Hate the Rake

There is surely no bigger pain in the arse on this plane of existence than having to go outside and rake the leaves (what, you were expecting a different kind of rake?). Wait, I partially take that back. There is surely no bigger pain in the arse on this plane of existence than having to go outside and rake wet leaves. And so we find that a truism in micro-stakes poker is also a truism in life. To wit: you can't beat the rake.

I've been pondering a philosophical question today. If you work for a company in which you have never stepped foot in their building and never actually met face to face with anyone who works there (including your manager), are you actually an employee? It would seem so because I attended the company Christmas (sorry, "Holiday") party last night. The gathering took place at beautiful and historic Normandy Farms and was well attended...and I didn't know a soul. In my book, that's the good news.

The better news was an open bar. The bad news was that the only bourbon was Jim Beam white label. I managed to get one of those down over lots of ice. From there I decided to move on to Crown Royal. Not something I would necessarily buy, but it was an adequate repast for the evening (broken up by some red wine for dinner). My lovely bride and I stayed for cocktail reception, dinner and awards presentation, then got out of Dodge to rescue my parents from the kids. Supposedly my aforementioned manager was in attendance...I still haven't met her.

When I got home I was smart enough to realize that I was in no shape to play poker for real money, but I had an itch that needed scratching. I jumped into a couple freerolls; one for Aussie Millions qualifier, and one for Poker after Dark. These are always fun to goof around in and to see if there is anyway you can irritate people who are actually taking them seriously. I decided to play as normally as I could for as long as I could (being half in the bag as I was). In the PAD, I made it to the final two tables before the urge to donk became too great.

In the Aussie, it was clearly impossible for me to play bad enough. As a result, this happened.

Okay, stop it, I'm embarrassed enough as it is. Round two was this afternoon. Of course I forgot about it and I missed a majority of the beginning (I was on the roof scooping a mixture of leaves and ice cold water out of the gutters - still better than raking). When I actually figured out I was in the middle of a tournament I was down to about 780 in chips. Nothing really happened after that except for a fairly typical exit. Dealt 88 in MP. I shove for 800 and change and I get one caller out of the blinds who shows 66. No, he didn't spike his 2 outer. He four flushed me. Sure...why not.

I also helped out Riggstad earlier by playing the first hour and change of a freeroll he qualified for. I will not step on some good stories he is sure to tell. I would like to say I had him in good position when he took over. I was up to 5600 at one point. But one bad read and one lost race had him down to about 2600 when he jumped in. The rest is his tale.