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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Felicia Lee Dyer's LiveJournal:
| Sunday, April 13th, 2008 | |
| 9:51 am | Quotes Some new quotes that I've found recently (I'm a quote hound, btw). "How You Carry Yourself Means More Than Having a Perfect Body" --Carson Kressley "Make your mess your message" --Robin Roberts' Mom |
| Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 | |
| 12:49 pm | LTNS I know I've been MIA for a long time, but some physical problems have rendered me virtually unable to post. Hopefully I will be back soon. Felicia :) |
| Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 | |
| 11:04 am | Update and Thanks For All of the Well Wishes! I'm still doing pretty well. I've had some odd things happen in the past couple of weeks, but I consider them odd, rather than painful. One thing is that my present feeding tube is somehow alive and wants out! I find when I'm laying on my back, at times, I get this pinching feeling where the tube is hanging out of my stomach (like right below the skin). It pinches and pinches, tightening up, then POP! Something rises up from under my skin, slightly above where the hole is. It sticks up like Alien, then goes away. All of this takes just seconds, but it is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Plastic alien trying to explode out of my stomach. The doctors haven't been able to figure out what is making it do that, so they are considering just taking it out. I haven't used it for feeding purposes in about a month, anyway. I wonder if I should ask if I can keep it as a souvenir. Maybe I can get it to pop up after it's been removed, and put it on display. The second weird thing happening, is that last Wednesday I got a fever, which produced chills and cold sweats. I have never had "hot flashes" or "cold sweats" before, so this was a new experience for me. One day, I believe Saturday, I went through about five changes of clothing. It was amazing, I would just sweat completely through my clothes. They were damp and wet, really wet. It was something new. It seems to be going away now, but we never found out what was causing it. I read on the internet and it seems that this symptom alone could be one of thousands of medical issues. Oh, well. I was never really in pain, just sweating my butt off. I didn't sleep well for about five nights, but it is receding now, and I slept about 13 hours straight. Good times. Welp, there you have it from the gimp. I still have the feeding tube sticking out of my belly, still have the Picc line sticking out of my arm. So I'm still homebound, in that respect, but probably not for long! As soon as I get these two things yanked, I'm back to cruising! Felicia :) |
| Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 | |
| 9:11 am | No Snake Eyes! I got lucky again. Yeah, I know, most of you (except maybe Dan and Drizz) are thinking, "WTF, she is sick all the time, how did she get lucky?" But the thing is, every time I've been diagnosed with a life threatening disease, I make my point somehow. Like when I got cancer. Yeah, it was bad, but when they tested my lymph nodes, liver, brain, bones and lungs to see if it had spread, I came out clean. So I was lucky in a way. Chop off the boobs and I'm home free. Well, it looks as if I may have gotten lucky with the Pancreatitis, too. See, lots of people never find out what gave them pancreatitis. It could be a ton of things. In my case, they have said it could have been chemo, stomach surgery, gall bladder surgery, etc. I will probably never know. The important thing is knowing what is causing the attacks at that time. About 40% of people with chronic pancreatitis never find out what the cause is, and that is horrible for them, because there is no cure. Gastroenterologists treat the source of the pancreatitis, not the actual disease itself. So I went down to Tucson with feelings of anxiety, excitement and dread. On Wednesday, we arrived at the hospital at 1pm. I was supposed to have surgery at 2:30. Well, that came and went. There was some kind of emergency which took the anesthesiologist to another OR and I was put on the back burner, along with another patient of Dr. Cunningham. They asked me if I wanted to stay and maybe start around 6pm, or if I wanted to come back the next morning. I chose the next morning. I'd rather have my surgeon fresh, instead of sitting around all day angry because they took every anesthesiologist at a huge hospital like UMC. We came back the next day. I was considerably less anxious, possibly due to taking a Temazepam before we left the hotel. I told everyone and their pet dog about my two other recovery experiences at the hospital. I made sure they all knew how I had been under treated and was screaming my head off in recovery. They said that is the reason I'd been moved to this OR, instead of the radiology's OR. I still wasn't satisfied, so I kept pressing it to everyone who passed my way, including the janitors ;) I told them that if they planned to treat me with something like .5 mg's of Dilaudid like last time, just forget it. I get 4 mg's in the ER when I have an attack. So obviously .5 is not even going to touch surgical pain. Finally they kept a promise, and my recovery was much better. I was hoping that by virtue of the fact that the surgeon was going to use the hole in my stomach for the ERCP versus going endoscopically, I would be somewhat protected from having an attack. The number one side effect of an ERCP is a pancreatic attack. Unfortunately, Cunningham said that my chances were just as high, but that he found that putting a small stent in the duct before finishing up reduced the incidents of pancreatitic attacks to a fraction. He was right, I didn't have an attack. Got lucky again!! And my very best luck came when he clearly saw that my sphincter of oddi was completely shut. That is what he thought after the testing I'd had all summer, and he was right. So he did a sphincterotomy. He cut through the duct in order to open it, then sewed it all the way around to keep it open. Unfortunately, he found another place that shut off. My main biliary duct was stuck closed as well. And he couldn't open it. He said he tried and tried for over an hour, but couldn't get it open. He said that hopefully the oddi was causing my pancreatitis, not the biliary, and I wouldn't have any problems in the future. If, however, the biliary starts to cause pain and attacks, he said he will go through my side and cut that one open. He said it was no big deal, and likely I wouldn't have future attacks. Also, my pancreas showed no signs of permanent damage. That means I have acute pancreatitis, not its more dangerous cousin chronic pancreatitis. So I got lucky there, too! Good luck all around. I just stayed one night at the hospital this time. I couldn't wait to get out of there. I'd forgotten just how horrible it is, even though this time I had a private room. I begged to be let out early, and since I'd tolerated three meals (two liquid meals, one soft food meal), they let me free. We stayed two more nights at the hotel before attempting to drive home, then we headed home on Sunday. It took us about 7.5 hours this time, due to frequent stops, but I made it pretty well, having kept myself drugged up so that I wouldn't be in pain. Now it's Tuesday, and my stomach is still doing well. They didn't take out the feeding tube, just in case it was the biliary duct and I have another attack. That way I can still survive if I'm no longer able to eat again. They also left the PICC line in, just in case. The stent is supposed to fall out on it's own and be digested. I will get a stomach x-ray in three weeks, and if it's still there, I'll have to have it taken out via surgery again. But most times they fall out like they are supposed to. If it is gone, I'm supposed to go see Cunningham again in a month and he will take out the tube and sew me up for good. So there is my story of rolling the dice and getting extremely lucky. I almost feel guilty, because there are so many people suffering with chronic pancreatitis that never goes away, and they cannot find the source. These people live on pain medicine and pancreatic enzymes. They have trouble eating and some have permanent feeding tubes. Their lives are horrible, they are homebound and in incredible pain. Someday I hope doctors can find a cure for this awful disease. As for now, I'm being cautiously optimistic. I hope I stay lucky! Felicia :) |
| Monday, October 8th, 2007 | |
| 10:01 am | Some Good News The pain block went very well. I got three bags of IV solution (they said I was extremely dehydrated). So that was a plus. When I woke up, that was the first time I'd ever woken up in a recovery room not in horrible pain. Sure, I know, I wasn't expecting pain for getting a block, but it just felt odd, because all of the other times I've woken up I've been in pain. I think the block worked, but I haven't had any pancreatitis attacks to test it (and certainly don't want one!). I did have another attack two days before the block (Tuesday, September 25th). I was so disappointed. I was really hoping this was behind me. Eventually I had to go to the ER, although we tried to head it off at the pass here at home. In the ER I got dilaudid, zofran and phenergan. Once my pain was under control, my PCP called to say that if I didn't want to be admitted, that was fine, since my labs weren't elevated (most times they aren't, during an attack). So I got to go home and sleep comfortably. I saw another doctor in the PCP practice. My regular PCP wasn't working. This doctor seemed a lot more familiar with pancreatitis and said that if it is sphincter of oddi, then there is nothing I could have done NOT to have the attack. So he said not to beat myself up over my diet, even if I am trying to stay as low-fat as possible. That made sense. Hopefully when I have surgery on October 3rd (the exploratory one up the feeding tube), he will find it is SOD and be able to do a sphincterotomy at that time and I'll get some relief. Until then, I have the block to protect against the worst of the pain (I pray!), and I have a PICC line now to aid them in giving me IV fluids, pain meds, nausea meds and to take labs. I also have the feeding tube if I find myself NPO. The tube is in the jejunum, which is past the pancreas, so it doesn't cause attacks. At least I have that! Look for another update later today (post surgery). Cheers, Felicia :) |
| Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 | |
| 12:28 pm | Short Update It's been three months, and now I'm finally starting to be able to keep things down. Of course, the diet is totally the opposite of my former diet (high protein, high fat, low carbs). It is weird going back on all of the things I've been doing for a decade. It feels all wrong, but I'll do just about anything to keep myself from ever having another attack again. I'm going to have a third surgery, an exploratory one, within the next couple of weeks. I have a tube sticking out of my stomach, and he is going to go up that tube with a camera and look through my entire system. Since he can't do the traditional ERCP, he put a feeding tube in my old stomach, and is going to use the tube to look. Very inventive. He was the only GI willing to go the extra mile. All of the others just sent me to another hospital, or sent me home to die. So I got really lucky there. Hopefully he'll find that it was acute pancreatitis, not chronic after all, and I can come back home and live a somewhat normal life, with this never happening again. I have only had one attack since I came home on September 4th, and I went to the ER. They were unable to get an IV in, but gave me some IM painkillers and anti-nausea meds. As soon as the attack was stablized, they sent me home. I'm okay with that. Yesterday I had another PICC line put in at the hospital. It will let docs put an IV through and give me meds that way. On Thursday I'm having a Celiac Plexus Block. I have read that Pancreatitis is the second most painful disease in the world, bone cancer being number one. Coming from someone who seems to be ill all the time (damned inbred genes), I can say with candor that Pancreatitis is the worst thing I've ever felt in my life. The pain is so unbelievable, so horrible, that it's almost impossible to explain. During attacks, if given the choice of riding out the attack with no help, or dying and having it be over immediately, I would choose 100 out of 100 times to die at that moment. Luckily, I seem to be recovering, albeit so slowly. Thank God. Hope you are all doing well! Felicia :) |
| Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 | |
| 9:23 am | Still Waiting I just arrived home for a week. I've been in the hospital for most of the past two months. It sure hasn't been fun. Now I have a feeding tube sticking out of my stomach. I still can't eat. I have a machine that pumps liquid food in. In about a week I am going to have another surgery to make the hole bigger. The doctor wants a big hole so that he can take a camera and look inside of my anatomy to find out what is causing such horrible pancreatitis. I will take about a month to heal from that second surgery next week, and then the exploratory one. Hopefully after that there will be some kind of cause known, and then I can live a relatively normal life again and get off of this tube and back home for good. I am being treated by a guy who specializes in pancreatitis, mostly very tough cases. He is from UMC down in Tucson, which is about 5-6 hours from here, but seems worth it, as no one else wanted my case and basically just sent me home to die. Thanks for all of the e-mails. I hope I have better news soon. Felicia :) |
| Thursday, July 19th, 2007 | |
| 11:10 am | Back in Hospital I had a bit of a set-back and am in the local hospital here until they can find a space at Mayo. They have free wifi here, so I should be able to update the situation. If I am unable to type, Glenn will give some updates. Felicia :) |
| Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 | |
| 6:46 pm | Pancreatitis I have been in the hospital for almost three weeks. I am being transferred to Mayo (if they can find an opening, that is). I have Pancreatitis, but they cannot find the cause (there is no treatment or cure for Pancreatitis, just for the cause of it). I will be back as soon as I am able. Felicia :) |
| Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 | |
| 11:21 am | Let's Make a Deal! You need to protect yourself when you play poker. When I make a deal with someone, I make sure it is explained thoroughly, and that we both have an understanding. Then, I hang out around them, hovering in the poker room, until I see what the conclusion is, and get my fair share. I haven't been burned yet, but I think people are hesitant to scam me, because I'm such a witch and they fear not paying me off. One time a guy at the Belle tried to make a deal with me at the FT. He said something like, "How about we split it up right now?" He seemed like a scumbag, so I asked, "In what way? Explain how we would split it?" He said, "I'll take first, John takes second, you take third." I asked, "Okay, now when you said first, second, third, are you talking about points for the free WPT event, or what?" He said, "No, I mean we just end the tournament right now, with the chips as they are, and I'll take first prize money, John takes second...blah, blah." I laughed in his face. Like I'm going to stop the event when I've got 3rd place money wrapped up and am freerolling for the win! Unfortunately, I've seen many people fall for this trick, as well as others, so many times in the past. So today I'm going to tell you a story that should make you very cautious in your dealings with "poker people," aka scumbags. I'm telling it as fiction, to protect both myself and the innocent party who told me the story, but I believe it's probably fact, or very close to it, at any rate. Five years ago I met this guy. We seemed to have a lot in common. We both liked the same games, we both seemed, on the surface to be straight up, candid people. Within a year, however, I got a feeling that this guy was not who he seemed. People warned me. I rarely listen to gossip, but this was a case of there being so much smoke that there must be some fire nearby. I just simply put up my radar of caution, and never thought about it again. Sure enough, he seemed to just LOVE me in person, I was his favorite chick. But I started hearing things about myself behind my back that were coming from him, and weren't true, or were true, but were contrary to the things he was saying to my face. One day I finally caught him, as he had written something, in print. That severed the relationship right there. I have not given him two moments of thought since then. I have seen him on the circuit here and there, but since I've been sick, and he doesn't play many events, he wasn't hard to ignore. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago he I saw him. Suddenly he was all friendly again. I tried to ignore it, but I simply remained slightly polite without really engaging. A few days later, I bought into an event. He and a woman he knows got seated at the same table, and didn't want to play together. They asked me if I wanted to exchange seats. Being the creep I am, and having an end seat, I said no. But this is where it all goes FUBAR. Seeing a friend of mine in the line, and trying to make a connection on this, they asked if he would switch seats. No biggie. The seats are randomly chosen, it's no big deal. But in retrospect I hate that my name was used to make this connection. What I didn't know, is that while getting to know my friend, by claiming to be a friend of mine, something was said like, "Well, if this is a lucky seat after all, we could trade 10% of each other, so that no one loses if one of us cashes." My friend is a super laid back guy, so he says yes to this, thinking it's a no lose situation. My friend busts out. I bust out. The seat exchanger, however, not only goes on to cash, but makes a deal for about 5k since it's so late. Fast forward...It's late at night and my friend is playing in a cash game, but also is wandering around a lot, to try to stay alert. He has forgotten all about the 10% exchange, and about the whole thing in general. He is super cool, and would never have thought of it again, had this not happened to him... He is standing around, just walking and playing since it's late. Suddenly, the wife of the seat exchanger comes up to him and starts talking about how her husband made the money, blah, blah. Then she goes on to say, "But you know, the 10% exchange doesn't apply here, because the seat we traded was mine, not his." A total lie, obviously, but my friend is joe cool. He really couldn't care less. He says something like, "Oh, um, I thought we were just joking around anyway. No sweat." To add insult to injury, she now adds something like, "Oh, btw, here is my card. If you are ever in the market for a new car, call me!" And walks away. SCUM! Piece of crap can't even honor his agreement for a lousy $500! Now, the only reason this story was told to me, is because last night I saw my friend, and he said, "Yeah, that friend of yours has been running really well, he chopped a couple tourneys here and cashed at Rio, etc." I made sure to tell him that the scumbag is NO friend of mine. That opened him up to the story and he said, "Hmm, speaking of scum..." And proceeded to tell me what happened. So that is my "story." I have changed some facts and switched things a little so that everyone is protected here. I couldn't care less about the scumbag, but I don't want my friend to get into deep doo, nor do I want to get more death threats or threats of libel. Shoot, that will probably happen anyway. But I feel somewhat protected by my integrity. Please, poker people, protect yourself. Get things in writing if you don't feel like you may get paid. Watch, listen. Don't make deals, trades or back someone unless you feel 100% confident that things are on the up and up. My friend never would have thought about this trade had the wife not directly approached him. He wouldn't have felt he was being ripped off, wouldn't have felt he was being taken advantage of. He would never have given it a second thought. Instead, they insulted him and scammed him. And you'd better bet that if HE'D been in the money, they would have been right there, dirty, greedy, cheating hands stuck out for their 10% cut. A lesson. Please learn it. Felicia |
| 10:59 am | Prelude to a Story of Caution and Warning Sometimes I hate the poker world. Well, a lot of times I do. Shady and underhanded things seem to be happening on a regular basis. I have always steered clear of that element. I will not softplay Glenn, nor will he me. I do not cheat, period. If I see an exposed card at the other end of the table, I make sure ALL of the players know what that card is, not just me. Sometimes I "give up" after a while, when one player exposes his cards over and over again despite numerous warnings from me and the dealer, but I really try not to look. It is said that integrity is a good shield. I am fortunate that I have been shielded from so many things in this world. One advantage to being such a witch is that I know that no matter the story circulated about me, I figure the truth is probably worse than the rumor, lol. I know how people make up things, it makes me ill. For instance, the nicest poker person I know will leave the poker room, and immediately someone has something to say about him being a creep, or a cheat, or whatever. I want to LOL at this, because if they are telling tales about the greatest person I know, I can just imagine what they say about me. Fortunately, I'm probably just as bad, if not worse, than any rumor they might circulate, hence I don't care, nor do I even want to know. I do practice a form of bluntness to such an extreme that I am shielded by virtue of that fact alone. For instance, I steer well clear of Men and Bonetti. I don't do the fake politeness in their company in order to keep the peace. I simply don't engage, period. Scum like that do not even exist, in my world, so I am partially protected by staying away. I will welcome, however, the placement of RFID chips, so that the playing field will be somewhat leveled again. I simply cannot believe that Rio is letting players play in two and three events at the same time, with the same chips, and virtually no cameras trained on tables. But that is not my problem, since I am not playing at Rio this year. The suckers will continue to buy in, even though the field is not level, and there is so much team play as well as palming chips. But that is not the purpose of this story. This story is perhaps fact, perhaps not, but I am going to present it as fiction, because that way, I am not spreading gossip and rumors. I am not libeling anyone. I accept as fact the story told to me last night, but I know that I could be wrong. I rang as truthfulness to me. I trust the teller as he has no reason to lie, it won't help or hurt if he does. So on that basis alone, it seems to be 100% truthful. Since I was not present for part two, however, I will present it as fiction. I only pass on this story so that others may be better able to protect themselves in the slimy world of tournament poker. Please check back soon, Felicia :) |
| 9:49 am | WSOP Razz A friend of mine, Katja, won the Razz event at Rio last night. Woohoo, go Kat! |
| 9:32 am | Presto, Presto. The Bane of my Existence! I'm running weird, but good again. Presto is my personal bane. In the tourney last night, I was cruising along at about 20k in chips when this hand happened. I was on the button. We had tons of limpers at the 200/400 level. Assuming both blinds would play, there would be eight limpers altogether. I decided to limp with AKo and see if I could make a big hand (I sometimes do this; rare, but at times). The flop came KK2 rainbow and it was passed to me. I only bet about 800. I was called in maybe three places. The turn brought a total blank, maybe a seven. No straight or flush possible, obviously. I bet more and was called by two places, one whom had to go all-in with his case 1k. The river was a five. The all-in player showed presto and I won a smallish sidepot. I lost money on the hand and was down to about 13k. I never won another hand and was out of the tourney in 7th place with A7o versus ATo and Glenn's AA. Glenn went on to win. I sat down in a cash game. There were no 4/8 games going, so I had to play that crummy spread limit game. I had ATo in LP. Flop AKJ. Bet the max, got called by one player. Turn brings a club. Bet again, called. River brings third club, a five. He bets right out. Guess his flush got there. No. He turns over pocket fives. Presto. Ya killin me! I must look like the world's biggest bluffer. Glenn started running well again. On Monday he chopped the tourney four ways. I was the bubble girl. I was fortunate, however, because obviously Glenn and I share a bankroll, plus a dealer at RS asked me if I wanted part of his action if I gave him a rebuy ($30). This was a great deal for me, as the dealer was already the chip lead at our table and definitely didn't even need the rebuy. Not sure why he wanted that, but it was a horrible deal for him and a great one for me. So I gave him a rebuy and got 50%. Awesome. I heard a horrifying story last night from a friend of mine. I don't know how I'm going to write about it, and what I'm going to say, but suffice it to say that anything involving money is a shady biz. Poker has been shady since the beginning, no doubt, and it doesn't seem to get better. In this instance, though, I'm involved, because my name was mentioned and might have had something to do with the scam going over. I HATE that. God, why can't people be straight up. Okay, so I'm going to think on this one a while, then find a way to talk about it. We might head up to Vegas again on Sunday for some PLO8. I'll let you know. Felicia :) |
| Saturday, June 16th, 2007 | |
| 9:56 am | A Runaway Train Wreck We decided to head back up to Binion's on Tuesday afternoon after all. Really bad decision. Glenn was feeling better, true, but the temps were well above 100 and the "new" car (a 1994) couldn't keep up with the heat. I guess we need to get the a/c serviced. The coolant just can't take the extremes. So we were very hot and miserable by the time we got downtown. On the up side, the BMW is getting over 30 mpg, whereas our gas guzzling SUV was only getting about 18 mpg on the highway. So the $500 NLHE was already in progress. The stacks were deep, and it took a long time for the field to really thin. Great turnout. Glenn was too late to enter, but I was happy to see them getting good business. I figured I'd play the PLO event if I made my buy-in. I didn't. I guess it was time for my good run to end, but I never expected it to end in such an explosion. I didn't win all evening on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning I figured I'd sit down and maybe things would turn around. On my first hand, I had AA and bet and raised into a guy who was a calling station. In a shorthanded game, heads-up, I still couldn't beat Q3. Yes, he came the whole way with me, with Q3. Maybe he thought I was coming to the table and trying to bully the players. Maybe he thought I was bluffing. But truly, what kind of hand can Q3 beat? Obviously, if one stays to the river, it can beat aces, lol ;) I should have just called it a wash and quit for the day. Instead, I played on, in a myriad of games: 4/8 LHE, 1/2 NLHE, 4/8 O8, 4/8 HORSE, etc. And I lost in every one. I lost five buy-in's on Wednesday, almost always going in with the best of it. I think five buy-in's is my personal best. I couldn't beat anyone. Not the passive granny calling stations, not the hyper aggressive asians, not the methed out abusive all-inner, not the every hand $25 to-go blind raiser, not the first-time-playing-poker-because-I-saw-i Things turned around somewhat on Thursday, but by then I'd just had enough. Enough of the smelly crackheads downtown, enough of the hookers trying to make a buy-in, enough of the woman with open, oozing and bleeding sores all over her arms but still wearing a wife-beater, enough of everyone. Glenn couldn't make a hand in the Thursday event, and was licking his wounds. We retired early and just laid in bed together, watching TV (since we don't have it at home, every show is fresh and something different). We decided to go home early on Friday (yesterday), and haven't left the house since. Tournament poker isn't for me, blah. I keep telling myself this, I keep telling the world this, and yet, I keep playing, like a junkie. I don't have the stamina and feel beat up whenever we come home. It takes me days to recover, and I don't feel any satisfaction from it, even when I play well. The thing is, I like playing Stud games, and don't get the chance to play them very often, so the tournament arena is perfect for that. Plus the camaraderie among the circuit players. Those two incidentals keep me playing something where I have proven to myself I am dead money. What a moron. In another discovery, I found that Glenn is not suited for the tournament circuit, either. I had hopes that he had matured in the past year, to the extent that he could handle the swings, the beats, the long hours. Well, hours he can handle, but the other two are impossible for him. He simply takes things personally. Like that guy with the 93o really had it out for him when he called all-in against Glenn's jacks. He can't seem to get past the reality that bad players don't always know that they are making huge mistakes. To him, it is hurtful and they are doing it out of spite or malice. Ah, well. For now he can continue to function like a machine at Riverside, getting into the money about 50% of the time or more (I know, it sound impossible, but that man is like a robot). Big tourneys aren't suited for Glenn's personality. He is a small timer, and that is fine with me. I am, too. Yet a third revelation was cemented in my brick-like brain while we were at Binion's. We both would succeed better at poker were we not attached at the hip. This is a problem for many couples, I am sure. It's not that Glenn hurts my playing, nor vice versa, it's just that I will stick around longer when I should leave, because Glenn is running good. Or I will leave early when I'm running well because Glenn is not. It's a bad situation. I think probably all couples go through this if both of them are into poker. When Glenn was gone to NC, I had no problem running up $1500 in three days. I also had no problem getting out of the room when I was running bad one day and dumped $250 in little time. But when Glenn is there, well, my good runs aren't nearly as good, and my bad runs are double. The same goes for him. It's a no-win situation. This is something that isn't going to change. Oddly, some poker players can see their glaring mistakes and leaks when they are running badly. I certainly do. I am not fooling myself into thinking I'm a world-class player. I have never been, even if I was perhaps on the road in that direction five years ago. I am a low roller and a rock. I'm a break even grinder in live play, and a slight winner online. I have never had a winning year live, due to tourney buy-ins. I have always won online, cashing out small amounts here and there, and never busting once in five years (weird, but that is what rocks do best). For now, I'm sick of the trip up to Vegas again (no surprise there, I've never liked Vegas). I won't play the Razz event today, I won't play any events next week, most likely. I might not even go back once during the rest of the series. I'm burnt out. It's back to the RS and their great summer promo, for this grinder. Felicia :) |
| Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 | |
| 8:30 am | Live PLO Anyone? Glenn started feeling a little better yesterday afternoon, so we joined the Riverside tourney last night. I won the first hand with KK, and never won a hand after. I had so many good starting cards, but couldn't steal a pot with a mask and gun. I was one of the first out. Glenn, however, cashed in 5th and got some money out of it. The BB was all-in blind. Glenn had TT and raised the pot. A clueless player cold called with A4o (??). Glenn goes home on the river. The 4/8 game was great, and I doubled my money within the first 30 minutes or so. I lost some back, but after tourney expenses ended up about $175 up, due to a promotion. Today is the event at Binion's I wanted Glenn to play the most. It is a super deep stacked $500 event. He doesn't feel up to playing :( Tomorrow is a PLO event at Binion's, mirroring the $1500 PLO at Rio on Thursday, with good starting chips and a decent structure. I'm thinking of playing. I read on 2+2 that Binion's got a 1/2 blind PLO cash game going the other day. They are having a "Summer Omaha" special. The rake is 5% up to $2 on any Omaha game. Plus players in any game get paid $2/hr. to play, which is good for comps, meals, etc. Plus the room rate is only $29. For a grinder rock like me, these extra goodies are heaven. Between winning so much at cash games, and losing my tourney buy-in's, I'm staying just slightly ahead of the game. So stupid that I can't sit out of tournaments, but dang, how often do I get to play such a myriad of games (online doesn't count!)? Anyway, I'll try to update if we decide to head up there. Felicia :) |
| Monday, June 11th, 2007 | |
| 12:58 pm | Sick Well, we have to postpone a day or two before we head back up to Vegas. Glenn wasn't feeling well when we got up this morning to leave. Felicia :) |
| Sunday, June 10th, 2007 | |
| 7:32 am | Back Home We just got back home for another trip to Vegas. I played in the Stud and the HORSE events at Binion's. Both were run very well. I zoomed up to about 10k in chips (from a starting 4k) in no time at all in Stud. Then some bozo got moved to my right and came in raising with a six doorcard. I had buried kings and didn't put him on buried aces (one dead), so we got into a raising war. By fifth street I was almost certain he was rolled up (all sixes were live) and started calling him down. He turned up a starting hand of 678 (???) and made three running diamonds to give him a flush (???). I was out not long after. In HORSE almost the same thing happened as far as getting an early lead, but then I lost to a big hand in Stud (we both had two big pair by the river) and was out a few minutes later with a hand of A235 hearts first four cards which failed to make a straight or flush, but instead made two small pair and lost to two bigger pair. My friend Tommy, however, traded 10% and cashed, just barely in the money, so I got some of my buy-in back. I've been running almost preternaturally good at cash games. Every time I sign up for a tourney, I sit in a cash game and try to make my buy-in. I've been successful almost every occasion (I didn't have time before the Stud tourney because we left that morning pretty late). Regardless of what game I sit in (NLHE, LHE, Stud, O8, mixed, etc) I seem to win. I am flopping more sets than normal, and they are all holding up. Ditto with two pair, TPTK, etc. Too bad I'm spending all of my winnings at these stupid tournaments. I am a frigging moron. I am, however, not moronic enough to play at Rio. Hearing about all of the abuse just makes me ill. The big players constantly whine, "But the overlay is just soooo good. There is just so much dead money. I have so high EV here..." I don't care how much I stand to earn, I'm not going to get verbally abused by anyone (and then turn around and PAY for the privilege, to boot!). That is just me. Sense takes precedent over money, imo. Harrah's can suck my fat, harry...oh, I'm not a guy after all, forget it ;) Speaking of being a guy, I had my first ever daily double at Riverside a couple of weeks ago. First, I went downstairs to the bathroom during a break. A drunk girl yelled out, "Hey, you can't be in here! You're not a woman!" I answered back, "You want me to prove it?" and acted like I was taking down my jeans. She started back-peddling really fast and apologized profusely (drunkenly). So then, I went back to the poker room and everyone had a laugh. I told them I was up to 16 times since last August, blah, blah, and it was all fun. Later, when we were leaving RS Glenn asked to stop by the upstairs bathroom. Like I've said before, this one is the one I get kicked out of most often. I had a feeling Glenn thought I was exaggerating about the stories and number of times I've been confronted in the bathroom (or at the door). He just seemed kind of skeptical. Like maybe I was saying it to make a good story in the poker room, or online. Well, he got to see it firsthand this time. A total junkie was standing behind us as we entered the bathroom. She called out, "Dude, that is the LADIES bathroom!" She was so completely zoned out that I just didn't say a thing, instead of a snappy comeback that usually escapes my lips. I figured it would be lost on her. I wanted to say, "Get off the meth and maybe you can tell a "dude" from a woman, you mother effing crack-whore!" But like I said, it would be lost on her. Glenn told me that knowing my luck, she'd probably sue me for some kind of slander so that she could buy more meth. At any rate, Glenn got to see firsthand how everyone at Riverside thinks I'm a man. Go figure. I guess I'm the guy I always wanted to be. We should be going back up to Vegas tomorrow. See you when we return! Felicia :) |
| Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 | |
| 11:28 am | Home For a Day Well, I busted out of the O8 event about 75th. Great turn-out, very well run event. Binion's was also having a special on certain cash games. Rake was only 5% up to $2, and no BBJ drop. Awesome! For the lower buy-in events, they aren't running any sats, but I was able to make my buy-in before the tournament, due to the softest ever cash games. They had 1/2 blind NLHE and 4/8 half kill O8. Both were some of the softest games I've ever experienced, and I have a lot of live experience. Glenn couldn't make a hand to save his life. Poor Glenn, still running bad. I made a huge mistake while at Binion's, however. I thought I had lost my seat cushion, and was scrambling around at the last minute looking for it. No go. So I figured I'd just use one at Binion's. No go. I guess people nicked them for souvenirs or something. They did not have even one. So I tried to ride it out on those horrific chairs. Twelve hours later I was very stiff and in lower back pain. I couldn't even fall asleep until maybe 4am, having tossed and turned for four hours (poor Glenn). When I woke up on Tuesday I was pretty miserable. I knew there was no way I'd be able to play the HORSE event at Venetian. Jordan was going, and said that the chairs there were so awesome that I'd have no trouble without a cushion, but the damage was already done, so I knew I'd be in pain and dead money. My mistake. Won't happen again. Glenn already scoured the house and found the cushion. I should have had Glenn run out to a store while I was playing, but he was running so badly, and trying to make a hand, so I didn't have the heart. We are headed back up tomorrow morning for the Stud event, then Friday HORSE at Binion's. $29 rooms, can't beat it! I went by Rio on Monday night and sure enough, first person I found was Max. He was short stacked in the PLO event, but still hanging on. Barry and Ted were busted out, but I saw lots of good friends like Greg, John C and quite a few others. That is the number one thing I miss about not playing on the circuit. The friendships I made are very valuable to me. I can't wait to see Ted & Barry next time. Hope all are well. Felicia :) |
| Monday, June 4th, 2007 | |
| 7:59 am | We're Off Well, we're about to head out. Received an e-mail from Barry telling me he'd see me there. I can find Max like radar. I never seem to have trouble seeing him, wherever I go. Haven't seen Ted since last series, so I can't wait to see him. Miss Ted. He reminds me so much of Glenn, and I can never get enough Glenn (his personality, his warmth). I would have written, but Ted doesn't respond much to e-mail, and I hate phones, so we are at an impasse. The unlimited rebuy PLO is tonight at Rio, so I should be able to find the higher limit friends I have easily even if I don't bust out at Binion's until very late (I believe they played until like 3-4am this morning for the Stud 8/O8 event). Hope to see some of you there! Felicia :) |
| Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 | |
| 10:03 am | T-Minus One Since I'm not done with my tournament story yet, while Glenn was gone to NC a couple of weeks ago, I'll try to update what has been going on since, without ruining the story. What can I say, I suck at writing/blogging/journaling. With me, everything is jumbled and backwards. I'm shocked anyone wants to read anything I write, yet I get requests all the time. Go figure. I have been running pretty well. Unfortunately, Glenn has been running badly since he got home from NC, although he is playing well. Mad suckouts coming his way. For instance, last night in the 2/5 blind NLHE game, he raised up front with AKs. Two lapmonkeys called. The flop came down ace high. Southern CA lapmonkey one had A2o. American-Asian lapmonkey two had J5o. Both went all-in on the turn. LM1 turned a deuce. Two straights were already possible as well as a straight flush draw. LM2 went all-in cuz he hit his five on the flop. It's almost like Commerce all over again. I think they must feel that hold'em is a low card game ;) Glenn saved himself about $300, which is $300 I would have lost in a NY second. He makes good folds, I don't. I, on the other hand, won all night long. I couldn't miss. Bought in for $200, cashed out at $851. Some of it was due to bonuses and high hands, but most was my own hard earned playing. Tournament play has been horrific lately. Just can't seem to get anything going on there, yet get premium hand after premium hand, holding up even, at the cash games. Weird. I even managed quads once and got someone's whole stack. At any rate, I hope things turn around for Glenn, and hold up for me, as we drive to Binion's tomorrow, first thing, for the O8 event. http://www.binions.com/gaming/poker_cla I will try to post more often and really put some effort into this journal this summer. Wishing everyone the best, Felicia :) |