Back In The Saddle
Monday, August 28, 2006
It feels a bit strange writing in ye ole brog after almost 10 days away. Taking a break from the brog while on vacation was a good thing as I feel refreshed and ready to hit it again. It was hard to keep up the last month with the hectic pace at work, but things should be a little more slow and steady for a while.The vacation was spectacular and very much needed. To the left is just one of the many pictures snapped throughout the week. On a side note, the boy started kindergarten today which is just wild to me. That whole time flies adage is quite true.
After a weeks worth of sleeping in, it was quite tough waking up this morning. I was none too happy when the alarm went off this morning. Note to self: Must win lottery so I can sleep in every day.
On to poker...
The vacation unfortunately made finishing the 45 Player SNG Challenge quite a, erm, challenge. We left for vacation on August 19th and the challenge ended August 20th. I had 3 games remaining and had no idea if I would have wireless access at the hotel. Turns out we did have spotty wireless access, but it was only available on the front balcony, and only in certain spots. It was not the ideal situation for playing poker.
Though poker should have been the last thing on my mind on vacation, I knew I was throwing money away if I did not at least attempt to finish my last three 45 player SNG's. I was somewhere in the top 6 and at the time I thought only the top 3 paid. I knew I had a shot if I could catch some breaks on those last games. I found out from the front desk of the hotel that there was an Atlanta Bread Company nearby that had free wireless access.
Wifey was fine with us having dinner there on Sunday, August 20th, which was quite cool of her. She could have easily rolled her eyes and told me to not even bring up poker on vacation, but instead she was supportive. The plan was set and it looked like everything would be fine. That is until my first setback.
After getting back to the hotel on Sunday around 4pm after a day at the beach we realized that the restaurant with wireless access closed at 6pm. That put things in rush mode for us, but we were able to make it there and I was able to get logged into my 1st match by 5:10pm. It took a while to get into the other 2 SNG's, but eventually I had all 3 going at once. I must say I felt like a bit of a degenerate sitting in the middle of a restaurant with 3 poker tournaments going at once.
My memory is spotty on the tournaments, but I can remember a few things. On my 1st tournament I ended up going out in 15th place for no cash and no points for the SNG Challenge. I think my money got in with the best of it, but things didn't quite pan out for me. On the 2nd tourney I ended up getting to the final table and finishing in 4th place. I was making a strong run and thought I was gonna get heads-up, but it just didn't work out. This gave me a decent cash payout and also gave me some much needed SNG Challenge points. With that finish, I moved into 3rd place on the challenge, though I didn't know that at the time.
Things got a little squirrelly from there. At this point I'm well into my last SNG, but it is past 6pm and creeping towards 6:30pm. The restaurant was run by a slew of teenagers and they were being pretty cool about letting me hang out while they were cleaning. They even offered me some free food, but I couldn't afford to sit out a hand with the escalating blinds.
At around 6:30pm I could tell they were ready for me to leave so they could head out, so I started to pack up my stuff and head for the door. I kept my laptop open and running as I walked towards the exit. I was hoping I would still be able to use the wireless outside. At this point I had made it to the final table and we were at the bubble (8 players remaining, only 7 get paid).
As I walked out the door of the restaurant I was extremely happy to see I woke up with A T suited in the big blind and the button had min raised basically putting me all-in. The big blind was 1200 and I don't think I had more than 2000 at this point. I KNEW I was ahead as he had been bullying a ton and had a large stack to work with. Interestingly, though I did not have many chips, I knew if I won that hand I would probably make the money because 2 players had a ton of the chips and the rest of us were not too far off from each other. I would have a full orbit to let the others battle it out.
This is where things went bad. As I walked out of the exit I apparently lost my signal and was stuck staring at my AT suited and unable to do anything. With more than 60% of my chips going into the hand at that point, I was screwed and would be folded unless I could get back on in time to push all-in. That never happened and I was never able to get back into the game. My A T hand was folded and most of my chips were lost. I found out later I ended up finishing on the bubble and getting no cash and no points towards the challenge. Bummer.
On the bright side, I ended up finishing the Challenge in 4th place with 4 places paying out. I was happy to see, even with the slight set back on the last game and the whole wireless ordeal, my diligence paid off.
That's gonna have to do it for me today. It's good to be back. Vacation was great, but it is good to be home and great to be back in the saddle.
posted by TripJax @ 12:21 PM,
3 Comments:
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At 1:32 PM,
Iakaris aka I.A.K. said...
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Welcome Back, brotha. Nice work on the SNG challenge, esp the late inning heroics.
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At 4:55 PM,
Jordan said...
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At least that explains your odd IM response to me: "Dude, I'm in a parking lot playing poker, I'll get back to you later."
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At 9:24 PM,
Unknown said...
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Nice work anyway. Good to have you back.
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