Are you Ready to be Unplugged?

-----MORPHEUS TO NEO: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.----- The Matrix

That sums up how I feel about the US government and most of my fellow citizens.

I played no poker Monday and Tuesday nights. Instead I spent most of both nights withdrawing money from sites closing to players from the US. I withdrew the bulk of my bankroll from Titan to limit my exposure. The next morning, I received an email from Titan announcing they were closing to US players. So, I pulled the rest of my roll from there and CD and Noble. BetFred didnt have my Neteller info. They are mailing me a check as is Sun Poker. Still left to go is Fair and Kiwi on the playtech sites. Turmoil not only for me but for all the leagues that were on those sites. Im going to have a hard time going back to sites that turned their backs on us.

Wednesday nite I played the Freeroll League game for Poker Analysis on William Jack Poker. Fortunately short of Purple lounge the primas are still business as usual. I'm keeping an eye on Lou Krieger's site. He is our resident pro on poker analysis and I know will keep El and Syn informed. I finished 5th for a few bucks in the league game. Then it was on to the Mookie. I got a nice early lead going in the Mookie when I raised with AA only to get reraised and over the top I went. My good cards all came early. No matter how many mid and small pockets I was dealt I couldnt hit a set or hit anything later on in the tourney. SIGH. What is more important was the turn-out for the Mookie was fantastic. So much for the ban.

Last night I played my Aces Cracked league game on Full Tilt and bubbled in 4th. I upheld the Adirondack Poker League honor by finishing the highest over Eggman (Mike) and Snake (Ray) who also played the AC game. I think we made up more then 1/3 of the AC members since I think there were just 8. Early momentum again and then I went dead. I then decided to get cute and started pushing with anything that looked decent. Got back into the game and then ran A8 into AK. So I sat down at a $3 cap pot limit Omaha 8 table and ground out some more bonus and earned a few bucks of my buyin back for a little bit.

I'm off today. I have enough time accumulated now and will accumulate more time thru the end of the year, that I can take off nearly every Friday till 12/31/06 and still carry over 40 hours. I only use 4 hours of my time up when I take Fridays off since I only work a half day. We just got an annoucement that we can be considered to go home to work. I havent been a Customer Service Rep for a year yet that will be in December and could certainly work from home easily since my only distraction is Bailey my cat. But the hours they are asking to work are Monday thru Friday 10:30 AM to 7:00 PM EST. I can't and won't work that late on a Friday, so for now its no go. I'll continue to go into work. Yesterday I got pulled from the phones to process claims and do rework (my old job). Currently when I work on Saturdays I do my former position processing claims/reworks or I do claim projects that come out of our network area. It is easy money for 5 hours.

With my Neteller balance looking plush from consolidations I'll probably look to a few new sites to deposit on. I need to reload on Pokerstars. I got an interesting email from Bugsys club about a 25000 chip deep stack tourney tomorrow which looks good. I have the Blogger tour round II on poker.com. I forgot about the forum challenge thing on Absolute and failed to sign up. I also got accepted into that Ultimate BlackJack tour and have to do that tomorrow. I also have a casino offer to spin for an hour free. Last time I did one last Sunday, my head hurt and I didnt win any extra bucks.

I also have a few other live things I can do. JBaldwin and his wife are going to be at Foxwoods in two weeks and I can meet up with JB to play the Thursday nite No limit tourney there. Problem is I have to come back to play the league game Friday nite and then turn around and go to Boston on Saturday for the day with my mom. Carol and Sandy want me to go up to Fallsview Niagara during the WPT event there. Then I briefly considering playing the Ladies event at Foxwoods during the WPT event there. $300 buyin but I remember I told myself after the Orleans event I wont play another Ladies tourney again unless I satellite in or am staked. Ray thinks I'm nuts and should use the inherent donkeyfishness to my advantage. So this idea is still possibly a maybe if I play well live the next few weeks. I may just decide to go up to TROCK (Turning Stone) for a few cheaper events. Ratdog is playing in Utica in early November, and I can always combine a trip to the STONE with seeing Bobby and the boyz, a trip to Dinosaur barbecue and Wegmans supermarket. My BFF Kim would be up for all the above except perhaps the TROCK part.

I'm watching my favorite morning show while blogging: Squawk Box. I'm contemplating some changes in my rollover 401k that I manage myself. In my younger days my goal was to work on Wall Street. I did work on Wall Street but it was in Albany NY as part of a boutique financial planning company that became part of Shearson Lehman Hutton/American Express. My days of doing tax projections and balance sheets and planning executives stock option exercises were fueled by bong hits and Molson Golden Ale. I was too busy wanting to follow the Dead around and didnt grasp the fact that I was making great money for a 24-28 year old in a small city. I quit my job before I probably would have been fired, when I started crashing and burning, my personal finances in a mess. I decided to go back to school to become a chef. I left with a Series 7 license and a good set of knives. Ah yes, the folly of youth. I still have a love for the market and investing and will now get a nice pension from Goldman Sachs as my former unit went private after the whole Barbarian at the Gates drama, and then sold to Goldman Sachs a few years ago. Although my culinary adventures were only for a year too this day I love to cook and baking is a passion.

Live league action tonight. Snake informed me last nite that the forecast for Friday would be cold, so the sleeveless/short sleeve style Tilly tops will be replaced by the long sleeve ones. Im never one to disappoint!!!