Rodney Butler

I still have a lot to say about Tunica, and hopefully I'll get it all written down before I leave for LA. I'm thinking of going out to the Oklahoma State Poker Championships before heading out to Commerce. It's kind of close to home after all...

Today was a good day. Spent some time playing poker early in the morning. Helped my mom with some FCCLA stuff at the highschool in the afternoon. Then went bowling with Bobby. I bowled a 102 first game... and then the second game... wait for it... wait for it... 191. Crazy. I've never bowled anywhere close to that. It reminded me of this 13 year old kid I saw on the Today show a week or so ago who had bowled a perfect game. They interviewed him (his father did most of the talking) and then everyone got to watch live as he went for a repeat on national television. Got a split the very first frame and had his first breath of fame cut a little short. But the kid's only 13... a perfect game can't be a fluke. And neither can a 191... right? Maybe if this poker thing doesn't work out, I'll start chasing my bowling dreams.

After bowling, I hung out with my baby brother Austin... he's 5 now. I wonder how old he has to be before I have to stop calling him my baby brother. After the pool, we went back up to my hotel room and played video games. They have an N64 connected to the hotel television. He chose StarFox and was getting pretty close to beating the first level, even with the invert controls on. The kid is a natural gamer. It's in his blood. He saw a deck of cards in my bathroom.


"Hey, ummm... hey... Russ?"
"Whatsup, kid?"
"Ummm... I know how to play that game."
"You do?" Big smile.
"Yeah... all you have to do is match the cards."
"Yup, kiddo... that's about all there is to it."

Smart kid. While he was playing video games, I setup a dartboard in my hotel room. Then my stepdad and I played a quick game of Cricket. It was supposed to be quick, but Austin lost interest in his videogames and wanted to throw the darts with us. At first I didn't think it was a good idea to let a five year old throw steel tipped darts... but then I figured, what the hell? He's a righty, but he tries to throw left-handed like my stepdad. He's really not too shabby.

Ended the night by watching The Constant Gardner. That's a pretty great movie. Tomorrow I'm planning on hitting a couple of super bowl parties and then spending tons of hours on Party Poker trying to get on that cruise. We'll see how it goes.

One final note... Michael Mizrachi took down the AC WPT tournament. When I was reading the tournament report, I thought it must have been a mistake and they got their tournaments mixed up. If you follow the trail, you'll have noticed that he took second in the first WPT out in Tunica. The kid is on fire. Looks like he's the man to beat for POY. How do you beat a guy at poker who has more talent then you do? Guess I just have to get better at matching up the cards.