Wedding, Random Thoughts and Some Poker

Well the big wedding day has come and gone and it was an absolute success. The weather was perfect, around 30 degrees Celsius(87F). The bride and groom(pictured above) looked great and the reception went out off without a hitch. It was like a year in planning and the day seemed to fly by but it was all worth it. The wedding took place outside on a lakefront resort and the reception followed inside. The food was excellent and I think everyone had a great time. I hope my son and his wife have many years of happiness.

I have to say I am totally shocked by the reaction of people to Michael Jackson's death. It is sad to see that he died at a relatively young age (50) but to have the major television networks televise the ceremony and all the hoopla was a bit overboard in my estimation. No it was way overboard. Now the fighting for his estate and custody of his kids can begin. I feel sorry for the kids. I guess it will give lots of things for the tabloids to write about in the years ahead.

I took my laptop with me for the 5 days I was gone to my sons wedding so I could keep up on emails and what was happening at the World Series of Poker. When I bought the laptop a few months back I had no idea I would use it so much. Now I don't think I would ever go back to a desktop model. I managed to chat on Skype with a few people that were not able to make it to the wedding and they were able by webcam to chat with my son and his wife which was so nice.

It seems that there were several hundred people who tried to register for day 1D of the Main Event at the WSOP who were turned away. Can you imagine going to Vegas and not being able to play?? On the WSOP website it shows that each day could hold 3000 poker players but only 2800 played on 1D so I am not sure what the problem was. The weird thing is that only just over 1100 hundred played day 1A. I know if I was playing I would rather have played on 1A and then had 3 days off to watch the other days. I will be following the action in the next few days so see who survives to be part of the final table.

I played my Regular Tuesday night live game last night and had a couple good hands early but basically got bet off the pots. The first won I was dealt A9 and limped in with 5 others. Flop came QQ9. First to act bet 1000 (blinds were 100/200). Guy next to him insta called. Just something told me he had the Queen so when action came around to me I folded very reluctantly. Guy next to me then raised to 2500. Yikes. Well I think he has the Queen now. Action went back to the original bettor and he folded as did the guy who I thought (wrongly I guess) had the Queen. Still wondering about that hand as the raiser wouldn't say what he had .

Very next hand I got dealt A10. (I was still mulling over the last hand in my head) Guy next to me raised to 600 (blinds were still 100/200). I called as did 3 others. HMMMMM. Flop comes 10,6,2. First to act pushes all in. Everyone folds to me. It would have cost me almost all my chips to call and for some reason I couldn't pull the trigger. I had watched him preflop and he looked like he was going to reraise so I put him on a high pocket pair (Jacks or Queens). So I folded. That was basically my night. I was basically card dead from then on and couldn't catch any flops when I got cards.

The Agassi story and a Wedding

I just finished reading The Agassi Story. When I first got the book I wrongly assumed it was a biography of Andre Agassi the tennis player. It was actually more of a autobiography of his dad Mike. I honestly wasn't expecting much and thought I probably would just skim through it but I was wrong. It was a great story. It told up his upbringing in Iran and his boxing in two Olympic Games. He managed to leave Iran eventually getting married in the U.S and went on to have 4 kids the youngest being Andre. His wife and him eventually settled in Las Vegas and that's where they live today. In the book he was critical of the way he pushed his two older kids to become tennis players and how much they resented him for it. He said he only wanted the best for them but as we all know parents of kids who push them relentlessly usually find they burn out at an early age and begin to hate the sport they are in.
The book did go into some detail of Andre's rise to tennis stardom but as seen through his dads eyes. He talks of Andres 2 year marriage to Brooke Shields and his current marriage to Steffi Graf. In the book there were also some great photos of a young Mike and of course shots of all the kids including Andre. All in all a really interesting story and one I would certainly recommend.

Reading the book reminded me of years ago I used to coach kids sports. My youngest loved to play hockey and baseball so having played a lot of ball but very little hockey I volunteered to help coach his teams. Boy was that tough. Not the coaching part but the dealing with parents part. I remember I had identical twin boys play on one of my sons teams. They were great kids and pretty good ball players but only when there dad didn't show up to the game. When he was there they looked nervous and of course made errors which he would then criticize them for. I was horrified as my method of coaching was always just encouragement. He wasn't the only one either. I had parents tell me where there kids should play and how much and with hockey it was even worse. If we were winning they only seemed to want the best out there and that's not how I coached. Every kid got equal ice time and equal playing time in baseball. After a couple seasons of listening to parents I gave up coaching and would just come to the games and encourage my son. That was so much better.

When my youngest was playing ball (he was 9 at the time) I remember a particular incident that still to this day makes me wonder about some parents. My wife and I were on the sidelines and my son's team was out in the field and a boy on the other team took a swing at a ball that was pretty high and well out of the strike zone. That was typical of kids that age though. They were just learning and having fun. Anyways his coach called him over and right beside me starting telling the 9 year old that if he swung at a ball like that again he would be benched. The poor kid hung his head and I lost it. I told the coach how dare you talk to a 9 year old like that. His response was and I quote "How is he ever going to learn if I don't". Huh??
This is a 9 year old. Aren't we supposed to give encouragement? anyways the coach stalked away glaring at me and then several parents came over and thanked me. I guess this coach had done this before in other sports too. The real bizarre thing was that he was a high school teacher and should have known better.

In Agassi`s book he gets into the pushy parents and critical coaching that happens in sports. It`s a shame because what happens is kids get turned off and hate sports.


I played my regular Tuesday night live game last night and although I didn't get to the final table I certainly played okay. No real remarkable hands other my pocket queens which when I raised with 4 limpers in the pot everybody folded. I won a few other hands but all small pots and eventually had to push with A5 in the BB and a flop of 8,5,4. I was pretty short stacked at the time and somebody had A8. I didn't improve and I was gone.

So in 4 days my oldest son is getting married. Heading up there tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. It should be a great day for the 2 of them. I wish them years of happiness.