Happy New Year

My CPU is back up and running with a new power supply. I actually realized my laptop was pirating a signal off some weak network in the area and not thru my cable modem even though i plugged something into it. I have way to may cables, cords and plugs between digital phone and cable modems, printer, ipod, speakers, keyboard and mouse. For work i have a Verizon business phone line and roadrunner cable. I have a router for that although i am not wireless. I connect to work thru a VPN which is password protected so I couldn't hijack that signal for my laptop.

Snake is going to assist me on Friday after I finish my short 4 hour work day (the current plan) with getting the personal computer and laptop configured with my personal router that i have.

I normally am not a big New Year's Eve reveler. In the old days it was hitting up a MaxCreek show, followed by listening to the Dead on the radio for their typical New Year's eve gig they would be playing in San Francisco. BFF Kim and I had the idea of trying to hit up NYC for Government Mule but that would have meant her hubby would fly solo for New Year's eve as he isn't a JamBander like we gals are.

Instead I will be attending a poker party that should be last live tourney of the year (beginning at about 7:30 or 8PM), followed by the first live tourney of the year starting after the stroke of midnight. It's being catered!! I also plan to get some more live poker jones in by heading to my club for an early bird tourney at 2pm tomorrow.

I get to wear the football tiara until the fall of 2009. I won the bet between Snake and I. Our agreement for the final week was the person behind got to send their picks to the other last. I had a 3 game advantage going into week 17. He tried to pull a bluff on me by emailing me his picks first. I didn't look at them when I received them so I had no idea that he made picks to throw me off. When he got my picks he had only picked two games differently and hence there was no way he could win. So re-studied his picks and picked 9 games differently which was the only way he could win. It was over after the early games when I ran out 9 and 1 or 10 and 1. So he will be taking me to Carrabba's on a night still to be decided.

For Xmas I got the first two seasons of Heroes on DVD and Season 4 of LOST so I can catch up on the first two seasons I never saw of Heroes and I now have all seasons of lost which I will sit down to and watch start to finish sometime. I also got the first season of Saturday Night Live on DVD. I was 15 when SNL debuted and am looking forward to seeing the early years with Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner, John Belushi and Garrett Morris etc. Besides that I got 40 years of Rolling Stone (cover to cover) on DVD. Every issue of Rolling Stone from inception to like May 2007 even with the ads to read at my leisure. I'll get to read every Hunter S Thompson article ever written for RS. Over the last year I really got into reading Matt Taibbi's political coverage for Rolling Stone (warning warning warning: if you bend to the right side you will not appreciate/agree or like his political commentary).

I am currently reading: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not only to the Scandi's breed some great poker players, they also gave us a brilliant author in Steig Larsson. It is totally unfortunate that he passed away after delivering this book and the manuscript for two others.

Snow again here in Upstate NY. I'm getting too old for this snow malarkey. Considering my dad owned a ski shop during my teenage-college years and I skied for like 30+ years its pretty pathetic to utter those words. I did that what city best fits you thingee. I was expecting Boulder or Seattle to come back as my top choices of where i should live, but I actually got Honolulu HI as my number one pick, followed by NYC (I was born in the Bronx!!)

Merry Christmas

My CPU to my desktop personal computer is in the shop for a busted fan. May not have it for a few days. I do have my laptop hooked up (finally)and can connect to the internet thru may main modem. I'm not wireless yet as my work computer is wireless over a VPN and I have to figure out how to configure my personal laptop without interfering with the work computer.

The first thing I downloaded after checking email was pokerstars!!! Pretty pathetic right?

I hope Santa was good to everyone. I still have Xmas #2 with my sister & dad tomorrow afternoon/early evening.

Going into week 17 of my season long football bet with Snake5970, I have a three game lead. I told him it is the football version of being shortstacked!!! Its been close all season long but I think I held the advantage for 12-13 weeks over the course of the season.

Icestorm: Beauty in the inconvenience

Here is a picture of a tree completely encapsulated in ice of about an inch thick. I didnt take this one but its a good example. When I drove by Shenendehowa High School on one of my many frequent trips back and forth to check on my house this weekend, the rows of trees looked beautiful and cast a completely silver glow. Most of the ice has melted or is melting as temperatures have warmed to the low 50's.

Water to my condo was turned back on at the main line about 8 AM. Many are still without power. time to toss the contents of my fridge and go grocery shopping. Kind of nice to start fresh with everything!!!



Natures Artwork

Icestorm- No longer a Semi refugee

I just got gas and electric, my digital phone, cable and internet back after almost 60 hours without power. Still no water as we turned the main water line off to my condo which has 8 units (4 up/4 down) to avoid the pipes freezing and breaking.

At the lowest point this AM my condo was 30 degrees as it had dropped to 16F or so during the nite. When I came back tonite to feed Bailey and check out the situation it had risen to 34 with temperatures rising by the half hour. It is now 51 degrees at casa IG.

I have a fridge/freezer half full of food that needs to be discarded. Luckily I had done no holiday baking yet.

Cleanup begins.... luckily I only have a four day week this week and I wont have to go into the office to do it.


Ill write more when I can and I took pictures of the trees uprooted right out of the ground. One just missed my SUV.

Poker for the People

You asked for it you'll get it. My aim is to please my readers and apparently real men don't care that Izzy is having sex with a dead ghost on Grey's Anatomy.

Last Sunday, I played really bad online poker. At one point, Snake called me as he was heading out of the woods to ask what I had going on and to get a Turning Stone recap and my statement was. "I'm playing really bad online poker" It was a chip spew and I just couldn't help myself. Fortunately it was mostly double or nothings and a few small buyin tourneys. But I think I cashed in one of like 4 DoN's and that was after I had won 4 in a row over 4 days.

But let's back up a bit. I played Dr Pauly's turkey shoot. After doubling thru Hoyazo: my QTos out of the BB vs his 88 with a ace and a ten on the flop and Hoyazo making an aggro quick all-in bet on the river which signaled he didn't want a call, we wound up coinflipping for the chip lead. Me JJ Hoy AK.. I hit a set, I think but a four flush or runner runner flush for Hoy left me with under 1k chips and I went out in 11th. For some reason I really wanted to win the Turkey shoot. Belated thanks to the lovely ladies: Change100 and Katitude for cheering me on at the end.

I used to be afraid of Hoy. Let's face it he is aggressive and has results to match and he is a thinking person's pokerplayer. He constantly studies and thinks about the game as all good/great players do. So, i would avoid tangling with him as I felt he could always outplay me especially if he had position on me. I've just never had the confidence in my online game that I do with my live game. I realized after discussing this with Snake that I really shouldn't treat the two games any differently. The only thing different about online play is I can't see you and I was putting two much importance on that.

Which brings me to the Bodonkey on Tuesday night. First appearance of Season II for IG. What can i say, I'm a slow starter. First hand I look down to pocket AA in the BB. Nate Avenson 3bets from EP... Woot. it folds around to me and I repop him with a three bet. Reraise back and all the chips in the middle with a classic AA vs KK on the first hand of the tourney situation. The rockets hold (this is Bodog not Full Tilt) and I surge to an early chip lead which I manage to build on and hold for most of the tourney. I did finish 4th turning T$11 into $39.60 but missed the extra T$ which are awarded for top three finishes.

Thursday nite I made a reappearance and I went out 11th when I raced with my nemesis Hoyazo again late in the tourney for either the chip lead or a top 3 stack and my IG (pocket 9's) got cracked by his AK when he spiked a K on the turn. Hoyazo did go on to win that night. What was more fun was catching up with two of my favorite bloggers Waffles for the second time in the week and MiamiDon. Since I never play on Full Tilt anymore and I have been playing more live I never see or chat directly with anyone. But MD and I had a good catch-up session on the girly chat. I also probably had Hoyazo and anyone else who takes notes erasing every note they ever had on me as to my ranges. I open raised with 86os and took a nice sized pot off of 23skidoo who stayed tied to his pocket 5's. 23skidoo probably felt there was not a card on board that would be in a hand IG would play that could have hit me. Don asked me if I had gotten all loose crazy over the past months and I said no not at all with a laugh.

The day after Thanksgiving (after one hour of early AM Black Friday Power shopping), I ventured up to Turning Stone aka TROCK with Action Hank and Mike and we were met up there by Bev (a horse racing handicapper for the Times Union) and her daughter. Deep stacks of 15k chips with a 1500 dealer add-on and 40 minute blinds for $242 buyin (you have to buy a $2 poker room card each day you play at TROCK) brought out 379 of Upstate NY and Canada's finest. Originally Turning Stone was only planning on 250 or so and they had to scramble to find dealers. I believe 400 was all they would have been able to handle. As it was I had a 45 minute wait to register and the tourney got off a little late.

At my first table I had a bunch of frequent 2+2 posters including an entertaining Canadian Pro from Ottawa whose real name is Frank, who would raise just about every hand and then when people finally started three betting him he would state: OMG this is so sick. He made the table fun even though he bordered on falling asleep to all out ADD. I think a first break bong hit may have calmed him done abit. I even offered to trade him my Canadian for USD as Im still walking around with about $30 of canadian paper money and loonies from my trip to Eh-Vegas in February. Our original dealer was an older dude who wasn't fond of the F-bomb and Frank almost incurred a penalty after F-bomb two which was said in casual conversation to yours truly when I mentioned Waterloo and Nenad Medic and he stated: Nenad Medic isn't part of the actual crew there I dont think and most of the dudes who say they are from there are losers. The young guns did concur that TIMEX is a balla though even though he is from Waterloo!! I did play a few hands really really well at my first table (I actually busted a young gun) and was complimented by a few of the young internet pros on them, and only made two small mistakes which werent for a lot of chips but were totally avoidable. Always good to get feedback like that.

I also had a blogger at my table, somehow the Bodonkey and Smokkee's name came up and a dude with a southern accent chimed in that he railed the table the night Rizen played but had to leave. I looked at him and said: I actually have met Smokkee and asked who he was. Turns out I had sometime blogger and Mookie winner JD Schellnut sitting right across from me. He was up for poker and some hunting from North Carolina. that loose aggro donkey (just joking :) smooth called 2+2er Rainetech's preflop raise with 74os or 75os. I three bet with QQ and JD called my raise after Rainetech folded. He wound up turning two pair on me and I lost the pot. I glared at him that it would not happen again next time we met up in a blogger tourney.

Anyway, I failed on my 2008 goal to cash in a live MTT with over 200 people for over 5k when I slowly oozed chips after my third table of the day. I finished 110th or so of the 379 with 40 paying. I was up early, then down then up then down down down all day. Never got anything going. Having AA utg twice early in a tourney is never a happy place. Hank had introduced me to another local: Ralph who I enjoyed chatting with after I actually got moved to his table. Ralph busted out a few hands before me. Also seated at this table was Canadian Pro Mark Karam, who apparently has had some great results on the EPT. He busted out before me and Ralph so I never actually really saw him play other then a few all in moves. A funny story from this table was about our local poker scene. Another Capital District local seated to Ralph's immediate left said he wanted to check out the local scene and how did he get in. I looked at him straight faced and said: "I or one of the club members has to sponsor you (this part is true) and we would take you there blindfolded and not take the blindfold off until you got there." The look on his face was priceless. I then winked at Ralph (who couldn't see the wink behind my prescription sunglasses) and said to the dude after a pause.... JOKING!!!! The old dude that busted me who had no chips when I got to the table and then became the chip leader at the table, was a mute with zippo personality who kept his head down and took forever to make a decision when it was his turn to act. I almost went TM (Tiffany Michele) on him and called the clock he annoyed me so much by doing absolutely nothing that should have annoyed me except taking too long to act.

I haven't been able to get down to the club lately, but hope to get back down once before Xmas or right after. I'm working Friday's now and have been since November 1st, rather then taking them off as I had been since June. I decided to try to carry 40 hours into next year so that will allow me to take almost every Friday off in 2009 after the first quarter is over and have two full weeks of vacation too. Amazing how much more time you have only working 4 days a week (36 hours for me in those 4 days)....So until then I wont be cracking AA with 9T of spades as I did last time at my first table. I turned trip tens (at first I put my opponent on AK or a small/mid pair with her preflop raise size at the blind level we were at. By the turn I knew she had a big overpair to the board). I got all my money in on a river with a possible flush on board but knew she didn't have the flush but she had to fear I did, (I had to laugh when my opponent stated: I forget shes an Internet player) and then on the same nite at table 2, I cracked this old grumpy ladies pocket KK's in the BB who screamed at me for calling her reraise. Heck she mentioned she was more of a cash game player then an mtt player (don't announce that to a table of skilled players lady) and she had just doubled up a short stack with a lame ass call of of the sb. I rightly pegged her as a defender who i could outplay and I was right. I then busted a luckbox calling station at the same table. When I got to the final table, one of the guys who had witnessed my 9T vs AA hand at my first table looked at this dude on my right and said " Watch out, if she hasn't tilted you yet she will!" I just smiled and said "I'm really really a sweetheart, all vicious beats have been on other women, they hate me you won't I promise!! I don't think I tilted the nice guy, I did bust him though!! Unfortunately it was Action Hanks birthday that day and I ultimately spewed my chips two him busting out third, Action Hank went out second and a young dude who was a newcomer who appeared to be a decent player took it down.

Truckin' - December 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 12

Check out the latest edition of Truckin' and all the back issues too. I'll let the good doctor do the rest as only a great storyteller can!!!

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By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

And we're back with your favorite literary blogzine. We have a special year-end issue with a couple of Christmas themed stories. I contributed two stories this issue; a piece about my neighborhood in L.A. and the other is a dramatic Christmas story about a dysfunctional family that might resemble your own.



Truckin' - November 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 12

1. The Last Christmas by Paul McGuire
I adore the way you look. But your mother disapproves. It's that black shoe polish you have on your lips. When I was your age, the only people who dressed like that were the whores who stood on corners down in the Mission.... More

2. I Remember Christmas by May B. Yesno
I looked down at my cup, lifted a hand to the waitress for another coffee and started looking around the joint, noting the yellow brown walls a glass could stick to, if you placed a glass on it, and listened to the Christmas music being piped in... More

3. American Half-Breed by David Peterson
It is bitter cold and everywhere around me is ice and dirty snow. At my side is one of my prized possessions, an American Standard Fender Precision Bass Guitar. I don't want to do what I'm about to do, but I've run out of options. I open the pawn shop door and feel a blast of heat and the smell of tobacco smoke and desperation... More

4. Of All The Bars In NYC by Betty Underground
You know when you see someone and maybe it is the job you do or the frequency you travel to the same places, but you sort of recognize them and for some reason you can't put them in the context of where you are right then... More

5. Corner of Hopelessness by Paul McGuire
I have this odd fear that I'm going to get shanked by a gangbanger with a spork or mugged by one of the homeless people who live behind the dumpster and feast on half-eaten Jumbo Jacks and pieces of raggedly yellow leaves that they pass off as lettuce... More

Thanks to everyone for their support with Truckin' in 2008. I especially want to thank the writers from this issue and every issue this year. Your bloodwork is an inspiration to us all.

Don't forget to tell your friends about your favorite Truckin' stories!

PokerStars World Blogger Championship

It's back for another round and doing things a bit differently this year.

And while we are at it, Happy Birthday to Otis, of the PokerStars Blog, Up For Poker Blog and Rapid Eye Reality.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 626153

And if you read the fine print as to prizes it appears Pokerstars will be offering a spring version of its very successful WCOOP the SCOOP.