Chi-CA-go! Chi-CA-go!

Quail open on the 7th. Here's an excerpt from past quail trips:

Bang! Bang!
"Dammit!"
Bang! Bang!
"Crap!"
Bang! Bang!
"Umm... it dropped over there, somewhere. Did you get a good mark?"

I hope that we have the wonder dog (or a reasonable facsimile of her) with us.
I'm excited. Dove were a bit of a bust this year. This property has never failed to produce, so we'll definitely get some good hunting in.

Tournament of Champions

With the 1st place I picked up a couple of weeks ago, I earned an invite to the ToC being held on Sun at Tulalip. It's a $25+5 tourney, with the league adding $100 to the prize pool. I think there will be 16 of us, with the money going to the top 3. Most of the people who qualified are pretty tight. I like my chances. ;-)
I also very much like having a professional dealer. They rock!

Wedding bells

J and I went to EW's (nee EP) wedding on Saturday. They had an outdoor ceremony (which we were late to), and it was all very pretty. It was also short and sweet, which made me happy!
The reception was at a resturaunt on the water. Once again, a beautiful setting, and the food was good. There was a fly in the ointment, however. After about half of the guests had gone through the buffet line, the power went out. We were told it should be back in about two hours, and that there was no reason to panic. All the food was cooked, so there was no disaster there, but the happy couple had not cut the cake or had their first dance, so things were a little nervous. The power never came back on, but it was one of the coolest receptions I'd ever been to. The cake was cut without issue, then a large group of the men came together to seranade the couple so they could have their first dance. I think the song selection could have been better, as "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" has lyrics that are not in keeping with a vision of maternal bliss, but the music didn't matter. The fact that everyone came together to give them music to dance to was really cool.
As far as the rest of the evening, someone suggested that we use the car stereos so we could have party music, then a late arrival who heard of our plight went and bought a boom box and batteries. The power never came back on, but it didn't matter. IMHO, it made the evening better. This is one that everyone involved with will remember for a long time.

Sat morning at Tulalip

I did okay, but didn't cash. I placed something like 38th out of ~130 entrants. I think I need to up the aggression a little in that one. The blinds are low and slow for the first few levels, but get crazy once they jump from 300/500 to 500/1000. They go up a lot and are at 15 minute intervals instead of 10. I need to steal more blinds at 200/400 an 300/500 so I can make the jump. I had a better than average stack at this point, about 12k, but a couple of bad hands later, I'm in the parking lot. I didn't feel like there was a lot of time to "play", it was more about catching cards when blinds were so high in relation to everyone's stack.
Anyhow, lesson learned. I have a feeling I'm gonna qualify again this season. Perhaps my new poker nickname should be "cocky bastard"?

1st at tourney last night

I took 1st at the league poker tournament last night! It's a new venue with a new format for us. It's like the extended format we had in previous seasons, but we get a bounty on every player we knock out.
The night was a lot of fun. The new venue is nice, there's lots of room and the interior of the building looks to have been recently redone, and the waitress D is nice on the eyes. She gives Bridget (waitress at a different venue that we don't play at anymore) a run for her money.
My first table was tight, which was strange as there were 3 other super-aggressive types there, but I think the rocks calmed things down. The table was me*, DanG*, Drew*, Lenny(R), Matius(?), DanE(R), Lamont*, SteveT(F). Super aggressive = *, rock = R, ? = unknown, F = fish
DanG and I got into it early, and I took a good chunk of his stack (yes, it was a bit of a suck-out), then things were calm for a while. A couple of players busted out at other tables, and we played for some smaller pots for the rest of the first few blind levels. Things then got interesting near the break, with a limp from UTG then folds around to me, which I bumped up to about 4BB with A3d. DanG moves all-in from the SB for about 9 BB, then Drew moves in for slightly less. The limper folds, and I've got Dan covered about 2 to 1. I think about all of this for a minute, taking into account that with 2 all-ins I'm probably behind, but that it's possible for Dan (who's now a bit drunk and playing even looser then usual) to be playing any two cards. Drew seemed a bit ambivalent about his cards, so I'm thinking he has a mid or small pair. I'm probably behind, but my call is getting a good price, something like 3 or 4 to 1, and those bounty chips look sweet. I call.
The cards are turned, and Dan has a KTo, Drew 66, and my A3d doesn't look too bad. I knew I was making a loose call, so seeing the other hands wasn't a huge shock. Dan's hand was better then I thought, but I wouldn't have played him any differently if the cards had been face up when I made my decision. The flop came rag T 3 with two diamonds, which I still feel okay about. Dan picked up a T for the lead, but I've got 13 outs (nine diamonds, two 3, and two As) which with 2 cards to come is something like 55% to win, I think. Anyhow, the turn is an A (giving me top pair) and the river is a blank, so I take down a large pot AND two bounty chips. :-)
Another significant hand was against Matius, when we were getting close to the final table. I opened the pot up for a standard-ish raise of ~5BB (w QJo) from the cut-off. Button and SB fold, and he calls in the BB. The flop comes KQ rag with 2 spades. He is first to act, and pushes all-in. I've been paying attention to his play all night, and he definitely understands the game a bit, so I'm even a bit more worried than I would be with just the all-in. He's got a lot of chips, and although I have him covered, I would only have a few thousand if he won, and blinds are up pretty high (500/1K). I'm afraid that he either has me already beat with a K or that he's on a flush draw and/or straight draw (I've seen him play JT a couple of times). I watched him for a bit while trying to make up my mind, and he seemed a little "off", so I made a TedB move, thinking to myself (in my best internal pirate voice) "aww, what the fawk", and made the call. I chose correctly! He also had a Q, but his kicker was a 6. The rest of the cards came down and didn't help him, so my J played and we were at the final table.
There was one more interesting hand. It was between me and Arlo at the final table. There were 3 of us left, and I was UTG. Blinds are at 800/1500, and I made a healthy raise to 7500 hoping to steal with J8c. DaveM folds in the SB, and Arlo called. The flop comes QT9 rainbow, and Arlo makes a continuation bet of 9.5k. I ponder this a bit, but have misremembered my cards as J9c, but I think I can push him off the hand. I came over to top to a total of 20k. If he called, he'd only have about 10k left, but if he folds he'll still have an OK stack. He moved all-in, and I thought I was screwed with bottom pair. My stack is pretty big, so folding is probably my best move with what I thought was bottom pair, but I looked down at my cards before mucking and saw the straight. I then, of course, call, and he shows 2 pair. He goes unimproved to the river, and I take him out.

The points from last night's win gave me the points win for the week and the buy-in to Tulalip's Sat morning tourney. This is the first time I've won for the week, and I'm excited. It should be a blast!

J's cousin is in a bad way

Her cousin B (actually her 1st cousin once removed) has been DXd with lung cancer, and his chances are double-plus ungood. The Dr. says that with no treatment he has about 4 months to live, and that ~1/4 of patients in similar situations respond to the agressive treatment proposed. I don't remember how much more time the treatment gets him, but it wasn't years or anything.
B's younger brother A was J's "maid" of honor at our wedding, and is like a brother to J, so this is all hitting her pretty hard. Ugh.