Poker Tournament

October 23rd, 2010

I played in my second ever Washington State Poker Tour tournament.  I played a couple years ago and this time around I planned on doing better.  The field was smaller than the last time I played, but I knew many of the people there are good.

I won a couple smaller pots.  I got a full-house with one person in it with me.  I also lost a couple pots along the way.  But after the first break the re-buys ended and people did add-ons.  I hoped that I would start getting some cards to play with but I still wasn’t getting a lot of cards. 

Sitting around the room were lots of guys.  It is a guys only event.  There were a couple ten-six-sevens.  There was one at my table I was trying to figure out.  He wore a light weight coat the whole time we were there.  He had tats going down both arms.  I am not a big fan of lots of tats, but there was something that kept my attention.

I finally got dealt a K-Seven suited.  Two of the three cards that hit were of the same suit.  I also paired my King.  I checked to the guy who has raised pre-flop.  He bet and I went over the top all-in.  But it was only about double his original bet.  He called.  He had pocket Q’s to go with a Queen on the board.  He had a set to my pair.  I needed a heart to hit the board to allow me a victory.  It didn’t come and I was knocked out. 

I went to the cash that was starting up.  We were playing dealers choice.  The game was Crazy Pineapple.  I got a pair of Kings and a three pre-flop.  The three and one of the Kings were suited.  The flop came and we threw away some cards.  I threw away the three.  I was sitting on two pair.  The flop had a pair of eights.  One guy bet and I called.  Then the turn brought another eight.  He bet and I called.  The river came and he put me all in.  I had a good full-house.  But I couldn’t beat his quads.  That knocked me out.

I went to Redmond High School to watch Logan play is football game.  It was a night game.  They lost.  I headed home and went to see a movie.  I chose to see The Other Guys.  It was pretty funny.  The theatre on the West Valley Highway only charges three bucks.  The ticket taker was ten-six-seven.  As I walked up he caught my eye.  He was wheelchair bound and very friendly to talk to.  I wanted to stick around and talk to him some more.  I guess that is a second reason to go to that theatre…  the other being really cheap.

Poker at Newport Shores

October 22nd, 2010

I spent most of the working day at the office working on a small side project to help out one of the developers.  I also was working on a migration script for the databases.  I got one completed and a second nearly completed today, but I have one more thing to do on it. 

I ran all my scripts and they ran without an error.  Now we can do some more in-depth tests on them.

I had to put almost twenty hours in the last two days to get caught up on the week.  I usually like to put in my hours early in the week and then have more free time later in the week.  But this week I was getting stuff done in Pullman during the day.

I went from work to get dinner then down to the club house to play poker.  I was doing pretty well, but the table got so full we were playing twelve handed which makes it hard to play a hand unless you have something good because you know someone else DOES!  They have a ten dollar max bet/raise, so you cannot really scare people off when there already is a hundred bucks in the pot.

I started to lose pretty bad and I was getting ready to go around two in the morning.  I wasn’t having a lot of fun because there were just too many people at the table.  And to top that off at the end this guy who is always drunk showed up.  He slows the game down and just is clueless a lot of time.

More Firearms Training

April 23rd, 2010

I headed down to the Renton Fish and Game Club for Marine Patrol training. We were doing our annual firearms familiarization. We shot the AR-Fifteen and Glock forty calibre. There is something about doing target practice that is fun. As you would expect, the more you do it, the better you are at it. I shot pretty well. We were there until about three o’clock.

I went home and hung out. I came close to taking a nap, but I didn’t. I watched some TV and had some dinner.

I went down to Jon’s and picked him up and then to a poker game. It is the monthly game they have in his neighborhood. I was playing well. I ended up winning eighty bucks. I got a Q-A in one hand and the flop was Q-Q-Q. I won that hand.

I had a couple other big hands. On one hand I made big bets making someone believe I had a good hand. On the river I bet the max amount., He folded. I was on a total bluff. I rarely do it, but this time I planned on doing it and it worked.

Fun Night of Poker

January 26th, 2010

This evening I was in Colfax for training. It was EVAP refresher. With being on two departments many times I get the same training from both departments. That is just the way it is. I have considered reducing my weekly requirements by leaving Colfax Fire. But as of right now I am not going to do that.

After training we had a great night playing poker. We had a full table and a ton of laughs. We had some new blood as well as the regulars. I was only able to stay until around nine-thirty because I had to be back in Pullman because I was on call tonight as well. I am only on engine and we didn’t have any calls for the engine.

Watching the Championship with the Guys

January 7th, 2010

I got up and went to the doctor for my follow up for my ankle surgery. I went to the Three Pigs to have lunch with Jon, Terry, and Jim. After that was done I hit the road to get back to Pullman. It wasn’t a bad trip. I made pretty good time. When I got to Pullman I went to TBAG to meet up with Blake, Blake, Chia, Chris, and their wives for the BCS championship game. We had some beer while watching the game. I have Keegan come down and hang out. It was nice to get him there. He fit in well with them and they told me they likes him. I just wish he was more than just a friend.

When it was done Pitch and I went to Zeppoz to play some cards. Chia came along as well. We played poker until nearly one in the morning. I was up and down most of the evening, but I ended up losing it all in the end.

Keegan and I spent more time texting back and forth for a while as I was getting ready to go to bed.

My Gay Day

March 21st, 2009

I made my way to the Red Dragon casino for a poker tournament that my old softball teams was putting on to raise money for the team. I got to the casino about an hour early. I got signed up for the tournament and then waited around for it to start. I was disappointed that none of the older players from the team were there.

The tournament was set up that you had to qualify to move to the next round. Any money you won didn’t matter, because you would restart at three-thousand chips during the next round. I didn’t qualify the first time through, so they had one rebuy round. I was bleeding my money away. I was getting a lot of Queen-scrub hands. I threw a lot away. I was down to my last six hundred.

The big blind was coming at me. It was four hundred. I put it in. I had a four-eight off-suit. I had to decide if I wanted to throw in my last two-hundred and hope of the best, or wait with the two-hundred for the next round. I decided to throw it in.

The cards were coming and I ended up going head up against someone who had me dominated. The flop didn’t help. But the turn gave me a small glimmer of hope. I had to have a seven hit on the river to win the hand. It had to be a seven. It was a seven! I won enough chips to allow me to survive.

I made it through that round and went onto the next round. The next round I had to make it to the top three on my table to go to the final table. But on the third hand I had a K-J off-suit. I ended up getting trip-kings. But I lost to a guy who had an ace-high straight. My tournament was done.

I stopped at Nordstroms on my way south. I was up in Mountlake for the tournament. I was on my way to downtown Seattle for Nick’s birthday. I got him a gift certificate. Then I called Russell. I was invited over to hang out until the party started. Nick had many of him extended family members over at their apartment.

While there another friend of theirs came over. He was a younger guy who was very skinny. That was the story of the night. All the guys who came over were all Mo’s. They were all skinny as a rail too. I recognized several of the people from their MySpace profiles. I have seen through Nick’s MySpace. A lot of them were ten-six-seven.

I got to Russell’s around four in the afternoon. I was there until after eleven o’clock PM. It was a huge gay fest.

Friday Night Poker at Jon’s

March 20th, 2009

I spent most of the day at Mom’s getting some stuff set up for my insurance. I was told by my company last night via E-mail they want me to get my own medical insurance and then they would reimburse me. I had already completed the leg work, so it was mainly a matter of signing up for it.

But when I called my insurance agent I found out that I had to have the money and the paperwork turned in today. So I had to drive to downtown Seattle to turn it in directly to the office of Group Health. I had to print off the forms and get them filled out. It had to be turned in today if I wanted to have coverage starting the first of April.

When I completed that I went home and waited until it was time to head to Jon’s for the poker game. It was their normal monthly game at the clubhouse. I didn’t do too hot at all. I couldn’t get a hand to save my life. I won about three small hands on the night. Other than that I threw my money away.

Poker Party

March 4th, 2009

Today I went to Moscow to get an order placed for a plaque for the Sheriff for this years reserve academy. I have the wording on it say “With great respect and sincere appreciation, the 2009 reserve class recognizes Sheriff Myers and the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office for the generosity and opportunity to serve and to protect the citizens of Whitman County.”

I got called by Pete about an autopsy happening today. I went to that and was able to see what a major brain bleed looks like. I was surprised how it damages the brain. It is like using a hose to spray into the dirt. It just digs away. There was a large hole in the brain. It was very interesting to see.

Following that I went to the sheriff’s office to drop off some announcements for the graduation and then went back home for the poker tournament we have tonight. Brandon and Matt were making dinner ahead of time. Heidi, Steven, Dan, BKoe, Michael, Matt, and I all played for several hours. The game finally broke down around two in the morning. I ended up losing about one dollar on the night.

Late Night Poker Party

February 27th, 2009

I went down to the station after I got off work in order to meet with the sub-committee for the new facility committee. We outlined out a plan of action for the upcoming meeting. We are going to put together a Powerpoint presentation to help us get through all the items we need to cover.

During the meeting Gollnick called and asked if I wanted to play poker. I told him that I did. So we set up a game for the evening hours. Because of when John would be done going to the school fair with the kids he wanted to start around eight-thirty.

I invited others to come over as well. We had a little game that lasted for several hours. It was about two-thirty in the morning when the game finally broke. Chiavaras came over. Over the last year John, Chia, and I are always bantering about him playing poker with us. Every time we would have a game we was unavailable to play with us. Tonight was the first time he was able to play.

I ended up losing a couple bucks along the way, but John brought some beer and Chia brought pizza. I was able to chow on pizza and have a couple beers in place of the money I lost.

Yearly Superbowl Party

February 1st, 2009

Today was the Superbowl. I did some shopping for some pizza and M&M;’s and then went down to the fire station in Colfax for the poker party. We get together every year to play poker and watch the game. I made the pizza and put out the M&M;’s with we like to call crack. Because once you start you cannot stop eating them.

The poker went well. I was losing pretty bad for a fair amount of the day, but I made a pretty good comeback towards the end of the night and I think I ended up doing pretty good with the game.

The whole time I was there I got skunked on calls. But that is pretty normal for me to get hosed on calls when I hang out at Colfax Fire. I will listen to them get toned out all the time, but when I am around, there is nothing.

Poker Party

January 19th, 2009

It was decided at work today that I would go to Zeppoz this evening with Blake and Young. I am looking forward to that. When I got home I was tired. I went to bed and fell asleep for about two hours. It was a nice nap.

I got ahold of Jessie. Her, Ross, and I got together to watch some video’s from the defensive tactics day. We worked on that until around four o’clock. I also got some of my guns cleaned. Brandon came home and suggested a poker night tonight. Ross said he would come over. I was planning on contacting others.

I went to Zeppoz and met up with Young and Blake. We played Spanish Twenty-One. I was winning at that pretty good. Then I played in the tournament they have. I didn’t do to hot there. But I wasn’t planning on going well. I wanted to just screw around in it. I talked with Loren for a while. I invited him to come over and play cards.

I was at Zeppoz until a little after nine o’clock. Then I went back home and got my house ready for the poker game. Before long people started to show up. Weese, Ross, Loren, Blake, BKoe, and Kevin all played. It was a great time. We played a dealers choice game. We ended the night around four in the morning. By then it was Loren, BKoe, and me.

Last Day on C Shift

January 18th, 2009

Today was my final day on C-Shift. I am looking forward to being on a new shift, but I am going to miss working on C-Shift. Like everything having changes allows you to appreciate what you have. It is like the way I look at it with the seasons. If it was hot year round, you wouldn’t always enjoy it and take advantage of what you have when you have it. By having winter you can enjoy the snow, but also have the summer months to look forward to. Same can be said for the summer heat. You enjoy relaxing in the sun, but it also allows you to enjoy the snow when it does finally come.

Today we had a shift brunch. We did french toast and sausage. For dinner we did chicken and rice. I watched some football on TV and we played some poker into the evening hours. Paul, Jay, Young, Blake, and I had a little tournament. I busted out pretty early, but I because the all time dealer.

Young and I were on the ambulance one last time as shift-mates and we ended up getting skunked on calls for the night.

Ten OT Hours

January 3rd, 2009

The plans of the day were simple. Go to the Cougar Basketball game. But I did more than just that. I got home from the fire department. I kept my uniform because I was going to have to go to the Deuce to head to the basketball game and I didn’t want to drive all the way down town just for the uniform later on.

When I got home I did some plowing of the driveway and sidewalk. It was pretty cold outside while I was doing that. A neighbor asked if I could do a portion of her driveway where the road plow had deposited some heavy snow chunks.

I went to the Dodge dealer to get my new antenna for my rig. The old one was slightly damaged. I also found out how I could fix it from being unpluged. The coax cable that goes from the radio to the antenna was unplugged and I had to plug it in, but the area where it was unplugged was too tight to get most tools, let alone my hands in. I also found out the traction control that my ought-seven Durango had was also in the ought-five and ought-six, but not the ought-four. So I am thinking about upgrading to an ought-five. But I just don’t know if I want to take on the new debt load. I may wait it out a little bit until the prices get a little better.

I went home and got the antenna on my rig fixed and now I have a radio that gets more than ZFun. I started to get ready for the basketball game. I wanted to get to the station early and get the van started, warmed up, and the snow taken care of.

I met up with Turpin, Robinson, Walker, and Pauly down at the Deuce and we headed to Beasley. The first half of the game between the Cougs and Huskies was good. We lead most of the way, but went into half down two points. That is as close as it would get. Coming out of the first half we couldn’t score and they couldn’t miss. The Cougs really let it get out of hand and we ended up losing by around twenty points.

After the game we were heading back and the tones went out for a backfill of the station. I called in on that. I went to station one and worked there for five hours while the guys did a transfer to Spokane.

John was doing an OT shift so he made dinner for everyone and invited me to have some. It was homemade lasagna, his wife made it. It was good. We also had garlic bread. After dinner I helped to clean up and I did the hand dishes, but there wasn’t much to do.

John, Chia, and I played some poker for about four hours. We had a lot of fun making fun of each other and pushing money around. At the end of the night John was even, I was up six bucks and Chia was down six.

Car Shopping

December 26th, 2008

I was doing some car shopping today. I was looking for a ought-four Durango Limited. I found one in Auburn I was going to look at if the prices were right. After talking with the dealer on the phone I found the price was way lower than I expected. I thought the vehicle should cost about twelve thousand, but I head him say fifty-nine. So I figured something was wrong with it. I asked him, and he said it was in great shape. So I drove to Auburn.

The vehicle was nice. We took it for a ride and it drove well. We went in to talk numbers. But I found that I heard fifty-nine. He said Fifteen-nine. So we were way off on the numbers. I told them what I was willing to do. We didn’t get close. In fact we were off by about six thousand bucks when it was done.

So I walked away from that deal. I was mad that I went the whole way to do it only to find we were so far off.

Later Jon and I went to play some poker down at the Silver Dollar casino. We played four-eight Texas Hold’em. Jon did well and I ended up losing money. We were there for a couple hours playing. It was fun to get out to the casino and play some cards even though I ended up losing. I played a little blackjack but lost money there too.

The Big Thirty-Five

December 18th, 2008

Today is my thirty-fifth birthday. I wasn’t planning on doing a lot of celebration. Pretty much at the coroner’s meeting we were going to have some cake. But before it got too late that meeting was cancelled. Then the sheriff’s office cancelled the reserve class. This was all due to the massive amount of snow we were receiving. I was loving the snow.

With those things cancelled I didn’t really have any backup plans. Gollnick called and asked if I wanted to play poker. I said I would. He came over and we played cards for several hours.

During the game I found a sly way to let him know it was my birthday. Once I did, he remembered that it was. We played poker and at the end I was up about ten bucks on the night. It was fun to play cards.

I got a lot of birthday wishes from people on Facebook today. It was great to see my friends and acquaintances. It make me feel good to be remembered by so many people.

Poker Night

November 30th, 2008

I was spending a part of the day to myself just relaxing. A while later I got a text from John about playing some poker.

We got together at Keetons house. Denise and Dan both played as well as John and BKoe. We played dealers choice. I did pretty well winning about eighteen bucks total.

Garage Cleaned for Poker

November 3rd, 2008

I spent some time today cleaning up my garage for the poker game tonight. I got my table as well as work bench all cleaned up. It makes me feel good that it is done. I got the table set up for poker. I also got my chips ready and counted the cards. Now it was just waiting for everyone to show up.

It was scheduled to start at six o’clock. We had a full table pretty much the whole night. That was nice. A couple people came and busted out pretty quick then left. The whole thing broke around ten o’clock.

There was one hand where Travis went all in, on a bluff, against Matt. Matt had been calling all the way down. Matt had a high pair, but there was a lot of stuff out there that could have beat him. There was no way he put Travis on the bluff. But he called an all-in by Travis and won.

Everyone at the table was amazed that he made that call. Travis didn’t know what to say. There were other hands like that, that it became clear it was going to be hard to buy a pot.

Learning to Forge

August 29th, 2008

While at work this morning I was working hard to get the roster completed. But due to the number of pick ups we would need I had to get one of them on the roster from the city of Moscow. So I needed to work a while doing photo copies several times in figuring out how to get the original photocopy which was signed to include one more name. So a photocopy of the original signature would not work. I needed to use the sheet with the photocopy. But I couldn’t just write in the name because it would be obvious that we had written in the name after the photocopy. So I had to write in the name and information on a blank sheet. And then photocopy that one line onto the form that was already filled out, but to get the right kind of ink so the photocopy would look like the other ones was a challenge, and then working to make sure it lined up was very difficult. When it was all said and done the time was wasted because they never even looked at my roster.

I went to Federal Way for the managers meetings. That is where we were drawing for game times. We also got information about the rules. The Hooter’s girls were there with wings and other food items for us. I sat next to McCoy. He was telling me that they were thinking about asking me to play on their team at the beginning of last season, but didn’t because they found out I had the My Office team. But he made it sound that if I ever want to change teams I would have a place on his.

Following the meeting I went to Seahawks Stadium for the game. It was Oakland that was in town. We went to the events center to start off. Justin was with us and he went through some of the things they had set up for the kids to do.

Once it was closer to game time we made our way to the seats. The Seahawks played pretty well and beat up on Oakland pretty good. We left a little early because I parked in the parking garage. It takes about an hour to get out of it once the game is done and we needed to be at the poker game.

At the poker game I was not playing it very well. I had a decent hand and went up against a girl who only played the nuts pretty much. I didn’t know that to start with. So I was dominated as I was throwing a bunch of money into the pat. That hurt. I never really recovered. I lost about sixty bucks through out the night. I just was not seeing any cards.

Poker Night at Dan’s

July 22nd, 2008

Tonight there was some poker at Dan’s house because my softball game was cancelled for the night. John came over and Denise and Ben joined us. We played for several hours, and as the night went on I was getting all the cards. I built my stack higher and higher. We played until around eleven o’clock. I wanted to get home sort of early so I wouldn’t be too tired for work in the morning.

The New Temp

July 8th, 2008

I went to the fire station this morning to update a couple photos on the photoboard. I was asked by Wilkins if I would be there after I was done. I told him I needed to go to the rec center but I could come back later on. I had a feeling that he wanted to talk to me about the temp job.

I went to the rec center and did the LE physical agility test. I am still not there on situps. I also made the mile and a half in about the same about of time. I need to shave about one minute off that time in order to get forty points.

I came home and cleaned up. I called the station and I set up an appointment to meet with the Chiefs at three o’clock PM. In the mean time I talked with Jon a little about the upcoming decision that I have to make. I guess I am sort of in the drivers seat, because I don’t need to take the position. I sort of feel like I need to take it however.

I went to the fire station and I met up with the chiefs. I was offered the temp positions. It was said that I would not be guaranteed a job due to this, but it could help if I do a good job while working as a temp. I was given some time to think about it. They said they would work with me due to my other job. I told them I couldn’t give up my other job knowing that there may not be a position when this is all done because they want to change it to a paramedic position. They said they would work with me in reference to my other job.

I left and called Jon. We talked about it some more. He pointed out that this temp period is a good thing for a couple reasons. One is that if I don’t work out, then I still have a job to go it. If I don’t take this, and wait until a fulltime position comes open. Then I take it and don’t work out, I am out two jobs. Plus with them working with me I should be able to do both for a while. I am very nervous about saying yes, but I went back to the station to take it.

I went to Heston’s office and said I that I am going to take it. He shook my hand and we scheduled my first day to be Monday of next week. I am going to only have three more shifts as a reserve. I am sad about that. I am going to miss working with those guys. I am now in a little bit of a haze as this is a big event in my life and I have a lot to think about now.

I got a call from Gollnick. I thought he already knew. He was calling about playing poker. I figured I would tell him in person.

I asked Heston to hold off on the e-mail until as late as he can so I can tell my guys in person. It was going to work out because everyone was coming down for rig checks early, and A. Wilcox and I had to be there to clean the bay. As I got to the station I got another call from Gollnick. He had been at the station and heard some rumors. He called me to ask me about it. I told him what was going on. I told him that I was going to tell him while playing poker. For my guys, I waited until everyone was there.

I told them that I was offered and accepted the temporary position. They congratulated me. But I am sad. The E-mail had gone out and by the end of my softball game I had a couple texts from people congratulating me.

We played against Tubbs. My head was not fully in the game as I was thinking about the change in my life. I had a good night. I pitched the whole game and didn’t walk anyone on accident. One guy we walked on purpose a couple times. I also hit the ball pretty well. We won the game in the bottom of the seventh. It was great to win that one. We let up eight runs in the first, but came back to win.

After the game I went home and Gollnick came over. We played poker at my place until almost two in the morning. We spent a lot of time talking about the things I should do while I am at the fire station. What I should do on my first couple days. I had a pretty good idea having been around the fire services as long as I had been. The one I didn’t know is to make sure there is coffee always ready.

I lost some money playing poker, but it could have been worse. I was only down nine bucks on the night, but at one point I was down to two bucks left.

Today is one of those days, I was expecting the offer for the temp position, but I am still not mentally prepared to leave the reserves. Though I have spent a lot of time thinking about that in the last couple months. I also realize my dreams of getting back on the sheriff’s reserves will probably not be fulfilled. I am disappointed about that because I was really starting to think about how nice it would be to get that under my belt. It seems like everything went so fast.

I am Looking at Houses Again

June 27th, 2008

The houses slump hasn’t really hit Pullman so much, but I have seen some houses come down in price a little bit. One place I looked at before I wanted to see again. It is cheaper in price, also I wanted to see it again so I can remember why I didn’t like it over all. After seeing it, I do remember what it was about the place I didn’t like all that much.

I was at home doing some stuff on the computer waiting for the time to head to Dan’s to play poker. It was John, Dan, and I. We did ten dollar buy-ins. I wasn’t doing too well. I wasn’t going to stay really late because of the test for the fire department. But I lost my money and bought in one more time.

It didn’t take as long for me to lose all that money too. So I dropped about twenty bucks playing cards with them.

I got home and Brandon was here. He was here because he was going camping tomorrow by the Snake River and he was in town doing some laundry and waiting to go off. I talked with him really briefly because he has a girl with him.

I called it a night shortly after I got home.

Camping at Central Ferry

June 14th, 2008

After sleeping in a little bit due to my late night I was still up around eight in the morning. I got the final things into the motorhome and headed to the store. I got some food for the meals we were going to have and headed out. I got some fuel in Colfax and made my way to the park.

I got my motorhome set up pretty quickly and joined the others sitting around talking and joking. After a couple hours I went back to the motorhome to get some sleep. Everyone else went off to walk their dogs or do something like that.

I was sleeping for about two hours when Carl got me up and we started to play cards. I was on fire. I was winning stacks of coins from the other guys. We played until it was time to start dinner. We had brauts and hamburgers. Dinner took a couple hours in total between starting it, cooking, eating and cleaning up.

Once we were all cleaned up we started to play a Texas Hold’em tournament. I went all in on the first hand with pocket eights. I won against Connie who called me with pocket threes. I had a big chip lead, but that went away over time as I wasn’t able to get much going. I did hit on one four-outer. But that was about the best of what I could do.

I went out third and watched the rest of the game. It only took about thirty more minutes then it was done. It was not terribly late, but everyone made their way to bed.

Good Poker Night

May 31st, 2008

This evening my poker game was starting around seven. I got the garage swept and set up the table. Then I counted the cards, counted the chips, and got everything ready to play cards.

People started to show up and we had a full table. I was doing pretty good, building up my own little stack of chips. Loren showed up and he was a little more aggressive than many of the other people there. In one hand a pair of sixes where on the board and I have a six in my hand. The other card on the flop was a queen. I had a two. I felt Loren had a six with an Ace so he would out kick me. We bet back and forth and he finally went all in for thirty some-odd bucks. I called and I beat him.

By the end of the night I was up fifty bucks, plus the use of the pop and candy machine was taking place. That is good. I just got to start to hold some more games at my place.

Poker Night at My Place

May 27th, 2008

With yet another rainout this softball season we played another night of poker at my place. I was disappointed that we were rained out with the small amount of rain that had fallen.

John and Peter came over for cards. We played with the three of us for a couple hours. Peter had to leave around ten, then John and I did a twenty dollar Texas Hold’em heads up tournament. John won again. At the end I wasn’t getting anything to play with.

One thing I need to do is start to be more aggressive and try to read John a little more. I think with him I have been so predictable that when I bet he knows I have something and he runs away, unless he has something. So I need to get the reputation with him that I could be bluffing so he doesn’t know what I am trying to do.

I also need to stop being timid about winning a lot of money on the pots. For some reason I feel bad when I start winning a lot of money, so I don’t play as I should be playing. I need to get over that.

More Rainouts

May 20th, 2008

The weather forecast for today is for rain. It started to rain early in the day and it went downhill from there. It rained harder and harder. It was pretty clear the games were going to get cancelled. Gollnick called about playing poker. So he will be coming over tonight. I invited many others to come over as well.

There were several calls that came out including a rollover car accident with injuries. But no other reserves showed up. I didn’t get to roll on it. I just stood by the station. Rich and I played some Ghost Recon as I was standing by.

I got home and started to work on my garage. I was going to set everything up out there for poker tonight. I got signs made for prices of stuff. I also lowered the prices in my pop machine. Gollnick got here and helped me move my poker table to the garage. That got set up and people started to show up. We has Kevin and Peter with us for a while. Then Dan and Denise showed up and we played until around eleven o’clock.

After everyone else left John and I played for a couple more hours. We did a twenty dollar winner takes all Texas Hold’Em game. It went both ways, but then I lost a lot on a hand that I should have gotten out of. Soon I was gone. I was down a little for the night. But it could have been worse.

More Poker at Loren’s

May 19th, 2008

I decided to get my haircut today. I stopped in and got it cut nice and short. I feels good to get it taken care of. This evening we had training for extrication of people from cars. Not using tools, but just backboards and the such. I was in a group and we did a couple run throughs.

After training I was got to get to bed early, but I found a text message on my phone from Loren about a game tonight. So I made my way there and played cards until the game broke. I ended up winning some money. It was not a big night, but I won some more money. There is a plan for another game on Wednesday.

Lost at Poker

May 14th, 2008

This morning I hit the rec center got a workout and swimming in, but I was running late to the CPR class I was teaching this morning. I wasn’t late to the class, just late getting things set up. The class lasted until shortly before noon. I went home and changed.

I picked up Tom at SEL and went to the Hilltop for our monthly lunch. We were up there our about an hour eating and talking about local politics and other issues.

This evening Loren had his poker game. I went to it. But I didn’t last all that long. In the first hand I got A-K suited. I raised and then I was re-raised by Bryan. I was worried he had pocket Aces. But I threw that idea away and called him down. I was going to fold away my hand but there flop didn’t totally miss me. I called it to the river where he showed pocket-Aces. That crippled me for the rest of the evening.

I won a little pot here and there until I got a pocket pair. I raised it pretty good, but I was called and the flop hit a Queen. The guy who called me had a queen and crushed my pocket pair. I lost a lot of money there. I was down to four bucks and in the big blind. I got pocket-fives. The pot was raised to four bucks. I called and lost on the river. That was the end of my night.

Over the last three games at Loren’s I am up over all, but I lost money tonight.

A Rain Out

May 13th, 2008

I decided to go to the doctor and have my finger looked at that I hurt while doing some BO last month. I took a softball off the tip of my right-ring finger. Ever since there has been some pain and it is slightly crooked. It took awhile for me to see the doctor. Finally he starts looking at my finger and hand. He was feeling parts of my hand then asks what I do for a living.

I told him I have about eight jobs. He then looked at me and said “lots of them must be hand jobs”. I started to laugh. He thought out it and said “that came out wrong”. I said that several of my jobs are labor intensive. He said that I have big hands. I got an Xray but it is not clear what I will be able to do about the injury.

As the day wore on it started to rain. I was worried that softball would be cancelled. As it got close to six o’clock an e-mail came out saying the games were cancelled. So I decided to head to Colfax for training. Actually tonight is board and business. The meeting was pretty short.

Tim, Jim, Carl, Laura, Steve, and I played poker for a couple hours. I won a pretty big pot at the end of the night to put me up on the night.

Coroner Training Meeting

May 7th, 2008

I took some time before the coroner meeting to work on typing up information to share with everyone else at the meeting tonight. We were going to cover the things that I learned in the week long class. It took some time to type it up and get it ready for everyone.

It took a little over an hour to give everyone the information. We also touched on the double fatal car accident.

After the meeting I went to Loren’s again for another game. This time we had about six or seven people there. We played for a couple hours and I ended up winning around twenty bucks.

Game Number Two Not So Good

May 6th, 2008

This evenings game was against Charles from my IM team. He plays for the Bomb Squad. I started myself at pitcher. But it wasn’t very good. I was having a lot of problems getting the ball across the plate. After the first inning I put Dave out there and only did the EH roll. I had an okay day at the plate. It was a slugfest between the two teams, but we ended up losing. During the game Greg came up to me and asked me what the “number” was. I didn’t know what he meant, but he noticed that I have been losing weight.

Later on I went to Loren’s place in CCS. He was having a one-hundred dollar buy-in cash game. I ended up winning one-hundred and fifteen bucks in the game.

I had a hand with pocket-Aces. I raised and then I was re-raised. We went to the flop and there were a pair of Two’s on the board. That scared me a little but there was a bet. I re-raised and then the guy who bet went all in. I thought about it and called. He has a ten-five. I crushed him with my Aces. That was a big part of my winnings for the night.

Teaching CPR

April 30th, 2008

This morning there was a meeting of the facility committee. I am part of the committee. We are exploring what is needed in a new fire station. Including location and more. I am part of the subcommittee that is deciding what is going to be included in the station. I am the only reserve on the committee.

This evening it was time for CPR class. I went to the station to set up the classroom. As people started to make their way in Pete tried to call me. He had called me earlier. But I didn’t answer it the second time. I listened to the message later on during a break and found out he was telling me that he was on his way to a double fatal car accident. This is the second time we have had a double fatal on a day I choose to teach a class. The other time John actually covered the class for me.

John came over to my place and we played poker for a couple hours. I wasn’t doing all that great and lost some money. I think was down around ten bucks when it was over with.

I talked to him about the idea of working as a career fireman. I asked him about the softball question. I don’t want to miss softball. I told him I noticed that others who played softball tended to miss a lot of games. I asked if this was because they chose not to take the time off, or if it was because too hard to get the time off.

He told me in the first year I would probably miss games. But in the following years that I should just put in for vacation about six months in advance in order to make sure I get the time off. Because softball season is always the same time, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out what days to take off.

Working at Colfax Fire

April 29th, 2008

I went to Colfax Fire today and I was planning on working at the jail, but I ended up staying at the fire station. While I was there we got called out on a fire alarm at the school. It turned out to be burnt food.

Later on Tim and I got a pizza while waiting for the meeting to start. We learned about the plans for the new radio system and the fact that once everything is in scanner-land will die as they will not be able to scan us. That is sucky in my book.

After the training we played poker for a couple hours. Jim and I got into a laughing fit again. We seem to feed off each other. Something will happen that will crack us up. Then we start to feed off each other laughing harder and harder. That usually will go on for a couple minutes.

Fantasy Baseball Draft

March 29th, 2008

I made my way to Phil’s house for the baseball draft. I wasn’t sure how it all worked as Ryan did this last season. This year it is me running the team because Ryan didn’t want to do it. After getting my computer set up and on a wireless network the draft started.

It took almost six hours in all. We stopped for some pizza from Pipeline during the event. We ordered six pizza’s in all. I ended up making this my free day as I had both pizza and some cookies. I used some guidelines I downloaded from a website showing what each player should go for assuming it was an auction style draft. I payed around what the site said the players were worth for the most part. I got some of them cheaper.

Overall my team was made fun of for being a ninety-eight all-star team. More or less they are saying my team is old and out of the prime. I don’t know how it will do.

After that I called mom to talk to her for a while. It was her birthday today. I bought her a GPS for her birthday and gave it to her the last time I was in town. She really likes it.

I went to the Keeton’s and played poker with them until around midnight. Denise was doing well and she ended up being the big winner on the night. I think I ended up down about ten bucks.

We had a good time playing cards and laughing at the stories we were telling.

Bad Beating in Poker

March 23rd, 2008

I decided today that I was going to play poker before I had to go to my softball meeting. Then I got a call about the autopsy that was going to happen today as well.

I went to Zeppoz and Loren was there. We were sending some texts earlier about playing. As it turned out we were on the same table. He was betting big pretty often trying to build a stack of money. I realized I would have to play fast in order to make it to the autopsy.

While waiting for the game to start I was talking about the poker hand I saw on TV on Friday night while working at the jail. Someone had pocket Aces. The other person had Ace-King. He pretty much had a five-percent chance of winning. The flop was Q-J-10. To give him a straight and the victory. That was amazing.

I found myself with pocket Aces. I raised a small amount. Loren went all-in. I called him. Everyone else folded out. Loren shows K-Q suited. I was a big favorite. The flop was J-10-9. Giving him the straight and the win. People remembered what we had talked about and thought it was strange to see it actually happen to me. I joked with Loren about popping his car tires. I wasn’t mad at all. I was just amazed that it happened just like I saw on TV.

I went a little longer. I got my money in on a good hand and someone who was at a lesser odds of beating me, in fact beat me. So I left, but the timing was good.

I went to the funeral home for the autopsy. As always that was very interesting and it showed us what caused the death in this case.

I got out of there just before I had to be at Cougar Country for the softball team signups. No one else was there when I got there. I ate slowly and just as I was getting ready to go I saw Heidi show up. So I got a pop and hung out while she ate her dinner. She signed the form and we spent time talking about various things with Rhonda at the table with us.

Final Day in Wildland Class

March 9th, 2008

Today was the final day in Wildland training. I have been doing it all week in Colfax. We did our final sections, then did our written test and shelter deployment test.

After the class I went to help C-Shift with their weekly rig checks. While at rig checks I got a call about going bowling. I had not been bowling in years. Due to my ankle I have not been able to bowl very well.

Kevin, BKoe, and I went to Zeppoz. I was able to bowl pain free. We ended up bowling four games. My first game was around a one-fifty-two. Pretty good for not having bowled in a long time. Brandon is a good bowler and I was only able to beat him once.

After bowling we went to Brandon’s place and we played poker. We were there until nearly four in the morning. We were playing dealers choice. That was fun. It was all low stakes.