Oops... My bad.

Well the interview at INS was Tuesday morning and we got there at 8:35 for our 8:45 appointment. We only had to wait about 10 minutes and we got a nice friendly gentleman for our officer. He asked a series of questions to verify what we had written down and then only asked for more details/documentation if we didn't have all the answers correct. Unfortunately one of the questions was "When were you divorced from Emily". I didn't know the answer... (Estie did, but that didn't help!) so he then asked for the Divorce Decree... well I hadn't gotten THAT piece of information, and ask such we got the green form. The green form means you have to come back with the extra info before you can get approved.

Other than that, the interview was smooth as silk. We had everything else we needed and it was over very quickly. Once I get that copy and bring it back... we should have Esties conditional residence. If Estie is still putting up with me in 21 months from that date, then she will be given her permanent residence. 3 years from the date of the conditional residence she can apply for citizenship.... So it is fairly well finished at this point... a huge relief for both of us.

We went and celebrated by going to the Spa for the afternoon together. We had a lovely pedicure, wax, facial and a nice relaxing day (I didn't do the facial that is for women!). It was very relaxing and refreshing. Aftewards it was poker time!

Poker went fairly well yesterday with a 4 hour session finishing up 180. It was a quiet controlled day where I was never down, and didn't get many cards to play with. I had to work and grind for everything I got. Today was a different type of day. I immediately went down a full 100 when I went all-in with 2nd pair on an 10 high flop. I got called by QJ with a gutshot who caught a king high straight. He apologized profusely and actually turned out to be an incredibly nice guy from Dublin, Ireland. We sat next to each other for 5 hours and had a great time. He ended up giving back that 100 and a lot more over the rest of the night :)

After losing the first 100 I bounced up and down and around for awhile before getting extremely lucky playing the Hammer (2-7) from the straddle. I decided this guy was buying a pot and pushed all-in with 2nd pair. Unfortunately he had the 8 on an 8 high flop and called. It was the same Irish guy from before, and this time I sucked out hitting a 2nd 7 on the turn and taking down a nice pot with the Hammer!

I played well for awhile taking down some unclaimed pots, and making a few great plays. I made one in particular which I was very proud of. I had K/10 on the BB and 2 limpers to me and I made it 12 to go. They both called and the flop was 10 high. I bet out 25 into the pot and a player at the other end of the table who got a huge beat earlier and was playing a bit off-kilter made it 75. The other guy folded and it was back to me. I looked at the guy and the way he held his body and the way he looked at me made me feel like he wasn't very confident in his hand. I made the read that he was making a play at me with a drawing hand, and that I was ahead. I pushed all-in for 75 more into a 180 dollar pot and he called after some long thought. My read was dead on, he had J high with a poor draw and my K/10 held up for a nice pot.

The poor guy had lost his third buy-in for the night and had to take a break. The night was winding down when this hand came up. The table had gotten very passive but a lot of new players were coming in as the "night shift" came in. I limp in under the gun with Q/10 offsuit. It is raised by my the guy to my immediate left to 10. 4 callers back to me and I am priced in to call. The flop is 10/10/7. So I flop 3 10's with a Q kicker. I feel very confident in my hand at this point when the guy to my right leads out for 60 into the 60 dollar pot! This is same Irish guy from earlier! I had played with him for awhile and had a pretty good read on him. He made a few comments about full houses and quads which didn't fit with his body language so I put him on a weak 10 who wanted the draws out.

I called the 60 and it was folded around to a guy sitting with 87 in front of him playing his 3rd hand of the night who goes all-in. At this point I can't fold for 27 more into a 300 dollar pot and call as does the Irish guy. The turn is a King and the Irish folds to my all-in bet of 200 more. (I really thought he would call... but whatever). We turn our hands up and the short stack had pocket 7's for a flopped full-house and was WAY ahead. I had 6 outs to catch up and the miracle Q hit on the turn for the better full-house and the whole pot. That put me up 300 for the day and I managed to give some back before cashing out up 187 after 5 hours.

It is back to work on Thursday morning at 1 AM for 2 days of graveyard before the big 500 dollar buy-in event at the Imperial Palace at 9 AM on Saturday morning... I will probably be on graveyard next week, but it should be a good week with 2 big tournament days and a big weekend on graveyard. Last week was really good with the 5 days on grave and almost 600 at the poker tables.