The power of positive thinking...

I want to redo a post from way back when because I seen another post on another blog that made me think of it.  But first I have to rework this hand in poker first because it sucks.  I hate it and I want to punch it in the face.

Last night I'm getting dwindled down in chips and every time I get a decent hand the guy to my right bets into me.  In this hand I pick up AJ and again he bets into me.  I call.  The flop is this:

 

Score.  So I think.  At this point I'm down to about half our starting stack so I push all-in with my flopped straight.  He calls and flips over his straight flush draw.  I could just see what was about to happen.  I knew at that point I just.  could.  not.  win.  And then the turn:

 

A useless 4c.  But despite being a clear favorite I still knew I wasn't going to win.  I'm sure I do win hands in this situation from time to time, but since you remember the losing hands more, so do I.

And.  then.  the.  fucking.  river....

 

Really?  I mean, seriously.  Really?

Eh... anyways, on with the post from yesteryear...

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Going t'California with an aching... in my heart...

Lulu* has a wonderful post describing 10 ways she would spend a winter in Wisconsin. Well, I've spent way too many of them here, so thought it would be fun to spend one in California... Let's begin.

1. It's beginning to look a lot like... a beach party!

2. Christmas shopping on Rodeo Drive. That's hot.

3. Suddenly, running around the block naked on New Year's Eve doesn't seem all that impressive... but I'd do it anyways.

4. Sex in front of a fire, but on the beach, instead of the living room. I guess just sex on the beach.

5. Mow the lawn in December. Literally and figuratively.

6. ring, ring... "Yeah, Nick (Lachey)? Yeah dude, I'm in California for the whole winter dude! Yeah, I know, rocks! What, you wanna go pick up some chicks in H-Wood? Cool dude, come pick me up!"

7. I hear they have, like, $20 martinis in California. I'm so gettin' wasted on those. And the walk home will be sooooo much nicer...

8. Californication. I'm not sure what that means, but if I ever get to California, I'm a be all about the Californication...

9. Luncheons with Arnold.

10. "Oh man, these riots are so much better in real life! Yeah, it dawned on me that I need new home furnishings too!"

mmmm, California, where all your dreams come true... and you don't have to shovel F$%&ING snow...

*or the artist formerly known as Lulu

nick

If that's your poker face, then I hope I'm never at your table...

 

Holy Jesus...

nick

I just pimped it...

I don't get to play poker as much these days as I used to. That's just the price you pay for running tournaments. But this weekend I got to play in two. Our poker league finished up our 4th season, so we had a finals tournament on Friday and a tournament of champions on Saturday.

I made the final table Friday at the finals, but didn't have enough chips to get into the money. I did manage to make it to the final table with enough chips at the tournament of champions though. But after only one hand of heads up play, I had to settle for another second place.

It's a bitch to make it that far and not be able to win it all, but considering how much I play these days, I think I did pretty well this weekend.

Of course, it's not like we're professionals in the World Series of Poker playing for millions of dollars. But when we went to Vegas last year, a few of our players did do some cleaning up.

Me? I just pimped it...



BTW - you can see Binion's in the backround of this picture. Minutes before it was taken I was about two minutes from being kicked out of their casino. Apparently they didn't care for how I rocked their blackjack tables... Actually they didn't care for how I bent the cards at their blackjack tables...

Nick

Celebrity blogging...

I read today on People.com that in addition to rubbing JGar’s feet and attending ObamaCON in Denver this week, Ben Affleck will be playing some charity poker to benefit disabled veterans. A noble cause most would agree, but really, were I a disabled veteran, I wouldn’t expect a whole lot out of this. See, when we were in Vegas back in June I caught up with Ben for a not-so-friendly game of seven card stud.



Let’s just say that by the time we were done playing, he was rubbing my feet and offering me his first born. Already having a hot baby of my own, I politely declined. I instead offered mercy for all of his money and a part yet to be determined in his upcoming homemade sex tape with Jen. Not a bad deal.

Until I took the money and lost it all getting my ass kicked on the links by TWood and some other old ass fuck.

Nick

What's DILF mean?

So I was thinking, as I sometimes do, wouldn't it be great if I still had access to my old blog posts from my DILF blog? Well, turns out I do! And now you do too! It's a lot of old stuff, you know, from when I was a younger man... but some of it's fun reading if you're ever bored.

http://therealdilf.blogspot.com/

The bots will never take this one alive!!!

btw - does anyone care about politics? Want to hear my take? Tough. Wait, ok, here it is. I hate McCain and I wouldn't ever vote for Obama or Clinton. Hey, who's the Constitution Party's candidate this year?

btww - yeah, Favre finally retired. What, you people didn't see it coming? Me neither. Oh well. We'll miss ya buddy.



Now, off to play poker!

Nick

Not so card dead...

Well, I took a little dip for a while, but I'm on the way back up now on Full Tilt. Definitely one of the hardest things about playing poker is not cashing a few, and having to grind your way back up. Graphs courtesy of SharkScope.

Still no cashes in live play in some time, only a couple of bubbles (last one out before the money).

Nick

Hey, you're pretty good!

This my recent stats on Full Tilt that I plucked off of SharkScope. Not too shabby! I've been bumping my buy-ins up a little to the $20 nine person tables, and I've won the last two. It's nice because it gives me some heads up experience, which unless you're winning a lot (not me), you don't get that much.

Well, poker league starts back up this Friday, so time to put the online streak to the live game test.

Nick

Water Poker rules!

Who needs the casino when you can just bring your own table and play in the pool???



Brought to you by the good folks at Improv Everywhere. I love this site, so check them out.

Nick

Titty Tuesday

*Oh wait, wrong blog.

* I don't play much online poker, but maybe I should. According to SharkScope, a website that tracks online poker, I don't do terribly.



I have positive return on investment, and I'm in the black. Not a bad thing.

* While we're doing pictures, let's just take a look at this:



How the hell do I live here? I hate snow, and I sure as hell don't like it when the high temperature is 4! 4. Four. I guess if it wasn't for the Packers, I would probably leave.

* Go Packers!!!!





BTW - it wasn't 5 degrees out that day.

nick

Picture Monday

Been a while since I've posted some pics. Here's some of the boy and a recent home poker game. Aren't everyone just darlin'?

Sandwich blogging

* Our weekend was pretty action packed. I'll try to summarize.

* Saturday during the day we had a brat fry for the poker league I'm in. I think one could come to a couple of conclusions about this. 1 - brat fries don't make any money, and 2 - everyone has something better to do during the summer. We cashed a cool $50, and no one I invited showed up. What do you do? At least the wife came along with the boy. She's my only friend I guess... ./sob story

* I did double my money in a poker tournament we did at the brat fry though. In fact, I was looking over my finishes (I'm a dork and keep track of them), and I've cashed in 4 of my last 5 tournaments. Pay no attention to the big bucks I'm raking in, but it's a sign that my game is improving. Observe:



* Saturday night the wife and I attended our 10 year high school reunion. I don't have any crazy stories, and we didn't have sex on the golf course, which is disappointing... but I will say this. After seeing some of these people for the first time in 10 years, I feel pretty damn good about myself. Yup.

* How about I cut my loses with this post, spare you, and just post some music. These are a couple of songs from Kirsten Jones. She's from Canada hey. She reminds me of Sheryl Crow a bit.



Nick

The table project and some free time...

Here's a look at the table project. When I'm done, I'm hoping for something to this effect:



Might need some crafty help from the wife on this one :) The problem with my table is the outside edge is only about 1 1/2", which doesn't lend well to stapling the rail material (the black part) and hiding the staples well. We'll have to get creative.

I think for the middle, just a thin piece of wood with some felt will work well. It will be raised up more, but I'm not sure that would be such a bad thing.

Aside from that, the wife went out tonight, so after the boy went down I played a few free rolls on Poker Stars. I don't play for real money online anymore, because, besides being a hassle to get your money in with all the stupid new laws, I'm not big of internet play. I like being able to look at someone when I'm playing. Too many fishes ands donkeys out there playing online to put much money on it. It's just not really my idea of poker. But... the free rolls give me my poker fix when I can get it. Which isn't much.

I played one No Limit Hold 'Em sit and go with 27 players. Someone went all-in on the first hand, and I had A-10, so I figured my chances were as good as any to double up right away. I hate doing that, because that's really not poker, but what the hell. I missed and was out.

Then I played a HORSE tournament with 4,000 players. 27 spots were awarded free buy in to a $1000 round two tournament. HORSE is a limit game, with a combination of Hold 'Em, Omaha Hi/Low, Razz, seven card Stud and seven card Stud Hi/Low. Each time the deal goes around, you switch games. I did fairly well for a while, and then busted out on a table of mostly people sitting out. Only three of us were playing, and at that point, all your hands look decent. There were about 2,000 players left when I went out.

Next was a HORSE sit and go with eight players. Busted out sixth, because the person to my left just raised everything with anything. Not too much fun, so I blew all my chips away and quit.

But... looks like Saturday during the day there might be another friendly cash game going down, so we'll see what happens. As well, there is a pot limit Omaha tournament a few hours north on Sunday, but doubt I'll make it to that. For only a $10 buy-in, it's not really worth the drive, although it would be fun to play an Omaha tournament. Not too many of those around. Oh well.

Nick

Where ya going?

It took me a while, but I've finally settled on a new blog location and name. We'll see how it goes. This isn't my first blog, I've had several before this, but it's my first attempt to narrow the scope of the content. The plan is to mainly deal with poker and music, but from past experience, few people care about those topics enough to read about them daily, so I'll mix it up with some other topics as well. There are enough to go around, that's for sure... home remodeling, parenting, school, yadda yadda yadda.

In the poker world, I've been spending the off-time from the poker league I'm in to look into creating my own custom table. I already have a store bought table, but it's pretty basic. The idea is to take a round dining room table we had sitting in our basement and convert it. It should be an interesting project. More to come on that.

Also in poker, a few friends came over Sunday night to play a cash game. It was an interesting mix of quality. Three friends have played quite a bit in the past, and the other two either have never played before or only played once. Buy-in was $10 with unlimited rebuys, and I ended the night $50 up.

One thing I've noticed in playing with new players, both in tournaments and friendly cash games, it's hard (read: impossible) to get them off hands sometimes. If they pick up anything, or have a decent starting hand, no matter what you bet... they aren't folding. It leads to the occasional unnecessary suckout (aren't they all???) and in my opinion, only emboldens their bad play. Perhaps it's only experience that can tell a player to fold when they should fold. I think the way to handle these situations is to be patient and keep pots with them in it as small as possible, if for nothing else, to keep any suckouts that occur as painless as possible.

Many times when pros play with amateurs, they will try to keep the pot small pre-flop, and try to out-play them after the flop. I think they're on to something with that strategy.

We might as well throw some music out there too eh? I found on The Late Greats an interesting cover of a Blind Willie Johnson song called Nobody's Fault But Mine. It's by John Renbourn.

http://www.box.net/shared/xrvjkftm9b

And, of course, I found this interesting because one of my favorite musicians, Mason Jennings also does a cover of this song.

http://www.box.net/shared/cr1exmvulx

Nick

Bring down the house... A book review

I've got a rare moment of me time, the hot wife took the boy the visit a friend, so I thought I would post on a book that I started reading recently. It's called Bringing Down the House, and it's the story of the MIT blackjack card counters who taught themselves elaborate card counting techniques and used them to legally take the casinos for millions of dollars.

While I find the book interesting, because I love playing cards, it hasn't made me want to go up to the casinos and try out the techniques :) Which, I wouldn't put past myself... ya know, I'm impulsive like that...

It's a true story that is told from one of the players perspectives and really goes into the details of how these MIT students, and former students, would sneak thousands of dollars across country to avoid being noticed and would use group techniques to take advantage of the odds in blackjack. There are many variations of card counting out there, but this group had a real slick operation. What it boils down to is they would sit counters at the tables, who would just bet the minimum amounts and then wait until the deck was in their favor, with more high cards than low cards left. Then they would signal other players in who would not always count, but bet according to the percentage of higher cards left in the deck. The more high cards left, the more they bet, because the odds were more in their favor. Not a bad way to make a living... And while it wasn't exactly appreciated by the casinos all the time, it was perfectly legal.

I'm not a good blackjack player, I mostly play poker. But it has helped me in that it has made me realize that I need to be more aware of the odds of hitting a card I need. Coincidentally, some of the MIT card counters have gone on to become professional poker players. Andy Bloch comes to mind.

Other than that, I don't get much from the book, but it is an interesting read so far. I would recommend it if you like gambling or card playing technique at all.

Nick

blah blah Monday

I don't really have much coherent thought going on today, so I think we'll do one of those posts where I go in 15 different directions. Let's roll.

* I actually went to church this weekend. Ok, it's not like I went on my own, but I went for a couple of baptisms and first communions and what not. I have to admit that I'm not sold on all these rituals of the church. They seem pretty pointless to me. And the only thing the priest talked about was how the church is like a winning football team. Let's just say that I didn't leave feeling any different or with the desire to find Christ. I'm lost on the motivation to believe...

* I played poker until 10:30 last night which was not the best idea. But I was up $40, so I kind of had an obligation to ride it thru to the end. We were playing H.O.R.S.E. which is basically five different kinds of poker. It's fun to get away from no limit Texas Hold 'Em, which is what you usually see played on tv. What percentage of my reading audience do you think understands any of the things I post about poker? Probably zero...

* If I could have one super power, it would be the ability to ask certain questions and everyone would have to answer and they would have to tell the truth. I would love to ask why all of you read this blog. But one, I don't think most of you would answer. And two, I don't think everyone would tell the truth. It would be an interesting question to ask, I just don't believe it would do much good to ask it.

* The hot wife and I have talked quite a bit about whether we want to have another child. We've come to the conclusion that while we don't want to take steps that would rule it out completely, if we had to choose right now, we wouldn’t want another one. You'd be amazed at how many people don't like that decision. If one more person tells me my only child is going to be spoiled, I'm going to punch them in the side of the face.

* Leaving open the possibility that we might have another kid is, while somewhat scary, kind of exciting at the same time. I think it would make the difficult times of parenting so much more difficult... but the fun times of parenting... you get the idea. I would want a girl though. If it was another boy, I think I would assume a fetal position and cry.

* blah blah blah, happy Monday.

Nick

I'm sick bitch!

I'm coming down with another cold, so I'm tired and I feel like shit. What better time to provide some lovely updates on life? Let's ride...

* First and most importantly, the hot wife is starting a new job tomorrow! If you don't congratulate her, I will take it as a personal insult towards me. Actually, this is a dream opportunity for her and she has worked very hard for years under less than ideal conditions to get where she is. I'm very proud of her. And... I look forward to the paychecks that are twice as big as before... We're rich bitch!

* Next up in importance... Braeden has sprung a tooth and has, at times, become the devil. He simply eats nice, angel Braeden and then spits him out some time later for no apparent reason. Little does devil Braeden know that all these little fits are being documented and he will pay later. Oh, he will pay. btw - no suggestions are needed here, for the devil cannot be tamed with things that work on normal children.

* When is it going to warm up so he can start sleeping out in the garage??!?!!? Where is global warming? I want it.

* Moving on. I actually did well in a poker tournament this weekend, placing 10th out of 144 players. Though doing that well does not mean I won any money. Everyone who finished better than me did, but no, not me. We call that the "bubble", and you don't want to go out on the bubble. It means you played for five and a half hours and only got a blistering headache from all the smoke. Which, I never used to support smoking bans, because I used to smoke myself. But if you smokers don't start dying faster, I'm going to have to start killing you myself. It would put you out of your misery, which is a good thing. And don't cry that it's hard to quit. I know. I smoked for nine years and quit. Toughen up and just do it. I'm not worried about second hand smoke, I'm just sick of smelling like a fuckin' chimney.

* I love the fact that I quit smoking. It really does make me feel like I'm better than people who smoke, and that's a wonderful feeling.

* I'm still irritated that I have apprarently not been able to turn certain members of my audience to some new music. Ok, I'm irritated that Stephanie doesn't like any of the music I post. I listen to a lot of different shit. She has to like something, right? Well, I'm going to keep trying until she says, "WOW! I love that! I'm going to run out and buy the CD tonight!!!" I always thought I would make the perfect dj, because like I said, I listen to a lot of different stuff. Although now I'm questioning myself, and I don't like that. I will not sleep until all of you have found a new artist you like... Stephanie - check the box for this week's music and let me know if I'm getting closer. If you like them, I will do an artist of the week post on them. Everyone else, trust me, you won't like it...

* Bow to your partner. G'day.

Nick

Mixed bag Monday

* I'm a little scatter-brained today, so play along. Lot's of things to cover from the weekend and such.

* I played two poker tournaments this weekend and again, didn't do as well as I would have liked. I feel like I'm playing well, and for the most part making the right calls, just not getting the right cards at the right time. I do have some adjustments I'm going to try, including being more aggressive early on. One thing I've noticed is I've played a little more conservatively up front, and then have been bullied by the larger chip stacks later on. I want to be the bully...

* I'm playing this weekend in a tournament of 44 players. The winner gets a $10,000 buy in to the World Series of Poker main event and paid air fare to the Land of Hethens (aka Las Vegas). If there was ever a time to bring my A game, this is it. The winner of the main event in Vegas last year brought home... I think it was $12 million.

* I heard a funny and true line in a NOFX song on the way in this morning - "The only real drug problem is scoring real good drugs"

* Watched The Departed last night. Not impressed. It was a typical mob movie. There's a mob boss, some mob lackeys, a couple of rats, and a lot of pretty gruesome killing. That's it. The end was confusing, although I admit, I'm easily confused because I just don't pay a lot of attention to mob movies. I won't talk about why I was confused, because it may spoil it for some. But does anyone know why that one dude killed the other dude? There's 87 possibilities I can think of, but unless I missed something, I don't think any can be ruled out. Ah, screw it, I don't really care...

* I done went and got myself involved in some stupid post war about Social Security reform on some stupid local message board. Why? Why do I do this to myself? I know it won't get anywhere, because the only people willing to argue the subject just hate Bush and have no real interest in discussing private SS accounts. They say things like "it will bankrupt Social Security" and "it's Bush's favor to Wall Street". Yeah, ok. Is our society so dumbed down now that we're only able to speak in bumper sticker style sentences? I realize the hatred for our current President is off the charts, but should that deter us from debating issues that face our country? Apparently it should. I guess when we stick with the status quo, and just raise taxes to pay for decreased benefits, I'll follow along like a good little sheep. I tried, it's pointless, I'm done trying.

* Am I the only parent on the face of the earth who does not want his child to have a cell phone? I know responsibility and independence are foreign concepts in today's age, but I'm of the opinion we have taken things with kids way too far. A co-worker said to me today, "just wait, Braeden will have a blackberry by the time he's four." Trust me, my dear readers, over my dead fuckin' body...

* I'm going to be a horrible parent. It's just true.

Nick

Liquor in the front, poker in the rear...

Around the end of last year I started tracking my poker tournament entries using Excel. I track my placements, number of entries, entry fees and winnings. I haven't played a lot of tournaments yet, but looking back over the ones I have played in, it's obvious there are ups and downs. In six tournaments I've tracked, I've done well in three and poorly in three. Most noticeably, I've done poorly in the last two, and that's frustrating for me.


If there is one thing about my life that I think has bothered me as I've gotten old, it's that there isn't really anything that I can point to that I'm really good at. Except performing oral sex, which the hot wife (who has never been with anyone else...) tells me I'm the best at. Though, that's not something you would put on a resume for example. Unless, you were applying for a porn star role perhaps. I'm getting off track here.

I guess where I'm going with this is, dammit, there's got to be something that I am really good at. Other than giving oral sex. I mean, I'm not sure I want someone to stand up at my funeral and say, "while average at most things, he sure could please his wife with the best of them". Who wants to hear that?

Nope, it's got to be poker. I've got to focus. I've got to be the best. Or at least one of the best. Obviously, with a gazillion poker players these days, that's a hard thing to quantify. So, I think I need to set some trackable goals with some type of reward for progress.

As it stands now, my average finish over six tournaments is 15th out of 38 entries, or about 40%. My goal by the end of the year is to have an average finish in the top 25%.

So now, I have a goal - average finish in the top 25% by EOY. I have a tracking source - my trusty Excel spreadsheet. And I have the opportunity - I've joined a poker league that plays on Fridays and Sundays thru June, so I should be able to play at least once a week. Now I just need a reward for hitting my goal. It's got to be something that I really want. But what do I want? I guess we could make a list of some of the things I want...

1. anal sex from the hot wife
2. oral sex from the hot wife
3. any sex from the hot wife
4. a vacation somewhere warm (including sex with hot wife)
5. a new car (with room to have sex with hot wife in)

Hmm.. Tough decisions. What do you guys think should be my reward for hitting my poker average finish goal???

Nick