Yesterday, Mrs. Fly and I had a date day.  We went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall sushi place for lunch.  It's in the next town, but it's the closest edible sushi place from where we live that serves lunch, so we do what we must.  I heard that a new place opened up in town so we'll have to check that out when we get a chance.  It's a little weird to me that there aren't better sushi places in our town - there are quite a number of Japanese families, and tons of people with money to blow.  I really think a Nobu would totally clean up.  I was actually going to write him a letter, but as you may have guessed, I have some lazy-ass issues.

This is another one of those "order three lunch specials" for the two of us places.  Even on days when I wake up at a normal time, I rarely eat breakfast (which I know is bad), so I'm ravenous when lunch time rolls around.  *That's* why I eat so much.  Yeah!  Yeah!  That's the ticket!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

After lunch, we went to the huge supermarket in the nearby town and got lobsters for dinner.  Mrs. Fly had been craving it for a few days and the lobsters were only $5.99 a pound (which is basically like telling the Flys that it's free) so it was a no-brainer.  My favorite size is probably 1.75-2 pounds - if it's much smaller, the work-to-meat ratio is too high, and if it's much bigger, the shells are harder to crack and the meat is tougher.  So we got 3 lobsters - one for each of us, and a third "contingency" lobster in case "one of us" needed more.  We put the kids to sleep and had a nice romantic dinner.  I only had one lobster, so Mrs. Fly is going to use the third lobster for lobster rolls later in the week.

Not sure if I gave you guys my "lobster schpiel," but I think most people don't truly enjoy the FULL lobster.  Everyone eats the tail and claws, but imo pretty much the whole lobster has great flavor.  I know a guy who claimed the best meat was in the legs.  TBH, it's kind of hard to tell, and it's a lot of work unless you get a huge lobster.  I also like the meat above the legs in the body cavity.  Again, it's a lot of work, but I like the texture.  And finally, I love the green stuff in the body cavity - it's got great favor and such a nice compliment to the more subtle flavor of the rest of the lobster.  But most people probably throw it away.  Mrs. Fly is  a faux lobster lover, so I get the benefit of partaking of her body and legs.  ;-)  Maybe I should write romance novels...  But I digress...

Week 4 was more of the same.  Not sure why I played so few hands.  I vaguely remember shortening some sessions because I was sweating like a pig (the AC has since been fixed).  But less than 18K hands when I've been home all week is pretty poor.  I've gotta stop slackin'.  I put in a 12 hour session yesterday, and I felt pretty good afterward, so I think I can get back on track.  I have two more days of grinding left in the month!

Weird that I don't remember getting all of that run good, but maybe it's because I got wanged a bunch of times on the river, so I felt somewhat unlucky.  It's hard to tell from the graph, but I feel like I'm playing better.  Still plenty of room for improvement tho.

Now that I'm feeling better about some of the things I'm doing, I decided to re-expand my horizons and start playing the shallow tables and MTTs again.  I just don't understand how I can't cash in an MTT - like I really don't think I'm playing poorly, but I can't cash in one of those things to save my life.  Not to sound like a fish, but online tournaments are seriously rigged.

Fortunately, I've been using my Ironman medals and FT points to get the $75 tourney tickets, so it hasn't actually cost me any "cash."  I'm thinking I may be having trouble playing with shallow stacks (since I can't get in the money), so I'm putzing around with different things at the shallow tables - mostly min raising as a core strategy and 3betting light.  FTOPS starts again in a few weeks, so I really want to try and make a few good runs.  C'mon!  One time!

Dinner was okay.  The ribs were decent but not great.  Back to the drawing board.  So not only did one of the couples go to school in North Carolina, they also lived in South Carolina for a while and the wife grew up in Kansas.  If you guys don't know, those are some of the biggest BBQ states.  Maybe experimental ribs was not the right call for the menu.  We had a good time tho, so that's all that matters.  (BTW, that's what all the losers who have no f*cking idea how to smoke ribs say)

The two couples are a little older than us and their kids are much older than ours, so it's interesting listening to what their kids are up to.  I heard the saddest story.  One of the guys was saying that he took his 12 year old son to basketball camp (apparently Coach K of Duke does a basketball camp for kids that's really cheap).  Anyway, he walked his son over to the gym and his son tells the dad that since the other kids are there already if the dad wouldn't mind dropping him off before they got to the gym.  I guess dads aren't cool any more when you're 12.

Since G is turning 7 next month, this means I only have 5 years left.  So sad.  As it is, I can't believe he's going to be 7 - it feels like we just had him.  So even tho I'm not crushing the games and could make more money at a "real job," I really enjoy all the time I get to spend at home.  Because you only live once and you're only going to get to see your kids grow up once.  For example...

G comes home yesterday from camp and seemed a little down, so we ask what's wrong.  Apparently, two of his lanyards were missing.  He seemed to think someone stole them.  Really dude?  You have vision-impaired kids in your class?!?  The blind transfer student heard you talking about your "awesome" lanyards and he snatched it when you weren't looking?  We think he probably didn't put them away (he has a habit of doing that), so maybe someone threw them out by accident.  Because how should I say it...  their resemblance to refuse is remarkable?  Now that I think about it, once G learns to read a little better and starts reading these lanyard posts in my blog, he may not want to hang out with me any more.  So maybe I have waaay less than 5 years left.  Tick tock.

Mrs. Fly planned a mid-week dinner with a few of the neighbors.  We don't see them much, but since they are two of our closest neighbors (by distance), it's nice seeing them from time to time.  We haven't used the smoker in a number of weeks, so we're going to try and make some ribs again.  This time, I'm going to go the braise route, which means I'm going to cook them mostly wrapped up in the smoker, with some liquid underneath.  That guys from Texas said he puts beer on the bottom, so maybe I'll just put some wine underneath.  Trip report tomorrow.  Doh!  I just realized one of the neighbors lived in North Carolina for a while, so they'll be used to good ribs.  GG me.

POKER

Someone asked me to talk about the red line.  I think the general consensus used to be that the red line doesn't matter as long as you're making good money.  I suppose this is true, since in the end, how much money you make is what it's all about.  However, I'm starting to think that having a VERY poor red line is symptomatic of bigger problems in your game.  When the games were easier and you could get people to pay you off light, then I think the "wait for TP or the nuts and get paid off" strategy might have worked okay.  Sure your red line would have suffered, but enough people would have paid you off for your win rate to still be decent. 

But in today's game, there are fewer fish and the regulars are more aggressive than ever.  Many of them will raise flop and barrel to take you off of your TPTK hands (at least in full ring - no one ever folds TPGK in 6max).  So it's very important to balance aggression in your game.  Having a very negative red line (anything "over" 10 big blinds per 100 hands) probably means you're game is way too tight.  You're going to have problems getting paid off on your big hands.  Ironically, people who play too tight are mostly likely to benefit from some added aggression in their games.

Next in the series...  how to improve your red line.  well, not that I would know, since my red line is terrible.  So maybe I should call this "how not to improve your red line."

I'm getting a bit of writer's block today.  So if you guys have anything you want me to talk about, feel free to post suggestions or send me an email or PM.  I know I still owe you guys the rest of the installments of the multitabling primer.  I also want to start posting more poker content but I'm waiting until I get a little better.  Also for some reason my HEM is super slow about displaying hands in my sessions tab.  And there's no good way to mark Rush hands (which account for 2/3 of my play), so it's tough posting interesting hands.

Anyway, I thought I was having a decent month, but I see now that I'm only up a little over 10K (and another 3K in rakeback).  I think I may soon be approaching the time when I need to mix in some more 2/4-5/10 tables because It appears I'm playing too much 1/2 Rush.  I'm not getting to 35K a month playing 1/2!!!  I suppose there's something to be said for mindless low stakes grinding, but unless Mrs. Fly's okay with sending the kids to the local community college, I need to start making some money!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

This is probably something most of you are not familiar with...  Mrs. Fly's been really into Asian food the last few months, so yesterday, she tried making Korean neng myun, which is buckwheat noodles in cold beef broth.  Really ideal considering the recent heat wave - it's actually one of my favorite summer dishes.  The one on the right (with the slices of hot pepper) is Mrs. Fly's. 

It's typical to serve this after you have your favorite form of Korean BBQ (kalbi, bulgoggi, or whatever).  If you've never tried Korean BBQ, go!  It's probably one of the better forms of beef preparation out there.  It's kind of like Japanese hibachi beef, except with more flavor.  I really enjoyed Mrs. Fly's version of the noodles because she makes awesome broths and she knows I like a lot of meat (pretty much on everything).  Meat on meat action.  Oh.  I digress.  A lot of times, when you get it at a restaurant, the broth tastes a little weird - like it's been watered down or mixed with some vegetable broth.  I think you may have to go to a specialty restaurant if you really want good neng myun, so thanks Mrs. Fly!

Sailing was pretty uneventful.  You might be saying, well when you go sailing you want it to be uneventful!  I heard on the Coast Guard radio that some guy was missing at sea.  Evenful bad.  But it was supposed to rain a hour or two into our boat time, so we decided to wait around for the storm to pass.  That was one slooow storm front because it took over three hours for it to pass.  When it started raining, we went to the local restaurant for some snacks and drinks.  Then when we were finally ready to set sail, we couldn't get the motor started and we just decided to bag it.  So basically it was a day of drinking beer and chatting with friends on the boat, but the boat never left the dock.  Anyway, the wives were hanging out at our house so we all drove over and had dinner together (see below).

I can see myself going sailing from time to time.  It was pretty interesting seeing a sailboat up close.  It looks really complicated because of all the lines running all over the place, but once you figure out what all the lines do it makes sense.  And as predicted, I was not able to dodge the "Skipper" reference.  The friend who was taking us sailing is a wiry guy.  Anyway, he wasn't familiar with this particular boat, so he couldn't find the line that went to the top of the sail.  But I found it (even tho I had never been on a sailboat before).  So a friend says "[DFly] should be the Skipper and you should be Gilligan."  FUUUUUU!

I'm generally pretty curious so I got asking them how much a boat like that costs (it was a 37' boat).  I was really surprised when he said $200-500K, depending on all the extras.  And it's apparently another 10-15% a year on maintenance, docking and storage fees.  Hmmm...  just renting a boat for a few hundred bucks is sounding better and better all the time.  But the comparison that was made was that of a summer home.  I suppose if you love the sea, your boat basically becomes a vacation house.  So in that way, I suppose it's somewhat comparable.  I could see myself on a boat, and I think it's a great experience for the kids.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Fly gets super motion sick, so a boat is not in the Flys' future.  Not that I have 300K to blow on something frivolous anyway...  just sayin'.

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Mrs. Fly made her meatloaf for the ladies, but when we (the men) showed up, there wasn't enough food so I went to pick up some KFC.   You all know how I feel about meatloaf (the ugly stepchild of the beef family) and KFC (the greatest fast food creation of the 20th century).  I hadn't had KFC in a while, but this the nastiest KFC I've ever had.  Usually when you get a fresh batch, there's so much juice oozing out all over the place that you almost need to wear a bib, but this one tasted like it's been sitting around for a few days.  Anyway, Maria (from Maria and Luigi) brought the mac & cheese and someone else brought the fruit salad and zero fat brownies (later post).  Mrs. Fly made a salad and her broccoli casserole.  The food was strangely meh yesterday.  Thank god we had plenty of wine.  :-)

Yesterday, we went to a 1 year old's birthday party.  Mrs. Fly's friend had it a a country club in NJ, so we all made use of their pool.  After never having gone to a country club in my life (other than the occasional wedding), we've gone to three this year.  Not sure if it's worth it if you don't play golf, but it's interesting seeing how other people live.  It was unbelievably hot - even in the shade, so we didn't stay in the pool that long.  It was just best to be indoors with air conditioning.  It was a nice spread, but mostly burgers and hot dogs.

It just got me to thinking that Mrs. Fly knows a lot of people.  These were friends of hers from the VA/MD area (where she grew up).  So Mrs. Fly basically has a ton of friends from back home, every job she's every had (and she's had a lot - her dad calls her the President of the JHA - Job Hopper's Association), and most places we've lived (we've moved almost every 2 years - we're Co-Presidents of HAHA - House / Apartment Hoppers Association).  I, on the other hand, have basically have had the same friends since junior high - I guess it helps to live in the same area most of your life.  Not saying one's better than the other.

I hadn't seen a bunch of the guests for a year or two - most of them live out of state.  But we made tentative plans to see a family in the Boston area some time next month.  Should be fun - they were saying there's a great family beach north of Boston and a solid seafood place nearby, so I'm pretty stoked.  Not as much for the beach, but if you haven't guessed already, more for the seafood.  I've been to Boston a few times, but never outside the downtown/Cambridge/Brookline areas.  I vaguely remember going to some campsite in Cape Cod one summer, but that was waaay long ago, and I've since become waaay senile.  But when D gets olders, we'll have to make a few road trips into Massachusetts.

We finally decided on what we're doing during the time G has off from the end of camp until school starts.  We were thinking about seeing the in-laws again or going to Niagara Falls.  But in the end we decided to visit a good friend of Mrs. Fly's in Tampa.  We hadn't seen them in about 3 years, and they had a second child, so Mrs. Fly really wants to go.  They live in a really nice house (more like a mansion) with a nice pool in a lanai, so the kids can swim all day, Mrs. Fly and her friend can chat while I sleep.  It's win-win-win.  I think after our last vacation to Disney where were walking around all day, sitting by the pool all day with drinks sounds really good.

So we had a little problem with the day camp, as one of the kids was bullying a few of the other kids.  A quick angry phone call to the camp director and the problem was solved.  But it actually got me to thinking about how the way I grew up is so different from the way my kids are growing up.  Since my parents weren't really around most of the time, if I had a problem, I had to take care of it.  As you go thru life, you're going to bumping into all manner of douchebags on a regular basis.  Learning how to deal with them is part of growing up.

Anyway, I'll have to learn to let go and let G take care of some of his own problems.  Just as soon as I take care of that little m*other-f*cker in G's camp.  Is trash bag and dumpster still the preferred method of disposing of bodies?  But I digress...

I just realized that my recent 1+ week breakeven stretch has coincided with the air conditioning going out in my office.  Sure, I could be reaching, but the facts are: (i) I'm a fat slob, (ii) I have a sweating problem, and (iii) I'm surrounded by 2 CPUs, 3 monitors (one 30" and two 24"), a 30" tv and a mini-fridge - all within 5 feet of me, all of which generate a lot heat.  Apparently it'll take another few days to get the parts in, so I'm dying in the meantime.  Of course I conveniently neglected the most obvious explanation for my breakeven - the fact that I suck at poker.

Another meh poker graph. At least I'm not losing money! Call it loser-talk, but considering how poorly the week started, I'm satisfied getting back in the black.  If you start off an inning loading the bases with no outs, just giving up one run isn't a bad result.


I was playing poker yesterday and I had something strange happen to me.  I actually felt like I was playing terribly and felt like I need to stop playing.  That usually never happens - usually, I play terribly and don't realize it.  Ironically, I was up $300 in two hours.  I made this horrific 3 barrel bluff in a 3bet pot vs a station - I'm still annoyed I put in more than the flop bet.  I then won a "flip" when I shoved 97s into AJo AIPF (the guy 4bet me two hands in a row, after I 3bet his button 3 hands in a row).  So I knew I was not in a good frame of mind.  When I had AA > KK AIPF, I just decided I needed a break and spent some time with Mrs. Fly.  To continue with the baseball analogy, some days you just don't have your best stuff, and recognizing those times is crucial to knowing how to proceed.

In other poker news, two of the poker checks I received last week bounced.  The poker sites are pretty good about refunding any bank fees, so it's not a huge deal - it's just annoying.  Certain transfers of funds to/from offshore poker companies are in a grey area of legality, so from time to time the payment processors encounter "difficulties" and the payment stream is interrupted.  I'm hoping the new legislation that was being discussed today in Congress goes well. (later post)

TIP

I haven't done this yet, but it's probably a good idea to set up bank accounts at two different banks.  I guess it's not much different from having a separate business checking account from your personal account.  I think it's just a good record-keeping practice.  But with poker, you always run the risk of having some of your payments go bad, and some banks have been known to refuse service to a small subset of online poker players.  And you don't want any professional issues interfere with bill payments, etc.  At most banks, you can get a checking account for virtually nothing.

My mother came over to visit yesterday.  It had been a number of months since she stopped by (altho we saw her at my brother's house, restaurants, etc).  She only lives 45 minutes away, so not sure why she doesn't come over more often.  Mom would always use the excuse that it was too cold to schlep up here during the winter.  C'mon!  It's like a sauna in our house in the winter because Mrs. Fly and D don't have enough body fat.  Spring was awesome here, but still no sign of mom.  Whatever.  She's finally here!!!

As you may have guessed, I'm *somewhat* of a mamma's boy.  Mrs. Fly would use terms like "poster child for mamma's boy" or "mutha of a mamma's boys."  But whatever - just etymology.  Well excuuuuse me for loving the woman who gave birth to me and raised me!!!  (later post) Anyway, she'll be staying for a few days, and already, I'm likin' the fact that she made me one of my favorite meals from when I was a kid tonight (sorry no photo).  G & D loved it too.  I think tomorrow we go shopping, so I'll have to cajole her into making more food. 

HUMOR

So yesterday someone from 2+2 was thinking about moving to Thailand to play poker (low cost of living, good food, tropical, women, etc).  And since the forums can be crude at times, the topic of Thai ladyboys came up.  Anyway, eventually, this link gets posted:

Can you tell the difference between a Thai lady and a Thai ladyboy?

And I think this is the kind of thing Mrs. Fly could find interesting / funny, so I forward her the link.  Her reply was "WTF.  WTF!!!  How did you even get here mutuh!!!??"  I guess she was afraid I was moving over to the dark side.  Or rather than "working," I'm looking at kinky pron sites all day.  LOL  Mrs. Fly!  Anyway, I got 7/10, but probably because the first time we were in Bangkok the tour guide took us to see a ladyboy cabaret.  TBH, some of them were better looking than women.  But don't tell Mrs. Fly I said that.

Anyway, it reminded me of one of my other favorite quizzes:

Urinal Game

If you have any others you like, feel free to post in the comments.  This can be official funny quizzes thread.

A friend invited me and two other guys on a sailing trip.  He's a member of his local sailing club and he was able to rent out a boat for Sunday afternoon.  I've been on various types of boats, but never a sail boat.  I'm going to put my days of sitting on my fat ass and watching the America's Cup to good use.  Turn baby turn!  Hopefully I won't be one of those losers who start hurling as soon as they get on the boat.  I think the decades of gastrointestinal exercise (i.e. eating like a fat slob) should have made my stomach tough.  Otherwise, I guess that's one way to finally lose some weight.

If you watch the news and hear of 4 guys who went sailing on the Long Island Sound and are missing, you'll know what happened.  I can't seem to get the following song out of my mind...

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

And we don't even have a Ginger or Maryann...  I'll lay 2 to 1 odds that if Gilligan's Island comes up, one of my "friends" will say I should be the Skipper.  Doh!

CONVERSATIONS

So recently at camp, they started making lanyards.  As a reminder, anything in "{  }" is what I'm thinking.

G: Look Dad!  We started making lanyards at camp, and check out how cool mine looks!

[G shows me his lanyard, which basically looks like a few plastic strings that got tangled - badly]

DFly: {ROFL.  WTF is that crap?!?}  Wow!  That's Awesome G!!!  [must summon all of my vast professional poker player poker-face powers to keep from cracking up]

G: This kind of lanyard is called a Chinese Ladder.

DFly: {Seriously, dude, how is anyone supposed to tell?}  Really?  Daddy doesn't know lanyards very well.  But that's great.

Now you may be thinking, "OMG!  The Flys are going to be like those retard parents on American Idol who encourage their kids to sing on national TV even tho they are terribad."  Well, no.  It's one thing to be supportive to your kids and encourage all of their interests, but once it starts getting serious, I'm not going to beat around the bush.  If G ever came to me and said "I want to sell my lanyards on our driveway," that's when all the braces "{  }" come off of our conversation.  I just don't understand how some of those parents get so delusional about their kids.  It's okay to be average - just be happy.

G started day camp last week and he seems to be enjoying it.  A good friend of mine from high school lives 5 minutes away from me, and he sent his son (who is the same age as G) to the same camp.  He goes to a different school so they don't get a chance to see each other as often as they like.  They really enjoy playing together and it makes the ride to and from camp that much more fun.

They do all kinds of sports, games and crafts at the camp.  We also like the fact that they have swimming twice a day.  Once for lessons and once for play.  G's always been a little afraid of the water, so we're trying to ease him into feeling more comfortable.  He went to the same camp last year, and we thought he would be swimming by the end of the summer, but all he managed to do was dunk his head in the water.  Baby steps.  But I think this is the year he finally learns to swim!!!  C'mon dude!  Make Daddy proud!

Not a big fan of throwing a kid in the deep end of the pool to "teach" them how to swim. That's just lazy / borderline irresponsible parenting.  It's like if your kid's afraid of spiders, you can lock him up in a room full of spiders til he gets over it.  Same thing.  But why would you take that 1% chance you could mess him up for life?  Altho a few poolside margaritas and an ill-timed "soft belly" comment may cause G to "slip" into the deep end of the pool.  I said "may" - calm down Mrs. Fly.

The Ants (Flik and Atta) invited us over (and a few other families) to dinner on Sunday.  It's so nice being invited over for good food and drinks - lately we seem to be invited over a lot more than having people over, but you go thru those cycles.  They're both doctors and they don't really cook, but you don't have to be a great cook to have good food.  For appetizers, they had prosciutto, cheese, crudite, and assorted frozen appetizers that they tossed in the oven (pigs in a blanket, tacquitos, mini quiche, etc).  Mrs. Fly bought her "famous" rice (c'mon!  it's just rice!) and the pregnant lady brought salad.  The Ants grilled vegetables, swordfish and beef tenderloin.  If you have good ingredients, you really don't need to do anything fancy - it just ends up that way.

Someone brought a massive bowl of fruit salad.  Another couple brought tons of dessert - assorted pastries from a nearby bakery and homemade rice krispy treats.  The rice krispy treats looked a little out-of-place next to the fancy pastries, but c'mon, you have to be a communist not to like them.

I basically got hammered off of all of Flik's cocktails.  So when I got home, I was in no condition to play.  But being a doofus, I played anyway and got hammered for another 5 buy-ins.  GG me.  I had taken a nap earlier in the day, and even tho I was somewhat inebriated, I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to put in some hours to get my Rush week bonus.  Lost $2K at the tables to make $250 in bonus.  As Kevin Costner said in Dances with Wolves, "Good trade."  Moron!

JOKE

Patient: Doctor, if I give up fatty foods, wine, and women, will I live longer?

Doctor: Not really. It will just seem longer.

I had to take the day off yesterday because I was so mentally exhausted from that beating I took the day before.  It doesn't happen that often, but sometimes, a session is so mentally taxing (more likely for a super-long session) that it becomes physically taxing.  It's just better to lose 6 huge pots in a row, than to just get clubbed repeatedly for 8 hours.  Actually, I played a 12 hour session, but the savage beating occurred the last 8 of those hours.  Bullet to the head >>> rubbing yourself in blood and swimming in the shark tank.  Wow.  What is wrong with me today?!?

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

At least Mrs. Fly made me a nice romantic dinner.  When you have kids, your life is basically over.  You pretty much spend most of your day either taking care of the kids or making money for the kids.  So it's nice once in a while to spend some alone time with your significant other.  We put the kids to sleep and Mrs. Fly made this great meal for the two of us.  That shrimp was really outstanding - probably one of the best shrimp dishes I've had.  Super jumbo shrimp with a light batter and tangy Asian caramel sauce.  The chicken chop-suey-like thing was the shrimp's ugly sibling.  Actually, it was decent - but Mrs. Fly used chicken breast(!!!) and it tasted a little dry.  It has some potential, but the flavors didn't blend too well together.  But I like tasting all of Mrs. Fly's creations.  And any meal you can eat in peace and quiet with your significant other is enjoyable.

Not sure why we don't do it more often.  By "it" I mean having dinner just the two of us - not the "it" that all you pervs are thinking about.  Pervs!  But now that I think about it tho...

But I digress.  We usually spend time together most nights - lately it been watching an episode of some random soap opera or TV show or watching a movie after we put the kids to sleep.  But we don't have that many quiet dinners together.  I recently changed my poker routine (later post), so I think we'll try and squeeze in more matinee movies and late night dinners.

BTW, I'm just kidding about having kids - I love my boys!

The Poker Gods can kiss my ass!!! Literally the instant yesterday's post went up, I went into a 6 buy-in downswing over 6K hands that was just mind-numbing - my graph was a straight line going down.  Like nothing I did was right - no preflop shoves, no value bets, no bluffs, etc.  Aagh!

But it inspired me to write this primer on the poker gods, as many of you may not be students of poker mythology.

POKER GODS 101

Oddsin.  The Father of all Gods.  He sits on his throne on Mt Doom and surveys all with his evil eye, making sure doom and gloom is spread across the poker land.  "Odds" is the supreme power in poker.

Bluffa.  First (and former) wife of Oddsin.  Her main source of entertainment is having players run into the top of any opponents' range on a bluff.  Also does most of the cooking, cleaning, etc. around the mountain.  It's a big mountain.  Sadly, Oddsin was a nit and she grew tiresome.  But not before giving birth to the...

Flippa Twins - PreFlippa and PostFlippa.  Oddsin spent countless hours raising the twins and grooming them to be the next generation of leaders in poker land.  Oddsin's pride and joy.  Well, at least until PreFlippa kept telling him his belly was soft.  Good thing there's a spare to that heir.

Coola.  Second (and current) wife of Oddsin.  Oddsin met her at a BBQ when she was 8+ months pregnant with The Runna Twins (see below).  He was so memorized by her beauty that he transformed himself into a swan and crapped all over her lawn to get her attention.  Then Coola got a quadriplegic coyote decoy that worked for a while, but Oddsin was too persistent.

Runna Twins - TurnRunna and RivaRunna.  Individually, their powers are meh, but together their powers are great.  They bump fists and yell "Runna Twins powers - activate!" and your set (along with your hopes and dreams) get crushed by the Runnas.  Okay, well actually, TurnRunna is a lazy POS (I mean what kind of lame-ass power is turning yourself into water?!?) and just rides on the coat-tails of RivaRunna.  Among any siblings you're going to have the one that doesn't quite pull his share.

Oversetta.  The only daughter of Oddsin and Coola, she takes joy in turning the most common powerful hand into crap.  Coola spent countless years honing her daughter's powers.  Oversetta also spends quite a bit of time with her step-siblings, the Runna Twins, perfecting what she calls her "two outer" and the even more powerful "one outer."

CardDeadius.  Gay brother of Oddsin.  Every family has one and the poker gods are not immune.  Strangely, CardDeadius is not flamboyant - he just sits around and does nothing all day.  Nothing!!!  Rumor is...  he suffers from a horrible case of E.D. and has a problem with unsatisfactory flops.

Riverectomus.  Non-gay brother of Oddsin.  But ever since the unfortunate shower incident with CardDeadius, he has gone into self-imposed exile in the underworld and pops out only to crap on you when you least expect it.  His greatest (and only) joy is throwing sudden and shocking defeat at apparent victory.

Your Poker Gods... breaking mouses and keyboards across the poker community.

I wonder what could be behind so much evil power...  who stands to profit?

I just realized I'm up my last ten sessions in a row.  It's been a while since I've had that many.  This past January, when I had my 120+ BI month, I also had ten in a row. 

[x] Fish on a heater

I don't play the same now as I did then tho.  I used to just crank out long session after long session.  Now, when I make a few buy-ins and the tables don't look that great, I take a little break.  So in a way, I'm "manufacturing" winning sessions.  I have this habit of not staring away from the screen every 20 minutes (like you're supposed to), so the next best thing I can do is to spend some time away from the computer.  I still had a 12 hour session in that stretch, but I think taking a break every few hours is better.  My eyes sometimes feel a little bleary after too many long session in a row. My main concerns about playing poker for a living aren't things you would normally expect - like legislation or the games getting tougher.  My main concerns are long term health effects - like repetitive stress (carpal) and vision. (later post)

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

The Chinese places in our area suck.  This is such a huge change from having access to tons of great Chinese places when we lived in Manhattan.  So lately Mrs. Fly's been trying to make Chinese food at home.  It's pretty difficult because a lot of Chinese cooking involves quick cooking over super high heat.  We have a high end range, but it only outputs like 15K BTU per gas burner.  I think most Chinese restaurants have like over 100K.  So if you ever wondered why your stir fry at home doesn't taste the same, that's why.  I think this is some variation of Kung Pao chicken, but Mrs. Fly is taking a nap.  It was shockingly pretty good considering our equipment constraints.  The seasoning had a lot of great flavor.  Sorry about the "sideways" photo - for some reason the Blogger software won't import this landscape photo in landscape mode.  I realize the plate is circle so it doesn't matter, but for some reason, this photo looks like it's sideways.  Obviously, I have some anality issues.

The salad was pretty meh imo.  Mrs. Fly likes to make her own salad dressings.  Some of them, like her Caesar and Carrot (like at Japanese restaurants) are really good.  But this one was a garlic and oil dressing that was just way to strong because she used a ton of RAW garlic. Mrs. Fly likes things with kick, but all the raw garlic was a little too much.  Did I just hear someone say, "bok bok?"

Week 2 was pretty good.  Any time you make 9K in a week is a good week.  But especially considering 2/3 of my hands played were at 1/2 Rush.  Needless to say, I'll have no problems getting my Rush bonus this week.  It's always nice to make money when you still have things on your list to improve on.  For the poker video makers out there, can someone make one on solid blind play?  Considering how many videos are out there on the video sites, I don't see anything specific on this topic.  This could be epic.

Over the last few months, a bunch of people have said they really enjoyed the "What's for Dinner?" section of the blog.  So I talked Mrs. Fly into writing a post once a week.  Mrs. Fly is more entertaining than I am so hopefully that will translate well in a blog format.  Since many of you are young single guys, she might post some easy recipes.  Many days, Mrs. Fly whips up dinner in 20-30 minutes.  Or maybe she can give some perspective on what it feels like to be married to such an AWESOME guy.  Or if she has nothing to say about that (very likely), what it's like to be married to someone who happens to play poker for a living.  So maybe we start with that and then we can see how it goes.  This will also give me a day off.  I've posted every day for almost 6 months.  As much as I enjoy writing the blog, sometimes, you need a day off.  Heck, if I don't feel like taking a day off, I can always post twice.  Not sure when she's going to start posting - probably before the end of the summer.  Stay tuned.

A FAVOR

Can you do me a favor and go to this link and take the 30 seconds it takes to send an email to your Congressman supporting online poker?  As you may know, online poker has been in a grey area (it's actually illegal in some states) and there is pending legislation in the next few weeks to regulate it.  You will be helping to ensure that I don't have to go and get a "real job" and that I can continue to keep you entertained via the blog.  :-)  Thanks.

Dinner Saturday was nice, but a bit formal. It's been a while since I've been to a "formal" dinner.  This wasn't technically a formal dinner - it just felt that way for some reason.  Maybe it's just me because Mrs. Fly didn't feel that way.  We have people over a lot and go over to people's houses a lot, but it's almost always casual.  Either a larger gathering where people stand/sit and eat while mingling or some outdoor dining with friends.  You know - the comfortable and fun ways to eat.  So I'm sitting there in the dining room and for some reason, I start feeling really self-conscious about the way I'm holding my knife and fork, because it's been so long since I actually paid attention to how I ate.

Having basically raised myself since the age of 10, I'm of the school of thought that if you can efficiently cut your food into bite-size pieces and get yourself fed without making a spectacle of yourself, it's all good.  Mrs. Fly, who was taught "formal" table manners when she was a child, tells me my table manners could use a little help. So I'm feeling a bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman where they all go to a fancy restaurant to eat.  I'm not a complete doofus about how to eat - I just felt a little out of "practice" because I basically avoid all formal dining situations whenever possible.  It basically looked like everyone was using the European system of eating (where you don't switch knife hands).  So I just went with that.  For the legions of normal people who have no idea what I'm talking about, here is a primer on how to eat.  It's pretty ridiculous that grown adults have to concern themselves with crap like this.  Slippery suckers.

I liked the hostess as soon as I saw three kinds of dead animal - beef, lamb and chicken.  All over roasted and served with a dry curry rice, asparagus and a tomato and mozzarella salad.  She also made a nice melon & prosciutto appetizer.  Mrs. Fly's spoiled me for eating at other people's houses, but I appreciated that the hostess went thru a lot of effort to have us over and make all the food from scratch.

Sunday's dinner was a lot more casual.  It's always nice to have friends who go through the trouble of making you a good multi-course meal.  For starters, the wife made these awesome mini lobster rolls. The real deal on hot dog buns, filled to capacity with sweet, lumpy lobster meat. For dinner, the grilled flank steak was really tender, and the most memorable taste were the strawberries and blueberries with mint and a light sugar syrup. This was our first time over, but we'll see them regularly going forward.  I found out the husband is a fellow smoker, so we'll probably try and get some good ribs and brisket going later in the summer.

This is Rush week, where FT is giving away up to $250 if you play a few hours of Rush every day.  A reader asked for any tips.  Also lately, there's been a lot of complaining about how Rush is cooler after cooler.  A typical comment may be something like:

Every time I get AlI in a "standard" spot, I'm behind. 3bet a CO open from the blinds with AA/KK, get flatted, get it in on some random-ass 962/T43/852 flop, and they have a set like 90% of the time. Every time I get it in with KK, they have AA.

It's not like I'm crushing the games or anything, but here are some basic tips:

* Steal until you are uncomfortable.  Because Rush players are constrained in the number of tables they play, many people are more likely than at a regular game to just want to get to the next hand and just pre-select "fold."  Take their manies.  Conversely, don't pre-select "fold" unless you absolutely are going to fold, even to a minraise.  If you know someone is pre-clicking, feel free to minraise every SB vs their BB.

* The above means you will be stolen from a decent amount.  Don't be shy about 3betting.  If your 3bet is too low, you will never get any action unless it's unwanted.  You don't have to go crazy, but it's free money up to a point, and you need enough bluffs in your range to get paid off when you have a premium hand.  This will also ensure you don't get setmined to death (assuming of course, you're not barreling every 3bet pot).

* Be aware of people's 3betting range.  There will be a handful of players who will 3bet a ton, possibly counting on you not having or not being able to use a HUD.  Someone with a 3bet of say 15% may well be 3betting over half your button opening range from the blinds.  If they want to play a bloated pot out of position with their crap range, don't be shy about obliging them (I'm assuming you don't suck at poker).

* Be aware of people's 4betting range. I see people 3betting with say AK (because it's AK!!! and you have blockers) vs some nit who never 4bets and they attribute this to a "cooler" when he 4bets, you get it in and he shows up with AA.  No.  A cooler is when you 3bet a 75/55 fish who always likes to get in the last raise and he shows up with AA.  You just f*ed up.  This will also help you eliminate hands when you have to play a 3bet pot, and will help you figure out which hands you want to shove over the 4bet.

Not sure if you got the jist of my poker "tip," but it's basically just ONE big tip, and one of the fundamental concepts of poker, which is that of ADJUSTING.  When a +ev move is identified, your opponents will adjust, and then you have to adjust to your opponents, and then you have to adjust to your opponents' adjustments of your adjustments and so on.

Happy Rushing!

Today we were a little busy, so I just tossed a frozen pizza in the oven.  I'm sitting there with D "splitting" the pizza (it's only half the calories when you "split" something with a 2 year old), and Mrs. Fly sits down with us with a veggie burger that she enhanced with avocado, sprouts, tomatoes and olives.  And then I start thinking of that old Sesame Street song that goes:

One of these things is not like the others,

One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

She offers D a bite, and I laugh thinking, "LOL.  Like any son of mine would eat that crap!"  To my horror, D takes a bite and seems to be genuinely enjoying it.  F*CK!!!  Stop that, Mrs. Fly!  A minute later she offers him another bite and he takes it.  Now I'm thinking I need to send him to juvie boot camp or something to get this out out of him. 

As I'm eating my "half" of the pizza, wallowing in despair, and wondering "where did I go wrong?"  D starts waving to me and pointing to his mouth.  That's his way of saying he needs to spit it out!!!  So I gleefully get a napkin, he spits that sh*t out, and goes back to eating his pizza.

 Ahhh...  I guess this is what they mean when they talk about "proud parenting moments."

Obviously, Doublefly DNA >>> Mrs. Fly DNA.  Which reminds me of a funny story...


CONVERSATIONS


After we gave birth to D, we hired a Chinese live-in nanny for a year (because we just moved into the new house and had an infant).  One day we're all sitting at dinner...


Nanny: G and D don't look alike
Mrs. Fly: Maybe it's because they have different fathers

Mrs. Fly & I laugh because she's obviously joking.  The nanny laughs with us nervously.  As soon as I leave the room, the Nanny runs over to Mrs. Fly and says


Nanny:  That no good for me!  Why you say that?!?  Now you plant seed in his mind!


Maybe it's one of those things where you had to be there.

Resumption of weekend dining trip report in 2 days.

We live in a weird part of the country where a few blocks from us are houses that cost 6 figures and a few blocks from us are houses that cost 8 figures.  It makes for a weird public school system because you have kids from families who may need public assistance and other kids who are driving around in European luxury cars (obviously not in the elementary school).  But that's just how the real world is - you meet all kinds of people, so exposing the kids to this does not seem "bad" to us.

Mrs. Fly is very active in the PTA so the incoming PTA president invited us (and two other PTA families) over for dinner at their house.  Mrs. Fly's best friend from the elementary school was there too.  Now that I think about it, I think I need to give them a name.  We've vacationed with them and it seems like we meet for a weekend meal at least once a month.  I want to call them "the Fish" (because it sounds like their last name en espanol), but you don't want to call someone you like a "fish" on a poker blog.  So I've decided on "the Ants" - mostly for their workmanlike approach to vacationing.  If we're "the Flys," having them be "the Ants" seems okay.

Anyway, the host had a really nice house - not 8 figures, but it was adequate.  :-P  They must spend a small fortune on landscaping.  It costs us $100 a week to just have our lawn mowed.  This family had like twice as much land and a billion hedges lining their driveway and house.  All the hedges were shaped like spheres - that's a lot of work.

TR continued tomorrow...

We're going over for dinner today at G's friend's house.  The wife apparently went to culinary school so I'm really looking forward to this.