Superbowl, poker, and rest of my Sunday

So I flew back in from Boston on Jet Blue which is quickly becoming my favorite airline (sorry Airtran, you guys are great, and I'll almost always stick with you guys for my trips to Vegas but Jet Blue is one-upping you guys right now). And for those of you who haven't flown Jet Blue, it's not about the Satellite Dish or the extra leg room. I mean those things are great (and they are great) but it's also the little things. When we got to our boarding area in the morning in Boston, there was another flight that was delayed. Naturally, a lot of people were in front of the counter by the gate. Well, the first officer of the flight went to the gate, took the mic, and explained the whole situation about how they had to replace one of the hydraulic pumps which the plane apparently has about a dozen of and could fly with a few nonworking pumps but that it was Jet Blue policy to replace nonworking pumps and thus, they have to switch the plane which is causing a 30-40 minute delay. He also added that the entire crew is here and he asked for everyone to be patient because "there's about a 100 of you and only 2 gate attendants and 2 computers." I just thought that it makes such a tremendous difference when the first officer of the flight does that to explain exactly what was going as opposed to giving a shady answer like "mechanical difficulties" or something to that extent. And don't get me wrong. Being able to watch ESPN while flying is also pretty cool.

Superbowl - Well, I guess the monkey is finally off of Manning's back. He did win the big one and he won the MVP to boot. His stats weren't as gaudy as the MVP label might suggest but he did enough to win the game. It was a disappointing end for me since I wanted Chicago to win (or at least cover the 7 pts) which they did neither of. So, last night, I know that a lot of people were probably at Superbowl parties enjoying chips/pizza/popcorn and watching the game on someone else's recently upgraded big screen tv. I was invited to a couple, that I ended up turning down only because after being at the wedding in Boston the night before, I just wanted some time to chill out and play some poker online also. And I have to admit... in the few times that I've been to Superbowl parties, there's only one that I had a lot of fun at and that's the one where I basically missed the entire Superbowl because I was totally hammered. (It was Superbowl XXXVIII - Patriots beat the Panthers). But in all the other ones I've been to, this is the situation that I seem to run into:
- everyone (and especially the ones who don't really watch football during the course of the year but reads articles on espn.com or watches sportscenter) has something clever to say about the game, whether it's on point or not (and they're generally not).
- girls who really don't give a rat's ass about the football games are obviously there watching the "show" but what they really care about is the commercials. So, when commercials come on, they want everyone to shut up and they make that point very loud and clear... DURING THE GAME.
- EVERYONE puts more emphasis on commercials than the game itself. Um, people, this isn't the Pro Bowl. This game actually matters. So I know that most of you don't really watch the games during the year but man, if you're gonna watch the game, WATCH THE GAME!

So, all in all, personally, I'm not too crazy about Superbowl parties. It would be totally different if it's just a bunch of guys who a) love football and b) love to drink. I also hate that the next day, there's as much, if not more, talk about commercials from the night before than the game. "Yo, did you see Hester's return for TD? That was sick!" "Yeah, speaking of sick, did you see that Snickers commercial with the two guys kissing after sharing that Snickers bar!?" Wow. Let me enjoy and talk about the Superbowl (the biggest game in football) a little bit more before I have to get into discussions about Snickers bars and those weird careerbuilder.com commercials.

I know this. If the Steelers are back in the Superbowl, there's no way in hell I'd go to a Superbowl party. I might allow myself to watch it with some of my closest friends but that's about it. And even that's a maybe.

Well, that's my little rant on Superbowl parties. Don't get me wrong, if my wife were in town for the Superbowl, we probably would have gone to a party and I probably would have enjoyed it. All I'm saying is that generally, it's just not my thing. I've been to one legendary Superbowl party and none of us remember the details of the night except for a few bits and pieces, clearly aided by the evidence left behind (scuff marks six feet high on the wall, pizza sauce on the ceiling, etc).

Before the Superbowl started, I got online and started playing poker. And as I promised to myself, I decided to play in more tournaments so I did. I ended up playing in a $69+6 tourney which had 233 entrants and I ended up in 26th place. Top 27 got paid but the real money was in the top 5 (4 digit payouts for the top 5). I ended up busting out with pocket tens when I went all in, got called by a guy with AQ and ace hit the flop. I played ok even though there were probably times I squandered away the chips that I shouldn't have. I'm gonna chalk that up to a learning experience. I am really starting to notice that I've gotten much better in my cash game and my tournament game is really either deteriorating or maybe the same as before which was worse than I thought it was. This sounds like a good lead in for talking about the difference between cash games and tournaments but this blog is getting long enough and my lunch break is pretty much over so I'll talk about that later.