I had one of those shooting the shit for a few minutes in passing conversations turn into a 3 hour conversation with my roommate Jon tonight. What a conversation it was. It mostly didn't have anything to do with me, but even the parts that didn't made me realize I'm working too hard. It's too easy for me to work at all times of the day so it's always hanging over my head. I could always be making a lot of money for an hour of my time. This isn't fair to me with how I've handled it. I understand why I did for awhile as I was very motivated to make a bunch of money to make the house buying process more stress free as I lost some money when I pushed it, but now that I've gotten back on track, it's time to stop. I like never take full days off. I'm going to try taking sundays off for awhile. I'm sure there will be a rare sunday here and there where I want to play tournies and I'll take monday off, but I'm going to try this at least through June and see how it goes. This seems super "no duh" and easy and ridiculous to most people I'm sure, but I with my drive to put in 40 hours per week (which I've averaged over this year), it really hangs over my head. I guess that sounds like I'm addicted or have some sort of gambling addiction, but it's really not like that or about that. I've pretty much cut most of the gambling limits and what not out of my play, so it's mostly just 'work'. I'm not looking for the winning excitement when I sit down most days. It sure is fun to win and go on rushes, but really in the end I really just want the dollars with the least stressful route.
A friend messaged me and said I should append to this a little bit about how stressful playing online poker for a living really is. Like playing 3-4 tables of lhe for 4 hours is really really mentally taxing. I'd put it on par with taking a test in college as far as how much it takes out of you. I know a lot of people in other jobs feel the pressure and this isn't to take away from them, it's just that most people don't TRULY understand what it takes to do what we do. It's draining.
A number of us bought tennis rackets a couple of days ago and we've played twice and are playing again tomorrow afternoon. I like it just like raquetball except it's maybe better cause you get to be outside and get some sun also. We picked our wild season ticket seats for next year and they are section 115 like row 20 (map here) which is on the wild shoot twice side so we are ridiculously thrilled at how lucky we got. The next best seats were in the corner 2 rows from the top. We pick our twins tickets tomorrow and there are perhaps 10 seats left of what we want (good seats behind home plate that aren't under the overhang) so it's going to be down to the wire. CMONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN one time.
I'm really looking forward to the camping trip this weekend and had fun stocking up on all the goodies at REI this afternoon. I figured it was time to replace my 20 year old sleeping bag as well as pick up a nice sleeping pad. I'm a little bitch, it's true. :)
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
A little late
Sorry about the lack of updates...been busier than normal lately.
The twins game where they won 14-10 in the 13th inning was definitely the game of the year...unreal and super fun to be at. The day game the day after I skipped (i skip most day games...but next year outside they'll be funnnnn) was a pretty cool game too.
Poker...I haven't had this good of a start to a month, let alone this good of a month if it ended today in like 8 months so I'm pretty pumped about that. I'm playin real good and running real good also of course. Positive variance is fun! Hopefully this will propel me into having a sweet world series! I've been playing a lot too...and really noticed a biggg difference between the games from 11pm-5am vs the 11am-5pm so my sleep schedule is an annoying 6am-2pm but it comes with the territory. The games are just that much better lately.
I've been lookin at a couple houses again and there is one I want to see on turtle lake that looks pretty good but the selling agent forgot to tell them I wanted to see it and they were having people over for dinner so I couldn't see it! I couldn't see it on monday either for the same reason but that was a last minute call so it's understandable.
Next weekend a few of us are going camping in Door County Wisconsin...camping is one of those things you always talk about doing then very rarely actually do it...I'm pumped it's happening! The weekend after I'm going with a buddies friends to northern bay which is also in WI for a golf weekend. And 3 weekends from now it's vegas for the WSOP. It seems like everyone is going to be there that weekend so I'm really lookin forward to it.
I'm off to get ready for an Owl City concert now...
The twins game where they won 14-10 in the 13th inning was definitely the game of the year...unreal and super fun to be at. The day game the day after I skipped (i skip most day games...but next year outside they'll be funnnnn) was a pretty cool game too.
Poker...I haven't had this good of a start to a month, let alone this good of a month if it ended today in like 8 months so I'm pretty pumped about that. I'm playin real good and running real good also of course. Positive variance is fun! Hopefully this will propel me into having a sweet world series! I've been playing a lot too...and really noticed a biggg difference between the games from 11pm-5am vs the 11am-5pm so my sleep schedule is an annoying 6am-2pm but it comes with the territory. The games are just that much better lately.
I've been lookin at a couple houses again and there is one I want to see on turtle lake that looks pretty good but the selling agent forgot to tell them I wanted to see it and they were having people over for dinner so I couldn't see it! I couldn't see it on monday either for the same reason but that was a last minute call so it's understandable.
Next weekend a few of us are going camping in Door County Wisconsin...camping is one of those things you always talk about doing then very rarely actually do it...I'm pumped it's happening! The weekend after I'm going with a buddies friends to northern bay which is also in WI for a golf weekend. And 3 weekends from now it's vegas for the WSOP. It seems like everyone is going to be there that weekend so I'm really lookin forward to it.
I'm off to get ready for an Owl City concert now...
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Cali, May
Cali wrapped up nicely. My own poker was pretty snore but I had a piece of jay in a couple games and he won me some good money. Adding his into mine I think I ended up around 30k. A pretty solid week and a half work trip if you ask me! Golfing didn't really happen as much as I had wanted, but I did get out yesterday and also hit balls today.
I've been going to a lot of twins games and running aces the past 2 nights. I've also been tryin to make up for lost time with michelle, who got accepted to grad school at the U today, so we're really excited about that! I'm gonna join up with her beer drinking I mean kickball team tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that too.
Poker in may has been nothing but fantastic and it was capped off tonight by crushing some guy at 1/2. Jay gets half and I'm happy to give some back for his crushing while I was in SD. I'm feelin pretty brainfrizzled now so I'm gonna quit for the night and hop in bed and enjoy some TV or a movie.
I've been going to a lot of twins games and running aces the past 2 nights. I've also been tryin to make up for lost time with michelle, who got accepted to grad school at the U today, so we're really excited about that! I'm gonna join up with her beer drinking I mean kickball team tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that too.
Poker in may has been nothing but fantastic and it was capped off tonight by crushing some guy at 1/2. Jay gets half and I'm happy to give some back for his crushing while I was in SD. I'm feelin pretty brainfrizzled now so I'm gonna quit for the night and hop in bed and enjoy some TV or a movie.
MN gambling law proposition
I'm going to take my last blog post down because I made it before I was fully informed. Here is the deal in my oppinion now that it's been a few days:
Nothing is going to happen. Maybe for a couple days a few ISP's will comply, but it will be fought hard in court and isn't likely to stand. I'm not nervous at all really. It's pretty ridiculous they are trying to censor information on the internet. Another interesting thing is a number of companies on the list of 'banned sites' do not allow US customers so they are trying to block free speach. Is this the american govt or the chinese govt? Seriously.
Nothing is going to happen. Maybe for a couple days a few ISP's will comply, but it will be fought hard in court and isn't likely to stand. I'm not nervous at all really. It's pretty ridiculous they are trying to censor information on the internet. Another interesting thing is a number of companies on the list of 'banned sites' do not allow US customers so they are trying to block free speach. Is this the american govt or the chinese govt? Seriously.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
LA wrap up and on to SD
Day 4 was a real short day as like I said in my last post we were headed to bob and kirby's for a night off. I ended up picking up about $2000 in 5 hours. It was a bad $100/200 game and a great day to take a break.
On day 5 I spent the afternoon at the pool playing online and put my name on the $100/200 list at 4:45pm. I got in a $10/20 no limit game around 7 and played that for a little bit until finally getting my 1/2 seat at about 845. Frustrating. I was planning on going to SD the next day (saturday) but I ran into a couple friends who happened to be going back to SD themselves later that night so I caught a ride with them...which led to only getting to play 1/2 for about an hour. Thanks to sean and then chris for the rides! I won 800 at 10/20 nl and lost 2100 at 1/2.
Final totals for live poker:
41 hours
+$15,200
Running total for online poker
15 hours
+3,000
It was definitely a weird and pleasant live poker trip as the swings were really low and I didn't ever have one of "those sessions" where you're just stuck your ass (losing a lot) and it's kinda miserable. I did blow that 12k win back to 2k one day but that's standard at $200/400.
I was able to fit a round of golf in yesterday afternoon which was unexpected and awesome. It was my first 18 of the year and we played a kinda tough course. I was hitting the ball well but definitely had some rust and shot a 95 which with the course difficulty seems not so bad.
We're headed to the Padres game now and then gonna work online the rest of the day I think.
On day 5 I spent the afternoon at the pool playing online and put my name on the $100/200 list at 4:45pm. I got in a $10/20 no limit game around 7 and played that for a little bit until finally getting my 1/2 seat at about 845. Frustrating. I was planning on going to SD the next day (saturday) but I ran into a couple friends who happened to be going back to SD themselves later that night so I caught a ride with them...which led to only getting to play 1/2 for about an hour. Thanks to sean and then chris for the rides! I won 800 at 10/20 nl and lost 2100 at 1/2.
Final totals for live poker:
41 hours
+$15,200
Running total for online poker
15 hours
+3,000
It was definitely a weird and pleasant live poker trip as the swings were really low and I didn't ever have one of "those sessions" where you're just stuck your ass (losing a lot) and it's kinda miserable. I did blow that 12k win back to 2k one day but that's standard at $200/400.
I was able to fit a round of golf in yesterday afternoon which was unexpected and awesome. It was my first 18 of the year and we played a kinda tough course. I was hitting the ball well but definitely had some rust and shot a 95 which with the course difficulty seems not so bad.
We're headed to the Padres game now and then gonna work online the rest of the day I think.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
LA day 3: jump around
Usually when I play poker here I'll play longer sessions because the games are great and I'm here to work. This trip, the good white chip($100) games have been really spotty so they really break my sessions up. Like yesterday I was playing $100/200 for about 2 hours when a rich guy walked in and wanted to play $200/400. So a handful of us quit 1/2 and headed over to give him some action. Usually there are no time restraints, but apparently this guy is a real hit and runner so CC and Ly made an agreement with him that everyone who played had to play for 2 hours and couldn't quit unless they were losing. This seems a little forced and odd, but when you have to quit another game and likely wont get back into it any time soon because there are plenty of people waiting to play it along with this guy being notorious for very short sessions, it makes sense.
Just on cue after 2 hours he racked up his couple thousand dollar win and jetted. I played a few more rounds out of courtesy and in case he changed his mind, but without him the game was pretty bad and we had started drinking wine so it was time to go back to 1/2.
I did end up sitting outside by the pool in the afternoon to try to get a little color...but especially with being so white right now I didn't want to push it and end up bright red so I went in after 40 minutes figuring I'd pick up a little color but really I can't tell any difference. So today I was going to spend more time out there but it's cloudy! I didn't know they had such things in cali. :(
There's this mean woman here and a dealer was being unlucky for her and she started calling him "fucking VC" and he flipped out on her and called the floor over. She tried and sorta did play it off and he got over it, but it was still inappropriate and awkward. She also got into a big yelling/swearing thing with a Lebanese guy where she kept calling him asshat or something and he went off saying "don't call me asshat fucking beach. fucking beach. fucking beach dont call me asshat! Don't disrespect me like that!" Back in MN you'd get kicked out for a day for antics like that but here the floor man will just come over and say cmon guys lets just not talk to eachother and play cards. Even the 2nd time it happens. They aren't in the business of throwing people out.
In my 4 2-2.5 hour sessions (8.75h total) I ended up +5100 for the day yesterday.
Running total 32.25 hours + $12,800
Nice to be up like that but it could definitely change drastically real quick so I'm not gonna think about it too much.
I haven't thought about this hand that much since I played it but now I'm going to. I definitely played it differently than I usually would and I haven't decided for sure if there's merit in it yet.
Greg posts a dead blind in the co and it's folded to him and he raises. Everyone folds to me and I call with 98s. I've played greg very strong for years and he used to be a fit or fold kind of guy but he plays lot tougher and better these days and and has been showing down a lot more vs me lately. I've also ran good vs him and that helps.
The flop comes Q86 with 2spades. I have the 9s. I check call.
The turn is a 5d making 2 diamonds. I check raise and he calls.
The river is a 7h and I bet and he folds. Obviously the hand is less interesting when I make a straight, but that's part of the reason I like my turn check-raise. I think I have pretty good made-hand strength already and just in case I have straight outs and more than likely 2 pair outs. I almost never check-call check-raise as I think that's often a terrible line that only fish take, but this board texture and this history made it seem like a line to mix in.
Schneider and I always play hands ridiculously strong vs each other and never make folds so yesterday I decided it was time to lay a hand down. He raised utg 5 or 6 handed and I 3 bet it. The rich guy called 2 in the sb and mike called.
The flop came K75 with 2 clubs.
They both checked, I bet, sb folded, schneids called.
The turn was a 2d putting 2 diamonds out there.
He check raised me and I 3 bet. He called.
The river was an ace of clubs.
He bet out.
I painstakingly threw my cards away. I haven't talked to him about the hand yet but I really hope I didn't get pwned... :)
Time to head down to get a few hours in. A few of us are heading over to bob and kirby's place for a little grillin/beers and modified monopoly.
Just on cue after 2 hours he racked up his couple thousand dollar win and jetted. I played a few more rounds out of courtesy and in case he changed his mind, but without him the game was pretty bad and we had started drinking wine so it was time to go back to 1/2.
I did end up sitting outside by the pool in the afternoon to try to get a little color...but especially with being so white right now I didn't want to push it and end up bright red so I went in after 40 minutes figuring I'd pick up a little color but really I can't tell any difference. So today I was going to spend more time out there but it's cloudy! I didn't know they had such things in cali. :(
There's this mean woman here and a dealer was being unlucky for her and she started calling him "fucking VC" and he flipped out on her and called the floor over. She tried and sorta did play it off and he got over it, but it was still inappropriate and awkward. She also got into a big yelling/swearing thing with a Lebanese guy where she kept calling him asshat or something and he went off saying "don't call me asshat fucking beach. fucking beach. fucking beach dont call me asshat! Don't disrespect me like that!" Back in MN you'd get kicked out for a day for antics like that but here the floor man will just come over and say cmon guys lets just not talk to eachother and play cards. Even the 2nd time it happens. They aren't in the business of throwing people out.
In my 4 2-2.5 hour sessions (8.75h total) I ended up +5100 for the day yesterday.
Running total 32.25 hours + $12,800
Nice to be up like that but it could definitely change drastically real quick so I'm not gonna think about it too much.
I haven't thought about this hand that much since I played it but now I'm going to. I definitely played it differently than I usually would and I haven't decided for sure if there's merit in it yet.
Greg posts a dead blind in the co and it's folded to him and he raises. Everyone folds to me and I call with 98s. I've played greg very strong for years and he used to be a fit or fold kind of guy but he plays lot tougher and better these days and and has been showing down a lot more vs me lately. I've also ran good vs him and that helps.
The flop comes Q86 with 2spades. I have the 9s. I check call.
The turn is a 5d making 2 diamonds. I check raise and he calls.
The river is a 7h and I bet and he folds. Obviously the hand is less interesting when I make a straight, but that's part of the reason I like my turn check-raise. I think I have pretty good made-hand strength already and just in case I have straight outs and more than likely 2 pair outs. I almost never check-call check-raise as I think that's often a terrible line that only fish take, but this board texture and this history made it seem like a line to mix in.
Schneider and I always play hands ridiculously strong vs each other and never make folds so yesterday I decided it was time to lay a hand down. He raised utg 5 or 6 handed and I 3 bet it. The rich guy called 2 in the sb and mike called.
The flop came K75 with 2 clubs.
They both checked, I bet, sb folded, schneids called.
The turn was a 2d putting 2 diamonds out there.
He check raised me and I 3 bet. He called.
The river was an ace of clubs.
He bet out.
I painstakingly threw my cards away. I haven't talked to him about the hand yet but I really hope I didn't get pwned... :)
Time to head down to get a few hours in. A few of us are heading over to bob and kirby's place for a little grillin/beers and modified monopoly.
LA day 3: too tired
I did win some more today but I'm far too tired to write up about it so I'm just going to wait until tomorrow.
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