Mrrrfff!

A shortened day of poker today, since the Wife had plans for me in the late morning.

Total take for the day, -$19.75. So, after two outstanding days, I take a small loser. I really can't complain about the small loss. I had my money in when I had the best of it and took a few heartbreaking river losses. The most frustrating part was this. I sit down in the one seat of this table. In the two seat is a loose/weak guy who you could move off a pot with a stern look, the three seat was a revolving door of guys bringing $10 to the table and promptly busting out to the ultra-loose/borderline maniac in the four seat. 5th seat was a bona-fide calling station who in 55 hands had a VP$IP close to 85%, and the 6th seat was a decent player for this table, only scoring a VP$IP of around 45% to 55%. If ever there was a perfect table to make an absolute mint on, this would be it...

...and I couldn't get a playable hand to save my life. I swear to you, if I had the cards today that I've been getting the last two days, I'd have walked away from that table tripled up. As it is, three of the five people at that table went onto my fishfinder (aka. Buddylist).

The table I was at previous to the "perfect table" had one player calling everything under the sun too, but it took some work to isolate her as the other players on the table were fair to passable. She burned through a $50 buy-in in about 50 minutes, and sat with felt in front of her for a good 10 minutes. I figured she'd leave, but then she bought in for another $50 and I swore I heard the faint sound of a cash register go off in my head. I settle in and get ready to withdraw more money from her when she up and leaves. D'oh! I bring her up on the "find sucker player" page and I see that she's now bellied up to a $5/$10 6 max table. Man oh man was I tempted, but I thought better of it and left her alone. It's possible she came down to the 1/2 level to screw around on the cheap. Either that or she was trying desperately to get rid of her money. I'll never know, unless she shows back up at the 1/2 games.

This is day three of the "cover it and forget it" tactic regarding my stack size. This was a good test for that because I think that at one point I was waaaaay behind after take a couple of horrendous beats in a row. This in stark contrast to how the day started, where the first three hands I saw were AJo, KK, and QQ, and all were moderate pot winners. Again, since my stack was hidden, I couldn't tell you where I ended up stack wise after that, but I would imagine that I lost at least all of it if not a little more getting sucked out brutally on the river two or three times. I also made the mistake of letting up on the ultra-aggressive/borderline maniac guy when my Big Slick caught an ace on the flop. Maniac boy re-raised and capped me on the flop betting, and re-raised me again on the turn when a rag hit so I became concerned about what he could be holding (could be anything) and I was still stinging from those river beatings, so I went into calldown mode. At the showdown he turned over ATs and my hand was good, but the way he was betting, we could have capped every street.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and thanks to the new schedule I have it off. I'm thinking about maybe playing in a multi-table of some sort. If I have a choice, I'd play one of those $10 satellites for the big money tourneys, but I'll have to see when the big tourney is actually being played before I commit to that. I'll see what's available tomorrow.

/////WARNING -- NON-POKER CONTENT AHEAD!///////


Resurrecting the "WTFWTT?" column, a DEA agent in Orlando Florida was apparently giving a presentation on gun safety when he shot himself in the leg.

I can't make this stuff up.

Page two. Outrage in San Jose as teachers demand that students actually grow a fucking brain or risk not getting the high school diploma that they were apparently entitled to by being born.

...Still, some wonder whether the new grading scheme demands too much from students who aren't shooting for spots at Stanford or even Cal State-Stanislaus.

"I'd rather go to a junior college,'' said Alex Johnson, a junior at Mountain View High who is eyeing Foothill or De Anza community colleges. He says it's unfair that some teachers at his school are widening the range for an F.

Okay, I can give Alex credit for trying to snow us into thinking that since he'd "rather go to Junior College" he doesn't need to put up any effort. Nevermind for a minute that the misguided boy thinks that Junior College is basically high school with ash trays.

But then we get this little nugget of ultimate wisdom from Alex's pop...

"D's are the only thing keeping him from getting F's,'' Alex's dad, Doug Johnson, said. "He's an incredibly bright kid, but he couldn't care less about school.''

And this, my friends, illustrates beautifully why poor Alex never stood a chance. Welcome to child rearing in the 21st Century.

I really really can't make this stuff up.


Apparently Deleware already hands diplomas out with birth certificates.

Instead of requiring high school students to pass a graduation exam, Delaware decided to award three levels of diplomas: basic, standard and distinguished. The levels are based on students' performance on state reading, math and writing tests given in 10th grade. Some 52 percent of students are in line for only a basic diploma, 40 percent for standard and only 8 percent for distinguished.

First, honor roll students with mediocre scores complained they have to settle for standard diplomas. Now there's a furor over the achievement gap: 76 percent of blacks and 70 percent of Hispanics are likely to get only a basic diploma, "resegregating" the graduating class. By contrast, 43 percent of whites and 30 percent of Asians are expected to be basic graduates.

Outstanding. God forbid children should be held accountable for their decisions. I mean, it's fucking Deleware! We're not talking about the Chicago Public School System, which really does give inner city Blacks and Hispanics the shaft academically. In a state where educational opportunity is at least somewhat equal, a student who couldn't give a shit about their grades should fail miserably, regardless of what color they are.

I swear to whatever God might listen, if this country continues to lower the bar to make itself look good, we are all doomed to devolve back to the fucking stone age. In 10 years our current measure of appropriate behavior will look like the Brady Bunch in comparison. It's enough to make me want to scour the South Pacific for an uncharted island and hide.

Make sure to give appropriate props and thank you's to Hillary and her "It Takes A Village To Raise An Idiot" campaign.