[DoubleG6]

Let me start off by saying that I never made it to the dance. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I didn't even make it out of my driveway. Between work, the house, the pool, the car, and my wife...I never stood a chance.

I really am very disappointed about the fact that I didn't get to go. I'm hoping that I have an opportunity on Friday to enter the $300 + $40 NLHE tourney. The buy ins keep creeping up there and pretty soon they'll be out of my price range. Man, it must be nice to be a pro and afford to enter any and every tournament out there. I'm sure that they budget like everyone else, but then again they are so used to big money that I don't see how they cant lose their perspective on value. When I'm in Vegas, money just doesn't make any sense to me. I always look for the best hotel deal in town and most of the time get the rooms for free. I eat at bargain restaurants and buffets and always go for the comp. I don't even buy souvenirs because its just a rip. I do tip well I guess, even if I think that just opening a car door doesn't justify a dollar earned. I make the most of it and ask for directions or recommendations from the locals. Always penny pinching, always getting more bang for my buck, then I turn around and bet $125 on one hand of Blackjack. WTF! I could have gotten the best cut of steak at an uppity restaurant for that price! I could have upgraded to the jacuzzi suite, I could have bought a bunch of gifts for my wife and kid at the outlet stores, not to mention some new kicks for myself. I could have stretched that money so thin that at the end of the day, I could actually see or feel the value of that $125.

Money management more than anything has attributed for what little success I've had at poker. I keep a close watch on my stack relative to all the others at my table. By doing this, I know when to slow down or kick it into high gear. If you pay close enough attention, you could actually use this as a tell against me. Its not too much of a tell because every poker player pretty much does the same thing. If you are sitting in front of a big stack, then you don't have to gamble as much and vice versa. I was actually going to become an accountant before the engineering gig and I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that money management comes naturally to me.

Speaking of accounting, I recently saw the final table of Ultimate bet.net on Fox sports with Phil Hellmuth at the mic. He had mentioned that there are several pros that have come from an accounting background. Most notably 2003 champ Moneymaker and most recently the 2nd place guy at this years WSOP, Steve Dannenmann (one to many N's probably). Interesting.

I'm still steaming a bit at what happened to me this weekend and can only hope that it all just happened for a reason. My partner Shaknbake couldn't even make because he was golfing. Who the hell golfs at 104 degree heat? I'd trade that in for a soft seat, a full rack, and a corona in a heartbeat. I\'m not promising myself anything either. I've pretty much given myself one shot at this years Legends of Poker and I hope it hasn't passed me by. I\'m pretty busy this month with school starting again, so poker always takes a back seat to my family. Patience is another good virtue in poker and life, so I'll chalk this up to discipline.

On my next blog I'll share my Ben Affleck dream (no, nothing like that you Homophobes) and what might have been.