2) Maintain chip stack with textbook poker, due to steady stream of interruptions - the phone call from a friend asking if she can put you down as a reference for the Girl Scout leader application ["You're just telling them I'm responsible and am okay with kids." "Sooo... I have to lie?"] and later the younger friend calling to seek advice from the older and wiser one on matters of finances and roommates.

Turn on Mets game in the bottom of the 9th to bring them good luck. Watch as they get a triple! And then load the bases! And then… go to the 10th! Have father call you from the Astros game. Astros are winning! Watch as the Mets fall apart in the 10th, wonder if perhaps there was some mixup with uniforms.

Attention divided will get you through about 2/3 of the field before you reach the point where you really need to start catching cards. And that’s where step 3 comes in…

3) As Heather refers to it, “making out with the RNG”. And as JoeSpeaker likes to think of the RNG as a girl in this case, well that’s fine, we can go with that. I think the railbirds have something to do with it too, because the moment Al showed up for me I got hot. [...in the card sense]

I pushed with pocket 7s from the small blind, found myself against Kings and Jacks, and flopped a boat. Al typed “that’s my girl” while I collected a nice 45,632 pot and was suddenly 2nd on the leaderboard. And the rush would continue. Just hands later I rivered CK and busted her. I felt bad for that, as she is a friend. But it’s poker of course, so admittedly I got over it quickly.

And girl cannot live on card rush alone (well, she can, but for this girl the deck would go cold on occasion) so from time to time I would have to rely on honest to goodness poker skillz. I has some. My favorite was the J4 bluff at the final table, me in the big blind calling a raise to just under 3xBB from Mike_Maloney on the button. Flop was Qd-9h-5c and I led out with 3xBB. He called. Qh hit on the turn, I bet 4xBB, now having put about 1/2 my stack in the pot and chanting “fold. fold. fold. fold.” Fortunately for me he did, or I’d be telling a different tale.

I had Aces once, and they got no action. Had Queens and got killed with them once we got heads-up, in a hand I knew damn well better, but tiredness and well, a case of the stupid, got to me.

I had just knocked out NewinNov in 3rd when I called his As-6h with my Ac-8d (paired the 8 on the flop), and was going into heads-up with a 202,530 stack to Buddeman’s 79,470. So when I saw that I had Queens the very first hand in the match? I was thrilled; visions of a quick and easy heads-up battle. I push here, I win, and we go home.

Except he raised, and when I re-raised he called. So when the Ace came on the flop, warning bells should have been going off for me. All sorts of them. I should have checked the flop to him, let him bet, then fold it and move on. Instead I bet out 45,000 (which was all but 12,000 of his stack). If he had any piece of that he was pushing, and of course he did… with the As-5d (because one piece wasn’t enough!). Him winning that hand evened us up, which didn’t kill me (as my wonderful rail was quick to remind) but it pissed me off. At myself.

It was going to take a big hand to get me back in the lead heads-up, and it came just a bit later. After me raising pre-flop, and then raising his flop bet, Buddeman pushed all-in on a 5h-4h-6h flop. He had me covered by about 20,000; but with Ah-5s I had a whole lot of outs, so I called. The 2s on the turn dropped my odds down, but the Jh on the river made the flush and put me back in the lead.

The final hand was his Kd-7c versus my Js-6h - paired the 6 on the flop and suddenly I’d won the Mook. As Speaker put it, “Austin Represent!”

Much thanks to our host, who, judging from his twitters, I’m not even sure was able to make an appearance tonight. And oh, my wonderful railbirds. We are nothing without each other, yes? Heather was perhaps the best good luck charm of all, and also served to calm me when needed and provide comic relief. And Speaker, showing up just in time to take over the hot guy duties from Al as the bar was closing. Girl power from Joanne, whom I miss so much! And Alan, who has a reputation for being bad luck as a railbird but clearly is not - or maybe just not for me. Apologies to the BuddyDank crew, as I was remiss in getting the show pulled up last night, between the phone calls and then, you know, the poker. The new website looks awesome though!

I can’t guarantee success for everyone with these steps - that whole making out with the RNG thing may prove a bit tricky - and it probably does help to be favored by Al, but hey, it’s worth a shot. Bet you Waffles tries it next week.

Soooo…I just quit my job. 04:47 PM August 21, 2008 from txt

“Have I told you that I don’t want you to leave?”
“Yes dear. Several times. But it’s still gonna happen.”

Tomorrow brings the last day in the office, which means two things - the Twitters are gonna get a whole lot less cryptic [less nightmares for some, less seduction for others] and this space here will get busier again.

I don’t even know who to trust anymore. Starting to think Mr. Intuition was right…. 09:04 PM August 25, 2008 from TwitterBerry

See, I’ve always been super careful (or tried to be at least) with the flow of information. The Twitter updates are protected and only people I know or absolutely don’t know and are pretty sure you don’t know anyone I might know are allowed on the “in” list. They feed to the Facebook page, where only friends are “friends” - not family, because holy hell do I not need them seeing the Twitter updates! My cousin’s wife is probably pretty pissed as to why I haven’t approved her friend request, but whatever, I’ve got till Christmas to come up with a reason why not.

And if she really wants to be friends, we can link up on MySpace. There I’ve got the family and the coworkers, assorted employees and the general people. There is no mention of a Twitter there. There is a link to the blog though, and a link to the Flickr page, from which you could link back to the blog; from which now will make mention of a Twitter account, but of course, you’ll note I’m not telling you the screen name and of course, it remains protected.

It’s a complicated web. The Twitters were born out of a need to respond to the workplace drama(s) I was in the middle of daily, and were actually meant to serve as little blog triggers. But they became way too much fun - 140 character blurbs that really, got out everything I needed. Most of you loved them. I could control who saw them, so I could say just about anything, but kept it cryptic still because when it’s on the internet, it’s never really safe.

I put so much emotion into four little words. The two you responded with were simple and perfect. But they still drove me to drink. June 18, 2008 from web

The day job ends today. I have debated leaving it for months, waffled on the issue, debated it back and forth, was talked into staying time and time again. I took the job last summer, intending to stay through December, while I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I have stayed far too long… because of the people, because of my fears, because I simply hadn’t come up with the answer to that very important question just yet. And then the perfect storm hit.

We are three hens without a rooster. 10:31 AM August 07, 2008 from TwitterBerry

A key component of my support system was now gone, my side of the company was undergoing a reorg that left me feeling less than inspired, and the people - the ones that had kept me there for so long - were starting to become more of a drain… in other areas of life. Finally ready to leap, I just needed a soft place to land. And along came Otis.

For the next two weeks I have the honor of joining a talented team of writers on the PokerStars Blog providing live coverage of the WCOOP. It will be challenging and exciting and was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to make the right decision for me.

The Tweets will likely get less cryptic as a result, though the blogging here will likely pick up. A happy April is a better April. There are stories I have been waiting and wanting to tell, needing to get out, but kept from for reasons varied. The biggest one comes to a close, though it is bittersweet.

The one on the left; a recent acquisition, and not one I came by in the normal means. A surprise gift; waiting on my keyboard at just the right moment, as if a sign from above. [Or just a bass player who eats too much Panda Express.]

I should be ashamed.

I’ve got posts, they’re just unfinished, and the time to complete them never seems to find itself. [Lame Blogger Excuse #10010; I know] Things will get good around here again soon, I promise.

But look! This past weekend I fulfilled a very important obligation as Aunt April and took Baby to his first baseball game -

Sadly, the Astros lost (in typical “let’s play like crap the whole game then omg it’s the 9th here let’s suddenly turn awesome” fashion) but they were playing the Diamondbacks, Baby’s mother’s favorite team; so it was all good - as I said to her at the bottom of the 7th, “Deep down I know you’re really happy with the score.”

Yes, Baby has a real name. No, we do not use it.

Never too early to get him trained on the joys of a bottle at the ballpark. Kid outdrank me!

I turned the tables on myself. He didn’t know me that well, couldn’t have that much to say about me. As he took a breath from saying that she’d never let anyone in her life, never let anyone really love her, I offered up that while he was charting life courses he was free to create one for me, as I was finding myself a bit adrift.

He turned to me, pointing a finger squarely at me and said “You know what your problem is? You have no fucking clue what you want. You’re sitting here waiting for the wrong. fucking. thing. You’re too goddamn beautiful for that. You keep making the same mistake over and over again and nothing ever changes. You both do.”

Stunned and speechless, I fell back into my chair with eyes wide and took a swig of my Shiner. Who the fuck was this man to so accurately call me out on my shit like that?

In his later tales, he shared with us a Spanish phrase that translates to “There is no bad that some good can not come of it.” It was the perfect way to sum up my night; as things didn’t go at all as planned - that waiting bit - but I did make a new friend. As our sage went to refill his drink and acquire more beers for us, she and I exchanged numbers and discussed getting together. “I can tell you this much” I said, “If what he said about you is true, we’re going to get along great.”

I reply that the game was on Saturday. She texts back - “So what now?” Well into the wine and equally so into my lesson on the value of sometimes just saying exactly what you want and mean, I reply back:

“Right now I am sitting outside eating dinner and drinking a bottle of wine and looking for hot guys.”

Can’t say I quite expected the volley I got from dear ole mom:

“Me too. Enjoy. Love you.”

I replied with, “I won’t tell dad if you don’t!” and continued on with dinner; laughing away my boy tilt with Maigrey in the perfectly cool Chicago evening.

I return to Austin tomorrow; reluctantly. I would much prefer to have Vegas (the dog) shipped to me and buy a new wardrobe than to face the music at home.

It’s been a fantastic weekend and I miss everyone already!! Looking forward to Gentile Summit ‘09!!

Damn straight.

Still in Chicago, highlights of the weekend coming as the brain cells awaken and revive themselves. Some of them just remembered some good stuff at breakfast a few hours ago! Weeee!!!

Oh how I do. It’s the blast of 100 degree heat that hits me as I cross the parking lot; it’s the Las Vegas documentary on PBS; it’s the desperate need of a change of pace; it’s the whiff of MGM Grand perfume on my dresser; the rings on my finger I bought to remember it all. I miss the WSOP. All of it. The good, the bad, the ugly. I can say this because of the distance…because I am now sufficiently far enough removed to romanticize the entire experience. This summer, my head might have to focus through a day’s work, but thanks to the hard work of some excellent writers (and friends) my heart can travel to the Rio.

2008 World Series of Poker Blogs:

Pokerati
Tao of Poker - Dr. Pauly
LasVegasVegas
WickedChopsPoker
PokerNews, featuring the lovely Change 100,the very talented Mean Gene, and my favorite skinny Yankee - F-Train.
PokerStarsBlog, featuring UpForPoker’s Otis
PokerListings, featuring my favorite mountain man, Jason “Spaceman” Kirk
PokerBlog.com - My home during the 2006 WSOP; I’ll always have a soft spot for this site. The PokerShrink is one of the best in the biz and still keeps the home fires buring.

Vegas isn’t entirely out of the question this summer… but perhaps like in all relationships a little distance makes the heart grow fonder. And while he is by no means a substitute, it does help to have a little bit of Vegas at home.

Scott: wow that pic looks nothing like you

Roomie: Leave it to DP to be aware the minute something like that hits the interwebs.

*No, not seriously. It was instead the last honest LOL moment I had before the day took a complete 180.

And thus we proceeded to argue back and forth ["Get in the Jeep." "No!"]for a good ten minutes, him sitting in the Jeep idling in my driveway while I bitched from the pathway of my perfectly manicured front lawn. Roomie, being President of the Homeowner’s Association, would have been thrilled. (Hey, the neighbors say they never see us…) Matter settled; Scott drives off in the Jeep and me in the Mustang. …until we turn around, come back to the house, he parks the Jeep, and we leave in my car.

He bitches of course - Ian left the seat too far back, I only have one song from the artist on my iPod, there’s too much R.E.M., I drive “like old people fuck” (“yeah, fast and awesome!”). But by the end of the evening; more accurately, on the way home, he sees the light and agrees that letting me drive was the right thing to do. With a designated driver he’s been able to kick back and relax all night… which means I now have a most amusing co-pilot for the drive home. We joke that Scott IS Family Guy’s Peter Griffin. When you read the below, you absolutely must picture Peter Griffin when you do it, because it was never more accurate than that drive.

“You know what’s a fun word? Appaloosa. Appaloosa. Say it. Say it. Appaloosa. Say it.”
“Appaloosa.”
“You know what else is a fun word? Shin. Shin.”
….
“Shin”
“Elbow. Elbow. Say it. Elbow.”

_____________________________________________________________

Despite the offers, I passed on waking up early Saturday morning and driving to the other end of the world (i.e., North Austin) to hang out at a golf course with the gang when I had zero golfing skills. Sleeping in was much more my style, then running errands and heading over to Mookie’s for BBQ in the afternoon.

Mookie ran a great tournament, as always, and it was great to see everyone - Don, CK, Carter, Astin, JJ, Steve, Rocco, & Sed. Personally I wasn’t getting anywhere with my cards and ended up going out right at the break when my queens ran into aces, because I am such an online player and don’t adjust well to playing live at all, and obviously can’t lay down a big pair. I then drowned my sorrows with whiskey and chocolate and JoeSpeaker. I am such a girl.

At least I had a cutie to keep me company while waiting for the cash game to get started…

Complete set of pictures from the weekend are here - enjoy!