You know I'm online way too much when I get satisfaction out of emptying the Spam folder of my Inbox. Went to a home tourney down in Pleasanton, a kid who I thought I went to school with (but found out we don't) has been running tourneys for the past few weeks. A friend was going down there so I tagged along for the $25 buy-in. They have a website, East Bay Poker, and it says there that they are "a non-profit organization... We return 100% of the collected money in terms of poker chips, cards, poker tables, and freeroll tournaments." There were 32 players, so that makes $800 ($25 X 32), but the payouts were as follows: 1st-$298, 2nd-$119, 3rd-$89, 4th-$60, 5th-$30. Add that up, it equals $600, unless my brain is broken. So where the fuck did $200 go?!? We were trying to figure this out as we drove away and actually thought about it all. I had brought down a PokerPadz mousepad as a bonus for the 1st place finisher since I had thought the kid was part of the school poker club I created (and have subsequently done crapola for); after figuring out this discrepancy, I sure wish I had taken it back. Had fun though. It was mostly young kids, as we were definitely the oldest there. 9th place when I went all-in w/QQ UTG, JJ called behind, AK raised all-in over the top, and KK called from the SB. JJ made a straight on the river. Two things that this tourney brought to my attention-1. I am a ton better at restraining emotion after getting beat, ie. shrugging it off and moving on, and 2. I have gotten a ton better at playing post-flop. I offered some friends a piece of my World Series attempt and have gotten as much as 45% offered to be staked. Never thought I would honestly get that much (or even any really), so it feels good knowing that some of them have faith in me as well. Or they're just degenerate gamblers like myself. I think 30% will be the cut-off on my action. But nothing would be more satisfying than to be able to hand those who "invested" a nice little return, you know what I mean? Last game at Checkpoint Charlie's tonight before Vegas, so I can get a few days rest before my trip. Michael says he's gonna come cross the Bay for the game and another FCPer, Matt, lives right here in town and may come also...