Brought to you by the letter D....

Down for the count.

Late yesterday afternoon while reaching around behind me for a file folder of information that I needed to update a customer, I suddenly found myself face down on the floor and in excruciating pain. There was no doubt about it, I'd just popped something in my upper back. Fourth time this has happened to me that it's literally, brought me to the ground.

Just brutal!

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Disappointment, total and utter disappointment!

I signed up for the Skillz game last night and think I had every reason to be very optimistic about taking it down. The game was 7 card STUD, a game that I've already had three Skillz victories at before. Without a shadow of a doubt, that would be my best shot at a T.O.C. seat during the BBT4. And as most of you know, that means it is my entire BBT! Unlike the NLHE regulars, I'm fighting for the T.O.C. seat and will consider the BBT a success, if I get one. I know I'm not good enough yet to take one down with a NLHE win, so I know I have to do what I can to use my advantage during cems Skillz series to get it done.

When I took my seat 15 minutes before game time, I knew there was no way my back was going to take that position for any amount of time. I tried three different chairs and several types of pillow/chair combinations, it just wasn't happening. I needed to be at rest and on my back. My best shot at a BBT4 T.O.C. seat would have to wait. I logged out and signed off knowing how big the opportunity was, that I was going to have to miss.

I see Lightning ran deep in fact, all the way to heads up. Congrats on the great run! That should really come as no surprise to anyone that's played in the last few STUD format games with him and, I honestly had a feeling you'd be the competition in the game last night. Well done and GG.

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Delight! Just incredible happiness and delight for a friend.

One of my "invisibles" has done a pretty amazing job of a project that he's been working on. I've felt incredibly fortunate to have been kept in the loop with what he's doing as well! It's really an incredible idea and I always try to let him know how proud he should be of his work.

But deep down, Amir is still a Poker player first. You can tell it in his words, his actions and definitely, you can tell it in his play. My friend Amir has obviously had some respectable success in the few live events he's entered for sure but lately, Amir has been discussing his on-line play and successes with me as well.

The fine folks over at the now more beautiful than ever PokerStarsBlog, did a great job of recapping Amir's second place finish for $142,970.07 in this past Sunday's PokerStars Sunday Millions.

WooooOOOOOooooT !!!!!!!

I've already told Amir how proud I am of him for running so deep in a quality field such as that. He also knows how good he should feel about a 39th. place finish in the WPT's BAY101. I just thought I'd share my pride in his success' with all of my other "invisibles" as well.

Now to get some extra strength muscle relaxants and go completely comatose for 72 hours or so.

See you on the other side kids.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....