The title refers to more than poker. I'm actually not doing too bad in my weekly live game; top casher for the "season" out of 25 with about 12 regulars. Online I'm about even right now, down from my peak a few weeks ago but who really cares when you're playing micros.
My mood is very swingy and it's tough to deal with. On "good" days I'm still not where I want to be and on bad days... well, let's just say I'm glad to have the support system that I do. I've been getting in touch more with old friends and it has been very positive. It's still not the same as what I used to have but I guess I just need to deal with the fact that certain people will never be in my life again in the same way. Hard to lose so many of the most important people in your life within a short period of time. I'm not sure if anything will ever make up for that. Either way, I'm still a very lucky person to have what I do and I'm aware of this.
I still get the theoretical wind knocked out of me every once in a while and when that happens I try to talk to my friends about it. This isn't the easiest thing to admit but I used to be on antidepressants. They evened out my mood which is probably one of main reasons I was able to get through the winter, but I decided to stop taking them a few months ago. I've been considering taking them again lately though. I really don't want to but it's pretty exhausting trying to be strong all the time. I think the problem is that sometimes it just feels like there's not much to look forward to in my future. My job is never going to get better and the salary sucks but I like the easygoing lifestyle it allows me. I would get a different job but I haven't been with this company for very long and it looks bad on the CV if I can't stay in one place for a significant period of time without reason. I have a hard time saving up any money since living expenses are pretty high and as soon as I do save a little, something goes wrong and I have to repair my car or some shit. I plan little trips every once in a while that hopefully don't cost me a ton but still give me something to look forward to. I just try not to think about it too much... One day at a time.
I'm using poker as a distraction and trying to get better. I also have a very short attention span and am often playing games on my iPhone while I grind cash or SNGs. I really need to stop doing this and just focus on one thing at a time. I know I'll never be able to make a living playing poker but hopefully I can make enough to provide enough to have fun with and to take the heat off my bank account.
Perisie stuck abroad! Transfer requestby Perisie, August 13
I'm in a Forn Land and suddenly ran out of money on my Natwest debit account*. I have ~£15 and need to get transport back to my friend's house in a distant city.
I can't transfer from my other (Santander) account unless I wait 5 days as it'd be a first-time transfer (I don't have a Santander ATM card).
I have $100 on PS I can send to you in exchange for a $90 (around 60 euro, £55, if i read it right) transfer into my Natwest account (british). You would have to use your bank's online banking service. I would then hopefully be able to use my debit card at an ATM to withdraw!
Please give me a PM so I can give you my Natwest account number, name and sort code!!!!
THANKYOU PLEASE PM ME
tldr; receive my $100 from PS and send me $90 to my natwest bank account
*i checked my balance recently but none of the different ATMs here tell you whether the amount is + or - so i thought i was in the green :/
CANADA!!! Back Online! Apt Pics/Vegas TRby Joeingram1, August 12
One of the best days of my life occurred a few days ago....Pokerstars accepted my stuff and let me back online!!
It sure has been an interesting past couple of months of traveling, live poker grind, meeting women on the live poker grind, living in Vegas, moving out of San Diego, getting across the border to Canada and then getting set up.
Lets start with April 15th 2011. I'm not a big day drinker, probably haven't even drank during the day the past few years. In honor of the glorious day, I went down to the bars on the beach in San Diego with another online guy and we decided to drink the sadness away starting at noon. I was passed out in bed (not alone) by 7 that night. Probably should have been doing things like this a little more often while I lived there I thought. The next day I decided I probably needed a plan to survive and still have money. Played some live poker at Oceans 11 and Palomar and decided that meh this sucks but I'll give it a shot.
Me and Ballcup decided to go down to Miami for the WPT event and play some cash games. We stayed in South Beach for the time we were out there and was an interesting place. Didn't really hear much english being spoke while down there but did happen to run into 6 random older black girls while walking the main strip in south beach.
Lets give a mini trip report! That picture was from the start of the night, after that they asked us if we wanted to go to King of Diamonds which is an all black strip club in Miami, one of the biggest. For some reason we decided this would be a good idea and we walked to there car and all got in. I was in the 2nd back seat in between 2 of the girls, there asses were fucking huge and this was not a very comfy ride. After a detour to the hospital to visit there friend who left dinner with some sickness lol we were off to the strip club. During the drive the girls were passing weed around and all pretty drunk at this point. We get to the strip club and walk up to the door, the security guys start laughing and ask me why the fuck I am wearing orange swim trunks and a blank tank top, everyone else was dressed in dresses/dress shirts there. The girls explain that we are from out of town and they kidnapped us to go there with them. Security walks me and Brad over to talk to 3 guys outside talking by some cars, I get to know them a bit better and find out one is the owner of the place and he gives me the go ahead and tells me to enjoy myself. We get in and realize the only 2 white people there is us 2 and were in swimsuits lol. We decide to get a table there and a few bottles and proceed to drink alot and get lap dances from some of the thickest black girls I have ever seen. At one point I went up to the stage and made it rain while the DJ stopped the music and made some DJ like comments you would expect him to make seeing something like this. Then I had a dance off in the parking lot with about 10 black girls (there is video of this but not sure if should post lol). After this we drove home, everyone drunker this time and somehow they dropped us off at our hotel at about 7 AM and we were alive!
After this night we decided to nit it up a bit life wise and stick to grinding some live poker at the Hard Rock. Games were good and I was still learning the adjustment to the beautiful game that is live poker. I went back to San Diego for a few days and decided the action in Florida was way better and booked another trip out there with my friend Tom and this time I ended up staying at the Hard Rock there for about a month. During the time I went to a few Heat playoff games, played a ton of live poker and met a girl/woman while playing 2/5. We ended up hanging out/playing a bunch of poker together while I was there. I think I was in love for a solid 3 days with her actually, like an OMG my dream girl type of love. She turned out to be a loose cannon though for a few reasons and by the time I left I felt a little different. I got back from Florida in early June and then it was time to go out to Vegas for WSOP!
I ended up getting a house out there with some stars full ring guys. Me, Ballcup, rivrmeadream, tomrh3 and an ftp guy DukeMuscle. The house was pretty shitty but it did have a pool at least. Was located about 2 miles west of the stratosphere off Sahara, didn't hear great things about the neighborhood but it wasn't bad while we were there and I never noticed anything or felt unsafe being there. While on the drive out there I noticed the Air Condition in my M3 wasn't working and then soon after something flew off a car and I ran over it damaging my driver side front end a bit, a good start to Vegas. I got there the night before my birthday and we ended up going to Cut (my fave place to eat in Vegas) and then for some reason we went out to Lavo after. Wasn't terrible but probably would never go there again if I had the choice. This is me at Cut for my bday dinner, wasn't in that good of a mood and was sportin the facial hair/long hair live poker combo
Really Vegas wasn't that fun or exciting this year as compared to last. Most of the time I spent thinking about getting out of the USA to play online poker again and complaining to friends about how terrible it was to grind live poker everyday. There really wasn't much else for me to do while I was out there so I pretty much ended up playing a ton of live everyday at either Aria, Venetian or Rio. I was going pretty busto while I was out there too so my mood wasn't that good and didn't really want to ever go out. I did hang out with a girl/woman I met playing 2/5 a bunch and it was fun, actually ended up hanging out with her alot back home in San Diego before I moved too, sadly I have never met any women 24 tabling online so I guess that is one advantage live poker has. I would give some sort of rant about the pros and cons of live poker but I am pretty sure everyone has had a take/opinion on this since black friday and everything has pretty much been said about the subject. Some like it, some love it, most online guys hate it.
I got back to San Diego in the middle of July and decided to get really serious about finding a place in Vancouver. Most of the places downtown here that were 2 bedrooms didnt have a ton of space so we decided we would have to up our price range a bit to get someplace that was super nice, furnished, good location, and had enough room for 2 grind areas. I found a nice place on craigslist and instead of doing the email process I had tried for a few places before, I would actually make a phone call and use the gift of speaking which I possess to see if I could have better results. By the end of the phone call the places was ours We sent in our first months rent for the place and then I proceeded to sell most of my stuff and pack up my car to embark on the journey up to Canada. I stopped in San Fran to meet BallCup and we were underway. We kept reading all these things on 2p2 about issues crossing the border and what to say and all that stuff but in reality it was alot of worrying for nothing. We crossed at about 3am and were the only 2 people in the border office. They asked questions about poker, how long we were there, and pretty standard questions. Made us sweat for about 30 mins and then we were in and driving up to our place. We stopped over at my friend Hodge05's place here while we waited for morning and to meet our landlord. While we were waiting outside of our new place for the landlord to show up I actually met a girl/woman (i say girl/woman because there a little older and not really a girl). I was awake for over 24 hrs at this point and delirious, I said something about is she the babysitter or the mother of the 2 kids she was walking and a week later we have hung out everyday pretty much.
We live in a sick location downtown as far as getting something to eat/going out goes. There is every type of food place 5-10 min walk away and if your like me and love the fast food, there is a mcds, burger king, and subway open 24 hours within a 7 min walk. The women here are pretty good looking too after being here for a few days, at first I wasn't too into them but it turns out downtown here is pretty much like a downtown in any big city as far as the feel/people go. We went to a 2p2 dinner meetup last weekend that was pretty cool. I knew 2 of the guys, Ricky and The Main previously and met up with some other guys that are living out here now/have lived here. I got some very nice expediated service from Pokerstars and was back up in about 1 business day after I sent in all my documents. Opening a bank account here was super easy as well and took about 10-15 mins.
Here are the pics of our place we are living in, its on the 32nd floor. Brad got the master bedroom which has the attached nicer bathroom and more closet space while I got the 2nd bedroom with the views/office attatched but separate bathroom. I would say both rooms have the good things about them
First days of august were shitty, especially that day where i lost a bunch, i fucking tilted, i'm not supposed to tilt but I did. It was such a pathetic tilt too, basically that day I had my glasses fixed and I borrowed my dad's for a couple days while they fix mine, not great but I can see ok at least for driving, promised myself I wouldn't play poker until mine were fixed... yeah right.
At night even when my head hurt from using glasses that didn't belong I had the amazing idea of playing "for a bit", what's the worse that can happen. So i open 10/20 PLO (even more genius from me, play a game i barely know) and start playing like a crazy maniac and not even thinking about any spot, just shoving and shoving, whenever I tried to think my head hurt a bit, sometimes more, so I probably unconciously decided not to think. But I don't stop, because after 10 mins im already down like 10bis or whatever, tilt comes and my head hurts even more. Bah this is retarded I'm just gonna stop, fucking stop. I stopped... for a while. After 30~ minutes I come back, I'm thinking well I'm in the hole already, might as well go deep, so I open 25/50 PLO and try to actually play good, ofc I still have no idea wtf I'm doing but I get lucky, and I win like 10k right away... cool... Not, I start running badly and lose all my profit and then some more... Finally I see what's going on, im tilted and it's retarded to keep playing, i'll make it all back when i'm sober.
Took me a couple days to get back my mental state, I'm so ashamed because this can't happen, not anymore. My tilt wasn't primarily because I was losing money, of course that didn't help either, but because I didn't listen to myself when I perfectly stated that I wasn't gonna play before I get my glasses back. Fucking glasses, my sight is shit I should get surgery, prob will.
Oh, this helped me a lot to get back to my mental state, you guys have heard for sure about Penn & Teller, I watched their whole show Fool Us on youtube, highly entertaining if you like magic, maybe even if you don't but who the fuck doesn't like magic.
There are better and worse than that, but for some reason I really like that one. I also watched some Eps of their Bullshit show, but most weren't that good to be honest..., seemed kinda rushed. Most of their shit is pretty good tho.
Looking forward to see their show in Vegas if I ever make it there.
Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology
Harald Haas: Wireless data from every light bulb
Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world
David Gallo shows underwater astonishments
Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen
Michael Pawlyn: Using nature's genius in architecture
Philip Zimbardo shows how people become monsters ... or heroes
We and They - Rudyard Kipling
Father and Mother, and Me,
Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.
And They live over the sea,
While We live over the way,
But-would you believe it? --They look upon We
As only a sort of They!
We eat pork and beef
With cow-horn-handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
Are horrified out of Their lives;
While they who live up a tree,
And feast on grubs and clay,
(Isn't it scandalous? ) look upon We
As a simply disgusting They!
We shoot birds with a gun.
They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-.
We dress up to Our ears.
They like Their friends for tea.
We like Our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
As an utterly ignorant They!
We eat kitcheny food.
We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
As a quite impossible They!
All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!
Enjoy!
TenBagger added these below:
Geoffrey West: The surprising math of cities and corporations
I've been using Ubuntu linux on my laptop for a couple of weeks now and I'm stuck using it until I want to dump $100+ on another windows license. Windows still blows it out of the water still for average end-user needs though.
Just felt like flaming Ubuntu linux because it keeps doing stupid shit and being very inconvenient to use at times. It is free after all though.
I'm also flaming ubuntu because I spent 8.5 hours laying in bed and got no more than 3 hours of sleep because my brain just thinks its fucking brilliant to start considering every aspect of the human condition once I've laid down to sleep.
Still, props to all of the work people have put into the various incarnations of linux throughout the years.
Also two people have tried to shit on my day already and that is annoying.
Hey everyone, had my 2nd day on NL25 today, after a really busy day.
Had a couple hands that gave me some trouble, QQ vs a 4.5% 3better, i folded to a 4bet with 6.5 in the pot, not sure if i should be stacking off here or not.
other than that, had some really solid hands and some AKs hold vs AQ etc
I had my reasons for making that play but they were not very good. Only good think is that I can't imagine how I'd ever get away post flop anyway so whatever.
I also started up a little pokerblog to have somewhere to dump some slightly more serious post then the drunk ramblings I post here from time to time. My roomie decided that he'd write a A4 every day about some topic that he finds amusing to be a better writer and I guess I'll do something like that, except less frequent. Here it is:
I can't seem to get through many cbets at all, 63% avg over the 3 with 48% avg. Suprisingly NL10 is my lowest success (43.5%)
My turn cbet is avg 48% with success 40%.
First of all is the non-showdown that bad?
(-26 at NL10 / -21 at NL5/ -14 at NL2) or is this standard?
Fish hate folding, so I've always expected it to be low and this reflects a higher win $ at showdown, as getting good value on TPNK.
Anyway in general, started taking NL10 shots (now at 20buyins) Running 6bb/100 over 5k hands, +$31. Not entirely happy with my play here, for some reason I've loosened up a bit once I moved up, need to stop opening that tiny bit wider just because the pots are worth stealing more. Spewed at least 20-30 dollars as well in stupid moves/5bet bluffs. Will be stuck at Nl10 for a while as I ideally need to withdraw again soon Unemployed sucks. But once i start smashing NL10 will be waiting for my first $1k month in september
Hey guys, been grinding a ton of mtt's on hero lately, ft'd the 3r and $11 5k gntd to build up a nice bankroll. Didn't finish either of them off, kind of a shame, but just getting back in the groove so its acceptable I guess...
Gonna keep MTT'ing there a ton and building this roll up, although the payjumps for the FT's are ridiculous. Def needs to be worked on but w/e, happy w/ whats there;
MTTs so far at merge, started with $100 and had to cashout a couple times, so not the biggest wins yet, hopefully some to come though :-)
So after tonight's MTT session, I was bored, felt like gambling, using what I've been learning, played a pretty epic session.
Started out losing a few AK vs AA and QQ vs AQ, then bounced back pretty good. When I was down 150, made a stop loss for 175, buckled down n fckin owned. I know its only nl25, but its a start and a big confidence builder, looking forward to more nl25 sessions in the future and playing nl50 sometime soon again.
(just told myself, inch back dolla by dolla) n did it ;-)
Been pretty busy in life, spending a lot of time with my family etc, planning on moving 9/1, so having lots of fun in my hometown til I go;
Made a pokerstars.net home game, have 6 people in there, looking to add more people. Its actually a lot of fun, the 1/2 is 400 cap and well, nobody likes to lose, so we get some good games goin there. msg me if u wanna join us, we need more for 6max games etc (mostly usa players plz, and have skype)
So not a bad last couple days, hopefully I can keep improving and have a better week this week then the last few;
Well I decided not to long ago that I was going to begin writing another blog. To reference my thoughts, ideas, and to give some perspective to other players. I had a lot of thoughts and stories bottled up since last time I wrote in a blog but I shall focus on new ideas and material.
(some history)
May, 2010.
This is around the time where I had broken up from a 1 year relationship, I was still living in my downtown apartment in LA, but I was planning on heading back to Toronto soon, as the LA/Vegas lifestyle really did not suit my interests any further.
In the last few months of my trip I met a Dave a friend of mine who I now consider my "poker mentor"
Dave was a 21 year old student studying at USC not to far from where we lived(he lived a few floors below me) he drive a Aston Martin and he used crush 5/10NL on stars 24 tabling (won the UGL a few times)
Before meeting Dave I kind of struggled at playing 8 tables having to think deeply into every spot, and was focused on always trying to make the "perfect" play. Interestingly, Dave was playing on a 14" laptop having a inch of space for overlapping but still able to maintain focus and doing well (one session I remember him being stuck 24 buy ins and finishing up 17, he rarely ever quits, and just sits through monster amounts of hands lasting 10+ hours)
Dave's explained to me that: Its basically (in general) more profitable to add tables and to sacrifice win rate for hourly. example:: if you play 12 tables at 3bb/100 but play 24 tables at 2bb/100 your hourly will be 50% higher.
So I started to play 24 tables of full ring (I almost never played full ring before, mostly just HU when I played online).
I had some trouble for the first 3-6 months but then I began to do a lot better and show much stronger results.
That is mainly the philosophy I learned from Dave, in addition to minor things like min-opening and light shoving ranges which are well applicable to a mass tabling game style.
I may elaborate more on the above ideas but the purpose of this blog was just to give some perspective of the history.
Anyways that's it for now folks here are some cool things that I've come across today, this is my new stars avatar, thoughts? http://i.imgur.com/aEyTD.jpg
a bug in William Hill cashier (they didn't accept my deposit because the currency I reqtested is in different than my bank acc currency. That didn't stop the cashier to take $1500 from my account 4 times that I tried even though I don't even have $6k in my bank acc and send all my money into limbo for at least a week until it bounces back. I mean ALL my money, I can't even pay for food and have to beg money off my gf...
I am helping my GF with her Marketing Postgraduate Thesis.
And while thinking about it I found a genius marketing ploy of Cher Lloyd (UK X Factor best contestant last year), who was a polarizing figure where a lot of people hated her.
Basically her first video was this thing
I was just asking myself why release this narcissistic bullshit with kiddie anthem first when she has songs like this, that are actually good:
Bitch is delusional
And then it hit me! The managers actually released this bullshit to get publicity and restart the polarized talk and attention from news, it got tens of thousands dislikes on youtube and 7mil views, and Lloyd was talked about on trash internet magazines as never before.
The song made #1 in the UK anyway today and it will be a commercial success, a cheap powerful marketing tool to summon haters and trolls just to stir attention before releasing the album and Superhero (they also 'accidentally' leaked Superhero on the internet a couple days after release of Swagger Jagger) - a song that outclasses that Swagger Jagger bullshit. Genius.
EDIT: Speaking of demonic plots. GIRAH the fucker that will hopefully go to jail is one ruthless mofo. I spent whole day following the thousands of posts on 2p2 in the scam thread as it was a huge let down as he was my role model and I read everything he wrote or said in various videos, forums and pokercasts, I really ate up everything he ever said...
Unlike for Cher Lloyd though, his decision will hopefully not give way for more successful things to come but teach him a lesson he will never forget. http://i51.tinypic.com/ac779v.jpg
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Unemployed sucks. But once i start smashing NL10 will be waiting for my first $1k month in september 
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