Football anyone?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are only 35 days until the biggest sports league in America gets underway. The NFL season is upon us and seventeen weeks of excuses to be at the bar on Sunday afternoon. Well, seventeen NEW excuses. So as the NFL season draws close I would like to announce the beginning of the new Fantasy Football Poker Blogger League co-hosted by Instant Tragedy and I.

We're looking for at least 8 teams or as many as maybe 16 depending on interest. It'll most like be standard scoring, head-to-head, likely on Yahoo, but I'm open to whatever suggestions we may have. If you would like into the league, leave a comment either here or over at Tragedy's sites. First sixteen will get in. If there's more interest than that maybe we'll start two leagues.

As soon as we figure out how many teams there will be, we will get a draft date together. There will be multiple posts here and many other places I'm sure throughout the season. Hopefully, we get a lot of interest. Who wants in?

I am so glad...

that I got away from home for the weekend.

I took friday off from work so I could register for classes for the upcoming year. I need 20 credits to graduate Liberal Arts AA. I'm focusing so much on graduating that I'm taking the fall off from golf to make sure I pass all 5 classes I'm taking (14 credits). In the spring, I'll be taking my coaching classes as well as what I need to finish up and graduate. Hopefully, I'll be playing golf again in the spring, but its not that important to me right now, despite playing the best golf I've ever played this summer.

As good as all that sounds, I'm a little late to register this summer, and found out that the dorms were already full. Crap. So now I have 3-4 weeks to find a apartment to live in for the fall at least, and when my friends' lease runs up I might be able to move in with them in their townhouse. The bad side of that is I'm probably gonna have to find a job besides grinding at the 3-6 tables.

I took a trip to the casino yesterday, not so much to play but just to catch up on what's been goin on over there. The pit boss recognized me as soon as he saw me, and bought me a beer on the house while we caught up. They brought back the Monday Omaha8 tournament I had so much success in, with some changes. They moved it to Sunday afternoon, and made a mixed tournament PL HO. Two weeks ago it started and they got 11 players which was more than they had in the waining weeks of the Monday tournament.

The poker room is also trying to start a feature game for some of the better players on the weekend by invitation only and I was put on the list. He wants to run an Omaha8 game and maybe some limit rotation game (he mentioned 4-8 TOE or 6-12 OE as the main mixed game). Lately they've also been running a 2-10 spread limit holdem game that has been really popular. I think that might right up my alley, not quite the strict limit game, but not the wildness of a no limit game.

I didn't bother playing in the 1-2 NL game there, I don't think my game is the point where I can play that game with good results. There's usually 3-5 young guys who just play that game every day all day, six or seven hours at a time. It just doesn't feel like its +EV to sit down there.

The blackjack tournament is my weakness: $25, Wednesday night when there's nothing going on (except the Mookie), and it has been incredibly easy to cash. That's the one nonpoker thing I'll probably hold on to now, plus its fun to play with my (newly 21) friends. Those other table games are just too frustrating for me.

I'm really excited for this upcoming year at school. If I stay focused on my schoolwork, stay patient and smart at the tables, and stay cool with everything coming at me, it should be a big year.

I don't really know where this is going for sure, but I figured I might just get writing again. I haven't really felt like it lately, for any number of reasons, but mostly I haven't really felt like I have anything worth saying or reading. I figure if I wouldn't read it, it might not be worth writing. Maybe I just need to write regardless of whether its worth reading. Sigh.

Poker has been okay lately. I played very little online, and just a few 3-6 LHE sessions live recently. I've been playing the $5 HORSE tourneys on FT and having some success. Got second in one Monday, with Tragedy watching me through the bubble and all the way into headsup. Unfortunately, my headsup LHE game kinda sucks without me knowing it, and I got steamrolled by my opponent. Looks like I've got something to put some work into.

I really learned a lot about my game and final table strategy and how to play smarter from Tragedy. I really appreciate it man. I know there's a ton for me to learn about life and poker and patience and friends and what should be important in my life. There is such an amazing group of people out here, and I am so glad to be of any significance here. Hopefully I'm around long enough in this group to learn everything you have to tell me, be it through emails or IMs or blogposts. I'm here to learn.

I've really been working hard on bankroll management, not only just in the poker world, but budgeting for the future and the present. I have been broke way too many times, and I think I'm done doing stupid shit with the rest of my money. Too many times have I taken a bad beat in some crap tournament, and gone and played angry blackjack for no apparent reason and surrender the rest of my money. Too many times have I had a nice 3-6 LHE session, tried to take a stab at the 6-12 LO8 game and lost it all back at a table full of players better than I. I'm just getting tired of it.

So here's the new plan. The two casinos I go to always have a 3-6 game going, and that seems to be the most profitable. I only bring $200 to the casino for playing money, two separate $100 buy-ins. I am fully prepared to leave if I get up $200 (lofty expectation, yes) or if I'm feeling tired considering most the time I'm at the casino is after work and I don't get there until nearly 6:30. It's probably not a good idea to be driving tired anymore (almost hit a deer the other night).

Playing online is strictly for having fun, the money mostly going to blogger tournaments. I think I've given up trying to grind online. Two weeks in a row I've gotten heads up in the first table of the new MATH shootout. I kinda like the new format; the pay structure is interesting, but I can see why it needs to be the way it is.

I'm done writing for now. Maybe some more later. It'll probably read pretty choppy and slow, but whatever. It's a start. Bye.