I'm back in Des Moines for Austin's wedding for a week. There have been some close calls for big tourney wins, and some interesting nights, but I'll get to that later. Bored, and wanting to get drunk because I'm 12k below all-in EV over my last 1000 tournaments I slammed a bottle of Absolut with some Welch's Strawberry Breeze and watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Aaron Sorkin is a fanastic writer, and I've been grinding Sports Night with Noodleman while in Vegas, and Studio 60 is a well done show as well. A line in the 6th episode of season one made be reconsider my life a bit. An actor playing an actor on the show told a writer who was dealing with his redneck parents, "He works for a living, don't be an ass." I get paid to play a fucking game, why am I such an asshole all the time?
I have to grind an absurd amount in the next week so as to not go busto. Playing when you have to win is excruiating and although every situation I get into is my own doing, I can't help but think something of my situation isn't karmic justic for being a dick. I've run terribly for 2 months and have been a pretty terrible person to most everyone I know during this time. I'ts not that I'm unpleasant to be around, but in general I take advantage of people and aren't as helpful as I should be when I'm depressed or feeling like the world owes me something. What I've forgotten, though, is that I live a privelidged life. I go where I want, when I want. I have a sick house in Vegas with my friends to do nothing but gamble and have fun, and when that's too much, I can come home to Des Moines to see a close friend get married. It's not so much that I'm hating on my college experience, but poker and college together made me fuck a lot of it up. When I started getting depressed, I stayed in my room alot and used gambling as an escape. I don't have the kind of friends from college that I do from before, when I was happier, and I think a lot of it was me regressing as a person. Most of the people I want to spend time with are regular, good people, and I'm not sure I deserve them. I don't do enough to better the worlds of the people around me. I live a charmed life where I enjoy my job working about 15 hours a week and spend the rest of my time trying to be happy. From now on, I'm going to try and stop being such an ass to the people around me who are on a real grind doing unpleasant but productive work. I guess that last bit seems kind of patronizing, but their off time is more important than mine, and if their friendship is valueable to me, I should respect that.
Man this came of real emo-ey and dumb. Fuck it, raptor part 2 for me I guess.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Carnival / O'Sheas
Why are there casino chips at the bottom of the pool?
Let's just say that Thursday night got a little crazy. Everyone finishes grinding at about the same time and Tim C (McShove's bro) gets back from a disappointing 12th in a Venetian 540 so we decide to hit the strip. After some dedicated pregaming and deciding O'Sheas was too crowded to get good gambool in we head to Carnival, an outdoor bar near Harrah's and the IP. After a half dozen pitchers and some mixed drinks, we decide action is needed. We head back to O'Shea's and run into MadScientist (Frank) grinding the 1-2 NL game. There's only 1 open spot at the craps table so I throw in a hundo to take 1/3 of Pete's craps action. We meet a cute asian girl with a blonde Brit friend, but the real action takes place back at the poker table. Bones is sitting in for Frank, and starts getting into a street poker match with a regular, 4betting 86o preflop and such, that is to say, spewing MadSci's money about. After finally getting stacked, we head back to the house, shoot some basketball by the pool, grill some hotdogs, and generally finish the night off right until about 5 before zzz time. It was about this time when Bones decided to chuck his leftover O'Sheas chips at the basketball hoop and into the pool. I guess if anyone goes actual busto they can go diving and get plane ticket home money.
Today, Bones comes back from a Rio sesh where he had run into another player from the 1-2 game who says we missed a great story from our street poker villian. Apparently he took street poker literally. After being up 800ish on the session, he gets into a 3way all in where he covers both he loses the pot. As the dealer is sorting things out, he racks his chips up, says he won, and gets up. The dealer tells him he lost and owes 200 to the pot. He insists he won, and when the dealer corrects him again, he takes off down the strip. The woman who won the pot's husband was standing nearby, and chases him down. The husband and the police bring him back, and force him to pay what he owe's and give him a ticket of some sort. At this point, villian says he does this all the time and this is the first time he has been caught, bragging about it to the woman. However, he is not 86'd from the casino and is still allowed to play there whenever he likes. What a fuckup. He gives more legitimate poker pros a bad name, but I guess has to live his shitty life grinding 1-2 at 3am against drunks so that's worth it.
Long day of grinding for me today, lost 400ish, made a deep run in a few tourneys but got rigged on to miss big scores. I need to make 5kish in the next week to have enough money to be comfortable, so lots of grinding upcoming in the next few days. Hopefully I can just bink the stars WSOP 200 seat guarantee tomorrow so I don't have to put in real work. Tournament starts in 9 hours or so, which means I should be getting to sleep. I have to try, anyways, but sometimes it doesn't work like that. Should be back in Iowa on the 24th for Austin's wedding before heading back to Vegas on the 30th for the Main Event.
Also, I write terribly when I'm tired/drunk so deal with it.
Let's just say that Thursday night got a little crazy. Everyone finishes grinding at about the same time and Tim C (McShove's bro) gets back from a disappointing 12th in a Venetian 540 so we decide to hit the strip. After some dedicated pregaming and deciding O'Sheas was too crowded to get good gambool in we head to Carnival, an outdoor bar near Harrah's and the IP. After a half dozen pitchers and some mixed drinks, we decide action is needed. We head back to O'Shea's and run into MadScientist (Frank) grinding the 1-2 NL game. There's only 1 open spot at the craps table so I throw in a hundo to take 1/3 of Pete's craps action. We meet a cute asian girl with a blonde Brit friend, but the real action takes place back at the poker table. Bones is sitting in for Frank, and starts getting into a street poker match with a regular, 4betting 86o preflop and such, that is to say, spewing MadSci's money about. After finally getting stacked, we head back to the house, shoot some basketball by the pool, grill some hotdogs, and generally finish the night off right until about 5 before zzz time. It was about this time when Bones decided to chuck his leftover O'Sheas chips at the basketball hoop and into the pool. I guess if anyone goes actual busto they can go diving and get plane ticket home money.
Today, Bones comes back from a Rio sesh where he had run into another player from the 1-2 game who says we missed a great story from our street poker villian. Apparently he took street poker literally. After being up 800ish on the session, he gets into a 3way all in where he covers both he loses the pot. As the dealer is sorting things out, he racks his chips up, says he won, and gets up. The dealer tells him he lost and owes 200 to the pot. He insists he won, and when the dealer corrects him again, he takes off down the strip. The woman who won the pot's husband was standing nearby, and chases him down. The husband and the police bring him back, and force him to pay what he owe's and give him a ticket of some sort. At this point, villian says he does this all the time and this is the first time he has been caught, bragging about it to the woman. However, he is not 86'd from the casino and is still allowed to play there whenever he likes. What a fuckup. He gives more legitimate poker pros a bad name, but I guess has to live his shitty life grinding 1-2 at 3am against drunks so that's worth it.
Long day of grinding for me today, lost 400ish, made a deep run in a few tourneys but got rigged on to miss big scores. I need to make 5kish in the next week to have enough money to be comfortable, so lots of grinding upcoming in the next few days. Hopefully I can just bink the stars WSOP 200 seat guarantee tomorrow so I don't have to put in real work. Tournament starts in 9 hours or so, which means I should be getting to sleep. I have to try, anyways, but sometimes it doesn't work like that. Should be back in Iowa on the 24th for Austin's wedding before heading back to Vegas on the 30th for the Main Event.
Also, I write terribly when I'm tired/drunk so deal with it.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Pre Classic
Roll in to Vegas around 6pm. Get to the house around 6:30. Chip (z32) and Casey (Bones) are already there, Pete (McShove) and his brother Tim come back a little while later after busting from whatever live donkament they were at that day. Around 9 we head to get supplies. After a difficult journey with a giant piece of plywood on the top of our car, we return with all the makings of a poker frat house: a funnel, pingpong balls, a giant board, and 2 36 packs of beer. Yes, beer comes in 36 packs aka a glorious 6 beer improvement on 30. Needless to say we have to bet on everything and beerpong is no different. After getting stuck initially, the swan starts to come through and I battle back to get some of Bones's money, which is infinitely more fun to spend than my own. The next night was more subdued, mostly sitting around, playing pool, and watching the basketball and hockey games after everyone got back from donkamenting. After getting about 2 hours of sleep, I cab to the airport at 4 and get ready for the Eugene swing of my monthlong vacation.
I get into the Eugene airport earlier than I had expected, around 9:30 AM. 9:30 AM is a shitty time. If I wanted to be awake then, I would get a job or make some other equally terrible decision. After a tour of campus and a stop for lunch, we went to the hotel where Thom and Mary were staying (Congrats to Thom and Mary on their engagement today!) to pick Thom up for a run. We headed out on Pre's trail, a bark covered path which had some good running and a sweet view of a river. On the drive home, Jon took me to see the monument at the spot Pre crashed his car, which was touristy and had to be done, before going home to get cleaned up and going out. We went to 3 different bars, 2 of which I don't remember the names, and Max's. Max's is supposedly the bar Moe's in The Simpsons is based off of, so that's fun, but on the whole I was too tired to get too wild. Managed to beat Thom in buckhunter anyways, so ship that.
The next night was the pre-Pre meet, with some sick fast guys who aren't quite fast enough for the main event. Saw some people meet USATF A standards, and met more of JT's teammates including Galen Rupp, infinity time national champion, and Shadrack Kiptoo. After that, we went out again and good times were had. The Pre Classic was by far the sickest track meet I've ever been to, no offense to the Drake Relays. A guy long jumped 28 feet 8.25 inches for the longest jump in 15 years. A guy set a sea level world record at 300m in 31.30. 13! people broke 4:00 in the mile. 13! All of them were at 3:56 and faster, with the winner at 3:48 which was just phenomenal to witness. Thom and Mary left for the airport right after, and JT had to study so I just chilled around until it was time for me to leave back to Vegas. Oh, and back in Vegas, Pete cashed a 2k NL event for 6kish for first WSOP cash of the summer. Sooner or later, someone is going to bink something big and the final table celebration will be ridiculous, but until them, Wieeeeeeeeeee!
I get into the Eugene airport earlier than I had expected, around 9:30 AM. 9:30 AM is a shitty time. If I wanted to be awake then, I would get a job or make some other equally terrible decision. After a tour of campus and a stop for lunch, we went to the hotel where Thom and Mary were staying (Congrats to Thom and Mary on their engagement today!) to pick Thom up for a run. We headed out on Pre's trail, a bark covered path which had some good running and a sweet view of a river. On the drive home, Jon took me to see the monument at the spot Pre crashed his car, which was touristy and had to be done, before going home to get cleaned up and going out. We went to 3 different bars, 2 of which I don't remember the names, and Max's. Max's is supposedly the bar Moe's in The Simpsons is based off of, so that's fun, but on the whole I was too tired to get too wild. Managed to beat Thom in buckhunter anyways, so ship that.
The next night was the pre-Pre meet, with some sick fast guys who aren't quite fast enough for the main event. Saw some people meet USATF A standards, and met more of JT's teammates including Galen Rupp, infinity time national champion, and Shadrack Kiptoo. After that, we went out again and good times were had. The Pre Classic was by far the sickest track meet I've ever been to, no offense to the Drake Relays. A guy long jumped 28 feet 8.25 inches for the longest jump in 15 years. A guy set a sea level world record at 300m in 31.30. 13! people broke 4:00 in the mile. 13! All of them were at 3:56 and faster, with the winner at 3:48 which was just phenomenal to witness. Thom and Mary left for the airport right after, and JT had to study so I just chilled around until it was time for me to leave back to Vegas. Oh, and back in Vegas, Pete cashed a 2k NL event for 6kish for first WSOP cash of the summer. Sooner or later, someone is going to bink something big and the final table celebration will be ridiculous, but until them, Wieeeeeeeeeee!
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