The Art of Losing, Part II
In my first installment, I failed to explain my motivation for spending the better part of two weeks in a casino. I was fulfilling a self-promise I made in '04, to attend the World Poker Tour's annual Tunica event. The fun times kept rolling, the production was very interesting to watch, and I (and others) put on a fine display of losing....

• Believe in your pocket pair. The #8 player in the main event busted out of the tournament in this fashion, by pushing all-in with pocket Kings, and a board of 8-?-?-3-3. Opponent (with a larger stack) calls with pocket 8's (and a full house), and the field was reduced to 7. It's my vague impression that the #7 player was ousted in similar fashion, by calling with pocket Queens.
• Call without thinking. One of the last hands I played, I was dealt pocket Aces. With two callers, the board showed 9-2-K-9; My small bet was answered with a call and an all-in from a short stack. I called that all-in without thinking, and was reraised all-in by the third player. That woke me up, and I immediately realized (correctly) that the first all-in was holding K9 (and a full house, 9's full of K's), and the main pot was dead to me.
• Disbelieve in your pocket pair. But what about the second all-in? I folded to that one, after realizing I shouldn't have been in the hand to begin with. This was a compound mistake, as I was most likely in the lead. Given the board listed above, the second all-in player must have either (a) the fourth 9, or (b) any two of the remaining five cards (three 2's or two K's) to make a hand that beats a pair of aces. Even then, I still have two outs against everyone. The odds of being behind at that point are in the 4% range. So, from a 'black box' odds perspective, I should have called the second all-in, and picked up the side pot.
• Forget the Odds. About halfway through this adventure, I realized I forgot most of the hold'em odds I ever remembered. This is somewhat like climbing halfway up the mountain before realizing you left your tent in base camp, but that's an indication of how out-of-practice I was.
• Play pocket pairs. I decided, for one session of 1/2 NL, that I would wait for pairs, and play them. I was helped out by receiving pocket aces twice in the first three hands, first in the big blind, the entire table folded to me. The second time on the button, the entire table folded to me again, and I pushed the large blind out with a $5 bet on the flop. I had flopped a set of A's the second time, and flopped a set of 6's later on. None of the other twenty-seven pairs I was dealt over the subsequent 4 hours of play amounted to anything, as did the several AK, AJ, AQ, and miscellaneous suited connectors.
• Succumb to the Glare of Stage Lights. When the final round of six opened for the WPT taping, one person held half the overall chips. He tried to push his weight around, right into pairs and AK, and promptly fed the rest of the table enough chips to keep the table alive for another five hours. One error seemed to compound the previous one, and the original chip leader ended up in third after a few truly dismal calls.
• Bet into Fish. I bombed out of a tournament from chip lead, by betting into known fish with non-pair hands like AK suited, whereupon I was called by A10 and beaten with a 10. At some point, I just walked away.
• Loseum Ad Semanticum The second person to exit the taping (in 5th) was too wrapped up in drawing a reaction from his opponent, who had pushed all-in. After giving the opponent a minute to 'choose' a course of action for him (call or fold), said "I call it." A pause. "...not like that!" The judge held the 5th finisher to his call, and that wasn't just like that, that was that.
• Bet into the Overpair. The 15th or 13th finisher in the WPT event exited by raising all-in with pocket 8s against all-in Aces. The flop came A-A-?, and that was that.
• "Crapsless" Craps. Enough cards, let's play with dice! This game is similar to craps, except every number besides 7 sets a point ("craps" rolls 2,3,12 are viable, hence the "crapsless" name). It sounds great, except that not only does 11 not win, it's an odds-on favorite to lose. I thought it was fun to place-bet the 11 and 3, though.

2006, in review
The smoke has cleared, and some of the superlatives for 2006, on this sleepy little corner of Web:

• The most-used search term on my site last year was: "two player pool". All they found was my two-player V:tES variant.
• The most-searched-for restaurant or bar, from the Atlanta dining page: Apre Diem.
• People are actually searching for the Shifter mod for Starseige: Tribes. I got a few of those searches over the year.
• The most-viewed page: Food and Beer in Atlanta? (the 'pubs' link, above). I hope this page helped out some folks.