From the department of Bad-Assedness

Tonight, while watching football, I started playing in a qualifying event on Absolute Poker. It was a smaller field than I'm normally used to, but that's just fine with me.

Top 2 paid out. Second got $120. First got an entry to the $100,000 weekly tournament worth $216.

I did poorly early on, and fell from the opening of 1500 down to about 600. I spiked a King to double up. Close call #1.

I moved up to 3000, and put someone all-in. I flipped up my A-A, against 8-8. I got hit with an 8 and went down to 480 as my chips went to the table jerk. I started building back up again, and moved back to 1500 with about half the field gone.

I kept building my stack to 5000, thanks to getting A-A and K-K on consecutive hands.

With 5 players left, I take a hit that knocks me all the way down to 1800 chips, second-lowest. I turned into an even MORE aggressive player, and got up to about 3000 before hitting a double up with a set of Jacks. Close call #3.

Finally, I amassed enough to be almost even with all the other players at the table, except the table jerk who had about half the chips in play. I knocked out the other 3 players, and took on the jerk heads-up. I was still down 60-40.

After about an hour of online play and trash-talking, I finally busted the other guy with Kings full, for a first-place finish and an entry into the $100,000 Guarantee/Bounty tournament. At least the top 54 will pay out. First prize is a minimum of $25,000.

It was a thoroughly satisfying beatdown.

So, if it's Saturday after 4:30 PM, I'll be slightly busy. I'll spend the first half of the day moving the office downstairs, cleaning, doing laundry, and fertilizing the yard for the winter (along with any other chores we think of by then) and the second half trying to firmly establish a second profession.

Of course, if I've finished moving everything (including the computer) then I'll be playing with either Toy Story, Finding Nemo, or Dumbo on the set in the background. Not many people push all-in to Disney tunes.

Given my recent run of good luck online and in live games, I'll take my chances and hope for the best.