Sunday, January 25, 2004
Okay - so I've decided to dabble in this whole blog thing for a bit. For those you who know me well, you might find this to be a bit of a surprise. Not a normal move for Tom, but hey - what the hell. Right now I'm thinking of it more then anything as hopefully a better way to stay in touch with friends and family then anything. I'm not too good at staying in touch, so maybe this is my lazy approach to improving that. We'll see how long it last. Let me know if a pool starts up - I'd be glad to put some money down as well!
So - let me give you the rundown of my weekend. Friday was a bit uneventfull. One of our managers at the office is leaving to return to the mothership (Round Rock), so headed to Crickets with him and Michael. This used to be a regular event for Michael and I when we worked at the Nashville campus. We head out to Jonathan's (great bar/grill) in Franklin at least twice a week for a pizza and a couple pitchers of NewCastle. Good times! That was basically the rundown for Friday night - New Castle, pizza, and a few rounds of Cricket at Crickets. Those Brits know how to come up with some good games (darts, not the other one). Somehow I managed to look like I knew what I was doing and won both games. Tragically it was pure luck and I'll never be able to repeat the performance.
Saturday was the big night though. Blair and I have been working for about a month now to put together our first Texas Hold'Em Tourney. Wow - can I just say how much I love this game?? Anyway - we ended up with 14 players and 2 dealers for the night (much love to John and Genevieve for dealing all night!). Unfortunately due to unforseen circumstances, we only ended up with 11 players by the time the dealing started at 6:00. That was all good though - still a good group of players for the first matchup. The buy-in was $50 a person and each player received $500 in chips. Basically, you play till one person has all the chips - and then payouts are given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. We drew cards to see who would be at table 1 and 2. Much to my dismay Blair, Austin, and myself all end up at the same table. This was a problem because (not to be cocky) the 3 of us where probably 3 of the top players in the Tourney. This would be like putting the top 3 teams in the country in the same bracket in March! NO BUENO! Luckily, one guy was late showing up, which moved me to the other table. The action was slow at our table and I wasn't landing any pots. Joel was the first to drop out at our table and Kyle and Josh were slowly building pots. Ryan and I both sat at just below our inital $500. As we were getting close to moving to one table I made an All-In move on Ryan, he took went for it and I doubled up before having to move to one table. This was HUGE for me. This gave me $600 in chips and put me in 4th place instead of 7th place with $300 in chips. Big difference. The second table started well for me early. I probably took 5-6 pots early and started to build up over $1K. Josh dropped next, followed by Mike. I'd already won 3 All-IN calls and just made another one on Chris. Chris had pocket Queens and a pair of 5s on the table. What Chris didn't know was that I had pocket Jacks with the 5s and another Jack on the table. Jacks/5s boat and a $2K pot! Not too shaby. At this point I'm sitting with a $2500 stack of chips in front of me and about a $1K lead over the next person closest to me. I'm feeling good at this point. Austin dropped out next, followed quickly by Chris. Now - down to the final 3 - me, Kyle, and JD. The good news here is that we all are in the money now. 3rd place gets $75 and that gets your money back and a little extra. Here is where things did not go well for me. It was about 2:30 in the morning now and I was FREAKIN' TIRED!!!! I think I could have won this deal, however I realized it could take me till 7am to do it. No way - I need some sleep. So, I started betting stupid. I decided I was going to force the issue and either win it and go to bed with $325 in my pocket, or finish 3rd with $75, but either way - I was going to bed. I lost my last $1K on an IDIOTIC ALL-IN bet!!! Long story short I lost to a straight when there was 4 to the straight on the table. I was so tired I didn't even see it. It sucks to get old. Oh well - I played well (not counting the last hour) and finished 3rd. Can't complain. We're looking to have another round in March - hopefully we'll get about 25 players next time!
Sunday I actually made it to church - which was a miracle considering I didn't go to bed till 4:30. I can't really tell you much about church though, because let's face it.... I was bit out of it. The bigger miracle... I actually managed my long run on Sunday afternoon. Now my diet the past 24 hours leading up the consisted of this: wings for lunch on Sat followed by pizza, pretzels, rum, and a dozen cokes. This is not the type of diet that most runners would recommend before starting a 10 mile run, but nonetheless the pavement calls. The run went well, although I paid the price for every pepper and onion on my supreme pizza. I finished in 1:25 and thought I had done 11 miles - that was a great run and under my time goal for the Bearathon. However, after driving it I realized I only ran 10 miles and was 4 mins over my time goal. Oh well, not bad considering the fuel and the less then 4 hours of sleep. Well, my pillow calls......
So - let me give you the rundown of my weekend. Friday was a bit uneventfull. One of our managers at the office is leaving to return to the mothership (Round Rock), so headed to Crickets with him and Michael. This used to be a regular event for Michael and I when we worked at the Nashville campus. We head out to Jonathan's (great bar/grill) in Franklin at least twice a week for a pizza and a couple pitchers of NewCastle. Good times! That was basically the rundown for Friday night - New Castle, pizza, and a few rounds of Cricket at Crickets. Those Brits know how to come up with some good games (darts, not the other one). Somehow I managed to look like I knew what I was doing and won both games. Tragically it was pure luck and I'll never be able to repeat the performance.
Saturday was the big night though. Blair and I have been working for about a month now to put together our first Texas Hold'Em Tourney. Wow - can I just say how much I love this game?? Anyway - we ended up with 14 players and 2 dealers for the night (much love to John and Genevieve for dealing all night!). Unfortunately due to unforseen circumstances, we only ended up with 11 players by the time the dealing started at 6:00. That was all good though - still a good group of players for the first matchup. The buy-in was $50 a person and each player received $500 in chips. Basically, you play till one person has all the chips - and then payouts are given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. We drew cards to see who would be at table 1 and 2. Much to my dismay Blair, Austin, and myself all end up at the same table. This was a problem because (not to be cocky) the 3 of us where probably 3 of the top players in the Tourney. This would be like putting the top 3 teams in the country in the same bracket in March! NO BUENO! Luckily, one guy was late showing up, which moved me to the other table. The action was slow at our table and I wasn't landing any pots. Joel was the first to drop out at our table and Kyle and Josh were slowly building pots. Ryan and I both sat at just below our inital $500. As we were getting close to moving to one table I made an All-In move on Ryan, he took went for it and I doubled up before having to move to one table. This was HUGE for me. This gave me $600 in chips and put me in 4th place instead of 7th place with $300 in chips. Big difference. The second table started well for me early. I probably took 5-6 pots early and started to build up over $1K. Josh dropped next, followed by Mike. I'd already won 3 All-IN calls and just made another one on Chris. Chris had pocket Queens and a pair of 5s on the table. What Chris didn't know was that I had pocket Jacks with the 5s and another Jack on the table. Jacks/5s boat and a $2K pot! Not too shaby. At this point I'm sitting with a $2500 stack of chips in front of me and about a $1K lead over the next person closest to me. I'm feeling good at this point. Austin dropped out next, followed quickly by Chris. Now - down to the final 3 - me, Kyle, and JD. The good news here is that we all are in the money now. 3rd place gets $75 and that gets your money back and a little extra. Here is where things did not go well for me. It was about 2:30 in the morning now and I was FREAKIN' TIRED!!!! I think I could have won this deal, however I realized it could take me till 7am to do it. No way - I need some sleep. So, I started betting stupid. I decided I was going to force the issue and either win it and go to bed with $325 in my pocket, or finish 3rd with $75, but either way - I was going to bed. I lost my last $1K on an IDIOTIC ALL-IN bet!!! Long story short I lost to a straight when there was 4 to the straight on the table. I was so tired I didn't even see it. It sucks to get old. Oh well - I played well (not counting the last hour) and finished 3rd. Can't complain. We're looking to have another round in March - hopefully we'll get about 25 players next time!
Sunday I actually made it to church - which was a miracle considering I didn't go to bed till 4:30. I can't really tell you much about church though, because let's face it.... I was bit out of it. The bigger miracle... I actually managed my long run on Sunday afternoon. Now my diet the past 24 hours leading up the consisted of this: wings for lunch on Sat followed by pizza, pretzels, rum, and a dozen cokes. This is not the type of diet that most runners would recommend before starting a 10 mile run, but nonetheless the pavement calls. The run went well, although I paid the price for every pepper and onion on my supreme pizza. I finished in 1:25 and thought I had done 11 miles - that was a great run and under my time goal for the Bearathon. However, after driving it I realized I only ran 10 miles and was 4 mins over my time goal. Oh well, not bad considering the fuel and the less then 4 hours of sleep. Well, my pillow calls......
