How do you know when you're in a Hillbilly Hell Hole?  That's a good question...but it's better to ask:  What was I doing there in the first place?

The simple answer:  my wife's sisters wanted to play $5 Bingo and $1 Blackjack.  That's their version of high stakes gambling.

I realize it's been a while since I gave a weekly update. I've been sufficiently busy and taking some time off of playing a whole lot of poker. After some great success two months ago without a single losing session in two weeks, I suffered two straight weeks without a single winning session. At that point, I decided to take some time off, and concentrate on playing more tournaments and fewer cash games. This strategy proved to be just the break I needed.

It's been a rough two weeks. After two straight weeks without a losing session, I just finished two straight weeks without a winning session. Believe me, that's rough! At least there's one silver lining in the clouds: I didn't go broke -- not even anywhere near it. But instead of playing in more cash games, I decided to get back to basics: Omaha Hi/Lo Tournaments.

Overall, it was a down week. I was doing quite well early in the week, only to try my chances at $30/60 HORSE -- where I lost a bundle. Following up those losses, were two straight losing sessions at $5/10 HORSE. Regardless, by the end of the week, I succeeded in beginning to rebuild my earnings. Along the way, I had some very interesting hands come up -- which should be interesting reading (below). So after a few straight winning sessions, I was back on track -- and with a good outlook.

The week started good, and it ended good. I was profitable in both cash games, and I cashed in one tournament. The week ended with a big cash in my own cadillacpoker.com NLHE "Tri-Tip" tournament.

Last week got off to a great start: first, I won my way into the $530 WCOOP on a $15 entry, then I placed 19th in that event and took home $2100. But after that, I had 5 straight losing sessions in the cash games, and lost a $1000 of my winnings.

Thank goodness, that all happened last week. This week went much better.