Oh, hey, I just figured out how to allow comments.  I'm positive that NOBODY has ever read this blog, so it's a pointless maneuver, but a fun one to contemplate.  I've thrown comments up on a couple of poker blogger sites (cusephenom's www.upforanything.net/poker  and pokergrub's oddly named www.pokergrub.com) and read many more blogs without comment (iggy's guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/ , hdouble's cardsspeak.servebeer.com/ , the Poker Penguin, Mean Gene, Anisotropy, more than I can name). 

I am not nearly as dedicated to my poker play as they are, nor am I as eloquent, and I'm using this blog as more of a poker diary and a spleen-venting rant than a true blog that strives for widespread readership.  Some things I just want to get out there, stuff I can't say at work, stuff I can't talk about with my wife, stuff that might come to me in a burst of words that I can upchuck onto someone else's server for posterity.

For example, my wife thinks I have a gambling problem.  Truth is, I have a voyeuristic, vicarious gambling problem.  I love to WATCH people gamble.  I've stood in casinos behind the big rollers playing shitty house-loaded games like Let It Ride or Pai Gow or Carribbean Stud for hours at a time, quietly rooting for them, knowing they were going to lose, just enjoying the free entertainment.  The explosion of televised poker is evidence that there are others who share this inexpensive thrill of peeking over a high roller's shoulder.  Sometimes WATCHING is better than doing....  I play small stakes poker online because it's fun.  I would never venture into stakes that would jeopardize my family cash flow.

All rationalization aside, I'm waaaaay ahead in my online gambling, especially if one counts fantasy sports.  I'm in a couple of fantasy leagues (baseball and football) that charge $100 per person for a twelve-person league, and I'm probably up $500 over the last four years in that alone.  I'm into UB for $0 (bought in for $80, cashed for $80, dropped $100 in profits back to $0), Party for $50 (bought twice for $50, cashed for $50 when I got up to $100, back to $0), and Empire for +$125 (bought for $50, bonused for $25, cashed for $75, $100 on account).  I've played ESPN fantasy sports for about $100/year and have about a dozen league champ t-shirts to show for it, but that's not really gambling, more like some interactive video game.  Same with WhatIfSports...

Oh, and if you saw my last blog, you'll notice that I'm $50 higher on Empire than I was yesterday.  That's because I won a $10 NLHE SnG last night, making a tidy comeback when I was a distant third with three players left (5200, 2100, 700 is distant) and won the whole thing in TEN hands.... TEN HANDS?!!?!?

1. Pocket Kings, raised all-in from SB, hoping the BB would think I was desperate.  He folded faster than the Filipino government
2. Q6o, folded
3. A9s in BB, UTG raises, I go all-in, he calls with A8s.  9xx rainbow on the flop and I'm now in 2nd and he's teetering with 400 chips.
4. He's all-in as BB, I'm in SB with Q7s and I call, feeling my oats.  He turns A9s, but the 9 on the flop is cracked by the Q on the turn, and now it's head to head.  I'm down 5200 to 2800.
5. K5o and I fold away my SB of 200.  2-1 chip disadvantage now and blinds are up to 250/500.
6. Crabs (33) in BB.  He raises to 1500 from SB, I figure he's got high cards and is semi-bluffing, so I push all-in figuring it's a coin flip and my chances ain't gonna get better.  He shows AJo, and the board whiffs both of us, but I have the pair and I double up to put him down almost 2-1.
7. A5s.  I put up a big semi-bluff raise from SB and he predictably folds.  I smell blood.  I'm raising with any SB borderline hand from now on.
8. 99. He limps, I pop a 2K raise.  He pauses...  and folds.  Now it's 6200-1800.
9. T3s.  I fold and hand over the 250 SB.
10. Crabs again in BB!  He raises all-in and I pause for dramatic effect before calling.  He has 98o.... hmmm, same coin flip as A-rag.  Flop of KJ6 gives him some gutshot straight possibilities.  K on the turn leaves him a whopping twelve outs (J986).  The river is the blessed K and my boat takes the final pot.