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I did, indeed, have lunch with a friend (not multiple, just one) today. I went to Chipotle, but I wasn’t that hungry so I just got tacos. Just wanted to clear that up.

A few months ago when I just about busto’ed my Full Tilt account playing 500/1k, I asked a friend for a 200k loan. He obliged and although I’ve run that money up, I’ve swapped a lot of it out for Stars money so I have to pay him back via check. I went to my bank today to transfer all my money into my checking account so I could cut the check for him. At this bank, I had a little over 193k in my liquid (non-C.D.) accounts. I also don’t have a checkbook since I never use that account, so I had the teller print me out a counter check.

When I got home, I began to fill in the check. I began to write “One hundred and ninety-three” and then brainfarted and just wrote “dollars” instead of “thousand dollars.” I tried writing over the “dollars” and turning it into “thousand” but this just seemed messy. So I scratched out my dollars/thousand hybrid, and wrote “thousand dollars” afterwards. I then initaled by the change, which, given my awful handwriting, only served to make the whole thing even more illegible.

So I decided it would probably be too sketch if my friend took a check to the bank that looks like it was changed from $193 to $193,000, and I’m going to have to go back and get another counter check printed up. I guess I’m pretty bad at cutting six figure checks.

I’ve torn that check into about a million pieces and thrown it into three different trash cans in the city. I did, however, forget to write “VOID” before I did so, so if any of you are feeling like going on a crazy scavenger hunt in the city feel free.

I’m on a 3 buy-in heater at 500/1000. That’s right, I’m actually winning hands. And talk about sweats, rivering Urindanger to win one all-in is tense enough:
Full Tilt Poker $500/$1000 Pot Limit Hold’em - 8 players - View hand 23327
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

David Oppenheim (UTG+1): $58997.00
Hero (MP1): $36997.00
The_Houdini (MP2): $60491.00
Sirens (CO): $47491.00
regista8 (BTN): $18500.00
Gus Hansen (SB): $64997.00
Urindanger (BB): $23503.00
luckexpress10 (UTG): $120054.50

Pre Flop: ($1500.00) Hero is MP1 with T T
luckexpress10 calls $1000, 1 fold, Hero raises to $4500, 4 folds, Urindanger raises to $15000, 1 fold, Hero raises to $36997 all in, Urindanger calls $8503 all in

Flop: ($48506.00) 8 2 Q

Turn: ($48506.00) J

River: ($48506.00) 9

Final Pot: $48506.00
Hero shows T T (a straight, Queen high)
Urindanger shows A Q (a pair of Queens)
Hero wins $48503.00
(Rake: $3.00)

But getting it in expecting to be a monster favorite and having to sweat this match-up for a 120k pot is even more terrifying:
Full Tilt Poker $500/$1000 Pot Limit Hold’em - 6 players - View hand 23329
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

David Oppenheim (SB): $57997.00
Hero (BB): $61997.00
The_Houdini (UTG): $60491.00
regista8 (MP): $20000.00
Gus Hansen (CO): $64497.00
Urindanger (BTN): $39500.00

Pre Flop: ($1500.00) Hero is BB with A A
2 folds, Gus Hansen raises to $3000, 2 folds, Hero raises to $9000, Gus Hansen calls $6000

Flop: ($18500.00) 8 T 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, Gus Hansen requests TIME, Gus Hansen bets $15000, Hero raises to $52997 all in, Gus Hansen calls $37997

Turn: ($124494.00) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($124494.00) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $124494.00
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
Gus Hansen shows 5 6 (a pair of Fives)
Hero wins $124491.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I had a huge piece of this. I am happy.

I was checking email on my iPhone yesterday and I received an email from Columbia Law yesterday which said the following:

“Dear Ariel,

We congratulate you once more on your acceptance to Columbia Law School. Now we would like to encourage you to get to know Columbia—and each other—a little better by visiting our new blog for admitted students only: Class Actions.”

and so on.  I thought this was funny, because until I received that email, I was unaware that I had been accepted to Columbia.  So, I was going to forward this to my brother with some sort of comment like “apparently I got into Columbia.”

But when I hit “forward” the text of the email I was forwarding was entirely different.  Instead of the text above, the email I was forwarding said:

“Dear Ariel {Last},

We congratulate you and share your excitement that a major hurdle-the LSAT– in the law school application process has been completed.  In that regard, your name was forwarded to us by the Candidatee Referral Service of the Law School Data Assembly Service, in which you had earlier agreed to participate.  On the bases of your performance on the LSAT only, you have been identified as a prospective law school applicant who, on that criterion, has demonstrate a capability to contribute to and benefit from a legal education of the first order.”

And so on.  This is really weird and I’m wondering if anybody has any theory as to what is going on here: when I access gmail from my iPhone and forward an email I received, the body of the email is replaced with an entirely different email, one which I never received, but which I assume Columbia sends out to some people (and maybe meant to send out to me).  This doesn’t happen if I try forwarding the email from my laptop.

I’m also intrigued by what’s going on with the “Ariel {Last}” part: how do they have the generic “last” in there but they had my first name down?  I would understand if it read “Dear {First} {Last},” but it strikes me as weird that this isn’t the case

I stumbled upon a fun Taboo-esque game you can play with your friends some time. Go to www.wikipedia.org, click on what language you want (which, fortunately, the site doesn’t just guess based on your IP), find the undersized search bar along the left, and type in “perverse incentive.” The page describes a perverse incentive as “an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable effect, that is against the interest of the incentive makers.”

Oddly enough, Wikipedia claims that Edgar Allen Poe coined the phrase in his poem “The Imp of the Perverse,” which I find interesting considering that the word incentive is nowhere to be found in the poem itself.

Anyway, here’s the game: the wiki page has a long list of example perverse incentives. One person reads the incentive structure created to the competitors, who have to guess how the incentive is perverted. Here are a few examples (answers in white):

1) In Hanoi, under French colonial rule, a program paying people a bounty for each rat pelt handed in was intended to exterminate rats. Instead,  it led to the farming of rats

2) “Funding fire departments by the number of fire calls made is intended to reward the fire departments that do the most work. However, it may discourage them from fire-prevention activities, which reduce the number of fires.

3)19th century palaeontologists traveling to China used to pay peasants for each fragment of dinosaur bone (dinosaur fossils) that they produced. They later discovered that peasants dug up the bones and then smashed them into multiple pieces to maximise their payments

4) Setting the same minimum punishment for crimes of different severity may increase the incidence of the most serious crimes. For example, the practice of executing thieves may lead to an increase in murders, because a thief has an incentive to kill any witnesses to avoid being convicted—he will not be any the worse off if caught.
Bonus question if the correct answer is given: this is the root of the saying “Might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb”

5) During the Vietnam War, the Central Intelligence Agency and the South Vietnamese intelligence conducted a covert operation called the Phoenix Program, which was assigned to detain or kill Viet Cong sympathizers. South Vietnamese and American combatants were offered a reward for each enemy, dead or alive. This led South Vietnamese and Americans to farm babies, train them to be Viet Cong sympathizers, and then kill them.

Ed. note: I accidentally published this post before I finished it, and I couldn’t find it in my drafts so just assumed my auto-save wasn’t working (since I don’t know how I mistakenly posted given that I never hit “submit”). Hopefully the end makes sense now.

Today I coached for 5 hours. Coaching is very draining: you have to be alert, discuss and explain lines that you would just unthinkingly take while playing, and you feel the need to be right all the time, when that’s just not possible in poker. Watching 4 tables of games you’re not playing against opponents you don’t know is also difficult to do. I like to coach because I like helping my students and I would feel like a giant schmuck if I turned down $650/hr, which apparently is more than partners at top law firms make, simply because the work was slightly difficult.

So I “grinded” some coaching today and made a few thousand dollars. Then I saw a pretty amazing 500/1k NL game running, sold off some action, and sat down prepared to take 32.5% of the action on two 50k buy-ins. My first hand I was excited to win a 100k pot and have a stack to play with. And then the river came:
Full Tilt Poker $500/$1000 No Limit Hold’em - 4 players - View hand 12940
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

tsarrast (CO): $57249.00
luckexpress10 (BTN): $231747.00
Ziigmund (SB): $203498.50
Hero (BB): $50000.00

Pre Flop: ($1500.00) Hero is BB with Q A
1 fold, luckexpress10 raises to $3000, Ziigmund raises to $11500, Hero raises to $50000 all in, 1 fold, Ziigmund calls $38500

Flop: ($103000.00) T 4 Q

Turn: ($103000.00) 4

River: ($103000.00) T

Final Pot: $103000.00
Ziigmund shows T K (a full house, Tens full of Fours)
Hero shows Q A (two pair, Queens and Tens)
Ziigmund wins $102998.00
(Rake: $2.00)

I kind of laughed that one off, but a few minutes later I got it all in again and this one I was really sweating, mainly because if I lost this all-in I wouldn’t be able to continue in the game due to my stop-loss. Fortunately I binked the river:

Full Tilt Poker $500/$1000 No Limit Hold’em - 3 players - View hand 12937
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

luckexpress10 (SB): $321486.00
Ziigmund (BB): $253240.50
Hero (BTN): $42750.00

Pre Flop: ($1500.00) Hero is BTN with J A
Hero raises to $2500, luckexpress10 calls $2000, Ziigmund raises to $10000, Hero requests TIME, Hero raises to $42750 all in, 1 fold, Ziigmund calls $32750

Flop: ($88000.00) 4 4 5

Turn: ($88000.00) 7

River: ($88000.00) A

Final Pot: $88000.00
Ziigmund shows 8 8 (two pair, Eights and Fours)
Hero shows J A (two pair, Aces and Fours)
Hero wins $87999.00
(Rake: $1.00)

A few hands later the soft spot left, and I didn’t feel like playing high-stakes 3-handed on a short roll,so I left. My net result was -8703. 8703*.325=2828.475. 650*5=3250. 3250-2828=422. $422 dollars for the day. I need to start charging more for coaching or playing lower imo.

Long story short, I’ve been maintaining. 2009 has been very good to me so far, but it’s also been very routine. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I wake up at 9:00 a.m. to get breakfast and then I go to physical therapy. My shoulder’s getting a lot better: I’ve been strengthening the muscles a lot and I no longer experience constant pain. I still feel pain when I make certain motions (I can’t push down with my left arm, try ripping open a package, or other little things like that which don’t require much strength, but which aggravate the tear). I’m meeting with my doctor this week to see if surgery will be necessary, and I’m obviously hoping that it won’t be.

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays I go to the gym to work with my trainer. I’ve only recently started doing non-cardio workouts and I’ve had to rework my program because a lot of very basic lifts hurt my shoulder to do (I can’t do pushups, bench press, any overhead lifts, etc). I’d gotten so used to working out a lot that I took for granted how much better I feel when I’m being physically active. Working out for the first time in almost 2 months has got the endorphins flowing, even though I’m sore after workouts because I’m so unused to doing intense lifting anymore.

So since I’m now waking up early and done with my physical therapy/working out by noon, I’ve got an entire day to kill. Just about every day I’ve been spending my early afternoons reading “Brothers Karamazov.” After just finishing “Nixonland” I was looking for something new to read and somebody suggested Brothers K. So it’s straight from one 800-page project to another. When I finish my daily reading, I go home and open a bunch of tables and wait for action.

I’ve been putting in more hours than ever before. Downswinging and paying taxes got my work ethic up and I was hoping to grind for a couple months and get back to peak. It looks like that’ll take less time than I was expecting: January has been an amazing month. I’ve been winning just about every day and I’ve been taking pieces of people who have been winning. I haven’t crunched the numbers exactly, but I think I’m up about 400k in January already.

Curse the poker gods for punishing me for my bragging: just after writing that last sentence Trambopoline came to a table to ask me to do 10 3k flips with him. I had no games going, so I figured “why not?” Fast forward 10 hands and I’ve only won 1 flip and am now 24k poorer than I was at the start of this brag post. Other than that though, January’s been pretty good to me.

Full Tilt Poker $25/$50 No Limit Hold’em - 2 players - View hand 9236
Full Tilt Poker $25/$50 No Limit Hold’em - 2 players - View hand 9236
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $7266.50
Hero (BB): $17247.50

Pre Flop: ($75.00) Hero is BB with K Q
BTN/SB raises to $150, Hero raises to $550, BTN/SB calls $400

Flop: ($1100.00) A 4 J (2 players)
Hero bets $600, BTN/SB calls $600

Turn: ($2300.00) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $1650, BTN/SB calls $1650

River: ($5600.00) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $4466.50 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $4466.50

Final Pot: $14533.00
BTN/SB shows 6 Q (a pair of Fours)
Hero shows K Q (a pair of Fours)
Hero wins $14532.50
(Rake: $0.50)

This is an opponent who I have played at least 3,000 hands against HU by now. I’ve run insanely well versus him but also think I’ve got him very much figured out. The thinking on the river is pretty straightforward: I think him jamming an ace on the river is unlikely as I rarely have a made hand he beats that can call that bets twice and then checks the river (if i have a worse made hand like KK I probably don’t bet twice and if I have nothing he can’t really expect me to call too often). So unless he was slowplaying JJ/AK (which is super unlikely preflop), the ONLY ace he bets that can expect to get called by worse aces is AQ.

Now obviously it’s not so straightforward and sometimes people deviate from their standard play to try razor-thin owning you, but my read is solid enough that it’s highly likely to be right.

So given that there’s not much it makes sense for him to be value shoving, and that there are a ton of draws he can be double floating with that I beat (TQ, KT, flush draws, etc), it’s a pretty easy call (but again: you need a read. Don’t go calling with king high all the time just because i did it)

A lot of people have been asking for more blog updates (I swear, at least like 10 railbirds plus 3 friends have brought this up to me in the last couple of days). I haven’t been blogging because not much exciting is happening. I’ve just been playing poker and grinding. So far it’s been going pretty well: I’ve been getting action very inconsistently, but I’ve got a few “foes of 2009″ who have been giving me action: mainly straate (liberty6), Gassitt, youreamaniac (some German guy), and jeffery_g (who I’ve never seen before). I think I’m up on all of them (except for straate, one of us is up less than a buy-in on the other).

Outside of waiting for HU, I’ve also played some nosebleeds recently. I was 1-tabling some 10-20 HU PLO against a fish last night at 12:30 a.m. because I’m trying to learn PLO and he was up on me and I hate quitting fish regardless of stakes or game type. I normally try to not play poker after 10:00 or so because I’ve found it’s hard for me to unwind after a session. Anyway, I was 1-tabling and sweating Internet Pokers playing Mafews at 200/400 HU. Mafews seemed like a bit of a spot and while I was chatting with the rail in observer chat, Internet Poker made a (what I think to be easy) ace-high call of a big bet and then quit. I was bored and figured “screw it, I’ll play for a bit.” I jumped in immediately and won 20k in 9 hands before Mafews left, mainly on this hand:
Full Tilt Poker $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em - 2 players - View hand 8560

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $48699.00

Mafews (BB): $44495.25

Pre Flop: ($600.00) Hero is BTN/SB with 9 Q

Hero raises to $1200, Mafews raises to $4400, Hero calls $3200

Flop: ($8800.00) 5 K T (2 players)

Mafews bets $6200, Hero calls $6200

Turn: ($21200.00) 7 (2 players)

Mafews checks, Hero bets $14500, Mafews folds

Today I woke up, and without playing any cards, I started the day off on a massive downswing. I had to send in my quarterly estimated tax payment today. As much as I account for my tax liability when keeping track of my bankroll, and despite paying taxes every year, cutting a hefty 6-figure check to the IRS never gets any easier.

So, to climb out of my downswing, I decided to play poker all afternoon. I played a bit of 100-200 against thejoker-jsb. He ran a 4k stack up to about 20k against me and then I whittled him down before cold-decking him with QQ vs 33 on Q3T in a reraised pot. He sat out, sat back in for 1 hand with 5k, called a reraise with 9T, and called my overbet on KTx. I had JJ, he turned a 9, I rivered a K. Suck, re-suck! He was playing well for most of the match, I just got the better of him in the 2 important pots.

Then, as I was reading some Matt Taibbi reviews of Thomas Friedman books (a must read if you hate Friedman, Taibbi manages to destroy him while getting a lot of belly laughs from the reader), I noticed that there was a good 500/1000 NL going on.

At this point, one might expect the very sight of a 500/1k game running to cause me to run out of the room screaming. My friends and I are only down the GDP of California (which is more than the GDP of France!) at these games. But undeterred, I hopped in the game. I had to cobble together an action-sharing agreement, but it was all very rushed and I wanted to play the game before anybody else got to take the money from the player the game was built around, so I jumped in and took a huge piece of myself.

I ended up winning about 135k in 45 minutes. By 500/1k standards, I ran amazing: not only did I make hands (which was seemingly impossible in ‘08), but when I did I managed to fade a bare flush draw as well as some five-outers! Needless to say, I was quite pleased.

UPDATE (i know, I haven’t posted yet): while writing this up, mafews gave me some 100/200 action. I won about 25k. On this hand, when the river came a wheel card, I actually thought he hit. Even with my double stack in front of me I experienced a residual tilt-like sensation lingering from the thought that I’d lost the pot:
Full Tilt Poker $100/$200 No Limit Hold’em - 2 players - View hand 8583

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $24897.00

Mafews (BTN/SB): $36500.00

Pre Flop: ($300.00) Hero is BB with A 3

Mafews raises to $600, Hero calls $400

Flop: ($1200.00) 9 Q 3 (2 players)

Hero checks, Mafews bets $1000, Hero calls $1000

Turn: ($3200.00) A (2 players)

Hero checks, Mafews bets $2600, Hero raises to $7200, Mafews raises to $34900 all in, Hero calls $16097 all in

River: ($49794.00) 4 (2 players - 2 are all in)

I didn’t feel like playing 1-table of deep 100-200 as it’s both very stressful and very boring and Krantz and some friends are in my neighborhood. So, I asked Mafews to break up stacks and/or multitable instead and he declined, so I told him “gg.” I’m sure we’ll play later, but for now I’d rather go get some drinks and call it a day.

My 60k bet on Garrard winning more Super Bowls from here on out than Eli Manning wins is not yet lost. I really thought this would be the hardest game for the Giants in the whole playoffs, glad they lost. The Giants’ success is no longer a constant source of concern. I was supposed to be at the game but was too hungover this morning to get up and go to New Jersey, wish I could have been there (if nothing else, just to see Jay and Emil’s faces when the Giants failed to get that pivotal 4th down conversion)