Fantasy Football Draft
Date: Sun, Aug 24, 2008
We got 12 teams this year and randomly choose the draft order. I always seem to pick near the end. This year was no different. I was 11th to pick. All the studs were gone when it got to me. I snatched up Clinton Portis in the first round. I chose him over Marion Barber, who was still available. Briefly considered grabbing a WR first round, but chose to go the more traditional route.
Second round got to me quickly, and Without hesitation I snagged a QB. Brady and Mannning are so last year. I picked Tony Romo, who I feel is going to be THE QB stud this season. Would have loved to add Terrell Owens to the squad, but some rookie grabbed him up in the first round.
It seemed like forever for the third and fourth round picks to get back to me, and of course all the marquee players were gone. I felt quite fortunate to pick up Steve Smith (WR). Yes, I know he is facing a 2 game suspension at the beginning of regular season, but he'll make up for it. I hope.
Fourth round? I had my eye on Plaxico Burress and came oh so close to recruiting him to Team Decker. Unfortunately, he was snatched right before my pick. So, I settled for the bruiser and Superbowl Champion RB, Brandon Jacobs.
Again a long wait for rounds 5 and 6. It's starting to be slim pickins. Round 5 I struggle with the decision of what position to fill; RB or WR? I'm semi-satisfied with my 2 starting RB's and am leaning towards another strong WR. It will be my last chance to get a decent offensive player. I might have made a mistake this round, but Hines Ward was looking very appealing, and I bypassed several higher ranked WR's and RB's to lock him up.
Short wait for round 6 and I elect to grab Ryan Grant (RB), who is currently nursing an injured hamstring, but claims he's ready to go. Considering Green Bay is working with a young new QB, Grant should get lots of carries, if he can get healthy. I think he was a bargain in round 6.
Round 7, I know I need to start looking at TE's, Defenses, and even a kicker. Some decent TE's are still available. I almost got Jeremy Shockey and/or Dallas Clark, but both were locked up just a few picks earlier. I settle for Heath Miller. I'm not real excited about this pick, but then again, TE's are not really that exciting. I expect a few TD's from Heath this season. However, I am pretty sure Shockey will have a kick ass season this year. Wish I would have been able to recruit him.
Round 8 I shit the bed. I grabbed WR Kevin Curtis, and later found out he's nursing a sports hernia. Undetermined how long he'll be out of action. Might have been a wasted pick. I might have been better off grabbing a top ranked defense here.
After another extended wait I scrap my initial plans of grabbing a defense, because I feel I need to make up for the last pick. Javon Walker (WR) got the nod and made his way over to Team Decker. He may very well turn out to be a very good round 9 pick.
Now it's time for a defense, and in round 10, I scored with Baltimore. After the first few weeks of play, I may be looking to pickup another defense off of waivers.
By now, no known players are left and we have 6 more picks to go. I start thinking about rookies with potential. Round 11 I drafted rookie RB, Rashard Mendenhall. He will likely be used in third and short and goal line scenarios. If Willie Parker gets hurt, Mendenhall will be the man.
Finally it's time to get a kicker. Jeff Reed gets the nod in round 12. I can pick up another kicker any time, so I am not real concerned with this position.
I'm looking at rookies with potential again, and in round 13 I select the Bill's James Hardy (WR). Hardyis 6'7" and makes for a huge target.
Round 14 saw me snag a back-up QB. I think Chad Pennington was a bargain this deep in the draft and will certainly be a capable substitute on Romo's bye week. Pennington has been compared to Tom Brady. That may be a stretch, but I do expect good things from him this year.
I rounded out my team with Amani Toomer (WR) and Andre Hall (RB). Hall is from my hometown of Saint Petersburg FL, so I felt obligated.
I think I have a well rounded team. I am a bit concerned about my WR slots and am counting on Steve Smith to perform well, after his suspension.
That's Team Decker. What do you think? Do I have a shot of winning? Where did I screw up?
Multi-Table Tourney
Date: Thu, Aug 7, 2008
Read all the poker books you want and employ any strategy you see fit. Sure, those things are important, but at the end of the day these wise words pretty much sum up what it takes to be successful in MTT play:
If you expect to go deep in any tournament, your big hands have to hold up. You have to hit a couple of draws. You have to win coin flips and at some point, you have to get lucky and suck out....Dr. Pauly
No truer words have ever been spoken.
Happy Bday TaoPoker
Date: Wed, Aug 6, 2008
I busted out early. Holding 88 I made a sizeable PF raise. One caller. Flop came 245. I was first and pushed all in. I expected a fold. He called, holding 33. Open ended straight draw. The 6 on the turn made his hand, and I was drawing dead. Luckily my expectations weren't high.
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Date: Thu, Jul 31, 2008
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What's the point?
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008
Been asking the question in my subject line, to myself, for about six months. Answers were not forthcoming. What would possess someone to do it? Insecurites, attention whores, over inflated egomaniacs that think I give a shit what you had for breakfast? Or maybe you had a particularly successful bowel movement to brag about? I just don't get it. Probably never will. So how do I break this news? I'll just say it. A few days ago I joined the ranks of twitter micro-blogggers. My Twitter home is:
http://twitter.com/Decker2003
I'm still trying to see if this is something I can figure out and do for any length of time. Time will tell my friends. For now take your butts over to http://twitter.com/Decker2003, and see what I cooked for dinner tonight.
Play Online Poker
401K
Date: Fri, Jul 25, 2008
I got my quarterly 401K statement in the mail today. It went straight in the trash can, unopened. It's Friday and I see no need to depress myself for the weekend.
Rakeback now available on Poker Stars and 27 other poker rooms, courtesy of Rake The Rake
Poker
Date: Wed, Jul 16, 2008
This is the kind of the crap that is happening to me over and over. Getting some poor sob all in with a hell of a lead, only to watch an odd defying runner, runner, suckout. Forget everything I have said over the past 5 years about poker being a skill game.
I ended up finishing in 4th place.
Bethanie Mattek
Date: Sun, Jun 29, 2008
Almost a year ago I posted about my new favorite female tennis player: Bethanie Mattek: http://decker2003.livejournal.com/136073.html. Well, she's back and having quite a nice run at Wimbledon this year, making it into the fourth round of action. Tomorrow (Monday) she'll face her toughest challenge to date: Serena Williams. 
Rakeback now available on Poker Stars and 27 other poker rooms, courtesy of Rake The Rake
Bethanie Mattek
Date: Sun, Jun 29, 2008
Almost a year ago I posted about my new favorite female tennis player: Bethanie Mattek: http://decker2003.livejournal.com/136073.html. Well, she's back and having quite a nice run at Wimbledon this year, making it into the fourth round of action. Tomorrow (Monday) she'll face her toughest challenge to date: Serena Williams.
Rakeback now available on Poker Stars and 27 other poker rooms, courtesy of Rake The Rake
Poker sucks
Date: Tue, Jun 17, 2008
Almost no poker in the past month or so. Online or live. Seems I've temporarily lost interest. It doesn't help that I can't win with any consistency anymore online. No matter how I change it up, I'm a break even to losing player. I read a lot of poker blogs - does anyone win with any consitency anymore? Doesn't seem like it. And live - I don't suffer fools and assholes well, and it takes getting a load on before I can tolerate my fellow poker degenerates. My Fulltilt bankroll hangs out at around $200, and I often ponder taking a couple shots at some MTT's, then calling it a career.
The unique WCGrider $10,000 challenge caught my attention for a few days and almost inspired me to fire up the virtual felt again. Unfortunately, WCGrider's end result reinforced my current feelings towards poker. I'll get it back sooner or later.
Been playing a little Warcraft again. Worked my night elf Hunter up to level 49, before getting bored again. I need a new hobby.
I decided to do a minor pc upgrade. It's been a few years, and Vista is such a resource hog. I originally planned a simple memory upgrade. From 1 gig to 2, but then I found a deal on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz Socket AM2 Dual-Core Processor for $99. Sweet. I ordered it and NewEgg had it on my door step two days later. Later that week, another NewEgg deal - 4GB (2x2GB) G.SKILL 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit for $70. Now we're talking. I'm doing a little more research, and by the end of this week will decide on a decent motherboard (recommendations welcome). Then a semi kick ass graphics card, like the 8800GT. So for the time being my life has direction.
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