If you dont know what the title of my blog references, now you know.
After Wednesdays session (and sleeping in until 10 pm on Thursday!) I woke up feeling great about poker. There was an afternoon FTOPS on friday and a Raptors game in the evening, and I thought it was a great opportunity to sneak a session in. My plans were to play the 100 rebuy on stars, the afternoon ftops, and a $163 that was running on ftp alongside the ftops. Being a 3pm tournament, the guarantee for the FTP was low, but I felt with the ftops running alongside it the prizepool would get pumped up.
I dont remember what happened in the ftops, I was too busy accumulating all of the chips in the other two tournaments. I had the chiplead in both for what seemed like hours, and with 70% of my own action I felt like I was going to win both and put an end to the online bankroll stress Ive thrown myself into. Having played thousands of sngs I have a realistic grasp of how difficult it is to run good enough to win both, but I had an odd feeling of 'justice is about to occur.' By this time there were a couple of tables left, my friends had went to the bar to watch the Leafs game, and I was trying to close these MTTs out and make it to the bar in time for the west coast Rappies and a drunken celebration.
With 18 people left in the FTP, a huge pot came up with a shortstack shoving and a button overshipping when I had the blessing of waking up with KK in the big blind. They turned over AT and AQ, literally the perfect situation for me, but I couldnt avoid the ace. I would have been an absolute monster chipleader had I held, and was still in 3rd at the time.
I didnt stick around in 3rd for long. The very next hand I was dealt 99 in the smallblind, it folded to me, I opened, and the big blind called. The flop came A-4-8 with two spades, I checked, and he shoved for more than double the pot. I called to see his K-7 offsuit, and the running king-7 did not bode well for me. I busted shortly after in 17th place and once again had a sour taste left in my mouth. The only 'justice' in this tournament was the donk who banged off his king dusted off those chips two spots after me. Sigh.
The Stars tournament was equally as dramatic after all the chips hit the middle. I made it to the final table pretty chillin. The first hand I remember was still 9 handed, folded to me in the smallblind. I shipped < 20 BB into sketchy with 84c, an MTT reg, and he called with A7s. His call was good despite the ICM effect of two shorties lingering, as Im sure he is playing for 1st place money. The board came something like A87 - 4 - A for the suckout and then the heartbreak rebink. No problem, I still had chips and an amazing position at the table. There was an incredibly nitty player to my left, folding over 90% of his hands and just letting me ravage his blinds. The player to my right seemed to be avoiding pots with me, not opening his button nearly enough (considering the nitty bigblind) and giving me walks when it was folded to him. Despite this dream situation, once again I was cursed when I got it all in preflop with AJ vs AQ, I banged out the jack but he rivered a Queen and that was that. I busted in 4th for $12k.
We played again Saturday because of the $2500 FTOPS on fulltilt, and things kept going my way. Im not sure to what extent you can call a 14th, a 9th, and a 3rd 'going my way' - but Im putting myself in position to win tournaments and that has me thinking positively about the game which is a huge step forward. Sunday was the 4th day out of 5 that I played mtts, which Im sure was a first for me. My friend Todd and I started the day going out for smoothies and walking his grandmas dog, then hit the tables. The first tournament of the day was the FTOPs brawl, with something ridiculous like 10k entrants, and I ended up in 127th.
It feels like Im building stacks so much more lately than I used to. Playing cash and talking/playing sessions with my friends has helped a bunch. My bluffs are working and Im snapping off other guys bluffs like its nobodies business. Ace and occasionally king high calls are always awesome for my table image, and when players @ the table not involved in the hand type 'SICK' or 'owned' into the chat it draws even more attention to it. A couple times I have called with ace high and guys have been bluffing with low pocket pairs, but I still feel good :) It makes me feel funny to think of the amount of money I made a few years ago when I was pure trash compared to now, yet Im down 6 figures this year. Only 40 days left in 09 however, and Im feeling big things in 2010.
Apart from poker, I took my Mom and sister to New York City for 3 days to see John Mayer's album release party for his new record. They are both huge fans and had and incredible time. It was my little sisters first ever concert and treating her to a good time felt how being a big brother should feel. The only downside was how high it set the bar for her future shows. The venue was the small/historic/intimate Beacon Theatre and there just arent many opportunites to see major acts in spots like that. Hopefully she dosent think 'this sucks' when she makes it to a stadium show. The show was broadcast live on TV/the internet, its great she will have that to relive the show (and see herself in it a bunch!)
We had great seats, beside us were John Mayer's family, and behind us were Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and a few celebrities that all the young girls made a big deal of but I didnt recognize. Apparently a couple of them were past American Idol winners. Apart from the concert, the weather was perfect considering it was mid November. We took full advantage, spending an amazing day riding around in a carriage in Central Park and taking tons of photos. Straberry fields was especially chilling, standing in a spot where John Lennon would smoke cigs and read, just steps from where he lived and was murdered. There were tons of people walking through silently or stopping to observe the memorial, with everyone showing tons of respect. The homeless man who arranges fresh flowers into a peace sign there every day was chilling and talking to anyone willing to listen. It was a very cool scene and I would recommend it to anyone visiting NYC with an interest in the Beatles.
We also checked out times square, the restaurants my sis felt like eating at, and various other small stuff. Two good friends from highschool were also there to see the show, and each night after my sis went to bed I would meet up with them at a bar until the 3 am last call. I would wake up feeling like hungover garbage to the sounds of my sis eager to see the city, but as I recuperated on the ride home I was happy having not wasted a minute of the trip.
Our last night in the city, I met up wtih Ben (beerocrat) and along with my two friends we smoked a joint he had rolled and went up the Empire State Building. After that we hit a bar before Ben had to grab the last train home. Its always cool to put a face to an online screenname and it was great of Ben to make the late night trip to see us.
Ive also been trying to read more lately, it was something I enjoyed a ton and kind of lost for a few years. This week Ive put 300 pages behind me and cant see it slowing down too much. Im reading Scar Tissue as well as having The Power of Now sitting around with a couple chapters finished. I think its giving me more balance and a touch of 'routine' to my life, as Im trying to read before nodding off to sleep each night. Also worth noting is that apart from the joint Ben brought down, I havent smoked since sunday. That feels great and Im sure the next time I do smoke (Tonight? Most likely haha!) I will enjoy it alot more.
Tonight Im going to see the Raptors vs Miami. Its been a bit of a slow start for the Raps this year, but in fairness to us the schedule has been tough and we've played most of the good teams. I really hope we can string some wins together and start looking like a playoff team, and tonights as good an opportunity as any to start! To be realistic, our defense looks like swiss cheese at times, and some of our players seem to just be 'stargazing' as guys blow by them. Its frustrating to think that Im contributing to their salaries while watching this.
Anyone will tell you Im a passionate Raps fan, but who wouldnt be excited to see this guy!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
An Enlightening Night with 3 deep MTT runs! tl;dr
I just finished 24th in the FTOPS 17 300 rebuy 1 Million guaranteed and FT'd my two favorite tournaments on the internet (the stars 55r turbo with big antes and the fulltilt super turbo) for a 3rd and a 9th. I would bet ALOT of money on 9th and 3rd being my two most common final table placements, so thats kind of funny. My heart hasn't sped up from poker in a really long time, and during the FTOPS it did every time I was in an important spot, I really enjoyed it and it took me back to when I moved up to the $5, $11, $22 buyin sngs for the first time. I remember shortly after I first moved up to the $33s, I went 33 straight without cashing and had to make down. Its hilarious to think of how bad I must have run over those sngs BACK THEN to do that, but Im getting offtopic in the first paragraph!
Winning would have been crazy for me tonight for tons of reasons. Before tonight's sesh I was literally woken up to 6 missed calls from a friend who I split raptors season tickets with. We had done a draft at the beginning of the year for all the games and I picked tonights game since it was on a Wednesday vs a solid team. Most raps games are on sundays so I had to draft strategically, at the time I had no way to know there would be an FTOPS! I decided to not waste any basketball tickets this year, so if no one wanted to go I would have went to the game and forgot about tournies. After shipping him the tickets, I frantically started preparing for tourneys, maxing out my USD credit card because I didn't want to have to bother a friend asking for a petty amount to be loaned. Before you worry about my financial situation, I will just pay the bill off when it comes in the mail, Im not swimming in debt! ..... yet!
There were some ABSURD hands in this tournament. One that comes to mind off the top of my head is a shove I made the only time I was short enough to just jam pf, and luckily I doubled it right up.
Blinds may have been 250-500 or something similar and I shipped K9 from the CO. The sb (big fish) tanked and tanked and called with 69hh. This was WELL into the tournament but def not @ or around the money bubble just yet. He flopped two hearts and I faded. A couple other times people made calls on river value bets, one of them when I had bet 3 streets, thinking I was bluffing. Alot of stuff went right for me. There were a couple races where I binked my ace on the river , but I cannot recall getting my chips in worse than a flip ever, and no one sucked out. My table was absolutely insane for a long time with tfund on my direct left, ajkhoosier to his left, chicagocards to his left, and tons of others coming and going. Every pot I played w chicagocards was insanely tilting, boards would run out in the stupidest of ways, and he was really agro which made it hard to play him. Tfund also kept messing with me (or waking up with legit hands) pf. After 8 hours I was admittedly finding it hard to keep emotions in check while playing these huge pots and talking with friends about being tilted actually helped to calm me down a ton. As I watched the animation of being 3bet or a wet card dropped and someone hammered the pot forcing me to fold, I could feel it bugging me, but I wasn't letting it affect my decisions. Despite the struggles at that death table I actually moved to a new one. Happy to still have a manageable stack and all was fine, until I busted to a jerry yang/darvin moon type of player who tarped me with pocket kings! So funny how things work after being at at a table of legends for hours. Its also funny how people say things like 'oh my god how do I bust but that fish makes it deep!' Well, the reason poker is profitable is because those fish make it deep and remember those runs, and not the 90% of the time they don't off stacks early. Everyone needs to love these players!
Also worth mentioning is that tonight I had 60% of myself sold off, the highest percentage Ive ever had out. Tonight was the first night I sold 60% instead of 50%, and it would have been a $30k decision had I won.
To 'go on,' another uncharacteristic aspect of this evening in addition to me fading draws is that I played a big mtt sesh alone. I usually play them with the same few buddies and we crush bags nonstop, but tonight I hardly smoked @ all. To be specific, I had a bowl packed from the night before that I didnt spark until @ least 2 synchronized brakes into the session. It took me a couple more sync breaks to get through it and pack a fresh one, and I remember that bowl sitting there for close to an hour before it got punished. I was also still in the tournament @ 4:20, where a poker players comment suggested I was obliged to smoke, and I passed up on the opportunity. It wasnt even a conscious decision to not do it, I would describe it more as the desire to do it wasnt taking over. I think its really time for me to start using smoking as a reward in my life more than a crutch or mainstay. I can also invest the money I would have spent on drugs into my bankroll (haha this is a joke for anyone thinking I have that out of control of a habit!)
The source of my introspection comes from a new perspective I was given this week. A friend of mine who is studying anthropology had a paper due, and the subject she chose was her poker playing friends. She came over while we were playing a sunday sesh and recorded/took notes on us and our behaviour as we played tournaments, watched sports, smoked, ordered food, etc. She took notes in addition to recording, and used playback from her tapes to transcribe everything, similar to a script in a play. It was due today, and lastnight she needed help with some of our slang and poker discussion so I relived our brutal sunday (2/3 of us went 0fer) and observed a few hours of my own behaviour with a couple of my best friends. It was interesting and eye opening to say the least, and I really believe that the experience of 'observing myself' high while I was sober had the subconscious effect of making me want to smoke less tonight.
None of those who read my blogs are strangers to my odd sleep schedule, and tonight was not an exception. As I mentioned earlier I woke up with little time to spare before the mtts started and no real plan of where I was even playing them! My 'day' consisted of waking up to a ringing cellphone and the messages flashing on my computer screen, making breakfast while reading my friends paper, and clamoring to sell off percentages and get the right amount of money on the various pokersites. During this whirlwind of activity, I was picturing myself watching a recording of these events and just shaking my head laughing at how I resembled a chicken with his head cut off. It is as close to an 'out of body experience' as I can recall having.
I remember thinking during this experience that I used to be really active and super organized both financially and with my schedule. When I moved up to the higher/highest stakes I suppose I slowly morphed into a guy who just does everything at the last minute when he takes brief breaks from tiring hours of being lazy. While I might be exaggerating slightly, its good to be hard on yourself sometimes :)
Fastforward to my tournament results tonight. Instead my regular sighing and moaning regarding the bad luck responsible for more 'close calls', I felt that tonight was a blessing in disguise because of the inspirational dissatisfaction Ive developed. There is no way I shouldnt be rolled online for these games, and its only because for a YEAR I was lazy and didnt grind anything other than sundays and random other stuff with no schedule or plan to generate income. Yet I would whine to my friends all the time about never winning! Weekends used to be the time I grinded the hardest because the games were full of recreational players, and for a year its only been hungover on sundays that I have played vs the weekend players.
I had the vision of myself going deep in a huge tournament months or years down the road with all of action and reflecting back on this evening as the catalyst in my life. I was sitting at the table feeling great about being there and happy that I ended the year of 2009 with the goal of no longer being so complacent! I think the Scott from highschool would kick my ass for being as lazy as Ive been, and the Scott who played sngs would kick my ass for coasting through life with the money he made! Luckily there will never be a Scott kicking a Scotts ass about going broke due to prolonged laziness, because he stopped it at just one year!
The goal of building up a big online BR again starting NOW is def the strongest motivation Ive had to grind since before I can remember. More important than just thinking it is the way that I feel towards thinking it. Ive set tons of goals that I havent stuck to and really got in the habit of going through the motions with them. When I set this goal in my mind, and even typing it now, every breath I inhale and exhale feels 'cleaner' than the breaths Ive taken in the last few months. It sounds as corny as it possibly could, but I felt like posting it because I think it will give me more than just a sense of direction but also words I have to back up :)
Ive played 20k hands of cash this month and prob between 20-30k of mtt buyins. Soon Im going to make 20k hands and 30k in buyins look like nothing, but more importantly Im going to approach them with a new outlook that is best for both my sanity and my bottom line.
Two final notes:
1 - I was proofing this post cuz its kind of long and @ the top of the post I said 'just finished 33rd' - actually, I finsihed 24th - but 33rd is where I finsihed in the last two $500 events that I made runs in. Slowly and surely im working my way to the FT!
2- After sunday mtts, Im going to my parents monday and heading to New York City for a couple days with my mom, sister, and a couple close friends from highscool. Really looking forrward to the trip!
Winning would have been crazy for me tonight for tons of reasons. Before tonight's sesh I was literally woken up to 6 missed calls from a friend who I split raptors season tickets with. We had done a draft at the beginning of the year for all the games and I picked tonights game since it was on a Wednesday vs a solid team. Most raps games are on sundays so I had to draft strategically, at the time I had no way to know there would be an FTOPS! I decided to not waste any basketball tickets this year, so if no one wanted to go I would have went to the game and forgot about tournies. After shipping him the tickets, I frantically started preparing for tourneys, maxing out my USD credit card because I didn't want to have to bother a friend asking for a petty amount to be loaned. Before you worry about my financial situation, I will just pay the bill off when it comes in the mail, Im not swimming in debt! ..... yet!
There were some ABSURD hands in this tournament. One that comes to mind off the top of my head is a shove I made the only time I was short enough to just jam pf, and luckily I doubled it right up.
Blinds may have been 250-500 or something similar and I shipped K9 from the CO. The sb (big fish) tanked and tanked and called with 69hh. This was WELL into the tournament but def not @ or around the money bubble just yet. He flopped two hearts and I faded. A couple other times people made calls on river value bets, one of them when I had bet 3 streets, thinking I was bluffing. Alot of stuff went right for me. There were a couple races where I binked my ace on the river , but I cannot recall getting my chips in worse than a flip ever, and no one sucked out. My table was absolutely insane for a long time with tfund on my direct left, ajkhoosier to his left, chicagocards to his left, and tons of others coming and going. Every pot I played w chicagocards was insanely tilting, boards would run out in the stupidest of ways, and he was really agro which made it hard to play him. Tfund also kept messing with me (or waking up with legit hands) pf. After 8 hours I was admittedly finding it hard to keep emotions in check while playing these huge pots and talking with friends about being tilted actually helped to calm me down a ton. As I watched the animation of being 3bet or a wet card dropped and someone hammered the pot forcing me to fold, I could feel it bugging me, but I wasn't letting it affect my decisions. Despite the struggles at that death table I actually moved to a new one. Happy to still have a manageable stack and all was fine, until I busted to a jerry yang/darvin moon type of player who tarped me with pocket kings! So funny how things work after being at at a table of legends for hours. Its also funny how people say things like 'oh my god how do I bust but that fish makes it deep!' Well, the reason poker is profitable is because those fish make it deep and remember those runs, and not the 90% of the time they don't off stacks early. Everyone needs to love these players!
Also worth mentioning is that tonight I had 60% of myself sold off, the highest percentage Ive ever had out. Tonight was the first night I sold 60% instead of 50%, and it would have been a $30k decision had I won.
To 'go on,' another uncharacteristic aspect of this evening in addition to me fading draws is that I played a big mtt sesh alone. I usually play them with the same few buddies and we crush bags nonstop, but tonight I hardly smoked @ all. To be specific, I had a bowl packed from the night before that I didnt spark until @ least 2 synchronized brakes into the session. It took me a couple more sync breaks to get through it and pack a fresh one, and I remember that bowl sitting there for close to an hour before it got punished. I was also still in the tournament @ 4:20, where a poker players comment suggested I was obliged to smoke, and I passed up on the opportunity. It wasnt even a conscious decision to not do it, I would describe it more as the desire to do it wasnt taking over. I think its really time for me to start using smoking as a reward in my life more than a crutch or mainstay. I can also invest the money I would have spent on drugs into my bankroll (haha this is a joke for anyone thinking I have that out of control of a habit!)
The source of my introspection comes from a new perspective I was given this week. A friend of mine who is studying anthropology had a paper due, and the subject she chose was her poker playing friends. She came over while we were playing a sunday sesh and recorded/took notes on us and our behaviour as we played tournaments, watched sports, smoked, ordered food, etc. She took notes in addition to recording, and used playback from her tapes to transcribe everything, similar to a script in a play. It was due today, and lastnight she needed help with some of our slang and poker discussion so I relived our brutal sunday (2/3 of us went 0fer) and observed a few hours of my own behaviour with a couple of my best friends. It was interesting and eye opening to say the least, and I really believe that the experience of 'observing myself' high while I was sober had the subconscious effect of making me want to smoke less tonight.
None of those who read my blogs are strangers to my odd sleep schedule, and tonight was not an exception. As I mentioned earlier I woke up with little time to spare before the mtts started and no real plan of where I was even playing them! My 'day' consisted of waking up to a ringing cellphone and the messages flashing on my computer screen, making breakfast while reading my friends paper, and clamoring to sell off percentages and get the right amount of money on the various pokersites. During this whirlwind of activity, I was picturing myself watching a recording of these events and just shaking my head laughing at how I resembled a chicken with his head cut off. It is as close to an 'out of body experience' as I can recall having.
I remember thinking during this experience that I used to be really active and super organized both financially and with my schedule. When I moved up to the higher/highest stakes I suppose I slowly morphed into a guy who just does everything at the last minute when he takes brief breaks from tiring hours of being lazy. While I might be exaggerating slightly, its good to be hard on yourself sometimes :)
Fastforward to my tournament results tonight. Instead my regular sighing and moaning regarding the bad luck responsible for more 'close calls', I felt that tonight was a blessing in disguise because of the inspirational dissatisfaction Ive developed. There is no way I shouldnt be rolled online for these games, and its only because for a YEAR I was lazy and didnt grind anything other than sundays and random other stuff with no schedule or plan to generate income. Yet I would whine to my friends all the time about never winning! Weekends used to be the time I grinded the hardest because the games were full of recreational players, and for a year its only been hungover on sundays that I have played vs the weekend players.
I had the vision of myself going deep in a huge tournament months or years down the road with all of action and reflecting back on this evening as the catalyst in my life. I was sitting at the table feeling great about being there and happy that I ended the year of 2009 with the goal of no longer being so complacent! I think the Scott from highschool would kick my ass for being as lazy as Ive been, and the Scott who played sngs would kick my ass for coasting through life with the money he made! Luckily there will never be a Scott kicking a Scotts ass about going broke due to prolonged laziness, because he stopped it at just one year!
The goal of building up a big online BR again starting NOW is def the strongest motivation Ive had to grind since before I can remember. More important than just thinking it is the way that I feel towards thinking it. Ive set tons of goals that I havent stuck to and really got in the habit of going through the motions with them. When I set this goal in my mind, and even typing it now, every breath I inhale and exhale feels 'cleaner' than the breaths Ive taken in the last few months. It sounds as corny as it possibly could, but I felt like posting it because I think it will give me more than just a sense of direction but also words I have to back up :)
Ive played 20k hands of cash this month and prob between 20-30k of mtt buyins. Soon Im going to make 20k hands and 30k in buyins look like nothing, but more importantly Im going to approach them with a new outlook that is best for both my sanity and my bottom line.
Two final notes:
1 - I was proofing this post cuz its kind of long and @ the top of the post I said 'just finished 33rd' - actually, I finsihed 24th - but 33rd is where I finsihed in the last two $500 events that I made runs in. Slowly and surely im working my way to the FT!
2- After sunday mtts, Im going to my parents monday and heading to New York City for a couple days with my mom, sister, and a couple close friends from highscool. Really looking forrward to the trip!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Noticing a trend here
I finish tantalizingly close to huge cashes in mtts.
Went to Aruba to play the Ultimatebet $5k mtt. It was an amazing week of no laptop and beautiful weather. We went on an amazing snorkelling boozecruise to a WW2 shipwreck site, and then to a calmer cove where it was much easier to swim. The water was super choppy @ the shipwreck, and Im in brutal shape. Another day we took an ATV tour of t he island that lasted 4 hours. We went to the ruins of an old goldmine, through tons of awesome trails, and swimming in a natural pool. Any poker player that doesnt do this in Aruba is missing out on something awesome.
Pokerwise: Late in day 2 lost a 100k flip with AK vs QQ that would have put me among the chipleaders. Earlier in teh day I folded KK on Q84T board to the same guy when he opened UTG and pumped both streets. Cool.
I have continued to get murdered/heartbroken playing online mtts. I started @ the sunday mill last weekend so I only played a handful of tournies (maybe 8) and came 16th in the 100r for 1500. Not a restealing and openshoving with a shortstack 16th, but a huge stack the whole tourney only to run bad when blinds got huge 16th. Played again on wednesday and came 17th in ultimatebets $1k weekly tournament, for 2200 after being top 10 in chips for awhile with 3 tables left. Today I finished 39/2326 in the Fulltilt $500 million for $2791. So close yet so lame.
On the bright side, I sold off half of my action today so its much easier mentally and financially. I have sold %s off before in $1k+ buyins, but today was the first time I offered it as a package deal and didnt have all my action in the $215s. Losing a couple K donkamenting is much less stressful than losing 7K, and also more realistic for me to make back during the week. Until I hit a big score I think Im going to set my monday-saturday goal at enough to have half myself on sundays and continue to sell off. Taking large amounts out of my savings to put it back online was something I found VERY frusterating and this is great motivation to end my yearlong laziness.
Another trend Ive noticed? deodorant companies make hilarious commercials.
Went to Aruba to play the Ultimatebet $5k mtt. It was an amazing week of no laptop and beautiful weather. We went on an amazing snorkelling boozecruise to a WW2 shipwreck site, and then to a calmer cove where it was much easier to swim. The water was super choppy @ the shipwreck, and Im in brutal shape. Another day we took an ATV tour of t he island that lasted 4 hours. We went to the ruins of an old goldmine, through tons of awesome trails, and swimming in a natural pool. Any poker player that doesnt do this in Aruba is missing out on something awesome.
Pokerwise: Late in day 2 lost a 100k flip with AK vs QQ that would have put me among the chipleaders. Earlier in teh day I folded KK on Q84T board to the same guy when he opened UTG and pumped both streets. Cool.
I have continued to get murdered/heartbroken playing online mtts. I started @ the sunday mill last weekend so I only played a handful of tournies (maybe 8) and came 16th in the 100r for 1500. Not a restealing and openshoving with a shortstack 16th, but a huge stack the whole tourney only to run bad when blinds got huge 16th. Played again on wednesday and came 17th in ultimatebets $1k weekly tournament, for 2200 after being top 10 in chips for awhile with 3 tables left. Today I finished 39/2326 in the Fulltilt $500 million for $2791. So close yet so lame.
On the bright side, I sold off half of my action today so its much easier mentally and financially. I have sold %s off before in $1k+ buyins, but today was the first time I offered it as a package deal and didnt have all my action in the $215s. Losing a couple K donkamenting is much less stressful than losing 7K, and also more realistic for me to make back during the week. Until I hit a big score I think Im going to set my monday-saturday goal at enough to have half myself on sundays and continue to sell off. Taking large amounts out of my savings to put it back online was something I found VERY frusterating and this is great motivation to end my yearlong laziness.
Another trend Ive noticed? deodorant companies make hilarious commercials.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Poker has sucked, life has been awesome. PEARL JAM
Its a good balance.
Pokerwise, if you count the series and online, Im on a 6 fig downswing. By f ar the biggest Ive ever endured. Apart from annoying my best friends with constant whining on sundays, I feel like I've handled it super well.
Im not going to talk too much about poker right now, Ill just sum it up by saying if there is an important pot late in a tournament, the best way to win is to play that pot vs me. Of my last ten cashes, 9 of them have been final 2 tables. 0 of them have been final tables.
On the non-tournament front, Ive started to play cash games and Im loving them. Im super lucky to have a few friends that have been crushing them for years (and telling me to switch for years) and it just took a massive downer to get me there. What a blessing in disguise!
Lifewise, I have been eating like a king lately. After spending a couple months in Vegas with world class restaurants everywhere you turn, we havent missed a beat since getting back to Toronto. The last two weeks our friend Alan came down and stayed with me a couple weeks, and it may take a couple more weeks for my body to recover.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to do something Ive been meaning to do for quite a few years : See a Pearl Jam show. Max and I picked up some tickets earlier in the week, got there early (but missed an incredible two song pre-opening solo set by Eddie click here for song 2) and were treated to an INCREDIBLE SETLIST. The crowd was full of energy and it seemed the band was really feeding off it.
I sat on the lawn for my first time ever @ the Molson Amphitheatre and really enjoyed it. Ive been spoiled with incredible seats to tons of concerts in my life, but really embraced being on the grass with tons of other fans enjoying a gorgeous vantage point of Toronto. Looking west we could see BMO Stadium and the CNE lights, looking east we had an incredible view of the skyline @ sunset, and behind us was Lake Ontario and trees. To put it eloquently: Pearl jam was the patty in one of the most incredible visual sandwiches Ive ever seen.
To try and give you an idea of how awesome it was, let me steal some images from google:
The West (you're going to have to use your imagination to picture the stadium at night)
Pearl Jam:
The skyline (youll have to click this one to get it to show up properly, it is resizing in my blog):
Molson Amphitheatre from the Air:
After the show, we met up with a bunch of our friends at the CNE. Other than this haunted house ride that was rigged and dumb, we just walked around. I had a sampling of the gross disgusting food due to my intoxicity, the menu included a hot dog (ketchup only!), a grilled cheese that was surely the grossest one I will ever eat, and some fries. After awhile we made our way to the Casino where $25 min triple blackjack owned me. Luckily I got on the list and snagged a seat in a super fishy game with Max, Alan, and Peter and was the only net winner on the night. My fav hand was betting the river as a bluff with the JT high, getting called by max and being good. Its actually pretty scary that he knew I was bluffing and called with what I assume was ten high or a worse jack, and if I didnt have enough reason to avoid him since he doesnt lose, I can now add soulreader to that list. The next day we woke up hungover and went to see Modest Mouse. They played my fav song (Missed the Boat) but they DIDNT PLAY FLOAT ON WTF!
My jerry springer closing thought : I love youtube the most in the world. Its letting me re-live tons of songs from the Pearl Jam show and Ive probably watched each vid @ least 3 times. This video for 'Black' was shot from the lawn, and aroudn 50 seconds in he pans to the right to show a guy holding a lighter which gives a little glimpse of the skyline. I think it also gives an idea of how into it the whole crowd was.
Hopefully Ill be back soon with more awesome stories. Also I plan to get my Vegas experience typed out soon which should have a few captivating stories. To spoil a couple: I got crushed with only one cash for 15k during the series. I ran over a dude HU in a shootout and lost all the important pots, a couple where I got it in a head and a couple where I got rogged. He went on to win the bracelet! YAY! In the most epic tilt session of my life after losing out of that event, I lost $5000 to Todd playing Peggle that night. We bought Lebron James champagne @ Jet when he was at the booth beside us on Canada day. Chartered a helicopter for a sunset tour of the grand canyon including the Vegas skyline @ day/night and landing in the canyon.
One thing I havent mentioned yet is that Im trying to squeeze in a ton of golf, and Im writing this here to reinforce it to myself. Before the summer ends I would like to shoot sub 85 for 18, and I think thats pretty realistic. My best round so far is -2 on a par 3 course for 9 holes where I had lightning in a bottle, but par 3 courses =/= real golf. The biggest obstacle for me is keeping the ball in play off the tee. I can blast it high and left (a fade for me), or low and right (a hook), but god does it ever feel good when it goes dead straight! We played on wednesday and I shot a 92 with 8 lost balls, but its only fair to admit that we allow 1 mulligan off the tee per side, so it was more like 94 with 10 lost balls.
Some of you might remember my old blog post on Concert Posters, and the one I picked up for this show is sexy. I cant wait to get it framed. Check it here if you're interested.
Enjoy the summer before its gone!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
June recap
Im lying awake 2 hours early for todays $3k NL WSOP, and Ive accepted the reality that I wont get back to sleep. The sun is penetrating far to bright and far too hard through the blinds adjacent to the couch I crashed on lastnight.
For a summer where me and all of my friends are getting absolutely crushed at the series, its been a ton of fun. I feel like the balance Ive struck between playing and days off hasnt made me sick of live poker just yet, which is a huge plus with the $3k, $5k 6 max and Main Event coming up. I was also convinced by a friend to play Ante Up for Africa, another $5k buyin that has a superfast turbo structure designed to last 5 hours.
One of the things I enjoyed most about Vegas last summer were the meals, and despite losing credit card roulette for 2 of our groups 3 biggest meals, the trend has continued.
As much as I would like to ramble on, I hear people getting out of bed upstairs and I want to jump in the pool before going to play poker. Ill have to whine about the beats and brag about the meals and goodtimes later!
For a summer where me and all of my friends are getting absolutely crushed at the series, its been a ton of fun. I feel like the balance Ive struck between playing and days off hasnt made me sick of live poker just yet, which is a huge plus with the $3k, $5k 6 max and Main Event coming up. I was also convinced by a friend to play Ante Up for Africa, another $5k buyin that has a superfast turbo structure designed to last 5 hours.
One of the things I enjoyed most about Vegas last summer were the meals, and despite losing credit card roulette for 2 of our groups 3 biggest meals, the trend has continued.
As much as I would like to ramble on, I hear people getting out of bed upstairs and I want to jump in the pool before going to play poker. Ill have to whine about the beats and brag about the meals and goodtimes later!
Monday, May 25, 2009
TWO LINER
Today I woke up super late after going to the Tragically Hip's hometown show in Kingston. It was my third hip show in as many weeks, and it makes you appreciate variety being the spice of life. In other words, I love this band, I love their songs, I love the friends I go to the shows with, but things get repetitive and you see the effect of diminishing returns when you're at the third show.
I went to the show with my roomate from 2nd year university, one of my oldest friends who also went to preschool, gradeschool, and highschool together. In highschool we had a 30 minute drive (or bus ride in grades 9 and 10) and always spent it talking, sharing discmen, or him riding shotgun in my car.
Before the show we chilled on my friends boat and drank Bud Light lime. It was in the kingston harbour which IMO is pretty gorgeous. Here is a tiny pic to give you an idea, we were right in front of city hall in a pretty prime boat parking spot
Unlike the Toronto show, the only tunes I missed in Kingston were for well-timed beer runs. After the show we went to a local bar called the Merchant. Its a pretty cool old stone building that has been around forever, a bunch of my friends work there, and we met up with tons of people from the concert.
On sunday I was WAYY too hungover to start tournies at 2 , so i missed a ton of the good ones. I ended up missing the 1115, and 1230 trains to Toronto, but I caught one in time to get me there for start of the 6pm tournies. Things got off to a very poor start when I got to Todd's and realized I had forgotten my pokerstars security token at home. I left fulltilt signed in at Todd's place, bolted back to our house, and used Max's computer to register for the stars tournies before they closed. During this 1 minute timespan, I managed to get dealt KK in some random $100 tourny, while taking it all the way to the river (where my opponent folded) I was dealt AKdd in the stars Sunday $500. I raised, was called by the blinds, and saw a flop of A75 with two diamonds. We ended up getting it all in on the turn and I couldnt beat the triple sevens, and curse words were uttered. The worst part is that if dude just folds at any time in the KK pot, I am walking to Todd's and AKdd gets automucked as I enjoy the beautiful girls walking down Bloor Street.
Im going to use the old sayings 'alls well that ends well' and 'good things come in threes' as I won TWO tournaments Sunday, giving me tons of confidence heading into the World Series.
Today is my younger brothers 19th birthday, making him legal drinking age! To celebrate him no longer needing my old fake ID, Im going to suprise visit him in Kingston and bring him and his friends out for bottle service. For those keeping track - I have bounced back and forth between the two cities 5 times in the past week. Instead of being aggravated, I've embraced it - the train ride along Lake Ontario from Kingston to Toronto is gorgeous, great value at $40-60, and Im always picking up cool new things while gazing out the window!
Thanks for reading
I went to the show with my roomate from 2nd year university, one of my oldest friends who also went to preschool, gradeschool, and highschool together. In highschool we had a 30 minute drive (or bus ride in grades 9 and 10) and always spent it talking, sharing discmen, or him riding shotgun in my car.
Before the show we chilled on my friends boat and drank Bud Light lime. It was in the kingston harbour which IMO is pretty gorgeous. Here is a tiny pic to give you an idea, we were right in front of city hall in a pretty prime boat parking spot
Unlike the Toronto show, the only tunes I missed in Kingston were for well-timed beer runs. After the show we went to a local bar called the Merchant. Its a pretty cool old stone building that has been around forever, a bunch of my friends work there, and we met up with tons of people from the concert.
On sunday I was WAYY too hungover to start tournies at 2 , so i missed a ton of the good ones. I ended up missing the 1115, and 1230 trains to Toronto, but I caught one in time to get me there for start of the 6pm tournies. Things got off to a very poor start when I got to Todd's and realized I had forgotten my pokerstars security token at home. I left fulltilt signed in at Todd's place, bolted back to our house, and used Max's computer to register for the stars tournies before they closed. During this 1 minute timespan, I managed to get dealt KK in some random $100 tourny, while taking it all the way to the river (where my opponent folded) I was dealt AKdd in the stars Sunday $500. I raised, was called by the blinds, and saw a flop of A75 with two diamonds. We ended up getting it all in on the turn and I couldnt beat the triple sevens, and curse words were uttered. The worst part is that if dude just folds at any time in the KK pot, I am walking to Todd's and AKdd gets automucked as I enjoy the beautiful girls walking down Bloor Street.
Im going to use the old sayings 'alls well that ends well' and 'good things come in threes' as I won TWO tournaments Sunday, giving me tons of confidence heading into the World Series.
Today is my younger brothers 19th birthday, making him legal drinking age! To celebrate him no longer needing my old fake ID, Im going to suprise visit him in Kingston and bring him and his friends out for bottle service. For those keeping track - I have bounced back and forth between the two cities 5 times in the past week. Instead of being aggravated, I've embraced it - the train ride along Lake Ontario from Kingston to Toronto is gorgeous, great value at $40-60, and Im always picking up cool new things while gazing out the window!
Thanks for reading
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