"I'll get my merit badge...IN DAMNATION!"

Welcome to another fine day here in Robland, minus of course the dumping of cold sky-sludge onto the worn city streets. I'm trying a little experiment in online activity in the morning, which is how I kind of see things going for a while. It's weird, but I'll see how it goes.

The poker site where I play online (ObPlug: PartyPoker - The World's Largest Poker Room - and if you want to sign up, let me know first!) started a frequent player program a little while back, letting customers rack up bonus points. At first these bonus points were redeemable only for PartyPoker merchandise, which I found less than glamorous, but hey. But a bit later, lo and behold, they started holding freeroll tournaments where you can cash in some bonus points for an entry into a tournament with actual cash prizes at the end. The downside of this (for me) was that the only kind of tournaments they offer for this deal is no-limit hold 'em. That means two strikes against me, because (a) my tournament play is kinda weak, and (b) my no-limit play is hella weak. The one favorable is that the things are free, so I've been meaning to give 'em a shot at some point. I didn't expect to win anything, but God knows I need the practice, because the majority of tournaments out there seem to be no-limit. I never really pictured myself a tournament player (which also means you're never going to see me on TV), but it makes a nice change from grinding it out at the cash games, and the risk/reward ratio for tournaments eclipses anything I could hope for on a day-to-day basis.

I've played in a few limit tournaments now and then, getting in the money only once in my short history, though the time it happened was quite a thrill. (As an aside, also offered are "sit and go" tournaments, which are unscheduled, low-attendance tournaments, basically pick-up games. I do all right with those.) Anyway, yesterday marked my first foray into the no-limit hold 'em tournament world, with less-than-encouraging results. :) I played in three separate tournaments and came in, respectively: #1126 out of 1377 (ouch!), #1047 out of 1842 (getting better), and #867 out of 2500 (my best yet!). To give a sense of perspective, these things pay money to the top 25 to 30 players. I felt better about the third one, obviously, especially since I had no unearthly idea what I was doing. Not too bad for a first (or third) timer. And it was all free! Also, while waiting for the third tournament to start, I played a no-limit one-table sit-and-go (just to practice) and came in first, netting myself a cool $19. Oh yeah, baby. Swimmin' pools. Movie stars.

While my tournament adventures were going on, a good ol'-fashioned El Barrio hoedown was brewing as [Bad username or unknown identity: Congressman Kiper] stopped by to join kawaiiryuko and aplacental for some dinner and hang-out time. After my sound drubbing was finished, I left the world of poker and joined in on the real-world fun, so that was nice. A little Melee capped the night off, and that, as they say, was that.

As a complete aside, I got a piece of spam recently that really grabbed my attention. The ad was for some kind of male enhancement product, the exact nature of which I was never really sure, but the subject line read: "Like an afterburner for your penis. Like an afterburner for your schlong." The implications of that are left as an excercise for the reader. Peace!