thewh00sel!

As usual, my dedication to updating this blog is pretty well synced up with my desire for cleaning the house. Both are useful and similar, as I can organize my things and thoughts; but the motivation to do either is often out of my grasp. Ah, procrastination, you made up word that makes me feel less guilty about my laziness...

On to the content. Since my last update, I have dabbled in sports betting a bit with no success at first. Then with stricter guidelines on bet-sizing and more research I've upswung and wiped out all of my losses. I've made 235 bets so for a total profit of 3 units. Nothing to be proud of really, but considering I was down about 50 units and recovered I'm pretty happy with how things have progressed.

In poker, I've recovered from the downswing I blogged about in August, and have been taking occasional shots at 10/20 in good games. Sunday was such a day.

I played 13 hours at 10/20 in a great game. Unfortunately, being in a great game never guarantees victory, and I was taking the worst of it. I was in for 10k after a few 3k buyins and had worked my stack up to 7500 and was grinding away. I took a short break and was chatting up a friend when I returned to the table and posted in the cutoff. The whale at the table limps in under the gun, and it folds to me. I look down at two red kings and raise it up to 120. A button-clicking regular makes it 380 in the big blind and the whale cold calls. Both players have me covered, and I can't afford to take a flop 3 handed. Also, with the whale calling, my hand will look much weaker if I put in a raise, potentially attempting to get HU with the whale or just take down the dead money.

"1300" I announce as I slide 12 more black chips into the pot. Button clicker sizes up my stack and nonchalantly tosses two yellow chips and a purple chip into the pot.

"$2,880" the dealer says as the whale pretends to go all-in; his three of hearts flashes as he throws his cards toward the muck. I announce all-in despite that fear in the back of my mind that he has me dead to rights. But....



We agree to run it twice. The first board comes down Qd 3c Qh Js As. I can't imagine winning on that board unless he has the other two kings...The next board comes down Qs 8h Ac Ad 4d and I reluctantly flip my hand over as my mind races to think of some combination of a hand he could have that involves me getting at least half the pot. I hear a quiet chuckle from my opponent as he flips over the Ks, and what seemed like five minutes later, the Ah.

Steam.

And with that, I left, and sent myself back to the coal mines to grind out that 10k loss at 5/10 the rest of this month.

Results:
Year to Date
Net
$80,710.54
Days Played
227
Hours played-Cash
1714:44:00
Hourly (total)
$47.07
Hourly (cash only)
$77.02
MTTs played
43
% win rate for cash 54.19%
ITM rate for MTTs 16.28%
Cash Net Winnings 124,393
MTT Net Winnings (64,547.70) (this is the total, including money given to me for selling pieces)

Looking forward to finishing this year off strong with a lot of hours before the baby comes. I'll try to post an end-of-year update in early January.

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So, I've been thinking for a while how inefficient it is to have a huge chunk of cash just sitting around (bankroll) doing nothing for me other than being a security blanket for running bad in poker. I'd like to have that money working for me. I've always been intrigued by sports betting but have only dipped toes in the water so-to-speak. I know practically nothing about any sports other than knowing some of the known players and whatnot. I have no bias to any teams and am not a fan or anything because, tbh, I think sports and watching them is a huge waste of time.

Now that I have all you sports fans on my side, how many of you place a large amount of wagers each week? How much time do you spend handicapping the games? Line shopping? Do you focus on specific sports or do you bet everything? How much time per bet would you say sports betting takes for you on average? What websites do you visit to get all of your stats/info/etc that you feel gives you an edge? (especially interested in that) If you bet a lot and were to give advice to a beginner, what would you say/where would you send them to learn the ropes?

Thanks!

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So I didn't exactly keep a log of my sleep as I had planned, but I'll give you a brief summary of how my biphasic sleep cycle went. I felt great even after many days in a row of sleeping twice per day for 3-3.5 hours. A problem arose, however, in trying to get enough hours in playing poker. As I suspected a little in the beginning, games would break early, or it would be difficult to get into a game at 9-10pm. Also, when 5am rolled around and I was in a great game I would have to quit to be home to get to sleep in order to wake up with my family at 9am. I found that my average hours of play while biphasic was only around 5 hours. It was a little annoying, but I'm happy that my body and mind dealt with biphasic sleep without a problem, and if I see a situation in which it could be useful, I will be able to implement it.

In poker news, it's been a rough go of it ever since mid-May. I lost about 5k in May after a 15k peak. I followed that up with spending ~30k of my own money on WSOP events with a couple small cashes and cash games keeping me from losing a ton (only dropped like 5-6k in June). It was a gamble I was willing to take as I could still comfortably grind 5/10NL if I completely bricked out of events, and the upside potential of a big score would affect my life much more positively than bricking out would affect it negatively.

After an annoying summer I haven't really had any good results in cash since then; breaking even in July and dropping 11k taking a 10/20 shot today after being even all month. Add it all up and I haven't made money since April and have a 15k hole to climb out of over that timespan. Add in expenses and you could have a lot of stress if you let it worry you. Luckily I'm a grizzled veteran, and I will continue to battle the Variance beast into the darkness until I saddle the bitch and ride it into the sunrise.

Speaking of which, I have a trip coming up to Atlantic City for the WPT $3,500 at Borgata. If I don't win, hopefully the cash games will be ripe with tourney donks and Jersey assholes to give me all their cheese.

Bye!

ps-
It's another girl coming to a Hospital near you! New Year's 2014

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Comments (15)

Biphasic that is!

I'm going to attempt a biphasic sleep cycle to allow me to

A: Play the graveyard shift for poker of 10pm-5am
B: Be awake during the day with my family
C: Sleep less/more efficiently

For those of you who don't know what a biphasic sleep schedule is, there are some variations of it, but basically you sleep twice per 12 hour period for around 3 hours each time. I have just begun my foray into this practice (today will be my 2nd 24 hour cycle of biphasic sleep), but I have to say I am already impressed with how it feels. I'm going to keep a log of how I feel with this sleep schedule until it becomes routine for me. Probably a week or two and then update if I am still using this schedule in the future.

Day 1: 7/27.
After a 14 hour session of poker I arrived home at 5am and had something I had to be awake for at 9am so I set my alarm.

Day 1(b) first attempt: 7/28
Sleep cycle 1: 4hrs
Sleep cycle 2: 1hr45min
Total sleep: 5hr45min
After waking I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to attempt biphasic sleep. So I stayed awake until 5pm at which point I attempted to go back to sleep for 3 hours. My daughter didn't quite let me fall asleep at first, but eventually I fell asleep around 630pm and slept until 815pm. Upon awakening I was a little groggy because I didn't wake naturally but by my family jumping into bed to wake me up. After putting Allison to sleep I headed to work and started my session at 10pm. I played until 5am and felt great the whole time.

Day 3 7/29
Cycle 1: 3hrs50min
Cycle 2 (projected): 2hrs30min
Total sleep (projected): 6hr20min

When I got home at 530am I went to sleep until 920am. I awoke a little groggier than I was expecting, and laid in bed until 10am until finally getting up for breakfast. Now at 1pm though I feel great, and am going to try to go back to sleep from 6pm-9pm tonight.

Targets:
-Have an average sleep per 24 hour cycle of right around 6 hours.
-Not be cranky
-Crush people at the pokers
-Feel awesome and productive

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Comments (26)

Selling some action in the 5k wsop tomorrow @ 1.2. 5% for 300, selling up to 40%. PM me if interested. Can accept cash in Vegas or PayPal or Bitcoin.

Edit: 37% sold 3% still available

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Every day seems to melt into the next. A seamless transition from session to session. A classic time lapse scene plays in my mind as I recall the past few months; my body sits at the table while I watch from above, my opponents are nothing but a blur of faces.

A force is at work that I haven't felt in some time; not confidence, as I always strive to be confident...something else...something that takes confidence and amplifies it into an aura. A drive to wake each day light as a feather, ready to take out the Incredible Hulk if he happens across your path. There is no grogginess, there is no effort in the daily routine. There is only momentum.

Now I haven't gone on an epic run in the past few months, but things have been working out both on and off the felt. I am stringing wins together and feel very sharp at the tables. As far as results go, I've played 500 hours of cash and 50 hours of tournaments year to date. I can't really explain the effortlessness that comes with momentum but these months have flown by despite a losing January.


As for life off the felt, things couldn't be better. I feel very confident with the direction that I am heading in my investments outside of poker, and the family has never felt stronger.

P.S.
My opinion on the world economy as a whole has turned fairly pessimistic since my last investment-related post. I haven't sold any of my stocks, but all new money that I have put toward investment has gone straight into defensive, wealth preserving vehicles. Might talk more about it in a future post. I've also been speculating in bitcoin a bit since its recent run up. Can't leave that out in a blog about momentum!

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I know that a lot of you guys often want to donate to charity, but it's hard to be sure where the money goes. Well, if you want to donate to some Kindergarten students that will receive what is advertised, here is a link to do so: http://www.donorschoose.org/project/fun-with-math/966767/#materialsList

Fun With Math Mrs. Parmann's supplies project at Somerset Academy - Oakey Campus in Las Vegas, NV My Students: Do you remember sitting at your desk doing math problems from a text book? Kindergarten students need to be up out of their seats and engaged in math practice that feels more like a game than school work. I have 47 wonderful Kindergarten students who are very passionate about their learning. They attend a charter school with wonderful parent and community involvement. My students work hard but need more hands on math activities to get them more excited about practicing math without a pencil. My Project: Kindergarten students learn best with hands on experience and interacting with their fellow classmates. My students actively engage in reading centers and they are ready to start independently practicing in math centers. My students will be able to practice their math skills through fun games where they will not even realize that they are practicing skills they need to master before moving on to the next grade level. Having fun math games will allow students to actively participate in Kindergarten math skills. Students will be able to use these math games to build mastery without it feeling like classwork. Not only will these games better their understanding for math, but they will build social, good sportsmanship, and team work skills. « hide My students need math games, including peg number boards, a math lab on CD-ROM, folder games libraries and more, for fun and engaging math practice! materials vendor price # total HH965X - Pop & Add Games - Complete Set Lakeshore Learning $79.99 1 $79.99 LL707 - Match-The-Number Counting Chart Lakeshore Learning $29.95 1 $29.95 TT625 - Peg Number Boards Lakeshore Learning $34.99 1 $34.99 HH966 - Pop & Add to 12 Game Lakeshore Learning $24.99 1 $24.99 HH462 - Beginning Operations Folder Game Library Lakeshore Learning $34.99 1 $34.99 JJ395 - Subtraction Bingo Lakeshore Learning $9.99 1 $9.99 JJ394 - Addition Bingo Lakeshore Learning $9.99 1 $9.99 GG845 - Place Value Extra Student Pack Lakeshore Learning $4.99 1 $4.99 PP876C - Place Value Hands-On Interactive Math Lab CD-ROM Lakeshore Learning $99.50 1 $99.50 HH460X - Early Math Folder Game Libraries - Pre-K-Gr. 1 - Complete Set Lakeshore Learning $129.00 1 $129.00 Vendor shipping charges $0.00 State sales tax $35.98 3rd party payment processing fee $6.88 Fulfillment labor & materials $30.00 Project cost excluding donation to support DonorsChoose.org $531.24 Optional donation to support DonorsChoose.org $93.75 Project cost including donation to support DonorsChoose.org $624.99 Partner funding offer -$312.50 4 donors -$85.00 Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing available. To go $227.49

Your donation will go directly toward helping kids in my wife's Kindergarten class, and future classes. Thanks for looking!

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Time for another installment of Income & Expenses. This section is where I break down my income and list my expenses for each month along with a short analysis of how I think I can improve on them in the future.



This month was pretty cool. Within the first week I was up 12k after a successful 10/20 shot in a soft game (7k) and a nice 5/10 win and very few losses. The next week and a half or so was pretty stagnant, and by the 21st I was sitting comfortably with the same 12k profit. In the last 10 days of the month I managed to pad an additional 12k onto the total with some nice heat-rocking at 5/10 which got us to the monthly total you see above. Looking over the results, the last 3 months have been very kind indeed; a nice 60k upswing =].

Here are my November Stats:


I managed to get 157 hours of cash games in. My goal is 40 hours per week, but considering that I also played two MTTs which I do not factor into the hourly, I am very happy with the hours I played.

Expenses $15,653
Put up a large number this month on expenses. The main reason for that is that we purchased a used 2005 Pontiac Vibe for $5,400 on Craigslist to replace our inefficient SUV. I did $1,100 worth of maintenance on the vehicle, but it still came in well below blue book value for the car and it's the only one I've seen for less than 7k available online. I am happy with the car, aside from some smoke odors inside, but they have been dissipating since I've been treating it with a smoke-removal product...so we will see. Anyways, now the SUV is up for sale for 14.5k. There is a 10k note (loan) on the vehicle, so if the sale goes through @ 14.5k the replacement vehicle will only be a cash flow loss of ~2k for one month versus a $435 car payment every month. Break even point of ~5 months I believe and an immediate 50% increase in fuel mileage. Pretty excited that the wife got on board for this. Here's a picture of what the car looks like.

Pretty much like that. Same color/model year, but ours has a dent on one of the fenders and some safety shit on it, but whatever you get the idea.

Despite the "expensive" month, we still managed a savings rate of 41.21%. Which is pretty solid given the future savings of the cheaper vehicle. Went way overboard on Xmas shopping (432) and also spent 500 for the pistol I bought earlier this month and 250 to get professional holiday pictures done. I'll leave you with some samples of those. Merry Xmas LP.

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Comments (11)

So 3 months have past since I made my first investment at LendingClub.com. When I first signed up, I deposited what remained of my PayPal balance from some stuff I sold on eBay for a total initial deposit of $1,259.83. Pretty much firing one buy-in at the investment.

My strategy for investing on the site isn't too complicated. I did some mild research and found some helpful filtering sites to narrow down my criteria for lending money to strangers. I found a lot of use in lendstats.com in filtering for specific loan-types that seem to have a history of high returns and non-default. After I have a list of loan applications I scan through them for proper grammar and reasonable loan requests (i.e "Consolidating my debt" > "BUYIN A HARLEYY!"). Then I buy a share of the loan ($25) and repeat. The whole process of takes all of 10 minutes once a month so it's not too much of a hassle.

Results so far:


As you can see I'm invested in 54 different notes and have been paid $98.72 in payments to date. Of those payments, roughly half is my initial investment back and half is profit (interest). My net annualized return is very high right now, but that is a function of no defaults yet, which will of course happen eventually. I am in the early part of all of my loans and this period typically has the lowest default rate of any time period in a loan. I expect that 20% return to drop to the mid to low teens eventually, but for a speculative investment after a few months I'm satisfied. If things are still running smoothly I may even begin making regular monthly investments here. I will see how annoying it is to deal with this type of investment at tax time though before I start doing that. If anyone has any questions about the site or my experience with it so far I'll try to answer them as best as I can.

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Pretty much what the title says. I've been thinking about buying a handgun for a few months now. A couple reasons against it are obviously having a toddler in the house and the general risk of accidental gun-firing and all of the safety issues that come along with gun ownership. But from what I've read, and friends I know that own guns, there really is no safety issue if you are responsible with where you keep your weapon(s) and make sure to keep them unloaded and safety locked. The pros of gun ownership seem to far outweigh the negatives, I just never really cared to own one before although my family had a few shotguns/handguns when I was younger.

Some pros to gun ownership:
1. Home defense. Can't hurt to be able to protect yourself in an emergency.

2. Responsibility. I think owning a gun and properly taking care of it and storing it safely will make me a more responsible person, along with forcing some discipline and planning on proper storage and semi-regular range practice.

3. Insurance Policy. With all of the anti-gun and invasion of privacy stuff that the government has been passing in the past 10 years, I want to own a gun/ammunition/way to protect myself and my family in case of an emergency before it gets outlawed. I know this seems unlikely, but when you think about the cost (like $400 for a gun, plus ammunition) you really get a lot of value in protection on your money. Think about Hurricane Sandy; after two days of the power being out there were thousands of people digging through dumpsters looking for food...how many more days before they go looking in other people's houses? If that many people are unprepared for two days with no power, then I don't want to see them at two weeks. Something to think about.

4. ZOMBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've pretty much narrowed it down to one gun unless someone has something else to recommend; I believe I'll be going with the Glock 17. It's a 9mm handgun that is the most common gun in the world afaik. Police use them, magazines/ammo is cheap, and it is extremely reliable. There is also the Glock 19 which is 3/4" shorter than the 17 for easier concealment, but I am not really going to need it for that purpose (yet?). Also the grip is a little shorter on those, and although I haven't shot a gun in a long time, I don't think I would like my pinky finger hanging over the bottom of the grip. I plan on going to a local gun shop/range in town in the next week or two and try shooting both of them, and maybe a few other guns to see if anything else calls out to me. SO DON'T ROB ME IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS BEFORE I GET IT OR I'MMA BE MAD.


Glock 17 (above) Glock 19 (below)

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