I hope everyone is having a great holiday; merry christmas, happy hanukkah, krazy kwanzaa and all that jazz

Well I haven’t got much to write about with respect to playing poker - I haven’t played very much at all in the last month or so. It’s too complicated a situation to go into details about, but my phone jacks in my house only permit me to either plug my PC in right in the middle of my kitchen, or to use the wireless (which as of one month ago, has not been working). So in short, if I want to use the internet, I have to have my PC hooked up on my kitchen table where my modem is. This does not make for a very poker-friendly environment when you’ve got a very disfunctional, very loud, very stressed out and very hungry 6 people living in your house. I’ve decided not to even try to play poker unless I know nobody’s going to be home for a good 3 hours - which is rare.

I’ve been out of work since late fall, when the landscaping company I work for basically shuts down. Luckily I’ve found a few very high-paying odd jobs to give me some dough for christmas. I actually blew way too much on the lucky buggers who got gifts from me. My brother, his girlfriend and I all chipped in on a very expensive spa treatment for my mom - who was very grateful. I got a nice samsung camera-phone for my pops, who has no home phone. To top it all off I got some nice Hennessey, xbox 360 games and other treats for some more of my family members and friends. I barely left enough for my rent at the end of the month, and thanks to my very generous grandparents, I got some nice gifts myself that will tide me over until I get myself a job for winter. I also got an internal DVD burner, which was quite the adventure to install myself, a few clothes and a hockey stick! How Canadian…

One of the few poker experiences I have had in the last month was a few days ago when we visited my relatives. My cousin had won a poker chip set at a stag, and after about a six-pack each of heine we decided to have a friendly $5 game. I hardly ever play live poker, save with my little brother (of two years) who always seems to cream me in HU play. The players were: my cousin (very loose/passive preflop, fairly loose postflop), my brother (very aggressive pre and postflop, but can be way too loose at times) and my other cousin’s boyfriend (LAP preflop; only raises premiums, and is very TAP postflop). I played it like a SnG; TAG early, and LAG late. My brother played as predicted: he raised just about every pot, and got himself in trouble against my cousin who caught him with a few big hands. I played only one hand 4-handed, and AK, and doubled up against my cousin:

With the blinds at 10/20, he limped from the button, my brother raised to 60 from the SB, and I reraised with the AK to 200 in the BB. My cousin surprisingly cold-called that bet too, and my brother folded. The flop came A99 and I led with a bet around 2/3 the size of the pot, so roughly 300. He reraised all in for about 1500 and through his body language I was pretty sure I was ahead so I called for my remaining ~500. He showed QJ (!!) for a stone-cold bluff, and I ended up winning the pot.

I went on to take him out in a later pot after he had eliminated my brother, and pretty much cruised to first place once I had figured out the very simple reads on Sean, my cousin’s boyfriend. Although they were all very simple, unexperienced players, I realized how easy it was to read people and it rekindled my interest in live play. So much so that I’ve actually decided to try and find some live games in my area if I can.

Anyways I’m rambling a bit, but I thought I’d just let you guys know what was up with me lately since I hadn’t posted in both this blog and the forums in a while. Again I wish you all a very happy holidays, and a very drunk new years