hey guys, long time no post. here's what's been going on in my life recently:

i've been in korea for over a month and it's been awesome. the food here is inexpensive and delicious. i was never really about korean food, except for korean barbeque, but being here has definitely changed my perception of korean food. it's amazing and generally healthy.

it's also been nice hanging out with korean-american kids - i never really hung out with other korean kids ever. the most exposure i got to koreans was through american media, in which asians usually fall into two categories: nerds or martial arts fighters. being around korean track stars, swimmers, artists, and yes, harvard students, has been eye-opening and fun. i was initially against coming here, but i'm glad i did.

one thing i never realized is that koreans get fucked up all the time. people drink here like crazy. the other night, me and my friends walked by a couple helping this drunk, passed out bastard out. this guy had no shirt on and only one of his shoes, and the couple put his clothes back on for him. i assumed they were his friends, but they walked off soon afterwards, leaving him passed out on this bench. he was asleep on his back, so a friend and i tried to put him on his side, but that didn't work. we called the cops, who took care of him, but damn. every single time i've visited/gone to dinner with relatives or my parents' friends, i've been hooked up with so much food and alcohol. kinda ridiculous.

in case any of you have developed a case of asian fever, let me tell you about the girls here. girls here are skinny as fuck, drink a lot, and get a ton of plastic surgery done. you'd think that these girls are anorexic, but anorexia's predominately a western thing (but with globalization, who knows). i'm guessing that girls are so skinny here cause of a) being on a korean diet, which is much healthier, b) walking around the city, which is ridiculously hilly, c) losing pounds due to the ridiculous heat/humidity here (the humidity is comparable to st. louis, maybe even worse.) i'm generalizing here, but one of my friends told me that around 80% of women have had some form of plastic surgery done. this seems like a ridiculously high amount, but walking around the streets of korea, you can tell that the plastic surgery industry is booming here. but yeah, i don't know how these girls are personality wise because a) i've only been hanging out with korean-american kids in my program and my cousins and b) i'm very happy with my relationship, thank you very much!

i've been getting really homesick though and i'm ready to go home. i miss quiznos and thai food. anyway, me and my gf are getting an apartment in the middle of august and i'm very excited about this move! i have no hesitations about making this move, because we've virtually lived together for the last six months and our living styles are very compatible. i'm still going to be a professional poker player, which my parents aren't happy about. but when you're making $100+/hr, they can't really say anything about it. anyway, hope everyone's been running good at the tables.

andrew

RIght now, I'm experiencing a 40BI downer in just 40k hands. I don't think I'm this bad of a player, but ugh. I must have some major leaks that I don't know about. It's pretty sick. I've had to drop down from 2/4 to 1/2 and have not been fairing any better. This is really messing up my plans to go pro. If I can't turn things around, I'm going to have to job hunt, which I really didn't intend on doing. But fml, this is really bad.

I've decided it's in my best interests financially and emotionally to go pro after I graduate in May. It might not be the most stimulating thing mentally (and definitely not physically, but I'll be working out consistently), but I'm excited to take the leap. Yeah, seeing someone like a Wash U alum like Gordo make the decision to quit after being really successful for one or two years has perturbed me, but I think playing poker for 1-2 years makes a lot of sense for me at this point in my life. I calculated out what my hourly rate would have to be to make 100k in a year. If I played 4 hours a day, my hourly would have to be somewhere around $69. Seeing that my hourly right now is $62, and will be much higher by the end of the year, it'll be a breeze. I mean, last year, I started the year at .10/.25 and ended at 2/4. I anticipate making it to 5/10 by the end of the year. Poker has opened up some doors for me. I went to Aruba and Las Vegas this year because of poker money and I've also made a good amount of disposable income. It's even helped with networking... I met a bunch of Wall Street ballas the last two nights I was in Vegas. Also, my family has never been wealthy... over winter break, I took my mom and little brother out to a restaurant and paid for the entire bill. It was only a $80 meal, but I'd never had the money to do something like that before. Being able to provide for my family in a small way felt really cool. Anyway, I think this hand sums up what I've been hearing from some people about my decision.

http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $4(BB) Absolute Game#1216525710

CHIPSTER003 ($546)
GUIGUI_88 ($350)
BILLYBADAS ($462)
GOGATORS86 ($1,350)
QRTSCHAMP24 ($794)

CHIPSTER003 posts (SB) $2
GUIGUI_88 posts (BB) $4

Dealt to QRTSCHAMP24 6h 2h
fold,
GOGATORS86 raises to $14
QRTSCHAMP24 raises to $48
CHIPSTER003 calls $46
fold, fold,

FLOP ($114) 2c 6c 3h
check,
QRTSCHAMP24 bets $70
CHIPSTER003 raises to $140
QRTSCHAMP24 raises to $746
CHIPSTER003 calls $358

TURN ($1,110) 2c 6c 3h 7d

RIVER ($1,110) 2c 6c 3h 7d 9h

QRTSCHAMP24 shows 6h 2h
(Flop 71.1%, Turn 81.8%)

CHIPSTER003 shows Ks Kc
(Flop 28.9%, Turn 18.2%)

QRTSCHAMP24 wins $1,106
(11:35:27 PM) smash1809: are you sure this is how you want to live life for the next 2 years?

Good luck at the tables, everyone. And for everyone else, hope everything's been good.

when you have a decent hand that you want to see a showdown with and the flush draw hits on the turn, just play pot control so your head doesn't explode when you get check raised. thanks buddy.

Recently, I've been trying to qualify for PCA, which is this tournament down in the Caribbean (for my non-poker player friends) that's occuring from the 5th-10th. The whole qualifying process has been brutal. It's been a really unpleasant grind, but if I qualify, which I will, it will make being down there all the more sweeter.

So yesterday, I had a -3k day in cash games... by far my worst day ever. I'm still making over 100/hr on the month, but losing 3k really hurt, especially since the qualification process has been going nowhere. Let's get to it.

Winners:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3619220

This was actually a really bad play by me. Villain raised pot against the mb, which actually is a really strong line. I don't even have a nut flush draw. Villain will stack off with better FD's, overpairs, sets, two pairs... I don't have a lot of fold equity against a villain that pots it. Very bad, tilty play by me.

Losers:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3619228

A few hands before, I'd used a pot control line with a medium strength hand and Wahoozle had pushed me off it. So I decided I'd switch things up with my AQ and take a line that looked like pot control. I c-c the flop with the intent of CRAI most turns, but the turn gets checked behind. The river puts out a four-straight, which I thought would be a great board for Wahoozle to bluff at. He shoves and I snap call to see the pot get shipped over to his straight. I don't think he's overbet bluffing in this spot too often. He knows that I know that the overbet looks bluffy. Bad call by me. The river should be a fold and I'm not being results oriented.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3619249

Let's do the math behind this hand. Villain is 24/18/4.3 with a 3-bet% of 8.3 after 160 hands. I'd been very active at this table. 3-betting is automatic for me, as AQo is a 57% favorite over an 18% opening range. However, since I'd been active, I should've had a plan about how I would react if I got 4-bet, as it was more likely that players would play back at me pre. I hadn't really thought about it after I 3-bet, which was a mistake. He min 4-bet, to which I should've folded. If he was 4-bet bluffing, he would have made his 4-bet size bigger for the increased fold equity. I don't think villain's smart enough to get in that kind of leveling war with me. He never stacks off with worse. How often does my 5-bet shove have to work for it to be profitable? x = % he folds. 160x + (1-x)(.67(-308) + .33(308+160)) = 0

x = .25 - Is he going to be folding 25% of his 4-betting range? Even though I'd been pretty active at this table, I don't think so. This is the first time he'd 4-bet me, so I should've given him credit and moved on.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3619312

I feel like this hand is somewhat standard. He trapped me pretty well. Obviously I'm looking for a safe turn and getting it in here. The small raise on the flop is somewhat alarming, but there's nothing you can do in this spot. After he checks on the turn, it's an autoshove, right?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3619315

Villain is total fish. Flop and turn are standard. If he had a higher aggression factor, a check on the turn with the intent on raising wouldn't have been a bad play. River... I mean, I'm not too happy that the flush hit, but a set should have raised earlier and I beat higher two pairs. There's a lot of value to be found on the river. A3 is the only straight that I lose to on the river. I can't c/c this river. All the hands that bet the river are ones that would call my river bet. If I checked, I think I'd have to fold... and I'm not really a fan.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3619326

This is a horrible river raise. The combinations of hands that call me and lose are way less than the combos of hands that call me and win. If he's bluffing the river, he's not going to call a raise. Bad, bad, bad.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3619329

This hand confused the shit out of me. After he 3-bet and checked that flop, I figured he had air or nothing. The turn changed nothing, so I checked behind. After he checks the river, I go for value (99, 88?) and he CRAI...? I really don't know about this hand. Maybe I should've bet the flop and got it in? Villain knows that I bet a set or overpair by at least the turn and knows that I play very aggressively post flop. So I guess it's an easy c/r for him when I bet the river.

There's two triple barrels that failed too, but I'm too tired to post more hands now. Good luck at the tables, everyone.

After running out of contact solution, do not use your suitemate's "Clean Care" contact solution. The sensation of the solution hitting your eye is like throwing gasoline in your eye while tiny ants with spiked shoes crawl on it afterwards. Ouch.

My poker results for the month:




New (and cheap!) kicks:



Zach Galifianakis "interviewing" Michael Cera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLN7NkqTJJg

Updates on life forthcoming.

Today marks the first day of a new beginning. It all changes now.

Sitting in my hotel room in Aruba, I'm getting more and more pumped up for the tournament, which starts in a little more than an hour. I landed in Aruba Saturday afternoon and have been thoroughly enjoying my time in what truly is a paradise. The Radisson in Aruba is right next to the beach front, and the beach here is easily the most gorgeous beach I've been on. Aruba itself is such a huge tourist trap, but I love it. I'll give a more comprehensive report later, but let me just say that things have been crazy and fun around here. Wish me luck, kids.

School started here today. Washington University in St. Louis. What a school. It's weird being a senior now - I feel so old. There are all these students running around on campus that I've never seen before and the freshmen look super young! I can't believe it. It's a strange time right now. It's a time where I have to look ahead and figure out what I want the future to hold for me, but I just don't know what I want. The poker lifestyle is not one that I want for myself. I want a career where I can advance myself pretty quickly up the ladder, one that includes comprehensive health insurance and benefits. For some, poker brings in a lot of money, and I hope it will for me in the future too, but it's just not stable enough of a job for me. I know I couldn't do it for more than 2 years full-time and to be honest, I don't even think I would like it all that much. That being said, it's a fun and profitable hobby and I'm not going to quit anytime soon.

Anyway, I had a great summer. The first month, I was back home in Seattle and it was pretty nice being back. Living with my parents stressed me out as they nagged me about every little thing but it was good seeing them and my high school friends again. My summer really started once I got to St. Louis, however. A lot of my Wash U friends were around this summer and I spent a lot of quality time with them. I picked up the sport of tennis, started lifting weights consistently, and found out that, yes, pinball machines kick ass and I'm not embarassed to say it. I learned that going out all the time can get very expensive. I also discovered long distance relationships are very hard if you don't see the person somewhat regularly. And even if you do, they're still tough. I learned a necessary lesson about making 100% sure that the designated driver was actually sober (don't worry, nobody got hurt or in that much legal trouble). I went to Lollapalooza and had an amazing time there, as I saw Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kanye, Girltalk, and another incredible acts. I meant to write a full TR about that, but hey, I'm lazy. I skinny dipped in Lake Michigan the night of my 21st, after the Rage concert.

On a poker note, I learned about how much of a bitch variance can be. Observe (right click on the picture, click view image and it will get bigger):

Painful, huh? A little less than 9k under expectation. I took 2 shots at 2/4, failed both times, and proceeded to go on major downswings at 1/2 both times. Thank God for rakeback. However, I did win a 8.5k prize package to Aruba, so all is not lost. I started playing tournaments on Sunday as practice for Aruba, and I cashed in both the Sunday Million and the UB 200k guarantee. Hopefully I continue running well in that area. I also became tight with a few poker buddies and will be going to Aruba with them soon, so that's exciting as well. Run good at the tables, poker kids. And enjoy the end of summer/beginning of school to everyone else.