Christmas, poker some other stuff

Christmas was once again very crazy and busy. This one was really good though, I had enough money to get everyone something and get Melissa some really good stuff. I got Melissa a pea coat and a really cool David Bowie belt that she went nuts over. We got up on Christmas morning and then went to Gainsville to spend the morning with her family. It was really nice Bella went with us and she did better on the car trip and did really good at the house. We had lunch and then I took a nap and then we got up and came home before going to Mom's house. We went to Mom's and exchanged presents and finally made it home after about 12 hours.

It was a good day though one of the best ones I have had in awhile. I received some really nice things. A new ring an Ihome for my ipod, some nice sweaters and so on. The hardest part was work, it has been crazy the lat few days. I am going to start looking at other jobs but with the economy the way it is I am not sure how easy that will be. Hopefully I can find something that I will enjoy.

Poker has been meh, I havent been playing much, but I played a session today and did ok. I played decent for the most part I made a few mistakes but nothing too bad. I was up as much as like $80, then had a few beats and wound up making like $37. A win is a win.

I am really not in the mood to write, so until later.

Eagles of Death Metal = Awesome

The other day I went to the Eagles of Death Metal show in Deep Ellum. It was a pretty impressive show, it was a small venue and they just seemed to be really happy to be there. Melissa wasn't feeling well so she sat out for the majority of the show but it was still cool. I recommend checking them out, they are a good time.

Poker is doing better, I have been playing and have been getting sweats from other players and it has been better. I guess I just needed that reinforcement. I played a couple of satellites for a big even at The Basement. I have not played any live poker in about a year and a half. It was kind of weird to only play one table. The play down there was still as bad as usual. I had a guy call my raise out of position with King 6 of hearts and then open shove with a flush draw. When someone called him out about it his response is, "Well he is raising with ten 8" LOL good excuse.

So I didn't win a seat so I stayed home today and watched football. I made two bets on two separate games. Pittsburgh over Baltimore and New York over Dallas. It wound up being a push because Dallas won and so did Pittsburgh. Giants played terrible today I think they would have won if they played even marginally better because Dallas was not playing great either.

Here are some pics from the show the other night.





Until later.

Much the same

Things are going the same. I am still running terrible. Earlier I played a tourney and raised with KJ and was called in one stop by 99 the flop comes 9TQ. So I have the nuts, I bet and he shoves for an over bet. I call and the Q comes on the turn. Not even a sweat. Sigh, I am not sure what good will come of me losing so much money but I am really disappointed.

That is all for now.

Until later

Sigh.....so far not so good.

I played a session tonight 827 hands and really did not run well at all. This might be a test of my ability to rebound. I am not sure yet. Here are some of the hands...not bitching just amazed at the level of variance I had tonight.

http://weaktight.com/557049 I thought my overs were good, I wasn't expecting two pair with T9.
http://weaktight.com/557050 This is pretty high variance and there is some tilt here, but with FD and the gutter it isn't that bad if I am the only one with the flush draw.
http://weaktight.com/557051 At least it wasn't a 2 outer??
http://weaktight.com/557052 I thought that I couldn't get value if I bet but he might be firing like A9 or maybe even like TT here.
http://weaktight.com/557053 This is pretty marginal but this guy had a 3bet percentage of like 20 over a decent sample. There is my two outer.

I lost 6 buy ins. I am really not upset, I feel like I played pretty well and there wasn't much else that I could do. I should make that back later on. There were more smaller hands that were also sick, but trying to not dwell on that.

Until later.

New books and other randomness

I have decided that I need to really take a look at my life and make changes to make me a more positive person. I purchased some books from Amazon that I think will help and they arrived today. Here is the list of books I purchased;
Zen and the Art of Poker
The Poker Mindset, Essential Attitudes for Poker Success
Zen and the art of Happiness
The Three Pillars of Zen Teaching Practice and Enlightenment

The first two books are obviously poker related but the last two are not, and that is because I have recently realized that I am a negative person in most aspects of my life. I am not sure if my life would be better if I was more positive but it can't hurt to take a look. I do have a semi large ego and I really have to remove that if I want to be better at all things. I was telling myself that I would just deposit to keep myself at 25NL because I didn't want to play 10NL. That is ego talking, so I have moved down in an effort to work on removing ego from my game.

I have played two sessions at 10NL and have done pretty well. It is a small sample but hopefully it will continue. I make decent money and don't have to make money playing poker, making the right play and being patient is way more important. Don't get me wrong money is how you keep score, but I am trying to look at things in a broader way. Was I ahead when the money went in? Would my play win money in the long run or was it stubborn? How could I have won more money with this hand/how could I have lost less?

This includes going against some well known poker wisdom and might get me flamed when I post a hand. These days there are less and less people with no knowledge of poker thanks to the U.S. government. As you move up you will find even less and less people who are unaware. So while most of the time against a donkey I would bet flop turn and river with a set, against a better opponent I need to look for an opportunity to check if it will get me more value. If everyone is reading the same forums and watching the same videos they are all using the same knowledge and I think there are less and less people playing their own game and instead just trying to use what they were shown in videos. Playing outside the box is going to be the best way to make money in the long run.

That being said I am not going crazy at 10NL trying to play this way. I am playing tight and not bluffing much because it is not efficient. I think that up until 50NL you can play super tight ABC poker and just fold post flop when your raised and have a decent win rate. I am however looking for opportunities to apply concepts even though I am not using them at this level.

Enough about poker, onto other things.

We are in December and it is going to be crazy at work. I am more than a little frustrated about how scheduling is being handled. AT&T is very union based and everything there is based upon seniority except for me. Since I am a floater apparently I have no call what so ever in my schedule. So I get to close EVERY night that I work except for two. I will not be participating in Christmas get-togethers because I will be working.

I have tried talking with management about how unfair this is and so on and its like pissing into the wind. I have given up, I am pretty burned out and its only been 6 months. I guess since I have decided that moving into management with this company is not the way that I want to go it is hard to really keep myself motivated. Then again it could be part of my mindset. The goal for next year is to have a job that is not retail so I get to really enjoy the holiday season instead of getting hammered by it. I am not sure what kind of job I am looking for but I think I will know it when I find it.

Thanksgiving was last week and we went to Melissa's Mother's house for lunch with her family. The plan was to come home hang out for a bit then go to my Mom's house but it never happened. They didn't cook or anything so it is not a huge deal though, they just wanted me to come over to fix the DVD player.

I guess that is it, Kung-Fu is going well and I am learning stick defenses and that is pretty cool. My elbow is still giving me some problems but I am going to try to tough it out a little while longer, if it gives me serious issues then I will take a break from Kung-Fu.

I am going to play a session and then do some reading.

Until Later.

Overly Invested?

I remember a time when I played 5/10 limit poker and crushed. I was making 1k a week and it was just awesome. I had no concept of bankroll management or fold equity or reverse implied odds. I just played, thought I knew what I was doing and I loved it. I still love the concept of poker, I like the idea of being able to make money at it, which is not happening at this moment, and the concepts. Every little pot I lose pisses me off though. I played 500 hands tonight and lost two buy ins, well I lost one and donk/tilted off the other one. It puts me in a terrible mood for the rest of the day and just sucks.

http://weaktight.com/544125

For example this hand really pissed me off. It isn't even a full stack but it still pisses me off. I know that you cant be results oriented and blah blah blah. Bullshit at one level or another everyone is results oriented or else we wouldn't be playing. No one can look at my graphs and not be frustrated. I would be a winning player, all be it a small one, if it wasn't for all the bullshit. The three outers, the terrible plays that idiots make and they don't even know why.

How does one get back to a point where poker is enjoyable, where it is not a fucking beating every time I sit down and open up my Hold'em Manager? I pray for break-even stretches. Every time I make a continuation bet I cringe knowing that the check raise is coming. I sit down and play and do reasonably well and then look at my stats and I see wow I haven't won shit. I would gladly give it all up if tomorrow I could go on a run and make all the money back and break even. I would say fuck it and happily uninstall every poker related thing on my computer. I love poker in the pure form, but really hate the nightmare it has me in currently.

The job is making things worse, the next month I am being split between two different stores. I work 3 days at one store and 2 at the other. I get no choice in my schedule and it is fucking lame. They are setting me up for failure, I can't build any repeat business because people don't know where I will be, fuck I don't even know where I will be.

Thanksgiving Is this week and I don't think I could be less excited about it if I worked at it. Holidays now are just about scheduling meals between the drives from Melissa's mom's house to my mom's house. Then I get to work 12 hour shifts on Friday and Saturday. The serious goal for next year...NOT WORK RETAIL. I want a job where you get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving.

I really should be in bed I have to go to a fucking work meeting tomorrow at 7:30. Yes, that is right 7:30 when the stores open at 10. The day before Thanksgiving we have a meeting for some really lame bullshit. I know if I lay down I will just lay there and not sleep. I really just want to open up 9 tables and play myself into oblivion, either robusto or busto, it doesn't really matter too much at this point I guess. I mean it is pretty safe to assume that it wont be robusto.

All of this is taking a toll on my relationship with Melissa too. I am in such a shitty mood most of the time, I am not really ever in the mood to have relations. It is really pretty terrible that all of this shit is ruining everything else.

I guess I am done bitching for now, look for more later

Until later.

A few hands and some kung fu

I haven't been playing much the past few days because I took a Kung-Fu test this morning and was trying to gear up for that to make sure that I was ready for it. I was thinking about it and it has been close to a year since I have tested. I felt pretty prepared and it helped that I have known about it for 2 months. I am really ready to get on to some new things, I am not sure what I will be learning at this new level. Before now there were always things that I had seen other people doing at higher levels that I would look forward to and I haven't really seen much so far.

The test it self went pretty well I only had one big mess up and it had to do with a stepping pattern that is pretty funky if you don't have someone to do it against. It is called a Chong ma, describing it is weird but it is an aggressive bracing step and it is effective. Other than that it went pretty smooth there were a lot of junior students testing so I really didn't have to do much, stepping patterns, forms, some chi-sao drills and the triangle at the end. The triangle is what I was most worried about but it went pretty well, Sifu called it pretty quick so I didn't have much time.

Melissa was there and she took the new camera but because of how Sifu does the seating at the new school it is hard to video from most angles. Oh well, maybe next time. Chad came and brought Michelle his girl friend so that was cool, Pops and Kate were going to come but I guess Dad had a bit of anti-socialness kick in this morning because they didn't come. That kind of sucks because Kate hasn't been to any of my tests and she wants to see one pretty bad.

Work has been really getting to me lately, I have been getting really irritated about it and it was really affecting me outside of work. I decided to take a step back and decided to just let it flow, I can't control how many customers come in or what they are going to want to buy. I have better things to worry about than that kind of shit. I tend to nit-pick jobs and I am really trying not to with AT&T but it can be kind of difficult. I am making good money so I am going to pay off all my shit and then take a look and see where I am.

Now for poker; my last few sessions have been winners and that is good but I still have ground to make up. I have really been trying to break down my play and try to build up. A friend of mine sent me a post and told me to read it and I would find why I am not really crushing. I read it and it is so true, emotional control is my biggest leak. I am a huge Tilt-tard and it is something that I need to really work on. I am not sure the best way to work on it but I can't let a beat cause me to play terrible for the rest of my session. Link to the post is here, scroll down to post 37 and that is the meat of it. This guy is incredible and hopefully I can come up with something to turn me around.

Here are a few hands I played today that I found pretty interesting.
http://weaktight.com/535661
This was a hand that was pretty interesting. I don't mind my flat preflop because I have found that people stack off a little lighter in this kind of situation. In this hand the outcome is the same since he has KK and I have AA. The king on the flop really doesn't bother me because I feel that he plays AK the exact same way also I win a little bit more when I raise his Cbet and then folds if he has nothing. I got lucky on the river finally.

http://weaktight.com/535664
This hand was pretty standard I guess. I know that I am not supposed to be folding KK preflop for 100BBs but I knew I was getting it in vs AA here. I am finding that at this level people are not going nuts with AK or QQ preflop like this. Hopefully soon I will get to a level where people are a little more aggro and getting it in with KK preflop isn't always vs. AA

http://weaktight.com/535667
This was just a cooler. Stacks are a little weird because he is playing short, I knew when he snap called that he had T9, I was hoping for the board to pair obv but no such luck. Not a huge deal just made a note about his terrible preflop call and moved on. I really think that is the key for me, just stop dwelling and move on.

The session was only like 525 hands everything else was pretty blah. It is 3AM and I need to go to bed.

Until later.

updates and other stuff

Poker is going meh, I don't even want to talk about it. I still don't get why i am losing but whatever.

I bought a new camera and I have been playing with that a lot. It is pretty cool.

I was supposed to have a bunch of customers come in to activate new lines of service today and none of them showed up. I was talking about luck of the draw and how heavy it plays into this job. This guy comes out and says that its not luck and he just is a better sales man. This idiot was standing at the door and the first person he spoke with says I want to activate a line. It is not like anyone is really going to great depths to sell here, people come up and say what they want. It really pissed me off. I get stuck with long drawn out bullshit and he gets two new lines.

I am really tired of a lot of things that are happening at work. I might start looking here soon, we will see what happens.

That is really it for now, I test next Saturday so that will be cool.

Until Later

Just kidding

I am a glutton for punishment. I have been playing and still running like shit. I swear to god eventually I will stop having the worst fucking luck on the planet.
Piece of shit luck boxes. I really just want to have a long break even stretch.

I am beyond done with the bullshit.

I have said it before but it is the real deal this time. I am done with it. I cant fucking win so I give up.

These are some sick hands I have played that illustrate the fact that I cant win at poker.

http://weaktight.com/505695 who fucking 3 bets with 88 in position...guy was 15/11

http://weaktight.com/505696 just fucking annoying

http://weaktight.com/505697 nothing to say here

fuck poker

So this month has been terrible. I have done two sessions of coaching and still cant get it right or i am just running terrible. I dont think its all running bad. If I play a draw fast I get told to play it slow and vice versa. I am fucking done with it for at least a little while. No fucking reason that I have played for as long as i have and still cant beat fucking online retards. I ma tired of wasting my life and money trying to be good at this when it seems this fucking impossible.

Fucking poker gods/charter and I have a new nemesis

Ok so it has been a little bit since I have posted a blog. I have been dabbling in donkaments as of late and have been getting deep but then getting FUCKED at the end.

On Saturday I play a tourney where first place is $3k and I am getting pretty deep when I made a semi bad play and lost my stack. I was disappointed but I think his play is worse than mine is. Whatever, no big deal. Traditional wisdom says that limping is bad but there were lots of limped pots so I decided to take a shot. I think my line here is super strong and I think his call with the non-nut flush draw is bad.

Sunday I am sitting here with Melissa and I decide to see if any tourneys are going on. I login and there is a $10 with Rebuys and add-ons going on and I decide to jump in, since there is an $80k guarantee. I spend about $50 total and start to do really well picking up chips and running super hot. At about the second break I am in the top 20 in chips. We are on break. I go to take a leak and come back and my internet is not working. No big deal the breaks are 5 minutes long so I can restart my modem and my router and that fixes it (piece of shit Charter internet). I do this about 4 or 5 times and nothing is working and I am freaking out now, the tourney has by now started back and I am being blinded off.

This tourney is a huge deal $12k for first and second place is $9k, so I am walking around pacing, thinking. I try the desktop and it doesn't work. I look down at the modem and the lights are flashing, (I know I paid the bill). I start calling anyone and everyone I know who might have Pokerstars installed on their computer, they are all playing poker at a home game and not answering my calls at first, I finally get a hold of one and his internet is out as well.. My iphone is lagging a little bit as I am furiously dialing trying to get to anyone, I am so pissed and I almost chunk it against the wall, but I stop myself barely.

I am using my wireless to look for any other network, thank god I live in an older community where the people don't know how to lock their networks. Unfortunately they all have Charter as well, people really should have a little fucking choice in their provider, and I can't connect. Melissa is just watching me pace, I am anticipating how mad my neighbors will be when I start hitting the walls. I am trying to think of some place I can go to to use Wi-fi and then Melissa brings up Bakerstreet pub. It is this bar that we go to and its super close, I decide that its my only chance.

I run to the bedroom slap on some shoes and grab the laptop and dash out the door like a fat kid when the lunch lady announces they have enough to give seconds. I open the laptop up on my passenger seat and drive to the bar trying to pick up networks along the way. Not paying attention, running stop signs, no seatbelt, fuck it the cop can have a cut of $12k.

I get to the bar and sign in and half of my fucking chips are gone. I try to calm down the roar in my ears it sounds like am in a conch shell. I pick up a few hands that I can steal, then I get KK in the big blind and it folds around to the small blind and I am cussing and pissed because I know he will fold and I win the blinds, fucking great. I look away for a minute and then hear the attention beep and I look down semi interested. Not only has this fucking chump called, he open shoved for a ridicalously large amount. I gleefully call and expect to see aces, yes that is my luck, but no he has a premium hand of 78 off suit.

My kings hold up and the guy is pissed cussing in chat and someone calls the moderator. "we understand that this is an adult site, but everyone is here to have fun, please watch the language." Kiss my ass cock smoke, I am trying to play here. So now I am back up to what I was before the poker gods/fucking charter decided to fuck with me. I steal a few more hands, and am doing well, I raise a hand and miss and have to fold. I win a huge pot where I raise 79s on the button and the cheap leader calls and the flop is 987 and I get a call when he checks and I bet. The turn is a 9 giving me a full house, I shove for less than the pot and he snap calls with Ace nine. The river is a blank and all of the sudden I am second in chips.

I am feeling pretty good and am talking to my friend on the phone and he makes an interesting statement. "Do you know if the bar turns off their Wi-fi after 2?" Suddenly I am back in the conch shell my head is roaring, my balls are in my intestines. I get off the phone with the intention to go ask the bouncer as he is telling the drunk tcu trust fund bitches that the bar is closing in 5 minutes. Then I decide I cant leave and will look up the number and call. I find the number and put it in my phone and hit call. I wait for a second and then FUCK, its an automated system. Piece of shit, I guess I will have to go ask.

I hear the ding for attention, I look down on the button with aces. Holy shit this is it, a guy in middle position raises. I think, 'maybe just call because a rereaise looks so strong', the tricky part of my brain thinks, 'FUCK that,' the analytical side chimes in, 'raise that shit up'. I repop it and the small blind calls which is random and odd, but whatever the original raiser calls and we see the flop of 678 with two diamonds. The small blind who is second in chips overall (i lost some chips due to huge antes and blinds, damn turbo structure) bets the minimum and the original raiser folds and its my action. I am thinking about how much to bet when I look up and see the pot is more than my stack, I shove hoping to see him fold.

I am chanting to myself "Please no set, please no set...just fold, or call with Ace 7." He calls and shows 44. He has an underpair and a gut shot for the majority of his stack. He has 6 outs to win this hand. My head is spinning as I am looking at the board and his hand wondering if I am missing something. Then it dawns on me, wow this guy just crippled himself with only 6 outs. The turn is a 7, my tribal chant has changed to the rendition of, "NO 5, NO 5..." River.....5. I drop my phone as the automated system is still giving me the bar's hours and my guts wrench up. I am out in 37th place for $150.

I stare at the screen with my mouth hanging open, you have got to be fucking kidding me, come here moderator I have some choice words for you now. I dodge 6 outs and I have like $2.8 million in chips and can coast to the final table. Disheartening to say the least, play two tournies two nights in a row and cash but get fucked both times. I close the laptop and drive back home to the apartment in a much safer white knuckled manner than the previous drive.

Drk confidant my new nemesis, I loathe you with force that will never be rivaled, I hope you die in a grease fire. I would do terrible things to your belongings. Before I close the laptop I see him dump off around 700k in chips. I dont know if he even made it to the final table. I will check tomorrow once my internet is working and I call Charter and tell them I want a free month of service for all this bullshit.

The Hand is here if you want it
http://weaktight.com/455204

Grammer and punctuation are not important when I am pissed, that is why this is so bad lol.

Could I really be a 2-7 prodigy?

I decided on a whim tonight to play a 2-7 tourney and played pretty well and actually won that fucking thing. Hell yes, that is 6 buy ins at my current level. Screen shot provided. Anyway, off to bed, until later.

kind of a large update

A lot has been going on with work and poker and Kung Fu so I haven't been posting much. I am going to put a lot in here I think.

I almost got a new car the yesterday, I had been talking to a car guy about getting a 2003 Nissan Altima 3.5 SER. It is a very sweet car and I really want it. I decided to not get it, the rate is really high and the bank said that they were going to charge me an extra $2k. I am going to wait and try to find a better deal I think. I am getting a decently large commission check at the end of this month I might just hoard that and try to get a better deal.

The other day these two customers almost got into a fight inside the store, I was hoping it would have happened but it didn't. One was a big guy and the other guys was just a big mouth who didn't even have any reason to jump into the conversation. I was really hoping to see the big mouth guy get crushed.

Work has been going well but I am really tired of being the floater. I don't really ever know where I am going to be or what I am going to be working. I really cant wait for my year to be up I will then take a hard look and see what I want to do. What avenue I want to take with the company or possibly going some place else.

I got the word from Sifu today during the test that I was helping out at that I will be testing on November 15th. I am really pumped and cant wait, I have been at this level for awhile and I think I am ready to move up and learn some new stuff. I am have been thinking about certain things and really trying to work on the small stuff. It is the small stuff in Kung Fu that will really make you better.

Poker this month has been decent. I have played a lot of hands and am winning for the month over a semi large sample of hands at least for me. Last night I decided to play and got stuck early when my AA got cracked by QJ on a QJ4 flop. I wound up like 9 buy ins stuck, but I buckled down tightened up and made it all the way back up to win a buy in. My win rate went way down after the session last night but I am still up almost 5 buy ins for the month.

I think that is pretty much it. Until later.

Birthday post and other stuff.

I have really been slacking off on this thing, my last post was August 30th. Today was my birthday, I am now 28 years old. I am very close to 30 and I am not quite sure how I feel about that. I have given a lot of shit to other people who turned 30, I know that it will be a pretty vicious turn around.

I luckily had the day off today and tomorrow for my birthday. Melissa was also off so this morning she made me an awesome breakfast skillet smorgasbord. Eggs, sausage, potatoes, and all other stuff, it was AMAZING. I slept in till about noon got up and had my bad ass breakfast, we had a bunch of stuff to do today so we were kind of rushing around all day. We have tomorrow off together as well so we can just relax and take it easy.

We went to the Apple store to get some stuff for our Iphones, that is right I said it, Iphones. I got Melissa and I both one on Monday. I took my number from T-mobile and it was still under contract so I had to start a new number to finish out my contract. I am going to let Kate pay the bill so that way she can have a decent service instead of shitty MetroPCS.

Myra's birthday is next week so we went ahead and got her present today and gave it to her when I gave Kate my old phone. We got her one of those small bikes, it has all the Disney princesses on it. She loved it. I have photos on my phone and I will post them later. She is such an awesome little girl and Kate is doing such an amazing job.



The Apple store in this area is pretty new and today was my first time to go to it. I would love to have a mac but they are overpriced and I just can't justify the money spent on it. I am still very happy with my thinkpad, it will be awhile before I have to buy a new laptop.

Tonight the Avett Brothers played a show at the Granada Theater and it was amazing. I brought some friends to the show and they loved it. Honestly it wasn't as good this time as it was last time. The sound was a little off but we were off to the side as opposed to being dead on so that might have something to do with it. Also the one of the brothers Seth was having some issued with his voice. It was still amazing and was over much to soon. They are hands down my favorite band right now and it is weird because they don't really seem like something I would like.

Poker update: Nothing much has been ging on I have been putting in a lot of hands and I think I am making up a lot of ground. Hopefully soon I will be able to move up to the next level. It is too early to tell though.

That is it for now, I will work on being more consistent.

Until later.

round and round it goes...

Poker is the same as usual, I still can't win on the weekends. I am not sure what I need to do to fix this. I guess more coaching is needed. I got coolered about 5 times tonight in less than 700 hands.

Work is still going well, wearing me out but its going well. I got my commission check the other day and I really can't complain about that.

I am going to watch the roast of Bob Saget, until later.

long time no see

It has been a little bit since I have posted. Not much has been going on just working a lot. It seems like I am constantly working, I am not really working that many more hours. It is weird, maybe because I am actually having to work as opposed to sitting on my ass all day. With AT&T things are going well, it has been very busy since the new I-phone came out. You pretty much don't even have to sell it, it is the best phone around and so versatile.

Poker has been going better, I did a coaching session and since then things have been going better. It is still too early to say anything else. I will post some graphs soon.

I downloaded Team Fortress 2 and it is a really fun game to play. WOW has kind of taken a backseat and I might turn it off again soon.

That is really all for now.

Until later.

What is the fucking deal

Why is it that whenever I play poker online on the weekends i run like total fucking shit? Every big hand gets ran down, I miss every fucking draw. Every fucking donkey on the internet gets to run good against me. FUCKING LAME. I bust my ass to play good and I still lose. Fuck it.

Wow did he really...?

So last night I was watching "America's Got Talent" last night, it is a guilty pleasure what can I say, and it is still early on so you see loads of people who are terrible. There is this guy who comes out with a guitar and is wearing his army uniform. It wasn't the one you are supposed to wear out in public it was the BDU (battle dress uniform). It really pissed me off.

The BDU is a work uniform and according to military ettiquette you should not be wearing it out and about. If you stop by the store on your way home that is ok but you don't wear it out to dinner or go to the movies in it. You sure as hell don't wear it to a talent show. He should have been wearing class A's or class B's.

They did a back story about him and how he was deployed for 15 months and blah blah blah. He is like 34 and a specialist it is probably because he doesn't understand common policies and procedures.

They voted him through and he wasn't even good it was all based on him being in the military and being deployed. You shouldn't be drawing attention to yourself like that. What a fucking joke, I would love to punch that guy in the face.

Until later.

Batman = AMAZING

So if you have not seen the Dark Knight yet, get off your ass and go see it. Yes, it is that good. It is the best Batman movie ever made. I was very sceptical about Heath Ledger as the joker but he blows Jack Nicholson out of the water. With that being said it is an entirely different movie. This new one is very dark and disturbing not at all like the first one. You wouldn't even know it was Heath Ledger from seeing him in the movie. It sucks that he is gone but at least he went out on a high note.

I haven't been doing much poker wise, that will be changing this week. I am going to start sessions with a coach this week at some point. Everyone says that coaching really advances your game so we will see. I am getting a really good deal from this guy. We will see what happens. This guy is saying that I should be crushing 100NL within 2 to 3 months

I am texting this on my blackberry and its kind of time consuming but I always forget when I am on the laptop. I gotta keep my faithful readers supplied.

That is all for now, until later

I phone day = Longest Day Ever

Yesterday was the launch of the new 3G I-phone and it was the longest day ever. The press came out about the new phone while I was in training so my entire time with the company has been all about getting ready for this new phone. Last year when he first I-phone came out there was a line around the building the first day, but they didn't sell out until late in the afternoon. They had more the very next day, and most stores didn't sell out again until they pulled all of the original I-phones in preparation for the release of the 3G I-phone.

There was a lot of speculation about how the new phone would be received and what we could expect on launch day. A lot of people were saying that it would not be as big of a deal since the phone was not brand new anymore. Other people thought that it would be slammed and crazy. I had a feeling that it would be insane, the new phone is half the price, it supports corporate email and it is much faster. The original I-phone changed the cell phone market completely, everyone else is playing catch up.

The day of the launch everyone in the store was scheduled for 12 hours, we had to be there at 7AM and the store would open at 8. That morning was when we rally found out exactly how we would handle the activations in the system. When I pulled up the line was halfway around the building. They gave us 120 to sell on the first day, I am still pretty new and was having a lot of problems with the system. We sold out of the phone at 11:30 or so. I did a decent amount of business but it would have been a lot more if I wasn't slow. It was very well organized in the store and we had people in place to help us run phones and accessories so we didn't have to leave our stations.

I guess the most shocking thing about yesterday is along the back of the building where people would line up when the line got long enough someone decided to take a shit on the sidewalk. When we got there in the morning there were people lined up in front and behind the pile. I was surprised at this, I mean who does that? I don't like to drop the kids of any place other than my home throne, let alone a PUBLIC sidewalk. One of the other people in the store had to clean it up, I am not sure if I would have been able to do it.

Last year on the second day there was no line, today I was supposed to be there at 10AM. I got a call from the assistant manager at 9:30 and he let me know there was a line and he wanted me to come in early. We had 60 phones to sell today so we sold out very quickly again. Once again I was having all kinds of system problems so I didn't get as much done as many people did. I did about 1/4 of the business that I needed to do in these two days. I kind of wish every day was I-phone day.

I am also EXHAUSTED, as I write this I am fighting to keep my eyes open. I went to bed way too late last night and I haven't been sleeping so well. I haven't played much poker this week, but I did have a variance swing. Still in the green but have definitely not as good as I was doing before. We will see what happens, nothing else I can do.

My brother is also in town from Seattle. Melissa has never met him before, so I hope that we can get together and have dinner or something so she can meet him.

That is all for now, until later.

It has been awhile

So I have finished my training and my first actual week in the store, and so far I am really happy with the job. I am still very slow with the system, it takes me awhile to get through any transaction that I do. I know that it takes time to get comfortable but I am ready to be able to knock out transactions. I need to find more opportunities to make more money, that will come with time as well.

Poker has been so weird lately, so back and forth. I have decided that I am done with 5NL and 10NL. I am taking my short roll to 25NL and play there. I can redeposit if I go broke, I just can't take the sheer stupidity of those lower levels. I have played two sessions so far and have been doing well. I am only two tabling to really make sure that I am thinking through all my decisions and making the best play that I can. I am currently up over 2 buy ins, in less than 700 hands. Hopefully I can maintain for the rest of the month.

Other than that nothing much is going on. Yesterday was Kate's birthday we are going to get together one night this week to have dinner. I am going to take Pops out for a late father's day dinner as well. Kill two birds type of thing.

Friday is the launch of the new I-phone for AT&T. It is half the price but works on the faster data network. It is going to be a very busy day and I am anticipating making about half my quota that month if not more. That will be a very good day.

That is really it for now. I am going to try to start doing this on my phone so I might be more consistent.

Until now.

Back In San Antone

Today is Tuesday and I am sitting in the lobby of the Marriott where I am staying this time. I couldn't do another week in the Comfort Inn, so I talked with my manager and he said that I could pick where I wanted to stay. It is so much better, but I still can't wait to get home on Friday. I miss Melissa, Bella and Kung-Fu.

I went and ate at the Tower in San Antonio last night. It is 750 feet up and the floor spins, it was a pretty cool experience. We had to wait 2 hours and 15 minutes to get sat, we were told that it would be an hour. We complained to the manager and he bought us a round of drinks. When we ordered the drinks I tried to get a Gin and Tonic, and the waiter told us that we could only have beers. It was a little irritating to say the least. It was fine-ish dining so it was very slow paced, everything took a long time. I got these crab cakes that were $28 and they were fucking small, I was disappointed because it was tiny.

I sampled some of the other food at my table and it was amazing. I shouldn't have gotten fancy and just stuck wit what I know. Here is a link to the place, I will post some pics later.
http://www.toweroftheamericas.com/

Matt came in town before I left, it was really good to see him. He has been out off shore for awhile. He is going to be home when I get home on Friday so I am excited for that. I am going to redouble my efforts in class and really knuckle down and start busting my ass. I am ready to get moving, I am not terrible but I am not as good as could/should be.

We had a trainer in the class today who was not our usual trainer and he started out pretty funny and nice enough and was being the stereotypical gay guy. When we started the hands on stuff the guy like flipped out and lost all sense of patience. Some samples of statements that he said today were, "this isn't rocket science people." If your a trainer you need to have patience and this gy did not at all. Maybe it was because he is a data trainer, but still, he needs to be a little more understanding. I hope that we have a chance to critique him because everyone was pissed and it will be a very scathing report.

I guess that is it for now. I am going to play some poker and hang out. I will post later this week.

Until later.

controversy abounds

So I had to delete a post due to threats by text message. I was threatened with a slander lawsuit so I deleted the post. I am not sure it would have done much good for the offended party to take me to court, but whatever. I deleted the post and asked Google to remove it, that is all I can really do. I was told that I better fly to Google headquarters to get it fixed if I didn't want to be sued.

All of this happened yesterday while I am at work. Trying to pull it up on my phone because I don't have Internet access at work. It took awhile but I got it all done, it still pops up when you Google his name but nothing I can do about that.

SLANDER - A false defamation (expressed in spoken words, signs, or gestures) which injures the character or reputation of the person defamed; distinguished from libel.

This brings up an interesting point, when does something stop being an opinion and become slander? It has to be a pretty thin line, I would think anyway. I have a right to voice my opinion, but where is the line?

Anyway, I have been eating Genghis Grill a lot here lately. I took Melissa tonight and she really liked it. Work is going well, I will be glad to get out of training and start making some money.

Until later.

airport blog

I am sitting in the airport in San Antonio waiting for my flight which, of course, is running late. I got out of class around 5:30 and waited for over an hour for the cab to show up. I was worried that I would miss my flight but it was late so I am going to be ok. We started calling all these cab companies to get one to us as soon as possible and we finally got one and after I had been here at the airport for about 15 minutes I get a call from one of the cab drivers.

He tells me that he is waiting for me and can't find me. I said sorry man you took too long and I got into another cab. He gets mad at this point and tells me that I could have called to let him know that I got another cab and blah blah, the price of gas. I tell the guy that I had better shit to do like worry abut if I was going to make my plane and hung up on him. What a prick, I had only waited for an hour and then he gets mad wen I take another cab?

I wrote an email to the Comfort Inn about the Internet issues. Surprise, surprise no one wrote me back. It is really irritating when customer service departments cant write you back. I will be following up with someone higher up when I get home and can actually look up a number.

That is all for now, until later.

Dinner with the other people from class

I went to dinner tonight with everyone from the training class and broke a cardinal rule and discussed politics. I am not very political but I tend to be more liberal in my views. This girl tried to tell me that the military was 90% republican, I was like do you not know that it is usually minorities who are joining the military and they are not usually republican, so how is it 90% republican? This girl is from bum fuck Texas and we we re talking about 9-11 and she said that it wasn't a big deal for her since it didn't take place in Texas. She went on to say that she wished that we could have Bush for another term. Are you fucking serious?

She was really worried about Obama being a secret muslim, and was really worried about how his middle name is Hussein. Really that is a deciding factor for you? It was a terrible conversation and it was really ridiculous. I was really the only semi liberal there and it was like having a political debate with 5 year olds. I wont be breaking that rule again.

That is really it, I am going to play a little poker and then some WOW. That is if this fucking piece of shit hotel's wireless internet works for longer than 5 minutes at a time.

Until later.

Greeting from San Antonio

So this week is my first week in San Antonio, I will be going home on Friday and will be home next week and the week after that I will be back down here. Training is going good I suppose. It is 100% classroom right now and that is kind of a beating, I am standing up all day because if I sit down I will fall asleep. I am going to go to sleep a little earlier tonight than I have been. It is hard to sleep by yourself when your used to sharing a bed.

My manager told me that this place would be downtown and there would be stuff to do. That could not be further from the truth, there is not even a 7-11 or any gas stations within walking distance. This hotel is really lame it is a Comfort Inn and it is really terrible. I got up for the continental breakfast yesterday, I won't be making that mistake again. The Internet during the evenings sucks, it keeps shutting off. I have had issues with it on two separate nights. There is no work out room and not even any room service. I ordered pizza on the first night and have been eating off of that.

My manager gave me an AT&T tilt as my corporate phone, I think I am addicted to Blackberry. I really don't like the Windows mobile phones, I thought that I would like it more but I really don't. Oh well, I will trade it in as soon as possible.

Poker was going really well, but tonight was rough. I was playing with this idiot and he was hitting every hand and was so cocky and it was just annoying. He shoves over my raise preflop with AJ and I have AQ and call because he is super aggressive. The flop is AKQ7T so he rivers a straight. I later flop a flush and he flops two pair and raises all in I call and he rivers a boat. The play is so bad, guys calling with any two cards just hoping and praying to win. Really sick, I have to move up soon or I might just give up.

I have much more to talk about and will post again tomorrow.

Until later.

Big update

It has been a couple of days since my last post, much has happened. I purchased my laptop and they tried to deliver it at 8:40AM this morning, Melissa and I were asleep so we didn't hear there door. I woke up at around 8:55AM, I am going to drive to the place to pick it up after I get off work. I really don't want to wait until Monday to get my computer.

Poker is going well again, I am up over 20 buy ins for the month. If I hadn't taken a 25nl shot and blown some money in SNGs it would have been even better, but what can you do? I will post some graphs and poker tracker shots later. Hopefully this will continue over the next few months.

I got really drunk on Sunday night and had to work on Memorial day and wound up going home because I got sick at work in the bathroom. I have never ever gotten sick the day after. It was terrible and it will be a long long time before I share 5 pitchers with just Melissa. We were both really drunk, way too much beer.

The other day I got a package from T-Mobile and itis a battery for a phone I don't even own. I call them and the guy tells me that I placed the order last week. I tell him that I haven't even called in about any issues for quite some time. I held the battery up to the back of my phone to see if it was the same size. I guess it did something because since then my call logs have erased and I lost all my text messages and any that have been coming in I have not gotten. Maybe the phone is going out, this is really the first issue I have had with my Blackberry.

I finally spoke with my new boss J.R. about training and such. We are going to meet next week and he will give me all my information about where I am staying and flight information and my new phone. They give you a phone to use and it will most likely be a data device. So I am not really worried about my T-mobile phone, I just need to figure out how to get out of the contract with out paying $200. I think I have a year left, and I know that in the old days your could call and say that your moving out of the country they don't make you pay the $200. I might try that, not sure yet.

My last day with Pier 1 will be next Tuesday, I was off Wednesday and Thursday of this week because of the holiday. I walk in to work today and they let go all of the part time people, my boss, the woman who was the lead on my team and the other supervisor. It is fucking crazy because the company is doing better than it has in years. They are also changing the hours so they call center is only open Monday through Friday and they will only be helping customers and no longer helping stores. So pretty much all the problems I had are being fixed now that I am leaving. That is pretty much the story of my life.

I kind of wish I had known because then I could deal the weekends and work during the week and keep the easiest job I have ever had, but it is too late for that and AT&T is still way to good an opportunity to pass up. The changes here shouldn't be that big of a deal to me since I am leaving anyway but they are. They are letting people come get their stuff tomorrow at scheduled times and there were security guards here the other day people said. I got such a warm feeling from this place, I guess it is not all its cracked up to be.

Since I am leaving Pier 1 I feel free to talk about our credit card provider Chase. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with, I am really not sure how they are still around. About 5 or 6 times a day I get phone calls from customers who have never received their card or their statements but will get phone calls from collections departments. They handle our coupons as well but none of their reps know that so they transfer customers over to us and there is nothing that we can do. A woman was getting collection calls from someone there who told her that she is like every other dead beat senior citizen who doesn't pay their bills. We call them about it and they had no record of it. We had to speak with 3 supervisors before we could get any information about it. So I will NEVER have an account with them, and I suggest to all my readers (all 2 of you) to not ever do business with them.

Ok that is all for now, until later.

Decent poker day

It took me awhile but I managed to squeak out a win today. I played a couple more of the 180 SNGs and didn't do shit. Here is a screen shot of my play today.


Going to Kung-Fu tonight and thats all really.

Until later.

New Job and other crap.

I received and took an offer with AT&T, I have completed the background and the UA so the job is definately mine. If I hit my quota each month with my base salary I will be making ~$40k a year. They are part of a union so I will be joining and that and under the current union contract there is a .40 to .50 raise every 6 months. I think it is going to be very cool, I am going to try to get into management as soon as possible.

They will be sending me to training in San Antonio for 2 weeks, I will spend a week there then home for a week and then another week there. I am kind of excited to go but at the same time apprehensive is the best word for it. They are paying for all my expenses and that is pretty damn cool. The pressure is on to get a laptop before I leave because staying in a hotel with no internet and no poker would drive me nuts. I found an IBM that is not the newest model but one step back and it still has the aftermarket video card in it which is important to me. It is like $900 so I will probably buy that.

Of course after my last post with all the poker in it I had a little cold stretch, I lost like 3 buy-ins over my next two sessions, but yesterday I put in a big session and won 5 buy ins. That puts me at +6 buy-ins for the month, I am pretty sure that I can maintain, lets hope so. I played 2 donkaments yesterday and couldn't get shit going. I got coolered in a couple of big hands, no big deal becuase tournaments are a crap shoot anyway.

I joined Facebook a long time ago becuase there were some 2p2 guys on there and they made a group. Kevin friended me and then I didnt login for quite some time. John Millsap friended me and then all of the sudden I am getting lots of invites. So now I have quite a few friends on Facebook, the whole myspace/facebook thing baffles me. People who I was not even friends with in high school friend me and its kind weird. It is like seeing people I know from high school when I am out some place, usually we were not good friends but they know who you are and come up and say hello and then there is the awkward pause while you both try to find something to talk about. It is very weird.

I guess that is all for now, I will update soon.

Until later.

The promised poker update and other stuff

Yesterday I was at home and was playing Counter-strike on my new monitor and Melissa asks me why I am not playing poker. I think about it for a minute and tell her that I don't know just not in the mood. I then decide that I should play some even thought I am not really in the mood and wound up losing 2.5 buy-ins. I was not getting overly good hands and when I did, people were just not paying off. Also I was playing a little loose, making plays that I probably shouldn't be making with my bankroll being a little short. Moral of the story kids is; don't gamble when your not in the mood.

I am still up like 4 buy ins for the month but I need to really start playing more if I want to move up. Tired of playing bullshit poker. I need to get motivated and I think that I accomplished that yesterday. I know it is like a re-occurring theme in my posts but I am determined to move up.

Last night I skipped Kung-Fu to go with Kevin out to Dallas to pick up a Mont Blanc pen for his business partner. We went to Northpark mall out in Dallas and I had not ever been there before. It is pretty elitist and I felt very poor lol. There were a lot of boutiques and specialized stores like Puma and Lucky Brand. Pretty cool mall but not worth the drive in my opinion, I can go to Hulen and it is right down the street.

After the mall we went to this place called Shuckers on Greenville. It is across the street from the Granada Theater where Melissa and I saw the Avett Brothers. It is a small seafood place, almost like a taco stand but with seafood. Kevin asked me what I liked and I didn't see much up there that I had tried before so he decided to get a bit of everything. So last night for the first time I ate, oysters on the half shell, and boiled craw fish. We also had a shrimp cocktail and a basket of fried shrimp and fish, one could call it a smorgasbord.

I am not a fan of getting my hands dirty, it really bothers me, borderline complex. I really hate eating stuff with my hands that will get them dirty, for that reason I do not eat fried chicken off of the bone, or ribs. I decided to try this whole dirty hand thing and see what happened. I think I used about half a roll of paper towels in the process of eating the craw fish. Kevin had a messed up thumb so I was having to do his was well, I don't mind saying that it probably looked a little gay.

The oysters were good, I was putting them on crackers with horseraddish and they were pretty tasty. The crawfish were good, but damn that is a lot of work. I was only eating the tail becuase the rest was too over the top for me. I will eat oysters again but the crawfish most likely not unless it is a special occasion.

I had a little sit down with my boss' boss about how I feel singled out. She listened to my arguements and agrees with my point of view. I am not sure what will happen now, but we will see. I didn't hear back from AT&T so I guess that isn't going to come to anything, back to the job search I go.

I think that is all for now.

Until later.

Lots of stuff to unload

Since Thursday I have eaten out or ordered out three separate times. All of them have been remarkable in the fact that they were terrible in one way or the other. I must be running bad in foodaments lately.

First, Thursday night Melissa and I order Pizza from Pizza Hut. We have ordered from there multiple times without issue. The operator tells me that it will be 50 minutes to one hour, an hour and 20 minutes later I get a phone call from the driver. He apparently can't find the apartment. I give him directions and he finally gets here and doesn't have my wings. When I ask him about it he tells me that he will be back in 15 minutes.

I get a knock about 20 minutes later, I open the door and he is just standing there holding them out to me. No apology or anything, just holding them out at arms length like we are old buddies or something. Then the wings were terrible, barely enough sauce to cover them, so they are very crunchy and hard to eat. I will never get those wings again and might be boycotting Pizza Hut all together.

The next night we go to Black Eyed Pea and our waitress started out so good, then it turned horrible so fast. The food was good but the service was terrible, she had this stupid half smile on her face like she was simple minded. People say that some people are just not cut out to wait tables, this girl was the poster child. She didn't work to build any kind of conversation or anything, then she spilled drinks on another table. That is forgivable, I have done that before, but she just acted like 'oh no big deal.'

The good from that meal is that they have deep friend guacamole and it was really good, I know it sounds gross. They take avocado halves and shuck them, batter them lightly, and then fry it up. They put some sour cream and chopped tomatoes and there you go; Heart attack appetizer for two.

Today for lunch I had Subway, now before I bash this meal let me explain that I am a bit of a sandwich connoisseur. I try all kinds of different places and really like Subway. My co-worker went and got them and brought them back to the office. The bread was so stale that literally half of it flaked off. It was like eating dust, seriously how old does bread have to be to flake like that? It was so bad that I didn't even eat it all.

I wore shorts to work today thinking that it would no be a big deal since it was the weekend, also I had seen other people wear them. What could be the big deal? The lead for my team instant messaged me and said that I shouldn't be wearing them. This is the same woman who calls me out about everything, and its really irritating. I looked at the dress code policy and sure enough it said no shorts. Interestingly enough it also says that half of my department is out of compliance most of the time. Funny how no one says anything to them. I mean come on, it is SUNDAY, is the CEO going to come into the building and see me in shorts and have a seizure? Are the customers really going to know that I am wearing shorts just from hearing my voice? The answer to both of these questions is hell no.

Later on in the afternoon this same woman is on the phone taking a personal phone call and the rest of us are working, but the system is moving slow because its fucking worthless and the calls are starting to back up. She gets off her personal call and stands up and looks at us and says, "We have calls holding guys." She says it like I am sitting there, doing nothing at all. You were not too worried about it during your 10 minute personal phone call. I decided right then that I am tired of getting singled out. I was talking to someone else about it and they feel that I am also being singled out. I emailed the call center supervisor because we have an open door policy and I am going to take all of this to her. She is very cool and easy to speak with so hopefully changes will be made.

I got my new monitor yesterday. Best buy emailed me and let me know that I can pick it up at a store and believe me I went straight after work. I am now the proud owner of a 22" wide screen flat panel monitor. It is a huge upgrade and everything looks so much better on it. I can open 9 tables with minimal overlap and Counter-strike looks good on it as well. My only complaint is that I wish it wasn't wide screen so it would be a little taller, but I can't complain I got it for $100 off the regular price.

Today is mother's day and I had to work, so I called Mom and Kate and told them happy Mother's day. I also called Pops and spoke with him a little bit, we don't talk often and I wanted to call him today. One year ago today Melissa lost her dad and it was very hard on her and her family. He had a stroke and passed away much too young, he was a very good man and it really sucks that he is gone. I am not nearly as close to my dad as she was with hers, and I would be pretty upset if I lost mine. It was good to speak with Pops today though. We go through long phases of not talking or being on bad terms, but I think that our relationship is finally in a place to where that won't happen anymore.

Poker is going well, I am not really in the mood to get into all of that right now, but I will post again later in the week with some more specific updates. I am very much in the green for this month and I am going to keep it that way though, you can count on that. Insert downswing here.

That is really all for now, going to play a little Counter-strike.

Until later.

I am going to Scotland. Call me a world traveler

As the title implies I am going to Scotland. This will be my first trip out of the country so Melissa and I will be going to get our passports and all of that good stuff. Melissa has a really good friend named Jeff and he met a girl named Laura online and she lives in Scotland. They have been dating and seeing each other for quite some time now and they have decided to get married. He is going to move out there so they are going to have the wedding out there. Melissa is going to be a groomsman in the wedding with a kilt and the whole deal so that will be interesting. I am not in the wedding so my plan is to wear pants and not the kilt, but we will see what happens.

This is all going to be happening in October so we have time to save up. We found a really good website and for me and her and her Mom it will be around $2700.00 round trip. That is a pretty daunting figure, but when you break it down the tickets are like $500 a pop, which isn't bad. There will be more expenses such as a hotel and maybe a rental car. So I am going to be going a little cheaper than usual over the next couple of months. If I start a new job I will just let them know that one of my conditions is that I can take a week off for this and if I am still here then I will be getting another week of Vacation is September. I am guessing that we are going to board Bella some place while we are gone. We are both pretty excited about this, Melissa hasn't ever been on a plane, and I haven't been on one since coming home from the Army in 2001.

I played a session yesterday and it went pretty well, nothing overly big happened. I wound up winning about two and a half buy ins so that is good, gives me a little cushion since I am very under rolled for this level. I cracked this guy two times he had KK both time, once I had AQ and the other time I had QQ, so I guess you can say I ran pretty well. I played one hand and it was really rather weird and I am not sure if it was overly weak tight or just a smart play. I posted it on 2p2 and everyone was telling me that I played it too weak. I don't have the hand history with me since I am at work, but I will give you the low down.

The effective stacks are 100 big blinds or $10.00 at .05/.10 blinds. I raise 99 in middle position, not under the gun but the next player. It is folded to me and I make my standard raise to 4 big blinds or .40. It folds around to the big blind who smooth calls the bet and we go the flop heads up. The villain is your normal player for this level, his stats are like 30/8 or something terrible like that. While it is a small sample, he doesn't really seem to be too aggressive or overly good.

When he makes the call I am putting him on a wide hand range, but I am counting out AK, JJ, QQ, KK, AA. No one is really slow playing these types of hands. I am thinking his range consists of a lot of Broadway cards (these are cards that are used to make a Broadway straight AKQJT, so hands like KQ, QJ, QT, and AT stuff like that) some suited connectors and even some hands likes J8 or Q7. The flop comes out QJQ and he checks to me. This is a heads up pot and 98% of the time I put in a continuation bet but I decided to check here. There are multiple reasons for this, I don't like the idea of betting and having to fold to a check raise, I think a Q or a J is a large part of his range. The pot is not huge but I have decent show down value.

I don't remember what the turn is, but it is irrelevant and he checks again. This in my opinion is where I should have bet. Some people will check a Q or a J on the flop but they will usually bet the turn, he might check it thinking I will bet but I don't think this guy is that smart a player. The river is a 2 and he bets .70 into a pot of .85 and I call, he shows me 22 for a rivered full house and takes the pot. Some people are wondering why I am calling the river bet if I am not betting myself. The reason for that is because just about anyone will bet if checked down like that, I win a decent amount of pots because I call river bets when people think that I have just given up. After I posted it on the forums everyone told me that I should have just bet the flop and taken it down, I think a better play is betting the turn, but whatever.

It is important to break down hands like this and really look at each action, you can't go along thinking that if you won the hand you played it perfectly or if you lose that it was the poker gods. You won't improve as a player if you think this way.

I went to class last night and it went pretty well. I was talking to Sifu and a lot of the 3rd hour people about what happened with the card house and they let me know that if I wanted to go up there and get my money they would back me up. Sifu kind of hinted around that he would have just taken the money that night. I wasn't sure that I wanted to fight 5 or 6 guys, I know for sure that it would have been 3 but it could have been more. Vic and Kieth and some of the other guys expressed interest in going up there with me and just taking what is mine. It is very tempting but it is just not enough money to start a bunch of shit over. If it was like $500 or more I would have just handled it then. I am chalking this up to experience, don't do business with cheap assholes who have no concept of what they are doing. I googled Trent's name hoping that my blog about him would show up but it doesn't, at least I didn't see it, it would be awesome if it kept him from gaining business because of it.

Well, that is all for now. Until later.

Iron man and some poker

I actually played a little bit of poker yesterday. Melissa sprained her ankle pretty badly and so I came home from work to take her to the hospital. Luckily, there wasn't anyone in the place so we didn't have to wait all afternoon. She got the little moon boot and some crutches. She wont be able to work for a couple of days but it doesn't seem like anything major. She was doped up on some pills so while she was asleep I put in some hands.

It was the same roller coaster that it has been here lately. I flop a set and bet this guy shoves and I call and he hits a flush draw. I have KK vs A3 he flops a flush draw and we get it in and of course it hits. I ended the session up a buy in but it should have been like 3. I am playing so short rolled currently that I really have to watch myself. I am still so beat down by these morons, why can't I have like 1 month of running really good to get my roll back to where it was? I am just going to plug away, I am thinking actually about short stacking and playing nitty tight, only playing top 10% and playing them very hard. It is not fun, but it might make me money faster.

I went and saw Iron man on Friday and it was amazing. The suit looks awesome and the effects are spectacular. Could be the best comic book crossover so far, in my opinion. I think it would be a mistake to not make a sequel, they had to do all the history and that took up a good portion of the movie. Would be good if there was a second were there was more about him actually being Iron man. I need to go see Forbidden Kingdom with Jet Li and Jackie Chan before it gets out of theaters. I have heard its really good. I am also pumped for the new Batman movie but I am not sure when that comes out.

In other news, I bought a monitor today. I have been needing one for quite some time. I am still using the Sony 15" CRT monitor that came with the system. It is, needless to say, time for an upgrade. I was browsing spoofee.com and found a really good price on a 22" Dell monitor only $200. Dell makes a really good monitor so I eagerly purchased. It is on back order but I should have it in like 3 weeks. I will probably buy a new monitor once I get my laptop. Melissa won't use the full 22" so I can get her like a 19" or 20" and she will be happy, and that way when I want to grind I don't have to be limited to the laptop monitor.

I have been watching episodes of Rob and Big on Mtv.com and it is so funny. I didn't think it would be that good but I am hooked on it. I am systematically going through and watching them all on the website.

I think that is it for now, I am pumped to go to Kung-Fu tomorrow since I missed on Wednesday because of the Avett Brothers. Just waiting to hear something from AT&T. That reminds me that I need to do a little looking today, guess I will do that now.

Until later.

Avett Brothers show and other stuff

I could have posted this yesterday along with my Trent Gilley rant but I wanted it to be a separate post lol. Wednesday I had my interview with AT&T and I think it went really well. The manager has a few more interviews but I think he liked me and wanted to extend me an offer but couldn't. He said, "You should be hearing something next week." I take that to be a positive sign.

From the interview and talking with the manager J.R. this seems to be the solution to everything I disliked at T-mobile. They have a period of 6 months where if anyone cancels their service I lose the money I make but it doesn't put me negative for the month as far as my quota goes. That is a very big deal to me because sometimes I would have like 15 deactivations and that is 15 more phones that I have to sell to hit my quota.

I am pretty sure that I will take a position if I receive an offer. I don't really have anything else going right now. I am planning on doing a little searching today though. I would prefer to not work retail but it is not the end of the world if I do. T-mobile is the longest I held one job so there was something there that kept me motivated and going to work.

Wednesday night Melissa and I went to see the Avett Brothers at the Granada Theater and it was amazing. First, the Granada theater is really small so there really is not a bad seat in the place. I would rather pay a little bit more for a smaller venue any day, but Granada was only like $15 a piece. It is a very cool place and instantly became my new favorite venue. The drive wasn't all that bad either even though it was in Dallas.

I first saw the Avett Brothers when the performed on Conan O'brien. I would post the Youtube link but it was taken down and I cant find it again. It is definitely something that wouldn't normally interest me but for some reason these guys really seemed to put on a good show. I downloaded their newest CD Emotionalism and really liked it. Kind of a bluegrass feel but some roughness around the edges that I really liked. I saw some of their live stuff on Youtube and saw how hard they rocked at their live shows and knew that I would have to check them out.

I played their CD for Melissa and she was kind of indifferent about it. She wasn't all that excited about the show but was thinking that she might like them if she saw them live. She wasn't sure why I liked them so much and I didn't say anything about what I had seen of their live performances so it would surprise her. We got there during the opening act and watched a bit of that. His name was Ryan Butcher and very talented guy but most of his stuff sounded the same. Played an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, good stuff but it all kind of blended together. Melissa was tired and felt the same way about the guy. I knew she was bored and not having much fun.

The Avett Brothers came out and started playing, Melissa's mouth was hanging open. She was thinking it was going to be like their CD, but it is totally different. The music has a definite twang to it but they were going full blast. They are a 3 piece band with a banjo, guitar and an upright bass, there is no dedicated drummer. The banjo plays a kick drum and the guitar player has a high hat so they are rocking that while playing. On some songs either the guitar or banjo player will play drums behind an actual drum kit, Amazing stuff. The most fun I have had at a show in a long time. Melissa really liked it as well and we will be going to see them again.
Link To Avetts Brothers Site.

The next day at work I was talking about the concert and this girl Rachel asks me if I am talking about the Avett Brothers and I tell her I am. She tells me that her friend owns a bar and is going to have them play there. That is going to be awesome because the bar is in Fort Worth and I can drag some people out there with me.

I think that I might be going to see Ironman tonight. I have been waiting for this movie for quite some time and this has the potential to be the best comic book movie so far. The previews look amazing, check them out here.

I guess that is it, not much else to say.

Until later.

Serpentine belt = over rated

I have been forgetting about this, okay so not really forgetting but I have been playing this game called 'N' while I am working. It is really just a little flash game but it has so many levels that it is taking me a long time to beat it. I am still not done with it but I wanted to post because it has been a while. If your interested in playing 'N' you can download it here. I must warn you that its addicting and you might break your keyboard.

So the dealing has not been going very well. Most of the time if the game makes it is small and the only people tipping are the owners. They decided to change the days to Tuesday and Friday. They decided to let me know on Thursday which was a little irritating. I am the only dealer again, Jamal was re-hired and re-fired. You would think they would give me a little more notice. I got a text message today (Sunday) advertising the game tonight. They didn't even contact me to see if I could deal, so I sent them a text to let them know that I wouldn't be there tonight and they called the game off.

Tuesday night wasn't bad, I made $160. Not a huge amount but better than any other night up there so far. I was having a good time cracking jokes and people were appreciating my humor and were tipping me pretty liberally. I probably was a little more talkative than I should have been but I didn't think it would be an issue. Friday, when I got there for the new night and not one fucking player showed up, Trent kind of pissed me off when he told me that I should be professional and not talk. He told me that I wouldn't like it if I was in the middle of a big decision and the dealer was cutting up. I agreed and then said at the same time and he cut me off and said there is no at the same time. Totally ran me over, nothing pisses me off more than that.

First of all, I was not talking when there were big pots being played. Second of all, there were no mess ups on my end that night. Third, people tip dealers who are talkative and nice and friendly more than a robotic dealer who doesn't have a personality. I was going to mention this third point when he cut me off. I just sat there and didn't say anything, then about 20 minutes later he asked me if that makes sense, about being professional. I just look at him and say, "You just told me how its going to be. It apparently doesn't really matter if it makes sense to me, right?" he had no response.

I was looking for a job that was going to work well with this dealing thing, work a full time job and then deal a few nights and make some good side money. Now though I couldn't give a shit. I am quitting that place when I get a new job no matter what it is. I wouldn't mind putting up with a bunch of bullshit if I was making really good money like I was at the Basement. I am not making anywhere near that, and they are making me pay 20% of my tips to the house to help with the cost, and many times I show up and the game doesnt make. So as soon as I get a job I am done there. I will just show up play the free-roll tournaments and crush those soft cash games on my terms and my time.

I really have not been playing online poker much at all here lately. I just can't get motivated to deal with the horrendous play that continues to run lucky against me. I am not giving up but I just need some time off. I am thinking about saving up and just depositing enough to play at a level where they play wont be so bad. My reasoning behind that thought process is this, if you outplay me and win money off me I am 100% okay with that. I am just tired of guys calling raises with J3 and calling me down on the flop and turn when the Jack pairs and hitting a 3 on the river.

I have been playing a lot of Smash Brothers on the Wii. Today I got up before work and bought Mario Kart. I played a little bit before work and I really like it so far. I will be playing some more of that tonight when I get off work here in about 30 minutes (thank God).

I somehow or another left my phone at home this morning. I got to work and noticed it and decided to run home on my 15 minute break to get it and come back. On the way home my serpentine belt snapped. So I am going 70 on the highway and all of the sudden I have no power steering, no AC, no coolent being pushed to my engine. Talk about shitty luck. When I get it back up to work I text Chad and ask him to pick one up and help me change it. He came up here and we knocked it out, its was harder and easier than I expected. Chad did most of the work so I am going to buy him a few beers. I really need to get out of that thing and into a new vehicle.

I have an interview with AT&T on Wednesday, but I am not sure how it is going to go. When I spoke on the phone with the hiring manager he asked me if there were days that I couldn't work, and of course, I tell him that I can't work Monday or Wednesday nights. I don't tell him why, I just mention that I am taking a class. He says that he is not sure if we can work that out and I am a little shocked. It is not like I am asking for weekends off. He tells me that the schedule is done on a bid system based on seniority and that being the new guy I will be the last to pick. I am going to bring this up in the inteview and see what happens. The store closes at 8PM so even if I close it wouldn't be horrible but still it shouldn't be that hard to accomodate. I dont really have anything else going job wise right now, I have been slacking on the job search.

Kung-Fu has been going along very nicely. I am just drilling the same stuff to get it down. I am not sure how much more there is at this level, but I think it will be a little bit before I am ready to test again.

Another side note of yet another type of customer I hate. I hate when people call in and say that they have been working in retail for so many years. I really couldn't care less. Especially when they are calling in about the horrible service thy received in a store, "I work in retail and would never treat anyone like that." Really, you have never had a bad day? Never gotten a little pissy with a customer? I am calling bullshit on that right now. There is not one person who has not had a bad day and taken it out on a customer in one way or another. Also, all the people who tell me that their whole house is decorated in our merchandise and how they spend all their money in our stores. Wouldn't our company be a lot better off if that were true. I dont care that you say you spent $3,000 with us last year, if you don't have a reciept we are not giving you cash back.

That is pretty much it for now.

Until later.

Update: I hate work

A large amount of stuff has happened since the last post so I will get right to it. I haven't been playing much poker. I have been taking some time off trying to think about my game. When I do play I just can't seem to get motivated, seems like it is inevitable that I am going to lose. So after taking a week off I played some yesterday and basically broke even. I had one hand where I have T9 in the big blind, the flop comes 8JQ giving me the nut straight. I make a pot sized bet and this guy calls, the turn is a harmless 3, I bet again and he moves in on me and I snap call. The river is another 3 and he shows J3 for a full house. It was beyond sick. I am disgusted with the play at this level, I can't catch a break and it is pissing me off.

The game didn't make on Tuesday, I was there for about an hour and no one showed up so I went home. I am hoping this picks up because I am really not making much money. I went there after work on Saturday and dealt cash game for a while. It was only a $1/$2 NL game so there were a bunch of no tipping bad players there. I made $80 for my 3 hours of work, it is not horrible but it should be better. When Trent was paying me out he noticed how little it was and told me to tell him the next time people are not tipping and he would make comment about it for those who don't know. The game ended early Sunday before I got off work. They hired back Jamale the guy they fired for not showing up on the first Saturday. I am not sure how I feel about that. I know that I can't be there on Saturdays and Sundays until after work but the guy has already proven unreliable. We are having a game tonight, the house is guaranteeing $300, the first buy in is free but you can re buy for like $20. They are projecting 2 tables, we will see what happens.

The Citi thing turned out to be a bust. It was selling loans to people with sub-prime credit, which isn't that bad, but if they didn't pay I had to do the collections as well. Not really my cup of tea. I got a call today from AT&T about coming to work for them selling cell phones. It would be more retail which is kind of something I am trying to get away from but I don't really have any other prospects currently. I am going to do some looking after I get done with this blog. The money could be very good but I would like something not retail I think.

On Friday Chad's divorce was final so he wanted to get a lot of people and go to the Magic Time Machine in Dallas. He didn't have enough people to fill the reservation so I invited Renee and Amy from class. It was a very good night lots of fun. I was not familiar with the place but all the servers dress up like famous or known people. Our server was Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and he was really fun, very sarcastic and it was a very good meal. Renee gave me a stack of music to listen to and I put it on my Ipod and I am giving it a shot. I like it all so far.

I am so beat down by work, they actually called me yesterday to see if I would come in and work 2:30-11PM. The whole reason my schedule is 10-6:30 is because of Kung-Fu, and they are not willing to give me a weekend day off so I am not overly eager to do any favors for them. It is not like I want a weekend day off just to be off, it's to make money, it is really irritating that they wont work with me. Hopefully I wont be here much longer. I am so tired of working weekends just to be here for all the stupid store phone calls. If they did their job we wouldn't need to be here on the weekends.

Last night in class I got to start the corner drill. I didn't get very far, but its AMAZING. I can't wait for Wednesday to do some more of it. It is kind of hard to explain but let us just say I would be very comfortable fighting from a corner. I am getting really motivated again, I am working on stuff out side of class and getting much better over all in my opinion.

I guess that is all for right now. I will update with how tonight goes later on in the week.

Until later

Dealing and the wreck

I am going to get the obligatory poker info out of the way. I went through a pretty large down/tilt swing. I had to move back down to rebuild, I have been pretty frustrated so I haven't been playing much. I played some on Tuesday night and really just didn't care. I lost 3 buy-ins but just couldn't muster up any feelings about it other than I knew I was going to lose. I am hoping that taking a couple of days off will help this because it will be very detrimental otherwise. It could be good since I wouldn't worry about the small shit but I think this is a little too far.

I am really getting beat down by these complete idiots online, I don't know why I make bad plays against them. I know that they are never folding any piece of the board. Time to revamp my approach again I think.

OK, so lets talk about dealing and what has been going on with that. Last Tuesday was going to be the first night but there wasn't really anyone there. We set up a schedule and figured out buy-ins for the tournaments and stuff and I got to meet everyone. I met the head dealer and the other owners and we just messed around playing a $20 freeze-out tournament. I got all in with AQ vs AT and lose when he hits a 10. Then I was short so I moved all in with 33 and same guy called with 45s and hit a 4. Pretty sick but whatever.

We set the schedule for Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays with the weekend days starting at 2PM. I told them I would talk to my work about getting one weekend day off so I could help out. I talked to my boss and she told me that those days are the worst for our stats and that I needed to be here on those days. Personally, I think that is pretty much bullshit because its slow as hell on the weekends. I let Trent and Josh know about that and showed up Saturday after I got off work in time to deal the cash game. The head dealer didn't show up so they fired him and offered it to me. I dealt for about 2 hours and made $120, not bad at all. I let them know that I would be there on Sunday when I got off work at 9PM. On lunch I went to eat at a place near the house and there wasn't anyone there. The game didn't make because Nascar was in town.

Tuesday I came straight from work and it was an unorganized mess. I was the first one there, Josh was running late. He shows up and tosses me the key and then goes to get some food. We only had 3 people show up and the game didn't make again. Kind of frustrating, I really need the money. I talked to Trent and we are going to change the schedule up a little bit to make it so more players will come. Other changes are also in the works, we will see what happens.

It was raining pretty bad yesterday on my way to Kung-Fu, visibility wasn't that good and it was the king of day that makes it hard to see the lane dividers in the road. I was exiting and there was an SUV in front of me and a car in front of it. The car cruises through the light then it turns yellow. The driver of the SUV has plenty of time but slams on his breaks and I have to slam my breaks on. Well as many people know, pick-up truck + wet roads = no traction, so I slid into him.

I jump out of the truck and there is no damage on his SUV or my truck. The guy gets out and is acting very weird. He was Mexican and I apologize and ask him if he is alright and he tells me that he is fine. I am thinking that this guy seems really ready to get out of here. I tell him that we should call the cops and exchange information. He starts acting very weird, telling me that he is going to church and he has his kids in the car. I ask him what he wants to do about this. He says that he just wants my phone number and he will call me later, then he tells me that the truck isn't even his. I didn't figure the chance of this guy calling me were very good so I gave the guy a made up number. I know that I am going to hell, but I was ready to do it right and he wasn't, so whatever.

I have a phone interview today with Citi Bank, it was supposed to be yesterday but the person was a little sick. Since work won't even try to work with my dealing schedule I have increased my efforts to get into a position that I will like and will allow me to deal at the card house as much as possible. This position with Citi Bank is like a personal banker sales position. I think it has the potential to be very good. That money plus the dealing income would be very substantial.

I bought Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii the other day and I have been playing the hell out of it. I am glad it is not a bunch of special moves to memorize as is the case with most fighting games. It is a pretty good all around game. I have found that some of the Wii games try to hard to make use of the motion sensor, like the Tony Hawk game is terrible. This doesn't have that, it is pretty straight forward. You can also play online which is pretty cool as well. There is no shit talking though which makes me sad.

I guess for now that is all. I will update again soon.

Until later.

Interesting situation

OK I am going to get the poker stuff out of the way first. After I posted last Saturday and spoke with Jason I decided to take a shot at 25NL. I wanted to see how I played and felt and then go from there. I know that I said that I want to even out my stats but, I am playing for money not my stats. I ran pretty bad and was overly aggressive while I was getting used to the play at this new level. At one point during the session I was down 12 buy-ins, but I maintained discipline and didn't tilt and battled back to only down 6 buy-ins.

I know this sounds like I got my dick smacked in the dirt but, it was actually a very good session. I didn't feel over whelmed or anything like that. I just ran pretty cold, I was making plays that are going to be high variance. I decided to play again on Sunday. I won over 4 buy-ins, so now I am only down 2 buy-ins which I am incredibly happy about. The session was pretty rough too, KK vs AA I lost a stack, I flopped a set of Kings and had a guy hit runner runner straight, then I had QQ vs AK all in preflop and he his an Ace. So it wasn't like a picture perfect session, I should have won about 7 buy-ins. I really feel that I can maintain at this level, as opposed to all the other times I have played at this level.

Yesterday I played a little bit before leaving for Kung-Fu and since I didn't have a lot of time I just played 10NL. I wound up wining over 6 buy-ins from this complete donkey who was at 4 of my tables. He was the greatest horrible player I have ever seen, he was so aggressive that people were laying down and so he had multiple buy-ins at all the tables. I folded a few hands to him before I saw how aggro-tard he really is. Then I turned up my aggression and won a lot of money off of him. I was down 2 buy-ins and this guy got me all the way back up to over 4 buy-ins positive. My lifetime stats for this limit now is negative half a buy in, I will make that in the next couple of days.

I am really excited about my progression and feel really confident that I can be crushing 25NL for a good amount this month. I have to put some of the credit to deuces cracked. Those videos have helped so much and so has cutting down on the amount of tables I am playing.

So onto the interesting situation. I was in class last night and I was a little late because I was playing poker against the total donkey. He was so bad that I just couldn't quit. I was explaining this to Sifu when all of the sudden he got very excited and told me that he needed to talk to me about something. We walk out into the parking lot and tells me about how he was taking out some trash and there was a guy who was moving a box. He dropped the box and poker chips went everywhere. Sifu helped him pick up the chips and he was telling Sifu that he was having a small friendly game. Sifu looks up the stairs and there is a poker table up there. He understands that its probably more than a "friendly game". He is telling me this when the guy comes down the stairs and it is a guy that I know from the Basement. We start talking and I ask him if he needs a dealer and he said yes.

There is a poker room in Arlington that is closing called the Green Room. The owner of that is part owner in this room and is bringing a list of players with him. They are going to start out with some free-rolls to get the business going and see what happens. It is only going to be two tables at the most so it wont be on par with the money I was making at the Basement but even if its like $300 a week it would be a nice bump. They are spreading games on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. It could be a good situation and I could use the extra money.

I am leaving today at 4:30 in order to make it to the place a little early. I don't want to show up in my work clothes, I am going to go home and change. It will also give me some time to see Melissa which is important.

Class last night was good. There were only 4 people in 3rd hour who were above me. Sifu has been bringing up people into third hour a little earlier than he used to because he needs extra people to teach in the second hour. They work on their stuff off to the side. I worked with Derrick for the majority of the night, not the best work-out partner, but better than working alone. I spoke with Tai-Chi Bobby and Sifu about the sparring and my thoughts and we are going to work on it. Apparently I knocked down the guy during my sparring match. I stepped into him and my structure knocked him down. I had no idea and feel much better about it. Bobby and I spoke at length and he said that everyone goes through that and by doing it more it becomes easier and more relaxed.

I am not going to go on Saturday because Sifu is going to be out of town and the class is going to be ran by a high ranking Mantis student. I am going to go next Friday when Sifu is back in town and will be running it. I am also going to get with a few people who I am comfortable with to work out with the pads as well. I need to work on my distance appreciation and other things.

My knee for some reason is hurting a lot here lately. It is not the same knee as last time and not even the same pain. This feels more like a twist, than anything else. I hope that its better soon because it is effecting some of my movements and footwork.

I guess that is it for now. I will update tomorrow or the next day with a trip report from the new card room.

Until later.

Myspace pics

So today is Saturday and I am working again. I am not sure if its the weather or what but I REALLY do not want to be here today. My patience is already very thin with customers and store associates and I have only been here for an hour. It might be time to turn the job search up a notch, I would kill for a job with weekends off. I haven't mentioned this too much but I have been looking for new employment opportunities. I even went and bought a suit, that equals dedication in my book. Kevin was showing me how to revamp my resume to get into the field that I am interested in. I am looking into sales because they are more likely to over look my lacking college degree.

I put my resume up and have been getting good responses and have had interviews and even received job offers. The first interview I had was with this insurance sales company and it was 100% commission and I am just not really into it. I prefer to sell a product instead of a service and I am not ready for the 100% commission pay plan. I am looking for a decent base, around 30K, plus commission. I received an offer from this company up in the alliance area. It was with a staffing company but it seems to me that its more like telemarketing and I am not wanting to do that either. I would like to work with people face to face not out of a call center. They told me that most people there make over 100K a year but the parking lot is filled with Hondas and other cars that people who make 100K a year don't buy. It seemed a little fishy so I skipped on that one as well.

I didn't go to sparring last night since I missed class all week. I have been thinking about my training and how to make it more effective. I think that what it comes down to is mindset. I think I need to dedicate myself to my art and really work at the small things to get to the level that I want to be at. I am really not sure how to do this but I am going to start going to more Friday night classes and once I get a new job I will go on Saturday mornings as well. I am really going to start working my forms every day because there is so much in those forms that will drill small stuff.

Poker last night didn't go as well as it did earlier this week, but I think that is partially my fault. I had my 6 NLH tables open and 2 PLO tables and I think that mixing them is really bad. I found myself playing very weak-tight on the NLH tables. My percentage of hands that I won when I saw the flop was much lower than it usually is. I wound up at one point down 3 buy-ins but fought my way back to profit half a buy in for the evening. It was not a great session by any stretch but better than losing. I was missing a lot of flops and people who were paying off really lightly most of the time were snap folding when I had the goods.

I am going to continue at my current level until my lifetime stats are in the green. I need to make about 5 buy-ins to hit that mark. That will also put me at a bankroll that is sufficient for the next level up. I am eager to take a shot but I am forcing myself to slow down and maintain discipline. I might take a shot here and there, but I am not going to play permanently until I have both of those goals accomplished.

Enough about all that, it is time to talk about the reason that I am posting. I was cruising myspace, looking for friends from old jobs that I haven't spoken to in awhile. I keep seeing these photos on myspace of people smoking pot. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't do that and never have. I think its stupid to put photos of yourself on a publicly accessed site of you doing something illegal. Sure nothing is going to come of it, you are not going to get in trouble, but why are you putting it out there for everyone to see? My cousin has photos of himself smoking and it is just ridiculous. How can you not even think about how that might come back in get you in trouble?

I saw one caption for a picture of this girl that I used to work with that said, "doing what I do." She had the obligatory glassy eyes and glass pipe in her mouth. Is that really what you want to be known for?
"Sure you know (insert name here) she smokes a lot of pot and is really good at it." Not really how I want to be described, just as I wouldn't want to be described as the guy who drinks a lot. I am sure that there are pictures of me drinking a beer, or sitting in a bar but it is different. First of all, there is no caption that says something "clever" about how much a drink or how good I am at it. Second, alcohol is legal unlike pot. I am not going to discuss the pot vs alcohol topic because since I have never smoked I am not the best qualified.

My cousin is always telling the family that he doesn't smoke pot. It is probably not the smartest idea to put pictures of yourself doing it on a website that is so popular that most people with computer access know of it. Don't worry Adam I am not going to rat you out. Your useless enough as it is and everyone knows that your smoking pot anyway, there would be no point.

I dont hate people who smoke pot, if that is your thing then whatever, just keep it to yourself.

That is all for now.

Until later.