The First Important Post In This Blog

"So, this is it," I thought to myself as I unlocked the front door. The day of The Big Announcement had finally arrived.

Of course, it wasn't a Big Announcement to my roommates. It wasn't even really an announcement, they've known for weeks. Here in the blog I've been delaying, teasing, and avoiding the Big Announcement for so long that I finally stopped posting just to stop talking about it. What can I say? I'm going to go on record as saying that I may yet become known as the Slowest Blogger Ever.

I wasn't expecting much from the roommates, to be honest, but I'd hoped for more than I got. An empty mansion greeted me. Well, two cats greeted, and my cat was doubtlessly asleep in bed upstairs. All (empty mansion included) displayed the indifference to my happy news that I had expected.

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Saturday night we held the 160 Zillion Dollar Championship here at The Mansion Casino. I should note that this has little to do with The Big Announcement, but I mention it as the semi-interesting poker-related news. I didn't really pay as much attention as I should have, took no notes whatsoever, and folded The Hammer UTG on the first hand. I'm pretty much a disgrace to the blogger community. In general, however, I played better than I've ever played.

CC#9, our only n00b in the championship, went out first unfortunately. He overplayed top pair, a common mistake, but he seemed to have a good time and I think he'll be willing to play again. He certainly seems like the type who'll pick up the game pretty quickly, and former RPG'ers can bluff with the best of them.

Next out was Sport, probably our second-best female player, who just couldn't seem to get in the groove all night. She'll also be back, doubtlessly, although we may yet convince her to wear a sexy dealer outfit and deal the whole night. Hmm.... maybe if put up her buy-in for the game.

The Spoiled Brat (that's my wife, her nickname not mine) may have gone out next. She was distracted by Somebody Else's Problem (an NPC who showed up early in the game unexpectedly) and tried to pick off a bluff that wasn't a bluff. She'll get lucky sometime, but the big field and constant distractions hurt her focus too much.

Nickname was out fourth, an ignomious end for our leader in ITMs for the 160 Zillion Dollar Challenge. He had a bad case of second-best-itis all night and chipped down into the danger zone. He ended up all-in against a worse hand twice, splitting one and losing the second to put him out.

Next out was DD, my aerodynamically curvaceous roommate whose Official Nickname escapes me for he moment. She's another near-beginner, and still has a tendency to see too many flops and fold to weak bets. She was lower in chips than Tophatronic, my other roommate and her husband, so he was technically out next. I sucked them both out of the tournament on my one lucky catch in The Duff Light Hand of the Championship.

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I was in the BB, Toph, DD, BMW and Dealer (his name, not the button) limp to me, and I look down to find 66. I've built up a pretty good chip stack at this point, and the blinds were high enough to put a lot of money in the pot. I had everyone but Toph covered by a good margin. Toph is generally weak and will fold rather than coinflip, and I was more than willing to flip anyone else for their stack to push myself into the chip lead. After a quick look at BMW and Dealer to make sure they aren't looking tricky, I went all-in.

I knew I was in trouble when Toph called immediately. DD called the rest of her stack, which was not terribly much at this point, and the others layed it down as expected. "All I've got is sixes," I say, flipping them up. I'm looking at Toph's cards, because I know it's an overpair, and sure enough he flips cowboys. Meg has A7, so we do have a horserace, but I'm pretty much dead to a 6 here.

"Nice limp under the gun with kings," I say to my roommate.

"Um, I was in the big blind," he says. "I was about to make a raise myself." I look down at the deck and realize he's right. I had put in the wrong blind, and hadn't even glanced at him. He'd been playing tight-agressive all night and I was sure he hadn't limped with a big hand. Well, he hadn't. Limped, that is.

"I'd like to see a six on the flop," I close my eyes and say to no one in particular. "Maybe the second card."

I open my eyes to see the six of spades in the middle of the flop. I had caught the antichrist. No one else improved, Toph turned out to be just slightly behind me in chips, and I doubled up and took a commanding chip lead.

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The rest of the tournament was a cakewalk. While most of our best players were left, none of them had seen me with a big chip stack for a while, and none of them had ever really managed to counter it very effectively. Professer took out Dealer in fifth, giving him second chip lead.

We spent a long time on the bubble, with me bullying and buying blinds and orphaned pots and Professer picking up the slack when I folded my crap hands. KareBear doubled BMW up when he won a race with sailboats, then I did the same for her when she picked them up the next hand. KareBear ended up all-in in the blinds three more times waiting for the perfect hand to come, but it never did and she eventually bubbled out. A close call for our second in ITMs and perhaps the tables most dangerous threat.

From there I bullied my way to the title. BMW had some play left, but couldn't catch cards at the right time. I called his post-flop all-in with a flush draw and gutshot and hit the spade on the river to knock him out.

At this point I had a massive chip-lead on the Professer and he had to fold too often to my raises on marginal hands. Eventually I whittled him down until I could afford to double him up if need be and just started pushing blind. The third time, he called with KJo to my Q5o. He flopped top pair with a J, but I caught a backdoor flush with the queen of hearts to knock him out in second and take the title.

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I don't want to make a big deal about it, but the game meant a lot to me, and so does the win. Thanks to everyone who made it, and to anyone who couldn't we'll keep having The 160 Zillion Dollar Challenge every few weeks for as long as my roommates let me. Details available upon request.

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Meanwhile, back in the present, I awoke from my nap before the wretched alarm. I went downstairs and loaded the dishwasher before I went upstairs to tell the roommates. "I talked to my boss today," I said by way of greeting. "He sayeth unto me, 'November Ninth'."

"That's Kristeen Young's old band," Toph tells me.

"Also my last day of work. It would have been November 6, but this person is out, then that person is out, so we can't get it accomplished until the next Tuesday." This has been one of my biggest complaints about the place. It takes forever to get anything done. Everyone in management jealously guards their power by refusing to delegate, but is frequently out of the office, so nothing ever gets accomplished.

I explained all this to my boss in my resignation letter. I had given it to him six weeks ago. The reason I was still working at all is a whole 'nother story. Maybe later. For now, there is only one point.

The Big Announcement

As of November 10, 2005, I will be playing poker professionally.

I'm sure I'll talk more about this. Let the beratings commence.

posted by Captain Freeman @ 2:11 AM