I’ve been wanting a netbook for a couple of weeks now. A couple of days ago there was one on woot.com, but by the time I saw it, it had sold out. Well, last night I came home and saw a tweet from Otto that the netbook had reappeared on sellout.woot.com. I logged on and grabbed one. 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive for $224. Not bad. Only downside is that the battery on this model sucks, but I can replace it or use an external battery. I just wanted something I can carry around for blogging and playing poker online more easily than my full-sized laptop.
Speaking of poker… I cashed in a HUGE tournament yesterday. I had the laptop at the Saucer – was there to watch the first leg of the Downtown Olympics bar relay. So, right before 1:00 the contestants came in, Chief Official Bicycle Bobby gave the signal, and then they all rushed out the door to the next stop. They were to end up at Calhoun’s and four more events were to be held – Big Wheel race, synchronized drinking, Soul Burger eating, and cornhole. Synchronized drinking sounded like the most fun of the events, so I planned to head south to check that one out.
With a couple of hours to kill, I logged on to PokerStars. The “Daily Thirty Grand” tournament was about to start. For a $10 buy-in plus a $1 entry fee, players had a chance at a prize pool of at least $30,000. That sounded good to me, so I registered and started playing. As it turned out, the prize pool was much larger than expected – 5585 people registered, so there was $55,850 in prize money. The top 810 finishers would win money, with the top 7 winning more than $1,000 each and the first place winner taking home over $7,000.
Shortly before the 2:55 break, I thought, “I need to get out of here and go see synchronized drinking.” At that point I had a smaller than average stack size, so I thought, “Let’s get it over with.” So I went all-in with pocket 7s, and amazingly they held up and won the hand. Then I got dealt AJ and the board came up K-10-2. I pushed all my chips in again, which on a draw to an inside straight is not really a smart move. Three other players called me, and a Q came up on the river. I hit my straight, and suddenly I found that I had a huge stack of chips. I checked to see how many players were left – 1600. There was no doubt in my mind I’d make it to the payoff if I stuck around.
About 45 minutes later play stopped for a moment. “We are now in hand-to-hand play,” we were informed in the chat box. That meant we were on the bubble – 811 players left and 810 positions to pay out. A few minutes later it announced, “We are now back to normal play,” and the player count read 799. I was in the money! I still had a larger-than-average stack, so I continued to play aggressively. When I had crummy hands, I folded them and checked Facebook. By then people were posting pics of sync drinking. Hated to miss it, but not as much as I hated to miss a chance at a $7,000 payoff.
I finally lost just before 5 PM… I had AA and the flop was complete garbage, something like 2-6-10. I bet the size of the pot and a player who’d been bluffing a lot raised me. I decided to punish him by re-raising all-in. Just in case this was a bad raise, I watched the player count. The next level of prize money started at 315 players, and the count was currently at 316. So I took my sweet time putting in my reraise, allowing two players at other tables to drop out. Unfortunately I picked the wrong time to go after the bluffer… he flipped over pocket 10s. Turn and river were no help and I was out in 314th place. A moment later I received an e-mail from PokerStars Support informing me that winnings of $38.90 had been deposited to my account. Better than losing, I suppose, but I’m still irritated at myself for getting too attached to my Aces… if I’d played more conservatively I’d have made it through another few prize levels at least and walked away with upward of $100.
In the news: Josh Pastner is turning down all opportunities to appear in ads. He wants to focus on the basketball program, and says for the first year at least it needs to be all about the school and not him. He’s turning down income to do the right thing. I respect this man more and more every day. The FedExForum filled to capacity for Memphis Madness Friday night and they had to turn people away. That’s how much this town supports our Tigers. Wonderful to see so much team spirit.
In football: The Hogs lost to #1 Florida yesterday, but once again they proved that they can hang with the best teams in the nation. Arkansas led for most of the game, but a missed field goal gave the Gators the opportunity to drive down the field and kick a field goal of their own for the win. A lot of people are blaming the officiating, due to a couple of questionable calls, but the fact is, missed touchdown passes and field goals cost Arkansas more than the officiating did. They’re getting good, but still have more work to do. It will be interesting to see whether the Hogs get votes for the Top 25 with a 3-3 record. It will also be interesting to see what the line is on Saturday’s game at Ole Miss. At the beginning of the season Ole Miss was Top 5 and the Hogs were nobodies, but now I’d have to believe Arkansas will be the favorite.
Oh, a quick DTO/Nuh-Uh Girl story – she was not one of the team members who participated in the Soul Burger Eating competition. However, after it ended she noticed that there were some soul burgers left over. She went over to Chief Official Bicycle Bobby and asked, “Can I have one?” She’s a food panhandler.
Got one more post this morning before I head to brunch… trying to help a doggie find a home. Check back, will post again as soon as I buy my morning Mountain Dew and grab some pics off Facebook.