a little ring game break, etc etc

I got tilted last week playing ring games so I decided unless there is a world class fish playing at 100/200 or 200/400 I'm going to skip the ring game grinding. No more 30/60 50/100 etc. I just feel like chilling and heads up is good for me like that. So instead to make sure I get hands I'm playing $5/10 and 6/12 lhe hu and 1/2 NL also. It's pretty relaxing and far less irritating. Hopefully the pros don't bust 8sup while i'm gone... ;)

This snow is actually the only snow all year that has bothered me. Usually I like snow and winter weather, but I'm fully in spring mode and it's time to go and not come back.

My bracket is doing ok...top of the middle of the pack...and I am still in the hunt but probably somewhat of a longshot. I have ohio state winning it all..

I started playing civ 5 again and while I've been a lifelong fan of the civilization series (esp civ 2) I just can't get hooked on it. This is like my 3rd run at it and it's the same as every other time. I just can't get engrossed.

heads up 30/60 battle, heads up as a game

That was pretty tiring. I just got done 'battling' a guy 3 tables of 30/60 lhe heads up for 1500 hands. It was a very peculiar match for me. I usually don't bluff too much (obv other than continuation betting/barreling) and this guy said he usually played 14 tables of no limit..so he was ultra foldy, perhaps more than anyone I've ever seen.

He would constantly check back the flop and fold the turn. He raised my turn bets no more than like 8 times in those 1500 hands. He never adjusted. I just kept bluffing and bluffing and bluffing some more. He won at showdown over 75% of the time. It's just we only went 28% and most of the rest of the hands I won by bluffing. It's not too often you get to play a guy like that so I had to be a little more conscious of what optimal strategy vs this type of player. My friends and I haven't talked many times about how this is the easiest player type to play against...so think of that next time you play heads up and aren't used to it. call call call call etc

I went to canter the other night and had a good time, although I don't find omaha 8/b fun. Luckily I only had to play like an hour of it. A buddy is in town and another has spring break next week so I'll probably go up there next week a handful of times...which is rare for me lately. I had a big stretch where I played a ton, but not lately.

I hadn't even thought of this when I started writing this blog, but there is a thread on 2+2 that is generating a bit of interest. Bryce claimed he thinks sites should get rid of hu tables and instead institute a game where you can like enter a player pool to play a random person who is in the pool for 200 hands.

This is ridiculous.

My response to that I wrote in the thread is as follows:

"There is no shot the sites get rid of heads up tables.

Suggesting it should be removed is pretty lol. Either table selecting your opponents and playing them or not being able to play heads up with somebody if you both want to play heads up for a certain stake is ludicrous.

It doesn't even make that big of a deal with this 'lobby' busyness. I agree it is slightly less inviting but it's definitely not an important enough of a factor in trying to convince somebody it should be removed. It's just so avoidable (by filtering) and maybe the fish are a hair uninvited by it (but truly I bet most don't notice/think about it/care) but it sure doesn't seem to be affecting most of them - there are tons of guys who keep losing tons and tons of money. People want to gamble and they will put up with some bs to do so. This is light bs and is insignificant in the case for removing heads up.

This is coming from somebody who also sits heads up $500/$1000 sit and goes so I definitely feel comfortable playing anyone and am willing to play more than most...It's just not right to take away the heads up game from people who want to play that way."

End of October

Well the main event didn't quite go as I had hoped or planned. I was the chip leader at the dinner break but then was ridiculously card dead for the next 3-4 hours and got chipped down. It wasn't as if I could have made many moves with how active the other players were. I got a guy to check raise all in on a QJ9 board with 88 vs my KQ and bang an 8. That hurt. As we got close to the bubble I lost a flip and then won a flip before getting KK allin vs AK preflop for top couple places in chips. It came JJTQ3 and I was out on the bubble. I played the best tournament poker I've ever played so while I was dissapointed, it didn't sting as much as if I had done something dumb.

I finished october with a lot of poker. Looking at my HEM It had me playing 175 hours online (43) per week which is even a little strong for me. I played another 50 hours at canterbury so October was a masher month. Up there for most poker probably ever. I ran bad overall at the end but hot at the bigger games and worse at the smaller games so I'm on a nice little upswing at the moment. I'll probably play a good amount the rest of the year too, but not likely as much as october. I'm having a decent enough year. At the beginning of the year if you told me i was going to be wehre I am I would have been satisfied, but I haven't made any progress dollar wise since May (bets wise yes, doing well there, but opposite situation than the end of october..win at small games lose at big ones). I really would like to finish the year strong so I think I'm gonna cut out some of the bigger gambling and focus more on the more consistant games.

I think I found the snow tires for my truck. I'm pretty pumped to not be sliding around ridiculously like my acura tl. It's given me an unnatural fear of driving in the winter. I'm not going to be one of those assholes in a truck driving 70 in the snow BECAUSE I HAVE A TRUCK I'M INVINCIBLE, I'm just not going to be a bitch about not wanting to drive in the winter because of the snow.

canterbury survival

I went to canterbury on wednesday night with the intention of leaving by 2 for sure because I needed to wake up the next day to play the tournament...This was looking very possible as the 30/60 game was down to me and another guy and he is a regular worker who probably wasn't hanging around too much longer.. when a business man/poker player approached our table looking to play anyone in the building heads up survival. Survival poker is canterbury's way of getting around the max bet of $60 in minnesota. Basically you play for 2 hours and then at you cash in your 'tournament chips' for their equivalent value in dollars. You can also 'rebuy' when you have half a stack or less.

I had played in a couple $200 and $500 survivals and had quite a blast. Just the change of pace of NL and playing with more recreational/social players led to a very fun poker game. The biggest Canterbury had ever had up to this point was $1000 survivals so when we told them we wanted a $2500 survival it created a little buzz in the room. We had actually agreed on 3k but so far their only approved for 2500. One of the other rules for the gaming commission is you need to have escalating blinds, so we agreed on 5/10 for the first hour and 10/20 for the second hour. Long story short I coolered him twice and won a few other pots so had stacked him twice in 35 minutes. I was pumped, I hadn't played heads up nl person to person in a long while and playing it for meaningful stakes got my adrenaline going. Almost all of my NL heads up online is $1/2 with some 2/4-5/10 but I've decided not to play 10/20nl+ because of a couple bad sessions that threw off all my hard work I just don't feel like dealing with.

The first had I had JJ vs 98 on the 994J4 board. I would have gone broke with his hand too. The 2nd one was my 8h6h vs his Kc9c on the 9h6s4h3hKd I probably would have lost the same amount in his spot so again, nothing but luck on my side. He finally went bust when he 3 bet and called my 4bet with J8s vs my TT. I had lost a bit at 30/60 so I didn't end up as much but it ended the night well and early and I got to go home and get some sleep.

The next day I played the tourney I didn't really ever get anything going. I did flop the first set I can remember in a tournament and win a nice pot only to lose an equal one the next hand buffing off some chips. I busted by making 3 7's vs a flush. Nothing I could have done so out I was. I played some 30/60 for awhile during rush hour before going home.

I'm gonna wake up early tomorrow to play the main event...wish me luck!

twins, new york, house, life, etc

I have a few minutes left on my flight to new York to hopefully sweat the twins hopefully take two from they hated Yankees. It’s been a depressing postseason and while I’m not giving up hope it doesn’t look too good. Michelle, Schneider, hoppman and I thought it’d be fun to make a little weekend trip and check out the new Yankee stadium. We’re staying in Manhattan and if we don’t have a game 4 I’m sure we’ll find something fun to do around town.

I’ve been putting off blogging because I felt like I should give a recap of everything since I last blogged but now I digress and am just going to go forward.

Poker is pretty good this year it’s just been slow the last few months. I’ve been doing well winning bets but have been losing small at the bigger games so it’s been breakeven for a bit. I’m in a really good place mentally though and also with my methods for making money…heads up limit and I’m finally a competent heads up no-limit player. I’ve also this year learned and turned a profit at 30/60 stud hi/low and stud high as well but I’m not really big on the latter. My latest game I’ve been working on is PLO which was kinda fun and I don’t really have any expectations with it. Everyone just gets super excited about it but I really don’t know too many people who have stuck with it for the long haul. I started with cash, but I sucked at it and the rake kills you because of all the flops you see so I changed to sit and goes and I’ve played a little more than 100 $33 hu sng’s. The players are very bad and that has helped with the fun factor for me as I’m so competitive and winning makes it more fun.

My house is finally coming together really well. I remodeled the basement this summer and all that is left is carpet which will be installed in the next couple weeks. I got a pingpong table for down there and was planning on a pool table but I decided I’d rather have the space than something I wouldn’t use very often. I’m working with a vendor on getting a custom golden tee machine with all of the courses and I’ll get a dart board also.

I pick up on the way home from NY now…

What was hopefully going to be a sweet baseball weekend turned into an awful baseball yet unexpected fun tourist trip…for some reason I was just so focused on baseball that I didn’t even really think about new York city, but we actually had a lot of fun checking it out. We decided to wear our twins jerseys on our day trip around the city and it was fun getting razzed. One guy even opened his like 4^th floor apartment window to yell at us. We rode the subway there and back and man is that convenient. I wish I could do something like that for the twins games. I know some people have the light rail, but it doesn’t go into the north metro. And the north star just doesn’t sound all that convenient.

Brilliant me (and partially schneids fault cause he actually bought the tickets, I just clicked on them initially) got tickets for the ALCS instead of the ALDS which we didn’t realize til we were standing in line at the stadium. Omg. We walked around for 45 minutes and literally saw 0 scalpers. It was very weird and frustrating. We decided to see if somebody at customer service could somehow help us and we found out the game was actually not sold out. Idiots. Who would have thought though? We said give us your best seats and he gave us 4 wheel chair row legends club seats and in we went. When we got to our ‘seats’ which I say loosely because there were no chairs there, we talked to the usher about getting us chairs and they wanted to split us up so we didn’t block the view of the season ticket holders who were sitting on the patio behind our row. No shot. We didn’t fly all the way to new York, pay 300 for seats next to each other and then get split up. Long story short we were able to ‘upgrade’ to normal seats for another 50 dollars and that was that.

The flight to/from NY is so short seeming so I had to finish that tonight (10/19). Since getting back I went to the wild home opener (they’re supposed to be kinda brutal this year so I’m just going to enjoy it for what it is). I’ve also gone to Canterbury a few times. I haven’t played any fall poker classic events yet but I’m going to play the 6max no limit on Thursday as it sounded fun and the main event on Saturday. Michelle has been deep into her school work so I’ve also been getting a lot of hands in online.

It's been awhile...

I typed this about 2 weeks ago otw to san diego and LA...

Well, it sure has been a long while since I've shared my thoughts in a blog...

It's been so long I don't even know where to start, and since I'm on a plane, I don't even know where I left off last.

It's been quite the interesting last number of months. July was the wsop and getting all of the remodelling figured out for the new house while still living at Jon's. I was hoping to be moved in by the beginning of August but it Bill the contractor was taking his time on his terrible work. I was fed up at the end of august and decided to move in and just deal with the contruction pains and noise and maybe that would make him move faster.

I don't really feel like rehashing every last detail, but the gist is he did nothing but terrible work, his tile/stonework had to be scrapped and I had to hire a seperate contractor to redo the bathroom and entry way, and that took time to find and wait for their availability. They finished up a faaantastic job about 2 weeks ago and Bill was finishing up some of the plumbing in the bathroom when he decided to take the shower valve cap off without turning the main water line off. I heard it from my office and knew immediately what happened. I don't remember the last time I ran that fast. Down one flight of stairs...sprint, down another flight of stairs, sprint. Crank, crank crank crank omg hurry up turn off! Got it. As I go back to the main floor water is just pooooouring out of the canned lights. Towels. Every last one I could find. buckets/bins. Check. The new wood floor was not damaged, but the cieling on the main floor and the carpet in the master were. All said and done not some huuuge deal, but the last straw for mr bill. I should have fired him long before, but I guess I just put too much faith in people...and with all the delays just wanted stuff done so I could move on. This was too much. I had to fire him, and he took it just fine it seems. I probably paid for a little more than the services I recieved but I just want to move forward.

So, I've hired a new contractor and he's been finishing up. He'll be done soon and as soon as I pick out replacement carpet for my bedroom, I can actually live in it! Haha. I wouldn't even remotely care except for the woodpeckers that seem to like the front of my house and constantly wake me up. It's good they're on the wall that my bed is one because a good pounding and they're gone for a half hour. Haha.

My furnature has been delayed in addition to my disdain of all the detailed decorating involved in furnishing a house. I have a decorator helping me and she's been good, she's just a little on the over-creative side so I can't just trust her to do her own thing...

I've learned a lot about people and project management as well as being a responsible adult in the last number of months. I've lovvvved having the house to myself at night but 2 days ago was the first time somebody else hasn't been there during the day. It's not particularly annoying having people in your house working on things but it just gets tired after a while. I actually have to get dressed and stuff?!!?! WHAT? Haha. It's nice just being in charge of things and I've learned a lot of 'handiman' things of which were no interest to me b4 having my own house. I also like being able not deal with/address things when I don't want to. There is no mother or other roommates who have to suffer the consequences. I was the only one who got to care when I didn't have trash service for the first 2 weeks of living there. :)

I spent a couple weeks up north with my family and then michelles family in august so it was one of my lowest hour months in a couple years, yet the time I put in I ran well so I made a healthy amount which made relaxing away from life that much easier. September and October Michelle has been very busy with her masters program so in addition to the big twins push I've been playing a lot of poker with great results. EVen still, the long hours with the house stuff I think had me a little more stressed out than I like being. I bet the twins actually didn't help down the stretch. heh.

I just feel like I've really honed in on a place in poker where I can make great money (hu limit online) and I want to take advantage of it while the landscape is the way it is. Put some money in the bank so if something changes, even drastically I have time and resources to reestablish another method without giving up the lifestyle I've become accustom to. So this definitely means playing a little more than would be 'fun' but it's all about the fututure. If I wouldn't have played live/tournaments I'd be havinbg a really good year but unless something changes in the last 2 months, have to settle for a 'decent year' because I've just lost my ass live and haven't done anything in any tourneys. I guess in 2009 decent year is good as almost everyone in normal business is having a crappy year.


A friend and I started a business project a couple weeks ago that has some good possibility of being a good passive income generator. It's not a get rich type of thing but quite possibly a liveable enterprise. I have some ownership in a couple other companies and I'm just trying to touch more things with the hope that eventually all together they can cover living expenses. I don't plan on ever quitting poker, it'd just be nice to have some non poker income (obviously, lol).

I really wish turbulance on planes didn't affect me. I'm so jealous of those who just cruise through it like it's some fun ride. I had a hell of a time on the last flight from DET to CHI and then on to MSP. We had to fly through storms and it was missserable. The entire flight from chi to msp i just sat there with my head in my hands in my lap constantly looking at my watch hoping to be closer. Somehow, I've never thrown up on a commercial flight (but did on a small private plane when i was like 8) yet I feel like garbage a reasonable amount of the time I fly. It's mostly the decent that gets me and more than one in a day is almost always trouble...so I'm gonna start sucking it up and paying for the more expensive direct flights so I don't have to suffer. My thrify side just thinks it's dumb but it's getting the point after all the misery.

I've also decided I need to treat myself to another helicopter skiing day this winter. I just had so much fun 2 years ago and what's the point of all this work if I really don't do what I think is the most fun thing in the whole world every once in awhile. I'm really jonesing for a nice little ski trip and with the little snow we've gotten (that didn't stick) it has me really in the mood. The rainy crap we've had lately I can do without...nice weather or winter sounds better..haha.

remodelling, wsop

I'm really looking forward to getting back to my 'normal' life...Wake up between 9 and 2, work most of the standard working people day, see michelle or go do fun things like twins/wild games in the evening and more often than not work before going to bed. These days the afternoons are consumed with kitchen/house planning and it's getting a little old. It's really not my style of thing, but it's my house that I could live in for a very long time so I may as well try to do it right the first time and I just gotta suck it up and do it. It's just kind of overwhelming...buying a first house and then before moving in and even knowing really what I want, having 18 people asking me what I want for each and every detail of the remodelling process. The control I have over it is pretty cool but really I don't feel like I'm experienced enough to be making all these intricate decisions. My mom has been helping me and that's been really helpful, but really most of it's on my shoulders.

So the government decided to give me a small business/self employed census, tell me I somehow owe them $100.38 underpayment of 2008 estimated taxes, and decide that poker accounts are foreign bank accounts and have more forms to fill out...so while each of those things are very small to deal with, on top of the house shinnanigans add another layer of stress. I know I'm probably very spoiled and whining about those things is annoying to some people, but hey it's my blog I can whine if i want! Haha.

On an up note I'm on a plane with Michelle to Vegas for the world series of poker main event. I play on day 1c (sunday) and will potentially be here for a week and a half. If I get unlucky and bust out the first day I'll be back on wednesday and if not, whenever I bust out. We're seeing O tonight and I'm lookin forward to that. I'm also gonna teach her how to roll points for 45 minutes at craps and rack up the dollars. Haha.

Jay has been staying with me at Jons' the past week and that's been sweet to have him around...I know mary's with me. And she pwwwwwwned him. She got the valet in on telling him they backed into picketts car (which he's borrowing) so he was totally buggin out. :)

I think him and Dave Schnettler are spending the rest of July at my house after the wsop and I'm sure that'll be fun. I owe them for all the time they've put me up in San Diego. Hopefully the house remodelling wont be too annoying to us while we're there. About as soon as the house gets done it's Du Nord time! Kinda funny, but it'll def be a great break from everything and I hope to be fully settled by the time I come back so I can just be DONE. :)

I'll be posting wsop updates to my twitter (bicyclekick) if you want to follow my deep run you can.