First!

I hope this is the first of several blogs that I will make here.  My plan is to try to do one a week and to bore those of you unlucky enough to read it.  If you get any entertainment value out of this, well, I won't go there.  Any spelling mistakes you find just confirms your slide into feeblemindedness, not my lack of use of the spell checker.

I figured I could put a quick update on how I've done in the last week while playing games.  After all, this is a gaming site.

1) Texas Hold'em.  I final was able to get $50,000 and enter the third tournament level in the competitive online play.  I started well, but didn't get a lot of good starting hands.  The table seemed full of people wanting to play instead of the All-In'ing you see at the lower two levels of play.  I wasn't winning, but I was losing slower than most of the other players, so I thought I might have a chance to make it to 3rd place.  With 3 other players remaining, I was dealt AsAc.  Most people would have bet hard with this to just take the pot, but I decided to try to get the guy with the short stack to go all in.  He was behind me in position and just called the blinds so I just checked since I had the big blind.  It was him and me at this point, so I hoped he had a good hand and would pump money into the pot.  Flop was 2c2sAh.  Not a bad flop.  He pushes in 3x the blind and I call.  I' figure he's on either a pair in his hand or he's got the fourth Ace.  The turn card is 8d.  He bets 3x the blinds again, leaving him with 2x blind in left over money.  I figure the turn card was no help to him, so I push all in.  With out waiting for a single tick of the timer clock, he calls.  He shows 2d7d and I can hear him groan over the microphone when he sees my Aces.  He gets a little ribbing from the chip leader about playing a 2-7, but I keep quiet looking at the large % number in my score box.  Then the river comes out.  You guessed it, it was 2h and he finishes with four of a kind to my full house, winning the hand.  I'm stunned and down to under $1,000.  Foled pretty much every hand until the blinds finished me off.  So much for playing another tournament at this level.  Back to grinding at the fee tables until I get my bankroll back up.  On the positive side, I won the $4000 tournament in the single player mode, so I've got the money for the next level of that tournament.

2) Uno.  Lost 4 games.  Won 0 games.  Is this a game of luck or skill?  I think it's more luck than skill.

3) Carcassonne.  Beat the computer a few times.  Got beat online twice.   Stupid online.

4) PGR3.  I'm not sure I will ever get used to this game.  I love racing games and I picked up the wheel to help me play them.  I think that once I get my table built to hold the wheel, I'll be better at it.  I keep loosing the pedals when I try to play in the recliner with the wheel in my lap.  But something about having to slide around a corner instead of driving through it rattles me.  I may just shelve racing games until NASCAR '08 comes out.

5) Settlers of Catan.  No action this week.  Maybe some next week.

6) Downloaded Band of Bugs and played the tutorial and the first scenario.  I like this game, but it's not high enough on the list for me to think that I will ever finish it.

That's it for the gaming this past week.  I don't think I will be playing as much this coming week since I need to get the house cleaned up for my home poker tournament that I am hosting on the 21st.  But you never know.  I may also find some images for the blog also.