Football, Poker, Music

FOOTBALL:

It came down to the last play of the game. Miami was stymied for the game winning score when Pennington's throw to the end-zone/Hail Mary pass was intercepted, but based on points of the Monday Night Football game, I won one of my leagues outright this week!!! Three of us were in contention on Monday night: Had Miami won, California Rob would have taken it down. Had the points come under 45 one of the three "Wags" brothers in the pool would have won. I faded them both and won for the first time in 5 years (my first year in the league). Over the last 4 years, I've lost the weekly title either by whiffing on MNF points or mis-picking the Monday night game winner outright, at least 7-8 times that I can remember. Sometimes, the weather was a factor and the games were low scoring and I was over the total points scored, other times just bad Ju-Ju.

I was also co-winner of this week's Pauly's Pub league hosted by none other then Dr Pauly. That is an all-season long only league (no weekly payouts). My Big-Eyed Phish entry moved up to one game out of first place. Of course we are only two weeks and its a long season to go.

I'm watching more football and paying more attention then in prior years where poker was my primary focus on the weekends. And as Ray & Rob and any other of my good guy friends can attest: I know my football. Last night I even watched the South Carolina - Ole Miss game over network TV. Ever since I was a little girl, I can remember watching football with my dad and sometimes my maternal Grandpa who actually played college football. One of my high-school boyfriend's was co-captain of the football team our senior year of High School and I went to a NCAA Division I football school. I think I bleed Black and Gold for my Colorado Buffs.

POKER:

I actually played some live poker last weekend. The first time since end of June or beginning of July. I know the last time I played live was during the WSOP shortly after LJ's horse near final table. It was a nice early Sunday start time with 4 big screen TV's going and a prime rib/shrimp scampi dinner which was worth the entry fee. I bubbled the final table in 11th but only top 5 were to pay. Near the end, I got my money all-in behind two times and sucked out. One was a suck re-suck suck hand. I was all in pre-flop flopped two pair, opponent turned straight I boated on the river. On the other hand, I rivered two pair but was dominated on the flop. I knew I was behind with my KJ but shoved the rest of my short-stack in any-way because I needed chips or it was time to go home. If people can't lay down hands when they have fold-equity and nothing but top pair on a coordinated board, I'm not going to feel bad about sucking out. And I really also don't want to hear my table mates go on and on about how I got so lucky for 10 minutes. Of course I got lucky. Better to just say nothing and move on with your lives. I'll take the lucky bones I was thrown because believe me I was not born with a horseshoe up my arse. I probably got my only two lucky rivers I'm going to get for the next year. And look what it got my anyway Squadoosh.... Remember, sometimes I don't care what my cards are. If I'm short, I'm making a move solely based on my chip stack in relation to yours and board texture.

Dr Pauly is soliciting opinions on who should be inducted into this years Poker Hall of Fame. You can leave a comment at the end of this post. Congratulations to him for being selected as one of 15 media member's who get to vote. I'm pretty sure Andrew Feldman over on ESPN is another media vote based on a comment he left. Both of these guys are reading our comments. All the nominees are worthy, but who deserves to go in first is the question.

MUSIC:

If your a music fan and/or fan of Mike Gordon's solo band, lead guitarist Scott Murawski is looking for suggestions of covers to under take. I came up with some pretty wild ones including Pink Floyd's PIGS. I tried to come up with song's that had killer bass lines for Mike as well as great guitar work for Scott. I stayed clear of songs PHISH has covered and Max Creek has covered including the Grateful Dead catalogue. Not that I wouldn't want to hear them try The Eleven, its just that there are so many other cover songs out there they could have fun with. I no longer go to Max Creek shows to hear them play Dead covers. I may have done so back in 1986 but after I became familiar with their own tunes those became my favorites. In fact, Emotional Railroad is a current Max Creek cover being performed by MGB and one of my favorites.

And be sure to head over to Coventry for all the news thats PHISH to print (and lots of non-Phish stuff too).

Finally, It's amazing how many people pop onto my blog still looking for info on Brandi Hawbaker as well as, the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal. The UB cheating scandal is still pretty fresh in everyone's minds since the recently released official report finely outed and named Russ Hamilton as the primary person behind the accounts thru which a multitude of higher stakes cash game players were robbed from. No surprise there really. The question remains on whether the other alleged cheats names will be released. Its quite possible those alleged names may never see the light of day unless they actually were the owner's of the accounts. Since these other people may have not had any inside position at UB with direct access to creating super-user accounts it may be really hard to prove they were the ones who actually played and cheated on the account. One of the reasons said names may not have been released. I'm by no means a legal expert but can only imagine the ramifications if someone is named and it cant be proven (libel & slander lawsuits up the wazoo).

Now its time to sit down with Dan Brown's Lost Symbol and some left-over Chinese Food.

On the Road

I'm about to head out the door for a quick trip down to Woodstock, NY for a concert at the Bearsville Theatre. I'm raging solo tonite as BFF Kim has a bad case of pink eye and Zack (my oldest nephew) can't make it from Boston in time. I'll be seeing the Mike Gordon Band. For my poker playing readers, he is the bassist for Phish and features one of my top 5 favorite guitarists, Scott Murawski of Max Creek.

I am still on poker hiatus. I took off all of August. And short of playing ten minutes of the Blogger thank you freeroll that awarded $109 WCOOP seats on pokerstars recently, I have not played any poker live or online since 07/26/2009. Once I return to the felt I hope to have a renewed focus. But I have really enjoyed my down time

I've discovered its really hard at my age to do it all. I love music, I love to play poker, I love trying out new restaurants and recipes. I love to read and to garden. I'm about to take on some volunteer work with our soon to open Saratoga County Animal Shelter satellite location. Plus, when you work a customer service job which requires you to be perky 40 hours a week and your soon to be 49, you get tired. Playing poker, like training for a marathon is a part-time job.

Rags my little semi feral or throwaway cat is getting snipped on October 1st. Hopefully he'll test out okay for FIV/FLV and I can work on getting him semi indoors for the winter. I'm beginning to think he may have been kicked to the curb and became unsocialized. He's currently living in a dog house I bought for him outside the condo front door behind some shrubery. He spends most of his time on my doormat or sunning himself on the walkway and doesn't run from anyone anymore. In fact he is constantly looking for a pet. He brought me two half eaten mouse heads last week. Guess he appreciates all I've done for him. He took a swipe at me (but missed) yesterday when I walked away from petting him but hadn't done that in a while.

My mom just had her hammertoe operated on today for the third and hopefully final time. I'm going to spend most of tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon with her as she already is stir crazy about being unable to drive for 4 weeks while she heals. Unfortunately its her driving foot. The first season of True Blood came from Amazon.com today and I figure that will be good to watch together. I'm also looking forward to reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol when it drops on Tuesday.

And for the record, CU plays Toledo tonight and it will be televised. I am not going to miss another concert to watch them play. Maybe they will win if I dont watch!!!

Now its time to go get Bassed. Mike should be soundchecking right now on WDST. Check out my quick post over on Coventry Music.

I was Ready for College Football

This half-time report is brought to you by: Alum who remembers when we sucked it hard.

Its beginning to look alot like when I was in College circa Fall 1980 - May 1983 or the Pre-BM years ( that's for Bill McCartney). I know we were beat up by injuries last year, but this is ridiculous. The Defensive line needs to learn how to tackle. The Offensive line needs to give the Quarterback some protection and Cody needs to learn how to stay in the pocket.

We were totally pwned/owned in the first half by the CSU Rams. The most exciting thing other than Ralphie's magnificent run was the 55 yard field goal by the dude who couldn't do anything last year and whose name is escaping me currently. Think its Goodman.

Woot we scored while i was typing this. I'm a little shocked to see Little Hawk back in as QB thought he would get the bench and they would start out the 2nd half with Tyler Hansen.

I decided to stay home and watch football rather then drive or to Lenox and see Max Creek. I'm beginning to question my decision/sanity.