FATHERS' DAY

I fell asleep on the couch Saturday night, three movies into a William Powell/Myrna Loy marathon on TMC. They were all non-THIN MAN capers. The best of the bunch was LOVE CRAZY, which is just delightful. I had seen this many years ago before I was married and some of the gags had stuck in my mind. One of my all-time favorite movie lines occurs when Powell is dressed as a woman, on the lam after escaping from an asylum. He is jealous of Jack Carson's character, who has been making time with Myrna. Powell uses his feminine disguise to feign indignation and slug Carson a couple of times. Carson reacts with a clenched fist, but stops short of hitting the "lady". Myrna Loy intervenes and says "Ward, what were you thinking?" to which Carson/Ward replies "whatever it was, I'm still thinking it." That is classic screwball comedy dialogue.

Mason woke me up Sunday morning and lead me to the kitchen table which was covered with presents. He had made a book for me filled with pictures of us playing together. I'm tossing him a baseball and whooping him at Uno and helping him with his homework. I put these kind of treasures away in my special spot so I can pull them out someday when I'm lying in bed with prostate cancer. Nothing beats having great kids. Cadence gave me an elaborate dreamcatcher which she had built. I hang it over my bed and it filters out the bad stuff so I can sleep peacefully. I will never again have nightmares of two-outers hitting on the river with millions at stake. Marci gave me a bunch of barbecue tools, which is what I asked for way back on Mother's Day.

We went out for breakfast and a paddleboat ride in the park, so I missed the Big Deal and saved that $300. I played the $200 events at Stars and Tilt and pretty much broke even on the day. I was doing great in the Stars event until I lost a decisive pot which turned my whole game sour. I had raised on the button with A9 and both blinds called. The flop came AQ4 and the small blind went all-in for a decent amount. He had over $3k while I had over $5k. I went into the tank and finally decided that he just doesn't do that with any hand that has me beat, except maybe AT. I think he would have reraised me preflop with AJ or AK, and if he has A4 or AQ then he's playing foolishly. I finally called and he showed KQ. That pot would put me over $10k, but he spiked a K on the turn and took it from me.

That took the wind out of my sails and my stack steadily diminished. I found a brief spurt of life when I tripled up with AK, but I never again got past $5k and I finally was reduced to pushing all in with K9 and came upon QQ, which finished me off.

At Full Tilt, I built a nice stack by making two glorious calls for all my chips. Both times, my opponent put me all-in on the river while I had something like third pair. Both times, I thought he was bluffing, and both times I called and was correct. Those are tough calls to make, but sometimes you just know something is wrong with the way the hand is playing out. When it finally comes down to him putting me all in after it appears he's been drawing the whole time, then I get awfully suspicious. If he had me beat, he would be betting an amount I could call, not trying to stop my heart with the notion of elimination.

After making that second call, I was over $10k and in the top five. I bullied a little and caught cards at the right time a little and built myself a monster stack over $30k. Keith Sexton got moved to my table, two seats to my left, and I began looking at taking down his bounty. I kept picking on his blinds, but he never got involved with me. When he got down under $2k, I was abruptly moved to a different table, which ended my shot at earning that $216 from taking out a pro.

I got up to $39k and first place before things started going wrong for me. I got knocked all the way down to below average, before finding JJ on the big blind with two smaller stacks all-in in front of me. Since I was not at risk of busting out, it was an easy call. I was up against 55 and AT and my jacks held up, bringing me back up to $36k, though that amount wasn't what it once was. The payout structure kicked in with 99 players remaining and I made it with about $40k in my stack. I lost half of it against a big stack when I had TT and the flop came J64. He bet and I raised, but he called with his massive chip stack. The turn was an 8 and he put me all-in. I decided to fold rather than see his QJ. He may not have had me beat at all, but folding left me with $22k and I thought I could still make some noise with that amount.

I lasted a little while, but no magic happened and I busted out in 55th place, winning $460 or so, basically paying me for both tourneys, which had cost me $431. So much has to go right in these big events. If I keep playing them every Sunday, eventually I'll catch some breaks. This is two weeks out of three that I have had the chip lead in the Full Tilt event with under 100 players remaining. Last time I played destructively, but this time I just got unlucky. Maybe next time I'll get lucky.

Since I wasn't out any money, I was able to shake off the inevitable Sunday post-majors grumpy feeling and had a swim and a barbecue with the family. It was a perfect day - lots of time with the family coupled with lots of time playing poker. Saturday, when I had two dozen kids at my house, a ten-year old boy said to me, "let me get this straight - you play poker for a living and you used to work at Walt Disney World? What a life!" I'm glad I can be an inspiration to the youth. Remember kids, careers are for suckers. Just have fun your whole life and marry somebody stable.