Grumble Grumble

Freakin' Packers. I won't harp on the game much because historically the Steelers have been exceptionally fortunate in Super Bowls (AFC Championship games...not so much....but their Super Bowl Luck Box is extremely shiny indeed), but I do really feel like they just kind of loused this one up. I mean, the final score was 31-25, and they basically committed 4 turnovers (and somehow managed not to recover that muffed punt after their first possession, which is really still a mystery to me). Ben's wounded duck was a direct result of Pouncey being out (and obviously it getting returned all the way to the house was extremely unfortunate), the Mendenhall fumble was basically a fluke, and the missed FG....well that was retarded. I was practically yelling at the TV on 3rd and 12 or whatever it was the play before to just hand the ball off and run it up the middle (at which point Danielle astutely commented they were lined up in an empty set) for 4 yards so they the FG would be a nice manageable 45 yards. The Steeler's needed to have hired a special assistant for this game who's only job was to stand there and remind Tomlin every 10 minutes or so "I know, I know, he was 14/15 since you let the drunk guy go, but he's still Shaun Suisham. It's going to bite you in the ass." But no, Ben takes a sack and Suisham shankopotamus's the 52 yarder (admittedly an eminently reasonable distance from which to attempt a field goal, indoors, on turf) practically out of bounds and they hand the Packers another short field. I know the defense is good, but how good do you want them to be? Indoors on a fast track like that, with all those WRs and Rodgers prancing around back their....yeesh. In closing on the game...it doesn't count as a hurry up offense if you don't huddle but don't snap the ball until the play clock is down to 3 seconds or less every single fucking play. It just doesn't. And when you're stuck 11 with 12 minutes to go and have mysteriously incinerated two timeouts already, you need to be in the hurry up offense.

Life is going reasonable well at the moment. I think I'm actually doing some growing as a professional poker player for the first time in a while, thanks in part to re-dedicating myself to hand reviews, and in larger part to spending some time thinking about the kinds of mistakes I tend to make when I'm off my A game. I've also spent a fair bit of time thinking about what advice I really need to be listening to and what advice is sorta of optional, and I think that has been helping me out quite a bit.

Today was a fun day, with me getting stuck 2.5 racks almost upon entrance to the 20/40 game, digging myself out, losing a little more, then taking an ill-advised walk into the 30/60 game, finding myself again stuck pretty badly and....having the discipline to move back into the must move 20 which was fair and away the best situation for me to be in. For once it did work out like it was supposed to, and I ran over the game for 3 racks and left up a little bit on the day. It's kind of fun when you make good decisions and they actually work out.

Thus far 2011 is going much better than 2010, and if things continue on their current pace I'll be taking that Commerce 40 shot by Easter.