Falllout 3 > Poker

I bought a copy of Fallout 3 pretty much on a whim, expecting to play it a bit then see it gather dust along with Guitar Hero and GTA IV (the only games I've bought for my fairly recently purchased Xbox 360) but man, that game is the bomb. Or the shizzle. Or the bombshizzle or whatever the hell the kids say these days.

It's been awhile since I've gotten sucked into a game like that, making me harken back to the days of yore when entire days would get sucked up by various Civ incarnations or, further back, in olden, olden times, Zelda or Metroid. Fun stuff, and especially nice to relax and completely and utterly waste a weekend after being pretty busy of late with various home renovation projects.

As far as poker, still playing a goodly number of the $50 NLH double-up SnGs on Cake, as well as some cash games and Aussie Millions satellites. I'm not sure why I bother with the satellites, as I manage to run insanely bad in those, to the point of ridiculosity. The weekly $440 Aussie Millions finals at Cake are really, really soft, usually with 120 or so players and the top 3 getting trip packages, with 10,000 chip starting stacks and initial blinds of 25/50.

I've made deep runs the last two weeks, finishing 12th and 16th, and this week's one was pretty painful, as manage to run up a very nice stack until I got crippled with a BB special, sitting on K2 in the BB with 4 limpers. Flop is J 2 2, rainbow, I check, praying that I can get action from someone, when the next player insta massively overshoves and another calls. I merrily call and am up against the mighty 10c 7c (the first shover) and KJo. Turn and river are running clubs that don't pair the board, which give Mr. TenSeven a monsterpotten for the chip lead and leaves me with just 10,000 or so chips.

Build back up, double up a few times, get back to a bit over average, then lose with KK versus QQ in a hand that'd have put me in the top 5. Bust out two hands later when 10 10 can't hold versus A4o. Whee, poker.

Have to say that I'm very ready for this election to be done, one way or the other, and we can get down to the ugly business of facing up to the situation the US is currently in. The economy is still well and truly screwed, and deteriorating each month, and sooner or later we have to face up to the gluttony of the past and come to terms with what we're in for the next 24-36 months. Not that we will, regardless of who is elected, but at least we won't have the scapegoat of Bush and cronies to pin all the blame on (even if a good measure of it is justifiably pinned to his monkey lapels).

Ironically enough, I'm actually up about 30% on the year in our main IRA account, so I guess I can't bitch too much. Most of those gains came from riding the market down in various short ETFs, then catching a big chunk of the recent mini-rally, as well as moving a big chunk of long term capital into SLW and other mining stocks when they cratered in late October. I'm probably going to go short again in late November, probably loading for bear in double inverse ETFs like SCC and REW, as all signs point to an absolutely brutal winter for retailers and tech companies, with spending falling off a cliff of late.