I'm really grateful to Handbanana for trusting me and giving me the stake. The terms where in my favor for sure. I wouldn't have been able to cash the 300k vpp milestone on Pokerstars if it wasn't for him. Unfortunately I only played 100k hands with the stake and I was running a lot under EV before hitting the heater.
Thanks Kevin, appreciate it.
This guy was awesome btw (great music for grinding)
I started playing poker as my only income late mid 2007. It was a no-brainer, after i figured out that i could make much more money playing poker, then i would in my old job as a shipping agent, where i would work day and night shifts and 50+hr/weeks. I have an autistic son, so being able to work at home was very important too, since it would be very stressful for my wife to take care of him alone. Things weren't always great, but over the years i have been able to buy an apartment, a car, my daughter's in her last year of high school and my son was going to a special school. Poker has also given me the freedom and money to visit my parents in germany, every year for the last 5 years. I wasn't making a great amount of money, with the best years probably averaging around 4000$ or 5000$/month and other years maybe 2500$ or 3000$/month, but it was much more then me and my family was used too. I have had several bad downswings over the years, but usually have been able to get out of them before things got to critical.
How did i get into this mess ?
I like this quote from Benjamin Franklin "Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.", and that was my philosophy regarding debts. But when you get married and have wife and kids, you start getting softer and give in to to many things (big birthday parties, new kitchen, new furniture, trips etc.), even thought you know that they will catch up with you and give you trouble in the future. I'm easily persuaded, and it has given me trouble in the past, but i would just grind more and eventually get out of the problem. I started to get into a real bad habit regarding my money management outside of poker. Throughout the year i have basically been going back and forth from my normal level (100nl 6max) to regrinding at (50nl), and my cash game winning are basically (0)zero this year, so my only income came from vpp milestones, fpps and a little from sngs/mtt. I still made about 1500$/month on avg. this year, but that isn't enough to pay for monthly expenses, so i got into debt with credit cards and some personal debts (about 3k$). On my last downswing I couldn't turn things around and just kept moving down from 100nl to 50nl to 25nl about 10 days ago, and i just started playing 10nl today, mixed with 2.5$ 180s sngs.
My current Bankroll:
I have had a lot of stress/lifetilt the last couple of months due to the monetary pressure i have put myself into, and my confidence level is on an all time low. I contacted somebody on LP regarding a stake, and we talked yesterday (sorry Matt, didn't contact you, but i still feel kind of bad caused i failed at that 200nl 10buy in shot beginning of the year that didn't worked out). We talked yesterday, but it didn't worked out. I totally understand him, and tbh, in his shoes i would have taken the same decision. He explained to me that a stake has to be beneficial for both sides, and given my current situation (and poker ability judging from my yearly results) i can see how it is not the case. i would have benefited more from the deal, since one of the reasons that i was looking for a stake, was because i have 29k vpps to go to cash a 2800$ milestone on stars and wanted to avoid the regrind from small stakes. But given my poor results lately this seems like a bad deal for a staker. I have the up most respect for him anyways, and he's one of the nicest guys on LP. I just didn't really looked at it from his perspective.
What's the plan ?
*paying back debts will just have to wait
*wife started working 2 days ago (last time was 1999)
*grind 10nl till 500$, 25$nl till 1000$, 50nl till 3000$
*not doing the same mistakes again
August started really bad and was forced to move down to 50nl to regrind. Luckily I went on a heater when I moved back up to 100nl. Been coolering everybody for the last 10 days : ]
Even though I haven't seen him for many years, he's my Godfather and I have spend many great moments with him on board the Lord Jim. He's over 70 years old, and this old schooner is basically his life and he has circumnavigated the world many times.
For well over a year now, an American flag has been flying upside-down from the rigging of the 72-ft gaff tops’l schooner Lord Jim, as she sits high and dry in a remote Brazilian boatyard at the edge of the jungle. As old salts know, in naval tradition an inverted national flag or ensign is a sign that the vessel is in distress.
The nature of Lord Jim's distress is unusual, however. After striking an unmarked rock and sinking five years ago, she was successfully raised and repaired. But that turned out to be the easy part of her Brazilian ordeal. A dispute with the boatyard owner forced the schooner's longtime owners Holger Kreuzhage and Tracy Brown into a protracted courtroom battle, which they ultimately won. In defiance of a court order, the owner, who Holger characterizes as thoroughly corrupt, literally removed the marine railway so Lord Jim could not relaunch. Subsequent court proceedings, all won by Kreuzhage and Brown, have still brought no resolution.
With that as background, Holger and Tracy recognized America's Independence Day in a unusual manner: "Our boat is still hostage, and so are we. But today we will rise above these local conditions, which were actually resolved by the justice system completely in our favor. A country where a final decision by the appellate court can be ignored by individuals who believe they are above the law only accentuates the difference in the values we treasure as Americans, and which we honor on this special day.
"Needless to say we miss our home country, our families and our far-away friends. In their honor and in the honor of our own country, we are flying our flag in its correct position, right-side-up."
The 44-ton schooner was formerly based at Sausalito, and was previously the queen of Antigua's crewed charter fleet. As far as we know, she has circumnavigated more times than any other San Francisco-based vessel. We sincerely hope the current deadlock ends soon, freeing her to sail the world's oceans yet again.
TLDR cliffs: My godfather and good friend, ran a ground in Brazil a couple of years ago. They managed to re float the sailing yacht (old 1936 Alden schooner) and repairs where being made in a Brazilian boatyard. The owner of the boatyard got into a legal dispute with them and after a couple of years the court ruled in their favor, demanding the boatyard owner pay damaged and relaunch the schooner. Not happy with that decision the boatyard owner destroyed the rails to launch the vessel and they haven't been able to do anything about it so far. This is an old man, over 70, has lead a very adventurous life and now seems to be unable to end his days doing what he loves to do, which is sailing the globe.
I don't know much about audio, but I was tired of listening to my old altec lansings while grinding. So I started searching for some nice vintage stereo amplifier and speakers. Caught two good deals on some local auction site (similar to ebay).
Here's my new setup which I think sounds fantastic. Will try to learn a little more about the subject regarding speaker placement etc.. suggestions welcome.
this is what I bought
Sansui AU-4900 integrated amplifier mint conditions (circa 1977)
polk audio RT3 bookshelf speakers
