I think for this blog I am going to do a bunch of random lines about life lately, as well as catch up on a few wsop things I didn't get to in my previous entry...
-- The CR party that happened during the WSOP was a blast. I ended up playing a lot of Beer Pong; two games with Dahlig763 as we shared our Minnesota bond (went 1-1), and six undefeated games with RyanRizza. Us two were really the ultimate teammates. Whenever one of us struggled, the other immediately picked it up, and then half the time we were both on and smoked through all the cups quickly (three of the games we won by 5 or 6 cups). Perhaps at next year's WSOP Ryan and I can make a Beer Pong instructional video ;).
-- Weirdest WSOP story I heard: allegedly, a hooker was busted at the Rio for trying to cash in tournament chips at the main cage. So, basically, a poker player smuggled tourney chips out of an event (or more likely a satelite), then proceeded to get a hooker and pay her with tourney chips, which she apparently had no clue weren't really Rio chips.
-- Second weirdest WSOP story I heard: While playing in a cash game, Yakov turns and points towards a guy. "Have you played with him before?" "Yeah, we've been put at the same tourney table before." "One time in a cash game, that guy announced he was all in, shoved all his chips forward... Then reached up to his face and pulled his eye out, placed that on top of the chip stack too, then declared that now he was actually all the way in." I've never noticed one of his eyes is a glass eye... dunno how I would've reacted had that happened in front of me.
-- Online poker between May-July has been brutal for me. In fact, my worst run ever online (BB-wise, and getting pretty close $-wise too). At its peak, about 550BBs. Near the end of July I was even going to take 3 months off from LHE. In fact, kinda funny story: while playing, I send Ian J an IM of "I think I'm finally gonna take a long break from LHE." Less than a minute later, I get two aces and raise, someone cold calls, SB calls, Ian 3 bets from the BB, I cap, all call. Flop comes J52 rainbow. I bet, SB calls, Ian calls. Turn 4. I bet and both call. River 7. I bet, SB checkraises, I know I'm beat but don't care and want to see how, and SB has the 86. Ian sends me a, "and that seals it..." Kind of tough to ignore 'signs' like that. Anyway, my actual "break" from LHE lasted just under a week. It's been going better since then. (EDIT: I played a quick little session after typing this blog... obv the poker gods mock me for thinking things are better. I won 1 of 16 showdowns. Yeah, that's 48/6 showdown stats average 3.6 handed... It was kinda like I sit with $20k, I blink, thanks for playing you have $0 in front of you. Seriously so life tilting how for over 3+ months straight online you can just not make a winning hand, not get paid off, draw dead and hit, draw to the world and miss, get out flopped, out turned, out rivered, over and over and over)
-- I've been playing a decent amount of PLO and mixed games too. So far on full tilt I'm up about 5 buy ins in $2/4 blind PLO in what I would guesstimate is maybe 1500-2000 hands (haven't gotten PT Omaha fully set up yet). I know I'm making some mistakes but also think I've been doing a lot of things really well in it. I like the challenge of something new, though at the same time it kind of sucks knowing that to truly get good at the game it's going to take a lot of hard studying and meticulous reflecting and thinking for weeks or even months on end. Not that I'm not still constantly trying to improve at LHE, it's just two totally different types of commitment. I graduated from college already and want to be done with "studying," which makes it not easy to get myself back to that academic, scholarly studying-type approach with poker.
-- As for the mixed games, me BK, John, Dave P and a few others have been going to Running Aces (the new card room that opened in the northern suburbs of MN in July) once or twice a week the last several weeks and been playing 30/60 HOE (and SOE one night). So far I'm up a few thousand in that and feel like I'm now actually somewhat competent at OE. Stud Hi I still feel pretty lost in, but hopefully with time that'll change. A night or two ago I played a couple hours of 50/100 horse on full tilt and won $1100. I think if I keep up this type of dedication, I'll be to the point where come my next live poker trip, if there's a super duper good mixed game going, I would have the confidence to try sitting in it. We think we want to make a "regular" HOE (or perhaps HOSE or HORSE) game one night a week at Running Aces... So if you're a Minnesota player who'd want to play 30/60 mixed games with us at Running Aces, let me know since we could always use another player or two for the game. So far our mixed game has varied between 4-7 handed.
-- Running Aces is pretty nice. I like how accomodating they are towards us, the spaciousness of the room, and the much more comfortable chairs. Plus they've been super relaxed on the rake we've been paying in our mixed games. Playing 4 handed and only getting charged $1 for rake is super cool. So far a thumbs up to them for sure.
-- Earlier today I had to help my sister move. She lived in Rochester, and is moving back up to the cities. The drive to/from there always cracks me up because there are a few funny signs. One of them about how you're entering "zero death corridor" or something like that, and another that simply says, "concentrate on driving." Which, speaking of, I'm angry the state made it a law that you can no longer text while driving. I think it's an impossible law to enforce personally, since u can still dial a phone number, hold your phone, talk on your phone, and do any countless other number of things with your phone -- so how are they to say whether you're texting or doing one of those other things? Plus, even though there are stupid people who do stupid things, I in general like to side towards letting people decide their own capabilities. I feel, for example, I am perfectly able to text while driving. I make good choices about when I am in safe enough surroundings to be able to do so, and when I should put my phone down and focus 100% on driving. Anyway, after today it's now 100% certain in my mind that whenever I next move, I'm paying someone to do it for me. My body isn't built for carrying huge couches and desks and dressers and lord knows what else down flights of stairs and around corners.
-- Also, kinda shocked that for 20 cents, you can get an hour's worth of time with a parking meter in Rochester. Man, 25 cents gets you either 7.5 minutes or 15 minutes in Minneapolis.
-- Taking up some of my weekday time lately has been looking at duplexes. I think last week I looked at 8 different duplexes-fourplexes around the cities. Got one or two I really like and may purchase in the coming months. Like poker was 6 years ago, I'm treating real estate as a new challenge to conquer. There are definitely some amazing deals out there for people who have the diligence to find them, the patience to not settle, and the expendable income to invest, especially in the Twin Cities market.
-- Tomorrow I've got a bunch of friends coming over at noon to play volleyball all afternoon and have some food. Man alive it's been a long time coming for some volleyball games. Volleyball games are probably one of the reasons I'll eventually make my WSOP a short one, it really stinks not being in Minnesota almost all of June and part of July. Back in the day we all used to play vball several nights a week. Now with everyone "grown up" and with jobs and (in a few cases) wives, it's tougher for us all to find time everyone can make it. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked for a good 6 hours of vball.
-- Uptown Art Festival is this weekend. Last year (blog here: http://www.cardrunners.com/members/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1597&Itemid=44 ) it did a nice little dent to my bank account. In a few days I'll let ya know if I make any purcahases there this year. I think I probably won't make it out there till Sunday, even though it's more or less in my backyard.
-- I went to all four Twins-White Sox games. Awesome time. Holy cow the Twins are so resilient. Two of the four games they were down 4-0 halfway through and came back to win. The fourth game was one of the most fun Twins games of the season, notably due to Gardy's ejection and subsequent hat-kick... It's pretty common for him to get thrown out; however, of the 50+ times I've seen it, never have I seen him that furious. I think this Twins team can make it deep, especially with Liriano coming back up. It's going to be an exciting last 2 months of the season, I'm so glad BK and I got sweet season tickets. If the Twins somehow pull off a post season run, I'd have to give a nod to Alexi Casilla as an unsung team-MVP. His promotion from AAA was right around the time we started making a big turn around, and he's for sure been a nice spark plug in the #2 slot.
-- Last thing I think that I didn't mention in any older blog... During the WSOP when I took a break from Vegas and went back to MN, one of the things I did was go to "Rock the Garden" (a concert outside at the Walker Art Center). The four music acts were Bon Iver, Cloud Cult, the New Pornographers, and Andrew Bird. Cloud Cult is from Minnesota, and have a pretty unique sound. I think y'all should at least check em out a little if you haven't heard of them:
