Back in Alabama

I arrived back in Birmingham late last night. Los Angeles was fun. My friends and I had a pretty good time. We ended taking a limo to The Staples Center Saturday, Monday and Tuesday night. On Saturday Cody, Jon and I headed out to see the Lakers/Clippers game. We did everything possible to try to land tickets but apparently LAL/LAC games are like the SuperBowl out there and we were relegated to the Fox Sports Bar next door to watch the game. Sunday was an online tournament day. I played a few of the tournaments and ended up finishing a depressing 11th of 1400ish in the Stars second chance and 40-something in the Sunday Mulligan for what amounted to a break even day. It was the only poker I played on the trip other than the LAPC. Monday we slept late and then watched the horrid Clippers get destroyed by the best team in the NBA, Boston. We stayed out late, so I pushed back my 1 p.m. flight for another day. Also, I wanted to be there as long as Mike Katz was still in the LAPC. He finished 50-something for 22000 on Tuesday. Tuesday we repeated the routine. This time we woke up early enough to make a 5 p.m. dinner reservation at a fine Italian restaurant in LA called Zucca. I highly recommend it for anyone out there. I was unfortunate to lose this dinner flip but was fortunate to not to have pay for any of the basketball tickets. Thanks basebaldy and Mike :) While at the ristorante, we ended up booking some action against each other. I was the only one interested in the TrailBlazers +15 1/2 vs LAL. Mike and I also agreed to flip for a point, and I lost, so I ended up only getting 14 1/2 points. I knew then that if LAL won by exactly 15 that Mike would never, ever let me hear the end of it. The game started off very well for me as the Trailblazers led outright by 12 at one point. They fell apart in the 4th quarter though and ended up being down 17 with like 90 second left. Portland made a bucket with like 45 seconds left and now I was down 15 exactly. Oh shit. Then, with like 30 seconds Aldridge of Portland stole the ball from a Lakers player who apparently wasn't worried about the spread and reverse laid it in to scoooooooop the bet for me. The Lakers then just dribbled out the final seconds of regulation. Sorry for rambling but I thought that was a story worth sharing :) We went out for a little while then came back to the Commerce. I'm actually really sick with a cold and probably should have stayed in bed for my last 3 days but Commerce is just so damn depressing. I didn't have time to withdraw money since my flight to LA was so last minute, so I did miss the opportunity to bank in the cash games downstairs. Although, I don't think I could be around the overdose of degenerates there for more than a few sessions without wanting to pick up and leave. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with the month of March. I don't think I'll play Bay 101 (although I love San Jose), but I'll likely go out to Vegas for atleast a couple of the prelims and then the Main Event there. After that, I'll definitely be in Vegas for the duration of the Five Star series. We're talking about renting a house starting in April, so we'll see. Flying made my cold that much worse :( so I'm gonna try to sweat it out for a day at my Mom's house here in Birmingham.

SS