Name droppings

Two from the money and on the shortstack in last night's WWdN, I dropped the hammer from the button hoping I had fold equity with Big Money sitting on 2.5 million chips in the big blind. He had the temerity to call -- with K-freakin'-9. What in God's name was that? What could he have been thinking? Needless to say, the hammer was mercilessly cracked and I slinked away in search of the Sun. High, I'm Poker Jones. I'm a low-limit (rakeback) junkie.

That sordid bad-beat story, however, is not the driving force behind this missive. Rather, sitting on my porch this evening, pondering the fate of squirrels, I realized that I have never explained publicly the meaning behind my poker screen name hacker59, which is in use on most of the sites where I have accounts. (I'm NealCassady on a couple of others.)

Hacker59 has nothing to do with computers. Technology-wise, I've achieved the status of Luddite First Class. So, after eliminating (A), the only answer can be (B) golf. Good answer. The 59 was added because "hacker" alone was not available on That-slutty-10th-grade-girl-who'd-do-anyone-once-you-got-a-few-beers-in-her.com. Fifty-nine, of course, is the ultimate score in golf, save Tiger Wood's Swedish swimsuit model trophy bride.

It also happens to match the year of my birth.

Yep. Verging on Golden Buckeye Card status. Forty-fuckin'-seven.

I don't feel old. Much. There did come a time this spring during a Group tournament at JC's when I looked around and realized with some apprehension that I was the second-oldest person in the room. A melancholy moment. Christ, I don't feel old. Much.

But I realize I'm doddering compared with the online poker crowd and it's average age of 15. (I would tend to think that bloggers skew slightly older, perhaps in the 20 to 22 range. They know a lot of big words and cool stuff.)

So when you see me next in a game somewhere, please be kind. Throw me a pot or two. We old-timers can use all the help we can get.