HugePoker

Forgive me huge blog fans for I have neglected. It’s been almost 5 months since my last confession…

When last I blogged I was abandoning a major poker tournament in favor of another week of beach-bum-dom in Costa Rica. That small deviation from the poker plan cascaded into three months of very little poker. I was feeling burned out, and 2008 was not progressing very well after the two previous stellar years, so I took a break. In the past two months I’ve been making my way back to poker-mind, and it remains to be seen whether the time off has helped my game or not, but I have had a few good results, and the World Series is rapidly approaching, so it seems like I’d better dust off my poker face and my blogging fingers.

(mostly) poker news from the past five months…

Almost no poker for the end of 2008. Finished 2008 somewhere in the vicinity of breakeven (ugh) - I haven’t even bothered to dig through and figure out whether I had a small gain or small loss. Either way, disappointing.

We seem to have elected a black President - apparently with at least a handfull or two of functioning brain cells - how cool is that? Actually I was in Costa Rica on election night and I knew the race had been called when I heard a group of women shrieking in celebration in the street. It’s unclear how Obama will land on the whole online-poker legislation issue, but I guess I can cut him some slack for a little while - maybe it’s not the *most* important issue on his plate.

Another (non-poker-related) trip to the Caribbean, making 3 hops in 3 months: Curacao&Aruba, Costa Rica, Virgin Islands. That didn’t suck at all.

Two trips to Vegas, first one kind of blah, second one successful, both for me and for Team Huge, including biggest-ever tournament cashes for Dan, Maya and Deb - hopefully I’ll dedicate a whole blog post to that one soon. I’m so proud of you kids!

Some good online scores in the past month, mostly in satellites, but also my worst satellite bubble finish ever: top 32 players get $5200, 33rd gets $300, I finished 34th for zero dollars - and the most money I’ve ever lost in a multi-table online tournament, a $400-rebuy satellite to the $10,000 “SCOOP” main event, which I wouldn’t even have known about except that Mark called me up a few minutes before the tournament started, convinced me I should play, and transferred me some money to make sure I had enough to cover a few rebuys (luckily he bought 20% of me, so he had to share 20% of my pain). Overall it’s been a good month though.

The last trip to Vegas was followed by my first trip to New Orleans (shocking, I know), where no poker was played but Mrs Huge and I consumed 6 orders of bread pudding and at least that many sazeracs. That also didn’t suck even a little. Don’t even get me started about the foie gras.

Planning is in full swing for the 2009 World Series of Poker, and once again I plan to be there for the entire series (if I don’t go insane and my sinuses don’t dry up and stop working). It’s looking like Team Huge will be there roughly June 28 - July 3, and you’re all invited to make the pilgrimage either that week or any other time - I’ll be there from May 26 until I bust out of the main event (or advance to the final table), hopefully in mid-July. There are great deals to be had at some very nice hotels, like Bellagio for $90/night - let me know if you’re interested and I’ll fill you in on the details.

I landed the starring role in “Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood” at Centerstage Theatre, which turned out to be a blast.

In an attempt to single-handedly (four-handedly?) prop up the ailing economy and automobile industry, Mrs Huge and I both bought new cars, without having any intention to do so mere days beforehand. Photos of the new huge-mobile here. Mazda was desperate to get rid of the remaining 2008 miatas to make way for the 2009s, so they offered a $5000 rebate on cars that were already selling under invoice, and I pretty much couldn’t afford not to buy it. Anyone want to buy a 1992 miata?

In upcoming poker news, if you live in Seattle, you should come on Friday night (ie tomorrow, April 17) to the Nebunele Theatre Co fundraiser poker tournament. I’ll be the tournament director, several members of Team Huge will be dealers, and if last year’s event is any indication the level of play will be so soft that anyone with any poker abilities at all will stand a good chance of running over it. Last year about half way through I broke down and started offering poker strategy pearls of wisdom to the players, which is highly unconventional behavior for a tournament director, but it seemed like a better alternative to screaming. Let me know if you want details and I’ll get them to you.

This is the first post in this blog since moving the website from one hosting plan and server to another, and I’ve only just managed to wrestle it back to apparent health. Hopefully things will be more stable than they have been, but let me know if you experience trouble or flakiness in accessing the posts or getting the email notifications.

It’s a pleasure to return to HugePoker land. Here’s to a better 2009, in poker and in whatever other gambling/investing/risky business we choose to engage in…

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