Poker, Bruce, and other stuff

Mrs. Brucefan and I just got back from a much-needed vacation. Tonight we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the night we met, so this was sort of a second honeymoon. It was wonderful. And I am happy to report that one of the highlights of the vacation, during the Las Vegas portion, was a second place finish in a poker tournament by yours truly. It was a nice conclusion to what has been an awful year for me poker-wise. In retrospect, I played very well, and got some nice breaks. As always, with Texas Hold'em, I also got some luck. About midway through the tournament, I was holding my own, with a medium to low stack. The blinds were increasing, and I needed to make a move soon. Ahead of me two players went all in, I had them both covered, and I looked down at A-J suited in spades. Normally, I would not call an all in with this hand, A-J not being a particularly strong hand. But I needed to make a move and I just had this gut feeling. I called. One guy turned over pocket 8's, the other guy had A-8. An ace came out on the flop, and the "case" 8 did not show up, so my pair of aces with the Jack kicker won the hand. I tripled up and knocked both guys out. It was the turning point for me.

From there, I continued to win some small pots, never with much of a hand, as I picked my spots and made moves at the right time. Soon we were down to the final table, but only six places paid out. The big stack did not want to chop, so we played it down, and then there were three of us. I got crippled with pocket deuces, when the board showed two higher pair, making the other guy's Ace kicker suddenly the winning hand. I then went all in three times in a row, winning all three times to get healthy again. Then, the guy in second place went all in, I folded and the big stack called. Second place had pocket queens, the big stack had an Ace, and when the flop showed an ace, number two was knocked out, and now it was just me and the big stack. We traded pots for a few hands, but I was low stacked to him, by almost 10 to 1. When I looked down at King-rag suited, I went all in. Absurdly, the big stack had A-K, the dreaded Big Slick. He called my all in, he paired his ace, and it was all over. Second place, a terrific finish, an extremely well-played tournament, and I was on cloud nine. I never did have to dig into my pocket for Vegas playing money after that, and I even donated to Mrs. Brucefan's fun in Vegas. Sweet!!!!

I caught The Boss's receipt of the Kennedy Center award the other night on TV. As a Springsteen fan for the last 34 years, it was somewhat shocking to see my rock hero sitting next to the First Lady, and to see the Obamas rocking out to Bruce's music. With this recognition and the Boss's performance at the Super Bowl last year, it's clear that Bruce has once again stepped up in the pantheon of icons. Jon Stewart's introduction was great, but the musical tributes to Bruce were somewhat lame, other than Sting's interpretation of "The Rising." And I still have to ask this question: has there ever been a top 40 hit quite like "Born to Run?" Thirty-four years later, that song still sounds fresh and exciting. Happy New Year, Bruce.

The Arizona Wildcats embarrassed themselves on national TV last night in the Holiday Bowl. What in heaven's name happened? Didn't the coaching staff realize they were there to play a football game and not to be on vacation? I'm sorry, I understand they had a nice year and were three seconds from playing in the Rose Bowl, but last night was an absolute disgrace. Mike Stoops is a bad coach, and an idiot. How do you not have your team prepared to play? I get it that Nebraska was the much better team, but the showing last night by the team from Tucson was horrible. It was painful to watch. I'm glad I didn't fork up the money to go to San Diego for the game, I would be furious right now if I had.

The honeymoon seems to be over for the Obama administration. This latest national security mess has turned out to be a fiasco. I think the President needs to make someone the fall guy, and that someone is Janet Napolitano, my former boss. Looks like our former governor bit off a bit more than she can chew with the new job in Washington. The Republicans are screaming for her head, and I think President O needs to comply to resurrect the viability of his Presidency. Bye bye, Janet, you should have stayed in Phoenix where you could do no wrong.

And finally, a few words about Stephen King, my favorite author. I previously wrote on this blog that King had been in a major funk for several years, until he came back big time last year with "Duma Key," his best book in a long time. Now, he's followed that up with "Under the Dome", a 1,000-plus page opus about a small town in Maine, and what happens when an invisible dome suddenly comes down and closes off the town to the rest of the world. It's a return to the kind of work King did with "The Stand" and "It", combining multiple characters and solid story-telling to churn out a solid page-turner. It's a bravura return to form for King, and I highly recommend it to all the "constant readers" out there.

All things considered, 2009 was a pretty good year. Happy New Year, everyone.

The Curse of the Wildcat, Part Two

Following the gut-wrenching defeat against the Oregon Ducks, the Arizona Wildcats had to play their arch-rival, Arizona State in Tempe. They were clearly the better team, as the Sun Devils are experiencing a serious decline these days. Nevertheless, a spirited Sun Devil team rallied in the second half to tie the game and wrenched the momentum away from Arizona. Late in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were stuffed once again by the seeemingly reborn ASU defense, and the Cats had to punt away. The Sun Devil receiver signaled for a fair catch, the ball bounced through his hands, hit the turf, and ended up in the arms of the nearest Wildcat. Arizona ran the time down, kicked a game-winning field goal, and escaped with a lucky win against their in-state enemies.

The final regular season game of the year was at USC in the intimidating LA Coliseum. For those of you who don't follow Pac-10 football, USC has owned the conference for the past six years. They have won the conference each of those years in dominating fashion, and have often been in the BCS title picture. Needless to say, UA Coach Mike Stoops had never beaten them. For most of the game this past Saturday, the Wildcats looked good, but not quite good enough. They led for most of the first half, then fell behind as USC seemed to regroup. And then, after being stuffed on every possession in the second half, Arizona quarterback Nick Foles led the Wildcats on a fourth quarter drive, tossing a 39-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Juron Cryner for the go-ahead score with three and a half minutes left. The Wildcats then stopped the Trojans, and proceeded to run out the clock to finish the regular season with a statement victory. The U of A's final record was 8-4, 6-3 in conference play, good enough for a tie for second in the conference. They owned the tie-breaker over the other two teams, Oregon State and Stanford, since they had beaten both those teams head-to-head. Stoops finally had his victory over USC, the Cats and their fans were overjoyed to finish second in the conference, and the team will move on to the Holiday Bowl on December 30th, to once again face Nebraska (how's that for irony?).

But, oh, what might have been. There were so many little things in that Oregon game that could have turned out differently. So many bounces, so many freakish plays. This Arizona team should be headed to the Rose Bowl, to play Ohio State and be part of the BCS. Damn! The Curse of the Wildcat. What else can I say?