Standing over lit fireworks is bad.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Crushed the Matrix
The NLHE matrix, that is. Lately I've been wasting time late at night after Ali falls asleep by playing low limit sit'n'gos and matrix tournaments. In the last 10 days or so, I've been on a ridiculous tear, cashing in EVERY one I play in. The only tourney in the last week of play I didn't cash in was a $24+$2 HORSE tourney that I used a $26 tourney token for that I won for four bucks. In that tourney, there were 237 runner, 27 spots paid and I came in 28th. Ouch for the bubble.
Anyway, I had to share this screen shot because I tore this matrix tourney apart like rice paper. It was insane. I place 1,2,1,2 in the tourneys and had 52 freaking matrix points! Dyaaaaam!
Anyway, I had to share this screen shot because I tore this matrix tourney apart like rice paper. It was insane. I place 1,2,1,2 in the tourneys and had 52 freaking matrix points! Dyaaaaam!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Best. Headline. Ever.
Click the link for a headline only Fox could post without being ironic:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529935,00.html?mrp
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529935,00.html?mrp
The Wall Street Poker death spiral
It's over guys. For all intents and purposes, the Wall Street Poker League has shut down operations.
The tournaments stopped a few months back when the last season ended. I kept the Thursday $1/$2 NLHE cash game going solely as a means of income, but now that I have a consulting gig I'm stopping that too. Actually, the cash game will still go on at another location, I just won't be dealing it (same deal with the $5/hr rake).
The reasons for the conclusion of this once mighty home league are multiple (listed in no particular order):
1. I'm kind of sick of doing it - It's a very laborious, tedious and sometimes thankless process to run the home games. I never took any money from them (except the last few months with the $1/$2 cash game), so I wasn't compensated for my efforts except with friendly companionship and wonderful poker games. For nearly 5 years, that was enough for me. But in the last 9 months, it's become a bit tedious. The thrill of the games has been replaced by a feeling that I've seen this before. Nothing was new anymore and we'd seen every possible combination of bad beat imaginable. There were no more thrills to be had from $30 sit'n'gos.
2. The 'wife' factor - I'm in a wonderful relationship now with a girl whom I really love and who loves me back. I sometimes didn't know if it was possible to feel this way about a woman again, especially after some of the personal horrors I've been through in my marriage and my post-marital dating. But it really happened and it's as real as it gets. Poker is a passion of mine but I know it's place in the happiness hierarchy. First comes the relationship from which all other things spring. Then, and only after that, comes the other stuff. Recreation is just that. Recreation. It's not my life and it's not my focus. Ali doesn't like playing as much as I do and I can't afford to bankroll her poker education, so we can't play together. And if that's the case, I'd prefer being on the couch beside her watching an old C.S.I. episode than being without her in a poker room (mine or someone else's). This doesn't mean I won't play sometimes in someone else's game or even try to host an occasional tournament, it just means I can't afford to expend the energy anymore setting this up twice a week.
3. The player pool has shrunk too far - I've had a successful poker league going for over 5 years now and over that time I've learned what you need to keep something like that afloat. Numbers. Plain and simple. You need asses in the seats, otherwise you have no game and you have no league. At the height of it's success (about 2 years ago I'd say), Wall Street Poker could send out an Evite to 130 people for 2 tournaments in a night and fully expect the list to be booked solid within 5 minutes of the invitation being sent. It got to the point where my regulars asked me to implement some sort of system to allow them easier access (in reward for their core loyalty). In response, I set up a way get 24 hours of warning in advance of an Evite being set up in return for a nominal fee (which I used to upgrade our old and fading poker table). Those days are far gone though. For a variety of reasons, the players who used to respond quickly stopped coming and it got to the point where I sent out an Evite for two tournaments a few months back and had to cancel it after getting only 5 responses, total. I used to have 130 people on the Evite list, 30 of whom were hard core regulars (attended more than twice a month), 60 of whom were sometme players (attended about once every two months) and 40 of whom were new to the list and hadn't attended yet. I am now down to a list of 100, of whom maybe 5 can be considered hardcore regulars. The core group has broken up a long time ago. Dustin stopped coming because he lost interest in the game. The Slayer moved in with his girlfriend in Jersey City, precluding attendance. CK and F-Train moved to Vegas. Darko upped his stakes, as did Vivian. W decided that being the house is better than being the player (smart). Abbie got into a relationship and dropped out of regular attendance. Liezl and Viet are expecting a child (soon). LJ moved to Jersey. Tae, Shawn and Marco had difficultes making the commute. The list goes on. To make matters worse, the death of the large poker rooms in the city made recruitment of new players a major difficulty. W had done most of the recruiting, becoming a gadfly of the first order. She now puts those talents to her own use. I kept up on my own for a while, first with the Deutsche game and then with odd people I met in Atlantic City (Chris Chin being the best example). But word of mouth only goes so far and without a sustained effort on my part, the player pool has dried up.
Jordan once said to me that "All home games go through a cycle". I think he said it in regards to the Crackhouse game, which was defunct for a while but now showing signs of a small reboot. It definitely also applies to my game as well. Thanks to everyone for making the last 5 years so incredibly memorable and important to me. I got my job at Merrill through the game, as well as an ex-girlfriend! I also met the love of my life through the same game, so I can never be too upset about it dying like this. Thanks especially to Scott St. G., who started this game with me all those years ago after a random conversation at our job at JPMorgan. Thanks also to Paulie Walnuts, who holds the honor of the only player to be with me from start to finish. And thanks to W, Darko, Slayer, Abbie, Michael Brown and others who formed the core group for whom talking about poker was like discussing fine art.
I will continue to keep the main poker table in my apartment until May 1st when my lease is up. After that, it's gone. I'm keeping the chips though, always. You never know when another game may start!
Please, if you have any fond memories of the game over the years, leave a comment.
The tournaments stopped a few months back when the last season ended. I kept the Thursday $1/$2 NLHE cash game going solely as a means of income, but now that I have a consulting gig I'm stopping that too. Actually, the cash game will still go on at another location, I just won't be dealing it (same deal with the $5/hr rake).
The reasons for the conclusion of this once mighty home league are multiple (listed in no particular order):
1. I'm kind of sick of doing it - It's a very laborious, tedious and sometimes thankless process to run the home games. I never took any money from them (except the last few months with the $1/$2 cash game), so I wasn't compensated for my efforts except with friendly companionship and wonderful poker games. For nearly 5 years, that was enough for me. But in the last 9 months, it's become a bit tedious. The thrill of the games has been replaced by a feeling that I've seen this before. Nothing was new anymore and we'd seen every possible combination of bad beat imaginable. There were no more thrills to be had from $30 sit'n'gos.
2. The 'wife' factor - I'm in a wonderful relationship now with a girl whom I really love and who loves me back. I sometimes didn't know if it was possible to feel this way about a woman again, especially after some of the personal horrors I've been through in my marriage and my post-marital dating. But it really happened and it's as real as it gets. Poker is a passion of mine but I know it's place in the happiness hierarchy. First comes the relationship from which all other things spring. Then, and only after that, comes the other stuff. Recreation is just that. Recreation. It's not my life and it's not my focus. Ali doesn't like playing as much as I do and I can't afford to bankroll her poker education, so we can't play together. And if that's the case, I'd prefer being on the couch beside her watching an old C.S.I. episode than being without her in a poker room (mine or someone else's). This doesn't mean I won't play sometimes in someone else's game or even try to host an occasional tournament, it just means I can't afford to expend the energy anymore setting this up twice a week.
3. The player pool has shrunk too far - I've had a successful poker league going for over 5 years now and over that time I've learned what you need to keep something like that afloat. Numbers. Plain and simple. You need asses in the seats, otherwise you have no game and you have no league. At the height of it's success (about 2 years ago I'd say), Wall Street Poker could send out an Evite to 130 people for 2 tournaments in a night and fully expect the list to be booked solid within 5 minutes of the invitation being sent. It got to the point where my regulars asked me to implement some sort of system to allow them easier access (in reward for their core loyalty). In response, I set up a way get 24 hours of warning in advance of an Evite being set up in return for a nominal fee (which I used to upgrade our old and fading poker table). Those days are far gone though. For a variety of reasons, the players who used to respond quickly stopped coming and it got to the point where I sent out an Evite for two tournaments a few months back and had to cancel it after getting only 5 responses, total. I used to have 130 people on the Evite list, 30 of whom were hard core regulars (attended more than twice a month), 60 of whom were sometme players (attended about once every two months) and 40 of whom were new to the list and hadn't attended yet. I am now down to a list of 100, of whom maybe 5 can be considered hardcore regulars. The core group has broken up a long time ago. Dustin stopped coming because he lost interest in the game. The Slayer moved in with his girlfriend in Jersey City, precluding attendance. CK and F-Train moved to Vegas. Darko upped his stakes, as did Vivian. W decided that being the house is better than being the player (smart). Abbie got into a relationship and dropped out of regular attendance. Liezl and Viet are expecting a child (soon). LJ moved to Jersey. Tae, Shawn and Marco had difficultes making the commute. The list goes on. To make matters worse, the death of the large poker rooms in the city made recruitment of new players a major difficulty. W had done most of the recruiting, becoming a gadfly of the first order. She now puts those talents to her own use. I kept up on my own for a while, first with the Deutsche game and then with odd people I met in Atlantic City (Chris Chin being the best example). But word of mouth only goes so far and without a sustained effort on my part, the player pool has dried up.
Jordan once said to me that "All home games go through a cycle". I think he said it in regards to the Crackhouse game, which was defunct for a while but now showing signs of a small reboot. It definitely also applies to my game as well. Thanks to everyone for making the last 5 years so incredibly memorable and important to me. I got my job at Merrill through the game, as well as an ex-girlfriend! I also met the love of my life through the same game, so I can never be too upset about it dying like this. Thanks especially to Scott St. G., who started this game with me all those years ago after a random conversation at our job at JPMorgan. Thanks also to Paulie Walnuts, who holds the honor of the only player to be with me from start to finish. And thanks to W, Darko, Slayer, Abbie, Michael Brown and others who formed the core group for whom talking about poker was like discussing fine art.
I will continue to keep the main poker table in my apartment until May 1st when my lease is up. After that, it's gone. I'm keeping the chips though, always. You never know when another game may start!
Please, if you have any fond memories of the game over the years, leave a comment.
One more thing
To the hater who left me a public message of disgrace the day I announced I'd lost my job (and we both know who you are):
Fuck you. I may have been unemployed for a few months and I may be again in the future. But at least I'm not wasting an Ivy League education holding a camera to produce bargain basement porn. I'm sure your parents are proud as hell.
Fuck you. I may have been unemployed for a few months and I may be again in the future. But at least I'm not wasting an Ivy League education holding a camera to produce bargain basement porn. I'm sure your parents are proud as hell.
After 5 months, someone thinks I'm worth something
It's been a long spell of unemployment for me. The longest of my working life, in fact. It's a strange feeling to wake up every day with no purpose in your life. No where you have to be and nothing you really *have* to do that can't wait until you're damned good and ready. House chores get left undone even though that's all you have to do. Every task seems like it's not necessary since there's no time pressure. So you start to make up things to do. You motivate yourself. This is after the obligatory 2 month binge of freedom that saw me traveling to check out the Midwestern poker scene and making numerous trips to AC.
Well, I'm happy to announce that it's all over. I got a call this past Tuesday at 5:20p from a recruiter I've been working with, telling me he's set me up for an interview at AIG (yes, that AIG) at 8:00a the following morning. I don't like to do much at 8:00a, and I had a tech interview the next day at 10:30a for another firm, so I asked him to move it. He said it wasn't possible. It was 8:00a or no interview. I decided I could make it work, so I got up early, put on my Sunday best, and trotted off to the AIG office at 70 Pine Street.
It was a smashing success. So much so, that after interviewing with 4 different people for 1hr and 45m, they sent me directly over to an admin to make arrangements for my background check (a necessary part of any bank or government job). They normally don't do a background check for non-hires, so this was a good sign.
Ali and I immediately celebrated with a long awaited dinner at Delmonico's and a Broadway show. I'll be starting next week, around Tuesday or Wednesday.
The job is a consulting assignment working for the AIG investment group, which is desperately trying to get itself sold. My job will be to automate and streamline the reporting process by which the businesses report their monthly PnL (profit and loss) to the Finance heads. This is important stuff normally but extra important when a takeover is imminent as the numbers need to be super accurate. Fortunately, this is exactly the sort of job I've been doing my whole career and I'm very excited to get started. If things go well with me and the group does get spun off, there very well might be a nice full time gig for me at the new company.
Best part about this gig though: The commute is 150 feet from door to door. Loving it.
Well, I'm happy to announce that it's all over. I got a call this past Tuesday at 5:20p from a recruiter I've been working with, telling me he's set me up for an interview at AIG (yes, that AIG) at 8:00a the following morning. I don't like to do much at 8:00a, and I had a tech interview the next day at 10:30a for another firm, so I asked him to move it. He said it wasn't possible. It was 8:00a or no interview. I decided I could make it work, so I got up early, put on my Sunday best, and trotted off to the AIG office at 70 Pine Street.
It was a smashing success. So much so, that after interviewing with 4 different people for 1hr and 45m, they sent me directly over to an admin to make arrangements for my background check (a necessary part of any bank or government job). They normally don't do a background check for non-hires, so this was a good sign.
Ali and I immediately celebrated with a long awaited dinner at Delmonico's and a Broadway show. I'll be starting next week, around Tuesday or Wednesday.
The job is a consulting assignment working for the AIG investment group, which is desperately trying to get itself sold. My job will be to automate and streamline the reporting process by which the businesses report their monthly PnL (profit and loss) to the Finance heads. This is important stuff normally but extra important when a takeover is imminent as the numbers need to be super accurate. Fortunately, this is exactly the sort of job I've been doing my whole career and I'm very excited to get started. If things go well with me and the group does get spun off, there very well might be a nice full time gig for me at the new company.
Best part about this gig though: The commute is 150 feet from door to door. Loving it.
Our horse died early
Big Paul, playing in event 51 of this year's WSOP (that's a $1500 NLHE event) busted out on day 1 in an awful display of bad-beatedness. From what he could text me, his AA got cracked by 88 for a sizeable pot and then he shoved his remainder with KK only to lose to AA.
For what it's worth, we had a good runner in the game. I'm following LJ for now, as she has advanced to Day 2 of the Main Event.
For what it's worth, we had a good runner in the game. I'm following LJ for now, as she has advanced to Day 2 of the Main Event.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Things are looking up?
Nothing's definite and I'm a long way from the promised land, but today is the first day in 5 months that things are starting to look good. There's so many good things floating around that I have to believe at least one of them will work out!
In fact, it made me think of this song, for some reason, and it reminded me of just how amazing the video is:
You must love it. You must.
In fact, it made me think of this song, for some reason, and it reminded me of just how amazing the video is:
You must love it. You must.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
LJ busts out of the $1500 HORSE event in 10th place
I have mixed feelings here. On one hand, it's AMAZING to go so deep in the tourney. And let's be frank here, a payout of $19,265 on a $1,500 investment ain't nothing to sneeze at. After all, there's a veritable who's who of poker's elite who got jack shit after playing in the same tournament.
On the other hand, it must be incredibly difficult to stomach being in contention for most of the day only to bust on the bubble of the final table. I only saw F-Train post two or three entries on the downswing, but the pots must have been big.
Nevermind that. Good going Lana! I hope you'll concentrate on how great the accomplishment was rather than the disappointment and that will drive you forward. Keep it up and you're due for a final table soon.
On the other hand, it must be incredibly difficult to stomach being in contention for most of the day only to bust on the bubble of the final table. I only saw F-Train post two or three entries on the downswing, but the pots must have been big.
Nevermind that. Good going Lana! I hope you'll concentrate on how great the accomplishment was rather than the disappointment and that will drive you forward. Keep it up and you're due for a final table soon.
The Wall Street train rolls on
Ok, I can't quite take credit for this one, but the list of players who have played at the Wall Street table and are cashing in the WSOP is growing steadily. This time, Lana, our dear LJ, is LEADING THE FIELD at the $1500 HORSE event (Event #31)!!! As of 12:20AM EST 6/16/09, the bubble has burst and Lana has not only cashed but she's LEADING THE FREAKING FIELD!!!!!
This is the best shot we've had since, oh...a few days ago, to have one of our own capture a bracelet.
GO LJ!!!
UPDATE: After starting Day 3 as a shorty stack, Lana is now in 2nd place with 13 players left!!! My excitement level is at an extreme.
Update 2: Make that 10 players left. She just scooped a big pot so she might even be in the lead! Oh hell, just go to PokerNews.Com to get the updates.
This is the best shot we've had since, oh...a few days ago, to have one of our own capture a bracelet.
GO LJ!!!
UPDATE: After starting Day 3 as a shorty stack, Lana is now in 2nd place with 13 players left!!! My excitement level is at an extreme.
Update 2: Make that 10 players left. She just scooped a big pot so she might even be in the lead! Oh hell, just go to PokerNews.Com to get the updates.
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