foxwoodsfiend.com

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/1-in-10000000.html
My browser won’t load the link from the bottom so I’m still waiting to hear the “it’s rational to vote even if you don’t make a difference” argument.

I’m also thinking of putting together a minute-long advertisement T. Boone Pickens-style explaining why one shouldn’t vote.  Maybe take out the ad on Fox News in a swing state to do some good with my argument?  I’ve bee reassured by my sources at Google that this is actually quite doable.

Sorry for the lack of blog updates folks, but when I live in New York my life tends to be more routine and unexciting than when I’m traveling. With that said, I haven’t been in NYC the last two weekends so I guess I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to.

Last weekend I went to Cambridge to visit my brother at Harvard Law. It was funny meeting all of his friends because a lot of them apparently read my blog (shout out to HLS!) and see what my life is like and can’t understand why I would give it up to go to law school. Quite a few of his friends told me they think it’s crazy that I want to go to law school. Then I’d tell them I was thinking of going to UVA Law and each of them would pause and say, “Oh, that actually might not be a bad idea” or something like that. From everything I can gather everybody who goes to UVA Law loves it. It’s very highly regarded and it’s got a great social atmosphere that’s supposedly way more relaxed than most top law schools. When you add in that I might get in-state tuition (even to us ballers a couple hundred k is a lot to spend on law school) and that I’d be close to my parents and brother (who’s probably going to be in DC by my 2nd year), right now I’m thinking UVA Law is the place to go.

On the Friday I was visiting Brother I woke up at 8:30 to go sit in on one of Brother’s 9:00 a.m. classes. Even though I wake up early every day, waking up and going to class left me absolutely drained. Granted I didn’t know any of the material so it was hard to focus (although I did find it interesting and the professor was very interesting), but I also think that after a couple years of doing whatever I want whenever I want there’s going to be a hell of an adjustment when I go to law school. Anyway, after the class I went to see Sandra Day O’Connor give a talk about affirmative action. I was so tired I made it about five minutes before I fell asleep in the back row.

I woke up just in time for Q&A. Sandra Day was answering some questions while standing in front of two African-American professors who were hosting the talk. Brown vs Board of Education came up and O’Connor said, “If you think about where we were just 54 years ago with Brown v Board and where we are now, the difference is astonishing! I mean, here in 2008 the country is on the verge of electing its first ever black…”

She then turned to the two black professors and clarified, “or at least halfblack president in its history!” GAFFE!

There was a slight murmur as an entire audience of law students looked around to see if everybody heard right. It was pretty hysterical because everybody had this look of “Is that cool or not?” on their faces. It was one of those “this seems like it’s not cool but it’s not quite clear why not” moments where political sensitivities get tested on the periphery and it was interesting to see that play out across a large audience of already extremely proper and P.C. people (i.e. Harvard Law students).

Brother had to go do law review work so I was left alone to keep busy during the rest of the day. I went to the HLS library and loaded up some empties and the next thing you know I was 4-tabling 25/50 and 50/100 (with sounds off ldo). I made about 25k which was good because I then took a piece of a friend at 200/400 and he lost me 18k.

Anyway, Saturday Brother and I drove out to New Hampshire with one of Brother’s friends and we went hiking real early in the morning. It was a great time and made me want to do more outdoorsy stuff but it’s starting to get cold and I live in NYC so I guess that’s not happening any time soon. After hiking we went to some small town in Vermont that has a famously awesome BBQ restaurant. Then Brother and I went to go see the BC/VT game which was a trainwreck. Long story short: Virginia Tech sucks this year, we lost all our starters, we’re pathetic on offense, and it’s painful to watch us play.

This past weekend I went to New Haven to judge at the Yale debate tournament. I know that sounds lame but I haven’t done anything like it since graduating and I hadn’t seen a lot of my friends from debate in a while so it was a good way for a bunch of us to meet up considering we don’t all live in the same area anymore. It was uneventful: a lot of judging boring debate rounds and getting really drunk at night.

The only thing of note is that I got my LSAT score back and, as predicted, I absolutely rocked it. I got a 178 (out of 180 for the noobs out there) which was amazing because a) I didn’t get a worse score than Brother, b) it significantly increases my chances of getting into Harvard, Yale, or Stanford (my grades were not particularly good in college), and c) because I was at a debate tournament which is one of the only social environments in which getting a 99 percentile LSAT score gives you instant-AMOG status.

So now I’m back in New York. I went to the Banksy Store (basically a pet-store themed art exhibit) this afternoon with Dan of delinodeshields.com fame and his girlfriend. We went to go see Synecdoche, New York. I thought the movie was enjoyable and great at times but it was simply way too convoluted and I think that Charlie Kaufman just got too cute and tried pulling out so many tricks that he ended up sacrificing the quality of the work.

Now I’m catching up on Dexter Season 3 (which I just found out about, somehow I missed the season premiere) and I’ve been writing for a while so I’m going to get back to watching tv.

I’m sitting across from a typical-looking stodgy New England couple.  The husband looks like a mix between Joe Biden and John Kerry and is wearing a sweater over his white button-up.  I have my earphones in but my iPod is off.  The couple across from me have not said a word to each other for the last two hours, the wife reading a Danielle Steel novel while the husband stares out the window.  The husband turns to the wife and says,

“I wonder how many Mexicans they have down there.”  The wife simply replies, “Oh, I know.”  They return to their respective reading and staring.

Only on the Amtrak folks!

Every day I open my email in the morning I find out a friend of mine has lost me money.  When I get emails from my poker friends at this point I’m relieved to only lose 10k.  The thought that my friend could have won doesn’t even cross my mind, I’m just bracing for the worst.  Two days ago a friend of mine who was up 10 buy-ins on his opponent when not giving me action gave me action and obviously lost 6 buy-ins, costing me 30k.  Yesterday one of the best no-limit players in the world cost me 10k.

I’m fortunate that, with a couple exceptions, I still can’t lose at poker.  I’ve won about 80k in the last two days at 50/100 and 25/50.  Right now I feel like I’m grinding poker to pay for my expensive “taking pieces” habit.  When I have more time I’m going to do the math and figure out how much I’ve lost and what % of sessions I’ve had a piece of have won any money at all.  My guess as to an over/under on the first would be 350k and on the 2nd would 10%.  It’s been that sick.

In other news, life is going pretty well.  I’m working hard on law school apps, which keeps me busy and is getting me excited to start working on the next phase of my life.  I’ve been waking up early (around 9 a.m.) and going to Starbucks and reading the NYT every day.  Then I’ll put in a couple hours of work on applications, read some more (been working on Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart which is funny although Shteyngart is kind of a poor man’s Philip Roth so I might as well be reading Roth if I’m going to go for Jewish (ghetto?) humor).  I’ve also been doing yoga 3 or 4 times a week and working out a lot so all in all my life’s pretty relaxed and healthy at the moment.  A far cry from my time in Vegas!

I’m going to Boston tomorrow to visit Brother.  The BC/Virginia Tech game is this Saturday and I’m going up early to meet some of his friends.

Oh, and as an aside: fuck the Dodgers. We keep blowing very safe leads by giving up HRs (lately to the Phillies’ worst players), we lose games by 3 in which we give up 3 hits to the opposing team’s pitcher and let him have 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored all with 2 outs.  We just can’t win.  I’d say this has something to do with our team’s lack of dedication, or that they’re just not used to winning, or something stupid like that but obviously it’s just what happens when you play 162 games to narrow the field down to 4 teams with almost identical records and then have them play a supershort playoff series.  Fluky stuff is going to happen.  In the meanwhile I guess I’ll just have to wait another 20 years for the Dodgers to win a playoff series.

Dentist’s assistant: “By the way, you’re registered to vote right?”

Me (in typical dentist’s office situation, tube in mouth and unable to speak): “Mm-hmm”

DA: “Good.  It’s so important.  I try telling people how important it is to go out and vote, it’s really a shame more people your age don’t vote.”
Me (reluctantly): “Uh-huh.”

Such a standard meme: going to the dentist’s office and being unable to speak clearly enough to give a breakdown of the dentist’s fallacious theories on electoral participation.

Other highlights of the day:

The girl at the juice bar at my gym telling me she was applying for a job at the gym’s corporate office because the hours are better and, as she told me very confidently, “you actually have to use your brain there you know?”  I then gave her a twenty-dollar bill for my $5.25 shake.  She went to the front desk to break it, came back, and slowly plugged in “20-5.25″ into her calculator.

On my way out of the gym I literally bumped into a woman coming out of the building next door.  She was walking really quickly and it was definitely her fault.  She was also Sloan from “Entourage.”  She’s just as hot in real life as on t.v. Like “so hard not to stare as I walk down a city block right beside her” hot.

Manny knocking in a run while I was writing this up.  Scoring on Cole Hamels isn’t easy but if we can beat him the Dodgers have a very good chance of winning this series.  Really hard to believe that they’re only 4 wins away from the World Series.

I lost 80k today at 25/50 and 50/100.  The awful luck that has touched all of my friends at Rail Heaven is now infiltrating my play so that not even I can win.  I was stuck 30k a couple times today and clawed back to even which is why the final tally of -80k is such a deflating blow.  I played Phil Hellmuth at 50/100 and he took 46k off me with such skill and no luck:

***** Hand History for Game 5525664214247 *****
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 08:11:03 ET 2008
Table Heraclea (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: PhilHellmuth ( $40067.50 USD )
Seat 2: MikeVickIsGod ( $10284.50 USD )
PhilHellmuth posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
MikeVickIsGod posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MikeVickIsGod [  Qc Qs ]
PhilHellmuth calls [$50.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$300.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth calls [$300.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, Qh, 9c ]
MikeVickIsGod bets [$600.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth raises [$1200.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$2200.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth raises [$3200.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$7084.50 USD]
PhilHellmuth calls [$5484.50 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6h ]
MikeVickIsGod shows [Qc, Qs ]
PhilHellmuth shows [Th, Js ]
PhilHellmuth wins $20568.00 USD from main pot

***** Hand History for Game 5525664214072 *****
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 07:21:49 ET 2008
Table Heraclea (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: PhilHellmuth ( $22827.00 USD )
Seat 2: MikeVickIsGod ( $10149.00 USD )
MikeVickIsGod posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
PhilHellmuth posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MikeVickIsGod [  Ah 9d ]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$250.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth calls [$200.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3h, 4s, 9h ]
PhilHellmuth checks
MikeVickIsGod bets [$450.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth raises [$1950.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod calls [$1500.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ad ]
PhilHellmuth bets [$20577.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod calls [$7899.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth wins $12678.00 USD
** Dealing River ** [ Th ]
PhilHellmuth shows [Qh, 4h ]
MikeVickIsGod shows [Ah, 9d ]
PhilHellmuth wins $20297.00 USD from main pot

this one was early on before i realized how weak phil plays, it’s an easy fold now but it was so early in the match and he was spazzing out a lot:

***** Hand History for Game 5525664213966 *****
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 06:48:00 ET 2008
Table Heraclea (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: PhilHellmuth ( $10965.50 USD )
Seat 2: MikeVickIsGod ( $9644.00 USD )
MikeVickIsGod posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
PhilHellmuth posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MikeVickIsGod [  As Qd ]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$250.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth calls [$200.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 3h, Ac ]
PhilHellmuth checks
MikeVickIsGod bets [$600.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth raises [$2400.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod calls [$1800.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7s ]
PhilHellmuth bets [$8265.50 USD]
MikeVickIsGod calls [$6944.00 USD]
PhilHellmuth wins $1321.50 USD
** Dealing River ** [ 8c ]
PhilHellmuth shows [3d, Ad ]
MikeVickIsGod shows [As, Qd ]
PhilHellmuth wins $19287.00 USD from main pot

Here are some other hands of interest.  Looking back at my session I only won 5k or more in a hand 8 times in 7605 hands, which is an uncanny cold-streak.  I was getting absolutely no cards and whenever I did have a hand it was either no good or got sucked out on.  I need to post these to vent.

Sully is a total fish and he’s never folding 2 pair on the turn, but fortunately for him he had a set!

***** Hand History for Game 55256639677 *****
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 04:19:58 ET 2008
Table Erythrae (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: MikeVickIsGod ( $32233.50 USD )
Seat 2: Shadysully22 ( $18039.50 USD )
MikeVickIsGod posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
Shadysully22 posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
Dealt to MikeVickIsGod [  Qc 8h ]
** Dealing down cards **
MikeVickIsGod raises [$250.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$200.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, Qh, 2h ]
Shadysully22 checks
MikeVickIsGod checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8s ]
Shadysully22 bets [$600.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$2400.00 USD]
Shadysully22 raises [$4100.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$29533.50 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$13039.50 USD]
MikeVickIsGod wins $14194.00 USD
** Dealing River ** [ 4d ]
MikeVickIsGod shows [Qc, 8h ]
Shadysully22 shows [2d, 2c ]
Shadysully22 wins $36078.00 USD from main pot

Sully calls just about every 3 bet, doesn’t really call the flop unless he has something, so the ace is a blank. I think I stack any 9 a ton of the time as well as hands like JJ/TT. Fortunately for him, he had 99!

***** Hand History for Game 55256639688 *****
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 04:23:00 ET 2008
Table Erythrae (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: MikeVickIsGod ( $15240.00 USD )
Seat 2: Shadysully22 ( $35027.00 USD )
Shadysully22 posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
MikeVickIsGod posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
Dealt to MikeVickIsGod [  Qd Qc ]
** Dealing down cards **
Shadysully22 raises [$250.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod raises [$1000.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$800.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5d, 9s, 5s ]
MikeVickIsGod bets [$1600.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$1600.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
MikeVickIsGod bets [$3200.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$3200.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ah ]
MikeVickIsGod bets [$9340.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$9340.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod shows [Qd, Qc ]
Shadysully22 shows [9d, 9h ]
Shadysully22 wins $30479.00 USD from main pot

Instead of winning a 400 BB pot vs obvious AA, I get to check/fold the river. Fun.
***** Hand History for Game 21030473955 *****
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 02:23:47 ET 2008
Table Athamantis III (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 1: Vick Is God ( $9131.50 USD )
Seat 3: $oprano ( $11815.00 USD )
Seat 4: MrSweets28 ( $5000.00 USD )
Seat 5: matate ( $4950.00 USD )
Seat 6: PoorUser ( $5522.00 USD )
matate posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
PoorUser posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Vick Is God [  4h 4s ]
Vick Is God raises [$200.00 USD]
$oprano raises [$350.00 USD]
MrSweets28 folds
matate folds
PoorUser folds
Vick Is God calls [$150.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8c, Tc, Ts ]
Vick Is God checks
$oprano bets [$550.00 USD]
Vick Is God calls [$550.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4d ]
Vick Is God checks
$oprano bets [$1150.00 USD]
Vick Is God raises [$2800.00 USD]
$oprano calls [$1650.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Td ]
Vick Is God checks
$oprano bets [$8115.00 USD]
Vick Is God folds
$oprano wins $7473.00 USD from main pot
$oprano wins $8115.00 USD from main pot

This one was annoying, I was pretty sure Phil would raise 2 pair since there is no hand that improved on the river that’s worse than mid-2pair which I would check the turn with.
PokerStars Game #21030705083:  Hold’em No Limit ($25/$50) - 2008/10/08 14:32:35 ET
Table ‘Athamantis III’ 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Vick Is God ($5828.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Sauce123 ($5075 in chips)
Seat 3: kitty97 ($5000 in chips)
Seat 4: MrSweets28 ($5623 in chips)
Seat 5: matate ($4950 in chips)
Seat 6: PoorUser ($5000 in chips)
matate: posts small blind $25
PoorUser: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Vick Is God [Ac 2c]
Vick Is God: raises $150 to $200
Sauce123: folds
kitty97: folds
MrSweets28: calls $200
matate: folds
PoorUser: folds
*** FLOP *** [8c 2d Ah]
Vick Is God: bets $350
MrSweets28: calls $350
*** TURN *** [8c 2d Ah] [9s]
Vick Is God: checks
MrSweets28: checks
*** RIVER *** [8c 2d Ah 9s] [7h]
Vick Is God: bets $950
matate leaves the table
MrSweets28: raises $2000 to $2950
Vick Is God: calls $2000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MrSweets28: shows [9c 9d] (three of a kind, Nines)
Vick Is God: mucks hand
MrSweets28 collected $7072 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7075 | Rake $3
Board [8c 2d Ah 9s 7h]
Seat 1: Vick Is God mucked [Ac 2c]
Seat 2: Sauce123 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: kitty97 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: MrSweets28 (button) showed [9c 9d] and won ($7072) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 5: matate (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: PoorUser (big blind) folded before Flop

Nice jam by kitty, I’m definitely stacking off with worse than 79 here.

***** Hand History for Game 21037183177 *****
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 06:34:26 ET 2008
Table Patry II (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: kitty97 ( $4925.00 USD )
Seat 2: molswi47 ( $5975.00 USD )
Seat 3: Vick Is God ( $28704.50 USD )
Seat 4: EmpireMaker2 ( $8518.00 USD )
Seat 6: takechip ( $5594.00 USD )
molswi47 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Vick Is God posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Vick Is God [  Ad Ah ]
EmpireMaker2 folds
takechip folds
kitty97 raises [$150.00 USD]
molswi47 folds
Vick Is God raises [$500.00 USD]
kitty97 calls [$400.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, 3s, 4d ]
Vick Is God bets [$850.00 USD]
kitty97 raises [$4375.00 USD]
Vick Is God calls [$3525.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qc ]
Vick Is God shows [Ad, Ah ]
kitty97 shows [7d, 9d ]
kitty97 wins $9873.00 USD from main pot
Another suck-out:
***** Hand History for Game 21036580380 *****
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 06:10:07 ET 2008
Table Ucclia (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: molswi47 ( $5000.00 USD )
Seat 2: MrSweets28 ( $9591.00 USD )
Seat 4: takechip ( $5000.00 USD )
Seat 5: Vick Is God ( $5000.00 USD )
Seat 6: Sauce123 ( $9255.00 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
molswi47 posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Vick Is God [  Ks Js ]
MrSweets28 folds
takechip raises [$150.00 USD]
Vick Is God raises [$500.00 USD]
Sauce123 folds
molswi47 folds
takechip raises [$1062.00 USD]
Vick Is God calls [$712.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kh, 7c, Qc ]
takechip bets [$800.00 USD]
Vick Is God raises [$3788.00 USD]
takechip calls [$2988.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ah ]
takechip shows [As, Qd ]
takechip wins $10073.00 USD from main pot
Vick Is God doesn’t show [Ks, Js ]

This is just how my day goes: my opponent obviously has a marginal hand and is never calling the river.  Unless he has the exact 1 hand combo that plays this way which can call the river.  Sigh.
***** Hand History for Game 55256639791 *****
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 04:43:23 ET 2008
Table Erythrae (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: MikeVickIsGod ( $13896.00 USD )
Seat 2: Shadysully22 ( $52152.00 USD )
MikeVickIsGod posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
Shadysully22 posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
Dealt to MikeVickIsGod [  5d 3d ]
** Dealing down cards **
MikeVickIsGod raises [$250.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$200.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ac, 4s, 7c ]
Shadysully22 checks
MikeVickIsGod bets [$400.00 USD]
Shadysully22 raises [$950.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod calls [$550.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]
Shadysully22 checks
MikeVickIsGod bets [$1850.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$1850.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 5s ]
Shadysully22 checks
MikeVickIsGod bets [$10796.00 USD]
Shadysully22 calls [$10796.00 USD]
MikeVickIsGod shows [5d, 3d ]
Shadysully22 shows [6c, 3c ]
Shadysully22 wins $27791.00 USD from main pot

Why would top two pair be good?
***** Hand History for Game 21032336999 *****
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 03:32:46 ET 2008
Table Athamantis III (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: Vick Is God ( $6569.00 USD )
Seat 2: Sauce123 ( $5994.00 USD )
Seat 3: kitty97 ( $5399.70 USD )
Seat 5: ROVIH ( $5172.00 USD )
Seat 6: PoorUser ( $7379.00 USD )
ROVIH posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
PoorUser posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Vick Is God [  As Qs ]
Vick Is God raises [$200.00 USD]
Sauce123 folds
kitty97 folds
ROVIH raises [$675.00 USD]
PoorUser folds
Vick Is God calls [$500.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Ac, 4h ]
ROVIH bets [$800.00 USD]
Vick Is God calls [$800.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5d ]
ROVIH checks
Vick Is God bets [$950.00 USD]
ROVIH raises [$3672.00 USD]
Vick Is God calls [$2722.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]
ROVIH shows [Ad, Ah ]
ROVIH wins $10392.00 USD from main pot
Vick Is God doesn’t show [As, Qs ]
Given the KJ vs AQ hand,hopefully you can see for yourself why this line is fine against takechip.

***** Hand History for Game 21032822535 *****
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 03:50:21 ET 2008
Table Marina III (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 1: ROVIH ( $5375.00 USD )
Seat 3: Vick Is God ( $11360.00 USD )
Seat 4: takechip ( $5148.00 USD )
Seat 5: kitty97 ( $7875.00 USD )
Seat 6: Sauce123 ( $6496.00 USD )
kitty97 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Sauce123 posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Vick Is God [  Qs As ]
ROVIH folds
Vick Is God raises [$200.00 USD]
takechip raises [$550.00 USD]
kitty97 folds
Sauce123 calls [$500.00 USD]
Vick Is God calls [$350.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jc, 4d, Ad ]
Sauce123 checks
Vick Is God checks
takechip bets [$900.00 USD]
Sauce123 folds
Vick Is God raises [$10810.00 USD]
takechip calls [$3698.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Tc ]
Vick Is God shows [Qs, As ]
takechip shows [Kh, Ac ]
takechip wins $10869.00 USD from main pot
Vick Is God wins $6212.00 USD from main pot

QQ vs AA for the 4th time in 2 days.

***** Hand History for Game 21030126295 *****
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em - Wednesday, October 08, 02:11:00 ET 2008
Table Marina III (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: $oprano ( $4975.00 USD )
Seat 2: Tomo74 ( $6992.00 USD )
Seat 3: Vick Is God ( $7551.00 USD )
Seat 4: Bullitos ( $4350.00 USD )
Seat 5: kitty97 ( $10915.00 USD )
Tomo74 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Vick Is God posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Vick Is God [  Qh Qs ]
Bullitos folds
kitty97 raises [$150.00 USD]
$oprano folds
Tomo74 calls [$125.00 USD]
Vick Is God raises [$700.00 USD]
kitty97 raises [$1500.00 USD]
Tomo74 calls [$1500.00 USD]
Vick Is God raises [$6801.00 USD]
kitty97 raises [$9265.00 USD]
Tomo74 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5d, 7s, 7h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 4d ]
Vick Is God shows [Qh, Qs ]
kitty97 shows [Ah, Ad ]
kitty97 wins $16750.00 USD from main pot
kitty97 wins $3364.00 USD from main pot

Basically that’s what happened: I couldn’t win, I got cold-decked a lot, and my hands never held up. I rarely lose big and think “you didn’t tilt off or give away too much money” but here I think if I did tilt or misplay a hand here or there it was very marginal.  Obviously this is compounding my already huge downswing.  On the one hand I try to remind myself how lucky I am to still have around 800k despite running so fucking awful over the last month.  On the other, today I was grinding somewhat tough 25/50 games and eventually 1-tabling Phil Hellmuth HU.  It’s not a fun experience to be stuck a ton and just watch the slow-paced table while playing a bunch of small ball.  I can honestly say that as horrible of a grind as today is, the thought of playing any more poker any time soon is just not attractive.

I’m going to take a break for a bit because I’ve grinded so much poker in my life and I’m not really enjoying poker that much even when I’m winning these days, so I think it’s time to take a break until I don’t view poker as such a grind, which right now it is. Sorry for the ranting but I’m seriously pissed off right now.

I took the LSAT this morning and thought it went as well as it possibly could have.  In the previous few days I’d been doing poorly on the games and not finishing them in time but this game section I think I absolutely smoked.  I’d finished all of them with 5 minutes to spare and I thought the games were very easy.  It’s possible I totally messed up by misrecording some of the rules of the game or something, but outside of some brain fart like that I think I aced the games.  The reading comp had only one or two questions I was unsure about and I think I got them and the logical reasoning (or whatever you call the other section) I almost never miss more than 1 in.  So I’m feeling very good about getting a very good score which is awesome because I’d been really nervous I was going to choke.

Anyway, I have a flight to catch so I have to get going.  I’m finally coming back to New York: between the Deucescracked meetings, going to Austin, going to Vegas, and now coming back to Virginia to study I haven’t been to the city since late August and I’m getting a bit homesick for La Casa de Splayas.

http://delinodeshields.blogspot.com/2008/09/trip-advisor-casa-de-splayas.html

You may not know this about me but I’m a big Dodgers fan.  I lived in LA for 4 years when I was young, one of my first memories of America (I was born in Jerusalem fyi) is the Dodgers winning the World Series and everybody being happy and me not knowing what was going on but knowing I was really happy.  Given that Virginia didn’t have a baseball team I stayed a Dodgers fan when I moved to Blacksburg.

Anyway, today we finally beat the Cubs at Wrigley.  Considering I went to Chicago for the Dodgers/Cubs series and got to see the Dodgers get swept (obviously demoralizing to make a trip just to see your team get trashed), I was skeptical that we would win at Wrigley.  But we did.  And I know this is only game 1 of an NLDS. But my team has won 2 playoff games since 1988 prior to today.

Furthermore, the Dodgers have been a big tease the last few years: we’ve stockpiled young talent only to bench it in favor of crappy overpaird vets (Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre).  We’ve had the best team in the NL West coming into the season the last few years and have failed to make the playoffs.  We’ve had injuries to key players.  Basically, we’ve had all the ingredients to be a good team and just didn’t quite put it all together.  Now with Manny Ramirez crushing and Joe Torre finally coming around to playing Matt Kemp, James Loney, and Andre Ethier, I really feel like we’re going to compete this year.  Winning Game 1 doesn’t prove we’re going to win the World Series, but it’s a nice boost of confidence that maybe my team won’t fall short of my expectations for once.

In my last post I said I was on a 100k heater.  Unfortunately, I meant downswing.  I would have just edited it but in this age of RSS feeds and what-not the change may never have been noticed.  Carry on everybody.

The last three days I’ve been taking a practice LSAT a day and my scores have been 173, 177, and 174.  I think I need a 175 or better to be a favorite to get into a top 3 school given my GPA, but considering that I don’t really know that I want to go to one of the top 3 places and that I’m confident I’ll do better on the real test as I’m correcting new bad habits with each test I take, I’m happy with my results so far.
In poker that has not been the case: my “don’t play and downswing like crazy” streak continues as my friends keep losing at Rail Heaven.  I see the hand histories and they play well and run awful but I’m taking a beating from taking pieces.  I played some Rail Heaven yesterday and ended up losing 11 big blinds after that 44 bluff and then I played some 25/50.  I ran really awful and spewed a couple of buy-ins off due to just general tilt (which is something I almost never do, but basically I 5-bet bluffed in a bad spot to do so and made a couple of  bad river calls) and ended up dropping around 30k there as well.  So all in all I’ve still won back like 50k from the very bottom of my downswing (which occurred in Vegas obviously) but I’m on a 2-day 100k heater.

I know that a lot of people read the blog and only hear me talk about downswinging and are worried I’m losing a ton of money: I’m really not that bad off.  It’s just that I keep pulling out of the downswing and then getting dragged back down into it so it’s more that I’m stagnating than that I’m constantly losing money. I’m semi-tilted from the whole “normalize around peak” thing but I still am very comfortably rolled for 25/50 and 50/100, although when I take pieces I can’t take 100/200 and 75/150 worth anymore.  Still, all is well: the LSAT is the main thing I’m focusing on right now and it’s way more important to me than poker at the moment.