one of those days I guess. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again by running their little bodies into the parquet. That'll learn 'em!

I told the girls to expect to be tired after the first 10 mintues of practice tonight. Little tyrants, ignore me and you'll get the floor! How dare they! And my highschoolers thought I was a drill sergeant! Wait til I get my hands on them tonight!

Hopefully my lips won't be too tired from blowing the whistle tonight and I'll make the MATH.
See you there if I do.

2008 goals

First and foremost, 2008 is going to have to be a whole lot more exciting than 2007. Because '07 sucked pigeon tits, and offered nothing but false hope, preparation, resources, and time spent for things that just weren't to be, and your average mundane task of getting information together for the Government agencies that think you owe them something. And when you prove you don't, they make shit up anyway to say, "oh yes you do". And we are not just talking about taxes here. Unemployment Compensation board, the Workers Comp agency... Get investigated by one, and the others just fall in line... "Whats's that Mr. Riggs? You independently contract a portion of your employees? You're not allowed to do that! You'll have to pay a fine now, and moving forward you'll have to follow quarterly filings, and this and that and blah blah blah blah, bock bock bock bock B"GAWK!!!! Fuckers!

At any rate, now that that is all behind us, lets look at '08. There are a few things that I just can't list due to legal confidentiality reasons, but certainly make the top of the list, and are mainly career oriented, so I will make this list more personal. Which I rarely do, so soak it up. Not often I'll come on here, unless I think it has complete comedic value, and let you in on whats happening inside of Riggs head...

so - 2008

Poker related goals -

Online - I will turn this 1k bankroll into 10k. And I don't mean by winning a seat, or anything like that. I mean straight 10k in online money. Mainly mtt's but I think the ring games will be a big part of it.

Live - Play more... at least 6 tournies at the $350 level or higher (every other month). In addition, at least one WSOP event, and one WPT event, and at least 3 WSOP circuit events.

And I think the weekly trip down to AC needs to be reinstated. And thats not just going down for business, I mean actually play (lucktruck, I'm looking your way)

Personal Goals -

I'm 14 days away from 39, so this is my last year before 40. I don't put to much stock in age, but I have basically one more year to do some things that I had goaled out when I was younger "before 40". So #1 is to complete those stupid little tasks. Books to read, places to see, boring stuff...

Spend more time with the kids - and not just ghey time. I coach the oldest's travel basketball team, so we get 3 practice days a week and 2 games, so its a lot of time. Like wise with th 6 year old who takes Jujitsu and I spend that time with her... But what I am talking about is those designated walks, or tag alongs when I have work, or go fishing or whatever.... What I learned the most from, and remember the most fondly growing up were the times my father included me in the things he loved the most, and spent time with me doing those things. Not just going to ball games, or mowing the lawn, or playing a board game. It was the times he took me to his work, or taught me to play bridge. It was more special because they were his things to do. The things he did to escape the daily grind, and he included me. And on some level, I recognized that even as a kid. Whats more, I can see my kids recognize the same thing in what I do. Mommy says, Daddy needs a break, and they see what I do when I'm taking a break. It seems to mean something more to them than just going to the movies or rough housing around the den.

- Wifey time! I suck as a husband. I demand, expect, and take for granted all of the things that she does for me (us), the kids, and the house. My friends almost gasp at the way they hear me speak to her when on the phone. Something I never really noticed myself, but apparently I speak to my wife like I speak to my employees, or vendors, an so on. We are in good shape as a couple. there is no speak of being unhappy, or not digging the situation, and I know she has my back at all times. And as I write this, I realize that my recognition of her having a great time being a mother, does not mean that she doesn't need to still be recognized as a wife. I love her with everything I am and she knows that. So I will take steps to better myself as her partner.
(I fucking hate having to admit that! soo ghey)


finally, spend more time with Dad. My father is in his 76th year. He has been retired for more than 10 years, and still plays competitive bridge 3 times a week. All over the country. We see each other maybe twice a month, and he lives no further than 10 miles from me. We haven't had what I would call a great realtionship. My fathers MO was basically avoidance, or the type of "ignore it" attitude when it came to issues. Something came up, he'd shrug his shoulders and let the stress melt away. The problem would be dealt with, but he would spend no time thinking about it, or trying to learn from it, (at least outwardly), or even show a hint of concern. "its over, move on" type of attitude. Which I kinda dug growing up, cause everytime I wrecked a car, or got busted for underage drinking, or whatever, he would just look at me, and walk away.

He loves the grand kids and has plenty of time to fool around now. He can't golf much anymore, and there are few other things he likes to do, so other than taking him to the track, or playing cards, there isn't much more we can do together, but I don't want to look back when he is gone and say I didn't even try. I have this time now to be able to spend time with him, so I should take it, and will.

And that is basically that. Wish me luck (like that has anything to do with it)

What do you want to talk about now Danny? My favorite Color?

What a holiday season! I swear, every year gets more and more cumbersome, almost to the point where I can't enjoy it. things are so busy with with work, the kids, family, that it all just goes by so fast, and without any real enjoyment. I get all jammed up because so many people want me so many different places, and I just haven't learned to manage that yet.

Friends form NY/NJ, colleagues from even further away, parties that are missed, and people that are slighted, kids that have days off and want to spend time with Dad, Wife that wants her own shopping time to herself, blah blah blah... gotta work on all of that, and being able to make myself not feel so bad about who I missed, what I missed, and what was just impossible to complete. (2008 goals?) (next post?)

I played the Mookie last night after deciding with Snakster that the 28k would take a back seat to the famed junkie!

I chipped up pretty early and came across QQ against Columbo. I raised he called and the flop came under unsuite, unconnected under cards. I raised the pot which was just about 1k, and he wrote, I guess I am losing this one... He jammed and I hit the left mouse button all cool like knowing he was behind. Only the pointer was on the fold button. I went from 9k to about 4500 in one stupid mistake. I told the table what had happened in the girly chat, and he knew I had Q's and we laughed.

I chipped up again and got tot the final table in ok position, then really bad position, then chip leader. I fell asleep with about 22k in front of me, probably around 3rd. I woke up like 15 minutes later, out of the tournament. 3rd in chips, and blinded out in 15 minutes! Gold!

Its been a rough three weeks, and I just dozed off without really even recognizing that I did. when I woke up I was all confused, not really knowing that I did. I was siiting up on the couch with the laptop on the arm of the sofa all propped up and ready to go! So it be.. Congrats to the winner whoever it was!

Al alerted me sometime last week, that we had the offer of the Full Tilt private jet to Aussie land for the Aussie Millions. There is alot going on with the company and other deals I have going on and just couldn't make the 2 weeks away. If I thought this would be a once in a lifetime op, I think I would drop everything and def make it happen come hell or high water, but with everything going on, I believe we will have this opportunity numerous times. That, and the fact that everything with my business life is happening this month to set up the rest of the year, needs to be handled within the next two weeks. Good Times!

My apologies to Jec, and everyone else for not being able to be there to support his wild ride! Good Luck Doc1 We will all be thinking, and rooting for you!