hey this msg might be outta left field, but its something thats been on my mind for a while and something i need to finally accept. u two gals are really fun to hang out with but i realize this is all just an illusion. u still refuse to use your real names around me even though youve let them slip several times and a lot of the stories u girls come up with just dont add up. i know youre probably doing it to keep your jobs separate from your personal lives and that u dont have harmful intentions in doing so. so this is nothing against u but i dont see myself getting anything outta this except the odd night out or two. i have to come to accept that im ultimately looking for something more than th--

My thumbs quickly stop when my messaging app brings a pop-up text message on my screen.

last night wassss sssssooooooo fun

I blink a couple of times and shake my head, but a small smile creeps onto my face. I delete the long text message I had previously typed up.

i know. worth it just to see you having so much fun.

I met this girl when I was out with friends partying at a Vietnamese bar in San Jose. For those of you that aren't familiar with Vietnamese bars, you go in and get informal lapdances from girls. There's no system of private rooms, 30 minutes for $260, etc. Just $20 a song. You can order food and get bottle service. Long story short, I got rather hammered while still dressed in costume for the geeky anime convention in town and apparently told this girl (who we'll call Maddie) I would dress her up as Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I know, slick, right? Since then we've been texting consistently and hanging out occasionally, most of the time with her best friend (and co-worker who we'll call Bree). Just last night the three of us went to a Brad Paisley concert and Maddie had the time of her life. She kept saying how much she loves Brad Paisley and that this was her first concert ever. Bree made it known she wasn't a huge fan of country music, but she seemed to be enjoying herself as well.

A couple of things stood out to me that night. The girls arrived to the concert late claiming that they had gotten into a hit-and-run rear-end accident. I showed some empathy, but my instincts as a poker player led me to believe that it was just an alibi. Later that night we got some pho and when the girls were pulling out of the parking lot I noticed no visible damage to the rear-end of the car. Secondly, Maddie ran into one of her classmates at the concert. She whispered something into her classmate's ear before introducing me--another precaution to keep her life separate from work.

So why am I doing this, hanging out with a couple of strippers and practicing poor life-roll management? I work a full-time job in finance and I play 140 hours of poker a month on average. I've been single for a while and I am on the fence about whether or not I want to stay that way. If I start dating someone I'll undoubtedly have to cut back on some poker. The pros to this are that I'll probably be a little bit happier and I'll get more opportunities for mental rest. Right now I think I've been on poker overload and can't stop. Mental exhaustion is probably why I'm on a slight downswing for the month of August. On the other hand, getting into a relationship can bring some unwanted variance in my life. Would I still be able to play on a consistent schedule? Would I still be able to spend 3 weeks out in Vegas for WSOP 2014? Somehow, I convinced myself that hanging out with Maddie and Bree every once in a while would be a good middle ground. I would still get that bit of companionship without the commitment.

hey send me the pics from last night?

ok just let me get situated at school lol

I back out of the text message and hit my most frequently called contact.

"California Grand, this is ******."

"Hey, ******, this is amusedlol. Can I get on the list for 2-3-5? Thanks."

I decide to continue on with the illusion. I know... I'm a fool.

The downswing seems to be continuing at the California Grand. I think it's because I've been playing under sub-optimal conditions. I need to get more sleep in if I'm trying to work a full time job and play poker almost as full time. I did try to play some at Casino M8trix, which is hour away from home. (As opposed to the California Grand, which is 5 minutes away.)

I was seated at the 2-3-5 deepstack (400 bb max buy-in) table right away after handing the floorperson some juice. It paid off quickly as in the first hour I managed to flop the nut flush holding AsKs in the hole. I had raised to 25 in early position with $2200 effective and saw the flop 5 ways. I should probably be raising it more in a deepstack game to reduce the number of players to the flop. Anyway, I c-bet 75 after flopping the flush, wanting to build the pot as quickly as possible. A player two to my left raised to 475 and I figured him for a set, while a player on the button flatted the 475 so I put him on a smaller flopped flush. I didn't want to give the set good odds to call so I pretty much shoved the remaining 1700+ on top, thinking the smaller flush would be "committed" to call (he had about 1200). The guy who made it 475 tanked before saying let's gamble and called my all in. The smaller flush folded and the set didn't improve. I was up 700 bb from my original buy-in just like that. Unfortunately the next 10 hours playing saw me give back 500 of those big blinds.

To make things worse, after driving back home at 2AM I decided to give the home casino a visit. That was a mistake. I was exhausted and I should've just went home. Lost 80 bb at the 2-3-5 game there. I need to start taking things more seriously and be more disciplined when it comes to these things. I gotta be on my A-game at all times. None of this C-game **** anymore.

I ran into a familiar poker player while at the M8trix and I asked him about a tournament he had participated in a week prior. I asked him if he played tournaments much since he ran deep in this one. He said that he liked to take shots once in a while when his cash game profits could handle the buy-in. When I asked him what his motivation was he said it was purely profits. (Because the money brings the bitches.) When I told him my motivation for playing tournaments was for glory, he didn't quite agree with me. When I pointed to my wrist and told him that would bring the bitches, too, he saw my point. I want a bracelet. Badly.

My room needed a major cleaning as I had some fresh laundry, but left it unfolded for days. Now that the room's much neater I'm feeling up to tackling the Grand today with a fresh mindset.

Oh and I've decided to try to cut my ties with Maddie. She just can't be healthy for me, no matter how I look at it.

Yesterday's session at the local 2-3-5 started out roughly. First hand I get dealt KK in LP and I make it 25 to go when it is folded to me. Aggro, talkative, older, psych PhD dude calls my raise from the button. We'll call him Gro. The flop comes AJx r and I cbet 30. He calls me without much hesitation and the turn comes a 7. I check it to him for pot control, but I also don't put him on an ace. He bets 40 and I have barely tanked when he tells me out loud that he has pocket 7's. This guy is known to get into peoples' heads to induce a bad play, having his psych background and all. I should have taken that into consideration, but the fact that he was being so specific about his hand had me curious. I called him and the river came a blank and I checked back to Gro. He bet out 65 and told me once again that he has pocket 7's, adding in a little bit of miscellaneous banter. Super curious, I look him up and he turns over pocket 7's for the turned set.

I mention something about telling the absolute truth about one's hand and how it's in poor taste. Gro said he didn't know that it was against the rules and I don't say anything else because I'm pretty certain it's not an actual rule--I just think it's bad etiquette. At the local card room, once you're heads up you can use all of the table talk you want. Exposing cards is supposed to be against the rules/discouraged, but it won't count as a muck.

Later on in the session something similar happens to a buddy of mine. I just met him at the card room about a month ago, but he actually told me about the Brad Paisley concert I went to a few days ago. We'll call him Knight. He is in a three way pot where one guy is already all-in. The pot is about 1200 bucks at the turn and the villain proudly goes all-in for another 600, exclaiming that he has the nut flush draw. With one player already all-in, this technically counts as a heads-up pot so the table talk is now valid. Knight, much like myself, didn't appreciate how specific the comment was, because he was on a straight-flush draw himself. Knight ended up calling while getting pretty good odds, and the villain showed down top two pair to take the entire pot. I defended Knight after he stood up to release the steam, not because villain was breaking the rules or anything, but because villain is known to talk about the hand while it's in play and he's not involved. Just so much poor etiquette overall and it irks me. But it's table talk and we have to deal with it.

I finally booked a winner at the Grand yesterday. There's a cocktail waitress who has recently started working the weekend evening shift and she is beautiful. We'll call her Allie. I haven't had much interaction with Allie except joking with her that she didn't ask me my name when I first ordered a drink from her, while she asked some other guy's name. Yesterday I went up to the bar and she was covering for the usual bartender who was out on break. I ordered a drink from her and she asked me if I was leaving for the night. It caught me off guard because I usually stay late, luckily one of the food servers scoffed and kidded, "Him? He never leaves this place." That gave me an opportunity to at least joke and say that Allie should know by now that I live in the casino. Thanks, Sandra! (The name I've given to the middle-aged food server.)

I wonder what made Allie ask if I was leaving.

Happy Monday y'all. Listening to some trap music to get through work.

Had a good session last night. One spot where I won a hand, but didn't extract maximum value. I gotta work on that.

I'll be playing today as well, but I'm not sure about Wednesday. I don't remember the last time I had an amazing Wednesday night at the card room. I feel like I have to break the curse, though.

Anyway here's a schedule for my next two months. It's going to be eventful.


Weekend of Aug-31: Rib Cook-Off in Reno. Expect some degen.
Weekend of Sep-6: Attend wedding. Visit Thunder Valley to pre-reg or sat my way into some HPT events.
Weekend of Sep-13: Dentist appointment, blah. Hit up Thunder Valley again to play some sats.
Weekend of Sep-20: Play Event 1 of the Thunder Valley HPT.
Weekend of Sep-27: Play the ME of the Thunder Valley HPT.
Weekend of Oct-4: Local weekend. Get some rest.
Weekend of Oct-11: Head back up to Reno to play ME of the Grand Sierra Resort Pot of Gold.
Weekend of Oct-18: Local weekend. Get some rest.
Weekend of Oct-25: Head up to Lake Tahoe and play a WSOP Circuit Event.
Oct-28 to Nov-4: Halloween Vacation in Las Vegas. Play Event 1 of the VDS IV.

Would be my ideal schedule... not sure if it'll go as planned.

The curse of Wednesday continues. I felt like I was playing fine, cards just weren't going my way. It's expected, but I don't want to become superstitious about playing on Wednesdays. Looks like I'll be ending the month of August breakeven. That irks me, but all I can continue to do is keep playing my best.

Maddie texted me yesterday afternoon. Probably one of those "touches" to make sure she doesn't lose contact with someone beneficial to her. Kept the messages minimal and told her I would be pretty busy for the next two months.

Driving up to Reno tomorrow afternoon. Gonna be ridin' solo. I'll be alone for the first part of the evening so I have the following planned: Sushi dinner at Peppermill, followed by some 2/5.

Oh, I installed the Tinder app. This should be fun... except I've gotten 0 matches so far, lol.

Firstly I am surprised you are talking about specifics of your live poker play on a public forum. If I were you I would be worried about security concerns.
Secondly, I love playing with guys who talk to try to mess with you. They often give away a lot of info.

Well there are bigger spots for troublemakers to go after. I've made live TRs in the LVL forum and no trouble yet.

I like to think I don't have any enemies, but I understand your concern.

Is it not normal for bloggers to speak about their locations? I understand I'm being super specific when I post, but if someone really wanted to find a blogger they would be able to piece together information even if vague.

I agree with Fun. No info is good info.

You said you were playing 2/5 with a 2K original buyin which means you likely had at least 5K in your pocket. I would not make this info available on a public forum if I was you. Other bloggers don't have to worry about this as much.

Completely and utterly, mentally checked out of work. I'm gonna peace out of here in half an hour and drive up the 80 solo. Hopefully the Yosemite fire won't make the drive too rough.

Gonna hit up 2/5 when I get there, but getting the itch to degen.

Ribs are going to be nomtacular.

I degenned my ass off and it hurt. It hurt so bad. It's a new month and if I know what's best for me I'm going to cut out all the crap now.

Friday night I got to the Silver Legacy and checked in without any problems. I decided to hit up the Peppermill for some 2/5. While on the waitlist I played some roulette and came up a good amount of money by the time I got called for my seat. The table was full of senior citizens despite being a 2/5 NL game and I did not get into any interesting spots except when I called a fairly active player's bluff on the river. I was up 60 bb when a younger lady sat down at the table. We got into one hand where she called my 3-bet light with ATo and looked me up after an ace hit the flop. With that hand in mind, I knew my image would be bad. To her, at least. I probably didn't need that image, though, when we got it all in 100 bb deep when I flopped a straight and she flopped a set. Unfortunately she filled up on the river.

I decided to return to the pit and it was a terrible idea. I started off running real good, but then my friends called to say they'd be a couple hours late. So what did I do? I sat way too long and proceeded to lose. A lot. Tilted, I took a cab back to the Silver Legacy, but halfway there I told the cabbie to detour to the Men's Club. I paid cover and sat in the outer room for an hour without getting a single dance. They let a group of five in before me and before I had a chance to see more than 6 girls, my friends called to say they were 15 minutes away. I walked my ass few blocks over to the hotel and let them into the room. I didn't feel like doing anything else that night, so I passed out.

The rest of the weekend was fun--we ate tons of ribs, drank a whole bunch, went out dancing and all that. I never recovered my losses at the pits, but it was an expensive lesson. I told myself I needed to start practicing better liferoll management. Sure, I'm young and single, not a homeowner, have a full-time job that pays well, and I'm a winning 2/5 player. But that's no excuse to be blowing a few grand here and there on gambling and strippers.

Of course, as soon as I get home on Labor Day afternoon, Maddie hits me up with a text. I probably sent her one or two messages in the last week so she asks me why I've been so quiet. She even says that she feels like she did something wrong. So instead of dodging the matter, I suck it up and tell her exactly what's been on my mind. I address all of the funny business I've witnessed during the times we've hung out and list out what I felt have been her lies. I should have known that was a terrible, terrible idea. I pretty much accused her of lying so of course she wasn't going to take it well. She starts forwarding me pictures of clients whose hair she's styled and pictures of her rear-end accident, which barely even left a scratch on her bumper. The pictures really don't prove anything, but they do help her case. I could see in the reflection of the bumper that she was wearing the exact outfit she wore to the concert, which means she took the picture right when she said the accident happened. Ugh. This is like a poker player's curse. If I didn't like putting information together then I would still be blissfully ignorant.

The situation blew up right in my face. She went back to how she's had a rough past moving from home to home and that she's had little to no support as she's had no real family. Maybe she is just a girl who needs a few good friends in her life or maybe she's just perpetuating the sob story to make me feel bad. Either way she ended the string of texts with "you were the last person i expected to hurt me".

I feel like a complete *******, but my instincts are telling me this is still just one long con.

yeah trust your gut man

When does this deep game run at the Cal Grand?
The usual 2/3/5 game $500 cap still bothers me. Still a short-stack game.

The deep game is in reference to the M8trix.

Every Tuesday I tell myself I'm going to take Wednesday off and do some laundry, some light reading, and sleep early. Y'know, mental break from poker.

Every Wednesday at 3:30 PM, while sitting at work, I start to plan how I can fit laundry in and make it to the card room.

I want to break this "Wednesday curse".

My good friend of fifteen years is now my new roommate. We pull up into the parking lot at the same time. It's an odd feeling because I usually never see any of my roommates as I'm out for work, in for a few minutes, then out to the cardroom. I catch up with him for a little bit as I'm walking back and forth between my room and the washing machine. He pokes fun at the fact that the fridge and cabinets are for the most part empty. I laugh and explain to him that I'm rarely ever home and I always eat dinner while I'm grinding out the cash at my second job. I prepare myself for a slew of questions and comments regarding my lifestyle, but instead he asks me if the food is any good. This is why he's one of my best friends. He isn't at all concerned that what I'm doing will bring my downfall.

With my clothes in the wash, I give the cardroom a call to get on the 2/3/5 waitlist and then down at my desk to do what I haven't done in weeks. I turn on Elliot's warm up mp3 and I listen to it in an environment where I can't be disturbed--usually I listen to the track at the cardroom, sometimes while already seated at a table. Certainly not the best thing to do as I don't get the full value from the mp3. When the track starts to play a familiar English accent hits my ears and the tension in my limbs releases in an instant. I get ready to relax completely in my chair when I decide to make the move to the bed. Earlier in the day I took some zinc tablets to fight what seemed like a cold in its early stages--that ill feeling is still lingering as I lie down. Elliot's words soon become hazy as I fall asleep and let my subconscious pick up the messages for the next twenty-three minutes.

When I wake up I feel better. It's hard to explain. It's not exactly brimming with confidence or feeling indestructible... it's kind of like taking a small sip of Felix Felicis and just feeling good. I pull on my yellow hoodie and make the drive over to the local cardroom. The brush lets me know there's a seat at the 2/3/5 game so I walk on over, but one of the regs has just taken the only open seat. So I walk back to the front desk and ask about the smaller 2/2/3 game, which I'm not too fond of playing because of the 66bb-max-buy-in. I buy in for full and felt a few short-stackers. I'm up 100bb before I am called for the big game.

I sit down and notice that there are only 2 or 3 regulars at the table. The rest are unknowns, which is rather rare on a weeknight. I keep to myself tonight, instead of being my usual talkative self. My focus is sharper than usual and I pick up all kinds of information in the two or three hands it takes for me to come into the game. The Mario 1-up soundbyte rings from my phone and as I'm taking my first hand I read the text message from one of my other best friends, who is a truck driver.

whats good on a wednesday night

I muck my unplayable hand when it comes around to me and get right back to the text message.

r u in town? i'm at the card room but can do dinner around 8?

That gives me an hour and a half. I usually hate playing on time restrictions because I feel like I need to make something happen before I leave, but tonight is a different story. I keep my composure when I pick up two black kings on the button. I 3-bet a $15 open to $40 and get two callers. It's checked around to me on a relatively dry board and I take it down after tossing in a half-pot c-bet. Only my last opponent chimes in, "I don't know why, but whenever you're in a hand I always put you on queens." I just shrug, making the mental note that it's been months since I played against this guy and he still has a certain opinion about me. Before I can drag the pot in, half the table is speculating about my hand. What, haven't these guys ever seen a 3-bet pre-flop?

Two orbits later I get a similar opportunity to 3-bet. The same player raises to $15. There is another caller (a gentleman we'll call Amph) and when it gets to me I make it $40 again, this time with T8dd. One of the blinds calls, the original raiser calls, and Amph completes the action by calling as well. The flop comes Jh 8h 4s. As expected it gets checked around to me and I put in my obligatory c-bet of $120. I get two folds and the action is on Amph, who barely takes a few seconds before announcing that he is all-in for another $313 on top. I sigh and rest my head in my hand, keeping the yellow hood pressed to my cheek. Amph and I have history--I like to call him down light and he loves to make moves against me. I tank and try to do some math in my head, but I trash all of that work when my logic falls to the following: "he doesn't play a jack like this, 99 and TT are out, discount the 88, so it's either 44 or a draw--highly doubting AKhh since he didn't repop". I slowly slide the $313 and watch the dealer burn and turn twice--Qd and a 3s. Amph verbalizes that I'm good and instead of having him show his hand first, I take his word for it and table my hand. An older gentleman in the 10-seat gets excited and looks right at me, "I hope you call my all-ins like that!"

There is the standard table discussion buzzing around as I rake in the pot. I look at that gentleman who I've never played before and shrug my shoulders at him, mumbling lightly. "I hope you go all-in against me." He has been fairly talkative ever since I sat down, so I figure he should enjoy the banter. He also has a delicious looking stack of $1200 in front of him. Unfortunately I don't get a chance to crack into that stack when it comes time to meet my friend at the bar a block away.

We enjoy a couple of drinks and find ourselves pleasantly surprised with a "lingerie show". It's nothing to get really excited about, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Afterwards, we grab some Mexican food and take it back to the pad. Right away we get asked to try out a new board game by my new roommate. We easily oblige and start listening to the rules as we unpack our food. It's been a long time since the four of us have gotten together for some nerdy board gaming, but we don't skip a beat.

It isn't until we wrap up the game close to 1:30 AM that I realize I've broken my Wednesday curse. This knowledge, along with the drinks, the food, and the gaming, makes for a very easy night's sleep.

I also hate playing live with time restrictions. It sucks to get stuck and not have a chance to get unstuck. I am not sure about your game but i generally never 3bet less than 3.5x in a live cash game setting. In my live game people almost never fold to 3bets and I am value 3betting like 90% of the time. Also 3betting to $40 after a raise to $15 and a call seems spewy with T8s.

What game was it?
We've been hooked on carcassonne.

Amazed you put in so many hours with a full time job. Good devotion to the game.

Thanks. I enjoy it so much. Love learning the game.

We played Castles of Burgundy. Also have played Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, Bohnanza, GoT, Guillotine, Munchkins, and others. Of course it all started with Catan heh.

Yeah, catan and then dominion were our primary "gateway drugs".
Although 5-6 years ago we played a lot of risk.

would def size 3bet larger, hit me up when going to reno/TV, might roll sometime

Sunday night wasn't the prettiest of poker sessions for me: set-over-set, a few 5-outers, not to mention a 2-outer from one of my "poker friends" Scotty when I decided to freeze up after flopping trips. He was obviously on tilt and called my min-raise super light. Something in the back of my head told me he could have had me out-kicked, but no, that was just my excuse and what really happened was that I decided to softplay versus a player I had gotten friendly with. Naturally, he catches his 2-outer on the river and boats up, but it still goes check-check. It wasn't a large pot because of the softplaying, but it was an eye-opener. I told myself I wouldn't softplay no matter how good of friends I might be with someone, yet there I was check-checkin' once we were heads up. Yet the drive home after our game broke up was surprisingly pleasant. In the past, it wasn't rare for me to take deep breaths, give off dramatic sighs, and just brood over my misfortune. That night I told myself that I would just fix those leaks and come back in the next day.

I get out of work promptly at 4PM and call in to the local card room as I make my way to my car. When I get home I get out of my restricting business clothes and throw on my Yoshi shirt and jeans. I still have 15 minutes to kill so I open up my laptop and after entering my password I'm greeted to a Pornhub window left open from last night. It's tempting, but I decide to catch up on pictures of my newly-wedded friends. I spot myself photobombing one of the pictures and have a good chuckle. On the way out I grab my purple hoodie. Even though it's a 100 degrees out, it'll be cold in the cardroom.

Seating is immediate as someone stands up from the only 2-3-5 game running. I get into several medium-sized pots within the first hour of sitting and before I know it I'm already up a buy-in. A younger player who I have some respect for sits to my right. We'll give him the name Graham. Graham can be a very talkative player when he's not steaming. He's not very popular amongst the regs as in the past he's been known to be the type to berate people for their play. This is something he's acknowledged himself and to his credit he has toned it down. When I feel like slinging around general internet lingo for entertainment I'll chop it up with him a bit.

Monday Night Football is on and Graham starts talking about Chip Kelly and how he supports him being an Oregon graduate. I instantly make a joke about Graham being the quintessential white boy raised in the affluent part of the East Bay, part of a conservative family, going to school in Oregon and all. He doesn't take any offense to it and laughs, telling me that's why he doesn't win any pots against me, because I have the perfect read on him. The conversation becomes more serious and soon we're talking about how our families view our decisions to take poker as a serious career. He mentions that his father had been a 9-to-5er all his life and for that reason can't accept poker as a viable source of income. Graham tells me that he's tried to show tables and graphs of his results to his father, but to no avail. I can only sympathize coming from a conservative Asian background myself and explain how my mom had expected me to go to business school or medical school. I mention that it took a bit of work to convince my folks, but when I showed them poker was a sustainable thing, that I treated it seriously enough to become my second job, they finally came to accept it.

At the mention of poker being my second job, Graham has this confused look on his face. He comes to realize that I also work full-time and is surpised at how I'm able to play so much. He says something to the extent that having a legitimate job and being able to play so much poker is like a dream come true. I sit there thinking to myself about how for the past couple of weeks I've entertained the idea of just packing up and going to Vegas to take a shot. Between all the chip shuffling and table talk, I hear Graham's case for why my situation is so good... as if I haven't gone through all of this myself. Maybe this is what I need, though--for someone else to tell me that I shouldn't give up what I have. I glance over at him as he drags a pot and starts droning on again about having benefits, disposable income, a solid bankroll, etc. His enthusiasm becomes mine and I feel the unrest melting away. I just hope that Graham can take as much from the conversation as I have and that he can find a way to get his parents' support as well.

i'll be there weekend of 20th and 27th. might peek in this weekend and do some satellites

A short update in amusedlol's life.

Two nights ago I was racked up and ready to leave. It's 1AM and I'm tired. The game is 6 handed and my leaving would make it 5 handed and likely to break. One player I'm friendly with convinces me to sit back down when he sees another player coming to switch from the 15/30 LHE game. Two hands later I donk all-in trying to represent a rivered flush, but my opponent isn't having it. The only disappointment I feel is that of allowing a fellow poker player to keep me in the game against my desire.

Last night starts off roughly. I get set-over-setted against a loud, obnoxious player who would clap his hands after every victory, no matter how big or small the pot. I don't let him get under my skin. My only fear is that he'll rack up early. He bought in the minimum of 40bb, but quickly comes up 200bb after doubling through me and then winning another huge pot. He gives about 160bb back during his "last hand" 30 minutes later, chasing an open-ended straight draw. At this point I've got a 100bb stack, in for 300bb. I just take more deep breaths than usual and play my game. At the end of the night I leave with 390bb. Some time during this rebuilding of my stack I send a text to Maddie just to see how's she's doing. Pitiful, ain't it?

Graham has been around more than usual. I guess he really has become motivated by my dedication to the game. He gets involved in a pot where he is the pre-flop raisor and flop c-bettor. On the final street it goes check-check. The first guy to show, Phil, is very reluctant to show his cards. He is so reluctant that he says "You show, you win" to Graham. Confused, Graham flips over K-high, to which I thought really would be good enough granted the action. But Phil is quick to show fourth pair. He also shoves his cards face up halfway into the muck, but then pulls them back out. This just bewilders me--not to mention that Phil was that poker buddy that convinced me to stay last night, causing me to donk off my chips. I'm quick to point out that his actions were improper and rude. Perhaps I'm holding a grudge against him and viewing him as the cause of my spew that night, but part of me also wants to correct his etiquette so he doesn't do it again and isn't viewed as a rude player. Phil defends himself by saying that he thought Graham had one of the three overcards to his paired card. His logic hurts my head so I just shake my head and decide not to say anything else because I'm not one to be confrontational.

I'm sitting here now at work and to be honest I've barely done a lick of work. I've processed some time-sensitive tasks and answered some calls, but I haven't done anything proactively. All I can think of is getting back on the tables to keep honing my game.

Real brief update.

Maddie claims her sister died. She can't pay her car insurance. She still wants a Bengal Kitten.

I have a cold. Going to HPT w/ pops in TV.

Hope this cold goes away.