Metaphysical Musings Anyone?

Been a while since I've blogged here. Been a while since I've had a poker session that satisfied me. Are the two inter-related? Metaphysical musings welcome; we grow or we die (and death is just growth in a different direction)...

Anyways. I think I'm finally over the Breeders Cup. I won't say what I lost or I'll never hear the end of it from Irongirl on Negative Expected Value. Suffice it to say that if if if if if only I'd backed Curlin in the Classic instead of Street Sense, and if only darkhorse Shamdinan had gotten one spot better than his runner-up finish... At least Sham helped the shamster avoid a really disastrous day. Wait'll the Derby!

The poker front had been running about like most of the ponies I wagered on: very herky-jerky, with the emphasis on the jerk. Until Thursday night. That's when the poker goddesses decided to show the sham a little mercy on his wanderings from the depths to the heights.

The evening started with a shot at the last leg of PokerFives' qualifiers to its Cruise Extravaganza next week. Thursday's game was $5.50 at Carbon; as in the prior four games (which I couldn't make), the top five advance to the Cruise Freeroll. And Carbon and P5s were tossing in coupons to the Sunday $20K and to the $50K Freeroll ... all ya had to do to win both was finish in the top 25. And there were only 29 entrants Thursday!!! A sweet cinch, eh?

So what does the shamadillo do? I do NOT want to talk about it. If anyone says sham finished 29th of 29, got a little frisky early and then tried to make it up and couldn't win a coin flip and got beat by everyone including a bunch of ghosts ... I deny everything! Not saying it's ain't true, but I am in denial. Though I will not deny I am an idiot sometimes.

OK, after that total disaster, time to read for an hour and watch some poker tapes and decide if I want to enter the Poker Analysis Buy-In League $5.50 game at Jungle or the Riverchasers Online Poker Tour $11 weekly funfest at Full Tilt. I am steamed at myself. Nowhere to go but up (I pray!). PA needs 10 bodies for its game to happen, so I definitely enter it. And Riverchasers is one of my favorite get-togethers, plus it's part of the Bloggers Series (BBT2) toward an Australian Millions trip/seat, so I have to be there.

So into both games I go. Trying to play mostly ABC poker. Not being afraid to fold (whose column in PokerPlayerNewspaper did I just read that in?). And durned if things didn't click for a change. Good cards, good plays, timely survivals ... and for a change two tourneys at once not turning me into a total blubbery pile of used armadillo scales.

Shock. Shamster wins the PA game, beating always-tough razorbacker heads-up. That's worth $45 and 100 league points. Won't be able to play a lot of league games this month (work gets real real busy starting next week, doing some pre-Vegas cramming and earning). So nice to pocket the cash and points. And my Jungle account was close to being on life support, too.

More shock. Shamster makes the final table of the Riverchasers game, annoying the heck out of some old oldtimers and frustrated railbirds. That's poker, kiddies. A yo-yo night sees sham go from 57th/76 left to 6/32 to 8/9 starting the final tale to first with four left. Eliminated the tough GCox and Bayne, both dangerous and classy competitors, and down to heads-up with LuckTruck (griff), whom I don't know much but seems a very nice classy guy. LuckTruck led at the start of the final table but I got chips from him a few times and zoomed far ahead as others got KO'd. Heads-up time: I was ahead, then we were even, then it looked/felt like we'd go on forever ... so i agreed to his cash chop offer. The big prize was the seat to the BBT2 finale. I really really wanted that; but looks like I'll have to wait for another night to earn my way in. Lucktruck won a couple coin flips, took all the chips and earned the seat. Nice job griff. Ah well; I'll console myself with the $236.20 profit and use that towards other things -- like Sunday night's Big Game hosted by the one-of-a-kind (thank goodness!) Miami Don.

Hopefully there will be many many big things this weekend. Gotta help St. Louis in the Absolute Touchdown FR Series (go Rams poker players!) at 11 am (all times CT) Saturday. The Online Forum Challenge moves to Big Juicy Odds for a $2,000 FR at 2 pm Saturday (gotta win money there so I can play OFC's $5,500-added Sunday Buy-In!); the Aces Cracked Forum's TLB IV concludes at 7 pm at PokerStars ($11, tourney id 59290337, password acescracked, come play!!!) with me trying to hold on to second for the season and having little hope of overtaking cns (lance). And more events Sunday.

That's it. My brain's frying; need a rest! Going to try some Full Tilt games this afternoon, try to win tokens; then tonight it's kat's Blogger Donkament ($1, oodles of rebuys) at 8 pm at Full Tilt, and/or PA Freeroll League at 8:30 at OKUSA, and/or sharbear's MPL Night Owl Series HORSE s&g ($2) at 9 at VegasPoker247, and/or other things I'm forgetting but they'll come to me ... or not.

Play nice. Stay happy. It's only a game, life. And be kind to armadillos; they may learn to drive semis and pickups themselves some day...