Somebody Pinch Me
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Wow...could this day get any better?! Allow me to explain. After sleeping in (good thing #1) and then lounging on the couch for a while (good thing #2), the wife, boy, and I decided to make our way to Walmart to pick up a few things we needed. The forecast was for snow starting around noon so I wanted to get back by then...plus UNC basketball was starting then and I hate to miss a game. After braving the cold weather and pack of idiots taking up space in Walmart, we headed back to the house. Once there, I noticed a box on our porch. I didn't think much of it figuring it was another trinket from Wachovia Securities. Over the last year they've launched a mail campaign where they send a little desk toy with a catchy phrase on it to Financial Advisors of other firms to entice them to their firm. For example, last time I got a golden hourglass with some cheesy phrase like, "Isn't It Time To Make A Move?" What they don't realize is I'm not a Financial Advisor. Though I work for a financial services firm, I'm the Operations Manager, thus not in production. But back to the box...
I tore open the box to find a letter, disc, and hat from Party Poker. Looks like Wachovia is not the only one out there with a massive mail campaign. The hat looks just like the ones seen on the early episodes of the WSOP, when they allowed sponsor ads on the show without being blurred. To my surprise, it is very well made and fits perfect (good thing #3). I'm pretty particular about my hats so that was nice. Next up I read the letter that stated right off the bat they had deposited $50 into my account with no strings attached (good thing #4). That's right folks...no laboring on the .50/1 tables to release money from the bonus account. When I told my wife she said, "they must know we're broke and you've been itching to play." No doubt. Though I wanted to immediately drop everything and hit the tables, I knew there were still some things to do before plopping my ars down in front of the monitor.
After a nice lunch of Alfredo Pasta with the fam, I decided to lounge a little more and check out the UNC game. They absolutely crushed Virginia...something to the tune of 110 to 58. Now that's an ass whooping right there (good thing #5). Now it was time to hit the felt. I logged on and crossed my fingers as I clicked on the cashier button. I was a little worried as the letter said my screen name was still jaymanone when I had changed it to trip_jax quite a while ago. Fret not readers, the $50 was there. Now comes the portion of the story where evil TripJax pops up on my shoulder and says, "Cash it out and move it to Pokerstars for the upcoming WPBT February 2nd." If you've read any of my other posts you know I've been on a playing hiatus due to a hemorrhaging of cash. Money is tight for us now and will be until I get my company bonus in late February. So immediately evil TripJax was working me. But my conscience seemed to have gotten the best of me as I made the decision to try and win some money before allowing the cash out thought to enter my mind again. The way I figure, Party has taken the time, effort, and money to do this for me and I should pay my dues. I realize in the grand scheme of things I'm just a number to them and eventually they get it back in rake, but man I just felt so happy they had done this I wanted to make it worth their while too. In the end, that is their ultimate goal...make their clients happy while boosting the money played on their site.
I decided to get my feet wet with a Sit-N-Go. Right off the bat I could see this was a timid table and I was going to be the aggressor. After a few well timed bluffs, the others began to get restless of my constant pushing. This finally showed when I took the first person out with a pair of 9's in the hole, a rag board, and his all in call with A K. He was ace high calling off the rest of his stack to my all in bet. He probably had 600 of his starting $800 left and handed it to me on a silver platter. I continued my run, knocking out the next 2 players and building my stack to over 3000 with everyone else hovering around their starting stack. Finally I took a tough hit when my 7's in the hole got whacked by J's in the hole. Back down to $1400 and no longer the chip leader, I laid low for a little while to see what would happen. And what happened was sweet. One all in bet by the chip leader was called by 3 other players...the leader spiked an ace on the river and just like that we were down to 3...in the money on my first SNG in months (good thing #6). I thanked the chip leader for his disposing of players and then readied myself for the final 3. My big break came almost immediately. Holding 9 4 in the big blind I was happy to see the button fold and the little blind call. The flop gave me a piece when it came 10 K 4. A relatively small bet of about half the pot seemed just low enough to call with bottom pair and hope for a good turn. My days luck continued as another 4 hit the turn (good thing #7). A huge bet by the chip leader prompted an easy all in for me with trip 4's. If I was beat, I was beat, but I didn't think I was. Just like that I was the chip leader again. Holmes had slow played rockets and paid dearly. Soon after rocket man took out the other player and we were heads up. About 3 minutes into it - and with a 4 to 1 chip lead - I picked up K Q and made a hefty raise on his big blind. He went all in which was not much more for me to call and flipped over K 4. Seconds later I was getting the pop up informing me I had won the tournament and would receive $25 (good thing #8). A queen had hit the board on the last hand, but with no 4 I would have won with my K Q anyway.
Wouldn't you know it...Evil TripJax immediately hits my shoulder again. "O.K. now we've got $69 in the account. Move the $50 to Pokerstars and you'll still have $19 for a few SNG's. After the WPBT, if things don't go so well, try and get the roll back to $50 and move it back to Party. If things do go well it will be easy to move the money back." For anyone reading this, I would really like to get your thoughts on if I should move the money. In the end, I think I'm a good guy and I feel bad about moving it. Plus, I want to stay in Party's good graces as this is not the first time they have given me free money...$20 and $10 respectively over the last 2 years. But I would really like to play in the upcoming WPBT and just don't need to use any of our family money right now to do so. Not having comments enabled right now, if you would like to give me your thoughts, please email at jaxon59@yahoo.com. Hope to hear from you. Think I'll keep the good times rolling and pop open a beer (good thing #9) and watch some more basketball. No need to rush into playing more poker...gonna let the goodness sink in and bask in my latest win. Sometimes poker kicks sweet ars. Oh, forgot to mention...already an inch of snow on the ground and looks like more is on the way (good thing #10). Think I'll have to do some sledding with boy if we get a little more. Sweet.
Update: It's 9:12 pm same day...Iggy just showed me a great site, www.haloscan.com, that offers free comments and trackback (good thing #11). Sweet mama brown I'm in business now. Thanks Iggy and thanks haloscan. Geez, I think I have thanked Iggy in just about every post this month. I'm off to play some pool and have some beers with a buddy of mine. Hope my good fortune continues on the tables. For now, poker can wait.
posted by TripJax @ 6:59 PM,
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