Them's Quad B*******!!

This hand just gives you an example of how my game went today at Absolute. I cashed out up over a buy-in after playing for just 30 minutes.

Burnley Mik commented on previous post that he was surprised I was still playing at Absolute. I explained it in an earlier post that I don't think Absolute is cheating at my level of play and because of the UIGEA I didn't have the flexability of going to another site and I already had a bank roll at Absolute.

As long as I have the results I am having, I'll keep exploiting those fishes at Absolute.

By the way Burnley Mik has saw the errors of his ways and is back blogging. Check him out if you want a few laughs as well as other info about this mistress we call Poker.

Played a bit of Poker

I played a bit of poker today on Absolute and PokerStars. I am still playing $10 No Limit Holdem and starting with my shortstack. I would love to regale you on a couple of bad beats that happened to me today but I stated in a previous post that I had used up all of my Luckbox for 2007 so I cannot whine about any bad beats until the year 2008.

The good thing is that I was able to continue playing and make back what I had lost plus a little more so I ended my day with a small profit. The other good thing is that I am still buying in short so my losses weren't that devestating. I buy in at 30 or 40 times the BB depending what site I am playing at.

I am comfortable playing 4 tables, 2 on PokerStars and 2 on Absolute is how I usually roll. Or 2 on Full Tilt but I am taking a break from playing there as nothing seems to be going my way much at that site. I will play full ring or 6 max. I am comfortable at either one now. Absolute is always 6 max because there are just not that many full ring games going. PokerStars is almost always a full ring game. I guess that way I get the best of both worlds.

I set up one game in each corner of my 21 inch monitor and sit at one of the seats 2, 4, 6 and 8. the games overlap some but I can always see my Avatar and my cards. My monitor is really old and I can't up the resolution so that my tables won't overlap because if I go any higher in resolution my monitor starts to put out a high pitched whine, almost like a siren. As long as I can see my cards I don't care if the tables overlap.

Right before dinner I logged into PokerStars with the expressed intent of doing a Hit and Run. To me a Hit and Run is where you get a good hand and go all in hoping to double up and then you leave. I only had about 15 minutes to play before Mrs. Wolverine would be calling me to eat so I bought in with just $2 and sat down. After about two orbits I get AA and I raise preflop and get one caller. The flop brings just low card rags and I pop a good size bet out and the villain goes all in. Whoo Hoo!! Just what I was hoping for. I call and he shows J/J and my Aces hold up and I have almost doubled my stack. I don't want the other players to know I was doing a Hit and Run so I folded the next three hands which were all 3 terrible hands and then left.

Hee hee hee. I kill myself.

Remembering Bob Ross

When winter comes to Michigan and the air is frosty and nippy outside but inside the house is comfy and warm there is one thing that is so special, that makes winter Winter that I just have to describe it here. It generates great memories of sitting with my wife and girls and watching one of the most gentle men in the universe make magic appear on his canvas.

I am talking about Bob Ross.

Wikipedia states:
Bob Norman Ross (born October 29, 1942 in Daytona Beach, Florida; died July 4, 1995) was an American painter and television presenter.
With his calm, patient nature, Ross came to prominence as the creator and host of The Joy of Painting, a long-running program on the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S. Ross died of lymphoma at the age of 52.

Bob Ross is best known as the host of the public television series The Joy of Painting, which ran from 1983 to 1995 and is still shown in reruns in many broadcast areas. During each half-hour segment, Ross would instruct viewers in the art of oil painting using a quick-study technique that kept colors to a minimum and broke paintings down into simple steps that anyone could follow.

He utilized the wet-on-wet oil painting technique, in which the painter continues adding paint on top of still wet paint rather than waiting a lengthy amount of time to allow each layer of paint to dry.[1] Combining this method with the use of large painting knives and fan brushes allowed Ross to paint trees, water, clouds and mountains in a matter of seconds.
In many episodes of Joy of Painting, he noted that one of his favorite parts of painting was cleaning the brush, specifically the act of drying off a brush, which he had dipped in cleaner, by rapping it against the easel frame. He would often smile and even laugh out loud regularly during this practice as he, in his words, "Beat the devil out of it". (I remember this part particualarly well as my family would laugh so hard when he cleaned his brushes)
After his death, Bob Ross Incorporated donated most of his paintings to charities and public television stations.

My family loved Bob Ross. We loved his soft voice and how he would constantly remind us that our painting was our little world and we could do with it what we liked. We could put a happy little tree here or build a little cabin there and, of course, we needed a door to get into our cabin.

I especially loved the winter paintings he would do and today I was fortunate enough to see a rerun on our local PBS station and I just had to sit down and experience the intense joy of watching this wonderful man make magic appear on the canvas and to once again listen to that soft voice remind us that this painting was our little world and we could do with it whatever we wanted.

for a half hour the scariness of the world was kept at bay by the memories of a great, great man doing what he loved to do.

King of the Luckboxes

I think I used up my entire Luckbox for the rest of 2007 today in a two table SitNGo. We were at level 6 and the blinds were at $100/$200 with $25 ante and there were 4 people left (so I was in the money) and I was down to $255 in chips. I was in the small blind and was dealt QsTd and went all in. I get two callers and a queen comes on the turn and I more than triple up. Now I have $990 in chips.
5 Hands later blinds and antes have me down to $590 in chips and I get 10/10 in the BB and go all in against one caller with K/5 off. He doesn’t improve and now I am up to $1305 with just 3 players.
4 hands later I go all in with A/9 off against K/5 off and he doesn’t improve and now I am up to $1885 in chips. Chips counts are Villain $15,315, villain 2 $9800 and me at $1885.
8 hands later I get this:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (3 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

BB (t15415)
Wolverine Fan (t1810)
SB (t9775)
Preflop: Wolverine Fan is Button with 4s, 4d.

Button raises to t1785, SB raises to t3370, 1 fold.

Flop: (t5180) Jd, 4c, 3s (2 players)

Turn: (t5180) 4h (2 players)

River: (t5180) 3h (2 players)

Final Pot: t3595

Results below:

Wolverine Fan has 4s 4d (four of a kind, fours).

SB has Js As (two pair, jacks and fours).

Outcome: Wolverine Fan wins t3595.
Them’s Quad Biotches!!
But we’re not done yet!
There are still 3 players with the chip counts now: Villain 1 $15190, Villain 2 $7965 and me at $3845.
7 hands later I take over 2nd place when my A/K off beats K/7 suited when an Ace comes on the flop and now I have $10365 in chips and the very next hand I get dealt 8/8 and this happens.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (3 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

BB (t13865)

Wolverine Fan (t10365)

SB (t2770)

Preflop: Wolverine Fan is Button with 8s, 8h.

Button raises to t1200, SB raises to t2745, BB calls t2345, Wolverine Fan calls t1545.

Flop: (t7860) Ac, 2d, Ad (3 players)

BB bets t400, Button raises to t7595, BB calls t7195.

Turn: (t23050) 6h (3 players)

River: (t23050) 8d (3 players)

Final Pot: t23050

Results below:

BB has Ts Ah (three of a kind, aces).

Wolverine Fan has 8s 8h (full house, eights full of aces).

SB has 9c Qs (one pair, aces).

Outcome: Wolverine Fan wins t23050.
25 Hands later I win it all when I have A/5 off and flop 2,3,4 to give me the wheel. I came back from $255 in chips to win the whole thing with several humongous suckouts.

If I whine about bad beats again in the year 2007 just remind me of this SitNGo.

Mississippi Mud and Microstakes Hold'em

This is the beer I am drinking right now. It is an excellent brew with nice flavor from Matt Brewing Company. It has gotten some nice ratings at Beer Pal.

I am doing pretty good in my Microstakes Hold'em challenge. I am a winning player at Full Tilt, Absolute and Poker Stars. I had a really nice week-end where I was able to play for quite a while and, with great patience, waited for jus the right hands and was able to double up several times.

That being said, it could have been soooooo much better if it weren't for two bad beats at Poker Stars. The first was all in preflop with Pocket Rockets vs. Big Slick and the villain hit his Broadway straight on the river.

The second was when I limped in from the BB with K/10 suited and the flop came down K, K, rag. I was all in against one other player who had K/6 off and he hit his six on the river to beat me. Lucky for me I buy in with the minimum amount as this made the losing easier and I was still able to show a profit for the day.

Beautiful hand

I was dealt 5/5 and limped in. The flop brought the set I was hoping for but also brought a flush draw. I bet big to get people off the flush draw but two others stayed in. The flush came on the turn but the bet by Sevenfold wasn't very big and I called hoping for the board to pair so I could get a full house . Instead a beautiful 4 of diamonds came on the river and I had the nuts. I went all in with my Short Stack and Asous called as he had 7/8 off for a nice straight but it wasn't enough to beat my straight flush.

Exceptional Short Stack play!!

Playing with a short stack

Grinder's last two posts have been about short stack play. He is playing short stacks for the same reason I am, we are both just getting our feet wet in No Limit after being Limit Holdem players. His reasons for playing short stacks are the exact same as mine but he has done some good homework about short stack play vs. deep stack play and it is very interesting.

Short stack play for me has been profitable but not overly much. I am mostly treading water until I reach that point where I feel I can move up in stakes and start playing with a deep stack. Today I was able to double up my buy-in on PokerStars. It also saved me losing too much when a bad beat was put on me by a lag when his J/8 offsuit beat my pocket queens when he got his two outer 8 on the river for trips. Then he left the table. The good ol' Hit and Run play.

Grinder also refers to an article by the Surley Poker Gnome and short stacks. Even Ed Miller, Noted Poker Authority has a series of articles on short stack play. He says, Stack sizes change everything, from what hands are worth playing before the flop, to how you should play them after the flop, to how to read hands and bluff, to who ultimately ends up with the money. Understand how different stack sizes affect strategy better than your opponent does, and you have a big advantage.

I'm going to keep playing short stack until I feel I am ready to move up and play with a deep stack. That may be in a week, a month or even a year from now.

Just a little Poker today

I played just a little bit of poker today. I won a minimum amount on Poker Stars and a little more on Full Tilt playing microlimit No Limit Holdem. I have almost overcome my big loss on Full Tilt and am almost back to where I was. It has taken a while but I'd rather be moving up slowly than rollercoasting up and down or, heaven forbid, just losing.

In lieu of poker info from me I want to promote some podcasts and podTV I have been listening to and watching on PokerRoad. This is a cool site and, fortunately, one I can listen to while at work. It features Gavin Smith, Joe Sebok, Barry Greenstein, Amanda Leatherman, Bart Hanson, Scott Huff and Joe Stapleton.

If you get a chance check it out. The Poker Radio and Poker TV have some good stuff and is very entertaining.

There is a lot more stuff to read, hear and see on this site so I urge you to stop by and check it out.

What Classic Movie are You?

The following was obtained from Dugglebogey.

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

New era in U of M Football

It is has been a tough year for my University of Michigan Wolverines this year. A less than stellar start with our loss against Appalachian State and then winding up the year with a terrible, terrible played game against Ohio State. Very, very sad indeed.

Now it appears our coach of 13 years is going to retire. I approach this with mixed emotions as I think it is time for Lloyd Carr to retire and we can get a new coach in and he can change some things up with our offense and defense and help make us a better team. I was really bummed when Bo Schembechler decided to retire because I felt he had more good years in him. I don't feel that way with Lloyd Carr. Coach Carr has been a good coach but not a great coach. He has a wonderful record but it could have been oh so much better with the players we recruit.

I am pretty sure we are going to get a good coach but I think Notre Dame and Nebraska thought the same thing and looked what happened to those teams. I would love to get Les Miles from LSU but I do not want to get an offensive coordinator from the NFL like Charlie Weiss was or an ex-NFL coach like Callahan. I want a coach that has success as a head coach already and wants to come to Michigan because he sees the potential of having a team that challenges for the National Championship year in and year out. I wouldn't minde if it was an up and coming MAC coach like Urban Meyer, the Florida Gators coach, was.

Tomorrow at 10AM Michigan Football will be entering a new era.
__________________________________________________
I am turning things around on the Poker Front. I have managed to have winning sessions the last two games. I have almost made back my big loss on Full Tilt playing microlimit No Limit Holdem. I have won back $14 of the $20 dollars I dropped the other day. Hopefully I can keep this trend going.

I hate fucking poker

This is a whiny ass bad beat post so if you don't like it, don't read it. I switched to playing Limit Holdem on Full Tilt after I was just treading water at No Limit and after 80 or so hands I was up a couple of dollars. Then in 16 hands I lose 4 times, 3 times to sets and lose my buy in.

The first time was when I raised from the Button with A/10 off and get called by the Big Blind. I end up with trip 10s only to find out that the BB's K/Q off had turned the straight on the flop. Lose over $4 dollars on that hand.

Then I get A/K off 7 hands later and raise and get two to come along. When all is said and done I have two pair (King on flop, Ace on turn) but lose to a set of deuces. Guy limped with deuces, called my preflop raise and then got his set on the flop. Lose $9 dollars there.

Then I get A/Q suited 3 hands later and raise. One caller and my A/Q's don't improve and he shows a set of Jacks. Lose $3.50 there.

Now I am on tilt and I bet my J/10 off and get a jack on the flop. I am all in only to see the villain show a set of fives.

Now I have lost my $20 dollar buy-in and I quit to rant on this blog.

No wonder people quit this fucking game. I swear Full Tilt is the worse site for letting you have a nice hand and then getting smacked down by someone else with a better one.

What are the chances of losing to 3 sets and a straight in 16 hands?

Tagged Again

I was tagged again by Hoff and since it makes for an easy blog entry, I guess I can come up with 7 other things about me.
First, the rules.
A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...
B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...
C). Tag 0 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...
D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog...

Seven random things:
1. I love chocolate and will eat most anything that has chocolate in it. My taste buds are getting more refined so that I am eating a higher (better?) grade of chocolate now instead of just the plain Mars or Hersey chocolate (although the Hersey regular milk chocolate bar is one of my favorite candies)

2. I played with dolls as a young boy - GI Joe dolls and Johnnie West and his horse dolls. Not any girl dolls but I guess a doll is a doll.

3. I have one of the classic deer hunting stories of falling asleep in the woods and waking up to have a nice size buck standing right beside me. It was Bow season and it was very warm and I sat down and leaned against the trunk of a tree and fell fast asleep.

4. I snore terribly. Maybe it was my snores that the buck thought was another buck snorting so he came to check it out and found me. When I woke up to see him I couldn't get my bow loaded and around for a shot before he was gone.

5. The first motel I ever stayed in was in Sudbury, Canada and I was about 10 years old. My family was camping and it rained so long and so hard that my parents broke down and rented a motel room for the night.

6. I am a big history buff of the Revolutionary War and that period of history. I love to read about Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and all of the Mountain Men that opened up the west like Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. Jeremiah Johnson is one of my most favorite movies.

7. When my daughters were about 6 and 8 years old I would play Wolfenstein 3D with them on our very old computer (1990). I think the game came on the old 5 1/4 inch floppies and it was a DOS game. I would operate the mouse and they would operate the keys to make the guns shoot. They would tell their mother, "We are killing Nazis."
Hey, at least we were bonding together.

I'm not tagging anyone this time and I am out of things to say about me so please don't tag me again for a while.

This and That

I played about 2 hours of microlimit No Limit Hold’em at Full Tilt and PokerStars and basically broke even. I was up at both sites then down then back to even before I called it a day. I am starting to evaluate if I am too tight with my play as my PFIP was at just 17% for PokerStars and about the same for Full Tilt. I may need to start playing suited connectors more. I am still learning and I need to start making notes of some of the plays I have been seeing and start to post them at 2+2, Raise the River or Pocket Fives and see if I am playing these hands properly.

One example would be I have A/10 off in LP with two limpers and I raise 3X the BB and one or both call my raise. The flop is Ax, Jx, 7x and both players check and I raise ½ the pot and then one of the players reraises (check/raise). What do I do? Does he have Two pair? A better kicker than me? A set? Most of the time I don’t have much of a read on the player as he is new to the game or hasn’t done too much to make note of. Sometimes I fold right there, sometimes I 3 bet and see what they do or sometimes I call and then see what they do on the turn. Usually they will make a pot size bet on the turn and then I have a tough decision to make. How should I be playing this??

The Poker Blogger community is losing one of the better UK bloggers . Burnley Mik is discontinuing his Poker Blog and has even talked about quitting online poker except for the DTD and Bloggerment tourneys on Sunday. He does state that he will be blogging at the Raise the River blog. Good luck, Mik.

Poker This 'n That

I am continuing to play microlimit No Limit Hold’em on PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker.

I am still playing at Absolute for a couple of reasons. Most poker players or bloggers are aware that there was a security breach at Absolute Poker that effected some large stakes tournaments and games. Absolute has stated that they are on top of it and that it cannot happen again.

One reason is that I don’t think they are cheating at the stakes I play. The second reason is the UIGEA has made it harder to deposit at other poker sites and I already have money on Absolute so I am going to continue to play there.

The following are just a few of my observations on playing microstakes poker at these sites.

PokerStars is the one site where I have lost money from playing. Mostly from bad play by me but also from bad play by others that is working to their advantage. The biggest thing I see on PokerStars, as far as bad play, is players limping in with monster hands, A/A, K/K, A/K, Q/Q. I have seen this quite a bit on PokerStars. I have lost to one of these hands but I have also cracked one of these hands with a hand I would have folded to a preflop raise.

Full Tilt seems to have a better quality player than the other sites. Having said that there have been a few ATM machines in some of the games that I have played that have allowed me to double and triple up because they play any two cards and bet with virtually nothing.

Absolute doesn’t have that many full ring games at microstakes so I have been playing mostly 6-max there. I haven’t seen that much that stands out. They have quality players mixed up with some ATM machines. I have been able to win quite regularly at Absolute by playing tight/aggressive.

Those are my first impressions with limited play and I’ll try to build on them as we go.

Brittbloggerment 34 - Close but no Cigar

I have to send out a big apology to all my USA poker blogger readers as I had the chip lead at heads up in the Brittbloggerment 34 tourney on Sunday and was unable to bring the trophy across the pond as the_cloud71 managed to outplay me and win the tourney.

I entered the Bloggerment 34 Tourney and won every race I had until heads up.
My first race was when I got all in with Pocket Kings against Biakkax with A/Q offsuit and the board was all low cards and I doubled up and took him out. The next one was when I got all in with A/K off vs. Burnley Mik's pocket Jacks. I flopped a King and the board got scary but Burnley Mik didn't improve and I take that one down. Now I am the chip leader with 5 players left.

I played the hammer all in with 5 players left and took down the blinds!! What would a blogger tournament be if you didn't play the hammer?

The next race I won was when I took out Burnley Mik when my A/J suited went up against his Pocket Tens. A beautiful Jack comes on the flop and Mik is out of the tournament.

Ace/King was my hand of the day as I next took out Mrmoomoo when we were all in with my A/K off vs. his Pocket Nines. A king falls on the flop and again on the river and my 3 kings send him packing. Mrmoomoo was second in chips at the time so this made me the Chip leader with 3 players left.

I had a big suckout when my A/3 off takes out ResdentEvil and his A/J when I get my 3 on the river. I was wanting a 5 to complete the wheel when the 3 comes on the river and I win. I didn't realize I had won at first as I missed the 3 and I thought ResdentEvil won the pot.

Now it is the_cloud71 and me heads up and I lead in chips just over 2 to 1. I couldn't bring it home. I tried to play conservative and not let him double up but, basically, I lost 2 hands and the tourney was his. The first one was when he had a better kicker than me and doubled up taking the chiplead. Then his pocket Kings were better than my Ace/8 and GG me.

So apologies go out to all the USA poker players for my inability to best the Brits and bring the trophy to U.S. shores. Maybe next week.

Freshman year of College

I think I have gone from being a highschool senior to my Freshmen year of College in my No Limit Holdem education. Yesterday I had a really bad session where I dropped 4 buy-ins two tabling at PokerStars. Today I made back one and a half of the buy-ins I dropped yesterday. My nemesis hand for the time being is when I have 9/9. Yesterday I lost to Q/Q and today to 10/10. I should have folded both times and the signals were there to make me fold but I ignored them. That won't happen in the future.

The big signal today was a re-reraise on a low card board that should have tipped me off that the donkey was holding a bigger pocket pair than me. I'm not sure he played it correctly when he re-reraised me. How did he know that I didn't have a pair bigger than his tens? The truth is it doesn't matter if he played it correctly because I sure as hell didn't play it correctly. I should have know that the way he played it didn't indicate he was drawing with A/?. His bet indicated large pocket pair and I refused to believe the read. That won't happen again (hopefully).

There was one player at my PokerStars table that was building his chips up methodically. He had started with $3.25 (remember, this is microlimits .5/.10 Holdem). He had it up to over $22 after about an hour of play. He was playing at least 70% of the flops and betting if he caught any piece of it and everyone was folding to his bet. I lost one hand to him when my two pair went down to his rivered trips. What was funny was that he only would raise 2X the BB when he played and would bet 2X the BB whenever he had any piece of the board. He would fold though so he wasn't a complete donkey. I made some notes on his style of play and I was able to take down a couple of small pots from him.

Then he started chatting in the chatbox to his neighbor after he won a hand by rivering the flush. It was congenial chat between him and the other player and he began telling how he had built this stack by mostly bluffing and he couldn't believe how people would fold so easily. He went on for quite some time about building his stack and how it was PokerStars money they had given him and some other things.

After quite a bit of chat about his play he lost a fair size pot and then mentioned he would just have to build it back up. I typed into the chat, "Not at this table" and "TMI". He typed in "tmi..." and I typed, "Too much information". He LOL'ed as did another player.

Then the weirdness started. In 6 hands he had lost his entire bankroll he had built up, over $22 dollars. The first was when his A/Q lost to A/K. then he won a big hand only to lose a bunch to me when my A/10 suited was better than his A/6 on an ace high board. The final hand was when his A/K was beat by a set of 5s on a raggedy board. And that was it. He had lost everything in less than 5 minutes after playing good solid bankroll building poker for over an hour. Then he left. But I have his name and will be looking for him tomorrow and the next day and the next and the next.....................

Tagged

I was tagged by Chipper and have to try and come up with 7 random things about myself that I haven't already mentioned in past posts. That may be hard to do as I have posted quite a bit so if I repeat something then meh.

The rules are:
A) Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog
B) Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself
C) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs
D) Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Here we go:
1. I am 11 months younger than my brother. I'll let you make your own conclusions about that.

2. I had rheumatic fever as a youth and the doctors banned me from any physical activity for an entire summer. No Little League, no playing tag, dodgeball, etc. My brothers used to hit me and run because they knew I wasn't suppose to run after them.

3. I put my hand through a storm door window and needed52 stitiches to sew up a gash in my wrist. It missed the major arteries by just a fraction.

4. I was a yell leader for the Varsity Basketball team at Alma College my freshman year. We would do lifts and twirls and had megaphones to get the fans going.

5. I ran 6 marathons when I was in my mid twenties. I was never able to qualify for the Boston Marathon. My fastest time for 10 miles was 62 minutes. I have run a 10K race in under 30 minutes (just barely).

6. My family hates to go to museums with me as I am sooooooooooooooo slow. I have to read everything about the items on display (and I'm a slow reader) and look at every detail. I never get through the museums in the time I am alloted.

7. During some tough financial times earlier in my life I donated plasma to get money so I could pay for some rounds of golf. Now I have poker to help pay for my golf.

I'm not going to tag 7 people but will tag a couple.

Grinder
Burnley Mik

Low Limit No Limit

The title should really read micro limit low limit but I like the rhyming of my title better. I am still playing the .05/.10 No Limit games on Poker Stars, Absolute and Full Tilt. Not so much on Full Tilt as on PokerStars and Absolute.

My previous post about my No Limit challenge stated that I wasn't learning much but I think I can safely say now that I am learning quite a bit at these limits and am having fun playing. I've only had one losing session and that was just marginal as I am playing quite tight and am only willing to take someone one when I have what I feel is an 80% chance of winning. The players come and go so much that, for the most part, most really don't know how tight I am playing. I was 3 tabling today and my VP$IP was 17%.

I haven't won much money playing the microlimits but it is mostly because I haven't been able to dedicate much time to playing. It will probably be the week-end before I am able to play for any length of time and to make it worthwhile I am going to try and 3 table or 4 table the session. I need to start to earn some serious dinero to help pay for next year's golf and vacations.

I have been playing some 6 max tables as well as full ring and, for the most part, am comfortable at both. The results have been about the same at both, too.

I'll keep you posted on how things go.

Sound and Memories

Different sounds or songs I hear bring back some very vivid memories. Not as much as smells or odors but still pretty strong. If I hear the song Happy Trails To You, I am instantly transported back in time to Saturday mornings watching Roy Rogers riding Trigger and saving Dale from the rustlers. It was awesome. Riding horses, shooting guns and never any blood. The good guys always won.

When I hear Cat Stevens sing Morning has Broken or Peace Train I am a teenager again playing football on Friday nights and going to the movies on Saturday. Riding around with my friends trying to get someone to buy us some beer or Boones Farm wine. Trying to be way cool.

Other songs evoke just as vivid memories at different times in my life. When I hear Aerosmith sing Walk This Way or Sweet Emotion I am transported back to the Backdoor Bar in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan where I was attending Lake Superior State College.
When I hear leaves rustling I have vivid memories of raking piles and piles of leaves and watching my two daughters jumping and playing in them. I can see them trying to rake the leaves themselves with rakes that are 10 times to big for them. Mrs. Wolverine has them all bundled up against the fall chill and they are laughing and wanting me to cover them up with the leaves. The memories are so strong it brings a tear to my eye as I remember those carefree days when my little girls trusted me to the Nth Degree and I was their hero (and still am).

The Odor of Memories

They say certain smells evoke strong memories.

“Of all the senses I would say that smell is the sense that is best at bringing back memories. When you smell a certain scent it feels as though you slipped back in time and that you are actually at that scene again.” Smell and Memory by Shigeyuki Ito.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Never is this more true in the Wolverine Fan household than at Thanksgiving and into the Christmas Holidays. The number one smell is of Applejack potpourri or candles that that have the aroma of baked apples warmed with cinnamon and nutmeg spices. Applejack was in our house throughout the fall and all through winter but it never seemed to be so effervescent than during the Holiday season.

The second smell that evokes tons of memories are baked cookies. Sugar cookies or chocolate chip, it doesn’t matter. I smell that aroma and am immediately comforted and taken back to a kitchen that my whole family seems to be in trying to help, making the dough, pulling the cookies out of the oven and putting more in. And along with the smell is the laughter that never seems to end. Soft chuckles and huge belly laughs fill the kitchen as the Wolverine Family sets out to make Christmas Cookies that Santa would be proud of.

The smell of burning leaves means football, harvesting the garden and putting it to bed for the winter. Raking leaves and carving pumpkins. Wearing that favorite old Michigan sweatshirt because it was too cool for short sleeves but not cold enough for wearing a jacket as you get everything ready for the snow and cold that is sure to come.

Finally there is the smell of winter in the air. The thing that brings back many memories isn’t really a scent but is the way your nose hairs seem to freeze as you take that first big breath when you go outside and the temperature is well below freezing. The time when the sky is blue and the sun is shining but not throwing off any heat and there is hoar frost on all of the trees and the snow crunches as you walk on it. You are all bundled up with your scarf covering your mouth so that when you breathe it is through your nose and winter’s cold is there to greet you.

Sit back and inhale nice and long through your nose and let the memories come flooding back to remind you of a time not so long ago when everything was right with the world.