Archon 40 scored a 10!

Still recovering from Archon 40 convention last weekend in Collinsville, IL. Had a date with a Star Trek lady and Alice from Wonderland. Wish the weekend never had to end; possibly the best one I've had in many years (not counting Vegas this past summer). At least it has inspired me to write, chat and try to grow. Thanks B-babes!!!

Coming up: I have no idea. Is it too early to start planning for Halloween? The Breeder's Cup races and trying to win some more money? The World Poker Bloggers Tour convention/reunion in Las Vegas?

Enh, I guess I'll just start preparing for the Naked Glo Party on Saturday. What colors do y'all recommend for me? No green, I don't want to be like that!

Shuffle up and pass the winterizer...

I like quickies...

Not much to say this day/week. Off to Archon 40 Convention first thing Friday. Should be awesome, with writers, artists, cosplayers, balls (OK, dances/masquerades), gaming and so much more. I need a break ... as long as this cold doesn't flare back up!

Last week's football tips went pretty well. Came out ahead, though no biggie. This week I would say key your parlays with Cincinnati, which should cover tonight. Upset of the weekend will be the 49ers over Dallas straight up. The Shamster is 1-0 on those; thank you Atlanta!

My old phone gets a reprieve until November. That's OK. I'm a bad, slow, dumb shopper. Still dunno what's best. Wish they had phones and services you could rent for a week and try out. Makes too much sense though. Burners don't get net access, do they? And that's what I want/need.

I'll be Brad in Saturday's late "Rocky Horror" showing at Archon. Leaving the fishnets home; Brandy or Jim can be that character.

Measly no-cash 5th in the PLO tournament just over, a private event by Gotta Talk Poker forum at BCP. And I'd been running so well lately in GTP's low-entry tourneys. Oh well. Lots to do before this weekend's trip!

And counting the days till Vegas!!! Get ready for me! Any suggestions where a good place to watch El Clasico on Dec. 4 in Las Vegas, a fan friendly bar with spirited supporters of Real and Barca? Viva Renaldo!

Who's keeping track?

Did I say once a day or once a month?

Wish Doyle and Vanessa would stop warring. Be nice! Turn the other cheeks! Set good examples!

I hate these colds that last over a week. I hate mornings.

Is it yesterday yet?

Best bets of the NFL day straight-up: Miami, Dallas, Green Bay, Carolina. Add Baltimore or Tampa Bay for a good 5er, even if doesn't pay a whole lot. Best longshot of the weekend; Atlanta, I see it winning outright Monday.

Don't ask me about the big Exaggerator-Nyquist horse race showdown Saturday. Wha' happened guys!?!?

Go Cardinals. Baseball. Bought NLDS tickets last night, so now they gotta survive to go up against the Cubbies next month ...

Friday night (although ill) I went to a wonderful retrospective at Fontbonne University on the sculpture work of the late Jaye Gregory. Great show. Made me miss the artist/teacher/friend even more.

See ya tomorrow. If I translate right, in dog days that's mid-October...

And away we go ...

OK, I am back. Promise at least one post a day from here until December (would say end-of-year, but with a trip and holidays, I can't guarantee month 12). Even if it's just a sentence or 4, I'll get something out.

My primary inspiration is that plans are finally stepping up on the World Poker Blogger Tour annual gathering the first weekend of December in Las Vegas. Much more info popping up in the related Facebook groups, including organizers starting to plan last-longer teams for the big Saturday event at Aria. Gotta find teammate(s). If anyone will have this forgetful old codger. Gotta figure how to get in touch with people. Hope Al and Pauly and CK and the oldtimers attend. I haven't been to WPBT gather in almost a decade...

Before my week in Vegas is a weekend at the Archon 40 Convention in Collinsville, IL, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Second time I've attended it, this time going for a fuller experience. Look forward to many writing and editing tips at workshops, plus all the parties and dances and cosplayers and gamers and Marvel comics maniacs. And a Rocky Horror show the Friday night. I need this break.

Then back to poker and Vegas planning. My goal this trip (besides lining up a job writing sports book tickets for William Hill, Caesars or someone) is to improve on the 4th-place, $800 cash in a Golden Nugget bounty  tournament on my Fourth of July trip to Sin City (I love that town!).

I'll be staying at the Stratosphere. Finally getting some good communications from the Strat folks about my stay; hate being ignored or given a runaround.

Thinks are mostly looking up ...

Three months and counting!

If I'm going to the annual Poker Bloggers Convention in Las Vegas the first weekend in December, maybe I better start doing some poker posts again.

Nah, not right now. No time. But I am looking forward to the con. I forget the official name, I think it's World Poker Bloggers Tour; I'll remember it for certain next time, and post more info. Our big tourney is Saturday the 3rd at Aria, I think they decided. I booked a week at the Strat, to enjoy all The City has to offer as well as the Con ... and do some more job hunting as a sports ticket writer.

Now if only I remembered how to play poker ...

(And it's shocking though maybe not surprising how many of the old poker blogs (including many on list at right) are no more. Gotta get updated one of these days soon ...)

Where'd everybody go?

Wow!

Clinked on links at right to check on old blogger buds. Some links are gone. Most haven't posted in years.

Jeez!!! Guess you can call me Rip van Winkle. I'll clean them up sometime soon...

Anybody know exactly when in December the Poker Blogger Gathering will be in Las Vegas this year? At least that education experience was still going, as of last winter; about time I got going to it -- especially with Southwest offering super cheap rates for another day or two.

Somebody, anybody. Gimme a date. For poker blogger con. Let's start there...

Meanwhile, I'm prepping to hit Vegas (finally!!!) June 28-July 7. I cannot wait!!!

Closed for repairs

This blog remains temporarily idle and closed for physical, mental and emotional repairs. Please stay tuned. We'll be back when you least expect it!

Slowly I Turned ...

OK, OK, I'm coming back. I'll write. Something. Sometime. Soon. And Sooner. (Still disowning Missoo.) If I can do it on Twitter, I'll do it here. Hey, maybe I should compile my Twit posts in this space too! A thought ...

And first person to correctly identify source of this post's title (and its lead-in) wins a cookie. Chocolate chip, probably...

What'd I miss in the last year-plus?

Half-mast for Boston

I just can't bring myself to write much about poker today. The Hollywood Poker Open results and discussions (John Roberts Jr. won the Main Event as it seemed he would, while the amazing William Corvaia fought his way to second place to go with two prelim wins and a third earlier in the series' St. Louis visit) will have to wait for another day.

All the talk and attention has been attracted to Boston, the murders by bombs near the finish area of the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon.

So very very very sad. My heart does go out to those truly suffering and directly affected.

I admit I'm something of a hard, cold case. People get hurt and die every day in many many ways and places. People suffer. Sadly, that is and always will be an unchangeable, unstoppable part of life. I try to empathize with and help all. One lost life is just like another -- sad, but done. And the rest of life goes on. And nothing will change that universal rhythm.

What's really sad and aggravating is the finger-pointing and false stories and fake heroes that events like the Boston Marathon Bombings always sprout. I saw it over and over in 25 years of newspaper work. I saw much good, like after the Luby's Cafeteria attack in Killeen, TX. I also saw much and many that were bad. I'm admit I'm jaded and turned off by it, by the noise-makers and flag-wavers and woe-warners and others trying to make a place for themselves and their egos in something that would be much better off without them around. My applause and appreciation is all for the quiet individual who helps the other individual in pain and need, and never seeks anything for it, not even recognition. Doing good and the right thing is its own reward, really. That's real heroism! That's being a good human.

This Boston thing will drag on and on and on; tragedy always makes for oppportunistic follow-ups to which the greedy and bored both flock. I'll say one more thing: This does not seem like terrorism of an international basis. Usually those kind of attacks feature suicide bombers, human bombs to cause the mayhem, faceless villains quick to claim the credit. This smells highly of domestic terrorism, of Oklahoma City and the assassination attempts on politicians and judges, of deluded cowards and crazies who'd attack theatres, schools or churches. But that's for the investigators to discover, that is their job. And they will. And the real instigators will be punished.

Meanwhile, let's just help ease sufferers' pains anywhere we can, one person at a time, one simple step at a time, anyway we best can. Please.

From HPO coverage to bed covers

OK. I promised a report tonight on the Hollywood Poker Open - St. Louis, which had its penultimate day on Sunday at the still-not-quite-open Hollywood Casino in Maryland Heights, MO.

They might get all the events done in the wee hours and not have to come back. That was becoming the plan at the HPO, making its first tour through town. The folks from Poker Tournament Consultants were doing a slam-bang job of moving things along ... mostly. But an unpaid bloggin' reporter with another job in the morning (that helps with bills!), well, you can only stay at it so long. And I'm sure the West Coast papers don't want to wait any longer for the news. And that pillow on the bed looks sooooo comfy...

So the brief report:

The $1,620 No Limit Hold'em Regional Championship Main Event was down to 4 players as things took a 15-minute break prior to Level 19 (2500/5000/500). Two Day Ones attracted a field of 75 and a prize pool of $109,125. Nine players were in line to cash. The contenders were whittled to 38 for Sunday's combined Day Two, and as things were drawing near a finish John Roberts Jr. of Fenton, Mo., had well over half the chips and was powering his way through his rivals with big bets and timely bigger cards/hands. Chris Lillie and Jeffrey Roberson, both of Rolla, Mo., were neck-and-neck for the runner-up spot, which would pay $21,825 compared to the winner's $34,920.

That a good enough blurb? How about the fact that for a while things went almost three hours with no eliminations at the final table -- and then Roberts rapidly sent three foes to the rail in barely half an hour to pretty well clarify things.

That enough? How about if I tossed in that Darlene Goetz of St. Peter's, Mo., won the Ladies NLHE title, outlasting 19 other women on Sunday for first prize of $1,960? There also may have been chop negotiations between Goetz and her last two rivals, Laura Forbes (Alton, Ill.) and Lori Lindley (Eureka, Mo.), to induce the conclusion. Well done, all.

And I'm well done, too. The eyelids won't cooperate. A full report and results here in your friendly blogger's nest as soon as possible on Monday or Tuesday. And get ready for the Heartland Poker Tour, which runs April 19-29 at St. Louis' River City Casino. I might even tell you a thing or two about what happens there.

If the brain revitalizes. And if the alluring bed ever turns me loose. I'm coming, Fluffy...

HPO - St. Louis version

The Championship Main Event of the Hollywood Poker Open starts today at Hollywood Casino-St. Louis. It's the 21st of 28 events in the tour's first stop here, and with a $1,620 entry fee things should be hopping. I hope.

The tournaments so far have been an embarassment for our city (Maryland Heights, a suburb in West County St. Louis), I'm afraid. How could Hollywood host such a big event with construction everywhere in the place, looking ugly and third-worldish and small? Hollywood Casino should have done better. Shame on them! Grade so far: C-minus.

There were two mega satellites for the Championship Main Event last night (Thursday). Two more Mega Sats are planned today, plus two Turbo Sats; entries to them are either $245 or $125. These satellites should help boost the field for Saturday's Flight B of the Main Event. It starts at noon local time; the Flight A starts at a similar time today, leading up to Day 2 for survivors at noon Sunday. The Championship Final Table is at noon Monday.

With all the construction and disorganization at the casino, I haven't done much playing so far. Not as much as I hoped to, as I would've liked to. The Seniors (Event 7) and Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better (Event 13) tournaments were on my original agenda, but I've stuck to the ring games. A bit of variety, a bit of action, an agonizing long wait for seats (am I back at Bellagio? gimme a buzzer, no one can hear the PA!). Breaking even has been the sad pattern; still waiting for that solid run of goodness + luck.

Ah well. Back to the rings this afternoon, and then the final Mega Sat tonight for a place in Saturday's Main Flight B. If it's not meant to be, there's always Saturday's 7 pm $125 No Limit Nightly (Event 26). No, Chop, I will not enter the Ladies NLHE (Event 27) on Sunday afternoon; I look awful in drag. But I don't mind watching and schmoozing. And waiting for my ring name to be called again.

And no matter how frustrating and @*!%x$ the HPO's local debut has been, I'm still enthused because there's still the Heartland Poker Tour's latest St. Louis invasion coming up April 19-29 at River City Casino across town. It'll be HPT's third trip to town. They do things better, although it looks like Greg Raymer won't be there to defend his ME title because of other obligations. I really miss the the WSOP Circuit when we used to have a Harrah's (that's the property Hollywood bought), but one makes do as best one can.

Good cards and timing would help a lot too! G'luck all...

Lent me your ears ... er, eyes

Is Lent over yet? Can I start writing again? The things I give up for absolutely no good reason at all. (But a wonderful excuse.)

Now excuse me while I go play some more live poker at St. Louis' Hollywood Casino (formerly Harrah's). The Hollywood Poker Open tour is in town, Day Two of 14 days' action. This better be good...

I'll be back.

Shame the Sham

NBC Heads-Up Poker 2013 predictions anyone?

Woo hoo, into Blogland! I'm not as hopeless as I thought! One password remembered; wish I could remember the one to GottaTalkPoker forum. Oh well, a quickie here before work starts. Thank you Forest Park CC and the library's computers! (Can't believe I found one open...)

OK, folks, your challenge here is to "Shame the Sham." Predict the outcomes of the heads-up matches to be held this Thursday through Saturday at Caesars in Las Vegas. If you don't want to know about the outcomes until the contests televise starting in late March, back away now -- and good luck dodging the news reports of the outcomes. For many years I tried. And failed.

So I'm tackling the fun heads-on. The drawing for pairings is tonight at Caesars; the matches begin Thursday. So, if we're going to do this right, I'll make my picks HERE in this thread's comments after the pairings are announced. You're welcome to do the same. Deadline to post your official picks here is the start of the first round Thursday. After that, it's all in fun for you -- you can't be recognized as the Best Sham Shamer. You're just another wanna-be.

That is, if anyone can beat me. (Oh, hush, orm ...).

Scoring: One point for each match winner correctly picked, top to bottom throughout the bracket. All picked before the contest starts. Just like in the NCAA office pools around the country. Wish ESPN could set up a fast Fantasy League on this! Ah well...

If I have a say in the contest I suggested at GottaTalkPoker (I'll have to wait to tonight to check into the forum), I would recommend the contest there have a deadline of like 7pm ET Thursday (depending on the opening day's schedule; give folks a little hedge on the first round). Pick only quarterfinal survivors, 2 in each "suit" (1 point apiece), finalists (3 points each) and champion (5 points). Tiebreaker to be earliest posted picks in the forum. Keep it all simpler. Prizes 5-3-1 from me to the best forum pickers. It's all up to bossman Jack Benny, though. We shall see.

Before the pairings are even drawn, I'll tell you I'm rooting for Doyle Brunson. He IS the Godfather. I would've picked Vanessa Selbst, but she's skipping this event to play the Aussie Millions in the land Down Under. One more early early pick: Jason Mercier.

OK. More to come. Class time. Thanks for dropping by. Don't feel embarassed when I outpick you; happens to the best of them...

This space (cadet) for rent

Meandering through the brain looking for the "on" switch, and trying to do something about this pile of notes that seems to have developed a good case of mitosis:

-- I hate when things start going "good" at the poker table for me. Like the out-of-control government and big business, then I want things to go "gooder." Meaning more profit, more, more, more! It don't work that way in real life. After a healthy string of cashing in tournaments and profits in live play, the last couple days have plateaued a bit: good play only leading to a string of 7ths, frustrating beats and ill-timed over-aggressiveness. Time to cut back on the poker and do other things until the weekend, at least.

-- Fun to play again at PokerStars in some Home Games. But it's also like stepping back in time 7 years: play money just doesn't get all the juices flowing any more. A good distraction, but there are better meals to chase that fill me better.

-- The multi-tabling is improving. The rest-of-week cutback will give me time to study what I've been doing right, what's overdone, what needs the most emphasis and tweaking for consistency and better success. There may be online ring games in my near-future; it's really been a long time since I tackled those.

-- You say I can play legal poker for real money at SkillBet, that it's actually a site approved of by the stingy ol' state of Misery I'm stuck in? But it's really more duplicate poker, sorta like duplicate bridge. No thanks!

-- Lost my Super Bowl pick last weekend. Still alive in the Yahoo! Survivor season-long race, since I switched at the last minute last weekend to Atlanta. Wonder what a 19-week one-pick winning streak rollover would have been worth in real money? This week's NFL picks: New England and San Francisco. Sorry Stacy. I gotta go with the chalks on the moneyline, they just figure to be too good. Though check back at the end of the week, I may adopt a dog if it comes with enough throw-ins (points).

-- If you missed it on Twitter, my best word of the month so far is "toptional." My phrase is "no peacocks, no jerks, no whiners." Still half a month to go...

-- Read any good books lately? I really enjoyed "Shan" by Eric Van Lustbader, the sequel to his "Jian." Wish he'd finished the planned trilogy, but apparently he moved on to other things after the second opus. Need to read his "Ninja" some day, but hard to find in the local libraries. If Lustbader's name rings a bell, it's because he picked up Robert Ludlum's Bourne franchise and has continued the series -- very well, thank you. I'm really looking forward to February, when Alex Berenson's next book ("Night Ranger") featuring John Wells comes out. Berenson and Daniel Silva are my favorite authors currently. And I'm still catching up on the large selection from Robert Randisi (check out his Rat Pack Mysterys, set in Las Vegas and featuring lots of familiar real-life characters, if you want good enjoyable reads!).

-- I think I like Manchester United best. Or Everton or Chelsea or Tottenham Hotspurs or Manchester City or Swansea City or ... Yeah, my loyalty is still for sale.

-- Who's going to Las Vegas for the summer? Want to share renting a place for a month or two or three?

-- I screwed up on Mardi Gras. Made plans to attend St. Louis activities one weekend and work the next ... and I had the weekends backwards. Oh well, I didn't really want to party and get drunk and catch beads and see lots of nekkid ...

-- How do you put tags on these things? Still trying to learn Blogspot's changes... Really need to find a new easier place to publish my blogs, maybe then I'd do it more often.

-- There was something I wanted to say. Can't remember what. Depression and bad memory are an awful one-two punch. I'll think of it. Meanwhile, where's the shovel?...

PS: WSOP likely to announce this afternoon the field for NBC Heads-Up Championship at Caesars at the end of the month. I still haven't gotten my phone call; how could you forget me, gang???

So much to do...

Just a quickie. I'm still around. Just been a week with so many other things to get done, never found time to blog. Today's the worst, on my way out and will be running around all day.

Did go 2-for-2 in forum tournaments played Thursday night -- almost simultaneously, which I am NOT good at. Won HoldePokerChat's NLHE event at Juicy Stakes for $60, then got serious (and luckier) at GottaTalkPoker's Limit 5-Card Draw (with Joker) at Aced/Carbon and somehow took it down for $12. That'll get me in a few more events. One of these days I'll win a really big one again and get outta debt! Wish I was at PCA in Atlantis or headed for the Aussie Millions or able to play COOP at PStars, but one does what one can.

More soon. Wish forums and websites (even Yahoo! and AOL) would stop changing things every few days; very annoying and frustrating to us brain-damaged manic depressives. Happy birthday 2 days late nephew Justin. Maybe I can get in some live poker tonight at Lumiere if my other business goes fast. Have a good day and a great weekend, all!