I can tell the queen of diamonds by the way she shines

SO -- my favorite amateur tour is soon going to be thousands of miles away from me. I will be living on the left coast, FAR from the Eastern, PA venues I've been playing for RiverChasers. That sucks. The GOOD part, though, is that there IS one company doing freeroll poker out there; however they're VERY small and limited. I'm looking to hook up with them, play some of their games, and then see about workin' as a TD or more for them. We'll see....

AND the great news, too, is that I'll still be not far at all from some poker action. Two fairly large Indian Tribe Casinos are neaby. Also, there are a number of regular and legal cardrooms nearby too. They only do limit, 3/6 and up. Cool thing, though, is NL Tourny's are totally cool - somehow legally it fits in with a different law, as once you make your buy-in you're no longer really betting "dollar values" when you go all in for example.

In the Indian casinos there's regular NL tournys; regular o/8 tourny's, and (my most recent love!) regular HORSE tournys. I hope the structures are nice, as the buy-ins are affordable (I'm hoping to be able to do one tourny / weekend - one month concentrate on NL, next month O/8, next HORSE, next month cash. We'll see how it goes.

I know, this is about poker, but I did branch out into Blackjack last time in AC, and these casinos have very low-limit blackjack. I really liked the strategy involved in that, and would like to look into blackjack tournaments, too -- can see where strategy can really come into play there: you're the anchor; do you double down and try to hit blackjack, or do you stand and let the dealer get the bust card? Interesting....AND blackjack I can play at small casinos within the city, too (casino games against a dealer are legal in certain parts of the city, but poker played against other players - which involves a ton more skill than table games - is NOT legal... quite odd...)...

SO -- no more River Chasers tourny's for me until next Saturday's TOC. Hopefully I'll be fully packed and ready to go by then so I won't have any worries looming over my head. I'm going in with zero expectations. I'm going early so I can see a bunch of people I've gotten to know over the past 10 months or so, wish them well and say goodbye, and then just having fun. I'm taking the Daniman (sp?) approach: just let it all go, have no expectations but accept everything that happens has happened that day as perfectly as it is supposed to, and just enjoy each moment. I'm already in the year-end deal, so that's not a biggie; would love to score one of the circuit-event prizes they've given out in the past, but that's only if things work out well: otherwise, like what often happens in larger tournaments, many people bust out early, and go home. Bonus if that happens for me, though, is I'll get to spend more time with my brother, as we're celebrating his birthday this Sat at my parents' place. OR I go deep, win it all again, and leave River Chaser's on the highest note possible!

Alright, sittin' here, wasting time, playing some razz (got drawn out of a HORSE tourny tonight - it was ugly!) while writing this, and checking some emails etc... I'm down about $4 right now; had been up about $4, now down the same... that's the nature of the game, though if you play it smart you should easily be able to show a profit (unless you get insanely unlucky) over an hour session. I love playing the .50/1 tables, but there's rarely one going on fulltilt anymore (and even tho I love the game I'm still nervous to go up to the 1/2 game...). Maybe before I go one night this week after getting a ton done I'll do just that. :)

- the PokerDegen