Fuck the $750k...

Bad beat whining... seriously, not worth reading. Just venting...

Full Tilt Poker Game #7022937938: $750,000 Guarantee (51046204), Table 227 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:46:32 ET - 2008/06/29
Seat 1: thewizard033 (1,800), is sitting out
Seat 2: Rufus Cash (9,884)
Seat 3: RaisingCayne (2,800)
Seat 4: zupman (5,456)
Seat 5: mrrussian (3,232)
Seat 6: dartjam (5,253)
Seat 7: parlaypaul (15,684)
Seat 8: threeven (3,991)
Seat 9: StaroTequila (5,569)
mrrussian posts the small blind of 80
dartjam posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [Ad Ah]
parlaypaul calls 160 ~ the utg limp from the complete donkey toolbox that's attempted to see every single fucking flop since the tourney began. Scmuck's played like a fucking clown, and his large stack was only due to a wicked suckout he had just scored when he called a raise with KJo and overshoved a QTX flop, and was called by QQ... just to suckout the straight.
threeven folds
StaroTequila folds
thewizard033 folds
Rufus Cash folds
RaisingCayne raises to 550 ~ just intended to get the blinds out, as I know the donkey assface limping from utg is gonna see the flop.
zupman folds
mrrussian folds
dartjam folds
parlaypaul raises to 15,684, and is all in ~ k, let's just get it in pre. The utg limp reshove, fucking classic.
RaisingCayne calls 2,250, and is all in
parlaypaul shows [5c Ac] ~ WTF!???? Ace fucking five!?
RaisingCayne shows [Ad Ah] ~ villain's been running like god. I feel like I'm drawin' dead with the best hand in the game all in pre.
Uncalled bet of 12,884 returned to parlaypaul
*** FLOP *** [7s 2d 3d] ~ you fucking know the gutshot's coming...
*** TURN *** [7s 2d 3d] [8s] ~ wait for it... ... wait for it...
*** RIVER *** [7s 2d 3d 8s] [4s] ~FUCK POKER!
parlaypaul shows a straight, Five high
RaisingCayne shows a pair of Aces
parlaypaul wins the pot (5,840) with a straight, Five high
RaisingCayne stands up ~ ...and looks for something to punch.


So I fall out just in time to register for the daily $32k... and I shit you not, the second fucking hand of the tourney I'm all in with 77 vs. Qs4s on a 2s7sKh board, and of course the flush hits for the dildo that calls raises with Q4 sooted and over shoves the ghey draw.

AUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!! FUCK POKER! I'm going to Grand Theft...

Running Well... and a Cash Game Hand History

Even with the fear of jinxing myself, I'm still going to proclaim that I apparently am running well lately! After my winning last weekend, I've had some good results this week as well: with two $75 tokens earned, a satellite win for entry into the Sunday $750k Guarantee, AND last night I double-cashed the Daily Double tournaments, and finished the "A" in 4th place for ~$680! That's my second final table in a 1,000+ person tournament within a week, and has me feelin' pretty good about the state of my game.

Will do my best to keep up the little win streak, and have plans to get lots of tourneys in over the weekend. And I do NOT plan on cashing out the $T from my satellite win, and rather, I will be competing in the weekly big tournament this Sunday on Full Tilt. So I've got that goin' for me... which is nice.

Anyway... change of subject. Very similar to what Matt's recent posts have discussed, I too have been making a little foray into the realm of online cash games (despite a serious lack of experience, and a very unsuccessful record in previous attempts.) So with the intent of soliciting any and all help I can get, I wanted to post a hand history from last night that I believe really illustrates my inefficiencies at getting the most value out of cash game poker. Any and all thoughts are welcome...

Full Tilt Poker Game #6988060701: Table Anza (deep 6) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:49:52 ET - 2008/06/27 ~ I'm new to all elements of cash game play, including table selection decision making. But, I feel my game is best suited for 6max, and I enjoy the ability of sitting with 200bb to begin, so have preferred these "deep" tables. And I've been experimenting at the $0.50/$1 level, (although I should probably be at the $0.25/$0.50 games being as my bankroll's still well under $5k.)
Seat 1: Boots2323 ($129.70)
Seat 2: jbellis71 ($194)
Seat 3: RaisingCayne ($230.05)
Seat 5: peragroo ($206.90)
Seat 6: Pokerlusky ($101.50), is sitting out
peragroo posts the small blind of $0.50
Boots2323 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [5s 5d] ~ I heard somewhere that this hand is gold.
volition380 sits down
jbellis71 raises to $2
volition380 adds $100
Pokerlusky has reconnected
RaisingCayne calls $2 ~ Definitely calling a min-raise with position and presto. Haven't even seen a single preflop 3-bet in the half hour I've been at the table, and didn't feel the need to bump it here with just a small pp, and the open min-raise was very non-standard, and possibly representative of a monster.
peragroo calls $1.50
Boots2323 folds
*** FLOP *** [4c 4s 5c] ~ Boom!
Pokerlusky has returned
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne checks ~ Table has been playing UBER tight, with NO big pots and NO hands even going to showdown. I thought here that there was WAY too big of chance that ANY bet wins me the tiny pot as is, and I wanted to find a way to get the most out of my flopped full house.
*** TURN *** [4c 4s 5c] [Tc]
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne bets $3.05 ~ I've only got so much patience, need to do something to build the pot.
peragroo folds
jbellis71 calls $3.05 ~ K. I guess that's SOME action.
*** RIVER *** [4c 4s 5c Tc] [Ah]
jbellis71 bets $7 ~ Okay, so the turn completed a flush, and the river's an ace... and villain bets into me. So he's holding something that I need to reraise to get value out of my monster flop.
RaisingCayne has 15 seconds left to act ~ I'm slow. Had to calculate what I thought would be called by either a naked Ace, or a turned flush.
RaisingCayne raises to $20 ~ Advice welcome here as in hindsight think I could've re-raised a bit more, but this is the amount I went with. Not even sure why... was close to ~3x villain's bet.
jbellis71 has 15 seconds left to act
jbellis71 raises to $40 ~ And here's where I get completely perplexed! ??? WTF does this mean? A min-re-raise river 3-bet.? Hmmm...
RaisingCayne calls $20 ~ JUST call.(!????!) WTF!? I didn't even tank either!? I guess I talked myself into being scurred of TT or AA given the min-re-raise 3-bet post-river, but with hindsight I'm thinking this is just pussy poker and I totally should've re-popped. I guess I was just contemplating the scenario of seeing villain shove in response and me not knowing what to do, (read: me making a crying call for a more than I really wanted to risk,) so went with the 'just call' option here.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jbellis71 shows [Ac 6c] a flush, Ace high ~ JUST a flush! A min-RE-raise river 3-bet on a paired board with JUST a flush!? Fawk I should've gotten a lot more out of a villain here.
RaisingCayne shows [5s 5d] a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ Yeah, Presto is gold. Why did I ever even consider that there was any chance it wasn't after how the hand played out?!
RaisingCayne wins the pot ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $93.10 Rake $2
Board: [4c 4s 5c Tc Ah]
Seat 1: Boots2323 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: jbellis71 showed [Ac 6c] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: RaisingCayne (button) showed [5s 5d] and won ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ ... but is now kicking himself as he should've gotten A LOT more out of a flopped full house!???
Seat 5: peragroo (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 6: Pokerlusky is sitting out


Thanks in advance for any and all advice you may have. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

'Til next time...

...Stay classy San Diego,
~Raising Cayne

Something to Talk About

A month between posts again as I just haven't had much to share. Work has been overwhelmingly busy, and poker has just been an uneventful grind lately, so I've had few adventures worthy of mention. That is, until this last weekend...

Friday night I was home late from the office and was 4-tabling a bunch of random tournaments throughout the evening, and I managed to take 2nd place in the Midnight Madness! Turned $11 into ~$1,850 for my first four figure score of the calendar year. Huge thanks to Joanada, Numbbono, and OhCaptain for the railing! It was just an awesome experience playin' the tournament down with the live company, and it was far more entertaining than I expected to get use out of the microphone and headset Joanada talked me into pickin' up. That teamspeak thing is pretty cool I will admit. The one bad thing about having the railers is I can't get away with claiming my superior poker prowess was due all the credit for the score, as they were witness to a couple suckouts that were key to getting me where I went. (Two specifically for gigantic pots, when all in preflop with my QQ > AA, and my AQ > AK. Although neither spot was for my whole stack, both were very crucial to the tournament.)

The final table played real odd, as I feel I was really gifted the second place finish. Still at 9seated there were two players that were head and shoulders above the rest of the field, and for some donkey reason they get it AIPF against each other, after a back and forth raising war no less, with just AQ vs. 77 (?) and the winner (the AQ) held an incredible chiplead from there on in. And after he began appropriately applying lots of pressure on the the table, each of the rest of the field subsequently picked awfully mediocre hands to play back at him with. And it seemed like before I knew it I was head's up with a gazillion:one stack deficit. While of course I really wanted to take down first place, I'm thrilled about scoring the second place prize and my first decent score in far too long.

So I send a text message at 2:30 in the morning to a poker playin' buddy of mine just gloating over my little score, and the prick has the nerve to call me and wake me up when he reads it at 9 in the morning. Tells me it's good I had the win 'cause he's headed out to the Muckleshoot and now I can afford to join him for some live action. So... he's able to talk me into it, (obviously,) and I head out on too little sleep for a day trip of pokering. Played the $3-5 "spread" game (it's NL, but w/ a $500 max bet for some legal reason,) at the casino from 11-5 and turned $300 (which was actually and oddly the max buy in) into $812 before I took off in the late afternoon. (Even stopped by the 3Card Poker table game and left up another $40 after a half hour there.) I won't now delve into all my poker pwning that netted me the ~$500, but may post some details of the local live game another time. (Real juicy tables, definitely +EV for the decent player.)

So I get home and shower the casino funk off me, and by 7 in the evening I'm feeling good, with a pocket full of cash, and no specific plans on the evening's itinerary. And oddly enough, before I'm able to call a hooker to arrange some good old fashioned hate fucking, my cell phone rings. I get a call from a sexy cat, that's actually NOT a pro, with an inquiry if I wanted to go out and party with her. So I meet her at a local bar and proceed to get all sorts of shitty with some sexy company that I was somehow able to con into findin' me attractive. We hit up a couple locations, enjoyed far too much to drink, and really had an awesome drunk evening at the bars together. I'd say that I'm not one to 'kiss and tell', but I'm gonna 'bang and blog' here as I did take her back to my place for some hot drunk first-time passionate late night fornication. An excellent addition to an already killer weekend! The only thing I like better than pussy is new pussy.

So that was my killer weekend in a nutshell. It did have an all too too somber conclusion as I had to make my way into the office today, on a fucking Sunday, for some work. Which I expect to continue to keep me real busy into the near future. And I do still have to come to a decision as to whether to follow my organization to Memphis, TN or look for another employment option. But being the procrastinating pothead that I am, I'm sure I'll continue putting off the life choice for the time being.

Anyway, 'til next time...

I'm rich bitch!!!
~RaisingCayne

Thursday Musings...

A lot of different musings on my mind today, so, going with bullet points...

• Spilled a 16 oz. coffee ALL OVER MY DESK here at work this morning. I blame the obnoxious, incompetent colleague that was in my office driving me crazy with a repetitious meaningless review of facts I'm far more aware of than she is... causing me to unnecessarily shuffle paperwork with the intent of illustrating my discomfort with her presence... leading to my spilling the coffee EVERYWHERE. Really a horrible way to start one's day!
• Had a nice poker win last night, taking down the 23:35 $2rebuy on FullTilt for ~$200. It did keep me up 'til 1:30 which also didn't help this morning go too well, but well worth the fatigue. I really wish I knew how to do screen shots for the blog here, as there was some portions of the tourney I really wanted to show off. Specifically, my being in 13th place with 13 remaining and the top 12 making cash... then being in 1st place with 12 remaining, and when we hit the Final Table I had over three times the 2nd place stack! I molested the bubble like it was my job! It was really ridiculous how both the cash bubble and the Final Table bubble were treated by the competition, and I was able to rape the bubbles like my name was Gary Ridgeway. Coasted into head's up play where I ran over villain who thought any hand worth a stay in blackjack was worth jamming in head's up hold 'em. GG me!
• Had a meeting earlier this week with the upper management of the new company taking over my organization, and was really delightfully impressed by their honesty. Long story short, my job function IS moving to Memphis, TN on or before August 2009, and I need to make the corresponding decision whether to find other employment or move across country. Leaning toward the ladder, but I'm sure I'll have more quasi-internal debate between now and decision time. Que Sera Sera.
• Made another BBT3 Final Table earlier this week with a 5th place finish in Tuesday's Skillz game. Really enjoyed the experience, as I feel I picked up some learnings about OmahaHiLo, as I had only played the game a handful of times in the past. Congrats to LilKimmer, the FTOPS OmahaHiLo winner for taking down this event as well. I was really impressed by his aggression throughout the tournament and especially at the Final Table where I again played like a pansy, never effectively vying for the top spot. (For example, with 7 people left, I get AA67 utg with just ~13 BB left and I make it 3x to go instead of jamming, !??!... get 3 callers and fold to an all in on the flop where I felt I was beat.!? Live and learn I guess.)
• Mookie last night... hit a brutal suck out river 2-outter vs. Lucko in the first half hour to get to a decent stack, but gifted half of it off to a shorty's KK push vs. my 99, and then lost the remaining half when my QQ lost to AK, aipf. Ehh, standard. On a related note though, I was thrilled to learn today that Mookie is reverting back to the 3,000 chip starting stacks, rather than the shorter amount. Hopefully this will cut down on some of the donkeyrrific play witnessed in the first hour of this thing over the last couple months. (I.E... Last night's eventual 2nd place finisher Pureprophet getting it all in preflop in the first fifteen minutes with sooted 79 to oust NewinNov's big pocket pair.) It would be nice to see some semblance of actual poker strategy in this thing again in the future.
• Got some horrible news Monday night that I had been dreading for the last five years! Came home from work to see the Comcast van in my parking lot, and sure enough, my illegal cable that I've had since early '03 finally got turned off. That's $50/month I've enjoyed not spending for a long time now, and am not excited for the prospect of a new monthly bill! (Long story, but I no longer have the means to reconnect the service myself.)
• On a fairly related note, I watched an awesome movie last night, Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. Really enjoyed the flick and would recommend it to all.

Well, 'til next time...
I am Sheeva the God of Death,
~RaisingCayne

Better Mood

May be on the way out of my recent funk, as I've found myself in a better mood recently. I've realized a bitter tone really seemed to persist over my last few posts, (especially the recent rant I decided to delete shortly after posting,) and I feel this was simply a by-product of my recent gloom. I'll save all the details, as I never intended for this blog to get too personal, but wanted to simply share that things seem to be slowly turning for the better, and I'm feeling a bit more optimistic recently. Plan to have more positive posts up here rather than negative rants going forward. (Although, I'm not sure which are deemed more entertaining.)

On the poker front... I did finally final table a BBT3 event in last week's Riverchaser's, taking 4th place. Looking forward to a repeat performance this week, with the tourney having JUST kicked off. I also was able to cash in last night's Mookie before my donkey exit. I decided to go for what I thought was a resteal attempt with my AceNine in the BB, just to run up against Evy's AceKing on the button. Yep, that's right, I went all out with AceNine, the exact hypothetical holding I bitched about on here recently for villains' overplaying. My hypocrisy indeed has no bounds! (On a sidenote, Evy seems to really be running well of late with some solid bloggerment finishes... and also seems to be becoming quite the nemesis for me, dispatching me from a few recent events. Best of luck to her going forward, as I root for all non-TOC seat holders to win one of these last few events as the BBT3 comes to a close.)

In other poker news... I had a DEEP run in the $26, $9,500 KO tourney on FullTilt last week that was incredibly frustrating! Lost out in 21st place when my KK < AcTc AIPF. At the time I was dispatched I had a 3rd place chip stack too. I got the tourney chip leader to commit over 70% of his stack preflop with AcTc, but couldn't manage to come out on top. This was the closest I've came to a four figure score in at least six months, so the ~$100 I did cash was little consolation for me. Winning in that 67/33 spot would've put me in a dominating first place position, but, it was not to be. (I didn't even fault villain too much, as I was completely running over the table at the time with constant preflop raises, as NO ONE was playing back at me whatsoever. The chipleader understandably went for the re-steal from the button with a hand that he had to think was good against my range. Of course, his call of my re-re-raise jam was quite iffy, but I digress.)

In other other poker news... I seemed to have found a means to replenish my FullTilt bankroll via the morons that seem to frequent the 4-seat HU SnG shootouts. If you enjoy HU poker, and haven't gave these a shot, I really recommend 'em. The $6.50+$0.40 token satellite options have proved to be a great way to stock up on those tier one tokens. On a similar note, if you haven't heard already, Loretta has just started another weekly bloggerment, with the Sunday Head's Up tournament, a $26 64-person HU shootout at 21:00 hours on Full Tilt, password: shovemonkey. Should be good times.

Hope everyone's running well, 'til next time..

...I'm a talkin' donkey,

~RaisingCayne

Can't Abide Stupid

So I've again been feeling like it's better to keep my mouth shut than to share much recently, but I felt it might not hurt to go on a vague rant. (Evidently I've came to the conclusion that I'm okay with running the risk of offending groups of people, just not any individuals specifically.) I've bit a fucking hole in my tongue lately to keep from filling this blog or the ghey poker table chat boxes with opinions on the outrageous incompetence witnessed of late. The only poker I've really been able to play at all lately are the Monday through Thursday BBT3 tourneys, which seem to have a consistent theme of seeing me lose out to lesser holdings. And since my venom is fueled by others in this little blogger community of ours I've thought better of illustrating individuals' ignorance publically. But... FUCK!!!

(Ha, I just said butfuck.)

It's just getting obnoxious to not be able to Final Table a single fucking time despite feeling that my play has really been improved and focused lately. Each and all of my tourney exits lately seem to come from nearly identical situations: I re-raise one of our group's uber-aggro-donk-habitual-raisers, they moronically put me on a "re-steal" (despite this play barely being in my repertoire) and jam despite (or to spite?) their ghey holdings... I call with my better hand and get prison style anal raped by their sooted bullshit. WTF!?

I won't call anyone out individually, and I'm not even referring to this week's tourneys specifically, in case anyone's attempting to jump to conclusion about my thoughts. And in fact, I'm not even referring to one, two, or even three individuals, but more just to poker incompetence in general. I can't abide stupid!

My Full Tilt 'notes' on other bloggers are getting entertaining. Given my restraint from using the blog or the girly chat, I use the 'notes' as a means of spewing my acrimony. The notes on a few tools out there have novel length rants now, it's sort of funny... sort of.

I'm just really curious when/how it's justified to jam preflop on top of a pot committed RE-raiser with AceFuckingNine?!!? Seriously!? WTF!? These donkeys don't even consider that the BEST case scenario in that spot is that they're on the badside of a coinflip, and there's a HUGE probability of their being dominated, and ZERO chance of them being ahead! I guess they just get overly drawn to the pretty matching suits on their cards, and that oh-so-attractive Ace, I don't know...

...I suppose I could understand the sexiness of the top card in our game though: that irresistable "A" in the corner of the card; with the come-hither-hole at the top of the open-leg-like lines down each side. (But for the record, I believe when people say "Fuck an A" they mean "Fuckin' A" ... they're not advising literal intercourse with the top of the alphabet, just making a reference to their being upset.) And we all know how those sexy Aces love each other's company at FullTilt... like stoner chicks on the way to a High School party, we know if we have one there's always a good chance she's gonna be lying with another before we get to the river.

Anyway... "Wooooo-saaaaaaaawwwww". ... "Serinity Now." ... "Ohmmmmmmm." .... I should really take up yoga or something. ...

Alright, I suppose I got my malice out of my system. I must be coming across like Hoy though, with an arrogant, perceived poker superiority. Please take this whole post with a grain (or tablespoon) of salt, as I suppose I'm really just venting recent frustrations. I'm just wholly embarrassed by my spot on the leaderboard, and I suppose I'm just trying to shift blame away from myself. Before anyone calls me out on my hypocrisy, (and yes, I'm a hypocritical ass at times,) I'm well aware that my play is not without the occassional suckout! In fact, yes, that was me calling off my entire ~35bb stack in the first hour of the Mookie last night in a blind battle (vs. pureprophet I think) with just AQo, vs. villain's AK, and, like that siren scene from O' Brother Where Art Thou, we saw a bitch on the river bring the other guy down. Yeah, my hypocrisy has no bounds! It's my blog, and I can whine when I want to.

With every intention of discounting my earlier conceit, I will share the fact that this BBT has really humbled me after witnessing certain players' consistency and success. I won't kiss specific ass again, like I did in my last post, but it's just abundantly clear that my game is not at as high of level as many others. And for those that know me well, (and know I'm really a much much bigger conceited prick than I even come across as,) know that this was a difficult epiphany to come to grips with! (Cayne's not exactly known for his humility. ... And he also enjoys a third person reference to himself now and again, evidently.) Seriously though, I've taken a lot of pleasure recently from watching a few others' play, and feel like my game's improved just by witnessing more successful game plans than my own be executed. But again, I don't want to sound like a kiss ass. (Although I think I am now considering a name change to TuscaloosaCayne.)

In other poker news...
A huge congratulations to Matt, who has proved that even Just Another Donkey can finagle a decent score! Great job man. Well deserved. (I won't even make any broken clock or blind squirrel references.)
I would also give more congrats to Lucko too for his latest scores, but those statements are just getting repetitive so I won't bother. Seriously though, what an amazing run of late. This guy knows how to play poker!
And a big congratulations to the folks at BDR, Live Poker Radio! Their coverage of the Borgata event was outstanding. If I didn't know any better, I would've almost considered y'all a respectable media outlet. (Almost. And, I know better anyway. I jest!) Riggstad, BuddyDank, Instant Tragedy, Perticelli, et al... all deserve recognition for the outstanding set of broadcasts! Not to mention Cheryl Hines interviewed!!!!!!! Woooot! Boom! Suh-weet! (IMO, when it comes to celebrities that occassionally play poker... she's the nuts.)

In other other news...
The roommate and I are throwin' a big party next weekend, Saturday the 17th. I usually have at least two big shindigs per year at my place and hadn't hosted one in awhile. Really lookin' forward to it. (Just in case there's any readers out there that I haven't previously invited, and that will be in the area that day, please hit me up, as I would hope you could make it over.) Gotta spend all of this weekend playing clean up in preparation. Gotta scam the lady friends into thinking my home always looks nice ya know.

Well, Riverchasers is tonight! Can't wait to see who's sooted Q9 bests my re-re-raised JJ. Good times. On a quasi-serious note though, I have enjoyed this tourney much much more than the Mookie for awhile now, and do look forward to it every week. I don't know if it's the different stack sizes or the different player pools or what, but for some reason the Wednesday routine seems to play ultra-loose and plays down much much faster compared to the other BBT3 events. I prefer the deeper stacks and earlier start time that Thursday's game provides. (Although I do completely understand the Mookie's current structure. Especially given the late start time.) Anyway, good luck all...

'Til next time...

I'm a talkin' donkey!

~RaisingCayne

If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say...

... then don't say anything at all.

At least that's what I've been thinking. Not to appear to be making excuses for having a month go between posts, but my mama taught me better than to share negativity that didn't have any chance to reap benefit. So I've been figuring why would I bother posting on here when all I seem to have to say is a bunch of expletive filled whinings.? I'm not just referring to poker either, but I've been filling bummed out in every facet of my apparently inane existence lately. I never had the intention to share my depression though, so please pardon my persistent pessimism displayed here.

On the poker front... a quick perusal of the BBT3 Leaderboard clearly illustrates that I evidently suck! Haven't had one single final table appearance in 17 fucking tournaments!?!? WTF!? And while I mean no offense to those that may be running worse in this series, (and oh yeah, they're out there,) I don't think it's reasonable to blame any bad luck for such a persistent lack of success. My results are ridiculously disappointing and while 17 tourneys may be a small sample size, it's still enough to illustrate tendencies... and my tendency is to lose! I've had some really strong first two hour showings on a couple of occassions but just can't seem to last between the points bubble and the final table bubble!?. (Read: "at crunch time Cayne crumbles like a house of cards on a fault line.")

Last night's Riverchaser's game was a ridiculously disappointing example of my BBT results! Lost out in 11th place after running my flopped nut straight into Evy's top pair, and watching while a runner runner full house ends my night. (My QTo vs. her JTo on flop of 89J... all in on flop... turn J... river 8!?!) I'm not pointing any fault at my voluptuous villain here, as the hand really played itself before and on the flop: she hit top pair w/ OESD in a limped pot and was committed to call my all in after her 3/4 pot bet on the flop. I'm just still completely frazzled over losing in that spot, as the double up would've provided me with a top 3 stack at the final table bubble, and been my first solid shot at a TOC seat. But, like the majority of opportunities I've had to better my position, it never came to fruition. Anyway,... hopefully donking it up in this evening's $1 rebuy madness will change my poker mood, who knows.

In other news...

• My best friend got married last weekend. And for a guy that's adamantly against the insitution of marriage, I sure do love a good wedding! Any experience to wear a tuxedo and dance like it's a High School's Homecoming is good times in my book. (Note: if you come across a performance on YouTube that looks like me doing the lawnmower, please don't advertise!)
• The roommate's on vacation! While he's off on some wild golf adventure through the Southeast of the country I got the place to myself this week/weekend. ('Naked Friday' is back in effect... visit at your own risk!)
• My employer recently announced the sale of our business to a competitor. While I've been informed that I will still have a position here in South Seattle through the acquisition transition, 'til at least next Summer, I'm afraid there's a very significant chance of my getting a job offer (read: ultimatum) to move to Tennessee within the next year.?! Ehh... que sera sera. We'll see.

Well, that's about it I suppose. Hope all is well with you and yours...

I would like to wish a congratulations to those individuals that really appear to be running well in the BBT3, as their respective perfomances really deserve recognition beyond my silent envy. (I'm green with jealous rage right now...) TuscaloosaJohn, Waffles, Lucko, Loretta, Corron, TwoBlackAces, jeciimd, hoyazo... seriously, well done thus far, and good luck going forward! This group appears to be playing head & shoulders above my weak ass, and the rest of the blogger brethren. I'll have to start paying more attention to their strategy posts I guess!?

'Til Next time...

I'm a talkin' donkey...

~RaisingCayne