Summer update and plans

Things have been going okay. Last week, I went on a great trip to Mexico as a chaperone with my former high school youth group. It was a servant event in which we built a house for a family who lives in a tiny shack. We flew to El Paso, Texas on the Saturday the 7th and drove across the border to Juarez on Monday. We worked all the daylight hours from Monday through Thursday to finish the house. It was a lot of hard work, but it was well worth the feeling of accomplishment and seeing the family's faces after it was completed. We got back this last Saturday and I haven't really done much since then. I've played in the casinos a few nights and have had no success. I don't really get bored, but I have been a little lonely this week. I haven't seen Leah in over 3 weeks and all my close friends are not currently in Billings. One is fighting fires in California and the others are all interning in other cities.

Tomorrow, though, I am going on my first family vacation in a long time. We are going to head west, stay one night in Missoula to hang out and then continue on without my brother. Then we will go to Pullman, Washington to visit my uncle for a day. Finally, we will end up in Auburn, Washington (suburb of Seattle) to visit my grandma for another 6 or so days. It will be nice to have a change. I haven't been to Seattle in 3+ years and I am excited. Another positive is that my close friend, Duncan, is interning at Boeing in Seattle and I will be able to see him. We will probably catch a Mariners game as well as maybe go to their nice water park (if it is not raining too much).

We will return to Billings around the 30th and I don't have much planned for the next week or so other than trying to defend my Red Door tournament title on the 5th. Leah will be flying up on the 7th. I am very excited for that! We will hang out here for a week or so before driving down to Nebraska a week or two before school starts on the 28th (I think). This has been a pretty productive and relaxing summer so far. I am getting close to being refreshed enough to continue toward my degree and move on with my life.

Pictures of the building of the house are following.

Pictures of house in Mexico

Starting with the frame


Pouring concrete


Walls


My sister working hard on the chicken wire (which the stucco will stick to).

Final pictures of house in Mexico

Nice view of the unfinished house


Rich, Ben, and I. I hate dry wall!!!


Chris plastering on the stucco


The family


Everyone

First live poker tourney win!

Wow, I don't think I have ever had so much fun playing poker. The tourney was a $75 + $25 (including a steak dinner) for 2000 chips. It also had 3 rebuys for 1000 chips each for $20 a piece that can be used at anytime. Finally, if you make it to the dinner break, you can buy a 2000 chip add on for $20. It is a weird and confusing structure, but I don't mind it anymore. There were 40 entrants. I didn't win a hand for the first two levels. Surprisingly, my table was very good and experienced. I just couldn't get anything going. I just kept dwindling down and kept using my rebuys when I thought I was too low. Anyway, we got to the dinner break, which was 3 hours in, and I had just under average stack without ever showing a hand. My table broke at the break and my rush began. I was at a perfect table with the aggressors on my right and the tighties on my left. I was getting good hands to raise with even though I was going to raise anyway. I got no action with JJ or AA. I probably stole blinds 6 times within the next hour and a half...and blinds were getting high. I got moved to the one other table with 20 people left and once again, the aggressors were on my right and the tighties were on my left. The 3 guys on my left were all under average stacks and only played premium hands. I took full advantage. Remarkably, 10 people get paid (10th - 6th get $75). With 12 people to go, I am chip leader and was raising every pot. A guy finally pushed all in after I raised and he had KK and I had to call with 10 3. The board came a sweet 10 3 6 X X to ship me the pot. The guys claims I didn't have the pot odds to call but, I raised to 6,000 and he had 10,000 total, so it was an obvious call. I just never looked back.

The final table was just glorious, the only two guys that could put a chink in my chip stack were on my direct right and once they folded, I was dominant. I raised every pot where the blinds weren't pot committed and I had fold equity. I probably only knocked out 4 of the final 13 people because I was fortunate never to run into a real monster other than that KK. We got to 4 people and I had 80% of the chips, and every hand that was unopened, I would pretend to look at my cards, then announce all in. (The blinds were monstrous, and pushing all in every hand was the correct play) It was great because they were just trying to out last each other and they pretty much handed me the tourney. I knocked out the 2nd chip stack in 4th, two hands later I knocked out the new 2nd chip stack, and the next hand I won the tourney when the guy didn't even have enough for the blind lol. It was just so much fun. I hate to sound cocky, but I thought I was 80% to win the tourney with 12 people left and 99.9% to win the tourney with 6 left. It was that easy. I love playing poker when I am not nervous for once second. I lost only two small pots the whole time after supper break when I raised without looking out of the sb and the bb was committed! Also, I was never all in the whole tourney. So I invested $180 and came away with $1624 after tipping the dealers $50. To top it off, all of the final tablers acted like gentlemen at the table to make it even more of a blast. I wish all tourneys could be that fun.