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I feel strange if a day or two goes by and I don’t play poker. I feel guilty if a few days go by and I don’t post about poker. I feel like a godless babykiller when I write a shitty post like this one. More later.

Just got back from Commerce. It’s 5AM and thus way too late to write up a report right now, but I thought I’d share the funniest thing Felicia said all day:

“You’re much funnier in person than you are on your blog.”
–Felicia Lee to Bill Rini

God bless Felicia Lee. Send her some mojo for tomorrow’s (today’s) satellites.

Great.

I don’t mind driving in the rain, but rain in Los Angeles always causes clusterfucks like this:

Big red diamond #1:

5-6 Vehicle Traffic Collision Blocking Car Pool, #1, 2 Lanes
1 Vehicle is Blocking East Rosecrans On Ramp to North 405 Per 79-60
Roll Ambulance Required

Big red diamond #2:

Solo Vehicle Traffic Collision into Right Shoulder Wall-Red Sedan
Driver of Vehicle on Ll * is in a Red Ford Escort, Struck Right Shoulder Wall, Advsed Accident (Property Damage) Only She is not Hurt

Hope this clears before I head home.

PokerProf just let me know that the dinner break on Saturday will be at 7PM, so that’s probably when we’ll all be able to get together, tournament players and cash players alike. Apparently there’s a “lovely Vegas-style” buffet and a regular coffee shop type deal, so those will be two of the options. There’s also a sports bar where we’ll likely find Al before and after the tourney. Come get some.

Not too much to report on this end… I haven’t played much online poker due to the birthday night festivities and the weekly home game, though I did sneak in a quick session at Empire for triple my buy-in. It was life-affirming. Well, maybe not that, but it felt pretty good at any rate.

The LA Poker Classic gathering is slowly growing in size, with Al Can’t Hang, Grubbette, PokerProf, Jeff, and Joe making it out to the Commerce Casino this weekend (and beyond?) for all the fun and games. There’s a rumor that Grubby himself will also make an appearance. I’ve promised myself to kick his ass for all the money I’ve lost playing the hammer, though now that I’ve gone through PokerTracker and filtered it for times I played it voluntarily, it appears that I’ve made 6 cents a hand. I guess I owe Grubs a stick of Bazooka Joe.

For those of you who can’t make it out to LA, or don’t like the idea of meeting a bunch of random people at a casino, sign up for the next blogger tourney, set for this coming Wednesday:

Feb 2nd, 9pm EST
PokerStars
$20 buyin, NL tournament
Password: thehammer
Listed under the Private Tournaments tab.
Open to bloggers and readers.

Finally, go get yourself a piece of Al (free shipping!) and wish him luck in this weekend’s tourneys.

Thirty feels a lot like twenty-nine. Have a good day, everyone. It’s on me.

It’s been a while since I’ve read the Bible, but I remember enough of it to be completely disgusted by public statements by those who profess themselves to be Christians, and yet are some of the most hateful, uncharitable persons to be given their 15 minutes. I suppose that the self-congratulatory smirking and strutting of the Christian Right following the election has been weighing on my mind, since, well, they’re still talking about it. I’ve also been disturbed by the tone taken by talking heads regarding the recent execution in California. Lots of things along the lines of “Why did it take so long?” and “There’s still a big backlog of people to kill.” I don’t oppose the death penalty because I’m a Christian. I oppose it because I distrust the State. But I find it odd that the Christian Right (and Libertarians, for that matter) have allied themselves with a political party that is supposedly “tough on crime.”

But I digress.

Here’s today’s Bible passage:

This is a simple, funny, and beautiful story.

The Pharisees are like any dogmatic bureaucrats, and we enjoy the fact that Jesus ignores them completely and keeps writing. It’s like Peter walking right past Lumbergh in Office Space. But more important than giving the Man the bird, Jesus tells us to have compassion and empathy for our fellow man. Even… and I want to make this absolutely clear… even if they do say, “Jehovah.”

Commerce has the LA Poker Classic tourney schedule up on their site. For you no limit hold’em players, there’s a $250,000 guaranteed tourney starting next Saturday the 29th at 3PM. $291 entry + $9 toke + $30 fee. $330’s a bit much for my miniscule bankroll. Besides, I hate Hold’Em. Check out the schedule to find your event of choice…

As I’ve mentioned before, there’ll be a small get-together on the 29th. Stop by!

Some of us will be playing in the Classic:

Felicia Lee - http://felicialee.blogspot.com/
Poker Babe - http://www.poker-babes.com/

Others will be watching from the rails and relieving bust-outs of the rest of their cash:

Bill Rini - http://www.billrini.com/
FHWRDH - http://www.fhwrdh.net/home.php
HDouble - http://cardsspeak.servebeer.com/
Will - http://www.allnpoker.com/
Lance - http://any2cards.blogspot.com/

And some of us are still deciding:

The Film Geek - http://pokergeek.blogspot.com/
Absinthe - http://absinthesparks.blogspot.com/

Ooh, and there’s also a rumor that we may be graced by the presence of someone special.

Best of luck to the tourney participants!

Double buy-in last night and probably every week hereafter. 10BB wasn’t really working out with our spread limit game.

JC +$2.35
ER +$3.35
CR -$5.35
PC -$2.75
JB +$4.10
EM -$1.70

Yeah. I lost set over set to JC (55 vs. JJ) early on and that accounts for most of that negative number there. Also lost a small bet with top pair vs. set before I folded the turn.

I tried to recruit ER for Party Poker, but CR quashed that idea immediately. Something about her losing his money. Heh.

“And every so called meeting with his so called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch.”

It took me a couple days, but I’ve finally caught up on my limited poker reading. There are definitely other blogs out there that are worthwhile reads, but I think I’m running out of hours in the day to devote to reading blogs. I used to multi-task between reading and playing, but I’ve been trying to do a better job of focusing on the game at all times.

I think there’s also more content these days. I don’t remember for certain, but I’d say it started with three things occurring around the same time: 1) Iggy going pro, 2) the nightly NL table, and 3) the Vegas trip. So, okay, there were more frequent uber-posts and quickies, tales of the hammer taking down huge pots, and 30-odd trip reports posted as multi-part series. But I think Vegas was also the catalyst for gelling the “poker blog community” into a more coherent idea. Suddenly your audience had a lot more faces and shared experiences to go with the names, so you felt the compulsion to post more frequently and write better posts to impress and measure up to your peers.

I didn’t go to Vegas. I don’t have to impress or measure up to anyone.
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