Funny article on playing The Hammer with two outs. Oh how people still doubt its power.

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Think I'm finally over a nasty cough that had me more sensitive to smoky casinos and falling asleep while driving (dang cough supressants on empty stomachs).

Though I don't think I'll ever be able to go to sleep at 8:15 p.m. for a full 8 hours, I don't seem to have a problem waking at 4:15 a.m.

I once worked a third-shift job that ran from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Talk about bad hours. Many nights I tossed my mouse at my coworker, who often fell asleep at the computer.

If I'm going to be working these hours, I'm glad it's in a 24-hour town. There's always a nearby place open 24 hours. I eat lunch at 9:30 a.m. in a sports bar across the street, and no one bats an eyelash. I nap in a casino parking lot for half an hour, and I'm ignored.

And if I'm going to be a courier, I'm glad it's in Vegas. There's always free parking at the casinos; I never have to worry about parking meters or getting towed. No one looks at me funny as I walk through the casino wearing headphones. There're also plentiful restrooms at casinos; I don't have to stop at a gas station. The only concern is traffic, which I can mostly avoid by taking side roads.

What's surprising to me is how many people call in to a radio show at 5:40 a.m. (the time of the show's first phone topic), when I'd think people would be just waking up or getting ready for work.

Being in Vegas, though, many people are still awake from their prior night's bender.

Yesterday I took constant calls from a woman who must've been up all night drinking. Over the course of the morning, I became her best friend, confidante, and therapist, as she called in every song or every topic or every guest, always with a comment. She went through several emotions, from being angry at what a caller said, to nostalgic as to what the lyrics to a Beatles song really meant, to tearful at losing the love of her life, to frustrated at being called "old and haggard" (in reference to tickets we were giving away to Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard), to why men are called dawgs (she spelled it out) and women are called bitches.

She called about a dozen times, and as long as there weren't other calls coming in, I entertained each one.

One song reminded her of Creedence Clearwater Revival, and she asked if we still took requests. All songs are pre-laid out in advance and we've never taken requests, but I said, "We'll see what we can do."

Half an hour later a CCR song began playing, a complete coincidence. A call lit up and I knew it was her. I picked it up and all I heard was the word, "Thanks."

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I'm pretty sure they'll be offering me a full-time position soon, which I'll probably accept. I'm less excited than I should be, because $8.50 an hour even with benefits and no state taxes still isn't enough to live on.

I love working. It gives me something to do, a place to go, and I feel better about myself when I'm productive. I especially enjoy working with people, so the radio station gig is perfect.

When the current producer (the person who's been training me) found out I played poker, he was interested. I said he could shortbuy at a $100 NL game and last for awhile. He said he couldn't afford to lose $50.

Which makes me think if I took over his job, it wouldn't be much more than my $8.50. I said this to him, and he nodded knowingly, saying there were other perks about the job. The Chocolate Swan delivered some terrific cranberry muffins, eclairs, and raspberry truffles. The Las Vegas Wranglers brought in free t-shirts. A group of women showed their breasts. Perks like that?

Radio pays nothing. But to some people it must pay something because I see nice cars in the parking lot.

Though not at the station itself, the office is located in a wealthy part of Las Vegas. Driving around, I've seen a Ferrari, a Lotus, a Viper, and a Lamborghini.

My 13-year-old car and I will have to keep looking for another job.

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Last Friday, I grabbed my cell phone and went to work, when I realized in the dark I'd grabbed a deck of cards instead.

Though I'm given a work cell to use for the courier job during the day, I was without my own cell and phone numbers, and didn't find out that Pauly had gone to the emergency room until I got home. Felt bad I wasn't there for him, and also felt bad I was working for the first time when the entire last year I had all the time in the world to take him to the hospital.

I finished all my pickups and deliveries early, and Carla called wanting to play some poker.

We stopped at Harrah's, where I sat in a 3/6 full kill and played a drunk on my right who raised every hand without looking at his cards. If someone raised, he'd reraise. Frequently pots were multi-handed and capped preflop. Carla was in NL, and I told her the 3/6 was probably more profitable.

We both lost (me $20, her $200) and then headed to Monte Carlo. I'd planned to just sweat her and watch how she played. She's still been running bad, but then I hear certain hands she lost and have to question why she played things like A2s UTG. Sometimes she recollects the hands inaccurately, saying she flopped a flush draw with 3-3-2 on the flop.

I walk a fine line here, because it's hitting her when she's down and she takes it a little personally when I go too into how she played a hand and how she could've played it (or not played it at all, like A2s).

When I got to Monte Carlo, she was already seated and there was an open seat at the NL. I decided to sit and play tight with $100 (max. buy-in is $200). I was mostly there to watch how she played. This was the first time in awhile that we've been at the same table again.

For a good half hour, she hit a huge rush of cards, including set-over-set-over-set on the flop (with poor me holding bottom set). Later she played Q6o to a $15 preflop raise, which got her into trouble when the flop brought her KQ6, and the turn gave a Queen. She checked, the raiser checked, and another guy bet $20. Carla now raised to $100, and the raiser went all-in, for another $300 or so. The original bettor accidentally folded KJ face-up, and seeing the King was out, she called. The preflop raiser had KK. (Based on how he played, I would've put him on KQ... an hour later, Carla had all his chips when she called his $15 preflop raise with J9 and flopped two 9s vs. his KK, which he raised all-in on the flop.)

I don't begrudge her or anyone for playing any hand in no-limit, but Q6o for a raise is as loose a call as any, and a hand that can get you into much more trouble than the rare times you flop a monster. No matter how loose I'm playing or how up I am, I barely even play Q6o from an unraised small blind.

Me, most of my hands didn't go to showdown. I lost a big pot to Carla with that bottom set, but after I rebought $100, I didn't look back.

With the second $100, I tried wielding it as if we were shorthanded in a tournament. One hand I held 78o to multi-limpers in late position, and the flop was 5-6-8 (rainbow). Someone early bet $15 with four callers, and I pushed.

This changes a bit from how I might've played this a couple years ago, which would be to call the $15 and see one more card. But if that card were a 7? Or another suited card? Or an overcard? I figured the pot was big enough that the move was worth a try, and luckily everyone folded.

A couple times I raised big preflop in late position with limpers or a small raise. Each time it was enough to take it uncontested.

Another big hand was with AKs. I raise to $12 preflop and have two callers, one in front and one behind.

Flop is Jxx (rainbow). Checks to me. Normally I bet here hoping to get heads-up or take it, but I decided to try something different and play the turn.

Turn is K. Checks to me, and I throw out a few chips. Another move I now use (which I copied from a tough player at Excalibur playing 2/6 spread limit, of all things) is to toss out a mess of chips without counting. This is when either betting or raising. Playing this way tends to annoy people. It also makes people think you're trying to buy the pot. In this case, the chips I threw out turned out to be $25. And I did want that call, and I got heads-up with the guy after me.

River is blank. Normally I bet again, but since I'd already played the hand differently, I decided to check and call whatever he bet.

As soon as I check, my opponent pushes in his stack.

I didn't expect this and had to think. He had a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes, and when I looked at him, he didn't return the look. His hands were completely still.

Normally I'd fold. The pot wasn't worth it. If it were online, I'd fold instantly. The longer I took to think, the worse I was going to be, because the danger is that I'd end up talking myself into calling.

But I needed more time.

I ask the dealer to count down the chips. I already knew how much he'd put out there, but I wanted the extra seconds to figure out what to do.

I glance at the guy again.

I think back to how he played a previous hand, and I remembered he'd pushed $45 preflop with A4o vs. Carla's AK, and AK won. But that was preflop.

The dealer announces, "Eighty-one dollars."

I count out $81 of my chips, processing each second.

I look at the board and think it's possible I could be dead to two pair. But if he really had something, wouldn't he have bet smaller to get a call? If he had something on the turn, wouldn't he have raised? If he had something on the flop, wouldn't he have bet? Why make a big move on the river... unless....

My eyes go to his cap again and I see his eyes briefly look up at me and then look back down.

At that moment, I could feel he was stone cold bluffing. I didn't think he even had a pair.

I immediately put him on Q-10. The flop didn't help, the turn gave him a strong enough draw to call my bet, but the river busted that.

I call.

He looks up at me, shakes his head, and says, "Good call."

He doesn't flip his cards, and I save him the embarrassment by flipping mine first. He then mucks his cards, gets up, and leaves.

People around the table said, "Wow, good call." And humility aside, I accept the pats on the back, thinking that finally, I read someone right and they didn't suck out on me.

By the time I cashed out, I was up $500. Carla was up around $400 and stayed a couple more hours. I spoke to her later and she said a couple fish sat down and couldn't win a hand against her. She ended up $1100.

I asked to analyze some of her hands like we usually do her losing hands, but she didn't remember them. Which is too bad, because I like discussing winning as well as losing hands. A winning hand can still be a losing hand if you didn't maximize that win.

I'm hoping that her bad streak has ended but also that the hands she won she wasn't just hitting cards. Because it's easy to win with set-over-set-over-set but another thing to win with complete bluffs. And that's something I still need to work on.