It's only been 25 days...

Man....time flies by when you're having, well, ummm......Okay, I've been having fun. September is always a busy month as school starts up for the kids and my wife goes back to work in the classroom. My youngest son started kindergarten and my daughter started Middle School so it was kind of a "special" year for us this year. Soccer is in full swing so my Saturdays consist of refereeing 2 games, watching 2 games, and coaching one more. I'm usually whooped when I get home around 2:00 each Saturday afternoon. I've got so many random thoughts right now that I seem to do best when I bullet-point them. Here it goes:

Football
God, I love football. I'm in 3 Fantasy leagues, 2 football pools, 1 elimination pool, and I have a ton of over/under season bets (see earlier post). As much fun as I've had watching the games this year, I've gotten my a$$ handed to me in a variety of different ways this season. I'm 4-7-1 overall in my 3 Fantasy leagues...I'm in last place in an 18-member pool....I've lost all 4 weeks in a 1-on-1 pool...and I got eliminated in the first week of the elimination pool when I picked K.C. over the Raiders in Week 2. For someone that reads and studies as much about football, I utterly suck when it comes to prognosticating. In week 5, I am literally going to either have my bulldog or my 5-year old make my picks. I couldn't possibly do worse than I did last week. I'm staring at a 4-digit loss in football wagers this season if I don't get my act together.

I was able to lasso some 15-yard line tickets to the MNF Chargers v. Jets game last Monday. It was a great game and I always love Qualcomm on gameday. I'm taking the whole family to the Dec. 28th Chargers/Broncos game along with my Boss' family. We're going to spend the weekend down there and tailgate before the game. I've never taken my kids to a Charger game so I'm pretty pumped about that.

Poker
It's been an interesting month for me as I've played quite a bit of poker on FullTilt. I took 12th in the $11.5K on Saturday night when I really thought I was finally going to take one down. I found myself thinking about the $3,500 first prize with about 3 tables left but, alas, I misplayed one hand which really cost me in the end. I went deep in the $28K last night and once again misplayed one hand. It's frustrating how hours of solid play can be ondone by just one hand. I've really been addressing some glaring leaks in my mid-tourney game and I'm starting to see some results so I'm hoping I can hit a big score in the near future. I'm currently reading the Rizen/Ape/PJ book on tournament poker and I like it so far. I always hope to at least pick up one or two tidbits from each book I read.

I have played approx. 9,000 hands of $.50/$1 NL on FullTilt in the last month and am only winning at a rate of approx. 4BB/100. This is pretty mediocre but my rakeback helps a little and I'm trying to fill some leaks in my cashgame as well so I'm hoping I can grind a little more before moving back up to $1/$2.

I'm going to Vegas Oct. 24-26th and Nov. 14-17th. In October, I'll be staying at NY/NY and I'll be playing the $550 event on Saturday at the Caesar's Palace Classic. The last time I played a live MTT at Casesar's I won it so let's hope I go 2-for-2.

Life
All through my 20's and until I was around 35, I lived my life in a completely different manner than I do now. I was an avid saver/investor of our money and never really did anything real exciting in my life. Not that we lived a boring life....but I just didn't do many "really" exciting things because I was focused on saving money and not being away from my job. From 2003-2006, I had a high-pressure, many-hours assignment at work that had me working nights, weekends, etc. and being out of town for extended periods of time. My life centered around that assignment and consequently, my relationship with my wife and my kids suffered. I got out of that assignment "just in time" and really had somewhat of an epiphany as to how I wanted to live my life. I saw many of my friends that really never did anything fun in their life and my wife and I had incomes that allowed us to do extra things in our life. Since I left that assignment, I've been to the Carribean 3 times, a Chargers game in Green Bay, Disneyworld, Las Vegas around 20 times, a Mexican cruise, and a family trip to Montana. I go to Chargers games whenever I feel like going....I went to UFC 86 at Mandalay Bay...I've been to 2 Brad Paisley concerts...and I'm hoping to be at Couture/Lesnar on November 15th.

I guess my point in bringing this up is that I see so many of my suburban friends (most of my friends have 3-5 kids) caught up in the rat race and worrying about their entire lives centering around their children. I think sometimes they forget about being adults...they forget about nurturing their marriages and doing "adult" stuff that makes the other parts of their lives more bearable. When my wife and/or I see something we want to do (Concert, trip, show), instead of thinking of a reason why we CAN'T do it, we usually think of a reason why we can. I wish more people, and more of my friends, had that same attitude about life. We're not here on this earth forever, folks. Like the old adage says....no one is going to commend you at your funeral for all those days you spent at work. HAVE SOME FUN!!!


I really hope to post some big poker results in the near future. I've put some extra time in studying and listening to numerous podcasts and I'm hoping to add a new addition to the "Biggest Scores" chart at the top of this blog.

Podcasts I Listen to Each Week
Pokerroad Radio
Big Poker Sundays (Pokerroad)
Cash Plays (Pokerroad)
All Strategy (Pokerroad)
Beatdown (Sherdog-MMA)
P.T.I. (ESPN Radio)
Poker Podcast (Two Plus Two)

Thanks for reading,

W2D

It Never Gets Old-Part 2

And for tonight's episode.....I just took 19th in the TILT $11.5K after taking 21st two nights ago (see Part 1). Please tell me what to do differently:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7942214790: $11,500 KO Guarantee (60271256),
Table 4 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:31:51 ET - 2008/09/05
Seat 1: bigbman29 (25,994)
Seat 2: javman30 (108,294)
Seat 3: badbeatme (87,211)
Seat 5: Lez Ride (150,781)
Seat 6: HGJ18622 (23,395)
bigbman29 antes 250
javman30 antes 250
badbeatme antes 250
Lez Ride antes 250
HGJ18622 antes 250
bigbman29 posts the small blind of 1,000
javman30 posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HGJ18622 [6h Ac]
badbeatme folds
Lez Ride folds
HGJ18622 raises to 23,145, and is all in
bigbman29 raises to 25,744, and is all in
javman30 foldsbigbman29 shows [As 4s]
HGJ18622 shows [6h Ac]
Uncalled bet of 2,599 returned to bigbman29
*** FLOP *** [Qd 4h 3s]
*** TURN *** [Qd 4h 3s] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [Qd 4h 3s Ah] [4c]
bigbman29 shows a full house, Fours full of Aces
HGJ18622 shows two pair, Aces and Fours
bigbman29 wins the pot (49,540) with a full house, Fours full of Aces

Lots of NFL side bets for 2008

I have booked a ton of NFL bets for the coming season. I'm going to try my best to chronicle them on this blog so I can keep track of them. There is a good chance of a chop on many of them. For example, in the "Q" bets below, if the Jets win 8 games, I push. If Notre Dame wins 6 games, I push. Here they are (so far):

"Q"
$50 N.Y. Jets 7 wins or less
$50 Notre Dame 7 wins or more
$25 Philadelphia Eagles 7 wins or less
$25 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$25 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$25 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$25 Miami Dolphins 3 wins or less
$25 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

"A"
$25 Philadelphia Eagles 7 wins or less
$25 New England Patriots 11 wins or less
$25 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$25 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$25 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$25 Miami Dolphins 5 wins or more
$25 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

"S"
$20 Oakland Raiders 8 wins or more
$20 New England Patriots 13 wins or more
$20 Philadelphia Eagles 9 wins or more
$20 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$20 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$20 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$20 Miami Dolphins 5 wins or more
$20 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

"D"
$25 Oakland Raiders 6 wins or less
$25 Philadelphia Eagles 7 wins or less
$25 New England Patriots 11 wins or less
$25 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$50 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$25 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$25 Miam Dolphins 5 wins or more
$25 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

It Never Gets Old-Part 1

Just took 21st in the Full Tilt $11.5K. For the third time in the last week, I was within the last 4 tables and got it in with pair over pair pre-flop....I've got to figure out something different. 80% favorites just don't work for me. WTF!!!!!!!

Full Tilt Poker Game #7914952863: $11,500 KO Guarantee (60061375), Table 62 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:38:08 ET - 2008/09/03
Seat 1: longballjy (186,815)
Seat 2: HGJ18622 (17,159)
Seat 3: luckycatch1 (49,469)
Seat 5: FloppedTheNuts (38,428)
Seat 6: Dobbsey (88,348)
longballjy antes 250
HGJ18622 antes 250
luckycatch1 antes 250
FloppedTheNuts antes 250
Dobbsey antes 250
FloppedTheNuts posts the small blind of 1,000
Dobbsey posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to HGJ18622 [Qs Qh]
longballjy folds
HGJ18622 raises to 16,909, and is all in
luckycatch1 folds
FloppedTheNuts has 15 seconds left to act
FloppedTheNuts raises to 38,178, and is all in
Dobbsey foldsFloppedTheNuts shows [3d 3s]
HGJ18622 shows [Qs Qh]
Uncalled bet of 21,269 returned to FloppedTheNuts
*** FLOP *** [4c Ah Kh]
*** TURN *** [4c Ah Kh] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [4c Ah Kh 6s] [3c]
FloppedTheNuts shows three of a kind, Threes
HGJ18622 shows a pair of Queens
FloppedTheNuts wins the pot (37,068) with three of a kind,
ThreesHGJ18622 stands up