Where in the World is IG?

Wow, doesn't seem like its been a week since I last posted. I did have a lot going on with work, some vacation days, mothers day and only a little poker.

I did cash in an undercard race for the Kentucky Derby but that was it. Only one horse in my exactas made the top two (Big Brown) and the others were 5th and 6th or around there (Pyro and Colonel John). I do feel only a little bad for Snake5970 who missed out on a big trifecta payday when he failed to put Big Brown (the favorite and eventual winner) on top and wheel his other horses. Oh he had Big Brown in the mix all right, but he put Z-Fortune on top and wheeled Tale Of Ekati, Eight Belles, Big Truck, Colonel John, Monba, and Dennis Of Cork in the duece and trey spots.... Can i say that about horse racing positions or is it ghey?

Online poker continues to suck for the most part and I've become to think its a big joke. So much so that other then Sit-n-go's I have lost a lot of my desire to play an online MTT and my performance in Blogger tourneys has been pitiful so I'm just not playing them. Of course they are all on full-tilt so that may have something to do with it. I cannot tell you the beats I have been subjected to on Full Tilt. I'm almost Bankrupt on FTP and wont reload this time for a good long time. I'm an immediate gratification girl. I can only make the right moves so many times and after a while I just say FAWK IT and move on elsewhere when I put in the work and get bent over. I really don't know how it is possible for me to be so bad online but play as well as I do live. The only thing I don't have online is the ability to read people's verbal and nonverbal tells. Of course my average buyin live is about 8-15 times higher then it is online and maybe that's the issue. People don't give a rats ass about $10-$25 tourneys since its pocket change (although I think Lucko et al. takes that $27.50 pretty seriously) but they think twice before making a redonkulous call or move when the buyin is $80-$200.

I have a ton of other things keeping me busy. I put up three posts over on PhishCoventry this weekend and with overtime going away soon at work Ill be able to spend a little more time following my music muse. A big thank you to Dr Pauly for bringing me in. I'm having fun checking out music sites like Jambase, Rolling Stone and Relix as well as different band websites and seeing where it leads me. In fact although I've heard of him for years, I finally got to downloading some Keller Williams. If you haven't been over to PhishCoventry check it out. The Joker has some kick ass coverage of Radiohead and Coachella Music Festival and Boy Genius added a great Jazz post. Pauly is really excited in the direction the blog is taking and its exciting to be a part of it. In fact today was a record traffic day on the site with over 1000 visits when Pauly emailed me this AM. God forbid it gets bigger then Tao of Poker and we lose the good Doctor to covering music full time!!! I think a big highlight for me was a post I did about a new Grateful Dead archival release and David Gans of the Grateful Dead Hour who was there pretty much in the beginning with the boys posted the answer to a question I had asked on PhishCoventry and emailed me.

As you can see I'm pretty excited about contributing to something that is on the verge of breaking out. All the contributors have similar, but different interests and tastes musically. So if there is something you think we should be listening too or you would like to see coverage on, let me know and I'll check it out and give you props too!! Just don't subject me to Death Metal or totally Redneck Country music (ie. the word double-wide appears in the lyrics) or something that makes me go what the Fawk!!!


Thursday I took off and papa IG and I headed down to Westport CT to visit my younger sister Suzanne. Pops is doing quite well on his generic Prilosec and will still take liquid iron for about 4.5 more months. I've never written about this before but my sister lives right across the street from Martha Stewart's former Westport aka Turkey Hill home. No I have never met Martha myself, although my mom and aunt did get a really nice tour of her house and gardens one summer when they were down visiting. And no my sister isn't incredibly wealthy. She happens to be a Culinary Institute of America Grad with an incredible knack for decorating, cooking and gardening herself. Years ago when she needed a new apartment, she happened to fall into a great situation with the friend/bridge partner of a former business associate of my dad's. It developed into a great friendship and my sister also serves as a house and pet sitter and associate gardener for the owner's of the house (okay it has an elevator in it so its more then a house). And the owner's of the house have become "cousins" to us all.

A trip to Westport wouldn't be complete without a trip to Trader Joe's or Costco neither of which Smallbany NY have. We have BJ's and Sam's clubs but you just cant compare the two to Costco. Trader Joe's is a gem in and of itself. I cant believe I drove three hours to grocery shop but I did and my fridge is stocked with all sorts of good cheap food. I got almost two lbs of shrimp salad at Costco for only $11.38. The salad was just shrimp and celery and some grape tomatoes on a bed of lettuce in a light mayonnaise base.... YUMMO. I got some frozen panna cotta at Trader Joe's along with falafel and some other prepared food dishes which will keep me lunching and dining for the rest of this week. Much better then the crap that goes into Lean Cuisine's and Smart One's etc. The only thing we didn't have time to do is go to Whole Foods Market, Stew Leonard's and Billy's Bakery, my other favorite places to go down there.

The WSOP will soon be upon us in like 18 days. Since I'm not going to Vegas this summer I'm only mildly interested. For me to do Vegas right with dinners, a show or two and tourney entries, (not to mention airfare and lodging for a full week or so) and to go for more then the in and out trips Ive done in the past I need a good $7500-$10000 which I don't have in a live poker bankroll right now. With the price of gas and everything else I'm frankly more concerned about paying my bills. Plus I have my homeowners and car insurance coming up. I'm sure my escrow will increase, we are going to have an assessment to do our driveway and parking lot at my condo development early next year. I'm going to need new tires for the gas guzzling Santa Fe. I can also see the replacement of my hot water heater coming up in the near future. I would love to redo my floors in hardwood (Bamboo will probably be used) paint the inside of the condo, do new kitchen counters in granite, and add a mantel to the fireplace. As a friend said, Vegas will be there next year or the year after.

So the week I still have off in July (7th-11th) I'm budgeting for a week of play in A-Vegas. I figure I can play the tourneys on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nites without driving far and I'll plan on doing a Borgata trip in the fall as well as put in an appearance at Al's Bash.

So who the heck has won a Main Event seat anyway? I read about Fuel55's Step 6 catastrophe. Last I heard from Snake5970 he was sitting on a Step 4 and 5 only. He's in Florida closing up his parents place for a week and the laptop he brought with him isn't connecting to the internet but it worked perfectly fine up at home. When I talked to him yesterday he told me I may see a laptop rising into the air similar to the shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral. I told him to enjoy his time off the internet and go buy some newspapers to read. I think he is a little anxious to return to the WSOP for round 4 and last year he had his seat locked up as he had qualified thru UB in December of 2006. His brother Silo hasn't had any success either. I can honestly say that I loved my experience last year but could live a happy life without playing in the WSOP again. I think there is a lot better value out there as well as tourneys with better structures, like that Borgata Deep Stack tourney they just had.

All for now time to delve into the Falafel from Trader Joes.