Ramblings

orange87.com

2009-09-16T17:51:00.002-05:00

hey guys, moving my blog over to my site, www.orange87.com

the main reason behind the move was content ownership. im not quite sure who owns the content posted on this site (not that i've posted anything ground breaking anyways). but if i were to ever post an article or w/e, i'd want definite ownership.

in any event, www.orange87.com, cya guys there.

mmm

2009-09-12T02:29:00.002-05:00

school has been sucking some major dick lately...got like a ~20% on my test in wines class, took it cold. its worth 25% of my grade, which sucks even harder...i'm going to have to hit the books for the rest of this class...really wonder why i always do this shit to myself.

cfb is in full swing...really excited for this season. there are plenty of great games each week, UF is rolling, flag football is just about to start (updates to come), NFL season about to start as well (pumped, but not as pumped as cfb obv).

sortve disappointed with my poker this month. ive been playing alot more than previous months and probably not up all that much. still a while to go though, and i think i can finish strong. ive been planning on playing a few more tourneys than before as well, hope i can put myself in a good situation by playing some of those.

hopefully i pass all my fucking classes...i dont want to be here in the spring. if all does look good (and i think i can graduate), i'll have to think about where i'm going to go post-graduation...probably travel somewhere, not sure where though. europe, middle east, asia...who knows.

as i stated before, ive been playing alot of the deep stacked plo games on ftp lately. i'm really disappointed with my play as of the last few days...just not playing well at all. one thing i've struggled with in my poker career is discipline- i know consciously when i'm supposed to c/f or just give up, but instead i make terrible shoves. it's illogical and really quite terrible, and i know this. there are just so many situations where i'm like 'hmm i know this is a b/f or c/f but i ll just ship it anyways fuck him'...and that's not the right mindset. i've just been giving my money away in those situations (which oftentimes lead to crazy huge red lines and terrible blue lines, go figure).

anyways, just wanted to end the rant. our first flag game is this tuesday at night, i'm pumped as hell.

go gators

fat freaks

2009-09-08T02:16:00.001-05:00

IHOP tr-

ive been to IHOP hundreds of times. tonight started the same, a friend and i sat in a booth, eating, minding our own business. we saw a SUPER ****ing fatass chick and a hick guy walk in a few minutes prior (probably thought the same thing- 'holy christ that woman is huge, do you really need more IHOP?') but said nothing.

so we're just sitting here, minding our own business, shooting the **** like normal. then the whale speaks (she is sitting in the booth behind ours)-

"hey...do you guys goin partying tonight?" (it's 1:30 on a ****ing monday night)

i turn my head and see if she's serious...considering both bars are closed at 1, we're nowhere near downtown, and we're dressed in like...jersey shorts and idiot shirts, most astute people can make the assumption that no, we are not going to a party. i suppose i shouldn't question the intelligence of a super whale who looks like she's about to die eating more IHOP though.

'uh...no. i'm going to bed after this'

'oh really? wow...okay...its just that me and him (she points to her friend, an equally brain dead indvidual) don't have work tomorrow and are looking for some parties.'

'uh...mmm...' (i sit there and eat my meal).

'i gotta 12 pack of bud and everything in the back seat of my car too. do you guys go to the university around here?'

i nod but don't say anything, and my friend and i are starting at each other, both thinking what the ****??

so we eat for a few minutes longer, not really saying much. i like to eat my food fast, whatever. then that fat**** interrupts my meal again-

"so are you guys like bffs? like best buds??"

from here on out, i fail to say anything...it's like encouraging this retard to continue to bother me. at one point i was going to say 'jesus lady, why dont you just shut the hell up and let me eat my meal?' instead, i just sat there (with my back turned to them, thankfully...my friend had to face them the entire time) and said nothing.

friend - "uhh...yeah, something like that i guess"

fat**** whale finally somewhat gets the hint and mutters- "oh...am i interrupting your meal? i'm sorry..." then continues to mutter to herself like the tard she is.

so i continue eating and then she turns around and i hear that ****ing voice again-

"so where are all the hot chicks tonight? where they all at?"

(i remain silent) friend- "uhh...they sure aren't in IHOP"

"oh okay...just trying to make conversation here...gotta think of more stuff to talk about"

so by this time, i'm giving my friends these looks like WTF this lady is bat**** annoying, stupid as hell, fat as ****, i want to strangle her. too bad her friend looks like the next coming of frankenstein, probably with an equal intelligence/strength as well. a few minutes pass and we are finishing up, getting the bill when i hear that damn voice one last time-

"i hope you guys don't think i'm hitting on you (god forbid)...i'm a lesbian anyways. just trying to make conversation"

my friend and i don't say anything, walk the **** out of there, both saying 'god what a fat freak, lady wasnt all there, etc'.

****ing freaks

CFBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

2009-09-07T20:17:00.002-05:00

cfb season is here! god this is the best time of the year, bar none. week 1 was already full of excitement/upsets/surprises.

UF blew out charleston southern, as expected. nothing really to discuss, especially since i still have to watch the game. UF played very vanilla on defense, didn't really change up fronts/etc. despite CSU having alot of spread formations, UF still kept a standard 4-3 with little variety in terms of personnel or blitzes. typically, UF likes to keep a 3-3-5 set against spread formations so meh.

even still, UF held them to 3 points, cant really complain. i think we'll see alot more stuff next week against troy. despite losing to bowling green, troy is still a pretty decent team and always plays well with many BCS schools. i'm hoping to see more tebow under center, more blitzing/etc, maybe some weird stuff like haden at QB, etc.

still thinking about what games to go to. i was thinking UF/UK since another friend is going to that game (and i could meet him there), but not sure. my expectations are high this year, and i'm expecting at least a BCS bowl. anything less i think is going to be a disappointment.

am i right to expect this much from UF? i dunno. on one hand, i need to be realistic- i know that going through the season (relatively) undefeated is going to be very hard. yeah, the schedule is easier than normal, but even still, there are some tougher games in the future.

i guess i'm expecting that UF takes the SEC east. i don't think that is too bold of a prediction...UGA is down, UK is better but still probably won't be able to compete, vandy is vandy, UTenn is better but not there yet. even still, i suppose we can have someone sneak up on us like last year.

with that said, i'm sortve expecting for UF to go to the SEC championship. i'd like to go this year, as i missed it last year. and even bigger hopes i hold are those of a national championship possibility in california. with those two games, airfare/flight/and ticket, costs are going to be alot of money.

even more of a constraint is school , but let's not discuss that.

this first week of cfb was pretty incredible- OU loses (pretty unacceptable for an elite team, not having any depth)...the OL was completely fucked as well, confused as hell.

tOSU struggled with navy. i think they'll have alot of problems with USC next week, even with it being in the shoe.

bama impressed me a whole lot. they opened up alot, using alot of wildcat/direct snap stuff. their D was pretty stuffing too. obviously a pretty undisciplined team though, and if they get those mistakes (along w/ turnovers), they can be really really good.

alot of teams were quite sloppy though (as to be expected). lots of turnovers, penalties, etc. obviously this should go down as the season progresses. teams like OSU, bama, boise state, etc. all looked pretty sloppy.

poker is going well. i haven't won a ton yet, but i think i can succeed. these PLO 200bb deep tables are pretty insane...i've been playing alright, though some pretty obvious moments of retardation on my part. probably will go into a post about my play in the near future, but not quite yet.

about a week more till my enrollment in spanish...FML

goals/end of aug/etc

2009-09-01T00:49:00.002-05:00

k bored right now...should be reading some of my book (that i'm supposed to have read/done a summary/report on it soon) but fuck that.

august is finished out though. i didn't really play a ton of poker. won maybe 2k in thailand in the last few days, probably won a few k the past week or two. not really proud of my results but whatever, its winning.

just getting back into the swing of things now, with school. my classes are all looking to be pretty gay...one class, early Christianity, is going to suck some huge dick...the content is incredibly boring and the teacher presenting it is old as hell. he speaks in the same monotone voice and the entire class has a glazed view after 10 minutes in...i'll probably just continue to bring my laptop into class and just read forums/play poker or something.

i'm hoping that i'll do ok this semester, but who knows. with my pathetic work ethic, anything is possible...i sure hope i'll be able to finish though (by december).

still have to enroll in spanish class coming up soon. that's pretty much going to be the most important element of this semester, and my entire graduation is pretty much dependent on it. though, i'm so pathetic when it comes to both spanish and work ethic that i could fail easily.

my goals this month -

get back into climbing- beat a 5.9+.

go to all my classes and do well (for the most part)

play 20k hands (have a prop w/ my roomie, so this should be fine)

play more tourneys

enroll in spanish and finish taxes

win in flag football, don't lose, don't suck dick.

watch UF win all their games.

up my poker learning, watch a video or two a week, start discussion hands again/get back more into coaching.

ive been doing alot better on the wall, getting back into it. ive been trumping most of the 5.9s in the gym, looking to get the 5.9+ out of the way (or at least challenge myself). ive been pretty lazy w/ poker but that isn't a big change.

cheers, gl in august

fail

2009-08-27T00:50:00.002-05:00

went to the climbing wall tonight, failed hardcore in a relative sense. i've lost alot of strength from when i was doing it alot and this is disappointing...i struggled with some of the easier ones, climbs that i'd normally dominate.

the differences between outdoor and indoor climbing is pretty huge. outdoor holds were typically easier than some of the holds indoors, probably due to the texture (indoor climbing holds are made of hard plastic? i think? and smooth).

the rating systems obviously vary as well. outdoors, we did climbs that were allegedly like 5.10+ or whatever. indoors, i still struggle with 5.9+, at least in my current gym. i've been to a few different gyms and the rating systems vary widely...i guess the rating systems are pretty subjective to begin with.

i'd like to be able to get to 5.10+ by the end of the semester. with hard work, i think i can do it. i'm going to work on going to the wall 4 times a week.

i'm not really sure what the consensus is on healing/resting muscles with rock climbing. i suppose (like all things)it varies to how good your muscle endurance/etc is. in the past i've usually climbed every other day or so to ensure healing and rest (and running on the alternate days). i'm thinking about just doing a quick climb or two every day though to see how much i can improve both endurance as well as strength and technique.

hoping to get back into it. this is my biggest goal right now (aside from getting all my graduation/academics in order). flag football starting soon as well (and cfb for that matter), can't wait. will probably write some stuff on UF here since i'm bored, as well as some cfb predictions.

thailand videos/pictures

2009-08-22T12:37:00.002-05:00

as promised, here are the fight videos-

ROUND ONE

ROUND 2

ROUND 3-

refer to thailand tr part 2 for more details.

here are two pictures of those crazy ladyboys that massaged us in phi phi lol-

school starting soon

2009-08-20T11:29:00.002-05:00

have about 4 days till the next semester starts, sucks dick. i'm still in a clusterfuck in terms of having a ton of stuff to do still. have taxes, have to get all my credits transferred from school to school. with that said, i'm going to have to reformat my entire schedule since this gay spanish class i have to enroll in goes from 9:30-11 every fucking day.

i have a pretty solid schedule, or at least i thought i did. frustrating that i'm going to have to dismantle it but whatever, i probably wouldve had to anyways.

i'm pretty sick of how lazy i've been...not just with school, but with regards to getting stuff done. i have alot to finish in these last few months, and it's going to be difficult to get everything done as planned. but if i can finally get my degree and get the hell out of here, i'll be happy.

i have no idea what the future has in store for me. as i've said in the past, i don't really see a cubicle job being there for me. and even with me being unqualified (w/ my shit history degree), i have even less motivation to finding a cubicle job.

i'm excited for some poker stuff in the coming months. i'm living with a roomie who plays, so i'm hoping that will both motivate me as well as improve my own game. i'm hoping to grind like i haven't in a long while, and i have high expectations for myself.

college football coming up soon...3 weeks or so, i'm pumped. still have to figure out what games i'm going to for UF. i'm thinking LSU would be a sweet one. death valley at night is supposed to be one of the great cfb spectacles year in and year out. as far as homegames, maybe FSU or UTenn? not sure.

also have flag football coming up as well. i'm going to have two teams this year, one in omaha and one in lincoln, so i'll be ranting/updating information about that shit in the coming weeks as well.

heading out now, cheers. going to enjoy the few days i have left of freedom before im imprisoned by spanish.

thailand part 3

2009-08-18T12:21:00.006-05:00

finally finishing up here. after railay i headed back to bkk for a few more days to finish out the trip.

this probably isn't even really worthy of a TR but i'll write anyways. i really just wanted to share the great thai boxing match we saw the night after i got there.

we went to an official muay thai fight in bkk, paid like $60 or something for the seats. these fighters were definitely better than those we've seen previously in smaller areas and it was great fun.

looking now, i dont even really have any great pics. most of it was a result of me a) sucking at taking photos and b) them moving like cats.

the fighters were all pretty tiny, like 100-130 pounds. with that said, all were super machines and incredible fighters.

overall, a fun event. lost the double or nothing on the main event for 2k baht but won the last fight when my fighter elbowed the shit out of the other guy (and KOed him).

it was odd to see them take most all KOs or TKOs out on stretchers...we saw some pretty insane shit. one guy got his arm broken from a kick, didn't even know that was possible...seemed like a normal kick but the guy screamed in pain and the fight was done.

didn't do a whole lot the rest of the days there. hung out w/ some other 2p2ers for a night, walked MBK and shopped a bit. in portland now, long ass time here to wait.

overall, this trip was very fun. some random notes-

Food-
thai food was excellent. didn't know how much i'd really like all the authentic shit (and who even knows if i ate authentic thai food, mmmm? im sure id have to go inland for more of that). but w/e...the food overall was good. a tad spicy for my liking, i'm sure i'd have to build some sort of tolerance if i lived there. everything is mad cheap as well (if you look)...like $2 or so for a plate of food.

some of the things i really enjoyed were the garlic and pepper chicken, mixed fruit shakes, and alot of the weird seafood. alot of the natural fruit there was really interesting and good as well, and if you like fruit you'll be happy.

budget-
-thailand can be however cheap or expensive you want it to be. if you want to do other stuff, it'll probably cost more $ (obv). if you want to live cheap and just backpack around, you can live off like $20 a day (if you looked hard enough). i overheard a backpacker saying that she only looked for 100baht hostels a night (~$3)...which is just nuts. but she was determined so more power to her. the most expensive thing is the flight (obv again), but after that, it's pretty much all up to you. doing some of the extracurricular stuff can get pricy though (stuff like rock climbing, scuba, etc).

but, if you just wanted to do hiking and back packing and living cheaply, you could make it out really cheap.

wrt staying places, its fine to book online...obv cheaper in terms of hotels. but you can also just wait till you get off the boat/plane in the southern islands and you'll be able to find a place, often cheap. alot of those places send people out and you can get great deals but either walking into town or having them show you a place. the quality of stay probably won't be as good as those online (obv) but you'll be able to get out cheaper. we stayed at a place in koh phangan for like 600 baht (~$20) a night for AC/hot water/2 beds. and you can even get it cheaper than that.

ladyboys/prostitutes/etc- obv you'll see a ton of these all around. if you want it, go get it. might be a price attached, might not be. might also be a dick attached too...lol.

internet- can be spotty all throughout thailand. some places have nice connections, many do not. alot of the time the connections are fairly inconsistent barring some big city (ie. bkk). playing poker can be hazardous.

the game-

the game is common in all of thailand (and poorer countries in general). the game is one that takes place in any $ exchange, be it for a product or service. 'bargaining' is another word for it.

you can decide to play the game or not. depends how dedicated you are (both in principle and budget). if you are the type of person to fight for every penny for the hell of it (or because thats just what you do), you'll probably do fine here. obviously the strategies are pretty simple and standard- start low, have them move up, you move back down, etc. if all else fails, just walk away, and you'll find that they 'can make a special price 'for you, my friend''.

i myself got ripped off a fair amount. i can admit this. when i was fighting and bargaining with the people, i found we were fighting over like 20 baht (~$.50). i thought to myself 'well, this person probably needs this 50 cents a bit more than me, so whatever'. i'm not going to try and sound arrogant either...i'm far from the richest poker player out there...it was just something that i grew to accept.

with that said, i didnt totally give up on the game. i still bargained, at least to a degree. didn't really buy a tremendous amount of things...missed out on alot of cool paintings (very prominent in the south, not so much in bkk). picked up alot of tshirts and such...stupid jewelry for my sisters.

cant think of any more random notes either, will give them if the idea arises.

back in port now. long flight back but i slept most of the way. didn't end up in the ocean or an island...a shame, too bad i couldn't play the chinese version of jin from LOST.

cheers.

thailand part 2

2009-08-13T10:01:00.025-05:00

Phuket is a small island off the south west of Thailand. It’s a pretty touristy spot and one of the more popular islands (IMO).

We decided to go to phuket and stay in the patong area, the most touristy. I personally don’t mind the tourist spots all that much, at least in terms of short term stays. Touristy spots usually mean a lot around there (be it night life, food, massages, shops, whatever).

Our hotel was in a pretty nice spot…about 5 minutes from the beach. First day we just chilled, tired from the flight/etc. our place was nice, aside from expensive internet.

Not too much to add about our stay in phuket, at least in the patong area. We hung at the beach a ton, just chilled out. Phuket’s beaches were really really nice, some of the best I’ve seen in Thailand. We also went to phuket national park, a large area in the northern part of the island. It was a large rainforest with some bigass trees and streams. We got lost along one way, couldn’t find the path. We exited the trail then decided to go back and retrace our steps. We still couldn’t find the main path, so we followed the stream upwards like a bunchve idiots, slipping in mud, water, and sand along the way. We eventually found the trail (the trail was marked by a bunchve signs, we apparently skipped one or two of them in our off-trail hike) and continued on. Overall a fun time.

We decided to stay a few more days in phuket, meeting up w/ other roomie’s friends. They lived near the chalong area, which is the southern area of phuket. Our second place wasn’t as nice as the first…while there werent’ huge qualms, the location sucked (it was far from both the main road and more importantly, the beach), and not much was around it. It almost seemed like we were on a different island to be honest, as we didn’t go to the beach nearly as often (since it was like a 15 minute drive or w/e).

The first day in chalong we decided to get motorbikes. Man I suck ass at driving these things. I am also psychologically warped wrt bikes as well, since near the end of last semester my bike slid across wet pavement and I busted my chin pretty bad. I was hesitant to ride the bike and held off for the first day or so (which was fine bc my other roomie and I decided to split initially). Man I’m a big pussy.

We met up with andy and pat, two dudes from the UK. They knew my roomie from poker and are both staying in phuket. Fun time, hung out at a lot of reggae bars and such. Second day in chalong I get a ticket for being a fucking dumbass while driving my bike. There was a large circle of traffic around cones, I got confused (idiotically couldn’t wrap my mind around the whole stay on the left thing) and went the wrong way, getting stopped in traffic, then getting charged 500baht for the ticket. Man I’m a moron. We also decided to go snorkeling in phuket…I still have to develop the pictures that I took from my underwater camera (hopefully they turned out). Near the end we saw this gigantic badass moray eel…I wanted to get close to it but was afraid it’d come out of its cave and bite my head off.

We decided to go to phi phi next. Phi phi is another set of small islands nearby and was even more touristy than phuket. Even still, we heard there were some great beaches and scuba diving there.

Our first few nights we stayed in some ghetto ass bungalows that were cheap. Big mistake on our parts…not only was there no AC, but the location sucked a big fat dick. We had to take like a 20minute+ boat ride out to get to the main part of the island, which over rid the $ we saved from booking it initially. After sweating like a bunchve afghan whores, we got the hell out of there and went back to the main pier. We also rock climbed the first day in (or second, I cant remember). Rock climbing on phi phi was pretty fun, and our guide was hilarious. I couldn’t finish the last climb for one reason or another, but my other roomie got it.

view from one of the tops-

We went to this reggae bar a ton. This reggae bar was unlike others we’ve been to, in that there was a large muay thai boxing ring in the middle of it, where you could fight both randoms as well as friends. The fights were 3 one minute rounds with like a 5 minute break in between. While this doesn’t sound like much, every second seems like an eternity in any ring, especially when most participants aren’t trained/conditioned in the least.

There was also a scheduled fight each night. It was pretty evident that the two boxers were fighting a fixed/staged fight…that is, the fighters were rolling with punches and kicks/etc. despite this fact, each of those fake fighters would wreck anyone else who stepped into the ring and it wouldn’t be close.

So roomie decided to go get scuba cert, took him 2 days. My other roomie and I chilled at the beach mainly…he was still fighting a nasty case of sunburn from phuket (lol white people).

Sunburned roomie decides he wants to fight on the last night we are there. I’m going to put it all up on youtube later.

I was just chilling at the bar, friend put his name in to fight a random. He points to this skinny bitch looking guy and murmurs “this guy’s still thinking about fighting…he doesn’t’ know yet. He says he’s never fought before in his life, I’m going to wreck him”

10 minutes or so pass and I hear the announcer talk, the crowd’s attention diverted to the center stage. My friend is dressed blue gloves and headgear and his opponent in red. He looks up at me and shakes his head furiously, pointing to his opponent and still shaking his head. This was not the same guy who was mulling over the fight decision, but a larger guy.

I knew from the sound of the bell that things were not going to be good. The guy was clearly experienced in at least some form of fighting (be it boxing, muay thai, etc). his kicks looked devastating and my friend was scrounging around for dear life.

The last two rounds went smoother than the first. Both sides got in a few punches, but no huge damage was exchanged. Red clearly won and my friend looked exhausted. He walked up to me (I was filming on the top floor)-

“so instead of matching me up with that skinny pussy, they put me against some 200 pound irish killing machine”

“haha what do you mean? I mean, the guy looked good but he didn’t look that great”

“he’s been training off and on in muay thai for the last 8 years. He was going so soft on me”

“jesus Christ. What a freak”

“he could have ended it in the first round at any point if he wanted to…I felt like a bitch” he had a shiner and couldn’t really walk much the next few days due to the few kicks the guy threw.

We stay the rest of the night, watching some other hilarious fights. Our last night in phi phi resulted in me losing 2k baht (~$65 or so) on fucking rigged fights. I should have won a ton of them but for some reason that retarded judge picked friend’s fighter instead of mine. Fucking horse shit. also didn't get many pics of the fight at all since i filmed the entire thing, will put them up on youtube when i get back home w/ better internet.

By this time it was about time to head to the full moon party, on the other side of Thailand. It was in koh phagnan (spelling?). FMP is about 10-30k people on a beach going insane.

It was a pretty big bitch to get there. We had to take a ferry to krabi, a bus across Thailand for a few hours to the other port, then a last ferry to the island. It was tiring as fuck and we nearly missed the bus to the last pier. The ferrys are also a gigantic clusterfuck, and if you ever take one of those things, try your best to put your stuff in an area that you know instead of with the rest of the stuff. Basically, they pile everyone’s shit in one huge area, then after the ship lands, dump it all out. You have to find your shit in this gigantic mess with little light. Clusterfuck is the true word for this scene.

Anyways, went to FMP for a night, was fun. My alcohol endurance is a fucking joke (both in general and currently) and I passed out multiple times throughout the night, eventually sobering up while going insane to techno music. Other than the FMP, koh phangan is kindve a shit hole, not a ton to do there. Pretty desolate island, at least the part we were in. the beaches weren’t as nice as some of the previous spots either. But the FMP was fun and I’m sure you have to try it at least once while in Thailand.

Last night there we decided to go to a muay thai fight. Unlike the bar fake fights, these were real. I had been slowly paying my roomie off from losing all the other fight bets.

I started to lose nearly all the fucking bets. There was a fight between two chicks. Naturally, I took the one who looked partially like a boy, hoping that she actually was a ladyboy. Unfortunately the other kneed her way to victory and I was stuck again.

I pretty much lost every fight. The hilarious one was where I took this fat fuck woman who looked like she was some war goddess from thai fairytales. She sported a SINGHA shirt and looked ready to kick some ass. I decided that I needed to change my betting strategy since I had previously been taking the skinnier fighters (in hopes that they would be faster and more agile). Unfortunately, the bigger fighters were outmuscling the smaller ones, and my strategy clearly wasn’t working.

So I chose fat fuck in the blue (my friend and I decided that loser gets to pick the next fight, I think this is a fair way to do it). Friend’s fighter was also stout but seemed softer.

It was a fucking massacre. No, not in the way I would have preferred. From the moment the thai music sounded, my fat ass fighter was doomed. Not only could she barely throw a punch, but her kicks were so slow and pathetic, I don’t even know what the point of throwing them were. She probably got knocked down about 20+ times and by the end, the crowd was howling in laughter. This crazy gook behind me was nearly crying at the sight. I continued to fume with bitterness, both at how pathetic my fighter was (it wasn’t even a fucking fight) and how poorly I was at choosing fighters to begin.

not really the best picture but it was dark and you can already see the fatass about to topple over.

So having almost erased my 2k debt, it was back at 2600 by the end of the night…up until the last fight. We decided to go double or nothing on the last one.

Things weren’t going my way at the opening round. I took the blue fighter, who looked like he had longer limbs and taller. The opening round was pretty pathetic, as red kicked him repeatedly (and blue did nothing).

They were tied up in the corner and a loud CRACK resounded throughout the stadium. Red collapsed instantly and didn’t move (I thought he was dead). The movement was too fast to truly confirm, but we think it was either a knee or like an elbow or something that floored red. Man I wish we had a replay there. Red didn’t move for like another minute and blue obviously won, thus erasing my debt.

My friends and I all decided to go our separate ways, at least for now, eventually meeting back up in bkk later. We still had about 10 days till we fly out of bkk on the 18^th.

Fighting friend wanted to go back up to bkk, he loved that place. Other friend wanted to go to koh tao, a neighboring island near koh phangan. I personally wanted to go to railay beach in krabi, supposedly one of the best rock climbing spots in the world.

My first night was a clusterfuck. The winds were blowing like crazy and I wasn’t able to get to railay. Despite railay beach being a part of the mainland, you still can’t get to it by car…have to take a taxi boat. So the first night I was stuck in Ao nang and forced to get a room there. I met a poker player at the bus station (the guy grinded micro tourneys and sngs) and we hung out the rest of the night.

Traveling alone is definitely different. I made a lot of idiot mistakes that I probably wouldn’t have made had I been with others. I still didn’t really have any idea where my hotel was that I booked online a few days previously was…some of the hotels on krabi were titled ‘railay resort’ despite not actually being on railay…it was confusing as fuck.

So after wandering around and getting a boat to railay beach, I wandered around, tired as hell. Lugging my shit around was a pain and I was ready to just book some random place and write off the $100 I spent on that hotel. That place would be a sort of mythical palace that I could never reach, something like a shangri la.

After wandering around, lugging my shit around, I just booked this other place. Note to self- don’t book more than one night at a time in weird places. It’s not smart. I idiotically booked 2 nights and unpacked all my shit, took a nap.

I walked railay. Railay isn’t the nicest beach, at least railay east. Railay as a whole doesn’t offer a tremendous amount of stuff to do, and its more of a relax/wind down place than any other. I walked around and eventually did find my hotel that I booked previously. Seeing as I got no refund if I canceled my reservation, I decided to just check in, maybe using two spots or whatever if needed. Kindve stupid, but I figured I was sort of freerolling in a way…if the new place was nicer, I could just stay there.

Turns out that it was indeed nicer…a lot nicer than the other shit hole place I booked. And a better location as well. I decided that I was going to man up and lug the rest of my shit back to the new place…while this seems like a stupid thing (or not even a difficult task), I was probably walking about half a mile away with all my shit in a tired state. I wrote off the 600 baht that I paid and just chalked it up to me being a dumbass/me deserving to lose that money for being a retard and walked onwards.

I decided to go rock climbing the day after. Railay and tonsai beach are known for their rock climbing spots, and the limestone cliffs are really really fantastic for outdoor climbing. I did a half day climb.

it was a great time. i did most of the easy ones pretty easily. they rated like 5.7-5.9 i think. the last climb i did was said to be a 6A (french rated)...but when i completed it (after falling a bunch, still finished though), my instructor said it was really a 6B+ and he lied to me. i'm not sure if i would have done it had he said that before so good deal. 6B+ turns out to be like a 5.10c in the american scale. i probably can do 6A or so, thats probably where i'm at.

some other pics-

anyways, dont want to write any more now. will finish up last bit of bkk later sometime. and post some of said pics (ladyboys/fight video/etc) later. cheers.

ladyboy massages

2009-08-03T23:29:00.000-05:00

hilarious story from last night-

so we're walking around at night in phi phi, whatever. just got done w/ dinner, a massage sounds nice. my friend and i walk to a nearby parlor for some nice $7 massages.

anyways, i'm greeted by my suspected masseuse, clearly a ladyboy. for those who dont know, ladyboys are dudes who have been injected with estrogen from a young age and LOOK mostly like chicks, except they have dicks. and sometimes, they dont look like chicks at all.

so right now, i'm squriming, thinking about this dude putting his hands all over me. one thing that could be beneficial is that the ladyboy might have stronger hands...i guess. my friend is laughing his ass off and saying "this will be enjoyable". i tell him to go **** himself.

the ladyboy walks over and starts to massage him instead (LOL). i am fistpumping alot in my head and i get this old lady. fine with me, at least i dont have this mutant touching me.

anyways, i enjoy watching my friend squirm as this thing is grabbing him all over the place. i'm laughing my ass off and enjoying the experience. the thing was clearly powerful, it had gigantic banana hands and large feet.

so after we decide to leave and get anohter massage, only this time, only vagina behind us. friend agrees fully.

so we go to another parlor. we go in and mine is clearly a woman, his looks like a woman (but it's dark). we are getting massages, all is well. mine is pretty ****ing big (fat) and having her on my back felt like a ****ing 1000000 pound slab crushing my vertebrae.

so we all start to chat it up since we're right next to each other. she asks the usual bull ****, how long you in thailand, etc. they say i look thai and i tell them i'm chinese. they mention how i'm just as dark/darker than them and i shrug.

so anyways, i point to my friend and was like "he got massage from ladyboy"
my masseuse starts to laugh. "right now?"
"no, before...right before this"
"oh...you like ladyboy?"
"nah not really"

friend starts to laugh. i notice that friend's masseuse grows quiet. my masseuse laughs.

its dark. i start to stare at my friend's masseuse...something just isnt right. the face is chick but something...is not right. her shoulders are ****ing broad, her feet are ****ing apelike. i realize that my friend is getting massaged by a ladyboy YET AGAIN. upon this realization i start to laugh inside...my smile going ear to ear and i'm making small sniffling noises. my friend looks over at me and stares me in the eyes, saying "i hate you so very much right now...i hate you"

ill get pics later of said ladyboys. ahahhahahaha

thailand part 1

2009-08-02T00:05:00.003-05:00

might as well do thailand TR part 1. not sure whats going on tonight and we're just chilllin so w/e. i could be wrong in some of these statements (thailand lovers like shipitfma can correct me if i'm wrong but these are my observations)-

day 1-

we take a 10 hour flight to tokyo, japan. shouldve vistited kil but whatever. freak prob wouldntve met me out there anyways. didnt really have much time in tokyo. mainly passed the time on the way there playing chinese and sleeping/reading. ate a teriyaki hamburger at mcdonalds at tokyo since i didnt want to convert my $ to yen or w/e the **** currency they use there (and mcdonalds took good old USD). teriyaki burger didnt go down so well and i took two ****s on the plane to bangkok.

anyways, arrive in bkk late at night, took a 20 minute drive to our hotel, located in sukhumvit soi 11. this area of town was recommended to us by some of the thailand dudes and had alot of nightlife stuff/alot of **** in general. didnt do **** the first night since jet lag was confusing our bodies and we were 12 hours different than we were normally used to.

REAL day 1 (or first real day in bkk)- i guess i could wait for my friend's pics of the city but whatever, i dont have them now. bkk is a ****ing gigantic metropolis and has pretty much everything you could want (or at least the area i'm in). we walked the city throughout most of the day, got our first massages (no happy endings... yet at least) for like $8 an hour. early observations in thailand showed that everything was/is pretty much dirt cheap, at least compared to back home.

buying **** from the street vendors is fun. the cheap side of any human being wants to bargain and fight for every cent...but then you realize you're fighting over like $1, and in the end this person probably needs it alot more than you. maybe this outlook is just arrogance but whatever, they can keep my 35 baht or whatever. and the **** is super cheap anyways.

so yeah. mates and i traveled the streets, ate cheap food, got cheap massage. went back the first day and took a nap around 2pm in the afternoon. didnt wake up until 1am and was totally WTF, didnt have any idea wtf was going on. think i called shipitfma and he told me it was pretty much too late to go out...i really ****ing blew it. oh well, w/e.

day 2- we decided to be tourists and go to the temple. thailand has a billion of these temples (buddhist temples i think) with tons of statues and other ****. big buddahs and other statues.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 640x480.

so that **** was pretty cool. think i hung out w/ shipit that night? cant remember. regardless, the day i hung out w/ shipit and ted i dont really remember much. i went in with no sleep nor food and just died. shipit tells me his life revelations of how he's getting raped through liver damage and i nod.

day after we go do the croc farm in bkk. supposedly the biggest in the world or something like that. they had other **** too, like tigers/elephants/etc.

the crocs are first shown with the mutants first- the freak anamolies that shouldnt be like that. such examples are 6 legged croc, humpback croc, etc.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 640x480.

then we got to the big area, where you could feed the crocs for 50b or something retarded like that (~$2). fwiw, $1= 35b. some of the crocs there were ****ing monsters. huge mother****ers.

the show after was really sick. the guy put his ****ing head in the croc. ridiculous crazy ****ing mofos-

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 640x480.

anyways, we did that ****. i got a pic with a full grown tiger as well as a baby tiger-

but wont have those pics up yet till i get back and can scan.

next day we did MBK (or DK, cant remember), a huge ass mall. pretty cool, not really cheap though. i believe liverpool was visiting ont he day we went but we didnt really stay for that.

we left for phuket shortly after. we didnt want to do everything in bkk since we're coming back there before we fly out. we still want to go to a muy thai fight, still want to go to the floating market as well as see more bkk night life. so it should be great.

onto phuket later! also ill add more pics to this later as well once i get home and get more of my friend's pics.

banggkokkk

2009-07-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

long flight here. no updates yet, but look for some in future/near future. holla if you are here.

polarization and 3-bets

2009-07-11T05:30:00.001-05:00

3-bets and polarization

This is a pretty old topic and many already know it, but since I’m bored and can’t think of too many conceptual topics to discuss, I guess I’ll discuss this one.

We often hear the word ‘polarized’ very often in the forums. What does polarized mean?

Well, two poles. Oftentimes in poker, it means two poles- a very strong hand and a very weak hand. If there is a large middle range, the range can no longer be classified as ‘polarized’.

For example- MP bets the river on a 45K72 board with 4. BTN raises his river bet. MP now decides to 3-bet it.

This is a good example of a polarized range (I think?). Most people are not capable of doing this without anything but the A or air. It’s rare that villain will bet/3-bet with the Q himself, as it is rare to get value from lesser spades and it’s almost illogical for villain to be raising many worse spades on the river himself to begin.

Now, the number of combos containing the A is obviously smaller than villain’s total bluffing range. But nonetheless, the range is still polarized, in the sense that MP rarely will have something like a medium hand (ie. T) in this situation.

Weighting is another word that is often dismissed in this discussion. Sure, someone’s range can be polarized in many instances, but the weighting of a range is often just as important when hand reading.

For instance, take this basic example-

BTN opens, BB calls preflop. Flop: A62r. BB checks, BTN bets, BB check/raises.

Now, whether or not the check raise is good or bad, we will dismiss. I personally think it’s pretty bad with whatever he has (unless some crazy images/history/reads are there) but whatever.

In this such example, BB’s range can be fairly polarized. Oftentimes players will not c/r a medium hand here such as 6x/Ax type hands. It’s a process of elimination in most cases- most of BB’s range here for strong aces (something like AK/AQ) are going to just be 3-betting preflop. By calling, he often has eliminated those such hands from his range (perhaps not 100 of the time, but enough to generally enough to make such an assumption).

Ok, sure, his range is polarized then. In this case, it will oftentimes be more WEIGHTED towards bluffy hands. Why is this?

-It all comes down to hand reading. Based on our first assumption (that he typically will 3-bet hands like AQ/AK/AJ/etc, it is difficult for many strong aces here).
-There are no draws present, therefore difficult for him to have many semi-bluffs.
-There are naturally less combos of 66/22 than there are all other hands. Sets and 2pairs (A6/A2) are generally pretty hard to hit. And the likelihood that he even has A6/A2 are small to begin (general assumptions again).

With that thought process, I would make a generalized assumption that villain cannot have (too) large of a value range.

In the leveling war, this can often work to his advantage. While I said that I generally like to check/call on a board like this with a vast majority of my own range, c/r-ing can accomplish some different stuff.
-Against a decent hand reader (one who might have similar thoughts as my own on his range), one might realize that a check/raising range is (typically) going to be weaker on a board like this. That is, it’s difficult to have a tremendous amount of value hands here. When playing against such a strange tight range, BB’s check/raise may induce BTN to spaz out with a weaker range than had he decided to just check/call the flop like normal.

I would oftentimes more take this line (BB’s check/raise) for value than bluff against better opponents. Though it obviously depends how spazzy I think that BTN will be.

Ok, enough on that. What does this all have to do with polarized preflop 3-betting?

As I stated previously, oftentimes 3-bets are polarized. They are often really good hands (AK/AA/AQ/QQ/etc) or pretty bad hands (J5s). The definitions of both ‘good’ hands and ‘bad’ hands can fluctuate greatly, depending on history and opponent.

For instance, against a donkey opening many many hands, 3-betting a hand like KQ preflop may have more value than it would against a more passive player. (Obviously debatable). Or a nit opens UTG, suddenly 3-betting TT or JJ may seem like wasted value in many instances when the nit wakes up and 4-bets you (and you’re in a cluster**** spot).

Ranges change with each hand. As we gather more information on our opponents and their play, ranges change. What are some of the reasons why 3-bets are often polarized preflop?

-people don’t like to get 4-bet with hands they want to see the flop with. Oftentimes you can throw hands like QJs/77/etc in this range. Say you 3-bet both and get 4-bet. What is your plan? With these hands, it’s almost wasteful.
-Like all hands, players often like to make the ‘easiest’ play possible. And with polarizing your 3-bets, knowing a very easy response to villain’s actions will often make things
Easier (for instance- you 3-bet villain with 82s. he 4-bets. It’s a pretty no brainer fold. Or you 3-bet villain with AK, he 4-bets. Seems like an easy jam). With medium hands like 88/AJ, it’s a bit harder to decide.

Poker is about adapting. Remember that strict preflop regiments is not a fantastic way to think about poker (in an overall broad sense). Understand that value and bluffing ranges can change, especially so in aggressive games. There are plenty of times where I 3-bet 88 BTN vs. blind with the intention of getting it in preflop. Alternately, there are times when I’ll just flat call a PFR from a nittish UTG with such a hand. Remember that ranges always change, and if your image is ****, your opponents

anyways sry to waste time, just bored as hell, could write more but meh, w/e. stuck in fucking

Milwaukee for the next few hours. FML

post vegas

2009-07-10T23:27:00.003-05:00

in mccarren airport now, waiting for my flight back home. kindve shitty that i have to go back at 12 midnight but whatever.

vegas was alot of fun. my house was much different than last year, and that's to be expected i suppose.

i wouldn't recommend going to vegas if you dont like to spend money. and i'm not saying this to be rude or act like i even have money to begin with, it's just the simple reality. vegas is a pretty damn expensive place and you often need to spend to have a good time.

if i didn't enjoy gambling then i wouldn't really be too happy (in vegas). we didn't do any clubs this year either, meh. whatever...no shows either. on that part of the trip (entertainment), i guess we slacked a little.

i played a fair amount live, at least in the earlier parts of the trip. played almost every day, mostly 2/5NL at the venetian. i liked how you can buy in for 1,000, and i enjoyed the deep play alot. i played that one session of 5/10 and felt really comfortable, but didn't bring enough $ to vegas to really play it consistently. whatever, 2/5 was fun...was up decently for the trip until the last two days, where i spewed terribly and dropped a few thousand. but i'm still going to come out up (including all expenses) so i'm happy with that.

further, being in a house with other players also has great value in the long run (for poker) as well. learning from other friends is greatly beneficial, and i'm thankful that i was able to live with some good players.

one thing that i regret for this trip was not doing as much outdoors stuff (or entertainment stuff). we did a hike at red rock national park for one day and that was fantastic. i'm hoping that next year (if i decide to go to vegas) i'll be able to do more of that stuff. overall, we were just too lazy and decided to just go play live or whatever instead of do that stuff.

with that said, i'm pretty happy to go back home. ready to add some stability to my life right now (at least before thailand). i still have to move in later as well to my new place in lincoln.

blah. gotta get back in shape too. got fat and out of shape in vegas.

also forgot to add this segment-

http://g4tv.com/2m2mm/index/

basic premise of this new show is a bunchve DC coaches/producers attempt to make a collective 2million in 2 months. looks promising.

THE WOLF

2009-07-07T23:47:00.002-05:00

xposted in ssnl cheese-

tonight i just sat at a 2/5nl game at venetian. table looked pretty soft.

i won my first hand i played w/ AT on KQJr board, guy spazed on me w/ AK. for some dumb small stack tho.

anyways, i win another pot where i open KQ, get 2 calls. i bet JT2r board, i bet, aggro raises, i call (250bb deep). turn 3, ck ck. river Q, i debated cking (and am sitll ont he fence) but i just bet 200 he insta folds.

anyways, mexican guy next to me starts to talk to me...this is how the exchange goes-

"i see right through you"
me- "mmmm what?"
"you play well. you are like a sheep, all innocent."
"mmm..."
"but deep down inside...you are as wolf...and you kill us all...i see right through you wolf"

at this point im like wtf jfc this guys nuts. he also sucked total dick at poker lol.

he continued to call me "wolf" throughout the night. some guy from holland was like "what did you call him?", and the mexican explained it. "he tries to act so innocent and young...so timid and kind. but he is a wolf and he will take your money"

im like lol wtf...i laugh as the mexican's A3 beats my 33 on a 234r board as the 5 turns. he triumphantly fistpumps multiple times and says "got you wolf, got you". i laugh.

he donates his money back by losing to an old azn nit woman w/ AQ and loses to AK on a Axx board.

but i'm laughing even harder when i open A9ss, he l/c my raise. flop 456r ck ck. turn 7, he bets like $10 into a $50 pot i call (LOL). river 8, he checks, i chuck two bills in there and he tanks...then he gets up and points at the felt, screaming "I CALL". i show and he starts cussing insanely in spanish.

VERY NEXT HAND he limps to a straddle, i raise to 40 or something over a straddle/limp with AA, all fold. the mexican shakes his head, chcuking his last $100 into the pot, saying "take it all wolf". i oblige and win. he gets up, pats me on the shoulder.

live tr

2009-07-03T15:03:00.001-05:00

will give more updates/tr on vegas later. but here-

live tr last night

5/10 at bellagio. room is packed and table looks to be very very good. my first hand at table, chimpstark opens, i call AT 2 others call. flop K43r or something like that, chimp bets, 1 calls (crazy greek who, after playing with for a few hours, this play was terrible against. but hey, hindsights 50/50). turn K, greek c/c chimps second bet. river A, greek cks, chimp bets 420 and greek mucks. chimp proudly shows J9o

i get a few hands to begin. AK i rr, he folds. QQ open, call, i squeeze, both fold. i open AKs no calls. so no real action yet.

the table is ****ing great. its filled with like, 3 greeks, 2 older guys who suck dick, one guy to my left who actually is VP at some big financial banking company who plays 25/50 PLO and is obv v. rich.

so im watching, guy to my direct right is some old guy as well. i guess the VP and him start talking, turns out right dude is also a corporate banker who owns a company and is v. rich.

righty is also very terrible at poker. i see him l/c 63 pf, c/c K55 board 2 streets then open jam the river when he misses, gets called by A5.

i get K8 i overlimp. flop QJT w/ 2 (BONER TIME). all cked to me, i bet, 2 calls.

turn 9, cked to me, i bet 200 into whatever, righty makes it 400, i just jam and say "FREEEROLLL" and he folds instantly, saying "guess you got that King huh..i thought you had the queen".

so anyways, table is really loose. crazy ****ing Venezuelan sits who is in every pot. he yells "HADSUP" whenever the pot is headsup and then cackles maniacally. he also pats the table rigorously in any situation, be it he wins a gigantic pot or loses one, so the night becomes filled with table tapping.

anyways, mp opens. he's been doing this with J3o/T5o/K2s (hes shown all these down) and is a terrible mexican fish. decent calls, terriblle greek that chimpstark bluffed calls, terrible righty i reraise to like 220 or something w/ KQo. i get 2 calls, both the greek and the righty guy.

flop K32 w/2, i bet/call an allin vs. righty. he pauses and asks me "do you have kings?" genuinely. i say "no" and flip over my hand, he shows 22. sigh.

i lose one more pot within that hour. i get A6, i open, loose greek calls. flop 763 w/2, ck, i bet, he calls. turn 2 he cks, i bet (value) he calls. river T check, check, he has JJ and is good.

table is going nuts right now. venez guy is vucking runnning like electrical jesus, raise/calling vs. a LRR with QJss and beating 55 (LOL). he's going all in with literally any flush draw and getting there every time, sucking out vs. overpairs, sets, and 2pairs. he's spazzing with any pair for that matter as well.

i slowly start to rechip up. i dont really get into many big pots. i get 74 and overlimp.

flop like 68T w/ 1, righty bets small, i call/all else fold. turn 3, putting 2 hearts on board, he c/cs my bet.

river is 8, he c/c my bet he has K8s.

i just slowly grind...win small/medium pot here or there/etc. no real cards.

venez leaves after a while, our game breaks after that (lol). i go to another 5/10 table, full of old nits.

not a ton of significant hands as i dont stay long, since a) im tired and b) im tilted. i wouldve played all night w/ that venez though, who won probably like 6-8k lol.

only significant hand of note at this new table was me opening 69, bb miniraises. i call.

flop J82 w/ 2 he bets 130 into like 240. i call. turn Q he bets 200 into a large pot, i call. river bricks, he jams, i sigh and fold.

maybe i could have played it differently but meh. lost like 1200 on the night. gay as aids

vegas

2009-06-26T18:22:00.000-05:00

in vegas now, or i guess technically in phoenix (stuck here for a few hours). will be in vegas from june 26th-july 10th. holla @ me if you're there.

live TR

2009-06-25T12:12:00.001-05:00

live TR-

today i decided to go play 2/5 at the casino. went w/ my usual poker friend.

for those who remember my old TR, the black guy i played with who looked like eddie murphy, he was sitting here tonight. i took a seat next to him...he did not remember me. anyways, tonight he was wearing a hat and glasses so he looked more like -

anyways, table was rocking, or so it seemed. two azn degens, two gambling blacks, and a big fatass w/ a big stack, things looked nice.

i win a small pot when i raise AA, younger guy calls. i earlier saw him l/c 84 pf and bet on 896 board, cking down from there (and was good). anyways, he called my pfr, he c/c-ed 985dd board then c/f-ed Qx turn. i was prob b/f-ing since i didnt see him making any tricky semibluffs/etc.

later on i complete A5 in sb, bb cks after a billion limps. flop AAK, i c/c a bet from big stack. turn 4, i c/c again, river 3, i c/c his $80 bet pretty quick and he says "nice call"/mucks. hmmm

later i sit around after being card dead for about an hour. spike lee got close to me and whispered "yo you haven't played a hand in a hour brah, the next time you gon raise ererybody's gon' fold". i nodded. just as he said this i raise AK in MP. old azn who is pretty damn nitty calls, mumbling to himself. BB who just got to table but is a regular (who also looks like)-

i swear those two were fcking brothers. anyways, he reraises to $70 total or something. i think for like 2 seconds and then just rr to like $400, as he only had like $250 behind. azn guy says "YOU ISOLATE IM I NO GOOD" and folds. howard lederer thinks for like 5 seconds, says "i dont know anything abouit this guy, so good hand i guess" and then mucks QQ faceup. everyone tells me to show and i do, and lederer gets up from his seat, proclaiming "WELL I GUESS HE DOESNT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME EITHER!"

i mumble something stupid about how "i see AK and im all in" and everyone shakes their head discouragingly. old freak mumbles "you didnt even have a pair!" i dismiss this and stack howard's chips

so there's this other black dude at the table...he looked like ****ing

(thats a artist named cee lo who sang that ****ty song 'YOU DRIVE ME CRAAZZZAYYY...song sucks my dick). anyways, he was clearly the mark at the table and was limping 100% of the time. he was so ****ing bad....i got into a pot with him where i called a pfr w/ 87s oop (after a billion came along), flop Q85dd, cked around, turn 4 i bet, cee lo calls, river 7 (lol), i bet again and he calls with AK. hmmm...

i also forgot, but earlier, i opened T8s, ceelo min-raised me. i should have folded given stacks but im a stupid degen and called. flop KTx, ceelo jammed, i fold, he shows KK.

anyways, theres some idiotic pots brewing during this time. i see a newly arrived viet freak come to the table, he loses like half his stack on his first hand...he called a flop bet/called a turn bet, river bricked, opponent checked, azn bet small, opponent c/r AI and azn folds.

i raise QJ early, azn calls. flop 7J9r, i bet, he calls. turn 3, i c/r AI and he calls with A9, losing on the river. he rebuys.

next hand all limped around, flop AT9 w/ 2 ...all ck to the new azn, he bets, hoodie guy (big stack) c/r 3x...azn RE-miniraises and hoodie jams...azn tanks forever (LOLLLL RETARD) and then eventually calls w/ A9, losing to AT.

anyways, hoodie guy is to my direct left. he has got a huge stack and i played w/ him before. he's pretty loose in general, but his 3-betting range is literally AA and KK...he would never 3-bet AK (and he says this). i open QQ in mp, he 3-bets me to $105 (after my $20). i fold after some thought (NIT) and he turns over AA (obv). he says he wouldnt even 3bet QQ there. i told him i folded bitches and he said NICEEE FOLD.

anyways, crazy hand develops...a bunch limp, i overlimp 77. hoodie raises, all call.

flop AK2. short aussie donks, hoodie raises to put him AI, spike lee COLD CALLS behind him for $140, shorty calls the AI. turn Qx, spike checks, hoodie checks. river 4, spike checks, hoodie bets $100 in a massive pot. spike calls him out for playing 35 and calls with QT and loses to both shorty's AQ and hoodie's AQ. lol wtf...

bizarre hand happens shortly after, crazy ceelo has been rebuying non stop, busting sickingly..the process i the same every time- he limps down to about $100 then he finds some spot to spaz jam. he raises pf, a bunch call. flop 886, cked to him, he bets, spike lee c/r-es, ceelo mini-3bets, spike jams, ceelo calls QA high and loses to K8.

ceelo also talks to his wife (or someone) about how he's at the movie theater seeing 'Transformers', also quipping aobut how he's down $1600 the past 2 times he's been at the casino. i wonder why...

i get J9o against viet, i raise he calls. flop KJ4ss, ck/ck. turn 7s (i have 9s) he bets ,i call. river K, he pots it. i hadnt seen him do something like this as a bluff the entire night and i folded. maybe shouldve called though.

some other idiocy...aussie raises J3dd on the button to a limp, old viet calls. flop A5J w/ 2 on board, viet bets $25, aussie miniraises to $50, viet calls. turn 8, viet c/c a $25 bet. river K viet bets $60 (hmm i wonder what you have?), aussie makes it $120 (LOL). viet hos and hums and then jams the last $50 in with 9T and gets so tilted when he loses that he leaves. he'd been bitching all night about how the two brothas at the table had been owning him ("ALL DEY DO IS CRA CRAL CRAAL AND I CAN NAW WIN"). lol viets

i make a pretty horrible ****ing call later on...i raise A4 late, ceelo calls (obv). flop K93, ck, i bet, he calls. this is actually a value bet, as he calls with literally all gutters...its how he 'losese all his money' he says, by chasing.

turn 8, giving me backdoor diamonds. against diff opponents i might bet here, but ceelo is literally going to call w/ any pair here. river 4, he bets alot. i call (pretty dumb) and he shows K8o. i need to fold more. ugh.

not rly any other hands. soem of these were out of order, i just forget them all. bah, w/e. ended up like $365 or somehing so not that bad. LOL BLACKS/VIETS/CHINESE FREAKS

poker stuff

2009-06-21T00:43:00.003-05:00

less than a week till Vegas, i'm pumped. in the meantime i have to get ahead on some dicksucking spanish. i think i can pretty much get a chapter done in 2 days, at least that's what i've been doing for the past two. really pisses me off to no end that i'm going to have my vacations ruined by gay fucking spanish class.

poker has been pretty frustrating lately. i've actually been working on not checking my cashier (failed today), as i think it affects my quality of play as well as the duration. i have a problem playing longer while stuck than when i'm winning. i get lazy and just say 'hey, book the win, whatever' instead of continuing to play. today i played a marathon session after losing 5 bi in less than 20 minutes.

anyways, thats something i've been working on. while in vegas, i figure i might as well do something while there (that is, play some WSOP events). i'm too cheap as of now to put down 1.5k or whatever so i got a staker for two 1.5k WSOP events. the deal is 70/30 (tourney profit only), pretty standard i think. on one hand it sortve sucks that i'll only get 30% of myself but i mean, its really zero risk and i'm not going to be doing much else with my time. so whatever.

still working on getting a WSOP ME stake, i put a post in the marketplace staking forum, so maybe someone will bite. i also have two main event freerolls to play on FTP (and ill probably play more tourneys this week) to both a) try to win a package and b) try to get more tourney experience.

also have to try to get back in shape, been a bit lazy while at seattle. the humidity is starting to get out of control here and i'm looking forward to dry heat in vegas. i'm really looking forward to vegas this year, i think we have some cool outdoors stuff planned (climbing, hiking, perhaps a day trip to the hoover dam, i'm not sure).

i've been pretty lazy overall thinking about it...don't really do my school work, don't really do much exercise (i was doing it every day for a while)...don't really read. what a bum i am. i'm currently reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and am enjoying it alot (though i havent read it the past few days).

hope ppl are playing/running better than i am. cheers.

seattle TR

2009-06-19T01:13:00.003-05:00

k so i guess not all the pics are up, but thats fine. i'm bored, its late (still on pac time)...w/e.

seattle, WA is a pretty damn cool place. i lived there for a year (and was born there) and i go back every 1-2 years (all family is there). the weather is notoriously rainy (obv/everyone knows this), but the summers in seattle are quite nice...it's probably like an average of 70-75 and little/no humidity (compared to NE, this is very nice).

theres ton to do in seattle, especially for outdoors stuff...tons of hiking, mountain climbing, bike trails, some scuba diving (albiet cold), fishing, camping, etc. i'm not really super outdoorsman really but alot of those activities has an appeal to me (or at least hopefully will in the future).

seattle trips for me usually consist of tons of family ****/visits/dinners/etc. we did have some time to do other stuff though, stuff like fishing, hiking, rock climbing (for me).

first few days we fished. i'll add pictures when my family gets pics up. we went to west port, a small fishing town and did rock fish and linkcod (sp?). i ate dim sum the second day and it sucks ass. for all you crackers reading this blog, when you say 'oh, i like chinese food...it's great!', you really have no idea. americanized chinese food is the **** and i love it alot, gimme generals tsos chicken anyday over the traditional ****. traditional hardcore chinese food is nasty as hell...eating chicken feet and all that other bizarre **** is not for me. anyways, dim sum made me disgusted for the rest of the day and i don't want to eat it again for a while.

aside from the drive and waking up early, the fishing itself is pretty fun. it's pretty damn easy, the people fit all your bait/help you if the lines get tangled/etc...really novice fishing i suppose. we hit our 10 fish/person limit but failed on the linkcod limit (a bit harder to catch).

i was able to go to a store in seattle, a place called REI...cool outdoors store that sells lots of camping/hiking/climbing gear.

they also had a 65 foot wall that i got to climb-

cool store/fun wall.

we did more family ****. i was able to meet up with bilbo-san for an evening for dinner downtown. we ate bbq/chatted for a while, good to finally meet him. bilbo was not as old as i thought he would look and was not quite as angry as he is on the forums lol...

along w/ fishing and climbing we went hiking...seattle has some pretty nice hikes. we did some pretty easy ones overall. some were cool, overlooking waterfalls/etc-

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 604x453.

still some snow on the trail-

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 604x453.

overall, good hiking. i also was able to go to a climbing gym in seattle for a few hours, $15 for a day pass, not bad. i def wouldve gone there alot had i lived in seattle.

last day we ate some korean bbq. i havent had it in a while and its really quite good.

i went with my grandma and my uncles/cousin. everyone was having a good time except my grandma, who is 75 and slightly insane. she can't really hear and gets overly excited at times (but still her anyway). throughout the meal she made quips about how 'chinese food was better/etc etc'...whether this stems from a cultural dislike of koreans, i have no idea, but it seems as if all azns hate other azns, so w/e...

anyways, paying for the meal/dinner is always sortve a chinese cultural thing that i've seen...my grandparents always love to pay for the meal/etc, and it just sortve cycles its way through. my dad enjoys paying for the entire tab as well when our extended family meets up. the last lunch we grabbed the tab and my grandma got angry at my sister/dad because she wanted to pay it. she grabbed my sister and declared in broken english that if she couldnt pay for the next meal, she wasn't going.

so anyways, she wanted chinese, but at this point, my siblings and i were like 'ugh, no more fcking chinese, pleaseeee'...so we pretty much duped my grandma into going to korean bbq. everyone was having a jolly time except grandma, who sat in a bitter rage throughout the night.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 604x453.

so anyways, as stated previously, grandma got up after we were finished to pay the bill. i think she was sortve in shock with how much it was ($195 or something for like 12 of us, which really isn't that bad i dont think)...chinese people are cheap by nature and she kept saying how chinese was better.

i started laughing my ass off when i asked her what she thought of the food. she can't really hear me but when she finally understood my question, she flicked my hand away, started to cuss in chinese and said it was terrible. we soon found out that she didn't leave a tip either, thinking that the restaurant already added some gratuity into the bill (due to our large party). she left not a cent however, and the staff asked my uncles if they were getting a tip.

after we went outside, i asked her again...she started babbling in chinese and gave the equivalent to the middle finger in chinese with both hands, which is a single raised pinkie -

hilarious.

pic of my crazy grandma-

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 604x453.

and finally back home now.

new colors

2009-06-18T12:41:00.002-05:00

changed colors so this shit is easier to read

seattle TR coming when i get other pics. little more than a week till vegassssssssssss!

live tr

2009-06-15T00:09:00.001-05:00

live tr today-

havent ever played spread limit, but decided to go to an indian casino here in seattle. my friend who went w/ me isn't 21 so NL was not allowed.

the game was 2-40 spread, and the moment i walked in i realized that this place was ghetto as ****. there were like 15 people there along two tables, both of which were dedicated to tourney play.

so my friend and i sat, along with the floor manager (lol i guess he helps start games when needed LOL, how ghetto) and one other ape.

its only 5 handed, the way i like it. to clarify, spread limit means the max bet at one time is $40. so for instance, if someone bet $12, i could raise to $52, he could make it $92, and so on.

std buyin is $200.

i overcall a raise from bb w/ A9 from btn (my friend, who is a competent player but probably is pretty leaky in a general sense...but def good enough to beat up on live players). flop Kx3, cked around. turn T i c/c his bet, thinking he can do it as a delayed cb w/ alot of stupid **** i can still beat/and or can suck out for fun with. river 9x i check/call his small bet and lose to KT. probably misplayed but w/e...im far too loose when playing live and i pay off horribly/splash around too much.

i raise a sb limp to me blind vs. blind (i m in bb) w/ 86s. flop KT4 he cks, i bet, he calls. turn J, he ck, i ck, river Q, he bets $10 into like $50, i make it $40 total and he folds.

overall, spread limit is pretty gay. i didnt adjust v. well though and made plays that might have been good for NL but not so much for spread limit.

i go down alot of money by bluffing in different spots. one was vs. my friend, where i limped Q9, all else come along. flop KT4 w/2 , he bets, i call, all fold. turn 3 he bets small, i call one more. river 3 he bets small, i raise $40 (gay spread limit) he calls w/ KT...in retrospect, this play is terrible given the sizing and how much i can raise/etc. terrible spewy bad HORRIBLE

i start to establish a pretty nutso image by raising everything and getting little respect. the game starts to pick up when this monstrosity of a woman sits down. this lady was like 5'10/260+ and wouldve crushed me like a melon if she wanted. she boasted about how she was an attorney or something and how she 'read people for a living'.

she slowly started to lose her stack, spazzing at infrequent moments and playing tight the rest of the time. i lost $200 and kept reloading. i lost doing some ill fated double barrels and c-bets. i eventually built my stack back up to $400 by making a few goofy plays-

i open 64 early , retard bb calls. flop 332r he c/c my bet. turn 6, he c/c my bet. river 5 he c/c my pot w/ AK and looks in disgust when i turn over my hand. "knew you rivered me" he chimed, as i laughed in his face.

next hand i open J2o otb, bb calls. bb looks like a young tagfish...actually, thinking about it now, more just like a retard. he was a typical live aggro fish that spazzes every few hands and tries to 'outplay' people.

bb calls. flop AK3, he c/c my bet. turn 4, ck/ck. river 5, he c/c my ai (he had less than $40) and he jumped up in disgust when seeing my hand. "WTF!!! SUCH BuLL****TT!!"

i started to cackle and raked in the chips. this brought me back to evenish.

i kept losing alot in small non sd pots, losing w/ gutters and such. pretty ****ing bad calls i think, but w/e i was getting bored.

i lost a flip w/ QQ to AK to the beast chick. she got up like she was on the edge of her tourney life or something and when the Ace turned she started to fist pump, squatting like a ****ing dog and howling in victory. i said 'nice hand' and she shook her head spastically, proclaiming "THATS HOW YOU DO IT! RIGHT WHEN I START PLAYING IT AGGRESSIVELY THEN THATS WHEN I START TO WIN!!!" i nod, thinking "what other way is there to play AK bvb when short stacked?" hmm..

i start to spew more in general. i go back down a few hundred. im quiet for about an hour and a half, no cards whatsoever. im pretty liberal in my openings and my hands sucked dick...i mean, ill play connectors/etc but i kept getting **** like T3o and such.

crazy black dude sits next to me...he's nice, but he sucks dick at poker. oh well, w/e. i guess i sucked dick today too. he limped like every hand and would have moments of spasms where he'd just open ship his remaining $40 on a $5 flop or something.

big lady leaves to go play in this retarded 'tourney of champions'. judging by the demographics, it was megasoft, with everyone either being 1) 60yrs +, 2) white trash looking or 3) all of the above. retards started filling the table as they busted from the tourney.

i misplayed a hand i think...i riase AK, old biker hick miniraises, i make it $40 more otb, he instacalls, flop comes, he blind bets $40, flop comes K24r and i just raise him more, he has AA obv. sigh. there goes pretty much the rest of my $ and i rebuy to $200 more.

big lady comes back and buys in for $100, exclaiming "THATS ALL I NEED LAST TIME TO WIN A BUNCHVE MONEY CHAHCHAHHCHAAHHAHA". she doesnt miss a beat, calling a pfr w/ 53s (w/ like 30bbs) and c/ring 367 board and blind jamming vs. 87s, winning on a 3 turn. she once again got up after she got it in on the turn, fist pumping and screaming "HE'S DRAWIN DEAD HE'S DRAWIN DEAD (he really couldve hit a 7, which would have been ****ing fantastic if it had happened)".

fat lady talks about how she's excellent at reading people. i get bored and i reraise her ep open with 5T, she calls. flop K46dd, she cks, i bet, she INSTA makes it $40 on top, i fold after thought. she flips over 99 and screams "DONT BULLY MEEEE". she must be on crack if she thinks im folding anything better than 99 there. as stated earlier, i have a calilng problem that doesnt get remedied over night.

later on i get AA and open, fatass lady calls. flop Q88, i bet, she snaps, turn 4, i bet she snaps, river i bet she snaps with Q3s and i laugh.

she goes on tilt a hand after and jams 44 and loses to TT. she runs out in a mad fashion, saying "ITS ONLY $25 TODAY I LOST HAHAHAH"

anyways there were a few more dumb hands but i cant remember exact details. final tally was like -200 bucks or something rearded like that. LOL SPREAD LIMIT POKER

theory on playing draws oop

2009-06-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

Theory on playing draws OOP as the non aggressor, both in multi-way and headsup-pots-

I’m writing this because I’m on a plane to Seattle and don’t have any internet. I’m bored as hell and thought I should share a concept that I’ve been thinking about lately.

Assume this situation-

100bbs, 6 max. 100NL

Villain opens 3.5x from MP (he is a TAG regular who seems straightforward and not really too tricky). Donkish button calls along, you call from the BB with whatever drawing hand- let’s say 67 for example. While PF can be debatable, let’s not and just assume that you decided to call for whatever reason.

Many players call preflop in these situations. While this is debatable (as stated previously), very often do you see many players make broad postflop mistakes in these instances, oftentimes due to having few if no plan(s) at all postflop. There are a variety of options I’ve been thinking about lately, on different flop textures.

Always have a plan…remember this. While you may not exactly draw out every single flop and the occurrence of each play, having a general gameplan (both in a micro and macro sense- that is, in a broad spectrum and thoughts of your overall ranges, as well as a plan for this hand as it plays out (which, in turn, will fit into your overall game plan).

($10.50)Flop: Assume a variety of flops occur. Think about this one-

3TJ

Very often do I see many small stakes players check/call. I think this sets up a variety of problems, many of which are common sense. I’ll write a few out here-
-You probably aren’t going to get paid if you hit your flush…that is, villain will shut down in most instances (be it check behind if you check to him on a flush turn, and/or fold to a lead).
-Along with that statement, very awkward turn plans- Are you leading into him if you hit your flush? What other hands are you doing this with? What hands do you hope to extract from and further, what are you going to do if raised? Are you checking to him? Are you just going to bet the river yourself if he checks behind? As stated, c/c-ing this flop leaves for very awkward turn play.
-Balance. While this isn’t a gigantic part of a SSNL players game, it should at least be thought about. Many players (even high stakes regulars) can be unbalanced (horribly so) and still beat the game handily. Very rarely will players at a SSNL game dive through HEM/PT and dissect each regular’s leaks, and devise a counter strategy. You just don’t see it often. WITH THAT SAID-
Balance is still an interesting component to think about. If you are one who seems horribly unbalanced, your play is often easy to read in a very traditional/exploitive sense. As with the previous two reasons for c/c-ing being problematic, balance is certainly one to consider when you decide to lead into the aggressor on such a turn when it improves you. Just think about what other hands you’re doing this with and you’ll see that there aren’t going to be too many non-flushes out there.

Now, with this all said, what do we do? It seems as if check/folding the flop with this draw seems a tad weak, right? I mean, isn’t that one of the reasons why we called to begin with? The only problem is that these so called deceptive hands aren’t really deceptive at all, at least in this sense.

There are some strategies we can do to both broaden our ranges as well as create some different semibluff opportunities though.

I’ll copy/paste the same scenario so you don’t forget-

MP (std TAG) raises $3.5. BTN (donk) calls $3.5, you call $2.5 in the BB with 67

Flop: 3TJ, your plan?

1- We can donk it. Remember, the board is 3TJ and we hold 67 after calling a raise out of position. Here in this situation, we can donk the flop (that is, to bet into the PFR). It’s a nice line that I think you can use with a variety of hands, not just flush draws. The second you check/call the flop in most SSNL games, your hand range will be limited to hands such as Jx or draws such as clubs, KQ, 89, etc. Rarely will you be reverse floating, rarely will you check/call something as strong as JT/sets here nor a super draw such as 89 and the like. Donking this flop allows you to donk a wider range of hands, which is always beneficial in an overall gameplan point of view (that is, your donking range does not only include hands that are in your b-3b range but also medium hands and draws that you can bet/fold). With that said, villan CANNOT simply raise your donk with abandon, especially given the fact that you’ve donked into two others.

It also allows you to play most turns fairly easily (and same with flop- if you’re raised, it’s a pretty easy fold from either player. Our hand does not stand up well from an equity stance against either’s raising range).

2- We check/raise. This option is fine as well, as it creates a semi-bluff opportunity and allows us to further broaden our range. There are, however, a few problems with check/raising-
a. We sometimes get blown off our hand if we are 3-bet. While this isn’t a huge loss, a flush draw typically has at least 30% or so equity wise (obviously much much less if up against a higher flush draw).
b. Sometimes villains call and we’re forced to make tough decisions on the turn. I suppose we can just c/f.
c. We sometimes get into an awkward situation where we check to the PFR, he bets, donkey calls, and then what? Are we going to c/r huge? I think at that point, c/c-ing almost becomes better. I’m still unsure of this though.
d. Actually, after rethinking things, I’m not so sure I like c/r-ing as much. But I think its still okay to a degree.

I think overall, I like the donking plan the best. I like to donk a lot of boards and I think my overall gameplan/range is pretty decent. As stated previously, I think that having a wider range will absolutely allow you to do more things postflop. And a flush draw in this situation doesn’t have to merely compose of your donking range. Here, I think I’d donk KQ, clubs, weaker straight draws such as 89, Q9 (if I ever made it that far), Jx (where x= Q/K/A/9/whatever, doubt I’ll make it here with J2 but meh), JT+, sets, and super draws (fd+sd or so).

Also, sorry if all these thoughts seem unorganized. I’m pretty tired and hopefully you’re still following this random rambling.

I’ll go through turn plans now.

I think the cool thing about both check/calling and/or donking is that you can use extra cards as ‘outs’. Say you decide to check/call the flop (you check, PFR bets, donk folds, you call). And as stated before, you don’t necessarily have to just be c/c-ing flush draws or what have you. If I made it to KQ in this specific spot (same situation as above, just with KQ instead of 67s), I don’t mind playing it the same (either donking or c/c-ing, sometimes c/r-ing). The nice thing about KQ or straight draws or even weaker hands such as gutters is that against many SSNL opponents, your play is going to be face up. That is, you’re going to bet the flush when you have it and check it when you miss. With that said, say you had KQ in this situation instead of 67s and decide to c/c the flop.

Turn: 2
You donk into him on the turn. Very interesting, no? You can use these flush cards as extra outs with KQ, not just the A and the 9. And as I said, many of your opponents are going to sigh and fold a large portion of their range.

This can obviously be used in headsup pots as well, I just chose to give the example in a multiway format. I would definitely be more hesitant to use this play had PFR bet, donk called, then we overcalled with such a hand.

Here is really my main question though, and the basis/question behind this entire ramble. Assume this situation-

Folded to BTN who raises 3x on the button. SB (donkey) calls. You call A9 from the BB. Debatable again, but who cares? One thing I always advocate during coaching sessions is having your own preflop style. As long as you can justify your raises, I’m not going to bitch at you for opening or calling too light. Now, if you’re making a gigantic fundamental mistake (3-betting UTG raisers with 22 and calling off your stack against a TAG or something), I usually always say something…but as far as I’m concerned, people can open or fold as many hands as they prefer. Whatever they care to do, meh.

Ok, with that little tangent over, you have A9 in the BB against a BTN raise and a donkey call. I decided to make this a mult. Pot because if it’s headsup, it’s less likely that you’re going to check/call the flop (not saying that you can’t, just that it’s more rare).

($10.50)Flop: T2J
SB checks, you check, BTN bets $8.5, SB folds, you call (debatable, but whatever)

($27.50)Turn: 6
GIN! Your play??

As stated before, a lot of players will donk out here. And there are obviously valid reasons. Villains will check behind a large portion of his range, even those that have good equity against us still (ie. A set). And if we decided to peel with the non nut-flush draw (that is, some lower flush draw), villain can often check behind with the Ac, which could spell disaster for us on the river.

Do we still donk? I think that I prefer checking in a balance sense, but I’m still unsure of the play. Here are my reasons-
-As stated, I’m usually check/raising or donking a set on the flop. By c/c-ing, my range is more weighted towards draws and more marginal hands. I know I said that I include Jx in my donking range on the flop but that doesn’t mean I’d always do it with that such hand. So my hand range is typically going to be pretty marginal, and I’d say I check most all hands to him in general (although I’d be apt to leading a semibluff hand like KQ on the turn perhaps).
-I think which turn card is pretty important. Had it been something like a King or Ace that completes our flush (obviously we’d have to have a lower flush draw for the ace to come on the turn, having two Ac is impossible), we might be more inclined to check again to villain. We will allow him to both hang himself further (ie. He will bet the turn with all value hands as well as bluffs and semibluffs) while still disguising the strength of our hand. When it’s a relative blank though, its obviously harder to get him to barrel something away.

But do I c/c or c/r? I suppose c/r seems better, though it depends on stacks. I think that c/c is actually a pretty cool play though (with checking most every river). I don’t really see many using this line with a flush and I think it still portrays a weaker range, allowing our opponents to both barrel with value AND bluffs (if he were to ever do so. Sure, if he’s bluffing, he’s unlikely to fire a third barrel, but he’s not going to call a check/raise anyways).

Anyways, I know I’ve written a ton on this subject and I don’t want to waste your time with more tangents. I still have a lot more thoughts as well…I’ll have to save it for the next plane ride.

seattle

2009-06-08T12:14:00.001-05:00

heading to seattle today (have to stay a night in KC first though). will mainly be with family, but if you live in that area give me a holla. think i'm meeting w/ a few different 2p2ers/others while there.

june

2009-06-02T22:17:00.002-05:00

hope everyone's may went well. i have some different stuff going on in june, mainly seattle for 10 days and then vegas following that.

i'm pretty excited for seattle...i guess being w/ family for 10 days can be a bit lame at times but whatever...nice break from omaha. seeing cousins and relatives is alright too.

with regards to activities there, we're probably going to go fishing...should be fun since i don't really do much fishing while in omaha. i'm hoping to hit up some climbing walls too while in seattle...omaha has such a lame selection of possible walls and i'm excited to see some variety.

once seattle starts, the summer is going to go pretty quick...i'll be hitting different places at a relatively quick pace. i have weekly intervals between my trips though, so that should give me a chance to settle down/see friends, and more importantly- do spanish.

i have spanish in 3 days. i'm scared shitless to be frank. i HATE spanish with a sick passion, its a gay language and i suck ass at it. i suck ass at most all languages actually, even english.

poker is going well for this month...NLHE is going swell...i've been trying to learn how to play cap PLO as well.

there are a few observations-

-be super tight when playing...don't splash around like you usually do.
-understanding both pre and post flop equities is going to help a TON (even more so than usual in this structure...some people can have bad preflop fundamentals and still get by on good postflop play...this is a one or two street game).
-decrease raise sizing...i make it like...$4.5 at 1/2 otb, sometimes $5 utg. depends i guess.

basically, i think this helps one of my most struggling leaks these days- folding.

i'm an action junkie. i have to admit this and it's cost me alot of money, at least with regards to poker. i love to get it in preflop with PLO, even if i'm taking the worst of it...it excites me to a sick degree.

time and time again i'm getting it in terribly, be it in NLHE or PLO, where i'm jamming over a squeeze with AQ after i raised UTG and button (nit) squeezes me...JUST FOLD YOU FREAK...instead i say to myslf "well, villain might be good and he might be capable of doing this with air..."...NOPE...villain sucks and i suck even harder for paying him off.

same with PLO- i KNOW i'm getting it in terribly at times, relying on only a flush draw and a gutter on the turn or something to save me. It's awful...I'm hoping this cap PLO helps absolve me of my problem...i can get action while still getting it in better than my opponents.

i still havent really decided whether or not i'm playing in any tourneys this year. i wanted to play the ME but 10k of my own money is kindve alot...i don't play as much as i used to either so i can't afford it as easily. i was thinking about selling 50% of myself as well but meh...we'll see.

there are some other poker concepts that i've been thinking about alot lately. i definitely have a billion leaks these days, it's just hard to figure out what exactly i have to do to remedy them. i guess i'm at least lucky in the sense that i have figured out some of my current leaks (i'm sure there are still hundreds that i have yet to discover).

i guess i won't share my own specific leaks here (i doubt any of my opponents really reads this retarded blog anyhow but meh). i know that i have alot of psychological issues (tilting/play motivation/etc). meh, hopefully i can fix it in the future.

with regards to workout stuff, i did yoga this morning. i'm pretty pleased with it and i think it's going to help my flexibility for sure. highly recommended.

alright tired of typing. ofishstix (alex michaels) is still in the $1500 PLO event...there are 29 to go as i write this and he has like average chips. gogogogogogo (i probably just jinxed him).

closing out month

2009-05-31T17:35:00.000-05:00

bored as hell so i'll share some thoughts.

summer is flowing pretty well right now. i haven't done much and have just been enjoying sitting on my ass/etc. kindve depressing though because my friends are either in lincoln or whatever.

i think it's a pretty clear glimpse of whats to come for me, at least socially. most of my friends will either be out of town, working, or back in school. it's pretty depressing, at least for me, someone who doesn't really have a definitive future. i'm not good enough to play poker for a living (or at least don't have enough dedication) and my degree (history) is a joke. hopefully i can teach and maybe poker can give me a nice foothold into the 'real world' (ie. allow me to buy a house or something).

my friend told me that i'm about to enter a lonely time, at least with regards to this profession. i'll maintain a semi pro 'job' with poker for as long as i can, at least by playing on the side. each year i've played less and less (last year i played literally less than an hour a day, fucking pathetic). i'll ride it for as long as i can. really though, i don't know what life will bring. friends will move on, move to other places...get married, find coworker friends, life moves on.

i've already sortve told myself that a cubicle job 9-5 isn't for me. this could be a product of many things (as ive said in the past), namely, already being super lazy from poker playing. i know there was discussion earlier in the HSNL with regards to how beneficial poker really was...i can see both arguments. on one hand, we've definitely accomplished alot with regards to finances in our life. even 50NL players can make a good amount monthly, and have a nice $15-$20+ an hour multitabling. thats just not something you can do often in college. the money comes fairly easy (relative to the real world, although incredibly stressful).

on the other hand, we become desensitized to many things...including the value of hard work. now, thats not to say that poker isn't hard work because it most definitely is...anyone who says differently, well...i guess just ask someone 'if its so easy why dont you try?'. i was more referring to 'hard work' in a real world sense though...working a full 9-5 40 hours a week...the very idea just makes me shudder. i'm not sure if othersfeel the same either, could just be me. but this mentality is very common (at least in my experience) with other poker players.

i'd like to do something i enjoy. i was thinking about doing spelunking (sp?), or cave diving. being a cave guide would be pretty cool too.

scuba instructor is a long path as well, but definitely seems cool. money doesn't seem fantastic but meh.

i think pulling an adsman would be pretty adventureous. for those who haven't read his story-

HERE READ IT ...its definitely inspiring. people too often are set on one rigid path, one set road that they are unwilling to change...something along the lines of "well, shit, i guess i have this degree in xx and now i'm just going to work this shitty office job for the rest of my life FML"...and this isn't me hating on office jobs. sure, if you want to do that, by all means, googogogo...to each his own!

i just see so many people do what their parents/grandparents/friends/relatives/etc tell them what to do...and they are just so set on this path that they haven't even set some time to think for themselves.

i personally am a pretty shitty student. i don't work hard, i don't go to class, i don't take notes, and i don't study. in summary, i'm lazy. i wrote a short essay on this subject, bluntly telling my teacher that i could pretty much care less what he gave me (in tems of grading). here it is if anyone is interested in reading the thing (pretty idiotic and dumb, but still its related to this subject(s) that ive been discussing)-

Here it is, friend is hosting it

(also check out handcrawler.com, cool site to grab hands from/situations/etc). cool site.

anyways, thats enough of that emo bit. i know that life is changing, i know that people move on. just depressing that it's coming upon me.

pokerwise, i'm pretty content with how i did this month. probably like $3k for like 10k-12k hands...mostly 1/2. i mean, its pretty marginal but whatever. i ran like complete ass two days ago and lost a ton of buyins, just playing bad and getting range gayed.

i still have to figure out what we're doing in thailand. our path, activities, etc are still unknown and we have to figure it out.

anyways, ive written too much already. sorry to waste your time. hope everyone had a good may and bring on june.

bored as shit so UF football/other stuff

2009-05-23T00:50:00.000-05:00

man i'm bored as all hell right now...all friends are in lincoln right now so i've just been a fuckin bum today. i should have really gone to the gym or something/done something productive but instead i decided to just sit on my ass.

i suppose that is one of the joys of summer... sitting on your ass and enjoying free time. this is a time that is slowly slipping away for many of us, as many of my friends are preparing to go into the real world where summers are nonexistent. i still have to do that last semester unfortunately and still have a year or two yet before a job is there.

I plan on playing poker as long as I can. I've already realized I don't have it in me to really grind out shpanko style every month, that much is clear. I've always been content with playing like 10k hands or so a month, meh.

I'm more happy with the opportunities that poker has given me. Happiness is something I've always strived for...I don't really care as much about the money, but that could be because either a) I have enough of it for now, at least in my current situation or b) I haven't felt the real grind of true expenses like house/etc. I'm sure things would be different if I never played and never made any money.

here is a good post by martox that pretty much voices my sentiments. I fully agree that people should open up, strive to find new activites that bring happiness and purpose. We as poker players are often confined to a pretty set/boring schedule (sit around, watch porn, play a few hours of poker, rinse watch repeat). Finding new hobbies and activites can not only help your poker playing but your general happiness.

For me, I've found rock climbing to be a great outlet. I don't lift as much anymore (in terms of frequency), but when I was in the prime of my rock climbing, I could lift as much or more as I was previously. Fantastic exercise and loads of fun...I haven't found a real consistent place to climb in Omaha yet so blah.

I'd like to get better at cooking...I'm pretty horrid right now, and I fail in alot of areas. I think cooking would be pretty great for alot of reasons, other than me just loving food in general. Scuba diving is another hobby that I've gotten into (recently certified, yay), and I'm hoping that I'll be able to go to different places and see some cool dive sites.

I have no idea what this future holds for me. Hobbies and stuff we like change all the time. I've said this stuff many many times (for anyone reading this pathetic blog), I'm not preachy- I just think that people waste so much opportunity to do other stuff (re- poker players). We're all young, rich (relative), and have a ton of opportunity to do so much.

Anyways, I'm bored as all hell. Football season is about 2 months or so away and I can't wait. I'm actually watching the TTU/Ole miss game now, pretty great game.

UF should look pretty solid this year...I don't want to hold expectations ridiculously high (USC style) but I think that all the tools are in place for at least a BCS bowl...anything less than that will be tremendously disappointing...I would NOT be tremendously surprised if UF played for another national title either. The Defense will be among the best in the nation, with everyone returning. The D alone will give UF a chance in most every game.

UF still misses one piece on D- a line busting DT. The DEs are fantastic in Dunlap and Cunningham (both will probably play in the NFL next year, barring something disastrous). But two UF DTs have transferred in the off season, both five star rivals recruits. Ugh...Our current starters have been serviceable and underrated (and don't get me wrong, I'm happy with their performances)...but we have yet to see someone like a Ray Mcdonald or Marcus Thomas here.

I think the biggest challenge for UF is LSU. I wouldn't be surprised if someone crept up on us either, someone like Georgia. While the UGA/UF series has been a monumental joke the last 15 years (UF has owned UGA the past decade), 2007 was a nice example of a team sortve 'creeping up' on UF...UGA got smeared by UTenn that year and noone really gave them a chance.

With that said, at Death Valley in a night game with almost 100,000 drunk cajuns doesn't sound very appealing to me. LSU has recruited as well as anyone the past 4 years and they should see alot of improvement from last year. Jefferson looked pretty promising in that last game vs. GTech. LSUs defense was pretty fucking pathetic last year, but I think youth and a bad DC (gone now, Chavis is there now) were two big factors.

The obvious contenders next year are still there. UT/tOSU/OU/USC/UF/etc. I think that there will be some surprise teams this year, as always.

I'm going to say that Arky improves a ton...I'm going to also say that Cal comes back to national prominence and the same with UMiami. We'll see how these three teams go next season, this prediction could be a major bust. I guess neither of those teams are totally off the national radar but meh.

Ugh, getting hungry...my diet has been a pretty big fail lately. I'm too lazy to cook myself so I've been going out. While I'm not really eating mcdonalds when I go out, it's still probably less than optimal. Huhot, culvers (pretty bad for you), sandwhiches from hyvee, ugh.

Anyways, gl. hope noone is as bored as I am.

live poker lol god i suck

2009-05-22T04:11:00.001-05:00

k so i decided to play live again. BIG ****ING MISTAKE DAVE

live roll is a ****ing joke, as stated earlier. im going to have to withdraw from bank acct to replenish my depleted roll. oh well, at least i can claim some losses on poker winnings/not pay as much taxes!!!

anyways, i decide to play 1/3. i build my stack off early , win a few smallish pots.

i lose 50bbs to some retard wearing an eastern carolina hoodie who l/c pf with 65o and flops 354ss (i had TT and just raised him all in). he slowly donates the rest away while blabbering about how he lost a $900 pot w/ KK vs. AA. news flash- if you get in KK pf w/ like almost 200bbs live , you're ****ed.

i get bored as ****...start to bluff. some meth hag raises utg, i call Q9o otb.

flop KT4 she c/c my bet. turn 8 she c/c again. after i bet the turn i'm like hmm well whatever time to 3-barrel i guess...i'm bored as **** anyways. river is an A and she checks. this braindead whore would probably c/c QJ all the way but whatever...i should have just shipped it but i stupidly bet like $80 instead...she tanks forever and calls KJ, hi fiving some *** next to her when i muck.

i'm bored as **** by this time. eastern carolina minraises utg, this has indicated Axs/pp/sc about 90% of the time (when he shows this down...he miniraises frequently). i rr A9o, meth hag cold calls, eastern carolina folds. flop Q77ss i bet 1/2 pot, she miniraises, i fold, she shows AQ and says "I HAD TA CAWL YUK YUK". god i hope she chokes on a big black dick.

a literal retard sat down at my table, and since it's not nice to make fun of them i'll hold myself. i m not sure what disorder he had but something wasn't right..he kept spazzing out, and twitching.

so i'm like down a few hundo at htis point and im just like **** this **** im going to go play at the 2/5. normally id like to exercise some bankroll management and before, the 2/5 game was megafull...but the night has died down and i notice that they are short handed. the game looks pretty good, a bunchve old retards, a few azns.

i sit and everyone has big stacks, we're short handed, and i'm sitting with a bunchve tards. i'm like

too bad i was naive.

right off the bat i get KJhh some tightwad young gun dbag raises, few call, i call. flop Q94 i check, some crazy jap bets, i c/r. he tanks and folds.

very next hand some hillbilly opens btn, i 3-bet QQ. he has like $150 back, he calls. flop KA9r i c/f when he jams, he shows AK and says "i got lucky". i told him he could have jammed pf and taken the rest of my money.

crazy azns sit both to my left. one was actually good, definitely in alot of ways that cant really be quantified by online standards. live players generally do some pretty bad fundamental ****, but it definitely works in a live setting.

crazy viet to my direct left starts chatting about how crazy loose i am. i say i'm on a heater...he 3-bets my UTG open with 22, i fold A2ss. lol...

not a tremendous amount of 'interesting' hands. mainly just me splashing around.

i open 34 in co, crazy viet calls otb. flop A65r, i bet, he calls. turn 3, i bet again, he calls. i could have c/c-ed i suppose but meh. river J, i check, he bets like $75 into $180, i'm like ugh...hmmm...he chats about how much i'll call...then i fold, he proudly shows 78. i knock the table and maybe second guess myself.

i witness a hand where its a limped pot. (lol)...flop 963...theres a bet, call, shorty c/jams...the crazy viet calls the shove, and the cold caller makes it $130 on top. crazy viet tanks and calls the $130..turn is 2, crazy viet insta bets $200 (nearly putting the cold caller ai), the cold caller calls with a set, river bricks...crazy viet shows Q4 and the shorty has A8 (other guy had a set).

by this time we're like 5 handed. i can't do a ton w/ crazy viet behind me...at least not w/o cards. we don't play much longer...the solid nittish young dude realizes he can't play in this game when he gets owned by the viet...i open 77, viet calls, young dude squeezes really small (i opened $15, viet called, young dude made it $50), we both call.

flop AQ8dd im pretty much done, young dude cks, i ck, viet cks

turn Q we both check to viet, who bets, young dude calls...i assume w/ some Ax or something...i fold pretty quick.

river T young dude cks, viet bets like $150 instantly, young dude folds and viet shows T9. young dude says one more round and then leaves.

donky shorty from other Q4/A8 hand is only one left, along w/ me and the crazy viet. i ask donky shorty if he wants to flip for his remaining $80...he says no. it took him ****ing 5 minutes to understand wtf i was trying to say to begin with, ****ing moron lol.

anyways, my friend who i went w/ made like $500. i ended down a few hundred on the night, pretty bad. i'm getting pretty cold cards overall, not really giving me much to work with. if i played longer i'm sure i could do better, but we'll see. i'm prob just going to have to withdraw some $ to feel more comfortable. lol live poker and LOL at me for sucking dick.

anyways, i saw three movies today...just stayed in a theater and watched angels and demons, wolverine, and terminator: salvation.

all were pretty average, nothing special, nothing horrendous. each were decent in its own manner, probably all worth a watch at one point or another (though i'd probably only watch all once). meh.

scuba certified!

2009-05-17T18:36:00.000-05:00

finally did my four open water dives for scuba diving out in kearney, NE. the lake itself was pretty ghetto but serviceable for what we were trying to do. it went really well and i had a great time diving, even if it was for only 25 feet deep or whatever.

no pics atm, but my partner took some photos...not digital, but when he sends them to me i can get them up.

i'm pretty happy with the whole process. scuba diving was great fun, and i can only imagine what it's going to be like in real dive spots. hopefully i can get certified in advanced dive (taking that next semester) and dive in other spots worldwide. i've read that thailand has some great dive spots (also great climbing spots too) so i'm looking forward to that.

on the same note of fitness/activity, my diet and exercise has been pretty horrible lately. i think it's a lack of climbing wall/lack of a familiar gym that is hampering me. though i plan on getting back into exercising (running/swimming/maaaaaaaaybe lifting) as my opportunity dwindles. both my spanish class as well as my seattle trip are coming up within the next few weeks here, so my little month of paradise is slipping away...

though i'm in lincoln now, so going to the wall later. also have to finish my house shopping, we're figuring out places to live next year. we've decided we're probagbly going to live in the bottoms, a ghetto area close to campus. i'll probably get mugged and rapped mulitple times.

LIVE LOL

2009-05-13T03:41:00.001-05:00

live TR-

online hasnt been going the greatest so i decided to play live poker. my offline roll is just a ****ing joke too, i only have like 1700...i've ran pretty horrendous the last few times i played live and i'm probably down like 3k. whatever.

anyways, decided to play 1/3NL. the casino had a few games running. i waited probably like 20 minutes.

i sat. typical live retards sitting, noone looked very competent.

first few hands i have nothing. i start to notice a black dude that looks like stringer bell-

is sitting in the 10 seat. he's in every hand and either limping or raising. about 4 hands in i get QQ. utg raises (utg seems like a 40 year old retard), stringer bell miniraises. im like wtf...i guess whatever, make it $100 (you can only buyin $200 in this game). stringer bell mulls and says "**** it im all in" and has KK. i lose. maybe misplayed but whatever...there were a few decent stacks at the table and i hoped i could get a quick double up bc deep w/ live tards = LOL. stringer had like $120 or something so whatever. i rebuy.

anyways, i dont really get much for the next hour or so. get QQ, raise, one call, he c/c Jxx and c/f turn. etc. i lose some medium pots and am stuck about $200 total.

huge dude who has been missing for a while sits down on his fat huge stack. this guy's a super loose lagtard and is in nearly every pot. the guy next to him is both sucking him off and getting extra bitter at the same time, a hilarious dichotomy of retardation. the guy seems to have some bitter vendetta against the lagtard. anyways, i open KJ after a limper, lagtard and vendetta both call, a few others call.

flop: J 5 6r

all check, i check to lagtard who is going to bet. i thought this was a nice form of pot control as well as extracting value. lagtard bets like $22 into $60. vendetta makes it $60 (with $220 effective). i fold, all else fold.

lagtard mulls it over and makes it $100. (miniraises back). vendetta instajams and lagtard thinks for a while. (i'm laughing heavily inside). lagtard shows a J and folds, vendetta proudly shows KQo and says "NOTHING". i say "bold aggressive move" and he cackles.

i get 98 and overlimp after a ton of limps. flop 936, all check to me otb, i bet. 2 callers.

turn: 7 (9367) ...i'm like jizzing myself at this point. sb checks to me (sb was vendetta from other hand), other dude checks, i bet, sb calls, other folds.

river 5, he donks $60 into me...i just ship it and hope he has like 4x or something...he folds and says "two pair no good huh"

i later overlimp AJ after a bunch, flop J73r. stringer bell bets $5, other calls, i raise to $20, both call. turn 3, stringer bets $20, other folds, i call. river 8, he checks, i bet smallish, he calls and is upset that i have TOP TOP.

so i have like $550 or something after building up, getting medium pots. nice little recovery, up about $150 or so.

then a ****ing hilarious hand happens.

I overlimp K3 after a bunch.

flop: Q83
all check to me, i bet, 2 calls. (one old guy who looks like -Agamemnon from troy)

and the other some other retard who has been limping a ton.

turn 3 both check, i bet large. valuetownnnn.

BOTH ****ING CALL

river K I JIZZ MYSELF

both check, im like ok one of these retards has a flush, i bet largeish. OLD GUY SNAP CALLS and says "I hafta call you", other guy JAMS. im like ugh well if you have 666 gg and snap call, old guy snap folds Qx.

other guy says "i just have a 3" and flips A3. i say "boat" and flip my cards-

I HAVE K ****ING 4!!!!! I MISREAD MY ****ING HAND WHAT A DONK

MOTHERFUKER. old guy starts cackling like a ****ing hyena, i laugh my ass off. other guy who just took the money from me looks confused as **** and shrugs. i say "tell cathy that the xbox you buy her is on me" and he laughs his ass off. orange, the village ****ing idiot at this retard table. great.

anyways, i dont really get much the rest of the night. pay off some nitty dude because i'm a ****ing payoffwizard with 88 on J9349 board lol and lose to AJ.

old agamenon is laughing his ass off throughout the night. he keeps referencing my hand and says "YOU BETTER DOUBLE CHECK YOUR CARDS AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" i laugh my ass off as i bet/call against him with A7 on AT2 board and win vs. JJ. oh well at least i gave that old geezer something to laugh about. geezer said that he misread his hand last week and called a river bet w/ 9 high.

overall, lost $80 due to my ignorance. fun night. my friend won $190 though, so good for him. WHAT A ****ING RETARD I AM LOL

rant

2009-05-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

man i'm so sick of running shitty in PLO. it's been ridiculous, the last few sessions. i know i should be more intune w/ the variance in this game but ugh, it can get sooo frustrating sometimes.

am i playing great? no. but i'm playing well enough to the point where i'm getting it in as a favorite in most cases (or slightly marginal dog i suppose). tbh, i'm not even sure why i started playing PLO to begin. on one hand, it's a great way to learn a new game, a new perspective for NLHE. on the other, it's a super super variance filled game that is frustrating as hell.

my results have still been solid, despite all this bitching. as i think i mightve mentioned before, something like +20 or whatever over 70k hands, most of it being 1/2.

i've played a decent amount of NLHE this month. it's a nice change of pace, taking 70/30s instead of 50/50s all day. PLO games in general are much softer than NLHE (typically), but these skill advantages are offset by the increased equity most random opponents have at any given time. you just see some ridiculous shit in PLO and while it can be very very funny, it's also fucking frustrating when people get there.

i've also decided that i don't care about goals much anymore. i'm going to play when i want to, hopefully play well at that. i'm not going to set any $ or hand goals anymore, just going to make sure i play and stay focused/on point. i'm far from the richest poker player in the world but hopefully i'll be happy (or at least be happier than i am now when losing). forcing myself to play is not a good idea for alot of reasons, and i envy those who love this game and can play for hours.

anyways, enough bitching. gay. summer is here, think i'm going to go outside w/ dog and bro. i need to figure out a place/schedule to workout more. i have a few days until i go to scuba in kearny, NE/look for a house for next year in lincoln.

also, saw some movies recently...transformers, wasn't bad, action/popcorn flick. whatever...far from like an actual 'good' movie, but it was entertaining and it accomplished its goal (at least for me). people who get so upset about the quality of retarded movies are hilarious. just take it for what it is and know that you're going into a pretty shitty movie.

i also saw star trek. pretty good, worth a watch. i recommend it. you dont need to be really knowledgeable about any previous ST stuff, you can go into this movie fresh. it's enjoyable, popcorn flick movie.

also picked up 3 books...i still have a few to finish (currently reading 'the dice man', a pretty humorous book about a psychiatrist creating his own religion based off the roll of a dice...and the hobbit (though im near done w/ that)). i picked up a stupid action/thriller/retarded book 'Loch' for my trip to seattle (those page turners are always the best for trips), east of eden, and a college football book. i'm eagerily awaiting the new college football mags coming out, can't wait for next season.

i think UF has a decent shot to repeat. schedule is easy, a ton of talent returning (and coming in). the future is bright and i think we'll be just fine once tebow leaves. still deciding which games i'm going to (maybe @ UK/ UTenn/ maaaaybe FSU, we'll see).

FRREEEEEEEEEEEEDOM/thoughts

2009-05-06T23:17:00.001-05:00

school is fuckin out, i'm loving it. here is what i did to my jazz book after the class is done-

the sick part is that i'm not even sure if i passed yet. i'm pretty confident that i did but no guarantees...how hilarious would it be if i had to both retake the class as well as rebuy the book? i guess i'd have another 10 minutes of entertainment.

it feels fuckin good to be done. no more school, at least for another month, when i have to take queer spanish. i'm not positive how that's going to work out either.

meeting w/ my lame adviser was pretty lol at first. the conversation went something like this-

"hi"
"hi"
"so what classes are we looking at for next semester?"
"some easy ones."
"well, there are a few courses here that look difficult. you're going to have to take some upper level arts, usually people take jazz."
"sounds gay. i don't do school well."
"well what do you do then?"
"wtf do you mean by that?"
"what do you do? if you don't study..."
"i like to go to the gym and play video games, hang w/ friends, etc"
"oh, so thats it."
"well i also like to play poker"
"oh...(eyes slant down, AZN DEGEN flashes in her mind)"
"also, i can get a D in my geo and jazz classes right? i just need the credit."
(eyebrows go up, she says nothing)..."would it kill you to just try for one semester?"
"um...yes" (i walk out)

whatever. she can suck on her 20k job after she has her masters degree somewhere. maybe she finds that job rewarding, i don't know.

anyways, im probably going to get 2 Ds and 2 As. i'll be getting 2 Ds in the easier classes (history of jazz and geology 100) and 2 As in the harder ones (ENG 303: short story and my core history class in which i had to write a 15-20 pager). definitely a person who needs the class to be somewhat interesting (at least to me), or a good professor. next semester i am taking a few gay classes...some education class, a shitty psych (i think) and a sweet one, U.S. military history. my classes are scheduled for the morning so we'll see if i'm able to get up for them. i sortve doubt it and i might have to drop them/find some other times. i still havent figured out my housing for next year either. i'm thinking about living in an area nearby campus.

poker has been going meh. i havent played much this month due to finals and shit. i'm hoping to coach and play more though with finals being done.

i also LOL uploaded my FTP 1/2 hands for shits and giggles. most of these hands occured during the summer , during the worst downer of my life. it also doesnt include -8k at AP lol...what a joke. whatever, shit happens

.
still not worse than one of my poker friends, he's getting crushed. i'm also thinking about getting into staking people, we'll see how it goes. i'll be interested to see how it all works, etc.

i'm also taking scuba 2 next semester. i think it includes night scuba diving, which seems like a cool skill to learn. i'm quite excited getting certified later this month. im really excited to do scuba diving, especially around the world.

climbing has been going well. i beat a 5.9 today, a new route at the wall. i don't know how i'm going to climb this summer, i'll just be traveling around. i'm hoping to climb in vegas. as far as omaha, i think i might go down to the university of NE omaha, i hear their wall is quite good. seattle i doubt i'll have any opportunity. i still need to get my own harness/chalk bag/etc. i'm lucky in that my hands don't really sweat while i'm climbing, so i don't need a chalk bag. some of my friends who climb take off in the summers, and it usually takes about a month or so to regain that strength. when i finally get out on my own i'm going to have to figure out a gym to go to.

re-diet and stuff, it's been megashitty lately. i'm pretty out of food for the most part and am just waiting to go home. i still have alot of shit to get rid of before i head out, lots of frozen chicken and such. as far as working out, i have been sortve sluggish the past week. i have a cross book w/ofishstix for gym, we have to go to the gym every day. swimming has been slowed, i havent touched it. i'm almost scared to do it, since it's such a bitch of a workout...but i know i have to do it.

looking forward to the summer. currently wasting my life away at FTOPS, sigh. gl to all.

closing out april

2009-04-29T23:36:00.000-05:00

well, didn't play much poker at all this month. i've been pretty busy with school the last two weeks, as finals are coming up.

i get pretty upset with myself in general. it's terribly pathetic of me to not try and work hard at it, to make alot of money, and be successful. it's something i've always strived to do. i'm not quite sure what it is with me and poker though. many people can play forever, i just can't. maybe i have ADD or something.

next month should be better. school should be done, i'll have some time to play alot.

scuba class formally ended today. i get certified in a few weeks, so it should be good. i'm looking foward to diving around the world, seeing new sites. i think this is definitely a hobby that i can take with me for the rest of my life. my cousins dive avidly and i can't wait to get my open water dives done. first real trip will be in thailand this summer, after that, not sure. maybe australia?

in terms of athletic training and food/dieting, hasn't been so good on either. i was recently sick for a few days (pretty fucking dead to the bed sick) and lost 3 pounds of muscle. i've been trying to get back into it, and i've climbed once, swam once, ran twice since being bed ridden. i currently have a workout bet with ofishgay for $10 a day every day we skip workout, so that should keep me motivated. (lol $10)

My diet has been crap lately. I haven't ate well since ...friday? I got sick, didn't eat jack most of the next few days, and am just now getting back into it. I have alot of food to use up though before moving out. I really do think I should start a log...it'll at least keep me more accountable. Anyways, hope I can get a chance to grind next month.

some pics from bouldering

2009-04-23T11:01:00.001-05:00

some pics from my bouldering trip-

was alot fun. i look forward to climbing real mountains. too bad my gimp hand sortve hurt while i did it...oh well.

work :(

2009-04-21T12:58:00.000-05:00

the end of school is near, we have like 3 weeks left including finals week. i'm ready to go to summer, ready to end this school year. sucks ass because all my friends are leaving and i won't really have many friends to hang with next year. school work has been pretty lame for the most part...i've been doing pretty shitty overall and probably am going to get two Ds next semester. i guess i could consider studying for my geology final but meh. jazz overall has been a disastrous semester/class and i'm actually fighting to get a D in that one. if i study for geo though i probably can pull out a C or C-, so we'll see how much effort i choose to put in there.

other classes have been meh...probably get Bs or an A in my history or english class. i'm such a shitty student and it sortve disgusts me. with that said, i've never really cared enough to put forth much effort (or any at all) with regards to school.

poker has been going meh overall. i haven't really made much this month at all, haven't really played either. i guess that'll be a trend in 2009. i've been debating cashing everything out except $2k and playing from there to try and rekindle any sort of grinding passion that may lay dormant inside....but fat chance that will happen.

i guess i've just been pretty lazy in general. thinking about it now, i don't really care all that much about money. i see alot of my friends playing thousands and thousands of hands each month and making good bank (which is great for them). i've never had that passion though, at least not recently. i wonder if this hobby of mine (and or job, whatever you want to call it) has almost run its course...my passion (and goal) is to travel the world, see different cultures and be able to do different things. i've always enjoyed history and there isn't a better way of seeing it/understanding it (to a partial degree) than going there.

i've debated whether or not i should log my calorie/food intake. i'm sure it'd keep me more accountable (ala raptor's blog), but meh. i've been mainly sticking to a pretty std diet of one carb and protein for lunch and pretty much just protein for dinner. my 'diet' really isn't anything to speak of either, it's really just cutting out some unecessary carbs that i had before.

i think in terms of changing your overall diet, small steps is definitely the way to go. i remember 3 months ago i couldnt even go to sleep without being full (meaning eating a full IHOP meal when not hungry). i've since cut most of that crap out (sometimes I eat it on weekends). for those who want to start getting into working out/improving diet, i fully recommend it. you'll have more energy, more confidence, etc. it's just better all around.

start slowly. i'm not a nutrition/workout expert by any means either, just know a small bit from past experiences. start doing short cardio, maybe walking a few miles. maybe going into the weight room and doing some basic lifts. build on it and you'll see results.

gl, lets hope i run well in these last tests coming up. school is over in 2 weeks. hallelujah

no topic

2009-04-14T11:00:00.000-05:00

i finally saw some gains in my diet. i'm about 2-3 weeks in and i've lost about 5 pounds. not a ton, but its a start. i've really tried minimizing my carb intake and i haven't had a sandwhich in weeks.

i added swimming into my workout yesterday (and the future). it's incredibly difficult and i haven't swam (in actual laps) in years. so with climbing, swimming, and occasionally running, i think i can get myself into better shape than before.

taxes are coming up, i had to file for an extension on mine. one of these days i'll try and figure out how to do it on my own w/ turbo tax or something, but for now, i'm just going to use a CPA. last year's bill was pretty expensive and i hope that it's cheaper than before.

my last year's total wasn't very much i don't think. i played probably 150k hands total throughout the entire year, which is incredibly pathetic. whatever. i think in terms of poker, i hope to start playing more tourneys and get back into NLHE. along that note, i've been playing at carbon poker lately (lol) and find that i can't focus. whether it be .5/1 or just carbon itself, i treat it like play money and really can't focus/play well. i think the solution is to just deposit more $ there and to actually play some meaningful stakes (1/2+).

my summer schedule is fairly set. i've decided that i'm probably not going to go anywhere in may (maybe a short trip or something). the certification for scuba diving is in later may and i'll have to sign up for that soon if i want to do it.

i'm also going on an outdoor trip to kansas for a day this coming sunday. i'm going to rock city, a place where they have all these hugeass boulders to climb.

scuba class has been going good. there are some people who aren't comfortable in the water. one chick started spazzing and flailing last week when she had to take her mask off and couldnt do it lol. hopefully i am able to get certified this summer, really looking foward to diving in thailand.

work

2009-04-06T12:16:00.001-05:00

ugh, i have a ton of work to do in the next few weeks.

my taxes for one...i definitely have to get on those. probably going to have to pay a late penalty or something, getting all my poker hands organized and shit is a hassle. so annoying, i hate taxes.

i have to enroll in my online spanish class. i have to pay my speeding ticket and call this texas judge. i have to check housing for next year. one of these days i'm just going to stop putting it off and get to it.

i sometimes think i've got some extreme slacker problems. i can't ever do something ahead of time, it always has to be last minute. in theory i'd love to get stuff done early...but for some reason, just can't. i also have a large paper due nearing the end of the semester and i'm slacking heavily on that.

my summer schedule is shaping up. i still don't know where to go (or if i'm going anywhere at all) in may. i still have to figure out my housing stuff though (as well as some other stuff, like scuba diving certification).

poker has been going swell. actually not really...it's alot of ups and downs (such is PLO) and i've been swinging several buyins each day. it's pretty stressful and not very fun. in tracking all my PLO hands though, i'm pleased to see that i'm about +20k with rb over 70k hands of PLO (mostly 1/2). so not bad. i've definitely ran very hot and very cold in many instances.

with that said, i don't think i'm going to make this much $ this year. i've seen my passion for poker slowly dieing with each year passing by. i just don't enjoy it as much anymore, and if it were up to me, i wouldn't mind never playing again.

ok maybe not NEVER again, but you get the picture. playing recreationally would be fun i suppose (playing live every now and again). the sad part is is that i'm pretty much playing recreationally now...i play probably 10k > hands a month (pathetic i know). i still enjoy coaching and what have you.

maybe it's time to learn a new game. PLO was the fire that rekindled my poker passion in the summer and i really enjoyed learning a new game. NLHE is very boring and i haven't played it in a while.

i'm living w/another poker player this next year (or semester). i'm hoping that will get me motivated to play more hands. when i was in vegas with other players, i played a shitton of hands. it was easy to play 30k hands when you saw carrotsnake playing for hours each day.

i also did a review for slowhabit's new PLO book coming out soon (x-posted on DC forum)-

I was chosen to be a reviewer for SlowHabit's new PLO book.

first, a bit of background- I've been playing PLO for the past few months now. I have received probably ~20 hours coaching lifetime from Parlay Slow (he has a Late Night Coaching with Joe Tall and I for a PLO video). I've been beating up on FTP 1/2 (running well obviously) and feel decently experienced in the game (by most standards).

Tri's book is a good primer/introduction for many NLHE players wanting to transition over to the game. I would not recommend buying this book if you play 1/2NL or lower. I'm not quite sure what the price will be, but there are concepts that are presented that (while not incredibly advanced) can be difficult for 1/2 players and lower.

If you currently do not think about hand equity and future planning (ie. having a plan for the hand, understanding what you want to do on various turns/rivers), this book will be hard for you (and PLO in general). equity and future streets are two large concepts that Tri hammers in this book, and without giving away too much content, is vital for understanding PLO.

Tri goes into many general situations, alot of preflop examples, equity charts, equity comparisons, etc. It is pretty well detailed and will help many NLHE players understand how different PLO really is.

A few concepts presented that I liked-
-equity discussion, how well our hand held up against his range of hands.
-betting the turn...I think this is a nice, good concept that many PLO players don't do enough. also the donk betting section is very good as well (and i agree with all of it).
-explaining many general concepts (albeit basic), such as what boards to c-bet, when to check, etc. This isn't simply a blueprint for you to gauge every hand or play on, but a nice concept-builder of what you are doing and WHY. (This is of course why we buy products as these, is to understand WHY we do it).
-comparisons to NLHE play- since many of the consumers will be NLHE players looking to come over, I liked how many of Tri's examples are put into NLHE terms. Why x is good in NLHE but why it sucks in PLO, and vice versa. It's always nicer to understand something when you have a foundation to work from.

What I thought could be improved-
-This book is about 75 pages long. I think that the book could benefit from having a little more content in some of the areas, primarily the general concepts section. As stated in other reviews, Tri's primary method of communication is using hand histories and equity charts. This is a good way to show by example. I think adding just a bit more (few more examples perhaps) would have been nice.

-It's hard to have a fully comprehensive book that is engaged in EVERY situation. Tri does a nice job explaining many of the general concepts, but still misses a few. As stated in the sixpepper's review, Tri misses out a bit on some other general concepts such as limping the button, overlimping, full ring play, etc. Squeezing wasn't really addressed either, though it's harder to squeeze in PLO as often when compared to NLHE.

So overall, I liked it. As a semi-decent/semi-experienced PLO player, I still learned a few new points. It also stabilized many of the concepts that I had either learned or thought about previously. Overall, it's definitely worth a buy if you are a mid stakes player looking to make the jump.

hope everyone is running better than i am in april.

closing out march

2009-03-30T10:36:00.000-05:00

a bit bored right now...i should be doing some work but i'll just ramble here.

poker has been pretty sour lately, lost about 10 bi in 2 days and havent played since. you'd think i'd be used to the swings by now but it's still frustrating. not winning any flips and playing like total shit is a nice recipe for losing money. doh. i plan on coming back in april and cutting down to 4 tables and seeing how that goes. i had the mentality of 'omg i need to play 8 tables so i can get my $ back and THEN i'll do 4 tables to cut it down'...idiotic. i just sometimes lose perspective on the fact that poker is about the long run and these little downswings (however significant/insignificant they may be) don't matter that much. it all evens out in the end (hopefully).

i have a few pics up from spring break.

south padre was a fun time. the beach was nice, weather was pretty solid (for the most part). the drive down there and back was pretty bad overall and i got a ticket (still have to call in for that bullshit). enjoying the last trip that all of my friends and i have before everyone enters the real world was fun.

i recently went to a 1999 themed party and dressed as a chigga. we ran streets in beer pong and i probably pissed off about 30 people.

as i've said in the past, i am always seeking a balanced lifestyle. alec torelli made a pretty cool post on his blog HERE where he is fighting the same problem(s). while i make nowhere near trahoe i think all of us as poker players can understand the constant battle of floating in and out of reality. on one hand we are making great money, well above the average for our age. making 6 figures in this game in a year is only predicated off work ethic (typically) and how many hours you put in. if many of us had to do 8 hours a day on poker, 40 hours a week, we'd probably all be millionaires (ok not true but you understand where i'm getting at). as poker players, we grow accustomed to our lazy ways, disregarding price tags and living a life that frankly not many live.

we lose touch with reality. we think about how much we can make, what we can do to increase our winrates or find passive income such as rakeback deals/staking/etc. like any hobby or profession that takes over one's life, poker can be such a habit. i think being balanced is something all of us strive to do. i know that i have a few hobbies that i'm either partaking in now (rock climbing, scuba diving) or want to try in the future (learn to cook, do more outdoors stuff like hike/etc).

anyways, time to sign up for classes now. i think i'm taking some history, spanish (fuck), an education class and an elective. seems simple enough i think. bah.

POKER IS A WHORE

2009-03-27T13:43:00.001-05:00

that is all. FU POKER

updates

2009-03-24T22:39:00.000-05:00

sorry haven't updated in a while. i went down to south padre, TX for spring break this past week which was a blast. no real pics up, maybe in the future. the drive there/back sucked dick and i got a $220 ticket. lead foot yee was going 12 over and fucking texan bastards wrote me a ticket.

i haven't played much poker this month (go figure). been busy with some school stuff, spring break i took a week off as well. probably up like nothing this month but whatever. meh.

school has been going alright. i think i'm probably resigning myself to a D in history of jazz. i just need the credit. at this point i'm content with doing shitty in those classes that i just need credit for. call it senioritis or something, i dont know. i probably should try marginally but i just find it so boring and gay. i have to sign up for some classes next semester, probably looking towards U.S. military history and a history of China class.

i also enrolled into a scuba class, not sure if i mentioned it here. i'm pretty excited for more experience with scuba diving...we had one class and it's a load of fun. i need to finish this class and then do some open water dives to be certified. i still haven't figured out some of my summer plans (more on this later), so we'll see then.

as far as exercise/diet/etc has been going, i've decided to cut back on some of the carbs that i normally enjoy. i started this yesterday and am anxious to see the results (probably won't come for quite some time). for instance, instead of eating 3 slices of bread and making a chicken sandwhich, i just ommitted the bread (same with tonight). i normally eat a shitton of carbs in general and i think cutting back on some of them will allow me to both gain muscle and lose body fat faster.

i haven't lifted in forever. i'm at the point in my life where i don't really care about lifting as much, at least exclusively. mountain climbing is a great work out and i feel that i'm already getting stronger from that. but as far as going in the gym and lifting weights, meh. i might do it every once in a blue moon but i doubt it. i still don't mind running and probably will interchange cardio/climbing throughout the week.

it feels good in general to work out again after spring break. i'm not sure what i'm going to do this summer when i'm unable to climb...maybe just do pushups/situps. i'd love to continue climbing though and i'm afraid that all strength i've built will be lost. (which would suck dick).

this summer i have mapped out for the most part. this thursday i think i'm going to go book my ticket, or at least discuss it. i'm going with two other friends, both poker buddies from nebraska. i've heard many stories on thailand and the place itself seems like a blast.

i don't know what i'm really doing in may. i wanted to initially go somewhere. i may or may not just take a 2 week vacation somewhere and spend the other 2 weeks getting all my shit organized. i have a fair amount of work to do in the next month or two...i have to find a place to live next year, find a solution (since i'm only doing 4 months of school, doing a full yearly lease sucks). i also have to get all my tax stuff in order because taxes are coming up (ughhh).

2 weeks somewhere sounds fun. i'll figure it out.

fucking planet of the apes

2009-03-07T22:19:00.000-06:00

so today i decided to go to the horseshoe for some 1/3 and 2/5 action. i find live poker pretty fun in general, though i don't really go very often. the horseshoe was pretty busy today as it's the weekend and the degens have to find some way to gamble their paychecks away.

anyways, i float from 1/3 for a bit until a 2/5 seat opens up. i don't really play many (or any) hands. i am lodged between a guy who looks like ****ing uncle rico-
and this super ****ing mammoth of a fatass. good lord i smelled him from a mile away.

the casino tried starting another table but none of the retards showed up. the lineup was an old retard, a gayrab lady, and a fatass lady. i proposed we play 4-handed but all of them declined. i was forced to go back to 1/3 and donk around there.

the 2/5 called me not too long after and i sat. the game looked pretty good...there were some definite retards sitting.

first orbit i open A:club:Q:heart: to $20 after a limper, a guy to my direct left who looked exactly like :

did his best gus hansen impression and reraised me to $110. i folded without much thought.

anyways, i run pretty ****ing cold the first hour or two. zero cards. all pps miss, i raise a few scs and get called a few ways, then am forced to just c/f when flops like KKQ hit when it's 4 way action. i limp a few other marginal hands in position and don't hit. i'm down a few hundred pretty quickly just from reloading. there was one retarded situation where two limp in front, i bump up KQ, one call (the two limpers fold). the flop is T67 and the douche donks into me. i fold and show my neighbors the KQs (the two people that limped were to my direct right) and they both said they limp/folded AQ. LOL RETARDS.

fat arab lady next to me starts talking with me. it appears her husband is at the same table as her and he's definitely not all there. the guy was an old retard and super super laggy...he would make bizarre plays (pretty much the prefect description of live play) and spaz alot.

anyways, i opened AA UTG, gayrab calls, a few others call. flop is Q92. i bet $60 into $80, gayrab lady makes it $160. she has like $400 total so i just jam the rest in and she tanks. she starts talking to herself and i'm like "oh **** this lady is about to get raped". then she says "if you have queens then oh well, i call" and i **** a brick. she flips red deuces and i'm drawing pretty much dead. i reload to $500.

by this time i'm down about $900...i only brought $1.5k (maybe a bit too little, i didn't expect to lose this quickly lol). overall i've ran pretty ****ing bad at the horseshoe with all things considering. i can remember hands from a while back where i always either ran into the top of someone's range and/or got sucked out on as a decent favorite. anyways, enough crying from me...

i witness a bizarre hand later...super super azn nit to my direct right (who plays literally like 2 hands an hour, he l/f-ed AQ earlier) limp/calls AQo again. the PFR was from MP, who had been pretty active and bad. the SB comes along as well (so it's EP limps, MP raises, SB calls, EP calls).

flop is A 7 6 and sb donks like full pot. EP (tight azn) tanks for a minute or two while staring into SB's heart. this fat**** tard with a big stack and a UFC hat calls time on the azn. the azn gets super pissed off and eventually folds (while showing me)/MP folds. SB proudly shows black TT and scoops.

the direct next hand, the azn sits there preflop and asks the fat**** if he wants to call time on him again. the fat**** says it wasn't anything personal. the azn continues to talk **** to the fatass and the fatass spazzes and runs off/calls the floor.

another hand i call a raise with 56 in position from gayrab's husband, the table maniac. a few others call as well.

flop is 667. maniac bets $20 into $100, tightish guy who has been running like the sun calls $20. i raise to $70, gayrab lady cold calls $70 behind me, all else fold.

turn K i bet $120 and she folds. mustve been some idiotic 89 or spades.

you see some of the dumbest **** in live poker...man...it just amazes me how retarded people can get. i saw this one hand earlier when the gayrab lady and this other fat butch went at it...limped pot, flop is 9T2...sb bets $10, gayrab JAMS for $150, fat butch tanks forever and calls with QJo, saying she had pot odds. i wanted to start smacking her over and over but didn't. (QJ eventually did hit a straight so what do i know, maybe she's a potripper ffs).

anyways, not really too many other interesting hands. i slowly build sortve a stack with $750 or so after i raise KJo, maniac husband calls along w/ a few others. flop Qxx, cked around. turn K i bet maniac calls, river x he c/fs.

there was another hand a little later where i open JJ UTG and get like 4 callers. this other old monkey makes it $40 from the SB and i'm ****ting a brick, but call obviously. everyone else calls as well. i'd seen him spaz out earlier where he b/c the turn w/ TT on 4438 board in a limped pot (when it was obvious the other person had a 4) and then c/c-ed the river in a spazzy fashion. anyways, on this JJ hand, the pot was super super bloated ($40 pf like 6 ways).

flop Q23r, old nit bets $50. i called, though in retrospect i should have folded probably. seeing him overvalue his hands earlier mightve led me to call this time (as he might be doing this with TT/99, but then again, he doesnt do this pf with those hands, so FML). a few others call. turn is 9, he bets again and i fold, the table maniac calls. the river is a brick and old nit jams, the maniac tanks for a bit and folds (LOL he had to pay like $100 more in a $500-600 pot).

there was a string raise later in a hand i wasn't involved in. azn nit opens to $30 pf after some limpers, old ass on the other end of the table makes a string raise to $120 (but was only allowed to rr like $50 more due to his string bet). old guy starts to argue a bit and the azn nit spazes. old guy eventually says "ok ok ok, whatever. you are only here to help i see". azn points at him and shakes his head, eventually saying "i am not here to help" (in super broken english)..."i'm here to take your ****ing money". old guy nods.

flop is Axx, old nit checks and folds to azn's all in (folds KK faceup). azn nit continues to grumble.

anyways, overall, a pretty ****tastic night. i lost about $800 when it was all said and done, ****ing pathetic if you take into account my opponents. i ran super damn cold, probably didn't play optimally in all spots either. oh well, maybe next time. at least i had some delicious country fried steak and a massage at the poker room.

playing like shit

2009-03-06T13:21:00.000-06:00

last few days have been pretty rocky. i've been playing pretty pisspoor, getting it in pretty bad. tilting + PLO is a fast way to lose money and lord i know it. i haven't been winning the 45/55s and vice versas either. I think i'm typically getting myself into good spots (ie. getting the money in good against his estimated range). though it's frustrating running into the top of everyone's ranges.

i'm not even really down as much, its just frustrating to break even like this, going up/down several buyins every session and not make anything.

the games also have become more aggro with the inception of more regulars. there are a few pretty good plo players at the 1/2 limit and at times the games remind me of a NL cash game...with 4 regulars and 2 fish. when this happens the money goes flying all around with 3-betting/4-betting/getting it in mega light/etc. at one point the other day i was losing and winning 2-4 stacks every 10 minutes.

self analyzation is the best key when playing bad. i think i'm also going to take a day or two off to clear my head. pretty sure i'm going to go home and might go play in the casino tonight, though i'm not sure. even though some of you might think that casino doesn't really = break from poker, i feel that it's typically pretty fun and relaxing.

to update on some life stuff, i met with my adviser and it's ok if i get a D in my class. i just need the credit for the class(es)...i'm mainly talking about history of jazz and geology, both classes are retarded. i always do piss poor in classes that i find boring (which is alot of them). i also was able to enroll into scuba diving, some person dropped so i was allowed in. i'm hoping to get certified before thailand and it's looking pretty good now.

still haven't figured out where i'm going in may, if anywhere. also our spring break trip to south padre is back on so i'm looking forward to that (probably will be leaving this coming friday for a while). this is sort've our last hurrah as seniors and the last time we'll have a opportunity to do this together i think.

hope everyone is running better than i am...

climbing/summer plans/etc

2009-03-02T16:24:00.000-06:00

I think I've gotten most of my summer plans taken care of, still have some things to smooth over.

I get out of school on May 9thish. I have a month or so before I do anything/go anywhere and am still mulling over if and where I should go.

June 9-18th I think I'll be in Seattle with family. I might have a night or two though to meet up with anyone there.

June 26th- July 10th I think I'll be at the WSOP during the main event. I'm hoping to get staked for this thing, or maybe just put up half and sell the other half of myself. I dunno, I guess I'll decide when it gets closer. Probably going to be in a house with a few friends so that should be fun.

July 16th-August 16th- I'm fairly sure I'm going to go to Thailand during this time. Still deciding on actual plans (how long to stay in either Phuket/Bangkok, etc), but the general consensus between a friend and I are where we will be staying. Still have another friend or two semi interested in this so that should be fun.

As stated I'm still on the fence on what to do for the first month. Most of my friends will probably be getting real jobs soon and going into the real world (fuck that lol). I guess I have a few months to decide.

I've been climbing alot recently. I did a 5.9 yesterday after some trouble (but eventually made it to the top after falling a few times). I feel that I'm getting alot stronger (especially in forearms/fingers/wrists/shoulders). I still plan on hitting up a school-sponsored trip to Kansas for a day for bouldering sometime in April.

I've also decided that I'm going to learn scuba diving and try and get certified. I've called around and looked at some local places. The process takes about 2 weeks or so, sounds sort've like a bitch. But I think it's going to be well worth it, especially when I head down to Thailand. The class I called in about cost about $400, I'm debating doing it later in May in Omaha where it'll both probably be cheaper and when I have more time.

I guess I've never been SUPER extreme outdoorsman for the latter part of my life. In my years in Gainesville, I was out all day every day (and I'm sure it's the same way for everyone else when they were younger). Though since High school onwards I've been pretty much an indoors person, not really doing a whole lot of camping/hiking/etc. Perhaps it could be because Omaha/Nebraska doesn't have many great outdoors stuff (large bodies of water, mountains, etc) but meh. I do want to get back into doing some other outdoors stuff though, like I did in the past.

Anyways, hope everyone has some cool summer plans coming up. I'm still not 100% sure on my spring break trip to South Padre as logistics problems have arisen. If that falls through I'll probably be going to Tahoe to visit with carrotfish/terp/starkwired/Snipe and a few others. Might go visit my cousins in Alameda as well, we'll see.

Closing out Feb

2009-02-28T13:24:00.001-06:00

hope everyone had a decent februrary. my feb was alright, i didn't get a ton of volume obviously but was still happy with the results. i think this month i played more than the previous few months so that's good.

i ran really well (obviously). i'm playing pretty well as well, though my non -sd winnings are pretty slim to none. i feel like i'm a bit too nitty in some spots, unlike some of the situations in NLHE. hopefully i can play more next month, we'll see. i think i got in about close to 20 hours when its all said and done for the month...pretty shitty but whatever.

i also added about 1k on my laptop...add in rakeback and bonuses and shit, its probably closer to 7.5k or something, maybe more. meh, i'll take it.

life took a scare recently. i just got done taking a spanish class online. since i'm such a slacker i only checked the online thing once a week. i didn't check the damn site and learned that the entire course shut down on february 26th, a day after i checked my assignments. since i had many assignments/compositions to do left, i was shitting a brick. i had to get a 70% to pass and with all those zeros i wasn't sure. the GPA/grade itself didn't really matter since they don't convert when transferring credits (i took this spanish class with a local community college).

anyways, i found out last night that i got a 80% in the course, which is a B. lucked out there. I still have to take a course in the summer and eventually in the fall. if i were a smart man i'd do the course in the spring here so i wouldn't have any to do in the summer, but i'm not. i'm a super slacker that needs it to be that last day/week for me to do any academics. this will probably come to bite me in the ass one day but whatever.

gl in march. i'm probably going to be heading down to south padre w/ friends for a week. if that doesn't fall through, i'll probably head to tahoe with other friends.

sick run

2009-02-25T01:26:00.000-06:00

been really sick in PLO, ive been running super high above expectation. its a bit embarrassing but i guess ill just take the money, who cares. i've been pretty disappointed with my non showdown winnings. i've realized that i'm playing a bit too nitty postflop in PLO and sortve just going with hands where i have decent equity. i'm not pushing my marginal edges enough and i'm not making alot of plays that i characteristically did in NLHE. i feel that i need to open up my game a bit more in PLO, and as the spots have become more and more comfortable for me, i can do this.

i hope to continue playing PLO, fuck NLHE. PLO is much more fun and complex, especially when running hot like i am :). In other life news, I'm doing fucking terrible in my classes this semester. All I need to do is pass though so that's my goal. Also been climbing a decent amount as well. I have been having decent success, doing a 5.6-5.7 yesterday and doing 5.7+ and 5.8 today. Pretty impressed with myself.

chillin

2009-02-23T16:50:00.000-06:00

sup guys, sorry no update in a while. again, just not alot to post about. my life is pretty boring.

been running pretty hot in poker. should finish the month around +7 or 8, depending on how well i run. a pretty solid return given the number of hands i played (10k>). i probably have about 15 hours total this month, pretty lame overall. not really sure why i dont enjoy playing...i do know that whenever i do play, i DO enjoy it, albeit for however short it may be. PLO has been going very well and i feel that i'm both playing and running well. haven't played a ton of NLHE the past few months but there have been opportunities that i've been able to use to keep my game sharp (sweating/coaching/reading threads/etc).

i have another week left in my queer spanish class thank god thats almost done. i'm doing pretty mediocre in my other classes but my goal is to pretty much just pass, so whatever. i haven't been a very good student since early in high school. meh, i'll figure it out. alot of my friends are going to grad school and shit...not really for me, at least at this point in my life.

pretty sure i'm going to thailand for like 3-4 weeks over the summer, starting on the 18th of may. going to go with a friend from home (poker player as well), but probably looking for 1-2 others. pm me or whatever and lmk if anyone wants to room with us. think i might do a loooong trip, going from thailand to seattle and then vegas (and finally home) all summer, so we'll see. holla if you're going to be anywhere at the time.

the lifespan of a poker player

2009-02-19T13:25:00.000-06:00

a few weeks ago, i wrote a small thing on 'the evolution of a poker player'. while i may or may not be correct in my assumptions, i'd like to also discuss the life of a poker player. not necessarily what an average poker player does during the day, but more the lifespan of his career choice.

a poker player's lifespan (or however long he can beat the game) takes on various courses and stages. many do not (and can not) taste success in poker (where success = varying degrees of money). many don't make it past the first early stages where it is a hobby and pasttime, something for enjoyment.

for those beginning a serious approach to poker (reading/discussing/etc), their money is won by taking $ from the fish and other weaker players- poker is predicated on beating those weaker than yourself (through a variety of fashions). some of these fashions include tilt control, game selection, just being flat out better than your opponent, or hundreds of other factors that make up poker. many learn the game to a degree where they are just solid tighter players who have the PF stats down but not much else. those that 10 table eaking out a 1ptbb/100 win monthly and whom are labeled 'tagfish' by their peers. rakeback pros ftw.

a player's skill changes with the games (obviously). back in 2005, all you needed was a decent preflop hand selection and to know when to get it in with TPTK. as the games evolve, so do the players. NLHE is obviously a much more studied game than it was in previous years. people are 3-betting light even at the 10NL games, something unheard of a few years ago.

a player's lifespan in poker is dependent on how many opponents he can beat (and how effective thereof). many winners in past years are struggling to beat todays games. this could be for many reasons, if not for the sole reason of TAGs being better on all levels. some find themselves unable to beat todays games and forced to move down in limits. and then, finallly, when this player is either bored or unable to compete, he stops and moves onto other things (or continues to lose money).

im not sure when poker will 'dry up'. there are obviously hundreds and thousands of microstakes games. this game is still obviously very popular. maybe it'll catch fire in asia or something.

?

2009-02-14T21:48:00.000-06:00

keep wanting to update this blog but nothing really of note. i've been in FL the past few days enjoying some time off from school/poker and being with family. We've been going to various amusement parks (Universal and Busch Gardens), both pretty fun. (Though Universal is really great, highly recommended for anyone and friends). I've enjoyed roller coasters alot, though I was relatively late in my love for them (started them when I was in 7th grade). To those who want to go to a park with friends/gf/etc, go to Universal and Universal Islands of Adventure. Both are pretty great parks with a fair mix of fun shows, roller coasters, etc. here is one from cedar point that i quite enjoyed: (millennium force)-

The hulk is pretty fun too- (islands of Adventure)

the hulk is a great coaster...launches you 70 mph in a second or two and you come flying down. anyways, enough on roller coasters.

Florida itself is a pretty great state. for those who don't know, i grew up in gainesville, FL for 11 years and enjoyed it alot. it's definitely different than the other cities i've lived in (seattle, philly, omaha) but still very enjoyable. i like the weather alot (though summers are pretty sappy) and the beaches are always great. my family and i went to the beach today, here are some pics-

annnd me getting burned by my dad-

HERE

fun times. poker is going well, havent played a ton this month (big surprise) but still doing alright. been eating like a pig lately, havent been sticking with any diet/exercise much. i'm thinking about going on this rock climbing thing with my school in april, it's only $50 and an entire day...sounds fun enough. i'll have to think about this though. anyways, hope everyone is running well/living well.

the evolution of a poker player

2009-02-09T15:56:00.000-06:00

there have been many excellent posts on this subject, the first being ray zee's post followed by many others (such as aejones/etc). here is something i've observed when focusing on my own play and others and the developments that occur.

a player first starts fairly poorly, making fundamental mistakes. these mistakes can be categorized in many different ways, namely either being too tight, too loose, being too passive or too aggressive. many poker 'style's are predicated from one's personality (and obviously the better players adjust to this, more on that later). the beginning player is often making these fundamental errors as well as dynamic ones, not only limping J4s UTG but also open shoving 150bbs into a 8bb pot on the flop. many players obviously do not make it past this first stage, in which their are so many errors in terms of overall play that losing is inevitable.

the second stage (imo) is the first start of the learning process. be it for one reason or another (forums, books, chatting w/ better players), the player 'evolves', and begins learning actual strategy. this player realizes that 60/20 is not the way to go. or 19/8. he starts to start thinking about things a little. now, this player may still make some fundamental mistakes and logic such as raise/folding an overpair for 'information, or to see where i was at', but that's ok, at least for now. he stops making the horrible mistakes he made in the past, that is, to limp/call Q9 UTG and such. he stops calling 24s OOP to a PFR. he starts to make better decisions, stops slowplaying as often. this player starts to think.

further, as players get better, the learning process continues. the fundamentals get crisper. they start to learn pot odds, range weighting and other fun math. these players know to start raising more in position and to stop playing so much out of position. they start grasping other simple maneuvers such as check raising as a bluff and semi bluff, to start raising c-bets in position, to start floating. many players get to this stage, robotic tagbots that play fairly straightfoward and take money from fish while breaking even vs. regulars. many players inhabit the micro and ssnl limits.

from here, players build on what they know. they start to balance their ranges. they start to manipulate perceived ranges, both from them and their opponents. they start to get into 'leveling wars'. they learn to make tough folds, they learn to stop making stupid plays where their lines make no sense. they start to hand read, they start to think a few streets ahead, and their reraising ranges are not only premiums. they know when to make the right plays depending on opponents and are not balancing their ranges vs. fish. alot of these players are seen in small to mid stakes games.

from here, i can only guess. the HSNL world of poker are several universes ahead of me, and i can't even comprehend some of their thought processes. even though poker is a seemingly simple game, there are many many levels in terms of mathematics, game theory, psychology, etc. that are involved. it's funny to think about it on a grand scale...players do very weird unconventional things when they first start, when they are fish...as they get better, they go from typically a very tight process to a lag/tag one, and finally when they reach the highest stakes, they revert back to unconvetional mode...in that they do many unconventional, non standard things, just like when they were fish. they make plays that don't always make alot of sense, because it keeps them one step ahead of their competition. there are still some that can succeed by playing good, solid, fundamental poker (leatherass, etc). but the very best play differently (durrr, ivey, etc).

poker styles are not unified either. players may adopt one style for most of their career (be it tighter tag, lag/tag, lag, etc) but learn to adjust. they adjust based on the dynamics given, the history and opponent type. no longer do they have only one style, but multiple.

anddd i could be wrong on all of this. but i think its accurate in alot of ways.

stuff

2009-02-08T23:40:00.000-06:00

sup guys sorry for no updates in a while. haven't been tremendously busy, just lazy. i plan on updating more though so meh.

been running pretty well in poker. ive done about 7 hours or so? which is almost an hour a day. not bad, considering. PLO hands run alot slower though, so hand wise i'll be failing pretty badly. been running well though, hands are holding up, occasionally sucking out on someone else, etc.

school is going alright. havent been studying really at all, some of my classes are a fucking joke though. i havent been to history of jazz since the first day of class (and my first test). the only real challenge i have with my schedule is my queer spanish class and also my core history class. everything else is fine. i guess my objectives are just not to fail and to pass everything else, aside from that (getting a C), i dont really care. meh...maybe i should have studied harder but whatever.

as i've said in the past, i don't really see myself working a 9-5 in a cubicle somewhere. plenty of people do it, and i'm not condoning it, just don't really think i'm of the right skill set for a job like that. i've always wanted to do something that i've enjoyed, not only for the money (which is probably why i wanted to be a teacher (and still do) for so long). and another reason why i dont play as much poker as others...i just dont really care about the money all that much. sure, its very nice...but some of my friends play 100,000 hands a month, grinding their asses off and making a killing...ive never had it in me to do something like that, so whatever.

not really sure what im doing for summer yet. plans are up in the air, ranging from south america to thailand to australia, etc. i'm thinking i'll do a month in thailand and then maybe a month in vegas (though a month was a bit much last time, im thinking maybe like 2-3 weeks might be better). some friends are there now and it looks like a blast. cant wait to be out of school, can't wait to travel. speaking of trips, i spontaneously booked a trip to orlando to go w/ my family this wed. to monday...i figure i could use a vacation, and going somewhere warm will be nice.

also along the same vein of planning vacations, prob will go to a few UF games next year. i'm thinking UTenn (fuck kiffin) and FSU (fuck the noles). this time of the year always sucks dick for sports (at least for me) since im not much into college hoops (maybe ill research more come tourney time) and football is done. NBA doesnt do much for me either.

pz

some stuff

2009-01-26T01:04:00.000-06:00

i've pretty much scrapped my hourly goal...no way in hell that i actually get it. i think that anyone who actually reads this shitty blog has come to the realization that i rarely achieve my hourly goals (which is pathetic). the sad thing is, that was one of the reasons why i really made this blog...no, not to seek attention from the world, but to keep myself accountable. it's sad to think that i can't keep myself focused enough to ever really acheive these goals of mine. to be frank and honest though, i've actually enjoyed playing alot more when i do decide to play. i also find that i play better when motivated, so i think i'll just stick with this method in regards to playing.

probably won't make a ton this month. i've played less than 10k hands, laughably. i've been coaching a fair amount this month, which has been great. i enjoy teaching and helping others. i did play alot of PLO during this month and it was pretty nice...didn't run fantastic, but still ran well enough.

School has been going meh overall. My schedule is pretty soft in general, primarily due to me skipping lots and lots of History of Jazz. Geology is pretty queer and I have to do a project for it this coming week. Spanish sucks my ass... although it's an online class, i still despise it. words cannot describe how much i hate it. and i still have a few more courses to go. the sick thing is, i was .5 semesters away in high school (dropped out second sem of spanish 4) from not ever having to take it in college. wish they would've told me how big of a dumbass i am/was.

i've been slacking on my reading lately. I'm currently reading 'World Without Us', a book about how the earth would be if humans disappeared tomorrow. It's pretty interesting, and I enjoy alot of the post-apoc stuff, so I'm enjoying this book. I'm pretty backed up in general though and have alot of different books that I want to read.

I've also had a chance to see a few different movies lately. With all the awards coming out, I thought I should see some of the films to form an opinion on some of the nominees.

Benjamin Button- story of a man who is born as an 80 year old and gets younger physically as he gets older. sortve a strange movie. I didn't mind it, thought it was decent. some of the scenes and visuals were well done, and the music was pretty good. overall though, i didn't really think much of it...it was a film that seemed like it wanted to be a forest gump like epic, but fails. there weren't enough 'event's to really make benjamin button's life interesting to me. maybe it's because i don't really like romance, which is heavily involved in this movie. meh, overall, not bad, maybe worth a watch, i'm not going to see it again though.

gran torino- hilarious flick about clint eastwood (super hardass korea vet) who is super racist towards asians and everyone else. a story about a man overcoming his beliefs. i really enjoyed this and think its well worth a watch.

slumdog millionaire- movie about a kid who wins on 'who wants to be a millionaire' in mumbai. it's clearly impossible that a slumdog kid could know all the answers to the questions so he's taken by the police. the movie cycles through his life as he goes through each answer. i thought this movie was pretty good, well worth a watch. reminded me of city of god in some ways. definitely a fun one though.

the wrestler- movie about a down on his luck wrestler who tries to make a comeback. really fantastic acting by rourke imo, he makes the character seem very believable. he struggles to find his identity through family (strained relationship w/ daughter), potential love (a stripper he frequently visits), and his failing career/health. overall a good movie.

Overall I enjoyed gran torino most on a personal level (just bc i thought it was fucking hilarious) though slumdog mightve been the best 'movie' perse. i'm excited for a few movies to come out, namely 'watchmen' (i'm a comic nerd fwiw). wolverine movie looks cool as well.

anyways, i'd like to add some more things (ie. thoughts on CFB/books/MMA (not that i'm an expert just like to talk about it)/etc) but i'm tired. just finished the first season of dexter and it was pretty cool, check it out. (premise is he is a serial killer who is also a forensic scientist. he kills 'bad guys' and has a code to satiate his hunger to kill) while working for the police. a pretty cool fun show.

school starts/life/etc

2009-01-15T18:45:00.000-06:00

second semester started, its pretty meh overall. my classes are all going to be fairly easy, with the exception of one of my history classes (i have to do a ton of research for this queer 15-20 pager that I have to do by the end). i've decided that i'm not going to go to any of my history of jazz classes either- all my friends said its pointless and just to do the study guide questions in the book. so i'll just not go until my first test and see how it goes (trial and error ftw!).

school overall sort've blows. i'm ready to be done i think, ready to try new things. while poker hasn't been as profitable for me as it was in the past (mainly due to running bad/playing bad/not playing at all), and i hope to somehow reclaim that passion.

HERE is a cool post that I have similar feelings with. While I haven't quite won $300k the past few years (LOL volume/taxes), I can definitely feel some of the same feelings that he has. As I've said in the past, I've never really been a true grinder (other than when I first started playing). I envy those people like shpanko and jongreenway/ZeKGB/etc. They beat the game well for a reason, if not just for pure volume (you obviously get yourself into more situations when playing more hands, and adjusting/seeing those situations prepare you better for the future).

When I was taking my history class the other day, my professor was describing what it really means to be a 'historian' (this class was a core class for history majors, mainly focused on research/etc). I dunno, a history degree is pretty useless in most cases I think. Only really did it because my main option (secondary ed) didn't work out. A 'historian' just doesn't seem right either...it's like a title only reserved for professors and those people doing field work (interviewing people about x event/etc). Not really sure what I'll be doing for a career, but meh...this is one such regret I have about playing poker- sure it's given me a great lifestyle and enabled me to pay my bills, but how is it going to feel when I have to go into a desk job for 40 hours a week grinding it out for $40 an hour, if that? I almost feel as if I can't do it, be it from my experiences with poker or my personality- I'd much rather be making scraps and loving my job than doing something I hate for a little more.

Also have to figure out my summer plans, along the same vein. I'm sure I want to travel post graduation, and this summer as well. I'm thinking Thailand, I hear that it's crazy fun (especially with all the SSNL guys there, bastards). For spring break my friends and I are planning on going to South Padre island near Texas (march 15th?-22nd). Should be a blast.

Updates/UF winning/etc

2009-01-11T14:37:00.001-06:00

sup guys, sorry I havent updated in a while. I've been fairly lazy in terms of pokering/getting any work done for that matter.

For those who didn't tune in, UF won on thursday, beating OU 24-14. It was a pretty good game, really quite unexpected for the most part. The teams were tied at 7-7 at half, stunning for teams who average a combined 100+ points a game. The defenses really ruled the field as both D-lines played great. The trip started off pretty shitty as I missed my connection in Detroit and was forced to spend the night there (just stayed up all night in Detroit aiport). I played my RTS game and had some japs rallying around me watching, that was hilarious. Miami had some great weather and it was an average of 80 or so throughout the week.

Unfortunately our hotel was full of OU fans. I think I only saw about 10 or so Gators present, which was disappointing. The shuttle to the game consisted of about 12 OU fans and my friend and I. There was alot of trash talk before the game and those ignorant inbreds had posters and such making fun of Florida. I also asked them what they'd do if they lost the game and the very idea was foreign to them. My degen nature almost presented a bet proposal but I controlled myself.

The game as a whole was a good one. As stated, the defenses really stepped up for both teams. Tebow and UF OL/option game took over in the fourth quarter and broke away.

Overall, a pretty fun event. I sortve wish I could have stayed in Miami longer but meh, whatever.

Poker has been going meh overall. I deposited into a new site and have been trying out new games. Probably failing on my hourly goal but hopefully I'll be able to get back on track.

School starts tomorrow, I'm taking 13 credits with UNL and 7.5 through Metro (Spanish). I'm taking an array of gay classes, none of which I really enjoy (or expect to enjoy). I have this queer Jazz class I have to take three times a week, we'll see how long that fares. Other such classes include short story (a BS english class where you have to learn idiotic writing theory instead of actually just writing), a history class (queer required history class), and a retard geology class, which should be a joke. Overall a pretty stupid schedule.

I went to the gym for the first time tonight, should be the first step in me getting my fatass back in order. Eating should be better as well and I need to get that back on track as well.

Anyways, time to go to bed soon, I have to get up early (where early = earlier than 12 noon) for gay Jazz. Everybody should go see the movie 'Gran Torino', a fucking hilarious flick with Clint Eastwood. Basic premise is about a crazy old hardass Korean vet that doesn't take shit from anyone. That's about it.

Playing awful

2009-01-04T15:36:00.000-06:00

Well, as per my resolution, I would become rededicated to my game. I've been playing godawful the last two days, relying on aggression and ridiculous idiotic call downs instead of calculated hand reading and other such processes. As I've said in the past, I have a tilt problem that has hurt my game. I am currently experiencing a 10 bi downer in less than 3k hands at 1/2. Part of this has to do with me playing deep stacked (some hands to come) and losing a few 200bb stacks there compounds itself.

I've been playing very bad. Making very marginal calls preflop, post, etc. I'm going to post a few bitching/whiney hands and also some embarrassing hands as well.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): $487.30
noguerra (UTG): $380.40
I WIN U HAHAHA (CO): $394.35
monky69 (BTN): $125.55
_AppLeSicK_ (SB): $200.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with K K
1 fold, I WIN U HAHAHA raises to $7, 2 folds, Hero raises to $26, I WIN U HAHAHA raises to $71, Hero calls $45

Flop: ($143.00) 5 9 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, I WIN U HAHAHA bets $83, Hero raises to $416.30 all in, I WIN U HAHAHA calls $240.35 all in

Turn: ($789.70) 7 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($789.70) A (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $789.70
Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)
I WIN U HAHAHA shows K A (a pair of Aces)
I WIN U HAHAHA wins $786.70
(Rake: $3.00)

This one pissed me off...he was a 'tag' and instaleft. I did just run numbers with tannenj (and the first time I've ever done this) and it's just about a breakeven play if he's never up against AA/KK. But to discount it to this degree is just ludacris, and I'm typically going to be showing up with KK+ here.

Pretty ridiculous but meh, whatever. I think his flop bet + sizing is pretty poor as well, but meh.

Eh, I change my mind, I don't want to search through other PT hands and convert/explain. I've been playing godawful and not running too great either.

I'm debating moving $ to another site to change venue. Not that FTP is too difficult (or at least yet), but meh. Anyways, might go to the casino tonight, we'll see. 2 days until the NC game hollaaaa

2009/January Goals/etc

2008-12-30T13:19:00.001-06:00

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

2008-12-24T23:36:00.000-06:00

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

2008-12-22T14:07:00.000-06:00

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

2008-12-19T01:19:00.000-06:00

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

:(

2008-12-16T14:55:00.000-06:00

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

2008-12-13T03:04:00.001-06:00

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

2008-12-12T01:39:00.000-06:00

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

2008-12-07T02:51:00.000-06:00

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

2008-12-03T02:59:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-27T02:52:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-22T23:44:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-21T13:33:00.001-06:00

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

2008-11-18T18:48:00.001-06:00

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

2008-11-17T00:23:00.000-06:00

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...

2008-11-13T18:57:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-10T15:50:00.000-06:00

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...

2008-11-08T23:12:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-06T22:35:00.000-06:00

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...

2008-11-05T22:50:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-03T00:37:00.000-06:00

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

2008-10-31T14:35:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-10-29T22:58:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-29T02:30:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-10-27T22:08:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-22T00:44:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-20T02:51:00.001-05:00

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

2008-10-18T01:35:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-15T17:15:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-08T14:30:00.000-05:00

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.

Flag Football ownage

2008-10-01T15:52:00.000-05:00

We have been dominated flag football. Or at least the first two games. 2-0 at this point, we shut out our opponents last game. I'm pretty happy with the way our team has been performing. Everyone is playing their position well and we are winning off great defense and strong field position. I do hear that our next two opponents are better than our previous two though so we'll have to practice extra hard for that.

UF football sucks. I can rant for hours on the overall performance of our team last saturday against Ole Miss. Play calling was highly suspect, OL play was disastrous, secondary gave up a few long ones (though they had been on the field forever at that point) and we had three turnovers. There is still a small chance for a MNC run (we cannot lose another obviously) and hope that we get in after we win the SEC championship. CFB has been very interesting lately and it seems as if last year was not a fluke...giants are falling (including USCw and UF) to teams they shouldnt be losing to. A ridiculous number of ranked teams lost last week and I'm sure that trend will not stop. I just pray that UF is not like last year's Cal Berkley, who was #2 at one point and then lost their next 6. UF has Arky (the worst SEC team) though this week and that should be nice and easy. I also bought my plane ticket for Jacksonville on the 31st of Oct. for the UGA game, which should be fun.

NE lost to VT in a pretty even game last sat. VT controlled the ball for 3 quarters (pathetic red zone offense) and held on to the win despite a last minute drive by Nebraska. This week with Mizzou should be interesting (perhaps a blowout).

Poker hasn't been going great, though I haven't been playing much. This is the first month that I get back on the horse though and I plan on doing at least 10k hands (hopefully more). My first DC video is up as well with decent reviews (I was meh on it, I felt I played suboptimally in some areas). Justin and I have also started our series and should get the first video done within the coming days (should make for decent content).

School has been going pretty bad. I've been skipping frequently, not studying or doing any work. As I said, I probably am going for five years (which is both good and bad) so blah. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do for future trips as well (winter break, fall break). Haven't decided if I want to go to the PCA again. We'll see.

live poker

2008-09-20T13:44:00.001-05:00

live poker yesterday:

hilarious logic displayed like usual. 2/5 at the horseshoe. some hands i saw-

someone raised preflop, everyone calls. flop K56. pfr bets $150 into $200 pot. mp calls $150 with $60 behind. turn Kx, pfr shoves mp sighs and calls with K4o. he says that he would have folded the turn if the other king had not come. he said that he would have been sure that his kicker was no good and would have folded. pfr has AKss and wins LOL.

another hilarious hand- super old lag opens with A4, tight guy shoves all in with 50bbs, bb cold calls the 3-bet with 100bbs, super old lag CALLS 50bbs.

flop T36 and old laggy donk calls the shove and wins vs AA/QQ LOLLLLLLLLLL.

anyways, not really too many interesting hands. i was playing really really tight due to 0 cards whatsoever in the beginning. i flatted AA from blinds to tagfish raise in lp after everyone folds to him. i typically dont like 3-betting a ton until stacks start to get a little deeper since pfrs are so large live. anyways bb called as well, flop KK8. checked around. turn 9x i bet 40 into 60 pfr calls. river 6 i dont really want to c/c at this point nor do i want to c/f (though c/f might be better). anyways i bet 60 into like 140 and btn calls and flips over AQ. nice flop check you ape.

i start slow. really ****ing slow. i raise in lp with A6o after a terrible player limps. btn calls, sb calls, limper calls. flop AJ6. i bet 80 into 120. resident tagfish wearing a ftp coat with backwards hat (young guy) raises to 210. all fold, i just jam and he sighs and calls, asking if i have aces? i flip and he flips AK. turn 9, river 9 and he fistpumps. i was about to berate but held myself and just reloaded.

i also went to the casino with 5 other friends, some of whom have never been to the casino before. they were playing the 1/3. their strategy (hilariously enough) was to double up then leave. 3 of them accomplished this task, the other two lost their stacks. i staked one of my friends and he was later able to recover slightly but still ended down $250. other friends ended up anywhere from $150-$300 while other friends ended down 200-250.

not really too many other hands. i lost a pf ai with KK to J9 for 40bbs. LOL. i won a few small pots later on, one with 87cc against a guy i knew from underground games. i opened, he called from blinds. AK7ss, he c/cs my bet. turn x check check. river 8 he check/calls and shows and ace and loses.

overall, ended down probably like 1k. it seems that i cant even beat live poker. ****ing kill me. luckily we had a fun night, went to karaoke and made my friend (attempt) to rap 'in da club'.

Updates

2008-09-17T21:14:00.001-05:00

Hello all, sorry I have not updated in a while. Poker has been pretty gay and the downswing has approached 13k. Meh, I think this might be the worse money wise but I've had worse in terms of number of buyins. It's to be expected though, especially since the large chunk of it is in 2/4PLO. In such a variance laid game losing those 55/45s and vice versa is going to happen.

College football season is in full swing. tOSU got totally crushed, what an embarressment. Some schools bring their conference pride but tOSU just gets destroyed for every big game. I don't think Beanie would have made much of a difference with the way their lines broke. UF is looking sharp, we won a hard fought battle against UMiami. Although UM didn't have any offense their D is very good (and should be better in the future). We have UTenn this week at their place which should be fun. I expect a victory though they aren't as bad as everyone thinks. LSU/Au play this week as well, I'm rooting for the mad hatter and LSU to win simply for strength of schedule (when we play them later). Should be a really hard fought battle like last year. I bought a ticket to Jacksonville for Oct 31st for when we play UGA. I'm so pumped.

We also won our first flag football game. We've been practicing pretty hard and tonight was a nice showing of our hard work in practice. We started down 6 pretty early due to a deep ball. We made some adjustments, the biggest one being rushing only one outright and the other guarding the flat/spying the QB. All others played man (their offense was very strange, with no line and just 5 wide every time).

As far as offense, our plays didn't do a ton. We had alot of success against their pathetic zone with the line releasing. We are going to have more issues though when opposing teams have decent pass rushes against us. Might have to try more QB draws and option plays. It eventually got so bad on their end that our rushing one just totally fucked them up and weren't able to make any good decisions. Our team had 3 picks (I had a deep one after my teammate deflected it up in the air). Our tackling was pretty solid overall and we didn't have too many missed opportunities. We scored with a variety of ways, our QB rushed, some deep balls, quick outs. Can we improve? sure. But overall I was pretty happy with our performance.

UNNATURAL BITTERNESS-

We don't play for another two weeks. Have to prepare.

In other news I'm pretty sure that I'm staying a full 5 years hilariously enough. I haven't even applied for the teachers college, something I should have done 2 years ago. Pathetic. Whatever, I don't mind staying in a little longer. Though I think things will be quite depressing once all my friends leave for grander things. Currently doing pretty poorly in school, it might be a product of the scheduling (class pretty much only twice a week). Latin civs is a fucking joke, our teacher is in extreme denial on the reality of how badly the Aztecs/Incas got assraped. Also my multicultural class is lame too.

I also am about to have my DC video approved (I think?). The first one had some sound and technical problems. Once I get it approved terp and I are going to go hard on the project. I was pretty happy with this video I did, got into some interesting spots. I plan on heading home this weekend, my friends and I are planning a casino trip. Should be hilarious to see the apes in real life...what a treat. I plan on getting back into poker within the next few days, I havent played in quite some time. Meh.

I've been looking at my Europe trip pictures and realized today how much I really miss that place. It's a different outlook on life, everyone there doesn't really care as much on business or efficiency. The U.S. is different, everyone is doing something and there are always objectives to fill. I'd like to just drop out and take a one way ticket to Asia or Europe, see where it takes me. Family would probably spaz and the chances of me doing this are very slim but it's still present on my mind. Just grind out another year I guess.

Downswinging/Goals

2008-09-05T02:53:00.000-05:00

Lame...I'm quickly approaching a 10k downswing. While I've had worse overall downswings in the past, this one is especially brutal for the sheer # of hands it's taken for this to occur. 20 buyin downswings are to be expected though, especially in a variance happy game like PLO. Have I been playing perfectly? Definitely not. I've made plenty of mistakes. Today I recognized quite a few in my first session in PLO in a bit, (places where I should have bet the turn/etc). I will continue to keep a clear head though. As I've said in the past (and still hold), I haven't been running fantastic the past few months. I don't play a ton of hands either though so this sense of time is perhaps a bit more stretched than most other players (who average 30-60k hands a month).

I did my first vid for DC the other day, it was a 1/2NL deep one on FTP. I got owned in a few spots and was 3-bet frequently by a regular (who also happened to suck out on me with K5dd on ATxdd board vs. my AK in a 4-bet pot 200bbs deep :(). Meh. He did employ a nice heavy 3-betting strategy in position though which was tough to play against. I know I've been saying it for a few weeks now but I do eventually want to get back into NLHE full time. I think that tomorrow I plan on playing a decent amount 1) not only to get my money back but 2) also get back into the game. Once my video gets reviewed I can finally start my project with terp and get our series on the road.

Our flag football team is looking fairly sharp. We played some randoms in the rec the other day and beat them with touch/50 to 25 boundaries. Unlike last year I think we'll be employing alot of quick slants and shorter throws (with a higher completion rate). Last year we did a heavy running attack with some players that perhaps weren't in the right fit. This year we have some pretty athletic people that should make for a good season (season lasts for 4 games? I think?).

Some goals I have for this month pokerwise is 25 hours. I don't expect to play a whole lot on weekends due to CFB/friends/etc. Though I think I can get more than one hour a day. This hourly should change though if I'm running good or bad or what have you. (Or if I get extra motivation to play). I do want to get back into NLHE though and I plan on playing that more so this month. All I want is a solid winning month. I'm willing to take anything at this point. Even a paltry 5k would do wonders for my confidence. I haven't had any crushing months in a while and maybe I am just a breakeven player, who knows. I also hate the way poker makes me when I'm downswinging. Poker is a pretty emotional game and sometimes I let it seep into my real life, when I'm yelling or just pissed off in general. Can't really help it I guess.

School is going meh. The Tuesdays/Thurs that I do really have school are pretty brutal. I'm majorly slacking though and need to start getting more dedicated. Still need to apply for the teachers college, etc. I'm probably just going to end up taking the full 5 years for all I know. Meh, whatever. I expect college is going to be better than the real world anyways so yeah.

College football this weekend looks to be pretty fun. I'm really just anticipating UM/UF on saturday night on ESPN (8PM EST). The Huskers play during the day and the game should be a blowout. The UF game is a pretty interesting one and I don't buy the 21 point line for a second. UM is a pretty talented team (perhaps one of the most talented) with a huge OL and two good RBs. I can definitely see a Auburn 2007 II happening again if UF doesn't take UM seriously. UF is on a 6 game losing streak to UM and that just pisses me right off. There really aren't a ton of great CFB games though this week. As for any interesting Out of conference (OOC) games, there aren't many. UF/UM is semi interesting. PSU/OSU (oregon state) is semi interesting (though OSU lost to LOL stanford). Seeing Vandy upset S. Carolina tonight was pretty amusing. Vandy looked pretty impressive in their inital opener against Miami OH and competitive tonight as well. Their D is pretty real and UF has struggled with them the past few years. Could be devastating if we lost though.

Looking now, BYU/Washington looks appealing, WVU/ECU and thats about it...third week in though expects to be one of the best saturdays this season with the armaggedon match of USC/tOSU (I think beanie is sitting out this saturday to rest) as well as many other in and out conference games.

Live Poker

2008-09-01T12:04:00.000-05:00

Came home for the weekend, having no school is pretty cool. Though I only have one class today so not a huge victory. I need to focus more on school- my grades have dropped significantly and I have yet to even apply for the teachers college (and I'm a senior). Pathetic effort on my part. I'll get it done eventually, maybe I'll just do 5 full years or something instead of the projected 4.5. Meh.

Played live poker yesterday. I have yet to play online for the past 2-3 days. Live poker is pretty LOL typically and yesterday was no exception. After starting a bit slow I won a few smallish pots (2/5) and built my stack up to $750ish. This arrogant mexican guy who thought he was the shit sat two seats to my right. He constantly talked about how he played 100-200NL and 200-400 at the Wynn in Vegas. I thought this was B.S. for a few reasons-

-Despite saying that $500 is just 'the amount I get it in preflop', he was jubilent with joy after winning an all in. He jumped up and down screaming "SHIIIPPPP ITTTTT" throughout the room. (he limp/called with AsAd pf, flop came Q95ss and he check/miniraised then 4-bet shoved over the 3-bet and hit runner flush to beat 99). You could tell that the money mattered to this guy.

-He was terrible. That isn't to say that there aren't terrible players that play 200/400 but this guy wasn't a billionaire. He can't laugh at losing 40k like a ton of wealthy moguls. He was playing super nitty and you could tell he has some sense but not a ton.

Anyways, he doubles up through the guy to my direct left (I later found out was a 2p2per, more on that later) with said hand above. After dancing around like a retarded hooligan for a few minutes, he sits down again.

I raise AQ UTG, get a few callers. Flop JT4. SB checks, BB checks, I bet $85 into $120, all fold to SB (donkey mexican) who makes it $300. I jam he calls with JJ and he gets T on the turn (I had about $750 or so). He screams at the top of his lungs and raised his fist triumphantly, stacking his chips in a slow and meaningful fashion. I only brought $1100 that day (and staked my friend for $200) so I was short on cash. I went to the ATM, rebought for $500 and sought to regain my money. (He sits out and goes to eat, with other players shaking their heads at the idiocy he presented).

Some hilarious hands followed. I open 44, mega donkey calls along with a few others. He was a super calling station. Flop 723, i bet and 1 fold, he calls. turn 5x I bet again and he calls. river 6 (LOL) and I bet largeish, I think I bet like $30-$60-$130 on all streets and he makes the river call.

I overlimp JTo otb after a ton of limpers (7 or something). all checked to me on Q8A flop i bet $20 into $35 or something. mega donater calls with a shorter stack ($200ish), one more call. turn 9 he checks, I bet $65, he thinks for a moment and then jams with AK (he limped AK in the sb iirc) and he's drawing dead.

My stack is probably like $900 by now. Making a sound recovery. We are also getting shorter handed after a 3-way allin pot before of KQ vs. K8 vs. 77 on KK7cc board where one guy busted two others and then moved to the main game (ours was the feeder). Anyways I'm opening more pots and I also discover that the guy next to me (competent player, probably the only one aside from an asian nit at the other side) was a 2+2er. we talked a little about playing online and it turns out he's a poster who PM-ed me a long time ago about meeting at the horseshoe (before I was 21). Plus there aren't any other 2p2ers in Nebraska anyways so lol.

I open AT UTG, few callers. Flop TT7 with 2. $850 (SB) stack checks, I bet $35 into $50, donkey from the 44 hand jams for $95, SB COLDCALLS (HMMMMMMMM I wonder what you have????). I think for a moment and make it $330 total, SB mulls mulls and then jams, I instacall. donkey has J7 (lol), and SB had QT and I hold.

Staked friend ends up making like $250 or so, I take $75 for my cut. We left shortly after our game broke as more players went to the feeder game. LOL live poker.