I didn't really want to bump the milkman thread as i'm sure he'll make a post later but heres two pics of the $700 charity money that LP raised & sent to Kaaliti to build the well.
As you all know, I moved to Blackpool a few months ago. I immediately started a job in telesales but quit after the first week because I had more than a bad feeling about it (see previous blog).
A few weeks later I magically got accepted as a receptionist for a semi-posh hotel that was within walking distance and required me to dress smart! My friend had a hotel-reception job and according to him it sounded utterly easy - he would spend up to 4 hours per shift on the company phone to me just chatting random shit and singing Final Fantasy songs.
Not the case with MY reception job! Starting at 7.30am, I would race through countless non-stop tasks for 4-5+ hours before finally getting 5-20 minutes of "cool-off" period. The procedures weren't too tricky but they were innumerous and there were SO MANY opportunities for "problems". In 60 minutes I might put 5 IOIs on my manager's desk for him to sort out, since we weren't trained or authorised to do many things ourselves. Having said that, if I thought *I* was busy having to stay behind for up to an hour for many shifts, the amount of stress my two managers had to deal with was overwhelming.
We had 2 managers, 2 receptionists other than myself, and a "boss" who worked from another county and I saw maybe 3 times in my ~7 weeks. This boss was a northern woman named Tracey. For those of you who don't know what "a northern woman named Tracey" usually entails: think "STUCK-UP, BULLYING, IMPATIENT, NASTY BITCH".
I did actually think she approved of me, until she came in the other morning and said "Jonathan, we're letting you go. I want you to get your things and leave right now."
I wasn't TOO surprised; I'd heard of 5 members of staff either thinking about quitting or potentially being fired through rumour. Tracey told me, "it's not just you - i'm getting rid of a lot of staff". Great.
So here's what she had to say:
"One of the night porters has refused to ever work when you're on duty".
I cannot stress enough how much this baffles me.
"You never answer phone calls during the evening shift".
My managers have stressed that our policy is to ALWAYS answer the phone, no matter what circumstances we are experiencing. I always answer the phone, unless I am pouring a drink in the bar or am upstairs bringing someone an iron etc.
"You've only been here 3 weeks so it's still your probationary period."
I'd been there...7? 8? weeks....idk.
"I never receive the daily reports when you're on duty."
This pissed me off. I have my own printed checklist and have never EVER missed out ANY of the 4-6 daily reports we are supposed to send. I can only imagine that she confused me with the other receptionist (who recently had a stress-induced rampage and told someone they can stick the job up their ass - presumeably she has now also been fired ).
"You keep making double-bookings and are costing the company money."
Okay. I've spent FUCKING HOURS allocating rooms, editing details, filing paperwork, and trying to problem-solve over-booked periods. It is downright SICK to say this to me. I might be wrong, because the procedures/computer system are retardedly complex at times. But as far as I know, the computer doesn't allow you to actually MAKE double-bookings - you can only resolve them.
"You never should have been hired in the first place. You aren't the person I would have hired if I was conducting the interview."
Oh fucking CHARMING. If I knew what sort of boss YOU were, I would never have FUCKING APPLIED.
I came home that day and my landlord told me I had to move out within a week. He was awesome enough to find me alternative accomodation, and I moved in today. It's great, but I have no internet. Here's the funny thing, though:
My previous landlord charged me 60/week to rent a small room and he provided many memorable evening meals. This gave me 60/week spending money left over from my part-time reception job (21 hours at 5.88 - yeah, don't get me started on how England sucks for salaries. My last proper job was 5.95/hour...after an annual raise of 5 motherfucking pence. And THAT one was no walk in the park - more like choking down a log of turd every day).
However: My NEW landlord wants me to apply for housing benefit (alongside "job seekers allowance"). Basically, the government will pay my new landlord all my rental costs, and also pay me 60/week. SO I'M ACTuALLY BETTER OFF NOT WORKING IN A PART-TIME JOB.
I'M FINANCIALLY BETTER OFF SITTING AT HOME ALL DAY THAN WORKING 3-4 SHITTY RETARDED STRESSFUL FUCKING SHIFTS A WEEK.
Interesting fact: In the last 3-4 years I have lived in a total of ELEVEN different places. Skater's gotta make those additional pylons.
In 90-man deep stack sngs on FTP, i am now running at least 140 "buy ins" (is that the correct terminology for sngs?) below EV over the last 60 days. Maybe as high as 300 buy ins. Might post graphs later if this keeps up. Seriously starting to lose my fucking mind. When bb > 1000 I am running 2,000,000 chips below EV. There are 270k total chips in play. Fuck you.
End Rant. GL at the tables.
I got in three more sessions yesterday afternoon which brought my Stars BR to $2100. Hunger began to gnaw, and to reward myself for my progress I went out to Afloat Sushi, awesome restaurant in "old town" Pasadena, where I live. It's a sushi bar with boats floating around the bar, and the boats hold premade selections which you can just pick off. Pro tip: Don't go at 5 PM on Friday unless you want to have to ask for everything you want, since it is not busy yet and there are not a lot of options on the boats. I did ask for a sake (salmon) sashimi and it was ridiculously good.
After dinner I had 141 points left to go to the 20k VPP mark for the year and the free $50, so I hit the $100 PLO tables. Maybe I need to just stick to the basics and nutpeddle. I made ~$100, but would have been up another couple buy-ins if I had adhered to my mantra. I cashed in the $50 reward, and Carol arrived home around 9. She had important business to attend to - defeating the final boss in Final Fantasy 13 - so I played a couple $2/$4 8-game tables sitting next to her on the couch. Surprisingly (to me - I don't play the game), she encountered much less difficulty with Orphan than she had in several previous battles. I scooped a few nice pots and profited another $100, bringing me to +$700 on the day and increasing my BR by > 40% to $2350.
Afterwards she played some .02/.04 limit online, which is funny to me because she could probably beat .50/$1, but she is too nervous to play that "high" yet. I just watch and comment afterwards, so she's not being coached by me during hands, it's her own play. She flopped a full house in a multiway pot on one of the final hands, but she bet the flop and everyone folded. No big pots yet.
Dowswing and realizationsby zulu_nation8, August 21
I hit my first real downswing since starting poker, dropped 17 buyins over two days. All the descriptions people generally use fit perfectly. Godmode fishes, running into the top of people's ranges, losing every flip, etc. The more I play the more I lose. Yesterday after losing another stack AA vs set I finally realized no matter what I do, these spots will come up eventually. Variance can't be avoided. If it can't be avoided, I can only take care of the stuff I can control, such as playing my A game, working out, and maintaining a healthy mindset.
I used to have a habit of quitting when I'm up, but playing long sessions when I'm stuck to get even. I've now realized those tricks to fool myself into feeling good at the end of the day are extremely shortsighted and completely pointless. What I need to practice is to become numb towards short-term results and just grind. The only numbers I should worry about each session are how many hands I've put in. Hopefully I can maintain this mindset even after the downswing so that it isn't just a petty defensive mechanism during bad stretches.
Another way to deal with what happened is to blame the run bad on my clearing another bonus. I think the worst I've ever ran have always been when clearing bonuses on stars. So if I somehow avoid doing that I can win and still be results oriented.
Have you ever noticed that even though your EV might eventually even out, you might still be down a lot of dough?
Let's assume you go all-in pre-flop with AA vs QQ ten times against a reg with 100BB and you lose. Afterwards you go all-in with QQ vs AA ten times agiant a shortstack holding 10BB and you win.
Statistically everything is perfect, yet you're down 900BB.
Thankfully, it can go the opposite way.
Was motivated to start posting on blog again, was alot of fun and felt insanely motivated everytime i made a post. Will continue to do it again this year.
went to the WSOP to play in the cash games @ rio, ran like poo poo and ended up stoning 5k, but made it all back in a 18 hour monster session the night before i had to go~
Right now? Im regrinding my online BR @ NL50.
Started at 1k at the beginning of august, currently at 1800.
I play poker but am a complete computer noob. So I was playing today on my pc on fulltilt when all of a sudden like 6 windows poped up with fake virus alerts and I couldnt get rid of them. Then everything like Google chrome, internet explorer, itunes and even Fulltilt shut down and i couldnt get it back working. After 5 minutes my computer shut down.I couldnt get it up in normal mode. I moved all my FTP money to a friends account obv outa fear from a keylogger or something. So now I started my pc in safe mode. It's my fault but couple of months ago my virusscan expired and i didnt get a new one. So this shit seems pretty serious is and my question to you LP is, what should I do, download etc...to get rid of it.
First player qualifies to Panamerican WCG (Tourney for latin america + usa/canada WCG winners). If I win for some reason, I'll try to pay trip myself to LA.
After quitting BW for a while i've been around a Month preparing for this, and I only care to do my best, cause i'll prolly hang the mouse after this and play poker only.
Tomorrow is group stage (32 registered players) and finals will be held on Sunday.
I am in no way favorite but I have somewhat of a shot If I get lucky with matchups/maps.
I've practiced my builds on each map and I feel rdy for this. I've got 3rd-4th at WCG a couple of times before (back in 2004 or smth) and I hope the mental endurance provided by poker + experience at live games gives me an edge over other nervous nerds i'll be facing.
Will be updating each day with games description and results.
Btw I play protoss and i'm a fanboy of BeSt =D.
Given nicknames are huge on live games, post suggestion on something to wear next to my tag for games =D
(osR-GoTuNk ________________________)
So as I was shifting in bed this morning, trying to get the most comfortable arrangement of pillow and laptop (stfu pervs, I was just reading something), I managed to jam the corner of my laptop into my eye with considerable force. I was fine for a while but now my left eyelid keeps fluttering and my vision on that side is fuzzy. I'm sure I'll be fine, I just feel like it's my body's way of reminding me that "Hey Michael, you're stupid!"
Lying in bed around midnight last night, I realized I hadn't been outside of my apartment building in over four days, so just to feel quasi human I went out for a drive. I did nothing more elaborate than visit the ATM and get some drive-thru Carl's Jr., but it was probably good for my sanity.
Before my eye started acting up I did manage to get in a couple sessions of $15+1 today. My first was 24 tables and minus $40. My second was 18 tables (I usually keep it at 18 while playing the 3+R) and plus $300, making the BR now at $1904. Very encouraging, as I've mostly coasted at even for about a week. I don't really ever have downswings at SNG's, but sometimes I do have protracted periods of breaking even, and it feels really good when those periods end. Now I just need to get in a few more solid sessions to make this feel legitimate. Hoping to make another ~$1k before I cash out a little for the month; about half will go to bills and the other half will be for small stakes tourney buy-ins at the Bike, and possibly joining a training site or two (recommendations are welcome and encouraged). Then, in September, I intend to start focusing on $25+2.
On playing: I have seen some very bad advice on SNG's in poker books, by Moshman and Harrington off the top of my head. I think I have seen the Moshman idea parroted elsewhere: It's a complete misapplication of the idea of effective stacks. It goes that if you're shoving against a smaller stack, your shoving range should be what it is if you had the same size stack as your opponent does.
This is appallingly stupid. But I see regs who are obviously employing it with regularity. It is a huge leak, so it's somewhat encouraging to see many of the best players at this level employing it.
Why is it a leak? If your M=7, then you do not have an M=3 level of desperation. How desperate you are to avoid passively blinding out is a huge factor in determing shortstack shoving ranges. This should make it crystal clear that Moshman's advice is atrocious: If you are not desperate, but you are shoving with Q2, you might as well be setting your chips on fire. But wait, it gets worse. Your shortstacked opponent actually IS quite desperate, and will often call you with quite a wider range than you expect him to. You should not assume that he is playing optimally according to your standards (and it is probable, if you buy into a lot of the ideas in the poker literature about SNG's, such as ICM, that your ideas about optimal play are incorrect, but that's a topic for another time).
One idea you often see written about is correct: confrontations are frequently mutually destructive. Both players in a showdown sometimes have -EV, and the beneficiaries are the players not in the hand. I had to think about this to address my sitting and fuming about how this error by some regs often hurts me when I am the player in the BB being shoved on, which made me realize that I am the beneficiary somewhat when I am the short stack making the call, but to a greater extent, while less visibly so, when they make an incorrect shove against someone else who calls.
Withdrew 780$ dollar from my FTP account, which according to FTP is 612€. I needed 600€, but what i got on my moneybookers account was 592.48€. Are they really charging 20€ just to xfer it from FTP to MB?
Hey guys, I think I'll be going to APPT Sydney but unlike my other tournament stops in the past I'm looking to spend some more time there. Normally I'd just get a hotel or something but that might cost a bit if I stay longer than the tournament. The tourney is from the 5th to the 12th of December, and I'm looking to spend an extra week or so at least after that. So I know this is a long shot, but if there are any LPers from Sydney that live alone/is in a generally good living arrangement to allow for me to sleep over that would be fantastic.
I'm a stars reg at 2/4 and 3/6 and we could definitely talk poker and stuff. Likely I won't be at the place 24/7 since I'd like to go out and do stuff and meet people, but having a place to come back to would be great . In case it matters, I'm 22 years old, asian, and am generally clean and chill and stuff, can drink etc.
Besides that, if there are any LPers that are just going to APPT Sydney let me know!
edit: The casino is Star City in Pyrmont fwiw, so if anything I'd prefer someone close to that and not like 1-2 hours away
Alright guys, it's time for an upgrade on the monitor. I am trying to figure out what the best 30 inch monitors to buy are.
From a quick glance, I've noticed both the Dell Ultrasharp 3007 and 3008 models have good reviews. What are some other monitors that I can look at, and how do these monitors compare? I'm mostly trying to get the maximum resolution in a 30 inch monitor, as well as a clear picture. Also, please be sure to include where I can find some for cheaper if you know. I know some of you guys out there know all the sweet deals =)
Thanks for the help guys!
and i can not stop thinking about it... i was driving up a hill and it just come outta nowhere when i got to the top, and i couldn't do anything about it. after i did i pulled over to recollect myself because i was like omg omg omg, turn around, and saw it lying there dead. and now i can't stop thinking about like what if it was someone's kid or something. ugh i am a horrible person.
A long time ago I saw joeingram1 doing 24tables all cascaded on top of eachother. Who uses this setup reguarly and what programs do you use to assist you? I want to try it out but am afraid of epic misclicks.