Jeezus H. Christ, I've made the big time, getting mentioned in a real-life, Top Ten Poker Blog!  Iggy has referenced my humble semi-blog in his multi-million reader Poker manifesto!!!  I'm near the 1/3 point in his posting [http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/]  Now I may have to post more frequently than once a JLo wedding... 

Had a mediocre weekend at the Empire tables, cashing in a couple of NLHESNGs.  I'm trying to come up with a cool nickname for these and trying to propagate it through the poker community...  It's almost the same letters as "Van Helsing", but that would only work for a $5 table (V).  Hmmm, gonna hafta think about that some more... 

One hand was typical.  With five players left in, I was in a solid second place and BB w/66.  After two folds, UTG 1-raises, I call, and the BB (who was shortstacked) calls.  Flop is the gloriously pathetic 852 with two diamonds.  I bet enough to put the shortstack all-in,  trying to isolate one of them, figuring them both for overcards or flush draws.  BB calls all-in and UTG predictably folds.  So now I'm head-to-head with the shortstack and almost 3-1 if he has the anticipated overcards.  Empire flips his cards to show 64o.  WTF?  He called all-in with a double gutshot?  The turn pairs the eight and the river (naturally) is a 7, completing his straight, doubling him up, and dropping me to third, just a few chips ahead of fourth.

One side note, after checking cardplayer.com and the HoldEm Calculator, he was close to a coin flip IF he figured me for overcards.  More likely he figured he was DONE and made a crying call expecting to pack it in.  One learning point for me here...  when players are shortstacked in low-limit online tournaments, I think they make way more questionable calls and I need to really think more carefully about putting them on specific (and logical) hands.  No way in HELL did I put that guy on a straight draw...  After all, he called a raise PRE-FLOP with 64o with one caller already in.  Against some people, I really need to dumb down my thought process...

p.s. I busted him later with pocket sevens against his A4o when I put him all-in pre-flop.  Gotta keep an eye out for him in the future so I can sit at his table.

Some weekend ramblings (avoid if you don't like politics)...

- Dear ESPN, Not everyone in the US gives a shit about the Yankee-RedSox rivalry.  Spare us the "Curse of the Babe" stories and the Bucky Dent crap, we've heard it all before.  News would be the RedSox winning the World Series.  When they're behind by 7-10 games midway through the season, that's called status quo and is therefore NOT news.

- I've posted comments about steroids on other sites, but I'm tired of the innuendo and accusations surrounding Barry Bonds.  He hasn't been tested positive for anything, police didn't find steroids at his house, he doesn't have corked bats (yeah, Sammy Sosa).  All these idiots keep saying "Look at the size of his head, look at the way his body changed in the last 15 years!".  Listen, I'm 40 years old too.  My head looks way bigger (frighteningly so) and so are my legs, torso, and butt.  It happens when you get to middle age!  Geez, and it's not like his performance has dropped off since all of the testing and hullaballoo (like say, Jason Giambi and Troy Glaus).   Only ONE ballplayer in the top 10 has been CAUGHT cheating and that is Sammy Sosa and his corked bat.  Why does he get a pass?  Because he sucks up to the media, and Barry Bonds doesn't.

- Dear Linda Ronstadt, Eat a salad once in a while, put on some makeup, and keep your political ramblings OUT of your concerts.  If you want to make a political statement, save it for a free concert or the press or talkshows.  High rollers who paid $60/seat to see you sing "You're No Good" or "Blue Bayou" don't really care what you think about Michael Moore.  And this ain't about the First Amendment, it's about being a PERFORMER and taking money for performing.  Besides, the fans were just exercising their First Amendment rights anyway by booing your bloated carcass.

- I'm still waiting for the liberal media to compare the 9/11 commission report to Moore's propagandist fictional flick, and stop calling it a "documentary" when it is clearly a political commentary piece intended to sway the uninformed voter.  Basically, the 9/11 commission blasts the intelligence organizations for their shoddy work under Clinton and Bush (umm, that would be eight YEARS under Clinton and eight MONTHS under Bush) in the pre-9/11 environment.  Face it, Michael Moore didn't care about the truth: he had an agenda and made a film to follow the agenda.  Anyone who says otherwise is delusional or liberal... or both.

- Why are we still in Iraq?  While I'm OK with the initial reasoning ("The CIA says they have WMD"), it's apparent that the CIA was wrong or they lied.  Now that we've accomplished goal 1A in Iraq (get Saddam out of power) and goal 1B was moot (no WMD), shouldn't we get the hell out?  If the Democrats had any brains at all, they'd be hitting this point, not WHY we went into Iraq, but WHY are we still there?

One huge failing of EVERY administration in the last 30 years is the failure to understand that nobody in the Middle East WANTS democracy or freedom... or at least not enough to fight for it.  Americans are raised to believe that freedom is worth fighting for...   they are raised to believe that religion is worth fighting for.  Think about it, Religion is almost the philosophical opposite of Freedom (caps intentional).  Religion is a doctrine of living your life a specific way to achieve an ultimate goal, Freedom is self-defining for both the goal and the means to achieve it.