I only update this when I go to Vegas....

 So, here we are again. I'm on an eve of a WSOP 2023 trip. Heading out for a week to play event 47 (1500 HORSE) and 48 (1000 Seniors) to treat myself on making it to 50 this year.

Last trip was fun, but substantially in the red. Since then, though, I've done nicely in limited live play and been playing about as well as I ever have over the last couple of years. 

So we'll see how that translates to a 7,000 entry donkament...

Not quite 10 years, but it's been a while....

 

I'm actually going to Vegas tomorrow for the first time since, uh, 2006.  Going to spend half my time at the Orleans playing at the Nationals for World Tavern Poker (I ran so well at playing online during the pandemic I won a national points championship with 3 free nights in LV)

Worst photo ever.

I wasn't really all that keen on a cross country trip earlier this year (thought about delaying until 2022) - but then when the WSOP moved its schedule to the fall and overlapped WTP's Nationals.... 

So first half of the trip will be basically bouncing around seeing what kind of poker clownishness I can stumble into, whether at the Rio or somewhere else - before settling into the Orleans. 

The only real goals I have for the trip - try to break even, play well, and enjoy myself.

***

So, I figure I owe a moderate update on life since... uh, the early 2010s?

- Still have the same basic job, although the name on the check has bounced around from Verizon to AOL to Oath to Yahoo... But, that check still cashes, so I can be happy about that. Done a lot of volunteer work with the county health department at vaccine clinics since March, so I head to Vegas triple-vaxxed, masked and as relaxed as you can be travelling in 2021

- BabyGirlHeff is now a tween that just turned 12. Really in a lot of ways she's most important part of my life, and all I want to do is make sure she turns into a happy, wonderful adult.

- Looking back at those WSOP posts from 2006 (most of the old blog I turned private, but left those posts up for posterity/look how silly I was back then) - is fun yet bittersweet. Jenn and I had so much fun on that trip - and now we basically just co-parent our daughter and live our own lives for a number of reasons beyond the scope of this blog. 

Life happens. 

I am a much happier and better person now than I was when this URL went dark - and while I didn't love the path I had to take to get here - I appreciate who I am - and the people in my life - more than I ever have.

Poker stuff?

-Once the pandemic hit, I got back into online poker - mostly playing Ignition because the anonymous tables means I don't have to worry about datamining/tracking results, I just play as optimal as I can - and that's been very profitable over the last year.

-The live bar poker scene obviously dried up for a while, so I really took to playing their online platform over the winter of 2020/21, resulting in the Orleans trip.

-I've been playing some Pokerstars home games with SmBoatDrinks and that's gone really well too with some substantial wins in his seasonal series - love those non-holdem tourneys...

I may post, I may not over the next week. To be honest it's easier to see the old posts if I wake the blog back up for a while as a crazy time machine back into my past....

Really, longer than JFK's presidency?

Got one of these emails too Monday night.

Looked it up. Unbelievable, but we're a couple of weeks past the length of Camelot since Black Friday.

A payment in the amount of $xxxx.59 will be paid electronically via ACH to the bank account that you specified in your Petition. This payment represents the full amount of your Full Tilt Poker Account Balance, which you confirmed on the Full Tilt Poker administration online filing site.  Payment will be made within the next seven business days. 

Whee. Ready to splash around a little bit now. Went out Sunday and took down the opening session of the bar poker league.

Then again, the very next game I raise/4balled/folded QQ for 50BB effective to a tricky old man who 1) minraised me out of the big blind and then 2) did the pause/think/jam after my 4bet. So maybe I should keep the training wheels on a little longer. But I guess I should head to Charles Town/Maryland Live/Delaware Park soon.

Let's see how this one turns out...

That was some year...

Man, the dust collects quickly when you're all distracted and busy and whatnot...

What's been up? Life, basically. Between this new job and a bunch of other things going on, I've barely had a chance to even think about blogging, or even what to write about.

I still have the same feeds in my Reader (oh, GFY Google for changing Reader's UI, booooooo) and keep up with things, whether it's LJ's little baby, or VeryJosie's evolving live exploits, or the various Vegas shenanigans in December - and still have a lot of opinions about all sorts of things I read and hear on a daily basis - but I don't really have an urge to write about any of it.

It's very strange, actually. The older I get, the less important I think my opinions are - or more properly, I don't think those opinions are really important or interesting to anyone but myself.

-BabyGirlHeff: Now 2 and incredibly demanding, as I'm told most girls are at that age.

Very verbal and intelligent (most fathers say that, I wouldn't unless it were actually true.)

She likes counting to 12, is a whiz with an iPhone, and continually asks to watch either Spiderman (the old TV cartoons of the 60s and 80s) on Netflix or that horrible, whiny bitch of a Canadian kid, Caillou (F U Pebble. Stupidest name ever.)

She photographs well, too, as you can tell from the top right of the page...

- Poker - What's that? Well, I do have an iPad2 now courtesy of bonus grinding, but hardly have time to play anymore.

I have the original bankroll I deposited post-Black Friday and when I have some time, I goof around, lose $$ at cash and MTTs, scoop it back up at SnGs, and try to tilt as many randoms as possible with idiotic chat. So that much hasn't changed... :-)

I haven't played live since that double dip final tabling two daily MTTs at Delaware Park in May - I don't count the silly free bar poker tourneys I dabble in around here - so I have to have a lot of rust in my game. It can't be in that bad of a shape - I still think about the game and try to read and learn about hands when I can - but I'm certainly not getting the trigger time in to remain on top of things.

Oh, and DoJ hurry plz and get my FTP money back to me. Part of the reason I haven't played since May is I don't have a live bankroll to splash around with - going job hunting for a few months will evaporate that in a jiffy.

- Fantasy Football -  I actually managed to ride Purple Jesus and Breesus to a nice 6-2 start - and then I couldn't beat anyone but this guy for two months and missed the money bracket of my league. That was disappointing. I think I've been playing with this same crew of bloggers for 2-3 seasons of football and baseball and keep pulling an 0-fer. I just don't research and pay attention as much as I used to.

- I'm not sure how I feel about leaving the media industry. I don't really miss it, and yet every day had a youneverknowwhatwillhappen feel to it, no matter how mundane. Now I work with much smarter people, in a more professional industry, and am a lot more challenged on a daily basis - but I do it for less pay over more hours. Still, I'm more blessed than most of my former co-workers - as difficult as 2011 was for me, I came through the other side pretty well all things considered.

So who knows what 2012 will bring.

Maybe I figure out a way to leverage 15 years of experience into something else and start another adventure...

Maybe I realize that I'm hitting 39 this year and have to get to the gym more often before I really grow a pot...

I just hope I get to play some cards this year and live to see 2013.

I have simple goals. 2012 being better than 2011 would be one of them.

Good times to all (any?) of you reading.  Happy New Year!!!

From morning to night at Delaware Park... more $$$

So after the 6th place cash, I checked emails/made phone calls and decided to wait in the looonnnnggggest deli line ever for a $4 hot dog which was - well, it was grilled, hot, and on a bun with sauerkraut, so at least it was as ordered. By the time I wandered back to the main room, it was almost 6, and the only game without a list was... 8/16 limit?

Well, what the hell, why not, give me two racks of yellow and let's spew chips...

On the good side, they were running the game with reduced $2 rake, and the two chip/four chip structure should have made it a fun action game. What it actually turned out to be was a bunch of older momos limp/calling everything, so you ended up with fourway raised pots on the flop and turn needing to show down a pretty good hand to scoop the pot - and that wasn't really what I had in mind. Then again, it was live limit poker - so I was expecting that and adjusted - but I never made anything except a running straight to bink someone's flopped set, and ended up down 5-6 bets after 30-40 minutes. Then the floor finally announced that the 4/8 Omaha H/L game was starting - a game I put my name on the list for like five hours earlier.

So I figured I should get over there and at least make sure the game started - see how it was for 30 minutes, and then decide if I was going to play the 7pm tourney or just donk around at a cash game until midnight, when I'd have to leave and drive back home. We got a full table and started the game - but after watching the first half orbit, with people limping behind preflop with A23x and the dealer almost biffing quartered pots twice - I got up and bought into the 7pm tourney before I really went on tilt.

That's the bad side about no online poker - you just can't run a split pot game with any kind of speed or pep to make it worth playing. Live PLO or PLO8 might be worthwhile - but limit Omaha live is pure agony, and this is coming from someone who actually likes four card bingo.

The 7pm tourney crowd was an older mix of players - the morning tourney had quite a few guys I could tell were slumming b/c they couldn't play on Stars or Tilt - not so much on a Friday night. I don't remember as much from this run b/c I didn't take as many notes - but I was on another heater of chip accumulation throughout the tourney. From 10K starting chips to 52K at the second break to 130K as we got to two tables left (which was 2X average stack, but only 20 big blinds.)

I was always well ahead of the average stack, was able to win a lot of pots without showdowns, and then took those extra chips to gamble with small stacks for the knockout. I remember having to ask for a count from the dealer a lot, b/c I was always having to call someone's shove or big turn bet. In fact the only time all day I was allin and covered was when I jammed into the aces during the morning tourney - and that's always a good thing.

*I boned one player early in a couple of smallish pots (Ax over KK on a AAx pot, Aces full over Kings full on a AAKKx board) , and he tilt-went out of his way to try and win a hand against me, calling every hand I opened. I ended up taking his original stack and his re-entry as well.

*Got all in with someone preflop on a coin flip, they hit a set on the flop and I runner runnered a flush on them.

*Heffed Hand #onebillion - With two tables left, I open in MP with 98s for a standard raise, big blind defends. Flop J67r and villain instantly shoves for a little over pot, about 40K, which is about 1/3rd of my stack. I think for a minute, count it out, feel like GAMBOOL and say "hey, it's only chips" and toss in the call. I'm up against JT.

Turn T. Half the table goes "whoa." Villain doesn't fill up. My only reaction is a barely audible "boom" on the river. I don't think he was very amused.

By this point all the old nits start talking about chops and bubble saves - which I'm really trying to ignore. I mean, I didn't buy in to play 4-5 hours and end up with a 14-way chop. I finally say I'll listen with 12 players left just to get a couple of the more insistent ones to shut up, hoping they just go busto soon - which they do, thankfully enough.

In the meantime, I actually start hitting some rough waters.

I open AKo, a short stacked big blind decides to properly call off with T8o and hits.

That player then jams into my blind and I call with 33. He shows 88. I call for a three ball which hits the flop. I didn't call for the eight on the turn.

When we get to 10 players, we consolidate to one table, agree to a $100 bubble save for 10th out of our pockets - and then I get to jam aces into the same player's open raise. He calls, I show, he says, "I need Broadway" as he flips over AKo. Flop is QJT. Ahem.

I turn a flush draw, but I ended up under 70K and a below-average stack for the first time in forever. But, I did just let it all go after the hand was over. It's poker. It happens. I cracked aces to cash in the morning, it's all karma, blah blah.

Luckily, there were still shorter stacks to pick on and I can play a 10-15BB stack better than most people. Soon enough the bubble burst and I had scrounged just enough chips to where I could start raise/jamming/winning pots for free like it was my job or something, I was up over 200k seven-handed and 300K six handed, which was over 1/3 of the chips in play. Got to admit, it was fun to play like that.

It was past 1am, though, I still had that drive in front of me, and I started to run out of gas at the table. My opens started getting flatted a lot more, and I couldn't hit a flop. Basically, I kept maintaining my stack and let everyone else knock each other out.

When we finally got heads up, I was probably down in chips 2-1 or so with that same 250-300K stack, but we were at 3K/10K/20K blinds. First was 2400, second was 1500, it was after 1:30am by now, there wasn't any postflop play left for us - and so I figured I had nothing to lose by offering a chop to the 40ish woman across the table who looked like she knew enough to do some business.

"You really feel like flipping for $900? I'll play it either way, but hey, one double up and I'm back in front. How about we chop?"
"What's the chop number?"
TD runs it - $1950 for an even chop.
"Give me $2000 and it's a deal."

Hell yeah it's a deal. $400 free mobneys. Yeah, I would have loved to play it out and see, but that was too good of spot to pass up. We signed for the adjusted payout, I got my chips, left about $100 for tip (with a 3-5% takeout already, that's perfectly fair) cashed out the rest, and I was in my car 10 minutes later on the way home. Not that I got home before 5am thanks to overnight construction and a couple of accidents that blocked traffic on the interstate.

But, it was a fun drive back with a roll of C-notes in my pocket. That's actually my biggest win in a single tournament ever. While I've final tabled some 50-50s before, I never cashed for the big bucks - well, except for the Main Event satellite I won once, but that's not the same thing.

This is obviously sustainable and real and means I should expect to final table a live MTT oh, every other time I play one..... Not.

Delaware Park trip report... $$$

So, I finally got the chance to go out an hit a live session of poker Friday. I took some of the Stars cashout and headed up I-95 to Delaware Park. It's funny, I had no idea I hadn't played a real live tournament since this over two years ago.

Long story short:

I final tabled the $65 11am tourney - about 90 runners - in 6th for $275.
I final tabled the $100 7pm tourney - about 80 runners - and chop it HU for $1900.

So that was nice. Live poker can be fun.

Long story long:

Since it had been awhile between live sessions, I didn't really want to jump right in and play cash - so even though Charles Town is a lot closer to me, they don't run anywhere near the amount of tournaments that Delaware Park does and I ended up driving there.

Took me about 2 hours and change to drive Friday morning, I pull up and valet park at the main entrance on the East end of the building - and realize that the poker room is at the complete opposite West end of the building.

LOL walking through all the slots, but since I'd only been there once before to check out the place pre-table games, it wasn't bad to get up to speed on what it all looked like now.

Get to the room, get a player card, buy into the 11am tourney, find my seat, and we let it rip. 7500 starting stacks, 20 min levels, standard fast AC/East Coast daily tourney structure.

At first it takes a little while to get back into the feel and flow of things. I'm used to handling chips and whatnot - but at a bar, not on green felt with padded rails. I don't have a hat on, but I've got my prescription sunglasses and my little Eeyore, so I'm trying to look a little noobish.

Anyway, I start making hands quickly. I stack a poorly played AA when I flop a set on a monotone board and villain jams 60BB, extract value from KQ with AQ in a limped multiway pot after a QQx flop - and then I pull off the first of many Heffed Hands on the day.

I get frisky at 100/200 and open 86o in EP for 600 and get flatted in LP and by the big blind.
Flop 873r, I decide to lead 1200, LP flats, blind folds.
Turn 4, I check, LP jams for a little over pot. Again, I'm thinking online (hey, people try to take pots away from you all the time in these kind of spots) instead of live (people don't bluff spots like this), decide I can bink a 5, 6 or 8 if I need to, and I've got enough of a stack built up to take a shot like this.

I call, see I'm up against 99, say, "Ooh, I've got some outs" - and watch a 5 hit the river.

This is how the AM tourney ran - I just kept building up a stack. 20K at 100/200, 28K when the antes kick in, 45K (3x average stack) by the second break. I kept picking my spots and decided to station people when appropriate..

Another table, I think this was at 75/300/600. EP opens to 1500, I flat behind him in MP with KJs.
Flop Jack high rainbow, he donks like 2500, I call.
Turn blank without any realistic draws, he donks 4K, I call.
River blank, he donks 5500... and I don't get an overpair/JackAce read.
I call and win vs. ATo.

I get moved around a lot, end up next to a local dude who 1) could play 2) was funny and 3) was on a stupid sick heater. I get moved to his right with a nice 50K stack and proceed to tread water while I watch him go from 30K to like 170K in two orbits.

But, at least I was amused with some decent live poker banter while I turtled up in massive card death as we neared the final table bubble for payouts. That nice, 2x, 3x average stack was rapidly becoming a shortie as we got through hour four. I wanted to play the 3pm PLO tourney, but I'm not going to punt a stack. Not really.

13 players left, I'm down to like 45K at 400/2k/4k. I look down at QTs UTG and figure why not, it's a suited one-gapper and likely live vs. Ax hands that will call. I ship, folds around to some Asian kid in the small blind who instantly reships. Oops.

Now earlier, he opened 3K from MP, I repopped the button to 11K with air, and he jammed 30K more with AJo (he showed after I tank folded and asked to see a card) But of course he has Aces this time.

Flop JJ7. That's not good.
Turn 9. Hey I have a chance.
River 8. So, so silly.

Kid only had 10K more than me. Naturally he was next out. He came back to the final table later and said he ran a boat into quads for stacks at a 1/2 NL table. So yeah, I basically cost him at least $400 or so.

After that doubleup, a few hands later the local grinder busts two short stacks in one hand - and we pop the final table bubble without anyone even realizing it. Yay cash and no bitching about chops or bubble saves...

Final table was pretty nondescript. I actually got up to about 140, 150K, which was above average six handed - but we were playing 2K/6k/12k blinds, so like that actually matters. Last hand, it folds around to me and I ship about 130K with A9s from the small blind. Big blind who covers me tanks and says, "I know I have the best hand here." and I think, well hurry up and call me then. He calls with 55 and I don't hit.

I was a little surprised to see a pair that small, because he's essentially flipping 2/3rd of his stack if he's right and crushed if I actually have it. But hey, it's a short stacked low buyin live tourney final table, like there's time to wait around for a bigger hand.

So I go to the cage, sign for sixth, pick up my chips, and have a little under two hours to kill until the 7pm starts.

More TK, including a mini-review of Delaware Park....

Weekend and more De-Throning...

Since there's nothing better to talk about at the moment, let's revisit our last little bit of glory - the De-Throning of VeryJosie, Part the Second!

Game 2

VJ gets out to a small lead early - then she opens 3x to 60, I flat with T8o.
Flop 997, two hearts, I check/call 80.
Turn Td, now two diamonds as well, I check/call 180.
River 4d, I check/tank call 300, see Ah5c, I win and take a 2-1 chip lead.

veryjosie: i am soooo on tilt
veryjosie raises to 80
heffmike: obv/
heffmike folds
Uncalled bet of 60 returned to veryjosie
veryjosie: lol
veryjosie shows [7c 2d] Seven Two high

She does know how to fill up, though

Seat 1: veryjosie (735)
Seat 2: heffmike (2,265)
heffmike posts the small blind of 15
veryjosie posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [8d Ad]
heffmike raises to 80
veryjosie calls 50
*** FLOP *** [Qc 4s 7d]
veryjosie checks
heffmike checks
*** TURN *** [Qc 4s 7d] [7c]
veryjosie checks
heffmike checks
*** RIVER *** [Qc 4s 7d 7c] [9s]
veryjosie bets 655, and is all in
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike: I should call you with Ace high, but no easy chips.
heffmike folds
Uncalled bet of 655 returned to veryjosie
veryjosie shows [7h 9d] a full house, Sevens full of Nines
veryjosie wins the pot (160)

A little later, I open/limp 5s3s for 40 with a 3-1 chip lead. VJ raises to 120, I call.
Flop 432r, she jams 640 into a 240 pot. Even if she has an overpair, I have a lot of outs.
Bet sizing screams Ax more than a second-level bet for value.

I call, see AKo, I hold and win, and I'm up 2-0.
Took about twice as long as game 1, but I felt in control both times and was just riding the wave.

Game 3 was a hell of a lot more work and lasted over 30 minutes.

First hand, I limp the button, VJ raises, I fold, she shows AA.

Second hand, VJ raises her button, I fold, she shows 66.

Third hand, the one time I make a move all night:
I raise AJo to 50, she calls.
Flop Q66, two clubs, she donks 60 and I call.
Turn Ks, she checks, I check behind.
River 5c, completing the flush, she bets 60, I raise to 200, she calls with Qd2d and PWNS.

Fourth hand, VJ completes, I check A5o.
Flop AT5 with a heart draw, I bet 60, she calls.
Turn Jc, I bet 80 and she calls again,
River 9c for a backdoor flush, I check/call 80 and beat her QQ no club.

VJ turns on her boat switch later. She makes them twice and notches me, once when I have an underboat and the other with top pair - and I'm down almost 3-1 pretty quickly. I grind it back to even, then start falling behind again when I gambool silly...

VJ opens 3x to 150, I repop to 450 with KTo, VJ jams 1745 and obviously covers.
I figure I've got a 1/3 of the stack in already and with a 2-0 lead, it's gambool time.
Flop KT8.
Turn Ace
River blank. Now I'm up 5-1.

Of course it's not that simple.
Twice I get it in pre with overcards vs. her small pocket pairs and lose flips, but I still maintain a small chip lead until we get it in for the last time.

I openlimp to 60 with A8, VJ repops to 240, I decide to jam,and VJ tank calls off with 55.
I flop an Ace and fade the the two outer FTW.

***********

Looking back, man I was playing passive/trappy on purpose.

Limping a lot of buttons, keeping pots fairly small preflop, flatting preflop raises with a wide-ass range - then trying to play more postflop...

It wasn't really by design - well, not entirely.

But I do have a pretty good bead on VJ's play, recognized some tendencies over time... and adjusted what I normally do accordingly.

Anyhow, we were going to try another best-of-five sometime this week... but unless there's some other avenue for HU SnGs for free on the interwebz... so much for that.

***********

I did decide to have a last call/one more session Friday before all the doors slammed shut - burned up all my FTP points for $26 tokens (and a deck of cards, whee!) and jumped in a bunch of 90-mans and Rush MTTs. I ran into overpairs a couple of times - but I did manage to final table the last tourney I'll probably ever get to play on FTP, the ol' reliable 90-man $24+2.

I do my usual silly shit:

I jam A7s into an openlimped 44, board runs T85T8 and I counterfeit on the river.
I jam KTs into the same guy openlimping A2s, board runs J95AQ and I spike the river again.
I jam QTs into 22 and AK, board runs AJ5K5 - and I'm a genius again.
On the final table bubble I call off to a 10BB shove with ATs and hold vs. KQo

I hit the FT 3rd in chips with 20BB.
Nothing happens until we're five-handed, I shove 8BB with K8, get called by A7 and make trip eights.
I'm jamming a lot, so when the button opens four handed, I have an easy 25BB reshove with AKs - he tank calls with AQo and suddenly I've got the chip lead with a little under half the chips in play.

So of course I finally quit hitting everything.
KT vs. a shorty KJ.
99 vs. AQ
I jams 15BB BvB with A2 and run into A7 - and that's that.

4th/90 for $190 more I won't see until the DoJ figures out what it wants to do...

Microcosm of the overall run online run for me.

I only get deep when I spew and donk around early and hit - but I play really well with shallow stacks near bubbles - and naturally, when I'm close enough to get the W that's when I quit spiking everything and miss the big pay bumps.

So it's fitting I close this poker chapter this way - consistently profitable, but never making a really big score.

************

This blog won't go dark - although there will be less to talk about obviously, there still are some loose ends...

- Caps playoff run, of course... 2 down, 14 to go...

- Hey, I still need a new job - the old one is extended until the end of June, but the half-life is rapidly fading on it.

- Maybe some live play to talk about - although I was going to do it out of the online roll, so we'll see how that will work out in the near future...

Regardless of what happens with the future of online poker - the sad thing is, good luck finding a low or mid-stakes live game that's NOT unlimited hold them - or finding a quick one-table SnG - or playing a friendly blogger game like smboatdrink's 10-game tourney.

All those type of things are going by the boards without some kind of virtual poker room to support it.

Maybe if something was organized as a free home game on one of the sites for teh bloggerz - but somehow I don't think that would fly longterm - it's not really poker if there's not money at stake, even if it's only a five spot.

Just keep up with the smart bloggers and posters out there, and we'll all see what transpires...

Iike a dinosaur watching the asteroid hit.

Could be worse, I suppose.

I don't make a living at this, and I have mobney stuck on the sites rather than in payment processor limbo.

However, I would have liked to have an offline roll - I've got enough online poker-only mobney to play indefinitely live, but that's what I get for being slack in 2011 and not pulling it off sooner. Who knows when/if it'll ever be freed up or not.

I guess this means I'm not playing the Ante Up PLO tourney tomorrow.

At least I'll have some more free time now.

EDIT: just read this and sit tight. Nothing else to do at the moment. Nothing else you can do.

The De-Throning, Part The First:

So VeryJosie and I are playing 1500 starting stacks, starting at 10/20.

Very first hand, I limp the suited Grump (4s2s) on the button, VJ raises to 80, I call.
Flop A82 with two clubs, she donks 1/2 pot, I call.
Turn another deuce. She checks, I bet 240 into the 320 pot, she folds, I show.

We're off and running now.

VJ opens 3x to 60, I flat with das Hämmerchen (72o)
Flop 743 with club draw, I check/call 80.
Turn 8, it checks through.
River 2, I donk 1/2 pot, she folds what she says is AKs, I show.

So I'm playing fairly wide open and free, obviously.

VJ opens 3x to 60 again, I repop to 225 with AQo, she folds.

I'm up 1800 to 1200 when she opens her button again 3x to 60.
I repop again to 225, this time with TT.
She types grrrr in the chat and flats.
I don't really like that. Probably walking into a big hand.

Flop T53 with a spade draw. I can like that.

I check, she bets 120 into the 450 pot - sketchy, like it's meant to induce.
I can either jam or just reraise - trying to figure out what gets the rest in better.
I reraise to 450. VJ tank jams for 975 total, and I hold vs. her KK no spade for the 1-0 lead.
Spade draw with the 2s got there on the river, so my other likely semibluffs would've hit as well.

Only 20 hands, one level of play.
Six minutes, Doug E. Fresh, you're on.

Of course, I basically coolered VJ with a two outer to win Game 1.
If the flop comes all undercards, I certainly double her up.
I probably get away on a rainbow flop with a couple of overcards.

But that's poker. 60BB on the flop with an overpair should be good more often than not HU.

Heff 1, VJ 0.

Ireland - dublin, last set of pix...

So, by the time we got to Dublin, we were halfway through the trip. We stayed close to St. Stephen's Green, met up with one of our former exchange students from England - (redhead with an Irish father, so really Jenn's long lost little twin sister) and wandered around Dublin for a few days..

Christ Church Cathedral

River Liffey, which runs right through the middle of town

Whiskey tasting at the Jameson Distillery. Johnnie Walker, Jameson, and Jack Daniels. Not surprisingly, JW tastes like peat/dirt, JD like burnt corn/gasoline, and Jameson so light and smooth (triple distilling) that's it's almost too neutral, like vodka. Note to self, if you become a distiller, naming product J-something is good luck.

We liked our beverages. I'm still mostly a Scotch man, though.

Kilmingham Gaol. This, and Dublin Castle (no pix, oops) were some of the better historic sites we saw in Dublin. The Office of Public Works really has a bunch of top-notch guides walking you through Irish history...

Random band playing on the streets of Temple Bar.
To be honest, they were actually pretty good.

Wall of Fame in Temple Bar with the usual suspects (U2, Thin Lizzy, etc) - and a lovely CCTV camera watching everything. Hello!

The baby makes more friends in Dun Laoghaire. This old couple was so hilarious sitting on a bench near the harbor. They weren't following the open container law either..

Jedward. These jagoffs need to disappear. Quickly. I saw far too much of them in Ireland, count yourself lucky they have not spread across the Atlantic yet. At least they can sell a nacho to their fellow Irishmen.

Streets of Kilkenny - we took a day trip to get out of the city and popped into a couple of places..

like Glendalough, where BabyGirlHeff got to do another fun thing - touch the historic rocks around this 6th century monastic settlement. That, she loved. The rain, not so much. Very soaked after this.

and the view flying out of Dublin across the countryside and hedgerows as we left for the States.

It's been about a month since we got back - and I do miss it. I think, if we could find equivalent jobs in Ireland (doesn't Tiltware have a presence in Dublin - or maybe I would just pour pints because I'm so chatty and conversational with strangers, not...) or if we won the lottery, we'd move there in a heartbeat.

We'd definitely be in the sticks, though. Not that Dublin wasn't bad... but I'm around a big city, I know what they are like. We both preferred the Irish countryside much, much more.

Living somewhere out near Dingle or Kenmare... now that would be an interesting life. In this day and age, you're so globally connected - those remote places just don't seem that far away anymore.

I'm just happy I got the chance to see Ireland. That's probably the best thing about my wife - she ends up making me do things I'd never get around to under normal circumstances. I feel bad for my daughter - she'll never remember any of this as she gets older - unless we take her again, of course.

OK, maybe this week I'll get the chance to actually play some cards and make $$$ like LJ.

As it is, I've got to go to New York (not the city, the state) with my pop to catch up with family for a couple of days, so any WCOOP play is probably not going to happen. Even AIPS may be tight on Saturday, and I'd hate to miss PLO8... :-(

This is a really low-volume month for me. A nice change of pace.

Ireland - driving, from Kenmare to Dublin...

Driving in Ireland was... interesting..

First off, there's that driving on the left thing, with the steering wheel on the right. That was weird enough.

wishing this was Mario Kart Wii and I had that bullet power-up

And there there was the other issue our one-day delay caused... We lost the automatic transmission for the rental car and had to drive a stick shift... - which wouldn't be so bad, after all, I learned to drive on a stick and my first car was a 1971 baby blue VW Beetle.

Of course, I got rid of that car at 18 and have only used a clutch a handful of times since. So there was an adjustment period. Plus, I was sleep-deprived, the gear shift was in my left hand, the roads have like no shoulder whatsoever... did I mention they were a little narrow?

Driving these buses through the passes must suck.

So yeah, that first day or so, I must have stalled out/missed shifts every 10 minutes, almost hit a car in the first roundabout I came across, and probably scraped something on the shoulder five or six times. It was not a relaxing experience. Oh, it took me a couple of hours and looking it up in the driver's manual to figure out where Reverse was - I knew where it was, but figuring out where the interlock/catch was to slide the gearshift over into it was another matter.

But, every day got better and better, to the point that by the time we were leaving Dingle for Kenmare, I was a reasonably competent driver. By then, it was just the small things - getting used to pulling into traffic... I felt like I was driving the mirror tracks on Mario Kart Wii.

No, I didn't buy the hat. I'm not that good of a driver.

So, picking back up the trip, we drove from Inch Beach to Killarney -

Inch Beach, which is actually like five miles long. Irish humor?

and yeah, Killarney, as has been written about, was a very touristy town with a lot of tour buses and it felt... a little busy (it was a Saturday) and far more... commercial than anything we'd seen so far on the western coast. I grew up in Virginia Beach, I have a pretty good feel for a "resort town" - and it's not a favored atmosphere to hang out in, We did stop and check out Ross Castle, which was a pretty interesting restored 15th century stronghold

Ross Castle, on the Lakes of Killarney

and Muckross House, which is as much a monument to 19th century largesse and going broke to impress royalty as anything else - and then a really nice drive through Killarney National Park on the way to the B&B just outside Kenmare.

Near Ladies View, Killarney National Park

View back through the park at Moll's Gap.

Had a wonderful lamb stew for dinner with some pints, and a good night's sleep.

Sunday morning we decided to check out the fair in Kenmare - Jenn has timed this stop to coincide with the biggest fair of the year in Kenmare - which was a odd mix of a flea market, farmer's market, and bazaar with all sorts of stuff. If you were into pellet guns, tools, or animals (yep, for sale there too) you were in luck.

Main Street in Kenmare

BabyGirlHeff wants a pet. Not.

Since we needed to be in Dublin by Monday morning to meet one of our former exchange students from England for a few days, we skipped out on the Ring of Kerry drive most books recommend, and started making our way across the country. We stopped at the Rock of Cashel, which dates back from the 12th century, midday

Impressive. And pretty high up too.

Rock of Cashel with Hore Abbey in foreground - not as close a walk as it appears

and then got bit by the biggest bugaboo of the trip - no iPhone data because we didn't want to get hosed by Verizon international data roaming charges. We drove into Dublin - and then almost immediately got lost because while there are a ton of signs all over the road, the one thing there wasn't enough of were street signs for the actual road you were on. Yeah, they are supposed to be up on the corner buildings... but in reality, you only see them a third of the time... Ordinarly, you just fire up the Maps App and get to where you're going that way... but now, we were doing this manually, me driving, Jenn reading the map.

So, at first, we kept stopping short (oh, we're too far deep into the city, we must be past the hotel) and once we finally got our bearings on the map - then it became, oh, how do we get there (all the one way streets and "you can't turn right" here intersections) before we finally puzzled it out after an extra 60 minutes tooling around the city... then we had to drive out to the airport to drop off the rental car (didn't need it in the city) and come back....

By the way, you drop off the rental at a major Irish airport... by parking it in the garage, bringing the key to the desk and telling them the mileage. Very different from the American experience.

So, we spent that day driving waywayway too much. But we were in Dublin for the second part of the trip, and we had a friend coming in Monday. All was still good, even if we wanted to kill each other by the end of the night ;-).

Hello Dublin. Boy are you hard to find stuff in...

Ireland - baabaabaabaa

A pause traveling between Dingle and Kenmare - now that I remembered something.

We drive out to Brandon Point. Tiny, tiny road for like 10 miles. Small town with three buildings, two pubs and a breakwater/boat launch area three miles from the point.


Even tinier road past that leading to the point, right on the Atlantic. We see sheep all up and down the mountainside - because obviously no horse or cattle can get up and down the terrain.

We get there - windy and breathtaking. Jenn takes photos, I walk around with BabyGirlHeff in one of those Hangover-style Baby Bjorns. We're about done, and Jenn says something about wanting to see a flock of sheep being driven down the middle of the road while we're in country.

And sure enough, on cue, as we get ready to leave - there's a flock of sheep changing pastures, coming up the road.



There's video of this that's just priceless...

Ireland, County Clare and Dingle

enough silly stuff about Ireland for now. Where did we actually go?

Cliffs of Moher/ The Burren - this was the first day after our missed connection, so I was sosotired and sleep deprived I barely remember it after landing in Shannon - but it was notable that 1) it was clear and sunny on the cliffs and 2) the wild landscape was such a headtrip - you hear about different countries and their unique topography, but to actually see it was another matter all together. Dopey Colgan Air cost us a night staying in County Claire over in Doolin...

Cliffs of Moher

The Burren

Dingle Peninsula - we made our way down, over the ferry from Killimer to Tarbert, and through Tralee to the B&B we were staying at for a couple of days. Freaking awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean from here

Yeah, ocean's just close enough to touch, great elevation.

The mountains are so close, looking back from the beach here.

After sleeping like nine billion hours, we traveled around, over to Brandon Point for a closeup view of the ocean.

Brandon Point from afar and closeup...

and then through Conor Pass to get to Dingle.

barely 3000ft. up, but yeah, that's a small road.

and then around the Dingle Peninsula

pretty much as far west as you can get and still be in Ireland..

and back to Dingle for a meal and some traditional music to wind up the day.

Dingle's a nice little town, just touristy enough without being annoying.

The next day, we took another pass across the peninsula through to Inch Beach

This road really wasn't on a map. "just turn left at the corner and go... lol"

before heading off the Dingle Peninsula to Killarney, Kenmare, and the Iveragh Peninsula.

We started the trip off on a high point. Jenn and I both enjoyed the trip around the Dingle Peninsula: it was our favorite area of Ireland, and we really could have used an extra day there. Just a nice, scenic, relaxed region - we joked if our jobs allowed it and we still got paid, we'd pick up and move in a heartbeat.

More to come...

Ireland - traveling with babygirlheff

was a lot smoother than I thought it would be.

Beehive huts on the Dingle Peninsula.

She's a really social baby who loves everybody - everywhere we went she just smiled at everyone and made friends galore. The only time she really got ornery was when we took her along on a guided tour of anything - that was her cue to use her voice and try to talk to the OPW guides.

Of course, it was nice when she snoozed in the car too.


In other news, finally hit the tables for the first time in a couple of weeks tonight. My usual play-bad, go oh-fer in SnGs with a couple of bubbles - then I get most of it back in 50NL Rush before I play this hand and realize I'm off my game.

I open two kings UTG+1 to $1.50 with $101 behind.
UTG+2 with $80 behind repops to $5.50.
Hijack jams for $35.

I tank fold like a bitch because usually one of these muppets has aces here and I didn't feel like playing a 375BB pot by the time all the stacks went in.

UTG+2 calls with QQ, Hijack's AQo (WTF?) does not get there, board runs clean for KK.

Yeah, I still suck.