effffff it

On a bad bad 10k downswing in poker.

Poker can be a brutal game and without proper discipline it can break a player. There could be extended periods where you put in the money as a 80-20 favorite only to see your donkey opponent catch a miracle card to bust you. This is what we poker players term a BAD BEAT.

One of my favourite online tournament pros Chetna "Rex55" Joshi puts it best in her blog, and curiously this does not just apply to poker, it applies to any difficult journey that anyone might decide to take up :

Bad beats are non-exclusive. They are blind to race, creed, and gender. They are merciless. Every single player that sits down to play cards, takes bad beats. The more you play, the more you take... the more hands you are dealt, the more likely it is statistically that you will take a bad beat.

So now if every single poker player is taking bad beats across the globe.. how is everyone dealing with them?

What is your standard reaction when you get bad beat?

*Do you curse and chat box spew?

*Do you donk out of all other tournies that are going well?

*Do you throw things or punch walls?

*Do you reach for alcohol and/or drugs?

*Do you tilt off your roll?

*Do you copy and paste your hand history and send it to all your buddies on messenger so they can now relive your bad beats along with their own?

*Do you take it out on your family and/or significant other?

*Do you take it out on yourself?

or..............

-Do you assess your play, your own decision, your role in the hand, learn what you can and move on?

The true damage of a bad beat isnt the hand itself....it is the aftermath that ensues...It is our inability to accept it for what it is...The damage lies in the snowball affect it has on everything else... when we allow it to permeate into other tournies... into a bankroll we grinded so long and so hard for... into our personal lives.... that is where the true damage of bad beats take place.

How many poker players are equipped with the armor to tolerate the "blows" poker will undoubtedly fire at you?

The field is narrow...Most fall victim to the grimy hands of 'Tilt,' and SELF-defeat...
Don't let this be you...

Poker is all about perspective.

Don't wallow in your defeats or self-pity...
Don't question your abilities or skills...
Don't let yourself fall into a cold, dark abyss, with a tape recorder on repeat playing
"you suck at cards...you are a loser...how could you not have folded that hand? you donkey...stick to your day job...you have no hope...."

And Please don't surrender to bad beats...

It's all about our perspective...
Mind over matter...it is amazing how powerful self-perspective can be...
it is what we make of it...
what our mind creates of it...
it is what it is...
what we allow it to be...

Once you are able to keep bad beats in proper perspective for what they are.. an inherent part of the game that every participant has the choice to deal with, in his or her own way... then you will see how much more of your time and energy is spent constructively, as opposed to destructively...

and not only will you emerge a stronger Poker Player...but a stronger Person...

But even then its YUCKS and sucks to be in this downswing, and seeing a big chunk of my YTD profits beinf wiped out.....

honesty

Filmy Chakkar

Via Jabberwock, links to some darn great non-Indian Bollywood blogs:
Beth, filmiholic, postpunk.

Some very good reads, not to mention the very different perspective that you might get.

Live poker crushing --> continues

I absolutely dominated the final table of a 40 person poker tournament over the weekend and frankly no-one had a chance. My live record this year:
Live Poker tourneys played : 6
1st: 3 (!!!!!)
3rd: 1
$200+ buy-in tourneys played : 3
1st: 2

Let me run this good online, just one time, pleeeeeseeee GOD.

Oh dear

From the New York Times


And my driving routine:
1000 miles+ per month. I should be broke pretty soon.

National doughnut day

Go get your free doughnut at Krispey Creme

blood on the streets

wall street, dalal street, ching-chong street---> all being painted red by the big bloody bear. Time to buy some more of your fav stcoks?? Maybe. But I am holding off for now. 15% + in cash.

$133 oil

And I am attending a conference on advanced oil and gas exploration techniques in beautiful golden, colorado.

Times they are a changing

For the first time in my life I am rooting for Shoaib Akthar to uproot Sachin's middle stump for a golden duck.

dogfight dognames dog-eat-dog dogma

Please be seeing.

And of course DO NOT MISS the precious rediff message board accompanying it.

Appetizer from the same:
How to test if a men is gay ot not. now, simple. if they are fan of SRK, very good chance they are gay.
Their early symptom, they like to wear colorful cloths, wear perfume a lot, they have dimple on face like SRK, or they wish that they had. they always take side of SRK in debates, fight with other people, even though it does not matter what they say. They see Karan johar movie 4-5 times.
They respect girls, they love rani mukerji, they hate big B and all who are better than SRK.
They cry easily, and very emotional. They become full gay by the time they reach 30.

Priceless

inter-species molestation

From the BBC dig this. An apparently sexually frustrated fur seal "rapes" a hapless king penguin. Bestial porn limits itself to man/woman with a mammal (preferably donkeys), the fur seal in question obviously decided to put this limit to the test.

In poker news I won a smallish live tournament on sunday for about 1kish, I am absolutely crushing the houston live tourney scene of late, not to mention the fact that I am running like GOD in crucial spots.

Chinese invasion

(a) My group has 16 members, 11 are chinese, 2 are korean and one is a russian. At work my English usage is extremely telegraphic in nature. I dont say "When will this work get done, oh will get done soon, great", instead I say "When done STOP soon done STOP good STOP".

(b) My lunch conversations primarily deal with the "how-tos and what-tos of consuming raw salmon" and being invited for weekend fishing trips which start at 10PM and last till 6 in the morning. Needless to say I politely decline, not because sporting a fishing pole in the middle of the might seem ungodly to some, but because I have to consume whatever I catch the next morning RAW.

(c) I have taken an unwordly liking to those damn crawfish(es).

(d) Watsao (fuck off)

(e) I have no idea why some of the posts and the template have suddenly gone "YO ITALICS"

(f) I feel there is a book inside me, but I doubt there is a publisher out there.

PS: I am getting addicted to SEx and the City. All I need now is to grow a couple of pigtails

World Series of Poker 2008 and telephonic intercourse

On one of the many online sites that I play, last night I won a seat to the World Series of Poker 2008 (WSOP) main event scheduled for early july, via a $150 satellite tournament.

I get : 10k USD(WSOP main event buy-in/entry free)+3k(expenses)+sponsored gear (cap/shirt/tshirt etc) that I have to wear. Now I am thinking of whether actually going or just taking the 13k. I hate travelling and Las Vegas is pretty far away, but then again this might be my only chance of being on ESPN plus 1st place pays close to 10 million USD!! Hmmmm..........Decisions, decisions ....sigh


In what I think is the greatest news of this century a woman has claimed that she was raped while having a super-eroctic phone conversation with a man and doctors confirmed that yes she is no longer a virgin. Apparently she screamed and started having the post-virginal bleeding stuff while her pristine woman-hood was being brutally savaged ala shakti kapoor by the man on the other end of the telephone.

PS: When Brad Pitt wakes up every morning next to Angelina Jolie, does he pat his own back and say "I screwed Angelina Jolie last night... wooooooooo" ??

random babel

Disclaimer: This is a general blabber thread based on the premise that I have time to waste and so I will waste it and if you read it then its a waste of time for you. Goodbye braincells.

As most if not all Indians know, the IPL is underway. There is an interesting snippet on Gaurav Sabnis' blog (too lazy to link it, go search on google/technorati/Baidu(if you are a chinese bored guy looking up cricket)) where he says that T20 is like a shot of tequila as compared to test match cricket which is more like a solid expensive scotch that "not many" can afford. I am a big cricket buff and avid cricket watcher (I have the disticntion of staying up every night from 1AM to 9AM watching the Pommie-Aussie Ashes classic) , and I have been trying like hell to watch and get interested in T20, but unfortunately (?) it doesnt quite cut for me. It seems soo darn BOORING, no excitement no drama, no critical stages/passage of play which you know is going to make or break the match, no stalwarth one-on-one battles, absolutely nothing that matches my definition of super exciting cricket. Complete utter waste.

By the way does anyone believe that Frasier is the greatest sitcom ever made??? I am so in love with it; have been ordering each and every season via netflix. On the same note how did the Raymond show ever gain popularity??? It is the single most braindead sitcom ever made, that coupled with the fact the Ray romano doesnt even make the cut as decent stand up comedian, his one man routines sucked, sucks and will suck. How did his pilot ever get approved???

My head hurts now... I am so enamoured by the sound of my own voice/words.
Anyway, that was that.

meh....

Poker over the past week is summarized in the title above. I am either lacking focus as of now or getting dished out wonderous beats. Last night I played 4 tourneys and the bustouts were:
KK <>
I think I am generally bored.

good start

two 1st place chops worth 4k.
hit me dealer.
gg wp nh ty etc etc etc..

Results ahoy

So after a weekend of nice holidaying at San Antonio and spending a wonderful day at Seaworld its back to work :((. bit of an update on the vacation first.

Seaworld definitely has some of the best shows with sea creatures in the country. While they do not have a fish tank as good as those in say Baltimore or Monterey Bay, but by jove they have some super shows. Initially I was a bit disappointed when I saw Seaworld's Shark tank (compared to Monterey it was like my aquarium back home in India where if you strain and squint really hard you might find those two red fishes swimming by), but then the shows really blew my mind. Highly recommended for anyone who gets down to this part of the country.

As for the poker goes, not much to report really. What with the India-Aussie test match and watching India grind and huff and puff like a 18th century steam engine I must say my stomach for poker is not that great this week, though I do plan on putting on a decent session late tonight and over the weekend. On a cricket side note I am praying that India put on a stellar performance with the bat the second time, even though losing is inevitable.

Some results:

12/21/07: 50 NL (Cake)
Profit : $120
Hours played: ~2

12/25/07: Christmas shit on fulltilt where I tilted like hell and dropped 3 buyins
Profit: -$150
Hours played: Marathon session wherein I refused to quit, at one point I was up atleast a couple of buyins but proceeded to take a shot at 400NL (why for fuck's sake???) and was well decimated, to put it really politely.

12/27/07: 50NL (Cake and Pstars)
Profit: $57
Hours played: 1

Weekly results: 12/17/07-12/24/07
Profit: $50
Played: Minimal in a long time of only about 4 hours of total play.

Have a good time at the tables. Oh and when I get home I'll post an interesting (lucky?) hand from yesterday's session.
PS: My day job is really boring me :((

EDit:

Heres a hand from last night. The UTG had earlier be out with mid and bottom pair on the flop (after limping J5s !!) and so I figured my flush and my Q are alive. Hence the flop call and of course the golden turn.

PokerStars Game #14143785184: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2007/12/27 - 21:45:35 (ET)
Table 'Sova' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Denilicious ($44.55 in chips)
Seat 2: NewmanDogg ($23.85 in chips)
Seat 3: haeper ($54.50 in chips)
Seat 4: satyakee ($55.05 in chips)
Seat 5: brusecco ($4 in chips)
Seat 6: GOBIGRED26 ($30.60 in chips)
satyakee: posts small blind $0.25
brusecco: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to satyakee [2c Qc]
GOBIGRED26: calls $0.50
Denilicious: calls $0.50
NewmanDogg: folds
haeper: folds
satyakee: calls $0.25
brusecco: checks
*** FLOP *** [2d 5c 8c]
satyakee: checks
brusecco: bets $1.50
GOBIGRED26: raises $2 to $3.50
Denilicious has timed out
Denilicious: folds
Denilicious is sitting out
satyakee: calls $3.50
brusecco: calls $2 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [2d 5c 8c] [2h]
Denilicious has returned
satyakee: checks
GOBIGRED26: bets $26.60 and is all-in
satyakee: calls $26.60
*** RIVER *** [2d 5c 8c 2h] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
satyakee: shows [2c Qc] (three of a kind, Deuces)
GOBIGRED26: mucks hand
satyakee collected $50.80 from side pot
brusecco: mucks hand
satyakee collected $11.90 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $65.70 Main pot $11.90. Side pot $50.80. | Rake $3
Board [2d 5c 8c 2h 7h]
Seat 1: Denilicious folded on the Flop
Seat 2: NewmanDogg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: haeper (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: satyakee (small blind) showed [2c Qc] and won ($62.70) with three of a kind, Deuces
Seat 5: brusecco (big blind) mucked [8d Qs]
Seat 6: GOBIGRED26 mucked [9c 9s]

Numbers game

The past two days I really havent got much time (i.e. undistracted time) to play, the house being full. I managed to squeak in a decent session yesterday on fulltilt starting off playing 1/2 limit and a combination of being card-dead/getting rivererd tilted me off so that I ended up dropping $80 in an hour and a half.
Limit playing is tricky than it otherwise seems, and its giving me more headache on tilt than elsewhere.

So i decided to put in an after dinner session on 50NL and 100 NL. Played really well and within an hour I had recovered my earlier loss to be back to even for the day. Infact would have made a small profit as well except that a player to my left made a spite call with A7-o after I had reraised him for the nth time with T-T and proceeded to spike his three outer on the flop door. But the board was super scary (A-9-K-K-J) and I lost the minimum. It seems that late night is a good time to play cash games as the players that are on are either tiring out or most of the regulars have gone. This is good thing to look into further. I'll be off for the weekend taking my paremts to San Antonio. So enjoy your vacation and god speed.

12/19/07-12/20/07: $20

Christmas Apple

Updated shopping list:

Mommy: i-pod+i-pod dock+speakers ---> check
Daddy: digicam ---> check
Sister: digicam --> check
Girlfriend: i-phone --> check
SELF: open to suggestions

Im really not getting enough time to play, so at the most I am putting in 1 hour sessions almost mostly on limit cash games. These are going rally profitable at the moment. I am also dabbling in no-limit short stack buy-in play and those seem to work as well.

12/16/07: 1/2 limit (fulltilt)
profit : $30 (20 mins)

12/17/07 : 1/2 limit (cake and fulltilt)
profit: $30 (2 hours, i got stuck in the fulltilt game where twice my top sets got rivered by 4 flushes).

I am trying to build my roll upto the 2-3k range on all the three sites I play, hopefully by the end of Feb (that would also be when I'll get more time to play). This time around I am hoping not to bust my roll by taking unrealistic shots and playing hugely outside my roll. (eg, sunday million, FT main event on 2k rolls).

World blogger championship of online poker

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 8812259