Tuesday, October 30, 2007

october coming to a close

I was supposed to go to San Diego to visit the boys on monday, but I've been cooped up with a pretty bad cold. The poker games have been a lot spottier lately and kind of annoying cause they've generally been in the 8-11 time frame when everyone else is around and like nothing in the afternoon when I want to play. It's ok but not completely not optimal.

I had such a great start to the month and since then have had quite the roller coaster and came off a little bit. This doesn't bother me at all as October was the best month I've had in a year or 2, it had potential to be even better. Limit holdem is just so funny.

I've been spending a good chunk of time trying to learn stud8 for fun. I've probably played like 15 hours in the past week of mostly 5/10 and I'm down about as much rake as I've paid. I feel like I've really been running horribly in the few multiway huge pots and a couple guys have really ginned their perfect cards. I definitely see the 'lower' variance part but that isn't to say that there's no variance.

For the first bit of stud8 most of it was short-handed and the last session I tried full table. There is suuuuuuch a huge difference. I think there is much more of a difference than in hold-em. I'm sure I'm still not good at it but I want to get better badly. I always like pushing my brain with new games.

Until a week ago, I hadn't ever watched a season of survivor. I had seen a few episodes from random seasons but never got into it. Having heard Jon-Robert (a fellow poker player from las vegas) was on the current season, I tuned in. I've been watching this season and when I got sick I wanted to get into something so I downloaded season 10 on itunes. Now I'm hooked. It's nothing worth getting SUPER excited about, but I've always been into strategy games and it's quite the social game/experiment too. I liked 10 quite a bit, 11 was very meh and not that enthralling, and now...halfway through 12 I'm really liking it. Definitely great for vegging out to when sick.

Friday, October 19, 2007

late nights

Some of the best games have been going late-night these days and I've had to bite the bullet and stay up a little later than I would generally want to especially when I'm fighting off a cold and trying to get my body on a normalish sleep schedule for kels being here this weekend...but...the games were just too good to not play...

It's been going phenomenal in general. The last 2 days I've came off a bit but that's to be expected with silly LHE. I've been playing a pretty high amount of hands and I think I'll have a few low/no hands days with kels here. Part of me hopes I don't see any good games so I don't have that temptation. Just never know how long this online industry is going to last...so I feel the need to get the dollars while they're being burned.

Also, LOL my rakeback is already over 3k for october. Jeez they take a lot of monies. (3k rakeback means I've paid around 10k in rake (fees) to the poker sites this month...over 500 per day just to play!) And don't get me started on income tax. :(

Anyhow, she'll be here in an hour I better go get ready.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Chicago

When I was in San Diego a month ago the boys and I decided a weekend in chicago would be fun for Vikings/Bears. Billy also went to Northwestern, so he could hang with his buddies, too.

We got there thursday afternoon and left monday morning.

I'm too lazy to give a full trip report but I will talk about the Bears game...it was amazing.

After a night at the bars til 230 we got up at like 9 and went down to the stadium. Well, we went to get beer at the 711 first but no liquor sales til 11am...so we raided the shit out of our mini-bars...which our suite had 2 of lol thank god.

We finally got down there at like 1015 or something and had to walk around a little to find the tailgating which was way low-key and not exciting. Maybe we were in the wrong lot, but it was really low key. It probably didn't help that it was drizzling the entire time...but that shouldn't affect 'bears fans'.

We got to the game and everything was very regular...that changed quickly when we tied it at 7-7. Mb the beers had started to sit in, I don't know...but the peanut throwing and shit talking was in full force. The peanuts were extra funny cause their aim was so bad...the people all around us were taking a beating too...

A peanut hit the girl in front of us who was prehaps 20 and she turned and gave jay a death look and he's like obviously we didn't throw it and it goes from that 3 second interaction to "How bout you just shut the fuck up?" bahahah flip out much?

When hester ran back that 90+ yard punt, the shit really began. The bears fans were really bad at talking shit, so it was often comical...they would also every once in awhile have a good line, but by the end of the next sentence it no longer mattered as they had said something super dumb.

Jay got drilled with an open/smeary mustard packet but it was kinda funny cause he just picked it off and set it on the ground and nobody got mad and it was definitely an in their face kind of a play. Billy is a LAG (loose aggressive) when he's drunk so he's not putting up with all the stuff from bears fans and is yelling back at them. This isn't the standard "smack talk" it's got emotion on both sides...and we're surrounded by bears fans and he's going off and jay and I are like hmmm lets not try to get the shit kicked out of us eh? At this point it's just talk, empty beer cups, pizza boxes, peanuts and that mustard...which we can take but it just felt like it could escalate quickly.

The vikings got up by 14 and it really quieted down. A number of people left and it was kinda like meh just stay to enjoy the victory. Anyone who watched the game knows how long that lasted. They scored 7 quick and failed an onside kick but got the ball back and scored on an 85 yard play to tie the game. Oman that was brutal being there. lol. I look left and just in doing so see a guy launch a cup pow right off my face ahaha. other assorted shit comes flying in...no idea what but it was but it was pelt city. Some douchey looking 45 year old guy made a big dumb face like haha in your face you big bitches (which sounds like ouh no big deal, and it was, but it had so much emotion behind it which was extra comical because he was nowhere to be seen when longwell popped the FG to win the game.

The other funny thing was so many of the people who were such assholes during the game came up afterwords to shake hands and said good game. Billy knew this is how it was all along so that's why he was so lag, but jay and I were like wtf? It's like you wanted to kill us during the game but then after gg's. That was definitely really cool. It didn't hurt that Adrian Peterson had the game he did...they were all in awe. I suppose the just respected the fact we were at our team's away game and they're just normal people and the bears game is the one spot during the week they can drink beer and be crazy and it's ok but when it's all said and done go back to being normal people.

The bears fans at the bars the rest of the day were really pleasant too congratulating us on a good game and AP's dominance.

It was sooooooooo cool to just be at the game and the trip was amazing and draining. We're all beat. Rest and relaxation for a few days...

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Speak of the devil

Heh, one of the guys I was talking about yesterday in my blog (one of the morons I was playing who I quit) lived up to my prediction...got BURRRRRIED. Dude lost like 25k at 100/200 and for once in the past year during these types of games I was the big winner. I went into the game stuck 7k on the day and am now finally (8.5 hours later) quitting up 18k. It was one of those games where I'd still be up at 5pm today if the guy was still there. It sucks messing up the sleep schedule but worksacalling.

That was the longest session I've played since graduating 2.5 years ago I think. I put in a few marathoners in college but have since pretty much never played more than 4 or 5 hours at a time.

And after all that, I'm supposed to sleep now? GL to that. WIDE awake. hmmm must undwind.

****update 10:15am**** He came back 10 minutes after my last post so I hopped back on and won another 10k. I doubt he's coming back again but I'm gonna hang out a little bit longer. What a day. 12 hours, 175 bets. I don't think I've ever done anything like it.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

good quitting

This is going to be a really half-assed blog cause I'm really tired, which I just realized is an extra good reason that I'm quitting. I was playing 2 tables of heads up cruising along and then all of a sudden the floor kinda fell out. I guess I shouldn't say floor fell out cause it wasn't like 6 hands in a row, but more like solidly downhill for a half hour. I was crushing them and all of a sudden I'd given back like 60 bets. This is nothing really, but given my mental state (tired and not sharp) it's quitting time. I know I'm better than both of them and one of them is a pretty big moron and I know given 'good healthy brain state' I'd crush him, now is not the time to make a gambool with him.

I see it very often from a lot of other 'good' poker players...not quiting because "i'm better than these guys" Nobody cares. Except that little ego inside of you that wants to burn your money and the chances to be greatly successful. Eff it. They 'win' today. They wont quit next time they're in my situation and I'll bury them.

Friday, October 5, 2007

wow october

Poker really is a stupid game. I've been running/playing so well lately and I'm definitely not complaining, this is great...but I wish I could have pulled just a FEW of the sessions I've had lately and send them to myself 6 months ago when I went through poker hell.

Lets hope this all continues tho and you get to read an October FTW post. I have many months to make up for.

I almost didn't want to post this cause almost every time i'm on the up I feel good then I take a nice hit. I suppose it's more the variance of poker than posting stuff like this but it almost feels like karma for overconfidence.

I've been very pleased with how the games have been as of late too. I think we've gotten past the regulation crap and are back in an era where the fish have no problem getting their money online. Also, a lot of the 'better' young players have gone to no-limit or tourneys, so the pool of good limit players is not particularly big. There's still probably more money in NL for most people but meh, for me it's limit for today. You never know in 6 months now, the scene changes so fast.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

September FTW

September was the best month I've had in a year or so I think. I dumped a nice ammount in Las Angeles but online I just crushed. It was kind of a weird month because I won a ton in the first like 10 days of it, broke even for 15 days and then crushed the last few. Anyway I'll take it!

I think I'm going to stay away from live poker for a bit as it just seems like so much variance and frustration compared to online. It's definitely more fun when winning, but since I don't play that many hours and I tend to play big, each session has such a huge impact on my monthly/yearly income that it frustrates me when I lose.

The first day of october was great so I have good feelings about october, too!

That said today I felt unfocused (well, i was distracted by stupid epassporte on the phone and eating as well as feeling sort of sick to my stomach) but I just didn't feel with it. I was playing 3 tables or so and if somebody asked me anything about the games I was in, I couldn't tell them hardly anything about any individual players...which is a recipe for losing your money slowly as opposed to winning it. So I quit even though the games looked good on paper. I was going to spend the afternoon finishing up season 4 of entourage but a friend called me to play some golden tee so we're gonna do that.