Finally...

Well, as the sixteen six readers who still read this may have noticed, with the two wins the other day I found myself back in the $20+$2 buyin level once again. Given my past performance at this level I sat down predisposed to losing another one... I have actually started charting out my progress on this little adventure and it's rather amusing, actually. Initially I spike up to the $20+$2 level, and there I have been stuck for something like 40 tournaments!

Anyway, I finish up some things around the house and sit down to get it over with...

$20+$2 - 2nd - +$38

Ummm.. I didn't lose? I was shocked.. What's more, my wife was there to sweat me for half the tournament. Now usually, and this is nothing against my wife, but when she's around I usually start getting my ass handed to me. She walked in and I figured I was well and truly fooked. By this time we were 5 handed and the blinds were 200/100 and two hands away from 300/150. Yes, it was a tight table. The difference this time was, when the table went tight, I went into attack mode. There was two people I saw at the table who were folding almost everything they saw for the first three levels. I took note of these guys as "system" players. Sure enough, level 4 starts up and these guy switch gears with an audible "clunk", betting and raising and generally going nuts. One guy went out immediately when he got called down by JJ vs. AKo. No help for Slick and System-boy 1 was gone. System-Boy 2 was 2 to my left and was doing a lot of missing. He was eventually down to about half my stack and I got AQo and it's folded to me on the button. I punch it up to 3xBB and he calls me down. Flop connects with my Queen and I toss out a pot sized bet. He shoves, and it's only like T200 more, so I call. He's got Q7 and never makes a recovery. The other 3 guys were complete granite slabs. On the bubble, I would have been stoned right along with them, but I decided that this tactic is an excellent way to die from the blinds, so I started turning it up. Axo, Kx, QJ, I was gunning, though with the folding session these guys were putting on, it didn't much matter what I was holding. I stole the blinds enough to keep me in decent chip position. Finally, two guys went at each other and suddenly I was in the money, though the short stack by about half. Now that I knew I was money, I really poured the coals on. I had to double through at least twice to get into a position where the blinds wouldn't decimate me. It didn't take long. I'm on the button with AQo and shove. SB calls me up with his KJo and I'm good. Next hand is QQ in the BB. Button folds, SB goes for the steal and I shove. He deliberates for a while, but he has me handily covered, so he calls and I double through again. Two hands later the other two have at each other and now we're heads up, me still at a rather large disadvantage chip wise. I went insane, shoving on any paint save for Jxo, and I was getting some decent starting hands. I doubled through a couple of times to draw to a slight lead, but then I'd try to put the coup de gras and end up losing, busting back to a 5:1 disadvantage... I crawled back up again to a slight advantage, and again my bid to put it away is stifled. Alas, I couldn't survive the short stack again and I take 2nd.

Still, my $20+$2 cherry is popped finally, and now I've got enough to make a few buyins at this level and try to gain a foothold. Funny thing about this challenge though is that the difference from $20+$2 to $30+$3 is only $110, so even two 2nd places will get me to the $30+$3 buyin level. We'll see how this goes, but I think that it won't take much of a slide to fall back to $10+$1 levels. On the other hand, it won't take much of a winning streak to get a firm foothold in the $30 range either. This is going to get interesting.

Thanks Hank for the copy of All-In... Email me and let me know when you're going to send it so I can be looking for it. I checked out the link on his site of what I believe is the article in the mag, and it seems Your's Truely didn't pass muster for the list. Alas, I shall wait a little longer for my 15 minutes seconds of fame. No one who reads a magazine with Chris Moneymaker on the cover is going to give a damn about a low limit grinder anyway...

For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to find a touring motorcycle to replace my cruiser. I've been riding around on a 1981 Yamaha XV750 Virago for the last couple of years. It's a decent bike, but it's really not designed for long distance riding. After about 45 minutes my legs go numb on it and I have to stop. I have been poking around for a used Goldwing or something similar, but I have the problem of not having the cash on hand to buy one and the cost of what I'm looking for is too small to finance. Since I don't own a home and thanks to my failed first marriage 5 years ago and subsequent bankruptcy, I'm pretty well fucked. None-the-less, I did make a bid for one and of course was turned down, so it's another year on the Beast. There is a silver lining to this mushroom cloud, though. I figure I've got the rest of this riding season and all of the off season to rathole cash away. I figure if I play this right and can get the wife to help out some, I should have around $3000 tucked away by then. Depending on how poker is doing for me I might be able to augment that amount. $4500 gets you a damn fine 'Wing from what I'm seeing. I imagine if I do a lot of riding with my wife on the Virago she'll be more then willing to help out with the Goldwing Acquisition Program. It's uncomfortable to ride... It's even MORE uncomfortable to be a passenger on. No back rest, no sissy bar. I know I hate riding like that on the back of a bike.