Bye Bye Blog

I have had a new job for 2 months. I have been playing poker again for 1 month.

It appears that my new employer strongly discourages blogs. I will be removing this blog in the next week. I never did much with it, so no big loss, right?

I HAVE A JOB!!!

I got an offer on Tuesday and decided to take it. I have a lot of lines in the water, but this is just too good to pass up. First day will be July 3rd after I get back from Maine. I'll write more then. A week or so after that I hope to make a new deposit and finally enjoy some poker again.


Shwew. 150 resumes, 12 weeks, 10 interviews, 7 recruiters, 6 BIG leads, 1 offer.

Not that anyone cares...

But I lost my bank roll and my job in the same week. I'll probably post again when I have a job and can afford a new bank roll.

Don't hate the Hammer!

I don't normally play the Hammer, but today I felt pretty frisky. Table didn't like it too much, but I did end up winning this SnG.

PokerStars Tournament #21016788, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.40
10 players
Total Prize Pool: $30.00
Tournament started - 2006/03/09 - 11:25:28(ET)
Dear Chaswell,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $15.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

 

Poker Stats

Poker is fun right now. Go figure, I'm up. I have a micro bankroll, so you can chuckle at my closely watched and recorded figures where pennies actually matter. For example, last night I really wanted to play in the WWdN, but that would have been a third of my bank roll. So instead I sat on the rail and played a $3.40 SnG. I played the fewest hands I have ever played (without busting). I was mostly paying attention to the blogger tourney and then the bubble burst while I wasn't watching and I decided to actually focus. I had an M around 4, and was ducking and dodging until we were heads up. I then played mad aggressive kamakazi and won in less than 10 hands HU. Luck, absolutely. But it was a great lesson in not getting stressed with a short stack.

For the year:
Tournies: +$68
Ring: -$19'ish
March ROI: 88.34%
Year ROI: 60'ish%
Total tournies: 32
longest winning streak: this week with 5 consecutive cashes

(I do not put WWdN stats in, because with my bankroll it would throw it off and I consider those to be entertainment)

I was almost even money from original buyin back just before the new year, but WWdN buy-ins dropped me back under.

Total deposits: $77
Low: Feb 15th'ish <$5
High: Jan 1st'ish $73
Current Bankroll: $42

Like what is being discuss over there, I started playing poker for a +ROI game to feed my constant gaming need. I played Civ, Battlefield, WoW, as well as several MUDs. My attention span normally doesn't last too long, but I always have some kind of game addiction. Poker is a bit of an obsession right now, but my wife watches the bank statements and would nail me to the wall if I make a deposit. If I stick to the same bank roll, I should be safe.

Geek Snowboarding

So, that's me. Sitting in the snow. Chatting with Ten on the radio. Laptop in the backpack and snowboard ready to ride. 

Post to Post

So, I wanted to post, but I tend to read the other blogs before I write. I'll tell you what, when you think you are down, there are others below you and when you think you a soaring, there are SO many above you. But I should write something...

Colorado rocked. Snow boarded 3 days, skied 1 day and snowshoed one day. Altitude sickness was less than 24 hours, which is much better than my previous trips to the high altitude. Tried every single day to talk others in to going to the casinos with me. The free shuttle gives you exactly 5 hours at the tables, no more and no less. I was worried 5 hours would not be enough, everyone else was concerned that they would be bored. Oh well, I still have never sat at a casino table to play poker.

I made a really good decision to go snowshoeing with my wife in Breck. Typically, I am on the slopes and my wife is at the nordic center either cross country or snowshoeing. I was getting a little sore from boarding, so I took a day to go in the woods with her. We did a quarter of her normal distance and I was beat. I tried to keep my composure, but it is tough work. Every few minutes she would mention the over look, or a pond, or a great view and I would realize I was staring at the trail and gasping for air. I love the views from the top of the mountains when I get off a lift, but the feeling you get from finding some private place that is perfectly quiet and you had to work so hard to get there, it can really be amazing.

Out Sick

The flu ripped through my family. Amy got sick last Tuesday evening. When I picked up the boys Wednesday afternoon from school, they were both moving pretty slow. By Wednesday night, Little Man had a piping hot fever, and Thursday morning, I was feeling green and Big Guy was starting to simmer. Fevers for the boys peaked at 103 for Big Guy and 104 for Little Man. Amy topped around 102 Friday.

My illness didn't hit full swing until after midnight Saturday night. It was a well timed illness that allowed me to stay relatively above the weather through 3+ days of the rest of the family being really sick. Saturday, Amy was not 100% but her fever had broken and she was able to pick up most of the slack as I went down for the count. Big Guy continued to spike evening fevers through last evening. But today, it looks like everyone is heading towards full recovery. Amy and I have gone 4 years now without ever having both of us and the boys sick at the same time. For that I pray thanks!

Poker, well, don't play poker sick. And even though I say that the WWdN tourney is just for fun and throw away money, my online bank roll slips heavily. I think I may watch from the sidelines for a while until it is less of a significant hit to my cash. The buy-in last week along with playing while ill, led to a loss of 90% of my bankroll, I am down 3 levels in my cash grinding and looking at bottoming out. I won't have another cash deposit for months, so if I bottom out that will be it. If I can win my live cash game this week, I may be able to sneak those winnings in to my online bank roll without hearing it from Amy.

Breckenridge in 1 week. I am no longer nervous, I am in better shape than I have been in for a long time, all my ski clothes fit and I think I am ready. This will be the longest I have ever been away from the boys, but it will be good for Amy and I to get some time off.

Stage fright

My now defunct blog was never read by anyone. And of course neither is this one, who am I kidding? The difference is, I have a presence now around some amazing writers. I'm not a writer, I'm a geek that sometimes wants to write thoughts down. But faced with the audience of accomplished writers is actually making me shy...So a few gentle personal blog updates to avoid any attempt to try to appear like I am writing for others.

Two weeks until I head to Breckenridge. What was originally going to be a 5 couple vacation, slipped to 3 couples and then one couple bailed even after all non-refundables had been paid, craziness. So, my wife's best friend and her new husband will be joining us for a week of skiing. My wife doesn't downhill ski, she spends the whole time at the cross country lodge. Sure maybe she actually goes out on the trails some but you can't knock the free hot cocoa, hot athletic guys and cozy fireplace. I think I envy her choice of winter activity. Me, I snowboard, I have for years. Not very impressively, but I love to cruise around on the easier slopes and spend time in my own head. I'm not aggressive, I just prefer a single plank to two planks that could decide to go in different directions. I gave up skis about 15 years ago, and haven't looked back.

I am a bit concerned about how the other couple plans to spend their time. I am pretty sure that he will have his own skis, sharpened first of course, tailored to his exacting requirements. They will probably be color coordinated to his jacket and matching pairs of pants. The two of them will probably spend most of the time getting to that "other run they heard about that looks really tough on the map."

Yes, I have some anxiety about my vacation being intertwined with any of my wife's sorority sisters and their men.

I haven't been to Colorado since I moved away from Boulder three and a half years ago. I miss Boulder every once in a while. The distance from family was tough, I grew up in Orlando, FL and Amy's parents live in Greenville. We saw very little of our families, and with the birth of Charlie, Amy really wanted to head back.

I can't figure out a slick way to get from Breck to Boulder, I would love to spend a day on Pearl Street. I remember there was a bus way to do it, it involved taking a bus to Denver, switching over and then heading to Boulder, but if that takes longer than 3 hours, that would be a tough day.

And of course the hot topic for me...How out of shape and altitude sick am I going to be when I get there. I've been eating much better than I ever have in my life. I cut caffeine out of my diet since it adds to altitude sickness. I am barefoot 75% of the time, the rest of the time I have on sandals or birkenstocks, so to prepare for snowboard boots I have started wearing my k-swiss all day everyday. Cramps were intense the first couple days, now I only cramp up while actually on the treadmill. I'm up to 30 minute slow jog/walk. Will be adding 1 minute runs every 9 minutes today. I don't need to be able to run a marathon, but I need to be able to deal with short, 30 minute, spurts of intensity. Don't worry, even I am rolling my eyes. I am so gonna keel over on the slopes. Why couldn't we have gone to France? We could have gone for nearly two weeks for what Breck is costing.

Poker update: I am in the black for the first time ever and my SnG record has a positive ROI even taking in to account the very first few times I played without a clue. SnG's are messing up my low-limit grinding. I come back from a tourney and play way too loose/aggro for a limit table.

Blogger not that bad

I have to say it will be nice not to have to fight with MovableType all the time. My own website has 2 installs of MT to support 6 blogs: my brothers, my mothers, my niece, my sons, my work, and my personal. Too cheap to buy a license I just installed an extra copy of MT. So, to save a buck I made management a total bear. And for some reason the DB failures were only affecting my blog, like MT knew who to target for blog failure to frustrate me circumventing their license...Well fine, you win, Blogger it is.

Okay, I infiltrated the IRC channel of the Poker Bloggerati. My compass of +2 finding, Cloak of +1 charisma, and my +EV Tarot Deck got me past the door, but I fumbled the Helixx story that Maigrey requires for full indoctrination. I'll have to plagiarise something from somewhere.

For the very few that have noticed that I live in Greenville, SC, yep I do. G-Vegas, had no idea where that was, until recently. I'm a transplant from Orlando, FL and just had not been educated as to the pedigree of where I had moved.

Let's see, cashed in two SnG's yesterday, 1st and 3rd, only played in 3, so not bad for the day. Live home game tonight so probably won't play online.

moving in

I had a blog at my web site that died early 2005. It just died again. Instead of reviving and dealing with the lost posts. I will just start a blogger account and stop futsing with my own.