Several Short Posts In One

December Stats

Not much to say about December really... I essentially didn't lose or gain anything. Hey, it was an improvement from November though!

Month	ITM	ROI
August	33.82%	-01.72%
September	38.38%	10.91%
October	34.92%	9.09%
November	21.31%	-38.61%
December	30.56%	-0.83%

There's something logically meaningless, yet cathartic about the start of a new year. I'm hoping to regain that mental ingredient that I obviously had a few months ago, and put it to work. At this point I'm just hoping to string a few positive ROI months together. I feel as if I should set a goal for 2005, as it seemed to motivate me well back in Sept and Oct when I was doing so well. Considering I started this year in a decent-sized hole (meaning that I'm still down since I started playing online last year), I'm just going to stick with the modest goal of climbing out and finishing 2005 in the black. Seems easy enough.

New Years Eve Late Game

I'm happy to report that the New Years Eve gathering that I hosted went off about as well as I could have hoped. As you may know, I've got a decent short-handed group of regulars (5 or 6) that can usually be counted on to play at least 4-5 times a year at my place. (It's been more often than that recently though... let's hope that continues.) I had been hesitant to invite new players into our game for a variety of reasons, but finally broke down and invited some interested guys from work. 3 out of the 4 I asked came, and a regular couldn't come... which gave us a chance to get in two nice 7-player NLHE tourneys between 11:30 and about 4am.

The guys from work played impressively well... while I fared not so good, busting out when an opponent flopped a set to my TPTK in the first game, and getting beaten by the nut flush when I made the king-high. As I've said before, the wife plays solid NLHE, and she won the second tourney.

A Chip And A Chair

You know it happens. I know it happens. People do sometimes come back from being down to their final chips to win tournaments. And it's always fun to watch. Tonight in a SNG I got to witness a guy get crippled down to T15 by the player on his right, who was kinda being an asshole the whole tournament. You know the guy: the one who sucks out on someone and says "THANK YOU THANK YOU"... the one who gloats by typing "LATER" (all caps is cool, right?) everytime he knocks someone out... that was this guy. The poetry of this story is when Mr. T15 somehow manages to end up heads up with Mr. CAPSLOCK, beats him to win the tourney, and says: "LATER". Beautiful.

Not beautiful however was when the blinds were rising up around my ears, and I pushed with 77, only to lose to Mr. T15's pocket jacks. At least he put my chips to good use.

The Poker Table Project

I've been hard at work dreaming and putting together some plans for the custom poker table top which I mentioned in my last entry. After several sketches, a lot of measuring, and some CAD drawings, I think I've finally nailed the overall shape that I'm looking for. I'm looking to make something that fits well over my existing dining room table, can comfortably seat 8 (and accomodate up to 10 without feeling too crowded), and is unique/well-made enough to be impressive. A regular oval idea kind-of bores me, and a round/octagon design won't fit my room too well... so I'm planning more of a swollen rectangle approach. (Just think of a rectangle with each of its sides bulging out... which lengthens each side for a little more elbow room, and provides more subtle corners which someone could sit at if they had to.)

I won't bore you any more with the details, but when I finish getting my shop set up (finally) and get started on this monster, I may have to throw up a few pics and such.