So I'm sitting in JFK waiting for my flight to Vegas to board and this chick just passed out and fell down while standing up right in front of me. Apparently she took a crap ton of benadryl (way too much sounds like) and just whacked out. I think shes going to be ok, they've got her sitting up and getting her some water. Weird stuff always seems to happen when I'm in NYC, maybe that's why I'm not a big fan of it.
Another thing, I really really hate boarding planes early. I pretty much always sit until the last minute. The idea of rushing to the front and standing in line to get a seat on a cramped airplane just seems goofy to me. I'd rather sit here and type away on the free wifi.
Baseball is going great. I'm 4-0 with a 2.5 ERA and two saves. I threw a complete game 3-2 win last night, so right now my arm feels like its being repeadtedly punched by someone pretty strong. Yay for arm soreness. But the team is doing great, we are hitting well, and the guys in the field are playing terrific. We're solidly in second place right now after winning 6 straight, and I think we have about half the wins we need ot make the playoffs.
anway I'm off to vegas, so I'll be updating with poker playing and vegas shennanigans.
later
jim
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
WSOP 2008 here I come.
(obligatory and cliched blog intro coming)
VEGAS BABY! VEGAS!
So by being one of the top 54 most raked players on FTP last month I was entered into a freeroll by my affiliate. The prize was 2 $5k packages to the 2008 WSOP. So 27 of the 54 qualified players turned out, and I ended up taking first place and getting a package. I'll find out the full details in a day or so, but needless to say I'm totally stoked right now. I've never been to LV, and getting to go and play in a WSOP event is pretty exciting.
I may try to post up some interesting hands later, but I'm a little too pumped right now to go sort through them all. Also thanks littlebu for the sweat, always nice to have someone pulling for you.
later
jim
VEGAS BABY! VEGAS!
So by being one of the top 54 most raked players on FTP last month I was entered into a freeroll by my affiliate. The prize was 2 $5k packages to the 2008 WSOP. So 27 of the 54 qualified players turned out, and I ended up taking first place and getting a package. I'll find out the full details in a day or so, but needless to say I'm totally stoked right now. I've never been to LV, and getting to go and play in a WSOP event is pretty exciting.
I may try to post up some interesting hands later, but I'm a little too pumped right now to go sort through them all. Also thanks littlebu for the sweat, always nice to have someone pulling for you.
later
jim
Friday, June 6, 2008
the tornadoes consider picking me up....but don't call back :-(
So on wednesday around noon I got a call from the bench coach of the Worcester Tornadoes (team I attended spring training with) who proceeded to ask me how I felt and if I had been throwing. I of course replied yes that I had thrown twice in the last week and was ready to go. He said they were considering picking me up and that he would call me back in a little bit.
So he then called me back about an hour later to tell me that they had to discuss a few things and that they would make a decision later that night and get back to me the next day around 1 PM (after their early 11AM game I'm assuming).
So I of course got very excited. I checked out their website and found that they had recently released a RHP who had been used in relief (which would be my primary role on the team) and I noticed that a few of their relievers had been struggling a little bit. I called my dad and of course he was excited as well. Katy was on call last night so I paged her and gave her a headsup that when she got back on noon on thursday there was a decent chance I might be packing up and heading to worcester to go on a road trip (the tornadoes are getting ready to go on a 6 game canadian road trip).
So I had plans for things I wanted to get done, but to be honest I was a little nervous and excited so I didn't play as much poker or do my laundry. Instead I pretty much just hung around the apartment waiting to hear the verdict.
Of course time started to move slow on thursday morning. Then katy got home around noon and still I'd heard nothing. Around 2pm I was assuming I would hear from the team anytime soon. Around 3pm nothing, and I started to figure that was as good as a no. I was sure as soon as the Tornadoes finished their home game they would be hopping a bust to head to Ottawa. So if they were going to pick anyone up yesterday it would obviously be before they left town.
By 6pm I called my Park League manager and let him know that I would be available to start on Friday since even if they decided to pick me up I wouldn't be playing with the team for at least another week since they were off to Canada.
To be honest I think it was kind of crap that they didn't even call me back on thursday to give me a thumbs up, maybe in a week or so, or a thumbs down. Its not like my life is hanging on the balance (I'm having a great summer so far playing baseball and poker all day) but I still would like to know whats going on.
Anyway I played a couple of sessions of NL and a little LHE yesterday and this morning. In NL I was down about 3 buy-ins, but to be honest I was really happy with my play. Most of my losses were coolers or coin-flips, and I think I only maybe spewed once or twice. Plus I ran some quality bluffs and really had great images on most of my tables.
In LHE I ran awful in HU and lost a ton of bets against a decent player at 8/16 (I know wtf am I doing playing a decent player HU), but in my defense he hit so many flops I didn't know whether he was playing bad or a good player. I'm pretty sure he was actually a decent player, but he definitely ran hot as the sun. The good news was that I made most of it back at 6max 8/16 and 10/20, so it was only a loss of about $200. So overall I've dropped about $1500 in the last couple of days, but for the month I'm still doing great.
I'm running pretty well, I think I'm playing excellently, and I'm enjoying the games. I think June could be a great month and I'm looking forward to getting a good start on the summer.
Also one last thing. I'm pretty sure I'm going to remove the remainder of my roll from AP. The NL games on there suck, and I'm just not playing enough LHE and their benefits (while really good) aren't worth the trouble each month. Plus after the UB cheating crap I just hate the idea that a company that tried to cheat their customers after already being caught once will be getting my rake. I really don't like the idea of only having cash on one site because if FTP has cashout problems I'm in tough shape. But I could probably find someone to do me a transfer from FTP to stars at the end of the summer and try out their games. I figure by that point my FTP bankroll will probably be big enough that I could afford to cut it in half without putting me in bad shape on there.
weather is pretty crappy here so I would say the chances we play tonight are about 50/50. I don't think its going to rain a ton this afternoon, but its been raining off and on for about 48 hours now, and I don't know that the sun is going to come out this afternoon to dry the field out. I wouldn't mind a rain out too much since it would give my finger a chance to fully heal. I'll surely rip it open if I pitch tonight, but I dealt with it the other night so whatever.
Also great job by the Celtics and Pierce especially last night. The 4th quarter was a testament to team defense, and I really want to see the good guy (KG) win it all instead of the guy who up until this season (and I mean right until the beginning of the season) was one of the worst teammates ever (Kobe).
later
jim
So he then called me back about an hour later to tell me that they had to discuss a few things and that they would make a decision later that night and get back to me the next day around 1 PM (after their early 11AM game I'm assuming).
So I of course got very excited. I checked out their website and found that they had recently released a RHP who had been used in relief (which would be my primary role on the team) and I noticed that a few of their relievers had been struggling a little bit. I called my dad and of course he was excited as well. Katy was on call last night so I paged her and gave her a headsup that when she got back on noon on thursday there was a decent chance I might be packing up and heading to worcester to go on a road trip (the tornadoes are getting ready to go on a 6 game canadian road trip).
So I had plans for things I wanted to get done, but to be honest I was a little nervous and excited so I didn't play as much poker or do my laundry. Instead I pretty much just hung around the apartment waiting to hear the verdict.
Of course time started to move slow on thursday morning. Then katy got home around noon and still I'd heard nothing. Around 2pm I was assuming I would hear from the team anytime soon. Around 3pm nothing, and I started to figure that was as good as a no. I was sure as soon as the Tornadoes finished their home game they would be hopping a bust to head to Ottawa. So if they were going to pick anyone up yesterday it would obviously be before they left town.
By 6pm I called my Park League manager and let him know that I would be available to start on Friday since even if they decided to pick me up I wouldn't be playing with the team for at least another week since they were off to Canada.
To be honest I think it was kind of crap that they didn't even call me back on thursday to give me a thumbs up, maybe in a week or so, or a thumbs down. Its not like my life is hanging on the balance (I'm having a great summer so far playing baseball and poker all day) but I still would like to know whats going on.
Anyway I played a couple of sessions of NL and a little LHE yesterday and this morning. In NL I was down about 3 buy-ins, but to be honest I was really happy with my play. Most of my losses were coolers or coin-flips, and I think I only maybe spewed once or twice. Plus I ran some quality bluffs and really had great images on most of my tables.
In LHE I ran awful in HU and lost a ton of bets against a decent player at 8/16 (I know wtf am I doing playing a decent player HU), but in my defense he hit so many flops I didn't know whether he was playing bad or a good player. I'm pretty sure he was actually a decent player, but he definitely ran hot as the sun. The good news was that I made most of it back at 6max 8/16 and 10/20, so it was only a loss of about $200. So overall I've dropped about $1500 in the last couple of days, but for the month I'm still doing great.
I'm running pretty well, I think I'm playing excellently, and I'm enjoying the games. I think June could be a great month and I'm looking forward to getting a good start on the summer.
Also one last thing. I'm pretty sure I'm going to remove the remainder of my roll from AP. The NL games on there suck, and I'm just not playing enough LHE and their benefits (while really good) aren't worth the trouble each month. Plus after the UB cheating crap I just hate the idea that a company that tried to cheat their customers after already being caught once will be getting my rake. I really don't like the idea of only having cash on one site because if FTP has cashout problems I'm in tough shape. But I could probably find someone to do me a transfer from FTP to stars at the end of the summer and try out their games. I figure by that point my FTP bankroll will probably be big enough that I could afford to cut it in half without putting me in bad shape on there.
weather is pretty crappy here so I would say the chances we play tonight are about 50/50. I don't think its going to rain a ton this afternoon, but its been raining off and on for about 48 hours now, and I don't know that the sun is going to come out this afternoon to dry the field out. I wouldn't mind a rain out too much since it would give my finger a chance to fully heal. I'll surely rip it open if I pitch tonight, but I dealt with it the other night so whatever.
Also great job by the Celtics and Pierce especially last night. The 4th quarter was a testament to team defense, and I really want to see the good guy (KG) win it all instead of the guy who up until this season (and I mean right until the beginning of the season) was one of the worst teammates ever (Kobe).
later
jim
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Love it or leave it but you gotta admit, on the scale of one to awesome... I'm the shit.
So ended up having a nice May of poker despite the fact that I felt I never ran well the whole month. I just grinded out 62k hands and banked a just under 5 figure month (prolly over with bonii and rakeback). I also think I found some more leaks in my NL game that I had developed from multitabling, as well as I started to find some more profitable bluffing spots in NL. Overall I think I'm playing much better the last week or so, and I'm running nice and hot which is always a plus.
I've started off this month very well, and booked nice wins the past three days. I'm also finding it nice to play early in the morning since I'm typically well rested and I think the games are soft though in a different way than normal. Usually when you are looking for soft games you think playing at night or in the evening is the way to go since that is when most of the fish are playing. And that is true. But that is also the time when all of the best regular players are playing as well. So you really have to work hard on table selection at those times, because some tables you have little to no edge on. As well as the fact that a table with 3 good regs, one meh player, and a fish isn't really that profitable. The other good regs are going to make your life hell, and you'll be fighting to iso the fish the whole time.
When playing in the mornings you find less big fish, but you find quite a few more very mediocre regs (or simply not very good TAGfish). These players have some very exploitable leaks (not playing enough hands pf, playing poorly postflop, not bluffing often enough, folding to too many c-bets etc) and you can find lots of profitable spots to bluff or run them over. If you are catching a few hands it makes it quite a bit easier. I actually tend to play a little more aggressive (both post and preflop) in the mornings than I do at night. The evening and night games are almost impossible to run over, and you have to limit your bluffing somewhat.
On the baseball front things are going well. I got my first start of the Park League season on friday night. I felt pretty good, and ended up pitching 8 innings (we normally play 7 inning games so we were in extras) and started the 9th before they pulled me when I gave up a leadoff hit. My control was so-so as I was having a lot of trouble adjusting to the mound for the first 3-4 innings (the fields we play on are in pretty lousy condition). I ended up with 11 Ks, but I had 8 BB as well. In my defense at least 2 of the BB were situations where I got behind and decided to not give the guy anything to hit because I had first base open and a guy on second. But that is still way to many walks. I gave up 3 runs, and the book had them all as earned, but I'm pretty sure at least 1 of them was unearned. I pitched well, my stuff was nasty (splitty was dirty) and faught through some fatigue and a really bad blister from my split finger grip. I think I threw about 160 pitches though, which is way way way to many. We had to stop the game in the 9th with a 6-3 lead because the lights went out on the field. So when we resume we will be in the bottom of the 9th with 2 on and 1 out and a 3 run lead. If we pick up a couple of outs then I'll get the win. My line for the game was 8IP, 3R, 11Ks, 8BBs, and I'm in line for the win if we pick up two more outs.
I also picked up a win last night when I came in for two innings of relief. I came in with 2 runners on and no outs in the 5th innings and we had a 6-4 lead. I got the first batter to ground to the shortstop, but he was going to his right (third baseman came off of the bag to try and field the ball) and he didn't have a play at first. The next guy laid down a nice bunt that took a bad hop and got under my hand so that I had no play (probably an error on me). Then I got a ground ball for a double play, and struck out the last batter of the inning. So overall not a bad inning considering that the team hit two balls in the infield that we couldn't make plays on and I had two runners inherited. They scored two runs to tie the game up, but things could have gone much worse. We scored a run to take a 7-6 lead and I mowed through the next inning. Leadoff batter grounded out to me. Then I went strikeout, hit-by-pitch (nasty splitter in a 0-1 count that he leaned into imo), strikeout to end the inning. I told the coach that I probably shouldn't go another inning since I'm planning on starting on friday. My arm was definitely a little fatigued, and the blister on my finger was openly bleeding the whole night (I had put super glue on it before the game but it wore off in warmups).
So my line for the game was 2 IP, 0 R, 3Ks, 0BB, 1H and I picked up the win. If we win that suspended game then I'll have 2 Ws on the year. Right now I'm leading the park league in IP, and Ks. If I get that other W then I'd be leading the league in Ws as well. Looks like the Tornadoes might have made a mistake in not picking me up. My stuff is nasty and last night I spotted my fastball better than I have in I don't know when.
Its pouring the rain here so we are likely going to be rained out for tonight. I wasn't going to be available to pitch anway, but it looks like I won't even be heading to the park. I booked a nice $2k score this morning on the tables, enjoyed some leftover tacos (I make outstanding tacos imo) and watched last nights episode of deadliest catch (huge fan of that show). Now I'm feeling a little sleepy so I think I'm going to go take a nap. Rumor has it that I might be drinking beers with a buddy and teammate this afternoon who has the day off work. Wouldn't mind having a night away from the tables.
later
jim
I've started off this month very well, and booked nice wins the past three days. I'm also finding it nice to play early in the morning since I'm typically well rested and I think the games are soft though in a different way than normal. Usually when you are looking for soft games you think playing at night or in the evening is the way to go since that is when most of the fish are playing. And that is true. But that is also the time when all of the best regular players are playing as well. So you really have to work hard on table selection at those times, because some tables you have little to no edge on. As well as the fact that a table with 3 good regs, one meh player, and a fish isn't really that profitable. The other good regs are going to make your life hell, and you'll be fighting to iso the fish the whole time.
When playing in the mornings you find less big fish, but you find quite a few more very mediocre regs (or simply not very good TAGfish). These players have some very exploitable leaks (not playing enough hands pf, playing poorly postflop, not bluffing often enough, folding to too many c-bets etc) and you can find lots of profitable spots to bluff or run them over. If you are catching a few hands it makes it quite a bit easier. I actually tend to play a little more aggressive (both post and preflop) in the mornings than I do at night. The evening and night games are almost impossible to run over, and you have to limit your bluffing somewhat.
On the baseball front things are going well. I got my first start of the Park League season on friday night. I felt pretty good, and ended up pitching 8 innings (we normally play 7 inning games so we were in extras) and started the 9th before they pulled me when I gave up a leadoff hit. My control was so-so as I was having a lot of trouble adjusting to the mound for the first 3-4 innings (the fields we play on are in pretty lousy condition). I ended up with 11 Ks, but I had 8 BB as well. In my defense at least 2 of the BB were situations where I got behind and decided to not give the guy anything to hit because I had first base open and a guy on second. But that is still way to many walks. I gave up 3 runs, and the book had them all as earned, but I'm pretty sure at least 1 of them was unearned. I pitched well, my stuff was nasty (splitty was dirty) and faught through some fatigue and a really bad blister from my split finger grip. I think I threw about 160 pitches though, which is way way way to many. We had to stop the game in the 9th with a 6-3 lead because the lights went out on the field. So when we resume we will be in the bottom of the 9th with 2 on and 1 out and a 3 run lead. If we pick up a couple of outs then I'll get the win. My line for the game was 8IP, 3R, 11Ks, 8BBs, and I'm in line for the win if we pick up two more outs.
I also picked up a win last night when I came in for two innings of relief. I came in with 2 runners on and no outs in the 5th innings and we had a 6-4 lead. I got the first batter to ground to the shortstop, but he was going to his right (third baseman came off of the bag to try and field the ball) and he didn't have a play at first. The next guy laid down a nice bunt that took a bad hop and got under my hand so that I had no play (probably an error on me). Then I got a ground ball for a double play, and struck out the last batter of the inning. So overall not a bad inning considering that the team hit two balls in the infield that we couldn't make plays on and I had two runners inherited. They scored two runs to tie the game up, but things could have gone much worse. We scored a run to take a 7-6 lead and I mowed through the next inning. Leadoff batter grounded out to me. Then I went strikeout, hit-by-pitch (nasty splitter in a 0-1 count that he leaned into imo), strikeout to end the inning. I told the coach that I probably shouldn't go another inning since I'm planning on starting on friday. My arm was definitely a little fatigued, and the blister on my finger was openly bleeding the whole night (I had put super glue on it before the game but it wore off in warmups).
So my line for the game was 2 IP, 0 R, 3Ks, 0BB, 1H and I picked up the win. If we win that suspended game then I'll have 2 Ws on the year. Right now I'm leading the park league in IP, and Ks. If I get that other W then I'd be leading the league in Ws as well. Looks like the Tornadoes might have made a mistake in not picking me up. My stuff is nasty and last night I spotted my fastball better than I have in I don't know when.
Its pouring the rain here so we are likely going to be rained out for tonight. I wasn't going to be available to pitch anway, but it looks like I won't even be heading to the park. I booked a nice $2k score this morning on the tables, enjoyed some leftover tacos (I make outstanding tacos imo) and watched last nights episode of deadliest catch (huge fan of that show). Now I'm feeling a little sleepy so I think I'm going to go take a nap. Rumor has it that I might be drinking beers with a buddy and teammate this afternoon who has the day off work. Wouldn't mind having a night away from the tables.
later
jim
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