Random Stuff

I haven't been in the mood to write lately. Last night I tried to type something out, then realized that anything I said was going to be not interesting and promptly gave up. The last few days just haven't been much fun.....

I spent the weekend in LA visiting Danielle's family and, specifically, attending her great-grandmother's 95th birthday party. The woman still has two volunteer positions (and siblings) and drives on the freeway. Pretty incredible, if you ask me. Because of her Danielle is convinced she needs $4,000,000 before she can retire. It's tough when you enter things into the calculator like "I want to retire at age 65" and "I plan to live to be 115."

Since my return Sunday night, however, poker has been one giant KITN after another. Sunday night I played about 3 hours at Bay 101 and lost 700. Monday I went to the Oaks to attempt to play 30/60, found myself in an awesome game for about 2 hours, during which I lost a rack of $10 chips, then eventually ended up 7 handed in the worst mid stakes lineup I've ever seen (with Mitch L and bdaddy from TwoPlusTwo, one other guy Mitch didn't seem to think was retarded, and a regular who cashed deep in the shooting star last week). The game promptly broke, as 4 of us are sitting there looking at each other like "Um, yeah, so...."

I did manage to get bluffed off the best hand by a tilt-monkey in 15/30. To wit....

I limp 97ss in EP. The last three hands have been 5, 7, and 5 handed for 2, 1, and 1 bets respectively.

Some how I end up heads up against the lowjack. He's white, disheveled, maybe 40 years old....

972

Not bad. I check to raise. He checks to check.

Q, putting up two spades (you'll note I also have 2 apades)

I bet to 3-bet. He raises to raise. I 3-bet to own his soul. He calls.

Q

Christage. I check and fold, as my hand has been reduced to a pair of 9s, no kicker. I don't even beat T9, not to mention all the Queens this guy has, or AA, KK, JJ, or TT. He tables 55. I cry.

Then yesterday at Bay 101 I played horribly, got bluffed off the winner like 15 times, got stuck 3 racks, and then somehow went on a heater in the last 45 minutes to leave up 200. God Damn miracle if you ask me. Today was more ball busting, with me breaking even for 7.5 hours, then promtply losing 2 racks in 90 minutes to go home a big loser. When you run bad, you start to play bad, and when I play bad, I get frustrated. When I get frustrated, I get angry, and when I'm angry, I end up questioning every betting decision I make, even the super simple ones. I go on this weird form of tilt where I look for reasons to fold the best hand, which is just stupid. Yesterday I think I actually quelled my insano-monkey tilt, even after the following hand:

Pete open raises in late position. I 3-bet red jacks. RU the floorman calls from the big blind and Pete caps. I know Pete caps light here, both for deception and value, as he has RU crushed. The flop is:

Ts 7c 5c

RU checks, Pete bets, I raise, RU calls, Pete calls.

Tc

You'll note this is the worst card in the deck. RU donk bets, Pete calls, and I fold like an idiot. The hand goes to showdown, with one more bet on the river, and Pete shows Ac Qd for...Ace-High. And the win. I was beside myself after this one, but managed to pull it together and start playing "good" again. I think it was a pretty important day in my poker career, as I managed to untilt, something that in the past has been really hard for me to do.

I also probably have some new readers, as I've been listed on two blog rolls in the last week. First, I'm on the Slice of MIT blogroll. I bet I don't stand out too much at all there....and second, Tommy Angelo has linked me from his blog (I managed to have lunch with the man last week, and have to say, he's one cool dude). So to anyone reading for the first time, nice to meet you.

Finally, I have a shout out to make. My friend Gregor, whom I met at MIT, works for Terrafugia. To make a long story, they built a flying car (more specifically, a street legal airplane) that just completed it's first test flight this month. Anybody with an engineering bone in their body has to take a look at this thing; It's awesome :)