Time for a post!

I finally have a break from all my fun work to actually do a decent post. But I can't really think of anything to post about so I'll ramble on for a bit.

TOnight is bowling night. We are somewhere around the top of the standings during this fourth and final quarter of the year. We won quarter #3, so if we win quarter #4, we can skip the roll-off and go straight into the championship. We've had 2 bad weeks in a row though, so we need something to happen tonight. It's hard to focus on your bowling when it's 70 degrees outside.

I'm winning at poker again, although I'm scared to post any good fortunes to this blog because it always starts some downward spiral into being broke. I have been playing mostly $1/2 limit poker. I think my winrate over the last 1500 hands is somewhere north of 11.0 BB/100. Sustainable? I wish.

I've been listening to Widespread Panic lately. Does that make me a hippie? Probably. I've also written my own tune. It's a cool guitar diddy and some sub-par lyrics about my life. I'm gonna get my buddy Spook to help me with a solo. The music is coolest part of the song and I can't get it out of my head. Basically, I took some different chord progressions that I accidently discovered and made a cool sounding rock song. You will never hear me sing so, I'll never post the song on my page or anything, but with Spook's help, I might get him to sing and play the song and I'll post it. The only thing I ask are my royalties when the song goes Platinum and shit.

I'm supposed to be getting my appraisal this weekend. I was supposed to have it done tonight, but we couldn't work out the schedule. So Saturday or Sunday is the day. My hopes are high as I have had several people tell me that $150K would be a low appraisal for my house. Not sure if they are blowing smoke up my ass, but they sure have my hopes up now. My parents house appraised for $100K just the other day and although a nice house, it doesn't have all the features of mine such as the FULLY finished basement, nearly 100% sheet rock walls and ceilings, and the big double lot yard. I think I'll be in good shape.

I can't think of anything else. It's almost home time for me.

$75 token complete

The first thing on my agenda this morning was to turn one of my $24 tokens into a $75 token. Mission complete.

Now, I'm off to clean my butt and bowl in the big handicap tournament today. Hopefully I can catch a nice score from it and have a live poker bankroll as a result :P

Let me introduce...

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10 in the Pit!

I still have some work to do on the site such as tweaking the elements, adding links, tweaking the logo. However, the base is there. I'm excited. There is a lack of bowling content on the web, so I figured I'd cater to that niche. It also helps that I love to bowl.

Loose Change Freeroll, Bowling, and Castro

Yesterday was a good day on the tables, spoiled by bad play by myself. The results were still good, but I felt dirty. I made some good plays and a bunch of horrible plays. I didn't suck out to get my wins though. I just tilted a bit and got impatient. I had a huge fish with a huge stack on one of my tables. This guy was 8 buyins deep at one point. I had direct position on him. He had a VPIP just south of 90% and I raised him relentlessly. He started firing back at me, throwing a ton of bluffs. I got the best of him most times, but once I stacked off very light against him (impatient) and once I called down when I knew I was beat. However, for the most part, I won all my money from him and one other guy. It was weird because 90% VPIP fish was running like God against everyone but me. Money was transfered to him and then to me through him. Results wise, it was a good day, poker wise, I'd rather forget about my horrible play. I have video footage too.

Don't forget that this Sunday is the Loose Change Freeroll. All you gotta do to be part of these freerolls is sign up for rakeback at one of the sites listed on the right and opt into the freeroll. This weeks prize pool is over $5200. There aren't a huge number of entrants either.

I'll be in a rush on Sunday because this weekend is the city tournament for bowling. I have made good showings in these the past 2 years. 2 years ago, I finished 1st in the singles, and our team finished first in the team event. I also won the best all around / all events prize. Last year, I finished 3rd in the singles, 1st in the team, and 2nd in the all around events. This year, with my buddy Rog back in commission and him having a SHITLOAD of handicap, I expect to do well. We have a pretty solid team. The singles and doubles events will be held Saturday (I'm scheduled to bowl at 12:30), and Sunday the team event will be held at 12:00. Hopefully I can be done in time to get home for the start of the freeroll.

In other news, Michael Moore is still a douchebag. Now he's wanting to have Fidel Castro as his guest at the Academy Awards. Hey, fine with me! Just make sure he gets to walk the streets of Miami for a couple hours before he leaves. I'm sure a lot of defected Cubans would love to meet him. What the fuck is wrong with people in this world? Why is this fat piece of shit even famous? Honest, if I ever meet this man, I will throw a punch just out of principle. I'll take some handcuffs just to get one good punch.

Victory!

My calculations from Saturday were correct. When I got to the bowling alley last night, we were 2 points behind the leader. There was a team behind us (only 3 points behind the leader) too. This team had 2 of the best bowlers in the league. It was position week, so here was the lineup for the contenders:

1st place: Silver Bullets

vs.

2nd place: Got Wood (My team) -2 pts


3rd place: Pocahontas Rodriguez -3 pts

vs.

4th Place: Phoenix -way the fuck back.

The approaches last night were almost like glass. I guess they thought with all the rain and snow that an extra buff to the approaches were in order. They were treacherous and I struggled with them all night long. The good news is that I bowled decent too.

In game #1, I started off with a 9 count spare. Then proceeded to strike on the next 6 frames. I finished game #1 with a 234. My buddy Rog also bowled a 221 and we picked up the slack for the "power" bowlers on our team which had a lackluster performance. We won game #1 by 57 pins.

Game #2 was just horrible as far as my footwork was concerned. Early in the match, I stumbled on the approach. This played with my mind as my feet were sliding every which way. I settled down a bit towards the end of the game though and just slowed everything down. I only finished with a 162. We lost that game by 3 pins.

Meanwhile on the pair beside us, Pocahontas Rodriguez overcame a huge defecit in the first game to win that game and then just spanked Phoenix in Game #2. This brought up the scenario. We had to win game #3 and Pocahontas had to lose their game #3. Any other scenario and we wouldn't win the quarter. If we won and Pocahontas won, we would lose the quarter by 1 measly point. If we lost, then the Silver Bullets would win the quarter. Ugh!

The good news is that in Game #3, it was only a tight race on our side for the first few frames. Our anchorman Devon finally found his line and ripped shit loose for a nice 200+ game. Everyone else bowled a decent game (I shot 177) and we took 6 out of 8 possible points from the Silver Bullets. Victory was not ours yet.

I don't really have a problem bowling under pressure. Hell, I just shot a 573 series when I could barely stand up under the pressure. The worst part about these bowling tournaments or leagues is having to rely on someone else to win or lose. It's gut wrenching.

By the time I got all my equipment packed up, Phoenix and Pocahontas were in a dead lock going into the 10th frame. Phoenix had already blown a 145 pin lead that they held only a few frames ago! Cocksucking old bastages! In the 10th though 2 key players for Pocahontas tossed splits on their first ball. Add a timely double from one of the weaker players on the Phoenix team and we clinched it.

We are quarter #3 winniners. What does this mean? Well, $100 extra for starters. We will bowl the winner of quarter #4 (unless we can win that quarter too) in a roll-off at the end of the year. The winner of that bowls in a roll-off against the 1st half winner for the league championship. I'd love to just win quarter #4 and bypass that rolloff and head straight to the championship. That's my plan anyway.

In other news, I'm bowling better now than ever before. Despite my fancy footwork last night, I'm getting awesome ball reaction with all my equipment. I'm hitting my mark and have figured out how to adjust better. The result is my average jumping up 4 pins in just a few weeks. I think my average right now stands around 175. I'd love to hit 180 before the end of the year, but I don't think we have enough games to make that mathematically possible. ***Edit***: I did the calculations..if I can average 195 for the remainder of the year, then my average will get above 180. I'm not sure if I can maintain a 195 average, but I'll go down trying!

Card Dead - Bowling

I didn't get any cash games played last night because I was still stuck in Donkament mode. I'm glad too. I was so card dead last night that there is no way I could have won anything in a cash game. I played a 4/180 on Stars, 3 $3.30/90 man KO tournies on FT, 2 token races, and the $13.5K guarantee. No cashes, no tokens, nothing. I got dealt aces one time. I was in the big blind and everyone folded to me *sigh*.

The bankroll has went down a little bit since I went on this tournament binge. I have had a few cashes to keep my head above water. Add in the tokens I've won and I'm just above even. I have 2 $75 tokens left, and zero $26 tokens. I'll probably save the $75 tokens for this weekend though.

I won't get any poker in tonight because it's bowling night. Our team is doing good this quarter. We have this week and next week left to win the 3rd quarter. We are 2 points (1 game) behind the 1st place team, but we are on a roll. Our team had a total of 3 300 games bowled last week. Moose bowled a legit 300 in league on Tuesday and then followed it up with a 300 in the no-tap tourney on Friday. Devon, our anchor man, had a no-tap 300 on Friday as well. I have even been bowling well lately. I worked on my game a bit and my elbow is feeling better. My average has moved up from 171 to 174 in just 4 or 5 weeks.

That's all I have for today kiddies. Make sure to check out the NEW Demise of Sanity. Just don't mind the mess while I work on the site.

Bowling, Poker Tournaments, and Government Cheese

I am dedicating a good portion of this weekend to playing some poker tournaments. I really want to get in some FTOPS events, so I'll probably spend a better portion of the night running some satellites trying to get into a couple of those things. I'll also be showing up to dominate the Saturday's with Dr. Pauly tourney tomorrow. I'm definitely a PLO fish, so I should fair well against you nits :)

I also have another bowling tournament tonight. It's nothing special, just a fun no-tap tournament. I finished 9 pins out of the money last week, so I'm looking to rectify that problem. I'd like to break though and snag that 300 pot as well. Nobody hit it last week, so it should be in good shape this week.

I'm kind of torn between bowling this tournament and playing poker. I really want to grind out a shit ton of hands and crawl out of the hole I put myself in a few days ago. I figure I'll just do the bowling anyway 'cause it's good to hang out with friends once in a while to be social. But I do plan on high tailing it back to the PC right afterwards to get started on my quest to become a millionaire :)

Lastly, I just wanted to send another pimp shout out to Government Cheese. This is hands down one of the greatest poker blogs of all time. It's definitely the most entertaining. You take a dude with the discipline to grind out thousands upon thousands of hands in the penny stakes and micro SnG's, add that with some actual poker talent, subtract some sanity, and finally sprinkle in some sick fascination with midgets and ninjas and you get Government Cheese. It's fuckin' brilliant and I LOL everytime I read a post.

Congrats!

I wanted to send a shout out to my main man Moose B. He shot his first 300 game Tuesday in the Mixed teams league. He just bought a brand new Ebonite Complete Envy a few days prior. Seems to be working good for him! Now do that shit on Wednesday nights when we bowl bitch!

Poker Simpson

I made my way on to the virtual tables last night for a session. I only played for an hour and a half or so because I was on the verge of monkey tilt. Last night, I started out quickly had a good night going. Then in a stretch of about 50 hands, it was all gone and then some. I continued grinding until I got even and then just shut it down.

So far, I'm winning, but at a dismal pace at the $50NL tables. I still haven't quit pulled out of the funk of bad cards I've been in lately. There was some hope for a bit, but c'mon! I'm ready for a heater!

I spent a fair amount of time working on this blog yesterday too. I went through and categorized all the posts. I created a quick logo. I also politely asked quite a few bloggers for link exchanges.

After my poker adventures, I watched The Simpsons Movie that I had laying around from Netflix. I'm not a huge Simpsons fan. I like the show alright, it's just not something I watch very often. The movie was decent. I chuckled in a few spots. However, it was severely Homer based and they spent very little time with the side characters that make the show good (Krusty, Millhouse, The cop, Moe, etc). Hell, there was not all that much of Bart!

Tonight, I plan on putting in a marathon poker session. However, before that I have a no-tap bowling tournament at 7:30. I haven't bowled in a no-tap in ages. For those that don't bowl, a no-tap tournament is just like regular bowling except if you knock down 9 pins on your first ball, it's still a strike. High scores my friend. Spares are not an option. I need to roll at least 1 300 game to compete (unless they completely FUBAR the oil pattern on the lanes).

After the tournament, I plan on just going back home and grinding out a bunch of hands on Full Tilt. I'd like to get in 2K hands if I can. I can't stay up too late, cause I gotta be up early tomorrow for a haircut and to get my heat pump installed.

Regaining my bowling stroke

Last night was bowling night. I was really looking forward to it too. I hadn't bowled the prior week due to my sinus infection and had missed another week before that due to a fight I've had with tendonitis in my right elbow that has been going on for months now. Last night, my arm was hurting, but wasn't throbbing at all times like it had before.

My first practice ball was terrible. I felt every bone in my body crack and pop. It also brought back the elbow pain as well. However, once I a few more practice balls under my belt, I was OK. The pain would stay away until after bowling was done.

I was in 5 brackets despite not having tossed a bowling ball in a few weeks. I'm a degenerate gambler at heart though, so I had to fork over $10 for 5 brackets. I thought it was a good decision too after I tossed a 216 my first game. I had an awesome ball reaction and a clear path to the pocket. I did lose one of my brackets to a "max handicapper" that bowled a 203 and with his extra handicap beat me.

Game 2 was a complete opposite of game 1 though. My first ball really set the tone for that game. It was deep in the pocket, pins flying everywhere...except for that single stone 8 standing tall. It seemed like I was all over that pocket in game 2 and nothing would carry. I made matters worse in the 2nd half of the game by getting frustrated with my dismal pin carry and started missing spares. I finished game 2 with a 156.

In game 3, I was back. I made a few adjustments. I made it a point to move in a little deeper and swing the ball out further to get a lighter pocket hit. This allowed for better pin carry as the ball would hit lighter and send the 1 pin to the wall and back across giving me a bunch of scattering strikes. However, when I didn't strike, I couldn't pick up a spare to save my life. I ended up with a 202 in game 3. This gave me a total series of 574. Not bad.

So the last 2 times, I've bowled, I've bowled 4 200 games out of 6 tries. I have series of 628 and 574. That's much better than earlier in the year when I was struggling to break 500 on a given week. I think I'm finally out of my funk. Now, if I can just get my elbow better, then look out. It's tournament season coming up too. We have a Sweethearts tournament that pays big $$$, a big handicap tourney next month I'm bowling in, plus the city tournament where I have been on the winning team 2 years running and I also have finished 1st and 2nd in the singles events.