Yesterday I drove two and a half hours for Chinese food. And damn, it was good. It was worth the drive there, but not the drive back.

And that was my Saturday. What about you?

. . .

Poker is starting to bore me, big time. I've felt like I've proved my value as a player to people ... what's the point of continuing to play once everybody leaves? I was never into it for the money. That still doesn't change the Vegas trip, though. I'm still gonna play in some tourneys when I go there to see how well I fare against the field.

I had an opportunity to lock up the Player of the Year in the Stacy Poker Tour this past week; I came into the final table with 1/3 of the chips in play. First hand I was forced to call an all-in from Donald and couldn't win the race. Then I doubled up Will with AQdd against his KK (he didn't seem that strong). Everytime I played a hand, people kept playing back at me. The stereotypical hand of the evening at the final table for me unravelled like this:

I pick up a stronger-than-mediocre hand in early position (QQ, 99, AJ). I come in for an initial 3xBB EP raise. Someone re-raises me in late position; I call then fold the flop when it hits their hand.

I had an ugly laydown that was probably -EV; I picked up QQ UTG, made it 3xBB to go. Button (Chaz, a somewhat weak player) raised 2x my bet; I figured at best he had AK, but most likely a smaller pocket (TT or JJ). I was thinking how glorious it would be to double up when Will (BB) suddenly pushed in the rest. I counted out the raise and realized it was leaving me with roughly $6000 in chips (with blinds at $1000/$2000) if I lost this pot. Now, I didn't think Chaz was horribly strong; if I called, he would probably fold. I was looking at a coinflip situation at best (AK probably) and more likely domination (KK, AA) ... so I had to dump the hand. Chaz reluctantly called the hand and lost the race as a turn king came.

Somehow I managed to wait my wait down to heads-up against Discount Dave. I was outchipped close to 10:1 or so... I managed to fight my way back to a critical pot; winning this pot would of put me back into the fight for good (and arrogance aside, I think I would of won heads-up if I won this final pot). I picked up AQcc against Dave's 22 (which he raised preflop). The flop came KK8, two clubs. I pushed the rest in and he instacalled. I couldn't pair up the board again or hit my draw or hit my pairs... so I was out. Oh well.

All I have to do is place sixth next Tuesday and I win Player of the Year ... a pretty good feat in a 18-person weekly tournament seeing as to how I was close to dead last in points by Week 7.