It’s always fun to come back to work after a nice long holiday weekend right?  Not so much.  However these days it’s good to have a job no matter how much of a grind it can be.

The weekend was great as I got to spend a lot of time with the family.  Lots of rest, food and fireworks.  On Saturday we were able to sneak away to the mall with just the baby in tow for some rare shopping.  While strolling through Dillards Mrs. Mookie stopped and looked at the parking lot size shoe department.  Their Coach shoes were on sale but still well over $100.  She had her eye on one particular pair that cost $168.  I told her that if I won the home game tournament at Roccoboxer’s house that night I would buy them for her.  She laughed it off knowing what a big donkey I am.

That night we managed to make it to the home game with the baby in tow again.  A smaller crowd of 13 players showed up for the tourney.  At the first break after the add-ons had been calculated into the prize pool, first place prize appeared on the Tournament Director screen….$168.  Spooky.

I made it to the final table with an average stack but was able to gather some chips.  Eventually the money bubble popped and I was sitting in 3rd spot with 4 players remaining.  The blinds were pretty high and I managed to string along some hands to build my stack and move into 2nd place.  When Rocco bowed out in 3rd place I was heads up facing a 3-2 deficit.

Luckily for me the chipleader was new to the game and paid me off when I held AK to pull us nearly even.  A few hands later I turned the nuts with the mighty 63o which bested her T8 to have all but 10K of the 665,000 chips in play.  It’s nice to sit of front of a stack that big.  It was all over the next hand and the money was all mine…to buy Mrs. Mookie some fancy schmancy shoes.

We’ll go tonight to buy them and I’ll post pictures tomorrow for all the ladies.

* - * - * - * - *

Over the weekend Nat Arem posted about some weird things going on with Google.  Long story short is Google dropped a bunch of affiliate sites like Cards Chat, Poker Source Online, Poker Helper, Launch Poker, etc.  If you’re a poker blogger you probably recognize a lot of these sites because they pay you money to have their ad on your site.

Because of that you’ll find that your site too has been dropped from Google (or at least way the hell down the list) and your page rank has dipped as well.  After reading a few sites and comments it looks like they/we have violated Google’s T&C’s.

Since the ads we post don’t contain No Follows in the code, we are in violation and this may be a reason to the sites being dropped.

So what to do now?  This blog wasn’t setup to make money although it’s nice to get a few bucks each month.  If your blog has been dropped and you want to be added back, you can submit your site to Google for consideration here.  You would probably want to add No Follows to your ads before doing so.

Adding the No Follow will probably piss off your advertisers.  For most of us they aren’t buying ad space on the site because of our massive amounts of traffic or great prose.  They are buying them for the links from your site with poker related keywords.  A way to get them higher up the search list on Google.

So it’s the ol’ catch-22 situation.  You add the No Follows and the advertisers probably won’t renew.  You don’t add the No Follows and you’ll fall off the face of earth Google and you’ll stop getting ad requests.

I could be totally wrong about all this, but so far this sounds like the most probable thing that happened.  I’ll probably wait a few days and see if any other info comes out before I decide what to do.

* - * - * - * - *

Congrats to the bloggers who made it through to Day 2 (Iggy and Loretta8 at the Main Event of the WSOP.  Since my weekend was pretty busy I couldn’t follow along on Pokernews.  Instead I read Pauly’s hourly updates religiously on my SmartPhone.  Awesome stuff.

Congratulation to NumbBono for winning his 3rd Mookie title.  Be sure to read his past two profiles before reading this one.

* - * - * - * - *

Champion: NumbBono

Blog: Donkeys Always Draw

* - * - * - * - *

Q: Do you have any pre-poker rituals?

NB: Not really, just putting my son to bed, and making sure everything is safe and sound with him.  Then it’s time to get the gamble on.

Q: Do you have a special place, room, or setup that you prefer to play online? Describe.

NB: I play best at my PC.  Regarding the setup…it’s actually pretty decent.  I have a high-powered PC with a dual monitor setup.  On Mookie nights, I bring up every table in the tourney, and throw a Tournament Indicator window on them.  With that program, I can see how people have been playing regarding those silly little stats like VPIP, and PFR.
I generally keep an eye on all the tables.

Q: What variation of poker do you consider to be your strongest game?

NB: Not really a variation, but HORSE is the game that I’m best at right now.  I won a couple of small buyin HORSE tourneys  last month, so yeah, I’m digging HORSE.

Q: What variation of poker do you feel needs more work?

NB: Great question, considering my answer to the previous one.  When it comes to tourneys, it’s definitely the LHE portion of HORSE.

Q: Why do YOU play The Mookie?

NB: This is the flagship blogger tournament, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Q: Are you a winning player and if so how long did it take you to become a winning player?

NB: Such a tilted question to ask a recent tourney winner, isn’t it?  I am currently a winning player, but I haven’t always been one.  It’s been a journey, but I am definitely a money-maker now.

Q: What bankroll standards have you setup for yourself?

NB: Easy, when I wanna buy something cool, I cash out a little bit.

Q: Cash or MTT?

NB: MTT…followed by SnG’s.  I suck at cash games.

Last week’s winner…Instant Tragedy’s SIX DEADLY QUESTIONS!

Q: Ducks or Aces?

NB: Aces.

Q: Floyd or Zeppelin?

NB: Zeppelin.

Q: Best Player Evah: Hellmuth or Ivey?

NB: Doyle…retard.

Q: Who is hotter? Evy or Joanada?

NB: Joanada plays a better game, and is much hotter.

Q: Who wins Mookie next?  Surflexus or Mookie/Hoy combination.

NB: Surf (or me).

Q: Roar or BOOOOOOOM?

NB: boom.

NumbBono’s question for the next champ…

Q: How do you like your eggs?

* - * - * - * - *

Congrats again to NumbBono and thanks for participating in this profile.

Even with the WSOP and holiday weekend right around the corner, we still managed to get a solid crowd of 48 players out for The Mookie on Full Tilt.  I was looking to get chips or find the rail early as my plan was to step up the aggression.  No more wuss Meekie.

The plan worked well early on as I opened a lot more pots, restole and even 4-bet preflop with the mighty 97s.  I won my first bounty  off of WSOP bound LJ when my KK held up against her QQ.  At the first break I had a healthy stack of around 6,500 chips.

I managed to stay well about average during the 2nd hour and added a couple more bounties to my collection.  Down to the final two tables, I hit my peak of 9,000+.  In the past this is when I would normally tighten up way too much and slowly bleed off chips.  This time around I tried to open and steal as many pots in position as possible.  Unfortunately I got shoved on a few times to knock me back to the bottom of the pack.

Sitting on the final table bubble with 10 players remaining, I kept aggressive by shoving PF early and often.  It works all but once and I couldn’t get the lucky suckout(s) you need in MTTs when my 77 fell to NewinNov’s AA.  That left me with crumbs but I managed to more than quad up the next hand.  Unfortunately I ran T9 into NN’s TT and that was all she wrote for me.  Out in 10th.  Disappointing but I really liked how I played last night.  On the bright side, I think I collected 5 bounties.

Here were the final table participants all gunning for one of the top 6 money spots.

Here is how the final table played out…

9th Place - Bayne

8th Place - Lightning36

7th Place - Bdidde

6th Place - Misterd2U

5th Place - Surflexus

4th Place - NewinNov

3rd Place - zeroluck001

2nd Place - NumbBono

1st Place - BrainMc

Congratulations to BrainMc on his 3rd Mookie title.  NumbBono almost pulled off the rare back to back wins and 4th title.

* - * - * - * - *

Only 11 brave souls signed up for The Dookie and some Turbo Pot Limit Omaha.  I never got anything going in this tourney.  I backed into the final table with less than 1,000 chips and tried to make a run for the money.

My night ended in 6th place when my QQxx was snapped off by Joanne’s AAxx in a battle of the blinds.

The top 3 spots made the money…

3rd Place - TheCloserX5

2nd Place - DDionysus

1st Place - Pureprophet

Congratulations to Pureprophet on what’s probably his 38th Dookie win.  Thanks to everyone who made it out last night for the tourneys, see you next week.

Thanks to a midday conversation with the One Nut Wonder, I made a rare appearance at the Skills game last night that is now hosted by Chip.  The game of choice this week was LO8 which I know little about but play at the cash tables whenever I need a break from NLHE.

Twenty-two players signed up which meant only the top 3 would make the money.  I messed up a bunch of hands but managed to stay alive through both breaks making the final table.  It was refreshing/maddening to play a tournament where I wasn’t the only one who didn’t have a clue.  I think some people thought we were playing Omaha high.

In the end I ended up bubbling when I misplayed AA57 poorly against 3398.  That left me shortstacked and I was bounced when my KKxx was crushed by JJxx.  Two plus hours wasted on a ghey MTT.  Uggh!  That’s what I get for letting Cash is King talk me into playing.  :)

In all seriousness it was great to be able to play a bloggament besides The Mookie.  It’s tough to block out time to play blogger events since that time of the night is prime family time.  Half of the clan was spending the night at various friends house so I was able to sneak into the Skills.

Tonight is The Mookie on Full Tilt and since I missed last week’s event, I’m really looking forward to playing…even if it is a ghey MTT.  NumbBono took down his third title last week and I hope to get his profile up here later this week.

As usual, the fun begins at 9PM CT and everyone is welcome to play.  The password is vegas1 and each player has a $2 bounty.

If you’re looking for more tourney action, don’t forget to sign up for The Dookie.  This is a Turbo Pot Limit Omaha tournament that begins at 10:30PM CT.  This is also open to everyone, costs $11 to enter and has the same password, vegas1.

Good luck to everyone tonight…even Hoy.

* Except for Lucko and LJ.

Click HERE to the see the full list of players.

Provided by willwonka.

HIGHLIGHTS

* Spending time with my wife at a very nice hotel like Bellagio.

* Meeting up with old friends…Don, CK and Weak.

* Meeting FTrain.

* Leaving Vegas a $550 winner.

* Stacking someone with AA vs. KK.

* Didn’t play a single tournament.

* Mrs. Mookie hitting a slot machine for $2,500.

LOWLIGHTS

* Not getting to meet more bloggers.

* $3 sodas at Bellagio’s vending machines.

* Stacking someone with AA vs. KK when the someone is a fellow blogger.

* Didn’t get to play as much poker as I expected.

* Didn’t play a single tournament.

In my last post I detailed my first night in Vegas and I had plans of blogging while I was out there.  That all went out the window when I stayed up to 2am each of the following two nights.  When I got up each morning on less than 8 hours of sleep, writing down the previous day’s activities wasn’t so attractive.  It’s probably a good thing I didn’t since I managed to fly out a winner.  A small winner but a winner nonetheless.

After not playing a single hand of poker my first night in Vegas, I was itching to get at a poker table the next morning.  Mrs. Mookie wanted to stop by her old slot stomping grounds at the Luxor.  I had made plans with Don and Weak to meet them at Venetian later in the day so I decided to warm up at the Luxor.

I strolled into the room to find just a single table of players.  WTF?  After talking to the floor I found that they were in the middle of moving the room to another part of the casino.  He told me to come back in about an hour or so and I could get a seat.  An hour passes and I check back and find nothing new and am told it will we another 1-2 hours.  Doh!

I find Mrs. Mookie and we decided to head over to the MGM.  Finally around 2pm on Wednesday I get a seat and play my first hand of poker in Vegas.  They opened a new table for a group of us waiting for a seat and the first hand I’m dealt it two black aces (I only got AA one more time the rest of the trip).  I raised it up to $15 after 3 early limpers and get two callers…of course.  I c-bet a Ten high flop and take the pot.  This would be the first of a few smallish pots that led to a $150 profit on the session.  Not great, but not bad either.

Eventually I made my way to the Venetian and met up with Don and Weak.  This was my first time playing at the Venetian and was very impressed with the room.  The place was packed since they’re running the Deep Stack Extravaganza series right now.  Weak was playing 2/5 while I got a seat at Don’s table playing 1/2.  He built his stack up nicely while I hovered around even for most of the session eventually finishing down about $50.

We grabbed some grub at the Venetian (compliments of Weak) and then Weak took me over to the Rio to check out the WSOP scene.  I had hopes of finally meeting Pauly and some of the other bloggers covering the series, however the players in the $50K HORSE event had gone on dinner break along with all the bloggers.  Doh!  Weak gave me a full tour of the place including the cash game area, satellite room, poker kitchen, etc.  I hung around a little longer after Weak took off but then headed back to the Bellagio and eventually Planet Hollywood for some more cash games.

I got to meet another blogger when CK and FTrain stopped by after a night on the town with some NY bloggers.  Since the P-Ho wasn’t spreading much other than 1/2NL, 2/4 Limit and 15/30 Mixed FTrain didn’t sit in.  CK eventually got a seat at my table and we played for a couple of hours until her KK ran into my AA.

The next day we went back to Venetian and I chatted with Weak at his 2/5 table before I got a seat in the 1/2 game.  Another break even session for most of the day until I lost a smaller pot towards the end to finish down $45.  That night I went back to the MGM for more cash and finished up over $125.

Friday was our last day in Vegas and since I was up $500 for the trip I really wanted to play the 2/5 game at the Bellagio.  Weak made an appearance and got on the list before I could since we had to check out of our room.  He got a seat pretty quick while I was 10th on the list.  I waited for over an hour and the list grew to 25 deep with no one getting a seat during that time.  They were setting up for their $2100 2pm tournament and weren’t opening any new tables except for 5/10NL.  I briefly thought about pulling a Waffles and sitting in…OK not really but it would have made for a good story.

With only 3 more left before we had to head to the airport, I bailed on my 2/5 dreams and walked across the street to P-Ho.  I played for a couple hours and won another $50 and then ran back across the street after Mrs. Mookie called to tell me she hit a slot machine.

She was grinding it out at the quarter slots and hit three red 7’s to win 10,000 quarters.  Not too shabby…always great to leave Vegas on a winning note.

Our flight to Vegas ran a little behind but we made it in town safely.  From there I started running bad almost immediately when it took us nearly 45 minutes to get our luggage.  By the time the cabbie dropped us off at the front of the Bellagio is was nearly 10:30PM.

Due to our late arrival we didn’t score a nice lake view room or the king size bed requested.  Instead we got two queen beds and can do it up Leave It To Beaver style.

The room is by far the nicest we’ve ever had in Vegas.  It’s a long way from the Plaza where we used to stay back in the day.

After unpacking, we hit the casino floor and I sweated Mrs. Mookie’s slot play before blowing $40 of my own.  Uggh I hate slots with a passion and my brief stint put me on tilt.  Meanwhile Mrs. Mook ran $20 up over $300 before pulling a Waffles and heading to the $5 Wheel of Fortune slots.  Her luck ended there and we made an appearance at Cafe Bellagio for some grub.

Along the way I got in touch with CK and thought about meeting them over at the Rio and then Gold Coast, but I started hitting the wall being the old man that I am.  It was past 2am Austin time and I was exhausted.  After touring the Conservatory, I called it a night and went back to the room while Mrs. Mook continued her slot quest.

I managed to stop by the poker room and the place was packed with no open seats anywhere to be found.  It looked like Bobby’s room was in action and pretty full as well.  I’m working with a $2K bankroll this trip so I probably won’t play at Bellagio until Thursday or Friday (depends on how I run between now and then).

The early plan for today is to head over to the Venetian and meet Don for some cash game fun.  I can’t believe I’ve been in Vegas for 14 hours and haven’t played a single hand of poker.  Hopefully i won’t lose my ass and be relegated to playing The Mookie tonight.

Even though I’m kicking it small stakes style in Vegas, The Mookie is on for tonight at Full Tilt.  InstantTragedy is your defending champ and will be looking for back to back titles.

Tournament: The Mookie
Where/when: Full Tilt, Wednesday 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE, Knockout
Buyin: $12+1
Password: vegas1

Don’t forget about The Dookie as well…

Tournament: The Dookie
Where/when: Full Tilt, Wednesday 23:30ET
Game: Pot Limit Omaha, Turbo
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

Good luck to everyone…except Hoy.

Posted from mobile phone:

In about 45 minutes we’ll finally be on our plane to Las Vegas. We got here way too early which allowed us to stuff our faces with a tasty hickory cheddar burger and tots from Waterloo Icehouse. Healthy.

While Mrs. Mook reads the latest Cosmo, I’m slouched in my chair people watching.  A lot of kiddos are gonna be on this flight which is a little surprising. Degen parents need to get their gambling fix and decided to tote little Johnny along. Oh..just saw this flight continues to Burbank. Hmmm…I wonder what the O/U is on how many kiddos exit the plane in the dessert.

There is the usual mix of blue hairs and hottie wannabes scattered amongst the rest of us middled aged couples. No signs of any working girls and their sugar daddys but it’s still early.

Cosmo is ghey…Mrs. Mook is reading an article explaining how light sleeping men are more sensitive to women than heavy sleepers. Guess that makes me one of the most insensitive men ever.  Well it’s time for me to slip a Benadryl to the screaming kid next to us. Hopefully his parents don’t see me…my luck they’ll be next to us on the plane.

I find myself contantly staring at the clock in the system tray on my computer.  With each long minute that passes I am closer to boarding the plane for Las Vegas.  The plane doesn’t leave until 7:45PM tonight which makes for a long day at the ol’ office.

I’ve spent a few hours trying to get a mobile Wordpress plug-in working so that I can take and post pictures along with blogs from my SmartPhone.  I’ll also try to update some from Twitter as well.

We’ve been to Vegas numerous times but this will be the first time we are going alone and without the entourage.  We’re really looking forward to the stay at the Bellagio, although we may feel a little like the Clampetts…without the oil money.

There aren’t any set plans for the trip although I do want to check out the Rio at least once during our stay.  Hopefully CK is still alive in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event when we touch down at 8:35PM Vegas time.  If so we’ll head over there to sweat after checking into the hotel.

Since we’ll be in Vegas tonight until late Friday night, I’ll be missing The Mookie tomorrow night.  Well that is unless I go busto before then.  Hopefully you won’t see me there tomorrow night.  I apologize in advance to whomever is the eventual winner for not recapping your historic run at a title.  Unless it’s Hoy, then it won’t be so bad. :)

Time for lunch…only 8 more hours and 15 minutes.