A little misinformation

They say in poker to change up your game and always keep them guessing. I suppose I carried that over to real life when on June 23rd I married Estie Moller and kept the secret from my family. I didn't do it for any deceitful reasons, but my sister was having her first baby in early June and I didn't want to distract from that. I knew that if I told everyone they would want to come out and be part of the wedding. So we got married in a small ceremony at the Mon Bel Ami chapel in downtown Las Vegas. It was a gorgeous ceromony and I can say I now know why so many people get married in Vegas. It was SO easy and relaxed... I really enjoyed the wedding and the amazing Steak afterwards at Smith & Wollensky's. In keeping with the simple approach we registered at Amazon.com and are going to have a party next summer to celebrate our 1 year anniversery and invite everyone to attend then. (So consider this your fair warning!)

I sprung this news on my family this past weekend when Estie and I went for a visit. It was a marvelous visit and even though we had connecting flights both ways, no bad layover stories are to be told. We got to see my sister and her new son Keith (whose first name is Charles... so when HE becomes a dealer, he will be using THAT name... Hpmmph). They are moving down to Columbia soon, so all the young kids will be around north georgia (my 2 younger brothers are in Athens).

While I was in Athens visiting my 2 brothers and sisters (and their marvelous spouses... on a side note, how does EVERYONE in our family manage to marry outside their class? Every one of us managed to marry a marvelous spouse which we so totally do not deserve... It is obvious God takes mercy on those less fortunate) I got a phone call from CardPlayer Cruises inviting me to go deal on a Poker Cruise to the Mexican Riviera in December... I have to get it approved with my boss, but a week long cruise that I get paid to go on seems AWFUL nice.

Work is still going well, and I am getting back into playing poker now that things are settling down. I need 20 more hours to get to the 75 hour minimum for the freeroll in October at Station Casinos. A guaranteed 100 dollars and a first prize of 70K is awful good... not to mention that in October I plan to start playing at the Rio again, and getting into their monthly freerolls. 40 hours a month is doable, and first place in the freeroll is a 10K entry into the WSOP in 2007.

I have discovered a minor flaw in my "amazing" poker skills. They only apply when *I* am not playing. I am really good at knowing what people have in their hands when I am observing the game from the dealer box... I am about 95% accurate on who is going to win and with what in the games I deal... However, when I am playing, for some reason all that goes out the window and I let emotion rule my decisions. Last night I have pocket 10's and the flop is J56 rainbow. I raised and got reraised by an aggressive solid player. He often made plays at pots, but had not made reraises or called with weak hands. So his reraise said at LEAST AJ and probably 2 pair or better. So since I had 1 pair that could not even beat AJ I reraised all-in. Of course, he called and had 2 pair and I lost 200 on that hand. It was obvious to me outside of the game that he had me beat... but in the heat of the hand I decided I should win since I had a good hand... but not good enough to win. It is very frustrating to look back and see how poorly I played and know I can play much better, I just have to seperate emotion from reality. A real challenge for me, since I tend to be overconfident at times :)

I mentioned the other day that I intended to start working out when I got home. So Tuesday I was recovering from my flight and had to work that night so I planned to start on Wednesday. Wednesday I overslept (well I slept really well and long with no reason to get up... so it kind of counted) and I got up around 3 with the intention of going to work out (after spending an hour relaxing, and another hour watching TV and playing games) and ran to the closet only to remember that I had managed to lose my shoes in my tiny little apartment with no furniture in it (I think they returned to Atlanta without me, not sure why... I think I forgot to wash my feet and offended them. Or maybe it was the friends who visited and picked them up by accident... but I am sure they walked back to Atlanta in a tizzy).... so my wednesday workout was killed by not having any shoes. Wednesday afternoon I went to get new shoes :) However, I have flat feet and the only shoes I have ever liked are Reebok's so I went to Target to get some, but they don't have reebok's, and then the shoe place near me doesn't have any I like, and the reebok outlet is far away from here (like 10 MILES!) and it was 5 PM and there was traffic and I wanted to play poker, so I didn't go! In hind sight 40 dollars on shoes would have saved me 300 in poker and allowed me to work out Thursday morning... but whatever I had a learning experience... BAH!

Now I have shoes, and motivation (I bought new pants which don't fit but I like them so I have to exercise).... so tomorrow... for real this time... tomorrow. IN the meantime, work tomorrow at 1 PM as well as Saturday, poker every night, World of Warcraft and KOTOR II, and I placed a few bets on football (Florida State can't cover 29 against a high school team, Georgia has been covering everything this season even 27 against Colorado is a good bet, Baltimore will beat Cleveland by 15 or more and the line was only 6, Tennessee has looked very bad recently so 22 against Marshall was too much, Steelers and Bengals are going to beat each other up and over 41 total seemed a good bet. So I basically bet that TEN and FSU suck and can't cover huge spreads, BAL and UGA are better than the other team and will win handily, and Big Ben and Carson will put on a show and score over 41 total.)...