Ahhh, the perils of parenthood in the 21st century. My twelve-year old son is spending his summer afternoons IMing a couple of girls he met at camp. They’ve already met up a few times to see a movie (Mr. and Mrs. Smith), go to Starbucks (!), and hang out at Jamba Juice. He swears that they’re “just friends”, but I can tell he’s smitten and probably on his way to a precipitous heartbreak. When I was twelve, I was playing sports, mixing in some poker, and catching frogs at the creek. It wasn’t so very different from the Stand By Me or Sandlot life, minus the clubhouses.

Nowadays, at the same age, kids are starting relationships at Summer Camp (Christian, even) and continuing them on the Internet, hooking up for lattes and frappucinos. Whatever happened to the telephone? Sigh, I guess I’m just an old fart.

Took my daughter to the orthodontist this morning and found out where my next $1000 will be going. In reality, my daughter could probably live a happy, healthy life with the crooked teeth that God gave her. She’s a beautiful girl with bright almond eyes, guys are already lining up to talk to her. Are straight teeth THAT important?

Oh, I cashed in a 60+ seat 7-stud tourney last night on FTP… and lost money. What kind of fucked-up payout structure is that? Of course, I only paid $5.50 to enter, but only getting $5.10 for 14th is kinda lame. Why not just pay ten and make the payout profitable? Anyway, I learned that bluffing is pointless because if someone has paired their doorcard or has a pair in the hole, they’re in for the duration.

I did manage to hit my first stud straight flush for a nice pot though. First three cards were 9J/T, all hearts, so I completed from MP. When 4th street was the Qh, I raised a guy with Ax on board and brought along three callers. The next card was a brick, but someone paired their board and led out. I soft-called my monster draw, trying to bring everyone else along but managed to lose one player. Sixth street was the lovely 8h. I was thrilled to have the pair lead out and be raised. I three-bet the nuts and the pair capped. Same thing on the river and my straight flush sank a full boat and an ace-high flush. This gave me a healthy enough stack that I basically coasted into the money despite getting NO cards. Still, I need to learn how to close out these tournaments. I’m pretty sure I can cash in the majority of stud tournaments just by playing smart ABC poker, but I want to break my cherry and win one of these.

Last week, I busted out of Empire with my final $20+ at the $25NL Hold’em table with top set to a rivered straight. I had raised preflop and pushed on the flop to price out the straight draws, but a typical Party/Empire gambooler ignored the 6-5 pot odds on his 2-1 draw to suck out on me. Oh well. I’ll explain to the repo man that I had a clear mathematical advantage.

Basically, at this point, I’m consolidating to Party and FullTilt. I have zero balances at Pacific, PokerStars (well, ten cents), Ultimate, and Empire. If I build up the balances, I’ll start pulling some back to Neteller for whoring, but I won’t focus on chasing the boni until I’ve built back up to $1K or so. Right now, all poker sites seem to be gearing up for the WSOP dorkfest that is sure to bump up deposits by millions of dollars. It’ll be interesting to see whether they choose to wait for organic growth from the WSOP coverage or spend on bonus programs to try and lure newbies. My guess is that the picking will be pretty ripe next week when the televised coverage starts, and that you should be able to build your online funds simply by picking off that low-hanging fruit.