After weeks of anticipating upgrading my Flickr account when I reached 200 photos, I did so yesterday on my lunch hour. While organizing my Flickr photostream with more sets and now collections, storms roll through and knock out power (as well as flood areas, in the building even). I end up spending 17 hours at work, where we now have power, and am back here on my day off now. We still don’t have power at home, where I was hoping to sit back with a beer and play some holdem online last night, which obviously isn’t possible without power. Maybe I’ll go golf then, if there are any courses that aren’t flooded that is. Mother nature is awesome, I witnessed some wicked storms yesterday, but sometimes she is evil too.

Until I have power back…

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More commonly known as Ball Pythons. I’ve had her for over 6 years now. Here is some random facts on her:

• When I first got her she was 16 inches long, now she is about 5 feet long.
• She has only bit me once (so far) and it was my fault.
• I feed her frozen/thawed rodents (yes they are in my freezer).
• “Ball” Python comes from their defensive position- they ball up and protect their head.
• She once went “off feed” during winter for 4 months.
• They have no eyelids- to protect their eyes they have a special scale called an “eye cap”.

I don’t think that is a coincidence. I’m lucky my brother is into holdem as much (more) as me. We tend to talk about holdem regularly and throw ideas, strategies, and suggestions around. These talks are helpful because often I don’t readily see errors in the way I am playing, or bad trends that I am falling into, until I reflect on the sessions and talk aloud about it. What I took most from the talks yesterday was that I was a bit passive in certain situations when I should have been aggressive. I was getting pushed around a little bit, or donkeys were seeing too many cards for far too cheap. That changed last night. I didn’t change the kind of hands I play, or how I play them depending on position / opponent(s), but there was no more tiptoeing through the tulips. I noticed that being the aggressor opened up my options and expanded my perceived range while putting others in tough spots. After back to back losing sessions, I increased my bankroll to a new high, $133.50 (started with $2.00).

I had another rough night at the holdem tables last night. I noticed that was my first back to back losses since I started tracking certain stats on 12/6/07- when my bankroll was only $17.95 (now $125.89). Funny thing is, I made a late comeback and lost very little. It felt like I won money. Ominous stats aside, I try to learn something from every session (win or lose), and I feel an upswing coming soon.

That sounds much worse then it really is. I only lost about $5.50, but I’ve had a steady 2.5 months, so that is the most I’ve lost in one session in that span. 2.5 months ago my Bankroll was only $42 when I lost about $9.00. I even expected a night like this soon. I wasn’t getting much for cards, and when I did, I’d get multiple callers and some serious donking into me after the flop. If I had A-K, the flop came 2-2-9 and everyone couldn’t get their money in fast enough. If I had pocket 8’s, the flop came A-K-10 with two clubs. Once, I had J-6 of hearts in the big blind and was able to check it. The flop comes A-J-6 giving me two pair. I bet all 3 streets, was called all 3 streets, and the 7 on the river gave the villain Aces and Sevens. It was just one of those nights. It’s poker, it happens.

I played $5NL for the first time in 10 days on Pokerstars last night. I got a much later start then I wanted, 10:30pm, and only played for an hour. It turned out to be a good session though, winning about $6 and upping my bankroll to $131.02 (goal is $200, then up to $10NL). I won most of that $6 all on one hand. I had pocket 5’s and flopped a set. I was first to act and I three barreled with about a 2/3 pot size bet on each street, and the villain shoved all-in after my river bet. I didn’t see much that scared me so I quick called. He showed King high, so after chasing and missing his draw, I guess he decided the only way he was going to get his money back (or lose the rest of it) was to bluff. Other than that hand, it was relatively uneventful. I’ll probably play again tonight.

It’s been a busy 10 days, and that’s exactly how long since I’ve played holdem online at Pokerstars. Five of those days were spent up north in Gaylord, Michigan on our annual golf trip. 12 of us played 135 holes in 5 days (should have been 153, 18 holes were rained out). The weather sucked, we had sun the first day and then not again, with rain everyday. I still had a great time though, and we made the best of it. Now that I’m back, I’ve been playing catch up at work and at home ever since. With summer and good weather here, my weekends are becoming busier than my work weeks. I’m seeing a little opening here though, and some time to play holdem again. I moved up to 5NL on 5/31/08 and have played only 6 sessions at 5NL (making about $20 in those 6 sessions), so I’m a little anxious to get some consistent time and hands in at 5NL. I’m hoping to play some tonight, we’ll see.

Current Bankroll: $124.07 | Goal before moving up: $200.00 | Started with: $2.00

I’m not that guy, the one who believes my team lost because of the officiating. With that being said, I’ve always thought the NBA has the worst officiating of all the Pro sports. With the arrest and conviction of referee Tim Donaghy for basically betting on games (games he worked even) and now his allegations that other playoff games have been altered by refs, I’m not so sure the officiating is just plain bad- but maybe corrupt also. Now I know Donaghy is probably lying about a lot of this to get a reduced prison sentence, but that doesn’t mean I believe everything the NBA is feeding me. Like the fact that the NBA didn’t know Tim Donaghy was betting on games, but they are sure he was a rogue ref and the only one doing so. How can they be so sure when they didn’t even know he was doing it? The NBA can trash Donaghy’s credibility all they want, and they can be correct in doing so, but I still smell something fishy. NBA officiating has been inconsistent for so long that I’m finding it hard to believe there is no corruption at all. What do you think, is the officiating really that terrible, or are some of the refs shaping the outcomes?