Posts Tagged ‘Personal’

One month into 2010, it’s time to review my progress towards my Yearly Resolutions.

Goal 1: Average 15 Hours/Week Playing My “Regular” Games

I’ve found that 15 hours/week enables me to earn a pretty healthy income, far more than I could make at any real job I could get, without impeding too much on my lifestyle.

I consider my regular games to be anywhere from 2/4 NL to 50/100 NL as well as big tournaments like the Sunday Majors, the FTOPS, and the WCOOP; time spent playing any of these will count towards my goal.

Slightly ahead of pace: I played about 70 hours this month, not counting a few hours spent in smaller stakes games and the PLO8 tournament at the PCA.

Goal 2: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games  Read the complete post...

Even after days when I’m totally immersed in poker, it’s pretty rare for me to dream about the game (or to remember those dreams, anyway). I’m sure it’s happened before, but I can’t recall any specific instances. I had two such dreams last night, though.

In the first, I raised with ATo and get one caller. The flop came AA9. I bet, he called. Turn was a 7, I checked, he bet, I called. River was an A, and he had about half a pot-sized bet left in his stack, so I shoved. He tanked and called with J9. “I have it,” I told him, and proudly tabled… 97. I stared at my cards in confusion for a moment, then looked at the board and said, “At lease we chop it.” Then the dealer started shuffling the board back into the deck without awarding the pot to us. As he did, I saw the 9 and 7 and, confusing myself, announced that I had two pair and it’s not a chop. The dealer called for the floor, and while we waited, I realized that it actually should be a chop. Only now the dealer has decided to reconstruct the flop and he does it wrong, this time putting up AA975, turning it into a scoop for my opponent.  Read the complete post...

I’ve been vaguely aware of both the plot of The Blind Side (homeless black teenager from broken family is adopted by wealthy white family and goes on to play pro football) and the critiques of its racial politics for some time, and despite its unexpected box office success, I’ve had little desire to see it. I’m currently in Florida visiting my grandmother, though, and she wanted to see The Blind Side, so see The Blind Side we did.

I don’t much care for Sandra Bullock, but she’s exactly as good as everyone says she is as the loving, no-nonsense matriarch of a wealthy Southern family. And the movie in general is pretty much what you’d expect: cutesy, saccharine, uplifting, and formulaic. It’s good for what it is though, with a remarkable story, quick pace, witty dialogue, and genuinely likable characters.  Read the complete post...

We were looking for a place to stay last night in Estes Park, a resort town just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. During the summer, the place is apparently over run with tourist families, but in December it’s a ghost town and lodging prices plummet. After walking out on one proprietress of a near-empty hotel who wouldn’t come down more than 5% on her price, we walked into a lobby presided over by a sweet, grandmotherly old lady named LuJean Dunlap.

She was cheerfully plump, with a knitted sweatshirt, bifocals, and a kind smile. But let me tell you, this little old lady was a straight hustler. We asked about rates for the night, and she trotted out the high-end stuff first:

“I’ve got a beautiful cabin, right on the river, hot tub, fireplace, kitchen, barbeque grill, doesn’t that sound like fun? That goes for $180.” She smiled encouragingly but we just gave her the silent treatment until she continued.  Read the complete post...

So I kind of have a second blog, though so far it’s mostly been my girlfriend posting to it so I haven’t really been promoting it as much as I should have. It’s nothing to do with poker but about our road trip/nomadic existence we’ve been living since August. Anyway, if you want the story behind this evil-looking equine, check it out!

I overheard a pretty funny conversation today that reminded me of another funny Halloween incident from some years ago.

A Critical Difference

The child in this story is roughly 9 years old.

Father: How was your Halloween party today at school.

Son: Ummm, this girl Matilda, it looked like she was wearing a sign that said “Hitler.”

Father: Oh. Geez.

Son: Yeah, it turned out it just said “Highlighter” though.

Father: You don’t want to get those two confused.

The Priest

It’s been probably 12-15 years since I witnessed this one, but I still remember it vividly. The child, about 6 years old, is in a Party City with his mother, presumably shopping for a costume.

Son: Picks up a huge plastic scythe with a blood-covered blade nearly as long as he is tall, and holds it up for his mother to see. Mommy, mommy, I want to be a priest.  Read the complete post...

Driving through Topeka this morning, we stopped at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Landmark. Unlike the iconic Central High School in Little Rock, which we visited on a previous road trip, the physical location of the Brown landmark was not particularly significant. It was simply on the first floor of what was once an all-black elementary school that the eponymous plaintiff’s daughter was required to attend.

An aggressively friendly, if defensive and apologist, ranger explained that the all-black schools in mid-twentieth century Topeka actually provided an education on par with, if not superior to, that available at the all-white schools. I’m a little skeptical of that claim, for obvious reasons, but he did cite the fact that the black teachers were on the whole more highly educated than their white counterparts.  Read the complete post...