Archive for "Poker"
How Lucky Am I
Posted on May 26, 2007 by Ching under Life, Poker.
I have the craziest luck in the world. Last December Mo loaned me his Accounting book so I could use it for my Accounting class in the spring. Well, at the end of the semester, I completely forgot that it wasn’t my book either. I ended up taking the Mo’s book along with my other textbooks to buy back. I completely spaced out the fact that it wasn’t my book.
It wasn’t until almost a week later when it dawned on me that I needed to return the book, which I no longer had. I thought about my folly and pondered telling Mo what I’d done. That was option one. Option two involved buying the exact same book and just not telling Mo. I figured that he probably wouldn’t be able to tell that it wasn’t the book he loaned to me.
However, the risk of option two is the cost. Even a used copy of the textbook costs over a hundred bucks. In the meantime, while I was mulling over my options, Mo beat me to the punch. He asked me if I was finished with the book.
I finally had to come clean. I told him what happened and offered to give him the $50 that I got for the book during buy back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t his book. He completely spaced out that it wasn’t his when he loaned it to me. So now he had to return it to Dina, its rightful owner. I begged Mo to find out if Dina would be willing to accept the $50 in place of her book. He told me he would try to get her to accept my offer and get back with me the next day.
In the meantime, I scrambled for a back up plan. I had a feeling she probably would want her book back because Mo said she keeps all of her books. I searched everywhere and finally found the book on Amazon. Much to my amazement, I found someone willing to sell the exact same book — hard cover, US, 6th edition (not the soft cover, international version) — for less than $10. When Mo told me the next day that she really wanted her book back, I asked for her phone number so I could personally apologize for my flakiness and explain to her what happened.
So I contacted Dina and told her what I had done. I also explained to her that I was in the process of getting the exact same book to replace the one that I had lost (read: accidentally sold at buy back). I told her it might be two weeks because of media mail. The book actually arrived in the mail on Wednesday, less than week from when I ordered it, so that was really nice. How lucky is that? Not only did I find the book for less, it even arrived sooner than expected. When you think about it, I actually came out ahead. I got $50 for it at buy back and was able to buy the book for $10. So I unintentionally turned a $40 profit with $0 investment.
I shared my crazy story to April and Corey at poker on Wednesday. April commented that I should just buy a bunch of books on the cheap and sell them all at buy back. Instictively, I agreed. It seemed like a good idea. However, upon further inspection, it really won’t work. Or at least there is more risk involved than I would care to take on.
For one, even if I could buy several books and sell them at buy back, it would seem really suspicious if I tried to sell back several copies of the exact same book or dozens of books that I wasn’t even enrolled in or have never taken. Secondly, new editions are released every time. Who hasn’t gotten screwed at buy back because the new edition came out and now your book is obsolete? If you end up buying several books in anticipation for buy back and then the new edition renders the books worthless. You lose money. Lastly, it always seems that when I plan or intentionally do something it doesn’t work out. My best laid plans are always foiled. So I’m better off just lucking out once in a while.
I wish I could have had some luck at poker that night, though. I got knocked out pretty early. Brian did really well, though. He ended up taking first and winning a free seat to the BCPT. He’s been doing pretty well at poker lately. All we have to work on now is his sportsmanship. =P
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The Best Day Ever
Posted on May 12, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Poker, School.
Friday, May 11, proved to be the best day ever! Craft posted the grades for our Friendly Cards case study as well as our final exam scores. We got another great score on our last case and I got a 98% on the final so that gave me an A for the class. Last semester I took four classes and ended up with three A’s and a B (in DS also known as Operations Management). The work load was just too much for me to handle.
This semester I took Brian’s advice and dropped to three classes. He was so right. Three classes is just enough course load so that I can meet my target graduation date and maintain good grades. Taking four graduate level courses in one semester was a crazy idea.
My Finance grade was the last one I was waiting for — all A’s this sem! Go me! And, for the first time in a really long time, I don’t have finals during Riverfest week; which means Brian and I can actually participate in some of the week’s festivities. So far I have talked him into attending the swing dance/concert with me and also going to the Botanica on Friday afternoon. 🙂
Besides the good news I received about my grades, I also did great at poker last night. Last night was the first Friday night Blue Collar Poker Tour event at APL. I was short-stacked the whole way but luck was on my side (must be the good mojo from the great news I received earlier in the day) because I managed to finish 2nd.
The tourney started at seven in the evening and we didn’t finish until well after midnight. That was a long time to play poker. I think I might’ve had a shot to win the big one but my opponent had my stack covered 3-to-1 so I couldn’t make a move. When it was time for heads up play, I couldn’t catch cards to save my life. The one time that I had him out-kicked our kickers didn’t play so we had to split the pot. I was totally worn out and finally just gave up. Went all in on a stupid hand just so the agony would be over, and Brian and I could finally go home and go to bed. That’s the main weakness I have when it comes to final table and heads up play — I don’t have endurance. I get bored. I get impatient. I do crazy things. And I get knocked out.
Taking home $100 for 2nd place wasn’t bad, though. Brian and I invested $20 to play ($10 each for chair rentals) and so that’s pretty good ROI when you think about it.
P.S. The Dill’s are in town for the week. We found out yesterday at poker because they were there. We wouldn’t have known otherwise because Dill changed his phone number. =P
We went to Becca’s graduation this morning. I’m really glad that we found out about it (although not until last night) and could be there to show our support. You can view the photos we took here.
Anyway, Friday was the best day I’ve had in a long time!
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Recent Poker Development
Posted on March 4, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Poker.
Who are you? And what have you done with my husband?
Over the last few weeks, Brian has blossomed into a poker an amazing poker player. It seemed like it was not too long ago when he was whining about all the crappy ATC (any two cards) players, getting sucked out on either on the turn or river, always getting knocked out early or before me, and not being taken seriously. He’d constantly get crap about having to wait for me to get knocked out and he used to always be teased whenever he would outlast me as if it were an amazing feat. Honestly, one one point—because of the way that he played—it was.
“I just want people to take me seriously,” he’d complain to me on many a drive home. Most of the time I would lecture: quit the ATC thing (he would complain about people getting lucky against him but he was one who was prone to playing iffy hands himself; his attitude was it’s okay if I get lucky but I’m going to be really upset if you get lucky against me), only play premium hands, raise or fold (believe it or not, the way to last in a tournament setting is by not getting involved in too many hands), and have a positive attitude. “If you want people to take you seriously, you have to play well. And quit the unsportsman-like behavior,” I’d often preach.
He would get so upset sometimes and all he’d talk about were his bad beats by these crazy poker players. He’d whine about how much he hated playing at APL because of all the donkeys. He’d steam all the way home. I hated these conversations because they weren’t productive. Instead of discussing our respective games, he’d just be whining, whining, whining. There was nothing to learn in whining.
I think the turning point came when I finally got fed up. I said, “Stop it.” The incessant whining finally got to me. I have bad beats, too. Everyone does. I don’t whine about them all the way home, though. I think about how I played. I think about whether I played my cards right and they just got lucky, or whether I could have done something—anything—differently in order to prevent getting beat. Could I have pushed the other player out earlier—either pre-flop or after the flop—by a more substantial bet? How could I have minimized my losses or gotten away from certain hands. These are the things I like to think about going home. I can only tolerate so much whining. (more…)
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I Cant Sleep!
Posted on February 9, 2007 by Brian under Family, Life, Poker.
Well here it is at 7:30 in the morning and I cant sleep. Usually when my wife goes off to work i have no problem getting back to sleep and having happy happy dreams of us together, but today i cant get back to sleep. I went to bed around 1:00 in the morning (playing WOW to wind down from a long day at work) and woke up to my wife getting upset because the alarm didn’t go off and the dog was barking for some reason. It was important that she get up early because she had a training class that she is teaching and she had to be there early because it starts at like 7:30. This isn’t the first time our alarm has let us down, it has conveniently not gone off several times in the past (usually i get blamed for it). Thank god the dog barked! We don’t know what she was barking at, maybe the cats were fighting outside the door, maybe the dog had a bad dream or maybe Molly is just smart enough to know that Ching had to be up early and the alarm didn’t go off so she was looking out for her. Either way, thank god for the dog.
I’m excited about tonight, actually i am excited about this weekend. Tonight we have poker! Last week i went to the 10:00pm game, something that we normally don’t do because lately neither of us have made it far enough to be in the invite for the final session. Last week though Ching made it to the final 16 and earned a seat so we stayed for the final session. I showed up late because i am still working second shift (thank god only more week of that crap) and got short chipped and sat at a table. It was going well, i was playing smart and the cards were falling pretty good. Ching got knocked out and thought that i would be right behind her shortly. She went and got her home work and did that for a while and when she noticed that i was not going to go out right away she decided that she was going to leave. I told her that i probably wasn’t far behind (i only had a few chips left) and she told me to keep trying and she would see me when i came home. Several min later i was sure i was going to leave when I went all in with a medium hand, but I survived. I did it again and again till i had built up a substantial Chip stack. I text messaged Ching and told her that i was down to 4 people, several min later i told her it was 3. About 15 min later i told her i was heads up. The guy i was heads up with was someone i had only played a few times. We did the whole all in and fold thing a couple of hands. Then i just wanted to go home and he decided to go all in pre-flop with a King 4 off-suite. I had 6 7 suited. I was like “Sure, why not” call his all in and laid my cards down. He went on the usual poker person rant about how dominated i was and everything. He rolls out the cards and it was 5 4 queen. I had 4 to the straight. He said nothing and dealt the turn, it was trash. the final card was a three, i could see the disappointment on his face before i ever saw what the card was and knew i had won. He went on about how i sucked out and how i shouldn’t have won that blah, blah, blah! What it really comes down to is odds! I had more outs than he did heads up. I could have hit a 6, 7 or any number of spades for the winning hand, not to mention the straight. He had the king and the 4 and that was it. I was ecstatic to win, i immediately called the wife and started yelling “I WON, I WON”. the 2nd place finisher was still standing next to me but i didn’t care. I had won my first APL evening in several years. I tried to repeat that performance at the Blue Collar game on Sunday, but the poker gods weren’t having it. Hopefully with any luck i will place again tonight, if not i at least have the satisfaction of knowing that i won one finally, even if it is the only one i win for the next three years.
Tomorrow is going to be great. First Ching and i have a date at a local massage place for a couples session. I look forward to the relaxation and at the same time I am leary because its a new place and i am unsure of the quality. We are taking a break from Healing waters after they pissed me off so much at Christmas. I really hope this place is good cause its much cheaper and its right next to our house. Later in the evening we are meeting my parents for dinner at a place called Strouds to celebrate my promotion to CSA at work. Ching and I haven’t been there since our wedding reception, almost 5 years ago. All in all it should be a fun and hopefully very relaxing day.
Well i am running out of ideas to blog about so i am going to either play some WOW or try to go back to sleep (I still have to work later), i haven’t decided which. I was hoping that blogging would work like reading and make me sleepy, it works for my wife so i figured it should work for me.
So far I’m still wide awake and wishing my wife was here with me to cuddle with.
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WOW, This Game is Addictive
Posted on January 29, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Games, Poker.
Pun intended. He he.
I have been playing a lot of WOW
I’m still digging poker but I haven’t been doing as well. Although, not always placing as high doesn’t mean that your game is sliding. To be honest, I think I’m playing way better than I have ever played in the past. I’m learning to read my opponents better… Before I used to just play according to the cards I’m holding. Now I find myself taking advantage of my position, the situation, my opponents weak plays etc.
Playing really good poker isn’t always enough, though. Sometimes it takes luck. Case in point, my final hand at APL last friday. I called the blind with pocket 8s in the dealer position. One of the blinds (I can’t remember if he was small or big) raised. It wasn’t a big raise. It was a medium-sized raise. Calling the raise with only pocket 8s may have been somewhat of a loose call, but I figured I had position. So I thought that if I missed, I could bail. The raise wasn’t that big so—no harm, no foul. But if I hit, cha-ching! Right?
Anyway, the flop came 2, 4, 10 rainbow. My oponent raised to $1500 but I could tell from his mannerism that he was simply trying to buy the pot. I put him on two high cards, maybe ace-king, ace-queen, or ace-jack even. I could tell he missed but he was putting me to the test. So even though the plan was to bail if I missed, I felt that my 8s were good in this situation. I only had $2400 left so I re-raised him by going all-in.
He thought about it for a long time until he decided to call. Even though I had him, I think calling was the right decision because it was only $900 more to him. He had the opportunity to knock out a player and he had two overs—he was holding ace-jack.
Naturally, I turn an ace which resulted in my demise. So much for my impeccable read. The problem with this hand is that I didn’t have enough chips to push him out. I think if I had enough chips to threaten his tournament life then I think it might have made for a tougher decision to call. Then again, with such loose players at APL who’s to say he would not have called regardless.
At any rate, it helps to get lucky sometimes. No worries, though. I know that my game is improving. I’ll get him next time.
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