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.