Sorry

So, yeah.

Grindapalooza Liveblog

Here we go. Honestly, I'm kind of getting cold feet about not going out tonight, but for now I'm sticking to the plan.

The Details:

I'll start out 4-tabling 100 NL (for the uninitiated, that's a $100 buy-in, blinds are $.50-$1). I may try to add a few tables, but probably won't go above 6 at 100 NL. I might also mix in some 9-tabling at 50 NL. If the games seem extra soft and I'm running well, I might also play some 200 NL later in the night.

I'll be doing hourly liveblog updates.

Gameplan: The whole idea of playing tonight is that people will be drunk and crazy. I expect a lot of people will be looking to gamble, so I don't plan to try to run a lot of bluffs or make any big plays. Barring reads on specific players, I'm mostly looking to get paid off on my big hands.

Goals: Table-select aggressively. Especially tonight, sitting at a table with 6 regulars is really inexcusable. If there's not at least one obvious fish at the table, I'll be looking to switch it out.

Caffeine? Check. New monitor? Check. Snuggie? Check.

See you in an hour.

HOUR 1

Up 350, running REALLY hot, had a few huge suckouts. Will post hands in a minute.

Up about 500 at midnight. Opened KK from CU, got called by BB. Flop is JJ8...He check-raises, I 3bet, he flats. 100 in the pot, 75 behind. Turn is third Jack. He checks, I jam 75 and he calls with 88. Sick suckout, but his turn call seems pretty terrible. Does he think I'm bluffing there? I think he was just frustrated...I sucked out to win another big pot against him a few minutes earlier.

12:48

It's been a weird session. Even though I'm up a couple buy-ins, I haven't really been getting it in good (except for one time when a guy called off his whole stack with 39s against my aces when he paired a 9 on the flop). Mostly I've been really lucky, though. Gotta re-focus and play some better poker. Going downstairs to make some pasta, try to play some more after that.

1:42

Back to it. Hands: 1016 Net: +392 Dr. Peppers: 3

Grindapalooza

One of the big selling points of playing poker for a living is that you can pick your own hours. But sometimes the game is so good that you pretty much have to play. I haven't been around long enough to know, but they say New Year's Eve is the best day of the year to play poker.

A skeptical friend said, "I wouldn't think sitting in front of a computer would be so popular on New Year's Eve." But the question isn't, "Would I rather go out or sit in front of a computer?" It's, "If I were the sort of person to dump off a load of money playing online poker, would I be more likely to do that on New Year's Eve or a random day?" Apparently the answer is, on New Year's Eve.

With that in mind, I bring you New Year's Eve Grindapalooza 09-10. I'll be liveblogging as I grind it out all night New Year's Eve. I'm playing in an indoor ultimate tournament that day, so the plan is to do that, sleep for a few hours, then start playing around 10 p.m. and keep it going until about 6 a.m., or as long as the games are juicy. I'll keep you updated on all the hands, pots, bluffs, and bad beats, as well as my net for the night and my music mix. Turn on, tune in, suck out.

The Beard Stays

They have weird power outlets in Europe, so if you want to use an American appliance, you have to use an adapter. You probably knew that. But did you also know that there are different adapters for different voltages? I didn't, which is how I fried my beautiful electric razor, which I bought from Amazon after reading all the customer reviews, and which cut through a thick beard like Uma Thurman through ninjas -- not like your usual commercial variety, which seems to be modeled after the Suck Kut ("It certainly does suck...").

Losing the electric razor disrupted the natural equilibrium that had developed on my face (see Figure 1) and gave way pretty much immediately to a downward spiral (Figure 2).



People always ask, "Are you growing a beard?" like it's something you do, like you sit in front of the mirror and extrude hair from your pores by sheer force of will. I'm not growing a beard, I just stopped shaving. For me the beard is less an ethos than a vestige of laziness.

Brad at Zingerman's suggested that I should strive to see shaving not as a chore, but as a socially acceptable opportunity to pamper oneself. I like that idea. In my freshman year dorm there was a sign posted above the urinal in the men's restroom that read, "No fear, no doubt." My RA put it there after I mentioned to him that the restroom is one of the few places in my life where I experience neither fear nor doubt. I have a lot of experience in there. I've got a system that works.

So rather than strip the shaving process down to its essentials, I'm thinking about ways to build it into a satisfying ritual: straight razor, badger hair brush, maybe some aftershave, whatever the hell that is.

Financial Goals

I got a sandwich today and I was thinking about getting some onion rings with it. They were only a few dollars. But they would increase the cost of the meal by almost 50%. If I got onion rings every day, how would it affect my finances at the end of the month? In the end I got them, because I like onion rings, but only after some serious hand wringing.

And I fucking hate that.

I want to be able to do stuff like get onion rings, or buy a song on iTunes, or get a few beers at the bar. But more than that, I want to be able to not think about it.

Make It Rain

It seems like for a lot of folks the phrase "professional poker player" conjures images of wild parties, exclusive night clubs, and stacks of cash to the ceiling. I spend a lot of time explaining that no, I haven't been to Vegas lately, I don't drive a Porsche, it's pretty much like I have a boring desk job.

As a result I've been brainstorming some cost-conscious ways to create the illusion of grotesque wealth and I've come up with something that I think is set to take off: making it rain. For the non-T-Pain fans out there, "making it rain" refers to throwing a wad of bills into the air so that they separate and flutter to the ground. Until now it's mostly been the province of wealthy rappers, but there's no reason they should get to have all the fun.

If you think about it, for a hundred dollars in ones, you can make it rain pretty precipitously. You'd spend that much for dinner for two and a bottle of wine. In a year you won't even remember the restaurant you went to, but making it rain will leave you with a memory that lasts a lifetime.

I'm not suggesting making it rain daily or even weekly. That would be silly. But every once in awhile, on a special occasion, it makes a lot of sense. So for your next birthday, anniversary, or Bar Mitzvah, why not make it rain?

Poker Progress

Yesterday I took my first whole day off poker in about a month-and-a-half. It was a conscious decision--I actually wanted to play when I got home from Zingerman's, but thought it would be good to give myself a little break.

I started out at $10 no-limit and have moved up to $25 no-limit and now $50 no-limit. I moved up to 50 NL about a week ago and made more in that week than I did in the whole preceding month. I've been beating the game soundly--too soundly, probably, to be sustainable...I've been running well. I almost jumped straight to 100 NL, but decided to cash out some money and take a day off instead.

What's it like playing poker every day? Pretty easy, honestly. But to be clear, I don't mean, "So easy you should quit your day job and take up online poker," I mean, "Pretty easy if playing a strategy game eight hours a day is your idea of fun." I haven't had occasion to question the underlying premise of the whole endeavor, namely that my aptitude for learning the game and adapting will be higher than that of the majority of online poker players. At the same time I've been lucky: I haven't had my mettle tested by a long stretch of bad luck, which is inevitable sooner or later. I'm feeling confident, but between the games getting tougher as I move up and the natural swings of variance, I expect the road to get bumpier.