likely last blog post
blogging has just become too pervasive–everyone’s got one and nobody has much of anything to say really. i am not convinced that i do either.
the salmon are running!
all over my apartment! The problem is I think they already spawned and now they have died and my apartment smells like rotten fish. So I have been busy trying to chase these ghosts of salmon past out of the apartment. Yesterday I went and bought some candles, white vinegar and whole cloves. Since then I have been cooking up some batches of boiled clove to try and air out the apartment–things seem to be working slowly but surely. The entrance to our apartment though still could use some work; it seems that this bottleneck was the final resting place for a number of these putrid fish.
Other updates: I’ve been eating lots of delicious grapefruit with my new grapefruit spoon. I’ve been playing a little bit of poker and winning which is always nice. I’ve had no luck getting rid of my BMW. Played beer die again last night. And darts. Just got some action though so going to wrap it up. I’ll try and make a poker post next time.
Curt Schilling’s sock retired today
Which is about the least exciting news I have heard in a while. ESPN still managed to have about a 15 second full screen shot of his ketchup-stained sock from that “memorable performance” to make sure everyone was aware that “the guy who played for the Red Sox with the bloody sock” retired. If it weren’t for that I guess everyone would just know him as “that arrogant douche from Boston who comments on every topic that he is never asked to comment on.” Dear Curt, get over yourself. <3 John
In other news I’ve basically had the fun throttle on wide open for the past 4 or 5 days. Our college roomate Alyse (from Maui!!!!!!!!!) visited as did another great friend, Roach, and we had an awesome time doing all sorts of fun stuff including, but not limited to, basketball (both playing and watching), dinners, drinking, fatcat! (and all the awesome stuff that you can do at the cat including, but not limited to, ping-pong, pool, shuffleboard, scrabble, checkers, chess) darts!! and lots of other really swell stuff. I was pretty sure that Friday night was like a 9.4/10 on the fun scale, but then Saturday day was totally awesome as well and then Saturday night shocked me again by being totally awesome. After such an awesome night/day/night combo I was pretty worried that this incredible run of fun was going to come to an end. But lo and behold Sunday came and somehow was like the most amazing day ever (besides an utterly soul crushing flag football defeat which I am going to gloss over here). Emil managed to direct the whole squad to the Pour House which was having a happy hour for the league and we had about 50 pitchers and a ton of wings, spin dip et cetera. I was basically in side-stitching laughter the whole time cause Zacca was crushing the jokes, as usual. We then took things to an even higher level by going straight to Hook and Ladder (where Tom joined us after a long sunday of investment banking) and playing beer die and civil war for a while and had an awesome time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_die if you were confused (except that the way we play the scoring and drinking are correlated which I guess is slightly different than what they have written).
The End.
-John
double edit: we don’t have any weird buzz/bizzity rules now that I’m reading their description, we play to 12, don’t have to win by 2, and drink a beer every four points. And the ideal table is located in Tyler House, Williams College, Williamstown MA 01267.
Grapfruits spoons and other misc stuff
I ordered some delicious 5 star grapefruits from FreshDirect but I have yet to eat them because I don’t have any grapefruit spoons. I never thought about them really because I have just always had grapefruit spoons but it’s damn near impossible to eat one without it. If you get one at a diner or something they use a sharp knife to like tear up the sides and then give you an ordinary spoon and it’s ok but they waste so much fruit and they are usually really sloppy in cutting it up–so the chunks of grapefruit are small and they have parts of the other stuff attached that are really sour and ruin the taste. I was discussing the situation with Jessie via text and she said “It’s like wrestling with a grapefruit,” which I think sums up the situation quite nicely. Ty Jess.
Our good friend Alyse (from Hawaii) who we lived with in college is visiting us in NYC as well as our other friend Matt so we all went out last night and played darts at our local watering hole until like 3 am so that was pretty satisfying.
I also am dogsitting Butters today which has been pretty fun. Growing up my dog was a female so I still find it pretty amusing to watch Butters do his funny one leg up walking corkscrew peeing maneuver on whatever object he happens to be claiming.
Hmmm poker…not really much to report. And not as interesting as grapefruits either!
Poker edit-update. Doomswitched and down 16k at PLO since my last post stating that i was getting less terrible at PLO. I am fucking horrible.
Double Edit: Was able to do a slight unjinx and win a few k at PLO after that post. Still terrible tho.
Non-poker rant + some PLO
I can’t get over how dumb and uncreative people are sometimes. This morning I went across the street to get a muffin and an orange juice, and since this is NYC, it cost like $4.00 and I had no cash on hand. Now I go to this place at least 5x/week for either breakfast or lunch and they know me. They also have a $10 minimum on Credit Cards so when I go to pay $4.00 with mine the lady looks at me like I’m insane and gives me the standard bs “blah blah meowchow etc” and I have to walk outside, go use an ATM and come back in. I never do this to them as I almost always have cash or at lunchtime my meal will be >$10.00. In the name of doing business is it that hard to figure out that it’s probably a smart thing to just run the damn CC this one time to keep relations smooth and ensure that I continue to come back? Of course not, they think saving the $.25 cents or whatever it costs them is worth it to inconvienence a regular customer, put a sour taste in his mouth, and likely reduce the chances that he continues to eat there with the same frequency.
Another restuarant across the street, Pizza and Pita, handles things a bit better. If I go over to get a slice and a Hawaiian Punch (as I am wont to do) it costs about $5.25. When I give the guy a CC, he says ok CC $5.75. Now that is fucking reasonable and makes me want to go back more.
My HU PLO game is improving and I am pleased with my results over my last 10k hands or so. I lost some at 10/20 against this rando donk and some other stuff so should be a little more but overall it’s not bad and I’m hoping I can start to make a lot more from PLO. Since my picture won’t load I’m up about 11k in 10k hands of PLO mostly at 3/6 so I am happy with that and going to try and play more often.
Ughhhhh I thought I had this blog working again, apparently not, still can’t upload pictures. May have to postpone my plans of blogging all the time. Sigh
Back to blogging.
I was having some trouble with Wordpress and didn’t have anything overly exciting to blog about so I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging. I am going to try and make more frequent updates however.
February was a pretty solid month and overall I was pretty pleased with my work ethic. I think I played about 35k hands of NL and PLO combined and made around 30k in total between the two. I also ran about 12k under my expected value so I suppose I could have made a bit more but I am not too dissapointed with the effort. I think I am also down about 6k in staking/buying pieces so far this year so I am going to try and work on that.
NYC has been awesome although certain things are starting to grow old, namely the winter, and I am very much looking forward to spring and summer. I am going to try and travel some this spring too–not entirely sure where yet but I have been looking at some EPT’s in San Remo, Italy and another in Monaco that look like they could be a lot of fun and also allow me to travel around Europe a bit. Some sad news, my favorite breakfast joing as of late, Crepe Mania, has permanently closed it’s doors and I no longer can order a delicious crepe and smoothie for breakfast 
That’s about it for now, going to play some poker and hopefully start to update with more pictures and graphs this week!
Let this serve as a reminder to myself
to not take shots even when massive marks are in the game and to quit PLO–it is the devil’s game.
http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fuckployd4.jpg
Tried to take a shot tonight because there was a massive fish in the game. Lost my first stack getting it in kind of bad where I was prob 50/50 vs his range but ended up being 35/65 vs his actual hand. Then I flop top set which of course ended in a disaster.
FullTiltPoker Game #10030235389: Table Maycliff (6 max) - $25/$50 - $2,000 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 0:32:43 ET - 2009/01/14
Seat 1: Bomberman ($5,295.25)
Seat 2: pez_vela ($2,675)
Seat 4: RandomInfluence ($5,794)
Seat 5: GooGie MonA ($2,000)
Seat 6: philliecc ($3,192)
philliecc posts the small blind of $25
Bomberman posts the big blind of $50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pez_vela [8h Ac 2c Ad]
pez_vela raises to $150
RandomInfluence folds
philliecc calls $125
Bomberman calls $100
*** FLOP *** [6s 8c Ah]
philliecc checks
Bomberman bets $450
pez_vela raises to $1,800
philliecc folds
Bomberman raises to $1,850, and is capped
pez_vela calls $50, and is capped
Bomberman shows [7d 9d 5c 3d]
pez_vela shows [8h Ac 2c Ad]
*** TURN *** [6s 8c Ah] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [6s 8c Ah Qd] [4c]
Bomberman shows a straight, Eight high
pez_vela shows three of a kind, Aces
Bomberman wins the pot ($4,148) with a straight, Eight high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4,150 | Rake $2
Board: [6s 8c Ah Qd 4c]
Seat 1: Bomberman (big blind) showed [7d 9d 5c 3d] and won ($4,148) with a straight, Eight high
Seat 2: pez_vela showed [8h Ac 2c Ad] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 4: RandomInfluence (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: GooGie MonA is sitting out
Seat 6: philliecc (small blind) folded on the Flop
I also lost just about every hand at 5/10 cap including these beauties
Full Tilt Poker Game #10030371860: Table Cantina (6 max) - $5/$10 - $400 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 0:42:23 ET - 2009/01/14
Seat 1: twebb007 ($390)
Seat 2: jobless23 ($1,000)
Seat 3: Ezmann ($1,788)
Seat 4: Brian Eckstrom ($1,748)
Seat 5: BERBAH ($1,183.75)
Seat 6: pez_vela ($531.75)
Ezmann posts the small blind of $5
Brian Eckstrom posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pez_vela [9h 8d Jh 7h]
BERBAH calls $10
pez_vela raises to $45
twebb007 folds
jobless23 folds
Ezmann folds
Brian Eckstrom folds
BERBAH calls $35
*** FLOP *** [Td 9d 7c]
BERBAH bets $105
pez_vela raises to $355, and is capped
BERBAH calls $250, and is capped
pez_vela shows [9h 8d Jh 7h]
BERBAH shows [Th Tc Ks 4h]
*** TURN *** [Td 9d 7c] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [Td 9d 7c 5h] [9c]
pez_vela shows a full house, Nines full of Sevens
BERBAH shows a full house, Tens full of Nines
BERBAH wins the pot ($812) with a full house, Tens full of Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $815 | Rake $3
Board: [Td 9d 7c 5h 9c]
Seat 1: twebb007 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 2: jobless23 (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 3: Ezmann (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Brian Eckstrom (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: BERBAH showed [Th Tc Ks 4h] and won ($812) with a full house, Tens full of Nines
Seat 6: pez_vela showed [9h 8d Jh 7h] and lost with a full house, Nines full of Sevens
Full Tilt Poker Game #10030354149: Table Cantina (6 max) - $5/$10 - $400 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 0:41:09 ET - 2009/01/14
Seat 1: twebb007 ($390)
Seat 2: jobless23 ($1,000)
Seat 3: Ezmann ($1,833)
Seat 4: Brian Eckstrom ($1,748)
Seat 5: BERBAH ($736.75)
Seat 6: pez_vela ($931.75)
jobless23 posts the small blind of $5
Ezmann posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pez_vela [Jd 8h 7s Ts]
Brian Eckstrom folds
BERBAH calls $10
pez_vela raises to $45
twebb007 folds
jobless23 has 15 seconds left to act
jobless23 adds $5
jobless23 folds
Ezmann calls $35
BERBAH calls $35
*** FLOP *** [7c 3s Tc]
Ezmann checks
BERBAH checks
pez_vela bets $140
Ezmann folds
BERBAH has 15 seconds left to act
BERBAH has requested TIME
BERBAH calls $140
*** TURN *** [7c 3s Tc] [6s]
BERBAH checks
pez_vela bets $215, and is capped
BERBAH calls $215, and is capped
pez_vela shows [Jd 8h 7s Ts]
BERBAH shows [Kc 4c 4h Qh]
*** RIVER *** [7c 3s Tc 6s] [9c]
pez_vela shows a straight, Jack high
BERBAH shows a flush, King high
BERBAH wins the pot ($847) with a flush, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $850 | Rake $3
Board: [7c 3s Tc 6s 9c]
Seat 1: twebb007 (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 2: jobless23 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Ezmann (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Brian Eckstrom didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: BERBAH showed [Kc 4c 4h Qh] and won ($847) with a flush, King high
Seat 6: pez_vela showed [Jd 8h 7s Ts] and lost with a straight, Jack high
Full Tilt Poker Game #10029517948: Table Ventura (6 max) - $5/$10 - $400 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 23:45:40 ET - 2009/01/13
Seat 1: MissJane ($3,545.75)
Seat 2: pez_vela ($1,389)
Seat 3: orbit7778 ($1,322)
Seat 4: MKMADTILT ($3,779.75)
Seat 5: Ezmann ($338.50)
Seat 6: BERBAH ($0), is sitting out
orbit7778 posts the small blind of $5
MKMADTILT posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pez_vela [6d Th 7c Td]
Ezmann calls $10
MissJane calls $10
pez_vela calls $10
orbit7778 folds
MKMADTILT has 15 seconds left to act
MKMADTILT raises to $55
Ezmann has 15 seconds left to act
BERBAH adds $400
BERBAH has returned
Ezmann folds
MissJane calls $45
pez_vela calls $45
*** FLOP *** [9c 4c 3h]
MKMADTILT has 15 seconds left to act
MKMADTILT checks
MissJane checks
pez_vela checks
*** TURN *** [9c 4c 3h] [5s]
MKMADTILT bets $180
MissJane calls $180
pez_vela raises to $345, and is capped
MKMADTILT calls $165, and is capped
MissJane calls $165, and is capped
pez_vela shows [6d Th 7c Td]
MKMADTILT shows [5c Ac Kd 8d]
MissJane shows [2h Ts 6h Ks]
*** RIVER *** [9c 4c 3h 5s] [Qc]
pez_vela shows a straight, Seven high
MKMADTILT shows a flush, Ace high
MissJane shows a straight, Six high
MKMADTILT wins the pot ($1,212) with a flush, Ace high
pez_vela adds $11
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,215 | Rake $3
Board: [9c 4c 3h 5s Qc]
Seat 1: MissJane showed [2h Ts 6h Ks] and lost with a straight, Six high
Seat 2: pez_vela (button) showed [6d Th 7c Td] and lost with a straight, Seven high
Seat 3: orbit7778 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: MKMADTILT (big blind) showed [5c Ac Kd 8d] and won ($1,212) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 5: Ezmann folded before the Flop
Seat 6: BERBAH is sitting out
So PLO pretty much has ruined my month so far I’d say. I’ve actually been decent about grinding NL the past few days I’ve played 8k hands and I’m +8k so I guess I can’t complain too much about that. Going to have to just grind some more 2/4 and 3/6 and stay away from PLO for a while I suppose. Here’s my NL screenshot of the month so far.
http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jan13nllt4.jpg
Going to try and start updating the blog more as well. Good luck everybody!
Gooooo Dolphins!
That’s it for now.
NYC?
Friday imo. I will finally make it to NYC after a couple months of planning and agonizing over all the bullshit associated with moving. I wasn’t able to get rid of my BMW, but I was able to ship it relatively painlessly to Florida and my Mom is going to drive it until I find someone to take over the lease. I think she will like it quite a bit 
and I will have a car to drive this week as well as when I am home over Christmas-so that’s good. Ryan and I’s actual move out of our apartment was pretty comical; the movers were supposed to show up at 9am on Saturday and thankfully they did not show up until 4pm or so as it would have been an epic struggle to do anything then. But it appears as though everything is going according to plan and our belongings should make it to NYC sometime early next week. In the meantime I think I am going to stay with Tom or Jessie or sleep on an air mattress in our apartment.
I traded in my Rolex and a few monies for this supersick watch which arrived yesterday. It’s an IWC Portuguese Chronograph and I am pretty excited about it! It looks awesome and I love it so far.
IWC Portuguese Chronograph
Poker in November went pretty well and about a million times better than last November when I busted my bankroll to shreds. I didn’t play much because I was preoccupied with a lot of crap but got in 9k hands and won about 37k so no complaining here! I have been running pretty hot which has been a lot of fun, I must say.
Anyhow, it appears I have finally got some action on FTP so I am going to wrap up this blog post but now that I can post images I will try and post fun stuff more often. I was trying to adopt this adorable beagle/lab mix but he was too cute for the internets and got snatched up immediately. The search continues.
Whoops!
I had a new gaffe this morning and can’t recall ever doing anything even remotely similar. So I wokeup and had a small headache and decided to take some Advil. I had two glasses–one was full of pure unadulterated H20 and the other was the remains of a dirty martini from last night. I unwittingly took a swig of the martini and almost puked upon realizing it. I managed to compose myself however and quickly found the water glass and everything seems to be fine now.
I have been having good success lately varying my betsizes in different situations and I am really happy with how things have been going. I posted a hand in the last blog where I induced a bluff with 2nd pair. Here is a hand where I have the board completely locked up and it’s really hard for him to ever have anything but I chose a bet size that got him to spazz off the rest of his money with Ten high.
Full Tilt Poker Game #9063066815: Table Mutual (heads up) - $5/$10 - Pot Limit Hold’em - 19:04:07 ET - 2008/11/19
Seat 1: pez_vela ($1,705)
Seat 2: Madmax_sa ($1,030)
pez_vela posts the small blind of $5
Madmax_sa posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pez_vela [Ah As]
pez_vela raises to $30
Madmax_sa calls $20
*** FLOP *** [7h Ad Ks]
Madmax_sa has 15 seconds left to act
Madmax_sa bets $60
pez_vela calls $60
*** TURN *** [7h Ad Ks] [8d]
Madmax_sa bets $180
pez_vela calls $180
*** RIVER *** [7h Ad Ks 8d] [Kd]
Madmax_sa has 15 seconds left to act
Madmax_sa has requested TIME
Madmax_sa checks
pez_vela has 15 seconds left to act
pez_vela bets $160
Madmax_sa raises to $760, and is all in
pez_vela calls $600
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Madmax_sa shows [Ts 9c] a pair of Kings
pez_vela shows [Ah As] a full house, Aces full of Kings
pez_vela wins the pot ($2,059.50) with a full house, Aces full of Kings
Madmax_sa is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2,060 | Rake $0.50
Board: [7h Ad Ks 8d Kd]
Seat 1: pez_vela (small blind) showed [Ah As] and won ($2,059.50) with a full house, Aces full of Kings
Seat 2: Madmax_sa (big blind) showed [Ts 9c] and lost with a pair of Kings
I have also been experimenting with overbetting the turn with mediocre hands (where I think I am almost always ahead) to induce jams from extremely confused draws and weaker made hands. I’ve mostly only been using it against monkeys but it’s pretty neat so far and I’ll probably continue to mess around with it.
Full Tilt Poker Game #8907255263: Table Cheryl (deep hu) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold’em - 18:22:51 ET - 2008/11/10
Seat 1: pez_vela ($680)
Seat 2: borgera ($519)
pez_vela posts the small blind of $3
pungy posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pez_vela [Kd Js]
pez_vela raises to $18
borgera calls $12
*** FLOP *** [2c 5s Kc]
borgera checks
pez_vela bets $30
borgera calls $30
*** TURN *** [2c 5s Kc] [9s]
borgera checks
pez_vela bets $164
borgera raises all-in $481
pez_vela calls $317
pez_vela shows [Kd Js]
borgera shows [Kd 4d]
*** RIVER *** [7c Kh Kc 3h] [Td]
Moving is pretty stressful but I think we are getting closer to being finished on all fronts so hopefully that happens soon. And goooooo Ephs! Chelsea’s volleyball team is in the Elite 8 and playing their match tonight. I believe it is going to be webcasted on d3cast.com
