Unfortunately I have not played poker in about a week, so not much to talk about on that front. I did show the kids the poker hand rankings. The 7 year showed minor interest, but the 4 year old did not care. I did manage to play in a scramble tournament on Saturday. My Dad and I ham and egged it for a round of -2. We had one player who plays once per year and the fourth was a no show due to an injury. We played very well other than blasting our tee shots over the green on a par three. This error caused our only bogie. We had a wonderful dinner at Realle's despite receiving some sad news. We learned that my wife's Uncle passed away on Saturday. This caused a rapid trip to El Paso. We did make the return trip in record time of 9.5 hours. Amazing what gameboys and a VCR can do! Here are some random thoughts so interpret them as you may:

1. 2 Guinness and 4 ibuprofen kick start a round of golf! Two more Guinness keep the round flowing.
2. How can radio reception be so poor between Austin and El Paso. Seriously considering Satellite radio.
3. Never force your religion on someone else.
4. How can Christians believe in the same primary principles, but be so different?
5. Very friendly lady at the Chevron in Harper Texas.
6. Always pick up a bottle of Corralejo and a 6 pk of Indio when in Mexico!
7. Add funeral arrangements into your financial plan!

I am watching the World Poker Tour, but unfortunately it is a rerun! Man what is up with that!

Play on!

It all started with our 4 year old stealing my change from the "junk" drawer. Grand total of maybe $1.17. He wanted me to get the cards out of his game so that we could play poker. Hmmmm! How about if I give him a real deck? So we began teaching him the mechanics of dealing Texas Holdem. Then his sister (7) wanted to play. One hand she got a pair of queens and her eyes lit up like a X-mas tree. I got a king on the river to take her money. I am so mean! She laughed and we continued to play. Well on one hand the four year old checked, then said "I fold". I said are you sure. I not sure, so he puts in another penny. He smoked us with a spade flush. This whole exercise was entertaining, but it caused me to think about how I can teach these young minds how to play poker and how can I learn from them. The next sessions I am going to show them the ranking order and take all my money back! One final note you can play one interesting game of Yugiho with regular deck of cards!!

I had to quickly share a hand of Omaha-8 ($.5/1) from last night at Dynamite Poker. I was dealt KKQJ (QJ were suited). I checked the betting came around to me capped. I called the family pot. The flop brings a K. I do not recall the other cards. The betting comes around to me capped again. I call. The turn did not help. I think the betting checked around this time, so I also checked. A lovely 7 hits the river pairing the board. No possible low hand so I bet out. I pulled down $25 on a single hand. I then proceded to get a nut flush and 4 aces. I finished the session up $35.

I am craving a Guinness! I am playing in a golf tournament on Saturday so I will have to have a Guinness for breakfast. For any golfer that might read this I play my best golf starting out with 2 beers and 4 ibuprofen. Try it it can not hurt.

Stay tuned for lessons from the 4 year old part 2.

It is about time I wrote something. I do have an observation I would like to share about a poker hand I witnessed this Saturday. Unfortunately for me our 4 year old would not go to sleep. It was midnight and the little rascal was still awake. I finally showed up at the poker tournament to just miss the $20 buy-in ($900 in chips) loser tournament. The $50 buy-in main event had already been completed. A newcomer walked away with the cash. Any rate I decided to enjoy a cold beer, watch, and learn. There are two hands in particular that stick out at me.

I was standing behind a good friend of mine and I could see the player’s cards to his right. He was holding AQs. The flop comes T36. A player in the 4s bet $25. There were four callers, including Mr. AQ. ON the turn hits a 3. The 4s bets $25 and there were 4 callers. River brings a 7. Check! Check! The 4s bets out $125. Mr. AQ thinks for a second then calls. I am thinking what the heck is he doing. The 4s turns over exactly what I expected a 3 for a set. The really strange part was that $125 was more than 50% of Mr. AQ’s stack. I am still amazed at this play. I guess the lesson learned is that a pair on the board with an ace kicker does not mean didley squat. At this point I sure wish I had arrived earlier and been in this game.

The hand of the night goes like this. There are 4 remaining players who shall be called Lady X (chip Leader), Funky Cap, Scissors, and Steady Eddie. Funky cap is under the gun and goes all in for $655. Scissors folds (2nd in chips). Steady Eddie goes all-in and states for the record if Lady X goes in he gets third place because he had $675. Funky cap acknowledges that fact. Lady X proudly says I call. Funky Cap turns over 44. Steady Eddie turns over JJ. Lady X proudly turns over AA. An ace hits on the flop. Lady X eliminates two more players. Just happens that Lady X is married to scissors, so they collectively take home 1st and 2nd place monies. Steady Eddie took home 3rd.

All poker players will get a kick out this conversation. “Hey Carl! An ace high flush is an ace high flush right?” My reply, “Yes!” Funky cap goes “wait a minute, lets clarify. Does an AT flush beat an A9?” My reply, “Of course.” “That’s bullshit man. An ace high flush is an ace high flush!”

Some people just have to try and cause trouble. This is the same person that was stating repeatedly that poker was just pure luck! Wink wink! “Sure it is!”

I will end this post with a quick rant. People who package products need to carefully rethink the materials they use. On our way to Houston we stopped to buy a car charger for the kids Gameboys. We did not need it on the way up, but on the way home we did. Do you think we could get the molded plastic open? I hate that molded plastic packaging that can only be opened with a pair of scissors. A big Thank you to the Chevron gas station attendant for letting us borrow some scissors. How many parents have ripped the hair off a Barbie doll trying to get it out of the package? Have you cut yourself on the zillion metal twist ties used to hold in a Tonka truck? This consumer hates over packaging, so stop!!!!

Hopefully I will get some poker in this week! I am up to $11 on the Paradise account. I tried to set up a friend with the free $2, but they apparently have stopped that promotion. Perhaps to many people are turning $2 into a bankroll! I certainly hope to!

Play on and mostly importantly remember “An ace high flush is an ace high flush”.

Good evening! The youngest has finally fallen asleep, but I had better give him some time before I pour him into bed. I am watching the end of the LSU - vs Oklahoma game. Oklahoma should win up by 8 with 2 minutes to go. I really enjoy March Madness. I am rooting for Oklahoma State University to go all the way versus UConn in the final. I think Texas will squeek by Princeton, but lose to NC. My two sleeper teams are Pitt and Louisville. The tournament should be exciting none the less.

I am not sure what the topic is tonight! If Iggy happens to read my posts again he might lecture me. I cashed out of Party Poker. Why would I do such a thing? I was on an Extreme negative run from $242 down to $75. I cashed out the $75 in an effort to join another site and stop this skid. Part B to this plan is that perhaps after 30 days I can log back into Party with a bonus. I will miss Party Poker over the short term, but "I'll be back!"

For whatever reason I decided to try Paradise Poker. I was prepared to make a deposit and get the 25% bonus. A message pops up saying try our site, we have given you $2. My entire bankroll grew out of a $3 win at dynamite poker, so I figured what the heck. So far I have increased the $2 to $7 playing the $.02/.04 tables. Soon I will be able to move up! Assuming I keep rolling.

Have you ever had one of those runs where you could do nothing wrong? I was playing omaha-8 at dynamite last night. I started with $2.50 and before I checked out I was up to $21. Then tonight I started with $2.50 and checked out with $12.50. Less than a month ago my bankroll on dynamite was down to $14 and now it sits at $114.

Online poker is an addiction! Yes I never sleep! I need to reduce my play and continue to be focused. So for now I am going to play Paradise and Dynamite and see where things go! I was not able to win the battle with my better half, so I can not play in the tournament in Houston Saturday night. I have already had one poker outing this month and I am playing in a golf tournament next weekend. Hopefully I will be able to go after the kids crash and cheer my brother to victory.

I was pretty shocked to see my blog mentioned on http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com. Check it out there are many great links on this site. Opens up an entire poker world to those who want to learn more. I had better crash! I am wearing the crackle bonnet tonight so sleep will be rare. I did manage to have a liquid lunch on this great day. Guinness is a meal in a glass! Play on!

As promised I thought I would share some interesting song lyrics. I am currently listening to live365.com, Electric Blues. One of these days I am going to break down and subscribe so that I can listen to Texas Flood Radio. I also routinely listen to Alternative Nation, Webnun Radio, and Loud Like it should be. Interesting enough I most often fall into the blues rock stations.

I am not going to be overly critical about these lyrics. I found these lyrics amusing and I may not have them exact. In most cases I failed to write down the artist, but ponder these:

"My baby has a lovering sewn through her box. I think she is coming everytime she walks"

"Her ass is a space ship, I want to ride" by N.E.R.D

"I like your pants around your feet and the grass stains on your knees."

All three of the lyrics could be offense to many. My first thought is where in the world do people come up with these lyrics. My second thought is that in today's music there are numerous songs with sexual innuendos and connotations. I am amazed at the number of songs that use the "F" bomb. Of these three I find the song, Lovering, the most amusing. How in the world people can get pierced in certain places just is beyond my two brain cells.

I listen to all genre of music. I will always enjoy a good song and be amused by the cleverness and wit of the lyrics. To all musicians I just shout the words, " PLAY ON!.

Wake up Texas! I believe we need to have legal poker rooms in Texas. Why should all of the hard earned money in Texas go to Nevada, Louisiana, or Mississippi. Lets bring the money home!

I just did the cardinal sin of losing interest in a tournament. It only cost the grand total of $2, but I did not feel like grinding it out. Moved to Party Poker! Right now I have pocket Js in a $.5/1 limit holdem table and the board is 8523 with 3 hearts. Seven of clubs on the river. One person betting into me! I took it down! yee Haaaa!

Man I am getting gun shy! I have lost about $140 in 2 weeks. I have been on nose dives before and it messes with the mind. I am still struggling with how to turn it around. I do not believe I have been playing wreckless poker. I do know that I am addicted to Omaha-8. I probably chase more often that one should. Tonight I lost $15 and I think I chased with the potential for nut low only to have no low hand hit the board. My holdem table just broke up so I head to Omaha-8. I am waiting for the BB, but that is silly since I am not paying attention and typing this.

I can play in a NL tournament next weekend, but it is going to be a difficult sell to the Mrs.. I guess we will just see what kind of sales person I can really be. Or just how many honey do's will it take! "Oh I was burn a Gambling Man" I am letting the Fontana Candida Frascati talk now. Well I am going to drink, eat rainbow goldfish, and play poker. Stay tuned for my observation on some interesting song lyrics. Play on!

Today's post is for anyone who has psoriasis! Psoriasis sucks! Once again I have broken out on about 25% of my body. Scalp is absolutely the worst. I am back to having PUVA twice per week.

"PUVA is a type of ultraviolet radiation treatment (phototherapy) used for severe skin diseases.

PUVA is a combination treatment which consists of Psoralens (P) and then exposing the skin to long wave ultraviolet radiation (UVA). It has been available in its present form since 1976.

Psoralens are compounds found in many plants which make the skin temporarily sensitive to UVA. The ancient Egyptians were the first to use psoralens for the treatment of skin diseases thousands of years ago."

Believe me I am no Egyptian! Whatever plant this psoralen stuff comes from must be one nasty plant. Today I have had half a bag of pretzels and 3/4 of a bag of Starburst Jellybeans and I still feel like crap. My body craves salt all day long. For some reason I was impacted more today than other days. I had the doctor call in a Rx for Dermasmooth. That is another fun drug that you put into your scalp. I am glad the kids stopped making fun of the cap I have to wear on my head! The stuff helps, but it is hard to sleep with a crackling cap on all night. Thank goodness for insurance because these treatments are not cheap!

Not much going on in the poker world for me this week. I have played a little and maintained a static bankroll. I am still addicted to Omaha-8 though. I did watch the WPT last night. Phil "McEnroe" Hellmuth needs therapy. He did take some bad beats, but **** happens! Haverson made a good "all in" move and he got burned on the river. He did not stand there and do chant about how the gods hated him. Phil did not either, but it looked like he was thinking about it. Headline - "Hades stikes Hellmuth at the river"

I did have two quick rants. Do any of you parents participate in PTA. Personally I am sort of anit-PTA. I went to a book fair and an concert by Joe McDermott, who by the way is one great children entertainer. Well there was a bried PTA meeting prior to the show. They asked for volunteers (7) for the election committee. Well they would not start the show until they had 7 volunteers. This is blackmail. One of the parents told me that they do this all the time because it is the only way they can get volunteers. This tells me a lot about this organization. They would not want me as a volunteer, because I probably would be a pain in the arse. I did get a chance to talk with Joe McDermott. I thought he was in the Wild Seeds in the early 80's. Turns out he was in Grains of Faith another excellent Austin band.

Second rant has to do with the Randall's grocery store. I walked in to by my pretzels and jellybeans. I wrote a check for $20 over the purchase. The cashier politely told me that since I had not cashed a certain number of checks that I could only make it for the purchase amount. I had to show my Randall's card to get a discount, yet that is not worth much. She stated Mr. Shaulis you have not cashed a check with us for over two years. I said I normally do not shop here and now I know why. I rewrote the check for the amount of purchase. "Mr. Shaulis could you please scan your driver license?" "Sure do you need my birth certificate too?"

Lets just say I will not be buying psoriasis meds from Randalls.

Play on!

Well it has been a couple of days since posting. It is difficult to juggle work, family, poker, and find time to put one's thoughts into words.

First point is that my massive negative run has stablized a little bit. I am still amazed that I lost over $100 in one week at Party Poker. I recall having three major bad beats on the river, but that is going to happen playing $.50/1 or any level for that matter. My first rule to recovery is stay away from Omaha-8 and Stud H-L.

Have you ever been invited to play poker and found yourself in a situation you did not like or even regretted? I played recently and I was in a situation that I did not like, but hopefully will not regret. Let just summarize this way. I am potentially going to be subjected to a drug test in the near future for a change in careers. Unfortunately not all the smoke at the table was from cigars or cigarettes! I truly do not mind people smoking, since I once had the same cravings for an illegal smile. I just found myself in a precarios situation knowing that there was a high probability I am going to be tested soon. Hopefully it was a good thing this game was played outside on the porch and this will not be a poker outing that turns into a regret. I seem to be getting invited into many poker circles, so I will have to pick and choose wisely. As much as I love the poker action I may just have to walk away in the future.

Be respectful of the players around you and let the cards fall as they may!

OK! I must admit it is difficult to write something every day. My hat is off to the super bloggers out there. Soon I will find the time to link to some of these great poker blogs.

"Blinded by the odds" - I guess this blinded by AA part two. This evening I was playing Omaha-8. I was in the big blind where I received a lovely hand 3338. Normally this would be in the muck immediately, but everyone checked around, so I check. Flop comes JJ7. I am thinking to myself I have one out to fill my boat what are the odds. The action checks around, so I go with the flow to see the turn. Wow! On the turn is a 3! Miracle correct? Checked around to me I bet $1. Everyone folds but I get raised. I raise back, thinking he is chasing the low, a straight, or a flush. I bet out only to get raised again. Man what does this guy have? We cap it again! On the river comes a T. I am confident I have this one, so I am all in. The guy turns over 4 J hooks. All I can do is say nice hand! Those were some incredible odds. Makes you think just a tad about the card dealing algorithm used at these sites.

Short rant about Time Warner DVR. Right now I am itching to watch the new episode of the WPT. Since I had chores to do and tuck the kiddos in I thought I would record it. Little did I know that we had sent the program to record something else at the same time. So I thought I will watch ESPN and catch up on some hoops action. I want to watch the WPT from start to finish. Well since two programs are recording the DVR does not permit the viewing of a third program. So now I am left to loosing all my money at Party Poker while I wait for the WPT to end. I have been on a skid lately loosing almost $70 since Sunday. Maybe I need a break! Bottom line is someone needs to change the algorithm on the DVR and I will just have to trust the randomness of the poker rooms! Party on!

Have you ever had those days where you should have turned right instead of left. You should not have parked your car under that tree. Or you should not have eaten beans for lunch.

Well last night at Party Poker was one of those nights. Playing Omaha-8 ($.50/1) I was dealt 66K9 rainbow. In my opinion this is a poor starting hand, so I fold. The flop comes 66J. Then I would stay in with AA2T double suited and of course I get no help. This went on as I donated my $12 session stake.

I still have not quite figured out why I have defaulted to $12, but it seems to work for me. This will definitely need mor analysis in another post.

I decided for a change of pace, so I would move to Stud-HL. Same story through another $12 loss with starting hands like KK2 whre I folded only to a pair of aces betting out and of course my neighbor got a King after I folded. AK4 diamonds staying until the end only getting a 4-flush. Should have stayed when I folded and folded when I stayed. Down $24 the poker gods were telling me to go to bed. The kids were asleep and yes that 4:30AM alarm clock would be way to soon, but I jumped back into an Omaha-8 game. Strange but I caught a boat when there was no low hand. I then caught the wheel which took the entire pot. Next thing you know my $12 stake is $36. Did I get up and walk away even for the night. Absolutely not! I managed to donate back another $12. I finally did stop and go to bed down $12 for the evening.

So the morale of the story is that even when the wise thing to do was to quit, I turned left instead of right!

"Blinded by Aces" - I was playing holdem $.50/1 at Party Poker with a stack of $10. Unfortunately I do not recall what position I was in. Preflop I raised $.50 with pocket Aces. The person to my left raised. Person to my right called. I re-raised and we capped the betting. Then the flop came Qs4c8s. Checked to me! I bet out. Of course I get raised again and a three of us cap the betting. I am not sure what to put the person to my left on having raised pre-flop. I assumed the caller was chasing. The turn brings a 5d. This time I check and we cap the betting at $1. On the river comes a 9s. The caller now bets out, so I know he caught the flush. I am pot committed so I toss in my last dollar. Mr. raiser of course raises again only to be re-raised. Bottom line here is that the chaser did catch the flush on the river. Mr. Raiser turns over two pair Q's & 4's. What was this person doing capping it pre-flop. I can understand the move after the flop. I had him figured for pocket Ks or maybe aces. I was dead meat no matter what, but the morale to this story is that I was "Blinded by the Aces". I am still analyzing this hand, because I am not sure I would have played it any differently. Once the flush was obvious I guess I could have saved my last dollar.

Up until this point I was up about $55 for the weekend. Positive for the weekend, but this questionable play on my part shrunk the profits.

"Popcorn saves the day" - Unfortunately I am having a battle with py psoriasis again. I would say I am broken out on about 20% of my body. I definitely do not want to re-occur the events from last year, so I went for a light treatment this morning (PUVA). I have to take these pills called oxsoralen, which make your skin absob UVA. These pills make me feel like YUCK! I got back from the treatment and the only thing in the office to eat was microwave popcorn. In general my body craves salt after these treatments. The popcorn saved the day.

For those calorie conscience folks - I typically eat 4 - 8 cups of popcorn coated with butter flavored Pam, then sprinkled with garlic salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, and regular salt. Definitely hits the spot on days when I have treatments. I can not wait to get home! LOL

Play on!