Poker and Politics

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco about AG Merrick Garland's memo on school board meetings. Big Brother, it seems, has expanded its reach into our lives. This time its the FBI under the direction of Biden appointee Attorney General Merrick Garland. According to the National Review , in a memo released on October 4, Garland directed the FBI and U.S.Attorney's Offices to investigate " alleged threats being made against school board officials by a growing coalition of parents who are outraged by the imposition of racialized curricula and COVID-driven shutdowns and mask mandates in their local classroom."   So if you want to speak up at your next local school board meeting to express your frustration over your children being forced to wear masks, or if you're just upset over your children being taught "Critical Race Theory" in our schools, beware! If you ...

        Did you ever have one of those days where you just wanted to clear your mind?       Where you just don't want to think about anything that's going on in the world?      Where you turn off the news so you don't have to hear about politics, Afghanistan, Covid, climate "change", inflation. stocks, etc.?      Where you don't even want to play poker because that requires some semblance of concentration?      Where you just want to let your mind blank-out the world around you?      I call it "zoning out" and I did just that the other day. I turned off the TV, turned on the Spotify music, popped open a cold one, and played slots! I should maybe do it more often?  

                So I've been working on my game somewhat as of late. I've known for a long time that I have some serious leaks in my on-line play and I think I just found a major one.      Without patting myself on the back too much, I can honestly say that I am a winning LIVE player in low-stakes NLHE (1-2, 1-3 and 2-5) and my low-entry live tournament play is probably in the plus column as well. With this in mind, I tried to figure out why my overall ON-LINE play seems to suck. Is it site selection? Game selection? Time of day?       Site selection - I have played at Bovada, Ignition, BOL and ACR as I think they're the only ones available in my jurisdiction. My go to now is mostly ACR. They have a great selection of tournaments and cash games going at all levels. I also enjoy watching their players streaming on Twitch as it passes the time while I play. They also have a great community and I know a few of my Twitte...

     So last night my girlfriend asked me, as a Marine that was stationed there, what I felt about the incursion at the U.S.Capitol. My first reply was that I was angry and hurt. The conversation was brief as we don't see eye-to-eye on politics, but her question made me reflect on my true feelings. Am I angry? Yes. Am I hurt? Yes. But my best answer should've been, "I am ashamed". Problem is, she would've gone on about how bad Trump and the Republicans are, and she would've completely misunderstood my answer.      I am ashamed! But not for the reasons one would think.      The horrific attack on our Nation's most hallowed hallways was  inexcusable, but sadly, inevitable.              A wise young District Attorney once told me that society is like a pendulum. It swings to the left and then to the right but it will always return to the middle. This is as it should be but I don't think it's the case ...

      Less than a day away! Don't know about you folks, but I will be voting in person on Election Day. Maybe it's just me, but I want to be assured that my vote gets tallied.      Kind of a strange election year. There are very few undecideds amongst us. Most have long ago made up there minds on their candidates, at least for the top spot. Polls showing Biden way up, but then again, 2016 showed Trump losing bigtime as well.  I expect the "silent majority" will have a big Election Day turnout       Here's my predictions: Trump takes some key states-Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia. Trump wins 285-253 Senate will be 50-50 with Pence serving as tiebreaker, giving the Majority to Republicans. House remains controlled by Democrats. In other words, I believe the general make up of the legislative and executive branches will remain the same. Thoughts?                 ...

      Like others, I learned the game sitting around the kitchen table with family and friends when I was in my teens a very long time ago. There was no internet then and no video games existed. We played various games and had social interaction that didn't involve a keyboard or microphone. I learned how to play Hearts, Cribbage, Chess and, of course, Poker.       Poker claimed my interest over the other games and it became a great past-time for those long winter nights growing up in Minnesota. I started playing regular weekend games at my neighbor Ron's house and we would keep them going til sunup most times. When I graduated, Ron got me a job at Whirlpool on the assembly line. Hard work but good money for those days.       Paydays would come and we used to cash our checks at the bar down the street from the factory. I was barely eighteen but the bar overlooked age if you had a paycheck to cash and spend. Ron introduced me to a gam...

 Welcome!  Let's set the record straight. I'm not a blogger.  I'm just an old man with too much time on his hands sitting in his garage babysitting his outside dog during the unbearable desert heat, I set up a portable cooler in here and bring Luna in every afternoon til it cools down in the evenings. It can get rather boring after awhile so I thought I'd give this a try.  When deciding what to write about, I thought about my stint in the Marines or one of the three full careers I've had in my 65 years. Then I remembered that I'm not writing a memoir so I decided to write about the two things that really get my attention these days, Poker and Politics! I know they may seem to be two completely unrelated subjects, but in another sense, they are closely related as I think the Left and the Right play poker with each other all the time.  So if either one of these topics peaks your curiosity, feel free to subscribe or just pop-in now and then to check things out. I...