Sunday afternoon saw the last of the charity home poker tournaments.  This was the end of the fundraising season and poker brought in close to $1000 in donations to the LAF and my Livestrong Challenge ride.  We had six players come out to play with three of us rebuying due to the the cards falling flat.  An example would be my had in the first round of play where I caught the full house on the turn only to be beaten by a better full house on the river.  C’est la vie.  It’s all about having fun for a good cause.

In the end Todd got another first place and I grinded my way to second with Laura getting third.  Next month we’ll have the finale tournament where I’ll try to give back to everyone who helped me over the course of the year with a special prize, food, and a pot that is split completely among the winners.

This past weekend had the August poker tournament for my Livestrong Challenge ride.  There’s only one more tournament to go before the ride and the finale tournament where all of the pot will be up for grabs and a special prize for the winner.  This month turned out to be a well attended event with 10 players and two rebuys.  This month had Gabe taking first place overall with Richard in second followed by Charlie in third. It’s become a running gag that Charlie keeps missing out on the final three to gain points for the finale in October.  I had a decent night finishing around fifth after going all in with pocket 5’s against Gabe’s suited Ace/Queen.  I totaled up the points standings and attendance chip bonuses for those that were there to let people know where they stood for the final tournament and found that I’ve actually been playing pretty well this year.  I’ve won a couple of tournaments and placed in several others, and being present for the attendance bonus every time didn’t hurt.

Also it should be noted that Charlie donated his third place winnings to the charity making the total amount raised $114.  Not a bad amount for a night of fun and relaxation.

This past weekend has been a busy one.  It started off with the monthly charity poker tournament to raise money for my Livestrong Challenge ride.  Unfortunately we had a lot of people out of town so we only had four players playing.  It was bad timing but it had to be last weekend because this weekend is the 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte, next weekend is the Virgin Music Festival in Baltimore, and the next is the Phillies/Braves series in Philadelphia.  So in the end, even with the low turnout, it was still a fun night.  We raised $30 for the LAF with Richard beating me out for the overall.  We followed up the main tournament with another H.O.R.S.E tournament for fun.  I wont bother getting into the details of H.O.R.S.E, because its confusing enough to play let alone explain.  Suffice it to say its a different game for each letter and I lost that one too.

Saturday I put in my long run that was scheduled for Friday.  I went up to Lake Lynn and ran laps there again for variety which is a circuit of about 2 miles.   My run called for 90 minutes and I managed to knock it out but my feet paid the price.  A while back I mentioned that I bought some new running shoes but didn’t start using them because i read my old shoes still had miles to go.  A few weeks ago I decided it was time to make the switch and started out with the new shoes.  I had a few small blisters from a long run in the old shoes that were aggravated by the new ones.  I figured it was just because the shoes were being broken in and the blisters hadn’t healed enough.  Now after a couple weeks I know it is the shoes.  Every single time I use them I get blisters and Saturday ended with a nice blood blister the size of two quarters end to end.  Needless to say those shoes are retired, but unfortunately I cant take them back since I waited so long before using them.  Ill be heading out to Inside-Out sports next paycheck to get refitted for a new pair and just use the tainted shoes as a casual pair.  Inside-Out is a local running/triathlon store that has a really good reputation for fitting shoes correctly.  New Balance did me right for my first two pairs but i’m getting up there in mileage and I dont want to risk a repeat of this last pair and be knocked out of commission from avoidable blisters.  Sunday was 90 minutes on the trainer for my cycling fix.

Monday I knocked out my first full mile in the pool, well it was 10 yards short but Ill call it a mile.  I did 70 laps that worked out to 1750 yards and a mile is 1760 yards.  As I’m writing this I just got out off the trainer for another hour and a half at a pretty good clip.  That was my last cycling session till the 24 Hours of Booty Friday.  I’m looking forward to getting over 150 miles which will be a nice dent in my weight loss bet.   And as a final update on that side I’m ranging between 190-195 while last week i was between 195-200.  Anyone on a scale knows that it will fluctuate all day long if you watch it.

This weekend marked the June charity poker tournament which was finally held in the correct month.  We raised $90 for my Livestrong Challenge.  This tournament found Charlie pulling second place for the second consecutive time which is a great source of frustration to him.  I ended up out about middle of the pack as I got short stacked to the point that the blinds were governing my play more than my cards were.  Thats how it goes sometimes, some days you get the cards and some days you don’t.

Saturday I decided to mix up my running route and drove out to Lake Lynn for my long run of 80 minutes.  The course is a paved route of a little over two miles.   There’s plenty of short and steep hills along the path and a bunch of wooden bridges.  Luckily it wasn’t overly hot but the cumulative effect was pretty tiring.  Next time Ill carry my water bottle with me instead of leaving it in the car.  The last lap had my heartrate consistently over 170 which wasn’t ideal. The run ended up being three laps for over six and a half miles.  I cut the run short by about 10 minutes so I could make it out to the movies on the lawn night at the Art museum.

Following in the tradition of the past few charity poker tournaments, May’s was held this past weekend in June.  I had forgotten that last weekend was Memorial Day which was when I had originally planned to have it.  I sent out an email to gauge the interest in Memorial Day weekend versus this past weekend and June won out.  Unfortunately this put me into conflict with another friends poker game but thankfully everyone still stepped up for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and we only lost two regulars to the other game.

This month $144 was raised because in the end I won the tournament of seven players with two rebuys.  As always when I place in the money I donate all my winnings to my Livestrong Challenge ride.  It wasn’t so much my skills that won out but blind luck.  To give an example, the last two hands of the night were pocket jacks to knock out Craig in third place followed immediately by pocket jacks again to knock out Charlie.  That was pretty much how the night went with me just getting luck with the cards.  I had pocket pairs at least eight times, flopped a straight once, full house once, etc.  I felt like Jamie Gold in last years WSOP, not a great player but having the cards constantly falling into my lap.

So far this years poker series is tracking to raise more money for my Livestrong Challenge than last year.  I still need to find more ways to raise money to hit my fundraising mark for this year though.