Unfair!

I think picking Barbaro in the dead pool is unfair and it shouldn't be allowed, for the simple fact that they don't euthanize people, unless you count the death penalty, which is specifically not allowed by the rules. While everyone was rooting for Barbaro, that horse basically had the death sentence since last year. Weasel pick, I protest, (although half-heartedly. You can't deny the cleverness of the pick.)

I had a lot of fun in the WPBT kickoff event for 2007 on Sunday, sneaking into the money at 6th place and picking up some highly coveted WPBT POY points. Great to see GCox nail down second place for some nice cash. I felt pretty Fuelish when I overplayed my 55 vs Wonkas QQ (nicely trapped) to cripple myself after holding the lead earlier for all of 15 seconds. Willy was playing pretty Wonky, and even though I think my double-up gave him the lead with five left he aparently didn't get very far. I didn't watch the rest, so maybe he got bad beat up.

Sometimes I think the worst thing that can happen late in tournaments is a burst of cold cards then something marginal like 55 coming along. Your stack is fine, you should play carefully and be able to get away when it's obvious you are beat, but you've got this artificial feeling that you need to make a move because you've been dropping blinds. Patience is a much better play, but the panic of trying to keep up clouds your judgment. I think I still had 20 or so big blinds when I made my big play with 55 after a favorable nine-high flop and a bet from my opponent. Maybe I didn't butcher it too badly and it was just a well played hand by him. Still something I should work on.

Anyway, my tables were mostly fun with characters like Mean Gene, Miami Don, and Carmen San Diego...er...College Park? Towson? (I know she's from the Baltimore area somewhere...) handing out the jabs and pokes. Those folks can dish it out when they really want to.

I don't think I laid a horrendous beat on anyone for the entire tournament, unless you count the hand where someone (Weak Player maybe?) went all in with AT and I called with KK. He flopped an A but I rivered a K for the resuck.

This was definitely not the case in the $8.80 token race I played to get into the tournament, I played like a huge donkey and got lucky on every hand. I rivered a deuce after an A high flop all-in vs. AQ with my A2, cracked AQ with JQ with runner-runner straight (Q-high flop all-in,) and I rivered a straight to crack AA with my own AQ...it was ugly. You cannot beat donkey luck. At least I parlayed that token into some money for once.