My flatmate is a tournament grinder who has played about 4500 tournaments in the last 12 months or so.
Anyway on this day (last Wednesday) he was playing the big 162 and a few other tournaments (about 1 hour into his grind) when a stomach pain he had from earlier in the day when we were at the pub came back heavily. Fortunately I guess my ex girlfriend had an appendicitis 5 years or so ago and everything about this reminded me of that, all the symptoms seemed the same, so when the pain worsened and I could not see what else it could be we called an ambulance and asked their advice. They said if the pain got worse or didn't get better come to the hospital in half an hour. He left his tournies blinding out and we went to the hospital and to cut a long story short he did have an appendicitis, stayed in and had it out the next day.
He got a 'sick note' from the hospital, emailed stars, sent the proof of this and they refunded all the tournaments he was in when this happened to a total of $300ish. I feel like this kind of thing should be recognised, especially now with all the shady things that have gone on and are going on eg Party Poker. Pokerstars are the only really online poker site that give us a small ray of hope in an otherwise seedy dark online poker world.
Anyway, props to Stars
cliffs
-Friend had an appendicitis, had to leave his tournaments and blind out and Stars refunded all his buyins ($300ish)
-I should have been a doctor, obv in the wrong profession.
-He handles intense pain really well
Yea that is right, the moment uve all been waiting for.
I'm a bit confused on what to do, and most likely that just writing this will help me out, but advice are welcome.
Sunday i meet a girl from the internet. So i did the usual routine i learned from LP seduction gurus, and ended up sleeping with her. However, i really felt something was special this time... its like... idk... i really thought she was cute (even tho a bit fat, but i didn't mind it), she blowed me like a godess (seriously, she was WAYYY better than all other girls that sucked me), and weirdly in the seduction phase every times something happened (like first kiss) there would be a storm or something. We basically had sex/kissed/talked all night and the night felt pretty magical. I'm also pretty sure she also enjoyed the sex. And idk i also really enjoyed the way she was... smiling, fun to talk to, etc.
Then we when talked on facebook she seemed still interested... but the problem is, i made it like, way too obvious i wanted it to be more than just sex, and pushed too hard to see her again. I got like over confident we would fall in love. She told me some shitty line like "hey i really think we got something special, but i'm not used to this kind of 2 sided interest thing so i'm really afraid of getting hurt so you need to let me time to think". So anyways things went pretty downhill from there, because if it was a test or whatever i failed it. At the end i wrote her some sort of message to let her know she can take her time, and since then we haven't talked to each others. My plan was to simply cool it off for like a week, then try to meet up again for something simple (which would have worked because she needs to give me back something).
Now i had planned to see a bleh girl tonight that seemed to just want sex, so could like fuck her until the other one is done doing bullshit.
But now, something is making it more complicated.
I have a girl roomates that lives with me. This girl is a bit of a social loner, decent looking and has never had a relationship. She's been trying to spend time with me for the past few weeks. Like take walks, play games, watch movies, etc. I always accepted, but i never really attempted to go further than friendship, because i dislike to take shots at girls when it can be bad if it fails. She even learned some of the games i play lol.
Today... i think she got sick of me making no moves at all and was REALLY straight foward. like "hey wanna go see a movie tomorow with me". i was like "sure". then she's like... "you know.. like... a date,... you and me?".
so i guess i got 2 main options:
1) cancel off the bleh girl, and date the roomate. Hopefully she's not the kind to wait for months for sex tho lol. And just forget about the first girl.
2) Try to know if the first girl still has interest (Which would probably kill any chances i have left...). I could be wrong but she probably thought i was way too needy, which means my only chance is probably to prove i can not be needy.
3) Play it the asshole way. See the bleh girl, date the roomate, and stick to the plan with the first girl!
Leaning toward #1 after writing this... but idk i really liked first one.
Advice needed. I won WCOOP 530$ ticket.by Trolala, September 06
Hey
I won a WCOOP 530$ ticket on stars lottery. Which is the best tourney to participate in? I'd like to just cash some $$.
So I don't really have much tournament experience. I've played NLHE cash games all my life and also PLO HU hyper SnG's.
Any advice is for transitioning to tournament thinking is also nice.
Oh, as for personal note. I am a chef now. One restaurant accepted me for trials. So poker has turned from a living to a hobby. It happened so quickly. Actually If you're interested, you can read the full story and some other stuff here: https://www.facebook.com/olegpah/posts/726041790745608
Might be hosting my own game soonby Gnarly, September 06
Some shit went down with my sister. Her BF sold drugs, is a felon, and had guns, until the cops came with a search warrant. The house isn't getting taken away, and my sister can't get a job since she's pregnant. So, I've offered to host a home game twice a week over there. I want to do a 20/10 rebuy followed by 1/2 cash then a 50/20 rebuy followed by 2/5 cash, after having been up for a while, at least, but I'm not sure.
Anyone ever hosted their own games before? Any tips?
Ha - naw jk but check out this pretty awesome video which totally nails how I feel about 'spirituality' or whatever you'd like to call it.
Also up for 28 hours now, finally going to crash. Crushed the live limit tables today +6 racks at 8/16 - time to sleep for a few hours then ball it up hard tonight
I wrote these 4 years ago (you feeling old?) when I had a job that had a lot of 'spare time' - Its spoof pokernews.
Found them in my drafts from my email. There were some others that have been lost in cyberspace, like a story about Phil Hellmuths hall of fame picture falling off the wall under the weight of its own ego.
Some are better than others...
Busto frat boy claims “Doyle is bad for the poker economy”
James Scott, a freshman at Florida State University has claimed that Doyle Brunson is bad for the poker economy and is taking money out of the game.
Mr Scott said yesterday “I was watching Doyle on High Stakes Poker, he was playing really tight, nitting it up, winning a few blinds and then it hit me” he said “Doyle is old, he cant have long left – when he goes the money Doyle has accumulated over his lifetime playing poker will be divided up by his estate. Only a small percentage of this will be put back in by his son Todd”
Angered at this thought Mr Scott took his revelation to the internet message boards to rally support in an attempt to get Doyle to return his poker winnings to the poker economy and get him banned from high stakes cash games and any tournament with a buy-in greater than $12.
His enthusiasm wasn’t met with the support he had hoped and he quickly found himself on the back foot arguing against forum posters who found his comments disrespectful to the poker hall of famer.
“They’re all fan-boys” James said, “But think about it this way, if Doyle divided up his fortune among the lower stakes players, everyone could move up. I currently play NL10 but all these donkeys keep going all in with 56 suited and busting my AA so its impossible to get a bankroll started”
Mr Scott claims that he and many others could benefit from a windfall from Doyle and he could move up stakes “to a level where they respect my raises”. He also added “the UIGEA has affected us all, before I had almost $187 in tournament winnings on Full Tilt, but post legislation I am now -$97 and struggling to break even”
“By my estimations a bankroll of about $50,000 would put me in reach of my poker goals of being a regular at the 5/10 and a Breitling watch”
Mr Scott says his next step is to attend the World Series of Poker with patches and badges which he is hoping other “young guns” will wear and give his cause some media coverage.
“I won’t be giving up on this, I know I‘m right”
James is planning on dropping out of university next semester to pursue a career as a poker professional.
------------------------------------------
*This is in regards to the following video, at the 2 minute mark:
Media Intern Dies after receiving “Ivey Death Stare”
The Media intern who jumped in Ivey’s path shortly after he busted from the Main Event final table has died 3 days after she received Phil Ivey’s trademark “death stare”
Video footage shows young media intern Maria Martinez throwing herself in front of Ivey as he was departing the Rio on November 9th. “She grabbed him around the waist and tired to turn him towards the camera so the interview could commence” said eye witness Howard Lederer.
“He said ‘whoa’ to try and warn her, but it was too late, there wasn’t enough time for her to get out of the way”
It was at this moment when Ivey’s eyes unleashed a wrath of power synonymous with the high stake player. “This time it was more intense, like he actually seized her soul” Lederer added.
Two days later she was admitted to hospital with fever, cold sweats and uncontrollable diarrhoea.
On November 12th she was pronounced dead. The cause of death is unknown but having reviewed the footage doctors say that Phil Ivey’s eyes were the most probable cause. “Each year around the time of the World Series of Poker we see patients admitted with similar symptoms” said Dr Suman Prakash “The one constant in all these cases is that they were usually seated at the same table as Phil Ivey.” He said “This is the first case where a patient has died, but having reviewed the footage it’s clear that in this instance the eyes were radiating a much higher level of soul-reading”
Dr Prakash advised poker players not to look directly into the eyes of Phil Ivey. “If you must then the player must use a pin-hole viewer – similar to the ones you would use to look a solar eclipse”
Howard Lederer made a statement to the media on behalf of Phil Ivey and Team Full Tilt. He said “We are deeply saddened that Phil’s eyes have caused the death of a young member of the media. Our condolences are sent out to the family.” Howard also added “I had talked to her only moments before she made the fatal error. She was a freak and a very weird girl. She was also quite young; I think she should have stayed away.”
Phil was unreachable for comment as his chat was turned off at Ivey Thunder dome.
Local man wins home game high hand jackpot with 5 of a kind
Derek Whites, a local of Carlston, South Carolina entered his weekly home game tournament the same as he had been doing for the past few years. However this week, his fortunes changed, and after what he claims to be “one of the worst downswings in worldwide poker history” his big score finally came in.
“It was just another night. My pal Greg runs a tournament in his basement every Wednesday night, it’s a $20 buy-in winner takes all. We usually have about 6 – 12 entrants. It’s a tough game, but after a few beers the action starts to get wild” said Derek.
“Id made it down to heads-up when I was dealt pocket 5’s” I went all in and had my opponent covered” he said “He called and the board was dealt. The flop came 2 of clubs, 5 of clubs, King of spades” My opponent flipped his hand, stood up and shouted “CLUB ONE TIME!!” as he threw 7 clubs 3 clubs on the felt”
“The prize pool that week was $160, and my truck needed a new back tire, so I was praying like hell for him not to get there”
The dealer burned and turned “A 5 of clubs hit the turn, my heart sank – I was devastated – his flush had got there and I needed to pair the board to win”
The dealer dealt the river and the 5 of hearts was flipped from the deck onto the table “I just exploded with joy – greatest feeling in the world – Id been watching Chris Moneymaker’s World Series win earlier that day, and I thought that feeling of taking down a major tournament would always remain a dream for me”
It wasn’t until the chips were being counted down that John Gregory, who was dealing the game, noticed that Greg had made 5 of a kind.
“At first I thought it was the beer” said John “I was pretty hammered at the time, so it took a few moments to sink in. I alerted the table that there was an extra 5 in the deck, in fact the back extra 5 was a different colour to the rest of the deck, and I don’t know how we missed it first time round”
Derek’s opponent and runner-up Shaun Long was asked if he wanted to run the board out again. He declined saying “That’s poker folks”
The weekly high-hand jackpot of $15 and a 6 pack of Budweiser were awarded to Derek. He has since replaced the tire on his truck.
-----------------------------------------
Jeffery Pollack Introduces ‘Wild Cards’ to the World Series of Poker.
Commissioner of the World Series of Poker, Jeffery Pollack, is aiming to introduce a new “Wild Card” to the standard 52 card deck.
The new card, similar to a joker, will be able to be used by a player to be any other card of the deck.
“Imagine the excitement of Pocket Aces vs. Wild Cards” said Jeffery “We’ve all seen Aces vs. Kings at the tables, and its losing its excitement, we know the odds, Aces is 80% favourite to win – but 2 Aces vs. 2 Wild Cards? Who knows which hand is a favourite in that scenario!?!?”
“I’m once again going to improve the game of poker and make it more exciting for the viewing public”
The new cards, which will be named after the creator, will be designed to look as exciting as possible “Id like to see any player keep his or her poker face when they’re dealt ‘Pocket Pollack’s’ under the gun during a world series event” said Jeffery.
“We’ve done a lot of research into what the design of the card should be. We wanted it to look exciting. So we went with a bright colour scheme, dollar signs with a gold trim”
“Its going to shake the game right up” Said Jeffery “Im throwing out the rule book, quite literally, and replacing it with a better more exciting one – All these math wiz kids are going to have to get their calculator out if they hope to master the changes in probability with the introduction of my new cards”
If the new cards are successful, Mr Pollack aims to replace all other forms of poker with No Limit Texas Holdem by the 2012 World Series “They say it’s the only true form of poker ‘The Cadillac of poker” said Jeffery “That’s a line from the new Matt Damon movie ‘Rounder’s’ which was just released”
Paul Magriel’s Tongue Allowed To Enter Poker Tournament.
World Poker Tour officials declared Paul Magriel’s tongue eligible to enter WPT events as a separate entrant from Paul himself.
After reviewing footage of Paul from previous televised events he has played, it was decided that the tongue could be considered a separate entity from Paul himself.
“It appears to move on its own accord, have a conscience and be able to make decisions independently from the host body.” Said WPT Spokes-woman, Jane Wirral.
It was unanimously agreed that Pauls tongue – nicknamed “X-Twenty-Tongue” would be allowed to enter tournaments on its own accord.
Allowances will be made so that both the tongue and Paul can play in the same tournament and neither player would have to miss a hand.
“Paul will be required to close his eyes when the tongue is playing its hand, officials will be on hand to ensure this, to avoid any advantage that Paul could gain from knowing the tongues hole cards”
The past few years I have gotten increasingly into fantasy football. This year has been by far the biggest jump for me in terms of committment, money wagered and time spent studying and researching. This is probably the last year of my preparation before I really delve into lots of big buyin leagues.
This offseason I spent probably around 100-150 hours studying, researching and running simulations in order to improve everything I could about my fantasy knowledge. I've done 10 of my 13 drafts so far this season and may add a couple last minute ones to do 15 leagues this year. They varied quite a bit.
some of the different types:
-10 team 1 qb/2rb/3wr/te/DST/K no PPR
-12 team 1 qb/2 rb/2wr/1 flex/te/DST .25 PPR
-12 team 1 qb/2 rb/2wr/2 flex/te/DST/K .25 PPR
-12 team auction keeper, $155 bankroll, 1 qb/2rb/2wr/1 flex/TE/DST/K .5 PPR
-12 team 1 qb/ 1 OP (offensive player, can include 2nd qb)/2 rb/3wr/flex/TE/DST/K 1 PPR
-14 team 1 qb/2 rb/2wr/flex/TE/DST/K/LB/DL/DB .5 ppr + other random scoring changes
-12 team national fantasy football championship: http://nffc.stats.com/football/home/nffc/index.asp
ive done a ton of work on all these drafts and everything worked out very well. Most of my work was on optimizing draft order by position round by round for each draft slot. I feel I have a much better grasp on this than almost anyone else and also a better idea of VBD (value based drafting) and dynamic value based drafting as well as player tiers and how to maximize value in them.
Since the season starts thursday and there are probably some last minute drafts going on and since everyone loves fantasy football thought id spread some wealth on what ive learned. ask me anything, but be specific with questions. i.e. dont ask what sleepers should i aim for, tell me the scoring system of your league, how many teams, what draft position you have, who you aim for, what goals you should have with each position etc.
Wedding, car and surgery.by napoleono, September 02
So it's been a while since my last update and there were plenty of things going on in the meanwhile.
Surgery
A couple of weeks before the weeding, just as I was planning how and when to ask for a holiday from work, I got terribly sick one Friday morning. I was aware I had some very little stones in my gallblader (sigh, my parents have it, my grandma had it as well) and was feeling pain some nights when I ate too much and too greasy, but didn't think it would hurt this much. So after a quick visit to the emergency of the hospital, it turned out that they weren't that small anymore. The ecographist said that this thing is no joke and even if it was removed yesterday, it would have been too late and I should consult a surgeon ASAP. Before I knew I was in the hospital again and couldn't leave. Monday came around and I had my gallblader removed without any complications. 2 days were pretty rough, cause I could barely move, but when Wednesday came around, as if magic happened, I was suddenly feeling pretty good. So after this I got 2 weeks off from work and all my planning was in vain.
Wedding
I was pretty weak after the surgery, but on the bright side we didn't have that much to prepare as we invited only the close family and some of our best friends - we were around 60 people. It all went smoothly, we had a great time. But due to my post-intervention weakness, we opted not to go on a honeymoon (the doctor advised me not to swim for a couple of weeks, in order not to risk an infection). We stayed with our parents a week, before returning to Bucharest to get back to work.
Car
So now that we are officially together, we thought we could use a car to be able to travel around the country (and to be able to go home whenever we want, as Bucharest is like 250 km away from our home town). My wife is only now getting her driving licence and we didn't want to invest too much money into a car (nor did we have infinite buget for one ). After more than a month of searching, I finally found a Volkswagen Bora which seemed to fill all our wishes. Nothing special though, it's over 10 years old, but it was only 3k, which is pretty decent for what it offers.
I went into August highly motivated and really enjoying playing poker and started the month well, putting in 8k VPPs in the first 4 days despite a couple of heavy nights out for someone's birthday and I thought August was going to be a high volume month. Sadly, in the end, August has been one of, if not the lowest volume months so far this year. It seems this time of year is when everyone's birthdays are and I was drunk probably 24 out of the 31 days in August.
When I wasn't drunk I was hungover or depressed and I just didn't feel like playing much poker for most of the month. Needless to say, I didn't do too well at cutting back on expenditure either considering how frequently I was going out, and I also blew some money on some Poker programs and subscriptions.
There's a bunch of birthday outings (Including my own) this month also and I can see this month going in much the same way as August which would suck because 400k VPPs should be easily attainable, but I might be making tough work for myself in the remaining 3 months if I end up putting in 20k VPPs again this month. I just don't feel motivated to play at all at the moment and wanna do anything but poker really. Hopefully this will change later in the month
Music You Should Hear Vol 5 + Car + Sweden + Dogby Svenman87, August 29
The other day I overheard someone talk about how life is often a rollercoaster, which is unfortunate for me since I've always feared them as death traps and would often refuse to ride them. I guess that person was right in a lot of ways; but I think it's about time I get over that fear and learn to enjoy the ride.
Rufus - Sundream
Holy Ghost! - Okay
Ejecta - Jeremiah
MsMr - Fantasy
Washed Out - Don't Give Up
Shearwater - I love the valley oh!
London Grammar - Interlude
Magic Man - Texas (you should really just listen to all of their music they have thus far... <3)
Tesla Boy - Spirit of the Night (if you like this one you should check out my blog about going back in time which I have more new retro music)
Nikola Sarcevic - IN Love with a fool
Fenech-Soler - Somebody
Anyways this collection is just the best of what I've been listening to as of late.
Car
----
Ended up getting a 2009 Toyota Camry XLE with 80,000 miles. Bought it for 10,500 which I think was a decent deal. http://i.imgur.com/u6kiRy7.jpg
Dog
----
Ended up having some eye issues this past week, they think he'll need entropian surgery (surgery where they cut off some of his eye lids)
Poor pup http://i.imgur.com/8FfWzri.jpg
Picture of him at my aunts work
Life
----
I will be traveling to Sweden next midsommer! Visiting a longtime friend out there for about two weeks - really excited, I just broke up with my girlfriend and have wanted to take this trip for a long time, booked the ticket the day after we broke up and feel pretty pumped about the adventure I should probably bone up on my Swedish and Swedish culture.
Anyways take care LP
<3
Also if you like this Music You Should Hear - check out the other ones I've made in previous blogs as well ^_^
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(surgery where they cut off some of his eye lids)
