Obvious Fore-shadowing

Frank Sinatra: I have an apology to make. I called this woman a $2 whore, I was wrong. She's not worth a buck and a half.

"The Night We Called It a Day"

The cards have finally taken a slightly warmer turn for me, and I have produced a small run of late including a 4 th in a 180 SNG last night. It was great, because I was 25th out of 25 at one stage, and then when we got to the final table (after I knocked out 10th, hooray for me!) I was coming second. In the end I made a desperate all-in pre-flop with Q9o, ran into AK. I had a pair on the flop, a Queen high straight on the turn and that was counterfeited with another queen on the river for the nut straight to my opponent. Can't really argue with the way it ended. I had AA twice, once for a double up and once for a blind steel – but they were both really late in the tournament so even a blind steel was valuable. I had pocket 9's about 6 times though, and I don't think I lost with them once. In fact, that is how I got started really in this tournament. In the early stages, after missing a few flops I was already down to the push or fold stage with 1000 chips left and so I pushed with 99 after some limp attempts, and then I got called 3 times. I was called by AK, AQ and A6. Nobody hit anything, so the nines held. Good for me!

I have been playing at Pokerstars on and off for a few years, my usual low stakes craziness and small buy ins. After such time, I finally cleared their deposit bonus for $120. The bonus itself took just under 12 months to clear. While it is a tough bonus to clear, at least it doesn't have a time limit. And now it is over, I can trade in the FPP for a free hat! How freaking awesome is a free hat? Who am I kidding, it is going on Ebay so fast it will make your head spin. I SAW A Full Tilt hat on their in Australia that went for $50 – that's pretty insane for a plain old hat with a poker room's logo on it (even if it is one of the best poker rooms going around – plug, plug).

I just recently finished reading "Positively Fifth Street" by James McManus, which for those that do not know chronicles his journey through the World Series in 2000 when Jesus Ferguson won, and McManus finished fifth. He was a journalist out in Vegas to cover the event and other things and ended up doing obviously very well.

Most of you have probably heard of it before, if not read it already. It is an interesting read through the World Series and the history of the Binion family from a journalistic point of view, although at times you get the feeling that the tangents are there to fill pages. Perhaps I was just too hungry for more table talk to appreciate the poker history he dives into. But it is well written and another good poker book if you happen to come across it.

Short review, but this book is a couple of years old now so there are plenty of others out there if you are interested.