Patience, Grasshopper.

The Mookie missed the goal of 66 players this week, drawing only 59. It's yet to be seen if this means Al will bring back the big German chick. Still, 59 is a very respectable turnout for these events. I'd be thrilled if the WWdNot ever drew 59 players.

I have commented before that "Zen and the Art of Poker" can be summed up in two words -- "patience, Grasshopper", the latter only lending a pseudo-Zen-like feeling to the former, at least for those who've seen "Kung Fu". My moderate success at The Mookie last night can be attributed largely to that advice.

We were well into things before I took down my first big pot, and even that only brought me back to slightly under average. Another long wait and I returned from the brink of elimination when I doubled through last night's luckbox, Iakaris, my AJo holding against his A9o. Some time later I sent Ike home when his pocket 4's got counterfeited by two pair on the board and I outkicked him. The luckbox finally deserted him. (I mean no disrespect to Ike here. He's a good player. But I think even he would freely admit he got very lucky on several occasions last night.)

This put me in pretty good shape, even taking the table chip lead for a brief time. Along the way from brink of elimination to healthy stack, several times I resisted the temptation to make moves with highly questionable holdings. Patience, Grasshopper, patience.

I was able to hang on until we were in the money, finishing in 6th. Congratulations to FishyMcDonK on the win.

Please join us tonight in the WWdNot at PokerStars, 22:00 EST, pasword monkey.