2009/January Goals/etc

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, mine was pretty standard. Presents were not bad, I got some climbing shoes, some hand strengtheners and some clothes. I enjoy break alot and have just taken this time to reflect on both my poker game and this past year.

This year wasn't fantastic for me. I didn't get in any volume in terms of actually playing. I highly HIGHLY doubt that I broke 200k hands. I think 150k is more in the neighborhood, if even that. It's extremely pathetic and I think I'm going to be taking steps to increase my volume (prop bets/etc). As I posted in the 2+2 thread-

my graphs are spread across three computers, and my PT broke on my desktop a while back.

this year didn't go that well. i had a pretty decent start and was up maybe 45k during midyear. thank god for those soft AP games. i didn't play for a while due to trips in Europe and finals.

i went through the worst downer of my life for $15k (thankfully buffered by a WSOP 12k tourney win). i sortve floated along the last few months and probably will finish the year at around 65-75k depending on rakeback/bonuses/coaching/etc. PLO i've been fairly breakeven in the last month or two and sadly i've only netted about 12k from it lifetime. pathetic. (though i guess the hand totals are not bad, probably $12k in about 40-50k hands so meh).

i dont know...i truly respect grinders like shpanko, who can put in a ton of hands. i'm not sure if i hit 200k hands total to be honest.

here is the one ss i have on my laptop i have:

(I know it doesn't even really matter), but it's all I really have. As I said, I'm extremely disappointed with how few hands I put in. Poker isn't nearly as interesting to me as it once was. I'm far from a great player, its just that the passion is not as high as it was when I first started (when I could play for hours on end/etc). I truly respect some of my friends who can put in 100k hands+ a month.

I've taken a few weeks off from poker during my break, clearing my head (lost 17 BIs in less than 4k hands). I felt that keeping a stress free holiday would be best, even though I may be costing myself money (or saving myself some money, the way I've been playing :().

For January, I want to get in 25k hands. I know it isn't a ton, but I think it'd be more than any of my previous 4 months. In hopes to build my confidence, I think I'll play 1/2NL and 1/2PLO and go back to 2/4 when I feel comfortable.

I feel I have a decent grasp of alot of PLO fundamentals (though again I could be wrong here). 25k hands with some PLO might be a bit more (mainly because PLO hands run much slower than NLHE) but whatever.

While I know that 65k-75k or whatever I won this year is good, I'm still disappointed. I wanted to win more, I wanted to play more. I'm fortunate to have won this money and be in the position I'm in (to pay for school, expenses, etc). And I know I might sound like a bitch but it just doesn't seem like a ton to me. I remember people were hating on David Benefield (raptor) for him being unhappy despite winning close to 7 figures in a month. There are definitely other factors in regards to happiness, not pure money aside. People who don't play poker or have such mentalities can't begin to understand. I'm hoping that 2009 I'm able to play more and win more. And we'll see where the UIGEA takes me in the end of 2009...Not really sure where I'll be.

So hopefully I can start putting in some volume and playing well. I'm going to try and control my tilt problem, something that has recently resurfaced after laying dormant for a while. Back in the day I used to tilt like mad and shoved 76s pre and such in super unnecessary spots.

I've been debating learning HU. My HU game is pretty poor. I succeed in some of the games due to just being fundamentally better than my opponents (re- hand reading, making slight adjustments, etc). But I deal with some things very poorly (re- RR-ed pots, SUPER light call downs, etc). HU NLHE is fairly boring (imo) and I think I'd rather learn HU PLO.

I got a 3.4GPA this last semester. Fairly pleased overall, though I did slack in a few of my classes pretty badly. Next semester hopefully I'll do okay...I have a few semi-interesting classes that should bode well. I'm also 3rd in the SSNL bowl pickem group, moving on up. I'm extremely excited for the BCS NC game on January 8th and can't wait.

Hope everyone has a great new years and 2008.

happy holidays

not really doing a great job on my goals, haven't been to the gym once, haven't really lifted. haven't cleared any books and have been eating a tremendous amount lately. bring on the weight gain i suppose.

still haven't played poker. it's been nice and stress free. should hold true on my NYE start but meh.

grades should be decent this semester. thus far i've locked in an A, A-, B+, C+ and probably have one last A for the last grade. This will be my best sem in a long while and I'm happy.

my sleep schedule blows ass. waking up at 2:30 routinely, need to stop it.

hope everyone has a good holiday. i'm getting really pumped for the OU game, leaving on january 6th. probably won't go anywhere until that time. hope everyone has a safe and merry christmas!

live poker

Decided to go to the Horseshoe late last night after recording the last of my DC video (yay). My friend had a super urge so I decided to accompany him and see if I could unwind a bit. We got there around 11:30 and there was one 2/5 game open. After the first orbit or so, I could see there were plenty of soft spots. (People agonizing over calling a shove with AA on Txx boards getting ridiculous odds)...I brought $1500 and sat.

I observed some funny hands. One regular (I talked with him on previous sessions, he was an ex-blackjack dealer) limp reraises from UTG after an aggro button opens. BTN calls. ($500 eff).

($140)Flop: Qs 8h 4d
UTG bets $100, BTN jams, UTG mulls forever asking "QQ or AA? Really?" then folds. (He obviously had KK). BTN flips over the 2s and mucks the other card. I laugh hysterically.

BTN was a nice guy but had the makings of a wigger. (I sat next to him fwiw).

I lose a few medium pots and continue to reload. Mainly just small ones where I open/c-bet (and am checkraised or called and forced to fold).

I lost one pot where I call a LP PFR otb w/ KQo. The PFR was pretty laggy, he played a ton of pots. I saw him make a 3-street bluff when he bet $50 every time on a T9733 board with K6dd. He also doubled up early on I saw with a half stack with QTo after calling a PFR and shoving on Txx (and the other guy really wanting to fold AA there but eventually calling, and losing with the Aces). He also seemed to be wiggerish as well, having a straight billed hat and super baggy clothes.

Another old ape called behind me. This guy was like 7 fee tall and probably 60 years old. Super insane deep voice, reminded me of an older paul bunyan or something.

($100)Flop: 556r
BB (old retard) checks, PFR checks, I decide to stab and bet $55. I probably could have gone lower in retrospect. BB folds, PFR calls.

($210)Turn: Ax
At this point I thought he had some strange 77/6x type hand, sometimes stuff like QJ/QT/etc. I think he could have had Ax type hands as well. regardless, he checked to me again, I decided to take another shot (though balance wise, I'd probably check this turn a decent amount against this opponent with many value hands but my opponent is not thinking on this level). I bet $120 and he c/r-ed all in. I folded, he showed AQ and I nodded, claiming "88!"

I build up slightly. I opened TT after a retard limped. This guy would limp any Axo hand pf and then make idiotic blockers if he hit an Ace. He'd also limp/call stuff like K3s and such. BTN called my PFR (slightly decent player, lacked fundamentals, etc, but 'good' by live standards), UTG called (the retard limper).

($80)Flop: Qc 6c 3d
UTG checks, I bet $50, BTN calls, UTG folds.

($180)Turn: 3h
I check/call $75

($330)River: 2d
I check, he checks. I show and mhig.

I won a few other medium ones where I double barreled xx (I can't remember what I had) on a 962Kr board and the guy was very clearly in anguish after calling the flop (he was the biggest nit at the table, so damn obvious when he had a hand).

I built my stack up to like $800. I was in for probably $900 at this point, just off losing small idiotic pots. BTN opens (the decent regular who I won w/ in TT hand), SB calls, I called in BB with 33.

Flop 985r, SB checks, I check, BTN bets $30 into $100, SB calls $30. At this point, I was thinking how nasty it'd be to c/r since neither can really call except a very small proportion of their range. I decided to check/raise to $150 (in retrospect I should have made it a bit smaller, though I think that $120 is fine as well). I probably would have made the same play (and sizing) if I did have a set/straight.

BTN calls. I thought he had something like JT/TT+/sometimes some strange 97 type hand. SB (nit) folds. I thought alot of times he'd call one street and give up. Many live players HATE committing a ton of chips with one pair.

Turn came, which was 4x. I bet $250 into a large pot, leaving like $400 back. He ships it after thought and I folded like a bitch. He claimed JT and later said he truly did have that. Nice play I guess. He claimed I'd never make such a large bet on the flop with a set and that $150 made it seem like it was a bluff. I guess people frequently bluff him when someone faces a bet/call (from a nit and decent player) by check raising when 150bbs deep, i don't know.

Anyways, a few hands later, I double up with A8ss on a 547sss board in a limped pot against 86o (lol). Guy had me covered. I probably should have played it slower but I c/r-ed ai on the turn, maybe should have just c/c-ed turn and c/r-ed ai on the river. Meh. I built my stack up to $750 or so at this point.

There was some madness soon after. MP (laggy cocky kid who thinks he's good but not) opens PF. Laggy wigger calls behind him, all else fold.

($50) Flop: Qs 8d 8h
MP bets $25. LP (wigger) makes it $60. MP makes it $120. LP makes it $220. MP mulls and mulls and starts staring into his soul (I HATE when people stare each other down, so dumb). He says "God I hope you don't have KQ...will you show me if I fold?".

"Yes I will"

"....Fine, I fold." LP flips over J9o and I laugh hysterically.

I witnessed one other idiotic hand later that night. MP (quiet donk) opens, LP calls. Flop 557r check/check. Turn Qx, MP bets $60, LP makes it $200, MP jams $800 on top, LP calls with 77 and beats KK. Hmm...

I lost a few more pots bluffing. We got down short handed since it was late into the night. I lost some more money flipping when we were doing $25-$40 a hand, I didn't win one. Gay. Overall lost $300 and my friend $120. I ate my sorrows away with country fried steak and eggs.

done

School is over with for the semester, we have about 3.5 weeks off. I'm pretty excited, very relieved to finally be done for a while. I don't have many fantastic plans over break (other than the UF game) and am excited to just sit at home. This past semester went fine...other than social psychology (a discussion based class in which I did not open my mouth once), I think I did pretty well. Should be looking at an improvement on my meager 2.90 GPA. Next semester should be pretty meh overall, not terribly difficult but just annoying. Spanish over the next 3 quarters is going to suck even bigger dick, God I hate Spanish.

I don't have a ton of plans this break. Just want to sit back and relax, hope to enjoy lots of college football. I have a few goals for this break as well (and this was one of the main reasons why I created this blog is to hold myself accountable for such goals). Sadly I have not been able to update it as much as I'd like due to school.

-Read two books. I have alot of different books that I bought recently (I'm backed up) and I'm excited to get into some of those. I'm currently reading 'How to Be Idle' by Tom Hodgkinson. I probably don't need this book, but it's fairly interesting. The author presents an outlook on life that is very rare, especially for citizens of places such as the U.S. and W. Europe. Instead of work work work all the time, the author enjoys lounging around, and doing other such acts. It's a bit hard to describe and sounds goofy, but I'm enjoying the book. Though it probably isn't going to have the best influence on me since I really don't work hard these days anyways. I pretty much already have the mentality of the author, that is, to enjoy life and not get caught up with too much of the technical stuff (working, school, etc). This could be due to poker but I'm not really sure.

I know I'm not going to be a rich person. Or fairly sure. I'm probably going to graduate with a history degree and there aren't a ton of jobs in that field (ha). One day I plan on doing teaching, we'll see. I don't really know where my life is going to take me in the next few years. I have a decent amount of options with poker (for however long it lasts). My degree sortve leaves me in a weird spot but meh, I guess I'll just deal with it as it comes along. While I am typically the type of person to think things out (in most cases, other cases such as jumping fences, not so much...), I honestly have no idea where I'll be in the next five years. This post HERE is an interesting one. (A good read as well)- the author picked up everything and left, went on his own adventure around the world and it sounds like quite an experience. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but meh...who cares?

Ok so I got a bit side tracked. I'd like to read two books, maybe more.

I want to keep in shape over break. I plan on going to the YMCA or other local gyms if possible. Also in line with that is to keep my eating in check- my diet has been a trainwreck these days due to not having any food at the house. I think that going home should be a nice break with real food for once (instead of Jimmy Johns).

I'll set my poker goals at the end of the month. I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to play. I probably should just sack up and play regardless but meh. I'd like to keep a relatively stress free holiday (or as much as I can). I also will need some money in the future as well though, so we'll see how much I do want to play. The most important thing is that I'm in the right state of mind in doing so, and that I'm in line, conscious, etc. of my decisions.

We're wrapping up our DC series (terp and I) and it's been fun. Glad it's over though. Probably won't do many videos anymore in the future, too much work. Should be finishing it up on Sunday though so that should be swell.

be well

:(

I've decided that I'm going to take the rest of the year off playing wise. I'm clearly not playing well and losing thousands of dollars. I have a myriad of issues while playing, mainly tilt, that I need to concentrate on before taking the next step in my poker career. Thankfully I'm overrolled but still, the quality of my play has been disgusting the last few days.

We'll see how long this lasts. If I feel I'm in the right state of mind I still might yet play, we'll see.

I haven't been running well, that's for sure. But even more importantly, I haven't been playing well. I'll be the last person to pin point the blame to something other than myself. To be honest, I've been very lazy in my poker learning these days, rarely looking or discussing hands, not watching videos, not analyzing HEM, etc. (Which I recently bought, haven't touched it much). I feel like I need a rejuvenation in my game, not sure how I can attain it. I'm not nearly as dedicated to this game as I once was (and that's not to say I think I'm awesome or anything, far far far from that).

I think self-analysis is the best tool when facing a downswing. I have had worse downswings in my life (namely the -7k night in April which resulted into a $15k downer). Regardless, I'm currently at about -20 buyins at 2/4 (most of it being from PLO). The game is obviously very high variance and I lost most of my buyins in less than 4k hands. Pretty crazy. Most of it was losing the 60/40 flips that are so vital for success or failure in this game. (And obviously the 55/45s/etc).

Some things I need to focus on-

-Tilt control. This is especially vital in a game such as PLO, where it is so easy to convince yourself that you can 'gambol' it up when in reality you are really getting it in as an equity dog every time. While I might suck out sometimes, I'm not doing myself any favors in the long run. I need to realize that many of the short term results don't matter and just focus on the long run. I wish I could just shrug but ughhhh...

-Rekindling my poker learning. I recently did a session with my old coach (and plan on doing more in the future for sure). I need to start looking through HEM and PLOtracker and figure out what I'm doing wrong and how to correct it. I've been lazy far too long, both in hand amounts and hand analysis. I also plan on watching videos like I used to.

-Humbling myself. Telling myself that 1/2 isn't a big deal and there is no shame in playing it. I plan on playing 1/2 PLO/1/2 NLHE until I make the 8k back again. While this may take a month or two, I think it'll be good for my overall poker life.

Anyways, yeah. I suck at poker. I still plan on coaching through this struggle, as well as finishing out my series with DC. We filmed video 7 of our series and 8 should be done by Sunday. Wrapping this series up should be good, I'm proud of the content we put out. Meh.

In other news, I took up rock climbing. Should be a cool new hobby that is beneficial in more ways than one. I've only gone a few times but it's a ton of fun and super brutal exercise wise. I took a class and now know how to belay/tie knots (sorta)/etc. I plan on buying some climbing shoes this winter and coming back hard after break. Rock climbing involves a ton of muscles you don't typically use, mainly fingers, forearms, and back (and legs of course).

Finals are also coming and going, I have two. I can't wait to get out of here and go back home. I still haven't decided what I'm really doing for christmas break, other than the Miami game. I'd like to go skiing maybe or perhaps somewhere else (warm). I'm not doing the PCA this year because the OU game is right during it. My sleep and eating schedules are also fucked as well, I haven't gone to the store in a month. Pretty much just eating out and eating minimally. I also woke up at 3p.m. yesterday after going to bed at 6, which disgusts me. I partially fixed it today though and woke up at only 1:30 so meh.

Anyways, meh, poker sucks. I suck at life.

poker

sucks my fucking nuts.

also do not see the day the earth stood still, what a shitty ass movie. i fucking hated the little kid. christ.

fuck my life.

meh

pretty much finished with most of my finals/final papers. I have a long paper I have to finish up before monday but I only have two finals. I'm fairly done in that regard and it's been a busy last two weeks. I've only played poker twice this month and probably not up anything. I've started back coaching with my old coach Parlay Slow, probably going to do PLO. PLO is much more fun and interesting imo and I haven't played NLHE in quite some time. I also just finished my 6th video with terp and am glad to be wrapping that up soon. Video series are long and meh overall. I am proud of the content we put out but am not really happy with the strict schedule we're on to do so (and having a person as lazy as me isn't great).

I recently took up rock climbing. It's something that I enjoyed doing when I was younger. I decided to try it out last week and god, I realized I'm not 130 pounds anymore. Big fatboy has gained some weight since that time and cannot fly up there like he used to. I'm hoping that my body can get used to the strain and I can build my back/arm/finger muscles quickly. I asked for some climbing shoes over break as well as some forearm clasps to work out with so hopefully that'll be fine. I want to get in tune with some of these strange skills that I'll (hopefully) be using when traveling. Scuba diving is next on the list and that should be fun as well. I'm hoping that by the time I get to go to Asia (hopefully Thailand in the summer), I'll be well acquanted with these things.

So I fucking hate spanish. It's such a retarded fucking language. I actually hate all languages to be honest, mainly because I suck ass at them. This spanish class I'm taking now is horrible and I have to do all these idiotic exercises. I fucking HATE it ughhh...thank god it only lasts until Feb. Sucks dick that it impedes on my winter vacation though.

I'm going to Miami. I booked the flight/hotel/tickets for the game already. I can't remember the total but it's like $800 for tix/$270 for plane/$250 for hotel. So probably closer to like...$1500 w/ everything. I'm leaving on Jan 6-9th so that should be a good time (or a horrid time) depending on the result. I'm going w/ dbc.

Christmas is coming up. I don't really know what to get for my siblings so I just get them gift cards. I know its impersonal but I doubt my sister really wants me to pick out a shirt or jeans for her. My taste in clothing is awful and I think she thinks the same. Meh, whatever. I asked for a football (since mine got stolen), some rock climbing shoes and a clamp, and a few dvds.

Gotta think of other ideas for winter break. flirting with the idea of going skiing, as i have for the past few years. obviously going to miami, should be fun. i was going to the PCA but miami sortve got in the way of that so whatever. regardless, should be a fun break.

Miamiiiiiiiiiiii

UF beat bama on saturday, really a fantastic game. the line was -10 UF and i bet $200 on it (as well as a bunchve small retarded bets with other friends). i was pretty confident with my bet even with percy harvin being out.

UF scored first. we marched down the field decently enough, tebow had some pretty bad throws. i was confident that we could move the ball against their D. i'm happy with the way our offensive coord planned for this game as well, ie. not doing idiotic shit like running it up the middle to fat terrance cody (almost 400 pounds of a black woman). i think we could have thrown a bit more but UM's offense is typically based on running first, with lots of misdirection/zone read/option/motion play (and the throws typically being play action).

Urban Meyer's offensive philosophy/scheme is detailed here. the guy does a much better job of explaining it than i do.

regardless, UF scored 7, bama came firing back. tbh, i was very surprised with how well their corners played against our WRs. while harvin WAS out, they played very aggressively and blanketed UF WR decently. they scored off like 2 plays with julio jones (future NFL wr one day, kid is a stud) and coffee (we had trouble with him all day long).

some of the key matchups of this game that won UF this game:

-battle of the trenches- bama had an edge off both lines i think, maybe neutral on their DL vs. our OL. i think the 4th quarter displayed pretty nicely how UF wore them down. cody wasnt much of a factor and UF OL was able to create some nice holes both up the middle (occassionally) as well as on the edges.

-getting at JPW- he isn't a good QB. he's a 'game manager'. while he doesn't explicitly hurt his team (ie. reggie ball), he still is pretty bad, especially under pressure. Bama had one of the best OLs in the nation, A. smith and Caldwell destroy DLines. Smith is definitely 1st or 2nd in terms of LTs in the nation, perhaps behind or slightly ahead of michael Oher from miss. regardless, UF did well today and i was happy with how some of our blitzes got to JPW. while UF missed a few tackles and WERE owned in the trenches on a few plays, i'm happy with the pressure we presented JPW.

-controlling both the rush and the clock- UF controlled the clock and won the TOP battle (32 min) as well as outrushed them (142 to 136). while neither number is huge, i'm very happy with containing ingram/coffee to 136 yards. bama's offense is a very good one when countering teams like UF/OU. their entire philosophy is based around a few elements- ball control, field position, and not really making mistakes. (meaning turnovers). all week long we heard 'blue collar bama vs. flashy UF'. UF has a very underrated OL and are imo, one of the best in the nation.

it really looked like in the third quarter we were going to lose this game. they held UF to like 50 yards or somethign ridic like that, controlled the clock and did long consistent drives. basically, we were playing into their favor. i was real proud and happy with the way UF responded in the 4th. UF finished like 7-13 on 3rd down conversions, which was huge. obviously you aren't going to get a ton of opportunities against a team like clock eating bama, so every drive counts.

-another huge key in this game was UF backups- carl moore, DAVID NELSON, riley cooper all came up huge in this game (all are UF wrs). while all have had touches this season, they have typically been in the shadows of murphy (who had a good game), harvin (obviously), and deonte thompson (who did not play for whatever reason). emmanuel moody also did well. i'm surprised we didn't use him earlier in the game, though his physical running style may have been better in the end against a tired bama DL.

i was also happy with jeff demps. he's going to be great in the future. chris rainey had one touch i think, if that. demps played great, blocked well, had a few nice runs.

props to the entire team. cbs played lights out, aside from letting up the big one to julio. a few blown tackles as well, a few terrible angles, but meh. for the most part, they played great. barring some sick sick sick circumstances, UF will be going to the NC game to play OU, which is going to be huge. pretty sure i'm going to miami with dbc on january 8th.

anyways, all my winter break plans were dependent on the outcome of UF. PCA is prob on hold for this year, despite it being pretty fun. i might hit up vegas in december or so for a few days with shpanko/flancrest/terp/goofy so we'll see. i think a vegas trip + FL trip would be decent enough so meh. we'll see. finals coming up, papers coming up, sucks my ass.

FUCK SCHOOL

I just started my queer ass spanish course. god i hate languages.

I have a billion papers due. Many tests coming up. Fuck my life.

Oh well, tune in and watch UF play Bama on Saturday at 4 p.m.

No more updates for a few more days, ughhh school sucks my ass.

Planet of the apes part 2

Not nearly as bad as my last casino outing. Tonight I went to the Horseshoe tonight with my friend. There weren't a ton of games running, the 2/5 game was super filled. I decided to stake my friend for $200 at the 1/3 ($200 max). I had alot of time to kill so I played 4/8 PLO8 fixed limit. I guess I could have played 1/3NL if I wanted but that's lame. I wanted to play a new game and see how it was. I wish that the casino spread PLO high but they don't do so, which sucks.

Anyways, the 4/8 game was soft, as expected. I wasn't really playing for the money, just to enjoy myself. If I wanted to grind it out I'd just go play online. There was nary a raise preflop, ever. Everyone limped every hand, chased every retarded draw. The game was very very soft. I played fairly tight and I guess I overvalued my hand on the river with AA5T on an 2KT74 board by ...betting the river? (according to an old black woman). "We tried to check it to you" she said as she c/r-ed the river with A6KT or something like that. I eventually did lose the hand to the A3 but god damn those people are passive.

Anyways, I play some hands, get paid. Win like $80 or something and then go over to the 2/5 game. The game is pretty soft, though there is a colossus with huge ass stacks.

I was fairly card dead for a while. I opened JJ early, got like 5 callers. Flop TT4r all checked to me, I bet $70 into $130, sb (nutter guy with few reads) makes it $170, I fold (still unsure about this one). He seems like he might've been the type to go apeshit with A4 on this type of board (or 88), so I dunno.

I just won a few smallish pots. Some retard old guy limps AK then goes apeshit in a 7 way pot on A53 board and loses to A5. I played a few hands later where I opened 93cc and he calls, flop 9KTcc, I bet, he calls. Turn 7c, I bet he calls, river Ax I bet and he folds.

I didn't really get any big hands. I watched some hilarious ones though. this one ape goes crazy with 95 on 99Jss board after calling a pfr with it and beats KQ after the board comes 99JT5. the very next hand after, he has J9ss, raises pf. A bunch call him.

Flop J 9 7ss. He bets $100 into $130, guy behind him calls $100, MP makes it $200, He makes it $400 (with J9), guy folds behind, MP just jams with 8T (obviously) and he calls. BOOM $2.4k pot. (MP holds).

There was a crazy azn lag who sucked complete dick. Guy looked to be about 5'5 and a crazy ape. I heard he owned a buffet in Kearny, NE. Anyways, he sat and everyone licked their lips, saying he was totally nuts. True to their words, money started flying. The azn ape called a PFR in position, then raise/called the A52 flop with QQ (and lost to 55). He also raised almost every flop (folding on many when someone was aggressive back to him).

For instance, tight MP opens, LP calls, AZN LAG calls SB. flop 223r, AZN checks, MP bets, LP calls, AZN raises to $150 or something, MP folds, LP SHOVES?! and Azn folds? Just retarded shit going down.

I didn't have any hands. I won a semi interesting hand tonight actually. Looser regular limps, I limp A6ss in MP, a few others limp as well.

Flop: 6 5 2r, Loose reg checks, I bet, all fold and Loose reg calls.

Turn: Ks (putting two spades on board, giving me FD), Loose reg donks $50, I call $50.

River: Jx he bets $50 again. I think the majority of his range was stuff like 77/88 blocking. I raised to $200 and he folds.

Anyways, I lose a few small, medium pots. Meh. My stakee lost $150 of his $200 so meh. Overall I netted something idiotic like $100 on the day, meh. Carddead as fuck, I guess I'll take it.

CFB/DC/etc

College football is ending and the bowl spectrum is starting to develop. UF has been playing lights out and quite arguably the best team in CFB. OU put on quite a show as well with their smashing of TTU on saturday. I think OU will jump UT in the BCS bowl and control their own destiny. The BCS is a clear clusterfuck though and there will be quite a few decent teams left out of it (most notably, USCw if OSUw wins next week). UF controls their own destiny as well, though we'll see quite a clusterfuck if Alabama loses next week at Auburn. UF won't have as credible of a schedule if Bama is lower ranked (with or without that credability) and might not go if Bama isn't ranked high enough. Tommy T has also won 6 straight vs. Bama so I'm not quite sure what to think.

PSU is going to the rose bowl. OSUw turns out to be quite a decent team (I laughed my ass off when they lost to Stanford this year, then cried with joy when USCw lost to them) and if they beat Oregon next week, they'll go as well. This will probably shut USCw out of a BCS bowl game, as the B12 and SEC will each draw two teams. That should be pretty damn rich, and even though USC would probably be favored against near anyone in the nation on a neutral field, they still won't get into the NC game, much less a BCS game (if OSU wins out).

Bama or UF will probably go to the Sugar bowl, the winner to the NC game. Hopefully it's UF. I'm not really pleased with all the media hype for UF. Too much of it makes teams soft, and you can see the repercussions in 2006 tOSU and many many others. The press was the fuel for UF's fire in the 2006 NC game, as they had people doubting them for 50 days or whatever it was. UF was probably overhyped in 2007 against UM as well. God that game blew a fat nut.

Anyways, I think if UF continues to play like they have these past 7 games, they'll be in great position to contend for the NC game. They matchup differently against Bama and I'll probably write a bit more as the game eeks up closer. Ahhh I love college football. Sucks ass that it's coming to a close soon. I guess I can look forward to March Madness...meh. UF basketball, I don't really have any idea how they'll be. I didn't like how Speights went to the NBA (surprisingly drafted high) and Jai Lucas transferred. Very strange. Regardless, I'm sure I'll be getting more into UF bball once the football season ends.

Football has been swingy. As in the last post, I've been getting used to the swings more. Now I just have to stop wasting $ on tourneys. I probably dumped $400 tonight on retardo tourneys, namely the $30 rebuy for a PCA package (I'm still undecided on if I'll go or not). Our video (terp and me) just came out today and it is the third in the series. We focused mainly on double barreling the turn, mainly for value. We plan on doing next episode on bluffing the turn both in terms of pure bluffs and semi bluffs. We have decent ideas for the next few episodes, percieved ranges, etc. Should finish the month at 10 or so, maybe a bit more. I haven't played a ton and have to get like 6 pages done tomorrow on my paper.

Desensitized

As I start playing more 2/4 full time, I've realized a few things. Just like any other limit, I must learn to become desensitized to the money. I need to 'learn' that 2k-3k-4k-etc isn't really that much compared to the stakes I play. 4-5 buyins isn't a ton either, and I should be expected to win or lose that much every time I sit. Even more so in a game like PLO, where you can swing 4-5 buyins within a matter of minutes (you can do the same in NLHE it just isn't as frequent). I've been playing fairly poorly the last few days. There have been situations where I tell myself "fuck it, just take my $150 or whatever, I want to see what you have"...I know I'm beat in alot of these situations but I can't help myself. I just want to see their cards! Frustrating.

And this usually happens when I'm on tilt (obv). I used to tilt more psychotically, shoving AI pf in NLHE. In PLO that would be pretty disastrous and now my form of tilt is resolved in calling alot lighter, 'hoping to get lucky'. Pretty bad either way and its something I need to fix.

Thankfully I keep a decent amount online compared to the stakes I play. I think a larger roll is good for lessening these blows.

I'd like to talk about other topics but don't have a ton of time these days. I have a myriad of 10 page papers I have to write within the coming weeks. School sucks ass. I still haven't figured out where to go for winter break so any suggestions, let me know. Maybe vegas. I am going to go to UF's bowl game though so that should be nice.

Fuck poker...just gotta get used to the swings. shit happens.

School is a bitch

School has been hell lately. I've been very busy working on various papers, projects, exams. Can't wait to be done with this semester. Unfortunately I have to work on my spanish over winter break, that's going to suck a fat one. I suck ass at spanish and despise all foreign language (not to say that I hate foreigners, just that I have a very difficult time with it).

Poker has been going well. I've been running decently. Been playing primarily 2/4 PLO with some 2/4 NLHE mixed in. terp and I finally launched our series and it's getting mixed responses, some bad but mostly good. I like the material we are presenting and I think that people could really get some information from it. We have done 2 episodes and the series is planned for 8. We don't have the ENTIRE thing mapped out but have a good idea in the direction of the series. (BTW, if you have any comments on it in regards to what you like/dont like/what I can do to improve it, leave a comment here or pm me on 2p2/email/etc).

I've been getting a few new students as well. As far as getting coaching myself, I've been shopping around a bit. I've had many many coaches in my time as a player and highly advocate it- its a fantastic way to improve. I've had xorbie, Parlay Slow, Bobbofittos, soah as official coaches, as well as talking extensively with many other very good players. Coaching is only worth it if you play alot though and I unfortunately have not had a ton of time to do so (or desire). So perhaps I'll wait until winter break to start with somebody.

I've been trying to get back into shape and have been hitting the gym recently. I haven't done a ton of lifting but I've done decently cardio wise. Diet has still been fairly bad, lots of carbs, not enough fruits and veggies, typical. Still probably hanging around 183 or so would be my guess, fluctuating 5 pounds either way. One day this metabolism of mine is going to end and I'll start packing on some major poundage. Ugh...

tired as fuck

Just got back from Manhattan, KS with a road trip with some friends. Was a fun time, went out and then saw KSU get curb stomped by Nebraska. Hilarious.

x-posted from life forum:

roomie starts drinking at 3pm, right when we leave (on the way there). we are there to go meet up with my other roomie's friends (that he lived with in spain while he was abroad). regardless, roomie (drinking one) was super drunk but eh, 7-8 or so.

we go out to the bars a few hours after we get there. my roomie is still blasted because he kept drinking through dinner/pregamed. this big titted waitress was walking around with some shot mixtures screaming "DOES ANYBODY WANT A BLOWJOB?"

my roomie walks over and says "yeah i do, how much?" (he said it sounded like the best idea of his life).

"$4"

"HELL YEAH! lets go!" (he motions to her)

"what do you mean? It's a shot!" (He is so hammered by this time he just stares at her idly)

"What the ****?! I want a blowjob. you said you're giving a blowjob so why don't you get on your hands and knees and get down to business?!"

"what the hell is your problem? that is out of line!"

"well go **** yourself then"

(she motions to the bouncer, we get kicked out). great.

Go to another bar. roomie is still super hammered. we are all just chiillin in a booth. he passes out in the corner of the booth. a little while later, i look over and i see him holding his hand, with saliva and chunks eeking out. i jump the **** back and watch him vomit all over his clothes and booth. everyone starts to slowly back away from the table as the chunks fly off and onto the ground. the bouncer gets up and grabs him, ushering him outside. roomie pukes all over the ground there as well. we walk back and go watch KSU get raped by Nebraska the day after, drink more/etc.

i split an extra large 18inch pizza with a friend (yes i'm fat), later go and afterhours at chick's house, then i decide to go eat a big chicken fried steak meal at IHOP. i'd say iconsumed closer to 4000 calories within that 12 hour span.

then we get the bright idea to drive back home without sleeping. only a 2.5 hour journey i suppose.

some pictures:













































































was a fun time.

in other news, UF raped USCe. They were a solid team, I'm quite pleased. UF is looking very good these days. We have The Citadel, FSU, then Alabama. I'm not too pleased with the media koolaid that everyone is feeding UF. While UF is a great team, there still is not enough DT production up the middle. I expect them to be great by next season (just out of having another year of growth). Lines are routinely the hardest positions for underclassmen to start in simply due to size and technique. I think that Bama has fantastic production from both their OL and DLs. UF is a ton more flashy with its skill positions (with the exception of Coffee or Arenas) but I think Bama has the advantage in their lines, which is huge. We'll see how this goes in the next few weeks...

Shit hits the fan...

Bush passed it. I'm fucked. We don't quite understand how these new regulations will affect us (or how banks will interpret it).

The rules can be found here:

I don't really know how this will affect everything. This reminds me alot of 2006, when party poker closed and other poker markets shunned away from the U.S. Everyone was in hysteria. While the games are nowhere near as good as they once were (before a current 50NL regular could probably have beaten 2/4), they are still very much alive, at least at the small and midstakes games (obviously drier as you move up). I think the new regulations will affect deposit methods, limiting the opportunities of fish.

I don't know what the games or the government will look like in a year. I do know that I'll be done with school and most likely out of the U.S., traveling around Europe or Asia. I'm sure many other poker players will as well. Sucks ass...

Poker has been swingy. I'm probably at +6k right now. I've probably played about 11 hours, which is decent considering the amount of work I've had to do. School has been a major bitch and I have 3 10page papers, a presentation on an article, and a few tests coming within the next 2-3 weeks. Ughhh...

Anyways, hope everyone is doing well. Play hard, relish the year here, make a mil, travel, etc.

UIGEA

Fuck Bush and the fucking administration...they are trying to ban/outlaw internet gambling (or poker). The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is a big fucking joke and snuck in last minute. If they pass this law I'm going to be bitter as fuck. It'll be like Partypoker two years earlier when everyone thought the sky was falling.

I need all poker players to fill out this:

THIS HERE

and copy/paste this:

My argument against these regulations and this legislation is simple. To burden financial institutions with this type of enforcement during a time of financial crisis is not only foolhardy, but potentially economically dangerous. Banks and other affected financial institutions should be devoting resources to ensuring their financial stability, not enforcing regulations that are not only questionably but unconstitutional but most certainly are morally intrusive. What people desire to do on their own time with their own money is not the government's business, especially at a time when there are so many more pressing issues to be addressed. I implore you to weigh the issues here and table these regulations until the new administration has had a chance to explore not only their potential impact but their outright propriety as well.

into the comments box. If you enjoy any extra money or extra freedom that poker brings you, fill it out. It takes two seconds. TWO SECONDS.

Anyways, poker has been going well. I've been playing alot more 2/4 PLO lately, swings are pretty nutso. Also split action and FT-ed a retardo donkament for 2.5k the other night (lost AA to KK). Should be an okay month.

Anyways, fill out that sheet. If those rules apply, not sure what I'll do. Head back to homeland China or something.

3 down...

So as I said last time, we have a mouse problem. We bought all these different traps/poison/etc.

This was the result:


The first picture (not sure if you can see well enough) displays a severed head of this mouse. Thing was split in two and its neck was crushed.

The other one was still alive, as its back leg/tail were caught on the trap. It squirmed and squealed loudly and we had to execute it manually by smacking it with a pole/stomping on it. (Maybe I have a few screws up in my head loose).

My friend also caught one earlier that morning in a trap and it was dead. So that's three mice down with probably a million more to go. The source is this large field next to our house and the mice are all fleeing inside as the weather gets colder and colder. Luckily we haven't heard or seen any in a day so that's good.

College football has been fun. UF has been rolling. But more importantly today is that PSU lost. Nobody ever wanted to see a big 10 champion in the championship this year- they simply are not the best team (or deserve to be there). Had they won out, they probably 'deserved' to go moreso than UF/OU/UT/etc etc etc (simply because they took care of business, something the mentioned did not do). Regardless, I would take many teams over PSU in a head to head neutral matchup.

It looks that the mNC game is headed to be a Big 12 vs. SEC matchup. I think the B12 is a better conference this year. The SEC was pretty overrated in general (especially at the beginning of the year). I do think that it is very close though (with the SEC having a better medium and perhaps bottom) while the B12 having a clear advantage at the top. With TTU smashing OSU tonight, it really is impressive what they've done. They've clearly turned it around and are NOT the same team that narrowly escaped defeat against Nebraska. I think their DL is playing much better than previous and everything seems to be clicking.

UF controls its destiny from here on out (barring some unusual circumstances). I think that a b12 champ/UF would be great. I'm not terribly concerned about Bama, I think we match up pretty well against them. The team that is the scariest to me is TTu at this point, at least schematically. I think UF matches up better against a heavy running team (re-Bama). I'd say that while TTu is generally fairly one dimensional (passing), their running game is not bad at all. Given that UF's pass rush is pretty piss poor and Harrell's OL is massive, I don't really see them getting at him quickly enough.

I think that UT/OU would be fine, I wouldn't be too scared. OU's offense would be troubling but their D hasn't really shown a ton this season (and they've only beaten one T25 team this season in TCU). I think losing Reynolds at the UT game really hurt them.

I haven't talked about poker in a while. I've been doing solid. I finished last month at maybe 7-8k,maybe a bit more or less. My PT2 broke a while back. This month I started strong, up about 4k I'd say but I lost some yesterday. Total would be ballpark around 3k maybe, give or take?

Meh, I'll get my PT stats sometime when I get HEM and request some hands. Cheers.

Extermination

So our apartments are really fucking ghetto. It's also getting quite chilly in Nebraska and the insects are dieing, other animals ducking for cover. This includes fucking mice. I was sitting at my computer today, minding my own business. I saw movement flow through my peripheral vision and dismissed it, thinking little of it. I saw a black cloud streak moments after and I knew that this little shit was real. At first I thought it was a large spider, in which case I would have shat myself. I saw it scatter across the room and out the door and realized it was a mouse.

Isn't he cute?

Wrong...this little black piece of shit is about to meet his maker. We went a bit apeshit and bought a bunch of traps/poison.
etc...we have a ton of these all around the house. We've all said that we are going to confirm the kill if we hear a 'SNAP' in the middle of the night.

It won't do me much justice if I never hear this mouse again. I want justice. Justice for invading my territory. Bastard...

Well...

We fucking lost. Lost it all. We lost to a fucking old ass team who's average age is 28. Motherfucker. We lost to some old ass fucking freaks who couldn't run for shit. What in the fuck...

We had execution problems like in the last game. Neither team punted, its just that their offense ate up a ton of clock (and their QB was really tough). He was very fast and had a good arm. We played awfully on defense, every part broke down at least once. Our offense was fine, but we failed to execute on some plays (drops, two interceptions). I think it was the picks that killed us. The other team simply did not make mistakes. I'm pulling a Matt Leinhert here- I thought we were the better team. I think we could have and should have won this game. There is no blame though to anyone- everyone made mistakes and nobody is perfect. I had a disappointing game, only a few catches, no TDs, and a tougher dropped pass that I should've had.

Anyways, this is the end. No more flag football. Nothing more to look forward too. Fuck my life.

Someone also stole my ball during the game, mother fuckers. Going to have to buy a new one. I'm depressed that we lost. Pathetic. Who the fuck loses to 28 year olds? mother FUCKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Flag football and UGA/UF

I came back from Jax this morning. I had a great time. I'll give a breakdown of what happened (pretty quick trip)-

I arrived there in Jax on friday night. Halloween was going on and i didn't do anything. i heard my friends went to some pretty interesting parties to say the least but unfortunately i could not partake.

Met up with dbc/his roomie that night (they picked me up from the airport). We met some incredible UGA fans in our hotel lobby. My god they sounded retarded. I'm pretty sure the average southerner has an IQ of 80 or below. This one retarded georgia fan came up to us and started babbling nonsense. "NOSHHHHAWN GON' RUN ALL OVA YA'LL BOYS! THAAT LIL BOY AJ GREEN AINT NOBADY CAN STOP HEYUM!" We just nodded, avoiding confrontation. He babbled more and I figured it was useless to try and argue with someone who was dumber than the chair he was sitting on.

Anyways we met up with TruFloridaGator (TFG) later on, all drove down to tailgate/chill. The stadium wasn't bad and was within walking distance of our spot. 86,000 was the total count of the stadium which is large for an NFL venue. We sat next to some gator fans who let us partake in their food (crab legs, pork links, corn, and potatoes nonetheless). Then off to the game...

The game (as I'm sure you've heard or seen) was a blowout. Once UGA failed to score in the red zone (missing FGs/TD opportunities), the game was over. UF built a comfortable lead off field position and turnovers. UGA actually outgained UF in total yardage.

I was happy with the team overall. The DTs didn't do fantastic (DL as a whole did well in stopping the run but the pass rush was mediocre). I thought the reffing was meh overall but both sides had a few penalties that were missed. They let them play. I think that UF has looked great the last 4 games and perhaps one of the best/most complete teams in the nation at this point. If it weren't for that retarded Ole Miss slip up, we could have been #1 at this point. Sigh...

Anyways, the remaining schedule looks good. South Carolina, Vandy, The Citadel, FSU are all manageable if we keep focused and play like we have been the last few weeks. Be sure not to fall into any 'trap games' (especially at Vandy, they always play us hard). If we take care of business and make it to Atlanta (and perhaps beat Alabama), we could well be on our way to another NC game (most likely against PSU or a big12 team).

The BCS system is a mess. I won't rant on this particular post about it but it definitely needs to change. There are some great proposals in the Sports Events forum of 2+2 that has some decent (and some idiotic) discussion on revisions of the BCS bowl series. It just pisses me off that while PSU IS deserving to go if they go undefeated, they are probably not the best team (or among the best teams) in the nation. And that just sucks.



Here are some pictures of the UF/UGA game: Here . The one above is a favorite of mine. The UGA fan next to me was sleeping and didn't give a shit. Typical idiotic Dawg.

Anyways, as you loyal readers (all 1 of you) know, I truly enjoy Flag football. I've mapped the progression of our season throughout this blog and we played our first flag football game tonight. (x-posted in SSNL life thread)-

just got back from an incredible flag football game.

first game in the playoffs. we'll have to go through 3-4 more teams. this team was tough. we have yet to face any tough competition in the regular season as our division sucked balls. tonight we got all that and more. we found out we were playing a team that consisted of half marines (****) so they were already in better conditioned than anyone we'd played previously. early scouting showed that their scores were pretty low so we thought they didn't have much of an offense (which was half true).

first play of the drive, we did a screen, i took it about 7 yards, we got the first. our opponents idiotically took defense even though we deferred (thus giving us the ball twice to start). we have alot of easy quick plays and we did 'T' on the next one.

(our plays are- http://unnaturalbitterness.awardspace.com/ )

i got it over the left side and took it to the house, they missed two tackles. up 7-0 early, we thought we were looking good.

they were very athletic. they weren't overly organized but still did enough things to set us off. our offense didn't click other than that one play over the middle until late in the 2nd half. they played very stingy D and we were forced to punt. they did some different things that really screwed us up- their center released every time, forcing us to put a MLB on him (and leaving us with 4 corners, 2 DL, and 1 MLB). in retrospect, i thinkw e should have only rushed one and left the other to guard the flat.

anyways, they drove down the field after some long bombs,blown coverages. we were getting decent pressure but the QB still completed alot of the throws. then we had them- 4th and goal, about 15 yards away. we went after him, almost got to him...then BAM, he bombs it to the back of the endzone. their center (a ****ing giant of a ginger) jumped up, our CB was in perfect position and then...the receiver snatched it from him with his banana hands. 7-7 and we were tied.

the momentum shifted their way. we had it deep in our own territory, having little success. we called the play 'pitch' and our personnel was all ****ed up because our fast guy just arrived. everyone was playing out of their positions (and the new guy didn't know the route). the pitch man decided to throw (an ill fated decision in retrospect) which led to a pick. the momentum had swung away from us. and we were NOT looking good.

we had some big stops in the red zone. we played incredibly tough D and there were a few instances in which we stopped them short of a TD. we got the ball back, same deal, deep in our own terrritory after they failed to convert. we stuck back with our bread and butter- the short routes. 'T', 'Fake T', 'All left' worked great. We threw to our slot who made a shoe string catch (fantastic) and he took it down. He took a slant directly after and we were in the red zone.

my best route is the out. its very easy, very hard to defend if ran right (and you can say that for a ton of routes). my defender was playing outside coverage (which made the out much more difficult). but the play was to run it so i did and narrowly caught it (a second too late and it would have been deflected) and i scored another TD.

we played tough D after that. they had a minute to go and drove down the field (why the **** does this always happen?). i blew coverage playing a deep high safety and the DL couldn't get to the QB fast enough. their insane center caught a deep high ball and they were 5 yards from the goal. they called T.O. and we were forced to hold them.

5 seconds to go. they were 10 yards out. 3rd down. QB rolls right, throws to the back of the endzone and our QB/CB bats it down, we win. our crowd (player's gf and her roomie as well as other friends) all start to cheer as the marines look onward. probably going to go full metal jacket on our asses and blow us to pieces.

so, 14-7. great game. next playoff game is on wed.

Some things we need to work on before then-

-OL issues. Our guys got butchered up front and our QB had little to no time whatsoever. We couldn't form a pocket, we didn't have any idea on the way in which he rolled (not his fault or his plan). We need to be better organized and find ways to defend against both blitzes and heavy pressure (rushing 3+ players).

-Execution issues. We had several dropped balls, both on offense and potential picks. I dropped a ball (a low one but still should've had it). Dumb lack of concentration on my part. We had some coverage issues bad as well.

Coverages- We need to figure out a way to defend against the center branching out and going out. Doing so left us with 4 CBs, 2 DL and 1 MLB. They spread the field wide and found huge pockets in our clusterfucked zone/man/whatever D. Ugh...as I said earlier, I think we should have dropped a guy into coverage and only rushed our fastest guy. Might've worked.

Overall we played okay. Definitely one of the sloppier games this year but as I said, our opponents were tough. We also heard from a friend's team that our future opponent (if we can win) is better than the team we played today, which is scary. Practicing tomorrow though so hopefully we can also figure out some plays.

Off to Jax

Leaving in a few to head to Jax, going to be a blast. This success of this trip pretty much depends on how well UF does, sadly enough. Anyways, saw my adviser again. Changed some things. My revised schedule looks like:

-Hist 288, Urban Disasters. I think this is a research class. Meh. Should be fun.
-History of Jazz- fucking gay, enough said. I just have to take an upper level humanities/arts and this fell in it.
-Short Story- Sounds like a cool English class that should be relatively fun. I enjoy writing.
-Spanish- UGHHHH. I took 3.5 years in HS, I realy should have finished. Dammit, talk about ex demons biting you in the ass.
-Library- required idiotic class.

Anyways, off to leave. Will update more on my schedule later. go game.

Oh, the irony...

Alright so you know how I ended my last post with 'fuck school, have fun'?

Well, my slacking has come back to bite me in the ass. Hard.

For the past 3 years, I've been on track to becoming a teacher. I've always enjoyed teaching, I hoped to become a secondary Ed. teacher. My mother was a teacher and my father is a current professor. Being the eldest of four siblings, I've gone through many teaching processes throughout my life.

Alas, my ignorance has caught up to me. I forgot to apply for the teachers college, something that I was supposed to do months ago. Further my test scores for the PPST (Teachers Test) never got recorded. Perhaps that was the final nail in the coffin for me. I could still pursue a career in secondary education, but it'd result in me taking classes until 2011. Fuck that, I'd rather live down in a dumpster. The classes that I was supposed to take are not offered in the spring and I'd have to wait until 2010 to take those classes. No thanks.

So, I'll be hopefully on my way to a History degree. Thankfully I'm not too far off in the classes that I have taken and I should be graduating next fall with some luck. I am disappointed in the sheer idiocy of my decisions. I can't sit here and dwell on what could have been though, I need to instead look at my options and look to move on. I can take another career path by getting my BA in History and eventually my masters with secondary Ed. It'll be a longer, delayed path but one that could be possible if I want it to.

My first and foremost plan is just to get a degree. Anything after is fair game I suppose. I don't plan on working right out of college (at least if poker is still lucrative, which I suspect it will be). I'd like to travel (Asia would be fantastic). Meh, we'll see what works. I meet with my adviser tomorrow morning (or at least hope) to figure out the rest of my schedule. I also found out I have to take Spanish (I took 3.5 years in HS, .5 years short fuck my life). I fucking hate language and suck at it. Going to try and take it online through community college.

I'm heading to Jacksonville for the FL game this friday. I'm so relieved on the timing of this vacation. It couldn't have come at a better time. This allows me to clear my head and just enjoy (or brutally hate) life, depending on the outcome of the game. Was going to go as :


(Rufio from Hook, some idotic skank gave me that nickname (or was it one of my douche friends? I can't remember) a while back). Meh. Perhaps next year.

Books/Volunteer work

Thought I'd write about some books I've been reading or read recently. I enjoy reading alot and highly recommend people do so. Finding subjects and topics of interest makes it very easy.

Some books I read this last year, this summer, and currently that I enjoyed (or disliked)-

The Lords of Discipline (Pat Conroy)- Pat Conroy is a very different author. He is very vivid in his descriptions and his characters are often very funny. This book chronicled the journey of a cadet in a military academy in South Carolina. The characters in this book are fantastic and this book is my favorite Conroy book. It's a story of hardship and overcoming color boundaries. A bit long but rewarding and enjoyable.

What is the What (David Eggars)- A biography of Achek-Deng, a lost boy from Sudan. This book followed the account of the lost boys, thousands of refugees no older than 15. These boys overcame lions, militants, starvation, extreme heat, and hippos as they journeyed for years across Sudan on foot. Very eye opening for me.

The Road (Cormac McCarthy)- Fantastic post-apoc book. It follows a man and his son as they journey across the ravaged United States. They face rebel problems, food shortages, and weather hardships. I really enjoyed this book. It is written in a strange fashion (as most CM books are) but nonetheless he paints a vivid picture of this bleak future. A movie is coming out soon as well.

Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follet)- A very long book that follows the building of a Cathedral in medeival Europe. I had mixed feelings on this book. The characters are very real and I felt like I really understood all of them. Further the time period (and historical significance) of this era is pretty interesting as well. There were a few aspects about this book that I wasn't thrilled about- there was a semi lack of direction at times. But overall I enjoyed it and thought it described the political and economic constructs during this period well.

Brave New World (Huxley)- Another futuristic book that was spawned from the wild imagination of Huxley (written 50-60 years ago?). I thought that this book was great and showed a very strange future for the world. It shows a very technologically advanced civilization inhabited by 'savages'. A cool short story that is very creative.

Genghis: Birth of an Empire (Conn Iggulden)- I really enjoyed this book (and the sequel, Lords of the Bow). Genghis Khan is a super badass and this historical fiction provides an interesting outlook on Khan and his life. I feel that Khan revolutionized modern warfare with his tactics (almost can be compared to German blitzkrieg hundreds of years later). I thought these books were great.

Blink (Malcom Gladwell)- Interesting psychology book that describes the unconscious movements of our mind. The author explains 'thin-slicing', or how our brain can both react and understand many unknown connections in our lives. For instance, it explained an instance in which an art curator autmotically knew that a statue was fake (despite near perfect replication) based on only a glance. After many tests and controversy the statue was indeed a fraud. This is just one example in which Gladwell explains those 'gut' feelings that we have. Interesting and pretty fun.

Collapse (Jared Diamond)- This book sought to explain the collapses of civilizations world wide and provided a framework (economic, political, enemies, weather) on how these civilizations fell. I thought that the premise of this book was interesting and that there were parts that were fascinating (Easter Island for one). But the bottom line was that this book was written in a dull fashion and was a bit boring. I finished it but it was a bit difficult.

The Blind Side (Michael Lewis)- A very cool book (if you enjoy football) that explains the Left-tackle position and the evolution of the game (following Bill Walsh and the West cost offense and Lawrence Taylor). It also follows Michael Oher, a freak LT prospect growing up in rural mississippi. A great read for any football fan.

Those are some of the books I read last year and over the summer. I'm skipping many of them (Silence of the Lambs, Underboss, The Winner (Baldalcci), Urban's Way, etc etc etc due to being tired. Don't get me wrong, many of these books were good reads, just nothing of tremendous acclaim. I'm currently reading World War Z by Max Brooks, a post apoc zombie book. It's okay, not fantastic. It's written very strangely, with dozens of accounts of the zombies from all facets of life (jobs, locations, etc). It isn't one continuous story so meh. Other books that I recently picked up were "World Without Us', a book that shows us what the world would be like (environmentally, etc) after humans perish. Should be interesting. Also picked up 'The Time Machine and Invisible Man' by H.G. Wells. Not much to say here, just two good short stories by a genius.

I also finally got my volunteer work settled. I'll be doing hours at the Indian Cultural Center. I still have to get a min. 10 hours this semester for my multi-cultural class so blah. This month is going to be a fuckin bitch come to think about it...long research paper in my queer psych class (doing awful in it btw, havent discussed anything), long paper in my China class, project in both my tech class and multicultural class. Ugh.

A nice outlook I have on school (and many aspects of my life) is that 'most of it doesn't matter'. Those people that get super super super stressed over stupid classes or a retarded quiz just don't make much sense to me. In the grand scheme of things, these classes, these As or Bs don't really matter that much. Maybe I have a skewed outlook on life since academics have never really been a high priority but meh. While grades CAN change some aspects of the future (a friend of mine failed Organic Chem 2, therefore denying him entry into vet school)I still am not convinced that putting good grades above all else is the way to go. The underlying outlook that I hold is this- have a balanced life, enjoy youth while you can (friends, social experiences, etc) and don't worry as much about school. I also think about those who are super cheap while in college shouldn't be worrying as much now- that $200 bill is going to mean diddly shit when you're making 150k a year (some of my friends will make this much for sure).

And maybe that school outlook I hold is due to poker. I don't know. Am I fortunate? Yes, very. I'm very very fortunate that I'm able to do this as a semi-professional for good money. I'm given an opportunity that few my age are able to experience. But even without poker I'm fairly sure that I'd still hold this slacker outlook on life. The real world scares me and I don't want to grow up.

So I'm a fucking junior...

Well, after 3.5 years of slacking hardcore my demons have finally come back to bite me in the ass. I found out today I can't register for classes for a few more days and am 2 credits short of being declared a 'senior'. I also was horrified when I looked at my degree audit and discovered how far behind I am. This next semester (the last for many of my friends, not me sadly) I plan on taking-

-Coaching Football
-Psychology (cognitive I think, I can't remember).
-Drawing 101 (I enjoyed drawing quite a bit in high school but haven't done so in quite a while).
-Western Civs (Hist) class, a real joke of a freshman class that I need to fulfill a requirement.
-Nutrition (science of foods), another class I need to fill more requirements.
-English (Short story). I'm a decent writer (at least in terms of fictional accounts) and writing has always been pretty fun for me.
-Basic massage, a friend convinced me to take this with her. Ugh, call me a fag if you want. I told all of my friends that I'd take any free electives they were (I was hoping for more rock climbing, scuba diving, etc). That was also before I discovered how fucked I really am for school but whatever.

I see my adviser this coming week. She'll probably throw a hissy fit when she sees I still haven't applied for the teachers college yet. I'm not even sure when I can do that but whatever. If I'm forced to take 5.5+ years total I'm just going to drop out before then and say fuck the world, move to Thailand and start a black market prostitution syndicate. Go import some ladyboys or something. I'm hoping that this semi-heavy load I'm taking this semester will free some hours up for next year (when I can finally take some of my much desired 'fun' classes). God, I should be a senior...if I had transferred my metro credits for Micro Economics over (a class I took two years ago but never have due to laziness), I'd be declared a senior. Fck my life...

UF plays UGA this week in a pretty gigantic clash. It's not even the biggest game of the week either, with TTU and UT playing (#1 and #6 respectively, depending on what poll you look at). I'm heading down to the game to meet up with some 2+2ers (dbc and his roomie and TruFloridaGator), should be a blast. This is the first UGA/UF game I'll be attending and I'm super pumped. Plan on flying out on friday and just there until sunday morning. I think that the UF/UGA game will be decided in the trenches, as all games are. If UF's DL can perform well I think we have a very good chance of winning. If, however, we don't get pressure on Stafford, it could be a looong day (Green is very good).

We have our flag football playoff game later that day (on Sunday) so should be a busy day. We've had a long break for our flag football team so hopefully our focus is there. Our plays are here:

http://unnaturalbitterness.awardspace.com/

Many of them are hard to understand. Meh. We went 4-0 this season beating relative chumps. I think that practice WAS the deciding factor though in those wins. Although we are a fairly athletic team, we were just so much more organized than the other teams. We might not have beaten the third team on our schedule based on athleticism alone but who knows? Our next opponents look mediocre (after short scouting) so hopefully we can advance onwards. This flag football thing means alot to me and my teammates and I think a loss will be pretty hard on us (for how much we've invested).

While I'm rambling through different topics, I'll highlight on some that I haven't talked about for a while. My diet has been pretty awful lately. Eating out with friends daily and not really eating breakfast (no milk has been the factor for this) has led to just feeling like crap daily. I plan on improving it though (and it will probably improve drastically once footbal season ends). I'm just waiting in horror when the day finally does come when my body cannot sustain these 1 a.m. IHOP meals (that are typically 1500 calories or so) a few times a week. I did gain something like 15 pounds since sophmore year (and that's not really muscle either).

I have improved alot though in terms of endurance (despite it being very poor even today). I don't mind going to the gym and just jogging now instead of just straight lifting (I've been slacking hardcore on lifting, only been twice this semester). Meh, hopefully I'll improve as the year progresses. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to do hardcore running or run a marathon or anything like that. Not because I wouldn't ever want to but because I'm not sure if I'm physically able. I'm almost positive I have planters fasciitis which is an inflammation of the heel. My mom has it and my sister as well. My heel (mainly the arch) goes numb after 2 miles of running (and the lower half of my shin). Sucks.

Poker has been going swell. I'm not up a ton I guess (probably 5k or so, maybe more). Haven't played a tremendous volume but I'm happy with what I've done. I should get iron man this month at FTP which is decent. I also played live once this month (or twice? I can't remember) where I won a 1.3k session at 2/5. Other than that, can't remember. Meh.

googogogogogo gators

Vernacular

Alright so some people are offended from my last blog post. Let me explain some of vernacular that might have been misunderstood. I refer to apes (a name that my good friend terp states frequently) as super donkeys. By no means did it reference the black guy in accordance to his race (although it may have seemed that way). Same with 'monkey'. Both are poker terms I use for extremely bad players. Further I just want to state that while I may joke about race alot (and perhaps may be considered racist in many ways), I bear no true hatred towards other people due to color alone. Come up to me wearing FUBU and chains and I'll dismiss you just as quickly as the next moron, white or black. Black guy comes up to me in a suite and glasses, sure I'll accept you professionally just as quickly as the next guy. I'm not going to go out with a white hood and a cross (LOL like they'd let a fuckin asian in to begin).

Do I make racial stereotypes and jokes? Yes. I think they are funny. And that's just not black jokes either, I'll laugh my ass off at asian/white/jew/mexicans/etc jokes just as well. LOOK AT ME I HAVE A SMALL PENIS YUK YUK! I'M A FUCKIN TERRIBLE DRIVER! (And I really am, there aren't any stereotypes there- another jap in my other class said he's been in 5 car accidents. stereotype? I think not. We are awful). Don't tell me you didn't smirk at those last comments because I know you did.

So, yeah, take it for what it is. Label me a racist, a bigot, a hick, whatever. I'm from fucking nebraska. yadda yadda yadda

black people + poker = LOL

live 2/5 tonight-

i'll preface by saying this- black people are so hilariously bad at poker. Ok maybe not all but the short sample I've had they are. (And I'll be the first to point out any other stereotypes- most of the asians I've played with are super degenerative maniacs and awful).

anyways, 2/5 at the horseshoe tonight, went with 2 friends. i was going to just play 1/3NL and take it easy tonight/donk around but saw a super soft spot in the 2/5 game (and an old poker buddy). this poker buddy of mine is one of the worst players i've ever played with. ever. he would lose $300 in a $20NL cash game. he would cold call an all in with AQ on T93 board. once i saw him sitting at 2/5 I had to sit (not that i'm afraid of 2/5 or something, just changed my agenda).

anyways, i buyin for $500, sit down. first hand i'm in, i fold, retard poker buddy limps 97o and proceeds to go ape**** on K769r board and loses to 85o in a limped pot to another monkey (black guy, more on him later). so booo, can't take any of his money.

anyways, it becomes quickly apparent that the black guy is totally horrible at poker. he's limping 100% of his hands (or calling raises). theres another wigger that looks like a white gorilla that is terrible as well.

anyways, i raise AJo after black guy limps to me from sb. he calls. flop J46r i bet, he calls. turn 5 i bet he calls, river 3, (J4653r) i check and he checks back 34o and i lose.

(and this guy seriously looked like eddie murphy. i'm not just saying that either because he's black. he LITERALLY looked like eddie murphy. imagine this-



staring you down. what a hilarious site.

anyways, i lose a few pots, rebuy for a few hundred more to top off. game is like 5 handed at this point and i'm having a fun time (it was a bit later into the night). overlimping alot of stuff, not really hitting anything.

i raise KK, fat wigger calls, $500 effective. he's shown a propensity to call down light and make poor calls.

flop 8T2 i bet 40 into 60 he calls

(140) J8T2 i bet 100 he instacalls

(340) Kx(KJ8T2) i just shove like 340 or something and he thinks for a bit and folds. i think that maybe betting 150 or 200 mightve been better. meh.

so i build my stack up to like...750 or something like that. black guy opens, i call black 88. flop 8T9 he bets $35, i raise to 110, he calls. turn 5 he bets $75 into me, i make it $275 (with like $250 back) and he thinks forever and chatters it up (saying he has diamonds), eventually calling me. he checks the river dark. river is Q and i check back, asking if he has diamonds? he says "OF COURSE I DO" and flips over Q9o and i win. he goes on megatilt after this and proceeds to raise almost every hand.

he claims he's going to get me and will 'play any two' against me. he rebuys for $500 after busting the rest of his chips with A2 against AJ on Axx board. the immediate hand after he rebuys he calls a RR with Q4 and wins against QQ on KJTA board and freerolls 8 on the river. he starts pumping his fists and yelling like most african americans do when excited.

anyways, i raise AA, he calls. flop KT2r i bet he INSTA makes it $100, i call. (we are like 1200 deep at this point). turn 8x i check and he checks back instantly. river 9x i think about how much i should bet and think to myself...he starts talking to me "man make a decision, bet if you want to! hurry up man! jesus christ". this was literally the most bizarre thing i've ever encountered in a casino...i was thinking for about 30 seconds tops at that point and he started freaking out. as i'm thinking, he says "just check man just check, ima show you my hand" and proceeds to FLIP OVER K6o slowly. I say 'what the ****', shrug my shoulders and bet $120 into like $220. he starts spazzing out and eventually calls a clock on himself because folding is so damn difficult here, which he eventually does. he berates me nonstop after.

also of note at this point i forgot to mention there was an vacant stack next to me filled with a graveyard of broken $1 white chips. eventually the guy made it back and there i encountered one of the most insane people i've seen yet. he stood about 5'7 or so and was incredibly strong looking. he was young and smelled like complete ass, reminded me of some crazy loony with retard strength. he said he just got done playing bacarat and said poker was '****ing gay'.

anyways, he played hands in a terrible fashion and was pretty horrible. its no wonder he lost in poker, he was limp/calling with J3. anyways, after i played the AA hand with the ape, i got AA directly after. the retard opened, i reraised and he calls. flop KQx he c/c. turn 3x he checks, i just shove him in (like $200 into like $300 pot) and he asks if i'll show. i say no and he eventually folds after a long deliberation, showing AK. he asked if i could beat it and i said "damn man, we were chopping". he proceeded to slam the table with his fist and snap one of his white chips, chucking it against the felt.

at this point, i'm being berated by the black guy and stared down and cursed at by the angry retard. still, i was making decent money and decided to stay. another old guy (chief chipowa by the looks of it) sat down. he could barely read the board and was super insane, limp/calling with 72o and 73o. he open potted the river against me on a TT5TT board and i called with K7, the winning hand.

anyways, i am card dead for a while, black guy goes into super tilt mode and starts opening $45 a hand. old fart and retard boy are happy to oblige him while me and the guy next to me were just sitting back for the most part. retard boy leaves after breaking a few more whites and babbles about how he lost $15k this week.

anyways, we are like 5 handed, i open 54 after a limper, btn calls, sb calls, black guy in the bb makes it $50. i call and so does everyone else, so we are like $700 deep (btn had like $1k) with about $200 in the pot already going to the flop.

flop- 367
sb (old indian) donks $50, black bb calls $50, i make it $300, btn tanks forever and folds (later saying he had 9T), sb folds, black bb jams with 85o and i hold.

game breaks shortly after as we were only 3 handed after that. hilarious night.

cliff notes- black people suck at poker. they are only good at sports. just kidding.

Hilarity

Tonight we went out on the town for Preston's 22nd birthday. Met at HuHot (nasty ass azn food that gives you diarrhea) and then went to go see a shitty movie (Lakeview Terrace). We used to enjoy going to shitty movies for comedy (we have lots of free time). The movies premise was hilarious- a highly racist cop in L.A. who despised seeing his neighbors (a white man/black woman) together. He does everything in his power to break them up and make them move. The writing and the sequence of actions are so ludacris that any creditability (whatever small amount it might've had) was lost. The movie was so long and boring (until the end) that I couldn't even find humor in this atrocity. Should've seen that shitty movie QUARENTINE instead.

Anyways, went to the bars after. First did a few boots at Huber Haus (German pub) and then headed to Mics for karaoke. Everything was going fine, nice and chill. My friends are not the easiest going group though and we all like to spaz out frequently (especially when alcohol is in the equation). People sang, we got a few pitchers, everything was nice and meledy. John and Seth drunkingly ran up to the stage and dry humped a large black lady (who loved it).

A douche walked up to the stage a little while later. He was accompanied by two women. The guy started singing his song, eventually waltzing over to his seat. Seth beligerantly started screaming "GO UP TO THE STAGE" and pointing at him. The two women he was with turned around and stood up, pointing fingers at us-

"If you all shutup for the rest of the night and stop screaming I'll buy you all shots."
(John pants his arms up and down like an eagle and says "EVERYBODY QUIET"...nobody really responds to this woman)

The lady continues to bitch. Seth finally has enough and stares at her, saying "Well quite frankly you're a cold hearted cunt."

(ensue chick going totally ballistic)

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY? YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO FUCKING SAY THAT! THAT WAS TOTALLY UNCALLED FOR!"

"Yeah, you're a dumb bitch, a cold hearted cunt. I meant every word I said."

(She storms off in a fit of rage, screaming and pointing at us). Seth shrugs his shoulders and we all hold our heads down while holding in laughter.

Seth earlier put in a song to sing for karaoke- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jItz-uNjoZA

When his name was called, he jumped up there and started slobbering the words in a drunken madness. Everyone in the karaoke bar just stared at him, some crying out in disgust. One particular fellow shook his head and claimed he had two little girls at home. After the song concluded people shouted "YoU FUCKING PEDOPHILE! YOU LIKE LITTLE GIRLS?!"

Seth raised his arms in jubliation and screamed "YES I DO I'M GOING TO GO TO JAIL TO GET BUTTRAPED!" People continued to cuss him out. We continued to laugh.

Funny ass night. I'm a prick. And so are my friends. LOL

4-0

We are 4-0 going into the playoffs for Flag football. We destroyed the last team 38-0, they never had a shot. Funny too because they thought they were the shit due to being undefeated (and beating the previous retards). Our team played pretty well, though we had a few unsportsmanlike penalties (one on me because I kicked a cone after running out of bounds on a route then dropping it after I was out of bounds). Still, we finished well and played tough D with a pretty well rounded offense. John (our MLB) had two pick sixes and was called 'Brian Urlacher' by the end. We have about two weeks until our play off game and need to stay focused/continue to practice. I think we should work a bit more on a running game (reverses/more option plays) in case of the cold weather that is soon to come.

I've been playing a decent amount of poker lately. I still don't have 10k hands but probably getting somewhat close (I would guess). My PT2 broke a while back and I don't have any of those hands saved. Probably haven't won a ton, I would guess probably like 2k in like...6k hands of mostly 1/2NL. I want to just get back on the horse though and looking for a modest month (5k+ would be nice). Paltry to former months but meh. NLHE has been nice and relatively easy, I haven't been tilting as much. I've probably played 3/4ths PLO though.

I filmed the first segment of my series with terp two days ago. It didn't go that great (at least on my part IMO), though terp carried me and did a great job. I stumbled alot and was relatively unorganized. I hope that I'll be better prepared for the second video.

Anyways, UF crushed LSU last saturday, we fixed alot of things. Didn't do stupid 5-wides, OL played alot better and were split wider (to open more running lanes), TT had time to throw and move around. Was really happy overall, defense played great. If we continue to play like this the rest of the year I think we have a real shot at heading to the SEC championship.

Updates

So our flag football team is 3-0, last game no thanks to me. I played fucking awful, dropping balls like it was my job and even worse, missing tackles (or grabbing flags). Pathetic performance. Our next game is on monday though and I swear to up my performance before then. I've already decided that from here on out I run 4 gassers for every pass dropped/every tackle missed. My play makes me want to puke and frankly, I felt like shit after the game. I suppose the victory was a good one as this team was the best we've played yet (we won 32-14). Embarressing performance though.

UF had a disturbing performance against Arky. This week should be really quite excellent though against LSU. They had a bye week which should give them some extra preparation/extra time to rest and heal against us. I think the line is UF -6 but I'm not positive.

UF OL vs. LSU DL - Not really a fantastic matchup. LSU's DL, perhaps not as talented as last years is still extremely deep. They can rotate 6-8 guys, many of whom would be full time starters at any other school. T Jackson and R Jean Francois are both very very good players. Add that to the fact that UF's OL has had serious miscommunication problems as well as injuries spells trouble. Tartt (UF's best OL is hurt). Thankfully Carl Johnson has filled his spot and played well. UF OL played much better in the second half of the Arky game. But we will not be able to get a great push against LSU's DL this game. We cannot run into the heart of their D as Mullen has the past few games. We MUST throw. Demps, Rainey and Moore, while all very fast, cannot move through the tackles against this DL.

UF WR vs. LSU secondary- LSU is definitely missing some pieces from last year's team. Their CBs last year were very experienced and very good. Many of LSU's secondary this year is suspect and it is essential that UF throws the ball more this game. UF must create a pocket/give Tim time to throw in order to succeed in this game.

UF DL/LB vs. LSU OL/RB- UF's DE's are fantastic. Trattou/Dunlap/Cunningham are all great. They are very fast, not as fast as Harvey/Moss but still very good (and the potential is there). UF's DTs on the other hand are pretty pitiful. They are all undersized and provide little to no push. Lawrence Marsh has been playing fantastic and Terron Sanders is good against the run. Patchan has a great motor as well. But there are still problems that we saw last season, little push. Highly touted John Brown, Torrey Davis, and Omar Hunter, while playing minimally, haven't made huge impacts. LSU's OL is gigantic. I think we lose this battle as well, minimally. UF LBs are average. Spikes is very very good, and the others are solid as well. They don't play fantastic as a unit but are still good. I think if we can contain Charles Scott (230 pound fatass RB) who runs people over, we have a solid chance.

Games are won and lost in the trenches. Cliche, but it's true. There are many other factors in this game that will make it a great one. Special teams are fantastic for both teams, coaching decisions (by the mad hatter) never fail to disappoint in the comedy factor (despite him having one of the best SEC records the past 3 seasons). I'm sure there will be some great runbacks, fake punts, etc. in this game. It'll be interesting to see how the UF offense adjusts after slight setbacks the previous two weeks.

Poker has been going fine. I'm determined to get back on the grind. I've logged 3k PLO hands this month (which is about 7 hours). I've won in NLHE as well, though my PT2 is busto for some reason. I've made large strides in this series that terp and I have been doing and we should start filming this week. It is a ton of work though so we'll see.

School has been going meh. Haven't really been doing my work, need to read/etc more and not be such a pile. I failed this self defense class due to being late on one class period (late = auto fail) so blah. Seeing as I'm doing five years, I'm going to be super slacking next semester, going to take a ton of fun easy classes (mountain climbing, pottery, painting, cooking if they offer, martial arts, etc). Sort've sucks that all my friends are leaving this year.

Watch UF/LSU 8pm EST on CBS. UT/OU is going to be on as well, same with PSU/Wisky. Should be fun games all around. Cheers.