Been a while...

It has been nearly two damn months since my last entry. A lot has certainly happened since then though. Unfortunately there haven't been any crazy trips to Las Vegas but I am working on that. Things didn't go to well at Viejas back in January. I played great poker in the tourney but things just didn't go my way. All I can ask is that I play my best game and let the cards falls how they may. Fortunately I was able to clean up in the cash games that followed rather nicely. After gas, food, hotel, and two full days of poker (including a $1,050 buy-in), I left San Diego down about $300. Very successful trip believe it or not.

My life in Yuma has changed quite a bit lately as well. A couple months ago I found out I was selected to attend Expeditionary Warfare School in DC this summer. I have been looking for a place to live so if anyone has friends in DC looking for roommates hook a brother up. It is going to be an amazing break from everyday squadron life and give me a chance to think about what path I want to take with my career. I really have two options. 1. Come back to the fleet in the spring of 2010 for another 3 years. 2. I could go to Meridian, MS as a flight instructor for 3 years and basically have a jet at my disposal every weekend I want to use one. We shall see on that one. Just looking forward to getting to the East Coast for a little while.

Another reason I am ready to get away from Yuma is that some of my best friends, Greg and Suzanne York, have left Yuma and now live in Corpus Christi, TX where Greg is now a flight instructor. Yuma just isn't the same without them.

As of about two weeks ago I was able to get back in the cockpit and have been loving it ever since. I took Brian "Buck/Oprah" Mahoney on the road to Phoenix. We did some training flights that day but later landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Rob Bowen, the catch from the Oakland A's, came out to meet us and we took some pictures with the jet. He is a great freaking guy. We went out and partied all night long which made for a very rough Saturday of flying but Buck and I made it through. Rob picked us up once we landed back in Phoenix that night and treated us to an absolutely amazing steak dinner in Scottsdale at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Highly recommend it for anyone who has never eaten there. Good luck to Rob as spring training gets going and thanks for the Jersey brother!



I came back and flew 4 of the 5 days the next week and am finally very comfortable being back in the cockpit. We will continue to fly quite a bit as we prepare for our Air-to-Air combat training detachment to Key West for the month of April. Even sooner than that, a couple of us are looking forward to partying it up on Lake Havasu for spring break in two weeks. I think Eddy is going to join us so it is going to be a great time. It's crazy to think about Spring Break since the good ol days with the boys from Miami. Panama City, Vail, and the Cruise. Great times.

As for poker, I am slowly getting back to playing after a small time off while I was getting started back in the cockpit. I have come out of the gates very strong and have put up a couple big wins. The new casino, Quechan Casino, that just opened up last month has a pretty impressive poker room. Fortunately for me, a much improved poker room doesn't mean improved players. I went by opening night and pocketed $900, went back the next day for a quick $450. Since then I have cleaned up rather nicely. Wins of $300, $1,100, and $2,500 without a losing session have made me come to love playing there as bad as the management is at times. I hope to improve on my 5-0 record there this weekend. (If I don't go to Vegas that is). Sunday I had decided to take the day off from poker so I hung out at the pool. Let me tell you that falling asleep poolside for someone as white as me was not a good thing. I have been in moderate pain since then. Better now than Lake Havasu I guess. Well I ran some errands after the pool and made it back to the house around 6pm. I couldn't resist and decided to play a tourney or two online. My play online has fluctuated madly with my account reaching $6,000 at its peak and was now back down to $1,200. Trying to stay within my means I played only two tourneys. One was a $100 ten man sit n go where the top five double there money and are done. They usually take about 30 minutes to complete one. Well I got knocked in 7th place in that one and pretty much just wanted to quit playing the other tourney I entered. It was a $27.50 buy in with 2,030 entrants. I ended up doubling up early and decided to give it my full concentration. 6 hours later, we were down to 15 players and I was the chip leader with $966,000. I had my eye on the first place prize of $8,600 but came up short when I finished 6th for $1,932. Although it may seem like small potatoes at this point, it was a huge accomplishment seeing what it takes to outlast a huge field like that for the the first time. Chalk it up to more experience.